Welcome Home: Conversations with Mainers on the Way Life Could Be Marpheen Chann & Liz Greason

Liz and Marpheen come back from a hiatus to talk with James E. Ford. Mr. Ford embodies a number of roles and identities: He is a Black man of African descent, who is tracing his lineage to the middle passage, and who owns land in Georgia on which his ancestors were slaves. He is an educator and facilitator, having been recently appointed by Governor Janet Mills to the Maine State Board of Education.  He is currently working on a number of equity and justice related projects as an employee of Lewiston Public Schools. We are so excited to introduce you to our friend, James!

DEFINITIONS:

Culturally Responsive Teaching is defined by Geneva Gay as "using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them."

RESOURCES:

New America: Understanding Culturally Responsive Teaching

Edutopia: Getting Started With Culturally Responsive Teaching

Portland Empowered
Culturally Responsive Teaching: A 50-State Survey of Teaching Standards

In a special episode for AAPI Heritage Month (May), hosts Marpheen Chann and Liz Greason talk with Ophelia Hu Kinney, a queer United Methodist lay leader serving as worship coordinator at HopeGateWay in Portland, Maine, and the Communications Specialist at the international organization, Reconciling Ministries Network. She’s a tireless advocate of LGBTQ+ folks and those in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, who infuses this lens of equity and mindset of curiosity in pretty much everything she does. 

DEFINITIONS:

Queer: “Queer is often used as an umbrella term referring to anyone who is not straight and not cisgender. Cisgender people are people whose gender identity and expression matches the sex they were assigned at birth. Historically the term queer was used as a slur against LGBTQ+ people, but in recent years it has been reclaimed by LGBTQ+ communities. However, some LGBTQ+ people still find the term offensive. Queer is also often used as a broad rejection of labels. In this context, this could be a rejection of any type of label, but most often refers to a rejection of labels for gender and sexual orientation.” https://outrightinternational.org/content/acronyms-explained

Asian American, AAPI: “When the phrase Asian American was created — in 1968, according to activists and academics — it was a radical label of self-determination that indicated a political agenda of equality, anti-racism and anti-imperialism. Asian American was an identity that was chosen, not one that was given.”

“Activists and academics trace the origins of the term back to 1968 and University of California, Berkeley students Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee, who, inspired by the Black Power Movement and the protests against the Vietnam War, founded the Asian American Political Alliance as way to unite Japanese, Chinese and Filipino American students on campus.”

“The term Asian American [...] signaled a shared and interconnected history of immigration, labor exploitation and racism, as well as a common political agenda. It was also a pushback against the pejorative word "Oriental."”  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/after-50-years-asian-american-advocates-say-term-more-essential-n875601

But, there are also limitations…


What is Asia? (the Middle East? Russia? South and Southeast Asia?)

Is it conflating or accounting for various types of difference (cultural, linguistic)?

Uniquely American construction of race, which conflates/sees Asians as a monolith; doesn’t actually make sense to people outside the US



RESOURCES:

“Racism doesn’t distinguish.” Yến Lê Espiritu, author of Asian American Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions and Identities.
“The Making of Asian America” by  Erika Lee

“Paying rent to the land that you live on” by finding an indigenous led organization that serves the area in which you live and making a monthly donation them

https://www.mainewabanakireach.org/

http://www.wabanakihw.org/about-us/

http://gedakina.org/



The five Wabanaki Tribes of Maine:

Aroostook Band of Micmacs
 http://micmac-nsn.gov/

Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians
 https://maliseets.net/

Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township – Motahkomikuk https://www.passamaquoddy.com/

Passamaquoddy Tribe of Pleasant Point – Sipayik http://www.wabanaki.com/

Penobscot Indian Nation https://www.penobscotnation.org/

Hosts Marpheen Chann and Liz Greason interview Lelia DeAndrade, Vice-President of Community Impact at the Maine Community Foundation and co-chair of Portland, Maine's, Racial Equity Steering Committee, about her work in Maine's nonprofit and philanthropy sector and involvement and the challenges and issues that come up when advancing racial equity in a state like Maine. 

RESOURCES:

Ajambo Africa

Maine Community Foundation BIPOC and ECBO grantees

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

NonprofitAF: It’s time we fundraise in a way that doesn’t uphold white moderation and white supremacy 

In this episode, Marpheen and Liz sit down with Daniel and Marcia Minter of Indigo Arts Alliance to get their perspectives on diversity, inclusion, equity and navigating difference in the art world and beyond. 

TERMS:


Colonization: "Settler colonialism is said to be a structure, not an historic event, whose endgame is always the elimination of the Natives in order to acquire their land, which it does in countless seen and unseen ways. These techniques are woven throughout the US’s national discourse at all levels of society. Manifest Destiny—that is, the US’s divinely sanctioned inevitability—is like a computer program always operating unnoticeably in the background. In this program, genocide and land dispossession are continually both justified and denied." (Dina Gilio-Whitaker)
Unconscious and Conscious Bias: "The automatic or neurobiological processes underlying unconscious stereotyping and prejudice guiding the perception and attitude towards social groups." (Mindbridge)

CALL TO ACTION:

Donate to support Indigo Arts Alliance: https://indigoartsalliance.me/donate/

Support Black-Owned Businesses: https://www.blackownedmaine.com/

In this episode, Marpheen Chann and Liz Greason introduce you to the Welcome Home: A Conversation With Mainers On The Way Life Could Be Podcast. The show will focus on topics like diversity, inclusion, equity, and navigating cultural differences and will feature guests who are working on the frontlines and doing amazing work in this field. 

Know of someone who you think would be a great guest on the podcast? Fill out this form: https://forms.gle/hwgAbzf1DGBcyH6d9