Our Challenge

by K. Blaqk, ’14

The title of this piece is “Our Challenge.” Over fall quarter I discovered the “Nu Rainbow,” which replaces the traditional ROYGBIV spectrum with one representing the variety of colors  of human beings. This move felt especially important to me, as I was starting to see the urgency in queer politics taking on an explicitly anti-racist agenda as well. Lumped into queer issues and racism are also structural class inequality, problems of imperialism and militarism. So, “Our Challenge” is first to build a coalition of marginalized and oppressed peoples and then to channel that organization into a form of resistance and way of remaking the world around us.

Mourning Our Murders

by K. Blaqk, ’14

This piece originally appeared on K. Blaqk’s personal blog, Blaqkliberation.

Mourning and demanding a new system do not need to be – nor should they be – separate.

At issue today (more publicly than most days) are multiple layers of violence in our world:

the violence of a political system that treats each new shooting as an isolated incident and tells us we are jumping the gun when we talk reform—
the violence of an economic system that produces guns and missiles knowing the destruction they bring to individual and collective lives—
the violence of a cultural system where the radio plays on blaring top 40s, stocks and scores, as though nothing is happening as our wars kill on.

There are also the violences of a world where so many feel so alienated as to commit the ultimate violence against others – and themselves—

and, most immediately, of being told during the moment of rawest pain that “this isn’t the day to demand change, this is a day to mourn.”

If today is the day of mourning and a mourner cannot make demands, what do we do tomorrow?

Progressive students must push Obama now: a post-election interview with Clayborne Carson

by Kristian Davis Bailey, ’14

This week the United States made history by re-electing Barack Obama as its first African-American president. While the political climate of our country may have had a sobering effect on the national mood, the overall tone of campus seemed to be one of celebration. Cheers of excitement rang from the lounge of my dorm in Ujamaa House, Stanford’s African and African American themed dorm. The larger campus as a whole seemed to echo this enthusiasm–88% of students voted for Obama in the 2012 elections, according to The Stanford Daily.

In the midst of this environment, I had the chance to speak with Dr. Clayborne Carson for fifteen minutes on his responses and reactions to President Obama’s reelection. Carson has been tasked with editing and publishing the complete papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. and directs the Martin Luther King Research Institute at Stanford.

I am currently a student in Carson’s introduction to African American history course “The Modern African American Freedom Struggle,” where we are trying to figure out what gains blacks have made in our modern freedom struggle since 1968. Our comparative discussions framed my conversation with Carson.

‘Act on your own, force Obama to follow your will’
It is necessary for students to create their own progressive pressure on the political system, Carson told me Tuesday night.

“If [people] believe that Obama was the best choice, they shouldn’t just leave it to Obama to carry out any kind of progressive agenda,” Carson said, adding that grassroots support is a necessary factor in creating effective policy.

The United States is the greatest threat to its own national security

by Kristian Davis Bailey, ’14

This post originally published at Kristian’s personal website, “With a ‘K.’”

After yesterday’s presidential debate on foreign policy, can we talk about how the United States is its own greatest threat to national security?

This might have something to do with the fact that America’s been “cheating” the past hundred years or so and manipulating the economic and military affairs of the world to its favor–and often to the detriment of all but a few allies, who also benefit from standing on the rest of the world.

Iran is not a threat to the security of the people of the United States, even if it obtains nuclear weapons.  Iran’s major threat is becoming a nation that can defend its own sovereignty without posturing to American hegemony. It is part of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which features the majority of the countries in our world and which are not part of any major power blocs. The countries in NAM are struggling for a new world order* that is not dictated and/or dominated by the aforementioned “cheating” Western policies.

Introducing STATIC Staff ’12-’13

This year, we’re excited to announce that our staff has expanded from 2 to 20! Here are the folks who make STATIC happen:

EDITORS IN CHIEF

Holly Fetter is a Texafornian majoring in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity while pursuing her M.A. in Sociology. She’s also writing an honors thesis about civil society in China. She’s been involved with a lot of student groups, from FLIP to Las Hermanas to Stanford Students For Queer Liberation. She’s trying to figure out how to get people with privilege to talk about it. She wears a lot of blazers. She is the Managing Editor of STATIC online.

Jovel Queirolo is a junior from the San Francisco Bay Area majoring in Biology. She is interested in the intersections of the sciences and the humanities, particularly the patterns and themes that emerge in both. She’s really into ants. And Star Wars. She is the Managing Editor of Static in print.

FINANCIAL OFFICER

Lea Gee-Tong is a senior studying Human Biology who is involved in queer student activism, education programming and outreach, and cultural competency health research and advocacy.

WEBMASTERS

Joel Kek is very interested the intersection between technology and social change. Along these lines, he is also involved with Stanford in Government and Code the Change.

