Reflections on the U.S. Social Forum
Is Another World Really Possible?
The motto for the U.S. Social Forum "another world is possible,
another U.S. is necessary" captures in its simplicity the credo
of those who are committed to building a more peaceful and just society.
If this bold statement is but an unproven theory, then the collective
experience of the participants may serve as test for the hypothesis.
My participation at the Forum June 27th through July 1st (as a volunteer,
workshop attendee, and offsite workshop facilitator) deepened my
understanding of the value of such mass activist gatherings. The
quality of dialogue, and the warmth and affection among attendees
attested to the probability that a better world is indeed possible.
Yet, the structural limitations of the progressive movement and the
occasional actions I witnessed from those seeking power, emulating
dominator culture, countered my estimation of those possibilities.
Every workshop and several informal discussions raised my consciousness
about what levels of change are possible. I was inspired by the belief
that such change is not only doable, it must be done in order to
expand peace and justice in the world. I learned key lessons from
the content of the presentations as well as the unplanned incidents.
These lessons conveyed the possibilities of "another world",
a more progressive world transformed by critical praxis that is grounded
in love. They were not exclusively provided through the theories
and experiences we discussed. They were evident in the spirit of
our interactions between workshops, the ways that we greeted and
cared for each other, and the patience and compassion we showed one
another when problems arose.
In "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", Friere offers dialogue
as the primary tool of liberating the oppressed so that they may
lead themselves and their oppressors to build an egalitarian society.
The Forum in several ways exemplified this principle. For example,
with the workshop "Ending the prison industrial complex and
developing models for transformative justice", the organizers
from Critical Resistance held a dialogue in which participants were
encouraged to share perspectives, ask questions, and challenge each
other including the facilitators.This was done in a mutually respectful
way that incorporated critical reflection on the part of the speaker
and the listeners. The discussion addressed community accountability
models to stem the violence against women and other people.
After I shared my suggestions about how men could teach each other
to examine and resist patriarchy, a facilitator asked that others
refrain from using binary gender language. She was clearly referring
to my statement and perhaps earlier examples. At first, I felt embarrassed
and unappreciated because of my good intentions. Then I examined
my own thoughts, distinguished between the intended meaning and the
effect of my words, and reinterpreted the feedback as useful. I thanked
her for the language check and we began a discussion that lasted
for about 30 minutes. The gift of humility helps me to remain receptive
rather than defended against criticism and enabled me to establish
a connection with an organizer I came to admire.
In order for us to unlock oppression systems we have to constantly
examine the ways in which they interlock and reinforce each other.
To this end, important connections were highlighted as focal points
of action. The Thursday plenary "Gulf reconstruction in the
post Katrina era" featured a group of organizers who told compelling
stories about the repopulating of New Orleans and other areas by
mostly white middle class gentry, and the use of immigrant laborers
whose labor is exploited in the reconstruction projects throughout
the gulf. Several speakers thus drew lines between the displacement
of lower income people of color, the manipulation and enslavement
of other low income people of color to rebuild areas to be inhabited
my higher income, mostly white homeowners. This discussion focused
on the nation’s most egregious example of large scale dehumanization
arguably since the early years of the AIDS epidemic. As such, it
was duly prioritized as a plenary discussion available to the vast
majority of attendees. Change is made possible when the interconnected
nature of our oppression is clearly explained not only with academic
concepts but narratives of real human struggle guided by analysis
as was provided by the gulf area organizers.
On Friday evening, I co-facilitated a discussion for Black gay men
attending the Forum entitled "We are worth wanting each other:
black gay men and the politics of desire". My co-facilitator
Charles Stephens is a 26 year old graduate of Georgia State University,
a feminist scholar and a radical Black gay activist. It was exciting
to engage in this work with a fellow organizer twenty years younger
as we learn from each other while modeling for others the possibilities
of cross generational partnerships and dialogue. In this discussion,
14 Black gay men explored how our sexual desires and relationships
shape our social justice values and how our social justice values
influence our sexual desires and relationships. We had planned to
spend half of the time focusing on how we became involved in progressive
activism and identifying Black gay men in the lineage of activist
history. But as the conversation unfolded, it became clear that participants
really wanted to examine the alignment, the dissonance and the compartmentalization
between our erotic lives and our political work.
Charles and I found it quite freeing to guide the flow of dialogue
as redirected by the group while sharing our experiences as peers.
One brother spoke about how several of his partners either complained
or mocked his love of reading and his other intellectual pursuits.
Another spoke out about feeling marginalized within black gay communities
because he is a large man and often unseen or not regarded as sexually
attractive. Several of us examined our lack of attraction to men
whom we perceive to be more feminine than we perceive ourselves to
be, and compared those patterns to our analyses of internalized oppression
and the maladaptive strategy to "perform" as hetero normative
to avoid persecution. We created an atmosphere of warmth and trust,
and enjoyed a deep fraternity in that moment.
