February Redwood City Jacobin Meeting! Thursday, 2/5, 6:30 pm at Back Yard Coffee [update!]
Look for us in the astroturf flooring room to the left as you enter!
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The Redwood City Jacobing reading group is back and gearing up for our February 2015 meeting! We'll be gathering at Back Yard Coffee in Redwood City on Thursday, February 5 at 6:30 pm to discuss the suburbanization of the working class and inequality in the US.
Read on for full meeting details as well links / context for the articles we will engage to inform our discussion:
This time, we're diving into the history and political economy that produced the current social conditions of Ferguson and other similar US American working class suburbs. Ignored by many political observers and analysts prior to the murder of Michael Brown, these communities have played an increasingly central role in the geography of inequality and oppression in the US over the past several decades.
As the #BlackLivesMatter movement continues to unfold and gain even greater momentum in 2015, we focus upon the historical and social contexts from which much of this movement (and related efforts for economic and racial justice led by the working class) are emerging to learn what these efforts can teach us about building our collective capacity in the struggle against racism, economic inequality, patriarchy, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, militarism, and other forms of oppression in the US.
We undertake this discussion in the light of the following readings, our own experiences, and in the social context of Redwood City and other Peninsula / South Bay towns currently experiencing our own rapid -- albeit very different -- series of political and economic transformations:
"The Suburbanization of the US Working Class," by community organizer and Jacobin contributing editor Karen Narefsky
"Making Ferguson," by researcher Richard Rothstein -
http://prospect.org/article/making-ferguson-how-decades-hostile-policy-created-powder-keg [long form]
http://www.epi.org/publication/making-ferguson/
[Jan. 29 UPDATE!] As extra credit reading, check out the following recent article as well on the history of gentrification, race and racism, class and classism, the community of East Palo Alto, and the tech industry of the Bay Area that our next meeting's facilitator surfaced:
"East of Palo Alto's Eden: Race and the Formation of Silicon Valley," by journalist Kim Mai-Cutler - http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/10/east-of-palo-altos-eden/
Meetup details:
When again? Thursday, February 5, 6:30 - 8:30 pm PT
Where again? Back Yard Coffee in Redwood City, CA. Where we met for our previous gathering, this is a locally-owned, independent (and awesome!) coffee shop located at 965 Brewster Avenue, Redwood City, CA 94063. Check out this link for charting transit routes. (If you are traveling by Caltrain, it’s about a 5 minute walk from the Redwood City station - complete walking directions from station.) Back Yard Coffee is wheel-chair accessible
Send any questions you might have to [email protected] - and feel free to invite / share this post with others you think might be interested as well!