Category Archives: Social Justice

The Colors of Politics, Religion, and Oppression

General, Social Justice, ,

Ever since I was little, I’ve thought colors were important. Colors help identify things in nature; colors help us identify which clothing belongs to us in a family’s dirty laundry pile; colors help us identify different buildings when traveling or when going for a job interview and finding the right place; colors draw us to the arresting eyes or hair or complexion of people; colors help remind us of what foods we are consuming; colors help us remember which color to wear if we wish to support a protest.

We need color!

I cannot imagine not being able to see and revel in the infinite varieties that surround us throughout our lives; I’m aware of the good fortune of being able to appreciate colors, an ability that some lack.

I’m drawn to bright, bold hues such as those displayed by tulips and other springtime flowers as well as icy, sparkly gold and silver of year-end holiday festivities. I even like the blinding white of snow (as long as I’m not caught in a blizzard).

Colors can dictate your mood – at least it does for me. Wearing black reminds me of funerals; I’ve attended so many since the age of five. No color there, to my mind; a room painted in black conveys claustrophobia and darkness to me, nothing else. I know black looks good on some people, perhaps giving them the aura of sophistication or the illusion of looking slimmer. Black is not for me.

RED is for me. I LOVE red! Red is passionate. Red symbolizes love on Valentine’s Day. Red symbolizes good luck and happiness in Asian cultures and is worn by brides in some countries. That’s how I prefer to think about red.

Red symbolizes political ideologies, too. Communism. America’s Republican party – thanks largely to mass media since the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

Red also symbolizes Canada’s “liberal red”. In the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, red is also the colour of the labor movement and the Labour (spelled Labor in Australia) parties in those countries. All major socialist and communist alliances and organizations have used red as their official color; red was chosen to represent the blood of the workers who died in the struggle against capitalism.

Red is on the flags of countless countries around the globe representing governments of all political stripes that ebb and flow with time. The oldest symbol of socialism (and by extension communism) is the Red Flag, which dates back to the French Revolution in the 18th century and the revolutions of 1848.

Before this nascence, the colour red was generally associated with monarchy or the Church due to the symbolism and association of Christ’s blood.

GREEN is my second-favorite color. Earthy. I love most shades of green! Except when vegetables are overcooked and then become a sickly shade of green-gray. Red and green…Christmas colors, that’s for me, though I’m not a big Christmas person.

Green is also on many countries’ flags. Brides in some countries wear green. There is a political party called the Green Party, which is in many countries, including the USA and often used by environmental groups. Green has sometimes also been linked to agrarian movements, such as the Populist Party, in the U.S. in the 1890s and the current-day Nordic Agrarian parties, as well as the National Party of Australia, a conservative party traditionally representing regional and agricultural interests. Irish Nationalist and Irish Republican movements have used the color green.

Green, considered the holy colour of Islam, is used to represent Islamism such as Hamas, Saudi Arabia and Islamist parties. Green is a color used for protest, such as the Iranian Green Movement (or Persian Spring) in 2009.

In most of Latin America, green is associated with pro-choice movements, the colour started being used in Argentina as a symbol of third wave feminism and abortion rights, with a green scarf as a symbol.

BLUE is also a popular color. Not my favorite color; I don’t ever want to live in a blue house or have a room in my home painted blue, no matter how pretty the shade. Yes, that’s how strongly I feel about blue! I don’t mind wearing blue jeans, though. You just won’t find a lot of blue in my wardrobe; it doesn’t have high priority when I choose what I want to wear. And I do enjoy a clear blue sky on a sunny day and can admire other people’s blue homes or rooms…I just don’t want to be part of it; it will make me FEEL blue to be surrounded in blue.

Blue symbolizes political ideologies as well. People associate it with their country’s flag. Or the police (in America). Or the Democratic party (USA) – though blue was used briefly by President Grover Cleveland and President Benjamin Harrison to represent the Republican Party in the late 1880s and and used by Texas for similar color-coding to assist its Spanish-speaking and illiterate citizens during that same time period. Blue is the color of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and British conservatives of the UK; “Tory blue” is associated with more right-wing, conservative political thought.

Globally, blue is used by left-leaning parties (Japan, South Africa, Belgium) and right-leaning parties (Romania, South Korea, Austria). In Brazil, both left and right like blue!

In the realm of religion, blue is of prime significance in Judaism.

In everyday life, blue can be the color of an ID card…which can translate into real world life and death situations if a person possesses one…or not.

To illustrate in stark terms the meaning of blue for many people in one part of the world, I share below an article with you by a Palestinian, Layal Hazboun, who writes of her father, who, like countless others, desired the blue ID card, which grants rights to Palestinians living in Israel.

These rights include having medical insurance, traveling via Israeli airports, and opening a bank account in Israel. But for a long while Hazboun’s father only had a green ID card.

According to Aljazeera’s The colour-coded Israeli ID system for Palestinians:

As Israel expanded its control and occupation over four territories in the aftermath of the Six Day War in 1967, it devised a system of population control that remains in place five decades later.

After the 1967 war, the Israeli military declared the occupied territories to be closed areas, making it mandatory for Palestinian residents to obtain permits to enter or leave. Palestinians who were abroad during that time missed out on the subsequent population census and were not granted identification papers.

The clear delineator that has separated and dictated the lives of these Palestinians is the colour-coded identification system issued by the Israeli military and reinforced in 1981 through its Civil Administration branch. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip have green IDs – generally issued once they turn 16 – while Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Israel have blue IDs.

The cards affect everything from freedom of movement to family unity.

To me, the blue and green identification card system seems terribly complicated on the face of it. There seems to be many different layers of each card, depending on where one lives and what one needs it for. You can read more about this here and in the Aljazeera link above.

Read Layal Hazboun’s story, and learn how colors are used in the worst way: to dehumanize and divide Palestinians. In this light, blue and green symbolize suffering or limited freedom(s):

In Palestine, green and blue are more than colors

Is Israel’s decades-long use of the blue and green identification card system forced upon Palestinians much different than the Nazi leaders forcing Jews to wear the Jewish badge between 1939 and 1945?

In the parts of German-occupied Poland, Governor General Hans Frank ordered, on November 23, 1939, that all Jews over the age of ten wear a “Jewish Star”: a white armband affixed with a blue six-sided star, worn over the right upper sleeve of one’s outer garments. There were heavy penalties for those caught not wearing it.

Later, on September 1, 1941, Security Police Chief Reinhard Heydrich decreed that all Jews in the Reich six years of age or older were to wear a badge which consisted of a yellow Star of David on a black field to be worn on the chest, with the word “Jew” inscribed inside the star in German or in the local language of whichever region Germany had occupied.

On a historical note: over the course of more than ten centuries, Muslim caliphs, medieval bishops, and – eventually – Nazi leaders used an identifying badge to mark Jews. It’s horrible. Period.

The Nazis used the badge not only to stigmatize and humiliate Jews but also to segregate them and to watch and control their movements; so too has Israel forced Palestinians to have green or blue ID cards to control their movements and segregate them, which ultimately affects every aspect of their lives. For decades.

WHY has the world tolerated this for so long?

Just please remember: Palestinians are our fellow human beings and ought not to be ignored.

