Participants: Reggie Aqui, Nicole Lapin and James M Driskill
Group Invite Link: Off
James M Driskill
INTRODUCTION TO STANDARDS: V5N1
by Marlon Riggs
Americans have always been more and at the same time less than what we pretended. With the quickening approach of the twenty-first century, greater numbers of us are giving testament to this inescapable fact, challenging the cozy myths by which America has been ritually defined. Who are we? Who are we becoming? Who and what have we been? In the next century, can we even continue to speak (could we ever?) of a collective "we"? For the longest, of course, these questions had simple answers.
America was white. America was male. America was heterosexual. America was Christian. America, above all, was a melting pot into which diverse cultural communities gleefully descended to achieve the social and ideological transformation necessary for inclusion within the American Dream. That many of us--marginalized and oftentimes invisible Americans of African, Asian, Latino and Native descent, as well as women and the working poor--never quite melted and metamorphosized according to this traditional prescription for social progress, hardly mattered. The great distance between the Dream and our actual lives was not due to any fault in the Dream: the defect was in us. The Dream thus survived intact, its seductive power sustained by America's stubborn refusal to look too closely at the hidden but terrible costs of "the good life" and at who actually could--much less wanted to--afford it.
The sixties, of course, spotlighted the complex oppressive regime of thought, politics and culture which underlay the myth of America. For the first time in U.S. history, the ideological fabric of white heterosexual patriarchy was exposed for the life-constricting straightjacket it had always been. Despite conservative attempts during subsequent years at repair, the old social fabric has been steadily unraveling. Thus we have arrived at this present moment, wherein a nation historically averse to serious introspection now exhibits--in its politics and popular media as well as its universities--an almost obsessive reflexive preoccupation with our national identity.
To be expected, much of the current debate is simply a re-hash of old opinion--an attempt to forcefully rebut and undercut the de-centering politics of radical multiculturalism (i.e., the kind of multiculturalism where difference actually makes a differ-ence). Bring back the melting pot. Restore "traditional values." Re-institute prayer in schools. Preserve the primacy of Western civilization (the only one that matters anyway). And not least, protect that critical bedrock of American greatness, "the American family": such pronouncements reveal an intense, even pathological desire to perpetuate a thoroughly obsolete myth of America, and through this, a repressively orthodox system of sociocultural entitlement.
While the ideas of conservative/fundamentalist America are hardly new, the typically strident pitch with which such ideas are now being argued betrays how acutely anxious many conservatives have come to feel, due to both real and anticipitated loss of privilege and power. What is more, arch-conservative rhetoric--as should be evident to anyone watching our presidential elections for the past quarter century--has found a certain public resonance. Difference, in the traditionalist outlook, has been regressively equated with disunity; and disunity with profound social chaos and collapse. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so, it seems, do many Americans with regard to the social-political myths by which they organize and make sense of their lives. Even a fundamentally flawed, repressive, inequitable social order seems to many better than none at all. A clear imperative thus confronts American progressives--that intricate (and frequently fragile) web of communities comprised of people of color, feminists, gays and lesbians, the poor and working class, as well as ethnic whites who value ethnicity, indeed all who have been systematically disenfrancised and dehumanized under the once ascendant "traditional values" of pre-Civil Rights America.
It's no longer enough, if it ever was, to critique interlocking systems of oppression without offering affirming alternatives of how society should and can reconstitute itself. As we move into the inevitably more demanding multilingual, multicultural environment--both nationally and globally--of the next century, our greatest task will be an inversion of the commonly assumed equivalence between difference and disunity. We must re-write this equation, demonstrating again and again that unity does not require unanimity, that unity--that is, a sense of social cohesion, of community--can and does derive from the expression, comprehension, and active nurturing (and not merely tolerance or fetishization) of difference.
This is the new standard of civilized life that now demands our urgent labor, a new world order, if you will, that subverts traditional conceptions of social order: a standard which in effect subverts the meaning of the word "standard" itself. For the new order must be comprised of multiple standards: shifting, open-ended, dynamically transforming, so as to engender ways of thinking and living that privilege no one set of cultural differences over another but affirm virtue in all.
===
This perspective forms the key inspiration and overarching theme in STANDARDS. Page after page eloquently testifies to the commitment of a new generation of America's best and brightest to shaping a radically redefined vision of our future, where old repressive dualisms of race, class, sexuality, gender and nationality no longer reign--a future in which not merely some but all of us are free to explore and express our richest humanity.
