Thoughts for the day....

"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes" --

Marcel Proust

                                                         






                                                             
 

Flower of Life -- Frida Kahlo  1944

Horn Players, 1983 -- Jean Michel Basquiat

Third Avenue EL at 57th Street -- by Ann Zane Shanks

 

 

Homeless, New York City 1948 -- by Rae Russel

In the shadow of the Capitol, Washington, D.C. 1948 -- by Marion Palfi

  

                                                                                                  


              
 

Game of Lynching, East Harlem 1948 -- by Vivian Cherry

Berlin Wall graffiti by Thierry Noir

 

Rest in peace, brother Gil...

We've lost another mighty voice.  Just heard about his death yesterday.  No one is going to knock you around anymore.  Rest well x0x

Click for a powerful track and brilliant video from his album released last year (I'm New Here):

http://youtu.be/OET8SVAGELA

Have you heard about this racist article in Psychology Today??

Beyond an outrage.  Is this 2011...or 1911???

Reposted from Change.org: 

A week ago, the magazine Psychology Today published an article titled "Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?” on its website. Within hours, following widespread outrage and criticism, the post disappeared.

Colleagues and peers of Satoshi Kanazawa, the article's author, have since analyzed his same data and unanimously (and unsurprisingly) found his conclusions in error.

Yet Psychology Today has remained silent. They have refused to apologize or even explain why they published the article.

Articles like Kanazawa's are more than offensive or spurious—they're deeply harmful because they promote racist and sexist stereotypes as science.

That’s why documentary filmmaker Aishah Simmons and academic Alisa Bierria are leading a petition on Change.org to call on Psychology Today to apologize and take transparent steps to prevent the publication of racist and sexist material in the future. Click here to sign Aishah and Alisa's petition.

Kanazawa's article never would have survived a thorough and responsible editorial process. In fact, the author himself doesn't stand up to review.

Kanazawa has a history of pushing discredited research and is particularly notorious for making meritless claims about race and gender. (He is also known as the mind behind the much-mocked book Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters.)

In an attempt to defend previous publications, Kanazawa wrote, “If what I say is wrong (because it is illogical or lacks credible scientific evidence), then it is my problem. If what I say offends you, it is your problem.”

Well, as Khadijah Britton of Scientific American put it, “Satoshi Kanazawa has a problem.” So does Psychology Today. 

Prominent women’s rights advocates, including Gloria Steinem and Beverly Guy Sheftall, former President of the National Women's Studies Association, have already declared their support for the campaign. 

Please click here to add your name to theirs:

http://www.change.org/petitions/psychology-today-stop-publishing-racist-sexist-articles 

Thanks for taking action, 

Shelby and the Change.org team                      

                                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                

Pam Grier as Jackie Brown

Memphis Minnie: Blues and Rock and Roll pioneer

Nichelle Nichols as Uhura

  

     

       

     

  

And STILL fabulous as ever!

Kick-ass punk rock sister, Felony Melony of The Objex

OVERVIEW:   On May 15, 2011, Psychology Today contributor, Satoshi Kanazawa posted an article entitled "Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?".  We demand that the Psychology Today editorial board publicly account for how and why this racist and sexist article was allowed to be published on the Psychology Today website, and take transparent steps to prevent this from happening in the future. 

Kanazawa's article is nothing more than a vile regurgitation of racist and sexist beliefs about black women disguised as "objective" and "scientific" research findings, and contributes to a historical legacy of using distorted "science" as a tool to justify violent ideas about and treatment of black women. Kanazawa has a history of writing biased and error-ridden articles that attempt to justify racist beliefs. Other scientists have discredited his research and his legitimacy as a social scientist has been called into question.  That Psychology Today publishes Kanazawa's often problematic articles casts serious doubt about the trustworthiness of their publications as well as the rigor of their editorial process.

Psychology Today is not just a magazine and website, but it's also a site that people access resources for mental health services for their well being.  Publishing damaging and crude articles such as Kanazawa's demonstrates a profound disrespect for anyone who turns to Psychology Today for these resources.

Though Psychology Today has removed the article from their website without explanation, the editors have not acknowledged or taken responsibility for publishing the article, discussed the editorial standards they require from their contributors and whether this article satisfied those standards, or explained why Kanazawa remains as a contributor, despite being discredited by other social scientists.  Psychology Today editors have a journalistic and ethical duty to be both transparent about how this article was published and accountable for this failure in public trust. 

