Maram starts by saying:

Maram goes onto to describe attending a recruitment event at Oxford University with the oil company she works for. During the event some protestors started demonstrating about what they argued the oil company had done in various parts of the world, accusing it of having acted criminally. Security guards started to remove the protestors, but a company official agreed to let them have their say for five minutes, saying that he respected their right to freedom of opinion. However, after the five minutes were up the protestors would not allow the official to continue, and kept heckling. Despite the disruption, the company official was disappointed when one of the protestors was finally carried away by force; he said that Britain was a free country and no one should be thrown out because he or she disagreed with the company's activities.

The second event that caught Maram's attention was a particular episode of the weekly BBC television programme Question Time, in which a panel of politicians and others face questions on current issues from a studio audience. Controversially, Question Time had allowed the chairman of the rightwing British National Party and Member of the European Parliament, Nick Griffin, to be part of the panel for this programme. Nick Griffin has previously been convicted of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred.

After setting the scene, Maram describes what happened on the programme:

Blogger The Other Door writes about the coverage, in a post called “Very Ordinary Racism”:

UPDATE: A third person died at the Flagstaff Medical Center late on Saturday October 17th.

The tragic event made national headlines in the US, with experts on sweat lodges and Native Americans criticizing the reported construction of the lodge, the number of participants, and the length of the ceremony.

James Ray

James Ray is President and CEO of James Ray International, which holds seminars on “wealth creation” where he charges up to US $ 10,000. He was also interviewed in the New Age 2006 film The Secret, appeared on Oprah Winfrey show and is the author of Harmonic Wealth, a New York Times bestseller.

As another example of the on-going exploitation of Native Americans culture, this tragic episode is being widely discussed within the US blogosphere.

In detailing her 80's sweat lodge experience conducted by a Lakota Sioux woman, Gabrielle Daniels, aka blksista, writes that she “photographed the building of the lodge until I was told not to, because it was not something to be shared with those outside of the group”, streaming her pictures while another lodge building is described in this YouTube video.

blksista further explains:

And when the lodge was completed, covered in hides and blankets and evergreen branches, and when the stones were heated, and we were in various stages of undress, in shorts and in bathing suits, we went in small groups at a time. I’d say that there were about six to eight people at a time in the lodge. And I sat and withstood the steam and heat from the stones until it was time for me to go. Compared to say, a sauna, where pine tar and eucalyptus mixed with water can be thrown on onto the heat, no scents were allowed on the stones. I was there for at least twenty minutes to half an hour. Everyone was like that. No one was forced to stay in longer than it was possible for them. People were quietly asked if they were okay during the sweat; they simply said yes or no, or nodded. I nodded. …

And here's her conclusion:

…people in New Age religions embrace only one part of the totality of a culture or a people–like the buying masks and idols or a religion–without an understanding of what these items or these rituals really mean. Disrespect results, and then eventually, leaders can become authoritarian and cultish, people can get turned off and leave, or people can get hurt or worse, die. That’s the cruel lesson, I feel, that’s being learned regarding this tragedy. I can only hope that this time, that it’s heeded.

In a post on Beyond Growth, a collaborative blog exploring the future of personal development, Duff McDuffee tries to summarize what we can learn from this tragedy:

One thing we might conclude is that all spiritual teachers or personal development gurus are bad, and should be avoided. Or that James Arthur Ray specifically is a greedy, evil person. Or that the Law of Attraction and The Secret are total bullshit. And these would indeed be ways to read the situation that have some merit. …

One could see this disaster as “the dark side of The Secret,” which is not just “negative thinking” but even positive intentions gone horribly wrong. Thus, positive thinking and intent are not enough if they lead to negative consequences. Indeed, Ray himself emphasizes that the results one brings about in life are what are most relevant to one’s spiritual progress. …

Could it be that one spiritual purpose of this “Spiritual Warrior Event” is to give an opportunity to Mr. Ray to act with the honor of a samurai, taking 100% responsibility for not only the design of the workshop, but even for his evoking of the Warrior?

Samthor, one of the dozen people commenting on that post, writes:

the great spiritual lesson here is “no means NO”.
that you can't just take the most sacred ceremonies from another culture that you do not belong and have not paid any dues too, mix it with whatever you feel like and sell it off as a business venture.
for decades actual native americans have tried to warn the white culture about fraud ripping off and bastardizing their culture and ceremonies. no one listened opting instead for the glittery promises of the new age gurus and plastic shamans.
and as a result people are constantly being ripped off and put in danger.

He also points to a list of people (updated only through June 2008, though) that died in recent years in situations similar to the Sedona tragedy.

Please remember these victims in your prayers and don't let these deaths be forgotten. They were all human beings and none of them deserved to die like this.
For thousands and thousands of years, no one died in a sweat lodge. When people decided to sell them, seven people, that we know of, died in 28 years.

