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Rand
Quinn
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Building
Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), Teatro
Ng Tanan and Asian Pacifiic Islander (API)
Force
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profile by
Zamira Ha
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Profile
of Rand Quinn:
Community Organizer with BOSS (Building Opportunities for
Self-Sufficiency),Director of Teatro Ng Tanan (a people's
theater company of Filipino youth), and Member of API (Asian
Pacific Islander) Force
What
was your first involvement with community organizing?
Working with BOSS
is the first job I've had that can be described as community
organizing. For four years at Stanford, though, from
sophomore year to graduation, I was part of the founding
group of the Stanford Filipino Association. The group was
started, originally, because there wasn't any Filipino
students' group on campus. We started organizing around
admissions issues, trying to increase the rate of acceptance
for Filipino applicants. Berkeley's admissions policy
considered Filipinos a target population for recruitment,
and we were trying to get Stanford to do the
same.
What
have been your subsequent
involvements?
For the last three or four years, I've been doing
issue-based organizing with BOSS, especially around
Propositions 184 and 187, working with low-income and
homeless populations, trying to show the real connections
between the propositions and racism. For the past few years,
I've also been doing smaller work with the homeless in
Alameda County, mainly around Welfare Reform and General
Assistance (GA). Services for the poor in Alameda County are
at a much lower level than in the rest of the state. We're
trying to overturn measures restricting GA distribution.
Under the current system, recipients would receive their GA
checks only three months out of the year. We're also working
to restore SSI benefits to people with drug and alcohol
disabilities.
I also work with API
Force, organizing around the propositions. We're dealing
with immigrants' rights issues--;Propositions 187 and 209
and welfare reform.
Teatro isn't "organizing,"
but it inspires people to connect with organizing forces. A
lot of the members are young, and this is their first
exposure to social justice issues affecting
Filipino-Americans. I believe that theater can help build a
social justice movement through education.
What
was your initial
motivation?
My family. My mom--;who's from the Philippines--;and my
dad--;who's from St. Thomas--;come from large families of
limited means. They both had a strong belief in working to
bring everyone up; it was part of my family culture. When I
was growing up in San Antonio, my mom was a teacher of
migrant workers, so I had early exposure to the issues. My
mom had strong political views, and I think those carried
over to me.
Before I got to Stanford,
during my senior year in high school, I read about
Stanford's diversity efforts in the papers. This was when
students were fighting to replace the "Western Culture"
track with "CIV" (Cultures, Ideas, and Values). It affected
me that students were demanding a say.
At Stanford, I got
involved my first year with AASA (Asian American Students'
Association), and I was involved in the takeover of
President Kennedy's office.
What
has sustained you in this
work/commitment?
I've definitely seen a lot of burnout. It's understandable.
When you're really passionate about organizing, it can
become all-consuming. What's been really important to me is
knowing my own limits and valuing my investments in other
things. I know there are limits to my work with each
organization--;BOSS, API Force, and TNT. I also make sure to
just spend time for myself. I'm lucky to work for BOSS; it's
union-organized. We get decent wages, overtime, etc. And
there are four other organizers, so I'm not working alone. I
don't think I would have lasted without the structural
support of BOSS.
How
would you characterize your involvement? What do you call
your work (if not "community
organizing")?
I'm really careful about describing myself as an organizer
because there are specific schools of thought about
organizing, and a lot of work doesn't fit their detailed
definitions. I would call what I do community building,
popular education, people's theater, leadership development.
It's all part of a mix--;to lay a foundation and work to
eventually build a movement and effect social
change.
How did you theorize about
your work? What were your theories in action, i.e., the
theories that shaped or informed your organizing work?
A lot of the people at BOSS trained at CTWO (Center for
Third World Organizing) where they learned formal organizing
theory. But we found that it doesn't work with the
communities we're working with. The very poor and homeless
have immediate needs that have to be met; most of the people
we work with are families in emergency shelters. That's not
to say the theories are wrong. They just don't work in this
situation. We've had to conceptualize alternative theories,
beginning with building community--;forming connections,
breaking down isolation. We're definitely
working
towards a participant-led movement, which is very different
from most of what happens in organizing.
Why did
you choose organizing for your
work?
It's what I want to do. I believe in it. It's important to
me. At this time in my life, it feels right--;to be working
with people, learning and able to teach.
During college, I had a
summer internship with AACI (Asian Americans for Community
Involvement). It was my first experience with a non-profit,
and it helped define my plans for the future. It's great
working with an organization whose beliefs and visions match
your own. At BOSS, at every level of the organization, you
find unifying beliefs and visions. It's the best possible
situation--;getting paid for something you believe
in.
What
barriers/challenges have you faced and continue to face
now?
In terms of
organizing, the biggest challenges have been the
difficulties of organizing the homeless--;people without an
address, without a steady place to live. And I can't really
understand what they're going through. I've never been
homeless. I haven't had the same experiences.
On a more personal level,
the biggest barrier has been racism--;both within the
organizing community and with the communities I'm trying to
organize. I'm always seen as half--;half Filipino or half
black--;but not whole. My mixed heritage hasn't been
understood, and it's been a barrier.
What
concerns do you have about community organizing as it is now
being practiced?
There's a lot more work that could be done to bring
organizers together and challenge definitions of organizing.
The CTWO way of thought is the only way and definition to
some, and this isn't necessarily a good thing. It's
important to validate other forms of organizing and expand
the definitions. We also need to develop ways to sustain
people for long-term organizing careers and prevent burnout.
There needs to be more unionization. There's this philosophy
among organizers of working yourself to death. This is
considered the way it's done. It's like a badge of honor. We
need to turn this around and encourage life beyond
organizing. And we need to have organizers work more in
groups, instead of working alone. I think the same amount of
work could be done in less hours. It's a matter of changing
the way we do things. Maybe the answer is to give more
responsibility to the communities. The numbers are there,
though not the paid numbers. The numbers are definitely
there, though.
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