#Indian Pride Collection

[jsrcreations]

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JSR Creations

[page-2-ids]

ID: A flag with eight horizontal stripes, all the same size. The colors are, from top to bottom, maroon, dark burnt orange, washed-out orange, washed-out yellow-gold, white, sky blue, cerulean, and dark denim. END ID

Indiansica: A gender related to the Anthrax song Indians

The colors come from my associations with the song

[desertdollranch]

Opening and reviewing my first Australian Girl doll

She spent more than a month in a box, making her way halfway across the world to her new home, and now here she is! I'm so relieved that she arrived safely. It was the longest I've ever had to wait for a doll, and through much of her journey I didn't know where she was or when she would be here.

I don't want to drop too big of a spoiler, but listen to this........ she was so worth the wait, and the money. This doll instantly won my heart with how exquisite she is in every way.

Australian Girl dolls were specially made for Australian children, by Helen Schofield, a grandmother who loved dolls. She created the brand when she couldn't find an age appropriate doll that was locally available or good quality. So she created these dolls to help children feel pride in Australian culture, while teaching them about friendship and empathy. There are five girls to befriend--Amy, Jasmine, Emily, Bronte, and Matilda, each representing a different region of the country, ethnicity, and lifestyle.

The company itself has quite high standards. They strive to reduce waste in their product packaging, and they use a factory in China that treats its workers humanely and does not use child labor.

If you've been around my blog for a while, you know how much I love collecting diverse brands and types of play dolls, especially international dolls. Also, this one will be extra special because I actually have an Australian grandmother--she's also a doll collector, and I'm looking forward to showing her my new doll the next time I see her.

After the cut, I'll show you who she is, and talk about why I chose her. I'll compare her with similar-sized dolls as well, and have her do some dressing up.

Before we get to the unboxing, let's check out the little goodies included with my doll.

First is a little pamphlet explaining why the dolls are special, but also represent real girls growing up in Australia.

There's another pamphlet about how to care for your doll.

All of the dolls come with a fun freebie: this cute pair of thongs.

Another freebie (a $30 AUD value) is this very sturdy doll carrier with pockets for accessories.

I also bought a pair of sneakers for my new girl. I figured her feet would be a bit larger than my other dolls, and these are cute, so she now has three pairs of shoes to wear.

Anyway. Enough of the small stuff. Let's let her out of the box.

It's Amy from Adelaide!

I chose Amy after three entire years of being indecisive and going back and forth on exactly which Australian Girl I wanted. They're all equally adorable, so I picked Amy because her personality seems very sweet, and I love that she has mixed heritage. According to the Austrlaian Girl dolls website, Amy's family tree is a mix of Aboriginal and Dutch on her mother's side, and English and Indian/Fijian on her father's side. Very representative of modern Australia!

I have no regrets. She is perfect!!! Just the most charming little angel. I am officially WOWED.

I'm seriously impressed at the superior quality of her construction. I understand why she was priced a bit higher than similar dolls. She is, from head to toe, beautifully made, with so many sweet details. Her dress and shoes are also impeccably made and feel very durable.

Her hair is flawless. It's a Kanekalon wig with loose curls, in a gorgeous shade of brown. Her eyes open and close. She has both painted and attached eyelashes.

She has a gap between her big toe and the next toe, so she can wear her sandals and thongs.

Her elbows are dimpled and she has subtle blush color on parts of her skin, including elbows and hands.

She has a crease across her palm.

She has articulation at her shoulders, hips, and neck. Her limbs, head, and shoulders are vinyl, and she has a huggable soft tummy. I don't really have a strong preference for either cloth torsos, vinyl torsos, or half and half like Amy. They all have pros and cons. This specific construction is nice in that she can wear low-neckline clothes without showing a cloth body, but it does make her harder to repair in case she has to be fixed.

I have a pretty good idea of what she'll be wearing when she's ready to change out of her pink party dress.

The first photo shows her in a dress I made. The second is a Maplelea dress and hat. The rest are all American Girl brand clothing, except for the shoes. Amy can comfortably wear most stretchy clothes by AG and similar brands like Our Generation, but her feet absolutely will not fit AG, OG, or Maplelea shoes.

The exception to the clothes is some of the tighter pieces. This AG shirt did not fit well. Amy's shoulders are a bit more broad than smaller dolls, and so without some extra give this is too tight.

Amy is 20 inches/51 centimeters tall. Here she is next to my Our Generation doll Jordana. I'm using an OG doll because they're actually available locally in Australia. Whereas American Girl dolls, which I usually use when I compare brands, have to make an overseas journey. So it's only fair that I consider any Australians reading this now who are wondering how Amy compares.

Amy is tall, but not the tallest doll in the family! Here she is next to Fernanda, my Karito Kids doll, who is about an inch taller although slimmer. Karito Kids dolls are in fact just slightly skinnier than American Girl dolls, so they have a much easier time sharing clothes.

In conclusion, I highly highly recommend this doll. She's absolutely sublime! I'm so thrilled to have her here, and I'm looking forward to having lots of adventures with her.

Obviously I'm far from Australia, but my Amy will still live her life as if she were in a suburb outside of the city of Adelaide. I've been looking at pictures of the geography of the state of South Australia, and there are some places in the mountainous parts that look pretty similar to the desert southwest where I live. So Amy will have no idea she's actually in the USA. Don't tell her the truth!

[najia-cooks]

[ID: A bowl of a bright yellow stew topped with cilantro, mustard seed, chili, and curry leaf. End ID]

ಉಡುಪಿ ಸಾಂಬಾರ್ / Udupi sambar

A sambar is a lentil-and-vegetable stew distinguished by the use of a particular spice blend (Hindi: सांबर मसाला "sāmbār masālā," "sambar spice"; Kannada: ಸಾಂಬಾರ್ ಪುಡಿ "sāmbār puḍi," "sambar powder"). Sambars are a staple of South Indian and Sri Lankan cooking, sometimes made in households for multiple meals a week. The word "sambar" can be traced back to the Sanskrit सम्भार "sambhārá," "collection of things required for a particular purpose”; “spices."

The lentil used in sambar dishes is usually tur dal (split pigeon peas), though arhar dal, tuvur dal, or even blends containing masur or mung dal may be used, depending on the cook or the region. Vegetables also vary between combinations of okra, potato, ash gourd (petha), bottle gourd (doodhi / lauki), drumstick (saijan ki phalli), beetroot, tomato, carrot, pumpkin, brinjal, and pearl onions, among others. The sambar masala fries chilis, curry leaves, dal, and various spices including cumin, coriander, and fenugreek, then grinds them into a spicy, earthy, fragrant blend.

This recipe makes a sambar in the style of ಉಡುಪಿ (Udupi) cuisine—a subdivision of the cuisine of the ತುಳುವ (Tuluva) people localised in the Udupi District of Karnataka, a southeastern coastal state of India. (Tuluva cuisine is also commonly found in Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka, and Kasaragod, Kerala). In the Udupi region, sambar may be known as "ಕೊಡೆಲ್" "kodhel"; perhaps related to "ಕಡಲೆ" "kadhale" "Bengal gram"; or "ಹುಲಿ" "huḷi"; "tartness." Udupi huli has coconut oil and jaggery as its primary distinguishing features: the jaggery's deep sweetness and the earthy pungency of unrefined coconut oil combine with the spice of the chilis and the sour fruitiness of the tamarind to create a complex, flavorful, well-balanced dish.

