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Scholars against Scientific Racism

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Open letter from scholars opposed to scientific racism

We are a group of 72 scholars (and counting) opposed to scientific racism - the use of science or social science to argue that a racialized group is inferior. Jason Richwine’s dissertation is an example of scientific racism and this work has no place in twenty-first century academia.

In 2009, Jason Richwine successfully defended a dissertation at Harvard University where he wrote that Hispanic immigrants have a substantially lower I.Q. than the white native-born population and that, because of the hereditary nature of I.Q., this fact should be taken into consideration when designing immigration policy. In May 2013, Richwine’s views came under public scrutiny after he co-authored an immigration policy report for the Heritage Foundation.

Richwine’s dissertation is problematic for three reasons: 1) it is part of a tradition of scientific racism; 2) it is based on discredited ideas of intelligence testing; and 3) it relies on an unscientific relationship between racialized categories and genetic makeup. Ideas of racial inferiority have been used justify slavery, forced sterilizations, the Holocaust, and all forms of contemporary racism and sexism. These ideas have no place in 21st century social science because of their historical use to justify genocide and mass sterilization and their lack of scientific rigor.

Richwine makes a connection between the genetic makeup of Hispanics and their I.Q. However, there is no genetic basis for racialized differences. And, Hispanic is an ethnic category made up of people of every racialized category. A Hispanic is a person with roots in Latin America who lives in the United States. Their ancestry could include people from any continent. The claim that Hispanics share a genetic makeup that could differentiate them from white Americans is not debatable; it is untenable.

Intelligence testing is also deeply flawed. Stephen Jay Gould points out that the primary error in intelligence testing is that of reification – making intelligence into something by measuring it. Intelligence tests attempt to measure a wide range of abilities. The score on these tests is named an “intelligence quotient” or I.Q. Gould contends that these tests are flawed and do not meet their stated goal of measuring innate intellectual ability.

To the extent that it is true that Hispanic immigrants score lower on these tests than white Americans, this is a result of unequal educational opportunities, not genetics. Diego von Vacano, a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School, points out that

“the rudimentary statistical analysis of the kind that Richwine carried out ignores the important interface between social realities and genetics. … [I.Q. scores] reflect the intertwining of some aspects of mental capacity with education, life experiences, socioeconomic status, and other contingent contexts.”

Despite the fact that this perspective is widely accepted among scholars, Richwine chose to rely on the scientific racism tradition of his discredited predecessors, such as Charles Murray and J. Philippe Rushton, and attributed the differences to genetics. His argument that I.Q. scores should inform immigration policy hearkens back to the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century – during which time about 60,000 people were forcibly sterilized in the United States, on the basis of their purported intellectual unfitness.

As academics, we find it appalling that, in 2009, three professors at Harvard University were willing to guide and approve a dissertation in this academic tradition. There are three central problems with Richwine’s work that should not pass muster in any dissertation committee: 1) the argument that I.Q. scores are an indication of innate intelligence; and 2) the assertion that I.Q. is a genetic trait; and 3) the presumption that Hispanics, as a group, share a genetic makeup. All these ideas have been discredited and all are linked to an unfortunate history of scientific racism.

The idea that I.Q. scores could be a reflection of a heritable trait is one of the pernicious ideas that led to the Holocaust as well as eugenics programs and restrictive immigration policies in the United States and elsewhere. Apart from its ugly history, scientists do not have a clear understanding of the extent to which intelligence may be a heritable trait. Even if some aspects of intelligence are based on heritable traits, there is no doubt that environmental factors shape one’s ability to score highly on an intelligence test. Nevertheless, in his dissertation, Richwine eschews this evidence and argues that “the low average IQ of Hispanics is effectively permanent.”

It is clear that Richwine’s dissertation is thin – with weak statistical analyses and a literature review that relies too heavily on racist and substandard publications by Charles Murray, Richard Herrnstein, and Philippe Rushton. But, this dissertation should never have been written in the first place. Before Jason Richwine began the work that was to be his dissertation, he would have had to consult with scholars in his department to ask them if they would be on his doctoral committee. At that point, they should have explained to him that this work carries on the tradition of scientific racism, and has no place in twenty-first century scholarship. Instead, three scholars - George Borjas, Richard Zeckhauser, and Christopher Jencks - agreed to supervise this scientifically racist dissertation and approved granting him a PhD degree from Harvard University.

Dean Ellwood at Harvard Kennedy School takes the position that this dissertation is part of an academic debate. We are not against academic freedom. However, there is no academic debate on whether or not Hispanics as a group are less intelligent than native-born whites. There are debates on whether or not Hispanic is a pan-ethnic, ethnic, or racialized category. There are debates on how and whether or why we should measure intelligence. There are debates on the extent to which intelligence is a heritable trait. But, there are no debates on whether or not Latino immigrants have the intellectual caliber to be part of the United States. Those kinds of debates happen in nativist and white supremacist circles, which have no place in academia, which prizes arguments and debates based on valid constructs and scientific evidence.

Intwentyfuckenthirteenthough? What is wrong with the world?! Harvard????

(via hearts-alive)

1 day ago 206 notes

todayinhistory:

May 17th 1954: Brown v. Board of Education

On this day in 1954, the US Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The decision declared segregation on grounds of race in schools unconstitutional. The ruling overturned the 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson which allowed segregation under the doctrine ‘separate but equal’. The case had been bought by African-American parents, including Oliver L. Brown, against Topeka’s educational segregation. It was argued before the Court by the chief legal counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): Thurgood Marshall, who became the first African-American Supreme Court justice in 1967. The Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, declared that segregation violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The landmark decision is considered the start of the Civil Rights Movement which led to racial integration and full legal rights for African-Americans.

“We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”
- Warren’s opinion for the Court

(via pbsthisdayinhistory)

2 days ago 650 notes

Anti-Black Prejudices in Tunisia: Breaking Down Taboos

dynamicafrica:

“Blacks are our brothers and friends. They are good luck charms for me, a source of blessing,’’ said Walid Ezzaraa, a Tunisian TV presenter, on Monday’s “Bila Moujamala” program.

Such a statement is perceived by some as treading the slippery slope of racial generalization, deeply ingrained in the Tunisian culture. A black is reduced to a good luck charm that blesses people when their paths cross.

Among the stereotypes foisted upon Tunisian blacks are their societal roles as evil repellents and talismans as well as their sexually potent, lazy, and unmotivated personality.

