February 2012
38 posts
1 tag
Gentrifying While Brown [#Feminist Friday]
I recently moved to the Central District in Seattle. From talking to people, it seems like the CD is where people my age move to if they can’t afford Capitol Hill. I am getting to know my neighborhood. Assessing safe paths to walk at night, figuring out my favorite Ethiopian restaurant, (I have counted at least fifteen so far during daily walks) becoming acquainted with my local coffee shop.
...
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The Black Freedom Movement and Chris Hedges'...
On the night of January 18, 1958, the Ku Klux Klan, which the previous week had held cross-burnings on the lawns of a mixed-race couple and of a Lumbee Indian family who had moved into a white neighborhood, tried to hold a rally against race “mongrelization” in Robeson County, North Carolina. But when the fifty Klan members showed up, they were confronted with ten times that many...
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NYC: Gender and the State in Contemporary Iran
Most feminist studies of post-1979 Iran focus on the legal setbacks that women encountered and their collective strategies for regaining the formal grounds they lost with the establishment of an Islamic Republic in Iran. Iranian women’s studies should not, however, only examine social movements and elite political action in its effort to decipher the post-revolutionary state.
Researchers must...
The Color Complex in Cairo
We have a few guests staying with us this week, one being an Arab girl. Late one night, we- my white American roommate, my Somalian roommate, and I- got in a conversation about boys with her. Typical late night girl talk. When asked about our preferences in men, we all listed an unreasonable, maybe even delusional, list of characteristics. When it was our guest’s turn, she thought for a...
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Soni Sori’s Letters: A Demand for Answers &...
Soni Sori is an adivasi schoolteacher from the state of Chhattisgarh in India. On October 2011, she was arrested by the state police under several false charges. During police custody, she was beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted. As of the writing of this post, she remains in prison with no court date set for her hearing.
This is her story.
When I was being stripped, I wished someone would...
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Centering Political Strategy in the Black Bloc...
The “internecine ultra-left argument of the moment,” says the Wall Street Journal, is the debate over the “black bloc.” And if this debate has led the WSJ to talk about “ultra-leftism,” it’s clearly a debate we have to address.
In a report called “Activists and Anarchists Speak for Themselves at Occupy Oakland,” Susie Cagle reminds us that the recent major instances of street-fighting, which...
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On Being An Ally
Ally (verb): 1) to unite or form a connection or relation between, 2) to form or enter into an alliance with (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
In the realm of social justice work, an ally is generally understood to be a person who takes these actions in relation to a group or groups who have been, and continue to be, in some way disenfranchised. Allies are necessary to any movement for equality,...
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Reportback from The Co-Optation of Hip Hop...
The All Peoples Revolutionary Front hosted The Co-Optation of Hip Hop at Lincoln High School’s Black Box Theater.
Charlie Rock:
“Right now i think that hip hop is in a dark place… This is how the media and the capitalism of consumers treat the dancers. Watch music videos. When you see dancers in these videos. How often do you see their faces? Never. They always highlight the...
“What we know about defendants in racist and religiously motivated crimes is that...”
– I am going through the newly released hate crime report in the UK (link goes to PDF)
The number of women victims of racist attacks in the UK is at 26.2%. The people whose gender was not included in the report (that does not mean they purposefully prefer not to be identified by gender, it’s that the...
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Is Love a Luxury? [#Feminist Friday]
I’ve been working on my script for a few years now. I recently submitted it to a contest because I wanted some feedback on it. The first time around, I didn’t get much help, so I submitted again. This time around, I actually got some useful info and found a way to get a lull out of the script. However, there was something in the comments that stuck with me.
The committee that judged the...
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‘We Don’t Have Anything to Call Our Own Yet’:...
The recent surge of media coverage on New York Knicks overnight sensation Jeremy Lin has been an almost Cinderella story (replacing pretty-white-poor-female, with handsome-skilled-Asian-men’s basketball player). And though his success on the court is undoubtedly due to his athletic abilities, the narrative painted for him on the sidelines (and beyond) has brought to light the complex issue of...
The Adventures of Ro: Can I? →
bornthisbrown:
So I happen to live and work in heavily populated Hispanic areas. Just today on my way to work I saw that a cop had this guy pulled over, naturally I peeked and saw that he was Hispanic and a pretty beat up car and making some phone calls. The other day when I was leaving campus I saw the same…
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Black Liberation and the Communist International
By the turn of the century, U.S. racist capitalism had imposed Jim Crow segregation across the U.S. South, where most blacks then lived, depriving them of the vote and of civil rights and subjecting them to racist terrorism. Within two decades, however, a new impulse to resistance was felt in sectors of the black community.
This resurgence found expression in a mass black nationalist and...
