excerpted from http://asknicola.blogspot.com/2010/05/taser-buzz-kill.html.

After the recent amazement in the press about five healthy women being able to disarm one single man, I thought it might be a good idea to repost this article I wrote a couple of years ago for the Huffington Post.

(…)

There’s been a lot of buzz in the press about women’s Taser parties. (They’re like Tupperware parties, but sell C2 Tasers instead of plastic tubs.)

These reports infuriate me.

Apparently, many women who go to these parties live in constant fear of violent sexual assault. And they believe that having a Taser will protect them. Perhaps they imagine a hooded stranger in their apartment or their parking lot. Perhaps they imagine that they will whip out the Taser, zap the bad guy, and a few minutes later watch as the cops march him off. Bloodless and neat. Her Taser is a “safety blanket,” says Dana Shafman, the entrepreneur who started the parties; if she leaves the house without one she goes “into panic mode.”

But it’s not safety blankets that protect you. You do that.

You start by being informed. Most (68%) violent and/or sexual assaults are perpetrated by a man the woman knows. Most assaults happen in or near the woman’s home (72%) or the home of a neighbor or friend (11%). You are much more likely to get hurt in your breakfast nook than in a dark alley. The man trying to hurt you is more likely to be your ex-husband or boyfriend or colleague than a hooded stranger. So, statistically, we’re talking about Tasing someone you know who moves on you unexpectedly in close quarters, in a place where you feel safe. But, hey, no problem, because the Taser is pretty foolproof. Right?

(…)

And we’re back with the notion of a safety blanket. But safety blankets have never saved anyone. Here’s a better way to approach the possibility of danger: don’t expect a weapon you haven’t trained with for a hundred hours or more to function as a mystical shield. If you do, you’ll be blunting your most powerful survival tool: your instincts. When you begin to feel uncomfortable in a situation - when you are afraid - that’s your instincts, screaming at you that something is wrong. Those instincts can save your life. (Read Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear. Better, read my novel, Always, which is all about the women in a self-defense class who grow and learn and bond–and make awful choices.) Don’t smother them under a safety blanket.

I taught self-defense for five years in the UK. It works. According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, women fight off unarmed rapists successfully 72% of the time. If he has a knife, she’ll fight him off 58% of the time. If he has a gun, she has a 51% chance. Unarmed, untrained: if you fight back, you’ll probably win. But if weapons make you feel better, then just look around you — they’re everywhere. In your purse: perfume, nail file, phone. In your kitchen: cleaning spray, fire extinguisher, all those knives. In your car: air freshener, cigarette lighter, and the car itself.

What do you mean she gets to keep me? I thought I was just here for the photo shoot. Am I still getting paid?  Wait. She named me?  Louis?  After Louis Armstrong?  I don’t even know that nigga.  Somebody get my lawyer on the phone.

excerpted from my best friend gayle: Summer M., Ventriloquist.

summer breaks it down.  sandra bullock saves adopts a black boy.  but you got to check out sun’s side eye…

this is an incredible article/analysis of the fair trade movement that i have been giving a side eye to for the past decade.    i would love to see more discussions analysis on how fair trade is constructed and who is fair trade for.  how fair trade acts as a way to allow the haves to keep what they have and ‘hope’ that the havenots can reach their (higher) level of material social cultural ’success’.

The Consumers

Relying on an understanding of a world divided between “haves” and “have-nots,” fair trade offers an alternative mode of consumption within the global economic system. People who have recognized their existence as the “haves” of the world and experienced the accompanying moral crisis can thus comprehend the world again by knowing that a method exists to bring the have-nots up to the living standards of the Global North.

The fair trade remedy locates the power to transform economic inequality in the purchasing capacities of individual consumers, often using first-person directives to suggest that consumers are part of a social movement. I call this approach the autonomization of social change. For instance, the headline of the Fair Trade Resource Network website last year declared, “WORLD FAIR TRADE DAY WANTS YOU!” It encouraged “you” to “promote Fair Trade and campaign for trade justice together with farmers and artisans around the world.”

