tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69856354930597815982024-02-07T21:49:42.133-08:00Good VibrationsMadeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.comBlogger239125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-84675337731143643972017-12-15T18:36:00.001-08:002017-12-15T18:36:55.652-08:00I've Moved!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkiIScnQjkcdE9JDcSQtQ-w4acYl_kUt6tVkElSFQMs-HZXhDDZJ29-VJrm0lBvDqoYqeSjNfd9tgk9YZOthLZrwqTKz-7oz8hjVht2RomP0P4DUTxw8Yp_-lXbVN_IqK1d5p_K8Q8u0w/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-12-15+at+6.28.24+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="1280" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkiIScnQjkcdE9JDcSQtQ-w4acYl_kUt6tVkElSFQMs-HZXhDDZJ29-VJrm0lBvDqoYqeSjNfd9tgk9YZOthLZrwqTKz-7oz8hjVht2RomP0P4DUTxw8Yp_-lXbVN_IqK1d5p_K8Q8u0w/s640/Screen+Shot+2017-12-15+at+6.28.24+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Say hello to the new home of my blog <a href="https://madeleinelkeller.com/" target="_blank">right here</a>, as well as my freelance writing business and other resources coming soon :) </div>
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I am so pumped to have a new domain, this is the first one I've ever owned!! Good Vibrations will stay up as my archive, but this site will no longer be updated. To read any new articles in the future, please go to the <a href="https://madeleinelkeller.com/blog/" target="_blank">blog</a> on my new site!<br />
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I am also excited to announce that I am using this opportunity to expand my business. My new website includes a resource page which will be focused on resources for social justice organizing and similar topics, and a shop page which will feature zines, herbal offerings, and other things. In a little while I will also have a newsletter you can subscribe to, and of course details on how to hire me to write for your site or business or speak or facilitate at your event. So <a href="https://madeleinelkeller.com/" target="_blank">hop on over there</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/madeleinekeller27/?ref=bookmarks" target="_blank"> like me on Facebook</a>, and have fun exploring!! Thank you for reading my blog, I've had an amazing time maintaining this site.Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-37520796407551050742017-08-15T16:17:00.000-07:002017-08-15T16:17:12.796-07:00Thoughts on Endings, Beginnings, and the Radical Mapping Project <br />
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About two months ago, I successfully completed my undergraduate education at UC Santa Cruz. The experience was a long and formative one - I learned so much about the world and myself, and have to come to understand many more things about both. I was privileged to be able to do field research in rural Missouri, and get to explore the social and political realities of a place completely unlike the Bay Area. There, I learned more about the U.S. and our current political paradigm, and I also learned more about myself and my own white settler cultural roots.<br />
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A big part of this period of my life has been the act of discovery. I am continually discovering both myself and the world around me. I started out as an art major and ended up with a degree in Community Studies and Education, two academic areas which focus mainly on modern social issues. I shaved my head, entered my first queer relationship, started playing the bass, built up some serious community organizing chops, and went from googling "how to steam broccoli" to being a fairly accomplished cook and baker of tasty vegan cuisine. I lived alone and without internet and discovered I loved it. I am <i>still </i>discovering and mastering the art of adulting (baby steps). I have discovered what it means to be a white upper middle class person in today's political climate and continue to learn more about all the systems in this world whether they be systems of government, economics, systems of domination and oppression, and emotional and moral/ethical systems which command our social world and shape our context. Learning all of this, I have become so much more conscious of my own position within my tiny micro-universe but also within our country and world.<br />
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Graduating in the time of Trump and attempting to navigate this world of heightened Neo-nazism and emboldened hate speech is a harrowing experience. My parents told me that when they graduated from Eastern Illinois University in the 80s, they felt like they had the world by the tail and couldn't wait to "get out there and make some money". I have trouble mustering that same enthusiasm and optimism when I've grown up my whole life watching things like 9/11 and the Iraq war unfold (along with the saga of Bush idiocy), enduring the recession of 2008, and always hear the background whispers about worsening climate change. To come of age in the midst of a time of heightened overt racism and violent upstarts from neo-nazi groups who experience no police brutality (my thoughts and love go to Charlottesville and the victims of the rally - please look into <a href="http://www.refinery29.com/2017/08/167766/charlottesville-virginia-protest-support" target="_blank">how you can help</a>) is a trying experience. Some days it's difficult to keep it up.<br />
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But in the face of all these things I see around me that I do not want, that I want to tear down and destroy, even though it is very easy to despair, I find that what gives me hope is to focus on building the things I <i>do</i> want. I have been reading and writing utopic fiction, letting myself daydream community gardens and affordable housing and drug rehabilitation services. In 16 days, I will embark with my partner and two friends on what we are calling The Radical Mapping Project, a fieldwork journey focused on documenting and learning from the lives and organizational strategies of radical activists around the U.S. We hope to gather data which will help connect and strengthen the network of organizations working to create an alternative to the toxic gentrifying racist-capitalist-patriarchy we find ourselves in. I could have gone t seek the security of finding a salaried job already, settling in somewhere and preparing to be there for a few years. But this is a dangerous time, and I feel called to do something beyond what is safe. I feel called to strive for something better, to use my own skills and resources to create, rather than simply settle, hide, and keep my head down.<br />
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Some days it feels like the world as we know it is coming to an end, and I think it is. We're in a serious period of transition in many ways, and I want to contribute to that transition by creating things I want to see in our new world: community, equality, greater representation and involvement of POC, Indigenous, LGBTQ+/QTIPOC folks, and food, water, shelter, health, and love for everyone. These things are some of the principals I see in the radical activist culture my friends and I will be documenting in the Radical Mapping Project. <i>Adbusters</i> is calling Trump's election the beginning of a "new world". I don't want to live in Trump's world, so I will use this time and this volatile energy to perform acts of creative resistance. Embarking on the Radical Mapping Project marks a moment for me where I step beyond the bounds of safe, predictable, expected actions. Let the new world begin.<br />
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I am beyond thrilled that very soon I will have the chance to talk to many amazing and interesting people who are engaged in creating a new world founded on justice and equality! If you want to know more about the Radical Mapping Project, our collective, our route, and how you can support us, check in at our <a href="https://radmap.wixsite.com/radmapsproject" target="_blank">website</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/radmapsproject/" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>, and <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/radmapsproject" target="_blank">GoFundMe</a>! I hope that this little thing I have written here helps others address their own feelings over the current political climate (rage, fear, and confusion, anyone?), and embrace their own power and autonomy to create good things and safe(r) spaces in the face of a government and neo-nazi movement that are so not-good and unsafe. If you have any thoughts, questions, or just want to talk, please feel free to contact me. (Also, here's a little something for further inspiration, <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/160530780952/pozmagazine-lgbt-history-archive-since-i" target="_blank">a 1988 speech from Vito Russo</a>, an Act Up activist who was diagnosed with AIDS.)<br />
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With love, zest, and courage,<br />
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Madeleine<br />
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Photos: 1. <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/160489237547/rookiemag-trans-youth-of-north-carolina-we" target="_blank">Trans Youth of North Carolina by Hunter Schafer for Rookie Mag</a>, 2. Artwork used with permission by <a href="http://www.lilybutterland.com/home/" target="_blank">artist Sybil Lamb</a>, text added by RMP collective.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #666666;">Well hi there! Did you like that? Cool. I am an independent and currently unpaid writer and community organizer, and I could really use your support. There are a few ways you can support my blog and help me get my message out. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=S3_XZENNQDH5qAbdMR_xmsGhD6sR7PcmSBYA-WG1F3sero6rwhuxaeGRztnzaEa-5bbYE0">DONATE via Paypal</a> to help me pay for toilet paper and such, and you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodvibrationsblogandshop/">LIKE on Facebook</a> and also share this post with the people in your life. You can also support the Radical Mapping Project on our GoFundMe page, help us find places to stay (look at our route), and send us/me kind words of encouragement. You can also just commit yourself to doing something today to help bring into existence the better world we dream of. Your choice, and anything you do helps. Thanks for reading <3</span></i>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-11731685943878798512017-06-09T13:52:00.002-07:002017-06-09T13:53:43.719-07:00Open Letter: UCSC's Student Activists Stand Up to Chancellor's Criminalization of Activism <br />
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Last week on May 30th, UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal sent out a message containing threatening language that targeted campus activists. He threatened students, staff, faculty members, and all other campus affiliates with disciplinary consequences for engaging in direct action. This message seemed to be a response to two recent and very successful actions.<br />
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On May 1st, UCSC students shut down the campus in solidarity with International Worker's Day. The strike specifically served to spotlight the ways in which the UC exploits its workers while also celebrating the heritage of Latinx migrant workers. During the strike, students were informed by the campus laborer's union that the action was very beneficial for them, as they were in the process of bargaining their labor contract. </div>
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Then on May 2nd, UCSC's Afrikan/Black Student Alliance reclaimed Kerr Hall, the campus's administrative building (home of the Chancellor's office). The reclamation lasted for only two nights before the administration agreed to meet A/BSA's demands, which included housing guarantees for all Afrikan/Black students and the instatement of a mandatory in-person diversity training for all incoming students. <a href="https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/05/03/18799121.php" target="_blank">A/BSA's statements</a> and <a href="https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/05/02/18799088.php" target="_blank">other news</a> on the reclamation can be read at those links. </div>
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On the heels of these two extremely successful actions, Blumenthal's statement reads like the words of a sore loser, who doesn't realize that the victories of activists mean that everyone wins. Here's his full statement (bold added by me for emphasis): </div>
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"<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Our campus has a long and proud history of challenging the status quo. We do it through research, through teaching, and through activism. The exchange of ideas—sometimes done quietly, sometimes not—helps to move society and our campus forward.</span></div>
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Over the years we’ve made many changes on campus after hearing thoughtful and reasoned arguments from students. We are ultimately here as a university to support them, and it’s essential we remain attuned to their needs. A university is a dynamic environment. I want to be sure our services, programs, and policies are serving students.</div>
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For that reason, we have staff across campus committed to working directly with students to ensure that their voices are heard. They can connect students with the appropriate administrators, guiding them to the proper avenues to effect change.</div>
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Our Division of Student Success, overseen by interim Vice Provost Jaye Padgett, offers a host of services that aid our student body: Those include our <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://deanofstudents.ucsc.edu/index.html&source=gmail&ust=1497125009729000&usg=AFQjCNFuikVQGuOOJgm7DaTJzKwSRUlYsQ" href="https://deanofstudents.ucsc.edu/index.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Office of Campus Life and Dean of Students</a>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://studentsuccess.ucsc.edu/retention&source=gmail&ust=1497125009729000&usg=AFQjCNFzMEM4U1n-iG4aE-xHzjxd8l1U7w" href="https://studentsuccess.ucsc.edu/retention" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">eight Student Success Centers</a>, and <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://resourcecenters.ucsc.edu/&source=gmail&ust=1497125009729000&usg=AFQjCNG6R5y02Nzrxp42et5BxqIon8qLZw" href="http://resourcecenters.ucsc.edu/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">six resource centers</a>.</div>
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Additionally, Teresa Maria Linda Scholz, our campus diversity officer for staff and students, is available to meet with those who have concerns about our <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://diversity.ucsc.edu/index.html&source=gmail&ust=1497125009729000&usg=AFQjCNHP2RRmjx7L7jRAW1ZSatRbJD5NGQ" href="http://diversity.ucsc.edu/index.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">campus climate</a>. </div>
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<b>However, I want to be clear: While I support First Amendment rights, I do not endorse efforts to halt the normal work of the university, such as blocking campus entrances or taking over a building.</b></div>
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<b>Such actions are not protected speech under the U.S. or California constitutions. They can keep students from learning, faculty from conducting research, and staff from performing the essential business of this university.</b></div>
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<b>Moving forward, people who choose to engage in conduct that obstructs or disrupts teaching, research, or other university-sponsored activities violate university codes of conduct and will be subject to discipline under our student handbook, employment or other applicable policies. Disciplinary measures can include warnings, suspensions, or—in the most egregious of cases—expulsion or dismissal.</b></div>
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We also must strive to be respectful and civil in our dialogue, as described in our <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.ucsc.edu/about/principles-community.html&source=gmail&ust=1497125009729000&usg=AFQjCNGCggUSwLq4OrS75skNDwZ6z4DTpQ" href="https://www.ucsc.edu/about/principles-community.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Principles of <span class="il">Community</span></a>. Allegations of hateful remarks directed at certain groups by others in our <span class="il">community</span> are deeply troubling. That behavior is at odds with our goal of having a welcoming and open campus. </div>
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I ask our campus <span class="il">community</span> to keep these <span class="il">expectations</span> in mind as we move ahead.</div>
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The all-inclusive campus <span class="il">community</span> we aspire to takes work, but it is something I believe is eminently achievable if we adhere to our principles. They allow us to respectfully discuss our differences while also acknowledging our common humanity." </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><span style="color: #666666;">Of course the use of such openly threatening language sent a shockwave through the campus. With this statement, Blumenthal positioned himself against not only the Black and Latinx students who protected their communities last month, but also anyone wishing to stand up to the administration and ask for what they deserve through a means that could actually secure a response. A/BSA had requested meetings with the Chancellor for years prior to this action, as have countless other groups on campus, without getting any real response to their needs. Unfortunately, direct action has in recent times proven the only way to get the administration to listen and respond to the needs of students, staff, faculty, and other groups. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3yCd31gZ4gxUuFYQ0CSZ_wTGzXT2xIMGztgrkcta5gQgObKWQkVAvEzDeSI1VaDH79hnhfXNh0xKZXGrN4BXN6PN_KvdFJhi3mm7RM7jjguqR0yDfCU5iUJAXO905VYojafZn1mJSbI/s1600/may-1-santa-cruz-1493682796.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="660" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3yCd31gZ4gxUuFYQ0CSZ_wTGzXT2xIMGztgrkcta5gQgObKWQkVAvEzDeSI1VaDH79hnhfXNh0xKZXGrN4BXN6PN_KvdFJhi3mm7RM7jjguqR0yDfCU5iUJAXO905VYojafZn1mJSbI/s640/may-1-santa-cruz-1493682796.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> To protect our right to direct action, a group of student activists, including myself, wrote an open letter to Chancellor Blumenthal in response to his statement. I presented the letter to him yesterday at an awards ceremony. Here is what we wrote: </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c3dc258d-8e87-b106-1a54-599126642752"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"Dear Chancellor Blumenthal, </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are sending you this letter in response to your email titled “Community expectations.” As you may have heard, this email ignited a great response within the student activist communities here at UCSC. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are expressing this response to you clearly and publicly in order to bring to light the threats and contradictions your words communicate to us</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are disturbed to read a communication intended for the campus community which so baldly condemns the actions of campus activists as grounds for serious disciplinary action. When you write, “P</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">eople who choose to engage in conduct that obstructs or disrupts teaching, research, or other university-sponsored activities violate university codes of conduct and will be subject to discipline under our student handbook, employment or other applicable policies,” you inherently criminalize the important and necessary actions of student activists, as well as those of campus unions and laborers. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These words display blatant hypocrisy when you simultaneously champion UCSC’s activist spirit with your campaign slogan, “The original authority on questioning authority.” If we are not allowed to question your authority without being targeted for our actions, how will you keep up UCSC’s activist reputation?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We reject your threats to students, staff, faculty members, or anyone else. These threats create an even more polarized and uncertain campus climate, and directly contradict the concern you seem to express in your email.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We believe that you fundamentally misunderstand these actions and the needs of the communities forced to organize them. Campus activists are not organizing merely for the sake of interrupting learning, research, or university business. Students organized the May Day strike to bring light to the ways the university exploits its workers and to celebrate the work and heritage of Latinx migrant workers. A/BSA students reclaimed Kerr Hall only after making repeated requests over several years for certain demands which you subsequently ignored or dismissed. In short, campus activists organize out of necessity because these actions are often the only effective way to receive the appropriate and necessary response from your administration. Clear injustices exist on this campus which seriously hinder or endanger the lives of students, faculty, and staff, and Black and brown lives in particular. Actions such as the ones you have chosen to address in your email are at times the only means we have available to us in order to see proper responses to our varying needs, as seen in the success of the A/BSA reclamation this past May. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We assert that your requests for students, staff, and faculty to follow "community expectations" and recognize our "common humanity" must be coupled with administrative accountability. Organized actions must be met with understanding and listening rather than discipline. Better yet, the University administration can preempt these actions by fulfilling their responsibility to listen and respond to the requests of our campus communities. Because of UCSC’s size and influence, you and your administration are accountable for the many ways your actions - or lack thereof - affect the lives of students, campus workers, Santa Cruz residents, and others. This means you must be willing and available to discuss and negotiate with all affected parties when a group expresses its needs, especially when those parties are comprised of those with marginalized identities, including but not limited to Black, brown, LGBTQ+, low income folks, Muslim folks, and those with disabilities. We know you are capable of addressing students' needs from your responses to groups on campus such as Slugs for Israel. However, it is blatantly apparent that not all groups on campus have access to this type of necessary communication with you, particularly the students and groups who are most discriminated against on this campus.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We agree that organized actions are disruptive. They are meant to be precisely because it is these actions which prevent your administration from shirking their responsibilities to the greater community. We hope you recognize that these actions are a means made necessary by the lacking responses from your administration. We also hope you will understand that meeting these actions with disciplinary measures will only further exacerbate the issues these actions are intended to address and contribute to greater unrest on campus. In light of the recent scandals regarding the state audit of the University of California, including $175 million in hidden funds and survey data that was altered by your office, administrative accountability and campus activism are both more important now than ever. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Your email sets forth a new precedent of threatening and aggressive action perpetrated by the administration against the campus community. Furthermore, it proves to discredit and eliminate the important work that activists and organizers do for this campus to create more equity. Political times like these characterized by rising hate crimes, assaults, and aggressions on and off campus especially call for the need of student activists and organizers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The activist’s role on this campus, and more largely in any community, is to ensure all peoples receive visibility, equitable treatment, and justice. Our value shall not be disreputed. The activist’s role in the livelihood of our campus community should not be diminished by threats and fear mongering as conveyed through your email. We will continue to do the very important work of protecting the rights of marginalized campus communities and our greater Santa Cruz community as a whole. We will not back down from fighting for the principles of justice and freedom which we stand for and we hope that you can stand with us. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sincerely, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Representatives of UCSC’s </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student Activist Community"</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="color: #666666;"> Not included are the student and organizational signatures that were on the document given to Blumenthal. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"> Handing this off to Blumenthal in the midst of an awards ceremony was an experience in itself. I was the last student to get called up to get my certificate, and as I did, I spoke to the whole room, saying thank you for the award and then telling everyone that I was presenting Blumenthal with an open-letter response to his email. I informed everyone that they could read it online on City on a Hill Press. It went off without a hitch, and afterwards a few faculty members came up to ask me about it and thanked me and my co-authors for making a response. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"> It's currently circulating around the campus via social media and email, but I wanted to post this here with both Blumenthal's message and our response, because I think people outside UCSC and outside of the realm of higher education need to know how authoritarian college administrations are trying to be. His attempt to quash protesting will not work, but does signal that campus activists need to be more prepared for the legal ramifications the university may thrust upon them. Blumenthal's actions coincide with a larger trend toward criminalizing political protests and dissenting actions, from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/journalists-arrested-inauguration-charges.html" target="_blank">Trump's infamous arrest of journalists</a> to Indiana's <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/374281-protest-traffic-bill-indiana/" target="_blank">recent "commerce-block" bill</a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"> We can't stand for this y'all. We have the right to protest, we have the right to not be okay with what's happening in our country and our world, we have a right to our voices. Let's use them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">With love and defiance, </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">Madeleine</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">Photos: 1. <a href="http://www.ksbw.com/article/odd-may-day-protest-at-uc-santa-cruz/9589601" target="_blank">May Day protest blocking the base of campus</a>, 2. <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/campus-administrators-ignored-studentss-demands-for-black-visibility-so-they-took-over-the-administration-building/" target="_blank">A/BSA students holding hands and celebrating after their demands were met, surrounded by crowd of student, staff, and faculty supporters at Kerr Hall</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i style="color: #7f7f7f; font-family: Lato; font-size: 17.6px; line-height: 24.64px; white-space: normal;">Heyhey! Did you like that? Cool. 'Cause I'm graduating in less than a week and could really use your support, both financially and for my voice to be heard! There are a few ways you can support my blog and help me get my message out. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=S3_XZENNQDH5qAbdMR_xmsGhD6sR7PcmSBYA-WG1F3sero6rwhuxaeGRztnzaEa-5bbYE0" style="color: #af94c6; text-decoration: none;">DONATE via Paypal</a> to help me pay for toilet paper and such, and you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodvibrationsblogandshop/" style="color: #af94c6; text-decoration: none;">LIKE on Facebook</a> and also share this post with the people in your life. ALL OF THEM. This is important. Thank you <3</i></span></div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-84886908208896288122017-05-19T14:19:00.002-07:002017-05-19T14:19:45.312-07:00Blackface Prom Asks Indicate it's Time to Remedy Closet-Racism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlb_ZMwJdmJ8BaWYMUqej8sVyAzPtH5yfc49Q-nlIDl1osEYT0_i5CwmqCboNMP9gnIb5sEs9BruiN1cge0CrA-g42r_vmmv7XKrmhmOqL1Zh_4wFLcnkbeFbT4c7NIJ7dGfvzBaalK38/s1600/Los_gatos_school_grounds.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlb_ZMwJdmJ8BaWYMUqej8sVyAzPtH5yfc49Q-nlIDl1osEYT0_i5CwmqCboNMP9gnIb5sEs9BruiN1cge0CrA-g42r_vmmv7XKrmhmOqL1Zh_4wFLcnkbeFbT4c7NIJ7dGfvzBaalK38/s640/Los_gatos_school_grounds.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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There is, as always, a lot to write about, but this week, an act of unbridled ignorance and "unacceptable" baldly racist conduct at Los Gatos High School takes the cake. I attended Los Gatos High School and graduated just about four years ago. My friends from those times know where it is, but for everyone else, Los Gatos is a relatively small town on the fringe of the South Bay Area, the last town you pass through before entering the mountains on your way to the coast. Many of its residents are either older white retirees, or else families who are usually somehow employed in the Silicon Valley tech business. The population is overwhelmingly white, although a decent percentage of students at Los Gatos High School are also Asian-identified (ex. I had friends who were Vietnamese, Filipinx, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean) or mixed-race. When I attended school there, I could count the number of Black and Latinx students on my hands. According to this <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/california/districts/los-gatos-saratoga-joint-union-high/los-gatos-high-2715" target="_blank">source</a>, the total enrollment of non-white students is 30%.<br />
