People Of Color Organize! received the following poem from Itoro Udofia that is inspired by the Occupy Oakland movement.
A “Friendly” Reminder
Hey!
You!
Yes you there flapping your gums
Darting words out so quick
that Thought and Insight can’t get through
Yes
I’m talking to YOU
(well at least I’m trying too)
The advocate
The ally
The do gooder
The liberal
The more conscious one
The “Well, I’m better than that…”
The “That’s not me!”
The radical
The comrade
Well we got problems don’t we?
Of a historic condition
Can’t seem to work efficiently
Unless with assumed permission
that you’re the one who’s doing the leading
And doing none of the listening
(well…unless it’s watered to a tune that fits your disposition)
But I ain’t deterred (“friend”)
Though I’ve been burned many times
‘Cause you won’t shake the assumption
that I got to walk two steps behind
And still I show up everyday
to look you in your face
To show you that without my presence
you can’t make your case!
The burden falls squarely on the back of whites to check their own supremacy and especially that of their comrades, friends, family members. This occupy movement needs to be let by radical people of color and whites need to stop assuming that we know so much… that our ideas have not already been thought of before…that our ideas could be wrong. I struggle with this every day and try to do the best I can. The clearest thought I have about the coming anti-capitalist revolution is that it will be healthiest and most just if led by working class women of color who will form the vanguard which will lead the rest of the working class and middle class. The reason for this is because no one else can be trusted to bring true justice but those who have been dealt the most injustice in terms of historic and current exploitation, oppression, and related lack-of inclusion (implicitly or explicitly) by existing power structures whether they be neo-liberal, radical, or revolutionary. I will endeavor to support this in any way I can. I look to you for leadership, while fighting my own inner demons which tend to create hostile conditions for our equal cooperation toward the same goals.