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Despite the similarities between the conflicts in Iraq and Darfur, "the violence in the two places is named differently. In Iraq, it is said to be a cycle of insurgency and counter-insurgency; in Darfur, it is called genocide. Why the difference? Who does the naming? Who is being named? What difference does it make?"

Perhaps if White westerners are perpetrators, we must name it "insurgency/counterinsurgency", but if the "bad guys" are Arabs, we name it "genocide" - this makes it a morality play, a simple story of good v evil.

I had read about racial profiling before, but the first time I was really made aware of it in a personal way was while on a whitewater rafting trip at a fairly cushy, decidedly not-wild portion of the Ottawa River. We were a large group of mostly young people who were either part of the same workplace or had friends in that workplace, so some people knew each other well and others not at all. One evening, in amongst various sorts of partying-related activities, about ten from this larger group were sitting around a camp fire, talking -- eight young white women and men, and two young Black men. The conversation turned to past interactions with the police...

See the full review at A Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land.

Crossposted from The Republic of T.

If you think I'm going to say what you think I'm going to say about Thanksgiving, well, I already did and it went over like a lead balloon. Boy, do people not what to hear about that stuff. Thankfully, this year other people are talking about that stuff.

Teacher Bill Morgan walks into his third-grade class wearing a black Pilgrim hat made of construction paper and begins snatching up pencils, backpacks and glue sticks from his pupils. He tells them the items now belong to him because he "discovered" them. The reaction is exactly what Morgan expects: The kids get angry and want their things back.

Morgan is among elementary school teachers who have ditched the traditional Thanksgiving lesson, in which children dress up like Indians and Pilgrims and act out a romanticized version of their first meetings.

Morgan said he still wants his pupils at Cleveland Elementary School in San Francisco to celebrate Thanksgiving. But "what I am trying to portray is a different point of view."

Others see Morgan and teachers like him as too extreme.

"I think that is very sad," said Janice Shaw Crouse, a former college dean and public high school teacher and now a spokeswoman for Concerned Women for America, a conservative organization. "He is teaching his students to hate their country. That is a very distorted view of history, a distorted view of Thanksgiving."

You know, the stuff we're not supposed to talk about today.

I'm not really used to reviewing books that are not straight-up nonfiction. These days it's mostly history and/or theory. And it's not because I don't like anything else, just because of circumstance. Brand, one of Canada's foremost authors, writes novels (I've read and very much enjoyed At the Full and Change of the Moon), political essays (I would recommend Bread Out of Stone, especially the essay on cultural appropriation), history (an important work of oral history of Black women who worked in Ontario between 1920 and 1950), and poetry (haven't read any myself but it is also widely acclaimed), and she has a long history of grassroots involvement in...

(Continued here at A Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land.)

A central question in all politics, albeit one that is seldom even recognized let alone effectively addressed in more privileged progressive (broadly defined) spaces, is who exactly are "we"? Who composes the collective subject pushing for change in a given instance, and how in practical terms is that collectivity constituted? What are the political implications of our answers to those questions? What might we wish to try and do differently?

Often in our semi-conscious dealings with the questions of "we", we forcibly...

(Continued here at A Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land.)

What do Danish cartoonists and the Pope have in common? They're both apt to spew vile Islamophobic material, and act shocked that nearly 21% of the world's population are not only offended, but quite angry with them (from The Guardian):

"The Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, told Vatican Radio: 'It was certainly not the intention of the Holy Father to undertake a comprehensive study of the jihad and of Muslim ideas on the subject, still less to offend the sensibilities of Muslim faithful.'"

Perhaps if the 'Holy Father' had undertaken a comprehensive study of jihad, he would have been less prone to 'offend the sensibilities of Muslim faithful'. But then again, anyone who would completely overlook a backlash to statements such as the following, lives in a box so dark and cavernous that he espouses views held by a 600-year-old Byzantine emporer:

Below is a statement/petition on the current situation in Palestine being circulated by Britain's Palestine Solidarity Campaign. It is currently being forwarded to British public figures, organizations, trade unions and others who are asked to sign it. The British Palestine Solidarity Campaign has asked sympathizers in other countries to undertake similar initiatives in their own countries. The British initiative has already received considerable support. Here is the text of the British statement:

Emergency in Palestine

The Israeli government's behavior at present is to be comdemned. The failure of our government to speak out against Israel's oppression of the Palestinian population is complicit with those actions of the European Union, the United States and Israel. It is in effect a coordinated attempt to collectively punish the Palestinian people for electing a government of which they disapprove .

