Thoughts on "Morbid" and Halloween

I am often called morbid in response to my interest in death. I find this extremely backward. The definition of 'morbid', aside from the physical definition of illness and disease, is an uncharacteristic propensity for gloomy thoughts. I ask questions about death, loss, etc. because we as a society don't know how to talk about it without deflecting or hiding behind something else. There are things people do concerning death in this society that I consider extremely morbid and probably contribute to us not having the capacity to deal with death in an entirely healthful way. Open-casket funerals come to mind. If you think about it for a moment, that shit is extremely traumatizing. I hate this practice. It feels wrong to gaze upon the body of your loved one in a too-expensive coffin, face made-up into a stranger, with that god-awful organ music in the background. It feels intrusive to me. This context is different than the medical study of bodies; forensics, etc. because there is something to be learned there. There is nothing to be learned from the open gazing upon a dead body in the funeral context. Just my opinion. I also don't like the feeling of walking over other dead people's graves to get to the nylon green tent set up over a gaping hole in the ground for the burial you are attending. There is something just unsettling about that.

This society is also morbid when it comes to profane, or everyday dealing with death. We speak in hushed tones, refer to the dead as "passed on", refer to the body as "remains", speak of a "better place", etc. The news shields us from our own dead bodies from the war, 9/11, everyday accidents, etc. In it's place, we glamourize death via movies and TV shows, trivialize it through video games and speech, we say this team "killed" the other team, we're "dying" of hunger.

For Halloween, we hang nameless, anonymous skulls and skeletons around, we buy fake blood for spattering, we make food creations resembling eyes, brains, guts, human limbs, maggots, etc. We volunteer to inject panicky fear into ourselves by visiting dark, "haunted" houses. This is morbid. It's fucked up.

Don't get me wrong, I like the fun of Halloween. But to me, Halloween can be fun without the aformentioned paragraph. I like costumes, dressing up, being spooky, etc. But spooky and morbid are two different things. I love scary movies, but this is not a Halloween-specific occurrence. Why don't we celebrate meaningful death, like Mexico's Dia de los Muertos or Japan's OBon? Here, death is remembered on a mass scale, but it is also meaningful because people are remembering who they actually lost. To just string up skeletons for decorative purposes with no meaning, is so devoid of any compassion and an example of how vacuous people can be.

Speaking of Halloween costumes, I hate when people use this day as an excuse to let their racist flag fly or be a gussied-up whore. Dressing up as a gypsy, an "Oriental", an "Arabic princess/genie", a MEXICAN (seriously, these ladies were trying on ponchos and sombreros in a Halloween store) is not a costume. You're just letting your secret racial ignorance be made public for a night. Don't get me started on the blackface costumes, nope not even going there. Now, I understand kids dressing up as gypsies/fortune tellers but parents should be a little more responsible in their children's costumes. For adults, there's no excuse. As for the whore costumes, there is a distinction. If it's an actual COSTUME, I have no beef with it. So I definitely understand the sexy nurse, police officer, fairy, princess, witch, she-devil, black cat, etc. I get it. What I don't vote for, are the blatantly made-up shits. Such as a costume I saw called the "Honey Bee". What the fuck is a honey bee costume if it's not an actual bee costume? Some antennae, and a couple of pieces of torn yellow fabric? -_- Just say no.

As for me and Crabby? Tonight we're going to be ain't shit at a party as a priest and pregnant nun. BAWSE. Pictures forthcoming.

I leave you with my last Halloween costume, from 2003 when I worked at a bookstore. I was a pimp, and my drag-queen co-worker Justin, was my ho. Yes, I had a purple fur (faux) coat. Yes, I had a cane. Yes, I had a "grill". Yes, my ho is puttin' that money in my hand. Yes, I know we were terrible, terrible people. We lived near each other at the time and worked 6am-2pm because we were on the inventory team. So I picked him up at 5am. Let that image marinate in your brains. The security guard at Justin's apartments was like O_o and it was hilarious to see customers unaware that Justin was a 'he'. Oh, and I had THEE STANKEST pimp voice ever all day. Good times, good times.

Chall doin' for Halloween?