The naysayers who challenge Palestinians’ very existence and dignity deserve every criticism and pushback, particularly if they claim to be God-loving persons.

To my mind, I think you dehumanize yourself every time you dehumanize others – or support those who do.

I hope someday that Palestinians will not have to have their lives dictated by ID cards, no matter what color.

Sources

Harvard Gazette
Enchroma
We Are Not Numbers!
Wikipedia – Iranian Green Movement
HuffPost
Wikpedia – Green Party of the United States
Green Party US
Aljazeera
Palestinian Diary
United States Holocaust Museum
Metro UK
Learning in Palestine
Wikipedia – Political Colour
Color Combos

Impunity is Not an Option Here

General, Social Justice, , ,

Can you imagine how you would feel if a lunatic burst through the door of your workplace, accusing you and your coworkers of something you did not do, threatening you, and berating you with racially tinged words?

Last Tuesday, April 6, 2021, a 50-year-old woman identified as Sharon Williams by police, stormed into Good Choice for Nails Salon near Manhattan’s Chinatown, berating and threatening the workers. “You brought coronavirus to this country!” she yelled, according to police.

Then she went outside, continued her rampage, and spewed hateful remarks at an Asian pedestrian on the sidewalk.

When a male bystander intervened, she called him “a Chinese motherfucker,” according to police. But he wasn’t just any bystander: he was an undercover NYPD officer.

Hahahahahaha!! Serves you right, Ms. Williams.

The officer then called for backup, and Williams was arrested and charged with “harassment as a hate crime and aggravated harassment as a hate crime,” officials told the The Washington Post.

Sharon Williams may not have been armed with a lethal weapon, but her mouth spewed the sort of vitriol that has targed Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic. Sometimes resulting in physical harm – and death.

Data released by Stop AAPI [Asian American Pacific Islander] Hate showed that almost 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian hate were reported over the past year during the pandemic. The number only accounts for those reported, so the actual number of crimes is expected to be much higher. Additionally, of the 3,800 anti-hate incidents reported, 68% targeted women and over 500 occurred in 2021 alone, according to Stop AAPI Hate.

I wonder how Ms. Williams would feel if she were in a workplace where everyone looked like her and a lunatic burst through the door, spewing racist vitriol and accusing her and her coworkers of something she did not do nor had any control over?

Did she need her 15 minutes of fame?

Was Ms. Williams’ mind so embroiled in racist animosity toward Asian Americans that she just HAD TO give her piece of mind to anybody who appeared Asian – assuming perhaps that the people she harassed were Chinese just because she went to Chinatown? Did she assume that just because the virus supposedly started in China that every person she may perceive as Chinese is guilty? Did she think she’d get away with her very public racist harassment of people who don’t look like her?

Where the hell does she get her information about COVID-19 anyway? Has she drunk the former president’s racist rhetoric around the coronavirus referring to it as “kung flu” and “China virus”? (ethnicity is not a virus nor does a virus have an ethnicity, Ms. Williams!)

She isn’t someone I’d want to be in the presence of.

Last year, in an effort to stop the rise in attacks against Asian Americans, the NYPD created an 18-member Asian hate-crime task force. And last month NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced the department would increase its outreach to Asian communities and deploy plainclothes Asian American officers in Chinatown and other areas of the city with larger Asian American population. This announcement created immediate backlash from some reform advocates, who noted that the department had agreed last year to disband its plainclothes “anti-crime” units; those officers were involved in a disproportionate number of civilian complaints and shootings. However, this announcement sparked immediate backlash from some reform advocates, who noted that the department had agreed last year to disband its plainclothes “anti-crime” units that have long been involved in a disproportionate number of civilian complaints and shootings.

One critic, Joo-Hyun Kang, the director of Communities United for Police Reform, said the new initiative is “a toxic plan that’s being imposed on our communities for the NYPD’s public relations goals.”

She added,

The NYPD routinely protects white supremacy, has no track record of preventing hate violence in any community and in Asian communities regularly harasses and targets elders who collect bottles and cans, delivery workers, sex workers, youth and others.

Apparently, no plainclothes Asian American officer was present when an Asian-American man was attacked in Central Park in broad daylight while walking through the park with his wife and five-year-old son…likely because it isn’t an area with a heavily concentrated Asian American population. The attack reportedly took place around 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 27.

The assailant allegedly started whispering something in the man’s wife’s ear that was sexual in nature; when the Asian American man tried to reason with the attacker, he got sucker punched. His injuries were serious enough to land him in nearby Mount Sinai Hospital.

That attacker is still on the loose.

I lost count long ago of how many stupid racist comments, dirty looks, and harrassments I’ve received over the years and to the present day because of who I am and what I look like. I can only count ONE time (thankfully) when my life was threatened for that reason. So when I learn about people who are attacked (or worse) for who they are – especially those with whom I identify ethnically and culturally, it pains me. It makes me sad and it makes my blood boil.

Reading details about racist attacks on people is sometimes visceral for me because it brings back unpleasant memories which are all too relatable. I can empathize with them. And it can be news I don’t want to think about too much because it’s too close for comfort – I imagine the victim could have been one of my family members.

I’d likely be fit to be tied if that were to happen, which I hope it never will, of course.

I shall keep writing about this as long as anti-Asian hate crimes keep happening. Name the perpetrators and name their crimes. Why remain silent and sweep their misdeeds under the carpet?

This is not the 19th century, when the perpetrators of one of the worst mass lynchings in U.S. history in Los Angeles’ Chinatown in 1871 literally got away with murder. Nineteen Chinese immigrants were killed, 15 of whom were hanged by the mob in the course of the riot. According to the first Associated Press account, the mob consisted of at least 500 people, or 8 percent of the city’s population.

Authorities arrested and tried 10 people. Eight were convicted of manslaughter and sent to San Quentin prison. Their convictions were overturned on appeal due to a legal technicality.

So yes, the convicted got away with murder. Never mind the hundreds of other participants who committed goodness knows what else. The tragedy was quickly forgotten; the local newspapers made no mention of it in the year-end recap of major events of the year, according to the Los Angeles Public Library.

Go beyond Los Angeles to Rock Springs, Wyoming, where on September 2, 1885, 150 white miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, brutally attacked their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15 others, and driving several hundred more out of town. The massacre was defended in the local newspaper, and, to a lesser extent, in other western newspapers.

Or Seattle, Washington, where on February 6–9, 1886, anti-Chinese sentiment caused by intense labor competition – and in the context of an ongoing struggle between labor and capital – erupted in violence between the Knights of Labor rioters and federal troops ordered in by President Grover Cleveland. The incident resulted in the removal of over 200 Chinese civilians from Seattle and left two militia men and three rioters seriously injured. Congress paid $276,619.15 to the Chinese government in compensation for the rioting, but the actual victims never saw any such compensation. Though 13 men were tried in court in relation to the riot, not a single one was ever convicted of a crime.

Throughout the American West (and particularly in California) during the second half of the 19th century, countless Chinese immigrants were attacked: lynched, murdered, assaulted, and their homes and businesses were pillaged and burnt. No one was ever held accountable then.

So in this 21st century, whenever ignorant, hateful people choose to broadcast their racial animosity by harming others, let’s overwhelm them with bright sunshine for the whole world to see!

