Big Government has learned that a major internal fight has erupted among Occupy Wall Street organizers after activists began circulating an infographic published by FastCompany, the “progressive business” magazine.
The infographic in question depicts the results of an internal online survey conducted by Occupy Wall Street supporters at occupywallst.org.
The data, compiled by advertising analyst Harrison Schultz and Ford Foundation sociologist Dr. Héctor R. Cordero-Guzmán, were intended to promote the idea, as Dr. Cordero-Guzmán put it, that “the 99% movement comes from and looks like the 99%.”
Some activists were outraged, however, that the survey results and the infographic show Occupy Wall Street to be 81.2 percent white, and only 1.6 percent black.
By comparison, the U.S. population is 77.1 percent white and 12.9 percent black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau–making the Occupy Wall Street movement disproportionately white.
The infographic, depicted below, caused instant controversy when it was shared among Occupy Wall Street organizers. One activist reacted: “81% white protestors–and you actually made a flyer proudly advertising this lie, in a multicultural city like NYC? You must be crazy and blind.”
She later accused Schultz of “insidious racism” and “white supremacy,” and demanded “serious mediation” from organizers on the Safer Spaces working group, the internal security apparatus of Occupy Wall Street.
The argument then escalated, according to Big Government sources, with threats of intervention from the “people of color working group” and the sarcastic suggestion that the analysts “join the Tea Party.”
Other activists defended the survey and confronted the original complainant, saying that she was “on thin ground” because “as an Arab, you’re also considered white in the country, by census returns.”
Schultz himself returned the accusation of racism: “I’d rather not spend what little time I have to enjoy sitting on my ass to deal with your silly bullsh**, which happens to be far more racist than any information I’ve produced for OWS.”
For his trouble, he was encouraged by another organizer to attend “anti-oppression workshops.”
The conflict apparently remains unresolved.
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