Welcome to the sixth edition of the Erase Racism Carnival. We have a number of posts this month covering a variety of topics; american vernacular to childrens books, team mascots to team players. Come one, come all to this most spectacular of carnivals!

Being the October edition, its reasonable that we should start with the US’s October son: Christopher Columbus. Mamita Mala starts us off with a poem observing Columbus Day and drawing the connections between the man who lead the massacre, enslavement and colonization of millions and the wars around the world being led by colonial powers new and old.

I wanted to celebrate today,
By torching court houses and tearing down prison walls,
bombing national monuments
And taking back every last thing that has been stolen from me and those before me
From us.
I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs a huge
“FUCK YOU y VETE PA’L CARAJO”
to the spirit of Columbus marching down Fifth Avenue

Eric Stoller then takes us on a persynal journey through life, letting us know how one goes from marching down the street, playing the trombone to celebrate Columbus, to end up celebrating the Indigenous Day of Resistance.

I wonder if I would have celebrated Columbus Day in Columbus Junction if I had been given a more accurate history by my teachers?
1. Christopher Columbus did not “discover” America. (How can you discover a place if someone is already there?)
2. Native Americans were systematically displaced from Iowa by white people.

The legacy of Columbus is alive and well as Eric and Mala remind us in two additional posts. Eric writes about the stereotypical portrayal of indigenous people by the University of Illinois’s Chief Illiniwek, while Mala, this time at Vivir Latino, shares with us a damaging portrayal of Aztecs in a children’s book.

Speaking of stereotypes, the first assignment at the great new blog Race Changers is about Stereotypes and Racial Profiling.

Stereotypes plague our interactions and racial profiling preys on certain members of society in the name of “safety.” Of course, these are things that we need to continue to challenge. Question the stereotypes that you, your friends, and your family hold (everyone is guilty of subscribing to some — it’s almost unavoidable given the amount of stereotypes that we are all bombarded with starting from a very young age!). Ask why we are subjecting a certain few to racial profiling. Do the perceived benefits outweigh the very real inconveniences and attacks on our civil rights? Generalizations are mainly detrimental, and in no way move us in a positive direction.

To which Jenn at Reappropriate responds with a wonderful and honest insight into her own stereotypes and generalizations.

However, it’s also an ongoing struggle which I believe we all should embrace. The problem of racism and stereotyping is not aided by hiding one’s head in the sand when confronted with thorny problems that call to question one’s own morality; instead, racism and stereotyping should be treated as a reason to remain cognizant of race relations issues, and a chance to realize that we are all fully capable of being in the wrong, and there’s no real right answer.

Rachel at Rachel’s Tavern talks about a prominent stereotype of Asian, Black, and Latino men in Hollywood - that they don’t fall in love.

I think one of the primary ways that groups are marginalized is through control of their sexuality. The control can be exercised directly through sexual violence (i.e. rape), forced breeding, and coercion. It can been done indirectly through stereotyping and erasure. I think one of the primary ways that Black, Asian, Latino, and American Indian sexuality is controlled today is through what Patricia Hill Collins calls controlling images. Popular movies, TV programs, music, and almost every other major form of popular culture contribute these controlling images when they avoid showing African Americans in intimate, loving relationships. Not only are people of color not shown in loving relationships, we also rarely see intimate family relationships.

Skyscraper at Queering Me has another post on racial stereotyping, but this one deals with a very specific incident - an editorial column from the Daily Bruin. In the article, the author likens himself to people of color and the systematic racism they experience because he is a White man at “UCLAsia”. From the article:

If you’re going to blame anyone, I say we blame the Asians.

I empathize with members of the Black Student Union and MEChA who spoke at the rally. As a fellow underrepresented minority at UCLA, I agree that it’s hard to find other white people I can identify with on a campus that feels more like Taipei than L.A.

Cooper, here at Taking Place, now takes us to another modern war campaign with her post about Nicholas Kristoff’s article, “Looking for Islam’s Luthers”. Cooper (and Kristoff) contests that the paternalistic view of Islam and Muslim wimmin helps fuel the hatred against and war on Muslim and Arab people. They argue that we should, instead, focus on supporting the existing wimmin’s movement within Islam - a movement that certainly challenges many of White feminism’s notions of liberation.

“I’ve written often about the honor killings and other abuses suffered by women and girls in some Muslim countries, and many Westerners think Islam is inherently misogynistic.

But Muslim women themselves naturally resent that kind of Western paternalism, for they want opportunities and equality — and yet they frequently don’t want to discard their faith (or even their head scarves).”

Brownfemipower brings us Another Radical Women of Color Response to Western Feminist thought on the “Abused Arab Female.” The response comes from Andrea Smith and is directed to one of Andrea Dworkin’s last writings call “The Women Suicide Bombers.” Dworkin writes:

While we acknowledge that sexual violence happens in all communities, Dworkin’s analysis that sexual violence is the reason women would become suicide bombers is faulty. She ignores the most obvious reason, that Palestinians are subjected to a genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing by the state of Israel, funded by US tax dollars.

