BB Reflection: “Generation Roe: Inside the Future of the Pro-Choice Movement”

On Tuesday, we had the honor of hosting writer Sarah Erdreich for “Generation Roe: Inside the Future of the Pro-Choice Movement.” She started the brown bag by first talking about how it is she got to doing the work that she does. Sarah joked about her educational pursuits and how they essentially made her “impressively useless.” Given that I’m a senior struggling with unemployment similar issues, it was nice to hear from someone in the real world who took some time to get into the swing of the real world. She went on to talk about her work on the NAtional Abortion Federation hotline and the information she shared helped me put some things in perspective. Firstly, I am pro-choice. I believe that all women should be 100% in control of their reproductive health and if that means having an abortion, then so be it. While I am vocal about laws in the United States infringing on the rights of women to have access to proper medical care, I did not realize how little I thought about how access is not enough. It is not enough to say that under the law, women have the right to have abortions. Having a right on paper is not the same as having a right in practice. Women may have access to abortions, but what about the dangerous people who are willing to incite violence because they disagree? What does my right to an abortion mea if the people picketing outside of the clinic are willing to throw a bomb through the window? What does my right to an abortion matter if the nearest doctor who can perform an abortion is two hours away from me? What if my insurance is not comprehensive and will not cover the procedure I need to have? Sure, I may have the right to have one, but how realistic is that if there are so many other factors to consider when making these choices?

Additionally, Sarah talked about personal blinders that contribute to the stigmatization of abortions. She argued that abortions are a standard form of healthcare and that women contribute to the stigmatization of this by not asking of their health care provider performs them. Sarah admitted that she did not even know if her own doctor performed them. She also admitted that when she asked her doctor, she was uncomfortable. She felt it necessary to preface the question with “I’m not pregnant, but...” It’s interesting that even women who work as pro-choice activists still battle with these kind of concerns.

Ultimately, the abortion debate needs to be humanized. We need to see it as more than body parts and legal precedents. Abortion may be a talking point to your local politician, but it is a very real reality for many people who have had to face a decision as serious as this one.

Drunk In Love,
Renyelle

Change, Inclusivity and The Spectrum

In one of the assignments for my Core Legacies’ class, I have been thinking about change and what it would needs in order to be inclusive of all. Then, I had to ask myself what is change? Can it truly ever be inclusive? And how can this change for inclusivity be implemented? Is it through laws, institutions, or a mental process?

After endless thoughts, I have come to a block. I realized changes that are being implemented surrounding certain topics such gender, race or beauty inclusivity, when passed through laws and institutional systems oftentimes fail. For instance, the idea of the beautiful black woman in the media is the one’s who has a skin color closer to white. What does this say about beauty? And now that Lupita Nyong’o, a Black actress, film and music director challenges our understanding of what is beautiful, because she is not this absurd idea of what the media considered beautiful previously. I do consider this to be a change even though, this idea of beauty is still limiting by not take into account her intelligence or her other achievements outside of her role in Twelve Years of slave. By acknowledging her as beautiful challenges the idea of what has been understood as the ideal beautiful black woman. This acknowledgement is only made possible by rethinking our idea of beauty. Therefore, I believe in order for change to truly be made in regards to a topic such as beauty, people’s mentality has to be challenged. In addition, when thinking about the changes that are essential to creating inclusivity for all “things”, such as beauty, need to be thought of as on a spectrum. This spectrum can be understood by allowing for different narratives that speak to various and realistic definition of what is beautiful. By having multiple of these narratives will challenge the one popular narrative that everyone seems to be comfortable with. These narratives will create space for many people who are made to be invisible and are often time stripped of their voices because they are not the “it”. These narratives will force people to always question themselves, to think outside of the “box” and to start acknowledging that the “it” is limiting because a person is much more than their beauty, their race, their sexuality and everything they are intersect. Therefore, a change for inclusivity becomes personal and collective.

- Noufo Nabine '16

Feminist Ted Talks

I love Ted Talks. I love that they disseminate information from very well spoken and incredibly smart individuals on a wide variety of topics. (Confession: Ted Talks even helped me formulate ideas for my thesis)  Thus, when I want to procrastinate but don’t want to waste my time on Facebook, I watch Ted Talks.

I find that this technological platform for sharing mini-lectures is vitally important for contemporary feminist movements. I have learned so much about other feminist movements around the world because of Ted Talks. I also believe that Ted Talks are an inviting forum for those who don’t know much about feminism to learn about it in a “safe” and private environment.

So, I’ve listed some of my favorite Ted Talks pertaining to feminism in the hopes that: 1) you learn something new; 2) you realize that other people are doing the same work you are doing (or want to do); 4) listening to other people’s stories inspires you; or 3) you realize that we still need feminism. Regardless of your takeaway messages I hope that you at least realize that the information is out there as long as you look for it. There are some pretty amazing people in this world doing amazing feminist work.