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As you might guess, this relatively non-diverse environment creates a nice bubble for the residents, one where the issue of race is rarely confronted, simply because there are so few instances where it comes up. Even in my English and history classes, which are designed to deal with controversial social topics, racism was rarely discussed, and often thought of as a thing of the past. I can remember only a few instances where teachers pursued the issue enough to impress upon me that racism still exists, in Los Gatos and in other parts of the world. But even these well-intended lessons were not enough to break through the blissful ignorance that I was afforded as a white person who never had to go too far out of my comfort zone to understand other cultures, ethnicities, and racial identities.<br />
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Until I went away to college and began studying racism, while also being surrounded by and learning from students who were not white and who had different experiences than me, my ignorance continued. When I finally became friends with Black students, Latinx students, Filipinx students, Native American students, students whose parents are immigrants or are immigrants themselves, students who are first-generation college students, students whose parents are landscapers or farmworkers, students whose families come from Compton or South Central L.A., my ignorance was finally shattered. And today I am appreciative of the teachers at Los Gatos High School who tried to break through this ignorance early on, but saddened overall by the realization that Los Gatos High and the town of Los Gatos continue to put diversity education and conversations about race on the back burner. Because when we do this, here's what happens:<br />
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Quoted from <a href="https://elgatonews.wordpress.com/2017/05/16/opinion-blackface-prom-ask-is-unacceptable/" target="_blank">Danika Lyle's editorial in El Gato</a>: "On Friday, May 12, an LGHS senior asked a girl to Prom in blackface makeup. The ask was a recreation of a Bitmoji-Snapchat message he had sent to the girl earlier. The Bitmoji is an African American avatar with blue hair, glasses, a tank top, a bow, and a bright Prom poster. He asked the girl at her house without a bow, tank top, or blue hair dye, but did choose to blacken his face. The student posted pictures of his ask on Instagram, and as I write this article, the post remains." (Danika skillfully goes on to explain why blackface is offensive. If you need further information on that topic, please read her article.)<br />
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This is not okay. Many LGHS alumni have been posting or commenting about the incident saying that they are not surprised, and I can't feign to pretend I am either. I am, however, disappointed and horrified by the students' behavior, as well as the arguments other students have made to back him up. My younger sister, who is a current student at Los Gatos High school, The incident exposes not only the intensity of racial ignorance present at Los Gatos High, but also perhaps the lack of empathy and compassion necessary for students to understand and stand up to acts of racism rather than defend their perpetrator. While I am not advocating for the punitive punishment of the students involved in this incident, I do believe that the situation needs to be remedied somehow.<br />
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In <a href="https://elgatonews.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/lghs-administration-releases-statement-on-racist-prom-asks/" target="_blank">a statement released by the Los Gatos High School administration</a> this Thursday, administrators said, "We are aware of two prom asks this spring that have been of a racist nature and want this choice of behavior never to recur. Our obligation is to protect student safety and respond to actions that may create 'an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment' (California Education Code). We are taking action and responding to the situations as a school and care to do so sensitively... We are also working to develop additional programming to support increased cultural sensitivity throughout the student body." I applaud the administration for taking a strong stance on the incident. Now, here comes my call to action:<br />
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If you are a current student, an alumni, or part of the staff at Los Gatos High school, it's time to weigh in on this situation and what "cultural sensitivity programming" should look like. As members of this community, it's our responsibility to have the conversations and take the actions necessary to ensure that students take racist conduct seriously, understand its harm, and do not repeat it. Call or email the staff about the issue, make requests for education on specific topics, like "Why Blackface is Offensive" or "Why it's Important Not to be Racist" or "How to be Non-Racist", or even "How to be a Good Collaborator in the Movement for Racial Justice". Talk to each other; your students, peers, and/or colleagues, or fellow alum. Discuss why this is not okay and what we can do about it! For a long time I have dismissed Los Gatos as a closet-racist town beyond my help, but I recognize that as a former student, it is my responsibility to help eliminate, through dialogue and education, the quiet specter of racism from this community.<br />
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If you are not tied to the community of Los Gatos (congrats), take this story to heart and think about how it applies to your own community. And, if possible, share this piece and the articles I have linked to so that this incident may not go unnoticed. We need to put pressure on the school and community to change. The more eyes on Los Gatos and its seedy racist underbelly, the better.<br />
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Lastly, remember that its in incidents like these where the practices of allyship and solidarity become most important. This is a situation where white people need to recognize unabashed racism in their own community and address it, swiftly. Remember your place and the importance of your voice in issues like these. If you'd like to know more about this, please read my last post on <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2017/04/community-to-family-in-face-of-trump.html" target="_blank">solidarity. </a><br />
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With love and energy to fight for what's right,<br />
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Madeleine<br />
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P.S. Unfortunately I was not able to get ahold of the infamous photo that was posted of the incident on Instagram. I believe that school codes or laws protecting minors unfortunately must prevent that.<br />
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Images: Both are not mine and were found via Google. 1 shows the front of Los Gatos High School, and the other shows North Santa Cruz Avenue, the main downtown strip. Just to give you an idea of the wealth in the community. </i><div>
<i><br />Well, hey! Did you like that? Cool. Please help me keep writing and defaming users of blackface by supporting this here blog! There are a few ways you can support my blog and help me get my message out. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=S3_XZENNQDH5qAbdMR_xmsGhD6sR7PcmSBYA-WG1F3sero6rwhuxaeGRztnzaEa-5bbYE0">DONATE via Paypal</a> to help me pay for toilet paper and such, and you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodvibrationsblogandshop/">LIKE on Facebook</a> and also share this post with the people in your life. ALL OF THEM. This is important. Thank you <3</i></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-24478831261461622872017-04-28T14:49:00.001-07:002017-04-28T15:20:30.273-07:00Community to Family in the Face of Trump<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Like the rest of the left, I am beyond tired of Trump's bullshit. I am actually at the point where I can barely speak with someone about it without feeling like I'm going to cry and spontaneously combust in anger (yes, both at once). Every day continues to feel like an uphill political battle for mine and my loved ones' safety and wellbeing. I've heard a lot of white women say and write "Well, I'm a white woman, I likely will not be deeply affected by the Trump regime". They're right. As a white, cisgender woman, I have the privilege of relative safety in this perilous time. And yet, I am not truly safe. As a partner, close friend, or simply acquaintance to many black and brown, queer, trans, non-binary, Muslim, and otherly-identified people, I stand to see my communities decimated. This is a great loss. Even if my individual wellbeing is not threatened, a threat to my communities, the people I know, the people I love, the people I pass every day on my way around town or campus - a threat to them is a threat to me. </div>
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I am saying this not only to justify or legitimize my political anxiety. I am also saying this as a call for all of us to take care of one another in these difficult times. Many people are feeling like me right now. As a result, self-care is a term and tactic skyrocketing in popularity as people feel overtaken by political anxiety, exhaustion, and burnout. But self-care is inherently individualist. It encourages us to look after ourselves and take responsibility for our emotions, but it also privatizes our pain and fuels the capitalist machine. Queer woman of color activist Brianna Suslovic writes in <a href="https://briannasuslovic.com/2017/02/07/the-revolution-will-not-be-unsustainable-drafting-a-movement-strategy-handbook/" target="_blank">her article on self-care and new movement strategie</a>s, "Work more hours to earn more money to invest more in your personal self-care regimen, done in the privacy of your own home (or your own gym). This is scary not only because it leaves us with no examples of what caring for others looks like in public, but also because it sets the expectation that if caring happens privately, so should pain." Suslovic argues that we must break out of self-care talk, and begin to care for each other, at least to supplement our private coping.<br />
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I agree. In this difficult and terrifying time, we need each other. It is important for us to come together to cry and share our pain, to share food, medicine, and resources to take care of each other, and to talk and dream together about what we can do and what we want the world to look like. I titled this article with the phrase "community to family" because I want us on the left to reframe what we think about others and how we see ourselves in relation to others. "Community" is a contested term with various meanings, but "family" is more clear cut. What do you do for your family when times are tough? You share with them, you take care of them, and your protect them. Your wellbeing is bound up with theirs; if they get hurt, you're hurting too. You might not agree with them on everything, but at the end of the day you'd do whatever it takes to keep them safe. This is how we we can and must relate to each other in these tough political times.<br />
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My hero Grace Lee Boggs says in her book, <i><a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520272590" target="_blank">The Next American Revolution</a></i>, "We ourselves must begin practicing in the social realm the capacity to care for each other, to share food, skills, time, and ideas that up to now most of us have limited to our most personal cherished relationships…..We urgently need to bring to our communities the limitless capacity to love, serve, and create for and with each other." (yes I have used this quote before - it is amazing and I will repeat it until I see it in the world). If now isn't the time for the next American Revolution, I don't know what is. When we begin not only caring for each other as Grace Lee Boggs suggests, but also defending and protecting each other, and acting with the understanding that, as indigenous activist Lila Watson puts it, "your liberation is bound up with mine". When we begin treating each other and cherishing each other as family we can make it through this time, and we can create change.<br />
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I understand my suggestions are easier said than done. Relating to one another on this level requires vulnerability, humility, emotional labor, trust, awareness, care, and love. It requires showing up for each other, checking ourselves, sharing, opening ourselves and our homes, confessing our pain and deepest fears. It is important that we stretch our capacities for each of these abilities. Without these bonds, we perish separately. We must reach out to each other. I'll cap this off with a quote from <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392" target="_blank">Martin Niemoller</a> discussing the Holocaust that I hope everyone has seen before. It stresses the extreme importance of taking care of and standing up for one another:<br />
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<i>First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist. </i><br />
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<i>Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.</i></div>
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<i>Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.</i></div>
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<i>Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.</i><br />
<i><br /></i> To avoid this unhappy fate, we must stretch ourselves to be more open, to care for each other, and defend each other in the face of fascism. I'll see you all out there Monday May 1 defending the rights of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/26/may-day-activist-surge-trump-immigration" target="_blank">immigrants and workers</a> across the U.S., and if you're in Santa Cruz, I'd also like to see you May 2nd at Quarry Plaza, participating in the march and rally with the African/Black Student Association on campus to demand support for our black peers. Let's take these streets for each other!!<br />
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Many of my articles hit on topics of vulnerability, allyship, and community support. Please read through my <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/search/label/Whiteness" target="_blank">Whiteness series</a>, <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2016/12/time-to-get-real.html" target="_blank">Time to Get Real</a>, and my article on <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2017/03/we-can-de-power-capitalism-by.html" target="_blank">de-powering capitalism</a> if you want more of my writing on these topics. I also suggest this T<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability" target="_blank">ED Talk on vulnerability</a>, Francesca Ramsey's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dg86g-QlM0" target="_blank">5 Tips for Being an Ally video</a> and <a href="https://www.resistancemanual.org/Tools_of_Resistance" target="_blank">Resistance Manual's Tools for Resistance</a>. And of course, the resources linked above.<br />
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Lastly, I want to say <i>thank you</i> to my community, to my family, for helping me through these times. I love you very much, and I am more grateful for you (all of you!) than my words can express.<br />
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<span style="line-height: 16px;">With big, real, true love, support, and resistance, </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16px;">Madeleine</span></div>
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<i>Well, hello there. Speaking of supporting each other, I'd would so greatly appreciate any support for my writing so I can keep doing more of it, and you can keep reading it :) There are a few ways you can support my blog and help me get my message out. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=S3_XZENNQDH5qAbdMR_xmsGhD6sR7PcmSBYA-WG1F3sero6rwhuxaeGRztnzaEa-5bbYE0">DONATE via Paypal</a> to help me pay for toilet paper and such, and you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodvibrationsblogandshop/">LIKE on Facebook</a> and also share this post with people in your life, especially those who would like to learn more about solidarity and self/community care!</i><br />
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<i>Photos: <a href="http://www.phoebewahl.com/illustration-1/" target="_blank">Phoebe Wahl</a>, <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/108842769797/the-halls-of-a-high-school-in-texas-filled-with" target="_blank">2</a> (click through for the caption, it's a beautiful photo)</i></div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-30104509157580959582017-04-21T20:37:00.001-07:002017-04-21T20:37:53.688-07:00A Letter to My White Friends: Cultural Appropriation and a Search for Cultural Belonging <br />
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Cultural appropriation is a sore spot for many people I know. To some extent, that makes sense. No one likes to be told they can't have something. However, that doesn't mean that cultural appropriation isn't a viable issue. Until the people whose cultures are being appropriated by people who don't belong to those ethnic groups, whose traditions are being turned into products for people outside of that culture to profit from, it will continue to be a major issue. I myself find it difficult to write eloquently on the nuances of why exactly cultural appropriation is an issue. Instead, please check out these varying perspectives: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/the-dos-and-donts-of-cultural-appropriation/411292/" target="_blank">The Dos and Don'ts of Cultural Appropriation by Jenni Avins</a> and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXejDhRGOuI" target="_blank">7 Myths About Cultural Appropriation Debunked</a> video on Decoded with Francesca Ramsey (those videos are so good!).<br />
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Please do read those and do more research into the controversy, it's a complex subject that I am still grappling with myself. What I do want to touch on today, is how interesting it is to me that often things that are appropriated or commodified are taken for two reasons: they are healing traditions or deep traditions that carry and create meaning and lend a sense of belonging. Some easy examples of appropriated and commodified healing traditions are Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, yoga, and the chakra system. Some examples of meaningful traditions or items that carry meaning include Native American headdresses, Rastafarian dreads, the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=om+symbol&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwi7vKSb3q_TAhWKjVQKHYH9BwgQ_AUIBigB&biw=1024&bih=484" target="_blank">om symbol</a>, Buddha figurines, and Chinese and Japanese characters (how many non-Chinese [and non-Chinese speaking] people have you seen with a Chinese character tattoo? Just asking~). All of these items or traditions are examples of cultural practices which have been taken from their original cultural contexts, and in many cases, stripped of their rich cultural histories and meanings. I doubt that people at music festivals wearing feather headdresses know which tribes wear them (according to <a href="http://www.native-languages.org/headdresses.htm" target="_blank">this source</a>, "tribes in the Great Plains region, such as the Sioux, Crow, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, and Plains Cree") or why they do so (<a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/native-north-america/native-american-west/a/feathered-war-bonnet" target="_blank">another source</a>). Meanwhile, these tribes still suffer extreme discrimination and disrespect at the hands of the U.S. government, as exemplified by the <a href="http://www.nodapl.life/" target="_blank">ongoing #NoDAPL conflict</a>. </div>
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Here is a plain example of the issue of cultural appropriation - the originators of the appropriated tradition continue to suffer systemic racism while the appropriators know little of the origin. And yet, we appropriate these things for certain reasons. Why? In today's modernizing and homogenizing world, white people especially often feel a lack of cultural roots. In a recent conversation with my mom about cultural appropriation, she objected by saying, "Well, what culture do we have? We're just American, we've been here forever, we don't have anything that's ours." I would wager that her sentiment mirrors an idea that many white people, and other people who have been removed from their cultural backgrounds, also believe. But I believe this idea that we have no traditions of our own to draw on is partly a lie to keep us dependent on mainstream and popular culture, and its encouraged consumption-based modes of thinking and being. <a href="https://witchcabinet.com/blogs/andi-grace/coming-out-of-the-woo-closet-facing-shame-stigma-and-historical-trauma" target="_blank">Andi Grace supports a similar point of view</a>: "<span style="background-color: white; color: #2f1c0a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">this false belief in a spiritually-void past leads many european people to feel justified in appropriating the spiritual practices and traditions of indigenous people. and thus, we perpetuate the process of colonization in our spiritual and cultural practices. we see this with yoga, smudge kits sold at trendy hipster clothing stores, twerking and headdresses at music festivals just to name a few examples.”</span></div>
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We are often made to forget that our ancestors, who had real ethnic origins and important spiritual and cultural practices, were forced through discrimination and persecution to lay down their cultures and traditions in favor of assimilation. <a href="http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Scottish-and-Scotch-Irish-Americans.html" target="_blank">Scottish</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Irish_sentiment" target="_blank">Irish</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Americans" target="_blank">German</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Italianism#Violence_against_Italians" target="_blank">Italian</a>, and other peoples all faced much discrimination, not to mention <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-immigration-from-eastern-europe/" target="_blank">Eastern Europeans, Jews</a>, and other groups now considered White. Ever heard a derogatory joke about "gingers"? Or a knock against hillbillies? Those comments are somewhat more innocuous today (although the term hillbilly is still a site of controversy and discrimination), but they trace back to anti-Scottish and anti-Irish immigration sentiment during the nineteenth century in the U.S. Today, many of their traditions, like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartan" target="_blank">tartan</a> or plaid patterns and St. Patrick's Day are commodified and de-historicized, signifying a degradation of their original cultural significance. (Some efforts to continue Scottish and Irish traditions specifically do exist, like Irish dance troupes and Scottish bagpipe brigades).<br />
