Comments on: A Call to Action

By: Professor Zero

Professor Zero — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:21:34 +0000

Great post. YES the current mindwarp has been generated in order to maintain the status quo. Ditto the current focus on brown/black violence. ALSO, things are so bad now that just being quiet is attractive … I am less active than I was, I realize, and it is because I am less hopeful, or looking for an individual out … as in, what country should I move to.

Actual revolutionary movement, necessary, I think you’re right. Scary but true. I guess that means I’ll sign on!

By: John Moore

John Moore — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 07:09:14 +0000

Mariachiloco,

I agree with all you had to say. You are right to say that Christianity is not the only social institution that seeks community. But however we seek it, we must seek a community where former oppressors and former oppressed can live in unity and love.

And thank you for pointing out that non-violence does not mean resignation. It does not mean waiting or hoping. It means doing. Dr. King said (I can’t find the exact quote right now, it’s in a book I lent out), ‘Those that call for violence have something in common with those who say we should wait patiently. At the end of the day, neither of them do anything to end injustice, while the nonviolent activist accomplishes his goal.’

By: XicanoPwr

XicanoPwr — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:22:48 +0000

Paulo – ¡Hasta la victoria siempre, amigo!

By: XicanoPwr

XicanoPwr — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:20:51 +0000

mariachiloco – Gracias, I appreciate you stopping by and sharing your view. You have summed up everything I have been saying on this blog in your comment.

What Black and Brown communities need is to develop cultural, racial/ethnic awareness, understanding and knowledge of each other.

Absolutely!! In fact, I think that is the first goal we should start working on, if not we give into the divide and conquer.

Thanks again!!

By: XicanoPwr

XicanoPwr — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 14:24:59 +0000

andrea lewis – Welcome and thanks for stopping by. I guess the question is how long can we as individuals can actually invest personally to the struggle before we actually throw in the when we are so tied into monetary system. The whole monetary system is such a beast, it is everywhere. There is probably a way, but how is the question.

By: Paulo

Paulo — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 04:54:07 +0000

Arriba Con la Causa!

By: mariachiloco

mariachiloco — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 04:51:56 +0000

Keep it Up

By: mariachiloco

mariachiloco — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 04:12:54 +0000

Congrats Xicanopwr: Food For Thought
The Global is Local and the Local is Global:
Leaders, educators and communities need to provide students with multiple learning opportunities for them to develop their critical skills and dispositions for social action and to improve their life chances in a participatory democracy.
Building harmonious communities are not the exclusive domain of Christianity. Harmonious communities don’t have to coexist with entrenched systems of racism, classism, sexism and homophobia. Developing “community” has become a challenge for democracies that have had a history of personal, cultural and institutional discrimination against non-white peoples.
Is consensus needed for reaching an agreement on a common goal for the ideal society? Who controls the discourse, knowledge and power that decides? If we seek justice how do we define and decide which approach do use?
Violence breeds violence and continues the cycle of oppression. Non-violence doesn’t equate to accepting oppressive conditions but should be about utilizing alternative non-violent approaches to resisting oppression.
It is too easy to categorize societies as open or closed or democratic or non-democratic. No society is perfect and all fall somewhere along the continuum, are flexible and respond to internal and external pressures. To engage in “either or” explanations is binary and limited. For many Chicanos/Mexican-Americans, African-Americans/Blacks and other marginalized people the feeling of living under an “open society” has often felt like living in a closed society. The Supreme Court decision of Brown v Board of Education in 1954 outlawed segregation but did not eliminate it. Inner city schools today throughout the United States are more segregated then ever. Latinos and African-Americans in the United States continue to attend some of the most segregated schools in the most decrepit school buildings in the country. Race matters and society continues to struggle with addressing the legacy left by a history of personal, cultural and institutional racism against non-white peoples.
Racism and internalized racism foster the stereotypes and racial hatred espoused by the white minuteman and their people of color counter parts that support the anti-immigrant sentiments of their organization. Internalized racism is the offspring of systemic and structural racism. Oppression dehumanizes both the oppressor and the oppressed. Oppression can manifest itself in the forms of exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence.
The Black and Brown communities are not inoculated from internalizing personal, cultural and institutional stereotypes, prejudices and hatred about people of color. In my experience in working with these two groups discuss diversity and the stereotypes they had generated about each other, I found they often generate very similar stereotypes about each other. Some common stereotypes are lazy, not intelligent, dirty, thief, womanizers and many others. Stereotypes generalize and rationalize false perceptions of different groups. What Black and Brown communities need is to develop cultural, racial/ethnic awareness, understanding and knowledge of each other. Our struggles in the United Sates are unique but at the same time we have many similarities and aspirations. Our common grounds can help us build solidarity.
Latin-America has a lot to learn about racism. The Latino lens on “blackness” was skewed by the colonizer’s white Euro-centric attitudes, beliefs and values toward the indigenous people of Mexico. If you remember “Mimin Penguin” educated many in Latin American to develop negative perceptions, attitudes and beliefs toward dark people of color and indigenous populations in the Americas. The mantra of “quien es el mas chingon” plays itself at the local and global levels as well. Those that have the power or position themselves with the dominant power define the images of those less powerful.

By: andrea lewis

andrea lewis — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 02:02:49 +0000

i believe we are all trapped within a capitalist contextual finger puzzle. want out? keep struggling.

By: XicanoPwr

XicanoPwr — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 03:47:42 +0000

The whole brown vs black has been going on here in Texas for a long time, especially in Houston and Dallas. I agree with you Arcturus and Nez, I think it is ruling elites who are using thing as a divide and conquer. Nez I am glad you provided the link to your post and the one that Daniel did. I was really floored to see Sara say what she said, ethnic cleansing? That is total BS.

When I lived in LA, both the Brown and Black were united and the same thing occurred in Chicago, hell, even the gangs were united within the umbrella groups. It was not odd to find a Latino, an Asian and African American gangs united under an umbrella group. It frustrated me that here in Texas, we are like oil and water. It think we were just an experiment to see if we can be divided and conquer.