[Events] Empowermentors Collective for WOC and QPOC in free software and free culture

[Kẏra]

The new Empowermentors Collective: "We recognize the need to address
deep-seated cultural norms […] which, under the guise of openness, have
excused and perpetuated alienating behavior. […] We cannot afford to be an
inward-facing movement."

If you are an ally and want to help with this, it would be great for you
to reach out to more WOC and QPOC in free software and free culture to
join the group! Please forward widely

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/announcing-the-empowermentors-collective-a-group-for-women-of-color-and-queer-people-of-color


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Students for Free Culture <webleader+rss-bot at freeculture.org>
Date: Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 11:15 AM
Subject: [FC-discuss] Announcing the Empowermentors Collective: a group
for women of color and queer people of color
To: discuss at freeculture.org


_This has been cross-posted at the Free Software Foundation blog
[here][1]._

The [Empowermentors Collective][2] is a new space by and for women of
color and queer people of color within free software and free culture.

We recognize the need to address deep-seated cultural norms within the
free software and free culture communities which, under the guise of
openness, have excused and perpetuated alienating behavior. It is
imperative that we acknowledge that there are systemic structures of
control embedded in our society which permeate our movement. Refusing to
do so in an effort to compartmentalize and focus on our own goals is
detrimental to our success. We cannot afford to be an inward-facing
movement.

To expose and undo this culture of exclusion, we would like to support
the recently established Empowermentors Collective, a community for
intersectionally marginalized identities. This type of intentional space
also opens up the potential for much needed coalition building and
advances our own understanding of how technology and media are
inseparable from our experiences and ourselves, our bodies.

As [the description][3] reads:

> The Empowermentors Collective is a skillshare, activism, and
discussion network by and for women of color and queer people of color.
We are a group of community members with a strong commitment to
furthering free software and free culture through an intersectionally
marginalized lens and making a more welcoming space out of these
communities. We therefore necessarily also work against and do not
tolerate oppression in all its forms: ableism, racism, cissexism,
heterosexism, sexism, classism, etc.

>

> The Empowermentors Collective strives to be an affirming and safer
space for people with disabilities, people of color, women, and people
self-identified as queer or LGBT.

>

> We are called Empowermentors because we focus on education and
encourage participants to host workshops and skillshares geared towards
intersectionally marginalized identities.

>

>   * We maintain a safer space for marginalized identity groups.

>   * We address issues of oppression within the free software and free
culture communities.

>   * We equip each other with skills and knowledge of free software and
free culture.

>   * We file, catalog, and help solve bugs related to race, gender, and
accessibility in free software projects.

>   * We take on mentorship positions and run targeted workshops,
classes, and skillshares.

Students for Free Culture and the Free Software Foundation are proud to
support this effort to identify, expose, and confront crucial issues
within our communities; to bridge our movement with our contemporaries
in the critical intersectional analysis of oppression, hierarchy, and
domination; and to develop our own philosophy at the cutting-edge of
feminist, queer, critical race, and cyborg theory.

If you are a woman of color or queer person of color in the free
software or free culture community and are interested in being a part of
the Empowermentors Collective, please [join the mailing list][4] and the
#empowermentors IRC channel on freenode. If you are an ally to these
issues, please help spread the word!

   [1]: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/announcing-the-
empowermentors-collective-a-group-for-women-of-color-and-queer-people-
of-color

   [2]: http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Empowermentors

   [3]: http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Empowermentors#About_us

   [4]: http://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/empowermentors

URL:
http://freeculture.org/blog/2013/01/31/announcing-the-empowermentors-collective-a-group-for-women-of-color-and-queer-people-of-color/
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Board of Directors, Students for Free Culture: www.freeculture.org

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