Myerson’s request for a non-white companion reflects the progressive movement’s desire to showcase non-white supporters, and to comply with the ideology of diversity.
A businessman sticks his tongue out in jest as he walks past tents erected by protesters from the Occupy London Stock Exchange group, as they continue their demonstration that started on Saturday outside St Paul’s Cathedral, near the London Stock Exchange in London, Monday, Oct. 17, 2011.
A white progressive who organized Occupy Wall Street (OWS) excluded white allies from a critical meeting with New York’s Local 1199 union, which has since thrown its enormous resources behind the media-magnified protest.
The local, which has up to 350,000 members, is part of the Service Employees Union International (SEIU). It invited the one of the leading OWS organizers to a Sept. 30 meeting after the organizers sought its support.
The protester invited to the Sept. 30 meeting was Jesse Myerson, a white male who describes himself as an “independent journalist and activist.â€
In an email to the other organizers, he asked for a second organizer to accompany him to the meeting, but he specifically barred white activists.
“I am meeting the 1199 executive council tomorrow to try and convince them to come out for us. It’s in midtown and I *need* someone to be with me, and that person needs not to be white,†he wrote in a Sept. 29 evening email. “This will mean the difference, I bet,†said Myerson.
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