The same blog Don't Pay To Pray, “A blog about all the fakes, frauds and flim flam artists that don't pray, but prey on the gullible and the greedy”, provides a very extensive list of links to useful resources managed and/or related to Native Americans.

In an opinion letter published on The Arizona Republic website, titled “Making money off Indian culture”, Karen Ramirez writes:

I am a Dakota who finds it amusing that so many individuals feel it is necessary to make money off the traditions of my culture.
To James Ray, I suggest you discontinue a practice you have no knowledge of, which is evident by the practice of charging your followers, which is not the Native American way.

After the Sedona tragedy, James Ray posted the following tweets:

Previously, during the same Sedona event, he also posted on Twitter these notes (since then deleted but still available through a simple search):

According to the most recent reports, “local authorities have no record of an application or permit for a temporary structure at the Angel Valley Retreat Center”, while it seems that “resort personnel specifically told Ray it was a bad idea to build the lodge, and that cramming that many people into that small a space wasn't safe.” Appearing on Tuesday at a previously scheduled seminar in California, a tearful James Ray said: “I have no idea what happened. We'll figure it out,” adding that he had hired private investigators.

The police investigation is still underway in an attempt to determine if criminal charges should be filed against James Ray and his staff.

On his blog Stuff white people do, macon d publishes excerpts from the 2006 book Revealing Whiteness: The Unconscious Habits of Racial Privilege by philosophy professor Shannon Sullivan, in order to underline the current justifications in the U.S. toward ownership, not only of formerly indigenous lands, but also of indigenous people themselves.

Native American were and generally still are considered as pieces of property owned by white America to do with what they please, only now this “knowledge” of Native Americans by white people is much more unconscious than conscious. White habits of ownership of Native Americans generally have not been eliminated; they have only changed the form of their expression. Rather than something wild to consciously set out to conquer, Native Americans — especially their religious traditions and rituals — tend to be unconsciously appropriated as exotic objects for Euro-American use, pleasure, and consumption.

Dozens of comments follow, ranging from outrage about “genocide” against Native Americans to “silent racism” by people who do not think of themselves as racist, which according to another book, Silent Racism How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide by sociology professor Barbara Trepagnier, becomes “instrumental in the production of institutional racism” and part of the social process in today's racial reality in the United States.

A commenter to the above mentioned post, Brother of another color writes:

The Native Americans were definitely taken advantage of. They were killed by disease and bullets and much worse. They greeted the settlers in friendship and were ground under by the tide of Europeans that moved in. But you know what? When a race is less advanced than another, they will be defeated, simple as that. Especially back in the days of exploration. I'm not saying the way it was done was right, but at the time they were inferior, and merely in the way of those who wanted to settle here. …
That the people who took their lands were white, has no bearing on what happened. Had the Chinese or some other larger nation with plans to expand gotten here first, the end result would most likely have been the same. Assimilation.

In another comment, Simon L'nu replies:

BTW, being Native, and with less melanin in his skin than some of my cousins, I can see white privilege, internalized colonialism, and all the other BS racist things in action. I get treated different when people realize/find out I'm Indigenous - it doesn't matter whether or not I get treated better or worse, it's being treated differently that's cr*p; I see my friends get treated like crap because of who they are. This is the wrongness. We are all human beings - you treat me with respect, expect the same from me. You treat me wrong, expect a cold shoulder or worse.

And another commenter, Zelkova, adds:

A lot of the arguments on this board seem to have a warped sense of “social evolution” where “inferior” cultures are taken out by more “advanced” ones. This is Social Darwinism and it is racist (on top of being a discounted social theory not considered by most social scientists as valid).

In a similar vein, Kate from the group blog Irene's Daughters, belonging to three women whose aim is to discuss race relations openly, addresses the common practise of schools and sports teams to misappropriate Native Americans names, cultural images and symbols as their mascots. In her post “Racist Mascots”, she explains:

American culture is brimming with mish-mashed, two-dimensional, demeaning, and offensive portrayals of Native Americans, and sports mascots are among the worst… These schools, sports teams, and their fans (not to mention the media and advertisers) are not respecting Indians as living, self-defining, and self-determining persons. Even when they do not employ repulsive epithets like “redskins” they are objectifying and dehumanizing Indians, appropriating and exploiting cultural and often sacred images for their own entertainment, propagating and perpetuating misinformed and humiliating stereotypes that damage both the way other people view Indians and the way Indians see themselves. (Studies have shown that Indian mascots are especially damaging to the self-esteem of Native American children.)

Kate also includes a link to a video aptly titled “I am not a mascot”, where several Native Americans voice their concerns and opposition to the use of Native American imagery in sporting events.

This 3-minute video, released in different formats, is another evidence of the increasing trend within Native American communities to use online citizen media to fight racism and stereotypes, in much the same way that indigenous communities elsewhere have used ICTs to spread indigenous knowledge and educate the world about their traditions and history.

