Fairy Soap racist ads

 

Fairy Soap

N.K. Fairbank Co. was founded in 1875 and produced Fairy Soap. The ad that presumably ran in the 1940s shows a little white girl asking a Black child why her mother won’t wash her with Fairy Soap, insinuating she is Black from dirt.*

*Fairy Soap was originally created by N.K. Fairbank, before Procter & Gamble buys it.

Source "Atlanta Black Star".

Afro-American citizen schools police

This is the second time I post this video.
I'm glad it is still on Youtube and it has reached 17,808,099 views.
An American citizen whose son was being taken by cops for no reason and without any explanation puts them at their place.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse."

Once there was a world

... and now it's bleeding. I'm overwhelmed, appalled and perplex when I think about it.
That's why I'm not posting lately.
What about the future? I don't know.

Neo-Nazism in Greece and America

"It is unacceptable that they [Greeks abroad] are assimilated to this kind of sub-humans who have invaded our fatherland with the all sorts of diseases that they lug around,"
Eleni Zaroulia Greek MP on October, 19

Eleni Zarouliaus is the wife of Nikos Michaloliakos.leader of the neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn.
The only information about Eleni at the internet is this statement that was translated to many languages.

Strangely she is a member of the "Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination"  of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - left picture - that also has NATO as one of it's International Parliamentary Assemblies.




I just came across with this video with a demonstration of the National Socialist Organization being escorted by the police that was hostile to those who were counter-protesting.

To be a member of the National Socialist Party:

"Party Membership is open to non-Semitic heterosexuals' of European Descent. If you really care for your heritage and for the future of your family, race and nation, fill out a Membership Application today."

I never forget that after WWI the economic and social situation led many to despair.

With the help of money from nations that feared the revolt of people the Nazism and Fascism was put in power.

The National Socialist Movevement - also known as Neo-Nazi's - held a protest rally in front of the lawn of Pomona City Hall, Sunday, October 5th, 2011 Across the street, they were greeted by a crowd of angry counter protestors, numbering more than three times their size. Police from several counties, dressed in riot gear, held the crowds at bay so the movement's leaders could recite speeches on Anti-immigration and hateful slurs, mostly about Mexican Immigrants. The day ended peacefully as the police escorted the NSM through a planned escort route. Counter protestors, most of whom are of Hispanic descent, left angered at the police for not letting them pursue the NSM.

Guess Post: Sociologist David van Myk on Basic Military Training ordeal

Crossing the Okavango River between
 Namibia and Angola via dug-out

When I was a teenager I had a South African pen-friend, we used to exchange letters by mail in the seventies with people around the world so we got one letter every fifteen days. The sight of the envelop on the table was a brief moment of bliss.
The content was very childish, and we shared some of the trivialities of our countries, our lives, and exchanged postcards.

Meeting David van Myk at Facebook seems to prolong and complete a circle because while I was exchanging these letters David was doing the Basic Military Training.
A very friendly South African that became a virtual friend after exchanging ideas on topics that focus the serious things that are happening in the world.

Little did I know that he had been through an experience  that would change his perception and life forever: he did a Basic Military Training. This is part of his story, the beginning, and I've been talking to David lately. What he, and many, has experienced while training is the story of numerous soldiers around the world.
This is his testimony:

How does a white boy become a communist?
'Fourth Installment: Basic Military Training
by David Van Wyk

Between January and April 1977 I go through basic training.
The first three months of military training in the Apartheid defence force is basic training. Basic training involves breaking down the individuality of the intake, it also involved destroying innovativeness in favour of obedience and following orders.

Roofs (scabs) as the newly conscripted intakes were called were allowed to walk, but had to run everywhere, were marched up and down to develop synchronicity of group movement the arms, and legs of the marchers all had to move in time/pace.

Any individual showing any individuality was ostracised and forced to wear a white helmet which would make him stand out and the object of mocking, denigration and teasing by everyone else in the base. Conformity was greatly emphasised.

We are sleep deprived and can be woken up at any time of the night to march, to do physical exercise, to clean up the barracks, to do toilet duty, or simply to be abused. Our food is spiked with laxatives without informing us, the consequence is that many of the intake develop ‘gypo guts’ meaning they have uncontrollable bowel movements and many soil their pants. It is rumoured that our tea or coffee is spiked with “bull pills”*, which is said to suppress our sexual urges.

