I have been blessed with the life experience of colored eyes as well as white eyes. While most
folks see the issue of race through either white eyes
or colored eyes, I see the issue of race through both.
This matters greatly because my life experience affords me
a more cosmopolitan perspective on issues of diversity.
My parents were married in the late 1930s making us a
rare mixed-race family.
Thus the community marginalized us.
But I came to understand and appreciate diversity issues.
"Question is, are we mature enough to sit down and discuss
issues of diversity, including religion, gender and race?"
"Looking at the one and only Black Family native to SDI/3HO/KRI
after 50 years from my perspective as a person of color I have to
ask, why are there so few Black Families? How many White Families
vs. Black Families are there after 50 years? Oh sure, there are a few
African-Americans, but they are disproportionately represented.
Think about the optics from the perspective of most people of color.
Do people of color see this disparity as a positive or as a negative?
And how many Black Kundalini Yoga teachers-trainers are there?
Isn't it time for there to be some serious mixed-race adult dialogue?
The key indicator that organizations have come of age is when steps
are taken to permit open dialogue on the issue with people of color.
BTW: When asked if one Black Family after 50 years is an issue
of concern, some Sikh Dharma ministers agreed. But when asked
why the issue is never discussed, they were unable to answer.
Discourse is not meant to stir up feelings of guilt. Discourse is
meant to drive people to action against injustice. Question is
are we mature enough to sit down and discuss issues
of tribalism, including race, religion, and gender?"
Note: Many of my associates are unaware of my Native American heritage.
I make it known in order to establish my experience with diversity issues.
Reflecting on my life experience as a person of color, a "half breed" looking
through colored eyes, I have a different albeit cosmopolitan perspective.
*"In 2013, the population of African Americans, including those of more than one race,
was estimated at 45 million, making up 15.2% of the total U.S. population." Source.
U.S. organizations should reflect about 15 African Americans out of every 100.
Mukhia Singh Sahib Hari Singh Bird Khalsa
My Childhood
I am a native of the Midwest, which includes a Native American heritage of the Cherokee and Modoc nations according to my father. I was born at home and of a mixed parentage in the late '30s. My younger sister and I were raised in a tiny 3-room house, which had no bathtub or shower, and no hot water heater. We were the only family I knew that had no hot running water. See My Ancestry Profile. See 'Half Breed' Video.
My mother boiled water in a tea kettle and poured it into a galvanized tub in which she bathed us until we were old enough to bathe ourselves. We bathed once a week because it was a real challenge for the four of us to bathe more frequently. She boiled water in a tea kettle and used a wash board to wash our clothes until she acquired a wringer-type washer along with two rinse tubs in the late '40s. Our parents heated the house with a coal-burning stove until the late '40s when we acquired an oil-burning stove. We also used an ice box to keep food cold until the late '40s, early '50s.
I slept in the front room of our tiny but tidy 3-room house, my mother and sister slept in the middle room and my father slept in the kitchen. We acquired a black and white TV in the mid-'50s. We always walked to school. Our mother worked full-time at a meat packing plant to which she always walked.
My dad was a barber and served as an air raid warden for our neighborhood during World War II. I remember hearing the air raid sirens and seeing big search lights roaming the night sky during air raid drills. We had to turn off all the lights. I remember just about everything being rationed, sugar; salt; milk; bread; gasoline; etc. And we had to use tokens in order to make purchases. Life was good albeit challenging, just as it is to this day, by God's grace.
We lived next door to a store front where an elderly immigrant Syrian couple lived and operated an oriental rug store, and across the street from a carton factory. On the back side of the carton company was the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad that ran coal burning, steam powered, locomotives, which stopped frequently at a watering station just down the railroad tracks.
I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, with my parent's written permission, in my junior year at a Catholic high school from which I graduated before reporting for USMC active duty. See ForThePeopleOfColor.com. Read on.
My Professional Profile
I am currently retired although I hold active
Optician licenses in Florida and Arizona. I am certified
by ABO, the American Board of Opticianry, and NCLE, the National Contact Lens
Examiners. I am a passionate advocate of (a) the resurgence
of the Optician as a genuine Health Care Provider, i.e., highly skilled Eyewear Professional, as opposed to today's eyeglass dispensers, most of whom are trained only as
merchants or online clerks, (b) the resurgence of three dimensional dispensing of prescription eyewear, and (c) most importantly, the conscientious Hands on the Patient practical training of aspiring Opticians in the design
and delivery of handcrafted, form-fitted eyewear. I am currently a consultant with Opticians
For Change. I conduct Hands-on Frame Fitting
Workshops, which are accredited for Continuing Education
by ABO and the Florida State Board of Opticians, and sponsored by POF, the Professional Opticians
of Florida.
