Tag Archives: race

Upcoming talks and conferences in London and Oxford

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Apr 9 – Jun 4
(every two weeks on Tuesday evenings) Verso’s An Introduction to Radical Thinkers
http://www.versobooks.com/events/627-an-introduction-to-radical-thinkers

April 11-12
International Symposium – Within and beyond citizenship: lived experiences of contemporary membership
http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/legal-status-international-symposia

April 29
Can the United States Transcend its Racial History? How Immigration, Multiculturalism, Genomics, and the Young Might Create a New American Racial Order – Jennifer Hochschild
http://www.rai.ox.ac.uk/seminars 

May 3
Spanning the Atlantic - Sir John Elliott
http://www.rai.ox.ac.uk/seminars 

May 3
Eating Ethically: What it is and why it matters – Peter Singer
More information and registration

May 10-12
The Actuality of the Absolute: Hegel, Our Untimely Contemporary
Speakers: Rebecca Comay (University of Toronto); Andrew Cutrofello (Loyola University Chicago); Costas Douzinas (Birkbeck); Catherine Malabou (Kingston); Frank Ruda (Free University, Berlin); Slavoj Žižek (Birkbeck); Alenka Zupancic (Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/events-calendar/the-actuality-of-the-absolute-hegel-our-untimely-contemporary-conference

May 14
Trust in Markets – Professor Lord Plant of Highfield, Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Philosophy at King’s College London, and member of the House of Lords
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/trust-in-markets
(there’s one next week that i wish i could go to, but i’ll be in LA: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what’s-it-worth-values-choice-and-commodification)

May 15
RAI Book Launch - Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America
- Peter Andreas
http://www.rai.ox.ac.uk/seminars

June 1-2
Muslims, Multiculturalism and Trust: New Directions
Invited participants include: Rehana Ahmed, Claire Chambers, Sohail Daulatzai, Rumy Hasan, Salah Hassan, Tony Laden, Alana Lentin, Nasar Meer, Tariq Modood, Anshuman Mondal, Peter Morey, Stephen Morton, Jorgen Nielsen, Lord Bhikhu Parekh, Amina Yaqin
http://www.soas.ac.uk

June 6-7
London Conference on Critical thought (free)
(the session streams are listed in a .pdf: LCCT 2013 Call for Papers)
http://londonconferenceincriticalthought.wordpress.com

Against Rudeness

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I’ve moved back to the south end of Seattle recently. Columbia City, more specifically. It’s been a rather harsh relearning of the ways that racism permeates public transportation. I’ve always thought that riding the bus is something of an equalizer, but in the past two weeks, I seem to have proved myself wrong.

First, there is no single bus that goes from 98118 (famed for being the ‘most diverse’ zip code in the country) to the University of Washington (98195). This has been a slow progression of removal of service to sites of education from this part of town. The last time I lived in Columbia City, I was attending night school at the community college on Capitol Hill. Half way through my last quarter, the only bus that ran at night from SCCC to Columbia City was discontinued. There 20 of us stood, exhausted from a full day of work followed by long night classes, waiting for a bus that would never come. My 35 minute single bus ride home turned into an hour commute because none of the buses matched up.

Second has been the overwhelming lack of respect many bus drivers apparently have for their south end riders. I’ve been yelled at, waved furiously at, and been jerked around in my seat by an obviously disgruntled driver who kept slamming on the brakes and then gas pedal, brakes and then gas pedal. One bus driver refused to move the bus until every person had paid to the last cent, then lectured anyone who was short. There we sat…and sat and sat an sat. Others don’t bother lowering the bus to help little old ladies with groceries on the bus.

Many bus driver down south seem to think its their personal duty to teach people some manners or to inculcate some kind of pre-conceive notion of ‘appropriate decorum’ that is somehow invisible and unknown to the riders themselves.

I’ve ridden the buses in Seattle for more than 15 years. I don’t have a car or driver’s license. Ive lived all over the city. And like all geographers know: place matters.

