Latest Posts by arieso226 - Page 5

Pre-Colonial Africa

The book ‘Pre-Colonial Black Africa’ written by Cheikh Anta Diop wrote the text entitled ‘’Pre-Colonial Africa’’ because no one has looked at the history of Africa before colonialism. Researchers tend to look at Africa afterward, and even more so the condition of what its people have survived against European oppression. (xi.) Until now…. the history of Black Africa has always been written with dates as dry as laundry lists and no one has ever tried to find the key that unlocks the door to the intelligence, the understanding of Africa. It is also used as a key discussion between the comparisons of Africa in Europe, and a finding at the interesting focus of Africa in each country, how different societies are and how they differ now, the usage of the caste system, and the ecosystem benefited each person, slave, chief, and noble.

  He conducted his research thoroughly, by looking heavily into the societies of ancient Africa, their caste systems, and their hierarchies throughout each society in various countries and empires, like Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, the most powerful empires. The history of their empires, their politics, their religions, and their way of life is described in perfect detail, showcasing that Africa was not the primitive world in which everyone on the globe, including Europe and America, believes they are. The author explains that through intense research into the countries of Africa, their traditions, their beliefs, their politics, African, or black contribution could be seen in modern Europe, from Italy with the Moors, since they colonized it, to Britain; and that 2) yes, Africa was at a great disadvantage with Western colonialism, but that does not mean that Africa was a ‘backwater’, in a sense. (pg. 74) But, as you can well be imagined, such clans were far from being as primitive as one might offhand have thought: They were not without the after-effects of the earlier imperial epoch. That is why ethnologists, to their immense surprise, but without exception, always discover in the organization, but are more advanced; they often do not hesitate to attribute this to a phenomenon of degeneration, supposing that these populations, living today in so primitive a state, had in the past experienced some forgotten great period.

On pg.40, Diop researches briefly the Middle Ages, where knowledge relapsed enormously, but at the time of Charlemagne, the knowledge which had vegetated in the monasteries became vast, where it spread out to Ireland and England; then he talks about the Greeks and the Turks, especially Aristotle, the only Greek philosopher to be studied and was considered on the thinkers of the Middle Ages. Basically, a recalling of European politic-social evolution, and switches to a detailed comparative study on African politico-social organizations, and the second method is the citing Al Bakri and Ibn Khaldun concerning the empire of Ghana (tenth and eleventh centuries), and Battuta on the Empire of Mali (1352-1353). So, why did Africa and its imperial system not create a capitalistic system of their own? Different from Europe is that the meaning of the word, ‘capitalism’ is based on the idea of individualism. Africa, at the time, had no sense of that word.

   Since there was a caste system held in support, there was no power struggle and no competition needed. The king and the little local lord knew that they owned slaves and that they ruled the entire country, the extent of which they knew perfectly well and whose inhabitants paid them a specified tax. Yet they never felt that they owned the land. The African peasant’s situation was, therefore, diametrically opposed to that of the serf bound to the soil and belonging, along with the land he cultivated, to a lord and master. There was no economic or sociologic reason for capitalism, since in Africa, poor or rich, the people had viable access to resources; From an economic viewpoint, Africa is characterized by abundance. Travelers of the precolonial era encountered no poverty there; according to the Tarikh el Fettach, the emperor of Ghana, seated upon a ‘platform of red gold,’ daily treated the people of his capital of ten thousand meals. Such material comfort resulted in an increase in demographic density scarcely imaginable today…Modern capitalism, wherever it may be found, is a European export and not the result of natural local evolution. It came to Africa with exploitation and usage of greed. 

“But if you forget to reblog Madame Zeroni, you and your family will be cursed for always and eternity.”

Intersectionality in regards to social science

Modern society in America, as a fact, has adapted the constructed norms of the Victorian Era in England, by which I mean how economic class, race, and sexuality is managed, or for lack of a better term, is misconstrued with eurocentric ideals; Since the creation of the United States, the only way you would be able to receive the privileges society holds was if you were white, straight and economically secure.

Throughout the decade, society has changed drastically when it comes to talks on these particular subjects, but we still have a long way to go in advancing a better community for everyone. Intersectionality, created or introduced in the 1980s, ‘‘as a heuristic term to focus attention on the vexed dynamics of difference and the solidarities of sameness in the context of discrimination and social movement politics. It exposed how single-axis thinking undermines legal thinking, disciplinary knowledge production, and struggles for social justice. Over the intervening decades, intersectionality has proved to be a productive concept that has been deployed in disciplines such as history, sociology, literature, philosophy, and anthropology as well as feminist studies, ethnic studies, queer studies, and legal studies.’’

So intersectionality is quite popular in learning all these studies. Patricia Hill Collins, a sociologist famous for writing the book ‘Black Feminist thought’ and ‘Race, Class, and Gender, writes about the politics of gender and race, and how they shape and influence knowledge. Epistemology is the study of knowledge, and Collins theorized that race and gender are part of our ‘social being’. ‘‘Social science argues that to truly understand society and group life one must be removed from the particulars and concerns of the subjects being studied. In this way, subjects are turned into objects of study. Collins’ (2000) alternative epistemology claims that is it only those men and women who experience the consequences of social being who can select ‘topics for investigation and methodologies used’ (p. 258). Black feminist epistemology, then, begins with “connected knowers,” those who know from personal experience—Rather than believing that researchers can be value-free, Collins argues that all knowledge is intrinsically value-laden and should thus be tested by the presence of empathy and compassion. Collins sees this tenet as healing the binary break between the intellect and emotion that Eurocentric knowledge values.’’

The World vs. Palestine

You’ve probably heard or have already known about what is currently happening in Palestine. For those that don’t, the simple answer is the ongoing difficult questions about the ownwersip of land. Most people in the U.S call it a conflict or a ‘war’. But the genuine problem is that Palestine is in constant suffering, foregoing settler colonialism, military occupation, land theft, and ethnic cleansing from their neighbor, Isreal. It makes us ask ourselves why it is important to take a stand against oppression and injustice everywhere, and the scary nature of ‘othering’.

So, what are the arguments that started the deaths of so many Palestinians? From Israel, their argument is that Jerusalem is their homeland, and seeks the return of Jewish authority after 2000 years of being an ineffective exile. They have retained their culture and kept their holy land, Jerusalem, in all that time. Because Jews have kept a presence there for most of history, even if they were the minority, they say they represent the oldest definable group of people/culture still in existence that claim the land, and that all previous occupations and expulsions of their people were unjust, and it is rightfully theirs to return to, even if it means displacing the Palestinians. ‘‘The interactions between the Israeli authorities and the Palestinian [Hammas] including negotiations have always been based on respective political dynamics rather than on a sincere desire to establish peace. Most importantly, these events frustrated the peace negotiations between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli government. ’’

The Palestinian argument is that the Jews cannot suddenly ‘reclaim’ land when someone else is already living in it. Having relatives living somewhere 2000 years ago doesn't give you the right to take someone else’s home. The Palestinians as they exist today have been living there, close to 1300 years. Before the creation of ‘Isreal’ only 73 years ago, Palestinian Christians, Jews, and Muslims, peacefully co-existed in Palestine. The plight of the Jews, who have suffered in Europe, is not the Palestinians fault, as they have never tried to genocide them. There have been tensions, but for the most part, they have lived peacefully side by side, until those same Jews decided that they wanted control over their land. The Palestinian Christian community is the oldest Christian community in the world. According to the Congressional Research Service, ‘‘Israeli military occupation has been supported by U.S aid with 3.8 billion a year paid for by U.S tax dollars since 2016 for the next ten years. It is also supported by other countries who strike to oppress other small groups and countries like Canada, Australia, France, and Belgium. For FY2021, the Trump Administration requested $3.3 billion in FMF for Israel and $500 million in missile defense aid to mark the second year of the MOU. The Administration also requested $5 million in Migration and Refugee Assistance humanitarian funding for migrants to Israel.’’

Because Isreal has the support of these dominating countries like the United States and other colonial powers like the U.K that this will go on. For them to call out ‘Isreal’, they would have to start to answer questions about their origins and existence for the people they have colonized. So for those who believe it is just a ‘religious conflict’? It is not. A conflict means there is equal footing, the same way war would have two groups fighting equally. The Israeli government is spreading misinformation about its own settler-colonial existence, in order to conceal the fact that they ethnically cleansed and massacred over 540 Palestinian towns and villages in 1948, when they were previously called Zionist terrorists, and their village names replaced with new Hebrew placed names. Isreal is responsible for over 7.2 million Palestinian refugees and denies them their legal right of return. Saying that it’s a simple ‘religious conflict’ denies Palestine their right to liberation, justice, and freedom.

Free Palestine

The Abuse of Police Power

Occurrences on the news shows police brutality almost every day; just recently, Dereck Chavin, the cop who murdered George Floyd was charged with murder, and though that was a serious win, at the same time Makiyah Bryant was killed by the Columbus Police Department. The system has and always will be a discriminatory one based on race and class, and unless there’s real.

The first documented and filmed case of abuse of police power was the beating and death of Rodney King; then in 2014 the death of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Normally, the Bill of Rights is supposed to protect your rights from normally being harassed from a task or police force, like the fourth amendment, which involves the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, which means the Constitution declares a person has the right to be secure in their homes and in their persons against unreasonable searches and seizures. A person has the right against arrest without probable cause and the right to due process of law. Not every police member is a racist, but every police member is a part of a racist and oppressive system.

Forty years ago, the Bill of Rights used to protect every citizen from brutality, wasn’t taken as seriously as it is today in court justice proceedings around the country, most likely because modern technology hadn’t progressed as it has now, where if you hear any word of police assaulting a citizen, you can be sure it will be filmed. ‘’Police operations during that period were often far more informal than they are today, and investigating officers frequently assumed that they could come and go as they pleased, even to the extent of invading someone’s home without a search warrant. Interrogations could quickly turn violent, and the infamous “rubber hose,” which was reputed to leave few marks on the body, was probably more widely used during the questioning of suspects than many would like to believe. Similarly, ‘doing things by the book’ could mean the use of thick telephone books for beating suspects, since the books spread out the force of blows and left few visible bruises.’’

Every branch of the government, including the legislative, judicial, and presidential branches of the government is supposed to be held accountable by the other branches. The system was designed to ensure that no other individual or agency can become powerful enough to take away the rights and many freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution but without that accountability, a police agency can have absolute power based more on political considerations and personal vendettas than objective considerations on guilt or innocence. The court systems would become the area for resolution, not just between citizens and the agencies of government. After handling by the justice system, individuals who feel that they have not received respect and dignity under the law can appeal to the courts for correction. Those appeals can be based on procedural issues and are independent of more narrow considerations of guilt and innocence. In the case of search and seizure, there have been many court cases that involve illegally searches and seizure, which is any evidence seized without regard to the principles of due process as described by the Bill of Rights, particularly the fourth amendment, which says, ‘the rights of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the individuals or things to be seized’; most illegally seized evidence is the result of police searches.’

