My views on organizing…

According to Harvard.edu “a community organizer creates social movements by building a base of concerned people, mobilizing these community members to act, and in developing leadership from and relationships among the people involved.” The role of an organizer in theory seems fairly easy to me, but the actuality of it is more difficult and far more important than I had considered before this course. The different forms of organizing and how they tie in together are crucial in bringing in different groups of people for the common goal. Abilitymaine.org says that community organizing is important “because social change takes place, and is more effective, when people work together in an organized way.” Any period of time is an important time for social justice, but now it feels like there has been an explosion. It’s great to see people come together for positive change and to see people feel empowered to do so.

As someone who truly enjoys meeting new people and interacting with people who are typically strangers , I seldom get nervous in social settings. The only aspect that makes me a little nervous is public speaking. I see my role as someone who can approach people in the community and discuss issues with them and being able to listen to their side. My emphasis would be on the community aspect. I am not a homebody so I’m often attending various events around the city I live in hosted by different groups who often have little in common. In previous jobs I would go into the homes of women I had never met or met only once and ask very personal questions about their entire lives. Initially, I thought there was no way these women would be willing to tell me such personal things. When someone voluntarily participates in something they believe in, they are surprisingly very open. In working in this position and doing these visits I was able to assess the needs of the women, their families and in many instances, their neighborhoods. It has taken time but I like to think I am a good listener. This time in my life ultimately gave me an interest in others’ stories and made me really want to do more with storytelling. There are many experiences that never get expressed. I don’t have a journalism background but I find myself gravitating towards storytelling. I appreciate people like Lisa Ling because I think she shines a light on people who feel forgotten. I believe in the importance of a counter narrative approach. In school we are not taught this way so it is up to us to search for or be open to hearing the stories of the people around us. The empowerment people feel when they feel valued and heard is something I want to be able to give someone.

Much like anything, once you start learning something you realize how little you actually know. The same has been true for me in this degree program. I feel overwhelmed with information and resources. As I research community organizing I realize how many career opportunities as well as volunteer opportunities in doing that and digital organizing. As someone who has been on social media since high school, I’ve come to realize how powerful it can be in both negative and positive ways. Epolotics.com reiterates that “It’s an opportunity to build genuine, personal relationships with millions of people, both online and offline. Digital engagement, after all, has very little to do with engaging people digitally, and far more to do with using technology to figure out exactly who your supporters are, how they’re engaging with you, and what they want to talk about, whether online or offline.” I’m looking forward to seeing what direction I can/will go in doing this work.

One-to-One in Organizing

I have been a community organizer for three years, and only now in my Organizing 101 course at Prescott have I heard of intentional one-to-one conversations as a foundation for effective organizing.   I certainly engaged in the activity without knowing the concept.  In other words, I met with community leaders and other organizations for the purpose of building relationships and identifying self-interest.  I just didn’t call this activity one-to-one.  I also did not engage in it in an explicitly strategic way.

After reading about and having conversations with our instructor about one-to-ones, our assignment was to conduct three with community leaders and/or organizations that we believe align with our work as organizers.  This process of learning and practice has led me to think more critically about how our relationships are as a source of power.

I have come to value and appreciate the intentional explicit practice of one-to-ones in organizing, especially as it relates to working with progressive organizations.  Conducting one-to-ones allow for us as organizers to have meaningful and deep conversations about our work.  In my experience with organizing, I have found that the details and context matter very much.  Yet, sometimes our conversations with one another are too broad and do not create the space for tangible action steps and strong alignment.

In my one-to-one conversations with paid organizers, I tried to ask questions about how they do their work, essentially what their mission and values look like in practice.  I also asked questions that would help me better understand what power the organization has and how our alignment can work together in a way that leverages this power and strengthen our respective power to achieve a common goal.   I also asked questions about the organizational structure, particularly the organization’s relationship to the communities they are organizing or advocating on behalf of.  I also found it important to understand what the organization will not do, what the organization wants to do better, and what the organization needs to be more effective.

