Folktales for Black History month

John McWhorter had an essay last summer on Zora Neal Hurston and her place in Black history on City Journal.

 Most people have heard of Zora Neal Hurston because of the movie made from her novel Their Eyes were Watching God.

but I was more familiar with her as an anthropologist who related the stories of her town and the folk tales of Southern Blacks, collected during the depression.

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more at the Smithsonian.

Known mostly as a novelist, Hurston also had a career as an anthropologist. She studied under the well-known Franz Boas,...

Under Boas’ guidance, Hurston was part of a school of anthropological thought that was “concerned with debunking scientific racism that many anthropologists had been involved in constructing in late-19th century and in the early years of the 20th century,” explains Deborah Thomas, a professor at University of Pennsylvania and one of the keynote speakers at a 2016 conference on Hurston’s work.

“What made anthropology attractive to her was that it was a science through which she could investigate the norms of her own community and put them in relation to broader norms.”

 

Italics mine.

one of my objections to the "racial theory" etc. nonsense is that it is marxism: i.e. it posits a "them vs us" mindset that separates people.

But as one who has lived and worked with people in several cultures (mostly non European, but also ethnic American), anthropology lets one see the differences in the context of what people have in common with each other: i.e. family life, community, personal relationships.

Folk tales help to explain how people see the world so help one understand this in a non threatening way.

One barrier to cross cultural understanding is that people in different cultures actually see the world differently and think differently, but by putting these things into stories it helps others to understand these differences not as alien but as similar, sort of like the tale of the blind men and the elephant).

an example of her collection of folk tales can be read on line here:

Mules and Men.

some of her books can be found on Project Gutenburg.

Librivox has a list of older stories and essays (out of copyright) about the black experience LINK including one by Ms Hurston: Lawing and jawing.

Internet archives has a lot of her books for borrowing, and it also has an audio collection from when she collected stories and interviews while working under the WPA during the depression.

including this interview with the last slave deported to America.

....

This story was finally published in recent years, because stories of the Black experience were not popular at the time it was recorded, let alone stories of slavery, but  to make things "worse" she was criticized because she wrote in dialect rather than proper English... 

UKGuardian story.

Stories you didn't expect to see

white racist attacks an activist who is a POC, police ignore assault.

So it's okay to attack POC if she is Asian?
Ah, but because it's a Phil Am and Filipinas don't count, and besides she's a Republican?

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BLM attacks on Asian American stores are making Asians "soul search" their embrace of "white supremacy" or something?

uh, nope.

the dirty little secret is that a lot of hard working immigrants look down on Americans of any colour who whine about oppression by those who work hard. And just ignore the culture of woke that sees nothing wrong with drugs and promiscuity, and even neglect their families because hey, promiscuity is fun ("who am I to judge" is their meme), and thinks abortion and euthanasia are the best thing since sliced bread, (translation: because who wants a kid or to take care of grandmom when you could be out partying)?

Actually, in my experience working among the inner city and rural poor, a lot of people act this way but ironically few actually think that way.

However, the intellectual class is pushing these ideas so alas there are the brain washed college students who actually believe these intellectual fads, and now are being taught to also disdain hard work, honesty, logic, and strict family values because...whiteness. Ergo these ideas need to be destroyed.

reality check please;

I seem to remember reading Confucius taught these things long before Europe became civilized, but never mind.

As for the scientific method (the next "western" idea that the woke plan to destroy), I hate to tell them: Mathematics (Algebra and arabic numbers anyone?) and building (engineering programs e.g. irrigation) have been alive and well in the Middle East, South Asian countries, and China since before 3000 BCE

and of course, the importance of the family as the basic unit of society (and keeping the family strong via strict rules about family responsibilities) is also the basis of both Islamic and Confucian values (and Hispanic values, and African values and Native American values for that matter).

Ah, but what about capitalism?
Does this mean the disdain of those who work hard and running a business?

notice who owns those shops being destroyed? Not all are "white" (whatever that means: I am so old that I remember that Irish Catholics, Italians, and Jews were not considered white, and indeed up to 1960 my medical school had quotas to keep these types out of their classes).

of course, the definition of "White" keeps expanding, so east and south Asians are white, as are many from Latin America.

Indeed, it looks like hard working South Asians and East Asians  and Pakistani and African and West Indians, and Hispanic, and Somali entrepeneurs are looked down on, and their children shamed to think they shouldn't follow the teaching of Moses, Paul, or Confucius, (or Mohammed for that matter: He was a businessman) , because capitalism, which has lifted a couple billion folks out of poverty over the last century, is evil, not a noble profession that allows you to benefit both your family and your workers and customers.

the present day Marxist Riots are about promoting hatred and destroying civilization, not about learning about different cultures and showing that they all have a lot in common with each other,  or that all cultures teach children directly or by example those moral habits that help people live a quiet life and be able to support their families.

update: 
AsianDawn summarizes the destruction but the article is from June 3, so probably needs to be updated -------------------
so where are the bishops and pastors preaching ethical living, instead of placating the mob that encourages destruction and hatred?

Well, when the leaders fail, it is left to the least likely people to do this.

the freedom does not come from an election. The freedom comes from you not loading up pornography. The freedom comes from you not taking the Percocet. The freedom comes from you not doubting your brother and your sister. The freedom comes from you putting that gun down and not shooting people at the gas station. It has nothing to do with this election. It only has to do with God and God’s people...

He set pause for us to take a moment and breathe and not TikTok ourselves out. He sent pause for us, now we have a moment to breathe. It has nothing to do with black, white, rich, poor, red, blue, Native American, pilgrim. It has to deal with being truthful to what God has."

Yup. that's Kanye. And he even says the forbidden thing to his audience: That abortion kills a baby.

I wanted to show everyone… exactly what the six month baby that is legal to be destroyed in [inaudible] looked like.....

So let’s say when the baby is conceived, at that point it is a soul. It is a real, living thing. That six month year old baby, that’s a real living thing. Do we agree that that was a real baby? That six month old baby?...

My stance is not to make abortion illegal at all... In 2020, abortion should be legal, but the option of maximum increase should be available. Maximum increase would be everybody that has a baby gets a million dollars, or something like that.

and that pregnant woman needing money should have the child subsidized.

Fine with me. That's common in Europe.

(and for those of you who cry "socialism", just remember how Winston Churchill supported many basic social programs: he defended milk for poor children, for example, and quipped: I can't think of a better investment than putting milk into the mouth of babes")

 But emphasizing the baby's daddy should have a well paying job and take care of her and the baby will help more than just a check....and if Trumpie boy is not exactly a good example for living an ethical life, he is nevertheless good at what he does: Making jobs for people while making a profit for himself.

update: The press is claiming Kanye is manic again. Just so you know.

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and finally: the Multicultural Polka!


so is Polka multicultural? Well, maybe.

my Colombian born sons loved to listen to the radio's polka hour, saying it reminded them of Colombian music.

Christmas stories

A Filipino teacher in the rural US discusses the cultural differences:  the kids don't automatically respect her as a teacher...And she feels lonely especially at birthdays and Christmas...

..
remember to ask local exchange students to come for Christmas dinner... many are lonely. And even non Christian students will appreciate the celebration of the secular version of the holiday, with it's emphasis on family and friendship

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coolgreenscience blog discusses Reindeer, and caribou. and this related post discusses the differences. Both are variations of the same species.

Reindeer are semi domesticated, which is why there was once a project to teach Eskimos to herd reindeer as the Sami do in Scandinavia.

Alaska reindeer project (1892): decline and fall.

they exported the meat and hide products, and the market disappeared, so the locals stopped herding them. Another problem: Eskimos tend to live in villages, and not roam about following herds as do the Sami.

Canada's trial that moved Alaskan reindeer to Canada

Reindeer, a more easily domesticated cousin of the wild caribou, that the New York Times called “the camel of the frozen north,” had been thriving in Alaska for several decades since two separate herds were brought over from Siberia and Lapland near the end of the nineteenth century.

discussed here. (1935)

they are still there, of course



film on modern reindeer herding: antlers are used in Chinese medicine...

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the Missing women

Domestic abuse is not a rare occurrence in the world, be it rich or poor, educated or drop outs, hetero or gay, with or without substance abuse history, and in all races and cultures.

We doctors often see cases of abuse, especially in the Emergency rooms, but more often we find it is the cause of our (usually female) patient's symptoms.

Often the patients never mention the abuse, but present with vague symptoms, (aka "somatization") and some end up seeking opioid drugs or tranquilizers to numb their depression (these make things worse and can cause addiction).

Many of these patients have had bad things happen to them, and often counseling and anti depressants help, but not if the cause is chronic abuse and the patient refuses to leave her "loving" spouse.

And sometimes the cause of the depression is complicated from family and societal problems that we docs can't really treat.

My last job in the US was working in the IHS, and we saw a lot of these cases there too, often from alcohol/drug abuse, broken families, etc. but with the complication of culture stresses: living in a minority culture that is despised by the mainstream culture.

So I was happy to find out that the Feds under Attorney General Barr are now funding an initiative to fight abuse, murder, and to help find the missing women from Native American reservations.

(headsup from TeaAtTrianon).

Why the Federal Government? Because the FBI is in charge of investigating major crimes like murder on the reservation. This initiative will extend their expertise to help local tribal police to investigate the less serious crimes and suspected crimes as in missing persons.