The Fourth Amendment, a part of the Bill of Rights, was adopted by Congress and became effective on December 15, 1791. The first case concerning search and seizure was that of Weeks. U.S (1914), whose case was upturned because federal agents found the right man, suspected of breaking a federal crime by using the U.S mail to sell lottery tickets, but unfortunately the case was overturned because those federal agents conducted a home search without a warrant; nevermind that they found incriminating evidence. Which means that Weeks, whom federal agents could have proved to a federal/Supreme Court that he was guilty, was set free because the police were also guilty. The Weeks case forms the basis of what is now called the exclusionary rule, which holds that evidence illegally seized by the police cannot be used in a trial. The rule acts as a control over police behavior and specifically focuses on the failure of officers to obtain warrants authorizing them either to conduct searches or to effect arrests, especially where arrest may lead to the acquisition of incriminating statements or to the seizure of physical evidence. The decision of the Supreme Court in the Weeks case was binding, at the time, only on federal officers because only federal agents were involved in the illegal seizure.

There are exceptions to the exclusionary rule, of course, like the exception of the fleeting target that permits law enforcement officers to search a motor vehicle based on probable cause but without a warrant, and is predicated on the fact that vehicles can quickly leave the jurisdiction of a law enforcement agency. Any search and seizure that was illegally obtained or violated due process will be seen as ‘tainted evidence’. The Silverthorne Lumber case (1920) created a new legal principle that excludes from introduction at trial and any evidence later developed as a result of an illegal search is called the fruit of the poisonous tree. When an emergency search is needed, it is justified for the police on the basis of some immediate and overriding need, such as public safety, the likely escape of a dangerous suspect, or the removal or destruction of evidence. Several cases improved the light on this, like Maryland vs. Buie (1990), which extended the authority of police to search locations in a house where a potentially dangerous person could hide while an arrest warrant is being served. Searches like this can save lives by disarming felons or by uncovering medical reasons for an emergency situation; they may also prevent suspects from escaping or destroying evidence. Emergency searches can fall under the exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. The Legal Counsel of Division of the FBI provides the guidelines, after the 1979 case of Arkansas v. Sanders, where the Supreme Court had ruled, ‘‘where the societal costs of obtaining a warrant, such as danger to law officers or the risks of loss or destruction of evidence, outweigh the reasons for prior recourse to a neutral magistrate.’ The guidelines and conditions apply that 1.) There was probable cause at the time of the search to believe that there was evidence concealed on the person searched, 2.) there was probable cause to believe an emergency threat of destruction of evidence existed at the time of the search, 3.) the officer had no prior opportunity to obtain a warrant authorizing the search, 4.) and the action was no greater than necessary to eliminate the threat of destruction of evidence.

The Massacre of Wounded Knee

The Massacre of Wounded Knee was one of the most devastating, horrifying acts of cruelty committed by soldiers of the U.S Army. Innocent men, women, and children of the Lakota tribe were shot to death, and over fifty-one were wounded, who soon succumbed to their injuries later. Over 250 people tragically died on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. And what exactly was the victim’s crime for death? The sacred dance, ‘Ghost Dance’.

‘‘The Ghost Dance, created by a Pauite Indigenous man from Nevada by the name of Wovoka, is an indigenous religious movement that envisioned the coming of a Native Messiah and a millennium marked by the return of the depleted game, the resurrection of deceased Indigenous relatives, and the supernatural disappearance of Euro-American colonizers. Misconstructing the Ghost Dance as insurrectionary, the U.S Government sent troops to suppress the feared threat to American sovereignty. The 7th Calvary, on December 29, 1890 held Lakota Chief Big Foot and his people in custody at the site; as the troops disarmed the Lakota people of weapons the next day, when an errant shot fired which lead to the resulting chaos.’’

Twenty-five soldiers also died and thirty-nine were also injured, and six of them succumbed and died later on. The army had rushed in additional forces under Colonel James W. Forsyth, who had quickly surrounded the encampment. To the army, disarming the Lakota people was seen as a peaceful measure, designed to eliminate the tribe’s capacity to launch the violent outbreak. To the Lakota and Big Foot’s followers, the plan appeared to leave them vulnerable to violence. ‘‘For all the Lakota’s obvious displeasure at the disarmament order, neither group seemed prepared for a fight that morning. For their part, the Lakota were not only outnumbered, out-armed, and flying a white flag of truce; they risked placing their families in danger if they launched any violent resistance. Because of the disarmament procedure, the two groups were so close together when the fighting began that most combatants had little time to reload. The initial conflict thus rapidly devolved into a bitter hand-to-hand struggle. Once the soldiers closest to the Indian camp had either fallen or retreated, however, the supporting troopers were able to bring their fire to bear on the camp with deadly effect. Particularly devastating were the four Hotchkiss cannons. Few Lakota warriors had ever encountered this weapon, which could fire almost fifty rounds per minute. In less than an hour, Indian resistance to the troops collapsed.’’

On May 28, 1903, five thousand Lakota’s assembled, coming to dedicate a monument to honor the Minneconjou Lakota Chief Big Foot and more than two hundred of his followers. ‘‘The obelisk emerged from the Lakota’s engagement with the politics of memory—the narrative accepted by the government and dominant society—of ‘the Battle of Wounded Knee’, in compensation claims and in their memorial practices. The Lakota’s monument was a rare intervention by indigenous peoples in a western memorial landscape largely controlled by Euro-Americans. As Edward Tabor Linenthal and Micheal A. Elliot have surmised, Americans erected monuments to honor George Armstrong Custer and other white soldiers killed in the Indian/Indigenous wars. Even when whites killed large numbers of Indigenous, Americans found ways to memorialize massacres as necessary acts that brought peace and progress to the nation, as Karl Jacoby and Ari Kelman have demonstrated. Although army officials have disagreed over exactly what happened at Wounded Knee, the War Department ultimately upheld the Seventh Calvary’s claim that ‘treacherous’ and ‘fanatical’ Ghost Dancers had attacked unsuspecting troops, thereby disavowing any responsibility for the deaths of women and children.’’

This article is written in daily remembrance of the deaths of millions of indigenous or diverse people, and the acts of continuous violence that plagues this country because of bigoted and ignorant people, but especially at the hands of people who claim they are here to protect and serve. These acts were and still are commonplace in American society, and to not write about the horrors in their originality would be pointless, and otherwise claim that they never happened at all.

The tale of Lilith

There are a lot of accounts about the ‘demon-ness Lilith’, and her origin story leads a lot to be desired. Apparently, she was the first wife of Adam in Sumerian folklore, and because she did not want to be under Adam’s control any longer, and became, depending on which account you read, a vampire, a demon-ess, or a harlot, or all three, for not wanting to be apart of ‘God’s plan.’ The Sumerian accounts, taken from the 3rd millennium, were the first accounts of what happened to her before the biblical Hebrews surmised of her.

She is described as a ‘beautiful maiden’ but was believed to be a harlot, who once took a lover, offered no satisfaction to him, nor would she ever let him go. According to the Sumerian epic, dating from around 2000 B.C, ‘Gilgamesh and the Huluppu Tree’ and was ‘‘believed to appear to have human eyes. She is slender, well-shaped, beautiful, and nude, with wings, and owl feet. She stands erect on two reclining lions which are turned away from each other and are flanked by owls. On her head, she wears a cap embellished by several pairs of horns. In her hand, she holds a ring-and-rod combination. Evidently, this is no longer a lowly she-demon, but a goddess who tames wild beasts, and as shown by the owls on the reliefs, rules by night.’’

Apparently, the earliest mention of the ‘she-demon, whose name is similar to that of Lilith is found in the Sumerian king list which dates from around 2400 B.C. ‘‘It states, that the father of the great Gilgamesh was a Lilu-demon. The Lilu was one of four demons belonging to an incubi-succubae class. The other three were Lilitu (Lilith), a she-demon; Ardat Lili, or her handmaiden, who visited men in the night and bore them ghostly children. There is also the tale of the Irdu Lili, who was her male counterpart and would visit women and beget children by them. Originally these were storm demons, but because of a mistaken etymology, they came to be regarded as night demons. On one brief reference to Lilith in the Bible, Isaiah 34:14, in describing Yahweh’s (God) day of vengeance, says: The wild cat shall meet with the jackals, And the satyr shall cry to to his fellow, Yea, Lilith shall repose there, And find her a place of rest.’’

The teachings of Henry Highland Garnet vs. Fredrick Douglass

Henry Highland Garnet didn’t come up with the best ideas to counteract slavery and resistance against it, as his ideas were mixed with violence that critics like Fredric Douglass opposed for fear that it would ignite rebellions across the states that African-Americans could not win or face bloody white backlashes. But, something that black leaders like Douglass didn’t understand is that the demand for equal rights by appeasing the dominant elitist through morality, will simply not work. A great black activist during this time, Martin DeLaney explains that appeasing the dominant society through morality and common decency will not work because you cannot force your morals, no matter how right they are on a people, group, or individual who are unwilling to listen or hear. In other words, it isn’t morality that holds the reins, it is power, and that is true no matter what century we’re discussing.

First, we should get to know who Henry Highland Garnet was ‘‘born a slave on December 23, 1815, in New Market, Kent County, Maryland, and escaped with his family in 1824, was the grandson of a captured Mandingo chief. Garnet’s early education was in a segregated school on Mulberry Street in Manhattan. In 1835, he was in attendance at the Canaan Academy, a New Hampshire School, that was destroyed by a racist mob. Garnet, like other abolitionists during the 1840s, was critical in his assessment of the various emigrationist programs. That process, however, was an evolutionary one.’’

One of his best quotes, ‘‘Neither God nor angels or just men, command you to suffer for a single moment. Therefore it is your solemn and imperative duty to use every means, both moral, intellectual, and physical that promises success….(in Woodon 1925, 1969), one of his most radical statements in regards to slavery. The speech, the earliest extant speech by a black man advocating violence in America, entitled ‘An Address to the Slaves of the United States, was delivered before the National Convention of Colored Citizens at Buffalo, New York, in 1862. Despite its significance of the speech and the speaker, Henry Highland Garnet is virtually unknown to students of American history’’. Garnet truly believed that the only way for slaves to gain their freedom from slave owners was to take it by force, by any means necessary, and Fredrick Douglass fiercely opposed such views, as he wanted to have all slaves be freed through non-violence and appealing to people’s sense of morality. The two went back and forth, Douglass wrote that educated men who followed Garnet’s ‘backwatered and destructive’ stance had no stomach for continuing the struggle against prejudice and ignorance in this country, and thus it was that they sought more congenial places so they could live 'peaceful lives'.

