Response 5- Forced or coersive change

Jacob once asked the question, “Is it ever okay to force change? Is coercion ever justified?” For many ethical questions, I feel that it is not. But when it comes to human rights violations, sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.

In the case of racism, a classic example that I bring up is that of South Africa. Here is a drastically horrific situation where racist ideologies created a system of Apartheid that will take generations to heal from. Images were sent around the world about the atrocities that were occurring in South Africa, and the global response was decisive and clear. This was unacceptable and inhuman behavior. Still many in the white ruling class had substantial investments in keeping things as they were and made no moves to change course. So a global divestment (boycott) campaign began to hit those who benefited the most from Apartheid right where it hurt the most…in their profits. Political leaders complained that they were losing their autonomy to determine what course they wanted to take. There were cries that the government should be allowed the space to determine how they wanted to address the issue, ignoring that their own corruptive incompetence had allowed the situation to reach its nadir.

In the end, a public vote was conducted to determine the future of South Africa. Roughly 40 percent of the white voting population wanted to keep things as they were. That is almost half of the ruling class. Without that forced change, it is highly unlikely that things would have bettered for any of the oppressed in that land. Indeed, many of the same problems of extreme poverty, joblessness and crime exist. It has been almost 10 years since the fall of Apartheid, but those sentiments of the dissenters continue to shape their society. Still, you would be hard pressed to find a person of color in South Africa that would wish things back to the way they were. Sometimes, the pill is a bitter one, but when human lives and dignity are at stake, drastic measures must be done.

Response 4 - Collaboration

Based on the concerns raised by our TA’s, we abandoned the idea of Sundown towns. The biggest challenge was to come up with a replacement that would be fairly easy to wrap our heads around in a short amount of time. At Stephanie’s suggestion, we decided to figure out a way to use the media to get our messages across. We decided to do a complete media takeover from newspapers and radio to television sitcoms and commercials.

At first, this seemed like a bold, but disempowering move. If we use all of our own programming, we force everyone to comply with our demands whether they want to participate or not. We were worried that it would open the wounds that much of the Affirmative Action debate has exacerbated in recent years. So how do we take something that is so political and bring it to a place that it can be collaboratively addressed? While force feeding our message was a very tempting prospect, we did not want to diminish our reception or make it seem like a pirate political protest or organizing effort. We knew that if we were to get the President behind us, it had to be something that the media would want to willingly adopt and participate in, and not feel forced to do what we passionately believed they should do.

The write up that I created for our poster presentation was as follows:

This project seeks to explore and interrogate the manifestation of racist ideologies in the United States today. This project asserts the assumption that racist beliefs are reified through the over-representation of negative stereotypical presentations of minorities, primarily through various media outlets. We assert while not normal, that racism is a norm and that the most effective approaches will address the latent racist beliefs that we must all negotiate with to achieve social justice. As such, our suggestion is to employ a week-long comprehensive media campaign that will engage existing programming, news coverage and entertainment media to address the issue of racism directly. As an example, during that time, popular television programs would create a specific plotline that would challenge stereotypes and racist beliefs.

In other words, we would not require an interruption of normal programming, as everything would stay on familiar grounds, but the message would reflect our theme of combating racism. It empowers media outlets and consumers to engage in the media campaign in anyway that they see fit. It allows the participants to question their own assumptions, on their terms, in a place that is safe for them to do so. Since the media outlets are working with us (at the behest of the President), it becomes a collaborative project and educational tool.

Our pilot program example using the show “24”:

A suggestion to create a storyline for the popular television program “24” would not require a major departure from the usual plotline that viewers have come to expect. In this episode, Jack Bauer is sent to thwart an attempted bombing of a state capital building. In a post 9/11 era, the assumption is that a foreign terrorist faction is attempting to execute this crime. Citizens of Arab descent are immediately presumed to be involved and reported hate crimes explode during this investigation period. In the end, it is discovered that the would-be bombers are members of an all-white, rebel militia group who are seek retribution for the potential integration of their local school system through violent means.

In summary, we recognize that prevention methods are ideal, but not necessarily feasible if families, communities and other natural settings are still complicit in the production of racist ideologies. Voluntary educational programs are limited in reach to those who openly recognize and wish to challenge their own beliefs. Our goal is to begin a nationwide inner-group dialogue about racism by utilizing the media. This method will allow individuals to explore their own prejudices and beliefs in the privacy of their homes where they can reflect and discuss them in a safe space. By working with the various media outlets to create the programming, news and entertainment we require, we are coupling the familiar with new concepts and information. We believe that our initiative holds the most promise to reach the largest amount of individuals in a way that is engaging, informative and transformative.

Response 3 - Preventions

Preventions are ways of approaching a problem before it manifests itself into a problem. With regards to racism, two strong examples of points of interruption can be found in early childhood interventions. Children are taught at a young age the differences between races. As with gender, many children do not code difference between their peers. Inevitably, one of their peers has a moment of repositioning where they begin to discern racial difference. That discernment, whether simply categorical or discriminative, is relayed amongst their group as knowledge.

