Five class synthesis: ATL Emancipation Autumn 2012

1. Introduction and Life Maps (October 15)

• How have individual experiences related to knowledge for organizing?
• People describing “their moment” of awareness shed light on the combination of our experiences.
• The impact on social relationships of the commonality of individuals’ development
• The benefits of sharing with a supportive elder
• Someone else’s reactions to our stories reflecting back to one’s self
• Learning about the role of rape in the fighting in the Congo
• “Workers of the world, unite!  We have nothing to lose but our chains!”
• Feeling light coming from each of us as crisscrossing beacons
• Everyone seemed special and powerful.
• Discovering the similarities across cultural groups
• Thinking more carefully about what I hold dear
• Realizing that this is a good group to be in
• This kind of education is energetic and liberating.
• It is a privilege to build liberation together through dialogue.

2. Power: Atlanta under Thirty-Five (Plus) Years of Black Rule (October 22)

• There have been many divisions in Atlanta, with some people coming and others leaving.
• For many, building a family has been more important than building a community.
• We need to pay attention to the strategies of the individuals representing us.
• Atlanta has become a symbol for and signal of apartheid in the context of twenty-first century capitalism.
• Having a black mayor or President can give us a false sense of independence.
• There can be a variety of good and bad conclusions about what political power for some black people has meant, including its having given some a false sense of security.
• Black rule (with a “Black Massa”) for over thirty-five yeras has included many missed opportunities.
• Much of the history has shown how power can corrupt.
• Political power is limited if it does not include economic power.
• There have been forms of black power in Atlanta for over a hundred years, since black businessmen on Auburn Avenue began moving in tandem with white elites, and the problems that have often accompanied access to power for some black individuals continue today.
• It has been possible to live an entire life in cities with black mayors (Cleveland, Detroit, Little Rock, Atlanta).  For each administration, it has been important to decide who was really running the show.
• This history raises the question of whether we can have serious change without a mass movement.
• The problems that have come in part because of ignorance of history show how important it is to understand history, including developments such as the missing children of Atlanta.
• We have experienced some advances, but our institutions are still colonized.
• The people of Atlanta have not had a clear enough sense of liberation.
• There has been some upward mobility but not for all of the working poor.

3. Transformative Leadership (October 29)

• Leaders can be seen as equivalent to root doctors.
• Leaders need to pay attention to when changing conditions require new strategies.
• At times there have been too many leaders and at times not enough.
• By realizing how colonized the standard idea of leadership has been, we can decide to rethink what leadership should involve.
• Leaders without a base cannot have true success.
• Leaders come out of their experiences in struggles.
• There are different kinds of transformative leadership.
• We are, in one way or another, all leaders.

4. Action and Power (November 12)

• Since nation-states affect movements, we have a stake in their existence and nature.
• Power is divided by too much emphasis on “isms.”
• Reactionary forces gain power when they preempt us.
• The discipline of the line
• The need for the liberation of education
• The problems with “push” and “pull” models of leadership
• Protests can lead to the power to build.
• We need to learn from both the strengths and weaknesses of past and present movements.
• The biggest enemy of liberatory power is FEAR, which gives power to the people’s enemies.
• We need to keep seeking and carrying out actions that will free people of their fear.

5. Emancipatory Education (November 19)

• Emancipatory education is an active process.
• The activities of Project South involve emancipatory education.
• The focus need to be on how to enable everyone to learn about liberation.
• We need to reject the standard criteria for who should and should not receive certain kinds of education.
• We’re all learning a complicated dance.
• We need to be clear about what we need to be liberated from.
• We are all learners and all teachers.
• Being with all of this group involves breaking out of the box of a standard classroom.
• There is something powerful rooted in people’s experiences and definitions of liberation.
• We each have different kinds of knowledge which we need to share with each other.
• To achieve liberation, we first have to decide what we need.
• We need to think about how our own work connects to liberation.
• Colonial education is so mean-spirited that individuals’ educational successes can make the colonial institutions even more powerful.
• The way Jenice carried out this class illustrated how liberatory education works.
• We need to consider the roots of education.
• Liberatory education requires breaking down old boxes and sharing knowledge.
• Emancipating education is a long-term project, but liberating language can help speed it up.
• The imparting of knowledge is not the same thing as true education.