An open letter to my many friends:
Recently I have been noticing an increasing social trend. People modifying their language to say "Frands.**" I have heard four people who are close to me say it in three days now. Maybe this has gone on to this level for a long time, and I haven't noticed it. If so I am sorry to all for my lack of attention.
To my brothers, sisters, and siblings, I have many friends who actually say "frands" because that is how they actually speak, so it hurts my heart any time you all use that term to be "funny." I love you all, but making fun of people's speech, even if with good intention, is not a productive way for us to conduct ourselves. Bring class and educational statuses into our language to try and be "hip" or "cool" is not okay. I love you all very much, but it hurts me when you do that. It feels as if you are making fun of my other friends. Friends who grew up in cash poor neighborhoods, where the communities had less access to educational privilege, and thus they naturally speak with dialects such as "frands." They do not do this because they aren't smart. Some of my friends who says "frands" naturally are some of the most intelligent people I know. So it hurts my heart to see my friends trying to imitate them as some kind of fun activity.
I bring this up, this discussion of class, language, and educational privilege, this privilege check, because I love you all. And because I love you all, it hurts me to see this happening. And it hurts me to see someones natural dialect be considered some version of entertainment or comedy.
Out of love I make this plea. Can my friends who do not use the term because it is a part of your actual dialect please end their use of the term "frands."
Much love, peace, and solidarity.
** "Frands" means "Friends."
Monday, December 16, 2013
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Rebuilding Institutions is Building the Revolution!
Create your own levies! Build your own coops, communal businesses and community based living wage jobs! Grow your own communal food! Construct your own energy systems! Coordinate your own Credit Unions, CDFI's, and communal financial institutions! Organize your own blocks! Craft your own educational institutions! Form your own health facilities!
Keep YOUR OWN money in YOUR OWN communities!
Refuse to participate by organizing your own! Fund and Create the change through community organizing and rebuilding institutions from the ground, and the grassroots, up. Look to your left, see your brother, your sister, and your siblings as just that. Then ask them if you may join with them to divest your joint monies away from the big banks, and into your own. Fund the cooperative revolution through organizing credit unions! Work with existing coops who successfully created additional money to fund hiring organizers. Then organize to push the system to pass living wage bills! Look towards organizing neighborhood voter blocks to stop the systems progress. Demand the change! And use the new living wage jobs from the new living wage bills to fund building new communal institutions. Slowly but surely we can sap the money back to the people! They can't lobby if you keep your money out of their pockets. But you can't keep your money out of their pockets without organizing new communally based institutions to support you and your neighbor instead! Together we can do this!
El Pueblo, Unido, Jamas Sera Vencido! Yes We Can!
Live The Revolution!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Adding to the Mentality of the Cooperative Movement
I am at CoopEcon 2013 with some amazing leaders across the southeast,
including 5 others from Birmingham, Alabama. Amongst everything else we
have gotten a fairly extensive history of the US south's coop movement
history. Much of which rooted out of Civil Rights Movement Era
organizing and resistance to racism and classism. This organizing work
included, but is not nearly limited to, SCLC, CORE, and SNCC organizers
helping communities make this happen.
I want to add onto something due to all the amazing amazing stuff I have heard. I feel some of the framing I have heard is that Cooperatives are just a resort, many times a last resort, to resist the system of oppression we live in. But because of the amazing work groups like the Federation of Southern Cooperatives has done, I think we can now flip that mentality, and would benefit from flipping that mentality. Again, not because those groups did anything wrong, but because they did it so right, that they have created enough of a base to allow us to flip that mentality.
So first, what is it that we are resisting? All Oppression, including Racism (or White Supremacy), Classism (or Capitalism), and Patriarchy (such as Sexism, Hetrosexism, and Cissexism). What do all those things do? Oppression is a system that dehumanizes people. Cooperatives are about collaboration, organization, and community. So instead of having the script that Cooperative are a resort our communities fall back on to resist when we can't figure out what else to do, the script should be Cooperatives are one of the FIRST things we can do to CLAIM our humanity.
We can build entire communities made of cooperatives. Cooperative agriculture, cooperative housing, cooperative grocery stores, cooperative construction companies, water utility cooperatives, sustainable energy cooperatives, cooperative hospitals, etc. Creating entire sustainable cooperative communities. I believe it was H Rap Brown who, in the late 1960's, said something to the line of, 'you know, they own the money system. So even if you gain all the green money, all they have to do is change to red money.' H Rap Brown, amongst other things, was a chairman in the late 1960's of the largest civil rights organization in the southeast, SNCC. Well, if we create entire sustainable cooperative communities, cooperatives wouldn't need to be what we do out of necessity anymore. Getting rid of money is something we could do out of a potential necessity. Well, I mean, if our entire community is a self-sustaining cooperative with food, energy, clothing, and shelter, if they try and rig the money system, such as doing some kind of monetary inflation, or something along those lines, to try and stop this type of work, it doesn't matter. Because we don't need your green OR red money anymore. We could switch to a Resource Based/Gift Economy if needed. It is not new. It has been done on this exact land before. These types of economic systems are the types of systems the Indigenous ran on. If we have created a system that priorities community, organizing, and collaboration, and we run our systems of food, clothing, energy, and shelter in our own communities, we don't need money. We could trade, or better yet, gift it. Because everyone would be taken care of and apart of the community.
Of course this is NOT a statement of what every community should do. Every community has different needs, and that needs to be respected. No one knows their own communities like those communities themselves. Though this is a statement of what communities could do if they choose it is right for them. Cooperatives aren't just a final resort because the current system isn't working, Cooperatives are a type of first resort to claim our humanity.
"A cooperative isn't truly a cooperative unless it prioritizes justice!" - An approximation of a quote from one of the women on the panel who works for the Federation.
In addition to other 'traditional' value-based organizing, this is some of the work Magic City Agriculture Project (www.MagicCityAg.org), the group I am lucky to work with, is hoping to continue in an urban setting, starting in Birmingham. Not surprisingly, two of MCAP's board members are 60's foot soldiers as well.
Much Love, Peace, and Solidarity Forever!
I want to add onto something due to all the amazing amazing stuff I have heard. I feel some of the framing I have heard is that Cooperatives are just a resort, many times a last resort, to resist the system of oppression we live in. But because of the amazing work groups like the Federation of Southern Cooperatives has done, I think we can now flip that mentality, and would benefit from flipping that mentality. Again, not because those groups did anything wrong, but because they did it so right, that they have created enough of a base to allow us to flip that mentality.
So first, what is it that we are resisting? All Oppression, including Racism (or White Supremacy), Classism (or Capitalism), and Patriarchy (such as Sexism, Hetrosexism, and Cissexism). What do all those things do? Oppression is a system that dehumanizes people. Cooperatives are about collaboration, organization, and community. So instead of having the script that Cooperative are a resort our communities fall back on to resist when we can't figure out what else to do, the script should be Cooperatives are one of the FIRST things we can do to CLAIM our humanity.
We can build entire communities made of cooperatives. Cooperative agriculture, cooperative housing, cooperative grocery stores, cooperative construction companies, water utility cooperatives, sustainable energy cooperatives, cooperative hospitals, etc. Creating entire sustainable cooperative communities. I believe it was H Rap Brown who, in the late 1960's, said something to the line of, 'you know, they own the money system. So even if you gain all the green money, all they have to do is change to red money.' H Rap Brown, amongst other things, was a chairman in the late 1960's of the largest civil rights organization in the southeast, SNCC. Well, if we create entire sustainable cooperative communities, cooperatives wouldn't need to be what we do out of necessity anymore. Getting rid of money is something we could do out of a potential necessity. Well, I mean, if our entire community is a self-sustaining cooperative with food, energy, clothing, and shelter, if they try and rig the money system, such as doing some kind of monetary inflation, or something along those lines, to try and stop this type of work, it doesn't matter. Because we don't need your green OR red money anymore. We could switch to a Resource Based/Gift Economy if needed. It is not new. It has been done on this exact land before. These types of economic systems are the types of systems the Indigenous ran on. If we have created a system that priorities community, organizing, and collaboration, and we run our systems of food, clothing, energy, and shelter in our own communities, we don't need money. We could trade, or better yet, gift it. Because everyone would be taken care of and apart of the community.
Of course this is NOT a statement of what every community should do. Every community has different needs, and that needs to be respected. No one knows their own communities like those communities themselves. Though this is a statement of what communities could do if they choose it is right for them. Cooperatives aren't just a final resort because the current system isn't working, Cooperatives are a type of first resort to claim our humanity.
"A cooperative isn't truly a cooperative unless it prioritizes justice!" - An approximation of a quote from one of the women on the panel who works for the Federation.
In addition to other 'traditional' value-based organizing, this is some of the work Magic City Agriculture Project (www.MagicCityAg.org), the group I am lucky to work with, is hoping to continue in an urban setting, starting in Birmingham. Not surprisingly, two of MCAP's board members are 60's foot soldiers as well.
Much Love, Peace, and Solidarity Forever!
2-Step Alternative Community Development Plan
Sometime I hear people always vouch for gentrification because they say it will build more wealth in the city to help cash poor people later. I want to propose a simple 2 step alternative plan for the City of Birmingham.
