"My future has been looted, tonight I take it back." [anynomous graffiti Providence, Rhode Island]

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z2GKajcU3ns?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z2GKajcU3ns?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>



<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jMBRcSq33XY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jMBRcSq33XY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

I'm actually very happy to be writing this a bit late because I get to address some of my personal opinions on some issues that were brought up during the conversation in class. In terms of the two videos above Adbusters and some of the literature is disseminates is I feel some of the most ruthless critics of the modern media human and the mental environment we have been nurtured into. However, one of its strongest points in its entire campaign is that the mental media environment is directly linked to the economic regime we find ourselves in.
Adbusters and other organizations like them (Media Matters to name another) are taking what in Linda Christensen in "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us" calls the "opportunity for action" and both exposing it in the bluntest of forms and also using it as a call to arms for psycho-social revolution. As when Christensen describes some students saying, "For some the lesson doesn't end in the classroom. Many who watched the cartoons before we started our study say they can no longer enjoy them. Now instead of seeing a bunch of ducks in cloths, they see the racism, sexism, and violence that swim under the stories." Adbusters and Media Matters and the Love Police and other media and class conscious organizations try and provide resources for those who find themselves at this point of regression to synthesis both theory and energy into action.
My biggest point of contention in our discussion was this idea of "drawing a line." I think we make two mistakes in this. First we make the mistake of confusing media, advertisement, and propaganda with social influence and peer pressure. the latter is a social instrument meant to synthesis culture and maintain some cultural equilibrium the former is an entirely synthetic perverse form of pressure derived wholly and entirely by a select group with a special interest in mind that roots itself on control. When we say media the fact of the matter is that what is meant is in fact corporate media; Democracy Now! isn't the one convincing people that moccasins are back in style. Secondly, we assume that there is no drastic alternative to the current stream of society only amendments and reform can be made. Well, the current has only existed for what would be considered a blink of history, not more then 60 years ago the television was no source of catharsis. Yes, social control still existed, mainly through the right hand of the church and government, however it was a more organic control, one that could only squeeze so hard in fear of the push back, one that one felt could be changed or abolished (the Republic days of Spain or the French Revolution for example) This new form however, is synthetically modified and sanitized to be easy to swallow and numbing. WE DON'T NEED DISNEY FAIRY TALES OR MARVELS SUPER HEROS! what we want is the comfort of simpler days rather then the effort required to better our situations. Marx had said "religion is the opiate of the masses." well, he had no idea what MTV had in store for the masses.
This is beyond Disney and cartoons, this is about the fact that corporate advertising has infected every ounce of what should be organic human culture and ingrained its brand and labels.And the reasoning and theory behind it all rests on an economic system that values profit above all else and sees the dictatorship of capital as the driving force in human existence. I think of a song by the Krishna band 108, "I dream of a world were a smile isn't a rare gift, where feelings and desires mean more than quotas, expectations and disappointed stares. where we have a right to hurt, scream, cry, live, die and sit in silence just because we can. I dream of a world where I can love you in spite of what keeps us apart and where second best is as good as first or a millionth. where we don't over analyze every breathe or under appreciate what our words mean to another. where we find comfort in silence and a place of peace in all of the noise and where everything that is thrown at us makes us better, stronger and more appreciative. where we celebrate life, death and all that comes in between. where songs sing to us and a loved ones words make us dance." We should no longer have to dream these dreams, this is the world that is natural to us, the world we originially come from, what we see instead is a facade an imaginary world of things and products were emotions don't exist and life is measured rather than lived. It is a world resting on the shoulders of immigrants crushed by the power of culture that denied them person hood, a world held up by the blood and sweat of workers who daily make the sacrifice to the alter of a false "meritocracy" and return home to there children who have more and more in-common with sheep then adolescents because thy Shepperd Mickey Mouse is the parents last resort when overtime must be worked to pay for the genetically modified food on the table. And when the education system indoctrinates not love compassion and autonomy but competition jingosim and social darwanism and we consider a re-imaganing of Booker T. Washington race theory and extend it to other classes as the solution we perpetuate the crisis such as suggested in Mcintosh's "Unpacking White Privilege." The class struggle, the gender and orientation struggle, the environmental struggle, and the mental autonomy struggle are all interlocking, it is why this si a revolution that both we must fight and we can win because it will come to a tipping point where it is no longer an option when environmental and psychological collapse are at the flood gates do face the tide or hope for a new Noah and a GE constructed arch?




sorry for the ranting.....just take back your humanity and mental autonomy. Life shouldn't come pre-packaged or pre-sweetened. depression isn't a medical condition its the sane reaction to an insane environment. weed out consumption and harvest life and the memories that come with it.


https://www.adbusters.org/


http://mediamatters.org/


http://www.cveitch.org/


http://www.democracynow.org/

"While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." Eugene V. Debs: Queer liberation is a joint struggle

http://www.bulliedbygays.com/

This website was created in the wake of the current suicides by queer youth in the area. It is meant to exemplify the role of straight males in this tragedy. It's a strong message and it need to be the one heard in many conversations hopefully to come in the future.

I keep saying queer instead of gay/lesbian/homosexual because I feel queer as a word and a theory is far more inclusive than the alternatives. As Dennis Carlson describes in "Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community," homosexual carries with it a very scientific connotation, gay and lesbian carry with each their own respective gender assumptions, neither gay/lesbian or homosexual takes transsexualism into account. Therefore, queer, the more radical option according to Carlson, in my view is the most inclusive of the terms because it address sexuality in a sociological context; an attraction to the same gender at some level is "queer" or different in this society. It also highlights the struggle of between queerness and as Carlson describes it the, "normalizing factors" of society. Thus, the term reminds us that the struggle is in fact to change society as a whole so as variations of sexual attraction are no longer considered queer.

Carlson does hit the nail on the head in describing the neoconservative, right-wing policy of advocating for a normalizing community. Whether its in propaganda that distorts the American past into a twisted romantic character of itself or in calling for "family values" what is intended is the social control of the many by the correct few. Its part of what makes the struggle for queer liberation an inclusive struggle of all oppressed people. As Carlson states, " in the height of the McCarthy era in the late 1940s and early 50's, homosexuality and communism were closely linked as threats to the "American way of life." From this has even come a strange folklore of disinformation in which people believe the term "pinko-commie" was coined to insinuate that all communists are also homosexuals. [the term is in fact a reference to supporters of communism or socialism who aren't actual car carrying members of the communist party. the pink thus referring to a lighter version of the socialist/communist red flag.]

This piece of literature also makes another wonderful connection between oppression of queers in two different institutions; the military and the public school system. "The official policy in most school districts is in fact identical to that of the U.S. military, namely: "Don't ask, don't tell." This is a wide spread issue, one that I think is the responsibility of every social justice group/collective/what-have-you, we need to face, head on, the unwillingness to discuss topics which bring out people deeply held opinion of repression. We make excuses again and again, "The two things you never bring up in school/workplace is religion and politics." What hope of progress can ever be made to cultivate a new society if we're unwilling to root out the weeds that strangle the fruits of our labor.Are we afraid to say "you are bigot for thinking homosexuality is morally wrong" would we be equally afraid to tell someone they are a racist for believing African's are an inferior race? "blacks and gay remain curiously linked-the two great indispensable Others..." When do we begin to draw a line and confront those who pass it. I'm not talking about a physical confrontation but an intellectual conviction and willingness to call others out on their bigotry.


There is honestly alot in the article that is both intellectaully spot on and socially relavent that I took alot from and enjoyed. From the identification of characterization of homosexual identities in mass media to the very idea of self identity formation and identity politics. Even to the subject of pedagogical reform I sympathise with Carlson's view that even the right's vioce needs to be involved in the discussion, if nothing else so that again we can directly face their views.

when it comes down to it this is a struggle on almost all grounds; social, class, religious, race, etc. Its a struggle that those who consider it a duty to sand with all oppressed people as Eugene V. Debs did must confront in every aspect of life. Confront a friend or co-worker on their views, denounce bigotry in media and politics, open your minds to intellectual compassion and autonomy.

