Hey! We're back with part 2! Better Future Program (@bfpnola) is officially looking for youth volunteers between the ages of 14 and 25 for our Advocacy Committee. Don't see a role that fits your identity or beliefs? Don't worry! We've got SO MANY opportunities, we had to split them up across multiple posts! Feel free to check our Linktr.ee for more positions or our "Apply Now!" highlight on Instagram in the coming weeks!
And if you don’t know who we are? Welcome! BFP is Black-, queer-, and woman-owned nonprofit, entirely run by youth! Since 2016, we’ve been accepting volunteers not just from Bulbancha (so-called New Orleans, Louisiana), but WORLDWIDE! Our mission is to globally expand peer-led political education, support, and imagination for marginalized youth!
To fulfill this goal, we offer over 3,000 free resources through our Liberation Library, design and execute mutual aid-based projects, and offer the safe space young activists need to ask questions and grow. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, check out our International Youth Leadership Positions page in our bio!
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[ID: All slides share the same background. There is a repeating list of BFP’s guiding principles and core beliefs in translucent, all-white, capitalized letters. BFP’s guiding principles include youth-centricity, self-liberation, transparency, accountability, horizontality, community, and intersectionality. BFP’s core beliefs include the right to organize, educational equity, youth liberation, anti-racism, religious liberty, disability justice, climate action, decolonization, gender equity, queer/LGBTQ+ liberation, bodily autonomy, fat liberation, abolition, caste abolition, anti-authoritarianism, and anti-capitalism. A burnt orange to amber gradient overlays this list. A bold, white square frames the image with a white arrow pointing right in the bottom right corner.
Slide 1 reads: “LINK IN BIO. APPLY NOW! INTERNATIONAL YOUTH LEADERSHIP POSITIONS! REMOTE & IN-PERSON.” There is a BFP logo in the lefthand corner and the words “Part Two” in the righthand corner, as this is the first of multiple posts showcasing open leadership positions.
Slide 2 reads: "Advocacy Committee: Africana Advocates
Responsibilities Include:
Develop and execute your very own political education workshops related to African countries and their diasporas
Build local mutual aid networks to meet the basic needs of those of African descent
Provide consultation to other marginalized youth to promote awareness and appreciation
Time Commitment:
Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!
Requirements/Eligibility:
BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"
Slide 3 reads: "Advocacy Committee: Indigenous Advocates
Responsibilities Include:
Develop and execute your very own political education workshops related to your Indigenous community
Build local mutual aid networks to meet the basic needs of various Indigenous communities
Provide consultation to other marginalized youth to promote awareness and appreciation
Time Commitment:
Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!
Requirements/Eligibility:
BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"
Slide 4 reads: "Advocacy Committee: Pacific Islander Advocates
Responsibilities Include:
Develop and execute your very own political education workshops related to the Pacific Islands and their diasporas
Build local mutual aid networks to meet the basic needs of various Pacific Islander communities
Provide consultation to other marginalized youth to promote awareness and appreciation
Time Commitment:
Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!
Requirements/Eligibility:
BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"
Slide 5 reads: "Advocacy Committee: Central Asian Advocates
Responsibilities Include:
Develop and execute your very own political education workshops related to Central Asia and its diasporas
Build local mutual aid networks to meet the basic needs of various Central Asian communities
Provide consultation to other marginalized youth to promote awareness and appreciation
Time Commitment:
Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!
Requirements/Eligibility:
BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"
Slide 6 reads: "Advocacy Committee: East Asian Advocates
Responsibilities Include:
Develop and execute your very own political education workshops related to East Asia and its diasporas
Build local mutual aid networks to meet the basic needs of various East Asian communities
Provide consultation to other marginalized youth to promote awareness and appreciation
Time Commitment:
Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!
Requirements/Eligibility:
BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"
Slide 7 reads: "Advocacy Committee: South Asian Advocates
Responsibilities Include:
Develop and execute your very own political education workshops related to South Asia and its diasporas
Build local mutual aid networks to meet the basic needs of various South Asian communities
Provide consultation to other marginalized youth to promote awareness and appreciation
Time Commitment:
Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!
Requirements/Eligibility:
BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"
Slide 8 reads: "Advocacy Committee: Southeast Asian Advocates
Responsibilities Include:
Develop and execute your very own political education workshops related to Southeast Asia and its diasporas
Build local mutual aid networks to meet the basic needs of various Southeast Asian communities
Provide consultation to other marginalized youth to promote awareness and appreciation
Time Commitment:
Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!
Requirements/Eligibility:
BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"
Slide 9 reads: "Advocacy Committee: West Asian Advocates
Responsibilities Include:
Develop and execute your very own political education workshops related to West Asia and its diasporas
Build local mutual aid networks to meet the basic needs of various West Asian communities
Provide consultation to other marginalized youth to promote awareness and appreciation
Time Commitment:
Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!
