where ive been
June 29, 2009
hey there
you may have wondered why i havent been posting as frequently lately. well, as i had stated before i was cocooning.
and in the interim i thought you might want to be alerted to some things going on in our lil world.
like:
#i have been guest blogging at flip flopping joy for the past week. and will be doing so for at least another week or so. so if you want to check out the posts…
messy but necessary
1. one of the things i have learned in community building is that communities are not monolithic. now this may seem to be an obvious point. but one of the principles of my community work has been that we must follow the leadership of the oppressed marginalized excluded.
and in theory. on paper. on screen. that looks really ethical.
in practice. on the ground. off line. these clear lines get much messier.
after years of thought and work, i have stopped referring to myself as non-violent. non-violence to me is a series of tactics that one uses in order to achieve a more just world. non-violence is a tactic. not a goal. in the non-violent org i used to work for (the same one that joy worked for in palestine) we used to joke: non-violence is the answer. non-violence is the answer. non-violence is the answer. now what was the question?
1. We as a society give so much more credit to a white person who is fluent in a third world or people of color language, cultural style and lifestyle than we give to a person of color or third world person who learns intimately a white person’s language and cultural style.
For the white person who masters the others language he or she is made into a ‘master’ of that language and culture. And of Language and Culture in general.
In a person of color such parallel mastery of white folks language or another poc or third world communities language is considered to be ‘par for the course’. In other words it is to be expected of a poc with any ambition to be able to mimic the language and cultural norms of white folks. I am not sure why this is exactly.
after years of thought and work, i have stopped referring to myself as non-violent. non-violence to me is a series of tactics that one uses in order to achieve a more just world. non-violence is a tactic. not a goal. in the non-violent org i used to work for (the same one that joy worked for in palestine) we used to joke: non-violence is the answer. non-violence is the answer. non-violence is the answer. now what was the question?
1. We as a society give so much more credit to a white person who is fluent in a third world or people of color language, cultural style and lifestyle than we give to a person of color or third world person who learns intimately a white person’s language and cultural style.
For the white person who masters the others language he or she is made into a ‘master’ of that language and culture. And of Language and Culture in general.
In a person of color such parallel mastery of white folks language or another poc or third world communities language is considered to be ‘par for the course’. In other words it is to be expected of a poc with any ambition to be able to mimic the language and cultural norms of white folks. I am not sure why this is exactly.
i am also also blogging at raven’s eye. and have altered some what the format of the blog. you can check it out here.
also i just posted an article here at vegans of color:
