Aurora Harris: May 31, 2010- Memorial Day -My Family History Part 2.

Memorial Day reminds me to pay respects to those who fought and died, and, also to keep the memories of those in my family who did not die while serving the U.S.

So today I am paying respects to my father, Jesse Harris Pasha, who served in the U.S. Army during WW II, and my mother's first cousin, who is my first cousin, once removed, Brigadier General Macario Peralta- Hero of the Phillippines. He came to Detroit in the 1950's to speak on behalf of the forgotten Filipino soldiers that fought for the United States but were never given the benefits they were promised. I have a news article about this in the family archive. A related story follows:

According to a CNN News Article , 60 years later, in 2009, the veterans who are alive, finally received their benefits, thanks to U.S. President Barack Obama. Click on this section to see the full article. Here is an excerpt of the article by Josh Levs (CNN, 2009):

More than 60 years after reneging on a promise to the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who fought for the United States during World War II, the U.S. government will soon be sending out checks -- to the few who are still alive.

"For a poor man like me, $15,000 is a lot of money," said 91-year-old Celestino Almeda.

Still, he said, "After what we have suffered, what we have contributed for the sake of democracy, it's peanuts. It's a drop in the bucket."

During the war, the Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth. The U.S. military promised full veterans benefits to Filipinos who volunteered to fight. More than 250,000 joined.

Then, in 1946, President Truman signed the Rescission Act, taking that promise away.

Today, only about about 15,000 of those troops are still alive, according to the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans. A provision tucked inside the stimulus bill that President Obama signed calls for releasing $198 million that was appropriated last year for those veterans. Those who have become U.S. citizens get $15,000 each; non-citizens get $9,000.

"I'm very thankful," said Patrick Ganio, 88, the coalition's president. "We Filipinos are a grateful people."

Ganio was among the tens of thousands of Filipinos at the infamous battle of Bataan, a peninsula on Manila Bay opposite the Philippine capital. He was captured and beaten by Japanese troops before ultimately being freed, suffering from malaria and then resuming his service to the U.S. military.

"The record of the Philippine soldiers for bravery and loyalty is second to none," Truman wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate in 1946. "Their assignment was as bloody and difficult as any in which our American soldiers engaged. Under desperate circumstances they acquitted themselves nobly."

Though Truman said the Rescission Act resulted in "discrimination," he signed it.

"There can be no question but that the Philippine veteran is entitled to benefits bearing a reasonable relation to those received by the America veteran, with whom he fought side by side," he said. "From a practical point of view, however, it must be acknowledged that certain benefits granted by the GI bill of rights cannot be applied in the case of the Philippine veteran."

Some historians say financial concerns were paramount: The cost of funding full veterans benefits to all those Filipinos, particularly in the wake of the costly war, would have been a heavy burden.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/23/forgotten.veterans/index.html

Moving along: Maraming Salamat! Thank you Art Sulit!

Today is Memorial Day and I am happy to find that one of relatives re-posted his website concerning our relative Brigadier General Macario Peralta Jr. "Uncle" Macario was my mother's first cousin. He is also Art's grand uncle.

As part of our family tradition, whether we were in Detroit, MI, Manila or Quezon City or La Union, my parents and relatives shared stories about their lives and relatives during dinner time. I learned about Uncle Macario when I was six years old, when my grandfather Lauro de Peralta and my mom recanted life in the Philippines, the reason why my grandfather came to America (to work with other Manongs in the salmon fishing industry in Seattle and Alaska), and, how my grandmother, Mom, and other relatives survived the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.

At the top of this blog are some links that you can click on to learn about what my mom and relatives experienced when they were in Manila during the first day of attack.

It is through their survival that I am here today to document our heritage and an important part of Filipino History that was/is not present in most U.S. WWII history books. From childhood to adulthood, my parents and elders on both sides of my family stressed the importance of knowing our family histories.

