Don't Think You Can Make A Difference? Hmmm, Read: An Unconventional Guide to Saving Lives

An Unconventional Guide to Saving Lives

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Race Relations On Obama's "Stupid" Comment

Said well, over at Race Relations by Nadra Kareem and much of it I had wanted to say, had I not been so busy posting my smoothie recipes.

Just want to link to this, a) President Obama shouldn't have to apologize for what he said which was a criticism to the "behavior" being stupid, not the person. Also, in light of the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates being termed "regrettable" by the police department themselves, no one should apologize for merely saying it was stupid thing.

Also, the point was well made, please read her yourself, that an indignant white professor would have what? been arrested? been called inappropriate? hmmm, we can speculate on that but as President Obama said, there is a history, for sure, of Latinos and blacks being targeted, i.e. treated differently in these settings.

Anyways, I'm in Minnesota and LFC is on my mind a lot as usual. Wherever I go, whatever I do, I talk about some and see the intersections between race and class, race and gender, race and race. ;)

Honestly and truthfully, I don't consider myself a liberal. I think we need to get past the days where in order to have worked on cross-cultural, cross-racial relationships and to have some freakin' vestige of cultural-I-hope-competency you must be a liberal white person. No, how about that's just actually a natural, normal, healthy, human state of being and it's actually unusual, unhealthy, out-of-balance to NOT have looked hard at one's own biases and really worked on it SIMILAR to how so many people spend agonizing hours on therapy trying to resolve childhood hang-ups well, hello!

Racism or by another name lack of diversity in one's life maybe? is what those hours and hours need to be spent on. NOT as a project to "help" anyone or some charity. But, because without it you might never even know how much of your soul is tied up, sold because you can't function in a fully human capacity.

"Doesn't hurt me", I hear so many say. And I also hear the "That's white people's way," therapy. Well, sorry I have no apologies for suggesting that healing from racism takes some big-time processing. Body, mind and emotion. Whether you were born into and grew up in the oppressor group or whether as a person of color were born and grew up in a targeted group.

No apologies and I see it differently. I may be a white person suggesting this "listening" processing body,mind,spirit process to heal but it's not a white indulgence. Part of the problem for (many) folks of color is there has never been safety nor space nor resource to process and heal with these types of listening.

That's the thing about privilege in general. White privilege is "all the things everyone should have but somehow mostly only white folks got it." Which means the resources, the privilege itself isn't the awful thing, it's not indulgent etc, it's that it's everyone's birthright, should just be a normal part of everyone's existence.

So just because I offer a listening and processing tool which at first glance looks like white people therapy, doesn't mean it is. I wouldn't say that if I hadn't seen amazing results across the board with all different heritages and backgrounds.

So, this is why I post smoothie recipes these days from my cell phone.

Sotomayor Rant

I don't post here much anymore but yesterday on the treadmill watching Candy's lips move etc etc really got my goat.

I'm pist.

I've never heard of anyone being questioned about their heritage and gender being a bias until a Latina woman named Sotomayor. My thoughts were, you poor ignorant racist people who I have to call my leaders.

We are all being challenged as white people today in the United States to take a look at our mindset. Yes, the mindset which runs all day long up one side and down the other and which we don't even notice, which we take as "truth". That white is right, LOL, that only "our group gets it" etc etc. That IS racism folks. It's soo rampant. And you feel sooo righteous about your viewpoint don't youse. Oh, we HAD to question her, I hear you say with such conviction. After all, her COMMENT about wise Latina ... OMG, OMG, OMG, how many times has someone bragged about their European fathers of this country, etc etc. I mean, come ON! Somehow that doesn't get questioned even though white is the new minority. White is not representative of the majority of this country. So yes, you need to be a judge from the bench based on the law.

But to hear how many Candy-asses and others think that your worldview is not informed by your heritage, gender background etc is just absurd.

I won't go into how we've been branded, dipped rolled and deep fried in racism since birth.

No, this is just to direct you to Lucky White Girl's post who is much more seasoned, warmed up as a blogger than I have been of late.

Argh, point is, who bugs the white male leader about his bias and potentially skewed decisions based on his gender and ethnic heritage backgrounds? This is too much.

I'll let it all go, what the hell. Ms Candy has been hitting the candy too heavy and she aint got a clue about what the hell she's talking about. I got that from being on the treadmill with no sound on the dang TV. I could just watch her well-fed lips move and see the captions to get that.

Did they get me pist off? Did they rock my poise and balance for the day? You bet!

Arghhhhhhhhh!

Why the hell should Sotomayor have to explain herself over and over to boneheads? Well, that's the world she lives in.

Can we do anything about it? Perhaps. But, I tell you, this is a subtle disease of the mind. Similar to alcoholism which says "I'm smart, I'm brilliant" whilst being drunk as a skunk.

The I'm-superior-because-I'm-white-and-anyone-else(read: person of color) will-have-to-prove-they've-dipped-their-brain-cells-in-my-school-or-else attitude has got to be woken up to and transformed.

Scarlett Johansson speaks about her Jewish ancestry

Got Privilege?

The White Privilege Conference is in Memphis TN this year is year ten.

Cocounselors will be there for the fifth year in a row providing a listening role in supporting things going well for conference leaders and participants.

The annual White Privilege Conference (WPC) serves as a yearly opportunity to examine and explore difficult issues related to white privilege, white supremacy and oppression.

WPC provides a forum for critical discussions about diversity, multicultural education and leadership, social justice, race/racism, sexual orientation, gender relations, religion and other systems of privilege/oppression. WPC is recognized as a challenging, empowering and educational experience. The workshops, keynotes and institutes not only inform participants, but engage and challenge them, while providing practical tips and strategies for combating inequality. The WPC is pleased to announce the intiation of the WPC Youth Leadership Conference!

Please plan to join us for the

Saturday, April 4th immediately following the
Youth Celebration at 5:30pm.

Obama’s Eating Sustainable & Local at the White House

Obama’s Eating Sustainable & Local at the White House

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Let's Air This Ad

From moveon.org.

If we all keep pitching in, "work, responsibility and restraint" as Obama requests of the Wall Street shamefuls, we can turn things around. It's not too late.

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

I'm James. I'm a MoveOn member, dad to two teenagers, and, until recently, I had a pretty good job in construction. But the company I worked for lost a lot of projects when the economy tanked, and I got laid off, without much notice.

So I wanted to write to ask for your help. Not help for me, but for all the folks who are out of a job or otherwise struggling in this recession. Let me explain.

President Obama's economic recovery plan just passed in the House—it's got billions of dollars for education, mass transit, and clean energy. But what really gets me is that not a single Republican voted for it, despite all the efforts by President Obama to reach across the aisle. If the same thing happens in the Senate, it won't pass. But millions of families like mine need it to pass—it could put me, my former coworkers, and millions of other Americans back to work—and turn this economy around.

We need to get some Republicans on board. MoveOn has ads ready to go in key states—states where Republican senators are deciding right now whether or not to support Obama's plan. But time is running short. I just chipped in, and I hope you can help, too. Click here to contribute:
https://pol.moveon.org/donate/recovery_link.html?id=15467-10368801-jkS8wmx&t=3

A new stimulus might mean a new job for me—weatherizing homes or constructing green affordable housing. It'd give my kids' school some much needed funding. And it could mean real investments in mass transportation to ease traffic and cut emissions.

This is a big moment, both for my family and for families around the country. If thousands of us act, we can get these swing senators to change their votes. But we'll need to do it fast—the vote could come as early as next week. I hope you can help out.
https://pol.moveon.org/donate/recovery_link.html?id=15467-10368801-jkS8wmx&t=4

Thanks for being such a great community. And thanks for all you do.

–James Spitzer, your fellow MoveOn member

Just What I've Always Wanted!

"Diversity Career Success:
How to Take Your Organization From Culturally Clueless to Diversity Dynamo
(and Skyrocket Your Own Career While You’re At It)"

Well, I'm excited. Some of you know the way LFC began was through countless hours of listening, crying, being listened to and re-evaluating when it comes to racism. I've continued to advocate the listening exchange and a several-hours-a-week-forever minimum for undoing the racist conditioning we get saddled with. I've reasoned, how can you think well with all that racist baggage infecting your mind?

Well, here's a leap for me. Now I've signed up for a 5-hour professional diversity training which seems to assume that the intelligence inherent in each human being can digest and utilize their info-filled training over the phone without handholding, hankie passing, or reams of theory to review. *smiles*

And here I am in New York where I can actually visit their offices in NYC one of these days. I might even end up with a title!

This work is just my passion and Carmen Van Kerckhove, of New Demographics knows that. To some of us, it's a mission.

She says:

"...You can almost see the thought bubbles above their heads—“Oh no, it’s the PC police, everyone hush up.” And, beyond the challenge of getting people to take you and your initiatives seriously, getting additional funding or training is a nearly un-winnable battle.

But for the fact that you believe strongly in what you do, you’d give in. Still, a little voice inside keeps telling you…

What you do is important. Heck, it’s mission critical.

To you. To your employer. And, perhaps, even to the world...."

I guess I just wanted a perspective outside of my little grassroots crying to end racism circle. LOL.

There's just one teensy problem. But I'll figure it out.

I don't have an organization. But since my career is going to skyrocket that will all work out.