Blog For Free!
Archives
Home
2008 April
2008 March
2008 January
2007 October
2007 September
2007 May
2007 April
2007 March
2007 February
2007 January
2006 December
2006 November
2006 October
2006 September
2006 August
2006 July
My Links
Whisper's Index
Aditya
Iphone
Shini Megami
youtube
Filbree
Obama
Inkspector
Joost
Surrogate
Tammy Nyp
Prom Fest
Aux Barricades
Radio Head
Saddam
Supreme Anna
Keeley Hazell
Devon
Studivz
Lindy
24
Ice Creams
Shilpa Shetty
Irles
Britney Spears
NJ Tare
Victoria's Secret
Andrea Kelso
American Idol
Irish Red
Academy Awards
Lezah
Back Street Boys
Vicz
Carmen Electra
Conscious Phobic
Dale Earnhardt
Juniper Flux
E Cards
SJ McLean
Family
Joolie Woolie
Games
Seochris
Halloween
Mizer
Jennifer Lopez
Do Eyed
Kid Rock
Lori Schuster
TTLB
Truth Serum
Lara Kroft
DG
Madonna
Finaly Free
XBox
God Smack
Sony
LadyG
Samsung
Pastor Dave
Ecosystem
Intel
Mage
Introspection
Laydee Pulse
Ruined
Cutter
Sudesh Poojari
Sebastian Joshua
Break Out The Glass
Apple Tree
Namm
Mimi
Irles
Girl Power
Sky Falling
My Love 2 U
Rosie Tulips
Say Cheese
Girly Tops
Tech2
Apple
Stone Soup
Lost In 07
Kalki
Katie Pink
Sandyge
tBlog
My Profile
Send tMail
My tFriends
My Images
Sponsored
Blog
Giorgio Armani
Yves Saint Laurent
Givenchy
Versace
Dolce & Gabbana
JCPenney
De Beers
Lane Crawford
Estee Lauder
Dior
Prada
Nike
Converse
Gucci
Burberry
The Body Shop
Adidas
Coach
Coach
MOST POPULAR
Girly Tops
Web 2.0
North Korea
Web20
Battlestar Galactica
Bush
Video
Anna Politkovskaya
Foley
Taschengeld
Microsoft
Nuclear
Nuclear Test
Google Youtube
Youtube
Iraq
Edelman
Larry Craig
PayPerPost
Second Life
Madonna
Network Solutions
My Space
Ferca
Network Solutions
TOP SITES
Yahoo
G Mail
Hotmail
Orkut
Bebo
MSN
Lego
RESTAURANTS
McDonald's
KFC
Subway
Starbucks
Pizza Hut
NEWS
CNN
BBC World
Sky News
Fox News
HOTELS & RESORTS
Sheraton
Ritz Carlton
Four Seasons
Bellagio
Bel-Air
Blogroll Me!
Blog Directory
Google Alternative
My Ecosystem
| A tMail From A Friend |
| 10.21.06 (1:52 pm) [edit] |
|
In my work, I come across both extremes of U.S. privilege/class - most of my nursing students have come from protected environments or otherwise provincial (like the rest of the country only more exaggerated here in the Blue Ridge Mtns.) -Akelso Copy Rights |
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.21.06 (2:07 pm)
I am adding my comment here, not as a comment but as a request to all fellow bloggers to view and analyze what we all think about this issue? whats our perception and what our view point really is in general? Moreover, every other person i meet is against racism verbally but only few buy the idea practically. Is this what we are ? Hypocrites ? Coz i am sure there would have been no race, class and gender discrimination if we really believed in what we pose and say.
Sincere comments from all are requested.
posted by: akelso (reply)
post date: 10.21.06 (4:44 pm)
Dearest Whisper, please don't be surprised if many, many out there avoid this post. My experience is that the problem of race in America causes throats to constrict, mouths to dry up, and panic to rise in the hearts of the stout-hearted.
I commend your courage and faithfulness to what has so far been the Impossible Dream - Democracy in our Beautiful America.
In the event I'm made to be wrong and extremely so, congratulations - the next step will be to post again on this matter of social justice!
