Saturday, January 24, 2009
OMISSIVE EUROCENTRISM:
OMISSIVE EUROCENTRISM:
('Education' Systems Which Fail To Teach About Huemanity's Origins)
No, Virginia, 'civilization' did not start in Greece! Isn't that 'Big-White-Lie' just so dam' sweet! (As sweet - and dangerous to hueman health as that FDA-approved poison sweetener 'Splenda,' which kills off over 50% of the friendly bacteria in the hueman gut)
I'm talking about the dangerous-to-huemans mis-education system in this country (and around the world, yeah) which perpetuates ignorance and violence by failing to teach about the world's Black African origins and contributions.
That this is happening to and by otherwise competent and honest teachers and administrators, without their professed recognition of this omissive eurocentric scourge, adds insult to the injury perpetrated against their unwary students (and I was surely one of those hapless students - but am in continual recovery mode!)
Furthermore, that this is countenanced by those fat, white male members of Congress in the U.S.A., squatting like voracious cats on the body politic without remedying this destructive societal illness adds further insult to injury to us all as we pay them for their inaction on this grievous issue.
What's even more appalling is that they, in their untreated colorist arrogance, have embarked on a counterproductive plot to eliminate BLACK HISTORY MONTH!
Talk about the blind leading the blind! Talk about the ingenuousness of t he phrase "post racial!" (Slavery used to be legal and widely-accepted by the masses too)
Read the following material - and if you are not moved to do the suggested actions* - you've been so very damaged/victimized by the aforementioned omissive eurocentrism in your education that you've been rendered morally bankrupt - even if you do go to church every Sunday:
*Suggestions: That you log on to www.Discussrace.com and take and share the www.racismtest.org with your family and friends: it's the very least you can do to help eradicate the inequity of untreated racism/colorism:
Untreated Racism Causes Mis-education, Disproportionately Hign Incarceration and Neo-Slave Labor of People of Color
(Speech given at NY Stonybrook University at Diversity Conference 3/31/2000)
The NYPD Commissioner in what looks like a hurried conspiracy with the good ol' boys in an obvious effort to deflect public criticism of the increasing killings of Black males,
including the 43-shots-at unfortunate Guinean immigrant, Amadou Diallo, stated yesterday that the issue "....isn't one of police but of race." My, my.
To those of us who have for years importuned his police department to use the Racism/Colorism Quotient Test Program, to determine the levels of pathological responses to differences in color and culture in his police officers to no avail, this latest sortie into obfuscation is extremely dismaying.
Untreated racism/colorism in America continues to be the cause of the violent deaths of people of color - mainly of Black males by the police. Most of those in the political, educational and social leadership in this country have toally missed recognizing and addressing the solution to the racism/colorism which is shredding the delicate fabric of the society. That solution is testing individuals for their R/CQ - Racism/Colorism Quotient, and thereafter, administering follow-up (Ethnotherapeutic) Counseling until those individuals can think straight!
Other programs, including enacting legislation, affirmative action, quota systems, forced integration, have failed because they have not shown the individual who is afflicted with the bias how to rid herself/himself of the disease: the "sensitivity" trainings, in police departments, focus on the wrong group instead of on the individual police themselves. If one is not part of the solution one is part of the problem.
Testing individuals for their R/CQ, the relative degree of racism/colorism within the individual, must become national policy in a multi-ethnic country. Just as we test for AIDS, we must begin testing for the disorder/disease of racism/colorism, in schools and at the workplace - testing and counseling, just as we test and counsel for alcoholism. For instance, Al Campanis, "Jimmy the Greek," John Rocker or Imus should not have been fired for their racist/colorist remarks. These white men are only products of their environment. If they had been alcoholics, it would have been against state law to fire them. They would have been tested and referred to counseling until they could think straight. The same procedure should have been used to treat their disease of racism/colorism.
How much more critical to our survival is it for judges, prosecutors, attorneys general, prospective jurors and especially police officers, to be tested for their respective racism/colorism levels? These public servants cannot deliver justice or make equitable decisions about people of color because they have also been conditioned by an institutionally racist/colorist society and not treated for their disorder.
It is way past time for people of color not to have to rely upon the the "luck" of drawing someone who is "not quite as racist/colorist" as the next racist/colorist to obtain justice! Today we people of color still have to hope that the whites (and self-hating Blacks!) making decisions about our very lives are not "too, too racist/colorist!"
We must not only demand permanent special prosecutors (R/CQ-tested) for racially (coloristically)-motivated crimes and violence, but we must also ensure that those individuals who are directly involved with the decisions governing our lives, livelihoods, our health and our education, be tested and counseled where necessary. If not, we'll always be knee-jerk reacting to individual acts of police terrorism, such as the recent murder of Patrick Dorismond and others too numerous to herein mention, and providing platforms for self-aggrandizing self-promoters and therefore not dealing realistically with and reforming the cause of the brutality - institutional racism/colorism.
We can look to the Constitution of the U.S.A. and, indeed, all the laws in the world for justice, but if the individuals who are supposed to uphold and enforce those laws are dysfunctionally racist/colorist, there is no way that people of color will ever be free of discrimination, 'racial'/color/profiling, violence or death on the basis of our skin color. We can take to the streets again and again, we can ask, beg, pray, wish, shout and scream as we have done for hundreds of years, but unless and until testing for the disease of racism/colorism is done, we will continue to be murdered in the streets of America because of the observable melanin in our skins. Martin Luther King said that racism is a sin unto death: it is also insanity.