I have seen this in action. As mentioned in earlier posts, my circle of friends and family is unabashedly interracial. Time after time, parents recount the day they had to explain racial difference, its relationship to their child and the inequities and oppression that it is mired in. It is an exhausting and often emotionally difficult phase that each parent must contend with. What is most distressing is that unfortunately, this introduction to racial and cultural identity had not been preceded by a lesson in self-love. It is not unusual for parents to teach on one hand that in the eyes of God, all persons are equal, to later have to adjust or outright retract that universal truth for the protection their children’s self-esteem. Still, these parents also make a deliberate effort to live integrationist lives. Their children are raised by a diverse community of “aunties” and “uncles,” who help to extend their children’s concepts of humanity and family. Instead of internalizing racial difference, these children are learning how to love everyone of all races.

Another point of prevention that could be better served is that of our early childhood classrooms. Most discussions about equalities, differences and diversity are limited to classroom activities relating to holidays such as Thanksgiving or Hanukah. When these conversations are so heavily commodified and packaged, it limits the possibilities to openly discuss racism. This is particularly worrisome in communities that have little diversity. Those other cultures can become disposable caricatures instead of communities of individuals.

Response 2--Natural Communities

As we move closer to cementing our PDA's we find splits in the group between those that blame the media for the problems of racism and those that find families at fault. Our natural communities; families, friends, neighborhoods are easy targets in the push to interrogate racist societal beliefs. "Your mother didn't raise you right," "Hate is not a family value," and "Our community doesn't tolerate diversity, we celebrate it," are all catch-phrases that are used to distance oneself from culpability in demanding an an anti-racist standpoint.

My greatest frustration with this class and this project is that at every possible point, we have been limited in our scope and efficacy of tackling a dicey and sophisticated problem. With a predominately white class, and white instructors, getting support for our initiatives has been an unecessarily uphill battle for us. Our original super-initative was thoughtful, timely, relative and impactful, but it was shot down. My sheer dissapointment with this outcome was compounded by the fact that the biggest objectors to the project were of a different race and had clearly not come to grips with their own racist beliefs before critiquing this project.

As one of the few people of color, it served as a major blow to any possibilities of creating a body of work that would have any efficacy. I presented this situation and our original ideas to another class that I am taking. This particular class is offered through the African-American Studies department and as a result, everyone in this class, including the instructor, is a person of color. The shock and anger that was expressed from my classmates and professor confirmed my own feelings. This fellowship of other individuals who have experienced racism in the classroom, helped me heal from my experience in this class. Their affirmations proved key in my ability to continue this course with any measure of caring or interest. Indeed, their implorations that I fight to keep our original concept for Sundown Towns gave me a sense of solidarity and support.

I did not have to take my complaints to a higher governing body, such as the Equal Opportunities Office or the Dean of Students to recieve the assistance and encouragement that I needed. If I had attempted to resolve these concerns through those methods, my concerns may have been dismissed as trivial or unfounded, which is unfortunately not an exception for students of color at predominately white institutions. So in this way, my natural community was a far superior means of interrogation, introspection and ultimately healing that what could have been offered through more established means.

Another stab at the Problem Definition Analysis

Problem 1.
"It's Human Nature"- This viewpoint asserts that the world has a particular, biologically-based understanding or belief about race that underlies all attitudes about how society should function.
Solution: This is a common belief, and one that has become fused into our collective memories and psyches. And it's okay. We are different and should not pretend that we are in fact equal. There are fundamental differences between the races and it should be accepted and negotiated with to achieve social justice.

• By operating under this assumption, the conversation can get easily steered from one that challenges racism to one that reinforces the concepts of a natural racial order as it were. A concerted effort to break down essentialist understandings about race would help to show that race is not a biological fact, but a social construction.

Problem 2.
"What about Colin Powell, and Condeleezza Rice, and Bill Cosby, and Oprah Winfrey, and..."- Some believe that racism is dead and is no longer an issue in today's society. Many see the accomplishments of people of color and believe that this is a clear cut indication of substantial progress, and that the urgency for universal civil rights is dead.
Solution: By highlighting the successes of people of color, we can begin to let go of the need to look for racism in our everyday lives. The thought is that we are past the historical moments where things were unequal, and by focusing on this, we fail to celebrate the strides that have been made and move forward into the future.

• Still, for every success story, there are hundreds of thousands of others that counter the possibilities of "the American Dream." For every successful immigrant story of someone who "moved here with nothing and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps", there are the lived realities of licensed doctors, lawyers, educators, etc. who migrated here to the United States and are unable to practice their trade because of unfair restrictions or flat out rejection of their academic and professional credentials. The myth of meritocracy holds an enormous amount of sway over the biases and community stories that are circulated about other races and ethnic groups in the US. By giving an accurate account of the experiences challenges, successes and failures of our neighbors, we might be better equipped to see that race is not the only factor in shaping our lives.

Problem 3.
"I'm not a racist! My best friend is a person of color."- Some see racism as someone else's beliefs rather than belonging to ourselves. We use extreme examples of overt racism to distance ourselves from the beliefs and practices that makes one an blatant participant of racism.
Solution: Since we are not the ones committing the headline-worthy acts of racism, we should focus our efforts on stamping out those groups that breed hate in this way. The KKK, Aryan Nations, Al-Qaida and the like are the real monsters, and we should find a way to stop them through legal recourse or military action.

• This approach does not require that we check our own complicity, because racism is somebody else's problem. We assume that since we know a few people of a different race, and generally hold anti-racist beliefs, that we are not required to do the work of resolving race relations in our own lives. It creates a division between those that hold their racist ideologies on their sleeves and the "rest of us."

