AADL Productions Podcast: Bring It Back, Take It Forward Conference

Tue, 03/09/2010 - 3:47pm

When: March 9, 2010

Bring It Back, Take It Forward (BIBTIF), a 3-day conference celebrating 50 years of activism in southeast Michigan, will take place March 12-14, 2010. In this podcast, we talk with two of the conference organizers, Elizabeth Gonzalez and Jim Toy. Gonzalez, a graduate student in the UM School of Social Work, and Toy, a veteran activist and founding member of the University's Lesbian-Gay Male Programs Office in 1971, reflect on the achievements and challenges of activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as their hopes for the conference and the future of the progressive movement.

Transcript

• [00:00:00.00] [MUSIC]
• [00:00:05.11] AMY: Hello. This is Amy.
• [00:00:06.70] ANDREW: And this is Andrew. And you're listening to the AADL Productions Podcast.
• [00:00:11.44] AMY: Elizabeth Gonzalez and James Toy of the University of Michigan School of Social Work were here at the library last week to talk about Bring It Back, Take It Forward, a three-day conference planed for March 12-14, 2010 to celebrate 50 years of activism in Southeast Michigan. Gonzalez, a graduate student in the School of Social Work, and Toy, a veteran local activist and founding member of the University's Lesbian/Gay Male Programs Office in 1971, the first of its kind in the country, reflect on past milestones and talk about their hopes for the conference and the future of the progressive movement.
• [00:00:47.17] I wonder if you could briefly just tell us who you are.
• [00:00:49.77] ELIZABETH GONZALEZ: My name's Elizabeth Gonzalez. I'm a first year in the graduate program School of Social work at U-Mich.
• [00:00:56.04] JIM TOY: First name Jim, that's easy, last name Toy, t-o-y, that is more difficult. t-o-y as in tinker from my Chinese father. I'm a field instructor at the School of Social Work, a graduate of that school, and I've been involved in any number of so-called activist movements and events in Ann Arbor since 1970.
• [00:01:21.46] ANDREW: Can I ask why you say "so-called" activist? How do you define activism?
• [00:01:26.29] JIM TOY: It's a difficult term for me because it is usually, in my experience, applied to progressive, not to say, radical people who actively, in my experience, speak out for justice -- the justice that I hope will ultimately lead to peace. There are, of course, conservative, not the say, reactionary people who are just as active in their own way. And yet that term, in my experience, is seldom applied to them.
• [00:01:59.76] AMY: The conference is March 12-14, and it's called Bring It Back, Take It Forward. How did it come about and what are you hoping to achieve?
• [00:02:09.66] ELIZABETH GONZALEZ: I think this came about last winter, and I came on board in September, speaking to Tim Colenback who's an associate dean at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. So I joined on. Part of what Bring It Back, Take It Forward is all about is looking at 50 years of activism in Michigan, connecting past activists with current activists in various areas and connecting them, so see how we can bring activism in each of these areas forward.
• [00:02:43.97] ANDREW: Why 50 years, out of curiosity? Is it just because the '60s were such a vibrant time for activism or is there -- why 50 years?
• [00:02:54.57] JIM TOY: As I recall, 50 years ago marked the founding of Students for a Democratic Society, which Alan Haber, of course, was most active in. And Alan himself helped organize the first sit-in against the Vietnam War 50 years ago.
• [00:03:15.41] AMY: And we sort of sit on the laurels from that period of time.
• [00:03:19.19] ELIZABETH GONZALEZ: I don't think we can sit on the laurels of that time. I think definitely that time gave us a model to get involved, to be active, and again, move forward. There are a lot of things still going on now, and I think a lot of students these days are getting really involved in what's going on in our country, what's going on in our communities, and getting connected -- getting connected with an area that they're very passionate about and getting some things done and being heard.
• [00:03:48.27] AMY: Is Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan as progressive as it likes to think it is, and it was in the past?
• [00:03:55.74] JIM TOY: I think in some ways it is similarly progressive to the way that it was "progressive" in the past. On another hand, the University, in my experience, continues to be, in some part, subject to pressure from the legislature in Lansing, and from pressure -- I'm putting that simplistically -- from the Federal government and Federal agencies. How come? Because, again, simplistically the University is indebted to those entities for some part of its funding. And again, I'm being really simplistic. So the University can, in my experience, only do so much "activism" directly, otherwise it would endanger some of its resources. And again, I speak really simplistically.
• [00:04:56.22] ANDREW: How did you choose what the topics were going to be for the Bring It Back, Take It Forward event?
• [00:05:01.30] JIM TOY: They arose meeting by meeting, actually. Clearly we were going to speak out against the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, again, in my experience, all the elements of our civilization are interconnected -- peace and war with economics, peace and war with feminism, peace and war with racism, and so on. So meeting by meeting we expanded the list of topics, and luckily were able to find people who are really experienced and skilled to speak to those concerns.
