But it does strike me that it’s got application for the Wikimedia projects and our problems with systemic bias. I don’t flat-out love the progressive stack either: it’s obviously problematic. You can read more about the progressive stack in this article from The Nation, this Feministing article, this discussion on the Occupy San Jose site and this discussion on Occupy Nashville. In practice this means that women, people of colour and gays and lesbians may get to speak before straight white men. Therefore, when GA participants line up in a “stack” to speak, the movement has agreed to privilege the marginalized by moving them forward, ahead of others. The progressive stack is based in the premise that people who come from culturally dominant groups have throughout their lives been encouraged to speak, and rewarded for speaking, whereas people from other groups are more likely to have been ignored or silenced. I am well aware that anything hinting at a progressive stack would be generally disliked in the Wikimedia movement, for lots of reasons. The “progressive stack” notion could help Wikimedia combat systemic bias in our projects. I want to immediately note here that the progressive stack is not uncontroversial in the Occupy movement: the New York General Assembly has agreed to use it, and is using it, but a couple of facilitators openly expressed ambivalence towards it. The progressive stack method was proposed for Wikimedia by one author in November 2011, though there’s not indication it was used, Three Occupy Wall Street tactics the Wikimedia movement should copy:Īs I watched the General Assembly, held at seven every evening, three things struck me as useful for the Wikimedia movement: The progressive stack, added to a “step up/step back” policy that encourages those who have spoken to let others speak, and those who have been quiet are asked to share their thoughts, ensures that a diversity of voices are foregrounded. “We need to address those power relations.” That’s how it works,” and how it should work, she says. Yesenia Barragan, 25, a Columbia student and longtime activist, notes that in reality, progressive stack often means, “my partner, who’s a white man, has to wait twenty minutes or more to say his piece. In other words: women and minorities get to go to the front of the line. Truth-Out, after describing the many indignities perpetrated on the women of Occupy Wall Street by the men of Occupy Wall Street, further explained the logic behind the progressive stack:Īnother check on structurelessness comes in the form of the “progressive stack,” in which the “stack-keeper,” who is in charge of taking questions and concerns from the audiences at general assemblies, is given the ability to privilege voices from “traditionally marginalized groups.” This video shows how the progressive stack was implemented at Occupy Richmond: This chart is one example of the hierarchy of identities: This progressive stack has been inspiring and mind-boggling in its effectiveness. “Step up, step back” was a common phrase of the first week, encouraging white men to acknowledge the privilege they have lived in their entire lives and to step back from continually speaking. This is something that has been in place since the beginning, it is necessary, and it is important. A progressive stack encourages women and traditionally marginalized groups speak before men, especially white men. Occupy Wall Street’s General Assembly operates under a revolutionary “progressive stack.” A normal “stack” means those who wish to speak get in line. The concept of the progressive stack at Occupy Wall Street was described at the time at Feministing Blog: Since having white males dominate was unacceptable, the participants came up with a solution, a race and sex-based pecking order, with white males speaking only after others have spoken: In the mist of Zuccotti Park, progressive white males are dominant (hence, the mocking of the protesters as “ overwhelmingly white“)… But this story (h/t Publius) caught me by surprise, although in hindsight, it’s no surprise.
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