#racial disparities

[alwaysbewoke]

#Kalief Browder #Trump #criminal justice system #solitary confinement #racial disparities #injustice #systemic racism #racism #discrimination #racial inequality #social justice #civil rights #racial bias #racial prejudice #racial discrimination #racial justice

[sweaty-confetti]

some thoughts about cultural appropriation

a few important notes before you read this: 

- here, when i say “white,” i am referring to specifically white canadian, white american, and white european, with white european being a rather loosely defined term but typically relating to britain. this is not intended to ignore the existence other white identities such as white south africans, but i am a mixed-race indian+white person who has spent most of his life in the united states and does not have enough experience or knowledge of these identities to make accurate takes about them.

- this is not me making excuses for cultural appropriation. it is a dangerous thing that waters down and erases culture, and should not be encouraged. - this is written in a gentle and hopefully palatable way to white audiences, who i encourage to read this. not every take from a poc is going to be nice-nice about these kinds of things, but this is.

i find it very interesting that when you ask white folks about why they’re so obsessed with certain aspects of culture, the palatable, easily-appropriated ones like native headdresses and whatnot, their reason usually is in the form of “mysticism” and “exoticism.” this is a problem in itself, obviously, tying into the long-standing colonial fetishization of culture, but here’s the bit i actually want to talk about:

when you ask why it’s so “exotic” to them, why it’s so obviously “different and other” at a personal level - it comes from a sense of community.

let me break this down a bit. culture and community are often used as very loose synonyms, and for pretty good reason. a culture is based around the ideas of societal norms and roles, material things, ways of thinking and whatnot - and these all come down to community.

there are certain things that are intrinsic and unique to every culture (even if they are a medley of various different cultural influences), whether they be classical carnatic music in south india, pinakbet from the ilocos region of the philippines, or the ninauh-oskitsi-pahpyaki social role/gender in the blackfoot tribe. even cultures we would consider to “appear” white have these, such as the tales of tuatha de dannan in irish mythology. but the idea of whiteness as a concept does not have these.

whiteness as a concept is a sterilized, “de-cultured” identity that attempts to assimilate most/many folks who appear “white” into a single monolith. this is obviously very damaging and dangerous to many cultures - for example, many ancient celtic traditions have been lost due to the deliberate erasure of these in order to assimilate these people into whiteness.

whiteness as an identity was founded on a basis of eurocentric values and traditions as well as either the deliberate assimilation or erasure of all other cultures and traditions - white supremacy. it still exists like that today (see groups like the KKK or proud boys).

now we know obviously that not all white folks are intentionally racist and a large portion of them genuinely don’t mean harm to poc communities…so why is cultural appropriation so rampant, even in white folks who would otherwise be decent allies to poc?

again, it’s coming down to a sense of community.

i have grown up and lived in the united states for most of my life, and as early as i can remember i have always had questions about the cultural identities of white americans. i’d look at the indian half of me and indian culture that i partook in and experienced, things i cherish such as cooking traditional South indian food, learning carnatic classical music, participating in religious ceremonies, etc. and then i’d look at the white half of me. there was no culture there i could find.

sure, i could look at typically “american” things, such as hamburgers and surfboarding and apple pie, but these fall apart very easily with minimal research. similar hamburger-looking foods appear in europe as far back as the 4th century. bodysurfing/surfboarding has existed in peru, africa and various polynesian countries for thousands of years. versions of apple pie existed in british and french cookbooks as far back as 1390 BCE with influences from the ottoman empire - and apples aren’t native to the americas.

the colonization of the americas and the subsequent reframing of canada and the states as “white” areas is due to the influence of colonization, obviously - and the genocide of millions of first nations people. this was deliberate.

but here is the interesting bit. for hundreds of years, as far back as the pilgrims, cultures that were not fully assimilated into whiteness were rejected and oppressed - even as they colonized.

take italian-americans, for instance. the late 1800s to early 1900s saw a huge influx of italian immigrants to the united states. these immigrants faced oppression in the form of religious and political discrimination (anti-catholic sentiments and anti-communist sentiments). they were often subject to horrible living conditions compared to their american white counterparts as well as violence - one of the largest lynchings in america was the mass-lynching of eleven italian immigrants in new orleans in 1891.

