Private Danny Chen, and why I will never again reach out to OWS about something that matters to me

I am very sorry your organization and supporters experienced that level of stupidity, entitlement and  arrogance.  And I sincerely hope there will be justice for the Chen family, you are working very hard to ensure that will happen.
 
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As a disabled (thus forcibly retired) RN, BSN, clinical MSW, and
MAT-educated teacher, it breaks my heart to hear of your experience! 
Though I am involved (as much as a severely and permanently disabled
person can be), with both the Occupy Movement and the 99% Movement,
within the Oregon area, I completely understand why you would be so
demoralized by reaching out to some of the Occupiers.  As I spent quite a
long time tweeting to a man in the Portland, Oregon area recently –
it’s sad to know that we ALL come with our own areas of bigotry, simply
because we are human – therefore ignorant and fearful, due to our
limitations and flaws.

This was a lesson I learned time and time, again, in all three of the
careers I practiced, as well as, in my personal life journey.  Every
time I think I have prejudice “licked”, I find ANOTHER one that needs to
be tackled!  It keeps me very humbled, most of the time, though I am as
prone to arrogance as anyone else.

Good intentions can often go quickly awry, if we don’t continually check
and recheck our “truest” motives for doing what we do, each and every
moment.  How tragic for you, Private Danny Chen’s memory, and his
family, to have to go through such an ordeal, especially after all of
your extensive efforts on their behalf.  I will be repeatedly sharing
your story with all of the Occupiers with whom I have regular contacts. 
Acting in a loving, respectful manner MUST come BEFORE other agendas. 
It is the basis of the “original” Golden Rule!

I like how OWS have tried to really discuss class inequities in this country, but I haven’t seen as much discussion about other systems of oppression, like sex, race, ability, language and education. This seems like a prime opportunity for OWS – as a collective organization – to take a step back, start talking about privilege, and give the supporters of Danny Chen a sincere apology.

As someone who has been associated with OccupyBaltimore on and off I completely get what you say and I am so glad that you have written about your experience. There are deeply ingrained flaws in the Occupy Movement and the general disdain that I have seen first-hand of the advice of those with more experience, different ideas, and honest critiques is disturbing. Occupiers are comprised of the same flawed people that make up society. To say that I have also seen people act with humanity, compassion and bravery in the movement in no way lessons the inexcusable behavior you experienced.
I am sorry that this experience got in the way of your journey to the truth about Private Chen. Godspeed on the path.

i’m sad to hear this. first i’m sad that those OWS folks did not have their own OWS folks to check their own people when they were acting out of line.

i also feel the frustration of PoC and other long-time organizers who have at some point learned or been taught to accompany others in a good way. i  love the new-old forms that occupy’s are re-forming, re-presenting and re-claiming, and i love that this movement *and* moment  have opened up our collective progressive and radical imagination and practices into a more radical space.

Yet, I cannot agree with the decision to categorically reject all OWS collaboration. I respect her individual decision to do so at this point in time, and in the space of public work and collective knowledge and discussion, would like to add another point of view.

Most of us had to (re-)learn how to be together at some point. One of the reasons that I went into teaching as my day job, while continuing to do change work in my hours off the capitalist clock, is because I recognized the need to continually be able to bring more folks into struggle in a good way. I recognized that there were good people who did that for me somewhere along the way, and that I had some responsibility to pay that forward and back. I wonder how Esther Choi – and the rest of us – learned about movement work: who taught her, struggled with her, challenged her, walked away from her, walked up to her, opened space for her, heard her, gave her words to name her own sadness or brilliant insights, who listened to her, let her step back when she needed to, let her lead when she was ready, and make mistakes, and still know that she was better than the worst things she did or said .. and who will continue to do so … as learning is part of the struggle and the blessing of our work together… and we are all teachers and learners …

it is deeply frustrating work, and many times i do not know that my work has had any impact until years later, if one of my students actually takes the time to write and email or text me, that i was important or inspirational or challenging.

i recently had a student tell me that he was offended at some of our initial communications – and that now he knows i was right. and while i would have liked to have been more gentle at that time, i am glad that we are now back in communication and mutual work.

i also hear and echo the sentiment of course that it’s not (only) her responsibility to do the work of lovingly struggling with new folks, so when she gets tired (like now) there have to be others of us who can step in for the next round of our collective (re-)education.

Yvonne Yen Liu’s piece is an interesting complement: “we have a past and a future.”

http://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/occupy-resist-and-grow/

STANDING OVATION. 

Thanks for this piece. One of the best articulations of how the OWS movement has spawned a culture of appropriation and privilege within a movement meant to be activism.

