Meta Sale! If only I could have the heart to spend $90 for a skirt, but yea, that seems a bit impractical. Nowadays I have nowhere to wear my clothes, I miss Atlanta!

According to the channel 5 news, the president and the prime minister of Japan went to the Civil Rights museum and ate barbecued nachoes. Also, some Elvis impersonaters(sp?) protested Japanese whaling, and some other people were upset about the way in Iraq. You could watch videos if you want at http://www.wmctv.com Also, I hate Elvis

Also, discussion about Star Jones Reynolds.

At long last, I actually made some jewelry. Whew!

From blackfolk, hook up an urban youth:


www.yearup.org for more info
Year Up is a one-year, intensive training program that provides urban young adults 18-24, with a unique combination of technical and professional skills, college credits, and a corporate apprenticeship.


Year Up is currently accepting applications for the Class of July 2007.

Boston, New York City, Providence and Washington D.C. classes will begin in September of 2006. We have 102 openings between our downtown Boston and Cambridge locations, 34 openings in Washington D.C., 36 openings in Providence and 22 openings in New York City.
Please send referrals to:
Boston - Linda Swardlick Smith at lswardlicksmith@yearup.org or Teresa Martinez at 542.1533 ext.1039
Providence - Jill Holloway at jholloway@yearup.org
Washington, D.C - Alice Drew at adrew@yearup.org
New York City - Lisette Nieves at lnieves@yearup.org


They are also hiring in New York & Washington DC check web site

I'm class privileged today because my dad had an internship at IBM when he was my age. Now I have the free time to annoy people on the internet(although I'd probably have less free time if I were healthier) and you benefit. Personally. Come on! Suggest an urban youth!

After eating something almost entirely not like fried rice, I retired to my computer to look up black movies. Look at this amazing website, aren't you totally informed now? I know I am going to have a hard time not buying any movies. Ok, ok, maybe just one...

I have posted a lot today, but there's no other outlet for my rage! DEAR STUPID NEWS GUY: PEOPLE WHO ARE TOO LAZY TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT THEIR COMMUNITY SUCK ASS. Yea, I'm talking about you white folks who always got your hand out for a tax refund, but never got your hands working to educate a child that don't look like you. You expect good schools to magically materialize from NO money, you expect folks with little opportunity to be quiet proles without wondering why they may not exactly go along with your program, you expect everything to magically be all right. But the truth of the matter is that until you say "I don't care what the skin color of kids are, they are all my children" you will continue to create a country that sucks, a country in which you are not free, a country in which you don't have what you need. So fuck you guys.

Now, I'm a lazy person. I'm not out saving the world every day, but neither do I expect a perfect world delivered to my fucking lap. They are like the guys who go around, throw their underwear on the floor and expect a woman to pick it up for them. Nothing is ever these folks' problem, and they can never take the initiative. I'm not saying you got to kill yourself every single day, just donate a book to the library,don't vote for idiots who feed on your laziness but folks with sane policies, and for fuck's sake, at least try to understand that we have crime and bad schools(because having textbooks from 1985 is a bit demoralizing, but you know what? money can buy textbooks! Talking about how your angel is different won't!) instead of being a sanctimonious prick. I'm not saying the mayor is an angel from on high, but at least see your part in it.

I want a feminism that accepts the fact that a woman who is a survivor of sexual violence can feel pain, fear, and anger in regards to sex. That doesn't tell that woman, or all the women like her, that they need to "get over it" or that they're "overreacting." I want any woman who wants to to be capable of criticizing the damage and danger of sexual acts and sexual material, without being accused of attacking other women's sexuality. I want women to be able to be sexual in whatever ways they want without being attacked for their sexuality.

I want a feminism that recognizes that free sexuality is a privilege, and celebrating one woman's freedom can never be used as an excuse to ignore how other women are victims of sexual violence in the form of rape, incest, and sexual slavery. That understands the importance of tempering sexuality when it can be used to harm others.

Me too, lady, me too.

