by the light of the moon...

I realized the other day that I haven't blogged about the Jena 6. I just kind of have felt that it was pretty obvious what needed to be said, and others were saying it better than me. But now I feel like my silence might be interpreted as not having an opinion, or not caring.

(Well, OK, no one who knows me would think that I don't have an opinion.)

In any case, there have been many commentators recently, including allegedly one on NPR that I haven't been able to verify yet, that have said things like, "It's just a noose."

A noose is a symbol of lynching. A symbol used in a ritual of murder, torture, and the enforcement of the idea of white supremacy. For some graphic pictures that help make this point, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching

It isn't just a noose.

http://www.freethejena6.org/

Posted by Lythande at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today the Bush Supreme Court struck down the rights of school systems to use race in order to determine school attendance rolls. With our nation's schools already segregated, this ruling puts more nails in the coffin.

The New York Times has a good editorial here.

I also have sitting on my desk (but haven't read it yet) this book: Can We Talk About Race?: And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation, by Beverly Daniel Tatum. I hope that it has some inspiring ideas for me to help change things.

Her previous book, "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": And Other Conversations about Race , is one of my all-time favorites. Buy it at your local bookstore!

In other disturbing news...

I found out today in an e-mail from Equality California (EqCA) that Four anti-LGBT initiatives were recently filed in Sacramento. From their email:

"All four measures would ask California voters to amend the state constitution to ban marriage for same-sex couples. Two of the initiatives go even further and would void all of California's current domestic partnership rights, which lawmakers, EQCA, community activists and our allies fought so hard to earn."

California's offical website on initiative measures is here.

According to EqCA, they still need to collect signatures before they can be voted on. I pray to anyone who's listening that such signatures will not be collectible; but after prop 22, I don't have my hopes too high for the voters of this great state.

Posted by Lythande at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Q. Why did I turn off the movie "V for Vendetta" after 30 minutes?

1. The main female character (and in the first 30 minutes, the only one with any significant lines) is threatened with a brutal rape in the first ten minutes of the movie. She escapes this fate because she is rescued by a masked white man.

This is not a plot that I want to submit myself to watching. Rape is not a casual shorthand for brutality - it is a tactic of war used against women. I don't want to see it casually onscreen as a minor plot point.

2. Unless I missed one when I blinked, every person in the first 30 minutes of the movie was white. (*OK, turns out that there is a convenient 'ethnic cleansing' plot that explains this....but I am not convinced it was necessary.)

3. The violence was unnecessarily graphic.

Q. Why criticize this movie when it's a remake of a comic book? That comic is the original source of any sexism, racism, or violence in the story; the filmmaker was just bringing that story to the screen.

Well, I probably wouldn't buy the comic either, but more to the point, the stories that we tell shape who we are. If all of the powerful anti-Bush movies (as well as, of course, all of the summer blockbusters and the large majority of American movies in general) are also sexist, racist, and violent, then we are telling ourselves - and especially our children - that only white men:

- have the power to beat Bush
- are interesting enough to build a story around
- have the power to stop rape, and only when it serves their purposes

We are telling our children that women:
- are helpless and dependent
- are instantly rendered terrified and helpless by a threat of rape
- do not fight back

We are telling our children that people of color:
- do not exist

Q. Why do I feel the need to criticize a movie that many progressives support as an anti-tyranny, anti-Bush movie? Shouldn't we be supporting art that supports our cause?

I freely admit to having mixed feelings about this. Yes, I do want to support art that supports the causes that are vital to our survival as a species and to general issues of social justice. But I also feel that in order for social justice to proliferate, I need to remind those with more power than I (like V for Vendetta's male white movie director James McTeigue, and white male writers the Wachowski brothers) that just as it's not cool to invade Iraq, it's also not cool to use rape as a quick way to establish a repressive backstory, or to leave out people of color as if they do not exist.

I am tired of watching women be helpless, brutalized, terrified and useless in movies, whether those movies depict the Hulk or the "War on Terror". I am tired of white men getting all of the good lines and all of the good roles. I won't give those directors my money because my power clearly doesn't matter to them.

When I make my hundred million dollars, my movie production company will tell the stories that I feel need telling: of strong women, multicultural societies, people who fight to end racism, etc. The stories we tell shape who we are.

