I had no idea it was going to get this bad…I was probably being naive. But it did get bad. It is a horrible example of plagiarism and the privileging of certain voices over others. I’m personally upset because I’ve lost one of my favorite blogs (especially while I was distracted and neglecting the blogging world). But much bigger than that, bigger than my own needs, are the broader implications. If you have not been keeping up, you can read here La Chola’s/WOC/brownfemipower’s final blog post. Others here and here and here discuss the background of the controversy. It is difficult for me to read BFP’s denouncement of feminism, but I’m not super surprised. Certain voices are privileged and the feminist scholarly and blogging world is not immune to this problem. Sadly, this has ended with BFP’s removal of her blog. I’ve looked up to her year’s of work and writing regarding women of color issues and I was especially fond (obviously) of her postings on Oaxaca during the uprising. I thank her for her support and work—I hope she’ll come back to us soon.
Archive
A video created for the AARP U@50 video contest.
Something sad and thoughtful for Easter: Interview with Leonardo Boff.
Two disturbing things brought up by La Chola: Photoshopping at the New Republic and Rape on a schoolbus.
Heather Tirado Gilligan’s thirdspace article on race, grad school, legitimacy, and wine and cheese parties. Emailed to me by a friend, this article reminds us of our early days of graduate school, fitting in, and dealing with race and class issues.
Belle Lettre’s discussion on the issue of facebooking with students.
Something that hits too close to home: Top 10 Things NOT To Ask Your Girlfriend While She’s Writing Her Dissertation
Fun Comics: Garfield Minus Garfield and the horribly familiar PhD Comics
The books on my left that I should be reading:
Diversity on the Farm: how traditional crops around the world help to feed us all, and how we should reward the people who grown them. by Charles C. Mann.
When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846. by Ramon A. Gutierrez.
And in the end, all of this distraction was a success because I discovered I can download Mann’s publication online. Yeah!
Tariq Ali reflects on the protests of the 60’s.
In 1968, fury at the Vietnam war sparked protests and uprisings across the world: from Paris and Prague to Mexico. Tariq Ali considers the legacy 40 years on
* Tariq Ali
* The Guardian,
* Saturday March 22 2008A storm swept the world in 1968. It started in Vietnam, then blew across Asia, crossing the sea and the mountains to Europe and beyond. A brutal war waged by the US against a poor south-east Asian country was seen every night on television. The cumulative impact of watching the bombs drop, villages on fire and a country being doused with napalm and Agent Orange triggered a wave of global revolts not seen on such a scale before or since.
If the Vietnamese were defeating the world’s most powerful state, surely we, too, could defeat our own rulers: that was the dominant mood among the more radical of the 60s generation.
In February 1968, the Vietnamese communists launched their famous Tet offensive, attacking US troops in every major South Vietnamese city. The grand finale was the sight of Vietnamese guerrillas occupying the US embassy in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and raising their flag from its roof. It was undoubtedly a suicide mission, but incredibly courageous. The impact was immediate. For the first time a majority of US citizens realised that the war was unwinnable. The poorer among them brought Vietnam home that same summer in a revolt against poverty and discrimination as black ghettoes exploded in every major US city, with returned black GIs playing a prominent part.
The single spark set the world alight. In March 1968, students at Nanterre University in France came out on to the streets and the 22 March Movement was born, with two Daniels (Cohn-Bendit and Bensaid, Nanterre students then, and both still involved in green or leftist politics) challenging the French lion: Charles de Gaulle, the aloof, monarchical president of the Fifth Republic who, in a puerile outburst, would later describe as chie-en-lit - “shit in the bed” - the events in France that came close to toppling him. The students began by demanding university reforms and moved on to revolution.
That same month in London, a demonstration against the Vietnam war marched to the US embassy in Grosvenor Square. It turned violent. Like the Vietnamese, we wanted to occupy the embassy, but mounted police were deployed to protect the citadel. Clashes occurred and the US senator Eugene McCarthy watching the images demanded an end to a war that had led, among other things, to “our embassy in Europe’s friendliest capital” being constantly besieged. Compared with the ferment elsewhere, Britain was a sideshow (”…in sleepy London Town there’s just no place for a street fighting man,” Mick Jagger sang later that year): university occupations and riots in Grosvenor Square did not pose any real threat to the Labour government, which backed the US but refused to send troops to Vietnam.
