[Posted to Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's page.]
Guenevere Nyderek A copy of something posted today on a site I'm involved with, regarding the BS/BLM kerfuffle, and those involved: ||> Alexandrina Braun After reading thousands of comments in the past day, I totally agree with you. The game has changed. The jig is up.
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Alexandrina Braun I have a comrade super active in Seattle. She has shared a ton backstory in a private group. I'm gonna share her comments here...
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Alexandrina Braun 1) Soooooooooo, first thing to know is that Marissa Jenae (Johnson) was a Palin supporter, came into left liberation organizing around Nov. 2014 and immediately allied with Mara Willaford. Mara usually claims to be an only child, choosing not to admit to the existence of her disabled brother for unknown reasons. Her father retired from the Air Force as a Colonel, got appropriate Homeland Security certifications, and went to work at Boeing. He's worked on Posideon, among other things. Mara never disclosed that she was living with someone who was actively involved with HS and the military who had access to her belongings. She engaged with BlocktheBoat during the attempts in 2014 to stop Zim ships from entering port in Tacoma and Seattle, then moved to black liberation organizing in Nov. 2014.
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Alexandrina Braun 2) The two quickly took a central position as folks that met through the Mike Brown protests and others who have been organizing for various numbers of years came together to form what was eventually called Outside Agitators 206. They chose meeting spaces, facilitated, and were a key voice in deciding where energy was to be focused. They initially pushed against the idea of a black only meeting once a week to pair with a general meeting.
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Alexandrina Braun 3) Very quickly, internal conflicts, of the type we're all well aquainted with began to surface. It was not, however, entirely clear how much of that conflict originated with the M's. Eventually, though, many destructive rumors and other causes of friction were traced back to them. They snitchjacketed several people, including folks that were arrested at actions and were facing charges. They accused multiple people of assault, sometimes at times or under circumstances that were provably false. They loudly proclaimed other people to be lazy while complaining about how overloaded and burn out they were, then shifting their work onto other organizers because of the burn out. And then they went on a campaign against a well respected long time organizer, accusing her of harrassment and abuse, possibly sexual abuse.
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Alexandrina Braun 4) It was largely due to their actions that OA 206 ceased to meet. And let's be clear, it's dead. Mara and Marissa both have access to the OA206 FB page, and one of their friends is posting to the otherwise defunct website. That's it. There is no actual group behind that, and in December the site will cease to exist when its one year of free hosting runs out. I could turn it off right now, but that would just be an asshole move. OA206 was considering filing to become a Black Lives Matter affiliate, which is why the group had Mara and Marissa reach out to the national organization. OA206 did fundraising to send the two of them, along with a couple of other folks, to Detroit for a major conference. Instead of representing the people that sent them, they did a lot of personal politicking.
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Alexandrina Braun 5) This new BLM group that just created a FB page, is, in fact, a legitimate BLM group in that it is led by the folks from Seattle recognized by the national BLM organization. It's maybe ten people, most of whom are white. It's vastly outnumbered by folks that are working through other avenues, like the kids that put on that Check Your Privilege Party in the middle of UW's frat row.
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Alexandrina Braun 6) As far as this action goes, it was designed for maximum confrontation. These folks could have been part of that program, could have disrupted it in a more chorographed way, could have used friendly folks on the security team to make sure that the risk of violence was way lower (one lady got bit and several others hit before security could protect them, just for holding banners), could have made their point and ceded the stage. There was not going to be any compromise. Any demand that was met was followed with a bigger demand because there was never any intention of letting Sanders speak. I do not know why they made that choice. I do know that a lot of folks here in Seattle support white liberal racism being put on blast, will not speak against the action for that reason, but are SUPER uncomfortable with Mara and Marissa as the faces of Seattle BLM.
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Alexandrina Braun 7) They're bullies and they weaponize anti-oppressive language to silence anyone who has any critique of their behavior. Oh, and they may be trying to fuck with the internal politics of the Seattle NAACP (which are absolutely Byzantine) for reasons I do not understand. So there's that too.
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