Asian and Asian American Collective by Ian Zamora

When I think of community, I tend to struggle in defining what that is supposed to look like for me. Growing up Filipino in the Bay Area, specifically the East Bay and South Bay, I didn’t have a lot of folks around that looked like me and identified similarly. I hung out with many other folks that as Asian, but not a lot of Filipinos. It was mostly Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean. It wasn’t until I moved to San Jose, CA where I spent majority of my time in schools there.

In high school, I was certainly involved in clubs. I was primarily involved in our Filipino-American student association where a lot of folks that looked like me and on a cultural level, identified similarly. This particular space didn’t have one thing that I was looking for. I was looking for a space that there was a yearning for cultural identity. It seemed that there was a common understanding that being Filipino meant knowing about certain foods and specific Philippine cultural dances, not the contributions and experience of the Filipino community. My high school organization provided me a platform to learn more about my community.

During my undergraduate career at San Jose State University, I got involved in the Filipino-American student organization there as I was still looking for something more. I found exactly what I was looking for there because there were similarly thinking individuals who wanted to know more about themselves and the contributions of the Filipino community. What was unique about the organization is that they offered a mentorship program that catered to individuals of various racial identities. Many different people of Asian identities came to this program looking for community through social engagement which they found in this program. What that showed me was how community can be built through an extension of a culturally-based organization for folks to feel connected to someone and something.

In the case of Asian communities, Asians are continuously clumped together as this aggregate group. This grouping has connections to orientalism, an ideology where those in positions of power define those coming from the continent of Asia. Many different ethnicities are clumped together because communities of different ethnicities are seen as being virtually the same. Each community has a unique culture and distinct experience in the U.S. that shapes their worldview, but yet can still find connection across different ethnicities. The Asian and Asian American Collective at USF has provided that space for students, staff, and faculty to come together, find community, and talk about their lived experiences. Our next session is next Wednesday, April 11th from 3pm-4pm in the Intercultural Center (UC 411/412) where we’ll be in community to talk about community over some wonderful snacks! Hope to see you all there!

Hosting the Queer People of Color Collective by Yasmin Kouchesfahani

         I didn’t come out as queer until my sophomore year of college, therefore two years ago. Even when I was 15 years old, having relations with a “friend” of mine, Sophie, I didn’t consider myself bisexual or pansexual. I constantly grappled with knowing that I wasn’t straight, but being confused because I still had feelings for boys. I’m sure many folks who identify as bisexual or pansexual can relate to these feelings, and being a child of immigrants, expressing these confusing feelings to my parents would only concern them that I wouldn’t be able to properly assimilate. Their goal was for my life to be as comfortable as possible, especially because that’s something they weren’t afforded when they were my age. Therefore, coming out as bisexual (the only word I knew of at the time that described how I felt) to them didn’t feel important or necessary. I still had the idea that because I was attracted to men as a cisgender woman, therefore I was still likely to be straight.

        Looking back now, I can see the ways that the messages my parents sent about sexuality, as well as the voice in my own head invalidating me, contributed to it taking year before I could comfortable identify as bisexual, and now pansexual out loud. Invalidation was a huge part of my coming out process. Even when I did come out to my mom last year as bisexual, she shrugged saying it didn’t matter because I had a boyfriend. The idea that my sexuality was tied to my partner made me feel like I had no control in my own body and mind. Having spaces at USF like the Queer People of Color Collective (QPOCC) really served as spaces where I could unlearn problematic, invalidating notions the world around us has about being queer. Coming from an immigrant family of color, I felt like the way I invalidated my own sexuality was tied to the ways I wanted to protect my family. This was an experience only other people of color could understand. Therefore, having a space like QPOCC allowed me to connect with other queer students of color as well as faculty and staff who may be in similar places in terms of coming out, talking with their families, and being authentic to their communities as I am. It was in this space that I felt like I had control over my own sexuality and decisions, regardless of what others in my family and cultural community thought of me. It was because of this pace that I was able to explore my demisexuality and begin to understand what it means to be an ace (someone on the asexuality spectrum) person. Finally, I was loving and validating myself as the amazing queer womxn of color I always felt I was in my heart and spirit. And finally, I felt the agency to trust myself, and not allow others to categorize me.

        This past February, I had the opportunity to facilitate and host QPOCC. As the host of the space, it felt like the completion of my journey to accept and validate myself as a queer person. From when I was 15 and feeling my feelings for my “friend” to navigating my relationship with my long-time partner, I felt the self-confidence and self-respect I always wanted in not allowing my partners, relationships, friendships or family define me. Hosting the space and listening to the stories and narratives of other folks in the space around self-care and self-love made me appreciate the journey we are all on. In last month’s collective space, we discussed self-care in the sense of how queer people of color may not always have the time or accessibility to care for ourselves, and how we can implement that in restorative ways. Hearing the strength and determination coming from folks in the room was powerful and healing. The power of community and solidarity was felt in a healing, reflective way where we were all able to share what self-care meant for us, and ways we wanted to improve on or continue with it. Communal healing and sharing is a tradition my family brought me up to appreciate and respect, and even when family can’t be the community healing you, the chosen family that comes with sharing experiences and identifies, can provide for that. This March, we will be discussing dating and relationships. Join us Tuesday, March 27 from 4:30 to 5:20 p.m. in the Intercultural Center (UC 411/412) for discussion, solidarity, community and healing.