Posted by Lythande at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Or...you know, of the...semester. Unless I manage to actually post more often than that.

The Mavin Foundation is "the nation's leading organization that builds healthy communities that celebrate and empower mixed heritage people and families."

They have a great website and also a magazine. I love their positive and constructive articles on multi-racial identity, activities, empowerment, family issues, and more.

Some examples of articles in the magazine:

Hawai'i as mixed-race immersion therapy
The [im]possibility of [multi]racial + [homo]sexual border crossing
One box does not fit all: UC Regent's suggested policy change sparks a heated debate
Mixed Recognition: Canada's Metis continue their fight for constitutional rights
Mixed Blood Native Americans: First nation reflections on being mixed
Understanding transracial adoption
The Mexipino Experience: A personal reflection & history of a multiehtnic community in San Diego, California
Report on the 8th Annual National Student Conference on the Mixed Race Experience

Check it out!

Posted by Lythande at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We will not forget.

Posted by Lythande at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Nuff said.

Cartoon by Barry Deutsch.

Posted by Lythande at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

July 17th is the birthday of Chana Szenes.

At the same time, Israel is caught up in yet another bloody escalation.

Save the Children reports that children are bearing the insane brunt of the Israeli bombings and violence, and that a humanitarian crisis is looming fast, especially in Gaza.

I feel so stunned and helpless and deeply angry. How many more innocent people must die, how many lives ruined needlessly, before it is over? The question itself is cliche. It is unbearable.

To give money to help end this madness and suffering:
Middle East Children's Alliance
Save The Children

What is significant about Chana, especially today?

Chana emigrated to Israel before parachuting behind Nazi lines to try and save Hungarian Jews; before being tortured and then executed at the age of 22. By the accounts I've read she was brave, fiery, passionate, a gifted poet. She knew what was worth dying for. I have looked up to her for much of my life.

Yet knowing what is worth dying for is not enough, if the cause is unjust. In Chana's time the cause was just, I think. Today, I don't think it is. Not many people do, outside of the United States and Israel. The blindness of my peoples is terrifying.

I find it a likely, although ugly, truth that as a Zionist who saw the deaths of so many Jews, Chana might in all likelihood have supported Israel's current actions.

But perhaps not everyone would succumb to this madness. Perhaps she would not have. Perhaps she would have the seen the difference between parachuting into Yugoslavia to save European Jews, and killing 200 civilians (as of today, as reported on KPFA as well as the BBC) in Lebanon over two soldiers.

Can we not harness these deep passions for something better?

-----

Found in Chana's cell after her execution:

One - two - three... eight feet long
Two strides across, the rest is dark...
Life is a fleeting question mark
One - two - three... maybe another week.
Or the next month may still find me here,
But death, I feel is very near.
I could have been 23 next July
I gambled on what mattered most, the dice were cast. I lost.

Posted by Lythande at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I first discovered Mr. Yoshino, a professor at Yale Law School, when I read about his book: "Covering: The New Assault on our Civil Rights."

The concept of "covering" - hiding the attributes of oneself that put the self at risk of personal harm based on rasicm, homophobia, etc. - has been a very useful tool to me as I negotiate this world as an queer activist. When do I feel safe to act "female", or to speak of my bisexuality? Where must I pretend to be a member of a dominant group in order to keep myself safe? What can I do in situations when I have power - as a white person, as a member of the US middle class, as someone for whom English is their first language, etc. - to create spaces where covering is not necessary?

Throughout this process, I have realized that for me, the spaces where I don't have to cover my activism are the most precious of all.

(I realized as I drafted this blog entry that I haven't actually read Mr. Yoshino's book, so I'm picking it up today. I assume I'll be recommending it to y'all highly in the next couple of weeks.)

--------------

I was reminded of Mr. Yoshino because of his new Op-Ed today in the New York Times. In an analysis of the current rulings against gay marriage, he describes a dangerous legal technique with which I was not familiar: "restrict(ing) rights with a flourish of fond regards."

In other words, the LGBT community doesn't get marriage rights because we are too good to need such guidance.

Lovely. Thanks for the compliments, but gee, I think I'd rather have my rights. Funny that.

It's a good article, and it's also enlightening to learn of the convoluted arguments people use to prop up tired oppressions. He points out that similar arguments were used to deny women's rights, and also that the law that was upheld is based on provisions from 1909. Not exactly an era known for celebrating the moral superiority of the queer community.

