Category: Handout

This is a visual tool that gives the basic outline and/or check-list on putting together a direct action. Though direct actions can be violent (such as sabotage and property destruction) and non-violent (such as strikes, sit-ins, and blockades), the goal is always to stop, change, or reveal an oppressive institutional mechanism.

This tool is best presented with the tools on Inclusive Policies & Procedures and Inclusive Programming.

Activity Idea

Divide the group into three, and assign each group one of each of the following posters:  Dis/Ableism 101, the Pillars of White Supremacy, and The Gender Binary. Each group then has to work as a small collective on planning a direct action against an institutional form of the oppression they were assigned.

Poster Description

The top half of the poster is in indigo, and the lower half of the poster is in mauve.

In the indigo section there are pale purple graphics like a sliced up circle on the left corner and a jagged line on the right. In white there is the title “Direct Action”. Below the title are three black and white photos. The first photo has a notebook open with some drawings of stick figures and the word “PLANNING” written down by a light-skinned hand holding a pen. Underneath that photo is the word “PRE-ACTION”. The second photo has a dark-skinned fist raised in the foreground; the background has people, one holding a megaphone, in front of buildings and trees. Underneath that photo are the words “DURING ACTION”. The third photo has dark-skinned hands typing on a laptop. Underneath the photo are the words “POST ACTION”.

In the mauve section of the poster are three columns of indigo words, as well as “lukayo.com” and “patreon.com/lukayo” at the bottom right corner of the poster in pale purple.

The first column under the title “PRE-ACTION” has the following text:

” – set goals
– get different kinds of training
– fundraising
– research/info gathering
– scouting
– create group and assign roles
– legal support plan
– action plans and safety plans
– get clear on messaging
– acquire appropriate gear
– outreach initiatives”

The second column under the title “DURING ACTION” has the following text:

“- transportation
– provisions (food, medical, etc)
– internal process, external lookout, and communications
– legal observer
– documentation (notes, photos, videos)
– public liaison (flyers, etc.)
– media (press release, update)
– stage director
– police liaison”

The third column under the title “POST ACTION” has the following text:

“- legal and jail support
– collect documentation
– report back, debrief, next steps
– post press release
– collect gear back
– update website, write articles, and explain how to duplicate the action for others
– contact media
– celebrate!”

Want to have access to the larger full colour updated 2019 poster, the original photograph of the hand-drawn 2016 poster, and other anti-oppression related teaching tools? Click on the link below and subscribe for as little as $3/month. By becoming a patron, you support healing work among my communities, and the indigenous Elders that mentor me.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/25012822

This is a visual tool that gives a basic outline on how to plan the sections for creating inclusive policies and procedures for your organization, collective, or group. Ideally, these policies and procedures would center those most affected by the mission and ideals of the group, as well as have them in leadership positions, so they would not have to be considered simply “included”.

Having something written down ensures that even if individual members of the group leaves, these words can continue afterwards as part of the group’s story, a record that helps guide new members to live out the group’s ideals. On top of that, when the group needs to align more with its ideals, the policies can be changed to continue to reflect the growth of the group.

This tool is best presented with the tools on Inclusive Programming and Direct Action.

Activity Idea

Divide the group into three, and assign each group one of each of the following posters: Dis/Ableism 101, the Pillars of White Supremacy, and The Gender Binary. Each group then has to work as a small collective writing policies and procedures to combat the specific oppression they were assigned within their organization.

Poster Description

The main colours are white and orange. At the top of the post is the word “INCLUSIVE”. The is a dark orange and light orange box underneath the word.

In the dark orange box, in white font, is the following text:

“POLICIES

MISSION STATEMENT/MANDATE
– What is your organization about? (Empowerment? Rights? Protection?)

GOAL/PURPOSE
– What is this policy for? (Attitudes, knowledges, practices, etc.)
– Who is it for? (Board, clients, staff, guests, etc.)

PRINCIPLES/VALUES
– Ex: diversity, equity, anti-discrimination, democratic, anarchistic, collaborative, etc.,

POLICY STATEMENT
– State the situation/problem and solution

DEFINITIONS/TERMS”

In the light orange box, in dark orange font, is the following text:

“PROCEDURES

COMMITMENTS/AREAS OF FOCUS
– Governance (representation
– Employment (equitable access)
-Services (equitable access)
– Training & Education (for providers serving clients)
– Info & Communication (for diverse communities about the services)
– Complaints & Accountability (for organization and providers to be accountable to the community and each other)

SPACE
– ensure accessibility

TERMINOLOGY
– Update staff, forms, manuals, and other documentation”

At the bottom of the poster, in dark orange font, has “lukayo.com” and “patreon.com/lukayo“.

