August 12, 2001 - August 27, 2001
Brazil's blacks battle myth of "racial democracy"
Posted: Monday, August 27, 2001
(Shasta Darlington) RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Dining at posh restaurants and strolling through upscale malls may not seem radical, but for Afro-Brazilians this is in-your-face activism -- aimed squarely at the myth of "racial democracy" in Brazil.
"The biggest cruelty we face is invisibility, the feeling that we don't exist," said Benedita da Silva, the vice-governor of Rio de Janeiro state and before that the first black woman elected to Brazil's Senate.
"We make up half of the population, but for the most part we don't occupy decisive political and social positions," she said. "We live on the margins, in the ghettos where people can't see us."
While many Brazilians argue that the country has been more successful than the United States in creating a multiracial society, critics say Brazil has ignored deep-seated racism for more than a century -- simply because racism was never institutionalized in segregation or apartheid laws as in other countries.
Activists are hoping a United Nations conference in South Africa this month will force Brazil to confront racism at home and will raise support for a wide range of proposals on better health, eduction and jobs for blacks.
In an effort to show just how absent blacks are from Brazil's upper and even middle class, activists have invaded locales where blacks are rare: exclusive Sao Paulo restaurants or shopping centers along Rio's beachfront promenades.
Joni Anderson, the owner of Agencia Noir model agency, has staged protests he calls "blackouts" outside fashion shows to demand more black models. He also rents limousines and sends his models to chic restaurants and theaters to make a statement.
"When a well-dressed black couple walks into an expensive restaurant
everybody assumes they're American. We want to alert people that this kind of racism is going on," he said.
BLACK DOESN'T SELL
The myth of a racial democracy in Brazil has persisted, however, due to the subtle nuances of prejudice and to the success of blacks in specific fields. Pele, the king of soccer, is by far the most famous Brazilian in the world, for example.
Blacks have traditionally excelled in music and sports, often becoming
ambassadors for Brazilian culture the world over. But at home they complain of police harassment and social insults.
Outside of Carnival season, black women accompanied by white men are often assumed to be prostitutes and black visitors to wealthy condos or high-rise office buildings are still often sent to the "service" elevators.
"Middle-class blacks exist and they live in condos, they just better not show up at the pool," said Ivanir dos Santos, president of the Center for the Articulation of Marginalized Populations.
In a bid to emphasize how few inroads have been made, Santos stormed a
fashionable Rio mall last month with dozens of black protesters decrying the minuscule number of black salespeople and shoppers.
"They say we don't sell, it's not a good image," he said.
Even attempts to appeal to Brazil's black middle class, like the foundering "Raca," or "Race," magazine, have not been very successful because blacks themselves avoid being pigeonholed, activists say.
Only 5.4 percent of Brazilians identified themselves as "black" in the last official survey while 40 percent say they are "dark-skinned" and 54 percent say they are white.
Brazil has one of the world's most progressive anti-racism laws but activists say the country has to take the next step, promoting integration and level the playing field for those who still suffer social and economic exclusion.
"It's not enough to have laws that prohibit, you have to have laws that obligate," said Santos.
In preparation for the U.N. meeting in Durban from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7,
delegates are pushing proposals that range from controversial quotas in public universities to work training programs and funding for research of diseases that plague the black community.
INEQUALITIES PERSIST
Almost half of Brazil's 170 million people are "Afro-descendants" but more than 100 years after the end of slavery, huge inequalities persist, according to the government's own statistics.
Unlike the United States, Brazil justified slavery on purely economic
grounds, not on racist arguments, creating the largest slave economy in the world to power its big agriculture and mining sectors. In 1850, Brazil finally agreed to halt trading in slaves, but didn't actually free slaves and abolish slavery until 1888.
"The gap between whites and nonwhites is the same as a century ago," said Alexandre Vidal Porto, a member of the government delegation headed to South Africa this month and an advisor to the Justice Ministry's human rights office.
"Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery. Maybe there isn't any formal segregation but there is a bias or handicap still faced by the black population," he said.
In 1999, Brazil's whiter half still earned more than double what blacks earned. While only 8 percent of Brazilian whites were illiterate, 20 percent of blacks couldn't read or write.
Still, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's administration argues that it has done more than any previous government to combat racism and that it is one of the few governments in the world to openly admit the problem.
In a bid to enforce Brazil's much-lauded anti-racism laws, Cardoso's
government installed anti-discrimination centers in 21 states where people can call in to report racism and hate crimes. The government also recognized the existence of racism in Brazil in a report sent to the United Nations.
But activists are hoping that the U.N. meeting will be a kind of catalyst for new "integration" policies.
"We are expecting a concrete measure from the government before we get on a plane for South Africa," said Santos. "We are hoping for something that will promote black education or jobs ... quotas are one possibility."
The government has resisted the idea of quotas but is still pushing for schools in former runaway slave communities known as "quilombos," funding for job training for blacks and training programs to promote blacks in the diplomatic corps.
"We have swept away the myth of racial democracy, now we're trying to deal with the legacy of slavery," Vidal Porto said.
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Rastafari Needs Help?
Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2001
( JAH Truth ) Dear Rastas,
Greetings in the name of his imperial majesty, king rastafari i, who dwells forever in our spirits, as does satan, fire burn satan. Listen all those who are reading, king rastafari died on the cross for us! And whoever gives his sins to god, in the name of his son, he shall recieve the gift of righteousness, and shall work for heaven eternal. And never see hell! Thats why i, jah truth, who is living on earth in sodom and gommorah, and watching every wicked thing that the beasts of the earth are doing to the world, gathering their recruits for hell, I come as a shephard. I come in the name of christ. To speak the truth, and whoever puts faith in christs truth shall live forever. The lord god makes me speak no lie towards his precious stones. All rasman and raswoman, rastafari works in i, as bishop in the united states of america. I come to gather the flock, noah gathering the people before the flood, but in the second advent jah come with fire! The almighty really made sodom and gommorah hell, the fire is hot in the states, making the devil tempt the angels, all day, fire burn! We must build the temple of god in america! We must come together, physically and spiritually, and build the temple of god, in america, and whoever enters into the temple, will be saved from the soon to come destruction of the almighty god, jah! Rastafari!
I am in florida. North east florida. Many of you are far away from me. What I am saying is if we all come together, and buy our own land, and build our houses and set up camp in one location, we can have the house of the true god! King rastafari i, built here, or whatever location we come together to do! They did it in jamaica! They did it in africa! And kenya! Lets do it in america! God conquers the devil! This is the indians land, but really belongs to the righteous! Let us come together so we cant see no sin! We will just see heaven! Lets do it rasts! Lets make america paradise while we can! Lets do it, we can recruit people day and night, saving people from hell to come, or when they die! Rastafari! Jah!
"Come my sisters and brothers, motivate our mothers and fathers, we got works to do, works to do, works to dooooo!"
Let us please do this now, and not stall! Let us do it now! I am poor, I will sell my posessions for rastafari! Lets make a rasta camp or something, so we can be saved, and just stay far from the wicked! We dont need devils around us! We just need love! Which is jah! God! All people, repent to rastafari for all yours sins, what you did last night, or last week, repent! Please rastas, lets warn the united states what is to come! We need a movement or something! We need to warn! Unless you are afarid to die for what you believe in! You afraid of the devil? Conquer the devil! Work for rastafari! Face the truth!!!!!!
Jah rastafari! Is the almighty, who knows your imaginations, put recieve him, and recieve heaven eternal, all people, living right and happy forever, no bills to pay, just herbs and fruit to eat, and praising jah before his throne forever!!!!!!!!
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( LUBA ZEBBY ) Thank you so much for posting this Topic of Rasta WORK. I also am a firm believer that We as a RastafarI Collective that chant down babylon must look and listen to what King Haile Selassie I, Honorable Marcus Garvey, Robert N. Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Mutabaruka, Isreal Vibes...all them are talking about the Liberation of AFRICANS.....Rastafari is a Freedom Fighter for Mama Africa and so InI Must also work.
The Uhuru Movement is putting much needed financial resources back into the African Communtiy, into African populated schools, African communities get Health Food Stores and health care.
There are NO Race Riots in Beverley Hills
Revervations are NOT RESORTS!
so why are the white communities so rich and the african communities so poor?
why do African men go to prison for 30 years for stealing while White men get 12 years for Serial Rape???
ALL YOU WHO SING ALONG TO SONGS LIKE AFRICA UNITE AND BLACK MAN REDEMPTION, PLEASE PUT DOWN YOUR SPLIFF AND GET UP, STAND UP AND WORK! AS BOB SINGS EVERY DAY IS WORK!
Uhuru!
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( Akinkawon ) Is your proposal up for discussion with other Africans or is it a 'done deal' exclusive for "Rastafarian" comments and support?
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( LUBA ZEBBY ) Which proposal?
This message board is called RastafarI Speaks if I am not miss-taken. I personally well-come the input of progressive people but I also know talk is talk....we as a collective must also Do.
So if you please post your thoughts.
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( Akinkawon ) ( JAH Truth's plan or idea. )
The problem is, when one person or group has an idea and that person is so convinced it is right, he or she does not like discussing it. Then, they accuse others of not supporting the idea. I hope this is not the case.
If you start with the notion that by setting up a group in a location the rest of the picture will fall into place, then history bears wittiness to that failure. Simply because if people cannot agree on a definition on who qualifies to be a Rastafarian, then all you would have is an array of impoverished people coming together with the hope and intent of fulfilling their own material gain, then as soon as there are funds in the account, infighting will take place.
Even with a 'semi-defined' people, we are left with the examples of the Jews in Israel and their ongoing conflict because of they trying to defend an ideal that makes no sense to others. We have other examples of this in Africa, Europe and India.
If the wider community does not agree with your policies and have little or no understanding of the group, they would fear such an organization and would do all in their power to ensure it fails.
Further to this if you are firm about setting up a separate lifestyle that the wider public does not understand and appreciate, it will have to be defended with military power and then you are back to square one, just like everyone else who tried to live apart and are having conflicts all over the world.
Even if a group 'succeeds' in setting up a different social model, they would still be under the jurisdiction of international policies and laws and as such would be alienated and or have many legal battles.
I could say more but I don't want to be too long.
Do you think people could discuss this some more?
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( LUBA ZEBBY ) ++ Simply because if people cannot agree on a definition on who qualifies to be a Rastafarian ++
I want to know why people look for Validation of being a "rastafarian" in other people? It is NOT the Next Man that Determines weather one is or is Not a Rasta. So I dont ask others to accept me or approve of me simply because I am not here for them but for H.I.M Selassie I.
+++ If the wider community does not agree with your policies and have little or no understanding of the group, they would fear such an organization of people and would do all in their power to ensure it fails. +++
The "Wider Community" is Curruptable and Blind. This wider community loves Oprah, Mercedes and MTV....its so sad. Yes they have a REASON to Fear because they KNOW they are Brainwashed and this thought that Does not A-line with their own must be wrong.
Failure is up to you. Martin Luther King was Killed, Peter Tosh was killed, Malcolm X also Killed...but I know their name, why? how? the struggle continues and as Long as I have breath I will fight babylon mentallity.
+++ Further to this if you are firm about setting up a separate lifestyle that the wider public does not understand and appreciate, it will have to be defended with military power and then you are back to square one, just like everyone else who tried to live apart and are having conflicts all over the world. +++
Yes Back to Square One is True, but why do we keep trying? because the Wickedness that rules the masses is just that, Wicked. You can Fool some people some of the Time but You CANT fool ALL the People all the time. I choose not to be a fool.
+++ Even if a group 'succeeds' in setting up a different social model, they would still be under the jurisdiction of international policies and laws and as such would be alienated and or have many legal battles. +++
ABSOLUTLY! many Battles is what it is all about!, otherwise I might as well bend over and give them my ass for a good punking.
++Do you think people could discuss this some more?++
I am NO Different, I want people to see my side and Agree with me and Not Argue against me and Not Challenge me. Just like the next man that does not like those that dont agree with him.
I will try but I AM Partial to my Views and my life and the Struggle of AFRICAN People.
RastafarI Worked for the Liberation of AFRICANS and we as rastas MUST do the SAME!
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( Akinkawon ) Conscious people work for the liberation of anyone and all who seek assistance and can either learn or show the deep connections in our cultural ways.
I know that people who do not share common values cannot cooperate and be successful as a people and would spend most time squabbling.
>>> I want to know why people look for Validation of being a "rastafarian" in other people? It is NOT the Next Man that Determines weather one is or is Not a Rasta. So I dont ask others to accept me or approve of me simply because I am not here for them but for H.I.M Selassie I. <<<
That is an unfortunate corruption of the meaning of 'a definition' and you completely misunderstand the purpose of defining one's space.
Defining space is the only way you can show your entitlement to a space. Without definition it is common property and cannot be the exclusive domain of any one group.
It has nothing to do with looking for validation in other people.
If you are building a house and cannot show or map out the boundaries then all can encroach, but with clear definable boundaries, you are claiming your space. However if no boundaries are necessary (this is the ideal) then there is nothing to associate around and no need for a separate group or space. How are you going to build the house?
>>>> Yes they have a REASON to Fear because they KNOW they are Brainwashed <<<
A person cannot know they are brainwashed, they could be aware something is wrong and unaware how to improve, but to know one is brainwashed calls for the person to be conscious and such a person would know he or she was brainwashed, (not is brainwashed.)
>>> Yes Back to Square One is True, but why do we keep trying? because the Wickedness that rules the masses is just that, Wicked. You can Fool some people some of the Time but You CANT fool ALL the People all the time. I choose not to be a fool. <<<
But sir, you will be a fool if you do not give these ideas careful consideration. It is foolish to do the same thing, the same way, over and over and expect a different result. You have not proposed anything different to what has been tried.