Ceanothus, while OWS might not have a single, national leader who can speak for the whole movement, that’s not the only definition of leader. It’s also not necessary for this article’s criticisms to be valid.

It doesn’t matter whether the people here were ‘leaders’ or not. What matters here is that this is a perfect illustration of the sort of ‘enlightened’ privilege that is displayed by many at OWS, and that the movement seems to foster. The belief that they somehow have unlocked a secret to the universe (or to protesting, or whatever) and that they have some unique insight into The Way Things Work.

That doesn’t require the people here to be leaders — even if a movement is truly leaderless, it still
has a culture, and that CULTURE can be criticised. No, the culture isn’t singular, but this strain is pervasive. While the whole case is not laid out in this article, it is, I feel, made very clear through the mass of writing on this issue. Check the archives of this site, as well as others (I seem to remember that Tiger Beatdown has had some good ones).

The point is also made very clearly by responses such as yours, which hit back at the person pointing out the flaws instead of the people who did the harsh things. Of shouting back instead of listening. Even if you don’t agree, you can still listen.

that guy with the communist flag was first seen at OWS back in late october.    he likes to yell and scream a lot and appears to be some sort of conspiracy nut.      

I’ve been paying attention to OWS for some time now and have heard of several accounts like this taking place throughout the movement.  While I understand that a few people’s actions are not indicative of an entire group, I can also see how incidents like this can discourage people — especially POC – from actively participating in OWS.  Perception is reality and, unfortunately in this case, the OWS protesters mentioned didn’t paint a favorable image among the Chen family and their supporters.  I hope that this ‘hijacking’ doesn’t divert focus from the true purpose of the march; a family’s right to closure.  My condolences go out to the Chen family.  Hopefully the investigation into Danny’s death won’t be met with the standard red tape and restrictions the good ol’ Department of Defense has become synonymous with.    

This honest and heartfelt criticism is exactly what we need to hear and understand.  I am an old veteran and I salute Private Danny Chen!  I also salute the courage and initiative of OWS and understand that it cannot and should not have or claim to have control over its members.  We are human, we make mistakes, we hurt one-another, but if we care then we will learn.

Why is it so hard to believe that the people who were disrupting the march were active members of OWS? It’s been shown time and time and time again that some of the protestors are ridiculously clueless about their own privilege. Brushing aside criticism by saying “it can’t be one of *ours*” does nothing but silence critique and discourage growth.

part-time but frequent occupier here. first of all- props to you for organizing this march and for seeking justice for Danny Chen.

 re: OWS. i think your criticisms are not applicable to the whole movement (as you mentioned), but they are very accurate when applied to the part of the movement to which they are applicable. and you’re right that things like this are more frequent than a handful of isolated incidents.

the OWS movement is going throw a lot of growing pains, as i think any movement would have to. the same spontaneity and youth that give the movement its authenticity and effectiveness also give it these flaws.and for whatever consolation it’s worth- we’ve all seen (and dealt with) the dude with the communist flag. he’s got some screws loose, and does not represent the movement at all.

No one – but insofar as Occupy has widely-accepted goals and standards that are explicitly set or clearly implied by their actions and speech, it’s reasonable to say that those people who do not exemplify those goals and standards are not representing Occupy.

As an Occupy supporter who has participated in Occupy actions, GAs, etc. I thank the author for making this account public. One of our ideals is transparency and I don’t think that should only apply when it’s convenient to Occupy. But at the same time, I resent the accusations being made here to the extent that the entire movement is being tarred with them. I am not the jackass who hijacked someone else’s event, and I am not the same old racial oppression draped in a cheap cloak of rebellion – or at least I sincerely hope not.

I believe the OWS people there were from OWS. There are amazing people in OWS and some serious idiots. I have been going to GAs, Spokes Council and all the major DAs since early October. OWS in some ways has gained strength and in many ways deteriorated. I believe in the OWS movement there are plants and disruptors. I have also seen the big Communist China flag with the tall white guy flying it around. If he ever spent any time in that regime he would know he is supporting oppressors. Just ask Tibet. I am a white guy, fairly clean cut and straight. I get the condescending, self righteous attitude quite a bit from some seriously leftist folks at these meetings. And you are right there are many newbies to activism in OWS(which is a good thing actually). But there are many many incredible people in this movement and it is getting amazing press and changing the conversation of world politics. But it still doesn’t have the right to assume superiority or hijack events. That is arrogant and immature. I apologize for that attitude. White Americans in general have this attitude. It is a feeling of unabashed superiority and the inability to recognize their privilege.

