Archive:Empowermentors Collective



The Empowermentors Collective is a skillshare, activism, and discussion network for intersectionally marginalized people of color with a critical interest in technology and media hacking. We are called Empowermentors because we focus on sharing knowledge and technical skills, producing free software and free media, and supporting one another however we can. In this way we are both teaching and learning from each other to collectively empower ourselves. We see radical potential in copyleft, free culture, and free software (often marketed as "open source software"), to undermine the subjugation enabled by private ownership over media, ideas, and technology.

''This is not a space for white allies. If you are not an intersectionally marginalized POC, you may follow us instead, and we appreciate any help spreading the word.''

Join us on our Wiki page • Mailing list • Facebook group • Chat room

Follow us on Diaspora • Pump.io • Twitter • Tumbr • Facebook

We maintain a safer space for each other. We have no tolerance for oppressive attitudes, and expect accountability for any oppressive behavior. That is, any language or actions that upholds ableism, racism, cissexism, heterosexism, misogyny, and/or classism.

Motivation
Why was the Empowermentors Collective started? In short, because there was no group like it for us in the free culture and free software movement. Many groups exist to address gender issues, but these were consistently white feminist groups that mostly just paid lip service to issues of race.

Driving Questions

 * What dangers lie in private ownership over technology, media, and ideas as it concentrates control and power over those resources?
 * How are race, gender, sexuality, class, and other cultural meanings coded into technology?
 * Does free culture necessarily topple or reproduce those in power?
 * Can we reconcile opposing both permission culture & cultural appropriation?
 * Why do movements aiming to represent everyone often leave out already marginalized groups?
 * Why does openness and meritocracy frequently lead to exclusion?
 * When does equal treatment ignore preexisting differences in power, privilege, & access?
 * Where do we fit into the free software & free culture community as queer people of color, women of color, POC with disabilities, etc. ?
 * Who does the free software & free culture movement fight for...and who is leading it?

On intersectional marginalization
We say "intersectionally marginalized" to refer to people of color who experience intersectionality, that is, the interactions of multiple systems of oppression. This means we are open to all people of color who are also one or more of the following: people with disabilities, LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, transgender, transsexual, queer, intersex, and asexual) people, women, class oppressed people, etc.

On liberalism, assimilation, and multiculturalism
We are not just another diversifySTEM™ organization aiming to integrate "minority" groups into the so-called "open source" community. We are creating our own space. We combine a critical passion for technology and digital media arts with our work towards POC empowerment, disability justice, decolonization, queer liberation, prison abolition, the destabilization of patriarchy, and other struggles we share.

On hacking
Hacking is any act of constructing, deconstructing, examining, remixing, or studying something, with the attitude of playfully exploring a difficult challenge. Hackers are everywhere, and almost all hacking is not malicious or exploitative. The Empowermentors Collective is a space for hackers and aspiring hackers of all sorts: media and culture hackers, lingual hackers, software hackers, academic hackers, and more.

File and Fix Bugs
Help us file, catalog, and help resolve bugs related to race, gender, and accessibility in free software projects.


 * Add to the Bug List.

Transcription

 * Help Transcribe important material for accessiblility.

Report Incidents
Contribute to the Geek Feminism Wiki

Related Communities

 * Wikipedia Project Feminism
 * Geek Feminism Wiki
 * Wiki Queer

Meetings

 * No current schedule for meetings.

Contact
You may reach the team via IRC (see above) or by emailing the discussion list:
 * empowermentors@libreplanet.org

You may also contact the team leaders via email:
 * empowermentors-owner@libreplanet.org