Impunity is not an option here.

I may have osteoporosis of the spine, but I’ll be damned if I become spineless about today’s anti-Asian hate crimes and other injustices by remaining silent. I hereby take this vow – to myself.

Sources

Daily Kos
Washington Post
Alternet.org
TMZ
Wikipedia – Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States
History.com
Wikipedia – Rock Springs Massacre
Wikipedia – Seattle riot of 1886
Teaching Resources – University of Illinois
Today
Los Angeles Public Library
Orange County Register
China Underground
Wikipedia – Chinese massacre of 1871
LA Times – The racist massacre that killed 10% of L.A.’s Chinese population and brought shame to the city
My Central Oregon
LA Times – Column: Chinese immigrants helped build California, but they’ve been written out of its history
US Department of State – Office of the Historian
Wikipedia – History of Chinese Americans
Gothamist
Stop AAPI Hate

When Asian American Lives Don’t Matter

Social Justice, Women,

I have a story to tell you on this first day of April:

A 65-year-old Asian American woman fell on Monday, March 29, 2021, near Times Square in New York City because a man passed by in a hurry and accidentally knocked her over.

At least a few bystanders happened to witness her fall in the Heaven’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, according to police, who released the video in an appeal for help identifying the careless man.

The woman was headed to church when the man knocked her down. The witnesses – lobby staffers at the apartment building where the incident occurred outside its doors – stopped being bystanders and rushed out to help the woman. They sat her down in the lobby of the apartment building she was in front of, offered her tea. One even ran down the street to bring her flowers. They didn’t let her leave until they felt she was calm and well enough to walk on her on.

Ain’t that sweet of them?!

The Asian American woman went on her way to church and only suffered minor bruises and bumps.

The. End.

If you believe that story, then you’ve been living under a rock.

That was my brief fantasy version of an event this past Monday, March 29th.

No, the real story is that the 65-year-old Asian American woman, identified by police as Vilma Kari, was violently attacked in broad daylight near Times Square on Monday by a man who knocked her to the ground and started furiously kicking her head, allegedly shouting, “Fuck you, you don’t belong here” at her.

According to video released by the NYPD that showed the horrific attack, there were at least three bystanders in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Who did NOTHING. Nada. Just stood around. The video showed a few passing cars as well that did not stop. Two of those bystanders were building security personnel of the apartment building where Ms. Kari was attacked outside its doors.

So much for security, eh?

Three men versus one attacker…surely they had a chance to stop him? At least scare him away? But who wants to get involved in helping an Asian woman being brutally attacked?

Apparently, no one.

She could have been my mother, auntie, sister, or a friend.

Or yours.

Now the public finds out that the suspect, identified by police as Brandon Elliot, served 17 years in state prison for stabbing his mother to death in 2002 and that he was released on lifetime parole in November 2019. He’s been charged with “two counts of assault as a hate crime and one count each of attempted assault as a hate crime, assault and attempted assault,” according to local news.

Mr. Elliot looks to be a BIG man in the video. He. Kicked. Her. Head. Furiously and repeatedly.

Are there any words for this?! Yet another attack on the Asian American community.

And the “security” personnel didn’t do a damn thing. Just stood by and watched. Didn’t even try to help her, let alone call 911 for help. Did they enjoy watching Mr. Elliot viciously kick Ms. Kari in the head? Were they scared he’d beat the shit out of them if they got involved? What sticks out is that they made no effort whatsoever to intervene.

Cowards.

Ms. Kari was taken to the hospital, where doctors found she had a fractured pelvis and contusions to the head, according to WABC TV.

“The victim sustained a serious physical injury and was removed by EMS to NYU Langone Hospital,” and is stable, the police said.

I feel so bad for Ms. Kari and her family. I hope she will recover — physically and emotionally — and not suffer too badly from this horrible crime. She was attacked for being who she was. She did absolutely nothing wrong.

When will this anti-Asian hatred end?

I don’t know. But I say to the bullies like Mr. Elliot who scream “You don’t belong here”: take your poison to the nearest toxic waste dump where it belongs, please. Go to your local public library and read a history book about Asian Americans. Turn your brain back on instead of being a radioactive asshole. A fucking pariah to your community. To America.

Peace.

Sources

The Post Millennial
The New York Post
CNN
MSN
Independent
CBS

Blood Boiling Material

General, Social Justice, Women, ,

My blood has been boiling over in recent days due to the mass murder on March 16th, 2021 in Georgia. A young man aged 21 killed eight people – seven women and one man at three different massage spas.

He told investigators he targeted these places because he wanted to “take out that temptation” from his “sexual addiction” issues. And according to some reports, he had spent time in rehab for sex addiction in 2019 and 2020.

Robert Aaron Long, the gunman, has been described by former classmates in news reports as a highly religious baptist who took a bible to high school with him every day and was on a crusade to remove “temptation” when he opened fire in the massage spas.

Oh, it’s the women’s fault, is that what you mean by removing “temptation”, Mr. Long?

It’s so easy to blame others for your problems, isn’t it?

What happened to personal responsibility? Like avoiding places you claim “tempt” you?

Or managing your problem by pouring ice cold water on your junk?

Mr. Long, I think your deep religiosity has fucked up your head. Badly. Bringing a bible to school every day doesn’t make you a “good” person. If you believe your heavenly father is in control, then why did you wrest that control from him and take out eight people’s lives yourself?

Those people whose lives you took weren’t responsible for YOUR feelings of “temptation”. You decided to end their lives.

You told police you were not motivated by race?

That is hard to believe given that you went to three different Asian spas and that six out of your eight victims were Asian women.

And news reports have you saying you told authorities that you claim you targeted Asian women to eliminate “temptation.”

Your objectification of Asian women as “temptation” is disgusting. Dehumanizing.

Eight lives are gone, eight families are suffering a loss of their loved ones because of you. On top of that, since you nearly killed another man during your killing spree, that man will now have a long and painful recovery thanks to you.

And you’ve shaken the Asian American community not only in Georgia, but across the nation. To date, nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents have been reported over the course of the pandemic by reporting forum STOP AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Hate. Women make up a far higher share of the reports, at 68 percent, compared to men, who make up 29 percent of respondents. (The nonprofit does not report incidents to police.)

Mr. Long, you’ve just shone the stadium lights on anti-Asian hate in the worst possible way.

America will be much safer with you in a cage.

There is someone else who has got my blood boiling.

He is Capt. Jay Baker of Georgia’s Cherokee County Sheriff’s office, who has come under fire for his comments on gunman Long:

He was at pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.

Well, golleeeeee, Capt. Baker! We all have bad days, don’t we?! Would there be any human being left on earth if we each acted out on our “really bad day” as Mr. Long did?

Just a “really bad day”? I think a lot of people are having trouble wrapping their head around that. Apparently Mr. Long’s parents kicked him out the night before the shootings, according to the news reports – and they also turned him in after the shootings. Small comfort to the families of his victims.

Saying a mass murderer had a really bad day is beyond the pale. I’m sure the victims’ families really loved hearing that from you, Capt. Baker. Must have felt as comforting as Arctic air biting their skin against their burning, overwhelming grief.