Serena Williams and Body Image

Serena Williams is on one of several covers for ESPN magazine this month. There have been comments going around on various websites about this cover that run the gamut of opinions. What's interesting is that the negative comments I have seen are coming mostly from black women. Comments such as Serena's being exploitated by white men, she's whoring herself out, she has fallen into the trap of showin' naked ass, she's reduced herself to a sexual object and thus can no longer be a role model, etc.

Others have rightly pointed out white women who have posed nude for magazines and have been called graceful, beautiful, artistic, etc. Serena's cover is posed pretty much the same way as these and yet she doesn't get these same comments.

I personally don't see how you can look at this cover and not see a celebration of a well-sculpted human form that has served as the foundation for greatness in sport. She looks BEAUTIFUL here. All that chocolatey, dazzling skin with her curves is just stunning. I mean, Serena is a straight brickhouse. However, she is NOT bent over, booty cheeks spread open for the world to take a looksie. She is not spread-legged, crotch all out. There are no tittays all in our face. This is as artistic as you can get, especially for sports.

Black female sexual repression is alive and kicking, and surfaces almost daily in judgmental words. I'm not here to start a revolution, but I can definitely point out these pockets of historical effects manifesting themselves in people.

Point blank, this is a celebration, bitches. Not exploitation. Not whoring.

Eric Frimpong

Peeps, I feel so sick inside when events such as the following occur in this country. Progress is progress, but too many people--and specifically, minority racial group people, fall through the cracks (or get stomped through them, it seems). This is a long read, so take the weekend if you need to. However, I implore that you read the whole case. Share it with a friend. Post it on your blog. Don't be silent if this moves you. If it doesn't move you, maybe you're just used to it; too far gone over the bitter fence. If there's another reason, please share. I have pasted excerpts from the article to give a more concise version of the following case:

Eric Frimpong was an immigrant from Ghana who came to the US recruited to play soccor at his college. He was accused, convicted, and sentenced for rape based on virtually no evidence but the victim's testimony, who herself was heavily intoxicated and admitted to not having much memory of the night, AND with evidence of her boyfriend's semen on her panties the night of the rape. I have pasted excerpts from the article to give you a somewhat concise understanding of the following case:


Back in Ghana, in western Africa, he and his three younger siblings were raised by their mother, Mary, in the poor farming community of Abesin, but her job as a typist with the government forestry department allowed the family to have plumbing and electricity, unlike many of their neighbors. Eric was an engineering major and a midfielder for Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi, when he caught the eye of UCSB assistant Leo Chappel, who attended a 2005 match to scout the son of a Ghanian pro but ended up offering a scholarship to Frimpong instead.


Everyone around Frimpong was buoyed by his success: his mother, friends and classmates, prominent locals who had helped him out along the way with invites to dinner, rides to the store and, when he struggled with homesickness during his junior year, a fund-raiser that yielded $3,000 for a ticket to Ghana. "We all tried to pitch in, because Eric's so darn likable," says Tim Foley, a booster who made Frimpong a regular guest at his family's home. "He was an American success story."


The Monahans were especially proud. Frimpong had met his "American parents" on move-in day in 2005, and they promptly invited him to spend Thanksgiving in San Diego. They gave him his first cell phone and laptop and took him on family vacations. They sat in their kitchen for hours listening to his stories about Ghana. They were also impressed by his knowledge of the Bible, and his quiet spirituality helped bolster their own faith. "He was going to graduate, play professionally, make more money here than he ever could in Ghana and bring it back to support his family," Loni says. "Eric really had it all."


Frimpong's journey from soccer hero to convicted felon began a little more than halfway through his senior year. (The account that follows is based on police reports, interview transcripts, court proceedings and comments from trial observers.) The night of Feb. 16 began for Frimpong in the same place where he started most Friday nights, on the couch in his house at 6547 Del Playa Drive, watching a movie with housemates. His girlfriend, Yesenia Prieto, was working late, but Eric had reason to celebrate, fresh off an impressive 10-day tryout for the Wizards, so he showered and went to meet friends at a party at 6681 Del Playa Drive. It was outside that home, at about 11:30 p.m., that Frimpong met Jane Doe, a UCSB freshman. They struck up a conversation, then walked back to his house to play beer pong. They arrived just before midnight, and Eric introduced Jane to his roommates before taking her to the patio, where the two of them played beer pong for a few minutes until, according to Frimpong, Doe said she wanted to smoke, so they headed for the park next door. At the park, he says, Doe approached another male, who appeared to have followed them. When she walked back to Frimpong, she started kissing him, but he wasn't interested because she smelled of cigarettes. Doe became aggressive, he says, and stuck her hand down his pants. He pushed her away, then headed to the home of his friend, Krystal Giang, who'd been expecting him. By 4 a.m., he was in bed at Prieto's apartment.


