Vayri7X

The source is here: http://www.genocide-museum.am/eye_witnesses.html Fayez el-Husseyn presented his testimonies in a book entitled “Massacres in Armenia”, published at first in its original Arabic in 1916. How many other testimonies from Arabs and other Muslims (non Turkish ) do we have on record as wintesses on our side? What has been published or translated from Farsi and Arabic in English, French and Russian? This really pulls the the proverbial rug out from under people who simply name is as solely interreligous hatred,where many -especially in the west- may just dismiss it as solely on the basis of intereligous hatred, so " of course armenians were slaughtered? what do you expect? look at the Balkans..it is just the natural order of things...and leave it at that. It gives more credibility to the actuality of the Turkic policies.

ARAB EYEWITNESS HUSSEYN EL-FAYEZ ABOUT THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE Descended from the powerful tribe of Sulut in the Hauran district of Syria, Fayez el-Husseyn was a prominent Arab lawyer. He was the Governor of the Harpoot (Kharberd) Province for three and half years. In 1915, on the way to Erzerum, he was arrested by Turkish authorities without any cause, and spent one month in a Diyarbekir prison. As part of his probation, he stayed on in Diyarbekir for approximately 7 more months and was eyewitness to the atrocities committed by Turks against the exiled Armenians from Erzerum, Van, Bitlis, Kharberd and other places. Later, Fayez el-Husseyn presented his testimonies in a book entitled “Massacres in Armenia”, published at first in its original Arabic in 1916, and then later, the book’s popularity resulted a French and English translation, “Temoignage d’un Arabe musulman sur l’innocene et le massacres des Armeniens, and “Martyred Armenia”, respectively. ...After great ordeals, during which I often saw death and slaughter, I reached Basra, and conceived the idea of publishing this book as a service to the cause of truth and of a people oppressed by the Turks, and also, as I have also stated in my conclusion, to defend the faith of Islam against the charge of fanaticism which will undoubtedly be brought against by Europeans, May God guide us in the right way... ...We then proceeded in carts from Seruj to El-Raha (Urfa). On the way I saw crowds going on foot, which from a distance I took for troops marching to the field of battle. On approach, I found they were Armenian women, walking barefoot and weary, placed in ranks like the gendarmes who preceded and followed them. Whenever one of them lagged behind, a gendarme would beat her with the butt of his rifle, throwing her on her face, till she rose terrified and rejoined her companions. But if one lagged from sickness, she was either abandoned, alone in the wilderness, without help or comfort, to be a prey to wild beasts, or a gendarme would end her life with a bullet... ...After leaving Urfa, we again saw throngs of women, exhausted by fatigue and misery, dying of hunger and thirst, and we saw the bodies of the dead lying by the roadside. Upon our arrival near a village called Kara Jevren, about six hours travel from Urfa, we stopped at a spring to breakfast and get something to drink. I went closer, towards the source of the spring, and came upon a most appalling spectacle. A woman, partly unclothed, was lying face up, her blouse messy and bloody, and she had four bullet-wounds in her chest. I could not restrain myself and wept bitterly. As I drew out a handkerchief to wipe away my tears and looked round to see whether any of my companions had observed me, I saw a child not more than eight years old, lying on his face, his head chopped off [apparently] by an axe... ... In the evening we arrived at Kara Jevren and slept there till morning. At sunrise we went on towards Sivrek, and halfway down the road we saw a terrible sight. Corpses were lying in great numbers on both sides of the road; here we saw a woman outstretched on the ground, her body half veiled by her long hair; there, women lying on their faces, the dried blood blackening their delicate forms; I saw the corpses of men, parched to the semblance of charcoal by the heat of the sun. As we approached Sivrek, we were deluged by the number corpses, mostly children’s bodies. As we arrived at Sivrek and left our carts, we saw one of the servants of the khan carrying the body of an infant, with hair as yellow as gold, which he threw behind the house. We asked him about it, and he said that there were three sick Armenian women in the house, who had lagged behind their companions and that one of them had given birth to this infant but could not nourish it because of her illness. So it had died and had been thrown out as one might throw out a mouse... ...What, in God’s name, had these women done? Had they made war on the Turks, or killed even one of them? What was the crime of these hapless creatures, whose sole offense was that they were Armenians skilled in the management of their homes and the training of their children, with no thought beyond the comfort of their husbands and sons and the fulfillment of their duties towards them. I ask you, O, Moslem – is this to be counted as a crime? Think for a moment. What was the fault of these poor women? Was it in their being superior to the Turkish women in every respect? Even assuming that their men had merited such treatment, is it right that these women should be dealt with in manner from which wild beast