Marlon Riggs
Oakland, 1992
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MARLON T. RIGGS was a producer, director, and writer, who graduated with honors from Harvard in 1978, and received the MA from UC Berkeley, where he later taught Documentary Film in the Graduate School of Journalism. His films include Tongues Untied, the acclaimed account of Black gay male life; and Ethnic Notions, for which he was awarded the Emmy. Mr. Riggs' work has been published in the anthology Brother to Brother, as well as in arts and literary magazines, including High Performance, Black American Literature Forum, and Art Journal. A media activist, he testified before the U.S. Senate, and wrote extensively on the issue of censorship. Mr. Riggs was also on the policy committee of the national PBS, and served on various other panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts. Marlon T. Riggs died of AIDS-related complications in 1994. We remember him with deepest respect and admiration.
Riggs' final film, Black Is...Black Ain't, was shown across the nation, to much acclaim.
More information on the press release at this link.
"Introduction to STANDARDS: V5N1" © 1992, 1995 by Marlon T. Riggs.
Original Graphic Images ©1995 by Lenni J. Calipo
=====
Search for "Marlon Riggs Apartments"
Resources for Community Development Marlon Riggs Apartments, Oakland 94610, 13, 13 1-bedroom, (510) 451-1161, HUD subsidized, must be disabled to qualify. MLK House, Berkeley 94703, 12, 12 SRO ...
http://www.rcdev.org/what_housing_available.html - 47k - Cached - Similar pages
>>>>> Propeties That May Have Openings or an Open Wait List
Marlon Riggs Apartments Oakland 94610 13 13 1-bedroom (510) 451-1161 HUD subsidized, must be disabled to qualify
Resource Finder For low-income people with a HUD defined disability, housing is available at Marlon Riggs Apartments, Bay Bridge Apartments and Regent House; 510-832-3460; ...
http://www.alamedaco.info/resource/agencydetail.cfm?pid=J1218_2_1_0&page=2 - 52k - Cached - Similar pages
====
by Marlon Riggs
Americans have always been more and at the same time less than what we pretended. With the quickening approach of the twenty-first century, greater numbers of us are giving testament to this inescapable fact, challenging the cozy myths by which America has been ritually defined. Who are we? Who are we becoming? Who and what have we been? In the next century, can we even continue to speak (could we ever?) of a collective "we"? For the longest, of course, these questions had simple answers.
America was white. America was male. America was heterosexual. America was Christian. America, above all, was a melting pot into which diverse cultural communities gleefully descended to achieve the social and ideological transformation necessary for inclusion within the American Dream. That many of us--marginalized and oftentimes invisible Americans of African, Asian, Latino and Native descent, as well as women and the working poor--never quite melted and metamorphosized according to this traditional prescription for social progress, hardly mattered. The great distance between the Dream and our actual lives was not due to any fault in the Dream: the defect was in us. The Dream thus survived intact, its seductive power sustained by America's stubborn refusal to look too closely at the hidden but terrible costs of "the good life" and at who actually could--much less wanted to--afford it.
The sixties, of course, spotlighted the complex oppressive regime of thought, politics and culture which underlay the myth of America. For the first time in U.S. history, the ideological fabric of white heterosexual patriarchy was exposed for the life-constricting straightjacket it had always been. Despite conservative attempts during subsequent years at repair, the old social fabric has been steadily unraveling. Thus we have arrived at this present moment, wherein a nation historically averse to serious introspection now exhibits--in its politics and popular media as well as its universities--an almost obsessive reflexive preoccupation with our national identity.
To be expected, much of the current debate is simply a re-hash of old opinion--an attempt to forcefully rebut and undercut the de-centering politics of radical multiculturalism (i.e., the kind of multiculturalism where difference actually makes a differ-ence). Bring back the melting pot. Restore "traditional values." Re-institute prayer in schools. Preserve the primacy of Western civilization (the only one that matters anyway). And not least, protect that critical bedrock of American greatness, "the American family": such pronouncements reveal an intense, even pathological desire to perpetuate a thoroughly obsolete myth of America, and through this, a repressively orthodox system of sociocultural entitlement.