About an hour and a half earlier, Jane Doe, accompanied by her sister and two friends, checked into Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital emergency clinic, claiming she had been raped. She was transferred to the Sexual Assault Response center downtown, where a nurse discovered a laceration to Doe's external genitalia and bruises on her body, findings consistent with sexual assault.


"Yesterday was a really good day," Doe told sheriff's detectives Daniel Kies and Michael Scherbarth when they arrived at her dorm room the next morning, according to a police transcript. The reason for cheer: The 18-year-old Doe had just regained her driver's license following a juvenile DUI conviction. At around 9 p.m. on Feb. 16, she went to a party. After stopping at a second party, Doe left the group and headed for a fraternity bash on Del Playa. "That's where I saw the guy," she told police.


From there, Doe's story is mostly consistent with Frimpong's, up to and including their game of beer pong. "He was really nice," she said. But their accounts differ sharply after that. According to Doe, the next thing she remembers is being on the beach, where the nice guy turned violent, knocking her to the ground, striking her in the face, holding her throat and raping her before fleeing. Having lost her purse, Doe walked to Del Playa, where she stopped a passerby, student Justin Hannah. Using his cell, she phoned a friend, her father and then her friends, who picked her up around 1:30 a.m. Doe, who admitted to drinking heavily throughout the evening, couldn't remember anything between stepping into their car and going to the hospital -- a period of one hour -- but her friends would fill in the blanks: At first Doe didn't want to go to the hospital because she was worried about getting in trouble for drinking. But back at the dorm, her friends kept urging, and she relented. Sitting with the detectives that morning, she described her attacker as a black male who spoke with an "island accent" and had "big lips" and short hair. His name? "Eric, I think."


Sometime around noon on Feb. 17, Kies and Scherbarth spotted Frimpong hanging out with friends at the park on Del Playa. When Kies asked if he would accompany them to the station to talk about "what happened last night," Frimpong agreed to go, despite being unsure what the detective meant. Once at the station, Kies reminded Frimpong that he had come voluntarily and asked him to describe what he'd been doing the previous night. According to the police transcript, Frimpong told Kies about watching a movie at home, then going to a party and eventually meeting Doe, whom he described as one of the "random soccer fans," and playing beer pong with her before heading to Giang's house and later to Prieto's. Kies then asked for Frimpong's consent to collect the clothes he'd worn the night before. "Yeah," Frimpong responded, "but I still don't know what's going on." Kies explained that the girl said that they'd "had sex" on the beach. "Wow," Frimpong responded. Kies then informed Frimpong that he was being detained and read him his rights. Minutes later, he explained the rape accusation. "I didn't have sex with her," Frimpong insisted. Charged with felony rape, he phoned Paul Monahan, who spread the word. Vom Steeg couldn't believe it: "I'm thinking, Frimpong? Rape? No way." (The coach later asked Frimpong directly. "I said, 'Eric, is there any chance you had sex but you thought maybe it was consensual?' He said, 'Tim, I never pulled my pants down.' I said, 'If you did this, DNA will prove it.' He said, 'Coach, I'm not stupid.' ")


When the test results came back in March, Frimpong's DNA hadn't been found on Jane Doe's clothing or body, but Doe's DNA had been found on Frimpong: in two nucleated epithelial cells, found on his scrotum and penis, and in an unspecified trace under his fingernail. (Epithelial cells are found inside the body and in body fluids like mucus, saliva and sweat. These tested negative as vaginal cells, but such tests can be inconclusive. When the case went to trial that November, the defense argued that the findings were consistent with Frimpong's claim that Doe had grabbed his genitals.) Also, semen found on Doe's underwear didn't match Frimpong's -- but it was a match for that of Benjamin Randall, Doe's sexual partner throughout her freshman year.


