This article is a photo essay of the direction, motivation, and consequences of the profound and fast-paced changes happening in the CBD and lower mid-city in New Orleans. Since Katrina, the re-colonization of the city by rapacious Capital has accelerated to a head-spinning pace. The neighborhood documented is not unique, the same kinds of activities are taking place city-wide. When colonization occurs on such a massive scale, only a total revolt can change the dystopian future the present developments are creating.
NolaAnarcha
Showing posts with label feminism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feminism. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
It's Great Being a White Dude
It's so great. When I say "I help publish this periodical" or "I volunteer at that project," everyone assumes that I actually run the shit and am just being modest.
When I say "I am a radical feminist" people congratulate me.
When I speak out against oppression, almost none of which affects me, I am accorded high dignity as a principled freedom fighter rather than a "whiner" or someone "playing the [whatever] card."
In my dignified and principled way, I have been thinking about race lately, due to issues of unaddressed racism within the "Occupy" movement and a recent internet argument about New York City jazz pianists. If you asked me to tell you (and since I'm a white dude, you don't even need to ask) how I conceive the hierarchy of social injustice, my breakdown would basically be
1. Gender (as distinct from sexual orientation)
2. Class
3. Race and everything else
I believe in "intersectionality," but like many, I also have my private notions of where oppression's rubber meets the road, of what the first and deepest cuts are, and the above are those notions. Part of that has to do with the raw numbers-- women get treated like shit in every country on earth, and constitute over half the population. There are even more poor people, percentage-wise, than there are women, but it seems to me that within the subgroup of the world's poor, women are disproportionately victimized and oppressed for their gender, much moreso than the poor are punished for their poverty within a given community of women.
I know that's probably not watertight logic. I'm not a fucking academic.
But lately, I am beginning to feel my analysis of race is faulty and inadequate. Now by that, I don't mean that I'm a racist. I am... but that's not what I mean. I absolutely cop to racism. I am the product of a racist society, and I wrestle with my own prejudices (including racial prejudice) daily, when I can be bothered to wrestle with them at all. Having that choice-- it being optional-- is another great aspect of being a white dude. Resisting my own prejudice is HEROIC, isn't it? Hell, even ADMITTING it is amazing! Where's my award?
I admit I am racist, just as I am sexist, just as I am homophobic, no matter how many cocks I suck... but that's not what I mean. What I mean is that I think I've been lazy and unfair in my own consideration of race's importance within the complex structures of oppression. I think I've been taking race for granted, which is a huge part of how racism works in our society.
That's more than enough chest-beating from me; I just wanted to air out some of this, to help organize my thoughts. Since this is a nola anarchist blog, and I am a nola anarchist who's been sent the password to it, I figured I'd do so in this venue.
Here are the blog posts by Nicholas Payton that are part of what's got me so pompously ruminating:
On Ben Ratliff’s Four Pianists On The Rise . . . .
and
More On The Difference Between Racism And Prejudice . . . .
Because nothing is simple and everything's fucked up, Payton just released a brilliant album titled "Bitches." It's not just good, it's "best of the year" good. He also said that those who object to the title are themselves bitches, so I'll accept that designation, continue to enjoy the intense wonderousness of his music, and continue to be bitchily annoyed that he called his album that. ...because, when all's said and done, I guess I'm not really threatened by it. It's great being a white dude.
When I say "I am a radical feminist" people congratulate me.
When I speak out against oppression, almost none of which affects me, I am accorded high dignity as a principled freedom fighter rather than a "whiner" or someone "playing the [whatever] card."
In my dignified and principled way, I have been thinking about race lately, due to issues of unaddressed racism within the "Occupy" movement and a recent internet argument about New York City jazz pianists. If you asked me to tell you (and since I'm a white dude, you don't even need to ask) how I conceive the hierarchy of social injustice, my breakdown would basically be
1. Gender (as distinct from sexual orientation)
2. Class
3. Race and everything else
I believe in "intersectionality," but like many, I also have my private notions of where oppression's rubber meets the road, of what the first and deepest cuts are, and the above are those notions. Part of that has to do with the raw numbers-- women get treated like shit in every country on earth, and constitute over half the population. There are even more poor people, percentage-wise, than there are women, but it seems to me that within the subgroup of the world's poor, women are disproportionately victimized and oppressed for their gender, much moreso than the poor are punished for their poverty within a given community of women.
I know that's probably not watertight logic. I'm not a fucking academic.
