Eugenics and Education

Bill Ayers reviews Ann G. Winfield’s book Eugenics and Education in America:

Written out of the official story as quackery and the handiwork of a few nut-cases, Winfield demonstrates beyond doubt that eugenics was not only respectable, mainstream science but also that its major tenets were well-springs in the formation of American public schools with echoes in the every day practices of today. Formed in the crucible of white supremacy and rigid hierarchies of human value, American schools have never adequately faced that living heritage.

George Carlin is Dead

PhysioProf blogs:

It is sad news that George Carlin has died. His mordant wit, disdain for bullshit, and penetrating insight into social and political wackaloonery have been an inspiration to many. Of course, he would have mocked the shit out of anyone who melodramatically mourned his passing.

Homogenizing Out The Broader LGBT Community’s Contributions To Stonewall

Autumn Sandeen blogs about an article written by Joseph DaBrow who stated, “It was a time when fag bashing was an accepted method of controlling homos and keeping them out of the neighborhood. There were no drag queens there at all. It was gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were.“:

Some of the “broad us” at Stonewall were drag queens; some of the “broad us” at Stonewall were transgender and/or transsexual people (even if those words weren’t terms used to describe gender variant people at the time); and some of the “broad us” at Stonewall didn’t publicly identify as gay women, but as lesbians. It’s been well documented that the “broad us” of Stonewall protestors included a broad swath of LGBT people. Joseph DaBrow’s commentary on Pride Month is an objectionable to those of us who are proud that it wasn’t only gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were, but instead know it was LGBT people standing up for who they were and who we are. As a term, gay isn’t always seen as inclusive of us all, and in this case gay isn’t an adequate description of who was there at Stonewall.

Gandhi and “Non”-Violence

Dave at Complex System of Pipes posts a blog on Gandhi’s violent doctrine:

Gandhi was chastising two platoons of Hindu troops who disobeyed orders to fire upon Muslim crowds in Peshawar, 1930. The platoons that did obey perpetrated an act of great violence, killing and wounding hundreds, but this drew little complaint from the Great Soul; on the other hand, breaking ranks with the oppressor to stand with the oppressed earned his forthright censure. And yet, it seems such a victory for non-violent disobedience to the end of indepence: after the mutiny the army and police withdrew from the city, which was effectively ruled by the people for ten days.

[Hat Tip: Hossam]

The Making of a ‘White Working Class’

Lenin blogs:

It is far from obvious why class should be colour-coded. We can see how ‘race’ has been contiguous with strata within classes, so that the lowest wages and the least skilled occupations are dispensed to non-white members of the working class. We can also see how class is often construed as a kind of ethnicity, and how ethnic designations often overlap with economic positions. But the question of why there should ever be an identity such as a ‘white working class’ is clearly a social psychological one.

Happy Birthday to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz

In honor of this blogs namesake.

Sylvia blogs:

In honor of what would have been Malcolm X’s 83rd birthday, Villager has compiled a phenomenal list of links to some of his famous speeches and interviews, including “Ballot or the Bullet,” “Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?” and “House Negroes vs. Field Negroes.” He’s also leading a discussion about how this man has touched the lives of so many people through his voice, his fire, and his life.

…

Happy birthday, Brother; your spirit lives on.

Latoya blogs:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X is one of the defining books in my life. The first time I read it, I was nine. Even now, though I haven’t picked it up in about five years, I can still remember whole passages by heart, and the basic wording of much more. What I find interesting is that as I grew older, my interpretation and understanding of the book changed. When I was younger, I was enthralled by ex-criminal, black nationalist Malcolm X; as I got older I began to wonder more about his transformation to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, his journey to Mecca, and his change in mindset and focus. It is his journey that inspires my own.

Melissa blogs:

Many of our modern leaders live by cynical double standards. They practice slippery personal ethics, while lecturing the masses about morality. They consume conspicuously, while telling ordinary folks to save their pennies. They father children outside of marriage, then blame single mothers for the violence in black communities. They blame individuals for their circumstances, rather than help them deconstruct, understand and overcome the historical, structural, political, reasons for their plight.

Malcolm taught us better. He criticized the powerful rather than the powerless. He pointed to the pathologies of the privileged instead of the failings of the oppressed. His own story of redemption was emblematic of the possibilities available to even the most disempowered, but when he pointed to solutions, they were consistently collective.

