SLAP (students for the liberation of all people) DISORIENTATION GUIDE - Stanford

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c o n t e n t s o f t a b l e

Intro Activist Tour History of Stanford Building Names Stanford and the Bay Area Housing Crisis The Hoover Institution Stanford Imperialism When the “Indian� Was Mascot Dining Hall and Service Worker Campaign The Board of Trustees Hey, Get Over Yourself Lies and Deceits of the Stanford Review Finessing Stanford Prison Divestment Sexual Assault: Who Are We Fighting For? Liberalism vs. Conservatism: The Two-Headed Ass How to Land the Perfect Tech Internship Free Speech 101 Police Abolition 101 Privilege 101 Accessibility and Disability 101 Capitalism 101 Protesting 101 Time Management 101 Organizing Principles 101 Black Feminism 101 Poem: When 3 Black Women by Jamayka Young, Ashlea Haney and Sojourner Ahebee Mini-Zine Interlude by Lina Khoeur Heterosexual Questionnaire Orgs to Plug Into Asian-American Theatre Project Quotes and Outro 2

intro welcome to the disorientation guide. this is a labor of stanford students, so do not let the University co-opt it. this guide is a place of

destabilization, divestment, and dispossession.

>>destabilize your solidified sense of reality<< >>divest from capitalist exploitation<< >>dispossess yourself of the need to possess<< intermingled with many things, this is a collective attempt to rupture the violent apathy of this school. do not be deceived by the beauty and color of the campus - it lies on land stolen from the Muwekma Ohlone people. don’t be deceived by the grandeur of the buildings – they’ve been structured with and by eugenicist white supremacist thought. to counter this mind fuckery, we want to portray this landscape of imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy (credit to bell hooks) our bodies exist in. we also wanted to acknowledge the radicalism and resistance that has happened and is happening here.

so we’re not here to fuck shit up, shit is already fucked up. it is and always has been. to reduce this to just politics and opinion denies the real struggle that this guide is part of. this guide (unlike the other guides provided by this school) will not seek to frame your mind and tell you how to think. it will simply ask you to unthink. to decolonize (however you interpret that). so slap the fuck out of it, there is shit to be done. we hope that in reading this you join the struggle towards collective liberation in all the different ways people can be free. we want to both honor the past of resistance here and fight to continue it.

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OFF- CAMPUS Silicon Shutdown Hands Up, Walk Out Highway 101 Shutdown #Stanford68

BUILDING 360 Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity African and African American Studies Jewish Studies

MITCHELL EARTH SCIENCES Rally Against Islamophobia

WHITE PL AZA & BROWN PL AZA Living Wage Campaign May Day March Deportation Awareness Rally Carry That Weight Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine Indigenous People’s Day Admit Weekend 2015 Transgender Day of Remembrance

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COMMUNITY CENTERS Asian American Activities Center Black Community Services Center DGen Office El Centro Chicano y Latino Markaz Native American Cultural Center QSpot Women’s Community Center

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ETHNIC THEME DORMS Casa Zapata Muwekma-Tah-Ruk Okada Ujamaa

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MAIN QUAD Takeover of ‘89 Sit-in for Divestment from South Africa MEChA Hunger Strike Sleep Out for Food Service Workers Books not Bombs APIs4BlackLives Rainbow Agenda Demonstration SCoPE Family Weekend

MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM Take Back the Mic Admit Weekend 2017

PRESIDENT ’ S OFFICE Takeover of ‘89

HOOVER TOWER & INSTITUTE Banner Drop Rally Against White Supremacy

CIRCLE OF DEATH #MoralMonday

JUNIPERO & SERRA Renaming Campaign

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STANFORD L AW SCHOOL

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Concerned Students for Asian American Studies Racism Lives Here

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ACTIVIST TOUR Note: This is not a comprehensive timeline of all the activism that has occurred on campus.

Stanford students have been disrupting and challenging Stanford for decades, but we were only able to include some of the larger scale, more documented actions. Activism can take many forms, and some of them are less flashy but still important nonetheless! Keep resisting, rebuilding, and transforming Stanford.

BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS || #MoralMonday - October 27, 2014 • Black Student Union and NAACP staged a disruptive demonstration to raise awareness of the murder of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri • Protesters blocked large parts of the street at the Circle of Death, holding signs • Protesters stood for 4.5 hours to match the time Michael Brown’s body was left outside in Ferguson on August 9 || Silicon Shutdown - November 25, 2014 • The day after the non-indictment of Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown, students marched along University Avenue • The marchers stopped at Cogswell Plaza to commemorate and celebrate Michael Brown and other stolen Black Lives || Hands Up, Walk Out - December 1, 2014 • At nationally coordinated times students dropped their commitments and marched into downtown Palo Alto to show that there could be “no business as usual” • Students shut down major intersections and read out the names of Black lives taken by police violence || Highway 101 Shutdown - December 3, 2014 • In response to the non-indictment of the police officers who murdered Eric Garner in New York, student protesters marched from White Plaza and shut down Highway 101 || APIs4BlackLives - December 4-5, 2014 • The Stanford Asian American Activism Committee held a teach-in and community discussion on Asian Pacific Islanders and Ferguson • The next day, API students held a demonstration in Main Quad to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter and counteract the dominant narrative that APIs are political and indifferent || #Stanford68 - January 19, 2015 • On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, organizers shut down the San Mateo Bridge as part of Black Lives Matter protests to #ReclaimMLK • Protesters also demonstrated solidarity with students from Ayotzinapa and Palestinian liberation • Sixty-eight students were arrested and became known as the #Stanford68

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MAIN QUAD || Sit-in for Divestment from South Africa - 1984-85 • Led by the BSU and Stanford Out of South Africa Coalition, students sit-in for Divestment all year in front of President Kennedy’s office || Sleep Out for Food Service Workers - Spring 2002 • The Stanford Labor Action Coalition (now called the Student Labor Alliance) and the NAACP had a 4-day sleep out calling for higher wages for campus food service workers • As a result, subcontracted cafe workers earned wage parity with Stanford dining workers, resulting in significant raises || Books not Bombs - 2003-04 • In March 2003, around 500 students walk out to protest the Iraq War, in conjunction with 30,000 to 50,000 students at 400 to 500 colleges nationwide • In 2004, Students hold an anti-war rally and march to Hoover Tower to protest the ties between the Hoover Institution and the Bush Administration; after the demonstration, students attend five faculty-taught “alternative classes” in Main Quad on topics such as “The Culture of Fear and Bureaucratic Racism: Echoes from World War II” || SCoPE Family Weekend - February 24, 2018 • Stanford Coalition for Planning an Equitable 2035 formed to push Stanford to develop more equitably and sustainably and address the housing crisis in the Bay Area, beginning with their General Use Permit process • SCoPE held a walking tour of campus to hear from Stanford service workers, educate the community about these issues, and uplift their vision for an equitable Stanford.

• Students constructed large wooden houses faces that read “Our neighbors are being displaced on Stanford’s watch” and “Why can’t workers live on campus? Why can’t we provide for our whole Stanford family?”

COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN RACE AND ETHNICITY (CSRE) || Take Back the Mic - April 8, 1968 • Four days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Stanford held an allcampus assembly to address “Stanford’s Response to White Racism” with a panel of entirely white men • Seventy Black students and East Palo Alto community members walked onto stage and took the mic from the provost and read a list of ten demands to increase admissions, curriculum, hiring and representation for Black students and other communities of color • As a result, Stanford established the Black Student Volunteer Center (now the Black Community Services Center) and an African and Afro-American Studies program in 1969 || Rainbow Agenda Demonstration - May 14, 1987 • The Asian American Student Association, Black Student Union, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán, and Stanford American Indian Organization formed the Rainbow Agenda and dropped ten demands to improve conditions for students of color at Stanford • Over 60 students interrupted Stanford’s centennial celebration to present their demands, which included: creation of an ethnic studies graduation requirement, a high-level administration position dedicated to serving ethnic minorities, a permanent rejection of the racist Indian mascot, and a larger space for the A3C

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|| End of Western Culture Requirement - March 1988 • Faculty Senate voted to replace the previous Western Culture requirement with Culture, Ideas, and Values, which included women and minority authors || Takeover of ‘89 - May 15, 1989 • Over 60 students, using the name “Agenda for Action Coalition,” occupied President Kennedy’s office and presented their demands • Over 50 students were arrested, and eight Black/Brown students were unfairly singled out for especially serious charges • The action won significant victories, including the hiring of more faculty of color, creation of a university committee to address minority issues, and expanded funding and space for El Centro and the A3C || MEChA Hunger Strike - May 4-7, 1994 • Sparked by the firing of progressive administrator and Casa Zapata Resident Fellow Cecilia Burciaga and racial epithets against Latinx students at a movie showing, MEChA lead a hunger strike demanding greater consideration of and support for the Latinx community both on- and off-campus • The strike resulted in the development of Chicanx Studies as a major || Concerned Students for Asian American Studies - May 18, 1994 • About two dozen students disrupted a Faculty Senate meeting advocating for the establishment of a full Asian American studies program • Students presented a letter with over 700 student signatures supporting Asian American studies and chanted, “Asian American studies now - Not another 20 years,” referencing the first attempt in 1972 to establish a program. || Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity - November 1996 • Faculty Senate voted unanimously to approve a new program in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity after three decades of student struggle || Ethnic Studies Majors - 1997 • Students can now major in Asian American Studies, Chicanx/Latinx Studies, and Native American Studies • However, these majors are still under CSRE and not their own departments or programs