Despite having DNA evidence matched to him, Randall was never a suspect. Neither was the man who retrieved Doe's purse, which she said she'd lost either on the beach or at Frimpong's home. It was delivered to the sheriff's department the next day, minus $30, by someone described in the police report as a "can recycler." But because of a "language barrier," he wasn't questioned. Frimpong was the only suspect, even though there was no apparent sign of sexual activity -- no blood, semen, vaginal secretions -- or any scratches or other telltale marks of rape on his body or clothes. The absence of abrasions was odd. Doe told authorities she was wearing a "thicker ring" on her right ring finger and that she hit her attacker so hard, "all my knuckles were screwed up." There was also very little sand found on his clothes.


Throughout the investigation and during the trial, Doe admitted to gaps in her memory. In her interview with detectives, she claimed she had consumed "a couple shots of vodka" before leaving her dorm. In an interview that April with assistant district attorney Mary Barron, the lead prosecutor, Doe said she'd consumed more throughout the evening. "I know I had beer," she said. "And I know I had rum." She also acknowledged that her memory after beer pong was hazy. "That's when it starts to, like, cut out," she told Barron. According to the transcript, Doe had little memory of going to the beach, and her recollection of the rape itself was scattered. Asked whether she recalled going outside to smoke, Doe said she "probably" smoked but didn't remember when. "I don't even know, since there's that chunk missing."

So what happened on the beach? Doe said Frimpong may have tried to kiss her, but when pressed by Barron she admitted, "I have no clue. I'm just assuming…" She also said, "I remember him biting me on my face," even though she had told the emergency room doctor she thought she'd been hit, and when questioned by detectives, she said she didn't know about being bitten. Doe continued, "I saw him, like, feel around -- take off his belt -- or something on his pants -- I don't know." She said she remembered being penetrated, and "it felt like a penis." Barron asked if the attacker was the same person she'd played beer pong with. Doe said that while she couldn't recall going to the beach, she remembered the attacker's accent, his eyes ("They were white") and his lips ("They're big"). She was also fairly confident that the rape lasted "15 minutes at the most… but then, since there's that huge chunk of time that I don't remember, it could be anything."


Many of Frimpong's supporters believe that race is at the heart of the case. Santa Barbara County has nearly 425,000 residents, but only 2% are black. "I love this town," says Foley, a resident for 30 years, "but there's no question there's racism here." Thanks to Frimpong's celebrity status, he wasn't flying under the radar. "I'm 100% convinced that they were going to nail this guy before he walked into the station," Foley says. (At the trial, Burns testified that in a Feb. 22 phone call from Kies, the detective asked her to expedite her usual process, reminding her that this was a "high-profile case.")


The jury began deliberating on Friday, Dec. 14; the next Monday, just after 3:30 p.m., came the guilty verdict. On Jan. 31, 2008, with Frimpong in jail awaiting sentencing, the defense filed a motion for a new trial, citing several factors, including a development with the jury: In a written declaration to the court, juror Ann Diebold stated, "I regret the decision I made in finding Mr. Frimpong guilty." Among her many points was the court's refusal to provide the jury with evidence they had requested for review, including Doe's testimony and Frimpong's interview with Kies -- the latter because some jurors stated that they wanted "the opportunity to hear Mr. Frimpong's side of the story." (They were read only Doe's direct testimony, without cross-examination, because Judge Hill said "it would take some time to gather the additional information," Diebold wrote.) Diebold also claimed that the jurors rushed through deliberations so they could conclude the case by the Christmas holiday. "I felt pressure from the judge and other jurors to reach a verdict by Dec. 18," she wrote.

Sanger's motion was a last-second heave, but it allowed him to put his own forensic dentist on the stand. Defense expert Charles Bowers fell ill during the trial and was unable to testify, but at the hearing on Feb. 28, he delivered his opinion: Frimpong's teeth could not have made the bite, but Randall's (the victim's boyfriend) teeth could have. As Bowers spoke, there was a buzz in the gallery. But Judge Hill was unmoved. He began the hearing by saying that in his 27-year career, "I've not seen a rape case with so much incriminating, credible and powerful evidence," and ended it by dismissing the motion. Three days later, he sentenced Frimpong to six years.