Nevertheless, Garnet inspired his people when it seemed like all was lost, a talent of his, as his voice was awe-inspiring, and people who were tired of being crushed under the weight of oppression who didn’t think non-violence was going to work, flocked to him during his weekly sermons. ‘‘There was something about his personality which few leaders possessed—the commanding presence which inspires courage and the will to fight through difficulties. In his personality were reflected the fire to genius of African chieftains who had defied the slave catchers and later rankled Southern bondage.’’

Paranormal experiences

This article is wholly based on sociological principles, so it’s a little different from previous articles. The paranormal is an experience that falls out of conventional standards, or ‘science’. Paranormalism is thinking about or the examination of claims about things that fall out of conventional standards. C. Right Mills, the author of the Sociological Imagination, says the sociological imagination is the concept of being able to ‘think ourselves away from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them anew. But how does this fit into paranormalism?

Well, according to studies made, 18% of Americans say they’ve seen ghosts, or witnessed paranormal experiences. Nearly one-in-five U.S adults say they’ve seen or been in the presence of a ghost. 29% say they’ve felt in touch with someone who has died. Claude Fisher, a professor of sociology, explored America’s persisting beliefs in some supernatural phenomena in a 2013 study. A closer look reveals that belief can differ by gender and that women are more likely than men to believe in haunted houses, communicating with the dead, and astrology (because men are statically seen as more logical.) ‘‘In spite of strong public expressions of skepticism from the scientific community, polls show that nine out of ten Americans adults profess belief in paranormal phenomena. Some scientists view this is as a social problem, directing much blame (but little research) at a variety of sources including a lack of critical thinking skills, fads, need for transcendent experiences, failure of the educational system, and cultural cycles. Social impact theory provides an alternative focus: it views paranormal beliefs as a natural consequence of social influence processes in interpersonal settings.’’

The Labyrinth

Labyrinths from mythology are described more as mental quests, a challenge of the mind for the hero to overcome. Labyrinths are a deadly loss of misdirection, physically and mentally. The most famous story is the creation of the labyrinth, created by Daedalus, the greatest inventor and master craftsmen in all of Athens, Greece, for King Minos of Crete to conceal his monstrous son, the Minotaur, a creature half-man, and half bull. Theseus, the son of Zeus, was sentenced as a sacrifice for the Minotaur but was helped by King Minos’ daughter Ariadne, who gave him a pure thread to retrace his steps and slay the monster.

Several films, poems, and books talk about labyrinths and then some. Labyrinths are seen as grand symbols, as human beings have been fascinated with them since the beginning of time. The journey of the maze is the main character having to dive into a physical as well as mental underworld of sorts. ‘‘ ‘Labis’ is the Greek term for the double-headed ax. The earliest images of labyrinths. Their passageways like ripples or echoes radiating from the form of a double-headed ax; The acquisition of language, the mind-body problem, the question of meaning, of free will, consciousness. And the nature of that innate faculty of the ethical. Robert Morris says, ‘‘ideals, the admirable, right and wrong, the good, logic, principles. All connected in any given form of life. But maybe down deeper things are simpler.’’

Every corner of the world covers the symbolism of the linear one-way labyrinth as a pathway towards the center, towards salvation, God, and the tree of life. Trees play an important role, as they are connected to the labyrinth, they too are connected to the symbols of life, in Christianity and paganism. It is the archetype of the human experience and self idealization and leads us down a quest where the only way is through, emotionally, psychologically, and physically. The labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness, combining the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. It represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world. ‘‘They [Labyrinths] have long been used as meditation and prayer tools. They have been found in ancient Crete, Egypt, and Etruscan; they have been inscribed on Neolithic tombs. They are a call to the center, a worship structure where the eternal beloved waits to be encountered. The labyrinth has always been associated with unity with God and conversation with the divine, with spirituality, worship, and the sacred mystery. Long ago, Christians were expected to travel to the holy land at least once during their lives. But as travel was often both difficult and dangerous, labyrinths were designed as alternative pilgrimages. If travel was out of the question, spiritual merit could be gained by walking a labyrinth.’’

Prevention through Deterrence.

What is Prevention through Deterrence? It is a strategy that the U.S Border Patrol implemented to make border crossing as difficult, dangerous, and expensive as possible, ultimately aiming to redirect migrants routes into the most inhospitable sections of the border, basically making the hot desert a weapon to discourage migrants from attempting the crossing at all. 

The U.S has made it abundantly clear that migration through crossing the border is illegal, making policies after policy to dismay the crossing, including Operation Streamline, a joint initiative of the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice in the U.S started in 2005 that adopts a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to unauthorized border-crossing by criminally prosecuting them; up to 70 people, locked together in handcuffs through hands and feet are shown before a judge before being prosecuted and sent to the state jail, which affects the economy since all of the space being taken up is being paid at taxpayer’s expense, and destroys the judicial system because justice is not being served, and instead becomes corrupt.

  But then how did this all start? Why are migrants crossing the border in the first place? Because of colonialism and domestic violence, that’s why. Back in 1944, the allies like the U.S, the U.K, and France, etc. would connect their banks to the dollar, or regular paper money, making it the BrettonWood Agreement. The colonies under such big world powers, around the ’50s wanted independence, which caused immense turmoil for the world powers. The colonies wanted to rise independently, and could only do that economically. A man by the name of Jacobo Arbenz was elected president of Guatemala; he was a great military officer and politician. At this time he had drawn a land reform, where he wanted the U.S who owned land in Guatemala that they weren’t using to pay taxes and give that fallow land back to the Guatemalan government for land distribution. The U.S felt like they were being bossed around, and didn’t like that this small country was forcing them to give up their land’, so they, under the company United Fruit decided they couldn’t control this man, so they killed him and set a man who became a dictator by the name of Carlos Castillos Armas in his place. A series of coups and new presidents/dictators after Armas’s four years. It was only in the ’80s of Guatemala do things go from bad to worse, with the presidency of Rios Montt, who believes he was appointed by God.

The guerillas, a small attack force that was taking part in action against a large force, in this case, Montt, were being hunted down, killed, and tortured. In Guatemala, there are white Spaniards, brown Spanish people, and then the indigenous tribes called the Maya; some of the Maya, who lived in small towns away from the city, wanted to join and stop Montt, who became a dictator at this point. He believed that since the Mayan people had joined against them, then all of the Mayan people were guerillas. He, with the help of the U.S government, started the Scorched Earth Campaign, which was the legal use of killing and destroying every Maya and anyone else who was associated with the Maya, or the ‘guerillas’. 626 villages were burned down, and over 1.5 million were displaced, with many of them being children (kill the seed, a strategy of destroying the Mayan tribe.) People would hide in the mountains or they would migrate to Mexico or other countries, some able to migrate to the U.S. 

   I mention Guatemala because in the ‘Imaginarium of migration’, what we in the U.S think about these people who are crossing the border believe they do not just come from Mexico here to ‘steal our jobs’. They come from Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, etc. all over, so they could have a shot at supporting their families, and learn and be somewhat educated, then hope to go back home. So no, not all migrants are from Mexico, and not all of them are criminals. Many people are traveling through the desert knowing the risks and the dangers and doing so on the basis of hope that they could get through, hoping to find border patrol. Yes, they want to find border patrol, because border patrol offers them food, water, and shelter from the heat of the sun and the dryness of the desert. But sometimes many people do not even get that far, and their deaths become ambiguous because again, they have no rights; hundreds, if not thousands are dying in the desert. 

Colonialism and nationalism also play a big part in how the U.S writes immigration policy. ‘’Give me your needy, your tired and your poor’’ is a regular statement and not to be taken literally. The colonialist/capitalist mindset is that people can come to the U.S, they just have to be white and rich. State/space of exception is the concept where human rights are negated. There is a space where people are reduced to distribution, where they don’t matter enough for anything a person in the U.S might take for granted because they are ‘alien/illegal’. Since there are no laws to protect them, they have no rights to be protected. And the rise of nationalism is what we've been seeing a lot since the presidential campaigns of 2016 when Trump was stated into office. Nationalism is the ideology and movement that promotes the interests of a particular nation, especially the aim of gaining and maintaining the nation’s sovereignty over its homeland, in this case the U.S. Nationalism holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference, that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity, and that the nation is the only rightful source for political power. This is why racism, fascism, and classism always follow closely after. 

Information from Jason De Leon’s book, ‘‘The Land of Open Graves.’’

Humor vs. Religion

 There are paradoxes between such serious topics, as nothing is supposed to be considered funny when we’re talking about religion, but as we progress throughout the modern 21st century, humor and comic strips have been presently active and tolerated, at most. ‘’[1]The normative view is that religion is a serious and profound human concern, deserving respect and generating awe. This normative prescription does not deny that many people, including clergy, display a certain sense of humor about religion. However, treating religious matters with too much frivolity or making religious jokes verging on profanation may lead to rebuke. This form of comedy—printed cartoons from the comic pages of newspapers—provides insights into the intersection of humor and religion. We also attempt to develop some generalizations about the role of religious messages and symbols in cartoons.’’ The discourse of the ‘sacred’ has become the talk of the past two centuries, with many stereotypes coming from it.

For instance, the Simpsons’ character, evangelical Ned Flanders, is a popular icon and stereotype for ‘overzealous religious men/women’. ‘’[2]The Simpsons’ portrayal of religion in America has been used to illustrate everything from the revelation of God’s grace (Dark 2002) to religion’s failure in the face of science (Delaney 2008). While each commentator takes their own particular stance on The Simpson’s depiction of religion, there is frequently a conflation between The Simpsons’ satire and reality. That is, The Simpsons’ depictions of religion matter because they are treated not as frivolous cartoon humor, but as satires which criticize competing moral and civic perspectives of religion’s relevance in the United States.’’

  Religious themes take an interesting turn in comedy, as every good joke starts with the truth as it helps some people cope with life. ‘’[3]Humor is a form of self-expression. The jokes we tell and laugh loudest at giving clues to our central preoccupations, needs, and frustrations. It is, therefore, possible to use humor preferences as an indirect means of assessing personality (Eysenck and Wilson, 1976). If jokes are split into three very broad categories—sexual, aggressive, and nonsensical—people who permissive and high in libido (especially men) laugh most at the sexual jokes, people who are overly aggressive (as measured by hostility questionnaires) are most amused by aggressive humor, while controlled, conventional, or ‘respectable’ people go for the relatively harmless nonsense jokes. The fact that humor functions as a form of ‘release’ has been demonstrated by studies in which the motivational state of the subject is made angry by deliberately cussed behavior on the part of the experimenter’s accomplices, this will selectively enhance the environment of hostile humor.’’

