Black Youth Learning About Assata & Constructing Hope

Through the experience of attending teach-ins about the political persecution and exile of Assata Shakur, I gained further insight about children's ability to understand and communicate the realities of their social world.

As we've seen in the news, read on the internet, and hopefully talked about in our social circles, Assata Shakur was recently added to the curious Most Wanted Terrorist list and had an increased bounty of $2 million placed on her head by the FBI under President Obama's administration. I attended a teach-in for children from the Gary Freedom School presented by members of the Central District Organizing Project (CDOP), a grass-roots community group in Gary, IN. Events like these where hosted all over the country and in other countries to commemorate the spirit of fight-back, community, and knowledge in the face of injustice.

Questions discussed at the teach-in included:
- what is the advantage of labeling a Black woman in her 60s a most wanted terrorist?
- what can we do with $2 million dollars in our communities?
- after learning about Assata's activities to promote humane treatment for Blacks and the response from the government, does that affect you speaking out when you see something wrong? If so, how?
- had you ever hear of Assata Shakur? If no, why do you think this isn't taught? What are your feelings after leaning about her?
- how can we bring public attention to important issues?
- how do you inspire people to organize around these issues in their communities?

"Eyes of the Rainbow: Assata Shakur Documentary" 

by filmmaker Gloria Rolando

It was amazing to see how aware even the smaller children were of their surroundings.  Kids as young a 5 years old voiced their fear of police violence and of violence from other children. Older kids shared stories of family members being victimized by local police in ways like race-based profiling, having property destroyed, and intimidation.  They talked about how it felt when they were denied service at TGI Friday's after prom with chaperones, an issue currently being organized for by the most recent families to be discriminated against.

When addressing how Assata was shown in pictures like mugshots, in handcuffs, and escorted by the police, the kids knew right away the biased image they were being fed.  The organizers purposefully covered the walls with pictures of Assata smiling, laughing, relaxing, hugging her daughter, among people, and the children were very vocal about noticing the difference. Some might have thought a few children present were too young for the graphic descriptions of shootings, murder, and beatings that Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army members faced.  However, they were not too young to be affected by the continuing fear imposed by police occupations of their neighborhoods or the violence that comes with living in poverty.

In a book called Bad Boys: Public Schools and the Making of Black Masculinity by Ann Arnett Ferguson, elementary and middle school aged boys show an amazing ability to navigate their race, gender, and social class spaces.  They show an understanding of expectations and responsibilities and act accordingly.  They act out when they perceive that adults have violated their own rules, rules they are expected to follow.  They also know the consequences of life and death in their environment and express a desire to thrive and prosper.  These boys can do all of this because they are not sheltered from real life, from suffering, from abuses by authority figures, and they see how their parents are affected as well.

The children at the teach-in about Assata Shakur were in much the same situation. Whether they were older or younger they know the rules are somewhat different for them.  Through learning about police & government abuse of this one woman and her compatriots, and her ability to escape her binds to go on to teach and inspire people all over the world, they learn that their situations are not hopeless.  The gathering ended with a plan for action to build awareness and pride among their friends and to take part in active resistance against expectations for them to fail.  Through building knowledge they were able to construct hope, which was the real goal in learning about Assata.

Not Your Parents' Racism: Neo-Racism and the Generation Gap

I am increasingly and humorously aware of the widening generation gap between myself and the students in my sociology classes.  Seemingly small differences in pop cultural references can make the meaning a clever example on my part irrelevant, or result in a total breakdown in communication due to my lack of knowledge about youth culture jargon.  

More substantial are the different perceptions of racism held by my students.  Younger people have more of a shared culture now than in previous years.  Styles of dress, music, slang terminology, and access to technology are more likely to be similar than different for this demographic of students living in a close geographic area.  Because of these similar lifestyles, some perceive that racism, and discrimination in general, no longer exit.  Additionally, due to the utter lack of historical knowledge taught in schools or in the home, younger people are barely aware of the present societal and institutional affects of legalized racism in the U.S.  Recently, while talking about overt vs. covert racism, a student asked about the significance of a noose because he, and many in the class, had never heard of lynching.  A separate class of 27 students did not know the definition of abolitionism.  More students in yet another class had never heard of the massacres that took place at the Pine Ridge Reservation and were surprised to learn of the economic, psychological, and social peril that native people are still subjected to.  This lack of a reference for racism, institutional racism specifically, is the most dangerous threat to anti-racism.  Not knowing or being able to recognize racism in all its forms and vehemently denying its affect on relationship-building among people is the victory of all proponents of modern racism.

  We know that legalized racism no longer exists.  Racism in its most familiar forms, slavery, Jim Crow segregation, vocal objections to the presence of racial minorities in public spaces, etc. are less and less present in our lives.  However, neo-racism, racism disguised as everyday practices that go unacknowledged by the majority, is what plagues society currently.  A broader vision of racism as a practice that overwhelmingly (as opposed to only) negatively affects people identified as a particular racial group must be employed in order see the effects that this powerful ideology has on our lives.  Seeing the after effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York, the lack of response from otherwise vocal members of the predominately white faction of the mainstream feminist movement when a 9 year old Black girl was called a cunt in a public forum, and the continued apathy of all members of society at the increasing murder rate of Black youth versus the rare occurrence of mass shootings in predominately White communities requires that we look more critically at these events and identify the systemic problems in each.  Another aspect of neo-racism is that the proponents could very well be racial minorities.  This fact can prevent an accurate analysis of racism from being made.  A person who does make that analysis can be accused of being racist themselves or of playing the race card, an accusation that serves to delegitimize that presence and effect of racism. 

The knowledge and accurate analysis of history is imperative to understanding racism.  Without this understanding how can we recognize it in all of its changing and evolving forms?  This is especially necessary for those not old enough to remember the extent of physical segregation and its contribution to racist ideologies.  Often for people, young people especially, if they cannot see something it does not exist.    For others who are not as young, our memories tend to be short and yesterday’s news is soon forgotten. Racism is very much still here, but its form has changed. The purpose of recognizing and bringing attention to racism, racist practices, and racist ideologies is to combat and defeat it.  Without awareness and a correct analysis, this feat is nearly impossible.

Points of Unity in These Turbulent Times: Hopelessnes, Alienation and Fear during Times of Tragedy

It is very easy to see no commonality between the rash of tragedies we are suddenly surrounded by. Numerous incidents ranging from unfortunate to fatal, all happening in roughly the same time and same geographical space, to people whose social experiences seem to be worlds apart. Some people respond by citing the random unpredictability of things. Others respond by quoting religious texts which tell us we are in the last days of this world. Still others react by drawing further into themselves and seeing every stranger as a potential threat. In our country this threat perception has and continues to take on racial and religious tone which further breeds separation and distrust.

How then do we avoid these unproductive coping tools, is the question I’ve been asking myself. Further, how do I present a reasonable and realistic manner of thinking to my students in our classroom conversations? Seeing our current condition through a materialist or scientific lens was my first answer. Also, to use sociological reasoning to draw different people, places, and incidents closer together to expose the appearance of the problem and get at a common essence. One of my main teaching objectives is to keep the interrelatedness of all things at the forefront of our conversations. But again, how exactly are we tying these events together? What could be common in the experiences of:

- a poor black youth in Chicago who makes the decision to run towards a crowd of other young people firing a gun
- a girl who decides that death by suicide is an acceptable alternative to vicious bullying due to pictures and videos of her unconscious being sexually assaulted by various boys
- a white man who enters a middle school and opens fire on children and their teachers
- an unknown person or persons who plants several bombs at a populated sporting and social event for the purpose of violently disrupting lives
- a man who sees a young black male walking down the street at night on a cell phone as enough of a threat that he hunts him down, kills him, and claims self-defense
- a segment of the country that believes this was a rational course of action
- several Indian men who use the rhetoric of morality as justification to beat and rape women, some to death, and a legal system that echoes that way of thinking
- a person from any demographic that uses drugs or alcohol to escape their reality



Recognizing that all these acts are nuanced and complex in ways very specific to their context, I’ve been thinking about the first few steps in the thought process that eventually materializes into action. What makes someone susceptible to ideas that result in taking lives, even one’s own? One probable rationalization is an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. More than just having nothing to look forward to, this hopelessness produces a feeling that nothing, neither actions nor consequences, matters. Implicit in this feeling is alienation. Due to the impersonal make-up of social structures and economies, people feel separated from each other, separated from the things they do, separated from ambitions, and separated from their own lives. Whether we take a traditionally Durkeimian view of anomie (societal normlessness leading to a lack of social integration) or a Marxist view of alienation (people being estranged from each other, what is important to them, their work, etc.) on the matter, I believe that common threads can be found. What are the depths of these roots?

Can there be a common root in different societies or countries? What similarities in thinking can we draw between the “cherry petals” of Japanese student soldiers and other suicide bombers in the Middle East, US, and other places of different ages and genders?

As I’m fond of saying, these issues leave me with more questions than answers, but it is important to have these conversations. It is important to think about what can be done in our own lives to stay productive about finding these answers. I, too, an keeping feelings of crippling sadness and inactive resignation away. Writing and talking about these things are my outlets. Hopefully reading and responding to these thoughts can be part of yours.

