Dear Dartmouth,
The Dartmouth Pride Committee is pleased to inform you of the theme change for PRIDE 2018 from “Reclaiming our ________” to “Queer & Here.”
We selected this PRIDE theme because we wanted to center around reclaiming our narratives and intersectional marginal identities. We were eager to create inclusive spaces, and in attempting do so, perpetuated anti-Blackness. We are writing this statement to acknowledge the harm we’ve done, to inform the Dartmouth community of the theme change, and to create space for growth for the Pride Committee, the LGBTQIA+ communities, and the Dartmouth community more broadly.
As a collective, we recognize the violence and harm that our previous theme caused by co-opting the labor, love, and time of Maxine Waters--a Black womxn. The previous theme had won by popular vote and thus, was used and sent out. Our intentions were to center and create space for intersectional marginal identities, however the impact was further marginalizing Black identifying members of the community. This is a testament to actions, intentions, and power dynamics within both the Committee, as well as the Dartmouth community that continuously step on the labor of Black womxn. Examples of such within the Committee are found below:
Not valuing Black members’ concerns regarding the PRIDE Theme
Voting not knowing who Maxine Waters is
Spelling Maxine Waters wrong in the original dissemination
Discrediting the importance of those concerns in regards to other deliverables
Not caring who Maxine Waters is, and the context of the statement because the theme is cool and catchy
We acknowledge that the damage done is irreparable. We are harmful.
We cannot strive for more inclusive communities without recognizing perpetual violence through the continuous erasure of labor and anti-Blackness within each and every community.
We must ALWAYS acknowledge the labor, love, and time of Black womxn and continuously unlearn anti-Blackness in our communities (marginalized or not).
This is a call to combat such Anti-Blackness, conscious or subconscious. Actionable next steps in unlearning Anti-Blackness include: reading the articles provided below and using Google to do your own work.
We want this year’s theme to be about reclamation. We elected to use the word queer precisely because it is a reclaimed slur, which we acknowledge is not universally accepted as an umbrella term for the whole community. Queer is mobilized both politically and academically to institutionally address systems of violence and oppression and to promote inclusivity. Therefore, we have elected to use the term queer to assert that our existence and identities are inherently political.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email and the links below.
Sincerely,
2018 Dartmouth PRIDE Committee
Essential Readings:
“Auntie Maxine” and the Art of High Speed Cultural Appropriation
What White People Are Not Taught about Racism
Anti-Blackness in AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) Communities
4 Things Asians Can do to Combat Anti-Blackness
List of over 100 Resources divided by Pan-Asian sub-identities for non-Black Asians on Anti-Blackness (this includes articles written in other languages, including Chinese)
What does addressing Anti-Blackness in the Latinx Community look like in the Age of Trump
Why we need to stop excluding Black populations from ideas of who is “indigenous”
The Miseducation of Black Diaspora
Toxic Anti-Blackness Sentiment Towards Black Americans From The African Community Needs To Stop