This is a real issue. As occupations around the country reach out in solidarity with other groups on related issues, there is a risk of occupiers not knowing how to effectively play their role. It requires active inoculation against the default actions. Many of our people are not savvy to what activism looks like, and are unfamiliar with the importance of focused messaging and what “solidarity” looks like.
My local occupation has participated in several solidarity events, and in every case, their behavior has been exemplary (or close to it). And that’s because the person leading the group putting the action together made it clear at every stage: We are here to support X cause. We are not here to promote Occupy. We’ll do it our way, but we’ll do it with the blessing of our allies.
Our finest, and most recent, example, was when Occupy Austin teamed up with a coalition of East side parents, teachers, kids, and local community education groups to protest the change of several East side schools to charter schools managed by a somewhat controversial charter school corporation. Occupy’s message was, “We’re here to amplify these community voices that have been ignored.” And Occupy did that by camping out, with a dozen tents, outside of the school board offices the night before the hearing to insure that the community members got prime positions on the speaking roster, despite the school board making it very difficult for parents of school age children to participate (the meeting queue started at 7AM on a Tuesday morning…just when parents are getting their kids ready for school). Our chants and signs were targeted to the right cause, and the organizers of the community groups had veto power over everything we did, and every spontaneous action was discussed with those same organizers. The community groups and teachers and kids joined in our songs and participated in our chants, and we made a lot of friends that day.
But, I’ve seen first-hand what can happen when that awareness is not part of the planning process. We’ve had to shush people, pull them aside, ask them to swap signs, etc. during events where our Occupy specific message was not appropriate, so I’m sure it has happened in a lot of places, and will happen again many times before that inoculation to insensitive behavior really kicks in.
Occupations need to be joining existing communities of activists. They need to be forming these friendships and these networks of knowledge and awareness and cross-organizational power. And, they need to be doing it in a way that makes friends, garners mutual respect, and that brings new people, new cultures, new organizations, into the occupation. The best single way to recruit is to find people who already activate for worthwhile causes, and prove to them that the causes they support are the causes we support, so that they know they can activate within the occupation for those causes.
All that said, I don’t think OWS should get all the blame here. We’ve had lots of groups come to our Occupation to try to borrow our bodies and our media presence and our louder voice for their causes, without actually understanding or meaningfully participating in the process. The thing about a leaderless movement is that when you want something to happen, you have to make it happen.
It’s a miracle that anybody showed up, in this case, and it’s not even slightly surprising that the people that did show up didn’t know why they were there. When you decide that the Occupation should participate in some event, the way you do it is to volunteer to lead the charge. This is a leaderless movement, so we are all leaders.
So, if you want an occupation to participate in your event, you show up, you start the working group or join the group that plans events and you plan it, you bring it before the GA (maybe as an announcement and invitation, or maybe as a proposal; depends on the occupation; ours does not require consensus for marches and actions, we just assume every individual can decide for themselves if the march or action actually represents why they occupy), and you begin promoting it within the occupation.
Part of that is explaining to people how you expect them to activate. If they are to carry signs specific to your cause, you need to have a sign-making party, or bring pre-made signs. If standard occupation chants won’t work, you make new ones and teach them to the boisterous folks who lead the chants. If there is a leadership structure that should be respected, let people know (they may opt out, since we like the leaderless thing, but that’s OK) who they should defer to. This needs to be known in advance. You’re going to be busy when the action actually starts, and your occupiers will be distracted by all the stuff going on.
The time to solve these sorts of problems is before they happen. So, in the days and weeks leading up to your action, you need to be priming the pump so that everyone knows what is expected, and why. In my experience, this white middle class privilege is not intentional. It’s built in, and everybody is in a different place in recognizing it. Make people aware of it, by simply asking for deference when it is appropriate, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly it falls away, and you can work together.

I work with Occupy Boston, and we have a share of obnoxious people with very embarrassing lack of sensibility, too, who could do things like this. We also have hi-jackers like RCP and others who opened their literature tables at the Occupy camp, and like to promote their name brand at Occupy events. For Occupy to hi-jack another protest is inexcusable. But as Julie says, there is no registrar for who is, or is not, an Occupy “member” — it’s a social movement, not a membership society. We need a cultural tide toward acting with deep dignity and respect, for Occupy’s own sake, and *especially* when working with other groups on their actions and issues. We need to learn how to be an ally, and to be more humble, and to see the truth of critique of how Occupy embodies many of the ills of the greater society — how could it not.

