ckaihatsu
1st October 2014, 00:57
Mass Incarceration Protests, Fired Pro-Palestinian Professor Speaks in Chicago
News from the Chicago Chapter
Chris,
During the recent Israeli slaughter of over 2,000 people in Gaza, Professor Steven Salaita bravely spoke out against this barbaric assault and in defense of Palestine.
For this, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees purged him from his tenured position, in direct violation of basic norms of academic freedom.
Now Professor Salaita is going on the offensive – against academic censorship, and against the continuing colonial domination of the Palestinian people that this censorship covers for. Join us as Steven Salaita speaks at five Chicago area campuses ––
** Monday, October 6
Northwestern University's Evanston campus, 5 PM, Harris Hall, Room 107 (Harris Hall is the building nearest to the northeast corner of Sheridan Road and Chicago Avenue).
** Tuesday, October 7
University of Illinois at Chicago, 1 PM at the Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted Street, Room 605.
** Tuesday, October 7
University of Chicago, 5:30 PM at the International House, Home Room, 1414 E. 59th Street. With remarks by grassroots West Bank activist Basem Tamimi and the Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah.
** Wednesday, October 8
Columbia College, 7 PM, 600 S. Michigan Ave, Room 101, Ferguson Lecture Hall. Joining Prof. Salaita will be Professors Iymen Chehade, and Dr. Peter Kirstein!
** Thursday, October 9
DePaul University, 4 PM (location TBA).
** Friday, October 10
Chicago Access Network TV, 6:30 PM on Cable Channel 21 in Chicago.
More information about Steven's tour will be posted on Facebook as it becomes available.
Background info:
Professor Fired for Tweeting Against the Massacre in Gaza
Protests Demand Steven Salaita be Rehired
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/514073941480972288/FwGdkjCV.jpeg
Tour organized by the Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Columbia College, DePaul University, and the University of Illinois/Chicago, and the multi-issue LGBT organization Gay Liberation Network.
The October 7th University of Illinois event is co-sponsored by the following University of Illinois at Chicago units: Asian American Studies Program, Department of African American Studies, Department of English, Gender and Women's Studies Program, Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, International Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies Program, School of Art and Art History, and the UIC Social Justice Initiative.
Tour co-sponsored by the 8th Day Center for Justice, American Muslims for Palestine, Anti War Committee, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice, Chicago Area CodePINK, Chicago Area Peace Action, Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, Evanston Neighbors for Peace, Haymarket Books, International Socialist Organization, Jewish Voice for Peace - Chicago, La Voz de los de Abajo, March 19th Anti-War Coalition, Moratorium on Deportations Campaign, Northwest Indiana Veterans For Peace, Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice, Palestine Solidarity Group - Chicago, Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, UIC Social Justice Initiative, and World Can't Wait Chicago (list in formation).
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/1170/images/2014/MORBANNER.jpg
Spread this haunting poem by Alice Walker
Author and poet Alice Walker dedicated her new poem "Gather" to Carl Dix and Cornel West. This was an unsolicited contribution to the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. It is posted on her website under a graphic calling for the October Month of Resistance. It is a call for the broadest possible participation in the month of events.
Gather
©2014 by Alice Walker
for Carl Dix and Cornel West
It is still hard to believe
that millions of us saw Eric Garner die.
He died with what looked like a half dozen
heavily clad
policemen
standing on his body, twisting and crushing
him
especially his head
and neck.
He was a big man, too. They must have felt
like clumsy midgets
as they dragged him down.
Watching the video,
I was reminded of the first lynching
I, quite unintentionally, learned about:
it happened in my tiny lumber mill
town before the cows were brought in
and young white girls
on ornate floats
became dairy queens.
A big man too,
whom my parents knew,
he was attacked also by a mob
of white men (in white robes and hoods)
and battered to death
by their two by fours.
I must have been a toddler
overhearing my parents talk
and mystified by pieces of something
called “two by fours.”
Later, building a house,
i would encounter the weight,
the heaviness, of this varying length
of wood, and begin to understand.
What is the hatred
of the big black man
or the small black man
or the medium sized
black man
the brown man
or the red man
in all his sizes
that drives the white lynch mob
mentality?
I always thought it was envy:
of the sheer courage to survive
and ceaselessly resist conformity
enough to sing and dance
or orate, or say in so many outlandish
ways:
You’re not the boss
of me!
