What is Occupy Wall Street? A Misrepresentation

When speaking about demographics one is describing the basic characteristics that make up a human being. A demographic is a person’s race, economic or economic class, education, gender, age, etc. Therefore, when attempting to answer the question, “What is Occupy Wall Street?” in terms of demographics it only makes sense that the response is simply an explanation of who the people of OWS are. Although OWS is an extremely complex movement with many different facets, its demographics are not so complex. Occupy Wall Street is a social and economic movement that is claiming to represent the 99% but is failing to do so. Occupy Wall Street is a misrepresentation.

 In three of my previous posts “Race is Important Too,” “Is OWS Racist?” and, “A Visual Representation,” (links to all three posts are provided below) I examined three separate studies done on the demographics of OWS. All three studies provided me with extremely similar findings.  I made the decision to look at four particular demographics that are irrevocably interconnected with socioeconomic status, a major concern of the OWS movement: Age, Race, Employment, and Education. First of all, the vast majority of either respondents or interviewees were white. In two of the studies less than 2% of OWS supporters were African American, less than 8% of respondents were Hispanic or Latino, and less than 4% were Asian. Second, The majority of supporters were between the ages of 25 and 44.  Third, the highest percentage of OWS supporters were employed full-time in each study. Finally, most supporters had at least a college education.

 I decided that I wanted to draw a comparison between these statistics and the latest demographical studies done by the US Census Bureau. As of 2010 there were approximately 308.7 million people in the United States. If we’re to go by what OWS claims, that means that 1% of the United States population includes 3, 087,000 people. Therefore, 305,613,000 Americans are included in the 99%.  This being such a large number still, US Census Bureau findings are applicable to the 99%.

 According to the US Census Bureau, the highest percentage of Americans are actually over the age of 45 at almost 40%, while in the OWS movement the majority of supports are below 44 and older than 25. The biggest difference between the Census statistics and those of the OWS movement was in education. Most of the OWS supporters in the studies done have had at least a college education. According to the Bureau 4 out of 5 Americans have a high school education or lower and only 1 in 4 or 28% have a college degree or higher. This is a pretty large discrepancy. In terms of race, the US Census Bureau’s findings are that approximately 72.4% of Americans are white with Hispanics/Latinos as the second largest racial group at 16.4%. African Americans are the third largest group at 12.6%. Although these numbers do not seem too far off from those of the studies on OWS, there are a few things to consider. Yes, this is a majority Caucasian country. However, the difference between the national percentages of Hispanics and African Americans and their presence in the OWS movement is significant. 12.6% of Americans are African American and yet less than 2% of the OWS supporter basis comes from that racial group. It is a similar case with Hispanics/Latinos who make up 16.4% of the United States’ population and are only around 8% of the OWS movement. Employment seemed to be the only comparable statistic with the national unemployment rate at around 8.2% and around 14% of OWS being unemployed. Although,  I question why a group demanding socioeconomic inequality and injustices is, for the most part, employed full-time themselves.

 I want to make it clear as I did in my, “Is OWS Racist,” post that although race has been a significant issue in the OWS movement, I do not consider the movement to be racist. In her post titled, Shepard Fairey and OWS Part 2 Evelyn made this comment at the end, “It seems like minority populations didn’t receive the invite, or might not have received it well.” I would agree with this a hundred percent. For whatever the reason, minority groups have not rallied around this cause. However, I will claim like I did in my, “Counterargument: Steps Toward Diversity,” post that OWS is making moves toward changing this. Nick’s post, “Kanye West and Russell Simons Occupy,” shows that this is happening. Two prominent African American celebrities have stepped out declared support for OWS. Again, although I claim that OWS does not represent the 99% accurately, one thing that OWS is not is racist.

 Occupy Wall Street is many things. Some of these descriptions are imposed upon the movement by those that are third-party observers. The one description of the movement that everyone can agree on is one that the movement has placed upon itself: “We are the 99%”. Sorry, OWS, this is just not true.

-Caitlin J.

Links to my previous posts:

http://owsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/race-is-important-too-2-2/

http://owsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/a-visual-representation-10/

http://owsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/is-ows-racist/

http://owsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/a-counter-argument-steps-towards-diversity-2/

Links to references posts:

http://owsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/kanye-west-and-russell-simmons-occupy/

http://owsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/shepard-fairey-and-ows-part-2/

Link to US Census Bureau:

http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p20-566.pdf

A Counter-argument: Steps Towards Diversity

Thus far my research on Occupy Wall Street demographics has supported the claim that this movement fails to accurately represent the 99%. I have been unable to formulate a concrete argument to this that claims that the movement is actually a diverse movement, representing the entire 99% of Americans. However, I have developed a counterargument to the claim that has been brought up stating that the movement is racist. In this post I’d like to present a counterargument of sorts. One of my previous posts was titled, “Is OWS Racist?” I explored this concept and came to the conclusion that I will not call the movement racist, although it is not racially diverse. I’d like to take that idea now and claim that the movement has made steps to reach out to the racial minorities of America, that even though they may not be racially diverse, they are not racially exclusive.

