These offerings and musings, are currently taking place on the ancestral, traditional, stolen, and unceded lands of the Musqueam people the lands also known as Vancouver.
In Honor of Martin Luther King Day
A happy new year and new decade fam. We made it, we survived and also Happy Martin Luther King weekend. I hope this weekend is more than just a day off from work for those who are afforded such a luxury. I hope that we do not take for granted why this day exists. John McCain aka “The Maverick” opposed this day becoming a holiday. In many ways being pro-MLK is not a divisive issue presently, but that was not always the case. We have turned Dr. King into Santa Claus in many respects. We have neutralized him. We forget that King was shot in the head. He was considered too radical and pushing the United States to move "too fast " on the issue of integration. Let us never forget this truth. As I reflect on this holiday from Vancouver, Canada that does not celebrate King I am remined of an interview that he gave to NBC. In this interview, we hear MLK grappling with the ugly bitter reality of what the United States is and the devastating impacts that it has on Black people.
In this video, we also hear King quote James Baldwin when he says, “what is the point of being integrated into a burning house?” Social justice is about equal rights, recognition, and creating the conditions for the margins to be centered. In other words, it’s about different kinds of bodies being absorbed into the larger body politic. But lately, I have been thinking about why would I want to be mainstreamed into white normativity aka white supremacy?
As a doctoral student studying race, gender, sexuality, and social justice I am obsessed with utopias and the future. I think about and theorize what a future not predicated on white supremacy can look like? I do this through a queer Black feminist lens. I want to live in a future that does not require assimilation, civility, or the squashing of one’s anger in order for people to be seen as legible and as worthy of human rights, recognition, and equality. For example, the more queer people get mainstreamed into society the more queer people have to fight to maintain their queerness. Queerness is not simply about who you desire to sleep with or who you are willing to sleep with. There is a political and relational aspect to queerness that gets lost in the quest to prove that we are "just like the straights." I want to live in a world where I can be me without the threat of violence, but I have no interest in being normative. Assimilating into white norms is not a win because it requires a form of emotional and psychic death, denial, and separation from our radical politics. Assimilation means accepting the status quo and never changing or abolishing the systems and structures that keep us from accessing our full freedom.
Communities and individuals should not have to be forced into assimilating into a burning house before they can be allowed the right to live fully.
I hope this year and decade you will get clearer on your politics, queerer, and more radical. May this be the decade that we resist the impulse to be watered down and whitewashed for the sake of having a seat at the table. There are some tables that do need to be diversified they need to be knocked over.
VIEWINGS / READINGS
The Bluest Eye- Toni Morrison this is the first book that is kicking off the social justice doula book club
You Were Born for This Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance by Chani Nicholas- Astrology is a tool that I have been using for years that has helped me harness my power, accept myself, and learn how to work with all parts of myself. I have been reading Chani’s horoscopes for years and I am so happy that she has a book out. Its written in that fiercely beautiful social justice voice of hers.
What exactly is “micro” about microaggressions?- The title speaks for itself. Especially since science is able to quantify the harm that racism has on Black bodies it really does call into question can racism ever be considered “micro?”
Journaling isn’t just good for your mental health. It might also help your physical health- I literally can’t preach the gospel of journaling enough. I do three pages every morning
The pitfall of symbolic decolonization- “But here is the question. Consider all the unresolved historical inequalities where slavery becomes indentured servitude as Indians are imported into British colonies, colonialism becomes neocolonialism, and neo-colonialism opens up to unequal globalization. Also consider the inherited trauma still suffered by comminutes all over the world that have been, generation after generation, at the brunt end of global exploitation. Can what we in the West are calling decolonization in philosophical and material terms, really address historical inequalities”
Mona Eltahawy Would Like You to Fuck Right Off with Your Civility Politics- “Patriarchy is global, and what patriarchy demands of us across the world is this certain politeness and civility that Stella Nyanzi and radical rudeness destroys. I want people to pay attention to Stella Nyanzi and to start adopting the radical rudeness that she is a proponent of. I want them to look our oppressors in the eye and say fuck you. That is my message for the next decade.”
Radical Academics for the Status Quo- this article was trying to be shame-y, but I simply found it ridiculous and funny. There is nothing radical about electoral politics (my spicy hot take) and I am shocked that the Jacobin printed this, but my favorite academics giving did line up with their philosophies
Becoming Billy Porter- One of my favorite writers wrote an exquisite feature about Billy Porter and you simply got to get into it
LISTENING
Dua Lupa- Don’t Start Now- this song is brining me pure joy. I am finally healed from my heartbreak and this song is reminding me that I am G O O D
Riton x Oliver Heldens -Turn Me On ft. Vula- another song that is bringing me joy in the winter and rain of Vancouver
A Little Juju Podcast- this my new favorite podcast finds for those who are interested in a podcast about Black spirituality
Touré Show- Nikole Hannah Jones I live in a slavocracy- this episode is amazing, but NHJ analysis on public school education is the most clear and radical articulation that I have heard on the subject matter. Also, the way she ran circles around Touré was a masterclass
Slow Burn- Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I. G- this eight-part series is about the murders of Big and Pac and for those of us who were kids when this happened it is good of us to to revisit this as adults. I have so many questions and so many of my old suspicions seem to have been answered
Prelude & Feud on a ‘G’ Thang: Biggie vs Tupac- this episode does a great job trying to define what is a west coast or an east coast sound. It is a great companion piece to the Slow Burn series
The Nod an Oral History of Knuck If You Buck- if you LOVE the song “Knuck if you Buck” then this oral history is for you
The Stakes- There Goes the Neighborhood- is three-part series centered on Miami and climate gentrification and Nadege Green of WLRN co-produced this amazing three-part series
Announcements
January 26th -The Social Justice Doula book club will have its meeting via zoom
Black Future Month aka Black History Month is around the corner and this year it is a leap year. To celebrate Black Future Month, I will be hosting a journaling challenge. In order to participate you have to follow me on IG and/or Facebook. My IG is thefeministgriote check my socials for more details
I am still collecting money for my sister-friend Shel please give to this campaign and help us reach the goal of 5k [link here]