Not My Normal is an informational resource for resisting normalization of hatred, oppression, and discrimination. The site is maintained by a small community of educational activists with goals to broaden understanding, promote social justice, and resist systemic oppression.
Not My Normal locates its physical epicenter around the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
Currently, the site consists of:
Immigrants and refugees; Muslims, Sikhs, and other religious minorities; people of color; women; LBGT people; and people in poverty have been fighting against oppression for decades. What is happening currently is not disconnected from our history, and is not embodied in one person or one election. Some people may even feel that the current hatred is their “normal,” in that it is what they frequently experience.
But “normal” suggests something more than frequency. However much oppression has been many people's ongoing experience, we believe it should never be normalized. It should never be accepted as status quo, as customary, as inevitable, or as tolerable. Even those of us who have been coping with oppression a long time can refuse to accept that this should be a personal “normal.”
Especially in the current time, with the rise in hate and violence against non-dominant groups, we need to resist the normalization of hatred. We hope to foster, envision, and enact an alternative through these resources, events, and organizing.