Miss Jones blogs:

…very few people, even those who claim to love him, have taken the time to learn more about what he believed and what he did over his lifetime. There was more to Malcolm X than his views on race; his leadership style is something to admire. Too often, as I have written about here, older leaders are inaccessible because they are spoken about as though they are angels who neither grow nor change over their lifetime. However, Malcolm X never hid the fact that he made mistakes and that he was constantly learning and growing nor that he expected people to take ownership of their lives.

Mr. Shadow blogs:

Above all we must understand what Malcolm stood for: justice, freedom and equality for Africans in America and abroad. It is for this he fought and it is for this that he died.

I think it is appropriate to end this post with the spiritually moving eulogy at Malcolm’s funeral given by our late elder, actor and activist Ossie Davis.

It’s All In the Blood??

Ding, at Bitch Ph.D. blogs in response to a recent article that Kathleen Parker wrote about how recent immigrants might not “understand” American values due to the fact that they haven’t been here that long:

Pat Buchanan wants me to ‘be grateful.’ He wants me to shut up and be grateful I live in a place that suffers from the worst case of degenerate racism, a place that makes no significant movement toward recognition of or reconciliation for its white supremacist past. But here’s our chance! Here’s a moment - a gorgeous, breathtaking moment! And what do we do with this moment? We say he is not (and by extension, we are not - I am not) a ‘full-blooded American’!

Oh, America, you make we wanna holler!

Marx at 190

Map Singer writes:

Karl Heinrich Marx was born on May 5, 1818 in Trier…in a two story house with an interior courtyard that still exists today (and is now situated at “Karl Marx street” of said city), which was typical of a petty bourgeoisie Prussian family.

Karl Heinrich Marx nace el 5 de mayo de 1818 en Trier…en una casa de dos pisos con un patio interior todavía existente (y que se sitúa hoy en la “calle Karl Marx” de la indicada ciudad), propia de una familia de la pequeña burguesía prusiana.

Age of Empire

Bhupinder writes about Zinn’s new book and video on YouTube:

Unlike European powers, US imperialism has sought to create and maintain its hegemony via puppet regimes or via local elites (see the post below with an extract from David Harvey’s interview), leading to an impression that it is not a colonial power like, say, England or France that ruled their colonies directly and more visibly.

117 Years Old and Still Relevant

Can an aggregator link a post from another aggregator that is linking a post to another blog? Why sure! Bhupinder links a few blogs that celebrate the birthday anniversary of the radical dalit rights activist B.R. Ambedkar, who fought for dalit rights in India and often clashed with (whom he considered) the high-caste elitist Ghandi.

[Hat Tip: Bhupinder]

Views: Feminism, Appropriation, and Racism

Some more views across the blogoshpere on the recent controversy surrounding Marcotte and BFP. However, it is not just about one incident but a whole history of appropriating ideas from people of color in order to benefit those white “intellectuals” and “activists. As “Sudy” says, the “demand for writers/bloggers to “stop stealing” far exceeds the events (disasters) of this week or just BFP herself…I’m not talking about one singular instance that set me off into a knee-jerk reactionary post, I’m speaking about a maddening phenomenon of disregarding BODIES of work.”

High on Rebellion:

Anyone who reads BFP regularly knows that she has done a lot of writing on immigration and particularly the racism and sexism faced by immigrant women in the US during the current climate of hysteria.

And now, she is understandably upset that Amanda Marcotte from Pandagon has published an article that happens to make all the same points BFP has made time and again and her blog - and yet, at no point has BFP been linked.

Sylvia dissects Marcotte’s post on Alternet bit by bit, pointing out each phrase that Marcotte appropriated from women of color and men of color:

THAT’S the sinister nature of appropriation. And in this instance, by not linking to anyone that inspired her viewpoint — forget BFP, even — Amanda tapped into this narrative that has been tapped into by countless folks online and offline. And each leaking into this scheme hurts and makes the victims of invisibility less than charitable once someone white sees us and says, “Hey, what’s wrong? Please write us a book report with cross checks and proper cites, perfect spelling and grammar, and completely objective — that means don’t interpose your oversensitivity into it — yes, please write us a great screed telling us everything very clearly about what’s wrong. One ‘t’ uncrossed, and you lose your argument. And please, make sure you note everyone involved; if you fail to do so, that’s intellectually dishonest and we’ll refuse to engage with you!”

She also wrote:

I can’t keep doing this to my stomach and my health, my consciousness and my emotions, my work and life. And since the woman I did it for has asked for it to stop, I will honor that.

