A New Facebook Group Gets at Social Justice Work with a Modern and Young Approach

Collectivize Monterey County was founded as a Facebook group in August 2017 by Kayla Jones, River Navaille and Angelica Gonzalez as a way for people of color to trade goods and services. Those could include tarot readings, groceries, furniture, rides, counseling or kids toys.

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They raised money to buy tickets to the Black Panther movie for kids in the local NAACP Youth Council {snip}. They’ve reached out to form alliances with Direct Action Monterey Network, Families of Color Monterey County, Revolunas of Watsonville, and Whites for Racial Equity. {snip}

“[Progressive] organizations maybe don’t realize they are silencing people of color,” Jones says.

Those absent voices represent people who Jones and Navaille consciously embrace in a way that seems new, political and generational. “We reject homophobia, sexism, poor shaming, capitalism, transphobia, ableism, asexual erasure, heterocispatriarchy, fatphobia… ” their website states.

They are aware that their Facebook group is not accessible to blind people, or that their Wave Street Studios show didn’t include a sign language interpreter, and are thinking of remedies.

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Navaille went to college, and acknowledges that higher education is valuable for mobility, social and cultural exchange, and resisting oppression. But Navaille also says college is classist, tailored for the wealthy and a debt burden. Jones told the Wave Street Studios audience that college can be “really traumatic for communities under attack,” like if someone expresses anti-gay sentiments in class.

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Some hazards are internal. Navaille says that white people have to be vigilant to not fall into the “white savior complex.” {snip}

“White people have been the recipients of the gifts of white supremacy,” Navaille says. “[Latino] immigrants harvest our foods, black nurses cared for white children; we as white people face less discrimination, have more social and economic capital. [CMC] is a small payback of some of that debt.”

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