By Roshaun L. Harris
What does it mean to be naturally beautiful? A Detroit business woman, who goes by the name Afia, tells the story of how Black beauty was the key to her independence both literally and figuratively. Afia was born in Senegal. She came to the United States with her family as she embarked on a journey to find viability in the once booming US economy. “The key to any form of success is belief and confidence in who you are,” says Afia. “If you can not look in the mirror and see beauty, it will be hard to find happiness or success, however you qualify it.” That is key to understanding why images are so important in a society. Looking at the history of the United States dating back to slavery, the evidence points to a concerted effort by the power structures in existence to attribute Black slaves and freemen with sub-human, cartoonish images. This was done purposefully. The objective was to justify the brutality of the US slave trade, which is distinct from other forms of slavery in the past. It was different because the slave was actual property, as opposed to the serf-style slavery that existed in previous epochs. There were books, movies, advertisements, and general information flyers that contained these image. They were pervaded throughout the society. This gives a deeply imbedded aspect to the level of oppression bestowed upon Black Americans. Charles Ryan, a Detroit business man who owns a barbershop on Detroit’s West side stated, “We as a people have always been self conscious about our image. We have always done things to diminish ourselves so we can make the people around us feel comfortable.” Ryan is speaking to the fact that for decades, maybe even centuries, while under the rule of European slavery and colonialism, Blacks have always tried to “whiten” themselves both literally and figuratively. The dominant European culture has dictated either passively or assertively that Blacks must assimilate to their culture or be subjugated to the lowest rungs of the social and economic ladder. Sometimes this meant death in the most severe cases. And as is the case with the slaves, they were even stratified within social construct that dictated White values over anything foreign. You had house slaves who were often of lighter complexion because of the intermingling with the owner’s family and even sometimes rape of the women working in the fields. Babies born with lighter skin were often taken into the house and cared for much like an indentured servant in some cases. This caused division amongst the slave population itself. This carried over into the post-slavery reconstruction era and still persist in many forms according to Ryan. “It’s divide and conquer all over again. What we see today are people who don’t like themselves trying to be something they’re not.” Historically, their have been numerous skin lightening products alongside hair straightening products that anglicized the appearance of the patron. This is coupled with the images that are seen in all forms of media contribute to the social dysfunction seen among much of the Black communities across urban America. How can a people rule themselves if they have no positive self image or self-esteem? This is the conundrum that has been exploited by power structures in existence today. Capitalism has profited mightily from selling the ill-fated image of Blacks in this country and abroad. The “Nigger” is social construct according Rev. Sandra Simmons also a professor at Wayne State. Simmons believes the image of the Black man as a social monster contributes to the downward spiral seen in many communities across the US. “It is a way to keep us from gaining power,” says Ryan. Ryan believes many of the social trends in media tend to portray Blacks in a negative stereotypical fashion. “If the outside world cannot see any good in us and we don’t see any good in ourselves we will remain powerless. Eastern Michigan University hosted Dr. Jack Shaheen who has been consulted by Hollywood and the US government on the issue of racial stereotypes in the media. During the symposium Dr. Shaheen aroused some serious discussion around the images of Arabs being portrayed in the media. It was startling to witness the similarities between the images of Arabs and other ethnic minority groups in the US including black. Most certainly, the images struck an accord because the things being propagated against the Black community were reflected almost identically by the images seen in a video produced by Dr. Shaheen focusing on Arab stereotypes. Line by line one could see the congruency by which these themes were aligned. The women are over sexualized. The men are savages. They are buffoonish. The blonde woman is always the man’s object of affection. Arab women are bundles in black much like black women with the apron singing in the kitchen. No dynamics other than those attributes are given to any of these specific characters. This limits their humanity and thus makes it more acceptable to confine them to an oppressed space socially, physically, spiritually, and economically. Dr. Shaheen went on to quote Jack Valenti when he said, “Hollywood and US policy stem from the same image.” Powerful words in retrospect. This alludes to the media structures and their inherent ties to the powerful. The power structures that seek to exploit rather than uplift have used these two appendages hand-in-hand. In this case, one hand washes the other. The hand that is the media, washes the blood off the hands of the other that is the US foreign, in some cases domestic policy. Unbeknownst to the masses, they are being escorted to the place of imperial rule. The US has been able to operate this way because it reinforces the sub-human nature of its minions at home and abroad. “If we cannot see Arab humanity what’s left - kill ‘em all,” said Dr. Shaheen. Our foreign policy in regards to the Arab world has left the region in a state of turmoil. The US funds dictators and suppresses nationalist movements in the region much like the Europeans did in Africa and South America. All in the name of freedom, democracy, and capitalism. Moreover, if a people can’t see themselves as being capable of self-rule dictators and outside influences will always have sovereignty over peoples’ rights. This is the plight of the Third World. You can include many Black Americans in that third world depiction. Unless the Third World is able to be self-aware and self-determined, it will never be free of the exploitation that has wrought it for centuries.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
When Will We Learn?
By Roshaun L. Harris
When will the US diplomatic community understand that funding dictators has a tendency to bite you in the butt if your puppet looses control. The latest developments in Egypt expose a greater crisis emerging for the United States - its people and its policy makers. In a world where our diplomatic policy is garnished with fear of an Arab world uprising, the relationships the US has held with the Arab world has been of an oppressive nature. Egypt follows a paradigm where dictators are patronized - with US tax-payer money - while they funnel money to there constituents and the various multi-national vultures known as corporations. What happens on the ground is what we see in Egypt, what we're beginning to see in Yemen and in some forms, what we see in Tunisia. People see the strings connecting these puppet regimes and they want them severed. Contrary to popular American theology, the Arab and African World is not plotting to overthrow western society as we know it, they simply want respect and the right to self-determination. For those of you who don't know, self determination is the foundation of every democratic principle espoused by republican democracy. It allows for people to determine how they want to be ruled and if necessary by whom. If the US wants to do itself a big favor and not be seen as antagonizors to what, so far, have been peaceful demonstrations- the only reported violence coming from state military and police forces, just ask CNN's Anderson Cooper - Stop funding Mubarak. I wonder if Anderson was wearing an American flag lapel while being struck in the head with gear bought and paid for with his tax dollars. Hope he gets out of there OK. It is no joke for journalist trying to report the truth, a lie, or anything in between. Right now, the Egyptians and Tunisians are showing us that Africa and the Arab world are just like us - they just want their freedom.
When will the US diplomatic community understand that funding dictators has a tendency to bite you in the butt if your puppet looses control. The latest developments in Egypt expose a greater crisis emerging for the United States - its people and its policy makers. In a world where our diplomatic policy is garnished with fear of an Arab world uprising, the relationships the US has held with the Arab world has been of an oppressive nature. Egypt follows a paradigm where dictators are patronized - with US tax-payer money - while they funnel money to there constituents and the various multi-national vultures known as corporations. What happens on the ground is what we see in Egypt, what we're beginning to see in Yemen and in some forms, what we see in Tunisia. People see the strings connecting these puppet regimes and they want them severed. Contrary to popular American theology, the Arab and African World is not plotting to overthrow western society as we know it, they simply want respect and the right to self-determination. For those of you who don't know, self determination is the foundation of every democratic principle espoused by republican democracy. It allows for people to determine how they want to be ruled and if necessary by whom. If the US wants to do itself a big favor and not be seen as antagonizors to what, so far, have been peaceful demonstrations- the only reported violence coming from state military and police forces, just ask CNN's Anderson Cooper - Stop funding Mubarak. I wonder if Anderson was wearing an American flag lapel while being struck in the head with gear bought and paid for with his tax dollars. Hope he gets out of there OK. It is no joke for journalist trying to report the truth, a lie, or anything in between. Right now, the Egyptians and Tunisians are showing us that Africa and the Arab world are just like us - they just want their freedom.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Real History for All People
By Roshaun L. Harris
Here is a series of videos that totally intrigued me. Always a student of history, whenever coming across new information I look further, beneath what is being said and look toward the "objective" motion of society, to make sense of it all. I encourage you all to do the same. Keep digging until you find the truth. When you find the truth examine it, question it, and accept it for whatever it is regardless to your emotional impulse. It takes discipline, but discipline should always be strive for. Discipline allows us to fulfill our human potential. Overall, good information and good narration were strong-points. I liked the soundtracks in the background. It didn't take away from the info being presented, just added a little flavor and there's nothing wrong with that!
