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National Holidays

Frack the holidays and here is why...

In 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt marked the second Monday of October to be a national holiday celebrating the accomplishments of Columbus (History.com Editors). This holiday had been celebrated since the early 1800’s before officially becoming a national holiday (History.com Editors). July 4th, also known as Independence Day is a holiday that has the same symbolic significance as Columbus Day. Independence Day was declared by U.S. congress in 1870 to become a National Holiday (History.com Editors). July 4th is celebrated with fireworks, bonfires, block parties, and many other festivities to celebrate patriotism and the birth of America. Thanksgiving is another prevalent National Holiday. Thanksgiving was supposed to symbolize the feast of when pilgrims and Native Americans put aside their differences and shared a meal together.

These holidays all have a few things in common. They all in one way or another celebrate the birth or making of America, and these holidays are superficial. If people want to celebrate these holidays, then they should shed light on the real history these holidays caused for the original Americans. Holidays like Columbus Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving have all had an impact that catastrophically effected the Native American culture. America was built off genocide, slavery, and rape. They won’t teach you this in their history books, but many know how America traumatized many cultures to build a “free country for all.”

There have been many controversies about establishing these holidays as national holidays. There have also been many protests about changing the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. As well as Thanksgiving Day to change to National Day of Mourning. The reason people are wanting a change to the names of these holidays, is to serve a justice to many lives that were taken to build America. Celebrating these holidays is just as similar to celebrating wrongful deaths. Those tribes who were striped of their rights as human beings should not be celebrated, it should be recognized and payed tribute to those who died to defend their culture.

The issue with National Holidays is why they are celebrated. The fact that most states are taking the name Indigenous People’s Day is a way to admit that America is not the perfect country it advertises to be. Changing the names to these holidays is a way to not apologize and admit to the wrong doings European settlement affected a whole population, but it is a way to stop teaching people the beautiful lies that America was built from. This is a way to start recognizing how wrong the genocides and slavery was in history and to learn that we should not spin back into the wormhole of repeating history.

 References:

https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/columbus-day

https://mic.com/articles/121671/native-americans-have-nothing-to-celebrate-on-july-4#.2FULiD7Es

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I’m not racist-Joyner Lucas

What is interesting about this song is that it pulls two sides of a story from two different ethnicities and creates it into a conversation between the two. Joyner puts together a different kind of style into his rap - most of his songs tell a story from his life with different perspectives. What Joyner does in “I’m not racist” is tell the two perspectives of an average white man who supports Trump and an average African American man who is in the gangster realm. The twist of this song is that the white man is speaking his truth of what he really thinks of the African American man and community. He takes shots at many stereotypical things of the gangster character that most African American men play in society, as well as talking about the welfare they get and still complain about living in poverty and saying that they need to get their priorities straight and getting a job just like everyone else instead of selling drugs (lines 18-29).

              The other perspective of the song in verse two is the African American man responding to all the misconceptions of what the white man said such as responding to why African American men fall into that trend of selling drugs and that it’s not because they are lazy but the white race does not realize how crooked this society is made for minority to succeed so, they have to find other ways to make ends meet (verse 2 lines 18-23). There is also a part about how the African American mentions that he cannot even get through life without having to deal with all the racial profiling and that he is getting tired of it happening all the time, “Fuck, I'm exhausted I can't even drive without the cops tryna start shit I'm tired of the systematic racism bullshit.” He goes on to say that the white race does not know about all the connections that are relatable in the African American community such as barbeques and two steps and 2pac, when he talks about this stuff he points out that 2pac was praised by so many because he himself was fighting for his life before he died meaning trying to make it in the systematic business of the rap world (verse 2, lines 30-39, 41-42). His argument goes into a political view such as stating that the white race was urging to get Barack Obama out of office and go back to having a white president, then criticizing when we ended up with Donald Trump in office, “And even though Barack was half as black, You hated president Obama, I know that's a fact ,You couldn't wait to get him out and put a cracker back, And then you gave us Donald Trump and now it's payback for that”