Problem 4.
"It's the economy, stupid."- Issues of race are really masking issues of class. The world is not divided by notions of race, but the goals of capitalistic greed. Individuals across class lines have more in common with one another than we think, and it is capitalism that is keeping us all distracted with discussions of racism.
Solution: If we all just realize that there are more white women on welfare than women of color, or that the impoverished whites in Appalachia are just as marginalized as the migrant farm workers, then we can get past race and get some serious social justice accomplished. Modes of oppression work to support capitalistic ideals and corporate interests. It is less about race, culture, or religion than it is about profiteering at humankind's expense. Particularly since race is a social construction, there is no need to continue to invoke it when looking for paths to justice and liberation.

• This is great in theory, but it ignores the fact that the rest of the world still operates using ideas of race as being real. It covertly invalidates experiences by coding them as issues of class and may reinforce racist beliefs that claims of racism have always been exaggerated or false.
  

Response 1: Our Super Initiative

On Monday, March 27, 2006, Jacob posed the question to our class, “To what degree is your super-initiative empowering?” This question seemed timely and extremely relevant to our topic. A common comment that I hear from people when it comes to racism, is that it seems like a problem so big that it cannot be tackled. That our individual efforts have little effect on the larger issues at hand. In many ways the impetus behind pushing for solutions to the end of racist ideologies and beliefs is that history will repeat itself. We are constantly looking for an end to the cycle.

In our attempts to zoom in and discuss racism from the worms eye view, I want to continue to stress the idea that change needs to occur on the micro level. One of the primary ways that this can occur is though the support and creation of diverse communities. I still believe that diverse communities do not happen organically, but are intentional. It is natural to self-segregate, it is a value that has been intricately woven in to our understandings of American life and culture. On the same token, I posit that segregated communities do not occur by accident either. A book titled Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by Dr. James Loewen seeks to prove my assertion to be true. Sundown towns are towns that through violence, threats of violence and codified laws excluded non-whites from communities throughout the United States. Located primarily in the Northern states, Illinois had some of the highest numbers of Sundown towns on record, with nearly 70% (up to 472) towns listed. Considering that a large majority of our class comes from Chicago or the outlying Chicago Suburbs and that Dr. Loewen has identified that almost 80% of these suburbs were Sundown towns, the experiences that our peers were brought up in are directly related to our understandings of race and racial politics. Race is often tied to class, but here we see where class was not a factor in the shaping of our communities, insomuch as racist ideologies. These attitudes have persisted.

Dr. Loewen outlines these areas and the detrimental effects of creating and maintaining segregated communities. He asserts that despite Federal mandates, many towns still covertly operate as Sundown towns. It is only when cases are brought to court that the town laws are reviewed and reversed. This is not merely a black and white issue either as he illustrates that Latinos, Asians, Jews and Italians were prohibited from purchasing property

An excerpt from an online chat he gave about his book: "Many towns became sundown -- expelled their blacks -- upon learning of the misbehavior of one black person. For example, Vienna, IL, burned out its black community quite late -- 1954 -- because one (perhaps two) black(s) molested a white woman and her daughter. Vienna has no black household to this date. This kind of collective responsibility is NEVER done to whites. How could we -- do it to ourselves?" Chilling stuff huh?

Many towns like Hawthorne, Calif., in the 1930s, had signage that literally stated "Nigger, Don't Let The Sun Set On YOU In Hawthorne.” Others had signals such as bells, as in Villa Grove, Illinois that rang every day at sunset as a warning to non-whites who may have worked or traveled through Villa Grove. It has been less than a decade since that town stopped the traditional ringing the bell. Many of the younger generation were unfamiliar with the legacy of the bell and took the racial exclusivity of their town for granted as a natural part of their upbringing. In this way, I believe that our Super-Initiative will empower our class to reconsider our immediate world. We can see the complexities of race relations and that there are more than just stereotypes at work here. Hopefully, those of us who are affected by this will make an intentional effort to live in diverse communities and to stop the cycle of self-segregation. We can see that this problem does not have to be bigger than ourselves. We can see effective change, on the micro level, through deliberate interactions with the varied, diverse, unique world that is all around us.

Exotic by Suheir Hammad

Thought I'd share this poem:

exotic

suheir hammad

don't wanna be your exotic

some delicate fragile colorful bird

imprisoned caged

in a land foreign to the stretch of her wings

don't wanna be your exotic

women everywhere are just like me

some taller darker nicer than me

but like me but just the same

women everywhere carry my nose on their faces

my name on their spirits

don't wanna

don't seduce yourself with

my otherness my hair

wasn't put on top of my head to entice

you into some mysterious black voodoo

the beat of my lashes against each other

ain't some dark desert beat

it's just a blink

get over it

don't wanna be your exotic

your lovin of my beauty ain't more than

funky fornication plain pink perversion

in fact nasty necrophilia

cause my beauty is dead to you

I am dead to you

not your

harem girl geisha doll banana picker

pom pom girl pum pum shorts coffee maker

town whore belly dancer private dancer

la malinche venus hottentot laundry girl

your immaculate vessel emasculating princess

don't wanna be

your erotic

not your exotic

Personal Accounts

So I am pulling personal accounts from internet message boards. This one is from a Dave Matthews Band fan website, Nancies.org, where they were sharing their reactions and stories to the film Crash. I chose this film as a starting point for discussing personal accounts because I found that I had different opinions and perspectives on this award-winning film. I think while it acts as a great springboard for conversations about racism, that it took too many shortcuts with the storylines to really allow the messages to sit with the viewer. It is easy to divorce yourself from the expressions of others, because, as I mentioned in my definition, it seems outside ourselves, so we are not culpable.

