How to derail an argument about racism

                                If you are a white person arguing about racism with a black person here is how to derail the argument:

The main thing is to turn the tables by getting your opponent angry. Once he is  then you can say that it is pointless to continue. You “win” and  never had to address the substance of his argument!

It is easy to get blacks upset about race because they take the whole race thing way too personally – because, unlike you, it affects them, well, personally! And, if you act in a racist manner in a debate about racism, all the while saying that racism is all in their heads, that will drive them nuts!

The trick is to never take what they say seriously. Instead belittle it. So when they talk about their experience of racism, tell them they see racism everywhere, that they are imagining it. After all, a  friend of yours is black (make it up if you have to) and he does not agree. So how can they speak for all black people!? Demand facts and figures, studies and surveys that back up what they say. You need evidence! You need proof!

Tell them how you, as a white person, have had the same experiences too: You were stopped by the police too (when you ran a red light). People touch your daughter’s hair too (she is three). It will make them look like complainers. That you missed the point of their examples will get them upset – just what you want!

If their English is bad, jump on that. If their English is too good then they probably have a good education, so what are they complaining about?

That is the general idea. It is taken from a website, Derailing for Dummies, which explains how racists, sexists, homophobes and others favoured by society - the privileged – derail or throw off the arguments made by the marginalized – like blacks, women and gays. Although it is written tongue-in-cheek, it is dead serious: the author has seen it too many times.

The website tells you how to use each of these derailing arguments:

1. If You Won’t Educate Me How Can I Learn
2. If You Cared About These Matters You’d Be Willing To Educate Me
3. You’re Being Hostile.
4. But That Happens To Me Too!
5. You’re Being Overemotional
6. You’re Taking Things Too Personally
7. You’re Not Being Intellectual Enough/You’re Being Overly Intellectual
8. You’re Arguing With Opinions Not Fact
9. Your Experience Is Not Representative Of Everyone
10. Unless You Can Prove Your Experience Is Widespread I Won’t Believe It
11. I Don’t Think You’re As Marginalized As You Claim
12. Well I Know Another Person From Your Group Who Disagrees!
13. A In B Situation Is Not Equivalent To X In Y Situation
14. Who Wins Gold in the Oppression Olympics?
15. You Have A False Consciousness
16. You’re Not Being A Team Player
17. You’ve Lost Your Temper So I Don’t Have To Listen To You Anymore
18. You Are Damaging Your Cause By Being Angry
19. Surprise! I Was Playing “Devil’s Advocate” All Along!

 by abagond

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Michael Gove dumps Mary Seacole

The Education Secretary Michael Gove has bowed to the detractors of great Victorian Mary Seacole, and removed her from the National Curriculum.

Gove has stated that students should learn about traditional figures such as Oliver Cromwell and Winston Churchill.
Truth is, Michael Gove would find it difficult to find a history teacher who sacrificed teaching either Winston Churchill or Oliver Cromwell for Mary Seacole.
Seacole’s detractors such as William Curtis of the Crimean War research have called the interest in Seacole, ‘a disgrace to the serious study of history’.
This view along with Gove’s says more about their own prejudices rather than illuminating, educating and inspiring children of all races.
Seacole’s story is much more than about the Crimean war where she made her name.  It is a story of endeavour, great bravery, but perhaps above all it is  about how an ordinary woman, with no privilege, and no support from the nation she served, became so revered by the army class she administered  and the British public.
On her own volition, Seacole left her native Jamaica for London to sign up as one of Florence Nightingale’s nurses. She was refused both a ticket to travel, and when she eventually found another steamer that would take her, she was also then refused by the British establishment to help the nursing efforts in the Crimean war.
Undeterred she made her own way to Balaclava a town in Crimea, in the Ukrain and set up her own  brand of resting place and nursing home  for the injured British soldiers very near the front line.
Word soon got back to London about this courageous woman, who it was said would be dodging bullets to get men to safety. Her contemporary at the time Florence Nightingale poured scorn on Seacole’s unconventional methods, including allowing dying and very sick men to have a ‘tipple’.  However, these very brave men loved Seacole, and after the war had ended, when they heard that she had fallen on hard times rallied to support her.
What makes this story fascinating is that it wasn’t just the officer and army class that sought  to help Seacole  after the war. It was estimated that more than 80,000 people came out to pay tribute to this woman.  When was the last time that amount of people –the size of Wembley stadium full, came to pay tribute to an ordinary woman?  I can’t remember either.
By any standard Seacole was a great Victorian, that a creative teacher can wrap around subjects such as  the Crimean war, nursing, racial prejudice, and  above all that great human endeavour, particularly  by an extraordinary ordinary woman.  A simple yet valuable lesson that seems to have been lost on our Education Secretary Michael Gove.
Simon Woolley
http://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/michael-gove-dumps-mary-seacole

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Opening speech at the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival

 

Humanity and the Importance of Jazz

“God has brought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create – and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations. Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music. Modern Jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.