               In the first verse of the song you can pick on some lines that show that it’s supposed to be told by a white man talking to a African American man such as, “With all due respect, I don’t have pity for you black niggas, that’s the way I feel…Aight look I see a black man aimin’ his gun but I’d rather see a black man claimin’ his son.” Throughout the song in the first verse there is a lot of racist stereotypical remarks coming from the white man but when someone would first listen to the song, whether they were white or African American, then they would be offended because they don’t know the intentions of the song. In this song lyrics there is a line talking about how African men call each other the N-word in songs and movies and that is coming out more that the white man thinks it’s okay to say it because they have African American friends or family in-law members,

At the end of the verses there is the hook line, and the outro “Can’t erase the scars with a bandage I’m hopin’ we can come to an understandin’ agree to disagree we come to and understandin’ I’m not racist.” The flaw with this part of the song is that it states unrealistic terms of peace between the two races and find an understanding after hearing both sides of each other’s stories. This is the part of what Joyner was trying to put out - to find a peace between each other because no one really knows what one has been through and the struggle or obstacles they must go through in life. This song is also a way of being optimistic to find that peace and start a conversation that everyone avoids, which is talking about race, struggle and understanding their cultural history.

The video is crucial for the audience to watch with the song because without fully understanding what this song is trying to say your first thoughts would be “this is really offensive and wrong.” In the video it shows a white man, who is wearing a MAGA hat, sitting across from an average African American who looks like he is from the “hood.” He is lip-syncing the lyrics at the African American man and vice versa in the second verse of the song. Then at the end of the song when Joyner is rapping the outro both men hug it out.

The song was very interesting along with the video because it was a creative way of creating that conversation between the two races into a song with both sides of the story. Joyner adds a frame at the end of the video and it says, “We’re all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us, and wealth classified us.” In my opinion, I feel that Joyner found a way to say what no one will say to anyone in the public eye; this song is able to clear the air and admit what people are actually thinking. It is also able to end in a way where it is positive and start a conversation about this topic in a way of wanting to understand one another.

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Native American Women In Congress

During the 2018 congressional elections there was a great win for the Native Communities when Democrat Debra Haaland and Sharice Davids won a seat in the house of representatives. These two women made history for being the first Native American women in congress and one being openly gay. The reason these women are making an impact to the Native Communities is because they are not only giving in a direct voice for Natives, but they are also a fresh mind to congress that have an input for doing good things for Native communities.

For a long time, the tribes across have been put in the shadows and to be told not to fight back against the system. For awhile Native Communities had to take what they were given from the government that put them in poor living estates, and health care. The Native Americans culture has been disrespected for many years through fashion, Halloween costumes, sports mascots, and stereotyping microaggressions.

Sharice Davids 37 being openly gay from Kansas of the Ho-Chuck Nation, and Debra Haaland 57 single mother of the Laguna Acoma Pueblo tribe are representing Native Americans (Bendery). This is a breakthrough because it proves all misrepresentations of Natives to be wrong and put a positive footprint for future Natives. I feel that this also gives the congress a way to understand how Native Communities work, because I feel that there is not a lot of people in congress that understand the oppression we face. Davids and Haaland have both been through struggle or at least seen it through their Native Communities which make them authentic. Haalands campaign to establish a handle on climate change will be a huge impact for the Native Communities, relating to the DACA Pipeline and other corporations trying to use excruciating amounts of natural resources. The Native Americans way of preserving the land and its natural beauty would serve a part of changing the congresses mind about finding ways to clean up our environment in New Mexico. I see many great opportunities for these Native American Women in Congress

 References:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/native-american-women-congress-deb-haaland-sharice-davids_us_5bd9c0fbe4b019a7ab59253e

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Being a Women in 2018 is Ridiculously Expensive

The pink tax is what companies use to gender discriminate to make a profit off women. “Women’s product was on average 7 percent more expensive than men versions of the same items” (Brufke) This is on all products from clothing, razors, essential health products and even for children toys. Feminine products such as sanitized pads, panty liners, and tampons are what are referred to a luxury by big corporate companies. Being a woman on her period could be greatly debated that her mensuration period is not a luxury unless men want to take a trip on this experience for themselves.