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These cultures which comprise our own ethnic roots, along with the cultures and traditions of early American settlers, can provide an answer to the question, "What culture do we have?". It turns out, we have plenty to draw from. Many of the practices we appropriate because they carry meaning or spiritual significance can be replaced or supplemented by practices from out European roots as well as from not-so-distant pioneer past-times. It has been said that in recent years, America has seen <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone" target="_blank">a breakdown in civil society</a>, but building on the traditions of the past can give us practices to re-build the our communities, find and re-create our own meaningful symbols, customs and cultural practices, and essentially find meaning in our own lives, backgrounds, neighborhoods, and cultures. The challenge of avoiding cultural appropriation is inherently creative, asking us to look at our own cultural roots and build off of them to create our own practices that we enjoy and that serve us better than what most people think of American culture today: non-nurturing institutions and customs like WalMart, fast food, the hate-filled sect of the Evangelical church, our increasingly phone-addicted and fast-paced society. If we can create and re-create cultural practices to replace, or at least mitigate, these things, we'll be well on our way to healing and finding meaning <i>without</i> appropriating other cultures and perpetuating systemic racism.<br />
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To that end, I'd like to list a few cultural practices from early settler America that persist in many pockets of the country (including rural Missouri) that might help us rebuild a culture centered on community and meaningful practices:<br />
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- Barn-raisings and quilting bees: these were essentially get-togethers that emphasized the principle of "Many hands make light work" - a neighborhood or community would come together to build a structure, make quilts, can foods, or accomplish some other work task, all while surrounded by other community members, turning the work into a social occassion. These work parties were often followed by actual parties, to celebrate the work they had done!<br />
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- Traditional food cultures: though the first thing you may think of when asked what American food culture is might be a hamburger, American people have developed traditional foods that are still served around the country. Some of my personal favorite American dishes include cornbread, mashed potatoes, and brussel sprouts. Delving back into these food cultures, which were developed for certain areas and eating with the seasons, can be a way to connect to earlier times, but it's also a great and healing practice to just enjoy good food together!<br />
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- Folk music and folk dance: over the summer I went to a folk music festival in Missouri, where people had come from all over the area to play instruments like the fiddle, banjo, and stand-up bass. The festival was a wonderful social occasion for musicians and spectators alike, but the best part was the square-dancing. One whole side of the square was covered with a wooden platform, which served as a dance floor for square dancing every night of the festival. Square dancing is an inherently community-building form of dance, since it requires you to dance with not one partner, but seven other people. The dancing was extremely fun, and I can see how incorporating dance and music traditions like this could really help to rebuild community.<br />
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- European-rooted witchcraft, herbalism, and healing traditions: the Salem witch hunts didn't quite root out all the witches. Herbalism and herbal healing knowledge are still alive and well today, thanks in part to the New Age movement, which unfortunately de-historicized many of these older healing practices. While healing is now dominated by Western medicine and the medical industrial complex, these traditions are not gone, and they can do as much for as Chinese medicine or Ayurveda.<br />
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- Storytelling: Ever heard a story about Davy Crocket? Then you've heard an American tall tale, an oral storytelling tradition practiced by settlers. We still do it today when we tell stories that have been passed on to us from others. The power of stories like these helps provide entertainment while also bringing people together and helping formulate the culture of the area, as a culture's stories have a hand in shaping the mindsets and beliefs of its people. </div>
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All of these practices can help us re-build community, re-create meaning and culture of our own, and heal us in the way that appropriated practices also do. If you're interested in these practices or in this idea itself, definitely research them more deeply, and perhaps delve into your family's own histories and traditions. Francesca Nicole has a <a href="http://www.thewildfrancesca.com/theplacebetweenblogmain/2016/10/22/conscious-ancestry-for-white-people" target="_blank">great article on how to do ancestral research</a>. You can also read more about a lot of these practices and how they encourage community and culture-building <a href="http://www.citizenshandbook.org/index.html" target="_blank">here</a>, especially under the Community Project Examples heading (this website is amazing, by the way). Finally, there are many books out there on building new cultures, but a few that I have read and that I feel are tied to today's piece are <i><a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520272590" target="_blank">The Next American Revolution</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Creatives-Million-People-Changing/dp/0609808451" target="_blank">The Cultural Creatives</a>, </i>and <i><a href="http://theradicalhomemaker.net/books/" target="_blank">Radical Homemakers</a>. </i>They are certainly not unproblematic and open to interpretation, but definitely hit on the issues I've covered today.<br />
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Please let me know your thoughts on the issue of cultural appropriation and culture re-creation. Is it necessary? Is it possible? What about cultural appropriation; what's your definition? Let me know! I'd love to hear from you.<br />
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With love and hope for a new culture and old traditions,<br />
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Madeleine<br />
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<i>Hey, how do you think I did with this article? If you liked it, yay! I'd be ever so grateful if you'd consider supporting my writing so you can read more of it! There are a few ways you can support my blog and help me get my message out. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=S3_XZENNQDH5qAbdMR_xmsGhD6sR7PcmSBYA-WG1F3sero6rwhuxaeGRztnzaEa-5bbYE0">DONATE via Paypal</a> to help me pay for toilet paper and such, and you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodvibrationsblogandshop/">LIKE on Facebook</a> and also share this post with people in your life, especially anyone who participates in cultural appropriation (so, everybody) and anyone into community building (hopefully lots of people!). </i><br />
<i>Photos: <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/159554222292" target="_blank">1</a>, <a href="http://www.citizenshandbook.org/2_19_bees.html" target="_blank">3</a></i></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-24313598259951066912017-03-24T14:18:00.000-07:002017-03-24T14:18:47.738-07:00What Anarchy Means to Me <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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No, it's not just about burning things. You might imagine people wearing masks, black clothes, and throwing Molotov cocktails. Anarchism, practiced with critical thought, is more complex (and arguably less climactic than that). And while at times those things might be part of anarchist practice, they are just the tip of the iceberg, and are only done for certain reasons and through certain interpretations. For example, I'm an anarchist, and I'm more likely to hold a community dinner than get confrontational with the police. It doesn't mean it doesn't happen sometimes (see my strike guide!), but there's also a lot more to what I do and what I believe.<div>
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Anarchism is defined differently in several places. You might have heard the familiar refrain "No gods, no masters." Most strains of anarchism are anti-hierarchical as a rule, meaning they oppose domination and superiority of all forms. This translates to a strong anti-government sentiment that, oddly, puts them very close to Libertarians on the political spectrum. After that, schools of thought may diverge. Some support the autonomy of anyone to do anything so long as it is not hurting anyone else. However, the <a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/donald-rooum-and-freedom-press-ed-what-is-anarchism-an-introduction" target="_blank">Anarchist Library admits</a>, "Every conceivable anarchy would need social pressure to dissuade people from acting coercively; and to prevent a person from acting coercively is to limit that person’s choices." This tends to lead to some theoretical disagreements about the means involved to achieve or create anarchy, but ultimately, true anarchy has yet to exist, and so these worries about social pressures or lack thereof are less pressing in our current time. </div>
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There is actually quite a rabbit hole of <a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/donald-rooum-and-freedom-press-ed-what-is-anarchism-an-introduction" target="_blank">all the different types of anarchist orientations</a> out there. What I tend to believe in can sometimes be characterized as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_communism" target="_blank">anarcho-communism</a>. My beliefs generally center on the need for humans to cooperate with and care for one another, rather than dominate or subjugate each other. However, what I most enjoy about anarchism is not the beliefs and theory behind it, but rather that it gives people practices to bring about a new and better world. </div>
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Basic anti-hierarchical, consensus-based, community-caring principals inspire many organizations and individuals today. When I dig into anarchist movements, I see some really amazing and creative forms of activism happening. Community centers and organizations grounded in anarchism, like Santa Cruz's own <a href="http://www.subrosaproject.org/" target="_blank">SubRosa Project</a>, provide safe community spaces for music, art, community organizing projects, and people of marginalized identities (especially queers, at SubRosa!). Spaces like these, sometimes also called DIY spaces, are <a href="http://dodiy.org/" target="_blank">all over the U.S. and the world</a>, many of them based on anarchist principals. Spaces like these are creating community and also helping create and/or rediscover alternative cultural practices to unhealthy mainstream monoculture. </div>
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SubRosa, for example, hosts community music and art events, queer dance parties, swap meets, discussion groups on witchcraft and politics, and serves as a meeting place for several community organizing projects. A related organization, <a href="https://thefabrica.org/" target="_blank">The Fabrica</a>, hosts workshops, events, and provides access to sewing machines and materials on a donation basis. Projects like these in Santa Cruz are the tip of the iceberg. The DIY/Anarchist subculture exists all over, in numerous iterations. Community co-ops, witchcraft covens, farms and gardens, housing co-ops, <a href="http://localtools.org/find/" target="_blank">libraries of things</a>, and organizing collectives like these are gifting the world new cultural practices based in emphasizing sharing, community care, accessibility, and responsibility. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX4A4iUukZNCSJ72mNHSsoF8lcs6GAkPJ4o8YBxdT6_n9qOr4nnZXa2OU3bSD_3Bpz-YmuD5Js0m6T4t9H0v37vtDw5dJqSN-skp0xI2qeaO-wI8sMq9kxtx6sdpckLEbny_rzavG1tS0/s1600/17190413_1636155586400999_7345265168216401855_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX4A4iUukZNCSJ72mNHSsoF8lcs6GAkPJ4o8YBxdT6_n9qOr4nnZXa2OU3bSD_3Bpz-YmuD5Js0m6T4t9H0v37vtDw5dJqSN-skp0xI2qeaO-wI8sMq9kxtx6sdpckLEbny_rzavG1tS0/s640/17190413_1636155586400999_7345265168216401855_n.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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Spaces like these and anarchist culture in general deeply inspire my own practice. The creative measures that anarchists use to fund projects and initiatives, like donation-basis, notaflof (no one turned away for lack of funds), and group funding processes (for a really interesting example, <a href="http://callingourselveshome.weebly.com/energy-exchange-for-may-in-person-course.html" target="_blank">check out this one!</a>), elevate accessibility and promote individual generosity. Focus on the people, artists, and skills in one's community gives me an alternative to buying into the mainstream monoculture's media and practices, while also helping to create a locally-based cultural alternative. The beliefs I support in my <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2017/03/we-can-de-power-capitalism-by.html" target="_blank">de-powering capitalism article</a> are profoundly anarchist. Anarchism provides a roadmap for the way forward in these challenging and perilous times. As Grace Lee Boggs puts it, we must create movements in our local communities which "not only say 'No' to the existing power structure but also empower our constituencies to embrace the power within each of us to create the world anew."I believe anarchism is doing just that in a very real way, through the community-oriented initiatives it inspires. </div>
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My only critique of anarchist spaces is that, in my experiences both here in the Bay Area and in Missouri, many of the people involved were white. Though I can't make a generalizing statement about the racial identity of the movement as a whole, my partner and I often lament that POC can sometimes seem to be left out of our local anarchist scene. Though there is some excellent anarchist anti-racist organizing going on, sometimes <a href="https://itsgoingdown.org/twin-cities-anarchist-people-color-engage-militancy-debate/" target="_blank">even these movements still center white folks over people of color. </a> This is a huge issue. For a group of people who profess to be anti-dominance, actively discouraging racism in our movement is of paramount importance, and I actively try to move this forward in my own practice of anarchism. </div>
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Anarchism as a practice and school of thought is diverse and still to be perfected. I embrace it because I find it has valuable teachings to incorporate into the world I wish to see. What are your thoughts on anarchism? If you have any, send me a message or comment below, I'd love to engage with you. For further reading, I'd recommend perusing these <a href="http://dodiy.org/" target="_blank">two</a> <a href="http://slingshot.tao.ca/contacts/" target="_blank">databases</a> of anarchist organizations and community spaces, and "<a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/anarchy-is-boring/Content?oid=13597692" target="_blank">Anarchy is Boring</a>" by Brendan Kiley. </div>
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With love and anarchy, </div>
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Madeleine</div>
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<i>Did you like reading that? Wonderful. I'd be ever so grateful if you'd consider supporting my writing so you can read more of it! There are a few ways you can support my blog and help me get my message out. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=S3_XZENNQDH5qAbdMR_xmsGhD6sR7PcmSBYA-WG1F3sero6rwhuxaeGRztnzaEa-5bbYE0">DONATE via Paypal</a> to help me pay for toilet paper and such, and you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodvibrationsblogandshop/">LIKE on Facebook</a> and also share this post with people in your life, especially people who think anarchy is just about wearing black! Maybe it ain't ;)</i></div>
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<i>Photos: <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/search/anarchist+banner" target="_blank">1</a>, <a href="https://thefabrica.org/?page_id=51" target="_blank">2</a></i></div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-60195873349437853562017-03-17T14:56:00.003-07:002017-03-17T15:01:58.946-07:00A Letter to My White Friends: Smashing White Fragility, Fear, and Guilt<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikatCCx4S6FrK0_mg-AHYDiJS2RuqQbYpbnXReHnxEPFyk4JOzt82H_c9Q6eINOZS6uybmkco2PfvhXYKuBQI1EZ8ax7CnKqUC1U4vEIbCXuvgF1XfyD1WHa7RHkOjy1TYC0YMYAMMU54/s1600/Tumblr-Activists-of-New-York-Feature.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikatCCx4S6FrK0_mg-AHYDiJS2RuqQbYpbnXReHnxEPFyk4JOzt82H_c9Q6eINOZS6uybmkco2PfvhXYKuBQI1EZ8ax7CnKqUC1U4vEIbCXuvgF1XfyD1WHa7RHkOjy1TYC0YMYAMMU54/s640/Tumblr-Activists-of-New-York-Feature.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Consider this your call-<i>in</i>. A letter to white people, from a white person, on the process of overcoming white fragility.<br />
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Two weeks ago, I issued a call for my white friends to really examine our white identities, confront fragility, and help disrupt systemic racism. But the question remained, <i>how do we go about smashing our fragility? </i>To delve into the answer, let's be thoughtful about what this entails. First, I want to say that the phrase "smashing white fragility" is something of a misnomer. While it sounds powerful (and it is!), it also conveys the idea that this is a one-time thing, a hump you get over, the spell that banishes your fragility forever. It doesn't work that way. Confronting your fragility is an ongoing, life-long process. Unlearning the supremacy and comfort in our whiteness will be something we can engage with for the rest of your time on Earth. That being said, it is an important, rewarding, and desperately needed process for today's political moment. Please engage.<br />
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Before we smash our fragility, we must identify it and understand why it's so insidious. Fragility is, as <a href="https://onbeing.org/blog/transforming-white-fragility-into-courageous-imperfection/" target="_blank">Courtney E. Martin puts it</a>, the "gut emotional pushback" to anything that makes us feel uncomfortable about being white. Anything that calls our identity into question, asks us to shoulder any responsibility for racism, or really just asks us to think about our racial identity at all. In fact, this article itself might be triggering your fragility right now. If it is and you're still here, awesome. That's how we smash; we lean into the discomfort.<br />
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There are many, many people who have expressed why white fragility is bad. I'll summarize here by saying this: white fragility is what makes us complicit in actively upholding structures of racist oppression. When we don't acknowledge our own racial identities, privilege, or even confront the issue of race at all, we continue to oppress others, sometimes without even knowing it. White people are the most racially privileged and therefore powerful group. The Western world favors whiteness to such a degree that if we choose not to look at our power and actively de-construct it, very little will change and everyone will continue to suffer, including us.<br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Break Through Your Fear and Guilt</span><br />
I don't believe it's good for us to live in such fear and opposition of each other. It's not good for white people to be so fearful and angry, gripping on to white supremacy the way the right-wing continues to do. It's better for us to be humble and open to connection. So, we need to break through the fear and guilt that prevent us from looking at our white privileges and identities. We can pay attention to our gut emotional pushback responses when they occur. This will help us acknowledge the feelings we have, whether they be guilt, fear, or other things. When we are aware of these feelings, we can choose to actively address them by pushing through them and reassuring ourselves. This way, we can forge ahead on our exploration of our own whiteness, and our relationships to other racial identities.<br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Do Your Work</span><br />
I really like the phrase Anna Kegler uses to encourage white people to educate ourselves on our identities. We do indeed need to do our work. This means reading up on race issues and looking at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/16-books-about-race-that-every-white-person-should-read_us_565f37e8e4b08e945fedaf49" target="_blank">perspectives from POC </a>and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Possessive-Investment-Whiteness-Identity-Politics/dp/1592134947" target="_blank">white </a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Angry-White-Men-American-Masculinity/dp/1568585136" target="_blank">authors</a>, learning about <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/racial-microagressions-you-hear-on-a-daily-basis?utm_term=.bkLjPv4Yr#.rmL8QP07w" target="_blank">micro-aggressions</a>, adopting the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8xJXKYL8pU" target="_blank">appropriate response to getting called out</a>. It means <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/knowyourbaldwin" target="_blank">#KnowYourBaldwin</a>, understanding how <a href="http://www.dismantlingracism.org/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/whitesupcul13.pdf" target="_blank">whiteness manifests in the workplace</a>, and <a href="https://crossknit.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/so-you-wanna-be-an-intersectional-feminist/" target="_blank">making your feminism</a> <a href="https://unapologeticfeminism.com/2016/12/ready-ditch-white-feminism-6-black-feminist-concepts-need-know/" target="_blank">intersectional</a>. As white people who haven't had to think about our race, we have a lot of researching and thinking to do in order to catch up with everyone else, and that is ok! In fact, I think it's really fun. Learning about whiteness is what helps your deconstruct your own identity and become aware of what it means. To be aware of yourself in that way is a joy and a privilege in itself. <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/" target="_blank">Podcast</a>. <a href="http://www.colorlines.com/" target="_blank">Blog</a>, and <a href="https://www.autostraddle.com/also-also-also-proof-that-the-future-is-queer-black-brown-and-female-367096/" target="_blank">another blog</a>. Honestly y'all I could keep going (seriously I have a <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/madeleinekeller/whiteness-reader/" target="_blank">Pinterest board where I collect this stuff</a>) but I'll just let this be the jumping -off point for now.<br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Strike A Balance and Embrace Discomfort</span><br />
In my last article, I talked about how uncomfortable I would get in social justice spaces. Here are a few words of advice for myself and people who are experiencing similar things. First, people have a right to be angry at you. If you aren't well-received in certain situations, the people involved might not be mad at you personally, but angry at racial injustice as a whole. Alternatively, you might actually be doing something offensive or aggressive that you are not aware of. In either situation, it's important to observe your impact, which is often different than your intention (you can, and will, make mistakes even if you are well meaning). Validate the emotions of people who might call you out. Strike a balance between the understanding that race issues and discussions are not about you, and at the same time being careful to reflect on your actions.<br />
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<i> You will make mistakes! You will get called out! It will feel uncomfortable! </i>I get called out by my friends and partner fairly often and it sucks, but it also means we're both trying to bridge the gaps in my ignorance. As <a href="https://crossknit.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/so-you-wanna-be-an-intersectional-feminist/" target="_blank">Saroful</a> says, "If someone tells you what you just did was wrong, it’s because they genuinely believe you are a good person who would do the right thing if you knew what it was." I apologize, learn what I did wrong, and we move on. In embracing the discomfort and moving through it, I am able to keep learning and de-powering my own identity.<br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Talk About Your Identity</span><br />
This is something I think socially aware white people need to do more of. We need spaces to be able to openly, non-confrontationally, and non-competitively (ie there's no one in the space trying to be "better"/prove they're less racist than everyone else). I am extremely lucky to have safe spaces with my partner and friends of color where we can reflect on race and whiteness together and talk about our differing identities. I have learned so much from them, and I think looking for these spaces with people of color can be beneficial if both parties are open and willing to talk about these issues.<br />
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On the other hand, I also think it would be immensely helpful if these same safe spaces existed for white people to talk to other whites about their identities. My favorite example of this is <a href="https://www.awarela.org/saturday-dialogue" target="_blank">AWARE-LA's Saturday Dialogues. </a> They explain the importance of these spaces in more detail, but I like this: "This is a long, difficult, and sometimes painful process [of examining one's own whiteness and racism]. It’s helpful to have a space where other white people engaged in this process can support and challenge us, without having to always subject people of color to further undue trauma or pain as we stumble and make mistakes. Having a community of white anti-racist people gives us hope, helps us grow our practice, and gives us strength to stay in it for the long haul." Creating space for white anti-racists to talk to one another about their journeys, realizations, and experiences can reinforce individual practices and keep us accountable to confronting our identity on a regular basis. It gives us a support group of people who are trying to do what we're doing too! (<a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/581e9e06ff7c509a5ca2fe32/t/588d4ff3414fb55621d5d0f1/1485656053135/Toward+a+Radical+White+Identity.pdf" target="_blank">For more reading on AWARE's Dialogues</a>)<br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Know Where We Are Needed and Speak Up When We Can</span><br />
