Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Yvonne Davis

• Exciting, smart mind and world traveler and she can see things that we can’t see in our own bubble.
• Birmingham is her hometown and she was friends with the families of the girls and UCSC
• Prisons are a system that allows us to not deal with our social issues
• In prisons, mental health not being treated and rights being taken
• She really helped us understand intersectionality 
• This resource was mentioned: From Privilege to Progress https://www.facebook.com/privtoprog

From Online Summary

1) What does this book say about the power of well-Organized mass movements over individualism?

Davis offers two pieces of advice to movement builders in their effort to chip away at individualism: 1) Teach, learn, and disseminate the socio-historical conditions and foundations of structural inequalities in movements through advocacy and organizing; 2) Focus on grassroots organizing that involves the most affected. For example, if prisoners are treated like objects of charity by academics, lawyers and policy-makers, where conferences are held about them and not with them, we not only defeat anti-prison work, but constitute the prisoners as inferior in the process of working to defend their rights.

 

2) How can we build transnational solidarity between US movements and related international movements?

Davis importantly draws the connection between US law enforcement agencies and the Israeli military. The Israeli military, which leads a regime that occupies a population and condones apartheid, has trained, and continues to train US sheriffs, police chiefs, and FBI agents on combatting terrorism. When we challenge the Israeli military, it affects what happens in over-policed communities in the US, since US police departments are now equipped with military equipment and receive training from the Israeli military.

 

3) What do we need to consider when the Word “terrorist” is used?

Black Panthers were called terrorists. Davis uses her personal account of growing up in Birmingham, Alabama to unpack how “there is almost always a political motivation” when the word terrorist is used (or not used). The multitude of bombs that were used to destroy Black homes, churches, and lives while Davis was growing up were never described as acts of terror. Yet somehow communities of color have endured centuries of unacknowledged terror, at the hands of those in power, which has shaped the history of the US.

 

4) What is the role of radical women of color in movement building?

Angela Davis firmly states, “every change that has happened has come as a result of mass movements.” If you look deeper, it is evident that it was not individuals such as Abraham Lincoln, MLK, Jr., Barack Obama, or even herself who demanded change – well-organized mass movements always did. The title of her book suggests that new solidarities between young organizers have created the foundation of a (new) movement. Davis believes that the future lies in young people and the young generation is informed by feminism and anti-racist struggles in a way that Davis’s generation was not. It is in this collective that Davis “finds reservoirs of hope and optimism”.

My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem

In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police.

We started by humming together – take a deep breath, hold for 2 minutes, and then do a really long exhale on a note (oxygenate the brain and then activates the parasympathetic which tells your body to slow down)

 

Things we liked:

• Valuable for the physiological response
• Have to work through the trauma
• He’s a therapist and has great strategies and body practices (mindfulness, meditation, yoga, singing, dancing)
• 2017, before Floyd, from Minneapolis
• How trauma of racism lives in white bodies/ ie: violence of white people (burning witches, drawing and quartering, tar and feather) has affected them, too, in how they now react to racial violence
• Didn’t address issues of gender, men, and women
• the question of, “Have you ever been harassed by the police?” or “Have you ever witnessed someone harassed by police?”
• A very different kind of book about the experience of racism.
• He has an entire chapter about policing and how to change/ intervene into bias

Things that were “out there” and we’re not sure we would do:

• Washing feet
• Inviting ancestor
• Puppy story

Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

 

1.     The first chapter defines segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists. Were you familiar with these terms before you read Stamped? Did your understanding of these words change by the end?

·       Shows people can change over time

·       Really helped define the differences

·       Maybe assimilationist was a survival strategy

·       Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison – hiding yourself in public – Langston Hughes “We wear the mask”

·       Assimilationism makes you successful, it sets the standards of beauty, it takes on the negative of the dominant culture as well

·       Some people had the choice and ability to assimilate and others could never assimilationist

·       Segregationists wanted “go back to Africa” and “Let’s just live apart from society”

·       There has always been those who think you should be “nice” to create change and those who believe you need to “fight”

 

2.     What are examples of racism that you’ve encountered or experienced? Referencing the list of racist ideas in Chapter 6, explain why and how your personal experiences with racism are tied to racist ideas that are hundreds of years old.