Not for Salesforce by Corey Kowalczyke

It has been a goal of mine to explore the intersections of low-income folks and queer folks within the lens of San Francisco’s Gentrification and Housing Crisis.

Ever since I started school here at USF, I have seen the development of the Salesforce tower and how that has become the landmark of our changing skyline. To many folks, the Salesforce tower is a boasting of economic prosperity and the attraction of tech to the Bay Area. To some however, it is a terrifying realization that they are soon about ot be priced out of San Francisco’s sky high housing market.

This is all legal. Through a loophole in a California law called the Ellis Act, which allows landlords to evict tenants if they are “going out of business” and not planning on renting anymore. In turn, these tenants often convert these multi-residential units to pricey luxury condominiums or sell the multi-residential units as a single unit for market price. Often times it is the higher income workers who flock to the Bay Area because of the Tech industry who can afford these higher market prices. Nevertheless, it forces many native and long-time San Francisco residents out of the city in search of more affordable housing in the East Bay or elsewhere.

This is where the complexity of it all begins. San Francisco’s Castro District, once a haven for LGBTQ+ folks who were terrorized, and outcasted to the margins of society, is now an example of how Low Income Queer Folks cannot afford to even live near the Castro. As New York Times touts “Gayborhoods” as they served as a landmark for LGBTQ+ activism, and a safe place for those to socialize with like people in an extremely homophobic society. As we are noticing from increasing gentrification in very cultural rich neighborhoods such as San Francisco’s Chinatown, Mission District, and even the Castro, the displacement of folks who have contributed to that community for decades results in a cultural erasure of these neighborhoods that were created to protect the marginalized from mainstream society.

No fault evictions are on the rise in San Francisco. According to the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, since 1994 there have been a total of 16,022 no fault evictions in the city, with 7,115 resulting from Ellis Act evictions. The other two dominant reasons being owner-move in and demolition, two causes that justify the landlord to kick out tenants according the California State Law.

To get an insight to what is happening, particularly in the Castro, is that there has been 2,500 evictions since 1997, many of them resulting from Ellis Act evictions. These are real tenants who were many times staying in rent control units, being forced into the unrelenting housing market of San Francisco.

It is obvious that we depend on tech in many facets of our lives. The goal of Not For Salesforce is not bash the tech industry, but rather raise awareness to the negative externalities that the growing tech workforce, has on low to middle income San Francisco residents. Moreover it is my goal to critically analyze how the displacement of folks in the city is interconnected to the struggles of marginalized people in general. How can San Francisco, a progressive city that is often a haven for those at the margin, be closing its doors (literally) to many who have called the City by the Bay home.

Come join us for Not for Salesforce hosted in the Intercultural Center (UC 411/412) from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Snacks and light refreshments will be provided!

Walls Without Borders by LeeAnn Quintero

“Father of two deported back to Nicaragua … Mother of three deported back to Vietnam… DACA student detained and in the process of being deported back to Mexico… Famous Activist held in detention centers to be deported.”

Recently, due to our political climate, we’ve seen an increasing amount of deportation stories.  Our current political leaders have created this unaccepting atmosphere for immigrants and their families. Not only that, but they have also limited the identity of immigrant to mostly Mexicans. What people choose to ignore is the reality that immigrants come from all countries, and the people that have been chosen to deport have most likely done nothing wrong. During Obama’s presidency, deportations were supposedly focused on undocumented people with records but as times have changed, we see the increasing number including statistics of people with clean records. These people who have lived in the United States for most of their lives now fear their daily activities. We see certain cities and institutions becoming sanctuaries and others avoiding it out of fear of losing funds and credibility.

Last week, the University sent out an email regarding what our reaction should be if there were to be an ice raid on campus. Next week, in my current events program, “Walls without borders”, we will focus on the realities of immigration and deportation and just what we can do in case we do experience such scenario. We will also focus on the diversity of the immigrant population itself and just how wrong we’ve been informed about what immigration and deportation is. Join us on Wednesday, January 21^st at 11:30 in UC 411 to learn more about our current political climate and how we can help others around us.