In many conversations or demonstrations on racial issues, white people are not the focal point. We have race issues too, as you can see, but unless the event at hand is specifically about whiteness, we need to keep out of the spotlight. This <a href="http://wearyourvoicemag.com/identities/race/white-people-blacklivesmatter-protests" target="_blank">article by Ashleigh Shackleford</a> discusses the presence of white people at Black Lives Matter rallies thusly: "Whiteness operates in a way that means that using your privilege “for good” often requires Black folks to still be a position to be “saved” or “in need.” We don’t need white saviorism. We don’t need white people to speak for us. We don’t even really need white people to show up to rallies. We need our reparations, we need intentional disruption that involves high risk and we need y’all to stop playing." As white people, we need to be conscious of where we are needed and where we are not. When we are called on for something specifically, <i>then </i>we can show up. In fact, <a href="http://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/about" target="_blank">Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ)</a>, is a great example of organizing white people when they are needed for race issues. This organization resources organizing led by people of color, often by supplying white supporters for protests when POC-lead organizations ask for them.<br />
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This all being said, it is also important to speak up when we can, or when we need to. If we're in a situation, say, with only other white people present, and something offensive happens, we can say something about that. I'm not suggesting that we dogmatically hoist our anti-racist moral superiority over someone's subtly racist comments. This doesn't need to be a callout, instead it can be an opportunity for everyone present to discuss the racialized incident and learn from it. Here's a really excellent article on <a href="http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/01/guide-to-calling-in/" target="_blank">how to call someone in by Sian Ferguson</a>. In general, I find responding with genuine curiosity and openness, rather than suspicion and condemnation, will help open up the conversation.<br />
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By engaging in these steps, and especially by continuing to educate ourselves, we can smash our fragility and begin to extricate ourselves from the web of fear, guilt, and fragility that makes us cling to our racial privilege. I hope these suggestions have been helpful. For further reading, definitely check out all the links above, <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-letter-to-my-white-friends-we-fear.html" target="_blank">all the links in my last letter to my white friends</a>, and also: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-boeskool/when-youre-accustomed-to-privilege_b_9460662.html" target="_blank">"When You're Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Can Feel Like Oppression"</a> by Chris Boeskool, and <a href="http://www.publicbooks.org/trump-syllabus-2-0/" target="_blank">the Trump Syllabus</a>. Also, watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nmhAJYxFT4" target="_blank">this clip from the documentary <i>The Color of Fear</i></a> and watch <i>13th</i> on Netflix, for more understanding of systemic racism at work today.<br />
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If you found this helpful, interesting, problematic, or what have you, let me know! Comment or send me a message. I am happy to take feedback, make suggested edits if I see fit, discuss ideas, and hatch anti-racist plots with you. I am one little human adding my voice to a conversation that has been going on for years and years, so I definitely did not say it all, nor do I profess to know it all. Keep reading, researching, experiencing, and practicing. We can do this.<br />
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In solidarity and support,<br />
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Madeleine<br />
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<i>Did you like reading that? Wonderful. I'd be ever so grateful if you'd consider supporting my writing so you can read more of it! There are a few ways you can support my blog and help me get my message out. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=S3_XZENNQDH5qAbdMR_xmsGhD6sR7PcmSBYA-WG1F3sero6rwhuxaeGRztnzaEa-5bbYE0">DONATE via Paypal</a> to help me pay for toilet paper and such, and you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodvibrationsblogandshop/">LIKE on Facebook</a> and also share this post with people in your life, especially your white friends!! Friends don't let friends keep their white fragility un-smashed. </i></div>
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<i>Photos: <a href="https://www.wellandgood.com/good-advice/political-activism-and-wellness/" target="_blank">1</a>,<a href="http://vcnv.org/2016/04/14/group-of-mostly-white-activists-take-direction-from-black-lives-matter-to-demand-racial-justice-during-twins-opening-game-in-minneapolis/" target="_blank">2</a> <these are good links too!</i></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-81925258069400434832017-03-10T12:33:00.004-08:002017-03-11T10:22:53.519-08:00We Can De-Power Capitalism by Supporting Each Other<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In June, I’ll be graduating college, and I’m going to have to find the answers to questions like, “How will I pay my rent?”, and, “How will I buy food?”. I am extremely privileged to have been able to not worry about these things, for the most part, up until this point, because many of us deal with these questions all our lives. Capitalism is what puts us in a situation of scarcity, controlled conditions in which we need to work to survive, and that’s what most of us do. Get a job, work hard, pay rent, buy food, and repeat. This is survival. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Not exactly feeling excited about the prospect of entering this rat race, naturally I’ve been thinking creatively about how I can support myself. At the same time, I’ve also been thinking a lot about how much of my money goes to places and people I don’t know. Naturally, it dawned on me the other day: What if my friends and I all just supported each other? What if we lent each other resources, food, money, places to stay, and looked out for each other? What if we traded and bartered with each other? What if we supported each other’s creative projects with our patronage and by spreading the word? Our money, time, and resources, would go directly to supporting and lifting up other people, who in turn, could also lift us up in our times of need. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I believe we can depower capitalism by supporting each other, in the ways outlined above. I like to think about capitalism as a machine we can, together, slowly shut down by increasingly sharing our time, energy, money, and resources. By embracing community support, we can eliminate money from some exchanges or meeting of needs altogether! In other situations, we can ensure our money goes to people and organizations we want to support. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though these proposals might not entirely eliminate the need to work, they do create an alternative cushion to rely on aside from one’s own personal income. They also challenge us to deepen and strengthen our relationships with our friends and our communities. Think about it - when was the last time you shared something with someone who is not one of your closest friends or family? When is the last time when you went out of your way to support someone? In today’s capitalist, neoliberal society, sharing is hard! Take </span><a href="http://gift-economy.com/the-gift-economy/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Genevieve Vaughn’s</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> perspective on the matter: “Where there is enough, we can abundantly nurture others. The problem is that scarcity is usually the case, artificially created in order to maintain control, so that other-orientation [ie sharing] becomes difficult and self-depleting. In fact, exchange [capitalism] requires scarcity because, if needs are abundantly satisfied, no one is constrained to give up anything [ie giving up your time and energy to a job] in order to receive what they need.” In contexts of scarcity, it’s difficult for us to remember to share, protect, and nurture each other, and we focus on doing so for ourselves first. Living and sharing this way is a challenge. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That doesn’t mean we can’t do it. In an article on the gift economy, </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-van-slambrouck/the-gift-economy_b_893178.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul Van Slambrouck </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">says, “The fact is that we are probably all wired, both physiologically and socially, to seek cooperation and collaboration despite an educational system and social context that works from cradle to grave to inculcate in us a zero-sum view of the world.” I agree! Although I just asked us to think about how uncommon sharing behavior might be in our lives, I would also like to ask us to ponder what we do when we need help, financially or in other ways. I ask for help, and I receive it. A friend might pay for my dinner or offer me a free place to stay, my sister might buy me a shirt, my mom might find me a task to do in exchange for some money while I’m home for break. Despite the capitalist economy’s best efforts, sharing behaviors and the inclination to assist one another do persist in some contexts. Which is why my above proposal - simply supporting each other - doesn’t sound ludicrous to me. I believe in the collective power and creativity of my community of friends. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creativity is key for creating alternative networks of support, because finding ways to support ourselves and our friends without absolute reliance on jobs and money is both a challenge and an opportunity for inventiveness. In </span><a href="http://www.geo.coop/node/35" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">his discussion of the solidarity economy</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Ethan Miller picks out this quote from feminist economic geographer J.K. Gibson-Graham: “If we viewed the economic landscape as imperfectly colonized, homogenized, systematized, might we not find openings for projects of noncapitalist invention? Might we not find ways to construct different communities and societies, building upon what already exists?". Their perspective asks us to look for opportunities to work around capitalism, to build on the basic forms of economic independence and support, and to think creatively about how to support others and be supported ourselves. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I believe we already live in that creative age. More generously-oriented systems have existed alongside and within capitalism </span><a href="https://ripessna.wordpress.com/resources/solidarity-economy-in-north-america-a-history/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">for a long time</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In my lifetime, I’ve seen the internet allow efforts like these to mushroom. Now we live in the age of crowdfunding, KickStarter, GoFundMe, Patreon, Etsy, and others. With systems like these, we have better infrastructure for supporting each other in our daily lives and in our creative endeavors. We are also getting more creative with how we accept compensation. Many individuals and organizations accept payments on sliding scale, utilize the notaflof (no one turned away for lack of funds) tradition, or simply ask people to “pay what you can”. Other organizations accept barter and trade or work exchanges. These creative solutions to the tradition of exchanging money for goods and services allow more people access to what was previously only exchanged for a set price in dollars. They also signal our creative problem solving capabilities!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes, you don’t even need to pay. In many activist circles, I see and hear the phrase “I want you to have it,”. Goods and services are gifted, free of charge. And why not? In a piece </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-van-slambrouck/the-gift-economy_b_893178.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">advocating for the gift economy</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Paul Van Slambrouck writes, “What exactly did I (or you) do to deserve to be alive? If you can process that question and come out thinking it was a gift that you can’t ever pay back, then beginning a life of greater giving is the only logical and remotely reciprocal way to go. If the most valuable thing you have isn’t anything you earned, why be stingy with all the lesser stuff.” . While this view does, of course, assume that its audience is in the position to be able to give, I do believe that many of us have things to give to each other, whether these be things that can be measured in dollars and cents or not. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">What started as the search for a way out of the rat race has blossomed into a hopeful discovery: I believe we are in a moment of pioneering the crowdfunding and community supported vision of a future without extractive capitalism, where we give to each other and take care of each other and generously grant access to those in need. My next question is simply, how can I create this in my own community? Here are my ideas: </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">We can spend time with our friends! Developing our relationships with others strengthens our community support network and widens the circle we can call on in times of need. Plus, it’s good for us. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Support our friends’ creative projects. Buy our friends’ art and music, share our friends’ websites on our social media, volunteer to help out with projects for free. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Give each other money. If we have a little extra, instead of just going to Chipotle again, maybe we can lend to a friend in need, asking them to pay it forward. We could use the extra we might find in our budget to help our friend pay off student loans or give to a local organization or activist collective. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Give what we can. Even if we don’t have money, if we have other assets, sharing them generously is a surefire way to encourage community support. Even if all you’ve got is a smushy couch where someone can stay the night, that is something that can help someone out. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Make goods and trade with our friends. I make delicious bread. Will someone trade me some homemade toothpaste? I’m running out (seriously). </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Expand our networks. Stretch our sharing and trusting abilities by including people we don’t know as well in these loving and supportive interactions. Example: once I let a band of five men from Iowa, </span><a href="https://condor-jaybird.bandcamp.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Condor and Jaybird,</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> sleep on all the extra beds and couches in my house. Even though I didn’t know them, it was great. They were good company, and they made their beds when they left in the morning. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I know that in some ways these suggestions can be very radical. Imagine if you used some surplus in your monthly budget to help your friend or partner pay off their student loans, just because you cared about them? Interactions like these test what capitalism has tried to ingrain in us; we might feel like they owe us something, or like we’re doing them a favor. But if we recall that life is a gift, and that our well being is tied up in the well being of others, then we can gift others what they need when we have the resources, without feeling entitled to anything in return. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the same time, I know that these suggestions might seem elementary to some, as we already practice these in many of our close relationships. What I’m advocating for today is that we take the forms of support we do perform for our communities, and up the ante. We can extend these forms of support, whether they be material, emotional, or otherwise, to people who we had previously not included, and also intensify these supports in relationships where they do exist. As Grace Lee Boggs put it in one of my favorite books of all time, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Next American Revolution,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"We ourselves must begin practicing in the social realm the capacity to care for each other, to share food, skills, time, and ideas that up to now most of us have limited to our most personal cherished relationships…..We urgently need to bring to our communities the limitless capacity to love, serve, and create for and with each other." </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">If that’s not a brilliant and inviting call to action, I don’t know what is. With love, support, and the power to de-power, </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Madeleine. </span></span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For more on these concepts, check out links and books recommended above, and look into this </span><a href="http://solidarityeconomy.us/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">solidarity economy map</span></a><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and this more involved definition of </span><a href="https://www.servicespace.org/join/?pg=gift" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the gift economy.</span></a><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In some locales, there are groups on Facebook designated for gift or solidarity economies, and there are also freecycle groups! Check those out too if you like! And let me know if you have any resources for me to add here :)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><i>In the spirit of community support networks, if you want to support my future writing, I would really, really, be extremely stoked and appreciative. There are a few ways you can support my blog and help me get my message out. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=S3_XZENNQDH5qAbdMR_xmsGhD6sR7PcmSBYA-WG1F3sero6rwhuxaeGRztnzaEa-5bbYE0" target="_blank">DONATE via Paypal</a> to help me pay for toilet paper and such, and you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodvibrationsblogandshop/" target="_blank">LIKE on Facebook</a> and also share this post with people in your life, especially your creative anti-capitalist besties. Depower!!!</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.phoebewahl.com/illustration-1/" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.phoebewahl.com/illustration-1/" target="_blank">Illustrations by the lovely Phoebe Wahl</a>!</span></span></span><br />
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<br />Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-74512588089628780212017-03-03T14:18:00.000-08:002017-03-11T10:35:37.199-08:00A Letter to My White Friends: We Fear Seeing Ourselves Clearly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A letter to white people, from a white person, on white fragility and mustering the courage to overcome it.<br />
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<i>Disclaimer:</i> I am not writing this to police other white allies and anti-racists. My purpose in writing this series is to create dialogue around the white identity, in hopes of sharing what I know, and helping to further white people's collective understanding of themselves, with the ultimate goal of promoting racial justice and prison abolition. I hope to spark discussions among/with fellow white activists so that we may better understand our place in this work. I also hope to catalyze new white allies coming to social justice in the wake of recent national events, who may feel scared, confused, or ashamed of their white identities and privilege. My goal is not to chastise whites, nor to claim that I am a "good" white person. I come to this not as an expert, but as one voice in a larger discussion. This is first and foremost a dialogue, and I welcome other perspectives, questions, and comments.<br />
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<i> How does it feel to be a white person in social justice work? </i>When I first started out, I felt immensely uncomfortable with my own whiteness. I felt the need to try to hide or minimize it. I rarely spoke in my classes, most of which are focused on racial justice, and generally avoided drawing attention to myself. I felt guilty about my family's money and wealth, and would rarely bring up that part of my life. I felt the urge to separate myself from my own whiteness, constantly saying aloud "I hate white people."I really wanted to r<a href="http://thehardtimes.net/hardstyle/how-a-diy-asymmetrical-haircut-eliminate-my-white-privilege/" target="_blank">eject my white privilege</a>. In situations where I was forced to look at my own privilege, I felt so much pain that I had a deep wish to ignore my whiteness, rather than to deconstruct and explore it.<br />
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In one of my classes last year, we were instructed to do a privilege walk, where everyone started at the same spot in the room, and moved backward for every symptom of oppression, such as going hungry as a child or growing up near gang activity, and forward for every sign of privilege, such as housing security or having two parents with bachelor's degrees. Predictably, I ended up in the front, and in tears. Some of my closest friends and my partner, all of whom are people of color, were far in the back of the room. Seeing them there, and seeing myself so far ahead, broke my heart. I was extremely uncomfortable with realizing my privilege was so visible, and that I was so unfairly privileged compared to my loved ones. I felt so guilty about it, I shied away from acknowledging and confronting my privilege.<br />
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I've seen this type of hesitation in many other fairly liberal white people. One person I know was planning to lead a workshop on Chinese medicine. When the hosting organization approached him with their concerns that the workshop might be culturally appropriative due to his white identity and lack of accrediting sources for Chinese healing traditions, he reacted with tears, guilt, and confusion. He failed to truly confront the issues of being a white individual attempting to teach an ancient healing tradition that was not his own. He hesitated to really own up to the fact that, as a white individual, he didn't deserve to claim that culture's knowledge as his own, as he was not a part of it.<br />
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Similarly, someone I know recently went on a vacation to Cabo over a break from school. I heard later they were trying to keep it quiet. While this may have partially been done in an attempt to maintain a public persona as an enigma, it also seemed to me to be a strategy of hiding their class status, which is directly related to whiteness and privilege.<br />
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This hiding behavior reflects an unwillingness to admit our privilege and acknowledge our identity as a white, upper or middle class person. In all cases, I think the unwillingness to confront whiteness here comes from the guilt and anxiety involved in owning up to privilege: <b>"If I admit that I am privileged/that I have this much/that I benefit in some way from supremacy, what will they think of me? What will I think of myself?"</b>This fear and the resulting pushback against situations which encourage white people to face their privilege are part of <b>white fragility</b>, which Dr. Robin DiAngelo <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/good-men-project/why-its-so-hard-to-talk-to-white-people-about-racism_b_7183710.html" target="_blank">writes about very eloquently</a> when she discusses the reactions white people have to race-based stressors, which include some of the situations I've described above. <b>As DiAngelo points out, we, as white people, don't have to look at our privilege on a regular basis. When we are forced to do so, we get scared, and we get angry. </b><br />
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Facing my own privilege does feel bad sometimes - looking at the privilege whiteness gives me, I feel dirty and gross and overly powerful, even tyrannical. The thing is, for those hesitating to confront their own white privilege, it's good to remember other people can already see it. The brilliant black writer and scholar James Baldwin, in a letter to his nephew entitled <a href="http://ww2.valdosta.edu/~cawalker/baldwin.htm" target="_blank">"My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation"</a>writes about white people thusly:<b>"...if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it."</b> Baldwin demonstrates how obvious white privilege is, and how racism and its related systems of oppression are ultimately perpetuated by white people and their inability - or resistance - to see themselves clearly. Though he writes this suggesting that people of color need to help white people face themselves, let us go further.<br />
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White people, especially liberal, radical, and well-educated white people like myself, must take responsibility for facing and accepting our own privilege. We must become aware and be willing and committed to exploring how our privilege affects other groups and how it so greatly benefits us. We must look at our privilege and see ourselves clearly. Only by doing this can we really see all the opportunities we have to step back and make space for people of color, whether this be through relinquishing claims on traditional knowledge belonging to cultures outside of our own, or exposing our class status and using the resources at our disposal to donate to social justice causes.<br />
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<b> Facing, exploring, and continually dismantling your white privilege is a doorway to opportunity and an awesome way to deepen your social justice work or practice! </b>Although it is scary, awkward, and embarrassing at times, it can also be very exciting. <a href="https://onbeing.org/blog/transforming-white-fragility-into-courageous-imperfection/" target="_blank">Courtney E. Martin describes the process</a> by calling it a transformation of "white fragility into courageous imperfection". She writes:<br />