So, on that note, I’ve decided to simply report every single infraction I observe. We are not powerless. We are not simply victims of others. I’ve chosen compassion for my fellow riders over compassion for bus drivers. I realize driving the bus must be difficult. Passengers can be difficult. But a little compassion for the difficulty of the lives of those relegated to riding buses for their grocery shopping, commuting to work, getting the kids to school, making doctor appointments, for the very basic activities of living deserve more compassion. They deserve respect, if not for their time (the buses are always running late) then at least for their dignity.

As someone recently told me: We have a responsibility to be advocates for those that cannot advocate for themselves.

Labors of love and race

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I was invited to participate in two projects this year related to race and diversity in the department. One was directed at growing our diversity and the other was about having discussions about race and diversity in the department (and the discipline more widely). They melded quite nicely together because, as my colleague, Magie Ramirez, and i realized – you cannot have one without the other.

We started a series for our department directed at opening up discussions about race and the discipline more broadly. We brought together our department (graduate students and faculty) to discuss moments in our lives (in or out of the academy) in which we were confronted with issues of privilege. The response was fascinating. We were met with questions about intersectionality and class (particularly), and had delightful conversations about the difficulty of navigating hose in our lives.

We are following up this Friday with an Ethical Pedagogies discussion that we hope will draw the conversation into the classroom setting – addressing difficult moments that we’ve encountered as instructors. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll blog about that after our meeting.

Today, i attended a luncheon put on by the Simpson Center in collaboration with the Public Scholarship certificate program about learning about race at the UW. It was wonderful and informative.

A few things came out of the conversation today that really has made me rethink my role as a woman of color in the academy. The first is that a director of interdisciplinary studies pointed out that the work that we are doing as a committee is really the kind of work that is a capstone project for an inter disciplinary degree, or even for the Public Scholarship certificate. I was struck by this (hours later) in that i have such a love for my discipline and my department more generally that i have not even thought about it as a “project” so much as contributing to my department as a whole. This disjuncture between my willingness to volunteer and the worth (cha-ching!) of the work that we are doing as a committee had never occurred to me.

I became involved because i care deeply about the success and worth of my discipline. And yet, i am reminded, yet again, that here we are, three graduate students of color (all women) and two faculty (also women) working so furiously to bring about the kinds of conversations that we think will make our department, and our discipline, stronger in its research,  pedagogy, and openness in ways that are perhaps so far beyond the scope of our prescribed roles in academia. This is not about tooting our horns, so much as realizing that we have taken on a task that is far beyond the scope of “typical” commitment to the department.

Further, i am struck by the realization that, yet again, we are taking on the role of being the patient ones. We have struggled with people’s difficulties with this process – we are finding patience with the varying speed with which people are willing to confront the privilege of academia, more generally. But i was reminded today that, well, to be frank, how exhausting that work is. A woman from the Communications department said, “I’m not even that old, but i’m exhausted, i’m so tired” with having to take on the task of educating people about race.

But beyond that, what i found so invigorating was the positive response that i got from the group, as a whole. People were excited that we were willing to forge ahead to have these “difficult” and “messy” conversations. I was encouraged to write papers and to bring what we were learning to others to learn from it. And for the second time, i felt validated in the hard work we are doing.

The first time i felt that was when we had a debriefing with the graduate students. They were excited and delighted that we were trying to have these conversations in the department. They want these conversations. They need and desire them. And this is what i want to share with people… so many of the graduate students expressed a keen interest in using this to build TRUST with the faculty. They saw it not just as an opportunity to talk about race, something that can be tough in our world, but that to do it with faculty was such a relief and wonderful experience to get to share with our mentors.

Today, however, i felt it from a much wider audience. They wanted to know more. They wanted to hear about how we were addressing issues of power and hierarchy (yes, we worked with that – we used candy to break up committees and faculty and to put students and faculty into random groups) and how we dealt with discomfort (we made room for all levels of approach – not silencing the direction that people were ready to tackle our big issues from). And they encouraged us to publish.

