free press spring 2013 issue 2: privilege

7/29/2019 Free Press Spring 2013 Issue 2: Privilege

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Spring 2013

Issue 2: Privilege


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The people where I live

are painted dark and bold.

And sometimes though they are

tinged with gold the darkness

consumes their soul because they havebeen lled with years and years of need

and want and of wants they believe they need

but in reality its all a scheme

to get them hWooked up and addicted

to things they think are sweet

but on the inside the things are rotten

crawling with disease. And the truth is out there

in caps and bold but theyre too often too busy

holding hands up for handouts.Too busy looking for the next best thing instead of

attempting to create it.

But its a lifelong habit built or beat in by years

and years of standardized tests and bubble sheets

that by no means foster intelligence or individuality

and by all means push uniformity and the idea that

memorizing is ne if it gets you the 100 percent

Even though next year youve forgotten 100 percent.

And yeah its cold that the government has tuckedthe vast majority of us in a nice little fold labeled

minority not because of color but due to wealth

dont you be confused when I say the people where I live

are painted dark;

dark with ignorance but not necessarily stupidity.

Painted Dark with defeat

after countless failed attempts to break the cycle.

Painted dark with failure

that too many are too blind too see

because they are consumed eyes covered by the newest Louis this

or Prada that but at the end of the are left y

souls painted dark. No gold.

Still in societys nice minority fold.

Painted Black

- Nyanka


4/28

I enter Bloomingdales. My outfit isnt unusual or dirty. I am clean and smell of

dove soap. My sister and I walk the aisles looking for something fashionable

to buy. We laugh, voices cracking like joy through thunderclouds. I can sense

someone creeping behind us. I look back casually and see this woman in her

Bloomingdales work clothes trailing behind us. Her eyes are sharp and her face

is certain that we are up to no good. I know that face. It is the face that says

I am not privileged enough to walk these aisles. It is the face that says I dont

have the money, even though it weighs heavy in my tan purse over my shoulde

to giggle through the aisles touching fabrics. It is the face Ive seen in countles

stores, for countless years telling me that I dont have this privilege. But Ive

learned to keep my cool. My sister and I continue caressing fabrics and crack-

ing joy through thunderclouds. Weve never stolen anything and our shoulders

support all the cash we need despite the color of our skin.

Snapshots of BlThe best benet of privilege is not ha

Young black and Hispanic men continued to be stopped in

disproportionate numbers. They are only 4.7 percent of the citys

population, yet these males, between the ages of 14 and 24,

accounted for 41.6 percent of stops last year.

(NY Times Injustices of Stop and Frisk May 13 2012).


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k Non-Privileges

Nyanka

to realize that you are blessed with it.

In My younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some

advice that Ive been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever

you feel like criticizing any one, he told me, just remember that all

the people in this world havent had the advantages that youve had.

The Great Gatsby

I am walking the streets of the inner city kid. It is 20 degrees. The boys of

caramel and charcoal dont wear hoods on their heads. Most dont even wear

hats or bubble coats. I remember hearing a mother scolding her son take your

hood off.. you cant wear that hat.. it reminds us that we are cast into these

roles. Teenage boys you are more likely to stopped by the police if you wear

your hoody or wear certain hats. The weather does not dictate your attire socia

standards do. If you want to stay out of trouble you will wear no hoodies andyou wont wear crip blues or blood reds. Your bubble jacket makes you a targe

I am on the subway train. The train rattles my bones just as it rattles the bones

of the old lady next to me. She smiles and I return her smile. Her pink painted

lips have offered me a lifeboat in this box of uncertainty hurtling underground

I am out of Brooklyn and though my attire is non-threatening the eyes of a

select few bore at my black hair that isnt straight. It does not lay flat or tame. I

is wild and maybe that is the reason for the skittery eyes that avoid my choco-

late gaze. I believe Ive paid my $2.25 to be on this train.


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WHY ITS AWESOA LARGE PORTION OF OUR SOCIETY IS SIGNIFICANTLY MORE PRIVILEGED THAN THE REST.

They have access to more opportunity than the rest of the population, and most ofthese people will not even admit it. I am, of course, talking about white people. Atrst,itmayseemawfultobewhite,sincewehavetowearsunscreeneverytimewe go outside, but I would argue the opposite. Its great to be white because our societywas set up FOR white people! We all have an inherent white privilege that makes our day-to-dayliveseasier,andmostofusstillndwaystocomplain.Insteadofcomplaining,weshould be aware of just how awesome our lives are.

Now, I know youre thinking:

Didnt Martin Luther King end racism fty years ago?

I understand that this is a com-monly held belief, but this is just not thecase. There is still a large social gapbetween white people and minorities.For evidence of this, all we have to do islook at the source of power in theAmerican government: 43 out of 44U.S. Presidents have been white.

