White Evangelicals and their "Toolsets"

An excerpt from my other blog about race relations and white evangelicals:

The racially important cultural tools in the white evangelical tool kit are “accountable freewill individualism,” “relationism” (attaching central importance to interpersonal relationships), and antistructuralism (inability to perceive or unwillingness to accept social structural influences).

…

Absent from their accounts is the idea that poor relationships might be shaped by social structures, such as laws, the ways institutions operate, or forms of segregation. Again, understanding evangelicals’ cultural tools illuminates why this element is missing. White evangelicals not only interpret race issues by using accountable freewill individualism and relationalism, but they often find structural explanations irrelevant or even wrongheaded…Evangelicals are thus also antistructural because they believe that invoking social structures shifts guild away from the root source—the accountable individual. However, evangelicals are selectively aware of social institutions—they see those both impact them in their own social location and tend to undermine accountable freewill individualism. For instance, they are aware of affirmative action because such programs can impact them in their social location, and they tend to oppose such programs because they go against evangelical understanding of accountable freewill individualism.

Racial Targeting Within the Thin Blue Line

I recently read an illuminating article in the New York Times about the recent shooting of Black police officer Omar J. Edwards by his "fellow" white cop Andrew P. Dunton. Now its not exactly getting to the heart of the systemic institutionalized racism that is at the heart of this country (that would be expecting too much, unfortunately, from an elite newspaper) but it did do a good job in going over the incidents of inter-racial police shootings of fellow officers since the shooting death of John A. Holt Jr. (pictured) in 1940 to the present.

One thing that is most glaring that (except in one incident presented by the article) all of the shooters were white and all of the victims were Black or Latino. Yet in the color blind ideology that pervades our present day society many folks are quick to point out that while racial motivations might have been a factor in the past they weren't a factor in this one. What is a factor is "training." In fact, one of the interviewees pointed out:

“Same deal always,” he says of the deadly encounter between colleagues on Thursday night. “They’ll say it’s about training.”

In fact, that is what exactly was said in a article in that same days paper:

“[S]omething is going to have to be done,” added Mr. Glenn, an officer with the 67th Precinct in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, choking up. “Maybe more training or something. I don’t know what we are going to do.”

I'm not suggesting that more training won't prevent more inter-racial shootings but by focusing solely on reactionary training people are ignoring the causes of the shooting, racial prejudice.

Obviously, as Edwards' father-in-law points out, Dunton didn't walk onto the streets with the mindset of actually wanting to kill a fellow Black officer but what was in his mind, more than likely, are all of the stereotypes of Blacks that are perpetuated by our media, national mythologies, everyday conversations, and our society in general. One succinct quote sums it up well:

“If you speak with nine out of 10 officers of color they would tell you that when they hear sirens, in their head they are thinking: ‘I hope these cops know that I’m one of the good guys.’”

All of this points back to the systemic racism that makes Blacks and people of color in general more likely the victims of police misconduct, shootings, harassment, and target ting. A system in were people or color are ghettoized by political institutions while many whites get to live in suburbs. Unless we address this system (as the police force is a part of that system and is obviously made up of folks who grew up in this system, which is everyone) shootings like these will continue to happen, and it won't just be cops of color who are the victims.

White Like Me

Do I look like I sell drugs?

Originally published in InColor Magazine

“Do I look like I sell drugs?” I never thought to ask someone that question. I’ve never smoked or injected a narcotic. I don’t know how many different drugs exist. I can list maybe four. It took me a while to figure out what the hell NUMP, E-40 and The Federation meant when they were rappin’ “Who got purple? I got grapes.”...wait, what? I’ve never witnessed a drug deal or lived in a neighborhood infested with addicts. I doubt someone would assume that of me either. Maybe it’s because I don’t fit the “characteristics” of a dealer…that dark skinned, somewhat thuggish individual from the hood, sporting a fitted style with an abundant excess of gold, who wears baggy pants that sag from the buttock.

And even if someone were to experience all of the above, why should that make he or she any more suspect? You really never know who’s hustlin’ and who’s not. It’s time to get that imagery out your head. Anyone can be a dope boy.

For all the plenty of young colored folks that get dirty looks and don’t deserve it, DJ Al Azif does a smashing job of knocking a social construct while remixing Adam Tensta’s latest single “Dopeboy,” a Sweden-born Hip hop artist influenced by electro/house styles.

Al Alzif broke out his digitalcam and filmed a bunch of ordinary citizens rocking out to “Dopeboy” each holding a piece of paper that reads the song’s hook, "Do I look like I sell drugs?" The home video features various individuals—from artists, the homeless, to Paris Hilton blondes, nurses and small business owners—poking fun at that very question. And while the straight lyrics, beat, and rhyme intoxicate, it’s just damn entertaining. You’ll laugh at the sight of the bald, ripped white farmer on the tractor and smile at the little kid flinging the crinkled inquiry over his head.

Ridiculous isn’t it? And yet, it ironically caused me to think critically about the world around me—about the bias we have, the assumptions we make and the institutions that continue to perpetuate racial stereotypes and profiling.

All over the world, those that are the most disproportionately impacted by drug control are not the major drug traffickers or ‘kingpins.’ Instead, the victims are the peasant farmers, small time dealers, low-level drug offenders, and its users. According to the Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme, the majority are poor, ethnic minorities who come from marginalized communities.

