White Liberal Racism is real, living, active and dangerous in Seattle. Two of our movement family (two white anti racist activists) were arrested at the March For Science — Seattle this morning. The March for Science had previously been publicly called to account by WOC Speak Out (Full Statement Below) and other grassroots organizations.

Block The Bunker recorded the video below of the two arrests this morning demonstrating state violence in action:

https://www.facebook.com/blockthebunker/videos/1334694303266625/

In Seattle, in spite of our cultural “Seattle Freeze” and systemic crisis of care, our movements commit to take care of our community and to call out violence in all forms. As a White person, I request that more people learn how to stand up to the state and learn how to put white bodies and dollars on the line in accountability with people directly affected by oppression and violence.

In this moment in future/history liberals in Occupied Duwamish Territory frequently side with the State. Liberals invoke frameworks of criminality, use deficit/scarcity base mentalities in activism, and legitimize state violence in order to justify not taking action. We can choose to stand with grassroots movements/collectives led by People of Color, like Block the Bunker, No New Youth Jail, Displacement Stops Here, EPIC (Ending the Prison Industrial Complex), Got Green,and NWDC Resistance with the Not 1 More Movement and many others that are uniting for self-determination and autonomy. In Seattle, we can choose, every single day, to stand with communities targeted by police by resisting state violence in all its forms.

To be neutral in the face of oppression is to side with oppressors. In Seattle, the mass media, the police, the courts, the non-profit industrial complex and the masses conspire with the state to legitimize its violence. Our silence, white Seattle, is violence. Liberalism got us here. Redlining got us here. Weed and Seed got us here. Gentrification got us here.

Being a Liberal in Seattle is being a Racist.

Liberals support the state, radicals understand the state as an illegitimate institution with a history of stolen wealth and power.

Liberals support the police, radicals understand the police as slave catchers, property protectors, and a colonial, militarizing, vehicle of state violence.

Liberals support corporate media, radicals ground in information rooted in direct experience and grassroots narratives.

Our intersectional movements are drawing clear lines and boundaries, necessary for defining ourselves for our own self determination as people. This allows us to rally solidarity, co-revolutionares, and co-conspirators that supports those affected instead of disorganizing grassroots movement efforts. Through holding movement space in direct resistance to the state, by governing ourselves, and by taking care of one another, our movements are defining “autonomous zones” and “free movement spaces” where we can cultivate relationships outside of capitalism. We are transforming ourselves and decolonizing our minds. We are learning how to operate in community and collectivity. We are deepening our spiritual callings and understandings that these movements are not just about legality and politics, but more importantly spirituality and our fundamental humanity. Join us.

Further Reading:

WOC Speak Out Statement, 20 April 2017 https://www.facebook.com/wocspeakout/posts/1956894964538985

Letter from Birmingham Jail (ext) by Rev. Martin Luther King, JR., 16 April 1963 http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/060.html

Deep Green Resistance, A Critique, 21 May 1999 https://earthfirstnews.wordpress.com/articles/deep-green-resistance-a-critique/