“Sudy” at A Womyn’s Ecdysis:

BFP was certainly part of my thought process, but this demand for writers/bloggers to “stop stealing” far exceeds the events (disasters) of this week or just BFP herself. This post vomited on the years of hearing echos in the blogosphere with no visible credit or citation to others’ contributions. My links are specific, but my point is wider. I’m not talking about one singular instance that set me off into a knee-jerk reactionary post, I’m speaking about a maddening phenomenon of disregarding BODIES of work . And I’m tired of something that is so deeply problematic being casually normalized by writers and readers of feminism.

Fetch Me My Axe:

Look. It’s not that difficult a concept. A woman who’s under the radar, relative to you, posts important news stories that are, in turn, under the radar. Both her under-the-radarness and the stories’ have to do with, surprise, marginalization in ways that go beyond simple sexism: y’know, racism AND sexism, for instance. She works hard at building community and getting the word out about important stories. You, on the other hand, are primarily concerned with self-aggrandizement.

For a year or two or more, you steadfastly ignore her, on the whole. Certainly you don’t bother to link to the stories she’s covering; that would be too much like giving someone else credit. No. You wait. Maybe you’re even at the same conference as this other woman, not so long ago, wherein she speaks on these same issues. And then, you post the stories and the POV the woman has been eloquently -trying- to get you to listen to for all this time…without a hint that you know who this person is. Kudos rain in. For you. Applause, applause, there’s nothing like applause.

Beautiful, Also, Are the Souls of my Black Sisters:

But, as so often happens in the blogosphere, the voices of WOC are suppressed, silenced and downright ignored. Appropriation is the rule of the day, the law of the land, where WOC are concerned. We have been resisting oppression in this world for centuries, for generations, and no one wants to hear our voices. Very few want to give us credit for calling attention to the myriad injustices that exist in this world. As so often happens, when WOC give voice to the many isms that affect women the world over, we are simply derided, castigated, tagged-tarred-and-feathered as “angry”, “bitter”, “mean”, “bossy”, or the worse of all epithets—”hard to get along with”.

Team Rainbow:

In the months that Team Rainbow has been online, I have never once felt the need to get involved in any inter-blogular conflict. However, “X”’s co-opting of BFP’s once powerful message is a matter that goes beyond interpersonal/interblog politics. It is a powerful symbol of a larger problem, which is the silencing of WOC writers, activists, and leaders by the more privileged sectors of the feminist movement. I can’t hold a candle to BFP’s brilliance, her breadth and depth and relevance of knowledge regarding WOC issues. So today I will write about my own people, my own heritage, and where we went wrong.

XicanoPwr writes:

I have read many blogs, but there is something about Brownfemipower. I have never met Brownfemipower personally, nor have I talked to her personally. But her words were powerful to inspire me to think in new ways, especially when it came to women issue. She has not only opened my eyes, but has challenged me.

…

En lucha mi amiga!

Rebbecca of Burning Words:

It’s a bit of an understatement that [X] doesn’t exactly have the best record on race issues. The sort of feminist issues that you’ll see covered at Brownfemipower’s essentially never see the light of day at Pandagon, and she’s been called out more than a few times over the years for dismissing and silencing women of colour when they’ve called her out about offensive comments that she’s made.

The SmackDog Chronicles:

And what does it say for AlterNet, which has never seen fit to allow more radical activists of color to impugne their pages, but frequently allows established A-list liberal feminist bloggers like Amanda Marcotte (and antiporn “leftists” like Bob Jensen and Gail Dines, too, BTW) to claim to represent the entire “progressive” diaspora unopposed and unburdened by actual debate and discussion???

Think Girl:

White feminists (and I am one myself), leave behind your notions of what feminism entails. We need to stop centering feminist work on such things as pop culture analysis, white women’s body images, and abortion. I’m not saying we should never talk about such things, but that feminism must work in step with so many many more movements: anti-racism, anti-classism, environmental issues, immigrant rights, anti-U.S. imperialism, LGBTQI rights, disability rights, anti-prison industrial complex, and so much more than I could quickly list here. Just as importantly, when we link with these movements, we must be careful to give credit when credit is due. We must expand our views to build coalitions, not for any less noble reason, such as to diversify our work. Please, join in this transformation; it is long overdue.

