Tribute

It’s two in the morning on November 4^th 2008 and my father is still awake. The glow from the computer screen is the only light in the room and his face is barely inches away from it. “We got this one Gabi, we got this. We’ll take Pennsylvania and New Mexico. I’ll give McCain Georgia and Ohio. But we got this.” The ‘this’ my father is talking about is the election. From its inception, my father Neville Shields has been an avid supporter of Barack Obama and followed both parties’ campaign trails armed with conspiracy theories and all. The ‘we’ however is up for debate. Normally that ‘we’ would be just a shortcut to the American population but as an immigrant Neville doesn’t have a vote and by all accounts today, no voice in the matter.

That’s the part that hurts the most. As an immigrant myself I know what its like to be excluded from certain jobs and privileges like financial aid, certain scholarships and of course voting rights. There was nothing else that could be done but to take it stride. But what happens when you have devoted your life time, family, and finances to a country that when at a point you want to become part of history , turns you down. Whether it is lack of finances, affinity to your own country, national conditions, or getting in trouble with the law which takes you out the running completely.

So I asked my father how he felt about not being able to vote. We talked about it at length. "It disappoints me. It makes you feel a little less secure in your position in life. If I were to move back home to Jamaica, I wouldn't get any of the Social Security that was taken out of my checks for 15 years. For a lot of people, day to day life gets in the way of being naturalized. Do you pay the light bill or Homeland Security. It's not that I haven't done my part for this country."

Rohan Sihn is a paramedic on 12XRAY ambulance in Bronx New York. When I asked how he felt about not being able to vote in the upcoming election, with out hesitation he said “ I hate it”. He had a confrontation with the law and though I did not ask him to elaborate on it, I know that ended his chances of ever becoming a citizen.

Leonard Kaze. a lecturer at LaGuardia Community College doesn't have the option of given up his dual citizenship to Canada or Haiti because of his family's safety. "People but don't recognize what a virtue it is to be able to vote and how hard it is to be told to stand on the sidelines.

But like immigrants have always had to do, these men have found a way to be a part of the cause. Neville has begun to bring his young 8 year old son up to understand politics, not just the ones that you feel are important but all because sooner or later they all affect you. Kaze has donated what he calls “a good amount” to Obama’s campaign while he and his family worked the polls on Election Day and Rohan has told his wife “everyday for the last month” that she had to vote if she wanted to see something she wants happen. After a lifetime in America and 4 presidential elections she was able to take part in, she is voting for the first time.

Who Really Killed Prop 8

You can hear it all over the news- Black people are the new oppressors. As radical as it may seem, that is now what news correspondents and political pundits are saying after the passing of Proposition 8, which bans gay marriages in California. Everyone from Rachael Maddow to Bill O’Reilly have acknowledged and put the spotlight on the overwhelming turnout by the Black voting population, pushing gay marriages over the edge to it’s end.
Earlier this year, California passed an amendment making same-sex civil unions recognizable by l aw. In March, Proposition 8 was put on the ballot stating simply “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Eliminates rights of same-sex couples”. And so the campaigning begun. Rick Warren, founder and pastor of one the nation’s largest churches, the Latter- Day Saints and the Association for the American Family all came out strongly to support the proposition, raising approximately $35 million and influencing many on the trail.
The beauty of statistics is that, by omitting a few simple details, can be touted by any one for their own agenda. ( i.e. there seems to be another “leading cause of death” every time you turn around). California statistics show that 70% of the Black vote went towards support of Prop 8. As large as that number seems, 70% of the 6.2% vote (assuming that all who are eligible are not only registered but have also never been convicted of a felony AND turned out Election Day) still wanes terribly in comparison to groups that voted that day. Numbers broken down by shanikka on the Daily Kos show that White Men, 51% of the 31% votes counted, said yes to 8,White Women: 47% of 32%, Latino Men: 54% 0f 8%, Latina Women: 52% of 11% and 51% of 9% of Asian men and women voted yes to 8. The views of Black voters ran concurrent to those of the majority of California voters.
Instead of blaming an entire demographic for not staying marginalized, the media should have looked into a campaign that not only underestimated the black vote but also attempted to garner superficial ties.
Opponents did not start campaigning in black communities until the summer months, holding forums and picnics only after understanding the impact the black vote was going to have on the polls. During the months that they did, Yes To Truth came out to the Black community in the hopes of tying the two struggles together under the common banner of a civil rights movement. Yes did so without truly understanding the intensity of the Civil Rights Movement or the role of the church for black people. The Civil rights Movement was born and fostered in the church. Black communities looked to religious like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X for inspiration and guidance out of a period of separate and dramatically unequal conditions where they lived in constant fear. It is difficult to come into a community with out understanding the inner workings or the innuendos between its residents. Here, the homophobic and hyper-masculine views make up the chasms between the white gay and heterosexual black communities. Instead of trying to get African Americans to relate to their cause, organizers against Prop 8 should have focused on deconstructing the media’s false image of dominating black masculinity.

http://www.yotube.com/watch?v+EQP2998hCm4
http://www.prtoectmarriage.com/
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/7/34645/1235/704/656272

The Scales of Memory

The Scales of Memory
If I ever have daughters, thanks to the Urban Bush Women, my girls are taking dance. Tonight I watched The Scales of Memory performed by the Urban Bush Women, a Brooklyn based dance troupe, featuring a Senegalese all- male dance troupe. U.B.W. is a performance ensemble “dedicated to using dance as a cultural expression and a catalyst for social change.” This performance was exactly that. During the night, you are taken on a journey from ancient days in Africa across the Atlantic on the Middle Passage into modern day sophistication with the same recurring themes of gender roles, Diaspora and oppression.
In the opening scene, the lights dim on a prop less stage as the entire cast forms a triangle and one by one yelling over the last person, they recite their names and chronic logically their own personal family trees. Next is a beautiful interpretation of three souls who have fallen or jumped overboard during the Middle Passage. The dancers lie on the floor, their bodies swaying as if in the ocean. Blue swirls from overhead lights and the sound of waves were the only accompaniment. There was always a very minimal set. The only thing the dancers carried at times, were simple wooden benches (two at the most) that aided in telling the dramatic history of Africans who became slaves and then African Americans.
At times it was way too abstract to follow but the music and the dancers were so beautiful, I allowed myself to get lost in the undulating backbones, the popping hips and the arches of perfectly pointed toes. And then all of a sudden I got it! The bench was not just a bench. It was the auction block where slaves were sold as two men and three women marched towards it with their heads hung, turning around slowing. Then that same bench became a lynching post when the same men and women clasp each other’s hands and step off crumbling on the floor. In the days of slavery, while wearing torn rags, they would occasionally tear at their faces trying to rip off he proverbial mask. However in later scenes, representing the Harlem Renaissance maybe, they would pat these masks perfectly back into place making sure all appearances were well. During party scenes, women would carry the men around or push off the ones that were being too aggressive.
Although I didn’t always know what was going on, I left the auditorium that night, fulfilled and well entertained. It wasn’t like the trips to the museum where you should stand in front of the same painting for hours and walk away saying only “ I didn’t get it.” It was art the way art should be. It evoked emotions and made you laugh with out feeling guilty and it taught you something.