Yesterday, I wrote that in the early 1990's, as a poet, I was searching for voices and stories like my own. During that time, I was also searching for information about Uncle Macario.

In case, Art's site http://www.museeks.com/Peralta/ goes down for any reason, I am
re-posting his information here. Some of the narratives go with photos that do not appear. However, you can click on "Filipino Brigadier General..." at the top of the blog to see the photos.

"Macario "Mac" Peralta, Hero of the Philippines"

Meet my grand uncle, Lieutennant Colonel Macario Peralta. One of his nicknames was the "Chocolate Colonel", from being browned by the sun year-round. This man played a decisive role both for the US and the Philippines in the Pacific World War II. Without him General MacArthur would not have been able to land American forces in the Phillippines. The Phillippines was cruicial to the eventual military defeat of Japan. The Japanese realized this, and had constructed a bold master plan to lure the American fleets into a trap. Within a hair's breadth, this plan nearly succeeded in destroying the Americans off the coasts of Leyte. What ultimately foiled them was the presence of a well-developed, competent rebel force on the Visayan islands, particularly the one established on Panay by Lt. Colonel Macario Peralta. Without this, the US Pacific Fleet would have almost certainly suffered another disaster of Pearl Harbor proportions. Army Photo of Phillippine-American officers.

Japanese battleships and carrier escorts were travelling stealthily down the Suriago and San Bernadino strait, seeking to intercept the flotilla of American Landing Forces approaching Leyte. Leyte is an area in the southern-most parts of the Visayan islands. Leyte was the optimal choice for the Americans for the following reasons. The rebellion was strongest in the mountainous Visayas. This is in contrast to the northern Luzon mainland, where Manila and Corregidor is, which was relatively flat and open, with enemy air bases, where the Japanese occupants were strongest. The Visayan islands were thus the most difficult to defend from a Japanese perspective.

Rebel forces there had already cleared way for several spots of unopposed landings. The only opposition then could come from the Japanese fleet, whose location obviously was not known. However, such a fleet would be forced to navigate through the hazardous Suriago straits, where it would be more vulnerable to spotting by the rebel-controlled Visayas. Upon post-analyses, no better spot could have been chosen than Leyte. General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz thus planned their major landings there.

The largest, most formidable battleship of the Pacific, the Japanese 'Yamato' got within 40 miles of the American fleet when Peralta's scouts spotted it (see the sinking of the Mushashi, the Battle of Leyte Gulf). Without adequate warning, this ship would have likely come within 25-mile firing range of MacArthur's landing force of 100,000 soldiers. One hour more, and the American flotilla would likely have been dead ducks headed for murky bottom. Importantly, the scouts would have had no way to relay this information to Peralta, then to Pacific Command had there not been an underground "government" support system established in the Phillippines. This was won at a great cost in human lives beforehand. Civilians--men, pregnant women and children--were regularly bayonetted in retaliation each time the rebel forces made a move. (See Army Photo, remains of Filipino victims of Japanese atrocities). This required a "strong man" with a macro-organizational mind, supplied fortunately by this young Colonel Peralta.

Any radio transcription without encryption would have given the location away of Phillippine-American rebels hidden in the Visayan hills. An ambitious "lay low" policy applied uniformly throughout the islands, allowed the application of surgical strikes and supplies confiscation against a superior occupying force. This allowed the establishment of vital radio encryption equipment and power sources, to enable MacArthur to gain a strategic picture of the Phillippine isles. Such is the story behind this single transmission which in all likelihood, saved the American Pacific fleet.

Almost immediately, US Air Bases and carriers sent out aircraft to intercept the Japanese task force. Admiral Bull Halsey, who had been baited to the NorthEast by Admiral Kurita's decoy fleet, had left MacArthur's entire landing force without air cover. This timely warning allowed him to come about and immediately launch airplanes, almost at maximum fuel range, to intercept the main Japanese force to the south. What then ensued was the largest Naval battle in history, Leyte Gulf, around which the final outcome of the entire Pacific War revolved. The battle involved some 282 ships and hundreds of aircraft. In a twist of Fate and fortunate timing, Halsey's aviators crippled the Yamato and turned back the main Japanese fleet, preventing it from sinking the US Naval Task Force with MacArthur on board. Direct credit for the cruicial warning broadcasts goes to Macario Peralta and his rebel forces on Panay island.

