Seven months and still going strong

Still going strong with posting each day this year.

Here are the top 10 posts from the month of July.  Feel free to read or re-read any posts.

After all my logic and my theory - Post about how St Louis should not be the most dangerous city in the country.  I incorporate some Fugees - you can never go wrong with Lauryn Hill... unless it is dealing with paying taxes, right?
Saturday Quote: Why complicate life? - Great quote.
Nahwlayduhs - Post about my long-time incorrect understanding of what a candy was really called.
Social Construct with Power - A bit of my thoughts on race and race identification and relations.
Possibly the worst invention ever - If you have ever been in a bathroom with toilet rolls that do not move a full circle, you will understand this rant.
Thick and full of body - The hair dresser said I have more and thicker hair than anyone she had ever dealt with.  I guess I should be proud, even though my hair style took 14 hours to complete.
Summer is tasty plastic tubes - How could you not enjoy frozen freeze-pops in the summer time?  Reminds me of childhood.
You may rejoice, I (still) must mourn - Just my views on the US's independence day.
The things I do for hair - More on my 14 hour hair styling extravaganza.
Pleasing others vs living my life - I have spent a lot of my life trying to please others.  I am trying to work on making myself happy.

Social construct with power

So, there is this huge firestorm since Morgan Freeman said that the first black president of America has not arisen yet.  He said that President Obama is not that, that he is the first mixed president instead.

I understand why some are disturbed by this.

I understand that the history of the country has stood by the idea of the one-drop rule, by the thought that if you have some black in your ancestry, you are black by default.

I also know that many people do not consider Africans to be black - that they are a separate category.  Others put them all into the black category.

Race is a social construct, and yet it still has so much power in our society - even in 2012.

Check out this PBS site for more on Race - The Power of an Illusion.

You may rejoice, I (still) must mourn

For this holiday, I take you back to my thoughts from 2008.  Here is some content from the original blog post: The 4th of July is Yours, Not Mine.  Unfortunately, my sentiments still ring true today, four years later.   Only thing I can add is that you should be careful with the fireworks in all the places that have been super hot and dry of late.  Only change to my writing is the video at the end, the original is no longer available, so the one I added today has no commentary and no additional song - though, it is still the shiznit, though!

Since I was a kid and started reading about the history of this country (on my own of course, since the schools didn't teach the truth -- just the apple pies, George Washington, Lincoln BS) I have not really been down with celebrating July 4 as any sort of independence day.

There are too many groups in this nation that are not free, too many people who continue to struggle due to the incredible injustices perpetuated by the government (national, local, and state).

I love these words by Langston Hughes and Frederick Douglass.

Douglass' words can STILL apply to basically any minority group in this nation (not just ethnic minorities, either -- sexual, economic (though the poor are the majority), displaced, etc). This comes from a speech he gave 5 July 1852. It was an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

"This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." And he asked them, "Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?"

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Two pieces from Langston Hughes, the first from 1938:

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home-- For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!

This poem was written by Hughes in 1925:

I, Too, Sing America

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed --

I, too, am America.

Be careful with the fireworks and explosive devises -- don't blow your hands off. Have a sober driver. Don't eat so much that you have to undo the button on your pants.

Be safe.

Try to think about what this day really means for all the people in this nation.

Remember that everyone is not free.

I leave you with possibly the most awesome version of this country's anthem EVER! Along with another great little song after the anthem. I love the commentary in the beginning and the end.

June third photos

Here is week three of my June Photo-A-Day Challenge hosted by Fat Mum Slim.  Each day I took a photo related to the key word for the day.

14. Time - There was a time when I watched movies so much that I was sending them back to Netflix one or two days after getting them in the mail.  I was streaming them regularly, too.  Times have changed.  These two movies have been collecting dust behind the gaming system and Time Machine.  I actually moved them forward just for this picture.  I have had these two movies since September.  Time has flown by and I have still not watched the films.  I couldn't even remember what they were until today when I read the information about them.  They do sound interesting, but I still don't know that I will watch them anytime soon.

Top picture I took, bottom picture is the way the
StL Woolworth's looked back in its heyday.

