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Why is Hollywood So Afraid of Black Women? [Reader Forum]
01 week ago
![Why is Hollywood So Afraid of Black Women? [Reader Forum]](http://colorlines.com/assets_c/2010/11/comment_073010-thumb-640xauto-471-thumb-640xauto-1216-thumb-640xauto-1288-thumb-240xauto-1550.jpg)
It’s Oscar season! Actually, the Oscars aren’t until the end of February, so we’ve got another few weeks of hype and speculation and scathing critical analysis. Fun stuff!
But before we get into all that… Gender Matters columnist Akiba Solomon takes down a new Washington Post report that seeks to dissect (in Akiba’s words) “Blackus Womanamina Americanus,” and yet manages to ignore every structural force that might make a black woman’s life the way it is. The Washington Post concludes that black women haven’t defined themselves. Akiba concludes differently:
Black women have been defining ourselves since before Sojourner Truth made her infamous 1851 “Ain’t I a Woman” speech. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, black women tell, no scream, about our humanity, complexity, legacy, pride, sisterhood, spirituality, money problems, romantic desires, bone-deep sadness, moral conflicts, sexuality and joy. Some of us are dying for a “Sunday Kind of Love.” Some of us think we’re cute and “Cleva.” Some of us aren’t that damn deep. The problem isn’t that black women haven’t defined ourselves for ourselves. It’s that mainstream media DON’T LISTEN.
Reader parkwood1920 cosigns and adds:
And after screaming to anyone who will listen about your basic humanity for three-plus centuries, you get fucking tired. And that’s when the sharks really go in for the kill. That’s exactly what I think about the corporate media’s attack on Black women now—sharks, the lot of them.
We don’t need to look far to see how this plays out in Hollywood. Akiba wrote a beautiful rejection of The Help‘s ‘historical whitewash’ way back in August, but unfortunately for all of us, Akiba’s not on the Oscars committee. So The Help is up for a slew of awards, and the resulting media coverage is ripe for examination.
When our superstar pop culture blogger Jorge Rivas isn’t shooting interviews with the director and star of black lesbian coming-of-age film Pariah, he’s keeping us updated on breaking news at Colorlines.com’s new /NOW blog. And with Oscar season in full swing, The Help is generating all kinds of headlines — and not always constructive ones, like when Best Actress nominee Viola Davis started to talk about structural racism in Hollywood, then got derailed by Charlize Theron and George Clooney. Really. As reader cantankerous_crone said:
Yes, Theron was speaking from white privilege–I mean really, saying “I have to stop you there” in order to focus on Davis’ looks? But Clooney, although smoother than Theron in his timing, dominates the entire conversation using his double-barreled white + male privilege. He positions himself as the best qualified person to speak about sexism in the film industry which is ridiculous. Notice how few words the other women present have while he relates his anecdotes, subtly making himself the authority on the issue.
Seriously, isn’t it time to stop let charming white men off the hook for their racism/sexism just because they claim to be on the right side and they’re smooth? A few years ago, at the Oscars, Clooney praised the film industry for a history of being forward thinking about race because Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for Gone With the Wind. Yet he completely failed to mention that McDaniel had to sit at a separate table at that awards ceremony. The man is blind to his own enormous privilege, but his looks and smooth public persona get him a pass.
Instead of shooting fish in a barrel by criticizing only those who have a sliver of the privilege pie (and true, should learn to own up to that fact), let’s look at those who hog practically the whole pie and use a veneer of charm and liberalism to get away with it. The myth of Prince Charming on a horse of white privilege righting all wrongs needs to die.
Jorge also reported this week that the Association of Black Women Historians released a statement condemning The Help for its distortion of history — and also, that The Help was invoked in a more positive light at a domestic workers’ rights rally in Sacramento, as a hook for constituents to understand the issues at stake. Not everyone thinks social justice should be making nice with Hollywood whitewashing. Here’s an excerpt from a comment by Brickbat Revue, kicking off a thought-provoking conversation about the tough choices organizers make within their campaigns:
Why would people use this movie. I just don’t understand. It’s not an independent film. It’s insulting to African-Americans, especially those who are most active in regards to being allies in the fight for social justice. This is disturbing on so many levels. Did they not hear the very valid complaints that African-Americans had of this film. This film as well as the book was a lie. Why use a lie to push your truth forward. This film is an untruth filled with stereotypes that that totally minimize the African-American experiences in the US. I’m insulted that Colorlines would run this story without a very critical eye.
[...] Being a domestic worker in the Jim Crow south wasn’t like this, it wasn’t fun, it wasn’t light. Being black in the south in this 30s, 40s and 50s was about something way deeper than this movie portrayed. People who did it in the 30s mothers may have been born slaves, they themselves may have been born slaves. Women were raped, men were lynched their testicles were cut off. My great aunt was raped every week for years by respectable white men of the community until she fought back and they burned her house down and got away with it in the south. That’s the south that they left out. I had an uncle who was lynched as a boy just north of where this movie took place….I’m just appalled that people in the struggle can with a straight face defend the lie that this movie vomits onto the American public.
And here’s Jessica Mowles, in the same thread:
I’ve been a domestic worker, following my mom, who was for years. Questioning these domestic workers’ motives for supporting this film further erodes their/our agency, which is already so lacking. Yes, the movie was horrible for all the reasons above. But the fact that domestic workers/activists are strategically latching onto such an incomplete representation of domestic work says A LOT about the level of visibility of such work in our culture (virtually zero).
And so, as Hollywood takes agency away from Etta James over her own life’s portrayal, it packs the Oscars with white actors. The result? A good person-of-color narrative is hard to find. As reader Aliza Flores writes:
For Halloween, my sister and her roommates dressed up as The Incredibles. We were exactly 7 (the mom, the dad, the boy, the girl, the baby, the costume designer and the friend). My cousin got to be Frozone, the friend (If you have not seen the movie, Frozone is a cool superhero that can freeze anything… and he’s black – ftw!). Most of the white kids when they saw the whole group went for the baby or the dad, but most of the black kids went for Frozone. Why? Well, let’s just say that there is not enough positive representations of people of color in movies, especially black. This is just a cartoon-ish movie, but it is the case for most of the media. Remember the outburst that the black/Latino Spiderman caused? Yeah, that’s what happens.
And urbanskin:
Racism and Hollywood go hand in hand. Look no further then Marlon Brando rejecting his Oscar for Best Actor in 1973 for his performance in the Godfather, because of Hollywood’s historical RACIST portrayal of Native Peoples.
Show producer Howard Koch threatened Sacheen Littlefeather, who rejected Brando’s award for him, to be arrested if she spoke more then 60 seconds.
Flash forward to 2012, Johnny Depp has been casted to play Tonto and Indian character. WTF! Depp go the nod over a REAL Native, Adam Beach, Flags of our Fathers, who also auditioned for the role.
The racism continues.
And finally, while George Lucas deserves major props for defying Hollywood and producing Red Tails with a black cast and director… well, reader Daniel Dušek Wilkes‘ review is hard to refute:
I think the cast of Red Tails deserve recognition for their valiant efforts in the face of the worst-written script of the year.
Each week, we round up the best comments in our community. Join the conversation here on Colorlines.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
Who Pays the Price for DC’s Morning-After Pill Decision? [Reader Forum]
01 month ago
In the ongoing battle for reproductive rights, losses are to be expected. But that doesn’t mean it hurts any less when our powerful allies turn their backs on us. In her latest Gender Matters column, Akiba Solomon fills us in on how Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat serving a Democrat president, reversed the FDA’s decision to let a morning-after pill be sold over the counter. (Obama has since stated his support of Sebelius’ decision, invoking his status as a father of two daughters.)
The FDA says that Plan B is safer than aspirin — which, incidentally, is available over the counter. And beyond the identity politics of ‘good girls’ vs. everyone else, Plan B is designed to be exactly that: a backup plan that acknowledges that there is no failsafe plan A. Akiba lays out the added costs of Sebelius’ decision, financial and otherwise; once again, the group that’s going to pay it is young women of color, especially those without access to trustworthy free clinics.
The Colorlines.com community is none too impressed with the decision either. Here’s what you had to say.
Alice Bowron:
Obama is losing perspective. His daughters basically live in a palace at taxpayer expense; he & his whole family have excellent healthcare coverage, again at taxpayer expense. No wonder he’s getting that “ivory tower”/abstraction kind of ‘reasoning’ vs. REAL WORLD WISDOM. It’s not about how ‘good girls’ behave – or about what ‘should’ happen – it’s about helping the girls who fall through the cracks, who have no real backup, and whose lives will become a total mess if they don’t have early access to help keep them out of multiple childrearing before the age of 18. GET REAL PEOPLE.
Anna Gabrielle Viveros:
Has any one noticed that boys under the age of 17 don’t have to get parental consent to buy condoms? Another way that a patriarchal system is controlling women’s bodies and yet excuses men. :/
Jay Robert:
Gray Davis vetoed a law that would have made birth control coverage mandatory. His false excuse: It would hurt small business. Democrats are a fragile & fair weather friend of reproductive choice.
LoriWisconsin:
Currently, many adolescent girls under 17 don’t have health insurance. Minority girls have a higher rate of being uninsured. That means that these girls, who have only 3 days for Plan B to work, must not only raise $35-$50 for the pill, but also more money for a medical appointment so she can get a prescription. This will raise the cost too high for many under-age-17 girls to afford. Minority girls under age 17 will be disproportionately priced out of the Plan B option.
liveurlive:
First off: girls under 17, we all know, are more than likely to be having sex. They better not be thinking how to raise $30 for a pill; save $25 and go and buy 4/$5 condoms. Better yet, if they don’t know let me inform the grown & the teens….Take your azz to the free clinic to get some free condoms & stay in school and get an education! For people to be upset about this issue is just silly, stupid, & moronic!
Emily Graff:
Condoms break sometimes, free or not.
Tate Jawdat:
Couldn’t agree with this article more. This decision hurts young women and especially young women of color. This was most definitely a political move – just as much as negotiating away funding for abortion in DC.
Each week, we round up the best comments in our community. Join the conversation here on Colorlines.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
Did You Talk About Race on Thanksgiving? [Reader Forum]
02 months ago
Thanksgiving is one heck on a conversation starter. It’s one part troublesome noble-pilgrim immigration narrative and one part semi-mandatory family reunion. (And as our publisher Rinku Sen notes in the Maddow Show clip above, the issues of immigration and family are intersecting like never before.) So it’s no surprise that, even over our four-day weekend, the Colorlines.com community was debating away. And while our Thanksgiving-specific pieces saw plenty of traffic, the big conversation was happening elsewhere, on the highly apropos topic of immigration.
Elon James White, one of our favorite comedian-writer-radio hosts, traveled to Alabama with a black activist delegation to witness the effects of the state’s new immigration law, HB 56. And while Elon is no stranger to the horrors of modern immigration enforcement, what he saw took his breath away:
Over two days we met with activists, business owners, and those that were affected the most by the law–undocumented people themselves–and my understanding was completely changed. I was against the law when I arrived in Birmingham. But 48 hours later I didn’t simply oppose it; I was horrified and angry for the people who have to live under it and confused as to how this could have ever been allowed in the first place.
To call Alabama’s HB-56 harsh is an understatement. From not being able to receive a birth or death certificate to being at risk for deportation if you seek child support–HB-56 not only creates an unwelcoming environment for any brown immigrants, it harks back to a terrible time in Alabama history that many thought was in the past.
We were all sadly mistaken.
It’s a raw, smart assessment of the situation; do give it a read. So as we celebrate our own families’ stories of hope and struggle, how do we come to terms with the present day’s unjust laws? Here’s what you had to say.
Anne-Marie McIntyre:
I would not be considered either black nor brown, but I grew up hearing about the prejudice my mom faced as the daughter of a dad who immigrated from Spain and a first generation Italian mom. “White” boys were not allowed to date my mom and both her parents had to fight to make sure she and her siblings received fair treatment at school and were not held back just because of who her parents seemed to be. This is disgusting treatment of other human beings and I can’t believe that black, white or brown we can’t imagine being in the shoes of these immigrants and their children and act with more empathy! Thanks for the report from the ground.
cbpl:
I am a native (and proud) liberal Californian who has lived the last 6 years in Alabama. I am also a first generation American (my parents are native central and south americans), so I do have a personal interest in the immigration issue, though because I am white, I suppose I’m not personally affected as much because just from looking at me you might think my people have been in this country for 100 years.
