VRA: Fighting Back

Loved this! Especially the focus on what can be done to survive this attack and possibly challenge it.

Awake Black Woman

You can CLICK HERE and sign the ACLU petition to congress urging them to repair the Voting Rights Act. I dunno if that is a real and possible thing, but sign the effing thing and we’ll see what’s what.

If my tone of voice today is a big pissy, it is because I am completely unable to can. Basically: iCan’t. That and I just returned from my bi-monthly head shrinkage with the Doc who manages my meds and I’m as gutted as the VRA. Twinsies, yay.

While I was doing my in-depth brain cleansing I had a few ideas on how to fight back. Signing petitions can do much, but in case the ish don’t work out, let us try a few other things.

I want to connect with activists. The people on the front lines who worked their asses off to get African-Americans to the polls in…

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Eff Tha Police

Good personal perspective on police harassment.

Awake Black Woman

I could generalize and say something like Black people in America view the police in a whole other way than white people do. Or I could say most Black people, or some Black people. Or I could talk about why I view the police in a particular way and you can compare it to how you view them.

*

One time in my early twenties I asked my BFF how many times she’d been pulled over by the police. We were close in age, similar backgrounds etc all that. Prolly why we clicked and became such pals. The only difference is that she was a redheaded white girl with pale skin and freckles. She said she’d never been pulled over before in her life. Ever.

At that time, I’d already been pulled over close to 10 times. Since then, twenty or so years later, that figure has doubled and then…

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White Fear

Good talk. Respect.

Dreaming of a Colorful Future

White fear is another consequence of racism and is related to White guilt. This is a post of my unpacking my past and my privilege, so hold on tight it might get a little bumpy.

They are claiming that we live in a post-race society, and racism doesn’t exist anymore, so therefore we do not need the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They have already struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, so now the nine most racist states can effectively make changes to their voting laws without permission, and you can read an article about it here.

We have a Black president, and he was elected twice, so we can’t possibly be racist still,  right? The ignorance of this statement is mind blowing, and I have heard it too many times. If racism did’t exist then we wouldn’t have had chairs lynched from trees through…

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The Language of Racism

There is so much uncertainty about racism because we have not been consistent in the language used to describe these things. We throw terms and coined phrases around, but for the actual discussion of race relations and prejudice in this country we have to be very specific. Discrimination in this country is so nuanced and entrenched that we must be clear on what we’re saying and what we mean when we decide to address it. Otherwise we corrupt the language necessary to describe the nuances racial prejudice.

The Language

The term racism is often used when we mean racial prejudice. Racism in its truest form is simply the belief that race determines certain traits and capacities about a person. For example, believing that all Asian people are smarter than people of other races. However, often when we use the term racism what we are really referring to racial prejudice or racial discrimination. Although the two terms are slightly different we do not always make the distinction and there lies the confusion.

Prejudice, whether used as a verb or a noun, is related to the outcome of preconceived notions (this does not have to be an action). Prejudice is the behavior and beliefs associated with having preconceived notions about a group or individual. For example, a woman grabs her purse when a young man steps onto the elevator or an employee following a person around a store. These notions can be based on race, gender, or religion, but they regardless of the basis the acts are discriminatory. Racial prejudice is an ideology that believes certain prejudicial. An ideology may inspire actions and behaviors but it is not specifically that behavior. For example, if a person believes that a college education is necessary and important to life and success would be an ideology. A person would not need to have gone or be going to school in order to ascribe to this ideology; they only need to believe it. If that person does go to school then it is possible that act is motivated by their ideology but it can very well be attributed to something else. Racial discrimination is about the actual acts that are committed against a person because of racial prejudice.

The Problem

A person who is racially prejudiced doesn’t need to do something such as use the word “nigger” or not hire a Black person simply because of their color. All they need to do is believe the ideology of racial prejudice. The Paula Deen controversy is a good example of the kinds of situations that occur because of our lack of specificity in the terms we use to describe racism. Paula Deen admitted to having used the word “nigger.” She also stated that she is not racist. Her denial is plausible because what she is actually referring to when she uses the term racist is racial discrimination. What she is actually saying is that she has never discriminated against a Black person – which may very well be true. However, it actually says nothing as to whether or not she is racially prejudiced. When we review Paula Deen’s behavior and the things that she has said, it is obvious that she holds certain racial prejudices.

What took place in the above clip is pure, genuine, racial prejudice. Not to mention that Deen never actually states that she has no prejudices. She states that she feels “we all have prejudices.” Deen, like so many other Americans deny their racial prejudices because the base that statement upon whether or not they have ever committed acts of racial discrimination which is actually not necessary to be racially prejudiced. People who are racially prejudiced tend to interact only with people of their race. They engage people from other races only in the most public of spaces like at their jobs or at school. These types of spaces, because of laws and social rules, have a code of conduct that they are willing to follow. But those laws and rules do not change their perceptions.

