Racial Stereotyping: What would you do?

Racial Stereotyping: You see a black guy, white guy, pretty girl committing a crime. What would you do?

http://youtu.be/8ABRlWybBqM

Christopher Columbus: The Heroification of a Mass Murderer

In most American history classrooms, children are taught that in 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and “discovered America.”  In this narrative, Columbus is portrayed as an adventurous explorer and a national hero.  It is a narrative that is profoundly romanticized and even mythical, yet despite the historical records and accounts of Columbus’s heinous crimes against indigenous peoples, he is still glorified and honored in American history and culture.

Heroificiation, as defined by author James W. Loewen, is a “degenerative process” that distorts reality and transforms “flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest.”  Christopher Columbus represents but one example in human history where an individual responsible for some of the most dreadful atrocities in our human history is molded into a savior-like figure and commemorated with a national holiday.  It is disturbing how most American schoolchildren learn from history teachers and textbooks to not only venerate Columbus, but also to recite poems, sing songs, and perform in romanticized reenactments about his arrival to the Americas.  These praises, accompanied with “Columbus Day” celebrations and parades, grossly gloss over the horrors of American Indian genocide initiated by Columbus’s expeditions.

American public schools rarely discuss Columbus’s atrocities. As Corine Fairbanks points out:

Recently, Roberta Weighill, Chumash, shared that her third grade son disagreed with his teacher about the Columbus discovery story and added that he knew Columbus to be responsible for the deaths of many Native people.  The public teacher corrected him: “No. Columbus was just a slave trader.” Hmmm, just a slave trader? Oh! Is that all?

American history textbooks paint Columbus as a hero by treating his voyages into the “oceanic unknown” as exceptional and unique, as if he was the only explorer who ever journeyed to the Americas.  Aside from the fact that indigenous peoples already lived in the land we now call the United States and weren’t waiting to be “discovered,” Columbus was not the first to set sail to the Americas.  In his book, “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” Loewen provides a chronological list of expeditions that reached the Americas prior to Columbus, including explorers from Siberia, Indonesia, Japan, Afro-Phoenicia, Portugal, among other countries.  Most of the eighteen high school history textbooks surveyed by Loewen omit the factors that prompted Columbus’s voyage in the first place: social change in Europe, advancement in military technology, use of the printing press – which allowed information to travel faster and further into Europe – and the ideological and theological rationalization for conquering new land.   For example, Columbus’s greed and pursuit of gold in Haiti is either extremely downplayed or absent in textbooks.  Columbus himself aligned amassing wealth with salvation, writing:  “Gold is most excellent; gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world, and can even lift souls up to Paradise.”  Accompanying Columbus on his 1494 expedition to Haiti was Michele de Cuneo, who wrote the following account:

After we had rested for several days in our settlement it seemed to the Lord Admiral that it was time to put into execution his desire to search for gold, which was the main reason he had started on so great a voyage full of so many dangers.

In elementary school, I remember learning that Columbus was peaceful to the indigenous people, who were in turn friendly and welcoming of the Spaniards.  If anything was mentioned about war, it was always presented as, “There were good people and bad people on both sides.”  Such an explanation shamelessly ignores the fact that “over 95 million indigenous peoples throughout the Western hemisphere were enslaved, mutilated and massacred.”  The myth that Native Americans and Europeans were equally responsible for gruesome brutality was also reinforced in Disney’s animated feature, “Pocahontas.”  The film placed Native American resistance and European violence on the same plane, i.e. the extremists on “both sides” made it bad for those who wanted peace, and colonialist domination and power was not a contributing factor to any form of resistance from the Natives.  This distortion of history often likes to behave as sympathetic to Native Americans, but what it actually does is consistently depict them as “inferior” and “backwards,” while lionizing European colonizers and settlers, as well as constructing a history that is complimentary to the nationalism and pro-Americanism preached in most American schools.

I don’t think I would have learned about what Columbus really did if I didn’t start reading about Islamic history, which, too, was either ignored or vilified (especially during lessons on the Crusades) in my history classes.  1492, the same year Columbus sailed to the Americas, was also the year of the Spanish Inquisition, when Jews and Muslims were forced to convert or leave the country.  The Catholic reconquest of Spain – the Reconquista – by King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella heightened interest in expanding European Christian domination, which led to their eventual agreement to sponsor Columbus’s voyage.