would recoil? God has said in the Koran: “Do not load one with another’s burdens”, that is, let no one be punished for another. What had these weak women done, and what had their infants done? Can the men of the Turkish government bring forward even a feeble proof to justify their action and to convince the people of Islam, who hold that action unlawful and reject it? No; they can find no word to say before a people whose customs are founded on justice, and whose laws are founded on wisdom and reason... ...I observed that the crosses had been removed from the lofty steeples of the churches, which were now used as storehouses and markets for the keeping and sale of the effects of the dead... ...At Moush, a part [of the Armenians] were killed in straw-barns, but even a greater number by shooting or stabbing with knives. The government hired butchers who received a Turkish pound each day as wages. A doctor names Aziz Bey, told me that when he was at Marzivan, in the Vilayet of Sivas, he heard that a caravan of Armenians was being sent to execution. He went to the Kaimakam and said to him: “You know I am a doctor, and butchers, as doctors are mostly occupied in cutting up mankind. And as the duties of a Kaimakam at this time are also like our own – cutting up human bodies – I beg you to let me see this surgical operation myself”. Permission was given, and the doctor went. He found four butchers, each with a machete; the gendarmes had divided the Armenians into parties of ten, and had sent them up to the butchers one by one. The butcher told an Armenian man to stretch out his neck; he did so, and was slaughtered like a sheep. The doctor was amazed at their steadfastness in the presence of death, not saying a word, or showing any sign of fear. The gendarmes used to bind the women and children and throw them down from very lofty heights, so that they reached the ground shattered to pieces. This place is said to have been between Diarbekir and Mardin, and the bones of the slain are there in heaps to this day... ...Shavket Bey, one of the officials charged with the extermination of the Armenians, told me, in the company with others the following story: “I was proceeding with our military party, and when we arrived outside the city walls of Diarbekir and began to shoot down the Armenians, a Kurd came up to me, kissed my hand, and begged me to give him a girl of about 10 years old. I stopped the firing and sent a gendarme to bring the girl to me. When she came I pointed out a spot to her and said, ‘Sit there. I have given you to this man, and you will be saved from death’. After a while, I saw that she had thrown herself among the dead Armenians, so I ordered the gendarmes to cease firing and stand her up. I said to her, ‘I have had pity on you and brought you from among the others to spare your life. Why do you throw yourself with them? Go with this man and he will bring you up like a daughter’. She said: ‘I am the daughter of an Armenian; my parents and kinsfolk are killed among these people; I will have no others in their place, and I do not wish to live any longer without them. Then she cried and lamented; I tried hard to persuade her, but she would not listen, so I let her go her way. She left me joyfully, put herself between her father and mother, who were at their last gasp, and she was killed there”. He then added: “If this was the behavior of the children, what was that of their elders?” ...The Turkish Government thought that European nations might get to hear of the destruction of the Armenians and publish the news abroad so as to excite prejudice against the Turks. So after the gendarmes had killed a number of Armenian men, they put on them turbans and brought Kurdish women to weep and lament over them, saying that the Armenians and killed their men. They also brought a photographer to photograph the bodies and the weeping women, so that at a future time they might be able to convince Europe that it was the Armenians who had attacked the Kurds and killed them, that the Kurdish tribes had risen against them in revenge, and that the Turkish Government had no part in the matter. But the secret of these proceedings was not hidden from men of intelligence, and after all this had been done, the truth became known and was spread abroad in Diarbekir...

What about the concept of the "Divine Feminine", i.e. , a Goddess archetype or entity/entities ? Does a worldview that posits a monotheism, a stern father figure ( authoritarian hierarchical spiritual model ) really challenge or change anything: or is it another set in an over 2 thousand year old model which banishes certain existential realities experienced by (armenian and) humans in their environment? What differentiates this Armenism from the long-standing Abrahamic religions(such as Christianity) , or the stodgy patriarchalism of Confucianism or Roman paganism? These religions which are fearful of joy, the flesh and matter, the feminine element, the shadows and liberatory chaos? Fearful of reason and reflection also? Fearful of liminal modes of thinking as opposed to a binary split between flesh and matter, the Self and the Environment? Fearful of the playful Dionysian masculine , and upholding the repression of healthy masculinity under the rubric of excessive "Reason" and fear of dissolution into an undifferentiated feminine chaos? How much agency ( control over their own lives) does this Armenism provide? Is it a religious mechanism of control or a mechanism of liberation?

