Their website is terrible. And fwiw I think they operate in like small local chapters so the quality of analysis is prob variable? As are the local partnerships that each chapter organizes with POC-led orgs in their area.
I do think it's a long but maybe necessary trip from "painfully earnest might cry" dawning race consciousness to actually being ready to function in a useful way for movement efforts. If SURJ isn't the right vehicle for getting people there, maybe something with key differences would be better, but SURJ is kind of what we have? And the whole point is to keep the work out of POC spaces so Black and brown ppl don't have to witness white tears/fragility/etc.
I went to a meeting once. It was p awkward. The person who opened the meeting did the whole yoga-esque icebreaker. "Close your eyes, put your feet flat on the floor, and FEEL the energy coming out of your feet and FLOWING all the way down to the ground." (We were on the 10th floor.) I organized some admin stuff for them and then had to bow out because of scheduling. They would have wanted me to take on more responsibility and I have kind of a full plate tbh. There were Black, brown, and Asian folks there as well, and some people from local racial justice orgs as facilitators.
― If authoritarianism is Romania's ironing board, then (in orbit), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:27 (seven years ago) link
Ideally SURJ or something like it would get people ready to provide the labor to support Black-led organizing with extra resources and capacity. Need money? Ask your white allies to fundraise. Need 25 people to do behind-the-scenes work for an event? Ask for white volunteers who will take orders from your org. Need non-POC to make a safety barrier to protect LGBQTPOC at a protest? You see where this is going.
― If authoritarianism is Romania's ironing board, then (in orbit), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:32 (seven years ago) link
Yes, that all makes a lot more sense that the picture the website drew for me.
― ¶ (DJP), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:32 (seven years ago) link
picturing a little animation of a cop throwing some tear gas and a white guy diving on top of it before it gets close to protestors
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:36 (seven years ago) link
Nothing so heroic. It's better to think of it as white guy making uhhh protest puppets or something in a barn for a POC org to carry in the streets because he has the time to do so. But then him not going on the march itself because he doesn't represent the affected community.
― If authoritarianism is Romania's ironing board, then (in orbit), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:39 (seven years ago) link
from puppet master to puppet maker
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:40 (seven years ago) link
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/54183f486bb3f7d466f059ec-960/surge-movement.png
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:41 (seven years ago) link
see, this is exactly why i wish and what still posted here.
― pplains, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 19:03 (seven years ago) link
The war on punctuation could have been temporarily suspended for that sentence.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 19:11 (seven years ago) link
(We were on the 10th floor.)
lol
― qop (crüt), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 19:13 (seven years ago) link
I will admit that the first thing that came to mind as I read through the website was the teacher from the Kwanzaa pageant episode of The Boondocks
― ¶ (DJP), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 19:16 (seven years ago) link
I really don't know which level of irony to tackle first here. Do I start with "white person proclaims need to listen to people of color while simultaneously not listening to or understanding the question/objection being posed by the black man looking at this group for the first time" or do I ask again "how is this group listening to the voices of POC if it is for white people/by white people as the verbiage on the website led me to believe" and wonder if the more explicit framing will get you to answer the actual question I was asking (which other people on the thread DID answer, btw; the website is terrible and makes the group look like something it is not unless you are familiar with them already, so I'm not 100% sure why you non-answered my question).
― ¶ (DJP)
djp, since you're directly asking me a question, i'll respond, and my response is, look, i was raised in a racist and implicitly white supremacist system and that's limited what i'm able to understand and how i'm able to act. i'm pretty slow, and i'm pretty ignorant. i'm doing my best, but i simply don't think of myself as competent to engage with POC on issues of race, and frankly i'm not sure i'll ever be.
― xiphoid beetlebum (rushomancy), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 20:21 (seven years ago) link
I 100% do not know how you are expecting me to respond to that so I'll just say: thanks?