In France, the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was at the peak of his influence. Contrary to Stalinist apologists, he argued that there was no reason to prepare for happiness tomorrow at the price of injustice, oppression or misery today. What was required was improvement now.
By May, the Nanterre students’ uprising had spread to Paris and to the trade unions. We were preparing the first issue of The Black Dwarf as the French capital erupted on May 10. Jean-Jacques Lebel, our teargassed Paris correspondent, was ringing in reports every few hours. He told us: “A well-known French football commentator is sent to the Latin Quarter to cover the night’s events and reported, ‘Now the CRS [riot police] are charging, they’re storming the barricade - oh my God! There’s a battle raging. The students are counter-attacking, you can hear the noise - the CRS are retreating. Now they’re regrouping, getting ready to charge again. The inhabitants are throwing things from their windows at the CRS - oh! The police are retaliating, shooting grenades into the windows of apartments…’ The producer interrupts: ‘This can’t be true, the CRS don’t do things like that!’ Continue reading ‘Words from Tariq Ali’
In this interview with Tewolde Berhan Egziabher, he speaks of a future with a weakened WTO and an emergent new world order. He also explains nicely some of the problems with TRIPs, patents, and genetic modification.
”Plan by TNCs to Control Seeds Bound to Fail”
Interview with Tewolde Berhan Egziabher
NEW DELHI, Mar 3 (IPS) - An attempt by a handful of developed countries and trans-national corporations (TNCs) to monopolise and control the world’s seeds is doomed to failure, says Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, director-general of Ethiopia’s Environment Protection Agency, and a formidable negotiator at biodiversity-related fora.
Tewolde, who won the Right Livelihood Award in 2000 for ”exemplary work to safeguard biodiversity and the traditional rights of farmers and communities to their genetic resources’’, explained to IPS correspondent Ranjit Devraj why ”the attempt to reduce the world’s farmers to serfs of a different kind” is doomed.
IPS: What gives you grounds for such optimism? After all in major agricultural countries like India we have been seeing steady inroads made into the farming sector by such TNCs as Monsanto.
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher: First of all the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which made the control over seeds by TNCs possible through its Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) mechanism is slowly getting paralysed — especially after Doha. As WTO weakens, the controls that have been creeping in will automatically disappear.
IPS: What about the bilateral agreements outside the WTO?
TBGE: These bilateral agreements favoured by the United States and the European Union, and also other countries, have only served to create greater uncertainty. They have certainly undermined the hope that the MNCs once harboured, that the WTO would become an instrument with which to subjugate the world.
IPS: What do you foresee?
TBGE: Well, we seem to be heading back, briefly, to the chaotic world that existed before World War II when a handful of colonial powers were able to exert their influence on the world. But, this will be a temporary stage because the Western world did not earlier have to contend with the emergence on the world stage of such countries as India, China and Brazil.
IPS: How exactly will the emergence of such countries as India, China, Brazil and South Africa help?
TBGE: To start with there will be greater room for manoeuvring. This can lead to a better global system than the one that exists in which countries that emerged victorious at the end of World War II have for too long continued to dictate the agenda. If you look at China’s investments and involvement in Africa you will see that they steer clear away from interfering in what is not their business. So the tone is already being set for a new world order.
IPS: What are the worst results of TRIPS impinging on agriculture?
TBGE: Without doubt the idea that the patenting of mechanical inventions — that began in the city-state of Venice — can be transferred to plants, animals and microorganisms is misconceived. Most farmers are illiterate and living in countries that are not developed but are vulnerable to pressure with WTO members creating conditions ideal for TNCs to patent seeds. This is an unbelievable distortion of justice. And it becomes truly absurd when the onus falls on farmers to prove that they have not been using seeds without a license from the TNC that claims to own them. What can farmers do in the event of natural pollination? Call in the birds and the wind as witnesses?
