[Peace] Universalism and Particularity: The Occupy Movement and Race / Tuesday, December 6, 2011 7-9:30 P.M. Department of African American Studies 1201 West Nevada Street, Urbana, Illinois

[Karen Medina]

Universalism and Particularity: The Occupy Movement and Race
Over the last 90 days the Occupy Movement has focused attention on the
capitalist class’ 40 year
devastation of the working and middle classes. In the 1960s, corporate
executives made 26 times workers,
by 1980 it rose to 32 times; and in 2009 it was 263 times. Led by
young largely white college graduates
Occupy is part of a worldwide movement that is challenging global
class disparities. Yet, as inspiring as the
Occupy movement has been, like previous U.S. radical movements it
seems mired on the rocky shores of
race. Is the Occupy movement doomed to repeat the errors of the past?
Can it move beyond seemingly
universal “colorblind” reformist proposals and engage the
particularities of racialized oppression and chart
a genuine struggle for a multiracial democracy?
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
7-9:30 P.M.
Department of African American Studies
1201 West Nevada Street, Urbana, Illinois

Chair: Helen Neville, Departments of African American Studies &
Educational Policy Studies
Panelists: * Abdul Alkalimat, African American Studies and Graduate
Program in Library and Information Sciences
* Gene Vanderport, CU Socialist Forum and Illinois Educational Association
* Jermaine Light, Socialist Forum
* David Johnson, Labor Notes and Vice President of the United Electrical Workers