I end with Jessica Hoffmann saying:

you are bigger and more beautiful and insightful and important and revelatory and warm and liberating and transcending than i can even begin to express in words.

wish i could give you a hug and cook a hot, colorful dinner for you.

i’m cooking for some local make/shift folks tomorrow night, and you’d better know there will be many a toast in your honor.

xo

[Many o' Hat Tips: High on Rebellion, ¡Para Justicia y Libertad!]

Tim Wise on White Privilege

Elizabeth Kaeton has embedded a video of Tim Wise explaining the affects of white privilege in America and on the working class.

[Hat Tip: Eileen the Episcopalifem]

When Bengal Cried

Vidrohi, of Red Diary, blogs about the war for Bengali independence:

The 1971 war against the Bengali population, paved on the “good intentions” of keeping the Pakistan together, was carried out in a classical genocidal fashion. “Kill three million of them,” President Yahya Khan reportedly said in February of 1971, “and the rest will eat out of our hands”. The genocidal war initiated on 25th of March with the attack on University of Dhaka where hundreds of students were murdered. In the subsequent months, hundreds of thousands of the Bengali people was exterminated, millions of women were raped, and millions were displaced from their homes. History has not forgotten the atrocities committed in the East Bengal by the Pakistani Army and their stooges in Jamaat-e-Islami.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Sokari blogs:

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I hear that Hilary Clinton and John McCain will be in Memphis to mark the day. I am sure Barack Obama will seize the time add his $2 worth. I hear that Democratic and Republican leaders met yesterday on Capitol Hill to mark the day. No doubt the warmongering racist, Mr George Bush will speak to [dis]honour Mr King. Hypocrites everywhere will come out to speak false words and use the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr for their own interest.

They are all liars.

Steps to Success: Step One, GET ENSLAVED!

Karnythia blogs at The Angry Black Woman on a recent blog post by Pat Buchanan:

It’s this deliberate misinformation that bolsters the idea that black people are somehow magically getting ahead without merit, and fosters the resentment you see so often from whites that argue so vociferously against the concept of white privilege and against affirmative action. Never mind that the main beneficiaries of affirmative action have been white women. No, let’s just scream about that one time a POC “stole” a job that you really wanted/needed/preferred and ignore the part where you weren’t entitled to that job above all applicants.

It doesn’t help that even in school the history books skim over what Ida B. Wells, the NAACP, The Black Panthers, the NOI and others were doing in support of the black community. Aside from the actual Civil Rights Movement marches and demonstrations that are discussed, there is very little mention of day to day life in black communities.

A Little History on Planned Parenthood

La Chola blogs on a controversy involving a few bloggers on the racist history of Planned Parenthood and its work today:

It’s dangerous to not know the history of an organization–even more dangerous to not know its present. Yes, PP has done some absolutely amazing and brilliant things. PP has also done some detestable and horrific things–and it is WRONG to let the detestable and horrific things pass because of the good things. It’s even worse to call a woman of color who has had a bad experience with her reproductive life “stupid” because there is no critical analysis of how a historically “population control” centered institute is currently conducting its business. As I said in my comment, the only reason PP is where it is today is because women of color stood up to all the people who attempted to silence them with calls of “stupid” and “worthless” and demanded to be heard.

160 Years Ago in February

Bhupinder blogs:

This little book was first published 160 years ago on 21st February 1848.

The world has not stopped listening to it ever since.

Thanks to Marxists Internet archives, you can actually now listen to the audio.

In the Age of Obama

Sherrilyn A. Ifill blogs at the Beacon Broadside, a blog for Beacon Press:

In the flush of the current presidential campaign, when crowds of blacks and whites caught up in Obama fever chant together, “race doesn’t matter,” and even the mainstream media seems delirious with the possibility that the U.S. may be poised to elect its first black president, it’s hard to remember that only a few months ago college campuses, high schools and workplaces from Louisiana to New York were sites of racial intimidation. 2007 was the year of the noose. Dozens of incidents, in which nooses were hung in places designed to intimidate black workers and students, seemed to engulf the country.

Black History Box

The newest blogger, Sara Rosell, of Double Consciousness blogs about Black History Month:

We definitely need to teach what contributions blacks have made, but before we teach about that we need to first talk about what it means for those contributions to be absent when it comes to the teachings of History itself. The problem is that our Anglo-centric educational system boxes “Black History” into a month, separating it from “U.S. History.”