"Just got back from seeing this and I agree with everything you said and would like to add a little of my own thoughts.

Living in Los Angeles, you see every conceivable race, nationality and religion represented...and while we walk amongst each other we don't really understand that much about one another.

The most moving story for me was with the hispanic father of the little girl. He was a hard working family man with integrity and discipline. He was intelligent and had the character to accept that he could not change the world but he could be the best father and husband possible. He did not look like your average working class father, a little body art and a dark complexion made it easy to stereotype him. In a story filled with negativity, he gave me hope.

This movie wasn't brilliant but it was filled with a big idea, we are all the same, good and bad. We are all just making our way through this life and the sooner we figure out that the enemy is within us the better we will be able to live."--posted by wickelies

Another Nancies post about interracial dating:

"Dude, we need to TALK, cuz I totally feel ya on this topic. I grew up and live in a 99% white environment, so of course that limits options and shapes perceptions as far as who is out there to date and who I would want to date. All of my girlfriends except my very first have been white, and while my family -- well let's be honest, the females in my family -- have never said anything straight out about it, I know they aren't thrilled that I have dated and continue to be involved with white women. I even had one of my best friends (who was a white male) tell me that he didn't approve of interracial dating. I don't know, it seems to be difficult enough to find someone whom I can love and who will love me, without excluding a large chunk of the population, especially in a town like Scottsdale where it's virtually all of the population. It sucks but it's something that unfortunately society is very slow to deal with and accept. IM me sometime and we can compare our sorrows. :)"--posted by Meirk

"Originally posted by Mierk
Kim, lemme ask you this -- did you grow up more around white people as a kid? Cause it's hard, I did and in some ways I'm more comfortable around them, but at the same time there are things that some of my friends just don't really get. When I went to DC and stayed with my sister this past spring, in some ways it was a relief to be walking around in public and not be the only black person for miles around.

ANYWAYS the point I was trying to make with this is there are lots of really subtle things that come into play when it comes to attraction and it can be hard to pin down the whys of what happens when you look at someone and think, "Dayyyy-um they're fine!"

I was raised in BKLYN, in a Puerto Rican neighborhood. I'm half P.R., but I don't know any spanish, and when you look at me you see a blk man. So, I was the only blk in the neighborhood. That was my nick name actually blk. When I was a teenager I moved to the Poconos in PA. Mostly white, but there's a minority presence. My first 2 yrs of College, I went to Grambling State Univ. A historically black college/universtiy. That was the first time when I was in an all blk environment. I liked it, but I missed white people. I missed keg parties and beer bongs, and the differences in the races. The same thing happens occasionally when I hang out w/ my friends (most of my friends are white). I miss drinking Henessey and riding in 20 inch rims in cars w/ switches. But I think that's a good thing. It's a blessing I've been exposed to so many cultures, and can laugh at the stereotypes, and understand the differences in races, and appreciate them, too.

So, that's why I take my g.f. to blk churches, and to blk. frat parties, and step shows b/c she's never seen those things. And I think it's great, but it sux when I do it. And I don't feel welcomed. It just kills everything. But, I've learned it's not a perfect world.

My b.f. Andy is white and his wife is Dominican, but she's dark so she looks blk, they have to beautiful children. He told me, that there will always be ppl who feel that his kids shouldn't exist, it's fucked up, but he pays 'em back by being a good father and living a happy life anyway. And I've found that, that's the best way to handle things."

This are from Yahoo Movies on "Crash":

"I don't mind movies that make us more aware of the racial tensions in America today, but I DO mind movies that portray every character as a racist and as a stereo-type of their culture. Maybe we aren't color-blind yet, but we've come a long way (think slavery and segregation). Movies like this just reinforce out-dated beliefs that EVERY American is prejudiced, and that the sterotypes are correct. This movie promotes suspicion and mistrust among America's races and is destructive."--posted by seekchat

"I know in law enforcement in the L.A. area and have never seen the extensive hate displayed in this movie. I left the movie wondering if it will wake people up to predjudice or turn them off. The story revolves around about a dozen people whom all hate one another because of race. Not one race is spared. Everyone is stereotyped, the cops are pigs, the blacks are members of gangs or drug users, the orientals come off as shrill, etc.,etc.The acting was first rate, the story depressing. The visuals were outstanding."--posted by kelseykay

Here is an excellent review by a Korean reviewer from London..it's kind of lengthy but worth the read:

It took me a long while to decide whether I liked or hated the movie. One thing was for sure, it certainly was provocative.

But not, I think, in the way most people saw it. At first, I felt incredibly nauseated by the characters' treatment of eachother, and the vein of racist, poisonous hatred that threads its way through the storyline was all the more powerful
because it felt so ordinary: A casual remark, or as some background information. I think it would be horrible to live in a society full of people like these, and I have great difficulty in believing this to be the true face of an American city like LA

In retrospect, it's a backlash at the rational attitude of tackling the causes of crime by elevating the levels of poverty in the black community - by affirmative action and other race related legislations. It's the white majority and the social climbers telling the gang banging blacks that they have done enough, they are disappointed, and now they have a legitimate reason to hate black folks and treat them as badly as they want. The phrase "f**king black people, hey?" is repeated almost as a catch phrase. The movie tries to show that even though decent (white) people bend over backwards not to be racist, they have, through years of contact with black people, been MADE racist. (Matt Dillon tells his rookie partner that in a few years he would feel the same about black people). It shows they were neither raised to be racist nor born warped, but experience and contact has taught them how utterly disgusting black people are.