I counted 27 ayes, 21 nayes: WE GOT IT FOR MARKUP ! no onto next phase of the work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i am watching it live from the website right now, so its not removed

ah-no they are debating it right now does anyone know which CSPAN on tv this is on? granparents don't have internet

Oh, and BTW, much <3 to the real reds who did their deeds honorably. And any people who helped Hayastdan really prosper. Can't paint all of you w/ the same brush, ya know. Nuance in understanding is key to actual liberation IMNSHO, as is respect for differences-we should just learn from our history is what I am saying.

Good lord, May Day wasn't even started by Communists@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!=it was started by anarchists ; libertarian socialists, anti-authoritarian socialists, - you know, ppl who said " It's not my revolution if I can't dance to it" ( Emma Goldman). See Haymarket Square, Chicago, Lucy Parsons-=the folks who brought you the 8-hour work day-this 8-hour work day movment reached a peak in HayMarket Square in Chicago. Not a bunch of Stalinists ( who also sold out the attempt to cut off fascism in the head during the Spanish Civil War , betrayed tons o people!_ . On the sell-out in vivid form, see Ken Loach's movie "Land and Liberty " or Orwell's Homeage to Catalonia, or read on the "Durutti COlumn" in Spain. Or th eCNT-FAI. Again-"state capitalists" -i.e., authoritarian, state-centered top-down oligarchy, sold out the anarchosyndicalists time and time again (after Russian revolution , which they liquidated in Korndstadt uprising and elsewhere, b/c, well, being an anarchist means libertarian socialist and also one is critical of authoritarian top-down structures, prefers a bottom-up approach-like the asembalistas in Argentina recently- and may not even wish to seize state-power to become the new "mukktar" in town. And before all that- May Day was ........PAGAN! See, Beltane/Bealtian ( re: May Poles Dancing, Rausing the May Pole, temporary May Marriages, union of Female and Male elements) , Walpurgis NAcht (Apr. 30th et al in germnay) plus a million other fertility festivals all over Europe and parts of Southwest Asia. Which is why for some old-school Armenians from various communities, St. George's Day (May 6) is still a big deal. Okay, well, I am guessing .....................on that who knows?;-) Then again, I can very well see why some Stalinist #% with a fixation on his "power-over" ppl may very well choose May Day to co-op and run his military tanks all over he place. I mean ,if those folks got issues, they should just get their own May Pole raising on and leave everyone else the heck outta it. Duraks.

Did that . Too many candles, not enough people FLAMING>

Request for the HAYEREN /ARMENIAN name of this female archetype! ( to get back on subject and help the girl out who started that site: Alright, I knew it once, now forget. Folk tales of the spooky sort are a good source, as is a wide knowledge of local demonology in folk culture. The patterns of this archetype have been listed: female spirit, night, odd feet, associated w/ night birds and sleep apnea - (re succubus like behavior as well) , deserted places, sometimes winged. A bit predatory. Mirrors come up quite a bit as well as bathhouses. I would not be surprised if one of the "Mehian" poets included this archetype in one of their poems. Afterall the Prayer of Navasard was a good bit innovative. Other names in the Meditteranean are Lamae/Lamia , Strix (where "Strega" comes form) and a few more. A look into the folk tales of greater hayasdan would be fruitful. p.s. In Plains Culture, ( North American Indian) she is Deer Woman. Heard the story as a kid (eek!)

