design constraints

via dontpay2pray, The Lakota Nation has filed suit against James Ray, Angel Valley and the United States government citing the Laramie treaty of 1868.

actual filing in pdf format.

local sedona newspaper article.

xposted.

http://brownfolks.blogspot.com/2009/11/gloves-come-off-islamophobia-in-lilburn.html

Tonight in Lilburn, GA, an angry group of Islamophobes have turned on their Muslim neighbors and sought to enshrine their bigotry in law by denying a local mosque the right to expand and build a cemetery. Sadly, the city's Planning Commission sided with the angry mob.

( Read more... )

I remember the murder of Marwa El Sherbini being posted about here before.

I thought some people might be interested to learn that her killer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison without possibility of parole, which is the maximum possible penalty for murder in Germany.

(NYTimes article link)

November 9, 2009
Adopted From Korea and in Search of Identity
By RON NIXON

As a child, Kim Eun Mi Young hated being different.

When her father brought home toys, a record and a picture book on South Korea, the country from which she was adopted in 1961, she ignored them.

Growing up in Georgia, Kansas and Hawaii, in a military family, she would date only white teenagers, even when Asian boys were around.

“At no time did I consider myself anything other than white,” said Ms. Young, 48, who lives in San Antonio. “I had no sense of any identity as a Korean woman. Dating an Asian man would have forced me to accept who I was.”

It was not until she was in her 30s that she began to explore her Korean heritage. One night, after going out to celebrate with her husband at the time, she says she broke down and began crying uncontrollably.

“I remember sitting there thinking, where is my mother? Why did she leave me? Why couldn’t she struggle to keep me?” she said. “That was the beginning of my journey to find out who I am.”

( Read more... )

More proof that systemic racism can be just as harmful as intentional racism.

A composition manifests the intentional putting together of elements that had not been put together before, in such a way that the elements together do something that none of the elements would do apart. Compositions are created by composers. A composer thus explicitly thinks and acts from desire: "to bring about that which without the composer and human intent would not happen." (H Brün)

Anyone could have such an intention and act on it, whether or not anyone else approves, or acknowledges, or encourages, or gives permission. The general intention (to bring about that which without you would not happen), and the particular intentions you may have for a particular composition project are defined by you, the composer. Even the standards for judging the success or value of a composition project could be defined by the project, and thus by you, the composer.

--excerpt of the "abstract" for my presentation in Xalapa, written Aug 31

...

Even at the time I wondered about the "whether or not" section -- it was a particular limb I was going out on with that.

Now in a turbulence of mood, nest, spark, muse, imaginary addressee, what-for, for-the-sake-of, cause-minus-one, pretext--supposed necessary conditions of work--I think of nudging compositional intention in even less hospitable conditions. Tra la.

...

Favorite line from Where the Wild Things Are movie (besides the toothless vampire story): "That was my favorite arm."

As a follow-up to Shopping While Black, here's Shopping While Muslim:

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In Lilburn, GA, a mosque seeking to expand and add a cemetery to accommodate its members faces opposition from local non-Muslims. There is a good, detailed article about that here. Here are some direct quotes from residents as to why they oppose the mosque expansion:

• “This is about hurting our community, this is about hurting our kids”
• “I just don't like Muslims and I don't want them taking over our neighborhood”
• “This is not what Lilburn needs. This is a Christian community, and they are anti-Christian.”

(real quotes from CBS Channel 9 and The Gwinnett Daily Post) According to the CBS piece, three people also told the reporter that they opposed the mosque because--in their own words--they were racist.

A completely separate mosque in neighboring Lawrenceville, GA is also facing a similar issue, with residents holding similarly racist views, saying things like "They are trying to turn a neighborhood into a mosque."

For those in the metro Atlanta area who wish to get involved in supporting the mosques and fighting Islamophobia, please leave a comment or message me - we need your support, and have an event planned for this month (November).

