Can We Stop Using the Term Ally?

We really need to stop using the term ally. This applies to all of us in anti-oppression work, whether in the work in question we are part of the oppressed or oppressor class*. This is not about people who self-identify as allies and don't work on their privilege and refuse to listen to members of the oppressed group, but to all people who might self-identify as an ally to an oppressed group. Ally is an inherently problematic. It:

1.) Presupposes you are doing a good job, and by its very use, is a coercive request to members of the oppressed group to give approval to the person in question, and more so, it is linked to an expectation of gratitude for attempting to do two things:

a) Acknowledge and work on** one's privilege as a member of an oppressor class.

b) Helping to make voices of the oppressed class heard, and actively standing up in solidarity with the oppressed class.

(a) is just part of being a decent human being. If you are not acknowledging your various privileges and trying to understand what it is to be a member of an oppressor class, you going from benefiting from an oppressive system (which, as a member of the oppressor class, you can't help but do) to contributing your energies to maintaining and strengthening that oppressive system. (b) is working in solidarity, and working in solidarity is a necessary part of a strong, broad-reaching anti-oppression movement.

2.) Distracts attention from members of the oppressed class and focuses on the self-identified ally. Anti-racist, anti-cissexist, anti-sexist, anti-ablist, anti-classist work needs to focus on the voices and experiences of the oppressed class, not the members of the oppressor class who are attempting to be decent human beings and/or working in solidarity.

3.) By self-identifying as an ally, you are building an identity on others' oppression. This is profoundly appropriative, because it is making oppression you do not experience part of your own identity. It also furthers the Othering of oppressed classes, as it once again has people defining themselves in terms of not being the Other, and reinforcing the view of the Other at the margins.

So, if you're acknowledging your privilege, seeing how you systematically benefit from it, and centering the concerns of those who do not share said privilege, you're trying to be a decent human being. Congratulations. Have a cookie. And if you're actively engaging in anti-oppression work in areas in which you're not oppressed, you're doing solidarity work. Just say you're working in solidarity with members of the oppressed class. This centers the work being done, and the members of the oppressed class, and not you. Because when you're a member of the oppressor class in dealing with a particular oppression, It. Is. Not. About. You.

*Yes, I recognize we are all variously members of the oppressor class and members of the oppressed class when it comes to various oppressions. Kyriarchy is ever shifting, and we all have some privilege, somewhere.

**By "work on" I mean being attentive to how one systematically benefits from it, and trying to center the concerns of those who do not share the privilege.

Camp Trans Report

Considering that Camp Trans was in early August, this post is really late. Anyway, this past Camp was my third. Camp was really stressful for me this year, because I was pretty involved in getting things to happen, both before and during Camp. But it was still an amazing, wonderful, intense, and healing space for me.

A lot was accomplished at Camp this year. Walking the line of Festies, the vast majority of Michfest attendees are now either pro-inclusion or really don't care. There were only a few anti-inclusion people that I talked to, and they weren't angry or anything - they just politely said they didn't want to talk about it, so we didn't. That was the Monday, which is the start of that big event across the road from us (MWMF, of courses).

The next day was the solidarity vigil, held across the gates from Fest; several of us performed various pieces, and then we broke up into groups, several Camp attendees with several Festies, to talk about Camp Trans myths and ways that Fest can become a more inclusive, welcoming space.

The exciting news that we found out later in the week was that a Festie had donated enough money on Monday, earmarked for the purpose of sending two trans women onto the land. Between that, another earmarked donation, and several trans women purchasing their own wristbands, quite a few trans women went on the land this year, enough to run a workshop on Sunday, the last day of Fest, on the land.

All of them reported getting incredibly positive receptions, so the culture of MWMF has changed a lot.

At Camp itself, it was an amazing year for Camp. Every year we get more people, with lots of new faces. We had a great line up of performers (including yours truly, playing and singing folk punk on guitar and doing spoken word), with three nights of performers, with dance parties afterwards (yes, we have amazing dance parties out in the woods); also, we had one night of karaoke followed by a dance party on Wednesday, the first night we had organized parties going.

