iemanja
iemanja's JournalNational Mythology: The Melting Pot
There are a number of mythologies that people don't seem to understand for the myths they are, but here I will address one: The melting pot. It was never a cultural ideal. It was instead a cultural mechanism to induce immigrants to assimilate into Anglo-American cultural norms. Henry Ford used to stage plays at his factory: immigrants walked onto the stage in immigrant garb, entered the melting pot and emerged dressed as "Americans"--adopting the dress and mannerisms of Anglo-American culture and thereby signaling they knew how to be American.
Not everyone was, of course, capable of melting. Nineteenth-century images of the melting pot often portrayed an Irishman on the edge, refusing to melt.
Then there was the fact that African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Tribal Peoples, and Asian Americans were kept out of the pot.
Some seem to think Civil Rights meant everyone was supposed to melt, to become like the dominant culture. Following the Civil Rights movements of the 60s, a new metaphor emerged to describe America, the mixed salad bowl. Americans come from a wide array of cultural backgrounds. While part of the same country, we are not all the same ethnically, racially, or culturally. The salad bowl was meant to convey the idea that people could be part of a common nation without having to assimilate, to become like Anglo-Americans, in order to be productive members of society. They could speak native languages and engage in distinct cultural practices without being un-American. America was better off as a mixed salad because the various elements all contributed to the whole. They didn't have to erase their identities and "melt" in order to belong.
Now some here long fondly for the good old days when everyone was like them, didn't express cultural difference, and didn't talk about concerns about cultural appropriation. Those good old days were good for a select few, but not for most of us. They were good for the dominant culture, race, and gender, but not the majority of Americans. The good old days were an era of Jim Crow segregation. I do not long for those days. Being part of an inclusive society means that you are going to be exposed to ideas that make you uncomfortable. A diverse society means that people of color, of different immigrant or ethnic backgrounds, are going to talk about their experiences in ways that make many of you uncomfortable. To never be uncomfortable is to never learn. My plea is that you try to embrace that discomfort and learn something about the lives of others.
false, there is an active arrest warrant for sexual assault
On 13th – 14th August 2010, in the home of the injured party in Stockholm, Assange, by using violence, forced the injured party to endure his restricting her freedom of movement. The violence consisted in a firm hold of the injured party’s arms and a forceful spreading of her legs whilst lying on top of her and with his body weight preventing her from moving or shifting.
Arrest warrant:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/20110224-Britain-Ruling-Assange-Extradition-to-Sweden.pdf
British high court rulings on Sweden's request to extradite Assange: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2011/2849.html
The condom story is one widely circulated to trivialize the charges of assault.
I have seen people repeatedly refuse to read the warrant and continue to spread false information. It really comes down to this: they refuse to believe someone they admire could be a rapist and will not look at evidence that contradicts what they want to believe. The fact is people we like and admire are rapists. If one only holds accountable for rape those we do not admire, that means there is no effective prohibition against sexual assault, which is in fact the current state of affairs, the rape culture members of this group comment on. This could be about a football player or a movie director, and the story would be the same, as it is the same for all accused rapists. People make excuses for them and in so doing ensure that rape is not effectively prosecuted. Everyone believes their reasons are just, but the fact is courts determine guilt, not random chatter on the internet. Assange has chosen to evade questioning rather than face Swedish authorities. That is why he has been held up in the Ecuadorian embassy all these years.
Man Stabbed For Asking Someone to Stop Catcalling His Girlfriend
But catcalling is just men showing their affection for women, really. 
It's about power, power maintained through violence when necessary. Suggesting that women be treated as human beings has become dangerous in a society where misogynists will go to any length to keep the majority of the population down in order to convince themselves they aren't nothing. Fact is, they are less than nothing, pathetic losers who see the world around them changing and like the Klan and similar groups will do anything to try to maintain their illusion of power.
A San Francisco man was stabbed and sustained life threatening injuries simply because he dared to ask a catcaller to leave his girlfriend alone.
On Nov. 15, Ben Schwartz, 31, was brutally stabbed nine times in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco after he asked a catcaller to stop harassing his girlfriend. Via SF Gate:
Daniela Saavedra, a friend, said that the group had passed the man twice before and that he had catcalled Schwartz's girlfriend each time. "
All he said was, 'Can you please just stop?'" Saavedra said. "The man then sort of trailed behind them, and that's when he attacked."
The man stabbed Schwartz nine times in the back, face, neck and arms, puncturing a lung, Saavedra said. She said gashes on his arms required about 60 stitches each, while the cuts to his back just missed his spinal cord.
According to police, Schwartz's request ignited an argument with the man who apparently is willing to kill someone just for his perceived goddamn right to tell a girl how she makes his boner feel.
So far, no one has been arrested for the crime. Police are asking anyone with information about the stabbing call police at (415) 553-0123, call their anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444, or send a text to TIP411 with "SFPD" at the beginning of the message.
SF Gate reports that Schwartz, an advertising student at the Art Institute of California, is a decent guy who goes out of his way to do nice things for other people.
In February, as reported in The Chronicle, he went out of his way to buy a bicycle on the street that he thought was stolen, then searched for its rightful owner. The owner, a freelance photographer for The Chronicle, had been desperately searching for it when Schwartz contacted him.
All he did was ask "can you please stop."
There is a fundraising page set up to help with his medical bills and according to the page, Schwartz is recuperating from his injuries:
People should be aware that when they defend catcalling, this is the order they seek to maintain. Of course they know that, which is why that have worked so hard to pretend that feminism is anti-democratic and that their ideology is anything but propaganda for violent degradation of human beings, men and women alike. This is what they work so hard to maintain; they know without violent control they have nothing because they are nothing.
The alerters must be happy with their progress
Soon DU won't have a single feminist left, and it will be the white male supremacist safe haven they so badly want. Or perhaps just a space where people don't have to be reminded of the undesirables who make up the majority of the population.
I don't actually think Grayson is an MRA, but that ideology certainly is present on this site. The "proof' is in the arguments a few make, which are identical to those made on MRA sites. That they repeatedly reference long-outdated studies touted by MRA big wigs is certainly evidence for it. That some refuse to aquaint themselves with the most basic MRA ideas and instead prefer to silence those who point it out show what it is they find objectionable. Juries choose not to hide such hate speech but instead hide feminist speech, which makes clear what community standards are. My post will of course violate those standards since it fails to assert that women are responsible for forcing a mass shooter to kill them by not providing sex on demand, doesn't insist a woman should give up her children when a rich man demands it, and doesn't blame a woman for her own battery. Until I do so, I will never be an acceptable part of this community. Spoiler: I won't be doing so.
Armchair revolutionaries
This thread brings to mind a quote by the great historian of US slavery Eugene D. Genovese: "Nothing could be more naive--or arrogant--than to ask why a Nat Turner did not appear on every plantation in the South, as if, from the comfort of our living rooms, we have a right to tell others . . when, how, and why to risk their lives and those of their loved ones." (From Rebellion to Revolution: Afro-American Slave Revolts in the Making of the New World , p.1).
While you are not asking why people haven't revolted, the casual nature with which you suggest the possibility suggests you don't understand how rare and difficult successful revolts, let alone revolutions, are.
Self-deleting on request from the hosts
I thank the main forum hosts for locking the call out thread of me. There is no longer need for this thread so I am self-deleting. I post the OP in its entirely for purposes of transparency. I thank everyone for their support. 
I listed concerns, issues. No where did I present it as a test or insist if anyone disagreed with me on some or most of those issues they were a "bad person." The point was to inform about positions that some of us who are feminists find concerning. It was also to point out that misogyny means more than the commonly understood definition of hatred of women but also refers to persistent discrimination against women. Many people are unaware of the latter meaning.
Unfortunately, since a jury allowed a Meta call out of me in that thread, I am left with no alternative but to defend myself here. I would prefer not to have to do so. I would prefer a discussion about issues rather than some ridiculous notion of a "BainsBane test." No such test exists. The last time I created a test, it was for final exams in Latin American history and Comparative Slavery. Those are the only kinds of tests I create.
The idea of reducing feminism to purity tests is an insult and demeans issues of human equality that many liberals care deeply about.
What misogyny?
People sometimes ask what misogyny exists online. Of course there are extreme examples, rape threats, stalking, death threats, but it can also be more pervasive. The best-known definition of misogyny is hatred of women, but it can also refer to a pervasive climate of sexism.
Macquarie Editor Sue Butler said (Australian Prime Minister Julia) Gillard's remarks remarks highlight how the term has evolved from a pathological loathing of the gender. "We decided that we had the basic definition, hatred of women, but that's not how misogyny has been used for about the last 20, 30 years, particularly in feminist language," she told ABC Radio. "Sexist does seem to be moving towards this description of surface features and misogynist applies to the underlying attitude."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/18/julia-gillard-misogyny-definition_n_1979009.html
Misogyny can be extreme and intensive or chronic and pervasive. Among the positions some feminists identify with sexism and misogyny are the following:
Insisting the SCOTUS Hobby Lobby decision isn't a big deal
Insisting men should have the right to compel a woman to abort a fetus
Insisting a man's having to pay child support equates with the state's efforts to prohibit abortion
Insisting men are more oppressed than women
Adopting the GOP idea of forcible rape vs. other rape and insisting the later (usually child rape) is less serious.
Insisting that large numbers of women invent false rape charges
Insisting rapists should not be punished with jail time
Frequently taking the side of accused rapists over their victims
Insisting women's issues and feminism aren't important and don't constitute real politics
Insisting women who object to rape porn or prostitution are uptight right-wingers
Calling feminists prudes and Puritans
the sex-negative label
Calling women c...t and b....s
A whole slew of derogatory or sexualized comments about women's bodies
Portraying a view of women that makes it clear someone sees their only purpose as to provide them sex
anti-choice positions
opposing ACA's covering of women's reproductive care
blaming women for their own sexual assaults
arguing that violence against women isn't important
arguing that rape isn't a societal problem
Insisting a misogynistic mass murderer had real concerns about how bad off men have it today
denying sexism and misogyny
arguing that women in the US should be content with what they have
Citing a study held out by an MRA big-wig that claims women say no when they really mean yes
Insisting consent is "elastic"
Insisting that consent is assumed.
Insisting there is no such thing as male privilege
Men telling women they aren't real feminists because they disagree with them on an issue like porn or prostitution.
This is Leftist
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master(3) and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. . . .
The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. . . .
The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scattered state of the population, of the means of production, and of property. It has agglomerated population, centralised the means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was political centralisation. Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, governments, and systems of taxation, became lumped together into one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national class-interest, one frontier, and one customs-tariff.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007
Capital also is a social relation of production. It is a bourgeois relation of production, a relation of production of bourgeois society. The means of subsistence, the instruments of labour, the raw materials, of which capital consists – have they not been produced and accumulated under given social conditions, within definite special relations? Are they not employed for new production, under given special conditions, within definite social relations? And does not just the definite social character stamp the products which serve for new production as capital?
Capital consists not only of means of subsistence, instruments of labour, and raw materials, not only as material products; it consists just as much of exchange values. All products of which it consists are commodities. Capital, consequently, is not only a sum of material products, it is a sum of commodities, of exchange values, of social magnitudes. Capital remains the same whether we put cotton in the place of wool, rice in the place of wheat, steamships in the place of railroads, provided only that the cotton, the rice, the steamships – the body of capital – have the same exchange value, the same price, as the wool, the wheat, the railroads, in which it was previously embodied. The bodily form of capital may transform itself continually, while capital does not suffer the least alteration.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/ch05.htm
This is leftist:
Tithi Bhattacharya
Social reproduction theory, then, is crucial to understanding certain key features of the system.
1.The unity of the socioeconomic whole: It is certainly true that in any capitalist society the majority exist through a combination of wage labor and unpaid domestic labor to maintain themselves and their households. It is critical to understand both kinds of labor as part of the same process. 2.The contradiction between capital accumulation and social reproduction: Capitalism’s sway over social reproduction is not absolute. Indeed social reproduction may create the essential ingredient of production, i.e., humans, but the actual practices of reproducing life develop and unfold in tension with production. Capitalists attempt to extract as much work as possible from the worker, but the worker in turn tries to extract as much in wages and benefits as possible as ingredients that will allow her to reproduce herself, individually and generationally, for another day.
3.Bosses have an interest in social reproduction: Social reproduction should not be understood solely as the lonely housewife cleaning and cooking such that her worker husband can get to work refreshed every morning. The employer is invested in the specifics of how and to what extent the worker has been socially reproduced. In this sense, it is not simply the food, clothing, and morning readiness at the gates of capital that matter, but everything from education, “language capacities . . . general health,” even “predispositions toward work” that determine the quality of labor power available.9 Each cultural capacity is again determined by historic specificity and is open to negotiation by both sides. Labor laws, policies about public health and education, and state support for unemployment are only some of the many outcomes and constitutive sites for such bargaining.
This is why we need to sharpen our understanding of social reproduction as being performed in three interlocking ways: (a) as unpaid labor in the family increasingly being performed by both men and women; (b) as services provided by the state in the form of a social wage to somewhat attenuate the unpaid labor in the home; and finally (c) as services sold for profit by the market.
Neoliberal policies scaffolded by the rhetoric of individual responsibility sought to dismantle state services and turn social reproduction entirely over to individual families or sell them on the market. It is important to note that capitalism as a system benefits from the unpaid labor of social reproduction within the family and the limited expenditure on the social wage outside of the home. The system cannot afford to fully dispense with social reproduction “without endangering the process of accumulation” since social reproduction ensures the continued existence of the one article that capitalism needs most of all: human labor.10 Understanding this contradictory dependence of production on social reproduction is key to understanding the political economy of gender relations, including gender violence. http://isreview.org/issue/91/explaining-gender-violence-neoliberal-era
THIS is right-wing:
What the President fails to grasp is that the American system that rewards hard work is what made America so prosperous. What America needs is not Robin Hood but Adam Smith. In the year we won our independence, Adam Smith described what creates the Wealth of Nations. He described a limited government that largely did not interfere with individuals and their pursuit of happiness.
Over the past 4 years the President has added over $6 trillion in new debt and may well do the same in a second term. What solutions does he offer? He takes entitlement reform off the table and seeks to squeeze more money out of the private sector.
He says he wants a balanced approach. What the country really needs is a balanced budget. Washington acts in a way that your family never could--they spend money they do not have, they borrow from future generations, and then they blame each other for never fixing the problem.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Economic/Rand_Paul_Budget_+_Economy.htm
Cut corporate tax in half to create millions of jobs
With my five-year budget, millions of jobs would be created by cutting the corporate income tax in half, by creating a flat personal income tax of 17%, and by cutting the regulations that are strangling American businesses. The only stimulus ever proven to work is leaving more money in the hands of those who earned it!
Source: Tea Party Response to 2013 State of the Union Address , Feb 12, 2013
Punishing the rich means the poor lose their jobs
Mr. President, you say the rich must pay their fair share. When you seek to punish the rich, the jobs that are lost are those of the poor and middle class.
When you seek to punish Mr. Exxon Mobil, you punish the secretary who owns Exxon Mobil stock.
When you block the Keystone Pipeline, you punish the welder who works on the pipeline.
Source: 2012 Republican National Convention speech , Aug 29, 2012
http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Rand_Paul_Corporations.htm
Earlier today, for example, the senator appeared on Glenn Beck's show to discuss the Supreme Court's ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act. The host suggested the ruling could lead to polygamy: "If you change one variable--man and a woman to man and man--you can logically change another variable--one man, three women."
For Paul, this seemed perfectly sensible. In fact, the senator went even further than Beck: "If we have no laws on this people take it to one extension further. Does it have to be humans? I'm kind of with you, I see the thousands-of-year tradition of the nucleus of the family unit. I also see that economically, if you just look without any kind of moral periscope and you say, what is it that is the leading cause of poverty in our country? It's having kids without marriage. The stability of the marriage unit is enormous and we should not just say oh we're punting on it, marriage can be anything."
Source: Rachel Maddow blog on U.S. Supreme Court rulings on DOMA , Jun 26, 2013
Illegal to impose racial segregation in the private sector
In two broadcast interviews, Paul said that the federal government may have overstepped its role by making it illegal to impose racial segregation in the private sector.
Asked if he thought a private business had the right to say it would not serve black people, he said: "I don't want to be associated with those people, but I also don't want to limit their speech in any way in the sense that we tolerate boorish and uncivilised behaviour because that's one of the things freedom requires."
Source: London Sunday Times, "US and the Americas" , May 21, 2010
http://www.ontheissues.org/Domestic/Rand_Paul_Civil_Rights.htm
As a doctor I have had first-hand experience with the vast problems facing health care in America. Like other areas of the economy where the federal government wields its heavy hand, health care is over-regulated and in need of serious market reforms. As Senator, I would ensure that real free market principles are applied to fix this problem. . . .
