Ethic Soup

Vintage Racist 'Happy' Valentines

The lovely vintage valentine, above, is what I've always thought  vintage valentines were like. Sadly, not all were as sweet and romantic as I believed.

The truth is not only disappointing, but it provides shocking evidence of the pervasive racism in America, from the 1800's through the 1950's, and how it was an everyday, common experience. Hopefully, the following vintage valentine cards will remind us to be ever alert to the more subtle forms of racism alive today and the courage to fight it.

I know that I'll hear from someone about how I just don't have a sense of humor, you know, can't take a joke. Someone else will comment that this valentine card wasn't serious, "It doesn't mean hang the Negra literally." If the above description is what you plan on doing, forget it. 
Forget about me and save yourself.
 

 

America's racism against the Chinese shouldn't be a surprise. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the only U.S. law to ever prevent immigration and naturalization on the basis of race. These laws brought additional suffering by preventing the reunion of the families of thousands of Chinese men living in the U.S. who had left China without their wives and children.

 

 Native Americans have experienced discrimination and marginalization through wars, massacre, forced displacement (like the Trail of Tears), restriction of food rights and the imposition of treaties. Click here to read more about the American Indian.

 

 

 

 

The two valentines to follow aren't racist just very offensive and discriminatory. In the first, from good old Hallmark, the skunk illustrates what men have done to the women they abuse -- threaten to hurt themselves and others and blame it on the woman that they've abused and emotionally blackmailed.

 

 

 The last valentine is offensive towards women, whom men believe they have a right to rape. In case you missed the clues, the doctor isn't wearing trousers and he's clucking his patient's chin. Both the woman and the dog are obviously frightened. But, hey, it's just a valentine card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE POSTS ABOUT RACISM:

CLICK AND READ: "Bigots Scare Tactics Oppose Facts: More Immigration Linked to Less Crime"

CLICK AND READ: "Horrible Third-Grade Quiz Suggests Killing Illegal Immigrants"

CLICK AND READ: "Nuclear Racism: Black Employees Subjected to Excessive Radiation Exposure"

CLICK AND READ: "California Councilman's Hateful Rhetoric: I'm A Proud Racist" 

CLICK AND READ: "Connecticut Mayor Shows Racial Bigotry While East Haven Police Officers Under Federal Indictment for Racial Hate Crimes" 

 

 

Written by Sharon McEachern

Connecticut Mayor Shows Racial Bigotry While East Haven Police Officers Under Federal Indictment for Racial Hate Crimes

 

 

If the Italian-American mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, ordered a taco from an Hispanic restaurant and got spaghetti inside a taco shell, it would be a sign of racial bigotry.

Mayor Joseph Maturo showed how he feels about the Latino community of his town, where Ivy League school Yale University calls home. Currently, East Haven has four police officers under federal indictment for using "excessive force against undocumented immigrants and covering up abuses."

Asked by a television reporter "what are you going to do for the Latino community today?", Mayor Maturo responded:

 "I might have tacos when I go home, I'm not quite sure yet."

 

GOOD NEWS: Anonymous Woman Pays Water Utility Bills for 17 Families

 

IT CAN BE a wonderful world. It's nice to have this belief reinforced during the holidays, which can be a time of despondency for many, especially during an economic crisis when so many have lost their jobs and can't even pay their utility bills.

Not having running water, a basic need, is a low blow. Needing to take buckets to a neighbor's house for some of their water, so you can flush your toilet, can be a humiliating chore.

To get clean you have to wash in the sink in a convenience store's bathroom and pray they don't ask you to leave because you can't buy anything.

Just hearing about the woman in Iowa City, Iowa, who insisted on remaining anonymous, has been inspiring to many. 

The woman walked into City Hall to pay her own water bill. Then she donated $1,640 to pay off the delinquent balances of 17 families, to ensure that they would have running water over the holidays, reported the Iowa City Press-Citizen. 

Munson Healthcare Hospital Tells Employees: Get Flu Shot or Get Out

 Hospital employees at Munson Healthcare in Traverse City, Michigan, are upset over the ultimatum delivered to them -- get a flu shot or get fired.

Apparently, workers who refuse by the end of the year can be fired, reports AP via the Chicago Tribune:

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS SACRIFICED

Officials at Munson say "Individual rights must be sacrificed for the welfare of patients whose health could be threatened if exposed to flu."  

The healthcare group, with seven hospitals serving 24 counties, decided to make flu shots mandatory because voluntary compliance has never topped 65 percent, officials said.

