What kind is he?

I rescue pit bulls (sometimes they’re pit bullish). Further, I am a foster mom to up to four furbabies at a time and countless bottle babies, Bandit being my current. Of the little ones, always I am asked, “What is it?” (Sarcasm answers, “A dog.”) Notice the picture of Bandit in this post. Can you tell what he is? Better yet, how come it matters? Am I going to change my mind about helping him just because he might be a breed I don’t particularly care for?

Nope. I save all dogs, regardless. I pick up strays regularly. I have been known to chase a dog around my neighborhood for hours, hoping to get close enough to grab its collar. I believe every single animal on this planet deserves a fighting chance at a safe and happy life. Bandit is a baby who needs a little extra attention and I’m more than willing to help.

The constant inquiry about his breed got me thinking about humans and how we place people into categories, race and gender being the biggest, most obvious examples.

Think about it.

When we meet someone new, most of us try to “place them”, or slap on a label that often pigeon holes them into a type. Then forevermore we use those basic assumptions, aka stereotypes, to inform how we are to deal with them and others like them in the future. On occasion, when we find someone that doesn’t fit into a single category or for whom labels don’t apply, we cast them off as strange, weird, odd, and even scary. The propensity for ignoring said person is high because they make us uncomfortable.

Many of us feel a strong urge to ask about an individual’s ethnicity when it is not immediately obvious. When other aspects of their self are visually and/or audibly accessible yet we cannot place it, such as an accent or facial feature, we may feel a strong urge to ask.

Once I attended a camp session where a young British man was also in attendance. My friend kept asking him to say her name every time she saw him because she liked the way it sounded. After a full day of this, he grew weary and she didn’t get the hint. Noting his fatigue, I asked her to chill out for a bit, to give him a break, then reminded her she would have gotten equally as frustrated at being asked to repeat something over and over again just because she sounded cool.

In my own life, I do not like to be labeled. However, I’m easy to peg: white, lower middle class, single mom. On the outside, I took like the typical WASP. On the inside, I am anything but. Many of us attempt to project a certain appearance so as to fit in, keeping our inner most selves a secret until we get to know one another better.

And that is something I try to keep in mind when meeting new people as should you. Worry about labels later, if/when they might actually apply.

Keep reading....

A Whites-Only Basketball League?

Wow. Just wow. The fact that this "whites-only" league would be comprised of teams from 12 southern states makes me laugh in the ironic sense.

But wait, there's more:

'I don't hate anyone of color,' he told the Augusta Chronicle. 'But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.'

And that's as far as I got because I started laughing so hard at the idea of white people not being allowed to play basketball in the NBA because too many black people (and other nationalities) have taken over?

Then I decided to take another quick peak and found this gem:

Players would have to be 'natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race.'

Bigoted racist privileged white man that Don "Moose" Lewis is, I'm not going to change his mind. So I'll just avoid him and his ilk.
Keep reading....

District 9

Friday evening I treated myself to District 9 and was not disappointed. It had a viable plot and the CGI graphics helped me quickly forget I was watching something another human being made up. Peter Jackson has been making quite a name for himself and this movie did not disappoint. However, when discussing the movie the following day with the boy, he asked, "Can't you just watch a movie for its entertainment value?"

My response: "That movie was not made for pure entertainment purposes."

At least in my opinion.

**WARNING: Spoiler alert**

An alien ship, we learn, broke down just over Johannesburg, South Africa. Right away I thought it interesting that a ship carrying *other* beings would stop over one of the more historically racially/tribally divided countries in the world. Then I thought, "Whew, at least it wasn't the US."

For nearly 3 months the ship hovered of Johannesburg. One day it was decided the military would go up to check things out, cutting a hole in the ship. They found the aliens to be starving, malnourished and unable to take care of themselves, perhaps because they had not anticipated their ship breaking down.

In the good Samaritan sense, it was decided to evacuate the aliens from their ship and certain death, placing them an internment camp which eventually became a heavily militarized slum. Other Africans set up shop within the camp, exploiting the aliens, selling them meat and cat food at exorbitant prices. Piles of trash were found throughout the camps. There was no running water, electricity or insulation for their “homes”, which were made of aluminum and/or wood pieces.

The movie begins with an interview of a gentleman, Wikus, we later learn was put in charge of evicting the aliens from District 9 so they could be moved to a refugee camp called District 10. The team bribed the aliens with cat food or threatened them with military action if they didn’t sign the eviction notice.