"It's a terrible thing that happened to me," Frimpong says. "Being in here, I keep asking myself why God put me in that situation. And then it struck me: Maybe I can reach more people, help more people, if they hear my story." His supporters say it's working. "All you have to do is look at Frimmer's camp -- he hasn't lost anyone," Vom Steeg says. "In fact, since the trial, he's actually gaining supporters." In Ghana, Frimpong's plight is well-documented by the media. In Santa Barbara, people continue to proclaim his innocence, even when it's not easy to do so. After writing several opinion pieces in the local papers, Kim Seefeld was inexplicably subpoenaed to appear at the hearings on the motion for a new trial. (She was never called to testify.) "I got harassed by the DA, subpoenaed and threatened, all because I stuck my neck out for someone I believe is innocent," says Seefeld, who plans to continue her writing. "That's what happens to a citizen who dares to question our justice system in Santa Barbara."


And then there are the letters from all over the world, many containing donations. "These are people who don't even know Eric, have never spoken directly to him," Loni Monahan says with awe. "Eric was born to be a pro soccer player, but he's realized he has more impact in the direction he's going. There's a groundswell going on." The key addition to Team Frimpong is Ronald Turner, a Sacramento-based, court-appointed appellate attorney who has filed the opening brief in an appeal with the Second Appellate ­District of California. The process gives Frimpong hope.

Full article here. Originally peeped here.

Arab, Middle-Eastern...White?

I have always been fascinated by multicultural studies and racial/ethnic classification. One under-studied facet of race has been the racial/ethnic identity of Middle-Easterners and Arabs. The United States officially classifies people from these regions as white. However, I have never thought of them as what we consider white (although some do "look" white), and I am willing to bet many of you haven't either.

Discussions on race/ethnicity are of course always based on the foundation that race is a social construction. We know this, accept this, and move on. But operating within and under this social construction, there are still many valid points and feelings because self-identity is a crucial component of individual and societal development.

I recently read an article about Middle-Eastern and Arab students applying to UCLA and not having an option to check the racial/ethnic classification they were looking for. Most did not identify with being "white" so some checked other options. Here are some quotes from the article, in italics:

For years the federal government has classified Arab Americans and Middle Easterners as white. But confusion and disagreement have led some students to check "Asian" or "African," depending on what part of the Middle East they came from. Some, like Salame, simply marked "Other."

This is interesting to me because if you think of countries and regions usually associated with the Middle East (including but not limited to Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen), you rarely hear them in the context of the continent they are situated in; they are usually mentioned as a totally separate entity from Africa or Asia.

The UCLA students said having their own ethnic designation goes beyond self-identity and has real implications for the larger Arab and Middle Eastern communities.

The "white" label can hurt them with universities and companies that use the information to promote diversity, they say, and can result in the gathering of little or no statistical data on important issues, such as health trends in the community.

The Arab American Institute estimates that including Middle Easterners in the white category on the census has led to a population undercount of more than a million, said Helen Samhan, who works at the institute. There are more than 3 million Arabs in the United States, the institute says.

I also feel it's important to make a distinction between Middle Eastern and Arab people because not every Middle-Easterner is Arab and not every Arab is a Middle-Easterner (North Africans, etc.). Also, people further assume Middle Eastern and/or Arab equals Muslim and that is not always the case either.

I feel that we, especially in the United States, have a lot to learn about the nuances and distinctions between people of Middle Eastern or Arab descent and issues of racial and/or ethnic classification and self-identification. What comes to your mind when you think of Middle Eastern people or Arab people? Do you agree with their classification in the United States as white people? Why or why not? I also welcome any discussion/enlightenment from people more knowledgeable than me on this subject.

Obama Inspires Black Iraqis

I read a most interesting article on CNN a couple of weeks ago. The article highlighted the experience of black Iraqis (mostly male). This is something that I (and I imagine most Americans) never hear or read anything about. We hear about religious conflict all the time, but never consider the race problems other countries can experience. The article also reflects how much people in other countries are affected by stories in America. The fact that black Iraqis see Obama's rise to success in a foreign country and it gives them hope that their circumstances will change in their home country is amazing to me. Here are some of the highlights from the article:


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Their faces and darker skins make them look different. They are routinely called "slave" by the majority, whatever their profession. But Iraq's black population hopes that Barack Obama's rise to the White House will mark a turning point for minorities not just in the United States, but also in their country.


