SISO Summer 2018
Monday, June 25 marked the first day of our annual Summer Institute for Student Organizing (SISO), which provides DC English Language Learner and bi/multilingual immigrant youth with the tools to become organizers! SISO runs for 6 weeks, from June 25th – August 3rd, 2018. Participants will meet three times a week; Mon. Wend and Fri. from 1:30 - 6pm. SISO youth participants will explore and experience the power of youth organizing through action research, popular education workshops and learning from allied social justice movements and campaigns.
DAY 1 (Monday, June 25, 2018)
Our first day of SISO was spent getting to know one another and engaging in fun icebreakers to highlight all the commonalities we share with each other! Following these icebreakers, we got down to business discussing what it means to organize and how organizing is especially important given the current political climate that permits racial discrimination and xenophobia. All of us in SISO aspire to better the community by learning to help others. In addition, we all realize that looking outward also requires us to look inward and draw upon our own strengths to gain confidence in speaking up for ourselves. By speaking up for ourselves, we can also speak up for others. Organizing is about groups of people coming together so that all of our voices are collectively heard.
Another topic we discussed was accountability. To define accountability, each of us went around in a circle to say one word that comes to our minds when thinking of accountability. Though accountability holds different meaning for each individual, we discussed reliability, trust, responsibility, and confidence as important aspects of accountability.
Our discussion of accountability helped us segway into drafting community agreements. Among the most important agreements we decided upon were confidentiality, open-mindedness, and respect. At SISO, we are in a safe space where sensitive topics will be discussed, and the issues we bring up here are ones that we want each other to feel comfortable speaking about. If what is said here is repeated elsewhere, we may lose each other’s trust. Open-mindedness involves checking our privilege and recognizing that each of us has our own lived experiences that influence our life outlook, and we should each be sensitive to the experiences of others. Respect is having patience for ourselves and patience for others, and promising to keep SISO a safe space.
DAY 2 (Wednesday, June 27, 2018)
Our second day of SISO was particularly empowering, as this was when we discussed the importance of people power. There are many different types of power, and which individual or group has power is often affected by their knowledge, capacity, motivation, prestige, education, and the presence or lack of solidarity. So…..who has the power, exactly? When this question was raised, we noticed the impact of resources on power. The people who control resources for things such as education and healthcare are the same people who set the rules and decide what resources everybody else gets. Although everyone has privilege, white privilege is the most prominent and perhaps affects us in the most ways. Those who are white control more resources, earn higher salaries, and are less likely to suffer maltreatment when stopped by law enforcement in public places. Furthermore, it is because of white privilege that Mt. Pleasant and DC as a whole are undergoing gentrification at an alarming pace. Mt. Pleasant used to have a much higher Hispanic demographic, but this population is decreasing as the influx of white folks into our community raises rents to a level that renders housing in our area no longer affordable.
The reason gentrification is happening in our community can be explained by Government power, or people who are elected to government. White privilege has led to white folks occupying most government positions, but the good news is that Government power is only as powerful as People power permits. By influencing who is electing to office, we can ensure that we LEP/NEP immigrant folks are better represented in government. At SISO, our goal is understand how we can build people power and get rid of the prejudice within and outside of our communities. Through resolving to better understand each others’ lived experiences, we can do just that.
But what exactly has been the lived experiences of our community? To wrap up our discussion on the issue of People power versus Government power, we talked about what it’s like to be an immigrant student in DC. MLOV is home to the Student Multi-ethnic Action Research Team (SMART) as well as the Youth Action Team (YAT). SMART focuses on how to obtain resources for LEP/NEP students in DCPS, and how we can increase participation from students and their parents so that there is a stronger relationship between teachers and their pupils. A major barrier to students and their parents is language inaccess and inability of schools to provide interpretation/translation services. SMART in the past has devised solutions to deal with this issue so that all students have access to the educational resources they deserve. ( Solutions developed by SMART )
DAY 3 (Friday, June 29, 2018)
Now that we all have a better understanding of what it means to organize and how we at SISO can hold ourselves and each other accountable for our actions, it’s time for us to explore the community and meet others who have suffered the consequences of gentrification. Today we went on a tour around Mt. Pleasant and learned about how different spaces have changed over time as a result of people being pushed out. Currently there is a proposal to tear down Best World Market and a bunch of other family-owned shops nearby to build a CVS Pharmacy. With a loss of these shops comes a loss of culture heritage and a diminishing of the contributions made by immigrants to DC over the years. The proposal to erect a CVS Pharmacy is meant to appeal to white folks who are moving into Mt. Pleasant, without much benefit for our already-established multicultural communities who find it increasingly difficult to access services that match the quality white folks receive. On our tour of Mt. Pleasant, we talked with shop owners whose businesses are in jeopardy because of gentrification, and signed a bunch of petitions in support of keeping their shops intact.
In addition to our walk around the community, we held a know-your-rights training in which we all split into groups to practice scenarios for dealing with ICE and police if they ever stop us, which could happen in any public place and even at our homes. This KYR session has highlighted the significance of us being aware of our surroundings so that we are not caught off guard and we can help each other if ever an ICE interrogation arises.
All in all, this week has been very productive. Though we were all a little uncomfortable on Day 1 of SISO, we have become very close and come out of our shells through empowering activities and discussions. As our program continues throughout these next few weeks, we hope to continue growing together and learning from each other. Stay tuned for more posts!
