Linkspam: Fighting the Power

SIGNAL BOOSTING

Labyrs Kyrgyzstan Is an LGBT organization in Kyrgyzstan that serves the needs of the LGBTQI community in that country . They need US $7000 to set up a permanent headquarters that they cannot be harassed and evicted out of.

Since its establishment in 2004 Labrys had to change offices 5 times most often because the apartment owners were unhappy about our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights work. In 2005 we had to move the office urgently because of threats by father of one of the Labrys staff to rape us all. Whenever we would move to a new place, the neighbors would start complaining and we would be asked to leave again. In each of the offices police would pay a visit to find out what we were doing and destroying the feeling of safety that Labrys meant for LGBT communities in Kyrgyzstan. MORE

They needed a $30,000 US to match a grant from a Netherlands-based NGO, and they have managed to secure much of it. They just need $7000 US dollars more by Dec 15, 2010 If you can manage it, can you contribute something?

SIGNAL BOOSTING TSA INCIDENT REPORT FOR TRANSGENDER TRAVELERS via my fl.

Public Enemy – Fight the Power

Fighting the Black Anti-Abortion Campaign: Trusting Black Women by Loretta J Ross from SisterSong

Sixty-five billboards were quickly erected in predominantly African American neighborhoods in Atlanta on February 5, 2010. Each showed a sorrowful picture of a black male child proclaiming, “Black Children are an Endangered Species.”

Georgia Right to Life and the newly-formed Radiance Foundation spent $20,000 to sponsor the billboards that included the address of a previously unknown anti-abortion website.

…

At Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, where one of the billboards was only a few blocks away, we knew that this race- and gender-baiting campaign would have national implications, driving a racial wedge in the pro-choice movement and a gender wedge in communities of color. The legislation would also trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade.

Although SisterSong had not expected this fight, we could not afford to be silent. We surged into action to challenge the marketing of the billboards and the legislation. We formed a coalition for the fight with SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, Feminist Women’s Health Center, SisterLove, Planned Parenthood of the Southeast Region, and Raksha. We strategized together to use a reproductive justice approach that intersected race and gender as the smartest way to counter this intersectional attack on abortion rights.Here’s how we did it

A Simple Human Right: The History of Black Women and Abortion

Dorothy Brown, MD, the first black female surgeon in the U.S., was also the first American state legislator to attempt to legalize abortion. As a member of the Tennessee state legislature in 1967, she proposed a bill to that effect and her commitment to reproductive rights remained strong in the decades that followed. In a 1983 interview she cut to the heart of the conflict about abortion in the black community when she said black women “should dispense quickly the notion that abortion is genocide; genocide in this country dates back to 1619,” the year African slaves were first brought to America.

The tension between the resistance to externally imposed population control and the right of individual women to avoid involuntary motherhood marks the history of black women and reproductive rights in the U.S. It’s a fascinating story in its own right, but is also quite relevant to our current struggles.MORE

[Activist Modus Operandi] Methods of Communication03Oct09 via in this comment on

Activism is a fairly simple concept. You do stuff to make things better. Activism when it comes to marginalized populations is also relatively simple in concept. You do stuff to make things better, only you specifically have to stop marginalization, see past and slowly remove privilege and improve the lives of marginalized folk in order to make things better.

That’s where it stops being simple. Abruptly.MORE

Questions of Loyalty in Movement Building

How can loyalty become a threat to social movements and how can it be a source of strength? How should movements respond to threats and how do we nurture and build on loyalty from within? What does it mean for the poor? S’bu Zikode, the President of Abahlali baseMojondo, addresses these questions at the University of Chicago which is part of a speaking and solidarity building tour in the US.Questions of Loyalty in Movement Building

Forthwritten pust together a great linkspam on the Student Tuition Protests in Britain

Academics pledge to ‘fight alongside’ students over tuition fees and cuts: [link to letter]

Nearly 300 academics from 76 universities have written to the Guardian to say they understand the “anger of students” over education cuts and to express their support for this week’s planned protests.

Praising the “magnificent demonstration” by students and staff earlier this month, the letter’s signatories claim that plans to raise tuition fees and scrap the education maintenance allowance will lead to the “destruction of broad-based, critical education”.

[…]

The signatories to today’s letter – who are drawn from 68 UK universities and eight non-UK education institutions – say they consider themselves to be “involved in a defence, not just of our jobs, but of the values which brought us into higher education, reflecting the wider significance of education to society”.

They go on to say that the planned increase in fees means the “effective removal of higher education” for working people.

The letter points to research from the Institute of Fiscal Studies which says that the cuts will lead to “insignificant savings to the taxpayer”.

“The ending of the education maintenance allowance and adult learning grants gives the lie to the coalition’s attempts to argue that those on lower incomes will retain access – these students will not be able to afford to stay in post-16 education to secure the qualifications they need to apply for further or higher education.