Here is a series of videos that totally intrigued me. Always a student of history, whenever coming across new information I look further, beneath what is being said and look toward the "objective" motion of society, to make sense of it all. I encourage you all to do the same. Keep digging until you find the truth. When you find the truth examine it, question it, and accept it for whatever it is regardless to your emotional impulse. It takes discipline, but discipline should always be strive for. Discipline allows us to fulfill our human potential. Overall, good information and good narration were strong-points. I liked the soundtracks in the background. It didn't take away from the info being presented, just added a little flavor and there's nothing wrong with that!
Bombs Over Books?
By Roshaun L. Harris
“Beware of the Military-Industrial-Complex” was a phrase coined by former president Dwight D. Eisenhower. He alluded to a pervasive force within the U.S. governing structure that was hell-bent on making profits from war and militaristic endeavors at home and abroad. He issued this warning on his way out of office, which is always a conspicuous time for president making any formal statement or declaration. What makes this particular instance so distinct is the fact that an active president was telling his citizens to beware of a covert power structure that may lead to the infringement upon democratic rule in this country and throughout the world.
Fast forward to the modern circumstance in this society. Currently the U.S. is engaged in military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to reports in The Hill, a Washington based publication who regularly reports on government, the fiscal year 2010 budget for defense spending was $680 billion. Compare that to the $46 billion spent on education in the same fiscal year according the U.S. department of education. There exist a clear disparity between the two allocated amounts of funds. What does this say about the priorities of our society?
The crisis over seas has spilled into a domestic crisis for resources and education. The growing amount of money spent on fighting wars has taken a toll on the home front. “If they spent the kind of money on education that they spend on wars we would have Harvard all over the country,” said Phil Kendrick and Eastern Michigan University undergraduate student. “I feel like we would rather send kids to war or prison than college.”
What does a young person feel when they are told their school has been shut down because there is not enough money in the budget for it to remain open? Keaton Crowder is high school student in the Detroit public school system. He attends Fredrick Douglas Preparatory Academy located on the west side of Detroit. He is a member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. “They [Frederick Douglas Prep] don’t give us what we need all the time. It‘s a good school though,” says Keaton. His statement has a profound truth latent in its simple yet eloquent delivery. “They don’t give us what we need” is a statement heard in many schoolrooms across the country in urban and poor rural communities. It cuts across color lines. Many of the students affected by this lack of founding in education are white or do not live in urban areas.
The crisis has pervaded the entire education system risking future intellectual growth for generations to come. Education is seen as the key to a quality life and secure future. In relationship to the invading militarism in American society, the instability caused by an under-educated population makes it increasingly difficult solve domestic issues. It also makes the international relationships, we’re currently engaging, more difficult for society to truly grasp and come to critically thought out solutions. The two are forever intertwined in a democratic society.
Democracy depends on an informed citizenry capable of seeing itself within a context of local power relationships, federal power relationships, and international power relationships. If society does not understand these relationships it can not rule itself as espoused by the tenants of republican democracy. Many people could not tell you the difference between Kandahar and Kuwait. These two locales are deeply imbedded in the military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. If one can not deduce the significance of these two places, how can one make sound decisions based on reason and logic, on what to do with our resources. There in lies the question, what do we do with our resources? Bombs or books?
