(NAME-MCE) Reflections on the Future of NAME...Continuing the Discussion from the 2008 Town Hall Meeting
Theresa Montano
theresa.montano at csun.edu
Sun Nov 30 18:22:46 CST 2008
Well put, Paul.
---
Theresa Montaño
Associate Professor
CSUN CFA Chapter President
CSUN Chicana/o Studies
18111 Nordhoff St
Northridge, CA 91330-8246
818-677-6801
NEA Board of Directors, at large-higher education
CFA Board of Directors, Affirmative Action rep
---- Original message ----
>Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:06:14 -0500
>From: "Paul C. Gorski" <gorski at edchange.org>
>Subject: Re: (NAME-MCE) Reflections on the Future of NAME...Continuing the
Discussion from the 2008 Town Hall Meeting
>To: "'NAME-MCE - National Association for Multicultural Education
EmailDiscussion Group'" <name-mce at nameorg.org>
>
>
>
>Dear Christine:
>
>Many thanks for the time you took to name these issues and initiate both an
>important discussion and an opportunity for others to share their
>experiences.
>
>As you know, I've been involved in the leadership of NAME for many
>years--about 11 years, actually, beginning with being part of the founding
>committee of Virginia's chapter, then as Parliamentarian and Vice President
>of the Maryland chapter, then as Parliamentarian, Regional Director, and now
>President-Elect of the national organization. I'm responding to you both as
>somebody who shares some of your concerns and as somebody who, like you,
>loves NAME and has put a LOT of time and sweat into the organization.
>
>Like you, I've observed the tensions on the board and within the larger
>organization. Actually, I've seen similar tensions in most every social
>justice organization in which I've been involved. I believe these tensions
>have grown as the organization has found itself--like all non-profits--in
>financial hardship.
>
>As the sexual orientation piece goes, people are always welcome to debate
>whatever they wish. However, NAME's mission and vision are clear: we stand
>for educational equity and social justice across all identities around which
>people experience oppression. This is not going to change--certainly not
>during my presidency. And if this changes some time in the future, it would
>mean NAME losing what makes it unique.
>
>Your other point is critical, as well. And I will admit that, as one of the
>newer voices in the field (although I don't feel I'm new to NAME--I've been
>in the leadership structure of the organization for more than half of its
>existence), I need to reflect more vigorously on the complexities and
>histories you name. And I have every confidence that, with strong leadership
>and facilitation, some of the rough roads we've experienced will be smoothed
>out. After all, we're all dedicated to the same thing: NAME's mission
>statement.
>
>I invite everyone who attended the Town Hall Meeting, and anybody now
>reading this email, to consider what you might be able to contribute to the
>future of NAME. There's no lack of things to do. The reason I so appreciate
>you, Christine, for posting these reflections is that you've always been
>willing to follow reflections with action and work.
>
>I request that any of you who are reading this who want to be involved in
>NAME to email me directly (gorski at edchange.org) and let me know what skills
>you might contribute to the organization. Yes--please also send ideas for
>how to improve and grow the organization. But then also let me know what
>you'd like to contribute to help make those ideas happen. Christine, for
>instance, despite not being on the board of directors, always runs the
>concurrent session proposal and review process--one of the most
>labor-intensive duties anybody in the organization undertakes.
>
>I look forward to the continuation of this conversation and an awesome
>future for NAME.
>
>Regards,
>
>Paul
>
>
>
>******************************
>Paul C. Gorski
>Founder, EdChange: www.EdChange.org
>Social Justice News: www.SocialJusticeNews.net
>Multicultural Pavilion: www.EdChange.org/multicultural
>SoJust History Project: www.SoJust.net
>Feminist Tees Shop: www.cafepress.com/feminist_tees
>Social Justice Store: www.cafepress.com/edchange
>Multicultural Poster Store: www.edchange.org/posters
>NAME: www.nameorg.org
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: name-mce-bounces at nameorg.org
>> [mailto:name-mce-bounces at nameorg.org] On Behalf Of Christine Clark
>> Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 10:26 PM
>> To: NAME-MCE - National Association for Multicultural
>> Education EmailDiscussion Group
>> Subject: (NAME-MCE) Reflections on the Future of
>> NAME...Continuing the Discussion from the 2008 Town Hall Meeting
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear NAME Family,
>>
>> I am writing to follow up on the Town Hall Meeting
>> conversation begun
>> at the 2008 NAME Conference. In a way, I am writing to follow up on
>> the myriad conversations that have taken place at every NAME
>> Conference and every NAME Board Meeting since I joined NAME in 1993.
>>
>> After the most recent Town Hall Meeting, I had a somewhat
>> challenging
>> follow up conversation with an outgoing board member--someone with
>> whom I think I basically agree with about the politics of
>> multicultural education--including how these politics are impacting
>> the NAME board and related organizational health--but with
>> whom I have
>> always had a strained interpersonal relationship. Sometimes, it is
>> the tension part of dynamic tension that makes us act--and
>> that is the
>> case here. I am compelled to write this because of the failure to
>> communicate that occurred between me and this outgoing board
>> member a
>> few weeks ago.