Udupi huli may be further divided into a few major types. ಮಸಾಲೆ ಹುಳಿ ("masāla huḷi") contains shredded coconut and vegetables; ಬೋಳು ಹುಳಿ ("bolu huḷi") contains vegetables, but omits the coconut.

Hotel-style masala huli recipes typically add a lot of jaggery to produce a distinct sweetness; cut back on the amount of coconut included; and contain onion and garlic. The other main type of masala huli—“temple style”—is sattvic (from Sanskrit "सत्त्व" "sattva": "goodness," "essence," "existence"), which in this context means that onions and garlic are excluded.

A sattvic diet in Hinduism centres around the concept of maintaining sattva by eating only pure and mild (sattvic) foods, and omitting tamasic (“dark,” "inert," "destructive"; from Sanskrit तमस् "tamas") and rajasic ("exciting," "passionate," from Sanskrit रजस् "rajas") ones. The concepts of sattva, tamas, and rajas (the गुण "guṇa" system) are central to the construction of caste: the degree to which each person innately inherits each quality supposedly determines their possession of characteristics including honesty, intelligence, and goodness (sattva), stupidity and lack of creativity (tamas), and passion and pridefulness (rajas); the possession of these characteristics in turn determines their rightful place in a professional and social hierarchy. The association of certain foods with certain qualities thus links diet to caste: a distinction in diet is one of the methods by which those belonging to upper castes maintain and police caste boundaries.

This recipe makes enough pudi for one pot of sambar. Traditionally, sambar pudi is created fresh each time the dish is made, but many households make large batches and store them. In this case, omit the coconut; or, use dried coconut and store the masala in the refrigerator.

Recipe under the cut!

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Ingredients:

Serves 4-6.

For the sambar:

2 cups chopped vegetables

1 red onion, sliced*

1 cup (200g) yellow split pigeon peas / tur dal / ತೂರ್ ದಾಲ್ (ಹಳದಿ ಸ್ಪ್ಲಿಟ್ ಪಾರಿವಾಳದ ಬಟಾಣಿ)

4 cups (1 litre) water, or as needed

1/4 tsp ground turmeric / haldi / ಅರಿಶಿನ

2 tsp table salt

2 tsp jaggery / gur / ಬೆಲ್ಲ*

1/4 cup (60mL) tamarind pulp (from 1 Tbsp dried tamarind / imlie / ಹುಣಸೆಹಣ್ಣು)

2 tsp unrefined coconut oil / nariyal ka tel / ತೆಂಗಿನ ಎಣ್ಣೆ

Ingredient list format is English / Hindi (Latin transcription) / Kannada. The Hindi is provided for convenience while shopping.

Udupi sambar usually uses any of: gourd, brinjal (Indian eggplant), pumpkin, dumstick (saijan ki phalli), and okra. Pearl onion is not usually used in this region, but you can add whatever you want, according to taste.

*For a hotel-style sambar, include the onion; increase the jaggery to 2 Tbsp.

For the spice paste / sambar masala / ಸಾಂಬಾರ್ ಪುಡಿ ("sambar pudi"):

1/2 Tbsp split Bengal gram / chana dal / ಹಳದಿ ಸ್ಪ್ಲಿಟ್ ಗ್ರಾಂ

2 tsp split black gram / urad dal chilka / ಸ್ಪ್ಲಿಟ್ ಬ್ಲ್ಯಾಕ್ ಗ್ರಾಂ

2 tsp coriander seeds / dhaniya / ಕೊತ್ತಂಬರಿ ಬೀಜದ

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds / methi / ಮೆಂತ್ಯ

1 tsp cumin seeds / jeera / ಜೀರಿಗೆ

1 tsp ground turmeric

5-6 curry leaves / kari pati / ಕರಿಬೇವು

3-4 Byadagi or other dried red chilis / byadagi mirch / ಬ್ಯಾಡಗಿ ಮೆಣಸಿನಕಾಯಿ

4 cloves garlic, skins on*

Large pinch asafoetida / hing / ಇಂಗು

1 cup (100g) fresh coconut (about one coconut)*

1/2 cup (120mL) water

While the ratio of ingredients in Udupi sambar pudi vary slightly, the ingredients themselves are almost always consistent.

*For a hotel-style sambar, include the garlic, and decrease the coconut in the sambar masala to 1/4 or 1/2 cup (25-50g).

The grams and pulses in this pudi have many different names. You can find them in a halal or South Asian grocery store; look on the bag for the Hindi names (since they have been transcribed into Latin, the spelling may vary from what you see here).

The urad dal you find may be husked, and thus yellow instead of black; these will work just as well.

For the tempering / tadka / ಹದಗೊಳಿಸುವ:

2 Tbsp unrefined coconut oil

2 red chilis

8 curry leaves

1 tsp brown mustard seeds / rai / ಸಾಸಿವೆ ಬೀಜಗಳು

Recipes from north Karnataka may add cumin and whole, unpeeled garlic cloves to the tempering.

Instructions:

For the sambar pudi:

1. Break open the coconut and remove and shread its flesh.

If using a whole dried coconut, break into the shell with the wrong side of a hammer and pry open. Break into a few smaller pieces and peel with a vegetable peeler until the skin is removed from the white flesh, wearing something to protect your hand. Soak in warm water for several minutes to soften, and then grate or food process.

2. Heat 2 Tbsp of coconut oil in a skillet on medium-low. Add asafoetida and fry for 30 seconds, until no longer raw-smelling. Add dal and fry, stirring often, for 30 seconds until golden brown; add coriander, mustard, fenugreek, and cumin seeds and fry until fragrant.

3. Add curry leaves and fry until wilted, then add garlic and dried chilis and fry another 30 seconds to a minute, until fragrant.

4. Add coconut and fry, stirring often, for another few minutes until a shade darker. Add turmeric and stir.

5. Grind all ingredients into a paste in a mortar and pestle, then mix in about 1/2 cup water to loosen (if using dried coconut, you may need more water).

Or, put all ingredients along with 1/2 cup water into a blender or food processor and process until a relatively smooth paste forms.

For the sambar:

1. Wash tur dal to remove excess starch. Simmer dal with 2 cups water, 1/4 tsp ground turmeric, and 1 tsp coconut oil for about 30 minutes until very tender. Mash until relatively smooth with a wooden spoon or bean masher, or process briefly with an immersion blender.

You may soak the dal in water after rinsing them to reduce the cooking time, but it is not necessary.

2. Meanwhile, make the tamarind paste. Soak 1 Tbsp tamarind dried pulp in 1/4 cup hot water for 20-30 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind into the water to extract the pulp. Discard the tamarind seeds and husk. Optionally, depending on your preferred texture, push the mixture through a metal sieve.

3. Prepare vegetables. Slice the onion; remove ends of okra and drumsticks and cut into 2-inch pieces; quarter tomatoes; quarter brinjal; peel pumpkin and cut into cubes; peel and cube potatoes.

4. If using onion, add a teaspoon of coconut oil to a large pot and fry until translucent.

5. In the same pot, boil vegetables in just enough water to cover, along with a pinch of salt, until they are beginning to soften.

Some recipes call for the vegetables to be boiled, and others call for them to be steamed. I prefer boiling, since it produces a nice savory broth.

6. Mix vegetables, dal, tamarind, jaggery, sambar pudi, and salt to taste and simmer 5-10 minutes to allow flavors to combine and vegetables to cook under tender. Add water as needed. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro. Taste and adjust salt.

