We live in a system that has both crude and refined tools and methods for silencing people. To be intentional about being in community is to want to listen, to overcome those tendencies that silence where there should be expression. It means we have to create the space where people feel safe, feel loved and feel needed. Then we may all reconnect with our own voices, speak our own truth.
Oppressive attitudes, oppressive words, oppressive gestures and oppressive structures interfere with this. Therefore it is essential that the community commit to revealing and challenging oppression in all it's forms of racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, ageism and ableism. This may happen by confronting stereotyping, by critiquing our language, our games, our modes of interaction, our social roles. The community will have to be continuosly open to self-reflection, be open to analysis of the patterns that develop to ensure they don't serve to exclude anyone or make them feel anything less than equal participants.
Anti-oppression is a creative task, not simply destroying old patterns of behaviour and language, but using everyone's input to grow and build more inclusive patterns, new (or old) ways of communicating that don't rely on such sticky labels, more open and flexible self-conceptions, etc. We can create the necessary change in ourselves, and in turn carry that change with us to facilitate change beyond, in community, in city, in society, in country, in classroom, in street.
An important task for the participants of the Ripple Project will be to spend time looking at the issue of oppression so that common ground is found upon which to challenge oppression, so there is a common understanding of how this issue fits the immediate context. In the few days when the group gathers, it will be valuable to develop guiding principles to enable a continuous process of anti-oppressive work.