My Teaching Profile
I am a Certified Kundalini
Yoga Teacher and Sikh minister. Since 1969 I have been a student of Yogi
Bhajan, who is the founder of 3HO,
the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization and the master
of Kundalini Yoga.
I began teaching Kundalini Yoga in 1970 and directed 3HO activities
in the Denver, Colorado region from 1973 to 1984. I have a history of teaching at numerous prison facilities and various other locations
as a volunteer teacher of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, and as a Counselor-Chaplain, which includes the Federal Prison in Littleton, CO; the Colorado State Prison at Buena Vista, CO;
the Youth Detention Center, Brighton, CO; the Orange County Jail,
Orlando, FL; the Florida State Prison, Bushnell, FL; the YWCA, Orlando,
FL; Sikh Chaplain at the New
Mexico Military Institute, Roswell, NM; and several years
as Close Order Drill Instructor for the Select
Women's Rifle Drill Team at the 3HO Women's Training Camp, formerly KWTC, Khalsa Women's Training Camp, Espanola, NM,
now known as 3HO Women's Camp.
Note: I taught the first-ever Kundalini Yoga and Meditation prison classes to inmates at the Orange County jail in Orlando, Florida, 1971-1972; followed by the first-ever classes at the Florida State Prison in Bushnell, Florida; followed by, in the mid-70s, the first-ever classes at the Colorado state and federal prisons.
Black Elk, Lakota Medicine Man
"Peace comes within the Souls of Men
when they realize their Oneness with the Universe.
When they realize it is everywhere.
It is within each of us."
Think about it.
From 1789 to 2009
the only elected POTUS
out of forty-four presidents,
and even fewer First Americans,
had to prove his birthplace, and is
still considered by many to be foreign born,
even after providing his documentation of birth.
See Native Americans offer Whites amnesty.
What do you see?
"It
remains true today, in the ancient tradition of ignorance
that people of faith and otherwise good sense hasten to
ostracize and demonize any person or group whose
beliefs, lifestyle, and customs are unlike their own."
Diversity Points to Ponder
"Sunshine is the best remedy for dirty laundry." I.J. Singh
"As Ministers we are obliged to practice what we teach using
only occasional words. Our actions teach louder than words."
"Question is, are we mature enough to sit down and discuss
issues of diversity, including religion, gender and race?"
"It
remains true today, in the ancient tradition of ignorance
that people of faith and otherwise good sense hasten to
ostracize and demonize any person or group whose
beliefs, lifestyle, and customs are unlike their own."
"Looking at the one and only Black Family native to SDI/3HO/KRI
after 50 years from my perspective as a person of color I have to
ask, why are there so few Black Families? How many White Families
vs. Black Families are there after 50 years? Oh sure, there are a few
African-Americans, but they are disproportionately represented.
Think about the optics from the perspective of most people of color.
Do people of color see this disparity as a positive or as a negative?
And how many Black Kundalini Yoga teachers-trainers are there?
Isn't it time for there to be some serious mixed-race adult dialogue?
The key indicator that organizations have come of age is when steps
are taken to permit open dialogue on the issue with people of color.
BTW: When asked if one Black Family after 50 years is an issue
of concern, some Sikh Dharma ministers agreed. But when asked
why the issue is never discussed, they were unable to answer.
Discourse is not meant to stir up feelings of guilt. Discourse is
meant to drive people to action against injustice. Question is
are we mature enough to sit down and discuss issues
of tribalism, including race, religion, and gender?"
"Are there even occasional conversations between White eyes and Colored eyes regarding the issues of diversity and racism and
their impact and complexities within the American community today?
Issues to do with diversity are not going away just because we deny
their existence, or because they cause us discomfort to discuss. We
must promote pluralism as did Guru Nanak throughout his ministry."
"I advise 3HO and Sikh Dharma, including their respective
corporate boards and committees, to be aware of their inevitable
drift into 'tribalism' that afflicts all organizations. This is practiced to the
extreme in Iraq, today. Tribes tend to adopt exceptionalism to the point
where marginalization and exclusion of others reigns supreme. An example is Awtar Singh Khalsa. In this Age of Aquarius, inclusion vis-a-vis pluralism is in,
exclusion vis-a-vis tribalism is out. Those that reject inclusion shall become irrelevant."
"People of Color who remain silent enable White people to remain culturally
illiterate. It is incumbent on those who know to teach those who do not know.
Bottom line is that the 3HO/Sikh Dharma community must hear from people of
color, i.e., people of African, Asian, Native American, etc., descent, as to their
perception of the organization, as it is, today. Given the history of human nature,
Sikh Dharma can avoid creeping into exclusivity by monitoring the perceptions of People of Color. Sikh Dharma is an inclusive as opposed to an exclusive path.
"The human mind was created to discriminate, e.g., make choices between
up and down, in and out, black and white, etc. We must remain aware of our
tendency to use our discretionary abilities in order to marginalize and repress
people with whom we differ. We need to constantly see to it that we advocate for pluralism, against tribalism, in the interest of justice as taught by Guru Nanak.
Choices are to live for each other, or to live at each other." Hari Singh Bird Khalsa
President Obama visited the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation
in Cannon Ball, N.D. on June 13, 2014, marking only the fourth
time in history that a sitting president has visited Indian country.
December 19, 2014--The Native American National Council will offer amnesty to an estimated 240 million illegal White immigrants living in the United States. At a meeting on Friday in Taos, New Mexico, Native American leaders weighed a handful of proposals about the future of the United State’s large, illegal European population. After a long debate, NANC voted to extend a road to citizenship for those without criminal records or contagious diseases.
Nez Perce Chief Sauti
“We will give Europeans the option to apply for Native Citizenship,” explained Chief Sauti of the Nez Perce tribe. “To obtain legal status, each applicant must write a heartfelt apology for their ancestors’ crimes, pay an application fee of $5,000, and, if currently on any ancestral Native land, they must relinquish that land to NANC or pay the market price, which we will decide.
“Any illegal European who has a criminal record of any sort, minus traffic and parking tickets, will be deported back to their native land. Anybody with contagious diseases like HIV, smallpox, herpes, etc, will not qualify and will also be deported.”
European colonization of North America began in the 16th and 17th centuries, when arrivals from France, Spain and England first established settlements on land that had been occupied by Native Peoples. Explorers Lewis and Clark further opened up Western lands to settlement, which ultimately led to the creation of the Indian reservation system.
Despite the large number of Europeans residing in the United States, historical scholars mostly agree that indigenous lands were taken illegally through war, genocide and forced displacement.
Despite the Council’s decision, a native group called True Americans lambasted the move, claiming amnesty will only serve to reward lawbreakers.
“They all need to be deported back to Europe,” John Dakota from True Americans said.
“They brought disease and alcoholism, and stole everything we have because they were too lazy to improve and develop their own countries.” Source.
I call it plain, old-fashioned, ubiquitous tribalism.
Sat Nam. A while back I posted a missive on the definition of tribalism and its relation to Sikhs, and the teachings of Guru Nanak to wit:
"Tribalism: The social tendency to live in loyalty to a tribe, social group, club, clan or gang (a tribe within a tribe or tribal hierarchy, a kind of pervasive and insidious group infection) especially when combined with an unfair treatment or strong negative attitude toward marginalized people outside the group. Religious organizations are particularly prone to tribalism. The Shiite vs Sunni of Islam and the Baptized vs Non-baptized of Sikhism are just two examples."
Subsequently, a Sikh gentleman of Punjabi heritage replied, stating that tribalism does not exist amongst the Sikh community.
Although not using the term 'tribalism', Sardar PPS Gill appears to strongly differ, indicating that enough is enough. Read on.
My Sikh Sense
Sardar PPS Gill
Senior journalist and former
Information Commissioner of Punjab
It’s time Sikh institutions are reformed.
For quite some time, the role and function of Sikh institutions in articulating the Sikh aspirations, expectations and frustrations has raised fresh questions. Particularly, on the erosion in the autonomy, independence and sovereignty, or whatever remains, of the apex organs: SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee) and Akal Takht.
Given the hire and fire policy in respect of the clergy, religiously followed by the 'politicised' SGPC at the bidding of its political bosses, a subservient attitude is discernible. Even the system of appointment or removal of the SGPC President is arbitrary and politically motivated. In the prevailing cloistered religio-political system, the incumbents are expected to show 'unalloyed loyalty' to their political masters.
The politicisation of the SGPC and Sikh clergy is a cause of concern, given the contradictions and opaqueness in decision-making. Why has there been a continuous erosion and denigration of these institutions? Even as the jury is out on the juxtaposition of religion and politics, the fact is that vested interests have politicised religion. Religion has not been evoked as a detergent to cleanse politics.
Then there is the growing cult of sants, mahants, babas and gurus; sects, cults and deras. Punjab provides a fertile ground for them to flourish, ostensibly under 'state' or 'political' patronage. The key Sikh institutions have failed to checkmate these.
Understandably, a majority of those who flock to the deras is from among the 'weaker sections', 'Scheduled Castes and other backward classes'. The deras are not just a vote-bank, but something more than that.
This vast section of society feels left out of the state's 'welfare schemes' denying them economic emancipation, social equality, income generation, employment opportunities and affordable, quality education and health delivery services. They have been ignored and marginalised by the Sikh religio-political leadership. This has alienated them, depriving them of societal recognition, respect, equality, and human dignity.
Thus, deras flourish as they provide their followers 'recognition', something neither the governments nor Sikh religio-political leadership gave them. While the governments ignored them, Sikh institutions never welcomed them into their fold. Resultantly, there are sharp divisions based on religion, caste, creed and class in villages, where segregation is widespread. Proof lies in the existence of separate cremation grounds, gurdwaras and dharmshalas for different communities. [Tribalism?]
Strangely, in the wake of the countrywide outcry against 'atrocities' on the minorities, cow vigilantism, saffronisation of institutions, the Akali leadership has maintained a silence for fear of annoying the BJP or losing a Cabinet berth. And, the religious wing never made any attempts to 'own' the estranged sections that opted for deras and invested their faith in 'gurus' and 'babas'.
To reverse this trend, it is time the government implemented its 'welfare schemes' and changed its approach towards dera followers. It is also time for radical reforms to restore dignity, independence, sovereignty and autonomy of the Sikh clergy and SGPC. It is equally important to restore 'inner democracy' in the SAD. Punjab must maintain communal harmony, peace and tranquility, which is ever so fragile.
Often, concerned scholars, not necessarily neutral, have suggested alternatives to ride out the crises. Since conflict, contradiction and confrontation dominate the Sikh institutions and Sikh psyche, scholars need to cooperate and coordinate in the larger interest of the state and the Sikhs.
Have there been attempts to reform or restore lost dignity of these institutions?
One attempt was initiated at the World Sikh Sammelan in Amritsar in September 1995, with Sikhs settled abroad demanding a broad-based SGPC with a representative character; widening its ambit, worldwide. Then (between 1994 and 1996) by a retired Army Colonel, the late Gurdip Singh Grewal, floated the idea of setting up of a Global Sikh Senate. But all such attempts were scuttled by those who hold sway over them, fearing the loss of hegemony and control, since they drew 'power' from these institutions.Numerous seminars have been held to 'forge' unity in Sikh religio-political folds. These attempts have remained stillborn.
Grewal’s idea was to enable the Sikh community at home and abroad to meet the challenges and adapt itself for optimum viable prosperity moving into the 21st century. He believed that such a senate was imperative for globally integrating secular Sikh social order: Sikhs, he believed, being a consensual society, the senate could create a virtuous circle of consensus for the prosperity of the entire community.
He was of the opinion that the existing imperfections were on account of two factors: one, the casting of Sikh politics into an archetypical mould of thoughtlessness and attitude of confrontation; two, the guardians of gurdwara-based politics, generally ultra-orthodox, maintained a stranglehold on the Sikh affairs, obstructing enlightened minds from participating.
At the 1995 World Sikh Sammelan, besides it was also resolved that a World Sikh Council and Zonal Sikh Councils be set up under the Jathedar of Akal Takht. The concept was aborted due to differences cropping up among the power-wielders. And, the then Jathedar, Giani Puran Singh, disbanded all units in March, 2000.
With the Akali leadership, having parceled various religio-political institutions between themselves for decades, showed little or no interest either in the World Sikh Council or in the concept of Global Sikh Senate.
Besides the key reforms needed for reinventing the SGPC, SAD and Akal Takht, other pending issues include: failure of the Sikh leadership to either get an All-India Gurdwara Act enacted, in the past six decades or to rein in the growing cult of sants, mahants, babas and gurus; sects, cults and deras; or on the voting rights of Sehjdhari Sikhs in SGPC elections. The matter is in the court.
It is time the government recalibrates its policies and approach towards nearly 50 per cent of the population that believes in deras and feels alienated, and the religio-political Sikh leadership comes out of its orthodoxy-shell and think of out-of-the-box reforms. Source.
Sat Nam. (In response to Ranbir Bhai.) You said it, when you said you're an immigrant. I'm Indigenous. So I have to say I know America a little better than you do, from the inside. As Dubois said, I see the workings of its entrails. I'm pretty clear on what I've earned, and I've definitely earned the blessings of America coming up out from slavery, and the ability to critique American society, which still depends and allows slavery to exist, I guess I'm not OK with that reality, however shielded by my privilege I remain.
I would never tell Gandhi, in his own country, to be patient with the British, let them change at their own pace, just assimilate, don't rock the boat. Just as I wouldn't tell Mandela, the same, in South Africa. Things may seem rosy in a Starbucks in Beverly Hills, mixed couples, mixed kids, mixed president. I suggest you take a trip down La Cienega, and get a different view of the community around Magic Johnson's Starbucks.
Try your line about forgetting slavery and stumbling upon the rocks of the past there. DuBois, Thurman, Rustin, King, Randolph, Einstein, Robeson, learned something from Gandhi about America...an ancient wrong that is still wrong, remains wrong, until you right it. In my lifetime, mixed kids were illegal in this country, now one is president, but more Blacks are under correctional control of a system that was created out of slavery, than those who were in slavery as property in the 1850s. But perhaps "The New Jim Crow" isn't coffee table conversation in Beverly Hills.
I've had and heard spirited discussions in Ladera Heights. The point about raising the past, isn't whining about it, it isn't past, even if its not part of my reality. Denial, is not a skill set. Skill at illuminating and dismantling structural inequity is a skill set. Einstein was a fervent anti-racist activist, a fact often hidden, but a fact nonetheless. It doesn't take a genius to recognize racism and structural inequality exist. Or that voting irregularities exist, and can be replicated in other systems where voting takes place, unless you are vigilant. So just be vigilant.
A cynical anarchist once told me a quote: If voting could actually change things it would be illegal...sure, I still vote, because I had to fight for it, and won...Because I'm strong enough, and belong to strong enough stock...to fight...its not to win every struggle, but to struggle itself...only dead or dying salmon float downstream...
As Zora said...
“I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world--I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road
My Sikh Sense
Shiva Singh Khalsa
Sat Nam. To respond to Gurmukh Singh - My son said yesterday that if you kick a kid out of school or incarcerate them you kick them out of life. Andres (see below) claim to fame in his neighborhood is he is the only one who has not been shot or in jail. It is not a thing of the past - it is not "whining" to demand basic civil rights as opposed to being forced to live in a war zone 24/7.
When a dear friend and Englewood local hero who was starting his music career was shot and killed in a robbery one of our team reported he has been pressured by all his friends and family to retaliate. He was a gang leader with 200 guys under him, he said a year ago he would have but now he will fight another way. It has been ripping him apart in part because he sees it can be different.
When two guys were getting into their faces, our team leader said I'll take him and walk away, you take the other guy and walk away. They all looked at her with confusion. He came back and said I did not know you could do that.
We took a bunch of young men, 10, from the Englewood neighborhood to see Selma.
Gang guys or like everyone in that neighborhood connected to a gang whether they want to or not, by birth, what street they were born on.
Several of the guys fell asleep in the movie because it is safe - and they are typically having to be hyper-vigilant in their dangerous neighborhood. On New Years Eve our friends their had to put their kids in a 'safe house' because of all the random gun fire and they went into the room in their house with no windows.
Most of them had no idea who Martin Luther King actually was and what people went through to earn what they should have already.
How a film can inspire: The next day one high school kid, in trouble in a horrific school, went to his guidance counselor to see what he had to do to get into a better school. Why because he realized he deserved it. Another 22 year-old whose life was going no where joined the Navy the very next day because he realized he could leave his ghetto of a neighborhood.
I believe why there is so much Black on Black crime? Because it is unheard of, in Chicago, to cross over into another gang's territory let alone go to the 'northside' where the money and valuable property lives.
I've attached some pics - Shango and Andres (below) did an intensive 6 week Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training with me and it was explained to me that it was a huge thing for them to have a certificate of that kind for the whole neighborhood. Now Shango is in our 9 month 200 hour training and he's amazing. He does a regular Sadhana and is teaching KY practices to his Youth Mentor program on how to be nonreactive. It has worked.
The Peace House group meditating (below) was an event on MLK Day talking about our values as a community. The Latino guy in the picture (right) is running for Alderman.
After the event the 20 kids were running and playing in the street having a snowball fight which was a completely amazing thing. It was safe for them because we (I Grow) are there. I have driven for 20 blocks in a main street in Englewood on a sunny Saturday afternoon and not seen a single child playing or families walking because it is so dangerous to be on the street.
And Gurmukh Singh I love your writing and references to Zora's writing she and you know how to make a narrative poetic. --