politicians are people too...honest

"i just donated 750 gifts to needy children, how many of you can say you did that?" declares Californian Representative Elton Gallegly to a crowd of people lobbying for job creation.

The audacity to make gaudy remarks as to how many gifts you can afford to donate is mind boggling. It is the equivalent of kindergarteners bickering over who gets the most number of rainbow stickers.

Share your narcissism with the rest of your ilk. You are speaking to people who are out of jobs, poor, and looking for hope. I can't imagine what would possess someone to scoff at those who they can afford to give more than.

How out of touch are politicians with everyday Americans?

When babies come in blue...

Few things get to me as strongly as those that show oversights on attitudes about race, culture, and privilege. So when I read an article that was published in 2007 about a woman of Scandinavian descent who's moping about how her European-Indian daughter is tipping the social status scale on the wrong side for her lifestyle, it really gets my blood coursing.

Lowri Turner, who I am assuming is a freelance journalist, coo's to the tune of colorblindness until she discovers that her infant has blue eyes that will not stay blue for very long. Or that her dark curly hair will not turn silky, wavy, blonde, like everyone else in her "positively" Scandinavian family. Her second husband was of eastern Indian descent, and through the course of the article, she seems nothing short of being partial to damning him for not having blue eyes, blonde hair, and white skin himself. Indeed, it must have been shocking to give birth to a child who has a darker skin tone than her own, who she expresses "looks nothing like me", who by her own admission will cause her social status relegated to a "'Tracy Towerblocks' living on benefits, most of which they spend on lager and fags" by strangers and peers, who was (above all things) fathered by a man of color. Her mixed race daughter causes her to lose all hope of ever projecting a healthy, stable, European family stating "If I wanted to pass us off as a nice, neat nuclear family, she would blow my cover at once." A nice aryan prop would do the trick though, wouldn't it? Or maybe you can lock her in the basement so you can attend events and outings with the two sons that look just like you. You know, the two from your prior marriage? Perhaps this idea you have in your head of a "nice, neat nuclear family" was already skewed before you decided your daughter was a terrible backdrop for the wholesome family image you wanted to create.

She goes on in this article to lament about having to create an environment for the Indian culture that her daughter should naturally be every bit as much apart of as her own Scandinavian side.

"Part of me thinks I should be playing sitar music to her in her cot, mastering pakoras, and serving them dressed in sari, but that would be fantastically fake coming from me." In other words, whitewashing her daughters cultural ties would be totally not-fake, or so I'm assuming. In fact, any culture outside of the "positively" Scandinavian corner of the world Lowri lives in must be a dangerous haven of heathen gods whose names are spelled too funny to pronounce and who wear even funnier clothing.

So her own daughter is relegating Lowri to a social status that is implied she had no problem relegating other white women to with children of color. She's become the iconoclast of the traditional Scandinavian families. And she can't be bothered divulging in the child's other half of ethnic culture because it's too awkward and far easier to just erase and forget about half of her ethnic identity all together.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-467787/I-love-mixed-race-baby--does-feel-alien.html#ixzz1UBgLTd3E


The most important thing that I believe this article points out is a grim and sneaking suspicion that privilege is something that comes only to her ideal blonde haired, blue eyed baby. She may not realize it, but these confessions are her own prejudice and racist ideas that are being imposed not only onto and into her daughter, but many other children, teenagers, and adults who don't have blue eyes or blonde hair. It is truly disenfranchising. Hopefully she can empower her child to have confidence in her identity, her culture, and her self-esteem. I would love to see an article update on what attitude changes have been made for the better or the worse of her family since 4-5 years ago.

The Throne

It's official.

Jay-Z and Kanye are making babies. And the two begat a name that will be equally as fitting.

With their single "Otis" that dropped, however, I don't feel like they did Redding any honors.

Just a taste of what's to come on the album? Hopefully.