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WHO’S TEACHING US || Professor Stephen Sohn denied tenure - April 2014 • Professor Sohn was a queer Asian American Assistant Professor of English and affiliated professor for CSRE, Modern Thought & Literature, and Asian American Studies programs • This was the latest in a series of tenure denials to other faculty of color, including Estelle Freedman, Akhil Gupta, Robert Warrior and Lora Romero • Students started a letter writing campaign and a change.org petition with over 1,600 signatures || Town Hall on Faculty Diversity - May 5, 2014 • SAAAC hosted a town hall on criticizing the Faculty Diversity Initiative for being unclear and having no effect on hiring and retaining minority professors • From the town hall, the Who’s Teaching Us campaign was initialized with a focus on: hiring and retaining at least ten more faculty for ethnic studies programs, provide transparency in the tenure process, change categorization criteria for student and faculty demographics to disaggregate data, reinstate the pre-2008 fund allocation to community centers, and keep the University accountable to their commitment to faculty diversity || WTU Demands Dropped - March 27, 2016 • The campaign published its list of 25 demands, as well as a timelines with expectations for administration response || Changes Implemented - 2016-17 • Working groups of WTU members and Stanford administrators were created to address their demands • Stanford Residential Education developed a comprehensive identity and cultural humility training for residence staff

JUNIPERO SERRA || Renaming Campaign - 2016-18 • Junipero Serra was a missionary from the 1700s responsible for imposing Christianity, suppressing local Native American culture, and contributing to the cultural and physical genocide of Native Americans • 2016: Native students drafted a resolution demanding that Stanford rename places on campus (freshman dorms Junipero and Serra, Serra Mall, Serra House) • The resolution was passed by the ASSU and a Renaming Committee was formed, but little progress has been made and students are still fighting for renaming • On November 15, 2017, students marched from Serra dorm, down Serra Mall, to President Tessier-Lavigne’s Office, where they demanded a meeting; as a result, two new committees were created

WHITE PLAZA || Living Wage Campaign - 2003, 2007, 2010 • 2003: Stanford Labor Action Coalition and the Coalition for Labor Justice staged a week-long hunger strike to rehire a fired worker speaking out for her rights; President Hennessy agreed to create an advisory committee on workplace issues and the worker was rehired, but little came out of the advisory committee • 2007: Students held a hunger strike demanding a living wage for hired employees and increased transparency in the subcontracting process • 2010: Students held a rally for the Living Wage Campaign and marched to President Hennessy’s Office • Recently, students are fighting for dining hall service workers who are overworked because the University refuses the hire more employees and promote casual workers

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|| May Day March - May 1, 2006 • On May Day, the International Day of the Worker and the International Day of Action for Human Rights, students, faculty, and employees joined a national march across campus to show support for immigrant rights • Organized by the Student Coalition for Immigrant Rights, students gathered at Ujamaa and proceeded to each ethnic theme dorm before ending with a candlelight vigil at White Plaza to recognize the deaths of the many people trying to cross the US border || Carry That Weight - October 30, 2014 • More than 130 students carried mattresses to White Plaza to show solidarity with Emma Sulkowicz and other survivors of sexual assault on college campuses • Their goals included “mandatory, evidence-based education initiatives” and “expulsion as a default sanction for students found responsible of sexual assault” || Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine - 2014-15 • A coalition of student groups, including AASA, BSU, MEChA, NAACP, MSAN, SAAAC, SSQL, SJP, and many other organizations, formed Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine to push the University to divest from multinational companies benefiting from human rights violations in occupied Palestine • The Board of Trustees’ Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing refused to reevaluate its holdings || Indigenous People’s Day - October 14, 2015 • Students organized an Indigenous People’s Day Candlelight Vigil to honor the people affected by colonialism, celebrate the folks who have survived, and mourn the atrocities that Columbus and other colonizers inflicted • Several Native students and students from other organizations spoke and performed, and this became a tradition repeated on Columbus Day each year || Admit Weekend 2015 - April 23-24, 2015 • The night before Admit Weekend 2015, students chalked statements highlighting Stanford’s complicity in sexual assault, racism, the Palestinian occupation, and other issues • By the next morning, staff and students had washed off most of the chalk • Students protested at a Q&A event with President Hennessy, holding signs and inviting prospective students to an educational event at the Black House, about activism on campus || Transgender Day of Remembrance - November 20, 2015 • The Transgender Day of Remembrance is an international event celebrated annually on Novemeber 20 to honor Rita Hester, whose still unsolved murder on November 28th, 1998 started the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999 • Stanford Students for Queer Liberation organized a die-in to memorialize transgender people who have been murdered or who have committed suicide since Nov. 20, 2014 • Students dressed in black and lay on the ground holding signs with statements of solidarity, such as “I will educate myself and challenge complacency to end violence against trans people.” Organizers also distributed handmade cardboard signs, bearing messages such as “Trans Power,” “Black Trans Lives Matter,” and “Cis Complacency = Consent,” while student organizers read off almost 300 names of transgender people killed worldwide

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HOOVER TOWER & INSTITUTE || Banner Drop - February 21, 2018 • Charles Murray, white supremacist author of the Bell Curve, Losing Ground, and other controversial works claiming a genetic basis for IQ and calling for cuts to welfare, was invited to speak alongside Francis Fukuyama at the Hoover Institute, as part of Cardina Conversations, a program intended to create “discussions with well-known individuals who hold contrasting views on consequential subjects” • To criticize Stanford’s complicity with white supremacy and the Hoover Institute’s nontransparent, non-representative process for inviting speakers, a Coalition of Concerned Students dropped a banner from Hoover Tower reading “Stanford Racism” || Rally Against White Supremacy - February 22, 2018 • During Charles Murray and Francis Fukuyama’s discussion in Hoover Tower, students organized a rally across the street • Students, faculty, and staff spoke and performed to uplift the vulnerable populations targeted by Murray’s hate and highlight their beauty, intelligence, and power

HOOVER TOWER & INSTITUTE || Racism Lives Here - February 2018 • The Racism Lives Here Too movement was created by a group of first-year minority women and supported by a number of faculty of color after a law student received anti-immigrant hate mail in their mailbox nearly three weeks ago • Students raised a banner reading “Racism Lives Here Too,” released an op-ed on forms of racism present in the Law School, and posted fliers with quotes heard at the Law School • Using the tagline “Said at SLS”, posters included quotes such as “Minority students are not as intelligent as white students,” “How much force are the police legally allowed to use against black people?”, “Mexicans are diluting our country,” and “If someone is really starving, slavery starts to seem like a great deal. You get free food and shelter and only have to give up a few rights.”

MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM || Admit Weekend 2017 - April 27, 2017 • During the official welcome event in Memorial Auditorium, students from Stanford Sanctuary Now, Students for the Liberation of All People, MEChA, and the Stanford Student and Labor Alliance took the stage to protest for increased support for undocumented students • Students stayed on stage for roughly an hour, staying silent during the administrators’ speeches but chanting during intermission • Earlier that year, the university rejected demands to declare Stanford a sanctuary campus

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MITCHELL EARTH SCIENCES || Rally Against Islamophobia - November 14, 2017 • In response to anti-Muslim author of the “Jihad Watch” blog Robert Spencer’s invitation to speak on campus, students organized a rally adjacent to the building where he spoke • More than 140 students walked out of Spencer’s talk and joined the rally after approximately 25 minutes, leaving only approximately 20 people remaining in the 250-seat auditorium

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COMMUNITY CENTERS || Asian American Activities Center (A3C) • Stanford’s primary resource for Asian American student affairs and community development was established in 1972 • The A3C (pronounced “A cubed C”) serves as a communal safe space and offers mentorship programs, a weekly speaker series, a sibfam program, and support for more than 40 Asian American Volunteer Student Organizations (VSOs) on campus || Black Community Services Center (BCSC) • The BCSC was founded in 1969 in response BSU’s Take Back the Mic in 1968 • The BCSC serves as a community space and provides leadership development, individual advising, service learning opportunities, nd mentoring programs, and supports more than 30 Black Student VSOs on campus || Diversity and First Gen (DGen) Office • The DGen Office was founded in 2011 to support first-gen and/or low-income (FLI, pronounced “fly”) students • The DGen Office is a student-friendly hangout space, while offering diversity resources and training, inter-group education through diversity labs in and out of the classroom, a variety of community building and empowerment programs for FLI students, and the Opportunity Fund for emergency funds not covered by financial aid || El Centro Chicano y Latino • El Centro was founded in 1978 to support the Chicanx and Latinx community • El Centro provides a welcoming community space and allows students to develop academically, personally, socially and culturally by offering various mentorship, leadership development, and community building programs || Markaz • The Markaz, the Resource Center for Engagement with the Cultures and Peoples of the Muslim World, was founded in 2013 from advocacy by students, faculty, and staff • The Markaz’s name comes from the Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, Turkish and Urdu word for “center,” and they offer programs to facilitate dialogue and discussion around critical social and political issues, promote wellness, and cultural development || Native American Community Center (NACC) • The NACC was founded in 1974, and it hosts the American Indian, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian Program • In addition to providing a welcoming community space, the NACC provides academic assistance, program coordination, mentorship, leadership opportunities, and advising for the Native community at Stanford, beginning with a pre-orientation summer immersion program || QSpot • The QSpot, the LGBTQ+ Resource Center provides a welcoming space for students celebrating, questioning, or struggling with sexual orientation and/or gender identity • The QSpot offers the Queer Campus Resources team, Sharing Our Stories at Stanford (SOSAS) panels, affinity groups like Trans& and other queer student organizations, and the campus-wide Gender-Inclusive Stanford (GIS) effort || Women’s Community Center (WCC) • The WCC was founded in 1991 and serves as a community space to gather and foster scholarship, leadership, and activism • Their programs include student leadership training, the yearly Stanford Women’s Leadership Conference, career development services, and free tutoring in collaboration with the Society of Women Engineers

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ETHNIC THEME DORMS || Casa Zapata • The Chicanx/Latinx theme house was established in 1972 • Murals throughout the walls were painted by Chicanx artists such as Jose Antonio Burciaga and Zarco Guerrero || Muwekma-Tah-Ruk • Muwekma-Tah-Ruk, meaning “House of the People” and named in honor of the Muwekma-Ohlone tribe of San Francisco, is the Native American theme house • The first Native American theme house was built in 1971-72 in FloMo and moved to several locations, before settling in its current stable location in 1988 || Okada • The Asian American theme dorm was first established in Junipero in 1971; the first Asian theme dorms was established in 1917 and 1919 in response to white residents kicking a Chinese student out of Encina Hall • The dorm was renamed Okada in 1981 in honor of John Okada, considered the first Japanese American novelist, who wrote the novel No-No Boy about a Japanese American after internment || Ujamaa • Ujamaa, named after the Swahili word for “extended family” or “family hood,” is the African/African-American theme house • Ujamaa was first established in Cedro in 1970, and it moved to its current location in 1974

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HISTORY OF

STANFORD BUILDING NAMES JORDAN HALL Named after David Starr Jordan, a eugenicist who published many articles describing processes for “improving” the gene pool. These articles later formed the cornerstone of the Nazi eugenics programs. He also covered up the murder of Jane Stanford.

