Event:2015/03/08 Challenging+Dominant+Culture

Attendees

• Cassandra, Sarah, Kevin, Julio, Dusty, Amgo, Yar by phone (contibuting to notes), Diana (taking notes)

Agenda

• Support Liason Workshop
• Conflict Issue/Delegates Meeting
• Role of CDC?
• Responsibility of others/Emotional Labor?
• Empowering women of color conference - potential connections?
• Burn-out: capacity to engage / self-care

Meeting Logistics

• New meeting time (provisional): Sundays 3pm
• Sarah will communicate new time for next meeting to discuss and CDC lists
• Next time discuss upcoming Support liaison workshop facilitation needs

Support liaison workshop

• Cassandra (visiting from Chicago)
• Doing research on women organizing on gender violence in literary communities/safe spaces
• Transformative justice and support liaisons
• Workshop on March 22 (Sunday) noon
• Request for additional facilitators
• Discuss this at next CDC meeting
• Really helpful to learn some of the conflictissues. Will review the wiki..
• non-confrontational communication to de-escalate conflict.
• May be more specific like how to keep people safe in particular events (e.g. poetry reading).
• affinity groups can help build models for conflict resolution before formal processes
• would be open for others with facilitation experience and past skills sets to support (potentially 35-40 participants). Contact Cassandra if interested.
• can think about other models for approaching safe space and conflict based on review
• Cassandra background : does prison arts, prison abolition, sex worker rights. ways of organizing in transformative ways. Interested in healing justice.

Report back on the delegates meeting

• Kevin expressed this opinion. Amgo, Rusty were present at delegates meeting and provided additional context and opinion.
• Attendance was rather low last week in the CDC meeitng. There was a sense that was shared around - is CDC doing what it would like to be doing sa a group?
• Almost like it is creation and enforcement around behaviors within the space.
• two sets of values...restorative human and trust based. And values that prioritize safety and immediate resolution of situations. Sometimes they contradict and at other times they don't.
• Approach informed by Sudoroom's approach. At Delegate's meeting, question raised about what others percieve and what we should be doing. Hope to pursue solutions based on human relationships. Was not the time and space to have that conversation as part of the delegates meeting, but just wanted to surface the issue.
• What was the feeling in the room at the delegate's meeting, when the issue was brought forward? Thought provoking.. / Responses: felt like uncovered elephant in the room. Safety conversation...not sense of agreement that safety heavy practice should be the best approach. Asked delegates to go to their own folks and have that conversation. Some call to action,

Role of CDC

• yar: the fact that there's multiple value systems at play should not be a surprise to anybody. it's why we called this group "challenging dominant cultures". we recognize that people are bringing dominant culture into omni and that that it needs to be challenged. in particular, our goal was to prioritize the perspectives of marginalized people who were and still are currently UNDERREPRESENTED.
• This is inherent - never thought everyone was on the same page to begin with. This group she sees as a way to advocate for a certain set of values, particularly in alliance with marginalized people. What can we do to enable these perspectives and values? that should be the main goal. //lots of consent.
• Safe space policy and conflict resolution policy on the wiki.
• Historically oppressed individuals coming together with the restorative justice approach seem to be confronting one another. Refuse to believe that these are mutually exclusive...but we do not currently have the skills on how to do that. Moving toward praxis.
  • Punitive aspect of dominant cultures - no healing aspect. Some behaviors unacceptable, but also that is changeable. Reference to Joe's email, and how Omni might educate and grow a culture of self-awareness and growth.
  • Is this a space to educate folks ? Or to enjoy that culture. If this is not the work of CDC, what is the work of it?
  • How to have conversations with different parties wh

More members to take on the emotional labor

• So much is always on the CDC agenda. e.g. challenging racism, sexism, etc. Conflict is such a huge issue. Question on how we handle conflict is part of the challenging dominant cultures perview...but want more time to talk about other shit.
  • a lot of others are also interested to engage conflict processes.
• Conflict approaches , restorative justice approaches that are healing and prioritize safe space. Also sometimes intersecting oppressions are at play across two parties (race, gender, mental health...)
• yar: i think the two issues of conflict resolution and CDC's core mission are deeply related. what was the reason we banned so many people? because of the way they were stressing out women and trans people by overtly or subtly demanding lots of emotional labor from them, causing people to be stressed out at omni and making it an unsafe place. at the same time we need more people to share the emotional labor of challenging power & dominant cultures.
  • Need more people to engage in the emotional labor of dealing with others...currently it is disproportionately placed upon CDC and more people need to take responsibility. Putting a lot of responsibility on people who are placed in an uncomfortable position to confront those who are crossing the line. What if there was a first level intervention with other cis-men as the first line to talk with those who say fucked up shit and take up space that marginalize people in the community. So that allies step up to have that uncomfortable conversation in ways that circumvent defensiveness. (see feminist men's group as a start...how formal should this group be and what are its effects for others to take responsibility?)
  • May need to revisit safe space to enable this - normative structure and culture may not be easy to maintain as people come in and out. Need formal structures to articulate normative expectations. But responsibility needs to go farther than that small group (reach, burn-out).
  • Also acknowledge we are all evolving in our knowledge.
  • most spaces, 12 people take on most of responsibility from within the group.
  • yar: would feel better about doing disproportionate emotional labor if it felt more honored, respected & valued
  • Affinity groups may come together with stewards to step forward and call out. Based on relationships. If people feel uncomfortable and identify these microaggressions in our space, would be good to have a group formally take that forward. linked with CDC, but separate.
• ACTION: Spinoff conflict discussion 39th and market a Diana and Julio's house next sunday for dinner! (Julio will email out)
  • video links in future meetings? Google Hang Outs?

Report back EWOCC / The Mask You Live In

• Diana attended EWOCC: Empowering Women of Color Conference
• Exciting events and organizing workshops recently with relevance to CDC
• opportunity to inspire and host. May host something?
• Topics - if anyone is interested to organize and outreach?
  • theoretical : state violence, sexual violence and colonialism.
  • anti-racism and activism: APEN, Critical Resistance, Malcolm X, Palestinian
  • media making and design arts
  • self-care
  • More details EWOCC: https://ewocc.wordpress.com/featured-speakers-and-performers/plenary-panel/

• Diana and Julio attended film screening on Masculinities
  • The Mask You Live In: http://therepresentationproject.org/ (they also have another film called Miss Representation)
  • Ever Forward Club: http://www.everforwardclub.org/

Burn-out

• Expectations for this project not sustainable. drives people away.
• Feels guilt...need to be real about capacities for handling conflict. Overcommitment is destructive.
• Receiving lots of aggression given this subject and space - unhealthy.
• how much urgency is really required? BE very realistic and define capacities to engage / reasonable timeframe.
• emotional labor very feminized. Lots of the guilt tied into that.
• Potential monthly appreciative meeting.
• Also active outreach to expand network during delegates meeting.
  • Ways to harness funding from academic research perspective
• ACTION: Talk about burn out first next time - share appreciations first thing next meeting. Start with a check-in.
• NOTE: Next week no discussion on Conflict - that is a separate meeting.