>>> ABSOLUTLY! many Battles is what it is all about!, otherwise I might as well bend over and give them my ass for a good punking. <<<
Carefully defining ones plans and putting them up for scrutiny by those who share similar objectives is the best way to engage a battle. It helps to examine what was tried and learn from the mistakes. History is important here.
>>> RastafarI Worked for the Liberation of AFRICANS and we as rastas MUST do the SAME! <<<
It is non-Rastafarians who first engaged the struggle for the liberation of Africans and the modern Rastafarian movement was born out of the struggles of non-Rastafarians. Some Rastafarians did and do struggle for the liberation of others, but the order was and is African first.
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BLACK INVENTORS AND SCIENTISTS
Posted: Friday, August 24, 2001
A Ghanaian secondary school teacher visiting London recently would not believe that a black man invented the traffic lights. "What?," he asked in utter incredulity. "How can a black man invent the traffic lights?"
Well, you can imagine the sort of education this secondary school teacher has imparted, or is imparting, to his students, not out of malice but sheer ignorance. Which speaks volumes about the kind of education Africans receive. All said, this Ghanaian secondary school teacher genuinely believes that black people "cannot or do not" (his words) invent things, they buy other people's inventions. Well, there is something here for him.
A new textbook, Black Scientists and Inventors Book One, published in London recently by BIS Publications dismantles the notion that black people are not inventors.
Co-authored by Ava Henry and Michael Williams (both directors of the London-based BIS Enterprises Ltd), the book is designed for use by children aged 7-16. "It is our hope that parents and teachers will help the children on this journey of knowledge and discovery," say the authors.
The issue of black inventions, like slavery and reparations, is now top of the topics in the Black Diaspora. Black people are finding it increasingly difficult to understand why, even in the Internet era of openness and liberalism, black inventors and scientists are still denied their due recognition. And this is despite the fact that there are records showing that right from ancient times, a number of key inventions that the world now takes for granted were made by black people. More
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Strategy to defeat the apartheid of gender in Africa
Posted: Friday, August 24, 2001
In the book The Power of the Pride, by South African Ian Thomas, you learn that lionesses do most of the hunting, that they are fast and powerful, pro-active for their family's survival, and that they understand that if they have no food they will not eat and will ultimately starve.
The lionesses, of course, in addition to providing the food for their pride, also give birth to and raise their cubs. They train those cubs to be productive members of their pride.
So too with the women of Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, women food farmers produce 80% of Africa's food, do 90% of the work to process Africa's food, do 80% of the work to transport and store Africa's food, do 60% of the work to market Africa's food, and provide 90% of the water, wood and fuel. You are about to be introduced to a program run by the Hunger Project of New York that awards great respect to this incredible performance.
We expect you will leave this article and your study of the Hunger Project with a sense that the more responsibility assigned to the women of Africa, the faster Africa will develop and the faster all Africa's people will have the chance to achieve their rightful destinies.
Much of this article was taken from one written by Hamilton Vokhiwa for the African Church Information Service, August 13, 2001. Inserts of additional and amplifying information were made by Your dot com for Africa. August 20, 2001
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Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea
Posted: Wednesday, August 22, 2001
(Stewart Synopsis) David Horowitz is probably the leading American reporter who parades the Reparations Topic for whitewash and defeat. It is obvious that Mr. Horowitz, like many other Americans, must have gotten an "A" in 10th Grade American History but failed World and Ancient History and common sense.
Who's afraid of the big, bad Horowitz? By refusing to run his ad blasting reparations for slavery, cringing campus journalists are giving the racial provocateur publicity that money can't buy. David Horowitz is having a ball (9 Mar 2001 Joan Walsh). Horowitz’s troublesome theories are full of many huge holes. He has debated Dorothy Lewis on national television and Tim Wise. More
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RASTAFARIAN - Christianity has Jamaica asleep
Posted: Sunday, August 19, 2001
( Jamaica Gleaner ) THE FAMOUS socialist statement on religion has become one of the most enduring thorns in the side of the believer. However, there is another not quite so famous position on the topic, to the effect that religion is perhaps the only motive force in the world - but you have to reach someone through their religion, not yours.
Fortunately or unfortunately Christianity is also the dominant religion in Jamaica and hence the discussion will concentrate mainly on it.
Any belief system which is accepted and promoted by the ruling class will eventually be the proverbial 'opiate of the people', having them in a stupor of expectation of hardship - and actually welcoming it as some 'test'. It will eventually be used to entrench the position of the elite, and this is no less the case in Jamaica.
Christianity is not merely an opiate of the people in Jamaica. It is more of an anaesthetic, having the nation in an unthinking, unfeeling, helpless state to which it has agreed, hoping that when it opens its eyes again the surgeon will have done a miracle.
Instead, we are finding that the person with the scalpel is really an organ thief and when Jamaica awakens something vital like a kidney will be gone. Or we will not awaken, because the heart has been taken away.
MORE PART 1: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/
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PART 2: CHRISTIANITY - Time for a wake-up call
Posted: Sunday, August 19, 2001
( Jamaica Gleaner ) By Norman Francis, Contributor
THAT RELIGION is regarded by some as another opium of the mind is no doubt reminiscent of Karl Marxis's famous pronouncement that religion "is the opium of the people".
Thus, Otto Maduro, himself a Marxist, correctly admits that religion has served as "one of the main (and sometimes the only) available channels to bring about a social revolution." But just how does religion function as an instrument of social change?
It does so by evoking a new awareness among the people, thereby providing them with an alternative consciousness to that of the dominant culture. This counter-consciousness is rooted in an understanding of God as the supreme Ruler, who, contrary to the god of the dominant culture, is not a mere instrument in the hands of the 'haves', but is free to act according to his own purposes of righteousness and justice.
The process of dismantling the oppressive structures in any society must necessarily begin by bringing to public expression, the pain of the suffering masses. In so doing, religion is able to lead persons to an understanding of why things are the way they are, to empower them to take responsibility for their own lives and to initiate the process of change. This is the most fundamental level of change the liberation of the mind!
It is precisely at this point that those who are exploited, marginalised and without hope are energised by a new spirituality that leads to the discovery of new possibilities and of hope, based on God's freedom to act with justice. Again, it is religion that brings to public expression these new possibilities, and contrasts them with the existing powerlessness of the present order to deliver the quality of life expected of it. And, as the process expands, similar changes will inevitably engulf communities, institutions, and ultimately entire nations.
MORE PART 2: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/
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Race and Gender, the big picture
Posted: Sunday, August 19, 2001
( Akinkawon ) As a brother said before, Racial and Gender issues are the two interconnected issues that all people should be addressing. These are the central issues if people are serious about, justice, harmony and unity. If there are Rastafarians who feel that these are not core issues then I know they are far from the path to consciousness. It took centuries to develop some unsociable habits and everyone should give time to addressing these bad attitudes. Rastafarians like any other group cannot unite unless they address these issues as a collective and give adequate ventilation to better values that respects all people, male and female, black and white, and all others in-between.
