New Yorker Articles

The primary difference between these articles is the experience of people of color, particularly black people at the time and place. The difference between living in a more northern or southern state meant variables in types of racism... Covert v. Overt, and threat of physical harm v. being ignored. The South had always been a place where overt forms of racial abuse have been condoned, so when black people started to make nonviolent actions of protest, violence was the response.

Rule #1

Saul Alinksy's first rule is one I have definitely tried to use before, in my protest of the Patriot Mascot when I made an online petition. I was not sure when I made the petition that anyone would even agree with me, so I asked friends and family who are not even in the Mason community to sign it and help make it look like I had a lot of people on my side. Fortunately for me, there were some people in the Mason community who definitely agreed, but unfortunately, there weren't enough to make a change.

Women's Suffrage & Disability Rights

The Women's Suffrage Movement occurred contemporaneously with the Anti-Slavery Movement, and it ended up achieving its goals much later due to the Civil War which ended up highlighting the racial issues. The Disability Rights Movement seems to be in a similar situation where it currently is picking up speed (and has been for probably thirty years) but also is pushed into the background by other larger campaigns like the Gay Marriage issue. Like the Woman's Suffrage Movement, the Disability Rights Movement "asserts that people with disabilities are human beings with inalienable rights and that these rights can only be secured through collective political action" (The Regents of the University of California). Like women, but probably to an even higher scale, people with disabilities have been denied rights throughout our country's history; they were defined as objects and too often experienced abuse through incarceration, nursing homes, and state institutions. Laws to sterilize person with disabilities against their will and ban children with disabilities from public schools were the majority and only after the Suffrage and Civil Rights Movements did the activism occur for this specific construction of difference. Also, like Suffrage (and Civil Rights), people involved in the Disability Rights Movement have intersections of identity that can include ethnic, racial, sexual, and gender minorities, so the movement itself needs to be diverse. Beginning in the late 1960's the Disability Rights Movement has achieved plenty- IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) that has been edited a few times, and the Americans with Disabilities act in 1990.

http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/drilm/introduction.html

Iron Jawed Angels

Although I had seen Iron Jawed Angels several times before we watched it in class, I was once again enthralled in the story and detail of the Women's Suffrage Movement portrayed in the film. Hilary Swank does a magnificent job as the fiery instigator Alice Paul, but the addition of Patrick Dempsey as a love interest is deplorable and takes away from the authenticity. It is irksome to see that "theatricality" and making sure that nobody thought Alice Paul was a lesbian determined major changes from the history to the film's plot. I mean, I will be the first person to tell you that being a feminist/fighting for women's rights does not mean in any way, shape, or form that she is a lesbian or man-hater, but deviating from the true story of Alice Paul, during a small portion of her life when she was a driving factor in women's struggle for suffrage, minimizes her efforts and contribution. I think that the movie definitely sends the wrong message in that way; that a homogenized group of white, straight, educated middle class women organized the "rest of" the women to stand up for themselves. I guess it just rubbed me the wrong way when I watched the film this time, maybe I was not as critical the past times viewing it.

POSsibly...

I think that although the United States has ideally a setup that would promote an open political opportunity structure in Kitschelt's model, the actual number of parties here compared to the number of parties there could be here (but are not!) are telling of a system more closed than we think. Tarrow's strategies of states, facilitation and repression, that characterize representative democracies and authoritarian structures respectively are also a mark against the United States. I believe that the democracy in the United States is executed in a way to repress social movements rather than facilitate them (unless they are patriotic/conservative movements/backlashes). As far as history goes, the United States in recent years has become more centralized a government than ever before. We have not seen any social movements on the scale of the Civil Rights Movement since the 1960's and much of that has to do with the change in methods, as we talked about last week.

I actually do not have very high hopes for current social movements in the United States. Perhaps they will change people's ideas and the culture in a very vague way, but the thought that it will create real institutional change is something I doubt, no matter which movement. I don't know, maybe I'm just all Debbie Downer right now!

Lebensreform? Yes.

Lebensreform was a German movement between the late 19th and early 20th centuries that focused on an "all natural" way of life. A return to the earth and one's body was emphasized with the main tenets being health food/raw food/organic food, nudism, sexual liberation, alternative medicine, and religious reform while at the same time abstention from alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and vaccines. Although this movement seems to only have left behind "Reformhaus" raw/organic/health food stores in Germany, it influenced the "hippie" movement after some people involved in Lebensreform migrated to California.


The Lebensreform's political opportunity structure seems to be very limited even though it is theoretically an identity/practice-based movement that "anyone" can choose. I say "anyone" because someone struggling financially would have a hard time justifying joining this movement and buying more expensive food all the time. Although the identity-based part of the movement seems inaccurate, I would argue that it is just an identity that you cannot see. So I do not think that the Lebensreform in Germany had much political opportunity for change even though they seemed to have affected the lives of many hippies in the United States.

WUNC UP

 

http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/August/20060822164316esnamfuak0.5788843.html

This picture is from the Civil Rights Movement, when students had just started the initiative to fill the jails rather than bailing themselves out once arrested for sit-ins and other nonviolent protests. I think that this picture/ what these students committed themselves to in this movement embodies very well the unity, the numbers, the commitment, and even sometimes the worthiness (but we are students after all!) of the WUNC model. The commitment to fill the jails, the willingness to be arrested and sit in jails, and the singular-themed banners all culminated in a strong, determined student body of protesters. I think that although the Civil Rights Movement had several different leaders and groups, it would not have succeeded without student sacrifice like the students in this picture.

Intro to NCLC 304 class

Hey all. I'm LuLu, a fourth year Integrative Studies major in the New Century College Program. I am graduating in the winter with an individualized concentration called "Education, Social Action, and Construction of Differences" because I am trying to negotiate my ideals of activism, learning, and community with my intent to be an educator in higher education. I just do not want to be stuck in academia. On other notes, I am a seventh generation Vermonter on my mother's side, I have three younger sisters, and my father escaped from Hungary during its communist time. I love Vermont now, but as a high school graduate, I could not wait to get away from my homeland to somewhere more diverse and somewhere where I could figure out who I was without the pressure of a small town that I had known my whole life. Luckily, as a result, I am much more comfortable with myself as a female-bodied, queer-identified, white person committed to antiracism and anti-imperialism. During my first year at Mason, I spent most of my time joining causes and getting to know student activists and student organizations. This time was a very important time for me, one I remember as my self exploration phase. I dabbled in Amnesty International, Pride Alliance, NAACP, the Feminist Ninjas/ Feminist Student Organization, Students for a Democratic Society, and probably some other groups I cannot quite remember the names of. One of the most memorable activism experiences I had was when I was working with SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), when we had a protest about (this is not the memorable part unfortunately) something like worker's rights or parking? and tried to do a march through the Johnson Center. It was so unsuccessful, people did not care why we were there or even that we were there, so we took our march to the Provost's office. The person "leading" us that day tried to talk to the Provost but security came and we were all kicked out. I think we even asked a member of Broadside to cover the event, but we clearly did not make a difference because I cannot even remember what we were protesting.