Ok- I'm going to put myself out there for a little criticism: I admit it, I'm a white boy. But, after several blocks of marching yesterday the question seemed unavoidable: Where were the black people?
On the whole, there were some encouraging signs about the demographics of the protest. While predictably young, I saw more than a few elderly women that probably shouldn't have been spending hours on the pavement on the hottest day of the summer. Not that you can tell, but it seemed like there was a middle class feel to the people: yuppie families, college kids...
But the biggest disappointment to me was the lack of racial diversity to match the city's. I feel like the city's Latino population was best represented and I saw a number of Asians but given the phenomenal support of African Americans to the left I had to be disappointed by the turnout. While it's possible that my perspective from inside the march prevented me from getting a good view of the protest as a whole it seemed like most of the black people I saw were the Communists passing out literature on "global revolution".
I see Jesse Jackson was at the head of the parade which makes the absence of thousands of African Americans all the more apparent given their long and successful history with protest marches. But why? Have they 'given up' on protest as a tool? Is there a distrust of the anti-war movement? A fear of the cops?
I'd appreciate any insight- without abuse, please.