We had a great variety of workshops; personally, I did a Disability 101 workshop with a big focus on intersectionality and how to advocate for trans people with disabilities, which was well attended and super productive, with a lot of great input from both the Race and Class Inclusion Committee (RCI) and other Campers - it was one of several workshops that had been done from the list of workshops that we (the RCI) had assembled as ones we'd like to see. Other workshops that were held included several by the RCI, which focuses on increasing attendance at Camp by POC and people from poor or working class backgrounds (many campers may not have money now, but come from middle class backgrounds, which is an entirely different situation) and also on making Camp in general a more accessible place. There were trans men, trans women, genderqueer, and people of color caucuses, among others; workshops on engaging in anti-racist struggle, parenting options for trans people, transphobia in queer, genderqueer, and trans spaces, and rope bondage and trans bodies, among others.

There was in general a huge focus on making Camp more accessible (ability, monetarily (it's free, but we're trying to gather a stock of extra camping supplies, as those get expensive), in terms of culture, and in terms of language), and I think that we have a lot of good information and ideas on how to expand that even further next year. I was personally really happy that this felt like the first year that there were discussions of ablism in the space, and I feel like that happened really organically with some nudging by myself and others.

I met a ton of great people (including Drakyn), got to help out a lot (I can be a bit of a workaholic if you throw me into something I care about), which was really healing from the ablism in my day to day life; for me, it was over a week and a half of letting my guard down gender-wise (there is nowhere in the outside world like that). Camp continues to be an amazing space for trans people, genderqueer people, and our allies; it continues to do amazing work to help change the culture at Michfest and help make the festival better and more inclusive; unlike most queer/trans spaces, transmisogyny is called out and focused on being eliminated and there is a big presence of trans women, not just trans men and masculine genderqueers, and it continues to be a space that is becoming more and more inclusive and welcoming of all trans communities, because while we're not perfect, we're dedicated to getting better.

Police Brutality at RNC Protests

Round up of links from my personal blog on media on what's going on at the RNC, reposted here because a) this is super important and b)it touches on every issue we discuss here, with some commentary from me:

First, read this post from brownfemipower on why police brutality matters. (Lisa at Questioning Transphobia has also linked to this)

***

Reposted from a friend:

Dear ___________,

We are sending you this message because the situation in St. Paul is very grave and we're concerned that the real story is not being told by the mainstream media.

Over the past few days, the heavily armed and extremely large police presence in St. Paul has intimidated, harrassed and provoked people; and, in a number of instances, the police have escalated situations when they used excessive force. They have used pepper spray, including spraying at least one person just inches from her face as she was held down on the ground by several police officers. They have freely swung their extra long night sticks, pushed people around, rode horses and bicycles up against peacefully gathered groups, and surrounded people simply walking down the streets. On Tuesday evening, they used tear gas on a small group of protesters in downtown St. Paul.

The massive police presence and the uncalled-for actions by the police on the streets has not been the only problem. The police raided a convergence center and several locations where people are staying over the weekend and they have stopped and searched vehicles for no clear reason. For background on the activities of the police in St. Paul, check out Marjorie Cohn's article here.

On Tuesday afternoon, they literally pulled the plug and turned off the electricity at a permitted outdoor concert. The timing of this led to a situation where hundreds of understandably angry people ended up joining a march being led by the Poor Peoples Campaign for Economic Human Rights, a march that organizers were insisting be nonviolent. In other words, the police set up a dynamic that could have turned ugly, but the skill of the organizers kept things calm and focused.


All of this - and much more - needs to be understood in the context of the overwhelming presence of police. Police from all around the Twin Cities have been put to work, and they have also brought in police units from around Minnesota and from as far away as Philadelphia, PA. The National Guard and state troopers are in the mix, to say nothing of the Secret Service, Homeland Security and who knows who else from the federal government!


