Today I had fun thrift shopping and was in a great mood, as I packed in a great haul. Unfortunately, I glanced at the internet, and was reminded that Martin Luther King Day is soon, and so stupid whites will molest the poor man's memory. It's just disrespectful. If you don't like blacks fine, but don't quote King out of context, preying on people's ignorance to push your anti black agenda,ok? Of course if they were decent enough to show the man some fucking respect, they wouldn't have an anti black agenda, but..

In other news, I was blogrolled on feministe, a blog I admire. Also, here's a good post about Freaks and Geeks. Now I will tell a racial anecdote. My mom was telling me about the bad behavior of a little boy, around 10, race white, name unimportant, so we will call him Bob. He made comments about how soon he wouldn't be able to keep it in his pants. The actual teacher of this kid was all like oh, his humor is too mature, but we did have to write him up. My cousin is about 14, and is black, and female. She got suspended for sexual harassment for three days, because she and her friends spread rumors that she was pregnant by this little boy. I approve of her getting suspended, although I think she should have had in school suspension instead, just because she was being an asshat in school. Anyway, just an anecdote.

The inauguration is only a few days away. Why don't you help out young women, and protest it at the same time? This inaugural protest is a great idea.


Also, I agree with this perceptive from the end of this series about black men.


"Finally, the ultimate solution is to deal with this life from the standpoint of true spirituality as opposed to pop culture. Spirituality involves an interrelatedness, a connectedness, the notion that you did not create yourself, as opposed to rugged individualism - the notion of a self-made man or woman. You can't make yourself. You certainly can't make yourself physically. You are the result of your actions, the actions of others and pre-existing conditions. People rising up out of the ghetto, inner city, cannot allow them to think they made it by themselves"

I agree- you can't change much by yourself. You need to connect to others, even if you seem to be alone. I seem to be a loner, but I am more connected than people who seem to have a lot of friends. You can't connect with people if you are creating a hierarchy of who matters and who doesn't based on superficial characteristics. You can't connect if you don't know who you are.

You can't connect with your community if you don't listen to the old heads. I don't say, you gotta do what they say, but at least have some history and context in your life. If you think everything occurs in a vacuum, and because a bad thing happened to someone, they are a bad person, how can you connect?

You connect by learning who you are, you connect by speaking honestly, you connect by showing others respect. When I get older, I feel that I will become a truly deeply connected person. As you can tell, I'm a book person- so I get my models from there. My so called 'patron saint' is Richard Wright. He educated himself with just a library card. I also admire and respect bell hooks, she has great ideas.

I think to connect, you have to find strength within yourself, and not be afraid. I want whites not to be scared of how they will have to give up unearned privilege for the reality of a good country for everyone. I want people of color not to be scared to take the next step to uplift their community. I want men not to worry about their masculinity, but on doing what's right. I want women to realize that they have power in themselves, not just in competing over a man. I'm really idealistic, but people who are idealistic are needed.

Here's an interesting conversation on the connection between Gothic Lolita fashion and the actual book Lolita(there's not really more than a tangential connection). Of course what really gets my ire is people who don't even read the book Lolita, and think that they know what it's about by a)watching the movie b)plain hearsay. You can't get Lolita in by watching a fucking movie! It's a fucking masterpiece of literature here- and it's not told straight.

I'm too tired to write a decent piece about this blog post. However, it talks about feminism, racism and explores many issues. Read it all, and comments.

Also some good commentary about racism.

For the serious empathetics, a short piece on racism, and a bonus.

So today, I saw Coach Carter. Spoilers follow. Today was a sneak peak viewing, so everyone was in a good mood. We all had gotten free tickets, and we got free CDs with the single Hope on it. The good mood contributed to the great crowd. People laughed at the right places, people said "sit your fat ass down" to particularly annoying characters trying to obstruct Carter,etc. Also, the movie was very well crafted.

There was a good mix of comedy, drama and sap. The character Worm was the best producer of comedy- one of the best moments is when Coach Carter, annoyed after the team has snuck out after the championship to a party, says to him: I had to go on a roadtrip to suburbia, and you're here on top of daddy's little princess. To which Worm replies "Actually I was on bottom".

The drama was mostly produced in a series of dramatic walk aways caused by Carter's demands . Cruz had the most and the most dramatic, and I like how they weaved in his life on the streets meanwhile. They slipped in his drug dealing ways without hitting people over the head with it, and it was suitably dramatic when his cousin was shot. His big piece after that was memorizing a whole poem that starts like this "Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure".

There's also a uplifting subplot about teen pregnancy involving Kenyon, which is resolved neatly by an abortion. I like how they didn't have the girl crying her eyes out, and being like oh my god, I killed our baby! She seemed kinda relieved, and happy when Kenyon said he wanted her to go with him- I feel that her fate being left out in the ending was a annoying omission.

SPOILERS END AT THIS POINT

Overall it was a good movie- characters were well drawn, the plot progressed logically, and the sap levels were not allowed to become overbearing. A solid addition to the canon of sappy feel good movies.

Although one thing that bothered me was that because of the constraints of being a movie, it had a lot of one good teacher fights against the school system, and everyone has a little gumption and everything is fine flavor to it. For people who actually care about education in real life, this doesn't really matter. We know it's just a movie.

Some people don't know that. They seriously think if we get a few guys to come in, and say "pull up your grades and pull up your pants" that all the problems of our educational system will be fixed. The problem here is that it is a system. There have been many Coach Carters in reality, many teachers and many coaches and many principals have lifted a few students up. But the thing is that there are limits to what individuals can do, even if it's with gumption. We can try our hardest, but we have to keep educating ourselves and seeing what the real problems are.

We may say "That's simple- it's lazy students, complacent parents and stupid teachers", but those may just be symptoms of the underlying problem- symptoms you can't attack with gumption and a feel good soundtrack.


Another problem is that many people will risk thinking that only minorities think sports are more important than school. In the movie, a white man, a relative of Lyle, one of the white players does say things that indicate that he too considers basketball more important than books. Of course that'll be ignored by the ignorant commentators we will most likely see. Our whole culture glorifies sports out of proportion, and student athletes of all colors are let slide. This is a systematic problem- blaming only a small section for the sins of the whole- that way responsibility can be avoided. If we all said "Hey, maybe wasting money on stadiums for sports teams should be halted til we put money into education", that would actually take work. Can you imagine it?

The message of the movie is that education is important. I think we need to broaden our definition of education. I think of course that people should get degrees and diplomas, but education is more than just that. It's opening your mind to ways of living and thinking that actually work- that are life affirming, and empowering- not in a buzz word feel good about yourself sense- but in that it gives you the power to create a positive change in the world.

That's why I liked Coach Carter so much. He's portrayed as an educator- he opens people's minds and hearts. Of course, easier to watch than do.

After typing all that, I see this post on Gillard's blog. He exposes some veiled racism in right wing thought. While the racism is one sticking point for blacks in the republican party, another one is that if blacks in the republican party have stupid ideas, they usually aren't their own stupid ideas. One may disrespect the blacks in the democratic party, even ones that are a bit out there, like Al Sharpton- but they come up with their own stupid ideas.

Kissing up to and being servile to whites doesn't play well to many blacks. A lot of blacks want to see not just black faces, but people who are working to make things better for black people. What shores up white self esteem, and what is good for black people is often two very different things. Of course what shores up white self esteem and what is good for the whole country are often two very different things, too...

I am reading the book Hair Story, and am reminded why I am not so annoyed at black people(on racial issues) For black people's part, we must learn to take pride in ourselves,and learn that folks are lying when they say we are inferior, and try to do the best that we can under the circumstances. For the most part, blacks are doing this, and have done this for years. It's much less rage inducing to see people doing something, but going about it the wrong way, in your opinion, than to see people refusing to do anything and then complaining when their actions cause dislike or distrust. Even black conservatives I can forgive, because at least they make sense- they simply think that every man for himself is the best way to get ahead. They have a reasonable goal, and are trying to get there, even though it may harm us as a whole. However, white people get my ire because they simply don't understand reality at all. Look at this idiot from the commercial appeal:

'White People' comic jogs the senses
I cannot fully describe my utter disgust with "The Boondocks" comic strip of Jan. 9.
I was appalled at the hypocrisy that still exists within this country. How can we do everything legally and morally possible to eliminate racial discrimination, yet remarks and/or symbolism coming from a minority ethnic group are considered acceptable? How did your paper justify the printing of such a blatant racial disparity?
Would you have run a comic strip with such a reference to "black people"? Would the wrath of every African-American in this city not be screaming at your back door?
I consider this comic strip to be an injustice to all Americans. How can we continue in our battle to overcome ethnic differences when some are so willing to step backwards?
Denise Divine
Nesbit, Miss.


