May 3, 2001 - June 13, 2001
How "false memories" can be created
Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2001
Source: Renee
Date: Posted 6/12/2001
Greetings,
Very interestiong article..but I am not surprised or amazed at the ease of how "false memories" can be created.
Some Africans have to look no further than themselves to understand this ease of transformation of the mind and how it can be exposed with false events.
Many Africans have been exposed or implanted with a history that does not belong to us and some are living, thinking and responding from an Europeanized point of view without being aware of their behaviors and attitudes. Europeans have also been exposed to these "false memories" which allows most to believe that they are superior over all people of color (white supremacy). More at the Online Forum
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How easily a false memory can be created
Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2001
Source: University Of Washington (http://www.washington.edu/)
Date: Posted 6/12/2001
About one-third of the people who were exposed to a fake print advertisement that described a visit to Disneyland and how they met and shook hands with Bugs Bunny later said they remembered or knew the event happened to them.
The scenario described in the ad never occurred because Bugs Bunny is a Warner Bros. cartoon character and wouldn't be featured in any Walt Disney Co. property, according to University of Washington memory researchers Jacquie Pickrell and Elizabeth Loftus. Pickrell will make two presentations on the topic at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society (APS) on Sunday (June 17) in Toronto and at a satellite session of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition in Kingston, Ontario, on Wednesday.
"The frightening thing about this study is that it suggests how easily a false memory can be created," said Pickrell, UW psychology doctoral student.
"It's not only people who go to a therapist who might implant a false memory or those who witness an accident and whose memory can be distorted who can have a false memory. Memory is very vulnerable and malleable. People are not always aware of the choices they make. This study shows the power of subtle association changes on memory." MORE
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Amazing things about solar flares
Posted: Tuesday, June 12, 2001
"One of the most amazing things about solar flares," says Brian Dennis of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, "is the efficient way they accelerate subatomic particles to energies exceeding 109 eV." As much as 50% of the total explosion energy emerges as electrons and atomic nuclei traveling at nearly the speed of light. "Flares operate much more efficiently than any particle accelerator we've been able to build here on Earth." More
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A victim of Hindu bigotry
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2001
By Dr. Iniyan Elango
Hinduism espouses the division of people into hierarchically placed groups called "castes". These castes are placed in a stepladder of ascending superiority and descending inferiority. People who are born into these castes should follow the ordained caste professions and marry only within their caste through arranged marriages. The beneficiaries of this system were the various Brahman castes who by virtue of their birth were free to follow intellectual pursuits at the advent of British colonial education making them modern India's intellectual, scientific, and bureaucratic class.
The various "Vysya" (trading) castes, placed below the Brahman castes and the Royal ("Kshatriya") castes, have enjoyed the monopoly in trading activities for centuries, by virtue of their birth, thus becoming modern India's corporate and business class.
The "Shudras" are the various lower castes in the hierarchy who are considered as Hindus and members of caste Hindu society.
The "Dalits" (meaning "broken people) are the "outcasts" and "slaves" of the Hindu society of hierarchical castes. That is why the Dalit people are considered untouchable and made to live in segregated colonies outside the towns and villages where the caste Hindus live. More
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Reclaiming My Roots
Posted: Thursday, June 7, 2001
By Brenda Sutton
Recently, I broke away from the chemical plantation, releasing the thirty-year shackles that enslaved my pocketbook and consciousness---the previous thirteen years, my mother fried my hair with Dixie Peach hair grease and a straightening comb.
Many African Americans' perceptions of style and beauty manifest into self-hatred behavior against our natural state by slapping chemicals onto our hair. My natural hair was perceived as too thick, too curly, too bushy, time consuming, maintenance intensive and restricted my hair style choices. Such perceptions disguised true beauty with materialistic values. On the contrary, natural hair personifies natural beauty.
This liberating epiphany has resulted in freedom from all day sojourns to the beauty parlor and most importantly reduced health risks from chemical exposure [e.g. curling irons and burnt scalp to name a few]. More
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Activists Want Slavery Called African 'Holocaust'
Posted: Friday, June 1, 2001
By Richard Waddington
African rights activists said on Thursday they would press a world conference against racism to declare slavery and colonialism "a double Holocaust" and would call for compensation from former colonial powers.