Want to have access to the larger full colour updated 2019 poster, the original photograph of the hand-drawn 2016 poster, and other anti-oppression related teaching tools? Click on the link below and subscribe for as little as $3/month. By becoming a patron, you support healing work among my communities, and the indigenous Elders that mentor me.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/25011935

This visual teaching tool is based on the knowledge I received from the work of multiple writers and groups, such as b. binaohan, bell hooks, Janet Mock, Jennifer Coates, Julia Serano, Michael Warner, the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), and the Positive Space Initiative (PSI) of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI).

The Gender Binary tool works best with the Oppression Triangle tool, as well as Dis/Ableism 101 and the Pillars of White Supremacy. The purpose of this poster/handout is to introduce the forms of oppression that the Western Gender Binary perpetuates, how they’re made up of social norms/standards, and the terms that go along with or disrupt the system. It may be a little advanced for folks who are just starting to understand that there are more than just two genders/sexes, but it attempts to sketch a basic outline for those who want to learn how patriarchy, cisgenderism, heterosexism, and transmisogyny are inter-related. This is also a work-in-progress that continues to evolve as our understanding of the Gender Binary and how to dismantle the violence it perpetuates continues to evolve. 

Note: Transmisogyny refers to a specific oppression that affects folks who were assigned male at birth but identify and/or express themselves as female and/or feminine. This is different than folks who are trans, female assigned at birth, and experience misogyny and transphobia.

Activity Ideas

• Draw and write out a large version of the first three columns of the handout, and in chalk, pencil, or eraseable marker, work with the participants on what kind of line would be drawn through these columns based on the terms shown on the rest of the tool. For example, “heterosexual male” would look like a straight line starting from “Male” to “Man married to 1 woman with kids”. Discuss how the Gender Binary creates the threat of violence every time the line deviates from being straight.
• Divide the participants into 3-4 groups, and have each group focus on one of the following: patriarchy/sexism, transmisogyny, cisgenderism and/or heterosexism. Have them present to each other what they understand these forms of oppression are based on their section of the handout, and how the 5 social norms influences these oppressions.
• Divide the participants as described above, but instead of just presenting the concepts, have them choose a level of oppression (e.g. individual, cultural, or institutional) to give an example, and a liberation strategy (such as accomplices/allies, direct action, policy, programming, etc) to provide a possible way to respond to the oppressive example.
• Draw and write out a large version of the poster, but leave most of it blank, except for the forms of oppression, the first column that has all the social norms/standards, and the headers in the first row. Everything else should be on small strips of paper or cards with tape on them that the participants must figure out together where they go on the chart.

Poster Description

The background is pale blue, and the title in a black box bordered by blue and pink reads “The Western Gender Binary” with online addresses underneath in purple to “lukayo.com” and “patreon.com/lukayo“. The first column of the chart in black font has seven sections: “forms of oppression”, “social norm / standard”, “Sex/Gender Assignment/Designation”, “Gender Identity”, “Gender Expression”, “Sexual/Romantic Orientation”, and “Relationship Structure/Family”. There are five other columns after this one.

The first row for “Forms of Oppression” has the word “transmisogyny” in orange on an orange line that encompasses the five other columns, as well as the terms “patriarchy / sexism” and “cisgenderism / transphobia / heterosexism / homophobia”. The words “patriarchy / sexism” in yellow on a yellow line encompasses the first two columns only. The words  “cisgenderism / transphobia / heterosexism / homophobia”  in red on a red line encompasses the last three columns only.

The second row that has “social norm / standard” in the first column also has the headers for the other columns. The second column is “the superior gender that holds power” in blue. The third column is “the inferior gender, property of superior” in pink. The fourth column is “terms about people that are allowed to exist” in green. The fifth column and sixth column have the same header with a slight difference. The fifth column is “terms describing people that must be destroyed because they’re outside the gender binary (western)” in purple. The sixth column is “terms describing people that must be destroyed because they’re outside the gender binary (non-western)” in purple. The sixth column does not have rows 2-7, because these terms are outside of the social norms and standards that are described in the first column.

Under the second column called the “superior gender that holds power” in blue, the five ways it manifests with the five social norms and standards in the first column are as follows:  “Sex/Gender Assignment/Designation” : “Male”,  “Gender Identity” : “Man/Male”,  “Gender Expression” : “Masculine”,  “Sexual/Romantic Orientation” : “Male attraction only to females”, and “Relationship Structure/Family” : “Man married to 1 woman with kids”.

Under the third column called the “inferior gender, property of superior” in pink, the five ways it manifests with the five social norms and standards in the first column are as follows:  “Sex/Gender Assignment/Designation” : “Female”,  “Gender Identity” : “Woman/Female”,  “Gender Expression” : “Feminine”,  “Sexual/Romantic Orientation” : “Female attraction only to males”, and “Relationship Structure/Family” : “Woman married to 1 man with kids”.

