Black History Month

The idea of having a certain date to celebrate the achievements by black American people started in 1926. At the beginning it was just a week (second week of February) of celebration known as ‘’Negro History Week’’ created by Dr. Carter G. Woodson (He established the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History in 1915). He said that this should always be in the second week of February because it was between the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Later, in 1976, it expanded and February was designated as the month of black history by the President Gerald R. Ford. Other countries as Canada and UK also devoted a month to celebrate it. Since then, American presidents designate February as Black History Month and each year has a theme, this year’s was: A Century of Black life, History and Culture.

During the month, people emphasize the promotion of the teaching of African American history in Schools and Universities. They establish history clubs and host lectures. Also, there are a lot of events that commemorates Afro-American. For example, in New York people make different events, some of them are free and in other ones you have to pay. They make talks, documentaries, live shows of dances and music, etc.

Some of the things that happened in February (Besides the birthdays of Douglass and Lincoln) :

  February 23, 1868:
W. E. B. DuBois, important civil rights leader and co-founder of the NAACP, was born.

 February 3, 1870:
The 15th Amendment was passed, granting blacks the right to vote.

  February 25, 1870:
The first black U.S. senator, Hiram R. Revels (1822-1901), took his oath of office.    

 February 12, 1909:
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded by a group of concerned black and white citizens in New York City.

 February 1, 1960:
In what would become a civil-rights movement milestone, a group of black Greensboro, N.C., college students began a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter.

 February 21, 1965:
Malcolm X, the militant leader who promoted Black Nationalism, was shot to death by three Black Muslims.

(http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmintro1.html)

A man and his son watching the bus where Rosa Parks 

refused to give up her seat to a white person in 1955.

RON STALLWORTH: FEARLESS BLACK MAN

An amazing history from the 70's about the braveness of a black agent who dared to infiltrate himself into one of the most dangerous racist organizations; the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1979 this secret organization decided to recruit new members in the city of Colorado Springs. And they did not find a better option than making their request by an ad in the newspaper. Then the police of the city decided to use this contact for investigate them.

The agent Ron Stallworth, member of the Intelligence Police Department of Colorado Springs was designated to a very risky mission; to become an undercover infiltrate in the Ku Klux Klan group. And he accepted even though he was a black man.

Ron had to talk by telephone with the person in charge of the recruitment, and he pretended to be a white racist man. He said he felt injured by black people, and he also said he was so upset because her sister was dating a black man. Of course it was all fiction, but it worked. Curiously Ron gave them his real name, which was a very dangerous strategy.

Everything went well; Ron started to earn their trust without any problem, until the day they asked to know him in person. Obviously he could not go because he was black, so they sent a white police to replace him. This man had to practice imitating Ron's voice for weeks before the meeting.

Finally, after several days of investigation the police got with one of the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke. He spoke with Ron by telephone and he said to him 'I can tell that you are a pure Aryan white man by the way you talk'. He definitely fell into the trap.

This secret investigation helped to reveal a lot of information about this racist organization, and thanks to Ron Stallworth the police could disband the Ku Klux Klan from Colorado Spring city. 

Here is an interesting interview where Ron Stallworth talks about his experience as an infiltrate.

How to solve the race problem?

The race problem is something that divides people in all countries, but we can see it more in the U.S. They created laws against colored people to make them slaves, and some centuries later they made new laws to stop slaving colored people. These facts are all part of history, even Americans made a month for this (Black History Month). Morgan Freeman talked about this month and he proposed that people have to stop talking about racism. Here's the interview:

WALLACE: Black History Month, you find... 

FREEMAN: Ridiculous. 

WALLACE: Why? 

FREEMAN: You're going to relegate my history to a month? 

WALLACE: Come on. 

FREEMAN: What do you do with yours? Which month is White History Month? Come on, tell me. 

WALLACE: I'm Jewish. 

FREEMAN: OK. Which month is Jewish History Month? 

WALLACE: There isn't one. 

FREEMAN: Why not? Do you want one? 

WALLACE: No, no. 

FREEMAN: I don't either. I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history. 

WALLACE: How are we going to get rid of racism until...? 

