People Against Prejudice

Wangari Maathai

2011-10-02T00:17:00.000-07:00

1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011

RIP To the amazing and phenomenal Wangari Maathai the first African Woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She made such a huge difference in her lifetime as a social activist and environmental activist with particular interest in helping rural african women. What a legend and a great loss to the world.

I learnt yesterday that Professor Wangari Maathai passed away a day earlier. I remember the pride I felt when I first learnt to about her, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. That was so impressive to me. I was wrong to think that was the most amazing thing about her because she was so much more that a mere prize. She was a tireless activist as the term goes.

Wangari was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. She founded the Green Belt movement in the 1970s after she realized how much environmental degradation was impacting rural women in Kenya. The idea was community based tree planting. The main focus of the Green belt movement is the reduction of poverty especially for the disadvantaged African rural women and conservation of the environment. With this movement Wangari helped women plant more than 40 million trees in the community areas which needed them.

Over the years she has stood up for women at international summits at the UN. She worked tirelessly for the cause of the poor rural woman. The greenbelt movement initiatives created a pan African network that moved on to other African countries such as Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Lesotho where the initiatives were successfully implemented.

Professor Maathai served on many boards including the Women and Environment Development Organization (WEDO), World Learning for International Development, Green Cross International, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, Prince Albert II of Monaco Environmental Foundation, and the National Council of Women of Kenya

In 2005 Wangari was elected as the Presiding Officer of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the African Union based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ECOSOCC was formed to advise the African Union on issues related to the African civil society. Dr. Maathai was also honored with an appointment as Goodwill Ambassador to the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem, where she served as advocacy role for the region's conservation and protection.

Over the years she has won many much deserved awards. Some of the awards I have listed here. Disney Conservation Award (2006), the Paul Harris Fellow (2005), the Sophie Prize (2004), the Petra Kelly Prize for Environment (2004), the Conservation Scientist Award (2004), J. Sterling Morton Award (2004), WANGO Environment Award (2003), Outstanding Vision and Commitment Award (2002), Excellence Award from the Kenyan Community Abroad (2001), Golden Ark Award (1994), Juliet Hollister Award (2001), Jane Adams Leadership Award (1993), Edinburgh Medal (1993), UN's Africa Prize for Leadership (1991), Goldman Environmental prize (1991), the Woman of the World (1989), Windstar Award for the Environment (1988), Better World Society Award (1986), Right Livelihood Award (1984) and the Woman of the Year Award (1983).

Wangari faced strong opposition from corrupt governments who were not interested in her push for democracy and poverty reduction. A lot of times her efforts were thwarted by these very governments. She did not give up she continued her activism.

She died after a battle with cancer on 25 September 2011. This woman is my hero and my inspiration. She changed the world and she will be missed. She fought the good fight and I hope her great work will leave on in amazing deeds.

RIP Dr Wangari Maathai I salute you.

For more information on Wangari you can check out the following links

http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangari_Maathai

Dr Dorothy Height

2011-05-22T01:39:00.000-07:00

(March 24, 1912 – April 20, 2010)

“If you worry about who is going to get credit, you don't get much work done.”-Dorothy I. Height

Dr Height was highly regarded civil rights activist, women’s rights activist and educator. She was president of the National Council of Negro Women for four decades from 1957 till 1997. She was right in the action with the men during the civil rights movement.

At a time when black women were relegated background responsibilities she refused to be pushed aside and was a key player. She is not as well known as her male counterparts and has been relegated to the background of history but she achieved a lot for social rights and deserves to be acknowledged.

She served as the president of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority which is a sorority which places emphasis on the African American community and public service for just over a decade and during that time she helped develop leadership programs and interracial education programs.

During the 1960s she started what were called Wednesdays in Mississippi which was an event that brought together black and white women from the North and South and opened up dialogue between these groups. It was a way to increase understanding between black and white women in regards to civil rights.

She was a highly sought after adviser to many American government leaders. This included President Dwight D Eisenhower whom she encouraged to desegregate schools and President Lyndon B Johnson whom she encouraged to appoint African American women to government positions. She also was an adviser to First lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Over the years she served on a number of important committees such as the president’s committee on the status of women, president’s committee on the employment of the handicapped. She also served as a consultant on African Affairs to the secretary of State. This is to name a few of the committees she sat in.

She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal for her years of activism.