I get the tax on clothes because men’s clothes are simpler in design and fabric from women’s clothes. There is an extent to this tax. Women are being tricked into paying more for shampoo, body wash, deodorant razors. The trick is gender specifying things with color and apparently making pink plastic is more expensive than blue plastic.

A way to stop paying the Pink tax is doing your research for your essential products such as shampoo and body wash even deodorant and seeing if you can find a cheaper product. By this I mean that you can find some products that are cheaper with the exact same chemical formulas the big brand names sell. Even looking for the bargain deals I feel that it is illegal to gender discriminate women for having to be women in this society. Upping the tax for women products is making it hard for women to be women in todays society.

This is Capitalist propaganda to make a buck off the poor and it needs to stop. This is illegal, and women alone get a lowered minimum wage then men that puts them in a situation where some are scrapping together pennies to get feminine products (Brufke). Something needs to be done to change this. Women do not think that it is a luxury to have their periods.

 References:

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/382536-speier-introduces-bill-to-end-the-pink-tax

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More Than a Word: Native American-Based Sports Mascots

Earlier in this semester of my we were presented with a documentary based on the Washington Redskins football logo. Most people who are fans of the football teams would see no problem with the name of the team. Native Americans would debate otherwise. The point the filmmakers John Little-Ben and Kenn Little-Ben, were trying to get across was the dehumanizing word “Redskins”. The documentary revolves around this racial slur and trying to make people aware of how important and wrong it is to describe someone by the color of their skin. The power of language or even one word can mean so much to a community of people, that power is able to put a dehumanizing impression on that community. The “R-word” is the basic stereotyping on the Native American community, it puts the basic stereotyping of the tomahawks, head dresses, buck skin outfits and tipis on the name Indians which is politically incorrect based upon society and history. The continuing of marginalization puts a crucial amount of oppression on the identity of today’s Native youth. The usage of dehumanizing racial slurs and stereotyping of Indians puts the image in the youths head thinking that they are seen as only savages and that is who they are and always will be, which ultimately would lead to depression of always being looked over, not counting as a human out in the world and always being told that you are meant to fail in life because of your history and who you are based on your ethnicity.

��            The key examples of the resistance against the oppression addressed in the film was the case that Suzan Shown Harjo and Amanda Blackhorse created with other Native Americans showed that, we are not going to sit here and be called the “R-word” by uncultured people and take the mocker. When they took this to court it showed others that it was not right to be calling people by this name and that it should be treated just as fragile as the “N-word”. Others that had contributed to this resistance was the people who petitioned to rebrand the merchandise of the Washington Football team, that really showed that it is still possible to support the football team without the dehumanizing logo and name. When people heard of Native trying to rename the Washington Redskins the fans went ballistic and got offended because their first thought was Natives were trying to take away the sport and their entertainment when really Natives only wanted people to understand that they are trying to bring awareness to the fans and people across the nation that it is not right to be using that name. Another example of resistance was showing the types of social organizations such as the indigenous comic con and artist within to show their culture through art and bringing awareness to those who have little knowledge of the controversy and shining that light through their artwork.

           Some common themes between the reading of Lakota Woman and the documentary is the resistance and the social organizations and rallies. In the Reading the author talks about the oppression she had to suffer through while she was growing up, she was taken from her home and her family was whitewashed, but it took a lot of soul searching to figure out where she comes from and how she belongs in the community of the American Indian Movement. The movement in the readings showed how hard the Native Americans had to fight to be able to get people to listen to them, listen to what they have to say and speak up about how they want social justice among their communities. The documentary relates a lot to the reading because its all about the same topic and everyone is fighting for the same thing in the world, which is being recognized as a human and not a Hollywood movie cowboys vs. the Indians character.