California takes up most of the west coast of America. In the late 1900s it became the largest and richest of the 50 states in America. With one American in eight living there, it is like a small America in itself.
Its two great cities are Los Angeles in the south and San Francisco to the north. Hollywood, the seat of the American film industry, is near Los Angeles. Silicon Valley, the seat of the country’s computer industry, is near San Francisco.
California is much newer and younger than the grey north-east where New York and Washington are. It has given the country a second youth.
What California has given the world: Mickey Mouse, Disneyland, iPods, hippies, Google, personal computers and much else.
To other Americans some Californians seem a bit strange and not serious enough.
California has three main parts – it is like three states in one:
- Southern California – the Los Angeles area. Maybe the first place in the world built completely on the car.It has beautiful weather, like the south of France. Hollywood is in the hills to the north, so is JPL and Caltech. Compton is to west, behind the hills by the sea. To the south are Disneyland and San Diego. This is where Presidents Nixon and Reagan are from.
- The Bay Area – the San Francisco area. Has two of the country’s best schools – Stanford and Berkeley. Out of these, at the southern end of the bay, grew Silicon Valley, where you will find Google, Apple, Intel, Sun, HP, Xerox PARC, Yahoo! and others.
- The Central Valley – the middle of the state is like a vast garden that grows most of the country’s fruit and vegetables. This is wine country.
California was once part of Mexico. In fact part of it still is: Lower or Baja California. What Americans call California is, strictly speaking, Upper California.
In the 1700s Spanish missions up and down the coast brought the Christian faith to the Native Americans. Some of these missions became towns and then cities. That is why so many cities in California have religious Spanish names: San Francisco (St Francis), San Diego (St James), San Jose (St Joseph), Santa Monica (St Monica), Los Angeles (the Angels), Sacramento (Sacrament) and so on. The little Spanish church that started Los Angeles is still there in the middle of the city.
In the 1840s America fought a war against Mexico over Texas and wound up taking the north half of the country. That is when America got California. Soon after gold was discovered near San Francisco. That brought the first big wave of Americans.
The second wave came a hundred years later after the Second World War. The young American men who went off to fight Japan went through California and saw what it was like. After the war many of them came back to settle down.
Compared to most of the country California is heavily Mexican. In Southern California maybe two in five are Mexican. Mexico is just to the south and is so much poorer. For many Mexicans moving to California is a no-brainer.
See also:
I’ve been a resident of California for almost six years now. I like your description.
Alexandria the Great
AKA
~*~ Pretty Star
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But the mexicans are taking over and unamericanizing the state, and the entire country
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But the mexicans are taking over and unamericanizing the state, and the entire country
I love Mexican food so that can’t be a bad thing! Maybe I should move there to be closer to my beloved cuisine.
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la style tacos on a small corn tortilla with salsa verde mmm,
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did yous see that article they want to make it like 6 states
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbrown/2014/02/28/california-split-into-six-separate-states/
“The California breakup countdown begins. Nineteen and a half weeks. 807,615 signatures. That is the time frame and magic number needed to place Initiative #13-0063 on the November 2014 ballot.”
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^ How about Hawaii? I actually found it better than California.
And you don’t find promotion of Model Minority Stereotypes, Perpetual Foreigner Stereotypes, treatment of Asians in Hollywood (which is in California), English-only resolutions, and the migration of whites away from the coast (as far away as Utah) to escape the hordes of Latinos and Asians that are eating away their heritage and social fabric, and the continuing conflict between blacks and Asians (highlighted during the Rodney King incident) – as signs of deep racial problems in California?
The movie “Crash” took place in Los Angeles. If California is almost a racial paradise, why did they choose it as the setting for the movie which aimed at depicting the negativity of race relations in the USA?
If it is indeed one of the least racist states in the USA, then we are in deep trouble.
New York City now has more Asians than LA and SF combined. We might see more and more focus popping up on the East Coast as time goes on.
