Activism Blog Post 1

Activism

My contact with the community partner YAYA has increased recently, as I am now the Vice President of YAYA. I now attend all YAYA meetings and events, help to plan, facilitate, and coordinate these events and meetings, and make calls to all members, including members of the Global class, to remind people of events.

I wrote a reflective report for the YAYA website on Part 1 of Bridging Communities: LGBTQ and Immigrants, an event for which I was also the designated photographer. Later in the week was Part 2 of Bridging Communities. I arrived early to help with set-up and was stationed at the welcoming table. It was my responsibility to explain what YAYA is and does and collect sign-ons, or the names and contact information of those interested in the organization. This was a good opportunity to practice my “rap,” or very brief but comprehensive synopsis of YAYA.

One interesting new aspect I’ve noticed recently is the change in my relationship between YAYA and the Global class. When I make phone calls for YAYA I develop a certain “phone voice,” which is very different in tone and formality from my usual way of speaking. Interpersonal relationships between women’s studies peers are already unique, as you may or may not/NOT be friends outside of the classroom, but still generally maintain a respectful and academic tone in the classroom. Through this project I have developed closer relationships to many of my classmates, but now that I speak to them at times as a representative of YAYA, a new layer of professionalism must be navigated through my communication.

Reflection

This week I encountered many instances where I could see the politics of naming at work. Every week I talk to my mom on the phone and update her on what I’ve been doing; she’s really proud of me this semester and likes to learn about the issues I’ve been learning about/working on “in all of those clubs I’m in,” as she puts it. I told her about the Bridging Communities event and tried to explain how LGBTQ and im/migrant issues intersect. Discounting my family’s numerous discussions on the T and Q in LGBTQ (these always happen at Ling’s Chinese Buffet and involve 5 outspoken Jews violently/valiantly wielding chopsticks, in the name of Western Science), I notice a problem when my mom uses the words “migrant” and “immigrant” interchangeably when talking about all farmworkers. I have a difficult time explaining to her how to use these words “with a sensitivity to the contestations surrounding their usage and an awareness of how “relations of ruling” infuses all attempts to represent diverse…lives and diverse locations with a singular categorization” (Naples 5) without sounding like a textbook, especially when I address the issue as a language problem, to which she responds “you know what I mean.” I need to connect the role of language in systemic oppression to better explain these issues.

Reciprocity

Through this service learning project I have gained invaluable experiences in leadership and organizing, as well as new friends who are inspiring to work with, that challenge me to think critically on the ways I view race, class, feminism, and any other issues in transnational feminism. This class has opened up a literal world of opportunities to me, provided me with access to bases of knowledge that I can explore and continue to grow from for the rest of my life.

Naples, Nancy A. "Changing the Terms: Community Activism, Globalization, and

the Dilemmas of Transnational Feminist Praxis." Women's Activism and

Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics. By

Nancy A. Naples and Manisha Desai. New York: Routledge, 2002. 3-14.

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