This is sooooooooooooooooo wonderful! I am a mom to 11, 5 adopted, 4 transracially. I am currently writing my 5th book "Diverse Family Inclusion in a Toxic World; One Parent's Thoughtful Response to the Anti-God, Anti-Family Society". I provide many recommended resources, and will include this in my Children's Books section. Thank you for being so brave and very talented. This is a beautifully illustrated book and very well-written. :) I am American, so was my late husband, and so are all my kids!
This is a thousand percent accurate. It is the essence of the Declaration of Independence that each individual has inalienable rights including Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness, but the Declaration goes beyond that. It says the only legitimate government is one that secures these inalienable rights to all. The Declaration was an explicit denial that any individual may be defined by race, religion, nationality or by any other ascriptive status. No individual has more or better inalienable rights that any other individual. That is the sole meaning of "equal" of the Declaration's phrase, "all men are created equal." ["men" did not mean male]
This founding principle was necessary because the entire world was divided in subgroups and an individual's rights were defined by the class, religion, race into which he/she was born. The Declaration set forth the core value of the new nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Abe Lincoln 1863 Gettysburg Address
Later, Americans developed the notion of the Melting Pot and then said Salad Bowl, but the meaning was the same -- We are all one in the public sphere, but in our private lives were are free to have our own cultures. The various cultures from around the world are irrelevant to an individual's inalienable rights. In the late 1950's and 1960's, we were making great progress in making the core value of individual inalienable rights into reality. The notion of White Supremacy was in great retreat. To a great extent, Nazism and genocide of non-Aryans including Jews and Gypsies had made the idea that one "race" was superior an anathema.
The Civil Rights Movement was one of advancing Liberty with MLK's I Have A Dream Speech becoming the most eloquent statement of the Declaration.
Then something went horribly wrong -- it was a cultural car wreck. Insanity seized control of the nation and Liberty was thrown away and in its place rose Equality. Rather than advance each person's inalienable rights, we segregated ourselves into certain groups and started measuring equality of outcome. Once a nation adopts the notion of Equality and the need to measure each each against each other group, each person become locked into his/her group. Although conservative White Supremacy was essentially dead, the Democrats invented a new form of White Supremacy. Blacks, Mexicans, Asians would be measured by how well they were doing in comparison with Whites. The Democrats placed Whites as the highest and best. Integration was discouraged as they wanted to measure minorities against White achievements. Then, the Democrats started to eliminate poor performing Whites from measurement, e.g., Appalachian Whites, as well as kicking out high achieving minorities from Affirmative Action, e.g., Asians.
Money was raised based not only how well Blacks were doing but rather on how poorly they were doing. The individual ceased to exist and the concept of freedom/liberty was trashed. Blacks had to stay poor and contained in order for the fundraising to continue. We are much worse as a nation today than we were in the mid-1960's where a majority of the nation was focused on individual character and people associating on the basis of person-to-person relationship and not based on to which group we belonged. There was great hope in those days among Whites that MLK's dream was close at hand. But, there is no money in integration, but there are billions of dollars to be made from fear and hate of other groups.
I made a typo. I wrote "Money was raised based not only how well Blacks were doing but rather on how poorly they were doing." I mean to write, "Money was raised NOT based how well Blacks were doing but rather on how poorly they were doing."
Here she is---she's done it again. Sheena Mason is brave, creative and truthful. I am so excited to spend a day with her in September for an all-day conference. Hers is a voice that must be heard above the din of anti-racist capitalists milking the very blood out of our collective conscience. This is a spiritual message as well as a practical one. I cannot imagine MLK would do anything but celebrate Sheena's efforts. Brava.
Excellent. Here is a further thought. If we free ourselves from race, there are those other ways we humans limit ourselves: sectarianism, classism, tribalism, etc. So, does racelessness imply (or lead to) humanness? Or perhaps we allow positive aspects of these cultural boundaries? My comment is not intended to limit racelessness, but touches on those nettlesome ways that we, as humans, need or want identities beyond a radical individualism?
For those of us who understand both biological evolution and cultural evolution, and who reject Identity Politics, it is amazing how simple fact and history have overlooked the fact that despite race, ethnic and religious groups, all of us are part of American culture. We share just about everything with everyone else! All the subcategories and varieties of how we live (arts, food,
consumerism, health, education, economic, etc.) in no way overcome the fact that we have all ingested a way of life and way of thinking that is American. This applies to all classes and races.
It is this larger culture that we overlook when we issue blame and when minorities claim
victimization. These "victims" of "white privilege" contribute as much invective, guilt,
recriminations as is inflicted on them. They pollute equally. They evoke anger equally. And they reject the very values and institutions that have protected them and enabled dissent, while ignoring the real sources of inequality and disastrous environmental policies (whose consequences seem ot no interest to them). Saving the planet is not in their plans. Somehow is is as American as apple pie.
They are in this respect the same as those they accuse of oppressing them.
Outstanding. Also, a little sad that this needs to be said (or illustrated, in this case) over and over again. For some of us it so straightforward, so obvious, that we wonder in disbelief why others don't get it.
I absolutely love this melding of Infographics and Prose! Beautiful Job! What a wonderful gift to see this here - thank you for sharing this with all of us!
This is so beautiful. I think race has always just been an excuse to grab power. We need to stop grabbing power by demonizing and dehumanizing each other. It's time to evolve our brains and hearts. This type of thinking will lead the way.
I felt the yearning to belong in these graphics. This same yearning is eloquently expressed by one of our best American poets, Langston Hughes:
I, Too
By Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
Every time I read this, my whole body vibrates with yearning - for it to come true.
This is such an excellent story of being "American". The illustrations are so beautifully compelling as well. When will this be published as a book? I want to buy copies for multiple people.
I see the beginnings of a nonfiction graphic book - How to REALLY be an anti racist ❤️
This is sooooooooooooooooo wonderful! I am a mom to 11, 5 adopted, 4 transracially. I am currently writing my 5th book "Diverse Family Inclusion in a Toxic World; One Parent's Thoughtful Response to the Anti-God, Anti-Family Society". I provide many recommended resources, and will include this in my Children's Books section. Thank you for being so brave and very talented. This is a beautifully illustrated book and very well-written. :) I am American, so was my late husband, and so are all my kids!
Thank you for this heartfelt and deeply personal response to our post!
I aggressively adore this. Thank you to JFBT, Dru, and Dr Mason for this.
This is a thousand percent accurate. It is the essence of the Declaration of Independence that each individual has inalienable rights including Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness, but the Declaration goes beyond that. It says the only legitimate government is one that secures these inalienable rights to all. The Declaration was an explicit denial that any individual may be defined by race, religion, nationality or by any other ascriptive status. No individual has more or better inalienable rights that any other individual. That is the sole meaning of "equal" of the Declaration's phrase, "all men are created equal." ["men" did not mean male]
This founding principle was necessary because the entire world was divided in subgroups and an individual's rights were defined by the class, religion, race into which he/she was born. The Declaration set forth the core value of the new nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Abe Lincoln 1863 Gettysburg Address
Later, Americans developed the notion of the Melting Pot and then said Salad Bowl, but the meaning was the same -- We are all one in the public sphere, but in our private lives were are free to have our own cultures. The various cultures from around the world are irrelevant to an individual's inalienable rights. In the late 1950's and 1960's, we were making great progress in making the core value of individual inalienable rights into reality. The notion of White Supremacy was in great retreat. To a great extent, Nazism and genocide of non-Aryans including Jews and Gypsies had made the idea that one "race" was superior an anathema.
The Civil Rights Movement was one of advancing Liberty with MLK's I Have A Dream Speech becoming the most eloquent statement of the Declaration.
Then something went horribly wrong -- it was a cultural car wreck. Insanity seized control of the nation and Liberty was thrown away and in its place rose Equality. Rather than advance each person's inalienable rights, we segregated ourselves into certain groups and started measuring equality of outcome. Once a nation adopts the notion of Equality and the need to measure each each against each other group, each person become locked into his/her group. Although conservative White Supremacy was essentially dead, the Democrats invented a new form of White Supremacy. Blacks, Mexicans, Asians would be measured by how well they were doing in comparison with Whites. The Democrats placed Whites as the highest and best. Integration was discouraged as they wanted to measure minorities against White achievements. Then, the Democrats started to eliminate poor performing Whites from measurement, e.g., Appalachian Whites, as well as kicking out high achieving minorities from Affirmative Action, e.g., Asians.