The stereotype of drug dealers is that they are people of color. In the United States research by Human Rights Watch has shown that African-American men are sent to prison on drug charges at 13.4 times the rate of white men. Furthermore, 63 percent of all drug offenders admitted to state prisons were African-American and only 35 percent of whites are locked up, according to the Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy. African American’s make-up 13 percent of our U.S. population compared to the 80 percent that is white (Whites are the majority of drug users/dealers).

Major props to Al Azif for shooting a creative home video that doesn’t discriminate. Whether you intended to or not, you moved me. So once again I must reiterate, this is for all people, especially colored people, who get dirty looks and don't deserve it. Bob and groove to this.

To find more info and music by Adam Tensta and the funky DJ skills of Al Azif hit up:

http://www.alazif.se/

http://www.myspace.com/adamtensta

Oscar Grant, young father and peacemaker, executed by Bart police

Originally posted on Alas, a blog. Slightly modified.

This is absolutly apauling (if you want you can see the video for yourself, I don't want to though, but you can find it pretty easily). I will be at the protest today at the Fruitvale Bart station at 3 pm if any other Bay Area folks who read my blog want to come along.

By now everyone has seen the horrific videos of an Oakland BART police officer shooting an unarmed Black man, Oscar Grant, while he lay face down on the ground and was fully cooperating. The man who was killed execution style was the father of a 4-year-old girl and was considered a peacemaker. In fact moments before he was shot he was pleading with his friends who were all cuffed up to calm down and be cooperative with police. Grant was seen begging the police officers, who had pulled tasers out and pointed them at the heads of his friends, not to shoot...(Read More)

Gentrification and Community Organizing

Cross-posted from The Mustard Seed.

Jack blogs:

This Friday I’m heading to Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn for the premiere screening of Some Place Like Home: The Fight Against Gentrification in Downtown Brooklyn, a documentary by Families United for Racial and Economic Equality. FUREE, a community organization lead by and comprised primarily of low-income women of color, has been rallying the community in a fight against the rampant development that’s going down in Downtown Brooklyn and the surrounding area. While developers, big business, and politicians alike claim they are only trying to improve the community, the development is being conducted with little care or concern for the residents and small business owners who are already there. Some Place Like Home documents the struggle of FUREE, the neighborhoods’ residents, and small businesses against the forces that are trying to push and bulldoze them out. Check out the trailer below.

Furror Over New Yorker Cover

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

ShineThePath blogs on the latest controversy involing the Obama campaing and the New Yorker:

So why has the The New Yorkers’ cover art coming under heavy criticism when it simply is poking fun at all the right-wing racist attacks against the Obamas? Attacks which the Obama campaign had to create their own website to defend themselves from the campaign. They’ve had to tell you his father wasn’t a Muslim, he was an Atheist. That he, himself, didn’t go to a Madrassa. He threw his pastor under the boss for the sake of appearance, had to to denounce Louis Farrakhan, had to tell Black fathers in Bill Cosby-esque “get-your-shit-together” patriarchal uncle tom tone to be personally responsible just to seek the approval of white America. The reason why the Obama camp is trying to squash The New Yorker cover article is to really get rid of race from the agenda of discussion in this campaign altogether. Obama doesn’t want race brought up, and he sees it as only a harmful element in his campaign. So rather than dealing with race and white supremacy, he has only talked about a post-racial society.

[Hat Tip: Mike E.]

Fuck LA Unified School District

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Students and fellow educators are rallying behind a fired Jordan High School teacher they say was sacked for encouraging political activism among her students.

About 60 students rallied Wednesday at the Watts campus, while a colleague of the fired teacher said he and 15 other instructors planned to resign or transfer to other schools to protest the dismissal of Karen Salazar, a second-year English teacher.

The dust-up has gone digital as well. Salazar backers have posted videos on the website YouTube. The postings, which have attracted thousands of hits, intersperse music, outraged protesters and interviews, as well as statements from the outspoken educator.

"You embody what it means to be a warrior-scholar, a freedom-fighting intellectual," she told students through a bullhorn in one video. "You are part of the long legacy, the strong history, of fighting back."

[Hat Tip: Bambu's Rants]

On Being an Ally: Admitting When You're Wrong

In honor of The Angry Black Woman and her call for a Carnival of Allies (which by the way I'm late for, the deadline was May 5th, oh well) I would like to briefly write a post on what it means to be an ally and on how being an ally doesn't mean you stop being racist and benefiting from white privilege.

In order to be an ally one has to, first and foremost, look critically at one's self and one's own privilege before one can start pointing out the ills in the greater society and in pointing out the racism of others. It's kinda pointless to go around pointing out the white privilege of others when one doesn't critically examine their own white privilege and how they got to the point where they are at right now.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you become like an Irish hermit and retreat to the hills and critically reflect on your self and fast for five years, you should still study how white privilege affects the broader society, how racism is institutionalized in this country, and one should always be aware and attuned to racism. However, first and foremost, at least in the beginning, one should spend time on being critical of their own privileges, male, heterosexual, white, class, etc.

And even when one does this, this doesn't mean that they are "cured" of racism. Racism in endemic in this society and whites are, in a way, stewed to perfection and marinated in this racism and white privilege and grow up thinking that white privilege doesn't exist and thinking that they got everything off of their own merit. This doesn't go away easy, and in my opinion, it never goes away fully. So one can be an ally and still be racist, hetero-sexist, classist, etc.