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How do blacks fare there? I was looking at the maps here and it does not look very ideal:
(http://www.businessinsider.com/maps-show-racial-divide-in-silicon-valley-2013-9?op=1#!KSfEk)
How is knowledge of the history of the various ethnic groups in the area taught in school? Do whites (but also Asians, for that matter), for example, learn about what actually happened regarding race relations in the past, or has it been completely white-washed over?
I traveled to the Bay Area many times and have relatives, friends, ex-colleagues there. They have their own sets of issues.
I got the impression from friends and ex-colleagues that Seattle might even be better than SF Bay area.
Many metropolitan areas do have a few neighborhoods that seem to be much more race tolerant than some. They are not all in California.
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If blacks are leaving, then is sounds like it is also losing diversity, as blacks are fully part of our nation’s history and culture. I don’t see that as a good positive sign of diversity.
Abagond went to school over 20 years before you did. And most schools seem to stop history in its tracks about 30 years before what is being taught in the classroom. So, his history lessons probably stopped at the Korean War, Brown v. Board, and early civil rights demonstrations (Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Little Rock, etc.) and ended with JFK’s assassination. When I went to school, it STOPPED just before Brown v. Board.
You probably got the civil rights era and Affirmative action covered in your school, and when US recognized China, but it probably stopped with Ronald Reagan (because, after all, he was the ex-Governor). You might have learned a little about the End of the Cold War and Apartheid in South Africa, but little beyond that. What I am saying is that it is also time specific, not just geographically specific.
Have you seen the textbooks written before 1970 and esp. before 1960? That would sound so shocking nowadays.
If History was so liberal in California, how much did you get taught about California’s history? About the Spanish and Filipino settlements and the extermination of the Native Americans and the Chinese? If you study the history of California, then you have to study the history of Mexico – it did not begin with the Gold Rush.
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I have a lot of friends who lived in both New York city and in California, some of whom grew up in neither place, and they told me that in some ways, they found California to be more racist than New York, and especially so in Southern California (but to some extent in California as a whole). They explained it to me that at least in New York, people travel mostly in public transportation, and there is a huge mix of diversity that new Yorkers must face every day. This is especially so for people who live in Queens, which still ranks as the most racially, ethnically, religiously and linguistically diverse county in the USA. Having said that, I lived in Queens before and can tell you that people have all sorts of racial attitudes, they divide themselves in a myriad of ways, and you will still find some of the black residential areas split off.
Whereas in California, it is more spread out, it is possible to travel in your car to your office and encounter LESS diversity on a daily basis. That is what they told me and my experience corroborated that.
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Removing Asian American history out of the textbooks in California in classrooms full of Asian-Americans – how is that less repugnant than removing the history of black lynching in Mississippi or Mexican-American studies and history from the curriculum in Arizona?
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..Erm, well having grown up for a Large portion of my life in the Bay Area of San Francisco, while there are many mixed couples (because lots of people ae very experimental and promiscuous in Cali)-I must say that in spite of this, it is not the most racist state, but it Still is very racist though! What a lot of people don’t see is what happens when kids graduate high school, and the competition for jobs and/or other resources becomes a battle-ground for folks to compete with one another, and those classmate you once thought was so “down” with everybody begin to realize how those with the lightest skin get the most privilege, and as many as cool Asians I know (and love) there-sadly, there are a lot of them who also play the game and begin to mock their white counterparts by snubbing Black (and other non-white/POC) in order to get a piece of that high-priced lifestyle that makes up California. As for the Black folks who have been pushed out, what accounts for a lot of that occurrence is the fact that for many years neighborhoods/districts such as Bayview Hunter’s Point, 3rd Street, McKinnon St. etc. have long been desired by greedy (and yes racist) businessman who had always wanted to see those people removed from those properties (as it near the Naval Shipyard) and the potential to raise the rent has been (and is) something that is a dream come true for them-not to mention that if anyone looks into the history of the Bay Area, it was not a mecca for most POC from the beginning, since many (racist) residents never desired them to be there in the first place..Trust and believe there is way to Cali than meets the (tourist) eye..As a matter of fact, there are many more places in the ‘States that don’t experience the levels of racism that Cali provides, and the results are more unusual than one would think..