This woman doesn't even know what the word disparity means, yet she feels ok to write in whining. White people have written books like the Bell Curve to disparage blacks, they have taught that slavery was just fine, they have told themselves that we have a dysfunctional culture and that it is pathological, they are the main ones supporting that minstrel show that is mainstream rap nowadays, yet this idiot thinks that suggesting that white people run around in the snow while wearing shorts (see the comic here) is the issue when thinking about eliminating racial problems?

I mean, even the stupidest, most likely to take it up the behind without a reach around black conservative knows that things are not equal, and that we have real problems to tackle. When blacks complain about representation, it's a different thing than when whites complain. We are trying to address the stereotyping of our race as inferior, stereotyping which affects our treatment.

For every image of a white person as a person who runs around in the snow without what is considered adequate clothing to black people, there are thousands of images of whites that are positive and non stereotyped.

Of course the big central problem is that this lady is too lazy to understand racial problems. She falls for the classic white error of assuming that because people of different races are all human, that means that everything is always the same across the board. It's not.

For example, I have way more sympathy for the black man whining about the man, than a white guy whining about affirmative action. The black guy might actually have experienced discrimination, become depressed,etc. However- I have no sympathy for people who ignore real problems, and cry when they are being redressed. I guess white people think that eliminating racial discrimination means that they will not have to do anything, and that's why they are crying. They thought that magic fairies were going to make everything alright, and were disabused of the notion. Seriously, how do they think they are going to fix racism without fixing themselves? Where do they think racism comes from? The sky? Mars?

Our battle is not to 'overcome ethnic differences', it's to create a just society. Overcoming ethnic differences sounds good to whites because it gets them babied. But, they have to sacrifice something, and one of those things is not being poked fun at. Blacks have been poked fun at for years, and the fun has sometimes been vicious. Whites are just going to have to accept that no one fucking cares about their feelings, real problems should come first, and that they should grow up. They think this is still slavery times, and we gotta defer to them. Hell naw, they are just going to have to deal with humor at their expense, like everyone else.

An ancedote on women in the workplace, and mouse words on whether women like to have sex.

The book Please Stop Laughing at Me highlights the pervasive rot we allow to ruin our schools, i.e. bullying. The problem with it is that no one is really against bullying except for the victims. Adults are for bullying. If they were against it, they wouldn't be complicit in it, or let it go on. A big problem in their approach is that they think that something is wrong with the victim. DUMB as fuck. They forget that in groups you don't have to do anything to be hated, and that people will do horrible things just to be in a group. They also don't understand how children work. Here's a passage illustrating this:

"Why must mom continue pushing her grown up logic on me? Kids simply don't think that way. Adults perceive the act of ignoring someone as a sign of power. Teenagers think it spells weakness with a capital W. The more I try to pretend indifference, the harder my classmates try to get my goat" p. 194.

Of course, simply pretending that you don't hear someone doesn't make their remarks less hurtful. So while adults defense ineffective advice, children are being damaged for life. The kids of course have a big part to play in this- but they are taught that this sort of behavior is ok. Not only do adults model cruel behavior, when kids are cruel, they are not punished for it, and people act like it is the person that they hurt's fault that they were idiots. Not to mention they are taught that cruelty is not such a big deal, and that it is normal and acceptable to be cruel to others. This of course is a poisonous doctrine.

Another problem is that kids are trapped. They are stuck in school 8 hours a day. I am not sure of the mechanism, but somehow competition over popularity gets entrenched, and is a big contributor to bullying. When I was younger, I observed that the most popular kids didn't have to bully, only the ones just below who were insecure, and had to shore up their status. Basically, they are becoming hypercompetitive over something arbitrary and meaningless.

A person could be popular because she could dance the watusi dance better than others, or unpopular because she smiled slightly too much or something. And at that age, popularity is a bit of a blood sport, and many movies and TV shows reinforce this. There are all these dramas and comedies about teen cliques and suchlike that show that teens are supposed to be catty and suchlike.

Maybe we should provide teens with something meaningful to them to do. When you don't treat people as useful members of society, they have too much time to make up their own society, which ends up all Lord of the Flies type.

A white guy writes on anti-racism. A note: he uses black to mean what Americans mean by people of color.

Also, while I will not be able to participate, here is an email I got with edits in ()

This coming Monday, Jan. 17th, the Sierra Club and Jobs with Justiceare both marching in the Martin Luther King day parade. The Sierra Club group will meet on the corner of Peachtree and BakerStreet at noon next Monday. They will have posters and stuff alreadythere, so all you need to do is show up. Here's the organizer's emailaddress if you have any questions: anna.swinson@(remove)sierraclub.org JwJ will be at the same corner at noon, with signs as well. organizer's email: terencecourtney@(remove)yahoo.com Finally, if you are interested in joining a service project, pleaseemail me( cascada100@(remove)hotmail.com). Our group will probably be working on some home repair fora senior that Monday from 9 am - 1 pm. Make it a day ON, not a day off (handsonatlanta.org)

(remove all the removes from the email addresses. If you are in the atlanta area, it'd be nice if you helped these groups honor martin luther king jr. Also, maybe one should consider honoring him with social justice work on that day and every day.)

From a thread on Orinicus, I saw this piece from Salon linked from Freeperville. An interesting thread is flowing through this article- Savage might have the ever so common perception that white people should just have everything given to them for just existing. Some examples:

I discovered I could not gain a professorship even after applying many times," he writes in "The Savage Nation." "My crime? I was a white male."

[Maybe it's because there's only a limited number of slots for professors and a whole lot of people applying for them? But instead of thinking about that, he starts crying about how he's a poor little white male]

A fee of $40 gets new members a Savage Nation baseball cap and an anti-affirmative action pamphlet called "The Death of the White Male."

[Note how any nod towards actually redressing injustice will cause the 'death' of the white male. The implication is that white people will die if they act like decent people and try to redress wrongs. This is untrue.]

Last spring, Savage told his listeners about a third-grade teacher in San Diego, Calif., who had saved a child from choking, and demanded that the state school superintendent give her an official commendation. "If she was a minority teacher and picked up a paper clip on the floor, then a commendation would be in order," he sniped. He neglected to mention that the "hero teacher," Rebecca Lin Yops, was in fact his daughter, who had changed her last name after her recent marriage.

[Note the sense of envy here- apparently all the minorities are taking all the commendations. Maybe they thought she was just doing her job? But no, it's back to waaah, us poor whites]

Even if Savage doesn't believe this, it's a big obstacle in the face of justice. Blackness is strong, so it's hard to understand how weak whiteness is. Blacks can survive poorer health care, poorer schools and a general lack of respect, pretty well under the circumstances. However, whites are reduced to crying babies if the mere suggestion of human decency is made. I think this is because they feel their position is fragile- I mean, it's just based on some made up misattributions of what people look like, and sure, there is the power of stolen wealth, but once justice is done- their position is gone.

Sure, the actual country would be better- but it's scary to change- to go from thinking that you are special and should get all the best just for living, to understanding that they'll have to work for things. They shouldn't expect professorships to be handed to mediocre whites, the CEO spot to always be occupied by a white, or anything else. They simply aren't entitled to these things, and the sooner they get used to it and stop crying, the better off we'll all be.

This is an interesting controversy and illustrates how shallowly some people view racism. The person accusing Gillard(of the same race as me, that is black) of racism is white, and has defended the Bell Curve. However, he called Gillard racist because he got mad at Armstrong Williams and called him a nigger. The Bell Curve- that's insidious racism- convincing many whites that blacks are inferior. Steve does not think blacks are inferior, from his writings, so his n word doesn't pack the same punch as a white person, who chooses to use that word, even though most blacks are offended when they say it, blatantly disrespects us all.

It's not about making the right noises. It's about respect. Williams disrespected the human race with his selling out, which is way worse than using bad words. In Goldberg's idiotic defense of the Bell Curve, he says we don't twirl our moustaches trying to make bad things happen to gays, blacks and women, but if you support policies that will cause them problems, you are accountable for the results of those policies. It's called responsibility for one's own actions.