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"If white people want to belong to the beloved community, if we want to be part of the tide that is turning thanks to people of color-led movements like<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatter">#BlackLivesMatter</a>, then we have to show up as bold and genuine and imperfect. We have to be weary of our fragility. We have to be intolerant of our own forgetfulness."<br />
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Martin's suggestion of courageous imperfection means that we have to be open to the fact that we and our identities are, and will always be, very privileged and problematic. <b>We will never be comfortable with our racial identities once we accept them for what they truly are. But Martin also writes that engaging in this process "is the beginning of a lot more joy. It’s the beginning of a lot more connection. It’s the beginning of the end of racism."</b><br />
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As someone actively trying to beat back my own white fragility, I can agree. In my next letter to my white friends and other white anti-racists, I'll discuss ways of actually going about this process by exploring our white privilege and smashing our fragility. In the meantime, if you're looking for more on this concept, check out the articles linked above, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-kegler/the-sugarcoated-language-of-white-fragility_b_10909350.html" target="_blank">"The Sugarcoated Language of White Fragility" by Anna Kegler</a>, and <a href="https://www.whiteaccomplices.org/" target="_blank">WhiteAccomplices.org. </a><br />
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If you found this helpful, interesting, problematic, or what have you, let me know! Comment or send me a message. I am happy to take feedback, make suggested edits if I see fit, and discuss ideas with you. This writing is coming out of a year-long research investigation into whiteness, among other things, so I'm down to talk about whiteness, racism, and the like any time.<br />
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In solidarity and support,<br />
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Madeleine<br />
<i>If you enjoy what I've written here today, and you want to support my future writing, I would really, really, be extremely stoked and appreciative. There are a few ways you can support my blog and help me get my message out. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=S3_XZENNQDH5qAbdMR_xmsGhD6sR7PcmSBYA-WG1F3sero6rwhuxaeGRztnzaEa-5bbYE0" target="_blank">DONATE via Paypal</a> to help me pay for toilet paper and such, and you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodvibrationsblogandshop/" target="_blank">LIKE on Facebook</a> and also share this post with people in your life, especially your white friends!! Please support the dismantlement of racism :)</i><br />
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<i>photos: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=white+fragility&espv=2&biw=1024&bih=484&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjT-MLZrLvSAhXB0FQKHTRPBaQQ_AUICCgD#tbm=isch&q=person+with+blindfold&*&imgrc=tJeQf1SVsBrBZM:" target="_blank">1</a>, <a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/wp-content/uploads/fear3815.jpg" target="_blank">2</a></i><br />
<br />Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-87738877134485891492017-02-13T23:22:00.003-08:002017-02-13T23:24:57.399-08:00F17: A Guide to the Art of the Strike<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As I hope many of you have already heard, several groups and nationwide coalitions have called for a General Strike this Friday, February 17. If you haven't heard about it, please read about it on the website, <a href="http://strike4democracy.com/">Strike4Democracy.com</a>, or on <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kimberley-a-johnson/first-national-strike-aga_b_14664336.html" target="_blank">Huffpost</a>, or <a href="http://www.attn.com/stories/14749/why-organizers-are-calling-general-strike" target="_blank">attn:</a>. The important things to know are the demands, which I have found mentioned in many articles, but not on the Strike4Democracy website (although they do have a different <a href="http://strike4democracy.com/our-demands" target="_blank">list of demand-like statements</a> posted up). The 5 demands are:</div>
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"1. No Ban, No Wall. The Muslim ban is immoral, the wall is expensive and ineffectual. We will build bridges, not walls.<br />
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2. Healthcare For All. Healthcare is a human right. Do not repeal the ACA. Improve it or enact Medicare for All.<br />
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3. No Pipelines. Rescind approval for DAPL and Keystone XL and adopt meaningful policies to protect our environment. It's the only one we've got.</div>
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4. End the Global Gag Rule. We cannot put the medical care of millions of women around the globe at risk.</div>
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5. Disclose and Divest. Show us your taxes. Sell your company. Ethics rules exist for a reason and presidents should focus on the country, not their company."</div>
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If that doesn't provide a nice summary of things I want to protest, I don't know what does. The linked page for the strike also mentions demands for the ceasing of discrimination against marginalized communities.<br />
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It's real, it's happening, and thank goodness. Now, here's a guide to a good ol' strike. I'm not necessarily a pro, but definitely seasoned. My guide here includes guidance from my own experience, coupled with recommendations from the Strike4Democracy website. This is intended for anyone to use both on Friday and in approach to any general strike day. I have a feeling there will be quite a few in the coming months. Here are my tips for the art of strike:<br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i>be aware of demands</i></span></h3>
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Do your research on what's being asked for and make sure you agree! If you are going to a protest march, come aware of the issue the march has to do with and with an opinion on the position of the marchers, and on the issue in general. This might seem obvious, but I've met a lot of people who've joined protests "just because". If you happen to run into a march, ask someone what's going on. Get informed and get involved. </div>
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<i style="color: #8e7cc3;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">get friends to join you</span></b></i></h3>
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No matter what type of strike-related action you're participating in, it will be much more fun and more interesting if you have company. March in protests with your friends and family, participate in boycotts with your classmates, talk to your housemate about not spending money. Get other people to get involved with you. It's good for the cause and makes your own involvement more sustainable. </div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i><b>plan accordingly </b></i></span></div>
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Obviously, whether you're planning to not spend any money, go to a march, or take some other type of action, your strike activity will require that you plan accordingly. This is very easy to do! Please refer to my handy dandy <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2016/09/how-to-get-things-done-ideas-and-focus.html" target="_blank">How to Get Things Done Guides 1</a> <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2016/09/how-to-get-things-done-planning-action.html" target="_blank">and 2</a> for more help in this area. Just remember to stay organized in your resistance efforts!</div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhNU034sGsXzOX8FolESUo8abliRGEd2vvlp6Hggt5YAbjsH8gCJnOMB2TbTGriWLJoOFdys2L6fy-UANbiNYDHnq9FEQ3dsx7SRA_vElERYoIVBACmBjcFXHQ9YCqmSlse5kO40VmgQ/s1600/16174434_10211654357822618_7800536069549783951_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhNU034sGsXzOX8FolESUo8abliRGEd2vvlp6Hggt5YAbjsH8gCJnOMB2TbTGriWLJoOFdys2L6fy-UANbiNYDHnq9FEQ3dsx7SRA_vElERYoIVBACmBjcFXHQ9YCqmSlse5kO40VmgQ/s640/16174434_10211654357822618_7800536069549783951_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></b></i></span></div>
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(my mom, my aunt, my partner, and me at the Women's March on J21st)</div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i><b>do your research on local actions</b></i></span></h3>
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Subscribe to local news sources, like local pages on Facebook, and get yourself in the loop about local issues and events happening. If you live in an area where there isn't much in the way of strike activities, organize your own events, or activate from your home using suggestions from above. </div>
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Yes, supplies. By this, I mean things like signs, water, snacks, and also bandanas, sunglasses, goggles, and helmets if you think things might get messy. Those last few items can be helpful in minor encounters with police brutality in the form of pepper spray or batons. It never hurts to be prepared. In addition to all these things, bring your decently well-informed opinion! And if you are not marching, things like signs or other visual displays can still be useful with the help of some very useful supplies; your camera device and a social media outlet. When in doubt, share your efforts on social media to boost your participation. This is not the only thing you can do, but it is something you can do on top of your other efforts. </div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i><b>go beyond marching</b></i></span></h3>
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Contrary to popular belief, strikes are not exclusively march-while-wearing-black-oriented (although if that's what you want to do, please, go ahead!). On Strike4Democracy's <a href="http://strike4democracy.com/how-we-strike" target="_blank">How We Strike</a> page, they recommend skipping work or school, but also advocate for not spending any money or purchasing anything. This action in itself can create an impactful economic slowdown, and is an action available to those not able-bodied or otherwise circumstantially equipped to skip work and march in the street. The page also recommends donating money to a cause you believe in, and engaging in community service on this day. To these suggestions, I will also add ideas such as public art demonstrations, public theater, slowing down at work, <a href="http://thesixtyfive.org/home" target="_blank">calling your senators and representatives</a>, and doing healing circles with friends to strengthen your resistance practice. Also, attend a public town hall/city council meeting if there are any around the time of the strike (heads up, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1715041352119208/" target="_blank">Santa Cruz peeps, there's a town hall Tuesday</a>, please come show support for our immigrant community!). These are just some of the many, many ideas out there for how to participate in a strike without marching. I like <a href="https://www.resistancemanual.org/Resistance_Manual_Home" target="_blank">these</a> <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/irl/small-acts-twitter/" target="_blank">sources</a> for further reading. </div>
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I hope that these tips are useful to you all and inspire you to keep resisting. If anyone has any questions about my political action experience or any of the tips I've shared above, just ask. I'll see you out here on the 17th, and in the many days to come. </div>
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Love, </div>
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Madeleine</div>
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photos:<a href="http://www.zelafrica.com/business/travel-ban-national-strike-against-trump-slated-for-february-17-no-work-no-school-no-spending/" target="_blank"> 1</a>, 2 is mine :)</div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-7079714041235018692016-12-04T17:24:00.001-08:002016-12-28T23:32:06.098-08:00Time to Get Real<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1">I have been nervous about writing something like this for some time, which means I’ve also been thinking about it for some time. I have never really attempted to be explicitly political in the past, partially because I didn’t often consider myself possessing the expertise necessary to write well about political issues, but also because I was afraid political material might alienate or bore some of my audience. But today, this is my place, and I’m gonna say what I have to say. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Since the election results were announced, I have thought of a number of different angles through which I could engage in the conversation. I could write an open letter to Trump supporters, highlighting the fact that although so many of them try to negate his bigotry or disassociate themselves from it, they need to accept that their vote supports his whole platform, including the Islamaphobic, misogynist, KKK-indulgent aspects. I could write a similar message to liberals and leftists, making recommendations on how to cope and what to do to prepare. I could write something simply addressed to my own community of radical activists, encouraging them to take heart and take care of each other. I could even write about the fear I feel in my heart, as a queer woman but also as an ally who has friends and loved ones in many POC and other marginalized communities that are now even more dangerously threatened. What I am going to write encompasses some of those sentiments, and some others too. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">First and foremost, this post announces a new direction for Good Vibrations. In the past I have hinted at adding a more political slant to my material, but now more than ever, it is absolutely critical that I address the pressing issues in our nation and in my own life and activism work. I am a writer, I have always been good at it. If that’s how I can contribute to social change, cultural revolution, and the safety and preservation of marginalized communities, then so be it. I am showing up for that. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Next, I want to say that, as a white person, I have never been more horrified by whiteness at large. White supremacy has reared its ugly head in this nation, big time, and while I’ve spent a fair amount of time studying it and can claim to understand it on some levels, I cannot condone it, and find it difficult not to hate. I violently reject this idea of whiteness and white supremacy. I am not here to dominate, I am here to lift other groups up by doing whatever I can. I want to write more about what it’s like to be a white person at a time when the white identity is so shameful and ugly (But then, when has it not been? Whiteness was created to manipulate political constituencies and prevent rebellion through false ideas of supremacy). I want to be a white voice for racial justice, when white voices are needed. I want to discuss the experience of rejecting racial privilege, comfort, and complacency in pursuit of the justice we all deserve. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">However, what I don’t want to do is create more of the same issues we evidently have in this country in the media and the press. I don’t want to create a bubble; I don’t want to push people with different perspectives out. I hope I can make my writing legible, factual when needed, and de-sensationalized, but I also want to be able to speak freely about my ideas, because that is a privilege we all still have. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">What some of you might know is that I’ve been living in a small town of 871 people in southern Missouri since July. There are more Confederate flags in this town than people I would call “friend” - it’s not necessarily a very open or safe place. As you might imagine, this place is an echo chamber (and sometimes what feels more like a cesspool) of alt-right religious fervor, homophobia, racism, misogyny, and so on. It is also a place marked by deep poverty, heavily affected by drugs, riddled with police corruption, lacking in educational and diversity-exposure opportunities, and so accustomed to violence against women that it is commonplace. This is where Trump supporters live. I’ve been talking to them every day. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I’m telling you about this because I want to show you why I think it’s so important that I, and other writers, not only speak up, but also create conversation, in hopes that our ideas will reach faraway ears and perhaps be answered, or at least discussed. I believe it’s important for people like me, heavily educated and also possessing white privilege which will give us a voice in spaces where those of others are disregarded, speak up about progressive and anti-racist ideas and bring them to the attention of people who think differently from us. And then, listen to their responses, and evolve together. I have had some excellent conversations with high schoolers about Black Lives Matter, white supremacy, privilege, and the like. I’ve had less progress with people who are older, perhaps because they’re more set in their ways, but there are Democrats who live here too, and they’ve been excellent conversational companions. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Aside from my point about conversation, I am also bringing up my experience in Missouri to point something out. People like the ones I’m now surrounded by need justice too. They need freedom from capitalism, which is destroying their towns by plundering local economies. They need the decriminalization of drugs, they need police accountability, they need an end to the patriarchy. They need educational opportunities, and they need to experience diversity in order to understand that it’s not scary, and they don’t have to hate people who aren’t like them. They need freedom from the ideological prison of fundamentalist Christianity. They need what radicals, activists, and community builders have to say, even if they hate us and want to hurt us. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">It’s hard to come face to face with the ugly racism and bigotry that is so pervasive in our country, and among white communities such as this one. It’s also hard to look at these people with compassion, when I know they would refuse to grant the same to me should I tell them I am queer. The best I can do is diffuse my anger and try to appreciate that they are people too, just like me, and that if I believe in justice, I have no business hating them or trying to put them down. Instead, my job is to lift other people and other perspectives up. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I want to extend a hand of friendship, love, and encouragement to anyone who reads this: I am here for your liberation, and I hope you will be here for mine. This time in our nation, and in our world, is a perilous one, and we need more than ever to create conversations, communities, and take care of each other, even if we don’t agree on everything. I believe it is possible to get along with people you can’t agree with, as long as they are not hurting you or anyone else. I believe that people are more likely to correct their prejudices when an issue is made personal to them. And I believe in the power of solidarity to defeat the ugly and hateful tendencies of Trump and his supporters. I believe in the basic goodness of humanity. I have to, I love it too much. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I am here to talk, discuss these issues or others, give love and support, or whatever you might need, any time. I want to acknowledge that all of my ideas, especially those on racial justice and white supremacy, stem from people of color's ideas and leaders of thought, and I invite you to investigate more into what they have to say about white people's position in the continuing pursuit for racial justice, perhaps starting with this handy guide compiled exclusively by POC, <a href="http://www.whiteaccomplices.org/" target="_blank">"</a></span><a href="http://www.whiteaccomplices.org/" target="_blank">Opportunities for White People in the Fight for Racial Justice"</a>. I am going to continue to be vocal and stand up for what is right: justice, safety, and the alleviation of suffering for all people. If you care to join me, excellent. I’ll see you along the way. </div>
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<span class="s1">With love, support, and defiance, </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Madeleine</span><br />
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<span class="s1"><i>Images: <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/153402854077" target="_blank">1</a>, <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/153100226387/songsforgorgons-i-love-women-gay-proud" target="_blank">2</a>, <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/152567949347" target="_blank">3</a></i></span></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-29073799199691928992016-09-28T16:02:00.002-07:002016-09-29T07:49:32.752-07:00How to Get Things Done: Planning, Action, and Reflection<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1"> Hello there, I'm back with part 2 to my getting things done guide, as promised. <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2016/09/how-to-get-things-done-ideas-and-focus.html" target="_blank">Part One, Ideas and Focus, is here.</a> Here's steps 4-7, plus a few additional notes and some further reading. I hope y'all will find these helpful and assistive to your productivity, sanity, and balance. I have especially emphasized rest and breaks because I think it's a very important aspect of productivity that does not get discussed as regularly as the format of your to-do lists. So, without further ado: </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i>4. plan and timeline </i></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Now that you’ve got a narrowed-down list of your most important/urgent, time-efficient tasks or goals, you need to plan out how you will accomplish them. Here are a few ways to do that: </span></div>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s1">Break the task or goal down into smaller steps. If it can be broken down, do it! This will give you a better idea of how long it will take to complete the whole task. For some things, like a weekly braindump to pull daily to-do lists from, it’s good to do this step while doing your braindump. For other things, like goals, this more naturally comes after narrowing your list.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s1">Schedule it. Plan by when something should be done and give yourself a deadline. If you want to do all the laundry by the end of the day, there’s your deadline. If you want to learn to ride a motorcycle by end of 2016, there’s your deadline. Write it in your calendar, planner, or whatever you use (bullet journals are my fave), and stick to that deadline. Don’t make it unreasonable. Only you know what you have room for in your schedule. Give yourself more than enough time to accomplish something, because chances are, you’ll need it. </span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s1">Timeline. If a task or goal is multi-layered or involves multiple steps, make a “backwards timeline” starting from the day the task is to be completed and going backwards in time towards the present, figuring out by when the individual smaller steps need to be accomplished. For example, if I want to host a party on Halloween, I need to send out invites two weeks before, and have ingredients purchased for food by the day of the party. This is an example of backwards timelining. </span></li>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> It may also be helpful to use a daily timeline to understand where the time in a day is going. Here are some great examples of a <a href="http://www.christina77star.co.uk/2016/08/timeline-ideas-for-your-bullet-journal.html#more" target="_blank">daily timeline used in a bullet journal</a>. I use one on very full days, but not all the time. You can expand this idea to a monthly or yearly scale, designating weeks or months to accomplishing specific tasks. In any case, make sure you allot yourself enough time to get the tasks done! Doing so will ensure that you accomplish them, have time to do them well, and feel good about your productivity, meaning you are more likely to keep being productive rather than getting frustrated if you don’t get everything done. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i>5. schedule breaks and rest</i></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Yes, this gets its own step because it’s REALLY IMPORTANT. Resist the urge to assign yourself 10 tasks for the day and instead balance your productive time with restful time. This balance will ensure that your level of productivity is sustainable for you and suitable to your lifestyle. It will ensure better mental health, which means a better, more enjoyable life overall! </span></div>