• [00:05:51.13] ELIZABETH GONZALEZ: So, some of the topics we have -- on Friday we start off with the black action movement, so looking at anti-racism and pro-diversity. We also have a health activism panel, an immigrant rights panel. And then in the evening portion we have two activists panels. One featuring Arturo Rodriguez, Dean Baker, Yousef Robhi. Our second activist panel in the evening featuring Bill Ayers, Rick Feldman, Laura Russello, Ron Scott and Bob Zellner. So that's what we've got lined up for Friday. Then on Saturday, we start off in the morning with an environmental panel featuring Parker Pennington IV and Bunyan Bryant, followed by a TBLG panel featuring Sawyer Strode, Donna Wasserman, moderated by Jim Toy and Laura Wernick. Then we have in our next panel on independent media from The Underground Press today featuring Mike Dover, Roshaun Harris, Ken Wachsberger, Harvey Wasserman and John Woodford. And then we have our feminist panel with Jan BenDor, Kathy Stroud, and Catherine McClary. And then we have our peace panel and that's in honor of Professor J. David Singer. So we have Alan Haber, Odile Haber, Judith Kullberg, Andy Lichterman, Richard Stahler-Sholk and Paul Williamson. And continuing on Saturday we have a Free Speech Session with Jonathan Rose. And an activist panel featuring Nancy Romer, Chuck Ream, and Rosemary Sarri. And then we end the night with young activists, so we have Yusef Shakur, Invincible, Drag King Rebellion, and Riot Youth Gayrilla Theatre. And then on Sunday we'll all get together in the afternoon and just talk about how we could take everything that we've learned in each panel and take it forward, continue activism.
• [00:07:54.61] JIM TOY: At the first meeting we went around and around, what are we going to call the conference? And I said, well, something like bring it back, take it forward, and they said oh. And that's how it came about. And so we've been abbreviating it to BIBTIF.
• [00:08:10.34] ANDREW: I find it interesting to think about not only how activism has changed, which I will ask you a question about as well, but the perception of activism must have changed. Is there a certain legitimization that has happened from 50 years ago to now that an event like this can even happen now where -- this is a University sponsored event. It's sponsored by groups in the community. There is a respect for activism now. Is that a big change from what things were like 40 or 50 years ago?
• [00:08:44.24] JIM TOY: Thank you for asking that question. Yes, I do believe so. In the '60s the term radical I think was largely used as opposed to activism. And people experienced as radical and labeled as radical were, if not harassed, at least criticized, and in fact, far more than harassed, they were sometimes assaulted by forces of government, whether local, State or Federal. Yes. So I think there is some "legitimacy" here now. To what degree that legitimatization of "radicalism" is also, in some part, an effort to dampen the so-called movement. I don't know, but that comes into my mind.
• [00:09:47.81] ANDREW: That was my other question. Does that hurt -- is it more difficult when you have buy-in? Are you risking losing that buy-in by saying the things you really want to say and need to say?
• [00:10:01.66] JIM TOY: Insofar as resources -- in my experience I continue to say that -- are largely held by individuals and groups in power. We all are subject to their opinions, their words and their actions. So I continue to think that power can be wielded against us in any number of ways and that would be one of that number.
• [00:10:33.54] AMY: Jim, I know that did a lot of work with the Detroit and Ann Arbor Gay Liberation Front. Would there -- and back in, was it 1971 the University established what they called a Human Sexuality Office?
• [00:10:48.34] JIM TOY: Correct.
• [00:10:49.26] AMY: What's in the name? Would that happen today? I know it's now the Lesbian/Gay Male Bisexual Programs Office.
• [00:10:57.03] JIM TOY: Which has again been amended to the Spectrum Center. The title Human Sexuality Office we presume, since we are not the administration of the University, that we activist's presume was applied to that office was chosen in some part because the University was not about to use the term homosexual, bisexual, lesbian, gay and a title in 1971. Today we're an institution of higher learning to create such an office for itself. I am guessing that the title would be far more direct now, and it would be easier today for a school that doesn't have such an office to create one. In 1971 the University took an enormous risk in establishing the office. It was, as we know, the first in the nation and first in the world. So I'm grateful to the University for having done that. Having said that, the "lesbian and gay male activists" in the '60s, there were few that dared take the risk of being visible. Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny are the only two names that I think of at the moment. And so the climate decade by decade has become supportive slowly for concerns of transgender, bisexual, lesbian, gay, gender queer, queer, intersex people, and our allies.
• [00:12:37.64] ANDREW: Jim, I was sort of interested, when I was reading about your career, I was very interested to see how local much of your work has been. You've worked with Ann Arbor groups, you work with Ann Arbor City Council, you've worked with the University specifically. And oftentimes when we think of activism we're thinking of protests -- we're thinking of Civil Rights protests against the Federal government, thinking about protests to convince the Federal government to stop a war. What is different about local activism from that national activity that we hear about all the time?
