October Student Challenge
September 22, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a Revolution Club member:
This summer, I was arrested for an act of civil disobedience in Austin, Texas, because abortion rights are in a state of emergency. I was arrested for the 47,000 women who die per year of unsafe and illegal abortions and the millions more who are forced into motherhood. I was arrested because I understand the objective need for people to put their bodies and lives on the line for the liberation of women. I was arrested because I'm tired of this rape culture, because women are not bitches, or ho's, or punching bags, and NO ONE is entitled to control over their bodies. I was arrested because I found a movement for revolution that put forward a scientific understanding of reality, and I took it up. I was arrested, and I would like to see millions of students willing to make the same sacrifice, but there's this stifling and toxic ideology that's shutting people up. It's telling them that history is made up of "competing narratives." It's saying that if you're white, you can't talk about the fact that one in three Black males born today will end up in prison (much less will they stand up against it); and if you're a man, you can't stand for women's liberation because it's one-third of the FEMALE population that is raped or sexually assaulted, and you wouldn't know how to fight back; and if you're not Palestinian, you can't possibly know that Israel is committing a genocide, killing over 2,242 Palestinians this year alone (as compared to the death toll of 76 on their part), so sit back down and "check your privilege."
Don't you listen to that for a second because they're not humbling you, they're letting you off the hook! How? They're not holding YOU accountable for fighting to end the oppression of billions and for the betterment of humanity. People are far too much concerned with owning oppression than they are with putting an end to it. People are forgetting what it means to search for truth because they are trying to evaluate how oppressed you are before they grant you the right to speak. Have people forgotten that even if we grant the oppressed masses the ability to speak, they'll still be oppressed?! The problem isn't that people don't have a voice or a safe space, it's that the system is working exactly the way it's supposed to: It's demoralizing people with its repressive tactics, pitting them against each other, and disguising their oppression as a lack of personal responsibility. There are "no excuses," says Obama. Well, I say fuck that! Let's not create a safe space for just our people (whoever that group may be) within a messed up world.
Let's NOT settle for just a little bit less exploitation and oppression. Just a little bit less rape and degradation. Just a little bit less genocide here and around the world. Just a little bit less cold-blooded murder by the police. Let's put an end to all this! Let's be the liberation generation. Changing the course of history for the better takes mass resistance, so I'm calling on you to put identity politics aside and seriously take up this fight for the emancipation of humanity. I'm calling on YOU to make all oppression a personal problem whether you're Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, whatever. Whether you're male, or female, or none of the above. You have to be on the streets in October! You have to be a part of this Month of Resistance against mass incarceration and police terror. There is a slow genocide of Black and brown people. No! This is not an exaggeration. They have suffered through the first stage of demonization and are now in the containment stage. Are we going to wait until they start exterminating people to fight back?!
We can't have business as usual when this is going on.
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