Bring Back Our Girls

 My heart bleeds for the parents of the missing school girls kidnapped whilst sitting or preparing to take their final exams. About 234+ girls were kidnapped. Some are said to have been sold as brides to rebels in neighbouring countries. The islamist group responsible have been very boastful of the fact they have done such a horrible crime. They are against western education for some reason and may have done more kidnappings. Social media users have been highlighting their plight for the past week and the mainstream media and international governments are now paying closer attention. Both the UK and USA have extended their hand to offer help. 40 girls are said to have escaped but the rest still remain missing and their lives are at risk whilst in the hands of their captors or worst forced marriage and conversion to the islamic faith.

The Root has a very good synopsis of events and some background info you can read it here.

CNN also gives a very good breakdown of events with updates to read you can click here.

Please keep the girls and their families in prayer! 

Racism is not just verbal

I was reading a Christian blog post about The Help, book turned film at  Think Christian. This commentary caught my attention. It acknowledges that racism exist but people only talk down those who are blatant racists. Often people refuse to accept that racism is displayed and acted out without actually verbally exchanging racial expletives. Anyway check out the comment below and tell me what you think.

The fact that Hilly is characterized as such as the blatant enemy is a source of frustration for me. Scapegoating her as an evil-racist is such a dangerous, yet common, practice in white racial literature. We (white folk) are allowed to distance ourselves from her clearly-inappropriate 'racist' views. Thus, we are free to identify with the white-savior heroine, congratulating ourselves that we would never be so obviously racist.

These sentiments play into white folks' tendencies to associate the word 'racist' with people that blatantly espouse hatred, rather than examine the nuances of systemic racial advantage and subconscious bias. Similarly, setting the book in the 1960's, invites a congratulatory look on how far we have come, rather examining the modern consequences of that era. As long as we're not that bad, we must be alright (read: "I'm basically a good person, I'm not a sinner"). Macon D of 'Stuff White People Do' notes: "While The Help is about people who risk their lives to challenge the status quo of their day, the book itself does very little to challenge the status quo of its own day." The fact is, the attitudes articulated in the book are still alive and well today, if more hushed. (source)

I just so found this interesting and understand what the commenter is trying to say. The original post looks at how someone reacts to their enemies. It is worth a read too.