15. Yellow - When I learned about the Civil Rights Movement of the US that happened in the 1950s and 60s I always was disturbed and intrigued by the sit-ins of Greensboro, NC that led to the desegregation of Woolworth's eating counter, as well as other institutions in the US.  I knew that the building on Grand in St. Louis used to be a segregated Woolworth's.  Still has the same look on the outside.  The other day, I decided to jog/walk past the building and saw that this yellow and red engraving is still on the ground outside of each of the entrance doors - I had to take a picture.  I love that the city has kept this on the ground.  And I'm glad that, although there is still not full equality for everyone, there is no more segregation in public buildings.

16. Out and about - I hate being behind cars that are driving slow and now knowing the reason for the traffic.  On this day, I was driving behind slow cars and realized that a burning car was the reason for the hold up.  Of course, the first thing I thought was, "I need to take a picture of this!"  I wasn't alone.  After I took my picture, I looked around to see if people were staring at me and realized that there were 20+ people on the sidewalks and in the street and in their cars taking photos and making videos.  I turned off of the street at the light after seeing the fire trucks and police cars arrive to help the vehicle (which had no driver in it).  I guess it all worked out because on the way back a few hours later, there was no sign of the car, and no evidence that this event had occurred.

17. In your bag - I don't regularly use a purse.  I prefer small metal wallets, or my newer leather case-thing that can fit my cards, my money, and my slim cell phone all while fitting in the back pocket of my jeans.  I am going to give you a look inside my school/work bag.  It has all the basics.  I love my bag.  I love the design and that I have not seen anyone with the same style.  Items from left to right:

• check book that I barely even use anymore
• post-it notes
• leopard-print screen cleaning cloth for cell phone or for laptop that I don't like to touch, but for some reason my students love to touch and point to things when I call them up to look at something on the screen.
• oil absorbing sheets because my face gets super oily and I have to regularly wipe it dry
• portable manicure set since I have learned to keep my nails smooth (I once stabbed myself in the eye while I was waking up.  It was so bad that I had to call in to work and go to the hospital and then had use steroid drops and wear a pirate eye patch for a day)
• lip balm (My sisters and I all have several of these in various places because you cannot have too many - unless you want to look like Dave Chapell's crack head character.)
• larger post it notes (I am not completely addicted to technology and enjoy writing little notes by hand during the day.)
• lotion (Like lip balm, I have these all over the place because I don't like to look like I have been punching flour.)
• hand sanitizer (I prefer soap and water, but like this especially during times at school when kids seem to want to be around me more despite the fact that they are clearly sick.  Also used after walking around and touching things in the school... I heard once that railings are one of the germiest items in a building and have not wanted to purposely touch one since.)
• various colored pens (I don't like to grade in red, but also don't like to grade assignments in a color that is similar to any color the students are using.  I guess because I can tell that it was me that put the markings on their paper.  Plus it adds variety to my sometimes tedious work.)

18. Something we don't know about you - I don't like older model American cars.  (Or the newer ones made to look like the old hoopties.)  I think they were way too long and I still don't understand how people drive them and turn without making super-wide truck-like turns.  I much prefer smaller cars that can easily fit in parking spaces and that you can reach the items in the backseat easily if necessary.  It tickles me each time I drive past this old car on a body shop lot.  I thought it was being fixed, but it is actually a show piece for some reason.  It was once huge, but is now been cut in half to make it the perfect size for a car... if only they could put a steering wheel and an engine into it somehow without making it longer.

19. Imperfect - The siblings and I have always joked about our inability to tan our feet.  It is really quite an annoyance.  There was literally a time when I was standing behind a screen and all that could be seen were my feet in sandals.  When I came out, a person told me that they thought I was white based on my feet.  I have tried everything, including a spray tan.  Nothing has worked.  I guess I will just be left with imperfectly pale feet and a pale torso.  Fortunately for all of you who don't look at computer screens with sunglasses, the contrast of my feet didn't come out as much as they do in reality.  If you look closely at the top of my left foot, you can see the makings of a slight sandal tan line. This is likely as dark as my feet will get this summer.  At least they don't blend in with the carpet.

20. Fave photo you've ever taken - I don't really have a favorite photo that I have taken, but there is a picture on some sort of shiny stone that I have kept wherever I live for some time.  It is fabulous and represents how I feel about many of my close friends that I don't talk to nearly as much as I should.  But, I do still cherish the friendships.

