jumping jiraffe

the butter

2008-07-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was SAN's restructuring retreat--basically the org is in the process of determining its future and its goals and how they intend to achieve them. We started off with a little exercise called "Our Vision" in which we were given a set of entities/organizations/bodies like "basic needs", "police/military", "incarcerated persons" etc. and had to organize them in a way to create our perfect world. Essentially what we came up with was dismantling the current power system and creating a ground up sort of society focusing on access, not ownership and accountability, not enforcement. In our ideal world the government would look like a community based organiazation--in other words, throwing out this system and coming up with our own. Parul used an analogy that I liked: do we melt the butter and redistribute it that way, cut it up into different pieces and move them around, or switch the butter for olive oil? I take this to mean do we break down the system that we have and make something else made out of the same stuff, keep the general order of things and just sort of move them around, or do we just completely toss out everything and try something new?

Shiu Ming pointed out that they way that we currently do our work is more like the second option--reform. In our work with domestic violence and hate crimes we necessarily work with the law and law enforcement. But in our ideal world we said we want something completely new...shouldn't that mean that when we are restructuring we should include "our vision" as the ulitmate goal? But when we started to hash this out many people were skeptical and didnt think it was practical to include a new system in SAN's goal; but if this is what we want in the end, we have to start somewhere right? Why not now then??

What's funny is that I was actually discussing this very thing with one of the board members, Lawrence Joe at Friday's luncheon. He was trying to convince me (as so many others in community work have tried) not to go to law school. In all honesty it has been something I've been struggling with myself; If I want to completely dismantle the system, how can I do that if my work/knowledge depends on the system(the law)?

I think this is a central issue in community organizing, and though I may never figure it out, I'm glad to be engaging in this conversation.

Here are some pictures from the retreat. Thank my phone for the crappy quality.

Susan Alva preparing for the workshop in Hamid's dope living room.

A poster in Hamid's hallway.

On another note, the group project has been a pain in the butt this week. So on Friday (procrastination, I know) I called the restaurant I was going to interview to ask if I could come by on Tuesday or Wednesday. "No problem" they said. Low and behold, I call yesterday morning to confirm and find a message on the answering machine saying they're out of town until Monday. Great. So I call around to a few restaurants yesterday during my lunch break--no luck. Ok, I'll roll with it. I decided to just drive around Thai Town and find some people that would be down. Out of 20 resturants I went to, only two said that the owners would be coming in. Apparently it's Thai vacation month and they all went to Thailand for the month of July. I'm supposed to do the interview tonight, but I have a sneaking suspicion its not going to work out.

A post this beefy should count for two.

theres hope yet.

2008-07-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the second allies meeting. We had a study group and discussed some readings by Max Elbaum, Joanna Brenner and Fred Ho on the assessment of past (unsuccessful)movements. It was really interesting; we discussed how we have an advantage at this point in time because we can take from what has happened in the past. This was especially exciting for me because a lot of the times I feel people romanticize the past (particualrly the 60s and 70s), which leaves me feeling like I missed out of when it was good, during the hayday of activism, when really I should be thinking that the best is yet to come.

We also discussed the relevence of ethic/racially based movements, which is something that I have been trying to come to terms with myself (see 2nd post). More on this later.

coinky dink

2008-07-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we had media relations training with Bill Imada from IW group. I really enjoyed this presentation, actually; it was completely new information for me and something I feel isn't often addressed in community based work. What's funny is that today during lunch someone was talking about how he had done an interview with Reuters for a half an hour, and the only thing that was printed was something along the lines of "...we are a socialist organization", which resulted in him being put on the Minutemen's "most wanted list." He said he was stupid to talk for so long and that he should have created soundbites, given his talking points and gotten of the phone! Exactly what we learned just yesterday! Now I really understand why it's so important especially in progressive work to know how to control how you are perceived--because there will always be someone out there trying to make you out to be some kind of god-hating pinko.

Oh, and last night we did our interview with the restaurant (can't remember the name) in P-town. I think we got some good information and the food was yummy. All in all pretty great, except for the mother of all death stares that we got when we asked the owner's daughter for an interview. Luckily her brother's a fledging businessman and realized that the publicity would be good for the restaurant and sat down with us.

P.S. Two posts a week is a lot!

fotos

2008-07-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

So last week I made a facebook and myspace profile for SAN and here are a couple of pictures from the Anti-War march in 2007 I uploaded that I really like.

Group shotJoyti is most awesome. She works in the civil rights unit with me.

Hamid, SAN's ED is also one cool cat.

grown-ups' table

2008-06-30T15:59:00.001-07:00

I just got done sitting in on a meeting with the "Allies", a coalition for more leftist imigration reform/immigrant rights. It was really interesting because at this point thery're a relatively new coalition still trying to figure out what they stand for and what their purpose is, so I really got to witness (and was even asked to participate) in a "big picture" dialogue about community organizing. Up until this point my activist work has been pretty limited to campus based organizing or specific campaign focused work with community organizations. It was really exciting, and I'm not going to lie, a bit intimidating to take part in, but all in all a great learning experience.

week one: sweet & sour

2008-06-27T18:43:00.001-07:00

Today was my first day at the South Asian Network, a community based organization dedicated to advancing the health, empowerment and solidarity of persons of South Asian origin in Southern California. I'm going to be working with the civil rights unit, working primarily on housing and immigrant rights. Today I went with one of the staff members, Preeti to the Housing Rights Center and listened in on a potential national origin discrimination case between tenant and landlord. It was really interesting getting to see a non-prof lawyer at work, seeing as how that's what I'll want to do eventually. I'm excited to see what comes next if this was just the first day. The way in which community members are the heart of this organization really makes it seems like they really concerned with remaining a grassroots organization, which isn't always the case in non-profit work.

All in all, my first day was pretty great, with one caveat. When I signed up to work with SAN, I knew I was going to be working with a group that works with ethnic groups that I am not apart of. I chose it anyway because it's focus was social justice, more than any of the other CBOs and that is what I am most interested in and because I care about injustice across color lines. Today though I guess I just was a little unsure of my place there because I am not a person of South Asian origin. I'm worried about whether the people I work think I shouldn't be there, or if I make the community members we work with feel uncomfortable and maybe even mistrusting. I think this brings up a larger issue with ethnic/racially oriented organizations on the whole--whether they should focus on organizing a marginalized community, or if they should transcend these lines for the sake of the bigger picture. I don't have an answer to that question, but what I want to try to do is take what I can from this great organization and get over my own insecurities, because in the end the problems facing the South Asian are the same ones facing countless other persons of color, and in that way I should be able to gain a great deal from my experiences there.

Oh! And on another note, there's apparently a deli around the corner that makes a mean Vietnamese sandwich for $2.25.

fresh & new

2008-06-27T00:03:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this at a starbucks by my CBO because I was insanely early for work today, and I'm a bit excited. I already feel like I'm learning; I've never been anywhere near this area, and as it turns out, it seems to be rich API community. In the couple of blocks around my CBO there's a sari shop, a bunch of Korean restaurants, pho houses and a 99 ranch Chinese market.