Undoing the ISMs

The systems of oppression in this country are interconnected and reinforce each other based on ideologies of supremacy. There is no way to address sexism and male supremacy and not recognize the impact of patriarchy on racism, classism, heterosexism and all the other Isms. For example, one cannot understand men’s violence against women without engaging the inequality of law enforcement response to BIPOC and working-class communities. Articles in this section are our attempts to tease out the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that these oppressions parallel each other, reinforce each others, and differ from each other.

Confronting My Homophobia at a Gay Pride Parade: Notes from a Straight Ally

Robert Brannon Sunday in New York City:  a beautiful, sunny day for the annual Gay Pride March.   Thousands of men and women are assembling in mid-Manhattan for the march through the center of the city.   I’ll be march­ing with a group from NOMAS:  Michael Kimmel,  Jim Harrison, Karl White and Ron Smith (who led the […]

“Teach us to Sit Still”: Coming Home after the Undoing Racism Workshop

by Phyllis B. Frank and Gail Golden “Teach us to Sit Still”: * Coming Home after the Undoing Racism Workshop** by Phyllis B. Frank and Gail Golden Many of us fortunate enough to take the Undoing Racism Workshop have described it as a transformative, life changing experience. For many participants, it gave us the first […]

Beyond Guilt: How to Deal with Societal Racism

By Lauren Nile and Jack Straton Racism manifests in a number of ways, including internalized, personal, institutional, and societal. This article addresses the specific form of racism that we refer to as “societal,” and provides a method of responding to the guilt-based reactions of many European Americans to the subject of racism.   Download: Guilt […]

Anti-Semitism and Heterosexism: Common Constructs of Oppression

Moshe Rozdzial, PhD All oppressions have common roots. Born out of misinformation and directed toward the “other,” the goal of any oppression is the unjust, destructive, and unequal distribution of power to the advantage of one group over another. And although there is no specific hierarchy of oppressions, the context in which they manifest themselves […]

Martin Luther King, Non-violence, and the Anti-Sexist Men’s Movement

By Robert Brannon It is important to look back and remember the ideological history of today’s anti-sexist men’s movement.   Not so much the dates and details, but the sources of our ideals and ideas, and the movements and events that influenced our evolving ideology and strategies. The modern roots of our movement, more than anywhere […]

White-Bashing? Teaching “Hot-Button” Issues via Indirection

BY JACK C. STRATON Revised 2009 from the version that appeared in Democracy & Education, Fall 2000, pp. 69-72. The biggest barriers to learning about racism, sexism, and the other oppressions, are the non-rational aversive reactions most of us have to the material and to the learning process. Download: white_bashing

Racial Intervention Story Exchange (RISE)

I have recently developed a Web Repository – The Racial Intervention Story Exchange – where students, teachers, employees, managers, and other concerned people can exchange stories of the ways in which they have intervened across racial lines. When European Americans consider racism in the US, they often think of the KKK and skinheads, but what […]

Racism in America: The Trayvon Martin Case (Position Statement)

A NOMAS Position Statement The National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) is outraged by the tragic homicide of Trayvon Martin and subsequent failure of criminal justice officials to charge the man who admits to killing Martin, George Zimmerman.  This is an injustice to Martin and his family, and epitomizes the racial injustice that continues […]

The Developmental Experience of Gay/Lesbian Youth

Don Johnson, PhD I propose that everyone in our society is homophobic. In addition, it is my strong belief that gay and lesbian individuals, prior to coming out, are among the most homophobic people in our society. Most of us do not think of ourselves as homophobic, however, and many people will disagree with this […]

Abortion: The Ultimate Insult to Male Authority

by Joyce Arthur (choice joyce) Reprinted with permission from the author (originally published on the Blogger’s Paradise on Daily Kos) The biggest difference by far between men and women, the only one that’s really important – is that women can bear children and men cannot. I believe that difference, in one way or another, directly […]