Aaron Hood

Self-proclaimed nerd in the following areas: music, technology (specializing in Apple products), social justice, movies, books. iPhone photography and interesting things I find on the internet will present themselves here. Some of the places that I live online: aaronhood.net and Twitter

[aaronhood]

Day 1 in Trump's America is why we need to organize

Day 1 in Trump's America is why we need to resist

People of color and women have been the target of harassment and covert bigotry since the announcement of Trump’s victory. We have to stare these incidents in the face, absorb them, and react. Everyone needs to know that this is not acceptable behavior. Trump said that he wanted to hear from those of us who did not support him. Well, start listening by understanding the protests and recognizing…

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[aaronhood]

Resisting the Klansman in Chief

The work begins soon: Resisting the Klansman in Chief

We the people of these United States of America have entrenched into the executive branch of our federal government a man who overtly represents the interests of the white supremacist, capitalist, imperialist patriarchy. We have rooted our legislative and judiciary branches in the values of the party that this man represents. We have elected a man who has proven himself, through his actions and…

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[sonofbaldwin]

Chicago Police Department Caught High-Fiving After ‘Execution’ of Paul O’Neal

Chicago police officers were caught high-fiving and double-checking to make sure their body cameras were off after the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Paul O’Neal in video the Chicago Police De…

It has dawned on me as to why many white people’s (and wanna-be-white people’s) response to situations like this is:

“Well, they shouldn’t have been committing a crime and maybe cops wouldn’t have had to kill them”–even though execution without a trial, jury, or judge–particularly for crimes that do not call for the death penalty–is illegal and immoral.

I believe that some white people believe that all they have left to distinguish themselves from black people is the ability to commit crimes and not be murdered by police for them.

If they can’t have monetary wealth, they want to keep at least the little piece of white supremacist benefit that allows them to make errors and not have to pay for them with their lives.

But the facts remain:

1. This kid was unarmed.

2. He did not deserve to die.

3. The cops lied up and down and back and forth about some many things, it’s hard to keep up.

4. The videos clocked all of their tea, including them telling each other to turn off their body-cams and kicking the kid’s lifeless corpse.

5. If you didn’t know it was war before, you can’t deny it now.

[Photo description: A young black man, Paul O'Neal, is seen from the chin up in a selfie. He is looking at the camera and smiling.]

[aaronhood]

What I Get To Do Today

What I Get To Do Today

Alton Sterling was shot and killed by the police yesterday. There are already reports trying to justify why he was killed in the parking lot of a convenience store in Baton Rouge, LA. Those reports don’t matter to me because it’s like justifying the police’s ability to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Which, no matter what the flaws are within our criminal justice system, is not how any of…

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[aaronhood]

Tomas Young's War - Book Review

Tomas Young’s War – Book Review

I recently finished reading Tomas Young’s War by Mark Wilkerson. It’s the story of a veteran of the 2nd US war in Iraq who came home paralyzed from the chest down. It’s about his adjustment to living with his paralysis, his activism against the war, his treatment at VA hospitals, his friendships with musicians like Eddie Vedder and Tom Morello, and the other things that life threw at him.

One of…

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[aaronhood]

Whose shoulders do I stand on?

Whose shoulders do I stand on?

When I reflect on where I am as a person, as an educator, as an activist, and as a soon-to-be-parent I know that there are a lot of people who have helped me exist where I am currently. There are people who have taught me important concepts & skills, people who challenged me to approach things a little differently, people who expanded my consciousness and knowledge, people who were examples for…

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[aaronhood]

Experiential Facilitation

Experiential Facilitation: encouraging peer learning through small group dialogue. #SAchat

Students learn more fully when they are able to engage with each other and have the ability to voice their own experiences as a means of peer learning. This means principles of democratic education are the foundation to effective learning in trainings, workshops, classrooms, and any communities of learning. I recently led a workshop for my colleagues about how we can do just that.

I currently…

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[aaronhood]

Showing Up for Racial Justice in Student Affairs

chatThere is a lot going on in the US right now about race and racism that is rooted in white supremacist notions. This action is both the overt actions of the KKK, Oath Keepers, the III%ersand covert actions that systemically exist around us such racist microaggressions. If you’re an educator of some kind I hope you’ve heard of that cover white supremacist issues such as microaggressions, white…

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[danielle-mertina]

When Audre Lorde made that much quoted yet often misunderstood cautionary statement warning us that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” she was urging us to remember that we must engage in a process of visionary thinking that transcends the ways of knowing privileged by the oppressive powerful if we are to truly make revolutionary change. She was, in the deep structure of this statement, reminding us that it is easy for women and any exploited or oppressed group to become complicit in structures of domination, using power in ways that reinforce rather than challenge or change.

bell hooks in essay “feminist theory: a radical agenda” (via ful-w-nasaweya)

[aaronhood]

Social Justice in Student Affairs

Social Justice in Student Affairs #InclusiveMason #SocialJustice

We know that Social Justice is a process and a goal as established in Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice. “The goal of social justice education is full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social Justice includes a vision of society that is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure” (Adams, Bell,…

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[aaronhood]

Brief #PrivilegeStories

Over the course of the last few year my personal life has hit a fairly large milestone. I got engaged and then married to a wonderful woman. Part of that process throughout and after the planning of our wedding pointed out some pretty large privileges that I hold, particularly as a heterosexual cisgender male in the US. And as part of one of my promises to myself, I thought I would briefly share…

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[aaronhood]

Unproductive Resistance

Unproductive Resistance #SAchat #SJEchat

When I’m facilitating a training, I frequently provide examples of whatever it is that I’m talking about. So if I’m talking about microaggressions based on race, I may provide some examples that I’ve overheard or witnessed (Where are you really from?) Another example that I’ve used to talk about privilege is the relative privilege that faculty have over staff at an institution of higher…

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[aaronhood]

Complicating the narrative with #PrivilegeStories

A new blog post: Complicating the narrative with #PrivilegeStories.

We often hear stories about oppression and social injustice through the lens and experiences of the oppressed. Which is necessary. We need to hear the stories about the negative influence to fully understand the impact that oppression has on marginalized folks. We need to hear about the ways in which the prison industrial complex impacts people of color. We need to know about housing…

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[thedemsocialist-deactivated2018]

[3rdeyechakra]

숨겨진 연꽃 스님

[aaronhood]

Mindfulness and Social Justice part 3

Mindfulness and Social Justice part 3. The process and the goal.

As with most of my writing, this post is irregularly timed, but it is part of a series that I’ve been pondering as I continue my exploration of Buddhist teachings and continue to learn to be a more effective social justice educator.

I’m thinking more and more about how the teaching of Thich Nhat Hahn and Social Justice are intertwined. Especially as I read both Thich Nhat Hahn and advocates for…

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[aaronhood]

Some of the sights from the #Justice4All March in DC today. #ICantBreathe #blacklivesmatter

[aaronhood]

Radicalized by constant injustice

Radicalized by constant injustice #BlackLivesMatter #Justice4EricGarner

We are the people who must act now. We are the people who must make the invisible, pervasive systems of injustice transparent. We need to shine our collective light on what’s wrong and what’s been happening while also offering new ways to exist. We will do this through the collective action of our rising voices everywhere that they need to be heard. We need to recognize that the system is not…

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