“I went to a neighbor’s marriage, and during the ceremony one of the white relatives of my neighbor came to me asking if I wanted to ride the horse in the feast (the horse is always present in southern traditional marriages over which they put the dowries of the bride). I refused as I became aware of my mother’s warning,” said Abdul Malek Tayeb, a young man from Gabes.

‘Never say yes to them if they ask you to ride the horse, they will be looking for a black to ride it, this is part of their traditions’ was the admonishment of Tayeb’s mother.

“In fact, they were looking for a black to do that in order to meet their racist traditions,” he stated in regards to the incident.

In southern Tunisian weddings, blacks are considered as part of the decorations of the ceremony. A Black woman is needed to dye the bride’s hands with henna, take care of her, and accompany her in order to cast away and avert evil.

Racism for many Tunisian blacks is a daily routine. Bullying and name-calling with epithets like Wsif, Zombak, Kahla, Shoushen, Guira Guira, and Negrita are recurrent incidents for almost all Blacks.

“I was standing in the street of Kheireddine Pacha in Tunis, waiting for a taxi, and a man came to take a cab too. A taxi came, and the man tried to take it before me, though I had been the first one raising my hand to hail the taxi. The taxi driver told me blatantly that he would prefer having his Tunisian brother in the cab than a black woman,” said Sarah Intitoury. “I couldn’t react. I just let them go,” she added.

Blacks in Tunisia are mostly thought to be former slaves. Yet, according to historians like Habib Larguesh, there are indigenous blacks native to North Africa, who were never displaced or enslaved.

“Slavery is not uniquely related to blacks. There were many white slaves, who were called Mamlouk, but after being freed, those Mamlouk went from being former slaves to acquiring a social category while Black former slaves went to a racial category, which is as freed slaves,” said Salah Trabelsi, a Tunisian historian.

“166 years now since the abolition of slavery, yet still, the Tunisian society is soaked in racism and intolerance,” said Trabelsi.

Today, many Blacks in Tunisia still bear the legacy of slavery in their identity cards. Some have written in their cards “X, emancipated slave of Y,” or, for instance, Ahmed Atig (freed slave of) Ben Yedder.

“Why should this past keep haunting him (the slave) and his grandchildren?” asked Sana Bent Khayat from Djerba. Many blacks in Djerba still shudder at this anachronistic reference in their identity cards.

Marouen Mahroug, a white Tunisian from the island of Djerba, denied any kind of racism in his island. “I think that the issue of racism in our island is approximately absent in general. In terms of color, it proves to be totally absent since we do have a good atmosphere where white and black Djerbians co-exist without any problem. On the contrary, I think we enjoy our life together, especially if we remind ourselves that “black” Djerbians really have a specific sense of humour,” said Mahroug.

Trabelsi traced the problem to a whole social ailment that is due to the lack of freedom of individuals in a country that is still looking for its identity, autonomy, and true self. “Stripped out of its primary sources, Tunisia is still under construction, and now after the revolution people still did not fully grasp the meaning of who they are,” stated Trabelsi.

The racial climate in Tunisia can be summed up in the problem of an identity crisis. Asia Turner, an African-American woman who lived in Tunisia for 4 months, came to the conclusion that it is all about “a singular and close-minded ideal of what it means to be Tunisian.”

In her four month stay, she managed to see how people reduce the richness of their culture to believe that Tunisians are Arab people or they try “to align themselves with a more European identity, but it doesn’t really cross their mind that Tunisians can be black people too or Tunisians can be Asian or anything other than Arab and white.”

“I think that Tunisians are receptive to the idea that other Tunisians may not be Muslim… So in that way, they acknowledge religious diversity in their country, yet I doubt they acknowledge the racial diversity in the same way,” said Turner.

Tunisians, Trabelsi says, are stuck in a mental “ghetto” that fixes both whites and blacks in a certain rank to which a majority of both blacks and whites subscribe. “Many blacks now do not encourage other blacks as they believe that they are not meant for a certain higher class and thus will try to hinder their way,” stated Trabelsi. In such a way, black Tunisians may be doomed to not rise above the social class that is preset for them.

Being black and beautiful, black and smart, or black and rich are controversial combinations that mostly shock white Tunisians. According to some Tunisians, blacks ought to remain inferior to whites. “For blacks to be smarter than them (whites) is an offence in Tunisia. A white person can accept that another white person is better than him, but if this man turns out to be black, that is very offensive and can be very frustrating and insulting in their mind,” said Ali Rahali from Gabes.

Turner recounted that during her 4 months in Tunisia, Tunisians always questioned her, thinking that she must be from Senegal or Nigeria. At first, she thought it was so because she did not speak the language, and therefore people could tell that she was not Tunisian.

“But then in my talks with black Tunisians, they shared with me that even though they speak the local language and some even wear the headscarf, they are still perceived to be foreigners in their own country. So, with this said, I believe the root of the problem is a singular idea of Tunisian identity,” stated Turner.

“I lived with two host families, and they socialized often and brought people to their home, yet I never saw a black person welcomed into their home. Tunisians I spoke with always said they had black friends they went to school with, but honestly I think those black friends were just classmates and they probably don’t engage with them much outside of their classroom, university setting. There’s an issue of denial. Blacks are to a degree well-assimilated into the culture, and I often heard people say that there was no racism because blacks are in the schools and universities,” stated Turner.

Despite her different language and style, which clearly marked her as different, Turner said that being black added another layer to her experience in Tunisia and made her a target to racist remarks in public spaces.

“I can’t necessarily say that every incident was racist (…) I think I had some different experiences as foreigner compared to all my other classmates that were not black,” she said.

According to Trabelsi, instances of racism are used by their perpetrators as a method to affirm their own identity.

“In the struggle of the individual to establish his identity, some Tunisians are creating binary oppositions to establish themselves as individuals,” he concluded.

submitted by http://the13thcatsmeow.tumblr.com/

Not the most politically correct/sensitively worded article but a real eye-opener to the climate of anti-black racism in Tunisia.

Interesting.

5 days ago 59 notes

thepeoplesrecord:

Today (May 9, 2013) is the 66th anniversary of the start of the first Freedom Ride.

It was called the Journey of Reconciliation, and white & black activists rode (otherwise) segregated buses through four southern states.

The interstate bus ride, lasted from April 9-23, and was designed to test the June 3, 1946 Supreme Court ruling that said Black passengers could not be forced to sit at the back of the bus. Bayard Rustin, a 101 Changemaker, participated in and helped to organize the ride. The riders were arrested several times.