The final sambar should be pourable, like a thick soup—Karnataka sambar is typically thinner in consistency than Tamil Nadu versions.

For the tadka:

1. Heat coconut oil in a small skillet on medium heat. Add tempering ingredients and fry, stirring often, until chilis and curry leaves are a couple shades darker and the mixture is fragrant.

2. Pour the oil and tempering ingredients into the sambar and stir in. If you like, retain some of the tadka as a garnish to serve.

3. Serve warm, in individual bowls, alongside long-grain white rice. To eat drumsticks, scoop the center out and eat it; the tough outer rind is left.

If you intend to save some sambar, it's a good idea to make just enough tadka for what you plan to eat that day, and then make fresh tadka to pour over the reheated leftovers.

[metamorphesque]

its so comforting to see someone unbashedly love their country and culture. the way u write and speak of it its so refreshing to me. im from india and well, the state of our country isnt good our fascist leader is successfully dividing the people and its so rare these days to find ppl just simply love where they come from, culture and language without any hate for anyone else. so i absolutely adore it when i see u talk abt armenia its like one can see how much care u hold for the language and the country. wishing for peace and sending love x

I am sorry, dear, that dark clouds are looming over your bright and colorful land of magic. In my lifetime, I’ve had the pleasure of encountering a few young Indian people (both in real life and online), and I have a lot of love and respect for your nation and its culture. I am sure that brighter days are awaiting both our homelands.

You see, what I’ve noticed is that some people often confuse their fatherland with their government. The hatred that they have toward the latter often taints the love and respect they ought to have toward their homeland. But, once and for all, we must remember that these two are not synonymous. Fatherland is a place where the roots of history, culture and identity intertwine. A fatherland is not just a geographical location; it is a sanctuary of shared memories, values and traditions passed down through generations. It represents the collective spirit of a people, their history, struggles and triumphs. To call a place one's fatherland is to cherish it as a cradle of life, as one’s own home.

To me, the love one has for their fatherland is like a mathematical function that always moves towards infinity (its designated final value) but never quite reaches it. One can never love their fatherland enough. There’s always something more you can do, there’s always something better you can do. I guess the vessel that carries one’s love toward their homeland is only ever fully filled when one gives up their life to protect their fatherland.

I can only speak from my own experience – I was raised historically and, more or less, politically conscious. When you’re a six or seven-year-old impressionable kid and you visit The Museum of The Armenian Genocide of 1915, you see the photographs, the articles, all the documentation that exists – firstly, you’ll never be the same again, and secondly, your naïve childish brain thinks that, as you’ve always been told, whenever someone commits a crime or does something bad, they get punished. Then I looked around and noticed that these heinous crimes, these massacres, were not only left unpunished, but the whole thing was swept under the rug by the world, as if it never happened. Then you grow up, sharing borders with the enemy, the dagger of war swaying upon your head, with every new day bringing more and more deaths of Armenian soldiers serving on the border. You see your enemy disrespecting you, your history and your culture. You see them erasing your history and your culture … and all of this is accompanied by the crickets of the world. Then there’s Western Armenia calling for us, a topic that I plan on writing more about. And at last, our Ararat that you can see so very clearly from Armenia …

And, alongside this, there’s this immense pride you feel in being an heir to a nation that created a culture so distinctly beautiful, a nation that gave birth to luminaries such as Grigor Narekaci, Sayat-Nova, Hovhannes Toumnyan, Vahan Teryan, Eghishe Charenc, Daniel Varujan, Paruyr Sevak, Misak Metsarenc, Silva Kaputikyan, Hovhannes Grigoryan, Vardges Petrosyan, Martiros Saryan, Sergey Parajanov, Shahan Nathalie, Gurgen Yanikyan, Monte Melqonyan, and the list goes on … the nation that invented color television, ATMs, hand-held hair dryers, coffee machines, PET scans, MRI and so much more.

Have all of this brew in your soul and dare not to love and cherish your fatherland – you can’t.

[cleolinda]

Weekend links, April 7, 2024

My posts

This week feels like it has been a hundred years long (not in a bad way). 

Somehow we joined together to balance the seesaw just right so Ava Gardner and Jean Seberg could both go through in the Hot Vintage Lady polls (percentages rounded). Like, I’m wearing the Ava jersey and even I encouraged people to vote Jean when necessary. Honestly, I just wanted to see if it could be done. And it COULD. 

Round three has begun. It is already horrific. This is the first round that’s really going to hurt because we spent the last one really getting down in the dirt and championing our ladies, or learning about actresses we’d never heard of before and getting attached to them. And now? We are reminded: memento mori. Everyone loses but one. 

(I personally pitched in for Sara Montiel. “BUT JUST LOOK AT--” Yeah, I did, thanks.)

Reblogs of interest

April Fool’s Day: You were here for the Boopening, yes? The whole thing was that you only got badges for giving boops, not receiving them, which is a great way to not reward popularity contests, but also means that every last one of us was out here trying to figure out who to bap with a cat’s paw 1000 times. I said, listen, my notifications are already trash garbage today. I’ll take the bullet. Boop at will.

The Activity graph isn’t too clear on this point, but it looks like I had something like 65,000--hits? engagements? boops?--that day. Listen, I got the black paw badge too. We all did what we had to do in the Boopening. 

A Shakespearean boop of goodly length: “And, Meowntague, come you this afternoon, to know our further pleasure in this case, to old Food-bowl, our common judgment-place.” 

I had to go lie down awhile after a pun like “The Purrge.”

--

I had just gotten up from that pun and then I had to go lie down again.

Account security gothic

The Canada griffin

Dinotopia nostalgia

Two pairs of spectacles, one made from slices of emerald, and the other from slices of diamond

An old favorite: Cerberus as a puppy, guarding the gates to heck

I feel like these two posts have the same energy: Time cops will not let you travel back to the Titanic and bloodthirsty gazebos are currently in a dormancy period.

The birds are still troubled

PSA: The best sunscreens for your face

Video

A collection of various American Indian/indigenous American languages, including Navajo, Tlingit, Lakota, Colville Okanagan Salish, Cherokee, Yucatec Maya, Greenlandic, Mohawk, Yup'ik, and Mi'kmawi'simk. 

A trans health-and-wellness fundraiser (Mercury Stardust, Point of Pride, and friends) kept getting banned off Tiktok due to assholes. Here’s how to donate; I saw a few “here’s how they helped me” notes, so it seems like these programs are both legit and effective. 

You think you’re going to sit staring at this video because Chocolate Guy is weaving chocolate. Then you get into it, and it just keeps going.

“Too Sweet” is doing hilariously well on the charts for a song that didn’t even make the album proper. Hozier’s bees would like to thank you for your support.

I know I said that Stevie Nicks would make you sing backup on your own haunting, but late in this 1997 live performance of “Silver Springs,” she makes Lindsey Buckingham, the man she wrote this song about, look her in the eye while she belts it at him. This specific performance was released as a single (I was there, Gandalf) and nominated for a Grammy. Watch the video and you will see why.

The Women Those ‘Evolution Of Beauty’ Videos Leave Out

I don’t really know how to describe this rubberhose-style cartoon of Cab Calloway as a singing nightmare clown. Betty Boop is also there. “You just described it!” No, I really didn’t. 

How movable type worked 1000 years ago, from scratch.