White men essentially have adynasty on the executive chair. Its like

if the Patriots won the Super Bowl everyyear for 237 years. Even if Obama is theman-in-charge now, its not like anyonesever taken a look at Congress and beenlike: Wow, what a diverse group of people.


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ME TO BE WHITESo if white people are practically locked into the most powerful parts

of society, this is going to trickle down to the rest of us. Its kind of like the

Reaganomics of Race. All authority is based on the traditional white role, andfor us white people, this is great. Whereas minorities generally have to bewaryoflawenforcement,wedonot.Policeofcershavebeenknowntoplantillegal substances on minorities to take advantage of them and arrest them. Ontheotherhand,whenthepolicendourdrugs,theyapologizeprofuselyfortheinconvenience and return everything. Sometimes they even throw in a freedimebag.

You see, the whole legal system is geared towards whitepeople, not minorities. The law is a very malleable concept,especially in favor of those with paler skin. Basically, its cool to be

white because the law actually applies to us when we need it, andit can be manipulated in our favor when we want. Minorities dontreally have this option, as the system is biased against them.

Now most of you have probably heard this type of banter before, and itjust doesnt apply to you. After all, most people havent had an issue with thepolice or seen the inside of courtroom before. So youre wondering, How does

beingwhiteREALLYbenetme?Wellforonething,awhitepersonneverhastofaceawkwardquestionslikeWhatethnicityareyou?orevenjustWhatareyou?Ifyoureaminoritylivinginawhite-dominatedsociety,theresboundtobe tons of cringeworthy encounters due to cultural differences. So if youre white,think about all these situations that youre avoiding. In other words, appreciatethe fact that you can openly listen to Macklemore and have no one judge you.

And lastly, white people, be grateful for our whites-only dining hall underHorsebarn Hill. I know how we all complain how its so far away from campus, butthink about how good the food is compared to everywhere else. Theres nowhereelse in Storrs with a full sushi bar. And dont forget about Caviar Fridays! I mean,this is like the best privilege we have, and most of us dont take full advantage of

it.NowdontworryaboutmepublicizingthisintheFreePress.Iknowitssup-posed to be a secret, but the minority community of UConn wont actually believeit; it sounds way too ridiculous. But think about it: why else would they have youputyourethnicityonyourapplication?

- Scott

ITS ACTUALLY ILLEGAL TO BE BLACK IN SIX STATES.[jk, but sometimes it seems like that]


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From early childhood, [we] are

taught ambition. Drawing from par-

ents repetitious advice, the lessons

learnt in public (and private) class-

rooms, and [our] own social growth,

[we] are raised to economically com-

pete. The degree to which one is an

effective competitor, let alone whether

this conditioning is effective, is en-

tirely dependent on a wide range of

socio-economic circumstances, that

is the degree to which one is privi-

leged. There are unavoidable material

differences in the American population

like race, gender, and especially eco-

nomic class, and they cause problems.

However, [our] old friend at the Free

Press, the white male capitalist clich,

is not solely responsible for all social

strife and inequality. It is not only The

Man that exploits this disenfranchised

diversity; but it is also the foundation

of the American dream - an easily di-

gestible positive aspiration distorted

into a promise that, when broken,creates millions of confused and bitter

citizens that are subconsciously bent on

[their] own self-destruction - under the

impression that one may make it, or

that one is inherently special. And so

inequity persists.

[These people] are the

working-class tea party republicans

that angrily shout, Get your govern-

ment hands off my Medicare! be-

cause their understanding of modern

healthcare is less of an understanding

and more of a chum bucket of talking

points that is promptly dumped onto

the head and into the mouth of any

reasonable disagreement. But past

the ideology and the stubbornness

whether by a cruel twist of fate or

by the invisible claw of GOP politi-

cal strategy, these people have been

mobilized against themselves, against

their own (and most other civil)

interest.

[These people] are the seemingly

indolent young men and women that

champion an oppressive social

hierarchy of superficiality. They are

wearing, doing, and thinking on the

subtle instruction of their parent com-panies and the overt dogma of their

chapter predecessors. In this realm,

differences and similarities solidify into

identities and social life for the down-

Give me a moment and a tear as I revisit the words of the dust bowl prophet, John Steinbeck:

SOCIALISM NEVER TOOK ROOT IN AMERICA

BECAUSE THE POOR SEE THEMSELVES NOT AS AN EXPLOITED

PROLETARIAT BUT AS TEMPORARILY EMBARRASSED

MILLIONAIRES

THE MASSIVE MISCONCEPTIO


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trodden becomes an unwinnable game. It

is a collective loss of goodwill-

Subscribing to traditional notions of

superiority comes with an intense social

burden, regardless of whether your ego

thinks you are an object of beauty or bad

taste. The burden comes from the feeling,

despite progressive logic and solidarity,

that superficiality means nothing to the

true human experience that a pound of

makeup and some jungle juice is a

terrible substitute for fifty milligrams of

novocaine.

