Salaam USA

An accurate assessment.

Please join us for a time of transformative introspection.

"I felt helpless. I remember watching them place handcuffs on Terrell, and seeing my two sons there. As a mom, as a Black mom raising two Black sons, you work really hard to not have your children have those types of experiences," Tamiko Davis said. "That moment — I can't protect my children from that."

Participants will be empowered to look inward and challenge generational thinking through creative medium including poetry, video, and slideshows. These interactive sessions will not just be informational, as discussion will be encouraged. There will also be one quiet “journaling” session (writing materials provided).
Location: 1371 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., 92107 (St. Peter’s by the Sea fellowship hall)
Registration link is in bio or scan QR code
diego

Did you really think this American story was going to have a happy ending? Our present reality is 100% connected to a root cause. I hope we can ponder that and real change this 4th of July.

This is exactly why Black feminist, Barbara Smith, said: "I do not trust systems of power and management to dismantle themselves."

And exactly why I focus my energy and resources on grassroots social reform rather than depending on our political system to produce social reform.

It is ridiculously idiotic to pass laws against being homeless rather than focusing our energies on creating conditions that eliminate homelessness.

When one side races towards ever greater cruelty, beware of finding the "middle ground." You will find yourself not far behind them.

I find it extremely enlightening to consider Indigenous battle victories from the perspective of the victors.

Today, June 25, is the 148th anniversary of that watershed moment when Indigenous forces led by, among others, Lakota warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse finally put an end to George Armstrong Custer’s reign of terror. Despite all the mythologizing within colonial culture of the man who led the U.S. 7th Cavalry during the Indian Wars of the mid to late 1800s, make no mistake: this is a day to celebrate! This is a day to recognize the immense bravery, tactical brilliance, and dedication of our ancestors.

Today’s linked video from the Infographics Show is an entertaining retrospective on the life of Custer (who admittedly made a name for himself — if rather luckily — as a Union soldier during the Civil War before becoming our nemesis on the Great Plains), the numerous reasons for his defeat, and circumstances which precipitated the Battle of Greasy Grass. I find it heartening that in 2024, we don’t have to search far to find a telling that contains so much of the correct context.

Much is also missing. We hear of buffalo slaughter, but not the extent. We hear of a broken treaty, but not the many others. We hear that Native People were fighting for our way of life, but not that all of these things were inextricably linked. The buffalo, of course, were central to our way of life — and their near extermination combined with the U.S. government’s goal to sequester us into death camps provided not just motivation, but the necessity to fight to survive.

Speaking of treaties, I and some of our team spent some time this past weekend at this year’s 50th anniversary International Indian Treaty Council gathering on Standing Rock. Today we are still fighting for the recognition of treaty law and our right to live with respect and in peace on our own homelands. We’ll have much more to say on that very soon. In the meantime, I hope you’ll join me in giving thanks to our ancestors for their sacrifice, leadership, and enduring presence. Unlike Custer, they stood for something beautiful and profound.

Wopila tanka — and my thanks to you for helping us win new victories!

Working on another event. You can follow us over on insta for details!

I just now realized that the apathy about a genocide of Gazans is simply a transference of the previous generations' antisemitism to Arabs.

Yeah. Texas. Leave it to Texas...

"Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as "Juneteenth," by the newly freed people in Texas."

In honor of my brother whom I lost to AIDS and of pride month.

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Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homos*xuality Act into law in May 2023. One of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world, it imposes the death sentence for “aggravated homos*xuality”.

Since the Ugandan anti-gay law was passed, the number of clients attending drop-in centres providing HIV prevention and treatment services to key populations, including men who have s*x with men, dropped from an average of 40 per week to two.

Those are burning tents and those are US bombs. If the line has not been crossed by now, there is no line.

Full spread in the AP morning wire on a certain individual's overuse and misuse of a certain term. It's an important article. I hope you read it and share it with your friends.

I've seen this to be one of the most difficult concepts for descendants of colonizers to grasp. We'll be putting a workshop together to help work through it.

Is resisting settlers wrong? I guess only if you don't come out on top.

"Surveying in those years was the actual mechanism by which the settlers pushed their way Westward into Indian lands. After independence, Texas gave to new settlers a sort of land-grant known as a 'head right'. In order to give people clear title to the land, someone had to go out with levels, chains, and surveyors' compasses and certify the claim. The Peneteka Comanches, predictably, hated them and went out of their way to hunt them down. It was probably the most dangerous job in North America. The year Hays arrived, most of the men who did it were killed by Indians."

A Palestinian student at the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Al-Quds Open University decides to discuss a project for her graduation in one of the tents in the Al-Breej area, south of Gaza
Student Shaima Ahmed Abdel-Maati discussed her project titled "Leadership Talent Management Strategies in Input to Promote Intellectual Capital" with a number of her online professors and obtained a distinction degree in mentoring and mental health

I wish I could have been there for this one

Hundreds of students in graduation robes walked out of the Harvard commencement on Thursday chanting “Free, Free Palestine” a day after the school announced that 13 Harvard students who participated in a protest encampment would not be able to receive diplomas alongside their classmates. (AP News)

This is a beautiful Bible verse. And I am lucky enough to have experienced it many times. I wish more Christians believed it and observed it.

Hebrews 13:2 in the King James Version of the Bible, which says, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares". The New Living Translation says, "Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!" .

If you think colonizers aren't still doing what colonizers do, think again. When it comes to , how about we start with the islands and ?

"The violence is the severest in New Caledonia since the 1980s, the last time France imposed a state of emergency on the archipelago of 270,000 people and decades of tensions over the issue of independence between Kanaks and the descendants of colonists and other settlers." (AP News)

If you're part of a collective (White people, men, Christianity) that has oppressed and done great harm to other groups, as difficult as it is to accept, you are guilty by association.

Even if you personally have not taken part in any of the oppression or harmful acts, it's important to remember that it's not about you as an individual. It's about the collective that you are a part of.

Making it about yourself and saying not all _____ are bad is actually harmful to those who have been oppressed by the collective you are a part of.

In a sense, you have lost your voice and I know this feels unfair. But you must consider the unfairness that women, native peoples, the enslaved, and so many others have experienced at the hands of your collective. That unfairness is far worse than the unfairness of you not being able to say that you are not one of the bad ones.

If you want to be a part of the solution, embrace your identity within the collective and own the harm that your collective has done. This is what will produce an atmosphere for healing. Not your incessant arguments about the wrongs of generalization. Everyone knows that not all members of a collective are evil. But it's not about the individual members. It's about the collective as a whole.

Deep, lasting change does not come without an incredible amount of determination. Both individually and collectively.