Category Archives: ~ Culture & History

The petition below is from 2011 ..much has happen before it and since … as an article states in 9/2012 she had commercials … scene: The young woman then waltzes off in a tiny pair of white shorts as a voice-over states that the product can help skin become “bright and translucent”.

Tell Elle to ends its practice of racist skin-whitening and apologize

Indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan appears on the January cover of Elle magazine, but she’s outraged by the image. Her skin appears far more pale than it is in real life. Her dark brown hair is shown to be practically red.

Elle claims to celebrate women of color by featuring them on magazine covers, but this is the second time in just six months that Elle has blatantly made women of color more white. (The last controversy surrounded Precious actress Gabourey Sidibe.)

For better or worse, publications like Elle play a huge role in determining global standards of beauty — especially for young girls and teenagers who read it. It sends a cruel and dangerous message to women of color everywhere when Elle manipulates the skin color of one of India’s most famous actresses just so she can appear on a magazine cover.

Here’s our opportunity: Elle is a business that cares more about its bottom line and public image than anything else. To change their behavior — and send a message that reverberates through the whole fashion industry — we need a public outcry.

Join Change.org members in telling Elle Magazine to ends its practice of racist skin-whitening.

India already has a billion-dollar skin-whitening industry. Many women burn their skin through the use of unsafe whitening products. And there’s a pervasive prejudice against girls who are “too dark” and therefore can’t get hired or married.

A global publication like Elle has no business reinforcing that racist and damaging stereotype. Elle suffered from some bad press when the magazine cover came out, but there still needs to be a massive public campaign to force them to take real action. This is that campaign.

Tell Elle that women don’t have to be white to be beautiful – and to apologize for its offensive doctoring of its cover models:

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/tell_elle_magazine_to_apologize_for_skin-bleaching_aishwarya_rai_bachchan?alert_id=SPPuQeEVud_RyCWzJiVMg&me=aa

Thanks for taking action,

– Judith and the Change.org team

~ Culture & History, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture, ~ pop culture

Smells Like Death and Bad Decisions …repost

05/03/2016 Nativegrl77

RioCover by Emerald Horizon
Bring up Rio de Janeiro and you’ll conjure delectable images in my mind. Images like … Beaches. Mouthfuls of picanha bursting with juicy flavor. Grown and sexy natives are pressing their bodies against each other to samba music in dusky bars. Brazilian women flaunting their beautiful Brazilian bundas in skin-baring bikinis as they walk along the beach, hips swaying in the sunlight – not to mention their bronze skin and sun-kissed waist-length tresses. (Excuse me while I whip out my credit card to order 22 inches of Brazilian Remy hair. Now I want to look Brazilian for a few weeks.)

These appetizing images aren’t all that come to mind. I haven’t forgotten about soccer. Brazil and soccer are synonymous with one another and Brazil is hosting its first World Cup in 64 years.

Rio is also home to the 2016 Olympic Games – the first country in South America to claim the privilege. But these facts are troubling, particularly because despite these honors, Rio is socially, environmentally and financially stewing in a sewage and pollution crisis that’s as disgusting as it is disturbing. This is affecting peoples’ lives and threatening the country’s tourism industry. If these issues aren’t checked by August 5, 2016, then the 2016 Olympics are in jeopardy.

Rio’s Crappy Situation

“When Brazil was selected as the host of the World Cup five years ago, we celebrated. We celebrated because we didn’t know that it was going to cost so much,” said Mateos da Costa, a 53-year-old taxi driver told CNN. “Our leaders should have known that Brazil was not in a condition to organize the event.”

To say Brazil was not in a condition is an understatement. Brazil’s competence for hosting global events has been under scrutiny several times, but after beating out Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago to host the games, the country promised to get their act together and clean up their public sewage issues in time for the games. Now, these same unsavory sewage conditions are the reason Brazil will not make good on its commitment to clean up in time for neither the World Cup nor the 2016 Olympic Games.

UNFULFILLED PROMISES

Rio residents, or Cariocas, are frustrated with Rio’s behavior. Initially, the World Cup and the Olympics came attached to promises of economic prosperity for not only the government but also the people. Taxpayers have paid over $3.6 billion to develop stadiums across Brazil – and that amount is just a portion of the World Cup’s $11.5 billion price tag.

Despite all the money poured into these sports initiatives, Brazil’s has a laundry list of mostly built stadiums that aren’t ready for World Cup use. And according to discussions, there are so many factors to blame, including corruption, shortsighted planning and “overwhelming bureaucracy,” says to Wall Street Journal writers John Lyons and Loretta Chao. They insist there’s widespread belief prioritization of tourism and entertainment over education and health care keep the country poor.

“It’s an affront, in a country with so many deficiencies in basic needs, to organize a Cup in this way,” Alcyr Leme told the Wall Street Journal. Although Leme has “fond memories of going to see Brazilian legend Pelé play in the 1960s,” he plans to watch this Cup from home. “Buying game tickets would only condone the waste,” he said.

Continued…

~ Culture & History

Tell the USDA to ban all sales of Lion Meat … Cheryl Semcer

10/01/2015 Nativegrl77

I started a petition this summer asking a restaurant to stop serving lion meat, and won. Now I’m calling on the USDA to ban all sales of lion meat.

Sign My Petition

I never imagined the impact I would have when I started my first petition on Change.org asking a restaurant in Kansas to stop serving lion meat. But I won with the help of other Change.org users!

I still wondered if the sale of lion meat was happening in other places, and who was letting this happen.

It turns out there are a lot of problems with lion meat: it’s not only bad for lions, but also humans. The origins of lion meat are nearly untraceable, with some of it coming from farms where they’re raised for circus entertainment, their hides, and slaughter. Killing lions for human consumption also falls between the cracks of federal agency responsibility, and therefore the meat is rarely inspected. Since the processing goes unregulated, lions aren’t even protected by humane slaughter laws.

It’s unbelievable to me that any restaurant would be allowed to sell lion meat — especially when the meat is potentially unsafe. Thats why I started a new petition on Change.org, this time calling on the United States Department of Agriculture to ban the sale of all lion meat. Click here to sign!

Lion meat isn’t regulated by the USDA or the Food and Drug Administration — even though it’s often deceitfully marketed this way. This lack of clear oversight makes it nearly impossible to trace the origin of lion meat and how it’s processed.

And to make matters worse, experts say that serving lion meat at restaurants in the U.S. could further drive the dwindling wild population into extinction.

Restaurants market lion meat because it’s shocking — but the government shouldn’t be allowing a gimmick like this that could decimate the lion population and make people sick. My petition asking a local restaurant to stop serving lion meat won — and was widely covered in the media. By showing popular support for a ban on all lion meat, I believe the USDA will be forced to listen.

Sign my petition now asking the United States Department of Agriculture to ban the sale of lion meat.

Thank you for your support.

Cheryl Semcer

Hoboken, New Jersey

~ Culture & History, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Apache betrayed

09/22/2015 Nativegrl77

The US government is about to handover a beautiful stretch of national forest held sacred by the local Apache tribe — to a giant foreign mining company. Tribal leaders are doing all they can to stop this terrible mining project and if we join their call now we can help save this sacred land. Sign and spread the word:

SIGN NOW