Christian. coffee drinker. womanist. Hebrew scholar. high-heel wearer. cupcake eater. Bible reader. lipstick lover. piano player. tweet-tweeter. justice-seeker. book obsessor. brown-skin wearer. fruit eater. additionally, all photos and articles are the property of their respective owners.
Posts tagged racism.
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The predominately black neighbourhood of Hatikva was ransacked by groups of nationalist protesters who had attended a demonstration on Wednesday night against illegal African migrants.
The protesters claim the Africans are responsible for a rise in crime, bearing signs saying “This is not Africa” and “Stop talking, start expelling”.
“Blacks out!” shouted demonstrators in the crowd, while others yelled “Send the Sudanese back to Sudan”, as other protesters derided the “bleeding-heart leftists” working to help them.
The mob set cans of rubbish on fire, smashed the windows of shops owned by Eritrean migrants and beat up Africans walking through the streets…
Back in January, he let loose on “black thugs”, saying ”ANOTHER YOUNG BLACK MALE THUG-NEEDS TO DIE-I PRAY THAT THE VICTIMS FRIENDS GET TO HIM 1ST. SO THE POLICE WON’T HAVE TO KILL HIM,” “We are faced with a young Black Army of Thugs who have declared War on the American Way of Life-Holding America Hostage as we speak,” and “Young Black Thugs who won’t follow the law need to be put down not incarcerated. Put down like the Dogs they are!”
It is hard to imagine that this racist malcontent is the man black Louisiana parents have allowed to be put in charge of their kids.
“Never allow your enemies to educate your children.” X
“The most damaging thing a people in a colonial situation can do is to allow their children to attend any educational facility organized by the dominant enemy culture.” George Jackson
John Derbyshire gives white people advice about black people
(10) Thus, while always attentive to the particular qualities of individuals, on the many occasions where you have nothing to guide you but knowledge of those mean differences, use statistical common sense: (10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.
(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.
(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).
(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.
(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.
(10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.
(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.
(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.
(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.
find a discussion and critique of the entire situation here.
Last December, 16 year-old Jasmine Thar was visiting family in North Carolina when a single bullet struck her, as well as her aunt and cousin. While the other two women survived, Jasmine died from her injuries.
The shooter, James Anthony Blackwell, lived across the street. He claimed his 700 model Remington rifle went off by accident. The local police believed him, and Blackwell was released without any charges being filed against him.
Thar’s family is outraged that Blackwell has not been charged. They point to the implausibility of a single bullet, fired by accident, going through a window and hitting three different people; as well as the fact that Blackwell, a white man, had confederate flags and Nazi readings and memorabilia in his bedroom, as proof that there might have been a far more sinister motive behind the shooting.
High School play in Friendship, NY 1940s
#minstrels…
Female genital mutilation ‘offered by UK medics’
GP, dentist and alternative medicine practitioner are filmed allegedly offering to carry out or arrange FGM
As many as 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilations (FGM) with medics in the UK offering to carry out the illegal procedure on girls as young as 10, it has been reported.
Investigators from the Sunday Times said they had secretly filmed a doctor, dentist and alternative medicine practitioner who were allegedly willing to perform FGM or arrange for the operation to be carried out. The doctor and dentist deny any wrongdoing.
The practice, which involves the surgical removal of external genitalia and in some cases the stitching of the vaginal opening, is illegal in Britain and carries up to a 14-year prison sentence. It is also against the law to arrange FGM.
The procedure is widespread across parts of Africa. Victims are rarely given anaesthetic and frequently suffer long-term damage and pain.
Research suggests that every year more than 22,000 girls in the UK and up to 6,000 in London are at risk of the potentially fatal procedure.
The Metropolitan police said that since 2008 it had received 166 reports of people who feared they were at risk of FGM. Across all 43 forces in England and Wales, no one has ever been convicted of the offence, according to the Sunday Times.
The newspaper added that only two doctors had been struck off by the General Medical Council since 1980.
According to Forward, a charity which campaigns against FGM, an estimated 100,000 women in the UK have undergone mutilation.