Under the fourth column called the “terms about people that are allowed to exist” in green, the five ways it manifests with the five social norms and standards in the first column are as follows:  “Sex/Gender Assignment/Designation” : “Non-Intersex” and “Cisgender,  “Gender Identity” : “Cisgender”,  “Gender Expression” : “Heteronormative, Gender-conforming”,  “Sexual/Romantic Orientation” : “Heterosexual, Heteronormative”, and “Relationship Structure/Family” : “Heteronormative monogamous marriage”.

Under the fifth column called the “terms describing people that must be destroyed because they’re outside the gender binary (western)” in purple, the five ways it manifests with the five social norms and standards in the first column are as follows:  “Sex/Gender Assignment/Designation” : “intersex” and “transgender”,  “Gender Identity” : “agender, bigender, genderqueer, multigender, transgender, etc”,  “Gender Expression” : “crossdresser, butch, femme, androgynous, etc”,  “Sexual/Romantic Orientation” : “asexual/romantic, bisexual/romantic, gay/homoromantic, lesbian/homoromantic, pansexual/romantic, etc”, and “Relationship Structure/Family” : “anogamy, polyamory, polygamy, etc”.

Under the sixth column called “terms describing people that must be destroyed because they’re outside the gender binary (non-western)” in purple, the text reads “These terms are based also or solely on ethnicity and/or spiritual role and/or cultural position, such as two-spirit, hijra, fa’afafine, mino, asog, etc.”

Want to have access to the larger full colour updated 2018 poster, the original photograph of the hand-drawn 2016 poster, and other anti-oppression related teaching tools? Click on the link below and subscribe for as little as $3/month. By becoming a patron, you support healing work among my communities, and the indigenous Elders that mentor me.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/23426260

Like the Dis/Ableism 101 visual tool, the Pillars of White Supremacy is an anti-racism 101 visual tool for sighted folks that goes well with the Oppression Triangle tool. The purpose of this poster/handout is to introduce folks to the different forms of racism in North American society, and it is based on the work of Andrea Smith and Harsha Walia. It’s extremely helpful for when different racialized people work together in coalition-building, as it delineates the specific ways we’re differently impacted by white supremacy, but can also support how we can organize together and work on our own internalized racism. Check out my article “More Than Minorities” on working with Indigenous folks and/or Black folks as a person of colour that is not oppressed by Anti-Blackness and/or Settler Colonialism. Please also check out the original article by Andrea Smith called “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing“. If you can, pick up Harsha Walia’s book on Undoing Border Imperialism, though here’s an article with an interview and description of some of the concepts.

Activity Ideas

• Divide the group into the following categories of interest: accomplices/allies, direct action, policy, and programming. These categories are fluid– if there is no one interested in policy, for example, then that doesn’t have to be a group. If a group is interested in something not listed, like, for example, transformative justice or healing justice, then they can create a group for that. These are all types of anti-oppression/liberation strategies, which will be explained further in future posts.
• Ask each group to choose one of the forms of racism to work with and narrow it down to one of the levels of oppression, if possible. They can also choose an example of oppression that is part of several forms of oppression, such as how police/border agent brutality and profiling impacts Indigenous folks, Black folks, migrants, and people of colour visibly coded as “Muslim” (even if they are Hindu, Sikh, etc.).
• Each group can come up with a way to use their anti-oppression/liberation strategy with the example of a racist oppression they chose. For example, the direct action group can explain or act out how they could stage a protest at an immigration detention centre. Another example could be the accomplices/allies group creating a poster that explains other costumes to use instead of racist ones. A final example could be a non-profit organization writing an anti-racism policy that explicitly ensures that a certain percentage of their budget is used for anti-racism training and the benefit of racialized folks within and being served by their organization, with a communications plan that makes these policies transparent to the public.
• Have the groups present to each other and debrief about the process of anti-oppressive collective planning. Did they ensure that racialized folks in the groups lead? Did they ensure that consultation and leadership of racialized folks was at the forefront of any of their strategies, even if there were no racialized folks in their group?

Poster Description

The poster is white with mostly dark grey font. At the top of the poster is written “lukayo.com – patreon.com/lukayo“. The title of the poster is “PILLARS OF WHITE SUPREMACY: A.K.A. how racism works in the West”. The poster is credited as “BASED ON THE WORK OF ANDREA SMITH & HARSHA WALIA”. After the title, there are five columns and six rows.

The first row in the first column has the words: “Academic Term”.  The second row in the first column reads: “Target”. The third row in the first column reads: “The oppressive “logic” used to justify violence, exclusion, exploitation, and negative messaging”. The fourth row in the first column reads: “Example(s) of Institutional Level of Oppression”. The fifth row in the first column reads: “Example(s) of Cultural Level of Oppression”. The sixth and final row in the first column reads: “Example(s) of Individual Level of Oppression”.