1) Pass a living wage bill. In Birmingham, Alabama 27.3% of the population lives below the poverty line. That is much higher than the state poverty level of 17.6%. A city living wage bill of say $11.50 an hour would bring and keep massive amounts of wealth into our city. Think about this, in areas such as Southwest Birmingham there is literally nothing but Churches Chickens and McDonalds. That is it. No restaurants, no grocery stores, nothing. So if those restaurants started paying 4 dollars more per hour that would be about $8,000 per full time employee more per year. Assuming they have 12 full time employees, and 4 part time employees, that would be about $112,000 more per year per store being kept in communities. I have been told the Jimmy Johns in 5-pts South makes about $12,000+ profit per week going to the owners salary. That's $624,000 per year. Meaning, he could easily spare $112,000 a year. He would still be making $512,000 in salary per year. This of course means more money for people to buy houses, more money for people to consume at retail and food stores, and more tax revenue.
2) All the tax breaks and money that City Hall would have given to development projects that would cause gentrification, instead gets put into a cooperative loan fund. This loan fund would be specifically for people trying to start worker-owner coops, consumer coops, housing coops, and community land trusts. The loans would be given out at 4%. That number being chosen here because inflation averages around 3.8%. So it means the fund would keep up with inflation and wouldn't decrease over time. Worker-Owner coops stimulate small business ownership within Birmingham. Building and keeping wealth in our city, and building up our citizens. Consumer coops help give consumers and residents power and incentive to buy from these small local businesses. And Housing Coops and Community Land Trusts deal with our housing problem. In the state of Alabama 70.7% of residents own their place of residence, while only 50.2% do in Birmingham. Home ownership creates residential ownership over their place of living and their community, which can help builds and stabilize neighborhoods.
Zero extra money would be spent with these two points, but with simply the passing of these two ideas we could drastically change Birmingham.
1) Pass a living wage bill. In Birmingham, Alabama 27.3% of the population lives below the poverty line. That is much higher than the state poverty level of 17.6%. A city living wage bill of say $11.50 an hour would bring and keep massive amounts of wealth into our city. Think about this, in areas such as Southwest Birmingham there is literally nothing but Churches Chickens and McDonalds. That is it. No restaurants, no grocery stores, nothing. So if those restaurants started paying 4 dollars more per hour that would be about $8,000 per full time employee more per year. Assuming they have 12 full time employees, and 4 part time employees, that would be about $112,000 more per year per store being kept in communities. I have been told the Jimmy Johns in 5-pts South makes about $12,000+ profit per week going to the owners salary. That's $624,000 per year. Meaning, he could easily spare $112,000 a year. He would still be making $512,000 in salary per year. This of course means more money for people to buy houses, more money for people to consume at retail and food stores, and more tax revenue.
2) All the tax breaks and money that City Hall would have given to development projects that would cause gentrification, instead gets put into a cooperative loan fund. This loan fund would be specifically for people trying to start worker-owner coops, consumer coops, housing coops, and community land trusts. The loans would be given out at 4%. That number being chosen here because inflation averages around 3.8%. So it means the fund would keep up with inflation and wouldn't decrease over time. Worker-Owner coops stimulate small business ownership within Birmingham. Building and keeping wealth in our city, and building up our citizens. Consumer coops help give consumers and residents power and incentive to buy from these small local businesses. And Housing Coops and Community Land Trusts deal with our housing problem. In the state of Alabama 70.7% of residents own their place of residence, while only 50.2% do in Birmingham. Home ownership creates residential ownership over their place of living and their community, which can help builds and stabilize neighborhoods.
Zero extra money would be spent with these two points, but with simply the passing of these two ideas we could drastically change Birmingham.
Friday, June 14, 2013
The "Founders," including my ancestor William Blount, are not people to look up to.
I know I have been guilty of it in the past, but I just want to remind people the "Founding Fathers" were not people to look up to. Some of their rhetoric is actually pretty pretty, but they talked a lot. That is not what they stood for.
The "Founding Fathers" were classist, genocidal, misogynistic, slave owners who put in the constitution that black people were only 3/5th human, didn't mention people of the first nations or Asians at all, and didn't look at women or poor people as citizens or allow them the right to vote.
And a note for the people who are going to try and peg this is a hateful speech were I am jealous or trying to misrepresent them, I want to note my ancestors were some of them. One of my ancestors was William Blount, who signed the constitution for North Carolina. He wanted the US to take over Florida, and so he was kicked out of the Senate (he was to imperialistic for the US Government haha). So then, George Washington appointed him as Governor of the Ohio-Kentucky territory (so he could imperialize the First Nations in the Midwest instead). So this is constructive criticism about US History and to my own family. Criticism for the people I am the seeds of. I hope I am allowed to have constructive criticism for my own blood.