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How and Why Philosophy Under-Specializes the...
There have been a lot of nasty-ass rumors embraced by philosophers and your run of the mill academicians surrounding the material substantiations of time as “histories,” and the meta-physical “flow of time,” as linear continuum towards progress and development. It is assumed without provocation that the variety of “histories” offered by racialized oppressed peoples enclosed within...
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Neoliberalism’s Challenge to Black Liberation...
This article is a response to Michael Dawson as part of The Future of Black Politics, a forum on the potential of black liberation movements. It is posted here to stimulate conversation.
Michael Dawson is right: we sorely need a national black progressive movement armed with imagination, energy, and an unswerving critique of racism, sexism, class oppression, inequality, war, and empire if we...
Bold Magazine: Senegal's Female Presidential... →
beyoubebold:
As Senegal’s elections occur on February 26th, the race to the top has begun. The sole female candidate, Amsatou Sow Sidibe, is a staunch advocate for women’s rights and hopes to work to help men and women in an effort to create an overall more equal society. One of 13 challengers to the current…
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Things White Activists Say to Activists of Color...
A POCO contributor has produced the following video. She writes, “In our safe spaces, we have every right to feel welcomed and not tokenized, harassed or ignored. We ask for you to listen to us when we speak about racism because we are being effected by it daily. This video is a compilation of things actually said to POC involved in activism and social justice.”
[vimeo...
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Sexual Violence, Systematic and Institutionalized...
In her essay, “Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide,” Andrea Smith speaks at length about the effect of sexual violence on its victims and how sexual violence is an integral part of the colonization of Native populations. “As a consequence of this colonization and abuse of their bodies, Indian people learn to internalize self-hatred, because body image is integrally related to self-esteem. When...
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News from Cynthia McKinney - Ken Ford: Convicted...
Once again, we present an email from 2008 presidential candidate and former Congress woman, Cynthia McKinney. This is a story of an African man who was railroaded as a result a report he wrote which detailed that there were no WMDs in Iraq. The government did not like his conclusion, so they decided to make him pay. What a wonderful world….
What Does Ken Ford Know? And Who Put Him in Prison...
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Unlearning Sexism and Other Oppressions
Due to the dangerous intersections of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and other positionalities, it is important to stress on being conscious of these interlocking oppressions. The term “intersectionality” is invoked a lot, but there is a huge difference between writing about it and understanding it.
Recently, someone who self-identifies as an “activist” exercised his misogyny by...
M.I.A. Shouldn’t Have Apologized : The New Yorker →
The outrage is tiresome and deeply hypocritical, in all the tiresome ways you’ve been tired out by before. M.I.A. was illustrating her line, acting out the attitude of the words: performing. Fine, it may not be legal to flip the bird on television, but that’s simply a remnant of the fifties we haven’t shaken. Unless somebody was handing out Xanax with the foam fingers, Lucas Oil Stadium was...
“There is a dangerous myth going around this country that sexism doesn’t exist...”
– Margaret Cho (via morewaterdeeperbreaths)
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To Privileged People Who Went Through Bad Things
I acknowledge that you went through bad things. I really do. I am very sorry you went through that. You didn’t deserve it in any way.
But you DID NOT go through those bad things because you’re male/white/able-bodied/middle-class/cis/straight/etc.
But people have gone through horrible shit, and horrible shit was made worse because they were female/PoC/a person with...
my prediction: victor cruz is going to make...
jcoleknowsbest:
latinosexuality:
that’s Black with a capital B because it’s not an adjective but a proper noun!
hmmmmmmm…. tal vez!
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Number Spin Zone in Studies: Why You Should Take...
I learned a few things during my time as sociology major. Structural inequality, conflict theory, anomie, the usual goodies. But it was during my two class overview of race and ethnicity that I came across how manipulated data can become in order to substantiate unspeakable pillars of racism. Take for instance the misguided assumption from that black and brown kids can never achieve academically...
Broken House of Cards: re black women & black... →
daniellemertina:
My school is focusing on black women for this year’s Black History Month in order to be in line with this year’s national BHM theme of “Black Women in American Culture and History” and someone, a black male (in the community, not at my school… and supposedly a member of the…
“When you say to a person of color “When I see you, I don’t see you as black! I...”
– Jane Elliot on the absurdity and invalidation of claims of “Color Blindness” by white folk (via brazenbitch)
things to think about when you think about privilege
(via sexxxisbeautiful)
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Til Death Do Us Part? [#Feminist Friday]
Discussions surrounding the alleged deterioration of the black family have been common for decades, and more recently, the discourse concerning the reasons behind the low marriage rates of black women have increased substantially. Scholars, bloggers, and pundits (both male and female) have posed a myriad of poorly reasoned causes and solutions that only serve to demonize an already stigmatized...
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AFRO-VENEZUELA FILM PROJECT UPDATE!
The fund drive for the Afro-Venezuelan documentary film project is still on! There are only 4 months left and we urgently need your support to make this project happen. With over 1 million visitors and regulars to POCO, we know that making this movie with the peoples’ funds is possible.
The film will feature the lives of African people in Venezuela and the historic changes happening in the...
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Talking Political Movements with Left Forum's Seth...
With the Left Forum closing its extended panel deadline on Jan. 31 and unveiling its agenda of sessions, the 2012 event looks to bring people together around the theme “Occupying the System: Confronting Global Capitalism.”
The Left Forum’s coordinator, Seth Adler, drops in to discuss the Left Forum, its history and the political tendencies, social movements and internal and...
January 2012
19 posts
1 tag
Radical Politics 2.0: Refreshingly Non-Dogmatic or...
Signalfire recently explored an issue certain to ruffle some feathers, but is a valuable matter for political minds to consider.
The left — white and non-white — has often made bids to keep its politics relevant to people who may be newly interested in an issue, observe a cultural phenomenon or are involved in mass struggles. Sometimes this can be an interesting thing, but quite...
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Caucasianham
“He was suddenly overcome by an uncontrollable desire to leave everything here and go away once without even saying goodbye to anyone. He had a feeling that if he stayed here even a few days longer, he would irrevocably be drawn into this world, and that this world would become his world henceforward. But he did not debate the question with himself even for as long as 10 minutes, he decided at...
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Carlos Cortez, Movement Artist [Saturday #Culture]
This week, we feature artist Carlos Cortez. One bio reads:
In the 1960s, Carlos married Marianna Drogitis, and in 1965 they moved to Chicago where he became involved with the local Mexican and Chicano mural movement. “I’ve always identified myself as a Mexican,” he says. “ I guess this was a result of my early years in grammar school. Even though I resembled my German mother more than my Mexican...
Funny Story: My White, Vegan, Anarchist...
Two days ago I spent the day with a white vegan anarchist. The guy spent the day showing me how politically correct he is, how he eats the right kind food, buys the right things, thinks the right way (I was confused because I concluded that he must belong to the right, but he says that he’s a leftist), and how much he wants to work in solidarity with those who don’t have privilege, especially...
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'Big Tent' Feminism? Sounds Great. Feels A Lot...
What is it that one means when arguing for ‘Big Tent’ feminism? Inclusivity, for sure, ‘non-judgment’, perhaps, and diversity, well….maybe. While the argument for ‘Big Tent’ feminism, frequently written about by Hugo Schwyzer, who also writes for The Good Men Project, is posited as being simply about allowing space for various perspectives and positions in feminism, the discourse, at times,...
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Harper and Shawn Alteo Jr: The Necolonial Dance
[caption id=”attachment_2818” align=”alignright” width=”300” caption=”Shawn Alteo, chief Indian comrador in Canada, playing dress-up with Stephan Harper”][/caption]
The Canadian whitestream press has been abuzz lately with the meeting between Canada’s good Indians (aka the neocolonial band council and AFN sellouts) and Canada’s white...
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A Few Words About “Solidarity”
If you’re telling me solidarity means to forget my discomfort and experiences with privileged folk, or that privileged folk have a right to speak over the experiences of marginalized ones, or have just as much say in their marginalization, then I’m not interested in solidarity.
If you’re telling me solidarity means to forget my culture, my identity, what makes who I am because it is “divisive”...
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Pan-Africanism and American Blacks: An Argument...
As someone who grew up with parents involved in the Pan-African movement (The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party was the organization) in the 80’s and 90’s my political development as a black person was markedly different from most of the other black activists I know. According to my father I even had the chance in my early childhood to share space with Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), one...
“Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will...”
– Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” (via arewomenhuman)
Exactly.
(via readnfight)
Just got done reading this for WS. This was one of my favorite quotes.
(via laurenmitchell)
Aren't you tired of hearing the phrase...
On January 6, philly.com ran an article by columnist Annette John-Hall discussing the supposed “epidemic” of black-on-black crime in Philadelphia. She hit all of the normal talking points: “too many guns,” “not enough hope, genocide, the need for more policing. She managed to say nothing original, instead opting to rehash the same basic arguments of the last two decades and parade the vague...
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Let's Stay Together: Obama and the Swooning of...
Given all the chatter about Obama’s recent appearance in Harlem, you would think he was a contestant on “Showtime at the Apollo” rather than a president running for reelection. Passing around the internet is a 90 second clip of him singing a line from Al Green’s classic song “Let’s Stay Together” during a speech at the legendary Apollo Theater. With not a word mentioned about what the man...