MCT FORUM, By Randy Jurado Ertll –
If the Occupy movement is to succeed this year, it needs to become more diverse. The movement is predominantly composed of white, low-income and middle-class individuals who are protesting to denounce corporate greed. Feeling frustrated due to the inequities in our economic system, activists have led months of protests throughout the United States.
The Occupy movement needs to recruit minorities not only to reflect accurately the ethnic diversity that does exist in the United States but also to respond to the fact that economic injustice falls most heavily on the backs of minorities.
The median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households, according to the Pew Research Center.
For their part, Latinos, blacks and other minorities should join the Occupy movement. It offers a great opportunity — especially for younger people — to participate in a nonviolent social justice struggle.
But we need to feel welcome. And there is no reason we shouldn’t be. White Americans and minorities are all in this together.
The U.S. Census recently released statistics that designate half of the U.S. population, 146 million, poor or low income.
The Occupy movement has done a great job shedding light on the economic disparities in our country. Now it needs to find common cause with the labor, civil-rights and immigrant-rights movements both to broaden its base and to build the kind of political force that can make our economy fairer for everybody.
A movement that is seeking economic and social fairness must not exclude minorities.
Along with the whole thing that appears to be building throughout this particular area, many of your opinions are generally quite radical. Nevertheless, I am sorry, but I do not subscribe to your entire theory, all be it refreshing none the less. It would seem to me that your opinions are generally not totally justified and in actuality you are your self not even fully confident of the assertion. In any case I did enjoy looking at it.
Too bad the real poor are too busy actually working to spend their time “protesting” about something.
I wish there was a like button here, because I really LIKE the above statement.
This whole movement and theory is rubbish. Plain and simple.
They have no direction other than complaining about other people’s wealth when they don’t want to work themselves. The pity of it is I agree with some of what they are trying to do but I think they will not succeed because they are not taken seriously and are looked at as nothing more than trouble makers. They are not like the Teaparty where they had people of means with a power base to help them. This article is correct in saying they have to get the minority’s involved with their structure.
I’ll tell you why I gave up hanging with the Occupy Movement. They are protesting against something, they secretly long to be a part of. I mentioned “Why don’t we just go off and get our own land and build up the type of society we want to see”, and they all quieted down on that suggestion. This told me they are really serious about liberation, and instead are throwing a sort of adult tantrum against the powers that be. If you play the rules of capitalism, inevitably you’re going to end up with a Dawinian model where some people get hurt. The entire foundation and rules we play by need to be re-established. But this cannot be done on their playing field. You have to build your own. This is why I don’t hang out with the Occupiers any longer. I checked it out though, and camped with them a couple of nights down in iowa city to see what was up with it.
typo correction: This told me they ARE NOT serious about liberation…