In fair trade circles, origin stories of particular Northerners who initiated fair trade projects are used to demonstrate the significance of individuals’ actions to economic equality. DeCarlo, for instance, details the history of Ten Thousand Villages through the efforts of a Mennonite woman named Edna Byler bringing crafts back from Puerto Rico and selling them at her local sewing circle in 1946. DeCarlo explains the importance of this woman’s story as follows:

Like many Fair Trade visionaries and practitioners, Byler volunteered her time and gave her money on behalf of her producer partners…I believe that the single-minded, generous, and visionary commitment of individuals like Byler—whether they be leaders of non-governmental organizations, small business owners, development practitioners, or self-motivated volunteers—is what has made the evolution of Fair Trade possible and its future optimistic.” [2007:65-67]

I heard a similar tale of one woman discovering a need for external market access among Mayan women, taking a suitcase full of woven items to the United States, and selling the contents locally at the fair trade organization (FTO) where I conducted my case study. Although more in-depth narratives can be found in which other actors are involved , the emphasis that readers and listeners place on the lone initiator when reformulating these stories suggests the importance that other Northerners find in understanding what individuals can do.

The individualization in fair trade origin stories suggests to readers/listeners that making fair trade purchases is a reproducible way for consumers to create “the kind of world they want to live in” (DeCarlo 2007:5). Fair trade thus creates a neoliberal response to economic inequality both in the responsibility it places on individual citizens and by finding solutions in the marketplace.

The Producers

A key feature of fair trade discourse is the telling of producers’ stories. At fair trade stores, crafts are labeled with their country of origin, and small display cards describe the items’ production process and traditional uses. The following are examples from two different fair trade stores:

These beautifully crafted recycled aluminum boxes are made by fair trade artisans in Bali. Traditionally, they were used to bring gifts and offerings to weddings, house warmings and other ceremonies.”

Global Mamas is a non-profit assisting small, women-owned businesses in Ghana. Ghana is situated on the Gold Coast of West Africa, where the vast majority of women earn less than $2 per day. By purchasing this product you are offering sustainable livelihoods to women in Africa.

Proceeds go directly to the women entrepreneurs and the nonprofit programs that assist them with business development. Join the community of Global Mamas who care about the world and the future.”

Formulaic profiles such as these convey the idea that before working in fair trade, the artisans were disadvantaged; yet the descriptions fail to contextualize the groups’ economic needs in terms of the political and historical conditions of the communities.

To give another example, FTOs that sell Guatemalan weavings commonly cite two explanations for the economic neediness of Mayan weavers. The first explanation is simply that textile markets within Guatemala are saturated. The second explanation identifies the weavers as widows, referring to the “violence that plagued Guatemala throughout the 1980s” as the cause of their widowhood.

These producer stories leave deeper questions unanswered, such as: Why are so many women turning to their traditional weaving skills as a way to make money? Why are there no jobs available for men? In cases where the women are widows, why were their husbands killed, and by whom? And why are Mayan people in particular in such dire financial situations?

By describing the producers mainly through demographic models—as “impoverished,” “marginalized,” and “disenfranchised”—fair trade materials and advocates themselves create depoliticized and acontextual identities for fair trade’s partners from the Global South.

(…)

The ability of the fair trade system to foster in North Americans and Europeans strong feelings of connection to marginalized people around the world should not be overlooked. The FTO where I conducted my research considers these relationships an important element of their mission. They rely on a network of 160 volunteers to host sales at their homes, churches, and schools. The fact remains, however, that even as a “hand up” rather than “handout,” these relationships seek transformation in a unidirectional way. As Bourdieu (2004:272) puts it, “being born in a social world, we accept a whole range of postulates, axioms, which go without saying and require no inculcating.” In the social world of fair trade advocates and consumers, the axioms which go without saying are that some people (Southerners) are poor, and some other people (Northerners) can exercise power to change that.

