Have you ever had head lice?

[MrDawn]

Have you ever had head lice?

Growing up, I went to school where there were outbreaks of kids getting it and being sent home. The school would advise parents to buzz cut and shave their kid's head to get rid of the lice. I was very fortunate to have never gotten lice.

 

[emily]

no thank goodness

 

[passenger]

Nop

 

[Elvira]

No, I've never had lice.

 

[Nebulous]

I never had it, but it was always something to be scared of

 

[PGen98]

Never had it, but had to do the treatments and the checks in school.

 

[Black Angel]

Nope.. Black (as in ethnic) hair doesn't really get lice..

Not kidding..

Do head lice affect African American people?

African American people get head lice less commonly than other people. This may be because the shape of coily hair makes it hard for the lice to grip. Learn more here.

www.medicalnewstoday.com

I know that hair is hair (biologically speaking) but we put things in our hair that make it unsuitable for lice to be there, let alone thrive.

My mother, grandmother and great-grandmother instilled the importance of "greasing your scalp" to take care of your hair.. and so because stuff like coconut oil and Blue Magic, Ultra Sheen, Sulfur 8, DAX, et. al, were staples in my house growing up, so I never had to worry about lice.. and this is also the case with other Black households that I knew of too..

I only use coconut oil and water-based products in my hair now, because I have since learned that "greasing your scalp" with petroleum based products is not good for your hair or your scalp.. it clogs your pores and in my case was the cause of the seborrheic dermatitis on my scalp when I was younger.. so I had to unlearn some things I was taught and adapt to use better stuff for my hair and since I make my own hair products, my hair and scalp has never been healthier. But these heavier greases were also used because they helped with both braiding and straightening hair with a hot comb as well..

That said, this was one of those times when being the only Black kid in class was fun.. because typically when there was a mere whisper of lice, the entire White student body, and most of the faculty were out of school. So in those cases, the first day might've been just me and a few other non-white students and the teacher in class, but after that, the school was closed for the rest of the week..

 

[PGen98]

That said, this was one of those times when being the only Black kid in class was fun.. because typically when there was a mere whisper of lice, the entire White student body, and most of the faculty were out of school. So in those cases, the first day might've been just me and a few other non-white students and the teacher in class, but after that, the school was closed for the rest of the week..

I'll be those were actually fun days, lol. I know I've had a few classes that were just me and maybe two others and the teacher and they were great. It felt like a group tutoring session rather than the usual parrot learning that education had become. How school SHOULD have been.

 

[Black Angel]

I completely agree, I have always learned more when in smaller groups in school because you had more of the teacher's attention and were free to ask questions.. this was also why I loved going to school on lice days.. I was just so excited to learn new things..

And you have no idea how fun those days were, but truthfully the only days more fun than those were the Jewish holiday days..

In those cases, about 95% of the school and faculty were out.. we still had to go because we weren't Jewish.. but those days were lit anyway.. it was like pizza party day every day and plus home ec was cool too we learned a lot of things and I learned how to make Blintzes and Latkas, which I love right along with Matzo.. we made other stuff too but near certain holidays is when we made some foods related to them..

This way we could learn about the holiday and the traditions through food.. we did this with other holidays and cultures too and it was honestly so much fun.. near Channukah (so many spellings of this word) we made dreidals and Christmas ornaments and we also learned about Kwanzaa too and did creative projects related to it too.. it was awesome..

Kids do have fun when learning and I was one of them and I still love learning as an adult.. even though, I realize that today, the bigots out there would be screaming "indoctrination" paired with anti-semitic and racist slurs if this was still done today in the public schools I went to growing up..

But even better, where the rare times when the lice incidents coincided with Jewish holidays.. which was rare, but much better because then school was just closed until there was no longer a lice threat..

 

[PGen98]

I completely agree, I have always learned more when in smaller groups in school because you had more of the teacher's attention and were free to ask questions.. this was also why I loved going to school on lice days.. I was just so excited to learn new things..

And you have no idea how fun those days were, but truthfully the only days more fun than those were the Jewish holiday days..

Exactly!! It was so much fun getting to sit and learn things without the class clowns, the pressure from peers, the bullies sneering and mocking in the background. It was just you, the teacher and a couple of other students. The perfect environment for getting on with learning things.

In those cases, about 95% of the school and faculty were out.. we still had to go because we weren't Jewish.. but those days were lit anyway.. it was like pizza party day every day and plus home ec was cool too we learned a lot of things and I learned how to make Blintzes and Latkas, which I love right along with Matzo.. we made other stuff too but near certain holidays is when we made some foods related to them..

This way we could learn about the holiday and the traditions through food.. we did this with other holidays and cultures too and it was honestly so much fun.. near Channukah (so many spellings of this word) we made dreidals and Christmas ornaments and we also learned about Kwanzaa too and did creative projects related to it too.. it was awesome..

Oh I absolutely loved when we would learn about different cultures, particularly through food. There's so much you can learn over a cultural food that opens the door for further exploration. It's why I love YouTube channels like the Korean Englishman, he opens entire groups up to a new culture, and then they go on to explore that culture, absolutely amazing!




That's the series with a bunch of British high school kids, first introducing them to Korean foods, then some Korean culture, some Korean language skills and by the end of it they're taking a group of them to Korea for a trip, that's amazing! Teaching culture and appreciation through food, mostly. They did the same with two twins, one priest and one Major in the British Army, and then they also did it with two British rappers, and that brought about probably my favourite episode of all, where they took the rappers to Korea, and while there, took them to a traditional Korean monastery and you can just see how impactful that was, the chance to be somewhere peaceful, take in all that they'd learned and experienced, and just slow down for a moment. Shows how cultures can really connect across boundaries.

Kids do have fun when learning and I was one of them and I still love learning as an adult.. even though, I realize that today, the bigots out there would be screaming "indoctrination" paired with anti-semitic and racist slurs if this was still done today in the public schools I went to growing up..

