The Other: If media covered America the way we cover foreign cultures

jahanzebjz:

Yet another massacre has occurred in the historically war-torn region of the Southern United States – and so soon after the religious festival of Easter.

Brian McConkey, 27, a Christian fundamentalist militiaman living in the formerly occupied territory of Alabama, gunned down…

(Source: ericgarland.co)

(Reblogged from vampirefinch)

TONI MORRISON: The Pain Of Being Black or (Stop Policing Black Sexuality and Reproductive Habits)

  • Interviewer: In one of your books you described young black men who say, "We have found the whole business of being black and men at the same time too difficult." You said that they then turned their interest to flashy clothing and to being hip and abandoned the responsibility of trying to be black and male.
  • Toni Morrison: I said they took their testicles and put them on their chest. I don't know what their responsibility is anymore. They're not given the opportunity to choose what their responsibilities are. There's 60% unemployment for black teenagers in this city. What kind of choice is that?
  • Interviewer: This leads to the problem of the depressingly large number of single-parent households and the crisis in unwed teenage pregnancies. Do you see a way out of that set of worsening circumstances and statistics?
  • Toni Morrison: Well, neither of those things seems to me a debility. I don't think a female running a house is a problem, a broken family. It's perceived as one because of the notion that a head is a man. Two parents can't raise a child any more than one. You need a whole community -- everybody -- to raise a child. The notion that the head is the one who brings in the most money is a patriarchal notion, that a woman -- and I have raised two children, alone -- is somehow lesser than a male head. Or that I am incomplete without the male. This is not true. And the little nuclear family is a paradigm that just doesn't work. It doesn't work for white people or for black people. Why we are hanging onto it, I don't know. It isolates people into little units -- people need a larger unit.
  • Interviewer: And teenage pregnancies?
  • Toni Morrison: Everybody's grandmother was a teenager when they got pregnant. Whether they were 15 or 16, they ran a house, a farm, they went to work, they raised their children.
  • Interviewer: But everybody's grandmother didn't have the potential for living a different kind of life. These teenagers -- 16, 15 -- haven't had time to find out if they have special abilities, talents. They're babies having babies.
  • Toni Morrison: The child's not going to hurt them. Of course, it is absolutely time consuming. But who cares about the schedule? What is this business that you have to finish school at 18? They're not babies. We have decided that puberty extends to what -- 30? When do people stop being kids? The body is ready to have babies, that's why they are in a passion to do it. Nature wants it done then, when the body can handle it, not after 40, when the income can handle it.
(Reblogged from witchsistah)

V.V.F.: The art of bush plant healing in the Caribbean is a relic from Africa

caribbeancivilisation:

List of plants:

1. JUSTICA SECUNDA VAHL or St. John’s Bush; For Colds.

2. ARISTOLOCHIA TRILOBATA or Sixty-six; For Fevers. Cleans out the stomach, “It operate you!”.

3. PIMENTA RACEMOSA or Christmas bush; ”Put it in porridge or tea for taste”.

4….

(Reblogged from vvf)

Ursa Major ♀: girljanitor: TAL9000: indigenous american...

abwatt:

girljanitor:

TAL9000: indigenous american technology

abellandapomegranate:

sofriel:

I would make an actual blog post about this but I’m too lazy

but basically

people who are like “native americans didn’t develop technology that contributed to the world”

like, I…

THIS.  

Look, I’m an American history teacher.  Native America gets short shrift in our textbook, but again and again and again I keep saying it, and again and again and again my students kind of ignore it, but this is known. Archaeologically and culturally proven. Basically, Native America’s contribution to the world was biotechnology. Hybridization. Crop development.  They had better nutrition, and better food, in the Americas than everywhere else in the world.

And because of first Spanish, then Dutch, then English, then French racism and cultural bias, nearly all that knowledge, at least 15,000 years of biotech development, got thrown out for the sake of Catholic and Protestant dominionism and European imperialism.

(Reblogged from abwatt)

The Other: Community Called to Aid Poet and Barrio Chronicler Tato Laviera

lati-negros:

image

(photo credit: Center for Chicano Boricua Studies - Wayne State U., Detroit)

_

Nuyorican poet Tato Laviera’s works have reached out to the hearts and souls of the Puerto Rican community and nourished us for decades. Now this poet, novelist and cultural icon needs us…

(Reblogged from vampirefinch)
“
But the most affecting aspect of the book is the demonstration of the ghetto not as a product of a violent music, super-predators, or declining respect for marriage, but of policy and power. In Chicago, the ghetto was intentional. Black people were pariahs whom no one wanted to live around. The FHA turned that prejudice into full-blown racism by refusing to insure loans taken out by people who live near blacks.

Contract-sellers reacted to this policy and “sold” homes to black people desperate for housing at four to five times its value. I say “sold” because the contract-seller kept the deed, while the “buyer” remained responsible for any repairs to the home. If the “buyer” missed one payment they could be evicted, and all of their equity would be kept by the contract-seller. This is not merely a matter of “Of.” Contract-sellers turned eviction into a racket and would structure contracts so that sudden expenses guaranteed eviction. Then the seller would fish for another black family desperate for housing, rinse and repeat. In Chicago during the early 60s, some 85 percent of African-Americans who purchased home did it on contract.

These were not broken families in need of a lecture on work ethic. These were black people playing by the rules. And for their troubles they were effectively declared outside the law and thus preyed upon.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Ghetto Is Public Policy (via theraceproblem)
(Reblogged from witchsistah)

Anonymous asked: Is the spirit of the prenda a prisoner/slave? Why the padlock or chains?

That depends on the way the munanso of the Palero who owns the prenda works with nfumbe. In some munanso the nfumbe within the prenda is treated as a bound and enslaved spirit, and is forced and cajoled into moving and working. For them, the chain can be construed as part if that which binds the nfumbe to the prenda. This isn’t the case in munanso; in my line the nfumbe is a friend and co-worker, a respected entity who is treated honorably. We view the nganga as a complete and powerful being with deep connection to the Tata who works it….may as well be whipping yourself, whipping your prenda. We don’t need to use chains to “bind” the nfumbe to anything, as we work with pact and blood connection to join all together. The mkisi become part of your bloodline, become family. You don’t need a chain to bind your brother to you.

Anonymous asked: Who is your Padrino/Tata and what is your rama?

My Padrino is Tata Nkisi Musitu, and my Rama is Mayombe Saca Empeno.

Anonymous asked: Can gay people go into palo majombe?

That depends on what you mean; in most Ramas and Munansos gay people can certainly be part of the community, but cannot be cut into the priesthood. There are some nso’s out there that have no problem cutting persons who happen to be gay; they are definitely a minority, though.
I’ve never thought the restriction against gays made a lick of sense—if the nkisi says a person can be cut, it’s nonsense to act as if there is some spiritual reason to prohibit all gays.
Many paleros are cut as children, before sexuality is expressed….these children receive blessings and work as Palero’s just fine. So why the prohibition? It’s a matter of culture and tradition, more than anything else. That being said, I don’t make the rules. One honors the practices of one’s munanso, period. If you are looking to become an initiate and are gay, you will find munanso’s who will welcome you…just be aware that munanso who hold to the old traditions will not see your initiation as valid. Also, be sure to be absolutely honest about your orientation when speaking to prospective godparents. That way you know you’re in a muna nso that welcomes you with open arms, and eliminates the possibility that you join a munanso that holds to the prohibition.