Later rides and riders would be violently attacked by racist mobs.

Read more in: 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History.

Source

(via michaelbyrd)

1 week ago 562 notes

thepeoplesrecord:

A year after Ramarley Graham’s murder, a movement against police brutality grows
February 6, 2013

On February 1, 2012, 18-year-old Ramarley Graham was gunned down in his own home by New York City police in front of his grandmother and 6-year-old brother. The unarmed black teenager was killed with a bullet to the chest by officer Richard Haste after police broke into his family’s apartment claiming Graham had a gun.

On Friday, the one year anniversary of Graham’s murder, his family filed a suit against Haste, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and other officers for use of the discriminatory stop-and-frisk tactic and for allegedly covering up evidence from the day their son was murdered.

Unlike many other cases surrounding police violence, Haste faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on first and second degree murder charges; he is the first NYPD officer to face criminal charges for a fatal shooting since 2007 when three officers were indicted for the murder of Sean Bell, another black victim who was shot 50 times.

Police violence hits communities of color

Graham’s murder is a familiar nightmare to many communities across the United States terrorized by police violence. From Harlem to Oakland, youth are subjected to legalized racial profiling, known as stop-and-frisk, which disproportionately targets 87 percent black and Latino people. Harassment and violence from area police forces have been a reality for communities of color for decades.

But families rarely see justice for their slain loved ones; officers typically receive what amounts to a slap on the wrist with paid leave. One such instance was the murder of black Oakland teenager Alan Blueford, who was shot three times by Oakland police and left dead in the street for four hours in May 2012, weeks before Blueford was set to graduate from high school.

Another was the shooting of Anaheim resident Manuel Diaz in July 2012. During a chase, police shot Diaz once in the leg and another time in the back of his head. Two days later, Anaheim police shot and killed Joel Acevedo during a car chase. Community members were outraged at the killings and demanded justice. According to Orange County DA records, there were 40 shootings by Anaheim police from 2003 to February 2011. Not one officer has been charged.

In New York City, incidents like these without reprimand occur all too often. Last June, NYPD narcotics detective Phillip Atkins shot 23-year-old Shantel Davis in the chest as the unarmed woman held her arms up crying out, “Don’t shoot me.” In September, NYPD officers opened fire and killed 20-year-old Reynaldo Cuevas as his Bronx bodega was being robbed. A month later, Noel Polanco was shot point blank after he was pulled over in his neighborhood in Queens.

The NYPD has led the way in police violence, paying a staggering $550 million to settle 8,882 lawsuits in 2011 alone. At the beginning of this year, a Manhattan Federal Court judge ruled that the tactic of stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional outside private residential buildings. However, shortly after, another judge lifted the ban on stops and searches of “suspicious looking people,” allowing stop-and-frisk to continue until the case goes to trial in March.

Families organize for justice

Families afflicted by police violence have responded by brewing up a social justice movement to put an end to unwarranted searches, frisks and shootings. Communities are organizing, storming courtrooms and police precincts to demand accountability and justice for the brutal acts. Organizations like All Things Harlem, Stop Police Brutality and NYCresistance are developing tactics to counter and prevent these attacks in their neighborhoods.

Activist Joseph “Jazz” Hayden of All Things Harlem has created a network of resistance by documenting police interactions and has been a strong voice against NYPD racial profiling and violence. Although he has directly been targeted by police for filming arrests and harassment in his neighborhood, Hayden continues to share incriminating videos of officers in an attempt to hold police responsible for civil liberties violations.

“Police violence in our black and brown communities isn’t anything new. They have tried to incriminate our youth, but we aren’t backing down,” Hayden said. “We have to continue to fight for our futures.”

Baltimore civil rights activist Reverend Annie Chambers has been a leading anti-police brutality advocate, organizing community members and families ever since her great grandson was murdered near her home in a case of mistaken identity.

“You look outside my window and see police cars at any time of the day,” Chambers said. “I have seen them with their brutality over and over again. Young people are now at the part where they won’t take it anymore.”

And now, family members of the slain are increasingly taking the justice system into their own hands. Ramarley Graham’s parents continue, one year on, to lead marches to police precincts reminiscent of the Civil Rights era, not only in remembrance of their son but for all those who have died at the hands of uniformed officers.

Alan Blueford’s parents have created Justice 4 Alan Blueford and hold weekly meetings to end racial profiling and police violence in the Bay Area.

Their case, and similar ones, are now pushing law enforcement officers into the national discussion about gun control and violence, spurring a new form of resistance by communities and neighborhoods long terrorized by unaccountable police brutality.

- Graciela
for Occupy.com

Hectic.

(via hearts-alive)

1 week ago 523 notes

In New Job, Italy’s First Black Minister Confronts Culture of Casual Racism | TIME.com

dynamicafrica:

Cecile Kyenge, Italyâs first black government minister, proposes a law that would give citizenship to the children of immigrants if they are born on Italian soil.

Born in the Congo, Kyenge moved to Italy in the 1980s to study medicine in Rome, before obtaining a position in a hospital in Modena. She met her husband, a native Italian with whom she has two children, after he underwent surgery in her department. Kyenge was at the forefront of a dramatic demographic shift in Italy. As recently as 1991, just 1 in 100 residents held a foreign passport. Today, it’s 1 out of every 12. For every five children delivered in the country, one is born to a foreign parent. Unlike Kyenge, most of Italy’s recent arrivals are poor and employed in jobs that Italians refuse: construction workers, maids, caregivers for the elderly. The foreign-born middle class has yet to establish itself, while the first generation of immigrant children born and educated in the country is just moving into the workforce.

While Italians don’t like to think of their country as racist, the experience of non-white Italians and resident immigrants illustrates a culture that has found it hard to welcome increasing diversity. “How many times have I been told, ‘You’re so beautiful, you don’t even seem truly black?’” says Medhin Paolos, 23, an Italian of Eritrean descent and a member of Rete G2, a group campaigning for a reform of Italy’s citizenship laws. “Where I come from, this is not a compliment.”

A study by the University of Messina and the anti-discrimination group ARCI found that a substantial majority of the children of immigrants reported being insulted on the streets, talked down to by teachers, watched with suspicion in shops, turned away from restaurants and treated rudely by immigration officials. In 2002, the Italian government passed a law requiring all non-Italian residents to have their fingerprints taken, as part of the process for applying for residency.