I have to confess that I too have felt at times embarrassed and disappointed by the behaviour of young black men who commit violent crimes, or despite being given preferential treatment do not do well academically. Fortunately, I remind myself that ANY large group of people, particularly in poverty, is more likely to turn to crime regardless of colour. I know that it is incredibly difficult to study in a bad environment, and I know many black people who are the intelligent, hard working, gentle souls who grace this earth with their presence.

This movie on the other hand, wants to tell one side of the story. To legitimize racism by showing that a well to do black studio executive feels the same about black criminals as you do. The main white characters played by Matt Dillon, & Sandra Bullock are portrayed as bigots who are, in the end, decent people. Ryan Phillipe who plays the rookie cop & possibly the only decent character in the movie, is in the end, found to be badly flawed. What exactly does that tell us?
Nothing. That's half the reason why people have called this movie provocative, because it is full of irony.

Another irony of note in the movie are the way the korean couple are portrayed. I have no idea what Hollywood has against Koreans (Perhaps a studio exec got the crap kicked out of him by one), but the koreans in the movie were so badly portrayed,
it was comical. In my (biased) opinion, Koreans are the most humourous, self-effacing, polite, gentle people one could ever hope to meet. I think this persecution started with the so-called Korean shopkeeper (Actually Japanese) in "Falling Down". (His unkempt appearance and rude manners were diametrically opposed to reality - What self respecting korean person would dress badly and be rude to his own customers? He would go out of business and that would be insane) .

This movie was even worse. Apparently, this fictional middle aged korean couple were involved in human trafficking. OMG. Anyone who has even been to Korea or befriended a korean will tell you that it's insane. I mean, it has even been proven by an odd experiment conducted a few years ago by some European social researchers that Koreans are the most law-abiding, decent, honest people on this planet. If you were to drop your wallet in Seoul, you are more likely to have it returned to you intact, than in any other city in the World. But according to Hollywood, these are the same people who scream abuse at a latin lady cop and transport slave labour. Give me a break.

-------SPOILER--------

The movie does have its good points. It is well directed and well acted. There are poignant and sad moments like when the latin locksmith quietly leaves the keys next to Sandra Bullock after he heard her shouting (at her husband) that the locksmith was probably a criminal gangbanger who will sell the keys to other thieves. Or the character of an Iranian or Iraqi shopkeeper who is being driven mad by the daily racist abuse and vandalism he endures. Or the agony in the face of the same latin locksmith as his daughter is shot by the Iranian/Iraqi shopkeeper. Those were unforgettable.

Did I like the movie? I am still of two minds. It's either a sick movie for people with a very warped view of the world, or it is an exercise in "true fiction", defined as a story that rings true, but is outside the boundaries of reality. If the latter, then it's a good movie. Else it is really crap.

Letter: In defense of frats - Opinions

Letter: In defense of frats - Opinions

Mmmmm...okay. Sorry bud...not a reasonable retort.

'Ghetto' themes mock black culture - Opinions

'Ghetto' themes mock black culture - Opinions

How appropo.

Problem Definition revision

Who are the stakeholders in a discussion about racism and how to solve it?

Everyone on the planet.
It is not as simple as an "us" versus "them" concept. Everyone is implicated in the perpetuation of racism as our conscious and unconscious actions, attitudes, beliefs and responses to one another are coded in notions of race and striations regarding race. A child in calcutta who is starving to death is not merely an agent in matters of extreme poverty, because a caste system (which often codes itself in skin color) places him or her in a position where they have limited mobility or opportunity to change their circumstances. All who participate in the caste system are culpable for the continuation of this oppression, regardless of the magnitude of their power or agency. Here in the US, racism continues to thrive because we choose to participate in what has become a normalcy for our society. It is not unusual for individuals to self-segregate by race, or to marry or date exclusively within their race because we have chosen to perpetuate the notions of exclusivity between the races.

Problem 1.
The world has a particular, biologically-based understanding or belief about race that underlies all attitudes about how society should function.

Problem 2.
Some believe that racism is dead and is no longer an issue in today's society. Many see the accomplishments of people of color and believe that this is a clear cut indication of substantial progress, and that the urgency for universal civil rights is dead.

Problem 3.
Some see racism as someone else's beliefs rather than belonging to ourselves. We use exteme examples of overt racism to distance ourselves from the beliefs and practices that makes one an blatant participant of racism. It does not require that we check our own complicity, because it is somebody else's problem.

Problem 4.
Issues of race are really masking issues of class. The world is not divided by notions of race, but the goals of capitalistic greed.

The "haters"

Of course, I had to go with the big-uns.....

