No Person is "Born to Rape"

Turning to global news...

Some of you may remember that horrendous story of the Austrian father who imprisoned his daughter in a windowless cell in his basement and repeatedly raped her for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.

There are some details of this story that are just too inhuman to comprehend. I find myself going back and reading over the words, seeing if the magnitude of this woman's brokenness can every truly be recognized.

I came to an answer of No.

A psychiatrist who reviewed the psychological state of this man said, "Fritzl is guilty for what he did," and adds that Fritzl himself said he was "born to rape."

Fritzl was diagnosed with a severe personality disorder and has a "deep need to control people," and while my background is in mental health and wholeheartedly agree that those who struggle with clinical personality disorders are the most difficult and often despairing clients to work with, the statement "born to rape," raises a million white flags for me. It should raise a million white flags for anyone who works in psychology or mental health because these kinds of statements throw blankets and generalizations around mental illness and rape culture.

There are so many levels of sexual assault and I'm not exploring all the different kinds and angles of rape that exist. They're all rape. This woman's situation has a rare, animalistic cruelty to it and it's clear on so many levels that mental instability played a part of this man's behavior. It is my belief that rape is the utter denial of another person's humanity. It fails to recognize the full capacity of another human being. How else can you explain violating a person's body, their sexuality, their choice, sacred expression? How else can someone rape if it does not include blinding themselves to the fullness, wholeness of the person they are raping? Rape is the utter denial of a woman's livelihood, as a complete and total living person. To do that, to commit rape, one must have some level of mental distortion.

Mental illness clearly plays role in this specific case, but our rape culture's role is never a headliner. The reflective questions that blast canons at ourselves - those actively who create and participate in this culture - are rarely focal points. Rape culture loves to scare us with extra dark nightmares and put fancy clinical sounding labels to explain violent behaviors. It's the same falsity that convinces us that we're safe enough when crazies like Fritzl are in jail and not bother to consistently teach our sons and daughters about the real and usual face of rape.

It is our culture, our rape culture, deems Fritzl a nutcase but college age and educated men who repeatedly rape women on weekends are an entirely different thing. It is our western rape culture that flaps the trafficking young girls and women as a phenomenon happening "elsewhere," and the stench of violence smells most rancid in cases like Fritzl. It is our rape culture that likes to draw deep lines in the sand that says men who rape their daughters for decades are sick. Men who rape strangers are deranged. Men who rape their friends and girlfriends are disturbed. But the actual dissection of these things of what makes rape acceptable - our rape culture - is never on trial.

When you study mental health, one quickly learns that mental wellness is a continuum. Everyone, to some extent, can be plotted on the graph with anxiety, paranoia, phobias, chronic thoughts, memories, bad habits, reoccurring dreams, depression, psychosomatic pains, bereavement, flat affect...etc. Clearly some suffering is much more severe (e.g. depression versus clinical depression) than others, but don't be fooled. Or scared. We're all mentally well and unwell in some capacity at some times in our lives. The danger of discussing rape and mental illness is that mental illness quickly becomes the focus (and the crutch) for those wanting to understand "how something like this is possible."

But only extreme cases like Fritzl, with a clear personality disorder diagnosis, are "born to rape." These other men who perform acts of brutality are .... what? Not born to rape? Even with the most severe of mental disorders, no person knows how to rape another human. People may be born with a predisposition toward any number of things, but not all people decide and choose to rape. So, how does rape culture affect men differently? Is it really because of mental illness? Is it that men learn to rape and are more prone to these acts if they're mentally sick? Is it all dependent upon external environmental factors? It paints a picture that the grain of crazy was inside this man and, due to family dynamics and brain anatomy, carried out the worst evils inside him.

The methods of how rape is carried out may not be identical, but the need is similar: desire for control and power. How that control is taken - by cell, alcohol, drugs, threat, or abuse - varies, but rape culture sends a clear message to those mentally well and unwell that control can be taken. Power can be taken. With the right resources, idea, and environment, women can be raped. This is the message. This is what is accepted. We, as a society, raise all kinds of dirty hell and voices when we're confronted with the aftermath of these messages, but when it's time to take the stand, we throw mental illness up there for interrogation, blame, and relief, instead of rape culture which plays the largest role in all the violence against women in Austria, the Philippines, Liberia, or anywhere else in the world. Our culture, our global message of our we view and treat women never is deconstructed in the same way we do mental illness.

Why do we do that? Why don't we put ourselves on the stand? Is it because we aren't strong enough to admit that we allow and possibly even participate in that destructive rape culture?
We don't really want to trace how we learn internalize these messages and as we grow into business partners, community leaders, college students, priests, or educators - we grow with the messages inside us.