[Update: I get some extra time to read through my blog roll and I discover that I'm not the only one bitching about Crash. Good. Here are a few other disenting opinions: J's Theater, Reappropriate, and Black(a)demic (who is actually bitching about another aspect of the Oscars, but it's still relevant).]
As I walk the streets of Hollywood Boulevard
Thinkin' how hard it was to those that starred
In the movies portrayin' the roles
Of butlers and maids slaves and hoes
Many intelligent Black men seemed to look uncivilized
When on the screen
Like a guess I figure you to play some jigaboo
On the plantation, what else can a nigger do
And Black women in this profession
As for playin' a lawyer, out of the question
For what they play Aunt Jemima is the perfect term
Even if now she got a perm

Australia's Fueh... er... Prime Minister John Howard has refused to attribute the race riots to racism. Hmm... Anyway, below are some highlights of Howard's career, which may shed some light on the current events.  He predicted, in 1985, that "The times will suit me." Not that the times do suit him, but that they will. He has made his self-fulfilling prophecy come true by pursuing policies such as:

• Opposition to multiculturalism
• Promotion of "a shared national identity"
• Claims that the rate of Asian immigration was too high
• Repudiation of any accommodation with Asia or the Aborigines
• Turning away Asian asylum seekers on the high seas
• "Border protection" issues
• Enthusiastic participation in the war on Iraq

Obviously, the race riots have nothing to do with racism. If they did, John Howard would know...  http://alse.blogspot.com

Summary:
The Attorney General of the United States is the author of a document giving a salivating president and a slobbering president of vice, the legal wherewithal to torture people on U.S. soil, on U.S. controlled Cuban soil, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and through rendition, numerous other countries that will soon be reported on. Their actions render quaint the idea of America the Beautiful. They've turned us into America the Salivating, Slobbering Dr. Josef Mengele, or as he was known in the concentration camps, Todesengel: the Angel of Death, the exquisite torturer. Read the Newsletter at Grindstaff Chronicles.

From Disreputable Lazy Aliens

Today, 'Darwinism' and 'Darwinian' have entered into our common vocabulary. To read the Origin is therefore to grasp an opportunity to estimate how closely that common understanding relates to its supposed source. - Jeff Wallace [from his introduction to "The Origin of Species", Darwin, Charles. (1998, Wordsworth Editions Ltd. Ware, Hertforshire UK) ISBN 1 85326 780 5 itself a reprint of the 1st (Nov 1859) edition of "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life." Darwin, Charles]

So, although i had not yet read Wallace's invitation, when i bought the book, i had already decided to do exactly that. It has been something of a wade, not because the book or it's scientific information is at all difficult, but rather that there is much exhaustive detail in expounding Darwin's positions that is nothing new to anyone who has been taught elementary biology and while this may be of interest to historians or biologists, i am neither.

OK, so Survival of the fittest, right? No. That phrase was first used by Herbert Spencer in his 1851 work Social Statics, relating to free market economics. Only in his fifth edition of The Origin, did Darwin himself use the phrase, which had become popular and indeed popularly synonymous with his own descriptive phrase Natural Selection. As the linked Wikipedia article further states, however: At this time the word "fittest" would have primarily meant "most suitable" or "most appropriate" rather than "in the best physical shape". In fact, much of the revision and clarification Darwin added to his work, in later editions, was precisely to clarify his ideas in strictly evolutionary biological terms, both to answer his critics and distance himself from often Malthusian influenced social theories.

Of more importance to the understanding of the 'common vocabulary' use of 'Darwinian' ideas however, is the fallacious idea of 'Survival'.

Crossposted from The Republic of T.

What some people do to their children in the name of their allegedly loving “god” ought to be a crime. When I saw the review of Julia Scheeres' memoir Jesus Land on DailyKos (written by Mrs. Kos), I knew I was going to read it. In fact, I reserved a copy at the nearest bookstore the next day, picked it up, and added it to my “stash.” I wanted to read it for a number of reasons. Like me, the author grew up in the 80s, during the Reagan era, and in a household so hyper-religious as to make my own look downright secular. But the book also promised a rare “behind the curtain” look at the foot soldiers of the religious right; not just into their politics (in a letter to missionaries, the author's mother praises Ronald Reagan as a “Christian leader” who “leads the country toward The Light”), but behind the closed doors of their homes.

