Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id e8QBPL909347; Tue, 26 Sep 2000 07:25:21 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 07:25:21 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <8e.afcc687.2701e170@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Freemannola@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:32] Re: Welcome and Introduction X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 117 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 2043 Lines: 37 Dear friends and colleagues, Thanks to Mary Ann Corley and Dale Lipschutz for beginning a new venture for us on line. I read with interest Eileen Eckert's note about our not introducing ourselves by race or class. Thank you Eileen! I don't think we can begin to truly disentangle this web of racism that we're all caught up in until and unless we look at ourselves first. My name is Margery Freeman. I'm a middle-aged, middle-class, parent/teacher and anti-racist organizer. That last is a mouthful! What it means is that about 17 years ago I began my journey toward "undoing racism" in myself, my family, my community. It has been a joyous journey and I can't imagine doing anything else! Because, as I have come to understand our country's history and institutions and cultures, racism was "done" to us all -- and it keeps us apart. I began my work with the literacy community just six years ago. It seemed like an organizer's dream! And indeed, it has been a lot of fun (plus the expected headaches, of course) mostly because we are continually exploring what being an anti-racist organization means, how it changes our work. We're not there yet -- not by a long shot. But our work is becoming more effective, and our relationships to our students, and to the communities where they live, is becoming more accountable. White people have never known how to talk about race. We avoid it like the plague. People of color MUST think and talk about race - every day - to survive. So we miss one another when we try to connect. But I don't think that talking about race (what we used to call "race relations") is enough. We have to learn what it is, first! We can't all have different ideas and definitions and still think we can communicate. So I hope that this listserve will lead us to a clearer analysis of the connections between racism, poverty and literacy. Then we're talking! Margery Freeman YMCA Educational Services 833 Howard Avenue, Suite 300 New Orleans, LA 70113 (504) 566-7323
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