With Kerry having secured the nomination for the democratic presidential candidate, we can now expect more focused mud-slinging and vitriolic attacks between the two camps — fair enough. Bush and his cronies are war profiteering in Iraq — this is both disgusting and unconscionable. But that Bush would milk the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, for political gain and tactical electoral advantage is deeply offensive.

As Adam Entous reports from Reuters, on Thursday, the Bush team began running television ads, two of which refer to the 9/11 attacks. As Reuters notes:

“One television spot shows the ruins of the World Trade Center behind an American flag while another shows firefighters removing the flag-draped remains of a victim.

The commercials have angered many victims’ relatives, outraged at what they say is an attempt to politicize one of the darkest days in the nation’s history. The Bush administration has defended the ads as relevant and ‘tasteful.’

Despite pressure from Sept. 11 families and firefighters, Bush said he ‘will continue to speak about the effects of 9/11 on our country and my presidency.’”

President Bush no doubt considers his handling of 9/11 as one of the definitive events of his political career, and it is understandable that he should want to “speak about” his response to the terrorist attacks. That he should manipulate this tragedy for personal benefit, against the pleas of victims’ families and against the complaints of the firefighters that rushed to the scene, is despicable and undermines the gravity of the tragedy.

Mimi Hanaoka

“Black People were invented in the 1700s as a form of cheap labor,” reads the second still of a recently published Black History “cartoon.” “In Honor of Black History Month We Give you Blacky Fun Whitey Staring Kunta Kornelius & Steppin,” the cartoon begins. Branded Columbia’s subversive paper, The Fed published this cartoon in its February magazine and distributed it in all campus mailboxes following a series of events targeted both implicitly and explicitly at marginalized student groups.

Just before Christmas break, the Columbia University Marching Band (CUMB) launched a no-holds barred attack toward blacks, homosexuals, Jews and women. Asking “Who needs ethnic studies?” with juxtaposing pictures of Michael Jackson as a (black) boy and a (not-so-black) man, the band succeeded in demonstrating the campus tendency to brand “humor” as offensive jokes almost exclusively at the expense of marginalized minorities.

Similarly, Feb. 6, the Columbia College Conservative Club (CCCC) held an Affirmative Action Bake Sale. A thinly veiled attack on black and brown students at the university, CCCC members sold donuts and cookies at higher prices to white and Jewish students and at lower prices for black, Hispanic, and female students.  

“The worst part of it all is that these people are offending and attacking me on my dime,” said first year Ayana Dion Labossiere. “It’s not enough that I have to deal with the CORE and class, but I have racist people using my money to offend me in my space.”

Second year Chris Johnson expressed a similar sentiment. “It makes no sense that the university takes no proactive steps,” Johnson said. “The same day the administration works on one issue, these student groups are working on something else.”

Numerous student leaders have gathered to work toward affecting change throughout the community. Recently, ad-hoc meetings have been called between university officials and selected student leaders. Students such as Labossiere express a fervent dissatisfaction with the administration’s responses to many of these meetings. Referencing the letter penned by Xue, Labossiere said, “The groups get off too easy. Apologies [if offered] should be public. The event was public, [they] printed racist statements in public, they should apologize [or measures taken discussed] in public too.”

While many of these meetings seem to yield no tangible change, students continue to search for ways to challenge effectively both the administration and the campus community to reach beyond ignorance and establish policies, curriculum, practices, and educational programming aimed at increasing understanding of both race and racism.

“It’s amazing, the amount of things you have to endure on campus as a person of color just trying to do your thing,” said senior Leilani Mabrey Jackson. “To get here you have to swallow so many bitter pills, and then while you’re here, you have to deal with ignorant racists disrespecting you in your own space while the university stands off to the side watching.”

While the immediate future of minority students at Columbia University is far from palpable, a few things have materialized. Black students refuse to be silenced by students, organizations or the administration. Black students have and continue to build coalitions with marginalized populations and progressive student group coalitions both on campus and off. Black students have and continue to need the support of family, friends — this includes alumni associations comprised of black and brown faces who share in our pains in working to combat these and any such possible events.

“Now, with the added power of hippity-hop beats and cool, island rhythms, they spread their message of ‘getting down’ across the nation. Black people do even more crazy crap, but don’t worry about it until next February … and ‘til then, Remember KILL WHITEY!” the cartoon concludes.  

Our fight, our continued struggle, has just begun.

DJ

Born and raised in Texas, I have frequently reminded people that my identity isn’t tied to the geography, that not everyone in Texas rides a horse, is as conservative as President Bush, has an accent, is white, and is slightly off-kilter. It wasn’t until I lived in Chicago and learned about Texas happenings from the national news that some of those stereotypes seemed to make sense from an outsider’s perspective.

