Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Ignite with our What You Need to Know series. Written By Becca Mann, Mosaic Intern for Gender Equity, Social Justice, and Inclusion and Carlos Turcios, Coordinator for Student Diversity and Inclusion in Campus Life.

The term undocumented immigrant relates to a foreign-born person who is currently living in another country without legal authorization, whereas unauthorized migration relates to the action of moving to another country through means outside of what is permissible by that government. To most living in the United States, these definitions are not new. Although immigration to the new world began since the inception of the United States, the concept of “illegality” was something created in the late 19th century.  For each era of immigration, representation in the media clearly depicted imagery suggesting how immigrants looked like, the languages they spoke, why they were here, and how it affected the livelihood of Americans of that time.

In 2014, the majority of undocumented immigrants residing in the United States came from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and China. Forty percent have less than a high school degree and about half have very limited to no English language skills. (Migration Policy Institute, 2014). Foreign policy, poverty, violence and civic unrest in their countries of origin are just some of the reasons why immigrants leave to the United States.

The truth is immigration policies have always been convoluted to understand. Immigration policies have continuously expanded throughout the different waves of immigration that have created “gaps” to those who fall within “gray areas”.  These complications on determining the statuses of immigrants have led to recent executive decisions such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for various countries. More recent legislative decisions (i.e. attempts at terminating DACA and TPS), have affected general societal attitudes toward immigrants, especially the undocumented immigrant population.

Despite immigration being a common topic during election seasons, rarely do English-only speakers get a preview of what underlies in the experiences of the people living with this identity. Different nationalities, time of entry, age groups and socioeconomic statuses are only some factors that drastically affect the lived experiences of immigrants in the United States.

So you’re probably asking yourself “what can I do to help?” Below are some suggestions on what you could do to be a better ally:

Use the term “undocumented immigrant” instead of “illegal immigrant.” Undocumented immigrants are simply that, they don’t have official papers to be in the country where they are currently residing. Labeling them “illegal” is viewing their action of immigrating as an attack, suggesting their human existence is unlawful. In reality, being an undocumented immigrant is a violation of a civic law and not considered a federal crime.

Educate yourself on the U.S. immigration processes. Most people accuse undocumented immigrants of “skipping the line”and they just need to wait to live here legally. However, the official ways to legally enter this country have not changed since the Immigration Act of 1965 and sometimes this “line”does not exist for certain people. For those who have a line, the wait may be too long that it endangers their livelihood.

Remove needing a Social Security number from applications. Undocumented immigrants don’t have Social Security numbers and a lot of job applications, health forms, or other documents require that you include one. This excludes the entire undocumented population from opportunities like jobs, healthcare, welfare, and education among many others simply because they don’t have a Social Security number.

Stop assuming that immigrants “look a certain way.” Although statistics do show that the majority of immigrants come from Mexico and Central America, that does not mean that people from other regions can not hold this identity. Likewise, the nationality does not assume race and people can look very different regardless of where they are from. Be conscious of the diversity within the immigrant community.

There are ways to support immigrants and get involved!

Retriever Immigrants United, or RIU for short, is a brand new student organization on campus this semester. This org focuses on community building, education, and empowerment. The mission of this group is to provide a space for all statuses of immigrants (e.g. undocumented, DACA, Temporary Protective Status, first generation, second generation) and allies to provide support and share resources.

General Body Meetings are from 6 p.m. -7 p.m. every Wednesday in Math/Psych 105.

You can find Retriever Immigrants United on myumbc and Facebook. Also you can contact retrieverimmigrantsunited@umbc.edu with any questions or more information.

The Mosaic myumbc page also has a folder under the “Files” tab with a lot of helpful information.

To learn more, come to our event “CSJ Igniting Consciousness Into the Immigrant Experience” on Wednesday, October 24 from 5:30-7 pm in Commons Skylight.

October 24 is also “I Stand With Immigrants Day of Action.” Please join RIU for their event in recognition of this day from 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. in the Commons Breezeway.  

Hello Women’s Center friends!

With Critical Social Justice Week approaching, it’s important to remember what needs to be completed before the events! Below are two of the events that require preparation, so please make sure that’s handled in a timely manner:

Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon for CSJ: Ignite on Wednesday, October 24th. Please create a username ahead of time for Wikipedia to recognize your legitimacy. For more details.

Baltimore Walking Tour on Friday, October 26th. RSVP by Wednesday, October 24th so we know how many people to expect for the shuttle. For more details.

This year, CSJ’s theme is Ignite. This topic is especially relevant, as it focuses on the ability to embrace and participate in activism. Everyone with different levels of interest and involvement are welcome to attend all events, as there is something to gain from each of them. Additionally, this year brings an emphasis on STEM fields and activism within them. Often, those academic and career fields are encased in a strict culture that does not allow for much expression or empowerment. Each CSJ event offers the opportunity to learn how activism can be infused into STEM fields. Even if that realm of academia does not house your interests, the events and workshops are a wonderful learning opportunity to expand the horizons of activism within and outside the UMBC community.

See a list of all our events here and read our What You Need to Know blogs here!

Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Ignite with our What You Need to Know series. Written by Women’s Center student staff member Hannah Wilcove.

On October 15th, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano posted the following message to Twitter: “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted, write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” These sixteen words sparked the rebirth and rapid growth of a campaign created eleven years ago by activist Tarana Burke.

