We are the 99 Percent

About

We are the 99% (a.k.a “I am the 99%”) is a catchphrase that became widespread in the days leading up to and during the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests and offshoot demonstrations elsewhere.

Origin

The single topic Tumblr for “We are the 99 Percent”^[1] was first launched on August 23rd, 2011, nearly a month before the protests began on September 17th. The idea was simple: take a photograph of oneself holding a handwritten sign explaining how the financial situations have been affecting them and submit it to the site. According to the profile description, the blog is run by voluntary organizers affiliated with Occupy Wall Street movement:

We are the 99 percent. We are everyone else. And we will no longer be silent. It’s time the 1 percent got to know us a little better. On Sept. 17, 2011, the 99 percent will converge on Wall Street to let the 1 percent know just how frustrated they are with living in a world made for someone else. Let us know why you’ll be there. Let us know how you are the 99 percent.

In a Mother Jones’^[2] interview article published in early October, the blogger’s identity was revealed as a 28-year-old New York activist named Chris, who’s been managing logistics of food drives for Occupy Wall Street in Lower Manhattan.

Spread

The phrase “we are the 99 percent” quickly became adopted as a protest slogan during the early stage and has been displayed on a number of picket signs and banners seen at the protests. The link to the Tumblr site was also highlighted on a number of Occupy Wall Street-related websites and social networking accounts. Since its launch in August, the single topic Tumblr has received notable mentions from several news media outlets, which further boosted the rate of user submissions up to nearly 100 posts a day. As of October 13th, the blog hosts at least 1,270 photographs of people holding up hand-written notes signed “We are the 99 percent.” For notable examples, browse our image gallery.

Spin-offs

We are the 53 percent

In response to the phenomenon, conservative blogger Erick Erickson launched a counter-movement on October 3rd called “we are the 53 percent,”^[3] which claims to represent the 53 percent of Americans who pay federal income taxes. The number alluded to a 2009 TaxPolicyCenter report^[4] which revealed that 47 percent of Americans did not pay net federal income taxes in 2009.

I am the 9 percent

Another Tumblr reader parodied the slogan with a “I am the 9 percent” photograph, supposedly to represent the population of the country that is left-handed. The message in the photo starts off by complaining that bankers don’t care about left-handers because they chain the pen to the right hand side of tables. It then continues, in equally dramatic fashion:

The government knows my hand will get smeared with ink, but they still make me fill out forms from left to right. And don’t get me started with scissors or computer mice. I am the nine percent.

The spinoff movements have been also reported by news publishers including The Washington Post^[5] and CBS.^[6]

We are the 1 percent

The Tumblr blog “We are the 1 Percent”^[7] was created on October 12th, 2011 and featured photographs of people holding signs that claimed that even though they are among the wealthiest 1%, they still stand with the demands of the 99%.

We have more than we need, while the 99 percent struggles to survive. This has to change. We believe in an equitable distribution of wealth.

Parody versions have been posted to sites like Reddit^[8] including an image of Ezio from the video game Assassin’s Creed posted on October 15th, 2011.