December 16, 2016 - Updated Bill

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) to state in the congressional findings that the freedom of thought and religion is understood to protect theistic and non-theistic beliefs as well as the right not to profess or practice any religion.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1150

Thanksgiving - Go ahead, talk religion and politics at the table by Robert Jensen

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/jensen-go-ahead-talk-religion-and-politics-at-the-/nS9zg/
Austin American-Statesman
Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012

Here’s a peculiarly American paradox: We are the most affluent country in the history of the world, with an elaborate education system and expansive legal guarantees for free expression.

Yet many citizens are afraid of talking. Outside of the political/media circus in which people disagree theatrically, many people — right, left, and center — avoid thoughtful conversation with those who might disagree.

So, for anyone heading to a Thanksgiving gathering where there will be a variety of people, including some you know you disagree with, a bit of advice: Make sure you talk about religion and politics.

This goes against the conventional wisdom, but there are two good reasons, one selfish and the other moral.

The selfish reason: If we don’t talk about religion or politics, what else is there of interest to discuss? Let’s define “religion” broadly, as wrestling with ultimate questions of existence that are wrapped up in the query, “What does it mean to be a human being?” Let’s understand “politics” broadly, to mean the way we answer, “How should power and resources be distributed?” Those questions make life interesting.

Pushed down the wrong path, these conversations can make some people surly, but they can just as easily open up stimulating, honest exchanges. Here are two suggestions for fostering that engagement.

On religion: People will ask, “Do you believe in God?” Instead of taking that as an invitation to a verbal brawl, I respond, “What do you mean by God?” That invites a thoughtful exchange by asking others to expand on what they believe.

On politics: It’s difficult not to take disagreements about sexual behavior personally, but we can cultivate the ability to consider not just our own choices but the social consequences. For example, on the contentious subject of pornography, instead of immediately defending or condemning the use of sexual material, we can ask: “What stories about sex and intimacy does pornography tell, and what is the effect of those stories?” That opens up the conversation.

Onto the moral reason: The conventional wisdom about avoiding religion and politics has not helped us avoid the mess we are in economically and ecologically, politically and socially. The conventional wisdom on most everything hasn’t been particularly wise lately. Rather than opting out of conversations, we have a moral obligation to engage these topics.

So, along with all the food we’ll be putting on the table this Thanksgiving, let’s put religion and politics on the conversational menu. Let’s ask questions about whether our political, economic, and social systems square with our mostly deeply held moral/theological beliefs about dignity, equality, and justice.

If that doesn’t sound like the recipe for a successful holiday meal, remember this: Our affluent society produces an excess of everything except what we most desperately crave: meaning. Not meaning manufactured and sold to us, but meaning we create authentically, through dealing honestly with reality.

Such meaning comes when in our everyday lives we talk with people — those we know and strangers on the bus — about the most basic questions that have unsettled humans forever: What does it mean to be a decent human being? How do we deal with the problem of power? Those are the questions that never get answered definitively but which we answer contingently through constant conversation.

We all know that over-eating at Thanksgiving dinner can be hazardous for individual physical fitness. We know the solution, no matter how much we avoid it: Smaller portions and more nutritious food.

Under-talking is just as dangerous for collective intellectual fitness. The solution is equally obvious: Larger portions of more robust discussion, debate, and deliberation.

------------------------------

Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center in Austin. He is the author of Arguing for Our Lives: Critical Thinking in Crisis Times (City Lights, coming in 2013); All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, (Soft Skull Press, 2009); Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007); The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); and Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2002). Jensen is also co-producer of the documentary film “Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing” (Media Education Foundation, 2009), which chronicles the life and philosophy of the longtime radical activist.  An extended interview Jensen conducted with Osheroff
is online at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/abeosheroffinterview.htm.
Jensen can be reached at rjensen@austin.utexas.edu and his articles can be found online at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/index.html. To join an email list to receive articles by Jensen, go to http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/jensenupdates-info.html. Twitter: @jensenrobertw.