Self-produced videos on racism in America by Native Americans abound on YouTube. The following video, “Racism against Native Americans” produced by Red Road Awareness, provides a concise overview while highlighting the problem of racism on US radio shows, including some disturbing on-air comments by a DJ in Kentucky.

The most viewed of such videos on YouTube, originally created in 1994, is “Racism the way we see it”. It describes how young Native Americans experience racism within their own communities and in their daily involvements with the outside society.

Srdjan Mitrovic wrote:

I am ashamed of this city, these politicians and this country.

Marko Jevtic created a Facebook group - “Stop Violence” - and, on his blog, invited readers to join it. He also wrote:

I am a Partizan fan. I was born and grew up in Belgrade… but I am ashamed.

REST IN PEACE BRIS

Srecko Sekeljic wrote:

Announcements and acts of violence, why the Gay Pride Parade has been forbidden in the capital’s center, why many people have been beaten, why Brice Taton has died tragically, why citizens can’t walk the streets of cities safely - all this shows very clearly the strong need for organizing a wide front against violence. The first step is for the citizens to take over the streets from groups and individuals who are spreading hatred and sowing fear and death. The next step is for the institutions to initiate and successfully bring criminal charges against individuals, groups and organizations that propagate and carry out the violence.

Serbian officials expressed their condolences to Brice’s family and said that Serbia would never forget him. Web site RTV Studio B published this statement by Ivica Dacic, the Interior Minister:

“On behalf of the Serbian Interior Ministry, I express my deepest condolences over the death of your son. Until the last moment we hoped that Brice and his youth would win. The news of his death, that the Serbian citizens received with great sorrow, is all the more tragic.”

According to ”Studio B”, the Human Rights Ministry State Secretary Marko Karadžić called on citizens to gather at Belgrade's central square at 11:30 CET on Wednesday to pay tribute to the victim with flowers and candles. He said:

It is horrible news that a French citizen lost his life this way in Belgrade. I want to call on all people in Belgrade to come to the Trg Republike square as a human gesture, light candles and leave flowers to show that there are many people in Serbia who are against violence and that Serbia will never forget French citizen Brice Taton, nor will it allow a similar thing to happen again.

President Tadic also reacted:

“Serbia will react with the highest level of seriousness, and with very strict principles. […]”

He added that this was a warning “to all groups that have been promoting violence over the last days.”

This re-fuelled the always heated and controversial debate on racism in Brazil (follow this link for a previous Global Voices post on this subject) and inspired many blog posts, most of them repudiating the upper class' thought that racism does not exist in Brazil and that social class issues are the real reasons for cases like Januário's.

On September 11 students and employees of the University of São Paulo, where Januário Alves de Santana works, gathered together to discuss how racism is still present in daily life. The round table “Racism, Violence and Globalization” declared: “Carrefour attacks a Brazilian black man: that's the year of France in Brazil”. The Pão e Rosas blog brings us [pt] photos of the event and comments:

Todas as falas enfatizaram que o caso não é isolado, mas expressa sim como o racismo ainda é uma marca profunda da sociedade em que vivemos. Nós do Pão e Rosas nos colocamos de pé, ao lado de Januário e todos os negros e negras que sofrem com o racismo e a violência policial. Do mesmo modo, nos colocamos ao lado dos moradores das favelas que têm se manifestado contra a repressão da polícia , como em Heliópolis na semana passada. A realidade impõe que nos levantemos!

Alex Castro, from the Liberal, Libertário e Libertino blog [liberal, libertarian and libertine, pt], addresses the racism issue very meticulously and points out an alarming fact of Brazil's racial historicity by saying that the problem is actually that society lacks racial conflict:

No Brasil, nunca houve leis racistas proibindo negros de ingressarem em restaurantes, hotéis, tribunais porque a própria estrutura socioeconômica perversa já era garantia mais do que suficiente de que negros somente entrariam nesses ambientes pra varrer o chão e servir café. O Brasil é tão arraigadamente racista que nunca nem precisou de leis racistas para manter seus negros em posição totalmente inferiorizada.

His blog post was also featured on Rachel Glickhouse's Adventures of a Gringa blog and a few readers responded to his thoughts. For instance, Roger Penguino commented [pt]:

Para aqueles que sempre pensaram que no Brasil não ocorre problemas raciais, aqui encontra-se um ponto de partida para nova reflexão sobre a realidade. Sempre ouvi de amigos Americanos que no Brasil “everyone just gets along” e sempre foi difícil explicar a complexa e sistemática institucionalização do racismo brasileiro. Muitos ao olharam para população brasileira dizem ver uma mistura racial maior que de outros grandes países, mas claro que deixam de perceber os milhares que lutam contra si mesmos porque nesta mistura aprenderam a odiar sua própria condição.

In June this year, Lucrécia Paco, one of the greatest Mozambican actresses who was acting in a play staged in São Paulo, suffered from racism when she accidentally bumped into a white woman in the queue of a money exchange agency in a shopping mall. Leonardo Sakamoto from Blog do Sakamoto [Sakamoto's blog, pt] and the Viomundo blog [pt] republished and commented on the piece of news originally made public by Época Magazine [pt].

On that occasion, the woman pointed Lucrécia out as a potential mugger and screamed out loud asking for the immigration police. Lucrécia reacted shouting back to her that there were many Brazilians going to live in Mozambique, but rather than being mistreated they were being received with open arms. The journalist Eliane Brum, who interviewed Lucrécia Paco, reported:

Lucrécia não consegue esquecer. “Não pude dormir à noite, fiquei muito mal”, diz. “Comecei a ficar paranoica, a ver sinais de discriminação no restaurante, em todo o lugar que ia. E eu não quero isso pra mim.” Em seus 39 anos de vida dura, num país que foi colônia portuguesa até 1975 e, depois, devastado por 20 anos de guerra civil, Lucrécia nunca tinha passado por nada assim. “Eu nunca fui discriminada dessa maneira”, diz. “Dá uma dor na gente. ”

Glória Cabo, a reader from Blog do Sakamoto commented on the interview. She added her own family testimony on why Brazilians cultivate racism:

No Brasil não só é difícil ser negro, como também: nordestino, pobre, tatuado, gay, punk, feio. Nem as loiras escapam… Mas, de onde vem esse preconceito? E como acabar com ele? A origem do problema, no meu ponto de vista está nas nossas próprias origens. Somos descendentes de europeus preconceituosos, retrógrados e antiquados. Eu como filha de europeus, convivi com racismo explicito de meus pais, com comentários absurdos de que meu pai não queria ter um “negrinho” o chamando de avô. Eu mesma, confesso, que já tive pensamentos racistas. Mas, com a maturidade, analisei meus preconceitos e descobri que não eram meus, e sim uma herança pobre e sem sentido herdada de pais preconceituosos. Buscar a origem do racismo, analisar que diferenças são normais e necessárias, isso faria toda a diferença.

Pedro Turambar from the blog O Crepúsculo [pt] cites another case he witnessed while shopping at Carrefour and that he considers racism. The shop assistant of the retail store asked a black woman to confirm she was the holder of the credit card she was using to pay for her shopping. Pedro suggested that the assistant only asked for confirmation because of the amount of goods the woman was buying. The black woman was actually a housekeeper and her employer, an old white lady who was away from the queue at that moment, came towards the assistant shouting “This is prejudice! This is racial discrimination”. He says:

O trabalho dela é perguntar e pedir a identidade. […]. DESDE QUE ELA FAÇA ISSO COM TODO MUNDO. Mas tanto você quanto eu, sabe que isso não acontece e não foi por isso que a moça pediu para a empregada provar que era titular do cartão

And added:

Eu iria pagar a conta com o cartão de crédito do meu irmão e tinha certeza que o caixa não iria me perguntar se eu era o titular do cartão. Dito e feito. Paguei com um cartão de uma conta da qual não sou titular, mas como sou branco, gordinho, fofinho bonitinho, jamais pensariam que eu roubei o cartão para comprar meia dúzia de produtos de limpeza.

O melhor foi o medo que eu coloquei no caixa que me atendeu. Ele ironicamente e sarcasticamente comentava o fato, e quando o cara do casal de trás disse brincando “Eu não to pagando com meu cartão não em! e se você falar que não é meu eu subo aqui em cima e fico louco”, o caixa morreu de rir. Até que eu disse que o cartão que eu acabara de pagar não era meu. Disse isso rindo também, por isso ele achou que era brincadeira, até que eu fechei a cara e repeti “O cartão não é meu. Mesmo. Eu não me chamo Daniel.” Ele olhou para mim e viu que eu falava sério. Engoliu o riso e claramente ficou com medo. Eu apenas disse “A mulher tá certa. Certíssima em dizer que foi preconceito, porque foi.”, me despedi do casal – que olhava para mim com uma cara de júbilo – peguei as compras e fui embora.

Finally, a comment on the Alex Castro blog post is worth noting. The reader Te clearly says:

É mesmo, no Brasil faz falta uma Rosa Parks. […]

The video campaign Where do you keep your racism? features many true testimonials of racism in Brazil. It was produced as a public campaign against racism by Diálogos contra o Racismo (pela igualdade racial) [Dialogues against Racism (for racial equality)], a group of more than 40 civil society organizations dedicated to eradicating poverty and inequality and to stimulating debates in schools, neighborhoods, workplaces, clubs, households about racial relations, and how to change them.