For Northerners it’s easy to view material differences in the world’s populations and count ourselves “lucky.” A more discerning look at the psychological issues, divisive social relationships, and environmental degradation plaguing countries like the U.S. should indicate that historical success at accumulating wealth has not left our people spiritually better off than anyone else. The hand we extend should not just be one that will enable farmers and artisans of the Global South to live like us—whether through donations or economic exchange—but a hand that will hold another hand and walk together in search of a world that is different from what any of us currently knows.

excerpted via “Fair Trade Wants You!” The Neoliberal Politics of Conscious Consumption « P U L S E.

(emphasis mine)

Our family, friends, and colleagues in AZ and the surrounding Tribal Lands have kept us updated throughout the years on the state-sanctioned ideology of hate against them and our brothers and sisters that was leaking out of the minds and into the pens of legislation and law enforcement. Perhaps collectively we ought to have spoken up sooner regarding Joe Arpaio, Jan Brewer, and groups such as ICE. Now that the leaking has burst into recent legislative flooding that essentially declares open-season on brown people, who among us now is not compelled to speak up and to engage in well-informed activity?

The role of the Indigenous intellectual and scholar, while not easy, is clear-cut. Intellectuals expose the lies and tell the truth. This is not a new concept; many of our Tribal Nations traditionally have had individuals who served in this role—and continue to do so. Native intellectuals working in academia are particularly well-suited by virtue of training and easy access to resources to carry out this responsibility.

In May 2010, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association NAISA is scheduled to hold its annual conference at the Westin La Paloma in Phoenix. Unfortunately, they lost another opportunity to hold their gathering on Tribal Lands—as justified by the usual suspects of excuses. In any event, let us be hopeful that their gathering will not result in empty hand-wringing, desultory acts which quickly fade away, or artificial outrage. All of know from experience that these only contribute to justified cynicism regarding the ability of Native academics to be on-call for our communities.

While NAISA is not immune to criticism, this does not mean that any of us want to see it become the academic version of “old-school” BIA. We are rooting for it to be relevant, not just to academics, but for Indian Country and other Indigenous communities. And so I am eager to see its response to this AZ outage of reasoning. NAISA’s choice of actions on this can be a watershed moment—and form the basis for its ethical working relationship with Yankton, Kickapoo, and others. And if any Native intellectual is unclear of her responsibilities or were never taught them, please, get a reality-check from the communities, Tribes, and Nations—all of whom our academic discipline owes its existence. Start with the people in Tohono O’odham. Start with one of the Tribal College presidents who tell me about what is occurring in their communities, including the loss of young people.

excerpted via #53. ARIZONA STATEMENT: A May Day Call to All Indigenous Intellectuals and Scholars « LAST WOMAN: political & cultural snaps.

As Haiti’s earthquake toppled buildings, it also toppled social structures that provided Haitian women some protection against sexual violence. Rape was widespread before January 12, but the hundreds of thousands of women now living on the streets or in camps, often without their family and neighborhood networks, are more vulnerable than ever. As of March 21, grassroots outreach workers had tracked 230 cases of rape in 15 camps, over 15 incidents per camp, in a partial survey. There has been no comprehensive survey and, sadly, UNIFEM’s database for collecting data on sexual violence was destroyed in the earthquake. But, with over 500 camps in Port-au-Prince alone, it is clear that sexual violence is widespread.

excerpted via MADRE :: Press Room :: Take Action Now to Stop Gender-Based Violence in Haiti.

“Some Europeans who love Africa love it for exoticism,” “Anything modern doesn’t interest them. I don’t know why they don’t realise that the traditional and the modern can exist alongside each other. I think they have an image of Africa which they don’t want to change. It’s horrible. It’s the same all over Europe, but France is the worst because here there’s that pretension of knowing Africa.

If they tried to think about it objectively they would be ashamed of themselves. They have decided how African music is supposed to be. So, when a European musician goes to Africa to make a record because he wants a different sound, then it’s amazing, it’s genius. But when an African does something with a European inspiration, it’s not normal.

via flip flopping joy » Blog Archive » “Some Europeans who love Africa love it for exoticism”.

Mother’s day is essentially the please forgive me for not caring enough to help out/take notice/take you out to eat/buy you flowers lets hear it for consumerism, google Anna Jarvis the rest of the year. I’m gonna get you a ring from Kay’s or Jarod’s because the commercial says I have to and I’ll put it on our credit card. Also, mom, we are having a celebration so can you order the cake, invite the people, buy the food, clean the house, decorate and be a gracious host?

This is the one day that it is acceptable to acknowledge motherhood in places of employment, because the rest of the year you better as hell not even think about bringing up the difficulties of mamihood/single mamihood because we simply do not care and do not understand why you just can’t hire a babysitter, calm down, take them to a daycare, budget your money better, go to a kid’s award ceremony on your day off which is a Saturday/sunday or after 5pm, tell them to get sick on the weekends, your preteen had a melt down and lost his homework and you had to talk to his teacher and you smoothed it down and made it all better, who the fuck cares-clock in and shut up. But on mother’s day, we celebrate you oh giver of life. Well la de freaking da no thank you. Now, you may ask well mizz cranky pants, you ranting is nothing new. Believe you me, you haven’t heard enough.

There’s a local conference which interests shout out to me to attend and interact Hell I haven’t done that in a while right and I even volunteered to talk about violence against women–if there was childcare.

Was there?

No.

What was the focus this year of this wonderful conference? The border/death wall. I emailed said organizer last year too, because it was a conference that shouted out to me to attend and interact.

Did they have childcare?

No.

My consolation price? Next year’s focus is women’s issues and they will as a matter of fact have child care. Yes you heard right. Because parents people interested in social justice and the border wall are not parents/mamis/folks who need childcare. I am assuming they assume only mujeres that are mamis need childcare, thus the necessity of childcare at a women focused conference? I cannot compute the logic. Well puzzle me shocked, I totally thought I was allowed to spread the love of my heart to encompass both issues [because thats what it is, my activism is rooted in love & not having access to child care is not allowing me to do what my heart wants/needs. And don't you want that in your community? Don't you want people in your community to be so invested with their hearts & almas and don't you get it that by denying radical parents access to childcare, the community suffers? And then fast forward when you ask where are the artists you need to work for free and the baker who doesn't charge you for the vegan snacks and the gardener who was willing to teach her skills and the computer whiz who designed your posters and the person w/ the free PA hook up is, and where are all the radical poets and why don't they want to come to your table. I am at the kids table. Meet me there.]

excerpted via the mujerista theory. from hermana resist

dear beautiful people, thank you for all of your contributions! my internet has been a bit wonky lately, but i am amazed and excited to announce that we have raised 105 dollars as of today! yay! wow! only 145 dollars left to reach our goal. so please give as much or as little as you can. and share this story of revolutionary love in the face of death with others. remember that we build our own community one day at a time…

support revolutionary love…

our sister’s tattoo

May 2 at 10:58am
To the Original Peoples of the Fourth World and all International Press Services:

At high noon today US Army helicopters of the US Seventh Cavalry air division attempted to land their Blackhawk aircraft upon Lakota Sacred Burial grounds in South Dakota. The presence of military aircraft from this unit is a sad and insulting reminder of the slaughter of more than 300 American Aboriginals on December 29,1890 when soldiers of the US 7th Cavalry gunned down more than 300 Aboriginal Minneconjou Lakota refugee children, women, infants and the elderly at what is now called Wounded Knee in South Dakota Indian Country. The military then left the bodies of their victims to decay unburied in the driving snow.