Throughout the movie we see flashes of varying signage declaring particular services for humans only.

So far does this remind you of anything? Apartheid anyone? Or how about segregation and slavery in the U.S.? The list of repeats could go on.

When speaking to the boy, he stated the reason for the heavy military presence is because the aliens had become violent and combative. I asked if he, too, wouldn’t have become that way if he had been exploited, oppressed and discriminated against for the last 20 years. What if someone were to decide all white men needed to be evacuated and held in slums like those aliens, wouldn’t he begin to lose hope, become desperate or possibly even violently angry?

Then I went on to mention how it has been proven over and over again that projects do not work. That refugee camps do not work. That internment camps do not work.

Yet we seem destined to repeat our same mistakes in an almost cyclical fashion it’s almost predictable.

Ghettos breed hopelessness, desperation, shame, anger and even a learned helplessness. Out of these emotions comes violence, because when you look deep under the surface, oppression and exploitation can be found. Keeping the undesirables hidden away amongst themselves will not cure the problem.

Instead, accepting everyone equally will. Something District 9 did not show us very well I think.

At some point in the middle of the movie, Wikus, when fiddling with a weapon "Christopher" made, was sprayed with a black liquid that eventually turned him into an alien. We watched as Wikus was experimented on and with then, nearing his disintegration, almost killed for his parts.

Wikus has a chance to save him, Christopher and Christopher's son yet chose to be the selfish white guy he really was. But he couldn't operate the controls and got shot down by an anti-aircraft missile.

Blah blah blah Christopher gets caught, Wikus feels bad for his earlier transgression then aides in getting a beat down Christopher back to the large ship that was started by his son and moved in position over the smaller vessel. Christopher was beamed to safety as Wikus stayed below to hold off the soldiers, who eventually perished at the hands of the angry aliens.

The 1 million plus aliens were eventually moved to District 10, a refugee camp that was made of the smaller white tents we've all become accustomed to.

And the wait as another 20 years pass before someone decides to move them to another sort of camp began.

Keep reading....

Is this regret?

When I pulled up yahoo’s website this morning, I saw this tagline: Racist makes public apology. I clicked on the link mainly because I was curious, wondering what sort of apology a racist man could make. I will admit I am skeptical when someone begins repenting their sins, especially when you find out they’re dying. One has to wonder if they are truly sorry or do they think the only way they can get into heaven is to apologize. After reading the article, I’m convinced it is the latter for Mr. Elwin Hope Wilson.

Now 72 and ailing, his body swollen by diabetes, his eyes degenerating, Wilson is spending as many hours pondering his past as he is his mortality.

Sure most of the bad deeds he did were when he was younger, but they were filled with such venomous hate, how does one turn that off? He beat a young 21-year old black man because he got off the Freedom Rider’s bus and attempted to step foot in the White’s Only waiting room. Mr. Wilson was not provoked verbally or physically, yet he chose to allow his fist to meet with that young man’s face 45 years ago.

The former Ku Klux Klan supporter says he wants to atone for the cross burnings on Hollis Lake Road. He wants to apologize for hanging a black doll in a noose at the end of his drive, for flinging cantaloupes at black men walking down Main Street, for hurling a jack handle at the black kid jiggling the soda machine in his father's service station, for brutally beating a 21-year-old seminary student at the bus station in 1961.

I just don’t buy it. Not when you read things like the above paragraph and the one that follows:

"All I can say is that it has bothered me for years, all the bad stuff I've done," Wilson says, speaking slowly and deliberately. "And I found out there is no way I could be saved and get to heaven and still not like blacks."

This sounds a lot like someone trying to buy their way into heaven, doesn’t it? When you read further, his wife talks about how he became scared of the black ghost in the rocking chair, a result from a bad dream Mr. Wilson had. His son describes his dad as a hard man to live with as he would use the n-word in front of his friends, sneer at black people (families included) in public, and heckle them in restaurants. And this is when he was old enough to know better.
I just don’t buy it and this is why:

In the 1980s, when the local cemetery began burying blacks alongside whites, Wilson became so incensed he threatened to disinter the bodies of his parents. When a black family bought a house in the neighborhood around the same time, Wilson accosted the real estate agent and demanded that the sale be rescinded.
He yelled racial insults whenever his grandson, Christopher, whom he raised, talked on the phone to his black wrestling buddy. When a garden ornament — a stone statue of a black boy in straw hat — was vandalized in Wilson's front yard, he strung up a black doll with a noose around its neck, and threatened to use an AK-47 against a neighbor who complained.
As late as 1999, when his Baptist pastor began encouraging more black participation, Wilson got so upset he left the church.