As Mr. Yoshino concludes: "The “reckless procreation” argument sounds nicer — and may even be nicer — than the plainly derogatory “role model” argument...but equality would be nicer still."

Posted by Lythande at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I stumbled onto this article from last November on insidehighered.com.

It's a nice quick summary of many of the issues that are apparently facing Ethnic Studies departments, as they were discussed at a meeting of the American Studies Association.

I don't teach ES but these issues absolutely mirror what I've seen, working on campuses in diversity awareness trainings and discussions.

Two tastes for you:

"...When scholars at the meeting gathered in Washington Saturday to consider ethnic studies in the classroom, they talked about the need to rethink how their discipline fits into academe and how their courses reach students. Specifically, they called for more emphasis on teaching not one ethnic group, but on the way different groups interact and change one another. And they traded ideas on how to reach white students — many of whom sign up for their courses and are then stunned and angry to have their assumptions challenged."

..."AnaLouise Keating, an associate professor of women’s studies at Texas Woman’s University, says that a major challenge for her is getting students beyond a “monolithic, pseudoscientific” sense that racial categories are precise and unchanging. She wants students to realize that the status associated with various races is not unchanging — and she wants to do this in a way that makes white students truly examine themselves, but not just engage in “non-productive, navel-gazing guilt.” "

Would have liked to have heard more of the discussion. Enjoy the article.

image from One Drop of Blood by Scott Malcomson - a book on this topic that has been highly recommended to me, but I have not read it yet.

Posted by Lythande at 02:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

...from NPR to 94.1 KPFA, an independent radio station here in Berkeley.

I've been an NPR junkie for years. Raised on Karl Cassell. And I don't think I'll swear off entirely.

But over the past few years I was spending more and more time annoyed or frustrated with the coverage I was hearing. Most of the voices I was hearing seemed to be American, white, and male. The business stories seemed to lean towards supporting the companies described...who were also sponsors. There was so little coverage of protests and liberal activities...and never, in my experience, an interview with a true left-winger, like Noam Chomsky or Dolores Huerta. And I'm always wondering what stories are not being told due to Republican pressure or corporate funding...

Even Car Talk, my beloved Car Talk...I'm just tired of hearing them quote tired stereotypes of women.

(BTW, FAIR.org has catalogued these phenomena, and more, in their studies of several center-to-right biases on NPR.)

So I'm taking a break and giving my ears, and my pledge money this year, to KPFA. I can get my center-to-right news from so many places, and I get enough of it, by golly! Let's hear what else is going on!

And if you're interested...KPFA's mission statement.

Posted by Lythande at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Laughing while the world burns... Isn't there something else pressing on his agenda? Hmmm...coulda sworn...Iraq or Darfur or...something...
----
Beginnings of reports on what I hope are huge rallies today (and I also hope that they are well-reported in the media, but that's just crazy talk)

New York Times

BBC

-----

And while I kept thinking all weekend, "What more can I do about Darfur?..I need to look into that..." this happened. Woops. Woulda been nice to be there. I need to keep up better! Thanks to all who were there.

Posted by Lythande at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was stunned and delighted to hear this morning on NPR that there is a new Spanish-Language version of the National Anthem that has been released.

(I've linked to the story, but please note, I only heard the teaser and haven't been able to hear the whole thing yet myself.)

How awesome, I thought, and what a wonderful and hopeful thing to do! Won't it be amazing when someday people don't judge what language a person chooses to speak or sing as representative of the summation of their value to a country?

Well, I also thought, Bush won't let that go without a comment...

Didn't have long to wait.

Posted by Lythande at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

...and also, (surprise!) it's kinda helpful not to use the idea of a hierarchy to keep oneself from examining a system where one has privilege.

There is a lively debate going on at blac(k)ademic about a comment she's encountered (and I've heard it, many times) saying that "Gender trumps race." Another way to say this is that "women as a whole are oppressed across color lines, and so the fight to end sexism is more important than the fight to end racism."

Woh. I can see how people would get there, but I have deep problems with that sentiment. Especially when voiced by white women. We are essentially saying that the system that gives us power (racism) isn't as important to us to fight as the system that oppresses us (sexism).

Convenient, eh? Not surprisingly, this idea was the source of a decades-old schism in the American feminist movement.

It is my firm belief that I get nowhere fighting oppression unless I am able to acknowlege the privilege that I have, sitting side by side with my oppressions. I need to own and examine all of my identities, target and agent.

Here is the comment I made in response to Nubian's critiqe of that idea. Warning: expletives.

Excellent post, Nubian. My thoughts….In my work, I used to describe a hierarchy of oppression, but in the opposite direction: it’s been clear to me that as a white, bisexual, disabled, Jewish, American Citizen, upper class woman, my race and class have powerfully protected me from much of the oppression that I face through other aspects of my identity. So I felt for a long time that racism actually was the most powerful oppression that existed in my world, and that I would do well to prioritize fighting racism over fighting other oppressions.

These days I see things as more complicated. It’s kind of a both/and situation. BOTH I need to acknowledge that my race and class privilege are very, very powerful, & I need to make sure that I keep fighting to tear down those systems of privilege and that I do not become complacent, AND I see that all of the systems of power and oppression in this society can kill and are grievously hurting people. All of us.

The shit I face as a woman, and as a queer woman, sucks, and I’m only just starting to really see it. (A very painful process.) But the shit that white women give communities of color when we claim “race work needs to wait until gender work is finished” (which is what I read in “gender trumps race”, let me know if I’m misinterpreting) only serves to derail our activism. It perpetuates the system that is killing us all.

Everybody’s work needs to happen. No one is free when others are oppressed. Hey…haven’t I heard that one before?

Yeah.

Posted by Lythande at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is Yom Ha-Shoah, the annual day of remembrance for the six million Jews murdered by Hitler.

It's a good day to think about my Jewish roots, about survivor stories, and about what I know of the European Jewish culture that the Nazis nearly exterminated...

...AND, of course, to work to end another genocide that is currently happening.

Please, go to this site to send a quick letter to President Bush asking him to stop the genocide in Darfur NOW.

Thanks.

p.s. I should give credit to my super cool jewish mother for forwarding me this alert. Thanks Mom!

Posted by Lythande at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

FAIR has a summary of their findings that many CNN personalities are making commentary on the immigration protests that is way out of line. Read the report and then e-mail CNN if you agree that these are comments are inappropriate on a news network.

And for anyone who can get out of work and cares to join the protests, there's a march in Oakland on Monday....

Posted by Lythande at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The cockles of my heart are distinctly warmer after reading all the coverage of the gay families who showed up at the White House for the Easter Egg Roll, and were not burned at the stake. It's so odd to me that the President thinks he needs to speak about limiting our civil rights in the State of The Union Address for *** sake, but when we actually show up at his front door, he has better things to do.

Anyway, when queer families show up in public and nobody dies, it is a good thing and I hope that soon this sort of event is normal and not newsworthy anymore!

___

This is also definitely a BOTH/AND moment. BOTH I am glad this happened, AND I am frustrated with the media coverage.

Why? Because the photos available on the web of this event portrayed overwhelmingly white-appearing gay families - and 100% white-appearing gay parents.

I say "white-appearing" because I obviously can't assume people's racial background or identity from outside appearances, but/and at the same time, when the media only publish photos of white-appearing people, they reinforce the stereotype that all members (or, just as troublesome, all newsworthy or photogenic members) of that community look white.

I searched on google (easter white house gay & easter egg hunt white house gay, because I am not very efficient. I didn't try "roll" as I didn't know at the time it was part of the title of the event) and opened every article I could find after the event. Here is the rundown:

The Advocate showed two all-white-appearing families
CNN shows one of the same all-white-appearing families as the Advocate
The Age showed two white-appearing dads with a child who appears to be of color
The SF Chronicle showed two children, one of whom could be of color (and not even any of their parents!)
The LA Times showed an all-white-appearing family.

Sigh. So many intersecting oppressions. Our community is not all white by a long shot, and I bet neither were the families at this event.

Posted by Lythande at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Nubian points out one of the many ways in which the Duke rape case is bring told with inherent racism and sexism: comparing this women's story to that of Tawana Brawley.