[...] Frankly, I think this is really just a dodge from the GOP to distract people from the fact that the wealth disparity in this country has gotten way out of hand. I just don’t believe that Republicans, as a whole, really care about illegal immigration as it doesn’t affect them. Does anyone here remember the congresswoman from Texas who floated out a bill that would exempt illegals from deportation if they worked as housekeepers? I honestly feel that this is simply new “wedge” issue to get their base fired up, much as gay marriage was in 2004. I mean can there be anything more politically cynical than having Ken Melman, a gay man, head up the Bush re-election campaign in which the chief platform was anti-gay marriage? Of course, 5 years later, Melman comes out as pro-gay marriage because it was a dead issue after Bush was re-elected. I believe that illegal immigration gets a lot of play now for the same reason – it simply is a scare tactic, a way of dividing us from “them” (insert group name here).
StopThat!Girl Jou on the idea that citizens will step into the jobs left behind:
…Only, they aren’t doing the jobs. Which is why Georgia had to resort to getting prisoners (who soon refused to do it) to pick the vegetables when farmers couldn’t get Americans to do the job, and why the farmers in Alabama are losing money as their crops wither.
cottonpickenupset on the notion that white Americans are inherently lazy:
My dad picked cotton as a child… 52 years ago there were still cotton fields in NC… And guess what: after school, we had to pick cotton to help out. So retract your statement about whites being lazy… I have picked cotton also… there are lazy people in all races, but not in my family!
stillcrazyafteralltheseyears:
People will cross borders if their kids are hungry and they can’t find work. We can thank our laws and imposing NAFTA on Mexico for destroying their financial system. My grandmother (who was German-American) also told me in the 40s, “We can’t get jobs because those Germans will work for nothing and take away all the American jobs.” Same garbage being spewed.
eewal:
[...] For the majority of the world, there is NO way to immigrate here legally. Basically, unless you’re from Europe or another first world country, it’s EXTREMELY hard, if not impossible, to get any sort of visa to come into this country, whether as a tourist or an immigrant. When my father immigrated here, he had to wait less than one year for a visa. Now, if he could even get one at all, he’d probably have to wait 15 years. Our immigration laws are so biased against people not from first world countries and it infuriates me when people say “oh, they should just wait in line and do it legally” because there IS NO LINE for the vast majority of people who don’t live in Europe.
Michael Powers:
Over the last 30 years, the definition of what constitutes a felony has changed. In many states, judges have the discretion to make pretty much anything a felony (there actually is such a thing as felony jaywalking). We have become a society that’s attached a zero-tolerance policy to just about every human endeavor. The private prison industry has spent years, and billions lobbying for tougher sentencing laws. Once a profit motive became associated with the loss of liberty, no one was safe. Though, as always, the most common victims of these policies are those without the resources to protect themselves. Make no mistake. No matter how well you live your life, you are considered inherently expendable.
Mack Lyons:
Few of the “Deport them all” people realize how this law allows law enforcement, most of whom are of the “harass/arrest first, ask questions later” type, to hone in on illegal immigrants based on whether they look sufficiently Mexican or not. Ethnic profiling in the name of “securing our borders,” folks.
The only reason the German exec from Mercedes-Benz was caught up in the first place was the lack of a license plate on his rental. Other than that, he never would had been detained.
skatter:
The overwhelming majority of undocumented people work at jobs with regular paychecks, just like you and me. That means they are paying taxes out of their paychecks, just like you and me, including all the local payroll taxes, both state and federal income taxes, and, of course, social security. That’s just an undeniable fact.
As to the under-the-table-workers; US citizens who work under the table don’t pay taxes on that income either, and there are a lot more of them than under-the-table undocumented workers. When was the last time your kids paid taxes on their babysitting or lawnmowing money, as required by law?
[...]
Mexico’s poor, and those of its neighbors further south, are your problem. It’s your government that pushes NAFTA, and similar policies, which have destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Mexican peasants. It’s also your government that has done its best to keep all of its southern neighbors impoverished, and often not free, so corporations like Dole and Chiquita can make huge profits off of the brutal exploitation of the native population. Why don’t you read Marine General Butler’s history of our exploits in Latin America? Or, more recently, the history of our backing of the brutal dictatorships of Central America right up through the recent coup in Honduras.
As long as the people of those countries are kept in poverty, largely by our policies, then they will continue to come north looking for work. Change the policies of our government so that we do for them what we did for Western Europe and Japan after WWII instead of our current exploitation, then the problem of undocumented people will largely clear itself up.
Each week, we round up the best comments in our community. Join the conversation here on Colorlines.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
Obama Knows Families are Shattered by Deportation. Now What? [Reader Forum]
02 months ago
Last weekend in a press briefing with Latino journalists, President Obama was questioned about the findings of our publisher the Applied Research Center’s new report, which estimates that over 5000 children are stuck in foster care while their parents are detained or deported. Obama responded that he’s “not going to pretend this hasn’t happened,” and pointed to general instructions he’s given to Homeland Security that deported parents should have access to their kids.
But as Obama acknowledges, the system is broken beyond the point of easy fixes. Seth Freed Wessler, lead author of the “Shattered Families” report in question, contextualizes Obama’s remarks within his actions. It’s well worth a read, as is Julianne Hing on the DREAM students turning themselves in to ICE to show, as they say, that “Obama continues to lie” on immigration reform. Here on the Colorlines.com community, the President’s remarks have inspired anger, frustration, and straight talk. Here’s what you had to say.
Fernando:
Wow, Barack Obama’s balls deserve a monument of their own, for him to sit there taking responsibility for a problem he promised to have solved “within the first year of his tenure as president”, and sliding the blame to the agencies he is supposed to lead as if they were really his foes and not part of his government, double standards, anyone?
Lea Reiter:
Why should it surprise us? He supplies arms to countries that kidnap and force children to become soldiers. Obama is not a friend of human rights.
Car Free:
And he facilitates torture. He also promotes the assassination of U.S. citizens without any sort of trial.
