Addicted to Race 103: Oscar Grant, Che Guevara, Middle East, Inauguration
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Addicted to Race is New Demographic’s podcast about America’s obsession with race. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find in this episode:
Were the outbreaks following Oscar Grant’s killing in Oakland, CA really race riots? What lessons can activists learn from the new Che Guevara biopic? What’s the connection between black radical politics and what’s going on in the Middle East? And finally, where will you be for the inauguration?
Got feedback for us? Call 917-720-6348 or email info@addictedtorace.com.
Guest co-host R. L’Heureux Lewis, also known as Dumi Eyi di yiye (Eddie-yi-yay), is a Assistant Professor at the City College of New York – CUNY in the Department of Sociology and Black Studies Program. He researches, writes, and does activist work on schools, youth of color, and mental health. His recent blogging can be found at www.uptownnotes.com and his professional work can be found at www.professorlewis.com.
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Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Moo wrote:
The analysis presented here on the riots is contrafactual and extremely problematic. For one thing, the fact that you equate bottle-throwing, window-smashing, and burning trash cans with the murder of a human being by calling it violence makes the term entirely irrelevant.
Second, the notion that this was created by a vanguard of white activists has been challenged by video and photograph evidence and it needs to stop being repeated. Youth of color are perfectly capable of making their own decisions about how to fashion a political response and it’s pretty screwed up to take away their agency.
The damage done to businesses owned by people of color is horrible, but I’m upset that your guest chose to blame some mythical anarchist threat instead of realizing that this happened because the methods of protest chosen weren’t adequate vehicles to express rage over what happened. And let’s be honest here, if no one smashed a window, no one would have noticed.
Some pieces on the race makeup of the demonstration:
http://counterpunch.org/kara01122009.html
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/15/18563426.php?show_comments
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/15/18563412.php
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 7:16 pm ¶
Dumi wrote:
Thanks for the comment Moo. First, in terms of the “violence” reference it is common place to use the term to refer to the destruction of property, not simply life. I used it to connote the “built up oppression” and sentiments of “catharsis” that I mentioned in the podcast. To be absolutely clear, I do not think the execution of Oscar Grant is equal to the uprisings that happened in Oakland. One was a gross misuse of force by the state, the other was a response to oppression by the people.
Second, I want to address that I was told by multiple sources, youth organizers and activists, who attended that the protests that White activists began the “acting out” and Black and Brown youth followed that lead. I did not suggest that it was “white anarchists” and certainly did not intend to insinuate that people of color did not participate. These accounts came on the night of and the morning after. Which was long before a single story was written or at least before I read any stories. Obviously there were more Black and Brown youth present at the protests than White folks, so the majority of people who participated and were documented were people of color. The links you provided even speak to this.
Third, I think you are 100 percent right when you say, “let’s be honest here, if no one smashed a window, no one would have noticed.” In the podcast I said, “what do “riots” usually get? They get attention. The get national media coverage.” I’m with you that we need more alternatives to respond to the oppressions that we face and think its the job of grassroots activists, ngo’s, and everyday people to create those spaces. The folks I got my accounts from have long been active in fighting police brutality, establishing community watch boards, and pressuring the state to be held in some form accountable. These are small, yet important steps we can take. In solidarity.
Posted 17 Jan 2009 at 1:32 pm ¶