Mission Statement

[Robin Markle]

hey mike and jenae, the sole other members of this working group. (i
guess i should send out an announcement over the regional listservs,
not sure if i did that.)

anyway, we need to write a mission statement for the visibility
working group. at the bottom of this e-mail are some samples the
visibility wg sent me to work off of.

maybe we could start by saying what our goals for this working group
are? here are mine to start us off:

- to be accountable allies to the working class caucus
- to work together and challenge one another in our understanding of
class oppression and privilege
- to take tangible steps to eradicate classism in our work

what else do you think we should add?

- robin

p.s. do either of you want to be managers for this group?

Men's Aux:
We are a place for male identified people to build a strong,
supportive, and healing community in which we can challenge each other
and grow in a shared understanding of patriarchal sexism. While
members of this group benefit from male privilege in different ways,
this is an important space to develop our understanding of how
patriarchy limits our humanity and ability to participate in a
democratic society. The Women's and Trans Caucuses provide us with
leadership and direction, and we are pro-active about building an anti-
sexist movement both nationally, and locally in our chapters and in
our lives.

White Aux:
The white privilege group is an auxiliary group to the People of Color
(POC) Caucus. We aim to be steadfast allies of the members of the POC
Caucus in the struggle against white supremacy. We aim to engage in
critical dialogue with the POC Caucus to further our collective
understanding of race and racism as a lived reality that limits our
ability to co-exist as humans. We recognize the importance of making
sure that our organization is a safe space for groups of people that
are systematically oppressed in our society. This involves a strong
commitment on the part of white activists to not only challenge white
supremacy in the society at large, but to examine the dynamics within
our own organization. The white privilege auxiliary exists to provide
a space where white activists can identify manifestations of white
chauvinism, white privilege, and white normativity in SDS and work
together to root out the underlying causes and contributors to these
conditions. It is a space for for members to be critical and challenge
one another while holding one another accountable.

Additionally, we recognize that the intersectionality of systems of
oppression compounds the privilege assigned to those of us who are
male, hetero, economically privileged, and able-bodied, in addition to
being white. Working together with the people of color caucus, we
hope to put forward a clear analysis and develop a deep understanding
of how white privilege affects our day-to-day organizing and limits
our ability to participate in a democratic society. We are committed
to using our analysis to further develop concrete strategies for
organizing white folks against white supremacy. As we learn from and
work with the POC caucus, we hope to develop and deepen our commitment
to anti-racist activism and solidarity with POC-led movements.

[Jenae Stainer]

hey Robin and Mike!

 

I think that those goals sound great so far.  I've been to one class privilege aux group, and I am really racking my brain trying to remember what was said.  Here are some things:

 

One thing that really stands out in my mind is everyone's desire to include more working class folks in our struggles, such as workers at our schools and in our communities, as well as everyone's timidity when it comes to approaching working class people. For example, we discussed that if we were to work on a campaign to improve conditions for workers on campus, we would of course love to get their input and involvement, but some concerns were raised about whether or not that would put their jobs in jeopardy or simply make them feel uncomfortable.  That also goes along with the fear of tokenizing people.

Another point of conversation was accessibility of events/meetings for people (maybe not always nights, when many people work; a public location people could easily get to)

One of the reasons that this working group may be so small is because as students, many of us are privileged and fail to see the classism that exists since it may not be as blatant or commonly discussed as sexism, heterosexism, or racism, among other forms of oppression.

 

So, they aren't so much goals as maybe things that we could discuss, but I think we could pull some goals out of them; I can definitely see where our goals we've already come up with come into play.  I don't think I wrote everything out exactly right, but I wanted to throw some things out there to let you know I'm here and to get some feedback!

 

Unfortunately this summer I have to work and so I don't have time/money to go to convention, but I am definitely down to help with this group as much as I can.  I'll post something to my home SDS board and hopefully some folks would like to join up.

 

<3

jenae

tuscaloosa-sds

[ben privot]

Sup y'all,

Thanks for starting this, whomever that is. I appreciate that you all
are starting to get this caucus going. I like Robin's suggestion to
start getting people onto this list and advertising it. Off the top
of my head we can:
-send an email out over the lists
-face book group post
-contact people personally who we know

Also, i think that if nobody here is eager (doesn't have time/interest/
capacity/etc) to devote the time to be manager for this group, we
could wait for the new people to come and let them know we're in need
of a manager. We could even include a note in the email that someone
(Robin, i think) is sending to the regional lists and say a little
something on how we're just starting up and we have the opportunity
for someone to be manger. If we feel its necessary or feel compelled
to, we could give a rundown of the work the manager does and what
skillz it provides to organizing to get the newbies excited about the
work (i.e. aux experience, familiarity with nat'l organizing, how to
manage a list, broaden your contact network, could be an opportunity
to develop collective liberation vision work, etc)

Anyway, thats all of my ramblings for now.

I'll see you all soon, especially Robin!
xoxo,
Ben