Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts

Melting Pot Boils Over - Racism Today


Dedication ceremony for the sculpture of Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Magnolia Grove Monastery. Photo by Paul Davis



I want to feel integrated within myself, just feeling like all parts of myself can be present. But sometimes it’s hard to feel a sense of belonging when people tell us that we’re different or “not normal”. The work that ARISE is doing is to create an openness and a space of belonging for everyone.

— Brian, Multi-heritage, Queer, Person of Color

For more information on ARISE follow this link.

I wanted to write a bit about The recent drama around a Target commercial is making news. Beatrice Dixon, the founder of The Honey Pot was shown in a commercial for Black History month. Now white people are posting comments on her page and review sites trying to destroy her business. 

Here is the commercial.



The Honey Pot has a really great product in that they are all plant based and are available at a variety of retailers such as Target, Walmart and Whole Foods just to name a few.  As the controversy grew, I took some time to check our their website. I donate often to groups that provide resources for the homeless, and I was pleasantly surprised that this company offers support for those without access to feminine hygiene products. Another great reason to support this company.




I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I watched the shows and learned about the melting pot, while hearing my stepfather complain about black people in a derogatory way.



My school was mostly white while my teachers were mostly black. Being raised in the Confederate South I never knew about slavery or the struggles that I non-white people experienced.  I was ignorant to what white people had done and still continue to do to non-whites.  In my late thirties I began to learn more about American history and began to educate my self on what messages were left out of our history books.

As I begin to look into myself and take accountability for my actions I also have started to see where as a society we need to come together and realize just how horrible we gave been to each other.  We as white people, including and sometimes specifically white women, have used our positions of privilege to oppress and in some cases directly attack black people and people of color.

This lead to a discussion on my Facebook page where I tried to sum up my opinion with the following comment:

I agree that all should be supported. In this case she was commenting about what representation she had as a child. No black women were visible to her as successful entrepreneurs. When I was a child I only saw white men as being the ones who had the power or rules the household. Today I am a very successful primary breadwinner and I never knew that was possible. I want to be a role model for those raised in my similar circumstances that they do not have to stay in them. They can overcome where they are and become more. I cannot be a role model for black girls because I have no way of understanding the black experience. My perspective will always be one of privilege. I have no concept of what it feels like to be black.  I can only pass the mic and not speak for them but instead amplify their voices. She didn't say white girls shouldn't be successful. She didn't say only black girls should be successful. She said, I want to be a role model for black girls so they can see they have opportunities too. There is nothing wrong with that statement. We as white people have to understand  that not everything has to include us. We do not deserve to be included. If we look at history we take been front and center in the lives of black girls. They didn't even have dolls until the 60's and 70's that represented their skin tones. Little girls and boys are still being singled out for the way their hair naturally comes out of their head. We have had our say. I stand by my statement and fully support her for feeling she needs to be a role model for black girls. This isn't a job white people are qualified for.

We have a choice as white women to continue to stick our heads in the sand, preach messages like "I don't  see color" all the while benefiting from institutionalized racism or we can begin to allow this system to change. It starts with not speaking over marginalized voices. Stop getting defensive when black women support black women. Read about the Black experience. look up Black Wall Street.  Read The New Jim Crow.

We have the real history at our fingertips.  Forget what you though you knew and begin to learn again. There is no shame in admitting you were once ignorant on a subject. Shame comes with remaining ignorant.

What are the steps we can take?

Listen.
Read.
Learn.
Breathe.

https://arisesangha.org/

Teaching Myself

For years I have been a dedicated fan of the Web.  I can spend hours enveloped in video after video on YouTube.  When the internet was young, Ask Jeeves was one of my favorite sites. Just this week I switched from Alexa to Google because Google's AI is stronger at answering questions.

Anytime I really want to know how to do something I go to these tools. And statistics show I'm not alone.  You can see the live search statistics here.

In just 15 seconds of my screenshot below from Internet Live Stats over a million searches were completed.

Screenshot - LiveInternetSearch.com

Show demographics on use of tools like Google. LinkedIn learning and other teaching sites are seeing new students at a record high. By and far the number of people utilizing the internet for learning new things is at an all time high.

