Jul

31

Savannah, Georgia Vacation Pictures

Filed Under Original Essays and Analysis, Pop Culture, Reviews-Books Movies TV Albums, Sociology, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Update: I also want to remind everybody that I can’t respond to emails until I get back. I can get them, but I I have to be at my home IP to send them.

savannah-ga.png

This picture is a view from our hotel room in Savannah.? This is a picture of the Savannah River.? The picture in the background is of the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, and the building on the other side of the river is the Savannah convention center.? The river was a little smelly, but the view was great.

We started our vacation last Friday.? On the first leg of the trip, we? took the Brandenator to see his cousins.? Then we took him back to his? mama, and the last part of our trip is an extended road trip.? We have been through 9 states so far–New York, Connecticut (very briefly), Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia (We’ll probably? go through? New Jersey on the way back.).? Most of the states we just drove through, but we spent some time in Atlanta with relatives, and we decided to stay overnight in Savannah. Now we are traveling up the south Carolina coast, as I write this I’m sitting in a hotel in Myrtle Beach, listening to the ocean waves.

I highly recommend a Savannah vacation; in fact, I wish I had more time there1.? We stayed in the historic district, which? has a very artsy feel, and you can see the gentrification process happening everywhere.? The architecture was amazing, and the downtown area was full of boutiques, restaurants, and tourist oriented shops.? ? The historic markers are everywhere, and they have tours, which I didn’t take,? highlighting the local history and culture.? It is fairly hot an humid this time of year, but I’m sure the weather is fabulous in spring an fall.

Our hotel overlooked the river, and one of the highlights of the trip was watching the huge freighters tugged down the Savannah River.? The picture below is from a ship from Tanzania, but the picture does not reveal just how vast the boat is–you have to see it in person.? We also saw another ship that had come from Singapore.?

When I go on vacations, I also tend to notice the local culture and the vegetation.? I thought the Spanish moss was part of the trees, but thanks to this site I know better.? I was also happy to see palm trees.? The last time I saw them was in LA a few years ago.? I’ve only seen palm trees a few times in my life.? The local accent in Savannah struck me as unusual.? I don’t know much about folklore, but I did detect a difference between the Atlanta accent, and the Savannah accent.

Savannah? seems to have something for all tastes and all people? –history buffs, food aficiandos, architecture admirers, shopaholics, plant lovers, book worms, film and movie fans, and water lovers.? Another thing that surprised me about Savannah was the number of gay and lesbian couples I saw.? It does seem to be a gay friendly destination, and it didn’t strike me as a bad place for black/white couples either.? Of course, it’s hard to tell in one day how tolerant a place is.

We may come back here sometime in the future and stay for an extended time period, so we can experience more of the city.? ? ? Here are a couple pictures with captions.? When I get a chance, I’ll write up a post about the South Carlina portion of the trip.

savannah-palm-tree.png
savannah-freighter.png

Caption #1
The first picture is of the palm trees by the hotel.? For whatever reason, I didn’t think they had palm trees in Georgia, but I guess I wasn’t thinking because I knew the South Carolina license plate had a palm tree on it, and Savannah, Georgia is well south of SC.? I figured I’d get a picture since I don’t see palm trees often.
Caption #2
The second picture is of me with one of the huge freighters on the Savannah River.? It was fun to watch and see if the freighters would make it under the bridge.? I know engineers probably measure the river depth and boat height, but it really is amazing to see how these huge ships go under the bridge.? It was also fun to watch the tiny little tug boats push these ships around, making sure they head under just the right span of the bridge.? The ship that went through before this one was some where between the height of a 8-14 story building, and the length of the ship was so? long I couldn’t take a picture.? This one was little smaller, but I’m guessing it was around 5-6 stories high.

  1. Yes, the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau better send me some discount coupons for this promotion. LOL! [back]

Jul

29

The post-Fiesta Bowl IR wedding

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Family Issues, Interracial Relationships, Race and Racism | 17 Comments

The AP is running this story about the wedding of an African-American college footballer and a white cheerleader, and the predictability of the whole thing is depressing. Stop me if anyone’s surprised about:

1) threatening letters, none of which materialized into a physical threat, thankfully.

2)? comments on ESPN’s page stating support (well, yay there)

3) comments on ESPN’s page stating that since there were only 30 threats and upteen million Americans, racism must be dead.

4) comments on ESPN’s page about how? light-appearing the football player is, and how tanned his? bride is.?

The thing that bugged me is of course #3 and #4- Re: #3 – the guy is a college player, in a relatively rural state. Talk to me when he gets NO hate mail and he’s on the national radar, and I’ll say that racism is on the way out.

Re: #4 – I can’t tell what the initial comment was (ESPN may have pulled it), but for the last time, people, how someone self-identifies, if not for sheer opportunitistic gain, is their own thing. There is no litmus test for being any ethnicity, nor should there be. (again, caveat: barring opportunistic gain – as in, suddenly discovering a long-lost ancestor who would just happen to help you get ahead, when your core cultural identity has not been influenced at all by said ancestor).

How the media handles stories like this seems to take a “one step forward, two steps back” approach. Like all evolutionary processes, there are bound to be a few dead ends.

BTW, the article mentions that the couple jumped over a broom. I ran into this when looking for ethnic wedding traditions for my own ceremony – the broom-jumping one was the ONLY one listed for African-Americans. Can anyone tell me if this is common-place, as I’ve never seen or heard about it in my African-American family weddings? And are people really clueless about the origins? Supposedly the tradition goes back to when slaves could NOT legally marry, and the common-law equivalent was to jump over a broom in the presence of the owner(s). Somehow, that’s not something I’d want to replicate in my own ceremony. But to each their own, I guess…

Jul

27

15th Erase Racism Carnival is Up

Filed Under Race and Racism, Racism Round-Up | Leave a Comment

The 15th Erase Racism Carnival is up over at Race Wire.? ? Go check it out. For those who are unfamiliar with the blog, it is the blog for Colorlines Magazine, which is a great magazine that focuses on race and ethnic related issues.

Jul

27

A Black White Supremacist?

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, International Racism, Original Essays and Analysis, Race and Racism, Sociology, Uncategorized | 75 Comments

Every now and then I get? posts from Black people (or people pretending to be black people) who make some of the most ignorant white supremacist comments.? Traditionally, the Black trolls who try to post threaten to beat up the white supremacists or are excessively in the cursing at white supremacists, but this comment might as well have been written by a white supremacist.? The person was directing their comment to another Nigerian American, and you can see the full post by Sewere? here.? It’s no wonder this person chose to remain anonymous.

hi Anu, Im also a nigerian my parents are nigerian immigrants and my sisters and I were born here in america, im in college and my sister and I attend mass. college of pharamcy studying pharmacy. I agree and sympathize with everything your saying. First of all Ive been through the same discrimination as you mentioned when I was young by african americans because of my heritage( even with that I never taunted or made fun of them because I dont see the gain I just distanced my self from most of them), that most of my friends are african, caribbean, indian, and asian descent(first, second, third generation, and etc). At the same time I do have a few african american friends that are nice, goal oriented and have a respect for africa,but I love my culture,so the question I have to ask is why are you going out with a black american boy and why are you so surprised that hes as narrow minded as you say he is?, there are many nigerian doctors, lawyers, and engineers you can go out with, what are you gaining from the relationship, do you want your children to grow up like that(especially saying nigger, singing to pop lock and drop it, not goal oriented, in essence becoming like them) and your nigerian culture to be lost in that generartion If you end up with a AA, let me tell you your not gaining .Dont misunderstand me I dont hate african americans I think many of them are good people and I think the only relationship we should be having with them is in a friendship basis but we should distance ourselves from them in a relationship-marriage basis, and I also feel their way of life and value system(some of them have no interest in education and progress, especially their men) should be left with them, not integrated into our culture(especially that you were born in nigeria). For me my parents will never allow it and I will never marry one because I dont want my culture to be messed up. As for this argument about the divide between africans and african americans to me, it will keep on going on so this argument is not worth our time. I feel we africans need to find ways we can advance ourselves, live comfortably and not suffer. please Anu stay with your own.

I want to descontruct this comment a section at a time. Let me start with the comment about distancing oneself from African Americans.? Just because a few African Americans taunted? a person? doesn’t mean that? this person? should distance himself from most African Americans.? Is that not prejudice?? Me speaking to the commenter: If a few whites dissed you would you distance yourself from whites?? If a few of your fellow Nigerian Americans, dissed you would you distance yourself from Nigerians?