The "Founding Fathers" are not people we should try and emulate. Raping and slaughtering Native Peoples, raping and enslaving black people, raping and completely dis-empowering women, complete disregard for all the poor so that way they could just use them as labor to better their own empires of wealth. I mean, let's be honest. Who thinks Thomas Jefferson had a beautiful love affair with one of the people he had enslaved at his Monticello Estate? Or did he rape, thus impregnating, Sally Hemings, the name of that enslaved women.
That is what 'Murica was really built upon. Learn your history and just please try and keep that in mind.
My family (including William Blount and our kin) and my families close friends (including William's close friends Washington and Jefferson) helped built this system, and did so down south. I want to take it down and build a new one, while basing my organizing work in the south.
I am a product of the system, but I was born to destroy it. And together we can do so.
The "Founding Fathers" were classist, genocidal, misogynistic, slave owners who put in the constitution that black people were only 3/5th human, didn't mention people of the first nations or Asians at all, and didn't look at women or poor people as citizens or allow them the right to vote.
And a note for the people who are going to try and peg this is a hateful speech were I am jealous or trying to misrepresent them, I want to note my ancestors were some of them. One of my ancestors was William Blount, who signed the constitution for North Carolina. He wanted the US to take over Florida, and so he was kicked out of the Senate (he was to imperialistic for the US Government haha). So then, George Washington appointed him as Governor of the Ohio-Kentucky territory (so he could imperialize the First Nations in the Midwest instead). So this is constructive criticism about US History and to my own family. Criticism for the people I am the seeds of. I hope I am allowed to have constructive criticism for my own blood.
The "Founding Fathers" are not people we should try and emulate. Raping and slaughtering Native Peoples, raping and enslaving black people, raping and completely dis-empowering women, complete disregard for all the poor so that way they could just use them as labor to better their own empires of wealth. I mean, let's be honest. Who thinks Thomas Jefferson had a beautiful love affair with one of the people he had enslaved at his Monticello Estate? Or did he rape, thus impregnating, Sally Hemings, the name of that enslaved women.
That is what 'Murica was really built upon. Learn your history and just please try and keep that in mind.
My family (including William Blount and our kin) and my families close friends (including William's close friends Washington and Jefferson) helped built this system, and did so down south. I want to take it down and build a new one, while basing my organizing work in the south.
I am a product of the system, but I was born to destroy it. And together we can do so.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Environmental Injustices are Classist and so is the (mainstream) Environmental Movement
So
I will probably type this up some time later much prettier and all that. But
here it goes. I have no problem if this ends up raggedy at all. This is
something that I think is important. I am going to keep this as short as
possible.
So
to preface I want to say I consider myself an environmentalist, and that I consider myself a part of the environmental movement. Yet
despite those two things, I have grave criticism for a huge majority of the
environmental movement.
Recently
someone I know, who I used to organize with, commented on a commitment Walmart
made to renewable energy (which is also not the same things as clean energy fyi)
by saying, “Wal-Mart may have just won me over, y'all.
100% of all stores run by clean energy by 2020?”
Then proceeded to brush off comments by others pointing out how they still don’t pay a living wage, they use sweat shop labor overseas, they are partially responsible for over 1,100 preventable deaths due to preventable fires at factories they buy from. And despite pressure, they refuse to support new regulations that could prevent such fires, much like the US passed laws to prevent such fires here. One famous such fire being the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York.
Then proceeded to brush off comments by others pointing out how they still don’t pay a living wage, they use sweat shop labor overseas, they are partially responsible for over 1,100 preventable deaths due to preventable fires at factories they buy from. And despite pressure, they refuse to support new regulations that could prevent such fires, much like the US passed laws to prevent such fires here. One famous such fire being the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York.
All this said, I want to make something abundantly clear and harshly blunt. First, air pollution from coal fired power plants is slowly killing me. Yet I am still alive. Second, if I was born to the parents of Walmart workers, I would have died years ago. Environmental issues are issues of class warfare, but the mainstream environmental movement is doing NOTHING about it, and instead validating or completely brushing off the fact that many of us could, or are, dying due to issues that will kill us faster that air pollution or GMO’s. And you’re choosing to ignore it. By validating Walmart you are validating classism. The perpetuation of classism (and racism) by the environmental movement MUST STOP.
- A plea from a person you are apparently supposedly trying to help protect from these environmental issues.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Being An Ally
Being an ally to me feels pretty internally awkward regularly. To unpack that, by saying it is awkward I am Not saying I have it hard or anything closely reminiscent to that. I am privileged, that is the point here. I am apart of almost every single dominant group, whether or not I choose to relate or associate myself with that group. I am straight, male bodied, cisgendered, white, and was raised upper class. So no, being privileged is not hard. But to be honest, it is awkward. And by that I do Not mean I feel awkward around anyone. It is just a matter of trying to constantly challenge myself and ask myself what my role as an ally is.
