Today I was teaching my students ‘A Passage To India’ — where teaching and seething become one intersecting activity — when one of my student’s cracked. He asked me if it was ever possible to have a cultural exchange, where a Bigger,…
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Cultivating an ethic of responsibility within the Indigenous solidarity movement begins with non-natives understanding ourselves as beneficiaries of the illegal settlement of Indigenous peoples’ land and unjust appropriation of Indigenous peoples’ resources and jurisdiction.
When faced with this truth, it is common for activists to get stuck in their feelings of guilt, which I would argue is a state of self-absorption that actually upholds privilege. While guilt is often a sign of a much-needed shift in consciousness, in itself it does nothing to motivate the responsibility necessary to actively dismantle entrenched systems of oppression.
In a movement-building round table, long-time Montreal activist Jaggi Singh said: “The only way to escape complicity with settlement is active opposition to it. That only happens in the context of on-the-ground, day-to-day organizing, and creating and cultivating the spaces where we can begin dialogues and discussions as natives and non-natives.”
"—
Decolonizing together:
Moving beyond a politics of solidarity toward a practice of decolonization
(via cultureofresistance)
(Source: solitaryforager, via so-treu)
Things to do with Martina when she gets here:
- Watch a movie at the dollar theater (woo hoo!)
- Bake cookies
- Go to Venice!
- Take rocky to the beach again
- Go ‘splorin in downtown long beach (thriftstores n cofffee shops)
- Go eat at the $1.99 restaurant
- Bust a 3-day trip to SF
- Going to two open mics (yeaaahhhhhhhh!)
- Go to dinner with Glenna
- Maybe go to club??????
- Hang out with my big sissy
- Hang out with my parents n rocky
- hang out with my cuzzies
- snuggle infinitely
- MAYBE sexy timez
- watch Buffy (critically)
- take pictures!
Bayn Writes
Hey folks. So some weeks ago I had this idea to collect things I’ve written (on paper, in notebooks and journals, on the internet) and put them in one place in chronological order. So I created a tumblelog for this purpose and named it “bayn writes”. I post stuff as I come across it in my deliberate searching or unexpected reminiscing. I have several incompletely used notebooks. Bad me.
I’m not setting upon myself the expectation that this is a project in need of immediate completion. Instead, I’ve chose to view it as a project of time and peace. Meaning I work on it whenever I choose from a place of peace within myself and not from a place of stress and anxiety. Unsurprisingly, I benefit more from my writings being read by others than by myself. I have tunnel vision and only see what my mind wants me to see which is rarely something new. I want to share it with others, that’s why I’m writing this. I don’t expect anything in return. That’s all.
![slowheart:
commonground-oc:
Happy Holidays common ground friends and family! We are so grateful for the gift of a beautiful January 5th show line up:
John Nguyen the 5th [spoken word]
Jumakae [hip hop/vocals]
Albert Chiang [guitar/vocals]
Vietnamese American Oral History Project [community spotlight]
DJ South [guest DJ]
Our theme for the evening is history/hystory. Come by Jan 5th and make some with us! Doors open at 6:30pm. Show starts at 7. $5 suggested donation at the door.
Follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook for more updates!
The show’s this Thursday! If everything goes right, there will be double chocolate cookies for your mouf to enjoy, and some excellent talent for your ears to hear.](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwtp8tonhW1qceq89o1_500.jpg)
Happy Holidays common ground friends and family! We are so grateful for the gift of a beautiful January 5th show line up:
- John Nguyen the 5th [spoken word]
- Jumakae [hip hop/vocals]
- Albert Chiang [guitar/vocals]
- Vietnamese American Oral History Project [community spotlight]
- DJ South [guest DJ]
Our theme for the evening is history/hystory. Come by Jan 5th and make some with us! Doors open at 6:30pm. Show starts at 7. $5 suggested donation at the door.
The show’s this Thursday! If everything goes right, there will be double chocolate cookies for your mouf to enjoy, and some excellent talent for your ears to hear.
"Even strains of nonviolence that seek to abolish the state aim to do so by transforming it (and converting the people in power); thus, nonviolence requires that activists attempt to influence the power structure, which requires that they approach it, which means that privileged people, who have better access to power, will retain control of any movement as the gatekeepers and intermediaries who allow the masses to ‘speak truth to power.’"
— Peter Gelderloos, How Nonviolence Protects the State, p. 22 (via so-treu)
for interesting (& on point) commentary on this tweet, check out what QueerAndPresentDanger says about it:
“That thing where gay men masquerade as feminists but actually miss the point completely by not realizing that the root of “homophobia” is actually misogyny and the disgust at the (completely misguided) notion that a man would want to betray their nature-given maleness by (supposedly) acting as a stand-in for a woman during sex and god who would ever want to be a woman ‘cause that’s like the worst thing ever right???? so they pretend like they give a shit about women or how they are treated or the female experience because they think it aligns with their struggle when they would just as soon leave women behind even in their own movement for convenience while (likely) still using oppressive and misogynistic language as sassy pronouns”
Well then. ^^^
(Source: fuckyeahmenfolk)
House Considers “Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act,” I.e. the We-Don’t-Trust-Women-Of-Color Act December 6, 2011 by Rachel Kwan
I’m writing today to ask my fellow women of color reproductive justice activists and our allies to take a united stand against the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act(PRENDA), a race- and sex-specific anti-abortion bill thatwent before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution today. I cannot repeat enough times the urgency of moving quickly to act in solidarity.
This is a federal version of legislation that a coalition of women-of-color organizations defeated at the local level in Georgia. It attempts to restrict women of color’s access to abortion and prenatal care in the name of “civil rights.” This bill seeks to protect “unborn Americans” by banning race- and sex-selection abortions. However, the argument that fetuses must be protected from the women of color relies on racist stereotypes about entire communities:
- First, that Black women are selfish, irresponsible, and incapable of making reproductive decisions on their own behalf
- Second, that Asian women mindlessly reproduce “son preference” and bring “dangerous values” into the country.
This is patently untrue. Black and Asian/Pacific Islander women have consistently fought for the right to make their own decisions about if and when they will have children based on the support networks and resources that are available in their communities. This bill attempts to drive another wedge between women and their reproductive health practitioners. It will exacerbate many of the existing structural barriers that we women of color must overcomein order to access reproductive healthcare. It will put pressure on abortion-care providers to conduct racial profiling on us, requiring them to secondguess our motivations in seeking abortions. It will do nothing to address the entrenched disparities that low-income women of color must navigate every day in seeking reproductive care. It willnot contribute to grassroots-level change in Asian communities where we are already working to address the sexist roots of son preference.
This bill has been put forward by members of Congress who consistently vote to decimate funding for reproductive health services and family support programs. This bill is backed by the same anti-abortion group that put out racist billboard campaigns targeting Black communities.
This bill would result in increased scrutiny of the reproductive decision-making of Black, Latina, and Asian/Pacific Islander women. It is an affront our rights to privacy, to bodily autonomy, and to mobilize in concert to create change and solidarity in our communities—based on our priorities and experiences, our visions for the future and our agency.
Click here to contact your Congressperson to tell them that you strongly oppose this racist and anti-woman legislation.
My thanks for the information and advocacy of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Trust Black Women, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the grassroots activism of SisterSong NYC, as well as those unidentified warriors whose words and wisdom I am drawing on for this post.
Excerpted with permission from The Abortion Gang.
(via so-treu)
