Even the Rat Was White: Racist Facts You Should Know About Western Science

During the early 1800s British and American scientists concluded that the Negroid race was inferior to Caucasoid race due to the small measurements of the skull or the crane. This scientific postulation was carried over to a scientific movement called Craneology. Today this science is now called "pseudoscience". Yeah right.

by Eco.Soul.Intellectual

The black blogosphere has been abuzz with the recent online article posted in Psychology Today that revealed "research" stating black women were the least attractive than other women.

I did not have the opportunity to read the article because it has since been pulled from Psychology Today's site due to the flood of online protests and critiques.

Nevertheless, this article should not be shocking because Western science, Psychology included, is founded on racist ideology and worldview that operates from a hierarchy placing Caucasian or white as the superior race, while African/Negroid are the bottom feeders of the totem pole.

I really am not interested in using my brain power to dissect the absurdity of these claims, rather, I will provide some historical facts around the racism that is still pervasive in Western medicine, which is considered modern medicine.

There is a book called, Even the Rat Was White by Robert V. Guthrie, that provides a historical view of the racist foundations of science, and heavily look at Psychology.

Lastly, let me state that black people, starting with enslaved people, have been the disproportionate population that has served as guinea pigs in scientific studies. Even today, prison populations and the military subject people to a slew of scientific study that falls under the umbrella of "bettering the human race."

BTW, ask a person in the military how many vaccinations and pills they take?

Gynecology


J. Marion Sims is called "the Father of Gynecology" due to his experiments on enslaved women in Alabama who were often submitted as guinea pigs by their plantation owners who could not use them for sexual pleasure. He kept seven women as subjects for four years, but left a trail of death and permanently traumatized black women. 

Anarcha was one of the women Sims experimented upon. A detailed history of this monster is in Harriet Washington's book, Medical Apartheid.

Sims believed that Africans were numb to pain and operated on the women without anesthesia or antiseptic. The procedures usually happened this way. Black female slaves who were guinea pigs would hold one subject down as Sims performed hysterectomies, tubal ligation, and other procedures to examine various female disorders.

Sims also performed a host of operations on other slave populations. The following excerpt details his "practice" on enslaved infants.

Sims began to exercise his freedom to experiment on his captives. He took custody of slave infants and, with a shoemaker’s awl, tried to pry the bones of their skulls into proper alignment.

Skin Color


Founding Father and American physician, Dr. Benjamin Rush proposed that black skin or "the black color" was a inherited skin disease from ancestors who suffered from some form of leprosy. To him, this ailment could be cured through proper assimilation. He also agreed with his white contemporaries that the Negroid race were direct descendants of monkeys.

Vitiligo

Here is a quote from Rush:

Negroes were not by nature intellectually or morally inferior. Any apparent evidence to the contrary was only the perverted expression of slavery, which "is so foreign to the human mind, that the moral faculties, as well as those of the understanding are debased, and rendered torpid by it."

No Diversity in 'Bridesmaids'? No Support From Me

Much has been said about the new movie 'Bridesmaids', and most if not all of it seems to be good, as the movie went on to gross well over the 24.2 million that was hoped for.  Don't get me wrong, I am really happy that a movie with women holding down the fort was a hit in the box office... I'm still not going to see though.

I normally get down with Kristen Wiig, but I have to let this one burn...

From the jump I had a feeling there wasn't going to be much diversity in this movie at all, and I wasn't wrong.  The minute I saw the movie poster, I knew.  Yes, Maya Rudolph is a woman of color, but as usual with her, that is something that is left to the viewer to hopefully assume.  Nobody outright comes out ever and says, Maya is a woman of color.  They just don't.  Is that my problem?  Nope.  That's something for Rudolph to figure out on her own. 

For some reason, I guess I held out hope that maybe the trailer would have more people of color.  The trailer I saw did not have people of color in any role except for in the background, as if they were shadows or something.  That bothers me. 

Another thing I noticed was the circle of friends, minus Rudolph, is explicitly white.  Statistically, this is not far off from being accurate.  Studies show that after high school, most Caucasians and Blacks will have very few friends of a different race in their circle, if at all in some cases.  It's absolutely tragic (and a bit pathetic) but it's true and accurate.  However, for a woman of color to not have any POCs as friends is odd.  She has no cousins, no relatives, no friends who are of color?  None? 

Natural Hair Community on Facebook Overrun By Racists

You know how the old internet meme/adage goes: Haters gonna hate!

Last week, the Facebook page for the Naturalista Cosmetics line was overrun by racists. They posted disgusting comments and racist videos in an effort to derail and denigrate the owner, Padrica Norfleet. What happened next is where it gets interesting.



I initially read about this over at Black Girl with Long Hair and decided to check out the page and show some support.  I didn't find the racist posts, but I did find an overwhelming amount of support from what seemed like an army of people of various races, including Caucasians. 


As a natural, I've come under my fair share of "haters" who have nothing better to do but talk about my natural hair.  That's okay.  They are offended by my choice and I'm glad that they are.  I will not apologize for my hair, and by extension, my blackness.  For the most part, it's been nothing but support from people of all races in my own natural hair journey.  While society has made strides in learning to accept natural hair as a fact of life that we don't have to deny or hide, there are some people that are obviously threatened. 

Barack Obama In A Noose Is Not Proof Of Racism?

A few days ago, police in Manchester, CT, announced that the investigation into the killings at Hartford Distributors had been completed. And, the not at all surprising conclusion that the investigators reached was that Omar Thornton was NOT the victim of racist bullying in the workplace.

The police claim that no evidence was found of the racism that Omar Thornton complained of on the job. They did not find the pictures that Omar Thornton took with his cell phone of racist graffiti in the rest room of Hartford Distributors. Therefore, it obviously never existed right?

Oh, yeah, except for this:

Montminy said the closest the investigation came to finding any items related to Thornton’s claims of racism was a picture of President Barack Obama hanging from a noose drawn on a bathroom wall “many months” before the incident. Montminy said he did not know if Thornton had actually seen the drawing, but he had relayed to others that he was aware of it.

“Whether you consider that racial implications, political implications, or both, that was reported to have been there at one point in time,” Montminy said. “What we know is that when it was reported to administration, the administration had it removed.” SOURCE

So, there was no evidence of the racist graffiti that Thornton complained of, except for the reports from coworkers of racist graffiti? Um, am I missing something here??

Did a racist depiction of Barack Obama in the bathroom somehow NOT contribute to a hostile racist environment simply because Barack Obama was a public figure? Omar Thornton complained of a drawing depicting a Black man being lynched. Barack Obama is a Black man. A noose usually indicates a lynching. The company admits that there was a portrayal of Barack Obama hanging from a noose in the bathroom. So, doesn't that PROVE that Omar Thornton was telling the truth about the racist graffiti?

When Life Gives You Lemon(s): The Gay Man's Burden (OMG... Don Lemon is Gay!)

By: Johnathan Fields

Yesterday, the New York Times published an article about CNN newsanchor Don Lemon's memoir Transparent in which he publicly declares his sexuality. As many on Twitter--and various social media sites--went wild, blasting Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out," I couldn't help but feel unease at some of the responses to Lemon's bold move.

Judging by some of the commentary you can see on these sites, we, yet again, have a case of the tragic gay hero. By no means do I want to suggest that Brother Lemon's coming out does not mean anything significant for queers. I think his point about the visibility for questioning and queer youth is powerful in and of itself. He states, “I think if I had seen more people like me who are out and proud, it wouldn’t have taken me 45 years to say it...to walk in the truth.” I think many of us can agree this is something to be said about seeing a leader who we see pieces of ourselves reflected in.


However, there are some questions I have: why is it always the responsibility of queers to come out and acknowledge their sexuality? It would seem this is done to reinforce the comfort and normativity of heterosexuals. I do not hear any heterosexual celebrities stepping out with their lovers. It is assumed they are heterosexual until they can otherwise be dubbed "other." Expecting gay men to come out does nothing to challenge heterosexism. If we want to keep our sexual partners private, why can't we?