FREEMAN: Stop talking about it. I'm going to stop calling you a white man. And I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. 

I think Freeman is right. If you start to talk about people as people, there won't be black and white people, only people. In this moment, lots of newspapers have stated things like "Black child murdered by police officer" instead of "Child murdered by police officer". Why are the words "black" or "white" written before "CHILD"? Is it THAT important? Why is more important the race of people than people itself? This is one way to end racism, how many ways do we have?

Afroamerican Discrimination still goes on… “Black Barbie Sold for Less Than White Barbie at Walmart Store”

I was surffing in the web when I found this; A photo posted to the humor Web site FunnyJunk.com shows packages of Mattel's Ballerina Barbie and Ballerina Teresa dolls hanging side by side at an unidentified store. The Teresa dolls, which feature brown skin and dark hair, are marked as being on sale at $3.00. The Barbies to the right of the Teresa dolls, meanwhile, retain their original price of $5.93. The dolls look identical aside from their color.

When I read this I was shocked because its supoused that in our time, a time where The Pressident of United Stated is a black guy, afroamerican discrimination should be over, obviously, I was wrong…

I read many comments that blamed the supermarket, saying that the owner was White and racist, but actually, I think that the guilty is our, as a society, let me tell you why:

First of all, we have this “prototype of a perfect woman”, where blond, thin and tall is beauty, so someone different, isn´t perfect, and Little girls doesn´t wants to be unpretty, in a way, a girl wants to be reflected itself in a Barbie, they want to grow up and be like that little supermodel that their parents buy in stores.

How they will want to have a black Barbie if Every day we can see commercial creams and lotions for skin lightening? Even worse, I saw an experiment, where “black lilte girls” had to chose between a black and a withe doll and they chose the White doll because its “more beautiful”.

So discrimination begins with us, ourselves as a society teach to our children how to discrimitated, through tv shows, movies, musical videos, etc.

From my point of view, walmart has to put on sale this “black barbie” because it had less demand, but thats isn´t discrimination from the supermarket, it's, in fact, a result of our discriminatory society.

What did you think about this?...

Muhammad Ali: Nation of Islam

Many box lovers would know him by his victories in the sport. But he is more than that, he is a world wile recognized social figure who had a lot of influence on the 60's and 70's mostly.  Well known for his fight for black people, but he wasn't a Martin Luther K. pacifist, he never believed that we all are one pretty nation and we should live together in peace and love. He though that black and white people should be in different places and was against the racial mix.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali refused to go into the force army of US because he doesn't support to the Vietnam war, and citing his religious beliefs of Islam, he wasn't ok with killing brown skin people, they weren't his enemy.

He born as Cassius Clay, but he changed to Muhammad Ali because the previous name was a ''slave name'', he join to the Nation of  Islam Nation, it's a socio-politic religious organization based on the Islam fundamentals. It is quite different with the traditional Islam and has a polytheistic vision of Allah. Believe that Negros are superior to other races (not like traditional Islam who believe in all races are equal).

"No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters."

Free Breakfast for Children Program

In 1966 a black nationalist and socialist party began in the U.S celled the Black Panther Party (BPP), at first this organization had the purpose of protecting the black community by having black armed citizens monitor the police behavior, this was because in many times the community felt assaulted by them, so they felt the need to fight this police brutality.  Later on the Black Pathers Party wanted to do more for their community so they started to create really important social programs, one of the being the “Free Breakfast for Children Program”

The Black Panthers knew that even though the US was a wealthy and stable country, there was people out there in their neighborhoods starving. The free breakfast for children program started in a small church in California and was created for black and poor children whos family didn´t have enough money to feed the young ones. The party had the idea that every children needed to have a full stomach before they went to learn at school, they no longer wanted their people to live without proper health. It was also a good instance for the panthers to promote their political views and gain support from the community. This programe was so succesfull that it started to spread all over the country, which meant that the program fed over 10.000 children every morning.
The FBI was thretened by this social service because every day more and more people would support the Black Panther Party. Not agreeing with this, the FBI defined the program as a propaganda tool used by the panthers to inculcate their communist beliefs in kids, and in response they created a terror campaing against the BPP.