More photos to come next week...

You can see the first week and second week photos, too.

Hunger Games' fans reflect post racial society

I always find it interesting when I read a book and it becomes a film.  Sometimes the actors' portrayals of the characters is just like I imagined, sometimes it is a little off.

I have not read any of the Hunger Games books, but have heard that they are really good.

I was disturbed this morning when I heard that some fans who read the book and viewed the movie were completely disappointed (to put it nicely) that one of the characters is black in the movie.

They clearly must have skipped over the description of the character in the book as having dark skin.

Some of the Twitter comments are so disgusting and truly let people in to their inherently racist beliefs.
I know there are many people out there who think that good people are mostly white, that villains being black is the norm, that when a crime is committed in their society, it must have been a black or brown person committing the crime, etc.

Jezebel.com has an awesome post on this including some images and commentary on the tweets like the one I posted here:

What happened to the "post-racial society" people touted?  Not that I ever believed that when it was spoken about.  We live in a society where race (though a human construct) is so ingrained even in our everyday actions and everyday prejudices.

Walk down the street one day or step in an elevator and watch some people's reactions to a larger, non-smiling black man walking by or walking into the elevator.  Turn on YouTube and watch videos of little girls talking about their hatred for the black girls at their high school.

Listen in your car when you pull up to a corner and there is a black person standing there and you can hear car doors lock.  (I remember the first time I heard that when I was out for a jog in college.  Some people seriously locked the doors when I got to the corner.  As though I was going to car jack them with my running shorts, sports bra, and my only weapon - a single key to my car!)

Post-racial is becoming more and more post racial.  As in post your racist comments or push forward some racist law or do some sort of racist action.

Let us be dissatisfied

I know that the man had several issues that made him not perfect, and really, who doesn't?

Here is a segment from MLK, Jr's "Where Do We Go From Here?" speech at the SCLC conference in August 1967.

I have emphasized segments that stand out to me STILL in 2012.

What I’m saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, “America, you must be born again!” 

And so, I conclude by saying today that we have a task, and let us go out with a divine dissatisfaction. 

Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. 

Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice. 

Let us be dissatisfied until those who live on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security. 

Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history, and every family will live in a decent, sanitary home. 

Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will be transformed into bright tomorrows of quality integrated education. 

Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity. 

Let us be dissatisfied until men and women, however black they may be, will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not on the basis of the color of their skin.  Let us be dissatisfied. 

Let us be dissatisfied until every state capitol will be housed by a governor who will do justly, who will love mercy, and who will walk humbly with his God. 

Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. 

Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid. 

Let us be dissatisfied, and men will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. 

Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout, “White Power!” when nobody will shout, “Black Power!” but everybody will talk about God’s power and human power.

We still have work to do.  I'm not a proponent of some of the Civil Rights ideology, but I do believe that people should be treated well, that people should have the opportunity to be better in all aspects of their lives.

Unfortunately, this is still not so.

Trying to figure out education and my life

I like teaching.

I like imparting knowledge on young people.  I love being the one to teach them history that they never knew about; teaching them about places in the world they never knew existed (or never knew existed in the way they actually do and not the way they have seen in stereotypical images); teaching them how to write in non-text language; teaching them that there are more websites to view than youtube and Facebook; helping them to welcome new friendships and seeing people in new lights rather than the hate they may have been taught. 

I love coaching them to reach beyond what they thought was physically possible; helping them understand the benefits of stretching and eating appropriately.

But maybe it is time to reevaluate what I am doing. 

Maybe I would be better in some other capacity.  Or maybe some other capacity would be better for me.  There is only so much grading and planning and meetings with no follow through that a person can take.  There is only so much of kids making out in the hallways, kids not really caring about their future possibilities, teachers and administrators not understanding the connections between social justice issues and the number of minorities in ISS/OSS and not in the classrooms where they are supposed be learning so they are not left behind. 

Perhaps this is some sort of early life crisis.  Perhaps it is me trying to figure out a way to get the education system to change so that more young people are served in a more equitable way. 

Perhaps it is me trying to get into another profession.

I’m not sure.

Hopefully I find the answers to what it is I need to do – to what it is I want to do.