“There’s the idea that black people stink,” says Jean Zongo, 28, the son of African immigrants. There was a period when he was younger, Zongo was afraid to take the bus at night, for fear of encountering racial violence. More than once, he has climbed aboard to hear a group of young men grunting like monkeys. It’s a charmless display of racism that has migrated from Italy’s soccer stadiums — where Mario Balotelli, the Italian football star of Ghanaian heritage, has famously faced chants of “There’s no such thing as a black Italian” — to youth culture at large. Zongo has traveled to France, Spain and England. Only in his own country, he says, is he made to feel second class. “[Discrimination] is present in just about every aspect of life, in every circumstance,” he says.

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/05/06/italys-first-black-minister/#ixzz2SalzwVpL

1 week ago 101 notes

…a few of advertising’s greatest hits on people of color.

…a few of advertising’s greatest hits on people of color.

(Source: thesmithian)

1 week ago 43 notes

peopleofthesouth:

Southern Africa’s first multiracial school celebrates 50 triumphant years

Waterford school in Swaziland reflects on its historic role with a series of parades and tributes from students old and new.

Russell Palmer, a journalist from South Africa, described it as like landing on another planet, a feeling of having suddenly arrived in an environment so different from what he has known that there is overwhelming bewilderment. The place was Waterford school, just 14 miles across the border in Swaziland, but a brave new world in its attitude to race.

The first multiracial school in southern Africa was born in direct opposition to the apartheid regime, which branded it “sick” and “unnatural”, and became a haven for the children of struggle leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Desmond Tutu. On Saturday it celebrated its 50th anniversary with colourful parades, performances and reflections on its courageous role in the continent’s history.

“We were here during the era of apartheid and this school was an absolute beacon of what was to come,” former student Amanda West, a last-minute replacement for Tutu as guest speaker after he withdrew due to illness, told a gathering of alumni, donors and teachers past and present. “As a student population we were wildly involved in the politics … This is an astounding place.”

Eighty-six nationalities have studied there over the years and most were represented in a sports field parade featuring students in national dress and speaking national languages. Although it ran the gamut from Angola to Zimbabwe, the biggest cheer was reserved for the Swazi delegation.

2 weeks ago 5 notes

nok-ind:

Great Zimbabwe

The first travelers to set their eyes upon the great Zimbabwe said:

“Among the gold mines of the inland plains between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers [there is a]…fortress built of stones of marvelous size, and there appears to be no mortar joining them…. This edifice is almost surrounded by hills, upon which are others resembling it in the fashioning of stone and the absence of mortar, and one of them is a tower more than 12 fathoms high. The natives of the country call these edifices Symbaoe, which according to their language signifies court.—Viçente Pegado,”. Captain, Portuguese Garrison of Sofala, 1531

Early foreign Ignorance

When Portuguese traders first encountered the vast stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe in the sixteenth century, they believed they had found the fabled capital of the Queen of Sheba. Later travelers surmised that the site’s impressive stone structures were the work of Egyptians, Phoenicians, or even Prester John, the legendary Christian king of lands beyond the Islamic realm. Such Eurocentric misguided and romantic speculation held for nearly 400 years, until the excavations of British archaeologists David Randall-MacIver and Gertrude Caton-Thompson early in this century, which confirmed that the ruins were of African origin.

Great Zimbabwe

The largest ancient stone construction south of the Sahara, Great Zimbabwe was built between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries by the ancestors of the Shona, one of Zimbabwe’s many Bantu-speaking groups. The ruins cover nearly 1,800 acres and can be divided into three distinct architectural groupings known as the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex, and the Great Enclosure. At its apogee in the late fourteenth century, Great Zimbabwe may have had as many as 18,000 inhabitants. It was one of some 300 known stone enclosure sites on the Zimbabwe Plateau. In Bantu, zimbabwe means “sacred house” or “ritual seat of a king.” An important trading center and capital of the medieval Zimbabwe state, the city controlled much of interior southeast Africa for nearly two centuries.

Fallacies and distortion of history

In 1890, British imperialist and colonizer Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) Who conquered a large portion of southern Africa and had the region named after himself. Northern Rhodesia (modern Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe) which came under British control and Rhodes argued that the Great Zimbabwe monuments were built by foreigners. To promote his goal of misrepresenting the origins of Zimbabwe, Rhodes established the Ancient Ruins Company and financed men such as James Theodore Bent, who was sent to Zimbabwe by the British Association of Science, and sponsored by Rhodes. After his investigation Bent concluded in his book, Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1892), that items found within the Great Zimbabwe complex “proved” that the civilization was not build by local Africans. This was done irrespective of Rhodes having full knowledge of Africa’s Legacy, knowledge which he used to Gain riches from culturally sacred diamond mines in south Africa after getting the indigenous people there to show him their sacred land. This resulted in Debeers diamonds.

In 1902, the British continued with their falsification agenda as British archaeologist Richard Hall was hired to investigate the Great Zimbabwe site. Hall asserted in his work, The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia (1902), that the civilization was built by “more civilized races” than the Africans. He argued that the last phase of Great Zimbabwe was the transitional and “decadent period,” a time when the foreign builders interbred with local Africans. Hall went out of his way to eliminate archeological evidence which would have proven an indigenous African origin of Great Zimbabwe. He removed about two meters deep of archeological remains, which effectively destroyed the evidence that would have established an indigenous African origin of the site. He condescendingly stated that his goal was to “remove the filth and decadence of Kaffir occupation.”

In 1905, soon after Hall’s destructive activity, British archeologist David Randall-MacIver studied the mud dwellings within the stone enclosures, and he became the first European researcher of the site to assert that the dwellings were “unquestionably African in every detail.” After MacIver’s assertion, which was almost equivalent to blasphemy to the British imperialists, archeologists were banned from the Zimbabwe site for almost 25 years!

Conclusion:

Ian Smith was the last major British colonial figure to falsify evidence of Great Zimbabwe’s origin. After Ian Smith became “prime minister” of Southern Rhodesia. He continued the colonial falsification of Great Zimbabwe’s origins by developing a fake history and a policy of making sure that the official guide books for tourists would show images of Africans bowing down to foreign innovators, who allegedly built Great Zimbabwe. It was not until 1980 that the native Zimbabweans overthrew Smith’s minority government and ended the colonial era. In that year, Robert Mugabe became president and the country was renamed “Zimbabwe,” in honor of the Great Zimbabwe civilization of the past.