She was a woman of action who stood up for various social issues. She is to be admired for her bravery and courage during tough times. This is in honor of a phenomenal woman who did a lot to fight prejudice. I salute her

For more information on her go to the following link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Height

Sojourner Truth

2011-05-01T00:56:00.000-07:00

c 1797 – November 26, 1883

"Wall, chilern, whar dar is so much racket dar must be somethin' out o' kilter. I tink dat 'twixt de niggers of de Souf and de womin at de Norf, all talkin' 'bout rights, de white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all dis here talkin' 'bout?" "Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best place!" And raising herself to her full height, and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunder, she asked. 'And ain't I a woman?

Now this woman was a giant in her time and is one of my biggest Sheros. Her bravery in the face of such hatred to stand up and be counted amazes me. Sorjourner Truth was an abolitionist and women’s rights activist. She was born a slave and escaped to freedom with her child in 1926. One of her sons at only five years was sold illegally by her former owner to a slave owner in Alabama. With the help of a couple who had taken her in as a servant after she escaped she took the matter to court and won her son back. She became one of the first black women to go to court against a white man and actually win the case.

During the American Civil War Truth played her part and helped recruit soldiers for the Union Army. After the war she worked diligently to try and get land grants from the government for former slaves to no avail.

She is best known for her phenomenal speech on racial inequality “Aint I A Woman?” which she delivered to a hostile crowd at the Women's Convention in Ohio is 1851.

It was unheard off at that time for a woman to answer back to a man even worse it was unheard off for a black woman to even dare but that’s exactly what this fearless woman did. The first paragraph in this article is part of this historic speech. If you want to read the whole speech go to this link Aint I A Woman ?. Even better check out this youtube clip of another amazing woman actress Alfre Woodard reading out the speech. She does an excellent job of it. Check out that clip below

She fought tirelessly for the rights of black people and the rights of women. Other causes she fought for were prison reform and eradication of capital punishment.

What more can I say about this woman except to say she was an amazing and phenomenal human being and I admire her greatly and always will.

For more on Sojourner Truth check out the following link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth

Apologies for the Long Hiatus

2011-05-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

Hello all my apologies for the long hiatus (that’s for whoever still checks this blog out if anyone lol). Lets just say life got in the way. I got busy doing other things and neglected my blog. I miss this blog and writing about these amazing human beings. I will resume from where I left off.

Helen Suzman

2010-02-03T04:36:00.000-08:00

November 7, 1917 – January 1, 2009

“I stand for simple justice, equal opportunity and human rights. The indispensable elements in a democratic society - and well worth fighting for.”

I remember when I first heard about Helen Suzman. It was around the days of her death in early 2009. I had never heard about this woman before. There were all these accolades and tributes to her and I was curious to know more.

I went to the internet an put her name into Google and I have never been gladder I did. What an amazing life and great human being. Some months ago I had the pleasure of reading her autobiography “In No Uncertain Terms”. It was during reading this amazing woman’s life story that I realized what all the tributes where about.

Helen Suzman was an anti apartheid activist and politician from South Africa. She lived to a grand old age and lived an amazing life.

She was born in 1817 to Jewish immigrants. She had a privileged upbringing as a white person in the highly racist South Africa. In her adult years after having her two children she was a lecturer for a time and in 1953 gave up teaching to enter politics.

Firstly she was one of less than 5 women in the whole of parliament at that time. She went through a huge amount of sexism in the highly masculine environment and had to deal with a lot of anti-Semitism, her reaction to all this was pure strength of will her wit and comebacks to sexist or anti Semitic barbs are classic.

Helen was never intimidated she could stand her ground and she did. When she initially started her political career she was in the United party. However in 1959 because she and some colleagues where too liberal for the other United party members they broke of and formed their own party the liberal progressive party. In the next elections she was the only one of her party to be left standing. She served as the only voice against apartheid and a one woman show for 13 years.

Suzman’s strong opposition of the Nationalist Party’s apartheid laws was uncommon amongst whites in that time. Even less common was such a vocal woman of Jewish origin daring to stand up to a parliament full of Afrikaner man. It was unheard of but that didn’t stop her. She got her phone tapped and was harassed by the police a number of times. One of her most classic replies is when a minister in parliament accused her of asking questions that embarrassed South Africa as a country she came back with “It is not my questions that embarrass South Africa; it is your answers".

She spent an amazing 36 years in parliament that’s an amazing career in politics very few people have such longevity. She fought against hundreds of racist and sexist laws that parliament put forward. She was the lone voice in a parliament of racists to cry foul over the treatment of non whites. She literally had to take insult after insult every time she stood up and spoke in parliament. She fought the fight for the apartheid movement from the inside.