I had personal relationships with two out of the three one-to-one conversations I had.  I feel this is important to note because the kinds of questions I asked in some instances required the organizer to think critically about their own organization.  Since I have already established trust with the organizers and have worked on a few projects together, I could have a deeper conversation with them.  Though, I did not have as deep as a conversation with the organizer I had only met once, I was still able to identify what the organization does and how, what power they had, and where they need support to be more effective.  It was a fruitful conversation in which clear next steps for collaboration emerged.

After my experiences, I will make one-to-ones an explicit and intentional part of my organizing.  However, I do have one concern as it relates to having one-to-one with community leaders.  I feel it is important to understand the difference between organizations and leaders.  It is certainly true that my relationship to an organization occurs through my individual relationships with the staff and leaders of that organization, and my relationship to them as individuals is important part of my relationship to the organization.  I could have more critical conversations about the organization with staff where trust has been established.  The relationship with the individual is connected to the organization but goes beyond the organization.  We have our relationship with each other despite what our specific roles are or what organization we are working for at the time.  A few months ago, I left a position at a local non-profit in my community, but I still have the relationship I built as part of the organization.  I cherish these relationships, and they are important for whatever I do next.

Just as our relationship with individuals within an organization are important for reasons beyond the scope of collaboration between us, it is even more important that we understand that our relationships with community leaders be more than just about the work.  We are fighting to change dehumanizing systems of power and privilege.  In order to do that, we must strive to bring humanizing principles and behaviors into our work.  We know building relationships for the purposes of establishing trust is important part of moving people to action, but if what we are trying to achieve becomes more important that the people you are building with then we have engaged in the same kind of dehumanizing activity we are challenging.  Thus, though one-to-ones with community leaders may be similar to our one-to-ones with organizations in that we are exploring whether a relationship can be built and our individual self-interests for the purposes of alignment, individuals are not organizations.  The possibility of alignment rests on the authenticity of our relationship in a way that is not true of organizations.

Organizing

To describe the role of a community organizer, I found a great definition on the Community Organizing page of the Harvard Law School. It states that community organizing is, “A process by which people are brought together to act in a common self-interest and in pursuit of a common agenda. Community organizers create social movements by building a base of concerned people, mobilizing these community members to act, and in developing leadership from and relationships among the people involved. Organized community groups seek accountability from elected officials, corporations, and institutions as well as increased direct representation within decision-making bodies and social reform.” The organizers role is to take a cause, and then build a movement from the ground up. In the article we read about the Ladder of Engagement, this process is described as, “… slowly working your supporters into donors, volunteers, and advocates.” The Ladder of Engagement was very successfully in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. This is how they did it, as explained by Jack Milroy, “Start with easy actions and escalate. Increase your collection of key data as people move up the ladder – from name, to email, location, interests etc. This will allow you to target your communications more effectively. Don’t hit people with your ultimate ask too soon – in this example the Obama campaign wanted donations, but it wasn’t until step four on the ladder that they made the ask, and even then it was softened with free swag in return. Think about how high the ladder can go. In this example the ladder stopped at the first donation, but it doesn’t have to. Ask for a bigger donation, ask for the person to sign up for recurring monthly donations. Ask them to come to a fundraising event. Keep walking people up the ladder of engagement.”

I saw this process work personally and nationally during the Obama campaign. I started with following pages on facebook, and then I would give my email, by signing petitions etc. I then began to receive emails offering a chance to have dinner with the Obama’s, no donation necessary. But I would usually give a small donation. There were also offers of bumpers stickers and other swag. I continued to give small donations throughout the campaign. And I started hearing about the groundswell of support that Obama was receiving from many small donations. I also volunteered to make phone calls on his behalf, so I was moving up the ladder. I had actually been even more involved in John Kerry’s run for president, in part because I was so opposed to the Iraq war. Things were very different then, because we did not have the technology that we have today. I became very involved in a group here in Orange County. We met once or twice a week to write hand-written letters to voters in red and swing states, asking them to get out and vote. I attended many rallies and made many phone calls. As we see now, much of an organizers job is done digitally, but the face to face relationship shouldn’t be lost in this. You have to reach out to people before you can build a social media base. As Lee Staples says in our text, “Organizing is a bottom-up philosophical approach to social change, not simply a method to achieve it.” This is in line with the Ladder of Engagement, starting out with the initial meeting of two people or more.

