What the "birthers" are REALLY saying.

This man says it so much better than I ever could.


If you're inspired to speak out and take action after seeing this, here's what you can do:

1. Boycott all things Trump.
2. Write to NBC and tell them that they need to cancel Trump's show Celebrity Apprentice because you don't like racists...or the networks that sign their paychecks.
3. Forward and post this video, and talk to your friends and family about why Trump's actions are so dangerous and hateful. Spreading knowledge and awareness and creating positive, supportive energy against racism is powerful action.

What did I leave out?

Looking over the past few months of this blog before my professor takes a look was a good chance for me to be honest with myself about what I've focused on and why.

When I began this blog, I wanted to explore White privilege and the White community within anti-oppressive work. Why these topics? Well, this is was a fairly selfish endeavor. I have often felt isolated, both within and without the anti-oppressive movement: among people of color, I'm never sure what my role in the conversation should be - I don't want to speak too much, I don't want to ask to many questions and ask someone to act as my educator, I don't want to make a fool of myself; and among my White peers, I feel isolated because there aren't many White allies who are also examining these topics and themselves in any real way.  So this blog - what began as a project for a course focused on "ISMs" but will continue as my own means of exploration - started out to find some clarity for myself.

I wanted to take a good look at the anti-oppressive movement as a whole, which maybe was a bit ambitious. I focused on racism, but within that I feel that I fell into the trap of often looking at racism in dichotomous terms. So many of my issues are about racism between White and African or African-American communities. I've found that my blog posts have really mirrored the conversation in class, in that the main communities of focus are White, Black, and Latino, and the conversation has largely excluded Asian communities, Native and indigenous populations, bi-, multi-, and inter-racial groups, as well as the prejudice and bias that these populations hold towards each other. I have touched on many of these topics, but I do wish I had explored them further, and that will be my goal as I continue this blog.


One of my main hopes was to start a conversation, to have readers leave comments to get a dialogue going. While I see that a few hundred folks (or maybe the same few people over and over?!) have viewed my blog, no one has left me any comments! So get on that so we can get talkin'. Please :)


I'm excited that I have a forum to continue this conversation - hopefully not just with myself!

Capstone Controversy

What a fitting end to the Columbia University experience.

Over the past week, it has come to light that the subject of our Capstone analysis was likely unaware of the project and was none too happy to find out it was focused on her. This revelation has led to an organizing movement among the students, seeking to support this veteran in her healing and make amends in whatever way possible.

This Capstone Controversy has brought up so many issues for me:

• Ethical concerns of consent 
• The fact that a White author was brought in to tell the narrative of a Native American woman
• The fact that for many students at this school, this will be the first time in two years that the plight of Native populations is discussed
• The intent of the Capstone organizers versus the impact of their actions
• Scapegoating individuals rather than addressing the institutional atmosphere that allows ethical dilemmas to manifest
• The difficulty in promoting inclusion while avoiding exclusion or an "us vs. them" mentality

But one of the most stressful aspects of this controversy for me is the acceptance that individuals should be able to make mistakes without having observers vilify their behavior.  This was a difficult lesson to learn.  The fact that one of the faculty members has served as a role model of mine in the field of anti-racist and anti-oppressive work is what has really made me try to make sense of this dissonance.

I have worked hard over the past few years to accept the fact that most often, no one act or mistake can define a person. We are all many things, and if any of us were judged by snapshots or moments of our lives, one would have a very incomplete - and sometimes antithetical - portrait of who we are.  I'm constantly struggling with how people view me in the context of anti-racist work.  I know I still perpetrate microaggressions from time to time, and might even make a much more overt display of an ISM on occasion. I constantly worry about the fact that while I am trying to learn and be a part of the anti-oppressive movement, I myself am not immune to lapses in judgment and transgressions.  So where does that leave me? 

I have had to accept that waiting to perfect oneself before stepping out of your comfort zone or standing in support of a cause is a losing battle. I will probably never be at a place where I am 100% free of bias or internalized superiority or am aware of all the ways that ISMs affect me. But that doesn't have to discount any good work that I may do. In much the same way, I feel that even if a mistake were made on the part of the faculty, it does not mean that all of the good work they have done up until this point should be thrown away and forgotten.  There has been an undercurrent of scapegoating, in my opinion, of certain faculty members. I believe in giving criticism and praise where criticism and praise are due, and this is no different. If there was a an ethical breach, then it must be addressed. But I also fear that the tone of the conversation taking place at school today will have serious implications for the reputations of faculty that have worked hard for many years prior to this controversy and will continue to practice anti-oppressive work for many years after it.  It frightens me that some of my colleagues are ready and willing to discount faculty members so quickly; I fear for their reputations and jobs, and I think it would be a massive loss to the CUSSW community if some of these folks were lost. 

