Thoughts?
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Are We a "Nation of Cowards"?
While I'm not a fan of opinion columns, I think the summary provided through the NY Times link is a source for discussion.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Are We All Plagued with the Inability to Self-Organize?
As an undergraduate writing center tutor, I recently (October 2008) had the chance to present a special interest group workshop (along with six other peer tutors) at the IWCA/NCPTW 2008 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. We presented our experiences practicing Antiracist Activism at our writing center. While I could (and will soon do so) respond to the complicated variety of resistance we faced, I’d rather empathize with the invisibleness of most social justice work.
Our workshop was plagued, among others, with poor planning. Multiple presentations of social justice presentations, panels, or workshops, occurred at the same time as our own. Rather than coming together as a coalition of tutors interested in social justice, we were systematically separated and categorized individually as a result of our diversity in presentations.
While we could form special interest groups and committees forever into infinity, I’m concerned that we’re going nowhere politically. We are all marginalized voices and we need to stand together as a collective voice to respond to the political majority. Otherwise, we will become white noise to each other silencing ourselves through separate practices.
Perhaps the most difficult, most pressing issue in front of us is to decide how to effectively organize.
Keep writing!
Our workshop was plagued, among others, with poor planning. Multiple presentations of social justice presentations, panels, or workshops, occurred at the same time as our own. Rather than coming together as a coalition of tutors interested in social justice, we were systematically separated and categorized individually as a result of our diversity in presentations.
While we could form special interest groups and committees forever into infinity, I’m concerned that we’re going nowhere politically. We are all marginalized voices and we need to stand together as a collective voice to respond to the political majority. Otherwise, we will become white noise to each other silencing ourselves through separate practices.
Perhaps the most difficult, most pressing issue in front of us is to decide how to effectively organize.
Keep writing!
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