David Duke, former KKK Grand Wizard and current US. Representative says in a recorded welcoming message ideas that "the war in Iraq is a war for Isreal". This actually suprised me, as I never considered the goals of the KKK and Neo-Nazism to share so much interest. Both have a goal of white supremacy, but this caught me by surprise. Representative Duke's page is strongly and unabashedly anti-semetic. "If you are truly open minded, and like to think for yourself, this is the place for you." he implores. I searched for papers that talk about race, and have seen a sort of soft-handed approach to getting folks to consider his ideals. Instead of screaming, "we hate", his diatribes are cushioned in well-meaning rhetoric. A great example comes from an article he posted about the increase of black populations in the US.
http://www.davidduke.com/index.php?p=23

Here is an excerpt:

"...Yet, as White numbers decrease in proportion to the invasion of almost two-million non-Whites per year through immigration, and as we continue to finance the sky-high minority, illegitimate birth-rates, there is not a White public official from Maine to California who will speak out openly.

I am betting that millions of Americans have not lost their instinct for survival. Read these lines and understand the importance of what is written here. Don’t delay another moment. Invest yourself in this struggle for our survival. Carry the message to your friends and family and demand that they join with you in this sacred cause. Whether they join us or not, we can’t stop working until Americans stand together and say, ENOUGH is ENOUGH!"

What is most chilling about this section is that he does not say, fight against this or work against this through legislation, but kind of leaves it open to interpretation for the reader to decide what they want to do about it. Considering that he uses darwinian references in earlier parts of the article, maybe he expects a sort of white fight instead of a white flight instinct to kick in.

And I just had to post one more juicy one from a website member who posted a lengthy bit in support of Eugenics (which is the practice of selective birth control, sterilization and abortions to prevent the increase of the "undesirables", race, disability, income...etc.)
http://www.davidduke.com/index.php?p=29

The author celebrates a book on Eugenics quoting one scholar who she thinks had it right: "It is better for all the world if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. ….. Three generations of imbeciles is enough (Buck v. Bell, 1927)."

And then goes further to add: "The second half of the book deals in fascinating depth with essentially current happenings, both in eugenical science [genetics], and in ideological countermoves to empirical science. On the one had, DNA fingerprinting can now establish, from a drop of saliva or dried blood, the race of origin to a probability of error of less than one-in-a-hundred-million. Incredibly, at the same time popular media and scientific publications stridently proclaim that biological [genetic] races do not exist. We are now in critical times, a race is occurring around us between humanitarian applications of modern genetic science (eugenics, that is) and the suppression of knowledge by PeeCee ideologues. The media, by-and-large trained by egalitarians, know no better than to attack as “racist”, “repellent”, or “repugnant” almost any admission of information concerning behavior and genetic diversity among human races. Yet at the same time the human genome project in combination with a wide variety of research in the neurosciences [brain science] and behavioral medicine and genetics in general, is quickly taking us beyond the point where race differences can be obfuscated or denied...

Meanwhile, in the West, eugenics continues to encounter politically motivated attempts to suppress. As the scientific advances continue at an accelerating pace, it remains to be seen if rational humanitarian applications of sound genetic knowledge can be implemented for the benefit of mankind, or if we will slip into another era of anti-intellectual totalitarianism. Anyone concerned for the future of mankind should carefully read this book. It is not the story you were told in cultural anthropology class."

… there is now no reasonable excuse for refusing to face the fact that nothing but …. eugenics ….. can save our civilization from the fate that has overtaken all previous civilizations” (p. 136).

American Renaissance newsletter is a publication that states the following on their website www.amren.com:

What We Believe

Race is an important aspect of individual and group identity. Of all the fault lines that divide society—language, religion, class, ideology—it is the most prominent and divisive. Race and racial conflict are at the heart of the most serious challenges the Western World faces in the 21st century.

The problems of race cannot be solved without adequate understanding. Attempts to gloss over the significance of race or even to deny its reality only make problems worse. Progress requires the study of all aspects of race, whether historical, cultural, or biological.

American Renaissance is a monthly magazine that has been published since 1991. It has been called “a literate, undeceived journal of race, immigration and the decline of civility.”

Not too bad, huh? Then I find this excerpt from their website for a story in their recent issue. (You cannot read the newsletter unless you pay for access, which I have no desire to do...):

• "American Renaissance editor Jared Taylor reviews Science for Segregation, which tells the little-known story of the resistance to the Brown v. Board decision. A brave crew of activists and scientists, including Carleton Putnam, Wesley Critz George, Robert Kuttner, and Ernest van den Haag, fought the ruling through their writings and the law. Their activism was surprisingly effective: a judge ruled in favor of the race realists in Stell v. Savannah-Chatham Board of Education, a lawsuit that challenged Brown. However, an appeals court overturned the Stell decision."

Then of course, are also the now-infamous Minutemen militia.
http://www.minutemanhq.com

The closing paragraph of the Minuteman Pledge:

"I vow before God and my fellow Americans that these principles guide my actions as a Minuteman. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty..." And so I will stand watch on America's borders and in her sovereign interest until relieved from duty by my fellow countrymen."

And this is from their training manual:

"Minuteman Corps volunteers understand that, while our actions cannot stop illegal activity along the border, we can change world perception and national thought concerning Homeland Security and the border. This is the understatement of the year, and also happens to be the reason that we’re here. Our efforts, both as individuals and as a group, are intended to raise the alarm in America that we as a nation must do something and we must do it now. We, as Minuteman Corps volunteers, are setting not only an example for other Americans to follow, but a precedent we hope will have a lasting effect on how border security is viewed for generations to come. You should be proud to be a part of American history-in-the-making, just as we are proud to have you serving alongside us. Through our efforts, we will make a difference, and, given time, will bring about the changes in policy, regulation and enforcement that this country so desperately needs."