IPS: What about genetically modified organisms and genetically engineered crops — especially those that are claimed to help increase the production of biofuels?
TBGE: Firstly the deployment of genetically engineered organisms or crops must be resorted to only after they have been rigorously tested for safety. Many developed countries, especially those in the EU, are already wary of genetic engineering products. As for production of biofuels they can be useful in reclaiming land that is unsuitable for agriculture, but if they are dependent on fertilisers that go back to fossil fuels what is the benefit to the environment? What I say is that there should be no hasty action when it comes to adopting genetically engineered crops.
I suggest reading the entire article. It is quite overwhelming and a testimony to LA as a global city, the debate over immigration, and the lived reality of immigration and race relations. However, I do have a few issues with the portrayal of immigrants—as lacking a voice or easily controlled–but this does show how people are profiting from controlling immigrant labor.
From the LA Times:
Inspectors find dirt on books at Southern Calif. carwashes
Owners frequently violate labor and immigration laws with little risk of penalty, officials say. Many workers are loath to complain, but some have formally accused their bosses of underpaying them.By Sonia Nazario and Doug Smith
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers1:26 PM PDT, March 21, 2008
A team of state inspectors strode into the Blue Wave Car Wash in West Los Angeles, past latte-sipping customers in electric massage chairs and into the gritty carwash tunnel.
“¿Cuánto gana usted?” the inspectors asked worker after worker, about 20 of them, most Latino immigrants. How much do you make? Each carwashero responded that he earned minimum wage or more — just as the owner of the Blue Wave, one of the region’s busiest carwashes, had told the inspectors.
Looking over payroll records, however, the regulators became suspicious. Employees who said they were full time were listed as working just 10 or 15 hours a week.
Inspector Martha Mendoza ushered Juan Cruz Santiago, a small man with salt-and-pepper hair, away from the others. During gentle questioning under a ficus tree, he admitted that most days, he and his 66-year-old father worked for tips only. So did nearly half the other employees, he said. It had been that way for at least six years.
“It’s bad,” the 41-year-old Oaxacan immigrant whispered to Mendoza, his eyes darting nervously toward his boss’ office. “Other carwashes are the same, no?”
Many are. A Times investigation has found that hand carwashes, automotive beauty shops patronized by tens of thousands of Southern California motorists every day, often brazenly violate basic labor and immigration laws, with little risk of penalty.
Half or more of carwash owners flout the minimum-wage law, estimated David Dorame, the longtime lead investigator for low-wage industries at California’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
Despite many undocumented workers’ reluctance to complain to authorities, employees at a fifth of Southern California’s carwashes in the last five years have formally accused owners of illegally underpaying them, The Times found.
From Santa Monica to Westwood to Koreatown, many workers said they received only tips for some or all of their shifts. Labor division inspectors estimated that about 10% to 20% of car dryers are not paid by owners.
“Tips only” is a requirement for some new workers until owners are satisfied that they can properly dry a car, laborers said. Their take is typically $10 to $30 a day.
At the Blue Wave, owner Isaac Shanfeld of Beverly Hills told inspectors that all of his workers earn at least minimum wage, costing him $700,000 a year. He said he didn’t know of anyone working for tips alone, but added: “I can’t police everyone.” After the inspection last fall, he was issued a $2,600 citation for wage violations. Continue reading ‘Before you get your car washed…’
Thank you “La Chola” for this post that deals with the use of comparing people of color to animals—we see this in the testimonies at Winter Soldier and from PETA activists. As someone who also tries to be vegan, but wants to critically engage with the problem she addresses, I agree that it serves no purpose to rank oppressions. Unjust killings of people and animals is done to reinforce the power of a few. At the same time, I do not appreciate campaigns that compare the treatment of people of color to the treatment of animals or the use of women’s bodies to inspire veganism.