George Zimmerman is a good example of what happens when a person with racial prejudices is able to act and respond without the immediate threat of laws and social rules. Zimmerman stated that he found Trayvon Martin suspicious. It was suggested that perhaps Trayvon’s attire or the time of day that he was walking or that he was walking through someone’s yard, but in truth none of things are objective evidence for suspicion. The truth is that Zimmerman holds certain racial prejudices regarding Black people (Black males in particular) and because of those prejudices he performed discriminatory acts (following and accosting the boy) that led to the death of a child. The root of the problem is not whether Zimmerman had the right to shoot and kill Trayvon. The root of the problem is why did he feel that Trayvon was suspicious (racial prejudice) and why did he feel he had the right to take action based on those feelings (racial discrimination).

The Point

The point is that racial prejudice is subtle and ignorant, even of itself. Paula Deen and George Zimmerman are evidence that we are confused. This is why our discussions on race and our efforts to combat racial discrimination fail. It is because we fail to acknowledge and actually grasp the root of our problem. The reason we are unable to grasp the root of the problem is because we have not adequately described it. James Baldwin said, “If you can describe it, then you can control it. If you can control it, then you can outwit it. You can get beyond it, if you can describe it. In order to describe it, you have to face it.” If we are going to tackle America’s problems with race relations and actually attempt to create this post-race era – that so many want to believe already exists – then we are going to have to face the root of our problem and describe it. Only with a universally understood language to discuss racism will we control it and, then, get beyond it.

I’m not sayin; I’m just sayin,

An Angry Black Man

Racist Memorabilia

Dreaming of a Colorful Future

I was in an antique store yesterday looking for something that I can put a TV on, Marley my boyfriend says I need to upgrade my broken tube TV and step into the future. As I was wandering around the store I saw three booths that contained multiple handmade Mammy dolls, and immediately I felt dirty. I wondered who owned these dolls before they sat here, and why would they own these dolls in the first place? Did they belong to little girls in need of dolls? (I tried to find the least offensive picture of of these dolls). I think I actually remember my mother had one of these dolls in the 1980’s, so maybe that’s why I feel dirty. Right before I left the store, with the Mammy dolls in the far corners of my mind, I ran into a fourth booth that contained three advertisement posters depicting…

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court’s Ruling Eliminating Key Provisions of the Voting Rights Act [IMAGE]

United States Hypocrisy

“The sad irony of today’s decision lies in its utter failure to grasp why the Voting Rights Act has proven effective. The Court appears to believe that the Voting Rights Act’s success in eliminating the specific devices extant in 1965 means that preclearance is no longer needed. The record for the 2006 reauthorization makes abundantly clear second generation barriers to minority voting rights have emerged in the covered jurisdictions as attempted substitutes for the first-generation barriers that originally triggered preclearance in those jurisdictions.”

– Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg writing in descent in the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to gut the most key provision, Section 4, of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

 

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The Post-Race Agenda (Series Intro)

Recently there have been a number of subtle attacks on the legislative protections that been placed to protect minorities from discrimination. These attacks are being initiated under the guise that legal protections are no longer needed because race is no longer an issue in this country. It would be a great accomplishment if America could say this was true and it would eb a welcomed change to the last 5 decades of struggle; however, it just isn’t true.

This series explores the ways in which the predominating forces in this country are trying to force the country into a “post-race” era despite the country’s lack of achievements in racial equality. The end result will be a disarming of the disenfranchised and an increase in loopholes for which prejudice and racism will begin to prevail.

I do not suggest that any and everyone who supports the various changes that are occurring are racist or have ill intentions. What I am saying is that “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions” and Hell is where we are headed if we continue to allow these our country to ignore one of its greatest flaws and its biggest challenge: racial inequality. Let’s talk about it.

Im not sayin’; I’m just sayin’,

An Angry Black Man

The Post-Race Agenda: Voting Vulnerabilities

Recently there have been a number of subtle attacks on the legislative protections that been placed to protect minorities from discrimination.

The most recent are the attacks that have come against Affirmative Action and The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Cases have been repetitively placed before the courts in an unrelenting effort to strip the laws of its protections against discrimination.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 came into being because, although the 15th Amendment gave Black people the right to vote, it did not stop voter discrimination. What happened in response to the passing of the 15th Amendment racists controlling the polls created literacy tests, poll taxes, and other things to restrict voting to White people only.

The Voting Rights Act signed by President Lyndon Johnson, protected against these practices because according to the 15th Amendment it was not illegal for states to create these extra voting requirements at their own discretion. The act recognized that discrimination was greater in some states more so than others. Sections 4 of the act specifically names certain states (mostly southern) that are required to obtain a “pre-clearance before than can make changes to the voting process in their state duevtonthe higher occurrences of discrimination that happened there.

The Gutting of The Voting Rights Act

Section 4 of the act was declared “unconstitutional.” The primary justification for this ruling is that America is not the same place (including the south) that it was in 1965. The last election’s Black voter turn out stats were used to “prove” that Black voters don’t need protection anymore because The Voting Rights has “accomplished its mission” and to continue to have such a law punishes states now for the way they used to be. Never was it mentioned that the last election was for the second term of the only Black President this country has ever seen and, of course, Black people turned out in droves to see that he was re-elected.