So did the BPP mix their political organization with social services just to promote themselves? To me they did this mainly for the welfair of people, of course they gained more followers for their party by having such a great service, but the FBI had no need to criticize this when they weren´t helping the community either.

1968 Olympics Black Power salute

Black Power is a political slogan it is used by African Americans in the United States. This movement was in the late 1960s and early 1970s and pursued racial equality, creation of cultural institutions and policies to defend, promote and fight for the interests of black society.

The ideological struggle was constant and followers of The Black Power movement needed something to call the world's attention, a scream to say "we are here". It was there when they were born the legends of Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

Sports Revolution

The October 16, 1968 the American runner Tommie Smith won the 200 meters at the Olympic Games in Mexico and the gold medal was awarded. The athlete clocked 19.83 seconds and set a new world record. The second place went to Australian Peter Norman -20.06 seconds and third place stood fellow American John Carlos -20.10 seconds. After the race was completed, the three went to the podium for their medals and when the singing of the anthem of the United States started, Smith and Carlos closed their eyes, bowed their heads and raised their arms to the top. The fists which had black gloves were closed strongly. The message was clear; full support for The Black Power. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd. Smith later said, "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black

The president Avery Brundage of International Olympic Committee (IOC) ordered to expel athletes from the Olympic Village, and at its discretion gesture was due to internal political conflict, which went against the Olympic values. When the US Olympic Committee refused, Brundage threatened to ban the entire US track team. This threat led to the two athletes being expelled from the Games.

Why two great athletes they must leave aside his career for being Negro?

WHICH IS BETTER: BLACK OR WHITE?

(Please watch the video since the minute 4:43, but if you wish you can see completely.)

  As you can see, thanks to the introduction video, the topic I want to talk about is racial segregation. It is a very controversial issue in South Africa which has existed for many years, since Europeans arrived to colonize this country and showed that they were superior to the natives who lived in those area. After the World War II, they dictated the first racist laws that were part of Apartheid, which marked the lives of many black people for years, but after the arrival of Nelson Mandela to the political world and then eliminating the Apartheid, began a new system of "restoring the nation without segregation", but it was not entirely true, since now racism was reversed, where systematic discrimination makes black people demonstrate revenge and now white people are suffering murder and racial violence.

  Racism manipulates fear towards what is different, manipulates frustration and low self-esteem of global masses, creating an invisible enemy for them, when in fact such evils are somewhere else, even in oneself.

  But, are we taught to be racist since a child? What is black is bad and what is white is good, or vice versa? Through the experiment conducted to children, as you can see in the video, they found that racism is transmitted and reproduced culturally, but Is this a reliable conclusion? In my opinion, control questions were taken out of context, I think so because I believe that aesthetics and culture features were mixed. Ever since young we were taught that darkness is related to fear and bad, and whiteness to light and good. However, there were kids who answered without considering the different skin colors and they saw everyone equally, but others didn’t, then who or what makes a child think this way? Society, technology, parents? What do you think?

Irish Travellers

IRISH TRAVELLERS

On my research for information I decided to talk with an Irish guy, of this way would be easier for me to have an inside looking of Ireland, and also get away from the stereotypes. In our conversation it surfaced the travellers, I had no idea what they were, so I investigate, and found them very interesting. 

The travellers, also called the white gyptians, are an ethnic group of Ireland whose exact origin are unknown, there´s some speculation that they are a group of pre-Celtic minstrels people, but it's no certain at all. Some people think they are gyptians, because they live in a similar way -both usually live in caravans, are educated by them self, etc.- But its believed that gyptians origins are in India, and it's important to know that their physical characteristics are different, so it's very difficult that they were the same ethnic group. The travellers in the past used to roam from town to town, and lived by busking and tinsmithing ( because of this sometimes are called sometimes Tinkers).

Travellers population in Ireland surround twenty two thousands approximately (according to the 2006 census) .They still using their own language, like shelta and gammon. Frequently live in ad-hoc trailers and encampments although some has decided to live in a sedentary way.

