Hopeless

It has been extremely hard to stay motivated for this project; working 10-14 hours a day, 6 days a week has done all it could to erode my motivation. The heat and humidity, beating me down day after day, has done its best as well. But the thing that has really wore me thin, that has oppressed the fragile state of my well being, is where I work: black America. (And yes there is a difference between the America you know and black America)



When speaking of the prospects for black America, Dr. Cornell West says that, "we must delve into the depths where neither liberals nor conservatives dear to tread, namely, into the murky waters of despair and dread that now flood the streets of black America. To talk about depressing statistics of unemployment, infant mortality, incarceration, teenage pregnancy, and violent crime is one thing. But to face up to the monumental eclipse of hope, the unprecedented collapse of meaning, the incredible disregard for human (especially black) like and property in much of black America is something else."



Well I have taken off my straw hat and I have seen this "eclipse of hope", this "unprecedented collapse of meaning", this nihilism first hand. I dive into these "murky waters of despair" that are the streets of black America here in Richmond - and I fear I may be drowning.



It is hard for me to see, on a daily basis, this revolving door of hopelessness. Knowing that the people I interact with know just as well as I do that there is no way out of the "hood". They are stuck there. Forever. Inadequate education, no jobs, crime rates, racism - whatever the reason, there is no escaping.



How can I blame them for their apathy, their hopelessness when they know they will be forever shackled to these streets? It doesn't matter what they do - they can stumble the streets drunk before noon or they could work their life away and they will end up in the same place. And it is knowing this and experiencing it first-hand that gets me down.



It also validates what I am doing. Hopefully registering these heirs of despair is the first step in giving them a voice. The first step in giving them a chance to be represented. The first step in giving them a glimmer of hope - and it may be the most minute glimmers of hope, but hope nonetheless - in an otherwise hopeless world.



But I'm not looking for validation. I am looking for motivation. It is this hopelessness that has weighed me down that I need to use as motivation to lift my spirits. Easier said than done.

Bloggers Unite: Human Rights

"Bloggers Unite is an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By challenging bloggers to blog about a particular social cause on a single day, a single voice can be joined with thousands of others to help make a real positive difference; from raising awareness for cancer, to an effort to better education systems or support 3rd world countries."

Today's issue: Human Rights. Instead of posting on a specific human rights issue, I'm going to broaden the discussion and talk about the advantage of using human rights vs. civil rights.

The problem with using "civil rights" in America is that it becomes an American problem to be solved by an entity or entities that have some sort of stake in such a problem. An example would be the rights of an immigrant (legal or illegal) worker to standard living and working conditions. If these rights are violated, it becomes a problem involving, but not limited to, the following entities: the 'x' State government, the ACLU, the 'x' labour union, and a civil- or worker's- rights lawyer.

The problem with civil rights being an American issue is that the majority rules in America. Who is left out?: the minority. So when a civil rights issue becomes a minority issue - and the majority of civil rights issues are minority issues - it becomes a minor issue, an issue of the ignored, an issue of the invisible. This leads to overwhelming indifference from the majority, which ultimately makes it harder to uphold the rights of the minority.

So why human rights? Aren't human rights synonymous with civil rights? In a perfect world, yes. But alas, we are far from a perfect world (or country for that matter). The advantage of using human rights is that human rights are universal (and thus it becomes a global issue instead of an issue of a generally racist, chauvinistic America). Why is this an advantage? Well, for one, it is possible for other governments to put pressure on the United States to live up to the standards we set and hold others to because it is an issue of human- rather than civil- rights.

Furthermore, the issue of minority v. majority is a non-factor because it isn't a minority or majority of people deserving human rights, it is 100% of people deserving human rights. Instead of focusing on the fact that a person may be black, brown, red, yellow, white, purple, blue, and so on, the focus can be the fact that a person is human and deserves the rights of human. (I am in no way saying we should erase a persons color because it is an important part of a person's ethnic and cultural identity - rather, we should focus on the right of a human with no regard to their color.)

It is hard for a person of one color to completely understand what it means to be a person of another color (or a person of one class to understand that of another), and therefore it may be hard to empathize or even care about an issue not relating to oneself. But we are all human and we all understand the basic needs of a human. It will be much easier to erase indifference if we can focus on the basic rights of a human instead of focusing on the rights of a civilian (two completely different beings).

What do you think? Too idealistic? You comments are appreciated.

News: Rebel B.S.

Check out this video news bit about a store in Florida that has banned an employee's confederate-flag-toting truck from the company parking lot. Good for them. The company states they prohibit "rude, abusive, hostile or intimidating" expression. The confederate flag definitely falls under this category.

Do people really not understand what the confederate flag stands for? Don't give me the "Southern Pride" b.s. The confederate flag stands for the confederated who were fighting to keep their slaves as their sub-human servants. I'm not sure how people can look past this? The swastika was once an aboriginal sign for peace, but those feelings certainly aren't evoked today when a swastika is displayed. The same goes for the confederate flag. People can hide behind the "Southern Pride" excuse all they want, but you can't whine when you are held accountable for your actions or when you are judged based on the things you choose say, do, or display.

On a more personal note: A few weeks ago I was at my dad's work and saw a truck with a confederate flag license plate and another truck with a confederate flag decal (this truck also had a decal mentioning something about "Coon Hunting"). I couldn't believe it! My dad said the "Coon Hunting" decal was about raccoon hunting, but what I saw was a something completely different; it looked like a dog adorned in KKK attire. I'm going to try to get a picture up.

I think my friend Nick said it best the other day: "People think we've come a long way, but we really haven't." Sad, but true.