Because of the damage that this kind of misinformation creates for both the public and Psychology Today, we demand the following:

1) a public statement from Psychology Today editors demonstrating accountability for the article itself and the editorial conditions that allowed this article to be published on your website,

2) the removal of Satoshi Kanazawa as a contributor to your website, magazine, and any other Psychology Today publications based on his history of discredited research and repeatedly submitting racially biased articles to Psychology Today, including this most recent disturbing article that your editors chose to abruptly scrub from your website,

3) and the development of more thoughtful and sophisticated strategies for identifying how racism, sexism, homophobia/transphobia, and other oppressions and biases shape any so-called "objective" scientific inquiries, methodologies, and findings that your contributors examine in your publications.  These strategies should be communicated to the public in an effort to be more transparent about how you are disrupting bias in your reporting.

Also, please visit this additional important change.org petition demanding that "psychological professional associations to devise a formal statement alerting the public that, given their track record, Psychology Today should not be considered a reliable source of psychological knowledge."

Has it really been 50 years???

Remember the doc I mentioned a bit ago about the Freedom Riders who took a powerful stand during jim crow and segregation??  

 **Click the link if you'd like to watch the full documentary about the Freedom Riders and learn more about them on PBS.org:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch

Happy Harvey Milk Day x0x

Got hope??? The incredible Harvey Milk gave this speech shortly before he was assassinated in 1978.  It still resonates louder than thunder.  Never forget....no matter what category or distinction or group we belong to...we're all a part of the "Us's".

• Click for an old segment on CBS' Sunday Morning show featuring the Oscar winning Milk biopic and great footage and interviews with Harvey, Cleve Jones, Ann Kronenberg and Tom Ammiano: http://youtu.be/wjZFrNnDZ38

• Click for a link to a trailer for a great documentary on the late brilliant poet Audre Lorde:  http://youtu.be/diHzbQNyO2k

Happy Birthday, Malcolm

For the time, it was an incredible thing to gather high-profile minds together to discuss the issues of racism, segregation and the civil rights movement. Can you imagine how electric everything felt during the March on Washington??  It's so great to see the brilliant James Baldwin there sharing his powerful words.  There's an ugly, untold chapter of the movement and the way LGBT voices were often pushed out of the spotlight into the margins.  He really should've been allowed to speak at the march. Would've been so amazing to have powerful women like Rosa Parks or Dr. Dorothy Height also sitting at the table and joining the discussion. It was still a great moment and a touchstone to remember and be inspired by.  There's so much work to be done. 

• Click for a great segment of an interview with Malcolm X on an old CBS news interview show.  He speaks about the reality of Jews, Christians and Muslims all believing in the same god and a powerful statement about equating the violation of civil rights as a violation of human rights: http://youtu.be/QW-Wf9D6Wew

Never forget whose shoulders you're standing on

Has it really been 50 years??  There is an incredible new documentary being released about the Freedom Riders who helped carry the torches of racial equality into the dark, hateful abyss of the segregated south. It's so easy to fall back and think that, as just one person, we have no power to affect change.  But remember...once upon a time, there was no internet.  There were no home computers or voicemail or answering machines.  If you're fortunate enough to have elder family members who were kids, teens or young 20somethings while the inhumanities of segregation and jim crow raged on, sit down with them and ask them what it was like.  If you have a video camera or tape recorder, tape their words and treasure them for your family's history...dare to share them on YouTube so that others may learn.

I'm very troubled by the blissful ignorance of the young people I keep bumping into.  Some are just tweens and young teens...but others are young adults in their 20's and they don't mince words about having not a flicker of desire whatsoever to hear about the "old days" or put down their twittering smartphones enough to listen to stories, like when my parents had a knife and gun held on them in the dark by two white cowards when they dared to be the first family of color in a neighborhood of bitter, angry whites in the late 50's/early 60's on the south side of Chicago.  And what's especially troubling is when these unconcerned young ones are black, American Indian or Latino, poor and "at-risk".  They have no perspective on how closely tied their present is to the struggles of the past, and how much hard work still needs to be done on the road we're on right now.  