Esta Soler: How we turned the tide on domestic violence (Hint: the Polaroid Helped)

This talk highlights the importance of acknowledging how far we’ve come while also being realistic on how much more needs to be done. Esta Soler, an advocate fighting against domestic violence, discusses the various tactic and technologies that have been used over the past decades to bring awareness of domestic violence which has engaged the public and policy maker while also allowing women to share their stories. She argues that technology, in essence, has made the invisible visible.

*Warning: there is a clip within the talk that portrays a violent scene that can be quite difficult to watch.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

This is one of my favorite Ted Talks. Adichie is a Nigerian writer who warns us against the unintended consequences of the single narrative. Hearing a single story and then attributing those characteristics to an entire people or country manages to deny individual experiences and ignore complexity. This silencing of voices and overgeneralization is what leads to misunderstandings or worse outcomes. The message from this talk is transferrable to multiple issues such as sexism, ageism, racism, classism, imperialism, etc. and is vitally important in this day and age.  

McKenna Pope: Want to be an activist? Start with your toys

McKenna Pope is a 14-year-old girl who started a Change.org petition to have more gender-neutral toys and ended up being successful. She isn’t the most eloquent speaker I’ve seen (alright I actually just got a little anxious just watching her, but to be fair I’m not even that articulate at age 22). But I still thought it conveyed an interesting message: Anyone can be an activist. She talks about the evolution from starting with an idea, to implementing the idea, overcoming discouragement, and ultimately how she became successful.

Sheryl Sandberg: So we leaned in ... now what?

Yes, another Sheryl Sandberg talk. There are some very interesting messages within this talk, but also some things that I find problematic. She discusses the impact of her first Ted Talk and how her message has changed the lives of women around the world. She also discusses some important double-standard issues in terms of leadership and why that needs to change. But, a quick disclaimer: this talk is riddled with white privilege and completely ignores intersectional oppression in women’s lives. There are also instances of the “white savior complex.” Still interesting to watch though but just be mindful/critical of what you hear.

Kakenya Ntaiya: A girl who demanded school

Kakenya Ntaiya is a Kenyan woman who tells her story about how she made a difference within her community. As a woman who has undergone Female Genital Mutilation (in her own words) she is an advocate for changing the status of women within her own community. After coming back from the United States, she took it upon herself to start a school for girls that could provide a safe and enriching environment for girls. Overall, her message is that we all have the ability to make our own communities better and if we all do our part, this world can be a better place.  

iO Tillett Wright: Fifty shades of gay

This is the blurb on the site that better summarizes the talk better than I ever could.  “Artist iO Tillett Wright has photographed 2,000 people who consider themselves somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum and asked many of them: Can you assign a percentage to how gay or straight you are? Most people, it turns out, consider themselves to exist in the gray areas of sexuality, not 100% gay or straight. Which presents a real problem when it comes to discrimination: Where do you draw the line?”

Sunitha Krishnan: The fight against sex slavery

I must admit, this video is pretty hard to watch. Sunitha Kirshnan starts off with telling the story of three children who have been trafficked and then goes into her own experience with sex slavery. She offers some insight into how these children, women, and men that have been trafficked can be rehabilitated into society. Overall her message is clear: we need to stop “victimizing the victims” and start treating them like human beings.

*Warning: there are some pretty graphic images   

Isabel Allende: Tales of passion

This is another one of my favorites. Isabel Allende is an amazing speaker and her message is powerful, thought provoking, humorous, passionate, and honest. She discusses many women’s issues globally and explains why we still need feminism. I’d highly recommend watching this video.

Happy Procrastinating!

- Michelle Van Veen '14

Anti Pornography Law In Uganda

A few weeks ago, the Anti Pornography bill was passed to become a law in The Republic of Uganda. This law defines pornography as “any representation, through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent show, information technology or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or stimulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual excitement.” The reason for the creation of this law was because the Members of Parliament, particularly the Minister for Ethics, felt that it was because of pornography that sexual offences like rape, child molestation, and incest were taking place.

Now, according to the law, women are prohibited from wearing short skirts/shorts/ dresses and revealing tops because they “irritate the mind and excite other people especially of the opposite sex”, said the ethics minister. This irritation of the mind and excitement of people especially of the opposite sex should not be the problem of the woman who ought to have the freedom to dress as she pleases. This irritation and excitement of the mind should be dealt with by those that get irritated and excited. In making this a law, some things really were not considered such as tribes where women literary move naked, breast feeding mothers who pull out their breasts everyday, educative plays in theatres or shows on TVs? This law actually endangers women as those with power take law in their hands to undress women and people’s daughters all in the name of the law. More pressing issues such as ways to reduce poverty levels and raise the standard of living of each Ugandan should be what these people in power are focusing on rather than creating laws that justify men’s "irritations" to commit sexual offences.