It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of “racial identity” as a problem for a multi-racial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls. Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.

In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Satisfy the needs of a culture. Enrich the culture. Empower the culture.Defend the culture.

How does the culture implant its spirit into it's members? It does it in a very strong and primordial way. It uses vehicles.And one of the major vehicles it uses is that of music!...Rhythm! Song,Dance.   A culture involves people moving what? Together, in tandem, in rhythm. it involves them having the same temporals sense. The same kind of time clock so that they can move in syncrony, one with the other. Music is about syncrony, Poetry is about sycrony. Song is about syncrony.

Music is about symbols,and you see ultimately it is through symbols that you evoke behavior from people.So when a culture creates symbols those symbols are design to evoke particular types of reactions of feeling,and moods in it's members.And a culture establishes the potency of those symbols through rituals,through song,and through dance.

And one of the best ways then to inculcate cultural values,a cultural spirit,is through entertainment.It's while the members are being entertained,while they are feeling good the song is carrying the cultural values into the mind,and into the body.

The lyrics that represent the cultural interest,the lyrics that represent cultural values are being carried on the vehicle of the music.Carried through the vehicle of the poetry.The togetherness,the corporateness,the mutual movement together,and the synchrony of the culture is being in-trained through the music,and though the rhythm of the dance.

Therefore' you see' when you let another people take over your music,when you let another people take over your dance,and attach their content to it' they will use your own music,and your own dance,and your own rap lyrics,and your own poetry,and your own cultural symbols,to carry their message into your body,and into your mind!... Such that you can only respond then to their backen call,and to their wishes.And you see then' "Yes"You see then that they get you to buy those sneakers,and they get you to buy all of those things by what? associating them with your what? Your music!...With your cultural symbols.You see,with your poetry.With your rhythms,and so they attached their content to our rhythm!...Their content to our song! yes...But in away they take our own instruments and turn them against the self.

Notice' how quickly when one of our youngsters was rhyming kill the police' that kind of content was washed right our immediately.Yes...But what wash out occurs when the sing about shooting each other with their glocks and the other thing? When their contents of self destructiveness ride on the rhythm of their song,and of their dance.And when the symbols are loaded then with self destructive elements and content.

So what are we saying here then? that enculturation is a process of building in responsivity, and ultimately responsibility. The ability to respond to a particular call.And we then have appropriately inculturated ourselves when we can respond to our own culture,and to our own values,and to our own needs

Jayne Cortez - How Long Has Trane Been Gone

A london pub with a colour bar in 2013

We think things have moved on but then right in front of your very eyes!

A LONDON PUB WITH A COLOUR BAR IN 2013

This is the recent disturbing experience suffered by an innocent young lady out to celebrate the arrival of 2013 she was moved to post up on a social network a short account of her traumatic experience.
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As we venture into a new year with our hopes and aspirations I was shocked yesterday while out with my nieces and other family members. As a Londoner born and bred I was stunned when refused entry to 'Westminster Arms, Shepherds Neame' 9 & 10 Storey Gate, London SW1P 3AT.
My niece wanted the loo, but the queues where ridiculous for the port-a-loos, so we decided to look for a pub where we would buy a drink and use the facilities. As we approached, two men on the door simply said 'No Ladies', which I thought weird - was this a 'Man Only' pub? I said 'sorry' to which they repeated the line 'No Ladies'. Immediately my sensors where up, but as my niece was over from Sweden I put it to the back of my mind. We ventured off and found another pub, but on the way back we had to walk past the pub. They allowed in groups of white men, and a couple of white ladies. I looked through the window and yes, just as I thought, not a face of colour in the premises. I took a picture of the pub and one of the men who refused us entry covered his face. I needed to vent this as I thought the UK was making big strides with this sort of display of bigotry! I was extremely embarrassed as I had my niece, who is a guest in this country celebrating the NY etc, and to her this sort of thing doesn't happen here because THIS IS ENGLAND, but more likely in her country of Sweden where people of colour are fewer. 2013 didn't start well for me!