{"id":382463,"date":"2018-10-26T08:44:03","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T07:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/deray-mckessons-misguided-case-for-hope\/"},"modified":"2018-10-26T08:44:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T07:44:03","slug":"deray-mckessons-misguided-case-for-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/deray-mckessons-misguided-case-for-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"DeRay Mckesson&#8217;s Misguided Case for Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>There are two histories which have always battled each other, publicly and loudly: domination\u2019s history\u2014the history of the class in position to dominate the masses\u2014and the people\u2019s history, which is the history of colonized and oppressed peoples struggling and triumphing from the ground up. Between these two histories, narrative and autobiographical writings have been a key tool in correctively challenging the historical narratives placed onto oppressed and colonized people, from the era-defining writing found in Malcolm X\u2019s autobiography, to the consciousness-shaping contours of Assata Shakur\u2019s <em>Assata<\/em><em>. <\/em>And still, one must wonder if such a definitive, important piece of autobiographical writing has come from our generation yet, or if any attempts have been made. However, as we move into a new generation characterized by celebrity activists steeped in social media rather than intellectual study, it seems domination\u2019s recent history finds a comfortable bedfellow in the work of some high-profile activists, including activist DeRay Mckesson\u2019s <em>On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Who Is DeRay Mckesson?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In an incredibly short time, DeRay Mckesson \u2014 in his branded blue vest \u2014 has become almost synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement for many outside observers.<\/p>\n<p>Mckesson is, as Mychal Denzel Smith <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bookforum.com\/inprint\/025_03\/20169\">recently put it<\/a>, a frustrating figure. To people on almost all places on the political spectrum, aside from the liberal center, he is controversial. On the left he\u2019s often described as a \u201cneoliberal\u201d whose entanglement with celebrities and Hollywood signify a covert love affair with capitalism, and whose oversimplification of inequalities seems to be designed to cater to white liberals. In addition, those on the left have critiqued Mckesson\u2019s practice of consistently perching himself above the Ferguson Uprising, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/QueenYoNasDa\/status\/1040432037923106816\">contrary to the wishes of Ferguson residents<\/a>. For those on the right, DeRay\u2019s very existence as a Black, gay activist speaking&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/deray-mckessons-misguided-case-for-hope\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are two histories which have always battled each other, publicly and loudly: domination\u2019s history\u2014the history of the class in position to dominate the masses\u2014and the people\u2019s history, which is the history of colonized and oppressed peoples struggling and triumphing from the ground up. Between these two histories, narrative and autobiographical writings have been a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}