You might think different, but someone who can hold onto so much hate even after he knows better, doesn’t seem to be all that sincere to me. It sounds like Mr. Wilson wants to make sure he gets into heaven and in order to, he’s doing what the church has been preaching all his life: repent, be saved and you shall be welcome in God’s land.

I do not want to go to the same heaven where people like him might be. Who knows what they carry with them, if all this hate follows them even in death?
Keep reading....

this is old, but....

appalling nonetheless because I'm sure they aren't the only ones to have done this nor will they be the last.

Afrobella presents, "I Have no Words."

Maybe someone should remind him that black people aren't really black. *sigh*
Keep reading....

Overheard at Work

I'm going to start a new series titled Overheard at Work because some of the stuff heard here would crack you up, leave you appalled or gross you out. Heck, sometimes all 3 might happen.

2 of my co-workers were standing at the copier talking about a referral source who, according to them, isn't very nice. The part I will be repeating is only the section my brain began to listen in on.

CW 1: She isn't very nice! (whiney voice)

CW 2: Be nice to me massah. (southern twang added for emphasis)

CW 3: Seriously, she isn't nice at all.

And I stopped listening because I was too busy texting my co-blogger Charlie to see if he would have the same reaction I did. Yep.

Both co-workers are white and staunch republicans though CW 2 wouldn't be able to tell you why. Being a republican doesn't have much to do with the racist comment, I know, but the whiteness of their skin and lives does.

Keep reading....

The Return of the Peanutism

A group of us, 5 very liberal women to be exact, hung out in my kitchen last night, eating, drinking and being merry while awaiting the results of the election. We had no doubt Obama was going to win, but it was nice seeing the results as they strolled in. It confirms in your mind what you knew all along: America is ready for a real change, one we can actually believe in and stand behind. Obama is who I staunchly believe Jesus would vote for.

The pinnacle of the evening was when Virginia, in a very close call, went blue for the first time since 1964 when Lyndon B. Johnson was elected.

That was when we left the house, after opening the first of the two bottles of champagne we had been saving just for that moment, to shout into the streets. Apparently we attracted attention because a few of our regular cops showed up!

When the election was called for Obama and we shouted even louder.

So where does the Peanutism come in you ask.

I was upstairs checking Facebook because I’m addicted and wanted to know what my other friends were thinking/feeling, when Peanut popped up.

Peanut: Mom.

Me: Yes?

Peanut: Who won?

Me: Who do you think?

Peanut: Obama

Me: Yep! And guess what else?

Peanut: What?

Me: VA went blue.

Peanut: Yes.

Then he went back to sleep.

And I went downstairs to wait for Obama’s acceptance speech, which was gracious and very Presidential if I do say so myself. Those girls have definitely earned their puppy, : ).

Keep reading....

What I would really like to do....

is create a post on this falicious rumor that Obama's campaign is consistently throwing out the race care. Because he isn't, at least not in the purporseful manner McCain's campaign has been.

Obama is black. Actually, he's biracial if you want to get technical. But our society reminds him, his wife and their 2 kids everyday that they are black. So yeah, race comes up in his conversations quite a lot I'm sure, especially when confronting the inherent racism dripping from the McCain/Palin rallies as of late.

He makes us confront our privilege and the crackers out there who think he's throwing out the race card to get special treatment need to take a real good look at the Republican Party as a whole and get back to me.

Peace, I'm out.

Keep reading....

Things are much clearer now

Wouldn't you say?
Keep reading....

Noteable Reading III

The Choice brought to you by The New Yorker:

Never in living memory has an election been more critical than the one fast approaching—that’s the quadrennial cliché, as expected as the balloons and the bombast. And yet when has it ever felt so urgently true? When have so many Americans had so clear a sense that a Presidency has—at the levels of competence, vision, and integrity—undermined the country and its ideals?

(All 3 Noteable Reading's have been courtesy of the ladies over at Feministe)
Keep reading....

Being Raised up Biracial

Monday, during recess, a schoolmate went up to Peanut and proceeded to call him a “white n*****”. Peanut and his friends immediately launched into the, “But I’m/He’s not white!” defense, to which I agree. Then I told Peanut that is when you tattle, to let the teachers be aware this phraseology and supposed insult is being used and hopefully a talk with the child’s parents will come out of it. After all, the kid didn’t pull it out of thin air; he had to hear it from somewhere.

Charlie was astounded when I said I wasn’t angry, which got me thinking, “Why am I not?”

Peanut is biracial: his dad is Filipino and I’m Caucasian, or Euro-American if you want to break it down that far. We live in a very urban neighborhood, far from being suburbia it is. We live in a city that has a prominent African American/Black population and in Peanut’s school, he is the only Filipino kid with the majority attending being African American/Black and maybe even biracial.

The kid who referred to Peanut as the racial epithet has probably never seen a Filipino person, much less been subjected to the influence of said culture via a 4th grader. Peanut’s hair is straight and a very deep chestnut with skin a shade of russet. (There are a ton of pictures in my flickr pool to the right.) So to him, Peanut is either white or black, there is no in between as no experiences have taught him otherwise.

Which brings up another issue entirely: How do we teach kids racism transcends all boundaries that once seemed solid but now are becoming fluid-like? With the increasing population of biracial children, how are they to learn who they are and, unfortunately, where they belong?

I did a quick goggle search using the term “raising biracial children”. I didn’t expect to be alone in this strife and was not disappointed.

As the mother of biracial children, I am well aware of racism in America and how subtle it’s become. Although we like to think of ourselves as evolved, there are still many among us whose actions reveal attitudes about those they consider different from themselves.

As I stated above, I am white. How do I prepare Peanut for a world of racism that I don’t experience daily but he will? Taken a bit further, how does the occasional white guy I date take this on as well? More importantly, how does me dating the occasional white guy affect Peanut when many strangers assume he was adopted and yes, at times talk to both of us with that assumption in mind (or does it matter since either way he is my son)?

When discussing the incident Monday afternoon, I informed Peanut that, regrettably, now is when he is going to start experiencing and being aware of the attitudes of those who think everyone belongs in a box with 4 sides and no way out. That our society places people into categories, whether we like it or not, and that eventually, someone is going to put him in a position where he will feel like he has to “choose sides”.

Before you can offer biracial children guidance, you must explore your own experiences of racism in America.

Oh how spot on this is. Your children are a mirror of your true self, reflecting your own idiosyncrasies, prejudices and quandaries. Just listen to them talk sometime, I mean really listen. I find often that Peanut repeats a lot of the same views I have and that’s obviously because he thinks I’m right and awesome enough to emulate. However, through his repetition, I have often realized just how flawed my way of thinking can really be, not to mention my desire he think for himself.

Being aware of who you are, why you are that way and of course taking on a heavy dose of self-responsibility, help you better see yourself in someone else’s eyes. Empathy is something definitely worth obtaining the rights to as well. Just a little bit of self-awareness can really go a long way; kids will show you the way whether you wanted to go there or not, but it’s up to you to pay attention.

For example, I was brought up to believe everyone was the same no matter what and they deserved to be treated as such. I don’t recall my parents ever saying a discriminatory word toward anyone though I do realize now my mom thought them on occasion. But no matter what your parents teach you, being in school around a diverse group in terms of thought and practice is something else entirely. I remember kids in high school, white kids for clarification purposes, stating black girls were to be feared because they were mean and angry (oh yes, this stereotype has existed for decades). My high school was predominately self-segregated. After hearing this belief repeated over and over yet having no direct contact with anyone other than my handful of white friends, I internalized this prejudice, fighting hard years later to rid myself of them.

This is what racism feels like. Someone exerts their power over you because they want to and because they can. You are judged for what, rather than who you are. The sense of injustice is overwhelming. Although sometimes the oppressor is someone who holds no true power in the world, it’s an experience that leaves the victim feeling dehumanized and shamed. Imagine feeling this way every day of your life.

Which makes me wonder where the kid got the phrase from and what place from inside him was it coming from. Being 8 years old, I doubt he’ll know, but kids are wondrous little people and can be talked through the process of discovery over time.

Then the question prompted is what does that mean anyway? Is this the “reverse racism” people erroneously purport exists in this day and age? Or was its use misunderstood? Perhaps the kid was joking around with Peanut, but something tells me he wasn’t.