KNIGHT MANAGEMENT CENTER Named after Phil Knight, a co-founder of Nike. He used sweatshop labor to build up his brand.

TERMAN ENGINEERING FOUNTAIN Allegedly the fountain is named after Frederick Terman, who created Silicon Valley by having Stanford lease out land to high-tech companies. However, it could also be a reference to his father, Lewis Terman, who was a prominent eugenicist and highly influential part of his son’s life.

SERRA STREET & DORM Junipero Serra was the administrator of the California mission system. Under his administration, the missions enslaved California Indians, converted them to Catholicism, and destroyed much of California Indian society. The resulting living conditions of the Indians were alike to a concentration camp, and resulted in mass death. The counter-argument to this being a bad thing is that he thought he was doing the right thing.

STANFORD HIMSELF See Stanford Imperialism 15

Stanford and the Bay Area Housing Crisis Erica Knox & Stanford Coalition for Planning an Equitable 2035

Stanford is an epicenter of wealth in the Bay Area. Without Stanford and the military, it is reasonable to say there would be no Silicon Valley.1 Stanford continues to inject wealth into this region through new companies, startups and alumni. Nearly half of all Stanford graduates stay in the Bay Area, contributing to gentrification forces.2

Stanford’s wealth is not shared by all Bay Area community members. It certainly isn’t even shared among Stanford community members. Undergraduates are guaranteed four years of housing and faculty are provided homeowners assistance. Though Stanford staff and service workers have symbolic access to Stanford housing, very few actually receive housing. This means that Stanford forces the lowest-income community members to enter the Bay Area housing market. These workers end up commuting one, two, three hours to Stanford. Workers who start or end work on off peak hours do not benefit from Stanford’s transportation benefits-​ if​ they are offered them. Stanford owns the equivalent amount of land to one quarter of all of San Francisco. Yet, with all this space, Stanford does not seem to have room for workers to live here.

Stanford’s wealth is not shared by all Bay Area community members. It certainly isn’t even shared among Stanford community members. Undergraduates are guaranteed four years of housing and faculty are provided homeowners assistance. Though Stanford staff and service workers have symbolic access to Stanford housing, very few actually receive 1 2

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ttps://techcrunch.com/2015/09/04/what-will-stanford-be-without-silicon-valley/ Data obtained from Stanford Alumni Database.

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housing. This means that Stanford forces the lowest-income community members to enter the Bay Area housing market.

These workers end up commuting one, two, three hours to Stanford. Workers who start or end work on off peak hours do not benefit from Stanford’s transportation benefits-​ if​ they are offered them. Stanford owns the equivalent amount of land to one quarter of all of San Francisco. Yet, with all this space, Stanford does not seem to have room for workers to live here.

One of the things we leave up to the market to distribute is housing. Rather than assert housing as a human fundamental right, our society accepts the assumption that the market will distribute housing fairly. However, as the Bay Area has become more expensive, this market logic has led to more and more people without safe and accessible housing. In 2017, San Jose and San Francisco were two of the top ten cities with the highest homeless populations.3

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​https://www.spur.org/publications/urbanist-article/2017-10-23/homelessness-bay-area

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How does this market-based distribution of housing actually work? One mechanism for this distribution is through the relationship between jobs and homes. There are more jobs than homes in the Bay Area. These jobs, especially high-wage tech jobs, mean that there are more people looking for housing who are able to pay more for housing. This coupled with the lack of development of affordable housing means that cities across the Bay have high ratios of jobs to housing. Our neighboring city of Palo Alto has a ratio of 3 jobs per 1 home. The ratio of low income jobs to affordable housing in Palo Alto is 6.82:1.

These ratios can be attributed to the increasing amount of wealth in the Bay Area.

As students, we are uniquely positioned to influence the development of Stanford lands.

Every 18 years, Stanford gets permission from County of Santa Clara for its upcoming plans. This year is one of those years. We need your help if we want to be part of an equitable Stanford.

It’s time to provide for all our Stanford community- workers, neighbors and graduate students alike.

Find out more at our website: https://scope2035.weebly.com/

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hoover hoover institution institute Adapted and updated from the 1996-1997 Campus Disorientation Guide article “Stanford-Hoover Connections” by Christine Dehlendorf and Hoover Fellows and Academic Freedom from the campus anti-Iraq War movement The Hoover Institution is an ideologically driven entity that does not play by the rules of other parts of the school. The supporters of the Hoover Institution, which is housed in the immediately recognizable Hoover Tower, would have you believe that its association with Stanford is invaluable as a source of scholars, speakers, research and archives for Stanford students and faculty in their intellectual pursuits. In reality, however, the presence of this “think tank” threatens the University’s reputation and legitimacy. Both the Institution’s ideological bias and its distinct connection to Stanford, which gives it unwarranted influence on the University, render it an undesirable resource at best and a dangerous presence at worst.

Originally founded in 1919 as a resource center to house library and archival materials relating to World War I, the Hoover Institution was declared “an independent institution within the frame of Stanford University” in 1959 and freed from potential faculty interference. At the same time Herbert Hoover, in a declaration to the University Board of Trustees stated; “The purpose of this institution must be, by its research and publications, to demonstrate the evils of the doctrine of Karl Marx - whether communism, socialism, economic materialism or atheism thus to protect the American way of life from such ideologies, their conspiracies and to reaffirm the validity of the American system.” -reported in the Stanford Daily, May 12, 1983 While supporters defend the Institution by stating that today’s Hoover has moved on from its Cold Warrior origins, and now comprises an eclectic group of scholars with diverse view points, these claims of intellectual diversity ring hollow next to the institution’s long history of having a revolving door relationship between its Fellows and the administrations of Republican governments. Ronald Reagan during his term as president credited the Hoover Institution for providing “the knowledge base that made the changes now taking place in Washington possible”. Bush-era National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is a Hoover fellow, and has been involved with the Institution and the University both before and after her stint in government. Appointed to the office of Provost in 1992, she halted the school’s policy of applying affirmative action to tenure decisions, attempted to consolidate ethnic community centers, and held office while the University dismantled Stanford Workshops on Political Science and Social Issues (SWOPSI), a student-led course initiative that proudly held courses on marginalized topics, from controversial AIDS programming in the 80s to environmentalism to ethnic studies. Synergy, one of the housing co-ops on campus, owes its existence to this now-defunct program. In government, Rice would become one of the architects of the Iraq war.

Other lower-profile Fellows of the Hoover Institution would play similar leading roles in shaping the Bush Administration’s disastrous Iraq policy. As reported by the Stanford Daily in October 2002, the 31 member Defense Policy Board which, according to the Chicago Tribune “[played] an influential role in pushing the Bush administration toward an invasion of Iraq”, had 8 Hoover fellows represented on the board. The open relationship between the Hoover Institute and Republican administrations has continued into the Trump era, with current Secretary of Defense Jim ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis having formerly been designated as an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Institution.

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The question whether such an outside, conservative political bias has any place on campus is further complicated by the Institution’s unique relationship with the University. Hoover is allowed to craft its own identity while influencing Stanford’s identity and policies at the same time. Joint appointments of Hoover Fellows with University departments are encouraged by both establishments, though Stanford has no control over the majority of Hoover Fellow appointments. Hoover Director Thomas W. Gilligan is a member of the University’s Executive Cabinet, the highest level of policy organization at Stanford. Finally, the presence of such a well-known and well-publicized conservative institution on campus affects Stanford’s reputation as perceived by the national and international community, as well as influencing which professors seek out tenured positions at Stanford University, thus influencing the school’s political development for generations to come. These examples suggest that Hoover has an inappropriate influence over the University given that Stanford has little authority over it and its political agenda.

Concrete incidents show the use of such leverage. In the early 1980’s, for example, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the foundation of a Ronald Reagan museum and library on campus as endorsed by the Hoover institution. That the project was moved elsewhere after a massive wave of protest by activists in the student and faculty body is a testament to the power of student protest, but does not erase the fact that, left unchecked, the Hoover Institution attempts to influence campus politics. With respect to the Institution’s influence on day-to-day politics in Stanford’s academic departments, a 2004 inquiry found that of the 100 fellows, nearly 60 did some teaching or advising for Stanford students. Many of these are courtesy appointments in which Hoover fellows teach classes for lower pay than a Stanford professor.

