Author: Glenn (Freedom of Movement) Robinson

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Researching and Writing about Race and Sex – Hidden Power of Words Series, #10

 

Cartoon shows citizens with their heritage split down the middle.

 

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Writing about racialized and sexualized ideas, events, and peoples naturally involves sensitive language. Equally, what is considered appropriate changes over time as one term acquires negative connotations or new language is developed.
For some time now, I almost always use “racialized” or “racialization” instead of “race.” This recognizes the socially constructed nature of how people are raced. People are not White or Black but are raced/racialized as White or Black, for example.
Also, the capital “W” and “B” are deliberate. This helps us remember they are powerful—yet fully arbitrary—social categories.
More recently, I have also started capitalizing the “M” and “W” in cis-Man and cis-Woman because they are likewise powerful—yet fully arbitrary—social categories that are sexualized/genderized.
But getting back to racialized terminology, more recently I’ve wondered over the difference between Black, African American, African-American, and African-American (as an adjective).
First, regarding the hyphen between the “African” and “American,” there are three schools of thought (and the same would apply to “Mexican” and “American”):
1-    some say to always use the hyphen

2-    some say to never use the hyphen

3-    some say to only use the hyphen when the term functions as an adjective (e.g., African-American students)
There is also a debate from the Gilded Age and Progressive Era that looks at “hyphenated Americans” as less than real United Statesians (and yes, “United Statesians” is deliberate – I see ethnical dilemmas with the word “Americans”). This was an era when full assimilation was not only expected but was demanded – but only to the extent that people “looked” and “acted” like a proper White United Statesian, not to the extent that they were granted rights White individuals had.

 

Click through to read more.

 

Source: andrewpegoda.com

 

I prefer the term European-American to White. European-American explains that their heritage is foreign to the Americas.

 

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The Inherent Contradiction Between the “Constitution” and “Democracy,” More on the Hobby Lobby Decision

 

There is a deep on-going, yet unstated conflict in our nation. Upholding both the Constitution and Democracy are impossible tasks unless one has a fully homogenous nation or fully educated/open-minded/not greedy citizens.
Of course, when the nation was created, Democracy only applied to rich White cis-Men, and the Constitution was written by and for rich White cis-Men. As said from a Critical Race Theory point-of-view, this has created an on-going White-centric legacy that has infiltrated all of the nation’s laws and institutions – institutionalized racism – racism that affects and hurts all individuals but functions from a White-is-default framework.

 

Click through to read more.

 

Source: andrewpegoda.com

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Children’s Books on the Refugee Experience Are Crucial Reading

 

While facts and figures are useful to understand the scale of the refugee problem, for most people it’s the personal angle that they best relate to. But this personal angle, and the sympathy and understanding that it promotes, is hard to come by, especially in young children.

Children’s literature that focuses on the refugee experience can provide just that. Books such as Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah and The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo focus on the individual’s story. They offer a voice to descriptions of suffering and resilience in the face of the huge challenges that fleeing for safety and seeking asylum bring

 

Click through to read more.

 

Source: www.theepochtimes.com

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Children from Central America – Origins of Crisis

 

Over the last year, an unprecedented number of unaccompanied immigrant children, mostly from Central America, have attempted to cross the border into the United States. Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute,explains the roots of the migration surge and the politics behind it.

 

Source: www.tavissmileyradio.com

 

An in depth explanation of the origins of the crisis that has lead children to flee to the U.S.

 

Eleven minutes of audio.

 

One point Gonzalez had wrong is that the crisis started back in 2009, years longer than the one year that he suggested.

 

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Cities of origin of unaccompanied children

 

Here is an infographic by the Department of Homeland Security showing the cities of origin of unaccompanied children picked up by Border Patrol from January 1 through May 14.

 

Source: soboco.org

 

I’ve been listening to all the reports on this topic and Antonio Gonzalez was on the Tavis Smiley Show explaining that U.S. policies have led to this crisis including the War on Drugs that extends to Central America. The War on Drugs is really a war on people.

 

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Watch: Brazen Teenagers Terrorize Residents with Assault Rifles

 

A shocking video was recently released showing three teenagers walking around a suburban Ohio neighborhood with high-powered assault weapons. The teens could be heard shouting racial slurs in the video, and bragging about legally parading their AR-15′s — the same rifle used in the Aurora, Colorado shooting — through the streets of East Price Hill.
“Open carry in the state of Ohio, the cops can’t do nothing,” said the young man on camera.

 

Source: kstreet607.com

 

Related: Remember the Sonoma County boy Andy Lopez who was shot dead for carrying a toy gun? 

 

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Obama to ask for more than $2 billion in emergency funds to stem immigration influx

 

The Obama administration, in a dramatic escalation of its border-control strategy, will seek
more than $2 billion in emergency funds to help stem an influx of Central American women and children entering the country illegally, as well as new measures to more quickly deport those already here, the White House confirmed Saturday.
President Obama intends to notify Congress of his request on Monday, and the administration will ask lawmakers to modify existing statutes to make it easier to return unaccompanied children to their home countries, an administration official said. The administration’s plans were first reported Saturday by the New York Times.
More than 52,000 unaccompanied children and 39,000 women with children have been apprehended on the border this year, officials said, a large increase over previous years. The surge, mostly from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, has caught the administration off guard and spurred Obama to order a multi-agency response to the crisis.

 

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

 

These children are fleeing for their life and now the U.S. is not going to give them asylum but instead send them back into harms way?

 

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Mom beaten, only toddler intervenes – CNN.com Video

 

Cell phone video shows the moment a mother was beaten by another woman while her toddler looked on.

Source: www.cnn.com

 

Well, not only men are violent.

 

And guess who didn’t show up for that job that she ‘almost lost.’

 

Did somebody call someone a terrorist? Who is the terrorist?

 

And not a soul stepped in to protect the toddler when threats where made to the toddler.

 

PS – Police brutality videos also show the ‘moral breakdown of our society’. Has U.S. society every been angelic?