Multi Cultural Festival - Pksbg., WV

[rebeccajo 14]

For thirteen years, we've had this really neat event in our town. It was conceived by a Mr. Donaway, a respected black man, and his goal was to promote diversity and understanding among different cultures and religions. He wanted the event to be free to the public, and it remains that way to this day. The main draw of the festival is all the entertainment which this year included an American Indian performer; an Irish music group; Hellenic dancers; Italian dancers; and a Delta Blues singer just to name a few. There's also lots of food - this year there was awesome Chinese cuisine and as always Wes' favorite, Indian curry.

Since we are such a diverse community, I thought you might enjoy looking at some photos from our local newspaper's website of the event. My son is an intern photographer for the paper this summer and the galleries marked 1st Day and 2nd Day are his photographs.

http://cu.newsandsentinel.com/pages/event_....php?event=1339

I'd like to add that if you see photos in the galleries where peoples heads are cut off, if you click on the photo you will get the full image!

Edited June 22, 2008 by rebeccajo

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

[Mags 112]

Great photos, Becca! It looks like it was a really great event and even better that it still remains free to all.

Edit: And the fact that there was Indian Curry is even better...

Edited June 22, 2008 by Mags

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Great photos and great event! I really think the US would benefit if more communities would celebrate their multi-cultural heritage. Back in Canada I lived in a number of different cities that had a weekend to week long multi-cultural festival where the different ethnic communities opened up their community centers and meeting spaces to the public, set up local displays, had samples of their traditional foods, music and dancing available and generally celebrated their own cultural heritage. People would buy a 'passport' that was stamped at each venue, and for the purchase fee of the passport you could ride the buses between each of the stops for free all week or all weekend long. They were wonderful events and I really miss them here. Thanks for the memories:-).

[LuzyC 0]

Edit: And the fact that there was Indian Curry is even better...

..and Irish b-b-q , YUM!!

We've been in Metamora festival yesterday..it was great!!

Thanks for sharing Becca..great pics!! Zach is a pro in taking pics!! :thumbs:

[Ban Hammer 13,367]

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

becca is gonna kick your butt for that

[Teacher Mark 53]

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

Keep in mind, I've been to the Tri-Cities and Yakima many times. Country and Western appears to be the music of choice there as well. Apparently racism isn't exclusive to WV either:

Burleo

05-05-2004, 01:09 PM

In the past two days I have encountered so much blatant racism...

Last Wednesday at work (I work as a lifeguard) some kids came into the pool during lap swim. Usually we only get adults that swim or do aqua jogging, but the kids (four of them, between the ages of 12 and 15) were behaving and doing laps with their kickboards. There are six lanes, and they were only taking up one for the four of them. This woman comes up to me and says "I want those kids out. I pay a lot of money to be here and I shouldn't have to put up with this. There just isn't enough space for them." Well, there were only two people in each of the other lanes, so I told her that if more people came in and it got to be too much of a problem I'd say something. I asked if they were disturbing her, and she said "no, it's a space issue." The kids saw this woman talking to me and figured I was going to kick them out. I wasn't. It was a hot day, so I just told them to make sure they were serious when they were there. They were very polite and well-behaved; I figured that if they're in the rec. center, then they have just as much a right to be there as she does because they pay too. The woman huffed back to her lane and for the rest of the time she was there gave those kids looks like you wouldn't believe! I got a few too, but not nearly as many. The kids were African American. It was clearly a racism issue.

The next incident? Last Thursday I was in my history class; class hadn't started yet. This girl in the back of the room was talking rather loudly about some guy she dated, and said "yeah, I dated this guy once who had red hair and freckles, but his skin was darker...but his brother (get this) looked more like a person; like an everydya person." Looked more like a person?! What is that? Then, during our break, another girl behind me was talking to her friend. She was talking about where she was from (Tri-cities, WA), and made some comments I couldn't believe. She was talking about people from another one of the tri-cities and said "That city is made up of a bunch of uneducated immigrants from all over with no direction and no goals. The only reason these people are here is because they're cheap labor; they work on the farms...I mean, honestly, that place is a ghetto. We didn't talk to them. I don't associate with people like that." WHOA! Being from a migrant farmworking town myself, I wanted to turn around and say something, but she didn't know I'd been listening, so I didn't say anything. But get this, 20 minutes later we were talking about British colonization in Africa, and she raises her hand and says "I can't believe racism still exists. Superiority is sad." The contradiction there is just...wow. Having the experience of being a minority, perhaps I'm being too harsh by being so aggrevated by this, but the reason we still have racism is because people take an ethnocentric attitude towards others. They establish the barriers, and often don't recognize it in themselves. The hardest thing is that there isn't much that can be done about people's prejudices. They have to bring themselves out of them. It just makes me so mad to see someone judge like that.

On another note, last week I went to an academic salon and there was a person sitting next to me that I was intrigued by. But I didn't say "hi;" probably because I was more worried about where the conversation would go than starting it. Now I'm kicking myself for not speaking up. Another "what if..."

http://forums.#######.com/archive/index.php/t-613.html

Good post Rebecca.

[rebeccajo 14]

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

becca is gonna kick your butt for that

Not worth it, Charles.

It never ceases to amaze me how in a multi-cultural online community like VJ we can have so much bigotry.

And you'd especially think that a man who is half of a racially blended couple would find any kind of profiling distasteful.

But hey - go figure.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

Keep in mind, I've been to the Tri-Cities and Yakima many times. Country and Western appears to be the music of choice there as well. Apparently racism isn't exclusive to WV either:

Burleo

05-05-2004, 01:09 PM

In the past two days I have encountered so much blatant racism...

Last Wednesday at work (I work as a lifeguard) some kids came into the pool during lap swim. Usually we only get adults that swim or do aqua jogging, but the kids (four of them, between the ages of 12 and 15) were behaving and doing laps with their kickboards. There are six lanes, and they were only taking up one for the four of them. This woman comes up to me and says "I want those kids out. I pay a lot of money to be here and I shouldn't have to put up with this. There just isn't enough space for them." Well, there were only two people in each of the other lanes, so I told her that if more people came in and it got to be too much of a problem I'd say something. I asked if they were disturbing her, and she said "no, it's a space issue." The kids saw this woman talking to me and figured I was going to kick them out. I wasn't. It was a hot day, so I just told them to make sure they were serious when they were there. They were very polite and well-behaved; I figured that if they're in the rec. center, then they have just as much a right to be there as she does because they pay too. The woman huffed back to her lane and for the rest of the time she was there gave those kids looks like you wouldn't believe! I got a few too, but not nearly as many. The kids were African American. It was clearly a racism issue.

The next incident? Last Thursday I was in my history class; class hadn't started yet. This girl in the back of the room was talking rather loudly about some guy she dated, and said "yeah, I dated this guy once who had red hair and freckles, but his skin was darker...but his brother (get this) looked more like a person; like an everydya person." Looked more like a person?! What is that? Then, during our break, another girl behind me was talking to her friend. She was talking about where she was from (Tri-cities, WA), and made some comments I couldn't believe. She was talking about people from another one of the tri-cities and said "That city is made up of a bunch of uneducated immigrants from all over with no direction and no goals. The only reason these people are here is because they're cheap labor; they work on the farms...I mean, honestly, that place is a ghetto. We didn't talk to them. I don't associate with people like that." WHOA! Being from a migrant farmworking town myself, I wanted to turn around and say something, but she didn't know I'd been listening, so I didn't say anything. But get this, 20 minutes later we were talking about British colonization in Africa, and she raises her hand and says "I can't believe racism still exists. Superiority is sad." The contradiction there is just...wow. Having the experience of being a minority, perhaps I'm being too harsh by being so aggrevated by this, but the reason we still have racism is because people take an ethnocentric attitude towards others. They establish the barriers, and often don't recognize it in themselves. The hardest thing is that there isn't much that can be done about people's prejudices. They have to bring themselves out of them. It just makes me so mad to see someone judge like that.

On another note, last week I went to an academic salon and there was a person sitting next to me that I was intrigued by. But I didn't say "hi;" probably because I was more worried about where the conversation would go than starting it. Now I'm kicking myself for not speaking up. Another "what if..."

http://forums.#######.com/archive/index.php/t-613.html

Good post Rebecca.

I've also lived in:

Massachusetts

Florida

Illinois

Pennsylvania

North Carolina

California

Vermont

Colorado

New York

What kind of dirt ya got on those?

FWIW my favorite style of music is House and Drum-n-bass. Hey, at least I'm not stuck in the warped past.

Learn to lighten up bro.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

What about guns and bibles?

[rebeccajo 14]

Lucky Strike,

I think this was probably the point of the article that WideAwake was getting at:

".................but the reason we still have racism is because people take an ethnocentric attitude towards others. They establish the barriers, and often don't recognize it in themselves..............."

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

What about guns and bibles?

Oh, we have those also.

And Harleys too.

Edited June 23, 2008 by rebeccajo

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

becca is gonna kick your butt for that

Not worth it, Charles.

It never ceases to amaze me how in a multi-cultural online community like VJ we can have so much bigotry.

And you'd especially think that a man who is half of a racially blended couple would find any kind of profiling distasteful.

But hey - go figure.

The last time I checked WV had a sense of humor (I had friends from there). Do you read the paper with your spouse just to get outraged? If that's the case I can recommend a major religion that loves to get outraged

My wife and I laugh all the time at; ourselves, Thailand, the USA, where we live and where we have lived. I mean we really belly laugh. You should try it.

[rebeccajo 14]

Multi-culturalism in WV means they have Country and Western music.

becca is gonna kick your butt for that

Not worth it, Charles.

It never ceases to amaze me how in a multi-cultural online community like VJ we can have so much bigotry.

And you'd especially think that a man who is half of a racially blended couple would find any kind of profiling distasteful.

But hey - go figure.

The last time I checked WV had a sense of humor (I had friends from there). Do you read the paper with your spouse just to get outraged? If that's the case I can recommend a major religion that loves to get outraged

My wife and I laugh all the time at; ourselves, Thailand, the USA, where we live and where we have lived. I mean we really belly laugh. You should try it.

Oh, I'm not outraged. And I laugh at myself daily.

But I also don't make it a habit to start derogatory commentary about folks based on where they are from or what color they are without getting a signal from them first, ya know?

Kinda like that stuff from those Jackie Chan movies..........

[pedroh 21]

multiculturalism roxxorz ur boxxorz