The Courage to Write

I've decided to highlight one of my students' assignments on my own blog because of her ability to do what is most difficult for writers to do: to take risks. Once we settle into ourselves and realize that the places from which we must write from are our most vulnerable and painful ones, we've become self actualized writers. Here, a 9th grade student, early in her writing, establishes this inherent ability in her writing.

Amane, a practicing Muslim, focuses on how the social experience of 9/11 and the "war on terror" has affected her personal experiences in day to day life. She begins by establishing her experiences as a young citizen in the U.S.:

I practically lived in the United States my entire life. I stood up and and put my hand over my heart and recited the pledge of [allegiance] every day in elementary school. I watched the [superbowl] and sang the national anthem, every time, just like every one else in the U.S. does....

She goes on to describe how this has changed after 9/11:

After 9/11 occured every thing changed. I would go places and get insulted. "Terrorist, go back to your own country. We don't need more of you here." They would say things like that and even worse sometimes. I didn't understand, this is my country....

Do you have any idea what it's like for me to go for a ride in a car and role my window down. I get middle fingers, I get called names, I get spit at, things get thrown at me, and again I also get shouted at. Like other kids my age, i go to the mall to go for a walk and go shopping. But i wish i could do this with out being stared at, gawked at, laughed at, talked about, threatened, and again "Go back to your country."

What is most compelling about this account is that after having been targeted and dehumanized on numerous accounts, still alive in her is the courage to imagine and hope for a world where difference is not a threat and empathy is the norm:

I believe that away from here, a place for rebels, outcasts, untouchables, and uncomfortables to be free. To become their own society. That way they would all be normal, and they would all keep their pasts in the present to think before they hurt or cause hurt the way people bestowed it on them. We, outcasts, we can all be a family. A real and true 'free country'. An outcast is someone who is ostracized by society. An out cast... is me.

I would like to invite Amane to extend that hope to the people of the very land we stand on. With persistence and a struggle rooted in love, justice will prevail. To read her complete post visit her at http://xxarabianpunkxx.blogspot.com/2008/03/outcast.html.

Conquest

Come over to SPEAK and check out our read-a-thon in support of Andrea Smith's tenure case at U of Mich. Andrea Smith is one of the most revolutionary thinkers in exploring the intersections of oppression of people of color, women, survivors of sexual assault, and writes from an indigenous perspective. She's also a co-founder of Incite!.

Conquest is a must read for folks who are working for social change in any setting, and a must read for folks who are trying to understand how to reflect on their own process of decolonization.

Fem Watch Episode 1: Say It Ain't So Feminism

Commentary on "feminist" blogging. Hilariously serious!


Sudy ROCKS yall!

Challenging our Notions of Social Change

A huge part of working for social change is the ability to grow through challenging our concepts of what social change really means. BrownFemiPower posts Naabeeho Nakaii: Why Can’t We Be Friends, a speech written by Reid Gómez, an urban raised Navajo writer and photographer with a Ph.D. in Comparative Ethnic Studies. Gómez challenges us to think about how our identities inform the way we think about social change.

Below is my comment reply to the post above, but you really should read the speech first:

“Many laugh at the insanity and impracticability of my dreams and I reply, who’s filter are we putting our dreams through? What origins and philosophies are we embracing and what are the consequences of those embraces?”

“The problem with accepting or embracing a position as immigrant is that it rests first, on the validity and longevity of the United States’ occupation and secondly, on the subjection of the People. Which begs the question, who are you giving the power of recognition to.”

“In order to survive we must know what beliefs and actions take us away from the inextricable relationship of the People and the Land.”

“If you relate based on looks you are driven by racializations. If you relate based on colonial languages (English, French, or Spanish) you may think you have alliances with those you do not, and vice versa. Those who speak or do not speak English, French, or Spanish are not necessarily friends, family or foe.”

Its so funny that you posted this. I’m glad you did. Lately since I’ve been in Rochester and outside of the Bay Area Radical Bubble, I’ve been reflecting on the need to challenge and reconceptualize how I think about social change. I’ve grown frustrated with “solutions” that sound more like reforms, or new ways to protect the power relationships that exist. I think it was Andrea Smith who stated that the core root of the Native struggle for freedom is the fact that, unlike (most) other “movements”, they question the legitimacy of the state. The more my thoughts around solutions to teaching in the U.S. stem from this idea of challenging the state (both as an institution and as the authoritative framework in identity development), the more people really “don’t get me”.