Think how many black men
said that: “Cracker,* you’re not the boss
of me;”
even enslaved. Think of how
the legal lynch mob
so long ago
tore Nat Turner’s body
in quarters
skinned him
and made “money purses”
from his “hide.”
Who are these beings?
Now we are beginning to ask
the crucial question.
If it is natural to be black
and red or brown
and if it is beautiful to resist
oppression
and if it is gorgeous to be of color
and walking around free,
then where does the problem
lie?
Who are these people
that kill our children in the night?
Murder our brothers in broad daylight?
Refuse to see themselves in us
as we have strained, over centuries,
to see ourselves in them?
Perhaps we are more different
than we thought.
And does this scare us?
And what of, for instance,
those among us
who collude?
Gather.
Come see what stillness
lies now
in the people’s broken
hearts.
It is the quiet force of comprehension,
of realization
of the meaning
of our ancient
and perfect
contrariness;
of what must now be understood
and done to honor
and cherish
ourselves:
no matter who
today’s “bosses”
may be.
Our passion
and love for ourselves
that must at last
unite
and free us. As we lay our sacrificed
beloveds to rest
in our profound
and ample caring:
broad, ever moving,
and holy,
as the sea.
*Cracker: from the crack of the whip wielded by slave drivers.
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/1170/images/MORimage.jpg
All Out for the Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation! Find out more at stopmassincarceration.net.
Chicago October 1st Protest - Kickoff for the National Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation
8:30AM - Cook County Jail - 26th & California
5:00PM - Thompson Center - Randolph & Clark
We also recommend:
Sara Shourd Speaks on Ending Solitary
9am - 11am
Bluhm Legal Clinic
375 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60611
Sara Shourd spent over a year in solitary as a political prisoner in Iran. Now that she is safely home, she has turned to advocating for the 80,000 prisoners held in solitary right here in the US.
Chicago Chapter, The World Can't Wait!
Follow us on Twitter @ChicagoWCW * "Like" us on Facebook
World Can't Wait - National: worldcantwait.net 866.973.4463
Chicago Chapter: [email protected] | chicago.worldcantwait.net
You are receiving this email because [email protected] is subscribed to this email announcement list.
If you would like to unsubscribe click here.
empowered by Salsa
News from the Chicago Chapter
Chris,
During the recent Israeli slaughter of over 2,000 people in Gaza, Professor Steven Salaita bravely spoke out against this barbaric assault and in defense of Palestine.
For this, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees purged him from his tenured position, in direct violation of basic norms of academic freedom.
Now Professor Salaita is going on the offensive – against academic censorship, and against the continuing colonial domination of the Palestinian people that this censorship covers for. Join us as Steven Salaita speaks at five Chicago area campuses ––
** Monday, October 6
Northwestern University's Evanston campus, 5 PM, Harris Hall, Room 107 (Harris Hall is the building nearest to the northeast corner of Sheridan Road and Chicago Avenue).
** Tuesday, October 7
University of Illinois at Chicago, 1 PM at the Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted Street, Room 605.
** Tuesday, October 7
University of Chicago, 5:30 PM at the International House, Home Room, 1414 E. 59th Street. With remarks by grassroots West Bank activist Basem Tamimi and the Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah.
** Wednesday, October 8
Columbia College, 7 PM, 600 S. Michigan Ave, Room 101, Ferguson Lecture Hall. Joining Prof. Salaita will be Professors Iymen Chehade, and Dr. Peter Kirstein!
** Thursday, October 9
DePaul University, 4 PM (location TBA).
** Friday, October 10
Chicago Access Network TV, 6:30 PM on Cable Channel 21 in Chicago.
More information about Steven's tour will be posted on Facebook as it becomes available.
Background info:
Professor Fired for Tweeting Against the Massacre in Gaza
Protests Demand Steven Salaita be Rehired
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/514073941480972288/FwGdkjCV.jpeg
Tour organized by the Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Columbia College, DePaul University, and the University of Illinois/Chicago, and the multi-issue LGBT organization Gay Liberation Network.
The October 7th University of Illinois event is co-sponsored by the following University of Illinois at Chicago units: Asian American Studies Program, Department of African American Studies, Department of English, Gender and Women's Studies Program, Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, International Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies Program, School of Art and Art History, and the UIC Social Justice Initiative.