It’s not helpful that in defending you, your colleague, Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds, said,

In as much as his words were taken or construed as insensitive or inappropriate, they were not intended to disrespect any of the victims, the gravity of this tragedy or express empathy or sympathy for the suspect.

And noted that your remarks launched “much debate and anger.”

Really?!

Are you wondering WHY your remarks launched much debate and anger?

I’m not.

And now the public learns that you apparently promoted shirts on your now-deleted Facebook account that featured racist language and blamed China for the pandemic. “Covid 19 IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA,” the shirts said, in the same spirit as former President Donald Trump.

Your alleged words:

• “Place your order while they last,” – with a smiley face emoji alongside a picture of the shirts in a post on March 30 last year.

• “Love my shirt… Get yours while they last,” you reportedly wrote alongside pictures of the shirts in April.

If this is true, then Georgians deserve far better in a public servant. Especially one entrusted with the power to ensure the safety of their fellow citizens.

How can anyone in their right mind implicitly trust a law enforcement officer with a record of racist and/or misogynistic behavior to keep them safe on the streets?

I would not want to be in the presence of that officer. At. All.

May the eight victims killed by Mr. Long rest in peace and may their families find some measure of solace in community support and solidarity with them.

And may the gentleman Mr. Long gravely wounded recover fully; I hope he can give damning testimony against Long so that justice may prevail.

Sources

The New York Times
NBC News – Asian America
NBC News – ‘Stop AAPI hate: Around 3,800 anti-Asian incidents recorded in the past year (video)
ABC News
MSN
USA Today
USA Today – Asian women: Shooting points to racist tropes (video)
heavy
CBS News
CBS Atlanta
WWL-TV
The Wrap
Hide Out
My Central Oregon
The Independent
Newsweek

Celebrate Women!

General, Social Justice, Women, ,

March is Women’s History Monthh in the United States, established by Congress to coincide with International Women’s Day (IWD) which falls on March 8th. The latter is observed around the globe to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women and is often an event organized as a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.

I don’t know if I’ve been asleep at the wheel (I hope not!), but only in the last couple of years did I notice that major network news as well as my own local news actually mention International Women’s Day.

What took so long?!

Didn’t US media want to recognize half of humanity? Just for a day?! Or are we as the United States of America – the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet, so full of ourselves that we don’t need to to participate in acknowledging women’s contributions to society on a global scale? We’ve got Women’s History month – which covers women in the US (though the UK, Australia, and Canada have their own versions) and that’s good enough?

Let the rest of the world and countless NGOs (non-governmental organizations) address and celebrate women’s achievements and call for addressing inequality?

International Women’s Day isn’t titillating news?

This year marks the 110th anniversary of the first official International Women’s Day, which was on March 19th, 1911, and which was observed by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. Across Europe, women demanded the right to vote and to hold public office, and protested against employment sex discrimination.

This event was preceded by the first “Woman’s Day” celebration which took place in Chicago on May 3rd, 1908. Organized by the U.S. Socialist Party, it brought together an audience of 1,500 women who demanded economic and political equality, on a day officially dedicated to “the female workers’ causes.”

The following year, on February 28th, 1909, in New York City, the Socialist Party of America celebrated “National Woman’s Day“, with 15,000 women who protested long work hours, low pay, and the lack of voting rights in New York City.

Inspired by these American initiatives, an International Socialist Women’s Conference was organized in August 1910 ahead of the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark. Leading German socialists Luise Zietz and Clara Zetkin proposed the establishment of an annual International Woman’s Day as a strategy to promote equal rights, including suffrage, for women.

More than 100 female delegates from 17 countries unanimously endorsed the proposal!

International Women’s Day became an official holiday in Russia in 1913; however, women still experienced difficulties caused by WWI. While men were off at war, women dealt with food shortages and a government who wouldn’t listen to them.

Not listening has consequences…bad move, dudes!

On March 8th, 1917 (February 23 in the former Russian calendar), tens of thousands of Russian women took to the streets demanding change. The unified cry for help paved the way for Russian women to be granted voting rights soon after. The official International Women’s Day eventually switched to March 8th.

Though gaining broader recognition in the United States only recently (according to my observations), it’s been widely celebrated worldwide.

According to Wikipedia:

IWD is an official holiday in several countries worldwide, including Afghanistan,Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Germany (Berlin only), Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia,Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

In some countries, such as Australia, Cameroon, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Chile; IWD is not an official public holiday, but is widely observed nonetheless.

Regardless of legal status, in much of the world, it is customary for men to give female colleagues and loved ones flowers and small gifts. In some countries (such as Bulgaria and Romania) it is also observed as an equivalent of Mother’s Day, where children also give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

Can you imagine having a day off of work for International Women’s Day?! Woo hoo!

I was quite pleased to see my local news station as well as a major network news channel mention IWD on March 8th this year (finally). Kudos to them.

On the national level we have Women’ History Month, which began much later in our history; March was designated as Women’s History Month by Congress in 1987. Women’s History Month is a celebration of women’s contributions to history, culture and society, inspired by the first International Women’s Day in 1911.

But it was not until 1978 – when the school district of Sonoma, California organized a week-long celebration of women’s contributions to culture, history and society – that the seeds planted for the future Women’s History Month. Presentations were given at dozens of schools, hundreds of students participated in a “Real Woman” essay contest and a parade was held in downtown Santa Rosa.

The History website states that a few years later, the idea had caught on within communities, school districts and organizations across the country.

And in February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week.

He said:

From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.

As Dr. Gerda Lerner has noted, ‘Women’s History is Women’s Right.’ It is an essential and indispensable heritage from which we can draw pride, comfort, courage, and long-range vision. I ask my fellow Americans to recognize this heritage with appropriate activities during National Women’s History Week, March 2–8, 1980.

I urge libraries, schools, and community organizations to focus their observances on the leaders who struggled for equality – Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul. Understanding the true history of our country will help us to comprehend the need for full equality under the law for all our people.

This goal can be achieved by ratifying the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that ‘Equality of Rights under the Law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.’

(Carter was referring to the Equal Rights Amendment, which was never ratified, not to the amendment which did become the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution after his presidency.)

The U.S. Congress followed suit the next year, passing a resolution establishing a national celebration. Six years later, the National Women’s History Project successfully petitioned Congress to expand the event to the entire month of March…after a series of joint resolutions, that is.

In contrast to the creation of International Women’s Day – which took just a few years, it took nearly a decade for the United States to officially recognize and celebrate the contributions of women. Think about that. I thought we’re supposed to be the the leader of the free world. The most powerful nation on Earth that other nations look up to?

Why was it so hard for our elected leaders to recognize and commemorate women’s contributions to America?

I don’t know the answer to that. But I suspect that there was strong resistance from some elected officials and members of society alike to lifting up half of humanity – by recognizing women who throughout history have advocated and continue to advocate for women’s health and freedom to control their own reproductive health without governmental interference, family-friendly workplace conditions, suffrage for just not themselves but every citizen, laws to protect them from domestic abuse, laws to protect them against gender discrimination at work, laws to eliminate gender discrimination in the home (such as in matters of abuse, finance, divorce, and inheritance), and so on.

Maybe this resistance is really rooted in a power mentality, in which certain folks have the idea women should “stay in their place”, that women need to stay put at home – barefoot, pregnant, and uneducated so they can be controlled?

Not!

Women are no less worthy than men. And no one is entitled to have their way with women. We are not property. Not sex objects. Not punching bags. Not cute doggies meant to obey, sit, cook, and clean, at anyone’s whim. Not brainless dolls meant to stay quiet, not think too much, and be told “Don’t worry your pretty little head!”

And certainly not prisoners meant to be told when and where to go beyond the confines of our home.

Women ought to go anywhere they damn well please! I’m not into dehumanizing women, thank you very much.

I don’t think one day internationally and one month nationally to put women front and center of our attention is asking too much. Not when women in the United States and all around the world are still experiencing pay ineqity, gender discrimination at work or school, threats to their reproductive health, threats to their well-being if they are in an abusive relationship or living in a conflict-ridden area, threats to their livelihoods if they’ve lost their jobs due to a pandemic, and relentless misogyny if they dare speak their minds.

Let women speak their minds!

Clearly and loudly. Without fear of retribution. Without any apology for being who we are and regardless of what we look like and where we came from.

I say hurray to all those who made International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month possible!

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
~ Audre Lorde

Sources

Wikipedia – Women’s History Month
Women’s History Month.gov
History.com
International Women’s Day
Origins – Ohio State University
Good Housekeeping
Wikipedia – International Women’s Day
ThoughtCo
United Nations

Fight for Your Right to Vote!

Civics, General, Social Justice,

Maryland’s House of Delegates passed the Student & Military Voter Empowerment Act the 3rd week of February 2021; I signed the petition to urge the Maryland Senate to pass it.

If passed, the bill will ensure that institutions of higher education*:

• Have a student voter coordinator, who will take point on forming a plan to support student voter registration and ensure students have the information they need to register to vote and turn out.

• Post the link to the online voter registration form on the website students use to register for classes to keep it visible.

• Provide input to local boards of election as they select polling locations for our elections.

And the bill will ensure military members can easily to register to vote online.

According to Common Cause Maryland, over 72% of people between the ages of 18-24 did not vote in the 2018 election. Historically Black colleges and universities report declines in overall participation, largely due to lack of access to information on how to register and vote, and thus, leading to young people voting less frequently than the rest of the population. But this legislation would help to reduce the barrier faced by young people who want to participate in our elections.

Attending college and university is often the first time many young people are on their own for the first time – a time to grow and learn. It was for me. I remember I looked forward to voting, to finally participating in society!

It seems to me that colleges and universities are well-positioned to inform students about voter participation; after all, what college or university doesn’t have a student government? If colleges and universities encourage students to vote for their fellow students, why can’t these institutions of higher education make it easy and accessible for them to vote in the outside world?

Voter registration, accessing voter information, and the act of voting made simple and accessible to ALL eligible voters – including students – this is a no brainer, right?

Young people, after all, are our future!

Empower them to vote! Some of them may be governing how we live someday, when we’re old and gray.

I’d rather vote for an informed candidate who (hopefully) respects the value of every eligible voter participating than a candidate who only thinks certain people ought to vote and harbors some perceived paranoia over voter fraud despite FACTS to the contrary.

As the most recent US Presidential Election 2020 laid bare.

Yes, even after the Director of United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – the agency handling election security, declared the 2020 presidential election was was the country’s most secure ever, repeatedly debunked the claims of massive fraud and election interference by the former president (and his cronies) to Congress and the media, a certain segment of society continues to believe the 2020 election was a fraud. A steal.

Even after the former president’s powerful lackey in the form of his US Attorney General said the US Justice Department found no evidence fraud to make a difference in the outcome of the election, that wasn’t enough to convince the president’s followers that the election was valid. The former president and many of his followers could not accept that the majority of the people spoke: they wanted a different president.

But what punishment did America get from those who could not accept reality?

No. 1: the January 6th, 2021 insurrection upon the nation’s capital to “Stop the Steal”.

And insidiously, as of February 27th, 2021, at least 253 voter suppression bills have now been introduced across the country in 43 states – just in 2021 alone. You read that right: 2021…THIS year!

Laws in direct contradiction to Maryland’s Student & Military Voter Empowerment Act.

Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman reported earlier this month on the GOP’s ongoing nationwide push to make voting more difficult, particularly for communities of color and other Democratic-leaning constituencies – and in some cases to empower state legislatures to overturn election results.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice’s report,

These proposals primarily seek to: (1) limit mail voting access; (2) impose stricter voter ID requirements; (3) limit successful pro-voter registration policies; and (4) enable more aggressive voter roll purges.

Here’s a very condensed sampling of proposed nightmarish laws to come:

Georgia

• Eliminating no-excuse absentee voting, which was passed on a bipartisan basis in 2014, and limiting absentee voting to only a few categories of voters who fit into narrow, predetermined exceptions.

• Restricting county election officials’ ability to utilize mobile precincts to serve rural and other hard-to-reach voters.

• Removing restrictions on poll watchers that keep election officials safe without facilitating additional transparency for voters.

• Eliminating automatic voter registration, making it harder for Georgians to register to vote and less efficient for Georgia election officials to update and maintain accurate voter rolls.

In most cases, according to various sources, these state lawmakers argue that these restrictive measures are necessary because, “the public has lost confidence in our election system,” but they refuse to acknowledge the reason some voters believe elections are unfair: because those same legislators spent months spreading disinformation about the integrity of the 2020 election.

Arizona

• Require voters to obtain a notary stamp on all absentee ballots, a not only burdensome but costly requirement.

• Prohibit voters from mailing their absentee ballots to election officials, instead requiring them to return them in-person.

• Require voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote—a likely violation of federal law. 

• Purge eligible voters from the rolls if they change their address—even if that address is still in Arizona—another likely violation of federal law.

FYI: Arizona has had a robust mail voting system for decades with no widespread fraud or administrative issues, and Arizona voters across the political spectrum have been voting by mail since long before the COVID-19 pandemic—78% of Arizona voters voted by mail in 2018, according to Campaign Legal Center.

Pennsylvania

• Eliminate the permanent early voter list, requiring voters to submit a separate application for each election, rather than submitting one application for the entire election cycle.

• Prohibit the use of ballot drop boxes, eliminating a safe and secure option for voters to ensure that their mail ballots are returned directly to election officials on time.

• Increase poll watcher access to absentee ballot processing and canvassing activities (which are already publicly observable), allowing poll watchers to more easily harass election officials and volunteers and reducing limitations that keep our election officials safe while maintaining transparency.

• Prohibit counties from notifying voters about issues with absentee or mail ballots and providing voters an opportunity to fix those issues. Current Pennsylvania law allows, but does not require, counties to contact voters and give them a chance to fix issues with their ballots.

Campaign Legal Center writes that one legislator who sponsored an anti-voter bill said that his goal was “not to fix what happened but to restore integrity and trust” back into the voting process. That’s because these new voting restrictions wouldn’t “fix” anything—they only make voting harder for Pennsylvanians.

Geez, these anti-voter measures are created by legislators have a serious mean streak running through them, you think?!