If we begin accepting this kind of language, "born to rape," as a skirting method to use mental illness and explain the grotesque crimes of our world, we will fail to analyze the true causes of a rape culture - the ways we are raised to understand gender, power, sexuality, relationships, and communication. Rape culture is the culture that features a specific case like this but never bothers to tackle rape as a daily weapon and how imprisonment, trafficking, and enslaving of women around the world is actually not that uncommon.

This woman's story is unacceptable. The brutality and enormity of her nightmare reaches unfathomable depths. But how we frame and explain her perpetrator, a man "born to rape," tells much more of how we frame rape in our own minds.

To truly combat a rape culture, we must go further than to explain the "proclivity" to rape. I believe the decision to rape is pieced together by various traumas, lessons, allowances, and testing pressure points to see what is acceptable and what can go unpunished (e.g that terrible statistic that indicated 25-30% of US and Canadian college men would rape if they knew they could get away with it.)

It's not a formula. There are no easy answers. Dismantling a rape culture will not be one model. How we confront group homes, addiction, neglect, gangs, community outreach, family structures, and silence will look different in every part of the world, but I can start in my own home, with my own small piece of what I see as wrong. I am weary of language that paints men - mentally ill men - as unstoppable beasts. Some most certainly have mental problems that pose danger to others, but those seeds, the things that made men more apt to rape had to be nurtured and grown somewhere. My hunch is it's not all mental illness. Our worst criminals reflect not just the darkness of the human's mind, but act as a mirror of our social culture .

Throw Your Shoe at Bush and Have Some Cake!

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, our favorite shoe throwing activist, celebrated his 30th birthday on January 17, 2009.

Mhm mhm mhm, what an act to do before your 30th birthday. What a statement to be able to say you threw your shoes at George W. Bush. Reports have come in that a few of the guards brought in a birthday cake. I hope it was in the shape of one large shoe. I'd eat the entire thing myself. A vanilla sole. Strawberry shoelaces. Swirls of icing for the knot.

Don't forget to wish Muntadhar al-Zeidi a happy belated birthday as you throw your shoe on Tuesday. (Original post and instructions here.) Get your shoe selected. Pump up your throwing arm's bicep because it's going to be a big day! Let there be cake!

Sean Avery and Jon Favreau: Comparing the NHL and the Obama Administration

Two recent public incidents have caught my eye and I'm stuck on one question someone asked me, "What do you think is appropriate punishment?"

Last week, NHL player, Sean Avery, came under fire after commenting to the press and making a disparaging comment about former girlfriends who are now in relationships with other NHL players:

"I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the
NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what
that's about, but enjoy the game tonight."

He is referring to ex-girlfriend actress Elisha Cuthbert is reportedly now dating Dion Phaneuf of the Calgary Flames. Another former girlfriend of Avery, model Rachel Hunter is reportedly now seeing another NHL player, Jarret Stole of the Los Angeles Kings.

Avery, with a history of making inappropriate remarks to stir controversy was suspended for six games and has been described as a "disturber, an agitator" by Barry Melrose, ESPN NHL analyst.

Even more recently, the chief speechwriter of our President-elect, 27 year old Jon Favreau, has made his own headlines when a picture of him was displayed on Facebook that showed the newly minted talent groping the right breast of a life-size cutout of the new Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the picture, there is a friend tilting a beer to her lips, offering a kiss, and grasping the top of the cutout's hair, all together disturbing and disasterous.

These two separate incidents are, in one sense, hardly newsworthy when you consider the severity of the actions: offensive statements and thoughtless sexist actions caught on camera. But what makes these kinds of incidents so compelling is the reaction of the public and the organizations they represent. To date, Avery was suspended for six games and Favreau, according to the Washington post apologized to the former First Lady, but received no punishment for his boorish pose. Even more maddening is that Clinton camp simply called it good-natured fun and Clinton is "pleased to learn of Jon's obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application," despite her reign on the sexist parade the past two years.

So, let me make this clear in my head: the NHL suspends Avery for his disrespectful comments toward women (albeit, he had already established a history and his reputation preceded him) but the Obama administration has nothing to say. Clinton herself, who rightfully pointed out the sexism spewed on her during her campaign trail, has now gone cold on calling out sexism and sings pleasure of his application to the State Department. Favreau, the leading mind behind Obama's public vernacular merely hangs his head as he is carded the newest "Facebook victim" and nothing more.

The lack of any kind of response about the Favreau incident is off-putting. Which brings me to the question: What is the appropriate response for offensive behavior done off working hours but contradict the image what you work for? Does the punishment fit the crime? In Avery's case, yes. He reportedly had been warned in the past and to carefully watch his mouthy steps. Favreau though, with all of this verbal sophistication, looks like he will not even receive a tap on his once roaming right hand. If firing him is not the correct measure, then what? Suspending him for six speeches? I don't think so, but his thoughtlessness warrants something in between losing his job and Clinton's spokesperson sweeping it under the rug.

Momentarily putting aside the commendable and rare response of the NHL, the sad reality of these two incidents is not the six-game suspension or public shaming of "Favs." The maddening component of these behaviors is how easy it is to dismiss sexism, however public or lewd. Any weekend in any bar - glorified city or unknown small town - on any given Saturday night gathering, you can find an Avery or Favreau disrespecting women either in word or gesture. The most common character though is the person who makes light of it all; you can always find a Philippe Reines nonchalantly waving it off as funny or a trivial matter.

I just never thought I'd ever have to compare the NHL to the Democratic party for their reactions to sexism and then applaud the former for taking some form of action. At the very least, they recognized it as unacceptable and sent a stiff penalty to Avery with a kindergarten lesson attached, "That's not right and you can't say something like that."

And since the Dems seem to be suddenly ignoring the impact of a sexist action gone internet crazy, I take it upon myself to give a kindergarten message made especially for Jon Favreau, "Stay in line and keep your hands to yourself."

Cross-posted at Bitch Magazine.

Filipina Takes Action; Frannie Richards Up Against Fil-Am H&M Lawyer

h/t AAM

Remember Frannie Richards?

She's the women who is bringing up charges against H&M for discrimination a few month ago. After encountering an H&M associate with a slew of racist and sexist comments, Richards has taken action.

H&M has now recruited a Filipino lawyer Joseph J. Centeno, to represent their case. Centeno, a partner with Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP in Philadelphia, is - GET THIS - Commissioner to the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission. He is friggin' in charge of enforcing anti-discrimination ordinances and HE'S THE ONE REPRESENTING H&M.

I'm trying not to drop f-bombs, but WHAT THE ---- IS THIS?

So the case of Filipina vs. H&M and Filipino lawyer is set.

I can officially say that this disgusts me to the bone.

Centeno - This is a slap in the face to Frannie Richards and to many Filipinos everywhere.

Asian Women Targeted in Sexual Assault Attacks

h/t to AAM

In Seattle, four womyn have come forward saying they have been sexually assaulted and the assaults have occurred in a bus stop. As the police describe the attacker as growing more and more bold - he first began touching woman and is now grabbing them and forcing them to the ground - they are cautioning women in certain areas who use the bus to be extra weary. All of the survivors are Asian American womyn.

My beef, once again, with sexual assault is that law enforcement and media always end with a Be Careful Ladies! message. What if these womyn - Asian or not - do not have the luxury of options or trying to be more careful than they already are? Or maybe this is an assault on the rights of womyn - Asian or not - to use public transportation without fear of being raped or her body being violated? How about, instead, the message be

WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS FORM OF RACE BASED VIOLENCE

How about we write, "We will not silence or persuade women into altering their lives out of fear of a sexual predator," instead of spreading cautionary tales and hoping more womyn come forward?

We will not be silent. We will not be afraid.

What Makes a Hate Crime?

From Democracy Now

This is a portion of a transcript from Megan Williams and what she described as her experience when she was kidnapped, raped, and tortured for a week. Now, this is what I want to know: what constitutes a hate crime? A hate crime must be a "conspiracy against constitutional rights." What part of being gang raped; forced to eat human, rat, and dog feces; enduring unfathomable emotional and physical violence and torture while being called racial slurs by 6 individuals does not qualify as a conspiracy against Megan's constitutional rights?

I've got to be going crazy.

Or maybe I'm that naive.

Or maybe this world is just becoming a place I don't want to recognize as home anymore.

MEGAN WILLIAMS: They were torturing me. They all passed a knife around that was -- and stabbing me. I was trying to get away as they were stabbing me, and they were holding me down and stuff. And they smothered me with a bag. That morning, I had a bag wrapped around my neck and everything. They choked me. They made me eat dog poop, rat poop and human. They made me drink their urine. And each time, they braided some switches together, and they were beating me across the back. They tore my clothes off me and everything.


These are the words of a womyn who I believe.

A Fairy Tale Ending Eludes Separated Twins, NYTimes

Here is a story about a Filipina immigrant who came to the states with twins joined at the head. Four years ago they were separated and received national attention and international medical media, but today still face considerable uncertainty for their future.

All the harrowing fears face this Filipina mother whose worries encompass all the scaffolds of living here in the States as an immigrant - visas, finance, medical attention, and dwindling generosity.

