CHICANO 188 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Movement Theory, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Critical Race Theory
22 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Theories of Resistance
Action without reflection is just action
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Review
What is Chicanx studies?
Professor uses Chicana/o Studies as opposed to Chicanx because it is
aligned with the time period we are learning about
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Remembering who we are at all intersections
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Omissions
Women
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Queer/LGBTQ+
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Teach history and accomplishments
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Teaches theories to apply in communities and give back knowledge
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History and culture of the community in the U.S.
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Activism
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Interdisciplinary
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Identity - what it means to be Chicanx (politics)
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Infrapolitics
Things that should be in the history books but don’t make it
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Reveals power and structures of power
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omissions
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Politicized
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An analysis of power and structure
Uncover and reveal how power functions and how research
upholds power
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Stereotypes
What's the value?;
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What are you going to do with that?
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Reimagines academia/knowledge
Expands and redefines academia/knowledge
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Origins of Social Movement Theory
Resistance is something that happened before social movement theory was
coined
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The first time that resistance happened against Europeans was at the
moment of contact
Hospitality as a way of resistance
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McCarthy and Zald (1973, 1977), Gamson (1968, 1975), Oberschall
(1973), and Tilly (1978)
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Sociological journals
American Sociological Review
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American Journal of Sociology
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Social Forces
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Early works
"Expanding political opportunity structures"
Being given the opportunity to resist
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Redefining SMT
Some movements develop (and succeed) when "windows of opportunity"
are closed. (Zepeda-Millan, 2017, p. 7)
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2006
Political door was closed for immigration rights
Republican president1.
Republican majority congress2.
HT 44373.
NO WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY FOR IMMIGRATION
RIGHTS
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HR 4437 tossed out due to social movement (mega marches)
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Peak activism time - Between March and May (has to do with the
weather - spring)
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What is a social movement?
Large groupings of people, sometimes informal
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Kitchen table organizing
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Various strategies used, organizing
Structure to the informality
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Who and why do people get involved?
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Demand: social change, challenge to power holders
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Piolin por la Manana
Visibility to the walkouts
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Gloria Estefan
Brought more attention
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Don’t have to be oppressed to join a social movement
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Often, social movements are reformist - keep the structures in place, just
change them to provide more opportunities for marginalized folks
(connected with the democratic and political process within institutions
Is demanding a Chicanx studies department reformist?
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Creating change and movement within existing institutions
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Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto
Only way to throw out capitalism is through revolution
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Results:
Political, economic, social, cultural changes
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Organizations, departments, and institutions
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On resistance…
We need to understand Chicanx resistance within the context of their
oppression …in this frame, resistance and non-resistance is
understandable (Hurtado, 1996).
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Resistance can be organized and "may consist of small, everyday actions,
seeming insignificant that can nevertheless validate the actor's sense of
dignity and worth" (Caldwell, 1995)
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"By learning your language, I have learned to curse you with it"
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"Micro-resistance" - We need to look into the historical past, archives and
memory, to document them (Robin D. G. Kelley, Race Rebels, 1996)
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Critical Race Theory
Theoretical Lens
The way that you look at an issue
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Explanatory framework
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Coined by Kimberle Crenshaw
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Work toward identifying and challenging racism and other forms of
subordination
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MAYO
Mexican American Youth Organization
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Eventually became MEChA
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How can SMT and TR be used to explain Chicanx student activism?
Week 2 Readings
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Week$2$
Monday,(April(9,(2018
10:02(AM