from memory:: as far as "lilith" being herya, the fact is is that her legend is an archetype that can be found worldwide, but is near eastern in origin, which includes the ancient armenian territories. the archetype was widespread in the ancient near east, but protections against her and this type of "alive symbol" in folk belief and the unconscious persist to today-particularly in the fears of certain types of men and also reactionary repressed women with no spine to speak of. the first mention of the Lilitu is in relation to sumerian mythos and texts where the goddess inanna asks a male friend -Dumuzi, if i remember right-to cut down a tree where "the dark maid lilith lives" and the "Zu" bird lives. one of her original (Sumerian )names is kisikil udakkarra or kisikil lilake; "the dark maiden who has seized the light". She is an archetype of a female Prometheus , or light-bringer ( hence a better word may be luciferian). herya pikced her up, but as a demon, such as Igrat bat Mahlath or of the "qlippothic" variant in malkuth; the root of the word for night in semitic languages-Lyl- is connected to the name. as she arrived into biblical mythology, she was said to be the first mate of adam. however, she refused to lie beneath him (be subjugated), sprouted wings, flew to the shores of the red sea and cavorted with spirits for sheer fun until the tyrant Jhvh or "yaldaboth" sent angels to slay her offspring, ala passover fun i suppose. so the great god in the sky made eve to be adams submissive helpmett, but adam had a problem being attracted to eve, so lilith disguised herself as a serpent to give them a little help. check Hypostatis of the ARchons in the NAg Hammadi for more. Biblical script is isaih 34:14 where she is referred to as teh "great screech owl" common in this archetype is the anti-authoritarian and promethean element as well as night, night birds, fleeing, strange feet (like aisha qandisha in morocco or the churail of south asia ) , sleep apnea and erotic but horrible dreams, desert places, unabashed nondomesticated female sexuality- a threatening sexuality in fact to the point where it is demonized by a repressive power-structure, the power of the repressed, the obscure, underworld, etc....she would be a spandermat type for armenians and i suppose we could find connections to vishap legends as well , as opposed to a domesticated hera or "de-toothed"/"declawed" variant of Anahid who only gets to play the role of the corralled mother in many interpretations or a mere genitive force. a levantine variant of her is Anat. in persian archetypes, it is AZ or JEH. there is a male counterpart as well that constantly pops up. in occidental modern narrative, she is commonly found in thelemic texts as a correspondant of "Babalon". Jack Parsons -a rocket scientist-wrote a beautiful poem called the Birth of Babalon which shows a Lilit type influence on his characterization of the thelemic Babalon. additionally, this archetype is popular in "lhp" narrative, poetry and so forth. in hoodoo in the south in the u.s., she's referenced as "the lady in red", or in where more african trad has remained in voudon proper as a loa of the "red type" (ge rouge)such as "ERzulie ge Rouge/Ezili ge Rouge" . she can also be corresponded to the loa Oya when the bs is dropped. further south, some have claimed that Madame Charlotte is more appropriate for this model / belief system.Syncretic systems , again in the more latin area in the u.s., many say that "Arana de Reyna" ( queen of the spiders) is a better correspondance. next door in texas, there is the La llorona legend which persists. in short, an archetype premised on liberation and the shadow side of things, so to speak, which has sparked some great poetry for some and nightmares for t\others.

Screamers movie is playing this Saturday @ 5:15 pm as a part of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival Here is the details where tickets can be purchased for the Dallas event, Screamers! documentary by Carla Garapedian, which features Armenian progressive/hard rock music band System of a Down. Screamers! is showing March 24th, 5:15 pm Sat, playing at the Magnolia Theater in Dallas, as a part of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival. http://filmguide.afidallas.com/tixSYS/2007...&ShowPast=N Cost: $8.50 a ticket Date: Saturday, March 24 2007 Time: 5:15 pm City: Dallas, Texas Theater Location & Address: Magnolia West Village 3699 McKinney Avenue, Suite 100 Dallas, TX 75204 (214) 764-9106 http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/Dal...TheMagnolia.htm Number to call to purchase a ticket: For ticketing information please phone 1-214-720-0663 or email boxoffice@afidallas.com What is Screamers! About? Official Website: http://www.screamersmovie.com/default.asp Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamers_%28documentary%29 Check youtube or the official website of screamers for trailers and shorts. About Carla Garapedian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carla_Garapedian What does AFI acronym stand for? AFI stands for the American Film Institute : http://www.afi.com/about/whatis.aspx What is AFI Dallas? The Dallas premier of AFI . http://www.afidallas.com/

All the threads on the forums show as collapsed: as in teh starter post shows, then below everythng is "collapsed" in a tree belwo where alll the repsonses show only the first couple of words. Is this the permanent style of hyeforum? vay offf....i want to see the full bodies of each post as my page loads so i don;t have to click on each and every response-- how do i fix this? CAN i fix this?

I agree . After reading all of this, I submitted a post . But the implications of denying elements of our culture finishes and accelerates the jermag chert.