But lately, I am beginning to feel my analysis of race is faulty and inadequate. Now by that, I don't mean that I'm a racist. I am... but that's not what I mean. I absolutely cop to racism. I am the product of a racist society, and I wrestle with my own prejudices (including racial prejudice) daily, when I can be bothered to wrestle with them at all. Having that choice-- it being optional-- is another great aspect of being a white dude. Resisting my own prejudice is HEROIC, isn't it? Hell, even ADMITTING it is amazing! Where's my award?
I admit I am racist, just as I am sexist, just as I am homophobic, no matter how many cocks I suck... but that's not what I mean. What I mean is that I think I've been lazy and unfair in my own consideration of race's importance within the complex structures of oppression. I think I've been taking race for granted, which is a huge part of how racism works in our society.
That's more than enough chest-beating from me; I just wanted to air out some of this, to help organize my thoughts. Since this is a nola anarchist blog, and I am a nola anarchist who's been sent the password to it, I figured I'd do so in this venue.
Here are the blog posts by Nicholas Payton that are part of what's got me so pompously ruminating:
On Ben Ratliff’s Four Pianists On The Rise . . . .
and
More On The Difference Between Racism And Prejudice . . . .
Because nothing is simple and everything's fucked up, Payton just released a brilliant album titled "Bitches." It's not just good, it's "best of the year" good. He also said that those who object to the title are themselves bitches, so I'll accept that designation, continue to enjoy the intense wonderousness of his music, and continue to be bitchily annoyed that he called his album that. ...because, when all's said and done, I guess I'm not really threatened by it. It's great being a white dude.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Marie-Grace and Cecile
While not all readers of this blog will be familiar with the American Girl® series of dolls, storybooks and films, perhaps just as few will be acquainted with the important New Orleans history embodied in Cecile and Marie-Grace, an exciting new pair of dolls and storybooks from American Girl®.
You see, Marie-Grace and Cecile had superficial differences-- Marie-Grace was an aristocratic free person of color, and a native New Orleanian, while Cecile was a merchant-class American, part of a wave of Americans from the North who came to New Orleans and built what's today known as Uptown. They had different backgrounds, different complexions-- even spoke different languages! (Marie-Grace spoke French)
They both have to make this little gap, this little jump," says Sarah Masters Buckley, author of the Marie-Grace series. "The fact they're willing to take this little jump makes all the difference in their lives... both girls learn from that."
No matter what age we, or our children are, couldn't we all stand to learn from that too?
I urge all readers and subscribers of Nola Anarcha to learn more about this powerful and inspirational new series by visiting http://www.americangirl.com/fun/agcn/cecile-mariegrace/. There you can watch a magnficent and weirdly soothing video presentation, read excerpts from the books themselves, pre-order the dolls and books, download a new song performed by young New Orleans musician Kate Connick, and participate in fun "Flash Games" that will give you, the visitor, a peek into the wonderful and intriguing lives of these two charming heroines... these two brave friends... these two American Girls®
Sunday, June 26, 2011
More Sex Workers Arrested, Charged with "Crimes Against Nature"
Less than a month after Women With A Vision won a victory for sex workers by getting a repeal of the Solicitation of Crimes Against Nature (SCAN) law through the Lousiana legislature, a law which labels sex workers with Sex Offender status meant for sexual assault perpetrators, NOPD continues it's racist, P.R. motivated sweeps of minor offenders by arresting 9 women and charging them with the soon-to-be-repealed SCAN law.
The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 or 14 years old. Most of these 13 or 14 year old girls were recruited or coerced into prostitution. Others were "traditional wives" without job skills who escaped from or were abandoned by abusive husbands and went into prostitution to support themselves and their children.[1] The fact that New Orleans cops firstly failed to protect these women when they were children from the violence of patriarchy and class society, and then have the gall to ATTACK THE VICTIMS when they use a means of survival that is a visible reminder of this system's failures is a despicable attempt at obliterating any activities which remind them of where their massive degree of power, control and wealth in our society came from, while simultaneously re-producing and furthering that inequality as these women are forced to pay money to the courts for fines and fees, as their bodies in cells mean daily money to pay the Sheriff to house them, and as they lose the money from Johns to the whiter, more privileged sex workers ("escorts") not targeted by NOPD. NOPD's action simultaneously attacks society's victims, takes away more power from the oppressed and gives it to the more privileged, and blames sex workers instead of Johns for prostitution when most wealth is controlled by men in our society, re-enforcing the system of patriarchy.
The insults against the dignity of the people who live in this city just keep on coming fast and furious.
Solidarity with the mainly women of color sex workers charged with SCAN crimes is imperative for any believable claim by those with greater privileges to really be fighting the systems that give them such privileges, whether that be male privilege, white privilege, or the class privilege to not have to do sex work to pay the bills.