It's a difficult, confusing situation. I have ethical concerns of my own with this capstone project, to be sure - but I also have ethical concerns with some of the response that is coming out of the counter-movement.

It's a boy!

Does this mean the so-called "birther" debate can finally die?

Two years after he began his presidency, 3.5 years after launching onto the national stage, and nearly 50 years after he was born on decidedly U.S. soil, President Barack Obama has had to release his official birth certificate (again) to combat claims that he is not American.

Huh? What? Come again?

Sadly, the poorly-veiled racist attack did end back in 2008 when questions of President Obama's national origin were first raised. The initial release of a photo of his birth certificate only cause more alarm and panic because - how could it be?! - his middle name was Hussein. This fueled "jokes" and "accidental slips of tongue" of 'Osama' for years to come.

So what will the birthers and their newest cheerleader, Donald Trump, do now? Will the release of the President's birth certificate, a document issued every day to thousands but somehow seen as inconceivably real because of the color of his skin, the origin of his middle name, and the homes of his ancestors - will this quiet the questions once and for all? Doubtful. Public response to the birthers has been incredulous for many years now. For many, the President's birthplace was never a question or concern, while for others, it has continually resurfaced, as if it is impossible to believe that a multi-racial, dark-skinned man with an informed world-view and well-traveled family has any place in the power structure of the United States. And based on the collective history of this country, it is a bit amazing even today that he does.

So no matter what public awareness of the truth is or what the response has been for many years, the birther camps are going to stay steadfast in their disbelief of the President's citizenship, because it's not about the birth certificate at all. The birthers' assertions imply that President Obama - and other folks like him - do not belong in America, simply could not have originated here in this White-skinned, wealthy male country. The undercurrents of racism and hatred are clear, and can't be combated with common sense or legal documentation. The heart of racism is emotionally-based, and is not founded on logic or sense.

Fighting emotion and hate with papers and proof is simply keeping the conversation going. It will never be enough, and no one should have to continually prove their worth or value to those who do not want to  believe.

The Immigration Debate Rears Its Ugly Head...

There's got to be some sort of amnesty!

Feminism Cop-Out?

Just came across this article that Tim Wise wrote during the 2008 Presidential Campaign. It's an interesting proposition - he says that some White women were using feminism as a cover-up of their racist beliefs in their decision to support Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama.

Read it here:
Your Whiteness Is Showing

I know that for a long time I would default to my oppressed or vulnerable identity and ignore my dominant identities - something that, if I'm being honest, I still retreat to if I'm not checking myself. Did I hold on tighter to my bag when I was walking home at night because the man that passed me was Black? No, no, it's because I'm a woman! It's such an automatic response, something that along the way was ingrained in me. Even before I could name my Whiteness, I knew I should avoid it. How does that work? I've spoken with many individuals that do not share my White identification who also take part in this phenomena of ranking pieces of ourselves.

And to complicate the issue, it's sometimes difficult to discern which part of yourself really was responding in any given situation. This is the tension that arises when we attempt to compartmentalize our personalities or conceptions of self into independent, exclusive parts.  My identity as a woman is irreversibly, undeniably impacted, defined, altered, and adhered to my identity as a White person, as a member of the "middle class", as a graduate student, as a victim and survivor of violence, of all of my many selves.

But recognizing the impossibility of separating our own identities does not always make it easier to stop asking others to do the same. And it certainly doesn't prevent us - even when we try to be aware - from periodically slipping up and calling on one part of ourselves to take precedence over another (maybe less desirable) piece.


What do you think - can a response to one ISM act as a guise for perpetrators of another ISM? Is it a conscious or unconscious action?

Representation in the Media

The new Law & Order Los Angeles debuted yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised. The first episode was almost half in Spanish, with English subtitles - something you certainly don't see everyday.  Many of the lead characters are Latino, and although the first episode featured a Mexican gang - and all of the stereotypes that went along - the heros of the episode were also people of color, and the second episode featured a White man as the "villian".

I've written previously about the show "Outsourced", a show whose cast is predominantly people of color but that, in my opinion, consists entirely of cheap jokes about stupid stereotypes of the Indian culture.  It seems that in the general media, people of color are included in one of the following ways:

• Either it's a show like Law & Order LA where there were so many more people of color than there are usually that it was very noticeable; OR
• A person's race / ethnicity / religion / etc serves only as comedic relief or is exploited in some other way; OR
• There is a really negative portrayal in the news - see below: 

I think that representation of many different groups of people is increasing in the media, but it still has a long way to go. There is a mix of overt examples of racism in the media like the "looting vs. finding" captions, and then there are the more subtle microaggressions that continue to run rampant. Microaggressions can include the lack of different cultures in primetime television, the showing of internalized superiority (such as when different lifestyles are mocked or othered), and the messages we receive about what is good, beautiful, and right. For this, see my previous entry on "Liv Dolls"...