Racism, Invisible Children and the Kony2012 Viral

As Invisible Children’s Kony2012/stopKony campaign goes viral, Sisters of Resistance share links that criticize the paternalistic, racist, “white savior” nature of the “not for profit” organization (as well as a trailer for a documentary about US interference in Africa.)

In advocating further US military intervention in Uganda, with no reference to the political economic context, or underlying systemic causes of the conflict,  let alone the fact corporations prolong and profit from it, Kony2012 furthers a racist, imperialist Western agenda which cannot be understood without reference to Africom.

African people are presented as “invisible” and incapable, while the Hollywood narrative of the “white American good guy saving the world and getting the bad guy” is perpetuated at a time when US global dominance is crumbling. 

If the founders of Invisible Children were serious, they would take down the arms companies, corporations and governments that fund, profit from, cause and prolong the conflict (read more about cobalt, corporations and Central Africa here).

We got trouble.

From http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble

Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal for an issue which arguably needs action and aid, not awareness, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they lack an external audit committee. But it goes way deeper than that.

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission.

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Thoughts on Kony 2012 and White Saviours vs. Allies

by Alex Snider

From http://2zelda.blogspot.com/2012/03/kony-2012-reduces-story-of-northern.html

I watched the Kony 2012 video this morning and I have to say the White saviour, colonial overtones made me extremely uncomfortable. Not to mention the lack of any consultation or even reference to any of the Ugandan groups who have been actively fighting against Kony for years. Even the way Invisible Children denies granting the two (!) Ugandan politicians further identification in the video. What party are they from? What role in government do they play? Why was there no mention of the president? Or of any other adult Ugandans? Why weren’t Ugandans given the opportunity to speak for themselves? Why were they instead treated as props for the self-aggrandizing filmmaker and his friends? Merely showing images of nameless mutilated children, flashing them before the audience’s eyes reduces and erases the children’s humanity. This type of stomach-turning pity-porn is no way to bring attention to a cause. This is no way to treat those you wish to help. 

I could go on about the problems with the video: the lack of Ugandan culture; the weird inclusion of the narrator’s very young son and how the video placed him at the centre of the narrative as the ideal future; the fact that it took nearly 9 minutes for Joseph Kony and the LRA to even be mentioned; the pro-military stance; and the basis that no one else could possibly have heard or cared about the LRA before Invisible Children ever before. The video is the very definition of the White Man’s Burden.

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Stop Kony, yes. But don’t stop asking questions

From http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/07/stop-kony-yes-but-dont-stop-asking-questions/

Invisible Children has had some success already: late last year, President Barack Obama committed 100 US troops to provide “advice and assistance” to the Ugandan army in removing Joseph Kony from the battlefield.  The President’s move came in part due to the NGO’s tremendous advocacy efforts.  Everyone agrees that this a hugely important issue, but Invisible Children’s methods have come in for searing criticism; most scathingly, they have been attacked as “neo-liberal, do-good Whiteness”.  Elsewhere, Foreign Affairs has provided some important context on this matter, in relation to Uganda’s strategic importance to the USA.  I would also recommend the  Twitter feed of Laura Seay, who was moved to comment this morning that “[Solomme Lemma] is tweeting links to great community-based organizations working in Northern Uganda.  Give there if you really want to help. I understand the anger and resentment at Invisible Children’s approach, which with its paternalism has unpleasant echoes of colonialism.  I will admit to being perturbed by its apparent top-down prescriptiveness, when so much diligent work is already being done at Northern Uganda’s grassroots.

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@DynamicAfrica, @InnovateAfrica and @TexasinAfrica have been tweeting criticism and analysis as well as promoting the important work already being done by grassroots Ugandan organisations. For further information on the context of US imperialism in Africa please see:

Apocalypse Africa: Made in America – Trailer

Sisters of Resistance will be adding to this list as more anti-imperialist analysis of Kony2012 becomes available.

The End of Poverty? (2008 film)

For our final post of 2011, we would like to thank all of the readers who have made Sisters of Resistance a success in our first year by sharing with you this important film that we believe captures or touches upon many of the issues of injustice currently facing the world at large.

#OccupyWallSt #OccupyTogether #Oct15 #globalchange #globaldemocracy

The recent #Occupy protests are now happening in over 1500 cities worldwide. It is encouraging to see a revolutionary movement on this global scale, and we are pleased to see the following coverage and critiques. We have collected and posted these excerpts; click on each title to see the full original article.

‘Occupy’ anti-capitalism protests spread around the world (Guardian): Thousands march in Rome, Sydney and Madrid as Occupy Wall Street protests go global

‘Occupy’ protests held around the world (Al-Jazeera). Al-Jazeera Live Blog Coverage

1500+ Occupy Protests Worldwide

Aerial view of Occupy Wall Street march on Times Square, 15 October 2011

Occupy Wall St Protesters, Washington Square Park - NYC

Inside the Kettle at the London Stock Exchange

Occupy Tokyo

A History of Georgia’s 1%: Why You Must Face Race to Occupy Atlanta (Colorlines)

Getting it right about race is important for the Occupy movement everywhere, but especially here in Georgia, where there is nothing subtle about the relationship between race, corporations and the government. Georgia’s government was created by and for plantation farmers, the original 1 percent, running antebellum corporations. And that 1 percent has been using everything in its power, most notably the criminal justice system, to hold on to its centuries-old gains.

#OccupySeattle, You’ve Got A LOT of Work to Do (Sable Verity)

The Occupy effort claims to represent the 99% of the population who are not the richest people in the country (and apparently the root of all evil). But ask yourself this: what percentage of the 99% is deciding the trajectory of a movement that claims to represent nearly every human being in the entire country? Just because I’m not in the top 1%, and you’re not in the top 1%, does that automatically mean you and I are in the same boat? It mostdef does not.

“We are not “protesters,” we are revolutionaries!” Why We Occupy: A Global System of Bullshit

When reporters ask us what we are “protesting,” it’s difficult to dignify the question with a response. We protest, we resist, but what we resist is not a single policy or institution…We at Liberty Plaza seek to dismantle this global system while building democratic institutions and structures of our own, not to make superficial demands for reform. For those of us who are here, we understand ourselves in terms completely different from what is conveyed by the term ‘protesters.’ Rather, words like ‘revolution,’ ‘movement,’ and ‘community’ are on our tongues.

If one spends any good amount of time at the occupation, it feels less like a protest and more like a rapidly emerging community, with its own internal geography, institutions, and cultures. An anthropologist would have so much to sink their teeth into by simply walking around, visiting the Comfort Station where occupiers distribute blankets, sleeping bags, sweatshirts, and socks to occupiers, or by going to the meetings of working groups that handle everything from sanitation to food, media production to direct action. This is not a mere protest. This is a community.

A manifesto for regime change on behalf of all humanity

The following manifesto was produced over four months through consultation among groups, activists and people’s assemblies in countries such as Britain, Egypt, Tunisia, Germany, Spain, the US, Palestine, Israel, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, India and Australia. We got comments, suggestions, support, and wrote and rewrote it again and again. The text has been supported by Canadian-based Naomi Klein, Indian-based Vandana Shiva, the US-based Michael Hardt and Noam Chomsky, as well as Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano.

“We are united for global change and united for global democracy: global governance of the people, by the people.”

"We are the 99%" has become the movement's slogan

The Library at Occupy Wall St in Liberty Park, NYC

In front of St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP

Occupy Stockholm

Occupy Wall St. Sisterly solidarity to the women who made these men feminists.

 More inspiring pics here.