Tag: LGBTQ

Honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Over the past year, many amazing national and local activists, thinkers, and leaders have shared their knowledge, strength, and experiences. We have been introduced to new leaders, learned from experienced social justice leaders, and laid to rest leaders and community members who left us charged to do more and to keep working towards a better, more equitable today and tomorrow. 

This year, to honor the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, West Wind is highlighting a few youth activists, entrepreneurs, and scholars who have committed themselves to equity-focused causes within their communities. We have so much to learn from these young activists and the strategies they are using to create positive change.  Continue reading “Honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Thank you, President Obama

Thank you, President Obama

Reading Time: < 1 minute

This week, President Obama issued a thoughtful, compassionate, and powerful video message speaking directly to young people experiencing difficulty because of their sexual orientation, or simply because they are different.

As one of our staffmembers put it, “It’s a beautiful thing.”

More information:

Federal resources on anti-bullying

GLSEN’s allies, including link to the Google blog and Google empoyees’ “It Gets Better” video

Bills Designed to Stop Bullying and Harassment in Schools

Bills Designed to Stop Bullying and Harassment in Schools

Reading Time: 2 minutes

On August 5, 2010, the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) was introduced in the Senate by Bob Casey (D-PA). SSIA would amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act—which is part of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act—to include bullying and harassment based on a student’s actual or perceived race, color, national original, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion in its definition of violence. As such, it represents the first time protections would extend to persons on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Districts would have to notify parents annually of their anti-bullying and harassment policies, as well as set up a grievance process for students and parents to report incidences. Additionally, states would have collect and report to the U.S. Department of Education data on incidences.

SSIA attempts to respond to staggering levels of bullying and harassment in schools. According to a 2005 report, 65% of the 3000 middle and high school students surveyed reported being bullied in school in the past year. According to a 2007 report, 84% of the 6,000 gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered students surveyed reported being harassed in school and 61% said they felt unsafe at school due to their sexual orientation. Both studies found anti-bullying policies like those required by SSIA significantly reduced bullying and harassment in schools.

The idea behind SSIA has been around for some time. The current iteration was introduced in the House by Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) in January 2009, but its introduction by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) represents the first time it has made it to the Senate.  SSIA follows the introduction of the Student Nondiscrimination Act (SNDA), introduced in the House in January 2010 by Jared Polis (D-CO) and in the Senate by Al Franken (D-MN) in May 2010. SNDA is patterned after title IX and would prohibit discrimination (including harassment) on the basis of real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity in any program or activity receiving federal funds.

Both SSIA and SNDA have broad support from civil rights and education organizations. It seems their only vocal opposition is from groups like Focus on the Family, which has launched a campaign against SSIA by claiming it promotes homosexuality and pro-gay curricula. Senator Casey has responded to Focus on the Family’s campaign against the legislation in a blog post, arguing that “by mischaracterizing the purpose of anti-bullying legislation, Focus on the Family is intentionally ignoring the prevalence of bullying in schools around the country.” And, we would contend, it is perpetuating the consequences of such bullying–from higher incidences of drop outs all the way to bullying- and harassment-related tragedies. It is about time we took action to make our schools safe places for all students. The proposed legislation represents a firm step in that direction.

Learn more about SSIA here.
Learn more about SNDA here.

