Notes from Occupy Race Call on 11/18/11 (occupyrace@googlegroups.com)
Yvonne Yen Liu (Google Docs)
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Occupy and Race/Class/Gender |
Occupy Research: Race/Class/Gender & Movement Building Conference Call
November 18, 2011
Date: Friday, 11/18/11
Time: 2pm ET/11am PT (1 hour)
Call-in number: 1(800) 617-4268
PIN: 22988982
Notes: http://bit.ly/occupyracecall1
Goals of the call:
1) Define a central research question
2) Decide on research objectives
3) Discuss research methods (online survey, ethnography, interviews, media analysis, etc.)
4) Plan out next steps and share resources
Agenda:
1) Introductions and check-in (15 min)
a) Name
b) Occupy location, if relevant
c) Organizational or university affiliation, if relevant
d) How am I feeling today?
2) Share research questions (15 min)
a) What is my research question regarding race/class/gender?
b) What is my research question regarding social movement process?
c) What are resources on intersectional analysis (race/class/gender/LGBTQ) and social movement research?
d) Add other agenda items here
3) Discussion on consolidating research project(s) (15 min)
a) Research question and objectives
b) Research methods
c) Results analysis
d) Research outcomes (i.e. report, article, thesis, etc.)
e) Timeline
f) Add other agenda items here
4) Next steps (10 min)
a) Tasks
b) Roles
c) Reportback to larger Occupy Research community on Saturday’s call
- Saturday, Nov. 19th (1 pm Eastern) (10 am Pacific)
- Dial conference call number (949) 202-4265 and enter Audio Pin 51267#
- Link to live meeting notes: http://bit.ly/orcall4
d) Next check-in call: December 2nd, 10am PST/1pm EST
e) Add other agenda items here
5) Check-out (5 min)
a) Name
b) Share one word that summarizes how you feel.
Attendees:
NAME | AFFILIATION | CONTACT INFORMATION |
Yvonne Yen Liu | Applied Research Center Colorlines.com Occupy Oakland, LeftBay99 | |
Dalida María Benfield | Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University | |
Nayantara Sen | Applied Research Center Occupy Wall Street/New York | |
Michelle Ronayne | Nashua Community College Nashua NH | have to miss first call but want to be a part of this! Will be on next call for sure. |
Joseph Jung | Applied Research Center Oakland | |
Saba Waheed | DataCenter (Los Angeles) | |
John Sullivan | Applied Research Center Oakland | |
Erin Hagan | PolicyLink - Oakland, CA | |
Mara Ortenburger | DataCenter - Oakland | |
Julia Sebastian | Data Center Ella Baker Center Occupy Oakland | |
Rhea Vichot | USC PhD student Occupy LA |
Research Questions:
What is my research question? |
Yvonne Yen Liu: What are organizer’s attitudes towards race, class, and gender? What do think of racial disparities? Income inequality? Sexism and patriarchy? The American Dream? How many POC, women, LGBTQ identified play “leadership” positions in the Occupy camps? How are issues of racial, gender, queer, and economic injustice incorporated in the Occupy camps? What’s the role of the POC/QPOC Caucus in the Occupy camps? What are the stages of social movement development and where is Occupy in that? How is it changing? Are we moving from informal charasmatic leadership to formal institutional? What is the role of existing institutions--community based organizations, labor unions, faith based groups--in supporting the movement? What are attitudes of Occupy organizers towards CBOs and nonprofits? What are attitudes of CBOs and nonprofits towards the Occupy movement? Over time, how will the Occupy movement institutionalize itself, as all movements do? |
Nayantara Sen: Interest based on blocks in coalition building in OWS. Struggle to figure out tactics and strategies in integrating a racial justice agenda. My research question: How can we find ways for Occupy movement to lead with the most marginalized communities first? And, create safe spaces for immigrants and non-gender conforming individuals that are arguably different than “safer” spaces currently available for straight, white cisgender occupiers? I perceive a vast gap between stated mission, branding and jargonistic terminology of occupation process (in Spokes Council, in GA meetings etc) and actual implementation of those principles (eg: occupiers might be in solidarity for POC but frequently act in ways that jeopardize safety of POC on the ground). How can the Occupy movement make these gaps visible and bridge them? How can Occupy movements unpack the rhetorics of “class war” to add in more complex, nuanced interpretations that incorporate race/gender dynamics? |