Compensation from countries active in the then legal slave trade of the 17th and 19th centuries, such as France, Britain, Portugal and the United States, could take the form of aid for development, they said.
Speaking for African non-governmental organizations, Alioune Tine of Senegal, said the impact of colonialism was one of the prime causes of Africa's economic backwardness today.
He told a news conference: "We invite the world conference to declare without hesitation that slavery and colonialism are a double Holocaust and crimes against the humanity of African peoples."
International non-governmental organizations (NGO) are meeting in Geneva to prepare a common position to take to a United Nations (news - web sites) "World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance" to be held in Durban, South Africa from August 31-September 7. More
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We Descended From 33 Daughters of Eve in Africa
Posted: Wednesday, May 30, 2001
By Paul Majendie
HAY-ON-WYE, Wales (Reuters) - We are all descended from the 33 daughters of Eve. Just take a swab from your cheek and you can find which one is your original ancestor.
That is the view of Professor Bryan Sykes, one of the world's top geneticists who has spent the last decade mapping out where we come from.
"Your genes have been through a fantastic journey," he told Britain's leading literary festival Tuesday in the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye where he laid out a fascinating DNA pathway to the past.
Now, after opening such a fascinating Pandora's Box, he has found that thousands of people around the world, from the United States to South Africa, are consumed with curiosity and want to find out who their original "clan mother" is.
"There are roughly 33 equivalent clusters if you take the whole world. Eventually it all comes down to Mitochondrial Eve in Africa 200,000 years ago," he added.
"This shows how closely connected we all are," he said More
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Breaking The Cycle Of White Dependence
Posted: Friday, May 25, 2001
By Tim Wise
I think it's called 'projection.' When someone subconsciously realizes that a particular trait applies to them, and then attempts to locate that trait in others, so as to alleviate the stigma or self-doubt engendered by the trait in question.
It's a well-understood concept of modern psychology, and explains much: like why men who are struggling with their own sexuality are often the most outwardly homophobic. Or the way whites during slavery typified black men as rapists, even though the primary rapists were the white slaveowners themselves, taking liberties with their female property, or white men generally, raping their wives with impunity.
I got to thinking about projection recently, after receiving many an angry e-mail from folks who had read one or another of my previous commentaries, and felt the need to inform me that people of color are "looking for a handout," and are "dependent" on government, and of course, whites.
Such claims are making the rounds these days, especially as debate heats up about such issues as reparations for enslavement, or affirmative action. And this critique is a prime example of projection, for in truth, no people have been as dependent on others throughout history as white folks. More
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A Stern View of Britain
Posted: Thursday, May 24, 2001
One of Germany's most popular news magazines, Der Stern, has published a savage critique of modern-day Britain - describing pockets of abject poverty, a decrepit health service and school system, a disorganised civil service and bungling politicians.
Britain has been branded a country in "deep crisis" by Der Stern, which describes it as a country blighted by ill health, poor education and an incompetent government.
The 12-page article in current affairs magazine Stern, which sells around one million copies a week, paints a damning portrait of modern Britain under the title of The English Patient. More
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McVeigh Test for Abolitionists
Posted: Thursday, May 24, 2001
By Shelagh Simmons
At a time when support for the death penalty has declined in the United States, Timothy James McVeigh poses perhaps the greatest challenge yet for the abolitionist movement. He has admitted planting the bomb that left 168 people dead in the Alfred P Murrah federal building, Oklahoma City. He has shown no remorse. And he has referred to the 19 children killed as "collateral damage".
Even some opponents of capital punishment say they could make an exception for McVeigh. And among the relatives who lost loved ones in the atrocity, there is disagreement. Some want him dead, believing it will bring what is often promised but rarely delivered - "closure". Some want him to live in the hope he may repent. But others want him spared simply because they do not believe in judicial killing. More
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Slavery is a crime against humanity!
Posted: Tuesday, May 22, 2001
The United States and European nations are against any discussions about reparations at a major United Nations conference on racism.
South Africa is leading an African bloc that wants the conference to label slavery "a crime against humanity" - a description, which the UK, Spain and Portugal reject.
The European countries and the US are also resisting African calls for some kind of reparations for the slave trade.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson - who will host the anti-racism conference in the South African city of Durban later this year - urged delegates to "look for common ground" at the final meeting to prepare for the conference.
