Recently in Whiteness Category

I am assembling some primary documents to share at dinner Thursday. Below is an essential contemporary one:

From the UAINE (United American Indians of New England) site:

"UAINE and the history of National Day of Mourning: In 1970, United American Indians of New England declared US Thanksgiving Day a National Day of Mourning. This came about as a result of the suppression of the truth. Wamsutta, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, had been asked to speak at a fancy Commonwealth of Massachusetts banquet celebrating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims. He agreed. The organizers of the dinner, using as a pretext the need to prepare a press release, asked for a copy of the speech he planned to deliver. He agreed. Within days Wamsutta was told by a representative of the Department of Commerce and Development that he would not be allowed to give the speech. The reason given was due to the fact that, "...the theme of the anniversary celebration is brotherhood and anything inflammatory would have been out of place." What they were really saying was that in this society, the truth is out of place."

We have not yet eliminated Thanksgiving from our holiday dinners. Seeing our relatives, the opportunity to "give thanks," none of these are "good" excuses. And, "Maybe next year" isn't a good one either. Robert Jensen is right and I am one of "them" on the left - at least for now. . .

Our daughter is 8. At age eight kids are die hards for justice and equality; the playground is often a fierce battle ground to argue such philosophies. Eight is also the age when "proof" is very important "How do you know there was a big bang?" Primary documents like this one, which prove by and for whom this holiday was really constructed, then, should be of great service at dinner.

And then there is this image, which demonstrates one of the many ways in which the US enlisted a representation of "the black" in service of "the white."

In their book, Students as Researchers: Creating Classrooms that Matter, educators Shirley Steinberg and Joe L. Kincheloe call Thanksgiving "a large part myth and historical erasure." They go on to argue the folloiwng:

I encourage all teachers, especially those that might ever have our daughter in their classroom, to engage in the sort of research that Steinberg and Kincheloe required of their students.

~

References
• United American Indians web site.

• Shirley R. Steinberg and Joe L. Kincheloe, Students as Researchers: Creating Classrooms that Matter (UK: Routledge, 1998): 149-150. (Yellow highlights produced during search of PDF created from book for teaching purposes).

From Z-Net
20 November 2009
BY Robert Jensen

I have stopped hating Thanksgiving and learned to be afraid of the holiday.

Over the past few years a growing number of white people have joined the longstanding indigenous people's critique of the holocaust denial that is at the heart of the Thanksgiving holiday. In two recent essays I have examined the disturbing nature of a holiday rooted in a celebration of the European conquest of the Americas, which means the celebration of the Europeans' genocidal campaign against indigenous people that is central to the creation of the United States. Many similar pieces have been published in predominantly white left/progressive media, while indigenous people continue to mark the holiday as a "National Day of Mourning" (http://www.uaine.org/).

Photo: from Cindy Ott's article "Crossing Cultural Fences: The Intersecting Material World of American Indians and Euro-Americans." The Western Historical Quarterly 39.4 (Winter 2008).

My 8-year old daughter is eating beets and carrots for lunch. Her 7-year old friend from next door watches. He doesn't like beets. I tell my daughter: you're going to help me cook tonight. We're making Indian food.

DAUGHTER: Cool!

CHILD FROM NEXT DOOR: Back then, when the Indians were alive, they didn't have things like carrots and beets . . .

ME: Back then?

CHILD FROM NEXT DOOR: Yeah, when the Indians were alive.

ME: Ohhh, you mean American Indians. Oh, no, no. Tonight we're cooking Indian food like the kind that's made in India the country. The country in Asia. . . Also, American Indians are still living--there are Indians still alive.

CHILD: No there aren't.

ME: Yes there are.

CHILD: No! There arr-en-nt!

ME: Yes. There are.

CHILD: No there aren't. They're all dead.

"On June 29, 2009, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions by the city of New Haven due to their race. The decision overturns a lower court ruling supported by federal appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor, now a Supreme Court nominee. The court opinion in Ricci v. DeStefano, No. 07-1428, was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas." (Adam Liptak, NYT)

Click here for a report by Chris Rizo of Legal Newsline and here for the Court's decision.

Maya Angelou Public Charter School • See Forever Foundation

There is a very good article by James Forman, Jr. in Boston Review, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/opinion/08brooks.htmlBR34.3/forman.php">"No Ordinary Success: The Boundaries of School Reform" (May/June 2009). Forman is the founder of Maya Angelou Public Charter School, a school for those kids that schools usually don't want as students, often the ones that, unfortuantely, the criminal justice system in the U.S. collects as symbols of "fighting crime." Forman is a product of SNCC parents of the '60s. His father, James Sr., died in 2005 was SNCC's executive secretary and his mother was an activist and nurse.

Now this is something . . . Perhaps someone should put this into the hands of Dave Chappelle.

Here is an update to the NY cookie story by John Del Signore at the Gothamist.

UPDATE: We just spoke with Kefalinos on the phone and he remains utterly oblivious, telling us, "This whole thing was blown out of proportion." He says he's sold out of the "Drunken Negro Cakes" and doesn't plan to make anymore, despite the fact that many customers have been requesting them (he claims). When asked whether he understands that most African-Americans find the word "negro" offensive, Kefalinos explains, "It's a French word. It comes from the French."

Community Board 2 was quick to call for a boycott of Lafayette French Pastry, to which Kefalinos responds, "I'm sorry they feel that way because I was trying to do a nice thing." Not seeming to grasp in any way the degree of outrage he's sparked, he added, "I did it and that's the end of it and it's over."

UPDATE 1/24: Now Ted Kefalinos apologizes: "Seriously, from the bottom of my heart, it was an innocent design I created. It was nothing more than just a piece of art."

In the Twin Cities (and elsewhere in the US), public school administrators (particularly those belonging to poor and working class schools) are encouraged and given "protocols" for walking through their school buildings. When this is a practice that needs to be encouraged, instructed, and mandated; it truly shows how public education now relies on the corporation as a model for best practices.

Look at the list of handouts and forms that the Oregon Reading First Center at University of Oregon feels necessary to provide their school "leaders":

• Walking the Talk: Powerful Instructional Leadership Through School and Classroom Walk-Through Visits presentation

• Five Minute Observation form

• Classroom Walk Through Checklist

• Walk Through Tally Sheet

• Walk Through Follow-Up presentation

• Follow-Up handouts: Look Fors and Non-negotiables

The concept of a short "observation form," tallying, and "Look Fors" is utterly ridiculous and it makes those of us who consider ourselves educators look like complete fools. This is, quite plainly, business discourse. And the education wave of the last 30-35 years--with the onslaught of NCLB, privately sponsored, de-unionized charters, and vouchers--has been to model public not independent schools after business.

PRESS MEMORANDUM - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Catherine Compton
Third World Press
773-651-0700, ext. 25

CHICAGO – (Jan 7, 2009) – Veteran political activists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn will be speaking on their newest book, Race Course: Against White Supremacy at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009, at International House, 1414 E. 59th Street, Chicago. Publisher Haki R. Madhubuti will also speak about publishing the book, which he helped inspire the former Weather Underground founders to write.