Gotta add this one too:
Royal Knights of the Klu Klux Klan

Antiracism.net & the Center for Whiteness

I found a treasure trove of listings for organizations that are working on behalf of anti-racism efforts at www.antiracism.net. This website breaks down racism in to many different categories, but shows how these different issues from environmental racism to sexism to police brutality have strong relevance to issues about race.

After checking out some of the websites that are listed, I found an interesting group, the Center for the Study of Whitness, that focuses on enabling "Whites" to enter into discussions about racism and find educational materials towards that specific goal. Here is a sample from their website. www.euroamerican.org

"The Center was created to address the lack of information and discussion of the role of white people and white culture in American society. In some venues this topic was given only marginal consideration. In others, discussion of whiteness seemed to be taboo and any attempts to broach the subject were met with hostility and denial.

Among people who were concerned about the role that white Americans might play in creating a multiracial society, few could find materials, venues and forums for discussion, and supportive organizations to assist in creating a dialogue. Within predominantly white organizations, whiteness still remained an unexamined barrier to developing a multiracial organizational culture. Some grassroots training efforts could be found, and individual scholars and practitioners within various fields were beginning to examine issues of whiteness and white culture. But little of this reached the general public. Even many scholars and practitioners were isolated from one another.

Today some of this is changing. Many people have begun to examine whiteness and white culture, and to ask what it will take for white Americans to live in a society that is multiracial. Though this growing awareness has not been due to the Center alone (far from it), we believe we have played a leadership role. In particular we have fostered the growing awareness and discussion of these issues among a broader public. The very act of our creation was an intentional statement that whiteness can and should be discussed."

Pearl S. Buck International

After browsing the antiracism.net website, I found an article that talked about a reversal of racist sentiments from Korean society in their attempts to embrace an American athlete Hines Ward (Pittsburg Steeler) who is of mixed African-American and Korean race. Traditionally, biracial children, particularly those who have American lineage are ostracized and marginalized from most Asian communities. This was true for this athlete as well....until he was voted MVP this year. Now Korea wants to open its arms and roll out the red carpet. Many talks have "suddenly" emerged to reconsider the public stance on biracial children, but a great deal of damage has been done.

Enter the Pearl S. Buck International foundation. This group focuses its efforts on finding adoption and support services for biracial children from Asian countries. It is common knowledge that children of color are the last to be adopted world-wide, and this is of little exception for biracial children, who in the past were not legally eligible for adoption at all.

Their goals are to combat racism by offering these children the chance to see that their lives are of value, and that they deserve love, caring and respect to eventually become anti-racists themselves.

This is working on the micro level and reflects the fourth point in my working hypothesis:

"The more successful models are situations where change is sought on a micro level and not through overarching public policies. (De-segregation didn't actually work, even though segregation was made illegal.) I believe that examples of diverse communities do not arise organically, but deliberately as forms of active resistance. "

http://www.psbi.org/

More research action postings - The ADL

I also visited the Anti-Defamation League's website to see what their definition of racist acts are. www.adl.org My inclusion of their information is to commend their efforts to document and bring light to acts of racism against those of the Jewish faith and heritage. What is often missing from their work though is a truly critical analysis that show the connections between these acts of racism and the rising levels of racism against other groups in the United States and around the world. Their cautionings and championings are very exclusionary and can sometimes act to diminish the legacies of others in the world who struggle for justice. Some leaders consider their work to act as a sort of reactionary "divide and conquer" that dissipates the collective energy that can be harnessed when people work together instead of continually point fingers. It would be an outrageous act to pretend that the seeds of racism are not embedded into Jewish, Black, Asian or Latino sentiments towards one another. We all are "damaged goods". Once again, it goes back to the comment I made on our action team board in response to Sadie's post on modern racism:

"The part that is the most difficult to overcome in Overt or Covert racism is that the implicit stuff that we do can only be challenged if we are willing to admit that we have racist tendencies. Most people are afraid to admit that or deal with it. Acknowledging this is the first step, interrogating is the second, and responding is the third. But getting everyone to admit that they are racist or hold some racist beliefs is worse than pulling teeth. The defenses go up, and the cycle of silence continues. I don't think that there is anything wrong with admitting these truths. Indeed, it is the silence and shame that we carry about these feelings that is far more toxic. IMHO.

You have to be willing to get down and dirty. And that means working on a micro level, as I stated on my blog.

It's a complex problem. We can't even get people on this campus to wrap their heads around the abhorrent nature of the Chief. If a whole stadium of students can't understand that basic concept which in its display through shirts and merchandising is a blatantly EXPLICIT form of racism, then it should be of little surprise that it is hard to get folks to interrogate the smaller almost unconscious acts that we commit every single day."

I don't mean to get on a soapbox about this, but I have long-wrestled with my understandings of and responses to the ADL and what affect it has on race relations in the US.

Here is a segment of their 2005 report on anti-semetic activity in the US.

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/4671_12.htm

Anti-Semitic incidents included in the Audit comprise physical and verbal assaults, harassment, property defacement, vandalism or other expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment. The 2004 ADL Audit comprises data from 44 states and the District of Columbia, and is compiled using official crime statistics, as well as information provided to ADL's 30 regional offices by victims, law enforcement officers and community leaders. The Audit identifies both criminal and non-criminal acts of harassment and intimidation, including distribution of hate propaganda, threats and slurs.

