I was recently invited to speak at a conference at Rhode Island College on race, the media and election 2012, where legendary activist Angela Davis was the keynote speaker. I had a chance to talk to Dr Davis about the history of racial inclusion in social movements and how activism should be more global.
Dr Angela Davis was the keynote speaker at the 2012 Diversity is a Way of L.I.F.E conference at Rhode Island College April 13. In her keynote she speaks of how the Trayvon Martin case is just an example of the level of violence happening in America today.
I interviewed Yari Osorio, the vice-presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Osorio and I were panelists in a discussion about race, the media and election 2012 at Rhode Island College April 13. Osorio, a native of Colombia, is a longtime activist who helped to lead dozens of anti-war and anti-racist demonstrations in New York City and Washington, D.C. He was arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge along with 700 other people as part of an Occupy Wall Street demonstration last year. Osorio talks about the role of people of color in the Occupy Movement, third party politics and the upcoming election.
State Rep. Byron Rushing joined local community activists at Hibernian Hall Oct. 19 to discuss the history of the 45-year-old Madison Park Development Corporation, as well as highlight the roots of black activism in Boston. It was an enlightening conversation among elder activists that showed that change is possible when all people organize as one around a common agenda and goal.
So it was interesting when Occupy Boston activist Brian Kwoba got up during the discussion to ask the panelists what tips the current Occupy Movement could take away. Panelist and Dudley Main Streets executive director Joyce Stanley said that unlike the Roxbury activists of the 1960s who organized around not allowing the I-95 to be built in the community, the Occupy Wall Street movement doesn’t have a clear agenda nor has it made any specific goals for their protest.
“If you don’t have clear goals when you are organizing a movement, eventually people start to lose interest in what you are protesting about,” Stanley said.
Watch the video here