yet today, when we think of italian-americans, we often see them simply as “white.”

a huge amount of immigrants to the united states and canada were forced to give up their original cultures in order to assimilate into whiteness. if not, they were subject to prejudice, discrimination and overall just shitty conditions. for some groups that resembled “white americans” in appearance, such as irish folks and italian folks, this method worked eventually and they were assimilated and accepted into whiteness. for many others due to their skin color or features, such as black enslaved folks or jewish folks, even giving up their own culture still meant they were not accepted as white - they didn’t “look white.” additionally, many cultural groups resisted assimilation and rejected being seen as white.

this is somewhat why i believe so many white americans, canadians, and british participate so heavily in cultural appropriation. it comes from a sense of loneliness, of little to no original culture - and whatever is left has been bastardized and reduced to just “white,” neglecting the cultural nuance.

growing up as a brown-skinned mixed person with heavy ties to the indian side of my culture, i was subject to a fair amount of racism. i remember people asking why my hair was “oily and gross,” and then begging my mom to never put coconut oil in my hair ever again. i remember people telling me that the khichdi my mom had carefully made for my lunch “looked and smelled like fish eggs,” and then only eating bland sandwiches at school. but there is one experience i remember very clearly.

i had a white american best friend when i was very young, from kindergarten to third grade. she never judged me for my food or my clothes or my grandparents’ accent or any other part of my culture and i loved her for it. but i remember having this experience with her one day.

she’d met my grandmother who came to pick me up, donned in an elaborately-formed red sari. the next day, when i sat with her at recess, she said something like, “i liked your grandma’s dress. it was pretty.” taken aback by open appreciation of my culture, i just mumbled a pleased “oh, thanks.” but she didn’t stop there. she said, “my grandma only wears boring clothes, like sweaters and granny dresses. i wish i was indian.”

i said something like, “granny dresses can be nice. you can be white and wear cool clothes.”

“yeah, i know. but any old person can wear sweaters and dresses. they’re just…not from anywhere.”

at the time, i didn’t fully understand her desire to be connected to a specific culture, but i understood in a bit of a detached way. i was always very connected to and appreciative of my indian culture, but look to the white side and i was met with exactly that - a gaping white void. the closest answer i got was “well, your great-grandparents came from germany.” that answer dissatisfied me, although i couldn’t articulate why. now i can.

it’s something like, “but after such a long time, they’re not really german anymore.” i’d seen the absence of culture in whiteness, and how my white friends and family could name a distant time where their family belonged to another culture - but not anymore. now, they were just “white.”

whiteness as a concept strips and sanitizes culture to fit a very, very narrow version of culture - a culture defined on the surface by cheeseburgers and british accents and football and canadian politeness, but dig deeper and you find colonialism, colonization, eurocentricism, racism, and various other systems of oppression.

once again, this is not an excuse for white folks who appropriate culture nor is this me trying to reason my way into approving of it. it’s not, and i’m not. i die a little bit inside every time i see some random hippie on the internet bastardize and water down the concept of chakras. but it is a bit of an explanation, and this is why i have some degree of sympathy for white folks who culturally appropriate.

so, to all white or white-passing folks who read this and understand/relate to it: i implore you this. please, please, please, if you have the time and resources to do so, reconnect with your native culture. talk to older irish folks, or learn about traditional welsh folklore. learn german, or watch documentaries of italian culture. read stories from white-passing native folk, or talk with your black grandparents. please do not lose the culture that your ancestors had to give up in order to assimilate into whiteness. understand that whiteness is a part of you and that it impacts those around you, but if you can, please make the effort to reconnect with your culture. it does wonders for your identity and sense of self.

