Statement from The board of The Davis Phoenix Coalition
Early in the academic season the UCD campus was subjected to anti-Semitic flyers referencing the Kavanaugh confirmation to the Supreme Court. The specific content was typical white supremacist rhetoric that has sadly become familiar narrative lately. For students that have been on campus these last two years these flyers are a demoralizing reminder of the state of the world they are about to inherit. For new students it is an unsettling introduction to a location they must call home for the foreseeable future. How we respond as a community can and must make a difference to these young people.
While it is never a good time to be assailed by hateful propaganda, this comes at a particularly low period for communities fighting to hold onto values that celebrate diversity, inclusion and common respect for all. We are, many of us, worn down by weeks and months of postcarding, marching, candle holding, phone calling. The condition of our lawn signs, windblown and weather worn, reflect the weariness of our spirits. Many felt betrayed as they watched in horror the brutal pummeling of the supreme court nomination process; considered our bastion of equity and safety.
However, it is these moments, when foundations crack, when paradigms are broadsided, that allow us to coalesce into the best versions of ourselves. We must do this now. We must hold a beautiful space for our young people to grow in. We must send the message through the miles to parents that left their hopes in our backyard that their children are safe.
We are a community with a safety net of resilience created by interfaith celebrations; nonprofits that grow culture competency; promote nonviolence; care for the elderly; help battered women find their voices; welcome immigrants; support democracy and shine light on the marginalized. We are a community that lives our aspirations and through that action creates a place where hate has no home.
Get Tickets To Vanguard’s Immigration Rights Event
Should be changed to read:
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The problem I have with these types of singular and frankly de minimis events is that there are tremendous reasons to suspect that they are fake stunts only to gain media attention. We have a long list of evidence that this is very common.
And…
Read this again and recognize it as trumped up, largely false, emotives serving a political agenda of a social justice activist.
In reality:
– Interfaith celebrations (obviously code for fighting hostility against Muslims in our community… of which there is scant evidence it exists in our community even as we have a local Imam calling for the destruction of Israel and death to Jews in our community).
– Grow cultural competency (training more social justice warriors looking for things to do in our community with few things to do).
– Promote non-violence (as in the type we see with Antifa, BLM and Code Pink? because otherwise there is really none to discuss in our community.)
– Help battered women find their voices (always a needed and worthy cause but Davis is one of the last communities you should focus on if this is something you really care about.)
– Welcome immigrants (while you also campaign to defeat the next development project at the ballot box)
– Support democracy (except when the results are not what you like)
– Shine light on the marginalized (not really very many of these victims in Davis… but you claim to advocate for them while you marginalize those people that don’t share your political views and values)
– We are a community that lives our aspirations and through that action creates a place where hate has no home (the problem with this for Davis is that there is little to none real “hate” in the way you would hope exists to help justify your identity as a social justice activists, and thus hate for others is generated as a placebo to perpetuate the myth.)
BS… no code… Jews, Christians, Muslims, if they are truly spiritual in their faith, have much in common… I could point to aberrations of individuals who claim any of those… doesn’t mean that all should be painted with the huge roller. I have real problems with hostility towards folk of any faith, or even those who have none. I and spouse have participated in many of those events over the years… suspect you haven’t…
There are many other untruths in your 9:07 post. You are likely frustrated with “stereotyping”… yet, you do it. I go there sometimes… but am working on it… to the purpose of ‘quitting’… guess it (the tendency) has something to do with “whose ox is being gored”…
A sweeping comment that I challenge you to itemize and explain.
Frankly, Jeff, not worth my effort. Suspect, upon reflection, you will see those.
If not, no words of mine will help you. Feel no need to convince others. Your words, your issues…
Pretty sure you give me 0% credibility, in any case.
Howard P. It is impossible to understand if you just don’t like what I had to say, or if you really have substantive disagreements.
Here is my take on it.
First, I have a lot of experience in dealing with organizational systems and process, and hence have a sense and ability to see patterns that others might miss. This is not some gift, it is from decades of work experience dealing with large organizational change.