This article also shows how common and complacent the mass media is in allowing bigotry to seethe and spread;

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/barney-frank-rush-limbaugh-homophobic-attack_n_751713.html

Waiting for superman, settling for scapegoats

http://socialistworker.org/2010/09/30/still-waiting-for-the-truth

I hope you all can have a chance to read this, its a really well done article taking a critical view at the bias and scape-goating in "Waiting for Superman." As future educators we would do well to face this issue head-on in the present then let it ferment into the future.

Smash borders build culture!

Terry Meier's piece "Why can't she remember that?" The Importance of Storybook Reading in Multilingual, Multicultural Classrooms does the most justice to the subject in the vein of it's insistence that language and culture are inseparable. That's not to say of course that there aren't various wonderfully illustrated points made in the reading. Some of the points of discussion are basic for all social perception but in this reading are well strewn through the focal point of linguistic ability. for example, "children learn to use language in culturally specific ways....The African American children engaged in four times as many interactions that involved extended storytelling and also talked more than the European American children did." I wasn't much of a fan pf the instructions for teaching reading behaviors explicitly, the more contact and information I have in the context of explicit education the less comfortable I am with it. In my mind it always reverts me back to the topic of the "culture of power" and my dilemma with Delpit's piece that to accommodate the culture of power is to perpetuate it. However, in that topic, Meier says something that I find to be vital to any comprehensive education, "Their verbal sophistication provides an important cognitive and linguistic foundation for understanding storybooks and other kinds of written accounts of their own." As someone whose been accused of being overly critical this very concept is so damned important and yet so over looked or purposefully marginalized. If children can't grasp the concepts in a history book for example how can we expect them to think critically about the facts presented. And to add to that if that child can critically consider the topic without the vocabulary to verbalize it there isn't much that can be done with it.

Talking Points #1

Peggy McIntosh "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack"                                   Kevin Cordeiro

"I have often noticed men's unwillingness to grant that they are over privileged, even though they may grant that women are advantaged."

"...in facing it [white privilege] I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country."

"Power from unearned privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or dominate."

"Disapproving of the systems won't be enough to change them."

McIntosh, as someone with a stated background in women's studies takes a wonderfully encompassing look at the issue of tunnel vision towards white privilege in our society. The emphasis on acknowledging that the reason why these privileges are in fact intended to be kept primarily in social subconscious was a wonderful point. Another point of great focus in the piece was the deduction that by discussing the various manners by which white privilege provides an unearned leap forward in society and using this to directly deconstruct the "myth of meritocracy." She does all of this with a tone in her writing that is far from both that of a preacher and a critic but more so like a scientist take a cold calculated look at the subject in-front of her.

"In the struggle of life you'll find, you'll find more love. And in the struggle, you will be loved also." Bartolomeo Sacco

Have you ever noticed that poets and artists are the only ones allowed to start anywhere but the begininng. I am neither so I'll make my start with an introduction:


My name is Kevin the appropriate description of myself is a part time worker at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in the Emergency Room, a full time student at RIC who is majoring in history Secondary Education, the son of to immigrants from the Azores who understood the American dream was a surrealist piece of work but never the less came here for reasons all their own. my appropriate likings include the music made by those infront of you and a night out for billiards with my comrades.

inappropriately I am described as a libertarian-socialist involved in and interested in syndicalism and libertarian educational philosophy. I am a delegate and communication secretary of the Providence chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World. My passion is radical leftist politics and radical education. My introduction to libertarian education came from reading Emma Goldman's essays on anarchism and her telling of the story of Francisco Ferrer y Guardia and the Modern School of Barcelona. (maybe I'll speak on that some other time) My time is spent in the world of ideas and action; vegetarianism, straight edge, anarchism, libertarian socialism, radical unionism, syndicalism, education, philosophy, ecologically sound adaptions of modern life. I hold the world and the people in it to a high standard because I know that we are capable of such astonishing hights of compassion and mutual respect. Musically i miss the times when people made records, recording of people coming together to make music side by side in a single room with less technology and more passion. Because of this I lean towards Hardcore punk, rocabilly, indie-folk, folk, traditional culutral music.


When it comes down to it, I'd rather share with you my inappropriate self...