“The coalition has no mandate for its ideologically driven class rule – the anger of students is no surprise to us. Our intention is to fight alongside them in our institutions to defend social science, humanities and the arts and to protect higher and further education for all.”

MORE

 

Meantime An Open Letter by a Feminist breaks down why the protests are necessary:‘Mon the Students!! In Solidarity

Today, in London and other parts of the UK, students are holding protestant against the proposed tripling of tuition fees in our universities; the cuts to government funding of universities that effectively mean that university teaching will only be paid for by student fees, and the cuts to bursaries to school children to encourage them to stay in education past the age of 16. First, as an academic, as somebody who spent more time than most as a student, and a member of staff at a UK university, I applaud and celebrate the willingness and enthusiasm of students to stand up for their rights, for the rights of a future generation of students, and for the principle of education for all. MORE

Who knew that one government could cause such blog fodder? (This is a rhetorical question).

If your parents are poor, then you will not have a fancy private education- taught in a class of 6 or 8, with the opportunity of tutors to support you, practically guaranteeing the grades you need for university; you may have had a poor diet and a lack of access to books, resources, the internet, that prepare wealthier children to succeed in later life. You might have went to schools where resources were over-stretched, teachers were tired and over-worked, and there was no expectation- let alone training or socialisation in- the idea of pursuing a career in further or higher education that would allow you to get one of those fancy middle-class jobs. You probably don’t have parents that understand the university system and realise that universities are in fact ranked- and it does make a difference where you go (and I’ll be up front in admitting it was pure serendipity that I picked a top uni, cause nobody sure as hell told me there was a difference, perhaps beyond ‘avoid the ex-polytech’). When you go to univeristy, you don’t have the allowance from the generous parents that stops you from having to work every hour God sends just to get by- and all that means for time available to spend studying. Then when you are an adult, you don’t have parents who know or understand those fancy middle-class jobs and can give you career advice, or introduce you to their contacts- making it much harder to know when to take risks, when you are being exploited, what you should be paid.MORE

Black Filmmaker Charles Burnett talks about his classic Film “Killer of Sheep (Interview originally in 2007)

What were your expectations for Killer of Sheep if you made it just as a thesis for UCLA? It was a time in the ’70s when there wasn’t distribution like there is now. This was made as a demonstration to show the working class who they were. There were a lot of student films about the working class and the poor that had no connection. A lot of people were making films where they said if you do ABC, then D will happen; there will be some sort of resolution. But life just isn’t like that. [Killer of Sheep] was an attempt to make a film about the people I grew up with and their concerns. I hoped it would be shown in a context where there would be a conversation about the working class, where it could be used as a visual aid. There’s obviously no simple solutions to the problems, and that’s what I was addressing and reacting to.

….

But how do you think the film relates to the world in 2007 versus the world in 1977? I think you can see the seeds of some of the future in the film. The Watts riots were in ’65, and we filmed in the early ’70s, and you can see that little was done to help the community. In a way, you look back and it’s even worse now in many ways. Then, to some degree, you could get a job doing manual labor, but now everything is so technical. Then you could at least pick up a trade from your family, who were carpenters, or plumbers, and now you have to go to school for it. In the film there’s an anti-Southern thing, like the son calling his mother “my dear,” which is like a country code-word, and she tells him not to say that. There was a rejection of certain values, but you sort of need those foundations.MORE

Killer of Sheep Trailer

John Scalzi – Saying Thanksgiving Grace, the Science-fictional Way

Dear Great and Gracious Lord,

This Thanksgiving, we pause to reflect on all the bounty and good fortune with which you have graced us this year. Thank you, Lord, for this feast we have in front of us and for the family and friends who are with us today to enjoy this bounty and this day with us, even our Cousin Chet. Thank you for our health and for our happiness.

We also thank you for the world and that in your wisdom you have not stopped the Earth’s core from rotating, collapsing our planet’s magnetic field and causing microwaves from the sun to fry whole cities, requiring a plucky band of scientists to drill down through the mantle and start the core’s rotation with nuclear bombs. That seems like a lot of work, so we are pleased you’ve kept the Earth’s core as it is.MORE

Future States TV

What will become of America in five, 25, or even 50 years from today? FUTURESTATES is a series of 11 fictional mini-features exploring possible future scenarios through the lens of today’s global realities. Immerse yourself in the visions of these independent prognosticators as they project a future of their own imagining.MORE

This is absolutely awesome. Not only are there many POC as directors/producers AND as actors, the shorts dealwith things like reproductive justice, immigration, the future of food, what it measn to be a human and other hot-button issues today. My faves are Seed, PIA, Silver Sling and Plastic Bag. What are yours?