Case in point from my life. I recently incorporated a racist title in one of the my posts for The Blog and the Bullet without even knowing it. Why is that? Well, for one, even though I am a self-proclaimed ally and have been called an ally by others I can still be racist due to the fact that as a white heterosexual male I'm still not fully attuned to racism within society and within myself because I benefit fully from a white supremacist society and a heterosexist society and a sexist society. Despite my fight against white supremacy I can still be racist due to my privilege.

On The Blog and the Bullet I had posted a blog post by Phil Yu on a bunch of racist t-shirts being sold in Chicago, in....errrrr...."honor"? of Chicago's newest acquisition for their bench, Kosuke Fukudome. All of my posts on that blog are automatically cross-posted to the larger Alas, a bog, by Amptoons creator Barry.

The title for my blog post was "Horry Cow, That's Racist!" a play off of the slogan on the racist shirts in Chicago and on Phil Yu's catch phrase, That's Racist! Well, if Phil Yu was to blog on my title for that post he would most definetely say, That's Racist! Because despite me trying to do a play on words in that post it ended up being completely and utterly racist and offensive. The reason why it escaped my attention was because of my white privilege. Thinking it was only a play on words but not realizing how racist it truly was. I didn't pay too much attention to that post until Barry, a fellow white ally, e-mailed me to check out the recent comment thread on that post. And I did.

On the tread Tom Autopref rightfully pointed out:

The shirt really is obnoxious.

Hey … I can’t speak for Japanese or other Asian folks, but is the post title here problematic?

To which Katie replied:

Asian person here.

Yeah, I’d *really* rather not see the original slur repeated as the title of this post. Wow.

As well as Kai rightfully pointing out:

I found the original title, as well as the previous post title pointed out at Resist Racism, to be, yes, incredibly racist. Snickering at stereotypical Asian accents? Really? Unfortunately, these titles have forced me re-think my view of this blog, its authors and its commenting community.

And:

I hope you see where I’m coming from. I’m sure it’s all been well-intentioned but I was rather stunned by the lack of consciousness on this front.

To which I replied:

Sorry for not posting this earlier. I never read the comment thread until now nor did I receive Barry’s e-mail (not sure why).

I sincerely apologize for that racist title. Kai made some great points in pointing out that reusing the racist slogan from those shirts in Chicago was, in itself, racist and hurtful and I apologize profusely for that error and for the title post. I essentially was playing off of the title on the shirt and on Phil’s catch phrase but it ended up being racist (not coming off as racist, but simply racist). And again, I apologize.

I’d like to thank Barry for pointing this out in another e-mail (in where he mentioned the previous e-mail that never got to me) and to Tom Autopref for originally pointing it out and for Kai as well.

As a white male I am obviously unaware, no matter how hard I try, of certain aspects of racism within this country, even if I try to be anti-racist there is no such thing as erasing one’s white privielge and raicsm and therefore anti-racist allies can still be racist despite striving to be anti-racist. So I again thank Kai and Tom for pointing this out to me and for Kai in making his very apt commentary on the racism of my title.

Being an ally doesn't mean you stop being racist and stop receiving white privilege and one shouldn't be shocked at being called racist despite their self-proclamation (or through the proclamation of others) that they are an "ally."

"I can't be racist! I'm an ally!" or liberal, or a democrat, or that you have a "friend," etc. Because the fact is, as my lapse in judgment has shown, that one can be racist and consider themselves to be an ally.

As an ally one should also expect, and be thankful for, confrontation from their other allies and from those whom they organize with if they perceive a certain aspect of racism, sexism, classism, hetero-sexism, etc. seeping through. As an ally one needs to be receptive to this and not simply brush it off as being "too sensitive," "not gettin' it," "misinterpreting it," etc., because that would automatically puts you in the camp completely opposite of an ally and you end up using the language of the oppressor to defend yourself instead of using the langauge of an ally and a self-critical person to correct one's self.

If one is an ally than one would truly show it when they do get called out; will you react defensively or will you self analyze critically? That's one of the tests. And when you do self analyze it doesn't mean you get a cookie; one shouldn't get rewards for doing the right thing.

Image From:
Zuky

Come On America, Arizona's SB 1108 Is A Racist Bill

"I'm gonna show you WHO's BOSS"

To some people it may have seemed like the fight was against undocumented immigrants. They are "illegals," "aliens," "criminals" overrunning our nation.

Well for me that was never true. From my own experience, it's basically a fight against culture, language, and color. The anti-immigrant sentiment that is so strong today, as it has been throughout our history as the United Sates, is about hatred. It's about racism, colonial power, capitalist interest, and everything else you can think of.

Man, I am just sick and tired of this. I am sick and tired of this game that a lot of "Americans" are playing. This is not about immigration.

YOU KNOW WHY? THIS IS WHY: Arizona state lawmakers and their evil SB 1108 bill is about killing Mexican-American/Chican@/Latin@ identity. To say this bill is fueled by merely anti-immigrant sentiment is to confuse the real issue here--because anti-immigrant sentiment has always been about anti-Hispanic sentiment (hey I don't like calling it Hispanic, but that's what it is to them)

You can look up several news articles on the bill, but here's one:

Some state lawmakers are again sticking their noses where they don't belong and trying to tell educators what should or shouldn't be taught in public schools.