Requirements/Eligibility:
BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"
Slide 10 reads: "Advocacy Committee: Latine Advocates
Responsibilities Include:
Develop and execute your very own political education workshops related to Latin countries and their diasporas
Build local mutual aid networks to meet the basic needs of various Latin communities
Provide consultation to other marginalized youth to promote awareness and appreciation
Time Commitment:
Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!
Requirements/Eligibility:
BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"
/End ID.]
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The weird thing about the debate on Israeli's indigenousness is that "indigenous" doesn't mean... you're From somewhere. You can stop being indigenous; you can stop being indigenous while still existing in the place your ancestors were born. "Indigenous" isn't that you have the memory of belonging to a place or notice little cultural things in your family that tie into your ancestral homeland. I mean, there's a reason we don't call British people in Britan indigenous.
Indigenousness is about perpetual opposition to settler colonialism, which is about the complete uprooting of a pre-existing culture and forcing that land to accommodate an extractivist, export economy. That's what it is. It's not about being from a place or even having a """tie to the land.""" (The "tie to the land" is definitely an element of indigenousness but it's really just a romanticized simplification of indigenousness — a simple answer for why indigenous people are at the frontline of environmental movements.)
When the Spanish came to Mexico, they worked with the noble Nahua people to de-indigenize them. They did this by converting them to Catholicism, teaching them European writing (Latin) and academics, and relying on the Nahua nobility to help enforce the new political system. Fransicans are usually credited with converting Mexico to Christianity, but the ones who did most of the work were the young, Nahua "niños del monasterio" who marched into the villages and burned the idols of the gods — of both their own and other indigenous communities. (Nahua soldiers are credited with being the ones who helped the Spanish conquer the rest of Mexico's native people).
Indigenous/mestizo scholar Chimalpahin wrote about the history of the "Aztecs" by calling every Nahua god a demon, by positioning the Spanish like a good development and by arguing his specific Nahua city was better than the other by appealing to Spanish sentiments. ("But maybe he was just speaking to the Spanish!!!" He wrote in Nahuatl for presumably a Nahua audience.) (Academics don't agree on whether to call him indigenous).
"Chimalpahin and the noble Nahuas were violently forced into assimilating into Spanish nobility; you are sick for trying to argue that they weren't indigenous anymore." I'm not arguing that they weren't, but they were players in de-indigenizing Mexico, and it's important that it was forced.
De-tribalization and de-indigenization are always violent and ugly; you don't lose your indigenousness, usually, because you're evil. Chimalpahin and the noble Nahuas were still victims and horribly traumatized. They were also enforcers of de-indigenization.
Anyway, I'm mestizo and have ties to central Mexico and feel a sense of belonging there, at times. I'm not indigenous to it though. The memory of any indigenousness in my family is just a memory now. We visit, and I eat so so many poblano peppers. But we've detribalized, become borderline settlers by participating in capitalism, lightened our skin through generations, probably intentionally (many Mexicans have heard the phrase that we have to "better our race"). If I wanted to actually reconnect, it would be a lot of work; any reconnecting indigenous person can tell you how much work it is.
I know people get really prissy about how "You can't compare Israelis to white European settlers in America because we actually have a connection to the land!!!! We are actually from there!! >:/ some of us are not even white!"
Well let's think of the majority brown mestizo (mixed) population of Mexico. Are they indigenous because they might have "ties to the land" and because they have lineage from it?? Maybe they were once, but for the majority now — no. Without a mass effort to oppose settler colonialism and reconnect, mestizos are not indigenous and might never be again, no matter how much of their pre-colombian culture persists in our quieter traditions and language. And the Mexican state is happy to co-opt aesthetic representations of indigenousness, to talk about our glorious "Aztec" ancestry, while actively hurting indigenous populations.
So assume some, or lets say all!, Israelis have every possible connection to the land (lets say they love the olive trees and cry over the murder of all the Nile crocodiles), maybe they're visibly non-white, maybe they can trace their lineage to the exact spot where they stand. But if they're on the side of a settler colonial, capitalist state (say it was even forced on them!! say they were even made to move there!!! say they are like the Nahua nobles) — how indigenous are you?
How much longer will you remain " indigenous " ???
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African bush elephants in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia
Henning Borgersen
Mass: 13,000 lbs (Male, Adult), 6,600 lbs (Female, Adult)
Scientific name: Loxodonta africana
Gestation period: 22 months
Trophic level: Herbivorous
Speed: 25 mph (Maximum, Running)
Height: 10 ft. (Male, Adult, At Shoulder), 7.2 – 9.2 ft. (Female, Adult, At Shoulder)
Lifespan: 60 – 70 years
Also known as the African savanna elephant, is one of two extant African elephant species and one of three extant elephant species. It is the largest living terrestrial animal.
As herbivores, they spend much of their days foraging and eating grass, leaves, bark, fruit, and a variety of foliage. They need to eat about 350 pounds of vegetation every day.
Their range spans a variety of habitats, from the open savanna to the desert, and can be found in most African countries.
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