One does not have to be a doomsayer to recognize the fact that we all will see spontaneous colorist conflagrations with levels of viciousness never before experienced in this country if we do not begin setting up widespread R/CQ Test Programs with Follow-up Ethnotherapeutic Counseling until individuals can think straight.
We have developed the Test...the rest is up to you...and you...and you...
Carol Taylor R.N.
Institute for "Interracial" Harmony, Inc.
First Black U.S.A. Flight Attendant
('Education' Systems Which Fail To Teach About Huemanity's Origins)
No, Virginia, 'civilization' did not start in Greece! Isn't that 'Big-White-Lie' just so dam' sweet! (As sweet - and dangerous to hueman health as that FDA-approved poison sweetener 'Splenda,' which kills off over 50% of the friendly bacteria in the hueman gut)
I'm talking about the dangerous-to-huemans mis-education system in this country (and around the world, yeah) which perpetuates ignorance and violence by failing to teach about the world's Black African origins and contributions.
That this is happening to and by otherwise competent and honest teachers and administrators, without their professed recognition of this omissive eurocentric scourge, adds insult to the injury perpetrated against their unwary students (and I was surely one of those hapless students - but am in continual recovery mode!)
Furthermore, that this is countenanced by those fat, white male members of Congress in the U.S.A., squatting like voracious cats on the body politic without remedying this destructive societal illness adds further insult to injury to us all as we pay them for their inaction on this grievous issue.
What's even more appalling is that they, in their untreated colorist arrogance, have embarked on a counterproductive plot to eliminate BLACK HISTORY MONTH!
Talk about the blind leading the blind! Talk about the ingenuousness of t he phrase "post racial!" (Slavery used to be legal and widely-accepted by the masses too)
Read the following material - and if you are not moved to do the suggested actions* - you've been so very damaged/victimized by the aforementioned omissive eurocentrism in your education that you've been rendered morally bankrupt - even if you do go to church every Sunday:
*Suggestions: That you log on to www.Discussrace.com and take and share the www.racismtest.org with your family and friends: it's the very least you can do to help eradicate the inequity of untreated racism/colorism:
Untreated Racism Causes Mis-education, Disproportionately Hign Incarceration and Neo-Slave Labor of People of Color
(Speech given at NY Stonybrook University at Diversity Conference 3/31/2000)
The NYPD Commissioner in what looks like a hurried conspiracy with the good ol' boys in an obvious effort to deflect public criticism of the increasing killings of Black males,
including the 43-shots-at unfortunate Guinean immigrant, Amadou Diallo, stated yesterday that the issue "....isn't one of police but of race." My, my.
To those of us who have for years importuned his police department to use the Racism/Colorism Quotient Test Program, to determine the levels of pathological responses to differences in color and culture in his police officers to no avail, this latest sortie into obfuscation is extremely dismaying.
Untreated racism/colorism in America continues to be the cause of the violent deaths of people of color - mainly of Black males by the police. Most of those in the political, educational and social leadership in this country have toally missed recognizing and addressing the solution to the racism/colorism which is shredding the delicate fabric of the society. That solution is testing individuals for their R/CQ - Racism/Colorism Quotient, and thereafter, administering follow-up (Ethnotherapeutic) Counseling until those individuals can think straight!
Other programs, including enacting legislation, affirmative action, quota systems, forced integration, have failed because they have not shown the individual who is afflicted with the bias how to rid herself/himself of the disease: the "sensitivity" trainings, in police departments, focus on the wrong group instead of on the individual police themselves. If one is not part of the solution one is part of the problem.
Testing individuals for their R/CQ, the relative degree of racism/colorism within the individual, must become national policy in a multi-ethnic country. Just as we test for AIDS, we must begin testing for the disorder/disease of racism/colorism, in schools and at the workplace - testing and counseling, just as we test and counsel for alcoholism. For instance, Al Campanis, "Jimmy the Greek," John Rocker or Imus should not have been fired for their racist/colorist remarks. These white men are only products of their environment. If they had been alcoholics, it would have been against state law to fire them. They would have been tested and referred to counseling until they could think straight. The same procedure should have been used to treat their disease of racism/colorism.
How much more critical to our survival is it for judges, prosecutors, attorneys general, prospective jurors and especially police officers, to be tested for their respective racism/colorism levels? These public servants cannot deliver justice or make equitable decisions about people of color because they have also been conditioned by an institutionally racist/colorist society and not treated for their disorder.
It is way past time for people of color not to have to rely upon the the "luck" of drawing someone who is "not quite as racist/colorist" as the next racist/colorist to obtain justice! Today we people of color still have to hope that the whites (and self-hating Blacks!) making decisions about our very lives are not "too, too racist/colorist!"