The BBC's Fergus Nicoll said that the Europeans and Africans would probably be able to work out a compromise on wording, perhaps calling present-day human trafficking a crime.
The US and European countries claim that it may be more difficult to reach consensus over compensation.
The US has threatened to withdraw funding for the conference if it includes a call for reparations. More
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Modern Asians have African ancestors
Posted: Thursday, May 10, 2001
The theory that the ancestors of all modern humans came from Africa received a boost on Thursday with the publication of supporting research. Scientists based across Asia, in the US and the UK examined the Y-chromosomes of more than 12,000 people from across Asia and found no traces of any ancient non-African influence. "This result indicates that modern humans of African origin completely replaced earlier populations in East Asia," the researchers write in the journal Science.
The main alternative explanation of human origins - that modern humans are descended from separate populations which developed in different places - is known as multiregionalism.
"This really puts the nail in the coffin of multiregionalism," R Spencer Wells, co-author of the research, told BBC News Online. The value of the new research lies in the scale of the project, he said More
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Modern Asians have African ancestors
Posted: Thursday, May 10, 2001
By Trinicenter Special
The theory that the ancestors of all modern humans came from Africa received a boost on Thursday with the publication of supporting research. Scientists based across Asia, in the US and the UK examined the Y-chromosomes of more than 12,000 people from across Asia and found no traces of any ancient non-African influence.
"This result indicates that modern humans of African origin completely replaced earlier populations in East Asia," the researchers write in the journal Science.
The main alternative explanation of human origins - that modern humans are descended from separate populations which developed in different places - is known as multiregionalism.
"This really puts the nail in the coffin of multiregionalism," R Spencer Wells, co-author of the research, told BBC News Online. The value of the new research lies in the scale of the project, he said. More
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Fewer than 50 people founded Europe
Posted: Wednesday, May 9, 2001
Fewer than 50 people founded the entire population of Europe, according to a new and accurate way to read demographic history from the genome.
Scientists previously believed that the 500 million people that live in Europe today are descendants of about 10,000 people who left Africa around 100,000 years ago.
But scientists from the Whitehead Institute at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts have found so much genetic evidence of inbreeding, they believe all Europeans probably descended from fewer than about 50 people who interbred together over about 30 generations. This select group may have left Africa about 60,000 years ago.
Their data comes from maps of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are the single letter differences in DNA which can exist between people.
The discovery is good news for medicine because the unexpectedly low degree of genetic variation will make it far easier to isolate the genes that underpin common diseases. "I'm very, very excited about this," said Eric Lander of the Whitehead Institute. [More]
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Legal Arguments in Support of Reparations
Posted: Thursday, May 3, 2001
"Many Billions Gone:
Is It Time to Reconsider the Case for Black Reparations?" (excerpt)
by Robert Westley
Associate Professor, Tulane University Law School
Compensation to Blacks for the injustices suffered by them must first and foremost be monetary. It must be sufficient to indicate that the United States truly wishes to make Blacks whole for the losses they have endured. Sufficient, in other words, to reflect not only the extent of unjust Black suffering, but also the need for Black economic independence from societal discrimination. No less than with the freedmen, freedom for Black people today means economic freedom and security. A basis for that freedom and security can be assured through group reparations in the form of monetary compensation, along with free provision of goods and services to Black communities across the nation. The guiding principle of reparations must be self-determination in every sphere of life in which Blacks are currently dependent.
To this end, a private trust should be established for the benefit of all Black Americans. The trust should be administered by trustees popularly elected by the intended beneficiaries of the trust. The trust should be financed by funds drawn annually from the general revenue of the United States for a period not to exceed ten years. The trust funds should be expendable on any project or pursuit aimed at the educational and economic empowerment of the trust beneficiaries to be determined on the basis of need. Any trust beneficiary should have the right to submit proposals to the trustees for the expenditure of trust funds.
The above is only a suggestion about how to use group reparations for the benefit of Blacks as a whole. In the end, determining a method by which all Black people can participate in their own empowerment will require a much more refined instrument than it would be appropriate for me to attempt to describe here. My own beliefs about what institutions Black people need most certainly will not reflect the views of all Black people, just as my belief that individual compensation is not the best way to proceed probably does not place me in the majority. Everybody who could just get a check has many reasons to believe that it would be best to get a check. On this point, I must subscribe to the wisdom that holds, if you give a man a loaf, you feed him for a day. It is for those Blacks who survive on a "breadconcern level" that the demand for reparations assumes its greatest importance.
