For his talk delivered last week in Edmonton entitled "Whose Streets?" writer, activist and executive director of Queers for Economic Justice (New York), Kenyon Farrow weaved together urban renewal, race, class, gender, sexual orientation, global markets, hate crime legislation, labour, media, HIV/AIDS and a warning to be leery of World Fairs (Expos) into a relatable way of understanding the world and along with it illustrated questions on how the status quo allows for the violences of injustice to continue. And it made sense.
Farrow points to the way we understand urban development and a failure to see impacts of race and sexual orientation on where we live. He provided the example of realtors driving through a largely lower income and racialized neighborhood. If they see even one white person they will be inclined to think that that area is the new, up-and-coming neighbourhood. The wheels of gentrification begin as the realtor helps first hipsters, gays and artists to move in and soon actively recruits more affluent demographics to buy property. This out prices people who may have lived there for generations and have a whole network of survival set up that is slowly and systematically dismantled in the name of development. Farrow is not suggesting white people are bad, rather he points out the ways in which our bodies and realities are interconnected and responsible for each other in ways we fail to fully realize.
As we organize and assist each other in the face of these interconnections, what does it mean to be an ally? If our issues are interdependent then the notion that you elect to be involved becomes impossible to be true.
I recall at a meeting having a conversation with a gay man who said he would never get too deep into trans issues because it does not personally affect him. At first blush this might sound like a noble thing to say, almost anti-colonial, but once it sits for a while, you begin to see how, as a gay man, trans has a lot to do with him. By being a gay man he, like a trans person, is likely to evoke gender controversy in the world around him. While he may be masculine and wear gender conforming clothes, by virtue of wanting to get with another man he is challenging gender. Gender then is not only the concern for trans people in Alberta or poor women in Africa, it is something we all live with and should not attempt to make it a private issue for those who have to deal with it in an often hurtful way everyday. We all have an interest in investigating and challenging dominant ideas of gender for the further liberation of all.
For the Farrow talk I wanted to make the event accessible to all. With a slowly evolving understanding of issues around ablism and disability, thanks to some patient people, I thought maybe I could get it right and as one of the organizers select an accessible location to ensure people often systemically excluded could be part of the event. But I didn't get it right. I found a space that had the ideas of accessibility but not the lived reality—a difference between someone being able to seamlessly and fully participate and someone having to be conscious of their movements, needs and the comfort of others. I settled on a place only fulfilling bare requirements because I did not embody the idea of ablism and disability. I saw myself as an ally rather than a person impacted.
Adding to the problem is the current neo-liberal equation where regimes remove responsibility from the state and push ideas of individual responsibility and capitalism as the answer onto citizens, subsequently issues become ghettoized. Lap dogs and victims of neo-liberalism hear the call and work to create institutes and organizations that serve niche groups ensuring a privileged, private few move ahead, leaving those who can't or won't garner institutional support to fight for scraps provided by the state.
If Farrow's talk and my own mistakes taught me anything last weekend it was that the answer to the question "Whose Streets?" is obvious: our streets. The damage of privatization, of focusing only on one group and seeing "accommodation" as a checklist is it leads us to believe that other people's troubles are not our own, that through resiliency, everyone should be able to overcome. It removes from the equation the very real systemic barriers that exist institutionally, interpersonally and beyond. There are no allies when you are all in it together.
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