>>
>> When I joined the NAME board in 1996 (I think), there were some
>> complex organizational dynamics at play--a tension between
>> white women
>> and black men about how work got done in NAME, as well as a tension
>> between founders and other board members also about how work
>> got done
>> in NAME--there was some overlap between these tensions, but some
>> differences in them as well. Over my time on the board these
>> tensions
>> became less intense as the board became more diverse, as
>> organizational decisions were made to ensure that diversity
>> continued,
>> and as founders became more visibly actively engaged. As
>> many of you
>> know, I fought for things while I was on the board and, in so doing,
>> left more than one board meeting in tears because of how
>> those fights
>> made me feel about NAME and about myself. I had some work to
>> do on me
>> and NAME had some work to do without me--so after my term ended, I
>> dedicated myself to supporting NAME in other ways. No matter how
>> frustrated I have been with NAME, I have stayed involved, and
>> actively
>> so.
>>
>> Before I joined the NAME board, I understand that there were
>> challenging board discussions that led up to sexual orientation
>> finally being added to the organizational mission statement.
>> While I
>> was on the board, but more since I left, I know that there have been
>> some members of the organization who have gone so far as to consult
>> civil rights attorneys to see if, through a loop hole in the
>> by-laws,
>> sexual orientation could be dropped from the NAME mission, and some
>> members of the board who have suggested that the multicultural
>> education of children has nothing to do with sexual orientation. I
>> have heard NAME board members and organizational members who are
>> eloquent in expressing their profound critical consciousness about
>> issues of race and racism, suddenly unable discuss issues of sexual
>> orientation with the same justice-loving spirit because of
>> what "their
>> pastor" said.
>>
>> I have also heard NAME members and board members suggest that NAME
>> founders and, more generally, older people, perhaps especially older
>> black people in NAME, do not "do" anything and, further, have
>> "never"
>> done anything of value or import to the field or to the organization.
>>
>> While I feel despair when I hear these things being said, I
>> know that
>> my NAME friends, some of them my closest NAME friends, are
>> some of the
>> worst offenders on all fronts--my NAME friends are, in fact,
>> homophobic, heterosexist, racist, and agist. The truth is, I
>> am too--
>> I would venture to assert that we all are. What makes us different--
>> as NAME people--from the rest of the ists in the world, is that we
>> came to multicultural education and to NAME because, ostensibly, we
>> recognized the impact of isms on ourselves and others, that this
>> impact was antithetical to justice, and that we could do
>> something to
>> stop this impact and facilitate justice--that we could move
>> ourselves
>> and others to resist and reject these isms and build anew through
>> multicultural education.
>>
>> I am acutely aware that while all issues of majority/minority
>> differences and related prejudice, discrimination, and oppression
>> share certain elements, they are also very different. I understand
>> that it may make movement with respect to sexual orientation more
>> difficult for some if we draw comparisons between the experiences of
>> prejudice and discrimination that people face on the basis of sexual
>> orientation to those that people face on the basis of race. To be
>> sure there are comparisons to be drawn, but if in drawing those
>> comparisons we alienate those who might otherwise become allies, we
>> need to look for alternative arguments to bring folks
>> along--yes, even
>> inside NAME. Isn't that what we do as multicultural educators?
>>
>> I want to acknowledge that I have probably worked harder to
>> build and
>> maintain relationships with founders, older folks, older
>> black folks,
>> and others who struggle with the sexual orientation issue,
>> more than I
>> have with the younger, generally lighter skinned folks (at
>> least those
>> who have continued to attend NAME) who eschew the contributions of
>> NAME elders and seem, to me, to dismiss the obvious link
>> between race
>> and age in assessing these contributions. So, on the one
>> hand, I have
>> prioritized relationships on the basis of affinity for the
>> race-based
>> dimension of multicultural education, but within these
>> relationships,
>> I have pushed folks--sometimes pretty hard--around the sexual
>> orientation issue. On the other hand, I have not made the
>> same effort
>> to engage, in many cases other white people, on the basis of
>> affinity
>> for the sexual orientation-based dimension of multicultural
>> education,
>> and then, while engaged on this topic, push them--with equal fervor--
>> on issues of race, especially from a generational point of
>> entry into
>> debate. I have work to do to honor my commitments to both race and
>> sexual orientation in relationship to my NAME involvements.
>>
>> I also want to mention that I do not believe that the sexual
>> orientation/race schism in NAME or generally is as clear cut as the
>> preceding paragraphs may make it sound. For purposes of discussion
>> here I am sure I have oversimplified it, though not
>> intentionally so.
>> So, if you have depth to add to the conversation here, by all means
>> add it. In writing this I am mindful that no matter how hard
>> I try to
>> be comprehensive in my analysis, I will inevitably miss important
>> points, so please, help me by raising them in reciprocal dialogue.
>>
>> As alluded to above, many people--and many of them people of color--
>> have come to NAME with high expectations and end up walking away in
>> frustration either because of the homophobia and heterosexism OR
>> because of the attention to sexual orientation. We only
>> scratched the
>> surface of this at the Town Hall Meeting, but we need to dig into it
>> much more deeply because if NAME does not successful deal with the
>> meaningful integration of this issue into our organizational
>> practice,
>> we will fail as a multicultural organization.