The second column is headed by the term “Settler Colonialism”. The target is “Indigenous/Native Peoples”. The logic is “Genocide and forced assimilation of a people to steal their land to make wealth for Whites”. The institutional example is “The “Indian” Act in Canada and other similar legislation.” The cultural example is “ Cultural stereotypes turned into home-made costumes”. The individual example is “The word “savage” used as slang”.

The third column is headed by the term “Anti-Blackness”. The target is “Black Peoples”. The logic is “Forcing with threat of death people to become property or slave labour to make wealth for Whites”. The institutional example is “Police brutality and profiling.” The cultural example is “Appropriation of language and art forms”. The individual example is “ The N-word slur”.

The fourth column is headed by the term “Orientalism”. The target is “People of Colour considered of the “East” / “Orient””. The logic is “Making war to generate more wealth for Whites through military business and taking resources”. The institutional examples are “Canadian security certificates; Japanese internment camps.” The cultural example is “Stereotype profiling of bearded brown men as “terrorists””. The individual example is “”Yellow” fever and Asian fetishization”.

The fifth column is headed by the term “Border Imperialism”. The target is “Migrants or undocumented peoples”. The logic is “Making borders around stolen land to force people into slave labour and/or make war on them to generate wealth for Whites”. The institutional example is “Indefinite and inhumane immigration detention.” The cultural example is “Framing people as inherently “illegal””. The individual example is “Mocking non-white accents”.

Want to have access to the larger full colour updated 2018 poster, the original photograph of the hand-drawn 2016 poster, and other anti-oppression related teaching tools? Click on the link below and subscribe for as little as $3/month. By becoming a patron, you support healing work among my communities, and the indigenous Elders that mentor me.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/22120020

This is a basic Dis/Ableism 101 visual tool for sighted folks that goes well with the Oppression Triangle tool. The purpose of this poster/handout is to introduce folks to the basic models of how dis/ableism works in North American society, and is based on the work of Mia Mingus and A.J. Withers. For a more in-depth look at the models discussed, please check out A.J. Withers’ book and website on Disability Politics. For an intersectional and deeper look at these models, especially in regards to desirability, the prison industrial complex, and the medical industrial complex, please check out Mia Mingus’s Medical Industrial Complex Visual.

Activity Idea

• Divide the group into the following categories of interest: accomplices/allies, direct action, policy, and programming. These categories are fluid– if there is no one interested in policy, for example, then that doesn’t have to be a group. If a group is interested in something not listed, like, for example, transformative justice or healing justice, then they can create a group for that. These are all types of anti-oppression/liberation strategies, which will be explained further in future posts.
• Ask each group to choose one of the dis/ableism models to work with and narrow it down to one of the levels of oppression, if possible. They can also choose an example of oppression that is under multiple models, such as certain nursing/group homes can be considered both under the charity model and the security model.
• Each group can come up with a way to use their anti-oppression/liberation strategy with the example of dis/ableist oppression they chose. For example, the direct action group can explain or act out how they could stage a protest at a pharmaceutical company that is lobbying doctors or at a group home that forces medicalization. Another example could be the accomplices/allies group creating a poster that explains other words to use instead of dis/ableist slurs. A final example could be a non-profit organization that is also a registered charity writing a disability justice policy that explicitly ensures that a certain percentage of their budget is used for accessibility and the benefit of disabled people, with a communications plan that makes these policies transparent to the public.
• Have the groups present to each other and debrief about the process of anti-oppressive collective planning. Did they ensure that any disabled folks in the groups lead? Did they ensure that consultation and leadership of disabled folks was at the forefront of any of their strategies, even if there were no disabled folks in their group?

Poster Description

The poster is pale blue with mostly dark grey font. At the top of the poster is written “lukayo.com – patreon.com/lukayo“. The title of the poster is “DIS/ABLEISM: A.K.A. how modern day capitalism considers people disposable and only as valuable as what they produce”. The poster is credited as “BASED ON THE WORK OF MIA MINGUS AND A.J. WITHERS”. After the title, there are five columns and five rows.

The first row in the first column has the words: “MODEL”. The second row in the first column reads: “The oppressive “logic” used to justify violence, exclusion, exploitation, and negative messaging”. The third row in the first column reads: “Example(s) of Institutional Level of Oppression”. The fourth row in the first column reads: “Example(s) of Cultural Level of Oppression”. The fifth and final row in the first column reads: “Example(s) of Individual Level of Oppression”.

The second column is headed by the term “Eugenics”. The logic is “Ensuring “deviant” people never exist or erasing/destroying their lives”. The institutional examples are “Genetic manipulation; forced sterilization.” The cultural examples are “Suicidality and physical / sexual assault towards disabled people”. The individual examples are “Only seen as inspiration or tragedy; slurs: lame, retard, dumb, cripple, derp, moron, stupid, idiot, spaz, barren, etc.”.

