Where were we?
A good friend of mine went to the rally to stop the genocide in Darfur at the National Mall this weekend. In an email to me he lamented the lack of Black people there. Then I came across this picture of the rally and thought, "Wow!" The next day in doing my daily web surf of the news I saw George Clooney as the new celebrity face of the fight against the genocide and again I thought, "Wow!" I know that the media is selective in who they choose to give attention to for issues like this which may have been the case with Clooney (Don Cheedle, who has also spoken up about this hasn't received as much attention), but I seriously doubt the person who took this picture at the rally focused in on the "White crowd". Anyway, after all of this I thought, "Where were we on this very important issue and where have we been?" I mean, it is true that we are dealing with our own struggles right here at home but does that really excuse inaction on something this major? Then after dismounting my high horse, I had to ask myself where I was and where have I been on this. My indignation quickly dissolved into embarrassment and shame. I certainly wasn't at any of the local rallies, in fact, I haven't done much of anything about this over the years that it has been occurring. How 'bout you?www.savedarfur.org and www.darfurgenocide.org are just two places to get started with action but I know some of you bright Berkeley folk have additional resources and ideas. Please post them...
posted by Dolo @ 12:56 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
As a clinical social worker committed to social justice, this topic of protest comes up alot in the world of academia and beyond. So many of us educated Black people are on the surface impassioned/intrigued by issues related to human and civil rights. And particularly at Berkeley, we are exposed to daily bombardments of images of protest, resistance, critcal consciousness and alternative thinking in the classroom, our research, and social interactions. With that stated, few of us possess the strong commitment to contribute to radical awareness and resistance for many reasons. I personally believe we are often entrenched in:
1)professional/academic responsibilities 2) personal conflicts or 3) we lack the tools/techniques to enact change or simply 4) we are just spread too thin. I for one have fallen into all 4 categories at one point or another.
I see myself as being in a position of extreme privilege because my professional aspiration and training are one in the same: social justice in action. I realize this is not the case for so many of us at the University but moreover in the Black community. As scholars we can intellectualize for hours about the social dilemmas, but few of us have actually found ourselves on the frontline of the struggle (and this is not to say that I blame anyone). Part of being a true scholar, I believe, is having a healthy balance of both theoretical research and practical application/implementation in our communities. Its hard enough just to get through school sometimes, but I for one don't wish to use that as an excuse. With that said, again, we need to focus our efforts to building strong systems of support for each other (Thank You BGSA, family, and friends!) to not only pursue our personal interests but also to contribute to radical awareness and global change through action. How you define action is of course relative, but I think it personally takes more than chatting amongst our peers...it takes pushing ourselves outside the boundaries of socio-economic status and education to working with "the people" where they are at (i.e.leaving the Berkeley campus and comforts of our home and doing outreach in physically, financially and emotionally impoverished Black communities).
We need to ask ourselves "how do I support other Blacks in the fight for justice?" And if you don't have the answer, then its time to find it...
Peace,
E
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