Category: Diversity

Native Prisoners of War

I grew up rural, so  I knew some of my neighbors didn’t have running water.  I thought of it as an amusing eccentricity of their families.   Then my family moved near Houston, and I was bused to Booker T. Washington Jr. High in the early 1970s as part of Texas school desegregation.  Suddenly there was a “click.” I got that there was something really wrong, and unequal, about our different lives.

About a decade ago, I spent some time on the Rosebud reservation, east of Pine Ridge. I knew life is tough for communities of color in the US.   But when I went to meet the Lakotas, I had NO. IDEA. that there were small third-world countries all over the US.

I met so many people without running water. Without heat. Without jobs. Without parents.
Native American women have the highest rate of partner violence in the entire US.  Most students drop out before finishing high school.

How did I not know their life was like this?

Watch this all the way through, if you can. You will learn some disturbing things.  You need to know them.

Columbus didn’t kill these people; but he started the slaughter. Don’t celebrate the life of a slave trader this Monday.

From the transcript:

“Statistics about Native population today, more than a century after the massacre at Wounded Knee, reveal the legacy of colonization, forced migration and treaty violations. Unemployment on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation fluctuates between 85 and 90 percent. The housing office is unable to build new structures, and exiting structures are falling apart.

Many are homeless, and those with homes are packed into rotting buildings with up to five families. 39 percent of homes on Pine Ridge have no electricity. At least 60 percent of the homes on the reservation are infested with black mold. More than 90 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty line. The tuberculosis rate on Pine Ridge is approximately eight times higher than the U.S. national average. The infant mortality rate is the highest on this continent and is about three times higher than the U.S. national average.

Cervical cancer is five times higher than the U.S. national average. School dropout rate is up to 70 percent. Teacher turnover is eight times higher than the U.S. national average. Frequently, grandparents are raising their grandchildren because parents, due to alcoholism, domestic violence and general apathy, cannot raise them. 50 percent of the population over the age of 40 suffers from diabetes. The life expectancy for men is between 46 and 48 years old — roughly the same as Afghanistan and Somalia.

The last chapter in any successful genocide is the one in which the oppressor can remove their hands and say, “My God, what are these people doing to themselves? They’re killing each other. They’re killing themselves while we watch them die.” This is how we came to own these United States. This is the legacy of manifest destiny. Prisoners are still born into prisoner of war camps long after the guards are gone. These are the bones left after the best meat has been taken. A long time ago, a series of events was set in motion by a people who look like me, by wasichu, eager to take the land and the water and the gold in the hills. Those events led to a domino effect that has yet to end.“


Related posts:

“Pest control”–an old metaphor for racism.

Does Google+ hate women?

Ok, that title is way over the top to get your attention.* BUT.banned from google
I do want to talk about what the “no pseudonyms” policy adopted at G+ means for women, LGBT folk, and civil servants.

There are many, many resources that can explain to Google why adopting this policy is a stupid idea (aside from the obvious business advantage of not alienating early adopters and potential G+ evangelists). One of the best can be found at the Geek Feminism Wiki:

The cost to these people {of denying pseudonym use} can be vast, including:

  • harassment, both online and offline
  • discrimination in employment, provision of services, etc.
  • actual physical danger of bullying, hate crime, etc.
  • arrest, imprisonment, or execution in some jurisdictions
  • economic harm such as job loss, loss of professional reputation, etc.
  • social costs of not being able to interact with friends and colleagues

That page goes on to list, in detail, the various ways that these groups can be harmed.   We know that women experience 25 TIMES the amount of harassment online that men do.  We know that 50% of LGBT teens are bullied online, and many of them consider–or commit–suicide.  We know that women are stalked and killed by ex-lovers. We know that LGBT folk are the victims of hate crimes.

Basically, we know that some people are assholes online, and like to target others and make their lives hell. They will do this using their real names; they do this with fake identities.   It’s about BEHAVIOR, not about names.  If your website is full of assholes, it’s your fault for not holding people–whatever name they go by–accountable for their behavior.  Online behavior doesn’t have to be polite or full of everyone agreeing with each other. Conversations just need to not be bigoted, hateful, or destructive.

If you agree that allowing pseudonyms online is important, please visit this petition and sign. It goes directly to Google.

My personal take:

I was banned from Google+ after happily using it for about a week, because I used my pseudonym as my name.  I’m not the only one–a bunch of other bloggers, all of whom have reasons to want to not reaveal their real names, or who, like Lady Gaga, have an alternative name that they are known by.  I have both professional and personal reasons to want to use my pseudonym Bug Girl online.