Unrestrained seasonal yak fun

A snowy raven photoshoot

The sacred texts

I don’t know how to explain this double Sacred Text about ominous dreams that comes with its own comic, except to say that they’re so iconic that I first saw both posts in lo-res Pinterest screencaps.

April Fool’s: The ultimate sacred text.

Personal tag of the week

Wet beast Wednesday, which had both a headshake stickflip and bears on a swan boat.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Nostalgia is an often-underappreciated component in nationalism: a carefully crafted collective yearning for a lost idealised and often non-existent past, used in the service of contemporary political projects. The ‘glorious golden age’ serves to galvanise a particular form of collective social identity that stresses shared cultural heritage for a unified nation. At the same time, nostalgic visions exclude those deemed internal and external ‘others’ responsible for the downfall of this golden age (the Mughal era is currently being removed from the Indian school syllabus). This repurposing and ‘presenting’ of the past – a kind of heritage politics – not only mobilises support for political causes and commercial interests but also provides distraction from bad governance, through the promise and vision of a regenerated past-inspired future, associated with pride and dominance over enemies. Nostalgia, therefore, can be used to build hegemony by nationalist movements and parties, by articulating disparate individuals and groups into a nationalist political identity while marginalising others.

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

My name is Elizabeth Voorhorst, and I am a new writing intern for Special Collections this semester. It is a pleasure to share this space, as I am excited to delve into the vast sea of books that Special Collections makes a home for.

I am an English major, with a focus on creative writing. Because of this, my time spent in Special Collections will be focused predominantly on fairy tales and folklore, perhaps dipping into mythology when curiosity and inspiration strikes hardest.

For this week, I wanted to focus on black creators and their works for Black History Month. Because my pride and passion is folklore and fairy tales, I thought it would be fun to take a look at what we have in our collection and share it with you!

Retellings are always enjoyable, as you get to see the way writers recreate and offer their own flare and heritage to the story. One such story is The Girl Who Spun Gold, a retelling of the German classic fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin. This retelling was written by Virginia Hamilton (1932-2002) and illustrated by Leo Dillon (1933-2012) and Diane Dillon (1933- ).The book was published 1n 2000 by Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

The story is about a West Indian girl named Quashiba, whose mother lies to Big King that she is able to spin golden thread. The King takes Quashiba as his queen, expecting her to fill whole rooms with golden fabrics and finery, which of course she would be unable to do. However, she meets a creature who offers to help, but demands that in three days she must guess his name correctly or be bound to him forever.

Quashiba is now able to fulfill the King’s continuous demands, but is unable to guess the name of her helper, until the King reveals to her that he ran across a strange creature in the woods who was dancing and singing a song that included his name, Lit’mahn Bittyun. So, on the final night, after the room is filled with fabrics and wondrous goods, Quashiba plays dumb for the first two guesses, and on the last guess she gives him his full name and he explodes into a confetti of golden specks. The King repents his greed, but only after three years and a day does Quashiba reconcile with him.

The absolutely stunning illustrations for The Girl Who Spun Gold were made using a four-color process with gold as a fifth color. The Dillons comment on the painting process, stating:

Knowing the difficulty of painting with metallic paint as well as the difficulty of reproducing gold, we still chose to use it, for the story itself revolved around the concept of gold. The art was done with acrylic paint on acetate, over-painted with gold paint. The gold borders were created using gold leaf.

The book was printed on one-hundred-pound Nymolla Matte paper, and each illustration was spot-varnished.  Color separations were made by Digicon Imaging Inc., Buffalo, New York, and the book was printed and bound by Tien Wah Press, Singapore, with production supervision by Angela Biola and Alison Forner. Along with Leo & Diane Dillon, the book was also designed with help from Kathleen Westray.

View more work by African American artists.

View more posts concerning African Americans.

View more Staff Picks.

- Elizabeth V., Special Collections Undergraduate Writing Intern

[welldonekhushi]

🌸 Tell me about your OC(s) - with pictures if you want !Pick some facts you want to share about them & let us gush about them together! Then send to other creators to do the same ✨

Hey Vivi! I'll talk about my task force, this time!

Task Force Shatrujeet 💀🗡️

Col. Shaurya Kulshrestha

Shaurya found the task force named "Shatrujeet", which in translation means "winning against the enemy". The ideology of making this task force was to collect a group of commandos who have the full potential, ability and capability to deal with complex special operations, and protect the country from foreign threats.

The Colonel was Arjun's guide and mentor throughout his journey, before the responsibility of leading the task force landed on the Captain, making Shaurya confident that now he's independent and knows what to do.

Shaurya is part of the Mavericks, a secret division of the Indian Army, where elite soldiers are interlinked with the intelligence agencies.

The Colonel never actually mentioned if he was married or not. Some say that he never did, and some say he was divorced under some conditions. But, it's never proven, nor confirmed.

The Colonel had an old contact with General Shepherd, that paved the way for Arjun to join the Task Force 141.

Capt. Arjun K. Dhingra

Arjun has a locket of his wife's picture and keeps it safe in his drawer. It motivates him into believing his wife's presence was always there. He also has Lakshya's fountain pen, the pen he used to write poems in his diary, as a memory.

The Captain has taken part in many crucial special operations, for his accurate strategic planning and leadership. The 9 PARA SF has always considered Arjun more reliable for going on missions, something which also irked the interest of General Shepherd that made him become a part of the 141.

Arjun's nature towards his commandos is kind of mixed. He sometimes shows concern, and kindness, but at the same time he's harsh and fierce. The conclusion can be that he wants the best for his commandos, and wants to train them enough so they're capable of handling any sort of tough obstacles.

Arjun has never tried to smile that much, ever since the tragedy. But thanks to Kavya, and the hope of his commandos, he was able to regain that happiness that was lost in his life back.

Arjun knows most regional languages, since the commandos are also trained to learn these languages for covert operations, respectively. He surprised Aditya one time.. by speaking fluent Gujarati.

Lt. Aditya Tripathi

Aditya had shown to be a comforting presence among everybody, something which also enlightens others from their hard times.

Aditya is also a part-medic! He used to pursue medical studies to become a doctor like his mother, but under such circumstances, it made him join the special forces, and used that very knowledge to treat the wounded.

Aditya makes others happy and especially himself. Because in hard times, he suffers a little when he's not able to save a wounded person's life.

Lt. Yuvraj Chaudhary

Yuvraj is respectful and generous to everyone, especially women. In his belief, he considers women as "devi" or goddess in translation, and wishes if more women joined the army.

Yuvraj met Aditya during the NDA, and even graduated in the IMA with him together. They've been very close to each other like brothers.

Yuvraj has a signature mark, rolling his moustache when he feels pride within himself, or if anything went successful. More like, saying "flawless".

Yuvraj is a Rajasthani, and he knows the Marwadi language. At times he mocks Aditya by saying something in his regional language, much to Tripathi's disappointment.

Capt. Venkateshwar Subramanian

(still need to find the faceclaim!)

Venkateshwar graduated from the OTA, as an computer engineer, joining the PARA SF and becoming a part of Task Force Shatrujeet.

Venkatesh has shown a lot of interest in technology since he was a young child, and always excelled in the field of computers, that made him a special programmer in the team.

Venkateshwar has close contact with Alyssa Martinez (@alypink), who is also a programmer in the Mexican Special Forces, and they are known to have worked together in a joint operation.

[dailyanarchistposts]

I.7.1 Do tribal cultures indicate that communalism defends individuality?