·       Not everyone defines themselves or reveals themselves as segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists

·       Isn’t there room for segregationist (all female, HBC) institutions

 

3.     As seen with movies like Tarzan, Planet of the Apes, and Rocky, pop culture and media have played a large role in reinforcing racist ideas, whether their stories are overtly racist or are a bit sneakier in their propagation of racist ideas. What current movies, TV shows, and stories promote racist ideas, and how?

·       So powerful to learn all these connections

·       Carefully watch shows with children to dismantle stereotypes

·       Even shows with Black folks don’t even talk about race (or mention their own ethnic identity, except when maybe making a family phone call and speaking another language)

·       Rocky! Now makes sense – taking down the “Black man”

·       Tarzan – white guy in Africa

·       British television has more diversity in characters than U.S. T.V. but they do more with casting diversity (then talking about racism – just like in the real world)

·       Birth of a Nation (from The Klansman) to Planet of the Apes to Rocky to Cosby Show – how Black folks are seen or supposed to act

 

4.     Why is Angela Davis a champion of antiracist thought and practice? Discuss the ways in which Davis fought for antiracism at different points in her life.

·       Black power was run by men, no women, so Angela Davis joined communist party

·       Reagan had her fired from UCLA

 

5.     The authors note how Richard Nixon would demean Black people in his speeches without ever saying “Black” and “White” by using words like “urban” and “ghetto” (pages 191-192). What are other ways we invoke race without overtly mentioning race?

·       Then Reagan did War on Drugs which mean 5g of crack carried the same punishment as 500g of cocaine (5 years) and more police were in Black neighborhoods

 

6.     Abraham Lincoln, W.E.B. DuBois, and Booker T. Washington are remembered as defenders of Black liberation. How did these figures propel antiracist thought and enforce racist ideas? Can a person have racist, segregationist, and antiracist ideas all at once? How?

·       Booker T Washington, W.E. DuBois, and Frederick Douglass (assimilationist) all were not anti-racist

·       There were women’s liberation movements who were funding William Lloyd Garrison, who Kendi does not label him as anti-racist

·       Quakers were activists but they still kept segregated schools

 

7.     Jason Reynolds introduces the concept of DuBois’s double consciousness: “A two-ness. A self that is Black and a self that is American” (page 124). Why might people of color feel this way?

·       Everyone who has a strong ethnic community has some of that, but it’s the dominant society that needs to see itself has being “white” and “American”

 

8.     Though published as a book for young people, how do readers of all ages benefit from Stamped?

·       Jason Reynolds did a great job with American Boys, but it’s almost too glib – trying too hard to be cool (11 or 12 years old)

 

9.     After finishing Stamped, how do you feel about the history of racism? What habits and actions can you implement to promote antiracism?

·       “It’s not rocket science, it’s racism”

·       Voting rights act became most effective piece of anti-racist legislation ever passed

On Gold Mountain by Lisa See

Discussion Questions by Larry Sells and Lisa See

1.        In America, we all share in the immigrant experience. We all have people in our families who were brave enough, scared enough, or crazy enough to leave their home countries to come here. What are some of the similarities and differences between the experiences of Lisa’s Chinese-American family and the experiences of your family?

·       They were able to start a business and not all Chinese could, and certainly not all immigrant groups. Perhaps Ticie had a lot to do with it? A good rapport, remembered names, was progressive with the underwear idea and everything. Learned about Chinese culture.

·       There is an entrepreneur quality in the family.

 

2.        Lisa tries hard to be objective in On Gold Mountain, which is difficult to do because of its personal nature. Do you think she succeeds? Why or why not? What do you suppose Lisa’s family’s response was to the book? How do you think your family would react if you wrote your family history?

·       For some of us, our family would love a good gossip story, for others they would be upset.