#emo moss talks #emo moss writes #culture #cultural appropriation #poc #whiteness #racism #xenophobia #cultural anthropology #cultural identity #cultural appreciation #lynching tw #racism tw #lynching #racial disparities #eurocentrism #colonialism #colonization #white guilt #racial violence tw #discrimination #discrimination tw #genocide #genocide tw #kkk #kkk mention

[greeneyed-jade]

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The House of the Dead”

#mass incarceration #justice system #prison #America #prison reform #incarceration #criminalization #criminal justice #criminal justice reform #end mass incarceration #education not incarceration #social justice #broken system #racial disparities #institutionalized

[gwydionmisha]

#Racial Disparities #Swimming #News

[eelhound]

"Racial inequality is a feature of capitalism. American capitalism has always had a racist and patriarchal character from the very beginning. You have groups that are racialized as inferiors so that it’s okay if the state or management treats them in a worse way than others. That ends up being advantageous to capitalism because it creates pools of people with fewer opportunities. Firms can exploit them by paying them lower wages and treating them worse. This also creates racialized resentments between different subgroups of the population and that makes it harder for the working class to get together into unions to form political coalitions to fight back against the capitalist class. Racism and racial divisions reduce the overall social bargaining power of the working class and this leads to lower wages and worse benefits. For example, we don’t have a universal healthcare system in the U.S. There are some white people who would argue against that because they don’t want those people to get public benefits. Racism plays into that."

- Tom Wetzel, from "How Do We Overcome Capitalism?" Current Affairs, 6 October 2022.

#tom wetzel #quote #quotations #democratic socialism #labor #labor organizing #labor unions #universal healthcare #racism #racial inequality #american history #american culture #racial disparities #capitalism

[uboat53]

Great news! The first tranch of money is going out to help reclaim the cores of our major cities from massive freeway interchanges.

I think anyone who's sat in traffic for hours knows that they don't really help people get places and they were originally built by ripping apart minority, mostly black, neighborhoods. This is the first step to making inner cities liveable and starting to knit communities back together.

#politics #us politics #racial disparities #infrastructure #good news

[miss-vortex]

"When it comes to the Oscars, maybe we have to accept that the steps to genuine inclusivity are slow and gradual. There have undoubtedly been improvements in comparison to a decade ago; but when there's talent from only one or two marginalised groups represented each year it feels like it's one step forward, two steps back.

As the oldest and most popular awards show the Academy Awards has a duty to use its platform to give a voice to those who have previously felt silenced."

#oscars 2023 #oscars #oscars so white #academy awards #95th academy awards #nominees #diversity #inclusivity #diversity and inclusion #racial disparities #equality #representation #film industry #films #independent film #entertainment #everything everywhere all at once #awards ceremony #michelle yeoh #asian representation #black representation #lgbtqplus #latinx #opinion #thoughts #blog post

[pattytacuri]

Being a minority in this country gets tiring. I used to be so passionate about politics but lately I've been apathetic. We can have all of these great initiatives when it comes to "diversity" and "inclusion" but a lot of people still have a racial bias and treat "others" like less than. It sucks.

#poetry #poets on tumblr #truth #feelings #real life #quiet bpd #bpd #mentalhealth #racial disparities #racisim #america

[dismotivatedwriter]

Y'know,

maybe I shouldn't even try creative writing. Maybe I should just try ranting for long hours instead. I've always been afraid. I've always been afraid of speaking my mind in anything, maybe I should just pour out 24 long years of what I think is wrong with the world, maybe that would unblock my creativity? I tend to think things are wrong the way they are, but heck, I'm not a genius to give out other solutions for it, I'm just good at finding flaws.

Every time I gathered the courage to go and bash something I thought wrong, I was highly criticized for it. In the beginning I'd always suggest a better solution, which was often seen as childish. Of course, I didn't have enough studies back then, and being honest I still don't, I dropped out of school and got my degree via a ridiculous govt test in my country, it's stupid.

I think schools are wrong the way they are. I support feminism, but I don't like where it is going in some areas. I support LGBTQIAPN+ yet even in the community i find some minor flaws. I absolutely hate a lot of shit men do, I'm not a radfem, neither a defensor of cis het males doing whatever they please and fucking up in the ways they often do, but hell, were men in general in a better headspace they wouldn't do half the shit they do, and same works for most of the humanity!

Racism, wars, cis-het fuckups, radfem fuckups, LGBTQIAPN+ fuckups, political/economical fuckups, relationship fuckups, damn, more than half that shit wouldn't even exist if people were a bit less hurt and a bit more empathetic.

Everyone has their own pain, their own childhood wounds, relationship wounds, wounds caused by life in general, everyone has their own shit, if you put aside your own shit for half a second and not go into defensive mode just a little bit you can get where they are coming from.