>>
>> While it is true we may fail for other reasons more related to our
>> failure to grow from an idealistic grassroots childhood into a
>> sophisticated non-profit adulthood (another conversation
>> altogether),
>> part of our waning attendance is because we have not figured out how
>> to DO what we as multicultural educators SAY--we talk our walk very
>> well at least in compartmentalized ways, but we have yet to
>> truly walk
>> our talk--we have the theory down pretty well, but not the
>> practice.
>> I can talk about race and racism at the most sophisticated
>> levels, yet
>> I do not, as alluded to above, exert myself to the extent
>> that I could
>> to engage other white folks at NAME in the examination of
>> these issues
>> as they impact our organizational dynamics. Too, while my very best
>> friend in the world is gay, I do not exert myself to the
>> extent that I
>> could to engage those most hostile to his presence, many of them
>> people of color in leadership roles in NAME, in the effort to make
>> NAME a more affirming place for him to be--yet I implore him
>> to attend
>> the conference every year. So even those of us who have come
>> to NAME
>> and have stayed with it in spite of its challenges find ways to
>> retreat within NAME to affirming sub-groups--while some of this is
>> natural and positive, some of it occurs as an act of avoidance.
>>
>> This avoidance grows when we look at those who have come to NAME but
>> not stayed. Many folks get to NAME and forget that multicultural
>> organizational development work is extraordinarily hard work--they
>> come to NAME with a sense of idealism and forget that NAME is
>> working
>> to chart a challenging new course in trying to walk its talk--folks
>> come and expect to find utopia and when they don't they retreat to
>> other organizations entirely--organizations that represent the
>> identity that they want the most affirmation for when that
>> identity is
>> not represented in NAME as they imagined it would be--when they find
>> they have to fight for that identity in NAME too.
>>
>> Some of us who have come and stayed, as well as some of those
>> who have
>> come and left, fight/have fought only to make NAME but another
>> organization that affirms only that one identity.
>>
>> We all seem to forget--at least from time to time--that the fight in
>> NAME--while it has all the elements of the fight outside of NAME--is
>> also different because we all come to NAME, at least in theory,
>> because we want the fight outside NAME to be different--we come to
>> NAME for rejuvenation and forget that we also have to practice our
>> work with each other (walk our talk) if we are going to become more
>> successful (more skilled) in pushing the outside envelop forward.
>> There is no real role model for what NAME is seeking to
>> accomplish--we
>> are developing the model as we walk it together as
>> unchoreographed as
>> that walking is at times--so we have to come to NAME understanding
>> these complexities and open to only moments of rejuvenation
>> interspersed with hours of continued challenge and struggle.
>> If we do
>> not learn it in NAME, we can not practice it elsewhere.
>>
>> I must be drawing to a close because I start this sentence
>> without any
>> idea of where to take this conversation next, nor how to
>> bring it to a
>> logical conclusion. So I will end, perhaps tangentially, by
>> mentioning the day today--Thanks Giving Day--a day riddled
>> with racist
>> history, and yet a day today that I appreciate because it reminds me
>> to be grateful for what I have--to be attentive to my ongoing
>> Freirian
>> struggle to become more fully human. I am today, as I have been for
>> 15 years, grateful to NAME--it is NAME that calls me to remember the
>> racist history of this day and that also reminds me to be
>> thankful for
>> my tremendous good fortune--much of which has come to me through the
>> work of multicultural education.
>>
>> With thankful multicultural spirit,
>>
>> Christine (aka Christie and Chris)
>> ---
>> Christine Clark, Ed.D.
>> chriseclark at mac.com
>> 702.896.1527 Telephone
>> 702.896.4529 Facsimile
>> 702.985.6979 Cellular
>>
>> "What are the standards that we have? If we're concerned about
>> unarmed truth--understanding this condition of truth is allowing
>> suffering to speak--and unconditional love--understanding justice is
>> what love looks like in public--then the question is, what suffering
>> voices do we hear...and what kinds of concerns about justice
>> are made
>> manifest...?
>>
>>
>>
>> -Cornell
>> West
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This is a mailing of the National Association for
>> Multicultural Education -
>> (NAME) Listserv list - www.nameorg.org. The materials
>> included reflect diverse perspectives of NAME Listserv
>> participants and do not necessarily reflect a position of the
>> National Association for Multicultural Education. If you
>> would like to subscribe (or unsubscribe)to this listserv go
>> to
>> http://mail.nameorg.org/mailman/listinfo/name-mce_nameorg.org.
>> You can read all past postings in the archives at
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>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>This is a mailing of the National Association for Multicultural Education -
>(NAME) Listserv list - www.nameorg.org. The materials included reflect diverse
perspectives of NAME Listserv participants and do not necessarily reflect a
position of the National Association for Multicultural Education. If you would
like to subscribe (or unsubscribe)to this listserv go to
http://mail.nameorg.org/mailman/listinfo/name-mce_nameorg.org. You can
read all past postings in the archives at
http://mail.nameorg.org/pipermail/name-mce_nameorg.org/
>
>
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