I support the above. At the same time. I say to all of you who say not white=not Armenian and polly up by saying European this and that the following. : Written in English for odars to read as well. Hayastan was Hayastan, Armenia/Armenia and Armenians were Armenians before others not indigenous and native to our area *invented the idea* of "Whiteness" , which is recent ( check your current science of anthropolgy and the history of the creation of he idea of whiteness in Western Europe and North America) , which nonetheless has REAL CONSEQUENCES. And if you reading this believe in biological bases of races , nontheless, I ask you about FMF? FAMILIAL MEDITERRANEAN FEVER which is a genetic disease SPECIFIC ONLY TO PEOPLES THAT ARE MIDDLE EASTERN IN ORIGIN! Hayastan was Hayastan and Before an Orientalist perspective created the vantage point of the center as being Western Europe and N. America as the norm and everything east of that , thus the creation of the term " Middle East", again an invention which is recent to world history and especially to Armenian history. That being said: HISTORIC WESTERN ARMENIA WHICH MANY OF US ORIGINATE AND WHERE THE GENOCIDE TOOK PLACE IS IN WHAT IS NOW CONSIDERED THE MIDDLE EAST/Southwest Asia. DO NOT TRY TO ETHNICALLY CLEANSE OUR COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND CULTURE THERE AND FINISH WHAT THE TURKS STARTED JUST TO BE ACCEPTABLE TO AN INVENTED PEOPLE -i.e., whites!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

where is the video? youtube removed it for " use violations"?

OOH! I found a bunch of Armenian musicians at this site, CAlifornia folk music. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afccchtml/cowperf.html Now, how do I rip/get these songs and burn them to cd? Aren't they in the public sphere now? akh.,

I'm making a much beloved 75 year -old relative a homemade compilation cd. I am trying to put together popular Armenian songs heard on the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada from the 30's -late 40's and 50's. Especially in New York and Ontario/St. Catherine's. Any suggestions?

Yerevan, May 27. ArmInfo. Another Armenian young man was killed in Moscow, namely, Artur Sardarian, 19 years old. RA Public Radio informed about this, citing Simon Tsatourian, the lawyer who deals with the murder case of Vigen Abrahamian. The murder was committed in a railway wagon o a train going to one of the suburbs of Moscow. S. Tsaturian assures that the murderers were first following their victim and then killed him. A. Sardarian was hit with a knife in his head and also received to stabs in his chest. After that the young man died. One of the eyewitnesses tells that the assassins were shouting “Hail Russia!” when committing the crime. A. Sardarian was born in Baku and after the events of the late 1980’s his family moved to Moscow.

not a skinhead? pleez.... everyone knows that right-wing racialized nationalist fascism at a grass-roots level is on the rise in russia (looks like in the ROA too :-( ) in russia against "chyernie lyudie" ...has been for at least a decade.... and just because it ain't tatooed on his forehead don't make in not ethnically motivated.

i mean when there are a bunch of Bosha ( hear posha in lebanon and syria.. and some descendants in the americas) talking ...the "high" word is Lom.... kind of like the functioning of armenian and hye , broken into more specificities according to context and necessary description ....yes hay em... yes barskahye em... yes .. etc etc. ..

Oh, and yeah the word is not Romani (adjective) or Roma (people) Rom (man) .. in this case ( the Romani population in Europe *is* actually largely self-designating collectively as Roma ( also sinti) broken further into desginations as Vlax , Mchwaya, Kalderash,etc. The further parts of the middle east are Dom. But in Hayastan and wherever Loma happen to be in the diaspora , the word is , Loma , sometimes Bosa or Posha ( not so much). I've heard this mostly " Lomahye Bosaphen". Lom or Loma is easiest I guess.

I recommend that you look into some of the published works of Dr. Ian Hancock, a widely published Romani inguist ( the work published is initially in Eglish) now housed at UT Austin. He also publishes on creole langauges. To give a base, rough feel, here are some words , sav-uh all puchtav a sk mari- beat ciri place- bed khasik belt vorov big malav bread bakhot break koli breast an- bring phal brother- tel butter su cold av- come euhrov cry or weep cjin cut ( also means write) khel play ( can suggest bar/par dancing too) xol descend mar- die pi- drink xath eat anlu egg xenav excrement akhi eye mui face par-fall pendzch- five running out of steam to add the armenian words in E/W here too, but you know them so you have a basis now and good luck. P.S. thre is very very very little written on this : manchjav pendz

Shut up , indeed , little man. I'll repost this for you to think of , you Ayn Rand worshipping, masturbatory, cowardly misanthrope. Your teeming intellect is not quite so sharp as you rehash the most stupid of white American stereotypes. If your quasi-libertarian drivel were even framed to assert anything but the most tired of stereotypes , I would bother, you wanna be anarchist ( more like a Rayndian, suburban-spewed, myopic right-libertarian navel-gazing cornocopia of kak) . However, I have yet another wake and funeral to tend to. And then it is off to a benefit for the vicitms of Katrina and the lived implications of your drivel. And you note the fault of the government. I concur, but see that you yourself are only rehashing your own views, as you have claimed anarchist in the past. But seriously, give it up and join your buddies the neo-cons; they are masters at blaming the victims. Moreover, where do you live that you spout this drivvel so freely? Step up, little boy, and come to my neck of the woods to say that. Drop by Oak Cliff when you stop through Dallas;-). Do not reply to me. I got no time for you. K__em ko hokey ! by Tim Wise Sometimes it can be difficult, having a conversation with those whose political views are so diametrically opposed to one's own. But even more challenging, is having a discussion with someone who simply refuses to accept even the most basic elements of your worldview. At that point, disagreement is less about the specifics of one or another policy option, and more about the nature of social reality itself. This is what it can be like sometimes, when trying to discuss the issue of white privilege with white people. Despite being an obvious institutionalized phenomenon to people of color and even some of us white folks, white privilege is typically denied, and strongly, by most of us..... To truly understand a nation, a culture, or its people, it helps to know what they take for granted. After all, sometimes the things that go unspoken are more powerful than the spoken word, if for no other reason than the tendency of unspoken assumptions to reinforce core ways of thinking, feeling and acting, without ever having to be verbalized (and thus subjected to challenge) at all. What's more, when people take certain things for granted, anything that goes against the grain of what they perceive as "normal" will tend to stand out like a sore thumb, and invite a hostility that seems reasonable, at least to those dispensing it, precisely because their unspoken assumptions have gone uninterrogated for so long. Thus, every February I encounter people who are apoplectic at the thought of Black History Month, and who insist with no sense of irony or misgiving that there should be no such thing, since, after all, there is no White History Month--a position to which they can only adhere because they have taken for granted that "American history" as told to them previously was comprehensive and accurate, as opposed to being largely the particular history of the dominant group. In other words, the normalcy of the white narrative, which has rendered every month since they popped out of their momma's wombs White History Month, escapes them, and makes the efforts of multiculturalists seem to be the unique break with an otherwise neutral color-blindness. Sorta' like those who e-mail me on a semi-regular basis to insist, as if they have just stumbled upon a truth of unparalleled profundity, that there should be an Ivory Magazine to balance out Ebony, or that we need a White Entertainment Television network to balance out BET, or a NAAWP to balance out the NAACP. Again, these dear souls ignore what is obvious to virtually all persons of color but which remains unseen by those whose reality gets to be viewed as the norm: namely, that there are already two Ivory Magazines--Vogue and Cosmopolitan; that there are several WETs, which just so happen to go by the names of CBS, NBC and ABC; and that the Fortune 500, U.S. Congress and Fraternal Orders of Police are all doing a pretty good job holding it down for us white folks on the organizational front. Just because the norm is not racially-named, doesn't mean it isn't racialized. Likewise the ongoing backlash against affirmative action, by those who seem to believe that opportunity would truly be equal in the absence of these presumably unjust efforts to ensure access to jobs and higher education for persons of color. We are to believe that before affirmative action things were fine, and that were such efforts abolished now, things would return to this utopic state of affairs: to hell with the persistent evidence that people of color continue to face discrimination in employment, housing, education and all other institutional settings in the U.S. So if the University of Michigan gives applicants of color twenty points on a 150-point admission scale, so as to promote racial diversity and balance out the disadvantages to which such students are often subjected in their K-12 schooling experience, that is seen as unfair racial preference. But when the same school gives out 16 points to kids from the lily-white Upper Peninsula, or four points for children of overwhelmingly white alumni, or ten points for students who went to the state's "top" schools (who will be disproportionately white), or 8 points for those who took a full slate of Advanced Placement classes in high schools (which classes are far less available in schools serving students of color), this is seen as perfectly fair, and not at all racially preferential. What's more, the whites who received all those bonus points due to their racial and class position will not be thought of by anyone as having received unearned advantages, in spite of the almost entirely ascriptive nature of the categories into which they fell that qualified them for such bonuses. No matter their "qualifications," it will be taken for granted that any white student at a college or University belongs there. This is why Jennifer Gratz, the lead plaintiff in the successful "reverse discrimination" suit against Michigan's undergraduate affirmative action policy, found it a supreme injustice that a few dozen black, Latino and American Indian students were admitted ahead of her, despite having lower SATs and grades; but she thought nothing of the fact that more than 1400 other white students also were admitted ahead of her and her co-plaintiffs, despite having lower scores and grades. "Lesser qualified" whites are acceptable, you see, while "lesser qualified" people of color must be eliminated from their unearned perches of opportunity. This is the kind of racist logic that people like Gratz, who now heads up the state's anti-affirmative action initiative with the financial backing of Ward Connerly, find acceptable. This kind of logic also explains the effort of whites at Roger Williams University to start a "white scholarship fund," on the pretense that scholarships for students of color are unfair and place whites at a disadvantage. This, despite the unmentioned fact that about 93 percent of all college scholarship money goes to whites; despite the fact that students of color at elite and expensive colleges come from families with about half the average income of whites; despite the fact that there are scholarships for pretty much every kind of student under the sun, including children of Tupperware dealers, kids whose parents raise horses, kids who are left-handed, kids whose families descend from the founding fathers: you name it, and there's money available for it. While there are plenty of whites unable to afford college, the fault for this unhappy reality lies not with minority scholarships, but rather with the decisions of almost exclusively white University elites to raise the price of higher education into the stratosphere, to the detriment of most everyone. But to place blame where it really belongs, on rich white people, would be illogical. After all, we take it for granted that one day we too might be wealthy, and we wouldn't want others to question our decisions and prerogatives come that day either. Better to blame the dark-skinned for our hardship, since we can take it for granted that hey're powerless to do anything about it. Whites, as it turns out, take most everything for granted in this country; which makes perfect sense, because dominant groups usually have that privilege. We take for granted that we won't be racially profiled even when members of our group engage in criminality at a disproportionate rate, whether the crime is corporate fraud, serial killing, child molestation, abortion clinic bombings or drunk driving. And indeed we won't be. We take it for granted that our terrorism won't result in whites as a group being viewed with generalized suspicion. So Tim McVeigh represents only Tim McVeigh, while Mohammed Atta gets to serve as a proxy for every other person who either has his name or follows a prophet of that name. We take it for granted that our dishonesty will be viewed in purely individualistic terms, while the dishonesty of others will result in aspersions being cast upon the entire group from which they come. Thus, Jayson Blair's deceptions at the New York Times provoke howls of indignation at any effort to provide opportunity to journalists of color--because after all, diversity and quality are proven by this one man's exploits to be incompatible--but Jack Kelley's equally egregious fabrications and fraud at USA Today fails to prompt calls for an end to hiring white guys as reporters, or for scrutinizing them more carefully, or for closing down whatever avenues of opportunity have helped keep the profession so white for so long. We take it for granted that we will never be viewed as one of those dreaded "special interest" groups, precisely because whatever serves our interests is presumed universal. So, for example, while politicians who pursue the support of black, Latino, gay or other "minority" voters are said to be pandering to special interests, those who bend over backwards to secure the backing of NASCAR dads and soccer moms, whose racial composition is as self-evident as it is unmentioned, are said to be politically savvy and merely trying to connect with "normal folks." We take it for granted that "classical music" is a perfectly legitimate term for what really amounts to one particular classical form (mostly European orchestral and piano concerto music), ignoring that there are, indeed, classical forms of all musical styles, as well as their more contemporary versions. We take it for granted that the only controversy regarding Jesus is whether or not he was killed by Jews or Romans; or whether the depiction of his execution by Mel Gibson is too violent for children, all the while ignoring a much larger issue, which is why does Gibson (and for that matter every other white filmmaker or artist in the history of the faith) feel the need to make Jesus white: something he surely could not have been and was not, with all due apology to Michelangelo, Constantine, Pat Robertson, and the producers of "Jesus Christ Superstar." That the only physical descriptions of Jesus in the Bible indicate that he had feet the color of burnt