We must not only demand permanent special prosecutors (R/CQ-tested) for racially (coloristically)-motivated crimes and violence, but we must also ensure that those individuals who are directly involved with the decisions governing our lives, livelihoods, our health and our education, be tested and counseled where necessary. If not, we'll always be knee-jerk reacting to individual acts of police terrorism, such as the recent murder of Patrick Dorismond and others too numerous to herein mention, and providing platforms for self-aggrandizing self-promoters and therefore not dealing realistically with and reforming the cause of the brutality - institutional racism/colorism.
We can look to the Constitution of the U.S.A. and, indeed, all the laws in the world for justice, but if the individuals who are supposed to uphold and enforce those laws are dysfunctionally racist/colorist, there is no way that people of color will ever be free of discrimination, 'racial'/color/profiling, violence or death on the basis of our skin color. We can take to the streets again and again, we can ask, beg, pray, wish, shout and scream as we have done for hundreds of years, but unless and until testing for the disease of racism/colorism is done, we will continue to be murdered in the streets of America because of the observable melanin in our skins. Martin Luther King said that racism is a sin unto death: it is also insanity.
One does not have to be a doomsayer to recognize the fact that we all will see spontaneous colorist conflagrations with levels of viciousness never before experienced in this country if we do not begin setting up widespread R/CQ Test Programs with Follow-up Ethnotherapeutic Counseling until individuals can think straight.
We have developed the Test...the rest is up to you...and you...and you...
Carol Taylor R.N.
Institute for "Interracial" Harmony, Inc.
First Black U.S.A. Flight Attendant
REFLECTIONS ON THE OBAMA INAUGURATION:
REFLECTIONS ON THE OBAMA INAUGURATION:
OH MI GOD - HE CAN'T...
DANCE!!! Did you see it? That Black man can't dance! This is a National Black Crisis!
You and I know - whitefolk can't dance either: they got no rhythm. I learned this living in the West Indies seeing them white 'tourisses' wagging their hips instead of they knees - trying to 'catch the moves!' Wasn't happening.
Y'understand that a terpsichorean ability is an absolute necessity for a Black man to be able to 'see with' his people's real gutbucket needs, so you see how important it is for President Barack Obama to 'do-quick' and get somebody to teach 'im how to boogie-down!
Watching him and the lovely white-gowned Michelle out on the dance floor at their first Inaugural Ball (first of ten they'd have to attend) was painful for me, she too, seemed ill-at-ease as he moved around in awkward whiteman fashion: I was shocked. Then I recalled this Black man's mostly-white* upbringing and understood some people's belief that Black children shouldn't be entirely/exclusively reared by white folk.
*that was 'mixed ethnicities' - not "mixed race" (there's only one hueman race, all you coloristically mixed-up mediafollk!)
Indeed, I clearly recall being brought up (white mother/Black father) in bland New England, but was rescued, thank the Creator in Her Grace) by my Jamaica, West Indies nursing school pal, Hyacinth, who not only taught me about pepper sauce, rice 'n' peas, curry and Calypsonian 'Sparrow,' but, most importantly, how to dance! - She'd say, "the action comes from the knees - not the hips - LightGirl!" (I'm what our forbears used to call - "high yellow" and was well on my way to dancing like I had a neurological disease) I owe her my - spicy - life.
Furthermore, I soon learned, in choosing a competent man as a partner, "If he can't dance - he can't prance!" In other words, if he's to be an all-rounder, a balanced 'in-the-know' desirable Black guy, he's gotta' be able to dance: that jerky, scarecrow-bobbing, jangly, Icabod-Crane-out-of-time cavorting which stands for white 'dancing' just wouldn't fly.
The inability to physically 'move with the music' reveals an almost indefinable emotional, intellectual, spiritual gap in the mind which prevents a man from really 'getting down with' us Blackfolk - and don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about - the Sisters and Brothers know exactly what I mean - but only a very few Blackfolk will talk openly about this phenomenon.
I say: "Quick! Get Brother Al Sharpton to teach Brother Barack how ta' dance!" (When he can 'be' with us - he'll be able to much better 'see' with us!)
OH MI GOD - HE CAN'T...
DANCE!!! Did you see it? That Black man can't dance! This is a National Black Crisis!
You and I know - whitefolk can't dance either: they got no rhythm. I learned this living in the West Indies seeing them white 'tourisses' wagging their hips instead of they knees - trying to 'catch the moves!' Wasn't happening.
Y'understand that a terpsichorean ability is an absolute necessity for a Black man to be able to 'see with' his people's real gutbucket needs, so you see how important it is for President Barack Obama to 'do-quick' and get somebody to teach 'im how to boogie-down!
Watching him and the lovely white-gowned Michelle out on the dance floor at their first Inaugural Ball (first of ten they'd have to attend) was painful for me, she too, seemed ill-at-ease as he moved around in awkward whiteman fashion: I was shocked. Then I recalled this Black man's mostly-white* upbringing and understood some people's belief that Black children shouldn't be entirely/exclusively reared by white folk.
*that was 'mixed ethnicities' - not "mixed race" (there's only one hueman race, all you coloristically mixed-up mediafollk!)
Indeed, I clearly recall being brought up (white mother/Black father) in bland New England, but was rescued, thank the Creator in Her Grace) by my Jamaica, West Indies nursing school pal, Hyacinth, who not only taught me about pepper sauce, rice 'n' peas, curry and Calypsonian 'Sparrow,' but, most importantly, how to dance! - She'd say, "the action comes from the knees - not the hips - LightGirl!" (I'm what our forbears used to call - "high yellow" and was well on my way to dancing like I had a neurological disease) I owe her my - spicy - life.
