The Armed Canaries

The setting: a graduate seminar on the politics of identity. Early evening in New York City in a windowless, linoleum-lined classroom.

The reading for the evening: The Miner's Canary, by Lani Guinier and Gerard Torres. As they explain on their project website, their argument is that problems experienced by racialized minorties are signals for broader problems in our social structure, and that political race can be a tool to change those broader problems (in addition to those original racial problems.)

The radically androgynous feminist grad student with thick rimmed glasses wearing a boy's oxford shirt and Converse sneakers (you know the type) says: "What if the racialized minorities don't all want to work together? Why can't the canaries arm themselves?"

And the food & politics blogger sitting next to her has a moment.

I give you: The Armed Canaries.



Revolution. It's for the birds.

They each have individual secret identities, as well, used as code names to protect them from the feds.




Yuri Kanari. She takes her name from Yuri Kochiyama, the radical Japanese-American feminist and friend of Malcom X.



Angela Canari. She took the name in honor of Angela Davis, the black revolutionary feminist academic.



And here is Antonio Canarsci. He renamed himself after Antonio Gramsci, imprisoned Communist and theorist of hegemony.

(No, I don't eat peeps, although I did make some merangue ones that were pretty lousy looking but yummy tasting. I'm trying to cut out gelatin, so no more marshmallows for me. But the Wife is a fan of the stale ones. Lucky for me she bought yellow.)