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..There is way more to Cali than meets the (tourist) eye.. typo And when I stated that people many people are promiscuous and experimental I do not mean because they are a mixed couple, but rather a lot of “mixing” has been done because folks there often like to brag about “trying something new”, even if they do not necessarily respect that particular individual, or culture. This goes for white, black, Asian, etc. across the board, too.
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P.S. While I’m on the subject of post-graduate life in the Bay, I would be remiss to not mention the very real, on-going fact that a lot of Black and Asian students (amongst other groups, but especially these two) are at odds with each other, and the results can often end up quite bloody on the school grounds (for a quick case in point, view Lincoln High School) in San Fran, anyone who denies this is clearly not familiar with California.
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“Mz. Nikita,
P.S. While I’m on the subject of post-graduate life in the Bay, I would be remiss to not mention the very real, on-going fact that a lot of Black and Asian students (amongst other groups, but especially these two) are at odds with each other, and the results can often end up quite bloody”
Linda says,
Why is this happening, Mz Nikita? can you explain what is going on between them that is causing the animosity.
I have a general idea because from where I come from (Jamaica), there was animosity in the beginning between black people and the Chinese and Indians because the black people felt that the Asians were prospering more than them. (Anti-Chinese riots 1918 and 1938)
It took many years of “blending” by marriage and culture between the groups to bring more of a balance and acceptance into Jamaican society.
but there will always be a few people who want to blame their troubles on Asians and brown people, and now, since our government has turned more to China for assistance, some of the animosity is coming back.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140303/lead/lead4.html
I do understand some of the frustration.. there are immigrants from China moving to the island and opening stores. Many of them don’t speak Patois or English and don’t blend in well.
My maternal grandfather is half-Chinese, so I can see the viewpoints from each side. but I try to look at things from a Nationalistic point of view as to “what is good for the country”….receiving financial aide from China has been beneficial but I feel that the Jamaican government is giving away too many things in return.
I also believe that newcomers need to find a way to learn and blend with the people and society they’ve come to live in… that’s what I had to do as an immigrant to the US
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@ Kiwi
They did the very same thing to Jews:
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@ Kiwi
The meritocratic fallacy allows them to believe that racism is pretty much dead – while at the same time confirming them in their racist belief that Whites truly are better and more deserving.
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““Mz. Nikita,
P.S. While I’m on the subject of post-graduate life in the Bay, I would be remiss to not mention the very real, on-going fact that a lot of Black and Asian students (amongst other groups, but especially these two) are at odds with each other, and the results can often end up quite bloody”
Linda says,
Why is this happening, Mz Nikita? can you explain what is going on between them that is causing the animosity.
@Linda, A quick answer would be “Because they hurt my homeboy/homegurl” and they always talked shiz to me and my folks, etc.” (But, the root of it is largely based upon the “Model Minority”) stereotype that is Still heavily pushed on those few remaining Blacks (and other POC) that the reasons their particular neighborhoods are being bought and/or pushed out (From Hollister St. to Palou Ave.) is because they (the Blacks) are not working hard enough to maintain their district, or not earning enough money to keep their area intact (sarcasm, there are Hard-working families I know personally who have and still struggle to thrive in these regions throughout the decades!)-if there is anything you want to really break down and get into about the Bay Area, you and anyone else should feel free to let me know, anytime! ; )
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P.S. I lived in Utah (Orem and Provo) for at least 3 years, and still have friends and loved ones there and trust they (Whites) do not primarily move from this state because of Asian and/or Latino culture(s) in my experience, first because there are waaay more Latinos than Asians (which is not saying much, because it is overwhelmingly White-like, I stood out like a “pink poodle” lol)-and also, if anything there a majority of White folk for them to be around in Utah, therefore they would only be :”coloring” their perspective worlds by moving Out of Utah, instead. If this website had pix and Skype, it would be even easier to demonstrate what I’m talkin’ bout (and of course, safety rules 4 mi familia)-but it does not take much research to find out this stuff, so like I said feel free to ask me anything, anyone, anytime! 😀
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..P.P.S. When I said waaay more Latinos, that does not mean at all that they sare becoming a majority (that’ll be the day, snarf!), but rather that Blacks are growing in numbers there at a snail’s (slooowwww) pace, and that Latinos are there at a slightly (sarcasm) “swifter” snails pace, followed only slighter behind by Pacific Islanders who have been talked, excuse me “converted” into Mormonism, the majority of them being Tongans to be exact.