You cannot respect people in ignorance of their history and without giving proper recognition to their sufferings and struggles. As Africans we demand this of all our oppressors and is in like manner some of us acknowledged the shortcomings of many of our ancestors and the vile, contemptuous character of many Europeans who contributed to the colonization of both people and minds.
It is with the understanding of better social values; some of us recognized that the rights males fought for were equal to the rights and freedoms of Women. Who can deny that Women were reduced to a life of servitude? This was not done deliberately by most males but resulted from that lost of empathy that came with the disconnection from a more natural way of life alongside the loss of our African folk stories?
Who, other than those who know history from both the male and female points of view can empathize with the whole human family? Absolutely no one!
We cannot take the position of not focusing on these things that deny freedom of choice and by extension consciousness in favor of not rocking someone else's poorly analyzed position. Some say lets not focus on the woman lets focus on JAH, but in the mean time they condemned Europeans who were making similar arguments.
Many Europeans were saying, lets not focus on the past lets look to the future. Stop bringing up the injustices, lets move on, while they build monuments and compensate each other for sins of the past. They dare not tell that to the Jews who are trying to corner the world market on sympathy. Are they the only ones who should remember the past and be compensated?
Today while the hearts of some Europeans are softening we see some Africans have learnt well the language of their former oppressors. Today, even on this message board, there are ‘Africans’ who are calling on other Africans to forget injustices and focus on God/JAH.
Should a more informed person give way to such immaturity? NO! No, it is the less informed that should give way to learning and sharing. A more informed person, be he or she, Jew or Gentile, African or European, can assist in shaping better values.
So brothers and sisters learn of the struggles of some Women and weigh their words well. Leave out the corruption of misrepresentation and look at the issue in the same way you were called upon to examine the oppression of the Euro-centric system against Africans. It is these struggles, which gave birth to the Rastafarian Movement.
If I am misguided in my belief that the Rastafarian movement could represent a better standard and model for all mankind, then I humbly apologize.
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I's Open
( IanI ) Irie, Irie
Well said for true... and no need to apologize.
In all me years of reasoning and listening and meditations, one of the most valuable lessons me learn is that no 'group' or 'movement' can organize without Wisdom as them guide. And is true that not everyone in the 'group' is of the same Awareness, the same consciousness. You see?
And this be where the issue of 'judgement' comes in. IanI must know right from wrong in order to reach Awareness and Wisdom. And IanI must be able to look at any given situation and determine it's correctness or it's folly. And so where does this determination come from? If me look upon the oppression of the Queen and say, "That no right!" Where has that Knowledge come from? Me know in me very inner depths that it no 'right' to downpress any Life... but to some, them no see that Fullness. Some a them just keep stuck pon one aspect of a situation and don't bother to look no further. Them say, "Glory be to God! Me see the Light!" But them only see the very distant pin-point of Light and never trod no further.
Many have attempted to drag and pull those of little consciousness (kicking and screaming at times!) into a greater Awareness. Wise words have been written and spoken in speeches and recorded on tape in the great hope of making others see. And often those wise words have been mis-taken and mis-used, clung to in their mis-taken-ness, leading 'groups' and 'organizations' into despair! More trivial issues become magnified and the Truth gets buried in the rubble. This has become obvious, to those that look, in the Babylonian 'civilization'. Vanity and greed get the focus, while Awareness and Wisdom get forgotten.
While I whole Heart-ily agree that knowledge of peoples history is an important thing... me seen that even those without this education can reach great Wisdom. Because consciousness comes from the Heart/Mind and one must have the drive to seek it. And continue to seek it in all it's Fullness. Not just be content to listen to others and 'follow', but to realize that the Almighty has given all IanI this Wisdome and Knowledge, right here in the Heart/Mind.
So, while I can look for right from wrong and determine the Truth, I must never place no 'judgement' upon those that have not achieved a Higher Awareness. If them wish to seek it and grow, then IanI can offer what Life has come to teach. But if them no care and simply wish to live them life blindly or to simply 'follow' without looking, then them Life will bring them their just reward. IanI cannot force no consciousness upon them.
Them that know Rastafari are the One that ever-looking, ever-living, ever-forwarding. And even if I no know you history, Jah give IanI that Looking, the Awareness to realize Truth from falseness, and forward pon the road of Love that leads to justice, harmony, balance, overstanding, honesty, integrity, equality, co-operation and I-nity! And this is how me know a Rasta when me meet One, and IanI I-nite in all the Joy of Living!
Me know suffering when me see it... me know oppression when me see it... me know persecution when me see it... me know subjugation when me see it. But is only because me Looking that me see! So, yes I, Akinkawon! IanI MUST LOOK! Throw off them blinders and seek Jah Guidance and all IanI Bredren and Sistren I-nite in Awareness, with Joy and Harmony. Rastafari forward in I-nity because of Love and Joy. When IanI have open I's, then I-nity is assured.
Give Thanks and Praises
Guidance and Protection
IanI Rastafari
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A New Round of White Denial: Drugs and Race in the 'Burbs
Posted: Friday, August 17, 2001
(Tim Wise) Here we go again.
In a time of multiple school and workplace shootings, middle-aged mass murderers, drug-saturated rave parties, and moms who drown their kids in tubs, lakes, or dump them in garbage cans, one question comes to mind. How long will suburban white America get away with expressing shock at the criminal proclivities of its progeny, without media exposing their presumption of incorruptibility as fallacious and patently racist? Especially when government statistics indicate deviance and dysfunction are quite commonplace with such folks and in such places.
On Sunday, August 12, the front page of the Washington Post brought us yet another story about white suburban youth, who, to the amazement of their parents, friends, and the media, turn out to be stone cold criminals. This time the headlines emanate from "nice neighborhoods," in Northern Virginia: places where sinister crimes aren't supposed to happen.
But, as authorities have discovered, one of the most significant drug operations in the region's history was being run from this "nice, safe" place. And not by dark-skinned street-hustlers preying on vulnerable teens and getting them hooked; but rather, by the former soccer-playing little leaguers who this nation grooms to run major corporations, hold political office, or merely typifies as normal, all-American boys.
In this particular drama, one of the principal players, named (I kid you not) Owen Merton Barber IV, stands accused of murdering Daniel Petrole Jr., one of his drug-dealing colleagues at the behest of yet another fellow-dealer, Justin Michael Wolfe.
Seem implausible? Surreal even? Thanks to well-worn stereotypes about drug users, dealers, and criminals in general, we've come to expect the bad guys to look like them. Black and brown people, not those who are white like us. When we have to protect ourselves from folks with names like Owen Merton Barber the Fourth, well, what is the world coming to?
Actually, although underreported, drug data has long confirmed that the stereotypes of users and dealers (poor, black or Latino, and urban-dwelling) are not only racist, but also wrong.
According to the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Health and Human Services, whites are equally or more likely to use drugs than their African American counterparts, despite common misperceptions to the contrary.