Read more here.

Judge drops rape charges in gang rape

This was forwarded to me and I just laid my head in my arms for awhile to revel in my disbelief and heartbreak.


Even if you aren't able to attend, please do spread the word and equally as importantly voice your opinion to Judge Teresa Carr Deni at the polls on Tuesday, November 6, 2007.
***************************************************************************­***************** PRESS CONFERENCE Thursday November 1, 2007 1pm Outside Municipal Court (Criminal Justice Center) 1301 Filbert St, Philadelphia
Monday October 29, 2007 To the Editor:
We were appalled to learn that on Oct 4 Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni dropped all rape and assault charges in the case of a woman gang-raped at gunpoint. Because the woman was working as a prostitute, Judge Deni decided that she could not have been raped and changed the charge to "theft of services." Deni later said that this case "minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped."
As groups organizing against rape and in support of victims, we could not disagree more. *All* women have the right to protection from violence. The idea that any woman is "asking for it" is a lie that we fought for decades to destroy. It is especially offensive to see it revived by a female judge, who reached her position as a result of the women's movement and is now using her power to deny justice to the most vulnerable women.
Deni told Daily News columnist Jill Porter that the victim met another client before reporting the rape. We have learned that this is completely untrue; the transcript of the hearing proves it. For a judge to make a false (and self-serving) accusation against a victim in the press, in addition to her prejudiced and reckless contempt for women's safety, confirms that she is unfit to serve. The outcry following Deni's decision shows how out of step with public opinion she is and that most people believe that prostitute women deserve the same protection from violence that we all have a right to expect.
No woman is safe when prostitute women aren't safe. Serial rapists and murderers often target prostitute women knowing that they are more likely to get away with it. Labeled criminals by the prostitution laws, women are less likely to report violence for fear of arrest themselves. When sex workers do report, the violence is often dismissed. Here, the same man and his friends gang-raped another woman four days later. Decisions like Deni's are a green light for further attacks.
The victim in this case was a Black single mother with a young child. In Philadelphia, where one in four people lives in poverty and welfare has been almost completely dismantled, many women have been forced into prostitution to survive. This should not make them fair game for rapists.
We are glad that the District Attorney is pursuing the original rape charges. The public can make *our* voices heard in the November 6 election: vote "No" on the retention of Teresa Carr Deni as Judge of the Municipal Court of Philadelphia.
*Mary Kalyna* On behalf of Global Women's Strike Philadelphia, PA
and Women Against Rape US PROStitutes Collective Black Women's Rape Action Project (BWRAP) Legal Action for Women Every Mother is a Working Mother Network Wages Due Lesbians Payday Men's Network
-- STOP THE VIOLENCE WEAR RED ON OCTOBER 31, 2007 http://documentthesilence.wordpress.com/

Rethinking Flickr

MAMA MIA.

This has me rethinking everthing I have done with photography, privacy, and changing the settings on my flickr account.

Highly disturbing, incredible in analysis - this story has STEREOTYPE written all over it's lens.

A Step Closer

H/T to Zuky.

Moving toward

FREE-ing
THE
JENA 6.

Virtual March - Thanks to BA

FREE
THE
JENA 6.

NOW.

Rising Number of Murdered Women and Girls in Guatemala

The most chilling quote of this story is, "Women are being killed because they are women."

Spiritual Inclusion

And because I am a trampoline-bouncing advocate for standing up to binary camps and labels, this specific call in the Reproductive Rights debate struck a chord with me. Though it doesn't address the issue in the usual angle I like (WOC being in the thrust of the issue), I do resonate with the need for spiritual inclusion.

Via Incite Magazine: Faithfully Pro-Choice?
Why the Reproductive Justice Movement Needs to Give Pro-Choice Religious and Spiritual Voices a Seat at the Table

In a world of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, it’s tempting for the progressive movement to write off religious people entirely. In this article, pro-choice activist and Christian minister Matthew Fox discusses the importance of including spiritual and religious voices in progressive movements in general, and in the movement for reproductive justice in particular.

By: Rev. Matthew Fox

I SERIOUSLY Welcome You to the Feminist Blogosphere

It's funny. It really is, this whole feminist blogosphere.

Almost two months ago, I expressed some serious whore-er (get it? Play on words? Horror?) over the cover of Full Frontal Feminism (FFF) and predicted severe disagreement from other WOC. And now, months later, I now sit, having read the freaking thing, and what do I see?: sisters of color bloggers getting attacked and the feminist blogosphere's blowing up.

Maybe I should go into feminist prophesy. There's some bank to be made there.

Alright, all joking aside there is an unbelievable amount of bullshit going on about the reactions, reviews, and the jaws of life biting going on between blogs. Those unfamiliar with the blogosphere may wonder how wounds can cut so deep. Well, my friends, it's called Humanity.

If you can connect the dots between blogs, go to it.

Here are the crumbs that I can gather:
FFF is written.
FFF is reviewed.
Writers/Feminist of Color are among reviewers.
W/FOC are attacked.

Mhm.

A book about drawing out the young feminists draws out opinion, disagreeing opinion, and the insidious "commenters" who cannot stand authentic feminist opinions from women of color go to TOWN.

I could post a reflection about either the book or what has transpired, but there is way too much wisdom being written on other blogs right now to spend writing. I want to soak up their pearls before I spew my own spin on these occurences.

There is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING surprising, respectful, true, or inspiring in the ugly racism and comments hurled at women of color who have dissenting opinion. How many more times do we need to go review this lesson?

Before any feminist agenda can move forward, WOMEN OF COLOR MUST BE BELIEVED.

And I think I'll use some of my prophetic skills right now. let me peek into my feminist crystal ball:

mhmmm, it's kind of foggy...I see something, but can't make out what exactly what - WAIT! I SEE SOMETHING! It's...

a future post that slam dunks this shit.

This is What is Happening

This is happening. Right now. The violence against immigration is escalating.
via bfp
Here is a first-hand account of the police response to the peaceful
demonstration on May 1 in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. It is written by
Jennifer Snow. She is Associate Director of Progressive Christians Uniting,

a very effective ecumenical social justice consortium on whose Board I have
been for 10 years. She has a PhD in Religious Studies, is in her late 20s
and describes herself as five feet tall and completely unarmed. Read it and
weep.
–


May 1: Violence in MacArthur Park


This is what happened.

The march ended at Wilshire and Alvarado, and the last organization
in the march was a Native American drumming and dancing troupe. They stopped in
the street to dance, and a huge circle, mostly of families with small children,
gathered around them to watch, cheer, and clap. It was peaceful and jubilant, a
celebration, not a protest. The police were there, but no one was
paying any attention to them. Suddenly there were sirens, very loud and close.
Police motorcycles drove into the crowd around the dancers. There was no
announcement - or if there was, no one could hear it over the sirens.

Imagine the deafening noise of many sirens only a few feet from you,
the motorcycle driving towards you, pushing you forward. Imagine the panic of
women with small children in strollers. People tried to get away from the
motorcycles, but the police would not allow you to walk through them. When
I tried, I was pushed roughly back in front of the motorcycles. I saw three
middle school girls standing hugging each other in front of a motorcycle,
the wheel pushing against their feet and legs, the sirens blasting in their
ears, the policeman screaming at them. I saw people being pushed off their
feet.

When I saw the police start striking someone, I ran over to try to
put myself between them. I saw people dragging their friends away from the
police. Eventually they pushed us back onto the sidewalk. No one knew why
they were doing this or what was happening. A line of police in riot gear
faced us as we crowded on the sidewalk, bewildered and bruised and angry.
We hadn’t been doing anything wrong. They hadn’t asked us to move, or tried
to communicate with us in any way other than violence. The noise was
deafening, terrifying, disorienting. Teenagers with piercings yelled at the
police. I pointed at the ground, trying to tell the police, look, I’m on
the sidewalk. The police yelled at us. You had to yell to be heard. But
the tension faded.

The National Lawyers Guild passed the word along that as
long as we stayed on the sidewalk, there would be no problems. Most of the
teenagers had calmed down. There was nothing to see - just the people lined
up on the sidewalk, the police in the street. People
were a little bewildered. Why were the police here? What were they doing? Why
were there so many of them? Why did they have guns and canisters? But no one
was doing anything. We just stood there, talking, laughing, drinking water,
eating corn, taking pictures. We wondered what on earth there were so many
police for. And then suddenly the kids - the same teenagers that had been
yelling at the police - ran along the sidewalk, yelling get back, get back,
they’ve declared unlawful assembly, they’re going to arrest everyone. We
heard shots. Within the park, from the corner of Alvarado and 7th, I saw

people running. I ran towards them. I wanted to make sure that people were
not responding violently to the police, that no one was being hurt. No one
was violent, but people were indeed being hurt.

Keep in mind that there had been no announcement - or at least, no
effective announcement. I had been in the front the
entire time, less than two feet from the police. Surely I would have heard an
announcement if there was one. The only announcement had been rumor. Later on, I
would hear a completely unintelligible announcement from a helicopter. I could
tell that it was in English. Even if I had been able to understand it, many in
the crowd would not have.

