May 18, 2012
djinnihugs: thedailywhat: Political Correctness of the Day: The state of Oregon has put eight high schools on notice — their Native American mascots have got to go. A 5-1 vote Thursday by the Board of Education gives the schools five years to make the change, or their state funding is withdrawn. The decision came after months of emotional debate about tolerance and tradition. “It is racist. It is harmful. It is shaming. It is dehumanizing,” said Se-ah-dom Edmo, vice president of the Oregon Indian Education Association. On the opposing side are people like Jim Smith, the principal of Banks High School — home of the Braves — who grew up on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. “It’s a chance for us to talk about family and tradition and loyalty,” he said. Wisconsin is the only other state with restrictions on Native American mascots. The law there requires school boards to prove that their mascots don’t promote discrimination, harassment, or stereotyping if someone complains. Regardless, Native American mascots still abound. [newsday] fucking finally. now get the rest of the warriors/braves/indians/redskins mascots gone

djinnihugs:

thedailywhat:

Political Correctness of the Day: The state of Oregon has put eight high schools on notice — their Native American mascots have got to go. A 5-1 vote Thursday by the Board of Education gives the schools five years to make the change, or their state funding is withdrawn.

The decision came after months of emotional debate about tolerance and tradition.

“It is racist. It is harmful. It is shaming. It is dehumanizing,” said Se-ah-dom Edmo, vice president of the Oregon Indian Education Association.

On the opposing side are people like Jim Smith, the principal of Banks High School — home of the Braves — who grew up on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. “It’s a chance for us to talk about family and tradition and loyalty,” he said.

Wisconsin is the only other state with restrictions on Native American mascots. The law there requires school boards to prove that their mascots don’t promote discrimination, harassment, or stereotyping if someone complains. Regardless, Native American mascots still abound.

[newsday]

fucking finally. now get the rest of the warriors/braves/indians/redskins mascots gone

3:47pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyLjBksf
(Notes: 510)
  
Filed under: racism 
April 20, 2012
"The conservative movement doesn’t understand anti-racism as a value, only as a rhetorical pose. This is how you end up tarring the oldest integrationist group in the country (the NAACP) as racist. The slur has no real moral content to them. It’s all a game of who can embarrass who. If you don’t think racism is an actual force in the country, then you can only understand its invocation as a tactic."

—

Ta-Nehisi Coates. (via liberalsarecool)

“If you don’t think racism is an actual force in the country, then you can only understand its invocation as a tactic”

(via cocoku)

(via squintyoureyes)

1:33pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyJ_BpeO
(Notes: 293)
  
Filed under: racism 
April 18, 2012

sheiswolf:

Here’s what you do not get fellow white Feminists.

When you say some shit like “Can people stop making fun of Girls HBO for being all-white and just state that they’re uncomfortable with a female-dominant show already” you are actively removing WoC from the category of women.

Therefore making them the Other. Making them not women. Making them not human.

If they added [god-forbid] even just one woman of color, IT WOULD STILL BE A WOMAN DOMINATED SHOW.

So when you imply that people complaining about no WoC being represented is taking away from the fact that it’s a woman dominated show, you are saying that WoC are not women.

And that’s why WoC can’t stand us. That’s why the Feminist movement always fucks up and has been fucking up since the beginning.

And we wonder why they don’t feel safe in our movement. 

(via glamaphonic)

6:42pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyJua7UB
(Notes: 552)
  
Filed under: racism 
April 15, 2012
Anonymous asked: Yo, is it racist that I’m white and proud of being white but afraid to say I’m proud to be white because other people will call me racist for being proud of being white?

dropkicks:

yoisthisracist:

Ok, what about looking at it this way. When people say Black Pride (it could be any other kind of minority pride, though), what they’re actually saying is they’re proud of struggling, surviving and prospering in a society where life is systematically stacked against them, ie, something that they’ve accomplished. When people say White Pride (besides that literally being something only unrepentant racists really say), they’re talking about being proud of something that they were born into, or given, which, when you think about it, isn’t really that much of an accomplishment.

man I have struggled for years to articulate this

(via tetrapeptide)

7:26pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyJkYVjF
(Notes: 405)
  
Filed under: racism 
April 6, 2012
"Disliking hip-hop doesn’t make you a racist any more than liking hip-hop makes you not a racist, and I’m sure there are plenty of Stormfront enthusiasts with Rick Ross in their iTunes. If you don’t like Jay-Z because you just don’t like the way he sounds, or you’re sick of his cloying ubiquity, or you wish he’d talk about something other than where he’s from for five seconds — hey, I’m not mad, I don’t like Bruce Springsteen for the same reasons. But if you don’t like rap music — a genre that contains multitudes — because of a self-satisfied moralism, or because you’re scared of it, or because you wish those people would stop talking about their problems and get out of your television and radio and kids’ bedrooms: well.
And I’m not just talking about the American right, I’m talking about all the well-meaning white folks who’ve told me how they want to like Lil Wayne but lo, the misogyny, the violence, the drugs. But, but, I’ll say: Bob Dylan aced misogyny; the Rolling Stones sang about violence; the Velvet Underground knew their way around some drugs. Yeeeah, but it’s different, they’ll say, elongating that “yeah” with conspiratorial inflection: you know what I mean. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
Rap music doesn’t get unarmed kids shot to death, “it’s different” does. “It’s different” infuses “these assholes always get away” and gives solace to people who hear that sound bite and nod their empty heads in agreement. “It’s different” is the same logic that suggests a teenager’s skin color combined with the music he listened to means he had it coming, and it’s the same logic that lets a bunch of people feign outrage over a teenager’s use of the n-word to describe himself when they’re really just outraged that he beat them to the punch.
“It’s different” makes me shake with anger because it turns music into a dog-whistle to justify the murder of a kid who doesn’t seem all that “different” from me was when I was his age, not that different at all. I liked Skittles and hoodies and weed, too. And yeah, I’m white and never worried about getting shot for any of it, which is only the most loathsome excuse for not identifying with someone that I can possibly think of."

— Jack Hamilton, “America Is Dying Slowly: Talking About Hip-Hop After Trayvon Martin” (via stampbags)

(Source: thediscography, via tetrapeptide)

3:19pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyJCIIIf
(Notes: 3,277)
  
Filed under: racism 
March 9, 2012
13-Year-Old Jada Williams persecuted over her essay on Frederick Douglass

(Source: sugarbooty, via squintyoureyes)

8:27pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyHkZMvL
(Notes: 195)
  
Filed under: racism 
February 29, 2012

beautifulbrwn:

“On Saturday, February 18, 2012, the Frederick Douglass Foundation of New York presented the first Spirit of Freedom award to Jada Williams, a 13-year old city of Rochester student.  Miss Williams wrote an essay on her impressions of Frederick Douglass’ first autobiography the Narrative of the Life.  This was part of an essay contest, but her essay was never entered.  It offended her teachers so much that, after harassment from teachers and school administrators at School #3, Miss Williams was forced to leave the school.
We at the Frederick Douglass Foundation honored her because her essay actually demonstrates that she understood the autobiography, even though it might seem a bit esoteric to most 13-year olds.  In her essay, she quotes part of the scene where Douglass’ slave master catches his wife teaching then slave Frederick to read.  During a speech about how he would be useless as a slave if he were able to read, Mr. Auld, the slave master, castigated his wife.
Miss Williams quoted Douglass quoting Mr. Auld:  “If you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there will be no keeping him. It will forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.”
Miss Williams personalized this to her own situation.  She reflected on how the “white teachers” do not have enough control of the classroom to successfully teach the minority students in Rochester.  While she herself is more literate than most, due to her own perseverance and diligence, she sees the fact that so many of the other “so-called ‘unteachable’” students aren’t learning to read as a form of modern-day slavery.  Their illiteracy holds them back in society.
Her call to action was then in her summary: “A grand price was paid in order for us to be where we are today; but in my mind we should be a lot further, so again I encourage the white teachers to instruct and I encourage my people to not just be a student, but become a learner.”
This offended her English teacher so much that the teacher copied the essay for other teachers and for the Principal. After that, Miss Williams’ mother and father started receiving phone calls from numerous teachers, all claiming that their daughter is “angry.”  Miss Williams, mostly a straight-A student, started receiving very low grades, and she was kicked out of class for laughing and threatened with in-school suspension.
There were several meetings with teachers and administrators, but all failed to answer Miss Williams’ mother’s questions. The teachers refused to show her the tests and work that she had supposedly performed so poorly on.  Instead, the teachers and administrators branded her a problem.
Unable to take anymore of the persecution, they pulled her from School #3.  Wanting to try another school, they were quickly informed that that school was filled and told to try “this school.”  During her first day at this new school, she witnessed four fights, and other students asked her if she was put here because she fights too much.
Long story short, they took an exceptional student, with the radical idea that kids should learn to read, and put her in a school of throwaway students who are even more unmanageable than the average student in her previous school.  To protect their daughter, her parents have had to remove her from school, and her mother has had to quit her job so she can take care of Miss Williams.
To date, the administrators of School #3 have refused to release her records, even though she no longer attends the school, and they have repeatedly given her mother the run around.  We at the Frederick Douglass Foundation have contacted school administrators in regards to this situation and have also been told to hit the pavement.

That’s what we intend to do.  If this school will sacrifice the welfare of an above-average student whose essay, that they asked her to write, they find offensive, we intend to make everyone aware of this monstrous injustice.  The school has a job, and it is not doing it.  We would like as many folks as possible to call the Principal of School #3 and complain about this injustice.  Her name is Miss Connie Wehner, and she can be reached at (585) 454-3525.  This treatment of Jada Williams cannot stand.

See Video of Jada reading her Essay Here
Read Related Blog posts Here, Here and Here”

(via glamaphonic)

4:47pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyHFbspL
(Notes: 4,319)
  
Filed under: racism 
February 29, 2012
13 Year Old Jada Williams Persecuted by the Rochester City School District Over her essay on Frederick Douglass.

thecurvature:

racismschool:

beautifulbrwn:

“On Saturday, February 18, 2012, the Frederick Douglass Foundation of New York presented the first Spirit of Freedom award to Jada Williams, a 13-year old city of Rochester student.  Miss Williams wrote an essay on her impressions of Frederick Douglass’ first autobiography the Narrative of the Life.  This was part of an essay contest, but her essay was never entered.  It offended her teachers so much that, after harassment from teachers and school administrators at School #3, Miss Williams was forced to leave the school.
We at the Frederick Douglass Foundation honored her because her essay actually demonstrates that she understood the autobiography, even though it might seem a bit esoteric to most 13-year olds.  In her essay, she quotes part of the scene where Douglass’ slave master catches his wife teaching then slave Frederick to read.  During a speech about how he would be useless as a slave if he were able to read, Mr. Auld, the slave master, castigated his wife.
Miss Williams quoted Douglass quoting Mr. Auld:  “If you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there will be no keeping him. It will forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.”
Miss Williams personalized this to her own situation.  She reflected on how the “white teachers” do not have enough control of the classroom to successfully teach the minority students in Rochester.  While she herself is more literate than most, due to her own perseverance and diligence, she sees the fact that so many of the other “so-called ‘unteachable’” students aren’t learning to read as a form of modern-day slavery.  Their illiteracy holds them back in society.
Her call to action was then in her summary: “A grand price was paid in order for us to be where we are today; but in my mind we should be a lot further, so again I encourage the white teachers to instruct and I encourage my people to not just be a student, but become a learner.”
This offended her English teacher so much…”
Not sure what to do with this extra day?
Take advantage of it and do something good. It will only take a minute and you could make all the difference in the world.

Not only my city … I went to this school for one year in sixth grade. This local news article provides the additional context that the student body is overwhelmingly Black and Latino, and the teachers are overhwlemingly white.

Please click through to read the rest of the original link. This appears at the end:

We would like as many folks as possible to call the Principal of School #3 and complain about this injustice.  Her name is Miss Connie Wehner, and she can be reached at (585) 454-3525.  This treatment of Jada Williams cannot stand.

