Micah M. White

Micah M. White is credited with being the co-creator of the original call for the Occupy Wall Street protests. His book The End Of Protest: A New Playbook For Revolution was published by Knopf Canada in 2016.

Micah M. White
Born1982 (age 40–41)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Activist, author, public speaker
Known forCo-creating Occupy Wall Street movement, popularizing the term "clicktivism"
Notable workThe End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution
Websitemicahmwhite.com

Biography

White "was born to a Caucasian mother and an African-American father".[1] He attended Grand Blanc Community High School in Grand Blanc, Michigan. There, he started a student atheists club, which the school principal objected to. As part of his experience he published an Op-Ed piece "Atheists Under Siege" in the July 21, 1999 issue of the New York Times.[2] He was also interviewed on Politically Incorrect and received the 1999 Ruth Jokinen Memorial Student Activist Award from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.[3] He earned a B.A. at Swarthmore College[1] and an M.A. and Ph.D. at the European Graduate School.[4]

At the time of the Occupy Wall Street protests, White was working as senior editor for Adbusters magazine with Occupy Wall Street co-creator Kalle Lasn.[1] White ran the Adbusters Twitter account, and sent the first tweet to use the hashtag #OccupyWallStreet from that account.[5] As the Occupy Wall Street movement gained momentum, White served as the group's unofficial publicist, though he was located in Berkeley, California, and not New York.[6] After a group of Occupy Wall Street activists sought to raise funds for the movement by selling posters, White, who had already left Adbusters, took over Adbusters' Twitter account to declare support for the sale. After Adbusters regained control of the account, White referred to his actions as a "playful insurrection".[7]

Awards

In December 2011, the San Francisco Chronicle included White in a list of the "most fascinating people in the Bay Area 2011".[8] In December 2014, Esquire Magazine named White one of the most influential people under 35 years of age.[9][10] In 2018, White was awarded the Roddenberry Fellowship,[11] Voqal Fellowship,[12] and the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at Bard College.[13] In 2019, he was the Activist-in-Residence at UCLA.[14] In the Fall of 2020, White co-taught a seminar at Princeton University.[15]

Political views

White is in favor of a transaction tax on international financial speculation, the reinstatement of the Glass–Steagall Act and revocation of corporate personhood.[16] He is against advertisement and consumerism.[17] He believes that "clicktivism", which denotes a form of internet-based activism and includes signing online petitions, is damaging to the possibility of political change.[18]

In January 2020, White attended the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting is often attended by business and political leaders, whom White protested when he was a part of Occupy Wall Street.[19]

References
  1. Schwartz, Mattathias (2011-11-28). "Pre-Occupied. The origins and future of Occupy Wall Street". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
  2. White, Micah (1999-06-21). "Opinion | Atheists Under Siege". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  3. "Atheist Under Siege Starts Atheist Club (Jan/Feb 2000)". Freedom From Religion Foundation. 2000. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  4. "Biography, Background Information and About". Micah White, PhD. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  5. "Micah White: The End of Protest". YouTube. CBC News: The National. 2016-04-08. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  6. GRANT MUNROE (March 25, 2016). "Review: Micah White's The End of Protest is brimming with messianic confidence, yet fails to deliver". Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
  7. Sarah Weber (December 12, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street feud goes public with Twitter hijacking". SF Gate: San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  8. "Most fascinating people in the Bay Area 2011". SF Gate: San Francisco Chronicle. December 12, 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  9. Junod, Tom (2014-12-18). "The Esquire Register: 37 People Under 35 Who Are Reshaping the World". Esquire. Retrieved 2014-12-18.
  10. White, Micah (2013-06-24). "Letter to the People: The Principles of Our War". Occupy Wall Street. Retrieved 2013-08-07.
  11. "Micah White". Roddenberry Foundation. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  12. "2018 Voqal Fellows". Voqal. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  13. "Fellows of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College". Bard College. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  14. "At the Intersection of Activism, Housing, and Politics". Challenge Inequality. 2019-01-14. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  15. "The Classics and Activism". Princeton University Humanities Council. 2020-08-21. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  16. Lazar, Shira (2011-10-07). "Occupy Wall Street: Interview With Micah White From Adbusters". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  17. "Micah White's Thought Bubble". Micah White, PhD. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  18. White, Micah (2010-08-12). "Clicktivism is ruining leftist activism". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-08-19. In promoting the illusion that surfing the web can change the world, clicktivism is to activism as McDonalds is to a slow-cooked meal.
  19. White, Micah (2010-01-18). "I co-founded Occupy Wall Street. Now I'm headed to Davos. Why?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
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