― ¶ (DJP), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 20:33 (seven years ago) link
you're welcome. you keep saying what needs to be said and i'll do my best to listen and to learn, and i will probably continue to misunderstand and screw up, but the teacher is not to blame if the student is poor. :)
― xiphoid beetlebum (rushomancy), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 20:37 (seven years ago) link
Ilxors, keep on ilx-ing / cos it won't be too long
― sleepingbag, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 20:39 (seven years ago) link
it's ok, I'm still trying to self-ban myself from posting on a couple threads where my comments are worthless and just read what's there, but the post button still works
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 20:44 (seven years ago) link
rushomancy are you an american, out of curiosity?
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 16 November 2016 20:50 (seven years ago) link
well i'm not a dane :)
yeah, midwestern american, smack dab in the center of "we're not racist!" country :)
― xiphoid beetlebum (rushomancy), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 21:05 (seven years ago) link
sup
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 23:02 (seven years ago) link
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/texas-rejects-mexican-american-studies-textbook-seen-racist-n684881
The Texas State Board of Education, in a preliminary, but key vote, unanimously rejected a highly-criticized Mexican-American studies textbook that contained numerous errors and material that many saw as racist.The book, titled "Mexican American Heritage," was considered by the Texas State Board of Education for Mexican-American studies classes that the state recently allowed as elective courses. The board rejected the textbook 14-0 on Wednesday in Austin, Texas.Since its submission, the book had been blasted for passages that painted Mexican Americans as undocumented immigrants and claimed that illegal immigration has "caused a number of economic and security problems in the United States," including "poverty, non-assimilation, drugs, crime, and exploitation." The book also said Mexican laborers "were not reared to put in a full day's work so vigorously" and that they had a culture of "mañana."
The book, titled "Mexican American Heritage," was considered by the Texas State Board of Education for Mexican-American studies classes that the state recently allowed as elective courses. The board rejected the textbook 14-0 on Wednesday in Austin, Texas.
Since its submission, the book had been blasted for passages that painted Mexican Americans as undocumented immigrants and claimed that illegal immigration has "caused a number of economic and security problems in the United States," including "poverty, non-assimilation, drugs, crime, and exploitation." The book also said Mexican laborers "were not reared to put in a full day's work so vigorously" and that they had a culture of "mañana."
― and this section is called boner (Phil D.), Thursday, 17 November 2016 00:12 (seven years ago) link
im surprised that this was so well defeated, the tx board of ed must have improved sometime recently
― geometry-stabilized craft (art), Thursday, 17 November 2016 00:15 (seven years ago) link
they probably objected to the idea that exploitation of immigrants was going on
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Thursday, 17 November 2016 14:01 (seven years ago) link
trigger warning: violence, graphic pictures
https://www.facebook.com/DontNvME/posts/10210023513771887
― 龜, Thursday, 17 November 2016 22:09 (seven years ago) link
Jesus Christ
― ¶ (DJP), Friday, 18 November 2016 02:02 (seven years ago) link
people are fucking horrible
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Friday, 18 November 2016 17:28 (seven years ago) link
Don't know what thread to put this in, but the Board of Ed for the Portland Public School system just sent out this resolution to all parents about dealing with any INS/ICE-types who want to come snooping around for undocumented schoolchildren:
http://www.pps.net/cms/lib8/OR01913224/Centricity/Domain/219/Immigration%20Resolution%203%20FINAL.pdf
Deportation has been a fucked-up thing even during the Obama Admin, and at least the election gave enough of a shock to people to realize that plans and processes and rules need to be explicitly laid out instead of some nebulous problem they didn't have to necessarily deal with immediately.
― (rocketcat) 🚀🐱 👑🐟 (kingfish), Friday, 18 November 2016 18:08 (seven years ago) link
schoolchildren bullied in NYC http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2016/48/all-teachers-bullying-immigrant-students-trump-election-2016-11-25-bk.html
― 龜, Friday, 18 November 2016 19:04 (seven years ago) link
Story Highlights: Wednesday night's York County Advisory Council meeting was overshadowed by racial overtones.