I have provided the hyperlink for a video to coordinate with this post. It is a CNN newscast of a conversation between a reporter and James Peterson director of Africana Studies at Lee High University. The conversation begins with a discussion of the lack of diversity in the OWS movement. Peterson agrees that race has been an issue in the movement. He also makes a statement that people of color tend to be hesitant to join these types of protests because of their past history of police violence in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s. While I cannot take Peterson’s explanation for the lack of racial minority support of the movement as fact, his point could be taken as a plausible one.  He then follows this up with saying that the OWS movements understands this reluctance and is attempting to work with and reach out to more people of color. Peterson references one particular movement that shows an attempt on the part of OWS to include more minorities in their cause called Occupy Wall Street. This movement was founded by two African Americans Malik Rhasaan and Johari Uhuru, both of whom wished to bring more diversity to OWS. Now Occupy the Hood has expanded to 17 different United States Cities and has begun to gain support from the rest of OWS. Malik claims that there are, “white kids out there holding signs saying ‘Occupy the Hood”…it’s a family thing.”

 The official homepage of Occupy the Hood contains a mission statement that is very similar to many of the demands we have discussed OWS making, the only exception being that a lot of these demands are more directed toward people of color specifically.

 In the CNN newscast video, Peterson and the reporter discuss the idea that in order for OWS to succeed it must embrace people of color. I would have to agree with this and I think that with organizations sprouting up such as Occupy the Hood, that is exactly what OWS is attempting to do. Although the research still indicates a strong disproportion of white to non-white OWS supporters, movements such as Occupy the Hood show that while it may not be there quite yet, OWS is attempting to make steps toward becoming a more diverse movement.

Here is the link to the video: http://am.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/01/is-the-ows-movement-diverse-enough-to-represent-99-of-americans/

http://www.officialoccupythehood.org/mission/

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/10/occupy_the_hood.php

A Visual Representation

This is the photo that was meant to be included with my previous post but it wouldn’t upload along with the text!

Here is the link to the original post explaining the significance of this chart: http://owsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/a-visual-representation-10/

-Caitlin J.

A Visual Representation

I stumbled upon a chart that does an extremely good job of putting a visual representation to the claims I have been making in my previous two posts. In both posts I discussed the major issue of race. I’d like to take this a step further to lay claim to the idea that the movement does a poor job of adequately representing the full range that the 99% encompasses and not just in racial terms.

This study consisted of 5,006 visitors to occupywallst.org being surveyed. According to this chart, compiled by business intelligence analyst Harrison Schultz, who helped develop occupywallst.org, and Professor Hector R. Cordero-Guzman from the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, OWS supporters appear to be not only vastly white, but also mostly college educated, male, self-proclaimed Independents, and employed if not full-time then at least part time. It is notable that the distribution of both income and age is about even, although the highest percentage of respondents were between the ages of 25 and 44. Not surprisingly, Republicans were vastly under-represented. This survey is extremely similar to the survey I discussed in my first post. However, this survey had a larger number of respondents, giving it more external validity. This chart, along with the surveys and interviews done at actual OWS camps I presented in earlier posts, give strong support to idea that the movement that is claiming to represent and speak for the 99% is in fact failing to do so.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1792056/occupy-wall-street-demographics-infographic

Here is the link to the chart I reference in this post, I had trouble uploading it with the text originally so I chose to upload it as a completely separate post:

http://owsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/a-visual-representation-12/

Is OWS Racist?

In my previous post I discussed the blatant omission of race as an issue in several online articles claiming that the 99% comes from and looks like the 99%. This started me thinking about race within the Occupy Wall Street Movement and whether the study I cited in my last post was just a one -time sort of finding by a small-sample group survey or if the OWS is in fact a majority white movement.

 

In an article I read titled, “How Occupy Wall Street Co-Opted the Million Hoodie March,” the author discusses the manner in which OWS protestors co-opted a march planned to remember the Trayvon Martin tragedy. Present at the march himself, the author claims that OWS protestors turned the memorial gathering into an angry, violent protest for the OWS movement. At the very bottom of this article the author makes an extremely bold statement. He states, “With incidents like what occurred on Wednesday, I see a clear reason why people of color don’t flock to the movement.” At first I thought this to be a very daring statement, especially because he did not provide any sort of evidence behind it. But after reading the Cordero-Guzman study I wondered if this claim wasn’t so off the wall. Is the OWS movement in fact racially exclusive? In addition to Cordero-Guzman’s survey results showing that 81.3% of the respondents were white, I have found several other studies showing that the shocking majority of OWS protestors are in fact Caucasian. A series of interviews conducted in Zuccotti Park by Fordham University on the dates of October 14, 2011 through October 18, 2011 showed that once again most of the protestors were white. Of the 301 respondents, 68% where white, 10% African American, 10% Latino, 7% Asian, and 5% responded as “other”. At OWS camp one black man placed a sign stating, “Decolonize Wall Street- stand up for more black and brown leaders in this movement!” This man seems to be voicing the opinion that a lot of African Americans are holding concerning the OWS movement. Another African American woman attended an OWS protest in New York City and carried a sign declaring, “I’ve got 99 problems and Wall Street is #1”. While there is limited research on the actual demographics on OWS, the widespread sentiment concerning the lack of racial diversity is clear. I don’t go so far as to claim that Occupy Wall Street is racist or racially exclusive. However, it is clear that a strong majority of OWS protestors and supporters are Caucasian. I would like to explore in my next post the reasons behind people of color choosing to not support the movement.