As you probably already know, the #MeToo movement has been a way for survivors of sexual violence to share their stories, or at least acknowledge their existence. Its recent resurgence came on the heels of powerful men like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby finally facing the long-overdue consequences for their actions, although other accusations still loom in the air, unresolved. The sustained prevalence of the movement over this past year, especially given the high volume of news we take in on a regular basis, is a testament to the strength of digital forms of activism. Me Too and other modern movements such as Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street are characterized by their decentralized structure and reliance on publicity through multiple forms of media. Our keynote speaker Deanna Zandt utilized both her social media presence and her participation in an episode of the podcast This American Life titled “Five Women” to not only share her story, but also to talk about the experience of doing so.

Like the consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s, the #MeToo movement is about recognizing commonality of experiences and the systemic factors that influence them. This is what the principle of “the personal is political” is all about: while each survivor has their own individual story, the #MeToo movement provides a way for people to recognize that they are not alone in their experience. As an important note, many women of color flipped the script of this common slogan during the time period known as Second Wave Feminism, and advocated that “the political is personal” in order to make it known that the politics of social movements had significant impacts on their everyday lives.

CSJ as a whole and this year’s theme of Ignite is in part about finding community while doing activist work. Whether you’re a seasoned advocate for the causes you believe in or totally new to fighting for social justice, we all need people to support us in our work and remind us that we are not alone. I hope to see you at one (or more!) of our many CSJ events building that community.

Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Ignite with our What You Need to Know series. Written by Kaleigh Mrowka, Assistant Director for Residential Education, and Lauren Mauriello, Assistant Director of Student Conduct.

“[Restorative practices] provide a clear blueprint to ensure that on the path to making social justice, we model that justness in our own behavior – especially toward those people and systems we hope to change.” – John Bailie

Restorative practices is a form of democratic dialogue, which at its core, is about relationships within communities. According to the International Institute for Restorative Practices, the fundamental premise of restorative practices is that “people are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes when those in authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them” (Wachtel & Wachtel, 2012). Within higher education environments, this includes teaching students skills for being in relationship with their peers, understanding obligations that exist based on community needs, and engaging within a community to repair harms caused within those relationships.

Restorative justice techniques can be used to address instances of inequality, such as an incident of bias, but can it address the structural issues that sustain oppression? What does it have to do with social justice?

The modern practices of restorative justice have roots in the ways indigenous communities addressed harm. The idea that communities can and should seek to address social issues by including those most impacted by the harms or decisions that impact them is blunted by our western political and social hierarchies and our impulse toward retribution rather than reparation.  Kay Pranis (2005), an expert facilitator of a restorative justice technique called circles, highlights the capacity for restorative justice to pick up when we have reached the limits of democracy.

While it is only recently becoming a known methodology and philosophy in higher education, restorative practices and restorative justice have been popular in the criminal justice system, K-12 education, and other entities for some time as  From a Critical Social Justice perspective, restorative practices lens provides both a methodology and ethos to build stronger communities around difference, reduce power differentials, and create a sense of agency for all members of a community.

So what does that mean for us when considering social justice within a community like UMBC? As the quote that opens this blog post implies, restorative practices can serve as a blueprint for the creation of a more just and inclusive community.  By shifting the focus towards caring for all members of a community, we can seek to create communities that promote justice.

In talking about restorative practices within the framework of Critical Social Justice Week, we will explore the idea of restorative justice as a means to address systems of oppression by looking at methods and tools for restoring power to those who have been harmed, victimized or marginalize, and building individual and community capacity to address community problems. 

To learn more about Restorative Practices, come to our event on Monday, October 22 from 4-5 pm in Commons 329

Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Ignite with our What You Need to Know series. Written by Courtney Hobson, Coordinator in the Dresher Center for the Humanities.

When you need to look up information on the internet, Google is the number one site we typically go to. If you type in “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” or “Aretha Franklin,” the first result will likely be an article on Wikipedia.

For those of you not in the know, Wikipedia is a free open-source encyclopedia which means that anyone can edit it. Most of the editors consist of academics or hobbyists who, with time, a computer and a steady internet connection, are generating informative articles that are viewed by millions all over the world.

As one of the top ten visited internet sites in the world, Wikipedia is not merely a tool to record facts; it is helping to shape our collective knowledge. Winston Churchill once remarked that, “history is written by the victors.” Knowing our history is important, but knowing the authors is even moreso. This brings us to editing articles on Wikipedia.

Less than 10% of Wikipedia’s editors identify as cis or trans women and the editors that do identify as women are more likely than men to have their edits reverted.

What does this mean? This means that women are not seen or valued as notable contributors to our society. The statistics are similarly dismal for POC.

Editing Wikipedia is a step towards challenging systemic structures that tell us what information is important enough to know. It is a step that I realized that anyone could take when I attended my first edit-a-thon in 2016 at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The edit-a-thon focused on expanding or creating articles about Black artists. With just 30 minutes of writing and research, I was able to create an short article or stub. I am now one of those hobbyists who edit articles for fun, but I focus on adding content about people from Baltimore, especially Black women.

For the CSJ: Ignite Wikipedia edit-a-thon, we will have a chance to discuss these issues in greater depth, as well as explore resources available through our library. But most importantly, we will inject Wikipedia with a bit of Baltimore and shine a light on figures and events who have shaped our city.

Further reading below:

• Gender bias on Wikipedia
• Wikimedia Foundation releases gender bias report
• Why didn’t Wikipedia have an article on Donna Strickland, a Nobel Prize winner?
• Doing the work: Editing Wikipedia as an act of reconciliation
• How Does Political Wikipedia Stay Apolitical?
• Why I’m making it My Feminist Mission to End Wikipedia’s Notability Policy
• Art and Feminism
• afroCROWD
• Women in Red Wikiproject