WTF?! A Meta Swimsuit!? I bet it'll sell for $150!

Bitch PhD has several threads on sex. So come on in, especially read the post for the first thread. Heart rages about really bad sexual abuse and silence. Now I've only experienced shaming, but that shaming that happened in real life is way more powerful than what some lady could ever say on the net. Now, I've been told my vagina is too hairy, that other women have sex on the first date, so why don't you, had an unsolicited finger put up my vagina(I don't think that sort of thing is funny or cute!), have had to deal with guys who move their penis during oral sex, guys not sensitive to the fact that you can't just shove the cock in without extensive foreplay(OW!), I've been shamed for having a big butt, and the list goes on and on. Also, on tales from other folks, never rate someone's blowjobs or film sex acts without permission!

Heck, if we can't talk about blowjobs under duress or how shaming causes women to do stuff they otherwise wouldn't, or how the hegemonic viewpoint of what you're supposed to be doing in bed affects folks lives, what topics about sex are we supposed to be talking about?

ARGHLES! Anyway, never take the technical path in high school, you'll have to go to community college. And parents, if your kid needs to choose what path they go on in high school, try to ask the folks what would allow your kid to go to college. Now, I am annoyed because we're dealing with my friend who due to the fact that she was on the technical path in high school had to go to the local community college, and now we have to deal with the runaround about whether they'll let her graduate, when it's taken her as long as it took me to graduate four year there because folks kept giving her the wrong thing(my mother does everyone's forms for college, you see, this is why this is an issue at our house,etc). You know, I didn't know which path to choose either, but I just poked my finger at the one that sounded the best, and hoped like fun that I got on the good path. But the thing is that I bet some school is fucking some other people over, so be savvy! But then again, it's hard to know what mess is going on in the schools nowadays, so yea, we're all doomed. I have no idea how to get your kid on the good path or get him or her to stay in school. At least try to get your kid into a trade school if they can't go to college, folks. Easier said than done for the folks with the problem, though. Well, my biscuits are burned anyway.

Ow! Early marriage and lack of sex ed leads to breast ironing in Cameroon. Also, get tested for HIV. Know your status and discuss your status before fucking. Skin whitening creams fuck over Indian women. Also, the African American breast feeding alliance exists to help mothers learn more about breast feeding. This starts off as a rant about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but ends up being respectably sensible about how you can help people in foreign countries.

Black Feminist Thought is the best book ever. Everyone should read it,etc.

Yet more dumbasses who call the cops on 6 year olds. Shame! But the truth of the matter is that I can't do anything about this. I couldn't stop the war either. We can't even deal with infant mortality here. We can try, but while we're trying, let's not have taboos on what we can or can not discuss as feminists. There will always be something more important. Sure, maybe today we can't talk about how punching a woman dead in the head while fucking her may not be the best role model for young men. Then tomorrow, we can't talk about how in advertising black women are invisible or how dominant images of black women's sexuality affect our lives. Heck, one day, even honor killings in Iraq will be deemed unimportant- abortion rights already are considered unimportant special issues that distract from the important ones.

Why I will never be a porn reviewer on a satirical website. I'm proud of my hangups, thank you! The problem with porn nowadays is that it's not like you get a hold of an old Playboy and then slowly work up to Hustler. You can start at foobies and end up downloading scenes from Uncle Al' s All Anal Gangbang the next day(it does take some time to get your porn from the filesharing server). Heck, in a few clicks from this website you can view pictures of a woman sticking a feather duster up her hoo ha. This wouldn't be such a big issue if there was a whole lot less porn like the porn reviewed, and it was a small minority compared to the porn that embraced a whole spectrum of bodies(not in this "anyone who doesn't want a white woman with fake tits who needs to eat has a fetish" sort of crap) and in fact was more positive towards women- but let's get real here.