Recently, the Hoover Institution has shown that it is not above directly meddling in student political discourse. This past year, Institution championed an initiative called “Cardinal Conversations”, a series of public debates that would supposedly bring a “greater diversity of viewpoints”. “Greater diversity” proved to be code for a series of right-wing interventions, with the most controversial of these events hosting Charles Murray, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center denounces as a peddler of racist pseudoscience, opposite Francis Fukuyama, a modern champion of free-market economics.

In financial terms, all of Hoover’s money is Stanford’s money. Checks intended for the Institution are written to “Hoover institution, Stanford university.” The Hoover account is a Stanford account; the Hoover endowment ($60 million) is a Stanford endowment; Stanford owns everything in the Hoover Institution buildings. $1.15 million of tuition money goes to the Hoover libraries and archives, which are a tremendous and often used resource for the Stanford community. The overall cost of the libraries are about $6 million and the overall operating budget is probably $30 million.

By continuing to host the Hoover Institution, not only does Stanford directly fund and give space to an organization with an avowed ideological doctrine supporting some of the worst excesses of American imperialism, it allows these self-same theorists, pundits, and bureaucrats to teach and influence the discourse within the University proper as distinguished guests.

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STANFORD IMPERIALISM Stanford sells itself as being a progressive place since its inception. Which is interesting, considering the fact that Leland Stanford personally solicited volunteers for Civil War-era army campaigns against California Indians and, as governor, signed into law appropriation bills to fund those killing expeditions.

However, as we are often reminded, without the large fortune he acquired through the railroads (built on stolen land) this university would not exit. He also had a poor opinion of chinese immigrants. He thought their presence would corrupt The University itself is built in the style of a mission. A style of architecture that became very popular during the uptick in white supremacist in the late 1800â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Missions were colonial settlements created by the Spanish to assimilate California natives. While missions are taught in California as having been morally ambiguous, the descendants of indigenous people who survived the missions, and indigenous people throughout the world who learn of missions, see them as places of death and enslavement.

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Dining Hall and Service Worker Campaign

Service workers are defined as hourly paid workers and members of the SEIU 2007 Union - our local union here on campus! Many of these workers, in fact most, have worked for Stanford for decades. Regardless of how many departments these service workers maintain or how many years of their lives they pour into this community, ​they have been largely invisible to both students and the administration.

For starters, almost all service workers struggle to find affordable housing in the area, meaning that the person who cleans your dorm every day ​might commute at least two hours or more every morning and again every night to do their job.

Service workers also deal with both implicit and explicit discrimination in the workplace, as they can be denied a promotion for “lack of English skills,” which is often used as a euphemism for having a noticeable Spanish accent when speaking English.

Requirements for jobs such as lead custodians have been altered to include a GED or equivalent, disqualifying any custodian without a high school education from being promoted, even if they have been working for Stanford in that role for years. When asked about the professional development the university provides to these workers so that they may progress in their departments, Stanford hides behind their “STAP” funds, which are funds that service workers can supposedly tap into for classes and other development needs. However, one must first go through a confusing online process in order to understand the funds are there in the first place, then make their request, and then complete their training on their own time.

K ⌛K ⌛K ⌛K ⌛K ⌛K ⌛K

Now pair that process with a ten-hour work day, a two-hour commute, and sometimes a low computer or English literacy or maybe a lack of access to a computer. Even if the worker were able to utilize their STAP funds, GED classes taught through R&DE’s Stepping Stones program cost $500 each, meaning that it would take a worker many years to earn their GED, by which time a promotion may have already passed them by.

K ⌛K ⌛K ⌛K ⌛K ⌛K ⌛K

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Stanford has set its own workers up to fail in order to avoid paying for the training necessary for them to progress.

When Stanford’s Central HR was confronted about this, they commented that the “STAP funds were there, but they weren’t really ​there.​” To put it simply, Stanford wrote the STAP funds into the service workers’ contract as more of a publicity stunt than a promise to its workers.

Dining hall workers ​face poor working conditions, overworking, injury, mistreatment and intimidation from supervisors, and low to nonexistent pay for overtime ​and working out of their class ​(ex: someone who usually prepares raw food does a dishwasher’s job too due to understaffing and then does not get paid for it). The dining hall workers petitioned R&DE this past fall quarter, complaining about many of the things listed above. R&DE, of course, took no action.

When students got involved during fall quarter, R&DE had the audacity to express surprise at the workers’ complaints. The complaints were nothing new—the addition of student voices alongside the workers’ petition was. After a few months of active resistance, including a sticker movement, flyering, and video campaign, R&DE made a few minor concessions such as adding a bonus for workers who recommend people for full time work and allowing for a “floater” position in which one person can be a substitute at any shorthanded dining hall.

These solutions were merely Band-Aids on what has clearly become a much larger issue of trust and respect in the workplace. R&DE also had the audacity to make workers wearing stickers saying “We Support Our Dining Workers” take them off during dinner hours. ​This was a clear violation of workers’ rights to free speech.

If you wish to get involved in these issues, SLAP, SCOPE, and SEIU 2007 have been extremely active in the advocacy around these issues. ​At the very least, be sure to be respectful and kind every day to the service workers that make this university what it is.

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It is important to know who the Stanford Board of Trustees is, because they are in charge of appointing the president who appoints the faculty. Please note the absurd length of the Board of Trustees. Please ​ALSO​ note how many are CEOs of corporations.

Board of Trustees 1. Felix J. Baker, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Baker Brothers Investments, New York, NY 2. Mary T. Barra, Chief Executive Officer, General Motors, Detroit, MI 3. Robert M. Bass, President, Keystone Group LP, Fort Worth, TX 4. Bret E. Comolli, Chairman, Asurion Corporation, Atherton, CA 5. RoAnn Costin, President, Wilderness Point Investments, Cambridge, MA 6. Michelle R. Clayman, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer, New Amsterdam Partners LLC, New York, NY 7. Dipanjan Deb, CEO & Co-Founder, Francisco Partners, San Francisco, CA 8. Henry A. Fernandez, Chairman and CEO, MSCI Inc., New York, NY 9. Angela S. Filo, Co-Founder, Yellow Chair Foundation, Palo Alto, CA 10. Sakurako D. Fisher, San Francisco, CA 11. Bradley A. Geier, Co-Managing Partner, Merlone Geier Partners, San Diego, CA 12. James D. Halper, Senior Advisor, Leonard Green & Partners, Los Angeles, CA 13. Christine U. Hazy, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Sketch Foundation, Los Angeles, CA 14. Ronald B. Johnson, Founder & CEO, Enjoy, Menlo Park, CA 15. Tonia G. Karr, San Francisco, CA 16. Carol C. Lam, Sr. Vice President; Deputy General Counsel, Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA 17. Christy O. MacLear, Vice Chairman, Sothebys Art Advisory, New York, NY 18. Kenneth E. Olivier, Chairman Emeritus, Dodge and Cox, San Francisco, CA 19. Carrie W. Penner, Chair of the Board, Walton Family Foundation, Aspen, CO 20. Ruth M. Porat, Chief Financial Officer, Alphabet Inc. and Google Inc., Mountain View, CA 21. Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder/Chair, Emerson Collective, Palo Alto, CA 22. Jeffrey S. Raikes, Co-Founder, The Raikes Foundation, Seattle, WA 23. Mindy B. Rogers, Atherton, CA 24. Victoria B. Rogers, President, Rose Hills Foundation, Pasadena, CA 25. Kavitark Ram Shriram, Founder, Sherpalo Ventures, Menlo Park, CA 26. Ronald P. Spogli, Founding Partner, Freeman Spogli & Co., Los Angeles, CA 27. Srinija Srinivasan, Palo Alto, CA 28. Jeffrey E. Stone, Chairman Emeritus and Senior Partner, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, Chicago IL 29. Gene T Sykes, Global Co-Head of M&A & Chairman, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Los Angeles, CA 30. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, President, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 31. Jerry Yang, AME Cloud Ventures, Palo Alto, CA

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LIES AND DECEITS OF THE STANFORD R EVIEW The purpose of this guide is to highlight the ideas we think are important, the people we love, and the change we want to see. However, we also must take a quick break to say, DO NOT TRUST THE STANFORD REVIEW. Throughout many years of Stanford’s history and activist’s fights against for inclusion, justice, and equity, the review has always been lurking.

The Stanford Review has consistently demonized and misrepresented people of color, activists, and basically anything that disagrees with the “Western Cannon.” But instead of explaining in our words, below are a few annotated examples of lies and misrepresentations by the review.

That colorblind stuff is not cutting it.

Racist remarks, attacks, professors, and institutional practices still permeate this campus, and we will not be silent.

Sooo…. In the last ASSU elections they straight up lied about our friend Ocon going into this conservative conference to sabotage his campaign and his ideas that counter the capitalist and nationalist ideals of the Turning Point USA.

You’re just going to act like the whole American education system is not the history, structure, and rationality of Western civilization? And I don’t know what you mean by a prospering society, but if you are talking about America, which silences and imprisons those with different beliefs (see Mumia Abu-Jamal) then your definition of prosper only applies to a select few.

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FINESSING STANFORD I am a FLI student here at Stanford. For those of you who do not know, it stands for Finessors of Legal Income (jk, it actually means first generation or low income student). If you’re a FLI student you probably are already plotting on how to milk this institution for resources while you have the chance. Whatever you think of add to this list! For the rest of you these tips will still be helpful, but we hope that you will use them to help organize inside and outside of campus.

1. Read Your Emails The first thing I will say is READ YOUR EMAIL. Sometimes it is easy to become overwhelmed with fellowships and opportunities and accidently miss deadlines. Use your time wisely and put effort into specific applications instead.

2. Pocket Money From Studies Beyond fellowship and job opportunities (many of which you can send to your communities at home as well) there are a lot of paid studies you can participate in. Many times these studies will give you cash or amazon cards. These funds can be used for any from your personal expenses to materials for protest (paints, shirts etc). Look up Stanford GSB studies to start.

3. There are Art Grants every quarter These grants provide financial support for producing on-campus performances and exhibitions featuring Stanford students.

Contact swilensk@stanford.edu if you have any questions.

4. Other Small Grants Apply for a Small Grant. Plan to apply for funding at least two months in advance of your project’s start date. Consult the UAR Grant Writing Timeline for more information.

Or apply for a Major Grant (Like the Chappell Lougee Scholarship for Sophomores) if you have a project in the humanities, arts, or qualitative social sciences If you are interested in attending some sort of conference, especially for organizing, you can even apply for a Conference Grant.

5. ELF fund from your RFs ResEd Experiential Learning Funds “values original and creative ideas, and programs that haven’t been done before”. If you have want to organize and event to support a community on campus, like workers or otherwise, and do not know where to start this is a great place.

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6. VSO’s Can Assist Organizers in Many Ways If you are part of a group that came together out of concern for an issue but are not an official Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) reach out to those who are to contribute vital things for protests: water bottles, paint 7. Jane Stanford Fellowship Stanford might seem like a summer camp now, but this place can be overwhelming and even suffocating at times. This fellowship funds a gap quarter were you can design and implement a service experience that is important to you, ground yourself or even help plan the next student revolution.

8. Lathrop and the Lending Library Lathrop library allows all Stanford students to borrow (until 5pm the next day) camaras, mics, stands and even tablets. All useful to documenting protests, walk outs, and narratives of people’s voices you want elevated on campus among other things.

The Lending Library is more useful if you needed heavier equipment: lights, stage material, big speakers all that good stuff. All Stanford students are eligible to borrow equipment for five days; items must be picked up on Thursdays and returned on Mondays during the specified open hours.

9. The Opportunity Fund * THIS IS FO R F LI S T UDE NT S ONLY* If you are experiencing some sort of hardship, if your laptop broke and you can’t buy a new one, if your parents really want to come see you graduate but cannot afford it you can apply for emergency funding from the Opportunity Fund. There is no maximum amount of times you can apply, however you will be asked for proof of circumstances or purchase of items.

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Sexual Assault—Who are we fighting for?

To be real, sexual violence affects way too many people as they pass through Stanford. The question is, how can we best respond? The answer is complicated and hard to imagine within a dominant society that discredits survivors and upholds a racist patriarchy. Looking at Stanford, the picture is very complicated. On one hand, there is a huge lack of accountability of assaulters and sexual assault is embedded in the rape culture that is present on this campus. On the other hand, from survivor led activism and advocacy, there are some very valuable resources for survivors. In a vision to change this culture and create different ways of interacting and being that respect everyone’s autonomy, we have to listen to survivors, their needs, and center work against sexual violence around their voices.

To envision and act in different ways of communicating and being, outside of racist, sexist and exploitative (individualistic and capitalist) ways of thinking, is not easy work at an institution like Stanford, that upholds the status quo. This institution should not be confused with the activists, organizers, and survivors that continue to push for change despite constantly being ignored, pushed to the side, and coopted.

The bureaucracy of Stanford administration and the lack of transparency add to the difficulty. But so much of Stanford’s impact is not in its explicit silencing of students pushing for change, but around student mental health.

From a survivor-centered perspective, whether sexual violence happened on or outside the campus, before or during college, there is trauma that takes different forms for every person. The Confidential Support Team is a great support resource for those who have gone through sexual violence. However, in the bigger picture of mental health on campus, resources are understaffed, inadequate for many students, often short term, and in many situations has strict protocols that do not adapt to the individual needs of many students. When Stanford forces students to take time off and go home even if there are unstable or unhealthy home situations, or handcuffs students in mental health crisis into police cars in a very aggressive way, Stanford dehumanizes students. It ignores individual circumstances and needs despite the massive amount of money and resources it could dedicate to really being restorative in the way it approaches care.

In America, sexual violence is intertwined with the idea of crime and punishment that targets people of color and puts people in prison as a terrible solution to social problems of inequality and violence. “For many survivors, the experiences of domestic violence, rape, and other forms of gender violence are bound up with systems of incarceration and police violence. According to the ACLU, nearly 60% of people in women’s prison nationwide, and as many as 94% of some women’s prison populations, have a history of physical or sexual abuse before being incarcerated.” (from Survived and Punished national organizing initiative www.survivedandpunished.org) At Stanford and beyond, let’s center survivors and strive to respond to gendered sexual violence in ways that are community based, loving, and transformative.

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LIBERALISM VS. CONSERVATISM: THE TWOHEADED ASS Here we invite you to take a look at Liberalism, the culmination of Europe’s enlightenment and the pillar of Stanford’s academic discourse, and Conservatism, the idea that institutions should change gradually to accommodate the society they exist in, rather than actively interfere in society.

These are the labels that one must fall under, representing either side of the proverbial story. Right? Right?

Looking closely at the definition of either ideology, you can see that they don’t inherently contradict one another.

In fact, if you happen to be in a position of power these two ideologies work wonderfully together to ensure you retain that power. As an institutional ideal, Liberalism holds that the role of administrators is to ensure the greatest possible freedom of those being administered. Here, the government aims to ensure the greatest possible freedom of thought. Therefore, any disagreement with an administrator, and any attempt to change the institution, can be viewed as an attempt to decrease individual liberty, and conservatism can be leveraged to ensure that any momentum generated by society is destroyed through slow moving committees and bureaucracy.

The terms liberal and conservative within the United States have a different meaning, but result in what we like to call the two-headed ass conversation,

also known as there are two sides to every story.

The conversations between liberals and conservatives on this campus, and every other, fall under the liberal institutional ideals academia is founded on. This is because Liberalism assumes that humans can solve their problems through rational debate. In academia, this results in “two-sides” being presented around every issue. This is where the problem lies. There should be no debates regarding the pseudo-scientific basis of white supremacy or whether or not it is ok to discriminate against an entire religion, two subjects that became the focus of Stanford activism in the

Art from Peter Mukuria, incarcerated in Red Onion State Prions, Virginia.

past year. These debates only continue because the embedded power structure consists of liberals and conservatives, and therefore the extreme viewpoints of conservatives in academia can be presented within this institution as “oneside”. Our marginalized communities’ perspectives are not represented because we exist outside of the power structure. This is dangerous. Remember, in times of turmoil, fascism can thrive under a Liberal framework (see Weimar Republic). Every time you see someone pushing a discriminatory, irrational, or rational only in the sense that it contributes to maintain their oppressive and embedded power, argument, shut that shit down!!!

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f ree speech 101 Stanford is the stronghold of conservatism in California. It should come as no surprise that the university would repeatedly invite islamophobists and white supremacists. What other institution would welcome them as warmly? In order to justify bringing such intellectual trash, Hoover, the IR department and other american imperialism/white supremacy propagandists use the rhetoric of free speech to push forward their ideology. This is some bullshit.

Historically, free speech movements have been movements to resist institutions, like universities and governments, denying grassroots organizations from speaking out and protesting in public spaces. The primary goal of free speech to insure that underrepresented voices have a platform.

Centuries of old white male supremacists so-called academics is platform enough. Every single chapter of our history books is platform enough. The White House is platform enough. We don’t need to hear debates about the humanity of POCs, or speeches about how all muslims are terrorists.

We’ve heard it all before.

Their ideology is not in danger. It is the ideology of the loudest group of people in the world: the US political elite. You should be conscious of this when organizing in response to right-wing propagandist events. You can’t take away the mic from them. They own all of them. Taking away this singular mic won’t be nearly enough.

This is why we chose not to yell and interrupt the Robert Spencer event.

When Stanford College Republicans, along with off-campus right-wing organizations invited this islamophobist, a few concerned students got together. The auditorium held about 300 people. The expected attendance was about 15. We could’ve barged in and stopped it from happening but that was what they wanted us to do. It would have played into their narrative of liberal snowflakes forbidding the truth from being spoken.

More importantly, it gave Robert Spencer and what he had to say too much credit. Instead, by word of mouth we organized a group of students, filled up the entire auditorium, and after 10 minutes stood up and left.

We drained him of an audience. By the time the last ofp us left, there remained a dozen confused angry racists in the room. We left that hatred and joined a rally of hundreds that was waiting for us outside.

Organize coalitions widely. Debate ideas thoroughly. Stick to the plan.

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POLICE ABOLITION 101 so you wanna abolish the police? first, it’s important to understand the history of policing in the united states: police started out as forces to protect white settlers from Native peoples. in many southern areas, police began as slave patrols: as you can see, the resemblance between cop badges and slave patrol badges is qwhite uncanny… if you need more evidence that the police have always been an arm of white supremacy, police regularly protect kkk members at rallies: the police are here protecting a kkk rally in connecticut. notice the sign the klan member holds, reading “support your local police” the connection between the police and white supremacy is deep, and so is the connection between the police and capital! >:O in 19th and 20th century especially, police were recruited to help break strikes without giving workers demands and to protect strikebreakers. the centrists amongst you may be asking, but why can’t we just reform the police into something that does protect our communities? >>>REFORM DOESN’T WORK<<< from the comprehensive and well-studied MPD150 report, there have been multiple reforms through the years to improve the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) relationship with communities of colour through things like outreach and making the police seem less scary. the problem with these reforms is: • no accountability (especially difficult when the police influence policy) • multiple demands for accountability failed • reforms can always be undone with new mayors and new police chiefs • surface level reforms failed to fix the racist and broken culture of MPD “To believe that we are just one or two reforms away from turning the police into a trusted partner of the very communities it has treated like enemies to be conquered for a century and a half... that is the ultimate in naive thinking!” -- MPD150 report a police-free future it can be hard to imagine what it’s like to live in world with no police, and everyone may have a different idea. here are some core concepts that need to be addressed when considering police abolition: • Alternatives to police • Holding each other accountable without threat of violence • Decriminalisation • Mental health care the first step that every individual can take towards a police-free future is DON’T CALL THE COPS! why? because it does more harm than good, especially in communities of colour when calling the cops can mean a death sentence for black and brown people nearby. because it escalates violent situations. because it puts vulnerable people in dangerous situations.