FLU SHOT ULTIMATUM

Some employees, however, are upset by the ultimatum to get flu shots or lose their jobs. Approximately 50 showed up for a recent meeting of Michigan Opping Mandatory Vaccinations, a group that promotes vaccine choice.

Lawyers Told: Sleep in Pods at Work, Or Don't Come Back

 

A decade ago during the dot-com-bubble it was computer geeks, working for start-ups in Silicon Valley, who only slept a few hours daily -- zipped up in sleeping bags, on the floors of their cubicles.

Today it's lawyers in London who don't have time to go home for some sleep. Instead they are being provided with Japanese-style sleeping pods designed for one-night stay-overs, reports the Guardian.

Can American law firms be far behind?

LAWYERS WORKING NIGHT & DAY

The lawyers are "working night and day on big corporate cases," according to the ABA Journal, which adds that much of the pressure can be attributed to "client demand."

Comments from readers of The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog include one from Anonymous, who wrote: "I am somewhat comforted by the idea of keeping the attorneys in their cages for their protection, and the protection of others."

Reader Anon wrote: "Can't these people just sleep on a couch in the office like everybody else?"

It's Easter and Church Pews are Full: Unless You're in China

 
 
 

IT'S EASTER TODAY and a whole lot of prayers are being said. If you're one of those offering thanks to your Creator, give special thanks that you can celebrate your religion in a country that allows you that freedom and not a country like China.

I think most of us take this privilege for granted; we're so used to having it. America was formed so that those persecuted and denied religious freedom could have it.

Today China blocked more than 500 people from attending a planned outside Easter service -- actually blocking them from leaving their homes -- and detained more than 36 worshippers for attempting to attend religious services in Beijing, reports CNN.

Hundreds of uniformed and plain-clothes police swarmed the site of Shouwang Church, or Lighthouse, an underground Christian church. The church's senior pastor Jin Tianming is under house arrest. The church claims that 200 of its members have been arrested over the past month.

This church is considered an "illegal house," or unofficial church. Shouwang Church is an unregistered Christian group. There are an estimated 70 million Christians in China, but only 20 million attend government-approved churches, reports the BBC.

"The Chinese Communist Party tightly manages religious activity, requiring the faithful to join state-run churches, mosques or Buddhist temples," reports the New York Times.

"Sunday's worship ban came just days before an annual human rights dialogue between U.S. and Chinese diplomats scheduled for later this week in Beijing," said CNN.

CLICK & READ: "EASTER MEDITATION WITH MAYA ANGELOUS AND MARIAN ANDERSON"

CLICK & READ: "DANGER, DANGER: DON'T LET DOGS WOOFDOWN EASTER CHOCOLATES"

  

  by Sharon McEachern

A Few Needed Prayers: To Give Aid, To Eradicate Misery

 
When you cannot hide from awareness of the world's natural disasters, and then add to that knowledge of all the wars being fought in the world today...what do you do?

It's easy to put a few dollars in an envelope and send it off to a charity or two to help. It's harder to force yourself to try to not forget, taking the time and soul-energy to offer up a prayer or two. Both kinds of giving are sorely needed, along with acknowledgement of our great good fortune not to personally be in the middle of one of those natural disasters or wars, if you are so lucky.

For those not as fortunate as yourself, consider the following two prayers:

  
 

 Prayer to Eradicate Misery

We pray to God to eradicate all the misery in the world:

that understanding triumph over ignorance,

that generosity triumphs over indifference,

that trust triumphs over contempt, and that truth triumphs over

falsehood.

 
 

Buddhist Prayer to Give Aid 

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

May I become at all times, both now and forever

A protector for those without protection

A guide for those who have lost their way

A ship for those with oceans to cross

A bridge for those with rivers to cross

A sanctuary for those in danger

A lamp for those without light

A place of refuge for those who lack shelter

And a servant to all in need.

 

  

 

 by Sharon McEachern

  Artist & Blogger

 

Horrible Third Grade Quiz Suggests Killing Illegal Immigrants Possibility

 
 

It's very disturbing that yet another American social studies teacher has allowed racist and anti-human rights suggestions to be admitted into the classroom and influence students.

WHAT IS AN ILLEGAL ALIEN?

This time it was in Duluth, Georgia. A social studies teacher, at  Chesney Elementary, gave third-graders a homework quiz based on a story called "What is an illegal alien?" 

The lesson included a multiple choice question which asked: "What does the U.S. do with illegal aliens?"

Here are the possible answers:

A.  The U.S. puts them to work in the army;

B.  The U.S. shoots them into outer space;  

C.  The U.S. puts them to death;

D.  The U.S. sends them back where they came from.

Black 10-Year-Old Student Refuses To Play 'Slave' for Teacher

  
 
Teacher, Teacher

by

Sharon McEachern

 

Teacher, teacher

Open your ears

Hear your student cry his tears.

 

Teacher, teacher

Open your eyes

See your student how he cries.

 

What's wrong Teacher?

Are you deaf, dumb?

You get some that crazy rum?

 

You can't feature

Me as a slave

Me and mine already gave.

 

No, no teacher

I'm only ten

But still I will not pretend.

 

You be the slave

I'll be master

Then you will learn much faster.

 
HOW CAN A TEACHER be so insensitive as to ask a black child to play a slave for a social studies lesson in a simulated slave auction? Apparently a fifth grade teacher in Gahanna, Ohio, doesn't understand why her/his actions would be considered inappropriate or even insensitive. To me, this has the ring of other examples where educators have been blindly or obstinately intolerant. Isn't that the definition of "bigoted?"

 

Muslim Fatwa Order: Bangladeshi Girl Lashed To Death After Rape by Cousin

 

IT MAKES YOU ILL -- SICK TO YOUR STOMACH

The ghastly news out of Bangladesh is about a 14-year-old girl named Hena Akhter who has been killed by a public lashing. Hena was raped by her 40-year-old cousin. That's why she was beaten -- she was a rape victim.

Bangladesh is almost 90 percent Muslim and under sharia, or Islamic law, rape cannot be proved without the testimony of four witnesses. As explained by Andrew C. McCarthy, The National Review:

MUSLIM LAW STACKED AGAINST WOMEN

"Rapists tend not to bring witnesses along for their attacks. In any event, moreover, sharia values a woman's testimony as only half that of a man, so the deck is stacked and rape cannot be proved in most cases. Yet that hardly means the report of rape is of no consequence. Unable to establish that she'd been forcibly violated, the teenager became in the eyes of the sharia court a woman who'd had sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Thus the draconian lashing sentence that became a death sentence."

Hena's flogging under a fatwa -- for being a "participant" in her assault --would have been 101 lashes except she fell unconscious when the count was reportedly around 50. She was rushed to a hospital where she succumbed to her injuries and died, whipped to death.

VICTIM IS PUNISHED

"Died because she was raped," says the blog Conservative New Jersey. "What a loving religion."  (Pictured above right is another sharia flogging of a woman.) 

Surprise -- last year the Bangladeshi High Court banned punishments handed down by fatwa, or religious edict, following a series of cases of Muslim women who were beaten or caned for religious offenses, reported Huffington Post in July. The court ruling resulted from petitions filed by human rights groups and Bangladeshi women lawyers, who argued that women were publicly whipped for supposed crimes of adultery, having a child out of wedlock or even talking to people of other faiths -- and, of course, being a "participant" in their own rape.

The court's ruling also imposed jail terms for clerics and other members of village courts who order such punishment by invoking Islamic Shariah law.

FATWAS & VEILS RULED ILLEGAL

The same court ruled last April that women who were employed in public institutions were not required to wear the "hijab" or veil against their will, which would be a "flagrant violation" of basic human rights.

TEENAGE GIRL STILL WHIPPED TO DEATH 

Yet, although punishing fatwas were finally against the law, young Hena was whipped to death.

Following Hena's death, the High Court has ordered district officals to explain in 15 days why they failed to protect the 14-year-old rape victim from being beaten as per a fatwa, according to Bangladesh newspaper The Daily Star.

DOCTORS LIED ABOUT WOUNDS

The recent news is that three doctors are being investigated for claiming the teenage girl had no signs of injury in a postmortem examination, says The Guardian (UK):

"But Hena's body was exhumed on orders from the High Court and a second autopsy concluded that she had died from internal bleeding and septicaemia caused by wounds "of a homicidal nature" on her scalp, abdomen, back, chest, arms and legs."

Police are now treating the case as murder and have arrested six, including a Muslim cleric.

CLICK & READ: "Yet Another Saudi Sheikh's Fatwa: Women Must Wear One-Eyed Veils"

CLICK & READ: "Has Saudi Arabia Beheaded Fawza Falih for 'Witchcraft'?"

   

 

by Sharon McEachern