- Andrea
posted by: Christine@swanktrendz (reply)
post date: 10.21.06 (6:20 pm)
Being in Canada, I see a different side. Surely racism exists (unfortunately many of it aimed at aboriginals). As for the immigrants - wow! What hard workers, what goals, and with many of them - what money!! Coming from Vancouver, I find many of the immigrants are better educated, and more wealthy than the average Canadian. The money being spent in Vancouver on homes, charities, universities etc. is mind boggling. I am a professional, but at times I feel inadequate because all the money I make will never allow me the luxuries these people have. I am unable to address the Black Americans (such a fear of being politically incorrect so forgive the 'label' if it's wrong) as I do not come across many. However, I do know that back east (Toronto) some Jamaican immigrants are having a tough time of it. But as I said, here the racism is directed at the aborginals and thank goodness they have means to support themselves through tax cuts etc. so as not to fall into the abject poverty group. Then again, they don't seem to be going out of their way to utilize the government incentives ie: free university etc. Ah well, until I walk in their shoes... what do I know?
posted by: christine@swanktrendz (reply)
post date: 10.21.06 (6:21 pm)
How do I subscribe to this blog (and add you as a t-friend?)
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.22.06 (3:43 am)
Reply to: Lezah
you can see 4 colors below the "eyes" click the blue one , it will take you to my friends list. At the top you can see "be my frind" click it to be my friend and to subscribe to my blog you just need to clicj "subscribe to blog" below the 4 colors. Hope it helps.
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.22.06 (8:19 am)
Reply to: akelso
you were very right to say that many will avoid the post , its been almost 24 hrs that i posted your mail on my blog and so far i've been able to gather just 2 sgnificant comments (yours included). Why it is so ? why we like to keep our eyes wide shut on the most important issues of our societies? clothing the diseased naked will not serve the purpose.... first we got to cure the disease within.
posted by: laydeepulse (reply)
post date: 10.22.06 (9:07 am)
being only 16, in my everyday life, at school, at church, ect. i have never seen a racial discrimination. honestly. i have heard about them, i have seen them on tv. but growing up, i thought that it was all in the past, simply because i never see it. i don't knwo if i am just in an abnormally utopian environment (trust me, its no utopia), im blind, (i really dont think that is the case either), or it just is not common in the area I live.
It isn't very common to see african americans at my school, i think there are 5/2000 students!, but they are treated no different, if not better at my school! but i agree, why should we even have "race" if we are supposed to be equal. how come you can get scholarships souly based upon your race?
I do understand the point of veiw of the opression, but I also see a double standard.
I beleive that if a group of "minorities" ganged up to beat up a caucasion kid because he was white, it would make less headline than if i group of white children beat up a black kid because he was black.
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.22.06 (9:18 am)
Reply to: Lezah
the problem is world over leaving aside third world and few developing countries. Initially it was black , white , yellow or whateva.... then came American, Briton, German, Arab , French and the list goes on verses the nons.... my question is , why cant we come out of this ? human flesh is all the same with equal amount of brain and intelligence. Everyone contributes equally to everything good or bad.
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.22.06 (9:46 am)
Reply to: laydeepulse
its good that you are safe and you have not experienced anything like that so far..... i hope the things are getting better with the youth. it is you "the youth" who realy has to abolish such discrimination around you and within you. Its a fact and it still happens. The example you quote at the end is the dilemma .... why not just that the two kids fought ? why black or white ?
posted by: akelso (reply)
post date: 10.22.06 (11:04 am)
Do "caucasians" in America have reason to fear, accepting the experiences described by Toni Morrison in "Beloved" as representing the lives of the grand-, great-grand- and great-great-grandparents of contemporary youth of color? Imagine hearing these stories through the tears of your own family elders ... How many of US ALL will comfortably share power and wealth, with an entire people whose ancestry was so horrendously used as the group's to which we refer as "black"?
I imagine, our redemption will only flow from bending our knees in tearful remorse, for the sins of the so-called settlers of this continent; and to ponder the power of African Americans when they're able to forgive us for taking so long to know the shame of our fathers' fathers' fathers! (THIS to me is the meaning of such notions as "the sins of the fathers" visit subsequent generations. The principle is illustrated repeatedly in family therapy cases, and systems theory.)
