Category Archives: racism

Cantor blocking reauthorization of VAWA

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Turtle Talk has a blog up here.

I found this statement a little unsettling:

The two sources say, to Cantor’s credit, his staff has said they’re willing to try to come up with other solutions to responding to violence against women on tribal lands, as long as the solution doesn’t give tribes jurisdiction over the matter. But proponents of the Senate bill see the limited jurisdictional change as the only realistic way to address the problem.

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To Cantor’s credit, he’s willing to come up with solutions…

…as long as the solution doesn’t give tribes jurisdiction…

In other words, “we can’t trust those Indians to know what is best for them, so Big White Brother has to keep his thumb over them and decide what is best for them…” /snark

Meanwhile, women are being brutalized by non-native men who know they can violate them without punishment.  A free-for-all.

Reclaiming native lands

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The Sioux tribe has managed to raise the $9 million necessary to…buy back their own sacred land…(hat tip to common dreams)

This is wonderful!  Absolutely wonderful.  The Black Hills were taken away when the Europeans discovered gold…and the gold rush began…

…now it comes back to those who are connected with it, who cherish it, and will take care of it as it was meant to be.

I second the others–Congratulations!

 

When annihilating a culture doesn’t work…

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…you diminish them in other ways.

That wasn’t the only recent incident of continuing to sexualize Native American women…No Doubt also used it in a video.

Holy crap, you couldn’t see how unbelievably offensive this was–not only to Native American women, but to women in general?  I seriously doubt the claims that they had consulted with *cough* experts and Native Americans who thought this was just fine.  Anyone with two brain cells would be offended by it.  Violence towards women is never okay.  It’s not entertainment.

The rule of law

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A plea from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.  I find it real hard to believe Israel feels threatened by Palestinians when they have nuclear capabilities.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe Hamas has those same capabilities.  They just want to feed their families. To live their lives and be let alone.  This means not starving them.

And how would Hillary Clinton help smooth tensions? Since she threatened to obliterate Iran if it starts a war with Israel, I’m not real confident that she would be seen as neutral by Palestinians.  Just a guess.

Big Bird breathes sigh of relief…

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Congratulations, President Obama. Big Bird lives on…:)

I know better, but I was listening to the rightwing radio last night and they were painting a dim picture of Obama’s win.  I turned it off and went to bed to read…thinking we were going to get Bush III…

Indiana voted in Mike do-nothing Pence for Governor,  and now has a super majority in the legislature…<sigh>

…well, at least I am spared Richard my-sperm-is-a-gift-from-God Mourdock…

The news on the reaction in the Middle East.  I hope this means a peaceful movement in Israel is underway….

DN! has this up on the elections.  Elizabeth Warren is animated after her win.  Thank God.

Unfortunately, the GMO lobby won and Californians defeated the measure requiring GMO labeling. Shit.

O”Reilly had a nice take on why Obama won–because people want “stuff” and Obama was going to give it to them…

Well, now…Romney has the gov’t pay $77,000 for the care and housing of his horse…has money in offshore accounts and John McCain has so many houses he can’t even remember how many he has…all because they don’t pay their fair share of taxes…now who feels entitled?

Is it entitlement when one wants to eat? Have a roof over their head? Get medical care? I’m confused.

They went on to talk about the shift away from the standard–now women and minorities are getting their voices heard. The boys of the old school are threatened…and it will probably get uglier before it’s all done.

To my sisters who were the power behind getting President Obama re-elected:  Thank you.  We can move mountains when we focus on what’s important to us and fight for it.

I want to say, though, that women have been characterized as of “one mind”–that any woman who manages to get before a microphone speaks for all women.  They don’t.

This is one of the reasons that the middle-of-the-road women backed away from the Feminist Movement–they were treated as if they spoke for all women.  Women who wanted to stay home with their children were characterized as dull twits who lacked ambition.  Women who didn’t believe in abortion but believed in equality were marginalized, also.

And the 70s Feminists who fought against alimony because it…well, I’m not really sure why they were fighting against alimony…but as this quote by Barbara Seaman, amongst others, puts it quite well–this is something that I lost out on when I divorced.  I also got less than half of the assets (with a mortgage to pay off) and my ex got away with only paying one-fifth ($20,000) of his income to support his three children.  Although I had stayed home for eleven years, the judge did not allow for that, and had instead computed the amount of support as if I had a job!!  Yes, I had a lousy lawyer–whose partner still smirks at me to this day whenever I have to trudge back to the place I grew up in…I’ve always wondered what that smirk means….

Anyway, I hope that with the election that women and minorities will do their homework, and support thoughtful politicians who approach the legislative process with the “Do unto others…” mindset…it would make life so much easier and just might bring about Peace…

Native American Heritage Month

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From Turtle Talk--a guest post by Bridget Mary McCormick.

Turtle Talk also has a link up to an obit of Betty Binns Fletcher–a woman to admire.

In the article, she stated that she had a hard time getting hired as an attorney after graduation because of the prejudice in law firms.  Yeah, well, I wish I could say that it has changed, but it’s still there…at least if you’re an assistant.  I took paralegal courses and got A’s.  However, when I and a couple of classmates went to look for a job afterward…nothing.  There were several attorney’s assistants taking the course–all of them blond and in their twenties and high school graduates.  The classmates that couldn’t get a job?  In our forties.  And two of us had Bachelor of Arts degrees.  You can draw your own conclusions.

Also on the blog is this link to a case of a non-Indian mother who gave birth to a child of a Cherokee father, who did not assert his parental rights…at first…but after finding out the child was to be adopted, he filed a case to block it.  It’s ridiculous that this dragged out for two years while the child was becoming attached to the adoptive parents–the father had indicated he did not want her to be adopted by strangers at four months of age–at that point, he should have been custody of the child.  This would have made her life so much more easier than to drag it out.

The father was not abusive, according to the document (I only read to page 26), and other than his initial reluctance, he stepped up and that should have been considered a positive for this little girl.  I mean, the details are scant about the people involved in the case, but something that leaped out at me was  the implication that it was a negative against the father because the father was going to be aided by his parents in caring for the child–the Native Americans raise children differently than Europeans–the entire tribe looks after the little ones.  At least, that is the traditional way…not sure if they still adhere to this, but it wouldn’t be abnormal for the father’s parents to help raise the little girl.  What is seen as a negative by white folks (assuming that the professionals involved were white folks) is seen as positive by the Native American culture.  Lastly, there is the elephant in the room of whether the adoptive parents were Christian and the Native American father practiced traditional tribal spirituality.  The Mormons used this angle to kidnap Native American children from their parents and adopt them legally.