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People of color have the effing majority of the population in California. What would it take for us to take power?
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^ About the majority of registered voters?
the police?
the school boards?
How much do you follow re: how things work in Sacramento?
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I mean in everything, jefe. Demographics of positions of power in the government, courts, law enforcement, juries in which at least 1 in 12 Californians has the inner strength to hang the jury rather than allow an injustice to take place in their name, school curriculum…help me name more. Is anyone else discussing this anywhere?
I follow a bit, but I’m not interested in just top-down work (what would it take to get people of color with integrity into positions of power instead of tokens/sell outs?). I’m interested more in bottom-up, community organizing.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification_in_the_United_States
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Get them all registered to vote and to form special interest groups. Large corporate industries have lobbyists, but voters can vote those people who are bought by lobbyists out of office.
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Pass a law that stipulates they have to vote. They’ve done it in other countries, I wish they would do it here(Canada).
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So much good info on #cal4justice (“Californians for Justice is Flipping the Frame & fighting 4 racial justice in public education. #FliptheFrame #StudentVoice”)
and #educolor
“Californians4Justice @Cal4Justice Mar 27
“A6: Despite majority. of stus in CA are of color & lowincome 4/6mill! Still, no soc. & culturally responsive curric to train Ts #educolor”
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBDgoKeUkAAbIc1.jpg:large
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“Fact Sheets: Economic Benefits of Reducing Racial and Ethnic Inequality”
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/report/2015/03/19/108900/fact-sheets-economic-benefits-of-reducing-racial-and-ethnic-inequality/
“A few decades from now, the nation’s racial and ethnic makeup will be increasingly different than it is today. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the majority of the U.S. population will be people of color by 2043. This change is already happening at the state-level throughout our nation, and with it comes an important opportunity to reduce racial and ethnic inequalities…These fact sheets provide snapshots of state statistics about demographic changes and the statewide economic gains of eliminating racial and ethnic disparities by enacting sensible policies that would unleash the potential of growing communities of color.”
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“Can ethnic studies classes at Sacramento high schools curb gang violence?”
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/can-ethnic-studies-classes-at/content?oid=16642082
“One of Sacramento’s best assets is its diversity. The metro area is consistently recognized as one of the most ethnically diverse in the nation. Last year, the UCLA Civil Rights Project praised Sacramento for having the most integrated school districts in the state. It’s a point of civic pride.
It can be a source of friction, too, says Saraith Aspiro, a senior at Luther Burbank High School. She says there’s too much race-based violence on campus. “It’s has been a problem at my school for years,” Aspiro says.
Which is why Aspiro and other student representatives in the Sacramento City Unified School District are asking for ethnic studies to be taught in Sac City high schools, and eventually made into a graduation requirement…This month and next, they will be asking the Sac City school board for its support. If the idea moves forward, Sacramento would join Los Angeles and San Francisco, other big, urban school districts that require the classes.”
“In the last couple of years, there has been growing interest in ethnic studies in California and elsewhere. A recent review of education research by the National Education Association found there are academic and social benefits to both white students and students of color from ethnic-studies classes.
“Marginalized students tend to do well in these courses, and it increases their grades and test scores in other courses,” says Dr. Dale Allender, a professor at Sacramento State’s college of education.