Equally, if not more significant, Mac Peralta provided MacArthur with the information and strategic picture to return to the Philippines in the first place. While the Japanese were conducting their "Death March" on Bataan, and while Major General Wainwright (see Army photo, Wainwright on left, with MacArthur) ordered a general surrender of all Filipino-American troops after his defeat at Corregidor, Col. Peralta disobeyed that order, citing the overriding authority of MacArthur, and organized a military resistance and underground civilian government from the hills. A Lawyer by training this colorful 28-year old officer of the USAFFE (United States Army Forces in the Far East) weaved together a highly competent infrastructure, using secret government officials (puppet governors for the Japanese Occupation) to finance and help the rebels. He introduced strict military hierarchy, Chain of Command, and an Army signals corps able to transmit encrypted messages across the Pacific to MacArthur's base in Australia.

There were, however, mortal power struggles questioning who will preside over this chain of command. Other Colonels were claiming to be Generals, and one civilian governor Confessor had leveled increasingly alarming accusations against Col. Peralta. There was much bickering amongst officers of the rebellion, some of it at gunpoint, and a few resulting in Army executions. Another American Officer from the North, Lt. Col. Wendell W. Fertig also claimed leadership, proclaiming himself a General. MacArthur shouldered this man aside, addressing Fertig as "Lt. Colonel", and Peralta as "Colonel".

It is interesting to note that US Army accounts unjustly give little significance to Peralta and his forces, as seen in the highly inaccurate Chapter 4 on Special Operations in the Pacific. A generally negative bais towards Filipino-Americans is reflected in this and many other US-authored history books, similar to the way these demeaning photos of "Filipino Guerillas" do not convey the real story. The photos show Americans as the larger-than-life "benevolent leaders", and fail to favorably portray the real leaders and creative forces of the rebellion, like the native Col. Peralta. In a famous telegram to my uncle, MacArthur set the record straight in the famous "Mac to Mac" radiogram pictured at right, "FOR PERALTA, YOUR ACTION IN REORGANIZING THE PHILIPPINE ARMY UNITS IS DESERVING OF THE HIGHEST COMMENDATION AND HAS AROUSED HIGH ENTHUSIASM AMONG ALL OF US HERE. YOU WILL CONTINUE TO EXERCISE THE COMMAND...."

The two Macs never met until after the Leyte landing over 2 years later. MacArthur heard about Peralta through confirmed intelligence reports, and my uncle's own encrypted attempts at overseas contact. One of the sources of confirmation was Captain Jesus A. Villamor (for which the famed Villamor Air Base in Manila is named). Villamor was a Filipino ace who had somehow managed to shoot down several Japanese aircraft in hostile territory by himself, in an inferior P-26, against superior numbers. Much verification and re-verification had to be performed before the two could be sure they were authentically talking to each other. The story includes arranging Top Secret rendezvous points with American submarines, to insert (and retrieve) American agents with the proper encryption keys, supplies, ammo, etc. The USS Narwhal (photo), famous sub, was used often.

In one instance, a Japanese outpost had spotted the submarine unloading in plain sight, but couldn't do a thing. Peralta's special forces had pinned them down, denying radio & wire communications and reinforcements.

My Auntie Nati, wife of General Peralta. The dress she is wearing is traditional Philippine, borrowing much elements from Spain, with special fabrics made for the humid heat of the Philippines.

Col. Peralta receiving the US Army's Distinguished Service Cross. Lieutenant General Eichelberger is congratulating, Major General Ralph Brush, 40th Infantry Division Commander (in combat uniform) looking on. In the US, this medal is second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor.

