A blog about baking, linguistics, my life, and anything else that I happen to be interested in. ^_^
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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
‘The Sikh Pioneers of North America’: The Punjabi-Mexican Americans of California
In California at the turn of the 20th century, a community grew in southern California with an interesting history: Punjabi-Mexican families of the Imperial Valley. This unique community stemmed from the effects of British colonialism, transnational labor immigration & American economic opportunity (and American anti-Asian discrimination laws). Many multi-generational families in the area today can trace their multicultural and multiethnic histories back over a hundred years, and refer to themselves as “Mexican Hindus”, “Hindu” or “East Indian” today.
Totally fascinating. I love learning about these obscure corners of American history.
I agree! Yay! I learned something new. ^_^
I want to scream in frustration.
Have you ever been so consumed by some powerful emotion that you literally felt a scream building up in your body, but you were unable to release it?
That’s how I felt when I read this quote from The Marriage Vow that was signed by Michelle Bachman and Rick Santorum:
”Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.“
As well as this quote from Rep. Trent Franks:
“Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery.”
Oh, my goodness? Have these people never read a history book?
Africans have been in North America ever since 1526 (thanks to the Spanish and later the French)! (They’ve been in the America’s since the late 1300’s.)
I wonder if Ms. Bachman, Mr. Santorum and Mr. Franks, as well as other members of the revisionist-loving GOP, knows that slaves were chattel in 1860? Their human-ness was denied. They weren’t citizens! Their languages, cultures, customs, religions, ethnic identities, hair (which was tied to religion, status and ethnic identity), clothes, jewelry, children, husbands, wives, families, were stripped from them. Most were not allowed to wed. Do they even know what jumping the broom is or it’s relevance?
How about the fact that you would be killed if you were literate or kept up with African/Islamic religious practices?
How about the fact that it is well-documented that children and families were routinely sold, thus severing familial bonds? How about the fact the women and men were sterilized, or that women were purposefully raped by non-Africans or forced to have sex with another slave in order to breed larger, stronger (read: male) slaves? How about the fact that many men and women purposefully committed suicide or aborted their children if only to prevent them from being born into slavery?
How about the fact that that these ignorant, selfish, condescending, vile, words I can’t say, are basically trying to re-write my family’s history, the history of this country, freak, the history of several countries? (I’m Native American as well.)
And on top of all that, they—mainly Franks—are stating that life was better for my great-grandfather who had to buy his own freedom and my great-grandmother whose people faced several (successful) attempts at genocide, than I currently am in the 21st century under our current President.
Just let that sink in.
To quote a spokesperson for the DCCC, “To compare the horrors and inhumane treatment of millions of African Americans during slavery as a better way of life for African Americans today is beyond repulsive. […] it is astonishing that a thought such as this would come to mind, let alone be shared.”
However, what irks me even more is that there are different groups of people, including a limited number of African Americans—Praise God for small favors!—who agree with Ms. Bachman, Mr. Santorum and Mr. Franks view of “history.”
Wow.
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UPDATE:
Sorry, I wrote that Ms. Bachman stated the false two-parent “statistic,” rather, I meant to say that she signed a document that included the quotation above. Here is the document for The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMILY should any of you wish to read it.
It’s a mind trip for women, religious groups of all kinds, “minorities,” and the LGBT community. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to address the other problems with this “conservative pledge,” but I was out of my mind at the time. I’ll have to revisit my thoughts on this so-called pledge when I am no longer emotionally conflicted and can think rationally.
F*** all the things!
3-fifths-human-5-fifths-awesome:
Just when I thought the “History Channel” couldn’t get any worse…
They’re showing something about ancient technology, and they’re talking about the Egyptians. Apparently some archaeologists unearthed, from some old ass crypt, what they initially thought to be a carving of a bird…decades later, someone realized…OH SHIT, that it was in fact a carving of a glider, similar to those we use in modern times.
The obvious question then became: “Were the Ancient Egyptians stumbling upon the power of flight?” So they built a scale replica of the ancient glider and test it.
The shit flew.
