About
Yvonne lives in Berkeley, California with her partner and their four-legged family. During the day, she works at a racial justice think tank, crunching numbers to eradicate white supremacy. At night and sometimes weekends, she sits at her computer, trying to make sense of the world.
These are the fruits of her attempts. Apologies in advance if they are sometimes sour, not always sweet, unripe or not fully ready to launch. Yvonne is working on her craft of writing and playing with using all five senses.
Yvonne tweets, shares what she reads, makes friends, takes pictures, and watches video. Occasionally, she chats and talks on the phone. She loves hearing from you at yvonnegrapher at gmail dot com.
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Author Archives: yvonnegrapher
Ethnic Studies Beyond the Academy
First published on apaforprogress.org.
Forty years ago, the students of SF State joined in solidarity with the Third World in demanding inclusion in institutions of knowledge. For too long, the histories of people of color have been deliberately omitted from official narratives. Stories transmitted through oral tradition within families but never recorded in the texts that [...]
Posted in multitudes, race Tagged bay area, national question, obama, race, strategic essentialism Leave a comment
Communities of Possibilities
This was first published on RaceWire.
The concept of community is an ever-shifting one.
It first becomes applied to movements for social change after World War II, when a dissatisfied social worker Saul Alinksy shifted his efforts into organizing urban communities, based on geographic proximity. He was the first recognizable community organizer that developed a model beyond [...]
Posted in gender, labor, multitudes, race Tagged capital crisis, geography, geopolitics, national question, neoliberal, obama, race, space and place, strategic essentialism, white supremacy Leave a comment
A Tale of Race and Recovery
via RaceWire
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.*
The Obama administration enacted the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) back in February, the largest boon to public spending and [...]
Posted in capital, gender, labor, race, realpolitik, the state Tagged apartheid, capital crisis, neoliberal, new deal, obama, race, safety net, strategic essentialism, subprime, white supremacy Leave a comment
Billionaires for Wealthcare
Billionaires for Wealthcare toasted the rightwing demonstrators that gathered in DC this past weekend to protest healthcare reform, legislation to stave off climate change, and all attempts to provide a safety net for working families and folks of color.
They describe themselves as “a grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, industry lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others [...]
Posted in capital, race, realpolitik, the state Tagged immigrants, neocon, new deal, safety net, white supremacy Leave a comment
The Cruxifiction of Van Jones
Philly artist Jasiri X made a music video linking the attack on Van Jones to how black and brown men are systemically discredited, especially when they are speaking truth to power and shaking up the status quo.
via Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner
Posted in race Tagged bay area, music, obama, race, strategic essentialism, white supremacy Leave a comment
Green Jobs for Navajo Youth
Nikke Alex, the youth organizer for the Navajo Green Jobs and the Black Mesa Water Coalition, talked with us for a few minutes while she was at the Navajo Nation Council Chamber in Window Rock, Arizona, celebrating the historic passage of the first green jobs legislation in American Indian country.
The green jobs act establishes a [...]
Reading Harry Potter Critically
Here’s my review of Harry Potter that I promised Channing for RaceWire’s round-up of the new movie…
Across cultures, fairy tales and myths are used to teach children the normative values of a society. Stories follow a similar template: the main character is a child that listeners can identify with. There are fantastical creatures, some good, [...]
Racializing Uighurs: The Story of Internal Colonialism in China
China extends 3,400 miles from the west to the east and falls into five different time zones. Yet, the country operates on a single standard of time, eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, all year round based on the time zone for Beijing, the country’s capital.
A single Chinese time zone is as much [...]
Posted in multitudes, race, the state Tagged china, han, national question, race, social darwinism, stalinism, strategic essentialism Leave a comment
Black Kids on Bikes
Once a month, a movement courses through the streets of Los Angeles. Moving together, in solidarity, Black cyclists are spurred forward by the revolutions of their wheels. Each individual coming together to join the flood that takes over the streets. Their momentum stirs the air, setting in motion a gale that blows clear across the [...]
Posted in multitudes, observed, race, subbaculture, urban studies Tagged race, space and place, strategic essentialism Leave a comment
Coal Mining Curbed on the Black Mesa, Paving Way for Navajo Green Economy