About protest critiques...
I've been paying close attention since the OWS protests.
It is a given that those with more conservative, authoritarian views are very much against protests, even peaceful protests.
Yet for those who identify as being on the more progressive end of the spectrum, whenever protests are criticized, 9 times out of 10 it is a white male expressing concern or agitation or disapproval or whatever.
I know that's anecdotal, but I think the interactions here in GD about this topic bear that out.
Similarly, it's primarily white males (not only in the US) who are the ones urging people not to vote at all because the system is rigged and we're idiots if we perpetuate the illusion of democracy.
As a whole, white men are the one group in recent history that hasn't had to fight for the right to vote.
I see these things as connected, showing clear examples of the fact that white men (even poor white men!) experience the world from a certain perspective others do not share.
Women had to fight for the right to vote, and protested LOUDLY and disruptively. Some even died.
People of color had to fight for the right to vote, and protested -- often silently but strongly and very visibly, and some still died.
I believe that most people who critique and judge non-violent protests -- even if they are not silent and even if some perceive the protesters as obnoxious -- are by far white men.
The segment of our population that, historically, has not had nearly as much trouble being seen and heard as the rest of the population.
I understand economic inequality is making many people, including white men, feel very invisible. I understand many white men are angry and going through tremendous suffering as a result of the gross economic inequality, and that they're angry with politicians in general for failing to hear them all along and not doing what they were voted in to do.
I do not hate white men (or men) at all and feel compassion for the various levels of suffering.
However, white men still embody a position of privilege they often lose sight of (and will no doubt reply here in protest), and that's most evident in what I perceive as the patriarchal critiques of protests and protesters.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Thanks for clarifying.
