Social Justice at DU

Because life, including PA, has been so crazy lately, I have a bit of catching up to do - so this post will be back-tracking a bit to an event a few weeks ago.

Until this year, I had never been able to implement community organizing in its fullest capacity outside of PA. That changed during what was perhaps the most exciting week of my life in early May, during an event hosted by Occupy DU and organized by a good friend, entitled "DU Stereotype?."

The event was in response to a party that occurred earlier this year at my university, themed "Cowboys and Indians." The party received a lot of push-back from the Native Student Alliance, and the Native American community as a whole. In response, the university staged a public apology between the Native Student Alliance and the Greek community.

Although there was apparently mediation and conflict-resolution between the two groups involved, that was not apparent to the DU community, and the public apology served to be more divisive than reconciliatory for students that were not directly involved.  It seemed, even to me, that the conflict should have been resolved in a way that involved the two student groups working together to craft an understanding of Native identities and oppressions.

The discussion hosted by Occupy initially appeared to be a venting session for "minority" communities at DU.  A friend (who works at the super-awesome Kellogg Family Foundation) and I, who are both passionate about social justice, had been dialouging about the direction of the DU attitude and both agreed that it would be unlikely that any moderates would attend the event the way it was currently being organized (with partisan hosting and no structure).

With the help of one of my co-coaches from last year, my friend and I helped Occupy use Town Hall Meeting strategies (such as recording people's ideas, creating rules for discussion, acknowledging that dialogue is only the first step to identifying self-interest, and providing room for written reflection) to move along the discussion.

The discussion was a huge success - the turn-out was huge and the conversation was productive, fostering an interest in further growth of Native culture and stereotyping. I, as well as the others involved in planning it, definitely learned a lot about "real" community organizing in our own communities - with the high stakes that come along with it.

I truly felt like it was possible, for the first time, for me to actually identify "community partners" and come together with our resources. I knew each of these people from different sources, and yet brought them together to create community impact. Occupy has gone on to host several successful discussions since!

Even some of my most critically anarchist Occupy friends agreed that it was productive - all around, I felt that THIS was what it was to be a real Pioneer. I finally felt proud to be a DU student. 

It also, however, brought some doubts to my mind about what it really means to stereotype, and how important "cultural capital" can be in community organizing. Many of the questions posed during the discussion were questions that had been burning in my own mind. 

Recently in a class, I overheard a girl sitting behind me tell her friend, "I want to be a teacher in underserved areas, like with Teach for America, so I'm learning Spanish." 

This statement immediately infuriated me - how dare she assume that "low income" equated with "Spanish-speaking"? How did she expect to assist her students when she came in with so many obvious pre-conceptions? If I know anything about being around students, I knew that they could see right through your expectations. 

I came home ready to spread my indignation all across facebook - only to find quite the contradictory opinion. 

An established social - justice advocate around DU, and a fellow PA coach were having a discussion via facebook comments regarding the same topic that had infuriated me. The status read:

 "90ish% of DPS students are of an ethnic race, while 90ish% of their teachers are caucasian. Disappointing is maybe the appropriate word I am looking for."

(See the DPS statistics)

With the comments: 

definitely disappointing. Having gone through the TFA (Teach for America) process, most of those interviewing for TFA were caucasian´s too. Even funnier is that they were all greek. Im not trying to devalue the greek system but how can someone from that background connect with urban kids?

She responded: 

what i hate most about it is that I AM ONE OF THEM! lol. i want to be a good teacher and work in these communities (like the rest of DPS teachers) but what can we do? we can't change our race or ethnicity... we can't all work in cherry creek either, nor do we want to... i just wish there were something i could do about it...'

Me too, I thought. In truth, I would say that my race has been my BIGGEST challenge in the PA process, not just because my students stereotype me or I stereotype them, but because I don't serve as a symbol of what they hope to accomplish by any means. I care about them, but at the end of the day, I wonder if I'm the right person for the job, with the same doubts as the commentors above. 

However, my question then stands: Who is that symbol? Who is the mobilizer, and do we need one? The PA answer is, No. But is the PA answer always the answer? 

Truth be told, my answer is once again a resounding "No." The PA answer is not the only answer, as I hope to attest to in another blog post. But I have struggled to find a mobilizer that my kids can relate to. 

Martin Luther King Jr. seemed too overdone - he, and his struggles, no longer seemed "real" to my students when we tried to get them to come out to the MLK day walk.  Trayvon Martin quickly became too much of a martyr - who did nothing but spark unmediated "hot anger" that seemed inactionable. Activists like Natalie Warne seemed glorified and unattainable, despite her similarities in age and race.  Even Terrance Roberts, a young activist in from their community, seemed to be beating a dead horse. 

At the end of the day, there seems to be no compensating for the "race gap" and all the privileges and oppression that go with it. I felt it looking around the room at Occupy, and I felt it in the classroom. 

Conversations like the one at Occupy give me hope that some day, this won't matter. We are the generation that will fix it. But where does that leave us concerned white, heterosexual folks, except for as "allies"? 

Maybe an ally is all that I can be - but boy, when I have a good day of coaching do I hope for more. I wish I knew when that would be achievable!