Christmas Cards By Mail

Circa 1888.

The Great Wall of Feminism & The Glass Ceiling

IBARW Post Roundup

Bastardly favorites from International Blog Against Racism Week.

Via Evilprodigy:
It’s Not The Same Thing (Or, Leave Your Irish Ancestors In Their Graves)

• …The experience of being a white American in the 2009 U.S. is in no way comparable to the experience of being a person of color in the 2009 U.S. You are not a factory worker in 1890, you are not waiting in line in Ellis Island to have your name changed to something more palatable, here, now, at this very moment. You, white American of Irish descent, are a white American. You didn’t see slavery fled, O glorious dead, when you fell in the foggy dew. You didn’t steal Trevelyan’s corn so the young might see the morn. So while bringing up that, in a time past, some people related to you by blood did suffer oppression may technically be factually true, it is also highly irrelevant when talking about present-day racism and might also be considered derailing or douchebaggery…

Via Mary Dell:
A few thoughts for white people who are not adoptive parents (& thoughts for my fellow white interracially-adoptive parents)

• Chinese children come in “boy” as well as “girl” versions, even the ones who are adopted. Stop being so startled.
  …The law is unfair to black people. And poverty, with its associated ills, disproportionately affects black people. Black parents who lose custody of their children are not necessarily bad parents. Stop talking shit about them… Oh hey I know, how about you just stop talking shit about ALL black people?
  …Asian children in America are of multiple different ethnicities and nationalities, including the ones who are adopted. Stop saying Ni Hao to random Asian kids.
  …If you name your kid “Martin Luther King Smith” people will know that MLK is the only black person you’ve ever heard of.
  …If your home is going to be a safe space for your child–and it really, really should be–you are going to have to work hard to fight racism, and to overcome your own prejudices, and to understand and check your own privilege–EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
  …In cases where a child is actually “saved” from poverty or oppression by being adopted, the credit and gratitude for that should go to their birth parents, who made an excruciating personal sacrifice in order to give the child a better life.

Via Dirty Diana:
can’t stop the signal

• …This belief that people “like being offended”, that people play the “race card” to score magic chips in some invisible poker game is just…gah. Where did that even come from? Talking up is hard. It’s hard, it’s tiring, it hurts, and not only strangers, but a lot of your friends, will think you are whiny and crazy and imagining things. And will tell you so to your face, and in case I am not being clear enough, THIS FUCKING SUCKS…
  Generally all that will happen after that excitement is that people will prove they don’t care about you anyway. And they’ll turn it into your fault, because you didn’t say things correctly, nicely enough, use examples specific to their hometown, fill things out in triplicate, you’re over-reacting, misunderstanding, being judgemental, etc. In other words, with the VAST and boundless understanding of aversive racism that comes from being white, they have judged your concerns and found them to be totally unimportant. This is not because they don’t care, you understand. They *would* care, but you didn’t try hard enough…

Via Bossymarmalade:
the great (forever) white north

• I fucking LOVE being a Canadian, and that’s why it hurts me so much to be reminded, every day in a million little ways, that my country doesn’t think I’m a proper Canadian and it does its best to make sure the rest of the world doesn’t either. We are basically the nation version of upper-class white liberals who talk endlessly about the starving fly-covered African children we sponsor and how we have Chinese friends (everybody said we were so open-minded for trying all the weird food at their wedding!) and how we took a class on Aboriginal Studies so we understand why Mi’kmaq men are rapists and how once we had this Guatemalan woman as a boss and she was totally racist against white people, everybody said so…

Akawelle (also known as love): designs by Lovetta Conto, child survivor of Liberia’s civil war

“My name is Lovetta Conto and I’m sixteen years old. I was born in Liberia, West Africa but fled to Ghana as a refugee with my father when I was just a little girl because of the civil war in our country. Hundreds of thousands of people left the country…

“In the refugee camp we had a school. I wanted to get an education and so I went. My dad taught me education was the way to raise your life up. My dad taught me to believe in my dreams. My dad worked hard to get money to support us and pay for my education because school is not free in most of Africa, not even in the refugee camp…

“When I was twelve years old, I met Cori Stern, the founder of Strongheart Fellowship, in the refugee camp where I lived. I was so nervous talking to her for the first time. I didn’t know who she was but something in me told me she would be someone important to my future.

“I was chosen as the first Strongheart Fellow, which meant my life changed completely. I’ve traveled and studied and grown. I am finally getting the education my father dreamed of for me. Most importantly, I’ve become stronger in my own broken places. That is why I say I am not ashamed of my past. It has made me who I am. It does hurt – sometimes I wonder why I was born into war and strife – but I always hold on to what my father taught me and to the strength I gained through our struggles.”

Lovetta Conto’s jewelry line Akawelle is made from discarded Liberian bullet shells. The proceeds underwrite the development of the Strongheart House in Liberia, a community that offers eco-housing and education to the displaced orphans Conto grew up with in Ghana.