Christian Christmas Privilege

 It is not persecution just because you do not get everything you want or because you can not do whatever you please.

The fact of the matter is that every person in that stadium on Friday night can pray all they want to, through the whole game in fact, you just cannot mandate that everyone has to do it or be subjected to it by a federally funded entity.

you just cannot mandate, from a municipality level, that the whole parade has to be religious.  There are kids who will march in the band for the parade who do not believe in Jesus, and that is ok because we live in America.  There are people who will line the streets, excited to see a small town at it’s finest, who have no religious affiliation and should not be subjected to a religious event that is funded in some part by their tax dollars. That is their right because we live in America.

Christianity, as defined by the life and teachings of Jesus, never depended or insisted on being the majority, in power or even influential.  It was a religion that lauded the weak, meek and the poor.

We do not serve the one we call the Prince of Peace, we serve corporate America, politicians who use religion for their platforms and men and women who ride the coat tails of Jesus straight to power.

Read more at:
http://www.organicstudentministry.com/?p=61156

Protecting women is a religion

Diversity: A Reflection by Claudia A. Fox Tree

Anti-Semitic Intolerance Forum - Letter to Editor
http://www.thebedfordcitizen.org/2014/04/03/diversity-a-reflection-by-claudia-fox-tree/
First published in The Bedford Citizen on April 3, 2014

I just came from the follow up public forum about “Anti-Semitic Intolerance for those interested in turning suggestions into actual programs and practices.”  I know Mr. Sills wanted to have break out groups that could take ideas and begin putting them into action, however, it was clear that the folks who came wanted to discuss topics as a large group. Bedford High School students spoke eloquently and many ideas emerged that I’m sure will be communicated to all by the Superintendent.  I wanted to take up one of the suggestions – to write to The Citizen.  There are some related issues, not discussed tonight, that I wanted to highlight.

Given the title of the forum, I am compelled to reiterate that using the word “tolerance” is highly problematic. When it comes to talking (or writing) about diversity, no one wants to be “tolerated”?  In a world of anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, able-ism, etc., there are the “Haves” and “Have-not’s.”  And, you can guess in which category the “tolerated” fall.  I would suggest calling these activities what they are, “Anti-Semitic Hate Crime Forums” or “Creating A Place at the Table for All.”

Undoing the impact of the oppression that is connected to an “ism” is complex.  It is not simply about “celebrating diversity” or even “honoring differences.”  That may (or may not) be a good place to start, but it is simply is not enough. One of the few things we can “control” and change immediately to create a better world responsive to cultural differences is our choice of language.  Language has power and we need to be careful and thoughtful with the words we use for they will be heard by others, and they can reinforce oppressions or work toward social change and justice.

A glance around the room, which was quite full, holding a large circle of constituents, revealed a noticeable absence of other marginalized group members from town.  For example, no one spoke up who identified as Muslim, Chinese, Asian Indian, Buddhist, African American, or Thai, to name a few, and I know that these communities are also representative of Bedford.  Why didn’t they come to tonight’s meeting? How many times do people from these groups deal with prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination, etc. related to their group membership, and feel no systemic response? Are there public forums or educational opportunities for them?  We need to consider that responding so publically to anti-Semitism now, may bring up hurtful memories for others who have not seen their issues and concerns addressed in the past.  Perhaps, there needs to be more reaching out to specific groups within the larger community?   

As a Native American, my own experience has revealed an uphill battle.  It is difficult to keep educating others about the Native culture while also dealing with racism, at worst, and stereotypes, at best, on a monthly, if not weekly basis.  Just this passed week, one of my children was asked to do “Indian Sprints.” While not a hate crime, as what the Jewish community is currently experiencing, it is an example of how easy it is to say inappropriate and offensive things.  Without education, role-playing, practice, and conversation, “blurts” like this happen over and over again.  Bedford would be remiss in not addressing broader issues of unawareness and perpetuation of stereotypes, given the context of what is currently happening.  This is a wake up call to build allies within our community – active bystanders who speak up on behalf of others and model for the future generations that we are a place that not only responds to differences in culture and celebrates diversity, but does not accept oppression in any of its many forms.