There were no requests to disperse. There was no warning to the crowd.

There was no explanation. There was no effort to communicate.

The police entered the park shooting gas or smoke canisters. People
panicked,running in all directions. I saw a couple, bewildered, start walking in
the wrong direction. I held up my hands and said to the police, I’m going to get
those people, I am going to help those people there, and went down to them,
guiding them in front of the line and towards the exit. They didn’t speak
much English. I continued to walk slowly in front of the police.
Suddenly I saw a homeless man, sleeping under a tree. The police line \
approached, screaming at him. He woke up, confused. Someone with a camera tried
to help him, but was beaten off. He tottered to his feet, trying to grab his
suitcase and blanket. The police screamed at him. He held out his hands to
them. Perhaps that seemed threatening. I saw two policemen start hitting
him with their batons, one to his legs, one to his chest. I started back
towards him, thinking I could put myself between him and the police, but
that’s all I saw, because then the police had me. I was thrown to the
ground. A policeman screamed move! move!, pushing me and hitting me with
the baton. Every time I tried to stand, I fell back down - he was dragging
me, I couldn’t get to my feet. A girl, one of the teenagers, came over,
tried to help me up, and the policeman started hitting her with the baton as
well.

Even with everything I had
seen, something in me instinctively
turned to the police to help. Surely they would stop those people from beating
the homeless man. I kept saying to the policeman dragging me, look, they’re
beating that man, reaching back towards him. The last I saw of the homeless
man, they were putting plastic handcuffs on him. I later heard that one
“demonstrator” was arrested. Maybe that was him. When I got to my feet, I
continued to walk slowly in front of the police, my hands raised, very
slowly. They were shooting on my left side. There seemed no point in
trying to get out from in front of them, or running. I felt sure that my
only safety was to be slow, calm, and clearly unarmed. I walked slowly
across Wilshire in front of the police line, hands up. We came to the
corner of Wilshire and Alvarado, where Wilshire runs through the park.

We approached a hot dog vendor and his wife and daughters, sitting
behind their carts on the low stone wall. The vendor had the hopeful, friendly
smile of someone who has no idea what is going on. He had brought his family to
keep him company while he sold hot dogs. I tried to get his daughters to move,
but it wasn’t fast enough. The police were on us. One of them grabbed the
vendor by his t-shirt and screamed “Move! Move!” while striking him the
chest with his baton over and over again. The policeman was standing
between the vendor and any hope of his moving - the vendor was trapped
between the cart, the wall, his family, and the policeman. I stood with his
daughters, my arm around one of them, all of us frozen. Eventually the
policeman must have realized that the man was not able to move, and he left.

The vendor was still smiling, as though to say, I mean no trouble, do not
hurt me, I’m just a hot dog vendor. We were all in shock. The police were
still coming, still screaming. I helped the family move their
carts across the street, and they started walking up Wilshire, away from that corner.

I could see, though, that the police had already strung a line
across Wilshire. Although they were screaming to people to get out, they were

beginning to block all the exits. By now the helicopter was hovering. It
was complete pandemonium. There was a deafening message from the
helicopter, but no one could understand it. Someone was trying to speak

from the rally stage. People were crowding around the news vans, as though
they would be safe there. The police were entering the park, shooting.
Women ran with their strollers and their babies and their children, trying

to get away. Men sat on picnic tables or wandered in groups, not knowing
where it was safe to go. I ran out at the corner of 6th and Alvarado. The
police were starting to block the corner, yelling at people who ran towards
them. I ran, a woman running beside me with
her three children, running
away from the police. In the parking lot of a store on Maryland and
Alvarado, I passed a young woman cradling an infant wrapped in a blanket,
sitting on the curb, dazed, hiding behind a van. Are you OK? I asked.
Yes, she said, and we nodded at each other, and I kept walking.

My courage was gone. I was glad to get out. I was glad to get out
because I had no doubt that, if the police had had real bullets instead of
rubber ones, they would have used them. For no reason at all. As we were walking
earlier in the march, my friend said, “This is why I am proud to be an
American.” We

saw peaceful people, laughing, singing, dancing, holding banners. We were
protesting, but we were also celebrating. We were celebrating our
constitutional right to come together in popular assembly, to make our needs

and concerns known to our government. I was surrounded by people who
believe in America, in being
here, in becoming citizens. What prouder thing
can you say of your country that people the world over want to be one of us,
to join our community, to have the rights and privileges and safety and
trust in our institutions that we do? This is what democracy is.

As I walked in front of the police line, my hands held up, I thought
about being an American, about being free. I am five feet tall. I was completely
unarmed. I had made no hostile move towards anyone. I could have been shot
at any time. It was unreal. It was not America, and yet it was.