Indeed, some will never be able to forgive us - and still we have that work of redemption, in order simply to get on with living amongst civilized neighbors. Not grasping - and apprehending, the terror of white superiority movements since the taking of this continent, is to forever fail to understand the agony of 9-11, which I believe to be more of the same ol', same ol' ...
In the APA Monitor (American Psychological Associaiton,) Vol 30, #1 -January 1999, "Three Decades After King a report card," Scott Sleek explores Racism and Monoculturalism: "'The research suggests that contemporary racism is fundamentally different from the old racism, where people said what they meant and meant what they said,' says John Dovidio, PhD, a well-known race-relations researcher at Colgate University. 'People today are more likely to publicly express feelings of open-mindedness, but may have negative feelings and beliefs that they aren't necessarily aware of.'"
That many of us are not 'necessarioy aware' of discriminatory biases, tends to make us more oppressive (more dangerous to people of color) than ever! S'pose non-white folk might react to that??
posted by: laydeepulse (reply)
post date: 10.22.06 (11:18 pm)
Reply to: 69whisper
i was pointing out that people talk about "colored" people being oppressed. when what i see, is everyone is opressed.
posted by: sudeshpoojari (reply)
post date: 10.23.06 (3:28 am)
I read the blog, i also the replies out here,
Strickingly i found everybody just discussing the discrimination , but not the cause and not the solution,
I don't know of american culture much but heard of this black & white thing,
but in india the face of discrimination is different it is based on religion and cast, but let me be general
The main reason for discrimination, people are divided in groups, the feeling of lossing a thing("thing" - can be anything from power to priority). a feeling of unjust, let me say two groups X and Y, Y is discriminated by X, X discrimiates Y fearing if not done the X will loose their status, Y discriminates the X by the feeling of unjust i.e Y is always dominatiing them,
You can find this cycle everywhere in your office, in your colony everywhere, but here may be we are talking it at national level, but exists because somewhere at a smaller lever the seeds are already sown in young mind,
It has to be eradicted from root, it cannot be done by saying people don't discriminate, seriously speaking even we all discriminate in a our own minor level, i m no excuse, but unconciously. It can only be done if we really teach the young minds that life is not abt trying to snatch or protect everything you own, it about sharing things tht the other person does not have and you have and vice-versa
Well in simple word let make life a little simpler.
posted by: consciousphobic (reply)
post date: 10.23.06 (4:29 am)
My comment won't be written so eliquently as the others....
This is 2006, none of us have experienced slavery.
History is the key word here. We are in the here and now. We had nothing to do with slavery. As long as people keep saying they are oppressed this stuff will never go away. It's a chip a lot of folks carry on their shoulders...whites, blacks all colors think they are justified in their history.
If folks would move forward about the opportunitys that are there for all of us instead of backwards bringing up history we might all get somewhere posotive.
Just my 2 cents.
Thanks whisper for the post.
posted by: akelso (reply)
post date: 10.26.06 (8:51 am)
[reply to consciousphobic]
Cornel West said, "It takes something as big as Hurricane Katrina and the misery we saw among the poor black people of New Orleans to get America to focus on race and poverty. It happens about once every 30 or 40 years. (The Observer, Sept 11, 2005.)"
It's quite easy for me to forget the misery of our slavery past! My own legacy and ancestry has basically no such stories staring me in the face from my family home, from my social circles, from my neighborhood gatherings, even from my church.
While I'm not sure of this, I imagine that Black conservatives taking no issue with contemporary racism in America, find it much easier to appreciate whatever wealth they've unquestionably been able to amass.
Naturally, for the several Cornell West(s) I quote, there will be a complimentary argument from a comfortable, Black antagonist to my antiracist positions. The deal is this: when Black Americans make statements of complaint about racism, our denials of racism are irrelevant. Our only just response is to hear and examine where there might be even an iota of truth. Our history such as it is - and it is as ugly as any history can be - demands it.