As of this time, I do not personally have a dream of my role as an organizer. Although I have been politically active for much of my life, I have never been the actual organizer. And lately, mainly prior to the November election, I wasn’t as involved in social issues as I would like to be. That is one of the main reasons I was drawn to the Social Justice and Community Organizing master’s program. I have been feeling compelled to contribute to positive change in any way I can. And since starting this program, I have been guided to some very good social justice programs in my community. I can’t say for sure what my dream for my future as an organizer is as of yet. As I learn more about the process, and gain more confidence, I will be better able to visualize my future in this field.

References

Staples, L. (2004). Roots to power: a manual for grassroots organizing. Westport, CT: Praeger

Milroy, J. (2016, May 11). Digital organizing 101: what is a ladder of engagement and why do we need one? Retrieved from https://medium.com

Harvard Law School (n.d.). Community organizing page. Retrieved from http://hls.harvard.edu

Organizers Organize Organizations

It’s almost silly to think I started a degree in Social Justice and Community Organizing without really knowing what community organizing is or what a community organizer does. I’ve learned since the role of an organizer can be intricately complex, yet quite simple in principle. On the most basic level, they organize (obvious, I know). I think the complexity comes from the skills needed from an organizer can manifest in a variety of ways based on the needs of the organization and/or movement. No organizing job is likely to be the same as any other, as no group of members is the same. Each group with have their own needs that an organizer will need to match.

According to Beckwith and Lopez (1998), “organizers organize organizations.” Although almost a tongue twister, this points out that the organizer is working structurally to the organization, rather than leading. The role of an organizer is be a coach, catalyst, devil’s advocate, cheerleader, strategist, and more. However, the role is never to say what is best for the members, what goal(s) to peruse, or making the final decision, all of those things stay in the hands of the members. Organizers do not advocate on anyone’s behalf, but rather pull people together to advocate on their own behalf (Staples, 2004). Organizers help a group find their voice and use it.

Organizers focus on building a community with a purpose, which will maximize the power and participation of its members (Western Organization of Resource Councils, 2009). The goal of an organizer is to grow a member base to tackle the issues the members are invested in, and then encourage and support them to do the work (Beckwirth and Lopez). Although an organizer is not a leader of an organization and/or movement, they do need to identify and encourage others to become leaders at every step of the way. As the Western Organization of Resource Councils points out, “never do for others what they can do for themselves” (p.1). Instead, organizers stay somewhat marginal to the organization and act as a catalyst for the members to enact their own change (Staples)

In addition to not particularly understanding what community organizing is, I came into this program saying, “I don’t want to be an organizer.” When considering the program, I spoke with Mary Poole, a professor in the on-campus SJCO program at Prescott College, and she told me that although she isn’t a traditional “community organizer” that she organizes in her work constantly, in a multitude of ways. I heard the same sentiment of organizing encompassing more than what I had originally perceived echoed by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, a New York based playwright, who told me after years of being an organizer he finds “everything is actually organizing.”

I share this all to say, I’m still figuring out what my dreams for organizing are. I am not quite sure what I hope to do with all this knowledge, just that I want to be able to enact change strategically in some way. When entering this program, I thought a lot about my frustration with being able to see issues around me, but not be able to make changes happen. My dreams for organizing are to be a better member, and strategist, whether that means I am an “organizer” or not.

However, the more I read the more I can see myself working in direct community organizing. I have always gravitated towards systems thinking and balancing many projects, timelines, and tasks at once, all of which are crucial abilities of an organizer. I have always been a behind-the-scenes person making sure everything is working and running smoothly. I really like the idea of designing strategies, problem solving, and ultimately empowering others to take control of a situation and advocate for themselves. I can see myself playing a role of helping mobilize and empower a community.

-Anza Jarschke

 

Works Cited

Beckwith, D. & Lopez, C. (1998). Community organizing: People power from grassroots. Center for Community Change. Retrieved from https://comm-org.wisc.edu/papers97/beckwith.htm
Staples, L. (2004). Power to the people, Roots to power: A manual for grassroots organizing (pp.1-26). Westport, CT: Pragers.
Western Organization of Resource Councils. (2009). How to understand the role of a community organizer. Retrieved from http://www.worc.org/media/Howto-Understand-Role-of-Community-Organizer.pdf

The Role of an Organizer

About three years ago, I took my first job as a community organizer.  I had never done organizing work before.  I learned about organizing by attending conferences and workshops, reading books, observing other organizers, and through trial and error.  The more I learned the more I realized how much I still have to learn.  My experiences as an organizer have been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life.

One of the best resources I found about organizing is Tools for Radical Democracy.  The authors explain that an “organizer builds a group of people or institutions to address a common problem through collective action.”  Though organizers are involved in planning and participating in the action, they primarily work behind the scenes to convene, educate, agitate, motivate, and coach leaders.  The face and decision-making power of any campaign belongs to the leaders, those directly impacted by the issue.  While there may be times in which the organizer speaks to the media or at a public event, this type of involvement in the campaign should be limited.  The primary responsibility of an organizer is to help leaders think critically about the problem and what they want to do about it, provide the needed support to carry out the plan, and help the group evaluate their success.

I attended organizing training hosted by MidWest Academy consultant, Keron Blair.  MidWest Academy is a great resource to learn more about organizing from experienced organizers.  Blair explained that organizing is about building power to get someone to do what you want them to do.  Power is organized people.  The different types of people power include: electoral, consumer, disruptive, and legal/regulatory power.

Blair trained us on what is needed to develop a winning strategy.  To win, you must know who has the power to meet your demands and what it will take to move this person to action.  You must know who the specific person(s) is and not just the agency or governing body.  This information will inform your strategy.  For example, if you want to get a piece of progressive legislation passed in a conservative controlled legislature (as is often the case in the South where I work), you will need to know how many and which legislatures you are likely to convince, and target their base to pressure these legislatures.  This means you will need to spend time mobilizing conservative voters.

Another great resource for organizers is Roots to Power: A Manual for Grassroots Organizing.  The book outlines two different approaches to organizing, community development and social action, and provides the readers will tools and strategies for building winning campaigns.  The differences between community development and social action approaches are best summed up as an inside versus outside approach to organizing.  A community development approach to organizing involves working within the current structures to make changes that improve the lives of people; while the social change approach involves operating outside the structures to convince, pressure, or coerce decision maker to meet demands.  This involves methods from persuasion through disruption.  Different situations will call for different approaches or a combination of these approaches.  Having an analysis of power, will help determine which would approach be best.

The most important thing I have learned in the last three years as an organizer is to take time to reflect on how you are working as an organizer.  It is easy to get caught up in the fight and forget to evaluate yourself as an effective organizer.  I have to remind myself, as organizer and a person who cares very deeply about the issues I organize around, not to step into activist and advocacy roles for too long.  I see my focus as an organizer is more than just winning a campaign; it’s about the people I build with, being what they need me to be so that they can step into their own power and agency.

References:

Minieri, J. and Getsos, P. (2007). Tools for Radical Democracy: How to Organize for Power in Your Community. San Francisco, CA: Chardon Press.

Midwest Academy. http://www.midwestacademy.com/training/. Accessed September 20, 2017.

Staples, Lee (2016). Roots to Power: A Manual for Grassroots Organizing. Santa Barbra, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC.

 

 

#OneFlag4All: It’s time we reconcile our past with our hopes for the future, beginning with changing the flag.

Photo taken at 1 Flag for All Rally across from the Southern Legislature Conference Opening Ceremony in Gulfport, MS August 29, 2017

By Jennifer Crosslin (Audience: white Mississippians)

A few months ago, I joined a grassroots effort to change the Mississippi state flag. On Tuesday, September 12^th, I attended a public event, Understanding the History of Our State Flag, hosted by Mississippi Rising Coalition and League of Women Voters. There was a facilitated public discussion following a presentation on the history of the state flag and current efforts to change it. About 100 people showed up for this event. The majority of people in the room were people I have seen and/or coordinated with as part of the effort to change the flag. Still, there were a few unrecognizable faces, a few supporters of the current flag, and perhaps most importantly a couple local politicians, including the Mayor of Ocean Springs.

There were some pretty compelling personal reflections shared at Tuesday’s event. One Black man in the audience shared his personal story of a new relationship he has with an older white woman who after many conversations with him changed her mind about the flag. She shared with him that if keeping the flag meant that it would undermine her new friendship with him, then she would rather have the flag changed to protect the relationship.

What an inspiring story! This story lends itself to the challenge Mississippians have to heal from its past and move forward as a unified state celebrating its diversity. Studies have shown that building authentic relationships with mutual respect and trust can have a profound affect on the way we think and interact with people of different races. Yet, in Mississippi, we live segregated lives and for many the opportunity rarely presents itself to have enough of these experiences to matter. We might try to facilitate these types of interactions, but generally, those that show up in these spaces, while still beneficial, are more likely to support initiatives such as the flag change.

Still, the public discourse and public pressure to change the flag in this state has been effective. In the last two years, all universities in this state have taken the state flag from their campus. Many businesses and cities also no longer fly the flag on their grounds, and a handful of Republican politicians have publicly stated that it is time to change the flag, including the Speaker of the House.

Despite these gains, however, there have been efforts by the state legislature to force public universities and cities to fly the flag again, and attempts at the local level to put the flag back up where it was taken down. The Ocean Springs newly elected mayor, for example, put the state flag back up after the previous mayor had taken it down. These point to the fact that there is still more work to do.

Had you attended Tuesday’s event, you would have learned about the shameful history of Mississippi elected officials that chose the current state flag to symbolize their effort to reclaim white supremacy following Reconstruction.

Many white Mississippians today believe we fought in the Civil War to defend our way of life from the overreaching and too big for its own sake federal government. This is not at all surprising given that the Lost Cause of the Confederacy is taught in our schools.  What exactly was this way of life Mississippians were defending? It was spelled out in the Articles of Succession. “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest of the world.” It was about state’s rights, but really it was about slavery. It became about state’s rights when the North would no longer tolerate the inhumane and disgusting institution of slavery and that the economic gains from enslaving another human being was no longer justifiable. After much resistance from Black and white folks, the northern states exercised what power they had to force an end to slavery. Sure the North’s behavior can be framed as a violation of state’s rights, but it can also be said that the North had a moral obligation to do the right thing.

Reconstruction was the period after the Civil War where Mississippi was under federal obligation to re-write its constitution and hold open and free elections. Leading up to the elections, the federal government occupied Mississippi to ensure slaves were freed and fair elections were held. Mississippi elected a significant number of African Americans and created a new constitution.

This new status of Black Mississippians did not last long because the white elite hatched a plan to take back the political control they lost. White Mississippians murdered the newly elected Black politicians, re-wrote the constitution that disenfranchised Black folks, selected a new flag to symbolize their return to white supremacy (our current flag) and engaged in state sanctioned violence to maintain it.

During that time, many Mississippi politicians openly declared that lynching would be used to enforce white supremacy. If you search old Mississippi newspaper headlines, you will find several that read, “Lynching Today…” From 1877 to 1950, more Black folks were lynched in Mississippi than any other state. According to the Equal Justice Initiative report, the total was 641. Then and even today, white people proudly displaying their confederate heritage carried out the acts of terror and violence towards Black people.

You may recall the picture of the white terrorist of the Charleston Church bombings and the confederate flag that led to South Carolina’s removal of confederate emblem on its state flag. It was this horrific act the spurred the debate in Mississippi as well and led to the grassroots movement to change the flag.

Yesterday, I asked a friend what he thought about the flag. He is a white male who grew up in Mississippi. He tells me, “The confederate emblem on our flag represents a part of our history that we should not want to glorify. It is insulting that it is our state flag, and if it offends people living here, then it should be changed.” Then he proceeded to tell me that he has not taken action to change it because he believes his voice doesn’t matter, and when I unpacked this statement a little more, he explained that he simply doesn’t have “skin in the game.” It is interesting that these were his chosen words, because it is his skin color that protects him from feeling the quiet rage and/or fear that many Black Mississippians feel when they see our state flag.

His attitude reflects a long history of white complacency. It is this attitude that has contributed to the preservation of white supremacy in this state and the country.   Because my friend does not see what is at stake for him as a white Mississippian, he feels comfortable in his inaction. Martin Luther King Jr. is famously quoted for saying, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” These are powerful words, but what does this mean exactly?

Though I think seeing the connection between all things is a journey rather than an answer to a question, I think a good place to start to understand the wisdom of Dr. King, Jr.’s words is education. We need to know the history of racism in this country (including the construction of race), how it has evolved today, and how white people have benefitted from this racial hierarchy of power and privilege.

Many white Mississippians I have met are confused about what racism actually is. They use the word “racist” without fully understanding the concept. If you look it up in the dictionary, you will get the following, “racism is discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity.” This definition, however, needs to be put into context. Words are often defined in the universal sense, devoid of context. This matters because racism as a phenomenon that exists in the United States has a specific meaning. The hierarchy of power and privilege in this country from the beginning has and still is based on the skin color with white and light-skinned people on top and dark skinned people on the bottom. Racism in the United States is white supremacy. Racism as it has been experienced since the birth of the United States has never been any other way.

The definition of racism also leads people to assume that it is an interpersonal act, one person mistreating another on the basis of their race or ethnicity, but racism in this country is not just an interpersonal act. It is, more importantly, a systemic issue. Racism is woven into the fabric of our political, economic, and social-cultural systems in covert and overt ways. It is important that we come to understand the structural racism that still exists in this country so that we can put an end to it.

Additionally, many Mississippians think of racism as a thing of the past. Thus, the only form of racism that exists today would be interpersonal racism. This, however, is not true. It does not look like slavery or Jim Crow, but it still exists. Today, politicians are not allowed to explicitly write laws that discriminate against people of color. What they can do is write a policy that targets people of color by virtue of where they live and/or the type of work and activities they are more likely to be engaged in, and their citizenship status. Because the laws and policies are not explicitly racist, they can also impact white people, especially white poor people. The fact that this happens only reinforces the mindset that racism is a thing of the past.

Today structural racism shows up in the gerrymandering of districts, divestment of communities of color, proximity to industrial pollution (more people of color live near industry), voter laws that disproportionately impact people of color, the prison system that targets people of color (read The New Jim Crow by Michele Alexander), and so many more ways.

I have heard people try to claim that racial inequality can be explained as a result of personal and community choices and concentration of poverty. While, like white folks, people of color also make bad choices, the best explanation for inequality according to the research is systemic racism and the legacy of past forms of racism and colonization. Consider this question, do you think a state that fought desegregation all the way until 2016 when the Supreme Court ordered Mississippi to integrate schools in the Cleveland school district, ratified the 13^th amendment that freed slaves in 2013, and run by a majority of white men with ties and/or romantic notions about the confederacy does NOT pass racist policies?

Another important question that my friend and many other white Mississippians have is, “what is white privilege”? Often, when white people hear this term, they get defensive because they believe they worked hard for everything they have. For many people in this country, the struggle to achieve the American dream is real and can lead one to think that their experiences in this struggle and the choices and actions they made were key factors in their success. They struggled and earned it, and that feels good. Saying that they didn’t earn it feels like an attempt to invalidate their experiences and their struggle and deny them the pride they feel that comes with accomplishment. No one is saying that white people don’t work hard, but being white does give advantages that people of color do not have.

Until a few years ago, though I was familiar with the concept and understood it intellectually, I had never experienced what white privilege meant for my life. I think understanding it intellectually helped me be open to understanding how it showed up in my life, but it took a courageous friend pointing out the differences in the way I was being treated by others in our profession for me to move beyond my intellect and into to the space where I experienced my white privilege. My ideas were more easily accepted and championed and my work less scrutinized. Our conversation about these differences uncovered that some of the ways we were being treated differently were invisible to us. Only by talking about it, did it become clear that my privilege led to more money, responsibility, and freedom.

These experiences reinforced my pride for a job well done. Confronting my white privilege allowed me to be more critical of my work and be more open to change. In other words, it made me better. Unfortunately, the difference between my friend and myself is that I benefit from confronting my white privilege and our relationship with each other also benefits, but my friend will continue to be treated differently as long as racism exists in this county.

Despite my desire to dismantle white supremacy, I was not totally on board with the effort to change the flag. I signed a petition, emailed my representative about it, and even attended a rally, but it wasn’t until recently that I became part of planning the actions and organizing people. I pondered whether I really wanted to spend my time and energy to change the flag when clearly there are so many other more profound issues impacting the health, socio-economic wellbeing, and dignity of Black folks in Mississippi?

I have come to realize something that is best summed up in the words of MS Representative Sonya Williams Barnes: “It’s not just a flag.  It represents a mindset that affects policy that hurts people such as lack of access to healthcare, underfunded public education, lack of services for mental health… The cloth represents layers of hurt and oppression embedded in the mentality of many representatives.  We have to strip the flag to get rid of the mindset… Let’s change the flag.”

How can we expect to get rid of the racist policies today and address the inequality between white and Black Mississippians if we cannot even see the truth about our past and let go of the romanticized notions of the confederacy?

The effort to change the flag has forced public discourse about the state’s history, white supremacy, and white privilege. When the flag change happens, more than just the flag will have changed. The hearts and minds of many white Mississippians will have changed in the process. Others will have taken this opportunity to deepen their knowledge and understanding, find their voice, and build relationships so that the work continues and the conditions my ancestral heritage created that continues to marginalize the lives of Black and Brown folks are transformed.

 

 

DACA Discussions on Twitter

To continue with the theme I wrote about last week, I decided to follow some twitter conversations about the DACA issue. It may have just been the twitter pages I was looking at, but I was dismayed that the majority of the replies I saw were in favor of Trump’s decision to rescind DACA. The pages I looked at were those of Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Patty Murray, NPR, and the Los Angeles Times. I really expected to see more replies in favor of DACA on these pages. It seemed as if Senator Harris had the most negative replies. I was surprised to see the amount of people who don’t agree with her who are looking at her tweets. She seems to be followed by a lot of trolls. It’s disturbing that powerful women have to endure so much negativity.

 

For this post, I am going to focus on the thread of replies to a tweet on the Los Angeles Times feed from September 12th, 2017. The tweet was, “California governor, legislative leaders allocate $30 million for ‘Dreamers’ in wake of DACA decision” with a link to the corresponding article: lat.2wY12FK. The first reply mentioned that with California’s homelessness problem, the state would be better off with the $30 million for that. A very common response on this, and other feeds, was the suggestion that the money could or should be used elsewhere. A reply to that first response made the point that money is being allocated through Measure H, as well as other measures, to combat homelessness. This was to make the point that money is being allocated for other issues as well. But many in the thread just thought that taxpayer money shouldn’t be spent on, as they called them, “illegals”.