Then we have this gem of a quote, “why are you going out with a black american boy and why are you so surprised that hes as narrow minded as you say he is?, there are many nigerian doctors, lawyers, and engineers you can go out with, what are you gaining from the relationship, do you want your children to grow up like that(especially saying nigger, singing to pop lock and drop it, not goal oriented, in essence becoming like them)”

Me speaking directly to the commenter: First of all, must you use the term “boy.”? Let’s try man.? An African American man, man, man.? And perhaps, a Nigerian man (any man really) needs to bring more to the table than his degree or occupation, and furthermore, how do you know that this African American man isn’t a doctor or some other professional?? Or is this just an assumption that African Americans don’t have the same great intelligence and educational accumen as Nigerian Americans?? If we really want to get down and dirty, we could talk about how the fairly extreme patriarchal attitudes among many Nigerian men would encourage Nigerian women to look outside their ethnic groups for marriage partners, but I don’t want to overstate the impact of patriarchal ideology among Nigerians since sexist attitudes exist within American culture, too.

? Then, my favorite part of the quote–the African Americans are not goal oriented crap.? You know what’s interesting.? The white relatives who oppose black/white marriages make the same kinds of statements that? this person? just made, and they do not reserve their comments for only American born blacks.? Me to the commenter: Your Nigerian born parents are going to get the same kind of treatment.? Furthermore, while you are busy pretending that you are NOT African American.? You were born here.? You were raised here in the US.? I don’t give a damn how many Kola nuts you’ve eaten.? I don’t care? how much pounded yam, egusi, or puff puff? you’ve eaten (with your fingers).? A person growing up in America is going to be influenced by this culture, so drop the holier than thou crap.? You are an America, and you are a Nigerian, and no matter how much it pains you many people will view you as an AFRICAN AMERICAN.

Then, we get to the last gem of a quote:

Dont misunderstand me I dont hate african americans I think many of them are good people and I think the only relationship we should be having with them is in a friendship basis but we should distance ourselves from them in a relationship-marriage basis, and I also feel their way of life and value system(some of them have no interest in education and progress, especially their men) should be left with them, not integrated into our culture(especially that you were born in nigeria). For me my parents will never allow it and I will never marry one because I dont want my culture to be messed up. As for this argument about the divide between africans and african americans to me, it will keep on going on so this argument is not worth our time. I feel we africans need to find ways we can advance ourselves, live comfortably and not suffer. please Anu stay with your own.

I have mixed feelings about the term Nigerian culture.? The concept of Nigeria is a recent and European creation, and I think the commenter really doesn’t understand that Nigeria is a very diverse country with many different ethnic groups and cultures.? These cultures have some similarities, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the commenter also thinks that marriages between Nigerian ethnic groups are also passe.? Let me take this quote a turn it around, writing it from an bigoted African American perspective.? Here is my rephrasing of this ignorant set of comments.

Dont misunderstand me I dont hate? Nigerians I think many of them are good people and I think the only relationship we should be having with them is in a friendship basis but we should distance ourselves from them in a relationship-marriage basis, and I also feel their way of life and value system(some of them have no interest in? honesty and progress, especially their men) should be left with them, not integrated into our culture(especially that you were born in America). Look how many scamming emails we get from them.? These Nigerian men have moral values so low that they refuse to make an honest living.? Look at how many Nigerians are in jails here in the US for bank and credit card fraud.? Dishonesty is just part of their way of life.? They even sold our ancestors off to white slave traders.? For me my parents will never allow it and I will never marry one because I dont want my culture to be messed up. Just like Nigeria? they can’t even have an honest election.? How many crazy Nigerian leaders have pilfered oil money and rigged elections.? How many of the people in Nigeria are suffering in abject poverty out in the bush.? And look at how divided the country is.? You have Christians and Muslims killing each other in mass every couple months.? These Nigerians are such a violent bunch.? They even tried to stone to death a woman who had a child out of wedlock, but they didn’t do anything to the guy.? They need to enter the 21st century.? As for this argument about the divide between africans and african americans to me, it will keep on going on so this argument is not worth our time. I feel we Africans Americans need to find ways we can advance ourselves, live comfortably and not suffer. This Africans will never get it together.? Please? Kendra stay with your own.? They are just out to use you.

Now for the record, I don’t believe the crap I wrote in the “rephrased” version? above.? Don’t get me wrong by now I’ve gotten thousands of Nigerian scam emails, but unlike anonymous, I know that these scammers don’t represent the entire country.? I know the horrible economy, and the desperate situation of many Nigerians leads? a FEW Nigerian? into these types of crimes.? Should we dismiss all Nigerians out of hand because of a few ignorant criminals–NO.? This is a stereotype–which is an exaggeration or an overgeneralization.? Tribalism, corruption, and ethno-religious violence are also huge problems in Nigeria, but we don’t need to assume that all Nigerians buy into the violence and corruption.? Let’s not not overstate the problems, and let’s extend the same courtesy to African Americans.

The idea that African Americans are lazy and not goal oriented is a stereotype just like the idea that all Nigerians are scammers.? The idea that a Black? Nigerian person is dating down because she is dating an African American is white supremacist statement because it feeds into the idea that blacks are inferior.? When blacks reiterate anti-black statements, they are black? white supremacists.? It doesn’t matter if they make all kinds of exceptions–Carribean Blacks are OK; Black men are OK; Older Black people are Ok, etc.? If people want to make statements about individual blacks, fine.? If people want to make limited generalizations based on random samples, I can deal with it.? The problem with stereotypes is that they go way to far, and they fail to acknowledge exceptions, and sometimes they are outright wrong.

Jul

26

Updates

Filed Under Blogs Blogging Blogthropology | 3 Comments

I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth (Thanks to sailorman for checking? up on me.), I’m just finished battling a nasty summer cold.? And of course, I’m chasing after a 7 year old.? We’re taking him back to mama this weekend, which will be followed by a week long road trip vacation.

In the meantime, I see that my site is all jacked up. I’m going to trouble shoot it, but the comments may not be fixed before we leave tomorrow.

Jul

26

Race Based Medicine is Failing

Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Update: I gathered these links a year ago, but never took the time to write the post.? I didn’t even realize it was scheduled to go up today, but hey since I already have comments ……..

The articles are really interesting. Check them out.

Magaret Kimberley

Red Orbit

Jul

23

Kids and Boxes

Filed Under Family Issues | 11 Comments

Ok, not so serious question: what’s the deal with kids and boxes?? I remember loving boxes as a kid, and one of my early? memories is of me playing in? a box in the kitchen.? My parents had bought something big, and I was playing in the box like it was a boat.? Here we have pictures of the Brandenator (new nickname) at 4 and a half.? Rather than playing with the toy, he started by playing “in” the box.? I think he was hiding or something.

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Not only did he want to be in the box, but he figured Daddy wanted to be in the box, too.? In this picture, he was trying to put Daddy in the box, and he couldn’t figure out why Daddy didn’t fit.

branden-box-daddy.JPG


Now fast forward to 7 years old.? I had this box sitting on the floor by the trash.? He picked it up, and put it on his head.? Then proceeded to play video games with the box on his head.? That’s when I took this picture.

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I think this must be some kind of developmental stage or something because almost all kids I know of love boxes–in particular sitting in them, crawling in them, or in the picture above using? the box? as a “mask.”? ? I’m sure a child psychologist or child development expert tell me why this is.? As an adult, it’s really entertaining to watch because playing with boxes usually involves some kind of creative play, and it’s often much more creative than the play associated with the toy or product? in the box.?

Jul

18

Least Segregated Cities for Asians

Filed Under Original Essays and Analysis, Race and Racism, Sociology, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Update: Sorry Folks, I accidently saved this as the same file as the most segregated cities. I rescued that post and the comments related to it, and back dated the file. So all of the comments for the most segregated cities for Asians are saved as one long comment.

This post is a follow-up to an earlier post, you can look at this post from July 2nd where I discuss the different dimensions of residential segregation. That post discusses a few of the methodological issues, and it links to the Census Bureau report where the data comes from. So if you are confused about the differences, between clustering and exposure (for example), you can get more information from that post. If you link to the actual Census report, they show statistical formulas that are used in calculating segregation using each method described. They also discuss other issues related to measuring segregation.

You should also keep in mind this is only measuring segregation for Asians and Pacific Islanders, and it’s only measuring urban segregation. I am preparing future posts on Native Americans, and you can read the previous posts on

The analysis of Asians includes 20 metro areas which met the Census criteria of having at least 3% representation–the number was 43 metros for African Americans and 36 metros for Latinos.

