Saturday, December 10, 2016

SF Vision Explains Banning: No Criticism Allowed

After I was blocked on the San Francisco Vision group's Facebook page for my criticism over the organizers not reporting back to the progressive and LGBT community about their Nov. 30 town hall, I emailed comedian Yayne Abeba. She facilitated the meeting and is in charge of the page. In response to my inquiry over being blocked, Abeba replied:

"I will not allow you to create disruption as we try to move forward in a positive way. I banned you based on previous interaction from you and your aggressive tone in your post and this email proves that your only intention is to harass and disrupt."

This is no way to resist Trump. Not issuing a report back is Bad Organizing 101, having only one person in charge of a FB page and that individual deciding by herself what constitutes disruption and who tosses around charges of harassment and aggression, without any specifics.

Since the San Francisco Vision's late November town hall that attracted over 350 people, their FB page hasn't been active with any followup organizing or original essays. Just a bunch of reposts from news or nonprofit sources.

Platitudes such as these from Abeba ring hollow. You can't claim to be resisting fascism and all the other wonderful-sounding Kumbaya phrases, then blocking folks for merely asking accountability questions. Don't expect much from San Francisco Vision. Abeba posted this on her group's page:

"We now have to figure out what is next. How do we channel our fear and anger into fighting fascism, restoring progressive values, creating a diverse community of progressives and get results? How do we organize for success? We are ready to take on these questions but we can't do it alone, we need you."

Photo is from the Nov. 30 meeting and was taken by Rick Hauptman.

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