Furthermore, I soon learned, in choosing a competent man as a partner, "If he can't dance - he can't prance!" In other words, if he's to be an all-rounder, a balanced 'in-the-know' desirable Black guy, he's gotta' be able to dance: that jerky, scarecrow-bobbing, jangly, Icabod-Crane-out-of-time cavorting which stands for white 'dancing' just wouldn't fly.
The inability to physically 'move with the music' reveals an almost indefinable emotional, intellectual, spiritual gap in the mind which prevents a man from really 'getting down with' us Blackfolk - and don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about - the Sisters and Brothers know exactly what I mean - but only a very few Blackfolk will talk openly about this phenomenon.
I say: "Quick! Get Brother Al Sharpton to teach Brother Barack how ta' dance!" (When he can 'be' with us - he'll be able to much better 'see' with us!)
Monday, January 19, 2009
THE COLOR SICKNESS:
THE COLOR SICKNESS:
Unacknowledged, Denied and Pandemic
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "Racism is a sin unto death."
James Baldwin said: "There was not then, nor is there now a single American institution which is not a racist institution."
Baldwin might've said, "a single worldwide institution." They certainly knew, instinctively, what they were talking about.
However, a more accurate term than the archaic "racism" is evolving to define the irrational practice of judging and treating a hueman being solely by the color of her/his skin; it is "colorism" precisely because there is only one hueman race. (I spell 'hueman' with an 'e' in recognition of the science-proven fact that within all huemans is retained some level/amount of melanin - some of us are just more or less 'rinsed out.'
It is of utmost and world wide importance that the psychological health of hueman beings is restored and maintained. Unfortunately, there is pandemic denial that colorism exists to a counterproductive degree and affects and victimizes huemans in every arena of people activity: economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war. (thanks to Psychiatrist Dr. Frances Cress Welsing for this list)
Guess What? How does one spell "C-o-u-n-t-e-r-p-r-o-d-u-c-t-i-v-e?" I just learned that the (mostly white) Congress of the United States of America is conspiring to shut down Black History Month! YIKES! Instead of incorporating Black History in schools at every level, thereby teaching all students who were their most distant ancestors/relatives and that "Black" history is world history, there we have a bunch of mis-educated (elected) genetic mutants leading the entire U.S.A. into lemming-like retrogressive thinking (it's called "Dumbing Down") OUCH!
We define such infestation, "colorism" - as the irrational "pathological response to differences in color and culture." That definition was coined by the intrepid Community Activist Sister Jean Wilkins Dember MHS (Master of Hueman Services)
Although we'd prefer to avoid labels, when such irrationality becomes continuous, it is labeled 'insanity,' is it not?
There is a basic universally-held feeling that unless you're masochistic no one wants to be a victim. Similarly, most huemans, if they're honest and recognize the 'bottom-socio-economic-rung position' of the world's Black and other people of color, definitely do not want to be 'of color.' (Ref. to the book "Two Nations: Separate, Unequal and Hostile," where students asked if they'd accept money to become white said they wouldn't take even one million dollars)
Blacks and other people of color who're trying to maintain dignity and pride in their Black African descendancy must of necessity at some stage in their development as adults of color, resolve the thorny issues of self identity and self worth and continually fight off not only external slings and arrows of colorism, but also the internal barbs of psychic destruction which occasionally gets past their unique defense barriers.
An instructive comparison allows for understanding this constant psychological, spiritual battle: someone raised female in this world is raised in mostly patriarchies which constantly 'put down' and attempt to control the female entity. As young girls attempting self determination in such a repressive milieu, for them to be able to even dress themselves in the morning is amazing. The repression, suppression,oppresiveness is overwhelming unfortunately, females evince submissiveness to overt and covert control in most societies, as untenable as this seems. Because some huemans are endowed with more estrogen than testosterone hormones, they are automatically relegated to second and third class citizenship. Every day, therefore, if by some social magic, some existential serendipity, a female manages to even partially escape the intellectual, pshychological, emotional, legal and physical predation as she ages, and is able to think clearly for herself, she must continually scrape off (and out) the destructive effects of being female in a (mostly) partriarchal world and seek reinforcement that she is a worthwhile entity.
The same intellectual, psychological, emotional, spiritual daily battles must be and are fought by Black and other people of color who are continually 'had at' by a colorist predatory world, and anyone who hasn't 'walked a mile' in such shoes-of-color (and of 'femaleness') cannot dictate how others do or should feel.
However, the 'myth of meritocracy,' the 'pulling up by one's own bootstraps' is forever flown inf the faces of those who dare challenge the massive denial extant in the U.S.A. and in other countries where there's mostly white-male-rule (and if they're not out there in the public eye, they're behind the scenes pulling the economic strings)
Doubt any of this and you're urged to go to the 13th Amendment of the Constitution of the U.S.A.; on December 13, 1865, the invidious regulation supposedly abolishing slavery was enacted - with the exception of jails. (my emphasis) People with observable melanin were routinely enslaved and the masses of inhabitants in this country allowed it! The vicious repercussions and remnants of this evil are alive and 'well' in today's societies. (Refer to Dr.