The Legislature is attempting to usurp the decision-making responsibilities of local school boards and is perpetuating lies and creating divisions among Arizonans by pushing a bill that seeks to end programs like Raza Studies in the Tucson Unified School District. The bill would deny state funding to schools whose courses "denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization."

Whatever that means.

Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services reported in Thursday's Star that the bill, SB 1108, is aimed at MEChA, the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, a student group that state Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, describes as racist.

Raza Studies has also drawn the ire of anti-immigrant-rights activists and last year was criticized by state schools superintendent Tom Horne, who said the program was promoting "ethnic chauvinism."

Horne investigated the program and then quietly dropped his inquiry.

Pearce, one of the state's most strident opponents of illegal immigration, appears to have bought into the notion that MEChA followers want to take over the southwestern United States, which was part of Mexico.

That's hogwash.

The myth is perpetrated by right-wing anti-immigrant-rights groups like American Border Patrol and their Web sites. The lie gained new life over the last couple of years as the illegal-immigration debate reached a boiling point.

...What lawmakers like Pearce ignore is that programs like Raza Studies and MEChA help many Hispanic students excel.

By learning more about their race's culture, the students become engaged in the education process and go on to become better taxpaying members of society.

OH I'M SORRY AMERICA. I'm sorry that because world history is OBVIOUSLY distorted in every damn aspect of our education to favor learning about white people, I have to oppress my own identity and educate myself about subjects that are not only irrelevant to my culture and diversity, but are also not reflective of true history.

It wasn't until college that I finally came to understand the dimensions of my Latina identity. It wasn't until college that I learned about the atrocities of white America's past and present--the genocides, the school of the Americas, the coups, the SLAVERY, the exploitation, the National Origins Quota, the "treaty" of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the promises of reparations, the diseased blankets, Thanksgiving, Africa, Guatemala, the list goes on...

I AM NOT ANTI-AMERICAN. The REAL anti-Americans are those people who RESIST accepting that AMERICAN MEANS MANY LANGUAGES,CULTURES,RACES,AND HISTORIES. American is NOT CITIZEN--AMERICAN IS PERSONHOOD. I AM AMERICAN BECAUSE I AM A LATINA BORN IN THE UNITED STATES who is an active member of society, respects her fellow Americans (documented or not), and upholds her values of tolerance and human rights for all. I recognize that HISTORY is not ONE STORY, BUT MANY. Our country does not have a history, as our euro-centric society would have it, our country has HISTORIES--good and bad--of peoples from all perspective.

I am tired of being taught one perspective. What Ethnic studies does, let alone Chican@ studies, is give us ANOTHER perspective--one that often reflects that of us "Hispanics" who are trying to learn something other than the white history. LETS KEEP TEACHING WHITE HISTORY BUT NOT WHITE HISTORY ALONE. Let's teach many histories.

With all my heart, with all my soul, I beg others to join me and many others in saying: AMERICA, THIS BILL IS RACIST, XENOPHOBIC, AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

Support the Fight for Asian American Studies at Hunter College

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

Rage, at down on the brown side, blogs about the fight for Asian American Studies at Hunter College:

I'm writing this in response and in support of the righteous students and organizers at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York, who are organizing and pushing to protect and expand Asian American studies at their school. I stand with these students and urge any reader here to check out their information (here's an article to start) and see how you can be supportive of their cause. I'll post more information up as I get it about how allies and supporters around the nation can show them love and let them know that we stand with them in this struggle.

Ecclesial Anti-Racist Theology: A Critique

I have a post over at my blog The Mustard Seed about a recent article in the Anglican Theological Review Dr. Dwight N. Hopkins. In the article Hopkins talks about racism and white supremacy in American society and what the Episcopal church can do about it. While I applaud his article I have many critiques on his views on race and racism which you can read more about over at The Mustard Seed. Here's a quick excerpt:

It has been recognize that race, essentially, was hammered out by the role of the court system within the United States, especially during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when “social Darwinism” was at its peak and “racial science” was in its heyday. Race was essentially a tool for giving out citizenship within the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: to be classified as white, within the court system, was to gain the privilege of citizenship...During the mid-20th century the role of law and race changed. By this time race was already hammered out as anyone with light skin color and with ancestry from Europe as being classified as white (even Jews, though not fully at that point); with whiteness one got the privilege of home ownership and being able to move to the suburbs. So while earlier whiteness got one citizenship, now one got home ownership and government subsidies and wealth accumulation...(Read More)

After Hutton and King

Author Ron Jacobs writes about the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Hutton and concludes with this paragraph that I thought I'd share:

Despite the current campaign by Barack Obama for president, the vast majority of US residents of color are not faring that much better than they were in 1968. Legal apartheid no longer exists and attitudes towards race have progressed, but the economic facts of much of non-white America are appallingly similar to what they were forty years ago. Furthermore, the statistics regarding the imprisonment of black and Latino men in the United States provide concrete evidence that the mechanics of racial oppression still operate in this country. The criminal justice system continues to be the means by which the predominantly white and essentially racist power structure maintains its control over those who are poor and whose skin is darker in hue. Like I noted above, many of the same elements of US political and economic society that were served by the murder of Dr. King and the destruction of the Black Panther Party continue to be responsible for much of what goes on in those arenas to this day. No matter how one tries to portray the past forty years of this aspect of US history, it is clear that we have not reached the promised land.

The 22nd Erase Racism Carnival

As I've stated previously I was getting some bad posts e-mailed to me for this months Erase Racism Carnival. So I decided to do some searching of my own to find some posts and, I'm pleased to say, I found some great ones, but not as many as I would have liked. So I please to announce this months (mini) Erase Racism Carnival.

We first start off with a post about white writers and white privilege from the blog We Can Always Dream:

Your privilege blinds you.

What is white privilege? You can look at that link (or Google it), but the basic idea is that in America, if you’re white:

• you don’t have to prove you’re a good person
• you were preferentially treated by everyone from your kindergarten teacher on
• you don’t have to think about race, because being white is a given.

The word privilege trips people up. I can hear you now … “But I earned everything I got! I waited in line like everyone else! No one gave me anything!”

The problem is that you don’t know your history. Do some research.

This white privilege obviously propels this society together and affects leftist ("non-racist," supposedly) circles as well as Donna explains on her blog:

I got an email from the wonderful Elle PhD to alert me to the latest white women feminist shenanigans being reported at the Washington Post: To Women, So Much More Than Just a Candidate. Of course by women they mean the default women, middle to upper class white women, with some ageism thrown in for good measure since they show little respect for the decision making abilities of younger women too.

…

“During the NOW tour across Ohio, the makeup of each audience was almost exclusively white, middle-age women, many of whom had joined the organization in the late 1960s or 1970s.” People vote for who they think can best represent them. I understand perfectly well why this demographic is excited for Hillary Clinton, is showing up at her rallies, and is voting for her. But for some of us having a vagina isn’t enough, because she will be voting for white, middle aged, middle class interests. Not to mention corporate lobbyist interests, and starting wars to prove she’s as tough as the guys, which I hear is her excuse for her Iraq War vote.

And speaking of elections, the BlackAgendaReport weighs in on Obama from a post written by managing editor Bruce Dixon:

Obama's unconditional affirmations that America is “inherently good”, that white racism is not endemic, that “radical Islam” is the enemy, that apartheid Israel is a “stalwart ally”, and that his pastor and spiritual mentor, a man who accurately reflects the views of most of Black America is an angry, divisive old uncle stuck in the fifties and sixties --- all these may restore his credentials among whites as the candidate of “racial reconciliation”. But what is being reconciled here? Aside from the color of the president's face, what is being changed?

The Pudgy Indian weighs in on Rev. Wright's speech in a post titled "Wright Was Right:"

Wright...is right.

Racism is alive and well and it has taken on an insideous form that is commonly accepted by U.S. citizens. Barak, or ESPECIALLY those racist campaigners within the Hillary/Ferraro camp, could pick up this ball and bring a greater understanding of the issue of race and racism to this nation, but such a thing would never happen because that is NOT the way the system is designed and the next king or queen will have to play along with the system. That is why Barak will distance himself from Wright, that is why the Hillary camp will continue its racist methods to attack Barak, all without calling him "nigger," of course.

Which brings us to the Angry Brown Butch and her post on Ferraro in where she tackles similar issues that Donna brought up:

I mean, yes, sexism is certainly alive and well in our society. And one might even argue that subtly sexist language does get a pass more easily than equally subtle racist language. But one only need look at how race is one of most reliable predictors of things like poverty, incarceration, access to quality education and access to health care in American society to see the immense damage that racism does and the immense power that it holds in our society. But of course white feminists who take this tack would think that sexism is worse that racism in this country, because they’re not affected by racism. They possess the privilege unique to white people to ignore and elide the true affects of racism. I think that reason why I haven’t caught any prominent feminists of color putting forward this position is because, as women of color, we don’t get to ignore racism or sexism, and we realize that you can’t just put them on a set of scales and weigh them against each other.

And white privilege, obviously, affects the ever so popular blog Stuff White People Like, as explained by Gary Dauphin:

Nothing gets under my (colored, nearly-middle-aged) skin like the spectacle of a twentysomething white kid doing what twentysomething white kids do all the time, namely, play on some or another aspect of their race for smug fun and profit. Lander has already reportedly been offered a $350K-plus book deal from Random House. (Can a VH1 Special be very far behind?) People of color are constantly accused of playing various race cards, but "White boy makes good by being white" is hardly a man-bites-dog story.

La Chola was apart of a mini-blogging controversy over white privilege, supremacy, and the history of Planned Parenthood in where she gave us good advice on studying the history of institutions and organizations in a country defined by race and white privilege/supremacy:

It’s dangerous to not know the history of an organization–even more dangerous to not know its present. Yes, PP has done some absolutely amazing and brilliant things. PP has also done some detestable and horrific things–and it is WRONG to let the detestable and horrific things pass because of the good things. It’s even worse to call a woman of color who has had a bad experience with her reproductive life “stupid” because there is no critical analysis of how a historically “population control” centered institute is currently conducting its business. As I said in my comment, the only reason PP is where it is today is because women of color stood up to all the people who attempted to silence them with calls of “stupid” and “worthless” and demanded to be heard.

Abagond also draws our attention to the studying of history and white-washing history:

Its golden age was in the 1950s. From about 1955 to 1975, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war and Watergate destroyed the faith of many. But now that most Americans are too young to remember those things, apple-pie America is making a comeback.