   Of course, some critics don’t exactly like humor, or feel that it has any real basis on religious matter. ‘’[4]Religion, for the most part, has not been kind to humor. The early rabbis condemned jesting and laughter as did the church fathers. Rabbi Akiva said, ‘Jesting and levity accustom a person to lewdness.’ Saint John Chrysostom asked, ‘Christ is crucified and doest thou laugh?’ Those fixated on the world-to-come have little sympathy for the distractions of the world in which we live. In this respect, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint is no different from any other. Salvation is a serious business and the institutions, offices, and practices that ensure salvation merit reverence—not ridicule. But a church is not simply a bundle of beliefs and ritual practices. It is organized for and by people, and those people, whether they like it or not, must work out their salvation in this world. Thus, as examples in this article demonstrate, a bishop, who is supposed to be a wise and effective leader, an inspiration to his ward, can be a fool or philanderer.’’

  In mythology, many characters, including gods, use humor or ‘charm’, which makes the story much more interesting to the reader and the audience. It spins the story along; comedy is a great form of expression, especially when it is used day by day, especially in what is seen in a ‘serious’ society or used for serious topics. ‘’[5]The Nez Perce tribe are a tribe of Indians who in pre-White days inhabited parts of southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and northern Idaho south of the Coeur d’Alene county. At present most of the members of the tribe live in Idaho in Nez Perce, Lewis, Clearwater, and Idaho counties. I [author] have classified the humor in the Nez Perce myth body into six different categories: (1) the humor of the pompous or stupid individual who comes to grief; (2) the trick, including transformations and practical jokes, (3) the obscene, (4) other incorrect or eccentric social behavior, (5) humor following from a lack of knowledge, real or pretended, and (6) sarcasm or irony. In general, humor or language, which Gladys Reichard distinguished from the humor of the situation in the Coeur d’Alene mythology, tends to fall in the fourth category. Humor is undoubtedly the deepest and most vivid element in this mythology.’’ Many mythologies have tricksters, who are basically the president of the humor club, or what people or other characters call, ‘up to mischief’. Not only do they prolong the story, but they also change the society, as it could always be better. Coyote, belonging to the myths seen above, ‘‘has a sufficient compound of vainglory, stupidity, sexuality, and gluttony within his character to make his downfall a humorous element in a story without his actually indulging in any character somewhat like a clown in a circus whose very appearance brings laughter even before he has done anything to merit such a response. This humorous quality which is inherent in Coyote’s character that may well account for his appearance in a large number of stories in which he plays only a minor function. He adds a spice of humor and interest to the story simply by his presence.’’

Humor themes may change because the originally ridiculed objects/behaviors have changed to reflect dominant values and hence are no longer defined as deviant. On the other hand, thematic change may reflect a change in the values themselves; what was once defined as deviant now represents the accepted status quo. In conclusion, religion and humor, once two separate topics created by humanity but were called paradoxes, the ‘sacred and serious’ and the ‘profane and humorous (mischief) are now seen together, hand in hand. Each subject, like science, religion, art, math, all have stereotypes, and we could either dwell on those failures or laugh and learn from them.

The Origins of Fairies

Fairies are magical creatures, and all manners of children are obsessed with just the mention of them. Not to mention the Disney-ified version of fairies like ‘‘Tinkerbell’’. But where or what was the was the origination of ‘fairies’? How did people come to call these magical spirits ‘fairies’? And where did the word ‘fairy’ come from, and how has the meaning change over the centuries?

Well, the first question, what are the origins of fairies, or ‘fairyland’? Fairies are most widely mentioned in Gaelic literature, meaning Ireland, and are vastly integral to the people and culture. ‘Ireland is the country of Fairies. Fully to understand the Irish temperament, therefore it is necessary to know Ireland’s Fairy lore. Since the Fairies are mentioned first and most frequently in the literature written in the Irish languages of centuries ago, we must turn for information to the great mass of poems and stories from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. The Fairies of ancient Ireland belonged to a race known as ‘Tuath De Danaan’ came to Ireland, legend says from the ‘northern isles of the world, where they had been learning lore and magic and druidism and wizardry and cunning until they surpassed the sages of the arts of heathendom.’ ’’

Why then, have the mention of fairies been connected to the feminine, and feminine ideals? Because beauty standards rely heavily on gender, and ‘fairies’ with their magical art forms, have become twisted and their original ‘conquering form’ forgotten, and what better way to reinforce this than by using children’s fairy tales, which emphasizing women’s beauty and passivity, which serve to legitimize the dominant gendered system. ‘‘Research since the early 1970s has shown that children’s literature contains explicit and implicit messages about dominant power structures in society, especially those concerning gender. Fairy tales written during the eighteenth and nineteenth were intended to teach girls and young women how to become domesticated, respectable, and attractive to a marriage partner and to teach boys and girls appropriated gendered values, and attitudes.’’

Finally, where did the word ‘fairie’ come from? ‘‘They were at first, as established up above, called the ‘De Dannans’, who came to conquer those who were already in possession of Ireland, but were overcome with the ‘Mileasans’, a mythical race said to be the ancestors of modern Irishmen, and settled in a seperate part of the island, retiring into the green hills, where they required a new name: People of the Fairy Mound, or Aes Side (Ace Shithe, or Shee). As clouds are shot through with lightning, so is early Irish literature with accounts of invaders who became the Fairy Folk. ‘In Ireland, the Fairies have never been forgotten’: Brian Merriman, the last Gaelic poet of prominence, speaks of them as the treasure of his country in time of trouble, and Patrick MacGill, the Donegal poet, expressed the same idea when, amid the terrors of the battlefield, he wrote, ‘If we forget the Fairies,

And tread upon the rings,

God will perchance forget us,

And think of other things.

When we forget you, Fairies,

Who guard our spirits’ light:

God will forget the morrow,

And Day forget the Night’’.

.

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Thoth's Prophecy of Egypt

Who was Thoth? Thoth was the Egyptian god of wisdom and intellect, the creator of writing and hieroglyphics, science and magic, and is the representative of the gods. He is depicted human-like, but with the head of a baboon, his most sacred animal. Though Thoth is interesting to research, we’re more concerned with his prophecy for Egypt, located in the Hermetic texts. Every god has slight differences but overwhelming similarities. Hermes, the god of flight, was the Greek equivalent to Thoth.

What were the Hermetic texts? They were the philosophical texts dedicated to the Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus, found in pagan circles like Syria and Mesopotamia who never had to endure the rise of Christian Fascist suppression, which escaped Muslim persecution by the artful device of inventing or becoming the religious group known as the Sabians, named in the Koran, hence deserving of respect, as Sabians mean ‘people of the book’. Eventually, the documents ended up in Constinapole. ‘‘The work is basically a dialogue in question and answer form. The two chief interlocutors are the god Thoth and a disciple ‘who wished to know.’ Another God, seemingly Osiris, also speaks with a disciple. This literary frame might suggest a comparison with the Greek Hermetic writings, which are also teaching dialogues between Hermes-Thoth and disciples. This comparison would appear all the more legitimate than in the Demotic text, Thoth is once called wr wr wr, ‘the thrice great one’. ‘‘

Thoth’s prophecy is a description of the nature behind cosmology, on the nature of God, the cycles of life, and the nature of the world. Every culture has what is commonly expressed as philosophical teachings; sometimes they are shared, like Greece and Egypt. Except this Egyptian content was created more than 2,500 years before Greece’s literature on philosophy. ‘‘The Hermetica as a whole is plainly a product of Greek culture in Egypt. The famous case from Edfu of Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes, introducing himself and establishing his direct descendent from the supreme god Ra. In short, the occurrence of the ‘I am..’ formula in a text from Egypt is immediately suggestive of native religious traditions.’’ But what does the prophecy entail? Why the doom of Egypt of course. An excerpt from Acclepius III spins the tale of the fall of the city, of the people, of the gods, and of their empire.

‘‘Nay, it should rather be said that the whole Kosmos dwells in this our land as in its sanctuary. And yet, since it is fitting that wise men should have knowledge of all events before they come to pass, you must not be left in ignorance of this: there will come a time when it will be seen that in vain have the Egyptians honored the deity with heartfelt piety and assiduous service; and all our holy worship will be found bootless and ineffectual. For the gods will return from earth to heaven; Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities. This land and region will be filled with foreigners; not only will men neglect the service of the gods, but ...; and Egypt will be occupied by Scythians or Indians or by some such race from the barbarian countries thereabout. In that day will our most holy land, this land of shrines and temples, be filled with funerals and corpses. To thee, most holy Nile, I cry, to thee I foretell that which shall be; swollen with torrents of blood, thou wilt rise to the level of thy banks, and thy sacred waves will be not only stained but utterly fouled with gore. Do you weep at this, Asclepius? There is worse to come; Egypt herself will have yet more to suffer.’’

The Assassination of MLK!

  NO. 1

 Martin Luther King. Jr, the famous civil rights leader, and the clergyman was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968; he was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he ‘’died’’.  James Earl Ray, a fugitive who had escaped Missouri State Penitentiary was arrested in London at Heathrow Airport, extradited back to the United States, and charged with the crime, where he pleaded guilty on March 10, 1969, and sentenced to 99 years in Tennessee State Penitentiary. He made several attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and be tried by a jury but was unsuccessful. He died in prison in 1998. 

 The King family do not believe he was murdered at the hands of this common criminal, but that the F.B.I and C.I.A had their hands involved, especially the head of the F.B.I, director J. Edgar Hoover, the Mafia, and Memphis police, as alleged by Lloyd Jowers, the owner of Jim Grill, a restaurant near the Lorraine Motel where the civil rights leader was shot. They believed that Ray was a scapegoat. In 1999, the family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jowers for $10 million. During closing arguments, their attorney asked the jury to award damages of $100, to make the point that ‘it was not about the money.’ During the trial, both sides presented evidence alleging a government conspiracy. The government agencies accused could not defend themselves or respond because they were not named as defendants. 

Based on the evidence, the jury concluded Jowers and others were ‘’part of a conspiracy to kill King’’ and awarded the family of $100. The allegations and the findings of the Memphis jury were later rejected by the U.S Department of Justice in 2000 due to lack of evidence. ‘’The brutal death of the civil rights leader elicited a political reaction manifest in social disturbances across the nation. Numerous riots and lesser civil disturbances occurred as a direct aftermath of the killing. Several explanations for the disturbances appear obvious. The best--known civil rights leader in the nation had been murdered. For many, King had become a symbol of progressive change in policies concerning race relations and poverty. The killing also occurred within the context of increased interracial tension. More widespread rioting, looting, and burning--although less personal violence--took place in the prior summer than at any other time since the Civil War. Finally, diverse modes of political participation among African-Americans had emerged on a fairly massive scale. [I] argue that the assassination was a stimulus that led individuals to an emotional disengagement from the realm of political behavior. What I term political disengagement occurs when normally positive and latent diffuse sentiments toward the political system and its elements become negative.’’