My Aunt on horseback, her toddler son to her left. Being the known wife of the "Scourge of Japan" Mac Peralta, she was a hunted woman. Weak Filipino townsfolk would snitch her whereabouts to the Japanese officers, who would barge on the front door while she snuck out carrying her son through the back. On one instance, a Japanese Zero Airplane found her on horseback, and strafed her below. Bullets all around her, she zigzagged into a field, where she fell off and nearly broke her back, but she lost the pilot.

Macario Peralta at age 32, Brigadier General, then later Secretary of Defense of the Philippines


Other Links:

General Donald R ... Intrepid opened up the largest battle in naval history at Leyte Gulf, where the air group helped to sink the Japanese super battleship MUSHASHI and the ... armedservices.house.gov/testimony/ 105thcongress/98-10-08gardner.htm

Capt Jesus A. Villamor, Phillippine Army Air Corps

The Sinking of the Battleship Yamato (Video) ...It was the largest warship ever built. So massive was it, that it dwarfed the American aircraft carriers of the day...

My grandfather, Silvestre Sulit, the tall man with hat, second from right front. These were exchange civil engineers, studying at Washington State, now Washington State University, (near Puget Sound, Oregon?). My grandfather, an adventurer, returned to work for the Philippine Government Land Authority, in the dangerous Mindanao southern regions, where natives were hostile, and poisonous jungle wildlife numerous. He obtained land here, which was leased to Dole Inc. as a major region producing pineapples for export to the US. He later got bit by a horsefly, after his third child, Silvestre Sulit Jr., was born. He caught malaria, and died in 1943, due to lack of medical supplies during the Japanese occupation. Today, this land is still held under Sulit title, but is unclaimed due to the presence of dangerous unrest in the region.

The 'Amoks' were the "Berserker" Filipino natives of southern Moroland in the late 1890's, from which the phrase, "running Amok" was born. Through "Yellow Journalism", William Randolph Hearst was instrumental in instigating the Spanish-American War of 1898. Here, Americans promised to "liberate" the Filipinos from Spanish oppressors. American troops came over to kick out the Spaniards, but only ended up taking their place. Thus, the 'Amoks' would raid the American soldier's camps with armed only with Bolos (long jungle-knife equivalents to Machete's). The surprised American troops would often end up hacked to pieces. The old American 38-caliber pistols did not work against the running Amoks, who kept charging after taking many hits. So a new spec was sent to the American gun manufacturers, John Browning's 45-Caliber Colt M-1911 pistol. The famous M-1911 pistol, a key gun in World War I and still an Army favorite today, was invented because of the Amoks.

Another word derived from crazed Filipinos is "Lunatic", from one General Luna and his men who inflicted heavy American casualties during the Phillippine rebellion.

copr 1999 Art Sulit

Aurora's Project: Part 3. Filipino/a, Asian American, Asian Hip Hop Artists

This section illustrates part of the global impact of Hip Hop Culture and covers Filipino/a, Asian, and Asian American Hip Hop Artists.

1. Long Story Short Ep1 "Hip-Hop" featuring Asian American artists



2. Philippine All-Stars 2008 World Hip Hop Champions (HQ) Dance competition held in California:



3. Khmer Cambodian Female Rapper: Lisha Clip - Woman




4. AfroChinese Singer/ Rapper:  Lou Jing



 5.  CNN Report on racism towards Lou Jing and why she didn't win contest because of her skin color



6. Pharrell Williams on Nightline



7. Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams Give Business Advice re: Music Industry:
 Advice from the Neptunes

 

Aurora's Project: Part 2. Abandoned Children of American Soldiers

Part 2 of today's postings highlights the lives of biracial Asians. 
For Students and educators: After watching the video's, what questions can be raised for future discussions? How does the media treat biracial people? Compare how the media handles a slur against Filipinos in Desperate Housewives to comments from judges of a dance show in Australia concerning two Filipino dancers, and, the Nightline interview of Pharrell.

