Fuck the MTA

'nuff said.

Hunger Strike Press Release

http://soccollective.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/hunger-strike-press-release/

Hunger Strike Press Release
May 25, 2009

UC SANTA CRUZ STUDENTS OF COLOR COLLECTIVE HOLD HUNGER STRIKE TO PROTEST CUTS TO RESOURCES FOR UNDER-SERVED COMMUNITIES

MAY 22th, 2009

The Students of Color Collective (SOCC) brings together organizers from various campus minority organizations to address the disparities at UC Santa Cruz and the higher education system. The collective has formed in response to the massive education budget cuts that have adversely affected people of color who have historically faced and continue to face inequalities in higher education achievement.

Members of the SOCC will be conducting a HUNGER STRIKE Beginning Tuesday May 26th at the Base of Campus at 12:00PM that will be accompanied by a large student rally in support of the hunger strikers and the SOCC demands. This action will is being conducted to draw attention to cut backs in resources for students of color and for the UCSC administration to recognize and meet these demands.

Student of Color Collective Demands

Short Term ( by the end of this quarter 09-10)
•Hire full-time American Indian Resource Center and Women’s Center directors with student voice in open hiring process
•Maintain academic integrity and current structure of Community Studies Dept. by keeping field study
coordinators Mike Rotkin and Flor Marchetti and Department Manager Penny Stinson and not merging the department into Sociology.

•Retain both Latin American and Latino Studies lecturers Guillermo Delgado and Susan Jonas
•Makes UCSC a sanctuary campus for undocumented communities
•UCSC openly and publicly support the state and Federal DREAM Act
•Permanent funding for Ethnic- Year-End Ceremonies from college C.A.O.s and Provosts
•Resource Center representative as liaison between local tribes and UCSC in order to maintain respectable relationships with local tribes
•Support Family Student Housing in receiving equitable rent for next year 09-10 funding (no rent increase)

•Fair transparent negotiations with workers and unions to ensure equitable pay, working condition and representation
•No layoffs!
•No worker deportations by ICE
•Freeze on Budget Cuts over the summer, while students are not present

Long Term:

•Institutionalize scholarships and other resources for AB540 students
•Access and affordability to higher education for underrepresented communities- STOP STUDENT FEE HIKES!
•Outreach and retention of faculty and staff of color (including hiring a full-time Counseling & Psychological Services staff of color)
•Fill Asian American “specialist” position for American Studies
•Movement towards an Ethnic Studies Program
•Affordable and quality housing for under resourced immigrant students
•No cuts to Disability student resources
•No cuts to Rape Awareness Programs

Signed,
UCSC STUDENTS OF COLOR COLLECTIVE

No More Anomynous

Hey Everyone,

I have chosen to remove anomynous as an option for people who want to leave comments.

I initially allowed that as an option so that people without open id accounts to participate and to foster conversation amongst us all, because even shy people have something to say.

However, I think that for the conversations that I want to have, if you identify yourself as anomynous, then I am concerned as to what your intentions might be. I established at the very beginning of this blog the parameters in which we can have constructive, open dialogue -- and that includes challenging me. However, given that I have made so much of an attempt to be open, at the minimum, I deserve the same to be reciprocated by letting me know who you are.

Last, I will put up a poll to see how you feel about it. Please don't be afraid to vote. Also, if there is another thing that I am not considering, or you flat out disagree, please let me know in the comments section.

A Clarification on So So Diverse/ A Question of Diversity

Anonymous said...

I'm really confused... First you complain that the freshman didn't come to you on your hall to talk about diversity, and then you say that you hate it when random white people come up to talk to you. Which is it?

May 19, 2009 11:20 AM

SableYork said...

Hi Anonymous,

Thanks for calling that out. It does seem very contradictory right next to each other and it was something that someone has already asked me about.

To make it simple, it's both.

To complicate it a bit: I was calling out the freshman on diversity, because based on this interaction that I had with him, sharing a living space with people of color as a white person is supposed foster some greater connection across difference, across race. However, despite the fact that we did occupy the same living space, he failed to utilize our living space in a way that would help bridge differences in that multicultural way that would bring diversity and understanding.

Having random white people come up and talk to me and having a white person in my hall trying to build a relationship, bridge whatever you want to call it are two entirely different things. To be completely honest, both situations annoy me. But the more problematic one is the former. Aside from the fact that it is rude to interupt people without their consent, what really bothers me is the assumption of my instant access and availability. Contrary to popular belief, there are other things higher on my priority list than interfacing with curious, well-meaning white people who are interested in their dose of diversity for the day. And as a Black womyn increasingly aware of her past while keenly aware of the present, I am very conscious of how instantly accessible and available Black women are and have been in American society (NOTE: I'm thinking of slavery. I'm thinking how raping Black women was not considered a crime, through the mid 20th century, because of assumed access and availability). To get a clue on how these interruptions and assumptions leave me feeling, see Alysha's video on The Ethnic Spectacle. It annoys me when random white people try to talk with me, with no context or preface, because not only does me fulfilling that role support their whiteness as central to the universe, but it simultaneously constructs myself, my needs, my desire and my being as peripheral in a way that is detrimental to me. So if I am going to have a conversation with a white person, random or not, about anything, it needs to be on my terms, and in a way that my interests and well-being can remain central to the purpose of the discussion, in a way that I see fit. And I do not care for the white person who had lost out on the opportunity to learn. I am no one's teacher and I came to college to obtain an education for myself. Not to be an enriching supplement to anyone else's.