When Andrea Yates drowned her five children, people wanted my opinion on the matter since I was, of course, from Texas and therefore must have some connection or opinion on the matter. The same was true when that woman hit a pedestrian and then drove home with him on her hood, leaving him to die. In neither situation did I feel a personal connection, and I certainly didn’t identify with either of the perpetrators. But I would always roll my eyes and say, “We’re Texas,” an incredibly trite slogan that The University of Texas paid someone over $1 million to come up with (I really wish I was being facetious), or “Don’t mess with Texas,” the slogan for a highway clean-up campaign that got co-opted by Saturday Night Live to imply that Texans are gun-lovin’, death penalty-lovin’, Bush-lovin’ folks. I loathe these stereotypes. Although they are descriptive of many Texans, I would like to think that this is not entirely attributable to their location.

But I’ll admit that even I have begun thinking in these terms, and I’m not quite sure how to break free from them. For instance, when I saw the headline ”Some Texans boycott Girl Scout cookies“ on the Netscape homepage, all I could do was roll my eyes and say, ”We’re Texas.“

After all, Girl Scout cookies are seemingly innocuous, and come on, who doesn’t love a Thin Mint every now and then?  Apparently just about every Girl Scout and her mother in Crawford, Texas (home of the Bush ranch).  One Girl Scout troop is down to two members; one Brownie troop is now defunct.

Albeit not shocking in the midst of the culture war being waged on U.S. soil, the dissolution of Girl Scout troops in Crawford and the refusal to deliver cookies the girls already sold can be traced back to sex.

Apparently, the local Girl Scout organization gave a ”woman of distinction“ award to a Planned Parenthood executive and endorses a Planned Parenthood sex education program, which gives girls and boys information on homosexuality, masturbation and condoms.

I suppose that this act of protest is a great way for these women to show their support for their homeboy GW and his abstinence-promotion policy. And maybe Crawford mothers know best. Maybe unsafe sex promotion makes more sense than safe sex promotion (because let’s be honest, people are going to have sex regardless of the machinations of Girl Scout moms and GW).

But it makes me want eat more than my fair share of Girl Scout cookies. And it makes me forget why I even bother trying to defend the Lone Star State’s reputation, particularly when it seems to be the breeding ground for the new dangerous wave of conservatism that is desperately seeking to take hold of the nation. Yep, we’re Texas.

Laura Nathan-Garner

Stir TV, the “first show for and about Asian America’s next generation,” makes its premiere Saturday on the International Channel and KTSF-26 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The English-language news and entertainment program says it is targeting Asian Americans who were born, raised, or educated in the United States, a group it calls, “trend-setters and pop-culture mavens who are among the nation’s most dynamic and rapidly growing populations.”

A run of 26 weekly episodes of the 30-minute show is planned for the first season.

It looks like the show is trying to be an Asian American version of MTV, which is fine. Until MTV and the entertainment industry become more like Stir TV and diversify their programming, there will be a need and an audience for shows or networks that target an ethnic or racial niche.

chinoloco

Today’s brutal attacks on the Shia in Iraq highlight, in the most gruesome and inappropriate way, the divisions between the Sunni and Shia communities in Iraq and beyond. The occupying coalition forces are being lambasted, particularly on the ground in Iraq, for their failure to prevent today’s atrocities. It is unclear who masterminded these attacks — Iraqi Sunnis, foreign Sunni Islamist groups, and specifically al-Qaeda are all being eyed warily. The motivation of these attacks, however, is clearer — it was likely perpetrated in order to further destabilize Iraqi society, to encourage civil war between Arab Sunnis and Arab Shias, to provoke further fragmentation within the Islamic world and within Iraq, and to encourage Iraqi fury toward the U.S. forces for America’s inability to have prevented these attacks.  

Today’s terrorist attacks, and the increased fragmentation and anger they may inspire, add to the ever-present question of what is to become of the Kurds in the new Iraq.

The timing of the these attacks is both tragic and lamentable — these attacks occurred during Ashura, an important Shia festival of mourning that commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein in 680 A.D. During this ritual, hoards of faithful Shias flagellate themselves with chains and swords to atone for Hussein’s martyrdom.

Had these attacks occurred at any other time, they would have sparked division and fear. Now, with the American occupation of Iraq, the imminent handover of sovereignty from American hands to those of the Iraqis in June, and during this most important Shia festival, Iraq may become home to chaos and horrific sectarian violence.