Allender is part of the Sacramento chapter of a group calling itself Ethnic Studies Now Coalition, which has been pushing for these classes in school districts around the state.
In Los Angeles all high schools will be required to offer ethnic studies by the 2017-18 school year, and ethnic studies will be a graduation requirement in the year after that.
In San Francisco, school officials say an ethnic studies pilot program boosted grades for participating students and cut absences. Next year, all S.F. high schools will offer ethnic studies courses and it is expected to be a graduation requirement within five years.
Meanwhile, legislation requiring ethnic studies classes is also moving forward in the California state Legislature. Assembly Bill 101 would require California’s superintendent of public instruction to develop a model ethnic studies curriculum and require all school districts to offer ethnic studies as an elective. The bill passed the Assembly education committee last week.”
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“Sterilization Abuse in State Prisons: Time to Break With California’s Long Eugenic Patterns”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-stern/sterilization-california-prisons_b_3631287.html
“The recent revelation that 148 female prisoners in two California institutions were sterilized between 2006 and 2010 is another example of the state’s long history of reproductive injustice and the ongoing legacy of eugenics. The abuse took place in violation of state and federal laws, and with startling disregard for patient autonomy and established protocols of informed consent.”
“In 1909, California passed the country’s third sterilization law, authorizing reproductive surgeries of patients committed to state institutions for the “feebleminded” and “insane” that were deemed suffering from a “mental disease which may have been inherited and is likely to be transmitted to descendants.” Based on this eugenic logic, 20,000 patients in more than ten institutions were sterilized in California from 1909 to 1979.”
“There was a discernible racial bias in the state’s sterilization and eugenics programs. Preliminary research on a subset of 15,000 sterilization orders in institutions (conducted by Stern and Natalie Lira) suggests that Spanish-surnamed patients, predominantly of Mexican origin, were sterilized at rates ranging from 20 to 30 percent from 1922 to 1952, far surpassing their proportion of the general population.”
“California was the most zealous sterilizer, carrying out one-third of the approximately 60,000 operations performed in the 32 states that passed eugenic sterilization laws from 1907 to 1937. Furthermore, unlike many other states, where sterilization laws were challenged in the courts, in California the sterilization law remained on the books for seventy years.
Although it was scaled back in the early 1950s, the law was not repealed until 1979, in the context of another chapter of sterilization abuse. This time, about 140 women, mainly of Mexican origin, were sterilized without consent at USC/Los Angeles County hospital. From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, the leading obstetrician at this hospital maintained strong convictions about the need for population control, which he applied to women during and immediately after labor by coercing them into tubal ligations. Sometimes women signed a consent form under duress, other times they were not offered any consent form, or falsely told that their husbands had already signed the form.”
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@Speak Out
It is a shame that one must take ethnic studies to learn anything beyond white historical mythology. It should simply be part of American history and social studies.
In your reading, did you find white people making any proactive effort, or even be required to learn ethnic studies? Are blacks required to take Asian ethnic studies or Asians required to take Mexican American / Chicano studies?
And in California, which is notorious for its ethnic cleansing of Native Americans, Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos and its black sundown towns, how will ethnic studies treat that perspective?
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“To other Americans some Californians seem a bit strange and not serious enough.”
This couldn’t be more true. As a San Francisco native living on the East Coast in Maryland, I am a complete weirdo to most people. I’m half-white and half-Asian and I grew up in the inner city in a black majority neighborhood. In DC and Baltimore, Asians let alone mixed race Asians, by in large, don’t grow up in the city and are pretty much statistically insignificant in the cities. Everybody out here on the East Coast gives off the vibe that they think I’m too laid-back and too friendly. People also tend to stick to their own racial group out here compared to where I’m from. Oakland is easily the most racially integrated city in America. The town where I live in Maryland is an integrated town built on post-racial principles and I live in a minority-majority neighborhood where whites are less than 40% of the population. But even in my integrated town and neighborhood in suburban Maryland does not even come close to the mind-blowing diversity and seamless integration of where I’m from in the Bay Area.