For me, personally, my veganism is the result of many things; I justify it for many reasons. I do not believe in a Vegan Utopia and therefore do not believe we should all become vegan. I understand that I am privileged because this diet works for me, for my lifestyle, and for my budget. I am lucky enough to live in a city that has many vegan resources (although I wish we had a veggie restaurant), and I can find support groups very easily. It makes me feel healthy, which only came after educating myself through books such as Becoming Vegan and speaking to nutritionists. I believe that our abundant use of cheap meat is involved in polluting our ground water, using up nature’s resources, the mistreatment of animals, and unfair labor practices against those working in slaughterhouses (which is predominantly an immigrant labor force).
A long time ago, I began collecting the testimony of soldiers who had participated in genocides. I had been studying the My Lai massacre, and noticed some similarities between the testimony of one of the soldiers there and the testimony of one of the soldiers who had participated in Abu Ghraib violence. The soldier at the My Lai massacre had said killing Vietnamese people was like shooting dogs. The soldier at Abu Ghraib said being in Iraq was like going on a turkey hunt.
The comparison of brown people to animals–the justification of the murder and torture of brown people because they were considered animal like was a disturbing idea that I have continued to explore for almost two years now. It’s brought me to some really dark places, places I’m not really all that sure I wanted to be.
I admit, it is really hard for me to talk/listen to the many white vegans who insist on defending PETA’s comparison of human slavery to the violent treatment of animals in today’s society. I’m very empathetic to the cause of veganism–but the defense of the PETA campaign is often not a defense of veganism so much as it is a defense of seeing nothing wrong with comparing black people to animals. Many white folks are perfectly happy to insist that *they* have no problems at *all* being compared to animals–but it is not white folks that are being killed on genocidal turkey shoots either.
For me, those people who are interested in animal liberation (as I am), must realize, this comparison of brown human beings to animals/insects, is not something in the past that is occasionally drawn on to make a point. The comparison of brown human beings to animals is something that exists in the very fabric of our current society and as such, carries very real repercussions for the people of color that are compared to animals.
The first mission that we had when we got to Iraq was at this place called Al Assad, and our job there was basically to run a prisoner of war camp. And at this prisoner of war camp, our job was basically to keep prisoners who had been deemed enemy combatants sleep-deprived for periods of up to seventy-two hours in order to, quote-unquote, “soften them up for interrogation.” And the way we did that was by yelling at them.
So my first question to the people who were training us on how to do this was, you know, “How do they understand? I mean, they don’t speak English.” And he said, “Well, they’re just like animals. They’re just like dogs. If you keep yelling at them, it doesn’t matter what language you’re yelling at them in, they’re going to get the point. If you yell at them, ‘Get up!’ enough times, you know, just like a dog gets up, they’ll get up. If you tell them to move left, eventually they’ll get it and they’ll move left. And they said, “But that’s not going to always work, because they’re so tired.” By the way, they were hooded with sandbags, and they were tied with plastic restraints, barefoot, and circled around with concertina wire. So they were not only being deprived of sleep, but also of light and sense of space.
I support animal liberation wholeheartedly. And I think that for now, I will continue to approach animal liberation in a way that does not center veganism/vegitarianism. Not only do I have my own issues with eating meat, but I also have to continue to work through this idea that seems to dominate animal liberation movements like PETA that what we *eat* is more important than societal and cultural norms that justify the murders of brown people, women, and animals alike.
In other words, I almost think that veganism/vegitarianism should be the *last* step to animal liberation or something that happens *after* you lead community workshops on the connecting histories of violence against animals and human beings or other structural/cultural shifting of opinions through dialogue. Not eating meat is an important thing to me, and I continue to work towards that goal every day. But I think that creating a world where the abuse of animals is not used to justify the abuse of the brown human beings requires that different tactics, strategies and priorities than what currently exists.
Thanks to the Vegans of Color for your site, it’s helped me work through a lot of my thoughts.
Hopefully you had the opportunity to listen to the Winter Soldier Hearings last week. Their testimonies, sponsored by the Iraq Veterans Against War bring light to the unjust war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Much like the Winter Soldier of the Vietnam War, soldiers speak of racism and civilian killings. It is disgusting. Even if you are for the war–how do you justify the illegal and brutal actions described in these testimonies? The only way to justify it is through dehumanizing our “enemies.” Mike Prysner’s testimony, particularly part two, speaks to this racism and who it profits.
