[sudo-discuss] Ladders, tables, and other horizontal surfaces

[rachel lyra hospodar]

Patrick, I applaud the positive intention that is obvious behind your email
but I am kind of disappointed by its assertions, that I somehow have
incorrectly assessed what type of environment I might feel comfortable in.

You exhort me to 'think about it' ignoring the clear evidence that I have
thought about it, extensively, as I would hope my long and carefully
thought out messages would indicate. I can easily imagine how your
enthusiasm would occlude for you the paternalism in your words.

I don't think it would be appropriate for me to get too deeply involved in
whatever conflicts are happening at Sudo now, as I haven't been around
much. I have been clear and open about naming names when I felt that it was
appropriate to do so.

Perhaps you might ask yourself why you are more curious about the identity
of 'a certain person' prompting me to, what, speak my mind? ...than you are
about the identities of the people who touched me without my permission or
made me feel unsafe.

I read your comment 'we are as diverse as never before' to rather miss my
point, as I would hope that the critical examination of sudo's position
within the greater context of Oakland would not stop upon achieving some
sort of 'diversity' level. Diversity in what dimension? (That's a
rhetorical question.) There are an infinite array of "other"s and until we
are within a society that does not exotify, demonize, ostracize, and demean
the other there will always be more work to do.

R.
On Nov 18, 2013 7:51 PM, "Patrick Schmidt" <psbschmidt at googlemail.com>
wrote:

> Dear Rachel,
> It is nice to hear from you and your farewell makes me sad as well.
> You and me have similar motives,
> My agenda was always to help Sudo open up to the community.
> And for this I always brought my diverse friends.
> It makes me sad that something made you fear to bring your friends,
> But I can understand, especially in the beginning of sudo, we had this
> hard grip
> Of divisive and regulative spirits, but this is long gone.
> A lot has changed since you don't come anymore, Sudo DID change socially
> And we are as diverse as never before.
> I wonder what triggered you to write the email.
> Just in case it was a certain person contacting you and talking about a
> divided community,
> About Jenny and Mark conspiring for getting a grant and to have a non
> profit,
> Then I would love to speak up.
> In any case, I hope you think about it, I hope you stick around, bring
> your friends,
> And help plant the seeds for a better future.
> Much love,
> Patrick
>
> Am Dienstag, 19. November 2013 schrieb rachel lyra hospodar <
> rachelyra at gmail.com>:
> > It's good to know if there is a neighbor that a lot of people are having
> scary interactions with. I have heard a lot of communities talk about how
> to balance 'not talking trash' with 'naming names' as a way to balance the
> safety of all. There is no absolute solution. In a diverse community some
> members may have radically different experiences interacting with different
> neighbors and it is good to share them. Sometimes I learn that someone who
> was nice to me was mean to my friends, and then I have a decision to make.
> Without that information I don't have the option of supporting that friend.
> >
> > The other email I mention was in response to gtwog's comment about
> crime, to which rhodey had also responded.
> >
> > Thanks for sharing your experience around the community response to the
> Zimmerman verdict. I also distinctly remember that there were a very few
> vanguard anarchists holding up signs advocating violence, but most everyone
> else had an entirely different and unified agenda. It was heartbreaking to
> be in that march, affirming and rejuvenating but solemn as all get out. In
> the moment it was easy for many of us to see that marching was the right
> thing to do. But in the weeks, months, and years that follow, how do we
> work within our own lives to subvert the status quo? Do we? How do we
> prevent more senseless killings, like those of Renisha McBride and Trayvon
> Martin and so many others? We can.
> >
> > I believe that the demonizing of criminal actors plays an insidious part
> in reinforcing amerika's modern apartheid state, and while we are
> encouraging open and inclusive space we need to work constantly to create
> an environment that does not perpetuate toxic horrors like racial
> segregation and class war.
> >
> > We need to work constantly towards this, and create an environment where
> we call each other out. We need to be open to critique.
> >
> > R.
> >
> > On Nov 18, 2013 12:17 PM, "David Keenan" <dkeenan44 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Rachel,
> > That's a beautiful story about joining the Trayvon march. I marched
> through west oakland the night of the verdict, and the next, and the next.
> Watching people come out of their houses to join in, walking off the courts
> and playing fields to join, was a pretty awesome thing.
> > For the record since I guess we are naming names, the neighbor with the
> menacing demeanor I was referring to was Robert with the dog, not Timon,
> but whatevs.
> > I'll look for your other email you mention, too.
> > best,
> > David
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 10:01 AM, rachel lyra hospodar <
> rachelyra at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi david, thanks for your response! I will come by this week and
> retrieve my objects.
> >
> > I am inferring a sort of farewell to Sudo, as I haven't been by in some
> time and I find within myself a resistance to doing so. I don't mean to
> impugn the best efforts of the many folks who work hard to continually feed
> & grow this community. There are a lot of awesome things about Sudo, and
> even though i have to break up with you I know we'll each go on to find the
> happiness, with others, that we both deserve.
> >
> > I don't want to spend a bunch of time detailing negative things, naming
> names and rehashing past events that I am not seeking resolution for. The
> folks who touched and accosted me that I mentioned in particular, are not
> landlord George or neighbor Timon, even though they both do yell a lot in a
> manner that I find wildly inappropriate. My concerns about people and
> culture are not so limited in scope here.
> >
> > Perhaps the other email I just sent to the list will help to illustrate
> another cultural divide I feel exists between where I stand, and Sudo room.
> I think that an organization like this, forming in the time and place that
> it has, bears a great burden of responsibility towards the city & cultures
> around it. I make no commentary on where each of you are on this journey.
> >
> > Here is an anecdote about my relationship with Oakland.
> >
> > I live right by West Oakland Bart. The house is owned by nameless
> Chinese investors who bought it with cash after it was foreclosed on during
> the single biggest extraction of wealth from the Black American community,
> ever. Management is handled by a local company who routinely break the law.
> They were excited to rent to my friend who has a lucrative software job,
> and I live in the basement like some sort of loony art nut add-on. It's
> pretty sweet if I don't think about that whole foreclosure thing or the
> fact that the lease is written in such a way to be able to kick us out
> whenever they want. I also don't think too much about the white friend who
> bought a house down the street, who lamented how he couldn't buy this one
> because the Chinese offered cash. He and I both deserve places to live,
> after all.
> >
> > After George Zimmerman was freed, marches went past my house every day.
> These were 'neighborhood' folks, a word many often use as a euphemism for
> black. The marchers were overwhelmingly African-American. In a nation
> marked by endemic and enduring anti-black racism and a constant narrative
> of black violence and crime, in a city with a provedly violent and racist
> police force, at a time with high tensions and no relief valve, I think the
> racial makeup of a group performing political protest is an interesting
> piece of data.
> >
> > I stood in my front yard, behind the stout gate that came with the
> place, looking at the backs of phalanxes of mostly white officers who were
> flanking this spontaneous-seeming march.  I wondered what would happen if I
> joined it. I felt so much anger around that verdict!  It was not an angry
> crowd but a solemn one, but still I wondered how anger might manifest to
> others.  But I looked at the police, between me and that march, and I knew
> I was on the wrong side. Whatever might happen within that crowd, they were
> speaking opposition and for my voice to be counted I had to join them.
> >
> > I opened my gate and went outside. I pushed past the police.
> >
> > I joined my community.
> >
> > R.
> >
> > On Nov 13, 2013 8:04 AM, "David Keenan" <
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