The hot dog vendor smiled at the police, hopeful, friendly. This is
what happened.

Jennifer Snow
Associate Director, Progressive Christians Uniting
Please distribute widely…

Return to the Park:
Community Mobilizes for Thursday, May 17th March to MacArthur Park

PROCESSION AND VIGIL

FOR JUSTICE, CIVIL RIGHTS, LIBERTY,
AND IMMIGRATION REFORM

WHEN: Thursday, May 17th

5:00pm

WHERE: Starting at Immanuel Presbyterian Church
3300 Wilshire Blvd (corner of Berendo)
Ending at MacArthur Park

For more information, please contact:
(213) 353.3921 (Spanish/English)
(213) 385.7800 x131 (Spanish/English)
(213) 738.9050 (Korean/English)

SPONSORED by CARECEN, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of

Los Angeles (CHIRLA), COFEM, Garment Worker Center (GWC), Instituto

Popular de Educacion del sur de California (IDEPSCA), Koreatown
Immigrant Worker Association (KIWA), Los Angeles Archdiocese Social
Justice Committee, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the Multi-
ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network (MIWON), Pilipino Worker

Center (PWC), SEIU 1877, and the We Are America Coalition.

–

Another Reason to Hate Bank of America

SERIOUSLY, is anyone surprised that this happens?

Bank of America sued for race discrimination

By Jonathan Stempe

Five black current and former employees of Bank of America Corp. have sued the second-largest U.S. bank, accusing it of racial discrimination by steering lucrative clients to their white counterparts.

The 29-page complaint, filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Boston, contends that the bank discriminates against African-Americans in pay, promotions, training and support services.

It said the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank regularly teams African-American workers together and assigns them to largely minority neighborhoods and low net-worth clients.

When the workers complained, according to the lawsuit, the bank said it believed that clients are more "comfortable" dealing with bankers and brokers of their own race.

A spokeswoman for the bank was not immediately available for comment.

"There is a perception at the bank that predominantly white, wealthy customers in high net-worth neighborhoods are only going to be comfortable with Caucasian financial advisers and bankers," said Darnley Stewart, a partner at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP who represents the plaintiffs, in an interview. "It's a complete stereotype."

The complaint covers April 2003 to the present, and seeks class-action status. It seeks a halt to the alleged improper practices, back pay and compensatory and punitive damages.

According to the complaint, Bank of America's investment services unit employs 4,400 "premier bankers" and 3,000 brokers in 30 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. It is unclear how many African-Americans might be covered by the lawsuit.

Other brokerages have also faced bias lawsuits accusing them, among other issues, of steering wealthy clients to particular groups of workers.

Merrill Lynch & Co. faces an 18-month-old lawsuit in Chicago by African-American brokers and trainees. Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, last month agreed to pay $46 million to settle bias accusations by six former female brokers.

The Bank of America plaintiffs work or have worked for the bank in the Atlanta, St. Louis and south Florida areas, according to the complaint.

Stewart said that while the alleged discrimination differs from accusations other brokerages have faced of creating hostile work environments, she said "it's equally pernicious."

"The tone from the top needs to be that the bank will treat professionals equally, and that is not happening," she said. "Too many decisions are left to people at the local level."

The Sopranos and VT

This article was taken from Racialicious.

HBO’s “Sopranos” and the VT Massacre

by guest contributor Jenn Fang, originally published on Reappropriate

(Hat-tip to reader A.) Last night on HBO’s Sopranos, an episode entitled “Remember When” aired in which the character of Junior Soprano, who has been institutionalized, befriends a young, mentally-ill Asian American man named Carter Chong, and played by Ken Leung (Quill in X-Men: The Last Stand).

According to the Wikipedia write-up of this episode, Carter ultimately feels betrayed by Junior when Junior decides to take his meds, and attacks him.

In A.’s email, he writes:

The internet is already abuzz with the fact that last night’s episode of HBO’s “The Sopranos” featured a young, mentally disturbed Asian male with violent tendencies. People are drawing all sorts of ignorant “parallels” to the Virginia Tech massacre, all weighted on the fact that the character was an Asian male. If it had been a white male or a black male, of course there would be no such “comparisons” made.

Keep an eye on this story. The episode was written and filmed six months ago, and I guess the broadcast timing is unfortunately coincidental ONLY if the viewer connects ALL Asian males with ONE violent Asian male they’ve seen in the news. A lot of ignorance and racism is coming out from many just because of this one episode. Let’s address this.