The third column is headed by the term “Medical”. The logic is “Fixing people who are “broken””. The institutional example is “Big Pharma companies paying off doctors”. The cultural example is “Over-reliance on pills to solve problems”. The individual examples are “Lack of support if you don’t get “fixed” the “normal way”; using OCD or other diagnoses as out-of-context adjectives”.

The fourth column is headed by the term “Security”. The logic is “Controlling people who are “dangerous””. The institutional examples are “Forced medicalization; group/nursing homes”. The cultural example is “Psychiatric survivors not seen as “trustworthy””. The individual examples are “Being refused agency; slurs: wacko, psycho(path), lunatic, loony, schizo, crazy, nuts, insane, etc.”.

The fifth column is headed by the term “Charity”. The logic is “Caretaking people who are “incompetent” like they are property”. The institutional example is “Majority of charity money goes to the non-disabled”. The cultural example is “Extreme dichotomy of helpless / codependent versus strong / independent”. The individual examples are “Being treated like a child; terms like feeble-minded, special needs, being called an invalid, etc.”.

Want to have access to the larger full colour updated 2018 poster, the original photograph of the hand-drawn 2016 poster, and other anti-oppression related teaching tools? Click on the link below and subscribe for as little as $3/month. By becoming a patron, you support healing work among my communities, and the indigenous Elders that mentor me.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/21975736

The Taking Tree is a visual tool for sighted folks that can be drawn piece-by-piece or used as a poster/handout to give a rough overview of the rise of oppression in North America. The purpose of this tool is to show the many intersectional moving parts of how oppression grows and works over time. For a more in-depth version of the Taking Tree, check out the 2015 Prezi version, which is linked further below. For this simpler version, you can use it to explain the following concepts:

• oppression in North America grows from Western empire
• empire held supremacies that were and are enacted through violence against those that aren’t able-bodied, neurotypical, non-intersex, white, heterosexual, cisgender, able-bodied, upper class, anglophone, etc., etc.
• empire continues to grow and “take” through global corporate capitalism and colonialism
• empire grows institutions (economic, government, medical, educational, legal, military, police, media, etc) which then provide social mechanisms of “order” and “prosperity” to be accessed by the people who live off of the tree
• when people fall on the “right” side of one or more of the supremacies of empire, they attain some form of safety, prosperity, and social advantage, i.e. privilege, from the institutions
• when people fall on the “wrong” side of one or more of the supremacies of empire, they face numerous kinds of violence and barriers, i.e. oppression, from the institutions
• many people are not aware that institutions can be poisonous to some and not poisonous to others because the roots/supremacies are under ground, i.e. hidden
• empire allegedly welcomes all people to live off of its fruits, but it’s actually a false “sign” in an attempt to hide the supremacies while enticing people to, unknowingly, become part of “inferior” groups that oppressors or privileged folks can be “superior” over
• cultural appropriation occurs when the vampiric roots take the essence from other cultures and those cultural artifacts appear on the Taking Tree but are poisonous/inaccessible to the very people it came from because it passes through the supremacist roots and can now only be accessed by those privileged by empire
• each oppression root is similar and intersectional in that they all work on an oppressive “logic”, grow from a shared history of empire, and corrupt institutions
• each oppression root is different because each supremacy and violence is different and people can experience more than one root at the same time (for example, Orientalism targets people considered from the “East” for war while misogyny targets people considered female and/or feminine for servitude to those considered male and/or masculine– and those who are impacted by both Orientalism and misogyny can be sought as “war trophies” that need liberating or they need to be fought in order to serve)

Origins

I learned The Taking Tree while preparing to co-facilitate my first anti-oppression workshop with Reem Girgrah and Casper in the summer of 2010 on unceded Algonquin territory, Ottawa, Canada. Reem taught me a more bare-bones version of the tool that just described the roots, the trunk, and the branches/fruit. She said it came from an Internet source, but we haven’t been able to find out what it was, after all these years. A similar tree, called The Tree of Colonial Oppression, was published in Honouring Indigenous Women: Hearts of Nations (Vol. 1) booklet in 2011 by Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa (IPSMO). There is also a similar Oppression Tree used in workshops for McGill University Residences first year students, but the earliest version I can find is dated 2014. It’s possible that all these trees have a common origin in the Ottawa-Montreal area, or originated from the contributors to the IPSMO booklet a year before it was published. If folks come up with a specific origin, I will attribute and credit appropriately. The seed, fangs, and sign of the Taking Tree, as far as I can tell, I came up with originally.

Activity Ideas

While presenting the Taking Tree, you can interact with participants in the following ways:

• tell the Taking Tree as a story, starting from the seed, to the roots, to the trunk, to the fruit, to the sign and the fangs
• ask folks to name different oppressions when you get to the part of the roots
• ask folks to name different institutions when you get to the trunk
• ask folks to name different social problems and privileges based on oppressive institutions when you get to the poisoned fruit
• ask folks to describe how they would stop an actual vampiric tree, and then try to brainstorm how their metaphors can be translated into direct action and reality

Poster Description

The poster has a dark grey tree with sickly green leaves and pale grey fruit. Under a rough brown line that represents the ground, it shows a red seed at the centre of the tree, and dark grey roots continue downwards. The roots have tiny red mouths with white fangs in them. There are two grey and red arrows that show that the roots are moving outwards underground. There is a grey sign which reads “All Welcome*”. The title of the poster reads “THE TAKING TREE: The Rise of Oppression in North America”. Text near the fruit read “FRUIT IS POISONOUS TO SOME, AND NUTRITIOUS TO OTHERS” and “FRUIT = UNEARNED SOCIAL DISADVANTAGES AND ADVANTAGES”. Near the trunk the text reads “TRUNK = INSTITUTIONS”. Near the seed text reads “SEED = EMPIRE”. To the right of the root network text reads “FANGS & MOVEMENT = CAPITALISM AND COLONIALISM”. To the left of the root network text reads “ROOTS = OPPRESSIVE “LOGIC” (SUPREMACY + VIOLENCE)”. At the bottom of the root network red text reads “THE TREE GROWS BY TAKING THE ESSENCE OUT OF OTHER “TREES”, I.E. CULTURES/NATIONS”. At the bottom of the poster, it reads “patreon.com/lukayo” and “lukayo.com“.

Link to The Taking Tree Prezi (2015 Version)

https://prezi.com/k_e7roi3wl-h/the-taking-tree/

Want to have access to the larger full colour updated 2018 poster, the original photograph of the hand-drawn 2016 poster, and other anti-oppression related teaching tools? Click on the link below and subscribe for as little as $3/month. By becoming a patron, you support healing work among my communities, and the indigenous Elders that mentor me.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/21521937

The Accomplices & Allies poster/handout is a beginner’s visual tool for sighted folks that cover the basic concepts about using one’s privilege in a relationship to support the other person or people that don’t have those privileges. This article will include a full description of the poster, important links on the concept of accomplices, and the photo of the original hand-drawn Allyship poster that I made.

Poster Description

Title: “Accomplices & Allies”

“WHAT IS BEING AN ACCOMPLICE? WHAT IS ALLYSHIP?
When you’re an accomplice, or building allyship, you’re in a relationship with another person, or a group of people. You earn and are given the role of accomplice or ally — it is not an identity you give yourself. That’s why sometimes the term “accomplice” is preferred instead of “ally” because of how people use “ally” as an identity and forget the relationship-building aspect. An accomplice also works to directly dismantle the systems that are oppressing people even when they benefit or are protected from them.”

“WHY DO IT?
To rectify a power imbalance, dismantle an oppressive system, and/or use one’s privileges (unearned social advantages) for those who don’t have them and are oppressed. This is different than an alliance, where it’s a relationship of mutual advantage among social equals.”

“IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES
Consent
Shared Values
Communication
Trust
Respect
Exchange of Care/Service/Direct Action”

“TIPS

#1: Check in & follow appropriate leadership. If it’s an organization, ensure you and the group have shared values. If you’re working with an individual, check if they want your help. If they do, ask how you can support them in their safety and goals. Check if they want you to speak beside them or for them. It’s not about you taking the spotlight, so be open to feedback.

#2: Don’t deny someone’s reality. Just because it’s an illness, gender, oppression, or something else you haven’t heard of, doesn’t mean it’s fake. Listen and learn before jumping to conclusions.

#3: Don’t assume you know by looking. You can’t tell someone’s race, gender, or disability by looking at them. Don’t assume everyone in the room is straight, cisgender, or non-disabled.

#4: Privacy and advice. Don’t ask people invasive questions about their bodies, where they’re from, have they tried this treatment, etc. If you’re not close, it’s not your business.

#5: Confidentiality. Don’t endanger people by outing their citizenship status, trans status, queer status, disability status, etc.

#6: Pronouns. Ask, don’t guess. Use appropriate pronouns even when talking about the past or future.

#7: Self Educate: Unlearn problematic stereotypes, language, and behaviour. It’s not the oppressed person’s job to teach you, though you can go to educational workshops and educational organizations led by oppressed people so you can learn.”

The poster is divided into six main sections. The top section is a header with the title in white font on a dark blue rectangle, with a pale blue divider. On the right of the poster underneath the header is a column with all the TIPS, the title being in purple while the text is in dark blue and lighter blue. On the left of the poster underneath the header is the introductory section explaining what an accomplice and allyship is, with the title also being in purple and the text in dark blue. Underneath that introductory section is an image. Underneath the image are two small columns. On the left is the WHY DO IT? column with the title in purple and the main text in dark blue. On the right is the IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES column, with the title in pale blue, and main text in white on a dark blue square speech bubble that is coming out from the word ally in the image.

