Anti-oppression

This provocation is intended to intervene in some of the current tensions around solidarity/support work as the current trajectories are counter-liberatory from my perspective.

Principles of Anti-Oppression: Power and privilege play out in our group dynamics and we must continually struggle with how we challenge power and privilege in our practice.

Anti-oppression work incorporates goals such as contributing towards building multiracial social movements, creating a safer space for all voices to be heard and valued, and enabling all participants to increase their effectiveness in social justice through a collective learning process.

You have written extensively on feminist issues and on racial
oppression in America, and your analyses are always thoughtful and incisive but, in terms of being an intellectual in the elitist sense of the word, does it bother you that the masses of African American women and men may, perhaps, not get a chance to know who bell hooks is; may not be reading your material that has so much to say about the struggles that they are engaged in?

We live in the wealthiest country in the world, but the greatest percentage of that wealth is in the hands of a tiny percentage of the population. It is environmentally and technically possible for everyone to enjoy a good standard of living if wealth were redistributed, exploitation ceased and the arms race abandoned.

Today, the steady growth of tourism - despite reports of the city's high crime rate - makes up an increasing share of the employment opportunities in New Orleans. Like most US cities at the end of the millennium, New Orleans benefited from trends toward urban revival, and crime has dropped in recent years.

What does an ally do? Being allies to people of color in the struggle to end racism is one of the most important things white people can do.

A recent study found that Black students who were asked to identify themselves by race when taking a standardized test consistently scored lower than other Black students who were not asked to specify their race.

Hidden Assumptions and Attitudes: 1. The assumption that the dominant group represents humanity as a whole: for example, that "man" refers to all people, that pink band-aids are flesh-colored.

Men talking over women - Men's comments being valued over women's comments - Men not sharing information with women - Men primarily being approached for ideas, info, direction, approval, etc. - Men adopting and taking credit for ideas originally put forward by women - Men doing a disproportionate share of the public work

There was still water standing 6 ft deep in people’s homes two weeks after the flood.

After many years as white student radical in high school and then college, I'm reconsidering my experience. I made a lot of mistakes and was blind in many ways, particularly as a white person.

I am not proposing that sexual violence and domestic violence will no longer exist. I am proposing that we create a world where so many people are walking around with the skills and knowledge to support someone that there is no longer a need for anonymous hotlines.

Move From Defensiveness & Guilt, Toward Action: I notice and let go of feelings that interfere with my ability to listen to what you are saying

Practice noticing who's in the room at meetings - how many men, how many women, how many white people, how many people of color, is it majority heterosexual, are there out queers, what are people's class backgrounds. Don't assume to know people, but also work at being more aware.

Because racism is both institutional and attitudinal, effective strategies against it must recognize this dual character. The undoing of institutionalized racism must be accompanied by the unlearning of racist attitudes and beliefs.

Over the course of the last several decades, anti-oppression politics have risen to a position of immense influence on activist discourse in North America. Anti-oppression workshops and reading groups, privilege and oppression checklists and guidelines, and countless books, online blogs and articles make regular appearances in anarchist organizing and discussion. Enjoying a relatively hegemonic position in Left conversation, anti-oppression politics have come to occupy the position of a sacred object—something that expresses and reinforces particular values, but does not easily lend itself to critical reflection.

This pamphlet – written collaboratively by a group of people of color, women, and queers – is offered in deep solidarity and in the spirit of conversation with anyone committed to ending oppression and exploitation materially. It is a critique of how privilege theory and cultural essentialism have incapacitated antiracist, feminist, and queer organizing in this country by confusing identity categories with solidarity

This zine looks at how unchecked misogyny in political movements, groups, whatever you want to call it creates an environment that is ripe for the recruitment and deployment of informants. Misogynist behavior is disruptive and pushes women and queer folks out of spaces, while constantly dominating the agenda.