This distortion of the history of Zimbabwe has had an enduring legacy. The colonial era (1890 - 1980) had a destructive impact on the daily lives of native Zimbabweans. Not only was their heritage stolen, but the best farmland and resources were also taken by British colonists. This 90 years of domination and oppressive colonial rule was fueled by the ideas of Cecil Rhodes, who wanted to colonize the entire African continent and “to paint the [African] map [British] red.”

This legacy has contributed to some of the modern day problems Zimbabwe faces today.

Given the sheer scale of Great Zimbabwe compared to its precursors, archaeologists have been at a loss to explain its sudden appearance on the southern African landscape. Interpretation of the site poses a particular problem because it was stripped of nearly all its in situ cultural material during the nineteenth century by treasure seekers and those who, believing the site to be of foreign construction, wished, in the words of turn-of-the-century excavator Keith M. Hall, “to free it from the filth and decadence of the Kaffir [South African] occupation.”

Mystery

The abundant grasslands atop the plateau were ideal for cattle grazing, but the poor soil would not have supported agriculture on a scale required to sustain Great Zimbabwe’s burgeoning population, necessitating imports of grain and other staples from distant tributary sites. Moreover, we now know that the plateau’s rich gold deposits, to which the city’s initial prosperity has often been attributed, were not exploited until perhaps a century after its founding. The question posed then is “Why here?” How could such an influential power develop in an area so ill-suited for large-scale human habitation? Could cattle wealth and trade alone have afforded the inhabitants of Great Zimbabwe a superior way of life, or was there something else, a political or religious ideology, that gave them a competitive edge over neighbors and enabled them to harness the manpower necessary for the construction of the site?

In summary do not let people who cannot even comprehend who you are or where you come from define you. You are soo much More, this is the same for everyone irrespective of where your origins lie.

They will not teach you your history because it is laced with things that may cause you to see them in a negative light and it is not in their best interest.

Sources:

http://www.archaeology.org/9807/abstracts/africa.html

http://www.manuampim.com/ZIMBABWE.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/10chapter1.shtml

(via thefemaletyrant)

3 weeks ago 497 notes

Linton Kwesi Johnson on Thatcher

adelinekoh:

dhpoco: “How did Thatcher’s rule impact the black population? In 1979 when the Conservative party won the general election black people were still being treated as third class citizens, if citizens at all. By then we had been engaged in a three decades-long struggle against racial oppression and marginalisation and for racial equality. Although our parents had arrived in Britain as colonial subjects we were still being treated as aliens. The Thatcher years saw an intensification of our struggle for racial justice. Thatcher will be remembered by many black people of my generation as a bigot and a xenophobe who fanned the flames of racial hatred, giving succour to the fascists who were emboldened to carry out terrorist attacks against black and Asian people. When she ranted on about Britain being swamped by alien cultures, it was sweet music to the ears of the National Front/British National Party brigade. As we approach the 32nd anniversary of the Brixton riots this month, my mind goes back to January 1981 when thirteen young black people died in a racist arson attack on a birthday party in New Cross, south-east London. I remember how the atrocity was covered up by the police and the coroner at the hastily convened inquest. I remember how the parents of the deceased were thwarted by the authorities in their quest for justice. I remember the Black Peoples Day of Action when an estimated 20,000 people took to the streets to demand justice and the Brixton riots that came a month later. I recall the Tottenham riots of 1985 which, like the Brixton riots of 1981 and those 2011, spread throughout inner city areas. I recall that back in the eighties, for young black people, living in an inner city area was like living in a police state.”

(via thefemaletyrant)

3 weeks ago 36 notes

Doctor stops to help accident victim, disrespected for her race

Last Friday, Phyllis Phukubye, 27, left Helen Joseph Hospital and headed home but had to stop when she saw a motorcycle accident victim on Douglas Road, Saturday Star reported.

When she arrived on the scene, she saw that the victim was badly hurt and many bystanders surrounded him.

Phukubye introduced herself to the victim and the people who were standing around, “mostly white people”.

“I put on my gloves and attempted to assist the man. But no one seemed to believe that I was a doctor or a health professional, because they kept uttering stupid remarks in the background. They were even telling me what to do and what not to do,” she told the newspaper.

Phukubye said a white lady assumed that she was a nurse and kept saying to her that her son’s friend was a doctor and he was on his way to the scene.

Paramedics arrived and they also “shooed ” her away even physically pushing her.

She finally walked away, assuming that the patient was in good hands.

Wow!

(Source: thefemaletyrant)

1 month ago 1,579 notes

“The young African woman was lured to Europe with false promises of fame and fortune. She was paraded naked before jeering mobs. She was exhibited in a metal cage and sold to an animal trainer. When she died in Paris in 1816, she was penniless and friendless among people who derided her as a circus freak. White scientists intent on proving the inferiority of blacks dissected her body, bottled her brain and genitals, wired her skeleton and displayed them in a French museum. That might have been the end of Saartjie Baartman, the young African woman derisively named the “Hottentot Venus”…192 years after she last looked on these rugged cliffs and roaring sea [of South Africa], her remains returned to the land of her birth. In an agreement negotiated after years of wrangling between South Africa and France, her remains were finally removed from the Musée de l’Homme in Paris and flown back home.” (Swarns, 2002, p. A 28)

2 months ago 8 notes

collectivehistory:

“A man was lynched yesterday” ca. 1938 (LOC)

In conjunction with the anti-lynching campaign, in 1920 the NAACP began flying a flag from the windows of its headquarters at 69 Fifth Avenue when a lynching occurred. The threat of losing its lease forced the NAACP to discontinue the practice in 1938.

(via black-culture)

3 months ago 1,804 notes View high resolution

actofrebellion82:

dreaminginspanish:

mocha-cookie-kill-yourself:

Toni Morrison Takes White Supremacy To Task

Few intellectuals have waged a public battle against white supremacy and patriarchy like Toni Morrison. Morrison has both examined and challenged systems of domination throughout her intellectual life. With her novels, essays, and interviews she has taken critical looks at the interlocking systems of race and gender oppression. In this interview she is asked by PBS’s Charlie Rose what it is like for her to encounter racism. In true Morrison fashion she turns the question on its head, and places the onus for explaining racism back into the hands of White people. She asks Rose what he thinks of racism, why do Whites hold onto, and what are they going to do about it ending it. She rejects the notion that racism is simply something that Black people must grapple with, insisting, demanding, that White people also grapple with it. Fearless. Brilliant. Powerful.

will reblog until the end times

Always reblog.

“If you can only be tall because someone else is on thier knees, then you have serious problem. And white people have a very, very serious problem.” - Toni Morrison

(Source: fuckyeahfamousblackgirls, via ethiopienne)

4 months ago 8,202 notes

Scholars against Scientific Racism

latinosexuality:

Please enter your information below if you would like to sign this statement against scientific racism.

Open letter from scholars opposed to scientific racism

We are a group of 72 scholars (and counting) opposed to scientific racism - the use of science or social science to argue that a racialized group is inferior. Jason Richwine’s dissertation is an example of scientific racism and this work has no place in twenty-first century academia.

In 2009, Jason Richwine successfully defended a dissertation at Harvard University where he wrote that Hispanic immigrants have a substantially lower I.Q. than the white native-born population and that, because of the hereditary nature of I.Q., this fact should be taken into consideration when designing immigration policy. In May 2013, Richwine’s views came under public scrutiny after he co-authored an immigration policy report for the Heritage Foundation.

Richwine’s dissertation is problematic for three reasons: 1) it is part of a tradition of scientific racism; 2) it is based on discredited ideas of intelligence testing; and 3) it relies on an unscientific relationship between racialized categories and genetic makeup. Ideas of racial inferiority have been used justify slavery, forced sterilizations, the Holocaust, and all forms of contemporary racism and sexism. These ideas have no place in 21st century social science because of their historical use to justify genocide and mass sterilization and their lack of scientific rigor.

Richwine makes a connection between the genetic makeup of Hispanics and their I.Q. However, there is no genetic basis for racialized differences. And, Hispanic is an ethnic category made up of people of every racialized category. A Hispanic is a person with roots in Latin America who lives in the United States. Their ancestry could include people from any continent. The claim that Hispanics share a genetic makeup that could differentiate them from white Americans is not debatable; it is untenable.

Intelligence testing is also deeply flawed. Stephen Jay Gould points out that the primary error in intelligence testing is that of reification – making intelligence into something by measuring it. Intelligence tests attempt to measure a wide range of abilities. The score on these tests is named an “intelligence quotient” or I.Q. Gould contends that these tests are flawed and do not meet their stated goal of measuring innate intellectual ability.

To the extent that it is true that Hispanic immigrants score lower on these tests than white Americans, this is a result of unequal educational opportunities, not genetics. Diego von Vacano, a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School, points out that

“the rudimentary statistical analysis of the kind that Richwine carried out ignores the important interface between social realities and genetics. … [I.Q. scores] reflect the intertwining of some aspects of mental capacity with education, life experiences, socioeconomic status, and other contingent contexts.”

Despite the fact that this perspective is widely accepted among scholars, Richwine chose to rely on the scientific racism tradition of his discredited predecessors, such as Charles Murray and J. Philippe Rushton, and attributed the differences to genetics. His argument that I.Q. scores should inform immigration policy hearkens back to the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century – during which time about 60,000 people were forcibly sterilized in the United States, on the basis of their purported intellectual unfitness.

As academics, we find it appalling that, in 2009, three professors at Harvard University were willing to guide and approve a dissertation in this academic tradition. There are three central problems with Richwine’s work that should not pass muster in any dissertation committee: 1) the argument that I.Q. scores are an indication of innate intelligence; and 2) the assertion that I.Q. is a genetic trait; and 3) the presumption that Hispanics, as a group, share a genetic makeup. All these ideas have been discredited and all are linked to an unfortunate history of scientific racism.

The idea that I.Q. scores could be a reflection of a heritable trait is one of the pernicious ideas that led to the Holocaust as well as eugenics programs and restrictive immigration policies in the United States and elsewhere. Apart from its ugly history, scientists do not have a clear understanding of the extent to which intelligence may be a heritable trait. Even if some aspects of intelligence are based on heritable traits, there is no doubt that environmental factors shape one’s ability to score highly on an intelligence test. Nevertheless, in his dissertation, Richwine eschews this evidence and argues that “the low average IQ of Hispanics is effectively permanent.”

It is clear that Richwine’s dissertation is thin – with weak statistical analyses and a literature review that relies too heavily on racist and substandard publications by Charles Murray, Richard Herrnstein, and Philippe Rushton. But, this dissertation should never have been written in the first place. Before Jason Richwine began the work that was to be his dissertation, he would have had to consult with scholars in his department to ask them if they would be on his doctoral committee. At that point, they should have explained to him that this work carries on the tradition of scientific racism, and has no place in twenty-first century scholarship. Instead, three scholars - George Borjas, Richard Zeckhauser, and Christopher Jencks - agreed to supervise this scientifically racist dissertation and approved granting him a PhD degree from Harvard University.

Dean Ellwood at Harvard Kennedy School takes the position that this dissertation is part of an academic debate. We are not against academic freedom. However, there is no academic debate on whether or not Hispanics as a group are less intelligent than native-born whites. There are debates on whether or not Hispanic is a pan-ethnic, ethnic, or racialized category. There are debates on how and whether or why we should measure intelligence. There are debates on the extent to which intelligence is a heritable trait. But, there are no debates on whether or not Latino immigrants have the intellectual caliber to be part of the United States. Those kinds of debates happen in nativist and white supremacist circles, which have no place in academia, which prizes arguments and debates based on valid constructs and scientific evidence.

Intwentyfuckenthirteenthough? What is wrong with the world?! Harvard????

(via hearts-alive)

Anti-Black Prejudices in Tunisia: Breaking Down Taboos

dynamicafrica:

“Blacks are our brothers and friends. They are good luck charms for me, a source of blessing,’’ said Walid Ezzaraa, a Tunisian TV presenter, on Monday’s “Bila Moujamala” program.

Such a statement is perceived by some as treading the slippery slope of racial generalization, deeply ingrained in the Tunisian culture. A black is reduced to a good luck charm that blesses people when their paths cross.

Among the stereotypes foisted upon Tunisian blacks are their societal roles as evil repellents and talismans as well as their sexually potent, lazy, and unmotivated personality.

“I went to a neighbor’s marriage, and during the ceremony one of the white relatives of my neighbor came to me asking if I wanted to ride the horse in the feast (the horse is always present in southern traditional marriages over which they put the dowries of the bride). I refused as I became aware of my mother’s warning,” said Abdul Malek Tayeb, a young man from Gabes.

‘Never say yes to them if they ask you to ride the horse, they will be looking for a black to ride it, this is part of their traditions’ was the admonishment of Tayeb’s mother.

“In fact, they were looking for a black to do that in order to meet their racist traditions,” he stated in regards to the incident.

In southern Tunisian weddings, blacks are considered as part of the decorations of the ceremony. A Black woman is needed to dye the bride’s hands with henna, take care of her, and accompany her in order to cast away and avert evil.

Racism for many Tunisian blacks is a daily routine. Bullying and name-calling with epithets like Wsif, Zombak, Kahla, Shoushen, Guira Guira, and Negrita are recurrent incidents for almost all Blacks.

“I was standing in the street of Kheireddine Pacha in Tunis, waiting for a taxi, and a man came to take a cab too. A taxi came, and the man tried to take it before me, though I had been the first one raising my hand to hail the taxi. The taxi driver told me blatantly that he would prefer having his Tunisian brother in the cab than a black woman,” said Sarah Intitoury. “I couldn’t react. I just let them go,” she added.

Blacks in Tunisia are mostly thought to be former slaves. Yet, according to historians like Habib Larguesh, there are indigenous blacks native to North Africa, who were never displaced or enslaved.

“Slavery is not uniquely related to blacks. There were many white slaves, who were called Mamlouk, but after being freed, those Mamlouk went from being former slaves to acquiring a social category while Black former slaves went to a racial category, which is as freed slaves,” said Salah Trabelsi, a Tunisian historian.

“166 years now since the abolition of slavery, yet still, the Tunisian society is soaked in racism and intolerance,” said Trabelsi.

Today, many Blacks in Tunisia still bear the legacy of slavery in their identity cards. Some have written in their cards “X, emancipated slave of Y,” or, for instance, Ahmed Atig (freed slave of) Ben Yedder.

“Why should this past keep haunting him (the slave) and his grandchildren?” asked Sana Bent Khayat from Djerba. Many blacks in Djerba still shudder at this anachronistic reference in their identity cards.

Marouen Mahroug, a white Tunisian from the island of Djerba, denied any kind of racism in his island. “I think that the issue of racism in our island is approximately absent in general. In terms of color, it proves to be totally absent since we do have a good atmosphere where white and black Djerbians co-exist without any problem. On the contrary, I think we enjoy our life together, especially if we remind ourselves that “black” Djerbians really have a specific sense of humour,” said Mahroug.

Trabelsi traced the problem to a whole social ailment that is due to the lack of freedom of individuals in a country that is still looking for its identity, autonomy, and true self. “Stripped out of its primary sources, Tunisia is still under construction, and now after the revolution people still did not fully grasp the meaning of who they are,” stated Trabelsi.

The racial climate in Tunisia can be summed up in the problem of an identity crisis. Asia Turner, an African-American woman who lived in Tunisia for 4 months, came to the conclusion that it is all about “a singular and close-minded ideal of what it means to be Tunisian.”

In her four month stay, she managed to see how people reduce the richness of their culture to believe that Tunisians are Arab people or they try “to align themselves with a more European identity, but it doesn’t really cross their mind that Tunisians can be black people too or Tunisians can be Asian or anything other than Arab and white.”

“I think that Tunisians are receptive to the idea that other Tunisians may not be Muslim… So in that way, they acknowledge religious diversity in their country, yet I doubt they acknowledge the racial diversity in the same way,” said Turner.

Tunisians, Trabelsi says, are stuck in a mental “ghetto” that fixes both whites and blacks in a certain rank to which a majority of both blacks and whites subscribe. “Many blacks now do not encourage other blacks as they believe that they are not meant for a certain higher class and thus will try to hinder their way,” stated Trabelsi. In such a way, black Tunisians may be doomed to not rise above the social class that is preset for them.

Being black and beautiful, black and smart, or black and rich are controversial combinations that mostly shock white Tunisians. According to some Tunisians, blacks ought to remain inferior to whites. “For blacks to be smarter than them (whites) is an offence in Tunisia. A white person can accept that another white person is better than him, but if this man turns out to be black, that is very offensive and can be very frustrating and insulting in their mind,” said Ali Rahali from Gabes.

Turner recounted that during her 4 months in Tunisia, Tunisians always questioned her, thinking that she must be from Senegal or Nigeria. At first, she thought it was so because she did not speak the language, and therefore people could tell that she was not Tunisian.

“But then in my talks with black Tunisians, they shared with me that even though they speak the local language and some even wear the headscarf, they are still perceived to be foreigners in their own country. So, with this said, I believe the root of the problem is a singular idea of Tunisian identity,” stated Turner.

“I lived with two host families, and they socialized often and brought people to their home, yet I never saw a black person welcomed into their home. Tunisians I spoke with always said they had black friends they went to school with, but honestly I think those black friends were just classmates and they probably don’t engage with them much outside of their classroom, university setting. There’s an issue of denial. Blacks are to a degree well-assimilated into the culture, and I often heard people say that there was no racism because blacks are in the schools and universities,” stated Turner.

Despite her different language and style, which clearly marked her as different, Turner said that being black added another layer to her experience in Tunisia and made her a target to racist remarks in public spaces.

“I can’t necessarily say that every incident was racist (…) I think I had some different experiences as foreigner compared to all my other classmates that were not black,” she said.

According to Trabelsi, instances of racism are used by their perpetrators as a method to affirm their own identity.

“In the struggle of the individual to establish his identity, some Tunisians are creating binary oppositions to establish themselves as individuals,” he concluded.

submitted by http://the13thcatsmeow.tumblr.com/

Not the most politically correct/sensitively worded article but a real eye-opener to the climate of anti-black racism in Tunisia.

Interesting.

In New Job, Italy’s First Black Minister Confronts Culture of Casual Racism | TIME.com

dynamicafrica:

Cecile Kyenge, Italyâs first black government minister, proposes a law that would give citizenship to the children of immigrants if they are born on Italian soil.

Born in the Congo, Kyenge moved to Italy in the 1980s to study medicine in Rome, before obtaining a position in a hospital in Modena. She met her husband, a native Italian with whom she has two children, after he underwent surgery in her department. Kyenge was at the forefront of a dramatic demographic shift in Italy. As recently as 1991, just 1 in 100 residents held a foreign passport. Today, it’s 1 out of every 12. For every five children delivered in the country, one is born to a foreign parent. Unlike Kyenge, most of Italy’s recent arrivals are poor and employed in jobs that Italians refuse: construction workers, maids, caregivers for the elderly. The foreign-born middle class has yet to establish itself, while the first generation of immigrant children born and educated in the country is just moving into the workforce.

