Stopping the Hate with Enero Zapatista and Indian Voices
(Translation of book cover "Education constructs many worlds into which many worlds can fit.")
In a hyper materialistic popular culture that foolishly celebrates wealth and opulence above all else, champions are determined not by qualities of integrity and service to others but instead by self-ingratiation and arrogance. One such champion is Elon Musk who recently declared the word “decolonization” implies genocide and that users on his social media platform would be “suspended” for using it. The absurdity of this statement is only matched by the absurdity of a global system that awards a man capable of such a thought to the highest strata of society.
Despite the anxiety of the moment, Indian Voices newspaper seeks to carve out a nook in our space/time to invited the community to celebrate the story tellers and their abilities over the millennia to elevate truth and rights and spread peace and love. The event was a collaboration with Enero Zapatista which is having its annual month of events raising awareness to the Zapatista struggle and connecting like-minded organizations in the area with each other.
This was Indian Voices’ first time participating with Enero Zapatista by hosting an event at the Centro Cultural de la Raza on Friday January 19th from 6pm to 9pm. Attendees enjoyed some free catered food and listened to distinguished community members share stories about their experience as victims of hate crimes, ways they overcame them, and resources that are now available to them that were not before. Break out groups discussed strategies for overcoming hate and the resources available to those that have been targeted.
Time was spent discussing the Stop the Hate pamphlet. According to a participant survey after the event, 90% of the attendees learned something new about the services provided to survivors of hate crimes. We believe that the event enabled cross cultural healing for victims of hate crimes as evidenced by the many rich conversations that were had during the breakout groups and new connections that were made.
The event also honored Indian Voices Editor and Founder Rose Davis with an award for her ongoing contributions of creating a more inclusive, inter-ethnic, inter-racial communications infrastructure in San Diego and beyond. We believe that by celebrating people like Rose Davis, who are doing work to assist survivors of hate crimes, we are creating a culture of healing that is necessary for overcoming the trauma experienced by hate crime victims. An example of this was how one of the guest storytellers, a young Palestinian woman, declared, “even though my family and I suffer terribly as victims of hate crimes, I still pray for our attackers to develop compassion instead of feeling hate back toward them.
Photo: Mural on Zapatista School, by Mr. Theklan, Wikimedia Commons