The latter situation annoys me because of the whole teaching aspect, but I do believe that given the setting, if I chose to engage, there would be more room for me to claim power in that situation. Whethor it's power to set the parameters of the conversation, because of our shared living space or power to say I do not want to have this conversation, because of our shared living space, it is still power that I can claim as my own and power that is more likely to be recognized and respected by my white hallmate who did not engage in anything at all.

[Which brings me to this last point, diversity (as demonstrated by this white male student) is something where white people just exist and "Ethnic Spectacles" are brought to their doorstep, or shall I say dormstep, where people of color are the only active players.]

And don't be so shy anomynous. I think that it's better to have conversation when we both know who we are talking to.

SableYork

So So Ethnic

A definition of ethnic spectacle connected to the fact that 'It's Not About You!'

So So Diverse

What is diversity, when does it exist and who is it for?
From me & Alysha, a good friend, over at 'It's Not About You!'.

Speak In, Speak OUT! The Documentary is OUT!!!!

Hey Everyone,

Here is a documentary I worked on with two other amazing womyn, Ashia Troiano and Stephanie Rodriguez. It is about images of Black women in the media and it was a final project for Dr. Allison Dorsey's Black Freedom Struggle: From Civil Rights to Hip Hop. Forward your questions and comments to speakinspeakout@gmail.com and check out the website here: http://sp3akinsp3akout.blogspot.com/... Thanks and ENJOY!!!

Point One: WE WANT AN END TO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE OF BLACK WOMEN AND BLACK YOUNG GIRLS IMPOSED BY THE MEDIA.


Point Two: WE WANT CONTROL OF OUR IMAGES THROUGH PHYSICAL REPRESENTATION IN DECISION MAKING PROCESS.


Point Three: WE WANT DIVERSIFIED, COMPLEX AND NON-MONOLITHIC PORTRAYALS OF BLACK WOMEN.


Conclusion



Email: SpeakInSpeakOUT@gmail.com
Website: http://sp3akinsp3akout.blogspot.com/

How Not To Write About Africa

Liberal, well-meaning white people who care, please take note:

So So In Need of a Miracle

Things that need to be accomplished by 2am today:

1. 10 page paper
2. Learn Spanish
3. Hash out outline for 10 page paper.

Quick Note: I hate it when I am given deadlines and extra assignments that force me to shift my personal priorities to just pass a class. I've chosen what classes are important to me -- on academic and non-academic levels -- and I truly don't appreciate when attempts are made to dishevel the life that took precious time and energy to assemble and construct.

As noted earlier, I am so so in need of a miracle.

So So Obvious

Last night, I became increasingly aware of how I am valued, as a Swarthmore student, as opposed to other members of the Swarthmore community, Environmental and Dining Services. Swat students received emails and text messages less than hour after the incident. When considering the late hours that some staff people are required to work, I became extremely concerned and even disgusted when I started to think about what this implied about whose safety and well-being is considered valuable enough to alert.

Swarthmore -- lately, you've been so so obvious to me so so revealing of your true colors.

So So Not In The Mood

Fine!! I'll just say it!!

I DO NOT WANT TO WORK!!!

Why is it that the exact moment that I really need to step up is also the exact moment where I gain the perspective that how I do academically no longer serves as a direct indicator as who I am as a person? Yes, I am glad that I figured that out now. If I had figured that out 1.5 years ago, I probably not be here, at Swarthmore College. Let me not lie to myself -- as more time passed in the time leading up to and during freshman year, I stayed here, I chose to come here so that I can prove something to myself. But what have I proven to myself? Certainly not what I expected. And since that expectation is so much smaller than where I am, where I am going, and since I have new expectations that are shifting and changing and growing as I shift, change and grow, what am I trying to prove now?

Don't get me wrong, I am not kind considering transferring -- that is a non-possibility, especially at this point. There are too many people that I value so dearly for me to even consider that. But that still leaves the question, in light of my new goals and my new self, why am I here? What am I trying to accomplish? What more than just survive and just graduate?

Now, it's time for me to get to that terribly overdue paper of mine...

Privilege versus Blessed

In what ways is
saying that someone is blessed,
saying that they are privileged?

Are they the same things?
If not, how are they different?

If so, how is the religious and faithful
connotation of blessed reconciled with
the unearned, externally holistic benefit
implication of privilege?

So So Blessed

This past week has been one of the worst weeks that I've had here at Swarthmore. But if I'm completely honest with myself, it has also been one of the best. Here's why:

* ~ 10 hours of sleep in 3 days
* slept through 2 final presentations. a note about this. not just any presentation. i slept through a presentation for the class that has been my sustaining (academic) blood here. the class that has been teaching me so much. challenging me so much. and expecting what i expect of myself so much.
* did not sleep through the 3rd "presentation". this just made me extremely bitter. angry. upset. highly annoyed.

The combination of these 3 things, and others that I failed to mention here, proved to be a quite harrowing experience. But light of all that, I also realized how extremely Blessed that I am. Here's some of why:

* My girls published "The Sisters"
* Speak In, Speak OUT! premiered
* Felt like I was falling into abyss, and found that my friends where there to catch me everytime.
Every time. Thank you. Every time. Wow.

There are a bunch of other things and specifics that I could go into. But for some reason, when it comes to blessings, it sort of feels like a violation to place and fix them into this space. So I won't