When your first experience with sexuality is totally removed from any realistic sexuality, unlearning the misconceptions can be a hard row to hoe since it's not like teen boys are exactly consuming a lot of feminist viewpoints on sexuality. At best, they'll be fumbling with a girl who calls them on their shit, but teen girls are often figuring out their own shit, and a lot of the time, their friends, what their boyfriend/guy they are fucking says he likes, and maybe the words of a trusted adult are what most of them have to go by.

So it's like a perfect storm of fuckedupness. Guys see this totally off the wall portrayal of sexuality before good sense kicks in, they then put pressure on girls with their own fucked up sense of sexuality and shape their sexuality, and then it goes on from there. This post is hetronormative, because gay sexuality has its own culture, its own porno(lesbian porn for straight men does not count), and there's even separate sexual development in which one has to figure out one is gay before they go and search out the gay porno, which could delay this until folks have enough sense to be like "that has nothing to do with real sexuality".

My mother believes that perverts want to snatch me if I go walking at sunset. Now, I've never seen a pervert- I see old women walking, young women walking, guys riding bikes in the middle of the streets, people working on their lawns, and yea, even some people playing with gasp kids(yea that white lady playing with her white son and black daughter will suddenly grab a gun and POW!) When I was a kid(around 15), I used to walk around way more than I do now. I used to walk all the way around the large two mile lake, and around the pond. I never met a pervert. Maybe a platinum blonde girl jogging, some football players from my school trying to catch some fish, maybe a mother with a racing stroller would run me down, but the dangerous perverts that are supposed to keep me hiding in the house never appeared.

We don't even live in a poor neighborhood(not that they are all crime filled) ! No gunshots are heard while we're in our beds, a rent a cop rides around the streets, we even have stupid cards to put in our pockets to show that we live in the neighborhood. Some may say but OMG, blacks(Including blacks who suck) but I think it is unlikely that that black guy holding a baby on his back will suddenly drop the baby and try to molest me, or that black lady walking with barbells will hit me with one and steal my cash.

Anyway, I hear most folks are assaulted by folks they know. I told her that a frat party is way more dangerous than walking the fuck outside at sunset. Seriously, where do people get these ideas?

942 0122 <---I heard on the radio that one could call that number and pledge some money to folks trying to build an African American muesuem in Memphis, but hey, that's just what I thought I heard. Also, these guys could barely even get some boots let alone hurt someone but it's a bigger deal on our news than this guy who actually had some suspicious weaponry? I don't get it. Part of me is like yea, media bias, but come on folks, wait on the scary black people story til you can get some that can at least knock over the corner store,ok?

Steve Gillard weighs in on blowjobs. I feel somehow compelled to say that checking your pussy for bacterial infections(if at all possible! If you're near a planned parenthood, they often have sliding scales to check out any funky smells), wearing cotton panties, sleeping without one's draws on, and washing before pussy licking(be careful about the actual vagina! Don't douche or accidently introduce soap into the actual vagina, ok?) will keep your vagina in tip top shape.

Well..uh...look! Lolitas!

Only 96? WTF? I bet many white folks are rejoicing. No fiction in Spanish? WTF? I read this post and I was like OMG, we are all going to die! No, this is not a rational reaction. Also, invisibility among race and gender lines.

) Stupid stereotypes about Asian women abound. But even worse than the annoying racial stereotypes, there's something that really bothers me about this "race x women conform to traditional feminity better than race y women" stuff because it makes it a race to the bottom for who can be the least while male privileged guys go and laugh. Even if a black woman starved herself to be thin, straightened her hair to achieve the holy grail of American hair, bleached her skin, and never had any thoughts or opinions of her own...jokes on her! She still is not good enough ! Ha! Ha! The nerve of black women, thinking that they could possibly win the competition! There is a bit of an echo of the website that talked about how (white) men needed to marry 'traditional' Asian and Latino women from foreign countries because all American women were uppity feminist bitches. It's sort of the same thing, except for without the other baggage. Like basically, men seem to think that groups of women somehow come with a tag saying "subservient" or "beautiful", and think that if you just grab a random Asian woman, she is somehow going to be all this stuff, but the truth is that Asian women are individuals. You can't go up to a random Asian lady and get this prepackaged Asian Woman stereotype, ok?

