Problem Chylde: Learning & Writing

¿Cara a cara con el enemigo de qué valen mis palabras? –Gloria Anzaldúa

¡Orale! – A 2nd Blogging Round-Up

[Ana Bertha] Arellano, who was snuck into the United States by her husband, a permanent resident, was beaten and humiliated for more than nine years. Like Emelina Ramirez, Arellano never had her immigration status adjusted for permanent residency. In the beginning of her marriage, her husband would tell her he was going to get the process going so she could attain legal residence. However, this turned out to be a lie because he used her undocumented status to prevent her from complaining about his subsequent beatings and verbal taunts.After years of being beaten and humiliated, she mustered up enough courage to leave her abusive husband and sought help from the Mexican Consulate. There, officials recommended she apply for a temporary visa under Violence Against Women Act, the law that protects undocumented immigrants from abusive spouses who use their position as citizens to intimidate their spouses who did not have legal immigrant status in the United States. The law allows the abused spouse to file a self-petition for legal residency based on marriage to an abusive citizen or LPR, who will not file a petition for them.

justice for tarikajustice for tarikajustice for tarika

PBS broadcasts programming created by and about African Americans year-round, from public affairs to history to independent film to kids programming. In celebration of Black History Month, February 2008, PBS will broadcast a lineup of new and encore presentations honoring and exploring African American history.

The NY Times discovers Indians. It’s only been an issue for a few years now. And one reason the bill was delayed? St. John McCain.

Finally this morning, I decided to go straight to the source: the newspaper that published the article. I would’ve done this first but the article did not have an author or a contact number at the end like most articles. So I thought it was better to do a little research on my own. For about 4 hours, I tried to get in contact with the new station. I had to resort to an online form after realizing I wasn’t getting any answers.

But this afternoon I got the answer that I was waiting to hear. The managing editor informed me via email that Latisha Rutledge and her children were located safe and sound! She added, “She just failed to contact her loved ones”. I was glad to hear the good news but I requested an update on the story.

My conversations with him have been trying because I’ve hardly ever been on the receiving end of racism and because other than explaining the concept itself, agreeing that it’s incredibly unfair and hurtful, and telling him that it’s not his fault, I don’t know where to go from there.

Silent racism is my term for the stereotypes and negative assumptions that are held in the minds of white people who, like me, care about racism and want to contribute to lessening it. I believe that those negative thoughts at times slip out, and influence decisions we make. (from part one of two)

Thank the lord for Ursula K. Le Guin and her no nonsense response to the NEA’s recent freak out about the state of reading. (You’ll need a login to read the whole article, unfortunately.)

Moneymaking entities controlled by obscenely rich executives and their anonymous accountants have acquired most previously independent publishing houses with the notion of making quick profit by selling works of art and information. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that such people get sleepy when they read. Within the corporate whales are many luckless Jonahs who were swallowed alive with their old publishing house—editors and such anachronisms—people who read wide awake. Some of them are so alert they can scent out promising new writers. Some of them have their eyes so wide open they can even proofread. But it doesn’t do them much good. For years now, most editors have had to waste most of their time on an unlevel playing field, fighting Sales and Accounting.

It’s the fear, festering in the hearts of local historians and slave descendants alike, that that proposed road could bury this town of 150, along with its history, for good.

And so residents are racing against the clock.They’re uncovering old tombstones dating from 1834, and pealing back the pages of a story they refuse to let die.It is a story etched in the soil of the large farms.“It’s important our kids know where they come from no matter how harsh the reality is,” said Hobizal.It is a story embedded in the walls of the old Masonic Lodge, a place of refuge for newly emancipated blacks.“You pass by a field, and you can almost imagine my grand grandfather, chopping that cotton,” said Garlan Berry. “I can almost see them looking down, or feel their hands on me.”

Would it make sense to cut off all medical supplies and all roads to all Americans if American president Bush was bombing other countries?

No.

They why does it make sense to so many Americans that Israel can choke off Palestine completely (of all medical aid, supplies, roads, and other important needs) because Hamas is hurling rockets into Israel? Why do the civilians, men, women, and kids, have to suffer because of something that they’re not doing themselves?

My sisters were able to escape on Monday morning Kenyan time) after spending Sunday night outside along with other children and women in their neighborhood. We stayed with them on the phone on and off until they arrived at Elijah’s house at Karai about two and a half miles outside Naivasha town. There are many other displaced families and relatives of Elijah and Dorcas at their house. The sad part of this is that after they arrived at Karai, I called them on the phone, only to find that they were watching in disbelief a house next to Elijah’s house burning down after it was set ablaze by gangs that went around searching of other tribes in the area for revenge.

odinga

From what I gather, the political violence roiling Kenya is not nearly as brow-furrowingly unfathomable as our fake news outlets would have you believe: a presidential election between a populist reformer named Raila Odinga [pictured], and a corporate-backed incumbent named Mwai Kibaki, has been stolen. Unlike in the US, a lot of citizens in Kenya are not okay with this.

On this 26th Day of January 2008, in commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the proclamation of SURVIVAL day, it is hereby announced that the month of JULY 1-31st is now proclaimed BLACK history month in Australia.

From this day forth and for all years to come, JULY will remain a month of significance and symbolism for the unity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations, in celebration of Australia’s rich, vibrant Indigenous histories and cultures.

According to Prof. Wilkins, Black Mexico came to be during the time of slavery in America, when Mexicans helped kidnapped Africans escape across the border and live free lives in Mexico. Settlements of freed people in Mexico did not, from what I can tell, resemble life for Africans in, for example, the “free” northern states of the US during that period and after. In other words, Africans who escaped with Mexican citizens’ help got to live freely, not under just a different version of racial hatred.

I may have an evil enough part of me that I was mad at her because of selfishness and how it would effect my day. I would like that not to be true, but I was there, it’s not like I can pretend I didn’t see that in myself this morning, like it didn’t happen. I would like to go “hey it just triggered something in me because it is a raw area for me too right now and I felt threatened and I wasn’t actually mad at her.”

But why would I be different than other people? You think people don’t just get mad at folks for “not helping themselves” and getting out of it? I know they do. And not all of them have been abused, so it can’t be that it’s just triggering everybody else’s post trauma whatnotandstuff. It pisses people off. It is so inconvenient when you can’t make someone do what you think they should, especially when their not-doing-it impacts your life. It is not that hard to be mad at them, no matter how you think you feel about the subject of partner abuse.

Written by M P

February 1, 2008 at 3:27 pm

Posted in Blogando/Gritando, The News Wire, media justice

«
»

2 Responses

Subscribe to comments with RSS.

  1. Aw, Sylvia, thank you for linking me!

    But thank you even more for all the other amazing links.

    xo

    joankelly6000

    February 2, 2008 at 1:50 pm

  2. Of course, Joan! The link love doesn’t even compare to all the comment love you’ve given me for what seems like forever. :)

    I’m glad you started blogging!

    Sylvia

    February 2, 2008 at 7:37 pm


Comments are closed.