Tikkuntheworld:
As a Child Welfare Services social worker, I have seen my colleagues struggle to place citizen children with extended family members after the parents were deported for child endangerment charges. If family members are not documented themselves, CWS cannot do a thorough background check, and therefore cannot place the children legally in their home while parents are offered “family reunification services.” The injustice lies in the deported parents’ inability to engage in those services, and the research may show that CWS unfairly advances “bypassing services.”
It’s a mess. Good work in this area takes a savvy worker to navigate talks with the Consulate and DIF, the Mexican version of Child Welfare Services, to place children with “non-offending family” in Mexico. I have also seen undocumented foster children receive citizenship while in foster care. Dual citizenship seems a sad consolation prize for living through such trauma.
Lauren Sabina Kneisly:
Except some number of them won’t be stuck in foster care terribly long (if they’re young and cute) because the mandatory trigger deadlines on termination of parental rights will kick in rapidly for some number of these kids.
Under the “Adoption and Safe Families Act” (1997), any child who has spent 15 of the previous 22 months in foster care then begins to hit the program trigger dates for filing for the termination of parental rights. There is some flexibility in the program, but too many kids are simply swept into the system by the trigger dates.
The law requires that child welfare authorities file for termination of the birth parent’s rights; this has, naturally, disproportionately affected children of undocumented immigrants, prisoners, military families, etc.
Once parental rights are severed, states and their foster systems are under tremendous financial pressure and offered lucrative incentives to “re-home” any child made available for placement by way of adoption subsides.
I wrote about this, and the system these kids will be tossed, into a year ago here.
Ingrid Cruz:
Yeah Obama, and the fact that you haven’t really taken a stand about this atrocity is an even bigger problem. Executive order, anyone?
Each week, we round up the best comments in our community. Join the conversation here on Colorlines.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
Colorlines Investigations Are Expensive–and Crucial. Donate Today!
02 months ago
Donate now to support Colorlines.com Investigations.
Last week Colorlines.com published a package of investigative reporting that is making a stir. After more than a year’s worth of reporting, our research team found thousands of children lingering in foster care because their parents have been deported or detained by immigration officials. Further, we expect the problem to be many times larger than we can see: Through a Freedom of Information Act request, we discovered that nearly a quarter of all those deported in the first half of 2011–a whopping 46,000 people–were parents of U.S. citizen children.
This kind of reporting is essential, urgent and wildly expensive. For this investigation, Colorlines.com reporters traveled across the country to conduct interviews, spent months trying to gain access to local court records, and documented this process and their findings through video and other media platforms. That kind of reporting is costly, which is why fewer and fewer news outlets do it–and fewer still who care enough to look critically at the systemic forces that create racial inequity.
So, dear readers, gimme a hand here!
Colorlines.com has enjoyed remarkable growth since relaunching as an online home for daily news and analysis on racial justice. We’ve covered hundreds of breaking news stories and launched a growing number of investigative reports. But we need your help to keep it up.
Give whatever amount you can spare. Do it right now. Just click here and help ensure we can keep putting reporters on the beat. The more you give, the more we can dig up.
Thanks for your ongoing support!
How Can We Stop ICE from Shattering Families? [Reader Forum]
03 months ago
Last week our publisher, the Applied Research Center, released a groundbreaking new report that lays bare a nationwide crisis for families. Titled “Shattered Families,” the new report shows in detail how undocumented mothers and fathers are being made to watch on as their children are taken from them as part of the detention and deportation process, with little chance of getting their rights as parents back. For parents, a routine traffic stop or a surprise early-morning raid can mark the last time they see their children; mothers with abusive partners are especially vulnerable. And while the parents are being detained and deported, the kids are dropped into the foster care system.
Along with its two accompanying Colorlines articles by senior researcher Seth Freed Wessler and a Movement Notes column by ARC executive director Rinku Sen, the report has been making waves; New York Rep. José Serrano has issued a statement calling on DHS Secretary Napolitano to halt and review any deportation case causing a child to be placed in foster care.
And here on Colorlines.com, we saw some thoughtful, moving conversations. Here’s what you had to say.
Tovah Isaiah Gidseg:
As a foster parent I can say with confidence: NO, NO, NO… foster care is NEVER better than having children separated from parents who were neither neglectful nor abusive. Foster care, even with an awesome foster family, is traumatizing… even for kids who truly need to be removed from their family of origin. Being an undocumented immigrant is neither inherently abusive nor neglectful. Reunite these families now!
Eme Nin:
As an adult who as a child went through this torture of being separated from a parent, I can tell you there is nothing more frightening for a child to endure and for a family to experience.
Melanie Lopez:
Gee, I thought he said he’s mostly deporting “criminals.”
Erica Lorraine Williams:
The foster care system is already overflowing with (mostly brown) children. Why are they adding more to the system unnecessarily? Also, why do they automatically assume that it would be better to live in the foster care system or unknown families in the US than to live with their own families in Mexico? So wrong…
Shannon Moore:
This needs to stop. There is no reason to separate families. If a child is born an American citizen – give them the choice to stay in the US if they are older, if there are relatives or friends. But to tear young children away from their parents and to put them in foster care does not help anyone.
Marianne Milton:
Two agencies with little oversight and the power of (almost) life and death over some of the most vulnerable citizens of our country working hand in hand: Terribly frightening, and this is from a mom who has adopted from the foster care system, so I’m not some lunatic fringe person on this issue.
Eva Polanco Ramirez:
Yet, another reason why immigration reform is so important!
crazygemini12:
Oh, Colorlines. I didn’t need to start my day with this photo :( That said: is there anything we can do to help? #OccupyDHS?
[...] This isn’t anything new, really. The policy of destroying the families of groups/subgroups has always been a way for the government to maintain control, so I’m not quite sure why folks are surprised this is happening. I’m saddened by it but certainly not surprised. This has been happening to black people in this country fighting the foster system since time began. Another good (bad?) example of this is Australia’s ‘Stolen Generations.’
Jordan Roberts:
The Obama administration’s human rights record is disgusting. Treating our special forces like the world is a Call of Duty multiplayer match and executing American citizens without trials are awful examples, but they pale in comparison to the human cost of his immigration policy.
josegama responds to another commenter’s line that ICE is only deporting ‘dangerous’ immigrants:
This is not true, my white knight. Around 26% of those have had run-ins with the law on a felony-level. 14% have committed mistermeaners. 31% have been caught for crimes punishable by less than one year and this includes a broken tail-light or jaywalking (negligible offenses.) The remainder have not committed crimes (26%). It’s come to a point that if you are a witness of a crime, you are liable to be deported.