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<span class="s1"> If you are using a daily timeline, leave time for meals and breaks in the day. Do something like giving yourself an unscheduled hour in the morning and another in the evening, for warming up and winding down. When practicing this on a monthly and yearly scale, leave at least a few days every month (if not at least once a week) that are at least mostly unscheduled, and allow yourself the space to just be, and engage in unplanned, relaxing activities. Also cut out some vacation time for yourself every year, whether you actually travel, or just relax around your town for a week. Use your breaks to be social if you wish, but also to recharge and have some alone time, as both are important for your well-being! </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> If you take anything away from this post, please let it be this! Setting aside time for breaks, rest, and relaxation will refresh your mind and creative thinking abilities, alleviate stress, help you avoid burnout, and inspire you and have you looking forward to your productive “work time” rather than dreading it. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;">6. take action </span></i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Phew! Ok, you’ve gotten this far, you’ve planned and timelined and everything else out the wazoo. Now you just need to DO IT! The only tip I have for this part is to use the pomodoro method (<a href="http://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-pomodoro-technique-1598992730" target="_blank">which you can learn about here</a>). It gives your brain a little break to look forward to and keeps it focused on one specific thing rather than attempting to multi-task. I use this all the time, especially when I’m having trouble focusing or doing something less-than-exciting. I use <a href="http://tomato-timer.com/" target="_blank">an online timer</a> when on the computer and one on my phone when doing other types of work. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> If you are doing something that might not fit into that 25 minute window but needs to be done all at once (like mopping the floor), use a similar principal by just promising yourself a break after you complete the task, and before going on to the next one. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i>7. reflect and learn </i></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Yay! Look at you, you got something done! Congratulate yourself and soak in the sweet feeling of checking something off the list. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Now it’s time to reflect on the process you just engaged in. Answer this list of questions about what worked, and what didn’t work: Did you get everything done that you set out to do? Were you rushed, or did you have enough time, or maybe too much? Was the setting you were completing the task in suitable, or distracting? How do you feel? Rested, balanced, or overwhelmed and stressed? Did you plan well enough, or too well? (Yes, you can plan too well - there’s a reason I only use daily timelines occasionally. Sometimes they stress me out!). Answering these questions, plus anymore you can think of that might be pertinent, is an important part of the process. It might help to jot some of these notes down on paper, or discuss them with a friend. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Once you have reflected, implement what you have learned from your reflection. If you were rushed or bored and had too much time, timeline more in accordance with your time needs. If you feel stressed and have figured out why that is, eliminate that stressor from the process as best you can. Keep doing this, and you will come to a pretty good place of balance, sustaining the cycle of productivity in a way that works for you and your life! </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i>a few final notes:</i></span> </span></div>
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<li>You may have noticed that this whole process is designed with people who have time to take breaks in mind, but I recognize this is a privilege that not everyone has. If there is a way you can eliminate some of your responsibilities and commitments, do it. Use Step 3 to root out those things in your life which are not urgent, important, and time-efficient. </li>
<li>Guard your time and do not take on too much. As someone who has made pursuing social justice and sustainability their life’s work, sometimes it seems to me that everything is important and urgent and I MUST GO TO ALL THE PROTESTS AND DO ALL THE THINGS RIGHT NOW. By using this process, I understand that I will ultimately be more effective at promoting justice if I only take on a few select responsibilities, focus on them, and do them well. </li>
<li>In a culture where we are all trained to think of “time as money”, an ever-dwindling hourglass in the rat-race to our grave, I want to suggest a different idea. Time is our friend! Ultimately, when you are trying to get something done, time is what allows it to unfold and happen. Time is what allows us to move forward with plans and goals. You may feel an urgent need to do a hundred different things, and feel disappointed you haven’t gotten to them all yet. Remember that time is what will allow you to do those things, and that, because time is your friend, if you focus on what you want, eventually it will come to pass. Letting go of your sense of urgency in order to allow yourself to rest and be balanced, while recognizing that the things you want to accomplish will unfold over time, is probably going to feel better than trying to do them all right now. </li>
<li>Lastly, remember that the utmost important thing about this process is that it’s meant to help you feel good! Accomplishing things this way is about feeling good, resting is about feeling good. Of course, life is about balance, including emotional balance - you’ll never feel good all the time, and that’s ok, that’s what allows you to feel good sometimes. But the goal of the way this is designed is to make being productive a positive, sustainable cycle. If you don’t feel good, try something new. Keep adjusting until you find what works for you. </li>
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<span class="s1">Alright, that’s all folks. Go forth, and kick ass. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Love, </span></div>
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Madeleine</div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i>further reading: </i></span></div>
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I definitely cannot take credit for creating all these concepts on my own! Here are some things that I have either based my own ideas on, or are very related good reads. </div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_mRapoPtg" target="_blank">Thomas Frank on beating student burnout</a>, Erin from Gingerous on Crafting Your Best Day Ever Part <a href="http://www.gingerous.net/rest-fuel/" target="_blank">One</a> and <a href="http://www.gingerous.net/strategy-structure/" target="_blank">Two</a>, <a href="http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/03/29/deloading-phase/comment-page-2/" target="_blank">Tim Ferriss on why you need a "deloading phase"</a> (read: rest and breaks!!!), and because I mentioned bullet journalling a few times and it's one of my favorite tools for getting things done, here's an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm15cmYU0IM" target="_blank">intro video to the bullet journal</a> and the <a href="http://bulletjournal.com/" target="_blank">official bullet journal website</a>. </div>
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Images: <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/151015507302/fillthemwithgold-260916-bright-colors-and" target="_blank">fillthemwithgold</a>, <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/145489313027" target="_blank">2</a></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-47343552347448707612016-09-26T10:36:00.003-07:002017-12-12T18:56:21.747-08:00How To Get Things Done: Ideas and Focus<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1"> </span><br />
<span class="s1"> As somebody who has spent quite a bit of time already getting things done, while also being a little bit of a productivity/wellbeing junkie, I’m surprised I haven’t written something like this already. I have mixed feelings about the idea of productivity and dedicating your life to getting things done (<a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2016/07/have-always-been-one-of-those-people.html" target="_blank">which you can read about here</a>), but I also am a pretty ambitious person, driven by a sense of urgency informed by my awareness of the need for justice in this world. Because of these converging viewpoints, I am coming to a place in my life where I am very aware of how to efficiently get things done, but equally aware of the importance of rest, breaks, and valuing being over doing at certain times. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> From this point in my understanding comes this handy-dandy guide I have constructed on how to get things done! Below are steps 1-3. <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2016/09/how-to-get-things-done-planning-action.html" target="_blank">Part Two, Planning, Action, and Reflection,</a> contains steps 4-7. Rather than a linear step-by-step with an end point, I recommend looking at this more as a cycle that you will continually engage in throughout your life. While I think it’s helpful for me if I have the cycle go in this order, the order (and even the steps!) might look different for you. Plus, life is crazy and things rarely work out in their exact order. Just take this guide and run with it and use what helps you :)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i>1. gather ideas</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> The first step to getting things done is knowing what it is exactly that you want to accomplish. For example, maybe you are feeling bored and want to find a way to spice up your life. Maybe your issue is more specific, like you want to figure out how to organize your closet. Or perhaps you have a million things you feel like you could be doing and need to pick out a few (if this is you, skip to the next step). </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> This step is kind of the “research” or “inspiration” phase. Look around for ideas on what you need to do, whether you do this on Pinterest or by looking at an issue and figuring out what needs to be done about it. So, for example, I work in a co-op marketplace, which is currently very messy (although less messy than it was). Sometimes I am very overwhelmed by the mess, but if I start writing down all my ideas and actionable tasks to solve the mess, I get closer to solving the problem just by identifying ways to do that. Another example is, sometimes on the internet I come across lots of really cool, inspiring ideas. In this phase, it’s important to record these ideas and write them down!! </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i>2. braindump</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"> So, now you’ve got ideas. Great! The next thing to do, if you haven’t already done so in Step 1, is to write them all down and conduct what some call a braindump. <a href="http://www.gingerous.net/strategy-structure/" target="_blank">Erin of Gingerous conducts braindumps</a> on a weekly basis to create a to-do list for the week. I like to do braindumps on various categories or in response to certain issues, like for my work or when writing New Years’ Resolutions or goals. All you have to do to conduct a braindump is just get a piece of paper and write down all your ideas on a topic, whether it’s just a giant to-do list or something more focused. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: large;"><i>3. focus</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>After you’ve done this, pick out a few tasks on the list to focus in on.</span></div>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s1">If you’re doing a braindump for the week and writing a daily to-do list based on that, pick out just a few of those tasks. My magic number for to-do list items is 3. It may not seem like a lot, but you need to give yourself leeway for rest, breaks, meals, unexpected interruptions, LIFE. Plus, you are more likely to get all the things on your daily list done if you put fewer items on there, and that feels really good!</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s1">If you’re doing a braindump for a list of goals to set, or a plan to solve an issue, pick out the most important ones to you, and again, only pick out a few! Make your list manageable so that you’re able to accomplish what you assign yourself, rather than overwhelming yourself and feeling discouraged. </span></li>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> When narrowing down lists of either type, I find it’s important to consider these two ideas. The first is a rule of permaculture design called “stacking functions”. When looking at a goal or task, ask yourself how many functions it serves. For example, cleaning your house might serve the practical function of cleaning your space, while also increasing your mental clarity and decreasing stress. The act of cleaning might also be a meditative task, or (if you are mopping or sweeping really vigorously) provide some physical activity. Right there are four functions that the task “clean house” serves- seems like it’s an efficient use of time! Conversely, exercise that is done purely for exercise’s sake alone, and not also for mental or spiritual wellbeing, serves fewer functions and is a less efficient use of time. That’s why you won’t catch me doing sit-ups very often, but I love going running and doing yoga because both aid my mental and spiritual health, along with my physical health. I also do a lot of biking because on top of providing exercise, fresh air, and mental clarity, it also is a method of transportation that gets me places - a very efficient use of time. Tasks or goals you identify as serving larger numbers of functions (in some permaculture circles, the goal is for anything to serve 3 functions or more!), are more worthy of your focus when you are narrowing down your list. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> The other idea is something referenced often in productivity circles: the Eisenhower Matrix. Here’s a picture: </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBcsHAy6ZFZ-VW7Elwsd0a6LWN7H4GkfYIqSheSqqojLMdtlyqcacyVd4jBT5r0zeeIqZeSIjsjG6h3TkTRizOAG3pLOStdRO46cW0XAlIoiqW712tYhiWT3Ina-1v-SlN2nzjZoysqo/s1600/TheEisenhowerMatrix.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBcsHAy6ZFZ-VW7Elwsd0a6LWN7H4GkfYIqSheSqqojLMdtlyqcacyVd4jBT5r0zeeIqZeSIjsjG6h3TkTRizOAG3pLOStdRO46cW0XAlIoiqW712tYhiWT3Ina-1v-SlN2nzjZoysqo/s640/TheEisenhowerMatrix.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>You can assign any task or goal a place on this graph. Based on the quadrant it lands in, you can decide whether you want to do a task right now, later, or just discard it. Tasks that are urgent, and urgent and important are the most favorable things to focus on when narrowing your list. </span><br />
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That's all for now! Check back on Wednesday for steps 4-7, and in the meantime, try these out if you like :)<br />
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Love,<br />
Madeleine<br />
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<span class="s1"><i>Images: studyrose.tumblr.com, <a href="http://joshmedeski.com/eisenhower-matrix-todoist/" target="_blank">Josh Medeski</a></i></span></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-1990102481394200182016-08-26T13:36:00.000-07:002016-08-26T14:57:36.406-07:00On Embracing Minimalism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5DnJOeA871qYECWpdbpoBmeOfHy1MGwPCHCus0Q5Qi9NGyOJmy3AT5OsfqKUzKz-bF-L1r9uecHRs3Y6IU3WbfCN1TvaRedJMll6LLqbVOGFUVcKZww2gwJhuHsE4QFTafhKGoH8QKw/s1600/tumblr_o8ard9UY1m1qb5t88o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5DnJOeA871qYECWpdbpoBmeOfHy1MGwPCHCus0Q5Qi9NGyOJmy3AT5OsfqKUzKz-bF-L1r9uecHRs3Y6IU3WbfCN1TvaRedJMll6LLqbVOGFUVcKZww2gwJhuHsE4QFTafhKGoH8QKw/s640/tumblr_o8ard9UY1m1qb5t88o1_500.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I wrote previously about reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and I have to say, that reading that book was indeed life-changing. The book helped me understand, in a new way, how to let go of things, and how to keep the things I absolutely needed and loved. I harnessed the power of decision making, something that non-minimalist lifestyles do not encourage well. I learned, to an even greater magnitude, how to appreciate and care for the things I chose to keep. In total, I got rid of more than 14 grocery bags worth of stuff, about 40% of what I owned! In return, what I gained was a better sense of self. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Today, what I want to talk about is how embracing minimalism has positively impacted my mindset, and I want to encourage anyone who is willing to give it a go! </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> First off, sorting through all my things and discarding everything I didn’t love, as the book instructs, left me with a much smaller body of possessions in the end. This really helped me realize what I really love. When I was going through all my clothes, I realized I had a lot of clothes that I like ok, but had stains, rips, or didn’t fit the way I wanted them to. For those reasons, they just weren’t quite right, so I got rid of them, and felt a lot better for it! I also managed to get rid of a lot of things I knew I’d never use again, like books I would never read, old textbooks, craft supplies for projects I never started, and so on. Instead, I was able to clear those things out and narrow it down to the books, projects, and other things that were really important. The natural thing to follow that would be that I appreciated what I did have a lot better, once I was aware of what I had and how much I liked it! </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Another wonderful thing that happened with this was that I was faced with much less clutter. This took a psychological load off my mind, and has made my spaces much more relaxing to be in. Finding things is easier, as is cleaning and organizing those things. I really cannot emphasize enough what a relief it is to be rid of all those things I didn’t really like, use, or want. I really appreciate the physical and mental space these things left behind, so much so that I am very rarely tempted to shop. Instead, I protectively guard this de-cluttered and peaceful state of mind. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZiuLYjOwqoynsMJwEe_CIygm7Ml2zjtzC4z1r38q9mXdx85HPbhVMks5DU9Y3mynyMy3eSwymPEN1g3ZQIwIk-mkF0nmtx4Ubmh4euYJdAGtG76ta6cf88DeFqvZpwl3lZFKGFYNuBM/s1600/IMG_2093.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZiuLYjOwqoynsMJwEe_CIygm7Ml2zjtzC4z1r38q9mXdx85HPbhVMks5DU9Y3mynyMy3eSwymPEN1g3ZQIwIk-mkF0nmtx4Ubmh4euYJdAGtG76ta6cf88DeFqvZpwl3lZFKGFYNuBM/s640/IMG_2093.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the first donation I made to Goodwill, the entire trunk was full! There were more bags too come too!</span></td></tr>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Additionally, having fewer things means I feel more motivated to take care of those things, because its much easier to keep track of all of them and take care of them. Doing laundry is quicker with less clothing, and using lotion is easier with less options! Plus, moving around is a lot easier with all of that extra stuff. Having fewer things makes it easier to organize and move what you do have, go figure. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> My favorite effect by far that embracing minimalism has had on me is this: it’s helped me realize what most important to me. The people and treasured relationships in my life, and meaningful and impactful experiences, are the most meaningful parts of my life. With the material aspects of my life in better order, I find I have more time and energy to spend on these priorities, which makes me ecstatic! </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Another thing that excites me is that I’m not even done discarding things yet. I moved to Missouri in the middle of the process, so it was much more abbreviated than I would have liked it to be. However, I am excited to know more discarding awaits me in the future. Paring my life down to the essentials is making it much easier to function, especially as I prepare for the next few steps of my life, post-graduation. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> I am surprised by how much happiness I have derived from the simple act of getting rid of things. This is something that is, in my mind, absolutely revolutionary for people to know about. Stuff doesn’t make you happy- getting rid of it can help, though! In today’s world, I think people are really trapped by their stuff, as well as by their pursuit for more of it. Minimalism is liberating and helps you reevaluate your life, in a way that people can really use. I believe we need to place more value on our relationships, and our experiences, than our things. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> What do you think about all this? Would you get rid of 40% of your stuff, or give it a shot? Let me know down in the comments :)</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Love, </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Madeleine</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Photos: <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/145565175962/hellanne-ines-perkovic" target="_blank">Ines Perkovic</a>, 2 is mine</i></span></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-63732337311647116742016-08-14T11:42:00.000-07:002016-08-14T11:42:14.581-07:00The End of Higher Education as We Know It: A Call to Action<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1"> I have written only a little bit about <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2014/07/college-so-far-year-one-is-done.html" target="_blank">my college experience</a>, but I’m sure that many of you at least know that I attend UC Santa Cruz. I’m now in my senior year of college, and while I have learned quite a few things, some of which I hope to share in another upcoming post, the biggest lesson I will take away from my years in higher education is how broken the system is. My reason for writing this post is simple, as is my call for action. Colleges, community colleges, all forms of higher education, need to be fixed. WE NEED ACTIVISTS. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Although I am writing from the point of view of someone who spent all four years at a UC, a system which is notorious for corruption (and in fact, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/With-tuition-heading-up-state-will-audit-UC-9135047.php" target="_blank">currently being audited</a>, yay!), I believe that my assessment and my ask are appropriate for all higher education in this country. There are a myriad of resources out there for anyone who wants to learn about the depth of the issue with higher education in the U.S., but here’s the basic gist: higher education has become an industry. Students are viewed as customers, business opportunities, cash cows. What’s more, in many situations, students’ rights are disrespected and tuition continues to be upped because the thought of trying to enter the workforce today without a college degree is even more terrifying than having thousands of dollars in student loan debt at the time of graduation. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> The demand for a degree is high enough that colleges get away with a myriad of abuses on their students, tuition costs being one among many. You may have also heard about or experienced some of these treats: increasing class sizes (I’ve had classes where people had to sit on the floors of lecture halls because there were no seats left), no classes with actual professors (colleges these days hire lecturers, who get paid way less and have way fewer rights, but do have the same level of credentials), not being able to get into the classes you need, tiny dorm rooms, cramped libraries, packed buses, you name it. The resources offered to students are often barely enough to feed the needs of students. Janet Napolitano, head of the UC system, recently ordered the UC system to expand. As colleges go on packing in more students, they also neglect to provide more resources. In the case of UCSC, some are being cut back. Our buses were recently cut down, and many single-size rooms are being turned into doubles without being expanded. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> This phenomenon is not unique to UCs. Just <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/oct/07/colleges-ceos-cooper-union-ivory-tower-tuition-student-loan-debt" target="_blank">lookie here</a>. Evidently, schools all over the country, and the people that control them, are looking to run for-profit operations, and the situation is compounded by cuts in federal and state funding to public colleges. The unfortunate thing about this is that it severely limits the lives of our young people. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> How many people are not able to go to college because of the cost? How many people are burdened with debt for years after they graduate? Without as many college-educated individuals, society will not function the same way. Often, the U.S. competes with other countries to have an educated population. We cannot compete, nor can we function, without allowing our young people access to higher education. Burdening our young people with debt negatively affects our economy and similarly limits the potentials of our society. We need affordable higher education in this country. We need students’ rights to be respected by academic officials. So again, I say, WE NEED ACTIVISTS. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> We need people who will stand up for what they deserve, for what their children deserve, for what society and the future of the U.S. deserve. We need people who are brave. Have you seen what colleges have done to student activists? UC Davis recently attempted to have this video of campus police pepper-spraying peaceful student activists protesting tuition hikes removed from the internet (no, UC Davis, you will never live that down, because you cannot treat students that way). UC Santa Cruz suspended six students while completely denying them of their judicial rights of due process after they blocked the Highway 17 while protesting tuition hikes. No, being an activist is not safe or easy, although there is strength and safety in numbers. In 2014, UCSC staged an occupation of a campus building and no arrests were made, because hundreds of students participated. We need activists, as many as we can gather. Instead of the Highway Six, we need the Highway 600, or 6,000. I wrote last year about how <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2015/05/activism-is-back-join-student-revolution.html" target="_blank">student activism is on the rise</a>. Join the swell, we need you! </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Not only that, but we also need parents who are willing to stand up and demand a better education for their children. There are many parents out there, like my own, who have the resources to send their children to college, and therefore have the resources and education to, in some way, make a demand from the system. Whether that’s contacting school administrators, getting media coverage of the issue, leveraging their position in society to draw attention to the problem, or something else, parents are important and powerful allies. They know what’s going on, and most likely, they understand its wrong. My father often complains that the only emails he ever gets from the UC system are emails asking for money. What if, instead of complaining, my father was able to act on his discontent with the higher education system? Parents have the power to cause a tidal wave of change. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Beyond them, concerned citizens who understand that we need college grads to do the work of today and tomorrow are also important. Education is a public good that contributes to the health of society. Anyone who understands that can and should do something about the crisis of higher education we are experiencing now. WE NEED ACTIVISTS. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> We need visionaries. People who can create a new kind of university, one that serves the needs of individuals and society in a fair and affordable way. A university whose primary goal is providing a high quality education and is run like a school, not a business. The reason this piece is titled “The End of Higher Education as We Know It” is simply because that’s what I am calling for. I am asking for a push for a new and better model of higher education, and I am asking you and everyone around you to help imagine it and help build it. What functions does a college need to perform? What is the best way for that to be done? I like to imagine a university that is run completely by students. Imagine it: a governing board of elected officials, who are in charge of all matters of the university. They do not get paid, but receive class credit. Students hire and fire professors, make decisions on tuition costs and resource cuts or expansions, and just generally run the show. How cool would that be? </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> I am asking you to imagine an alternative that you desire, and then demand it and help to create it. We need to move beyond simply asking. We can protest, but we can also create. How can we bring into being a better-run university out of what we have now?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> My proposals are tentative fantasies, but what I emphasize is that we need change. We need it bad. And we need the creative visionary activist beauty from each soul to make it happen. We all have something to contribute the end of higher education as we know it, including you. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Love, </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Madeleine</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Photos: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/05/the-renaissance-of-student-activism/393749/" target="_blank">1</a>, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fleshmanpix/8260830710/" target="_blank">2</a></i></span></div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-28820392033114866432016-08-05T13:45:00.003-07:002016-08-05T13:46:50.179-07:00Good Vibes Book Club 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8RurlLwZW92JjJIqOjXT2X2R2iypeuhEOL1B7pr2GQ4MQWNgZQEJSXxFMLV96Q2LcnZ9MIjr6souU2JFGZq6x87o8oCQPI7WSuHQZZmgxg2tzgUoIFHynZk_oQuXYZuDyD6EKH0ZqJ2I/s1600/tumblr_static_tumblr_static_a5tod0og8b484oooccwwwk08k_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8RurlLwZW92JjJIqOjXT2X2R2iypeuhEOL1B7pr2GQ4MQWNgZQEJSXxFMLV96Q2LcnZ9MIjr6souU2JFGZq6x87o8oCQPI7WSuHQZZmgxg2tzgUoIFHynZk_oQuXYZuDyD6EKH0ZqJ2I/s1600/tumblr_static_tumblr_static_a5tod0og8b484oooccwwwk08k_640.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"> If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably know by now that I LOVE BOOKS, and reading in general. I’m seriously a book addict, and consider it a real tragedy that I don’t get to read as much as I want to during the regular school year. However, I’ve been out here in Missouri for about a month now, and definitely have a lot more time on my hands to read as much as my heart desires. So, in the spirit of the <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-good-vibes-book-club-first-edition.html" target="_blank">Good Vibes Book Club post</a> I did last year, I’m following up with a list of books and other reading materials that come highly recommended by yours truly :) </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Adbusters</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQjwLWA6EobqjGIkxbmPKqgQvgXrG-QoQ27LeIN6iyiGUP_K-ESQgpw3M2AlZEPDYJ7l4Tl397l4ZET6RpSY5HuEt2HOw5Be9H9CTJlXXgmuPhZJpEpEU3_kzBz_KEYk-iUZoVNE4A1U/s1600/Adbusters_124-cover_large.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQjwLWA6EobqjGIkxbmPKqgQvgXrG-QoQ27LeIN6iyiGUP_K-ESQgpw3M2AlZEPDYJ7l4Tl397l4ZET6RpSY5HuEt2HOw5Be9H9CTJlXXgmuPhZJpEpEU3_kzBz_KEYk-iUZoVNE4A1U/s320/Adbusters_124-cover_large.png" width="249" /></a><span class="s1">If you are anywhere on the leftist/radical scale and you haven’t picked up a copy of Adbusters yet, do it now, as soon as you can. Adbusters is super inspiring and great to have around as a pick-me-up whenever you need help keeping the faith in your radical anti-colonial, anti-empire beliefs. They also do a great job at being really visually inspiring, so it’s great for artists. They publish a new issue every two months, and will definitely keep your revolutionary flame burning. </span></div>
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<a href="http://caitflanders.com/" target="_blank">Cait Flanders</a></div>
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<span class="s1">What I really like about Cait Flanders’ blog is that even though she can be categorized as a finance writer, her blog is really more about deeper subjects. She talks about how her finances reflect what she values, and what she spends her time on. She asks questions about what time means to her, and what her baseline income is for still being ok and happy. Her writing contains strong leanings toward mindfulness, minimalism, and sustainability. I love it! Plus, this is where I got the idea for a shopping ban from. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHndt6Vwx_drgIdNwY6E5tF_iBh_rxSUOxfFUy7HTa3kMSGBEWB2ErnBIYAwnizgmUS-jUwbkMYECITVdB_RwiF_CHc8jML5AkzvJaV5CzeyT_pRK5AXf62rOD7ass-HBNpAgffoAP5PE/s1600/10156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHndt6Vwx_drgIdNwY6E5tF_iBh_rxSUOxfFUy7HTa3kMSGBEWB2ErnBIYAwnizgmUS-jUwbkMYECITVdB_RwiF_CHc8jML5AkzvJaV5CzeyT_pRK5AXf62rOD7ass-HBNpAgffoAP5PE/s320/10156.jpg" width="212" /></a><span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><a href="http://vivaladiy.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Viva La DIY</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Dulce and Jazmin have been blog buds of mine for a long time, and what I really like about their blog is that, as the name suggests, they are truly hardcore DIYers. These days they sell a lot of what they make, and everything they post on their blog is really handy and admirable. They have a really cool aesthetic going and are just generally inspiring DIY babes :)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKstjo_YgqSwBQQEgDnE4EB7f2MgD_Sjy9ViyIg8KrRWMNjqthe81-zbVwLJjO58EuKG8eFmouuhFT8gJc7K4BpGD4ukwsaz50p5Og5AiSdMjD4kHGUFlQtVhr3q78yWtu5cBickZA9s/s1600/512UxM1s9JL._SX331_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKstjo_YgqSwBQQEgDnE4EB7f2MgD_Sjy9ViyIg8KrRWMNjqthe81-zbVwLJjO58EuKG8eFmouuhFT8gJc7K4BpGD4ukwsaz50p5Og5AiSdMjD4kHGUFlQtVhr3q78yWtu5cBickZA9s/s320/512UxM1s9JL._SX331_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="213" /></a><span class="s1"></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>The Last of Her Kind</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1">by Sigrid Nunez</span></div>
This is one of the only fiction books I’ve read this year (I just don’t really do fiction that much!), but it definitely made an impression on me. It’s written from the point of view of a girl from poor, rural upstate New York who comes of age in the 70s and goes to college at Columbia in NYC. Her roommate is a political radical, friends with members of the Weather Underground and Black Power activists. The book recounts the events of the 70s from an inside perspective and using historical events. It’s a really interesting read, and gives the reader an idea of what it might have been like to be alive during that time.<br />
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<span class="s1"><i>The Next American Revolution</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1">by Grace Lee Boggs</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I confess, I’m not finished with this book. I’ve only read a few chapters and excerpts. But what I have read has been awesomely inspiring, and I can't help but recommend it to everyone. Grace Lee Boggs is an icon and hero in activist history, and reading this account made me want to pack up and move to Detroit (still a plan for future Madeleine). In this book, she enlightens us to new pathways to revolution, many of which are already taking shape, like the organic food revolution. Please read this if you ever lose hope. At 93, when she wrote the preface to this book, she still believed in a better world. Amazing :)</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1">by Marie Kondo</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I’ve been made fun of for reading this, but this book honestly changed my life. Marie Kondo basically just gives you permission to get rid of anything and everything and walks you through how to do it. Plus, the book is a satisfying size and weight and very fun to hold in your hand. </span></div>
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Those are my recommendations! You'll notice not all are books, because I read all kinds of things. In fact, my favorite things to peruse are blogs, simply because of the way they provide you with a good sense of another person's values, actions, and story. It's interesting to be able to delve into someone's life like that, even if what they're writing is not entirely personal or over-sharing. But of course I will always love books and and the printed word too. I hope that y'all will try out a few of these recommendations and enjoy what you do look at. Also, what are your recommendations? Of course I'm always looking for new things to read, so if you have any thoughts, send 'em my way in the comments! Thanks :)</div>
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Love, </div>
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Madeleine</div>
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<i>Photos all found via Google Images, none are mine. </i></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-23968167079038327932016-07-29T15:13:00.000-07:002016-07-31T15:13:35.753-07:00Against Productivity<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1"> I have always been one of those people who is constantly making lists of to-do’s, goals, things, to achieve and accomplish. If you’ve been following me for a while, you can probably tell by the posts on my blog; I am <i>very into lists</i>, and very into achieving, checking things off, marking as done. Life, to me, often seems like a limited chunk of time I am given to accomplish as many things from a list as I can. Life can seem to be about getting things done, about productivity, either in the sense of accomplishing tasks or having meaningful experiences. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Today, I invite you to think against productivity. I have to ask myself, and you, is that what life is really about - just checking things off a bucket list? Sure, there are things I want to do before I die, but I will still die anyway. Sometimes, I think, what’s the point of doing those things? What’s the point of the list?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> I want to challenge the belief that life is about output, that your life and identity are comprised of what you accomplish and achieve. What if we could stake our identities on something else, like how we treat other living things, or how we are content in our being? I think the tendency to associate identities with actions, output, and professions is a very capitalist tendency. It coincides with the old adage of “Time is money, money is time.”, but time is so much more than pieces of paper, and you are so much more than your achievements and your profession. I have a friend who works as a restaurant cook for a living who told me, “I never want to be anything. I never want to be a cook, I just want that to be something I can do and am good at. What I do doesn’t define me.” I find this to be an inspiring statement, and one of the many reasons I chose to write this post. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> I think productivity is a rat race. People are in a rush to do more, and to be more, including myself. But sometimes it’s important to stop and think, “What is life really about?”. That’s a hard question to answer, but I don’t think the answer is output, or finishing everything on your to-do and bucket lists. It’s also important to be present, to appreciate the moment, to think about how you are alive, and to nurture your senses of zeal and wonder. It’s important to create, to be with others, to be kind to others, to explore, to learn, to feel. There are so many things that life is about, that have no place on a to-do list. They come just through the wonderful experience of being alive. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> I believe being goal-driven is good, to a point. I am happy and proud of all the things I’ve been able to accomplish in my short 20 years on Earth. But I am also happy for the spontaneous moments and good memories I’ve had, with others and on my own, as I’ve experienced the process of living, discovering, and growing. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> You don’t have to do away with your to-do lists, but I encourage you not to measure yourself by them either, and to put them down frequently in favor of allowing yourself to be present, see what happens, and roll with it. Ultimately, I believe a balance between productivity and presence is what makes life whole and well-rounded. Remembering that the human experience extends beyond your computer, phone, and day-planner can do us all a bit of good. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> What are your thoughts on productivity? How important do you think it is? Do you agree or disagree with me? Let me know in the comments :) </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> As a parting word of wisdom from Mary Oliver, I want to ask you, “What are you going to do with your one wild and beautiful life?”. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Madeleine</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Photos: <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/144664916787" target="_blank">Jack Vanzet</a>, <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/144627466992/expressions-of-nature-by-bora-kim" target="_blank">Bora Kim</a></i></span></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-65130059277150353392016-07-23T16:58:00.002-07:002016-07-23T16:58:31.961-07:00Life Without Internet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I’ve done what I previously found unthinkable - I’ve lived without internet at my house for almost a month. At the end of June I moved to Southern Missouri, or Alton, the county seat of Oregon County, to be exact. The house I moved into had no internet service set up, although from what I understand it is able to be connected. I was looking into the process of getting Wi-Fi in my home earlier in the month when it occurred to me: “Why not just try to go without it?”. I had thought about doing that for a while, but always assumed that it was a choice I would make further in the future in a house I owned.</div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Presented with the opportunity to experiment, I took it. I’ll only be here until December, and I can also access the internet at the public library and the food co-op that I’m interning at. Both are about a five minute walk from my front door, so it’s not as if I’m actually living without internet. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>What it does mean is that my time at home is spent a lot differently than it used to be. While I do enjoy the occasional exploration of the many annals of YouTube or Tumblr, I’ve found that living in the world of the concrete and physical for a higher percentage of time is also enjoyable. Rather than sitting and staring, I’m spending a lot more time cooking, reading, writing, thinking, singing, cleaning, biking, running, and doing other physical, tangible activities. I’ve also found that my attention span has been greatly enhanced by my decreased time online. No longer constantly flitting from tab to tab or multitasking between windows, but instead focusing on a single task in front of me, I have found that my focus has been greatly enhanced. Reading is suddenly so much easier! I find myself charging through books like nothing. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> What I do miss about the internet - tools of communication, information readily available, and visual inspiration - I can get when I go into town. But often my brain fills the void for me. The other day, a friend and I were talking and wondering how dingoes had come to live in Australia. We realized we had no way of looking it up, so we made up our own theory. While definitely not the most informed or factual way to go through life, it is certainly more entertaining and much more encouraging for one’s creative juices.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"> I also appreciate the room that it makes for conversation, both with myself and with others. Technology, I feel, constantly intrudes on valuable opportunities to converse with yourself or socialize with others. Last year I went on a backpacking trip, which of course meant that there was no internet access for anyone on the trip. Within a matter of days, I had become good friends with the thirteen other people who were on the trip, and part of that was because we had nothing keeping us from talking to each other! I am enjoying my reprieve from the internet by listening more deeply (with my improved attention span!) to others, but also by tuning into my inner monologue and learning a little more about myself. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Ultimately, this internet hiatus has allowed me to see more clearly the role I want it to play in my life. I want the internet, and computers in general, to be a tool that I know when to pick up and when to put down in favor of other things or activities in my life. I believe that too often it is easy to let technology and the internet intrude too deeply into our everyday lives, until it is part of many of the things we do, and constantly distracting us in a way that is unhelpful to our being. They say “Everything in moderation”, and that applies here very well. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> If you find it ironic that I would write a post about not having internet and then publish it on my blog <i>on the internet</i>, I can understand your amusement. However, since I’m advocating that the internet be used as a tool, I’m suggesting moderation of usage, not abstinence. The internet is still a wonderful tool and something that I do use now - just not very often. I think the most internet connectivity I’ve had recently was 2 hours in one day, and that felt like a lot. Since going without it at home, I’ve been quite fruitful in other, more creative pursuits, and I’m happy about that. These next few months without it promise to be productive ones. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"> One last parting thought - while this is an experiment for me, this is a way of life for many people. A lot of people, for one reason or another, live in conditions that don't permit them comforts like internet access. Here in Alton, it's poverty and economic circumstances that seem to bar people from that access, and through no fault of our own. I recognize that it is my privilege to willingly forgo internet, while other people have no choice because of systemic inequality, and I ask others to remember this as well. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> What do you think about not having internet in your home? Would you ever try it? Have you? Let me know your thoughts :)</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Love, </span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span> Madeleine</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<i>Photos: <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/147755627262#notes-container" target="_blank">1</a>, <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/145651823607" target="_blank">2</a></i></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-73933008629564238972016-05-06T14:01:00.000-07:002016-05-10T18:32:46.280-07:00Shopping Ban Update: 10 Months and New Perspectives<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrSkiA1YSex0r0E-T0xndwSSRPPX2H_VJKw5NjQLITj-vn_7p5zEFH9aayAi9bkaqPvjrV-X-ck9giPrcKsKK6f2TXyG1vCDJm3oCtxdeOYwLxjSt6vit6-YqcA_MsBLGmfykyDZtst-I/s1600/tumblr_nz4p5k3M1l1qeju05o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrSkiA1YSex0r0E-T0xndwSSRPPX2H_VJKw5NjQLITj-vn_7p5zEFH9aayAi9bkaqPvjrV-X-ck9giPrcKsKK6f2TXyG1vCDJm3oCtxdeOYwLxjSt6vit6-YqcA_MsBLGmfykyDZtst-I/s640/tumblr_nz4p5k3M1l1qeju05o1_500.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Time to talk about the shopping ban! It's been 10 months, can you believe it? There have been four main things I've learned from this experience, so I'm gonna go ahead and share those with you today:<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Time Management is Hard </span></h3>
I don't think I needed to engage in this project to figure this out, but, yep. Time is a factor in anything you try to do, and in the beginning of this project, I was trying to make a lot of my food rather than buying pre-made stuff. Welp, as soon as school started, this just started to really not work out. I've since reverted back to using pre-made stuff. However, I do use my time instead to participate and two organizations and an academic major all geared towards making the world better, safer, more just, and more sustainable, so I think the trade off there is more than fair.<br />
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The main lesson here was that this project taught me to appreciate all the time, effort, and resources that goes into preparing food products. This was a nice thing to learn, and a good way to learn it, because I actively used my own time, effort, and resources to produce lots of food, especially in the beginning.<br />
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This project also taught me a more personal lesson just having to do with my priorities and what I need and want to spend my time doing. I think that attempting to do this factored in to a larger understanding of how I organize my time. This has also been useful knowledge as I continue being a mini adult, and something I'll definitely write more about in the future.<br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">I've Got More Power Than Just Buying Power! </span></h3>
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This project was conceptualized to help me avoid producing waste and participating in harmful systems of capitalism and consumption. While this is a noble goal, I think changing my personal habits is just one step to take. I also need to participate in collective action aimed at achieving the things I want for the world. This means being a part of organizations, campaigns, outreach efforts, and protests. These are all things that I do, but I think the main takeaway I got from this project was that rather than see my power as coming from my ability to choose what to buy or not buy, I need to step outside the role of consumer and instead become an active citizen, engaging in action to change systems, instead of just removing myself from them. </div>
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I want to make sure this message is clear here, too. Power does not just come from choosing to make deodorant, instead of buying it. It also can take the form of protesting or boycotting the deodorant companies until they use sustainable packaging and remove breast-cancer causing chemicals from their formulas. Not everyone has access to the time and resources needed to make their own deodorant, which is why DIY and consumption limitation are not real solutions to the larger problems. Thanks to a combination of the shopping ban and some really great classes this year, I was able to learn this and share it with all of you. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipfymOtmkZ3LbBEoY5fU263wunAWqhDFXMgsIiwBO7Jd0yeWK6ICKAJtho762MZLsCvSIzbPdVWYLYn3UoRCVXkbICE4cNui3VXWYULvyBl51FV5_GWWpDgf34hhB4HUxS6Y9-IV88VPI/s1600/tumblr_nmht4jp6tQ1uodlnbo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipfymOtmkZ3LbBEoY5fU263wunAWqhDFXMgsIiwBO7Jd0yeWK6ICKAJtho762MZLsCvSIzbPdVWYLYn3UoRCVXkbICE4cNui3VXWYULvyBl51FV5_GWWpDgf34hhB4HUxS6Y9-IV88VPI/s640/tumblr_nmht4jp6tQ1uodlnbo1_500.jpg" width="502" /></a></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Buying Things is Silly </span></h3>
Sometimes, buying things is not necessary. There are lots of things I was able to find for free or borrow or trade for. Other times, I just adapted to doing without certain things, and you know what? I am not any less happy than when I began this experiment, just for having to do without certain things.<br />
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Thus, my conclusion that buying things is silly.<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Not Buying Things Feels Nice and Great</span></h3>
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Yes, yes it does. I know everything that I own, and I use each item often, or else have gotten rid of it. It's a really pleasant feeling: I often have this sense of having everything I need. I don't feel that anxious desire or need for something new nearly as often as I used to. I have heard people buy things to fill a void. How ironic it is, then, that I feel I have come closer to filling that void just buy refusing to buy things. Instead, I have a strong sense of gratitude and appreciation for everything I own. It's really nice and great :) </div>
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What began as a yearlong project will probably continue as a more permanent way of living. I have really enjoyed the shopping ban and the way it makes me feel, and I can't really imaging going back to how I lived before it! </div>
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So, tell me what you think below in the comments. And if you've ever undertaken an experiment or lifestyle change like this, let me know about it! </div>
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Love, </div>
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Madeleine </div>
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<i>photos: 1.<a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/138457342897/frrmsd-illustrator-artist-whooli-chen" target="_blank"> whooli chen</a> 2. <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/140424091447/artofsociety6-cluster-by-bexelbee" target="_blank">Bexelbee</a></i></div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-24597278122816760912016-04-08T05:00:00.000-07:002016-04-08T05:00:02.552-07:00The Times, They Are a'Changin' <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVTA_wa3wxpJlvN1tA4oAP8Rz-br4vqGDqLd-5lVWkyZkdSfXoIhXKOsImPj_QFDrpbXVSdt_0Q25IyNamt1p8eRcOIiqf0lYUnpOMib7h8HGxhCOC9xKvKTc6bVy9yBRjT1nS0pxfKOY/s1600/tumblr_ni8kv3xFKI1s4eggto2_r1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVTA_wa3wxpJlvN1tA4oAP8Rz-br4vqGDqLd-5lVWkyZkdSfXoIhXKOsImPj_QFDrpbXVSdt_0Q25IyNamt1p8eRcOIiqf0lYUnpOMib7h8HGxhCOC9xKvKTc6bVy9yBRjT1nS0pxfKOY/s640/tumblr_ni8kv3xFKI1s4eggto2_r1_500.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
<i>hello, everyone...</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
