Who Is Oakland?

Sub-titled “Anti-Oppression Activism, the Politics of Safety, and State Co-optation” this zine written by a group of people of color, women, and queers offers an important critique of how privilege theory and cultural essentialism have incapacitated antiracist, feminist, and queer organizing in this country by minimizing and misrepresenting the severity and structural character of the violence faced by marginalized groups. It makes a series of theoretical arguments exploring, identity, race, “allyship”, the non-profit industrial complex, and related topics before moving into a brief exploration of Occupy Oakland as a case study of how anti-oppression politics can limit struggles.

Excerpt

This pamphlet argues that demands for increased cultural sensitivity and recognition has utterly failed to stop a rising tide of bigotry and violence in an age of deep austerity. Anti-oppression, civil rights, and decolonization struggles repeatedly demonstrate that if resistance is even slightly effective, the people who struggle are in danger. The choice is not between danger and safety, but between the uncertain dangers of revolt and the certainty of continued violence, deprivation, and death. There is no middle ground.

PDFs

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