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if you feel compelled to call the police, ask yourself these questions: • Consider who we feel threatened by and why?

• How do we define “safety”?

• Do we feel unsafe in working-class neighborhoods, or around people with certain styles of dress or colors of skin?

• What prejudices ground this fear? this next step requires more than a single person to do, but if you work with your community, these are important and feasible strategies to work towards a police-free neighbourhood: • Hold/attend workshops in your community for: ◦ De-escalation ◦ Conflict resolution ◦ First-aid ◦ Volunteer medic ◦ Self-defense • Protest police recruitment campaigns • Develop “cop-free zones” in our neighbourhoods lastly, here are several situations where people commonly would call the police. a police-free future requires out of the box thinking to find a solution without calling the police, and is completely possible! i urge you to rethink calling the police, and to tell your neighbours and friends about these alternatives: you see someone damaging Property (especially corporate or “private”). ask yourself: is anyone being hurt by “theft” or damage? if not, don’t call the police!

2. you think someone stole your property. instead of calling the police and bringing the threat of violence into your neighbourhood, simply go to the police station to file a report. it’s the same thing!

3. you see someone acting Odd. ask if they’re OK, ask if they have a medical condition, ask if they need help. do not call the police, especially if this person is mentally ill. in the worst case scenario, the police murder mentally ill people. in the best case scenario, a suicidal person may be restrained, hospitalised against their will, and stuck with a huge ambulance/hospital bill. keep contacts of community resources like suicide hotlines!

4. you see someone having car trouble. simply ask if they need help, or ask if you can call a tow truck. there’s no need to bring the police into a situation like this.

5. you see someone suspicious. check your impulse to call the cops. is their race, gender, class, housing situation influencing your choice?

6. your neighbours are being loud. go over and talk to them! get to know your neighbors with community events like block parties. a police-free future is all about building strong communities.

7. you see someone peeing in public. look away! for many houseless people, finding a bathroom is really hard 8. you see a homeless person. there’s no need to call the cops, ever. instead, contact community resources like Bay Area Community Services (www.bayareacs.org/contact/). also, fight the root cause of homelessness in the bay area -- evictions and gentrification!

9. you see graffiti. street art is beautiful -- leave it alone. if it’s hate speech, paint over it with some friends 10. you’re aware of a domestic violence situation. calling the cops is especially violent in this case, because the police are required to make an arrest and in many cases, the victim ends up arrested. reach out to the person being harmed and offer a place to stay, offer a ride somewhere, offer to watch their children/pets. use community resources like safehouses and hotlines, instead of bringing in the police.

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for your convenience, here are local hotlines you can use to start your journey towards building strong communities and making police obsolete: •

Mental Health Urgent Care: 1 (408) 885-7855

•

CST Hotline: (650) 725-9955

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CAPS Hotline: (650) 723-3785

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The Bridge: (650) 723-3392

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Substance use hotline: 1(800)488-9919

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PRIVILEGE 101 People on this campus need to get over themselves, period. So much of managing your own privilege comes from having critical self-awareness and understanding you’re not the most important person on the planet.

The many forms of oppression that exist in the world exist in spectrums, and people need to be honest about where they lie with their relative privileges. It’s not as simple as an on and off switch, where you’re either oppressed or not. It’s so multidimensional that no amount of literature, essays, or twitter threads will ever be able to fully capture all the ways which capitalism oppresses people around the world. Still, everyone holds a responsibility of understanding their privileges and learning how they can help others with it, especially those with the most.

I grew up in a poor, black and brown neighborhood that was segregated from all the white people, went to a terrible public school, and have immigrant parents with health issues stemming from all the field labor they had to do when they got here. Still, there are so many privileges I know I hold, some of them realities that I’ve struggled to accept because of my own ego. I’m Latino, and the majority of my ancestry comes from indigenous people in Mexico. When people assume or say I’m white, I’d feel like my entire identity was getting erased. The reality is, I’m pale as fuck and I look/am a white latino. And I’m straight, cisgender, and now know I’ll have wealth when I grow up because I could sleep through all my classes and that Stanford logo will still have me employed. I also have a driver’s license, passport, and have most always been able bodied. So what if it sucks when people think I’m white. That’s a lot of fucking privilege I gotta handle, and I’m continually learning how to do that every day. When a cop stopped my friends and I while we were walking around back home, I did everything I could so that cop would think my name was Brad when I was talking to him.

We all drove home safe that night, and I’ll take that over my feelings being hurt any day of the week.

In and out of Stanford, more people have to think about the role privilege plays in their life. Oppression isn’t as simple as someone not liking you because you’re Black, or someone giving you a weird look because you and your partner ain’t straight. Different forms of oppression operate through capitalism in a systematic and violent way. Privilege is so important to understand because of the very real violence that exists because of them.

Understanding where you might in all of this doesn’t erase your realities-it discovers them. If you think realizing your family kinda wealthy changes the reality of the life you’ve lived, then that was never the reality to begin with. Check yourself, check your friends, and be more intentional with your self-awareness. It’s not just important for you--it’s important for everyone around you.

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ACCESSIBILITY AND DISABILITY 101 Social Model of Disability: • Traditionally, people have thought of disability in terms of the medical model; namely, that a disabled person’s body or mind itself is dysfunctional and must be “fixed” to conform to societal norms. But in the past 50 years, activists and disability studies scholars have redefined the way we think about disability.

The social model of disability states that it is inaccessibility in society -- rather than diagnoses -- that disable people.

• The social model holds that disability is not inherently a bad thing. The ultimate goal is not to “fix” people, but to remove barriers that prevent the disabled people from living independently, achieving an education, and accessing institutions.

• We live in a society that denigrates “otherness.” Ours is a world that was able to launch people into space decades ago but claims there are no resources to make public buildings accessible to the disabled. Ours is a world where the President of the United States has mocked and belittled the disabled. Ours is a world that wants disabled people to be silent or out of sight because disabilities are unacceptable in a society that values productivity and perfection.

Accessibility at Stanford: Stanford is a more accessible campus than other similar schools, but it still has a long, long way to go. Sometimes, buildings are “technically” (legally) accessible, but are still practically inaccessible. The university is struggling to fund a Intro to Disability Studies course. That being said, accommodations provided by the Office of Accessible Education and the Diversity and Access offices make the campus a more welcoming space for disabled students. Moreover, disabled student advocates have made a lot of strides in recent years. Recent efforts by Power2Act (the disability rights advocacy group on campus) and the ASSU Executive Committee have led to the founding of the Abilities Hub (A-hub), a space on campus for disabled students to hold meetings and social events, from movie screenings to office hours. Kids With Dreams also supports young disabled people in the broader community.

Disability Rights Activism: On Stanford’s campus, Power2Act advocates for disabled students on campus.

Power2Act’s next goals are to continue running the A-hub and to write accessibility reports for buildings on campus.

Nationally speaking, disabled activists have recently come into the spotlight advocating against healthcare bill proposals that would slash Medicaid and harm disabled people. Other goals for the disabled activist community are to promote independent living, to protect the Americans with Disabilities Act, to promote the Disability Integration Act, and to make sure that disabled voices are heard in decisions affecting our community.

Some of the most active groups include ADAPT, a radical disabled rights group that uses non-violent direct actions and civil disobedience, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), and the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL).

NOT H I N G AB O U T U S , W I T H O UT US

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CAPITALISM 101 Capitalism is an ever evolving system of power. It is a rather amorphous, nebulous thing and to define it would be to reduce it, as it is always adapting itself to new economic structures. It is a mode of thought, an epistemology of abstraction and exploitation that seeps into everything we do, think, and say. Even Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution were influenced by market theory. Capitalism centers around an economic system based in a “free market” unfettered by government regulation. It necessitates a system of individualized private property rights in which workers are alienated from their labor and a common ground of markets and prices exists.

Surplus value is necessary to ensure that profit is made. Under capitalism, everything can be made into a commodity to be bought and sold, especially land, labor, and money (which can make more money). Much of capitalism is speculative, it rests on systems of credit/debt. Karl Marx understood capitalism as embodying “two freedoms”: freedom from wage labor and freedom from the means of production.

It exists in the use of phrases like “spending time,” or the way Stanford students feel compelled to maximize efficiency in a way that conflates time with money. Within the United States (and most white countries in general), the capitalist system has always been grafted onto a racialized hierarchy system, originating in slavery. During the Reagan presidency, racial stereotypes were manipulated to divert money for human needs to the military which was justified by the“War on Drugs.”

Despite its universalizing tone, capitalism has a particularly radicalized and gendered tone to it. Thus, women, people of color, trans people, queer people, have a particular stake in the destruction of capitalism. More than anything, capitalism is the violence of abstraction. Yet, the very understanding that capitalism has been constructed (intentionally and violently) means that it can be deconstructed. genocide

colonialism slavery

capitalism

orientalism

Three pillars of white supremacy

war

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PROTESTING 101 Hellooo and welcome to Protesting 101. This is a huge topic! A disclaimer for those of us trying to figure out protesting our first time: I’ll try and outline some basics but please do yourself a favor and spice this text up with some of your own research before embarking on your protest journey. If your goal is not to end the institutions of oppression that kill marginalized people: fuck off! I don’t give a fuck about a chain restaurant that you really liked closing. Stop reading and don’t inconvenience people going about their day for that. That said: PLAN YOUR PROTEST! So, something’s going on and someone’s gotta respond to it. That person is you. 0th thing you need to decide is whether you need to do more research before you make a move. Is this something that is directly affecting you? Have you consulted with the people that the something does directly affect to know how they feel about it?