Among the most serious incidents reported in 2004:

• Arsonists damaged the entrance to a local Jewish cemetery in West Roxbury, MA (February).
• Windows of a Jewish day school in North Miami were coated with feces (May).
• A rash of vandalism targeting a synagogue in Eureka, CA, including anti-Semitic graffiti, broken furniture and objects thrown against a door during religious services for young children (December).
• Swastikas, "Death to Jews" and other graffiti written on Houston synagogue (December).
• Members of a hate group harassed patrons at a Connecticut mall, raising Nazi salutes (July).
• An apartment complex in Ft. Lauderdale was targeted with anti-Semitic and racist leaflets "celebrating" Hitler's birthday (April).

"At a time when anti-Semitism is at a high in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Canada and other countries, it is disturbing to see that it is increasing in America as well," said Mr. Foxman. "While most of the incidents in the U.S. are less violent than those experienced recently by the Jewish communities of Europe, it is troubling that so many people in this country feel a need to act out their anti-Jewish animus in ways large and small. Just one act of anti-Semitism can deeply affect an entire community. Sadly, in an America where Jews enjoy a level of safety and freedom unparalleled in history, we still experience anti-Semitism at an average rate of nearly five incidents per day."

Research Action Postings

Well, I went to the Rainbow/Push coalition's website to see how they talked about racism. www.rainbowpush.org What I found is that part of their efforts on continuing Dr. King's legacy is to push for equality for all on many levels, social, economic, etc. So their website does not directly condemn racism in an overt way. Those words come from the commentaries that Jessie Jackson publishes in his weekly column for the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

I have included an editorial he wrote after the passing of Coretta Scott King. I think this relates to my second point of my working hypothesis:

"The crux of the problem lies in the continued push for hegemony fueled by capitalistic ideals of individualism and self-promotion."

President Bush and Mrs. King
By Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
2/7/2006 © Tribune Media Services
Coretta Scott King will be remembered this week. She will be sorely missed. For the 51 years since the Montgomery Bus Boycott, she has shown amazing endurance, strength and resilience. She walked with her husband during the bus boycott. Their home was bombed. She endured the threats and the slanders. When Dr. King was shot in Memphis, I called her to inform her that he had been shot. She organized his funeral. And she came to Memphis to lead the march he was to lead. She shared his sense of commitment.

President Bush has announced that he will attend her funeral to honor her. He will do so after releasing a budget that calls for spending nearly $600 billion on the military next year alone -- including $120 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. While military spending is going up, spending on education, on cancer and heart disease, on cleaning up the environment, on worker training is going down. The president is pushing to cut Medicare even as he demands that his top-end tax cuts be made permanent. Student loans will be more expensive; the military’s weapons will be more exotic.

Those are not the priorities of Dr. Martin Luther King or of Coretta Scott King. Dr. King warned us at the height of the Cold War of the terrible moral costs of devoting more of our resources to war and weapons than to moral uplift. It was Dr. King who understood that the War on Poverty at home was lost in the jungles of Vietnam.

President Bush will pay tribute to Mrs. King, no doubt, but she’d much prefer he pay tribute in his budget than in his words. And for African Americans, the announcement of his visit might well be greeted with apprehension. Two years ago, the President laid a wreath on Dr. King’s grave, and then announced he would ask the Supreme Court to outlaw affirmative action. Then he celebrated Dr. King’s birthday and announced a recess appointment of Judge Pickering, a right-wing judge opposed to equal protection, to the federal bench. This year, the wolf in sheep’s clothing will praise Mrs. King but his budget eliminates the Office of Minority Health, and he’s leaving tens of thousands of Katrina’s poorest survivors scattered across the country, with no plan to bring them back. His HUD Secretary says New Orleans will not regain its population or its black majority.

When Dr. King was shot, he was in Memphis marching with sanitation workers for a decent wage. He was planning a poor people’s march on Washington, uniting the poor across lines of race and region and color, to call on this country to open the doors of opportunity. Mrs. King carried on that mission.

But under President Bush, America is becoming more unequal. Poverty is spreading and growing deeper. Homelessness is up. Hunger is up. Poor workers are up. Mr. Bush has not supported an increase in the minimum wage since he’s been in office. His administration has evinced a relentless enmity to workers trying to organize unions. He’s walked away from funding his own reforms in education. He’s failed to extend health care and adequate nutrition to young children. America suffers the worst infant mortality rates in the industrial world. A record 2 million people are in jail, with minorities more likely to be stopped, more likely to be searched, more likely to be charged, more likely to receive harsh sentences.

Dr. and Mrs. King sought to touch the better angels of our spirits. Non-violent protest assumes that the humanity of every person can be reached. Both Dr. and Mrs. King taught about the urgency of now. Both felt deeply how many children’s hopes were being crushed; how much unneeded suffering was being ignored. In part because of their commitment, this country has come a long way. Segregation is no longer the law of the land. We have the right to vote. From playing fields to college classrooms, minorities and women have moved towards equal opportunity.

But we have so far to go. Like her husband, Mrs. King would decry the terrible human waste and the domestic costs of a $1 trillion war of choice. She would not understand a policy that lavishes tax breaks on the very wealthy even as cutting basic supports for the most vulnerable. She would wonder about the moral health of a country that failed to provide health care and nutrition and pre-school to every child. As he honors her courage, President Bush would do well to learn from her wisdom.

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