Joy DeGruy's 'Post Slavery Traumatic Disorder.')
However, pandemic denial of these dangerous social thorns persists. Despite the widely held belief that a person should not be held responsible or maltreated because of something over which she/he has no control (being born Black and/or of color) untreated colorism (racism) reigns, subverts, damages entire societies, causes invasions, wars, deaths and retrogressive administrations - a la the barbarian childkilling wallbuilding Israeli 'sitting-duck' attacks on hapless Palestinians - to engage in ethnic cleansing for hegemonic gains.
That untreated colorism causes degrading behavior not only by caucasians against people of color but, almost incredibly, causes those very people of color victims to practice a kind of 'color-striated' violence even against members of their own families of color such as;
- colorist advice from Black/of color parents for their children to choose 'lighter-skinned' partners;
- colorist practices of skin-bleaching not only in Black Africa but also Yellow China and other places;
- color-chosen members of entire bands of Carnival revelers in Trinidad/Tobago, West Indies;
-Black children choosing white dolls rather than dolls resembling their own color because "Black dolls are bad."
Then we have the mostly all-white (male) sunday morning TV anchors and commentators prating about "world" affairs (the three-quarters of color world) as though they're the only ones with worthwhile opinions. This is surely reflective of the malignant, counterproductive and relentless 'decisions-dictated-by-color' which pervade a world infected by what can only be called "The Color Sickness."
Suggestions For Serious Healing: A good start in erasing the pandemic denial would be for individuals and institutions (especially those 'kill-Black-males' law enforcement outfits and the nation's education systems) wishing to regain their credibility, rationality, sanity - to log on to Discussrace.com [to, as Law Professor Dr. Lani Guinier so presciently advises: "Discuss racism (she meant 'colorism') in public forums in order to put it on the front burner so as to be able to deal with it in a forthright manner"] - and to take and share the Racismtest.org.
And where pathological responses to differences in color and culture are revealed, those infected can opt (like any other addicts) to undergo Ethnotherapy Counseling until they can recover their ability to think straight. (and not be fired unless they refuse Ethnotherapeutic Couseling, Imus)
If you're thinking straight, you don't consider yourself better than others, you don't have to scapegoat anyone, you don't judge a book by its cover or huemans by their skin color, you're helping to make this ol' world a better place for your children.
Unacknowledged, Denied and Pandemic
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "Racism is a sin unto death."
James Baldwin said: "There was not then, nor is there now a single American institution which is not a racist institution."
Baldwin might've said, "a single worldwide institution." They certainly knew, instinctively, what they were talking about.
However, a more accurate term than the archaic "racism" is evolving to define the irrational practice of judging and treating a hueman being solely by the color of her/his skin; it is "colorism" precisely because there is only one hueman race. (I spell 'hueman' with an 'e' in recognition of the science-proven fact that within all huemans is retained some level/amount of melanin - some of us are just more or less 'rinsed out.'
It is of utmost and world wide importance that the psychological health of hueman beings is restored and maintained. Unfortunately, there is pandemic denial that colorism exists to a counterproductive degree and affects and victimizes huemans in every arena of people activity: economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war. (thanks to Psychiatrist Dr. Frances Cress Welsing for this list)
Guess What? How does one spell "C-o-u-n-t-e-r-p-r-o-d-u-c-t-i-v-e?" I just learned that the (mostly white) Congress of the United States of America is conspiring to shut down Black History Month! YIKES! Instead of incorporating Black History in schools at every level, thereby teaching all students who were their most distant ancestors/relatives and that "Black" history is world history, there we have a bunch of mis-educated (elected) genetic mutants leading the entire U.S.A. into lemming-like retrogressive thinking (it's called "Dumbing Down") OUCH!
We define such infestation, "colorism" - as the irrational "pathological response to differences in color and culture." That definition was coined by the intrepid Community Activist Sister Jean Wilkins Dember MHS (Master of Hueman Services)
Although we'd prefer to avoid labels, when such irrationality becomes continuous, it is labeled 'insanity,' is it not?
There is a basic universally-held feeling that unless you're masochistic no one wants to be a victim. Similarly, most huemans, if they're honest and recognize the 'bottom-socio-economic-rung position' of the world's Black and other people of color, definitely do not want to be 'of color.' (Ref. to the book "Two Nations: Separate, Unequal and Hostile," where students asked if they'd accept money to become white said they wouldn't take even one million dollars)
Blacks and other people of color who're trying to maintain dignity and pride in their Black African descendancy must of necessity at some stage in their development as adults of color, resolve the thorny issues of self identity and self worth and continually fight off not only external slings and arrows of colorism, but also the internal barbs of psychic destruction which occasionally gets past their unique defense barriers.