BB Reflection: “Intersectionality, Introspection and Leadership”

Sisters of the Round Table (SORT) kicked off their annual Africana Women’s Week (AWW) with last Tuesday’s brown bag: “ Perspectives on Intersectionality, Introspection and Leadership.” The panelists included Melissa Melendez (Chairwoman of SORT), Hoa Bui (Tri-Chair of the Anti-Racism Coalition), Evan Chartier (LGBTQ Initiatives intern) and Che Hatter (Program Assistant at the Center). All of these individuals are highly involved in conversations surrounding social and political issues on and off the Colgate campus. As leaders and active participants of various social justice groups and spaces, they learn and attempt to be self-reflective and to be self-critical, an important component of social justice activism.

        As Melissa points out, being self-reflexive and self-critiquing is not an easy task, nor should it be. Whether we are leaders or participants of a social activist movement, we have to come to terms with our own privileges in order to continue to do the work that we want to do. Even if we are members of one or more marginalized groups, we all have privileges that others do not. And this may be a harsh reality we have to face and constantly be introspective about. This is important because by disregarding certain privileges, we may unintentionally perpetuate the institutions and systems we’re against, which in turn may end up further hurting and oppressing others.

        But a major component of this process is being vulnerable. As Meli said, being uncomfortable is good. It is a sign that we are being self-reflexive and working through the process. Everyone was asked to write down one thing they care about. Then we were asked to write down ways we are complicit in the issues we care about. Fortunately, many people were willing to share and open up about what they wrote on their note cards. Many of our community members were able to be vulnerable in a safe space and able to share several long, uncomfortable pauses.

        We do not want this conversation to end with the brown bag, but hope that they continue to occur. So for those of us that are social activist or are involved in social justice issues (at any level), here are some questions we can use to work through this process. You can think through this whether you are alone in your bed in the dark or with close friends or in a safe space/judgment free zone or within a social activist group (like SORT or ARC). Some questions to consider:

• What are your various intersecting identities, based on class, race, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexual orientation, ability, religion etc.? Which of these identities are the most important to you? Why?
• What are my privileges within systems of oppression, including racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, colorism, classism etc.?
• How do you imagine your ideal society/world to look like? What are the various ways in which you work towards this goal (whether on a small or large scale)? What are some ways in which you live your life that work against the creation of this ideal world that you seek?
• How do you negotiate your politics in different contexts? How do you continue to live your politics within spaces where they are not welcome (i.e. when your friends and/or family do not understand you because they may not have the same theoretical knowledge or language about certain issues)?

Remember, no one likes being vulnerable and uncomfortable, especially when it involves self-critiquing. But this process can be very beneficial for yourself, as well as the social justice activism that you embody.

On a different note, I want to share the poem Meli read aloud to close the Brown Bag:

Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person Could Believe in the War Between Races

By: Lorna Dee Cervantes

In my land there are no distinctions.

The barbed wire politics of oppression

have been torn down long ago.

The only reminder

of past battles, lost or won, is a slight

rutting in the fertile fields.

In my land

people write poems about love,

full of nothing but contented childlike syllables.

Everyone reads Russian short stories and weeps.

There are no boundaries.

There is no hunger, no

complicated famine or greed.

I am not a revolutionary.

I don’t even like political poems.

Do you think I can believe in a war between races?

I can deny it.

I can forget about it

when I’m safe,

living on my own continent of harmony

and home, but I am not

there.

I believe in revolution

because everywhere the crosses are burning,

sharp-shooting goose-steppers round every corner,

there are snipers in the schools…

(I know you don’t believe this.

You think this is nothing

but faddish exaggeration.

But they

are not shooting at you.)

I’m marked by the color of my skin.

The bullets are discrete and designed to kill slowly.

They are aiming at my children.

These are facts.

Let me show you my wounds: my stumbling mind, my

“excuse me” tongue, and this

nagging preoccupation

with the feeling of not being good enough.

These bullets bury deeper than logic.

Racism is not intellectual.

I cannot reason these scars away.

Outside my door

there is a real enemy

who hates me.

I am a poet

who yearns to dance on rooftops,

to whisper delicate lines about joy

and the blessings of human understanding.

I try. I go to my land, my tower of words and

bolt the door, but the typewriter doesn’t fade out

the sounds of blasting and muffled outrage.

My own days bring me slaps on the face.

Every day I am deluged with reminders

that this is not

my land

and this is my land.

I do not believe in the war between races

but in this country

there is war.

- Valerie Garcia ’15