It sure has been a long time since I last posted! And what a transformational time it has been. Someone I know says that college operates much like dog years - time is elongated in much the same manner, so much so that I feel probably ten years older than when I started college (I wonder how I'll feel when I actually am 28 - oh jeez).<br />
<br />
Thanks to this principle - what my friend calls <i>college years</i> - I have changed <u>a lot</u> since I last posted on this blog. I have become incredibly more politically conscious and concerned, particularly in terms of U.S. issues concerning social justice. I shaved my head in September (forgot to mention that when it happened, oops!) and have since been undergoing a strange sense of transient identity, which is certainly related to the lack of hair but also to other factors as well. I have taken on very demanding leadership positions in two organizations and have progressed in my major with strong academic standing. The resulting stress of these two components of my life has definitely had a hand in changing my personality. I've fallen in love with some people (both romantically and platonically [friend love?]) and out of love with others. I've experimented, both on purpose and by chance, with different ways of living and conducting my daily habits and life.<br />
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I have to say, I seem to be at a point where the more I explore myself and my thoughts and the world around me, the more I feel lost and bewildered. Most of the time this is not unpleasant, but I have to say it certainly throws me off balance. The most important thing I think I want to convey to all of you is that I have CHANGED, a million times over, since I last wrote. I have very little sense of "me-ness" at this point, just because my sense of self has evolved and eroded repeatedly and rapidly over these past six months. I wonder if by coming back here, I can re-establish, or at least begin to explore myself again.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRt_MGLVzf7IFJaZIGdQzs82mfWlTNoNWbFWjAOwlDxXbsy8wLyTG7kfJMAwJqeqtGhOgcnMmPH6XmjkGdfQ74srFy1Tye5DafNcNmqUjM_OKsebFNysygtHUUrXcezwUtuR0Wcupvxrw/s1600/tumblr_mvy9d1bIJ21rsyukao1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRt_MGLVzf7IFJaZIGdQzs82mfWlTNoNWbFWjAOwlDxXbsy8wLyTG7kfJMAwJqeqtGhOgcnMmPH6XmjkGdfQ74srFy1Tye5DafNcNmqUjM_OKsebFNysygtHUUrXcezwUtuR0Wcupvxrw/s640/tumblr_mvy9d1bIJ21rsyukao1_500.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Reading my old content is interesting - some of it is great, and some of it, I now disagree with, or find that it misses a mark I'd like to hit with what I write nowadays. <br />
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However, now that I've decided to come back and post here again, the time has come to look forward instead of backward. So, what can you expect from this space in the near future?<br />
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I suspect, a lot of things that I would have written about before I ~changed~ but probably from a different point of view. I expect I will want to write things from a slightly more politically charged perspective - some of the things I used to write here were pretty apolitical, despite ample opportunities for me to integrate an agenda (hehehe). My interests have not completely changed, but I think they have broadened, so there might be a lot of different stuff on here, who knows? Ultimately I think it will be a similar array of things, since I never limited myself to a rigid set of themes anyway. I intend to use my writing as a tool of self-exploration, but I also hope that you, as a reader, can enjoy and relate to it. Lastly, I've always thought that this kind of writing ought to be fun. That's really what some things in life gotta be about, right? I have discovered that I LOVE writing, so whatever I share here will make me feel fulfilled, and perhaps, also pensive, and I hope it does something similar for you.<br />
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It's important that I let y'all know that all this changing has not been negative. I think the tone I'm using here might sound kind of somber or serious, but really it's just me being thoughtful and reflecting. These last six months have been formative, action-packed, and at times, very rewarding and fun. And some parts of me still endure. The shopping ban continues (it's been so long since I bought clothes!) and my Etsy shop lives on, hooray! Before closing, I want to ask a few things, since I've been gone for a while. Have any of you ever undergone intense periods of change? What triggered those? How did you deal with the change or approach it? Also, how have the last six months been for you? It would be nice to hear from y'all again :)<br />
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Love,<br />
Madeleine<br />
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P.S: This blog will currently be updated on at least a semi-consistent basis every Friday :)<br />
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<i>Images</i><br />
<i>1. <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/138639916467" target="_blank">Here</a></i><br />
<i>2. <a href="http://thosegooodvibrations.tumblr.com/post/138458338902" target="_blank">Here</a></i>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-89117898637178060272015-10-01T23:58:00.000-07:002015-10-01T23:58:03.245-07:00What Are You Eating? Part Four<a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/~/media/Images/MEN/Editorial/Special%20Projects/Collection%20Pages/Solar%20Food%20Dehydrators/Garden-Bounty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://www.motherearthnews.com/~/media/Images/MEN/Editorial/Special%20Projects/Collection%20Pages/Solar%20Food%20Dehydrators/Garden-Bounty.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a><br />
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In the past three parts of my What are You Eating? series, I've given you lots of information about the environmental and social evils of the industrial food complex and the various movements, justice-oriented and otherwise, that have sprung up in response to those evils. Today, as a capstone to all this information, I want to discuss how YOU can act on this information and what you can do to promote more just and sustainable food systems. There are two components to the options of actions available for you to take: individual and group/community actions.<br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><b>Individual Actions</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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The greatest part of any individual action you take concerning your food is simply applying your knowledge to your daily life. Now that you know how unhealthy and unjust industrially farmed food is, try sourcing your food from local, organic farms that employ just labor practices. This kind of food is best found at your local farmer's markets or at supermarkets that may source their products from near the community. Santa Cruz has a few stores like these. Look around to see if there are any in your town. You can also subscribe to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program and get organic farm products delivered to you once every couple weeks. Many people absolutely love this, and your money goes to support an organic community farm! Awesome! </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You can also find a more sustainable food source right in your own backyard by starting a garden or keeping animals. Gardening and keeping animals both seem like intimidating projects, but many people find resources and help in their neighborhood from their neighbors, workshops at community centers, books, and the internet! The public library in my hometown regularly holds how-to workshops on vegetable gardening, and I know many people who have been able to regrow veggies indoors using tutorials form the internet. </div>
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Although I haven't talked too much about processed food here, I feel like it's worth mentioning at this point that processed foods are often a)full of weird mystery chemicals and preservatives, b) use lots of energy to produce and transport and produce lots of waste for packaging, and c) generally are not very healthy for you. Instead of buying processed and packaged foods, you can make alternatives at home. I do it, and it's very easy! Not to mention, much less wasteful and much healthier for you! There are recipes for just about anything you could want, from crackers and tortillas to granola bars and peanut butter. Just give it a go!</div>
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Lastly, another wonderful thing you can do with all you've learned here is share the knowledge with others! Send them the articles I've written and share them on social media, bring up food and surrounding issues in conversation, and lead by example by eating sustainably and justly produced food. Another important piece of this is to always keep educating yourself. Keep reading books and articles and having conversations with others about food. Learn, keep yourself informed, and evolve! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcZlDOb-HzKBQJ1yWaJqN6JyaRUNLxWzP539PvFiDQnB100MQoOaX3ohJUtdHbDTZZojjFET5QwSjlBMxIkxZZPmoNZJKBfAIOl971v3mqbnnvIlg0uK-k8_8qAZ7KF3yDWgkVsOHOsRw/s1600/tumblr_nc1sin1xq01qzxmvio1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="638" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcZlDOb-HzKBQJ1yWaJqN6JyaRUNLxWzP539PvFiDQnB100MQoOaX3ohJUtdHbDTZZojjFET5QwSjlBMxIkxZZPmoNZJKBfAIOl971v3mqbnnvIlg0uK-k8_8qAZ7KF3yDWgkVsOHOsRw/s640/tumblr_nc1sin1xq01qzxmvio1_500.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><b>Community Actions</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<b style="color: #8e7cc3;"> </b>For those of you looking to flex your leadership muscles, meet other people who share your interest in food and food issues, or just get involved with an organization that might already exist in your town, community and group actions are a great way to go! One of the simplest, best ways to get involved is to join a community garden. If your community doesn't have one, put your feelers out to see if there are other people interested in having one and see if you can work together to get one started in your area. Community gardens are a great option for yourself and others if you don't have any land to garden on at your home, if you want more space to garden, or if you want to create a community space. </div>
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You can also organize non-violent action around food issues in your area. Depending on what effects your community and what you're passionate about, this could take a number of forms, like boycotting grocery stores that stock industrially farmed food (we're looking at you Walmart) or rallying for better farm worker's rights. </div>
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Another great way to make an impact is to join forces with others in order to spread knowledge about food issues. Together, a group can choose to do any number of things to educate others, like publishing a zine on the evils of industrial agriculture, or hosting gardening or cooking demos to encourage others to make their own healthy, sustainable, and just food. It's up to you! </div>
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Whether you get involved in a food initiative near you, invite your friends over for a vegan and locally-sourced organic meal, or start a new organization to bring sustainable food to your community, food brings people together, and making it more sustainable and just is best done with companions! </div>
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That is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you can do with this knowledge. There are all sorts of things you can do, from books to read to organizations to join, that will help you encourage better, more just, and more sustainable food systems. Just get creative, and live your life in a way that is consistent with your beliefs. Whatever you do with all the knowledge you now have about food, I ask you to act on it and actively use it in your daily food choices. There are a couple things that I either did not touch on or only discussed briefly, such as food waste, homesteading, processed foods, and foraging, for example, that will be discussed in upcoming articles, since I just can't seem to get enough of writing about food :) Until then, I hope you will be eating happily, healthily, and with justice and sustainability in mind, for my sake and yours. </div>
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Love, </div>
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Madeleine</div>
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<i>*Neither of these photos belong to me, both were found via Google</i></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-78463685734798615282015-09-29T16:18:00.000-07:002015-09-29T16:18:42.398-07:00Vegan Banana Bread!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.enkivillage.com/s/upload/images/2015/06/5b20071730c10854cfe8a80ab6a6dbe0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.enkivillage.com/s/upload/images/2015/06/5b20071730c10854cfe8a80ab6a6dbe0.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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This weekend I had the chance to do a lot of cooking in my new kitchen, and one thing I got to make was vegan banana bread! I've been making banana bread since I was 10 (it's a great way to get rid of really brown bananas), but this is the first time I've veganized the recipe and it came out tasting delicious, so I just wanted to share. This is a great option for those of you trying to use fewer animal products if you are concerned about the way industrially farmed animals are treated (for more info on this, read up <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2015/08/what-are-you-eating-part-two.html" target="_blank">here</a>). </div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<u>Madeleine's Most Favorite Vegan Banana Bread:</u></div>
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Ingredients:<br />
1 cup sugar<br />
1/3 cup vegan butter, softened (such as Earth Balance)<br />
1/2 cup applesauce (I use Trader Joe's Organic Unsweetened)<br />
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (usually takes between 2 and 4 bananas, depending on size)<br />
1/3 cup water<br />
1 2/3 cups flour<br />
1 teaspoon baking soda<br />
1/2 teaspoon salt<br />
1/4 teaspoon baking powder<br />
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Instructions:<br />
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1. Heat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit and grease bottom only of a loaf pan, about 9x5x3 inches. <br />
2. Mix sugar and butter in a large bowl.<br />
3. Stir in applesauce until blended. <br />
4. Add bananas and water and beat for 30 seconds. <br />
5. Stir in remaining ingredients except for nuts until moistened. <br />
6. Pour into the pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. <br />
7. Cool completely before loosening the sides of the loaf with a knife and slicing. <br />
8. Enjoy!<br />
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Notes: </div>
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- Try to source as many ingredients organically as you can! I use organic sugar and applesauce, and you can also use organic bananas! If you'd like to know why organic is better, you can read the first part of my food article series, <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2015/08/what-are-you-eating-part-one.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </div>
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- Speaking of the food series, Part 4, the final article in the series, debuts on Thursday. Don't miss it :)</div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-70721517177282484132015-09-15T00:00:00.000-07:002015-09-15T00:00:02.190-07:00The Story of My Etsy Shop<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-family: inherit; line-height: 25px;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-family: inherit; line-height: 25px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcamh13x3WOSLn-ccVsHKYmcqiluVbv7r2UuETEFgKzN6wSYsNGOVUNtvm49tuPoiyMG2e3mFYdVCpPRr6GSoKL9BWfYrGNDL5pJ67WhiDtDQWRYhrAJxClGLKxYXa_2V_WBJT4AK04bo/s1600/IMG_1437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcamh13x3WOSLn-ccVsHKYmcqiluVbv7r2UuETEFgKzN6wSYsNGOVUNtvm49tuPoiyMG2e3mFYdVCpPRr6GSoKL9BWfYrGNDL5pJ67WhiDtDQWRYhrAJxClGLKxYXa_2V_WBJT4AK04bo/s640/IMG_1437.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 25px;"> If you have ever wondered how sustainability and social justice activism can mesh with a clothing shop on Etsy, I'm here to explain that today. Or maybe you know me personally or have read some of my many articles about clothing, and you're wondering how someone who discourages capitalism, materialism, and buying new things could possibly own and operate a clothing shop. Don't worry, I've got you covered. Today I'm explaining the story of my Etsy shop, and showing how </span></span><span style="line-height: 25px;">sustainability</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 25px;"> and social justice have a lot to do with how and why I started the shop.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEialAkmxpWoFf8O6bz-Nt5DFosw2OHurqfD9oHMXRlZBAn3E4i5POvUykPdGzXoevSKS1tfTlQ2v4iJZanI4TJA8tMI2OIOLOk2lf7RyGF9N-FZEycB6MA0gnvlH4J6gzQRa2x8DrLAYuk/s1600/IMG_1423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEialAkmxpWoFf8O6bz-Nt5DFosw2OHurqfD9oHMXRlZBAn3E4i5POvUykPdGzXoevSKS1tfTlQ2v4iJZanI4TJA8tMI2OIOLOk2lf7RyGF9N-FZEycB6MA0gnvlH4J6gzQRa2x8DrLAYuk/s320/IMG_1423.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 25px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #8e7cc3; line-height: 25px;"><b>How I Started</b></span><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="line-height: 25px;"> I have been passionate about vintage clothes ever since I visited my first thrift shop. I also learned to sew at a very young age, and I loved the combination of thrifted clothing and personalized touches and updates that made up my unique style. </span><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="line-height: 25px;"> As I got older, I also noticed that vintage clothing was worth the money, whereas newer clothing from chain and department stores continued to prove low-quality, cheap, and only wearable for a short period of time. Buying my clothes vintage and upcycling and updating pieces gave me a more durable and stylish option for clothing. </span><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="line-height: 25px;"> Then, I began to learn about sustainability, and how completely unsustainable the garment industry is. I learned that the way our fashion industry keeps constantly producing new clothes wastes tons of electricity, fuel, and other materials. It also pollutes by adding to carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Beyond that, I learned that the reason new clothing is often so cheap is because the laborers who help make it are often sorely underpaid - in the clothing factories in Bangladesh, some laborers were recently discovered making as little as 25 cents a week! </span><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br /><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="line-height: 25px;"> I began to see that not only are vintage and upcycled clothes more durable and more unique than mass-produced, new clothing, they are also a more sustainable, more socially just alternative to new clothing. </span><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="line-height: 25px;"> Without a second thought, I opened Good Vibrations to bring stylish vintage upcycled clothes to the masses, so that people like you don't have to buy boring, poorly made, unsustainable, and unjust clothing. </span><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #8e7cc3; line-height: 25px;"><b>How It Works</b></span><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="line-height: 25px;"> I source most of my pieces from flea markets, thrift shops, and other people's closets (especially my parents'!). I tend to have a really good eye for pieces that others will enjoy, and I also have the patience for thrifting, cleaning, and altering clothes to make them suitable for wearing. I deeply enjoy this process, because I love being able to take something that seems old and dated and create a new life for it. Sometimes all a piece need is to be styled differently! I trust the people who shop at Good Vibrations to see the potential in items and rock them. </span><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="line-height: 25px;"> Besides working with the clothes, I manage the shop, write my blog (which often relates to social justice and sustainability, themes that I emphasize here), take care of shipping and processing orders (another one of my favorite parts!), and somehow find time to be a full-time student and leader of several social justice and sustainability-focused organizations at UC Santa Cruz in California. </span><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="line-height: 25px;"> My greatest passion here is to take care of the Earth and all the people on it by promoting a more sustainable lifestyle for everyone, one piece of clothing at a time. I hope you like my shop :)</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 25px;"> Love, </span><br />
<span style="line-height: 25px;"> Madeleine</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 25px;">PS: This is a scheduled post! I'll be back on the 22nd! </span>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985635493059781598.post-42254471851509949682015-09-08T00:12:00.001-07:002015-09-08T11:20:29.061-07:00What Are You Eating? Part Three<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Continuing on with our food series, today I'm here to discuss one of my favorite things: justice! Specifically, I'd like to talk about justice movements surrounding food. This is a quick overview of some very important and complex topics, so if any of these interest you, I highly recommend doing some research and looking into them further!<br />
First of all, the most obvious justice movement here is the food justice movement. The food justice movement encompasses a wide range of groups and non-profit organizations, and the general goal of the food justice movement is providing all people with access to healthy food. Though many of us take our food access for granted, <a href="http://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/fooddeserts.aspx" target="_blank">according to the USDA</a>, 23.5 million people in the U.S. live in food deserts. A food desert is defined as "<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options." This leads to many health problems for populations </span>living<span style="font-family: inherit;"> in these areas, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The food justice movement works to eradicate food deserts and the health issues and inequity they cause. Some wonderful examples of organizations working in the food </span>justice<span style="font-family: inherit;"> movement are the <a href="http://comfoodjustice.org/about/mission-history/" target="_blank">Community Food and Justice Coalition</a>, <a href="http://oaklandfood.org/our-work/plan-for-action/strategies/" target="_blank">Oakland Food Policy Council</a>, and <a href="http://garden2table.org/aboutus" target="_blank">Garden To Table</a>. Their websites are great places to look to see food justice organizing in action! </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Closely tied to food justice is </span>the concern of environmental justice. Taken from its designated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_justice" target="_blank">Wikipedia page</a>, "</span>Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." When we are talking about environmental justice in terms of food, we are really talking, at least in part, about our food system. Our industrial food system, as I mentioned <a href="http://thosegoodvibrations.blogspot.com/2015/08/what-are-you-eating-part-one.html" target="_blank">earlier in the series</a>, is a bit of a mess. Thanks to the way we grow our food, many communities suffer from polluted water and land, causing many instances of sickness among residents (an excellent example of this is captured in the documentary <a href="http://www.pollutionissues.com/knowledge/Environmental_racism.html" target="_blank">Thirsty For Justice</a>, a film I highly recommend!). Often those communities most affected by harms like this are communities containing high populations of people of color, a phenomenon often referred to as <a href="http://www.pollutionissues.com/knowledge/Environmental_racism.html" target="_blank">environmental racism</a>. Environmental justice movements focusing on this aspect of their work attempt to help create food systems that are not harmful to any communities, and therefore environmentally just. The aforementioned food justice organizations are great examples of this being done! Community garden projects across the nation are also a wonderful, and widespread example of food and environmental justice enacted.<br />
The last cause we will discuss today is closely related to the first two: labor justice. Labor justice initiatives concerned with the food system support farmworkers and their ability to organize and secure fair treatment and wages. Over 20 million people work in the food system in the U.S., and they are among the poorest and most exploited people in the world. Labor justice movements aim to give farmworkers the rights and status they deserve. Some great examples of this project in action include the <a href="http://fairworldproject.org/about/movements/labor-justice/" target="_blank">Fair World Project</a> (which has some great info), <a href="http://www.farmworkerfamily.org/" target="_blank">Center for Farmworker Families</a>, whose executive director came and spoke at UCSC last year (she's an awesome lady, very passionate), and the work of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez" target="_blank">Cesar Chavez</a> and the <a href="http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=about&inc=about_vision.html" target="_blank">United Farm Workers</a> union.<br />
So, those are the justice movements associated with food, explained to the best of my knowledge.<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-weight: bold;"> As you can see, your food choices have social justice implications! They affect people on environmental, occupational, and access levels. </span>In part four of the series, I will discuss how to act on all the information I've given you and what you can do to promote more sustainable, just food systems. Are you excited? I am!!<br />
Love,<br />
Madeleine<br />
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Note: I will not be in town for the next 2 weeks or so, so my blog will not be fully updated until the week of the 22nd of September. I have scheduled one post though, so come back for that!<br />
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Photos: <a href="http://justseeds.org/meredith_stern/09foodjustice.html" target="_blank">1</a>, <a href="http://www.migrantjustice.net/node/169" target="_blank">2</a>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14774009478473384255noreply@blogger.com1