Let's look at Chinese Jamaicans. How are their lives and the lives of others in the videos on this blog similar or different?

1. New York News story: Two Sisters



2. Realize - Hakka Chinese Jamaican reggae singers



A few years ago after a poetry reading at Wayne State University, an African American woman who was a student asked me if I could help her find her mixed race siblings in the Philippines. Her father was a soldier...she found letters to his lover. After about a year of trying to help her, we could not locate her siblings. Because research has a weird way of bringing memories back, here are some videos regarding the abandoned biracial children of soldiers:

1. From the BBC documentary: Amerasians - abandoned children from the Vietnam War- Holidays in the Danger Zone - America Was Here-




2. From TFCBalitang: Balitang America: Amerasians: Mixed Filipino Children of American Soldiers (in Tagalog and English)




3. In memory of the children I saw in 1981 and 1986 when I went to my other "home" as a Balik Bayan, here is a film called Subic Bay Children's Home - Amerasian Orphan Children Olongapo City, Philippines . It is sponsored by a stateside church:



4. In 1975, I was in high school. This is a PBS film called: Daughter of Danang. It is about 2000 orphaned children of American soldiers that were air lifted out of Vietnam.


Daughter from Danang

PBS Indies | MySpace Video

Aurora's Project Part 1: Biracial Filipinos/as and Filipino/a videos from YouTube

Today's blog entry is in 3 parts.  I am currently writing a paper that goes along with poems I have written for a book that I plan to publish. The blog was created to help me generate ideas and discuss the social construction of race, identity, and the historical issues associated with racial identity.

Since I have an afroasian identity that changes the perception of who and what I am, depending on how others perceive me, or, depending on which country, conference, community, university, or event I happen to be in, I have chosen to focus on my experiences and the diverse experiences of other afroasian identities who have either been excluded from research, minimally included in research, and/or marginalized in current discussions about race. The paper, blog project and poetry are works in progress.

I thank Everyone who posted the YouTube videos. Without your videos, today's entries would not be possible. 

In a couple of weeks, I will be sitting on a panel at Wayne County Community College's Global Womens' Empowerment Conference. Today's blog has many purposes but one of them is to illustrate how I empower myself as a female-educator-scholar-poet-researcher by creating research or education projects for myself and others to study, discuss, or enjoy, and, staying connected to the world around me and people who are like me.

Here are a few videos of persons who are of Black/Filipino/a; African American Filipino/a; African Filipino/a descent; Filipinos/as, and persons of Afro Asian and Asian-Asian descent born in America or countries outside of America, like the P.I., France, England, Jamaica, Brazil, and so on. Their are different identifiers that exist which are based on how an individual, others or laws detrmine what a person's racial identity is. 

First, let's look at how prejudice, stereotypes, or racism are transmitted in the media. Second, we'll look at different experiences of Black-Filipinos,  and, Asians mixed with other races.

The first video is about protests against ABC's Desperate Housewives, that contained a slur regarding Medical Schools in the Philippines. The last link is me on reading the poem On Deaf Ears. I finally figured out how to get the video into the blog! (the upload links didn't work before, so i had to send you through links that belong to friends). As you go through today's entries (Parts 1, 2 and 3), watch the videos, think about the diversity and commonalities in how people see themselves and others,  how "others" see people of Asian-Black or Black Asian descent,  how cultures are mixed for creative expression. How is information and commentary presented?  How does the information shape or  affect the perception or thoughts of the audience?  Whose voice is really being heard?