The image is a cartoon. There is a dark grey cloud with blue rain drops coming out of it. The rain drops are hitting a purple umbrella being held by a pale smiling person with yellow hair and red lips, who is wearing a purple long-sleeved shirt. There is a dark-skinned person with a purple bow in their short black hair who is also under the umbrella, wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and looking scared. There is a purple rocket with orange flames hitting the cloud. The cloud is described as “OPPRESSION”. The umbrella is described as “PRIVILEGE”. The rocket is described as “ACCOMPLICE.” The pale person holding the umbrella is described as “ALLY”.

At the bottom of the poster in light blue are the following links: “patreon.com/lukayo” and “Lukayo.com“.

Important Links on Being an Accomplice

• Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing The Ally Industrial Complex, an Indigenous perspective and provocation
• Be accomplices, not allies by CODEPINK
• I Need An Accomplice, Not An Ally by Dr Jon Paul
• Opportunities for White People in the Fight for Racial Justice
• Ally or Accomplice? The Language of Activism by Colleen Clemens

Want to have access to the larger full colour updated poster, the original photograph of the hand-drawn poster, and other anti-oppression related teaching tools? Click on the link below and subscribe for as little as $3/month. By becoming a patron, you support healing work among my communities, and the indigenous Elders that mentor me.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/workshop-allies-21223071

[Image made using Canva. The poster is in colours of midnight-blue/indigo, mustard yellow, and lemon yellow. The top of the poster is yellow on blue, with the text “THE OPPRESSION TRIANGLE” and “Based off of Judith H. Katz’s framework in her book “White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-Racism Training” (1978)”. The middle part of the poster is blue on yellow. There is a large triangle facing downwards. On the top side of the triangle is the word “INSTITUTIONAL”. On the left side is “CULTURAL” and on the right side is “INDIVIDUAL”. In the centre of the triangle is the word “HISTORY”.  There is a faint yellow speech bubble with the words “CULTURE is shared belief and practices” on the left side. On the right side is a faint yellow speech bubble with the words “INSTITUTIONS govern your life and have their own spaces, terms, and policies”. At the bottom of the triangle is a faint yellow square introducing the next section in blue, with the title: “Forms of violence:”. Each form of violence is in a yellow rectangle with blue text on a blue background. The three forms of violence are “BULLYING = Individual level”, “DISCRIMINATION = Cultural & Individual levels”, and “OPPRESSION = Institutional, Cultural, Individual”. Below these rectangles are yellow text on blue: “We separate these different forms of violence by level because the RESPONSE to each level is different.” At the bottom of the poster are the links: “patreon.com/lukayo” and “Lukayo.com“.]

“The Oppression Triangle” is a visual tool that can be used for sighted folks in the form of a handout or a poster to explain what oppression is and why anti-oppression is a different form of response to violence compared to anti-bullying and anti-discrimination methods.

This Workshop Wednesday, we’re covering the following:

• the different sides of the triangle
• what each side of the triangle has to do with violence, and specifically the three forms of violence called bullying, discrimination, and oppression
• how someone can tell the difference between oppressive bullying and non-oppressive bullying, and oppressive discrimination and non-oppressive discrimination
• why we need to know the different levels of violence by describing the typical anti-violence responses to each
• group work activities
• the original photo of the poster

The Sides of the Oppression Triangle

The level of the individual has no explanation on the poster because it’s hoped that participants understand what individual interactions are, which are usually one-on-one in nature. Examples of this would be people having a conversation, or one person helping another person cross the street.

Given that I define “culture” has “shared beliefs and practices”, the cultural level is when a group of people with shared beliefs and practices interacts with another group of people that has a different set of shared beliefs and practices– or a group to an individual. Examples of this would be “alternative lifestyle” cultures like goth and punk, where members of this culture have a shared belief in the concept of “goth” or “punk” (though they can argue exactly what that concept is) and have common practices. Other examples can be a culture based on geography (like Haligonians who are born or reside long-term in Halifax) or based on ethno-religious grounds (like Jewish culture).

When you get to explaining Western institutions, you can either list the institutions first and ask what they have in common (and ask them not to look at the answer on the poster) or you can ask them to try to name institutions. Common ones are commerce/business/economic, government, military, legal, educational, medical, media, and certain religious institutions. I always add that not all religion is an institution, because not all religions govern your lives. Some religions can fall under culture instead, because it’s a shared belief and practice, but you can choose to opt out of it easier, unlike many of Western society’s institutions. I specify Western, but you can also say Westernized, as there is a possibility that other institutions outside of the West can work that way while others that are not Westernized do not work that way– for example there can be local tribal governments that only meet when needed and there is no permanent location for their meetings.

