As we talk about in the last classes, the non-violence was a very popular way of protest, and it became very famous because of Gandhi.
In this entry I would like to talk about the differnt methods of non-violence protest.
1.- Sit-ins: In this method the protesters occupy certain place by sitting on available chairs, stools and occasionally on the floor for a limited or unlimited period, the objective is disrupting the normal pattern of activities.
Durham, NorthCarolina sit-in, 1957.
2.- Student strikes: we all know what a student strike is, isn't it?
Student strike in Quebec, Canada.
3.- Vigils: A vigil consist of people remaning at a particulr place as a means of expressing a point of view, or a disagreement. It often involves late hours and loss of sleep
Chacao,Venezuela, 2014
4.- Hunger strike: This is a very known way of non-violent protest, which consist in no eating any kind of food, in a way of protesting.
In my opinion I think that non-violence it's a way of violence, because if violence has and needs mechanism and tools of coercion, nonviolence also uses artifacts and maybe that is the reason of the continuing discrimination and injustices in our world.
And this make me think a lot about, the violence as an issue. Because violence is always present in our lives, since we were childs. How can we fight agaist violence? It is ok to fight violence with more violence?
In this entry I will talk about the book we had to read (Rabbit proof fence) and I will do a parallel with the natives in Chile and how are they treated nowadays. The differences between those cultures are a lot.
In the book "Rabbit proof fence" we can see the discrimination against natives explicitly, the government wanted to avoid the born of new half-caste children to differentiate the races.
The excuse of the government was that the mixed-race children don't come from any culture or race.
Those children were the stolen generation. Why were they taken away from their families? Just because they were white people in some way, and for that cause they had to be treated like "white people". They were kept away to study to be farmers or servants. What they did to be treated that way? They were HALF-CASTE, like most of us nowadays.
After many years, Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister of Australia in 2008) apologized on behalf of Australia for all the suffering caused in the past, he apologized for the stolen generation.
However, in Chile in spite of that many years have passed, and also many governments, nobody apologize for the suffering of the mapuche people. The government is still against mapuche people, they are on warpath. Many mapuche people have been killed, the justice don't who was the killer. The government don't recognize the murders, year by year people is killed without killer. Why? because is "the hidden war".
Nevertheless we can see in articles on internet about people killed on the mapuche area, the articles are in blogs or unofficial sites. Why the government don't admit the murders, or maybe they can say they have not acted on the facts, but they do nothing about it.
I think THEY MUST TO DO A LECTURE talking about the conflicts with them, and also they have to comment why that facts don't appear in the news.
It's so easier talk about other natives that nowadays don't exist, but ... come on, we have to worry about today, and try to kept the culture.
What do you think about the conflicts?
Do you think that the news of the murders are real or just rumors?
After years of fighting for their Civil rights, black people had succeeded in many ways, one of
them was that on 1954 the law was changed and segregation in schools became against the Law. “All black” and “all white” schools were not permitted anymore, they had to study under same roof as a sign of equality.
But who would have thought, hate against black people was so strong in Arkansas that Governor himself, Orval Faubus, sent the national guard to stop the 9 young black students from entering Central High School. The highest authority of the state was breaking the law, school had to close for a while because of this, but this wasn't judged by the other parents, no one wanted their children to share schools with negros.
Something we didn’t read in our book was that Martin Luther King Jr, was directly involved on fixing this situation “take a strong forthright stand in the Little Rock situation.” King told the president that if the federal government did not take a stand against the injustice it would “set the process of integration back fifty years. This is a great opportunity for you and the federal government to back up the longings and aspirations of millions of peoples of good will and make law and order a reality” (King, 9 September 1957). To what President Eisenhower answered by sending army troops to protect the 9 black students and supporting desegregation.
Imagine having to be escorted to classes by 1000 army men because of your skin color, and knowing that if it wasn’t for them the crowd that gathered everyday outside Central High School could have hurt you, maybe even kill you. I can’t imagine myself on that situation, i think i would’ve been scared and intimidated by all the hate and the constant threat of being hurt.
This was only one of many civil rights fights that were happening at the same time through those years, there are many other unknown heroes that deserve all our respect for their strength and their will to fight and never give up until their civil rights were established. Here is a video about Little Rock Nine's situation.
How would you feel if you were one of them? I think it must have been really hard to be in their shoes, but for them, it was worth it.
Orundellico, better known as Jemmy Button, was an aborigine from the Yaghan or Yámana Tribe. He lived in Wulaia, a harbor located near Murray Canal,
in Chile's Austral Zone. Yaghan were nomads that travelled in canoes, they were
marine collecters.
