whites resisting racism

wanted to share one small example of white people standing up with people of color against racism i heard about recently.

2007 is the 200th year anniversary of the confederate general robert e. lee's birth.
in richmond, the former confederate capitol, public money has been spent on plans for the anniversary, including a half a million dollars polishing the monument to the general in time for the sons of confederate veterans to celebrate his birthday.

on january 12, 2007 the sons of confederate veterans were met with protesters, white and black, from the NAACP and the virginia anti-war network, stating their opposition to taxpayer money being spent to glorify the racist lee. here's the full story.

some pet peeves

a few things that got on my last nerve this week:

1) on friday, i saw this guy riding his bike down the street while smoking a cigarette. needless to say, he was not wearing a helmet. i know that this really shouldn't have bugged me. this totally should have been one of those live-and-let-live-things. but all i could think was ...

dude, why don't you buy a big, gas guzzling car? any help you might have been doing the environment or yourself by riding a bike is getting cancelled out by the cancer machine in your mouth and the fact that when you fall off your bike because some car comes too close to you and you can't react because you've only got one hand on your bike you're going to get a concussion because you're doing a very stupid thing and riding your bike without a helmet.

(ok, i totally realize that he was probably riding his bike because he enjoys riding his bike, or it gets him where he needs to go. and he was probably smoking the cigarette because he enjoys smoking cigarettes, or he's addicted. and yet, his simple act of enjoying himself really got on my nerves. does this make me a bad person? why do i think i can be the bike police, when i only started riding a bike a month ago?)

2) joseph biden. joseph biden's recent comments about barack obama were historically inaccurate and racist. in case you missed it, senator biden (who is running for president) said this about fellow presidential candidate barack obama, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." i'm shocked, and rather disgusted, by how forgiving people have been about this comment. this is the same guy who last year said, “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.” He explained this comment by saying that he has great respect for, and supports, the growing Indian-American population in Delaware. i'm not sure how this comment shows respect, but maybe i'm missing something here...

3) i ride the train to work every day. i've noticed this new phenomenon (sorry for those of you who are tired of hearing me harp on this) of parents, who are riding the train with small children, listening to music with earphones. often their children are trying to talk to them. i say "trying" because the parents can't (or won't) hear them. i find it very sad. your child is trying to communicate with you -- stop ignoring them! i get that it's early, you're tired, and maybe your child is getting on your last nerve, but ... you are still their parent.

4) did y'all hear about this story? a florida college student who was raped went to the police to report the crime, and instead of being helped, was arrested for a 2003 misdemeanor warrant. to add insult to injury, she was denied emergency contraception in jail becuase of a jail worker's religious beliefs. one more example of how the criminal "justice" system is often an instrument of oppression.

i promise my next post will be more uplifting than this one! thanks for letting me vent!
p.s. i love comments...thanks for everyone who is reading regularly and encouraging me via email. feel free to leave me your thoughts/comments on this page too.

the 411 on santa claus

who is this santa claus character who invades our culture every year at this time?

our modern day santa claus is derived from saint nicholas, bishop of myra in the fourth century.
st. nicholas was known for saving his people from famine and sparing the lives of those falsely accused. he was said to have given away his inheritance to those in need. st. nicholas is knows as the patron of many different groups of people --children, mariners, bankers, pawn-brokers, scholars, orphans, laborers, travelers, merchants, judges, paupers, marriageable maidens, students, children, sailors, victims of judicial mistakes, captives, perfumers, and even thieves and murderers. sounds like a good guy, right?

st. nicholas inspired the mythical figure of sinterklaas, the subject of a major celebration in the
netherlands, belgium and germany. the dutch brought this tradition to the settlers of new amsterdam (later renamed new york), who misprounced "sinterklaas" and that's how we got our american "santa claus".

unfortunately, sinterklaas is not as likeable a guy as st. nicholas seemed to be. sinterklaas has a servant (or sometimes multiple servants) called "zwarte piet," or black pete. one explanation is that during the middle ages, zwarte piet was a name for the devil. having triumphed over evil, it was said that on st. nicholas' eve, the devil was shackled and made sinterklaas's slave. sinterklaas is said to have come from spain and his helper eventually became seen as a dark-skinned Moor. wikipedia tells us: "Until the second half of the 20th century, [sinterklaas's] helper was not too bright, in line with the old colonial traditions." so we've got a devil turned into a black slave and/or a stupid black-skinned helper who the legend goes will stuff bad children into a bag and bring them to spain. racism anyone?

in the modern day celebration in Netherlands, white people dress up in black face, wear afro wigs, and wear bright red lipstick and march around throwing candy to children. some of these "zwarte piet" act dumb and speak garbled Dutch. there is a thriving market for zwarte piet products, many incredibly offensive in their depiction of black people. (see picture in this post and more to come in the comments.)

i think it's good to know where the traditions we are celebrating come from. i hope that if we are going to continue to celebrate the myth of santa claus (and feed the myth to our children),
we can find a way to celebrate the *original* inspiration for santa claus, st. nicholas -- who gave away his wealth to the poor, defended the rights of those falsely accused, and generally threw his lot with those most despised by society.

for more info on sinterklaas and the debate about zwarte piet, see this christian science monitor article, or this wikipedia entry.