AngryBlackBitch responds to another form of paternalism: Tolerance.

I don’t want tolerance.
Respect?
Understanding?
Give it to me, baby!
But tolerance?

Ariah Fine at Trying to Follow asks us to stop talking about Africa. Why? Well…

Africa is a BIG place. It’s not a people group, or a village, or a town, or state, or country, it’s a gigantic continent! The coninent of Africa is nothing like the United States where you have 50 different states under one central government, and most people living there generally speak the same language but with different accents (broad generalization). Africa is 1/5 of the world’s total land area, and 12% of the world’s entire population. There are 61 territories, many different religions and thousands of languages. Yet, us naive folk in the U.S. of A. keep on acting like Africa and African’s are a niche we’re interested in.

Recognizing that we live in a largely segregated society, P. Moore at The Think offers a “study abroad guide to black America” - aka (10) Things White People Shouldn’t Do.

Little is admitted about the real lack of integration in our nation while whites kick back and enjoy television shows like Flavor of Love and think they’ve truly just enjoyed a slice of black life in the U.S. Non-whites watch television shows like Friends and think that most white people drink bowl-sized cups of latte. Many watch the newest season of Survivor (Cook Islands) and actually believe they’ve been schooled on diversity.

Moore’s fifth hint is not to condemn minorities for self-segregation, which is also the topic of Andrea’s post at The Official Shrub.com Blog. Andrea responds to an email by taking a deeper look at “minority spaces.”

So, first, the simple answer: a “minority space” is a space created by minority groups, for minority groups. It may allow privileged groups to listen to or participate in discussion, and it may not. It differs from a “privileged space” in that its exclusionary nature is not designed to uphold established power structures (as with gentlemen’s clubs and the like), but rather to provide a safe environment for minority groups to discuss issues that are not able to get airtime in “default” spaces due to those spaces being primarily focused on so-called “real” issues which too often amount to issues that the privileged group cares about.

Sly Civilian further examines a question posed by a professor: if we empathize with Nat Turner, why don’t we take up arms in the present moment? Sly recognizes that violence has far from disappeared and has, perhaps, become even more pervasive.

David Walker discusses in his appeals of a radicalizing experience of watching brutality. White masters force a child to strip his mother, and then beat her to death. For the audience, this is an incredibly intimate act of violence. Today, the acts of terror are more carefully clothed, but what they may lack in intimacy, they compensate with pervasiveness.

Trying to remain calm within chaos has a post using a classic poem by Gil Scott Heron to speak to corporate America’s reinvigorated interest in getting Whitey on the moon.

And since most carnivals involve families, we shall finish up this edition of the carnival by talking about families. First, is brownfemipower < / with a post about White Queers, adoption and kids of color.

From a radical woman of color perspective, these transracial abductions are most harmful to the young girls who are adopted as well as the birth mothers. Very often, it is economic crisis or military conquest that forces brown women to give their children to adoption agencies. Even more often, transracial adoption is made possible through the vilification of mothers of color.

From there, Jen Chau at Anti-Racist Parent introduces us to a new series, I wish my parents knew…. The first post in the series talks about how she wishes her parents knew that her resistance to Hebrew School was due to the exclusion she felt as a multiracial persyn.

As adults, my brothers, my mom and I have talked about Hebrew School. It was so interesting to me that my mother thought that we were just being lazy or stubborn and didn’t want to go for no good reason. When I explained that it was hard to be there because we were basically discriminated against on a regular basis, she was shocked. She had no idea. And why was this? Well, we didn’t tell her. No questions were asked about it, but we also didn’t say anything. I can say that as an eight year old, I personally felt ashamed and thought that there was something wrong with me — that everyone was teasing me for a reason, and that it was my fault.

Twice the Rice talks about the lack of rights that transnational adoptees have with regards to reuniting with their birth families due to inequality in US immigration law. TTR also asks us to sign the petition for equality under immigration law.

Thanks to a particularly discriminatory aspect of U.S. immigration law, however, should she or any other immediate members of my Korean family wish to immigrate to the United States, I have no right under current U.S. law to sponsor my own blood-related family members’ immigration.

And since Halloween is coming up and so many families love to celebrate the day, i figured i’d share a post from Trying to follow about How not to celebrate Halloween Stereotype Reinforcement Day

Personally, I think Halloween should probably remain only a kids holiday. It was very likely the carnal instinct that we frown upon in our civilized society that thought up the idea of adults dressing up for Halloween. Now, don’t get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with dressing up; costumes can be fun. Yet, take one glance in most costume stores or websites (actually, your better off not glancing), and you’ll find some indications of the worst thinking in our society.

Thanks to all who made this edition of the Erase Racism Carnival possible. Be sure to show some love for Autobiography of a Face who is hosting the next Erase Racism Carnival in November. You can help out by spreading the word about the carnival and submitting posts. If you are interested in hosting a future edition of the carnival, just let me or Rachel know.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 by vegankid and is filed under Carnivals, Racism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.