Where are all the activists who speak so passionately about ending racism, sexism, classism, or violence? What are they doing? Eracism? Silence is Violence? NOW? Unions? The People's Institute? These women don't have the luxury of waiting for the next round of grant funding to come in, or waiting for minor legal reforms, of waiting for the next book to come out that explains intersectionality to suburban college students, of waiting until more people have degrees in Sociology or Non-Profit management, of waiting until enough people have gone through the People's Institute training that privilege somehow magically vanishes. They are being attacked right now.
This system must be attacked for the humiliation, suffering, indignity, and hardship it puts the most vulnerable members of our communities through on a regular basis. Solidarity means risking your privilege to fight this system. This is a call to put your privileges on the line in the fight against oppression. Let's get these women free from the nightmare of 15 years of restrictions that will come from being on the Sex Offender Registry. Let's demand they are never targeted as criminals for being sex workers ever again without a fight.
Solidarity means attack. [2]
The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 or 14 years old. Most of these 13 or 14 year old girls were recruited or coerced into prostitution. Others were "traditional wives" without job skills who escaped from or were abandoned by abusive husbands and went into prostitution to support themselves and their children.[1] The fact that New Orleans cops firstly failed to protect these women when they were children from the violence of patriarchy and class society, and then have the gall to ATTACK THE VICTIMS when they use a means of survival that is a visible reminder of this system's failures is a despicable attempt at obliterating any activities which remind them of where their massive degree of power, control and wealth in our society came from, while simultaneously re-producing and furthering that inequality as these women are forced to pay money to the courts for fines and fees, as their bodies in cells mean daily money to pay the Sheriff to house them, and as they lose the money from Johns to the whiter, more privileged sex workers ("escorts") not targeted by NOPD. NOPD's action simultaneously attacks society's victims, takes away more power from the oppressed and gives it to the more privileged, and blames sex workers instead of Johns for prostitution when most wealth is controlled by men in our society, re-enforcing the system of patriarchy.
The insults against the dignity of the people who live in this city just keep on coming fast and furious.
Solidarity with the mainly women of color sex workers charged with SCAN crimes is imperative for any believable claim by those with greater privileges to really be fighting the systems that give them such privileges, whether that be male privilege, white privilege, or the class privilege to not have to do sex work to pay the bills.
Where are all the activists who speak so passionately about ending racism, sexism, classism, or violence? What are they doing? Eracism? Silence is Violence? NOW? Unions? The People's Institute? These women don't have the luxury of waiting for the next round of grant funding to come in, or waiting for minor legal reforms, of waiting for the next book to come out that explains intersectionality to suburban college students, of waiting until more people have degrees in Sociology or Non-Profit management, of waiting until enough people have gone through the People's Institute training that privilege somehow magically vanishes. They are being attacked right now.
This system must be attacked for the humiliation, suffering, indignity, and hardship it puts the most vulnerable members of our communities through on a regular basis. Solidarity means risking your privilege to fight this system. This is a call to put your privileges on the line in the fight against oppression. Let's get these women free from the nightmare of 15 years of restrictions that will come from being on the Sex Offender Registry. Let's demand they are never targeted as criminals for being sex workers ever again without a fight.
Solidarity means attack. [2]
K'naan "Fatima" about his friend sold into forced sex work, something many sex workers experienced as children
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Take it to the streets with Women with a Vision this Friday
Take it to the streets with Women with a Vision this Friday:
http://wwav-no.org/june-17th-no-more-war-on-drugs
Stop the war on drugs. For reasons why, see posts further down, including the incident in Houma, the case of Alvin Bean, and the person sentenced to life in prison for marijuana possession.
http://wwav-no.org/june-17th-no-more-war-on-drugs
Stop the war on drugs. For reasons why, see posts further down, including the incident in Houma, the case of Alvin Bean, and the person sentenced to life in prison for marijuana possession.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Quiet Rumors: Ladies Free School Reading Group
Hey Ladies,
We're excited to let everyone know that next Sunday, May 29, Ladies Night will begin our first class with the New Orleans Free School Network!
Over twelve weeks we will be reading through a really great zine, "Quiet Rumours: An Anarcha-Feminist Reader". We love all the readings and we hope you will, too!
We will meet at 1 pm for a potluck style brunch (see Free School website for more info). We'll hand out the zine at our first meeting and discuss a couple of readings per session over mimosas and cheese for the following weeks.
BYOB, kid-friendly, and NO BOYS ALLOWED.
For more info about the Free School, visit:
"NOTHING UNIFIED & REVOLUTIONARY WILL BE FORMED UNTIL EACH SECTION OF THE EXPLOITED WILL HAVE MADE ITS OWN AUTONOMOUS POWER FELT"- selma james
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