Once you’ve figured out your position relative to the something, first thing you’ve gotta know is who else is with you on this. If it’s just you, don’t worry about it. Single people on monopods are shutting down the Mountain Valley Pipeline right now. A single person anonymously posting signs and stickers around campus will receive the same reaction as a group of people doing the same thing. Got comrades?

Three people can handcuff themselves together and to structures to shut down entrances to buildings (look up more advanced tactics for immobility protest than uncomfortable cuffs). Ten people can hijack an event and take the mic. A note on numbers: unless your work requires a high level of information security, having more people participate in your protest will make your group less arrestable and generally make your protest higher profile. However, since this university is dominated by apathetic techies, numbers can be hard to come by. Make do with what you have!

Once you’ve got an idea of the scale you want to work with, think about the impact you want your protest to have and pick a tactic. Do you want to gather support for a cause, disrupt, raise awareness, demand, or something else? Think about the difference in tactics we see between activism associated with Black Lives Matter and gun control. A highway shut down has vastly different effect than a rally. Taking the mic at an event is sends a different message than standing outside and handing out fliers as people walk in. Are you going to drop a banner? Where? Throw up a wheatpaste? Vandalize or sabotage something? THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU USE YOUR IMAGINATION! Someone invented the die-in. I’m gonna plug a teachin occupying MTL’s office.

Whatever it may be, the tactic should match your goals/demands and your tone should be appropriate for the cause you are protesting for. Chanting “poop poop pee pee Stanford invests in the prison industry” would be pretty fucked up in my opinion just saying. ALSO: consider the impact on everyone this action could possibly affect. It’s super cool to deface a wall with a pro-workers’ rights message until those workers have to clean it up. Shutting down a highway is incredible, but what if your *insert identity(ies) that are abused by the police* friend is arrested?

(I’m gonna assume that you’ve already taken into account people being late for work).

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That brings us to execution. Maintain information security. Keep it off edbook if you can. Try to find a National Lawyersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Guild Legal Observer (or get trained) to document the stuff that the cops/Stanford will lie about. Publicize your shit however you can, news outlets, twitter, whateverâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Stanford is a brand name that HATES bad press. Use a messaging service with end-to-end encryption (like Signal) to communicate about details because you know the police are reading our texts.

In terms of organizational structure, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s definitely action dependent. A large rally could have multiple committees for security, law enforcement liaison, Audio/ Visual, etc. etc. A banner drop might have spotters, droppers, police liaison, and photographers. For your sit-in or extended occupation you might want an executive shot-caller to give the gtfo signal or maybe you want it to decide by consensus.

Consider having mini-goals for your action, so even if your demand is â&#x20AC;&#x153;Stanford Divest from Wells Fargoâ&#x20AC;? you could consider just trying to block the entrance or hold space for a certain symbolic amount of time and still having a win even if Stanford isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t falling over itself to get its money out of the trash.

Special safety/legality/technicality section. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH ON THIS. Stanford is a fucker and has a â&#x20AC;&#x153;free speech spaceâ&#x20AC;? (white plaza) and â&#x20AC;&#x153;free speech hours.â&#x20AC;? They can enforce these dumbass codes because they can. Stanford students challenged this in 1994 under Leonard Law and won btw. You never know how Stanford will react. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re being nonviolent, odds are theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll call the cops to have them on hand and try and have some likeable administrator talk you down. Please challenge the ambiguity of the Fundamental Standard with regard to protest if it is within your privilege. It is used so rarely but has a hugely chilling effect.

Police liaisons: your job is to de-escalate. Do not fuck around, your job is to keep people safe. You can always buy more time by saying you need to consult with your group before making a decision. The cops will usually give you a few warnings before making a move for arrest but you can never really know. Be transparent with your group about what the cops are threatening to do. Consider a traffic-light system for quickly communicating arrest risk (many definitions here, maybe green: cops not present, yellow: cops on scene, red: cops have ordered you to disperse a few times.). The effects of getting wrapped up in the court system are terrible and unlikely to get you where you want to go (not saying that going to court is nota legitimate tactic ofc).

Sustainability is key. I need yâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;all out of jail. I need you to stay alive and provide for your communities if you can. Activism can be energizing, but it is without a doubt incredibly draining. Build trust and community with the people you organize actions with. Debrief and celebrate after you escape the clutches of the law. Be prepared for people to need some time to regenerate after an action that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go so well and check in to make sure your friends are alright. I know I said you can do this alone earlier but you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to ok!!

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time management 101 A lot of times, campus activism can feel overwhelming and make you feel as though you have to sacrifice other things such as your grades, sleep, or mental health in order to be a successful campus activist. However, campus activism does not need to be that way.

YOUR GAME PLAN

At the beginning of the semester, you can create a game plan. A list of goals, campaigns, or other things you want to accomplish in the upcoming semester. The game plan isn’t a week one or week two plan, but a plan for the whole semester.

Your game plan should take everything into account.

Timing: When are midterms? finals? When will people not be on campus?

Infrastructure: What does your group have the capacity to do? What can your membership handle?

Responsibility: Who is the core of your group? Can they be held accountable to make sure you accomplish your plan?

When you create a game plan, you should designate one person to make sure you are on track to accomplish it. This way the goals can get solidly implemented as the semester goes on, so your group can build power on campus.

Organizing Principles 101 • • • • • •

Be strategic -- know power Relationship building, coalition building ◦ Do not be reactive ◦ Meet with people and think through things with people If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready Be aware of power dynamics To lead the people you have to love the people, to save the people you have to serve the people ◦ Accountability to a base Understand intersecting front lines of struggle ◦ Collective struggle and knowledge 43

Black Feminism 101 Feminism. It’s for everyone, right? Wrong. While your “Of Course I’m a Feminist” stickers are cute or whateva, let’s get one thing clear: they are not for everyone. What does “Of course I’m a Feminist” mean anyway? Well...obviously you’re for equal pay, equal opportunity, and equal treatment for and of women, yeah?

Yet when y’all fight for these rights, what do you advertise?

‘Women get paid 77 cents to a dollar! Let’s break the glass ceiling!’

Whoop dee freakin’ doo. But let’s look at the statistics. Who exactly is getting paid 77 cents to a man’s dollar? White women.

And what do black women make? 64 cents. Latinx women? 56 cents. What about Native women? Immigrant women? Are y’all gonna stop campaigning once that 77 becomes 100? And leave black and brown women fighting for themselves? Women of color are constantly a second thought when it comes to these movements, if even a thought at all. Even down to the pink “pussy hats” y’all decided to brand the 2017 Women’s March with - OUR PUSSIES ARE NOT PINK. White women’s are, and they were the only ones in mind. American Feminism is white feminism. And frankly, calling white feminism “feminism” at all is gracious when we look at voter turnout for sexual (and peadophilic) predators like Donald Trump and Alabama senator Roy Moore. White women showed up and showed out for these roaches in disgraceful proportions: 52% and 63% of white female votes went to these vermin, respectively. But I thought y’all were for women’s rights? Or do victims of sexual assault not count? So where do we turn after faced with the glaringly flawed and racist nature of feminism in America? A great starting point is black feminist theory. Black feminist theory has been groundbreaking in terms of introducing intersectional feminism into the conversation.

So what is Black Feminism? [refer to scholarly text below] Black feminism or womanism encompasses too rich a thing to say quickly. Among the many, many things it is, it's important to note that one of the things black feminist social and political thought is not, and that's new. Intersectionality (properly understood), is an analytic, a way of understanding and responding to compounding systems and experiences of oppression, an analytic black feminist philosophers (some of whom studied at the Sorbonne, some of whom never or barely escaped human bondage) have championed for over 150 years. Alice Walker’s cheeky-serious poem (for what better theory is there than a poem) offers some definitions of womanism, of black feminism. My favorite parts aren’t the bits about purple and lavender (although, yes! go awf, Alice), but the bits about loving “love and food and roundness.” Black feminism

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is a political geometry, a round one, that punctures, bends, wraps understanding to clarify a matter (like violence, sex/uality, economy, knowledge, sociality, subjectivity, the law) precisely by pointing out its otherwise incomprehensible dimensions. Black feminists of the past used to say that black feminism was necessarily anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-imperialist. The politic gathered well the full reach of racial hetero-patriarchy and with it, racial capital. It critiqued the terms of power and "inclusion." All of this continues to characterize black feminism. Generational iterations of the politic/analytic have come to add other terms and concerns like beauty and aesthetics, intimacy, safety, representation, politics of respectability (properly understood), public and institutional enactments of “misogynoir” (h/t Moya Bailey), gender non-binarism, the importance of celebrating if, perhaps scaling back the deification of, literary and political heroes like Octavia Butler and "the Lorde." These terms and concerns have been crucial. In more radical situations, there also concerns about the encompassing problem of the prison nation and racial/gender/sexual criminality. Black feminists, for example, fight against the gross discursive trick and massively harmful, paternalistic business of moves like FOSTA/SESTA, and we push on the boundaries of queer. We agitate against the institutionalized pathologization and bio-determinist attacks on black maternity, body control, and rights to health and safety and survival on every register – from Moynihan to Bloomberg to Carson. From what we know of it over all this time, we can be sure that Black feminism will grow and grow and grow as it always has, not as a “movement” nor as a casual, en vogue interweaving into popular discourse, but as a critical methodology for moving ever, ever forward.

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When Three Black Women dis·sent . noun the expression or holding of opinions at variance with those previously, commonly, or officially held.