Defund, repeal, & replace federal care with free market.
Paul signed the Contract From America
The Contract from America, clause 7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care:
Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling (the free market).
Source: The Contract From America 10-CFA07 on Jul 8, 2010
http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Rand_Paul_Health_Care.htm
Coarsening of our culture led to 50 million unborn deaths
The coarsening of our culture towards violent death has more consequences than war. Tragically, this same culture has led to the death of 50 million unborn children in the last 40 years. I don't think a civilization can long endure that does not have respect for all human life, born and not yet born. I believe there will come a time when we are all judged on whether or not we took a stand in defense of all life from the moment of conception until our last natural breath.
Source: Speech at 2012 Values Voters Summit , Sep 14, 2012
My opponents call me libertarian but I'm pro-life
Sarah Palin's endorsement [in the Kentucky GOP Senate primary] gave us a boost that energized supporters, brought in new ones, and, of course, annoyed my opponent and his Republican bosses to no end.
In talking to Palin, one of the primary things I wanted to do was allay her fears about social issues, telling her, "My opponents call me a libertarian but I want to assure you that I am pro-life." Palin responded, "Oh, we all have a little libertarian in us."
I do not apologize for believing there is too much government involvement in the private lives of Americans. Trying to portray me or my father as not pro-life--or saying I want to legalize heroin, or prostitution, or making other outlandish claims-- are smears Republican establishment types have always attempted. This race would be no different. One could make the argument that if sincerity is measured by proposed legislation, my dad is arguably the most pro-life member of the House.
Source: The Tea Party Goes to Washington, by Rand Paul, p. 78 , Feb 22, 2011
Life begins at conception
http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Rand_Paul_Abortion.htm
If you claim Rand Paul pulls the Democratic Party to the left, you have one seriously fucked up notion of what left means.
One reason the police are so heavily armed
I'm not sure if this has been discussed, but the reasons the police are so heavily armed goes beyond Homeland Security Funding. The fact is the gun lobby has ensured the public is heavily armed. "Hobbyists" now stockpile guns and munitions that are more suitable for war than self-defense or hunting. How can the police be disarmed with sections of the public--thanks to the NRA and their ilk--are armed to the teeth?
It is not only the police that have been militarized but American society more broadly.
DOs and DON'Ts for feminists vs. "feminists"
There are a list of views and posting behavior that distinguish real feminists from "feminists." If you fail to follow the list of DOs or engage in any of the DON'Ts below, you must use quotes around the word feminist to distinguish yourself from real feminists.
DO always defer to men on issues.
DON'T articulate a point of view that is not first approved of by men.
DO understand that true feminists focus only on rights that make women more sexually available to men.
Porn
DO remember that porn of all genres is always good.
DON'T mention condom use, STDs, or suggest that porn actresses are engaging in porn for any purpose other than expressing the highest form of liberty and self-actualization a woman can aspire to.
DO make sure to insist anyone who criticizes porn in anyway is accused of trying to ban it in violation of the First Amendment.
Prostitution
DO understand that prostitution is fantastic.
DON'T talk about underage girls, child rape, human trafficking, economic blight, or violence.
DO focus entirely on a woman's right to sell herself, a man's right to buy sex, and prostitution as a form of female sexual empowerment.
Rape
DON'T bum men out by talking about rape or harassment. If a major news story comes up that can't be avoided,
DON'T suggest a rapist might be guilty.
DO make sure to point to all the ways the woman behaved that brought about the rape.
DON'T under any circumstances mention "rape culture."
False feminists
DO make sure to attack women who articulate views not approved of by men.
DO remember the only rights that are important are the ones that the real feminists--men--approve of.
Swarms
DON'T agree with another woman unless she is agreeing with a man or attacking a woman who disagrees with a man, lest you be guilty of being a swarm or a gang.
DO remember that a gang or a swarm can be comprised of as few as one woman who disagrees with a man.
False Men
DO remember that "men" who support statements by HOF members and other radfems do not constitute real men and therefore must be disagreed with unless they fall in line with the above guidelines.
DON'T forget to use quotes around the word "feminism" and "feminist" if you vary from the above guidelines in the slightest.
This public service announcement brought to you as a joint venture by Maxim and Cosmopolitan's Division of True Feminism.
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Gender: Do not displayMember since: Sat Sep 15, 2012, 01:49 PM
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