Voting is your Voice! ...Huh?

In the time leading up to February 5th, the famed day of the California primary elections for presidential candidates. Being a current university student, there were a few groups trying to get people to vote, as well as people campaigning for their choice of candidate. As soon as I would near the center of campus where many of these groups were campaigning, I was already thinking of how I would respond to potential conversations I might have with these people. Earlier on I tried to have a conversation with someone who was campaigning for Ron Paul about how my relationship to the U.S. as an empire is one that makes me want to not take part in the U.S. as an empire. The guy simply did not understand me. Hell, I'm sure the long sentence I just wrote was hard to understand. But the central question that I wish people would take into consideration is, why is it that (white) people do not seem to understand that not voting is a form of voice during election times?

I included "white" in parenthesis because the question pretty much applies to white people, but there are plenty folks of all colors who take this assumption into mind. It's more or less "in the culture" or the United States to assume that voting is somehow THE form of exercising voice. At the very least, that was the impression I got when a white woman from the VOTE campaign, a non-partisan (which is only "neutral" upon party lines) asked me if I am registered to vote (Yes), and if I am registered with a political party (Democrat). "Are you voting today? (Feb 5th)" "No." Yet when she asked me why I was not planning to vote.... I was speechless. I couldn't think of how I could possibly begin to explain that I have not yet come to terms with how the U.S. does not remotely represent my best interests, because I am interested in the right to live outside the realm of surviving for all peoples. I was speechless. I didn't know what to say because as I stood there thinking about how I could start articulating myself to her, she would say things like "You should!", "This is important! You're deciding who's going to be the next PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES."

"I....'m just not."

I walked away feeling defeated. I saw my partner. And as I was walking with her, away from the campus center, I told her about how I could not explain myself. I explained my frustration and the sheer distance in thought and feeling that I felt between me and the white woman who asked me about my vote. I decided that come next election, I would be much more prepared to tell someone why I am not voting. That's not to say I am going to be all about practicing lines to say to people come... November is it?... but I will be ready. Because silence is not consent.

And if you may be wondering what exactly ARE my thoughts and feelings on voting... that is for another post.

Thoughts on Martin Luther King Jr.

Popular view of King ignores complexity

"It's not OK to slip into flat memory of who Dr. King was, it does no justice to us and makes him to easy to appropriate," [Melissa Harris-Lacewell] said. "Every time he gets appropriated, we have to come out and say that's not OK. We do have the ability to speak back."

I sat for a moment after writing the intro entry of my blog, and came across this article about Martin Luther King, Jr. And I thought to myself, what an obvious, cliche, yet also very appropriate topic. Several thoughts come up simply from hearing his name. They are:

1) My relation to blackness, freedom for black folks, and the related movements.

2) The image of MLK that has been created an maintained in mainstream media, history, politics, and education.

3) The question of, why do we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day and not Civil Rights Day?

I'll stick with those for this entry.

1) Reading about Blackness, Black struggle, and issues pertaining to Black people has been something I have always taken joy in. I'm not Black. However, much of education in terms of histories of otherness tend to cater to the black versus white theme that tends to leave out other non-white peoples. Yet from what I have learned about struggles of Black folks, there are countless similarities I have been able to see with histories of my ancestors and me. Colonialism, slavery, genocide, rape, Westernization are all struggles that I know that peoples indigenous to the Americas have gone through. And in today's world, we still share many connected struggles and still do not unite against on a massive scale. The point is, I find powerful inspiration from Black people and leaders because our struggles are connected. And even if they ever weren't as I once believed when I was younger, I've always believed Black folks deserve justice.

2) After reading brief histories of both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, I noticed that it is harshly unfair to the many Black folks of the era who struggled for justice to have two highly publicized leaders be potrayed in such polarizing ways. Malcolm X seems to be forever the fiery radical separatist. Martin Luther King Jr. is potrayed as the reformist. I bring up Malcolm X because it is unfair and just as dangerous to have either of these men seen in such an unchanging way. Martin Luther King Jr. grew more radical in the time that led up to his assassination. Malcom X grew to disassociate himself with the separatism he once stood for. I think we have to know these things because people change. Ideas and feelings change. To not allow for the chance of change is to deny someone's humanity.

3) This one has been bugging me for years: Why MLK Jr. Day and not Civil Rights Day? Why do we celebrate the man and not the community from which he drew so much strength? The great (romanticized) movements of the 60's and 70's within the United States were about the people, not about the individuals. And though they were by no means perfect, they did create much for folks to build on today. For all the talk I have heard from folks who critique individualism in the United States, I have yet to hear this critique from someone else. Why MLK Jr. Day and not Civil Rights Day? Why Cesar E. Chavez Day and not Workers Rights Day? I find it important to think about how limiting a recognition of only one Black man can be when the movement he was involved in was about freedom for many peoples (if not all peoples).

Another year, another MLK Jr. Day. I find myself reflecting on the many shoulders I am standing on to be where I am today: healthy, in school, at a computer, thinking about freedom means to me. I am grateful to all folks who had any part to play in the Civil Rights Movement. La lucha sigue / The struggle continues. This could take me into a rant about the way the Civil Rights Movment is now being used by racists to assert that racism does not exist, but that is for another day. Till next time, take care, everyone.

Let's do this

Lately I've been browsing the internet more and more. I tend to use it when I get curious about technology and what might be comin up at the moment. Yet the last time I looked something up, it was because I read an article in Colorlines about people of color who blog. I never really had any interest contributing commentary to blogging because it has seemed so much like a "white thing." But now, I figure I can give it a shot, and maybe make this happen.

If I have to end this intro entry with anything, it would be that I really hope to find some kind of community in an online sense. Having said that, I can begin this weblog.