This past fall, Bedford's Varsity Football team faced Pentucket.  There were racist caricatures of Native Americans via mascots, logos, and stylized non Native music being called Native.  It was awful.  This is not something that would be allowed for other ethnic or racial groups and, yet, it has been so “normalized” within the NFL that there were no forms of protest from Bedford.  The "mascot issue" was problematic enough, however, my football-playing son was also spotlighted by name in a negative way (due to his heritage) in the Cape Cod Times when the Varsity team was about to play on the south shore!  It was through friends and allies that a flood of emails forced the Times to remove the article within hours of its posting.  We have to stand up as one, against all forms of hatred, or fall because we are too divided to come together.

I am concerned that a comparative religion course planned at the high school would highlight three Judeo-Christian religions and Hinduism, but not Buddhism, Confucianism, or more contemporary religions like the Quakers or Baha'i.  I am concerned that students are asking for more conversations and report that teachers aren’t prepared to have them.  I’m concerned that Senior Prom was scheduled on a Jewish holy day this year.

How many times have baked goods been sold during Passover at a school event?  How many times have football games been held on Friday nights?  While not Native American issues, that these events conflict with Jewish traditions reminds me that we have a long way to go in truly opening up a place at the table where everyone can not only share and express their culture, but be able to be present at the table because they can actually attend since it does not conflict with a cultural tradition.  We need to consider a calendar that takes into account conflicts of culture, maybe not every time, but more times than it does now. 

I want to close by saying that it is not really the job of the oppressed to educate those with the power to make change.  It is the responsibility of those with the power to educate our/themselves, and respond accordingly, making space for all voices on an equal playing field.  If the “Have’s” aren’t willing to give up some of what they have, then there will always be “Have-nots.”  It’s not as easy as saying, “Work a little harder” or “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”  Women have worked really hard, but it was not until that first man in the boardroom hired a woman, giving up being surrounded by his own gender, that women were able to access traditional male dominated occupations.  Have-nots can work as hard as Have’s, but not have the same access without an ally.

UPDATE:  http://www.thebedfordcitizen.org/2015/09/04/reflection-bedford-embraces-diversity/

Claudia Fox Tree, veteran Native American educator, was an active participant in the aftermath of the episodes. She applauded the response of the public schools.

“Jon (Sills) took a risk to ‘go public’ and allow a window into what was happening in Bedford,” she said. “He forged a relationship with social justice organizations; provided much needed professional development for faculty and staff; built relationship with community organizations; revised curriculum K-12; and improved the Peer Leaders programs.   He also established a K-12 Equity and Diversity Support Group of teachers who are/will be leaders with these particular initiatives.  What is amazing is that he did it in just over one year.”

“The evidence that I can see is that initiatives are working,” Fox Tree observed. “On the other hand, some issues are long standing and have not had the attention they deserved.” Referencing the student video, she said, “African-American students have been reporting issues for years and felt unheard.  They were, justifiably, angry when the concerns by the Jewish community were made public, with forums, town-wide support, and almost instant action. “

“If we don’t understand the true issue, it can never really be addressed, and will keep coming around again and again,” she continued. “When a story becomes about the ‘politics’ instead of the pain and hardships that students of color experience in their community, then we need to take a closer look.  Jon (Sills) set up a climate where kids feel like they can finally talk, and that’s what you’re getting — the voices of kids of color.  This is actually a very good thing! We need to listen.”

FOR WHITES (LIKE ME): on white kids

FOR WHITES (LIKE ME): on white kids
http://livingformations.com/2013/08/06/for-whites-like-me-on-white-kids/

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT I POST SELECTED PORTIONS OF ARTICLES, PLEASE CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE

Dear parents of white children,
I vote that we strike the following from our parental lexicon:

1. “Everybody is equal.”
2. “We’re all the same underneath our skin.”