She became close to Nelson Mandela when he was still in prison and after he was free. She visited him in prison a number of times. She visited many prisoners of apartheid and fought for their rights in every way she could. The woman was tireless over those 36 years in Parliament.

She received nearly 30 honorary degrees from all over the world over her lifetime and was awarded numerous awards. She was nominated with for the Nobel peace prize two times. She is regarded as one of the most influential South Africans of the century.

I will be very honest and say I did not know a thing about Helen till she died and I am deeply ashamed of this fact. A lot of people have never heard of her and I am sure it has a lot do with the fact that she was a woman and she happened to be white. The world likes to focus only on the black Africans especially African men in the fight against apartheid and pushes aside some of the few whites who contributed as well as women who stood up and fought the fight. There are still deep resentments between the races and this plays a factor in Helen not getting the acknowledgement that other anti apartheid black men have received.

Don’t get me wrong the woman wasn’t perfect she still had her bouts of white privilege which clouded her to some realities of non whites in South Africa and in life generally, however what she accomplished in that parliament was outstanding for someone with her privileged background.

I am impressed by this woman; her courage and her will are beyond belief. She did a lot for human rights in South Africa. She had no personal reason to stand up against apartheid it benefitted her but equality was important to her. I salute her for all she did.

For more information on this amazing human being go to the following link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Suzman

Happy New Year All

2010-01-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to you all. A new year means new possibilities. The beginning of a new year always excites me so much its a fresh start, new adventures await. I hope you all have your resolutions done up I am still working on mine.

This year I plan to add more people against racism. Give more time to this blog thats one of my resolutions. I hope I follow through lol

Miriam Makeba

2009-12-07T02:16:00.000-08:00

(4 March 1932 - 10 November 2008)

South African singer and civil rights activist. She is often referred to as Mama Africa. She stood up against apartheid and was exiled for it. In 1959 Miriam participated in an anti apartheid documentary “Come Back Africa” by Lionel Rogosin and was able to get a visa to America for the Premier. With the help of Harry Belafonte she was able to gain permanent entry into America and wrote some of her most famous songs there.

Whilst she was in America her South African passport was revoked by the South African government because she spoke out against the apartheid regime. She was a courageous woman who stood up for her rights without letting consequences get in her way. She was not able to go to her mother’s funeral as a result.

In 1963 she spoke up against apartheid at the United Nations and this caused her South African citizenship to be officially revoked and she was not allowed to come back to south Africa. This would later change in the final years of apartheid when Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

In a controversial move in 1968 Miriam got married to Stokely Carmichael the civil rights activist. Her record deals were canceled and she moved to Guinea with her husband. They later separated. She was a Guinea delegate to the United Nations whilst she was there and won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.

All I can say is the women had stones. She was finally able to come back to South Africa in 1990 after Nelson Mandela asked her to come back. She took part in many projects on apartheid from documentaries to movies such as the highly acclaimed Sarafina.

Miriam died of a heart attack on the 10th of November 2008 doing what she loved, performing. On that day we lost a legend a woman of substance who lived her life to the fullest and stood up for what was right.

For more information on this amazing human being go to the following links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Makeba
http://www.miriammakeba.co.za/

Helen Keller

2009-07-30T03:13:00.000-07:00

(June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968)

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
Helen Keller

Helen Keller was one of the biggest followers of the above statement. Her life was a daring adventure full of courage and strength. She was an author, activist and lecturer. When she was 19 months old she contracted a disease which left her deaf and blind.

In 1887 Anne Sullivan came into Helen’s life and using her own technique taught Keller how to communicate by writing into her hand. This was the beginning of a 49 year relationship. With help from Anne she was able to go to school and in 1904 at the age of 24 became the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Keller was an activist for numerous issues. Throughout her life she was an advocate for people with disabilities. She worked hard especially in her latter years to raise money for the American Foundation For The Blind. She was also a suffragist, pacifist, radical socialist, as well as a birth control supporter. She was active and vocal in her support of the working classes.

In 1915 she founded the Helen Keller International (HKI) organization with the help of George Kessler. It fights the causes and consequences of blindness as well as malnutrition. This is done by research programs into vision, health and nutrition. Currently this great organization is found in 25 countries around the world. For more information on this great cause go to
www.hki.org

Keller met every American president in her lifetime and won numerous awards. The awards included the Lions Humanitarian Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and election to the Women's Hall of Fame to name a few.