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In other recent news, please read about the censorship of an article about "how white gay activists can become complicit with this agenda by painting Islam as inherently homophobic and misogynist, and appointing themselves as the saviours of non-white queers." For more on this subject, see the following:
-OutRage!ous Censorship of "Gay Imperialism"
-Whitewashing gay culture in Lebanon
-'Stop using Palestinian gays to whitewash Israel's image'

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Finally, here is a great book review titled "Orientalism and Islamophobia in the American left," which deals with anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia not just in the American right, but amongst white liberals and intellectuals as well.

x-posted to ap_racism

Note: I'd like the discussions here to please stay away from unhelpful garbage like "wow Koreans are even more racist/sexist than Americans" and such.

ETA: I posted this to debunkingwhite because I believe it's indicative of how a western (aka white) POV can mix several different issues (xenophobia, nationalism, racism, etc) in a manner that serves to emphasize how much more racist some other race/ethnicity is, which in turn silently reinforces the notion that white racism isn't the real problem.

Original NYTimes article here.

November 2, 2009
South Koreans Struggle With Race
By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL — On the evening of July 10, Bonogit Hussain, a 29-year-old Indian man, and Hahn Ji-seon, a female Korean friend, were riding a bus near Seoul when a man in the back began hurling racial and sexist slurs at them.

The situation would be a familiar one to many Korean women who have dated or even — as in Ms. Hahn’s case — simply traveled in the company of a foreign man.

What was different this time, however, was that, once it was reported in the South Korean media, prosecutors sprang into action, charging the man they have identified only as a 31-year-old Mr. Park with contempt, the first time such charges had been applied to an alleged racist offense. Spurred by the case, which is pending in court, rival political parties in Parliament have begun drafting legislation that for the first time would provide a detailed definition of discrimination by race and ethnicity and impose criminal penalties.
( Read more... )

It's somewhat encouraging to see the mainstream media talking about racial attitudes from a non black/white focus, but I was still disappointed that they only mentioned the white colonialist impact in passing and didn't even bother to try to understand where it came from.

Dear debunkingwhite community,

Over the years I have learned so much from being a (mostly silent) member of this community. I do my best to be a white ally. I recognize that my actions may be flawed, but I am trying to educate myself and manage my privilege as best I can.

This is to set you up for the fact that I found three dreamcatchers among my possessions when I moved, and my husband (who is not nearly progressive) asked me how I justified dreamcatchers when I generally try to be so careful against appropriating things.

And I didn't have a good response. Dreamcatchers had been introduced to me at summer camp, and I had never thought critically about them. One is from a dear aunt, one is from pledging for the "hippie" fraternity at college, and one was a gift from a dear friend. I kept them as souveniers and didn't make the connection that they were, in fact, important cultural symbols.

So now what? Do I just throw them in the trash and apologize? Do I send them to a museum? Do I take them apart and use the pieces for other art projects?

My other question concerns smudging. On Sunday, five white liberals including myself bought sage bundles from the health food store to smudge our apartments. I took home the bundle to read some pretty horrible text on the back of the package, which made me realize how wrong it was to appropriate this tradition. Now what?

I realize that this post has Fail all over it, but I'd like to move forward in the most respectful way possible.

Any advice?

Young Muslims step in police's shoes

On the fifth floor of Scotland Yard in central London, live video feeds are coming in with news of a terror threat.

The 30 people in the room are forced to make decisions that could change lives - which homes do they raid? Who do they stop and search?

But they are not counter-terror officers, in fact many of them are not even sure they trust the police.

They are 17 to 25-year-olds from around London, nearly all of them Muslim, and they are acting as if they are officers responding to a terror attack as part of Act Now, an exercise run as part of the government's £140m Prevent programme.

It aims to stop young people feeling isolated or having mistrust for authorities - targeting those that the government and the police agree are vulnerable to radicalisation.


Youths had to face the decisions anti-terror police make in an instant

What do people think?
Wouldn't it be better for the police to step into the shoes of the Muslim youth? Rather than asking "see why we harass you?" Or am I being too cynical?