We are very concerned about what this all means about the right to protest, the right to assemble, and the right to have one's dissenting voice heard. We are worried about what it means about the growing militarization of our nation and the ongoing assault on the Constitution. We shudder to think about how the influx of new weapons and armed vehicles and everything else will be used in the neighborhoods of St. Paul and Denver: both communities each received $50 million from Homeland Security to purchase the equipment and pay for the policing during the conventions.

There are still two more days of the Republican Convention in St. Paul -- two more days of protest and possibilities of police mis-conduct, over-reaction, and excessive use of force.


We urge you to call the Mayor of St. Paul right now! Let him know that people around the country know what's happening! Urge him to stand up for the Constitution and to take action to end the militarization of the downtown areas of his city! Urge him to reign in the police and help bring civility to the streets of St. Paul!


Mayor Chris Coleman: 651-266-8510


And call your local media outlets to demand that they tell the real story of what's happening in St. Paul this week.


Peace,


Leslie Cagan, UFPJ National Coordinator

***

FBI Wanted Obama Plotters Charged, But A Rove Appointee Said No

So, we have the massive trampling of the Constitution and police abuse of power in Minnesota, but white supremacists conspiring to assassinate Senator Obama get their charges dismissed by the US Attorney for Colorado, Troy Eid. Does anyone else sense some sort of bias here in the judicial system, at all?

Note: Again, Lisa has commentary on it, as well

***

Breaking: RNC 8 Charged with "Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism"

Some choice bits: Minnesota has a terrorism enhancement law modeled on the federal patriot act. This adds 50% to the maximum sentence, giving a maximum sentence of 7 1/2 years. The terrorism charges are based on charges made by paid informants that infiltrated the RNC Welcoming Committee, who alleged that "members of the group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC, assault police officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage airports in St. Paul". However, "[e]vidence released to date does not corroborate these allegations with physical evidence or provide any other evidence for these allegations than the claims of the informants. Based on past abuses of such informants by law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild is concerned that such police informants have incentives to lie and exaggerate threats of violence and to also act as provacateurs in raising and urging support for acts of violence."

More over:

"These charges are an effort to equate publicly stated plans to blockade traffic and disrupt the RNC as being the same as acts of terrorism. This both trivializes real violence and attempts to place the stated political views of the Defendants on trial," said Bruce Nestor, President of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. "The charges represent an abuse of the criminal justice system and seek to intimidate any person organizing large scale public demonstrations potentially involving civil disobedience, he said."

The criminal complaints filed by the Ramsey County Attorney do not allege that any of the defendants personally have engaged in any act of violence or damage to property. The complaints list all of alleged violations of law during the last few days of the RNC -- other than violations of human rights carried out by law enforcement -- and seeks to hold the 8 defendants responsible for acts committed by other individuals. None of the defendants have any prior criminal history involving acts of violence. Searches conducted in connection with the raids failed to turn up any physical evidence to support the allegations of organized attacks on law enforcement. Although claiming probable cause to believe that gunpowder, acids, and assembled incendiary devices would be found, no such items were seized by police. As a result, police sought to claim that the seizure of common household items such as glass bottles, charcoal lighter, nails, a rusty machete, and two hatchets, supported the allegations of the confidential informants.

1918 was the last time charges of this sort were brought up, "when Matt Moilen and others organizing labor unions for the International Workers of the World on the Iron Range were charged with "criminal syndicalism." The convictions, based on allegations that workers had advocated or taught acts of violence, including acts only damaging to property, were upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court. In the light of history, these convictions are widely seen as unjust and a product of political trials. The National Lawyers Guild condemns the charges filed in this case against the above 8 defendants and urges the Ramsey County Attorney to drop all charges of conspiracy in this matter."

Hopefully, the National Lawyers Guild will be able to get all these bullshit, illegal, unconstitutional charges dropped...but still, there is going to be a horrific chilling effect. The police state has ramped it up another notch, and neither party will have any desire to turn it down. If everyone remembers back to last weekend, the police were stating to NLG Legal Observers that they didn't have warrants...so who knows if the claimed warrants are legit and just not presented (which is busted) or they've illegally gotten retroactively.

