Amongst the Habeshas that I know there has always been this sense of pride that oft straddles the fence of superiority. For any cross-‐‑cultural dispute resolution academics and academicians out there, know that I speak in modal tendencies and not stereotypes. Habeshas get good grades. Habeshas go to the best universities. Habeshas are the best looking. Everyday is Ethiopian independence day et cetera.
Though I would succumb to this as well, I thought it odd that these modal tendencies were not disproved enough. HabeshaLA’s recent profiling of storyteller Selam told readers that she is “un-‐‑defining what it means to be young, black, Habesha, and a woman in the diaspora.” I’m no woman, but I’m down to un-‐‑define what it means to be young, black, Habesha and in the diaspora. I have lived in the downtown areas of Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, and noticed that homelessness is not an impossibility in our diaspora communities. There are most assuredly homeless Habeshas. Gasp. Egad.
In Mia McKenzie’s (writer and creator of Black Girl Dangerous) recent article criticizing actress Emma Watson’s (Hermione Granger) recent UN speech inviting males to feminism, McKenzie deftly finds a problematic hue to Watson’s plea. According to McKenzie, Watson’s plea tells “men that they should care about gender inequality because of how much it hurts them, centralizes men and their well-‐‑being in a movement built by women,” and the “often brutal oppression of people of color and women and especially women of color” should be reason enough to want to stand with them. If we are to be activists, we better do our research first. And this research should be rooted in love for all people, especially oppressed peoples.
The internets call you a slacktivist when you are silent 364 days out of the year (365 during leap years) on social justice issues, then outwardly pretend to be a radical protester of injustice in one Facebook status or tweet. This is embodied in the brouhaha Kony 2012 protests, and FLOTUS Michelle Obama’s calamitous effort to ‘bring back our girls’ on twitter that backfired a quadrillion fold. Slacktivist is fine verbiage for the rudimentary commentator, but I prefer the diction of radical emcee and Afghanistan-‐‑orphanage-‐‑constructer Immortal Technique – let’s call these people coffee-‐‑shop-‐‑revolutionaries.
Lord, distance us from being hypocrites and coffee-‐‑shop-‐‑revolutionaries. Don’t fret. I would never be so negatively critical of a subject without proposing a positive solution. Otherwise, my posts would be indistinguishable from the wailing of the coffee-‐‑shop-‐‑revolutionaries. There are bigoted, elitist and systemic reasons for the existence of cyclical poverty in the U.S. and abroad in the third world. But, we won’t get into that right now. What’s important is that we identify oppressed peoples and aid them in the most efficient fashion that we can. If possible, a dialectic approach of physical, emotional and spiritual health would be best to implement, but we should not shrug our shoulders in befuddlement until we have the perfectly comprehensive program. There is action we can take right now.
Let’s start thinking locally, and then we can set our sights on the third world. If everyone loved their neighbor as often as they thought of feeding and giving drink to themselves all aid could be local. I want to highlight HandUp. Handup is former and current tech tycoon Rose Broome’s for-‐‑profit B Corporation, for the good of ending homelessness. They began in the San Francisco Bay Area, have expanded to Oregon, and say they are expanding to more cities in the near future. Hurrah. HandUp is not equipped to handle emotional and spiritual concerns, but they are the best there is at what they do, and what they do is take care of physical concerns.
Food, drink, shelter, clothing, cellphones, cellphone chargers, and if you are so inclined micro-‐‑loans are all on their menu. It works on a direct basis, where you search through mini-‐‑bios that look like Kickstarter projects and detail what each member says they need. It is not the case that 100% of the members of HandUp are homeless – some are in low-‐‑income housing. You may be inclined to help pay for a member’s toothpaste, another person may be inclined to help a member pay for a week’s worth of housing or a laptop to search for jobs. This is the empowering aspect of HandUp, you get to listen to the oppressed peoples’ voices instead of forcing your view of aid down their throats. It would be my hope that you cared of homelessness before it hit the Habesha communities in the diaspora, but if not, I hope now your senses will be finely tuned to oppressed peoples.
Before I step off my digital soapbox, I would be remiss if I did not also highlight The Macedonians Humanitarian Association (MHA). Who is the MHA? Would you believe me if I told you it was a Habesha group? What if I told you it was a Habesha group in Ethiopia? Believe me. The mastermind is one Biniyam Belete. Mr. Belete has been aiding oppressed peoples since he was a preteen. In his interview with Addis Zemen (New Era) Newspaper, Mr. Belete said he used to feed his peers that would lose their access to food because of low grades. Low grades were not a problem for Mr. Belete, because he consistently finished at the top of his class throughout grade school.
He says MHA’s primary objective is to aid those people who are incapable of aiding themselves. He posits people in need of assistance to use the restroom and for basic mobility as prime examples. Furthermore, he finds that there is a modal tendency for the elderly in Ethiopia to have more people incapable of aiding themselves than other age groups. But, Mr. Belete is planning to get more land, house children, reunite families and produce low-‐‑cost baked goods for other poor people in a way that reminds me of Father Greg Boyle’s Homeboy industries here in Los Angeles. Mr. Belete is taking care of roughly 600 people right now, and has received aid from churches, doctors, nurses, average Janes and Chinese megacorporation Huawei Technologies.
Be inspired by HandUp and MHA. Forgive my corniness, and be the change you want to see in the world .
ስምዐነ ፡ አምላክነ ፡ ወመድኃኒነ ።
Post Scriptum:
FLOTUS = First Lady of the United States
Michelle Obama accused of propping up torture, drones and war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHqXEodJVY8
Hand Up
https://handup.us/
Mr. Belete’s MHA (in Amharic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn-‐‑ap6BoWrM
McKenzie’s article
http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2014/09/im-‐‑really-‐‑emma-‐‑watsons-‐‑feminism-‐‑ speech-‐‑u-‐‑n/
Immortal Technique shows that being ‘hard’ is about building orphanages in Kabul, Afghanistan, not the size of your chain(s). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOODdDMxLCM
The Internets?
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/internets