The faculty that we are working with have heard this from the number of people they have addressed across the campus about how to put together a project like this. There is excitement and interest. But to feel it first hand has been really helpful. I suddenly realized just how important what we are doing is.

This is not intended as a kind of pat-on-the-back by any stretch of the imagination – rather, is an encouragement in the notion that creativity can really open doors to a whole new way of being in the discipline and in academia. We have stumbled and struggled and choked on our own insecurities as we push along this path. But ultimately, this has never been about us or about fulfilling some kind of diversity requirement. Really, this has been a labor of love and race.

As geographers, and as critical scholars, it has been incredibly important to us as a committee and as a department to make the efforts that we have to break the barriers of silence and of privilege to open doors to a new kind of communication – one that is honest and sometimes painful. And i cannot express enough how very encouraging and what an honor it has been to work with the incredible women of the committee and the earnest members of our community to really push all of our boundaries of comfort to be better scholars and better people.

 

Diversity and the academy

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Our department had a Climate and Diversity Retreat today. A few things on what that is, first:

As neoliberal restructuring continues to erode the academy, and particularly, as the academy (in the U.S.) continues to whiten at extraordinary rates through the erasure of loan and grant programs that target traditionally underrepresented minority populations, the need to address the growing exclusionary processes of the academy is becoming more and more urgent. Our department created a group that began as a Diversity Committee. The drive came, at the outset, to “grow diversity”, but as we spoke, we realized that “diversity” has begun to lose its purchase through its overuse.

What is diversity?

There is a danger in trying to “fix” diversity issues that it becomes a project of categorical program. How many people of color / women / underrepresented minorities / non-traditional students are there in a given department / school / university? The danger in this is that there is room to stop at the numbers and not really problematize the very structural issues that are creating the need to even begin to think in categories.

As a group, we decided that the important issue was first to understand the ways in which we can, inadvertently, be exclusionary. So what can be done about this? We (well, really, Suzanne Davies Withers, very much!) set about trying to find out if there was a program or a group on campus that could help us address this as a department. It turns out that there is not a model for this kind of deep self-reflexivity within the academy. So we set about trying to figure this out, with the incredible support of multiple people and departments across campus.

What struck me, in some of our conversations about the fear of trying to address these issues as a department was: If not us, then whom? Radical geography, particularly, has liked to think of itself as a kind of vanguard – a discipline that can and does tackle the very large and often uncomfortable issues of exclusion. So how do we bring that home?

We have worked for two months to really put together a meeting to begin to open this door. Today was our first all-department meeting.

We invited grad students and faculty to come together to being the discussion, and they came. We put people into groups randomly by having people choose a candy (from the faculty or the student bowl) that we laid out according to how many people responded. We ended up with 10 groups of 3-4 people.

The meeting was opened with a talk by Vicky Lawson introducing the very nature of the meeting, comments by Judy Howard, the Divisional Dean of Social Sciences at the UW, and the very talented mediation and introduction to the exercises with Theresa M. Ronquillo.  We began with a short writing exercise: Reflect on an experience in your life where you were aware of whiteness or white privilege. How did it affect you?

After 10 minutes of writing, we were brought back to our small groups to discuss along the lines of three questions:

  • How did you feel about this question?
  • To the extent you feel comfortable, share your experiences or, at least, how it affected you.
  • What might we learn from this conversation that we can bring to our practice as critical geographers and at the department (teaching, advising, and interactions with each other)?

We were given 30 minutes to really talk in our groups and then brought it back for 15 minutes to share the “a-ha” moment of the experience.

What was fascinating was the utter intensity with which everyone tackled the writing experience, the quiet politeness with which the small group discussions took form, and the smooth transition into academic and generalizable frames we ended. It was so wonderful to get to be part of a group project that really opened the door to some tough questions that we often discuss amongst ourselves into an open forum.

I have never been prouder of being part of the UW Geography program as i was today.

