Should You Care About Occupy The Hood?
(Image: Thinkstock)
As the Occupy Wall Street protests hit day 24, people are beginning to see more and more sprinkles of color among the growing crowd of demonstrators. Not to mention the demonstrations are spreading outside of Manhattan’s Financial District to Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and other cities across the country. Despite the new additions, going to ground zero of many of these protests will likely place you in a sea of white faces.
It’s this very reason that the sub-movement Occupy The Hood was born. It was started by two activist friends Malik Rhasaan, 39, from Queens, New York and Ife Johari Uhuru, 35, from Detroit, Michigan. What began as an awareness campaign to get people of color involved in Occupy Wall Street has caught on with media outlets such as BET, The Village Voice and Loop 21 documenting their story. Like the Occupy Wall Street movement, OTH is getting the word out via social media—which has proved to be quite successful. The OTH Twitter page has over 5,000 followers and their Facebook following is increasing with nearly 4,000 Facebook “Likes.” They’ve even been in direct contact with political and academic heavyweights like California congresswoman Maxine Waters and Princeton professor Cornel West.
BE Next wants to hear from you. What do you think about Occupy The Hood? Leave your thoughts below. Also, go to the Black Enterprise Facebook page and take our daily poll.
I think Occupy The Hood is a great grass-root movement.We are in a dire need to mobilize a World Against poverty,homelessness,jobless,racism and an unfair,unjust education and judicial system. Let’s keep the Network Moving throughout the World!!
The name doesn’t make sense to me. It sounds as if black neighborhoods are being occupied, but according to this piece, Occupy the Hood is about getting black people involved in Occupy Wall Street. I wonder if people are getting involved because they think the movement is doing something it’s not.
to the person JAMIE,… your comment was as lame as your name ,.. to start off saying the name doesn’t make sense, shows your ability to understand anything that effects people in the lower classes of this country and the struggles that have been going on way before it was any occupy wall street BS,..
When I first saw the name, I thought it meant that protesters would actually gather in the hood. To protest the conditions of the supermarkets, joblessness, poverty and crime. So, a bit misleading.
However, if it can get the attention of young people and get them involved into something meaningful-I’m for it.
Young people need to feel connected to and passionate about that will empower them. One thing for sure, social consciousness is necessary.
It is one thing to protest, but it is another thing to actually be proactive in dealing with the main problem… The politicians, democrats, republicans and independents. Unfortunately, too many of them have become comfortable with their careers and have lost touch with what they were elected to do. What I would like to see is more voter turnout, better education by public about their elected officials and a strong push for term limits in all levels of government. No politician should serve more than two terms. It seems as though everyone is targeting the wrong group. Hit the politican where it hurt them the most, their term limits and watch how they act. Another interesting thing is how some of the democrats are “supporting” these protest when some of them signed off lowering the standards for getting a mortgage and giving bank bailouts.
Well said Mr. Lee. I constantly try to get my people to understand the importance of getting involved in the issues that effect our livelyhood. Here in Detroit, the mayor decreased public bus transportation to the point, people are starting to lose their employment, because they can’t get to work, and even worst, they are stranded at the bus stop waiting for a bus that’s not coming. I went to many of the public meetings on the issue. I was suprised that the turn out was so low. Once the changes went into effect, everyone was mad as hell and took it out on the drivers. I pulled a young brother aside once (while he was yelling at the driver), and asked him did he go to any of public forums that were held on the matter, and he said “NO”. Hense my point; If you speak up about the things that effect your life, then you’ve agreed to except whatever is givin to you.
Southern Hello, from Raleigh NC Real facts I’m the only brown face photographer at this events http://www.silentlanguagephoto.com/occupy-raleigh/ yesterday event counting myself head the count to three http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.253852371332329.89376.112988078752093&type=1
“Occupy the Hood”? Are you effing kidding me? Thats emberassing, and will only discredit the movement.
I definitely think that we need to occupy the hood to let economic exploiters, drug dealers, gangsters and pimps know that we will not tolerate the destruction Black people. We also need to do this to let the respectable Black men, women and children in the hood know that they do not stand alone
Some people seem to misunderstand that a movement does not rise out of thin air. It needs to built through communication. The Occupy The Hood Movement appears to be in this stage and will take to the streets when it has reach critical mass.