Oh absolutely, the idea that people would dare to teach about another culture, religion, way of life in general. How dare they! That's corrupting our kids!! It's really sad we're losing that ability to talk about thing that need talked about. It's fine to say I'm an open, accepting person, but if you're getting upset because someone is telling your child about Islam, or teaching them about how the Jewish faith celebrates Hanukkah (yeah, so many spellings, lol) and not Christmas, then maybe you're not as open and accepting as you claim... Something this world really needs to think about with the current climate.

But even better, where the rare times when the lice incidents coincided with Jewish holidays.. which was rare, but much better because then school was just closed until there was no longer a lice threat..

Days off, always so fun

 

[Black Angel]

Exactly!! It was so much fun getting to sit and learn things without the class clowns, the pressure from peers, the bullies sneering and mocking in the background. It was just you, the teacher and a couple of other students. The perfect environment for getting on with learning things.

Oh I absolutely loved when we would learn about different cultures, particularly through food. There's so much you can learn over a cultural food that opens the door for further exploration. It's why I love YouTube channels like the Korean Englishman, he opens entire groups up to a new culture, and then they go on to explore that culture, absolutely amazing!




That's the series with a bunch of British high school kids, first introducing them to Korean foods, then some Korean culture, some Korean language skills and by the end of it they're taking a group of them to Korea for a trip, that's amazing! Teaching culture and appreciation through food, mostly. They did the same with two twins, one priest and one Major in the British Army, and then they also did it with two British rappers, and that brought about probably my favourite episode of all, where they took the rappers to Korea, and while there, took them to a traditional Korean monastery and you can just see how impactful that was, the chance to be somewhere peaceful, take in all that they'd learned and experienced, and just slow down for a moment. Shows how cultures can really connect across boundaries.



Oh absolutely, the idea that people would dare to teach about another culture, religion, way of life in general. How dare they! That's corrupting our kids!! It's really sad we're losing that ability to talk about thing that need talked about. It's fine to say I'm an open, accepting person, but if you're getting upset because someone is telling your child about Islam, or teaching them about how the Jewish faith celebrates Hanukkah (yeah, so many spellings, lol) and not Christmas, then maybe you're not as open and accepting as you claim... Something this world really needs to think about with the current climate.

Days off, always so fun

Yup. I agree! It was actually in this school that I discovered a love of different cultures and their food.

My school once set up the gym for an international food festival, where everyone brought in favorite dishes from their cultures and we all shared it in the gym where it was set up as a buffet where each table had a flag and some facts about each country.. it was seriously awesome.

It was here that I discovered a love of Italian, Spanish/Puertorican, Mexican, Caribbean/Jamaican and Indian food.. I'd have tried more but I was already full and I was a kid then so it didn't take much for that to happen.. lol but it was crazy.. by the time you walked from the entrance door to the basketball hoop you had already passed 6 countries of food..

I forgot what dishes I brought, but I know the 2 trays of my Mom's baked mac and cheese I brought were gone.. lol and in hindsight, it is a good thing we kept it simple because if I had to bring a dish for each heritage in my family, it would be seriously expensive and confusing.. lol so I primarily stuck with my favorite dish.. the teachers mostly brought dishes themselves and I am sure some of it was catered because there was a LOT of Italian food and the school was more then half Jewish, and the desserts and pastries were from local Jewish and Italian bakeries.. but it was good. And since then I have grown to love other foods from other cultures as well.. and traveling as well..

And yeah dealing with class clowns and bullies was always the worst.. if a school really cared about the student then they would realize that the slackers and class clowns were usually among the smartest, and that would be an opportunity to find something that the student was interested in and challenging enough to keep them focused instead of acting out.. I say this because that was what happened to some of the class clowns in my class.. they ended up in accelerated courses.. which probably doesn't happen anymore since No Child Left Behind.

My brother struggled in school for that reason.. he was extremely intelligent and acted out in class and so they tested him and when his scores were off the charts, they put him in advanced classes where that stopped when he went to high school because of that law and as a result he had to remain with his class. He still graduated with his class and went on to college, but a lot of the other smart kids ended up failing and had to repeat with the other students. It was like these "bad apples" brought down or "spoiled" the entire class..

It is a damn shame how much we lost just to coddle the feelings of others. And to what end? Who benefits from this? Seriously?

And yeah, I especially agree with your point about being hesitant to talk about the subjects that make us uncomfortable and that was why I started turning to learning things instead of anger back in 2016. I figured that anger was too easy and so I chose the difficult path and chose learning as much as possible about not just Black History, (which is American History) but about the other stuff that I was taught in schools about American History as well.. while also leaning in on the very subjects that many people would usually shy away from.. so I went full tilt and was brutally honest with these subjects.

My thought was, well, since burying our head in the sand on subjects like racism, sexism and White supremacy, etc. and pretending that they don't exist didn't work, then maybe we should try the exact opposite and see what happens. And I still do to this day..

But with those kind of people you mention, I have always heard the term "they hate us, because they ain't us" often from people in my culture, but growing up I figured it was akin to "Tommy is just bullying you, because he likes you" so I ignored it.. but the more I learned, the more I realized that it was true. And I realize now, that it isn't just jealousy, but some part is shame, especially as the younger generations are confronting their elders over their hateful views and behaviors, these people are rightfully embarrassed by what their youth are saying, but it also stems from a desire to maintain the status quo.

Covid shutting everything down gave a lot of people more time on their hands than they normally had, and a lot of these people used it to catch up on hit TV shows and to learn.

So, it is not lost on me, that as many people watched TV shows like "American Gods," "The Watchmen" and "Lovecraft Country," that, at first glance, many people dismissed what they saw as fiction. That is until, someone got curious enough to look it up and to their horror, find out that not only were massacres like the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was real, but that there were dozens of others and that they never learned anything about this when they were younger, even for those who lived their entire lives in Tulsa.

For most of these people, their first foray into this, was from tv shows like LoveCraft Country and the Watchmen, which were both cancelled. But this uproar which spread like wildfire, and the fact that some states are now looking into reparations for Black people, and the fact that every aggrieved group out there from this country's wrongdoings against them, has gotten and still gets their reparations, and the movement has gained significant traction over the years, is a major factor in why our history is now being banned as well.