Upon his arrival to the Bahamas, Columbus and his sailors were greeted by Arawak men and women.  Columbus wrote of them in his log:

They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… . They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.

Worth noting is how Columbus’s description of the Arawak correlates with his sense of European entitlement and superiority.  In several accounts, he praised the Arawak and other indigenous tribes for being hospitable, handsome, and intelligent, but not without saying they would make “fine servants.”  When Columbus justified enslavement and his wars against the Natives, he vilified them as “cruel,” “stupid,” and “a people warlike and numerous, whose customs and religion are very different from ours.”

It is also important to understand the genocide of indigenous people could not have been possible without racism and sexual violence. Cherokee scholar and feminist-activist Andrea Smith cites Ann Stoler’s analysis of racism to illustrate the relationship between sexual violence and colonialism: “Racism is not an effect but a tactic in the internal fission of society into binary opposition, a means of creating ‘biologized’ internal enemies, against whom society must defend itself.”  Racism marks the “other” as “inherently dirty,” and subsequently “inherently rapable.”  For this reason, Smith argues that sexual violence is a weapon of patriarchy and colonialism, as opposed to being a separate issue altogether:

Because Indian bodies are “dirty,” they are considered sexually violable and “rapable,” and the rape of bodies that are considered inherently impure or dirty simply does not count. For instance, prostitutes are almost never believed when they say they have been raped because the dominant society considers the bodies of sex workers undeserving of integrity and violable at all times. Similarly, the history of mutilation of Indian bodies, both living and dead, makes it clear that Indian people are not entitled to bodily integrity.

Sexual violence and degradation of Native bodies is evident in how Columbus used Taino women as sex slaves and sexual rewards for his men.  Columbus profited off of sex-slave trade by exporting them to other parts of the world.  In fact, most of his income came from slavery.  In 1500, he wrote to a friend:  ”A hundred castellanoes (a Spanish coin) are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten (years old) are now in demand.”

During an online conversation, some defended Columbus by arguing he was only carrying out the “norms of his time.” Justifying Columbus’s actions by the “standards” of his time, or through historical moral relativism, is problematic, not only because it dismisses genocide, sex slavery, and land theft, but also because it suggests there are overall honorable traits about Columbus and that he should be commemorated.  For instance, Bartolome de Las Casas, the Spanish-born Dominican Bishop of Chiapas, witnessed and documented the horrors of Columbus’s subjugation, enslavement, and massacre of indigenous people. He is often quoted for writing:

What we committed in the Indies stands out among the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and humankind and this trade [in American Indian slaves] as one of the most unjust, evil, and cruel among them.

De Las Casas was absolutely mortified by the brutality he witnessed.  In numerous accounts, he reports about Columbus commanding his men to cut off the legs of children who would run away; about Spaniards hunting and killing Natives for sport; about colonialists testing the sharpness of their blades on living, breathing Native bodies; about Columbus’s men placing bets on who would cut a person in half in a single sweep of their swords.  De Las Casas wrote:  “Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight as no age can parallel. My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write.”

Although De Las Casas was strongly opposed to Columbus’s enslavement and dehumanization of Native peoples, his advocacy of indigenous rights and ending slavery was motivated by his desire to “convert and baptize the ‘heathen’ Indians.”  In his debate with Juan Gines de Supulveda, who argued that the Natives were “barbarians” and predisposed to slavery, De Las Casas argued that they were intelligent and capable of attaining salvation in Christianity without coercion.

The point of mentioning De Las Casas is to show that, despite his missionary agenda, he was among Columbus’s contemporaries who were outraged and disgusted by his treatment of indigenous peoples.  In other words, if the argument is that Columbus shouldn’t be judged by “today’s standards,” then we ought to judge him based on De Las Casas’ account.  However, it is also quite unsettling that De Las Casas’ needs to be used in this manner – what does it say about the voices of Native Americans who live today and reflect on the genocide of their ancestors?  Are their voices and accounts of Columbus’s atrocities not credible enough?