According to reports from Indigenous Rights Movement Radio host Wanblee this afternoon, Lakota resident Theresa TwoBulls was given less than 24 hrs notice that three US Army 7th Cavalry helicopters would make a landing on the sacred burial grounds at Wounded Knee. As of this writing, the US military was confronted by angry but peaceful and steadfast community resistance as the Aboriginal people of the area have so far, according to reports from Lakota people on the ground, managed to prevent the aircraft from touching Indigenous ground.

For all American Aboriginals of the Americas, this is a sacred area. This is the place where the promise of a people died while fleeing from a genocidal US military unit hell-bent on liquidating the continent of its Indigenous population. There has never been any official apology offered for this massacre and the military awards bestowed upon the genocidal aggressors involved in this conflict still stand, as does a physical monument in honour of the US Army killed during Custer’s “last stand” against a defiant and united Indigenous resistance to their own demise.
The history of the US Army 7th Cavalry is important to understanding the level of violence used against Indigenous peoples. It is important to remember that after the US Seventh Cavalry officially ended the “Indian Wars” at home, they were then dispatched to do battle against Indigenous Filipinos struggling to maintain their hard-won national independence from the colonialist Spanish. In other words, the US War Department sent this very same unit to do overseas what was done here to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. In this historical light, it is only logical for Indigenous peoples to assume that the Obama administration is attempting to make a political point out of this spectacle. Only, what sort of message are you sending by insulting and humiliating a people already suffering from five centuries of continuous pro-Europocentric, anti-Indigenous genocide?

This domestic military action is a deliberate insult and an obvious message of ongoing colonialism, state-sponsored racism and apathetic Indigenous genocide to all Indigenous peoples across the Fourth World; to the whole of the Lakota/Dakota Nation; and to the Indigenous residents of Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee. The symbolism of dispatching the Seventh Cavalry to Wounded Knee in an attempt to land weapons of mass destruction on Aboriginal sacred ground tells us how little this government, and this particular administration, respects the people of Indian Country and our significant historical perspective as survivors of the racist Euro-settler xenophobic purges waged against the Indian in the Americas.
To make matters worse, this action comes on the heels of newly-passed legislation in Arizona state that requires law officers to racially-profile anyone they believe “looks”, “sounds” or “dresses” like an illegal immigrant, a thinly veiled “race law” that directly effects both our Indigenous sisters and brothers native to Occupied Mexico as well as the Native American population of Arizona in the United States. Given that most Indigenous peoples of the Americas share the same general physiotype and more often than not, similar Spanish last names, the passage of this guideline will without a doubt lead to widespread abuses against that state’s brown-skinned population. The legal door now opened, Texas and other states led by neo-confederate constituencies are moving to pass their own anti-immigrant/anti-Indige

our sister’s tattoo « guerrilla mama medicine.

dear friends and familia,

we are raising 250 dollars to support our sister, aaminah, who, a few weeks ago, lost her best friend, ex-husband, son’s father, and compañero.

i love aaminah and eric’s story. it is a story that we dont often get to hear. a story of discovering who you are piece by piece and learning to reclaim your heritage in the face of a world that tells you to ignore who and where you come from.
when aaminah said she wanted to get a tattoo to memoralize eric, i knew that i wanted to help her get this tattoo. but she can’t afford it on her own. and i can’t afford it on my own. and so i am asking all of you to donate what you can for this ink and flesh memorial.
sometimes, life is really complicated. death is complicated. but a tattoo close to aaminah’s heart of her fallen companero is really simple.

please donate as much as you can. may we as a community hold her and her family in our hearts.

visit our sister’s tattoo and make a pay pal donation

in memory of him and in love for aaminah we are fundraising for her to get a tattoo in honor of his life. so that she can hold him close to her heart, always.

this is her sketch of the tattoo.

a dreamcatcher with a feather – signifying our shared Blackfeet/Blood heritage – surrounded by his name, which is in turn surrounded by the transliteration of the Arabic for “To Allah we belong and to Allah we return”, which is what we Muslims say in times of hardship, especially death.