“I was in the Young Lords, and one of the points in the original program was ‘Revolutionary Machismo’. Machismo is reactionary, so you can’t have revolutionary machismo. We women weren’t having it. So we made a very different kind of statement. ‘We want equality for women. Down with machismo and male chauvinism.’”
Denise Oliver-Velez, born on this day in 1947, is a former member of both the Young Lords and Black Panthers, as well as an American professor, activist, and community organizer. Oliver-Velez is an adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies at State University of New York (SUNY) New Paltz.
Oliver-Velez was a member of both the Young Lords and the Black Panther Party (BPP), and fought to make the Young Lords a less chauvinistic and more feminist organization. In 1970 Oliver-Velez was appointed as Minister of Economic Development, becoming the highest ranking woman in the Young Lords.
In addition to her activism with the Young Lords, Oliver-Velez was also an AIDS movement activist, publishing ethnographic research as part of HIV/AIDS intervention projects. She has also worked in public broadcasting and community media for many years, becoming a program director and co-founder of WPFW-FM in Washington, D.C., Pacifica Radio's first minority-controlled station.
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- ❤️ Come listen to music with your fellow Hexbears in Cy.tube
- 💖 Come talk in the New weekly queer thread
- 🧡 Monthly Neurodiverse Megathread
- 💛 Read about a current topic in the news
- ⭐️ May Movie Schedule ⭐️
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes struggle sessions over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can go here nerd
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
- 💙Comprehensive list of resources for those in need of an abortion -- reddit link
- 💙Resources for Palestine
Theory:
I’ve had bullshit jobs for years and reading David Graeber’s book about the topic was like a balm for my rugburned soul
I’m always waiting for one of my coworkers to snap and be like “none of us do any actual work!!! why are we being so hard on each other!”
Thankfully I now only have like one coworker in my department with the self-importance brainworms (she's also the oldest person here and it's probably that boomer-related), and a few randos from other departments who are the same. At my previous workplace, it was like 50% of regular staff and 98% of people in supervisor or higher positions.
I think covid made a lot of people realize that their jobs or even entire industries are really not that important in the grand scheme of things. My industry could disappear tomorrow and everyone would get along just fine. Life is far too short to take your bullshit job so seriously.