'Occupy the Hood' and the lack of minority Occupy protesters

The "Occupy" movement been criticized as being disproportionally white. Why, and what to do about it? Multi-American's sister blog DCentric at WAMU in Washington, D.C. examines this in a post today, speaking with members of a sub-movement known as Occupy the Hood.

Julian Liser, 21, and Drew Franklin, 24, have started a local offshoot of the group in D.C., where the population is 61 percent non-white. They said the protests should be attracting more minorities, especially given how hard people of color have been slammed by the economic crisis that is fueling the spreading movement. Here's part of what they had to say:

Source: Wamu

"It"s important that minorities are also aware of what"s going on, and they should also feel this movement is important for them, too," Liser, who is a black, says. "It"s kind of hard to explain that to them because they just see people around K Street protesting something. They don"t see how it affects them."

Liser"s story is similar to many of the white protestors on K Street. He"s unemployed and was motivated to join Occupy DC after learning about the new Bank of America debit card fees. Such fees are "killing my account," Liser says.

Franklin, who is white, says the protests were "started by white people and there"s already a social divide, so that"s something you really need to work to overcome."

" dcentric.wamu.org