The imperative of [our] situation isthat there is no other way for the elite to

take advantage of the weakness of the

general population than by the wide-

spread subliminal suggestion of a selfish,

narrow perspective. There is no overt rule

by lawmakers, law enforcement, and their

bankroll, as there has been in the recent

past, as [I] have described before.

[Our] Political reservations, [our] socialcowardice, and [our] minimization of

egalitarian logic in favor of money, pow-

er, or (imminent) instant gratification

lead [us] down a slope slick with blood,

gasoline, and gatorade perpetually

Was a high wall there that tried to

stop me

A sign was painted said: Private Prop-

erty,But on the back side it didnt say noth

ing

God blessed America for me.

[This land was made for you and me.]

When the sun come shining, then I wa

strolling

In wheat fields waving and dust clouds

rolling;The voice was chanting as the fog was

lifting:



One bright sunny morning in the shad

ow of the steeple

By the Relief Office I saw my people

As they stood hungry, I stood there

wondering if



OF THE MISANTHROPIC MASSES


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down, by the sheer force of gravity,

and lending bright young minds of any

denomination to hate their neighbor

and love their feeding tubes; The teat

tube, the [You]Tube[s], and the pneu-

matic tubes that the monster of centralbureaucracy utilizes, with incredible

efficiency, to give permission to the

central bureaucracy to use pneumatic

tubes.

And without trying spoiling the

meaning of [my] words; spoiler alert:

[I] am utterly privileged. Many of [us],

especially the people reading and writ-

ing this [you] and [we] have grown

up tall and strong by sucking down

the artificial and subtle sustenance

of oppression generated by privilege

without any conscious notion of any-

thing bad happening. Or maybe [we]

do detect that something is wrong, but

[we] dont know where to start count-

ing it, let alone fighting or preventing.

Good people at the top of societys

web of oppression are now in the awk-

ward position of constructing a viable

privilege theory (see abbey volcanos

privilege politics article below) with

the responsibility to apply that theory

in a reformist sense.

To top all of this newfound re-

sponsibility off, [we] have actual pre-

dispositions towards privilege to main

tain in the mean time [our] college

careers and livelihood beyond while

we try to figure out how to act right.[I] feel like a pretentious hypocrite in

these moments of self-awareness.

So, practically, what do [we] do?

To spew some measured recipe for

social justice would be difficult, and

would fail to represent [our] point,

which is

collective, yet not at all contrary to the

spirit of individual that lends itself to

democracy. Like most aspects of

leading a good life, the formula for

justice is dependent on functional

variables of positive will call it X or

call it real civil rights and the exe-

cution of that will by all that share it.

Something that should be counted on

is that [we] need to cut out the intel-

lectual novocaine from [our] diet and

let the disquieting compassion of activ

ism hit [our] brains with the full force o

CONSCIOUSNESS. This notion is a new

political namaste of sorts a greetin

representing a convergence of

difference and rationality. Or to get as

close to rationality as good humans ca

possibly get.


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Intersectionality is the study of intersections between different group

of minorities; specifically, the study of the interactions of multiple

systems of oppression or discrimination. Intersectionality is a method-

ology of studying the relationships among multiple dimensions and

modalities of social relationships and subject formations. The theory

suggestsand seeks to examine howvarious biological, social andcultural categories such as gender, race, class, ability, sexual orienta-

tion, and other axes of identity interact on multiple and often simulta

neous levels, contributing to systematic social inequality. Intersection

ality holds that the classical conceptualizations of oppression within

society, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and religion- or be-

lief-based bigotry, do not act independently of one another; instead,

these forms of oppression interrelate, creating a system of oppressionthat reflects the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination.

INTERSECTIONALITY

quoted (with omissions) from wikipedia

ONE BLOO


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In the United States of

America today, there is no federal

law that consistently protects

individuals of the LGBT community

from employment discrimination, let

alone cultural discrimination. This

information, provided by the Human

Rights Campaign organization, also

claries that there are only twenty

states, as well as the District of

Columbia, in the United States,

that have recognition of same-sex

partnerships and dependants. These

statistics basically signify that

individuals apart of the LGBT

community are denied many of the

rights and privileges that all Ameri-

cans deserve. But aside from all the

organizations and groups of people

working towards equality in the

United States, or all of those ragingagainst it, there remains to be an

atmosphere of disparity amongst

the privileges people are living with,

because of their orientation. This

disparity runs deeper than just one

right or another. I mean dont get

me wrong, marriage equality is a

big deal, the right to employment

without discrimination is a big deal,

the right to love who you love is a big

deal, but the disparity of privilege

and security to just be who you are

between those who are LGBT and

those who are not, is grotesque.

When I mention the word

privilege, in terms of orientation

equality, I am not just referring to the

concept of relationships or partner-

ships between genders; I am refer-

ring to the basic lifestyles of people

in the LGBT community everyday.

When a heterosexual man or woman

starts their day, they go to school, or

go to work, and have the conforma-

bility of doing their dailyactions without fear, without

secrecy, and without caution,

because they are who they are; they

are the norm, they are individuals

of heterosexuality, like most others,

they live, they learn, they love. But

for so many people of the LGBT

community, in so many places of

the world, they start their day, every

day, with a caution to hide their

true self, their true orientation. This

doesnt just phase their sexual or

relationship interests, it encroaches

onto everything they do. I know what

this is like, I am a homosexual man,

and for almost 18 years of my life

I lived under a cloak of falsehood

in fear of judgment, discrimination,

and shame. If I were walking in the

hallways at school I would have to

walk a certain way, out of fear: what

if I walk too feminine, or too fast?

They might think me to be gay! In

gym class I was afraid of trying with

sports because if I wasnt good

enough I might be called gay or

queer by the other guys. I was afraid

of taking showers too long in themorning like my sister did, in case

my father or brother thought me to

be like a woman, hence gay

Literally everything I did, my tone of

voice, the way I wrote, they things

I said in conversation with another

person, the work I did in school, the

job I had, the way I drove, the sports

I played, the way I danced, the way

I ate, the way I dressed, the way I

looked, what I read, how I ran, who

my friends were, what type of music

I listened too, or even how much I

displayed caring about any of these

things to others, was constantly

suppressed under a state of worry

and stress in fear that I might be

outed, for my entire life

So before the day came when

I summoned up the courage to just

be happy with myself for who I was,

against all the spite and wrath I was

ready to receive from society, and

come out, I was always in fear, I

was always terried to access theprivileges of self security that I

deserved, because of what others

would think. All over the world, and

in this very country, where we live as

a community, there are still states

where people of the LGBT

community live in fear to be who they

are every day, because of what the

world might do to them, see them

as, or judge them for, and its the

most tragic thing Ive ever witnesse

in my life. Regardless of orientation

regardless of gender, and part-

nerships; we are all people, every

person is entitled to be who they ar

every person is entitled to the basic

human rights they were born with,

to love who they love, and to love

themselves without guilt or shame

for existing.

My name is Titus Abad. I am a

gay man. I study Art & Human Right

at UCONN. I am an individual, I am

a citizen of the US, and I deserve al

the same rights of a heterosexual i

dividual, and vice versa. I deserve t

live in peace; I deserve to feel secu

and loved, as do we all,because we are all human beings.

Now think what it would feel like to

wake up every day, and be denied a

of these privileges just because you

orientation is not the same as

everyone else, because of the way

you were born. I was this person; I

suffered as many others suffer in th

scheme of society where inequality

still exists. In our very country alone

where we are rid of slavery, where

we are unied, where we all have a

cess to the rights of the constitutio

there are still enormous amounts o

people that are denied their basic

life privileges to love. I am fortunate

enough to have overcome the trials

of an individual in the closet, and

I will be a gay man for the rest of m

life, but really, I am just a man, like

other respectable men of this

country that are free. Remember

that your orientation gives you

privilege, and that it shouldnt, and

remember that your privilege shoulbe shared, so share it.

ORIENTATION EQUALIT Y & PRIVILEG

ART AND ARTICLE BY

TITUS EZEKIEL ABAD(ASS)


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Privilege has turned out to bean elusive and fugitive subject.

The pressure to avoid it is great,

for in facing it I must give up

the myth of meritocracy...

...If these things are true,

this is not such a free country

ones life is not what one makes

it; many doors open for certain

people through no virtues of

their own.

-Peggy McIntosh


16/28

Many undergrads are introduced to the notion of

privilege very early on. Often, as was my experience

many moons ago, we are taught that privilege politics

are uncontroversial when it comes to social justice.We are instructed to read Peggy McIntoshs Invisible

Knapsack and we are taught that we all, in one way

or another, have some sort of privilege that needs to

be recognized and struggled againstwhite privilege,

heterosexual privilege, male privilege, the list goes

on. When we learn about intersectionality, we learn

that oppressions, and therefore privileges, often

overlap, and so we are afforded a somewhat more

nuanced understanding of how power works and

how privileges are created, used, and maintained,

and the ways through which they might be destroyed.

In the beginning we learn that privilege is often

invisible to those who have it and that privilege can

only exist if its exclusivemeaning for there to be

privilege, some group or another is suffering because

they lack that privilege. So we know that privilege is

bad and that we need to struggle against the power

structures that create privileges for some while oth-

ers remain oppressed. Sounds pretty cut and dry.