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.26.06 (1:37 pm)
Reply to: consciousphobic
well CP you can see the original writers'(akelso's) remarks (directly replying you). Moreover the issue of slavery still lives in the world may it be direct or indirect. There are countries where kids/men/women are sold and there are countries where smuggled kids/men/women are bought by the rich. Often kids are bought from the poor living in remote areas of third world countries and then are either snuggled or brought in legally to the countries where they are in demand (same is the case with grown up men and women, specially young girls). The kids never know where they came from and the grown ups forget it with the passage of time because no one (even their parents) will own them if they happen to fall back. I'm reluctant to name the seller and buyer countries as it will definitely hurt many.
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.26.06 (1:54 pm)
Reply to: sudeshpoojari
thanx for your comment , mainly we were disussing the racial issue and by that we mean the major Human races that is to say mainly African, Caucasian and Oriental and the color being the major discriminatory factor that is to say black , white , yellow or any other may it be typical Caucasoid, a typical Mongoloid or a typical Negroid. There certainly are many other discriminatory factors as you say. But why we "The Human Race" think that a black in a white area or a white in a black area deserves a different kind of treatment ? whereas we dont have any doubts of either's qualities, capabilities, intelligence etc which certainly are no better than the other.
posted by: christine@swanktrendz (reply)
post date: 10.26.06 (7:17 pm)
There are countries where kids/men/women are sold and there are countries where smuggled kids/men/women are bought by the rich. Often kids are bought from the poor living in remote areas of third world countries and then are either snuggled or brought in legally to the countries where they are in demand... Bingo! 69 whisper - you just explained it. Where there is a demand, there will be freeway of oppression. So long as people want someone or something to be 'subservient, controlled' or whatever, this discrimination will continue. So long as someone assumes they are better and thus are worthy of controlling someone else, it will continue. How sad as we all know that history is always doomed to repeat itself.
posted by: consciousphobic (reply)
post date: 10.27.06 (3:17 am)
Reply to: akelso
Your point is well taken with me. I just don't see how we can change history.
I agree we should learn from history and stop making the same mistakes over and over.
posted by: akelso (reply)
post date: 10.27.06 (10:10 am)
Reply to consciousphobic and christine (also whisper, sudeshpoojari and ladeepulse) -
It is so clear to me that we're on the same page of longing for shared justice for all! If we look at oppression through eyes that are both informed by histories associated with each our own lands (regions) - in the United States, there's the devastating history spanning the four centuries following Columbus in 1492, and that dictates an ultimate obsession with $$/gold/consumable goods.
That obsession (call it GREED) is a function of human defect - really, an insatiable desire to always have more than is needed to live comfortably, safely, even prosperously. Greed drives the powers of nation-leaders to do unthinkable things to other human beings toward the ends of wealth. Slavery, I know it's age-old (and in the United States I believe we reverted to the earliest and most primitive development of that institution in our system of social process,) became a legal form of capture/murder/torture/forced-labor/and all other manner of treating human beings as far less than human (indeed we're less likely to treat animals the way Africans were treated - dehumanizingly.) In this same vein, people with so-called "white" skin and no wealth were/are also treated abominably - and entrained to utilize skin-privilege as a ticket to quality of life improvements.
Every system of social study (anthropology, religion, government, economy, etc.) has led our society to believe that scarcity is sufficient to legitimize EVIL actions to be perpetrated upon OTHER human beings. Scarcity further legitimized the classing as commodity, our own flesh and blood - wives, daughters, young children, etc.
Oddly, Christian doctrine, has many scriptural concepts that urges us to discover ABUNDANCE in this world, and to cease with the mistreatment of all human beings, all creatures and to be good stewards of this extraordinary planet we've been given for our physical home. But too often, the Christian values I see behind destructive and organized (government) institutional activity in the United States, rarely seems driven by the teachings of The Christ. It's infinitely better to give one's own life, than ever to do participate in exploitation of others for the sake of GREED. Our country exploits the poverty of other people, both her and in other countries, every moment of every day.
The history of Slavery is only a point of reference - albeit the MOST PROFOUNDLY HIDEOUS point of reference - of relevance to United States polity and policy. It's my experience that whenever questions of racism arise, we (generally people with "white-skin" privilege,) acknowledge our knee-jerk inclination to say "No, not so, not me, not now ..." It would be the start of a healing journey to just stay in the conversation with whomever is requiring the conversation about race(-ism). It's okay to acknowledge, "i have no such experience to confirm the existence of racism in my life." Staying in the conversation requires that we sincerely seek to understand the distinctions offered by the one who complains of racism.