Jalal Thiyab Thijeel, general secretary of the "Movement of Free Iraqis," followed every detail of Obama's election campaign. "Inspiring," he calls it. Inspiring politically, and personally. Like Obama, Thijeel has family roots in Africa.



Thijeel's organization estimates there are approximately 2 million black Iraqis. The country's total population is more than 28 million, most of them ethnic Arabs. It's impossible to verify Thijeel's estimate, since the government does not keep statistics on race, but there is no denying there are many black Iraqis in the southern city of Basra.



Their history goes back 1,000 years to the time when Africans were brought as slaves to the south of Iraq to drain marshes and build Basra. Many Iraqis still call blacks "abed," an Arabic word that means "slave." Thijeel grimaces when he pronounces it. It's demeaning, he says, and he wants the government to forbid its use. Many white Iraqis claim the word isn't meant to offend, but Thijeel says they have no idea how hurtful it is. "I never want my son to go through this," he says.



The Movement of Free Iraqis was founded two years ago and on January 31 it will run the first slate of black candidates in Iraq's modern history. Thijeel hands me the party's documents that spell out its demands. Foremost is that the government recognize blacks as an official minority in Iraq. This is key, because power in Iraq is apportioned along ethnic, religious and even tribal lines. The party also wants an apology for slavery, although it is not asking for financial reparations. The movement also wants laws to combat racial discrimination.

Full article here.

Another Racially Profiling Incident Leads to a Shooting?

A former high school classmate of mine was shot last night in his own driveway, next to his car that the police claimed was "stolen". He and his cousin were laying on the ground of the driveway per police orders, his mother came outside to protest, one cop pushed her up against a wall, Robbie tried to complain and was shot as he stood up...he had no weapons. They live in an affluent part of Houston, the suburb Bellaire. They were black; the cops white. The car was not stolen. He was unarmed. 2 other shots missed Robbie. He is expected to recover and there is an investigation going on now.

Here is the full article.

There are over 1000 comments on that story already. This one stuck out to me:
Did the idiot cop by any chance think the house was stolen too? j/k-How else do you explain shooting someone outside of their house with a car registered to that address?

Update: The bullet is lodged in his liver; he will likely have to live with it the rest of his life. Click here for an updated article.

Black or African-XXXX?

I was going to do a post on this once I got the time, but the Black Snob has tackled it. She asks if people identify as black or African-American. Here is the comment I left:

I identify as black, sometimes black-American. Not every black person in America is African-American, and not every African-American is black. I also think the term African-American helps feed into ignorant people's notion that Africa is a country, not a continent.
Yes, we have an ugly history in this country, but like Snob said, most of us are so removed from our African ancestry, we don't have any relatives that we know of where we can track what country they came from. My grandmother is Bahamian-American, and that branch came from mixed black-white-native ancestry....but that's only one sliver of my ancestry that I happen to know. I do not identify with the term African-American.....it's all socially constructed anyway, but I am black-American.

So how do YOU identify? This question is not just for Americans. If you are black and live in Europe, how do you identify? If you are bi-racial, how do you identify? If you are Asian, do you identify as Asian, or as Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean-American, etc.? How about Hispanic (which is totally a made-up category amongst made-up categories, but that's another post)?

What A Magical Time

I truly feel like a global citizen after last night. Seeing the reactions around the world is amazing. People in the United States are often living in their own created bubble, they wonder why would other countries care who our president is?

I participated in this piece of history. I see the tears in so many people's eyes; tears that reflect so many memories and hopes and it makes me tear up in turn.

The way Obama looked when he was giving his speech last night almost gave me chills. The gravity of this, the enormity of it all seemed to register on his face. He is taking this seriously and people need to know and see this.

This beautiful family is representing our country....it truly is amazing. What a magical time.

Visit The Black Snob for many more awesome photos of the First Family.

Hair Idol!

This is Sabina Karlsson of Swedish and Gambian descent, my hair idol. My hair wants to like her hair when it grows up. I am three years in to the natural game, and my current length is almost mid-back when stretched. My texture is somewhat similar to hers. No red hair though (that is SO AWESOME). My hair progress can be found here. Anyhoo, this girl is gorgeous! I love seeing people of multiple races/ethnicities being represented in a (somewhat) mainstream fashion.