However, over the past year especially, many radicals

have contributed critical analyses of privilege politics

which need to be taken into account. Some of these

critiques are imsy while others are spot-on and can

help elucidate problems within privilege politics and

offer better ways of conceptualizing power and

structures of domination which can then, hopefully,

help us gure out ways toward creating a more

egalitarian, free, classless, and participatory society.

Many of these critiques are quite lengthy, so Ill use

the rest of this article to simply do an overview, as

well as provide links for further reading.

One of the rst pieces to come out in early 2012

was guest post by Will on the Black Orchid Collectivewebsite. Will argues that privilege theory fails when

put into practice within social movements. He claims,

Privilege theorys main weakness are a tendency

towards reformism, a lack of politics, and a politics of

retreat. What he means by reformism in this regard

is that privilege theory, for example, tells us that the

most oppressed are at the most risk and so there-

fore they should not be at the forefront of struggle

because they have too much to lose. In turn, privi-

lege theory is often used to justify less-oppressedpeople ghting on behalf of the oppressed since the

can afford to get arrested without losing their home

or being deported, for example. But it has been

demonstrated, again and again, that the oppressed

must take their struggles into their own hands, and

the movements that succeed are the ones that do

this. Reformism, by way of (some interpretations of)

privilege theory, argues the opposite and turns the

oppressed into helpless victims. In many ways, this

peculiar situation reies white supremacy and othe

structures of domination. By lack of politics, Will

means that structures of power and domination areoften left unanalyzed while most effort is put into

making sure that individuals somehow check their

own privilege within social movements, thus depolit

cizing these movements and turning

revolutionary potential into individual attempts to

check ones own privilege within personal settings

Checking ones privilege is surely helpful and often

appreciated, but the question remains as to what

those attempts actually do to destroy current struc-

tures of power and domination. Finally, Will argues

that privilege theory is a politics of retreat because

it thrives in depoliticized times when mass revolu-

tionary movements are hard to nd. Again, Wills

critiques of privilege theory come from his time spe

organizing in mass movements which use privilege

theory as a lter through which to make decisions

and inform strategies and tactics. This argument is

highly criticaland I think what we can learn from

Will is a critique of how privilege theory plays out in

mass movements rather than our debates about it

our classrooms. There is no need to either fully agre

or disagree with Will, but we should take his critique

into account when we put theories of privilege intopractice.

At the Bay of Rage website, CROATOAN critiques pr

ilege theory because it tends to conceptualize white

privilege, for example, as mainly a psychological

problem created by the attitudes of individuals and

SOME RECENT CRITIQUES OF PRIVILEGE POLITICSBY ABBEY VOLCANO


17/28

that this view fails to address power and structures

of domination in society, let alone change them.

Many critiques of privilege theory argue against

this very pointthe idea that privileges manifest in

individual behaviors, which, in turn, require simply

a change in such individual behaviors to eradicate

complex structures of power such as white privilege,

patriarchy, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, etc.The critique here is that abolishing patriarchy, hetero-

sexism, cisssexism, white supremacy, class society,

etc., requires militant and radical social movements

that will replace our old structures of oppression and

domination with new structures which foster a

classless, egalitarian, participatory, and, hopefully,

a vastly less boring society. CROATOAN writes, We

argue that prevailing discourses of personal privilege

and political representation in fact minimize and

misrepresent the severity and structural character of

the violence and material deprivation marginalized

demographics face. So not only do privilege politics

miss the point, the politics, as they are deployed,

actually set back militant class-struggle movements.

Another critique of privilege politics is that they

often fail to make sense of how capitalism, white

supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, etc., work

together to maintain current power relationships

and structures of domination in society. Rather,

privilege politics have a strong tendency to isolate

oppressions and their accompanying privileges. So,

for example, there is both white privilege and maleprivilege. What does this mean for people who have

one or the other? Both? Neither? How does this

help us understand the intricate ways in which all

hierarchies are woven together in society? Privilege

politics are often based upon identity politics which,

in many instances, fail to challenge power structures

and instead rely on ghting against the laundry list

of individual oppressions and the all too famous

Oppression Olympics which grows out of these

analyses. The critique is leveled that checking one

privilege creates a situation where more authentic

voices are made out of those suffering from the

longest list of oppressionsagain, leading us back

toward the Oppression Olympics, a game no one rea

ly wins and one which is based on identity alone anlacking more nuanced analyses of power, capitalism

the state, and the ways in which all hierarchies work

together to maintain power-over. The critique isnt

that identity isnt important or that the state and

capitalism are more central to struggle, rather, the

critique is that analyses of identity alone will not lea

us toward struggles which can overturn all forms of

hierarchy, oppression, and exploitation.

But if privilege politics are a liberal fantasy as these

critiques suggest, what are the alternatives? Which

analyses can help us understand how domination,

oppression, and exploitation manifest so we can de

stroy such structures and create a better world with

endless possibilities? How might we utilize theories

of privilege in a revolutionary, rather than a liberal

and coopted way? Or can we?