So, noticed Drake talks about taking the "Throne" in DJ Khaleds single. Kanye seems to retaliate in his first verse about "niggas" talking "real reckless". Scales leaning in Ye's favor, lol.

us vs. them and institutionalized racism

Critics are decrying a recent move in the heart of New York (ground zero) to construct a mosque that they suggest would display insensitivity towards the victims of the September 11th attacks. Outraged over tolerance of a religious practice that is far too intolerant.

Conservative talk show hosts have gone as far as to encourage viewers to "blow it up" and "bomb" it assuming construction on it begins. A teaparty spokesman condemns giving muslims a place to pray to their "monkey god" "5 times a day" in a location that would desecrate the victims of 9-11.

The FBI reports that hate crimes against arab americans have increased nearly 1500% since 9-11. Last month, wafting under the lurid smells of oil in the gulf, nearly 60 muslims were underattack when a pipebomb went off inside of a mosque in Jacksonville. Where was the outrage then? You can only imagine the the lampooning of outrageous epithets if the attacker were Muslim, and that's for one reason: racism against Muslims has become internally politicized.

Joe stack flying his plane into an IRS building got some shrugged shoulders and a "musta' been a bad day". Coulda' happened to anyone, right? An Arab American is crowned Miss USA and FoxNews channels start dripping with idiotic drivel and outrage over why the white contestant didn't win. I had no idea beauty peagants could put a damper on the "things that our black president did today" segment Fox normally has on repeat.

Anyway, the idea is that Islam is "taking over" America. The organization that storms the anti-Islam movement on ground zero is SIOA...an acronym for Stop Islamization of America. See how that works???

Anti-muslim sentiments are nothing new in this millenium. From the onset of 2001 it was "us vs. them". America has villified muslims, many of whom are our neighbors.

Are people so blinded by their own racism and miseducation to know that the Americans who are and were victims of 9-11 include Arab Americans? Yes, Arab Americans were even apart of the rescue and salvage teams as well. In fact, the most recent time square bombing attempt was foiled by an Arab American.

Belgium and France have both enforced laws banning burqas and niqabs. Will it be when anti-mosque zones are not enough that New Yorkers start lobbying against burqas worn on ground zero premises? At what point do we begin marginalizing persons who are practicing the freedoms every single one of us enjoys? I believe we've already passed that point.

institutional discrimination and misinformation.

The French parliament has banned burqas and other forms of face-covering Islamic dress in public places as "an affront to the nation''s values," but the law does not take effect until fall. Belgium has passed a similar law.



an affront to the nations values? Do you mean values that include the words "xenophobia" and "racism"?

the williams sisters

spotted through racialicious, an article about the uproar over the outfit venus decided to wear nearly 3 days ago.

http://www.racialicious.com/2010/05/27/links-for-2010-05-27/#comments

They meet constant derision. To be expected when you’re black
and becoming more legendary everyday, ascending in an iconic “white” sport.

This is more than just people speaking out about poor fashion choices. They are speaking out against a black woman being that successful AND that fearless. They are speaking out against her audacity to wear what she wants to wear while playing THEIR sport. If a white woman did this (as has been said earlier), this might have gotten a quick 10 minute side bar discussion on ESPN and never heard of again. Being black, Venus stands out more. How she sports her hair is analyzed. Her cursing after a poorly played return is portrayed as brazen, animal conduct. The tennis outfits worn by her and her sister are vulgar and inappropriate (see “ghetto booty” or curvaceous) while those worn by their opponents are legitimately fashionable and innocent. Oh, did I mention they grunt! My god! Children are watching!

Why the f#!@ is this all ESPN has been talking about.

Arizona, no turnin' back...

In a recent move that might have garnered more national attention than any move Arizona as a state has received since opting out of celebrating MLK day and more recently signing the new immigration bill, the slippery slope shows no signs of stopping.

*click*Ban of Ethnic Studies*click*

Between removing educators from the public school systems based off of dialects and "accents" and apprehending persons who LOOK like illegal immigrants with no other predicate to go off of other than skin color and being bilingual, the most recent social/political folly AZ has fallen into is Mayor Brewer signing a bill that seeks to ban ethnic study classes that advocate "the overthrow of the United States government", "promote resentment" of other racial groups, and are "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group". These concerns seem to be a tetrahedron of sorts.