·       There are probably things that we get wrong, but they are how we learned about them at the age we learned about them.

 

3.        Lisa has said, “We tend to learn history in terms of dates, wars, and laws, but I think it’s about how those dates, wars, and laws affect real people. How do we act or react in the face of challenges? Do we struggle and fail, or do we succeed in spite of them? Do we find happiness or despair?” Can you pinpoint particular moments in history—the American Civil War, the Depression, World War II, or the Vietnam War—that have affected people in your family or changed the course of your family’s history?

·       The Depression affected my family and kept them from finishing their education.

·       WWII affect my mother in Germany and though she missed middle school, she got a Ph.D.

·       5 out of 6 uncles went to three different wars.

·       Grandfather was too old for WWII, but his wife’s brother got medals.

·       Prohibition affected my bootlegging family.

·       My mother immigrated for education/ post doc.

 

4.        Immigrants bring many things with them to the U.S.—art, religion, food, and dress, to name a few. In the Chinese culture, food is a way for families to gather together and celebrate. It also has many other traditional meanings. What did food mean in your family? What special dishes were made? Have they changed and evolved through time?

·        

 

5.        While many people initially read On Gold Mountain because they’re interested in learning about the Chinese-American experience, they often become more attached to the stories of the white women—Ticie, Stella, and Carolyn—who married into the See family. What characteristics bound those three women together? What characteristics separated them from each other?

·       Eddy was artsy and off and married to Stella. Once he went to China, Stella’s personality was in conflict with cultural norms.

 

6.        A recurring theme in Lisa’s books—and it started with On Gold Mountain—is lost women’s history and stories. For your book group to gather today you have to have had many strong, brave, enduring, and triumphant women in your families too. How and why are women’s stories neglected? Discuss the experiences of women in your families.

·       Women married weird men, so the men stole the show.

·       The story the man’s emotional well being becomes the story that is told.

·       who get the sympathy in your family’s story.

 

7.        It could be argued that Fong See, the family patriarch, is the most important person in the book. What values make him successful? What are his weaknesses? What do you think of his separation from Ticie?

·       I liked him until he separated from Ticie.

·       But she got the last laugh, and opened her own store.

 

8.        What is the most surprising thing you learned about Chinese immigration to America as a result of reading this book? Were you surprised by the anti-Chinese laws that were passed locally and nationally?

·       Fong See having a second family that is so very long

·       anti-miscegenation laws until 1965

·       “We’re not Japanese”

·       the “paper sons”

 

9.        Can you think of other instances where laws have been targeted against a particular group in your area?

·       anti-miscegenation laws

·       Jim crow laws are reasons why people left the south

·       bussing laws

·       different taxes between owning and renting

·       rent control went away

·       Native Americans couldn’t cross bridges

·       petitions for tribal status held up in court for decades

 

10.     One of the underlying themes of On Gold Mountain is personal identity. Were the Sees (and Fongs) Chinese or American? Did it depend on the color of each person’s skin or on the personal choices he or she made? Consider the individual choices that Ming, Ray, Bennie, Eddy, and Sissee made.

·       Being “American” is very much related to skin color and racial features – are you able to assimilate and pass?

 

11.     At what point in your families did people change from being immigrants to Americans? What was involved in that process?

·       As a person of color, this has never happened.

 

12.     Toward the end of the book, Lisa writes about her journey to Dimtao. Why was it important for her to make that trip? What do you think is meant by the last line?

·       What does the phrase, “my heart goes out to you” mean?

 

13.     If you have the updated version of On Gold Mountain, you have a new final chapter that includes materials about the family that have recently come to light. How do you interpret the letters that were written to Ticie?

·       our books were too old but we did scroll around her website.

 

14.     On Lisa’s web site, there is a section called Step Into the World of On Gold Mountain, which includes some of her original source material, See family memorabilia, and links to the L.A. Opera production of On Gold Mountain and to the exhibits based on On Gold Mountain at the Autry National Center and the Smithsonian. Do these materials affect or change your reading of the book?