Further reading:

Be Careful With Each Other, So We Can Be Dangerous Together http://invisiblestrugglers.blogspot.com/2012/03/be-careful-with-each-other-so-w

can-be.html

Escalating Identity http://escalatingidentity.wordpress.com

The Poverty of Privilege Politics http://shiftmag.co.uk/?p=679A Class Struggle Anarchist Analysis of Privi lege Theory from the Womens Caucus of AFed http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/state/327-a-class-strugg

anarchist-analysis-of-privilege-theory--from-the-womens-caucus-.html

http://www.cirtl.net/les/PartI_CreatingAwareness_WhitePrivilegeUnpackingtheInvisibleKnapsack.pdf

http://blackorchidcollective.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/guest-post-privilege-politics/

http://escalatingidentity.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/who-is-oakland-anti-oppression-politics-decolonization-and-the-state/

See for example:

http://www.academia.edu/2451610/Insurrection_at_the_Intersections_Feminism_Intersectionality_and_Anarchism


18/28

I am American like I follow the 10 commandments-

I mean, amendments.

I am American like Bill of Rights-

I mean, Bush of Wrongs.

American like Freedom of Religion...

including being atheist,

Like sticking to your belief no matter how much people may say you need a

particular god in your life

or Jesus.

I am American like freedom to profess

Like freedom to profess my freedom to protest

Like freedom to be stupid.American like British Child who threw tantrum and called it revolution;

Ancestry forgotten.

That explains our education.

American like Occupy

The I AINT MOVIN FO SHIT movement.

American like American Pi,

But not American like Pi

Because we suck at mathematics.

American like we translate freedom of speech to freedom to talk shit.

American like wrote the second amendment

HOLD UP, lets take a second,

amend this.

American like settling soldiers in the quarters of people without quarters.

Like returning soldiers to their quarters

But while they fight for a quarter for our freedom we put them in enough debt to

return with no quarters.

American like America, she has a cyst in her ovaries-

I mean, Manifest Destinies

Like destiny stretches across the Pacific to the middle east specifically

Well assist the with an army to help you create diplomacy-

I mean, democracy

UN Diplomacy, UN Democracy

Undiplomatic, undemocratic

the irony.

American like she cant have babies- I mean, countries of her own

So she adapts them-

I mean steals them

American like Im Puerto Rican!

So youre American.

American like legal illegal search for and seizure of all that exists

like Im a hypocrite, you're a colonist.

American like the 99%

Not the middle class

Not the lower class

The Upper Prison ClassAmerican like freedom to take your own freedom

American like freedom to plead your guilt so the criminal can be the

free one.

American like right to a trial

Like right to purchase.

POP UP!

You have the right to a 30 day free trial.

American like no cruel punishment or torture

Like cruel punishment being apart of a country that has so much

but does nothing with it;

So essentially cruel punishment and torture is

being American.

American like protect that not mentioned

I am American like power t o the people

Who are rich

And want to pay less in taxation

I am American like Bush of Wrongs

I mean Bill of RightsAmerican like Political Parties

American like ~I like to party~

Political Party, ~I like to party~

Same difference:

You blow cash you dont have,

think youre a celebrity,

act like a fool.

Fool like an American

Who obeys the 10 amendments-

I mean, commandments.

By Sabir Askari Abdussabur

I can taste the salty tidal wave of sweat cascading down my fa

I can feel my lungs cringe at every exhalation

Stillness has become an impossibility

I am a lone rabbit caught silfaying at high noon

My speed is my only ticket to salvation

And its soon to expire

I kick loose gravel into my wake

Counting down the miles, the yards, the steps

Past each onlooker eight dozen heartbeats behind

Towards the spandex banner at the bottom of a blessed slope

My throat cries at its transformation into sandpaper

And every glance at my two ton wristwatch pushes me on

I am at the top of hill overlooking the Promised Land

My dash becomes flight as the ground waits beneath me

I cross the final barrier and fall into a mangled heap

I turn in a flurry of cotton as my nerves jump alive

I seek traction in the grass

But it too quickly turns to dirt

Then to root

Then to stone

Then to grass again

My legs relentless in their efforts to uncoil my jeans

My eyes frantic to recognize solid black from transparent blac

My brain trying to remember where my one acre of safety lies

And just how far I was dumb enough to wander from it

I had stared into the eyes of the wolf

He showed me jaws of sawed off lead

My fight becomes flight as I look to the ground to carry me

I find a familiar patch of woods which I know lies behind the

Promised Land

I cross the final barrier and collapse into a mangled heap

- Brendan Field

BOLT10 COMMENDMENTS


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20/28

Our 43rd President, the leader of the free world for 8 years:

December, 1966: Bush, after having a few beers, stole a Christmas wreath from a hotel in New Haven,

Connecticut. Arrested for disorderly conduct.