Image Credit - statista.com


So then, why is it that generally speaking when white people want to learn about black people or racism they go to black people and ask them to teach them?  For centuries we have been told by black people about the black experience. Instead we need to look back and see what they have been telling us for years.

"He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an America, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having doors of Opportunity closed roughing in his face."  ~ W. E. B. Du Bois

We simply didn't listen. We hunkered down in the swaddling  blankets of White Supremacy and told ourselves we were helping by lavishing praise on individuals that are actually thinly veiled insults.

Bloomberg Interview on CBS



This video shows a clip from the Color Purple, a film adaptation of the of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker.  In this scene a local white woman is shown using a compliment as a way to repress and show a shock for the cleanliness of the black children. The Miss Millie character has another scene which stands out to me. 



While searching for a clip on the scene above I found this really great piece on it.  I highly recommend it.




We fail to see how white men who threaten women are elected to office, yet black children are executed for looking at or talking to white women .

Warning:  The following video contains explicit language and is NSFW



Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store

One was elected the president of the United States and the other was lynched.  And I hear. Yeah that was years ago though:



July 2019 - Image Source WJVT.com


We as white people need to do better. We need to confront racism in our own communities. we need to address that uncle or aunt at the Thanksgiving table. We need to stop that friend with the racist joke. We need to call out casual racism around us by not using words in our speech and writings that have racist origins.




Most importantly we need to learn from the experiences of those outside our own communities   We need to take that labor upon ourselves. We have asked black people, people of color and people who are in other minorities to tell us what we can do about racism.

Let me be clear, it is not their job to teach us to solve this problem. white people created this problem and white people need to solve it.

What can we, as white people do?

Glad you asked. Here's a list of 5 things you can do to become a better ally.

1. Listen to black people and people of color.
2. Be aware of your bias.
3. Research the history of those you wish to be an ally to.
4. Do the work to understand not only how you participate in a racist system, but how you benefit from it.
5. Amplify the voices of black people and people of color.  You do not need to speak for them.


Finally, we need to become better at loving ourselves as a human race . We need to love our planet and the other inhabitants.  Our seas, our rivers and our air. Take some time and sit with yourself in the quite and think about a flower.

The flower is made up of many things.  Petals, stem, roots. It is made up of water, air and sunlight.  Without each of these things, it would not exist. We are like the flower.  We are one with the flower.  Learn how we are interconnected with all life on this planet. If we lose a single part we are no longer whole.

Want to learn more?  Talk to white people about racism. Look at our history of colonialism around the planet.  We created this problem.  We have to end it.

This map shows the progress of charting the rise and fall of (mostly) European empires from 1492, when the European discovery of the Americas kicked off their movement west and south, to 2008.

Image Credit Vox.com


Google is your friend.  Use it.



Renee


Recommended Reading

Up from a Slave - Booker T. Washington - Link
The Souls of Black Folks - W. E. B. Du Bois - Link
Overview of the African-America Experience - Link
PUSHOUT - The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools - Link




Thoughts on Racism

Thoughts on Racism

I started this article out with the idea of looking back at the history of race relations in North Carolina.  I thought maybe I could pull together some statistics about how it is better now.  I began by looking at the Civil War.  I dug through the National Archives to find information on black participants.  I found references to 54th Regiment of Massachusetts and other volunteers like the sons of Fredrick Douglas (Charles to the 5th Calvary and Lewis to the 54th Regiment) and even women like Harriet Tubman who fought unofficially for the Union.  Black soldiers were paid less than white and they were charged for their uniforms until 1864 when Congress granted equal pay retroactively.  Nearly 200,000 black men fought for the union, while it is said that only several thousand fought on the side of the Confederacy.  The troops remained segregated for over 100 years.  In 1948 President Truman signed an executive order creating the Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services to begin integration of the US Military.  Still today we have regulations to the dress code that tells people of color they cannot have natural hair and be in the military, hair that is does not lay flat and straight is preferred over fuller hair.