History is in the middle of the triangle because in order for something to be all three levels of power (individual, cultural, and institutional), it would have had to take time to get there, thus, there would be a long history of it existing.

Bullying, Discrimination, and Oppression

When I talk about violence, I mean all kinds of violence– physical, verbal, social exclusion, negative messaging in images and misrepresentation/lack of representation, emotional, spiritual, etc.

Bullying is largely regarded as a form of violence that is peer-to-peer and chronic, where a power imbalance between usually two people is created. Sometimes a power imbalance already exists and is used as a reason to bully. Generally regular bullying is on the individual level of violence.

Discrimination is usually defined as when a person or group of people is violent towards a group, or a person belonging to a group, based on their skin colour, gender, disability status, sexual orientation, or other physical or social aspects that they cannot control. Discrimination is on the individual and cultural levels of violence. Discrimination manifests on the individual level as discriminatory bullying, when someone is chronically targeted by a peer for belonging to a specific group based on an aspect of themselves they can’t control.

Oppression is institutional violence. This is when an institution, like, for example, the police, consistently targets groups of citizens because of an underlying logic that they are less than human, and so can be treated that way. Oppressive discrimination can manifest in the police force by masculine officers having a separate lounge that does not allow feminine officers (cultural level). Oppressive bullying can manifest in the police force by a cisgender police officer chronically harassing a transgender police officer (individual level). For a specific violent logic to get to the institutional level, there would already be a long history.

Non-Oppressive Bullying and Non-Oppressive Discrimination

Folks usually get stuck in trying to figure out what bullying looks like if it’s not discriminatory or oppressive, or what discrimination looks like if it’s not oppressive.

If we consider bullying as peer-to-peer and chronic, but take away the existing power imbalances of institutions, or cultural groups, or aspects of oneself that you can’t control, then we have bullying that creates a power imbalance. These power imbalances can be based on what sports team people like, or whether they like Stars Wars versus Star Trek. People can choose whatever they want to be violent towards you on a regular basis, but it’s not discrimination or oppression without that cultural or institutional level of power.

If we consider discrimination that is executed without the historical support of institutions, then we are looking at violence towards people solely based on aspects of themselves that they cannot control. In this regard, it is possible to racially discriminate against folks with pale skin or are considered white, as well it is possible for a group of women to discriminate against men.

Anti-Bullying, Anti-Discrimination, and Anti-Oppression

So why should we make all these distinctions that just seem super nit-picky? Well, for one, it helps to lay them out for folks who believe reverse-racism or reverse-sexism is a thing– it’s not. Let’s break this down in the anti-violence responses.

When regular bullying happens in a school yard or at an office or in a neighbourhood, what would be the courses of action? To stop the violence, usually we’d go to an institutional authority figure– a teacher in the school, the human resources department at work, or the police officer from the nearest precinct. Anti-bullying measures are then put in place by the institution.

When discrimination happens in those same settings from our peers, we can go to those same authority figures. If they don’t do anything, we can go to legal institutions, such as the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal if the discrimination happened in the province of Ontario. Anti-discrimination punishments are then put in place by the institutions.

But when bullying and discrimination are oppressive, appealing to these institutions don’t workbecause it’s these very institutions that have the history and current practice of bullying and discriminating against the group that’s being targeted. That’s why common forms of anti-oppression involve collective organizing among oppressed groups and their allies to give alternate services that these institutions should be providing to the oppressed, protecting the oppressed from these violent institutions, and/or exposing and opposing the violence in these institutions through direct action.

Let’s return to the dilemma of reverse-racism and reverse-sexism. When people get into arguments about this, what’s actually happening is one person is trying to talk about racial and sexist oppression via institutions while the other person is talking about racial and sexist discrimination from groups. If it’s an honest misunderstanding, maybe going through The Oppression Triangle infographic might help them out. However, sometimes these arguments are rooted in the emotionally-based belief that institutions can do no wrong or that these institutions can’t possibly influence people on a social and individual level, which, at best, makes the oppressed sound like they are complaining for no reason, and, at worst, makes the oppressed look like terrorists that are exposing and opposing benevolent social mechanisms. In that case, I would suggest folks conserve their energies for those who truly want to learn once they realize a person refuses to look deeper into history and how institutions are operating in the present day.

Group Work Activities

Yikes! This was super long-winded. How are you going to get folks to even stay awake through all these definitions? Here’s some ways to do so by group work activities! Pro-tip: Give space to have groups present via music, dance, art, and theatre, not just by talking!

Want to have access to the rest of the article, the larger full colour updated poster, the original photograph of the hand-drawn poster, and other anti-oppression related teaching tools? Click on the link below and subscribe for as little as $2/month. By becoming a patron, you support healing work among my communities, and the indigenous Elders that mentor me.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/21075614