There are many who justify the spending disparities. “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this the last best hope for man on earth or we’ll sentence theme to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness,” were the words of the late Ronald Reagan former President of the United States. His words reflect a genuine concern to some segments of our society that there is an impending perilous doom facing our country if we do not fend off the shadowy figures in the global power struggle. Many would argue that peace is the ultimate objective for forceful demonstration of power. The fear of a child not having a seat to sit in during school because of a bomb blast outweighs the fear of a child not having books to read because we had to buy guns and tanks so the child would have a seat to sit in. Does fear outweigh democratic will?
In a democracy, the will of the people must have a final say in what we value as a society. Is it such a radical idea that people may want there children educated and safe from physical danger? Can these things be accomplished simultaneously? That will be one of the major challenges moving forward. One thing is for certain, if the society is ill equipped to understand the world around itself, it will be ill equipped to deal with whatever threats it incurs to its own physical safety. Speaking of personal safety for our youth, what about the over 600 people in Chicago who succumbed to a violent terror-ridden death. What is the national defense policy for them. What would buying more tanks, guns, and ammo do to combat the crisis in homicide rates across the country, which is another form of terrorism.
Does spending more on defense actually make us more safe? In reality, no it does not. Well, why do we continue down the path we’re currently pursuing? One answer may be the influence of a military-industrial-complex which is resolute on continuing the current trajectory of domestic and world affairs for its own eventual profit. The sad part about the situation is the fact that those who can not fend for themselves, the children, the ones have no say because they cannot vote, bear the burden of this conundrum. They will face this world not knowing the depth of the global and domestic crisis they’re in because we spent all the money keeping them safe (from the terrorist).
If Eisenhower were alive today he would point to the lack of focus on education alongside increased militarism and denounce the current state of affairs as a charade and cabal for those who want to maintain power and dominance over all segments of society.
What is the solution? If society wants to have control of how it is ruled in a democracy, it must take a grassroots approach to the opposition of any entity who commits to stifling that energy. Across the country there are grassroots campaigns designed to educate those who are not receiving sound basics from the public school system. In 2005 the Democratizing Education Network held a conference in Madison, Wisconsin where a charter for providing education to all was adopted. One of the ten commandments, so to speak, was to have “Education, not war. Schools, not jails.” They expressed concern for the existing crisis while also outlining plausible solutions for future involvement by the grassroots community. They understand that war and peace don’t occupy the same venue and if we continue in a perpetual state of war, not only will education be at risk but the social welfare of all society is at risk. War, is it really worth the cost when you add it all up?
“Beware of the Military-Industrial-Complex” was a phrase coined by former president Dwight D. Eisenhower. He alluded to a pervasive force within the U.S. governing structure that was hell-bent on making profits from war and militaristic endeavors at home and abroad. He issued this warning on his way out of office, which is always a conspicuous time for president making any formal statement or declaration. What makes this particular instance so distinct is the fact that an active president was telling his citizens to beware of a covert power structure that may lead to the infringement upon democratic rule in this country and throughout the world.
Fast forward to the modern circumstance in this society. Currently the U.S. is engaged in military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to reports in The Hill, a Washington based publication who regularly reports on government, the fiscal year 2010 budget for defense spending was $680 billion. Compare that to the $46 billion spent on education in the same fiscal year according the U.S. department of education. There exist a clear disparity between the two allocated amounts of funds. What does this say about the priorities of our society?
The crisis over seas has spilled into a domestic crisis for resources and education. The growing amount of money spent on fighting wars has taken a toll on the home front. “If they spent the kind of money on education that they spend on wars we would have Harvard all over the country,” said Phil Kendrick and Eastern Michigan University undergraduate student. “I feel like we would rather send kids to war or prison than college.”
