Teaching*

Yesterday in class, we had a discussion about your teaching methods. Whoever wrote that post on FB shouldn’t be attacked on for what they say because it’s what is on their mind. However, I do think something like that shouldn’t be posted online but instead talked to in person. Another thing that was strange was the person stayed anonymous about it, not letting you or anyone of the classmates who it was. We’re all adults and things like that are discussed in class all the time. Besides the fact that that happened, I totally would have to disagree with what that person says about what you are teaching in this class. I believe that the struggle and perseverance of the black community played a big role in their history. Depending on what color/race you are definitely plays a role in how you look into the class. Most or if not all of the African Americans in our class has a much closer relationship to this topic than I do, a lot of others in the class. The beatings and all the harsh things that happened to the African American community might not be the easiest thing to read or look at, but it something that everyone has to see, especially coming into history class. For example, I came in with little to no knowledge of what has really going on, but with everyone I’ve read I can actually see what really was going on back in the mid 1990’s.

-Jomar 

The Ideology of Whiteness

           With influence from class discussion of what blackness is and its historical context I aim to debrief some aspects relating to race, specifically whiteness and blackness. While this is influenced from research and information from sources, I also make my own claims within.

           Therefore I would like to begin by claiming white supremacy, as a concept, has been around for centuries because of colonialism and cultural imperialism. Throughout history white individuals have always been the ones to define who is white, while simultaneously having the ability to change the definition according to the economic, political, and social conditions occurring at the given time. For example, Egyptians used to be classified as Black, and then Arab, and now White because of the above mentioned qualities, which shows that Whiteness is often an ideology rather than a racial or biological characteristic.

            The ideology of Whiteness was created as a form of maintenance that reflected the imperialist agenda of White and European nationalism. When one traditionally thinks of a “white supremacist” it typically is Hitler, the Aryan nation, and the KKK who all are extremists. Although often, white supremacy is actually a mainstream thought that lies at the core of the American experience, which is that whenever White interests are threatened, Whites have the right to protect themselves and often use democracy as way to do so. This shows that democracy can be seen as an ideology to defend and uphold Whites.

            Another way that White supremacy is upheld is through colorism. Historically colorism is based on extremist assumptions and color preferences are typically measure against traditional White standards. Historically lighter skinned blacks have always been more successful and typically have higher status. This is because having a lighter skin tone allowed opportunities that darker blacks would not receive. During slavery light skinned blacks were allowed to work easier jobs and were often able to be emancipated by their White fathers. After slavery the lighted skinned blacks had advantages in education, property, and occupation opportunities because they had ties to White kinship. These also created the one-drop-rule, were even if you did not classify as black and were not connected to the African community, one may be legally still black. An example of this is the was found in Louisiana when a women went to register and claimed to be White, but was told she was in fact Black because of a great, great, great grandfather that she didn’t even know existed. This shows how the one-drop-rule held people back when trying to move past their black heritage, even without knowing it.

Seattle is losing its blackness...

Seattle Times Changing Central District

Well brother and sisters of African American History class, I highly encourage you to read the Seattle Times Sunday addition May 29, 2016 article concerning this most disturbing gentrification of Seattle’s Central District. As Whites begin to move into the predominately African American Central District, some African American feel as though they are strangers in their own neighborhood, according to the article a long time resident of the Central District (CD) who is African American stated, when she walks her dog, the newly arrivals of whites will cross the street to avoid her.   Due to the city’s tech boom has raised the cost of living pushing higher income earners into lower-income neighborhoods.  According to the article the CD is 20 percent Black down from 70 percent.  Due to the rising property values and the increase in rent is forcing many African American’s to relocate to other areas of the city. Many former residence of the CD are relocating to Kent, Renton, and Skyway.

The relocating process is having an effect on churches, and several local business in the CD.  Some Churches and business are forcing to close current location to follow parishioners, customers and reopen their churches and business.  This is of biblical proportions, the Jews forcing the Palestinians from their homeland.  White Americans are forcing African American from the CD into other areas of the city. Many of the CD residence are not able to afford the rising cost due to unemployment, underemployment, mass incarceration, the drug epidemic of the 1980’s.

Brothers and Sisters all of us must fight to preserve the gentrification process that is approaching Tacoma’s Hill Top neighborhood. I close with these words, let’s not focus on gentrification, rather centrification.

There is another article of interest in this same issues I encourage you to read, Bellevue to cut booster club ties.

                  Thank you and God bless Brother Herb.

Hidden Figures

I stumbled across this article the other day and thought it was worth mentioning to the class, seeing as representation of people of color in film (both on and off screen) has been a topic of discussion as of late. Hidden Figures is a film centered around three female African-American mathematicians—Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson—all of whom played important, key roles in the NASA space center during the 1960’s.The plot of the movie itself is quite interesting as one would not normally find black women—or women of color in general—to be in the starring role unless perhaps they were appearing opposite of a white male lead. Having a film told in the perspective of three women during the 1960’s working on the space race project with NASA in the midst of the Cold War definitely seems like a fascinating storyline, yet leaves one wondering why figures like Katherine Johnson are somewhat lost in American history in comparison to other big figures of the 60’s (eg. MLK, Malcolm X, and JFK), as women such as her all played very important roles in history. Overall, the film seems promising in highlighting not social aspects such as race and segregation issues prominent in that time period, but also the gender inequality of that time.