I can get my profile re-activated by giving Google my real name, and allowing it to be publicly linked with my profile.  But I’m not going to choose to out myself just because some giant world-ruling corporation demands it.   I have been Bug Girl online since at least 1997; as a blogger since 2005.  I initially adopted a pseudonym because I had been the target of some white supremacist groups in the 90s, as well as experiencing stalking.

Later I discovered that I had become a high-enough level civil servant that I was actually PROHIBITED, by law, from having opinions online.  I controlled enough of the state budget that my activities online, if connected to my real name, could be seen as lobbying.  It looks like my current job in Connecticut is going to be bound by the same rules.

I also only feel free to talk about my disability (I have epilepsy) and my status as a rape survivor under this pseudonym. I don’t want my students, my employer, or my mom to find out these secrets about me from Google.

How concerned am I about keeping my IRL name separate from Bug Girl? I am going to be giving a talk at the Entomological Society of America National meeting under the pseudonym of Bug Girl.  When an academic passes up a chance to pad her vita, you know she’s serious about plausible deniability.

Google is targeting people based on how “real” sounding their names are. Had I chosen a name that sounded more plausible, I would probably still be able to use Google+.  I know at least 5 people who put in fake names that are still happily using the service.  It’s a rule that can’t be applied consistently, and it blocks me from participating in a lot of wonderful online conversations.  Google+ is a really great platform, and I liked it a lot before I was evicted.

Google’s adopted a policy that puts people at risk and silences their voices in this new online forum.  Not because we have misbehaved, but because our privacy is important and we won’t give it up.  Google is a company that profits by serving you advertising on YouTube videos where  my friends are threatened with rape and death.  It is beyond hypocrisy for them to say they are concerned about online civility.

I have so many, many wonderful friends online as Bug Girl. I think I could go to just about any town in the world and find someone fun to have a conversation with that knows me as Bug.  I am constantly humbled by how kind and generous people online can be, and the realness of virtual communities.   Please sign the petition and help me share that with others.

(Oh, and make sure to click the Google+ button below! :)   )

Additional links:

*EDITED 7/24 TO ADD: People are getting hung up on the title of this post. It was a deliberately provocative title, but apparently a little too provocative. I have slightly altered it.  I drew a complete blank that afternoon when floundering for a title that would convey that Google had, once again, implemented a policy that would harm women and LGBT folks.

Christian Identity: The scary religion you don’t know about

Sadly, Michigan is home to an awful lot of racist bastards with guns.  The Hutaree group arrested in May 2010 for stockpiling guns and explosives is a pretty good example.  Once again,  Americans were shooting and plotting terrorism–and they were doing it in the name of Christianity.

To those of us who have been targeted by Christian Identity folks, this isn’t all that surprising.  Christian Identity is a particularly virulent (and violent) form of creationism and apocalyptic thinking.  It disguises racism, antisemitism, and brutality under happy, Christian sounding churches and groups. Can you spot the hate group in this line up?

  • America’s Promise Ministries
  • By Yahweh’s Design
  • Church of Jesus Christ Christian
  • Church of True Israel
  • Ecclesiastical Council for the Restoration of Covenant Israel (ECRCI)
  • Fellowship of God’s Covenant People
  • Gospel Ministries
  • House of Yahweh
  • Kingdom Identity Ministries
  • Present Truth Ministries
  • Scriptures for America Ministries
  • Tabernacle of the Phineas Priesthood
  • United Identity Church of Christ
  • United Church of YHWH
  • Yahweh’s Truth

Continue reading →

Pest Control: an old metaphor for racism

I happened to stumble across this really horrifying story last week:

Last week the Web site UsedWinnipeg.com ran an advertisement headlined “Native Extraction Service” with a photograph of three young Native boys. The service offered to round up and remove First Nations youth like wild animals, and “relocate them to their habitat.”

The text of the ad read: “Have you ever had the experience of getting home to find those pesky little buggers hanging outside your home, in the back alley or on the corner??? Well fear no more, with my service I will simply do a harmless relocation. With one phone call I will arrive and net the pest, load them in the containment unit (pickup truck) and then relocate them to their habit.”

To complete the clusterfuck trifecta, the image in the ad was stolen from Longhouse Media. In fact, it was from an award winning documentary about native Swinomish youth!