I believe we continue to walk blindly if we aren’t aware of how these watered down and destructive solutions are connected to our own personal identities and our limited ability to reflect and achieve a deeper level of decolonization. So lately, I’ve been sitting in this space asking myself, “ok what do I need to change about how I view myself and my thinking, in order to gain a clearer perspective, so that I may teach from that perspective- the one that is always working from the root of the problem: challenging colonization and Native land occupation.” At this point in my development process, I have to be honest, I cannot fathom what it will be like to teach in a truly radical way and to help incite a true struggle against the state. I’m at the point where it is easy to deconstruct and help others deconstruct, but what about the more challenging process of building up? A huge part of teaching is enabling students to feel like agents, so how do I empower students to move past deconstructing the issues and into acting upon those issues in ways that challenge the existence of the state? How is it possible for us to build if we have not connected to what freedom is? For many generations we have not known freedom, but Reid Gómez says “We have choices. Aligning ourselves with existing community members, neighboring community members, family histories, recipes and when and where whose archives fail we have the land itself.”

This quote was given in the context of struggle and to keep it in its context I ask myself what “existing community members, neighboring community members, family histories, recipes” within my own heritage actually threaten my own freedom and the freedom of others? And I ask this because I am aware that my own history, even as a woman of color with a history of U.S. antagonism against my people (as well as collaboration with the mis-leaders of my people), is tainted with false notions of identity and freedom. So I have to reflect and think about how I’m affected by this and how this reality may have limited my scope in imagining and constructing in my mind real oppositional approaches to colonization.

Women of Color Surviving Sexual Violence

Check out In Solidarity posted by BFP, who's focusing on sexual assault survivors.. There are a couple of interesting ideas for validating the experiences of sexual assault. I particularly like this idea of a 24 hour blog vigil.

Also I am putting together a compilation of pieces by WOC artists/writers who have survived sexual violence and outright systematic oppression as women of color:

Attention women of color writers and artists:
This is a call for submissions for an anthology of very original and compelling short stories (fiction and non-fiction), testimonies, poetry, plays, photographs, and artwork! The theme of this anthology, titled Quiet Wars, will be about women of color's experiences in being faced with and surviving systemic oppression through interpersonal experiences. How has sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, ableism, ageism, nativism, etc., experienced through interpersonal relations violated women of color? Do you have a story on experiences dealing with rape, domestic violence, hate violence, or being humiliated/marginalized physically/intellectually/culturally in social settings (job, school, family, etc.) as a woman of color? How have you/do you (or generally women of color) survived these experiences? How are women of color pressured to not speak about these experiences? What does healing around these issues look like? Is healing something hard to conceptualize?

Submissions need not be actual testimonials although these are definitely more than welcome. As long as they creatively and compellingly engage and explore the theme they are welcome. The idea for this anthology came about through the (very personal) realization of empowerment and initial healing through naming and talking about our experiences. The goal of this project is to create an awareness of the issues specific to women of color against power imbalances (within our own communities of color as well as within the larger dominant society). This awareness also allows for the validation of other women's experiences who have gone through similar encounters with power. It will be a conversation with the many "faceless" women who come into contact with power and have difficulty naming their experiences.

Deadline for submissions will be June 17th note the date change. Email me at: "RosaDominicana at gmail dot com" with submissions or questions.
Please forward this selectively to other women of color writers/artists!

East Oakland meets Palestine.

See what's going down with my Street Photo Journalism Class in East Oakland, and our recent trip.

"Ghetto Pass Person of the Year: You, Caucasians"

"Assimilated Negro's "Ghetto Pass" series has done it again. Puttin it like is it and get you crackin the f*ck up! The last one for this year looks at the details of gentrification in our hoods. Its hard to pick and choose what to quote but this one, #1 on his list of 'types of caucasians you might find in your hood,' reveals his sarcastic humor quite clearly: The Black Caucasian - This is the Caucasian that is so adamant and vigilant about their pro-black opinions that you'd think they MUST be black if you had not already seen their pastier-than-paste person in the flesh. Someday they will all rejoice as black folk export them back-to-Africa on 100% genuine mahogany slave ships. Some of the other types will bring back head shaking memories of encounters with the kind in your hood if it's begun its process of being gentrified (also described in detail)...