Ask Henry Louis Gates if this is a post-racial era

You really can't honestly believe that we live in a post-racial society. Can you? Seriously?!

Many of you who read have heard of Henry Louis Gates, Jr -- scholar, author, international speaker. I don't agree with everything this man says and think he is really arrogant (that is a whole separate long post), but I know who he is, and I have respect for the man. Plus he is a professor, which is just awesome in my eyes.

Gates was arrested at his house in Cambridge in what I can only associate with racial profiling. A woman called the police and said that two black men were breaking into a house. Turns out Gates was trying to open the jammed door to the home that Harvard (the university he teaches for) provides for him.

The police come and assume that he is a black man breaking into a Cambridge home (just as the woman assumed). You can read his statement made through his lawyer here. At the bottom of that page, you can click on the link to see the actual police report. The charges were for disorderly conduct. I can only imagine what must have been going through his mind. First, maybe relief that the cops may have come to help him out, happiness that his neighbors were looking out for him. Then disbelief that they are there thinking he did something criminal, then anger that they are repeatedly asking for him to identify himself and prove that he is not breaking into a home where he belongs. Then even more anger as this continues. Then getting arrested because he is upset over all the confusion when he is just trying to get a door opened that the school should have fixed.

I really don't have full words to describe my disgust about this.

With summer, I have more time to think about what is going on in the world, and it keeps coming back to race relations and discrepancies. It never seems to end. Despite that people think we are all fine now that we have a president who is considered black.

A president who though he can now enter so many places in the world, still has children who may not be able to get into a pool in Philadelphia to swim in the summer time due to the color of their skin.

Post-racial?

It's been two years of integration for this school

In 2008, Mississippi's Charleston High School held its first racially integrated prom.

Read that again. It is no typo.

If you have cable watch the documentary on the event and the town on HBO -- Prom Night in Mississippi. I remember hearing about this when it first happened, now we get to see first hand accounts of the event from the students and some parents.

What I can't get over is the fact that even now, as they integrated prom (can't believe I am using that word about current issues), there were white parents who insisted that their children not attend the prom with black children -- they still held a separate prom.

How can we hope to provide brown people with good education when some people think they should not even touch or be around their children?

No shame in their game - attacking children and the president

I am not completely surprised by the reactions/comments made by these people about the Obama family. After all, these are the same people that compared the President, his wife, and other African Americans to monkeys. And then had the gall to say that it was not a racial comparison -- that despite the historical connotation that animal has to brown people, they did not mean any harm by the comparisons.

This is from when the family was in Europe. Thanks to afrobella for the heads up.

They attacked Malia, her appearance, the family, and the man with them. Click here for a summary from the Canadian Vancouver Sun.

They have no shame in their comments. See the comment thread here. Click the image to make it bigger so you can read what they say -- I don't even want to bother repeating any of their comments.

A brief rehashing of the New York Post image

Briefly while I take a short break during Lost.

I think that there are some ways that the New York Post article could be misunderstood if the artist's intention was not to be construed as a racial image. I guess they are trying to associate it with some of the primate issues that were going on this past week.

However, there is SO much history behind the connotation of an ape-like creature and African Americans.

Did they not have editors who looked at the image and had second thoughts about it? Did they not have someone who looked at the image and said, maybe this might be a bit offensive?

I don't know.

It all seems kind of fishy to me.

Back to confusing myself with Lost.

Perhaps we DO still need black history month

It is 2009.

So why is someone still making cartoons of black people represented by monkeys?

This is from the New York Post this week.
Rev. Sharpton briefly wrote about it. If it weren't the end of school and I didn't have to go do pre-season track workouts with the kids, I'd write more.

Five times the fears, almost zero times the help

Why have this family not received as much help as others who have multiple children in one birth?

Could it be because they are brown? Because they are foreign? Because they are from a distressed area of the world?

I don't know.

I hope that Oprah, or TLC, or some diaper companies, or some scholarship funds, or some food companies, or just some regular Joes and Bumquishas step up and help them the way people have helped people like the Duggars and John and Kate + 8. They need help just as much.

Words on Wordless Wednesday

Today no pictures. Just a couple thoughts that left me wordless.