America is in a worse situation than it has ever been before.  President Bush bullied his way into war and subsequent occupation in Iraq, and the Iraqis — not to mention other members of the international community — rightfully resent the American presence. The reconstruction of Iraq is a hotbed of crony capitalism. If President Bush wants, finally, to do something that is correct and just, he must do his utmost to increase the level of defense, order and security in Iraq and, most importantly, Iraqis need to have a role in this creation of order and security. America stripped Iraq of much of its humanitarian and political infrastructure, and America must now help to rebuild it. Reconstruction, after all, is not all about Halliburton and oil contracts.  

Mimi Hanaoka

In a recent episode of Friends, soon-to-be newlyweds Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) and Mike (Paul Rudd) briefly flirted with the idea of giving the money that they would spend on a wedding to a children’s hospital. But when their friends balked at the idea of giving up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a big, fancy wedding, they asked for their money back and eventually began planning their big day. There were moments of guilt and anguish regarding the final decision, but ultimately, in typical Friends fashion, the two decided to put themselves before the less fortunate, at least with regard to their wedding.

But other people are finding a way to both help the less fortunate and have the wedding of their dreams simultaneously. And they don’t have to donate their wedding gifts to do so.

Apparently, an increasing number of programs are training homeless or formerly homeless people in the culinary arts so that they can earn money by helping cater weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and other events. As  Danna Harman writes:

Under the auspices of Community Family Life Services, New Course takes homeless people, former inmates, and recovering addicts through a 16-week culinary course. During that time they get a $60-a-week stipend and on-the-job training in a cafeteria (New Course runs the US Tax Courts cafeteria), in a popular downtown restaurant (”3rd and Eats“), and with the catering operation itself.

More than 300 students have graduated from this training program since its launch 12 years ago, and about 80 percent have found jobs in the culinary field. The catering business, which started seven years ago, is earning $200,000 a year and is beginning to make its mark in the competitive and crowded Washington catering field, taking on everything from 500-person weddings to small ”power breakfasts.“

But the skills learned here go beyond the kitchen, says Jeannine Sanford, director of New Course’s classroom training and employment. Students take classes on self-esteem, time management, work ethics, and team building.

”They are learning how to respect themselves and others,“ says Ms. Sanford, ”… and this will stand them in good stead no matter what they do.“

As a prerequisite to joining this program (and also Fresh Start), enrollees must be sober, have stable living conditions, and be ready to make a commitment to helping themselves. About half of each class drops out before the end of the training, unable to meet these demands, says Mr. Doscher.

Laura Nathan-Garner

What’s the best way to rehabilitate juvenile defenders? a. boot camp, b. flogging, c. psychotropic drugs, or d. none of the above?

Workers at a Russian juvenile penal colony (their term, likely borrowed from Kafka) surmise that the answer is d. none of the above — and a dose of Dostoyevsky. Yes, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

In the next couple of weeks, young men in the juvenile penal colony will be performing scenes from Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the House of the Dead.

Charged for offenses ranging from petty theft to rape and murder, the 20 youths involved in this experiment with literary therapy range from ages 14 to 19. Prior to testing their hand at acting out scenes from Dostoyevsky’s novel, none of them had read any of the Russian scholar’s work. In fact, many were illiterate.

Yet, by pushing a group of young men who are ambivalent about literature, theater and, in many instances, their own lives, director Yevgeny Zimin seeks to reinvigorate troubled youth by enabling them to  act out roles with which they closely can identify. In the process, he hopes, they can regain a sense of their own humanity.

Certain scenes involving violence and alcoholism were edited out of the show, however, in order to prevent the youth from acting out roles that might send them back down the road to crime.

Can literary therapy empower those whom the education system seems to have failed, or does this sort of performance art risk making a spectacle of the lives and acting skills of the young men on the stage? Only time will tell, seeing as these youth haven’t performed before an audience or been set free from the penal colony yet.

But the rule of law seems to be failing in Russia like there’s no tomorrow, so it cannot hurt to try this innovative solution. And given that those in U.S. prisons tend to be treated like animals — regardless of their age — perhaps the U.S. should follow suit.

After all, if crime is punishable because it is considered a violation of others’ humanity (or property), then retributive justice’s attempt to restore humanity by denying humanity seems doomed to fail at achieving its intended goal. Finding a better solution, as the Russians have discovered, demands spicing things up. And as my English teachers taught me, Dostoyevsky tends to do just that.

Laura Nathan-Garner

My mother is a terrorist. Or she would be if she was still teaching public school.

Last week, Secretary of Education Rod Paige referred to the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, as ”a terrorist organization“ during a private meeting with governors.