We don’t need your sympathy here. We merely want justice. Justice is above your feelings; it is what creates a society civil and right.
Here are some facts. Facts. Not rhetoric. Facts.
The first: The U.S. Economic Advisors on Immigration’s Economic Impact reports that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than natives. Statistically, an immigrant is less likely to commit a crime than you are. I truly believe that considering your lack of sympathy, citizen.
The second: ICE Reports. Yes, ICE reports. That’s where I got those percentages.
Both of these are U.S. government reporting and findings.
Rebecca bring up an issue that we explored in depth in our 2009 ‘Torn Apart’ investigation:
This does not even go on to talk about the families where one parent and the children are citizens; where the undocumented parent is the working parent and pays the bills and taxes also preventing the family from being on government support. The citizen spouses and children have rights and they are being violated just as equally as the rights of the undocumented.
abusedcitizen:
The logic for removing children from illegal alien parents who have demonstrated that they are prone to make bad or irresponsible decisions is understandable. But, despite that, the children should remain with their parents when deported. It is better to keep the family intact. Also, the children may be citizens of another country and it is immoral to confiscate the children of that country.
Fernando:
You have to wonder who or what is behind this draconian push for “inmates”, for lack of a better word, as in the case of the deported and detained parents that get jailed in private prisons run by corporations like CCA and The GEO Group. This may be old news for many of you, but if it’s not, check this out.
This is not serving anybody but the money-making corporations that have their lobbyists pushing for harsher and harsher laws that get pushed through in the name of national security and being patriotic.
mutualaidrev:
The coverage of this disturbing happening is great, but let’s not let it stand against a belief that the other children in foster care ought to be there. Yes, some children do, but foster care is a racialized institution, in which poor children of color are disproportionally placed into state foster care. Let’s look at these 5,100 children as indicative of what is happening to 510,000 children who are currently in care.
And finally, parkwood1920 quotes the reaction from New York Rep. José Serrano:
“When I introduced the Child Citizen Protection Act for the first time several years ago, I warned that a rigid deportation policy would end up separating children from their parents for no good reason. Today we have learned that that dire prediction is turning out to be true.”
Rep. Serrano is correct. There is no justification for what ICE or Homeland Security is doing. This government is committing massive human rights violations while we watch. It is inhumane to steal parents away from their children. Enough said.
Each week, we round up the best comments in our community. Join the conversation here on Colorlines.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
Can Your Halloween Costume Be Racist, Even If You Aren’t? [Reader Forum]
03 months ago
This past week, our pop culture blogger Jorge Rivas broke all previous records for number of comments on a Colorlines.com post. His profile of Ohio student group STARS’ poster campaign against casual Halloween racism has pulled in 300 comments at the time of this writing, and they’re still coming in.
Jorge credits his use of a Mean Girls reference in the first graf. But also, STARS has come up with an incisive, impeccably done campaign that’s raising some tough new questions for a lot of people. Commenters on the post, many of them first-timers to Colorlines, arrived with some fundamental issues to address. Where is the line between funny and offensive, and who says where it is? Is this censorship? Where are the negative stereotypes about white people, and does white privilege exist when your whole family is broke? Is this campaign calling white people racist, and isn’t that a racial stereotype as well — and isn’t being a racist the worst thing to be? In the real world, how does a Halloween costume fuel systemic bigotry?
These are issues that’ll be with us for many Halloweens to come, and we’re pleased to be hosting a (largely civil!) discussion of them. With no further ado, here’s a very small sample of what you had to say.
Joanna:
I posted the graphic on my Facebook wall and was shocked by my friend’s responses. They were saying it was ridiculous and overly PC, basically implying it’s their right to appropriate these stereotypes for entertainment purposes. It’s a great campaign, but also eye-opening in a very disturbing way.
Craig Berger:
Perhaps the thing that many people seem to struggle with is the meaning and the feeling that comes from addressing the term “racist.” As a white person, raised that racism was absolutely disgusting, I grew up learning to recoil at everything that was labeled racist. The idea of racism was disgusting to the point that I never wanted to admit that I could be racist, and I started to view it as some rare, extraordinary thing.
But after getting to know more people from diverse backgrounds and hearing their stories and going to college and grad school, I realize now that whether I like it or not, society is inherently racist. I benefit from many of my identities (being a white, heterosexual, man raised in a middle class, Christian household) because society treats me as normal, or the standard, while some of my friends who identify as African American, Latino, or Asian are viewed as “others.”
So while racism is indeed a negative thing, it’s not as rare as we might think. We might not feel it or see it as much as white people because it’s hidden by our inherited privileges, but I am convinced that others who are not protected by society absolutely feel it.
[...] Given the exploitation of specific groups in society at the hands of white people, there is a unique, symbolic meaning found in the act of creating a caricature of those groups that isn’t found in mocking the groups … mentioned (vikings, cowboys, etc.), and to the groups who continue to be exploited and targeted in society, it’s painful.
What makes this difficult for many white people to understand is their privilege, or the set of certain, unearned benefits bestowed upon them by society. In America, we are conditioned to view whiteness as normalcy, and so there are things as white people we experience that we don’t think twice about (the color of a Band-Aid, for example) that can be painful to other groups in society.
I suppose the main thing from this is that no one is telling you whether or not you are “allowed” to do anything or not. If you’re reading this, I am guessing you’re fairly capable of making your own decisions. But I think what this campaign is asking all of us to do is stop and think about how our actions–which we often take for granted and fail to analyze anyway–might impact those around us who have differing experiences in life. And if you’re not sure how others’ experiences differ from yours, maybe that’s an opportunity to start listening and thinking.
Tyrone Bhart:
Thanks Craig for the critical analysis and lack of right or wrong judgement. It definitely helps me clarify the situation and empathizes with those who felt this campaign was necessary, as well as what they hoped to achieve.
However, in fairness, I think it would have had a greater impact had it included stereotypes from white cultures that are also harshly judged- perhaps a Catholic priest with a young boy, or an orthodox Jew, or even a US military soldier- you can’t say they have a great image to the majority of Americans. Heck, a KKK costume is equivalent to an Arab terrorist in my mind. I find that very offensive.
