Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Symbols of the racist past still prevalent in the United States

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Syed Ahmed Uzair

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Symbols of the racist past still prevalent in the United States

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Global Views 360

Publication Date

August 12, 2020

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A person wearing Blackface

A person wearing Blackface | Source:  foundin_a_attic via Flickr | Source: Wikimedia

George Floyd’s recent death while in Police custody has sparked protests across the entire United States. While it did expose the way Black Americans are policed, it also initiated a much deeper conversation about the prevalent racism faced by Black Americans in almost all aspects of modern life.

Many symbols of the racist past still exist across the US, more so in the Southern states. The recent trigger of protests and the BLM movement has initiated a discussion about these symbols once again. While some argue that it is important to preserve these symbols owing to the American culture, the majority of the people seem to be agreeing that these are symbols of oppression and injustice.

Thomas D. Rice is pictured while performing his blackface role — Jim Crow | Source: Edward Williams Clay via Wikimedia

In the mid to late 19th century, white actors quite commonly employed the use of black grease paint to depict slaves and free blacks on stage. The technique commonly known as blackface was more than just facial makeup. Rather, it was used as a symbol for mocking the African-Americans as inferiors in every aspect of life.

Blackface seemed to have disappeared in the 1960s thanks to the Civil Rights Movement. It however reappeared in the 1980s on college campuses in the wake of steps taken to bring more African Americans to campus. An old yearbook picture from Langley School resurfaced recently revealing the then-principal and vice-principal dressed as whiteface and blackface for Halloween. The current leadership of the school have issued apologies stating that the incident should not have happened.

Despite a racist history surrounding blackface, a recent survey by Pew Research Centre revealed that nearly one-third of Americans surveyed did not find anything offensive in blackface being used at Halloween.

Newspaper ad for Aunt Jemima Buckwheat pancake mix, 1923 | Source: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress

Aunt Jemima, a 130-year-old syrup and pancake mix brand owned by Quaker Oats depicts a black woman named Aunt Jemima who was originally dressed as a minstrel character. The company has earlier made tweaks to the picture of the black woman in response to the criticism it received for propagating a racial stereotype. In June 2020, Quaker Oats announced that the brand would be rejuvenated to feature a new name and image.

Image of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States | Source: Wikimedia

Andrew Jackson, the seventh US president and his family employed hundreds of enslaved people in building their wealth. However, to date, Jackson still haunts Black Americans with his presence on the twenty-dollar bills in the wallets of these Americans. The Trump administration’s decision to not replace the bill featuring Jackson with one that would feature abolitionist Harriet Tubman as proposed earlier does not help the nation’s troubled history with Racism.

Similar symbols of the US racist past exist across the entire country, starting from streets named after Confederate officers to congested highways specifically designed to ensure isolation of Black neighborhoods. Football and baseball games in the country still feature the national anthem penned by Francis Scott Key, a person who used his power as district attorney to prosecute Black men.

George Floyd’s death was the perfect trigger for all the anger and frustration against the systematic injustice that has been meted out to Black people. However, it also served well to initiate debates over the omnipresence of these racial symbols across the country that serve as memorials to slavery and white supremacy.

As many as 800 Confederate statues and monuments have been removed ever since the BLM protests erupted in the country. A few of these racial symbols in the US suffered the brunt of BLM protesters who defaced homages and toppled statues of founding fathers who had profited from slavery.

Those against the removal of these symbols argue that these men merely failed in morality due to the socio-political environment they inhabited. Alvita Akiboh, an assistant professor of history at the University of Michigan, however, disagrees with the notion. “Just because slavery was accepted among white elites or even the broader white population at the time does not mean it was accepted by everybody, because everybody includes Black people who were enslaved, indigenous people who were pushed off their lands in order to expand plantation slavery,” said Akiboh.

Others, including US President Donald Trump, have employed the notion of removing these symbols as the equivalent of “ripping American history and culture apart”. To this Akiboh voices her opinion saying that the majority of these symbols were erected decades after the civil-war conflict ended. She argues that they are merely “a reminder for Black and brown people to remember their place”.

As the BLM protests gain momentum and support globally the scrutiny of the racist symbols in the US shall increase manifold. With the government not willing to push for major reforms and removal of these racist symbols and an adamant public demanding an end to the systematic discrimination based on race, the road ahead for the recial relation in the US is a difficult and complicated one.

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February 4, 2021 4:49 PM

Paradise for wildlife created on a private land in India

Amidst the horror filled reports and anecdotes making it to the news bulletin in 2020, a wonderful story of altruism emerges from Rajasthan, India. Complete lockdowns followed by nations might have brought down our productivity and economy but it gave nature a chance to heal from the torments it faced due to us humans. However, Aditya and Poonam Singh, a couple from Rajasthan lent the environment a helping hand in speeding up the process of bringing biodiversity back to life.

The couple moved to Sawai Madhopur, a city in Rajasthan near Ranthambore Tiger reserve, in 1998. It was his passionate love for nature that made Aditya quit his prestigious Civil services job, give up the comfortable city life of New Delhi and shift to Rajasthan. In fact, his wife, Poonam was the one who suggested they move since both of them fell in love with Ranthambore when they first visited the National Park. “My first sighting was a tigress with three cubs on a hill. It was magical. At the end of the trip, I just asked him if we can move to Ranthambore. He wanted it too and within months we moved” says an ecstatic Poonam Singh.

After moving, they started a tourist resort as a means of earning their daily bread. Gradually, Mr. Aditya started purchasing the barren agricultural fields around Ranthambore Tiger reserve (RTR), an area known as Bhadlav (now Bhadlao). These fields would often be visited by predators like tigers, had no access to good roads or electricity, and were not being used extensively for farming. Due to such dangerous circumstances Mr. Singh got  fields at a cheap price from the owners who wanted to sell and move out.

Mr Singh left these plots of land for a long time to the mercy of nature and they soon grew into plush mini forests with two natural water holes. He also constructed a few artificial water holes for the animals visiting the area during summer heat. “I just bought this and did nothing to it except removing the invasive species. We allowed the land to recover and now after 20 years it has become a lush green patch of forest which is frequently visited by all kinds of animals, including tigers, leopards and wild boars, throughout the year,” says Singh.

These mini forests provide shelter and protection to those sub-adult tigers which are driven towards the edges of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. Additionally, the couple is also working towards building a homestay for tourists which will be powered by renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. Mr. Singh’s beautiful story of their 40 acres huge sanctuary was shared to the public by The World Economic Forum via twitter and his efforts were highly lauded by millions of people.

The once barren fields which are now lush green forest have seen tremendous growth in commercial value. Mr Singh is regularly approached by suiters for sales or joint development of this area however he has never entertained these proposals. He says..  “Money was never the consideration. It is just about my love for nature and wildlife” Such unselfish acts are indeed rare in today’s times. Aditya and Poonam Singh are indeed a prime example of late Mahatma Gandhi’s saying ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’.

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