Prioritize your Propaganda: Vote, Die, or Other

So I called in to my favorite radio station, Vocalo.org 89.5 fm, this morning and tossed in my two cents about the sway of IN politics and voting in general. I posed the question that's been on my mind for a little while: uneducated/unknowledgeable voting vs purposeful not voting vs apathetic not voting. Michael Puente, Vocalo.org NWI man-on-the-street, said he doesn't buy the purposeful voting angle. That in the current climate of voter suppression and people in this country who want the right to vote, how could people with this right now use it? I spent the rest of my commute thinking about that. Am I being a careless citizen (in the same vein as a "careless white girl")? Am I taking for granted my privilege in this case? The answer is complicated, right? But here's what I've come up with.

I view the right to vote as a right to choose. People fought and died to be able to choose whether they could vote or not. True, some people don’t even have access to that right to choose. I’d rather spend my time fighting for their right to choose than placating to the idea that pressing a button is alpha and omega of my civic duty. Not voting isn't illegal in this country, yet, because that would be too dictatorial. But we do have that type of dictatorial sentiment in our society about voting. Vote or die. No vote, no voice. If you don't vote, you can't complain. Bulldoodie, I say!

I sell my labor every day, and every other week money is taken out of my wages, without my permission, to fund wars and bail out bosses, but not to fund things I personally believe in like safer sex curriculum in schools and Planned Parenthood. Fluff that, I have a voice because I participate in the commerce in this country.

Patriotic rhetoric denied.

My question is why is voting touted to be the pinnacle of political participation in this country when the most import things that affect our lives are never on the ballot? However, social initiatives that perpetuate discrimination are slipped in there, and used as justification to why people should vote. I don't think the residents of Gary, IN and Chicago, IL voted to have public schools closed, privatized, and hundreds of teachers and aids to be fired, contributing to an overall unsafe non-educational environment for their children. We don't get to vote if we go to war. We didn't vote for the corporate bail outs. People didn't cast one ballot to end apartheid in this country. But voting is everywhere, on Survivor, American Idol and its like-minded spin-offs, music video countdowns, radio countdowns, facebook polls, the symbolic, and often baseless, act is in every fascet of our leisure. Why?

If no substantial change in this country came about or was initiated by voting, if we can see, side by side, that the candidates for national office have very little difference between them, if as a person from a small NWI town can say that said down has gotten worse for the majority of the poor people that live in it, yet they vote everything there's an election, then why is such importance placed on this act? What else does voting do? Who does it advantage? We know the appearance, but what is the essence of voting? What would other towns like mine, or our country for that matter, look like if we felt the same way about direct political action, in any form? What if the patriotic rhetoric was, if you don't strike, you have no say. No boycott, no voice. Occupy our local school board or die. What would that type of city, town, state, or country look like? Here's a hint...it would look like this country, right around the time of the revolutionary war, but, you know, minus slavery, add a few years of feminist politics, and toss a veil over white classist racism by WASPs.

Now, what I’m about to say next will sound like a total contradiction to all that I’ve previously stated, but trust me it’s not.  I am not advocating for people to not vote. That’s your choice so you make it. I am advocating for people to know what that vote means. Not the rhetoric, but really, what are you doing. More importantly, what are you being exempted from just by doing it. If voting is your only political participation, then I truly believe that you’re contributing to the ongoing problem in our society. If you can’t give a few minutes of your time for some sort of direct action, whether its making dinner for some out of work teachers, writing letters to the school board to really voice your opinion, honk your horn in solidarity of the striking big box workers, etc. then you’re making it very easy for the charade to go on. My wish is for everyone to do something that yields actual results, even if the result is just creating a tie between you and another human being through a show of support. Again, I challenge anyone to tell me what substantial change has happen solely as the result or initiated by voting. I’m all about being proven wrong, because at least I would have learned something. Being right on this doesn’t give me any particular joy unless it moves people to do...emphasis on do...something.

CTU STRIKE, STRIKE, STRIKE!

One of the many movies that I never can actually sit through because I only like a few scenes is "I'm Not Rappaport," starring Ossie Davies and Walter Matthau. The movie begins with the 1907 NYC Garment District Union Strike Vote Meeting where a police-battered Diana Agostini of the Ladies Garment Workers Union calls for the strike.

That scene comes to mind repeatedly as I have conversations about the now historic 2012 Chicago Teachers Union Strike. The mayors office, fueled by a very compliant media, is doing a bang up job of villainizing the teachers, saying they are using the children of Chicago as pawns and holding them hostage for their own gain. Unfortunately, parents in both IL and neighboring IN are eating this up, blaming and verbally attacking teachers for being "selfish." Today broadcast news is reporting, in an advertising matter, that parents who are generally fed up are enrolling their children in charter schools.

Riddle me this, if I as a professional and expert in my field am telling you that my current work environment is hostile and it is near impossible to do my job well, where in the professional world does a boss just shrug off my view? In the world where failure means profit for that boss, that's where. That is what has been happening in the mostly poor black, Latino, and white working class areas of Chicago and the country. Good teachers are being fired or driven out while students and parents are left in the broken system to flounder, wondering who is to blame. I could go on and on about this, but I came across a document that I think sums the issue up. Please take a moment to read it and post your thoughts.

I don't know about you but I absolutely love the summer Olympics. Since I've been old enough to understand what they are I've always been excited to see them. From beginning to end I watch everyday without fail, recording (now dvr-ing) my favorite events. So, here are my impressions so far.

Opening Ceremony in London, Eng:

Yeahhhhh, not the best. Beijing was a hard act to follow, no doubt. With all the culture and ethnic groups represented showing their individual and collective heritage. And then here comes London doing an homage to Mary Poppins. That was a movie, not a real person nor a historical event. On the bright side I really liked the depiction of the Industrial Revolution. My favorite by far was Mr. Bean doing the scene from the movie From Here to Eternity lol AND how wonderfully ethnic was the little montage about the two kids meeting at a rave type party, getting together, and then having a house party at the girl's house? Great job with those parts. Overall though, I yawned more than I ohhed and ahhed.

Olympic Events that boggle my mind:
Handball - at first i thought it was like the game they play in prison...it's not. they might as well call this basketsoccerball. watching this after 10 minutes almost killed my spirit.

Badminton - uh, these folks are hard core. I had to turn when I saw the women players wiping sweat off their heads and then flicking a handful of body fluid over toward the sideline. almost spit up my cereal.

Indoor field hockey - ...

Kayaking - i just don't enjoy it. which is odd because i really like watching the rowing competition.

Sailing and Yachting - see Kayaking rationale

Shooting - why is this an Olympic event? really, somebody tell me.

Water Polo - handball in the water. why? I mean, I appreciate the men in those speedos and all, just like the next gal but I still don't get it.

Synchronized Anything - I recognize the skill it takes to do almost anything in exact tandem. I just would rather not watch it.

Olympic Events I've seen for the first time and liked:
Archery - loved it! I was HORRIBLE at this in high school gym class but I really liked watching it.

Rowing - this isn't really the first time I've watched it, but it's the first time I've paid attention. I love rowing. makes me wanna find a row machine immediately. where can I go rowing in Northwest Indiana (NWI)? Don't say the little Calumet!

Olympic Events that are my absolute faves:
Futbol/Soccer
Women's and Men's Gymnastics (in that order)
Men's and Women's Basketball (")
Women's Volleyball (not men's at all)
Women's Doubles Tennis (YOU know why!)

Best Olympic Name Ever:
Nadia Comăneci - can't help but say that with an Eastern European accent

Track & Field is on now and the obsession continues!

...They Pulled Me Back In!

So, just when I got comfortable with my gub'ment issued debit card they come up with more tomfoolery.

"Your benefits are delayed due to..." I don't know, pick a reason.  Does it really matter at this point?  Rent due, car note due, cable due...please no, not my True Blood!!!! :-) At least I can still laugh about it.

I called DWD and talked to a very nice young man who didn't know what in the heck he was talking about.  Unfortunately hr didn't want to admit that he didn't know so he proceeded to repeat himself 3 or 4 times instead of answering my direct questions.  Questions like will my payments be delayed, if so why, can you tell me the status of the issue, and what dept is responsible.  Every answer to this question was "I can't give you a timeline for when this will be resolved." Sir, I didn't ask you that question.

If anyone is wondering what my plan is, here you...in this order:

1. Lay face down in my basement for a while.

2. Go to my crawl space and work on my handmade trinkets that I'll sell on the Cline Ave.  Drop by, mention my blog and I'll give u a whopping 3% off a trinket of your choice.

2a. In the crawl space I will be confronted by the hundreds of spiders in my house and will have to atone for their brethren I've murdered.  I fear they will not be lenient with me.

2b. On a related note, the spiders are my only possible allies, as I'm sure the centipedes will kill me on sight because if shed too much of their blood to be forgiven.  The ants are strategically flanking my house and as we all know they cannot be reasoned with. 

3. Eventually I'll come up with an alternative plan because I'm sure the spider alliance will be shirt lived...its only a matter of time before I get my smash on. 

If anyone sees any flaws in my master plan, please feel free to let me know.  Maybe I'll get my benefits restored before my idea comes into fruition.  Lord willin' and the creek don't flood!