Are you a black filmmaker? Consider entering this competition Submission Deadline For $3,000 Shadow And Act Black Filmmaker Challenge 3 Weeks Away!

via: Racialicious No need to go undercover to get to know Muslims

Going “under cover” as a Muslim to get to know Muslims implies that we are a closed, isolated group of individuals whose experiences cannot be known and understood unless an outsider comes in to examine us, like an American safari team traveling to Africa to study the behaviors exhibited by the Chacma Baboon.MORE

Breakdown of UN vote to excluse LGBQTI from condemantion and execution

African Commission blocks LGBT human rights

“The earth will don an electronic skin”: Digital Diaspora, Indigenous Feminisms, and the Anti-Racist Blogosphere

Stirrings of a new LGBT movement in Trinidad and Tobago

Rula’s View

“Bitch is the New Black” will put Helena Andrews and her lesbian mom on screen

This summer, Harper Collins published journalist Helena Andrews’ memoir Bitch is the New Black. The book details Helena’s life with her lesbian mother, working her way up in the world of journalism and trying to find a good black man. Before the book was released, Shonda Rhimes’ production company, Shondaland, optioned it for a film, which means Helena’s life will soon be coming to the big screen — gay mom included.MORE

Eroticism between women in Caribbean Lit Thiefing Sugar

Publisher’s description: In Thiefing Sugar, Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley explores the poetry and prose of Caribbean women writers, revealing in their imagery a rich tradition of erotic relations between women. She takes the book’s title from Dionne Brand’s novel In Another Place, Not Here, where eroticism between women is likened to the sweet and subversive act of cane cutters stealing sugar. The natural world is repeatedly reclaimed and reinterpreted to express love between women in the poetry and prose that Tinsley analyzes. She not only recuperates stories of Caribbean women loving women, stories that have been ignored or passed over by postcolonial and queer scholarship until now, she also shows how those erotic relations and their literary evocations form a poetics and politics of decolonization. MORE

I am very curious about this.

Native American Netroots is a very good blog. Today was apparently Native American Heritage Day. American Indian Heritage Day: 11/26 Let’s Eat! Really mouthwatering recipes with pics!

and they also have The Massacre for which Thanksgiving is named Part 2 and A new article of faith: Dont make the poor balance the budget, Growing Up Indian, Ancient America: The Olmec and so much more informative and interesting topics.

tristero writes for The Hullabaloo. He is also a composer and in 2008 he did an opera called The Origin celebrating the life and work of Charles Darwin. The excerpts sounds kind awesome.

On Steampunk: Blog Silver Goggles Tagline: Worn by the steampunk postcolonialist when engaging with issues of race, representation, diversity, and other such exciting adventures as one might find in a Scientific Romance

AWESOME POST 1 The Working process of Between islands

AWESOME POST 2: MRP Adventures: Usable Primary Works AKA how she would define steampunk lit that focuses on race and representation. Go thou and read voraciously and then drop by Steampunk Scholar for the SHINY! PRETTEH! and then hit this crunchy post over on Beyond Victoriana #50 Overcoming the Noble Savage & the Sexy Squaw: Native Steampunk–Guest Blog by Monique Poirier and #48 Les Sapeurs: Gentlemen of the Congo–Guest Blog by Eccentric Yoruba and if you’ve managed to miss any of her most read blogs…why, she’s put together a linkspam to celeberate the blog’s first birthday!

via Seeking Avalon

On the kind of women heroes we are taught to expect:

Sookie is a darling, but she’s no Buffy Summers

In the conventional story about women – to use fairy tales, again, as a handy example – the only important choice a woman gets to make is at the threshhold of adulthood (since “marriage” is, in these stories, the rite that initiates women into the adult world), in her choice of marriage partner, because that will define her entire future life, social status, and happiness. And we also tell many romances – they became conventional in the first place – partly because courtship is the only place where a woman’s choice will acceptably have a major effect on a man’s life, and men’s lives are, in Western convention, the only ones we really think deserve to have stories told about them.

We are trained readers of this sort of story; it is overwhelmingly the only story we see about women, and we expect it.

…We’re missing the point that Buffy DOES have power in a thousand other areas that the heroines of conventional romances do not, and that her story is quite literally empowering, in that it, duh, gives her powers, and stories, that women don’t traditionally get.

But the conventional story pattern has taught us to see only one power as appropriate for women, and if the heroine fails to exercise that, then she has been disempowered; she is a failure.

Sookie’s story, by contrast, is following on exactly the lines of conventional romance. Her story is about mating; her power (despite her unusual Gift(s)) consists in her ability to choose a partner. MORE

Why did NBC cancel Undercovers?

Six Fixes That Could Have Made Undercovers a Hit

I like everything except the gay fatal attraction thing. No and HELL NO.

And to top this off: Scifi in India music vid!

via plazmah

You say party – Lonely’s Lunch.

Count me in a a great great fan of this story and this entire vid idea