If you repeal hate crimes laws, you say "hey, bashing queers is ok, there shouldn't be laws against terrorizing people because they are gay", and you're going to have to deal with people who feel angry because you are totally morally bankrupt. I mean seriously, they pretend they haven't heard of mens rea, just so some good ol' boys can have sport terrorizing people for no reason, and expect us to trust them.

politically correctadj. Abbr. PC
Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.
Being or perceived as being overconcerned with such change, often to the exclusion of other matters.


Note the second defintion, and let's do a little bit of critical thinking here. What exactly is 'overconerned'? How can you be over concerned with redressing injustice? Who defines what is overly concerned? Is it the same people benefiting from the injustice? And what do we mean by historical? Are we being white about it, and thinking that every ten years we get a do over, and redressing all the wrongs we did in that time period should not be done?

I'm blogging a lot today, but I really love it. Now, this paper has the forth of its series on black men up. People from the community are just getting together, and talking about how they can make their community better, what they are doing, what successes they have made. Like it reminds me of how the voices of America are all out there, all around us. There are magazines, and books, and radio shows, and webpages all telling a story of a different America. We don't have to accept what it fed to us- that America is always and only a white male country, and it only belongs to rich white males.

No, America belongs to everyone. If you don't hear the voices of blacks or latinos or Asians or poor people or transexual people or gay people or women or disabled people or any other type of people, their real authentic voices, not just stereotypes and lies, you gotta think about your reception, your choices. Not everyone's got a big internet, but if you're here, you do, there's the whole internet to play with. Not everyone's in a big city, and can talk to different people directly, but there's always something- even a well worn copy of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in your local library.

With all the good things we have in America, people refuse to hear or see or think about most of the people in America. Only a small portion of America is rich white men who are straight christian and able bodied. Yet we let them set the agenda for all of us- telling us what history is, telling us what we should think about politics, telling us who we are. You can't define yourself by what people who are willfully ignorant of you think you are. You just can't.

Prominent black bloggers weigh in on the the Armstrong Williams affair. People of other colors may wonder why he is getting slammed in such abundantly racial terms. Of course, most of this comes from white people who are angry because it is no longer acceptable for them to use those terms, and they should do some soul searching on their parts. This man has comported himself in such a way that we are all ashamed of him. He has embarrassed his race and his country, and is just generally being a dildo. He will be condemned in strong terms by members of his group. Individualism is making its inroads into the black community, of course, with typically bad results, because every man for himself leaves every man hanging alone. However, many people, especially the old heads still embrace the feeling of community, and of responsibility to someone besides yourself. He has let us all down. He has also let himself down, but that's his own private problem.

Because they are bloggers, they don't have to be non offensive and make everyone happy. They can say what they think- even if what they think is that Williams is a handkerchief head, uncle tom coon. You can't just go and suck up to white people and do unethical things, and expect that no one is going to call you names. I bet he wishes name calling was the worst he had to deal with.

Too bad the people who need to get this won't. Too bad that they don't understand that if people are still alive that did all that mess, and even worse, the people who just stood by and thought that was a perfectly acceptable way to act, that they can't just assume racism is over. Racism will never be over unless whites give it up- to do that, they would have to critically examine themselves, make amends for past injustice, and then make sure that it never happens again. The last part is the hardest, and the saddest. Even though I feel sorrow, I can't do their work for them.

The broad failure of white societies to ask themselves not just what wrong they have done, but more searchingly, why they continue to do them, allows a permanent life for the central flaw at those societies' moral core.- Randall Robinson, Quitting America, P. 117

The main moods of this book are sorrow and anger. Sorrow that we have allowed our civilization to be degraded, and anger that we refuse to do anything to recover it. He mourns for our loss of a moral core, although he enjoys the society of some people on the island of St Christopher.. I of course think that we should try to rebuild our society on bonds of love, but it's all very different when you are older. I don't blame him- when you're an old man, it's hard to get the energy to fit any longer for people who don't give a damn about you. When I'm old, I'll be bitter, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

Shame on all sellouts. Also, how can we believe this lying fraud of a government? Bush supporters should all be shamed. This is why blacks shouldn't be individualists. If this guy recognized that he was accountable to someone besides himself, he probably wouldn't have taken the money and compromised his morals. Seriously, if white people told him to throw himself off a bridge, would he? Probably.

Feminist Rage: The top mod talks against rape scenes in movies. I personally can't watch them- they are too disturbing. But sometimes it does seem like sexual violence is for the titillation factor, and you know, you can imply things, and maybe show the emotional damage afterwards, not just show women as victims that are sort of dehumanized.

Also, this site is by a woman, I think, who wants to help survivors and other people who just don't want to see that mess, screen what they see. Surviving can be hard enough without looking at all sorts of crazy mess in the movies.

This post nearly made me cry. Uh..I can't think of anything to say. So here it is.

I got The Time Bind, Dress Codes, Quitting America, Please Stop Laughing at Me, The End of Marketing as We Know It and Hair Story at Book Market for $17. Oddly enough, all books on feminism were in the health and family section.

Bras, bras, bras. I wish their swim suits had boy shorts. I have decided that it is one of my clothing ambitions to own this shirt. It's lots of fun trying to decide what to use my Christmas money for. I think this shirt would be worth, 5 or even ten take out meals.. Yes, I measure my money in how many take out meals it can buy.

PSA: Don't be an asshat. Thanks.

I've often complained that men don't know what vulvas actually look like (porn doesn't count- would you expect your next male sexual partner to have a 9" cock because some guy in porn had it?) Anyway, some women decided to show everyone what their vaginas looked like, and besides a slight lack of ethnic representation, there was a wide variety shown in 14 picture posts. I think this will help bust the idea that everyone has to have a certain type of vagina. So, here is what a vagina looks like. (nsfw) So women, enjoy your pussies, your cunts, your fish tacos, your vaginas, because there's no wrong way for a vagina to look, and men, if you're a hetro, don't hold women up to beauty standards forged by porn stars. They are just actors, not role models.

WTF?


Look how cute these tampon cases are. Awww.

Beloved Spoilers coming right up!(an aside- I think I might make all my links to books links to indie book stores now. It would be a good way to support them. Also, I have been to this bookstore, and think it is swell) Anyway, I think naming has a lot of power in this novel. For example Baby Suggs name. For a long time, Ms Garner(slaveowner) doesn't know her name, keeps calling her Jenny which is a name that Ms Garner saw on her bill of sale. Basically it's a random name given to her by some white people. Anyway, Baby Suggs gives her own self her name. Of course there is the centrality of the unnamedness of the baby(crawling already!) in life, but her namedness in death...but I don't have anything intelligent to say, so here is a quote from the novel I think is good.

"Made them bloody, silly worse than than even they wanted to be, so scared were they of the jungle they had made. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin, the red gums were their own' Beloved, Toni Morrison

Of course it makes no sense just out there, on page 208, you should find the whole passage. I just didn't want to type.

It's time for Booth Babe interviews. Yes, they actually play the game, but they are just young girls paid to promote it, so it doesn't really matter whether they liked it before or not- it's the same cynical marketing ploy. It's pretty sad that they aren't getting the sponsorship and the respect because of their gaming skills or anything, yes, some say they are good, but they wouldn't have been sponsored if they were a bunch of girls who were 250 pounds with acne.

I have played games with a lot of girls, and many of them were very good(so were the boys of course), and don't fit into the whole ehehehe, I played a game, now look at my boobies stereotype..

I like this comment as it reminds me how much of Utena is really a story told by the viewer. (spoilers to follow) It's not necessary to reference big things here- even the small detail of one person thinking the chamber that is so prominent in the black rose arc was like a confessional and me thinking it was like a a psychologist's office causes a big difference in how we will perceive the series. Confessionals after all are for confessing a sin, and psychologists are to cure your mind. The connotations are very different.

Another interesting point was how different one sees the series if you look to see if Anthy is manipulating events. My psychological bent causes me to think that many of the visuals we see are really metaphors, but someone else might take them literally. Even when I read a book straight, as I always do on the first reading, my mind tells part of the story for me. For example, I'm reading Beloved- and I am wondering about the 28 days- why the number of days in a menstrual cycle? Our lives and associations always make up part of what we get out of the story we are reading.

Hahahaha,take that 'nice guys'.

Also, here's a movie that is all dramatic or whatever, and then one that is cute and has dancing food stuffs. The auteur is said to be making a movie about fighting ramen, that will be out in the first quarter of this year.

This group is talking about rebuilding the infrastructure devastated by the tsunami.

I was pointed to this series by P6. It's a great series(part 1, part 2, part 3), but what stuck with me the most was the idea of us all condemning a large portion of our society to a social death. People think, oh, we won't have to deal with those people if we lock them all up. But, the problem is that you can't run from your problems- you have to face them or else. Everything is so strange nowadays- there is the growing gap between the different classes of blacks, a generation reeling from the backlash of our second reconstruction- people have adapted in ways both good and bad. While I don't think people should glorify prison, if you are determined to lock everyone up- people might change their experience into a good thing in their minds.


The big thing is that we can't abandon anyone. Many whites think if they throw us away and then blame it on us, we'll go away. We will not. But they'll have problems because of it. On a related note, I wonder how people will conceptualize the rural devastation caused by meth. Mostly in news articles I see measures aimed at making the drug harder to make, not attacks on the people who use. Suspicious.

On a less serious note, Slayers Next really is more plotty than Slayers Classic. The first series has a lot of filler at the front, but I've watched like ten episodes of Slayers Next and most episodes are plot episodes. I guess this is why Next is considered the best series. All this thinking about politics is bad for my nerves, so I should watch more anime.

Also, I,too, am agog at the idea of willful ignorance.


"A more complicated example is the word "racist". Conservative rhetors have tried to take this word away as well by constantly coming up with new ways to stick the word onto liberals and their policies. For example they have referred to affirmative action as "racist". This is false; it is an attempt to destroy language. Racism is the notion that one race is intrinsically better than another. Affirmative action is arguably discriminatory, as a means of partially offsetting discrimination in other places and times, but it is not racist. Many conservative rhetors have even stuck the word "racist" on people just because they oppose racism. The notion seems to be that these people addressed themselves to the topic of race, and the word "racist" is sort of an adjective relating somehow to race. In any event this too is an attack on language. "

That sort of thing drives me crazy. Read the whole thing for the edification of your mind in this new year.

I am reminded of bell hook's statement that you can't love yourself without loving your body by this post. I feel sad that even kids in middle school are feeling the pressure to hurt their vaginas. I'm sorry, but walking around with ingrown hairs and razor burn isn't the action of a liberated actor, just as starving yourself to death isn't merely a choice. We all feel pressure to live up to a certain standard. It is most intense at younger ages.

Women know what a vagina looks like- it's men who don't. Well, not exactly men, more little boys. If all you have seen is internet porn, you get a very distorted image of women's bodies. Fake boobs, shaved vaginas(the secret is not having much pubic hair to begin with), and vacant stares. However, the thing is that porn stars are just you know, porn stars. They aren't role models.

They are actors in a sense. They are paid to portray a sexual fantasy- usually of an insatiably sexual woman. This is all well and good, but you shouldn't confuse it with real life or real women. I think the sad part of male privilege is that they feel that they can confuse movies with reality, as if all women are just playing a role for male pleasure. This is sad because they can't really connect with real women as long as they are doing this.

It's too bad that the privileged can't see how their privileges put them in a cage. Part of me mourns for them. Heterosexual men would be having much better sex if their partners felt secure in their bodies, and felt secure in their choice to say yes or no to intercourse, and never had to fake an orgasm. But to create a different world, that takes work. People would rather spend all their energy trying to avoid having any consciousness of anything at all ever than to do something to improve their lives.

An interesting dynamic. The woman who is actually the point of discussion here doesn't talk as much as the author or the interviewer, who seems to be trying to push a certain narrative less than he was in the other interview about this book(the one with just the author). Although there was a slightly fruitful argument with the author at the end. I might think about it some more.

Also, Communion by bell hooks is a very good look at the role of love in women's lives. She says that since people seem to determine women's worth by who desires her, that may give people skewed ideas about love, not to mention the fact that everyone just assumes that women are all naturally nurturing and that submissiveness and care are the only valid ways to show love, also distort the idea of love.

There are also good critiques where feminists need to go farther, even as they protect the gains they already have made. hooks does a good job of pointing out the improvements that feminism has created in American women's lives.

This story was very interesting- one of the most interesting parts is that the author is actually audibly upset about the mismanagement that private companies had made of Milwaukee's welfare system. Of course, all of that, and the actual human stories of the women will be ignored, so people can say all blacks are lazy and stupid.

This story is also really good. Basically this segment is about environmental racism. Luckily, environmental racism is a big tangible thing- a lack of supermarkets, bad housing quality, and dumping of hazardous materials near places where people of color live. Also, here are some photos of protests of the army depot in Memphis. My grand dad worked at it a really long time ago. Memphis has some fucked up environmental issues near it's black community.

There's a big fat refinery out there belching all those fumes. I'm sorry, but my cousin got a scholarship from them and I was like what? is that the sorry for poisoning all y'all scholarship? A lot of my cousins do have asthma, and my aunt has had really bad lung issues, and couldn't work for a long time. (Luckily she is better now) So we have to be aware of issues that effect the whole community,ok?

I am reading America:The Book. I'm happy with the high grade of satire, but I am sad that many who read it won't get it. Oh well!

Also, seriously, I totally don't get white people. Yes, I'm aware that their ancestors did kill a bunch of people, and set up a system of oppression that benefits them to this day, but I don't think anyone would have hard feelings toward them if they just cleaned up their act and acted like decent human beings. Why is that so hard? It's not about whether you can avoid responsibility, people, it's about fixing the problem. I just don't get it.

You know, often I have a little doubt in my mind while reading the news. Like how can I tell that this organization isn't just some front for some right wing think tank or a bunch of corporate pr firms trying to manipulate my opinion? This is a brilliant post about how we are all getting punked.

Charity- it's the obligation we pay for living nicely on the earth. We have a lot of people suffering from the earthquake and the tsunamis. Just give a few dollars, and you could save a kid from dying from hunger or waterborne disease. Please give now.

Also, I was reading this article, and was thinking. Maybe this whole "reverse racism" lie is an expression of fear of loss of cultural hegemony? For example,instead of acting like everyone is a white man, and if they aren't, they should try to get that way, or at least feel bad about it, now we are opening things up- blacks can now run big companies, native americans are getting their story told, and most of us normal people don't care if someone speaks spanish.

So instead of having a special place in society, you are becoming more and more just another group. That's not what you were told(well, not told literally, more like people acted like the world was that way- this is a random theory proposed by random white guys off the street, so might be weird) the world was supposed to be like! So you act like a giant pussy. And that's today's theory.

A man going by the name of Noah TA is illustrating the pitfalls of a one size fits all approach to problems using the example of his son. This inspired me to think about how many times you can't really take the same problem, and think it has the same solution all the time because often it has a different cause.

For example, school failure. Sometimes the kid has a learning disability, sometimes they are tired because of problems at home, sometimes they simply don't see how doing a million work sheets will benefit them. You can't treat all of these problems with "STUPID MOTHERFUCKER" can you? I don't think you can treat any of them that way, but I'm a liberal.

This sort of thing always confuses me. So I'm reading about dumb excuses for slavery, and I'm like "if you got nothing to do with slavery, why make excuses for it?" I mean seriously, with all that energy they spend, they could just try to make amends and not do it again. If they are doing especially good- they could fight against slave labor in today's world. It's pretty simple to outsiders.

Jimi Izrael has a really good piece on white privilege. Read the whole thing please. It has always mystified me that whites get all testy if I say "white people" without a bunch of qualifiers. I mean, when blacks are slammed on, we don't get some blacks or a tiny minority of asshats, we get black people. It's really strange because somehow all whites get the credit if some whites do something good. For example, some whites are hard working, and smart. However, it is not true that all whites are smart and hard working- many whites are in fact, lazy and stupid. But somehow all whites get the credit for the smart whites, and none of this transfers for bad actions- for example, whites can act like they have nothing to do with stupid meth heads or slave owning bigots.

This is the opposite for blacks. For example, I am a black entrepreneur on a limited basis and I go to college. There are many blacks who own businesses, are doctors, lawyers, go to college, raise their kids in a good manner, work hard at their jobs etc,etc. These people who we call non asshats may be the majority of the black population- basically making do under the circumstances. However, do these people get to be thought of as the representative blacks? No, apparently no matter what we do, the one black guy who is the asshat is the representative for the entire race.

That's not cool. Some black people, they are idiots. We as a whole can't really do much about it. It's like George W Bush. He's an idiot. He makes the worst decisions ever. Imagine that whenever he does something stupid, people say " man, those white people" but whenever some white scientist does something awesome, people try to explain it away.

"So Bob invented the cure for cancer! Congrats!" "No, he didn't, he worked with a team" "But don't all researchers work with a team?" "No, only lazy white inventors. And plus, it only cures about 70% of cancer patients. What kind of cure is that?" and so on and so forth. And if they actually did accept that Bob did cure cancer, they'd make it out like he was the 'special' white person- no other white people could achieve anything,etc,etc.

Well, I'm off topic. Jimi says he is not interested in asking questions about white people. I'm the opposite. I'm almost indecently curious. It seems somehow wrong to just float along assuming that you're the norm. It is really fascinating to me. I guess that is the influence of different personality types.

In this discussion at Vision Circle, it was suggested that Cosby go and say "Hey, you're a single mom with X kids? Go to this place- clean yourself up"(that's just the gist of one post- read it all) Interestingly enough, I don't think he'd be getting any publicity for his tour if he did that. Like it really sounds good to blame and say we are all lazy and inferior. But it's not a very good idea- what we need is a black Conquergood- in the book The Spirit Catches You and Then You Fall Down- he didn't go up to the Hmong and say "You guys are all dirty idiots. I'm better than you, and I know what's right for you".

No, he went in, wasn't judgmental, and had interventions that went with their cultural milieu. It's like this- we can sit around high and mighty in judgment, and let parts of our country rot, or we can get off our high horses. I mean seriously, we got black folk acting like they are better than other black folk because they got a little money. I see white folk working harder with inner city youth than I see some black people(not to say the white folk are never racist or classist or don't make annoying blunders- but I'll give you credit for doing something)

Yes, some of the people will be asshats. However, Ken Lay stole money from a lot of people, and President Bush sent people off to war without planning enough, and we still give money to stuff that helps white people, and still volunteer to help them, and think they are all just the bees knees. I don't think compassion is limited, and we can only give it to people who meet a certain standard.

People may say "But you're rewarding bad behavior". I'm not saying that we gotta let all the murderers out of jail or anything, just don't always have the meter running with any thing that you don't like (she wasn't wearing rags- no compassion for her!) being immediate grounds for "fuck you". I mean seriously, I don't like how the meter is always running on me, and I'm not even broke. The whole one mistake and you're awful thing gets old.

This isn't to say that many blacks aren't doing things in their community, but they just have to notice if they do something positive and help people out, it's not going to get any press, but the second they say anything negative, even if it's in a sea of positive comments, all ears will train in on it and spread it around. America loves to hate black people, it seems.

Another aspect of white priv- if you're white, you get better health care. Why don't we try to fix that, instead of trying to remove sand out of orifices?

Also, I think Christmas songs don't have enough moping about death. My favorite Christmas songs this season(The Platter's cloying but somehow appealing What Made the Baby Cry and Vanessa's Williams I Wonder as I Wander) have a healthy amount about moping about Jesus' death, and What Made the Baby Cry also adds the heavy implication that we make baby jesus cry.

I'm happy to say that Anna Q is talking some sense. It's pretty easy to put up a plastic baby Jesus and say "we're number one", but it takes balls to actually do something Jesus would like on his birthday- like loving your neighbor, or helping people out. Of course, this should happen all year- Christians should stop trying to make our laws all fucked up, and try to make their communities better places to be. Instead of saying bad things behind that unwed mother's back, why don't you come by with a fresh cooked meal or offer some day care? Instead of bitching about 'lazy people', why don't you volunteer at programs for at risk children? There are so many kind giving loving things that Christians can do, that are more in the spirit of their religion.

Another interesting thing is that ice and snow has gotten all over the place and everything is closed and everyone is in a panic. I might make Xmas cookies, because my mom is too injured to make them. You know the pain is bad when she actually took her medicine(not that she should- that Celebrex stuff isn't good for you...or so it seems to my science illterate mind..)

The UCC has launched a counter attack- they want people to write letters to the FCC complaining about the censoring of their advertisement. Go to this site, and see what they have to say, and see if you want to support them. I already have. I sent off a letter, but I might give some money, just so there will be more promotion of church people who don't hate gays on the airwaves.

I personally am not religious. If all powerful beings talk to people, I haven't heard them. But I think that religion can be a tool for good or evil, and I think more people need to use it for good. I don't know why, but somehow I felt a mood of peace come over me in the last few minutes. Maybe we are on the cusp of an awakening- everyone is working so hard to advance the country, and many small revolutions are going on every day, as well as many small miracles. By the time I am my parent's age, this society will be unrecognizable, and I have the belief right now that it'll be for the better.

I'm really amused by this bitch. She wants to whine about the consequences of her own stupid actions. I could wear a prom dress saying "I think it's ok to murder white people" but it's my own damn fault if colleges decide that they don't want a person who thinks murder is cool in their school. She choose to wear a symbol that flew over tons of Klan rallies, so she loses some scholarship money for being an asshat. I like how folks think that personal responsibility doesn't apply to them.

I have started a mailing list for those interested in swapping gift subs to progressive magazines, just talking about them, too. The goal of this is to kind of pool our money and get progressive magazines out there with a greater readership. I'm too much of a lazy bugger to write, but many people my age are energetic and full of passion- they need a market where they can write, and even sometimes get paid, and that's not going to happen with just a few Seventeens and Ellegirls out there.

Here's an interesting article on economics, a field that I know nothing about. Of course, in a few days, I'll have assimilated the new information and parts of it will probably show up on this blog. Apparently other people don't do this, and that's why they don't make any sense.

stopping smoking may cause you to gain weight. Also, taking birth control pills and anti depressants can cause weight gain. The use of those medications have increased. But of course, the new thought repellent field will start up, and we'll have to hear about how fat people are just simply bad people and the whole country will explode because some people aren't up to beauty standard.


Also, I didn't understand this series, so my brain rendered it as a sci fi story, and the problems with the whites as problems that could spill out and infect all of us. I bet when I am older, I'll understand what the fuck this guy is talking about.

I haven't read the Earthsea books. Nor have I seen the series except for bits and pieces that dad is watching. But Ursula Le Guin talked about how she wasn't really involved with it. Since this is informally a race blog, I thought it would be good to link to her blog post about the Earthsea white wash.

So I got Othello the manga, and while there were some good OWNED!!!! scenes, there wasn't enough dress up for my taste. Also, I was looking at Bomb the Suburbs again, and don't know whether I like it better than No More Prisons or not. No More Prisons has more concrete solutions and information from enlightened people, but Bomb the Suburbs has more silly stories about say, the time Wimsatt thought he was hard and thought he could call someone the n word and got body slammed. I'll have to read more.

I was talking to this dude, and he was all like (about racial issues) no one wants to lose their position. On one hand, I guess he is talking sense, on the other hand, it's really hard for me to understand how someone would rather be king of the hill in a crappy country than middle of the heap in a good one.

P6 is talking about blacks in the job force. I was thinking about stuff, and I was feeling weird, like you know, I kinda hurt for the white folks and stuff, because you know... it's like if you have a friend, and he's like acting like a total asshole in public and you just cringe and just feel terrible for him? It's like that, although I still feel kinda mad, because you know, the whole racism thing totally plugs into my worst fear- that you can't please people- that no matter what you do, everyone will be unhappy. And so the fact that in racism it's true freaks me out. You know how it is, if you have a job, you're taking the white man's job, if you have your own business, it's not good enough, and if you're unemployed, you might as well just kill yourself, and on and on and on. No matter what you do, it's wrong.

Although on one hand, you have to feel sorry for people who have a whole identity based on not having any responsibility for anything(from what I can tell- it seems that they seriously think making excuses absolves them from responsibility) On the other, it's like screw you- you decided to act dumb- you take the consequences of your own fucking actions. I'm torn between vengeance and empathy. On one hand you run the risk of being too hard, on the other hand, you run the risk of letting justice not be done.

I often err on the side of vengeance just because we have so many soft pedal, oh, I love ya white folks people out there. There's a huge difference between liking white folks as friends and like thinking any thing they do is ok. It's like if you had a black pal, and you knew he was calling the white chicks snowflake and all sorts of weird shit out of their name. You like the guy, but you gotta say "Dude, you're being a fucking idiot".

Also, Vision Circle talks about Kwanzaa. I never got white folks all being like it's a made up holiday. Like what the fuck? Like no one made up Christmas? I don't think Jesus(if he existed) was even born in December! I think the holiday is on this date to coincide with pagan solstice. But apparently if some black folks dress up and give each other handmade gifts and talk about responsibility, that's bad. I just don't get it. I don't go around to folks and saying that humans thought up fasting for Ramadan, and so no one should celebrate it. I guess the thing is that I just don't see ragging about differences that don't affect me.

Like you see me bicthing about white folk, but if they all lived on an island and didn't bother me, I'd probably not worry much. I mean, in Saudi Arabia, they have pretty fucked up rules about women, but I don't complain much about them. I think it's because I feel sort of hesitant to just barge in on someone else's culture and start shouting orders, because I'm not white. I swear, kids that have never been in a ghetto ever in their lives, will become mr junior sociologist, when it's time to shit on black folk. So I'm a bit wary of just reading a few news articles and then deciding I am the expert and that I should tell other people want to do.

I have a new theory today. My theory is that where ever someone has privilege, someone else must sacrifice for it. For example, if I get cheap clothes, most of the time is is because kids have been sewing them in sweatshops. For me to get cheap clothes, they must sacrifice, which isn't right. For white americans to assuage their fears, they must sacrifice black youth to the jail house. Sure, there may be secondary effects on the people who get the privilege, but they own the effects of what they have done. Secondary effects in this case would be waste of talent, and waste of tax payer money.

I wish that somehow we could have a world where everyone would pull their weight, without exploiting anyone. That of course would be a utopia, but that doesn't mean we can't make the world a bit better.

Jobs, not Jail Also, there is a new campaign out. Working Assets wants us to never surrender our values and our country. Don't let this country go into the dark ages without a fight. Look at this amazing PBS website. This is really well put together and informative. I wish people would show this to high school students or middle school students- get them actually thinking about issues. Like all over people are working hard to explain the issues- people just refuse to listen. The background articles are particularly useful and informative. You have a computer- use it to increase your knowledge.

Here a fun hoax for you today. (warning: the hoax link itself is nsfw- featuring both breasts and vagina, uncovered). I think it's a hoax, because come on, who has time to shave their pussy, even if they are not in a war zone? Also, would they really allow her to just walk around with heavy weapons just to show her pussy, and would they even allow a clit ring? I think not.
The porn star look is a dead giveaway for me.

P6 works hard and drops science. It made me think of something my mom said. If you ever meet anyone that anything you do is alright with them, well, you know they aren't your friend. P6 is being a friend to the whites here, because he wants them to take responsibilty. I am too, but I am young and more grumpy. The people who got your back are the ones who know when you are wrong. People may say, but wait a minute, aren't you kinda grumpy when people slam blacks? It's because we're getting slammed for other folk's sins and that's not right.

Also, I kind of agree with this girl( well, more after she explains herself than in the initial post) I mean, I love that everyone has their unique style and all, but if I want to wear a shirt from like the gap and some jeans I wouldn't post it on a fruits community, because that's not a very exciting fashion- same as I never post any of my loli inspired fashion on EGL- it's more like "bleh" than "wow", and there's enough "bleh" in the fashion world without spreading it around on the internet.

I don't understand why the judge felt the need to wear blackface. You know, you can dress up in a jumpsuit without doing something that you know is a dumb thing to do. He acted stupid, he should pay the consequences. The thread is an interesting mix- there is a lot of whites who are pretty ignorant, but there are some other people who are trying to explain why people might not be cool with blackface. One of the most interesting arguments was the fact that black people have a reason to dislike whites, but whites don't have a reason to dislike blacks.

For example, let's take racial rumors. A white racial rumor is blacks are all criminals. Because of that racial rumor, they'll arrest more blacks(because you'll usually find what you are looking for- they sure weren't busting those pot smoking underage drinking white folk I was with yesterday) and fuck up their lives. Thus causing dislike. A black racial rumor is that white people have lice. While not true as far as I can tell, the worst thing that would happen was that someone says "no thank you" to comb sharing.

I'm trying to articulate how systematic oppression differs from individual assholeness. Like if people didn't stereotype all blacks as criminals, then no one would care, and if it was only that one guy who did it, no one would care either. It's just a big subject with a lot of nuances and things to think about, and you can't really reduce it to little cute slogans or rules that cut both ways, because both situations aren't the same.

There's a big difference between saying "Hey, you say I suck, but you're wrong, I rock"(black pride) and "I am entitled to terrorize and kill people" (white pride- what are the principle activities of white pride groups? not school breakfast for sure). There's a big difference between starting with everyone assuming you're good enough, and starting with everyone assuming you're a worthless idiot.

Man, it's such a huge subject! Like there's interlocking oppressions, the role of history, the role of responsibility(I am a bit creeped out about how whites try to disclaim any responsibility for anything- if you say you're not responsible, then any amount of bad behavior can be excused), the role of self hate, systems versus individuals. It's so much bigger than one line from MLK and saying you are colorblind.

I feel almost insulted that white people think that the issue of race is too scary to confront. Sure,it is their problem that they created, but that should make it even more interesting. I don't think the way to deal with social problems is to run away crying, it's to fight them head on. I mean seriously, racism is kinda like buying sweatshop clothing. It's wrong, you do have a choice, society supports it(how many stores do you go to that even carry non sweatshop stuff, let alone all non sweatshop?), and you shouldn't whine if called out on it. It's not the big bad boogie man out to get you, or an 'accusation'.

It's like grow up folk. And one day I'll tell you about John Waters.

I don't get it. I could see if they had a portrait of Bush doing obscene sex acts, and if that happened, that's what only letting people over 18 into a special space is for. But just a picture of Bush made out of monkeys? What the fuck? Hopefully this is just a publicity stunt about the march of fascism or something.

There is a whole rich world of mommy blogs out there. Interesting. Well, also, infertility blogs. Although I like mommy blogs due to vicarious cuteness..

What a 180 pound woman may actually look like. Here's a grainy picture of a 100 pounder. Based on proportions, height and other factors, there's huge differences in how your weight looks on you. I wish I had that picture from fark where a 135 pound woman was playing Paris Hilton. Many people simply don't know what weight looks like on different body types.

Another problem is encouraging weight loss for vanity. If we weren't so focused on weight loss, we'd all be a lot healthier. I mean, a person may eat healthy and exercise, but never actually look thin. What does it profit us that that person decides to give up because they aren't losing weight?

My blogging activity has gone up as my anxiety level abut this final goes up. If I was any good at stats, I'd be thinking about the correlation between the two. I was looking at Bitch Has Word, so I wouldn't have to think about how fucked fucked fucked I am, and how hard the test is going to be, and how I can't calculate an anova by hand and why do I have to do that and suchlike, and then I was reading this commenter and he was all equality of opportunity, not results.

Like I've heard that phase before, but like what's the point of that? I mean, opportunity is kind of a nebulous thing that is kinda floating out there, but results you can measure. I guess the real reason is so that they don't have to be accountable, but like what's the reason SUPPOSED to be? Like do these people even think before they start parroting these kinds of catch phases. It's like when they say stuff like every crime's a hate crime, do they even know what it is?

Like what ever happened to our George Will conservatives? Maybe they didn't like babies, women or black people , and maybe they were a bit too optimistic about the free market, but at least they made some sort of logical sense that you could try to understand their argument. Like if they said we should not have hate crimes laws, and also not have several different degrees of murder at the same time, at least that would be consistent, or if they said that corporations AND poor women could BOTH sod off, at least that would make some sense!

But maybe I am thinking of libertarians, not republicans. Probably. I hate math, so all this math has confused me, and made me mix the two up. I only got in 4 good hours of studying today. I'll wake up early to do it again.

This article is about the myth of acting white. However, it'll also show an interesting effect I predict. People will not change their belief about acting white in the face of this new information. I mean, I heard some boys making fun of another boy for acting white! How can the acting white story not be true?! Well, I have some ideas. First, there is selective perception. When I was a kid, I was even more awkward than I was today. I also loved books. Thus, kids of all races were like ahhahaa, you're smart! What a dork you are! This was because they were immature jerks who were jealous of my smartness. (well, at least that's my version) But to others, the white kids were making fun of me because they were immature jerks, and the black kids, to keep me down(like the Man, but shorter). (asians of all types, arabs, and others went to high school with me , but I don't remember any of them making fun of me in elementary)

Also, this perception would ignore the times I was held in higher esteem by black kids because of my smartness. Another reason may be that what we think means you care about school doesn't. Like people think you don't care about school if you speak ebonics. However, many of my cousins speak ebonics, and many of them are in college, and have scholarships due to their As. Also, wearing expensive clothes like rap artists wear, having a stylish hairstyle, and going out clubbing do not make you do bad in school or not care about school either. Caring about school makes you care about school- you can still want to be cool, and want to study at the same time.

We may also be ignoring social factors. Do the kids get enough to eat? Do their parents have time to check their homework? How about the schools? Got enough certified teachers? That may affect their performance and attitude towards school. There are many other explanations that can be considered before just assuming that we are all up to no good. Of course having this said, the popular perception of blacks as lazy shiftless people who are so much worse than the rest of the population won't change.

My guess is for some blacks, saying that sort of thing, gets them attention and they feel better than other blacks. If I can say that I'm the only good black, maybe my low self esteem is enhanced. Also, whites and people of other races also have their self esteem enhanced. "I am so much better than blacks" they may think. Of course, you'd think they'd base their self esteem on actual achievements, but that's the way it goes.

You know, another thing may be projection. People who like to believe this sort of thing may want to keep others down so that they look better, and then project their weird thoughts on little black kids. Another reason may be that they are looking only at Tyrone, who has behavioral problems, and ignoring Porche, Ronisha and Montavious who sit in their seats and do their work. There are many hard working and successful blacks- this study, despite some sexism(why is it bad that more black women have degrees? I think the men can adjust to their smart and successful sistahs) talks about the many blacks getting degrees. Also, open a copy of Black Enterprise- blacks are working hard and succeeding in business. Also, instead of "why don't you lazy n words save your money" we get the Black Wealth Initiative. You know, that might help build capital for the next generation of blacks?

Things are better than they have ever been for us, and still all we get is doom and gloom and why can't you be more like x people or y people. It totally ignores our hard work. It's like I got all As in three subjects and a C in one subject, and all you see is that C, totally ignoring all the good stuff. I need a good celebratory zine!

I really hate when a work by a person of color is reviewed, and they are like "hohoohh, it's got none of that hard you know, person of color stuff, where we might actually have to consider, like ISSUES, you know!" I don't see why people need to be reassured that they don't have to actually think about real issues. I mean seriously, I don't read books with white people in them, and be like "Oh, no, what if he tries to make think! Anything but that!!"

I mean, grow some fucking balls. If you are going to be upset, because in a comic book, they tried to make you think, maybe it's time to [really cool euphemism for suicide] yourself.

Go, Cali! I'm glad that people are fighting for our rights. I'll buck up and work hard on break.


Here's an article about people appropiating Native American beliefs. I can't really imagine what it'd be like, but I guess it'd be kinda like if a Baptist preacher pretended to be a Catholic Priest, and for $150, you could undergo the sort of baptism a baby gets- with the sprinkling of water, for $250, you could undergo full immersion baptism, and for $500, you could go to confession. Even I'd be offended by that, and I'm not Catholic or religious. Of course that doesn't have any of the racial undertones, but I'm trying to understand it in my own clumsy way.

Panic Doll has updated! My favorites are the black cross top and this country lolita style skirt. You go girl! It's hard to do business nowadays. I am creating new buttons to avoid studying. New ideas are easy to have, but it's hard to pimp out your stuff, deal with customers(I don't do this off line because of my hair trigger temper), and suchlike.

Although doing business is good- it's better than spending all your cash on $100 hairfixes! That's the kind of looking cute that lasts only a week at best. Even if you bought $100 worth of clothes from the above site, at least it would last longer than that. Anyway, I was reading the story of the illiterate millionaire in No More Prisons, and the guy didn't spend his money on fancy cars- he spent it on making himself some more money. Now this guy has blown up! Not to mention, nowadays you can't rely on a big corporation to be dependable in employment. You think you are doing good one year, and then the next, everyone is fired.

That's why I'm going into mental health- somebody's always gonna be crazy! Anyway, joking aside, it's best to try to put money in from different sources rather than having your eggs all in one basket.

I found a good Holiday present. This organization wants people to give their money to it, so that poor families that have one expense that might totally make them bust can have it donated to them. For example, let's say Bob fell down and broke his leg, and needs medical care. This could be a disaster for his family, with the choice between rent and hospital bills. But luckily, some nice people pay his bill, and Bob's family doesn't have to live on the street. You may be like, where does this whole present thing come in? Well, they'll send a person a letter saying you donated in their name, so it could be a late Holiday present. Well, anyway, you should give these people money- they are awesome.

Also, some people are giving their stuff away for free, but I am too stupid to understand what's up with that? Anyway, this could facilitate some serious awesomeness. We usually give away our old stuff to the Vietnam vets people.

If you think up a good organization, create it. Merry Holidays!

Goal for the new year should be to be more of a citizen of the world, and more out into creative things. Also, I think this exhibit is cool. I like the statement, but my favorite part is the images, I really wish I could go, but it's in New York.

This comic also made me think of how my body language is probably a bit masculine- especially the way I walk and sit. I'm the type who is very shy, but doesn't have cute body language at all.

Just, WTF. What. The. Fuck.

What's wrong with the people who dispense this sort of shitty fashion advice? Hide your bottom half?! That's the good part of a pear, and should be played up! I don't see what the point in trying to look like a boy is. This isn't the drag king show! Women have hips and should show them off, not hide them. Our beauty standards are crazy. Be more 'feminine' by shaving all your body hair off! Look like a boy by starving yourself and wearing ugly clothes.

When clothes draw attention to my top half, it's kinda like "hi, I have no breasts". Pears really don't have much to showcase up there, and nice plush hips, thighs and ass are great on a woman. Of course, they are female secondary sex traits, so that's probably why they are so interesting to me.

More fark fun:


Reginleif


However, speaking as a white female, I have also found it true that when some (not all) white guys whine about women or non-whites getting "their" promotions, what they really mean is that their sex and skin color no longer allow them to get away with all sorts of incompetence at work

That is some food for thought. Also, here's a strange article about fashion trends in Japan. Here is a goth loli thread on fruits. I put all the links to American gothic lolita stores that I could find. I'm trying to learn to layer nowadays so that I can be prepared for colder climates. But the lack of light would be a problem too, wouldn't it?

I have studying fright. So I'll write about stuff. So yesterday I was talking to this dude, and he said something interesting. Like whites don't see themselves as having a culture. (Basically, I was kinda like "I don't understand white culture, but please don't be racist jerks, and if you are don't whine." for the whole convo) But it seems like they do. I mean, it's not like they all magically wake up, and say "you know what I'm going to do? act in a certain way for no reason at all". So here are some parts of what I see as white culture that are bad. Of course, everyone has parts of different things that are associated with different races in them. So basically these are annoying things that people do, but that are associated with whites in my mind, as I am currently in white culture immersion. ^_^;;;

1)I'm not responsible for anything.

2)I can't do anything to change anything.

3) I have to mean to do something bad to do something bad.

4) I can be as horrible as I want to others, but if someone is upset, it is their fault.

5)It is the duty of those who have been hurt by my actions to correct me.

6)I'll just not learn anything, and then I can pretend everything was fine.

7)Everything is centered around me. Others do not matter.

8) I am more important than the group.

9)If something bad happens, you're a bad person.

10)Racism is somehow what a person is, not what he/she does.

(I personally think that you can do racist stuff, but it not be like your idenity. Like I walk to the store, but I'm not a store walker)

11)If someone says something you are doing is wrong, that makes you a horrible person and means they don't like you.

Anyway, if you see yourself embodying any of these, work hard to improve. I'm a very selfish person, for example. And am a bit of a pussy- I'm scared of looking at my stats book. I am very sensitive, and worry that criticism means that people don't like me. But anyway, even if you have flaws, you should work hard. I'm working hard to put together a coherent theory of 'why people are racist pricks'. Also, I'll try not to be so anxious, but it's really hard, because I can't get inside people's heads and see what they would consider annoying. Like for example, if white people are telling stories and feel the need to say the n word, they should just say the n word, so we know what they mean. But other black people may not care.

Like I was talking to the same guy I mention above, and I was like I can say cunt, but there's one word I can't say and he's like (the actual version of the n word) and I'm like don't say that! and he's like, but I needed to know what word it was. Anyway, that was weird. Anyway, I'll try to have self confidence that isn't drawn externally, and not be such a pussy who is scared of math problems. I guess next I'd have to stop using sexist language, as pussy is my favorite word on this blog.

