Q: What
are your respective campus experiences on building coalitions
with other multicultural groups? Include successes, pitfalls,
and recommendations.
A:
Response #1:
Coaltion building is an essential element of
our collective movements for equality and justice. I use Suzanne
Pharr as a prime example in her discussions about the early
Women's Movement which was not inclusive of women of color or
lesbians. Hence, we are decades behind where we could have been,
had we all worked together!
For this reason, we need to meet and form not
only working relationships with people and groups of people
of color, people with disabilities, international students,
Hillel, youth, elderly, and so forth, but form "meaningful"
relationships with people in organizations who work with these
issues day in and day out, just as we work with GLBT issues.
On the UMD Campus, our student organization is 99% white. There
is little cultural diversity within the group. We are also a
homogeneous university population. Outreach to other multicultural
organizations is a key element of successful organizing.
As Director of GLBT Services on campus, my closest
allies are the directors of:
African-American Learning Resource Center
Asian Pacific Learning Resource Center
Hipanic/Latino/Chicana Learning Resource Center
Access Center (for people with disabilities)
International Student Adviser
I am lucky because most of us are co-located
in the Campus Center and are able to serve each other's respective
groups/students in one another's absence. I wouldn't think of
designing a program without their input or co-sponsorship. We
work together collaboratively with the hopes that our students
will do the same, so we help them by programming together.
We began the year with two rules as Directors
of Multicultural Learning Resources and GLBT Services:
- Agree to Disagree
- Try to be comfortable with the discomfort
of learning about each other and,
- Forgive our own mistakes and those of others….
- Celebrate our successes!
As a result, we're doing quite well….hope
this helps.
Angela C. Nichols, Director
Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Response #2:
We've built coalitions through events. with OASIS
(our office for students of color), African Heritage Month,
Deutsches Haus (German Cultural House), the Bronfman Center
for Jewish Student Life, and the Spiritual Diversity Network
- the following events are some examples:
- The Curious Connection Between the Black Church
and Homosexuality (lecture)
- Letta Neely lecture - she spoke on the needs
for the queer movement to include EVERYONE
- screening of the movie "Paragraph 175" (about
homosexuals in the holocaust)
- book reading with the authors of Independence
Park - about gay men in Israel
- book reading with Gad Beck - gay holocaust
survivor
- discussion with an out rabbi and an out epoiscopal
minister
- Kabildo del Arte - performance and art exhibit
by local queer Latino/as
- Keep It on the DL - panel discussion about
the crossing of hip-hop and queer cultures followed by a concert
by a queer hip-hop group
most of these have been pretty successful - and
have brought out a diverse audience, which is always really
exciting. let me know if you want more info
Todd M. Smith
Coordinator, Office of LGBT Student Services
New York University
Response #3:
It seems like one of the things we need to do
is acknowledge & work on racism in our communities. Eg.,
unlearning racism/sexism workshops, etc.
We also need to support programs that work to
end oppressions of other kinds, too. Eg., if we support programs
that educate people about affirmative action and its importance
we're taking active steps against institutional and cultural
racism. The more we (especially white people) do things to support
communities of color, the more trustworthy we'll be.
Many groups of color have rightly been suspicious
of predominantly white GLBT organizations & people. We (white
people) need to demonstrate our commitment to ending oppression
in words & actions. When we truly are allies in the struggle
against oppression, the people that we are in solidarity with
will also come to our aid.
Beverly D. Tuel, Ph.D.
Director
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center
University of Colorado, Boulder
Response #4:
Here at the University of Southern Maine the
GLBTQA Resources Program collaborates a lot with both the Women's
Resouces Program and Multicultural Services. (GLBTQA and Womens'
Resources are located within the Division of Student Development
and Multicultural is in the Office of Campus Diversity and Equity).
What has been important in our collaboration
efforts has been the philosophy of addressing oppression - shared
oppressions. One of the programs that Multicultural does is
Dialogues in Diversity which trains student ambassadors to talk
about issues of oppression - racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism,
ableism, ethnocentrism, urbanism, etc. This concept makes it
easy to collaborate with one another's programs.
The GLBTQA program is still fairly new and we
hope to work with Multucultural Resources a lot more in the
next year - Queer of Color Forums and discussion groups, etc.
Combined programming for Black Awareness Month, Asian American
Month, etc.