1967: Bush is arrested for disorderly conduct when he storms onto the Princeton University football field

climbs onto the field goal crossbar, and tries to break off a piece as a souvenir.

November 8, 1967: Bush defends the use of a red-hot coat hanger to brand pledges in The New York

Times, claiming it is defensible because the resulting wound is equivalent to only a cigarette burn. Be-

fore branding pledges, Bush would show them a full-sized branding iron to frighten them. His fraternity

fined $1000.

Late 1960s: After gaining entrance as a legacy student, Bush maintains a low C average at Yale, the ba

minimum to graduate. In his freshman year, he was in the 21st percentile of his class. While at Yale, sayshe cannot wait to leave the school, and hates its intellectual snobbery.

Late 1960s: Bush admonishes a Yale schoolmate for admitting plans to avoid serving in Vietnam; calls hi

irresponsible.

May 27, 1968: 12 days before his student deferment expires, George W. Bush applies to join the Texas

National Guard. Despite a waiting list of 18 months, Bush is signed in the same day. Bush is assigned to a

celebrity sons unit, with sons of two other senators (Bentsen and Towers), sons of oil magnates, and 7 son

of Dallas Cowboys players. He was assigned to pilot duty despite a 25% score (lowest possible for duty),

and was commissioned to 2nd Lt. despite lack of qualifications or passage through Officer CandidateSchool. Is trained to fly an F-102, which is being phased out, guaranteed to never be called into duty in

Vietnam.

1973: Bush applies for entrance into University of Texas law school, and is rejected. Harvard Business

School apparently had lower standards than UT, as it accepted Bush. Bush graduates from Harvard with

an MBA in 1975.

September 4, 1976, a state trooper saw Bushs car swerve onto the shoulder, then back onto the road.

Bush failed a road sobriety test and blew a .10 blood alcohol, plead guilty, and was fined and had his driv

ers license suspended. Bush had several beers at a local bar before the arrest. His underage sister was

the car when he was driving drunk.

Bush got a court hearing to get his driving suspension lifted early, even though he had not completed a

required driver rehabilitation course. He told the hearings officer that he drank only once a month, and

just had an occasional beer. The officer granted his request. But Bush continued drinking for 8 years

after that date and has said publicly that he drank too much and had a drinking problem during that time

Directly quoted from http://www.blogd.com/bushrecord.html

GWB - Great to Be White


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22/28

And so my writings lled with scorn and menace and complete condence in the demise of humani

came to an end. Because I realized I could not make statements about what I could not dene. Humanity. O

maybe what has so strongly, and so falsely, been dened and dictated to us. There is little spark to be foun

in a people who have been told it is hopeless. Its interesting to observe, the ones on top, the ones with

freedom, theyre lled with hopelessness. You go to the smallest, brownest village you can nd. You feel the

hope, the love, the embrace. They arent perfect but they are certainly closer to humanity.

Humanity is egalitarian. It is a noun, for sure, but it is also an expression and an ideal. It is a verb.

Humanity is an action. Compare the connotations between Humanity and Human nature. Which overows

with brilliant light; which uplifts and soars and insists on bringing you along? Two men stand, arms inter-

twined and blood owing between bodies. They want life. It is theirs. We see this as human nature.

Demographics are restrictive, if you think about it. We study the people who ght for marriage equa

ity and afrmative action and abortion and say, dont they know its all the same ght? Join together! Demo

graphics are oppressive. Dont we know we are the same people? We are so close to the chimpanzee. We

are so much closer to each other.

Of course there is culture and tradition. But culture is proud and alive and vibrant. We can love and

embrace and hold our culture! We can open ourselves to yours. Demographics are dead. I am a politician

now. I cannot open myself to the black vote. I will never be black. I will never have an abortion. All I can do

talk, release campaign ads.

I have the image of a dominant human this whiteness, and male-ness. Its a powerful tool to have

and a great challenge. It is powerful because I can tell other dominant humans, you are not what you think

you are. I am not going to be what you want me to be. Powerful because I can say, you dont understand, b

you will watch me. They will watch me, because their human nature requires it. Like a missile locking on to

target. I am followed.

It is challenging because I must prove myself to every person I meet in every place I go. My words w

be tuned out, useless, full of privilege and oppression, until my actions say otherwise. This is true humani-

ty the embrace of self and lack of self; of identity and lack of identity. A mutual understanding: we dont

really know. And something comes between us, recognizable yet undened. I know some day we will reclai

that term, human nature. For now I must reject it, I must embrace our humanity.

MUSINGS FROM A DOMINANT MIN

- WESLEY NICHOLS


23/28

Privilege is a weird animalIn no way is this more real to me than right now

I try to stare out the train window, and look less lostLost as in spiritually lost?No, lost as in lost lost.