Citation: Westley, Robert. "Many Billions Gone: Is It Time to Reconsider the Case for Black Reparations?". Boston College Law Review, December 1998, Volume XL, Number 1.
"If the Shoe Fits, Wear It:
An Analysis of Reparations to African Americans" (excerpt)
by Vincene Verdun
Associate Professor, The Ohio State University College of Law
This almost constant plea for reparations over the past one hundred and thirty years appears mysterious and even irrational from the perspective of many Americans. The perception among many that reparations are threatening or ineffective is revealed in a number of contradictory arguments, for example: 1) reparations are unlikely ever to be awarded, after all, no relief has been given for the past one hundred and thirty years; 2) reparations are undeserved by African Americans since all ex-slaves have been dead for at least a generation; 3) white Americans living today have not injured African Americans and should not be required to pay for the sins of their slavemaster forbearers; 4) it is impossible to determine who should get what and how much; and 5) African Americans must become self-reliant and determine their own fate and stop waiting for relief from external sources. Opponents of reparations to African Americans are so overwhelmingly entrenched in the rightness of their position that they conceptualize the cry for reparations as frivolous, meritless, and divisive.
However, the reparations movement cannot be easily dismissed or discredited, in part because so many of its supporters are part of the American mainstream. For the same reason, the movement cannot be classified as radical or extremist. A movement that has been sustained through several generations and that has won the support of knowledgeable and reputable people throughout history, including members of Congress, business people, professionals, academicians, attorneys, educators, and other hard working people cannot be dismissed as frivolous. Proponents of reparations pursue their cause with fervor equivalent to that of its opponents and stand firm in their assertion that the reparations given to Jews by Germany, and to Native Americans and Japanese Americans by the United States, set precedents for the payment of reparations to African Americans. The moral basis for reparations is simply stated: 1) slaves were not paid for their labor for more than two hundred and sixty-five years, thereby depriving the descendants of slaves of their inheritance; the descendants of the slavemasters inherited the benefit derived from slave labor, which properly belonged to the descendants of slaves; 2) the United States Government promised ex-slaves forty acres and a mule and did not make good on that promise; and 3) systematic and government-sanctioned economic and racial oppression since the abolition of slavery impeded and interfered with the self-determination of African Americans and excluded them from sharing in the growth and prosperity of the nation.
Unfortunately, the proponents and opponents of reparations maintain diametrically opposed points of view, and both groups are deeply entrenched in the correctness of their beliefs. Reasonable people may differ on any topic, but when two groups of people from the same society assume such polar positions on an issue, the foundation of such opposition is usually traceable to some basic normative difference. For example, the underlying normative difference in the abortion debate between pro-choice and pro-life advocates is the belief by pro-life advocates that abortion is sinful or wrong - a belief that is usually grounded in religious or biblical principles so deeply imbedded in the perception of the believer that there is no room for compromise. Pro-choice advocates, who do not perceive abortion as a sin or wrong and who do not share the beliefs of the pro-life advocates, stand firm in their protection of the rights of individuals to make their own decisions.
Likewise, opponents and proponents of reparations approach the issue of reparations from two distinct perspectives that are based on differences in the beliefs imbedded in the perception of each group. Opponents of reparations, who are usually white, frequently approach the issue of reparations from the dominant perspective - a system of values and perceptions common to the group that exercises economic, political, and ideological control over society. Proponents of reparations, most often African Americans, evaluate reparations on the basis of a consciousness - the African-American consciousness - spawned from generations of survival as an oppressed people in a hostile environment and rooted in the heritage of the African culture, which survived the trip across the Atlantic Ocean and the institution of slavery. The differences in these two value systems and the perspectives they engender form the foundation for the polarity between opponents and proponents of reparations.
Citation: Verdun, Vincene. "If the Shoe Fits, Wear It: An Analysis of Reparations to African Americans". Tulane Law Review, February 1993, Volume 67, Number 3, p. 607-610.
Reproduced from:
http://www.thedebt.net/legal.shtml
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