Hi Eric - thanks for offering your immediate thoughts on the proposal; I was saddened to read your initial reaction last night but have been endeavoring to meet you where you are coming from. I'd like to respond more in full at a later time, since you've exemplified a lot of the issues the proposal attempts to address by inviting discussion in forming an active framework of empowering BIPOC/marginalized voices. But I thought it would be helpful to respond urgently to your assertion that the current system of pointing at Omni's antiquated Safe Space policies is enough. It's antiquated because no one seems to be stewarding its application when the most recent safe space issue did come up, and it seems solely to satisfy the purpose of virtue signaling. The biggest distinction with the proposal and the current system is that the proposal is a working draft for engaged implementation, rather than unsubstantiated virtue signaling.

Omni's current Safe Space systems are further blatantly not enough, as evinced by comments from a delegate of the Chiapas Support Committee in their intro during last night's Delegates mtg (which y'all can reference in last night's mtg notes):
"this is my first omni commons meeting - i've been pretty resistant to joining even though i've been asked to for quite a while. but maryann reached out and mentioned a bipoc space, so that put me on an alert and made me a little bit more open to joining you all. some other members couldn't join tonight. i can provide a report back and see how safe this is to come into."

Instead of projecting violent intentions and authoritarianism (by using politicized language) on a group of BIPOC individual seeking ways to safely engage with the Omni community resisting change (despite Omni's current dire predicament in facing possible foreclosure at the end of this year), I really ask you to consider that we are asking to comfortably exist just as you do in a space historically dominated by white empowered leadership, and I ask you too not to "police" the way we want to express our experiences and how we opt to organize ourselves.

I've been learning so much--an emotionally overwhelming amount--from all these discussions, and I hope you'll be open to learning more with me too.
And thank yous to Jake and Yar for your prompt responsiveness in allyship.

In struggle,
Imma

On Fri, May 6, 2022 at 12:57 AM Jake via sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org> wrote:
Eric seems to have unsubscribed from this list, which is good because it
doesn't seem like he is ready for the changes that are being proposed.

I believe that Eric's emotional response to this proposal highlights the need
for us to have these discussions.

If anyone has specific critiques of the proposal, or even fundamental
amendments they would like to make, they should make those suggestions and
participate in the larger discussion which will involve all active Omni
collectives.  We have to work together to construct something we can all agree
on.

Saying that there is no problem to be solved is easy for people who are not
experiencing the problem, so please recognize that there is a problem and help
build a way to address it.

And for anyone who is thinking to themselves "i'm so tired of hearing about
racism" just imagine how tired are people of color, of having to live with it.

If you've lived your life enjoying the benefits of the white supremacy and
patriarchy that you were born into, now is a great time to start questioning
that, and making an effort to share the power and privilege you've taken for
granted.

-jake

On Thu, 5 May 2022, Eric O'Connor via sudo-discuss wrote:

>> It is not an option to simply reject the proposal
>
> Why is that not an option? This ultimatum is insane — not only is this the
> most over the top bureaucratic structure I can imagine, they actually
> document the format of the upcoming struggle sessions, er, “self critiques”.
> And I thought they claimed to not be literal tankies?
>
> Good luck with all that, I will be recommending that people stay far away
> from the Omni, and taking my own advice, too.
>
> Eric
>
> On Thu, May 5, 2022, at 20:56, Jake via sudo-discuss wrote:
>> Dear Sudoroom,
>>
>> Today I voted in behalf of Sudoroom in favor of the MOP proposal, and they are
>> now a member collective of Omni Commons.  I emailed about them on April 20th
>> but didn't hear anything back, so I hope everyone is okay with that decision.
>>
>> Today a proposal was introduced for a new committee to be formed at Omni
>> Commons to value and protect the safety and interests of BIPOC/Non-Men.
>>
>> this is the original proposal in PDF form:
>> https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/attachments/20220505/ab900701/attachment-0001.pdf
>>
>> this is an editable "cryptpad" and
>> we are requested to "please leave comments in red"
>> https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/edit/6IhZqwyXxN6CrEvtiljmnqTa/
>> actually this is a cryptpad copy of their document just for sudoroom, and I
>> will forward our discussion to Rafiq to integrate our input.
>>
>> Other collectives are asking questions too, so if you want to be more engaged
>> in the discussion, please join the [omni-consensus] list!  But definitely make
>> discussion here in the sudoroom list and get engaged.
>>
>> If Sudoroom members have concerns or objections, we need to communicate them
>> promptly and work toward agreeable amedments.  It is not an option to simply
>> reject the proposal, but rather if you have specific concerns then we need to
>> work with each other to address those concerns and come up with something
>> agreeable.
>>
>> -jake
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Yardena Cohen <yardenack@gmail.com>
>>
>> Hey all, I'm boosting this email with a new subject line so that it's
>> clear to readers - this contains an important new proposal!!!
>>
>> Brief summary: this proposal forms a congress of BIPOC and non-men
>> from all Omni's groups, who then elect a small committee which has its
>> own seat on the board, its own delegate, and a few specific powers
>> related to addressing racism and sexism.  This is an important step
>> towards making omni representative and accountable! This finally
>> begins to put our Statement of Solidarity into action!
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>> From: rafiq.ali <rafiq.ali@protonmail.com>
>> Date: Thu, May 5, 2022 at 12:16 PM
>> To: <consensus@lists.omnicommons.org>
>>
>> I added a little note at the beginning on our proposal and the events
>> from 2 weeks ago. Happy to provide a short statement. In general, I
>> appreciate the apologies made and think this can be a growing
>> opportunity to forge a stronger collective. If it's possible, we can
>> open discussion on the proposal this week if enough delegates have had
>> a chance to review with the idea of approving at the next delegate
>> meeting (or worst case, the one after).
>>
>> As mentioned earlier, we are proposing the creation of a safe space
>> Committee (see attached). We appreciate and accept all
>> feedback/comments/concerns.
>>
>> In struggle,
>> Rafiq
>> CLP
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