An instructive comparison allows for understanding this constant psychological, spiritual battle: someone raised female in this world is raised in mostly patriarchies which constantly 'put down' and attempt to control the female entity. As young girls attempting self determination in such a repressive milieu, for them to be able to even dress themselves in the morning is amazing. The repression, suppression,oppresiveness is overwhelming unfortunately, females evince submissiveness to overt and covert control in most societies, as untenable as this seems. Because some huemans are endowed with more estrogen than testosterone hormones, they are automatically relegated to second and third class citizenship. Every day, therefore, if by some social magic, some existential serendipity, a female manages to even partially escape the intellectual, pshychological, emotional, legal and physical predation as she ages, and is able to think clearly for herself, she must continually scrape off (and out) the destructive effects of being female in a (mostly) partriarchal world and seek reinforcement that she is a worthwhile entity.
The same intellectual, psychological, emotional, spiritual daily battles must be and are fought by Black and other people of color who are continually 'had at' by a colorist predatory world, and anyone who hasn't 'walked a mile' in such shoes-of-color (and of 'femaleness') cannot dictate how others do or should feel.
However, the 'myth of meritocracy,' the 'pulling up by one's own bootstraps' is forever flown inf the faces of those who dare challenge the massive denial extant in the U.S.A. and in other countries where there's mostly white-male-rule (and if they're not out there in the public eye, they're behind the scenes pulling the economic strings)
Doubt any of this and you're urged to go to the 13th Amendment of the Constitution of the U.S.A.; on December 13, 1865, the invidious regulation supposedly abolishing slavery was enacted - with the exception of jails. (my emphasis) People with observable melanin were routinely enslaved and the masses of inhabitants in this country allowed it! The vicious repercussions and remnants of this evil are alive and 'well' in today's societies. (Refer to Dr.
Joy DeGruy's 'Post Slavery Traumatic Disorder.')
However, pandemic denial of these dangerous social thorns persists. Despite the widely held belief that a person should not be held responsible or maltreated because of something over which she/he has no control (being born Black and/or of color) untreated colorism (racism) reigns, subverts, damages entire societies, causes invasions, wars, deaths and retrogressive administrations - a la the barbarian childkilling wallbuilding Israeli 'sitting-duck' attacks on hapless Palestinians - to engage in ethnic cleansing for hegemonic gains.
That untreated colorism causes degrading behavior not only by caucasians against people of color but, almost incredibly, causes those very people of color victims to practice a kind of 'color-striated' violence even against members of their own families of color such as;
- colorist advice from Black/of color parents for their children to choose 'lighter-skinned' partners;
- colorist practices of skin-bleaching not only in Black Africa but also Yellow China and other places;
- color-chosen members of entire bands of Carnival revelers in Trinidad/Tobago, West Indies;
-Black children choosing white dolls rather than dolls resembling their own color because "Black dolls are bad."
Then we have the mostly all-white (male) sunday morning TV anchors and commentators prating about "world" affairs (the three-quarters of color world) as though they're the only ones with worthwhile opinions. This is surely reflective of the malignant, counterproductive and relentless 'decisions-dictated-by-color' which pervade a world infected by what can only be called "The Color Sickness."
Suggestions For Serious Healing: A good start in erasing the pandemic denial would be for individuals and institutions (especially those 'kill-Black-males' law enforcement outfits and the nation's education systems) wishing to regain their credibility, rationality, sanity - to log on to Discussrace.com [to, as Law Professor Dr. Lani Guinier so presciently advises: "Discuss racism (she meant 'colorism') in public forums in order to put it on the front burner so as to be able to deal with it in a forthright manner"] - and to take and share the Racismtest.org.
And where pathological responses to differences in color and culture are revealed, those infected can opt (like any other addicts) to undergo Ethnotherapy Counseling until they can recover their ability to think straight. (and not be fired unless they refuse Ethnotherapeutic Couseling, Imus)
If you're thinking straight, you don't consider yourself better than others, you don't have to scapegoat anyone, you don't judge a book by its cover or huemans by their skin color, you're helping to make this ol' world a better place for your children.
Berlin Syndrome:
Berlin Syndrome:
(analagous to The Stockholm Sundrome; reflecting the continuous pathological interaction between victim and victimizer where even though the victimization occurred long ago, the pathological remnants of such sick interrelationships continue to affect the behavior of the victims who then foist such learned violent behavior upon others)
I suppose the only way that the intentional and widespread evil carnage of the Israelis against their purposefully-entrapped Palestinian targeted victims is to remember how killer sharks corral their terrified confused prey prior to slaughtering them.
A difference between killer sharks and the marauding Israelis might be that the sharks will eat their targeted prey, while the Israelis...
The seemingly-shell-shocked world stands immobilized watching in horror as hapless Palestinians are Israeli-rendered without electricity, fuel, food, medical care or hope of escaping the predetermined pogrom because they've been viciously entrapped without opportunity of escaping.
Hmmm - at this writing, 8th january, 2009, over 700 Palestinians've been killed; ten Israelis(of which 4 were killed by 'friendly' fire - they're so rabidly firing they're killing themselves). (Sounds kinda' like David & Goliath, doesn't it?)
While we understand that the Marquis of Queensberry Rules of War don't obtain in the one-sided Israeli onslaught, pandemic longstanding opprobrium against bullying should have long since caused the international community to pressure the Israelis to cease and desist from their tribal terrorism against other hueman beings. Or is it immobilizing fear of U.S.A. reprisals that prevents other nations from forthrightly intervening to weigh against the Israeli atrocities?
