On December 7th the AAA asked our members to join us in a live discussion on Twitter to share post-election resources and suggest ways we can proactively engage in positive activities in our own communities. Using #AnthroForward we were able to identify collective actions anthropologists can undertake and compile a solid set of resources to support the anthropological community. An archive of the Twitter chat can be found here. The following is a list of resources shared through the #AnthroForward discussion and emails from our members:
- Read the AAA post-election resolution, endorsed unanimously by all of the living past Association presidents
- AAA President Alisse Waterston has offered Post-Election Resources and Teaching Resources for Difficult Times from John Jay College at CUNY
- Susan Bibler Coutin, with Anita Casavantes Bradford and Laura E. Enriquez, has shared “Supporting Students Impacted by Proposed Immigration Policy Changes” on the AAA blog
- “Protecting Undocumented Students Post-Election” by Kristin Elizabeth Yarris, Lauren Heidbrink, and Whitney L. Duncan is available through the Anthropology News website
- Jacqueline Messing shared an anonymous list of resources for educators to counter prejudice, bias, and hate in their school and classroom communities as well as SLA teaching resources on language, race, and violence
- Jason Antrosio provided links to a letter calling on president-elect Donald Trump to denounce acts of hate on college campuses and elsewhere and called on anthropologists to connect with international colleagues who may be dealing with similar situations
- AAA member and Minnesota Co-Chair for the Women’s March on Washington Gloria Everson encourages members to get involved in their local chapter and join the march on January 21st
- Natalie Muyres offered the following pieces to provide perspective on the historical patterns that contributed to the outcome of this election:
- Two articles written by Paul Rogers, author of Irregular War: “Listening to Trump” and “Trump in context”
- An article from Thomas Frank, author of Listen Liberal: “Donald Trump is moving to the White House, and liberals put him there”
- An article by Zoe Williams highlighting the dangers of accepting Trumpism: “The dangerous fantasy behind Trump’s normalization”
Please help us continue to support each other by adding additional resources in the comments section of this post.
Congressional Action Alert: Immigration. People from Latin America, Africa, and six Muslim-majority nations have been targeted by the Trump administration for arbitrary detention, increased surveillance, deportation, and immigration bans. Members of Congress will be visiting their local districts in August. We urge all AAA members to meet with elected representatives—sharing your research expertise and specific concerns about unlawful behavior of ICE Agents (H.R.2073) and the status of the Bridge Act (S. 128). Learn more here: http://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/AdvocacyDetail.aspx?ItemNumber=22027&navItemNumber=659
COSSA Analysis of the Trump administration budget proposal: http://www.cossa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Skinny-Budget-MM-March-16-2017.pdf
Find ways to get involved and advocate on behalf of humanities funding on the NHA website: http://www.nhalliance.org/pbr?utm_campaign=pbr_3_16
Webinar: Protecting Immigrant and Undocumented Students a Townhall with Anthropologists Action Network for Immigrants and Refugees
Date: Wednesday March 15, 2017
Time: 11:00am-1:00pm EDT
Registration
No advance registration is needed. To attend, simply click on this link: https://join.me/AAAProfessionalServices
Feel free to join us at 10:45am for a brief introduction to the webinar app.
More information: http://www.americananthro.org/AttendEvents/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2143&navItemNumber=637
Report Shows ‘Untapped Power’ of Constituent Advocacy: Showing the local effects of legislation can better influence lawmakers http://www.rollcall.com/news/report-shows-untapped-power-constituent-advocacy
George Lakoff’s Top 10 Tactics for Living in 2017 https://bevoya.com/blog/george-lakoff-advice-beautiful-voyagers
What Happens to Undocumented Children & Families in the Trump Era by AAA member Susan Terrio http://www.ucpress.edu/blog/25126/what-happens-to-undocumented-children-families-in-the-trump-era/
AAA stands in solidarity with those wishing to take action in opposing the executive order, denouncing the highly charged xenophobic rhetoric it has spawned, and holding the administration accountable for remaining within the guide rails of truth and justice. We acknowledge the motivations of those proposing a boycott of international conferences held in the U.S. until the ban is lifted.
Our call to action, however, offers a different tack – be present, not absent.
The U.S. administration needs to hear that international criticism here, in its own backyard. AAA encourages its 10,000 worldwide members to come to Washington for our Annual Meeting this November to voice their concerns and criticisms. http://ow.ly/q4HF308DeOt
If it will help, my latest article on my blog, entitled “Musings of H. sapiens”, was about Donald Trump. It was published on the internet on 12/20/16 and is entitled “AMERICA ON THE EDGE”.
International Law and the Trump Administration: A Live Online Briefing Series
The policy choices made by the U.S. government over the coming months will have major implications for a range of vital international legal issues. The series will bring together leading experts in the field to provide concise, nonpartisan background and perspectives on these issues. Don’t miss the first installment, The Future of International Agreements, Feb. 1 at 11:30 am EST. http://ow.ly/DFZl308xPIM
The journal Social Justice has put together a collection of recent blogs-articles on the social justice impact of Trump’s Presidency.
The entire collection is available for free-downloading and use at:
from their website (here: http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/the-possible-futures-of-the-us-under-trump-ebook/). The file is available in pdf, epub, and mobi (Kindle) formats.
It includes my own contribution, Gender and Trump [slightly truncated re: reproductive rights-economic-population-environment links and impacts ].
See: http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/gender-and-trump/
Re: Jeff Sessions, a Southwest Alabama Good Ole Boy
Today representatives of the NAACP have been arrested in Montgomery, Alabama during a protest demanding that Jeff Sessions self-disqualify as Trump’s pick for US Attorney General. Yet, it is It is impossible to imagine thatJeff Sessions could be empowered to represent ‘law, justice and the American way’. Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama in 1946 and educated in Camden, Alabama’s all white Wilcox County High School. For most of his public career Sessions has represented white interests. As a SNCC worker in Selma and in Wilcox County in 1967-1968 I saw close up what white power looked like. Despite the Voting Rights Act of 1965 Black people were harassed for voting in Wilcox County and elsewhere in Southwest Alabama. My Black SNCC co-worker and I were run out of Camden (the county seat of Wilcox County) by Alabama police waving guns in our faces. Throughout Wilcox County I recorded, transcribed and published interviews with Black tenant farmers whose cotton allotment checks were stolen by plantation owners, with Black women who were denied welfare or healthcare unless they agreed to be “spayed” (the term used by health and welfare officials), with women who were raped by their landlords, and husbands who protested and were pistol whipped. On one occasion our car of four SNCC workers was driven off the road by local KKK members. Black Tenant farmers and their families were hungry and their children undernourished. They were not allowed to raise crops of their own and had to purchase food with script at the plantation owner’s store. The KKK was the ruling party. Jury panels were all white. Times have changed, Sessions will argue. The cotton planters have long since left the Blackbelt counties of Southwest Alabama.Today, Wilcox County High School is described as a “100% Black minority School; 99% of the students are economically disadvantaged”. As Attorney General in Alabama Jeff Sessions harassed Black voters, oversaw the executions of mentally and cognitively disabled people, referred to Black adult men as “boys”, and only rejected the KKK when he found that some of executioners smoked dope. Sessions supported a grossly unequal distribution of public funds favoring private white schools over Black public schools. Jeff Sessions appointment would be a disgrace.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Chancellor’s Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Yolanda T. Moses highlights four areas that institutions and individuals should focus on to encourage diversity and inclusion over the next four years. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/01/30/four-areas-campuses-should-focus-encourage-diversity-and-inclusion-over-next-four#.WI8ZzLMRiMA.twitter
More resources from John Jay College and CUNY: 1) Resources for undocumented John Jay College students: http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/undocumentedstudents; 2) Citizenship Now! Application Assistance Feb 4 2017: http://events.cuny.edu/eventDetail.asp?EventId=79978 What is your college or university providing? Please share here in #AnthroForward
Selected Information Resources Regarding January 27, 2017 Executive Order Banning Immigrants and Refugees http://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/AdvocacyDetail.aspx?ItemNumber=21062
The new administration has settled in and is now considering a number of proposals that are of concern to the field of anthropology.
You may have seen recent news reports suggesting the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) could face potential elimination. The new administration is reportedly working from a Heritage Foundation blueprint that claims to reduce federal spending by $10 trillion over 10 years, and which calls for drastic cuts and consolidations of federal programs and agencies, including the elimination of NEA and NEH.
Anthropologists need to come together to stand strongly against these potentially devastating budget cuts. Find ways to take action here: http://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/AdvocacyDetail.aspx?ItemNumber=21045
Reblogged this on Anthropology Now.
Well done! Great resources and support!