A woman on a show on NPR said that she is afraid of Obama and what he would do for the nation. Afraid of him. Afraid of him? As opposed to the man who talks about war like it is going to dinner. As opposed to the man who is part of a party that eagerly helped lead to the deregulation that has us in the situation we are in now.

Another woman on NPR said that she fears that Obama would focus on African-Americans at the expense of poor white people like herself. "It's just the fact that I think that he will represent them, and what they want, and what they need. ... They're his people, his race."

Since when has he even mentioned the brown folks? And what could he possibly do that would ONLY help black people? What would that look like? He tells Congress to lower taxes for people only if they can check the box that says they are of African decent? Get out of here. She must be one of these people that the media is finally admitting exist. (Though I know, and you should know, that they are everywhere.)

Are they finally admitting that racism exists?

Dude.

Are they finally admitting that people will not vote for a black man for president? Are they finally admitting that people hold deep seated racist views that will not let them vote for a person they feel is part of a race that they find "lazy" and "violent"?

Read the article.

It is about time people are admitting this shit. It is about time people are not ignoring the fact that a lot of white people in this country have racist opinions and just will not allow themselves to support a black person even if that person holds their same political views.

Did they really need a poll to figure this out?

Sharing sites: war, contraception, fisa, the n-word

Today I bring you some sites I have looked at over the past few weeks that I just keep coming back to. Powerful, thought-provoking, typically unheard in the regular media.

First up a friend of mine is back blogging after about a year off. He came back with a post about Former Army Private First Class Joseph Dwyer who died this past June. Touching story, powerful words and charge given by Olly Olly Oxen Free over at Peace Between People.

Going into the political realm I give you Sin's Secret Corner who discusses the atrocity that is McCain's view on contraception. Sin doesn't talk about politics a lot, but felt compelled to share what McCain has said and not said about contraception -- birth control pills, Plan B pills, condoms, pregnancy, and STDs. Read Sin's Secret Corner's post.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Wow. What can I really say about this document signed into existence a week or so ago. First, "in passing the FISA Amendments Act, Congress gave the executive branch the power to order Google, AT&T and Yahoo to forward to the government all e-mails, phone calls and text messages where one party to the conversation is thought to be overseas." What?! The ACLU is suing because they believe the orders violate the 4th amendment to the Constitution. Their complaint alleges

"The law challenged here supplies none of the safeguards that the Constitution demands. It permits the government to monitor the communications of U.S. Citizens and residents without identifying the people to be surveilled; without specifying the facilities, places, premises, or property to be monitored; without observing meaningful limitations on the retention, analysis, and dissemination of acquired information; without obtaining individualized warrants based on criminal or foreign intelligence probable cause; and, indeed, without even making prior administrative determinations that the targets of surveillance are foreign agents or connected in any way, however tenuously, to terrorism."

Last, but not least, the N-word. Why do people still use this word. Perhaps they don't really understand where it comes from or what it has meant to people in the past. The Renaissance Gallery got me hooked on this video by mjul on YouTube. Hopefully you watch the whole video. Hopefully, if you use the word, it helps you understand where it comes from and why it is seen as derogatory and not something you should call your friend.



Now off to see if there is any more news about this shooting and fire in Maplewood. I just hope it is not anyone I know involved or injured from this stuff right across from that 7-11 on Big Bend.

More modern day slavery and racial hatred

I wrote an entry you can read here on modern day slavery for Bloggers Unite for Human Rights back in May. I also taught a mini-unit on it to my students first semester this year. They were incredibly shocked (as are most people in this country) that slavery still exists in the world, let alone in this nation.

Hopefully you will read this article from the New York Sun on Varsha Sabhnani, who was convicted with her husband in December on 12 counts including forced labor, conspiracy, and involuntary servitude.

Read the conditions and treatment they put their "housekeepers" through.

Then the next time someone says that slavery ended with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (which is bull shit anyway if that is what your history teacher taught you) you can let them know that it was technically ended with the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, but that it still goes on TO THIS DAY -- in the manner used by Sabhnani and in other manners that the government and business owners use to keep people of different races and socioeconomic classes down in this country.

Educate yourselves.

Oh, and in case you did not realize that there are still racist, white supremacist groups in this country as well, read up on this from Black America Web. Billy Roper, a 36-year-old who runs a group called White Revolution in Russellville, Arkansas, told The Washington Post. "Nothing has awakened normally complacent white Americans more than the prospect of America having an overtly non-white president."