But in the end, part of what makes America so great is that we CAN dress up as these things and a discussion like this can occur because we have the freedom and cultural awareness to allow it- even though it may be uncomfortable from time to time.
[...] What makes a “people” or a culture anyway? Is it not a culture until it’s repressed or vilified or slandered? I think there is an entire culture of suburban white kids who listen to pop music and spend their weekend sexting each other. I think it’s a deplorable culture, but it is what they know and who they are. Is it okay to make fun of them or not? Why?
[...]Honestly, if someone is stupid enough to honestly believe one of those cultural stereotypes then they aren’t worth anyone’s time. If we weren’t all so kind, natural selection would take care of such imbeciles.
vtteacher:
[...] I wish the people who didn’t believe these stereotypes could easily be ignored. Unfortunately, many are in positions of power & influence: just look at AL’s new “immigration” law. While some may be motivated simply by wanting a more law-based society, this is also a huge push-back against another culture based on negative stereotypes.
schatt:
Where’s the white guy tearfully holding up a picture of a businessman?
parkwood1920:
When white businessmen are detained at Guantanamo Bay or federal detention centers for the crime of solely being white businessmen, or beaten to death by teenagers who joke about “stomping a businessman,” you let me know.
Osa Taas:
At what point is the line drawn though? What if I admire Harriet Tubman and want to dress as her for Halloween? Am I ‘not allowed’ because I’m not African American? I agree that intentionally derogatory costumes should be avoided, but it could also be a slippery slope.
[...] Maybe we can just make it, “If we really want to fight racism, then one of the most important things that people need to do is really listen to other people.”
Rowan Griffith:
Well yeah, but white people tend to get listened to way more than everybody else, and at the expense of people of color.
FlutterDoo:
People don’t listen to me at all. Maybe you’re confusing “White People” with “Rich People”, because there are more rich white people than non-white people. But that can’t be, because then YOU would be the racist, assuming all white people are rich and get their voices heard, huh?
I think these people are being stupid and need to grow thicker skin. Hell, I’m also gay! If some straight guy goes around acting gay and wiggling dildos in everyone’s face it’s because he’s choosing to act stupid for Halloween, WHO CARES!?
PersephoneF:
so….only white people of any nationality can be racist? If a black woman wanted to dress as a geisha, that’s okay?
shannon mason:
1 in 3 Native women will be raped once in their lifetime.
Whenever I see someone wandering around on Halloween in a groin high skirt with fake feathers and a little vest barely covering their chest, I think of this statistic. I am also reminded of the fact that more than 80% of these crimes are perpetrated by non-native men.
1 in 10 black men in the United States aged 25 to 29 is incarcerated.
When I see someone jokingly sipping from a ridiculous plastic chalice dressed as a pimp, I remember the fact that the more young black men are incarcerated than any other racial group. That nearly 50% of the prison population is black.
Dressing up just makes these realities seem okay. And they’re not. By going out as a reinforcement of a stereotype we are only reinforcing that these are the available roles for us to fulfill… sexualized object, hustler, lazy worker… there’s nothing fun about it.
Evan Johnson:
These statistics are daunting, but we are talking about halloween costumes. If everyone suddenly decided to go as something boring like an apple or bumblebee, those stats probably wouldn’t change.
snookifan:
[...] Personally, I think being called racist is probably the one attack minorities have against white people and STARS took full advantage of that. I’m not surprised by how people are reacting to it. It’s not fair and also it’s not helping the situation at all… and really, it’s RACIST.
CJ_Canadian:
Racism = prejudice + power.
Aliza Flores:
Regardless of our opinion on this matter, it is important that we think about the corporate side of all of this. People spend so much money on buying costumes every year. We are not the ones benefiting from this in any way. Just think about this, they’re making money out of mocking and diminishing people, and that their choice of mocking POC and other groups is conscious. This is not coincidental.
libractivist:
A) It’s blatantly unfair to revel in the “exoticism” of someone else’s culture, whether you mean it in a positive or a negative way, when that very “exoticism” or otherness keeps people in that culture from ever fully fitting in, plays into whether or not they can get a job, makes them more likely to be arrested, or simply colors every interaction they have with the assumption that they will be “smart” or “hard working” or “sassy” or “submissive”.
B) Even if you’re trying very, very hard to emulate someone you respect — it’s 99% sure that as a white person (or as a man, or as a straight person, or…) you cannot actually do justice to what it means to be a person of color who lives with the experience of racism (or a woman who is subject to sexism, or a queer person…you get the point.) There are other ways to honor someone than to act like you identify with them when you really can’t.
C) Blackface: Just don’t do it. Blackface, particularly in America, has a long and awful history of being used specifically to mock African Americans. Even if you’re emulating a particular person, even if you mean it in the best possible way, even if it wasn’t your ancestors who did that…just accept that blackface will always have those connotations and be hurtful to some people.
As a white person, you have about 80 billion other costume choices — most of our pop stars and media people and kids characters and movie idols are white. So really…let’s not pretend showing a little respect is going to destroy our fun.
[...] The reason stereotypes of people of colour are hurtful in a way that stereotypes of white people aren’t is that they are often the only images we see. While the media is full of people of Austrian and other European descent being good, bad, and everything in between, minorities are all too often essentialized to one (often negative) archetype.
It has nothing to do with believing white people are “the only ones who do bad stuff on earth”, and everything to do with learning to understand CONTEXT.
Once a week, we highlight some of the best comments from our readers. Want to join the conversation? Talk with us here in the comments on Colorlines.com, or on Facebook and Twitter.
How is Black Migration Changing the Country? [Reader Forum]
03 months ago
Last week, our intern John Sullivan brought us some of what he’s been working on for our publisher, the Applied Research Center, and it’s fascinating stuff. In short, Black families are moving south, and to the suburbs. In some ways, this seems self-evident; why stick around in urban centers with high unemployment rates? But it’s not quite that simple; the suburban centers to which Black people are moving have lower employment rates than white-majority suburbs, for one, and residential sprawl creates the same problems everywhere. And this migration pattern’s ramifications for community organizing, and for black voting power, are yet to be understood.
