I just received an e-mail from a community activist in Seattle’s Central District (or what has historically been the hub for Black Seattle) announcing an upcoming community meeting on the future of the Central District. Unlike the countless other community meetings I have attended, with regard to the changing tapestry of the Central District, this meeting will be one of the few times that representatives from the City of Seattle will be present to solicit citizen feedback about the impact that city policies (such as, the neighborhood plans) have had on this community. What becomes of this feedback, or what these officials choose to or not to do with this feedback is another issue. However, after reading this e-mail, I immediately reflected on my recent trip back to post-Katrina New Orleans—a region of my childhood. Like so many urban spaces, post-Katrina New Orleans is undergoing rapid growth and “redevelopment”. But, the question remains, redevelopment for whom?
As most of the world prepares to commemorate the four-year anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I would caution us to not focus too much on what is happening along the U.S. Gulf Coast. As I maneuver through Seattle’s Central District, I cannot help but see the rising of “flood waters” in a community whose Black identity and historical legacy is in danger of being engulfed by an urban growth machine that speaks a language of uplift, new urbanism and revitalization.
For Seattle’s communities of color, queer communities, poor communities, youth, women of color, and grassroots activists, we need to be present for this meeting and bare witness to how “Our” Central District has been transformed by what some would consider “progress”. Unlike many of Our brothers and sisters of post-Katrina New Orleans – who have been scattered or internally displaced to the four winds and barred from returning to their legal homes – we are able to be present and we are more capable of holding those in power accountable to Our communities’ needs.
Here is the e-mail I received:
Subject: Central Area, Pike/Pine and Capitol Hill Neighborhood Plan Status Report Meeting — How Is Your Neighborhood Doing?
Thursday, September 3, 6-8 PM at the Miller Community Center, 330 19th Ave. E.
Please join members of the Seattle Planning Commission and the Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee on Thursday, September 3 from 6 to 8 pm at the Miller Community Center for an important Central Area community meeting.These two citizen groups want to hear your thoughts. Come and tell us how the Central Area, Pike/Pine and Capitol Hill has changed since the creation of their Neighborhood Plans. Your comments and input at this meeting will help the City of Seattle complete a status report that will look at how well your neighborhood plan is achieving its goals and strategies.This meeting will provide an opportunity to learn about your neighborhood plan, the projects that have been implemented, and growth and changes that have occurred since your plan was written in the late 90's. We will explore issues such as growth, transportation, housing, economic development , basic utilities, neighborhood character, open space and parks, public services, public safety, and other issues.It would also be helpful to know your Neighborhood Plan and to bring it with you, so you can reference to them when needed.
So, here are the links to your Neighborhood Plans:
Central Area:
http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/npi/plans/central/
Pike/Pine:
http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/npi/plans/ppine/
Capitol Hill:
http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/npi/plans/CAPHILL/
You can review draft status reports on-line at:
http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Planning/Neighborhood_Planning/StatusReports/default.asp
The follow up series of meetings, tentatively scheduled for late October, will be an opportunity to review the final status report. To learn more information, please visit the Neighborhood Planning website at http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Planning/Neighborhood_Planning. With questions, please contact David Goldberg at (206) 615-1447 or davidw.goldberg@seattle.gov
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Teach-in encourages participants: EDUCATE to LIBERATE!
This year's Nat Turner Teach-In for People of Color was a great success! Thank you to everyone who turned out and participated in the interactive discussions and workshops. We had over 30 participants, one-third of whom were male - the largest critical mass of men to participate in the teach-in's history!
The half-day teach-in began by honoring our ancestors and calling upon their spirit as motivation for the day's work. Teach-in organizer Gigi Frazier led the thought-provoking discussion "Plot Your Own Rebellion" where participants were introduced to the history of Nat Turner. By engaging hypothetical scenarios of a pregnant slave woman seeking freedom, participants had the opportunity to locate the many choices that we all encounter in liberation work, choices that are timeless for people of color, particularly women.
Seattle University sociology professor Gary Perry led a dynamic workshop on Black pro-feminist men and the lessons that male allies can learn from their legacy. Men, such as Frederick Douglass, Alexander Crummell, W.E.B. DuBois, Michael Eric Dyson, and Mark Anthony Neal. The critical mass of male participants at this year's teach-in made for a lively discussion about the role of men in anti-violence work. In addition, we called on men of color to center gender justice and an end to gender-based violence in their work.
Nada Elia, Antioch University liberal studies professor and founder of Radical Arab Women's Activist Network, called upon participants to connect with the global movement to proclaim the Israeli occupation as apartheid. Through an interactive activity, she outlined the history of the Palestinian/Israeli geopolitical conflict (which is relatively short, contrary to popular belief!). She called on participants to connect the atrocities in Palestine to the history of South African apartheid, as international leaders have proclaimed such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter. We need to adopt the same strategies of boycotting Israel as we did with South Africa, through economic sanctions, failure to consume Israeli goods, and remaining vocal about the situation of the Palestinian people. "If we believe apartheid is wrong" Elia proclaimed, "we do it again for Palestine!"
For information on how you can get involved with the campaign to end apartheid in Palestine, check out:
- Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net
- US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation: http://www.endtheoccupation.org
- If Americans Knew: http://www.ifamericansknew.org
- Boycott-Divest-Sanctions: http://www.bdsmovement.net
- Campaign for Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel: http://usacbi.wordpress.com
- Seattle Palestine Solidarity Committee: http://www.palestineinformation.org
Stay informed with CARA events by following us online at:
- www.twitter.com/CARA206
- cara-seattle.blogspot.com
- Subscribe to listserv by emailing cara-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
Friday, August 21, 2009
CARA's Annual Nat Turner Teach-In THIS SATURDAY!
The Nat Turner Teach-In for People of Color is CARA's annual event to honor liberation struggles and to discuss contemporary resistance and coalition strategies for individuals and organizations. This half-day teach-in is an opportunity for people of color to connect over food and ideas, celebrate our victories, assess challenges to doing resistance work, and share strategies for successful social change. This year's workshops include:
- "Plot Your Own Rebellion"
- "From Douglass to Dyson: The Legacy of Black Pro-Feminist Men"
- "Palestine, South Africa, the Americas: Global Struggles for Liberation"
Big shout-out to Sylva Jones and Gigi Frazier for organizing this year's event! To register, email cara.intern@gmail.com.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Interested in CARA's Analysis of Community Accountability?
Read CARA's chapter, "Taking Risks: Implementing Grassroots Community Accountability Strategies," in Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology (South End Press, 2006). Support INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence by purchasing the book directly from the publisher here.
New study finds that marriage and childbirth are declining for high-achieving Black women
MSNBC reports on a new study by Yale researchers Natalie Nitsche and Hannah Brueckner show that high-achieving Black women are less likely to marry and have children compared to their white female counterparts. Key findings in the study are:
- Among black women with postgraduate educations born between 1956 and 1960, the median age at which they gave birth for the first time was 34 years old. This was about the same as it was for white women in the same demographic.
- Once white women reached their 30s, many more of them did give birth, often more than once. Many black women did not.
- The rate of childlessness among this group of black women rose from 30 percent for those born between 1950 and 1955, to 45 percent for those born between 1956 and 1960.
- For highly educated black women born between 1961 and 1970, 38 percent have remained childless.
In another study that used interviews with Black women, sociologist Averil Clarke found that there is greater Black cultural pressure for Black women to marry within their race than there is for Black men. “A greater negative reaction falls on them,” Clarke said. “Some women in my sample told stories of African-American men on college campuses getting upset if they dated outside the race. There seems to be a sense of some policing of women’s sexuality. I think women are more controlled by these community and family pressures around who they should date. Men have greater freedom.” High-achieving Black men tend to “outmarry” (marry outside race, religion or ethnicity) at a higher rate than black women, researchers say (hmm, let's see, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, actors Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones, musician Quincy Jones, rapper Ice-T - all married white women!).
Don't sleep on Black female interracial marriage and dating; think of Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne, Halle Berry, Alfre Woodard, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon. The crux of these findings suggest that the historical policing of Black women's sexuality has not waned, and the pressures within our communities to contain our ability to partner with men and women outside of our race still persist.
Image from JustJared.com.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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