Stalking: IRL to URL by Hope Diwata

Creating and formatting a relationships program around stalking and cyberstalking was difficult to navigate due to the sheer breadth of information I could cover. Thankfully, my supervisor was able to help me ground the program in specific intentions of supplying knowledge, awareness, and a sense of empowerment for any participants. My ultimate goal for this workshop is to create awareness of signs of stalking and cyberstalking and then empowering participants with the knowledge to protect themselves and others.

Often, stalking is dramaticized on television shows and movies, ultimately obscuring how stalking plays out in real life. This obfuscation could have dire consequences for a person who does not realize they are being stalked. We need to have these conversations to unpack stalking and cyberstalking especially during these times when technology is used everyday by a multitude of people. We might not be aware that we are posting a lot of personal information online because that has become the norm. I definitely became more aware of what information I was posting on all media platforms. If you think about it, if someone combined the information on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even LinkedIn profiles, they would have a pretty cohesive picture of who you are and what you do. This ease of access is what I want participants to realize.

Stalking and cyberstalking come from a sense of entitlement that one person has for another. Our culture normalizes male entitlement and makes it okay for men, specifically, to feel entitled to other people’s spaces and bodies. Thusly, this phenomenon has disproportionately affected womxn, but can also affect men, nonbinary people, gender nonconforming people, and trans people.

Men of Color Collective

Since last semester, I have hosted the Men of Color Collective at the Intercultural Center. The goal of the space has always been to build a community of men of color so we could have the opportunity to explore the identities that we hold individually and collectively. In one of our first sessions we talk about the challenges that men of color face in institutions for higher education.

It was very interesting that most of the participants expressed that one of the biggest challenges that men of color face in institutions for higher education is the lack of representation of men of color.

Institutions for higher education have traditionally excluded men of color, with the exception of those who have managed to get scholarships due to merit or athletic capacity, universities in general have put forward very little effort to enroll more male students of color and provide them the right tools to ensure their success.

The percentage of men of color at all levels in institutions for higher education is very small in comparison to their white counterparts. That reduces the opportunity for many to relate with the personal narratives of their peers, mentors or professors. For many male students of color, who are first generation, is hard to picture themselves working as professors or as professional staff at a big institution because they don’t find themselves being represented at those levels. Because  of that, it is important to create spaces for men of color to develop a sense of community and belonging in institutions for higher education.

The men of color collective is a space to connect, students, faculty and staff and build a community that provides individuals the support to feel welcomed and included at USF. The personal narratives of the individuals who participate in the collective are very different but the shared experience of holding a traditionally marginalized identity, develops a sense of comfort and understanding among their peers. Little by little men are realizing that there is a need for spaces to grow holistically, to discuss issues around race and masculinity, to feel included in a community.

The Men of Color Collective takes place once a month at the Intercultural Center (UC 4th floor). This semester we will be meeting on February 15, March 22 and April 19 from 11:45-12:45 PM.

Post Script – Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby II

We all want to heal. We seek truth and understanding, and we seek healing from our wounds and our pains. The desire and the need to heal is human, and connects all humans and living beings in a world where forces and experiences of oppression and trauma attempt to dehumanize us. How can we heal? There isn’t one answer or one method, but there is community and there is resilience. Community brings us together through shared and connected trauma, love, culture and resistance. Community allows us to be present with others in their truths, as well as understand our own. Through community and connection, healing can be found and resilience can be inspired.

For me, community healing was a familial and personal experience. My family is Zoroastrian; an ancient religion, indigenous to what is now Iran. For centuries, Zoroastrians have faced oppression and cultural colonization; our history has pain and loss. Ever since I was a kid, I would go to classes in San Jose at the Zoroastrian Temple there, and learn about this history. I learned about the pain; how Zoroastrians survived invasion, and were displaced within Iran for generations, and how today many are displaced outside of Iran like my family and community in San Jose. I learned of our rich culture; the stories, prayers and values that inspired so many other Western and Eastern philosophies and religions. I learned of our people; the efforts of my teachers in our San Jose community for community preservation. The stories and lessons I was told, the values I learned, and the community gatherings where our history and philosophies were discussed and express all shaped my understanding of who I am and who my people are.

The intergenerational pain within my community helped me understand how coming together as a community, and learning the stories that make us who we are, was a form of healing in itself. Whenever we are together, we are healing but gathering and thriving even when the world didn’t want us to. My personal experience and story have led me to strongly believe in the power of communal healing through storytelling, and that is why I wanted to be the host of Post Script.

Post Script is a monthly storytelling night where students are encouraged to come out to listen to and/or share stories from their individual lives, experiences and histories. We gather in a loving, non-judgmental, healing space, and we embrace each person’s story. Each month, a theme is selected to share stories about, but all stories are welcome and honored. For November, our theme will be “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby II”. This theme is a continuation from last year where we will be discussing stories around sexual experiences, the lack of them, the good and the bad ones, and our sexuality in general. Having a space to openly and nonjudgmentally discuss sex and our experiences is important because we live in a society where such topics cannot be discussed in healthy, open ways. Sex is everywhere in our society and our culture, but we aren’t able to talk about what that means. Therefore, this November’s Post Script will be dedicated to that, but all stories are welcome.