The article acknowledges that with the recent pressure via “#oscarssowhite” the film will likely be categorized as a response to the underrepresentation/erasure of people of color in media although planning and production for Hidden Figures began years prior of the Oscar’s unrest surfacing. The film’s director, Ted Melfi laments that “[Hidden Figures is] not a reactionary movie, but it will be seen as one, which is unfortunate.” This comment can be interpreted in various ways and I strongly urge everyone to ponder its potential message(s). Actresses Tajari Henson (Katherine Johnson) and Octavia Spencer (Dorothy Vaughan) both note that labeling Hidden Figures as a “black film” does a disservice to both the actors/actresses and film itself. Octavia Spencer asserts that the film is first and foremost a homage to the contributions that women (of any race/ethnicity) made to society that are often left-out or all together forgotten in present American society.

Read the whole article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/movies/taraji-p-henson-octavia-spencer-hidden-figures-rocket-science-and-race.html?_r=1 

#myharlemNYT

I mentioned this hash tag in class today.

#myharlemNYT

and

The newspaper article

I also mentioned these two songs, as the quintessential example of cultural appropriation.

Black Lives

Black lives matter is a movement that campaigns against violence or hate towards black people. The movement was originated by the African American community beginning around 2013. After the death of Trayvon Martin, the hash tag #blacklivematter became viral and soon enough campaigns were starting around this hashtag. In 2014, the campaign was recognized nationally after the street protests of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

                From 2013 to present black lives matter has changed tremendously. There’s been violence, more killings, and more people in jail. We’re resulting back to the 1960’s. Black lives matter has evolved to where it’s not just black lives that matter, but all lives matter. Black lives do matter and because we see and hear things in the news about black people being shot or mistreated. We overlook that the campaign may focus on black primarily, but that all lives matter. A founder of the movement stated “#BlackLivesMatter doesn’t mean your life isn’t important – it means that Black Lives, which are seen without value within White supremacy, are important to your liberation”.

                The movement is clear as to its intentions, but what does the saying “black lives matter” mean to you? The movement has really grown and even has websites and even has presidential candidates discussing the movement. It’s great learning the history we have and seeing how even though America has come a long way with racism, we still somehow resort back to past. Here's a website you can go to and look at about the movement and more information about it.

http://blacklivesmatter.com/

-Meraisha

Bonus Material---Skin Bleaching

The concept of race has been the foundation for mind frames dealing with the perception of skin color. This has caused skin color to have racial and individual importance, because skin color has the ability to identify an individual. Skin color identification was caused because of the globalization and cultural imperialism directed by the Western world. As a result, a new ideology has consequently created a globalized image of beauty that enforces the White ideal, yet encodes the support of white supremacy as cosmopolitan whiteness. With the result of the Western world imperializing outside of their borders, cultural imperialism was also created. Western cultural imperialism is the exercise of encouraging others to take on Western ideals and culture, because it is superior to the “other”. This is possible because culture is not static and changes with time and current beliefs. When a society begins to culturally imperialize another society it often leads to conflict, because culture is seen as a way for people to identify themselves, historically and spiritually, as well as with their core beliefs.

During the months of June, July, and August of 2006-2008 the United States Cosmo began printing tanning ads that expressed the skin color tan as desirable without undermining the Caucasian race. The tanning ads provoked the idea of summer and postmodern playfulness. This was accomplished by taking a different approach than that of skin bleaching ads that encourage race change. When looking into the vocabulary used in tanning ads within the United States there is never the use of racial condensations. Instead imaginary skin colors are created like: bronze, tan, and deepest bronze, which show that these ads do not want to use words such as black and brown, because that would represent a racial transformation. The biggest difference is that tanning ads aim to enhance one’s skin tone, while whitening ads aim to perfect and alter one’s skin tone. A great example of this is a quote by Saraswati (2010), “In whitening ads the English word “white” and foreign models function to infuse whiteness with a cosmopolitan flair. Skin-tanning ads in the U.S. Cosmo, by using the word “tanning” or “bronze” instead of “blackening,” urge women to bask in the postmodern desires of playful color transformation while freeing them from the accusation of emulating blackness and hence still privileging (cosmopolitan) whiteness in its ability to travel and consume eroticized others.”

This background information is important due to skin bleaching products being the most purchased cosmetic items for the past two decades. The issue of skin bleaching is transnational and effects African Americans, as well as, other marginalized people of color. The extreme usage of skin bleaching products is seen as such a large epidemic that Ghana has decided to ban all products including hydroquinone in August 2016. The banning of this product (which is found in skin bleachers) will make Ghana the first country to ban skin bleaching products.