This was one of the most enlightening spaces of my Forum experience
because it confirmed the possibility and the importance of healing
ourselves from the shaming we endured from our parents, peers, and
communities. In her essay "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as
Power" Audre Lorde underlines the partriarchal suppression and
manipulation of the erotic power of women. Women are thus taught
to revile that power within themselves unless it is in the service
of pleasuring men. Black gay men face similar constraints as men
who due to our sexual orientation are gender traitors whose erotic
nature is condemned. When we interrogate the ways in which we distance
ourselves from our erotic nature or betray our commitment to self
acceptance by partnering with self hating men who in turn shame us,
we begin to recognize our power. I was so inspired to witness that
recognition in several men who named the intermittent joy they experienced
when they allowed themselves to be vulnerable, to be fully human
and not necessarily masculine.
Another world is possible when gay men extend their radical transgression
beyond the proscriptions of sexual propriety and shatter the confines
of patriarchal masculinity itself by tapping into their erotic power.
When Black gay men are able to relinquish masculinist limitations
that do not allow them to express themselves because such expression
is reviled by the same perspective that fears the feminine, they
shatter the shackles they have inherited from generations of servitude
to patriarchy. When Black gay men commit themselves to engage in
work that fulfills them, to unhinge themselves from toxic relationships,
to seek intimate bonds where they are valued in the entirety of their
personhood, and to engage in mutually pleasurable sexual relationships
where they can satisfy primal desires unfettered by ascetic values,
then infinite possibilities are engendered. We demonstrate for other
Black men including heterosexual Black men, other possibilities,
revolutionary ways of being non-partriarchal men who have the courage
to be tender, to express fuller spectrums of feminine and masculine
energies that reside in all human beings. We show our brothers we
can enjoy vibrant and healing sexuality without shame or mutual dehumanization,
and that we may dare to love deeply and be loved for all that we
are, without using sex as a surrogate for the love we need but dare
not seek or share. We inform all men that we do not have to dim our
emotional wavelength, or remain bound to rigid armor that binds us,
behavior codes that curtail they way we walk, talk and breathe, flat
proscriptions that flatten our life energy. This discussion holds
lessons for us all that the erotic, in the form of sexuality, or
the passion we experience through the art, the work, the love that
brings us utter joy, can and does transform society. I was thus reminded
why the denigration and suppression of this energy is critical to
the maintaining of the status quo and the culture of domination.
The erotic is antithetical to oppression because to be oppressed
is to be denied humanity and to be in touch with the erotic is to
be fully human.
Throughout the course of the Forum, I received messages and observed
behaviors which tested my faith in the possibility for real change.
First was the overriding sense of scarcity which at times seemed
to drown out the pep speeches about creatively generating funds and
building resources. The fact that the workshop, "The revolution
will not be funded" was occupied beyond capacity speaks to the
concerns of many organizers who do not have enough means to support
the work they are doing. Another disappointment was the way in which
the left movements replicate the dominant culture norms. In the plenary "Liberating
gender and sexuality" Suzanne Pharr cautioned us to notice and
challenge the sexism of commonly exercised in so-called radical organizations.
That was demoralizing even if necessary to hear considering that
social justice organizing is already under funded and over burdened.
Our work is only further crippled when we hold on to traditional
differentials of power.
I was quite frustrated by the participation of one brother at the
Critical Resistance workshop who took up an inordinate chunk of time
postulating as if he had the sole answer to the problems we were
analyzing. I thought that his endless pontificating was disrespectful
to the facilitators and others present, and I wondered if all that
cock strutting was an act of opposition against feminist leadership
since women and transgendered folks were leading this serious dialogue
about organizing values and strategies. As men of all sexual orientations
engaged in radical organizing, we must be willing to identify, resist
and challenge our use of male power, such as talking over or interrupting
women and transgendered, or uncritically assuming leadership roles
as if our gender entitles us to them. When we fail to check our sexism,
especially the heterosexist, heteronormative patterns within the
left movements, as if only conservatives and non-radicals can be
sexist, then, in effect, we use the organizations built to eradicate
patriarchy to restore patriarchal order. We must not forget that
his same default to the privileged has been undermining anti-racist,
feminist, and queer liberation movements for decades.
Fundamental social change is not possible without the building and
agency of progressive coalitions. In order to build coalitions, people
who may otherwise be focused on specific issues must recognize issues
of common interest and must be willing and able to work together
beyond differences of identity, and divergent strategies. The organizers
of this forum went to great lengths to include and coordinate a wide
battery of issues, movements, and communities on this world stage.
To be a part of such a gathering, was to witness a commitment to
underscoring the universal desire to liberate ourselves from oppression
in order to be free, to reclaim humanity for ourselves and each other.
You could see it in the wave of marchers of varied gender, race,
age, language, physical ability returning to the Civic Center. Some
looked sun drained, others simply exhilarated, but almost all appeared
victorious.
Instead of marching, I had chosen to stay in the office and catch
up on some work at Positive Impact. It was not just that I had missed
one of the most significant marches of my lifetime to catch up on
some paperwork. I knew that I had the opportunity to risk being behind
in some work in order to be present for something that was more important
to me. I realized that I could be different in how I approached my
life and my work in a way that allows me to follow my spirit and
uphold my commitments to others. By missing the march I had learned
something about the importance of being present for the pivotal moments
of my life even when I am not prepared or for them. Such possibilities
may materialize without warning.
Craig Washington
"Your crown has been bought and paid for. All you must do is
put it on your head." James Baldwin
return to mywerks
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