This amazing woman did what others would have thought impossible. She did not let the fact that she was deaf blind affect her; she went out there and lived and made an impact. She worked hard all her life fighting for blind people by bringing to the world’s attention their problems and the need for preventative measures.

She died peacefully in her sleep in 1968 living an amazing legacy. She is my inspiration. Many able bodied people in this world are full of excuses but look at this amazing woman and what she accomplished in her life. She could have made many excuses that she was blind, deaf and a women and people at that time would have understood but she didn’t. She has taught me that anything is possible if you believe it.

For more information on this phenomenal human being go to the following link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller

Angelique Kidjo

2009-07-16T02:24:00.000-07:00

(born on July 14, 1960)

Angelique is a Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter from Benin. Her music is amazing I am definitely a fan. She has been a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador since 2002. Through Unicef she has travelled to dozens of countries around Africa looking at different issues people face there.

She started Batonga Foundation which helps African girls get a secondary and higher education. The foundation does this by giving scholarships, building secondary schools, finding ways to increase increasing enrollment of girls in school, supporting mentor programs, improving the teaching standards, providing much needed school supplies, exploring alternative education models and advocating for community awareness of the value of education for girls. If you want more information on this amazing foundation and what it is accomplishing go to their website
www.batongafoundation.org

Kidjo is constantly campaigning for different issues. She campaigns for women’s rights, children’s rights, peace activism, HIV/Aids awareness to name a few. She also constantly uses her music as an activism tool. She is very focused on making a difference and that is very inspiring.

For more information on this amazing women go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/angeliquekidjo
www.kidjo.com

Agnes Pareyio

2009-07-12T02:59:00.001-07:00

Is a Maasai activist from Kenya. At the age of fourteen Agnes went through the horrendous and brutal female genital mutilation (FGM).This is a practice done in numerous countries around the world for traditional or religious reasons. The ritual has many levels there is the extreme case where everything that makes a women’s vagina is cut of, the labia, the clitoris everything.

There are other levels which cut just one thing etc. It is a dangerous practice which has lead to thousands of young girls dying of infection or blood loss not to mention the pain they go through and the problems they have in childbirth. This is a practice that scars these girls all their life. If you want more information on FGM go to the following link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_cutting

From the beginning Agnes tried to stop being mutilated but to no avail. After her mutilation she decided to fight against this practice and save the little girls in danger of FGM. She started her fight as a young woman going village to village with a wooden vagina she had made to highlight to people the damage FGM caused the girls.

Bit by bit she caused some parents to become horrified and deciding not to do that to their children. In many cases many Maasai communities have been convinced by Agnes to stop the practice completely. It has been hard work which has taken years and is still very much going on. There are still a lot of Kenyan communities who take part in this disgusting procedure.

Agnes has not just stopped her fight on educating communities; she has also built a safe house for girls who decide they do not want this procedure. They can run away from their communities and find safety, education and skills training at the Tasaru Ntomonok Centre.

Agnes has constant death threats against her from angry family members and anonymous people. This does not scare her she plans to expand her fight against FGM by expanding her rescue house and also making sure she reaches more villages.

What an amazing and brave woman. She inspires me so much. For more information on Agnes Pareyio go to the following link
www.adventuredivas.com

You can also read about her life story in depth in the inspirational book Gogo Mama by Sally Sara. It was by reading this book that I first heard of this phenomenal woman. The book has stories of a dozen strong and inspirational African women I highly recommend it. Look for it at your bookstore or go to the following link to buy it online
www.panmacmillan.com.au

Harriet Tubman

2009-07-09T01:52:00.000-07:00

(born Araminta Ross; c. 1822 – March 10, 1913)

She was a black American abolitionist, humanitarian, suffragist and a spy for the union during the American civil war.

Harriet was born a slave and went through hell being constantly beaten by her masters. One of these times she suffered a major head injury which caused her bad health for the rest of her life.

She was able to run away from slavery but the amazing thing is she came back to help her family run away. She continued coming back to help more and more slaves. She singlehandedly saved dozens upon dozens of slaves to freedom group by group.

When the civil war began she helped the union by first being a cook and a nurse and then became a spy and even became the first women to lead an armed expedition in the war. Tubman was fearless nothing would stop her.

After the war she worked alongside other women suffragist for the right for women to vote and made many keynote speeches on this subject. By this time she was very poor from helping others and at one time even sold a cow to make it to a celebration held on her behalf.