The model Waris Dirie, who was mutilated as a child, is a vociferous opponent of the practice.
Calling for a crackdown on FGM, she said: “If a white girl is abused, the police come break down the door. If a black girl is mutilated, nobody takes care of her. This is what I call racism.”
From the article…
Cone has spent much of his career condemning the white church for saying little about slavery or racial justice. Yet his pugnacious reputation doesn’t jibe with his appearance. He is a slight man with a boyish face, cinnamon complexion and dimples. He has a high-pitched voice that drips with the Southern inflections of his native Arkansas.
Cone first gained attention in 1969 with the release of “Black Theology and Black Power,” a book he wrote after urban race riots and King’s assassination.
That book took theology out of academia and placed it on the still-smoldering streets. He became known as the father of “black liberation theology.” He said God was black (he meant it figuratively) because God was closest to those who were oppressed and despised - black people in America.
Cone said his passion for justice comes from growing up in the black church.
Cone blended the racial pride of the black power movement with an emphasis on social justice that had been a part of the black church since enslaved Africans first read the Bible. Jesus’ primary message, he said, wasn’t about getting people to heaven, but liberating people here and now from oppression - racial, economic and spiritual.
Cone said he was tired of white theologians writing about an otherworldly theology while cities burned and blacks were murdered by racists.
“I felt like I was the angriest black theologian in America,” he once wrote in his book “Risks of Faith.” “I had to speak out.”
Cone inspired some and angered others.
Critics say he developed a divisive, racist theology that describes God as black and whites as evil. They say he’s stuck in the ’60s and never abandoned the bitterness of growing up in segregation.
Supporters say Cone exposed the hypocrisy of white churches and gave voice to helpless, poor and oppressed Christians in places as far away as China and Latin America.
The cross and the lynching tree need each other: the lynching tree can liberate the cross from the false pieties of well-meaning Christians.
The crucifixion was a first-century lynching.
The cross can redeem the lynching tree, and thereby bestow upon lynched black bodies an eschatological meaning for their ultimate existence.
The cross can also redeem white lynchers, and their descendants, too, but not without profound cost, not without the revelation of the wrath and justice of God, which executes divine judgment, with the demand for repentance and reparation, as a presupposition of divine mercy and forgiveness. Most whites want mercy and forgiveness, but not justice and reparations; they want reconciliation without liberation, the resurrection without the cross.
the bolded section summarizes my frustrations with Christian “reconciliation.” it is too often a way of using the Bible to maintain white privilege.
Reasons why I stay angry. what. the. hell.
Howard Morgan
From the article…
According to police, Morgan opened fire with his service weapon when officers tried to arrest him, which caused them to shoot him 28 times. His family, however, very much doubts those claims.
“Four white officers and one black Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad police man with his weapon on him — around the corner from our home — and he just decided to go crazy? No. That’s ludicrous,” Morgan’s wife, Rosalind Morgan, told the Sun-Times.
She was not the only person to doubt CPD’s side of the story. A Change.org petitionsigned by more than 2,600 people called for all charges against Morgan to be dropped, and now Occupy Chicago is getting involved.
“After being left for dead, he survived and was then charged with attempted murder of the four white officers who brutalized him,” Occupy wrote on their website, adding that Morgan was found not guilty on three counts, including discharging his weapon. The same jury that cleared him of opening fire on the officers, however, deadlocked on a charge of attempted murder — and another jury found him guilty in January.
and…for all of the white people shouting “i am Trayvon Martin,” NO. you are not Trayvon Martin, you are George Zimmerman. that is the point…
this seems to be confusing…saying that you are Trayvon Martin ignores the reality of who Trayvon is and why he was murdered. George Zimmerman made reference to Trayvon’s race multiple times…
George Zimmerman is actually of mixed descent. He is not only white, he is also Latino.
The “I am Trayvon” slogan is meant to be a uniting one for all to say, in solidarity with the Martin family and as a symbol that we are all behind them, regardless of race.
Latinos can be white, black, of indigenous ancestry, etc. And regardless, if George Zimmerman projects the same ideology espoused by this white racist system we live under, he is a part of it, regardless of his heritage.
I understand the intention that some white people have while using the slogan, but it ignores the problem. Trayvon’s death was not an isolated incident, he was killed because he is black. He was killed just like Sean Bell, Amidou Diallo, Oscar Grant, etc because he is a black male. White people are not systematically murdered by a white supremacist system for being white. Therefore, white people cannot be Trayvon Martin or any other murdered black male. To say, “I am Trayvon Martin” is to say, I could be Trayvon Martin. No, as a white person, you cannot ever be Trayvon Martin. As a black woman, I cannot be Trayvon Martin. My father, however, could be Trayvon Martin, as could my cousins, uncles, and friends.
When a white person says, “I am Trayvon Martin,” they are ignoring the reality of systematic racism, and just projecting white privilege. A white privilege that can view the death of a 17 year old black boy as something that requires one to stand behind a single family, and not an entire community.
Racism must be dismantled, and that process begins in the mind. The best thing a white ally can do is understand why she/he IS NOT Trayvon and never will be.
so…George Zimmerman is being unfairly presented? BULL SHIT.
THIS is institutionalized racism: providing protection for the privileged while slaughtering the innocent.
MISS ME ENTIRELY with your “this isn’t about race” crap.
“White Christians Sleep While Young Black Men Die” via Sojourners
The Link to the original article may be found here.
This is largely addressed to my white brothers and sisters, particularly those in the church. I’m a white woman, was raised in an almost all-white town and have spent most of my life in predominately white faith communities. White people don’t like to talk about racism. We like to pretend it isn’t real and we don’t benefit from it. This has got to stop.
When Barack Obama was elected president, there was all kinds of talk about the United States being a post-racial society. This was, and is, total BS. It was (and is), however, a really nice bedtime story us white folk can tell to our kids and to ourselves. Rest easy, everyone. Racism is dead. No need to worry about race anymore. Go to sleep, sleep. sleep …
Every once in a while, we (by we I mean my white brothers and sisters) wake up from our little racism-doesn’t-exist slumber. When a celebrity says something out loud that we know is something you just don’t say (inner voices, white brethren) we get all up in arms and demand an apology. Then we go back to sleep. While we sleep, some of us clutch our purses on the train, lock our doors when we drive through minority neighborhoods or cross the street when groups of dark-skinned men stand in our path. We tell ourselves that we are doing it for our own safety, if we realize we are doing it at all. We make assumptions about people’s intelligence, responsibility, work ethic and a whole host of other things based on the color of a person’s skin. I do not exclude myself from this description. I do it too.
Then, in the middle of our nice black-man-is-president, post-racial dream, a young black man is killed for walking through a neighborhood in a hoodie carrying some Skittles, an iced tea, and talking to his girl on the phone. We wake up. We are sad, we are shocked (really? shocked?), we are horrified. We call for the ousting and jailing and public shaming of all involved. Our eyes are getting heavy. All of this sadness and dismay about racism is tiring. We’d like to go back to sleep.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE, STAY AWAKE!
Jesus said this to his followers a lot. Maybe not in those exact words, but he did tell them to stay awake directly and in parables. Jesus knew his followers would have a hard burden to bear once he left. He knew that they would want to fall asleep. He knew they, like most humans, would prefer a life of comfort to the life of the cross he was walking them toward. He implored them to keep awake.
What did that mean to Jesus? Be aware of what you are doing and saying, be aware of who is around you, be aware of your inner thoughts and your prayer life. Be aware. Be awake. Know yourself — know your weaknesses, know what sets you off, know what you are afraid of. Keep awake. Know the difference between what the world tells you and what God is saying. Keep awake. This is how you stay faithful to God and keep the devil at bay. Keep awake.
Two-thousand or so years later, we are asleep. This is, in no small part, a fault of the church. Christian pastors and churches want to keep our numbers up, so we strive to keep people comfortable. We profit off of people staying asleep. I know that there are good Christians out there and good churches working hard to keep people awake. But this shouldn’t be the work of a few churches well-suited to social justice work. This is the work of all of us.
