latin american princesa {LAP}

Via TakingITGlobal:

I just learned about a digital dialogue initiative from Queen Rania on YouTube. This is a women who defies stereotypes through her very existence and actions. Now she is using cyberspace to help bring down some of the stereotypes about Arabs and especially Arab women. She’s like the Barack Obama of Arab women.

Obama has shown us that while he understands that we have a lot of work to do still in terms of equality and opportunity, this country has already come a long way. Some say that his “Change” message is superficial. How much change can he really bring about? What does that mean exactly? But his campaign alone has already changed so much. Dialogue is the first step and he has instigated a serious level of dialogue. He has made people think. And think again.

Queen Rania is attempting the same. She’s a brilliant woman. I’ll be following the initiative this summer. I hope you’ll check it out too. Let’s see if some stereotypes come down on both sides.

After reading Ms. Crip Chick’s post on Changemakers as Celebrities I started to wonder:

Are heros like MLK, Justin Dart, Phoolan Devi and Che really responsible for bringing about change or do they bring exposure to change that is already in the works? Do they really transform our world or do we just transform them into the myths of change?

According to Roland Barthes a myth helps to make something “natural” or “normal”. So perhaps that means the MLK-myth helps to “naturalize” the changes of the civil rights movement into our society or culture? To make those changes seem “normal”?

From an interview on Open Source with a friend and contemporary of MLK:

[MLK] had grown up, Haynes remembers, with a “burning awareness that a cancer was eating at America. I think for any black, North or South — realizing there were strictures, there were limitations, that we’re still being kept out and separated — there was something grossly wrong with that separation, and these walls, these barriers needed to be broken down. I think a lot of young leaders, probably including myself, were waiting for God to appoint a Moses. The time was just right, and Martin was that man who was going to lead us to a promised land… It’s tragic when a body has a cancer and doesn’t know it… Dr. King made that diagnosis very clear to America.”

The savior metaphor can be placed socially and culturally into context by the fact that Dr. Haynes, like MLK is a reverend. Both men are spiritual leaders and this is their language. Such imagery is “natural” for him, but throughout the interview he clearly sees MLK as a man.

Dr. Haynes also explains that MLK himself recognized that he was but one actor in the movement and that many other leaders and individuals in the community also played a role. This does not take away from the importance of MLK’s work and sacrifice, but it does de-bunk the myth and exposes the extraordinary man beneath. Martin. Not Dr. King. Not Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Just Martin. A father, a husband, a friend, a leader, a student, a teacher, a preacher. There is no denying though the impact that Martin has had, nor the changes that came about due to his leadership.

Some walls, some barriers were broken down, not all, but some. People have tried to rebuild some. There are even new walls (or fences) under construction. I am not religious in the church sense. What I believe is that the human story is one of flux and change.

In our Western way of thinking, things are static and we try to “finish” a story. But in reality it never really ends. The civil rights struggle didn’t end with MLK. It won’t end with Obama. Life doesn’t end or stand still. We keep writing new stories. When we need a new “ending”, because enough change has occurred or because we happen to notice that change has occurred, we add to or revise the story. I hope we can develop new ways of thinking, new ways of narrating. Something more dynamic. Could this be the “change” that unites all of us who are taken by Obama’s message? He is criticized for being vague. But it is not up to him to define change. It is up to us all. The lack of definition empowers us.

The documentary Zeitgeist challenges the myth of Christianity and the War on Terror. The movie, although a bit too conspiracy theory for my taste, does challenge one to think. Which brings me back to the chicken-or-the-egg conundrum. Which came first? Does it really matter? Or is it the process that really matters? In trying to solve the conundrum, we are forced to confront unanswered questions. It is the discussion or dialogue that really brings about change.

We are on a journey together towards social justice, peace…the promised land. And no I don’t mean some mythical heaven. I mean a real world, full of humans beings who are struggling to learn to live together with their differences. Same Same But Different.

What do you think? Does the mythical changemaker come first or does the momentum for change create a mythical changemaker?

I love a good mystery and humans are truly a mystery. Now that people are starting to realize that Obama actually has a real chance, the hate starts oozing. Despite the Clintons’ racially-charged smear campaign, Obama won South Carolina. Many of us saw their true colors in that offensive. I was already having my doubts about Hillary. She sealed her fate in SC.

But another smear campaign is underway. I was stunned a couple of weeks ago when a Jewish friend of mine told me that her father told her Obama was secretly a muslim. “Huh???!!!!” I had not heard anything to that effect. Not that I think being Muslim is a bad thing, but the whole secrecy thing seemed dubious to me. Then I found an article in the NY Times about a spam email spreading the “Obama is a muslim” rumor. But the email has been confirmed as fake and 9 Jewish leaders condemned the hateful rumors being spread about Obama.

My friend forwarded the info on to her dad, but he remains unconvinced and referred to “being at war with the Nation of Islam”. I was perplexed again. I thought Israel or the War on Terror was the issue. Where did the Nation of Islam come into play? Well after a little digging I found the answer: Jeremiah Wright. Apparently Obama’s pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago is too close to Farrakhan for the comfort some. I can certainly understand her father’s concern. I however am satisfied with Obama’s statement condemning anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic statements made by Farrakhan.

In a world full of hate and prejudice how many degrees of separation can we maintain between ourselves and preachers of hate? According to the wikipedia on Wright, critics claim his preaching of Black liberation theology is racist, but

Wright has rejected this notion by saying that “The African-centered point of view does not assume superiority, nor does it assume separatism. It assumes Africans speaking for themselves as subjects in history, not objects in history.”

And the Trinity Church website also claims:

African-centered thought, unlike Eurocentrism, does not assume superiority and look at everyone else as being inferior.

Having never heard him preach, I cannot pass judgment, but as a woman and a social scientist I certainly stand behind the argument: be a subject, not an object. The biggest obstacle to ending discrimination and racism is the tendency of human beings to reduce groups to a limited identity: just black, just Jewish, just Latino, just American. This reductionism, dehumanizes the Other, reduces us to objects. It keeps us from seeing the total picture, the complex subjects that each and every one of us is. It is not something that is limited to whites either. All groups have prejudices and stereotype others. I know Latinos, Jews and Muslims who are racist against Blacks also. And yes, Blacks can be racist too. Farrakhan being a prime example. At the top of the power ladder in this neck of the woods, however, is the Euro/American white, many who claim to be “enlightened” and have been trying to “enlighten” the rest of the world (usually by force) since the merchant/trade race began in Europe.

This weekend I read an article about Vick’s dogs. The latest black man we all love to hate is serving 23 months. I almost threw up reading about the dogs. My husband said he deserves more jail time. I had to wonder. How much jail time did Europeans and Americans get for the same (or worse) treatment of Africans? How much time will Bush or his cronies serve for Iraq and Guantanamo? I’m with Obama. Dialogue! We need real, open and honest dialogue.

The Guardian published a passage from a Wright sermon:

“The good news that’s coming is for all people! Not white people - all people. Not black people - all people. Not rich people - all people. Not poor people - all people. I know you’ll hate this … not straight people - all people! Not gay people - all people. Not American people - all people … Jesus came for Iraqis and Afghanis. Jesus was sent for Iranians and Ukranians. All people! Jesus is God’s gift to the brothers in jail and the sisters in jeopardy. The Lord left his royal courts on high to come for all those that you love, yes, but he also came for those folk you can’t stand.”

All people. Hmmm…where is the racism? I see some honesty. Perhaps the people mentioned don’t all like or accept one another, but he recognizes that they all have rights. Ok well the right to Jesus’s love. Maybe not my first choice in rights, but for a pastor that is important.

People need educate themselves a little better, before passing judgment on things they do not understand. We must understand the social and cultural context of things. Even in “liberal, left” Europe people are questioning Obama now as a reverse racist. Well seems that they are liberal and left as long as their own superior position is not threatened. For instance, in The Netherlands affirmative action is demonized in the public sphere and there is loud demand for immigrants to adopt all Dutch norms and values. No thanks, my parents taught me my norms and values, and I like them just fine. A comment on a Dutch blog refers to Obama as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Oh god forbid we might upset the status quo in which Western Europe/America does not control the world.

Seems to me that it is a particular liberal left that claims to care about “us minorities” who are the “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. I can respect conservatives on the right who are at least being honest about their views, even if their views make me nervous. It is the insidious racism that’s so hard to fight.

Black churches are not like white churches. Black pride is not equivalent to white hate. Perhaps whites who are quick to jump on the reverse racism bandwagon now are just projecting their own behavior on others?

