Occupy Wall Street One Year Later… Our Insightful intv w/ Malik from Occupy the Hood

One year ago September 17th 2011, a group of people gather at Zuccotti Park a small enclave in the financial district of New York City and launched a movement that would effectively change the way we would for the foreseeable future talk about economic disparities. Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was the movement that would eventually spread to over 1500 cities around the world and force presidents and economic advisors of any stripe to talk about the economy in terms of 1% vs 99%. It was a game changer on many levels.

Occupy Wall Street was a huge attraction … Zuccotti Park was the epic center where everyone from filmmaker Michael Moore to scholars like Cornel West to music moguls like Russell Simmons to former Black Panther Angela Davis to major labor leaders and members to students all came by to embrace what was going down.. In spite of the initial media blackouts, OWS exploded as it struck a chord. Hundreds and then thousands showed up to protest what many described ‘the Tyranny of the banks‘.

OWS Media Center

OWS had a tech savvy media center set up, which included a live U Stream so the entire world could watch, as this movement did what many thought was impossible, give folks who were feeling beleaguered, cynical and betrayed by the broken promises and lack of action around the Hope and Change rhetoric that excited so many in ’08, a sense of purpose and belief in the possibility that serious corners could be turned. OWS struck a chord with many who had deep yearnings to shake things up and change the world. The ‘leaderless’ movement seemed determined to bring the fight and the mass anger many were feeling, right to the front steps of Wall Street big wigs..It wasn’t long before lots of money and resources began to pour in..

OWS Brooklyn Bridge protest

t also wasn’t long before we started to hearing and then seeing incident after incident of New York City police beating down Occupy protestors. Mayor Michael Bloomberg once famously called NYPD his private army and sadly they lived up to the billionaires claim. With each march and with each protest the world was treated to seeing NYPD, many wearing white shirts punching, macing and using batons on women, men, young and old.. The arrests were fast and furious. It would be 5 here, 6 there, 10 there. One day over 700 were arrested with many beaten as OWS attempted to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was later learned that Wall Street institutions like JP Morgan donated 4.6 million dollars to NYPD which led to the belief that they had essentially privatized parts of the department. Many of these white shirts were answering to bankers and not the city..

Malik (right) at OWS protest w/ Jasiri X

As we look back on all that transpired since Occupy Wall Street began we talked with Malik Rashaan.. who started Occupy the Hood. He explained how he showed up and showed up at Zuccotti Park on day two, curious as to what all the commotion was all about and anxious to see how  many folks who looked like him were participating. Not seeing all that many, Malik started Occupy the Hood and maintained a strong presence down at Zuccotti..

During our interview, Malik gives an insightful, brutally honest assessment of what he experienced. He talks about the early growing pains as well as the strengths of OWS and its short comings.

He recounts the early days of OWS and explains whether or not he feels it lost focused..He goes into detail about the struggles around race, gender and class.. he talks about the intense debates around strategy..He said there were many fault-lines and many egos..Malik describes OWS as a church, where everyone comes but the pastor and many in the congregation don’t do the right things..

Listen to our Intv w/ Malik from Occupy the Hood
By Clicking the link Below

He also talks about the myth surrounding OWS being leaderless.. He weighs in on the Jay-Z- Russell Simmons controversy where Jay-Z called OWS Un-American. Malik talks about how cats from the hood perceived OWS especially after he brought them to Zuccotti.

Malik talks at length at some of the many things OWS accomplished and where he sees things headed..He talks about the new approaches he sees many Occupies taking. He also talks about the strength of of Occupy in other cities.. Oakland and Detroit are two that come to mind..