While Italians don’t like to think of their country as racist, the experience of non-white Italians and resident immigrants illustrates a culture that has found it hard to welcome increasing diversity. “How many times have I been told, ‘You’re so beautiful, you don’t even seem truly black?’” says Medhin Paolos, 23, an Italian of Eritrean descent and a member of Rete G2, a group campaigning for a reform of Italy’s citizenship laws. “Where I come from, this is not a compliment.”

A study by the University of Messina and the anti-discrimination group ARCI found that a substantial majority of the children of immigrants reported being insulted on the streets, talked down to by teachers, watched with suspicion in shops, turned away from restaurants and treated rudely by immigration officials. In 2002, the Italian government passed a law requiring all non-Italian residents to have their fingerprints taken, as part of the process for applying for residency.

“There’s the idea that black people stink,” says Jean Zongo, 28, the son of African immigrants. There was a period when he was younger, Zongo was afraid to take the bus at night, for fear of encountering racial violence. More than once, he has climbed aboard to hear a group of young men grunting like monkeys. It’s a charmless display of racism that has migrated from Italy’s soccer stadiums — where Mario Balotelli, the Italian football star of Ghanaian heritage, has famously faced chants of “There’s no such thing as a black Italian” — to youth culture at large. Zongo has traveled to France, Spain and England. Only in his own country, he says, is he made to feel second class. “[Discrimination] is present in just about every aspect of life, in every circumstance,” he says.

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/05/06/italys-first-black-minister/#ixzz2SalzwVpL

Southern Africa’s first multiracial school celebrates 50 triumphant years

Waterford school in Swaziland reflects on its historic role with a series of parades and tributes from students old and new.

Russell Palmer, a journalist from South Africa, described it as like landing on another planet, a feeling of having suddenly arrived in an environment so different from what he has known that there is overwhelming bewilderment. The place was Waterford school, just 14 miles across the border in Swaziland, but a brave new world in its attitude to race.

The first multiracial school in southern Africa was born in direct opposition to the apartheid regime, which branded it “sick” and “unnatural”, and became a haven for the children of struggle leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Desmond Tutu. On Saturday it celebrated its 50th anniversary with colourful parades, performances and reflections on its courageous role in the continent’s history.

“We were here during the era of apartheid and this school was an absolute beacon of what was to come,” former student Amanda West, a last-minute replacement for Tutu as guest speaker after he withdrew due to illness, told a gathering of alumni, donors and teachers past and present. “As a student population we were wildly involved in the politics … This is an astounding place.”

Eighty-six nationalities have studied there over the years and most were represented in a sports field parade featuring students in national dress and speaking national languages. Although it ran the gamut from Angola to Zimbabwe, the biggest cheer was reserved for the Swazi delegation.

Linton Kwesi Johnson on Thatcher

adelinekoh:

dhpoco: “How did Thatcher’s rule impact the black population? In 1979 when the Conservative party won the general election black people were still being treated as third class citizens, if citizens at all. By then we had been engaged in a three decades-long struggle against racial oppression and marginalisation and for racial equality. Although our parents had arrived in Britain as colonial subjects we were still being treated as aliens. The Thatcher years saw an intensification of our struggle for racial justice. Thatcher will be remembered by many black people of my generation as a bigot and a xenophobe who fanned the flames of racial hatred, giving succour to the fascists who were emboldened to carry out terrorist attacks against black and Asian people. When she ranted on about Britain being swamped by alien cultures, it was sweet music to the ears of the National Front/British National Party brigade. As we approach the 32nd anniversary of the Brixton riots this month, my mind goes back to January 1981 when thirteen young black people died in a racist arson attack on a birthday party in New Cross, south-east London. I remember how the atrocity was covered up by the police and the coroner at the hastily convened inquest. I remember how the parents of the deceased were thwarted by the authorities in their quest for justice. I remember the Black Peoples Day of Action when an estimated 20,000 people took to the streets to demand justice and the Brixton riots that came a month later. I recall the Tottenham riots of 1985 which, like the Brixton riots of 1981 and those 2011, spread throughout inner city areas. I recall that back in the eighties, for young black people, living in an inner city area was like living in a police state.”

(via thefemaletyrant)

Doctor stops to help accident victim, disrespected for her race

Last Friday, Phyllis Phukubye, 27, left Helen Joseph Hospital and headed home but had to stop when she saw a motorcycle accident victim on Douglas Road, Saturday Star reported.

When she arrived on the scene, she saw that the victim was badly hurt and many bystanders surrounded him.

Phukubye introduced herself to the victim and the people who were standing around, “mostly white people”.

“I put on my gloves and attempted to assist the man. But no one seemed to believe that I was a doctor or a health professional, because they kept uttering stupid remarks in the background. They were even telling me what to do and what not to do,” she told the newspaper.

Phukubye said a white lady assumed that she was a nurse and kept saying to her that her son’s friend was a doctor and he was on his way to the scene.

Paramedics arrived and they also “shooed ” her away even physically pushing her.

She finally walked away, assuming that the patient was in good hands.

Wow!

(Source: thefemaletyrant)

Toni Morrison Takes White Supremacy To Task

Few intellectuals have waged a public battle against white supremacy and patriarchy like Toni Morrison. Morrison has both examined and challenged systems of domination throughout her intellectual life. With her novels, essays, and interviews she has taken critical looks at the interlocking systems of race and gender oppression. In this interview she is asked by PBS’s Charlie Rose what it is like for her to encounter racism. In true Morrison fashion she turns the question on its head, and places the onus for explaining racism back into the hands of White people. She asks Rose what he thinks of racism, why do Whites hold onto, and what are they going to do about it ending it. She rejects the notion that racism is simply something that Black people must grapple with, insisting, demanding, that White people also grapple with it. Fearless. Brilliant. Powerful.

Scholars against Scientific Racism

Anti-Black Prejudices in Tunisia: Breaking Down Taboos

In New Job, Italy’s First Black Minister Confronts Culture of Casual Racism | TIME.com

Southern Africa’s first multiracial school celebrates 50 triumphant years

Linton Kwesi Johnson on Thatcher

Doctor stops to help accident victim, disrespected for her race

Toni Morrison Takes White Supremacy To Task

Scholars against Scientific Racism

Anti-Black Prejudices in Tunisia: Breaking Down Taboos

In New Job, Italy’s First Black Minister Confronts Culture of Casual Racism | TIME.com

Southern Africa’s first multiracial school celebrates 50 triumphant years

Linton Kwesi Johnson on Thatcher

Doctor stops to help accident victim, disrespected for her race

Toni Morrison Takes White Supremacy To Task

Keitumetse. It means I'm happy.

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