I periodically post about people, usually immigrants, who have died while in US custody. I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t really paying attention to Aafia Siddiqui’s story. I vaguely remember hearing the name a few years back, but I honestly just wasn’t listening.
Kelsey Peterson, a 6th grade math teacher, pleaded guilty in federal court this week to a slew of charges, not the least of which was seducing her twelve year old student (she was 25 at the time). When she got caught, she kidnapped the kid (or as the media puts it, ran away with him) and fled to Mexico, where she was later apprehended.
Her attorney’s defense in court? “I resent the term ‘child.’ You’re baby-fying this kid. This kid is a Latino machismo teenager.”
I love love love hearing that teachers like Karen Salazar exist. I just wish I was hearing about her under different circumstances (such as being the recipient of a Teacher of the Year award). But no.
Salazar was recently fired from her job as an LA school teacher because her curriculum was deemed too “Afrocentric.” According to Salazar:
I am being fired because I am trying to ensure that my curriculum is relevant to my students’ daily lived experiences, and in the process, create a space for them to be critical of Eurocentric society and curricula that only serve to reinforce their dehumanization, subjugation, and oppression …
*spoiler alert for Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull*
For me, I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was 2005’s King Kong. Before then, I’d certainly noticed that the jungle people in these “explorer” movies were, brown primitive savages, while the heroes were always white men, but it had always just been some short “hmm,” footnote in the back of my mind.
I don’t know what is was about King Kong in particular that made it click (maybe it was the fact that they pulled out all the stops to make the natives look extra extra “tribal”), but the whole primitive savage thing in that movie quickly wore thin and just thoroughly pissed me off.
I was pretty peeved when Michael Chertoff pulled section 102 of the Real ID act out of his ass in order to waive federal environmental laws in April, which would push past his opposition and allow him to do whatever the hell he wants (in this case, take away people’s land to build the border wall). I’m horrified that the wall is going to cut through the wildlife corridor and cut off endangered species from mating routes (and their food/water sources). Obviously, Chertoff doesn’t give a shit, even though ecologists and scientists are telling him that building the wall there is plain stupid.
What I didn’t realize was that Chertoff waived 36 federal laws. Thirty six:
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Amazon Indians from one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.
The photographs of the tribe near the border between Brazil and Peru are rare evidence that such groups exist. A Brazilian official involved in the expedition said many of them are in increasing danger from illegal logging.
Will someone please just direct Amanda Marcotte to a Cultural Sensitivity 101 class? After a couple of veryrecentfiascos on the WOC/feminist blogosphere, you’d think the woman would think twice before writing about anything having to do with people of color, no?
I periodically post about people, usually immigrants, who have died while in US custody. I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t really paying attention to Aafia Siddiqui’s story. I vaguely remember hearing the name a few years back, but I honestly just wasn’t listening.