White Privilege Conference 2010

White Privilege Conference 2010

Reading Time: 4 minutes
White Privilege Conference 2010
On April 7-11 the eleventh annual White Privilege Conference (WPC 11) was held in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.  I had my first opportunity to join with over 1700 people from across the nation and participate in a learning community in which participants engaged in a challenging educational experience to understand whiteness, privilege, power and oppression.  As the organizers clearly pointed out, each participant comes to the WPC in a different place with regard to their journey toward this understanding and each participant is asked to share responsibility for holding one another accountable to allow for a shared experience that fosters the opportunity for understanding, respecting and connecting.  The theme for WPC 11 was to focus on Health Inequities:  Strategies. Action. Liberation.  With some 140 workshops and Institutes lead by some of the nation’s premier scholars, researchers, teachers and advocates, 15 film screenings by outstanding film makers  and 5 keynote addresses, this was the most comprehensive professional development experience and celebration of its kind.
Embedded within and conducted throughout was year three of the WPC Youth Leadership Conference which paired youth participants and adult facilitators in an innovative program to explore the issues of white privilege, white supremacy and oppression.  The creative format, using best practices in youth engagement, featured interactive dialogue techniques from theater of the oppressed, sacred talking circles, open space caucuses and affinity groups.  The ideas and understandings born of these interactions were then shared with the adult conference using a range of performing arts based methods.  I am continually amazed at how resonant the issues power, oppression and privilege are with our youth and their ability to make meaning of the presence and impact of these forces in their everyday lived experiences in transformative ways.
Circe and I had the honor of presenting our workshop, “Us” and “Not Us”:  “Othering” in Education Policy and Practices, twice during the 4-day event.  Along with the close to 50 workshop participants, we set out to establish through examining language, text, images and lived experiences in historical and contemporary contexts, that “othering” is and has been central to the domination and oppression of people of color in the United States.  The process of establishing whiteness as normal and non-whiteness as deviant is essential and endemic to those systems (financial, legal, educational, political and social) structured to establish and sustain the nation’s way of life and is one way in which we perpetuate systemic racism.  We investigated how educational policy and practice work to establish whiteness as the norm and positions students of color in homogenous groups hindered by deviation from that norm, “othering” students of color, and collaborated with participants to reveal  forms of “othering” and ways to work against extending this practice.
Being a part of this community of thinkers, learners and doers with indomitable wills to recognize, understand and call out white privilege for the continued establishment of the beloved community is central to the mission of West Wind Education Policy Inc.

On April 7-11 the eleventh annual White Privilege Conference (WPC 11) was held in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.  I had my first opportunity to join with over 1700 people from across the nation and participate in a learning community in which participants engaged in a challenging educational experience to understand whiteness, privilege, power and oppression.  As the organizers clearly pointed out, each participant comes to the WPC in a different place with regard to their journey toward this understanding and each participant is asked to share responsibility for holding one another accountable to allow for a shared experience that fosters the opportunity for understanding, respecting and connecting.  With some 140 workshops and Institutes lead by some of the nation’s premier scholars, researchers, teachers and advocates, 15 film screenings by outstanding film makers  and 5 keynote addresses, this was the most comprehensive professional development experience and celebration of its kind.

West Wind had the honor of presenting our workshop, “Us” and “Not Us”:  “Othering” in Education Policy and Practices, twice during the 4-day event.  Along with the close to 50 workshop participants, we set out to establish through examining language, text, images and lived experiences in historical and contemporary contexts, that “othering” is and has been central to the domination and oppression of people of color in the United States.  The process of establishing whiteness as normal and non-whiteness as deviant is essential and endemic to those systems (financial, legal, educational, political and social) structured to establish and sustain the nation’s way of life and is one way in which we perpetuate systemic racism.  We investigated how educational policy and practice work to establish whiteness as the norm and positions students of color in homogenous groups hindered by deviation from that norm, “othering” students of color, and collaborated with participants to reveal  forms of “othering” and ways to work against extending this practice.

Also embedded within and conducted throughout the conference was year three of the WPC Youth Leadership Conference, which paired youth participants and adult facilitators in an innovative program to explore the issues of oppression and white privilege.  The creative format, using best practices in youth engagement, featured interactive dialogue techniques from theater of the oppressed, sacred talking circles, open space caucuses and affinity groups.  The ideas and understandings born of these interactions were then shared with the adult conference using a range of performing arts based methods.  I am continually amazed at how resonant the issues power, oppression and privilege are with our youth and their ability to make meaning of the presence and impact of these forces in their everyday lived experiences in transformative ways.

Congratulations and thank you to the remarkable groups of people who organized, supported and made WPC 11 possible!  We look forward to continuing to be a part of this community of thinkers, learners and doers with indomitable wills to recognize, understand and call out white privilege for the continued establishment of the beloved community.

Theme: Overlay by Kaira