Tools for White Guys Who Are Working for Social Change

Tools for White Guys Who Are Working for Social Change
(and other people socialized in a society based on domination)

This page has some great suggestions for anyone involved in social justice organizing:

1. Practice noticing who's in the room at meetings - how many gender privileged men (biological men), how many women, how many transgendered people, how many white people, how many people of color? Is it majority heterosexual, are there queers, what are people's class backgrounds? Don't assume to know people, just work at being more aware and listen to what people say. Talk one on one to people you work with.

2a. Count how many times you speak and keep track of how long you speak.

2b. Count how many times other people speak and keep track of how long they speak.

3. Be conscious of how often you are actively listening to what other people are saying as opposed to just waiting your turn thinking about what you'll say next. Keep a notebook so that you can write down your thoughts and then focus on what other people are saying. As a white guy who talks a lot, I've found it helpful to write down my thoughts and wait to hear what others have to say (frequently others will be thinking something similar and then you can support their initiative).

4. Practice going to meeting or hanging out with people focused on listening and learning - not to get caught in the paralysis of whether or not you have anything useful to say , but acting from a place of valuing other people's knowledge and experiences.

5a. Pay attention to how many times you put ideas out to the group you work with.

5b. Notice how often you support people by asking them to expand on ideas for the group.

6. Practice supporting people by asking them to expand on ideas and get more in-depth.

7a. Think about whose work and what contributions to the group get recognized.

7b. Practice recognizing more people for the work they do and try to do it more often. This also includes men offering support to other men who aren't recognized and actively challenging competitive dynamics that men are socialized to act out with each other.

8. Practice asking more people what they think about events, ideas, actions, strategy and vision. White guys tend to talk amongst themselves and develop strong bonds that manifes in organizing. These informal support structures often help reinforce informal leadership structures as well. Asking peole what they think and really listening is a core ingredient to healthy group dynamics: think about who you ask and who you really listen to.

Developing repect and solidarity across race, class, gender and sexuality is complex and difficult, but absolutely critical and liberating. Those most negatively impacted by systems of oppression have and will play leading roles int he struggle for collective liberation.

9. Be aware of how often you ask people to do something as opposed to asking other people "what needs to be done": logistics, child care, making phone calls, cooking, providing emotional suport and following up with people are often undervalued responsibilities performed by people who are gender oppressed (biological women and trans folks).

10. Struggle with the saying "you will be needed in the movement when you realize that you are not needed in the movement".

11. Stuggle and work with the model of group leadership that says the responsibility of leaders is to help develop more leaders. Refelct upon what this means to you: how do you support others and what support do you need from others.

This includes men providing emotional and political support to other men. How can men work to be allies to each other in the struggle to develop radical model of anti-racist, class conscious, pro-queer, feminist manhood that challenges strict binary gender roles and categories. This is also about struggling to recognize leadership roles while also redefining leadership as actively working to build power with others rather than power over others.

12. Remember that social change is a process, and that our individual transformation and individual liberation is intimately interconnected with social transformation and social liberation. Life is profoundly complex and there are many contradictions. Remember that the path we travel is guided by love, dignity and respect-even when it brings us to tears and is difficult to navigate. As we struggle let us also love ourselves.

13. This list is not limited to white guys, nor is it intended to reduces all white guys into one category. This list is intended to disrupt patterns of domination wich hurt our movement and hurt each other. White guys have a lot of work to do, but if we white guys support and challenge each other, while also building trust and compassion we can heal ourselves in the process.

14. Day-to-day patterns of domination are the glue that maintain systems of domination. The struggle against capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, heterosexism and the state, is also the struggle towards collective liberation.
15. No one is free until we are all free.

For more reading, check out:
On the Road to healing: A Booklet for Men Against Sexism
P.O. Box 841171 Seattle, Washington 98124
or plantingseeds@tao.ca

 

here is a "topic" that could be an assignment (hahaha) for those... gawddamnit!

fucking struggle fools! due at the end of the day, and are the top critics consisting of grrls?
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LAPD chief defends deadly shooting
The shooting of the Guatemalan immigrant prompted violent protests

A makeshift memorial is shown Tuesday (9-7-2010) on a downtown Los Angeles street for Manuel Jamines, a Guatemalan immigrant who was shot and killed in a police shooting Sunday.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck is defending the deadly police shooting of a knife-wielding man that sparked a violent protest.

Beck told the Police Commission on Tuesday that the officer who shot Manuel Jamines, 37, acted in defense of life on Sunday. The Los Angeles Times reports that Beck also says officers had warned Jamines in both Spanish and English to drop the knife before the father of three was shot.

The shooting of the Guatemalan immigrant prompted some violent protests late Monday near MacArthur Park, an area with a large population of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Four were arrested and three officers received slight injuries after some demonstrators began throwing rocks and bottles.

On Monday night, some protesters began hurling rocks, bottles and debris at officers and set some trash on fire. By the time the confrontation ended at about 2 a.m. Tuesday, four people had been arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor inciting a riot, Officer Bruce Borihanh said.

Three officers were slightly injured by hurled debris but returned to duty, he said.

Lt. Andrew Neiman claimed "provocateurs" started the confrontation, City News Service reported.

There was no further violence Tuesday, but officers planned to keep squads on streets in the area through the day, he added.

or

Clad in riot gear, LAPD summoned to quell angry protest over fatal police shooting of day laborer


A tense day in the immigrant Los Angeles neighborhood of Westlake, where police shot and killed a day laborer, ended without injuries or arrests, officials said Monday night.]

Police in riot gear stood guard Monday as dozens of people gathered near a Westlake shopping center to protest the fatal shooting of a day laborer by police.

Using bullhorns as they chanted “assassination, assassination!” the protesters at one point got into a shouting-and-shoving match with a store security guard, who fled to his car and sped away as protesters hurled objects and kicked at his vehicle.

The angry protesters gathered at the site of Sunday’s shooting in which Los Angeles police officers shot and killed a man in a bustling shopping district at 6th Street and Union Avenue.

Police said the man was armed with a knife and that officers had been flagged down by a pedestrian who alerted them to a man with a knife.

The protesters who gathered Monday, however, said the man was unarmed and had been killed for no reason. Police have not formally identified the man, but friends identified him as Manuel Jamines, a day laborer from Guatemala.
The protesters erected a makeshift memorial at the site of the shooting with photos of the day laborer and signs reading “We want justice” and “Police are to serve and protect, not murder the innocent.”

No arrests were made and police in riot gear stood lined up in a parking lot as the protest continued.

“This investigation is going to be transparent,” said LAPD Capt. Rigo Romero. “We take every force investigation very, very seriously.”