Bhumika Muchhala, a recent graduate who is now working full-time in USAS’s national office, says anti-sweatshop activism can be “cliquish.” She describes a close-knit, white hippie activist culture that is “not welcoming to people of color.” … Dave Thurston, a black USAS activist who attends CUNY’s Hunter College, agrees that the organization can be inhospitably white and middle-class, semi-indignantly citing the all-vegan food at conferences. “Oh my fucking word,” he sighs, “and twinkling!” (Twinkling is a hand gesture that comes from the Quakers, used to signify assent without disrupting the meeting or repeating what they’ve said; while many find it useful, it can feel alienating to outsiders, and is often cited as a symbol of the odd, cultish behavior of white activists.)
–Liza Featherstone, Students Against Sweatshops, 2001.
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March 31, 2009 at 2:18 pm
student activist
It seems unfair to post this quote without noting how much progress the organization has made since 2001. Compared to many other student activist networks, USAS is much more welcoming to students of color, though it still has much work to do.
March 31, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Angus Johnston
You’re right. I didn’t intend the quote as an indictment of USAS, but looking at it in isolation, I can see where it would be taken that way.
Featherstone’s book portrays USAS as an organization that was, even in 2001, grappling productively with issues of race and class, and committed to taking them seriously. Every indication I have suggests that that’s even more true today.