When an organization needs to shed the old paradigms, systems and processes… the people employed within the old systems and processes reliant on the old paradigms… they will naturally resist the change. All the relationships, livelihood, power-structures, self-identities, etc., that had been built in support of the old are valuable to the people working within them. Their natural human pursuit of self-interest causes them defend the status quo… even if it means inflating their purpose and need.
This is how bureaucracies form… structures are defended as they represent an existing power base… and that defense causes them to bloat way beyond their efficiency and use. Eventually they collapse under their own weight, or else they grow to destroy their host.
We have an entire industry dependent on the perpetuation of the need for continued progress on identity-based civil rights… it is bloated beyond its useful life (after all our profound success at civil rights progress), and it has turned to defend itself at all costs… even if it means fabrication of outrage and scorching society in the process. This industry is vertically and horizontally integrated with the sub-industries of higher education, Democrat politics, mainstream media, Hollywood and social-justice focused non-profit corporations. The larger industry, the virtue-industry, is well-coordinated with the various pieces and social networking has been a Godsend for its defense strategy.
But it has gone WAY too far. It is no to the point of desperation of last gasps of air before it has to self-destruct and reform with new paradigms, structures and purpose.
In Davis these last gasps are to seek out some dark underbelly of the community that really does not exist in any material quantity that justifies their continued pursuit. So they manufacture events and then with the large industry need, they jump on the story and amplify it to perpetuate a myth that keeps them in business.
There is also a victim-attraction and virtue-signal attraction going on here. Examples include Elizabeth Warren claiming she is of American Indian descent and Rachel Anne Doležal claiming she is of African American descent. It is heady stuff having an identity of someone that works as an advocate for the marginalized and oppressed… it becomes an addition at some point as without it a gap in self-worth develops.
That is my perspective. There is a lot of evidence out there of events that this industry jumped on to report that have tuned out to be done by one of their own.
“We are a community that lives our aspirations and through that action creates a place where hate has no home”
What you have stated is a nice aspirational statement. It is where I want to live. But it conveniently ignores Thong Hy Hunh, Gloria Partida’s son, the mosque incident, the anti Jewish speech and fliers. I don’t know what Davis you are writing about, but I apparently am not living in the same one.
“The problem I have with these types of singular and frankly de minimis events…”
I wonder if you would feel the same if they occurred to you on a repetitive basis. I know it was not de minims to me when I was confined to the nurses dressing room because women doctors had to change there. It was not de minims when I was repeatedly challenged for entering an OR where only men were seen as belonging as surgeons. It was not de minims when patient’s asked to see the real doctor because I was a woman. You have never had to face a life full of “de minims” events, have you?
“Help battered women find their voices”
Surely you do not believe that Davis has a dearth of physical violence towards women. Because having worked here in women’s health, I can guarantee you this is not true. If you believe I am wrong, please present your stats.
How about you present your stats since you are in the industry.
There is no way, IMO, that Davis has more cases than does Woodland or Sacramento. I am sure that Davis likely has a much lower than average number of cases compared to all communities with a similar population.
Jeff
I would love to present my stats. However, we are one and 1/2 years too late. At present I have no more ready access to stats than you do. In addition, the proof lies on the positive. It was you who made the initial assertion, and you who should support it. If all we have is he said, she said, then we are at an impass, yes?
The reasonable presumption is they would be “same-same” per capita… your assertion of “much lower” puts the burden on you, to justify your “likelihood”… evidence presented?… nada.
From Jeff:
Those are your criteria for addressing social issues in Davis? If there are other cities with worse statistics it’s not worth focusing on here? Davis is the first community we should focus on because this is where we live.
I am responding to the breathless alarmism of crisis contained in article.
This could simply read:
it is never a good time to be assailed by hateful propaganda
Je d’accord.
Never a right time to do a wrong thing…
Corollary: never a wrong time to do a right thing…
Nor, apparently, is there ever a wrong time to tie one’s own personal politics into any incident or situation. “Why?”
Thread cleanup: 11 comments removed.