I speak the language of power and privilege very regularly and very strongly, because I believe it is the biggest source of evil, for a lack of better words, and that the injustices it causes people is astronomical. And on a spiritual level, despite self-identifying as an atheist, yes, I have feelings I describe as spiritual, I feel like us as humans, brothers and sisters, are being ripped apart and categorized and told we are not alike. And that we should not be brothers and sisters, and that hurts my soul.
But despite my confidence externally of speaking the language, I will admit I internally almost feel scared when I do. Because as an ally I do not want to overstep by role. I do not want to end up making some mistake or saying something that is rooted in the same problems and thoughts that reinforce the "values" that allow our system to thrive in this way in the first place. I want to be a student and to learn from others first. All of my knowledge as an ally is ultimately rooted in learning from people that have been historically oppressed by the system. I feel like as an ally it is necessary to share my learnings, but I also want to make sure I am doing it in a way that is properly respectful to the people I am an ally of. And that is why it is awkward. And I do not think that it is a bad thing that I feel internally awkward. Confronting your own privilege should be uncomfortable. And I feel like the day confronting my privilege within this system is not uncomfortable, then that is probably the moment I am not doing a good enough job trying to be an ally. Because I am probably not trying to challenge myself to be a better one anymore. As an ally I do not claim to have the answers. I wish I did, but I do not. And I hope to forever continue to learn my role, and to be a better ally. And I always appreciate people who are willing to engage in helping me be a better ally. I do think I have learned plenty along the way on being a good ally, but I would never try to claim that I have the answer.
The only thing I know is that this thing called power, privilege, and oppression is an evil, and it needs to be broken down, and I want to do whatever I can as an ally to help that process along. And hopefully through organizing that can begin to happen.
From one ally I try to use as a model:
Jim Zwerg in Montgomery Hospital, 1961
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQbqzaRAql8
I speak the language of power and privilege very regularly and very strongly, because I believe it is the biggest source of evil, for a lack of better words, and that the injustices it causes people is astronomical. And on a spiritual level, despite self-identifying as an atheist, yes, I have feelings I describe as spiritual, I feel like us as humans, brothers and sisters, are being ripped apart and categorized and told we are not alike. And that we should not be brothers and sisters, and that hurts my soul.
But despite my confidence externally of speaking the language, I will admit I internally almost feel scared when I do. Because as an ally I do not want to overstep by role. I do not want to end up making some mistake or saying something that is rooted in the same problems and thoughts that reinforce the "values" that allow our system to thrive in this way in the first place. I want to be a student and to learn from others first. All of my knowledge as an ally is ultimately rooted in learning from people that have been historically oppressed by the system. I feel like as an ally it is necessary to share my learnings, but I also want to make sure I am doing it in a way that is properly respectful to the people I am an ally of. And that is why it is awkward. And I do not think that it is a bad thing that I feel internally awkward. Confronting your own privilege should be uncomfortable. And I feel like the day confronting my privilege within this system is not uncomfortable, then that is probably the moment I am not doing a good enough job trying to be an ally. Because I am probably not trying to challenge myself to be a better one anymore. As an ally I do not claim to have the answers. I wish I did, but I do not. And I hope to forever continue to learn my role, and to be a better ally. And I always appreciate people who are willing to engage in helping me be a better ally. I do think I have learned plenty along the way on being a good ally, but I would never try to claim that I have the answer.
The only thing I know is that this thing called power, privilege, and oppression is an evil, and it needs to be broken down, and I want to do whatever I can as an ally to help that process along. And hopefully through organizing that can begin to happen.
From one ally I try to use as a model:
Jim Zwerg in Montgomery Hospital, 1961
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQbqzaRAql8
Friday, May 10, 2013
Social Comentary on Rotary International commemorating the Childrens Marches of 1963 the day after May Day
So, I happen to go to Birmingham Rotary Club today to listen to a speaker. It happened to also be May Day. The international holiday for workers rights to commemorate the Chicago Hayfield Market Riots of 1886 where they were peacefully protesting for labor rights. I actually
very much enjoyed the speaker. It felt particularly good to hear what
was said to that type of audience on May Day. It was the person who was
the head person liquidating assets for the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy in Asia. The
largest Bankruptcy in History. Six times larger than the 2nd biggest
bankruptcy, Worldcom. A person (this is the bad
part) who actually had a small hand is dismantling Glass Steagall. But,
through his lessons learned is telling the largest Rotary in the world
"the markets are run by greed" and "we need to reinstate Glass Steagall"
due to his experiences with the Lehman Bankruptcy.
I can get behind that.
Anyway. Before he spoke, I almost choked. The President of Rotary was telling an entirely white audience of bankers and CEO's from Mountain Brooke to participate in a commemorative march tomorrow to honor the Children Marches from 1963. I am sorry, there were people of color in the room, it is just that other than about four people of color (who were only there as guests from the Civil Rights Institute to honor the head of the Civil Rights Institute who was sitting at the front table due to the march tomorrow), every person of color was either a server or bus man and woman. I am sure that was the exact dream MLK was talking about, right?
Backtrack 50 years ago, this was the exact audience and audiences of the like that would have been a part of the White Citizens Councils. That were denouncing Martin Luther King, James Bevel, Wyatt Tee Walker, etc, and the Children's Marches. This type of audience is the same type of audience who paid policemen to work to dismantle Occupy around the country by using Tear Gas, Pepper Spray, and police batons (sound similar to a water hoses at all?). The same audience that told me to "get a job" when I marched in an immigration rally against the racist bill HB56. The same audience that has always worked to dismantle the labor movement (such as the Haymarket Square action in 1886), including the Poor Peoples Campaign by the SCLC, which was the organization Martin Luther King was the president of and organized Birmingham under, and encouraged Regan to dismantle the unions. The same audience that always denounces direct action of any kind for any cause. And the same audience who helps vouch for racist policies which include gentrification of Birmingham. And you want them to March to commemorate the Direct Action by the footsoldiers during the Children's Marches where people got hosed down and dogs let out on them to fight White Supremacy?
Oh no. I don't think I can get behind that.
I can get behind that.
Anyway. Before he spoke, I almost choked. The President of Rotary was telling an entirely white audience of bankers and CEO's from Mountain Brooke to participate in a commemorative march tomorrow to honor the Children Marches from 1963. I am sorry, there were people of color in the room, it is just that other than about four people of color (who were only there as guests from the Civil Rights Institute to honor the head of the Civil Rights Institute who was sitting at the front table due to the march tomorrow), every person of color was either a server or bus man and woman. I am sure that was the exact dream MLK was talking about, right?
Backtrack 50 years ago, this was the exact audience and audiences of the like that would have been a part of the White Citizens Councils. That were denouncing Martin Luther King, James Bevel, Wyatt Tee Walker, etc, and the Children's Marches. This type of audience is the same type of audience who paid policemen to work to dismantle Occupy around the country by using Tear Gas, Pepper Spray, and police batons (sound similar to a water hoses at all?). The same audience that told me to "get a job" when I marched in an immigration rally against the racist bill HB56. The same audience that has always worked to dismantle the labor movement (such as the Haymarket Square action in 1886), including the Poor Peoples Campaign by the SCLC, which was the organization Martin Luther King was the president of and organized Birmingham under, and encouraged Regan to dismantle the unions. The same audience that always denounces direct action of any kind for any cause. And the same audience who helps vouch for racist policies which include gentrification of Birmingham. And you want them to March to commemorate the Direct Action by the footsoldiers during the Children's Marches where people got hosed down and dogs let out on them to fight White Supremacy?
Oh no. I don't think I can get behind that.
Monday, April 15, 2013
We all love King, but remember it wasn't King's Movement, it's The People's Movement
In Alabama, as I am sure may be happening in other places in the nation, there has been an influx of talk about the Civil Rights Movement. Much talk has been hijacked by the corporate elite trying to re-write history. But much has been told with the truth and justice it deserves. I read this one today from the "Birmingham News," and it spoke to me and inspired me to write a comment back.
I want to say despite looking across from my desk every day and seeing the 1956 mug shot from the first time Brother Martin got arrested in Montgomery at 27 years old hanging on my wall, I never look at that photo and just see him and the intensity in his eyes. I see the intensity and the passion of every day people deciding it was time to take action. I see the children, and their parents, of Birmingham. The "nameless" who traveled from across the country to join in on the march from Selma to Montgomery. I see the often forgotten campaigns in Harlem, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles fighting for economic justice in "The Poor People's Campaign" and campaigns of the like. I see the oft-forgotten leaders and organizations, some small, and some who were powerhouse organizations, such as CORE, The Congress for Racial Equality, and its co-founder James L Farmar. I see the individuals who went into towns like Clayton, Alabama and went into the "wrong" laundry mat with a purpose of defiance towards injustice. I see the people who never marched but did what they could behind the scenes. People who included a Detroit mother who one day packed up, left her children and husband and said I will be back. Leaving to answer the call of the fight despite not knowing a single marcher or participant. She did it to answer the call for justice and freedom. She saw people, and she decided she needed to head Bama Bound, and pronto. She did not return. People rooting way back to the Niagara movement and beyond. It starts with one. A movement is not built on the backs of the famous. It is built on the backs of the everyday citizens who decides to respond to the call for Justice.