OF COURSE, IT DOESN'T EXCUSE THEIR WRONGDOINGS, yes, I know. But it points at a deeper reason, a deeper cause, a root, and it is only going out of defensive and into empathy that we're able to look at said wounds and root causes in others, and maybe that'd shed some light onto how to stop that from happening, on wether people who are already in a radical stage in some ideology can still change and be saved from radical behavior just by healing themselves.

"It's not my job to try to change people, they won't change" INDEED, it's not ur job, it's no one's job, no one can do that full time, specially because everyone has their own wounds, YOU HAVE YOUR OWN WOUNDS, and then you do a lot of effort to heal on your own, and you do heal, and you go near the same type of people who hurt you again and guess what? Your wounds reopen, they trigger you.

And there's yet another point in that, they have to want to heal as well for it to work, they have to be willing to change, they need to have their own mind open for change to be able to happen in first place, they need to put their pain aside and empathize with those who they hate first and then look at their wound and realize their hatred is justified by their experiences yet unfair to everyone other than the specific person who caused them.

It feels like a loosing game, a lost cause, a never ending war.

In reality, it's all a damn puzzle, a enigma, waiting to be solved.

How to get people to stop themselves from hating others?

How to get people to heal and not have their wounds reopened all the time?

How to get people to be able to feel empathy and compassion for others, even with completely different struggles?

How to get people to understand that every time someone acts or speaks with hatred they're speaking from their pain no matter how unreasonable it may seem, and how to get the people who are speaking from their pain translated into hatred that they're only hurting other people who will turn into people who spew more hatred cause they'd be again speaking from pain? How to teach them all to empathize and listen without being triggered? How to get them all to heal?

All the wounds and hatred are tied to eachother, some kinds of those come from old political affairs, old societies, others from religions, others from the enviroment they were raised in, others from violence they suffered, it's a massive intricate web of pain and wrongdoings stemming from history itself, how to get all that people to heal?

How to get all that people to stop hurting so that they can stop hurting others?

I might be some sort of Freud, mirroring my own personal things into worldwide dilemas chalking it up to human nature and assuming it applies to everyone, or I might have caught onto something that makes sense, I don't know, I have no idea.

What I do know is that right now on a world wide level we have people struggling with their own pain, we have groups of people fighting eachother due to ideologies and their personal motives to engage in these fights. For some is race, for others it's gender, for others it's minorities as a whole, for others it's politics, for others it's history. They all have heavy studies in each of their areas, they're all working with statistics and numbers and the whole big picture, they're all far more educated than myself.

I'm nothing other than a uneducated observer, who has their own pain, who feels compelled to stand up for certain people, who feels compelled to hate certain people, who tries to stop themselves from feeding hatred and trying to empathize and ffs how hard it is to in fact empathize with those who are in the wrong, I feel how hard it is. How exhaustive it is as well, how exhaustive is the fact that in the last couple centuries people have been fighting the same battles and even though they get advances it seems that all those wars are never over, never ending, it feels hopeless at certain times.

People get reduced to tags, numbers, titles (in example, "minorities", "radfems" "trans people" "X nationality" "Race A, B or C"), I'm talking about everyone here, both the oppressors and the oppressed, they're all getting reduced to "parties" while there is still the individual level. They all have pains and they all gotta work through their own issues, they all could use help from people, both from people who go through similar stuff and from people who are against them.

It feels like for all of those to be solved, it'd require collective effort from both parties to work through their own root causes, their differences, their pains, and while they're all in pain and with emotions such as hatred being let loose on the other side uncontrolled, no definitive solution will ever be achieved.

The best analogy I can come up with to explain my point are couples with troubled relationships. They build resentment which can turn to hatred real quick, they forget they're on the same team (we're all human and no one wants to feel hurt), they feed their own resentment and turn against eachother. Both have to heal from their past, have empathy and compassion with their partner, both have to be willing to do their part and put in the effort. Both need to learn how to communicate.