What exactly is American history? And how accurately can we explore that history if it does not chronicle the contributions of other ethnicities through all of their success, trials, and tribulations? I'm interested in her dissection of what content is designed for a particular ethnic group. To put it like it is, my textbooks were filled with old white men. Does that mean it wasn't designed for women? For me? And if it was, then how are Mexican American studies any different? What does she presume of celebratory events such as black history month or asian pacific heritage month? What are the reasons for these events? Is it for the same reason as womens history month? Is it because there is a significant lack of representation along the color and gender lines? It is documented that a greater sense of pride and knowledge in the youths heritage and the feeling of being included, rather than the feeling of being excluded, improves academic performance of students. The truth is our linear system of education is not broad enough to include any "particular" ethnic group, except for those with pale skin and who have more closely descended from European ancestors than myself, and other minorities. AZ is pulling out an aggressive political statement and and confirming what was harrowingly suspected for nearly the past two months: "we're sick of brown skinned people".

I remember some time ago reading about how many Southern textbooks referred to the Civil War as the "War of Northern Aggression". I guess the Civil Rights Movement would in effect have been coined the movement for "Negroes Special Privileges". Being raised in the midwest, I can't say I know how the state of affairs is waging in the southern education system today. But when contrasting the demographic that AZ bills are pandering to, I'm inclined to believe that any kind of education rhetoric that doesn't historically illustrate white people as the benevolent people who taught black folks hard work, or shows Columbus as the first REAL discoverer of North America while subverting the humanity of Native Americans, and portrays internment camps more like summer camps and talks about the construction of the intercontinental railroad without even mentioning chinese oppression...that Mayor Brewer believes teaching anything except the above historical fiction fosters an attitude that upholds "resentment of other racial groups" i.e. privileged white people and is endemic of "overthrowing" the government. Where she draws these conclusions is amiss and poorly rationalized. Her tetrahedron theorizes that if there is group of solidarity in class (which there is not, these classes are available and encouraged for all students), this will create resentment based off of the knowledge acquired about minorities in America and how their niche has been carved for them. Now it should not be alarming that the history of this nation WILL upset students. It should! What has happened in the past does not stay in the past, it moves with us. But we have the power to cultivate it and express ourselves in creative ways...to rise and overcome. Something that these classes can also equip minorities with - knowledge of self, pride, and the understanding they can surmount what will befall them. With that said, is it the resentment of a certain ethnicity or class that we are so afraid to excite, or is it the resentment of inescapable privilege that many overlook and perhaps the education system is intent on keeping outta sight and outta mind of minorities? I'll call a spade a spade and state that I believe the entire idea of "overthrowing the government" is more proudly advocated by teabaggers in "solidarity" who wish to "take their country back!" It is a mere strawman attack in the tetrahedron of it all.

What I do know is that if Mayor Brewer and the rest of Arizona consider the real and bitter history of this nation to incite resentment on a scale large enough to cause a coup d'etat, it's a good thing they amended gun laws making it legal for a state of angry white people to carry concealed weapons without so much as a permit to protect themselves from all those scary mexicans.

No Guns? No Problem! Gettem faster than ever!

That was just signed not even a month ago when all of this racial fuckery first started going downhill. Is that to protect themselves for when the government is overthrown? To protect themselves from the deadly illegal immigrants, right? The pernicious ones who are intent on harming your family and slashing your tires as opposed to staying as FAR under the radar as possible since they're more afraid of being profiled, questioned, and deported for being suspects than anything else. What's with this marshall law BS and the coinciding effects of paranoia.

Can anyone HONESTLY tell me that in the litany of all this tripe spilling out of AZ, profiling will not be an ongoing problem? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

The superintendent of the AZ school district, in defending her support of this bill, had to let everyone know that she is indeed of latina descent. And Michael Steele is black. Big fucking deal.