From the NY Times,
“We had fired automatic weapons into the middle of a wedding party, wounding and killing several guests, and we were told to drive away and forget about it.”
Hicks was one of scores of US soldiers who, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, delved into wounded memories and gave testimony at “Winter Soldier” about what they had seen and done in Iraq.
and
Private Steve Casey recalled how his commanding officer once said “there were ‘no friendlies’” in a residential area and announced: “Game on, all weapons free.”
“I saw personal weapons fired into windshields and radiators of cars,” he said, his gaze fixed on a spot on the floor.
The majority of victims of that operation were not the 700-800 enemy combatants claimed by officials but “civilians trying to flee the battleground,” he added.
and
“General Petraeus and company have done everything they can do to propagate to the American public that 30,000 American troops have brought a reduction in violence,” said Montalvan, who left the military last year after 17 years’ service.
“They claim a reduction of violence in Baghdad. Well, 70 percent of residents have fled, so no wonder,” he said.
He also accused the US of skewing the civilian death toll to give credence to the surge.
“Every time a bomb goes off, the Americans count a smaller number of dead and wounded than the Iraqis. This is to skew the statistics to suggest the surge is successful,” Montalvan said.
He added that US generals have no oversight over American contractors in Iraq, some of whom get billions of US taxpayer dollars to procure and distribute weapons for the Iraqi security forces, but refuse to work with US soldiers on the ground.
Montalvan, who is now tied to a cocktail of medications for ailments ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to chronic pain resulting from an attack, slammed the Bush administration for “perpetrating high crimes and misdemeanors, committing dereliction of duty, lies and mismanagement” in Iraq.
Mike Prysner’s testimony is posted here in two parts.
At the intersection of race, skin color, and language differences, we have a society that too often tolerates discrimination based on those that look or sound different.
Thanks brownfemipower for sharing this story.
Store owner asks to see shoppers’ Social Security cards
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — All José Genao planned to do at the heating equipment supply store was buy a spare part for his boiler.
While the owner began searching for the part, Genao and his friend began speaking to each other in Spanish.
As owner David C. Richardson was ringing up Genao’s $18 purchase, he demanded to see their Social Security cards.
What followed was a telling encounter underscoring the tensions in this country over immigration and ethnicity.When Genao told Richardson “he did not have the right to ask all those questions,” Richardson pulled out a membership card for Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, a group that seeks curbs on illegal immigration.
Then, he lifted the phone receiver and threatened to call immigration authorities, Genao said.
“He [Richardson] grabbed the phone and said, ‘I can call ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] anytime I see an illegal immigrant,’?” said Genao. “He also said, ‘I can make a citizen’s arrest.’?”
Genao, a Rhode Island state employee, is a native of the Dominican Republic and a U.S. citizen. He speaks fluent English. He said his friend — who declined comment — is also a Dominican native and U.S. citizen. “There is no problem with his status,” said Genao. “He is legal.” State records list both as registered voters.
Richardson, owner of Rhode Island Refrigeration on Branch Avenue, did not dispute most of Genao’s account of the March 1 incident, but said he did not recall picking up the phone receiver, and was not trying to threaten anyone. Interviewed at his store, Richardson said he singled out Genao’s friend, whom he thought only spoke Spanish.
“I wanted to see the Social Security number from the one who wasn’t speaking English,” said Richardson. “I just kind of mentioned I’d like to see his Social Security card. And he kinda balked. He left and walked out the door.” When the friend returned to urge Genao to leave, Richardson added, “he started to speak in English. That surprised me.”
Richardson, a Reform party member and former Senate candidate, said he was acting on civic duty. Genao accused Richardson of racial stereotyping, “all because we were speaking Spanish.” Continue reading ‘When you’re ignorant you shouldn’t talk so much’
From Matt Davies:
If you don’t understand it, please see my post below, or the many other posts I have on corn, and read a newspaper!
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