But the impact of it still remains. Slavery in Canada forgotten, until now |
| History is not the past, it is how we recount the past. A Past, Denied: The Invisible History of Slavery in Canada is a feature-length documentary by independent filmmaker Mike Barber. The film, which is currently in production, explores how a false sense of history—both taught in the classroom and repeated throughout our national historical narrative—impinges on the present. It examines how 200 years of institutional slavery during Canada’s formation has been kept out of Canadian classrooms, textbooks and social consciousness. |
| In his book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, historian and psychologist James Loewen explains “slavery’s twin legacies” to the present as “the social and economic inferiority it conferred upon blacks and the cultural racism it instilled in whites.” |
| will show the connections between the practice of slavery in the past with racial disparity, tensions, and racism in the presentRead more at www.race-talk.org |
Michelle Obama in a “flesh-colored” dress. The Associated Press, a news service subscribed to by news outlets all over the world, distributed a story about the first Obama Administration State Dinner. In the story, sent in by Elisabeth R., Samantha Critchell describes Michelle Obama’s dress as “flesh-colored.” She writes: |
First lady Michelle Obama chose to wear a gleaming silver-sequined, flesh-colored gown Tuesday night to the first state dinner held by her husband’s administration. |
Gee, what could possibly be wrong with calling this dress “flesh-colored”? |
| This is what happens when white people are considered people and black people are considered a special kind of people, black people. |
The taxi-driver/convenience-store-clerk stereotype misrepresents an upwardly mobile segment of the US population. American Muslims are Well-Educated |
| 67% of American Muslims have a Bachelor’s degree or higher |
| 44% of Americans have a Bachelor’s degree or higher3 |
Maximum Education |
American Muslims1 |
American Muslims2 |
Total Americans3 |
| Advanced Degree |
42.7% |
32.1% |
8.6% |
| Bachelor’s |
35.2% |
30.0% |
35.1% |
| Some College |
9.5% |
19.4% |
32.3% |
| High School |
10.1% |
14.1% |
18.9% |
| No HS Diploma |
2.4% |
4.7% |
4.7% |
|
American Muslims are Affluent |
| U.S. Average income is $42,158 per year (U.S.
Census 2000) |
| 66% of American Muslim HH’s earn over $50,000 / year |
| 26% of American Muslim HH’s earn over $100,000 / year |
Annual Income |
% of HH |
Cumm |
Under $25,000 |
13% |
100% |
$25K-$50K |
21% |
87% |
$50K-75K |
22% |
66% |
$75K-100K |
18% |
44% |
$100K-$150K |
14% |
26% |
$150K-250K |
7% |
12% |
Over $250K |
5% |
5% |
|
Top 10 Occupations of American
Muslims |
Rank |
Occupation |
Percent |
1 |
Student |
20.2% |
2 |
Engineer |
12.4% |
3 |
Physician/Dentist |
10.8% |
4 |
Homemaker |
10.0% |
5 |
Programmer |
7.0% |
6 |
Corporate Manager |
6.4% |
7 |
Teacher |
6.4% |
8 |
Small Business Owner |
4.4% |
9 |
Researcher |
4.1% |
10 |
Admin. Assistant |
2.8% |
|
Total |
84.5% |
Read more at www.allied-media.com |
It’s down by about 10% since April. And there’s no race story - it’s about the same in all groups - despite a headline in the LA Times that isn’t supported by its own numbers. Analysis from fivethirtyeight.com.
Today, there’s an article in the Los Angeles Times entitled: |
“Obama is fast losing white voters’ support”. |
| A reasonable person might expect the punchline to be either that the manifest decline in Obama’s approval ratings is particularly steep among white voters, or that race-related issues are responsible for Obama’s current slump. A reasonable person would then click on the chart accompanying the article and discover… |
| Obama’s approval rating has declined by 10 percent overall since April. It’s also declined by 9 points among white independents, 9 points among while college graduates, 11 points among whites non-Democrats, 11 points among White Democrats, and 12 points among white (is there any other kind?) Republicans. In other words, Obama’s approval ratings have declined exactly as much, but no more, among white voters as it has among nonwhite voters.Read more at www.fivethirtyeight.com |
And not because of cultural values, which declined far more precipitously among whites. “Wall Street greed” created an unemployment rate among black families rising at four times that among white ones - “greatest loss of wealth for people of color in modern U.S. history.” It’s a recession among white families, but a full-blown depression among people of color. | the most salient and lasting effect of the current recession may turn out to be the decimation of the black middle class |
| Black unemployment is now at 14.7 percent, compared to 8.7 for whites. In New York City, black unemployment has been rising four times as fast as that of whites |
| in 2004, for every dollar of wealth held by the typical white family, the African American family had only one 12 cents. In 2007, it had exactly a dime |
| some commentators, black as well as white, are still obsessing about the supposed cultural deficiencies of the black community |
| share of black children living in a single parent home increased by 155 percent between 1960 to 2006, while the share of white children living in single parent homes increased by a staggering 229 percent |
| there is an ongoing recession disproportionately affecting the African American middle class — and brought on by Wall Street greed rather than “ghetto” valuesRead more at www.huffingtonpost.com |
It comes down to who will have power | Those who have the power are oftentimes the ones who are unwilling to discuss the issue of power and dominance. Part of white privilege means the capacity and ability to not talk about the issue of power and the wielding of that power. I think one of the great things that a majority culture church can do in preparing for multi-ethnicity and diversity is to become more aware of white privilege. Instead of taking the lead and trying to fix the problem and create diversity, it might be better to be in a place of listening and preparation — particularly in the practice of yielding power. |
| Are white institutions willing to yield decision-making power |
| culture-shaping power to non-whites? |
| Will predominantly white organizations be willing to share power — and initially that will require a yielding of power — with non-whites? |
| Any discussion about diversity will need to engage in a discussion about power. Otherwise, we reduce our efforts to tokenism.Read more at blog.sojo.net |
Wow - there’s a challenging sociological reality. I recently read a wonderful new book by a sociologist that unpacks this particular problem, Korie Edwards’ The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches. After studying interracial churches across the country, her work reveals that interracial churches are successful to the degree that preferences and perceived cultural mores of white members are privileged over those typically associated with persons of color. As long as white members are made to feel comfortable, racial harmony is maintained. |
| For many racial inclusion too often means opening one’s doors to the racial other. But does this mean calling into question the racial consciousness and cultural privilege of white Christians? |
| PL: “As long as white members are made to feel comfortable…” That’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it? And no, from the point of view of those who remain generally unaware of their privilege, “opening one’s doors to the racial other” most assuredly does not mean calling into question that privilegeRead more at www.religiondispatches.org |
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