For concerned individuals who wish to understand Israeli motivations, it would be instructive to recall that over a year ago, Israeli leaders removed, sometimes by pure force, all Israeli settlers from Gaza. Now we realize that this was a part of their devilish plans for the total extermination and removal of non-Israelis from what they fondly call the land of "God's Chosen People!"
We're painfully aware of the total hypocrisy in the Israeli claims of 'kindly actions' in their drop-in-the-bucket establishment of a 3-hour 'humanitarian corridor' to allow medical and food aid to the entrapped Gaza inhabitants. How nice; they bomb the bejeezus out of helpless Palestinian people and then in a bizarre and insulting travesty, offer a totally inadequate bandaid-on-misery to folk they obviously intend to erase from the face of the earth so that they can fulfill a 'scorched-earth-policy' which began with the U.S.A.GANG's illegal gift of an 'Israeli Homeland' in 1948!
In the U.S.A.-sanctioned Israeli hegemonic harassment of the Palestinians, we see their obvious intentions to completely raze Gaza of its non-Israeli men, women and children. (Machiavelli lives)
The blood-and-land-lusting, wall-building, Israeli child-killers, immorally backed by a weapons-supplying evil empire U.S.A. Administration, are being allowed to visit their modern day holocaust in the patently false guise of chasing Hamas guerillas. But the Emperor has no clothes: Israel is the rampaging guilty gorilla in this entire mess and the rest of the world is complicit in the carnage unless it steps in immediately to reign in the rampagers!
An instructive example of that 'stepping in' is the powerful Turkish Anti-Israeli demonstration at a recent soccer game (described by able sportswriter Dave Zirin). This action is what is urgently needed to register valid opprobrium to outrageous inhuemane behavior no matter where it occurs.
The Israeli Prime Minister has unfortunately led his squatters one harrowing step beyond the Stockholm Syndrome, into an untenable and acting-out Berlin Syndrome. He needs to understand that the world cannot and should not tolerate such imposed bloody mayhem.
(Written in angst from the dual Outposts: www.Discussrace.com and www.Racismtest.org)
(analagous to The Stockholm Sundrome; reflecting the continuous pathological interaction between victim and victimizer where even though the victimization occurred long ago, the pathological remnants of such sick interrelationships continue to affect the behavior of the victims who then foist such learned violent behavior upon others)
I suppose the only way that the intentional and widespread evil carnage of the Israelis against their purposefully-entrapped Palestinian targeted victims is to remember how killer sharks corral their terrified confused prey prior to slaughtering them.
A difference between killer sharks and the marauding Israelis might be that the sharks will eat their targeted prey, while the Israelis...
The seemingly-shell-shocked world stands immobilized watching in horror as hapless Palestinians are Israeli-rendered without electricity, fuel, food, medical care or hope of escaping the predetermined pogrom because they've been viciously entrapped without opportunity of escaping.
Hmmm - at this writing, 8th january, 2009, over 700 Palestinians've been killed; ten Israelis(of which 4 were killed by 'friendly' fire - they're so rabidly firing they're killing themselves). (Sounds kinda' like David & Goliath, doesn't it?)
While we understand that the Marquis of Queensberry Rules of War don't obtain in the one-sided Israeli onslaught, pandemic longstanding opprobrium against bullying should have long since caused the international community to pressure the Israelis to cease and desist from their tribal terrorism against other hueman beings. Or is it immobilizing fear of U.S.A. reprisals that prevents other nations from forthrightly intervening to weigh against the Israeli atrocities?
For concerned individuals who wish to understand Israeli motivations, it would be instructive to recall that over a year ago, Israeli leaders removed, sometimes by pure force, all Israeli settlers from Gaza. Now we realize that this was a part of their devilish plans for the total extermination and removal of non-Israelis from what they fondly call the land of "God's Chosen People!"
We're painfully aware of the total hypocrisy in the Israeli claims of 'kindly actions' in their drop-in-the-bucket establishment of a 3-hour 'humanitarian corridor' to allow medical and food aid to the entrapped Gaza inhabitants. How nice; they bomb the bejeezus out of helpless Palestinian people and then in a bizarre and insulting travesty, offer a totally inadequate bandaid-on-misery to folk they obviously intend to erase from the face of the earth so that they can fulfill a 'scorched-earth-policy' which began with the U.S.A.GANG's illegal gift of an 'Israeli Homeland' in 1948!
In the U.S.A.-sanctioned Israeli hegemonic harassment of the Palestinians, we see their obvious intentions to completely raze Gaza of its non-Israeli men, women and children. (Machiavelli lives)
The blood-and-land-lusting, wall-building, Israeli child-killers, immorally backed by a weapons-supplying evil empire U.S.A. Administration, are being allowed to visit their modern day holocaust in the patently false guise of chasing Hamas guerillas. But the Emperor has no clothes: Israel is the rampaging guilty gorilla in this entire mess and the rest of the world is complicit in the carnage unless it steps in immediately to reign in the rampagers!
An instructive example of that 'stepping in' is the powerful Turkish Anti-Israeli demonstration at a recent soccer game (described by able sportswriter Dave Zirin). This action is what is urgently needed to register valid opprobrium to outrageous inhuemane behavior no matter where it occurs.