Tour co-sponsored by the 8th Day Center for Justice, American Muslims for Palestine, Anti War Committee, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice, Chicago Area CodePINK, Chicago Area Peace Action, Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, Evanston Neighbors for Peace, Haymarket Books, International Socialist Organization, Jewish Voice for Peace - Chicago, La Voz de los de Abajo, March 19th Anti-War Coalition, Moratorium on Deportations Campaign, Northwest Indiana Veterans For Peace, Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice, Palestine Solidarity Group - Chicago, Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, UIC Social Justice Initiative, and World Can't Wait Chicago (list in formation).
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/1170/images/2014/MORBANNER.jpg
Spread this haunting poem by Alice Walker
Author and poet Alice Walker dedicated her new poem "Gather" to Carl Dix and Cornel West. This was an unsolicited contribution to the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. It is posted on her website under a graphic calling for the October Month of Resistance. It is a call for the broadest possible participation in the month of events.
Gather
©2014 by Alice Walker
for Carl Dix and Cornel West
It is still hard to believe
that millions of us saw Eric Garner die.
He died with what looked like a half dozen
heavily clad
policemen
standing on his body, twisting and crushing
him
especially his head
and neck.
He was a big man, too. They must have felt
like clumsy midgets
as they dragged him down.
Watching the video,
I was reminded of the first lynching
I, quite unintentionally, learned about:
it happened in my tiny lumber mill
town before the cows were brought in
and young white girls
on ornate floats
became dairy queens.
A big man too,
whom my parents knew,
he was attacked also by a mob
of white men (in white robes and hoods)
and battered to death
by their two by fours.
I must have been a toddler
overhearing my parents talk
and mystified by pieces of something
called “two by fours.”
Later, building a house,
i would encounter the weight,
the heaviness, of this varying length
of wood, and begin to understand.
What is the hatred
of the big black man
or the small black man
or the medium sized
black man
the brown man
or the red man
in all his sizes
that drives the white lynch mob
mentality?
I always thought it was envy:
of the sheer courage to survive
and ceaselessly resist conformity
enough to sing and dance
or orate, or say in so many outlandish
ways:
You’re not the boss
of me!
Think how many black men
said that: “Cracker,* you’re not the boss
of me;”
even enslaved. Think of how
the legal lynch mob
so long ago
tore Nat Turner’s body
in quarters
skinned him
and made “money purses”
from his “hide.”
Who are these beings?
Now we are beginning to ask
the crucial question.
If it is natural to be black
and red or brown
and if it is beautiful to resist
oppression
and if it is gorgeous to be of color
and walking around free,
then where does the problem
lie?
Who are these people
that kill our children in the night?
Murder our brothers in broad daylight?
Refuse to see themselves in us
as we have strained, over centuries,
to see ourselves in them?
Perhaps we are more different
than we thought.
And does this scare us?
And what of, for instance,
those among us
who collude?
Gather.
Come see what stillness
lies now
in the people’s broken
hearts.
It is the quiet force of comprehension,
of realization
of the meaning
of our ancient
and perfect
contrariness;
of what must now be understood
and done to honor
and cherish
ourselves:
no matter who
today’s “bosses”
may be.
Our passion
and love for ourselves
that must at last
unite
and free us. As we lay our sacrificed
beloveds to rest
in our profound
and ample caring:
broad, ever moving,
and holy,
as the sea.
*Cracker: from the crack of the whip wielded by slave drivers.
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/1170/images/MORimage.jpg
All Out for the Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation! Find out more at stopmassincarceration.net.
Chicago October 1st Protest - Kickoff for the National Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation
8:30AM - Cook County Jail - 26th & California
5:00PM - Thompson Center - Randolph & Clark
We also recommend:
Sara Shourd Speaks on Ending Solitary
9am - 11am
Bluhm Legal Clinic
375 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60611
Sara Shourd spent over a year in solitary as a political prisoner in Iran. Now that she is safely home, she has turned to advocating for the 80,000 prisoners held in solitary right here in the US.
Chicago Chapter, The World Can't Wait!
Follow us on Twitter @ChicagoWCW * "Like" us on Facebook
World Can't Wait - National: worldcantwait.net 866.973.4463
Chicago Chapter: [email protected] | chicago.worldcantwait.net
You are receiving this email because [email protected] is subscribed to this email announcement list.
If you would like to unsubscribe click here.
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