Desperate Housewives Philippine Med School Slur, Fox 13 News



1. Half Black N' Filipino Where U At?



2. Afro-Pinay: The Quest and the Questions



3. From Sister Fatima: He's Not Adopted, He's My Son





4. Speak Out Episode 1 Filipino Identity



5. Hapas: A Half-and-Half Debate ( From Speakout Sessions)



6. Being "Mixed" -Part 1



7. Black Eyed Peas' Alan Pineda sings "Bebot" in Tagalog: Half Filipinos Rock




* Alan is known today as the American hip hop artist apl.de.ap. He was born in Sapang Bato, Angeles City, Pampanga, in the Philippines, to a Filipino mother and an African American father

8. From Two Brothers: 10 Reasons Why We Love Being Blasian



9.   Two Australian Filipino dancers are judged on Australia's So You Think You Can Dance:
Full Pinoy J.D. & Half Pinay Rhiannon on Aus Tv



10. Me reading the poem On Deaf Ears, that I sent to President Obama re: Health Care in Dec. 2009

Aurora Harris: May 22, 2010: Detroit's Black Community Food Security Network and Urban Gardening

Earlier this week, I ran into my farmer friends Leslie and Cornelius, who started their urban farm on the east side of Detroit, across the street from the 4-H Club on McClellan Street. After seeing them, I decided to catch up on what's happening with Detroit's Black Community Food Security Network since there are plans to sell empty lots in the city to John Hantz, who wants to do commercial farming in the city. With all due respect to the DBCFSN, were they invited to attend meetings with Mayor or Hantz to discuss what is currently taking place by African American farmers and urban gardeners? From reading some of the articles on the internet regarding the sale of city lots, I haven't seen one that mentions grassroots farmers and gardeners included in the discussions.


From the Black Community Food Security Network's website


http://detroitblackfoodsecurity.org/

UPCOMING EVENTS

General meeting
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Northstar Community Development Corporation
3800 Puritan, between Dexter and Holmur

Will Allen visit !
June 4, 5 and 6, 2010
More Information

What's for Dinner?
Discussion series about issues of food security, urban farming, and food quality.
Each session will be held at:
The Detroit Public Library
5201 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan

Session 2 - Gardens As Resistance
Saturday, June 19, 2010
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Old Fine Arts Room

Go to web site to download "Gardens As Resistance" flyer


Mailing address:

3800 Puritan

Detroit, MIchigan 48221

The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), a non-profit, grassroots, community organization aims to change our thinking about food, where it comes from, and who controls it.

DBCFSN was formed in 2006 for the following purposes:

* Influencing Public Policy
* Promoting Urban Agriculture
* Encouraging Co-operative Buying Habits
* Promoting Healthy Eating Habits
* Facilitating Mutual support and collective action among our members
* Encouraging young people to pursue careers in agriculture, aquaculture, animal husbandry, bee-keeping, and other food related fields.


DBCFSN has several key programs:

* D-Town Farm - our 2 acre model urban farm located in Rouge Park in Northwestern Detroit. The operation includes organic vegetable plots, two bee hives, a hoop house for year round food production, and a composting operation. Our produce is grown using sustainable, chemical-free practices, and sold at D-Town farm, Eastern Market, and urban growers markets throughout Detroit.
* Harvest Festival - an event held every year that showcases our farming operations.
* Ujamaa Cooperative Food Buying Club
* The Food Warriors Youth Development Program - our partnership with three African centered schools - Aisha Shule, Nsoromma Institute, and Timbuktu Academy - to introduce elementary school students to agriculture.

Go to website to get directions and map to the D-Town Farm

WORK SCHEDULE:

Do you wish to volunteer at D-Town Farm? Join us every Saturday and Sunday from 8am to noon at the farm. Work clothes, work boots, gloves, brimmed hat, water, bug repellent, and a great attitude are strongly encouraged!

Aurora Harris: May 22, 2010: 5:00 AM Waking Thoughts, Poetry, Theorizing, Education, Citizens' Rally in Detroit from 2-5 pm

I have been up since 5:00 a.m. listening to the birds that woke me with their morning chatter and song. Waking thoughts from half sleep: 1. I have over 50 pieces of poetry that I wrote in the last few weeks, most of them structured like a haiku, with 17 syllables, 2. images of family photos, 3. theorizing various papers I have written, 4. serving on a panel for a global womens' conference at WCCC.