The Israeli Prime Minister has unfortunately led his squatters one harrowing step beyond the Stockholm Syndrome, into an untenable and acting-out Berlin Syndrome. He needs to understand that the world cannot and should not tolerate such imposed bloody mayhem.
(Written in angst from the dual Outposts: www.Discussrace.com and www.Racismtest.org)
"PEOPLE OF 'DIFFERENT' RACES" - OH YEAH?
"PEOPLE OF 'DIFFERENT' RACES" -
OH YEAH?
First off, face it: there are no such entities as 'different races.' At the risk of being trite and repetitive because we've heard this sentence time and time again: "There's only one hueman race."
Does the phrase 'people of different races' perpetuate negativity especially against people of color? Yes, of course it does. If - as do color-bigots - one subscribes to the falsity of 'inferior' or 'superior' 'races.' (Ref. Dr. Pegggy MacIntosh "Paper 189" - on seeing correlations between white male privilege and color privilege; Wellesley College)
Harrowingly, in spite of ample evidence, many people of otherwise goodwill, including academicians who should know better, insist on obdurately cleaving to patently incorrect phraseology claiming "it's traditional!" as though maintaining 'tradition' in this case doesn't fly in the face of history and logic.
Remarkably, accompanying the too-often arrogant refusal to budge off their euphemizing is a range of untoward reactions which go anywhere from mild irritation to outright self-righteous anger. To point out to some folk that their language usage regarding people of color is counterproductive, antiquated, out of touch and downright incorrect, is to court their readily-expressed opporobrium and disdain.
Try it: just dare to inform someone - even diplomatically, (and in their interest) that they're utilizing inept, incorrect language to describe Black people and/or groups of Blacks - and be sure to dodge!
Whether the anger springs automatically from the thorniness of the prickly issue of color, or whether people feel that they're being tangentially accused of being racist/colorist, the ire is unmistakenly there and those thusly approached about their use of the terms like 'race,' 'races' and 'people of different races' reflexively 'get their dander up.' Why?
In fact, so frequent have we experienced these negative emotional reactions by people holding themselves out as integral members of the 'intelligentia,' that those of us heavily into the continuing fight for color equity have begun to call for 'Semantics Forums on Black Power-Parlance!'
For so-called 'leaders' in the various arenas of people activity, especially including academia and media, to continue with their inaccurate and lame-defense mis-use of the English language constitutes a kind of 'sleeping/giving-undeserved-comfort-to-the-enemy;' - and the 'enemy' is the untreated colorism which so undermines society's progress and causes so much havoc to so many hueman beings.
Remedies: Log on to www.Discussrace.com - TAKE and SHARE the www.Racismtest.org - then write your thoughts in to them (and pardon their use of those buzzwords 'race' and 'racism,' - now we know they should be using 'color' and 'colorism,' but I guess they're waiting for the 'Semantics Forums on Black Power-Parlance!')
OH YEAH?
First off, face it: there are no such entities as 'different races.' At the risk of being trite and repetitive because we've heard this sentence time and time again: "There's only one hueman race."
Does the phrase 'people of different races' perpetuate negativity especially against people of color? Yes, of course it does. If - as do color-bigots - one subscribes to the falsity of 'inferior' or 'superior' 'races.' (Ref. Dr. Pegggy MacIntosh "Paper 189" - on seeing correlations between white male privilege and color privilege; Wellesley College)
Harrowingly, in spite of ample evidence, many people of otherwise goodwill, including academicians who should know better, insist on obdurately cleaving to patently incorrect phraseology claiming "it's traditional!" as though maintaining 'tradition' in this case doesn't fly in the face of history and logic.
Remarkably, accompanying the too-often arrogant refusal to budge off their euphemizing is a range of untoward reactions which go anywhere from mild irritation to outright self-righteous anger. To point out to some folk that their language usage regarding people of color is counterproductive, antiquated, out of touch and downright incorrect, is to court their readily-expressed opporobrium and disdain.
Try it: just dare to inform someone - even diplomatically, (and in their interest) that they're utilizing inept, incorrect language to describe Black people and/or groups of Blacks - and be sure to dodge!
Whether the anger springs automatically from the thorniness of the prickly issue of color, or whether people feel that they're being tangentially accused of being racist/colorist, the ire is unmistakenly there and those thusly approached about their use of the terms like 'race,' 'races' and 'people of different races' reflexively 'get their dander up.' Why?
In fact, so frequent have we experienced these negative emotional reactions by people holding themselves out as integral members of the 'intelligentia,' that those of us heavily into the continuing fight for color equity have begun to call for 'Semantics Forums on Black Power-Parlance!'
For so-called 'leaders' in the various arenas of people activity, especially including academia and media, to continue with their inaccurate and lame-defense mis-use of the English language constitutes a kind of 'sleeping/giving-undeserved-comfort-to-the-enemy;' - and the 'enemy' is the untreated colorism which so undermines society's progress and causes so much havoc to so many hueman beings.
Remedies: Log on to www.Discussrace.com - TAKE and SHARE the www.Racismtest.org - then write your thoughts in to them (and pardon their use of those buzzwords 'race' and 'racism,' - now we know they should be using 'color' and 'colorism,' but I guess they're waiting for the 'Semantics Forums on Black Power-Parlance!')
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