If your walk like a privileged tournist, quack like a privileged tourist and  then it isn’t arrogant to observe you are a priviliged tourist in the social justice world.

This is a very important piece and I’m glad OWS allows self-critical pieces in it’s journal. I hope readers will take in it’s message and learn from the voices of people of color and all voices for that matter. All occupiers are on a steep learning curve and at different places in their understanding. I hope our writer Esther Choi doesn’t give up on OWS because of the actions of a few immature activists and stays on to educate and broaden the movement. We need your voice and ideas! 

First, my condolences to you and your family. I’m sure Danny was a good man and I feel we who never got to meet him, missed knowing a great person.

Thank you as well for raising the issue of charity vs. solidarity. Too many time people want to save other people when people don’t need saviors but allies. It can at times be over looked and when it is, it hurts more than helps.

thank you again, and again my condolences.

God, I am so sorry.  I am a dedicated member of Occupy Austin, and reading this really bums me out.  It is a great shame that they came not to demand accountability for Mr. Chen’s murder, and instead tried to co-opt your event.  All I can say, is that OWS groups basically have an open invitation to everyone, and this concept has its strengths and weaknesses.  Some participants are new to activism, some are less than mentally competent, some are just jerks.  

It is very, very sad to read this.  Back in October, on the day of the Brooklyn March Against Sexual Assault, I was downtown, and someone from OWS tried to give me a flyer for their march later that afternoon, I told them I would be in Brooklyn, and the guy actually said, “This is more important.”  I’m not trying to pit one against the other, but I was surprised that someone in one movement could not understand why someone would want to take part in another movement.  Soon after, the women’s-only tent was created at OWS, showing the gender is not irrelevant even if some try to make it sound like that.  Thank you for this post on race and ethnicity.

The occupation is a diverse movement. It is not an ideal set of people who are all sane, well-educated, well-adjusted, polite, empathetic, etc. It has also activated people who have never been politically active.

I am not excusing the individuals who showed up for your event, and made a nuisance of themselves. They did wrong. But, I am saying that for people who want to harness the power of the occupation for their own causes, they’re going to need to recognize how the occupation works, and how limited most occupier’s experience with activism is. If you are unwilling to help the occupation, by educating the people you are asking to be involved in your action about your cause and how to effectively and respectfully activate for it, then you should not ask the occupation to help you with your effort.

This is not about you; it’s a problem for everybody within the occupation who’s trying to make the occupation work as a positive force for good on lots of different fronts. The problems you had, we in the occupation have. It is not “us” against “them”. It is “individuals human beings trying to work together, and failing sometimes”. I am part of the occupation, but I can’t speak for the occupation, and I can’t fix any of the problems you’ve seen, except through education where I see problems.

I understand you feel personally affronted by this, and you need someone to blame. I can’t stop you from feeling that way, and I’m not going to try to minimize the offense you feel. All I can do is try to help people understand why it went the way it did. It is not because OWS is a bunch of assholes (though there are plenty of assholes in the occupation). The people who showed up for your event are not representative of the occupation (no more than I am representative of the occupation), but the occupation has no control over who shows up on any given day, and you’re projecting a hierarchical control structure onto Occupy where there is, and can be, none.

So, my primary point is that the occupation can be used to organize protest actions, and it can lend lots of people and lots of media attention to a cause. Cameras and police follow Occupy events and actions at a rate unmatched by any activist groups I’ve ever seen. You can leave Occupy out of your actions, and you’ll have none of these problem children to manage; and if you can achieve your goals without that help, by all means, do so. But, if you ask the occupation for their participation, you have to reciprocate, or you will get what you got.

It’s not how I’d like it to be. It’s just how it is. You can rant about it, or you can recognize it and work with it. I understand if working with it is not how you wish to spend you time, and I respect that choice.

Thank you guys for doing the heavy lifting around this stuff. OWS is lucky to have your attention.

Hrimhari ….do you have suggestions for those who would like to maintain the open flat networked nature and treating this seriously and avoiding further afronts and grievously bad behoviors in the future. There are the Principles of Solidarity and hopefully continued discussion. I am in rural America but spent 10 years in NYC so it’s hard to intervene in a helpful way…

Maybe OWS needs to do some information sharing with orgs in NYC with regard to faces and tactics of supposed agitators… this takes some personal foot work. Perhaps you can work together to diminish their impact…IF that is what the case is.

You are incredibly out of touch and superior sounding. My advice…. stop giving advice. You are not helping.

America is full of people who are technically adult who have not been socialized to be respectful. It is a sad state of affairs. Adult in body only…

My condolences to the Chen Family and all of Danny’s friends and loved ones. I will stay connected to see how to help from way out here…

Thank you for writing this. I’m sharing it any way I know how!