What does a young person feel when they are told their school has been shut down because there is not enough money in the budget for it to remain open? Keaton Crowder is high school student in the Detroit public school system. He attends Fredrick Douglas Preparatory Academy located on the west side of Detroit. He is a member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. “They [Frederick Douglas Prep] don’t give us what we need all the time. It‘s a good school though,” says Keaton. His statement has a profound truth latent in its simple yet eloquent delivery. “They don’t give us what we need” is a statement heard in many schoolrooms across the country in urban and poor rural communities. It cuts across color lines. Many of the students affected by this lack of founding in education are white or do not live in urban areas.
The crisis has pervaded the entire education system risking future intellectual growth for generations to come. Education is seen as the key to a quality life and secure future. In relationship to the invading militarism in American society, the instability caused by an under-educated population makes it increasingly difficult solve domestic issues. It also makes the international relationships, we’re currently engaging, more difficult for society to truly grasp and come to critically thought out solutions. The two are forever intertwined in a democratic society.
Democracy depends on an informed citizenry capable of seeing itself within a context of local power relationships, federal power relationships, and international power relationships. If society does not understand these relationships it can not rule itself as espoused by the tenants of republican democracy. Many people could not tell you the difference between Kandahar and Kuwait. These two locales are deeply imbedded in the military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. If one can not deduce the significance of these two places, how can one make sound decisions based on reason and logic, on what to do with our resources. There in lies the question, what do we do with our resources? Bombs or books?
There are many who justify the spending disparities. “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this the last best hope for man on earth or we’ll sentence theme to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness,” were the words of the late Ronald Reagan former President of the United States. His words reflect a genuine concern to some segments of our society that there is an impending perilous doom facing our country if we do not fend off the shadowy figures in the global power struggle. Many would argue that peace is the ultimate objective for forceful demonstration of power. The fear of a child not having a seat to sit in during school because of a bomb blast outweighs the fear of a child not having books to read because we had to buy guns and tanks so the child would have a seat to sit in. Does fear outweigh democratic will?
In a democracy, the will of the people must have a final say in what we value as a society. Is it such a radical idea that people may want there children educated and safe from physical danger? Can these things be accomplished simultaneously? That will be one of the major challenges moving forward. One thing is for certain, if the society is ill equipped to understand the world around itself, it will be ill equipped to deal with whatever threats it incurs to its own physical safety. Speaking of personal safety for our youth, what about the over 600 people in Chicago who succumbed to a violent terror-ridden death. What is the national defense policy for them. What would buying more tanks, guns, and ammo do to combat the crisis in homicide rates across the country, which is another form of terrorism.
Does spending more on defense actually make us more safe? In reality, no it does not. Well, why do we continue down the path we’re currently pursuing? One answer may be the influence of a military-industrial-complex which is resolute on continuing the current trajectory of domestic and world affairs for its own eventual profit. The sad part about the situation is the fact that those who can not fend for themselves, the children, the ones have no say because they cannot vote, bear the burden of this conundrum. They will face this world not knowing the depth of the global and domestic crisis they’re in because we spent all the money keeping them safe (from the terrorist).
If Eisenhower were alive today he would point to the lack of focus on education alongside increased militarism and denounce the current state of affairs as a charade and cabal for those who want to maintain power and dominance over all segments of society.
What is the solution? If society wants to have control of how it is ruled in a democracy, it must take a grassroots approach to the opposition of any entity who commits to stifling that energy. Across the country there are grassroots campaigns designed to educate those who are not receiving sound basics from the public school system. In 2005 the Democratizing Education Network held a conference in Madison, Wisconsin where a charter for providing education to all was adopted. One of the ten commandments, so to speak, was to have “Education, not war. Schools, not jails.” They expressed concern for the existing crisis while also outlining plausible solutions for future involvement by the grassroots community. They understand that war and peace don’t occupy the same venue and if we continue in a perpetual state of war, not only will education be at risk but the social welfare of all society is at risk. War, is it really worth the cost when you add it all up?
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