Leah Thomas is a senior majoring in Human Biology with a concentration in education. She is active in the queer community and seeks to create safe spaces on campus.

CONTENT EDITORS (BLOG)

Elizabeth S. Q. Goodman, who also goes by her middle name “Quirk”, is a mathematics PhD student expecting to graduate in 2014. She admires cities as many admire “Nature”: strange humans and strange art are interdependent, powerful, beautiful. She enjoys living and volunteering in San Francisco, but is also excited to have joined Stanford Students For Queer Liberation.

Alex Nana-Sinkam is a Senior studying International Relations, minoring in African Studies and (fingers crossed) Art Studio Photography. She currently feels strongly about: using art and other unconventional methods to address and articulate issues in international social health. She is currently into: honest words, pop chips, Frank Ocean. She is currently trying to: write more, eat breakfast, look forward to (rather than panic about) the future.

CONTENT EDITORS (JOURNAL)

Angela Cenzon is a senior majoring in Human Biology with a minor in Political Science and is excitedto support activism on campus after spending her junior year abroad.

Edward Ngai is a news and politics junkie who loves running, the Canucks, and oxfordcommas.

LAYOUT EDITOR

Dania Marinshaw is a junior from North Carolina majoring in Human Biology with a concentration in Design for Human Performance and Wellness.

OUTREACH COORDINATORS

Raymond Luong is currently a sophomore majoring in Management Science & Engineering. Aside from his major and STATIC, he’s interested in sociology, pop culture, digital media, and laughing.

Gabriella “Gaby” Moreno is currently a sophomore considering studying Anthropology and or CSRE with a concentration in community development. While at Stanford she’s worked for the College Board in improving student access to higher education. She has also worked with Street Yoga, a Portland Oregon non profit facilitating healing for youth and families at risk through meditation and yoga.

Thanh D. Nguyen likes making art and owning pillow pets…for justice! He is primarily interested in refugee issues and international human rights.

Lina Schmidt is a sophomore interested in writing and playing music. She is also a member of SSQL and is excited to be on the STATIC team!

Caitlin Wraith is a junior from New Jersey in Stanford’s Urban Studies program, concentrating in Education. In her free time not spent as the WestFlo PHE, Caitlin engages in queer and feminist activism on campus, reads biographies, watches documentaries, and spends time with friends.

COMMUNITY LIAISON

Kristian Davis Bailey is a junior from New York studying Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity. He’s interested in how to use media to discuss identity, privilege and power. He’s also interested in building a coalition of justice-minded students on campus.

STAFF WRITERS

Annie Graham is a junior from Phoenix, Arizona majoring in English, and is a founding member of the group Stanford Athletes and Allies Together- ensuring that a safe space exists for queer and allied athletes, on and off the field of competition.

Abaho Katabarwa is still doing this journey thing, but so far he was born in Uganda and has lived in Atlanta. As a member of EPASA, FLIP, and EJHS, he hopes to make his first step to increasing opportunity in underrepresented student populations.

Lewis Marshall is a Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering. He is the former president of Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics @ Stanford.

CONSULTANT

Ingrid Heller, aka ABCrane, is the founder of Gungho Publishing company and has just released two nonfiction books on her economic philosophy and green franchising vision. She is currently collaborating with local musicians and theater professionals to launch her musical stage play, Kangaroo Fu, which reveals her economic model through song, dance, martial arts and an incredibly fascinating story line.

If you’re interested in getting involved with our crew, please email StanfordSTATIC@gmail.com. Frosh can apply to be interns using this form, and the deadline is October 10th at 10 PM (PST). We’re always looking for new Staff Writers as well, and you can find that application here.

Kristian Bailey on ‘Reports from Palestine’

by Kristian Bailey, ’14

Using Storify, Kristian Bailey provides readers with his take on a recent presentation by professors Angela Davis and Gina Dent. Kristian saw the two speak on the subject of Palestine, and shares the following account of their reflections on a visit to Palestine earlier this year.

View the story “Angela Davis & Gina Dent: ‘Reports from Palestine’ – Martha’s Vineyard 2012” on Storify

The Weight of My Race

by Kristian Bailey, ’14

This post originally published at Kristian’s personal website, “With a ‘K.'” 

The following is a combination of two posts I wrote on April 11 and April 12, responding to heated emotions I felt as a black man in response to developments in the Trayvon Martin case. 

The Weight of My Race: Part One

Sketch of me that a subway artist did in 2008.

Though Trayvon Martin’s family expressed faith in the justice system now that George Zimmerman has been formally charged (with second degree murder), I can’t help but feel dispirited that it took this long to happen. There have been few other times in my life when I’ve felt the gravity of what could happen to me by nature of my race and gender. Others have brought this up before that Trayvon’s case has evoked this in themselves, but today I feel the weight of my race: