Saturday, April 30, 2005

Also, read this infomative story about business in africa. Here are some exporters from Ghana, if it helps.
I found an ebook on Japanese fashion on fuckedgaijin.com. I think the appeal of Japanese fashion is that it's a frivolous subject, and I'd love to have a more frivolous life. Also, as for why not American-I still have a bad taste in my mouth from teen and woman's magazines. You know- look like this...or else! Like today I went to a gothic lolita meetup, and it was cool, because it wasn't- wear a fluffy skirt or else. No one is going to call you names because you didn't wear a fluffy skirt, you know?
Bitch PhD is seeming a bit white western feminist here. In the United States, a white woman can freely play with beauty norms,etc,etc. However, she is not one of the 70 percent of black women putting caustic chemicals on their scalps in pursuit of beauty. Around the world, the pursuit of beauty is quite dangerous. I am on a research project about skin bleaching in Africa, and the health effects can be devastating. The practice also has popularity in Asia. If you are told you can never be beautiful or socially acceptable unless you have light skin or straight hair, what do you think that does to your self esteem?

It's like how corsets are today, versus how they used to be. It used to be that many women were encased in corsets, some so tight that they could hardly breathe, and some even fainted! However, today it is merely a fetish item. I think the oppressiveness in beauty standards is not so much in the standards but how they are enforced. Is it seen as oh, it's a nice addition or is it seen as OMG, YOU UGLY SMELLY CUNT,etc,etc? And for too many beauty standards- it is the latter.
I like how this 'milk matters' campaign has no mention of lactose intolerence. Assuming everyone can digest milk right,what? This page notes that about 75% of blacks and almost 90% of asians have problems digesting milk. Norming things on white folk, what?

Friday, April 29, 2005

And while I was reading my comments, I saw another blog, and read it, just because I hate doing work so bad. So I'll reply to the first two posts in this section. The one about the vast white wing conspiracy really caught my eye because it reminded me of the time that I pointed a blind guy down the hallway just because I had assumed he was seeing. Also, of discussions of colorism in Africa class(on Thurs, we got ethiopian food! It was awesome) I always felt like what do I know? I'm light skinned. Like we all have big blind spots, and you have to sort of look in your side mirror instead of pretending that side mirrors don't exist and your vision is just fine

The post she refers to in her post about whites manufacturing idenity reminded me of when I went to Milwaukee and Chicago I joked about all the multiculturalism, you know, Irish stuff,polish stuff,etc. This guy who was heritiged polish and Norwegian, but I always just am like white person due to southerness talked about how certain ethnic groups might have grouped together a little bit. Like one part may have been historically where the polish people lived. I thought hmmm. Interesting.

I don't really mind white ethnic identities because being Polish is about a lot more than oppressing some black dude, but whiteness? it seems to have a blank quality to it.
Here's a black history livejournal community. Jump in!

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Here's a fun blog about stopping the exotification of asians by 'protesting' Gwen Stefani's 'harujuku girls'. I like Gwen and all, but come on lady- the four girls following you around is a bit over the top.

Also, I was thinking about white privilege because this guy who sometimes whines about being a poor poor white male was talking about how his uncle like owns a coal mine. Like what the fuck? A coal mine? Also, my friend's room mate who was laid off was able to get more work in his father's metal working thingie. So like the thing is that if some people were able to hog all the resources they can give them to other people like their family, which tends to keep resources in the same race,right? I don't know what I mean, but that struck me.
Shame on it all.
Here's some important infomation about so called partial birth abortion. Also some ancedotes about women who have had partial birth abortions and more from real women who have had abortions. Pass these links on, tell all your friends.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

This poster tries to give a clue to those whining about reverse racism. Uusually when I hear people whine about it, it's backed up with nothing but just whining. Adding on, whites still have the majority of the top jobs in the fortune 2000, with white males having about 95% of senior management jobs. If whites have all the jobs, how are they opppressed?

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Every Friday, this blog tries to help sibling groups get adopted. There are some many kids in the United States that need homes and love. A domestic adoption of older childern can help keep many kids out of the system. You don't have to go to China, or be on the waiting list for ten years- the kids are out there right here, right now.

Monday, April 25, 2005

To an outsider like me, whiteness seems like a tragedy. It just seems like people give up a lot of things for it. Some give up their culture, some give up their desire to learn about the world and other people, some give up the ability to have schools funded because they are too busy locking up the dreaded Other, others give up the ability to have compassion. It seems sad to me, because is it worth it? Or is it a waste of resources that could have been better invested?

It seems sad to see how others have been failed and are failing themselves. At least with black people, there's a desire there over a large portion of the community, to improve their situation. Some may show this desire in blasting other blacks, some may show this desire by doing criminal actions to get money, but there is at least a desire, and desire can be worked with, and shaped.

But what can you do with a lack of desire? With a closing of possibilities? Yes, there are many stalwart whites working hard, but is that the majority? Where are they when a black progressive gives a speech? Where are they when it is time to read a book about black people? Where are they when it is time to support health care, to support public education, to support freeing prisoners? I'm just an outsider, but from here, the picture looks pretty sad.

Why am I so interested in whites? It's like I was reared from a child with them, so seeing friends grow up and espouse terrible attitudes seems like a personal betrayal to me, and seems especially tragic as I lived in the same area, yet was able to access books. I also had ways of learning they didn't have. My mother would always show me the different sorts of houses that blacks lived in, and what old companies there were owned by blacks. My church had a black history tour of Memphis. But the thing is that there is no bar on the door of the civil rights museum. Whites can also visit WC Handy's house. They can eat at the restaurant where Ida B Wells had her newspaper. There is no barrier to learning but themselves.

Of course, I am more critical because I mostly know rich whites. I think I'd feel better if they all had like three jobs and two kids, because at least they wouldn't have that much time, but I mean, a few minutes out of the time you spend griping on your lj about stupid shit, and you can learn a lot.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

I'm going to talk about my own personal experience, but before I do, I'd like to explain that this story is not told in a for white people's benefit sort of way. Like the thing is from my rendering, you wouldn't be able to be objective anyway. So the idea that you need to get the blow by blow to invalidate my experiences is dumb anyway. I never got why anyone would need to do that, I mean, if I have objective evidence that you are wrong, I'll offer it, or a strong argument, but just acting like you got to interrogate someone over an experiences in which you were not there is crazy. I could see if I was swearing out a judgment in criminal court or something, although that's probably why a lot of rapes don't get reported. If you can't remember parts of an experience, of course you're a big fat liar. I wasn't drugged, just tired, in pain and shaking with anger, but you know, because of that it is ok to complain about reverse racism with a black person at the table, continue talking about that when you note that you know, you're about to insult my whole family, I really don't need t hear that, it's ok to pull out old racist shit about how whites are becoming a minority (if they treated minorities decently they wouldn't be worried about that would they?) and how if we don't totally ignore racism, it won't go away.

Of course, some other white people tried to defuse the situation, and I tried to argue logically, noting that all people deserve rights and intelligence varies in every population.(they tried to defuse it by noting that racism goes on, and also by trying to change the subject.) I think I actually did really well considering I am often too shy to stand up for myself and was in massive amounts of pain without any painkillers. But I was upset for days, and am still upset. I think it's not just what the person says it's how they say it that causes emotional reactions too.

Like if they hadn't had a discussion about the civil war before(hearing about the civil war in the sort of whiny war of northern aggression way makes me uncomfortable, but I didn't say anything, figuring that they'd get over that boring train of conversation in a few minutes.) I wouldn't have been as mad about that last comment. And the fact that the guy decided to bust out with that when he knows that I was there, was much more offensive than say hearing about it in the newspaper or something. While in some ways this guy was being a jerk before(don't throw a pen at people, even if you're joking) I'm just really sensitive about this, and like I don't see why white people even have to show they are stupid anyway. Can't they just pretend to be smart?

Saturday, April 23, 2005

This post was so insightful, I just had to link to it. This man has insights on Andrea Dworkin because he was able to go beyond saying "she is challenging MY place in society" to actual engaging with her ideas.

Friday, April 22, 2005

John Kerry makes a short speech about moral values.
A bunch of dumb ass whiny whites are made fun of at feministe. This reminds me of my mom's theory that white people are secretly scared that we'll do to them what they do/did to us. I think we are rather too kind to do that, as they'd all be dead if we did half of that. I'm sorry, but if you think not having all the spots reserved for you is discrimination, you're a giant fucking pussy. I think it pisses me off because I just feel like some folks just need to get over themselves.

With all the progress they cite when making excuses not to do anything, maybe they should get used to this idea- they aren't better or more important than anyone else. Yea, you got pale skin, and you're probably descended from people who murdered and stole to get nearly all of the resources in this country and hand them down in perpetuity. But when a great wrong is committed, it doesn't disappear. You can't just say "a great wrong was committed, let's forget that it ever happened". No, you have to make it right.

You must value all children, all women, all men. You can't afford to throw away anyone to rot, because that rot will smell up the entire society. You must find out the ways that our nation was damaged and put it back together again. You may even pioneer new ideas to fix the great rifts we have in our society. And you certainly can't do it by running around in hysterics about white baybees or whatever the fuck.

Another note, slightly unrelated, I hate it when whites whine about self segregation on campus. Have they tried to join a non white group? I mean, there are many activities they put out that you can join in, even if you're not a member. I mean, our Filipino organization was advertising dropping in and eating delicious desserts, for heaven's sake. It wouldn't even hurt their fee fees. They could talk more to their non white classmates, they could join or create clubs to promote cross racial unity. I may talk to many races of people on campus, but minorities tend to be minorities on campus, and so us talking to many different races of people may not serve to integrate the school as much.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

These skirts are so lovely, I say as I go into my third day of being unable to do my schoolwork.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

oooh oohhh...can we also put a moratorium on "omg i grew up in the suburbs and people say i talk white and i only have white friends and i don't feel comfortable around most black people and why don't i fit in anywhere" posts?

we get it. you're so different from the rest of us. you secretly enjoy being the token. you're not the "average" black person. you don't like bet or hip-hop and you don't split your infinitives. congratulations. now please don't post about it here every again


Yea, that's my pet peeve. Yea, I talk white and am from the suburbs. But I don't think this makes me a special black person. I'd rather be able to talk dialect and standard, and I'd also like to speak spanish. Being able to only speak one way is sort of uncomfortable- you don't have as many tools in your toolbox. I don't think I am different from other black people, because I don't buy into what the media says a black person is.

I basically tend to gravitate to black writing, because I like to write and I like to read about black people. So I see many different lives and types of black folks portrayed. Also, when I came to college, I have been able to meet many different types of black people, so I don't see it as one group of people who are all the same. We're one group that's all different. We're like America. America's got Asians, it's got whites, it's got Hispanics, Arabs, native Americans, black people and anyone I forgot, but it's all one country.
This post shows a great deal of having a clue, although one commenter is a bit clueless in that he's trying to act like all whites ain't racist. Come on, dude. Only the ones who are actually making an effort not to be racist aren't racist. The rest of you don't get a free pass. I mean, just by living, you're going to be exposed to something racist, and when you don't examine that, you tend to end up being racist.

Open source programmers, start your programming. I think the idea of internet TV is promising, maybe a few of us can fight the hegemony of white partiarchical structures, you know? Or the less serious among us can make comedy shows about penguins.
But if "All in My Head" isn't the classic American narrative of How I Utterly Demolished All Obstacles in My Way, it might be something far more valuable. It's the story of learning to live now, with limitations and ambiguity and, yes, pain -- and not waiting until some future date when those things will be vanquished.

That's also a valuable thing for me to read today.
Kick ass asian poetry makes me feel a lot better. I am upset so am missing class. Remember to give those girls some love. Also, on my other blog, I thought my post was awesome, so I am linking to it.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

I think not taking things seriously is a big fat luxury. It's like the old quote that it's tragedy if you get a hangnail, and comedy if someone else falls into a hole and dies. It can be easy for me to say that people should 'lighten up' about being referred to as third worlders, because hey, it's not my country being denigrated. It's a luxury to think humans can do nothing. That's why the people you see saying that humans can do nothing, it's all technological change that changes society are white men. It's easy to say that when you avoid responsibility and possibly a change in your position. The thing is that nothing gets done without work, without 'taking things too seriously', the idea that things can change without people doing anything, that magic fairies will just do the work is probably because we ignore the people who have been working and slaving for us to be free.

I'm too scared to do a lot of things, and too lazy to do a whole lot of other things. But the thing is that lying about it doesn't make it OK. I really hate it when people are just plain selfish and lazy and try to dress it up in pretty words as if that somehow makes everything ok. You know, often people say they don't do a hierachy of oppressions, but I tend to do. Otherwise people would spend all their time on white people's bruised self esteem, and say to the global south "hey, we're using Linux over here to help you". A hierarchy here is important- otherwise non oppressed people take all the resources that could be used to help oppressed people.
THANK YOU. One of the reasons I never want a room mate ever again was that I was bitched out at for not smiling by my last one. In my own space, I want room not to smile! I often think my personality would be better received if I were a guy. We can all imagine angry cynical passionate guys that we love. But women are always being told to lighten up or not make a big deal out of things that might kill us. "Oh, being forced to have a baby you don't want just because it might kill you isn't so bad, look on the bright side, there are women aborting in China" and that's ridiculous. I have been told I am crazy because I get angry when people in effect insult me and my entire family, and try to fuck them over. I can't be cool or happy or whatever when someone does something so unjust and so terrible. I think it's a luxury to be able to think you're above it all, and can't get hurt. Because in the real world, some of us know the reality- that we can, and will get hurt.
I think feminism is a lot like the end of Utena. After this sentence, there will be a lot of spoilers as I explain the plot so everyone can understand what I am getting at. In Utena, a group of students at a high school are told that if they win a dueling game, they will win the rose bride(usually standing in as a student- Anthy) and power to do anything they want, even bring revolution to the world. A girl Utena starts dueling because she thinks it is wrong to duel to win a woman, and wins the bride, even though she's opposed to the idea of winning a bride. And so a lot of stuff happens, and Utena finds out that Anthy's brother(Akio, which means morning star, i.e. Lucifer) is controlling the game. So, with her goal to free the bride, she fights him, and ends up falling off the platform. Afterwards, Akio is gloating about how Utena failed to revolutionize the world, and planning for another cycle of this game, which appears to have been going on for thousands of years. People at the school are beginning to forget that Utena ever existed. However, Anthy ,inspired by Utena's sacrifice , puts her glasses down, and walks out to find Utena. Therefore Akio is screwed- without the rose bride, he can't do the game anymore, and the goal of the game for him is to regain his lost innocence and power- i.e. he's really fucked.

So what does that have to do with feminism? Well, many people act like there hasn't been a revolution or that if there has, well, we should get back to the way it was before. Like Andrea Dworkin . I always wonder why everyone is like Dworkin hates men so much, what with her having a male partner for years. I mean, yea, you can critique power relations without hating men. But people act like her work hasn't made an impact, but that's not true. The reason that we can go and make more empowering porn, or become empowered strippers or whatever, is that someone pointed out that the old way wasn't good, and that it needed to be changed. Even if people don't remember who articulated the critique, the critique still remains.

When I was reading her book Heartbreak, I realized that she actually hated real porn, and real prostitution(if you read the article linked, you'll see that she was a prostitute), and I agree. Yea, I like the platonic ideal of porn that is sexy and woman loving, and yea, I like works that reflect that ideal. I like the theory that prostitution can be a good thing, but you know, with all that sex trafficking, rape of prostitutes, and child prostitution in the world, I can't just blithely sit back and say all sex work is good, just because I imagine it might be good in some other world. But others may not take that hazy, lazy stance about it, especially when confronted in their faces with the reality of what is going on.

Another thing is that women help perpetuate the sexist system, not like on purpose like most of the men don't do it on purpose, but it's just like it's so ingrained, you start spouting that shit even if you think you are awesome. It sounds easy to just walk away like Anthy, but a lot of things bound her to her fate- mostly guilt and the like. Likewise, we are bound by things like the desire for approval, the few little biscuits thrown to the woman who can be the best second class citizen, and a desire not to change. The analogy breaks down here, because it's an open question whether men could keep sexism up by themselves. On the one hand, they do have more social power than women, on the other hand, who would be the police for that, and put a pleasant face on sexist lies?

Monday, April 18, 2005

The Christian Science Monitor provides a light review of a book that should be on my reading list. Basically, it seems that wasting raw talent to favor people like atheletes and legacy students might hurt universities. Seriously, who'd you rather you see in college, a hard working black person who rose to the top of the class, or some trust fund baby who was tutored and babied all his life? Who do you think would have the greater amount of leadership on campus?
warning: possible kare kano spoilers. I really think the first half of episode 24 is the real end of Kare Kano. It really shows the end of a continuing arc of development. There's a realization that this relationship isn't the be all end all of everything, and continued growth is necessary.
I don't get why they have to replay so much though. It's pretty easy to remember what happens..

Sunday, April 17, 2005

This post should be a warning to everyone. I often notice people saying the same lies over and over. Now that I'm mostly out of the anger stage(although still in it if you cross me) I'm starting to wonder where the lies come from. I mean, people differ too much for everyone to come up with the same concept in the same way, even sometimes the same words, so there must be something going on. (example: my mother was prolife. which is stupid- mine's prochoice. she just choose to have kids)

Friday, April 15, 2005

I have something to say. A woman in blackfolks want to set up a sexy classy alt porn site for people of color. In her post, she's got her contact info so you can help out. I think it is important to put out more classy sexual images of black women. Break the stereotypes!
I'm so frustrated and angry I could just burst. Now, I could see if they said we weren't allowed to pee, but roughly shoving people aside because they went out of a venue to pee, and needed to get the book they had used to save their seat isn't ok at all. So I have lost a $16 book, and my favorite bookmark, as well as a free concert by the Fiery Furnances(sp?), because of incompetent bitches. Why don't I blame this on myself? Well, there was nothing that said that you were not allowed to go out to pee. No one said "no reentry" in the 45 minutes I had sat there. So fuck you WMRE bitches, I hope you get very painful STDs. This is one of the reasons I hate the stupid petty incompetent people that gatekeep things. I hope they all get their due.


While this problem is very minor compared to infertility, I'd like to take a page out of infertile blogs and say, I only want supportative comments. Why do I say that? Because on even sensitive issues like racism, you can have a debate, you can see different sides, even if your side is wrong. But on this one, I was there, and you weren't. So STFU.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Hehehe, this game is cute. Go to help to see what buttons to push,etc.
This blog is really good. I found an amazing post on the tracking system. When I was a child, you were not tracked until sixth grade, except for resource(the special ed). My parents were able due to their class to be a strong advocate for me. (Once I was filling out a survey about stuff like whether you think your race or class helped or hindered you in school, and I thought my class helped me out a lot). Like poorer parents usually don't have the time to chase down school people, or may feel like they know what is best for their child. My mother was able to get a flexible job(and only ONE flexible job) and teach me to read early, which really helped me look good in the eyes of my teachers.

So by the time, sixth grade rolled around, I was tracked to higher classes for everything but math. (when I was in school, no one much cared if I was only able to do math to an average level. Although now I am 'stupid' because I could only do basic calculus) When I was a kid, I was unable to understand why my classes were now segregated. But now I think that this is unfair. I was able to get into AP classes, when my cousin's mostly black school wasn't able to have any. In normal English in my school, you were lucky if you were reading Harry Potter and doing worksheets. I'm not saying AP is a guarantee- AP English wasn't rigorous enough, but at least we read literature like Ellison's Invisible Man. So if people are stuck at levels where the work is boring, and mostly busywork, why are we wondering why people are being turned off of school?

The normal classes I went to were dull as paste. You mostly wrote notes, which wasn't geared to most people's learning styles, and they were taught by unqualified coaches. Many people couldn't get through algebra 2(due to my parent's strong advocating, I was skipped from pre algebra to algebra, so took an extra math class). There are so many other factors besides whether the students themselves are 'good' or 'smart' that anyone who tries to boil our school problems down to them or teacher's unions or whatever, is a bit naive.
Here' s an insightful essay on hip hop and appropiation. If 80% of the customers of hip hop aren't black, and 96% of the people in control of the production aren't black, why are we said to be a certain way because some dumbass white guy saw some dumb rap video? Well, I got the collection of Flannery O'Connor short stories that I wanted, and this sums it up:

"That was the problem with people these days. They didn't think. They didn't use their horse sense" (The Barber)

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

You know, I was thinking about the AA question again. And you know, I always thought the whining was to bar blacks from jobs. This viewpoint probably came about since I have been around whites since childhood. You see, just in a population, some people are going to be smart, and others are going to be stupid. So I was able to see that white people vary in smartness and stupidity. When I was a child, I was always one of the smart people in the class- i.e. I'd be smarter than a great majority of the white kids. This is why you don't see me say "maybe white people are just better" because they always seemed like the regular type of people to me, with different ranges of ability.

So the basic premise of much of the AA whining, that whites are automatically better at jobs makes no sense to me. Why do I say that is the premise? Because they always jump in with "unqualified", meaning either all blacks are somehow unqualified or whites are all better or there's a different yard stick for whites and blacks. Because seriously, some whites just aren't qualified. They are lazy, and bad at their jobs. Even if you thought all blacks were like that(untrue), what would be the difference if you stuck a white person that was bad at their job or a black person who was bad at their job? Or do they somehow think that being white makes you good at your job?

Didn't they hear about Worldcom and how the CEO was all like fraud? what fraud? I know nothing about how to do my job! And this guy was at the top- imagine what it's like at the bottom. Also, how could all blacks be unqualified? I guess because I'm not racist, I can't see the substrate for saying that all blacks are unqualified except for a few tokens. It's really hard to penetrate other people's worldviews, but there have been changes in black achievement over the years, with a boom in college attendance and graduation rates. Did we all suddenly get smarter?

Of course, the problem of expecting all blacks to be better than all whites just to get in is why I think that the whole whining thing is just because they don't want us in schools or jobs, but want to scream at us if we aren't. I don't see why skin color should make you have to be better to get the same job. If you have dark skin, all the sudden you have to be some big hero? Someone said that equality will have come when mediocre blacks were at the top in the same proportion as mediocre whites. If you believe in equality, then you shouldn't make a big deal about qualifications when a black person comes in, and then say well you look trainable when a white person comes in.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Get the book Salaula by Karen Transbreg Hansen for a fascinating study of where the clothes you give to charity go. I'll link that up later.
Students, try to see if your school has a Factiva subscription. With Factiva, you can search archives and get many international newspapers in full text. Don't depend on others to teach you everything, but use the resources you have been given as a college student. So many students waste the resources we have- libraries full of books, subscriptions to many databases- which many people would love to have. If you're just in college to booze it up and party, well, that's a failure of our system to let people in who have no interest in doing anything. I'm not saying that students should never drink, or never party, but they should try to actually learn something too. One can read an article on something Thursday night and go out on Friday night, that's all I'm saying.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Why Black Republicans Suck. Reminder: don't sell your own self into slavery.
Here's a post with examples of African writing systems. I have a 15 page paper on used clothing in Africa due on Tuesday, so I'm screwed. But this post is a beautiful example of what people can learn if they actually try to learn things. Why do I keep pushing this message? Because you can only be taught so much if you go by what is pushed on you to learn, but if you try to learn things for yourself, seek out sources, try to find knowledge- what you can find out can be infinite.

I think if you learn the truth about things, you can be free. Ignorance- I feel that it's a prison- causing you to denigrate things you know nothing about. Of course, I have different motives- since I'm still 'becoming' black, I am differentiating myself from whites, and one big thing I have noticed is the fact that they are unrestrained in talking about things they know nothing about. Like they insist the confederate flag was for heritage not hate, even though it was flown above capitals to show their resistance to integration in living memory, and even farther back, they could have noticed that the battle flag was used by the KKK while they were being violent assholes.

A little bit of research before automatically thinking that blacks are wrong or overreacting would stead them well. I say white people, I mean it- I ain't your mammy. You can't deal? Grow up, read a book.
Here's a post with examples of African writing systems. I have a 15 page paper on used clothing in Africa due on Tuesday, so I'm screwed. But this post is a beautiful example of what people can learn if they actually try to learn things. Why do I keep pushing this message? Because you can only be taught so much if you go by what is pushed on you to learn, but if you try to learn things for yourself, seek out sources, try to find knowledge- what you can find out can be infinite.

I think if you learn the truth about things, you can be free. Ignorance- I feel that it's a prison- causing you to denigrate things you know nothing about. Of course, I have different motives- since I'm still 'becoming' black, I am differentiating myself from whites, and one big thing I have noticed is the fact that they are unrestrained in talking about things they know nothing about. Like they insist the confederate flag was for heritage not hate, even though it was flown above capitals to show their resistance to integration in living memory, and even farther back, they could have noticed that the battle flag was used by the KKK while they were being violent assholes.

A little bit of research before automatically thinking that blacks are wrong or overreacting would stead them well. I say white people, I mean it- I ain't your mammy. You can't deal? Grow up, read a book.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

People are dying, and blogger sucks. Could you all give at least $5 to the UN World Food Program? People in Darfur need it.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Molly Ivins is awesome. If she wouldn't verbally kick my ass all the time, I'd gay marry her. Also, here's a site telling YOU how to get emergency contraception. There's the walk for women's lives next weekend. (in Atlanta)Also, I really don't feel like writing about African bans on the mini skirt.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

...an unusual FAQ. (warning: PORN)Also, This Bridge We Call Home is the best book in the entire world, and you should all go out and buy a million copies. I love the 'backstage musical' portions where they show emails in which they reference how they are making the book. Also, it's just so quotable. I wanted to put a million zillion quotes from it on my blog. Eee, eeee, maybe I will before I finish and return it.

Oh yea, you're supposed to read This Bridge Called My Back beforehand. Maybe it's not as new, but it has a lot of groundbreaking foundation making(mixed metaphors ahoy!) insights.
Steve Gillard talks about how magazines don't look like America. Pop him a five or something, he's awesome. Also Colorlines has a more diverse writership it seems. They even have international coverage. It's about $16 a year.

Also, this feminist rage post kicks ass. Clue by four to the head.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

You know, I was going to write a rant about how if any other 'progressive' goes around saying "well, if you said X about black people, everyone would be upset" as if we somehow magically have eradicated racism and no one says anything stupid about blacks anymore, that well, I can't articulate what sort of violent thing I was just imagining, but it was certainly Full Metal Alchemist(uncut) level, well, less because no one will be exploding from the inside here. But instead Prometheus 6 gave a good comment about his blog anniversary and how he began blogging,and it was so good it cooled my anger right down. He's my dad's age, so I am shocked. *is easily shocked*
Oh look, one black guy went to college in the thirties! I guess that means that there was a utopia, with peace and love, and no racism then.The rest of us? we were just making up shit. Thank you Rustin for not only organizing the march on Washington, but helping me to illustrate why brown faces in high places is a dumb way to say racism is defeated.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Hey, sweet, someone thinks my blog is spiffy. Whoever you are, thanks.
My store is having its grand reopening. Great prizes, $5 necklaces, free shipping for buttons(although that'll be permanent) you should at least take a look.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Read this conversation about white people and diversity of origin.
"Above all else, our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an an adjunct to someone else's but because of our need as human persons for solidarity" - Black Feminist Statement, by the Combahee River Collective reprinted in the Bridge Called My Back.
That says what I need to say to people who think we should wait forever.

Also, the footnote about the name:

"the Combahee River Collective is a black feminist group in Boston whose name comes from the guerilla action conceptualized and led by Harriet Tubman on June 2, 1863, in the Port Royal region of South Carolina. This action freed more than 750 slaves..."

The fact that I didn't know about this even though I'm a college student that does copious extra readings, and had extra black history lessons from mom shows the power of our culture to influence what we learn.

Saturday, April 02, 2005

People want to stop the genocide. People who wanted to do that tabled at my school. I did pathetically little, merely signing two petitions and giving $5(all the money I had in my wallet). I got a paperclip with a string with beads on it attached that I subsequently lost, much like my peace button I got from oxfam. There are so many problems in the world, and I have the delusion that I am powerless to slow any of them in any way. I know that that's not true, but I can't stop believing it. I see people working hard to help, but I feel so lost. Feel convinced that my lack of being able to socialize makes me powerless. I don't want to be like many of the white people I see saying "I can't do anything, I can't do anything" when they are the most powerful, and could alter their own behavior at least.

I don't want to be the person who thinks they are changing the world because they smoked some dope and have a few burned CDs. I don't want to be the person who talks about this and that but will only do when hell freezes over. But I don't know what to do. I feel so small against the big world. Illusion or not, that's where I stand.
The American Library Association gives important facts on book donation. I can't recommend this website strongly enough. It's about the black-white wealth gap and what to do about it. Here's some great economic development stuff in the ATL.