Although blacks and Hispanics tend to try drugs for the first time at a slightly younger age than whites, by the end of high school, whites have caught up and surpassed them in every drug category. White seniors are a third more likely to have smoked pot in the past year, seven times more likely to have used cocaine, three times more likely to have used heroin, and nine times more likely to have used LSD. And it's not just that there are more white users, as this would reflect mere population percentages, but rather, that the white rate of use is that much higher than the rate for blacks.
It's the same story for young adults. Whites are 66 percent of 18-25 year olds, but 70 percent of drug users that age. Blacks are 13.5 percent of persons in that age cohort, but only 13 percent of young adult users, while Hispanics are nearly 15 percent of that age group, but only 12 percent of drug users 18-25.
When it comes to drug dealing, the picture changes only slightly. According to the Justice Department, drug users tend to buy from same-race dealers. So the nearly three-quarters of users who are white, mainly rely on white dope peddlers, not the Jamaicans or Dominicans of popular imagery. And when it comes to drugs like Ecstasy -- a hot product for the Virginia cartel -- the dealers and users have long been known to be mostly white, middle class males between 14 and 32.
But one would know none of these things from reading the Post story on the recently uncovered suburban drug empire, or drug related articles in any other nationally-prominent paper. Instead, white suburban dealers and users are presented as exceptions to an otherwise law-abiding rule.
In the instant case, the accused, from the Prince William County hamlets of Chantilly and Centreville are youths who reporter Josh White describes as "good kids," who "went bad." When was the last time a black or Latino drug dealer or gang-banger was described this way? To those who study media, implicit in most news coverage when they do it is the suggestion that it's because they were congenital criminals; it was their IQ or pathological underclass families. They don't "go" bad, they just "are" bad.
But when stories are written about pale-faced killers or dealers, or in this case both, sympathetic adjectives fill the pages. Crime becomes human interest -- a cautionary tale. We are encouraged to identify with the instigators of the mayhem in ways we never would be were they dark or poor.
For example, Kip Kinkel, 1998's poster boy for school shootings, was likened in the major media to MAD Magazine's Alfred E. Newman: freckle-faced, and the "boy next door." Similar descriptions were offered for the school shooters in Arkansas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. Even Columbine shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, described by classmates as "dark and brooding," were still referred to by many as "basically normal," and gave off no warning signs in the eyes of Littleton families, teachers, or law enforcement. Andrea Yates, the Houston suburban mom who killed her five kids in their bathtub was described by one major newsmagazine as having "loved her children too much," and having been "overwhelmed" by the responsibilities of keeping hearth and home together.
And listen to those quoted in White's story. First there is Prince William Detective Greg Pass who explains, "None of this happened in bad neighborhoods...It bothers everyone involved that in many ways these kids are mirror images of the detectives working the case, except they have chosen to go the wrong way." Sympathy, recognition, identification, and all of it, by the officer's admission, due to the fact that these kids are "mirror images" of the detectives themselves. And what does one see in the mirror after all? One's face: one's white, middle class suburban face, to be precise.
Throughout the Post piece the ringleaders of this marijuana and ecstasy empire are described as kids who "went to church," "sold Christmas trees at the mall parking lot," were "polite, shy, friendly, non-threatening," "clean cut," "cautiously pensive," "kind and gentle," "fun-loving," "the class clown." The kind of boys who "you'd want your daughter to date," and who have been known to nurse sick birds back to health, "romp down the soccer field," and whose hooliganism was limited to writing their names in wet cement.
The alleged shooter, "relished fishing with his father along the Virginia coast, where the two would exchange high fives when reeling in a catch." Barber's father -- that's Owen Merton the third for those keeping count -- insists the family was solid and led a "normal life." Forced to contemplate what went wrong with his fishing buddy, he speculates that perhaps watching his mother die of cancer convinced his son "life wasn't important anymore." Again, sympathy conjured up for the wayward white youth, in ways that would be highly unlikely for an inner-city kid: even one who had watched his mom die of cancer, as many have, or perhaps had friends who had been killed or jailed.
The young man accused of ordering the hit on Petrole is described as a "role model for his brother and sister," a "religious Catholic," who is intensely "spiritual." For his part, Justin Wolfe is presented as a helpful son, who assisted his single mom in caring for his younger siblings. When was the last time the child of a black, inner-city single mom was applauded for helping out around the house?
And throughout the story we learn that the parents of these budding gangsters never suspected anything, even as their early-20's offspring jet-setted to Hawaii or Atlantic City, and bought $200,000 townhouses with their own money. As an additional sign of the times and the stupendous denial that afflicts so many white upper-middle class families, Petrole's father actually believed that his son was able to buy his own home because he had been lucky dabbling in the stock market. After all, said Petrole Sr., his boy always wanted to be an entrepreneur. As indeed he was. So should we now expect national condemnation of the culture of affluence and the capitalist emphasis on moneymaking as being implicated in these crimes? Don't count on it. That kind of analysis we reserve for the "underclass" values of ghetto-dwellers.
As evidence of how strong the stereotypes are, consider that at the height of his criminal activity, Justin Wolfe dated the daughter of the head of the DC regional office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, without being suspected of anything. The agent, having no doubt memorized the darker profile of a drug dealer used by law enforcement, naturally had no clue. Wolfe, according to DEA agent Frank Chellino seemed "well-mannered" and "stable."
Perhaps white folks in the ‘burbs need to stop listening to the voices of officialdom or the media, and start listening to the only folks who seem to know the score: the dealers themselves. As one associate of the accused explained: "American society doesn't want to face the fact that white kids deal and use drugs. They simply can't look in my face and see that a nice-looking white kid is selling drugs to their kids, because that would mean that their kids could do this too. The fact is, we do sell drugs to their kids, in their rich neighborhoods and in their rich schools."
Just as the media generally "deracializes" incidents of white deviance, portraying them as the aberrant, inexplicable acts of aberrant, inexplicable individuals, (unlike the same from the dark and poor which are often portrayed as group tendencies), so too did Josh White in his piece on Wolfe, Barber and Petrole. Instead of pointing out the fallacies of white suburban denial and the blindness that besets so many of the residents in these "nice," places, White and the Post offered up a quixotic melodrama: good kids gone wrong; sympathetic, misguided youths posing as hardened criminals and coming to a tragic end.
Powerful to be sure, but far too narrow a truth, lacking as it did the contextual information necessary to understand the common phenomenon of white substance abuse. Unfortunately, facts unspoken or unreported tend to remain hidden. The debilitating stereotypes they might unravel remain firmly in place. And those who have convinced themselves that it couldn't happen here remain in danger.
Tim Wise is a Nashville-based writer, lecturer and antiracism activist. He can be reached at tjwise@mindspring.com. Footnotes for this article can be obtained from that same email address.
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Being Too Black???
Posted: Friday, August 17, 2001
From: Tarikh Tehuti Bandele
Ankh Udja Soneb.
There are many, many issues within this article, both from the writer as well as the mental condition many of us still suffer from.