Tribute to Oscar Zeta Acosta

XicanoPwr blogs in tribute to Chicano activist Oscar Zeta Acosta:

I originally wrote this post on Scholars and Rogues as part of the Scholars and Rogues’ Scrogues Gallery. When I was asked to do a write-up for Oscar Zeta Acosta, I was happy to do it. As I was doing my research on Oscar, something mystical came over me. It was like I was meant to write his story. I like most people who hear Oscar’s name, know him for his literary works, Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972) and The Revolt of the Cockroach People (1973). What I never realized was that Oscar was not only an author but a legendary and compelling figure in the Chicano movement in the late 1960s. Oscar never really received his due in Chicano history - a history that not remains only in the shadows of the general American culture, but hardly ever mentioned among the younger generation of the Latina/o community. This is my tribute to Oscar Zeta Acosta, “The Brown Buffalo,” and hopefully I am able to shine a light to a man who not only help change contemporary literature along with his good friend Hunter S. Thompson but also put his mark on case law and his role in the Chicano movement. Here is to you Brown Buffalo, wherever you are.

King’s Dream: A Reality Yet to Be Achieved

Shark-Fu blogs on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day:

Today, nooses are hung on high school campuses and arrogantly displayed on the cover of national magazines…media critics discuss how even racists will vote for an ‘acceptably black’ candidate and fashion editors chastise women of color for wearing natural hairstyles in corporate environments…the achievement of thousands is credited to the system they struggled against…the historic campaign of Shirley Chisholm is scarcely mentioned in an election year where a woman and a black man are trying to do separately what she strove to do as one in 1972…white supremacists plan to march in Jena Louisiana even as the language of immigration reform is laced with bigotry and fear…and education is still separate and unequal.

…

Now is the time to honor the King legacy through action and unite in the struggle for what I know is possible…

…no longer a dream, more a reality yet to be achieved.

Sundown Towns

Ann blogs about the history of sundown towns and their continued existence today:

Many Americans ask themselves why is that black citizens remain the outsiders in this supposed moral society that rewards hard work.  Many people wonder why black citizens have made so little progress in the following 143 years after the abolition of slavery. What they do not know is that there was a time when black Americans lived in better more racially diverse conditions during the 1870s and the earlier 1880s, when Reconstruction was struggling to avoid the vise-like death grip that burgeoning white supremacy had caught it in.  Many Americans do not realize that de jure residential segregation grew progressivly worse until around 1968, and that it did not start to somewhat decrease until the 1970s, 1980s, well after the Civil Rights Movement had ended.

On (White) Feminism

BrownFemiPower blogs about the book Full Frontal Feminism, on teaching it at university women’s studies classes, her own experience as a woman of color in such classes, and the overall arch of teaching feminism in general:

It’s time for all of us, but in particular, women’s studies departments, to stop pretending that these interactions between women of color and white women never happened or don’t count. It’s time to stop pretending that the voices of white women speaking about women of color is sufficient enough of a history for women of color. It’s time to stop pretending that universal agreement between women of color is necessary before white people can interact with an engage with a particular critique of women of color. It’s time to stop pretending that any critique by women of color exists within a timeless vacuum that demonstrates some ancient racism of a feminism from time past.

Turning Historical Materialism on Its Head

Marco blogs:

The brilliance of Autonomist Marxism, which began to emerge out of the revolutionary experiences in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s, was that it turned historical materialism on its head. No longer was capital ironically seen as a progressive force; as the “motor of history”. Rather, desire came to be seen as primary, and capital came to be seen as merely reactive, and on the back foot. In other words, it is desire which becomes the engine of history, not capital or its a-social laws. So, according to Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in Empire, the neoliberal restructuring of capitalism, which we are currently experiencing, first began as a response to the revolutionary upheavals of 1968. Capitalism was forced to find new ways to contain the exploding lines-of-flight which threatened its very existence. Thus, sovereignty shifted from the national to the global level. So 1968 marked a real watershed, but I would add that the capitalist restructuring was also a response to all of the many victorious national liberation movements. This is what I argued in my honours thesis.

Republicans and the Race Card

Lambert, on Corrente, blogs about a recent article by Paul Krugman on how the Republicans used race to gain the upper hand over Democrats in the South and have been playing that card ever since:

Today, Krugman—Yay! No pay wall!—gives the Conservative apologists for the Republican’s racist Southern Strategy a good old-fashioned beating, and would leave them whimpering if they weren’t all the idelogical equivalent of The Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail