Greetings Gentle Readers!!
I have been interested in "Southern Rock" for a while, the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and others from the 70s and found this great video of that era: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_E1I-ERdJYU
And it is a good video, but at the 40 second mark there is a scene from the south of the cinema of a happy African American "Domestic" serving dinner to her "white" family with what looks like a sense of joy, or "I'm so pleased that I can serve my gourmet delights to my 'white' family".....this is so much bs and nonsense......If a woman had children and no husband or man to contribute income, or if the woman was unmarried, what types of employment were available to them back to my grandmothers' days?? By being a nurse or teacher, if she was fortunate enough to have been educated......and the other choices were prostitution and domestic service. Domestic service was poor paying and made the woman put the lives and well being of their employers above the lives and well being of their own children.
I think that all of my female ancestors who weren't married and some who were worked as domestics....absolutely true of my father's family who arrived in the US in the 1860s and also true of my mother's family who arrived in the early 1900s....the early immigrants suffered a lot but by the 2nd and 3rd generation, the unmarried women died off and the married women produced offspring who were able to do better than their parents....in general....I must add here that my father's relatives tended to work in the leather factories of the Peabody/Salem area and none of the men lived to be 60.....consider Gentle Readers that our skin is our hide and when tanning leather without any sort of concern for the workers, their skin got tanned as well, not to mention breathing in toxic waste at the work place.......the only person I am related to that worked in the leather factories who lived beyond 60 was my grandfather.....he left school at 15, along with every other son of a poor family and went to work in the leather factory.....but he got somehow identified as being bright and was moved into an office, sent to North Eastern University on the leather company's dime and ended up with many single author patents.....
Now I come to the main topic of today's blog, MLK Jr's "I have a dream" speech and how this relates to what I have written today....As we look at today's society in the USA, we can see African Americans as president, as politicians, as wealthy sports personalities and not weird to see in the work place......but MLK Jr's dream is nothing but a dream to too many African Americans.....the homicide rate, the black against black violence, the utter hopelessness for youngsters growing up in housing projects who see their local dealer as an example of an "entrepreneur".....I am not sure what was the difference between the Irish, who were discriminated against, etc.....I had a book once "How the Irish became White"....it was too boring to read so I gave it away....but somehow JFK became president and now, when Kerry ran for president, his being Irish was not even mentioned.....This is not true for Obama's presidency or for too many African Americans......I must say that Obama has done little or nothing to help African Americans, particularly the young men, to become part of society......but this is an issue that effects us all......The Irish, not always, but very often, had a family to back them up, to support them.....not always, but most often, the children in a family had the same parents.....this is too often not the case with African Americans......and I can say, in regards to myself, that the short period of time when my family structure was ruptured, and my siblings and I were in essentially foster care for a month.....that in no way could I have been as successful as I have been.....I need peace, quiet, calmness, etc to study and without it, I wonder if I would have graduated from high school......
And this is where we stand now in regards to "I have a Dream." And how to fix this.....I am clueless.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Why Some "Scientific" Studies in the media bug me....
Greetings Gentle Readers!!!
I frequently get irked when reading the newspaper or listening to tv at the results of "scientific studies" when I know that the "scientists" or reporters have not thought the issue through and have just discovered that 2 + 2 =5........except that isn't true....The wealthy county of Marin, in California, just north of SF, had a larger than normal amount of breast cancer.....why? Well, there was an old airforce base there and they had lots of chemicals.....OMG!! The women of Marin were being poisoned.....except OOOPS!! Upon further study, the women of Marin drank more alcohol, had a different diet, etc., than the women in the other study groups.
This sort of pseudo-science appears everywhere.....there was some controversy about the ancient Greek poet Homer and his ability to tell colors, or anyone being able to tell colors....were they all colorblind then??? How else can you say why Homer never writes about the blue sky and writes about the "wine-dark" sea, when the sea is blue?? Great idea.....but, it has been written that Homer was blind.....and furthermore, mosaics dating back to a couple of hundred years after Homer show normal coloration.....as to "wine dark sea".....the sea can look all kinds of colors depending on the plant life and the light....and "wine dark" makes the sea sound perilous, which it was to the Greeks.
My point, being, engage brain before believing in "scientific studies" in the media.
Which brings me to my main gripe: http://news.msn.com/pop-culture/many-americans-have-no-friends-of-another-race-poll
A big study posted on MSN.com which claimed that many, and it is implied most, Americans have no friends of another race....uummm......I read that and my first thought was, what is the definition of a "friend" for this poll??? Can a co-worker you have lunch with be a friend? Can a neighbor be a friend? Can someone you haven't seen for 15 years but still exchange Christmas cards with be a friend? How often do you have to be in contact to be qualified as a 'friend"? Do you have to like someone for them to be a friend? Can a relative be a friend? or an inlaw? Etc.....what qualifies as a "friend" is never mentioned. Also, what constitutes "another race"? For my crazy Irish Aunties, anyone who wasn't Irish was "another race". Did my friend who is half Chinese and half English who was born and brought up in Hong Kong until she was 12 and then lived in England, who looks English, acts English.....is she "another race"? Would Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, be considered "another race" to "European Americans"? Without defining exactly what you mean, what is say is worthless.
I think a lot of these studies are the product of people who need to publish something, and anything that gets a big reaction, is good.....even if what they write is silly....as in the ancient Greeks being colorblind. The problem comes when people believe these things and quote them as truisms when they are nothing but bull shit.
Comments always welcomed.
I frequently get irked when reading the newspaper or listening to tv at the results of "scientific studies" when I know that the "scientists" or reporters have not thought the issue through and have just discovered that 2 + 2 =5........except that isn't true....The wealthy county of Marin, in California, just north of SF, had a larger than normal amount of breast cancer.....why? Well, there was an old airforce base there and they had lots of chemicals.....OMG!! The women of Marin were being poisoned.....except OOOPS!! Upon further study, the women of Marin drank more alcohol, had a different diet, etc., than the women in the other study groups.
This sort of pseudo-science appears everywhere.....there was some controversy about the ancient Greek poet Homer and his ability to tell colors, or anyone being able to tell colors....were they all colorblind then??? How else can you say why Homer never writes about the blue sky and writes about the "wine-dark" sea, when the sea is blue?? Great idea.....but, it has been written that Homer was blind.....and furthermore, mosaics dating back to a couple of hundred years after Homer show normal coloration.....as to "wine dark sea".....the sea can look all kinds of colors depending on the plant life and the light....and "wine dark" makes the sea sound perilous, which it was to the Greeks.
My point, being, engage brain before believing in "scientific studies" in the media.
Which brings me to my main gripe: http://news.msn.com/pop-culture/many-americans-have-no-friends-of-another-race-poll
A big study posted on MSN.com which claimed that many, and it is implied most, Americans have no friends of another race....uummm......I read that and my first thought was, what is the definition of a "friend" for this poll??? Can a co-worker you have lunch with be a friend? Can a neighbor be a friend? Can someone you haven't seen for 15 years but still exchange Christmas cards with be a friend? How often do you have to be in contact to be qualified as a 'friend"? Do you have to like someone for them to be a friend? Can a relative be a friend? or an inlaw? Etc.....what qualifies as a "friend" is never mentioned. Also, what constitutes "another race"? For my crazy Irish Aunties, anyone who wasn't Irish was "another race". Did my friend who is half Chinese and half English who was born and brought up in Hong Kong until she was 12 and then lived in England, who looks English, acts English.....is she "another race"? Would Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, be considered "another race" to "European Americans"? Without defining exactly what you mean, what is say is worthless.
I think a lot of these studies are the product of people who need to publish something, and anything that gets a big reaction, is good.....even if what they write is silly....as in the ancient Greeks being colorblind. The problem comes when people believe these things and quote them as truisms when they are nothing but bull shit.
Comments always welcomed.
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