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Tangled Threads and Cultural Beliefs that Damage the Quilt of Humanity
Part of the process of repairing the quilt of humanity involves mending the damage caused by such things as racism, sexism, heterosexism and classism, to name just a few. To be effective in this mending process, we need to recognize that the threads of races, gender, sexual orientation, and class in particular are tangled up together in such a way that they can only be untangled and repaired together. In her book, where we stand: Class Matters,bell hooks speaks directly about this:
“To challenge racism or sexism without linking [my italics] these systems to economic structures of exploitation and our collective participation in the upholding and maintenance of such structures, however marginal that engagement may be, is ultimately to betray a vision of justice for all.” (p. 161)
Class Privilege: Local and Global
Two articles in the New York Times illustrate the impact of class differences and the vast economic inequities that exist both in the U.S. and globally. There is a continually growing divide between those who live richly and lavishly and those who Read more
Simplicity vs. Consumption
Consumerism has reached a new low with the trampling of a man in a Wal-Mart Store by shoppers eager to obtain deep discounts on the day after Thanksgiving. While shocking, this kind of behavior is a consequence of the messages in the United States we all receive about buying things. The “Holiday Season” has become less about enjoying time with family and friends and more about shopping. We, as a nation, have developed what bell hooks describes in, where we stand: class matters , an “obsession with consumption.” (p. 46) Read more
Perpetuating and Spreading America’s Myths
A few months ago, I found myself watching the TV show, “Extreme Makeover.” This show is ostensibly about granting individuals their dreams. In most cases, the “makeover” involves providing individuals with plastic surgery and other procedures to change their appearance. Read more
Color Blind?
So often we hear people claiming to be “color blind” as a way to indicate that they hold no prejudices based on race. Their rationale appears to be that if you don’t notice a difference, it can no longer have a negative impact. What they fail to realize is that when we fail to “notice” differences, there are negative consequences at three levels – the individual, the cultural and the systemic.
At the systemic level, when power differences and distribution of resources and equity are systemically based on race, not noticing race contributes to the continuation of these ongoing inequities. It is precisely the invisibility of these systemic differences that make them so invidious and dangerous. In the case of power inequities, therefore, the danger is not in “seeing” and “noticing” differences but in failing to see the inequities that systemically result from them.
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Stories and Context
Stories can differ completely depending on who is narrating them as well as the point in time that is seen as the “beginning” of the story. In her book, The Thirteenth Tale, a mystery about a family, Dianne Setterfield speaks to this:
“I shall start at the beginning. Though of course the beginning is never where you think it is. Our lives are so important to us that we tend to think the story of them begins with our birth. First there was nothing, then I was born. …yet that is not so. Human lives are not pieces of string that can be separated out from a knot of others Read more
The Power of Stories to Build Connections and Create Change
In the book, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, Sandy Tolan artfully tells the story of two individuals who grew up with dramatically different cultural “stories.”
Bashir Khairi, a Palestinian man, was six years old in 1948, when his family was expelled from the home his father built by Jewish Zionists trying to create a “national the Jewish people.” When the Israeli soldiers approached al-Ramla, the Khairi family’s village, the Arab civilian defenders were no match for the Israeli army. Read more
Authentic Voices of Youth
I had the privilege of attending the finals of the NY Knicks Poetry Slam, a competition among poetry performance artists. The Knicks Poetry Slam is a five-year old program designed to use hip-hop and poetry as a vehicle to motivate and inspire high Read more
Being Vulnerable = Strength and Courage
Many of us have been taught a dysfunctional view of what it means to be strong and courageous. We teach our boys that being strong means never crying and never acknowledging their feelings – with the exception of anger, of course. “Real men” don’t cry or show pain. They are supposed to appear strong, rather than vulnerable Read more
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