Ibrahim Mubarak

At dusk, 200 or so protesters from the Occupy Portland camp made their way down SW 4th Avenue to Burnside and Ibrahim Mubarak was there to greet them. Mubarak, of homeless group Right 2 Survive has helped establish a tent city dubbed Right to Dream 2 on the private corner lot there. The city has stopped enforcement of various city codes at the Occupy site, but asked surrounding businesses to log code violations at the homeless site, an irony that’s not lost on Mubarak one bit.

As the protesters approached, shouting “We support the right to dream!” to show support for the camp, Mubarak gave me his take on the whole situation. I’m just going to quote him in full:

Ibrahim Mubarak
  • Ibrahim Mubarak

“I don’t want to pit them against us, we are in solidarity with them, we respect them. I think the city is trying to pit us against stem. The city looks at them as privileged, white, middle class making a statement, but they see us as not any of that. It shows where their reasoning is at—how can the city allow people who have somewhere to stay sleep in the park, but when people who have nowhere to go try to build a community, the city tries to kick us out? That place is costing the city money, we’re not costing anybody. We’re voters, too, we just don’t have the money. We’re outcasts. We’re nobody.”

Exactly.

More photos from the march below the cut.

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Mubarak greeting the Occupy march on Burnside
  • Mubarak greeting the Occupy march on Burnside
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Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

10 replies on “Occupying is Fine, Unless You’re Actually Homeless”

  1. Ibrahim Mubarak is right, these are privileged, white, middle class kids and having Mubarak there would screw it up. They would no longer be 99% white, but 98% white. If you have more than 1% token blacks at your clan rally, that just wouldn’t be right.
    Can’t these privileged trust fund babies take a few of these homeless in to their households?

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