Agreed.  I have provided information for Occupy groups worldwide, and one recurring problem is that the protests  attract people with mental problems, social relational problems, drug use issues, and thieves.  Nationwide, such people have brought down Occupy camps and / or made them unwelcome.   Occupiers have had their computers and cameras stolen.  Many camps found themselves becoming caretakers – providing the food, health care, counseling, clothing, shelter, and behavioral policing needed by such people.  If the Occupy movement gets too caught up in being Mother Theresa, it won’t also have the time, money, energy, or credibility left to make significant political changes.  At some point, limits have to be set.

Yes, reading this, it sounds as  if this was a coordinated effort to hijack your event.  At bars, there are bouncers to kick out disruptive people.  At  parties, you can call the police to eject party crashers.  At a protest, it is more complicated.  

DO PEOPLE HERE HAVE IDEAS ON HOW TO effectively get people to leave a protest if they are acting disruptively or hijacking?   How about when they show up with inappropriate signs or flags?  How about when they bring their own loudspeaker and start shouting through it?  How about when they show up with drums and start banging, when you have a plan in place that does not include this?  How about when they show up at your protest and have something illegal in mind?  How about if you are leading a march and someone starts to lead a group off the planned route or out into the street?  

Ideas?  Ideas?  People all around the nation need to know.  Please share if you know how to deal with such things.

That guy who walks around with the giant Chinese flag spewing crap-speach about Communism has been at OWS since the beginning.  He’s mentally insane, and seems to be homeless.

Y’know, sometimes an asshole is just an asshole. So can we please stop making armchair diagnoses about this man’s mental health? Even if he is mentally ill and homeless, that’s not a good enough reason not to discount his involvement in OWS. (Especially since homeless people had been arrested in the past for occupying the spaces now taken up by OWS.)

We’re talking about a movement that acts like abuse from police has never happened to anyone else in the history of America.  Are you really surprised by how they’re responding to people calling them out on trying to take over someone else’s organized protest–and marginalizing the PoC they claim solidarity with–they like this?

thank you for this. your words ring to my frustrations as well. i was there for the vigil and i got really sad/pissed off toward the end when the man holding the chinese flag and his entourage called out to me and said “hey occupier! where are you going?”  when i was on my way out. and i was shocked! first to be presumed as part of OWS because sadly i was one of very few non-asian allies at the march, and second to be associated with “occupying” anything! and i just realized that that’s what these people were doing there…they were occupying private danny chen’s vigil. i have not been to any OWS marches, assemblies, or anything. and i really should/should have gone before i can hate on them. so i’m not gonna hate on them. i realize that these were a few people who identified themselves with the OWS movement and that there has been a lot of work being done that i would stand in solidarity with at OWS. nevertheless, we need to stay awake and continue critiquing this movement because it is not perfect and it cannot/should not walk over other movements to reach its goals.

sue, please stop assuming with no evidence that 1) this was a hijacking and 2) you have something to teach me.

from my actual experiences at the event + all i’ve heard from ows people after the fact, this was not a hijacking. our event was not hijacked, just disrupted by disrespectful and self-entitled behavior of some OWS protesters, and we dealt with it just fine. in the words of an OWSer who was actually there, “I was there photographing the action and must admit the article is
right, in our effort not to be co-opted we tend to try to take over
instead of being a group that supports in the crowd. Did not see any OWS
solidarity signs saying “We are Danny Chen” for example. We just tried
to front the march and got upset when the organizers asked us to step
back, listen to the organizers and join the group of marchers instead.” you can’t just keep calling everyone hijackers especially if they are deeply and meaningfully involved in OWS work. your response really illustrates the problematic aspects of this movement.

also, educate yourself on the word racist: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/07/15/884649/-Why-theres-no-such-thing-as-Reverse-Racism

@Guest, David, and Sue: There was nothing racist about Daniel said. It’s about the frustration many POC face when dealing with “allies” who want us to be a part of their movements, yet refuse to examine their own racial privilege. It’s attitudes like yours that drive us away to start our own movements and take up our own causes because we can’t trust white liberals much of the time. And *that’s* why Daniel got so many Likes – he spoke the truth…And you’re just proving him right.

Sue, I admire that you blog to help others, but your laundry list response here is similar to “some of my best friends are black.”

Perhaps the loud man was being sexist, but why are you accusing a person of color of sexism when he points out your racism? Your blog will be stronger if you do some humble introspection instead of evading.

Thanks for this article