Also, what are “today’s standards”?  Inherit in the romantic mythology of Columbus’s heroism is the white supremacist heteropatriarchal imperialism that colonizes, exploits, and unleashes massacres and sexual violence upon people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and in parts of the world like Pakistan where war eerily operates as if there is no war, despite US military presence, airbases, drone assaults, political intervention, etc.  Entire peoples are being vilified, demonized; their histories distorted, omitted; and Native Americans continue to resist and struggle against ongoing genocide that seeks to exterminate them. In fact, it is the logic of genocide, as Smith reminds us, that insists Native peoples must fade into nonexistence.  War criminals are still glorified; war crimes are still justified; inhumane practices against humanity are still occurring in secrecy.

The Reconsider Columbus Day effort challenges the status quo, not just for the sake of restoring dignity and honesty to human history, but also for eradicating tyranny, colonialism, and imperialism that exists in the present.  When American schoolchildren are taught to identify with Columbus, they are aligning themselves with an oppressor and making a racial distinction between “us” and “them.”   The point of dismantling the way we celebrate and honor Columbus goes beyond exposing Columbus’s personality, it’s about taking responsibility for the ways we are complicit in reinforcing the logic of genocide. It’s about decolonizing ourselves in order to bring about radical, revolutionary change to society.

Decolonize for the sake of today, and for the sake of tomorrow.

Posted by Jehanzeb 

Sir Richard Branson Says War on Drugs is a War on Black People

http://www.kulturekritic.com/2012/10/news/sir-richard-branson-says-war-on-drugs-is-a-war-on-black-people/

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

Sir Richard Branson has spoken up and out against the War on Drugs in the United States.  Branson recently noted that the policies are racist and represent a “war on black people.”  The billionaire made the remarks during an interview with the Metro newspaper.

“The fundamental difference [in drug policy] in America is that it is a war against black people. 85 percent of people who go to prison for drug use in America are black people. They don’t take more drugs, but it’s a racist law against black people in America,” he said.“The law should be changed. You’ve got something like 1.5 million people in American jails languishing for taking drugs and that is wrong,” said Branson, a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP). “Those people would be much better being out in society, being helped if they have drug problem, getting off the problem.”

Branson was the guest editor of the newspaper during a trip to New York City.  This week, writing for “The Week,” he called for an end to the failed War on Drugs.  President Obama has agreed that the policies are biased and must come to an end.  But in the first term of his presidency, he was only able to reduce the crack-to-powder sentencing disparity from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1.  This means that a five year sentence for powder cocaine translates to a 90-year sentence for crack, which continues to represent a huge disparity.
“I am part of the global commission on drugs, and it consists of 15 ex-presidents from South America, it consists of people like Kofi Annan, Paul Volcker, George Schultz, and ex-presidents from Switzerland and Greece and other places,” Branson said.
“And we just spent two years looking at the war on drugs and it is obvious it failed. Thousands of people in South Africa are killed every year, more and more people are sent to prison and the amount of people using drugs increases year over year.”
Branson has been working to convince the Obama Administration and Congress to stop wasting taxpayer dollars on failed policies from the drug war.   He notes that the US spent $51 billion fighting the War on Drugs.
“That’s double what Apple profited last year. It’s a horribly depressing number when you think how far even a fraction of that money would have gone if invested in prevention and rehabilitation efforts.

Branson makes a good point.  There is nothing that has done more to destroy the black family in America than the War on Drugs.  I spoke to a grown woman the other day who told me that her father has been in prison for her entire life.  He wasn’t a killer, and he had no criminal record before his conviction.  But he was given 14 life sentences for selling drugs.

As a result of not having her father in the household, the girl said that she grew up without enough food to eat, her brother was murdered, and another sibling is on his way to the very same prison system that has kept his father in  cage for the last quarter century.  Although she agreed that her father should have been punished for his crime, she rightly felt that 25 years was enough.

Mr. President,  you MUST do something to end the drug war.  It’s time for all of us to demand that the laws be changed so that our nation can heal from one of the most devastating eras in the history of black America.  It’s hard to build strong families when so many of our black men are in prison, on their way to prison or coming home from prison.  While it’s important to teach kids to make good decisions, we must also realize that inequity which comes from forcing some kids to pay a lifetime price for their mistakes, while allowing others to have a second chance.

