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.
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In Angela Cheng's article, "On being Asian and Gay in Straight White America", I think we find one possible solution at the end of an already excellent piece of writing.
Cheng's article may be found at the link below.
(http://modelminority.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=118)
Cheng writes, "Last week, I was invited to join Trikone-Tejas in a joint discussions with Safe Space, an organization that seeks to create a safe haven for groups of discrimination."
I think is something we have to remember as activists involved in multiple projects. It is the collaboration which is so important to making changes happen.
"The discussion centered on creating safe space for the Asian-American GLBT community. The main focus was David Ayres' "China Dolls," a beautiful short film on Asian gay males in Australia."
I think the theme of creating a safe space, for a larger community, is a good start but it's not simple either.
As Cheng remembers, "Being pompous as I am, I figured that I knew everything about Asian-American queerness. I would just waltz into the discussion and share a little of my knowledge. Instead, I learned in a two-hour discussion equivalent to many years' worth of revelations."
From here, I want to point out how easy it is for activists to walk-into another's work, or project, and the danger of the "swagger". Is this familiar? I think of the countless activism group meetings I have attended and I think of the same problem. The presenters exclude others more than they unite.
I am interested to know what it takes to develop a sustainable social activist group. Surely, continuous recruitment may help but effective leadership must be key too.
All in all, I'm concerned that when we activists insist that we see the big picture, we're only looking at the world of our own work.
Are we? What can we do differently? What can we do better now?
Very interesting information, good site, nice job. Thanks.
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