To my mind, conservative lawmakers don’t have any ideas that can benefit ALL citizens. I mean, why the insane focus on restrictive voting measures – especially when these lawmakers lose the White House and collectively lose their seats in Congress and throughout state legislatures?

You must have a pretty sorry platform, if you have one at all, to be so paranoid as to make it hard for people to vote – people who you think will likely not vote for you! People who include minorities, women, students, those low on the socio-economic ladder who may not vote for you due to your record of misogynistic laws against women’s health care, tax cuts for the uber-wealthy, cutting of social programs that address mental health, health care access, education, job training, and yes, restrictive voter suppression laws.

I find voter suppression laws disgusting. The very thought of them makes my blood boil. Voter suppression laws demonstrate a cynical and contemptuous regard for people.

Hey, anti-voter legislators and supporters:

You don’t like democracy?

You dig authoritarianism? There’s plenty of authoritarian regimes around the globe you can try! Why not try Russia? China? Brazil? Iran? Saudi Arabia? I’d venture to say there’s plenty of people in those countries who would LOVE to swap places with you! If you don’t like democracy here, then get the fuck out of here.

Take your authoritarian tendencies to the lands of Vladimir Putin, Xi Xinping, or any of the other countries led by dictators drunk on power – those who want to rule til their last breath. Go find out how beautiful life in an authoritarian country really is! You respect strongmen, don’t you? There’s plenty of strongmen to spare around the globe who cannot handle the slightest bit of criticism, and who cannot handle the idea of everyone having a voice. Go live with them! But do not shove authoritarianism down America’s throat – not least of all by severely restricting Americans’ vote.

You’re such sore losers! You lose an election, then you immediately scream FRAUD!

Why don’t you come up with ideas to empower every American to thrive instead of resorting to restricting voter participation?

If you really “love” America and want to “fix” voting problems (and they do exist), why not urge Congress to pass the For The People Act, H.R.1/S.1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, H.R. 4?

The For The People Act sets national minimum standards for our elections based on bipartisan best practices, ensuring that Americans’ ability to access the ballot isn’t dependent on which state they live in, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would revitalize the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to defend against racial discrimination in our elections.

Instead of trying to spread disinformation and making American lives harder through stupid voter suppression laws that threaten our democracy, support the Congressional acts listed above…dig yourself out of a dark, insidious, anti-voter hole!

Just sayin’.

* note: according to a campaign email.

Sources

Common Cause Maryland
Alternet.org
Campaign Legal Center
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law
Salon
ABC News
CBS News – 60 Minutes
LA Times
PBS News Hour
Fox13 News
Mother Jones
CNN
Salon
Campaign Legal Center
Congress.gov
Campaign Legal Center – The Bipartisan Origins &Impact of the For the People Act (H.R. 1/S. 1)
Human Rights Campaign
Wikipedia

Hello, Media? Asian. American. Lives. Matter. Wake UP!

General, Media, Social Justice, ,

On the same day that I signed a petition created by Asian American Collective that asks mainstream media to get up and cover the issues of the Asian American community, mainstream and cable media (except Fox News) finally brought to America’s attention the recent spate of murder and multiple assualts against Asian Americans.

Hey! Public pressure can work!

Early last week, I signed this petition:

Get Mainstream News Coverage Of National Elderly Asian American Assaults

It reads in part:

Over the course of the past year, the unfortunate inflation of racist rhetoric associated with the origin and spread of the Coronavirus has resulted in an uptick of deadly hate crimes against Asian Americans.

In the past week we’ve seen murders and hateful assaults skyrocket across America but have noticeably felt ZERO pressure to cover from America’s mainstream news sources. Why is it that in the eyes of American media, Asian lives do not matter?

President Biden very recently signed an Executive Order to help combat hate crimes toward the Asian American community. He even outlined his agenda on the campaign trail for the AAPI Community.

Because Asian Americans still have not been given a voice in mainstream America and it’s time they covered OUR struggles, fights and needs. We are Americans and deserve to live without constant fear, or the fear of our elders being senselessly murdered. 

Why does it take public pressure to compel the media to inform Americans about their fellow human beings becoming targets of racial hostility? And in particular, elderly Asian Americans?

Is it just convenient to pretend we’re invisible? Especially elderly people?

Asian Americans have been in the Americas for a long time. According to Wikpedia’s page on Asian immigration:

the first Asian-origin people known to arrive in North America after the beginning of the European colonization were a group of Filipinos known as “Luzonians” or Luzon Indians. These Luzonians were part of the crew and landing party of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Buena Esperanza.

The ship set sail from Manila and landed in Morro Bay in what is now the California Coast on October 17, 1587 as part of the Galleon Trade between the Spanish East Indies (the colonial name for what would become the Philippines) and New Spain (Spain’s colonies in North America).

And according to a historical pamphlet, Timeline: 400 Years of Chinese in The Americas produced by The Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA) in New York City, the Spanish documented Chinese settlements in Acapulco “as early as 1600s and later in Mexico City by 1635”.

Filipino sailors were the first to settle in the U.S. around 1750 in what would later be Louisiana.

And the arrival of three Chinese seamen in Baltimore in 1785 marks the first record of Chinese in the United States.

We’ve been here a while, people!

After all these centuries, are Asian Americans still reduced to only cultural things from which non-Asians enjoy and benefit?

Things like martial arts: kung-fu, karate, and jujitsu? Foods, including sushi, No. 1 Chinese take-out that, in my opinion, no-self-respecting Chinese person would consume, and bobo drinks? Movies that portray women as either submissive and docile or conniving “dragon” women – and men often portrayed as emasculated nerd scientists or good guy-bad guy martial artists? Or somewhere in between but invisible – an extra in a movie – an office worker or random person walking in the street but silent or having a bit speaking part of no signficance?

Asian Americans have built America’s railroads, have turned California’s swamplands into farmlands to feed America, have fought patriotically in its wars (like my father and uncles), have taken care of our fellow citizens when they become ill via countless medical personnel, fought for rights and better living conditions in Congress, have worked tirelessly as scientists among their colleagues to find cures for diseases, and so much more.

And what thanks have we gotten? I’ll give you a sampling:

• The Nazi-like 1882 Chinese Exlusion Act – renewed repeatedly until the 1940s;

• Lynchings, physical violence, pillaging, and other untold crimes during the 19th century;

• Chinese detained at Angel Island (the Ellis Island of the West) to answer asinine questions from authorities to determine the authenticity of their identities;

• Japanese internment camps across the country during WWII;

• Racial hostility that continues to this day – magnified in the past year thanks to our now-former U.S. president who cruelly referred to COVID-19 as the “China virus” and “kung flu” and who inspired some of his most rabid followers to spew the same racist rhetoric to complete strangers of Asian heritage – sometimes accompanied by spitting or violent physical assault.

• Invisibility from the media, unless it suits them somehow.

I guess a spate of assaults against elderly Asian Americans isn’t sexy, titillating news.

Allow me to indulge you with naming some of the people who were attacked.

Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84 – knocked to the ground while on his morning walk January 28, 2021, by a teenager. Mr. Ratanapakdee’s fall resulted in his head hitting the pavement and him sliding into a garage door. Ratanapakdee died two days later as a result of his injuries after being taken to a hospital. He was originally from Thailand. (Bay Area, CA)

Yik Oi Huang, 88 – beaten by a teenager with her own cane before stealing her keys and leaving her to die in the sandbox of a playground across from her home on Jan. 9, 2019. Huang suffered a skull fracture, brain bleeding, numerous facial fractures, and injury to her spine, hands and ribs,. She was bleeding heavily from her head, face and nose. She died January 3, 2020, nearly a year after her injuries. (Bay Area CA)

Noel Quintana, 61 – was on his way to work on the L subway train when he got into a dispute with another man and was slashed across the face on Wednesday morning, February 5, 2021. Mr. Quintana claimed the man was kicking his backpack during the commute, according to ABC7. When Quintana asked him to stop, the suspect slashed the 61 year-old man on the right cheek with a box cutter causing physical injuries and ran away when the train made another stop. Mr. Quintana told ABC News he feared for his life since nobody was helping him. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment. (New York City, NY)

Mauricio Gesmundo, Sr., 83 – was getting ready for dinner when he heard loud sounds from inside his house on December 31, 2020 (New Year’s Eve). His son recalled, “All he remembers is whoever it was covered his face and then beat him.” His family found him bound and duct-taped. He died from his injuries on January 18, 2021.(Philadelphia, PA)

There are so many more Asian Americans who’ve been attacked as well. A New York NBC station reports that while the pandemic’s long-lasting impact has affected public health and the economy, the Asian-American community has also experienced the fallout of COVID-19 – being unfairly blamed for the pandemic and becoming the target of discrimination and violence.

According to the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) report “A Rising Tide of Hate and Violence against Asian Americans in New York During COVID-19: Impact, Causes, Solutions,” they found:

Anti-Asian hate incidents increased dramatically in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and then surged after the election of Donald J. Trump. South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Middle Eastern communities all faced recurring cycles of harassment and violence. Since the onset of the pandemic, however, anti-Asian hate incidents now primarily directed at East Asians have skyrocketed according to both official and unofficial reports.

Across the country, there were more than 2,500 reports of anti-Asian hate incidents related to COVID-19 between March and September 2020. And this number understates the actual number of anti-Asian hate incidents because most incidents are not reported.

The report goes on to say that, as of Dec. 31, 2020,

there were 259 anti-Asian incidents in New York reported to “Stop AAPI Hate,” a report center sponsored by the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and San Francisco State University’s Asian-American Studies Department. Although the majority of the incidents reported involve verbal harassment, shunning, physical assault, as well as being coughed and spat on are being reported at an alarming rate, according to the published study.

I’m not going to insult the people I mentioned who were attacked by discussing their attackers. They don’t deserve my time and space. Last I checked, two perpetrators have been arrested and at least two are still on the loose.

Mr. Ratanapakdee, Ms. Huang, Mr. Quintana, and Mr. Gesmundo. These individuals all had families. They were someone’s father, great-grandmother, mother, grandfather, auntie, and uncle.

Many of us have grandparents, parents, aunties, uncles we love – or loved and remembered, if they no longer are with us. The individuals I mentioned could have been one of our own parents, grandparents, relatives, or loved ones. The violence of their attacks numbs my mind and turns my stomach, and I can’t fathom the searing pain their families have endured. What a horrible way to have left this world.

With thousands of anti-Asian hate incidents related to the COVID-19 reported – and likely many unreported according to multiple news sources, why is America seemingly unaware of this? One night of mention on the news will not make an impression in our attention-deficit world. I thought multiple attacks against vulnerable people would garner worthy news attention.

But maybe not if they’re Asian American and apparently deemed invisible by mainstsream and cable news? Is omission of Asian American elder attacks what corporate media desires – to convey to the American public that we really don’t matter?

If so, that’s pretty downright sick.

Asian Americans…they exist?

Damn right we exist!

I’m grateful for activist organizations like Asian American Collective to bring to my attention the injustice of the violent attacks against elderly Asians and to bring national attention to the plight of our fellow human beings.

So hello, American media – yes, that includes you, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, WaPo, LA Times, NY Times, and even those who mentioned the rise in Asian American hate crimes:

ASIAN. AMERICAN. LIVES. MATTER.

We exist. A one-time mention isn’t sufficient.

With more than a couple thousand recorded complaints of anti-Asian hate crimes and counting, throughout the pandemic, you’ve no excuse not to follow-up on this. Tell us about those who’ve been attacked, about their lives, who they are or who they were, how their families are coping, how their respective communities have responded.

Wake UP!

Your silence is deafening. If you proclaim to provide “fair and balanced” news that has an impact on American lives, then treat ALL Americans with respect and tell them when their fellow citizens are being harmed repeatedly. Name names!

Don’t dehumanize and reduce us as just a group.

SAY their names: Vicha Ratanapakdee. Yik Oi Huang. Noel Quintana. Mauricio Gesmundo.

They’re just the tip of the iceberg.

Peace.

Sources

Change.org – petition
Change.org – petition update
SF Examiner
Next Shark
CBS Philly
Newsbreak
SF Examiner
ABC7 News
AsAmNews
Next Shark
ABC7 News
The Hill
NBC4 New York
Wikipedia
Asian-Nation
Archives.gov
Times of Israel
Wikipedia
Britannica
History.com
NBC – Asian America
American History USA
Teaching for Change
Asian American Bar Association of New York

Aspiring to Wokeness

General, Social Justice

Update: 1/4/21
I just now learned that there was a lack of consultation with Indigenous nations about the one-word change to Australia’s national anthem — with the exception, apparently, of Indigenous members of Parliament, before the public announcement.

Disappointing revelation, to be sure. The anthem change seems to have brought about a mixed bag reaction from the nation’s Indigenous population. Frustration at being left out (again) and cautious optimism for addressing the issues of the First Nations of Australia beyond small, symbolic gestures in the future.

I hope for the best outcomes for Australia. And I apologize for any glaring errors expressed in my post.

Here’s some refreshing news to kick off 2021 (and to finish off 2020):

Australia Tweaks Anthem to Recognize Indigenous History

The lyrics of Australia’s national anthem have been altered by one word to recognize the country’s Indigenous history, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Thursday.

Until Friday [January 1, 2021], the song began: “Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free.” But as the country celebrated the beginning of the new year, the “young” was dropped. The anthem now describes the country as “one and free.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said:

In the spirit of unity, it is only right that we also now acknowledge this and ensure our national anthem reflects this truth and shared appreciation. … Changing ‘young and free’ to ‘one and free’ takes nothing away, but I believe it adds much.”

The New York Times and other news media reported that the move was supported across the political spectrum.

Isn’t that awesome?!

It’s only symbolic, yes, but nevertheless, a tiny step forwards in finally – and officially, acknowledging their nation’s indigenous history. Whose native people have been residents for upwards of 60,000 years, according to current research.

Heck, Australia also tweaked the first line of its national anthem to make it more inclusive of women when “Australia’s sons” became “Australians all.”

And this was after they ditched their first anthem, “God Save the Queen” in 1984, a vestige of British colonialism.

You go, Aussies!

I hardly know a thing about Australia and its history, save for its location on a world map, but I’ll venture to say that Australia’s indigenous population has likely suffered centuries-long indignities and injustices imposed upon them with impunity by colonizers, corporations, and their present-day fellow citizens.

Just like in the United States of America and every land where indigenous populations reside.

The first thing that came to mind when I saw the headline about this was: Aussies are woke!

Yes, I’m quite sure a good lot of them already are – I have worked with and befriended several over the years; however, it is rather nice when one’s government makes an official, symbolic gesture of recognition of their long-oppressed Indigenous population through a slight change in their national anthem – in the spirit of unity, after an excruciatingly painful year for everyone. Don’t you think so?

WOKE.

What a hot-button word that’s become.

Wikipedia says woke:

is a political term which originated in the United States and it refers to a perceived awareness of issues which concern social justice and racial justice. It derives from the African-American Vernacular English expression “stay woke“, whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues.

This term, according to Wikipedia, has roots in political culture and political ads during the 1860 presidential election in support of Abraham Lincoln, when the Republican Party cultivated the movement to primarily oppose the spread of slavery as described in the Wide Awakes movement.

Usage of woke dates to the 1960s; some sources say the early 70s. Others mention 2008.

Opponents and critics of wokeness describe it as something pretentious, elitist, self-righteous, authoritarian, and other unflattering adjectives. It’s been called a PC litmus test and a boundary line separating people. And detractors call woke people “hypersensitive”. Sometimes critics attack “woke culture” as a way of claiming victim status for yourself rather than acknowledging that more deserving others hold that status.

Even former U.S. President Barack Obama expressed comments in October 2019 that critiqued woke culture, stating: “This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re politically woke, and all that stuff – you should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”

Well, I don’t know about the purity part, Mr. President…I haven’t heard or read about that. Yet. Granted, there are people who may not be effective at communicating their message of raising awareness about injustices past and present toward marginalized people and who may be completely unwilling to listen to opposing viewpoints.

But what I want to know is: why are some people so deeply hostile to learning about historical and present day injustices toward others that it practically elicits a strong, viseral feeling of disgust that is palpable to those listening?

I’ve heard the exasperated comments from loved ones, coworkers, acquaintances, and strangers in public: Why is XYZ bringing this slave stuff up again? or Why are we talking about stuff that happened hundreds of years ago? I didn’t do that shit! or Am I supposed to feel guilty again?! or All lives matter!

Oh, don’t get me started on “all lives matter”! That’s such a cheap shot. A below-the-belt insult and denialism of others’ lived experiences. Of course, all lives matter. But in America and everywhere else, some people’s lives are valued more than others. Anyone with a shred of respect for history and who is aware of how our legal justice system operates in reality can see that.

This feeling guilty business? That came from people I know and like. No one is trying to make you feel guilty! Where does this insecurity come from? Are you even listening to what’s being said? Why in the world do you think receiving information about injustices against others different from you is supposed to make you feel guilt-ridden?

Of course you aren’t personally responsible for horrific acts done against others hundreds of years ago. This isn’t about you.

However, if you will claim to be someone who values freedom for all, then why do you have so much trouble, so much hostility, toward others who have fought and continue to fight for their freedom? Freedom from not being killed for being who they are? Freedom from discriminatory laws and practices directed at them?

I feel I have a bit of a clue about injustices and indiginities suffered by others; I am someone who’s still fair game to the willfully ignorant out in the world through being a target of racial hostility and harrassment from random strangers, and from having had my life threatened because of who I am. Thankfully, these incidents have been few and far between (excepting the last four years) and only a drop in the bucket compared to what my parents, relatives, and previous generations before me endured. So yeah, to all you critics and detractors out there, I think I earned my hypersensitivity!

Hopefully, all those unhappy incidents and the knowledge of my family’s discriminatory experiences have made me more considerate and sensitive toward others’ pain.

I want to always be aware of what is going on in the world.

To be woke. To the best of my ability.

It’s a lifelong endeavor of learning. Of being willing to accept some measure of discomfort.

I’d much rather be acutely aware than be in hostile denial or be in willful ignorance of wrongs done to others. To be otherwise would be disrespecting myself. A slap in the face to my family, friends, and every person who believes in justice and accountability. That’s how I feel to the marrow of my osteoporotic spine.

By the way, I’m not into being elitist, pretentious, authoritarian, or self-righteous. I don’t think those behaviors necessarily go hand-in-hand with being sensitized to others who’ve experienced indignities.

Sources

Wikipedia
New York Times
The Guardian
AIATSIS
Slangit
Merriam-Webster
The American Conservative
SONGLYRICS
National Herald India
Otago Daily Times
The Guardian

Petition to President-elect Biden: Free Palestine—and the Sahrawi people too!

Civics, General, Social Justice, ,

I signed this petition from CODEPINK today:

Free Palestine—and the Sahrawi people, too!

[edited from  my codepink email]

Trump is obsessed with arming the Middle East. Last week, Morocco became the fourth Arab nation to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in yet another fake “peace deal” via Donald Trump. In a quid pro quo, in exchange for normalizing Israeli apartheid, the U.S. is recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara — an area, and native people, illegally occupied, just like the Israeli occupation of Palestine. To no one’s surprise, the Trump administration has also just reached a deal to sell Morocco $1 billion in weapons — drones and munitions made by General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing. 

After more than 200 years of occupation, Spain withdrew from the region in 1975 and split control of the land between Morocco and Mauritania — despite demands for independence from the Sahrawis. By 1979, Mauritania had relinquished power over the area, but Morocco maintained its iron grip through decades of brutal war. In 45 years of Moroccan rule, the Sahrawi people have endured endless oppression, including violent military occupation and the persecution of peaceful activists. Thousands have been forced to flee their homes and live their entire lives in refugee camps. 

Last month, on November 13, the Moroccan army invaded the Al Guerguerat village in Western Sahara where around 60 peaceful Sahrawi protestors had set up an encampment. After the military “successfully” dismantled the camp, Moroccan police launched a crackdown on the Sahrawi activists, including home raids, surveillance, and arrests. On November 30, just days before the Israel-Morocco normalization deal, Amnesty International called for a thorough investigation into human rights abuses in the region. 

No country other than the U.S. has recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Western Sahara belongs to Morocco as much as Palestinian territory belongs to Israel — IT DOESN’T! Just as we support indigenous rights in the U.S. and in Palestine, we must speak up for the freedom and dignity of the Sahrawi, people. We — including President-elect Biden — must join in solidarity with their struggle for freedom and do everything we can to block the recent sale of $1 billion in weapons to Morocco to fund their oppression.

It is unacceptable for the United States to perpetuate the oppression of the Sahrawi people, just as it is wrong for the U.S. to arm Israel in its war on Palestinian rights.

Ask Joe Biden to support Sahrawi freedom by signing our petition to undo Trump’s recognition of Western Sahara as Moroccan territory. Sign our petition asking him to reverse Trump’s declaration that Western Sahara belongs to Morocco.

 

You may also be interested to learn more about Western Sahara in this documentary from Democracy Now!, by one of my favorite investigative journalists, Amy Goodman, who’s no stranger to putting her life on the line. I didn’t know a thing about Western Sahara until this news from Democracy Now!  Transcript of documentary provided in link.

Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara —  A Rare Look Inside Africa’s Last Colony as Ceasefire Ends

[November 27, 2020]