Last Sunday at the Broadside reading for Denise Ervine, I read a few of the pieces and told the group that I was looking for polysyllabic words that would keep the 17 syllable count but use less words like traditional Japanese haiku. I read a few words from the list that I made and Stuart pointed out that they were words derived from Latin. I also spent a few days looking at the pieces and checking for kigo's.

A haiku traditionally contains a kigo, a defined word or phrase that symbolizes or implies the season of the poem. Like "frog" implies Spring or Summer, or, "snow" implies Winter.

Images of faminly photos...this waking thought is a reminder to go through the tons of photos I have and make choices for an exhibit.

Theorizing various papers... Yesterday morning I was organizing stacks of papers and files and found papers I wrote while in grad school. As I write this, I recall that sometime this week, I found a transcript that was sent from the university and after I found it, I dreamt about the report cards I found from what? 1965-1968? In the hazy dream, the manila colored report cards from elementary school were lined up next to the green EMU transcript. In the dream or waking thought, I was looking at the grades and remembered examining the transcripts of girls that were in a shelter that I worked in years ago...At that time, I could tell that the girls received good grades but at some point in their report cards or transcripts, they began failing in school...usually the drop in grades was related to some incident or trauma they experienced when they reached middle school...early teen years...I related these thoughts to Lisa Delpit's book "Schoolgirls."

I had a heavy feeling to develop a reading list, collect these papers and write something...perhaps this feeling had something to do with the news that the state of Arizona is banning ethnic studies from public school textbooks, in the sense that from the memory of my own report cards and transcripts, the underlying thought of my waking thought or dream dealt with memories of how histories were subjugated in textbooks when I was in elementary school in Detroit, and, how my own grades fluctuated during a time / reality of blatant racism, discrimination and police brutality in Detroit. What are the Latino/a children and educators of Arizona facing? In the history of histories in America, more subjugation of histories? From the time I was a child until now, there exists a great disconnect for school children of color. When they open a book, how are people of color presented? What do the children have to identify with?

When I was in grad school, I had a class where students who were teachers teamed up to examine and present books and learning materials from a cultural perspective for K-12 students. One of the criticisms that came out of this exercise was that none of the books or magazines showed any person of color in a modern, 21st century setting, whether it related to professions, home or daily life. Most of the books pertaining to Native American and Mexican/ Latino/a, Hispanic life showed most people of color as farmers, tortilla makers, basket weavers, jewelry makers, potters, or working in modern times as service oriented workers that promoted sterotypes. A couple of years ago, I was at a community meeting in Detroit to discuss diversity and multiculturalism in education. At the meeting, when we discussed the content of textbooks, one white guy pointed out that he didn't have the same problem as other educators finding things to teach or read because he was of European descent and his european history was documnented. "I can find myself and am proud of my history" was one of his statements. Here, this man was echoing something similar to what I heard from primarily white students talking about disparities and differences between teachers that teach in urban settings versus teachers in the suburbs..."We don't have the same problems as you, we have everything that we need in our schools to educate our students."

With these memories, other sources that I remember reading while I was at EMU that can be used to theorize are:

1. J. Bank's Teaching strategies for ethnic studies. (8th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

2. Bennett de Marrais, K. & LeCompte, M. The way schools work

3. Lisa Delpit's Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press. 1995

4. Anything by Jonathan Kozol.

End of this section.