Money was raised based not only how well Blacks were doing but rather on how poorly they were doing. The individual ceased to exist and the concept of freedom/liberty was trashed. Blacks had to stay poor and contained in order for the fundraising to continue. We are much worse as a nation today than we were in the mid-1960's where a majority of the nation was focused on individual character and people associating on the basis of person-to-person relationship and not based on to which group we belonged. There was great hope in those days among Whites that MLK's dream was close at hand. But, there is no money in integration, but there are billions of dollars to be made from fear and hate of other groups.
https://bit.ly/3fUBy1z April 8, 2021, CityWatch, Hate Money Stalks America,
https://bit.ly/3fUBy1z April 8, 2021, CityWatch, Hate Money Stalks America,
I made a typo. I wrote "Money was raised based not only how well Blacks were doing but rather on how poorly they were doing." I mean to write, "Money was raised NOT based how well Blacks were doing but rather on how poorly they were doing."
Here she is---she's done it again. Sheena Mason is brave, creative and truthful. I am so excited to spend a day with her in September for an all-day conference. Hers is a voice that must be heard above the din of anti-racist capitalists milking the very blood out of our collective conscience. This is a spiritual message as well as a practical one. I cannot imagine MLK would do anything but celebrate Sheena's efforts. Brava.
Excellent. Here is a further thought. If we free ourselves from race, there are those other ways we humans limit ourselves: sectarianism, classism, tribalism, etc. So, does racelessness imply (or lead to) humanness? Or perhaps we allow positive aspects of these cultural boundaries? My comment is not intended to limit racelessness, but touches on those nettlesome ways that we, as humans, need or want identities beyond a radical individualism?
This is powerful. I'm planning to show it to my students on the first day of class. Thank you so much.
For those of us who understand both biological evolution and cultural evolution, and who reject Identity Politics, it is amazing how simple fact and history have overlooked the fact that despite race, ethnic and religious groups, all of us are part of American culture. We share just about everything with everyone else! All the subcategories and varieties of how we live (arts, food,
consumerism, health, education, economic, etc.) in no way overcome the fact that we have all ingested a way of life and way of thinking that is American. This applies to all classes and races.
It is this larger culture that we overlook when we issue blame and when minorities claim
victimization. These "victims" of "white privilege" contribute as much invective, guilt,
recriminations as is inflicted on them. They pollute equally. They evoke anger equally. And they reject the very values and institutions that have protected them and enabled dissent, while ignoring the real sources of inequality and disastrous environmental policies (whose consequences seem ot no interest to them). Saving the planet is not in their plans. Somehow is is as American as apple pie.
They are in this respect the same as those they accuse of oppressing them.
Outstanding. Also, a little sad that this needs to be said (or illustrated, in this case) over and over again. For some of us it so straightforward, so obvious, that we wonder in disbelief why others don't get it.
Loved, loved this so much!!! I’m Canadian and this is exactly how I feel and the way that I’d describe myself - beautiful drawings too!
Praise God! What a beautiful tribute to all of us Americans! God bless you in all you do!
Wow! That was like a huge ray of sunshine that just bathed me in hope. Thank you.
I absolutely love this melding of Infographics and Prose! Beautiful Job! What a wonderful gift to see this here - thank you for sharing this with all of us!
This is so beautiful. I think race has always just been an excuse to grab power. We need to stop grabbing power by demonizing and dehumanizing each other. It's time to evolve our brains and hearts. This type of thinking will lead the way.
I felt the yearning to belong in these graphics. This same yearning is eloquently expressed by one of our best American poets, Langston Hughes:
I, Too
By Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
Every time I read this, my whole body vibrates with yearning - for it to come true.
This is such an excellent story of being "American". The illustrations are so beautifully compelling as well. When will this be published as a book? I want to buy copies for multiple people.
We are planning the publication of this as a hard copy book right now! Stay tuned...
Great to hear!
This is fantastic. And also adorable!