brass, and hair like wool, poses a slight problem for Gibson and other followers of the white Jesus hanging in their churches, adorning their crucifixes (if Catholic), and gracing the Christmas cards they send each December. It is the same problem posed by the anthropological evidence concerning the physical appearance of first century Jews from that part of Northern Africa we prefer to call the "Middle East" (and why is that I wonder?). Namely, Jesus did not look like a long-haired version of my Ashkenazi Jewish, Eastern European great-grandfather in his prime. But to even bring this up is to send most white Christians (and sadly, even many of color) into fits, replete with assurances that "it doesn't matter what Jesus looked like, it only matters what he did." Which is all fine and good, until you realize that indeed it must matter to them what Jesus looked like; otherwise, they wouldn't be so averse to presenting him as the man of color he most assuredly was: a man dark enough to guarantee that were he to come back tomorrow, and find himself on the wrong side of New York City at the wrong time of night, reaching for his keys or his wallet in the presence of the Street Crimes Unit, he'd be dispatched far more expeditiously than was done at Golgotha 2000 years ago. But never fear: we needn't grapple with that because we can merely take it for granted that Jesus had to look like us, as did Adam and Eve, and as does God himself. And indeed, most whites believe this to be true, as proven by every single picture Bible for kids made by a white person, all of which present these figures in such a way. Consider the classic and widely distributed Robert Maxwell Bible Series for children, popularly known as the "blue books," which are found in virtually every pediatrician and OBGYN's office in the U.S. In Volume I, readers learn (at least visually speaking) that the Garden of Eden was in Oslo: a little-known fact that will stun Biblical scholars to be sure. It would all be quite funny were it not so incontestably insane, so pathological in terms of the scope of our nuttiness. What else, after all, can explain the fact that when a New Jersey theatre company put on a passion play a few years ago with a black actor in the lead role, they received hundreds of hateful phone calls and even death threats for daring to portray Jesus as anyone darker than, say, Shaun Cassidy? What else but a tenuous (at best) grip on reality can explain the quickness with which many white Americans ran around after 9/11 saying truly stupid shit like "now we know what it means to be attacked for who we are?" Now we know? Hell, some folks always knew what that was like, though their pain and suffering never counted for much in the eyes of the majority. What else but delusion on a scale necessitating medication could lead one to say--as two whites did on CNN in the wake of the first O.J. Simpson verdict--that they now realized everything they had been told about the American justice system being fair was a lie? Now they realized it! See the theme here? That's what privilege is, for all those who constantly ask me what I mean when I speak of white privilege. It's the ability to presume that your reality is the reality; that your experiences, if white, are universal, and not particular to your racial identity. It's the ability to assume that you belong and that others will presume that too; the ability to define reality for others, and expect that definition to stick (because you have the power to ensure that it becomes the dominant narrative). And it's the ability to ignore all evidence to the contrary, claim that you yourself are the victim, and get everyone from the President to the Supreme Court to the average white guy on the street to believe it. It is Times New Roman font, one inch margins, left hand justified. In other words, it is the default position on the computer of American life. And it has rendered vast numbers of its recipients utterly incapable of critical thought. Only by rebelling against it, and insisting on our own freedom from the mental straightjacket into which we have been placed as whites by this system, can we hope to regain our full humanity, and be of any use as allies to people of color in their struggle against racism. by Tim Wise Oh shut up! Will you please pull your head out of your ass and tell me what it is that you find so distasteful in what I said? What exactly did I say that pissed you off? Please learn to control your emotions. Tragedy happened no one disputes, but it sure isn't an excuse for rape and murder. Perhaps the looting, we can dismiss, the rest we can't. It remains that blacks have been more prone to this than others in the past and present. So all the excuses you make won't absolve that. And as far as the whole 'poverty' conundrum everyone mindlessly spits, who is to blame? The 'racist society' I presume? As far as these peoples' condition in the socioeconomic ladder, they have no one to blame but themselves, I'm sorry. As far as the hurricane and the response, the Federal government is to blame. But what does this prove? It proves that government is incompetent, period. The levees were set to break and officials were warned a year in advance of the necessary changes that had to be made. They even outlined a worst case scenario for New Orleans from a hurricane and described exactly the situation we have now. You can read this in last Friday's (September 2) edition of the LA Times, Calendar Section. style_images/master/snapback.png

Anonymouse, as we say cher , kiss my a@@ in the middle of Bourbon and Toulane banque!