• [00:13:12.05] JIM TOY: Again, in my experience, local activism, to use that term, focuses, again, simplistically, on local politics and expands as it becomes possible to State level politics and then to national politics. For example, in 1985 I was appointed to a so-called Blue Ribbon subcommittee in the State House. Our mission was to advance in the minds of the legislature the addition of sexual orientation to our State level, non-discrimination policy, the Elliott-Larson Act. So that's 1985. Has that come about? No. And that's 25 years later. So we continue to work, both talking with our local representatives, all of whom support this change, and with other legislators helping organize lobby days in Lansing. And some of us are able to work at the national level.
• [00:14:21.71] AMY: Are there as many students engaged in helping shape public and political policy at the local level these days?
• [00:14:28.75] ELIZABETH GONZALEZ: That's a good question. From what I know, being in the School of Social Work, there are definitely various student organizations in my program that are working on getting involved, getting organized, doing a lot of work around immigrant rights is one that comes up a lot. The Social Welfare Action Alliance, which is one of our co-sponsors for Bring It Back, Take It Forward, is also heavily involved in what's going on in the community and trying to get various issues to be discussed. I know the Rainbow Network on campus is talking about gender-neutral pronouns being used in all forms at the University, and that conversation is happening on a bigger level now. There was recently an article printed in The Michigan Daily about gender-neutral pronouns. So it reminds me -- things like that right remind me that it really only takes one person to be outspoken and to express their concerns to other students, to their peers, to their colleagues, and to get it going. So that really reiterates that to me that it can really only start with one person.
• [00:15:47.81] JIM TOY: Let's move it to a yet younger group of people -- middle and high school students. Gay Straight Alliances in our local schools have been able to bring about, with the Ann Arbor District School Board, the addition of gender identity and gender expression to the district's non-discrimination policy. Would that have happened 40 years ago? No, it would not have. And middle and high school students now are feeling able to come forward. But again, I think that is in some part a consequence of the increasing support nationally for these concerns, and as well as the technology that enables students to connect with one another, beyond meeting face-to-face. Now, of course, that technology can be used against activists and is. So it works both ways.
• [00:17:00.93] ANDREW: I'm just curious about you mentioned the younger kids coming up, being actvists. Do you think any of them have any idea how the technology's going to be used against them? It's funny that you bring that up, but it's a very real concern. You could be an activist in the past and walk away from it, but now you are totally attached to whatever movement you've ever been a part of, and there's going to be a permanent record of it.
• [00:17:24.95] ELIZABETH GONZALEZ: I don't know if the youth are thinking about how that will impact. Technology is so much a part of our life, it's not even that you put too much thought on it with things going on like Facebook and MySpace and Twitter -- it's all out there.
• [00:17:40.76] JIM TOY: Yes. Technology can be used against us aggressively. And it is. And then I think, well, we are in what I'm going to call this mess because, simplistically put yet again, I believe that each of us is wired biologically with an aggressive instinct, to use that term. And the harm that that instinct does in groups is, according to some philosophers, greater than the sum of the aggressive instincts put together of each member of the group. And it's only through the mitigation of our thought process and our consciences and something which I will call an ethical or moral sense that that aggressive instinct can be tempered. And so I look to conscience and the moral sense of individuals and groups in this country to move us forward, whether one calls themselves activist or not. We are all human and we have an enormous obligation to one another.
• [00:19:09.52] ANDREW: After the conference is done, Bring It Back, Take It Forward will continue to exist and continue to work. Is this going to become an ongoing effort? Will there be more conferences?
• [00:19:20.09] ELIZABETH GONZALEZ: Yeah, we definitely planning on more conferences. This will be the first one. We're already talking about what can we do for the next year. I know in the fall, possibly some conversations about something happening in the fall. The School of Social Work has been working with the University to create an undergraduate minor, so it's a community action and social change undergraduate minor that will be making its big debut in the fall. So we're thinking of connecting the Bring It Back, Take It Forward concepts along with this new minor and going from there. Our logo for the Bring It Back, Take It Forward Conference is the Sankofa, which is a mythic bird of the Akan people of West Africa that flies forward while looking backwards with an egg in its mouth. And the egg is a symbol of the future, and the head tilted backwards is a constant momento of the past, and it teaches us the concept of Sankofa according to which it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.
• [00:20:26.42] Those of you who are interested in volunteering, you can contact us, again, through our website bringitbacktakeitforward.org. And the email address is celebratingactivismatumich.edu. So again, celebratingactivismatumich.edu.
• [00:20:42.90] ANDREW: You've been listening to the AADL Productions Podcast from the Ann Arbor District Library.