Yes. In many tribal cultures (or aboriginal cultures), we find a strong respect for individuality. As anthropologist Paul Radin pointed out, “respect for the individual, irrespective of age or sex” was one of “the outstanding features of aboriginal civilisation” as well as “the amazing degree of social and political integration achieved by them” and “a concept of personal security.” [quoted by Murray Bookchin, Remaking Society, p. 48] Murray Bookchin commented on Radin’s statement:

“respect for the individual, which Radin lists first as an aboriginal attribute, deserves to be emphasised, today, in an era that rejects the collective as destructive of individuality on the one hand, and yet, in an orgy of pure egotism, has actually destroyed all the ego boundaries of free-floating, isolated, and atomised individuals on the other. A strong collectivity may be even more supportive of the individual as close studies of certain aboriginal societies reveal, than a ‘free market’ society with its emphasis on an egoistic, but impoverished, self.” [Op. Cit., p. 48]

This individualisation associated with tribal cultures was also noted by historian Howard Zinn. He quotes fellow historian Gary Nash describing Iroquois culture (which appears typical of most Native American tribes):

“No laws and ordinances, sheriffs and constables, judges and juries, or courts or jails — the apparatus of authority in European societies — were to be found in the north-east woodlands prior to European arrival. Yet boundaries of acceptable behaviour were firmly set. Though priding themselves on the autonomous individual, the Iroquois maintained a strict sense of right and wrong.” [quoted by Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, p. 21]

This respect for individuality existed in a society based on communistic principles. As Zinn notes, in the Iroquois “land was owned in common and worked in common. Hunting was done together, and the catch was divided among the members of the village. Houses were considered common property and were shared by several families. The concept of private ownership of land and homes was foreign to the Iroquois.” In this communal society women “were important and respected” and families were matrilineal. Power was shared between the sexes (unlike the European idea of male domination). Similarly, children “while taught the cultural heritage of their people and solidarity with the tribe, were also taught to be independent, not to submit to overbearing authority. They were taught equality of status and the sharing of possessions.” As Zinn stresses, Native American tribes “paid careful attention to the development of personality, intensity of will, independence and flexibility, passion and potency, to their partnership with one another and with nature.” [Op. Cit., p. 20 and pp. 21–2]

Thus tribal societies indicate that community defends individuality, with communal living actually encouraging a strong sense of individuality. This is to be expected, as equality is the only condition in which individuals can be free and so in a position to develop their personality to its full. Furthermore, this communal living took place within an anarchist environment:

“The foundation principle of Indian government had always been the rejection of government. The freedom of the individual was regarded by practically all Indians north of Mexico as a canon infinitely more precious than the individual’s duty to his [or her] community or nation. This anarchistic attitude ruled all behaviour, beginning with the smallest social unity, the family. The Indian parent was constitutionally reluctant to discipline his [or her] children. Their every exhibition of self-will was accepted as a favourable indication of the development of maturing character…” [Van Every, quoted by Zinn, Op. Cit., p. 136]

In addition, Native American tribes also indicate that communal living and high standards of living can and do go together. For example, during the 1870s in the Cherokee Nation “land was held collectively and life was contented and prosperous” with the US Department of the Interior recognising that it was “a miracle of progress, with successful production by people living in considerable comfort, a level of education ‘equal to that furnished by an ordinary college in the States,’ flourishing industry and commerce, an effective constitutional government, a high level of literacy, and a state of ‘civilisation and enlightenment’ comparable to anything known: ‘What required five hundred years for the Britons to accomplish in this direction they have accomplished in one hundred years,’ the Department declared in wonder.” [Noam Chomsky, Year 501, p. 231]

Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts visited in 1883 and described what he found in glowing terms: “There was not a pauper in that nation, and the nation did not owe a dollar. It built its own capitol … and it built its schools and its hospitals.” No family lacked a home. In spite of this (or, perhaps, more correctly, because of this), Dawes recommended that the society must be destroyed: “They have got as far as they can go, because they own their land in common … there is no enterprise to make your home any better than that of your neighbours. There is no selfishness, which is the bottom of civilisation. Till this people will consent to give up their lands, and divide them among their citizens so that each can own the land he cultivates, they will not make much more progress.” [quoted by Chomsky, Op. Cit., p. 231–2] The introduction of capitalism — as usual by state action — resulted in poverty and destitution, again showing the link between capitalism and high living standards is not clear cut, regardless of claims otherwise.

Undoubtedly, having access to the means of life ensured that members of such cultures did not have to place themselves in situations which could produce a servile character structure. As they did not have to follow the orders of a boss they did not have to learn to obey others and so could develop their own abilities to govern themselves. This self-government allowed the development of a custom in such tribes called “the principle of non-interference” in anthropology. This is the principle of defending someone’s right to express the opposing view and it is a pervasive principle in the tribal world, and it is so much so as to be safely called a universal.

The principle of non-interference is a powerful principle that extends from the personal to the political, and into every facet of daily life (significantly, tribal groups “respect the personality of their children, much as they do that of the adults in their communities.” [Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom, p. 115]). Most people today, used as they are to hierarchy everywhere, are aghast when they realise the extent to which it is practised, but it has proven itself to be an integral part of living anarchy. It means that people simply do not limit the activities of others, period (unless that behaviour is threatening the survival of the tribe). This in effect makes absolute tolerance a custom (the difference between law and custom is important to point out: Law is dead, and Custom lives — see section I.7.3). This is not to idealise such communities as they are must be considered imperfect anarchist societies in many ways (mostly obviously in that many eventually evolved into hierarchical systems so suggesting that informal hierarchies, undoubtedly a product of religion and other factors, existed).

As people accustomed to authority we have so much baggage that relates to “interfering” with the lives of others that merely visualising the situation that would eliminate this daily pastime for many is impossible. But think about it. First of all, in a society where people do not interfere with each other’s behaviour, people tend to feel trusted and empowered by this simple social fact. Their self-esteem is already higher because they are trusted with the responsibility for making learned and aware choices. This is not fiction; individual responsibility is a key aspect of social responsibility.

Therefore, given the strength of individuality documented in tribes with no private property, no state and little or no other hierarchical structures within them, can we not conclude that anarchism will defend individuality and even develop it in ways blocked by capitalism? At the very least we can say “possibly”, and that is enough to allow us to question that dogma that capitalism is the only system based on respect for the individual.

[drunkevillious]

I have these few Evillious Chronicles OCs that i want to share with you Guys, most of them likely don't have much to lore.

1. First is Maid one from post i posted Last day, Her adopted name is Simeona Langley (Simeona is based of name Simonida/ Constantinople princess and Simeon the Serbian King)Real name is Sonya , Nickname Snow is from Allen, because she used to live in cold part of Levianta (based of siberia - Russia- also hcn) and her softness, Really sweet and lovely. She is likely really small person who is Really skeletal, pale and has white-blonde short wolfy looking hair with blue highlights, small ponytail and messy bangs. She is really lonely and shy Maid, who has a lil crush on Allen Avadonia. Her nanny is Chartette Langley. Some of her closest friends are Germaine, Allen, Gumillia, Michaela and Clarith. She is age around 13-15 (not decided). Her biggest enemy is Ney Phutapie.

Her transform magic is cute jellyfish Hybrid. In that form, she Really gives Una [vocaloid] vibes. She has interesting silk skin with small cute bob cut "fur/hair) on her head with small tentlaces coming from it, Fully blue eyes, no nose, and cute blue pattrens around skin, her hat is huge Jellyfish (like i said, gives Una vibes).

Vocaloid/ Utau that is supposted to be represented by is not decided.

2. Anicuta Camela Conchita is banicarlos dracula vampire, who looks more like Carlos Marlon. She is really peaceful person who Is actually vegeterian and completly upset about the fact Banica is gluttony sinner. Her enemies are Pollo and Arte, and Lich scares her the most. She really loves sleeping and reading books. She has face similar to Carlos, hair colour and skin, her eyes are redish, her skin has some black patterns and shapry ears. She appears not to be sinner like her mom and not to have any of powers. She is around 17 and appears in Master of Greavenyard, her lover is Owen - another OCs of mine. She is Beelzenian/ Romanian and represented by KAIKO. Outfit is Banicas dress

3. Oven is Oliversona, Beelzenian/ Italian. He is simple Cook who works with Carlos. He is around 17. Really quiet and peaceful person. He dislikes Pollo and Arte. He has tan skin, freckles and spiky yellow hair, also cloathing same as Carlos.

4. Apolllinariya Dimitrov is Sonya/ Snows Mother who is represented by Hatsune Miku. She is Leviantanian and Elphe thief who is supposted to be half Greek half Russian. She is blind Person with pale skin, white eyes, skeletal, tall and such a pretty lady with long pale blue hair. She dies at Sonyas birth. Her husband is Vladimir Passatov - another OC.

5. Vladimir Passatov is Leviantanian Hero , who has been mistaken with "villain". He appears so be Knight, with large muscles, eye scar, baby blue eyes and blonde hair. He dies few years after Apolllinariya.

6. Nithya Crim is Karchesses adopted daughter. She is Asmodean/ Indian young girl that is really cute and sweet. She likes collecting Crystals and Talking about spirits. She loves exploring and eating spicey foods. There is no concept art or sheet for this OC.

7. Vincent/ Pilot is Elphe/ German (ww 2) villain who appears as TV head guy. He is pure evil, human transformed into a robot guy. He is best friend of Nemesis and Rival of another villain OC - Sonya that is in greed - Warth Arc. He is First OC that is a sinner ( Warth)

8. Sonya is Leviantanian Union/ USSR (hcn) dictator and villain who was Snow in past. She is just opposite of Snow and has military looking Outfit with shapka. She is really paranoid and awful person just like Vincent. she appears in same arcs as Vincent . She is deathly envious of her rivals, also really prideful.

[bellahomes1050]

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[shamandrummer]

Music as a Political Act

Cree singer Sandy Scofield sees her music as a pathway for raising awareness and celebrating culture.

Sandy Scofield is a multi-award winning composer, musician, musical director, singer, songwriter and performer. She has studied classical, jazz, African, Indonesian gamelan and electro-acoustic music. Leader of the all female Cree band of singers, Iskwew, Sandy started making music before she can even remember and has played and sung in many bands over the years. From Cajun to rock, classical and folk, the foundation she had before coming into Cree Aboriginal music incorporated a wide variety of sounds and instruments. She plays piano and guitar in addition to being a singer.

Scofield came to Aboriginal music later in life, embracing her heritage through song. She says, "I went to the Banff Centre for the Arts in 1995 and did a ten-week intensive with Sadie Buck from Six Nations in Canada -- she had this residency for urban women who grew up without oral tradition and she brought in women elders from all around Turtle Island (North America) to teach them their traditions, songs, and song traditions."

When asked whether she feels that what Iskwew does is political, Sandy said, "We have many educated people holding their PhDs and working as doctors and this and that who are changing how society views First Nations people, but largely people still think of them as the drunks down on Skid Road, and that's all part of… So, in answer to your question -- Yeah."

What we're doing is politically showing people the pride in our culture. The fact that we come out and wear regalia, just to show very basic cultural teachings, we're trying to present through the songs. I have a floating group of women based on who's available that comes with me, but some of the other women who've gigged with me are just as vocal as I am onstage. It isn't like I'm leading every song and I'm talking all the time. Some of the other women get in there and talk and talk about teachings and talk about what we're wearing and talk about our role as women in our culture and how we're esteemed.

So that's what we do, and when we get to go play international festivals it's really important because, you know, one of the girls that sings with me, she went to Italy and some guy said to her, 'Where are you from?' and she said, 'Well, I'm Cree Indian from Canada,' and he was just aghast, he was saying, 'No. They were all extinct. They don't exist,' and she's going 'You're crazy!' You know?

But there's crazy ideas out there, so especially if we're on the international stage, we're trying to show the very best of who we are. And in Canada, half of our work is in what we call Indian Country, which is all of the country except dominant society doesn't see us. So we perform for other native people or we perform for dominant society, and so when we perform for dominant society, it's the same thing again. We're trying to show the really fantastic things about our cultures, our collective culture which really concerns community, egalitarianism to a certain extent, just pride, culture, the interconnectedness of all life and that we’re interconnected with one another -- things like that."

[kemetic-dreams]

Land taken from African Americans through trickery, violence and murder

For generations, African American families passed down the tales in uneasy whispers: "They stole our land."

These were family secrets shared after the children fell asleep, after neighbors turned down the lamps -- old stories locked in fear and shame.

Some of those whispered bits of oral history, it turns out, are true.

In an 18-month investigation, The Associated Press documented a pattern in which African Americans were cheated out of their land or driven from it through intimidation, violence and even murder.

In some cases, government officials approved the land takings; in others, they took part in them. The earliest occurred before the Civil War; others are being litigated today.

Some of the land taken from African families has become a country club in Virginia, oil fields in Mississippi, a major-league baseball spring training facility in Florida.

The United States has a long history of bitter, often violent land disputes, from claim jumping in the gold fields to range wars in the old West to broken treaties with American Indians. Poor European landowners, too, were sometimes treated unfairly, pressured to sell out at rock-bottom prices by railroads and lumber and mining companies.

The fate of African American landowners has been an overlooked part of this story.

The AP -- in an investigation that included interviews with more than 1,000 people and the examination of tens of thousands of public records in county courthouses and state and federal archives -- documented 107 land takings in 13 Southern and border states.

In those cases alone, 406 African American landowners lost more than 24,000 acres of farm and timber land plus 85 smaller properties, including stores and city lots. Today, virtually all of this property, valued at tens of millions of dollars, is owned by Europeans or by corporations.

Properties taken from Africans were often small -- a 40-acre farm, a general store, a modest house. But the losses were devastating to families struggling to overcome the legacy of slavery. In the agrarian South, landownership was the ladder to respect and prosperity -- the means to building economic security and passing wealth on to the next generation. When African American families lost their land, they lost all of this.

"When they steal your land, they steal your future," said Stephanie Hagans, 40, of Atlanta, who has been researching how her great-grandmother, Ablow Weddington Stewart, lost 35 acres in Matthews, N.C. A European lawyer foreclosed on Stewart in 1942 after he refused to allow her to finish paying off a $540 debt, witnesses told the AP.

"How different would our lives be," Hagans asked, "if we'd had the opportunities, the pride that land brings?"

No one knows how many African American families have been unfairly stripped of their land, but there are indications of extensive loss.

Besides the 107 cases the AP documented, reporters found evidence of scores of other land takings that could not be fully verified because of gaps or inconsistencies in the public record. Thousands of additional reports of land takings from African American families remain uninvestigated.

