Linda Chu: Another Female First (NOT!) Gone Unnoticed

BEE BUZZ! A buzz in your ear about cool people/places/things/ideas and other hidden treasures!

Lost amidst the drama of the Sotomayor hearings was another significant first for women of color: the election of Dr. Judy Chu, the first Chinese-American woman to be elected to Congress.

Congresswoman Chu, a California Democrat serving the 32nd district, won a special election run-off after former Congresswoman Hilda Solice vacated her seat to serve as U.S. Labor Secretary in the Obama administration.

Chu is a widely welcomed and trusted face in California politics, not something many politicians of either gender can claim. Her passion for public service was ignited during her days as a college student and political activist in the 70s. While studying at UC Santa Barbara, Chu learned about the backstory of the Chinese in America; in other words, she began to uncover an historical truth that was not presented in any of the history books she read in school. Uncovering this "hidden" truth was was an eye-opening experience for Chu, as it is for most minorities, and left her feeling angry and outraged. But Chu was able to parlay that anger into determination. She was driven to make a difference for her people and for all peoples whose American histories are ones marred by struggle, injustice, and systematic oppression. "It was like a light bulb went off in my head" she stated (source: LA Times).

Since those early days, she has served in a variety of public and political capacities and has built a reputation in her predominantly Latino district of being a strong champion and advocate of minorities and the poor. She is a woman many in California political circles describe as "unabashedly liberal." One of the "unabashedly liberal" acts Chu is most famous for is her response to anti-Asian backlash during the late 1980s when California experienced a new wave of Asian immigration. Monterey Park City Council had tried in 1986 to pass a resolution endorsing English as the nation's official language. Chu's response was to set about organizing a grassroots effort called the Coalition for Harmony. One of the organizations first projects was "Harmony Days," a festival celebrating the city's unique variety of cultures and ethnicities. Under Chu's direction, the Coalition led a petition drive that was so successful the city council was forced to rescind its racially charged and divisive English only resolution.

In a recent interview with NPR's "Tell Me More" host Michelle Martin, Chu seemed filled with nervous excitement and anticipation, but ready to face any and all challenges. She told Martin, "I'm overwhelmingly honored and humbled to be in this position." Chu also weighed in on the burning hot health care issue and in her "unabashedly liberal" style made no bones about the fact the she is a proponent of a single-payer system, but stated she would work with the president and her House colleagues to make sure a bill passes that will do three main things: 1) ensure a truly universal health care system; 2) provide for a public option so that all Americans have accessibility; and 3) make it impossible for insurance companies to treat human beings like expendable commodities by outlawing the practice of denying and dropping patients who are not "cost effective."

Chu sounds like a dream come true; then again so did many other progressive politicians who have gone by the wayside or caved under conservative pressure. But keep your eye on this lady, folks, 'cause something tells me this is a woman who will not be so easily blown by every breeze.

Send OUT the Clowns!

Stopping Hate in Mainstream Media: What You Can Do
Folks, I want to make you aware of an opportunity to take a stand against hatred and racial bias in the media. The social justice organization Color of Change.Org is currently running two campaigns that are of paramount importance in showing opposition to racial backlash, hatred, and bias.

One campaign is a petition to call upon CNN head John Klein to fire Lou Dobbs for his repeated displays of anti-immigrant/anti-Mexican propaganda and for his equally racially divisive and inflammatory pot-stirring insistence that President Obama is not an American citizen. Freedom of speech is one thing, hate speech is another. Intentionally inciting hatred and fanning the flames of racial division is a dangerous, destructive practice that does nothing to bring about the kind of productive, candid, honest dialogue about race this country desperately needs right now. Dobbs's actions are completely unacceptable from someone who claims to be a journalist working for a mainstream news organization like CNN that boasts it is "America's most trusted name in news."
Dobbs has been stoking the flames of racial fear and paranoia for far too long, and he, along with CNN, must finally be held accountable for it. If Dobbs wishes to continue along those lines then let him continue at Fox News where that kind of behavior is expected and where barely veiled and often blatant racism, sexism, homophobia, and hatred is the order of the day.

The second campaign is a petition calling upon advertisers of the Glenn Beck show to cease sponsorship of his program. As you may know Beck (along with Dobbs and many, many other right wing commentators and politicians) has been intensifying efforts to project his own racism onto people of color. We saw it most recently with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and now we are seeing it in Beck's latest outrageous attacks against Barack Obama in which he is claiming that Obama is a "racist who hates white people." Again, this is not free speech, it is hate speech If Beck chooses to continue spewing hatred that is his choice; however, we as consumers and American citizens have the right to counter his actions by hitting him where it really hurts: his wallet.

The battle to maintain one’s dignity and sanity in the face of so much bigotry and bias is often overwhelming, and the temptation to throw up our hands in defeat becomes just as overwhelming. However, there really is much we can do, and simply taking a moment to go to a website to sign a petition and let your voice be heard is one of the easiest and simplest ways to make a difference. I hope you'll take a few moments to sign both petitions and take this important stand against hate in the media. Please inform your friends, families, and anyone else who respects peace and justice.

Dobbs petition: http://www.colorofchange.org/dobbs/?id=1876-937345

Beck petition: http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/?id=1876-937345

Black Masculinity Reconstructed

Visions of a Radical Black Masculinity

By E.N. Jackson

Copyright 2009 E.N. Jackson

Frost Illustrated Newspaper, Inc. Vol. 41, Issue 30

It seems that every time I declare myself officially done trying to understand men, one comes along to completely explode that declaration. Before you know it I’m right back on the rollercoaster, asking myself: which one of us is from another planet? Is it him? Is it me? And if so, which planets are we talking about here? Venus and Mars? Or is that some whole other cultural paradigm that doesn’t even apply to Black male/female relationships?

There is yet another question that I (like so many women) have asked, usually after enduring one more frustrating encounter with a man, and that question is: “Lord, why can’t men be more like women?” But is that really what women want? Do we really want to swallow a man up and turn him into an extension of ourselves just so that we can accept or understand him better, just as men have been doing to women for centuries? The answer for this particular woman is no. Turning a man into a mini-me of myself is a very unsatisfying solution indeed. I am convinced there is a better way.

Recently I watched the ground-breaking 1964 film Nothing But a Man starring Ivan Dixon and one of my personal sheroes, the incredible Ms. Abbey Lincoln. I was deeply moved and at the same time challenged by Lincoln’s portrayal of her character, Josie. With strength, dignity, and grace, Josie had the amazing ability to completely accept Dixon’s character, Duff, for exactly who and what he was. She valued the fact that he was a man with a worldview formed and shaped by his experiences as a male. At the same time, she did her best to partner with him in his efforts to maintain his sense of manhood in a time and place where everyone and everything sought to destroy it. I believe quite strongly that there is great value in men and women looking equally to one another for knowledge about how to move through the world, but like Josie I also value the inherent differences between men and women and see the act of embracing those differences as critical to living a whole, balanced life.

I have always felt that there is something deeply lacking in focusing only on the commonalities between groups. In my view, it is just as wrong to deny people their own personal cultural experience as it is to denigrate them for it. We see the effects of this kind of denial of difference mentality every time someone says, “Oh, I don’t see color. We’re all the same under the skin, right?” Wrong. Yes, ultimately we are all human beings. But no, we are not exactly the same. There are differences between races and cultures, men and women, and those differences are nothing to fear or feel threatened by. Opening ourselves up to diverse people, places, and ideas can enrich and enlighten us. Difference in and of itself should not frustrate us so badly that it causes us to want to completely reject one another; nor should it cause us to feel as if we have to turn each other into mere extensions of ourselves in order to accept one another. Surely there are better options and happier mediums.

So what is a better solution to achieving male-female understanding, mutual respect, and compassion other than turning men into women or women into men? I believe we can look to feminism for an answer. Feminist liberation gave women the opportunity to take a psychological step outside of the Western patriarchal male system. From that vantage point, they could see that the myth of masculine superiority was just as damaging to men operating within that system as it was to women. Historically, a man’s masculinity, particularly in the west, has been based on his ability to gain power, value, and worth through dominance, violence, control, and objectification of those around him, including other males. Furthermore, the male system has placed undue emphasis on consumerism, material excess, capitalistic greed, and fulfillment of the self from the outside in rather than the inside out. As a result, many men have become spiritually and emotionally detached, causing them to be more invested in material possessions than in their personal and professional relationships with others and with the world around them. Western patriarchal masculinity simply does not work. It is a crippling force that not only damages others but keeps many men emotionally and psychologically isolated from women, children, and even other males.

Perhaps what men need, therefore, is a new system that would allow them the same opportunity to step outside of the patriarchal male system in order to see inside of it. Just as women formulated a new definition of femininity and womanhood through feminism and the Women’s Movement, perhaps what men need, especially men of color, is a kind of liberation of their own; one in which they define for themselves what manhood and masculinity means to them rather than continuing to drink the purple Kool-aid of what American society and the dominant culture claims manhood and masculinity means.

So what does a radically reconstructed masculinity look like for men of color? As a woman, I would never presume to speak personally for a man’s experience of manhood. However, I can offer examples of what Black masculinity can and should look like. Listen with your heart to the following passage by Bell Hooks from her book Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity, as she describes her maternal grandfather: “Daddy Gus gave me the love my heart longed for. Calm, tender, gentle, creative, a man of silence and peace, he offered me a vision of Black masculinity that ran counter to the patriarchal norm. He was the first radical Black man in my life. He laid the foundation; always engaging me in dialogue, supporting my longing for knowledge, and always encouraging me to speak my mind. I honor the lessons he taught me of Black male and female partnership grounded in mutuality.”

Deconstructed, that passage paints a picture of a man very secure in his masculinity and not afraid to love, nurture, and support those around him. Do adjectives like calm, gentle, creative, tender, silent, peaceful, and radical describe you? Are verbs like engaging, supporting, and encouraging ones that describe your actions? Or do words like cold, angry, emotionally distant, uncommunicative, dismissive, and sexist more accurately apply to you? Do you give priority to others and to your relationships? Or do you, your work, and your personal priorities always come first, placing everyone and everything else somewhere on the periphery of your life?

The statistics are grim but they are not new. We have heard them before. We know that according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, African-Americans have the lowest rates of marriage and marital stability than any other ethnic group and the highest rate of female-headed single-parent households. We also know that Black folks are more likely to be divorced or separated than our white and Hispanic counterparts. But male-female love relationships are not the only ones in trouble in the Black community. Also at stake are male-female work relationships as well as familial relationships among daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, and so on. In Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture, and Religion, Eric Michael Dyson states it best: “Perhaps if we begin to deconstruct and demythologize patriarchal conceptions of gender and masculine identity, we might help our communities move toward understanding and embracing the widest possible view of black identity.”

I am not without compassion when it comes to men’s struggles. I am deeply concerned that so many men, far too many, suffer under the incredible strain of maintaining the illusion of being “hard” 24 hours a day. We have all seen the destructive effects of men either not expressing their true emotions or expressing them through anger, intimidation and violence. Is it a wonder why so many men, especially Black males, suffer the highest incidences of stress-related illnesses and die earlier then females? Ultimately, however, there is no excuse valid enough to justify the daily wrongs, both large and small, that men perpetrate in the name of maintaining their masculine identity. Yes, Black manhood has taken a severe beating in this country. But Black men do still have the ability to make choices and take control of many elements of their lives, including deciding who will define them as men, they themselves or someone outside of their personal cultural experience.

When all is said and done, my preference as a woman is to work with men, not against them; to function with them, not without them. Like Josie in Nothing But a Man, I want to support and encourage the manhood of Black men; I do not, however, want to be controlled or dominated by it or have my own choices limited by it. So I wonder, what does it mean to be a Black man in the New Millennium? How can we as Black men and women continue to forge bonds of mutual respect, communication, and understanding with one another? And finally, are Black men ready to liberate themselves through a radically reconstructed definition of masculinity?

Reflections of Foster Park

A Public Park That Welcomes Any and All!

As I took my daily power walk around Foster Park this morning, a rush of memories of all the moments, hours, and days I've spent there came flowing back to me. If it possible to love a public park as though it were a person, then I am madly in-love with Foster Park.


Foster Park is one of Fort Wayne's oldest and prettiest parks. It was donated to the city in 1912 by brothers David and Colonel Foster. It encompasses over 218 acres of land and runs along four miles of riverbank. People come from miles around to experience Foster's large pavillions, immense golf course, playgrounds, bridal glens, breathtakingly beautiful gardens and floral displays, and even the dog park called "Pawster Park."


As a child, Foster Park was a magical place, a place of beauty and fun and joy. It was a place where, at least for a while, I could escape the harsh realities of life in the projects when those realities became too much to bear. Getting there was often the greatest part of the adventure. We had no car as I was growing up, so our two primary modes of transportation were city buses and our feet. Sometimes we'd catch a ride with neighbors who had managed to scrape together a few dollars to put into their gas tanks, but more often than not we would walk. Though it was nearly two miles away, we would make the trek from Millbrook apartments to Foster Park on a blazing hot summer morning and sometimes not return until the the big red-orange fireball setting in the west told us it was time to go.


One of my most memorable Foster Park moments came during a summer when my mother and her best friend, Emma, had gone on a health kick and decided they would walk around Foster Park everyday for two weeks straight. As they set off to the park one evening, arms pumping, heads held high, and me skipping along behind them, they asked each other if they had gone to the bathroom before they left home. Neither of them had and both of them insisted they'd be fine. But by the time we made it to the park and had walked halfway around the path, my Aunt Emma looked as if she were about to burst. "Shoot!" she whispered to my mother. "Girl, I gotta pee!" "Me too!" my mama giggled. Even thogh there are bathrooms in the park, we were no where, and I mean no where, near one. So, with golfers golfing, joggers jogging, bikers biking, and walkers walking, my mother and Aunt Emma found a tree (to this day I chuckle every time I pass that tree), yanked down their sweats, and took turns taking a tinkle as I stood guard, laughing hysterically the entire time.


Almost as beautiful as the park itself is the beauty I see in the mix of humanity that passes through its grounds. On any given day, you'll find folks of all stripes, young, old, black, white, Latino/a, Asian, male, female, and literally everything in between. As a young black girl growing up dirt poor in a conservative, predominantly white city like Fort Wayne, I learned both early and quick where my presence was welcomed and accepted and where it was not. Though some things have changed for the better in terms of the city's embrace of diversity and multiculturalism, Foster Park was and will always be one of the places I can truly claim as my own.
Recently, during another round of the House debate over health care reform, Republican congressman Steve King referred to himself proudly, boldly, and with no intended irony as a "Private sector person." Every time I hear politicians shamelessly touting the virtues of the free market system while railing against publicly funded institutions - public schools, public libraries, public hospitals, and even public parks like my beloved Foster Park - I shake my head in anger and frustration. What Representative King and so many others seem to lack is a very crucial understanding that public funding equals, at least in theory, access for all. I don't know if the Foster brothers intended for their land to be used by such an eclectic ethnic and socio-economic mix of people, but that's certainly what has evolved, and I, for one, am glad.

Ending Recruitment in Schools: What You Can Do!

The Fort Wayne Peace Action Campaign to Stop Military Recruitment in Schools
As America continues to be embroiled in not one but two wars in the Middle East, the demand for young recruits is on the rise. The military has historically looked to high schools, colleges, and universities as recruitment sites. With the war in Afghanastan heating up, the military feels an even greater urgency to increase its number of new recruits. The FWPA (Fort Wayne Peace Action) wants to put an end to the practice of military recruitment in our schools, particularly our high schools where young people are most impressionable, and there is much we can do to help.

From the FWPA SMRIS Campaign
Campaign Activities of SMRIS
OBJECTIVES:

• To convince school districts to prominently notify all students and parents about their right to opt out of being on lists released to recruiters. Presently, few parents and students are aware of this right because the information is buried in hard to find places.

• To convince school districts to automatically require that the choice to opt out or opt in be recorded at the time of school registration. It should be treated like other essential information that is required in order for students to attend school, a policy that has been adopted in other parts of the country.

• To convince school districts to stop allowing the unauthorized release of personal student information via military aptitude testing in secondary schools. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test is given voluntarily by 2/3rds of all high schools. If they choose to give it, school districts can adopt a policy that will protect students from unauthorized releases of information to the military.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Volunteer to help with the following Campaign tasks and activities (complete a volunteer form to volunteer for specific tasks and to receive campaign notices):

• Contact school districts and request details on how they notify students and parents of the right to opt out of recruiting lists released by schools. Obtain copies of all notices and forms used and share them with the Campaign. Find out from school counseling offices if and when the ASVAB is going to be given.
  

• Write to school superintendents and board members and ask for implementation of the model policies on opt-out and ASVAB testing in this packet.

• Appear at school board meetings and ask that these issues be put on the school board’s agenda. (Let us know if you plan to do this so we can alert others who might join you).

• Volunteer to be a coordinator for these activities in a specific school district.

• Volunteer for the high school leafleting program sponsored by the Fort Wayne Coalition for Peace & Justice. Students and non-students distribute fliers in the morning at schools around Fort Wayne and Allen County. Non-students leaflet outside school entrances. Students can leaflet inside schools or join non-students outside.

• Write letters to the editor challenging military recruitment in the schools

A POSSIBLE LEGAL CHALLENGE TO ASVAB TESTING
We are looking for attorneys, parents and students who could help with a legal challenge to the military’s practice of using ASVAB testing in high schools to obtain information on students without parental permission. If you would like to help with this, please get in touch with us at fwpa@comcast.net

For further info contact:
Fort Wayne Peace Action fwpa@comcast.net
260-609-8803
PO Box 13048
Fort Wayne, IN 46866