As I read, thoughts were literally racing around in my third eye, amazed (but at the same time understanding) that many of us (as Afrikan people) continue to legitimize our malignant self-hatred. For example, the writer writes "...nobody will ever accept us like we must learn to accept ourselves". Should this be on our agenda as we walk trance-like into the 21st century??? Should we even be concerned with what other group of people 'accept' us??? Indeed, we must learn to embrace ourselves. But for some, as is evidenced all throughout this article, this is extremely difficult and challenging to do.
Next, this writer postulates the same assumption that "...we wouldn't be here in the first place without the cooperation of Africans selling off their brothers from other tribes (a french term that did not exist in Afrika before European occupation)." First, there were some Afrikans that PARTICIPATED in the selling of other Afrikans during our Maafa (e.g. Tippu Tib, an East Afrikan who saw himself more as an Arab than an Afrikan; he also assisted Henry Morton Stanley in his 'opening up' of Congo). But what this writer (as well as Brookings Institute member Henry Louis Gates) fail to mention is that 1) there was no rampant shipping of Afrikans to the New World BEFORE European conquistadors came into Afrika; 2) serious disadvantages existed between Afrikans and the encroaching Europeans; and 3) Europeans were able to exacerbate the differences and skirmishes that existed between different NATIONS (not 'tribes'). Interestingly, some individuals, for obvious reasons, always seem to overlook these and other factors (the extreme humanity that existed within Afrikan culture all over the continent; the sincere hospitality that was exercised and practiced by Afrikan people; and our propensity to embrace and 'believe' other people [we have been double and triple crossed several times, and by almost every group of people on the earth; just ask those Afrikans in Ayaiti that assisted Simon Bolivar]).
The article gets intense. The writer himself answers many of his questions right in his article. His cultural confusion is blatantly obvious at times, especially where he writes: "That's why I use the term Black, although I use Afrikan American to describe our original heritage". First, he uses a term (black) that was placed upon us to describe how we, as Afrikan people, look. Black, however, does not tell us anything else about us. The name that a people refer to themselves should connect them with land, history and culture. With all due respect to those who use the term, black only tells us what we look like, not where we come from.
Second, the statement "...although I use Afrikan American to describe our original heritage", is misleading and nowhere near factual. Why doesn't the term Afrikan American describe our original heritage??? Because our 'original heritage' does not begin in 1619. Contrary to popular opinion, we are a very old people. If the term Afrikan American describes our original heritage, then our beginnings only go back 382 years. Maybe this is all the writer is willing to acknowledge, as he writes throughout the article "...that thought is depressing", "But that's another painful story", and "To think otherwise is too painful". True, we have had very painful episodes in our COLLECTIVE history, but we should never let that pain dictate to us how we will deal with our past, present and future.
As far as the "hair and color problem", the writer never acknowledges the origins of this self-hatred. A good example of this tendency among the Henry Louis Gates types in our community (to overlook the origins of the extreme self hatred among many of us) is where the writer offers "A recent Jenny Jones show featured Black women who had been teased as young girls in school...Pearl, 23... had been teased by Anthony, 24". Jenny Jones, as well as the writer of this article, both make it appear that Anthony was the source of Pearl's self hatred as a child, when in fact, Anthony was just as much a victim as Pearl was. This self hatred has been passed down from generation to generation by those of us that feel (or felt) that we are not beautiful unless we resemble Europeans. This phenomenon did not begin with Pearl, Anthony, Jenny Jones or even the writer. This phenomenon began when the first European told an Afrikan that he/she was ugly because he/she did not resemble that European. It has been exacerbated by countless Afrikans that have been mentally rewired into believing that they are worthless without permed hair, thin lips, eagle-beak like noses and light skin. This is still among us today.
Also, the self-hatred that is evident in individuals like Anthony, Pearl and the writer ("I've had this hair and color problem since i was a kid"; "I wanted to be Black as Nat King Cole. Conked my hair like his once".) is allowed to exist, in part, because so many of our parents and elders have failed to instill in some of us self confidence and self worth. Many of them are too busy trying to 'look appealing" (i.e. other than themselves) to concern themselves with instilling self-confidence and self worth in younger Afrikan people. Thus, many of us have no firm sense of self, making it extremely easy for people and cultures outside of ours to dictate how we should look and what we should purchase to make us look a certain way.
Just like in Toni Morrison's brilliant opus, The Bluest Eye, many of our children are debilitated mentally because they are being inundated with the notion that everything that is beautiful is European.
The writer then writes: "Finally, in the 1960's came the voice of Malcolm X", implying that with the entrance of the message of Malcolm X, self-hatred began its decline. I beg to differ with this contention. Why??? I differ with this contention because there have been countless others BEFORE the 1960s that have attempted to instill in us a firm sense of self. Whether or not we listened to them and embraced THE MESSAGE is something totally different. As far back as the 1790s, people like Paul Cuffie, Prince Hall, et al. were trying to instill in us a love of self (otherwise, why would Prince Hall name his Masonic Lodge the Afrikan Lodge???). In the 1800s, several individuals came along to relay the same message (Henry Highland Garnet, Martin Delaney, David Walker, et al). Forty years before Malcolm burst onto the scene, the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey was teaching the same message of self-love and self worth. This is not an attempt to belittle the work and contribution that Malcolm X did and made.
Malcolm played a major role in quickening the tide that had always been there, in the quest to teach Afrikan people to love themselves as they are.
Lastly (but not least), I find it interesting that the writer postulates the notion that thick lips, broad noses and locked hair are, basically 'the rave' among Caucasian people. Indeed, there have been several (no, numerous) European people (women in particular) that have gotten their lips surgically enhanced, their hips surgically widened, and their behinds surgically enhanced. But, has this been because Afrikan people have, for the most part, embraced their Afrikanity??? Right now, Afrikan women are the biggest purchasers of hair relaxers and such items. Right now, bleaching creams (Ambi, Noxema, etc) are being sold in large numbers in several countries on the Afrikan continent. Right now, some communities spend more money on malt liquor than the same state (where these communities are) spends on education (for clarification, please read Blueprint for Black Power by Dr. Amos N. Wilson). As a whole, our spending power is more than 530 billion dollars, making us the 10th richest nation in the entire world (in terms of economic strength). However, of those 530 billion dollars, not a whole ten percent of the money comes back into the Afrikan community, into Afrikan hands and Afrikan businesses. So, when we see Jeep and Pepsi and Coke and American Airlines and hundreds of huge corporations lacing negro T.V. viewing time (i.e. when shows that are predominantly Afrikan casted are aired on television) with cool commercials that show Afrikan people driving cars and drinking Sprite and flying with Continental Airlines, it is not necessarily because we are loved or we have finally arrived or even because we have overcome. To the contrary, it is because 530 billion dollars is a lot of money.
Now Get Up.
Tarikh Tehuti Bandele'
SOULONE.
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Marcus Garvey's journey to Heaven
Posted: Friday, August 17, 2001
(Jamaica Observer) THE occasion of the widely publicised United Nations Conference on Racism, offers an opportunity to focus on one of the greatest leaders in racial justice during the 20th century. On this, the 114th anniversary of the birth of Marcus Garvey, we are once again challenged to assess his complex legacy.