Yes, it seems we are getting to the point where the number of people deemed prospective ”terrorists“ (a.k.a. enemies of the Bush administration) exceeds the number of Americans (since terrorism, we are told, is anti-American).

The rationale for equating teachers with terrorists goes something like this: Bush hails himself as a staunch advocate of education reform a la his (sparsely funded) No Child Left Behind legislation, but many of the 2.7 million members of the NEA have vocalized their opposition to the law, which penalizes schools and teachers if, for instance, test scores don’t improve in the course of a year … hence the teachers must be anti-American/terrorists.

Is Bush the only one immune from the ”terrorism“ label (along with Joseph McCarthy’s ghost)? Has Senator Joseph McCarthy come back from the dead to play puppeteer for the Bush administration?  

Previously, Paige has compared opponents of Bush’s education law to segregationist Southerners who stood in schoolhouse doors to prevent black students from attending desegregated schools. But is that what teachers opposing Bush’s law are doing?

Keep in mind that the teachers voicing their opposition probably aren’t the ones in wealthier suburban schools (since those teachers probably don’t fear losing funding given that achievement rates tend to remain above average). No, the teachers that Paige is demonizing are those who are most intimately impacted by No Child Left Behind. They are the ones who know how difficult it can be to raise test scores, to get parents involved, to get students to attend school and do their homework on a daily basis even though many have to work full-time to support their families. And they also know that Bush’s intiative doesn’t provide the funding necessary to meet the goals put forth by the law. But these teachers, whom have a much better sense of the barriers to education reform than representatives in Washington, D.C., are treated as the new enemy of the state because — gasp! — they aren’t afraid to voice their opinions.

Is it possible that the state has become the enemy of the education system as it siphons off money from teachers’ salaries and education programs to support national security? Or is this poorly funded education initiative merely a means of securing the nation against the latest enemy — teachers — along with the naive belief that the government is actually doing something about the public education crisis?

Laura Nathan-Garner

Recently, when I was reading an article in the most recent issue of Kitchen Sink on guys who pretend to be gay to get women to warm up to them or to get free drinks and non-sexual gifts from men who are actually gay, I rolled my eyes a bit, thinking how opportunistic it is to use the marginality of others strategically to get what one wants (and apparently couldn’t get in spite of one’s privileged position as a heterosexual male). But now straight guys are feigning queerness in a way that potentially disrupts one of the most masculine institutions — the military.

Appartently, dozens of Italian men, typically known for their homophobic, machismo demeanor, are pretending to be gay to get out of mandatory military service. Taking advantage of the mandate’s exemption for gays, men are visiting doctors in droves to get someone to document that they feel uncomfortable being around other men in such close quarters, that they feel living circumstances might undermine their professional interest and focus on their military responsibilities, etc. And they appear to be succeeding.

But in the process of evading their responsibilities to the institutions of ”manliness“ and the military, are these men undercutting an oppressive culture of heteromasculinity? Or are they simply taking advantage of the suffering of other men (i.e., men who are forbidden from serving in the military based on their sexual orientation) for their own benefit, thereby preserving the privilege associated with heteromasculinity?

Laura Nathan-Garner

Irony:
A condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or might naturally be, expected; a contradictory outcome of events as if in mockery of the promise and fitness of things

It was a sunny spring day in 1999. Driving down Route 9 outside Amherst, I saw a Buddhist monk — bald head, flowing robes and all — standing in a strip mall parking lot, talking on a cell phone. Unfortunately, he disappeared from my rearview mirror before I could feel out my camera in the back seat. Trying to communicate the rib-tickling irony to my friends later, I lamented the missed opportunity. But those were the Clinton years. Irony was a Buddhist on a cell phone. It was safe to laugh.  

How many times must we point out that “compassionate conservatism” is an ironic name for Bush’s policies before we stop laughing and start crying? We know it’s ironic. So is the “Healthy Forest Initiative,” “No Child Left Behind,” “Operation Enduring Freedom,” “Defense of Marriage Act,” and almost everything else the president says and does. (For the record, it’s not just Bush. Ultra-rich presidential candidates urging an equitable distribution of wealth can stumble into it, too).

Irony consists in the vast gulf between how we talk about the world and how it actually is. As 21st-century Americans, we navigate that widening gulf every minute, every day. It’s our dominating existential reality. But we don’t have to like it.

Five years ago, the President was impeached while his approval rating was around 70 percent. Maybe it wasn’t ha-ha irony, but at least in those days I didn’t feel like the sky could fall at any minute.