That sounds silly. I realize that. But a few things come to mind. #1: It is very easy, as academics, to spend our time investigating, analyzing and dissecting what happens “out there” – it is much more difficult to turn that magnifying glass on ourselves. I was utterly unprepared (even though i was highly prepared, through my involvement with the Committee) to address the issue of Whiteness in my life. I was surprised by my own responses and reactions. The complexity of ‘race’ and ethnicity, i realized, is much more deeply rooted in the past than i expected, and is having a much larger impact on my present than i was willing to admit until the very moment of truth. #2: That most of our department showed up, and really Showed Up, astounded me! The organizers (all of us) were nervous wreaks. We had had several weeks to prepare fort the worst: no one showing up, people feeling attacked or confronted, the possibility of difficult moments arising, etc. But there we were – nearly 40 of us, quietly participating in what was admittedly (not just by us, but by all of the people we reached out to for help and guidance and support) a very difficult task. And #3: the total maturity with which it was approached. By everyone. Even in the most difficult groups. Even after all was said and done.

One thing i’ve learned in the last few weeks, as i’ve finally found my voice, as it were, within the realm of the academy and in activism, is that we all come to everything everywhere exactly as we are. We always, at all times, have to be cognizant of the fact that what is important is that we are showing up. It may not be exactly where we want everyone to be in the exact moment that we want them to be there – but less than judging people for where they are not, we have a responsibility to recognize and respect where people are. And in that, i am forever and most deeply grateful for the willingness that people have to show up.

But more than that, people showed up ready to participate. Regardless of the shortcomings, regardless of the misgivings, there we were, as a group, prepared to tackle one of the most difficult tasks of being academics. It really is a privilege to be in such a beautifully present group of people and such an earnest and committed group of academics.

Race, Gender, and Occupy

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I just read the most beautiful piece called Pinto Beans, Wall Street and Me at JoNubian.

I also hold a bit of disdain for the Occupy movement, but i have also been disappointed in the claims against it. I’ve been equally perturbed by its whiteness and yet fiercely protective of what it is that the movement is attempting to accomplish. I am ambivalent – drawn by the promise of a new experiment in an un-led dis-organization and perturbed by the whiteness, maleness, and apparent middle-classness (who has time to protest?).

I think this partially comes down to who has the privilege to protest? Who has the political language? Who has the populace language? Who is included and who is excluded? And while the movement has worked furiously to make room for “all voices”, does it make room for all histories?

Yesterday, when i finally went down to Occupy Seattle at Westlake, i found that a Latina woman was MCing the open mic, a South Asian was organizing speaker order, and a young African American man was speaking about the war on people of color that is happening in America.  Behind the stage, a Native American woman began banging on a trashcan, screaming angrily and crying. A group calling themselves the Peace Team quickly moved in and offered her kind words, space to speak.

This is not meant to be a tally of The Number of People of Colour i saw yesterday. I just happened to walk up at a strangely diverse moment – particularly strange as it was in downtown Seattle. So what is my point?

I avoided the marches and protests, even as my colleagues went en masse from the university campus to downtown, and again as they tried to organize amongst departments and schools. I wondered where my people were – the brown folks whose land was stolen to make this country. Where are the women of color – where are the working mamas, the grandmothers who will never retire? Where are the disenfranchised – my brothers and sisters who make up 16% of the US population and only 5% of the graduate programs at my school?

So… do we make this our movement? Do we take up this struggle, or do we turn away and simply wait it out? What is that balance in the ambivalence?

I decided that there is one thing i can do: teach. It turns out that there are a number of people who feel the way i do and are organizing a teach-in. Many of the people i met yesterday had no understanding of the histories of oppressions that have occurred in this country or by this country. Many of their histories reach back three years to the economic collapse. Their frustrations are based on anecdotes and charts, shocking numbers and liberal soundbites. And that is not to take away from the absolute enormity of what we are facing as a nation and as individuals. But what can we do to make it more meaningful, to last longer, to have a greater impact?

We are the 99%, but we are also the 14%, and the 16%, and the 35%, and the 51%.