By the way, those of us who were raised as members of the dominant culture in these United States, have a very different base of "history" as taught in public schools. It would behove us all to READ everything we can find (starting with books like "A People's History of the United States," by Howard Zinn,) that tells the stories from the perspective of non-dominant peoples. We've swallowed - hook, line and sinker - a party-line that is skewed beyond belief, about how uniquely marvelous a people we are. We have NEVER been told that our GREED drove our ancestors (and drives us today) to take everything we consume with an insatiable appetite, on the backs of poverty-stricken others. We're certainly not being told, the ways current U.S. policy serves for example to keep us trapped in a corrupt oil economy, that perpetuates unfathomable conditions in the middle east ...
[In short response to consciousphobic, we cannot change history. We must change our ways today. I've a belief that we could easily be embarking upon a kind of second period of "Reconstruction" in our national politics - many African Americans are returning to positions of influence. If we do it right, a period of reconciliation and change is truly possible. If we get it wrong again, I fear for another period of horror (days of Jim Crow and terror in the form of such as KKK, lynchings, etc.) Fact is, African Americans have been held in so-called minority status, with the legal conditions that result in a prison industry complex housing MANY more people of color than caucasians. But that's the stuff of deeper discourse!] I'd urge any who are seriously willing to learn about perspectives on race and class in this country, to visit Jacob Holdt's site "American Pictures" - a photo journalism online book that explores these matters from a painfully honest position that will leave you changed forever, if you approach it openly, and reflect fully on the content (without yielding to the urge to debate.) Another important resource is PBS's three part video program, "Race: The Power of an Illusion." History is our text for restructuring our relationiships in this world.
Changing our future, making our history a lesson rather than a repeating pattern, is a holy and deeply spiritual work for the people of the United States.
Think I'll take a breath for now! Thanks for "listening."
posted by: akelso (reply)
post date: 10.28.06 (12:10 pm)
Whisper, I hope I've not chased away your company by blowing off so much steam!
- Andrea
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.28.06 (12:25 pm)
Reply to: akelso
not at all Andrea! i was just kinda busy.
I think your last comment was concluding one. The sad part is that most people who visit my blog quite regularly did not comment on this one. i was kinda disappointed by the response. Anyway i learnt many things and heard/read many views and all credit goes to you. Thanx again.
posted by: akelso (reply)
post date: 10.28.06 (1:09 pm)
Reply to: 69whisper
Your sadness is shared by yours truly - I find that this topic is one that's sure to cause folks to run to the nearest exit. Not easy, to examine the possibility of being oneself infected by racist/greed as I'm certain we all are in these United States. The treatment and immunization will be routinely needed in so powerful and successful a capitalist society as our own. It's like eradicating polio: as soon as we stop the immunizations, the disease pops back up, because it's in the soil. Literally in the soil!
It takes [apparently] an inconceivable leap of faith to say "yes" to sharing power, authority, resources, food, money, territory, shelter, LOVE - with folks we might initially regard as OTHER. This sort of behavior toward PEOPLE is uncharacteristic of our Republic, due to our phobic attitudes toward Socialism ... enough for everyone, none are filthy rich or desperately poor, and only a very few have substantially more/less than all the rest.
Thanks again for entertaining this matter. It took a lot of courage and patience - and lovingkindness.
- Andrea
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.28.06 (1:38 pm)
Reply to: akelso
that is what they did, ran to the nearest exit and beleive me i never expected it from "the few". I saw them coming and going in here but they never bothered to add their able views.
How many amongst us are infected? do we (all of us) ever know in our lifetime that we are diseased ? i think 99.9 % among us die without being diagnosed. Even if we know that we are diseased we just keep our eyes closed (may be thinking that there are so many others like us, suffering with the same, and it cant be a disease). some of us who understand that it really requires treatment are reluctant to get treatment due to some reason or the other (and we really go find reasons to avoid treatment). It seems to be as hopeless as ever. I literally experienced "Wisdom" closing its eyes to this post.
posted by: akelso (reply)
post date: 10.28.06 (2:32 pm)
Reply to: 69whisper
You know - your questions about whether, and how many of our nation's citizens stand a chance of awareness about this societal infection is more pertinent than we can know. It's certain to me, events like Katrina, (if they continue to occur as I fear they will if Global Warming's at all on target) will slap our faces until we can be asleep no longer.