LINK1 is the Federal statement of goals and initiatives.

MMIP coordinators will work closely with federal, tribal, state and local agencies to develop common protocols and procedure for responding to reports of missing or murdered indigenous people

Specialized FBI Rapid Deployment Teams will bring needed tools and resources to law enforcement.

The department will perform in-depth analysis of federally supported databases and share the results of this analysis with our partners in this effort.

Summary of this can be found at the Epoch Times which notes the tribes are pleased but they note this is a small effort, and more is needed, given the extend of the problem:

The Urban Indian Health Institute found, citing statistics from the National Crime Information Center, that there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls in 2016 while only 116 cases were logged in the DOJ’s federal missing person database, according to a February report.

most of these are runaways or just people who decided to move away without telling anyone in their extended family, but too many are found dead and the reason is never discovered.






sigh.

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the problem of modernization causing the destruction of traditional cultures is world wide, and is the argument in the background of the Pope's "Amazon synod":

and the Pope is causing a debate by backing the clueless German/liberation theology liberals against the clueless traditional  Catholics, and the whole argument is frustrating to me because both sides are so embedded in ideology that they don't understand the problem.

Question: Do you respect the culture so much that you refuse to interfere with their customs, even terrible ones like infanticide, kidnapping women and children from other tribes,  etc.? 

And if you are "traditional" and want to convert them, do you understand that they don't think like you, so maybe you need to understand (and love them) and that a lot of good customs of their culture can be incorporated into their daily religious activity?

to quote Camus:

“The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point...there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.”

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so how does one understand a culture where people have different priorities and who think completely differently from your own culture?

reading anthropology books help. 

And sometimes ordinary books/movies give a little insight.

When I worked short term physician on the Navajo reservation, the nurses told me to read Tony Hillerman's books to get some understanding of everyday tribal customs and attitudes.

One of our docs would tell our visiting physicians that if they wanted to understand the frustration of our patients that sometimes would burst out with violence and substance abuse, they should watch the movie "Once Were Warriors", a film about the Maori trying to cope with modernism.

another more optimistic film that gives some insight to Indian humor being used to cope can be seen in Smoke Signals.

the film that alerted many Americans to the problem of the missing Native American was the film "Wind River", which I didn't like because it was a white person's point of view (why is the lead character a white guy? And the FBI agent was a clueless blond who didn't know it's cold in Wyoming in winter? Most of our FBI guys I met on the res were middle aged and had some knowledge of the culture.)

a quick google will give information about other aspects of the problem.

the MMIW is one organization that is helping families to search for their missing loved ones: VOA report on their work here.

the problem of missing women is also a problem in Canada LINK

and I won't even go into the many many reports of abuse at the boarding schools in the past.

Pippi Longstocking back in style

what's with the braids?

If Climatepuppet Greta came into my office when I was a physician, I would tell her where to learn how to put on makeup and get a haircut and get her into counseling to help her with her self esteem issues and depression.

Did my other patients wear braids? well, a few of the "religious" type patients did, and ex hippies usually had a single braid, but there weren't a lot who wore the double braids reminiscent of Hitler Yutes 

whoops: not pc. I mean reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking.

then I came across this lecture, telling people with disabilities it's okay to have sex (uh, does she know how often those with developmental disabilities are sexually exploited?).
so why are these ladies wearing braids? To look ugly? or is it the new "PC"?




wearing double braids can remind one of the "good old days" when married ladies braided their hair across their heads like a crown:

My Objibwe neighbors would wear braids when they would dress up for celebrations: but not usually at the clinic.

and braids are still stylish in the Black community:

Braiding in the black community (and in Africa braided hair was and is common: at least in more traditional/rural areas) was a practical way to wear your unruly hair without all the mess of trying to straighten it out to look fashionable (i.e. look like a white girl).



the multiple braids in black fashion are now being used by white girls trying to look hip, and some in the black community are not happy about it.

 Braid Bar, CC BY-NC-ND

With white British models Moss and Jones as the faces of the ad campaign, Selfridges’ Braid Bar has been accused of endorsing a white standard of beauty. Across social media, critics are calling out this lack of diversity while crucially noting Selfridges’ additional miscalculation: the appropriation of black culture. The point being that this style of hair braiding is central to black female identity.

which is of course, nonsense. Braided hair is seen in ancient Egyptian art and Indian art, and the neolithic European Venus von Willendorf idol shows her wearing corn rolls.

But when teenager who has a flat affect whose braids make her look like a child starts spouting she hates you for being evil, well, it reminds one of this iconic story 

https://horrorpedia.com/2017/06/19/children-of-the-corn-runaway-2017-horror-film-movie-overview-cast-plot/

Steven King call your office: the kids are back.