The History of Greek organizations in Black HBCU's.

NO. 1

Black Greek sororities: black fraternities and sororities have a significant impact on students and faculty, providing them with the tools to success and a good development/enhancement towards good leadership skills. These ‘organizations’, placed on many contemporary cases in the U.S produce hundreds of college future leaders. And though both fraternities and sororities produce academic success, lower dropout rates, and leadership opportunities for those members, one of the critiques is that it also excludes others from similar opportunities.

N0. 2

‘‘Among African American students, two student collegiate groups—Black student organizations and historically Black Greek-letter organizations (BGO’s)—have been found to be the benefactors of leadership experiences unique to their culture and to create unique leadership opportunities for their members. Despite these plaudits, fraternities and sororities have received increased negative publicity in recent years, causing many in society, and in higher education specifically, to question the rights of these organizations to exist, due to recent serious and widely publicized pledging (or hazing) cases.’’

N0.3

Hazing as a ritual is seen as no more than bullying and brings extensive problems to the life of a college student trying to fit in, as she/he is subject to peer pressure by other students. Many of these concerns of BGO’s were up to question and remained unresolved, like the legitimacy of ‘Greek life’ as it relates to the academic vision of higher education. ‘‘Between 1906 and 1920, eight of the most prominent Black Greek-letter organizations were established. The creation of the Black fraternity had a dual purpose.

No. 4

First, these organizations were established for the greater purpose of pooling the resources of African Americans in the hopes of acquiring an education. Second, these organizations were formed as an attempt by Black students to gain acceptance into American society. Despite the great influence and vast membership that these organizations possess, the activities of the Black Greek letter organization have included secret meetings, selective membership, and a preference for lighter-complexed members. Moreover, the failure and shortcomings of the Black Greek-letter organization have allowed Black elites to create a separate privileged society based on snobbery and arrogance and have thus enabled these organizations to perpetuate the vicious cycle of racial prejudice and White Supremacy.

The Tuskegee Experiment

NO. 1

The Tuskegee Experiment was a hoax experiment used to study how black Americans differ from white Americans in catching a disease. It was a study truly held on the biases and stereotypes of other races. No scientific experiment inflicted more damage on the collective psyche of black Americans than the Tuskegee experiment. ‘‘In 1932, following a survey of the incidence of syphilis in a number of Southern regions, the venereal disease division of the U.S Public Health Service (USPHS) began what turned out to be a forty-year project in Macon County, Alabama, to follow the effects of untreated syphilis in some 400 black men. The study continued through World War II, when a number of the men who were called up for the draft and, had they not been research subjects, would have received medical attention for their infection. It continued through the 1950s, after the efficacy of penicillin treatment was established, and after the Nuremberg trials produced a code of ethics for biomedical research. It lasted through the 1960s, untouched by the civil rights agitation, and unaffected by the code of research adopted by the USPHS itself. It ended only in 1972 when an account of the experiment in the Washington Post sparked a furor.’’

NO. 2

One question that boggles the mind is how could an experiment of such degree that violated both moral and medical ethics continue on for so long? Unfortunately, no questions were asked about the rights and welfare of the men who became study/research subjects, and those same men didn’t even understand that they were unwillingly participating in a research project. Each man was given many treatments, placebo’s mostly, including a ‘spinal tap’, where the needle went directly into the spine without anesthesia, just to see what would happen. ‘‘At least three generations of doctors serving in the venereal disease division of the USPHS, numerous officials at the Tuskegee Institute and its affiliated hospital, hundreds of doctors in the Macon County and Alabama medical societies, and numerous foundation officials at the Rosenwald Fund and Milbank Memorial Fund. It also includes the many readers of such medical journals like the Public Health Reports, the Archives of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of Chronic Diseases. These readers could not have escaped the conclusion that untreated blacks had been severely damaged. In July 1954, an article in the Public Health Reports, to choose one example from many, concluded that ‘the life expectancy of a Negro Male between the ages of 25 to 50 years, infected with syphilis and receiving no appreciable treatment for his infection, is reduced by about 17%.’’

NO. 3

As the 400 men were being ‘treated’, government officials were ecstatic to see that syphilis was the same in blacks as it was in whites, by looking at the many and various autopsies of the men who did not survive, due to organ failure and damage. Racism was at the forefront of this tragedy, as scientists saw black men as expendable and looked forward to seeing the disease progress. Men who were affected tried to seek out treatment elsewhere, in other counties but were called back by the very doctors and nurses they trusted, since they were apart of the study. Once the news story broke out, many in the black community lost faith in the government and no longer believed health officials who spoke on matters of public concern. For example, when the AIDS crisis began in the ’80s and ’90s, ‘‘the Tuskegee experiment predisposed many blacks to distrust health authorities, a fact many whites had difficulty understanding. The NYTimes on May 6, 1992, many black Americans believes that AIDS and the health measures used against it are part of the conspiracy to wipe out the black race. To support their assertion, their editor cited a survey of black church members in 1990 that revealed ‘an astonishing 35% believed AIDS was a form of genocide.’

Belly Dancing

NO. 1

The art of belly dancing is a Middle Eastern practice that has, over time, gravitated towards Western white American women. The way American women dance is this is a ‘glamorization’, and more focused on the power of reception, rather than cultivating it and respecting the practice. Originally, belly dancing is based on ancient folk and social dances in North African and Middle Eastern countries, particularly Egypt and Turkey. The dance is characterized by various hip, torso, shoulder, and chest movements. ‘‘The images projected by Westerners in the performance of belly dance and other forms of oriental dance raise the thorny issue of orientalism. The vocabulary of the dance and its position within the framework of the West, especially the United States, as ‘other’ provides an ‘empty’ location, as in ‘not part of my culture’, for the construction of exotic new fantasy identities. At the same time, as a repository of media stereotypes and thus Western fantasies of women, it also provides physical images via the femme fatale which the (generally female) dance emulates in order to play an assertive sexual role in a male-dominated Western society.’’

NO. 2

Of course, here in the West, its meaning has changed, especially in America when gained popularity over 100 years ago when ‘dancing girls’ from different countries showcased in Chicago’s World Fair. ‘‘Because of the movements of body parts, such as the stomach, that were expected to be tightly constrained during the Victorian era, controversy surrounded these performers, and belly dance became associated with burlesque, stripping and prostitution. Despite perceptions of belly dancing being associated with sex work, the dance has a variety of meanings for participants, like spiritual, communal, and feminine qualities. For most dancers in the United States, the dance is a form of leisure. Leisure is a voluntary activity that people pursue with a positive state of mind during their free time. For many dancers, belly dance is an enjoyable form of recreation, rather than a primary source of income. Women in most large and mid-size cities around the country take belly dance classes at studios, gyms, and recreation centers.’’

NO. 3

Belly dancing is a key icon of the Middle East and is a site for performing and interpreting. It is appealing because it expresses ‘imperial feelings’, or the complexity of psychological and political belonging to an empire that is often unspoken, sometimes subconscious, but always present, the ‘habits of heart and mind’ that infuse and accompany structures of difference and domination. We can call on U.S imperialism as an example, as it rests as a multicultural nationalism. Belly dancing has become a ‘‘site for staging a New Age feminism and liberal Orientalist perspective on Arab and Muslim women, illustrating what Edward Said called, ‘new-Orientalism’ of the present moment. Orientalism continues to be a deeply appealing, binary frame for imagining the ‘West’ in opposition to the ‘Orient’, or to the East—a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient’, through the production of an ‘idea that has a history and tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that has given it a reality and presence in and for the West.’’

Belly Dancing

NO. 1

The art of belly dancing is a Middle Eastern practice that has, over time, gravitated towards Western white American women. The way American women dance is this is a ‘glamorization’, and more focused on the power of reception, rather than cultivating it and respecting the practice. Originally, belly dancing is based on ancient folk and social dances in North African and Middle Eastern countries, particularly Egypt and Turkey. The dance is characterized by various hip, torso, shoulder, and chest movements. ‘‘The images projected by Westerners in the performance of belly dance and other forms of oriental dance raise the thorny issue of orientalism. The vocabulary of the dance and its position within the framework of the West, especially the United States, as ‘other’ provides an ‘empty’ location, as in ‘not part of my culture’, for the construction of exotic new fantasy identities. At the same time, as a repository of media stereotypes and thus Western fantasies of women, it also provides physical images via the femme fatale which the (generally female) dance emulates in order to play an assertive sexual role in a male-dominated Western society.’’

NO. 2

Of course, here in the West, its meaning has changed, especially in America when gained popularity over 100 years ago when ‘dancing girls’ from different countries showcased in Chicago’s World Fair. ‘‘Because of the movements of body parts, such as the stomach, that were expected to be tightly constrained during the Victorian era, controversy surrounded these performers, and belly dance became associated with burlesque, stripping and prostitution. Despite perceptions of belly dancing being associated with sex work, the dance has a variety of meanings for participants, like spiritual, communal, and feminine qualities. For most dancers in the United States, the dance is a form of leisure. Leisure is a voluntary activity that people pursue with a positive state of mind during their free time. For many dancers, belly dance is an enjoyable form of recreation, rather than a primary source of income. Women in most large and mid-size cities around the country take belly dance classes at studios, gyms, and recreation centers.’’

NO. 3

Belly dancing is a key icon of the Middle East and is a site for performing and interpreting. It is appealing because it expresses ‘imperial feelings’, or the complexity of psychological and political belonging to an empire that is often unspoken, sometimes subconscious, but always present, the ‘habits of heart and mind’ that infuse and accompany structures of difference and domination. We can call on U.S imperialism as an example, as it rests as a multicultural nationalism. Belly dancing has become a ‘‘site for staging a New Age feminism and liberal Orientalist perspective on Arab and Muslim women, illustrating what Edward Said called, ‘new-Orientalism’ of the present moment. Orientalism continues to be a deeply appealing, binary frame for imagining the ‘West’ in opposition to the ‘Orient’, or to the East—a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient’, through the production of an 'idea that has a history and tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that has given it a reality and presence in and for the West.’’

the Irish Republican Army

The tactics and strategies that the Irish Republican Army used were expecting volunteers to go up against the British army in the fight against neo-colonialism and imperialism in the hopes for a socialist movement without other European interference. The Irish Republican Army started during the rise of guerilla warfare, from the last resort to a defeated enemy, or the archaic resource of thieves and bandits, it has now become the most advanced method of political mobilization. ‘‘Theories of guerilla warfare are common property and can be reduced to fairly simple formulate—perhaps to one word, diffusion. Diffusion in space, in that conventional military principle of the concentration of force, is replaced by dispersion, and diffusion in time, in so far as rapid military decisions thus become impossible, and an indefinite time-perspective is adopted. The purely military effects of guerilla warfare will usually be seen as subordinate to its political and psychological effects. Victory is achieved not so much by knocking the enemy’s sword from his hand as by paralyzing his arm. It might be argued that consciously modern guerrilla methods first emerged successfully in Ireland, where, between 1917 and 1921, a subversive movement grew up from grassroots and fought it’s way to the substantial achievement of its political program—the I.R.A.