Despicable.

Beyond the obvious hateful racism, there is something else going on, and it’s a pattern: Talking about people of color as pests or insects.

“Nits make Lice.” Remember that one? When Col. John Chivington ordered the use of howitzer artillery guns to fire upon unarmed Cheyenne women, children, and elders in 1864?

This othering is a racist technique that’s centuries old. By treating your “enemies” as less than human, they become non-people.

And if you treat them as pests, well.
You know what you do with pests, right?
You EXTERMINATE them.

What do pests and native/other people have in common in this world view? They don’t respect boundaries. They go where they are not wanted.  Bugs and mice come in your house.  First people come….into your neighborhood.

Let’s just ignore the fact that the boundaries are completely artificial, and it was their habitat in the first place before they were colonized.

I’ve linked here to an image of racist US propaganda from WWII. Same thing, different context.  This is why white supremacists talk about “mud people.” Non-whites aren’t humans. So killing them is easier. And killing them is a duty, not a sin.

Goebbels used this metaphor to rationalize death camps:

“Since the flea is not a pleasant animal we are not obliged to keep it, protect it and let is prosper so that it may prick and torture us, but our duty is rather to exterminate it. Likewise with the Jew.”

William Porter, Chief of the US Chemical Warfare Service in 1944, said “The fundamental biological principles of poisoning Japanese, insects, rats, bacteria and cancer are essentially the same.”

This metaphor between humans, insects, and war is pernicious and common. It dehumanizes its target. It makes them less than human.

Please. Don’t let it go unchallenged.

Additional reading:

Women in Science Symposia

Wanted to broadcast this out to any newly-minted PhDs out there:

Women Evolving Biological Sciences

Women Evolving Biological Sciences, or WEBS, is three-day symposium on the retention of female biologists and the transition of women from early career stages to tenure track positions and leadership roles in academic and research settings. …WEBS targets early career women in ecology and evolutionary biology, particularly women who have earned their doctoral degrees within the past two to eight years and who do not have tenure, to address the critical transition from graduate studies and postdoctoral positions to permanent research and teaching positions. The symposium provides a forum for professional development, including awareness and improvement of academic leadership skills, opportunities to establish mentoring relationships, and resources for developing professional networks….Applications are due April 15, 2010.

Participants will be selected via an application process. Women from underrepresented groups will be actively sought and encouraged to apply…WEBS aims to include women from a range of institutions, personal diversity (race, ethnicity, disability, age), geographic locations and disciplinary interests. Preference will be given to minority applicants, to those interested in pursuing academic leadership positions, and to those whose career trajectory makes them prime candidates for future academic leadership positions. Also, given WEBS’s focus on addressing the critical transition period from graduate studies and post-doctoral positions to permanent research and teaching positions, priority will be given to women who have earned their doctoral degrees within the past two to eight years and who do not have tenure.

Universities in Trouble

One thing that has made my new job even harder is dealing with the financial fallout in Michigan as it affects state and university budgets. A review of several books that deal with University funding appeared in the New York Review of Books last week, and it pretty well describes some of the pressures I’m seeing.

It’s a longish essay, and well worth reading if you want to understand the Hobson’s Choice we face in higher education right now.  Some highlights:

“at public institutions, where tuition historically has been kept relatively low by means of a subsidy derived from tax revenue, the financial model is also at risk. These institutions—long before the current crisis—were seeing … “massive disinvestment” by the states.

…On the expense side, one finds the usual strategies: salary and hiring freezes, reduction of staff by layoffs or attrition, cancellation or postponement of construction projects….On the revenue side, some institutions…are increasing the number of undergraduate students they admit, in order to collect additional tuition to help close the budget gap….

such a strategy stretches the capacity of existing dormitories, classrooms, and advisers at just the time when more and more students, facing a contracting job market and longer odds against getting into and paying for graduate school, are turning to the career and counseling services for help

In short, the financial crisis not only is threatening the livelihood of faculty and staff but is also degrading the experience of students.

Yup. That’s about right.

Some good news, for a change!

Yay! Big props to Vermont, Iowa (??? who knew), and DC for recognizing marriage between any two people that love each other–regardless of parts.  sodsquad

Rather predictably, while most of us rejoice, some others think the world is ending.  I just loved this graphic from Pam’s House Blend illustrating fundamentalist reactions–It make me laugh very much.  I hope they don’t mind me swiping it :)

Other good news:

New York is closer to passing a bullying bill.

While MSU did not beat UNC, they did come awfully close, and made a lot of Michiganders happy.

It finally stopped snowing.

Yeah, this doesn’t fix the world, but it does help to win a few for a change.

Weekly WTF: the election version

I haven’t had a WTF in a while, and I do try to keep the blog “all bugs, all the time.” But. 
People.
If one more person tells me we are in a “post-racial America” because a person of color is running for president, I’m gonna slap em.  How can ya’ll not see that some ugly stuff is boiling to the top of the pot?

I’m also mourning the loss of Studs Terkel, a great American voice.  Here’s an excerpt from his book Race: How Blacks and Whites think and feel about the American Obsession:

“‘I think you become an adult when you reach a point where you don’t need anyone underneath you. When you can look at yourself and say, “I’m okay the way I am.” One of the things that keeps my class of people from having any vision is race hatred. You’re so busy hating somebody else, you’re not going to realize how beautiful you are and how much you destroy all that’s good in the world.’”

He’s right. We need to Grow Up and learn to deal with difference. And embrace it, not fear it.  What made Studs great was his willingness to listen to anyone, anywhere.  He believed they had value, and their stories had meaning. For all of us.

I’m focusing on race in this post, but there is plenty of other hateful crap to call out–Christian litmus tests, demonizing of Atheists, and increased violence and hate speech against LGBT folks.

Here’s a partial list of things I’ve seen.  I’ll put it below the fold, since it’s depressingly long. Have you seen these? Have you been paying attention?

Continue reading →

Things not to forget

I was going to try to stay on the insect topic all week, but enough stuff keeps happening that I just can’t.

On the 45th anniversary of the 16th Street Bombing, Angry Black Woman connects the deaths of black children in the past to an assault on the nursery in a Mosque in Ohio Last week. How. Is. This. NOT. A. Hate. Crime? From the news coverage:

“Mosque board member Tarek Sabagh said many people within the mosque speculated that the incident was the result of a DVD about Islamic radicalism titled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” that was mailed to area homes by its producers and circulated as a paid advertisement with more than 70 newspapers, including the Dayton Daily News.”

We got a copy of that video too–as did everyone I know in Michigan. Some racists have really deep pockets.

And, yesterday was the 10 year anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd. Two men tortured in horrible ways because of who they were.

We have come a long way–but we still have so far to go.  These are important topics in Michigan, since we are home to a group called FAIR–Federation for American Immigration Reform.  New documents that have come out this month show that the FAIR leader has pretty clear Neo-Nazi ties.  FAIR has argued that “some immigrant groups” are engaged in “competitive breeding.”  I think you can read between the lines, there.

Hatred is still here, and it is still very real. I hear a lot of white folks discussing the Obama campaign, and saying “I can’t believe that people are still so racist they wouldn’t vote for a black man!” and “I didn’t think there are still Skinheads!”

Hello? Have you been paying any attention?

Yes, things are much better than they were. But we can’t relax.

To repeat an earlier post quoting  Holly at Feministe:

“When any of us have a soapbox, an opportunity to get up and talk, we must continue to stand by those who aren’t called on. If you want to consider yourself an anti-racist or a white ally to people of color — if you want anyone else to consider you those things — then it behooves you to swim against the current. If everyone did, perhaps the tides would turn, even if it was just in our corner of the blogosphere….

When you find yourself in the inevitable currents of our society that always flow towards greater privilege, away from the marginalized, the oppressed, be prepared to swim against that tide. Don’t just stand there and let sand pool around your ankles.” (emphasis mine)

Nifty Discussion guides for Teachers

I happened to run into Michigan’s Head of Public Deliberation last night, and she introduced me to the National Issues Forums publications:

National Issues Forums (NIF) is a nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally sponsored public forums for the consideration of public policy issues. It is rooted in the simple notion that people need to come together to reason and talk — to deliberate about common problems. Indeed, democracy requires an ongoing deliberative public dialogue….

Forums are led by trained, neutral moderators, and use an issue discussion guide that frames the issue by presenting the overall problem and then three or four broad approaches to the problem. Forum participants work through the issue by considering each approach; examining what appeals to them or concerns them, and also what the costs, consequences, and trade offs may be that would be incurred in following that approach.

You can download a ton of PDFs (or order paper copies) for use  in discussing different controversial issues.  There are also leader guides, teacher guides, and teacher forums!

Enjoy!