50th Anniversary March on Washington - to be continued
I want to jot down some thoughts I'm having about the March today!
First of all, I did NOT help organize this march, so my thoughts that are critical do not carry much weight.
That said, it was a BEAUTIFUL, deeply inspiring rally and march with some blaring mistakes, not to mention the even more blaring missing pieces.
Al Sharpton's group, National Action Network: No Justice, No Peace, did a huge amount of work organizing and putting this together - with the help & support of other groups and individuals, I'm sure, not to ignore the immense amount of foot soldiers necessary to pull this off, getting 150 THOUSAND people to come together in 2013!
I think one of the most inspiring elements of almost everyone's speeches was the resounding call to return to the streets, to revive and revitalize the movement, to seeing yes, we've made some advances - after all, we have a Black man in the white house and the 'coloured only' signs have become invisible - but in many ways, no advances, in racial equity, in smashing racism (although few actually called racism out by name, and in fact, we've gone backwards with the recent horrific supreme court ruling eviscerating the Voting Rights Act, the murderer once again of Trayvon Martin walking free, to mention a few.
Several said directly: "Everything has changed and nothing has changed."
The structure of the rally was at great fault, for it only allowed speakers 2 minutes to say something. I think quantity was sacrificed for quality, altho almost every speaker was brilliant, deeply committed, and inspiring. But really, what can you say in 2 minutes?
Speakers - including some of the forefathers who were there 50 years ago - were rudely cut off at 2minutes, with their mics going dead and music starting. EXCEPT Eric fuckin-Holder and of course Al Sharpton - they both spoke in length: Holder way too long, but Sharpton was his inspiring self.
The other notable element was the womyn who were allowed to speak - still not enough, but lots. The first march, only one womon was allowed to speak, and only for a minute.
Women were also made to march down a separate route from the men.
There were also greatly diverse people from the Latina, Asian, out LGBT communities speaking, altho no self-identified Indigenous People were represented.
prison & military industrial complex
First of all, I did NOT help organize this march, so my thoughts that are critical do not carry much weight.
That said, it was a BEAUTIFUL, deeply inspiring rally and march with some blaring mistakes, not to mention the even more blaring missing pieces.
Al Sharpton's group, National Action Network: No Justice, No Peace, did a huge amount of work organizing and putting this together - with the help & support of other groups and individuals, I'm sure, not to ignore the immense amount of foot soldiers necessary to pull this off, getting 150 THOUSAND people to come together in 2013!
I think one of the most inspiring elements of almost everyone's speeches was the resounding call to return to the streets, to revive and revitalize the movement, to seeing yes, we've made some advances - after all, we have a Black man in the white house and the 'coloured only' signs have become invisible - but in many ways, no advances, in racial equity, in smashing racism (although few actually called racism out by name, and in fact, we've gone backwards with the recent horrific supreme court ruling eviscerating the Voting Rights Act, the murderer once again of Trayvon Martin walking free, to mention a few.
Several said directly: "Everything has changed and nothing has changed."
The structure of the rally was at great fault, for it only allowed speakers 2 minutes to say something. I think quantity was sacrificed for quality, altho almost every speaker was brilliant, deeply committed, and inspiring. But really, what can you say in 2 minutes?
Speakers - including some of the forefathers who were there 50 years ago - were rudely cut off at 2minutes, with their mics going dead and music starting. EXCEPT Eric fuckin-Holder and of course Al Sharpton - they both spoke in length: Holder way too long, but Sharpton was his inspiring self.
The other notable element was the womyn who were allowed to speak - still not enough, but lots. The first march, only one womon was allowed to speak, and only for a minute.
Women were also made to march down a separate route from the men.
There were also greatly diverse people from the Latina, Asian, out LGBT communities speaking, altho no self-identified Indigenous People were represented.
prison & military industrial complex
posted by Xan @ 6:50 PM
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