Below is a blog post from B. Loewe, communications director for NDLON and the #Not1More campaign.
Alternative Title: For Those Who Celebrate the Victory But Condemn the Tactics.
It’s been nearly four years since President Obama’s speech at NCLR was interrupted with chants of “Yes you can!” and just over a year since Ju Hong forced the President to turn around to address his shouts from the bandstand behind him. Since then, the interruptions became common place. Disrupting the President’s rhetoric and inserting reality into his publicity events.
But just as the proliferation of people speaking out visibly jostled President Obama, something else became common in those moments. Those attending the events, the people who brushed past and avoided eye contact with the families in deportation proceedings who picketed outside the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Gala also booed and shouted over those inside who refused to celebrate while the President delayed action (and later who asked why he excluded so many).
The day after the President announced that he would offer deferred action to parents of US citizens and LPRs but leave at risk of removal approximately seven million others, Jose Patiño and others stood up at the Las Vegas celebration rally. While others clapped and smiled, he asked the simple question that millions were crying over, “Why did you leave my mother behind?”
In what could have been a moment where the question became a rallying cry, you could imagine it taking over the stadium, the President staring out at the crowd of Latinos, immigrants, and advocates demanding he explain how he decided to cleave the community in two between deserving and undeserving. But instead Patiño was booed, shouted over, and escorted out by security and the advocates went on smiling.
Something about that moment, made me do what so many of us do with that mix of helplessness and outrage, I took to twitter.
I always cringe when a crowd boos someone standing up and calling for justice.
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
It is the cries from the margins not the podium talking points that must be heard — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
they are the people that would tell ’68 olympians to put down their Black power salute.
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
they are the people who would tell the students of tiananmen square to stay out of the streets — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
my parents taught me long ago that when you hear someone cry out for help you ask, “what can I do?” You do not silence or ignore the sound.
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
History is made by the voices that interrupt the speech, the bodies that refuse to disappear, the ppl who reach the limit of their suffering — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
Politicians and parties are not “friends” or champions. They are in a relation of power. Let them show their allegiance in the policies
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
Not in the pomp and circumstance. Not in the spin and celebration. But when the cameras are off. Time & again community champions change — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
So I say thank you to @JuHong89 @jrpatino12 @8lancaHernandez & all those who interrupt the speeches, who interrupt the deportation buses
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
who interrupt their being erased from history and rewrite it so that their humanity is seen. — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
that is not something to be boo’d. That is something to be applauded.
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
It is (part of) what moved the president to act and it is part of what will protect those included and left out — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
It is in these moments when we show what side of history we are on.
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
For me, I hope to be always loyal to the people who speak the truth even if their voice shakes, even if the security guards take them away — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
Let us look at what we cheer and what we shame. And ask ourselves who is deserving of what.
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
A community who’s hearts were divided and who’s shouts seek to see them mended should be lifted up in whatever way its expressed — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
If the President is interrupted, it means there is more for the president to do
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
I hope we all repeat the question @jrpatino12 asked the President “Why did you leave [his] parents behind?” — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
It’s a fair question and President @BarackObama, it deserves an answer. #Not1More #No1LeftBehind.
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 21, 2014
When you go to see the President speak you are not an audience member to receive a message. You are a prop being used to silence dissent. — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 23, 2014
That’s why your boo’s are so predictable.
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 23, 2014
A heckler is not just asking the President “why did you leave my mother behind?” He’s asking the crowd, “and why are you cheering him on?” — B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 23, 2014
And then when the President came to Chicago, both his home town and a hot bed of anti-deportation organizing where streets have been closed, buses have been blocked, and banners dropped in the campaign to get the President to act. This happened.
For the person who celebrates the victory but condemns the tactics. #Not1More pic.twitter.com/n4xDLJuNaa
— B. Loewe (@BstandsforB) November 26, 2014
And the same questions came back again. When invited to sit behind the President, a smiling prop for his photo-op. What do you do? Do you gladly oblige or do you force the moment to be rewritten? When someone stands up for those left out, do you join their chant or do you get stink face like those who stood at Ju Hong’s side, frozen in that historic exchange? Or worse, do you take it upon yourself to try to silence the protest? If the latter is your option, one has to wonder the relationship between celebrating a victory that was won by the means you’re now repressing. La victoria tiene muchos amigos but the struggle that earns it is made by those who don’t sit quietly in their seats when asked.
When the chance arises again, and surely it will because the one thing that is clear after the President’s announcement is that there is more to be done, what part will you play in this moment?
For a timeline of the tactics in the push for the President to act, click here
#Not1More #No1LeftBehind