people of color – Engaging Peace

A truly patriotic American is….

Posted on February 29, 2016 by kathiemm

Photo of a peace flag by the US Capitol during the peace march on 2007-01-27.
Image by Rrenner at English Wikipedia and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

In my view, a truly patriotic American is an activist dedicated to the goals outlined in the Preamble of our Constitution. This entails the effort to “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”

I also believe that anyone who enjoys any benefits from living within a country purporting to be a democracy and providing at least some access to a democratically-based political process has the obligation to participate in that process—in particular by voting.

So, how do you become a patriotic activist in the United States? First of all you need to evaluate the current state of our system. Ask yourself some questions: is everyone in the country treated justly? If not who commits the injustices? Who suffers from the injustices? What will it take to reduce injustices—better laws? Reform of the judicial system? Who has the power to make those changes? How can you influence those power-holders?

And how about domestic tranquility? Is the United States aglow with domestic tranquility right now? If not, what individuals and groups are dividing Americans against themselves? What can be done to bring people together?

When today’s politicians use the word “defense,” are they really talking about defense or is the term “defense” a euphemism for terms such as conquest, imperialism, hegemony, domination? Do current governmental defense programs help or undermine the goal of defense? And would not the ultimate defense be living in peace?

And then we have the “general welfare” and “blessings of liberty”? Does having a higher level of income inequality than all other “developed” nations contribute to the general welfare of people in this country? In the long run, can it contribute to your welfare? How about racist, sexist, ethnocentric language, or attacks on people of color, or Jews, or Muslims, or Catholics, or immigrants? Do they contribute to the general welfare? Do they secure the blessings of liberty for you, your children, your grandchildren?

If not, then pay attention to the promises of this year’s candidates for political office. Do they offer adequate solutions to the challenges of democracy? Do some seem more tuned in to the problems than others? Think carefully, but act too. Vote.

There’s Blood on Their Hands—Lots of It

Posted on November 23, 2015November 25, 2015 by kathiemm

Anti-colonialism demonstrators before the 1945 Sétif and Guelma massacre of Algerians by the French
Image by Vikoula5 and in the public domain.

The recent massacre of civilians in Paris was horrific, unconscionable, and despicable—as has been the response in Paris, the US, and elsewhere in the West. Revenge, revenge, revenge is the resonating cry. The innocent victims of the terrorist attacks did not deserve their fate; nor did the innocent victims of centuries of French—and other Western, including American–colonialism.

The ethic of reciprocity, that “do unto others” Golden Rule, is a life- and fairness-promoting mantra; too often, we hear instead an “eye for an eye” refrain. Here we go again, with violence begetting violence and it is fool-hardy to think further violence will put an end to the discontent, the rage, the enmity associated in part with centuries of Western exploitation, repression, and violence in other parts of the world.

Let’s take the case of France. During the 1600s, France began establishing colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and India—although “establish” is a euphemism. What France did was aggressively seize control of areas far from its own borders, and rule them until control was seized by someone else, generally Great Britain (another model of ruthless imperialism).

In the mid-nineteenth century, France extended its strong arm into Africa, Indochina, and the South Pacific. When people whose skin is black, brown, or yellow—“people of color”—are ruled over by white people, history has shown us that the rulers do not grasp the hands of the indigenous people in brotherhood, whatever their national mottos might be. The bloody wars in Algeria and Vietnam were in my lifetime. Hard for me to believe that there are nations in these “modern” and “civilized” times whose leaders view it as okay to take over land long occupied by other people, or leaders who do not think of “colonization” as a dirty word.

Historical memory tends to be very long. For many decades after the last rebellious Native American Indian went to his reward, American children played “Cowboys and Indians,” and all those children, like you, knew who the “bad guys” were–at least according to the stories told to them.

Let’s start working on better ways of dealing with violence then engaging in yet more acts of revenge that can only perpetuate the cycle.

P.S. The attacks on Beirut and the Russian plane were just as unconscionable as the one in Paris and should not be brushed aside just because we are better able to see the French as like us.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Let’s face it, these guys get a lot of handouts. Part 1.

Posted on November 7, 2015 by kathiemm

Of course nobody wants to talk about this. At least most white people don’t. It’s sort of like admitting to some shameful disease you don’t want anyone to know you have. Or worse, it’s like admitting maybe you don’t deserve the great prize you got or even some of the little bitty ones that cost you so much time and effort.

The great prize for most white people (although some of them have a lot more of it than others) is white privilege—what Peggy McIntosh identifies as “an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day….”

Dr. McIntosh sees the resistance of most white people to the very idea of white privilege as similar to the resistance of many men to the suggestion that they have an advantage over women solely because of their sex, not because of any inherent superiority.

McIntosh shares her own journey to awareness of white privilege: “I began to count the ways in which I enjoy unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about its existence, unable to see that it put me ‘ahead’ in any way, or put my people ahead, overrewarding us and yet also paradoxically damaging us….”

To illustrate the advantages she can take for granted as a white person, she lists 46 privileges, including:

* “I can swear, or dress in secondhand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.

* If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.

* I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.”

No matter how good, honest, trustworthy, or deserving they may be, there are millions of people of color for whom these commonalities are not true, for no reasons other than the color of their skin and the racism degrading all of us.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Warning: this disease is contagious, deadly, and right in your own backyard

Posted on August 22, 2015August 22, 2015 by kathiemm

No racism.
Image by Martynas Barzda and is in the public domain.

Racism is as deadly as AIDS, as contagious as influenza, and as contemptible as human sacrifice—which indeed is what it is.

It has reached epidemic proportions in the US, and not for the first time.

As with most diseases, some groups appear to be particularly vulnerable both to becoming infected and to spreading their infections to others; these groups include, in frightening proportions, people responsible for the public welfare such as the police.

Even in the corporate media, and especially in the alternative media, evidence of brutal police harassment of people of color seems nearly ubitquitous:

Episcopal priest on road trip with interracial family shares harrowing story of police harassment

Police Harassment and Violence Against the Transgender Community

Undoubtedly, you are already aware of the rash of recent incidents wherein police attacked unarmed people of color and beat and/or murdered them by one means or another—in public places or paddy wagons or jail cells.

Here are a few recent cases you may have missed:

Walter Scott

Andres Green (15-years-old)

And here is a broad sampling of people of color killed in police custody between 2005 and 2014.

Virulent diseases can evolve into a number of different forms, and in the case of racism, forcible invasions of the vaginas of women of color are among the loathsome manifestations of the disease.

Imagine such things happening to you or someone you love.

But also recognize that while pernicious, the disease is not irradicable.

Sometimes a single person speaking out against injustice can make a difference:

A White Woman Confronts Police Harassing a Black Man, and the Result Is Stunning

And it took just one person to start a petition that gained thousands of signatures asking the United States Department of Justice to take over the investigation of the death in police custody of Sandra Bland :

Take Over The Investigation Into The Death of Sandra Bland From The Waller County, Texas Police Department.

Moreover, in the wake of the long overdue and desperately needed media attention to police lethality, major group initiatives have emerged, such as Black Lives Matter. Read this article about the significance of this movement

Black Lives Matter joins a long line of protest movements that have shifted public opinion — most recently, Occupy Wall Street

Climb aboard and be part of the solution.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology