Bug's Eye View: Racism

Showing posts with label Racism. Show all posts

Saturday, January 8, 2022

2022 Project 365 – Week One

I’ve been listening to the audiobook Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, which is a group of 90 essays compiled by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. I’m up to 1919, and it has been so sobering to hear the stories of voter suppression, white mob violence, and how the legal system was set up to “keep negroes in their place.” It’s especially sobering because it feels as though we are heading in the same direction today. What, did we have about 50 years of at least doing the minimum to make up for 400 years of enslavement before we start basically sliding back to Jim Crow? I know, I’m being a pessimist. But really when you listen to how things were back in the day you can tell that the underlying racism never really went away.

And that has nothing to do with my week, which was lovely.

Sunday, January 2^nd
Stopped by Daddy & Sue’s to help finish a puzzle. My brother & his wife, and Mike & me gave them a puzzle table-top for Christmas and I plan to enjoy the heck out of it.

Our great-nephew’s gift arrived in the nick of time for me to get it to them before they drove back to Oklahoma. We really wanted to keep it for ourselves. Ha!

Monday, January 3^rd
Woke up without any power, but that was no excuse for my crazy parking job that evening. It’s hard to tell just how crooked I was – but remarkably I fit entirely in the parking space!

Tuesday, January 4^thWent by the parentals to start a new puzzle. We’ve given ourselves permission to not finish this one, but we’re going to at least try.

Wednesday, January 5^th
I’m glad I checked my look in the mirror before heading out – I had devil horns from pushing my glasses on top of my head. Made me laugh.

The moon! (And Venus…)

Thursday, January 6^thWent out for a business lunch and laughed at this sign.

Friday, January 7^th
Dr. M spent some time with his dad today. His dad’s 100 year old cousin died this week, which means that he’s the last of his generation.

Saturday, January 8^th
I had a morning meeting at church & then stopped by Daddy & Sue’s to work some more on the puzzle – and I got a free lunch out of it! I got a new iPhone this week (to replace my 5 year old one) so I was playing with portrait mode. My dad couldn't decide between hayseed and distinguished. Ha!

As soon as I finish this post I have to work on some church stuff, and then I am going to sort out yarn for some projects. Some yarn I have to buy, and some I have in bins & need to organize. I’m very excited about it all. What are you looking forward to this week?

Sunday, July 5, 2020

2020 Project 365 – Week Twenty-seven

Blogger has updated its interface and I am NOT AMUSED. The spacing is weird, I have to add pictures one at a dang time (I used to upload them all, and then just insert them where I wanted), and I can’t just type in the labels anymore – I have to scroll through the whole list to find the ones I want. I have a jillion labels. Labels might be a thing of the past (I mostly use the search feature when I’m trying to find a post anyway). Okay, rant over. For now.

Sunday, June 28^th

Dr. M spent some time with his dad & the hydrangeas that are from his mother’s funeral.

I spent some time with my dad and Sue, and picked some blueberries. When I commented that the thing on the right was NOT a blueberry, my dad yanked it up & sent it home with me (garlic – yum!).

Monday, June 29^th

The moon!

Tuesday, June 30^th

Another day, another mask situation.

Our neighbor’s daylilies are lovely!

Wednesday, July 1^st

I posted this about being glad my new curling iron came with that warning, and then things took a bawdy turn – especially after I read the instructions. And all I can say about that is OUCH.

Thursday, July 2^nd

One of my coworkers’ husbands brought us patriotic donuts. Yum!

That evening we had a visitation from the blissed out Roy.

Friday, July 3^rd

I had the day off from work – woo hoo! I finished up this project – another non-sock item made from sock yarn that I’d had for about 5 years. I actually mostly finished it a couple of weeks ago, but I was POSITIVE I had another skein of the yarn in the house somewhere. I did another pretty exhaustive search on this day & had no luck. It’s fine – this is supposed to be a scarf, not a shawl anyway. Photo shoot to come after it dries.

Saturday, July 4^th

We spent part of the day with Dr. M’s dad. We had bbq & baked beans with fried okra (I don’t know why the only picture I took of that was the okra). And then we had cupcakes, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Dr. M spent some time talking with his dad & I spent some time picking blueberries. I think it’s fitting that I began and ended the week with blueberries!

I often have a lot of conflicting feelings about this day, but this year it was more troubling than usual. I’ll let Frederick Douglass explain (and my goodness, I read an alternate opinion of him this week & now I’m giving him side eye!).

I’ve had a lovely long weekend, but I don’t mind going back to work (at least I won’t mind once I’m up and out of the shower – pre-shower I will be a little salty about it). When I’m out of my routine I can spiral down into complete lethargy with a touch of depression. I did get some housework done, so I feel good about that, and I finished a couple of books and started on THREE more. But I’ll bet my screen time was through the roof! What did you do with your down time? (If you had some – and I don’t want to hear it from my retired people – I’m looking at you Daddy.)

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

They Just Want to Live

I was going to write a post about the George Floyd, but this video and these words from the interim pastor of my church say everything that I'm feeling. Dr. M has also been very eloquent - maybe I'll do another post later with some of his thoughts.

Howard Thurman asks us a damning question in his book “Jesus and the Disinherited: “Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice on the basis of race, religion and national origin?”

We have personalized racism saying “I don’t have a racist bone in my body” when it is a systemic problem far more than a personal attitude. When Social Security was called for by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he bent to the will of the South who wanted their farm laborers and domestic help to remain exempt from the program so those in power (uniformly white people) could save money at the expense of their black servants and laborers. Blacks returning from WW2 could not always get the same GI bill housing benefits and colleges were still allowed to refuse admittance to African Americans so an advanced education was again often denied. We see the ongoing segregation in our all too unequal schools.

White people have systemically had their foot on the necks of African Americans. When a police officer in Minneapolis kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nine long minutes as he choked to death, it is no surprise that anger and violence has erupted. From afar, both physically and experientially, we white folk are put off by the vandalism and destruction that has followed and wonder why the anger is so intense.

Frederick Douglass offered this explanation in 1886:
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

The black citizens of Minneapolis (and Charlotte and Hickory and Los Angeles) have seen the failure of our policing system one more time when all four officers ignore the pleading of a dying man and a crowd of witnesses. They doubt the justice system will serve them any better.

This week we celebrate Pentecost Sunday and read from Acts 2 which celebrates a diverse gathering of people from around the world. The Spirit offers us a greater challenge than we have typically embraced. Our personal behavior always matters. But what matters even more in the search for justice is that we overturn the temple tables and begin to rebuild our societal and political structures so that “the least of these” are no longer trampled underfoot.

~ breathing in sorrow,
Nancy