this is a follow-up to yesterday's blog on a nearly-fifty year old having a whoa moment and a comment posted there within...you mean after we eliminate all the drab, gray sunflowers???
i would suggest at least two ways in which the problem is addressed - one big picture and the second more concrete...
the big picture one (and for most the least satisfying) is rather existential...the thing about change - substantive, lasting change - is that it comes slowly and its work, mostly cumulative work, related to establishing and building relationships...
and the thing about building authentic relationships is that you can't rush it ... sort of like cooking a good marinara sauce ... you have to be patient, you can't be ahead of where you're actually at, AND most importantly you have to be committed to not only the process but to the belief that underlies human rights - all human lives are of equal value and that each person has a right to a life of dignity...
on a more concrete basis i think that caucasians like myself need an awakening of sorts that relates to the discovery of our unearned privilege based solely on being white in a society where skin color has huge ramifications...and about determining whether one is an activist or an organizer (which bears a relationship to the big picture above)...
(and here i go to first person) as a white organizer (and this intersecxts with class as well) there are things i think i have to do...one is to understand that there is a world beyond that of the world of white liberals...that this world where marginalized people live - people whom i/we need to be working with in order to build an effective human rights movement - has community based organizations already existing to try and meet the challenges of their day-to-day reality...that i must seek out these organizations and approach them respectfully...
and the first action i take??? to listen to their leaders and members, listen to what their lives are like, what issues concern them as they live embedded in their community and after that process i can begin to process what has been shared with me and begin to identity how these issues intersect with human rights work..,
and for amnesty international to attract underrepresented communities' members into the organization amnesty has to develop campaign work that resonates with the reality of life in these communities, has to change its operational mechanisms so that these new members can participate in the decision-making of the organization and feel integrated into rather than pasted onto its structure and activities...
well that's my two cents worth for this morning...i'll be reporting back on a workshop related to using blogs, myspace etc... in organizing and later today on ending sexual assault against native american and alaska native women (relate that to what i've shared above)...
peace out <3
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