A Black Woman Speaking up Kinks, coils, and choruses of Black woman shrinkage their way into the shadowed corners of classrooms and lecture halls, in a world hellbent on silencing us, Black women have always been too loud, too aggressive Words fired from lips big as these never taken seriously Black girls always hushed Mocked for the way their tongues weave words from bits and pieces of a stolen language Black girls afraid to answer questions in class like the weight of oppression too heavy to even raise your hand So here’s to the Black Girls speaking up when white noise tries to drown us out To the Black girls who refuse to allow institutions and administrations to silence us Here’s to us Using Our voices A Black Woman Speaking back Cause these words feel like water overwhelming And overflowing from my lips Overthrowing the control of your hands gripping my hips And I am sipping on my tea letting this water outpouring Be soft in healing, destructive in breaking glass ceilings As Black Women we have learned to consume from womb to tomb Like sponges soaking up a reality constructed of our dismembered limbs & we pick up each precious piece of our flesh and bone Grind our teeth to make words into stone And let these mouths Speak Back Like nah you don’t really know me like that And nah I’m not the type to sit back And let you call me anything outside my name Like you could tame these lips or twist this spine with shame Never gonna shrink this body Or bite this tongue To make space for you within my lungs And as the water floods from this mouth Like rivers running South from the mountainous weight of our existence Know that this blood is abounding in resistance

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A Black Woman Speaking black be spellwork Say there is an open mouth Say the black mouth & the prayer do the same work Say the black mouth & the river do the same work Speak black is to gold is to light like what mama’s mouth must have been aglow with when she sealed the split ends of my hair with the spit from her tongue -magic like what grandma’s mouth must have been aglow with when she spoke the recipe for the apple pie and her mouth became lush and pink as a magnolia, each word dripping onto the kitchen floor -magic Like what Harriet’s mouth must have been aglow with when she named the star the would bring her people home, then slept soundly under it as the hound dogs tried to catch her scent - magic Say the black mouth belongs to God, say speaking black belongs to God and nothing belonging to Her could burn, could go silent, could weep for too long Like what Sojourner’s mouth must have been aglow with When she said not the boat that floated me here but what I did with the water, how I drank it and it sustained me -Magic.

dis·sent . verb When three Black Womxn Speak up like the relentless tides of white water ain’t tryna drown us out Speak back like the rippling from heavy raindrops that fall onto stagnant waters and bring it Life Speak black like the one cracked fire hydrant in the hood full of sweet water flooding all our blues away

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H O N O R

Look Upwards: We have high goals, but if we reach for them, they are within our grasp!

One-leg balance: Being a student organizer is hard â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you have to juggle jobs, extracurriculars, unpaid organizing and academics! Let us find balance, and lean on others for support when we need to.

T

H E

Remember our Roots: We stand on the shoulders of those who have laid the foundation for the work we do today.

Lunge for justice: Movement work tends to break linear structures of growth â&#x20AC;&#x201C; sometimes we take baby steps, but other times, we make lunges!

We also sometimes gotta switch directions (switch legs lol)

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M O V E M E N T

Torso Twist: It may feel like weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in this alone, but remember that we always have fellow comrades, commiserators, and celebrators <3

Downward Dog: Bring down the dogs of capitalist oppression! Feel your shoulder blades and your legs, and remember that we are strong, and still have space to stretch.

Self-Wrap: Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to love and recognize the community around you, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just as important to hold yourself with the same love and grace.

Upward Dog: Like underdogs, we rise with the ability to dismantle old systems while simultaneously breathing life into the world we want to see.

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TO PLUG INTO

BSU​ - Black Student Union MEChA​ - Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan SCoPE 2035​ - Student Coalition for Planning an Equitable 2035 AASA ​ - Asian American Student Association SAAAC​ - Stanford Asian American Activism Committee MSU​ - Muslim Student Association SLAP​ - Students for the Liberation of All People SJP​ - Students for Justice in Palestine JVP​ - Jewish Voices for Peace SAIO​ - Stanford American Indian Association PASU​ - Pilipino-American Student Union SALA​ - Student and Labor Alliance Power2Act​ - Disability Rights Advocacy Group ISO​ - International Socialist Organization FLIP​ - First Generation Low Income Partnership NAACP​ - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 59

Asian American Theater Project Asian American Theater Project is an organization dedicated to addressing stereotypes and misrepresentations of Asians and Asian Americans through multidimensional portrayals of Asian/Asian Americans onstage, celebrating the work of Asian/Asian American playwrights, and exploring issues relevant to the broader Asian/Asian American community through the lens of theater. We are committed to providing opportunities for artists of color to bring their own lived experiences to their work, increasing the accessibility of theater to underrepresented communities, and telling stories that challenge us to honestly engage with our own identities, prejudices, and histories.

Our 2017-2018 Season:

• • •

•

Chronicles of Kalki by Aditi Brennan Kapil // Follows the adventures of Kalki, a young high school girl who may or may not be the final avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown // A reimagining of the classic musical, exploring the joys and challenges of interracial relationships Charles Francis Chan Jr’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery by Lloyd Suh / / Set in the emerging Asian American activism movement of the 1960s; a comical and biting critique of Asian-American stereotypes World of Extreme Happiness by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig // Tells the story of Sunny Lee, a young woman who aspires to escape her life in rural China; investigates how global hierarchies and systems of power intertwine seemingly disparate lives in complex, potentially imperialistic, ways

Priorities Going Forward:

• • •

Disrupt the dominance of East Asian narratives and elevate the voices of underrepresented API communities, including those of Southeast Asians and South Asians Give artistic and technical mentorship to young people who may not have otherwise been involved in the arts Logistically & artistically support other identity-conscious theater groups on campus, such as [wit], BlackStage, and Latinx in Theater (LiT)

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so you’ve read the disorientation guide… but what is reflection and reading without action? the following quotes have greatly impacted and influenced us, and we hope they will do the same for you in being a call to action.

“The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.” ​Ernesto Che Guevara

“In a nation whose great informing myth is that it has no great informing myth, familiarity equaled timelessness.” David Foster Wallace

“The white Liberal differs from the white Conservative only in one way; the Liberal is more deceitful, more hypocritical, than the Conservative. Both want power, but the White Liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro's friend and benefactor and by winning the friendship and support of the Negro, the White Liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or a weapon in this political football game, that is constantly raging, between the White Liberals and the White Conservatives. The American Negro is nothing, but a political football.” Malcolm X

“They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.” Malcolm X

The White liberal must see that the Negro needs not only love, but justice. It is not enough to say, “We love Negroes, we have many Negro friends.” They must demand justice for Negroes. Love that does not satisfy justice is no love at all. It is merely a sentimental affection, little more than what one would love for a pet. Love at its best is justice concretized. Love is unconditional. It is not conditional upon one’s staying in his place or watering down his demands in order to be considered respectable….” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Those who exist on the margin are perhaps the most qualified to critique the mainstream, because their experience reveals its limitation.” Jewel Amoah

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

James Baldwin

“Inequality is not ordained by God, it is an unnatural societal construct.” Matthew E. Snipp

“The process of empowerment cannot be simplistically defined in accordance with our own particular class interests. We must learn to lift as we climb.” Angela Davis

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“Desegregation is a joke.” Nina Simone

“No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have black women... When black people are talked about the focus tends to be on black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women.” bell hooks

“Revolution is not a one time event.” Audre Lorde

“You can’t have capitalism without racism.” Malcolm X

“Bury the government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave.” Frederick Douglass

“No one colonizes innocently.” Aimé Césaire

“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” Alice Walker

“Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause- the cause of liberation.” Paulo Freire

“Revolution- the deep thoroughgoing transformation of a society from the ground up.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal

“The young always inherit the revolution.”

Huey P. Newton

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Radical Book Recommendations:

They Came Before Columbus We Should All Be Feminists Black Skin, White Masks 1984 Dear Ijeawele, or Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions IUncle WriteTom’s What Cabin I Like I Writeof What I Like Shame the Nation Shame Without of the Nation Racism Racists Racism Racists Why AreWithout All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together Cafeteria in the Cafeteria Bad Feminist Shadow of the Panther Bad Feminist Black Power Shadow of the Panther Feminism is for Everybody Black Power Socialism FeminismSeriously is for Everybody Black Liberation and Socialism Socialism Seriously The Autobiography ofSocialism Malcolm X Black Liberation and The Next Time of Malcolm X The Fire Autobiography The Carlos Story The John Fire Next Time Why BlackCarlos PowerStory The John Malcolm A to Z Why Black Power Malcolm Hero and Other MalcolmXAas toCultural Z AfroCentric Essays Malcolm X as Cultural Hero and Other Stokely Speaks AfroCentric Essays The Assassination Stokely Speaks of Fred Hampton Between the Worldof and MeHampton The Assassination Fred Homegoing Between the World and Me Power to the People: The World of the Black Homegoing Panther Power to the People: The World of the The New Jim Crow Black Panther Women, Race and Class The New Jim Crow Angela Davis, Making Women, Racethe and Class of A Revolutionary

Black Like Me Native Son Through My Eyes The Miseducation of the Negro The Collection of Poems Taste of Power: A Black Women’s Story Women, Culture, and Politics Freedom is a Constant Struggle Angela Davis an Autobiography Are Prisons Obsolete Antes De Ser Libre I am Troy Davis Demand the Impossible Detroit: I Do Mind Dying From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation Black Jacobins Rules for Radicals American Apartheid Emergent Strategy The Black Feminist Reader Discourse on Colonialism We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party Pedagogy of the Oppressed Critical Race Theory: the critical writings that formed the movement Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza A Brief History of Neoliberalism

Angela Davis, The Making of A Revolutionary

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