While Garvey's contribution to the anti-colonial movement is widely acknowledged, he did not foresee that his dream of African redemption would flounder on the rocks of genocidal war, man-made famine and disease. Neither could he have known of the predations of the black business and political elites, for whom he sacrificed so much in their creation. Further, his exhortation to black people 'Up you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will' - has given way to deep insecurities and ambivalence, ensuring the revival of white supremacists values, made even more effective by an all-pervasive electronic medium. More
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The Emergence of Xeno-Racism
Posted: Friday, August 17, 2001
‘It is a racism that is not just directed at those with darker skins, from the former colonial territories, but at the newer categories of the displaced, the dispossessed and the uprooted, who are beating at western Europe’s doors, the Europe that helped to displace them in the first place. It is a racism, that is, that cannot be colour-coded, directed as it is at poor whites as well, and is therefore passed off as xenophobia, a "natural" fear of strangers. But in the way it denigrates and reifies people before segregating and/or expelling them, it is a xenophobia that bears all the marks of the old racism. It is racism in substance, but "xeno" in form. It is a racism that is meted out to impoverished strangers even if they are white. It is xeno-racism.’
A. Sivanandan, Director, Institute of Race Relations
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Steve Bantu Biko
Posted: Monday, August 13, 2001
In the 1950s and 1960s in South Africa, the oppressiveness of apartheid enveloped many blacks who formed a silent majority. Apartheid means strict segregation of people based on race.
One person whose life was dedicated to the fight against apartheid was Steve Bantu Biko. When Steve was born on 18 Dec. 1946, his parents appropriately chose the name "Bantu" which means people.
Steve started fighting for people's rights while studying medicine in college. As a delegate for an organization called the National Union of South African Students, Steve participated in an annual conference. During the conference in July 1967 at Rhodes University, Steve became insulted when he and other black delegates were given accommodations further away at a church hall. Yet, white student delegates were placed on-site at the university residences.
Steve began to question the point of liberal groups comprised primarily of white persons. He advocated and formed a group two years later whose membership could only be black and named it the South African Student's Organisation (SASO). The goal was to remove the inferiority complex many blacks had and replace it with a positive social image.
This became known as the Black Consciousness Movement. Steve believed that blacks had to be in leadership positions and that only blacks could push the liberation movement. If white people did this for blacks, then this would reinforce the idea that blacks were not capable of taking control and responsibility for themselves. Steve saw the need to free people from both the physical and mental bonds of oppression.
To help create positive self-awareness in blacks, Steve started night-class schools encouraging education and the development of more skills. He advocated diversity and that each of us has different skills to contribute.
http://www.fallenmartyrs.com/southafrica.htm
http://www.biko.com/
http://home.ici.net/~nikos/biko3.html
http://www.mg.co.za/mg/news/97sep1/5sep-biko.html
South African activist Donald Woods dies
Sunday, August 19, 2001
Mr Woods had drawn world attention to the case of Steve Biko, the black consciousness leader who was killed by South African security forces while in detention.
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Is It Wrong To Cut Your Beard?
Posted: Monday, August 13, 2001
( Dwayne ) Is It Wrong To Cut Your Beard?
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( Akinkawon ) Once it's your beard go brave!
How people deal with hair on their body is mostly about symbolism and hygiene.
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( Woizero Sera'el Tafari ) Sad to see that the only response to such an important question/issue is this flimsy answer. Gone are the days when the Rastaman was proud of his precepts, taking the vow of the Nazarite to neither use comb nor razor.
Honestly, I was looking forward to see more fundamental reasoning on this issue coming forth, particularly from brethrens. To I, frivolous matters have generated much more responses on this board.
I still hold out hope in seeing some serious reasoning on this matter from Rastaman who proudly carry their precepts.
Love and Fire
Sis. Sera'el
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( Sandra ) Such an important question/issue to you, and you spent your time trying to make a federal case without explaining how it is so important to you?
I would like to hear your reasoning please.
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( Woizero Sera'el Tafari ) Rastafari,
As I said before, Because this matter directly relates to the Rastaman, as he is the one who carries a beard, I was hoping to get much more feedback from him.
However, for I, one of the most important reason for a Lion carrying his precepts/beard, is to physically manifest him being a "Lion", with a mane (beard); where on earth have you seen a lion without a mane, and as I said in my previous response, the most fundamental reason is in the vow that he takes as a nazarite to neither use a comb or scissors/razor.
I Majesty
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( Jenny ) Are you speaking about symbolizing a lion or magically turning into one?
We should also mention the male dominating and lazy characteristics of Lions.
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( IanI ) Irie Sistren
In the Name of the Almighty Most High
Jah Rastafari
Yes Dawta Sera'el. Be patient, seen, all IanI not always pon the machine here right away to give response! :) Right.
Yes... the Vow of the Nazarite fe true. But it no be just blindly following some "rule" or "regulation", and it no be for no "symbolism", and it no be for no lion look-alike kind a thing. IanI Rastafari always look higher to see the Reality of the Covenant. And to IanI Rasta, the hair been placed pon IanI head and face by the Creator in the creation of Perfection and IanI no scrape that off, or cut at it, or put no chemical upon it to change it and such. Seen. What come Natural no one is to con-vert! The Almighty create IanI here in HIM own image and that is to be exalted and honoured!
All the other man-made "rules and codes" are just that... man-made, and IanI Rastafari live by the Laws of the Almighty, the Natural Laws. Nature a the Hand a the Almighty Creator and IanI give thanks and praises to the Almighty in humbleness and respect-fullness. The beard grow upon me face as the Will of the Creator, and Rasta honour that Will. Seen.
ONE LOVE/HEART/MIND
Give Thanks
Guidance and Protection
IanI Rastafari
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( Ayinde ) IanI, when you have the time could you expand on this some more?
Are Rastafarians not supposed to cut their fingernails or toenails also?
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( IanI ) Irie Irie
Give thanks Ayinde!
The I truely got me smiling here now!
Yes I... can be a puzzlement, no?
Well, I be asking the same sort of things to me own Rasta Father all the while! "Hey what!? Everything that grows from me body me just leff alone!? How can that be?"
We have some ROARING reasonings pon this! Man... me tell you fe true!
And Him say... "Watch. Sit there pon the rock an watch them goats them there. Or them bird there. Them go get nail sissor and cut them nail or them claw? Them grow sed way... no? So why them no get a sissor and cut them nails?"
So me say, "But wait... what them do then to get the nail out a them way? It can't just grow forever? Them go get too long!"
So... some things me no get the Fullness of. I have a hard time reasoning pon some of them. But I know what Iya say be true. The other living things them no have no sissor and them no have no comb and them no have no straightening iron and such... and them all alright! So what...?
Is a Natural thing me know, so how IanI deal with it? How do them before the sissor deal with it? How do them before the sharpen rock deal with it? Maybe the finger nail used a different way then IanI use it here today? Maybe it have a good use and so the Almighty put it there for that very use that IanI no seem to have here now? Maybe if IanI live a more Natural Life the nails them keep sort of close by digging and such? I know some of me locks them get long and them ends drop off...