The site also said that "The resurgence of hate groups comes as a new poll by The Washington Post-ABC News shows that nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape and three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice."

Where is the love? Why is there still, in 2008, so much ignorance about racial equality? Why do people still consider race to be such an issue? What is really going on in this nation?

Courting, Colours, Cafeterias, and Cotton

I have always had friends of different colors, origins, backgrounds, etc. I have dated guys who were punk rock, jocks, nerds, musicians, puritan-like, recreational users, avid bicycle riders, all different types of interests. My platonic friendships have been likewise. I enjoy being around people who are different. Females and males.

I don't really find it hard to believe that this is still such a big deal in our society, but I find it disappointing. Why is it that most people typically look a little longer at couples who are different colours. I know that people are very prudish and that most people in this country are very conservative and stuck in their ways. But, it is 2007. It is really the most corny thing to say, but, the world is getting flatter and browner. Pretty soon, it will be hard to find a pure white person. Even now, most that you see in this country trace some of their genetics to Native Americans, if not some other brown people of the world.

I guess a main reason is that people are still super segregated when they are growing up. There are entire neighborhoods that are homogeneous. I lived in one that was completely white. I am pretty sure that within at least a square mile (on the Ladue side) there were only seven brown people living there. NOTE: There were five kids and two parents in my family.

There are people, some of whom I work with, who intentionally (some not really realizing what they are doing, though) move to areas further and further from the city. White flight. Granted, there are many who stick around, many who thrive on the diversity of the city and all it includes, I work with some of these, too. But these people represent the minority when it comes to our society. Most of the people who want to go back to the city are people going into real estate. And they are trying to build high-rise condos, or lofts that help the city in a few different ways. 1. They are draws to some who fled previously to come back to the city. 2. They tear down the old dilapidated homes and rental communities that the minorities once lived in. 3. They are too expensive for these former home owners/renters to move into. 4. Since the new residences are too expensive for the majority of the minorities who used to inhabit these areas of the city, they must move elsewhere. (Where? Doesn't really matter, as long as they are out of sight of the new residents.) 5. With these people out of sight and out of mind, even more wealthier people can move in to the area without having to set their eyes ever on people out of their economic status. Most of the time they will not see people our of their colour, unless they are people different from them physically, but on the same page mentally and economically. (No offense to these, I often fit into this category since I am not a threat to white people due to my ability to code switch.) They live amongst the good brown people -- the doctors, engineers, moneymakers -- not the bad brown people -- house workers, convenience store workers, janitors, the bus riders, the lower income makers.

I sound negative. Don't get me wrong, I would love to live in a loft. I like the way they look. I also like that there is money going into the city system because of architectural achievements like these. If only more of it could be going to the public schools of the city. There might be some sort of loophole keeping the funds from going there, I don't know.

All I know is that most people are not around people different from those who look and act like them. Minorities are the same way, too. Most people don't encounter different people until they reach college (and we all know the cost of that is rising, meaning more people are not having even that, sometimes, diverse experience). Though even at the university level, it is rare to see people around other people who are different from them.

I always remember back to junior high school in the cafeteria. My table got extra Ram Awards for being the most diverse table -- a biracial (black/white) girl, an Ethiopian-Iranian, a red headed Jew, a Filipino-German, a blonde headed white girl, a black girl with unrelaxed hair, a little bitty Jewish girl, and me (Nigerian). Even the teacher (I think Mr. Keller) realized how rare it was to see something like this.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a commercial (I believe for cotton) a few months ago where there was an interracial couple in the ad. There was a man of Asian decent and a woman who was African American. Pretty sad that it was so shocking, new, and different. But what can I really expect.

Maybe one day we will see all sorts of people hanging out on the corner and rich white people won't walk by thinking it must be a drug deal. Maybe one day we will see all sorts of mixed couples and not think that the man is trying to move himself up socially, or that the woman gave up on black men, or that the woman is trying to be "black". Maybe one day we will all accept people. Maybe one day we will all find it strange for a person to only be friends with people who look like them. Maybe one day it won't be a joke for someone to say, "But, my best friend is black."

Maybe one day.