Sidenote: I read my blog entry from yesterday. I am still sad from the news of Ai's death. She passed away 2 months ago, while my mother was in the hospital and I was working to remove her from hospice. In addition to these things, the City of Detroit...the violence that killed a 17 year old boy while he waited for the bus after school and the 7 year old girl who was killed while sleeping on her couch after the policeman's gun discharged...the police were looking for the shooter of the 17 year old...in the past month, every weekend a citizen or police officer has been killed...I hate watching local news. When I heard of the deaths of the school children, I thought about the poem that I wrote in in the early 1990's called "Two Bodies" that is written in 3 parts and found in Larry Smith's Brooding the Hearlands: Poets of the Midwest by Bottom Dog Press (1998). The poem is about my seeing two bodies on the street and a fictional account of what the mothers dealt with... the voices for the mothers in the poem were inspired by mothers at a SOSAD meeting I attended. SOSAD stands for Save Our Sons and Daughters...the poet Ron Allen and I sponsored a 24 hour poetry reading against violence at the Central United Methodist years ago...

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from City Councilwoman Joann Watson inviting me to attend a Citizens' rally at 2 Woodward Av, downtown Detroit, Coleman A. Young Building in front of the Spirit of Detroit statue from 2-4 PM. The rally is supposed to inform the citizens of what is taking place in Detroit regarding repopulating the city, the new rail system, schools, violence, etc....on Woodward, near my home, the street is being torn out...I heard from a neighbor that it is being done for the new rail system that will be built

Aurora Harris: May 21, 2010: On The Death of the Poet AI

Yesterday morning, I was awakened by a strong feeling to contact the poet AI and send her some of my poems. After I had coffee, I was shocked to find that at the age of 62, she passed away in March, shortly after Lucille Clifton. Again, I am saddened from the news of another great poet's death. Many years ago, when I was in California searching for the poetry of bi-racial, Afro-Asian/ African American Asian poets that I could compare my work to and gain inspiration from, Ai was one of the first poets I discovered and read. I came across her books in used book stores and bought them. One collection had a monologue about a Filipino house-boy that worked with Imelda Marcos. I found a connection to that poem since I returned to the P.I. in the 1980's for my grandmother's funeral and went to the palace that the Marcos' lived in. Ai's work inspired me to keep writing the raw truths of life. I loved the way she wrote. Though some called her work "haunting,"she wrote with such a clarity that I could almost hear the speaker/character of the monologue through her choice of words and rhythm of her lines.

See the following links:
Poet Ai dies at 62 | Books | guardian.co.uk
Mar 25, 2010 ... The National Book Award-winning poet Ai, who renamed herself after the Japanese word for love, died on Saturday.
www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/25/poet-ai-dies -

Blackland: Ai died and i am broken-hearted.
Mar 23, 2010 ... Ai died and i am broken-hearted. a powerhouse. a reckoning. she died march 19th. i just found out this morning. my heart got tight as i read ...
angelasimione.blogspot.com/.../ai-died-and-i-am-broken-hearted.html -

Ai, an Unflinching Poetic Channel of Hard Lives, Dies at 62 ...
Mar 27, 2010 ... The poet Ai's work — known for its raw power, jagged edges and unflinching examination of violence and despair — stood as a damning ...
www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/books/28ai.html -
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Poet Ai Dies at 62 | Reading Copy Book Blog
Mar 25, 2010 ... Ai, the American poet and professor who took her name for the Japanese word for love, died on March 20th. She was known for her blunt, ...
www.abebooks.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/.../poet-ai-dies-at-62/ -
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Poet Ai Dies (1947-2010) - theblackbottom
Mar 23, 2010 ... Last week we featured the Poet Ai as our Tuesday Poet. Sadly we learned that she died this past Saturday March 20, 2010 in Stillwater, ...
theblackbottom.com/?p=4156 -
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Fiery poet, Ai, dies at 62 | Ann Arbor District Library
Mar 28, 2010 ... Fiery poet, Ai, dies at 62. Ai,a poet known for her grimly beautiful writing, died eight days ago in Stillwagon, Oklahoma. ...
www.aadl.org/node/35592 -
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Poetry News | Smartish Pace (a poetry review)
Ai Dies. March 24th, 2010. Poet Ai, who was born Florence Anthony, died on Saturday in Oklahoma at the age 62. The author of seven collections including ...
www.smartishpace.com/news/ -