All data comes from the US Census Bureau

5 Most Even Metro Areas (cities where Asians are most evenly spread; this number reflects the percent of people who would have to move for the group to be evenly distributed across the metro area)

  1. Portland, Vancouver
  2. Seattle, Bellevue, Everett
  3. Nassau, Suffolk (Long Island, NY)
  4. Newark
  5. Bergen, Passaic, NJ

5 Highest Exposure Metros (cities where Asians have highest chance of having contact with whites)

  1. Baltimore
  2. Nassau, Suffolk (Long Island, NY)
  3. Portland, Vancouver
  4. Detroit
  5. Newark

5 Least Concentrated Metros (cities where Latinos are most least concentrated/most evenly spread throughout the metro area)

  1. Bergen, Passaic, NJ
  2. Nassau, Suffolk (Long Island, NY)
  3. Orange County, CA
  4. Oakland, CA
  5. Newark

5 Least Centralized Metros (cities where Asians are least concentrated in the central core of the city)

  1. Portland, Vancouver
  2. Nassau, Suffolk (Long Island, NY)
  3. Bergen, Passaic, NJ
  4. Orange County, CA
  5. Baltimore

5 Least Clustered Metros

  1. Baltimore
  2. Nassau, Suffolk (Long Island, NY)
  3. Portland, Vancouver
  4. Detroit
  5. Newark

Overall Least Segregated Metros for Asians (Averaging ranks for all 5 major dimensions) Drumroll…..

  1. Nassau, Suffolk (Long Island, NY)
  2. Baltimore
  3. Newark
  4. Bergen, Passaic, NJ
  5. Detroit
  6. Philadelphia
  7. Portland, Vancouver
  8. Riverside, San Bernardino, CA
  9. Orange County, CA
  10. Oakland, CA

A Few Points for Discussion:

On these measures the east coast cities tend to fair relatively well, except for the segregation capital of American New York. Well, it’s not quite that simple; suburban New York–Long Island and northern New Jersey–do well. I think for Asians in New York, the segregation dynamic is affected by class and immigration status. When immigrants first arrive they tend to live in segregated areas of New York city, but if they managed to accumulate wealth, they are then able to move out into suburban areas and do their best to blend in to the predominantly white suburbs. This may also be true in California. The bigger cities tend to be much more segregated for Asians, but the outlying suburban areas are not as segregated.

I think, as someone (Rory?) pointed out earlier, Asian Americans seem to have a less entrenched form of segregation than their Black counterparts.

Jul

18

Bunch-O-Links

Filed Under Bunch-O-Links, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

1. Barb at Lucky White Girl is discussing the Chiquita Banana Company.? You should really go read this; it puts an different spin on the term banana republic.

2. Lauren is writing about being a teenage mother.? (On another note: I won’t say much about the plagiarism charges related to the book? referenced in her post; I talked about that a long time ago.)

3. Pudgy Indian provides a comment on banning alcohol and pornography for aborigines in Australia.

4. C.N.? Le has a good graph from the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda, which highlights the transparency of several major news media outlets. But even more exciting…….he’s opened up comments. Yay!!

5. Elle is closely following the case of 6 Black Teenagers from Jena, Louisiana, who are being put on trial for a school fight, which started after an argument over a whites only shade tree.? I can’t imagine how many of my classmates would currently be incarcerated for fighting and giving other kids a black eye, if they were held to this standard.? Hell, I remember seeing one kid push another kid against a window that shattered, and I think they were suspended but not incarcerated. (You can read a good summary of the Jena story here.) (My friend Steve also emailed me about the Jena 6 Case, so he gets a shout out.)

I haven’t been doing much blog reading in the past couple days.? A hyperactive 7 year old is taking all of my energy, but here are a few links I’ve been collecting.? This is also an open thread.

Jul

17

This is Very Last Minute–Erase Racism Carnival

Filed Under Race and Racism, Racism Round-Up | 1 Comment

Even if you are a little late, I would try to send something anyways.

This month, RaceWire will be home to the 15th Erase Racism Carnival. The Carnival is a monthly collection of blog posts aimed at provoking discussion about race and catalyzing the eradication of racism.? ?

Read more about the Carnival here.

RaceWire is accepting submissions from all over the Blogosphere and on a gamut of topics. In addition to these blog posts, RaceWire wants to run some focused pieces looking at:

Race and the environment
Black-Brown divide
And what funny bloggers and video bloggers have to say about race, culture, and the economy

So with these in mind, please email your topics/and or blogs (250-700 words) to Malena Amusa at mamusa (at) arc (dot) org. Final deadline for blog submission is July 17. The Carnival will go up the third week of July in a series on RaceWire.

Looking forward!

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