Either way, racism is a power play and in the very depths of the individuals soul who is the racist, they are afraid. We crave power because it means we can be better than someone and in order to feel superior, someone needs to feel inferior whether honestly or ill-begotten.

But how to explain this rather large deeply rooted problem to a 9 year old?

Explain to biracial children that racism is based on fear and insecurity. Extremists and hatemongers are fearful bullies at heart. Hating others because they don’t share the same ideas or views gives birth to intolerance.

If there is one thing Peanut has had hammered into his head, it’s the fact that people are human beings first, and everything else secondary. We bleed the same; have all the same organs, facial structure and body parts. We are one until someone sets themselves apart.

And unfortunately, because he has the benefit of looking much more like his dad, Peanut will always face some sort of racism based solely on his skin color then again when they find out he has a white mom.

(I highly recommend reading the rest of the article quoted here and I added this book to my wish list.)

via

Keep reading....

No front runners yet!

With Hillary winning 3 primaries thus far and Obama just 2, the latter has his sights set on South Carolina which will tie them yet again.

McCain and Romney seem to be duking it out and Huckabee only won the 1 primary though I would love to see him get the nomination because I believe him to be highly unelectable therefore Democrat would be easily elected.

But people, with the way votes are going to Hillary and Obama, it's very clear the US wants change and greatly anticipates a new direction come November 2nd (technically January when the new prez is inaugurated).

It is my opinion that an Hillary/Obama ticket would be worth voting for.

Keep reading....

A brief history lesson

Just 10min ago my co-worker asked me who Elizabeth Cady Stanton was.

Seriously.

And she's a 24yr old white woman who has graduated high school and had a brief stint in college.

Seriously.

Then I mentioned my other co-worker, who is an African American/Black woman, didn't get the right to vote until 1964 (the full and non-exclusive right mind you) and she had such women as Ida B. Wells to be thankful for.

WTF is our public school system and colleges not teaching these young women?

Keep reading....

What year is it again?

Congress has finally decided protecting the rights of Indian women is a good 21st Century action to show solidarity with the 1st Nation people's since we are in it's 400th year of creation (well, it's really Virginia but you know what I mean). Now Indian women get to be made a little more visible and hopefully their voice will begin to be heard throughout the U.S. so all you people who think the 400th anniversary of Jamestown should be "celebrated" can get a clue.

The measure follows an April report by London-based Amnesty International on high rates of sexual crimes committed against Native women, with a large portion committed by non-Native men. An Indian woman is at least two and a half times more likely than other U.S. women to be raped.

Think about it for a minute: 1 white woman is thought to be raped every 7min or so and Indian women are thought to be raped 2.5 times that. Wow. It makes me wonder if those mostly white guys who are committing this atrocity are under the same impression Thomas Jefferson was, you know, where he told his fellow white men to have plenty of procreative sex with their negro women because they will have children, those children will have children, etc., and eventually everyone will be white in the world. Nice eh?

Aye. It's great fun being a woman in a world full of men who think they are entitled to me and/or my body simply because I'm a woman.

Keep reading....

Virginian's be aware

Did you know there are 8 Native American (or as I like to say, indigenous) tribes here in Virginia? Can you name them all? I could only name 5 a few days ago but now, thanks to google, I can name all 8:

1. Rappahannock - not recognized federally
2. Pamunkey
3. Mattaponi - pronounced mat-ta-poe-nigh
4. Upper Mattaponi - not recognized federally
5. Chickahominy - not recognized federally
6. Eastern Chickahominy - not recognized federally
7. Nansemond - not recognized federally
8. Monacan - not recognized federally

For those unfamiliar with Virginia and its geography, each of these tribes are within 4 hours of each other and the Monacan's have what I believe to be the only Episcopal Church Mission on the reservation. They are located in the more mountainous regions of Virginia but not actually in them if that helps any. There were more at one point but our governments' have succeeded in helping them disappear over the many decades of mistreatment and ignorance.

Keep reading....

Duh

A new study produced by the Sentencing Project in Washington, DC came out with the following results:

Blacks in the United States are imprisoned at more than five times the rate of whites, and Hispanics are locked up at nearly double the white rate, according to a study released Wednesday by a criminal justice policy group.

Now see why the title of this post is a very simple, "Duh"?

What I would like to know is why Native Americans, or 1st Nation peoples, aren't on this study. Oh that's right, because people think they exist only on reservations and spend their free time drinking. Whew, these stereotypes are just flyin' off the shelf today.
Keep reading....