MLK Day, 2017 #InnovationNOTRepetition

One of the greatest tragedies of the civil rights era was the inability, or unwillingness, of people who achieved positions via affirmative action to create real change for other POC.
  #BougieFucks #TapedMouths #RunAwayFromUS #Vendidos #JoinedTheOtherSide Then those same assholes have the audacity to tell me to act White. They use code-words like Professional and Educated--but what they really mean is try to be White. The best they could do was try to give us tips on how to act White and get money for ourselves. #MLKDay2017 #IDontWantTOBeLIkeYou

 We need change, we don't need to be told how to watch ourselves, how to 'behave' and how to survive in a world dominated by White people.  We need to learn how to change the world into a world that is friendly toward Black and Brown faces...

This is a criticism of the recipients of Affirmative Action. People who are given power,  but are too scared to use it. They have their hands tied because they don't want to lose what they have been allowed to gain. I understand self-preservation, but I don't understand turning one's back on their own people. The New Jim Crow was allowed to happen as a result of their inaction, capitulation and buying into the American Myth that if only you" work so hard--you can do anything--even if you are Black or Brown." Even our Black president turned his back on us. He believed in trickle down benefits to POC...That is a joke! Once people get so entrenched in the Colonial system, they begin to believe in it--in the lies, and are  complicit in the deceit of their own people. We need to create new systems, not teach people how to be successful in a system that won't really ever accept them--apart from tokenization and fetishizing the 'exotic.'

Let us honor the memory of Dr. King and create a new world--a world where "acting White"  and telling lies to our kids and family are unnecessary.  Where working together instead of against one another are the standards by which we live.   

 

Please Help Us Publish Librarians With Spines

This is your chance to be part of a unique publishing endeavor. Yago S. Cura and Max Macias are co-editing a book of essays written by specifically invited librarians who we feel have some of the best minds in the world. We need help with funds for publishing. Please consider giving what you can to help us create this one of a kind work. We plan on continuing with a series of unique, forward-thinking and courageous librarian works from outstanding minds in the Information world.

My name is Max Macias and my Co-editor is Yago Cura. We are seeking help publishing an invitational anthology of radical essays written by exceptional librarians, many of whom are also librarians of color. All funds will be used for publishing and promotional costs. We are projecting to publish this anthology of essays by May, 2017. Few books have been written about how information and culture impact the creation of knowledge. Even fewer books critique how oppression is bolstered and enhanced by cultural concepts that are embedded in our information. Since information is important to all of us as librarians and consumers of information, these essays will seek to fill the void described above. One of the things we are trying to understand is the relationship between culture and information, and how this impacts the creation of knowledge. 

These essays will range in theme from colonialism and whiteness in library science to representation in children’s literature. Going beyond what has been written in the past on this subject and bringing together a diverse group of great librarians is the goal of this endeavor. These essays will attempt to move LIS forward in the areas of culture, information and education. You will not only be helping us publish this work, but you will be helping the field and profession of Library Science with your support. Please give anything you can to help us change the field of library related publishing. Description: Hinchas Press invites original chapters for a new volume. 

This edited volume seeks to understand culture and its impact on information and knowledge in LIS and Education in general. We seek contributors involved in the ongoing critique of information and culture in the United States and Canada and the rest of the Americas--especially those who are interested in sharing and speaking candidly about their experiences with culture and information in libraries, authorship, books, films, comics, other media and in education. This monograph will offer multiple views and insights from the greatest minds in LIS during the second decade of the 21st century. 

These essays will cover major breakthroughs, barriers to progress, cultural innovation and information, and radical thinking in libraries and in education and other vital areas. What progress has LIS made regarding major problems concerning information and culture? What successes have individuals had creating change? What do great contemporary librarians think about colonialism, feminism, multiculturalism, religion and race, intersectionality and other social justice and equity issues? This compilation will be edited by two of today’s shakers and movers in information and culture: Max Macias and Yago 

Topics to consider from a theoretical and/or practical perspective: Information, culture and user needs Computers and culture Whiteness in Libraries and Education Women and computers in libraries Open educational resources and representation Microaggressions in education, academia, in print Cultural representation in children’s literature Cultural representation in comics Erotica and Information in libraries Sexual identity and collection development Classism in LIS education and librarian culture Hip-Hop culture in libraries...

 Below is the golden ticket we sent invited authors and a link to our GoFundMe drive.  

Please give what you can.

Information Literacy and Colonialism ILAGO, 2015 Presentation

Here is a link to the presentation with notes:

Citizen by Claudia Rankine (Book Review)

This book is amazing on so many levels.

Poetically, it stands almost alone as an example of relationships, alienation, microaggressions, and racism in the 21st century US.

Quote from Citizen

A friend recommended this book to me over the break--as we were all freshly cut wide open from the Ferguson coverage, revealing local discussions and ongoing murder of POC from any age and area in the US.

I finally got a hold of it via the library and read it in earnest.

The descriptions of racial microaggressions in 2nd person narrative poetry are so powerful I was shaking as I read them.

Quote from Citizen

Each page is condensed emotion, reaction and analysis of a lifetime of experiencing relationships that bite while smiling.  Her poetry describes how inescapable it is to be a POC in the US at this time and place.  The relentless assault upon our senses of 21st century lynchings and their impact the mental health, awareness and identity of POC is explicated in detail.  This explication is via emotions, images and the powerful poetic voice of Ms. Rankine.

I don't read many books of poetry, nor do I often recommend them.  However, this work should be standard reading for any HS senior, or 1st year college students.  Anyone interested in Race in the US should read this book.  It gets at the heart of what it feels like to live in the US at this time as a POC.

Read this book.

Order this book for your library.

Tell others about this book.

Whack a Mole...

When you are a person of color and you speak about race, you are playing a game of Whack a Mole and you are the mole.

Ready for the next one!

Something I have seen recently jarred me into consciousness about how peer pressure bullying works in combination with Race in the US.

Often, when a person of color brings up Race, they are most often told to shut up in one way or another.  If they don't or happen to bring up Race again, then they are most often attacked.

Once the initial attack happens, other bullies join in and reinforce the idea that non-White viewpoints on Race don't count and don't matter.

This has happened to me countless times and most often it happens with the bullies hiding behind the guise of paternal/maternal patronizing comments about the person of color being a racist.

This type of bullying has happened to me in forums, on Facebook, in person and in various other scenarios when speaking about Race.

Recently I was a witness to this on this kind of attack on FB.  A person of color had said something to a White Group that they didn't like.  That person was then ridiculed and chastised in such a powerful manner, one of my lifelong White friends tagged me into the conversation.  She thought I should see an example of a person of color being 'oversensitive.'  As she believes I am often oversensitive and could use some help seeing this in myself.   The insidious thing about this thread was that White people were chastising this person and telling them they should be peaceful and that they should NEVER talk about violence.  This thread was patronizing to the extreme and very mean.

Mike Brown murdered and displayed as an example for other POC

Obviously, the people in the thread live in a world where they feel safe from violence.  As a person of color who holds a higher education degrees and who is a professional, I don't feel safe from violence.  I feel I could be pulled over by the police at any time and shot.  I feel I could even be killed in my own home by the police or some other form of 'law enforcement' -- as has happened often to POC in the US.

The main bully on this thread had the audacity to state that they were dedicated to peacefully helping people of color, but would not allow POC to speak out of line.  Out of line in this case--being an alternative viewpoint that condoned self-defense and seemed angry.

While I do acknowledge the viewpoint was flawed, I won't stand by any longer and watch this kind of bully beatdown.  I did my best to defend them and myself and then left the thread very bothered.

Protection From Dangerous Forces

We must not let these kinds of attacks happen to our people when we are witnesses.

I love my White friend, but she is so wrong.  In a sense by bringing me into this bullying scenario she was bullying me (albeit unconsciously).  You see--these scenarios serve to reinforce the idea that POC need to keep their mouths shut--that they are too angry and too ignorant to express themselves in a 'civil' manner.  All the while ignoring the uncivil violence and bullying that is going on by the dominant culture.   POC often jump on board and become 'overseers' during these scenarios.  We cannot let this happen!

I won't be bullied and I won't stand by and let other people bully people of color when we speak about race any longer.

I ask you to join me in this effort.

Lowrider Literacies and Fluencies* 10 Point Program 2015

Lowrider Literacies and Fluencies* 10 Point Program 2015

1. Technology: We demand free access to technology and technology instruction, training and applications that meets our community needs.


2. Mechanics: We demand free access to mechanical technology and instruction. By this we mean we want motor vehicle, heavy equipment and other mechanical training and access that meet our community needs.


3. Reading: We demand free access to books that meet our needs. By needs, we mean: Cultural, Political, HIstorical, Language, Social, Psychological, and Health needs. We also demand books in a variety of formats.


4. Writing: We demand free access to writing and publishing technologies as well as the instruction to become fluent with them, and the ability to apply them to our needs.

5. Critical Political Analysis: We demand free access to critical political science analysis instruction, training and applications of this critical thinking to our needs.


6. Social Community Literacy: We demand free access to instruction, training and the application of social and community service and self-development based on our needs.


7. Human Development Health: We demand free access to instruction, training and the application of sound human development principled based on our needs and applied to our communities. 

8. Logic: We demand free access to instruction, training and the application of logical analysis and fluency for community members in both informal and formal logic.


9. Self-Defense: We demand free access to instruction, training and the application of self-defense principles, techniques, weapon training, tactical training and the history of self-defense based on our needs.

10. Ends: Educational sell-determination that leads to political self-determination is the goal of all the preceding literacy points.




*Any marginalized individual or group that seeks to mitigate oppressive forces on their community can apply Lowrider Literacy and Fluencies. One need not own a lowrider, nor be Latino.