And instead of being like, “Oh, fuck…they really may have been about to fly.” Instead of giving them a little bit of credit. They took the
THERE’S NO WAY THOSE BROWN PEOPLE COULD HAVE BEGUN MASTERING FLIGHT…THEY’RE BROOOOWN! ALIENS! ALIENS CAME DOWN AND TAUGHT THEM HOW TO BUILD GLIDERS! YES!
It wasn’t that long ago—literally, less than 15 years—that academia decried the accomplishments of “brown” people by stating that their conquerors “taught” them or “educated” them or brought “civilization” to them. (To this day, in 2011, people will deny this; however, we in the West have a lovely habit of documenting our own ignorance.) However, by that logic, that means that Europeans were slow, dimwitted and uncivilized until they were “taught” by their various African and Asian conquerors. (Now what, academia?)
However, modern “historians” have expanded this sort of thinking to all ancient peoples. Apparently, all of our ancestors were so ignorant that they couldn’t have possibly been intelligent enough, curious enough or clever enough to invent/improve upon their own technology.
We are well aware that the ancient world held education in high esteem, so I have no idea why the same people who decry the existence of aliens would then assign human advancement to non-existent beings. Which just proves my theory that humans (including myself) are naturally idiotic, regardless of what century we live in.
I’m done. ::headdesk::
(Source: ida-b-wells-b-whippin-yo-ass)
The elders of my family told me stories about the Tuskegee Airmen when I was little. It’s amazing to see their stories played out in a major movie.
According to my co-worker, there have been 5 movies about the Tuskegee Airmen…I don’t remember any. So, yay! That’s cool too.
I sincerely hope that people will watch this movie because of what it has to offer and the the people who are being honored by it; rather than just thinking of it as a black film and casting it off.
Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
Benin Bronzes
Image taken from the The Art of Benin Paula Ben-Amos
This is an illustrated introduction to the art and history of the ancient kingdom of Benin from the 14th century to the 20th century, one of the most sophisticated kingdoms in Africa.
liquornspice:
@deluxvivens told me about this website on twitter today, weyanoke.org, that seems pretty awesome. It’s an organization that documents the history of African-Native people in Virginia and tries to bridge gaps between the Black and Native communities of the area. There’s been a lot of tension between the those communities in more recent generations. One of the site’s organizer’s explains:
We did learn the reason for the antagonism. Some of the Chickahominy - as is the case with some other Virginia tribes - resist the idea of having relatives in the Black community, probably supposing, with ample historical precedent, that the White community will consider them less ‘Indian’ if they admit to having them. After all, Walter Ashby Plecker’s statement as head of Virginia’s Department of Vital Records that there are no more Indians in the state, and his policy of deliberate alteration of state records to reflect his opinion, were not that long ago. Many of their ‘Black’ relatives, in turn, aren’t happy about having been chopped off the family tree.
Which is pretty much the standard story all around the US. Tribes lose federal recognition if they become too “Black.”
(Source: blackraincloud)
THIS is why I don’t call Black people, ‘niggas’.
1955 photograph of the mutilated body of 14 year-old Emmett Till, published in JET Magazine
Young Emmett was visiting family in a small town in Mississippi, and as he was leaving a store he spoke to the woman behind the counter, the wife of the owner. She was a white woman, he was a black teenager in the South. Not long after that, the store owner and his half-brother took Emmett from his great-uncle’s house, took him to a barn, shot him, beat him, gouged out one of his eyes, and threw his body in a river. The murderers were acquitted by a jury of white men, and protected by double jeopardy, admitted to the crime in a magazine a year later. His mother, Mamie, ignored those who told her to not open Emmett’s closed casket. She insisted on an open-casket funeral, so the world could see what had been done to her son. Sadly, not enough people have heard of Emmett. It’s a heartbreaking story of racism in the South.
My grandma and her family is/were friends with his family. They were play-cousins. (For those who don’t know, that’s someone who isn’t a blood relation, but you act like family.) They lived in the same town in Chicago. She told me how terrified people were, of all ethnic groups, when this happened. Sadly, my grandma’s cousin (blood relation) ended up being lynched not so long after this.