 

The insensitivity to the plight of young people who were brought to this country as infants or children, grew up here, and know no other life, is just baffling to me. A common theme in the thread is the opinion that the California government takes better care of immigrants than they do those who were born in this country. As one poster said, “Must be nice to be a Dreamer…”. Another said, “All of the illegals seem [sic] like they always get rewarded”. I am really saddened by the lack empathy exhibited in most of the replies in this thread. There were 51 posts in this thread, and only two people replied with, what I see as, common sense.

 

So my experiment with looking at conversations on what I thought would be twitter pages with a higher number of open-minded people, ended up being pretty disheartening. I’m still trying to figure out why the negative comments outnumbered the positive ones on these pages. I did hear some good news on the DACA issue today, however. The Los Angeles Times tweeted today, September 13, 2017, “State Senate committee approves budget proposal to assist DACA recipients in California: latt.ms/2h3SDpP. There is also a quote from Governor Jerry Brown, “California stands with the millions of immigrants who make this state a vibrant and prosperous place.” I also saw on the news today that House leaders were going to meet today on the future of Dreamers. This meeting was instigated by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California. So there is some room for hope.

One-to-One with Professor Hagedorn

I was born and raised in Napa, California. I went to an elementary school with a 90%+ Chicanx population (full disclosure, I was part of the less than 10% white student body). The most recent numbers I’ve heard are 45% of the town’s population, and more than 55% of students in the school district, are people of color. Most of this population are Chicanx and primarily involved in the wine or service industry revolving around the mega-tourism of Napa. My mother and I own a home, that she lives in, in a predominantly latinx neighborhood. I still have strong ties to the community, and I visit a couple of times a month. This last weekend when I was visiting I was able to meet up with Professor Carlos Hagedorn (who is teaching the online Radical Pedagogy as Praxis class) and conduct my first one-to-one with him.

As this was my first one-to-one, I was quite nervous, so Carlos seemed like the perfect person to connect with. Low stakes, as he’s a professor in the program, yet we had a lot of common ground in regards to Napa, the education system, and the immigrant population of the town. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to conduct a one-to-one with. Carlos has a kind air about him, was very easy to talk to, and so passionate about his work. Not only that, but he was very detailed and expressive, which was perfect for information gathering.

We started with talking about what lead him to Napa, which was a multi-year journey from San Francisco, with stops in Europe and New York City along the way. Like many stories I’ve heard, Napa was supposed to be a six-month gig—and that was ten years ago now. In hearing the journey from graduate school to Napa, I learned about how he fell into teaching and learned that he realized a gift for working with youth. We also talked about his concerns for the community, teaching at Napa Valley College, and starting an amazing program called Legacy Youth Project focused on working with traditionally marginalized students of the Napa Valley Unified School District.

What struck me about Carlos is he has gotten to where he is by saying “yes” when people ask him to step up to the plate. Saying “yes” got him to New York City, saying “yes” got him into teaching, saying “yes” got him involved with Napa Valley College, and saying “yes” got him started on his current passion project of Legacy. It reminded me of how important it is for passionate and powerful people to be open to possibilities, to collaborate, and just give things a chance.

I am particularly pleased with this connection. In addition to being one of my professors, Carlos is plugged into the Napa organizing scene. I haven’t actually gotten involved in a local community to me (local is a relative term about here, as everything is ~45-60 minutes away). Although I am no longer in Napa, it still feels like my community. Carlos has the ability (and wants) to connect with other organizers and social justice folks in Napa. Over the course of the program, I am hoping that I can do some work with Carlos and Legacy in the future. I look forward to staying connected with Carlos and meeting up again when I’m in Napa again.

-Anza Jarschke

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