Did I Really Just Read This?

I can’t read any more about Gaza. The “Hamas ‘thugs’ to Blame for Violence” article pushed me over the edge. And no, I’m not linking to it. You can Google it with ease.

Why is it so easy to rationalize away the killing. I hate it.

Leaves me speechless.

I’m just going to go and find a bunch of youtube videos to post, because this shit is too much. I’ll come back to it tomorrow, or after I’ve finished moving, or after I’ve finally got my mind back in a good place, whichever.

Am I Not Human?

On the 27th day of each month, several bloggers participate in the “Am I Not Human?” campaign, which highlights human rights abuses across the globe. That this month’s day of blogging for awareness of human rights abuses occurred on Thanksgiving is not lost on me. So, with that in mind, I offer a few blog posts that I found said things that need to be heard.

Nezua: Stolen Not Given

Professor, What If: Reconsidering Thanksgiving, Pt.2, Pt. 3.

Renee: Thanksgiving: A National Day of Mourning for Indians.

Thanksgiving is a difficult holiday for me. It is a holiday where you are supposed to get together with your friends and loved, and be thankful for all that you have. On the surface, that is dandy. I celebrate (if that’s the correct word) Thanksgiving with love and well wishes for everyone, but I cannot set aside the horror that is the origins of this holiday. I see no point in lying about what this holiday means.

I feel that Purple Zoe is on to something here.

Gratitude day is a meatless/green alternative to the genocidal roots of Thanksgiving, that we’ve celebrated for 3 years now (Gratitude day can be celebrated on the 23, 24, thru the 27th, and also as an alternative to other holidays with questionable roots).
As part of Gratitude day we enjoyed a meatless feast that was rather fly, and lit a candle in honor of the Divine, our Ancestors, and the ones who came before us seeding the world with light in general. We gave tremendous thanks for the freedom fighters.

It’s been a good day. Our household is very grateful for the honesty in our home, the sanctuary, and above all: the love.

And so, my wish is that your Thanksgiving was really a Gratitude Day, a day of honesty, sanctuary, and love.

I Am a Community Organizer

And I will be blogging on Monday, 8 September, along with blogs such as the The Young Black Profession Guide, The Electronic Village, The Jose Vilson, From My Brown Eyed View, The African American Political Pundit, Springer’s Journal, and Inkognero in honor of the great work that Community Organizers do.

Please join me, and ask your blogging buddies to do so as well. I’m not interested in stories meant to score political points (although I’m pissed at the political cynicism that would attack community organizing). I’m interested in stories about the grassroots, the community organizers out there that are doing their thing via blogs, social networking, real life organizing that doesn’t have a (D) or (R) following it. That’s what I’d love to hear about. Since Community Organizing has been brought into the limelight, I would love to hear how those involved are working for progress and transformation. Progress and transformation from the ground up. So, while a lot of this action day will be political in nature, I’d like to see some posts, comments, whatever springing from my own post that are more focused on grassroots, non-denominational progress.

If that sounds like you, please participate and please leave a link in comments so that others can find you.

Link Love – The Cultural Imperialist Edition

I will be forever annoyed by folks that think that they can experience “the other side.” Every time I read about college kids or other supposed activists going homeless for a few days ( with the full knowledge that if it gets too rough they can always pack their bags and go back to the cozy comfort of their apartments) in an attempt to understand the homeless plight, I want to find these people and slap the privilege out of them. So you can only imagine how annoyed I was after reading Fatemeh Fakhraie’s post at Racialicious on an experiment that Danielle Crittenden of the Huffington Post blogged about.

So Ms. Crittenden decides to put on a niqab…for what? For giggles? She never really explains her reasons for doing so, but makes it very apparent that wearing a niqab is a bad idea because it’s “oppressive”. Does she want to see what it’s like to be a Muslim woman who wears niqab? Does she want to understand the prejudice that these women face?

No. After reading her posts, it’s obvious she just wants to play dress-up. She doesn’t attempt to adhere to any principles of Islam while wearing the niqab, nor does she take it off in her home like most niqabis would, nor does she even attempt to start a dialogue with any Muslim women—niqabis or not.

This experiment reminds me of one of Tyra Banks’ experiments: you remember when she put on a fat suit? Yeah. That one. She put on a fat suit under the guise of “seeing how the other half lives” but really just used it as a self-indulgent exercise in vanity (kind of like everything else Tyra does, bless her heart). This one seems really no different.

So, we read the first paragraph of Ms. Crittenden’s post “Islamic Like Me: Taking On The Veil”, and already, I want to throw my computer out the window.

“‘I wonder what it’s like to wear Arabic dress?’ I said one day to my husband. His eyes sparked with interest. ‘You mean as in I Dream of Jeannie?’ ‘No. I mean those black cover-ups they wear in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.’”

(Long sigh). So, we begin with the blatantly incorrect idea that all women in the Middle East wear “Arabic” clothing, even if they are not Arab or Muslim. We see later in her posts that her idea of “Arabic clothing” is a niqab and abaya—ignoring several other traditional dress styles that Arab women wear. And, of course, her husband throws in the sexualized Orientalist fantasy of I Dream of Jeannie. Fantastic!

The rest of her dialogue follows an alarmist mentality, complaining that American feminists don’t give a “peep of protest” against “people right here [presumably, big bad Muslims] who want to shroud women … to make us all submissive and invisible.” She ends her silly conversation with an ominous-sounding “It’s coming here too. It already is here.” What’s coming? Is Godzilla here? And the Big, Bad Muslims made him wear a burqa?!

Ah, cultural imperialism. Gotta love it. Go read Fatemeh’s post. It’s a good one.