The Fringe Will Be OccupySF's downfall (how once again SF has slapped people of color in the face)

On November 5 th, 2011.  I went to the OccupySF march. I believe firmly in the movement. I believe that it is important that African Americans are part of the Occupy Movement.  I have been religiously tweeting and Facebooking every one I know about how important it is to occupy for our future.

There is also another reason I went. I am a native San Franciscan and I feel like my city is being destroyed by the gentrifiers and the Chris Daly types alike. The wealthy force minorities out of their neighborhoods while the over zealous progressives act so erratically that no one takes them seriously.

We left a little after three from in front of the Federal Reserve. I was instantly annoyed because a group of activists had physically pushed me out of the way with out a word. They wanted to ensure that their banner was prominently displayed at the front of the march. I decided to let it go and remember why I was there.

As I was marching I noticed two other black people. It made me think of what a local black activist from Bay View had said to me: "this has been our struggle from the beginning of American history. Now that white people are suffering it has become an issue. Now they pay attention. Welcome to our world."

I tried to explain to him  that this was the perfect opportunity for all of us to come together. I believe that economic disparity and inequality are the foundations for racism. However once I joined the march I realized I was wrong.

Things started out cool. Every one was smiling and chanting. A couple of times I thought that the person who was leading the chants was a little boring and needed to change it up. However, every one seemed to be into it.

 We marched down Market Street to the Chase Bank. A woman whose home was being foreclosed on was giving a moving speech about calling the head of Chase and demanding that they stop foreclosing on people.  I listened to everyone pull out their cell phones and begin chattering on her voicemail about how evil she is. There was one gentleman who manically babbled on her voicemail as if he was made of crystal meth. 

This is when I started to pay attention to who was really there. Oh look there is the guy who called me a nigger bitch because I wouldn't give him spare change on Haight Street. To my right my junior high US history teacher. Hey there's my old neighbor. There is the cop who used to date my cousin. He was working not marching. I was happy to see him, he is a nice guy.  Basically there was the good, the bad & the ugly. All together with one message. Except for the cop, he was getting paid overtime to work. 

We then marched to Wells Fargo on California and Montgomery. Once  Zachary Runningwolf started speaking I tuned out. I am not interested in a self proclaimed spiritual leader talking about eating our young. 

Oh look at that they are burning a flag. Okay that is not my thing so I am just going to step away and let them get their burn on but I do not want to be in that FBI picture. .... WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?

I think I actually yelled that question out loud and then I literally closed my eyes, rubbed them and reopened them only to be horrified by the fact that it was not a bad dream. I was looking at one of the most racist things I had seen since I saw a gay white man in black face at a drag show. Actually this was a thousand times more racist. I was looking at this:

In case your eyesight is off, it is a white man, dressed as Obama, he has a horse bit and he is pulling a white woman who is whipping him.  Yes, it really is.... in 2011, almost 2012, it is.

As a woman of color, I was shocked. I looked to my left where I saw a black police officer who I think actually had smoke coming out of his ears. My ears where beginning to fume. As I was talking to him I noticed several other black police officers standing around looking in disbelief. The officer with smoke coming out of his ears also looked like he was heart broken. I know I was. I asked him what he thought and he said because he was in uniform he was not allowed to give his opinion. He also added that they should be grateful  that he was in uniform or they would have known exactly what he thought. I told him it made me sad and he said he understood.

The march took up and we were headed to B of A. As I walked I could not stop looking at these fucking assholes in the chariot. Every once in a while they would stop and fondle each other and I wondered if they got the OccupySF march confused for the Folsom Street Fair. 

I tried to shake it off but I couldn't. I began seeing every one as a hipster asshole with no respect for people of color. The shock value was more important to them. I walked up to my old neighbor and told him that I was so upset that I felt like I was going to cry. As I pointed out why, some old hippy lady told me that she thought it was great because it symbolized how he was a slave to corporations.  I calmly turned to her and said, it is not okay to refer to him as a slave and then I had to explain the symbolism of a black man being whipped by a white woman and what it represents to people of color in America. Then she got it. On a side note, kudos to me for explaining it calmly. I was FURIOUS!!!

I couldn't get the image out of my head. I was so full of rage that I could no longer stand. I had no idea what the woman on the loud speaker was saying because I was trying to resist the urge to grab the whip and beat the woman on the chariot senseless. As everyone continued up California, I stayed in front of the Bof A building and I began crying uncontrollably. I walked home in the rain, hurt and disappointed.  My eyes puffy with tears of rage.

It was in that moment that I realized that while the Occupy movements in other parts of the US may include every one, the OccupySF movement was just like the rest of the city. From the Dynamo donuts of 24th St to the Bar Tartine on Valencia to the Speak Easy in the Bay View, it was another way  that SF had asserted that it was a city for white people and white people only. 

So if I ever go to another OccupySF march and see them lynching an effigy of Obama while wearing a KKK hood made of PBR cans, I will not be surprised.