In the brain of the monster, not the belly

Two helpful quotes about the identity of a privilege person in relation to oppressed people.


Andy Cornell in his letter to Punk Rock for the compilation Letters from Young Activists (http://www.lettersfromyoungactivists.org/):

"[Punk rock activism] blurred the line for us between oppression and exploitation on one hand, and alienation on the other...In the United States, punk is overwhelmingly a white and middle-class subculture. You channel and encourage the rage, anger, and disillusionment of largely privileged youth- and you are right to do so. But along the way, the racist police brutality, the poverty of minimum wage, the violence of rape and war that others feel becomes almost one and the same with the emptiness of consumer-culture, the stultifying pressure of middle-class expectations, and the boredom of cul-de-sac suburbia that we, much more immediately, feel in our lives. Oppression and alienation are connected, of course, but they are certainly not interchangeable. "


Multiple Authors in "Rethinking Solidarity" an article for Left Turn Magazine (http://www.leftturn.org/):

"It was a helpful reminder that Zapatistas do not consider their allies in the United States to be living so much in the 'belly of the beast' as in the 'brain of the monster'. In other words, the US is the place where neoliberal policies aimed at subverting global democracy are hatched and executed in communities around the world-including right here in the United States."