Picture peeped at Mane & Chic.

Genocide and Tragedy on a Micro-level

When many people hear/read about global tragedies such as the genocide in Rwanda, they feel horrified, sad, and helpless because of the grand scale of these events. But when you hear an individual's story of suffering and the unfathomable torture he/she endured, it makes it that much harder to ignore or push aside.

Maryam, a human-rights worker, shares the following story in her blog that was told to her by a victim. I am pasting it here:

Rwanda's genocide: and Vestine's story
She has a small, neat head, her features delicately sketched, her teeth very white. Her grey suit is too large for her narrow frame but her cream shoes are polished and she moves with a certain elegance on ankles impossibly slim.

Her name is Vestine. She's 42 and she survived the Rwandan genocide.

Vestine was rounded up one night and held captive in a stadium with others. Left without food, on the fifth day, she began to eat grass, one green blade after another. It was that day, too, that a soldier marched her to the sordid bathroom and ordered her to take off all her clothes. Her hands twisting in her lap, she says,

"He told me he wanted to see if Tutsi women were made differently than Hutu women. Then...then he raped me."

The next day it was a different soldier, this one trying to force his penis into her mouth. When she protested, he clubbed her on the head. With her fingers lightly tapping her face, Vestine describes how the blood streamed into her eyes and down her nose, as she did what he required.

Vestine's story continues, relentless. After they had had their fill of her, you see, the soldiers would force her down on her hands and knees, straddle her back, and ride her around the stadium like a donkey, beating the soles of her feet with a stick urging her to go faster and faster.

When she was finally brought back to her home, Vestine found her husband and two brothers on the floor, hacked to death by machete. By day, she was raped over and over by a soldier who held her captive. By night, the dogs would come and feast on the rotting bodies of the people she loved most.

After weeks, Vestine was ordered to the local Hutu commander's house who wanted a piece of the action. Vestine fought back, perhaps her fatal mistake. Her voice faltering, she looks down at her lap and whispers,

"The commander took a knife and then he mutilated my genitals, cutting off ....cutting off everything I had left there. Then....then, he made me swallow what he had taken from me."

Vestine survived the genocide, rescued by a Hutu neighbor who hid her. Two of her three children also survived, the third was killed by a grenade when he tried to flee into the mountains.

It was only seven years later that Vestine -- broken and sick -- found out that she had been infected by HIV/AIDs.



Vestine, and many like her, are now being helped by AVEGA, a Rwandan NGO dedicated to widows of the genocide. Their funds are small but their hearts are big.

Could you, would you find room in your heart to help, too? In a different dark life, in a different dark space, it could have been you, in Vestine's place. It could have been me in Vestine's place.

Is fifty dollars too much? Or perhaps 25 dollars if times are tough? You can make a contribution via paypal to the following address: Tammy.Cody@gmail.com. I will personally make sure that the money is used to help Vestine and others. And please do also email me at maryam@mtds.com so I can thank you and share with Vestine who you are.

Vestine will be so grateful. She didn't want to let go of my hands after we talked -- care and kindness mean so much to her after what she has been through.


Any mentions on blogs would be incredibly appreciated, too. I promise you -- with a certainty that is desperately sad -- that this will be the most meaningful money you spend all month.

My week has been filled with horror -- I can't look away. Please, please, don't you look away, too.


This story reinforces my desire to work in the human rights field. I hope if you read this and don't know about what happened in Rwanda that you will research it. I hope that even if you cannot or will not help Vestine that you will at least remember her story and keep it with you.

Black Children with Blonde Hair and Crocodile Scars

In Melanesia (also referred to as the Black South Pacific?), a sub-region of Oceania, there are black people with blonde hair. This is seen more frequently in children. Click here for an article about the blondism trait in genetics and some theories on the isolation of this occurence.


Photo Credit-John Friedlander



Found at this link




Found here.


I saw this interesting episode of Taboo on National Geographic about Rites of Passage. Featured were boys from Papua New Guinea who "become men" through having their skin cut thousands of times to then heal and scar over to resemble the flesh of the crocodile. The boys featured were aged 14-18 years old, and they must go through with this ritual to be considered men. One man interviewed said villagers will refer to a boy/man who has not gotten cut as a man-woman. It is said the blood from the cuts represents the bleeding out of the mother's essence, so that all that is left is manhood. Below is video from the show. If you are squeamish, then sweet, minty Jesus don't watch it. Also, NSFW.