It didn't disappoint. Two days after picking it up, I finished it. Scheeres' compelling voice, as she unwinds her tale of how she and her brother -- David -- survived the brutality of their home and the “christian boot camp” their parents sent them to, draws me to their side and keeps me there. Maybe it appealed to the parent in me. I found these two kids (though I'm roughly the same age group as Julia and David Scheeres) facing all manner of horror, and I couldn't leave them alone in it.

Crossposted from The Republic of T.

Oh don't act so surprised. I've mentioned before how I feel about Columbus Day (not to mention Thanksgiving). I guess some folks might find something in it to celebrate, but I'm long, long past being able to do that.

I remember learning about Columbus and his "discovery" of America in school. (To quote Chris Rock "How the fuck do you discover something that's already got people on it? That's like me 'discovering' your car stereo.") It wasn't until years later that I got some idea of what his "discovery" meant for the folks who already happened to be sitting on that patch of ground. I kinda figured it didn't go down to well for them, since there aren't many of their descendants left around.

Crossposted from The Republic of T.

As I was reading this article about Sen. Mary Landrieu's criticism of the Bush administrations post-Katrina bungling (I was a bit critical of her earlier, but she's found her voice since), this statement from Sen. Barak Obama struck me as strangely familiar.

Obama was asked on ABC's "This Week" whether there was racism in the lack of evacuation planning for poor, black residents of New Orleans. He said he would not refer to the government response in that way, but said there was a much deeper, long-term neglect.

Cross posted at Angry White Kid:

San Diego is definitely the place to be in mid-September. Here's the call-out, tell yer friends:

We call on people everywhere to converge on the San Diego/Tijuana region and the Mexicali/Calexico region of the Mexico/US border in order to stop the vigilante operation being planned there by the Friends of the Border Patrol, beginning on September 16th. We also call on those who cannot travel to these areas to organize solidarity actions in their home towns rejecting the Minutemen, Borders and the racist ideologies that Borders are built on.

Our goal for Sep. 16th-18th is to take action and directly shut down the Minutemen operations.

Kind of cross posted at Angry White Kid.

I'm hoping you've all heard about the Minutemen - the racist, armed vigilantes on the border of the US and Mexico. They've expanded from Arizona to California, bringing their hate and their guns with them. Several clashes have occured with protesters since they started their patrol in Campo, CA. The verbal rhetoric and physical violence have been stepped up tremendously.

The vigilantes now on the border are just the beginning. Other patrols in CA are set to start in September, and in every state on the border in October. We need to mobilize, both along the border and across the country to combat this most blatant manifestation of white supremacy. Below is the most recent post of mine on some of the most disturbing actions committed by the Minutemen to date.

Rules, whether based on moral values or just plain common sense, are something that we all need in order to survive as a people.  These rules set the parameters of law and what society deems to be “just.”  Or that is what we have been told throughout our lives.  These past few months, I have pondered what such parameters extend to, and even though I can not vote, it is good to realize how all my rights and liberties are being protected.  So, as I did this thinking, or as I like to call my “civic duty to this country,” the concepts of racial equality in America struck my mind.  I honestly thought that it was something that should be addressed despite it being a trivial issue among most Americans; I mean it seems to go along with the parameters concept. 

Crossposted from The Republic of T.

I wasn’t going to say anything about this, because my overall impression is that these days if you use the word “racist” people stop listening to you. Sometimes I see things adding up to a picture that, from what I can tell, most of the rest of the world doesn’t seem to see. When tht happens, I tend to keep quiet about it, for fear that I might be seen as crazy, or because maybe I really am crazy. But lately I’ve been seeing too many things that add up to picture that makes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up a bit.

First, it was the cross burnings in Durham, NC.

Please browse through the following sites:

Blacks in the Military

Latinos in the Military

Filipinos in the Military

These links will give you a brief history of People of Color in Military history. Whether we agree or disagree with the military action (and hopefully everyone knows how I feel ), Please remember the relatives or other elders you have known that believed that serving in the US military would give them and their people a better life.

Cross posted at Angry White Kid: