NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

It is frustrating dealing with the ways that so many people, on Guam, on the internet and in so many places talk about race, or rather talk about it in ways to try to neutralize it as a potential issue to be taken seriously in life today. While we can self-identify as a race, while we can say we are this color or that color, and can take pride in what is culturally or historically or linguistically associated with that race, this doesn't take us very far in terms of understanding how race operates in our lives and therefore how racism persists in life, even when race is not "mentioned." Racism is not so much about difference, or the differences between racism, but at its core it is a dynamic between those who are "raced" or "racialized" and those who are not. Those who carry the stigma of race as they move, entangled in various systems and those who do not. Race is a stain, a mark, something that allows for certain bodies to be treated differently, t

What's Going On This Is What It Means For Me To Teach Your White, Privileged Kids Written by Linda Chavers 11/30/2014 http://damemagazine.com/2014/11/30/what-it-means-me-teach-your-white-privileged-kids I'm an educator. I teach English at one of the top independent boarding schools in the world. I'm also a Black woman. With a Masters in English, which qualifies me to teach it, and a Ph.D. in African-American Studies from Harvard University, which, among other things, scares the shit out of everyone. Yet, here I am, in rural New England, teaching the literature of my choice and with an interdisciplinary bent (read: African-American) and how to write the personal essay to a mostly White, upper-class population. And this is a good thing. When applying to grad schools I wrote in my personal statement that my presence in a classroom is a revolutionary act. I fill a space of authority that is still very much White, male and very

One of these days I'll be able to sit down and try to write out all my thoughts about what is going on with in Ferguson. It is difficult because so many issues around race, militarization, government, surveillance, privilege, oppression, justice and others are involved. There are few easy ways of unpacking it all and so one argumentative point easily leads to another and to another and to another. The few times I've tried to write out my thoughts it is like popping only a single bubble in bubble wrap. An almost impossible task to accomplish as one bubble popped easily leads to another and then another and then another and soon it is difficult to know where you started. For a poetry group that I am part of, we are planning to write poems that refer to what is happening in Ferguson. Tonight I decided to try to jot down some of my majors thoughts, and I have ended up swinging back and forth in my writing, between poetic language and theoretical language. At one point I'll

Mampos meggai na sina hu sangan pat tuge' put hafa masusesedi giya Ferguson .  Lao fihu hinalang yu' ni i kuentos otro. Sesso i mas a'gang i mas taitiningo' lokkue'. Para i gaihinasso pat gaitingo' na taotao fitme esta i sinangan-na yan hinengge-na. Ti guailayi na u essalaogue i batkada. Lao gi i tiempon pa'go, guaha meggai na prublema siha giya Amerika. Lao ga'o'-niha i pumalu pumupuni siha, kinu umadmimite. Este na prublema ti ma'pos, ti antigu, ti put estoria ha'. Este na prublema put taimanu na dumadana' ha' i ma'pos yan i pa'go. Ko'lo'lo'na para i mangaikulot na taotao. Para i manggaikulot, para i mannatibu Amerikanu siha, para i manattelong (black). I estorian otro (manma'pos) i gigao-mu pa'go.  Para siha, para hafa na ta chathassuyi este. Lao para Hita, este na prublema siha, este na estorian hinekse i oriya-ta yan i minagahet-ta. Guini papa' hu na'chechetton un

Why the People of Ferguson Can't Trust the Cops Thursday, 21 August 2014 16:04    By Mike Ludwig ,  Truthout | Report  Several African-American men share with Truthout their stories of abuse at the hands of police, and after 12 days of continuous demonstrations against the shooting of an unarmed teen, Michael Brown, it appears that the community is in it for the long haul. After hours of peacefully marching up and down the sidewalks on Ferguson's now- infamous South Florissant Avenue on Tuesday night, several dozen protesters formed a thick circle in a parking lot to conclude their demonstration with a prayer lead by a local minister. It was getting late, and it seemed that, after several nights of unrest and police crackdowns , the protest might end in peace. I sat down on a curb to jot down some notes, and a young man with dreadlocks asked me if I was a reporter. He called to his friends, and soon several