I think this because Black History is also intersectional with the other histories that are being banned too, (I just learned 2 years ago that Hitler was inspired by this country's Jim Crow laws for the Holocaust and that Black American GIs stationed overseas, helped the people in the countries they were stationed in, gain independance from their government they largely did that, by sharing their ancestors experiences here and pointed out the similarities in the countries they were stationed in, this also led to other major influences in Korean cuisine as well..) and those facts only add credibility to the Black American reparations movement.. and to the global reach of Black Culture.

And this, is to the ire of the people that know the same exact things we do, but still want to gaslight us anyway so that they can maintain the status quo, especially since much of their means were ill gotten. I mean, think about it, if these people are so proud of their history and what their ancestors did, then why are they working so hard to ban it? Why would they want to ban the histories of others that also coincide with these events? You would think that they were really so proud of their own history, that they would be proud of all perspectives related to that history as well right?

I mean who wouldn't want to hear both perspectives on how the Confederates lost the Civil War or how the Nazis lost WW2. Even if that person was the proud descendant of a Nazi or Confederate soldier and proud of every inhumane and horrific thing their ancestor did, why would they try to block others from learning it too? If anything, for them, it should be their finest moment as a descendant. I say this an ashamed descendant of many Confederate soldiers and slave owners and proud descendant of both the Enslaved and Freedmen who fought in every war this country has ever been in myself. I would love to hear about how the Nazis and Confederates lost against the forces for good.

But, I think the reason the other 2 groups of people were angry at not knowing this, is because it is natural to want to right a wrong.. when you see it or learn of it. So for these people learning these new things that they never knew before, they were angry for not being told, but once they learned the truth, they wanted to correct what was wrong and to make things right, which is precisely what those who want to maintain the status quo do NOT want.

But the truth, no matter what will always come out..

 

[PGen98]

Yup. I agree! It was actually in this school that I discovered a love of different cultures and their food.

My school once set up the gym for an international food festival, where everyone brought in favorite dishes from their cultures and we all shared it in the gym where it was set up as a buffet where each table had a flag and some facts about each country.. it was seriously awesome.

It was here that I discovered a love of Italian, Spanish/Puertorican, Mexican, Caribbean/Jamaican and Indian food.. I'd have tried more but I was already full and I was a kid then so it didn't take much for that to happen.. lol but it was crazy.. by the time you walked from the entrance door to the basketball hoop you had already passed 6 countries of food..

Oh we did something similar at one of the schools I went to, as well!! It was so much fun! They all wanted me to bring fish and chips, being a Brit, lol, but I didn't have any help in preparing, so I just marmite sandwiches, and that's how I learned just how divisive opinions are on Marmite

I forgot what dishes I brought, but I know the 2 trays of my Mom's baked mac and cheese I brought were gone.. lol and in hindsight, it is a good thing we kept it simple because if I had to bring a dish for each heritage in my family, it would be seriously expensive and confusing.. lol so I primarily stuck with my favorite dish.. the teachers mostly brought dishes themselves and I am sure some of it was catered because there was a LOT of Italian food and the school was more then half Jewish, and the desserts and pastries were from local Jewish and Italian bakeries.. but it was good. And since then I have grown to love other foods from other cultures as well.. and traveling as well..

Absolutely! I can imagine the mac and cheese absolutely flew out of there! I know I'd have tried to sneak in for seconds .

It's a fantastic way to try different cultures' foods and demystify things like prototypical Jewish foods, Caribbean foods, the spiciness of African food, OMG!! One of my classmates was Ghanaian and brought what looked like a simple rice dish...I felt that for hours on my tongue, lol. But it was delicious! So on around the world, and it was absolutely the perfect way to start breaking down cultural walls.

And yeah dealing with class clowns and bullies was always the worst.. if a school really cared about the student then they would realize that the slackers and class clowns were usually among the smartest, and that would be an opportunity to find something that the student was interested in and challenging enough to keep them focused instead of acting out.. I say this because that was what happened to some of the class clowns in my class.. they ended up in accelerated courses.. which probably doesn't happen anymore since No Child Left Behind.

My brother struggled in school for that reason.. he was extremely intelligent and acted out in class and so they tested him and when his scores were off the charts, they put him in advanced classes where that stopped when he went to high school because of that law and as a result he had to remain with his class. He still graduated with his class and went on to college, but a lot of the other smart kids ended up failing and had to repeat with the other students. It was like these "bad apples" brought down or "spoiled" the entire class..

Oh I hear you there, when we first moved to the US we had to do equivalency exams, it turned out that my sister and I were six years ahead of the standard Arkansas education system, but because we had never done American history, because of course we hadn't, lol, we had to start at just one year ahead. I spent so much of my time absolutely bored and losing interest in school because it was trivial, I knew it all and I was a good student in England, so I sat and listened to music, started not caring about class, doing the bare minimum. If they'd pushed me, challenged me, I could probably have taken advanced courses, gone on to be someone interesting, but no. They let me sit in the back of the class and be bored, graduating among the most average of average in terms of grades. I wasn't a class clown, but I knew most of them and they, too, could have been something if they'd been pushed. It's a shame.

It is a damn shame how much we lost just to coddle the feelings of others. And to what end? Who benefits from this? Seriously?

Definitely agreed. It benefits no one, not even the people for who it was designed. You learn more from failure than you do from victory, and if you're not allowed to fail, how can you possibly learn?

And yeah, I especially agree with your point about being hesitant to talk about the subjects that make us uncomfortable and that was why I started turning to learning things instead of anger back in 2016. I figured that anger was too easy and so I chose the difficult path and chose learning as much as possible about not just Black History, (which is American History) but about the other stuff that I was taught in schools about American History as well.. while also leaning in on the very subjects that many people would usually shy away from.. so I went full tilt and was brutally honest with these subjects.

My thought was, well, since burying our head in the sand on subjects like racism, sexism and White supremacy, etc. and pretending that they don't exist didn't work, then maybe we should try the exact opposite and see what happens. And I still do to this day..

I love that! Absolutely the perfect way to make a point. If the system is going to ignore it because it's not comfortable for the majority, then 100% focus squarely on that. If we don't learn from our history because it's being swept under the rug, we're only going to repeat it later.

But with those kind of people you mention, I have always heard the term "they hate us, because they ain't us" often from people in my culture, but growing up I figured it was akin to "Tommy is just bullying you, because he likes you" so I ignored it.. but the more I learned, the more I realized that it was true. And I realize now, that it isn't just jealousy, but some part is shame, especially as the younger generations are confronting their elders over their hateful views and behaviors, these people are rightfully embarrassed by what their youth are saying, but it also stems from a desire to maintain the status quo.

Covid shutting everything down gave a lot of people more time on their hands than they normally had, and a lot of these people used it to catch up on hit TV shows and to learn.

So, it is not lost on me, that as many people watched TV shows like "American Gods," "The Watchmen" and "Lovecraft Country," that, at first glance, many people dismissed what they saw as fiction. That is until, someone got curious enough to look it up and to their horror, find out that not only were massacres like the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was real, but that there were dozens of others and that they never learned anything about this when they were younger, even for those who lived their entire lives in Tulsa.

For most of these people, their first foray into this, was from tv shows like LoveCraft Country and the Watchmen, which were both cancelled. But this uproar which spread like wildfire, and the fact that some states are now looking into reparations for Black people, and the fact that every aggrieved group out there from this country's wrongdoings against them, has gotten and still gets their reparations, and the movement has gained significant traction over the years, is a major factor in why our history is now being banned as well.

Yep, the fact that history, the story of our planet, the story of countries, the story of families can just be banned because it's uncomfortable for some to talk about is an outright abomination. There are certain things in history that are stains on the human race, but just because they are does not mean they should be ignored. Those are peoples' stories, peoples lives that are being swept away, and for no reason other than to spare some blushes. How do we create understanding if we can't talk about those subjects? We want bigotry and hatred to go away? TEACH bigotry and hatred. Show people how horrible things were for Indians under English rule, how inhumane things were for the slaves in the US, the extreme hatred that lingered long after slavery was abolished and still exists to this day, teach about Mathew Sheppard, teach about Malala Yousafzai, teach it all, why it matters, what can happen when ignorance and bigotry run free, when hatred has a home to fester. Teach WORLD history in all countries about all countries. Why can't American schools teach about the Rwandan Genocide? Why can't kids in Saudi Arabia learn about the Jim Crow era? Everyone should learn about the realities of life under Stalin, under the Kim dynasty, under Ceausescu, and so on. Why bad things happened, how they happened, the mindset that brought them about, the mindset of the oppressed. All of it. If we want to teach tolerance and learn understanding, then we need to know the worst of the worst parts of history. It shouldn't be a "wow, I never knew THAT happened" movie about something truly important from history that teaches us. Can we fix every problem in the world? No, but so many of them can be sorted with simple education and understanding. As a trans woman I fear for the years ahead because I can see the writing on the wall, trans people are the new targets, just like the gay people in the AIDS era. Oh now, we don't understand it, therefore it must be evil! Trans people are being harassed, abused, assaulted and murdered because we haven't learned from our history, now we're getting laws that dictate what trans people can and can't do, forcing trans people to de-transition, denying parents the right to raise their children to be themselves. Laws based around ignorance and misunderstanding are so prominent now and it's because we never learned from history. Sorry, going off on a tangent here, but the point remains the same, you cannot learn to be a good person if you don't get exposed to the truly bad, too.

I think this because Black History is also intersectional with the other histories that are being banned too, (I just learned 2 years ago that Hitler was inspired by this country's Jim Crow laws for the Holocaust and that Black American GIs stationed overseas, helped the people in the countries they were stationed in, gain independance from their government they largely did that, by sharing their ancestors experiences here and pointed out the similarities in the countries they were stationed in, this also led to other major influences in Korean cuisine as well..)

I remember that! There's something called army stew, for instance, very popular in Korean cuisine, and it was made from essentially everything the US soldiers left behind for the people. Hot dogs, cheese slices, chicken broth, SPAM and then lots of Korean vegetables and Ramen noodles. A complete fusion food made of the things Korean families could find or were donated to them by troops. Many of those items remain popular staples of Korean culture.

and those facts only add credibility to the Black American reparations movement.. and to the global reach of Black Culture.

There can be no denying the reach of Black Culture the world over. It is, rightfully so, more prominent now than at any other point in history, and that's a good thing because just like if it had been Muslim culture or Japanese culture that took the starring role, learning about and breaking down the barriers surrounding a culture can only enrich society as a whole.

And this, is to the ire of the people that know the same exact things we do, but still want to gaslight us anyway so that they can maintain the status quo, especially since much of their means were ill gotten. I mean, think about it, if these people are so proud of their history and what their ancestors did, then why are they working so hard to ban it? Why would they want to ban the histories of others that also coincide with these events? You would think that they were really so proud of their own history, that they would be proud of all perspectives related to that history as well right?

Agreed, if you're going to show off your history, show off all of it, it's what makes a person who they are, so show the bad stuff, too.

I mean who wouldn't want to hear both perspectives on how the Confederates lost the Civil War or how the Nazis lost WW2. Even if that person was the proud descendant of a Nazi or Confederate soldier and proud of every inhumane and horrific thing their ancestor did, why would they try to block others from learning it too? If anything, for them, it should be their finest moment as a descendant. I say this an ashamed descendant of many Confederate soldiers and slave owners and proud descendant of both the Enslaved and Freedmen who fought in every war this country has ever been in myself. I would love to hear about how the Nazis and Confederates lost against the forces for good.

Yeah, agreed, learn about history from the side of those that lost. Humanize them, but don't distance them from or forget about their past.

But, I think the reason the other 2 groups of people were angry at not knowing this, is because it is natural to want to right a wrong.. when you see it or learn of it. So for these people learning these new things that they never knew before, they were angry for not being told, but once they learned the truth, they wanted to correct what was wrong and to make things right.

But the truth, no matter what will always come out..

I think that's very accurate, wanting to right wrongs can be a huge driving factor for people, and it doesn't FIX the wrong, the wrong can never truly be undone, but taking steps forward can help to learn and grow.

 

[Dollhouse]

YES OH MY GOD. I also got it from one of the kids at school (my school was shitty). It's so embarrassing to admit though.

 

[Black Angel]

Oh we did something similar at one of the schools I went to, as well!! It was so much fun! They all wanted me to bring fish and chips, being a Brit, lol, but I didn't have any help in preparing, so I just marmite sandwiches, and that's how I learned just how divisive opinions are on Marmite



Absolutely! I can imagine the mac and cheese absolutely flew out of there! I know I'd have tried to sneak in for seconds .

It's a fantastic way to try different cultures' foods and demystify things like prototypical Jewish foods, Caribbean foods, the spiciness of African food, OMG!! One of my classmates was Ghanaian and brought what looked like a simple rice dish...I felt that for hours on my tongue, lol. But it was delicious! So on around the world, and it was absolutely the perfect way to start breaking down cultural walls.

Oh I hear you there, when we first moved to the US we had to do equivalency exams, it turned out that my sister and I were six years ahead of the standard Arkansas education system, but because we had never done American history, because of course we hadn't, lol, we had to start at just one year ahead. I spent so much of my time absolutely bored and losing interest in school because it was trivial, I knew it all and I was a good student in England, so I sat and listened to music, started not caring about class, doing the bare minimum. If they'd pushed me, challenged me, I could probably have taken advanced courses, gone on to be someone interesting, but no. They let me sit in the back of the class and be bored, graduating among the most average of average in terms of grades. I wasn't a class clown, but I knew most of them and they, too, could have been something if they'd been pushed. It's a shame.

Definitely agreed. It benefits no one, not even the people for who it was designed. You learn more from failure than you do from victory, and if you're not allowed to fail, how can you possibly learn?

I love that! Absolutely the perfect way to make a point. If the system is going to ignore it because it's not comfortable for the majority, then 100% focus squarely on that. If we don't learn from our history because it's being swept under the rug, we're only going to repeat it later.

Yep, the fact that history, the story of our planet, the story of countries, the story of families can just be banned because it's uncomfortable for some to talk about is an outright abomination. There are certain things in history that are stains on the human race, but just because they are does not mean they should be ignored. Those are peoples' stories, peoples lives that are being swept away, and for no reason other than to spare some blushes. How do we create understanding if we can't talk about those subjects? We want bigotry and hatred to go away? TEACH bigotry and hatred. Show people how horrible things were for Indians under English rule, how inhumane things were for the slaves in the US, the extreme hatred that lingered long after slavery was abolished and still exists to this day, teach about Mathew Sheppard, teach about Malala Yousafzai, teach it all, why it matters, what can happen when ignorance and bigotry run free, when hatred has a home to fester. Teach WORLD history in all countries about all countries. Why can't American schools teach about the Rwandan Genocide? Why can't kids in Saudi Arabia learn about the Jim Crow era? Everyone should learn about the realities of life under Stalin, under the Kim dynasty, under Ceausescu, and so on. Why bad things happened, how they happened, the mindset that brought them about, the mindset of the oppressed. All of it. If we want to teach tolerance and learn understanding, then we need to know the worst of the worst parts of history. It shouldn't be a "wow, I never knew THAT happened" movie about something truly important from history that teaches us. Can we fix every problem in the world? No, but so many of them can be sorted with simple education and understanding. As a trans woman I fear for the years ahead because I can see the writing on the wall, trans people are the new targets, just like the gay people in the AIDS era. Oh now, we don't understand it, therefore it must be evil! Trans people are being harassed, abused, assaulted and murdered because we haven't learned from our history, now we're getting laws that dictate what trans people can and can't do, forcing trans people to de-transition, denying parents the right to raise their children to be themselves. Laws based around ignorance and misunderstanding are so prominent now and it's because we never learned from history. Sorry, going off on a tangent here, but the point remains the same, you cannot learn to be a good person if you don't get exposed to the truly bad, too.

I remember that! There's something called army stew, for instance, very popular in Korean cuisine, and it was made from essentially everything the US soldiers left behind for the people. Hot dogs, cheese slices, chicken broth, SPAM and then lots of Korean vegetables and Ramen noodles. A complete fusion food made of the things Korean families could find or were donated to them by troops. Many of those items remain popular staples of Korean culture.

There can be no denying the reach of Black Culture the world over. It is, rightfully so, more prominent now than at any other point in history, and that's a good thing because just like if it had been Muslim culture or Japanese culture that took the starring role, learning about and breaking down the barriers surrounding a culture can only enrich society as a whole.

Agreed, if you're going to show off your history, show off all of it, it's what makes a person who they are, so show the bad stuff, too.

Yeah, agreed, learn about history from the side of those that lost. Humanize them, but don't distance them from or forget about their past.

I think that's very accurate, wanting to right wrongs can be a huge driving factor for people, and it doesn't FIX the wrong, the wrong can never truly be undone, but taking steps forward can help to learn and grow.

Shh. Be careful with what you say about Black culture.. the same people trying to ban our history, are the same people are still trying to convince us that they know for a fact that Black people have no culture, and if we do, it is just Rap music, BET and BLM.. and that MLK didn't die for this. They want to us to believe that they are the experts on a man they had assassinated to maintain the status quo. And say that if we don't want to get assassinated by the police, then maybe we shouldn't listen to Rap or watch BET.. this tactic is called "manufacturing consent" and it is their favorite gaslighting narrative about Black people, because the only reason these things are popular to the point they know about these things, is because they are the primary consumers of both.

The reason why Rap outsold Rock for the first time ever a few years ago, is because White people are the biggest consumers. It all starts in the record studios and who owns them, which isn't us. They'll get a new artist, who wants to put out one thing, and the record execs, say nah, people want to listen to the nastiest, most violent shit you can think of, so do that instead, and while you are at it, we need to sex up your image and make you edgier. Once the new song drops, the same people from that same demographic, starts talking about how Black people are responsible for their own deaths because of the sexual or violent lyrics, and the stuff on BET.

