MKPUSA WTF: The Do, Re, Mi of the Oops, Ouch, and Whoa


So, to recap, MKP USA has inherited the basis for a multicultural initiative as well as an entire community of multicultural facilitators. Some things the curriculum committee sought to change, some things they really didn't look hard at.  Either the curriculum committee were looking at the wrong things or they were allowing some very bad processes to be introduced into the system, bad processes that were recovered from the trash bin of the MCC Presenter Council.

I am talking about the evolution of their Intent/Impact and Oops, Ouch, Whoa processes that have permeated from UPPD to the Leadership trainings, the PIT, and onto the New Warrior Training weekend.

MKPUSA simply allowed all this to grow and permeate because they assumed that the leader trainers who subscribed to it, prescribed it, and are the originators of these changes were educated enough to understand the impact of what they were doing.  Not all leaders agree, but then again we have a cafeteria of multicultural concepts to draw from...

The potential cost for that now is that MKPUSA lacks the technology to get them out of this jam that they're in currently.  They may not even be aware that they allowed the bastardization of multicultural processes to show just how ineffective MKPUSA can be at solving the current issues.  That the processes plagiarized then edited were originally written by an African American woman is just icing on the cake.  

These edited processes implemented in the US overtly teach that intent/impact and Ouch processes are specifically for the historically excluded groups to address truth to power. These concepts were originally designed to flow both ways allowing for discussion, negotiation, and mutual growth.  Ouch and Intent/Impact were concepts and guidelines for noticing the process of a multicultural discussion.  They were not designed as power processes.

As a result, MKPUSA through a core of leaders left behind the cooperative concept on how to hold people of color in our circles accountable for bad behavior.  

How would the impact be felt over the course of an 18-month discussion/negotiation around cultural appropriation initiated by a “Cancel Culture” leader body?  That lack of knowledge may have been like blood in the water to an oppressed group intent on having its way with the organization.  Once the rules became apparent that they could do or say anything they want out in public, all they had to do was manipulate the field towards their result.  

Spirit Protection did not care how the LKSI showed up. They had already hooked the big fish using the flawed logic of the MKPUSA Intercultural/Multicultural tools as created, edited, and sold by MKPUSA and the leaders driving the multicultural curriculum through the community.

The response at this point from the MKPUSA board is a defeatist mantra:

*Listen to Understand
*Trust More
*Judge less
*Grieve the loss of what was
*Embrace what’s new
*Remember why we’re here (For the Next Man!)
- Notes from the chat of the 4/27 Town Hall

The regrettable impact of this is that it created an environment where volunteers are tossed aside, decisions are made in secret, agreements with outside entities are made in secret, and our representative body has chosen to throw a 30-year constituency under the bus, along with the values that this group represents! 

MKPUSA’s hope is that all this might go away to hopefully initiate some men again.  NO MATTER WHAT!

And the shadow of that is money.  If you studied the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and Woody Guthrie, then you know that the Do, Re, Mi he refers to is money.  MOney is also a shadow in this conversation.

“Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, you ain't got the do re mi” – Woody Guthrie

Rather than budget and pay for a consultant and an outside observation, they bought into the idea from the Leader Body that MKPUSA can effectively train diversity incestuously without outside input.  The results have come at the cost of many loyal members and volunteers in MKPUSA.

  • A clique of Leaders owned the MKPUSA board and vanquished the LKSI from the NWTA, MKPUSA is re-forming the weekend with new processes...
  • There are Leaders sharing emails and documents with Spirit Protection to keep the MKPUSA board dancing.
  • MKPUSA is trying to figure out how to have a productive enrollment and membership season in the midst of all this.

Meanwhile, GOOD MEN have been left behind and are looking on incredulously.

Only now the MKPUSA board put out an email that blesses the LKSI for its work and on its journey, but moreover tells Spirit Protection that they are no longer funding LKSI representation, some of whom are driving the new GRC initiative.

Fast Moving... Stay Tuned!


Editor's note: I want to reiterate That each one of these stories is in a sense exactly that: a story.  Unless a person has incredible imagination and can create alternative worlds, the stories usually have a grain of truth. I suppose if anyone takes my story personally, they might know of the grain of truth that they're reacting to.  Luckily within the intentional men's community most of what they know is that anything that comes out of another man's mouth is just projection on the first level therefore they are protected against even noticing that there is truth in the other man's statement. That has worked for us for 30 years in this community.   It allows us to closely guard our shadows and keep secrets.

-------------------------------------------------------

 



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