While the ideas of conservative/fundamentalist America are hardly new, the typically strident pitch with which such ideas are now being argued betrays how acutely anxious many conservatives have come to feel, due to both real and anticipitated loss of privilege and power. What is more, arch-conservative rhetoric--as should be evident to anyone watching our presidential elections for the past quarter century--has found a certain public resonance. Difference, in the traditionalist outlook, has been regressively equated with disunity; and disunity with profound social chaos and collapse. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so, it seems, do many Americans with regard to the social-political myths by which they organize and make sense of their lives. Even a fundamentally flawed, repressive, inequitable social order seems to many better than none at all. A clear imperative thus confronts American progressives--that intricate (and frequently fragile) web of communities comprised of people of color, feminists, gays and lesbians, the poor and working class, as well as ethnic whites who value ethnicity, indeed all who have been systematically disenfrancised and dehumanized under the once ascendant "traditional values" of pre-Civil Rights America.
It's no longer enough, if it ever was, to critique interlocking systems of oppression without offering affirming alternatives of how society should and can reconstitute itself. As we move into the inevitably more demanding multilingual, multicultural environment--both nationally and globally--of the next century, our greatest task will be an inversion of the commonly assumed equivalence between difference and disunity. We must re-write this equation, demonstrating again and again that unity does not require unanimity, that unity--that is, a sense of social cohesion, of community--can and does derive from the expression, comprehension, and active nurturing (and not merely tolerance or fetishization) of difference.
This is the new standard of civilized life that now demands our urgent labor, a new world order, if you will, that subverts traditional conceptions of social order: a standard which in effect subverts the meaning of the word "standard" itself. For the new order must be comprised of multiple standards: shifting, open-ended, dynamically transforming, so as to engender ways of thinking and living that privilege no one set of cultural differences over another but affirm virtue in all.
===
This perspective forms the key inspiration and overarching theme in STANDARDS. Page after page eloquently testifies to the commitment of a new generation of America's best and brightest to shaping a radically redefined vision of our future, where old repressive dualisms of race, class, sexuality, gender and nationality no longer reign--a future in which not merely some but all of us are free to explore and express our richest humanity.
Marlon Riggs
Oakland, 1992
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MARLON T. RIGGS was a producer, director, and writer, who graduated with honors from Harvard in 1978, and received the MA from UC Berkeley, where he later taught Documentary Film in the Graduate School of Journalism. His films include Tongues Untied, the acclaimed account of Black gay male life; and Ethnic Notions, for which he was awarded the Emmy. Mr. Riggs' work has been published in the anthology Brother to Brother, as well as in arts and literary magazines, including High Performance, Black American Literature Forum, and Art Journal. A media activist, he testified before the U.S. Senate, and wrote extensively on the issue of censorship. Mr. Riggs was also on the policy committee of the national PBS, and served on various other panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts. Marlon T. Riggs died of AIDS-related complications in 1994. We remember him with deepest respect and admiration.
Riggs' final film, Black Is...Black Ain't, was shown across the nation, to much acclaim.
More information on the press release at this link.
"Introduction to STANDARDS: V5N1" © 1992, 1995 by Marlon T. Riggs.
Original Graphic Images ©1995 by Lenni J. Calipo
=====
Search for "Marlon Riggs Apartments"
Resources for Community Development Marlon Riggs Apartments, Oakland 94610, 13, 13 1-bedroom, (510) 451-1161, HUD subsidized, must be disabled to qualify. MLK House, Berkeley 94703, 12, 12 SRO ...
http://www.rcdev.org/what_housing_available.html - 47k - Cached - Similar pages
>>>>> Propeties That May Have Openings or an Open Wait List
Marlon Riggs Apartments Oakland 94610 13 13 1-bedroom (510) 451-1161 HUD subsidized, must be disabled to qualify
Resource Finder For low-income people with a HUD defined disability, housing is available at Marlon Riggs Apartments, Bay Bridge Apartments and Regent House; 510-832-3460; ...
http://www.alamedaco.info/resource/agencydetail.cfm?pid=J1218_2_1_0&page=2 - 52k - Cached - Similar pages
====
Feb 25, 2009 3:07:10am
James M Driskill
============================================
Cnn.Com Live / Facebook event :
President Obama's State of the Nation Address
Feburary 24th 2009
============================================
Personal Invites:
[ Via email - Returned Status Err 554: Denied / Fax (760) 471-5281 ]:
Elizabeth Degado, National Community Renaissance [nationalcore.org]
Community Manager, Paseo Del Oro Apts, "Elizabeth Delgado" <edelgado@nationalcore.org>
"Kareem Salama" , Vice President Housing, National Community Renaissance, <ksalama@nationalcore.org>
At the closing of the event, I placed these following facebook status update into action --- The facts are they appear on my facebook wall.