Black people for the most part stopped watching BET in the 90s after it stopped being Black-owned, and when it changed hands, it changed to the negatively stereotypical content that these same people complain about today, with no regard for the fact that the reason they are seeing it, is because their demographic is the largest consumer of content on that network.

It is like they don't even realize that they are the source of most of the things they complain about where this is concerned..

Anyway, it is funny that you mentioned Marmite.. when my husband moved into his Harlem appt, there was a jar of Marmite left in one of the kitchen cabinets.. lol he never opened it though and I think he ended up giving it away.. it is the British equivalent to Australia's Vegemite right?

And it sounds like you had yourself some "Jollof Rice" and it made quite an impact.. lol I have never had it myself but I know that it is one of the major dishes in West Africa. I have found that my African ancestors mostly come from that region and Central Africa. That dish is very popular both in Nigeria and Ghana and I thank you for posting about it because it reminded me that I wanted to try some the the foods from my African ancestors countries.. so I am sure that Nigeria, Ghana and the other countries have differing variations of the same dish based on the spices available there and I look forward to trying these dishes myself and making them at home.

And I have always found the so-called "equivalency test" to be laughable especially for this country because the immigrants and migrants who come here, regardless of economic class, have a tendency to be better educated than the people here. And since much of this country's history in the books is bullshit, I honestly wonder if a would-be citizen would have an internal conflict between what they were taught in their country about this country's history (which is likely the truth) and the bullshit that they would have to study for the test in order to become a citizen here.

I mean we are not exactly batting a 1000 here when it comes to education, medical care, safety, press freedom, human rights, happiness or anything else that matters and this has only gotten worse under the party of book bans as this is literally the only party that supports the further dumbing down of the people here.. they are literally the only ones on a quest to ban books or anything that values intelligence or teaches critical thinking.

Under their leadership we've seen an increase of gun violence especially after the ban on assault weapons was lifted (or expired) in 2004 and when that happened we started seeing mass shootings more frequent than Boko Haram attacks were in Africa and it is the same exactly places being targeted.. churches, schools, hospitals, malls, theatres, etc. Sometimes I wonder when people will wake up and realize that the stuff happening in this country makes us sound exactly like the reporting we have heard about other third world countries elsewhere.

You'd think that self-awareness would've kicked in by now.. I am also wondering if their skin color has become an invisibility cloak because it seems to be considered obvious terrorism when someone from BH (or darker than a gallon of milk) does it but here, it is just a sad story of a good natured, police worshipping, fully decorated boy scout, and youth pastor, that was a sad, bullied, lonely guy who got fired/lost a tournament/getting divorced/got rejected/etc.. and made a terrible mistake and killed 9 people in a church..

Really, the sympathy porn put out by the media about these mass shooters is nauseating. I mean the perpetrator can say verbatim, "I did it because I hate Black people" and leave a 100 page manifesto behind saying as such, and leaving no room for interpretation and the same people will be like "he's just misunderstood.."

And it is very fucked up that now since the LGBT+ are being targetted now, that people that aren't are getting killed too now. I have read a few stories about cisgendered people getting killed by these hateful bigots because they thought that the person they killed was trans.. and the ironic thing here is that the people targetting and demonizing the LGBT+, and the same ones molesting children, just as it is with the people they align with politically, and so, yet again, projection rears its ugly head.

But I digress.

Growing up when I was living in Virginia, I was seriously conflicted and got into trouble a few times for refusing to stand for the pledge of allegiance and also asking questions like, "How did Christopher Columbus discover America if he never made it here?" How did he discover America if there were people here already for thousands of years and Leif Erickson was here at least 500 years before Columbus?" "If Columbus discovered America, then why was it named after the explorer, Amerigo Vespucci? These questions were met with silence and a trip to the principals office. My father actually came up to the school and set them straight about the pledge saying that he served this country for my right to sit or stand during the pledge and said that if they wished to talk about it further then he'd be happy to do so.

I already learned from going to school in NY the answers to those questions, but I wanted to see what their answer would be. I also learned that their curriculum is at least 3 years behind New York. So that brief time that I was in what they called 7th grade in VA, was really the same stuff I learned in 3rd and 4th grade in NY.

And I also learned that that bullshit Columbus story came about when someone at Ellis asked why Italians should be allowed into the country, and someone came up with the Columbus origin story in response. This story was what ultimately led to Italians to be considered White in this country and spared from the lynchings along side Black people in the South. And as soon as Italians got their coveted White status, they did the same exact thing that every other group did after they got theres, and immediately started fucking with Black people too.

And yeah, it is funny that you mentioned Ceausescu (sp?) I actually learned about him from an episode of Top Gear UK.. I believe Jeremy Clarkson mentioned it in the Romania episode where the 3 of them took their super cars on the Transfaragarasan Highway and apparently that road was built after the fall of Ceausescu's regime.

Apparently, what led to that was an episode of Dallas, the American tv show, and it led to people asking questions about why there were so many big houses on that show and why things were so different where they lived. This is why TV shows are now either banned or heavily censored in many countries. This kind of censorship is never to protect the masses, only those in power.

And I didn't know about the Army stew, but it is fascinating and it tracks with what I've heard about other dishes in certain countries that were originated from the stuff left behind by American GIs stationed there.

And I have realized that the forces that are adamant about not learning or teaching about the worst parts of human history, DO NOT deserve the benefit of the doubt.. and that is because these forces want to see these horrific times return. I think that if everyone did this, and weren't so quick to give these people the benefit of the doubt, then the picture you are looking at becomes as clear as crystal.

Germany did excellent regarding dealing with the Nazis and making sure that that history is NOT repeated, and this country did the polar opposite, and the people pushing book bans and banning the history of the marginalized are doing so because they want to see this country return to these brutal times. These people are just miserable themselves and the only thing that makes them happy is to see others miserable too..