Because I am still using the word, I can't exactly say sorry, can I, because I mean, if I was really sorry, I'd not say it. Although verbally I have a bit of a tic where I say sorry a lot, because my anxiety is that intense. I'm a rambling woman! So before you flounce off, do read this essay by a Morrocan who is having culture shock over our restrictive standards of beauty. I'll complain about that later.

I just don't get why people choose the anime titles that have violence and sex in them, and then say "all anime is violent/sex ridden". I mean seriously- it's like this. Guy walks into say Best Buy or something. They got Princess Nine, they got Kare Kano(His and Her Circumstances, which I am watching now- good music), they got Fancy Lala, they got Kiki's, they got Azumanga, and guess what they go straight for? Ninja Blood Revival or Yea Right I'm in 'Junior College' Fuck Fest!

It's like me complaining that all movies are musicals because the only ones I watch are like Singing in the Rain and Chicago! I personally like cute and fluffy anime, because it's cute, and you know, fluffy. I also like melodramatic anime too. My emotions are still as intense as a teen's, so their anime works for me. Of course, in America, I like Soul Food, and by our standards, that's not for teens. (like omg- do they have to show the entire sex scene? imply something for once!)

But seriously, people are pretty crazy,eh?

This is a pretty good post about how white on black violence is always an 'isolated incident'. I mean seriously, not only would four black boys who jacked a white guy get at least juvi, everyone would talk about our pathological culture,etc,etc. I was talking to this guy on the net. And he was all like I'm renouncing whiteness. And I was like cool- because seriously, to renounce whiteness means not only do you say no to the unfair privileges you get because you are white, it means that you take responsibility and aren't a whiny pussy.

Like everything can't be someone else's fault anymore. Like whites tend to try to blame their racism on us. No- if you are racist, you make your own self be racist. If you do something stupid like show an Asian that you don't even know the ethnicity of a Chinese dress, and be all like I'm down with your people- that's your own fault too. If you don't know history, that's your own damn fault. And yea, if you decide to beat some kid down with your friends, that's not a spanking offense- you should go to jail just like every body else.

And you can't cry about stupid stuff anymore. None of this mentioning real problems makes me feel bad shit, or any of that man, I'm scared of minorities shit. You gotta buck up- if you feel bad about the truth, your own problem, not ours. If you're scared of minorities, well, work hard to conquer your fear.

I am reading No More prisons, and the author talks about how he decided to walk through the most dangerous ghettos in the middle of the night. I think most of the hysteria about stuff comes from not knowing, and fearing that. If you don't know, don't be a puss and rot your own country because of your hysteria and white flight. You have to face your fear. Learn about those you fear.

I'm sick and tired of people thinking they can't change anything. There's a revolution occurring every day. I mean seriously, weren't the Ukrainians out in the fucking cold for their country? And we can't even sit in the heat and read a book? I am a totally different person from who I was in high school. That in itself is a revolution. I'll keep changing til I die. Time can't stand still. So let's catch up to it!

You know, while I'm saying all this, His and Her Circumstances has really good music. But not as good as Utena. I saw some great AMVS at the anime club yesterday. Hale's Mom, and Sunshine, Lolipops and GRRRRRR were my favorites. I think Hale's Mom should win an award, just for the great synching and shot selection.

I was reading this excerpt from this book, and I was like "where does this guy live"? The stone age? It's cute to say "let him go after you", but if we did that, we'd be waiting forever to get a boyfriend! Not every girl is cute enough to just sit there and smile and get men to flock to her. Actually, most aren't! I mean seriously, not every girl has to ask out every date- but a phone call or two isn't going to kill your prospects. If he really wants you, he's not going to say "Man, she likes me too. I guess that kills that".

At mousewords, there is a more sensible review here as Amanda actually has a boyfriend and so isn't all nervous about it. Or maybe I should shut up ascribing stuff to people I don't know, just because I read their blogs. But seriously, her comments bring this stuff into better perspective.

More comments from Fark

2004-12-06 06:39:15 PM
vhold

I think what monster87 is expressing his disillusionment to the mythos of Rosa Parks. In school we weren't taught such a blindly obvious applicable piece of information like that she was a member of the NAACP. We aren't taught an image of a politically active woman. We are taught the image of a much simpler but determined woman who out of nowhere suddenly got fed up and changed the world. The iconic story is about an any-woman, how anybody could change the world given a just cause and deterimination.Of course the fact she was politically active prior was never _hidden_, but for some reason it is commonly omitted. You can't help but think it's to help support that pop image of her. It does affect her 'icon' status, on a personal level, to be disillusioned in such a way.Especially when you consider that the NAACP in the region may have already been considering a bus boycott, her personal act, while still important, doesn't have that same air of mystery and magnitude. It seems plausible that it was orchestrated to put things into motion. That's -definitely- not the kind of Rosa Parks that has been iconified.Also, lawyers suing over the use of her name for billions? What the? That's pathetic. How are we eventually going to stand up to these lawyers? Boycott law? Hrmm.


I think the fact that she was active in the civil rights movement beforehand makes her story even stronger, because it makes it more of a guiding point for us who do want to be politically active. The idea that you just go along cow like and maybe at the right moment get fed up is a charming myth, but if you actually want political change, you're going to have to work for it. I'm not saying I'm miss political action of the year, but the whole myth that has been built up around the civil rights movement and other movements that one or two people did one thing and everything changed is a pretty destructive mind set.

It's almost as bad as the mindset that says a right once granted can never be taken away. Basically I think both of these myths make us sort of passive, sort of 'well, everything's fine" and that's not the way we need to be. I read about and see people trying to make revolution everyday.

I'm reading No More Prisons and the author is like "You know what? I'm hitchhiking cross the country, I'm walking in the country's ghettos" and that's a revolutionary act- to be able to face your fear and say to others "there is not so much to be afraid of in this world as we suppose". That is a valuable lesson, I guess. Although I still get the heebie jeebies if someone walks behind me...

This post is about the real reasons that whites are conservative, and this post is about black self image. I know that when I was a kid, I could shake folks talking about my bookishness off, because I cheerfully believed they's all have to work at gas stations. Yes, kids are dumb. Anyway, I totally lost control today and called this girl a pussy(although I don't think they knew what I said). Because seriously, so you saw some fucking Hispanic laborers, no need to lock the car doors and get all heeby jeeby, and plus, who the fuck told you that that was an appropiate thing to say in public? White folk, keep it to yourself. We really don't wanna know.

We all have quirks. For example, if I have a problem with something- I find it therapeutic to rant, rave, cry and curse the universe. If I have to be stoic, the problem will never go away. For example, let's say I'm in a bad mood. If I curse the world, cry about the unfairness of it all, eat some ice cream, and read manga under the covers, I will recover in an hour. But if I have to put on a good front, it eats at me, and that mood may last for weeks.

So when learning about racism and forming my racial idenity, it is useful for me to curse whites, and say they should be horsewhipped, and driven into the sea, and I can't believe they are all such immoral cunts. Generally in real life, I don't mind whites, well, ok, I mind them, mostly because I mind all people. I am slightly frightened of other people. So today, this white girl decides to ask me a bunch of questions about our stats lab. I am really nervous. Also, I talked to this black girl, also about our stats class, and was also nervous. I am nervous around all people.

But the point is....well, I forgot what my point is. Of course, my coping with learning of the great unfairness of the world may shock some. I have difficulty understanding this, because it sounds like a bunch of whining to me. I mean, black folks are supposed to be repairing all the damage from years and years all by ourselves, with no help from anyone, and they have plenty of help on being decent people.

I look at all the problems, and I feel like the guy from emory's counseling center. He was basically like "I got ten cents, and some magic beans. What am I supposed to do?" He was saying that and people weren't constantly coming into the center and being like psychologists are all quacks or having a million little hassles like it taking a million years to get paper because people are like "why do YOU need paper?", "You really don't need paper anyway- I mean, what would you do with it?" you know- just trying to chip chip chip away at your little self concept.

Basically what I mean is that we got a lot of work, and a lot of it would get a lot easier if whites just took a little bit of time to try to be decent people. For example, so I am reading on the internet, and these people are working hard to act like they have some sense. They aren't acting like babies. They are trying to think their way through these issues. It's not that hard.