Time and again my white students write that “everybody’s equal” is the “most important” thing their parents taught them about race. Time and again a not insignificant number of them then proceed to describe their present trepidation about a) telling their parents they date interracially; b) bringing home a Latino/a or Black classmate; c) Thanksgiving break when everyone will silently tolerate the family member who makes racist comments; or d) something else that reveals how deeply and clearly these students know this “most important teaching” doesn’t mean a hell of a lot to their actual white experience.

I struggled to make sense of these papers for a long time. Then, Nurture Shock (not a book about race) gave me some help. It reports on social scientists’ studies to figure out why so many white kids have such poor facility in engaging racial difference and challenging racism despite their exposure to (liberalish) white culture’s “everybody’s equal” mantras. Turns out our kids, literally, don’t know what “everybody is equal” means. It’s an empty phrase. A numbed out flourish. (Sugar.)

Turns out our kids, literally, don’t know what “everybody is equal” means. It’s an empty phrase. A numbed out flourish. (Sugar.)

Meanwhile, they are daily assailed by a relentless barrage of anti-black imagery, Native American stereotypes, slurs against dark-skinned non-native English speakers and on and on.

I know “everybody’s equal” means “we all deserve to be treated with fairness.” And when we tell kids we’re all the same underneath skin, gender, sexuality, physical abilities and other differences we’re trying to tell them we share human dignity and worth.

Obviously I believe these things.

But, have you ever actually met a “generic” human? Someone without a race or a gender?

Well, guess what? Neither has your child.

And by the age of three our kids are aware of this fact (even though they don’t yet use adult categories to talk about it). If you don’t believe me, pick up The First R. You will be stunned by what preschool children know and do in regard to race.

One more “stat.” I read a study some time ago (I now can’t find it now, sorry!) comparing white and Black families. It found that on average African American parents start talking about race with their African American children by age 3. White parents with white kids? Age 13.

Worse, imagine what happens in my classes when students of color describe their experiences of racism, and their white peers stare at them numbly, repeating: “everybody is equal,” “we’re all the same underneath our skin.” Let’s just say nothing about this exchange inspires robust interracial friendship to develop. Nor does it provide students of color reason to think they’ve found the allies they’ve been hoping for: interested peers prepared to help build a more just racial future.

So, if it’s your four-year-old starting to notice darker skin (which happens when we raise our kids in predominantly white environments), the platitude “we’re all the same underneath” implies they’re noticing something they shouldn’t and insinuates there’s something wrong with darker skin we must need to overlook (meanwhile, your child hears remarks about beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair all the time). How about discussions about and images of the many different beautiful shades of dark skin instead?

We don’t assume pat answers are adequate for enabling our children to learn to navigate relationships, nutrition, sexuality, religion, emotions, or any other challenging reality. Nor do we leave them alone to figure it out.

We equip ourselves, so we can enable them.

Why should race and racism be any different?

Yours in Search of Robust Protein,
A fellow parent with white kids
Jennifer Harvey

QUOTES FROM Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

by James W. Loewen. Simon & Schuster, 1995

"Historically, American Indians have been the most lied-about subset of our population" (99).

Did Europeans "civilize" the Americas? Actually, anthropologists tell us that "hunters and gatherers were relatively peaceful, compared to agriculturalists, and that modern societies were more warlike still. Thus violence increases with civilization" (101-2).

"..textbooks cannot resist contrasting "primitive" Americans with modern Europeans" (102).

"In what ways do we prefer the civilized Third Reich to the more primitive Arawak nation that Columbus encountered? If we refuse to label the Third Reich civilized, are we not using the term to imply a certain comity? If so, we must consider the Arawaks civilized, and we must also consider Columbus and his Spaniards primitive is not savage" (102).

"Europeans persuaded Natives to specialize in the fur and slave trades. Native Americans were better hunters and trappers than Europeans, and with the guns the Europeans sold them, they became better still. Other Native skills began to atrophy" (103).