Mexicans are not the only ones taking over California. Asians are taking over as well. As it stands, California easily has the highest concentration of Asians in the country with a full third of Asian Americans in America residing in the Golden State. Also, with CA, it’s often Mexicans and Asians gentrifying formerly predominantly black inner city areas, not always whites like in East Coast gentrification hotspots like DC and NYC. For example, my old neighborhood in SF used to be 50-60% black and around 20% Asian when I was growing up in the early 90’s, but today the neighborhood is around 20% black and 40% Asian.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/ingleside-church-seeks-to-preserve-inspirational-symbols-as-area-demographics-shift/Content?oid=2915903
The notorious L.A. County city of Compton has changed from majority-black to majority-Mexican in the past 25 years.
Both blacks and whites are leaving CA by the droves. Where I’m from in San Francisco, English is nearly a second language. When you ride the Muni through most neighborhoods in SF, they first announce the bus stops in Chinese, then Spanish and English last.
CA cities have seen their black populations drop dramatically. SF has experienced the most acute case of black flight of any city in America.
http://sfbayview.com/2010/03/black-flight/
The very few remaining blacks in SF reside in run-down housing projects scattered mostly throughout the southern fringes of the city in places like Hunter’s Point, Potrero Hill and Sunnydale in Visitacion Valley. There is no black middle class to speak of left in SF. In many ways, SF is a much worse city for blacks to live than the much more notorious Oakland across the bridge. For years, SF had a higher murder rate for blacks than Oakland for years because blacks are so much poorer as a whole in SF compared to Oakland. The only reason this disparity ended was because of more outmigration of blacks from SF due to gentrification and tearing down of certain infamous housing projects.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/S-F-more-deadly-than-Oakland-for-blacks-2543681.php
Oakland has also seen its black population drop dramatically in the past 25 years as the town went from nearly 50% black in the 80’s to around 25% black today. But today, Oakland is one of the most diverse cities in America with a nearly equal distribution of races in being nearly a quarter black, a quarter white, a quarter Latino, about a fifth Asian and the rest being other or mixed race.
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Here’s the website with info about AB 101, a petition you can sign in support, a toolkit to use in bringing Ethnic Studies to your state, and a volunteer sign-up:
http://www.ethnicstudiesnow.com/
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@Jefe
I went to an interesting talk today by Native American professors working on revising the curriculum for K-12 to include Native Californian material.
Abagond mentioned the missions in this post. At the talk one of the professors mentioned how in CA in the 4th grade we are made to build miniature missions as a special project (I definitely had to). She likened forcing Native Californian children to build missions as to forcing Jewish children to build miniature concentration camps.
I haven’t found out yet how the Ethnic Studies programs are working or are going to work. One attendee who seemed to be white brought up how white people tend to have identities built on lies and questioned how that was going to be dealt with in implementing EthSt programs. One of the professors answered: by including historical examples of white allies such as William Lloyd Garrison, the Grimke sisters, etc. She pointed out that we have not been taught in school about historical white allies for a reason–to separate us. But I think we all know that white people will complain. At the end of the day, they don’t have the majority of the population anymore and they’ll never get it back.
It turned out that of the people working on developing Native American K-12 materials is actually a white middle school teacher who wrote about how teachers can take the initiative to fit the material into state-mandated topics like the core curriculum.
I mean come on if the Nazis could make math questions about how much it costs the state to keep people with mental disabilities alive teachers of color can put their creativity to much better use than that.
They spoke about how they have developed material by talking to Native Californians about what they want to see included, and emphasizing that human history in CA has been going on for as long as anywhere else.
One of the professors also said that high school EthSt has just been approved in Woodland, CA, a small town vs. SF, LA, and Sac.
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Race relations in CA vary greatly. L.A. ranks among the top ten most segregated cities in America. Racial tensions in L.A. have been well-documented from the well-publicized 1992 riots which stemmed from tensions between blacks and Korean immigrant small business owners in black-majority areas to more recent black/Mexican tension in formerly black-majority areas like Compton and parts of South Central where certain Mexicans were using KKK like tactics to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods. The L.A. area is home to many extremist white supremacist groups like the skinheads in Orange County. The gang dynamic in L.A. is extremely racialized. Bloods and Crips are black gangs. Age old Sureno gangs only accept raza. Asian Crip gangs like ABZ in Long Beach do their own thing. L.A. even has Armenian gangs. All in all, Chicano culture is dominant in L.A. The world famous L.A. street lifestyle of gang banging, lowriders, Dickies, Chuck Taylors, Nike Cortez, Pendelton flannel jackets etc. are all facets of Mexican American culture in the city of Angels.
On the other hand, the Bay Area tends to be a bit more integrated. However, in San Francisco, black people are an extreme peripheral minority. You don’t even see more than a few black people out and about in San Francisco, unless they are tourists or visitors, unless you go to far out impoverished fringes of the city in blighted areas in and around the projects in Hunter’s Point, Oceanview, Potrero Hill and Visitacion Valley. There are some shrinking populations of blacks mostly concentrated in public housing in the central areas of SF in areas like the Western Addition and downtown.
Asians live almost everywhere in SF. The western half of SF in the Sunset district is mixed with whites and Asians. The northern tip of SF is very, very white. Most Latinos in SF are concentrated in the Mission district although gentrification is displacing much of this population. It is very rare to meet middle class or wealthy black and Latino San Franciscans, they are usually working class or poor.
Oakland has a much higher percentage of blacks and Latinos compared to SF. Many areas of Oakland are extremely integrated. You have areas of East Oakland where there is a nearly equal distribution of blacks, Latinos and Asians. In these areas in East Oakland, you have blacks, whites, Salvadorans, Mexicans, Chinese, Cambodians, Hmong, Samoans, Tongans etc. all living together and associating with one another :
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/OF-RACE-AND-PLACE-San-Antonio-Oakland-Flavors-2815969.php
The segregated L.A. dynamic and gang culture among all races is not present in the Bay Area although there has been historically much tension and violence between warring Latino gangs of Nortenos, Mexican Americans born and raised in Northern California, and Surenos, Mexican Americans from Southern California.
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“Mexicans of African Descent Established Los Angeles on This Day in 1781”
https://face2faceafrica.com/article/los-angeles-pobladores#.VSrqTU05Dcs
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“L.A. Food Culture Offers a Glimpse Into ‘The New America’”
http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/04/in_los_angeles_multiethnic_food_culture_offers_a_taste_of_the_new_america.html
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“California celebrates multilingual students”
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article19115592.html
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“How Punitive and Racist Policing Enforces Gentrification in San Francisco ”
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30392-how-punitive-and-racist-policing-enforces-gentrification-in-san-francisco
“SFPD’s racism may surprise many people since the department – much like the city – has a reputation for being “friendly” and more liberal. But that’s because the department focuses its aggression on marginalized communities, who are often out of sight and out of mind for many upper-middle-class liberals who live in San Francisco.”
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Coloniality and capitalism represent California:
“Opinion: California Senate dishonors Junipero Serra on verge of sainthood”
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article19345233.html
“Each state can have statues of two historic figures in the U.S. Capitol, and California’s are Serra, since 1931, and former President Ronald Reagan, who in 2009 replaced 19th century anti-slavery minister Thomas Starr King.”
“The debate was animated, with the resolution’s author, Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and other supporters praising Ride as an inspiration to women and to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians.
“For the first time ever, LGBT youth will see themselves in Statuary Hall,” said Lara, who is gay.”
““They want to remove him from the Capitol precisely when the first Hispanic pope is planning to canonize him,” Carriquiry told the Associated Press. “Let’s say that it would not be an extraordinary welcome from a country that claims to be an example of multicultural welcomes.””
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