The Problem

The problem should be evident. If the courts are allowed to get away with this they will not only be stripping The Civil Rights movement of one if its greatest accomplishments, it will also set the tone and precedent of considering America a post-race culture where racism no longer exists and citizens do not need protection against discrimination.

The Point

I am not one for conspiracy theories, but I’m also not an ignorantly blind idiot. There is a post-race agenda taking place on the American political front. The purpose is to convince Americans that race is not an issue. In the wake of the Trayvon Martin case, the continued disproportional incarceration of Black men, the economic disparity of wages and income between the races, and the stop-and-frisk fiasco America continues to pretend that racism does not exist. What’s worse is they even convince some Black people that this is true. We are watching this country regress. It is only logical to fear that if they are able to take away legal protections and re-interpret civil liberties, how long will it be before they begin to suppose that slavery wasn’t all that bad either. The Black community must pay attention and find whatever ways they are capable to combat this threat because that sound we’re hearing in the distance is not the liberty bell, it’s the keys to our shackles.

I’m not sayin’; I’m just sayin’,

An Angry Black Man

The House I Live In – [Movie Trailer]

A must see.

United States Hypocrisy

One of the more explosive documentary films premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January was The House I Live In, a film chronicling one of America’s longest and most devastating wars – the War on Drugs. Directed by Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight) and executive produced by Danny Glover, John Legend and Russel Simmons, this film serves as an embarrassing expose of America’s underlying motives for continuing to fund the massive and costly war. As the film’s tag line says, “The War on Drugs has never been about drugs.” In the same way that Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of color-blindness, has proven to be a catalyst in the movement to abolish the Prison Industrial Complex, The House I Live In has the potential to do the same on an even larger scale. Watch the…

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These Streets

The streets is a term often used in Black colloquial conversation. Black often hear the term and inherently understand what it means. When we say to one another that someone is “in the streets,” or (one of my little sister’s favorite phrases) “they ain’t shit in these streets,” or (one of grandmother’s constant criticisms of one of my cousins) “ll he wanna do is run the streets,” we instinctively know what that person means. However, the streets is more than just a word. This evidenced by how long the term has been around — long enough for my then seventy year old grandmother and my sister who was born in 1989 to both know, understand, and use the term. The streets is more than just a phrase. It is a concept and ideology that has a physical presence; it is an institution.

There are a number of scholars exploring this topic:

Elijah Anderson- The Code Of The Street

William Oliver- The Streets

The Concept

The streets is a network of public and semi-public social settings. The streets is inclusive of the corner which is where the dope boys hang and push their products. The streets is where the clubs, bars, and liquor houses are. The streets is where the convenient stores, liquor stores, and recreational centers are.

The streets is a concept in Black culture that often represents that improper space where — according to well-to-do Blacks — the “lower” and “working class” Blacks interact. This space holds a great potential for the wild, dangerous, risky, and uninhibited aspect of Black life. That is part of the allure of the streets — along with the fact that it is frowned upon by older Black people who believe it can only lead to trouble.

The streets for my generation and those younger than us is sometimes home and always a staple. There are plenty who fear or are intimidated by the streets but no one denies its existence and no one automatically assumes that it is an evil place. For my generation running the streets is phase one goes through. It is expected that at some point a person will get tired of it and eventually settle into a grown up life where the streets is not the focus.

The Institution

The streets as an institution is the “school of the hard knocks.” It’s a competitive game of poker and Russian roulette where you take risks, call bluffs, and only the fittest survive. The streets has its own ideology born of neglect, oppression, and the will to survive. Much of the ideology of the streets is concerned with surviving poverty and overcoming oppression. At its core is the idea that you do what you have to do to get by and protect and care for your own. Everything and everyone else is secondary. This is a concept that is quietly perpetuated by capitalism. Capitalism is all about competition, acquiring wealth, and maintaining that wealth by any means necessary.

Despite the fact that mainstream would like to paint the streets and its ideology as something uncivilized and disassociated from society, in fact, it is the purest illustration of the American ideals. In so many ways the streets represents the glossed over truth of who we are as a people and a society. This fact is what scares people so much and causes them (especially those who are close to but not a part of it) to demonize the streets. Somewhere in the ruthlessness, the danger, and darkness of the streets they see Wall Street, politics, healthcare, big business and even themselves. I submit to you that the streets is neither a foreign place nor is it the enemy of society. If anything the streets is the bastard child America thought it aborted, but it refused to die.

The Point

It is imperative to understand the vocabulary that articulates our lives and translate that language to the rest of the world. Our vocabulary is our reality and we’d better define it for ourselves or the world will do it for us and stain it with their ignorance.

I’m not sayin; I’m just sayin,

An Angry Black Man

The symbolism and significance of “the street” in Black culture.