Judging from Obama’s speech on race in March 2008, most Americans seem to believe in it.

...

Most black Americans do not seem to believe in apple-pie America, much less live there. Their forefathers came to the country as slaves and they see how white people are still acting. They are not fooled.

But most white Americans do seem to believe in it, whether they live there or not.

This difference between black and white America is causing trouble for Barack Obama, a black man who would be president. The things his wife and his minister said come from beyond the apple pie and unsettles many who live inside it.

Tara blogs about comparing oppressions and the dangers of whites comparing their certain oppressions as similar to Blacks and other people of color in America:

I also need to say that if I hear the "fat is the last acceptable oppression" meme one more time, I am going to scream (louder). Fat hatred is often blatant, shameless, vitriolic, and completely public. But guess what? So is racism! (And classism, heterosexism, ableism, and sexism.) Racism is institutionalized into our laws, our classrooms, our work places, and our daily interactions. Just because some white folks think it's unacceptable to say the n-word, doesn't mean that racism is gone or that it's not "acceptable." When people in the fat acceptance movement say that fat is the last acceptable oppression, it alienates and invalidates the struggles of people of color, who know first-hand that racism not only exists, but that it is also very much "acceptable" in polite society.

...

Let's also talk for a minute about beauty standards. There is a significant portion of the fat acceptance movement that is fighting for the right to be seen as "pretty, too." They want to fight for the standard definition of beauty to include them too, as if they have been denied some god-given right to be seen as beautiful. But when this demand is articulated, there is no consideration or thought about the fact that women of color have always been excluded from this category, and are masculinized, exoticized, or otherwise been seen as exceptions to the pretty rule (i.e. "She's pretty for a [insert non-white race here] girl!"). So, arguing for the "right" of plus sized white women to be let into the pretty club does not address us or our struggles with the problematics of beauty standards.

In the blog RaceWire Julianne Hing writes about how media representations and immigration laws make immigrants vulnerable and how an immigration official, such as Baichu, is able to exploit immigrants:

Part of it has to do with the vast discretionary power immigration agents actually have. It’s a job with little oversight and nearly limitless opportunity to exploit immigrants – the power differential is too great for abuse not to be a near inevitability. But the recent jump in reports of sexual assault is not just about bureaucratic corruption. It’s a symptom of the post-9/11, anti-immigrant fever that continues to burn across the country. Mainstream media’s dominant characterizations of immigrants the last 7 years have been that of the criminal alien, the dark-skinned terrorist, the unwelcome foreigner. We’ve seen it more widely manifested in workplace raids, restrictive local ordinances, and the vitriolic daily debate taking place on talk radio. This cultural climate emboldens folks like Baichu to act with impunity against people who’ve been systematically demonized in the nation’s political debates.

Karnythia, on The Angry Black Woman, blogs about comments that Pat Buchanan made on his blog about race and affirmative action:

It’s this deliberate misinformation that bolsters the idea that black people are somehow magically getting ahead without merit, and fosters the resentment you see so often from whites that argue so vociferously against the concept of white privilege and against affirmative action. Never mind that the main beneficiaries of affirmative action have been white women. No, let’s just scream about that one time a POC “stole” a job that you really wanted/needed/preferred and ignore the part where you weren’t entitled to that job above all applicants.

Finally, we end with a post from "Suddy:"

Wherever I went, wherever I traveled, the mystery of Filipinas followed. No one really knew what Filipinas were about except what they had briefly observed in the news or the stereotypes projected by popular culture. Filipinas were sexy, docile, domestic workers or mail order brides. They were quiet, submissive, and eager to please. They loved serving their husbands and tending to their children. Filipinas, most importantly, were born in and from the Philippines.

I was none of those things.

Which made her start her blog:

Bloggers need to raise awareness of the social injustices that jail the Filipina spirit (such as global sex trafficking, abuse of domestic workers overseas, immigration issues, and enslaving poverty) and they also need to be aggressive in their denouncement of Filipina commercialization. To enhance the online image is to affirm the authentic presence of the Filipina. It is time for us to come out of the dark with strong voices, accents, poetry, opinions, music, intelligence, theories, and ideas. Bloggers need to do this by promoting work, featuring accomplishments, and highlighting leadership roles held by Filipinas.

My online voice is the one facet of media in which I can contribute to a new definition of the Filipina.

And as we end with this months Erase Racism Carnival we should all realize that blogging and creating new forms of media will contribute in the fight against white privilege, racism, and to help solidify the voices of those whom are left voiceless in a white dominated media structure.

Image From:
Storied Mind

Ampersand Says Whaaaa?

That crazy ole Amersand. Looking for racism where it doesn't exist. Bob is not a racist and that is that!

No, but seriously, another great cartoon by Amersand form his blog.

Hunters View Residents Losing Their Homes

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Every week in her notorious public housing development, Darlene Fleming watches another neighbor move out and construction crews come in to nail plywood over the vacant apartment's doors and windows. And every week, she says, more residents get eviction notices, possibly signaling that they could be the next ones forced out.

Of the 267 units at Hunters View, 110 are boarded up. Just 157 families remain at the violent and dilapidated development in San Francisco's Hunters Point neighborhood and 116 of them are in danger of eviction because they're behind on their rent or for other reasons.

It's just what many residents feared when city officials said their development would be the first in line for a complete rebuild that would include hundreds of new, market-rate homes built among the subsidized units.

