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On Yellow Face, Racial Parody, and White Denial

 

Seattle Times columnist Sharon Pian Chan went after the play [The Mikado] in an editorial on July 13. Chan begins her critique with the following:

“Remember when someone pranked a San Francisco TV station into reporting that the names of the Asiana plane crash pilots were “Captain Sum Ting Wong” and “Wi Tu Lo”?

After the station KTVU realized its mistake, it fired three producers.

But in Seattle, at least one theater plans to spend the summer guffawing about how Asian names sound like gibberish…Set in the fictional Japanese town of Titipu — get it? — [The Mikado] features characters named Nanki Poo, Yum-Yum and Pish-Tush. It’s a rom-com where true love is threatened by barbaric beheadings.

All 40 Japanese characters are being played by white actors, including two Latinos. KIRO radio host Dave Ross is in the cast.

It’s yellowface, in your face.”

 

– Click through to read more –

 

 

Source: www.racefiles.com

 

I haven’t seen people of color dressing up like white people and making fun of them.

 

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“WHAT’S THAT MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE”: 346 Words on How to Fix Our Problems

 

So many of the problems in the United States today could so very easily be solved with a tiny bit of common sense and basic humanity. In the following list (below the image), I propose changes that should happen immediately (yes, utopian), changes that would actually be automatic if we were at all sincere about continuing our “great experiment with democracy.”

 

Source: andrewpegoda.com

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NOT AGAIN: NYPD Places Pregnant Woman In Chokehold [VIDEO]

 

Less than a week ago Eric Garner was laid to rest after dying from being placed in an illegal chokehold by Staten Island police, and now it looks as if the NYPD has once again, broken the rules.

Their reasoning? Allegedly grilling illegally outside.

Captured on a cell phone video, 27-year-old Rosan Miller is noticeably pregnant, but that doesn’t stop the NYPD from placing the woman in what looks like a chokehold.

 

Source: blackamericaweb.com

 

Choke holds are deadly, and should be illegal.

 

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Toward a Truly Multiracial Democracy

 

Note: This is another in my continuing series on Possible Racial Futures for the US. This one is based on the last chapter of “The White Racial Frame” (2010) by Joe R. Feagin, a White American sociologist.


The US is capable of becoming less racist and more democratic, as shown by Reconstruction in the 1800s, which freed slaves and made them citizens, and Civil Rights reforms in the 1900s, which overthrew Jim Crow.


But both Reconstruction and Civil Rights were later seriously weakened because they left two things in place:

  1. Ideological: The white racial frame (white racism).
  2. Economic: Huge racial inequalities in wealth, income and education.


Therefore you need:

  1. Ideological: The liberty-and-justice frame of the Founding Fathers along with an understanding of stereotyping and institutional racism.
  2. Economic: Reparations, especially for Black and Native Americans.

 

– Click through for more –

 

Source: abagond.wordpress.com

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Man brings assault rifle into Phoenix airport, then…

Police arrested a 54-year-old man after witnesses said they saw him displaying an AR-15 at Sky Harbor.

Source: www.azcentral.com

 

If he was Black or Brown and brought an assault weapon out in public what would happen?

 

Remember what happened ten seconds after seeing 13 year old Andy Lopez carrying a toy gun that looked like an assault rifle?

 

Andy was shot 7 times within 26 seconds. The eight bullet missed.

 

 

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VIDEO – A THUNDER-BEING NATION – The Oglala Lakota of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

 

The journey of the Oglala Lakota of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, from their origins through to their contemporary life. The most comprehensive look at an Indian Reservation in a documentary made over 13 years by international award winning film-maker Steven Lewis Simpson director of Rez Bomb.


Click through to Rent or Buy movie. 

Source: vimeo.com

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How Failure to Fix Immigration Affects a Young Girl — Again

Outside the chambers and hallways of the Capitol, the immigration reform debate isn’t political. It’s personal. When Washington, D.C. resident Cindy Monge saw the images of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border it hit home. Eight years ago she was one of them.

Source: abcnews.go.com

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ICE Detains Pregnant Women Against Its Own Policy

 

“According to its own policy, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, only detains pregnant women if they pose a public safety threat—but new evidence illustrates the practice is quite common.


Over at Fusion, Cristina Costantini found that at 559 pregnant women have been detained by ICE in just six facilities since 2012, and there’s no reason to believe they meet ICE’s own policy for holding expecting mothers. At least 14 women suffered miscarriages while in detention in 2012. According to Fusion’s estimate, up to 57 pregnant immigrant women are being detained per day.

Read more over at Fusion.”

 

Source: colorlines.com