So, at this point, it's Rule of Law and the Constitution 0, Police State way too much.

Savor what little freedom you think you have left, US citizens.

***

Even Pam's House Blend is giving a source that confirms that Blackwater is working security in St. Paul. They were used as police first in New Orleans; now as police/security for the RNC. And let's be honest, they're brutal mercernaries hired to do what even the US government doesn't want to take direct responsibility for doing. Needless to say, using mercenaries for police is in direct contradiction to not only tradition, but the law.

Here's an article by Marjorie Cohn on police misconduct and brutality in St. Paul. Notable unconstitutional activity is preemptive arrest (violates the 4th Amendment, which requires a warrant obtained from a judge based on probable cause); arresting of journalists and ceasing their equipment (violation of the 1st Amendment); and the charge of "conspiracy to riot", which the article notes is "so vague that it is probably unconstitutional". The video in the article is of the arrest of Amy Goodman, who was trying to question the police, as a journalist. And was arrested for that.

Also, the NLG has noted the massive levels of brutality of police forces, and how heavily militarized they are; they and Communities United Against Police Brutality have attempted to get an injunction prohibiting the police from seizing equipment recording their misconduct (an injunction, that if it goes through, I doubt the police will even pretend to pay attention to).

This all just shows that the local, state, and federal law enforcement have gotten even more blatant in their use of coercive force to silence any dissent. This has been going on for a long time - but this just shows that the state no longer cares about even attempting to pretend that there is a rule of law with constitutionally protected rights (that since they are inherent, are neither given nor taken away by the state - they are just something you have).

***

Indymedia has brief blurbs on what's going on at the RNC protests and even though that post has a link through to this, it's important enough to note separately that they're targeting some of the street medics for special procedures; we've long known that the state uses the police to disrupt any dissent using brutality, illegal tactics, and trumped up charges (many of which shouldn't exist to be used in a free society, to begin with), but they've had a consistent pattern this time of getting really good at targeting the infrastructure of protesters and also the media. We've all heard about the arrests of many journalists, and seizure of equipment used for journalistic purposes (the most widely known journalists arrested so far would be Amy Goodman and two producers from Democracy Now!), and the raids on convergence houses; the way this is written, it makes it look like they're now trying to specifically remove medics from the protests.

***

That's just some of the outrageous brutality and trampling of the rule of law that is going on under the police state. What is scariest to me is the fact that they're using Blackwater; using an unaccountable paramilitary force to terrorize citizenry is the last step when a nation goes fascist.

Hurricane Gustav

Via Feministing, a call for support from INCITE (click through the link to get to their website and donate online):

August 30, 2008

Dear INCITE! friends and supporters,

On the eve of the 3 year anniversary of the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and subsequent government criminal negligence and assaults on the low income people of color on the Gulf Coast, our sisters from INCITE! projects in New Orleans (including the local chapter, the Women's Health and Justice Initiative, and the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic) are bracing for the potential landfall of Hurricane Gustav, which is currently projected to hit the Louisiana coast on Monday or Tuesday at a category 4 or 5. Voluntary evacuation of New Orleans has already begun, and mandatory evacuation could be declared as early as today.

INCITE! organizers and supporters in New Orleans have made over 700 phone calls to women of color and their families that make up the constituency of the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic, working to prepare and implement evacuation and safety plans.

Your assistance is urgently needed to help low-income women of color and their families evacuate safely if need be, stay safe for the duration of the evacuation, and return to the city as soon as possible so as not to fall prey to the pushout that has kept so many folks from being able to return to New Orleans since Katrina. Local organizers are using whatever resources and funds at their disposal to help women and their families evacuate, bond people being held in Orleans Parish Prison out, and support those who make the choice to stay in whatever way they can.

Your support is urgently needed: financial donations of any size are needed and would be greatly appreciated.

Donations online are preferred because we can more quickly send the funds to our folks in New Orleans.