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Comments

  1. Well Occupy, Big Bank/Wall Street has spoken. Basically they are going to continue doing what they do best. How will you respond?
    http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/09/13/unlimited-qe3-fed-decision-huge-change/?icid=maing-grid7|maing6|dl30|sec1_lnk2&pLid=205138&a_dgi=aolshare_facebook

  2. Monday In NYC

  3. Yo Davey, what have ‘Occupy’ to do with political Hip Hop? I can’t understand it from my sought outta postfascist Europe, where the images of 1 to 99 peer cent gets by left antifascist publics an antisemitic touch and neglected by all that, an prosper debate about the finance ‘TTrans_action’ TAX…there the consent in postfascist Europe is clear, that the deficit capitalist Govs must re_fiance themselves and by all, the social network must establish, by having no alternatives to capital_Ism and commune_Ism gotta failed by mid_term real_political $hit the never ending mass of zombies have,…that the evicted ‘white trash’ has to abandon an all Union pension/annuity by global manners.

    There the tunnel of good, well established emancipated Raps could bring harm!

    I was absolutely not interested in the ‘Occupy’_movement by such censor_ment the ‘Anonymous’_groups behind where not abled to reflect the critical man sciences by their hacks on propaghandhi the market concurrencies.

    Salaam!

    Bel, from postfascist Hamburg!

  4. I really don’t know what to do when in postfascist Europe the death hygienic necessitates the measure_ment of being political or religious advised. It’s for me a ‘free Khan’ an issue of freedom and pride.
    Let the ‘white trash’ behind….commune in Cops out.

    http://www.lastfm.de/user/riotqueer

    The only Inter Service Thale_Ban Brit in the West! Feeling suicidal about money!

  5. Truth Speaker says

    The purpose of articles like these are for DaveyD to promote himself as a journalist and people like Jay Z to promote themselves in the media. If any of these people cared they would be writing up business plans and social constructs that allow young people to bypass all the clutter and confusion. Instead, they talk, write and project clutter that does nothing but ADD to the confusion. From their encouragement of joke cracking baboon marble mouth entertainers like Kanye West, Eminem and Jay Z (And every other rapper in this day and age) to black prison cult “organizations” like the NOI ….who have now integrated with Scientology (lol!). This American HipHop nonsense is seriously a joke, albeit one where a good number of people are apparently getting lots of money, social rewards and careers out of. This at the expense of feeding on young peoples attention-spans before they have a chance to know how truly manipulative and how much arrested development has been invoked as a result. Groups like Public Enemy and Paris that use to complain about “Coin tel pro” are now laughable. It’s agenda is on auto-pilot….lol!. Educated people just need to step away from this crap and let you idiots wallow in the “culture” you’ve created for yourselves.

  6. Truth Speaker says

    Your question is like a slave that’s off the plantation and still eat’n chitlins’ asking: “Where’s the health food your going to make for me ?” . Well, the first thing you need to do is break your habit of eating crap, then all you need to do is walk over to whole foods. It’s not exactly rocket science. “nuff said”. LOL

  7. Thats exactly the Heroine Rome scene on Hardt/Negris tri_pod ‘bii_oops_eecks has in common, thats narratives of a language turn and not peanuts of post persons of color! But I don’t like truthers! I am MAD priide

    Salaam/Shaloom

  8. Yo Davey,..my deeply respect on your spiritual work: I have prepared an International concensus of political frames outta my beAph with the 1977 Rocky world premier here in postfascist Hamburg as a musical…Assassines: le temoigne!

    Salaam and I will follow, learn and give support!

  9. Truth Speaker says

    My personal game plan has an NDA attached. In your case Dave I would suggest you go watch the Steelers game, play some rap songs…. and leave the rest to the adults. If I ever get into a role where I have 10’s or 100’s of millions of dollars sitting around like Russel Simmons or Jay Z I promise to work on projects that have a foundation based on something other than hot air and sand. In the meantime, you should probably sketch out some ideas and take them to these homosexuals and see if they would invest in any of them. Just make sure it’s rooted in tangible utility with a sound business model. Of course they will ignore you because their entire world revolves around entertainment, sports and gay fashion. Then again, on second thought, maybe they won’t ignore you. Good luck & have fun at the Steelers game !

  10. I think that 30 years ‘Wild Stylez’ have worked very well on youth education!

    Salaam Davey,..Duck ya Land of the Aryans Erroan

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