Some ppl in the google group for our neighborhood’s defunct Neighborhood Association (Piedmont) are discussing starting it up again. I am livid.

Here is the input I gave to them.
(I was very emotional and may have missed opportunities to make related points, my apologies.)
1/

Hello. In light of the possibility of the old PNA reviving itself, I have two questions that someone involved should be able to answer: 
How is the PNA is not a racist organization? Examples.
How is the PNA is an antiracist organization? Examples.

I am asking for good reason. 2/

I have not in the past, and do not see now, PNA members thinking, discussing, deciding, or acting in ways that prioritize our collective well-being over individual or in-group interests. 

For example, the PNA is extremely ableist and excludes those who do not possess

3/

an array of specific abilities. This does not serve our collective well-being (and therefore does not serve any individual member’s well-being) since our collective well-being depends upon all diversities of neighbors contributing and participating if they want to.

4/

I regard any attempt to bring back the PNA today as a tone-deaf flexing of divisive white homeowner entitlement and power that will harass Black & IPOC neighbors. As such, reanimating the PNA will further destroy neighborhood cohesion and further cement neighborhood divisions. 
5

There are reasons it died.

There are exponentially more reasons today that it should stay dead.

Any group of people who want to make their own club within the neighborhood boundaries, go for it. 
Give it an appropriately narrow name, and don’t claim its purpose, membership,
6/

or service is for the whole neighborhood when it is not.

Thanks. 
Nik

For consideration: Examples of the type of critical inquiry necessary for anyone engaged in discussing a responsible revival of the PNA today. 

7/

1.Why? 
What would be the driving purpose for relaunching the org? (Certainly not to produce events that do not entice residents to become active in the PNA and/or feel empowered by the PNA to engage in neighborhood projects.)

8/

http://2.In  our and our neighbors’ current life circumstances, and the predicted continual worsening of life circumstances, what are the directly beneficial reasons for the PNA to relaunch?

9/

http://3.How  will a revived PNA deinstitutionalize the programming of the white supremacist society we white folks unthinkingly replicate in our organizations? And afterwards, what concrete protocols will prevent white hegemony from returning
10/

(since we are the overwhelming majority in Portland and Oregon)?
http://4.How  will a revived PNA institute concrete protocols to ensure it will be truly accessible and democratic for all — a safe mental, emotional, cultural, and physical space for ALL residents

11/

to have full & equitable participation in?

More on this point: An excerpt from “Let’s Talk About Democracy. Real Democracy,” Cora Roelofs.

“Here are some themes or “democratic elements” to weave into the conversation:

12/

•Self-rule/autonomy: how can participation be more than a right to be heard? How can it be an actual way to influence decisions related to one’s life and common affairs?
•Membership and community: who can claim standing to participate in self-rule and at what points

13/

in the process? What behavior would get people get kicked out?
•Voice, individual liberty and creativity: how can individuals be free and supported to express their unique selves while working with others to make new possibilities?

14/

•Collective well-being: how are individual interests balanced and checked by what’s good for the community?
•Strength in diversity: how can traditional power hierarchies be flattened in order to assure better, more humanistic decisions and inclusive participation?

15/

•Deliberation, discourse and discussion: how do we facilitate productive and respectful conversations?
•Agreement/decisions: by what process are decisions made and recorded? When and how can they be revisited?
•Education and wisdom: how can new members learn

16/

from those who have come before them and become sophisticated participants?
•Dissent: what happens when there is not universal agreement? What rights do individuals have? What are the limitations on those rights?

17/

•Justice: what are the standards for behavior towards others? How can wrongs be made right and how will the rules be enforced?”

http://5.Do  any of the leftover PNA Board members or leftover “members” understand what prefiguration is?

18/

Do any members have experience in prefigurative community groups? 
6.Our neighborhood is in the last historically Black area of the city, and we all have MANY Black neighbors. Yet, I have never seen or heard of a Black resident

19/

being in the group of folks regularly interested or engaged in the Neighborhood Association. Why do the Board and other members think this is? 
7.What steps has the past PNA made toward understanding the absence/boycott of Black neighbors?

20/

Steps toward authentic conversations with the Black community on how the PNA is not inclusive, how it could potentially become inclusive, or why they believed the PNA needed to end?
http://8.Do  current members have a sense of responsibility

21/

to remove the cultural and structural barriers that have been preventing Black neighbors from experiencing the PNA as a safe, comprehensively inclusive, and empowering community group (in thought, word, structure, and action)

22/

in such ways that they will be likely to engage with it now?
http://9.Like  me, many people regard most NA’s as simply white HOA’s, because we have engaged in them and know this is how they are. How do PNA members imagine the Black community here,

23/

in the context of BLM, PPB, and the necessity to their very survival of fighting systemic vehicles of white power, will receive the news of an almost entirely white (currently & in recent history) Neighborhood Association relaunching itself without any substantive changes?
24/

10. How would reviving the presence and power of a racially divisive institution NOT be destructive to the social fabric of our neighborhood in its current state?

More on this point: An excerpt from “Model of a code of conduct for a non-violent organisation,”
25/

Alejandra de Diego Baciero & Irene Zugasti Hervás.

 “What do we mean by aggression? A physical, verbal or symbolic assault directly or indirectly exerted on a person because of their gender, race, sexual orientation, ability or their physical appearance,

26/

in relation to cultural standards, that prevents that person from developing and taking pride in their diversity.
What do we mean by harassment? Here are some definitions of the different types of harassment identified.
•    Downward harassment: Systematic and long-term

27/

pressure exerted by a person of a higher hierarchical level on one or more workers.
•    Horizontal harassment: Systematic and long-term pressure exerted by a male or female worker or by a group of workers on one of their peers.

28/

[Ughhhh, twitter kept saying I reached max thread limit, then loaded all my attempts afterwards. I will complete this thread tomorrow. If it lets me. Oh and btw I left that fkn google group, along with several others I also didn’t realize I was still in!]