Category Archives: racism

Tearful Obama, Announcing Gun Control Steps, Condemns Shootings – The New York Times

As tears streamed down his face, President Obama on Tuesday condemned the repeated spasms of gun violence across America as he announced new executive actions intended to reduce the number of mass shootings, suicides and killings that have become routine in the nation’s communities.Speaking in the East Room of the White House surrounded by gun control activists and the families of gun victims, Mr. Obama broke down as he spoke about the young children shot to death in 2012 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.“First graders,” he said, his eyes drifting to a distant place and becoming red with tears. The president wiped his eye and paused to regain his composure. “Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,” he said.

Source: Tearful Obama, Announcing Gun Control Steps, Condemns Shootings – The New York Times

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Racist, Shame on You!

God created us as equal humans, but we divided our humanity into thousands of categories of color, race, tribe, culture, tradition, and religion because of our ethnocentric thoughts.

God created us, but we created racism, and we let it divide our homes, our countries, and the world.

I want to use my words to take a stand against racism, to say:

Shame on you, racism.

Shame on you, racists!

The virus of racism affects our families, friends, schools, universities, and offices, as well as relationships between our tribes and nations. I lose sleep thinking of it and get up at night to write about how it makes me feel. Tonight I sat up until midnight trying to forget the racist words I heard today from an educated and stylish Pashtoon man who sees me as inferior, a freak, based on my tribe. Cheap Tajik, he called me.

Often people in our tribes have cultural differences in that they know different languages and wear different styles of clothing or some tribes have facial features that appear more Asian.

Pashtoons are one of the most populated tribes of Afghanistan. They consider themselves as the native citizens of Afghanistan, as “real Afghans.” Some of them will imply that people who are Tajik, Uzbek, or Hazara are non-native Afghans from central Asia. They think these groups are the descendants of Chinese warlord Ghengis Khan.

Some Pashtoons like to point out that they descend from kings and rulers of Afghanistan for hundreds of years. They often are conservative about their views of women. I think Tajiks are often more openminded—men and women can eat together and shake hands.

All four tribes have cultural differences, but we all share the same religion and our national languages of Dari and Pashto.

Pain fills my chest and sorrow fills my thoughts, and I wish I could banish that man’s words from my mind. I write to empty my heart, to put the bitter words on paper. How sad and disappointing to experience racism from an educated person; what can we expect from the uneducated?Racist, burn your clothes and throw away your tie, your name-brand shoes. Shame on you.

I suffer an escalating shock every time I experience racism. I will take a stand against it. Racism is the seed for the crop of un-civilization. Civilization emerges from fair thinking. Racism is not civilized at all.

Racists of the world, wherever you are, when you look at me you seem to forget that I am like you: one head, two legs, two arms.

When you look at me you see a label, a single word tied to a tribe or color: black or white, Tajik, or Hazara. Hazaras were long oppressed but today Hazara girls are being educated more than some other groups that still believe in old, discriminatory practices against women such as honor killings.

You categorize me by caste and class and religion. You ignore my human value and try to bully me for my own heritage, all because of a single word.

Shame on you, racists!

Shame on you, racism!

By Paana

Photo by Balazs Gardi

Source: Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Racist, Shame on You!

DHS Secretary speaks out about deportation raids as children and parents are rounded up | Latina Lista

{He fails and so do we all on all accounts for not giving refuge to families suffering from violence that began with US intervention in their home countries}

I know there are many who loudly condemn our enforcement efforts as far too harsh, while there will be others who say these actions don’t go far enough. I also recognize the reality of the pain that deportations do in fact cause. But, we must enforce the law consistent with our priorities. At all times, we endeavor to do this consistent with American values, and basic principles of decency, fairness, and humanity ~ Sec. Jeh C. Johnson.

Source: DHS Secretary speaks out about deportation raids as children and parents are rounded up | Latina Lista

Israel bans novel on Arab-Jewish love story | News | DW.COM | 31.12.2015

Israeli author Dorit Rabinyan holds her novel ‘Borderlife’The book, ”

The book, “Borderlife,” by the Israeli author Dorit Rabinyan, tells the story of Liat, an Israeli translator, and Hilmi, a Palestinian artist, who meet in New York and fall in love. Eventually, they go their separate ways, as she has to return to Tel Aviv and the to the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“Intimate relations between Jews and non-Jews threaten the separate identity of each sector,” the Education Ministry said in a statement, adding that “young adolescents don’t have the systemic view that includes considerations involving maintaining the national, ethnic identity of the people and the significance of miscegenation.”

 

 

Preventing fruitful debate

However, many cultural figures in Israel, and even high school pupils themselves, tend to disagree.

“I know I may not represent the opinion of all the students, but I personally think it’s pretty stupid to ban the book,” Noa, a 17-year-old student from Haifa, told DW. “What happens now is that it created such a stir that our teacher is forced to talk about the book with us, because we keep asking her about it,” she adds.

Source: Israel bans novel on Arab-Jewish love story | News | DW.COM | 31.12.2015

‘The Jungle’: Christmas in a Refugee Camp | Masha Alekhina

As a child you were told, “If you behave, Santa Claus will bring you a lot of gifts, and if you misbehave — nothing.” What is good behavior? Do not skip school to return home on time. And what would you say to Santa Claus if you’re not allowed to enroll in school, and if, instead of the house every night you go back into an icy tent?At Christmas you can dream of a miracle, or you can try to be the miracle for someone else.”To Avrist from Pussy Riot and the Belarusian Theatre” — I wrote on a white piece of paper and put a note in a black guitar case. Buying a guitar in Calais — that was a quest that deserves a separate story. The city only has one music store, it is not on the map, and all the others are closed down because they do not bring profits.Miracle — it’s not just a word in a book, but also your purchased ticket to the refugee camps, it is your gift, your two hours in which you listen to the story of one of the refugees because he wants to tell it. Miracle — it means not turning away someone you don’t understand.

Source: ‘The Jungle’: Christmas in a Refugee Camp | Masha Alekhina

Ohio grand jury clears police in fatal shooting of 12-year-old | Reuters { Just so wrong in so many ways}

The Ohio grand jury had heard weeks of testimony on the Rice shooting, which occurred within seconds after police reached a park next to a Cleveland recreation center in response to reports of a suspect with a gun. Rice died the next day.ADVERTISING The shooting was one of several that have fueled scrutiny of police use of deadly force, particularly against minorities. The officers are white and Rice was black.Rice was holding a replica handgun when Officer Timothy Loehmann shot him within seconds of reaching the park in a squad car driven by his partner, Frank Garmback.

Source: Ohio grand jury clears police in fatal shooting of 12-year-old | Reuters

How Hillary Clinton Went Undercover to Examine Race in Education – The New York Times

The proliferation of private schools in the South “was a gigantic event, and it blew the minds of civil rights folks and took the wind out of their sails,” said Douglas A. Blackmon, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center who is working on a documentary about the effects of segregation academies.“But in a minute, it was over,” he said of the effort to combat such schools. “And the well-intentioned work Hillary described was no match for the absolute insistence of millions of Southern whites that their kids never go to school with black kids.”

Source: How Hillary Clinton Went Undercover to Examine Race in Education – The New York Times

Child Trafficking & Slavery | The Dark Side Of Chocolate | 3CHICSPOLITICO

“America’s largest and most profitable food conglomerates should not tolerate child labor, much less child slave labor, anywhere in their supply chains,” the complaint reads. “These companies should not turn a blind eye to known human rights abuses… especially when the companies consistently and affirmatively represent that they act in a socially and ethically responsible manner.”

Source: Child Trafficking & Slavery | The Dark Side Of Chocolate | 3CHICSPOLITICO