Because of this wicked wind/storm, I got off work tonight and was able to attend Imani Henry’s workshop. He is an activist, writer, and performer who concentrates on transgender, anti-war, and anti-racist activism. Rather than the typical lecture, he led a discussion. It was cool because he initially went around the room and had everyone there state their name, pronoun preference, and what they were passionate about. There was a wide array of interests from trafficking, to labor laws, lesbians of color, to trans visibility. It was a very diverse group of people within the LGBTQ community.
There were issues brought up about racism and sexuality in our campus. To be more specific, recently in the Diamondback, President Mote dismissed the reality that our university grounds used to be affiliated with some type of slave quarters. Once he realized he was wrong with so effortlessly dismissing this reality, his office wrote a letter of apology, but it did not even come directly from him. I understand people can make mistakes, but its how one handles a mistake that truly determines who they are. Another frustration we spoke about within our campus community was surrounded around homophobia. A man involved with the physics department got a list of people within the Price Alliance and wrote them e-mails with very nasty things. Comments to the extent of ‘this is your choice, stop it with that behavior’. Although the LGBT equality office confronted this man and took a stand, the administration did not back them up and nothing was done of the matter. These two examples are things that perpetuate institutionalized racism and homophobia. Until people, in large numbers, take serious stands against these acts, they will continue.
Imani informed us of May Day which is May 1st. Not many people were aware of the significance of this day, but its concerned with labor movements throughout the world. It is much more popular in Communist countries, but its gaining ground in the United States. He said there were about a million people in NYC last year who did not attend work and marched on the streets. It’s awesome that so many people were coming together for a common cause.
There were a few major things I took away from the discussion tonight. For one, it is important to form coalitions between organizations and people you do not necessarily associate with. Those people can bring insight and agendas to your intellectual projects that you cannot gain from your typical circle. Another thing I gained through conversation after the ‘workshop’ was the importance of making space for your ideas and thoughts, even when that space has not been previously developed. It’s very difficult to talk in a room full of people when you feel so different than the majority speaking. It’s easy to go with the flow and relate to everyone who is speaking up, but going against the gain… Are we taught how to do that? It’s really important to take a stand for something you believe in, and I believe we all can become better at verbally expressing our ideas and thoughts. Lastly, I want to write a little about apathetic people. He brought it up tonight, and how our campus, and people around the world are generally apathetic toward feminist and gender issues. I recently took a personality test for this conference I attended at the end of March, and I received this level that was extremely irritated by apathetic people. I cannot understand them, I get so frustrated. Be passionate about something, anything! All I am saying is try to make this world a better place. Even if it’s the smallest thing, I’m not saying to go out and create world peace, but at least, desire for it.
Although this does not translate exactly into our course curriculum, I think there are multiple correlations in what I have discussed in this blog and things we have discussed in class. Such as race, sexuality, feminist visibility, and activism work. These issues are very important to the feminist community, and it was really beneficial to look at so many different issues within one discussion.
