{"id":25,"date":"2022-02-24T18:14:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T18:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/?p=25"},"modified":"2025-11-16T01:30:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T01:30:28","slug":"deepa-iyers-talk-from-silos-to-solidarities-9-11-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/2022\/02\/24\/deepa-iyers-talk-from-silos-to-solidarities-9-11-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Deepa Iyer\u2019s Talk \u201cFrom Silos to Solidarities: 9\/11 and Beyond\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Image: Deepa Iyer<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On January 31st, 2022, the Forever Foreign series invited lawyer, activist, and writer Deepa Iyer to talk about solidarity post the 9\/11 era in the webinar \u201cFrom Silos to Solidarities: 9\/11 and Beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSolidarity\u201d is one of those terms that have been thrown around quite a bit in relation to activism, but\u2026what is \u201csolidarity\u201d and in what contexts has \u201csolidarity\u201d been used? How has \u201csolidarity\u201d been practiced? Through a quick Google search, solidarity (noun) is the \u201cunity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group.\u201d What Iyer addresses is how solidarity can be a verb when it becomes a practice<\/em> and a strategy<\/em> by living every single day showing up for people you share similar values with and care for even when times are tough. That, is transformative<\/em> solidarity, and the struggle for transformative solidarity did not begin post 9\/11. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transformative solidarity has been an ongoing form of resistance against oppressive policies, people, and power that continue to enact racial violence towards marginalized groups in the United States. In particular, Iyer centers her talk on the historical, political, religious, and hate violences that brown folks have continued to face since before 9\/11 because of the idea that they would be \u201cforever foreign.\u201d To white Americans, brown people were \u201csavages\u201d and \u201cjob stealers,\u201d so their presence is perceived as a \u201cthreat\u201d that needs to be taken care of through racialized forms of discrimination and violences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post 9\/11, Arabs, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus \u2013 or essentially, anyone who looked \u201cSouth Asian\u201d or \u201cbrown\u201d \u2013 were seen as terrorists on a national, <\/em> and perhaps even global<\/em>,  scale. From 2001-2002, Iyer mentions that brown folks, especially brown men, had disappeared. Young and old disappeared men who were \u201carrested for no reason, cursed at, assaulted, and abused\u201d showed up in prison (Maulik 495). In October 26, 2001, the USA Patriot Act was enacted to \u201cdeter and punish terrorist acts\u2026[by] enhanc[ing] law enforcement investigatory tools\u201d (Pub.L. 107-56) In other words, Iyer points out that this \u201cpatriot act\u201d essentially expanded the policing of brown folks. In 2002, the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) program was initiated by the Bush administration to register people coming into the U.S. through \u201cfingerprinting, photographing, and interrogation\u201d (\u201cNational\u201d). Rather than feeling protected, this increase of surveillance made brown folks feel violated and insecure \u2013 especially when they were the targeted group of NSEERS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Iyer and other active community organizers, the key goals for building transformative solidarity is to 1) push back on inequitable and unfair policies 2) protect, defend, and build community power 3) build community power across other communities who are enduring similar forms of unfair treatment (i.e. undocumented immigrants). Some community organizing Iyer brings up include: Ending JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) in Oakland, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), and DRUM (Desis Rising Up & moving). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are four main \u201cC\u2019s\u201d in building transformative solidarity: centering, co-conspirators, co-liberation, and connections and commonalities. Centering is the practice of making sure those who are directly impacted by certain policies are the ones driving the change. Co-conspirators are those who are taking action to reach the goal(s) of the community. Co-liberation is a strategy of believing in mutual freedom and engagement, in which the person figures out what their stake is on the issue \u2013 even if it does not directly affect them \u2013 and understands how the issue is affecting the communit(ies) involved. Connections and commonalities is finding the connections with each other without equalizing or dismissing each\u2019s own histories and experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Min Pan<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authenticated U.S. Government Information. Public Law 107-56. U.S. Government Publishing Office<\/em>. http:\/\/www.congress.gov\/107\/plaws\/publ56\/PLAW-107publ56.pdf <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maulik, Monami. \u201cOur Movement Is for the Long Haul: Ten Years of DRUM\u2019s Community Organizing by Working-Class South Asian Migrants.\u201d Race\/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, vol. 4, no. 3, Indiana University Press, 2011, pp. 455\u201367, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2979\/<\/a> racethmulglocon.4.3.455.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNational Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request.\u201d Center for Constitutional Rights<\/em>, https:\/\/ccrjustice.org\/home\/what-we-do\/<\/a> our-cases\/national-security-entry-exit-registration-system-nseers-freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 31st, 2022, the Forever Foreign series invited lawyer, activist, and writer Deepa Iyer to talk about solidarity post the 9\/11 era in the webinar \u201cFrom Silos to Solidarities: 9\/11 and Beyond.\u201d \u201cSolidarity\u201d is one of those terms that have been thrown around quite a bit in relation to activism, but\u2026what is \u201csolidarity\u201d and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-2022"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}