Of the roughly seventy-six members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, thirty-two members are white. The rest are black or Latino or Far Eastern or Pacific Islander or Caribbean or some combination. Another way of looking at it is that 58% of the Progressive Caucus is non-white. If progressives represent the leftward border of the Democratic Party, why then do we see this?
A few prominent African Americans, such as Cornel West, Russell Simmons, Kanye West and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), have made appearances at Occupy protests. “Occupy the Hood,” a recent offshoot, has tried to get more people of color involved. But the main movement remains overwhelmingly white: A Fast Company survey last month found that African Americans, who are 12.6 percent of the U.S. population, make up only 1.6 percent of Occupy Wall Street.
One of my commitments is to occasionally remind people in the blogosphere, who are also overwhelmingly white progressives, that the bigger half of the progressive movement is non-white and that this non-white bigger half has distinctly different opinions about the president, the party, and the state of American politics. This is why the blogosphere periodically convinces itself that the president is losing his base of support only to discover that polling data doesn’t back it up.
It’s probably true that the black community is protective of the first black president in a way that your average white progressive is not. But it’s much deeper than that. Blacks are accustomed to glacial progress. They’re familiar with cutting shitty deals that move the ball a few inches down the field. They’ve never been under the misimpression that the cards aren’t stacked against them. They are no strangers to high unemployment, job insecurity, or grinding undeserved poverty. If there is one defining difference between how the black and brown progressives have reacted to the president and how white progressives have reacted, it has been that black and brown progressives had much more realistic expectations. I think a lot of blacks look at the white people protesting income disparity and think to themselves, “when did you notice?”
People might expect blacks to leap into the fray, relieved that they have new allies. But the lack of solidarity whites showed them in the boom times helps explain the lack of solidarity now.
“Occupy Wall Street was started by whites and is about their concern with their plight,” Nathalie Thandiwe, a radio host and producer for WBAI in New York, said in an interview. “Now that capitalism isn’t working for ‘everybody,’ some are protesting.”
That comment seems to be dripping with sarcasm.
Here’s another black voice:
New Jersey comedian John “Alter Negro” Minus says he won’t participate in the Occupy protests because black people are being besieged by so many social injustices, he can’t get behind targeting just the 1 percent.
Banks’ bad behavior “just gets lost in the sauce, so to speak,” Minus said. “High joblessness and social disenfranchisement is new to most of the Wall Street protesters. It’s been a fact of life for African Americans since the beginning. I actually think black people are better served by staying out of the protests. Civil disobedience will only further the public perception that black people like to cause trouble.”
There are two distinct points there. But, combined, they say that the Occupy Movement isn’t black people’s fight. Maybe John Minus is wrong about that, but that’s how he feels. And I think he speaks for a lot of other people, too. And despite his risk aversion, it’s not like black people have been historically shy about protesting for their rights. By and large, they’re not motivated by this fight.
I can’t say that I fully understand why they’re not motivated by it, but I can say that it indicates some massive flaw in the movement. A real progressive movement would encompass the entirety (and certainly the sizable majority) of the progressive spectrum.
Some will blame the black community and say that they are just being protective of the president. But I think they’re showing a shrewder political understanding and more maturity. The pace of progress may be agonizingly slow, but that’s the same as it ever was…if you’ve been really paying attention. It’s not a shock or a disappointment if you’ve been the one waiting the whole time.