Two thousand have been collected in recent years by the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, S.C., an educational institution established for freed slaves during the Civil War. The Land Loss Prevention Project, a group of lawyers in Durham, N.C., who represent blacks in land disputes, said it receives new reports daily. And Heather Gray of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Atlanta said her organization has "file cabinets full of complaints."

AP's findings "are just the tip of one of the biggest crimes of this country's history," said Ray Winbush, director of Fisk University's Institute of Race Relations.

Some examples of land takings documented by the AP:

After midnight on Oct. 4, 1908, 50 hooded European men surrounded the home of a African farmer in Hickman, Ky., and ordered him to come out for a whipping. When David Walker refused and shot at them instead, the mob poured coal oil on his house and set it afire, according to contemporary newspaper accounts. Pleading for mercy, Walker ran out the front door, followed by four screaming children and his wife, carrying a baby in her arms. The mob shot them all, wounding three children and killing the others. Walker's oldest son never escaped the burning house. No one was ever charged with the killings, and the surviving children were deprived of the farm their father died defending. Land records show that Walker's 2 1/2-acre farm was simply folded into the property of a white neighbor. The neighbor soon sold it to another man, whose daughter owns the undeveloped land today.In the 1950s and 1960s, a Chevrolet dealer in Holmes County, Miss., acquired hundreds of acres from African American farmers by foreclosing on small loans for farm equipment and pickup trucks. Norman Weathersby, then the only dealer in the area, required the farmers to put up their land as security for the loans, county residents who dealt with him said. And the equipment he sold them, they said, often broke down shortly thereafter. Weathersby's friend, William E. Strider, ran the local Farmers Home Administration -- the credit lifeline for many Southern farmers. Area residents, including Erma Russell, 81, said Strider, now dead, was often slow in releasing farm operating loans to Africans. When cash-poor farmers missed payments owed to Weathersby, he took their land. The AP documented eight cases in which Weathersby acquired African-owned farms this way. When he died in 1973, he left more than 700 acres of this land to his family, according to estate papers, deeds and court records.In 1964, the state of Alabama sued Lemon Williams and Lawrence Hudson, claiming the cousins had no right to two 40-acre farms their family had worked in Sweet Water, Ala., for nearly a century. The land, officials contended, belonged to the state. Circuit Judge Emmett F. Hildreth urged the state to drop its suit, declaring it would result in "a severe injustice." But when the state refused, saying it wanted income from timber on the land, the judge ruled against the family. Today, the land lies empty; the state recently opened some of it to logging. The state's internal memos and letters on the case are peppered with references to the family's race.

In the same courthouse where the case was heard, the AP located deeds and tax records documenting that the family had owned the land since an ancestor bought the property on Jan. 3, 1874. Surviving records also show the family paid property taxes on the farms from the mid-1950s until the land was taken.

AP reporters tracked the land cases by reviewing deeds, mortgages, tax records, estate papers, court proceedings, surveyor maps, oil and gas leases, marriage records, census listings, birth records, death certificates and Freedmen's Bureau archives. Additional documents, including FBI files and Farmers Home Administration records, were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

The AP interviewed black families that lost land, as well as lawyers, title searchers, historians, appraisers, genealogists, surveyors, land activists, and local, state and federal officials.

The AP also talked to current owners of the land, nearly all of whom acquired the properties years after the land takings occurred. Most said they knew little about the history of their land. When told about it, most expressed regret.

Weathersby's son, John, 62, who now runs the dealership in Indianola, Miss., said he had little direct knowledge about his father's business affairs. However, he said he was sure his father never would have sold defective vehicles and that he always treated people fairly.

Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman examined the state's files on the Sweet Water case after an inquiry from the AP. He said he found them "disturbing" and has asked the state attorney general to review the matter.

"What I have asked the attorney general to do," he said, "is look not only at the letter of the law but at what is fair and right."

The land takings are part of a larger picture -- a 91-year decline in African American landownership in America.

In 1910, African Americans owned more farmland than at any time before or since -- at least 15 million acres. Nearly all of it was in the South, largely in Mississippi, Alabama and the Carolinas, according to the U.S. Agricultural Census. Today, Africans own only 1.1 million of the country's more than 1 billion acres of arable land. They are part owners of another 1.07 million acres.

The number of European American farmers has declined over the last century, too, as economic trends have concentrated land in fewer, often corporate, hands. However, African American ownership has declined 2 1/2 times faster than white ownership, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission noted in a 1982 report, the last comprehensive federal study on the trend.

The decline in African American landownership had a number of causes, including the discriminatory lending practices of the Farmers Home Administration and the migration of Africans from the rural South to industrial centers in the North and West.

However, the land takings also contributed. In the decades between Reconstruction and the civil rights struggle, black families were powerless to prevent them, said Stuart E. Tolnay, a University of Washington sociologist and co-author of a book on lynchings. In an era when African Americans could not drink from the same water fountains as European and African men were lynched for whistling at white women, few Africans dared to challenge Europeans. Those who did could rarely find lawyers to take their cases or judges who would give them a fair hearing.

The Rev. Isaac Simmons was an exception. When his land was taken, he found a lawyer and tried to fight back.

In 1942, his 141-acre farm in Amite County, Miss., was sold for nonpayment of taxes, property records show. The farm, for which his father had paid $302 in 1887, was bought by a European man for $180.

Only partial, tattered tax records for the period exist today in the county courthouse; but they are enough to show that tax payments on at least part of the property were current when the land was taken.

Simmons hired a lawyer in February 1944 and filed suit to get his land back. On March 26, a group of Europeans paid Simmons a visit.

The minister's daughter, Laura Lee Houston, now 74, recently recalled her terror as she stood with her month-old baby in her arms and watched the men drag Simmons away. "I screamed and hollered so loud," she said. "They came toward me and I ran down in the woods."

The Europeans then grabbed Simmons' son, Eldridge, from his house and drove the two men to a lonely road.

"Two of them kept beating me," Eldridge Simmons later told the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "They kept telling me that my father and I were 'smart niggers' for going to see a lawyer."

Simmons, who has since died, said his captors gave him 10 days to leave town and told his father to start running. Later that day, the minister's body turned up with three gunshot wounds in the back, The McComb Enterprise newspaper reported at the time.

Today, the Simmons land -- thick with timber and used for hunting -- is privately owned and is assessed at $33,660. (Officials assess property for tax purposes, and the valuation is usually less than its market value.)

Over the past 20 years, a handful of African families have sued to regain their ancestral lands. State courts, however, have dismissed their cases on grounds that statutes of limitations had expired.

A group of attorneys led by Harvard University law professor Charles J. Ogletree has been making inquries recently about land takings. The group has announced its intention to file a national class-action lawsuit in pursuit of reparations for slavery and racial discrimination. However, some legal experts say redress for many land takings may not be possible unless laws are changed.

As the acres slipped away, so did treasured pieces of family history -- cabins crafted by a grandfather's hand, family graves in shaded groves.

But "the home place" meant more than just that. Many Africans have found it "very difficult to transfer wealth from one generation to the next," because they had trouble holding onto land, said Paula Giddings, a history professor at Duke University.

The Espy family in Vero Beach, Fla., lost its heritage in 1942, when the U.S. government seized its land through eminent domain to build an airfield. Government agencies frequently take land this way for public purposes under rules that require fair compensation for the owners.