Throughout its history, the IRA carried out a high-intensity campaign of terrorism, with the stated goal of bringing about the unification of the six countries of Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic and the end of British involvement in Northern Ireland. Growing out of a much longer history of conflict, the Provisional Irish Republic Army belongs separately from the Republican movement in 1969 when the group split off from what became known as the Official Irish Republican Party (Official IRA). Beyond the activities of Republican groups, the conflict also involves violence perpetrated by Loyalist organizations, which support continued English involvement in Northern Ireland.

Their words were very blunt in explaining that anyone wanting to join could die for their country; ‘’Tactics are dictated by the existing conditions. Here again, the logic is quite simple—the rule of thumb for all our actions can therefore be clearly seen to be that we must explain by whatever means we have at our disposal why we bomb, why we punish criminals, why we execute, etc. A War of attrition against enemy personnel, which is aimed at causing as many casualties and deaths as possible so as to create a demand from their people at home for their withdrawal; A bombing campaign aimed at making the enemy’s financial in our country profitable while the same time curbing long term financial investment in our country; To make the Six Counties as at present and for the past several years ungovernable except by colonial military rule; To sustain the war and gain support for its end by National and International propaganda and publicity campaigns; and by defending the war of liberation by punishing criminals, collaborators and informers.’’

The History of Riots

Riots. Small or massive, can induce major anxiety especially if you’re introverted like me. Riots are usually caused by people getting infuriated, by things like politics, economy, or for the end to tyranny and oppression. You see it when people rise up against their government, like the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the American Revolution. More recently, the race riots of 1965 were a violent and historical recording of how damaging people can act when things start to change, or where there is simply no change. That is the crux of riots.

‘‘What determines a country’s political institutions, and in particular, the extent to which they are democratic? An important set of explanations has focused on the idea that conflict, or the possibility of conflict, induces leaders to promote institutional change? Tilly (1990), Besley and Persson (2008, 2009), and Dincesco and Prado (2012) argue that conflict, and in particular wars between countries, created the setting for Western European nations to build institutions that would enable the enforcement of contracts and collection of taxes. Conflict also plays an important role in Acemoglu and Robinsons’ (2000, 2001, 2006) theory of democratization; they emphasize how the threat of conflict, in the form of a revolution, induces autocrats to make democratic concessions in an attempt to defuse that threat. In their theory, revolution is more likely in times of economic hardship, so negative economic shocked pen a ‘‘window of opportunity’’ that can lead to a peaceful transition towards democracy.’’

Riots are a backlash against the government, explosive and in you’re face. Riots transform regular people into citizens who want to show off their freedom, by expressing the rights that they have. Rioting certainly doesn’t start out that way. It starts off as protesting against either a corporation, a government, society itself, or a certain person. Unfortunately, anger starts to lead the way within the protest and drives violence as a way to get even more attention. ‘‘The main difficulty in testing whether conflict opens a ‘‘window of opportunity’’ is that riots are rarely exogenous: there might be problems of reverse causality because the expectation of political change might itself lead to riots, and there might be unobservable omitted variables that cause both riots and political change.’’

The Origins of the date of Christmas

Yesterday was Christmas, so Merry Christmas everyone! This is the holiday to be surrounded by family and friends and to look back on how far you’ve come, especially in this hellish year. Every year we celebrate this festive holiday on the 25th of December, but I’m curious, where did the celebration of Christmas originate? How did it become decided that this was when we would celebrate Christmas?

It’s a valid question! It is a fact that liturgical tradition, no matter how lauded, is no longer seen in a reliable manner any longer. The skepticism comes from the sixteenth-century Reformation, which inspired Protestant and particular Calvinist scholars to attack the ecclesiastical calendar. ‘‘As recent research has shown, it is the context of these early modern inquiries into the history of the liturgical year, which were often permeated by inter-confessional polemic, that the two basic approaches to understanding Christmas’ origins that continue to characterize the twenty-first-century debate on the subject first germinated. For lack of more appropriate labels, these two approaches may be referred to as ‘History of Religions Theory’ (henceforth: HRT) and the ‘Calculation Theory’ (CT). Roughly speaking, proponents of HRT interpret Christmas as a Christianized version or substitute for pagan celebrations that took place on the same date as the Roman Calendar, the most widely cited example being the birthday of Sol Invictus on December 25. By contrast, adherents to CT find evidence that the birth of Christ was determined independently, by resource to certain types of chronological speculation.’’

It is well known that a lot of Christianity is used to subvert or covert most of the old world’s celebrations. The holidays, like Halloween, Easter, Spring, and Christmas were all re-used from pagan traditions. German philologist Herman Usener (1834-1905) was one of the pioneers in the modern academic study of religion. ‘‘According to his view, the celebration of Christ’s birth in midwinter was essentially the heritage of a syncretistic sun cult, which already bore traces of an incipient ‘pagan’ monotheism. The central turning point in this story comes from the year 274 CE when the emperor Aurelian allegedly elevated the original sun god Sol Invictus to the supreme deity of the Roman empire and established his cult on December 25. Threatened by the persistent popularity of these rituals among newly baptized Christians, the early Church was moved to incorporate traces of the cult into its own liturgy and thus re-interpreted the annual ‘birth’ of the sun at the winter solstice as the birth festival of Christ.’’

After the Mayan Genocide

NO.1

 The disadvantages the Maya people face, during post-war Guatemala, are great. The issues of development and poverty in rural Mayan areas. They face a neo-liberal economy, where they are put into a situation where they have little to no power to control the conditions of their lives. The result is an acceptance of a condition where they cannot thrive. Guatemala, unfortunately, is a poor country where the poverty rate is 44-80%, because of unequal land and income distribution. A neo-liberal economy focuses mainly on the reduction of the government as a major employer, reduction of social safety nets, and the free market (laissez-faire) ideal. This will strengthen the economy by promoting business and bring money into the country through exporting.

    The supermarkets or groceries the Maya cater to influences what consumers desire, which can be personal desire, health, and making ends meet. But it is limited by what is available, giving ‘at least’ statements. ‘At least I can afford it; At least it is healthy’, etc. Those limit points are expressed, but they are rarely questioned or challenged. Mayan farmworkers grow broccoli independently, where you sometimes can get ripped off, you are asked to ‘hold product’, and sometimes you make ‘too much money.’ 15% of the broccoli is not purchased, so they take it back because it is a taboo, or (xajan) to waste food, but do not eat it. Non-traditional crops are grown in a non-traditional way, but all for a larger global market, for cash, not a substance or to cement social ties. There are also, health concerns as they use chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers. Most of the Mayan farmers understand the risks of exploration, cultural loss, and moral problems, such as the gossip you will receive from your neighbors, which is frowned upon. Most of the limit points here will be, ‘’At least we can still be farmers’, we can avoid wage labor or maquiladora work, we can still be family together, we can work the land and preserve some tradition, and we can grow our milpa as well as a cash crop.’’

NO.2

     Limit points are ‘at least’ statements that help us understand Mayan desires in a cultural setting, and that limit your desire or make your complacent to your position, and rely heavily on moral values. It is a balance between desires and capacity and helps us understand why the Mayan people would accept this work and helps us understand that their acceptance is not without hesitation. The limit points women most face is being hired by (Maquiladoras), or sweatshops that are owned by South Korean companies, are global divisions of labor that allow U.S cheap goods while U.S corporations to make money on designing and selling the goods, while South Korea benefits as a ‘middleman’. They import and export the pieces and assembled goods, all while under contract for U.S corporations.

    The maquiladoras will hire young female workers from rural areas under stressful and harsh working conditions, offer the workers pregnancy tests, give them limited time to talk to one another, and bathroom breaks, where often sexually assaulting them. Some at least statements or limit points will be at least it’s work and can make money; at least it’s not getting involved in gangs and prostitution; at least we are known for our good work, where we take pride in. By taking this work, and seeing their limit points, we can better understand how their culture works, as the escaping of gender roles, parental control, and access to free funds are something both American and Mayan young adults can sympathize with.

 NO. 3

The desires for better working conditions, higher pay, schools being built, and the helping of Mayan organizing in politics are present in every factory worker. A man names Alberto Simon isn’t against the factory per se, nor against capitalism or market economy but can see the benefits of factories going outside the community since the factory is less desirable than growing broccoli. A market economy might be seen as a competition between the people, so the Maya resist that while still engaging in a global competition. The situation of neo-liberal economies results in a situation of constant compromise, where they must accept a culture, who shuns them and gives them little power. Again, the limit points are put into an area where we see a value system, like hegemony.

Hegemony is ‘manufactures consent’, where a particular political ideology becomes embedded into a cultural model so as to seem natural, acceptable, and desired. It is the economic, social, cultural, and ideological influence and control by a dominant group over a subordinate group. One example of hegemony would be post-war violence. On June 10, 2002, thousands protested a new tax-reform measured $3000 to $45,000, so a march on municipal buildings and the mayors house took place. The protest was met by a phalanx of police unable to speak to anyone or negotiate, and when ‘someone’ throws a rock and breaks a window, the police responded with tear gas, and the protestors set the mayor’s house on fire. Protesting against political corruption, or any type of protest whether police brutality, gun reform, or abortion rights that somehow always ends with either violence or harsh criticism towards change, and is another unfortunate thing America shares with Guatemala.

NO. 4

  But hegemony also ‘’constrains in advance the kinds of objects that can and do appear within the horizon’’ [Butler 2000] But it happens between people, where it is negotiated, agreed upon, and accepted on the basis of limit points. It is more or less, symbolic violence, ‘the violence which is exercised upon a social agent within his/her social and economic landscape.’ During Post-War Guatemala, El General Rios Montt believed he was God’s choice to be President. Before the war was classified as an act of genocide, he returned as the presidential candidate and was supported by the Mayan people since he offered to pay them for civil patrol work. In 2003, there was a Rabinal campaign and he was sent packing. The Peace Accords of 1994 stopped the massacres, which ended the war, but ever since there has been a rise in crimes, kidnappings, and robberies. There have been drops in coffee prices and a resurgence of right-wing political activity.