In between all this shit we are taught the military hierarchy (the difference between NCOs and officers) and insignia, how to shoot, assemble, disassemble our R1 rifles, clean and maintain them and to consider these unwieldy weapons “our girl friends” while in the army.

We are told that these are South African manufactured weapons. But those of us who have read about weapons before being conscripted know that these are Fabrique Nacionale (FN) 7,62 assault rifles manufactured in Belgium and used by NATO. We are taught how to use the Plessis radio communication equipment supplied by Great Britain. Shown how to use the 9mm Star parrabellum pistols imported from Spain.

The anti aircraft guns at the base will after March be introduced by those who remain at Youngsfield, these guns are supplied by Italy. So much for the UN Arms embargo!  We are also taught basic South African Military Law, and it is drummed into us that should we ever be captured by the enemy we should insist on our rights in terms of the Geneva Convention to be treated as prisoners of war. The irony is that South Africa in 1977 is not a signatory to that Convention.

We are taught to avoid the coloured girls of Cape Town on weekend passess. “These girls can be very deceptive, especially the Malay coloureds, many of them ‘resemble whites’, you will not even know the difference” the training officers tell us. “In any case you scabs are oversexed – if God wanted you to fuck all the time he would have given you ten penises instead of ten fingers” exclaims one enthusiastic sergeant major.

We do field training, bayonet training, buddy-buddy advances while firing, camouflaging. “If you are on the border you must not use cologne and aftershave or scented soap” advises sergeant Swanepoel. “Why not sarge, we will stink if we don’t!”, “Exactly troop, you will stink like a kaffir**, if you want 6to fight a fucking kaffir, you must smell like a fucking kaffir, if you smell like a fucking scented homo the terrorists will smell you and when they smell you, your position will be compromised.”

* It is slang derived from the Afrikaans, 'Bulpille', the reference to the colour blue is because our coffee and tea took on a blue hue whenever it was spiked.

** The word “kaffir” is a derogatory word for black Africans commonly used by whites under apartheid, it was part of the dehumanisation and denigration of ‘the other.’ Three other categories of other that were constantly denigrated were homosexuals, women and liberals. My apologies to my black readers, but I want to honestly bring out the brutality that was the Apartheid military machine. Most published accounts glorify that machine and hide how it actually functioned and what its intend was, trying to leave the reader with the misconception that it was an organisation of professional soldiers that only served the government of the day regardless of its ideology.

David van Myk M.D. is a professor of Sociology at the University of the North West Province and researcher for Bench Marks Foundation and Southern African Resource.

Jane Elliott: How does it feel to be treated like a "nigga" for a lifetime?

"When am I gonna quit? When racism quits. Do I have a job for a lifetime?
I'm afraid so."

Jane Elliott

Last month I published this post about Daryl Davis, the black musician man that persuaded twelve members of Ku Klux Klan to leave the organization. He wrote a book about it "Klan-destine relationships: a black man's odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan”.

I was amazed when I did read about Daryl achievement and the same happened when I watched at the TV Jane Elliott doing one of her workshops.
She exposes the weapons of racism by making people feel in their skin how discrimination, segregation, being stereotyped and mistreated have a terrible impact on the minds of the individuals who are part of a minority group and for this reason are mistreated in this case having a black skin.

I always asked myself why behavior experiments always aims evil. Stanford Prison and Stanley Milgram experiments were both done by psychologists trying to verify how people can be controlled or behave according to what they are told individually or in a group as a whole.
The ethical aspects of both experiments were questioned and the scientific methodology, especially in Stanford Prison, is questionable.

I never saw any of these psychologists doing experiments and, once again, I ask myself why they are done behind closed doors since they have to do with human beings emotions and behavior what is of interest of everybody.
It became an unquestionable fact that psychological experiments have to be done away from the public and one explanation is that it is necessary so that interferences from the outside don’t jeopardize the results. I’ll pretend it is true.

Jane Elliott’s workshops received some critics but what she does is not related to a scientific experiment and Jane payed a high price for her activism, fighting racism, and all her family was affected.
The workshops last two hours and I would love to be part of one of them especially to be at the blue side, the minority group.
Two groups are divided: blue eyes and brown eyes and this is the explanation that is at her site:

About
“Jane Elliott is an internationally renowned teacher, lecturer, and diversity trainer who presented this Seminar in the City Campus Union. She is famous for her classroom experiment, “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes.”

In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. over thirty years ago, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise. This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority. Everyone who is exposed to Jane Elliott's work, be it through a lecture, workshop, or video, is dramatically affected by it.”

I watched twice one of her workshops at the TV and it is true that people are highly affected because Jane is really good in creating the “prejudice arena” that some people are confined because... exactly. Why?

There are some good learning materials at Jane’s site. In a very simple and easy way she puts in evidence what is hidden in some of the phrases and statements we use. I truly believe that in same cases we only learn when we face the problem ourselves and Jane’s work is perfect to make us see how dis-empowering being part of a minority is.

Visit Jane’s site to meet a great woman and learn more on how the dungeons of prejudice work and understand what the blue eyes/brown eyes workshop purpose is.

This is the work of a lifetime.

A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan

I did this post in 2006 when I had a blog in Portuguese. and publish it again at my blog justAna posted on August, 7, 2008,
I want to share it here because this is a great achievement: a KKK member giving up his beliefs after meeting a black man.

As I think that racism is something out of the planet I try to show people how strange, to say the least, it is to hate people based on single attribute of a person.
I'll write about a great woman, Jane Elliot, who helps fighting racism doing "Blue Eyes Black Eyes" exercises workshops.

I had a blog in Portuguese and talked about many different things.
This is one of the post I wrote about Daryl Davis:
Son of a diplomat Daryl Davis at the age of 15 have decided to be a pianist against the expectations of his father who wanted that he had followed his career.
Ironically it was as a pianist where he found the way to achieve results where diplomacy not always can reach.

When with the age of 10 he returned to USA, after living in Russia, Ethiopia and others African countries he came across with racism. After been jeered, attacked with stones pieces of glass, listening that he should go back to Africa, and, after being attacked by a racist policeman he started to ask himself about the reason why people hated him because of the color of his skin, in other words, what is the fundament the ideology of racism hate.

 He started his research and read about the White Power movement after meeting a classroomate who claimed to be a neo-Nazi and found out that these racists groups fight among themselves. One of them want to separate USA in five: some states for Arian, others for black people and some for other races. The solutions for "race problem" are multiples.

In a bar where he played piano Daryl got in touch with a white man who told him "-This is the first time that I sit to drink with a black man." Daryl asked him the reason "- Because I'm a Ku Klux Klan."

The diplomacy he saw when he was a child and the fact that he is a musician "-Music unite people." helped this black pianist, always compared to Jerry Lee Lewis, to get the address of a Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon, Roger Kelly, who have agree to be interviewed. What should have been a quick meeting have turned out to be a two and a half talking.

"While you are actively learning about someone else, you are passively teaching them about you" is Daryl motto who made friendship with Roger Kelly, and for Daryl surprise, gave him the Ku Klux Klan clothes and all the paraphernalia used in Ku Ku Klax rituals including the burning black people's homes whose names fall in misfortune next to members of the sect. Elevens kukluskamen followed Kelly's example.
He also got in touch with neonazi that are waiting anxiously for the 4º Reich. But they even considered the black man a nice person.

One of the results of his work was the book published in 1997: "Klan-Destine Relationships: A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan".
A lesson of action and efficiency when someone wants to make a difference in a case although he is criticized by black and white people.
Of course, some of his friends think that he is crazy. After all Ku Klux Klan have more than a million members.

Here you will find a game to punch Ku Klux Klan members if this is your case.
I just want do not know if Klu Klux Klan, neonazis and other sects have sense of humor or the guts to make a little game to kill blacks or no matter what race they hate. It is openly offensive and they prefer to do it in real life. As always it is hard to find the most adequate tact: the Luther King or the Black Panthers late days way.

I wrote a e-mail to Daryl and he was kind enough to answer me:
Dear Ana,

"Please call me Daryl. First, I must tell you how happy I am to hear from you and your interest in my work. I must also tell you that Brazil is one of my favorite countries in the world. I have visited 49 countries. I LOVE Brazil. I visited Bahia, Rio, Sao Paulo, Recife and Brazilia. Each city was very different and I love them all.

Yes, you are correct; I am very fond of Martin Luther King and his work. The original Black Panthers with Huey Newton was a good group and did a lot of good for the Black community when they had no one else to help them. They encouraged education and they made sure children in the community always had food to eat. Unfortunately, as is the case with many groups, someone goes astray and causes problems and ruins the reputation of the group with whom they are associated. Naturally, when they were pushed illegally by racist law enforcement, they would stand up for themselves even if it meant the use of violence.

There are about 3 groups today using the name Black Panthers. None of these groups are associated with the original group and I'm sure any of the original members who are still alive, would have nothing to do with these new groups. I know a couple of these new groups and they advocate violence. I am not a big fan of violence unless I am under attack and must defend myself or my loved ones.

Yes, Roger Kelly is now out of the Klan. He no longer believes in the principles of hating people because of their race. When his first child was born, I was her godfather. But he received a lot of criticism over that, so I told him, to let someone else do it. You must take things one step at a time. I don't care what anyone's race is. I respect all people and only judge them based upon how they treat others and how they treat me. But when you grow up in a family and environment filled with hate, it will take others a while to accept the changes you chosen to make in your life, if they ever accept it.

What have I achieved with my book? I would say my biggest achievement was a complete surprise to me. I never set out to cause people to quit the KKK. I simply wanted to interview them and get information for my book. But during the time of interviewing many of them, we saw that we all were human beings and friendships started to evolve. Eventually, many of these people began questioning their own beliefs and many eventually quit the Klan. We are still good friends today. So it has given me hope that we can change for the better and all is not lost. But, more people in my country need to take the step to get to know each other and sit down and talk. We fear each other too much for no reason. Just because of the color of someone's skin.

It bothers me when I hear my fellow Americans call this country the greatest nation on Earth. Yes, we have achieved many things that other countries have not achieved. We have the ability to put a man on the moon. While that man is walking around on the moon, we can talk to him live via satellite radio phone. You have a cell phone and you have email. You and I can communicate all the way from Brazil to the USA. So my question is: If we can communicate with someone walking around on the moon instantly and we can communicate with people on another continent, WHY can't we communicate with the person who lives right next door, just because he/she is a different skin color, religion, nationality, ethnicity or whatever????? So before my country can talk about how great we are, our ideology needs to catch up with our technology. I am doing my part to try to get my fellow Americans to come into the 21st century and I hope they will do their part.

Please keep in touch.

Obrigada,

Daryl

Troy Davis was executed: the world is watching

I rather be silent. "Hurricane" is the song I feel like listening. "May God have mercy on your souls". These were the last words of Troy Davis, directed to prison officers, before he died by lethal injection. (read the story here)

Troy Davis x Rubin Carter: what Troy Davis don't have

Troy Davis don't have Bob Dylan to write a protest song telling his story.

I was a teenager living under dictatorship, because US wanted it in order to prevent communist regimes and other reasons, and this music was playing on the radios and though I could not understand all the lyrics, I emphasized the few lines and words I could understand in the seventies, and had nobody to ask what was it about I knew exactly what he was denouncing.

I got so angry when I heard it and justice was all I wanted as many of those who didn't know the whole story.At that time politics was part of culture and a man could not dare to say he didn't have political views. Men read newspapers in the morning, it was part of the ritual and he had to talk to his friends about political topics. I remember watching at the TV, that beautiful woman - just searched and it is Scarlet Rivera - with a long hair playing the violin, Bob Dylan guitar and singing. That's what many Americans did at that time and it set Rubin Hurricane Carter free. It was when I watched the movie Denzel Washington impersonates Rubin Carter that I became aware of the whole story. Again I'm angry because there are many stories like this one in US but America has gone back in time, or turned mad, or... whatever happened that even it's president after breaking many conventions and laws appears at the television claiming: "Justice was done." after the death of Osama bin Laden. If the president of United States of America gives this example, Obama ordering to shoot Osama is a crime according to international law, and this is one of many international laws US is breaking in the name of "protecting Americans", "humanitarian aid" and other "noble causes", what is striking is the way American is treating it's own citizens, black or white. Blacks, as always, at the death-row... same old story even when the case has international attention like Troy Davis that will be executed today, or the case of Mumia Abu Jamal to name two, US government remains silent, people remain silent. If you followed till here, thank you, this is the song that made a great part of the world be aware of the injustice Rubin Hurricane Carter was suffering and helped him have a trial.