To me, it feels like that can apply to any social issue, war, political issue, economical issue, you name it, the United Nations is like a huge poly couple trying to do couple's therapy amongst themselves while some have already checked out emotionally from this relationship and others are still in too deep in their own hatred to add productively to that exchange. The thing is this affects millions of lives worldwide, the impact is huge and it mustn't be taken lightly.

That's humanity's major enigma, puzzle, issue, you name it: Achieving peace, enlightenment, equality, equity, justice, empathy, etc in a actually fair way without hatred, resentment, ill-will, greed, power struggles, manipulation, etc. IN ALL LEVELS, from personal relationships, day-to-day interactions, nation-wide issues, or global problems.

It may be impossible, it may be possible, all I hope for is that someday a genius be born and find a way to fix it in all levels so we can live in a utopy, even if in the current scenario it's totally unrealistic and farfetched.

Finally, I got one of my opinions on huge polemics out of my chest in 24 years of life, publicly, no matter if I'll be crucified for it or not.

I'm just a uneducated observer, sharing my maybe naive thoughts, in a rather childish and over-empathetic way, from the bottom of my non-confrontational people pleasing heart. Idk what sort of feedback I'll get for this, Idk how tf y'all gonna react to it, I'm just glad I got this off my chest.

If this is right or wrong, doable or not, offensive or not, that's up for y'all to decide.

#long rant #long reads #lgbtqia+ #sociology #social justice #politics #global #world #minorities #psychology #phylosophy #philanthropy #off my chest #social issues #gender ideology #political ideologies #racial justice #racial equality #racial diversity #racial disparities #races #united nations #population #state #feminism #sexism #gender roles #thoughts #life #meaning of life

[crratbc]

A more generous Social Security formula for calculating retirement benefits for low-income workers would be the most effective option.

#Social Security #poverty #low income workers #racial disparities #field work

[squaredawayblog]

A more generous Social Security formula for calculating retirement benefits for low-income workers would be the most effective option.

#Social Security #poverty #low income workers #racial disparities #field work

[alwaysbewoke]

#life expectancy #healthcare disparities #Black doctors #primary care #racial disparities #healthcare access #racial health disparities #healthcare equity #access to healthcare #minority representation #healthcare workforce #community health #social determinants of health

[blackmail4u]

How The Flawed Focus On Building Prisons According To Reading Scores Is Harming Black Children

The focus on using 3rd-grade reading levels to predict future prison needs is based on flawed assumptions and overlooks critical factors perpetuate harm to Black children. Click the link to learn more. #bllackmail4u #blackhistory #Prison-and-readingscores

Welcome to Black Mail; where we bring you black history, special delivery! In recent years, there has been a troubling trend in some policy circles: the use of 3rd-grade reading levels as a predictor for future prison construction needs. However, these claims seem to be unsubstantiated and even distorted. The idea that 3rd-grade reading scores can predict the need for more prisons is based on…

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#African American History #Black History #blackmail4u #Prisons and reading scores #racial disparities #Reading Achievement

[jaideepkhanduja]

The Color of Law by Mark Gimenez: A Gripping Legal Thriller Unveiling Justice, Morality, and Corruption

The Color of Law by Mark Gimenez: A Gripping Legal Thriller Unveiling Justice, Morality, and Corruption #TheColorOfLaw #LegalThriller #MarkGimenez #JusticeInFocus #MoralityTale #CorruptionExposed @ByMarkGimenez

“The Color of Law” by Mark Gimenez is a legal thriller that intricately weaves together elements of law, morality, and human struggle. It is a legal thriller that follows the story of Scott Fenney, a successful Dallas lawyer who is appointed to defend a black prostitute accused of killing the son of a powerful senator. Fenney must choose between his lucrative career and his conscience, as he…

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#Corruption #justice #Legal Thriller #Mark Gimenez #morality #Racial Disparities #social commentary #Suspenseful Plot

[gwydionmisha]

#Baby Formula #Racial Disparities #Inequality #News

[headlinehorizon]

Obesity's Deadly Connection to Heart Disease: Latest News from the Headline Horizon

Discover the alarming rise of obesity-related heart disease deaths in the U.S. and its impact on different racial groups. Explore the findings of a groundbreaking study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association that sheds light on this growing health crisis.

#headline horizon #news #latest news #obesity-related heart disease deaths #racial disparities #global health crisis