If anyone were to do a drug raid on nearly any college campus across the nation, they would find drugs, drug addicts, and drug dealers all over the place.  Yet, we don’t see white college kids going to prison, only young black men.   It’s time to end the nonsense.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and creator of the Building Outstanding Men and Boys Family Empowerment Series. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

Black History Specialist Aaron Johnson: Belafonte Was Right about Jay-Z and Beyonce

By Aaron D. Johnson

The overall direction or lack thereof of the so called African American community is a frightening one to think about, let alone talk about. As an educator in New York, I can tap into the pulse of the youth of our community in a way that provides insight as to what young African Americans think about and are concerned with. After conversing with many of our youth about the insanity that has attached itself to our community like a parasite to a host, it is more and more evident that there is a mechanism in place that perpetuates our cultural and societal quandary.

The infirmity that beleaguers our communities is the fruit of a deeply rooted tree of African and African American cultural destruction. African Americans have been taught to subscribe to the most destructive and ignorant components of our society. In order to counteract this growing problem, the elders of the community as well as people who have some kind of power or influence should reach back to help restore African American society and cultural significance. The question becomes: Will they care enough to actively work to make change? Harry Belafonte hit the nail on the proverbial head when he verbalized his distaste for the selfishness of Beyonce and Jay Z. But they are just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot more people on this list and the problems with these so – called celebrities are deeper than we think.

I always likened people like Jay Z, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Russell Simmons, and others like them as hustlers of the hood. They unabashedly produce the vilest content without regard for the damage it does to the African American community. They do so to quench their thirst for that mighty dollar. Money, power, fame, and elitism motivate their every move. They are calculative with how they present their brand. The word brand was purposely used because it seems as though they lose their personhood when they have reached a certain status. Many of these hustlers are consumable commodities without honest, off the cuff, meaningful, or personal opinions. Everything that they do is contrived and money minded. So social commentary is a rarity.

Even though they are themselves from the very community that they are poisoning, it is almost like they couldn’t care less about the quagmire that African Americans in the 21^st century are in. These peddlers of filth are like Black slave drivers on the plantation. It almost seems as though plantation owners put them on a horse, gave them a shot gun, and said “keep those niggas in check.”  Their actions are synonymous with a reply of “yes sir boss.” In the days of slavery, Black slave drivers were promoted to their positions by the master of the plantation. They were expected to keep the Negroes in line so to speak. Black slave drivers acquired a position of authority but remained one of the lowest forms of humanity by society’s standards of the time.

The record companies are in essence plantation owners and people like Jay Z, Combs, and Simmons are the slave drivers. The record companies dictate what kinds of content they want produced and these hustlers/drivers acquiesce no matter the collateral damage. In many interviews these hustlers have defended the content that they have produced. The nonsensical excuse that they are just poets of the hood talking about the problems of the hood is ridiculous. There is difference between commentary and glorification. It doesn’t matter either way because they are given a license to be socially irresponsible. There did not create our society’s predicament, but they package, market, and sell it.
At the end of the day, we have some very hard questions to ask of ourselves? Why do we the consumers allow this to occur? Do we care about the Black community? Do they care about the Black community? Do they even value the words of Harry Belafonte? Do they give a damn about his sacrifice and the sacrifice of so many others who have come before them? Why is there no chorus of the larger African American community rallying behind the comments of Harry Belafonte?
In 2012, the African American community is in a peculiar state. Many of the ignorant, self – hating, and culturally unaware people have microphones. Their messages are loudly and vigorously marketed and have become socially acceptable. The people who speak out get shouted down by the brainwashed masses. Others are afraid to sound old or behind the times. Some are fearful of the confrontation that will arise when the defenders of imbecility come for them and their opinions. The fact that the people who could make significant changes in the African American community with their status refuse to do so has become accepted. There are no standards with who the African American community and the hustlers are made to abide by.
Jay Z and all of the other slave driving hustlers do not have to think about the community. They do not have to express concern about it. The community does not require them to do so. The African American community can celebrate that these individuals have made it and that we are proud of them with no strings attached. Their selfishness has been going on for a long time now. We are entrenched in it. Think about it, would the caricatures Two Chains, Nikki Minaj, or any of these other clowns have a record deal if we or the husler/drivers gave a damn? Selfishness, greed, fame, and the illusion of inclusion as Paul Mooney put it, trumps selflessness, generosity, humility, and knowledge of self every time.
http://www.yourblackbloggers.net