In Vero Beach, however, the Navy appraised the Espys' 147 acres, which included a 30-acre fruit grove, two houses and 40 house lots, at $8,000, according to court records. The Espys sued, and an all-white jury awarded them $13,000. That amounted to one-sixth of the price per acre that the Navy paid European neighbors for similar land with fewer improvements, records show.

After World War II, the Navy gave the airfield to the city of Vero Beach. Ignoring the Espys' plea to buy back their land, the city sold part of it, at $1,500 an acre, to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965 as a spring training facility.

In 1999, the former Navy land, with parts of Dodgertown and a municipal airport, was assessed at $6.19 million. Sixty percent of that land once belonged to the Espys. The team sold its property to Indian River County for $10 million in August, according to Craig Callan, a Dodgers official.

The true extent of land takings from African families will never be known because of gaps in property and tax records in many rural Southern counties. The AP found crumbling tax records, deed books with pages torn from them, file folders with documents missing, and records that had been crudely altered.

In Jackson Parish, La., 40 years of moldy, gnawed tax and mortgage records were piled in a cellar behind a roll of Christmas lights and a wooden reindeer. In Yazoo County, Miss., volumes of tax and deed records filled a classroom in an abandoned school, the papers coated with white dust from a falling ceiling. The AP retrieved dozens of documents that custodians said were earmarked for shredders or landfills.

The AP also found that about a third of the county courthouses in Southern and border states have burned -- some more than once -- since the Civil War. Some of the fires were deliberately set.

On the night of Sept. 10, 1932, for example, 15 Europeans torched the courthouse in Paulding, Miss., where property records for the eastern half of Jasper County, then predominantly African, were stored. Records for the predominantly white western half of the county were safe in another courthouse miles away.

The door to the Paulding courthouse's safe, which protected the records, had been locked the night before, the Jasper County News reported at the time. The next morning, the safe was found open, most of the records reduced to ashes.

Suddenly, it was unclear who owned a big piece of eastern Jasper County.

Even before the courthouse fire, landownership in Jasper County was contentious. According to historical accounts, the Ku Klux Klan, resentful that African were buying and profiting from land, had been attacking African-owned farms, burning houses, lynching African farmers and chasing African American landowners away.

The Masonite Corp., a wood products company, was one of the largest landowners in the area. Because most of the land records had been destroyed, the company went to court in December 1937 to clear its title. Masonite believed it owned 9,581 acres and said in court papers that it had been unable to locate anyone with a rival claim to the land.

A month later, the court ruled the company had clear title to the land, which has since yielded millions of dollars in natural gas, timber and oil, according to state records.

From the few property records that remain, the AP was able to document that at least 204.5 of those acres had been acquired by Masonite after African American owners were driven off by the Klan. At least 850,000 barrels of oil have been pumped from this property, according to state oil and gas board records and figures from the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council, an industry group.

Today, the land is owned by International Paper Corp., which acquired Masonite in 1988. Jenny Boardman, a company spokeswoman, said International Paper had been unaware of the "tragic" history of the land and was concerned about AP's findings.

"This is probably part of a much larger, public debate about whether there should be restitution for people who have been harmed in the past," she said. "And by virtue of the fact that we now own these lands, we should be part of that discussion."

Even when Southern courthouses remained standing, mistrust and fear of white authority long kept Africans away from record rooms, where documents often were segregated into "white" and "colored." Many elderly Africans say they still remember how they were snubbed by court clerks, spat upon and even struck.

Today, however, fear and shame have given way to pride. Interest in genealogy among African families is surging, and some African whispered stories.

"People are out there wondering: What ever happened to Grandma's land?" said Loretta Carter Hanes, 75, a retired genealogist. "They knew that their grandparents shed a lot of blood and tears to get it."

Bryan Logan, a 55-year-old sports writer from Washington, D.C., was researching his heritage when he uncovered a connection to 264 acres of riverfront property in Richmond, Va.

Today, the land is Willow Oaks, an almost exclusively European American country club with an assessed value of $2.94 million. But in the 1850s, it was a corn-and-wheat plantation worked by the Howlett slaves -- Logan's ancestors.

Their owner, Thomas Howlett, directed in his will that his 15 slaves be freed, that his plantation be sold and that the slaves receive the proceeds. When he died in 1856, his European relatives challenged the will, but two courts upheld it.

Yet the freed slaves never got a penny.

Benjamin Hatcher, the executor of the estate, simply took over the plantation, court records show. He cleared the timber and mined the stone, providing granite for the Navy and War Department buildings in Washington and the capitol in Richmond, according to records in the National Archives.

When the Civil War ended in 1865, the former slaves complained to the occupying Union Army, which ordered Virginia courts to investigate.

Hatcher testified that he had sold the plantation in 1862 -- apparently to his son, Thomas -- but had not given the proceeds to the former slaves. Instead, court papers show, the proceeds were invested on their behalf in Confederate War Bonds. There is nothing in the public record to suggest the former slaves wanted their money used to support the Southern war effort.

Moreover, the bonds were purchased in the former slaves' names in 1864 -- a dubious investment at best in the fourth year of the war. Within months, Union armies were marching on Atlanta and Richmond, and the bonds were worthless pieces of paper.

The Africans insisted they were never given even that, but in 1871, Virginia's highest court ruled that Hatcher was innocent of wrongdoing and that the former slaves were owed nothing.

The following year, the plantation was broken up and sold at a public auction. Hatcher's son received the proceeds, county records show. In the 1930s, a Richmond businessman cobbled the estate back together; he sold it to Willow Oaks Corp. in 1955 for an unspecified amount.

"I don't hold anything against Willow Oaks," Logan said. "But how Virginia's courts acted, how they allowed the land to be stolen -- it goes against everything America stands for."

[inky-snowdrop]

~ Love Is Love ~

A 2023 L.G.B.T+ Aesthetic Collection

Day 6 • Tanya is a Lesbian!

Day 5 • Day 7

👇🏽 Pride Headcanons Below! 👇🏽

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Given how often Tanya "betrays" people, I don't see her as being a person that would emotional invest in a relationship. It's along the lines of... if she can no longer get anything useful out of you or you no longer satisfy her in a relationship, she will literally just disappear from that person's life or worse...

Tanya is not above playing with people's emotions to get what she wants. She has seduced both men, women, and everything in-between in the past for power, money, information etc. Even such, her personal preference for a partner is 100% just women (she is partial towards Edenian women, but is honestly not too picky)

Mileena was the first woman that Tanya felt a genuine love and affection towards, though of course it didn't start that way. Tanya originally joined Mileena's rebellion in order to restore Edenia (and to perhaps gain some power and allies long the way), but something in their relationship shifted after years of trying to overthrow Kotal Kahn

Tanya would spend hours out of her own free time talking to her Empress, watching their warriors prepare for ambushing Kotal's army as they shared rich Edenian wine and swapped stories. Their connection was something spiritual, Mileena's child-like wonder of even the smallest things grounding Tanya... Keeping her from wandering off... Mileena was a flame that Tanya wouldn't dare extinguish. In fact, she wanted to do everything in her power to fan the flames.

Following Mileena's MK11 ending, Tanya and Mileena would be good parents to their daughter. Tanya would teach her daughter how to be strategic, how to analyze threats etc. Mileena would be fond of playing dolls and tea party with her daughter, eventually teaching her everything she needs to know about being the future Kahn. I headcanon that their daughter's name is Lakshmi, who's the Indian goddess of prosperity, good fortune, and happiness

If Tanya had to pick a song that described her sexuality, she'd pick: A Queen's Head by RAIGN

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