(via kiriamaya)

2:51pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyHFAvrI
(Notes: 4,319)
  
Filed under: racism 
February 10, 2012
"

A year ago this month, Jordan Miles, an 18-year-old music student at Pittsburgh’s Creative and Performing Arts High School, was walking to his grandmother’s home in the city’s Homewood neighborhood when three undercover police officers in an unmarked white car decided he looked ‘suspicious.’ Officers Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte, and David Sisak, all white, would later say in police reports that Miles, who is black, seemed to be ‘sneaking around’ and had a bulky object protruding from his coat that appeared to be a gun. It turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew—which, curiously, was never taken into evidence…

The three officers severely beat the unarmed viola player, who is five feet, five inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. They hit him with multiple punches to the face and a knee to the head. They also tore off a large clump of his hair… . Once he was out of the hospital, Miles, an honors student with no prior criminal record, was arrested and charged with loitering, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest. The police claimed that earlier in the evening they had spoken with Monica Wooding, who lives in the neighborhood, and were responding to her complaint that Miles was loitering on her property without her permission. But Wooding later testified that she made no such complaint. In fact, she testified that she has known Miles, a friend of her son, for years…

Under its charter, Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board is not allowed to look into the incident until all criminal investigations are completed. So while it took just a few hours to falsely charge Jordan Miles with assaulting three police officers, more than a year later federal and local officials still can’t decide whether the officers who beat him should be charged, removed from the force, or, as the local police union recommends, praised for their heroism.

"

—

A Beating In Pittsburgh (1/24/2011)

You want a verdict? Fuck this whole goddamned system.

(via humanformat)

Unfuck the police.  I particularly love how victims, almost inevitably people of colour, are always charged with the assault that the police make on them.

(via lucypaw)

(Source: letterstomycountry, via kiriamaya)

6:22pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyGCu65J
(Notes: 444)
  
Filed under: racism 
February 1, 2012
What is it with Ghetto Names

sumney:

I get it now.

All my life, I grew up being told that “black” names are ghetto and held by people who are likely to be trashy. If you know a girl named Laquisha, Latoya, Shaniqua, or Kelendria, she’s probably the neighborhood hoodrat, and even names like Tyrone and Tyrese are blacklisted in our society (pun intended). Statistically, it’s been proven that resumes and job applications that bear these names are more likely to go unread or end up in the trash can. [Translation: you’re less likely to be hired if you are obviously black.] 

But of course, names are alright if they are unquestionably mainstream (read: white) - Benjamin, Elizabeth, William, etc. Names are also fine if they are from a minority culture, as long as they are not identifiably a product of African-American culture; Alejandra, Lucia, Ivanka, Pierre, Elena, Boris, and Armando, are acceptable, exotic, and can even be beautiful. You might get teased on the playground, but your name is less likely to be a stigma or bad luck charm that follows you for the rest of your life.

When I worked at Hollister (not something I’m proud of), one of my white bosses was named Chante. She told me how people were often surprised when they met her, and would say thinks like “you’re not black!” or “what a ghetto name for a little white girl!” Turns out, her name was French. Her family was French. But because Chante has become such a popular name in the black American community, people have started to see it as ghetto. It’s losing its value because it’s associated with blackness.

A few weeks ago, I met a black girl named Shizuki. I immediately thought what an interesting ghetto name. I’m not exempt from prejudice. Such thoughts come to me once in a while, and I have to reprimand myself for upholding racist ideals instilled in me by American society. I asked her what her name meant, and she told me it was Japanese. Turns out, she was born in Japan and grew up there. Imagine how stupid I felt - and rightly so.

And now I suddenly understand why black names are frowned upon. Because things that are black, in this country, are ghetto. “Ghetto” is synonymous with poor, trashy, uncivilized, and ill-mannered. Because black names are ghetto, they are inherently ugly and unattractive, and names likes Tierra and Mo’nique (which I find aesthetically pleasing) will automatically be regarded as ugly. Simply put, the only reason why black names are bad… is because they are held by black people.

8:54am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5UrVyFjDC-a
(Notes: 1,392)
  
Filed under: racism 
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