On April, 11st of 1830, Captain Robert Fitz-Roy was exploring the zone, then
called "Terra Icongnita Australis" (now is "Tierra del
Fuego"), in HMS Beagle Ship. He met some fueguians who changed fish for
some buttons and tabs, then they continued the expedition, but they found
another group of aborigines that also wanted to change fish for buttons, but
this time one of the natives got into the ship and after he had been paid for amother of pearl button. The
native was calledJames Button. He recived this name, because of the price that they had to
pay for him.
But he was not the only one. On April, 13rd the ship arrived Beagle where there were three fuegians that Fitz-Roy had taken from the west as a slay vers. The captain decided to take this four natives to England, to be educated and then they had to come back home. Fueguians were called: York Minster, Jemmy Button, Fuegia Basket and Boat Memory.When they got England, Fitz-Roy took care of them. He vaccinate them not to have any disease that were terrible to the aborigines taken to Europe. Anyway, one day Boat Memory died because of smallpox in a hospital.
Later, the natives were
educated by Missionary Church Society, so they were taken to Wallthamastow.
They stayed there almost like a year. They learnt English, Christianism, how to use commo tools and some knowledges about farming, gardening and mechanics.
On June in 1831 Fitz-Roy had the mission to come back to America to settle some problems that were happening there. So the James could get back to his house. The ex-Fueguians had been in England one year and four months. This time they were travelling witha a naturalist, Charles Darwin. It was very difficult to Jemmy to get his language and customs back, but in the other hand, it was easier to take off from him everything that had to do with Europe. The experiment failed.
In 1855 a group of Christian missionaries visited Wulaia Bay in Navarino Island, to find that Jemmy still had a some remains of the English accent. Later in 1859, a group of missionaries was killed at Wulaia Bay by the yaghan, supposedly led by Jemmy and his family. Then he denied any responsibility.
Here you can watch a video, with a funny song in Spanish that explains this story briefly.
I think that this story is very interesting because you can see that someone is taken to another country to become to another person. They tried to make his mind up, he was part of a Fitz-Roy's experiment. Englishman didn't care about him and neiter his customs, things that are part of their culture. However he still had his aboriginal essence, he never loose his identity. That's what he was, that's what we are. That's what you are. What do you think about this story? Let me know in the coment section below.
If I were asked to name the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about the Civil Rights Movement, it would probably "Martin Luther King". I mean, they're almost (kind of) synonymous words, so I think is fine to think about him if you're asked about that. However, the Civil Rights Movement, though heavily and mainly influenced by King, was more than just him. So, today/tonight/tomorrow(?) ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to talk about "the other side of the coin". Let me introduce you to the African-American leader, Malcolm X! What? Never heard about him? Well, just keep reading.
Who was Malcolm X?
As I said before, Malcolm X was an African-American leader in the fight for the Civil Rights. While King always tried to achieve his goals by peaceful meanings, Malcolm X is remembered for exhorted "exhorted blacks to cast off the shackles of racism "by any means necessary," including violence". (Malcolm Little, 2014). This last part was what got me interested in his persona, since his motto is quite different from that of King. Let's view some of the most important events in Malcolm X's life.
An outline about the most important events in his life (maybe a bit longer than just an outline)
He was born as Malcolm Little Norton in Omaha, Nebraska (US), being the fourth child of a total of eight children. It was on May 19th of 1925. His mother was called Louise and she was a housemaker, while his father, Earl Little, was a preacher and an activist for the Civil Rights Movement. This last thing resulted in a frequent harassment from white supremacy groups against the Little Family. Malcolm even suffered harassment from part of this groups when he wasn't even born (he was in his mother's womb). As a result of this constant harassment, the Little Family decided to move to East Lasting, Michigan. However, this didn't have any results, since they keep being harassed in East Lasting (their house was set on fire in 1929, without receiving help from anyone), and things got even worse (Malcolm's father's body was found dead in 1931, presumably murdered by white supremacists). After that incident, Malcolm's mother never was able to recover, and thus she was sent to a mental institution. Malcolm had to live with family friends, as he left home. As you can read before, Malcolm X's early years weren't the happiest ones, and they had a huge impact in his life.
He went to West Junior Highschool; he was the only black student there. However, this wasn't an obstacle for Malcolm, since he was one of the best students, as well liked by his classmates. Sadly, he left school later in 1940, when he was told by his English teacher that it was purposeless for a black kid to pursuit education. He was 15 years old by then. Because he quit school, he moved to Boston, to live with his older half-sister. There, he had some jobs, until he came to know Boston's criminal underground, and began in the "business" of drugs' sales. He led a life full of crime until 1946, when he was arrested and went to jail for ten years.
While in prison, Malcolm tried to make up the years of education that he lost, by reading lots of books. He also was visited many times by different siblings who'd joined the "Nation of Islam", a groups of black Muslims who thought that Black needed to create an independent state different from the Whites' one. Malcolm joined the "Nation" when he was released in 1952. He also changed his surname, because he thought it was a "relic of slavery" and thus adopted the surname "X", in honor to all his unknown African ancestors.
Then, he traveled to Detroit to work alongside Nation of Islam's leader, Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm became a minister among the Nation and began his mission as an orator, exhorting Black people to literally fight for their rights. "You don't have a peaceful revolution," he said. "You don't have a turn-the-cheek revolution. There's no such thing as a nonviolent revolution." (Malcolm Little, 2014). And thus, Malcolm became, by the beginning of the 1960s, one of the most important leaders of the radical wing of the Civil Rights Movement.
They say that nothing lasts forever. Perhaps, it is true. The relationship between Malcolm and his mentor Elijah Muhammad broke down as Malcolm learned that Elijah'd violated many of the teachings that he used to profess. Though the end of the relationship wasn't unilateral, since Elijah also began to had opposite ideas with Malcolm. Due to all those differences in their way of thinking, Malcolm decided to leave Nation of Islam in 1964. After that, Malcolm went on a trip through North Africa and the Middle East. During his trip, he had an epiphany while being in the Mecca. "The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision," he said when return to the US. "America is the first country ... that can actually have a bloodless revolution." That were his thoughts after his epiphany. He completely changed his mind. Yet, he couldn't begin to profess his words of peace, since he was assassinated the next year (1965).
My thoughts on him
It's very sad that, after Malcolm's death, many people began to criticize him saying that he was a violent man, completely ignoring the huge change Malcolm had. His life (and especially his last years of life) is really an example of conviction, of resilience. He demonstrated to be a great man. Maybe his work as an activist for the Civil Rights Movement wasn't the best one, since he had a too machiavellian way of thinking (which I approve until some extent), but he really lived a harsh life and knew how to get over it. The final purpose of my blog's entry was to show "the other side of the coin"; is to make us think about all that people that a lot of times is unknown to the masses, fighting for their dreams in the shadows. It's not like Malcolm X wasn't enough famous, but if we were to compare him with King, he'll probably lost in terms of popularity. In the end, Malcolm X was a really great man, who I hope people will begin to appreciate more in the future.
Oh, and maybe some of you people are from those who say "TL;DR". Well, if that's the case, I'll leave a video about Malcolm's X life. It's a 1 hour video, so brace yourselves! And I also found, listen well, an ENTIRE CHANNEL on YouTube with Malcolm X's speeches, so if you're interested, you should check it out.
Oh, and though Malcolm changed his way of thinking at the very end, I'd like to know your thoughts on the use of violence in a revolution. Are you okay with that? Mostly all my information was retrieved from the next site:
Malcolm Little. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 05:59, May 29, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/malcolm-x-9396195.
"Heteronormativity is the body of lifestylenorms that holds that people fall into distinct and complementary genders (man and woman) with natural roles in life. It asserts that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation or only norm, and states that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between people of opposite sexes. Consequently, a "heteronormative" view is one that involves alignment of biological sex, sexuality, gender identity and gender roles. Heteronormativity is often linked to heterosexism and homophobia" (http://es.scribd.com/, 2014/5/10)
Because of heteronormativity a lot of people are not allowed to be who they want to be or who they really are, they have to hide therselfs and pretend that they're someone else because they're afraid of people or society, because they judge and descriminate people who is "different" and they even hurt them. I think this is very unfair, and makes a lot of damage, and that's why I wanted to show this videoclip. It is about a parallel life where been gay is so normal and been hetero is the worst thing in the world, this video shows the damage that society, people and even the church can made to persons that are maybe different but still humans.
I've always thinked that we're humans and we're free to be who we wanna be, and no one can tell us if it is correct or wrong just because it is different, this clip makes you think about it. I made a lot of reflection whit it, I hope it makes you think also.
It makes me think, I'm tolerable enough, I'm open minded enough? are you ? Are we ready to "break rules" and accept people just they way they're? are we ready to see men wearing skirts?
We said we accept gays and differences and black people, and peruvians, etc but just in the moment that we have to act not to talk we don't do anything.
Hello everyone... I want to share
the next video because it really shocks me.
It's about a Muslim
person who works in a restaurant and a man making racist comments. The reaction
of some people that was there is incredible in a good and in a bad way, there
is a lot of people that defends Muslims, but there still some people that think
they are terrorist, something that bothers me a lot.
If years ago
racism was against black people (although there still people that discriminate
them), today is against Muslims. The 9/11 was terrible and a lot of people were
scared about that, but I don’t think that is enough for judge an entire
culture.
In the video one of the racist
comments was that is hard to tell which Muslims are terrorists and which one
isn’t, but I think that is hard to know if anyone is a terrorist or a thief or
the kindest person in the world. We can’t judge them for something that we don’t
even know if they did.
Tell me what you think about it, I think it is amazing to know that some people don't judge a book by its cover.