“I’m white power, to let you know,” Marsik said. “I’m white power. I belong to the white people that fought and died to set the black people free in this country, who fought and died to keep the freedoms in this country, who work hard, who pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, pay their taxes only to see them squandered, OK, by irrational types of behavior by certain communities."
http://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/local/2016/11/16/racial-tensions-threaten-boil-over-human-relations-meeting/93994464/
― mookieproof, Friday, 18 November 2016 19:41 (seven years ago) link
flush em out
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 18 November 2016 20:01 (seven years ago) link
Is there any reason at all at this point to assume that all police departments are not infested by, or controlled by, people like this?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3953602/Alabama-police-officer-fired-racist-Facebook-post-saying-Michelle-Obama-fluent-ghetto.html
― and this section is called boner (Phil D.), Monday, 21 November 2016 14:58 (seven years ago) link
xxp the subtext is rapidly becoming text.
― If authoritarianism is Romania's ironing board, then (in orbit), Monday, 21 November 2016 15:24 (seven years ago) link
btw the aftermath on that Chili's story upthread:
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/restaurants/2016/11/13/man-got-free-veterans-day-meal-cedar-hill-chilis-manager-took-away
― Neanderthal, Thursday, 24 November 2016 15:51 (seven years ago) link
you guys
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/i-voted-for-trump-so-there-white-shopper-melts-down-after-black-workers-ask-her-to-pay-for-bag/
― ¶ (DJP), Monday, 28 November 2016 16:59 (seven years ago) link
"You standing there with your baby thinking that’s okay”
WITH YOUR BABY
― mark s, Monday, 28 November 2016 17:03 (seven years ago) link
LITERALLY thinking that's ok
― diary of a mod how's life (wins), Monday, 28 November 2016 17:05 (seven years ago) link
The best I can ask of the racist dystopia my country is hell-bent on being is that it makes me laugh really fucking hard as it works its way around to oppressing me.
― ¶ (DJP), Monday, 28 November 2016 17:32 (seven years ago) link
“You’re a liar, I don’t care, because I’m a consumer,” she shouts at an employee.
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Tuesday, 29 November 2016 15:00 (seven years ago) link
Minneapolis Star-Tribune publishes story about Mall of America's first black Santa, the predictable happens: https://twitter.com/stribgillespie/status/804532412613087232
Good suggestions in the replies to that tweet - only let paid subscribers comments online, but make them visible to everyone.
― and this section is called boner (Phil D.), Friday, 2 December 2016 15:08 (seven years ago) link
lol ulysses
― diary of a mod how's life (wins), Friday, 2 December 2016 15:10 (seven years ago) link
Three years since Megyn Kelly's "And by the way, for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white."
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 2 December 2016 16:06 (seven years ago) link
remember when she was as bad as it got? 2014 seems very very far away now.
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Friday, 2 December 2016 16:10 (seven years ago) link
i don't know if this belongs here but i know that if the guy that CONFESSED to the shooting was black he sure as hell would not have been released .
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/joe-mcknight-shooter-released-charged-article-1.2895977
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 2 December 2016 16:13 (seven years ago) link
WHAT THE FUCK. I can't even find any explanation or attempted justification for releasing him.
If you'd like more information on the investigation (feel free to disseminate far and fucking wide):Jefferson Parrish Sheriff's Office Homicide Division - 504-364-5300Colonel John N. Fortunato, Commander, Public Information Office - 504-363-5521
― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 December 2016 16:31 (seven years ago) link
first words out of the sheriff's mouth at the press conference are the he will arrest and imprison protesters .
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 2 December 2016 19:39 (seven years ago) link
what a fucking dick this sheriff is . strange vibe to this thing
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/12/watch_live_sheriff_normand_pre.html
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:15 (seven years ago) link
wtf does social media have to do with anything and why is he even talking about that?
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:16 (seven years ago) link
Jury says no consensus in South Carolina ex-cop Michael Slager's trial for Walter Scott's murder
― ¶ (DJP), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:19 (seven years ago) link
xpost Well, social media is where I've been spreading his office's contact information, so I guess he has reason to be concerned about that.
― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:23 (seven years ago) link
lol nice
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:25 (seven years ago) link
Did Michael Slager, who shot an unarmed black man in the back as he was running away from him, commit a cowardly murder with malice on his mind? How could one ever discern such a thing?
― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:28 (seven years ago) link