A quote:

"when the media and other folks continue to compare her story to tawana's, they yet again, reinforce the idea that if a black woman claims rape, she must be lying. that black women cannot be trusted. that black women who tell their story of sexual assault, have a secret agenda. that black women are out to get white men. bullshit. these two cases are exceedingly different on many, many levels and we must remember that.

it's also interesting to note that, no one rushes to evoke the numerous stories of lynched black men who were accussed of raping white women. when white women lie about being raped by black men, no one resurrects photographs of black bodies hanging from trees, or the mangled and bloated body of young emmitt till who only whistled at a white woman."

Posted by Lythande at 08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

CODEPINK has just published a report documenting that life for women in Iraq is much, much worse than before, and that Americans are DISTINCTLY making the problem worse...read it all here.

(and keep up on all their great work here.)

from the e-mail I received describing the report:

"The report shows that from 1958 to the 1990s, Iraq provided more rights and freedoms for women and girls than most of its neighbors. Though Saddam Hussein's dictatorial government and 12 years of severe sanctions reduced these opportunities, Iraqi women were active in all aspects of their society. After the occupation, with the exception of women in Iraqi Kurdistan, women's daily lives have been reduced to a mere struggle for survival."

A choice section from the report:

"THE U.S. IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. Some U.S. military personnel have committed crimes of sexual
abuse and physical assault against women. Many women have told stories about rapes and routine sexual humiliation, particularly at detainment centers....U.S. military tactics have also victimized women and their families—displacing them from their homes, subjecting them to aerial assaults, and occasionally using women as bargaining chips in exchange for suspected male insurgents."

Posted by Lythande at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I loved this post in response to an opinion piece in The Advocate.

Nubian blows me away. :)

Posted by Lythande at 09:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This book was deeply moving. made me shiver. It goes so far beyond "won't our kids just get along" to some of the awful, deeply challenging questions that I see us all encountering every day, and that have no easy answers. There are horror stories, including a mother whose son was treated badly while he was under anesthesia because of his race...and stories of brilliant comebacks...it's a road map to doing "the work" while raising kids, and all the mess and sorrow and joy that entails.

You can buy it anywhere, including here.

Posted by Lythande at 08:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Read it here.

Especially disturbing:

"Portland, considered to be a top women’s basketball coach, has faced allegations of anti-lesbian bias in the past, even admitting she did not want lesbians on her team..."

It's always sadly surprising to me when people even IMAGINE that this would be an appropriate attitude to hold!

Posted by Lythande at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I put together a list I've been saving up for years of great books with strong, complicated, interesting, and smart girl protagonists. I wanted to make sure that these books were on my children's shelves - kids of any gender - to reinforce the idea that girls can be powerful and smart and strong.

The good thing is that these books were wonderful, fabulous, fun, and empowering. They taught me that being strong and smart (and Jewish, some of them!) was OK.

The problem is that it is also a list of all WHITE, able-bodied, American or European girls. Sexuality was, of course, never mentioned.

It's really remarkable to me to look back and see how my book choices were exclusively about white girls. I even remember reading pretty much every Judy Blume book except Iggy's House, which I seem to remember was the one where the typical white girl protagonist (gasp) encounters racism! no!

How young I internalized the concept of "other," and my society's racism. That wasn't my story, and I wasn't interested in it.

...I'm definitely going to have to broaden this list. Off to the bookstore and library! Here are some with more diverse characters that have been recommended to me that I plan to read:

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Island of the Blue Dolphins and Zia

And here is a website that seems to have some very promising leads...I will update as I find more sites and books.

Other recommendations? Our bookshelves will need strong, smart queer girls, disabled girls, immigrant girls, girls of color, and more...

Oh...and here is the original totally racially biased list (but still books which, as part of a more diverse list, are beloved favorites of mine that i recommend highly), for your reference:

A Wrinkle In Time and other Meg Murray books by Madeline L'Engle
Someday Angeline by Louis Sachar
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Caddie Woodlawn and Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink
Anastasia Krupnik (and all the other Anastasia books) by Lois Lowry
The Laura Ingalls Wilder books
The All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor
The Real Me by Betsy Byars
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry
Beat the Turtle Drum by Constance C. Greene (although I don't remember this one as well, I need to reread it)
The Westing Game (which does have diversity in it, just not the bright girl character) by Ellen Raskin

More books of all kinds to be added as we go.

Posted by Lythande at 04:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)