James is wholeheartly and enthusatically clapping -- OBAMA says "Thank you."via CNN.com Live - 7:17pm - Comment - Like
James Ms DELGADO / MR SALMA ---- Where are you [ nationalcore.org ] --- Did you watch this address?via CNN.com Live - 7:18pm - Comment - Like
James MS DELGADO / MR SALAMA [ NationalCore.Org ] ---- Are you going to respond to my requests re: @WORLDCOMMUNITYGRID.ORG ????via CNN.com Live - 7:20pm - Comment - Like
James MS DELGADO / MR SALAMA [ Nationalcore.org ] --- Are you going to allow this to become reality? HUDPublicHousing-Corruption-DroveMeToSuiside@ **CKEDUPHUMAN.NET.via CNN.com Live - 7:22pm - Comment - Like
=============
Dear Mr Aqui and Ms Lapin of Cnn.com
I shared the World Community Grid and have been requesting an answer from National Communiuty Renaissance [nationalcore.org] --- EITHER YES or NO since October.
It is now Feburary and still I have no reply.
Many of my emails directed to their corporate email addresses @nationalcore.org in these regards are returned ERROR 554 : Denied.
I have no explanation why a "National Community" identified corporation would just refuse a tenant's email regarding "World Community" ideals.
ALL I GET FOR MY EFFORTS IS SILENCE. Explain to me why this should take more than 4 months to get through the oppression that I am under to get an answer from them?
In the November 2008 Paseo Del Oro Apartments Newsletter, this appears:
To Our Newest Friends : We're pleased to have you join us. We're glad that our friendly staff, beautiful apartments and gorgeous landscaping were up to your standards of quality. If you ever need anything, please let us know immediately and we'll get it out to you. You deserve nothing less than our best.
I have asked them to form and create a "friend" relationship with me on facebook:
Relationship may refer to:
* Interpersonal relationship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_relationship
An interpersonal relationship is a relatively long-term association between two or more people. This association may be based on emotions like love and liking, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships take place in a great variety of contexts, such as family, friends, marriage, acquaintances, work, clubs, neighborhoods, and churches. They may be regulated by law, custom, or mutual agreement, and are the basis of social groups and society as a whole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood
The sociology of modern neighbourhood
Over and above these general and individual country definitions, neighbourhoods have several advantages as an area for policy analysis as well as an arena for social action:
1. Neighbourhoods are common, and perhaps close to universal, since most people in urbanised areas would probably consider themselves to be living in one.
2. Neighbourhoods are convenient, and always accessible, since you are already in your neighbourhood when you walk out your door.
3. Successful neighbourhood action frequently requires little specialised technical skill, and often little or no money. Action may call for an investment of time, but material costs are often low.
4. With neighbourhood action, compared to activity on larger scales, results are more likely to be visible and quickly forthcoming. The streets are cleaner; the crosswalk is painted; the trees are planted; the festival draws a crowd.
5. Visible and swift results are indicators of success; and since success is reinforcing, the probability of subsequent neighbourhood action is increased.
6. Because neighbourhood action usually involves others, such actions create or strengthen connections and relationships with other neighbours, leading in turn to a variety of potentially positive effects, often hard to predict.
7. Over and above these community advantages, neighbourhood activity may simply be enjoyable and fun for those taking part.
But in addition to these benefits, considerable research indicates that strong and cohesive neighbourhoods and communities are linked –quite possibly causally linked – to decreases in crime, better outcomes for children, and improved physical and mental health. The social support that a strong neighbourhood may provide can serve as a buffer against various forms of adversity.
==
If " Visible and swift results are indicators of success; " then invisibility and delayed results MUST BE indicators of failure.
Failures at Allen Temple Manor in 2005 --- results in wrongful eviction case WG06266106 --- It should never have gone in that dark direction.
Can you tell me where my error of thought processes erodes a relationship down to molding muck?
Mr James M. Driskill
Paseo Del Oro Apts Tenant
480 W. Mission Road, Apt 165
San Marcos, CA 92069
(760) 798-9193
Cnn.Com Live / Facebook event :
President Obama's State of the Nation Address
Feburary 24th 2009
============================================
Personal Invites:
[ Via email - Returned Status Err 554: Denied / Fax (760) 471-5281 ]:
Elizabeth Degado, National Community Renaissance [nationalcore.org]
Community Manager, Paseo Del Oro Apts, "Elizabeth Delgado" <edelgado@nationalcore.org>
"Kareem Salama" , Vice President Housing, National Community Renaissance, <ksalama@nationalcore.org>
At the closing of the event, I placed these following facebook status update into action --- The facts are they appear on my facebook wall.