I would love to learn more about the Oceania region of the world, so I gotsta find some good reading material.

Indifference Is One of the Worst Forms of Cruelty

Wow. Two Roma/Gypsy girls drowned in Italy, and their bodies were covered with towels, waiting for police collection. Italian beach-goers were photographed going about their own beachy-business; indifferent to the CORPSES LAYING RIGHT THERE! There is apparantly tension between Italians and the Roma/Gypsy minorities (many who are illegal immigrants).

How does this even work though? Even if some Italians hate Gypsies, how did they know that those bodies were Gypsy girls? Or did they just not care either way and refused to let dead bodies interrupt their merry day?! Did the Italians go up and look under the towel and said Gypsies! Bah! And then go back to sun-bathing? Did they sun-bathe and someone informed them that there were dead Gypsies? My mind is boggled. What hurts more than random sunbathers/onlookers is the fact that the bodies weren't at least cordoned off in some fashion---this part is where thoughts of racism/discrimination really seep in.

Here is an interesting excerpt from the events:

In a statement published on its Web site, the Italian civil liberties group EveryOne said Saturday's drowning had occurred in an atmosphere of "racism and horror" and cast doubt on the reported version of events, suggesting that it appeared unusual for the four girls to wade into the sea, apparently casting modesty aside and despite being unable to swim.
"The most shocking aspect of all this is the attitude of the people on the beach," the statement said. "No one appears the slightest upset at the sight and presence of the children's dead bodies on the beach: they carry on swimming, sunbathing, sipping soft drinks and chatting."

Click here for the full article from CNN.

Pampers Commercial

Dudes, I told my husband that I thought this commercial was kind of racist a while ago, but I don't think he saw it at the time. Click here for the Sociological Images website's take on it. The website states some of the same issues I had with the commercial: The Western white woman is envisioning all the Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, and Latin babies she will be saving by purchasing Pampers. Just disregard all those other races/ethnicities that are just as representative as the white woman of the United States. Oh, and of course there aren't any white babies from any other poor or developing countries in need of the magical life-saving powers of Pampers-purchasing. Don't forget to show the babies and mothers the white woman will be saving in "native attire" for the most dramatic effect!

Sociological Images also brings up something else important. Why can't these companies just buy life-saving vaccines or other *insertgoodcausehere*? Why do we have to buy their junk to have a portion go toward the vaccines?

Chinese South Africans Are Black

Wow.

Talk about shifting perspectives on race depending on where you live. Apartheid really f*cked up everything in South Africa. I need a good book on the history of Apartheid.

Perspective On Wealth in Africa

I was going through the archives of a blog I enjoy, and came across this post on a British man sharing his experience in Kenya and his observations on race and wealth in Africa. It makes so much sense that maybe the white person's wealth stands out more in Africa because whites are the minority there but black Africans have the highest concentration of wealth. Since they're the majority, we see more of the poor, struggling people so when compared, the view gets skewed.

Racial Identity

I love articles and information about this topic. This Wall Street Journal article really delves into it.

I remember being amazed when I was younger when I found out that people ethnically of the Middle East and North Africa are considered white in the US. I also remember being fascinated with the classification of Hispanic people; how they can be any race.

Mixed race/ethnicity is such a blurred line for many people. Where do you cut it off? For instance, my paternal grandmother is ethnically Bahamian which (on this particular branch of ancestry) is biracial (black and white) with Scottish and English roots (along with the African roots). I like to acknowledge my Bahamian culture and read up on it but I would never say I was biracial or even Bahamian (blog title be damned).

For me, if another race or ethnicity debuted in your ancestry further than great-grandparent status, I wouldn't claim it. But to each his or her own. Any sociologist/anthropologist will tell you there is nothing biological about race; it is a social construct so people really should not get so hot and bothered over this issue. It is sad when I hear other black people claim they are "mixed" because they are Jamaican and Haitian (for example). People, learn the difference between race and ethnicity first. Be proud of your heritage but it does not elevate you above those who are not sure/cannot be sure of their heritage because of slavery.