White Privilege at its Finest in Seattle's CHOP

It's gone now, but the energy still reverberates through the streets of Capitol Hill. What once was the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone-turned-Capitol Hill Organized Protest has gone back to being a police precinct and a recreational park. It didn't turn out to be the "summer of love" Mayor Jenny Durkan had hoped for and as time passed, the confusion as to what exactly the CHOP was only grew.

If you entered the CHOP from the North side of Cal Anderson Park you read spray painted words in the middle of the street declaring, “This is Not a Block Party”. A statement like this should have been self-evident but after a week of autonomous living, the message was sorely needed as without any clear leadership, the CHOP had swiftly lost its identity.

The vigilance of Seattle’s coordinated protesting was inspiring and for the most part their message was crystal clear: BLM. In its adolescent days the CHOP was full of promise. “Black Lives Matter” was painted in vibrant colors on East Pine Street, each letter having been delegated to a different local artist. But as the days of utopian autonomy stretched on and the footprint of the slogan “Defund the Police” grew deeper, an innocuous threat began to “sprout” up throughout the CHOP.

Under the shade of protection from the identity politics umbrella, the focus of the BLM seemed to make way for the inclusion of any liberal principle. Pride flags, anti-Amazon and socialism-supporting graffiti appeared prominently throughout the six-block area. As the police were expelled, Capitol Hill, which has long been a bastion of homelessness, became a certified haven. But there were more. The idea of the Capitol Hill Organized Protest appealed to many groups.

One group who couldn’t wait to start life in the CHOP was the people enthused by the prospect of a self-sustaining commune. Shirtless in the sun with pants rolled up and spliffs hanging out of the corners of their mouths, they pushed wheelbarrows full of planting soil to newly dug crop sites. There didn't seem to be a single person in the entire six blocks of the CHOP who had any problem with this. What it looked to like to me however, was that by planting and watering their crops, what they were effectively saying was, “All Lives Matter”.

It goes without saying that we empathize with the LGBTQ community who missed out on a traditional Pride week this year. We’ve all felt the frustration of being left in the dust by the Amazon effect. But if lumping every social and economic injustice initiative into the CHOP is degrading to the BLM movement, taking the chance to plant fresh carrots is downright offensive. Missing out on Burning Man this year doesn’t give dreamers the right to hijack the BLM movement to serve their own wishes for a utopian cooperative where their only worry is who is going to grow the biggest pumpkin.

On the morning of July 1st the police moved back into the area, taking back control of the precinct and surrounding blocks. For those who walked through the CHOP at some point during its existence, the lack of leadership or organization leaves us to wonder, what exactly was the Capitol Hill Organized Protest? Haight-Ashbury of 2020? Seattle’s take on Copenhagen’s Freetown Christiania? It’s a real shame that we have to ask ourselves this question, but as the farmers watered their crops, so too did the message of the CHOP become watered down.

In the most recent protests in Seattle on July 19th, the worst of the property damage came from the destruction done to a Starbucks and an Amazon Go. The most common piece of graffiti appeared to "Fu*k Bezos". But while the overlap of ideals may exist between BLM and anti-capitalists, the latter has done the former a disservice by deciding to share the stage. The spotlight shouldn't have to be shared. Not right now.