If Eurocentric history won’t be re-written to include the rest of us, why can’t we write our own? Just look at the ‘war’ Latinos had to fight to be recognized in the PBS documentary on WWII.

Obama is different. His campaign is different. If the biggest problem people can find with him is that he knows someone who knows someone that is questionable in his beliefs, then guess what? He’s just like all the rest of us. We all know someone, who knows someone that has views we don’t agree with. Obama is hard to define and perhaps that is also what makes the most conservative from all walks of life so nervous. It also makes it easier to come up with vague reasons to smear him.

The lines are blurred and the spinners are pouncing, but revolution is brewing…brewing…brewing…a whisper in the wind, the flutter of a butterfly’s wings.

Via the Latin Americanist.

This is the video for “Rainin’ in Paradize” from the new album “La Radiolina”. Manu Chao believes in the power of the neighborhood (local communities) and I whole-heartedly agree.

Look around your neighborhood. What are people doing? Can you join them or inspire them?

I found this video on BabyWhisperingLoudly and simply have to pass it on in the hope of combating the problem of skewed media representation (which I just wrote about). Also I think it sheds new light on the context of this bloody and dreadful matter, telling another side of the story in the Israel-Palestine saga.

Racialicious just posted a video from Aljazeera on female soccer players in Egypt. I immediately thought about the Ameri-centric discussion that was also recently featured on Racialicious.

I’d like to extend the discussion to the Euro-centric views in a lot of Western media. We are bombarded with images of other countries as backward. I remember when Schwarzenegger was first elected, one U.S. news agency found some fat, toothless Austrian to interview. Here in Europe they always manage to find the fattest, dumbest American to show. But mostly it is the developing world, the East, the South, the Rest (non-Euro), which the Western European and U.S. dominated media stereotype as backward.

Continue reading Euro-centrism and matters of context…

One thing that makes it so easy to let this war happen and get out of control is the dehumanization of the Iraqi people through media representation. Here is one attempt to re-humanize them:

From the BBC Round-up of Iraqi bloggers

A selection of postings from Iraqi bloggers inside and outside the country gives a viewpoint far away from that offered by the mainstream media.

Learn more and take action: just foreign policy

Via no snow here I found a fascinating article that helps me illustrate the importance of context to race, ethnicity and discrimination. It is also a good opportunity to introduce the black-white continuum* and the importance of recognizing (shades of) diversity on a greater scale.

In Arabs and the Racial Lessons of 9/11 Carol Chehade discusses the relationship between Arab Americans and African Americans in the U.S.

Profiled, feared, detained, assaulted, accused, interrogated, harassed, hated, and collectivized since 9-11, Arab Americans have suddenly known what it feels like to be temporarily Black.

This is no secret to Black people who already know that Arab Americans have the same type of superiority complex that European Americans do. This superiority complex is not only evident in the way we act toward Black people but in the way we choose to disassociate ourselves from their community.

Continue reading My black is not your black…

Some people say a joke is just a joke and one shouldn’t be so serious. Hopefully that’s because they just don’t know any better and they take the time to inform themselves with this great video.

Via Racialicious: Documentary exploring race and humor.

The predictable retort to all this is that those who take offense at jokes are over-sensitive, as if jokes couldn’t be insulting.

To say it’s “just a joke” is the quickest way of dismissing the debate, while expending no mental energy. Don’t fall into the trap of labeling those who take offense as “over-sensitive.”

It’s important to ridicule human folly, but not at the price of our humanity.

The same can be said about calling someone “stupid” for having an opinion different from yours.

Earlier this week a Dutch friend told me his father needed an “American voice” to promote a product he’s trying to introduce into The Netherlands and asked if I could help out. “Sure, why not. Have him call me.” The product is an oven mitt with a magnet in it (ha ha, one more gimmick product). Friday, I spoke with the father and he explained that he wanted to make a video (huh? I thought they wanted a voice?). I would be standing in a kitchen wearing the glove. He was going to leave it up to the director (his nephew) to come up with the script and action.

Ok wait! Step back. I will be standing in a kitchen????? Huh? I feel a little queasy and tell him I have to think about it, check my schedule and will call him back. Ok, so how do I feel about making a video for some gimmick product that portrays such a blatant stereotype (only women cook)? That’s easy, disgusted.

Continue reading How to express racism, anti-Americanism and sexism all in one breath…