Pushpa Iyer, Founder & Coordinator
How do my identities intersect to give me more privilege but also marginalize me?
Brown, Immigrant, Woman, Upper Caste, Middle-Class, Higher-education degrees, and consider the world’s dominant language, English, as my first language. Not many of my identities marginalizes me but skin color discrimination in this country hits me really hard. Of course, being a woman or an immigrant in some contexts poses challenges.
What drives my passion for Compassionate Courage?
I have worked for social justice my entire adult life. As an activist first and foremost, my life has been dedicated to calling out injustices and standing together with those discriminated and marginalized. Now, I am a victim of racism and I have been discriminated against. The alternative to launching this project would have been to curl up in bed. Unacceptable. There is so much change I want to see in this world. Here I am.
What occupies my time?
I am always cooking up new social justice projects; cooking occupies my time too! I am good with cooking Indian dishes but always (unsuccessfully) attempting other cuisines. I am to my own horror spending a lot of time making the world’s richest man richer - yes, Bezos! Amazon shopping is almost an addiction. And then, there is another corporation that I am committed to giving money - Netflix. Cannot. do. without. it. Oh, also I spend a lot of time teaching and directing the Center for Conflict Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.