John’s article and data points drew some interesting commentary from the bloggerati, including ThinkProgress’ Matt Yglesias, and kicked off a delightfully nerdy conversation here in the Colorlines community. Here’s what you had to say.
jpj248 starts us off:
The influx of educated middle class, mostly white young people into urban areas is a well-documented trend. This “bright flight” was highlighted by a 2010 Brookings Institution report which analyzed U.S. Census data from 2000-2008. The report found that for the first time in the nation’s history, the majority of people of color in the U.S. live outside of the city proper. ( 1, 2, 3, 4 )
[...] I wonder what this means on the flipside, for city centers that are becoming increasingly whiter and gentrified. Along with this “bright flight” of young white transplants into the cities has been significant discussion in the architecture, design, and urban planning world regarding “revitalization” and making cities more “liveable.” However, is this strain of urban planning leaving suburbs and communities of color out of the picture? Is there enough policy work and thinking around improving our suburbs, which are arguably where the real “diversity” and “melting pot” are?
Andrea responds:
It is a new white flight. with white retirees returning to mixed development, low maintenance areas of the urban core, and new families or urban pioneers colonizing areas once only frequented by artists, the elderly and minorities.
I am a PhD student in Planning and Historic Preservation. There is a dialogue acknowledging the displacement, but a fear around talking about race. Instead, they talk about the challenges of social equity and community resiliency, which I see as very sanitized ways to engage what is a new emergency. Suburban divestment follows reinvestment in cities.
Yazmin Aguilar responds to another commenter’s remark that blacks are being run out of cities by Latino migration:
Hispanics are not running anyone out. If anyone is running any minorities out of anywhere, it is the federal and local government. It is time we stop pointing fingers at other minorities that are facing the same injustice; instead, we need to point fingers at the ones who are really behind all the injustice that minorities face.
CJ Johnson Writes:
The points brought up in this article are disturbing and not encouraging sadly. Particularly the mentions of the possible weakening of the black vote in suburban metropolitan areas, which I have personally witnessed in the Dallas metropolitan area. Too many young, educated, and professional blacks have abandoned the city, to live in suburbs in order to acquire McMansions.
Instead of designing what the American dream looks like for us, we have just adapted to or followed what mass white America did during the mid-20th century. Who are now returning to the core of cities in droves and at the detriment of misplacing people of color.
vhamer:
The suburbs are where the effects of sprawl are hurting people the most, and while deindustrialization of many northern cities has been a fierce scourge on black families, the arrangement of low-density housing and low-margin employers will likely just make the problem worse. It will not help build wealth in the black community, and like so many in the suburbs now, many of the migrants will continue to live ‘one paycheck away.’
[...] The South is great. I grew up in NC and I am annoyed by people from elsewhere who malign the region. Nothing wrong with appreciating hospitality and sunshine! The sprawling community-less, unwalkable, over-leveraged, poorly-built, unsustainable, wealth-eroding suburbs are not, however, awesome.
Regardless of what the brochures say, a land of suburbs is not a good long-term strategy for addressing ‘what ails this country’ or its citizens. If they remain the American dream, we have no future. I am discouraged that black families (and policymakers) are being duped into buying the same soon-to-spoil goods that have been so fundamental to the housing and financial crisis.
Once a week, we highlight some of the best comments from our readers. Want to join the conversation? Talk with us here in the comments on Colorlines.com, or on Facebook and Twitter.
Which Occupy Movements Are Doing Right by Race? [Reader Forum]
03 months ago
Colorlines contributor Kung Li has offered an essential history of the 1 percent, in Georgia at least. The essay explains why it’s actually impossible to launch an Occupy Atlanta movement that doesn’t deal intentionally with race. A commenter, Tatyanna Wilkinson, offers this interesting note:
It is interesting to see which cities are not race aware in this Occupy Movement. I am from Massachusetts but live in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles protester’s are such a wildly diverse group that the media does not know what to do with them. Do I interview the white woman with the clip board? Do I interview the local black activist who has a radio show? Do I focus on the group of Muslim women who are here in solidarity with they sisters of other religions?
IMHO the other occupiers could learn quite a bit from the LA folks and how they have gone about this. When Danny Glover and the Women of Color Global Women’s Strike and several other grass roots orgs showed up last Saturday they cleared the lineup and he was able to speak. It was not during the GA, but by what I know of the organizers they would welcome it.
The LA folks seem to be able to reconcile how to fold race, monetary and social issues all into their messages. I can only pray that the other cities learn from what happened in Atlanta when Congressman Lewis stopped by.
I’ve heard similar things about the L.A. movement from a few sources. Early on, the coalition of organizers who have been mobilizing California homeowners for some time reached out to the Occupy L.A. movement. At least one African American homeowner spoke to the general assembly about the existing movement to directly confront banks’ predatory and irresponsible business in black and brown neighborhoods. Organizers were hopeful they’d build fruitful bridges. Sounds like that’s happening.
We’ll look at the movement more closely next week. In the meantime, any more reports from Occupy movements that have been intentional about race? Drop them in the comments.
How is Occupy Wall Street Including Folks of Color? [Reader Forum]
04 months ago
While the mainstream media is only now reaching its ‘acceptance’ stage with the nationwide Occupy Wall Street demonstrations — after lingering for weeks on ‘denial’ and ‘mockery’ — here at Colorlines, we’ve been reporting on the movement as it develops. Which isn’t to say we’ve been unconditional boosters of it either — as Jo Freeman said 40 years ago, a movement with no leader usually skews toward whoever has the most experience being loud. And we know there are plenty of members of the 99% who can’t be at the protests, not just for financial reasons, but for fear of police violence or deportation. That said, OWS is an evolving movement, and we’re here to inform, not to discourage.
As our editor Kai Wright said on Democracy Now! last week:
I agree that having a broad-based outrage is in fact the power of this movement. That is a great thing. I do also believe that race-blind politics creates race-blind solutions. So within the shapelessness – I am not saying that there needs to be a series of demands. It’s a matter of building movements that put the people who are most affected by this problem in the forefront so that the solution that comes out reflects their problems.
