James Baldwin

Happy birthday today to James Baldwin!

Baldwin was a prolific writer and political activist fighting against both racial and LGBT inequalities (way before the later started gaining major press). His novels explore intricacies of identity and the pressures of societal construct. He also wrote many plays, short stories, and essays that are well worth exploring. Also, check out his "Open Letter to My Sister, Angela Y. Davis."

Finally, as quoted in "James Baldwin Back Home" by Robert Coles (NYT, July 1977):

"It's no credit to this enormously rich country that there are more oppressive, less decent governments elsewhere. We claim superiority of our institutions. We ought to live up to our own standards, not use misery elsewhere as an endless source of self-gratification and justification. Of course, people tell me all the time in the West that they are trying, they are trying hard. Some have tears in their eyes and let me know how awful they feel about the way our poor live, our blacks, or those in dozens of other countries. People can cry much easier than they can change, a rule of psychology people like me picked up as kids on the street."

See Also:
Bush and Hurt Feelings
White History Month

Free-trial loans on Kiva!

Followers of BTSF will recall a recent review of Kiva founder, Jessica Jackley's talk on TED.

Kiva helps facilitate small loans to empower folks in need (that you can select) that are trying to run their own businesses to improve their lives. I like it because I can recycle the same money: one $25 gift can be used over and over again for different people as it gets repaid (so what was $25, has the actual effect of hundreds)! Then if you are ever tired of it, you can withdraw the money again and you have made a huge impact on people's lives at zero cost to you!

A lot of times it is hard to put the money up to start such things, but amazingly Kiva is giving out free $25 trials, just to check it out. This is HUGE!

I encourage you to investigate! http://kiva.org/invitedby/lucy2980

See also:

Kiva founder, Jessica Jackley, on TED

Breivik: "The Lone-Wolf"/"Terrorist" of Oslo

Welcome! Follow more conversations about racial justice and Christianity through email or RSS feed.

Over 100 innocent people became victims of Anders Breivik's brutal 'lone-wolf' attack. Er, I mean, terrorist bombing? Or, um, crazed extremist shootings?

It seems our rhetoric for such tragedies changes drastically based on the skin color, religion, and/or country of origin of the perpetrator. Note previous observations of Miss. City Athena at Side Hustle Stories:


"Take a look at these incidents from the past couple years.

A group of men fly planes into a building in protest of a government.
Another man walks into a public area in his workplace and shoots into a group of people.
A man is caught stockpiling weapons and explosives.
A man flies a plane into a building in protest of a government
A man walks into a public area and shoots into a group of people.
A man is caught stockpiling weapons and explosives.

...The first three events are, according to the mainstream media, terrorist attacks. The last three events are, according to the mainstream media, a suicide attack, assassination attempt, and barely worth reporting....The first 3 events where done by Muslim men. The last three were done by white men."*

We can now add to that second group the Breivik attack. At first, the media jumped to the conclusion that Breivik was a terrorist "jihadist" and linked him to Al-Qaida. When news broke of his Christian association, the back-peddling was tremendous. He suddenly became a "lone wolf," an 'assailant ,' 'attacker' (Reuters), or 'gunman' (BBC, CNN).

Breivik is giving wolves a bad name... ;-)

The hypocrisy with which Breivik's religious affiliation is being examined is incredible. The same folks that were so quick to condemn 1.6 billion people based on the actions of 19, are clamoring to explain why Breivik  isn't really a Christian. Yet all similar proclamations made by Islamic religious leaders after 9/11 were to no avail.

Of course, it makes sense to distance ourselves from someone that professes our own faith, yet spreads violence and hatred. But it frustrates me when the pastors and commentators talk about the perversion of scriptures and Breivik's extremist beliefs as though they are the first ones to ever experience such PR issues. Welcome to guilt by association. It sucks, doesn't it?

Note what Glenn Greenwald says in Salon:

[It] is what we’ve seen repeatedly: that Terrorism has no objective meaning and, at least in American political discourse, has come functionally to mean: violence committed by Muslims whom the West dislikes, no matter the cause or the target. Indeed, in many (though not all) media circles, discussion of the Oslo attack quickly morphed from this is Terrorism (when it was believed Muslims did it) to no, this isn’t Terrorism, just extremism (once it became likely that Muslims didn't).

Meantime articles like this appear in Christianity Today, reminding Christians to pray for our safety over Ramadan. Yes, I know Christians are being persecuted world-wide, but highlighting Islamic holy days as a cause for particular trepidation is divisive fear mongering. Instead during this time, how about we offer prayers of forgiveness, mutual understanding, solidarity, and love? 

Regardless, fellow Christians, don't worry too much. This Oslo business will all blow over soon. Breivik will be dismissed as a random lunatic, while Muslim women and men will continue to be demonized all over the world.

*Obviously, there are many white Muslims, but it seems that if a terrorist is white, she or he gets excused as an individual, while Muslims of any other race are vilified.

Frank W. Hale

Civil Rights leader and former Ohio State University vice provost, Frank Hale died today at 84 years old. We owe a lot to him as he pioneered higher education access both at OSU and nationally.

He founded the Graduate and Professional Schools Visitation Days program for POCs interested in attending OSU, through which $15 million in graduate fellowship awards were awarded to approximately 1,200 minority students to earn their masters and/or doctoral degrees. Last year he was inducted into the Ohio Civil Right Hall of Fame and OSU's Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center in named in his honor.

Thank you. 

See Also:

Race and Academic Admissions

New URL!

Just purchased an independent URL! 

Check it out and pass it along: www.bytheirstrangefruit.com 

All previous links and URLs will still work, as well as previously established email subscriptions and RSS feeds. 

Basically, just keep doing what you are doing to continue engaging in great discussions about race and Christianity!

-Katelin