BCLI Issue Series: Intersectionality on November 12

Nexus’ BCLI Program is partnering with Minnesota Rising’s LOCUS group to further the conversation of intersectionality in social justice work. LOCUS is an initiative of Minnesota Rising. Learn more about Minnesota Rising HERE

Our lives are complex, and even more so, our identities. In the important work of social justice, we work towards to unpacking some of the systematic and psychological ways in which racist and unfair power structures apply oppression across all forms of our identities.

What is your experience? You are the expert of your own story. Come prepared to engage in discussion and share ideas on combating all forms of power structures that exist in institutions and in our daily lives which seek to hold us back due to the intersection of our identities. What are the issues? What are the strategies moving forward in the greater struggle for racial and social justice? How can we help our communities and organizations get there?

Presenters and Co-Facilitators for the Evening:

• Diane Tran, Founder, MN Rising and Kristell Caballero Saucedo

Details:

BCLI Issue Series: Intersectionality

Thursday, November 12, 2015

5:30pm - 8:00pm

Northeast Bank Community Room

77 Broadway St. NE Minneapolis, MN 55413 View Map

Timeline:

5:30-6:00         Food & Networking

6:00                 Program Begins

Important logistical information:

There is free parking in the adjacent bank parking lot and street parking.

Northeast Bank Community Room (enter through door on Marshall)

LOCUS “Keeping Current” Happy Hour III Recap

For LOCUS “Keeping Current” Happy Hour III we met on October 21st at Green Spoon Cafe with the purpose of discussing three topics (activist strategies and white culture, tone policing, and elitism in social movements) brought up by three articles elected as pre-reads for the event: 

• How the Interruption of Bernie Sanders Exposed White Progressives’ White Supremacy | Jamie Utt 
• What We Can All Learn From Nicki Minaj Schooling Miley Cyrus on Tone Policing | Maisha Z. Johnson 
• 9 Ways We Can Make Social Justice Movements Less Elitist and More Accessible | Kai Cheng Thom 

We began the discussion by sharing personal experiences in activist spaces. The variety of experiences and perspectives of activism in the group directed us to a terminology discussion about the meaning of activism (noun) and what it means to be an activist (adjective)? After some time we arrived at consensus that there is a specific image that comes in mind when we heard the word activist--from personality, to work, and physical appearance--that can exclude the volunteer commitments in our multicultural communities, or the continuous discussions we have with others when witnessing discrimination. The discussion also explored the challenges of ageism and socioeconomic privilege in activism. Some of us acknowledged times when we ourselves fell under the concept of “elitism” and excluded others from discussions because they didn’t posses the same knowledge that we did. 

We continued the discussion with tone policing and intertwined it with activism critics and white culture and privilege. We talked about how many times when people of color (women of color in the case of the articles) call out racism, the discussion always becomes about how it was called out and not about what was said. Then, hyper-sensitive, angry, emotional, over-exaggerative labels are placed on the people of color who called out racism and discrimination. Further, the group shared their experiences, like workplaces, where whites were a majority in the space. Besides discussing our experiences code switching, we also talked about how white culture has been normalized as the “professional” culture, where talking about or calling out racism is a taboo and even considered unprofessional. Some of the attendees shared anecdotes in which they felt uncomfortable calling out prejudiced remarks or situations in which people of color were called “asocial” and were held accountable for building relationships in which the efforts would be one-sided (the person of color forced to understand the white middle-class experience but not the other way around). 

We concluded the event with re-sharing each other’s name and taking the opportunity to do more one-on-one networking.

Event participants dining at Green Spoon Cafe