I know I'm repeating myself here, but have you heard of the growing movement of people who actually believe that segregated schools should become a reality once again in this day and age??   Have you heard of the revisionist history-filled textbooks that severely blunt the reality of what American Indians, African slaves and even Chinese railroad workers faced in the early conquest and "settlement" of this country??  When you look at the images in Hollywood and the media do you see a range of diverse colors, ethnicities and socio-economic levels represented??  Do you see films with actors of color (female and male) in romantic or heroic leads??  Can you understand the anger I feel when people assume that Everybody Hates Chris, The Cleveland Show or Tyler Perry's style of filmmaking represents how all African-American people think and behave??  Can you understand the anger I feel when people think all American Indians speak one language, look the same or are all alcoholics??  Can you understand the anger I feel that women of color still feel the pressure to pursue an anglo/white standard of beauty rather than embracing their darker skintones, thicker, curlier/tightly-coiled hair and natural facial features?? Can you relate to how it feels to be around white people who think all black people speak the same style of broken English and poor grammar??  Or don't care to understand the rich differences between the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and so many other Asian cultures??   Or the rich diversity among Central and South American cultures??  Do you realize that there are young people as well older folks my age and over 45 who think Africa is one solitary country???  Or have no clue that Egypt is an African country?? Can you relate to what it's like to be around white people who have no clue or refuse to believe that there is a range of socio-economic levels amongst blacks, Latinos, and American Indians including (*gasp*)...a middle class??? 

If you're not a person of color and have a little trouble relating...just ponder this.  How would you feel if the predominant images and stereotypes of your race/culture in the media and floating around people's myopic minds were that all anglo/white Europeans are poor, speak in broken English and poor grammar, live in trailer parks, are addicted to Nascar, tell racist jokes, beat their wives, do meth, do crimes, have litters of barefoot kids, etc. etc. etc.   There is so much prejudice and bigotry, across the board, in every culture and race.  There is so much work that still needs to be done...and each and every one of us, however young or old,  has a part to play.  This documentary is definitely an inspiring reality check.

Click for great article spotlighting the new documentary celebrating the riders who dared to take a stand against segregation and the inferno of racism:

50 Years After Freedom Rides, a Stunning Film Revives the Heroism | AlterNet

And thanks to my dear friend Duke, who reminded me of what it was like to grow up in London during the Notting Hill race riots in the late 50's.  Definitely an often forgotten, brutal perspective of civil rights struggles on the other side of the pond.  I know plenty of American whites, young and old, who proudly express their anglophile love for British Mods, skinheads and cool Vespa scooters with tons of mirrors and union jack stickers...but none of them ever goes near this slice of British history: 

• http://youtu.be/1PsNmTB4LEA

• http://youtu.be/LvhkOokRm-I

• http://youtu.be/X-LIXo-8_7g

Central America does NOT mean Kansas

Some food for thought for the weekend....Do you have a couple days of great weather this weekend??  Take a break, turn off the computer, put your phone on vibrate and go outside for a while.  Even if you just sit in the sun for 15 minutes.  Take a break from the hamster wheel.  No more pop culture crap about where the "royals" went on their honeymoon or criticisms about the crazy hats people wore to the damn wedding.  And if you can't make it out, still switch off the computer for a while...put some great music on and do something creative in your pad.  Clean, draw, strum, organize, write, paint, knit, sew, build.  Use your creativity.  Life is waiting.



 
And 20 years later...we're still chasing our tails.  Now add the addiction of being attached to our computers 24/7, 365 days a year AND smartphone uber-tech...revisionist, white-washed history being cranked out in many school textbooks, the surge in the belief that segregated schools are actually a good thing and the rampant, dumbed-down ignorant bliss will be complete.

Thoughts for the day....

"Each moment brings choice" -- unknown 

[thank you Karen :o) ]

These are the kinds of lions I'd love to sleep with at night....

Thoughts for the day.....

"My favorite thing is to go where I've never been"  
-- Diane Arbus

Albino sword swallower at a carnival, Md. 1970.    Copyright © 1972 The Estate of Diane Arbus, LLC

Thoughts for the day.....

"A multitude of small delights constitute happiness"
-- Charles Baudelaire

*If you have a beloved little black or brown girl in your life with amazing natural, thick coily hair here's something sweet to remind her of how beautiful she is: http://youtu.be/enpFde5rgmw