I am so excited to see everyone there this Thursday, November 9, from 7-9 pm in the Intercultural Center on UC 4th Floor. Much love and solidarity to you all.

Not for the Culture

In the Spring semester of 2016, I took a class called “Womxn’s Lives Across Cultures,” where we examined various aspects of the lives of womxn across the globe through an intersectional lens. The information I learned during class would be the catalyst for multiple revelations. One of these realizations was the impact social media had on my life. Not in the usual sense of social media taking up too much of our time, although it is, but more so how it impacts the way we think.

Social Media is everywhere and it’s far reaching impact on our society is both revolutionary and despicable. On a positive note, the sharing of ideas is as simple as clicking a button or scrolling through a feed. An unfortunate side effect of this is the rapid consumption and spread of harmful beliefs and sentiment. This exchange of ideas and concepts and how they impact our everyday lives is something I am interested in – especially as a Communication Studies Major. Everything we put onto the internet will be there forever, an eternal archive of how our society operated.

These combined interests and experiences are what lead me to create “Not For the Culture,” a workshop for Relationship Violence Awareness Month. This workshop focused specifically on Rape Culture and decoding the content we endlessly scroll through on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. The title, “Not For The Culture,” comes from the phrase, “Do It For The Culture,” which is circulating around social media. The general sentiment around that statement is that you should do an action for the benefit of a shared culture. Since my workshop took directly from social media, the incorporation of slang into the title was a fitting play off Rape Culture. Plus, I’m just a cheesy person and thought it was a catchy title to offset some of the heavy content.

A recurring question, “what messages do these posts actually convey,” was asked repeatedly to allow participants to call upon personal experiences as we examined screenshots of tweets and recalled various assault cases. We then shifted the conversation to focus on how Rape Culture impacts our own relationship dynamics around respect and communication. How does what we see on our screens impact how we interact with our significant other? How is abusive behavior normalized and perpetuated? How do these sentiments affect how we treat people who experience sexual assault? If all we see on our screens are cisgender and heterosexual couples, how does Rape Culture affect the relationships of gender nonconforming people or LGBT+ people? How does it eliminate their stories? These questions allowed us to think about this phenomenon intersectionality, so we did not lose any narrative.

In reflection, I believe this workshop is only the beginning of an ever evolving conversation – especially with the recent sexual misconduct allegations coming out of Hollywood. It is our duty to always be critical of what media we encounter and to continually question systems that keep inequalities in place. Going forth, I hope to continue learning so I can be better equipped to provide these spaces where we, as a community, can challenge these inequalities.

Borderlands

During Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, “Build the wall” became one of the strongest chants among his supporters. After nine months of Donald Trump’s presidency the uncertainty about whether or not a concrete wall is going to be build at the U.S. – Mexican border just keeps raising. While many people have strong positions in favor or against of building a wall, few people are actually paying attention to how this wall could impact the lives of local communities. For the people who live close to the border the construction of a wall represents more than just a symbol of the U.S. foreign policy. The construction of the wall could potentially have negative consequences for those living in the surrounding areas. The goal of “Borderlands” is to create a brave space for students, faculty and staff members of the USF community to talk about the situation at the U.S.- Mexican border, focusing on how the construction of a concrete wall can actually impact the lives of the local communities.  

I’m a migrant and I understand that going to a different country seeking for a better future is a hard decision to make. For most Mexican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran migrants, coming to the U.S. represents an opportunity to escape from poverty. Broken economies, lack of political stability and high levels of violence are forcing people in Mexico and the Northern triangle of Central America to flee their countries and look for new opportunities abroad. Today, the U.S. foreign policy is not very friendly towards Mexican and Central American migrants and the rejection of these communities from some sectors of the American society have reached a whole new level. Building a wall to separate the U.S. from the rest of the countries in the south is not only offensive towards these nations but it also shows how divided our own country is. Our country is divided internally but rather than talking and doing something about it we are projecting the frustration and fear of some sectors of society externally.

Having a conversation about the consequences that building a wall at the U.S.- Mexican border is extremely important for the USF community. We have a large number of students who come from Southern California and Arizona, at the same time the number of first generation students at USF keeps growing and for all them the construction of the wall can have very negative repercussions. Having a conversation about the situation at the border helps us understand things from a different perspective, it allows us to put a face on the struggle that communities around the border are facing due to the foreign policies that Donald Trump is trying to implement.

If you’re interested in learning more about what I’m talking about, come to my program, Borderlands, on Tuesday, October 24th from 1pm-2:30pm in the UC 4th floor lounge. Hope to see you there!