Hunters View is a housing project in Bayview Hunters-Point and is considered one of the worst housing projects in the nation, edging out the Sunnydale housing project in Visitaction Valley, also in San Francisco.

For those of you who don't know this is what institutionalized racism and gentrification looks like. Obviously, for events outside of their control relating to the history of white supremacy in this country (see "Sundown Towns," "The Heart of Whiteness," "No Thanks to Thanksgiving," "The Construction of Whiteness"), many of the San Franciscans who call Hunters View home are Black and other people of color. And its no mistake that in order to "clean up" the housing project they need to demolish it and basically displace an entire group of Black people.

A Hunters View resident puts it best:

"They're finding all kinds of reasons to put us out of here," said Fleming, a 60-year-old great-grandmother who has lived in Hunters View since she was 9 and whose eviction case is winding its way through Superior Court. "The less of us they have here, the less they have to deal with."

Also, it should be noted that during the 1950s and 1960s it was white folks who were getting lones from the Federal Housing Authority, which was able to get many working class white folk homes and a place in the surburbs, but for Black folk (who are bared from getting loans from the FHA) they got federal housing (or "high-rise ghettos"); and because they got federal housing there were never able to own their own home and accrue wealth that could be passed on through the generations.

I've only passed by the housing complex by foot while heading to a few friends' houses in the area but from those short experiences I can tell you that Hutners View is in need of some repair, and many do recognize this:

Sara Shortt, director of the Housing Rights Committee, a tenant advocacy group, praised the city's plan to get Hunters View residents up-to-date on their rent, but also questioned the mayor's motive.

"The city is stepping in and cleaning up the mess the Housing Authority has created, and that's a really positive thing," she said. "But at the same time, I think the mayor's working to prevent the political backlash that would occur if a flood of residents were evicted at the very first Hope SF project."

The problem is we've seen this before. A neighborhood that is economically deprived and is populated by mainly people of color is declared dirty because of its rundown conditions (which the government is supposed to upkeep by the way). With this the government says they need to clean it up for the good of the people. They come in, bulldoze homes, kick people out, hire contractors to build new homes, whites move in, businesses follow, and now the neighborhood is to expensive for the previous folks to live there. Thus forcing people of color out of the city. It happened in the Filmore and it might happen again.

In a previous post I posted an article written in the San Francisco Bay View, a Black owned and operated newspaper, in where the author, talking about the Marcus Garvey complex in the Filmore, wrote about how whenever a reformist minded group of people would run for the complex board the government would say that an inspection was coming, they complex might fail, and therefore might shutdown, then once the reform folks were defeated and the old guard reinstated the inspection would come and the complex would pass. So inspections and the shutting down of housing complexes are also political tools to get rid of "unsavory people," such as reformists and people of color.

Not only that, but even if the complex is "cleaned up" and ends up looking nicer it does not fix the actual socio-economic situation that the residents are in. It just alleviates the minds of whites by having them say, "See, look, we fixed it. It's nice and pretty. Work done."

The Chronicle ends with:

Public housing residents in San Francisco who are in jeopardy of being evicted can call Bay Area Legal Aid, working in conjunction with the Housing Rights Committee, at (415) 354-6353.

Image From:
[X]Press Magazine

Why is Whiteness Absent in Reports of L.A. Violence?

Los Angeles' "Dangerous" image is very racialized. Maybe this comes as a "no duh" to some, but it's a point that I can't help but stress in light of the commotion instigated by media reports all over blacks and Latinos and killings and so on.

Mandalit del Barco's Los Angeles Times article:

Sirens and gunshots are the soundtrack of South Los Angeles, formerly known as South Central. People thought changing the name would change the neighborhood's image, but it hasn't. L.A. is in the midst of a new surge in gang violence that is claiming some very young victims.

Barco's piece really captures the racialized negative image of the dangerous Los Angeles. What specifically bothers me is that articles like these are repeatedly emphasizing violence associated with themes of Latino gang violence, brown v. black divide, and so on.

It's angering for these media reports to capture these highly tragic events as isolated racial issues rather than as symptoms of a greater structural force of dominant white society.

For example, in Barco's article, one can look at the following description:

The parents of a 6-year-old African-American boy who was shot in the head when Latino gang members opened up on the family's SUV are experiencing similar pain.

That same week, a 42-year-old Latino man and his 20-year-old son were shot to death outside their home for no apparent reason as well.

Whiteness is completely absent in conversations about such tragedies. Yet I ask, isn't the absence of something like whiteness a presence? I cannot accept these racialized accounts because they indirectly forge whiteness out of the picture. In reading these stories, I feel as if I am being led to blame one minority over the other, or blame them both. I have no grounds to attribute accountability towards the white race, only blacks and Latino ethnicities.

I feel coerced. I feel stripped of my power to point to the oppression of blacks and Latinos because I am continually reading articles that clearly depict them as oppressing themselves.

How am I to argue about greater economic, legal, and societal systems of white dominance when these reports completely reject these factors from the start by not stating them as relevant? That's just it, I can't. I am silenced because my argument for the relevancy of whiteness contradicts the founding racialized assumptions of such reports.

Read Barco's article in full, there's so much more to what I've been able to conjure up in response.

"Hands Off the White Woman!"

Another aspect of whiteness.