James is wholeheartly and enthusatically clapping -- OBAMA says "Thank you."via CNN.com Live - 7:17pm - Comment - Like
James Ms DELGADO / MR SALMA ---- Where are you [ nationalcore.org ] --- Did you watch this address?via CNN.com Live - 7:18pm - Comment - Like
James MS DELGADO / MR SALAMA [ NationalCore.Org ] ---- Are you going to respond to my requests re: @WORLDCOMMUNITYGRID.ORG ????via CNN.com Live - 7:20pm - Comment - Like
James MS DELGADO / MR SALAMA [ Nationalcore.org ] --- Are you going to allow this to become reality? HUDPublicHousing-Corruption-DroveMeToSuiside@ **CKEDUPHUMAN.NET.via CNN.com Live - 7:22pm - Comment - Like
=============
Dear Mr Aqui and Ms Lapin of Cnn.com
I shared the World Community Grid and have been requesting an answer from National Communiuty Renaissance [nationalcore.org] --- EITHER YES or NO since October.
It is now Feburary and still I have no reply.
Many of my emails directed to their corporate email addresses @nationalcore.org in these regards are returned ERROR 554 : Denied.
I have no explanation why a "National Community" identified corporation would just refuse a tenant's email regarding "World Community" ideals.
ALL I GET FOR MY EFFORTS IS SILENCE. Explain to me why this should take more than 4 months to get through the oppression that I am under to get an answer from them?
In the November 2008 Paseo Del Oro Apartments Newsletter, this appears:
To Our Newest Friends : We're pleased to have you join us. We're glad that our friendly staff, beautiful apartments and gorgeous landscaping were up to your standards of quality. If you ever need anything, please let us know immediately and we'll get it out to you. You deserve nothing less than our best.
I have asked them to form and create a "friend" relationship with me on facebook:
Relationship may refer to:
* Interpersonal relationship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_relationship
An interpersonal relationship is a relatively long-term association between two or more people. This association may be based on emotions like love and liking, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships take place in a great variety of contexts, such as family, friends, marriage, acquaintances, work, clubs, neighborhoods, and churches. They may be regulated by law, custom, or mutual agreement, and are the basis of social groups and society as a whole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood
The sociology of modern neighbourhood
Over and above these general and individual country definitions, neighbourhoods have several advantages as an area for policy analysis as well as an arena for social action:
1. Neighbourhoods are common, and perhaps close to universal, since most people in urbanised areas would probably consider themselves to be living in one.
2. Neighbourhoods are convenient, and always accessible, since you are already in your neighbourhood when you walk out your door.
3. Successful neighbourhood action frequently requires little specialised technical skill, and often little or no money. Action may call for an investment of time, but material costs are often low.
4. With neighbourhood action, compared to activity on larger scales, results are more likely to be visible and quickly forthcoming. The streets are cleaner; the crosswalk is painted; the trees are planted; the festival draws a crowd.
5. Visible and swift results are indicators of success; and since success is reinforcing, the probability of subsequent neighbourhood action is increased.
6. Because neighbourhood action usually involves others, such actions create or strengthen connections and relationships with other neighbours, leading in turn to a variety of potentially positive effects, often hard to predict.
7. Over and above these community advantages, neighbourhood activity may simply be enjoyable and fun for those taking part.
But in addition to these benefits, considerable research indicates that strong and cohesive neighbourhoods and communities are linked –quite possibly causally linked – to decreases in crime, better outcomes for children, and improved physical and mental health. The social support that a strong neighbourhood may provide can serve as a buffer against various forms of adversity.
==
If " Visible and swift results are indicators of success; " then invisibility and delayed results MUST BE indicators of failure.
Failures at Allen Temple Manor in 2005 --- results in wrongful eviction case WG06266106 --- It should never have gone in that dark direction.
Can you tell me where my error of thought processes erodes a relationship down to molding muck?
Mr James M. Driskill
Paseo Del Oro Apts Tenant
480 W. Mission Road, Apt 165
San Marcos, CA 92069
(760) 798-9193
Feb 25, 2009 1:12:47am