Of course, this character has nothing to do with the Virginia Tech massacre last week, and Carter Chong couldn’t possibly be a reflection of Seung Cho; as A. points out, this episode was written and shot several months ago and only aired last night due to a coincidence of timing.

And yet, some viewers seem to insist that the episode and the shooting are related, as an eerie “not connected but I insist they are karmically related” kind of way. On the forum, “Television Without Pity”, one viewer summed up the subplot as ”young Asian man with severe anger management problems and a history of gunplay”, while another commented “[t]he Asian having deep seated aggression problems was just too spooky.” Gotta love how in that second quote, Carter Chong is “the” Asian. One viewer commented, “I think most of us, even with no direct link to the horrific shootings, felt a little uncomfortable watching tonight. Whether fiction or not it was reminiscent enough of what happened to serve as a memory cue for an event that is probably hard to stop thinking about even without direct reminders.” However, a fourth viewer wrote:

A member of my immediate family was taken from us this week in the VATech thing, and I debated on whether or not I wanted to watch Sopranos tonight (ultimately I did since I’m a grown man and can realize that this is fiction). I did find the young asian male to be terrifyingly similar to what I envisioned the man who murdered my cousin to be, so it did weird me out for most of the episode. I just kept telling myself that I was overreacting because it’s barely been a week, so this is one of those episodes I’ll probably have to wait a while to rewatch. I’m sure it was unintentional, just unfortunate timing.

Other than both Seung Cho and Carter Chong being Asian: what’s the connection? Oh yes: a racially Asian man with mental illness is automatically associated with violent mass shooting sprees because Asian craziness is a factor of one’s skin colour, whereas the countless depictions of White men with mental illness are non-threatening because White craziness has nothing to do with Whiteness.

Again we see the inability of mainstream america to distinguish between a person of colour’s race and his actions, be the actions positive or negative. Seeing one Black man dunk a basketball or rap a song is proof positive that all Black men are capable of such feats, and an example of one Korean American man who succumbed to the violent nature of his mental illness is evidence that all Asian Americans with mental illness will be Seung Cho re-incarnated. (Even more telling the conflation of a Korean American with a character who is ostensibly Chinese American). Such irrational connections are never made when the targets are White.

I don’t have to watch last night’s episode of The Sopranos to know that Carter Chong and the Virginia Tech Massacre are not related. But, of course, there are those who see one Asian face and think they’re seeing us all.

Reading Between The Lines

I stayed up late last night despite a monstrous headache, intolerable of loud noise and bright lights. I watched the special reports of what is going on at Virgina Tech and the global reactions.

Not surprisingly, the blogosphere is blowing up. What's happening at VT, appropriately, has the world reacting. In my natural tendencies with tragedy and deep events, I observe and take in the event before I really have an opinion. The two things I can see at this point is that there is still so much unknown and people are debating as to whether race is at all a part of this.

The young woman who was first killed in the residence hall is speculated NOT to have any relationship with the gunman. The young man who was killed trying to help was a resident assistant. He apparently had no relation to her, except being her RA, or the gunman either. All the news is covering is why why why and there is no connection yet found. I, like, everyone else am simply broken by this senselessness and am quiet with sorrow. Thirty three people died and through witness testimony, I cannot fathom the level of hysteria and fear that University must have experienced that day.

As for the debate around race, well, really, is there any surprise? All different kinds of asian groups and representatives, including the governement of South Korea have issued some form of an statement which includes some apologies. Is it just me, or is that slightly flabbergasting? We're ALL sorry, we're ALL reacting to this together, but because the gunman was originally born in South Korea, but has lived in the US for 15 years and was a legal citizen, an entire country is expected to issue a statement? Or perhaps they were fearful of what the US might do if they did not?

The bottom line, for me, is that you must read between the lines of the Asian diaspora to understand that race is an issue. You must be able to read the fine print even though so many will claim you are reading something that is not there. Trust me, it's there. Race is alluded to the lives of people of color every damn day of their lives and once it's in conversation and you bring us race the response is usually,"Why does race always have to be a part of it? It has nothing to do with it."

I don't know. Ask the folks in charge (even though I guarantee they'll have a lame answer), or ask the media why it allows racially charged articles to be printed that are anti-asian, anti-immigration, and think immediately of terrorism. Ask the folks who asked random asians for comment. Ask yourself.

The actions of Seung-Hui Cho are as dispicable, tragic, sad, and horrific as a human can do. My reaction is not singular. I do see race, but I also see it mixed with questions surrounding mental wellness, isolation, assimilation, community, and an unknown family background.

It's a time for mourning, and I don't doubt there are enough people trying to accuse, blame, and propose negative stereotypes. Really, is that any different from any other day in the USA after tragedy?