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

Brother Peacemaker blogs about America's infatuation with white women:

It would be easy to blame the media for such obvious white women favoritism. But the real problem is our culture that places such emphasis on looks, youth, sex, race, money, and other features and factors people use to compensate for the shortcomings of their character. Media is only a hapless pawn serving to feed the insatiable hunger of its master the character weak, wealth exchanging, public so tremendously concentrated in the white community. Until we have a more even distribution of wealth among all racial communities and/or a realignment of people’s priorities away from the secular and more towards a true all encompassing community oriented spirit, be prepared to hear more stories in the news from the undiscovered Susan Smiths and Natalie Holloways that are destined to become pawn in society’s perpetual endeavor to make pretty white women the focus of our attention.

Image From:
Public Record Office Victoria

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes: Part I

I just finished watching a great documentary by Byron Hurt called Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes on the PBS show [I]ndependent Lens. I just want the film to speak for itself and quote a few people interviewed in it.

One thing the film makes clear is that it just doesn't blame hip-hop for being misogynistic or sexist and it just doesn't blame Black men but instead points out the great prevailing misogyny in American culture. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson states:

When you think about American society, the notion of violent masculinity is at the heart of American identity. The preoccupation with Jesse James and the outlaw, the rebel, much of that is associated in the American mindset, the collective imagination of the nation, with the expansion of the frontier. In the history of American social imagination, the violent man using the gun to defend his family, his kip and kin, becomes a suitable metaphor for the notion of manhood.

Rapper Chuck D puts it best during the movie when he speaks on white supremacy and confronting it:

The dominant image of black masculinity in hip-hop is the fact that somebody can be confrontational but confrontational with the wrong cat. It’s like they’re not ever confrontational with the cats that will claim I’ll wipe your whole neighborhood out, because it’s almost like they’re trained not to even see them. It’s like, my beef is with this cat right here that looks just like me. The rise of the culture of black animosity is something that adds to the street credibility factor. It’s like almost to the point where 2Pac and Biggie were used as martyrs for this new endorsement of black animosity.

And more from Chuck D:

Black death has been pimped by corporations. Young people think that the street credibility is the gig that will ride them to some profitability in life.

...

Black manhood, by the structures and powers that be, the corporations, they’ve found a way that they think they can put soul in a bottle. If they can put soul in a bottle, then they could put manhood in a bottle. And then show the bottle in advertising. And we’ll follow the crumbs to the big bad wolf.

Latter on in the documentary Hurt focuses on how corporations, owned by white males, exploit the Black community through their selling of hip-hop. Talib Kwelli reacts to some comments some up and coming rappers who say they need to act thug to become real big time rappers
Those are the same cats who are just listening to the radio and just watching TV.

They’re confused. They don’t know. We have trusted the media and the corporations to define what hip-hop is. Back in the days when it first came out, and ABC did a story on rap, you’d be like, I know that’s bullshit. I know it’s not true. But now you see it on the news. You see it on BET. Because they call themselves hip-hop now. Now Hot 97 is the station where hip-hop lives, so we hear that, but we don’t understand that it’s some corporation owned by people who have nothing to do with hip-hop. They’re just trying to cash in. It’s like, hip-hop lives there. So they must know. That must be what rap is. No, we had never let the media define us, so why are we doing that now?

Hurt then interviews former Def Jam president Carmen Ashurs-Watson who had this to say:

The time when we switched to gangster music was the same time that majors bought up all the labels. And I don’t think that’s a coincidence. At the time that we were able to get a bigger place in the record stores and a bigger presence because of this major marketing capacity, the music became less and less conscience. We went to Columbia, and then the next thing I know, our producers of Public Enemy were over producing an Ice Cube album, and then the next thing I know we’re pushing a group called Bitches With Problems...

Followed by Chuck D:

Once that perpetuated into one thing and corporations get involved, yes you’ll sell two million NWA’s as opposed to one million [Public Enemy]. You’re gonna go from “Fight the Power” to “Gin and Juice."

...

BET is the cancer of black manhood in the world. They have one-dinemsionalized
us and commodified us into being a one-trick image. We’re throwing money at the camera. We’re flashing jewelry that can actually give a town in Africa water. We got 160 million dollar contracts because we got happy niggas.

When asked about what happens when he confronts mainstream rappers about the misogyny and falling into the racist corporate trap Chuck D answers:

They couldn’t even look you in the eye. Fuck that. We can really get to the nuts and nails of this. They couldn’t even look you in the eye. Number one, cats can’t even look a man in the eye. If they look a man in the eye, they think it’s confrontation. Why? Because they can’t answer. They can’t answer to it. And it’s almost like now, and it ain’t their fault. This is all systematic. It’s all part of genocidally breaking things down to the point where people are gonna follow a program that gets played out for them. This is the play. This is the playbook. Y’all gonna follow through. Crank robots up, they gonna do what robots do, what you told them to do.

I'll blog more about white consumption of hip-hop and white supremacy in marketing hip-hop in part II.

Transcript obtained from Media Education Foundation.

Image From:
Rappers Den

Gang Injunctions in the City by the Bay

A video I saw at the Filipino Community Center which was put on by H.O.M.E.Y. (Homies Organizing the Mission for Empowered Youth) about gang injunctions and how they adversely affect youth of color, specifically Blacks and Latinos. A very good video I saw at a very good hip-hop event for the youth.