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Activism
Thursday, March 4, a group of UC Davis students marching through campus began to approach a freeway on-ramp for the purposes of occupation, and Yolo County Sheriff's Department officers blocked the route. They shot pepper balls at students' feet as the marchers continued to approach the on-ramp. Abruptly, the police pulled Laura Mitchell, a student and queer leader at UC Davis, from the front of the crowd, dragging her along the ground, ripping her shirt off, and holding her hostage until protesters agreed to dissipate. Police alleged no injuries were sustained by any in the crowd. The video clearly demonstrates otherwise.
Below is a video account of the afternoon ordeal. **Trigger Warning: Police violence at 6:43**
Additionally, more than 100 Bay Area protesters shut down the 880 and 980 freeways for hours on Thursday afternoon, creating gridlock. All were eventually arrested, including the student journalists among them. Many were beaten (video).
Mainstream portrayals of student activism tend toward stereotyping movements based on their place of origin. Berkeley, still widely known as "Berserkeley," or "The People's Republic Of Berkeley," lacks some agency on the national stage because of assumptions that all students are politically active. Along with Berkeley's legacy of activism around the Free Speech Movement is the legacy of administrative overreactions to protests. In fact, the administrative building on campus which hosts the offices of Vice Chancellors, California Hall, has "protest-proof" doors with two essential anti-protest features: first, they lack door handles so as to prevent any protester from chaining anything to the doors. Second, a backup pair of doors automatically swing shut and lock in case of protest or political activity outside.
The harder a campus works to shed its stereotype of activism, by repressing protest movements and student voices, the more radically students push back to gain press and attention from an administration. This builds a longer legacy of activism. The campus of UC Davis lacks that legacy of activism-- their mascot is the Aggies, short for the "Agriculturalists." But just as a generation of UC Berkeley students first witnessed police brutality on November 20, 2009, a generation of UC Davis students witnessed police brutality Thursday.
Hate Update:
UC San Diego Student Satire Publication goes too far
The Koala, which will receive more press for this hate than it
deserves, published a joke issue entirely themed around mocking the
Black Student Union and opponents of the Compton Cookout.
The Koala's newest issue satirizes the demands issued by the BSU in the recent weeks, by introducing a mock program-the Coalition of Outreach and Opportunity for Negro Students, or C.O.O.N.S for short. The "program" proposes such things as "Special All Black Housing" and "Special Classes Just 4 U!" including "SOC20N: Blame it on Whitey" and "Swimming 101: It's not actually that deep!"Story and full issue available here.
UC Berkeley logs its own anti-Black hate crime Monday
Monday morning, a 31-year-old Black woman said "Good morning" to a man
exiting the Recreational Sports Facility. He spat on her and called her
"n****r." She reported it to the UC Police Department, and it has been
classified as a hate crime.
--
Between the hateful incidents of February and March, the racial
tensions on campuses across the United States, and the exhausting March
4 Day of Action for Public Education, students, faculty, and workers
are now experiencing a high level of burnout. How can we possibly
tackle hate crimes, budget cuts, admissions policies, and midterm
season at the same time?
Some students have spoken up in opposition to linking the hate crimes with the college affordability struggle. What implication could isolated incidents and copycat racism really have on the climates of the ten unique University of California campuses? But Laura Mitchell, dragged along the ground nearly shirtless and held hostage, is an intern at the same UC Davis LGBT Resource Center that was vandalized in February. And the black student leaders mocked by the Koala are the same ones who demand that public education should be not only affordable, but safe. And the many LGBTQIA and Black organizers who are facilitating townhalls across the University of California system to respond to hateful acts represent two of the many communities who, under the new fee increases and admissions policies, will continue to be denied access to higher education.
In a recent Berkeley campus email responding to the hateful incidents, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau deferred to the work of the Vice-Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion on campus. I was reminded of a recent conference I attended, whose planning committee contained just one member who was the "Chair of Diversity." When only one person's job description includes creating a safe environment for students from communities of color, multicultural or LGBTQIA backgrounds, or economically disadvantaged situations, then those issues will be absent from the minds of everyone else.
Congratulations to the UC Davis protesters for piercing the "Davis Bubble" with the realities of fee increases and police brutality, and a speedy recovery to the thousands of burnt-out California activists this week.
Related:
Utah did not pass the bill to criminalize miscarriages! Some common sense and the public backlash definitely helped, I think. Good job talking about it and getting the word out, people! This is a nice sized triumph. : )
When someone calls you out for a privileged comment, it can be hard to realize that you were in the wrong. After all, everyone you know uses that word/you didn’t know it meant that/you didn’t mean it THAT way/you weren’t doing it on purpose/other people are too sensitive, right?
Wrong.
This has come up lately with the word “gypped” in my experience. Gypped is a racist term against Roma. When we use the term, we further the prejudice against the Roma and the stereotype that institutionalized the word and made it part of our vocabulary. So let’s imagine a dialogue right now:
Mary Sue: “That vendor gypped me!”
Becky Jean: “Mary Sue, gypped is sort of a racist term. Do you mean he cheated you?”
Mary Sue: “I’m not a racist! How dare you! Everyone uses that term, it’s not about black people or anything!!! Why are you attacking me, you’re not perfect!!!”
Becky Jean: “I know you don’t consider yourself a racist, but the language you use can betray your actual beliefs, so you need to be careful. I’m not attacking you, I’m informing you so that you can look into the term and eliminate racism from your vocabulary, so your words match up with the lifestyle you want to lead. The term refers to a stereotype of the Roma people, often referred to as Gypsies, and they suffer a lot of discrimination and hate, so we need to not further that with our words.I’m sorry if you felt attacked, that was not my intention.”
Now ideally, this is where Mary Sue calms down a little and says…
“Oh, I’m sorry I got so upset. Racist is such a scary term, and I immediately jump to my own defense. I was scared of my beliefs and words not matching up. Thanks for telling me. I know you don’t mean that I hate others, just that we live in a racist world and need to be conscious of our speech. Are there any other terms like that I should be aware of? We can help educate each other.”
Or…
“It isn’t racist!! I don’t even know any gypsies, and everyone uses the word!! You’re oversensitive, and you can’t save the world!!! I didn’t MEAN it, so it shouldn’t matter!!”
And here is where you want to cry, or start poking them very hard in the eye, right?
Well, violence is never the answer, and though crying might help you feel a bit better, it should probably be saved for when you can hug a puppydog and rant about the injustices of the world to your stuffed animals and significant other. And since right now, Becky Jean wants to come away from this conversations positively affecting Mary Sue, we’ll skip the crying.
Ganieda, one of our lovely commenters, linked me to this http://community.livejournal.com/fight_derailing/9867.html
It’s an excellent post entitled, “How to Discuss Race and Racism without Being a Jerk.” My favorite part is the part she quoted to me, during yet another of my epic rants about NOT BEING ABLE TO GET THROUGH TO PEOPLE AND GETTING FRUSTRATED
“Intentions aren’t the only thing that matters.
(Last one, and it’s short.) Suppose I step on someone’s foot. They say, “hey, ouch, you stepped on my foot.”
My proper response is, “Gosh, I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful.” Depending on the situation, I might add something like, “I was looking for my kid’s sneaker that she always kicks off,” or “I’ve got something in my contact,” etc.
My proper response is not, “Well, I didn’t mean to step on your foot, so why are you angry?!” “
This is a great example to point out to Mary Sue. You can explain yourself, you can ask for reassurance that the person calling you out isn’t considering you a Bad Person, but you have to show that you realize that your intention is not the be all and end all of the term and that it has a greater affect than “just being a word.”
Which is why Mary Sue’s explanation of not knowing the term’s severity and feeling attacked is a lot more valid and provides a lot more discussion than “well I didn’t know!!! you’re oversensitive!!!”
Another great example is a few posts earlier, in my Yay Spain! post. A commenter called me out on the image of Spain I’d put out. I apologized, agreed with her that my words did not get across my intentions, and explained what I exactly meant. Voila! Did it feel good being called out? No, I felt bad about unintentionally perpetuating a harmful stereotype by not using my words in a clear manner. But I drank some lemonade, felt sad for a minute, then sucked it up and responded. And I learned from it.
Now, if you’re wondering why I have a very long post on racism, the answer is intersectionality, and because the following tips can be used with sexists as well! Along with ableists and homophobes and sizeists and…..
More about intersectionality this time. Off to eat pizza bagels!
Hey people, did you know the UN’s Commission on Women is meeting to review the Beijing Platform for Action, which occurred in 1995, and the Commission on the Status of Women, which happened in 2000? I’d heard it was happening but didn’t think of writing it up until a lovely commenter brought it up in my last post. So thank you! I’d forgotten how little attention some events I think everyone is aware of actually get.
Here’s the text of the Beijing Platform
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/beijingdeclaration.html
Some of my favorite parts are
32. Intensify efforts to ensure equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all women and girls who face multiple barriers to their empowerment and advancement because of such factors as their race, age, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, or disability, or because they are indigenous people;
Yay, intersectionality!!!
34. Develop the fullest potential of girls and women of all ages, ensure their full and equal participation in building a better world for all and enhance their role in the development process.
Woohoo!!!
I’m gonna say it here: I’m not the hugest fan of bodies like the UN. I mean, that’s a lot of lofty goals right there, you know? And the radical in this blog title isn’t a joke, I’m a big fan of direct action and advocacy. I’m not against the UN’s Commission on Women by any means. It just isn’t enough. Giving a set of vaguely unattainable goals to governments saturated in the patriarchy can only do so much. It isn’t enough. But it is something, and I look forward to seeing how it turns out and what conclusions are drawn from the evaluation.
And, Happy International Women’s Day!
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