These are dark times.

It is a full frontal assault on all peoples by an intolerant, sexist, racist, and classist administration. I am reminded of the this speech from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

We are seeing some of the strategies used by Republican/White Supremacist leaders:

• Voter Suppression
• Creating Shock Events
• Gaslighting
• Lies Lies Lies

but resistance comes in many ways, and humor helps us continue.

pick your struggles to fight for. Don’t just talk and study. Show up. Make a difference. Working together for justice is the only way.

I am working on two books right now, one on whiteness and addressing internalized dominance, and one on social justice supervision with two colleagues. I am finding it hard to focus on that writing and the blog writing at the same time, so I will take a hiatus from the blog.

Of sorts. I will still be writing, and I will occasionally share a post or two along the way. And hopefully, i can share the fruits of the book writing soon.

Until then…

photo licensed under creative commons by Sea Turtle

It was a blessed and productive year.

As part of my annual commitment to use a portion of my proceeds to spark more Ripples of Change, I share the organizations that I chose to support for 2015.

I am supporting the Lower Bottom Playaz, an Oakland based theater company “dedicated to the excavation, critical examination, and the illumination of the conditions of North American inner cites and the lives of inner city inhabitants though the creation of original works, the production and performance of the highest caliber existing material available to us from the North American African canon, and the works of other artists considered marginalized within the American theater scene and the greater American society in general.”

This is vibrant community theater grounded in community engagement and social justice. I encourage you to support them too.

http://www.lowerbottomplayaz.com

I have been reading a lot these days of those in power keeping more for themselves and not sharing well with others.

We have lost our collective sense of responsibility.

This troubles me. Certainly this was a value I grew up on and very much internalized. It was best known to me through the origin story of spiderman. In the story, Peter Parker is learning to understand his new found power of the spider and playing around with it. His Uncle, who raised him, tells Peter, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Peter blows him off, until later, Peter could have intervened to stop a robbery, and that robber ends up killing his uncle. Peter understands the meaning of responsibility and tragically understands the personal cost of doing nothing and/or being self-focused.

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Reprinted with permission

Photo Credit Liz West

Recently, I was participating in a professional development session on microaggressions on our campus. As the conversation moved from theory to the lived experience of those in attendance, powerful and painful stories flowed from many of the participants regarding their experiences on campus and in the broader community, as did stories of intervention and hope from those who have been able to interrupt instances of microaggressions. Towards the end of the session, a white woman colleague expressed her fear of mistaking a mistake (good) but then added: “I might as well just not say anything to anyone any more!” (not good). We had previously engaged in good conversations on privilege, systems of oppression, our campus climate, and what we could do to make a difference. She could have been sharing her frustrations at how to be an ally in the struggle and how to use her privilege to interrupt the cycle of oppression on our campus. But she wasn’t. She was voicing the fear common to White people when we talk about race. And she was running away.

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