We (white people) are complicit in the murder of Trayvon Martin and all of the other non-white folk who have been killed over the years. We are complicit in the wage gap between people of color and the pigment-challenged. We sit idly by as we watch the number of young black men in prison grow as the unemployment rate for the same demographic in the United States is around 17 percent. This happens because we are asleep.
We are asleep to our fears. We deny that we are afraid of people of color because it sounds so ugly. No one wants to be that person. But we all are. In some way, we all are. We are asleep to our assumptions. When we make assumptions about a person’s intelligence or capabilities on the basis of the color of their skin, we shrug it off. We tell ourselves that some stereotypes are that way because they are true. When someone defies our expectations, we assume that it is because that person is exceptional, not because our assumption was wrong. Most of all, and I believe, most importantly, we are asleep to our power and privilege.
If you need a primer on the benefits of being white, check out the essay White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh. What can you think of off the top of your head? How about not being afraid of the police (unless you’ve actually done something illegal or are high and therefore, paranoid)? That’s a great privilege. I had a black friend in high school who refused to visit me because he knew he would get pulled over in my 99 percent white town. Not getting followed around in a store — that’s pretty cool. Most of the people of my race I see on TV are heroes. Nobody looks at my skin and assumes I have a bad credit score. Read the essay. Learn. Be aware. Be awake.
And another thing: rid your mind of the idea of reverse racism. Reverse racism is not a thing. Yes, white people are occasionally judged on the color of their skin. This is race prejudice, and it happens. Racism is different. Racism = race prejudice + power. And white people, as a whole, still hold the power. I know that this is complicated and there is a hierarchy of power that includes all sorts of things like wealth, education, gender, sexual orientation, nation of origin, immigration status and color. But the top of that hierarchy of power is white. And until white people like myself are ready to talk about this, nothing will get better; it just won’t.
Next time you find yourself clutching your bag or crossing the street or making an assumption about a person stop. Think. Ask yourself what you’re doing and why. Admit that you might have been racist right there, for a moment. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?
Next time you get a sweet interest rate, your credit check is waived, you get out of a traffic ticket or have the police drive right past you without even glancing your way, stop. Think. Ask yourself what’s happened and why. Admit you have power and privilege. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?
Most importantly, my white friends, wake up the people around you. Wake up your churches. Talk about race. Deliver sermons about race. Have workshops about race. How much do we not talk about race? I was hard pressed to find a friend who went to a white church where Dr. King was talked about on Martin Luther King Day. We can’t even talk about it when we’re honoring one of the greatest prophets of our time. We are comfortable. We are asleep. People of color in our country don’t have this luxury.
In Jesus’ stories, the ending is never good for the people who fall sleep. Stay awake, therefore. Stay awake. Stay awake. For the sake of the world, stay awake.
Elizabeth Rawlings is a graduate student at Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley, Calif. She blogs about seminary, Christian leadership and emergent things at her blog, Feet In, Arms Out.
Proof
I said before that People of Color always have to provide proof. Proof of racism against us. Proof that we’re hurt.
Proof that we’re good enough.
Let a PoC die.
There will be so much fucking emphasis on their character. The first comments will always be white folks. “Oh, that’s so sad. BUT. What did they do to deserve it?”
“So tragic. BUT. Let’s not forget that they apparently stole something, once, according to the police who are covering up this murder to spare the murderer.”
“So sad. BUT wasn’t it said one time that they’re not a good student?”
And we always have to defend.
“They were a good student.”
“They were a good boy. Good girl.”
“They’d never hurt anyone.”
“They didn’t have a record.”
Like any of that matters. A person of color gets murdered for daring to walk around in the skin they were born in. And the only thing that matters is their character. And if their character isn’t good enough, then they deserve it.
We’ll rarely not “deserve it. It’s always something. Even if we have flawless characters, you will fight to find something.