In her later years she donated real estate on which she had a nursing home for poor black people built. She passed away in 1913 surrounded by her family and friends

She was an amazing and brave person I toast Harriet Tubman a phenomenal person.

For more information about Harriet Tubman got to the following links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman
http://www.harriettubman.com/index.html

Renee Martin

2009-07-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

Renee Martin is a womanist who rights at the highly acclaimed blog womanist musings. At her blog which I came across in 2008 she rights articles on different types of prejudice out there from issues the LGBT (Lesbians, gays, bisexuals and Transgender) community deal with, to racism issues that people of color go through as well as sexism and ableism and a lot of other society issues.

Her blog is direct and honest and does not sugar coat the truth. Her blog is a platform which fights against prejudice everyday.

This is an excerpt from her blog where she talks about what she is about

“I am a committed humanist. I believe in the value of people over commodities. I believe in the human right to food, clothing, shelter, and education. I am pacifist, anti-racist, WOC. My truth may not be your truth, but I intend to speak it nonetheless.”

I visit her blog everyday and always find something of substance from her. She reaches thousands of people and has a large community on her blog discussing all these issues. Her blog is very informative and regularly updated.

As an activist, humanist and womanist myself I look up to Renee and what she is doing. For more information on what Renee does go to her blog womanist musings.

Harvey Milk

2009-07-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

(May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978)

Harvey Milk is my hero and to think I didn’t even know him less than six months ago. The first time I ever heard about him was a number of months ago when I saw the trailer for the Sean Penn movie Milk the minute I saw the movie trailer I went to Google to find out more about him and let’s just say I fell in love.

Harvey was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California in 1977; he became a member of the San Francisco Board of supervisors. The amazing thing was that he won after his forth attempt talk about persistence.

He tried three times before and was not elected. It seemed impossible to so many people in that time to conceive of an openly gay politician in California but Harvey proved them wrong.

Another impressive thing about Harvey was the fact that before he was 40 he had stayed in the closet and had not been interested in gay rights activism.

The change of heart came after he turned 40 when he moved from New York to San Francisco’s Castro district which had become a haven for a lot of migrating gay people.

Milk and his boyfriend Scott Smith opened a camera shop on Castro Street. His camera shop became a community meeting place for many gay people to hang out as well as to help him in his campaigns.

Milk was in public office for 11 short months when he was shot and killed by Dan White a former supervisor who wanted his job back and had been at odds with Milk during his time in office.

During his short time in office he did more than many politicians do in decades, he was able to pass a gay rights ordinance for the city. He fought against proposition 6 which was also called the Briggs initiative as it had originated from politician John Briggs.

The initiative would have made firing gay teachers and any public school employees who supported them a mandatory thing. Harvey went head on against John Briggs and had many public debates against this initiative.

On November 8 1978 Milk and his supporters had cause to celebrate when proposition 6 lost by millions of votes.

Harvey Milk was an amazing man who though he was a slow starter made a huge difference for gay rights. He did a lot in a short space of time and left a big legacy.

After his death there was a peaceful march in his honor with thousands of people showing how much he had changed their lives. His death inspired a lot of other gay people to be active in politics and gay rights activism.

He truly made a difference and I salute him.

For more detailed information on Harvey Milk got to the following links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk
http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/milk01.html

Welcome to People Against Prejudice

2009-07-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to my people against prejudice blog.

This blog is a source of information on people that have stood against different types of prejudices over the centuries. This list of people is meant to show you what is possible and the fact that it is possible to make a difference.

One of my major passions is the fight against prejudice. This is something very close to my heart as a black woman. I have faced racism and sexism all my life. I have seen other types of prejudice against gay people, people with disabilities, old people, poor people, overweight and obese people the list goes on. There are many groups out there that face prejudice because of some wrongly perceived inferiority.

This blog is my fight against all types of prejudice. This is my inspiration to everyone to also fight like the people I will mention in my blog. It takes unity of purpose to make a difference, we can all unite and make a difference.

My job in this blog is to tell you about activists you might already know or you might not know and then give you extra sources of more in-depth knowledge. I will point out a person give you an overview about them and it’s up to you to learn more about them from the extra links I give you. The idea is to be aware of the issues and spread this awareness and hopefully help eradicate the fear and ignorance which cause prejudice of any kind.

You are very welcome to share with me and the other readers about people you know who fight against prejudice and I will see if I can right an article about them. You should also follow my blog so that you do not miss any new articles I put up.

Thanks very much for passing by and I hope you can join me in this fight against prejudice.