""We love Dr. King," Cotton said. "I love Dr. King, but it was not Dr. King's movement. He did not start the civil rights movement."... "It was started by one person here, one person there, one person over here," she said. "If you see something wrong, sometimes you may have to start an action all by yourself," Cotton said. "One person sees something wrong and starts doing something about it. People will join you if you do it with the right spirit."" - Dorthy Cotton of the SCLC.
Let us not forget movements take decades to build in full force. But in starts with individual defiance towards injustice, and resisting the status quo. It starts with a revolution of conscientiousness and awareness. It starts with one, and through your action and energy, building relationships, building brotherhoods and sisterhoods, building a family, a family who will then resist together.
"A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back -- but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you." – Marian Wright Edelman
Birmingham News Article:
http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2013/04/dorothy_cotton_aide_to_the_rev.html
I want to say despite looking across from my desk every day and seeing the 1956 mug shot from the first time Brother Martin got arrested in Montgomery at 27 years old hanging on my wall, I never look at that photo and just see him and the intensity in his eyes. I see the intensity and the passion of every day people deciding it was time to take action. I see the children, and their parents, of Birmingham. The "nameless" who traveled from across the country to join in on the march from Selma to Montgomery. I see the often forgotten campaigns in Harlem, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles fighting for economic justice in "The Poor People's Campaign" and campaigns of the like. I see the oft-forgotten leaders and organizations, some small, and some who were powerhouse organizations, such as CORE, The Congress for Racial Equality, and its co-founder James L Farmar. I see the individuals who went into towns like Clayton, Alabama and went into the "wrong" laundry mat with a purpose of defiance towards injustice. I see the people who never marched but did what they could behind the scenes. People who included a Detroit mother who one day packed up, left her children and husband and said I will be back. Leaving to answer the call of the fight despite not knowing a single marcher or participant. She did it to answer the call for justice and freedom. She saw people, and she decided she needed to head Bama Bound, and pronto. She did not return. People rooting way back to the Niagara movement and beyond. It starts with one. A movement is not built on the backs of the famous. It is built on the backs of the everyday citizens who decides to respond to the call for Justice.
""We love Dr. King," Cotton said. "I love Dr. King, but it was not Dr. King's movement. He did not start the civil rights movement."... "It was started by one person here, one person there, one person over here," she said. "If you see something wrong, sometimes you may have to start an action all by yourself," Cotton said. "One person sees something wrong and starts doing something about it. People will join you if you do it with the right spirit."" - Dorthy Cotton of the SCLC.
Let us not forget movements take decades to build in full force. But in starts with individual defiance towards injustice, and resisting the status quo. It starts with a revolution of conscientiousness and awareness. It starts with one, and through your action and energy, building relationships, building brotherhoods and sisterhoods, building a family, a family who will then resist together.
"A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back -- but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you." – Marian Wright Edelman
Birmingham News Article:
http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2013/04/dorothy_cotton_aide_to_the_rev.html
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
"Good Luck [Building A Moment]"
I guess this one is appropriate for my first blog post. We are just going to get into the meat of it. I will give y'all a writing including my story-of-self later. This is the writing where my friend finally pushed me hard enough that I accepted to start my own blog. A writing that may be fair enough to start with to explain the name I decided to title this blog as, "Social Commentary and Building a Movement."
It is a writing in response to people saying, "Good luck" or "I hope you..." when discussing organizing and movement building. So here we go:
I have multiple times been told things like "good luck," or "I hope..." including specifically being told, "wow so you are doing a whole lot. I hope you can accomplish what you are set out to do! Good luck with all of that."
Don't get me wrong now; I deeply appreciate the support and the solidarity. But there is something that stings in my mind every single time I hear that these days. Hope? Hope has nothing to do with it. It is about will and determination. Building a movement has happened multiple times before. I refuse to believe or accept that it cannot happen again. And I refuse to not be a force to help make it happen. Though as I said, I appreciate the support. I do.
Now to back track let's start earlier back. I have known for years now I wanted to "change the world." I have known for years now that I refused to not make that happen. But I have been on a journey to figure out what that means and what it is going to take for that to happen. Thus I have constantly taken every opportunity possible to continue to grow, learn, and continue that path. If you asked me a few years ago if I wanted to, and if I was going to do whatever I could, I would have said, "Yes." Though if you asked me a few years ago, "How are you going to do that" or "What does that mean," I would not have had an answer. But now I do. For the first time ever the past few months, I feel like I can see it clearly. I feel like I know what that means, that I can see both the big picture, and I have a plan in place that I am sold on for what steps I feel are necessary to get there. I have seen the mountaintop. And in return, I say things now like, "I want to start a movement."
Want? Well some of that comes from (yes as overly confident as I am) me being modest. I have high respect for all the amazing people around me, and all the amazing people who have come before me. So I constantly shrug things off when other people say things about me. Though I was walking out of my apartment on the way to work one day and I was thinking about language. In particular why people have told me they can be drawn to language I use. For example, growing up I used to always say, "I am going to be a General Manager in the NBA" instead of “I want to.” I never thought twice about it until my sister brought it up to me for the first time. Ever since then I have begun to become more and more cognizant of my language. So I was walking out of my apartment thinking about the strength of the words I use. Repeating "I want to start a movement" to myself. Proud of that wording. Then I got pissed off at myself. Want? ... Want? Excuse me? Why am I saying “want?” What’s wrong with me? Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes I still use the word want. But when I do it is with a new mentality then before. Want? No, I can’t accept that. I am. I am. WE ARE going to start a movement. Even if it's the last of me. And hope has nothing to do with it. Luck has nothing to do with it. Excuses will not be tolerated. Finding a way to make it work will. Re-analyzing when things are not going as planned will. Re-evaluating will be tolerated. Will, determination, and blood, sweat, and tears will. I appreciate your hope and luck. But save it. I want solidarity. But hope and luck will not be a part of my vocabulary. WE WILL start a movement. And though I always want to challenge myself to still grow, I am only for the first time in my life comfortable with my knowledge and skills to say so. In much part due to the many mentors, supporters, friends, opportunities, and experiences I have been blessed to have.
Peace, Love, and Solidarity Forever.
It is a writing in response to people saying, "Good luck" or "I hope you..." when discussing organizing and movement building. So here we go:
I have multiple times been told things like "good luck," or "I hope..." including specifically being told, "wow so you are doing a whole lot. I hope you can accomplish what you are set out to do! Good luck with all of that."
Don't get me wrong now; I deeply appreciate the support and the solidarity. But there is something that stings in my mind every single time I hear that these days. Hope? Hope has nothing to do with it. It is about will and determination. Building a movement has happened multiple times before. I refuse to believe or accept that it cannot happen again. And I refuse to not be a force to help make it happen. Though as I said, I appreciate the support. I do.
Now to back track let's start earlier back. I have known for years now I wanted to "change the world." I have known for years now that I refused to not make that happen. But I have been on a journey to figure out what that means and what it is going to take for that to happen. Thus I have constantly taken every opportunity possible to continue to grow, learn, and continue that path. If you asked me a few years ago if I wanted to, and if I was going to do whatever I could, I would have said, "Yes." Though if you asked me a few years ago, "How are you going to do that" or "What does that mean," I would not have had an answer. But now I do. For the first time ever the past few months, I feel like I can see it clearly. I feel like I know what that means, that I can see both the big picture, and I have a plan in place that I am sold on for what steps I feel are necessary to get there. I have seen the mountaintop. And in return, I say things now like, "I want to start a movement."
Want? Well some of that comes from (yes as overly confident as I am) me being modest. I have high respect for all the amazing people around me, and all the amazing people who have come before me. So I constantly shrug things off when other people say things about me. Though I was walking out of my apartment on the way to work one day and I was thinking about language. In particular why people have told me they can be drawn to language I use. For example, growing up I used to always say, "I am going to be a General Manager in the NBA" instead of “I want to.” I never thought twice about it until my sister brought it up to me for the first time. Ever since then I have begun to become more and more cognizant of my language. So I was walking out of my apartment thinking about the strength of the words I use. Repeating "I want to start a movement" to myself. Proud of that wording. Then I got pissed off at myself. Want? ... Want? Excuse me? Why am I saying “want?” What’s wrong with me? Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes I still use the word want. But when I do it is with a new mentality then before. Want? No, I can’t accept that. I am. I am. WE ARE going to start a movement. Even if it's the last of me. And hope has nothing to do with it. Luck has nothing to do with it. Excuses will not be tolerated. Finding a way to make it work will. Re-analyzing when things are not going as planned will. Re-evaluating will be tolerated. Will, determination, and blood, sweat, and tears will. I appreciate your hope and luck. But save it. I want solidarity. But hope and luck will not be a part of my vocabulary. WE WILL start a movement. And though I always want to challenge myself to still grow, I am only for the first time in my life comfortable with my knowledge and skills to say so. In much part due to the many mentors, supporters, friends, opportunities, and experiences I have been blessed to have.
Peace, Love, and Solidarity Forever.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)