Many of the comments on Twitter expressed great sadness that Don Lemon was, in fact, gay. These comments were primarily made by women who, I assume, find Lemon to be attractive. When a man, woman, or trans-person, "comes out", there is absolutely nothing to be sad about. You should not be sad because you "don't have a chance now", because you'll "never have grandkids," or whatever other pity party you choose to throw upon the situation to make it about you and your motives.

Forgive me for not being more compassionate in my response to your tragic view of homosexuality. As a gay man who has spent years battling my own internalized homophobia due to many of the reactions I received from family, friends, and outsiders who reinforced my sexuality as some disease that I now live with, I don't show much compassion for those who don't challenge their own homophobic rhetoric when someone "comes out." People who do not "embrace" heterosexuality are not tragic. We are not dispensable. It is not acceptable for you to find a man attractive until you realize he's gay then move along to the next news anchor whose sexuality is still up for grabs. If you're that damn thirsty, get a Gatorade.

The Worst Place in the World to Be a Woman

No, it's not a rap video set or Cleveland, Texas, although I'm sure that those places definitely make it to the list.  No, this unfortunate and tragic distinction goes to the Congo, where women are brutalized and raped at an alarmingly high, and unacceptable rate.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -- The African nation of Congo has been called the worst place on earth to be a woman. A new study released Wednesday shows that it's even worse than previously thought: 1,152 women are raped every day, a rate equal to 48 per hour.

That rate is 26 times more than the previous estimate of 16,000 rapes reported in one year by the United Nations.

(via The Grio)

The woman in the picture above was raped in 2003 by soldier who killed her husband and her two children.  My heart couldn't break anymore for her if it wanted to.

I've been following the crisis in the Congo for several years now, and have tried to bring attention to it in my circle.  I want to do more, but don't know where to begin.  It's like trying to climb Mount Everest.  It certainly would help if we paid more attention to this crisis, but it seems like the world, like it did with Rwanda, has turned its back on the women of Congo. 

Do we really need to explain why?  This is an African country.  Pervasive ideas about African countries run deep and long.  In one way, it seems like because the Western world believes that corruption and degeneracy are synonymous with Africa, they are prepared to do nothing.  Yet, these are women.  And our backs are still turned. 

If this were a European country, would this still be going on?  Would the daily rape of over a thousand women and girls be ignored if this were Germany or even a poorer European country?  Would we ignore it if this were happening in Beverly Hills? 

News about the situation in the Congo is a minor blip on a ticker at best.  It is largely ignored.  The message is clear to these women, though.  For the most part, no one gives a damn that this depravity, this assault on the innocent is going on in Africa.  These women have the misfortune of not only living in the Congo, but being born black and in poverty.  They have three strikes against them, and yet we are prepared to do nothing.  What's equally frustrating is the feminist establishment is not speaking up about this enough, as they are more preoccupied only with domestic problems.  However, the power of feminists and womanists also lies in their ability to act outside of problems "at home" but to be activists for women all over the world. 

We have the power as people of color to bring attention to this crisis.  We can call our representatives and ask for whatever assistance possible.  We can even call Hillary Clinton.  I know I've called before, specifically regarding the situation in the Sudan. 

Imagine that every woman in your life was or would be raped today or tomorrow, maybe several days, or even several months.  Would you sit back and watch if you had the power to do something?

Fitness: Scale Wouldn't Budge. Worked Out Any Damned Way.

I totally dig it, little guy.  I feel you.

I had been busting my ass off this week.  I was eating well, if anything I wasn't eating enough to make up for the fact that I'd been working out almost twice a day.  On Thursday I woke up and decided to weigh myself to see if I had lost anything.  Yes, I probably shouldn't be doing this, but that's another post.

I get on.  I'm super excited!  I am so sure that I'm going to show some serious gains (or losses).  I tap it (we have a digital scale) and then I get on.

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

And then...

Back To Black: Revisiting the Interracial Sexual Politics of Gay Men

By: Johnathan Fields

It hasn't been long since I wrote a piece on the interracial sexual politics of gay male communities. Still, some of the responses I received let me know this is an ongoing conversation that needs to take place.

In talking with some folks, it seems some have internalized the pain (and racism) they've experienced in interracial exchanges. Whenever I try to talk about interraciality, it strikes me as odd that the conversation always seems to steer towards white/Black relationships. By that I mean, when the topic of interracial relationships comes up, people easily pull a white/Black model out of their mental rolodex.

Why is it when we say interracial dating, people take that to mean a white/Black relationship? Is a Latino/Asian or a white/Latino relationship not interracial? Yes, of course. Or perhaps the relationship in question has a member who is Brazilian and Polish and the other is Irish? So what is it? Is it me? Is it because the folks I talk to see my white skin and try to make it relative to me since I ask the question? Is it because they assume the white supremacy of racism only affects white people? As I continue trying to uncover the pain that surrounds interracial exchanges, I can't help but wonder what it is about the white/Black dichotomy of gay male circles that keep us stuck. My thoughts forced me to tap into my own pain.

Some of my exchanges with Black men have shown me precisely how broken this white/Black interracial space can be. From some of the things being said in supposedly intimate spaces to the dehumanizing ways we interact with one another, our internalized pain needs to be dealt with. Given my own particular background and experiences, I feel it's important to go back to my experiences in dating Black men.

I've listened as white, Latino and Asian men have given their commentary whenever they suspect I've begun dating a Black man. Some acquaintances have felt comfortable enough to begin introducing me to their friends--"This is John. He dates Black men"--highlighting how the latter somehow informs the former. These same Latino and Asian men celebrate the white men they've dated while glorifying their own internalized racial oppression. At one point I asked a former friend who identified as Latino, "You do realize you date interracially, right?" His response was a declarative no and seemed to suggest he saw himself as white.

Pure F*ckery: No Breakfast For Kids Wearing 'Wrong' Shoes At Chicago Grade School

I'll be honest, I'm not big on dress codes at schools which involves school uniforms. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I attended catholic schools as a kid and wore preppy uniforms for 12yrs. But be that as it may, I'm a firm believer in the old saying that it's not the clothes that makes the man.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure those "well dressed" officials who denied these kids their breakfast are some slave-catching uppity Negroes. OK, so what if they were in violation. So what if they've worn the same shoes all year and nobody noticed before now (which is bullshit). Was not allowing them breakfast truly the best course of action? You might think it was, but then, you too might be a slave catcher. Sure, rules are rules, but I'm sorry, this is bullshit.

Vote For Sarah Palin, She Knows The Words To "Rappers Delight", & Loves Black People

You know at first when I heard and wrote about the right-wing media generated beef surrounding my man Common's invitation to read poetry at the White House, I thought it was funny. No seriously, it was almost as funny as the accusation of Barack Obama being in the "Whoomp, There It Is" music video. So yeah, I laughed at the notion of Common being this "thug rapper" from Chicago and well known cop killing advocate. But then I saw the following interview with Sarah Palin via Fox, I got pretty heated:



OK, before I continue, first off, I'd like to give a big shout out to Common and Michelle Obama for getting Fox to bring on more Black folks on air in one week than they have all year (click here, here, and especially here to see a slave catcher at work). Alright, so now that I've got that out of the way, allow me to get back to Sister Sarah by asking: when the hell did Sarah Palin's media whoring ass ever listen to a Hip Hop album, much less listened to anything Common has ever done? And this spectacle of American embarrassment had the nerve to say she's "not anti-rap," because she "knows the words to Rapper's Delight." Yes, that Rapper's Delight; uh-huh, "to the hip hop, the hippy to the hippy," rap song from back in the day. Yes, she said she knows the words.

Well Gee, I'm sure Grandmaster Caz of The Cold Crush Brothers really appreciates that, Sarah. Of course I couldn't help overlooking the slick way you threw in the "there's no way I'm racist because I have Black friends," line. Because well, you obviously can't be white and "down" with Black people unless you can recite the words of that particular song. Which is really messed up, because now I have to call up all my white friends and ask them if they can spit Big Bank Hank's verse just to be sure they're not affiliated with the Klan.