“They shouldn’t have worn the house wearing this. They should’ve known it made them look like one of those lesser PoCs.”
“They shouldn’t have been so angry.”
“Well, what were they doing confronting their stalker in the first place?”
“They had no business hitting the man who tried to intimidate them with a gun, anyway! They were aggressive. Therefore, the killer was acting in self defense.”
A teenage boy. With candy and a sugar drink. Candy. And. A Sugar Drink. ASKS a grown ass man in a car why he’s following him. The man gets out of his car, holding a gun. This grown ass man with said gun approaches this boy. AFTER THE COPS TOLD HIM NOT TO DO IT. This boy may or may not have put up a fight—IS HE NOT JUSTIFIED?
TELL ME that if a man following you in a car got out with a gun, you would just stand there, all smiles and sunshine. TELL ME.
This man listened to this boy SCREAM. CRY. BEG. FOR HIS LIFE. And then he SHOT. THIS. BOY.
And you want to sit here and justify it by any means possible?!
The boy doesn’t have a receipt for his purchase. So suddenly, he’s a thief, and it’s okay that a teenager got murdered in cold blood at the hands of a man who had been given an order by the cops to NOT DO ANYTHING IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE?!
The killer claims that Trayvon hit him, and suddenly, it’s PEACHY KEEN AND TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE that this man stalked this boy and cornered him with a gun, and fatally shot him?!
We’re going to try and make this about how he shouldn’t have been wearing a hoodie in the first place?! Nevermind the fact that it MIGHT have been cold. He MIGHT have found hoodies comfortable. He MIGHT have needed something to carry the shit he brought for his LITTLE BROTHER, because he MIGHT not have felt like carrying a cold ass can in his hands.
YOU. WANT. TO. JUSTIFY. HIS. MURDER.
You want to know WHY you’re fighting so hard to say that it’s okay? You wanna know WHY you’re fighting so hard to cling to the falsehood of Zimmerman’s innocence? You want to know WHY you want to justify Trayvon’s murder?
BECAUSE YOU DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT BLACK LIVES.
YOU DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT US AT ALL.
OUR LIVES MEAN NOTHING TO YOU.
AND YOU REFUSE TO ADMIT IT.
So if you can somehow JUSTIFY that Trayvon’s murder is okay, you can feel good about your sociopathic self.
But here’s the thing. There’s nothing you can do to justify this. There is nothing! Because even if he did hit the man who was stalking him, it was Trayvon acting in self defense. If he did shoplift the candy and tea? It doesn’t mean he deserved to die. He was wearing a hoodie, and someone else perceived him to be threatening—in other words, someone had an opinion about the fact that he was wearing a hoodie on a brisk evening—does not give said person license to kill him.
There is no justification, and you are racist scum. George Zimmerman. The police who are trying to cover it up by changing the witness testimonies. The police who failed to do their jobs by not arresting Zimmerman. YOU, the person trying to justify this all away like there is any justification.
A man in a car is claiming to have felt threatened by a teenage boy in a hoodie carrying tea and candy.
Answer me this: Why the hell did he get out of his car, then?
How could he have felt threatened by a boy who was smaller than him, who did nothing more than beg for his life?
HOW was he “threatened” by that? Huh?
White people, y’all try so hard to rationalize why our deaths are okay. Why not just say it? You have no sympathy for our deaths. Not when the death is of a senior citizen. Not when it’sof a young mother. Not when it’s of a young man. Not when it’s of a thug. Not when it’s of a scholar. Not when it’s of a doctor, professor, soccer coach. Not when it’s of a child. Not when it’s of a baby.
Even if the PoC victim was a baby, you find some way to excuse the murder.
So why not just come out and say it?
You.
Don’t.
Care.
You don’t care when we’re alive. You don’t care when we’re dead.
We already know.
So you might as well just say it.
THHHHHIIIIISSSSSSSS. this is the total sum of my frustration living in this damned racist country. you cannot win for losing, and sometimes they kill us.
and the only thing ignorant-ass conservatives will say: “stop whining.”
