Black History Month

What do you think about setting aside one month per year as Black History Month?

I have heard a lot of opinions about it - on both sides.

Me, I don't really have a strong opinion either way ... and it seems to me that I really don't need to have one since it is not really my issue, is it? I do, however, think that the more people learn about anything & everything - including Canadian history and the reality that we are not as innocent & accepting as we would like to believe - the better.

Anyway... I'm only thinking about it because I have been wandering through threads on babble.ca (rabble.ca's discussion forums) and came across a link to this post on Womanist Musings: Why I am Skipping Black History Month ...which references some of the topics we touched on last semester.

Uncontacted Peoples

Survival International has posted actual footage of one of about 100 tribes of uncontacted peoples on their site. There is also a petition there to sign, asking Peru's government to protect what little tracts of land these people have left.

Also lots of other videos, articles, FAQs and more information - I found it all fascinating.... although some of the online chatter about these people is truly disturbing. There are some who - like me - think we should leave them alone - if they, at some point, wish contact, they can initiate it and otherwise, in my opinion, we should just not go there (but, of course, leaving them alone includes not allowing their lands to be clearcut/taken over).

There are also, however, ~well meaning~ folks who think that we should at least do things like "send in a doctor to check and make sure they are healthy" (of course, the FAQ makes clear that these people are highly vulnerable to our diseases and that in the past, 50% or more of some groups have been wiped out by such ~well-meaning~ visitors.

And then there are, as always on the net, the out and out idjits who think nothing of imposing their will on these people - they don't pay taxes so have no rights to resources/protection, and so on ... blah blah blah ... oh...and the whole it's a hoax and they are actors bunch ... I had to stop following any of those sorts of conversations because they were making me crazy (surprise, surprise, right? LOL)

Anyway ... I do encourage you to stop by and check out the video, and consider signing the petition, and/or passing the links/info on to others.

Tag Clouds

So ... I said I would post something ...and finally did manage to get to it!


Here you go ... both of these sites allow you to make tag cloud images with any text that you can cut & paste. Most (but not all) pdfs that you download from JSTOR or other library resources work just fine (although you will get better results if you omit the reference list, as those do tend to muck it up some).

Tag Cloud is probably the easiest to use - and lets you save as a pdf file:

But Wordle is way more fun - check out the randomize button!

If you are not offered an option to save your image you can use the print screen button (look at top row of your keyboard - unless it is a Mac, you will probably have a PrtScn button; if you have a Mac, I don't know how but I bet google does). Whatever is on your screen when you hit the button gets copied to your clipboard and can be pasted.

I use Paint Shop Pro, so I paste there and crop to the selection I want ... but you can paste into Word and crop there, or pretty much any image program will do.

Have fun!

All three of these word clouds used the Sisters In Spirit 2010 Report: What Their Voices Tell Us. To view larger, click on the thumbnail.