After a while, I get no real pleasure pointing out that so many hard-working people who vote for George W. Bush are likely to suffer under his inequitable economic policies. When Bill O’Reilly calls himself the “ombudsman for America,” I might be laughing and rolling my eyes, but inside, I’m weeping like a little girl.

For a chilling look at how irony is just plain not funny anymore, check out George Bush’s Meet the Press interview:

Tim Russert:  Mr. President, the Director of the CIA said that his briefings had qualifiers and caveats, but when you spoke to the country, you said, “there is no doubt.” … You said, quote, “The Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency. Saddam Hussein is a threat that we must deal with as quickly as possible.” You gave the clear sense that this was an immediate threat that must be dealt with.

President Bush:  I think, if I might remind you that in my language I called it a grave and gathering threat, but I don’t want to get into “word contests.” But what I do want to share with you is my sentiment at the time.

In 2000, Bush campaigned as the anti-Clinton, the only candidate who could bring integrity back to the White House. Bubba was always getting into word contests. But you could be sure that George W. would never argue over the definition of  “is.” Thank goodness for that.  

If we believe him when he says he doesn’t want to get into word contests, that he wants to be a leader and a uniter, what are we to conclude when he says,

I’m not going to change, see? I’m not trying to accommodate —  I won’t change my philosophy or my point of view. I believe I owe it to the American people to say what I’m going to do and do it, and to speak as clearly as I can, try to articulate as best I can why I make decisions I make…

I want to lead this great country to work with others to change the world in positive ways, particularly as we fight the war on terror, and we got changing times here in America, too.

Well, you can believe one thing, at least. We got changing times here in America. It used to be funny when the President was a joke.

henrypb

On Valentines Day, Chicago musician Chris Saathoff was the victim of a hit-and-run after leaving The Empty Bottle, a club on Chicago’s Northwest side. About 26 hours after Chris, and about a half mile to the north, a man in his 50s was killed. Across town, a woman, age 44, was killed by a vehicle in the parking lot. One local listserv dubbed the sequence of pedestrian killings St. Valentine’s Massacre 2004.” The deaths have helped to rally local pedestrian advocates who are planning a protest/memorial styled after the widely popular bicycle ride, Critical Mass, and similar pedestrian protests in California. I plan to attend the memorial because I believe pedestrian rights are the bedrock to mobility and absolutely essential to a healthy community. Some laugh at the idea of pedestrian rights. How could something so mundane need to be defended? But it is its banality that is its strength. If any group needs to be radicalized, it is pedestrians.  

625 Illinois Compiled Statues 5/11-1002. Pedestrians’ right-of-way at crosswalks. (a) … the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk…

Here’s a description of the pedestrian protest in California from the Menlo Park Almanac, Feb. 11, 2004:

Tempers flared Friday on Santa Cruz Avenue near the Menlo Commons retirement community as angry drivers clashed with a group of protesting pedestrians exercising their right to cross the street — and re-cross it at what they said was a decent interval.

From about 11 a.m. Friday, February 6, until sometime after 1 p.m., about 30 friends and relatives met to commemorate the one-month anniversary of the death of Atefeh “Amy” Bijan, a 75-year-old Menlo Commons resident who, on January 9, was struck by a car and killed in the crosswalk midway between the intersections of Alameda de las Pulgas and Sand Hill Road.

Benjamin Helphand

For a humorous and enlightening take on how people of color have been portrayed on television, check out VH1’s TV’s Illest Minority Moments Presented by Ego Trip.

Based on the Big Book of Racism from the creators of the hip-hop zine Ego Trip, the show pokes fun at and lambastes the racial and ethnic stereotypes that have made their way into America’s living rooms.

Some highlights include:

•Danny Partridge becoming an honorary member of an “Afro-American club”

•Marlo Thomas playing a Chinese girl on an episode of Bonanza

•Pondering who Uncle Ben would rather do the nasty with, Aunt Jemima or Mrs. Butterworth?

•Figuring out Big Bird’s race

And who would have thought that Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) and Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach) aren’t quite the all-American white girls they were made out to be?

Big Boi and Andre 3000 of Outkast, Kelis, Talib Kweli, actor Anthony Anderson, cartoonist Aaron McGruder (The Boondocks), writers Angela Nissel (Broke Diaries, Scrubs), Judy McCreary, Eric Nakamura (Giant Robot magazine), Jeff Yang (Once Upon a Time in China), director John Singleton (Boyz N The Hood, Baby Boy) and comic Joey Medina (Latin Kings of Comedy) are among the talking heads in the show.

TV’s Illest Minority Moments airs tonight at 7 p.m., Thursday at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Saturday at 12 a.m. (all times EST) this week.

chinoloco