The Austin chapter is an absolute shit show and they're repeating the same mistakes the local Occupy movement had.

The key is to have a united front and message while embracing allies and other ideologies; NOT voicing every single varying perspective. I attended the rally at the capitol last year in September when they shut down the highway. One chant was "Black lives matter" then another was "black trans lives matter," in addition to varying chants you had a lot of "allies" that showed up pushing their own agendas on banners. The socialists had a huge banner with their two cents. The transgender anarchists had their own agenda. Then you had some kid on a bike shouting "the racists are coming! Come on!" when the Police Lives Matter march (equally a shit show) was approaching. So the kid was either an idiot or an agent provocateur. It doesn't help that he was white trying to goad a black movement in to conflict with a likely armed mob.

The only group that seems to have it together was the Nation of Islam who are articulate and present a respectable image despite allegations of racism within their ideology.

A friend of mine attended a meeting in which white allies were present, asked to give their name and purpose (ally or whatever), and then all non-blacks were asked to leave to go to another room where a white woman then chastised them for their privilege and told them to think about the ways in which they are privileged. This seems ass backwards especially since someone may be unaware of their fortunate situation without a contrasting point of view.

So now you have a movement that can't seem to unite or communicate within itself. Due to this lack of unity they can't seem to progress or open a constructive dialog with external entities, so these acts of frustration occur and stifle any chance they had to be seen as a legitimate movement.

I support the sentiment and the initial spirit of the movement, but there seems to be a disconnect somewhere leading to rash behavior like this.