Te train head-honcho decided to inorm me o this with a priceless sense o,Call it bravado

Im rom connect-icut, the burbs, the sae place to raise your kidsAnd obviously this guy can smell it on me, or something

Express to Grand Central, get o there, not hereoutstanding

Its not like I havent been to New York beoreI was only going 20 minutes outside the city anyway

However still, Im kind o lostLost as in existentially lost?

No, lost as in complete moron lostTis train is packed

I nd mysel arguing, with myselDo I think that because Im not used to it?

I never ride trains, Im rom the burbs remember?Is it rude to think that this is crowded?Tis train is, like, ridiculously diverse

New colors and sounds food my inexperienced senses

A woman speaks happily in a Jamaican accentBouncing a small baby on her lap, rattling o about her other grandchildren

Tis is beautiulKind o like the woman sitting across rom me

Presumably an educated 20-somethingShes been reading the entire time

I drop something and she looks up, nallyNow Im denitely being rude

A man comes across cars and bursts through the back doorImmediately.Im in a staring contest

Hes huge, with tattoos all over his armsHat to the side, wie beater

And a stare that could scare any white-kid rap an out o the genreTis is lasting way longer than I anticipated

Alright, too much intimidationOur contest is ended, when his curious son comes running up

Remember what I said about eeling rude beore?yup

We hit Harlem and 125th, the guy gives one last look, and they leaveI ask mysel the ever-important question,

Who the hell am I?A ew stops later Im hal on the platormHal still stuck in the previous 20 minutes

I imagined mysel as a walking,Tats why you dont talk to strangers advertisement

How the hell did I get stuck on that train?Was it a sign?

Was I due to reak out?I think about how many mornings I had an eect on

How many people the dumb kid on the train disruptedOh wait, its the city and no one cares

But still, why did having no control terriy me?

Is it because o what I look like?I run through socio-economic acts

Eugenic ctionAnything that my mind can conjure up about the history o race relations

Ten I stop; Ive been overthinking, I know I haveIt hits meit is My privilege

My white, rom the burbs privilege,Tat is to blame or the naivety and ear

My conclusion is discouragingBut at least I realize my context,

Eagerly anticipating a new train to study

From Where I Was

Alex Fontai


24/28

Privilege Without Purpose

I consider myself one of the most privileged people in the world.

This issue is not intended to make you feel guilty. Sometimes you have to look at what you have and be appre

tive. Take a good long look at what you have and give back to those less fortunate. While some view charities

a way for the upper class to feel better about themselves, doing good should be its own reward. There will alw

be somebody worse off than you. You may never meet them but he or she is out there. Everybody in the wor

has the moral obligation to help one another and make the world a little bit better. I may live in a very

idealist mindset, but there is nothing wrong with trying to make the world a safer, more caring place for everyo

B. Caws

I do not drive a Lamborghini. Nor do I have the newest pair of Air Jordans. Ialso dont have a high paying executive job waiting for me once I graduate. I

do, however, come from a loving home where my parents are still married and,

although they may have left home, none of the siblings have abandoned the

family. Growing up, I always had a roof over my head and food in my stomach;

which is a lot more than some people have. I am going to graduate in May and

unlike many, I will not be upwards of $25,000 in debt. My parents have paid

for my college experience; a favor I intend on repaying to my kids. I am com-

pletely aware of how well off I am compared to hundreds of millions of people

around the world.

Privilege is a matter of perspective. While we may think of privilege as

coming from a certain town or having a lot of money in the bank, every-

body reading this is privileged. You live in a country that allows you to

think, speak and publish (looking at this magazine) whatever you want.

You go to one of the best colleges in the country and have access to

eight dining halls! Elsewhere in the world, people struggle to nd clean

water to drink. Every night you have a warm bed to sleep in, inside a

building where people care what happens to you, whether it is a dorm

hall, a frat house or your parents house.

Being born with a silver spoon doesnt classify you as a person. Youare how you treat other people. Being born on either side of the spec-

trum doesnt automatically make you a snob or a savage. Words like

that dont describe who you are and shouldnt be used to describe

anyone. They are anony-miscers. They allow small minded people to

classify you as something rather than seeing you for what you really

are: a human being. Where we come from should have no effect on

how we view other people; but it does. We should see each other as

people not members of social classes.


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Wed Like to Thank the

Academy,[okay, not really, but heres a list of people who worked on this]

Da

niell

e(centerfold)

Ransom(pages 15,16, 18, 21, 22, 26)

[you]

Josh

(cov

er)

Nyanka

Sydney Rosendale (page 1)

Scott

OneBlood

B. Caws

Kasia

(pages 24,25)

Hay

-Tay

pg20

Samm

Abbey

Volca

no

Alex Fontaine

Titus Ezekiel Abad(ass)

NABID

KatieH

ir

Brend

anField


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Back Cover - Josh

free press spring 2013 issue 2: privilege

Documents