 

 

http://newsone.com/1950365/how-occupy-wall-street-co-opted-the-million-hoodie-march/

 

http://www.fordham.edu/images/academics/graduate_schools/gsas/elections_and_campaign_/occupy%20wall%20street%20survey%20results%20102611.pdf

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/occupy-wall-street-black-population_n_998722.html

 

Will OWS make a comeback?

In class last week we discussed how we felt like Occupy Wall Street has fizzled out lately. In this article that I found the author discusses the possible reasons behind the fading of OWS’s prominence in the news and claims that the movement will make a comeback with the upcoming Presidential election. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-allon/occupy-wall-street-comeback_b_1445188.html

Race Is Important Too

By definition demographics generally include gender, race, disabilities, employment, education, age and income. Therefore it would be expected that a study done on a population should include most, if not all, of these statistics. Given context, some may be more relevant than others.

One study investigating the demographics of the Occupy Wall Street movement performed by professor Hector R. Cordero-Guzman from the Baruch College has gained notable attention by several different media sources. Titled, “The 99% Comes From and Looks Like the 99%,” this study compiles information gathered from a survey taken by 1890 people that visited occupywallst.org on October 5, 2011. Cordero-Guzman did a good job to cover the many facets of demographics in his study, polling visitors on characteristics such as their age, education, employment, income, political party affiliation, and race. In addition, over a quarter of these respondents had actually attended Occupy events.

This study is clearly a brand new and exciting look at the makeup of the OWS movement. All factors examined in this study are important in giving us this inside look, especially those inextricably associated with social class such as education and even more so race. Therefore, it is fascinating that the media, when citing Cordero-Guzman’s study, is not reporting on the latter of these issues: race. When the phrase “Demographics in the Occupy Wall Street Movement,” is plugged into a search engine, the top four online newspapers that come up all fail to mention Cordero-Guzman’s examination of race while using the other statistics in their arguments.

Online newspapers, “The Week,” “Fast Company,” “Mail Online,” and “TPM,” all published articles making the same statement: the Occupy Wall Street Movement is not just a bunch of liberal white college drop-outs. With titles like, “Occupy Wall Street Demographic Survey Results Will Surprise You,” and “Who Are the 99%? Demographics of Wall Street Protestors Show They Aren’t All Unemployed Liberals,” all four of these online newspapers use statistics from Cordero-Guzman’s study to show that the protestors of OWS do in fact come from all different socioeconomic backgrounds. Every single one of them however fails to use race in their supportive statements, completely brushing the fact that Cordero-Guzman included race in his study under the rug.

The question here is why is the media ignoring racial issues within the OWS movement? In Cordero-Guzman’s study an astonishing 81.3% of the respondents were white with only 1.3% being African American, 3.2% being Asian, and 7.7% being Hispanic. While the sample group in Cordero-Guzman’s study does not have high external validity due to its small size, this statistic, if presented in any of their articles, would undermine the claim they were attempting to make: the 99% Comes From and Looks Like the 99%. This, in fact, may not be entirely true, an issue I wish to explore further in my next post.

http://occupywallst.org/media/pdf/OWS-profile1-10-18-11-sent-v2-HRCG.pdf

http://www.fastcompany.com/1789018/occupy-wall-street-demographics-statistics

http://theweek.com/article/index/220529/the-demographics-of-occupy-wall-street-by-the-numbers

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-demographic-survey-results-will-surprise-you.php

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052078/Occupy-Wall-Street-protesters-The-99-arent-unemployed-liberals.html

Is Everyone Really Tweeting?

In his article, Bill Wasik makes the claim that social media has played an extraordinary role in the organization and spread of riot and protests in the 21^st century. However, it is important to question how absolute this claim really is and to not automatically give this technological phenomenon more credit than the ability of mankind to organize without such resources. This especially important considering that the make up of the Occupy Wall Street movement consists of people from all different demographic backgrounds including social class. It can be argued that a significant number of these people are of lower economic class, a huge motivation for joining the movement, and therefore may not able to afford such luxuries as smart-phones and laptops.

Therefore, it is important to not discredit the power that lies within mankind unaided by technology so organize such protests, a claim made by Malcolm Gladwell in his article. Gladwell shows that the same ability to organize that was present in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the U.S., a time without any internet, texting, or tweeting, was used in the revolt in Moldova in 2009. This protest was labeled the “Twitter Revolution”; however, few twitter accounts even existed in that country at that time.

While there certainly are plenty of twitter accounts and the such involved in the Occupy Wallstreet Movement, there must also be that same form of technologically unaided organization present in this movement because, demographically speaking, the protestors consist of those in a low economic classes. These people therefore, would be unlikely to afford such means of technological communication and would have had to have been influenced into joining the movement the old fashioned way that Gladwell claims was a more legitimate form of  human activism.