"..because whites "demanded institutions reflective of their own with which to relate," many Native groups strengthened their tribal governments... New confederations and nations developed.. The tribes also became more male- dominated, in imitation of Europeans.. [there was] an escalation of Indian warfare... [the slave trade helped] to deagriculturize Native Americans. To avoid being targets for capture, Indians abandoned their cornfields and their villages" (105-6).

"Europeans did not "civilize" or "settle" roaming Indians, but had the opposite impact" (107).

"…from the start in Virginia.. settlers fled to Indian villages rather than endure the rigors of life among the autocratic English. Indeed, many white and black newcomers chose to live an Indian lifestyle... some Natives chose to live among whites.. The migration was mostly the other way, however.. Europeans were always trying to stop the outflow. Hernando De Soto had to post guards to keep his men and women from defecting to Native societies... right up to the end of independent Indian nationhood in 1890, whites continued to defect, and whites who lived an Indian lifestyle, such as Daniel Boone, became cultural heroes in white society" (109).

"Not one American history textbook mentions the attraction of Native societies to European Americans and African Americans" (109).

"According to Benjamin Franklin, "All their government is by Counsel of the Sages. There is no Force; there are no Prisons, no officers to compel Obedience, or inflict Punishment." Probably foremost, the lack of hierarchy in the Native socieites in the eastern United States attracted the admiration of European observers. Frontiersmen were taken with the extent to which Native Americans enjoyed freedom as individuals. Women were also accorded more status and power.. than in white societies of the time" (109-110).

Lt. Gov. Cadwallader Colden of New York in 1727 said, "Here we see the natural Origin of all Power and Authority among a free People" (110).

"Indeed, Native American ideas may be partly responsible for our democratic institutions. We have seen how Native ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality found their way to Europe to influence social philosophers such as Thomas More, Locke, Montaigne, Montesquieu, and Rousseau... Through 150 years of colonial contact, the Iroquois League stood before the colonies as an object lesson in how to govern a large domain democratically" (111).

"Both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention referred openly to Iroquois ideas and imagery... As a symbol of the new United States, Americans chose the eagle clutching a bundle of arrows. They knew that both the eagle and the arrows were symbols of the Iroquois League... John Mohawk has argued that American Indians are directly or indirectly responsible for the public-meeting tradition, free speech, democracy, and "all those things which got attached to the Bill of Rights." Without the Native example, "do you really believe that all those ideas would have found birth among a people who had spent a millennium butchering other people because of intolerance of questions of religion?"" (111-112).

"For a hundred years after our Revolution, Americans credited Native Americans as a source of their democratic institutions... When colonists took action to oppose unjust authority, as in the Boston Tea Party.. they chose to dress as Indians, not to blame Indians for the demonstrations but to appropriate a symbol identified with liberty" (112).

"Indian warfare absorbed 80 percent of the entire federal budget during George Washington's administration and dogged his successors for a century as a major issue and expense... [in many cases] the settlers were Native American, the scalpers white" (116).

"All the textbooks tell how Jefferson "doubled the size of the United States by buying Louisiana from France." Not one points out that it was not France's land to sell--it was Indian land... Indeed, France did not really sell Louisiana for $15,000,000. France merely sold its claim to the territory... Equally Eurocentric are the maps textbooks use to show the Lewis and Clark expedition. They make Native American invisible, implying that the United States bought vacant land from the French... [Textbooks imply that the Indians were naive about land ownership, but] the problem lay in whites' not abiding by accepted concepts of land ownership" (123).

"The most important cause of the War of 1812.. was land-- Indian land... The United States fought five of the seven major land battles of the War of 1812 primarily against Native Americans... [a] result of the War of 1812 was the loss of part of our history. A century of learning [from Native Americans] was coming to a close... until 1815 the word Americans had generally been used to refer to Native Americans; after 1815 it meant European Americans... Carleton Beals has written that "our acquiescence in Indian dispossession has molded the American character." ... destroyed our national idealism. From 1815 on, instead of spreading democracy, we exported the ideology of white supremacy. Gradually we sought American hegemony over Mexico, the Philippines, much of the Caribbean basin, and, indirectly, over other nations... We also have to admit that Adolf Hitler displayed more knowledge of how we treated Native Americans than American high schoolers who rely on their textbooks. Hitler admired our concentration camps for Indians in the west "and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination--by starvation and uneven combat" as the model for his extermination of Jews and Gypsies" (123-126).