A new tax-structure has been re-written, and a large collection of taxes is a part of the Peace Accords, where it is meant to improve accountability and transparency. And who is the local administrator? A Montt supporter. Large protests happen to challenge this, and it ends violently, where someone sets the mayor’s house on fire, shoots at him, and burns down the municipal building. The gangs also did this. Again, it is a symbolic form of an answer meant to shift the violence away from the ‘pueblo’, and a means to diffuse the violence so that no one takes responsibility. A ‘container’ for less personal forms of violence and social suffering. One limit point understood here is, ‘at least the gangs gave the mayor something to think about.’ The limit points are created and meant for people to accept less than desirable conditions. This is how hegemony works and can be accepted and registered, and by thinking that, ‘at least the mayor was willing to meet with us’, we preserve hegemony for the June 10th Riot. The meeting itself becomes the desire, not the outcome.

Secrecy in anthropology

  NO. 1

 Anthropology is the scientific study of human beings, and social anthropology is the study of behavior in certain societies. Studying patterns of behavior means studying how humans think, react, and evolve in society, but that also means understanding human secrecy through ethnographic research. But what is secrecy? In the ethnographic record, initiatory secrets often stand for the quiddity of culture, and the revelation of concealed realities is an organizing trope in much ethnographic writing.

NO. 2

   ‘’Intellectual historiography shows that the concept of secrecy has carried overwhelmingly negative, antisocial, and primitive connotations in learned Western discourses since the Enlightenment and that early anthropological research often supported such an implicitly social evolutionist stance. Secrecy and risk are closely connected. Secrecy engenders risk insofar as concealment entails the possibility of unwelcome revelation; non-circulation also creates a risk of its own, such as the breakdown of social relations or cultural reproduction. However, risk can also, gender secrecy as a strategy to manage perilous social relations. In practice, the casual relationship between secrecy and risk can be difficult to disentangle because the subjective experience of risk and the urgency of secrecy are constitutive--in both ritual secrecy and strategic secrets of state.’’

NO. 3

Secrecy excludes outsiders, but the power it attracts lies in the possibility it may be disclosed and revealed to those same outsiders. ‘’This contradictory centrifugal and centripetal forces push and pull on secrets. Possessing secrets can make people intensely aware of the fragility of knowledge and the precariousness of their custodial position. Revelatory and initiatory practices within secretive practice activities are often carefully calibrated to induce a sense of risk. It is paradoxical also because it ‘must be performed in a public fashion in order to be understood to exist.’ The revelation of concealment is a way of socially mobilizing the secret as a form of sociocultural capital without dispersing restricted knowledge.’’ Basically, secrecy is a personal form of belonging, of being included in the intimate affairs of family, friends, or just knowing about something that you didn’t previously. 

The Climate Change Conspiracy

  NO. 1

Climate Change is a widely talked about subject since the late 19th century. It is the rise of the average temperature on Earth’s climate system, and while there have been past periods of global warming, the rate it is going on right now is at an unprecedented level. But many conspiracy theorists believe that climate change must be a hoax, or has been invented for financial and ideological reasons.  Human influence is obviously the largest contributor due to climate change or global warming, but ‘’allegations have been made that scientists and institutions involved in global warming research are part of a global scientific conspiracy or engaged in a manipulative hoax. 

 Climate change denial ‘is a latecomer to neoliberal anti-environmentalism, it is now become the countermovement’s pivotal issue in battles against environmental regulations. Neoliberals hold that the issue provides license for wholesale intervention everywhere. Anti-environmentalism has been, from the start, a keystone of neoliberal anti regulatory politics.’’  Many politicians, celebrities, and magazines have stated that climate change is a hoax, scam or elaborate conspiracy, and this is dangerous because it convinces the public that climate change is a hoax as well; especially because the more power a person has the more convincing they become.

NO. 2

Donald Trump, in 2012, has stated that,  "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." Really? Climate change is not a scam created by a neighboring country, it is something real that affects everyone on the planet. ‘’The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that ‘human influence on climate has been the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century. These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of major nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing. Impacts include the extinction or relocation of many species as their ecosystems change, most immediately in coral reefs, mountains, and the Arctic.’’

   Unfortunately, economic stability will always be the reason for ignoring or abusing the environment. Conspirators and those who deny climate change will also see it as changing the jobs they’ve taken, the lives they’ve led, and the politicians they’ve followed, not to mention that getting the American public to understand and care about climate change is a challenge, even with the many conspiracies out there. ‘’Reeling from conservative attacks over liberal bias, ‘mainstream media’, seeking ‘editorial balance,’ often grant parity to ‘climate skeptic’ news releases and policy papers, from right-wing think tanks and their bought experts and pundits, with peer-reviewed science. Having increased leverage in recessions and periods of economic insecurity, many Americans are receptive to conservative views--that regulating fuel efficiency, and thereby vehicle size weight, increases energy prices and taxes ‘kills jobs,’ violates freedom of choice and threatens overall liberty.’’

NO. 3

    The way the media frames climate change doesn’t help inform people either on how to safely combat climate change, where every frame somehow includes a doomsday scenario, so much that it disempowers how people will react, and respond. Tropical storms, rising oceans, heat waves, reduction of snow and ice, and high carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will only increase if we choose to do nothing and believe that the science is wrong. When Hurricane Irma hit Houston, it showed real life consequences to climate change--as ocean temperatures increase, more hurricanes will become more severe and catastrophic. But those who reported and interviewed people, mainly conservatives who deny or deflect climate change is in the wrong for even presenting that to their audience. ‘’Those supplying the media with information--scientists, politicians, and NGO’s--share some of the blame. The way they media frame climate change will affect how audiences respond. Challenges include making stories more relevant to audiences, raising the profile of adaption and the perspectives of the poor, and reporting on ways to address climate change that brings additional benefits.’’

   Conspiracies have the ability to be fun, cause drama, and bring people together---they can also bring disarray and be wildly inaccurate. They can also be dangerous to the general public for fueling theories over science; climate change is real, and whether these theorists believe it or not, is based on whether or not human influence. We have the power to change the way the world has become.

The protests of Hawaiians before colonization

NO. 1

In regard to cultural survival and cultural sustainability, many traditional Hawaiian practices like long distance voyaging, paddling, fishing and surfing is very important, as rom the start of the 19th century to 1970, western colonization almost destroyed Hawaiian culture. In ‘The Struggle for Hawaiian Sovereignty’, by Haunani-Kay Trask, she writes, pg.9, ‘’Entering the U.S as a Territory in 1900, our country became a white planter outpost, providing missionary-descended sugar barons in the islands and imperialist Americans on the continent with a military watering hole in the Pacific—By 1970, rural Hawaiian communities were besieged by rapid development. Urbanization brought an influx of rich haole from the American continent, who unlike tourists, wanted to live in Hawai’i. Evictions of Hawaiians lead to increasing protests, especially in communities scheduled for residential and commercial development.’’

  Examples of these protests was one that occurred in 1976, by Isaiah Helekunihi Walker with the creation of Hui O He’e Nalu (club of wave sliders) for preservation of control over North Shore Waves. He voiced concern about an endangered Hawaiian space, or ‘ka po’ ina nalu, which translates to the ‘surf zone’. When Captain Cooke arrived in Hawai’i, he believed the Polynesians were skilled navigators and surfers, as they were able to migrate, or sail, against powerful sails and winds from Asia to the pacific islands. Unfortunately, the missionaries that came decades later deduced that surfing was a ‘barbaric activity’, and with the success of the Christians, Hawaiian men and women especially, were discouraged from boxing, wrestling, or surfing, which was regarded as an act of resistance for both men and women.

     NO. 2

The cultural practices of paddling are another tradition that survived against western colonialism. It was made with canoes, and they were mostly made up from trees, coconuts, or kol trees. In ‘The story of Albert Kamilla Choy Ching, Jr.’ it explains the cultural aspect of paddling and what it means to the Native Hawaiians. ‘’Al was a natural for paddling. He had keen eye-hand coordination and excelled as a steersman. He also loved to teach, and his high school coach John Kapua had taught him enough about paddling technique during his sculling year at Kaimuki for Al to want to improve himself and others. ‘I kept coming back [to paddling] because there was a desire to get better. There never was a desire to get to the very top—-it just came. I wanted to get a little better, and then I figured maybe I can beat that guy and then the next guy…. Before you know it, there’s a lot of guys behind you and you never intended to be that way, ‘’ pg. 4. But on pg.9, the meaning of paddling delves deeper as Al explains, ‘’I enjoy watching out people learn, how they came up from nothing. And if any of them win a race in the state championship, that makes me happy, real happy. Just watching them. Because I remember when I won…. All the things that I learnt through canoeing come from my Hawaiian side. How to look at the clouds. How to look at the ripples on the water and to see how the water is running. Even navigating backwards…the canoes did a real lot for me, kept my health, kept my tradition, kept me in touch with Hawai’i.’’

   NO. 3

  This co-exists with the nature of the fishponds, that ‘’played a spiritual, cultural, and political lives of the people. To the native Hawaiians there is a direct spiritual connection between man, god(s) and nature. As noted by Minerb, the natural environment of the land ‘aina’ and sea ‘kai’ and all things contained within it are perceived to be sentient, divine ancestral forms that have extrasensory perception, and interrelate with people as a family. Thus, to Hawaiians, nature is not only conscience, ke ea o ka ‘aina (life-force of the land) but much of it is divine.’’ pg. 2 of Ancient Hawaiian fishponds.

  NO. 4

   Hawaii was a group of islands that used a social hierarchy and status was a sign of great importance. Competition, including that of the fishponds, and cooperation were ideal values, as traditionally the ideal is that of chiefly status who were obliged to care for those in there lineage. The hierarchy goes from chief, warriors, experts and craftspeople, and fishermen. Another cultural tradition is long distance voyaging, where Hawaiians sailed in large canoes and traveled across huge waves to get to the nearest land over long distance and time to discover new lands, which is what Ancient Hawaiians did. An example would be the great Hawaiian surfer Eddie Aikau who sailed long distance, over giant waves during the 70’s. The voyage is highly dangerous, as the ocean is temperamental, but lots of sailors today even, do it to feel closer to their ancestors and to remember their home. The comparison and contrast between all four, long distance voyaging, paddling, fishing, and surfing in regard to issues of sustainability and cultural survival is that by doing these activities, it was seen to the Hawaiian people as an act of resisting the degrading, humiliating andappropriating acts that colonialism brings with it, as they were immersed with the natural world.

Haitian Revolution

     NO. 1

As history points out, the French Revolution sparked things like Freedom, Equality, and Fraternity, into the hearts of oppressed peoples, and birthed the Haitian revolution, where enslaved peoples did not have to stay that way. Thoughts of freedom and a life of their own ran through the hearts of the large population of enslaved and free blacks on the island of Saint—Domingue, where they did not have to answer any longer to the white hierarchy and elite. The one leading man that helped change a revolt into a revolution that paved change to the island, was Toussaint Louverture. But who was Toussaint Louverture? How exactly did one person, who was also enslaved, become the leader of a revolution, and how did it change life?

   NO. 2

The Haitian Revolution is such a widely popular topic to discuss and converse about is because a successful slave revolt against one the leading powers at that time, France, Spain and Britain, but mostly France, has never been done before. That, and it proved black people were not the primitive, lower species that the majority had deeply believed them to be, and Toussaint Louverture proved to be one of the most brilliant army generals to-be-rulers at that time. By scanning the map of the island, he was able to gain allies in the free black militia and the mulatto population, who were tired of being treated second-class. To go back to the quote, the Code Noir (Black Code), at the time legalized the most cruel, abusive and harsh treatment of slaves; if you ran, and you were caught, you would suffer dearly, and so would any slave you came into contact with by two folds. ‘’It forbid slaves from bearing arms, the assembly of slaves, and slaves trading or selling their own goods for a profit. It stated that slaves who struck their master or any free person were to be punished by death. It explicitly defined slaves as personal property.’’ The fact that King Louis XIV of France, put the Code Noir under effect and Louverture was able to defy it, and did it with his own army himself shows that his leadership was effective; and indeed, for in the capital of Haiti, Louverture is considered a hero and liberator for his people.

In American Political Science Review on Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, who was born on a southern plantation who is biased, showing a clear defense of slavery, particularly American slavery, and bases his experience on an economic study of American slaveholders and there sharecrops. He has made use of Southern newspapers and pamphlets, and some source materials, but has not made any effort to research ‘Negro’ sources, from which he claims are ‘dubious details’ anyway. The review last five pages, and explicitly states that the ‘Negro’ as a responsible person has no place in the book, and gives Louverture the term ‘criminal’ to suit his needs, and the needs of others. Half of the book implies historical facts, the treating of Africa and the slave trade and West Indian and American conditions while the other half is a series of essays on aspects of slavery—cotton crop, plantation economy, etc., and the other half is devoted to freedom and crime among slaves and slave codes. ‘The law is the law, and it should stay that way!’

  NO. 3

  According to Toussaint Louverture: A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions , The man who would in later life be known as Toussaint Louverture himself belonged to the category of ‘creole; His father was Gaou Guinon, an African prince who was captured by slavers and endured the horrors of the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean. As an enslaved child, Toussaint would have been known as Toussaint Breda, named after the plantation on which he was born. The actual details of his birth remain’s uncertain, but from his name he is associated with All Saints Day; his personal life, meaning his early childhood, is also uncertain. As Phillipe Girard comments, ‘retracing the childhood of a slave is an arduous task, not only because of the lack of archival traces, but also because such traces that exist tend to dehumanize the enslaved and deny their individuality.’

Toussaint, after rising to power, did not wish to surrender that power to Paris and ruled Saint Domingue as an autonomous entity. In 1801 he issued a Constitution for the island, which provided for autonomy and established Toussaint as governor for life, where he abolished slavery and aspired to put in place a multiracial society composed of blacks, whites and mulattos. When Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France, he aimed to return the Caribbean colonies to their earlier profitability as plantation colonies. In 1802 he dispatched an expedition of French soldiers to the island, lead by his brother in law Charles Leclerc, to reestablish French authority and slavery. Leclerc arrested Toussaint and deported him to France where he was imprisoned in Fort de Joux, where he died on April 7, 1803. For a few months, the island lay under Bonaparte’s control, but the French soldiers fell victim to weapons and disease, and surrendered to the indigenous army in November 1803; On July 1, 1804, under Jean-Jaques Dessalines control, Louverture’s general, the colony, the first black republic, became known as Haiti.

Women Healers vs. Science

NO. 1

From the 16th century women were seen as healers, or the nurses, abortionists, counsellors, and midwives, whereas since the 19th century and onward male professionals have taken over the role. These roles today are seen as jobs, where the service is being paid for; before, under the tutelage of women, these roles were as a way of life. In healthcare, women are the majority, of course. But they are considered workers, (clerks, dietary aides, technician, maids), whereas the bosses of these industries are usually men. So what changed? What occurred for this major switch?

NO. 2

Women healers have always been the standard, history can attest to that fact. But unlike male doctors who care for the rich, and clung to untested doctrines, it was woman healers have cared for the sickly and the poor, and therein lies the problem. ‘‘The suppression of female healers by the medical establishment was a political struggle, first, in that it is part of the history of sex struggle in general. The status of women healers has risen and fallen with the status of women. When women healers were attacked, they were attacked as women; when they fought back, they fought back in solidarity with all women. It was a political struggle, second, in that it was a part of a class struggle. Women Healers were people’s doctors, and their medicine was part of a people’s subculture. To this very day women’s medical practice has thrived in the midst of this rebellious lower class movements which have struggled to be free from the established authorities. Male professionals, on the other hands served the ruling class—both medically and politically, with interests with advanced by the universities, the philanthropic foundations by the law.’’

NO. 3

So the change began when the terminology changed. When healing the sick was seen not as a testament to their abilities, but as witchcraft. In the age of witch-hunting, from the late early fifteenth to early sixteenth centuries, from Germany to England, which was also the age of feudalism and well lasted into the age of reason. Witches symbolized the political, religious and sexual threat against the Catholic and Protestant Church, as well as to the state, so the witch hunts were all a well organized and financed campaigns of violence against the female peasant population. ‘‘Women made up some 85% of those executed—old women, young women, and children. Their scope alone suggests that the witch hunts represented a deep—seated social phenomenon which goes far beyond the history of medicine. In locale and timing, the most virulent witch hunts were associated with periods of great social upheaval shanking feudalism at its roots—mass peasant uprisings and conspiracies, the beginnings of capitalism, and the rise of Protestantism. There is fragmentary evidence—which feminists ought to follow up—suggesting that in some areas witchcraft represented a female-led peasant rebellion.’’

NO. 4

Witches were seen as a rebellion not just of the Church, but from God himself. You see, witches consorted with the devil, and were therefore evil, and in the eyes of the Church, was derived through sexuality. Sexuality was always associated with women, and pleasure in sexuality was sin and evil, and her power was from sexuality. Even those who were good, and used her gifts of healing to help, were deserving of death, just as all witches deserved death. ‘‘Witch healers were often the general medical practitioners for a people who had no doctors, no hospitals, and were bitterly afflicted with poverty and disease. In particular, the association with the witch and the midwife was strong. When faced with the misery of the poor, the Church dogma that experience in the world fleeting and unimportant. The wise woman, or witch, had a host of remedies which had been tested in years of use. Many of the herbal use remedies developed by witches still have their place in modern pharmacology. They had pain killers, digestive aids and anti—inflammatory agents. The witch—healer’s methods were as great a threat( to the Catholic Church, if not the Protestant) her results, for the witch was a empiricist: She relied on her senses rather than on faith or doctrine, she believed in trial and error, or cause and effect. She trusted in her ability to find ways to deal with disease, pregnancy, and childbirth. Her attitude was not religiously passive, but actively inquiring. In short, her magic was the science of her time.‘‘

Housing Discrimination

NO. 1

 Racial exclusion, or segregation had real damage to the black communities persistent in their fight for freedom to own and be included in everything whites were already allowed in; the fight for equality, economic security, for education, and for fair housing was just beginning. Racial exclusion was such a severe enough problem, since in every near northern city, black newcomers crammed into old and run-down housing, mainly in dense central neighborhoods left behind by upwardly mobile whites. White builders, in charge of housing and agencies related could dictate who could own, and William Levitt, of Leviittown where massive developments were made in the suburb, was no exception. 

       These types of houses were ‘affordable for the common man’, and remade America’s landscape after World War II. The iconic images of little ranches and Cape Cods, set in spacious yards on curvilinear streets, stood for everything that America celebrated in the Cold War era. These subdivisions attracted a heterogenous mix of surburnites, blue-collar workers employed by U.S Steel factories, teachers, clerks, and administrators. Levitt celebrated the ‘American-ness’ of these houses, saying ‘’No man who owns his house and lot can be a communist. He has much to do.’’ Don’t really know how owning a house can get in the way of your political ideologies, but alright. And when Levitt was questioned about the racial homogeneity of his planned community, he responded, ‘’We can solve a housing problem or we can try to solve a racial problem, but we cannot combine the two.’’  But the housing and racial problem was connected, as blacks could not get these houses because they were black. One instance of racial exclusion was in metropolitan Philadelphia, where between 1946, only 347 of 120,000 new homes built were open to blacks. Langston Hughes, popular poet described black neighborhoods as the ‘land of rats and roaches, where a nickel cost a dime.

 NO. 2

   Economist Robert Weaver spoke, ‘’among the basic consumer goods, only housing for Negroes are traditionally excluded freely competing in the market.’’ The struggle to open housing was not just a matter of free access to a market excluded to blacks. Racial segregation had high stakes. In post war America, where you lived shaped your educational options, your access to jobs, and your quality of life. The housing markets also provided most Americans with their only substantial financial asset. Real estate was the most important vehicle for the accumulation of wealth. Breaking open the housing market would provide blacks to access to better-funded, higher-quality schools. It would give them the opportunity to live in growing communities–near the shopping malls, office centers, and industrial parks where almost all new job growth happened. And more importantly, it would narrow the wealth-gap between blacks and whites. The battle against housing discrimination in Levingttown, or anywhere else would be the most important in the entire northern freedom struggle.

      NO. 3

 Housing segregation in the north was built on a sturdy foundation of racial restrictions encoded in private regulations and public policy. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Midwest–and especially Indiana and Illinois, were dotted with ‘sundown towns’ places whose residents drove blacks off by force, enacted ordinances to prohibit black occupancy (although such ordinances were struck down by the Supreme Court in 1917), and sometimes posted signs, like that in Wendell Willkie’s Elwood, Indiana, warning blacks of the dire consequences of staying around after sunset. Such crude techniques succeeded in driving blacks out of small towns, but they were less effective in the major northern metropolitan areas that attracted the vast majority of African American migrants beginning in World War I.

Three devices were used to help housing discrimination: first, private but legally enforecable restrictive covenants—attached to nearly every housing development built between 1928 and 1948— forbade the use or sale of a property to anyone other than whites. Second, federal housing policies, enacted during the Depression, mandated racial homogeneity in new developments and created a separate, unequal housing market, underwritten with federal dollars, for blacks and whites. And third, real estate agents staunchly defended the ‘freedom of association and the right of home owners and developers to rent or sell to whom they pleased, steering blacks into racially mixed or all-black neighborhoods. Whites in the North had economic reasons to fear the ‘Negro invasion’ as they called it. Their ability to secure mortgages and loans were at risk. But their motivations were not solely economic. Intertwined concerns about property values were fears of black predation. North and South recoiled at the prospect of miscegenation. In the South, they feared the legal restrictions on intermarriage and racial mixing in public spaces; the North feared the regulation of housing markets.