That said, it is important that people realize exactly what and who they are dealing with when they take issue with these people passing these laws that have a detrimental effect on their lives, whether we are talking about abortion, book/history bans and LGBTQ+ rights. They know exactly how their laws are affecting the people who are speaking out against them, and they don't care, they know it hurts, becauase they intended it to.. and it is why they gaslight you about it, for them the cruelty is the point.. and constantly affording them the benefit of the doubt will only continue to work against you.

I think that the sooner that people wake up and realize this themselves, the better their chances are at fighting back and finally turning the tide in their favor.

 

[Dee]

Not that I recall, but I feel like I would remember something like that.

 

[PGen98]

Shh. Be careful with what you say about Black culture.. the same people trying to ban our history, are the same people are still trying to convince us that they know for a fact that Black people have no culture, and if we do, it is just Rap music, BET and BLM.. and that MLK didn't die for this. They want to us to believe that they are the experts on a man they had assassinated to maintain the status quo. And say that if we don't want to get assassinated by the police, then maybe we shouldn't listen to Rap or watch BET.. this tactic is called "manufacturing consent" and it is their favorite gaslighting narrative about Black people, because the only reason these things are popular to the point they know about these things, is because they are the primary consumers of both.

This is 100% accurate, one thing I have absolutely seen in my time in the US is non-stop cultural appropriation.

The reason why Rap outsold Rock for the first time ever a few years ago, is because White people are the biggest consumers. It all starts in the record studios and who owns them, which isn't us. They'll get a new artist, who wants to put out one thing, and the record execs, say nah, people want to listen to the nastiest, most violent shit you can think of, so do that instead, and while you are at it, we need to sex up your image and make you edgier. Once the new song drops, the same people from that same demographic, starts talking about how Black people are responsible for their own deaths because of the sexual or violent lyrics, and the stuff on BET.

Black people for the most part stopped watching BET in the 90s after it stopped being Black-owned, and when it changed hands, it changed to the negatively stereotypical content that these same people complain about today, with no regard for the fact that the reason they are seeing it, is because their demographic is the largest consumer of content on that network.

Yep, agreed again, hard to complain about a culture created from the minds of corporate greed, not genuine experience.

It is like they don't even realize that they are the source of most of the things they complain about where this is concerned..

Ignorance is bliss, apparently.

Anyway, it is funny that you mentioned Marmite.. when my husband moved into his Harlem appt, there was a jar of Marmite left in one of the kitchen cabinets.. lol he never opened it though and I think he ended up giving it away.. it is the British equivalent to Australia's Vegemite right?

Similar, Vegemite is disgusting, lol.

And it sounds like you had yourself some "Jollof Rice" and it made quite an impact.. lol I have never had it myself but I know that it is one of the major dishes in West Africa. I have found that my African ancestors mostly come from that region and Central Africa. That dish is very popular both in Nigeria and Ghana

Looking it up that does seem to be what it was, and yes, it was very spicy Went looking and if I ever get to Manhattan, there's a food truck there that serves Jollof Rice, looks very tasty, might be time for round two

and I thank you for posting about it because it reminded me that I wanted to try some the the foods from my African ancestors countries.. so I am sure that Nigeria, Ghana and the other countries have differing variations of the same dish based on the spices available there and I look forward to trying these dishes myself and making them at home.

Oh definitely! Experiencing different variations of the same dish is fantastic! Helps you learn quite a bit and expands your taste buds!

And I have always found the so-called "equivalency test" to be laughable especially for this country because the immigrants and migrants who come here, regardless of economic class, have a tendency to be better educated than the people here. And since much of this country's history in the books is bullshit, I honestly wonder if a would-be citizen would have an internal conflict between what they were taught in their country about this country's history (which is likely the truth) and the bullshit that they would have to study for the test in order to become a citizen here.

I'm sure there's a huge gulf in content that gets taught in schools around the world versus in the US. It feels like the US is constantly teach down, pass this standardized test and then we can call you educated. The problem is that it doesn't teach you how to learn a subject, just how to pass a test. If you take those skills into the real world they amount to very little.

I mean we are not exactly batting a 1000 here when it comes to education, medical care, safety, press freedom, human rights, happiness or anything else that matters and this has only gotten worse under the party of book bans as this is literally the only party that supports the further dumbing down of the people here.. they are literally the only ones on a quest to ban books or anything that values intelligence or teaches critical thinking.

100% true, they're constantly trimming down courses, removing the ability to teach certain subjects, limiting more and more schools to just a basic education that takes you nowhere. Because that's the best way to ensure people stay dumb and struggling.

Under their leadership we've seen an increase of gun violence especially after the ban on assault weapons was lifted (or expired) in 2004 and when that happened we started seeing mass shootings more frequent than Boko Haram attacks were in Africa and it is the same exactly places being targeted.. churches, schools, hospitals, malls, theatres, etc. Sometimes I wonder when people will wake up and realize that the stuff happening in this country makes us sound exactly like the reporting we have heard about other third world countries elsewhere.

Oh definitely! The parallels are very similar if you look at the headlines. It's staggering.

You'd think that self-awareness would've kicked in by now.. I am also wondering if their skin color has become an invisibility cloak because it seems to be considered obvious terrorism when someone from BH (or darker than a gallon of milk) does it but here, it is just a sad story of a good natured, police worshipping, fully decorated boy scout, and youth pastor, that was a sad, bullied, lonely guy who got fired/lost a tournament/getting divorced/got rejected/etc.. and made a terrible mistake and killed 9 people in a church..

Definitely not. The decision to take the lives of others as a defense for your own suffering is not the action of a good natured person. That is a monster, through and through.

Really, the sympathy porn put out by the media about these mass shooters is nauseating. I mean the perpetrator can say verbatim, "I did it because I hate Black people" and leave a 100 page manifesto behind saying as such, and leaving no room for interpretation and the same people will be like "he's just misunderstood.."

Unfortunately, yeah, every mass shooting follows the same formula. Condolences, this isn't the time for that discussion, we intend to take action, etc. Nothing changes, the next one happens and the same people say the same things.