Is a puzzlement fe true... but IanI no keep I-self in con-fusion about these things. Me just see what me can see and keep to look for the Fullness in All things.
Give thanks, Ayinde. A good reasoning!
Guidance and Protection
ONE LOVE
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( Ayinde ) The real reason is not too difficult to understand but before I explain what I learnt about how the beard and dreadlocks developed to importance, I should explain what I was taught when I was searching and ended up in Trinidad by a Man somewhat like yourself.
He told me when I couldn’t unravel a mystery by observing nature, I had to revisit human history as the disruption and confusion is usually as a result of human intervention.
It took me several years to realize how much most people live disconnected from our ancestors and nature and as such we remain unable to understanding the workings of the SELF through the limited self in man. I had to be born anew into a way of viewing everything. (He does not say God like many people, but he speaks of the self. The Lower part of the self in all things in relation to the Inner Higher SELF of the Universe.) I observe people on several Websites and discussion groups explaining things this way today and immediately I know where they got it.
Lets see if other Rastafarians expand on this discussion if not I don't mind explaining what I discovered about dreadlocks and beards. Do you know they are connected to the wigs Judges wear?
I saw you smiling for the first time.
I see.
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( IanI ) Yes I. A Wise One, the man from Trinidad. I allways find great interest and some revelation in the study of human history. At least what me can find that has been recorded, and scrutinize through the bias and partiality! And the mind MUST heighten and unfetter from the brainwashment of ages.
And I also find great enjoyment in true reasoning with me bredren an sistren! Not simply repetetive dogmatic rhetoric.
Give thanks, Ayinde.
Tell I a bit about the judges wig. Me no know that story. But me know them judges!
feel free to e-mail, Ayinde, if you wish.
ONE LOVE
Guidance and Protection
From: Rastafari Speaks Message Board
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Asians came from Africa?
Posted: Sunday, August 12, 2001
LETTER FROM: Celtaca@webtv.net
I saw your old misinformed site about Asians coming from Africa, perhaps you did not see the special about this topic on the Discovery Channel, it has already been confirmed through genetic testing of a Homoerectus found in Asia that Asians descended from the Homoerectus. And of course it also featured that Native Indians and Caucasians both alike descended from Asians with geographical differences changing us sightly physically over a period of about 45,000 years.
The Out of Africa theory maybe true but only for the black race most likely.
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EDITOR: Amon Hotep
It is not the most pleasant thing to have to admit that all manner of people including the vile and corrupt came out of Africa and are part of the same human family. Sometimes I feel it may have been nice if the flawed multi-regional theory could have been true. But as nature also intended for humans to learn from the shortcomings and successes of each other, I see purpose and design, and then all is well. Many today, in light of all this technology and information still need educating and civilizing. Take your time and read! I'll keep updating this page.
Why Skin Comes in Colors
August 28, 2000
DNA analysis tracks Silk Road forbears
Modern humans migrated out of Africa into Central Asia before spreading both east and west into North America and Europe, says an international team of scientists who have used modern DNA analysis to trace ancient migrations.
"Around 40-50,000 years ago, Central Asia was full of tropical trees, a good place for hunting and fishing," said Nadira Yuldasheva of the Institute of Immunology at the Academy of Sciences, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Dr Wells and his colleagues believe that their work also traces the expansion of the Indo-Iranian people known as the Kurgan civilisation, or more popularly Aryans.
"We have a diagnostic Indo-Iranian marker," he said, referring to one of the Y-chromosome mutations. More
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August 13, 2001
Major genomic mitochondrial lineages delineate
early human expansions
After the out of Africa, modern humans first spread to Asia following two main routes. The southern one is represented by haplogroup M and related clades that are overwhelmingly present in India and eastern Asia. The northern one gave a posterior radiation that, through Central Asia, again reached North and East Asia carrying, among others, the prominent lineages A and B. Later expansions, can be detected by the presence of subclades of haplogroup U in India and Europe. There were also returns to Africa, most probably from the same two routes. The return from India could be detected by the presence of derivatives of M in Northeast Africa, and the arrival of Caucasoids by the existence of a subclade of haplogroup U that, today, is mainly confined to Northwest Africa. Full Article
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The prevailing view, known as the "Out of Africa" theory, holds that modern humans evolved from a common Homo erectus ancestor in Africa. Homo sapiens then left Africa and spread across the world, displacing other hominid species such as Neanderthals.
The competing theory, called "regional continuity," contends that Homo erectus came out of Africa and modern humans evolved from Homo erectus in several different places - what are now Africa, Europe and Asia - with interbreeding between the regions. More
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Other Views
Fourth Pre-Human Skull Found in Georgia (Yahoo)
Tuesday August 14, 2001
Homo ergaster falls in between the more primitive Homo habilis and Homo erectus, a robust creature with advanced stone tools that most scientists thought was the first to move out of Africa to populate Asia and Europe. Modern humans originated in Africa. From there bands of hominids migrated first to the Middle East, then throughout Europe and into Asia.
But exactly who moved away? A single population of already-evolved Homo sapiens? Or did several groups of more primitive humans migrate separately, then evolve independently into the modern variety?
Evolutionary geneticists struggle with this question, scrutinizing DNA samples from around the world for tell-tale variations. Until recently, they have relied heavily on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Now, new studies using nuclear DNA are changing the debate. http://www.rps.psu.edu/0101/africa.html
http://sdmc.krdl.org.sg:8080/bic/groups/
OUT OF AFRICA, INTO ASIA
A debate of long-standing interest in human evolution centers around whether archaic human populations (such as the Neanderthals) have contributed to the modern gene pool. A model of ancient population structure with recent mixing is introduced, and it is determined how much information (i.e., sequence data from how many unlinked nuclear loci) would be necessary to distinguish between different demographic scenarios. It is found that ~50-100 loci are necessary if plausible parameter estimates are used. There are not enough data available at the present to support either the "single origin" or the "multiregional" model of modern human evolution. However, this information should be available in a few years.
Here are some links from that program. Please try reading:
For more information, please read Latest Homo erectus of Java: Potential Contemporaneity with Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia, in the journal Science.
Canadian analysis challenges theory of human evolution
http://www.discovery.ca/Stories/1996/12/13/02.asp
The "Nanjing Man" finding was recently published by the respected U.S. journal Science, which said the "Nanjing Man" dating was consistent and would now allow a more accurate assessment of early migration out of Africa and Asian evolution.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/reu/20010220/nanjing.html
Evidence suggests that Homo erectus arrived in Asia from Africa almost 2 million years ago, and evolved there in isolation, possibly surviving up to less than 50,000 years ago, when modern humans moved in.
http://dsc.discovery.com/stories/science/stoneages/turkana.html
From a variety of different hominids one emerged 2 million years ago, Homo ergaster, 'working man'. These early people were carnivores and predators, and began to move out of Africa into the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
http://www.discovery.com/diginets/international/europe/highlight5.html
New research supports 'out of Africa' theory of human origin May 11, 2001
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