links for 2011-04-04

April 4th, 2011 by Andrea

Puerto Ricans Identify Themselves on Census in Greater Numbers as Black, American Indian | Winnepeg Free Press

"The growth in those calling themselves black or American Indian reduced the population share of Puerto Ricans who identify themselves solely as white. That group dropped nearly 8 percentage points to about 76 per cent of the island's 3.7 million people. "More than 461,000 islanders identified themselves solely as black, a 52 per cent increase, while nearly 20,000 said they were solely American Indian, an almost 49 per cent increase."

(tags: via:carleandria puertoricans black firstnations identity census)
Native American Intermarriage Puts Benefits At Risk | NPR

"They have discussed marriage, kids and the future, but here's the rub: LeClair is half Shoshone. If she has children with Diaz, their children will be only one-quarter Native American. That's the minimum amount of blood required to be enrolled in the Shoshone tribe. Therefore, if their children marry someone nonnative as well, the grandchildren would technically not be Indians. It's an issue that troubles LeClair."

(tags: via:carleandria firstnations interracialrelationships children)
Protests Over Koran Burning Reach Kandahar | nyt.com

"Both Afghan and international news media had initially played down or ignored the actions of Mr. Jones, the Florida pastor. On Thursday, however, President Karzai made a speech and issued statements condemning the Koran burning and calling for the arrest of Mr. Jones for his actions. On Friday, that theme was picked up in mosques throughout Afghanistan."

(tags: via:carleandria afghanistan islamophobia violence florida sacredtexts bookburning)
Octavia Butler: Celebrating the Writer Who Changed My World | BV on Books

"Butler opened doors I'd been taught to believe permanently locked: My inner Civil Rights Movement found a brilliant voice in the imaginings of a lonely, bookish girl from Pasadena. Her stories opened up galaxies of imagination. She taught me that the loftiest reaches of the human story are colorless… free. I've been writing the kinds of stories I want to write since then; peopling my stories with characters who do and don't look like me: empowered, inspired — the way millions of readers have been inspired to dream. Without limit. "We all have Octavia Butler to thank for that."

(tags: via:restructure books literatureofcolour scifi race blackwomen)

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CaliOak

With all due respect to the blithering nitwits that came up with the current system shouldn’t the Shoshone be deciding who qualifies as Shoshone?
Lyonside

The PR data struck me as interesting – my father-in-law insists that he’s “pure Castilian,” until his daughter starts talking more about the family and he’ll admit that they’re all pretty mixed. My husband grew up thinking he was Italian and then later considered himself a white Puerto Rican, despite the permanent tan. Now after a decade of exposure to me and to social justice issues, he identifies as mixed PR. I think as it becomes politically less advantageous to identify as “white” and OK with being seen as mixed, people are more open to the truth.

I’m not surprised that more PRs on the island consider themselves native, especially since the Taino are trying to be recognized as an official tribe, after decades of being lebeled “extinct” despite what I’m told is a pretty strong tribal culture in the center of Puerto Rico.
Lori

CaliOak, it IS the Shoshone who decide who qualifies as Shoshone. This is just what they’ve decided. Different tribes have made different decisions, for example you just need an ancestor on the Dawes Rolls to be an enrolled Cherokee. But as many Cherokees will tell you, this leads to a lot of cultural dissolution and a lot of culturally disconnected (often white) people enrolling just for the heck of it, or to get their hands on the tribe’s resources (not to say that all culturally unconnected people have ulterior motives, of course).