Yet we "still stereotype Native Americans as roaming primitive hunting folk, unfortunate victims of progress" (132).

For more on this topic, read Helen Hunt Jackson's famous indictment of Native American policies, A Century of Dishonor.

Also, see her fictional account of the racism Mexicans and Indians both endured at the hands of White and Mexican settlers, Ramona.

More quotes from the book are here:  http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/First_Thanksgiving_LMTTM.html

Thanksgiving quotes from the book are here: http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2007/11/lies-my-teacher-told-me-everything-your.html

GREAT LESSON PLANS FOR THE BOOK HERE:  http://liesmyteachertoldme.wikispaces.com/home

Photo Gallery: 20 Memorials to Native Americans
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/gallery/photo/photo-gallery-20-memorials-native-americans-155013

The Micro-Aggressions / Microaggressions Project

The Micro-Aggressions / Microaggressions Project http://www.microaggressions.com/about/
Click on "see posts by TAG" - here are posts about race http://www.microaggressions.com/context/race/

This blog seeks to provide a visual representation of the everyday of “microaggressions.” Each event, observation and experience posted is not necessarily particularly striking in and of themselves. Often, they are never meant to hurt – acts done with little conscious awareness of their meanings and effects. Instead, their slow accumulation during a childhood and over a lifetime is in part what defines a marginalized experience, making explanation and communication with someone who does not share this identity particularly difficult. Social others are microaggressed hourly, daily, weekly, monthly.
This project is NOT about showing how ignorant people can be in order to simply dismiss their ignorance. Instead, it is about showing how these comments create and enforce uncomfortable, violent and unsafe realities onto peoples’ workplace, home, school, childhood/adolescence/adulthood, and public transportation/space environments.
The term “microaggressions” was originally coined to speak particularly to racialized experiences.

“Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color.” – Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life

This blog, however, is a space to extend this concept to different socially constructed identities that embody privilege in different ways – sexuality, class, religion, education level, to name a few – in hopes of making visible the ways in which social difference is produced and policed in everyday lives through comments of people around you.

Evolution vs. Creationism

Interesting article and argument on how the belief in Creationism holds back science literacy.  "Denial of evolution is unique to the United States," Nye begins in a YouTube video posted on Thursday.  The video quickly picked up steam over the weekend and as of Monday morning had been viewed more than 1,100,000 times. http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/27/bill-nye-slams-creationism/?hpt=hp_c3

50 Examples of Stereotypes

These examples of racial and ethnic stereotypes cross nationalities and religions too. Asians, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Russians, Jews, Canadians, Arabs, and many more.  Listen to the music attached to each set of images.  Think about the following questions?

• Did you recognize the music or image associated with the group?
• Where (and when) did you learn it?
• Do you have other images or songs for this group, or has your experience been limited to the visuals/music you see/hear here?
• What happens when an entire group of people is only known by a particular image, song, dance, or symbol?  
• Can a group of people be captured that easily?
• What can you say about "Americans"?

Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice: Exploring Identity

Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice:  Exploring Identity http://www.tolerance.org/activity/using-photographs-teach-social-justice-exploring-identity?newsletter=TT060711 An individual’s sense of identity is made up of many different elements. Some of those elements are individual. Statements like “I am good at math” or “I have five sisters” represent personal experiences. They help define you as a good student or as a member of a family.

Other elements of identity are related to membership in a specific group. For example, “I moved here from the Dominican Republic” means that part of your identity in the United States is as an immigrant. Another part of your identity is (likely) that Spanish is your first language. Factors such as race, gender, religion and physical ability can also form part of how you know yourself and how others know you.