Important Reading - Exile and Pride
March 11, 2004
During our most recent conference call I mentioned a book which lends a important insight into the complexities and interlocking of oppressions. Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation is an important work by Eli Clare. (ISBN: 0896086054, published by South End Press)
Gender reaches into disability; disability wraps around class; class strains against abuse; abuse snarls into sexuality; sexuality folds on top of race… everything finally piling into a single human body. To write about any aspect of identity, any aspect of the body, means writing about this entire maze. This I know, and yet the question remains: where to start? Maybe with my own white skin, stubbly red hair, left ear pierced, shoulders set slightly off center, left riding higher than right, hands tremoring, traced with veins, legs well-muscled. Or with me in the mirror, dressing to go out, knotting my tie, slipping into my blazer, curve of hip and breast vanishing beneath my clothes. Or possibly with the memory of how my body felt swimming in the river, chinook fingerlings nibbling at my toes. There are a million ways to start, but how do I reach beneath the skin?
from Exile and Pride, p. 123.
Youth Transformation Team
March 1, 2004
Our Youth and Young Adults continue to provide leadership in the area of Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, and Multiculturalism. Now they are looking for input. If you are a youth or young adult with an interest in this work, please help them out by answering these questions.