 They are discriminate by Irish society, and most of people rather by far of them, they are traded as thief and trouble makers, so usually are excluded by the citizens. Even there's schools who doesn't admits travellers. Because of this many travellers has tried to create organizations like the "Irish travellers movement" (http://itmtrav.ie/) for stop the exclusion and try to live in harmony with the rest.

CANADA: A LAND OF WOOD AND LEAVES

CANADA: A LAND OF WOOD AND LEAVES

Did you know that 10% of forests in the whole world are             
concentrated in this big and cold country in the north of America?                

Canada is one of the largest countries in the world with 997 million of hectares, from them 45% are composed by forests. We’re saying that almost a half of the whole territory is surrounded by trees. 

An important fact about forests in Canada is that just a 6% of them are from private owners and the other 94% belongs to the state. This is very good for Canadian people, because they can enjoy and feel more owners of their natural riches. 

Nowadays, people know more than before the importance of taking care of the natural recourses. However, there are still a lot of countries that doesn’t have set this cultural conscience, that’s why there is a lot to learn from the friendly neighbor of the US.

Even when one of the most important economic sources in Canada is the wood business, they know how to deal with that without destroying their landscapes, because there are many laws made to protect the environment. Also, the people have a completely mature way of think about nature, they know exactly how important are these natural possessions for their lives. 

Forests in Canada have a long diversity of trees, there are 131 different classes. However, the most characteristic tree is the maple. Let’s take a look on Canada’s flag for example, which has a red maple leaf in the middle. That’s a clear evidence that shows up how connected is this country with nature. 

Do you think it is a coincidence that Canada belongs to the countries with better life and air quality? Culture has them where they are. 

 Want to breathe some fresh air?          
LESS KILLING AND MORE SOWING.             

England tradition: The bonfire night

When I was looking for information of some cultural practices and traditions of England, I found a really curious celebration that is not of a victory but a failure. I'm talking about the bonfire night or Guy Fawkes night.

 A group of Catholic men were planning to destroy the London Parliament and kill the Protestant King James on 5th November 1605. Those men were denounce and one of them, Guy Fawkes, was caught with 35 barrels of gunpowder the day before the attack. He was arrested and tortured.

Since then all 5th of November, English people celebrates the plot. The day before it, children used to make figures with old clothes or paper that represented Guy and walked in the streets asking ''a penny for the guy'' to buy fireworks. At the beginning this was a anti-catholic celebration but now it's just a popular celebration and a way to have fun.                                   

Nowadays there are bonfires and fireworks. Now children makes a figure but then they burn them. It’s a tradition that families get together and eat some traditional food of this time: ‘bangers and mash’ and toffee apple.

The face of this man is recognized by the movie ‘’V for Vendetta’’ because the protagonist uses a mask of it. This same mask is the one that Anonymous uses. Also there is a song of John Lennon that in the end has a part of this rhyme of the incident:

Remember, Remember    
The fifth of November,      
The Gunpowder treason and plot;  
I know of no reason  
Why the Gunpowder treason 
Should ever be forgot!

England and the punk movement

When I was doing my research about England, I found some very interesting things about the punk movement and how important it was in England.

The punk movement starts at the mid of the 70’s, it begins with a flow of emerging bands with a minimalist and strong sound. The punk initially was an esthetic and musical movement that later turns in to a philosophical movement to finally become a culture.

At the same time that US and the U.K. was entering into an economic crisis, the punk rock was connecting critical ideas around itself that made it the image of an aggressive and transgressive movement.

England was passing through one of their worst economic moments, the young people didn’t have anything to do after ending their studies, they couldn’t find any jobs, living with miserable salaries for unemployed people paid by the state.

In England the punk movement ended being famous, if not musically but as a social and cultural movement. With the Sex pistols on the lead, the young working class would express their dissatisfaction to what they considered a fixed-mindset and oppressive society.

While the London bands may have played a relatively minor role in determining the early punk sound, the London punk scene would come to define and epitomize the rebellious punk culture.

Canada's National Sports

Canada has plenty of sports, like any other country, but did you know that this country has actually two national sports? Canada has a national sport for summer and other one for winter.

In summer, their national sport is "Lacrosse", a two teams sport between 10-person teams, played using a rubber ball and a crosse, which is a long stick with a net on the top to handle the ball. Is a rough sport, so if you want to play it you will need appropriate equipment which consists of: Helmet, shoulder pads, arm pads, gloves, and rib pads.
The offensive objective of this game is shooting the ball into an opponent's goal to score, using the stick to handle, pass and catch the ball to do it, and the defensive objective is to save your goal from the opponent's shoots, keeping your scoreboard with the less possible points for the other team. You can play in four positions: goalie, defense, midfield and attack, like the world-wide known football.

The origins of this sport goes back to American natives, and in Onondaga, Lacrosse's original name was "dehuntshigwa'es", that means "man striked with a round object".


Ice Hockey, in winter, is the canadian national sport. It consists of two teams of 6 players; 5 skaters and 1 goaltender, all on an ice surface. The objective of hockey is "to score more goals than your opponent on their goaltender and to have fun!" as the Ontario Hockey Federation says. Players have to shoot the puck with a hockey stick into the goal to score. The essential equipment needed to play is: Helmet, skates, mouth guard, shoulder pads, elbow pads, hockey gloves and pants, athletic supporter, shin pads, hockey pads, jersey and a hockey stick. But if you are the goaltender you will need some different equipment: Goalie helmet (cage required), chest and shoulder protectors, athletic supporter (jock), hockey pants, blocker, gloves, goalie stick, goalie skates and goalie pads.

Ireland´s Saint Patricks Day vs The United States Saint Patricks Day

When learning about Ireland , I realized that lots of the things I knew about Saint Patricks day were not completely true , it was just like the first time I found out that the original Santa Claus is Green and not red.

March the 17th is an important day calebrated all around the world , it is known as Saint Patricks Day , this day is celebrated for different reasons in different countries, today I´m going to compare the original Ireland celebration vs the United States celebration.

In Ireland this day is for celebrating Saint Patrick a romano-briton who first arrived at the country as a slave , after six years of being a slave he went back home to become a priest , later on he decides to go back to Ireland and arrives in their lands bringing christianity with him , nowadays Saint Patricks day in Ireland is celebrated not only by going to church but by making big parades and by drinking guinness (black beer) , but this is only because turists demand it , if it wasnt for tourist Saint Patricks day in Ireland would remain a pure holiday.

In The United States this day is mainly to celebrate the Irish people and not a religious figure (Saint Patrick) .In the late 1700th many people from the US had Irish haritage , when they realized the important number they formed they began to organize themselves and started to feel more important as an Irish community. This is why they celebrate their haritage in Saint Patricks day , as a way of saying I´m proud of being Irish in a foreign land . Nowadays this holiday in the U.S is mostly celebrated just as an other comercial holiday, everybody wears green and makes a big fest about it , even if you dont have Irsh haritage you still enjoy and celebrate this holiday.

United States and the PinUp. "The use of the Body to change the mentality of an Nation and the whole World".

When I was looking for information about the history of the United States, I founded an interesting topic, The PinUp's Girls and I want to share with you...

Between 1939 and 1945, almost all men of the united states left their homes to join the army and go to what we now call World War II, leaving their young wifes, who had to take care of their children in a society where there was no place for woman´s work.
These women could not be longer in their home to serve their housband, as it was until then, they have to started to work.
That was, the first step to leave the role of loving wife that we were destined to wear.  
Theses women started to work as models and as burlesque dancers, because, they needed a part-time jobs with a good salary, and also the state, needed a distraction for the soldiers, But more than "nekeed girls" they were an image of a strong an independent woman, who kwon wasn't scared to show her personality and body. They used their bodys to talk, they ended the tabú that woman are only usefull to cook and take care of their childrens", And thanks to them, now we live in a society were womans can do wathever they like to do. Actually theres a "urban tribe" arround the world but specially on the U,SA, called Rockabilly and PinUps, they are girls who feel inspireded by the original PinUpS girls, and they live their lives just like its was 50 years ago, using the same clothes, same hairstyles, and the same style of taking pictures, they attend to Rock'nRoll parties and think that they dont need a man because they are strong and independent women.