What makes me weep, is that friends of color suffer greatly in our country. They confront this thing 24/7 to this day. The fear and injustice are everywhere, and I confess that after ten years of reading, talking, studying and reflecting on it, it's much easier to perpetually slip back into a kind of narcotic sleep about it. It reminds me of Wotan's lover "Erda" in Wagner's opera series about the magic ring. Great story! Erda SLEEPS, and she represents wisdom from beneath the earth, a wisdom that wants nothing to do with being awake ... It's the daughter (love-child, I suppose) of Wotan-Erda extramarital union, Brunhilde, who manages to bring justice to the UNIVERSE! Not a pretty picture though. But lots of fanciful characters and magic and dwarves, giants, dragons, ...
My father turned me on to this Norse mythology - since he was an opera singer. Otherwise there's no way I'd have any knowledge. Never have I been exposed to any of it, except in occasional cartoon representations of Burnhilde - you know the lady with the horned hat, the spear, singing maniacally to declare her arrival on the scene for some reason.
Oddly, Wagner's seen as one of Hitler's absolute wisdom figures! My word, but human beings are mixed up, Whisper.
posted by: akelso (reply)
post date: 10.29.06 (8:20 am)
Whisper,
I just saw a panel discussion with Robert Kagan "Dangerous Nation," moderated by Thomas Friedman. His new book is lately being hacked on all the usual media formats, and is well worth exploration.
Kagan says, "The abundance of land and economic opportunities for men and women of all social stations diverted too many minds from godly to worldly pursuits. It undermined patriarchal hierarchy and shattered orthodoxy." This is his analysis of the psychology of our founders' predecessors.
First Euro-Americans were puritans often, and so many Americans clutch that identity to this day. THIS is a way to understand the inability to see the bubos (plague lesions) of racism on the face of the nation as we stand before the mirror of international appraisal. This is a way to understand our allergy to self-examination that inevitably turns out with such immorality as runs rampant in our social history, such that we whimper, "oh why can't we leave that in the past? This is a new day!"
This is a way to understand, that we want to see our great nation (and I do believe we have countless blessings to bring to the globe,) as virtuously and purely without stain or blemish ...
We as a nation are viewing ourselves through Puritan-Colored lenses! Of course ... meanwhile, we tromp about the planet and throughout our own nation, thumping our chests like adolescent gorillas, proclaiming to one and all "Be Like Us! We Have the Ticket to Happiness and Freedom!! WE WILL DESTROY ALL WHO CONRADICT OUR BELIEF IN OURSELVES AS GOD'S CHOSEN ONES. We cannot be improved upon ..."
Sheesh, we are such a mess; and we're in *way* over our heads.
- Andrea
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.30.06 (9:31 am)
Its not only the problem of US, i happen to visit few countries, and i found people prejudiced there too. Can you imagine i saw a person standing up from his seat in the subway coz an Indian came and sat beside him. that was really an eye opener for me atleast. How can we be so ruthless ? to make other people even realize that you are not amongst us?
posted by: 69whisper (reply)
post date: 10.30.06 (9:35 am)
Its not only the problem of US, i happen to visit few countries, and i found people prejudiced there too. Can you imagine i saw a person standing up from his seat in the subway coz an Indian came and sat beside him. that was really an eye opener for me atleast. How can we be so ruthless ? to make other people even realize that you are not amongst us?
posted by: Jeffrey Hoffman (reply)
post date: 02.13.07 (7:52 am)
Google is the best search engine
All Posts Index
Click To See/Add Birthdays
Whisper Standard Time Seattle (PST) New York (EST) London (WET) Bangkok Hong Kong
Click To See/Add Birthdays
Whisper Standard Time Seattle (PST) New York (EST) London (WET) Bangkok Hong Kong
CURRENT MOON