Gender and Gender Identity – WHITE NOISE COLLECTIVE

our writing on this theme

A Letter to White People Using the Term “Two Spirit”

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity, Labor and Work, Reflection

A Letter to White People Using the Term “Two Spirit”

Thank you for taking the time to read this. This letter was written by white allies in support of certain Native members of our community who have already put a lot of time and energy into trying to explain why it’s a problem when people without Native/First Nations heritage use the term “Two Spirit” to describe themselves. We know that you care deeply about this issue because you are still reading this letter. This means you have not yet closed your mind to what we are saying. Let us begin by acknowledging that we live […]

Narratives of White Women Used to Uphold Racism and Patriarchy: A Partial Timeline

"White Womanhood", Gender Identity, Militarism and Imperialism, Patriarchal Violence, Privilege Systems, Reflection, Saviorism, State Violence

Narratives of White Women Used to Uphold Racism and Patriarchy: A Partial Timeline

This is a timeline we use in White Noise workshops to help make visible dominant representations of white women that have historically served to reinforce, normalize and naturalize forms of racist violence and patriarchal oppression. How do these narratives of white female sexuality and identity (re)appear in the present? How do they continue to live in our imaginations, bodies, dreams, media, collective consciousness, politics? By no means attempting to be some kind of comprehensive history, but rather pulling out some key threads in the unweaving of structures of domination. Here we go: Captivity narratives, stories […]

Themes to Comment On!

Here are the themes that the folks who came to our last dialogue said that they want to explore in future dialogues. Through the help of Beja, they miraculously transformed from notes on poster paper into typed clusters in this blog for people to comment on to collectively figure out what to talk about next (April 12). Let’s see if this works. They are numbered and named for ease of commenting: Here’s a suggested process: 1. Read them over 2. Pick a cluster or a topic within a cluster that you think would be a […]

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

They’re ba-ack! (shudder) With Halloween quickly approaching, and costume shops like Spirit Halloween opening their doors, many of us are cringing at the thought of another Halloween full of racism, sexism, heterosexism and the full range of offensive apparel we annually witness. In response, we offer up a toolkit to those who wish to be a part of resisting the dominant paradigms that plague this season. Let’s make this be a season to reclaim and expand our expressive imaginations from being steered into narrow, tired, offensive and uncreative marketing channels. Not sure what exactly is so offensive about […]

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Costume Mirrors: Halloween and beyond

Gender Identity, Hate Groups, Problematic Holidays

Costume Mirrors: Halloween and beyond

Halloween continues to haunt, as this recently circulated photo of a “Mexican-themed” Penn State sorority party made national headlines, sparking familiar outrage, calls for the university to take action, and a student group march. While stereotypical representations occur throughout the year, on Halloween these masks, not of ghosts and monsters, but of people and cultures, rear with a truly scary mass acceptability. Cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall reminds us that stereotypes are part of the maintenance of the social and symbolic order – they tend to occur where there are gross inequalities of power, and […]

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity, Patriarchal Violence, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

On Rachel Dolezal, White Privilege, and White Shame

Gender Identity, Labor and Work, Privilege Systems, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

On Rachel Dolezal, White Privilege, and White Shame

Rachel Dolezal Isn’t the Most Important Race Story in Spokane. But she does seem to be an unraveling puzzle that continues to elicit curiosity, outrage, and comment. From Mia McKenzie’s discussion of Blackness and Blackface, to Kai M Green’s willingness to give Rachel a little more benefit of the doubt in discussing the similarities of race and gender constructs, to Lisa Marie Rollins’ explanation of what transracial actually means, plenty has been said already. It is a story with endless complexity. While I find all of this interesting, what interests me specifically about this situation is […]

On “Sh*t White Girls Say…” : Making Microaggressions Conscious

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity

On “Sh*t White Girls Say…” : Making Microaggressions Conscious

A Youtube tsunami of sh*t all kinds of people say (and birds and wookies and beyond) has been flooding the internet. Ranging from hilarious, brilliant and edgy to somewhat tired at this point, this formula has been a tremendously generative capsule to fill and spread, making us crack up by hearing things we’ve heard so many times with new ears, giving the familiar an anthropological twist. One version of this creative phenomenon, “Sh*t _____ says to…_____” has also taken on a digital wildfire life of its own, sparked by graphic designer, video blogger and hair […]

Words on the Wall from WPC Workshops

It was a joy and honor to share two White Noise Collective workshops at the 13th Annual White Privilege Conference in Albuquerque. This year’s overall theme was “Intersectionality”. Both times we had a full room of wonderfully engaged participants, intergenerational perspectives, fascinating insights and Theater of the Oppressed explorations. As people entered the room, we asked them to write a word or phrase in response to nine questions that were up on the walls on large sheets of paper, to get us collectively thinking about some of the dynamics, tensions, stereotypes and possibilities of this […]

Taking up space (or: the things we learn on BART)

"White Womanhood", Gender Identity, Patriarchal Violence, Reflection

Taking up space (or: the things we learn on BART)

