Evelyn Lynn,
Noemi Y. Molitor,
Cara Page, and
Lamont Sims,
"A Conversation about Southerners on New Ground:
Transformation, Legacy and Movement Building in the U.S. South"
(page 4 of 8)
Grounding the Work in the South
We asked each other, "What is it that is different about the South?"
Evelyn put it into words: "we don't have the luxury to throw anybody
away." Working it out with each other is an important commitment SONG
rests on. The South is a region that is often equated with
"backwardness" or deemed to be "more racist" than other parts of the
U.S. SONG resists such stereotyping, reductive claims and instead
analyzes them as tools or discourses of oppression and inequality. This
narrow view also forgets that the South has been the proverbial engine
of the Civil Rights Movement and a primary site of anti-racist protest
and resistance. And not just in larger cities like Atlanta or
Montgomery, but all over the South in the everyday struggles of people.
SONG puts the South back on the map—looking at racial justice and
class justice through a queer lens, alongside the legacies of
resiliency, resistance, and movement building in the South. While the
South is often dismissed and fantasized as a "space of the past," we
talked about noticing that many Southerners who relocate often speak to
us about missing the rhythm of the South in other places. We believe the
South has a rhythm of patience, kindness, and resilience that helps
people to maintain themselves in the chaos of social injustice.
SONG looks at the South as a place of legacy. That is, the legacies
of racism, of genocide, and of slavery. And further, of the legacies of
structurally excluding and threatening queer populations, of exploiting
workers, and of illegalizing immigrants of color today. At our table, we
talked a lot about holding the legacy of trauma and genocide in the
South. The consequences and the impact of this legacy are greater than
what we know. At the same time, this legacy tells us about the survival
skills and resistance that people have created in the South. SONG seeks
to hold both resistance and mourning in the face of genocide and
trauma. Meanwhile, we carry the knowledge that it is possible to imagine
and create alternatives that are shaped by our ancestral legacies.
While SONG directs its organizing focus to the South, we understand
community as local, regional, and global. In this sense, we all
described a feeling of commitment to "real" and "imagined" communities,
while being committed beyond U.S. borders in spirit. Or, in the other
way around, for the immigrants[2]
among us, other countries are
locations or spaces of belonging that are indeed quite real. These
different perspectives already show the need to push borders and to
deconstruct the idea of national and regional entities or realities.
Lamont recognized that places like Oakland can feel like a "Southern
space" because of the huge migration of southern Black folks to that
region. Cara also reminded us that by "South" we often mean only
"Southeast," and ignore our connection to the Southwest and global
south. These are false borders that were created to divide us, and SONG
seeks to build across that divide. SONG foregrounds a particularly
regional experience and a commitment to that region in the context of
the current political divisions in the U.S., while also holding a
national and international space that connects our global struggles
through a liberatory framework.
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