Dalida María Benfield What is the "racial project" (Omi & Winant, 1994) of the occupy movement(s)? How is this constituted, in words, tactics, images, and audio-visual texts? How do raced and gendered images and audio-visual texts inhibit or facilitate participation by women and people of color, on the ground and online? What is the relationship between race, gender, space, and participation? How is participation facilitated or inhibited for women, racialized and queer communities by the emphasis of the occupy movement on the inhabitation of urban space vs. virtual, online participation? What is the genealogy of images and audio-visual texts of the occupy movement(s)? What are the translocal genealogies? And can they be traced temporally and spatially, to people of color movements in the U.S., "Third World" decolonial movements, queer and feminist movements, to contemporary transnational sites of revolution? Methodologically, I am committed to understanding the cultural texts being produced by the Occupy movements as an opportunity for intervention - making cultural work central to our movement theorizing - and also as an opportunity for understanding and supporting intersectional, trans-local and trans-media dialogue. I am also interested in supporting Occupy Research as an instance of participatory methodologies, engaging people in a collective process of research and media production. |
Michelle Ronayne: My research questions are very similar to Yvonne-- I have been on a few listservs and this seems to be an important area. People across race, class and gender do not necessarily feel equally heard. I am also interested in the success of leaderless movements as it relates to our understanding of social and individual power. |
Joseph Jung: How has the Occupy movement dealt with issues of POC representation and racial equity? Have participants in Oakland, Seattle, Phoenix, Portland, and elsewhere woven a racial justice agenda into the fabric of the movement? Are there any articles or commentators in the media that have addressed this issue well? Focus groups on millennials and their attitudes on race. How much has racial justice been woven into the fabric of Occupy movement? |
Saba Waheed: The ways that race/class/gender playing out in the Occupy camp, both internally and externally. How is it perceived: as a white movement? And internally, what are the internal dynamics? How is the space connecting to existing social justice organizations? Alliances like Right to the City, groups who’ve already been organizing, low-income and POC-led, what are the spaces within the Occupy movement. |
John Sullivan: Questions inspired by Robin DG Kelley. (1) Value of bodies, young man who was hit by tear gas canister and injured early on. White vet. Rallying point for movement and media. A week later, a young Black man was murdered close by. Media response was vastly different. Interested in what’s going on there. (2) Influence of POC activists in other countries on the Occupy movement. How has the Arab spring, Chile influenced Occupy? |
Erin Hagen: Power dynamics around race and class. The people who actually live in the camps and the people doing organizing. What does that difference look like? In Detroit, 90% of the campers are homeless. They are the 99%, but their reasons are legitimate, but not the same as the organizers. Who are the people staffing the camp? What does the power dynamics look like? Something that Policylink has been thinking about. |
Mara Ortenburger: What type of infrastructure has been setup to act as interventions against dynamics? Safe spaces, trauma, counseling. Sexual violence in camps. How have narratives of decolonization and occupation played out and what are the responses to that? |
Julia Sebastian: Most in line with Nayana in understanding how issues of privilege are playing out in Occupy, including interrelations of privilege? How can this space function to facilitate story-telling to expose those differences in privilege and power? |
Rhea Vichot: Media production by Occupy protesters by marginalized groups. What issues are raised in the media? For ex., documents related to OWS, decry what was perceived as trans-misogynist groups in OWS. Interesting doc disseminating that concern. And, other types of media production being done. |
Resources
- Militant Co-Research, http://www.thisisforever.org/
- Alain Touraine, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Touraine
- Aldon Morris, http://www.sociology.northwestern.edu/faculty/morris/home.html
- Occupy Research Demographic and Participation Survey: http://bit.ly/occupysurveydraft2
- Occupy Cal Survey Link: http://pmjblog.weebly.com/1/post/2011/11/occupy-cal-survey-results.html
Roles:
- Define research questions and objectives on race/class/gender and movement building: Yvonne, Joe, Julia, Erin, Nayana, Saba. Consolidate research questions and send out email to refine and revise. Do a mid-point check-in; figure this out via email.
- Saba: Will reportback on this working group for the larger Occupy Research call.
- Erin: Will outreach to other Occupy camps, like Detroit.
- Media Research: Rhea will reach out to Dalida to consolidate research questions. John wants to be involved.
- Draft survey questions, interview questions, focus group protocol, site selection.
- Literature review on social movement research (John?) and existing issues around race/class/gender (Joe is working on some right now)
- Nayana Sen and Julia Sebastian are contact persons with Occupy Research (to coordinate with online presence on wikispaces)
Next Call: Friday, December 2 at 10am PT/1pm ET
Call-in number: 1(800) 617-4268
PIN: 22988982
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