You can send your donation to INCITE online by clicking the button below and putting "New Orleans" in the "Purpose" line:

Or you can write a check directly to WHJI and send it to:
PO Box 51325
New Orleans, LA 70151

Your donation will go directly to supporting the hundreds of low income women of color that are the constituency of the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic.

Once again, the particular vulnerability of low-income women of color and single female-headed households (including folks with disabilities, seniors, undocumented immigrant women, and incarcerated women) has been erased in the face of disaster and overlooked in the days leading up to the storm. With few resources, facing challenges and concerns for their families of their own, INCITE! New Orleans and WHJI have stepped in to fill the gap. Please send all your support, solidarity, sisterhood and strength their way, and join us in hoping for the safety and well-being of the people who are already suffering from Gustav in Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti, and willing the storm to subside or veer off safely before it strikes the Gulf Coast.

We will keep you posted as things develop.

peace,
INCITE!

Via brownfemipower and strap-on.org a call from Critical Resistance to put pressure on the Orleans Parish sheriff to make sure prisoners are evacuated this time, instead of left behind in a flooding prison:

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

Prisoners of New Orleans need your help now (Hurricane Gustav)!!!!!!!

Prisoners and Families of New Orleans needs your help immediately!
If you haven’t heard already Hurricane Gustav is headed for New Orleans
and is predicted to be a category 3 hurricane, the same as Hurricane
Katrina. There will possibly be a mandate for all people (outside of
prisons and jails) of New Orleans to evacuate starting tomorrow August
29th, the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It is predicted
that hurricane Gustav will pose great flooding potential regardless of
its category rating, the levee that broke by elected official’s
decisions during Hurricane Katrina has not been fixed to it’s
potential, or replaced.

The over crowding Orleans Parish Prison, located in New Orleans, holds
2, 500 prisoners (this count is not certain, due to lack of
information given to the public.) Although not official, we have
information that the Prisoners of Orleans Parish Prison will be
evacuating to Angola Prison and Hunt Prison in the next coming days
and are also prisons that can be affected by Hurricane Gustav due to
overcrowding.

During Hurricane Katrina there were prisoners able to evacuate and
others who remained locked in their cells with a minimal chance of
survival. Prisoners were left in flooded cells, with no food, and had
minimal ventilation, to say the least. Family members, of prisoners
who were held at Orleans Parish Prison, are still in the fight to
locate their loved ones who had been evacuated to other prisons during
Katrina. Due to the flooding, lack of organization and care from New
Orleans Department of Corrections and elected officials, prisoner’s
records were also missing. As a result, prisoner’s constitutional
rights have been violated.
This abuse can not happen again!

What will happen to the prisoners of Orleans Parish Prison located in
New Orleans this time?

Critical Resistance (CR) is demanding that the elected officials of
New Orleans will not create the same devastating wrongs as they did to
the prisoners of Orleans Parish Prison during hurricane Katrina.

1. we demand a full and safe evacuation of all prisoners
2. we demand to know what the evacuation plan for prisoners is
3. we demand to see a public document about that plan immediately
4. we demand information about how we can find people after an evacuation

We are urging every member, ally and comrade of New Orleans across the
country, to make atleast one call to:

Sheriff Malrin Gusman: 504.827.8505
(James Carter’s secretary said “Orleans Parish Prison is Gusman’s prison”)
James Carter: 504.658.1030
(Criminal Justice Council Member who is able to put pressure on the
sheriff even if they say they can’t)
You can also send an email: JCarter@cityofno.com
please put in your email subject: How will you protect prisoners this time?

Please call as many times as you can to put pressure on them and let
them know our demands and it is their job to be accountable to
us!!!!!!!!

For further information from us please contact Critical Resistance New Orleans:
Mayaba: 917.385.5472 or mayaba@criticalresistance.org
Koolblack: 504.813.4714 or koolblack@criticalresistance.org

(If you can’t get through due to evacuation please contact:
pilar@criticalresistance.org for further information)

In solidarity,
Critical Resistance

Lisa Harney at Questioning Transphobia has been covering the news about Gustav.

And, in case anyone hasn't seen it yet, an article from LeftTurn on the recovery in New Orleans three years after Katrina.

Everyone do what you can to make sure that recovery keeps happening, and that things aren't as bad this time around.

Creating Healthy Models of Masculinity: Discussion Time!

Yours truly has been working on some other projects lately, but I have been thinking a lot about healthy models of masculinity. I talk a lot here about unhealthy patterns of masculinity, particularly in queer spaces, and I would like to turn that conversation around to healthy patterns of masculinity. I like to think my masculinity is in a mostly healthy place, though it certainly took me a while to get here, but, however, I am definitely my own individual person and am in no way wanting to be or trying to be a guide post or model for everyone else, so, going from my post on ableism here and radfems on masculinity here, what do we all think healthy models of masculinity include?

I'll start us off by stating that I think health masculinity includes (and none of these traits are exclusive to masculinity): an understanding of the ways that society privileges masculinity, regardless of the degree of privilege the person in question gets for that masculinity; respect and acceptance of others; the ability to admit to flaws and ask for help; providing help when able to; compassion for others; and seeing oneself as interconnected to the people around oneself.

Any other ideas? Additions?

Update on the New Jersey Four

Convictions overturned for 2 of the Newark 4 - story at AngryBrownButch

As Jack notes, this is some excellent news, and will hopefully be followed by good news for Patreese Johnson and Venice Brown, whose appeals are still pending.

New England Trans Pride

I've been a little slow reporting on this, but New England Trans Pride was back on June 7th. I spent the day working at the memorial and peer counseling table. People primarily needed me as someone to listen to their experiences, and I was very grateful to be able to do that for them.

The day went off incredibly well, despite the heat wave, and all the speakers and performers were excellent. Watching the march come in to the rally location was pretty incredible (the march route was just far too long (even without the heat) for me to consider doing). It was great to see community, and to especially see an actual broad spectrum of trans and gender variant people - typically, around Northampton, one sees far more trans men and trans masculine people than trans women and trans feminine people. A big chunk of this is due to how the dyke community privileges masculinity over femininity (which we've talked about several times) and also to the demographics of western Massachusetts - with two of the Five Colleges being women's colleges, where it is still unclear which trans women may attend, but which have many trans men attending, there are a lot of younger trans men in the area, and also a lot more trans men in the social scene, as among the young trans populace, college students at private liberal arts colleges tend to have some disposable income.

One thing I found to be a particularly good idea was that all of us working the event were given little name stickers that not only had space for our names, but also how we identified and our pronouns. I didn't see anyone who was just wandering the rally with those, so I'm not sure if enough were printed for them to be generally available, but it would have been nice because genderqueer and other complicated identities tend to be rendered invisible, even in queer/trans spaces.

I've seen the figure quoted of 700+ attendees. There were certainly a lot of people there, and it was a huge parking lot, and so I can believe it. People definitely traveled from all over the place to be at the event - not only western Massachusetts, but the rest of New England and beyond.


Monica Roberts has an excellent piece at the Bilerico Project on the absence of American flags at Trans Pride, and I have to agree with all her points, with a caveat - American flags make me highly uncomfortable. I have an upside down one on the rear window of my car, and a decent chunk of the time, when I catch a glance at it, even knowing it is upside down, it bothers me. And it's for the reason she mentions - because it's the religious right and the neocons who parade around with it these days. The people who hate me and people like me. So maybe she's right, and we should reclaim it and display it. I'm not sure if my political reasons for not wanting to properly display an American flag are included in what she refers to - even if US policy were to be ok by me (which isn't going to happen), I don't agree with the existence of nation-states with top-down authority (and the attendant hierarchy), but that certainly isn't a majority view (or more than a tiny minority) with in the queer/trans community. And I think that if queer/trans political events and rallies started displaying the American flag, I, and most others, would get over our nervousness, eventually. And I think it would help with the mainstream - because while I don't want to assimilate, I do want the mainstream to stop targeting us.