Troy Davis? He is about to be executed 7:00 p.m. Greenwich Meantime.

This case has received world attention and Troy Davis didn't have a fair trial and is about to have a lethal injection. Names like Joan Baez, Salman Rushdie and others have twitted but who knows about it? What is happening to our culture that makes it impossible to people be responsible for what is happening and fight for justice of others or even manifest discontentment with a status quo that affects directly citizens daily life?

What is happening to Troy Davis went too far. Being on the verge of receiving the lethal injection after all of what was done? What is happening that made our voices blow in the wind without any result? America is playing with us, playing a ridiculous game and it is a shame. If Obama could see himself at today's speech trying to prevent Palestine to be part of UN the way many people do he would never show his face again. Obama, Sarkozy and others are clowns and all the elite that is ruling the world have power and are inflicting heinous pain to many. Ironically they are clowns who lost track of how ridiculous they look, how old their strategies are and how far from freedom they have always been. They are condemned from birth.

Update: Troy Davis will not be killed today and this case is being used I still don't know why. Update: September, 22, 2011 he was executed by lethal injection - (post above)


Hurricane
Bob Dylan

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night


Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they've killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously.
"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand.
I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops."
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night.

Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that.
In Paterson that's just the way things go.
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates."
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.
Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.

Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"
Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame.
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
"Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?"
"Don't forget that you are white."

Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."
Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
You'll be doin' society a favor.
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim."

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail.
But then they took him to the jail house
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.
And though they could not produce the gun,
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.

Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell.
That's the story of the Hurricane,
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

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American citizen schools police

After so many bad news this month I found something amazing. An American citizen whose son was being taken by cops for no reason without any explanation puts them at their place. As my friend David Butler who gave me the link for this video says:

 "A lawless enforcer fears nothing, except an informed citizen. When you know your rights, you know you're right." Justice was done. Justice by the people. This is the lesson of this month: we have to know our rights! "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." 

 See you in September.

Miami Beach police caught on tape killing Afro-American and threatening eyewitness

After watching this video I keep hearing Narces Benoit, the eyewitness who taped on his cell-phone and put the smart card in his mouth, saying:

"They're gonna kill this man, Oh my God"/ "They're gonna kill this man."/ "Oh My God, He gotta be dead." "He's dead?" ..."He's dead... bro.' "They killed this man...Oh My God!"/... "he is dead."

Miami Beach police celebrating memorial day. The "nigga", that was the most important crime of all in this story: they are all "niggas", and we know that "niggas" are not citizens in the eyes of many people, who was killed with the immunity of the badge was Raymond Herisse. No trial, no "you have the right to remain in silence, the right to an attorney". This man was executed. Narces Benoit narration in his tape predicting and witnessing the murder shows that he is used to this kind of crime and he feels the pain for this murder and all the others that he has heard of. Why would he put the smart card in his mouth if he was confident in the scrupulousness of the policemen? These are the Americans cops? According to many comments at sites where the video is exposed yes, this is the way American cops behave in many states in America, the democratic America. This is an example:

Matt Wilemon 2 days ago in reply to alvaro

"Police kill people with immunity in the US. It is sad but way too common in this country, Even though there is video evidence to prove those cops were out of their mind by shooting that many bullets into a suspects car nothing will happen to those cops. Look at the guy who executed Oscar Grant in Oakland for no reason other than he is a rabid, bloodthirsty murderer with a badge. He is already out of prison. And that guy is one of the few to actually get convicted even if it wasn't for murder. That's how "innocent until proven guilty" works in the "land of the free" Cops dump hundred of bullets into somebody they even have yet to apprehend and charge with a crime (for our protection, of course) and worry about it later. Police brutality is a serious problem everywhere and it only gets worse. Cops are tasing old people who get attitudes with them, little kids, shooting at minorities they think are suspicious. They are the ones who are out of control and now we are the ones who go to jail when we catch them committing crimes? NWA was right. F@#$ the police!""

We want justice, not executions. It's hard to be fair when the president of the country invades another nation and executes a terrorist. Yes, Osama was a terrorist but this is not how justice is done and being applauded and considered a hero for that is a bad example that induces authorities keep abusing their power. There is a lot to be changed also in about human rights in America.

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