Changes, but not as clear cut as you would think we could be in our countries history.  I thought, ok, let’s go at this from a personal angle.  I have personal experience.

When I was in a youngster in 2nd or 3rd grade the little girl who sat in front of me had braids and beads in her hair.  I would play with her locks and ask her how her hair was able to have beads and ribbons.  She explained that her mom sat down each day and combed her hair and put in the twists and bows.  My young brain accepted that I would never have pretty hair like my black classmate because my mom never did anything but watch TV.  She never sat with me and braided my hair.  So I was destined to be different than my classmate not because of our hair texture or skin color but more so because her mom cared more than mine. Later in the year, while playing “Red Rover” outside I busted through the line next to my classmate and pulled her back to my side to be on my team.  For those not familiar with the game, two groups are selected, the kids hold hands and call the name of someone on the opposite side to run over and break through the chain.  If they don’t break through, they are added to the chain, if they do they select one of the two that broke the chain to take back to the other side.  I selected my classmate with the pretty hair to come back to my team.  I recall as if it were yesterday, “Come with me, slave.” are the words I spoke. I knew that a slave was a person that had to do what the other person said.  My friend yanked away from me and was angry.  She had tears in her eyes and said, “Don’t call me that.”  I was confused. I had no idea why she was upset.  She ran inside.  I never approached her again.  We never spoke again.   It wasn’t until 1977, when Roots was released that I had any clue what the word “slave” and racial bias were all about.  Here, she was well experienced in the words in our 3rd grade class, yet I had no idea.  This is white privilege.  No one needed to explain to me what racism was because it didn’t have an impact on my life. 

Today as a nearly 50 year old woman I sit writing this paper, with dreadlocks in my hair.  I have beads and ribbons, all the things that the little 8 year old wanted in her hair.  Yet, I have people approaching me saying I am appropriating a culture, store managers following me and treating me as though I’m going to steal something and the need to buy scarves and head wraps to put forth a more “businesslike” appearance. 

As I do more research for the piece and see so many comments about how when white people try to talk about race, they make it about them.  I try to think about how editorial pieces are written.  For the most part they are written based on first person experience.  I know that I don’t have the slightest clue what it is like to have to explain racial bias to your children.  I know that when my child made friends with the girl next door, it made no difference her race.  I didn’t ask her race.  It wasn’t important.  When she picked out a “brown baby doll” (her words) with her birthday money, I had no issue with that.  She took her toy to show and tell and was told very directly by the other children that she could not have a “brown baby”, that only brown mommies could have brown babies, I had to explain to her genetics.  Was I wrong to let her pick which ever one she wanted?  Should I have had a talk with her before I let her take it to school?  Hindsight is 20/20 they say.  I would not change my decisions. By the end of my research on this topic, to say I was disheartened and frustrated is putting it mildly.  I found a website called Mapping Police Violence and it is just incredible how much goes unreported by mainstream media.  I stare in awe at the screen unsure what my next move should be?  How do we move forward?  How do we work together to end racism?  Do we call on religion or government to help?  Interestingly enough the only religious text I could find that condemned racism was in the Quran, despite what modern media tries to say about Islam.

As children we are unaware of racism.  We learn racism from those around us.  We are taught to be nasty to each other or to judge others based on bias from the adults around us.  I saw an interview between Mike Wallace and Morgan Freeman where they discuss the need to stop referring to each other as a white man and a black man but more as Mike and Morgan.  Do discussions and dialog on racism actually lead to more racism?  For this I have no answer.  I do know that today, I wish I could return to the days of just appreciating the pretty beads in someone’s hair and wanting to have them in my own without worrying about offending someone.

Maybe the time has come to stop talking about racism and start doing something about it. Treat other people with the same kindness and respect that you would like to have given to you.  That’s it. Simple.






The Real Thanksgiving Holiday

I've started to notice a few memes being passed around and blog projects starting up for the celebration of Thanksgiving.  Some folks are saying oh how horrible the shops are for having people work on Thanksgiving, it should be about family.

Image Source - HLN - Facebook


Our modern tradition is based on harvest meal that took place in the 1600's in Plymouth Massachusetts.  The documentation on this meal is limited.  The holiday was created on the last Thursday of November by the federal government in 1941.

So why is it that we get all fired upset about working on Thanksgiving but yet demand that Columbus day be renamed to honor the Native Americans?  Why do we see one as racism and the other as not?

Glen Ford wrote the following regarding the American Thanksgiving: (link)
William Bradford, the former Governor of Plymouth and one of the chroniclers of the 1621 feast, was also on hand for the great massacre of 1637:
“Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire…horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy.”

While I have had some nasty family dinners, no one ended up run through with a sword.  So now, let's think about these projects where you spend X number of days writing about being thankful for things.  First let me state that I think it is a fantastic idea to be thankful. Everyday I wake up and thanks the earth for being under my feet and the sky above.  I thank the birds of the trees and all the wonderful things that I have in my life.  I don't however, feel obligated to do this.  I do this automatically.  I don't need a month or a holiday to make it happen.

I think instinctively I avoid taking part in these things because I do not condone what happened to the native people who lived on this island before Europeans came here and destroyed their culture.  Our ancestors tried to conquer a people and when they could not enslave them, they killed them.  Plain and simple.  There is no honor there.  Celebrating this month as some sort of holy month for those to be thankful of all things fall is a bit of a misnomer.

Especially since the majority of those reverent US citizens will celebrate Thanksgiving in the following manner:


While getting set to schedule your blog posts or share your wonderful Thanksgiving messages, I only ask that you actually do a little research on the holiday.  Be sure to fully understand what you're celebrating.  And remember, you don't need to have a special month or day to be thankful for what you have.  You can do that anytime.

Sosanna



LINKS

Thanksgiving from a Native Standpoint
The First Thanksgiving - Lies My Teacher Told Me 
Thanksgiving - A National Day of Mourning
Thanksgiving


What on EARTH??

Has the entire world lost their collective minds? I'm just sitting here shaking my head wondering what is going on today. I know we have Mercury in retrograde but really? Come on now...

Just a quick recap of what I've been seening over the last few weeks...

First...






First, I'd like to point out they turned of the comments for the video... Well yeah, I don't blame you when you're spouting off some crazy crap like this. Our country as we all know is not a "Christian" country. You can worship however you like here. We have the freedom to follow the God or Goddess of our choice right?

Well apparently not in Georgia.

A young fellow by the name of Christopher Turner, 11 years old who lives in Bowden Georgia was pulled out of his class by his teacher after taking Samhain (October 31st) off from school and questioned about Paganism and told "Paganism isn't a religion". Now, as if this weren't enough Christopher was singled out again, when the teacher requested that class do an assignment on the history of Christmas, but they were not allowed to have anything in the report pertaining to Paganism. Really?



A facebook support group has been started for the family. If you'd like to read the original post on this you can find it here. My friend Nalaya Oddly did a wonderful blog post on this here.

Next I run into this....



WHAT? Leave? Don't let the border hit you in the ass on the way out??? My friend Kallan Kennedy had a wonderful post on this. You can read it here. No one can put it better than she can!



Let's just have a little history lesson here...



Of course you are all aware of the ban lifted on horse slaughter. Below is a news piece on youtube regarding the changes in the legislation. There are no horses injured in this video.



So when this made news a friend of mine was apposed and posted a petition to sign to try to get it banned again. I liked her post and signed the petition. At some point the discussion changed to a debate and others made statements to the effect of "I don't care for interracial marriage but you don't see me signing a petition to stop that".





Ummmmm WHAT?

Yeah that's what I said.... So needless to say words were exchanged and then I get this in my messages:



Apparently I misquoted, by saying someone was a bigot because they didn't believe in interracial marriage...



So the lessons for this week are, we live in a country where only Christians are free, children can be pulled out and questioned on their religion, if you don't like "Merry Christmas" you need to get out of the country and people who don't like "mixed marriages" are not bigots.


This has been over the last few weeks...



On a more positive note I have added more stuff to my shop, Sosanna's Closet. Have a look at these new items.





Namaste and Blessed Be

Sosanna

PS

Happy Holidays