They say every moment is a learning opportunity. But I hate when those moments happen when I’m half awake and grumpy. Last week, I was taking my bike onto BART for my ever-so-wonderful and all-to-early morning commute from West Oakland to San Francisco. Though I am one of those pesky bikers that often sneak onto trains just a few minutes before I’m allowed to in order to get to my morning meeting at work on time, on this particular morning I was actually on BART at a legally-allowed time. So, onto BART I go, through […]

Strategies to Engage White People Around (Im)migrant Justice

Anti-racism Practice, Gender Identity, Labor and Work, Monthly Dialogues, Reflection

Strategies to Engage White People Around (Im)migrant Justice

In our June dialogue, we convened white female and gender minority racial justice activists to examine personal and political histories of immigration to this country, and to generate steps for action, engagement and dialogue with other white people towards contributing to the inspiring momentum of the immigrant justice movement. It was fantastic for the White Noise Collective to be joined by special guest, organizer and facilitator extraordinaire Dara Silverman of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), who led us through a three-part process of familial exploration on a timeline of US history, expression of values […]

White Noise Collective Is Sunsetting After 12 Years of Love & Praxis

"White Womanhood", Allyship and Solidarity, Anti-racism Practice, Gender Identity, Monthly Dialogues, Reflection

White Noise Collective Is Sunsetting After 12 Years of Love & Praxis

To our friends, comrades and community, We miss you! And, we have major news to share: after a long, rocky period of deliberation, our core has made the difficult decision to sunset our organization. Ultimately we have determined that we do not have capacity to move forward together in the form of White Noise Collective. We trust that this vehicle of White Noise over the past twelve years has been a part of the collective work to break the spells of white supremacist cisheteropatriarchy. As we reflect on this formal ending, we acknowledge that it, […]

Ritual technology for a liberated future

Gender Identity, Reflection, Therapy, Healing, and Whiteness

Ritual technology for a liberated future

Written by White Noise Collective core member Jay Tzvia Helfand, for the recently published anthology There is Nothing So Whole As A Broken Heart: Mending the World As Jewish Anarchists, edited by Cindy Milstein. Through stories at once poetic and poignant, There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart offers a powerful elixir for all who rebel against systemic violence and injustice. The contemporary renewal of Jewish anarchism draws on a history of suffering, ranging from enslavement and displacement to white nationalism and genocide. Yet it also pulls from ancestral resistance, strength, imagination, and humor—all qualities, […]

Racial and Gender Justice Halloween Action Toolkit!

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity, Patriarchal Violence, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Racial and Gender Justice Halloween Action Toolkit!

Ah the beginning of fall. The air is a little colder, the colors a little more orange, and there is no shortage of pumpkin flavored products. Yet there is one sign of the turning seasons that is truly unwelcome…racist, sexist, heterosexist, and colonialist costumes — already in full force in stores around the country. Enter into any Spirit Halloween store and you will find the full gamut of costumes perpetuating cultural appropriation, racist stereotypes, Indigenous erasure and hetero-misogyny. At a time when Black Lives Matter has become a resounding movement pressing for the safety, humanity […]

2016 Behind, 2017 Ahead

As part of our annual end-of-year tradition, the White Noise Collective core met in early December to reflect on 2016 — our accomplishments, failures, and growth as a collective — in order to compost old projects and germinate new ones for the year to come. Chapters – White Noise Collective is National! One of our greatest accomplishments in 2016 was the growth and flourishing of our national chapters in Rhode Island (facebook) and New York. In late fall we hosted our first ever national virtual gathering, and had an opportunity for a rich deep dive exploring some of […]

dialogue notes on this topic

Though many of the themes from the monthly dialogues are represented in our blog posts, those posts rarely include all of what was discussed. Find the notes here from each dialogue raw and uncut. We share them (with names omitted) in an effort to be accountable and transparent to our larger community, accessible for those who are not able to attend, and saved as archive to return to and draw from.

August 2019: The Use and Misuse of Identity Politics

Description: In this time of blatant white supremacy, leftist social movements feel under-resourced, fractured, and on the defensive. While identity politics and identity based organizing have been critical to winning material gains for specific groups since the Civil Rights era, is it time to think beyond identity politics in our organizing and movement spaces? What does (and has) identity politics offer(ed) our social justice movements more broadly, and specifically here in political climate of the Bay Area? In what ways do our identities inform our political engagements, and how have identity politics stifled or ignited […]

January 2012: Motherhood, Parenting and “White Moms”

Dialogue Description: Relationships with white moms, parenting identities, social scripts and subversion. Dialogue Notes: These are rough, uncut, unfiltered, and anonymous notes taken at the dialogue. We get that these may not be very readable to those who were not in attendance at the dialogue, and, honestly, sometimes even to those of us who were. We still feel it is important to keep them available as part of our accountability process and for archiving and reference purposes. Some of these notes have been digested/transformed into blogs. Big list of questions/topics of interest: White offspring: Can […]

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our writing on this theme

dialogue notes on this topic