I say that because I think one of the key problems we have had in dealing with this crisis is that we have consistently, and I do not think accidentally… The banking lobby and their friends in Washington have consistently pushed those folks out of the spotlight in order to focus on the well-being of investors, the well-being of the President, the well-being of whoever, other than those are losing their homes and losing their jobs. I think it is important our politics put those folks front and center. That is happening. That is exactly what is happening organically through this movement. I think that is fabulous.
Here’s your comments from across several OWS-related articles; look for more coverage and commentary from us in the weeks to come.
Justice for Families on our publisher Rinku Sen’s Movement Notes column, on the opportunity for racial justice in the emerging OWS moment:
Really timely article and much appreciated. I think one way to connect the issues is to talk about the connection between a decimated social safety net and the accompanying rise of a war on people of color (especially black and latino people), immigrants, and queer folk perpetuated through an ever-increasing punishment apparatus. Even as some states have advanced some small measures to reduce the number of people in prison, the federal government continues to dole out money for new immigrant detention centers.
Liberals want a democracy with a social safety net but they also remain silent about, and are willing to accept, a growing police state at home.
Justice reinvestment, or shifting government dollars away from incarcerating poor folks of color and toward investment in these same communities, should be a complement to talking about taxing the rich (recognizing that our country isn’t broke; wealth is being hoarded by the few).
In other words, the 10-point plan should explicitly mention justice reinvestment as a strategy toward racial and economic justice. Quoting Colin Green: “Despite the right’s anti-government rhetoric, their practice is pro-government. But it is government for them.” As we shrink their police state, we grow the opportunity for real democracy.
and Kelly Virella:
One unifying message that I think even a centrist politician like Obama could adopt is “we can do better.” We don’t have to create an economic system that excludes 25 percent of the population, usually based on race, and carts them off to prisons. We don’t have to create jobs that entail sitting around observing these people living in cages. We don’t have to set up a banking system that follows the latest financial fad over the cliffs like lemmings.
Real technological innovation is possible. Real safeguards can be put in place to protect people’s assets. Real jobs can be created. And prosperity in one community means prosperity and a bigger market in another. I think what is missing here is political leadership that articulates a vision of social justice. If we could get Obama talking like that and bringing people together, we could be powerful.
Republican presidential candidate and Tea Party favorite Herman Cain called OWS “un-American and anti-capitalist,” then kept digging. su5 interprets for us:
If it’s “not a person’s fault they succeeded,” is he trying to say that success has nothing to do with merit, and that’s it’s more about chance?
If he wants to say that Wall Street deserves credit for “creating jobs” (what about blame for shipping them off to China or downsizing?), then they deserve the blame for not creating enough by the same logic.
Also, plenty of these protestors have already gone to school and have been unable to find jobs despite searching for them.
The problem with his rhetoric of “failure” and “success” is that if success requires that one find a job and that the job supplies enough money to count as a “success,” this depends on someone else supplying the job, hiring the person and paying them enough, which is totally beyond the job-seeker’s ability to manufacture ex nihilo. He might as well say that it’s poor people in third world countries’ fault that they starve.
Charlotte86 uses our list of six cities where Blacks and Latinos are facing Depression-era economic conditions to provide context:
Not only did few in Washington care, few on Main St. cared as well. This is why some of us, while glad people are finally waking up to the economic realities with the Occupy Wall St movement, are also skeptical of the protests sweeping the nation and whether they are only a movement for the recently dispossessed middle class and predominantly white. Those whose voices are being heard the most through this movement have been white and middle class, while those who are poor, working class, or non-white have been having to fight to have their voices heard.
Carrie Ross-Stone on the Washington, D.C. OWS protests:
I am a 56 year old grandmother who walked 200 miles over 9 days to join occupy DC. There is a misconception about the people attending the occupations — in NY and in DC, many reports say the occupiers are older anti-war activists or unemployed students. Actually, the occupiers are as diverse as America. We are young, middle-aged & elderly, Republican, Democrat, Independent. We are veterans, students, teachers, firefighters, police officers, lawyers, poets and baristas. Many of us are un- or underemployed. What we have in common is our economic status. We are the 99%.
We may have our own “pet” cause, i.e., the environment, gay rights, jobs, taxes, union rights, and so on. I for one support most progressive causes, but I know there is one issue that MUST be at the top of our priorities list: campaign finance reform. As long as our elected officials are bought and paid for by the wealthiest 1%, we will have no democratic process and the American dream will surely die.
And finally, here’s yes on Kai’s original OWS editorial:
“1% of the population has disproportionate control over our economy and political system and it is time to take it back.”
I feel like a good question to address, then, is who is taking control back? Whose voices are being heard?
I hear a lot about “occupying” Wall Street, but isn’t it ironic that our country was founded on occupying indigenous lands? What about the voices of POC and other individuals who are systematically oppressed by institutions in the country? This isn’t to say that these topics cannot be adequately addressed, or that the movement is lacking these voices, but from what I’ve heard coming from the heart of the operations, it seems that these messages might be approached with the same aversion to discussions of race and politics that they are met with outside of such a protest.
Again, this isn’t to knock this flexing of our constitutional rights, since it serves as a potent reminder to those who have slowly been destroying our country and poisoning the globe with their misdeeds that people are pissed off and prepared for action. However, if we’re advocating for a revolutionary change, then we should be thinking about what repercussions that change would have, both purposefully and inadvertently, on all people, right?
[...] I was going to make a picture for the “I am the 99%” Tumblr project, and I was going to write about how I grew up poor, disadvantaged, et cetera et cetera, but I couldn’t help but think about the irony of the whole situation. My sign would have read:
“I grew up poor and white, but the kyriarchy afforded me privileges that I often took for granted. Then I started engaging in discussions about race and class and evaluating my experiences and the experiences of others I knew growing up in a poor neighborhood that was mostly Black and Cape Verdean. We always had debt. Many people went without health insurance. The house my mom and then I grew up in was foreclosed upon and now my grandparents live with my uncle. I work a shitty job where the foreign nationals on non-immigrant visas whom I work with are routinely taken advantage of by my absent boss who seeks profit over all else. And yet, I still have privilege. I am the 99%, whatever that means.”
Didn’t seem that catchy though, so I haven’t posted it yet.
Once a week, we highlight some of the best comments from our readers. Want to join the conversation? Talk with us here in the comments on Colorlines.com, or on Facebook and Twitter.