And it is very fucked up that now since the LGBT+ are being targetted now, that people that aren't are getting killed too now. I have read a few stories about cisgendered people getting killed by these hateful bigots because they thought that the person they killed was trans.. and the ironic thing here is that the people targetting and demonizing the LGBT+, and the same ones molesting children, just as it is with the people they align with politically, and so, yet again, projection rears its ugly head.

Oh most definitely. If you dig into it I'm sure the old saying "methinks though doth protest too much" is very much in play here. How many times have people railed against the LGBTQ+ community just to be found to be doing the very things they're so "horrified" by. I can't change being trans, it's who I am, same with my other trans brothers and sisters. The same can be said for those targeted for their race, ethnicity, place of birth and so on. You can't change that, you didn't pick it, you just are. To be a target for that is pure idiocy, and to target people because you think they might be something is far worse.

But I digress.

Growing up when I was living in Virginia, I was seriously conflicted and got into trouble a few times for refusing to stand for the pledge of allegiance and also asking questions like, "How did Christopher Columbus discover America if he never made it here?" How did he discover America if there were people here already for thousands of years and Leif Erickson was here at least 500 years before Columbus?" "If Columbus discovered America, then why was it named after the explorer, Amerigo Vespucci? These questions were met with silence and a trip to the principals office. My father actually came up to the school and set them straight about the pledge saying that he served this country for my right to sit or stand during the pledge and said that if they wished to talk about it further then he'd be happy to do so.

I hated the pledge, lol. Not because I hate America or because I think it's asinine (well, it is, lol), but because I kept getting in trouble for not knowing the words, for not wanting to do it, for feeling offended that I, a British child living in the US, was asked to pledge allegiance to something I knew nothing about. The discovery of America did bother me a lot, too, lol, it made no sense to claim someone discovered a land that was already existing, populated and visited by others.

I already learned from going to school in NY the answers to those questions, but I wanted to see what their answer would be. I also learned that their curriculum is at least 3 years behind New York. So that brief time that I was in what they called 7th grade in VA, was really the same stuff I learned in 3rd and 4th grade in NY.

I had the same experience, I moved from Texas to Arizona just before high school and I took 11th grade history that covered the same exact subject matter that I'd learned in 7th grade in Texas. It was really confusing as to why I had to study this stuff again, lol.

And I also learned that that bullshit Columbus story came about when someone at Ellis asked why Italians should be allowed into the country, and someone came up with the Columbus origin story in response. This story was what ultimately led to Italians to be considered White in this country and spared from the lynchings along side Black people in the South. And as soon as Italians got their coveted White status, they did the same exact thing that every other group did after they got theres, and immediately started fucking with Black people too.

The use of race as a right to target people is disgusting, and to reach a point where a country is build around systemic racism is deplorable and something that needs changed.

And yeah, it is funny that you mentioned Ceausescu (sp?) I actually learned about him from an episode of Top Gear UK.. I believe Jeremy Clarkson mentioned it in the Romania episode where the 3 of them took their super cars on the Transfaragarasan Highway and apparently that road was built after the fall of Ceausescu's regime.

I saw that very same episode, love Top Gear . He absolutely was a monster and while his popularity fluctuated from loved to hated during his tenure as leader, his tactics were continually brutal and his desire for excess in the face of his country's meager means was utterly disgraceful. Not unlike a certain dear leader in North Korea.

Apparently, what led to that was an episode of Dallas, the American tv show, and it led to people asking questions about why there were so many big houses on that show and why things were so different where they lived. This is why TV shows are now either banned or heavily censored in many countries. This kind of censorship is never to protect the masses, only those in power.

I definitely agree,

And I didn't know about the Army stew, but it is fascinating and it tracks with what I've heard about other dishes in certain countries that were originated from the stuff left behind by American GIs stationed there.

Yep, absolutely! Here's another...well, of course it's Korean Englishman, lol, but another video that outlines the Korean Army Stew

And I have realized that the forces that are adamant about not learning or teaching about the worst parts of human history, DO NOT deserve the benefit of the doubt.. and that is because these forces want to see these horrific times return. I think that if everyone did this, and weren't so quick to give these people the benefit of the doubt, then the picture you are looking at becomes as clear as crystal.

Yeah, we build up those who ascend on the basis of hate, it STILL exists to this day and it's terrifying.

Germany did excellent regarding dealing with the Nazis and making sure that that history is NOT repeated, and this country did the polar opposite, and the people pushing book bans and banning the history of the marginalized are doing so because they want to see this country return to these brutal times. These people are just miserable themselves and the only thing that makes them happy is to see others miserable too..

I agree with you, those that push the ignorance, the lack of understanding of history, they only want people to suffer, or to oppress those as if they were somehow better. The sooner we realize people are people and no singular race, point of origin, orientation, or "class" makes them better, the better off we all will be as a whole.

That said, it is important that people realize exactly what and who they are dealing with when they take issue with these people passing these laws that have a detrimental effect on their lives, whether we are talking about abortion, book/history bans and LGBTQ+ rights. They know exactly how their laws are affecting the people who are speaking out against them, and they don't care, they know it hurts, becauase they intended it to.. and it is why they gaslight you about it, for them the cruelty is the point.. and constantly affording them the benefit of the doubt will only continue to work against you.

I think that the sooner that people wake up and realize this themselves, the better their chances are at fighting back and finally turning the tide in their favor.

You're absolutely right, the people pushing these agendas of hatred are 100% aware of the damage they're doing because it's the damage they WANT to do. We're seeing it daily just now against the trans community, and it's impact on those adjacent to the trans community, and we've touched on the systemic nature of that hatred was it applies towards racism, it's two sides of the same coin, all meant to hurt, to oppress, to do the exact level of damage they're doing. It's cruel and that's absolutely the point.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I've had it twice growing up... I got it from school when I was in second grade. It was embarrassing because after my class got checked for lice, when the nurse called me and said I had to leave since I had it there were a few kids next to me who freaked out and moved away when I walked past because they were afraid they were going to get it... The second time I got it from one of my sister's friends who spent the night. This was really bad, I got it when I was 16 and I had to get special shampoo from the doctor to fully get rid of it.