I had an idea for a post! Anyway, I think we should study the rhetorical pose of the 'bad feminist'. The bad feminist fights the strawfeminist. She has been told that she is not a feminist, because of these reasons: she wears makeup, she shaves, she is a stay at home mother, she likes sex. Of course, I never see people say "you're not a feminist because of X", but it's an easy way to make your point. Instead of simply disagreeing over policy, you are fighting for the heart of feminism. Will feminism be won by the good feminists who conform to traditional ideals of feminity, or the evil ugly feminists who do not? It raises the stakes and adds drama to the day. Not only that, the strawfeminist is an accepted cultural type- we all know what she is like, what she does, etc. So instead of having to do a lot of explaining "I don't like what so and so said because it totally leaves out the experience of homosexuals"* which can be debated on its own terms, people have their heroes and villians picked out already- even if this pose comes from a real debate usually things are distorted- so 'blowjobs are gross'(tone: joking but probably thinks semen is icky) becomes 'if you blow a man, you're not a feminist'.

This framing drives me nuts because it's like you have to tiptoe around any critique of any choice someone might make or they'll say you said they weren't a feminist. It also bothers me because I grew up in the 90s, in which a bunch of 'girl power' and Suicide Girls pseudofeminism was thrown around. The whole idea was that women chose to do exactly what they were doing, and what appeared to be exactly the same thing to the unenlightened masses was totally changing society! Just by shaking your tits you could totally change the direction of society! Just because you liked something made it the feminist thing to do! I just hope this is limited to the summer heat, and we don't get any posts saying that Bitch magazine is evil, because how can they tell us we're not a feminist because we like this show on TV.

*Sorry to whoever it was that made that argument if my paraphrase was poor

(warning: sex related crap instead of insightful posting) I want to ask people what sex acts and sexually related stuff they think most people consider mandatory. I will not say that your choices are disgusting. Among young people I notice that there are some stuff being expected that I'm not comfortable with: hookups(College is the total nadir of sex) not having a hairy crotch(I wish I was back in the 70s for that alone!). I'm neutral towards: blowjobs. I want penis in vagina sex, pussy licking. Also, to distract from the fact my whole family is spying on a rental house, I also posted this to black folk. but without what I liked so folks could play in a free field.

Belledame gets psychological. I have to admit that the reason I didn't get it is that basically I'm more concerned with what people can do to you, and not to be weird, but I thought of Twisty as a silly taco lady who sometimes says outrageous things, so I didn't see her as a role model or someone to look up to or an amazing leader that will lead us out of the land of wife beatings and into the land of tacos and beer. White folks on the whole don't get it about race- although I didn't see the post where she didn't get it(it may have been posted in May) My theory of her meanness is the medical news. So yea, my issues aren't so much about social stuff(I don't intuitively do social stuff, so to me, the feminist blogosphere appears to be a lot of ladies typing on computers not a large linked up cabal with some ladies leading the pack and the others following) but about who can do what to me without me being able to retaliate. People who can't do stuff to me may get my rudeness or maybe my derision, but I am not really hurt by them.

But if I sense that you can stop me from doing something I want, then I get upset. That's why I don't think rad fems are that big a deal. I'm looking at society and who is causing the most problems as my feminism because that seems intuitive to me, to always focus on who can do what to who and who isn't allowed to be mad. But with radfems you can always invoke the strawfeminist, who called you a bad feminist if you disagree.

Amanda from Pandagon links to a Salon article about girls making out with girls(it's under the mess about Connie Chung) I have to admit I find it vaguely depressing- the fact of the matter is that for some teenage girls, male approval is very important- important enough that they'd make a burlesque of someone else's sexuality for a free beer or a hookup.(these aren't bi girls, please don't lump us in with them- we really are aroused by kissing girls) I agree with Amanda's point in the comments that the guys need to be blamed more. I mean, guys urging the girls on to make out for their pleasure seems to be a sort of exercise of power- "look, girls crave approval so much that they will make out with some other chick for my pleasure!" I'm not saying the girls don't have agency, but I understand that yea, some women in their late teens to early twenties may not exactly delve deep into why this behavior gets them the attention it does, and maybe like "hey, I want (free beer/a reputation as a fun open chick/the adoring gazes of my fans)". Now, I don't think they have any less respect for themselves than girls who are more sexually reserved, but yea, maybe only participate in sex acts you *like*, girls?

Only vaguely related, but one fun college memory was two girls licking whipped cream off each other's chests. I was sober, so whipped cream was only put on my nose. For my part, I assumed they really liked the whole chest licking thing.

I don't get white feminism and I never will. Like, how is some lady on the internet so powerful to these people? The whole rest of society would love to see you wearing high heels and makeup to the nines while taking it up the ass for a leering crowd of men. Now, your choice on this course of action can be questioned, it can be debated, it can be analyzed. But at the end of the day, even if some lady on the internet says that maybe this helps the patriarchy a little bit, you still go out to the same society that is all for that behavior. Not to mention, I don't get the need to make everything you do perfectly feminist and it drives me nuts. It's like they think feminism is not an ideology, but a high school clique in which bloggers are the queen bees. If Susie Twisty declares nobody likes pink shoelaces, well, you must defend pink shoelaces to the death and declare that you have been attacked horribly, because you like pink shoelaces!

Dudes, it's not possible for people to be thrown out of feminism. Especially not over the internet. Heck, I'm sure someone thinks I'm the slave of the patriarchy because I am obsessed with comic books. And yea, a lot of comic books totally aren't helping feminism. People can point this out to me without me feeling personally attacked. And yea, penises are kinda gross. We love them despite the fact that they look funny, and contain semen. There are cultural meanings to sucking a dick.

In fact, in the which race women are better wars, something that sometimes comes up is "race x women won't suck dick". Men, women of all races will suck your dick. The playing field is level in so far as which race women will suck your dick. So consider that cleared up. Also, the whole icky submission thing still clings to many blowjobs in the realm. Maybe it's not YOUR blowjob, especially if your partner is the type who has learned that asking first before moving the dick is golden. But yea, there's some blowjobs out there that aren't exactly helping us fight the patriarchy. You have to figure out on your own whether your blowjob is helping or not, and seriously, some blowjob snark is not going to destroy feminism. If it makes you feel better, I blew a guy in a fashion that did not help feminism. I did not get drummed out of the movement. The evil feminist police you imagine are hunting you down and insulting you for your love of blowjobs did not descend on my dorm room and scream 'cock sucker' at me. In fact, nothing happened. Because I don't think a bunch of random women on the internet are more powerful than the whole god damn rest of the culture.

Let's all repeat after me: there is no crying in feminism,ok?

Nice post on feminism, with an emphasis on comics.

Oprah magazine has weaned me off my quest for thinness at last. Yea, I'd like to be able to fit into my pants again, but not if it means only taking in 1077 calories a day. That's barbaric. The ten pounds stay!

White folks are trying not to be racist, and they start to talk about triggers. I have a lot of triggers:

"That can't possibly be racist! (*excuse after excuse)" especially when followed by "Now I have an example of real racism (insert minor problem like once a person said something they said was racist or once a black person existed in a college)"

"I magically know that all people of color are stupid and unqualified'

"people of color are pathological liars and play the race card"

"I can't care about black people suffering unless you all pretend real racism doesn't exist"

"But what about white people! Learning about racism hurts our feelings"

There's a nice feel to this thread, which ended up mostly being about Arab/Black alliance building. Sometimes you gotta post to race dot snark the stupid gets so strong. I'm sorry, but white people, when making up stories to explain how you totally know about racism, at least have someone call you a cracker. At least that's vaguely in the ballpark of what racism is. Ok, yea, but at least it's in the same city.

Oh, Colbert is doing a nice big bit on colorblind racism. He is auditioning for his new black friend. I wonder if white people get these bits?

In other interracial news, mixed media watch shakes its head at dumb ass trailers that perpetuate dumb stereotypes. Also, nubian's blog is starting to have discussions about interracial relationships. I think the doubt and suspicion of interracial relationships, especially black/white ones comes from asshats. Now, we got the oreos, who think that everything they do is special and different from other black folk. Heck, according to them, all black people do nothing but eat fried chicken and listen to rap music all day- of course they can't date a black person, since they do other things beside that! And plus, they are like totally special! I think this is a disease of teenagerhood mostly, I hope.

Then we got asshats like in this above link. As if white women don't get tired of trifling men. I think that's just male privilege in a nice little package. If your relationships fail, don't think about what you did to cause the problem- blame the woman. Of course, the whole "x race women are more submissive than y race women" thing is totally male privilege. Instead of looking for partners based on sensible traits, going in for the whole idea of a woman who is supposed to submit to you is based on an ideal of masculinity that it is totally outdated today. Pretending submissiveness follows race is just another disgusting wrinkle.

Berube brings the snark:
More seriously, Balch is drawing on the history of affirmative action and employment discrimination law in order to argue that universities should make “good faith” efforts to hire people more to his ideological liking. This is a common theme in right-wing attacks on universities, especially among those critics who have become alarmed that affirmative action has gone too far, insofar as fully five percent of all doctorates are now awarded to black people. In 2002, attorney Kenneth Lee, a member of the far-right Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, made the case in so many words. “The simple logic underlying much of contemporary civil-rights law,” said Lee, “applies equally to conservative Republicans, who appear to face clear practices of discrimination in American academia that are statistically even starker than previous blackballings by race.” Even starker than previous blackballings by race: according to Lee, conservative scholars have it worse than did African-Americans under segregation and Jim Crow. Conservative is indeed the new black. (This would mean, I imagine, that on some campuses there are fewer than zero conservatives.) It is a fantastic and deeply offensive claim in and of itself, but it becomes all the more offensive if you go back and look at the history of conservatives’ opposition to affirmative action programs in American higher education.

I feel 80% not sorry for yelling at max, but on the other hand, it's sometimes hard for folks with teh priv to understand the issues involved. Now, the ideal is being held up as something that is impossible for us to attain. Commercials are always harping on how 'damaged' 'frizzy' hair is. Your Barbies look like white girls dipped in chocolate. If you're lucky enough to see a film in which the black girl gets the man- she is most often enough that same type. 99.9999% of black women are invisible, while white girls if they are thin enough, are splashed all over the screen. They even get the best parts in porn. So when black boys grow up and start talking about how they prefer or try to use stereotypes as the reason that they date white, I don't blame folks for not giving them the benefit of the doubt on whether they like white chicks for the right reasons. I'm ready to hand out exceptions, but folks who condescend to me aren't going to get any of those.

Especially when you think about how all the guys suddenly think this type of chick is hot, while ignoring all the others, you have to be suspicious that they were like 'yea, using independent thought and my experiences I've decided all black women are ugly golddiggers". Like the Asian fetish. All the sudden Asian women are 'exotic' (like what the fuck? They are the most common people on the planet, aren't they?),'submissive'(Yea right, all the Asian women I know can kick my ass!) and on and on. Now not all white men dating Asian men are dating them because of the stereotype, but if he can only date Asian women, you gotta say hmmmm... Likewise, if someone's preferences rule out a whole race, now you gotta say hmmm.. Think about it. Why is that she is white higher on the list than is she not crazy, or does she have a job? I'm not saying that every guy in an interracial relationship is doing it for the wrong reasons, but the fact that white feminity is put on a pedestal is enough to make folks suspicious if a guy just can't seem to find a black woman attractive.

I think another factor in this is the fact that it's a self perpetuating cycle. Let's say that I decide that black men are all thugs. I could find signs of thuggishness in everything they do. My college student cousin wears baggy jeans. That annoying Bible thumper guy is a thug because he listens to rap. And on and on. And of course there is the black person conundrum just intra instead of interracial. Basically, if a guy with that sort of mindset dates a black woman and she sucks, all black women suck. But if a white woman sucks, oh, that's just crazy Becky. That's why you need to get your mind straight. Of course you could condescend and expect folks to be nice to people who have spit in their face, but..

Jen talks about how interracial relationships won't end racism. I agree- especially when you have people who instead of seeing their partner for themselves are more concerned with their status on society's hierarchy than what they really have to offer. Also, in this discussion of interracial relationships, we see black men pulling out the same tired stereotypes that I bitched about in this post.

I think there is less anger about black women/white men relationships because black women do a whole lot less complaining about what black men can't/won't do. Now let's use my thug example. Let's say black women kept talking about how they couldn't date black men because they were thugs. With AIDs. You're a clean cut black man who is studying pre med. But you still have to hear this dumb stereotype, despite your fine personal qualities. Even though you're the exact opposite of a thug, you still have to deal with blanket proclamations that black men can't be dated, because of some dudes that you don't know and have nothing to do with. And then some folks have the nerve to act like there are tons of guys who somehow magically woke up without any trace of this crazy society and just happened not to be attracted to black women.

Support the 100 Black Men and the 100 Black Women. One thing I've never got is why black folks can never see ourselves the way we really are. Black folks will be steady reading a book, but then say other black folks don't read books, even if all their friends are reading books too, and black imprints are doing huge business. Folks will pretend they are different and special because they don't act like they come out of a rap video. That's dumb- most black folk don't act like they are out of a rap video. Heck, even the rappers don't act that way on their own time. And of course, out of the media, we get dumb shit like this. For fuck's sake, what a bunch of bull. I'm sad we get some misguided black folk like that- they think they must pretend they aren't black to the point of avoiding perfectly harmless foods like fried chicken(read the article that the linked editorial springs from). It's a fearful synergy. We got the black person who is afraid to own their blackness and we got white folks who are so scared of folks not being exactly like them, that they'll enable the unhealthy habit of trying to ignore one's ethnicity.

I'm not saying you gotta listen to rap or Bob Marley if you don't like them, but at least acknowledge that you're not some amazing special negro if you like classical music instead. For example, I like singing along to morose Aimee Mann songs. But I don't act like "yea, I'm not like those other blacks" just because of my taste in music. I instead acknowledge that blackness is a big category, and there's no need to run from it. Every black person on the planet probably deviates from the stereotype somewhat, because it's a stereotype. Why we got to give it credence by ignoring the black people around us, and the black people we are by acting like we are to be judged against something that was made up?

Myths about cash that Natives get debunked.

I feel a sort of deep nameless frustration. I don't know what it is. What seems to trigger it is white folks acting like they really care if someone calls them racist. I want to scream stop lying for fucks' sake. They of course always use it as an excuse for stuff they don't wanna do. Oh, we can't discuss race, what if someone calls me a racist. Oh I can't write a character of another color, what if someone calls me racist and on and on and the fuck on. I can't deal with black issues unless they stop talking about race. I think the problem is the vast gulf between what they act like is going to happen and what actually does.

They always say folks are being accused of racism, like the racism police are going to come and sentence them and take them away. Or at least give them a scolding. Or they talk about how we always use the race card which is supposed to be some ultra powerful advantage or whatever. But what really happens is that they go, talk about how the dog ate their anti racism, and how people of color are all liars and can't tell what actually happened to them unless white people tell them what happened, and then they go on their merry way. So it's like why the big production? It's like me acting like my parents will beat me half to death if I don't close the cabinet doors.

Heck, I think I get worse about the cabinets. Every week I get a lecture about my trifling nature. It is long and detailed. I don't get defenders popping in talking about how it's not a big deal to leave the cabinet doors open and how my parents are overreacting and how oppressed I am that I have to listen to a bit of complaining in exchange for not paying rent. But do I make a big dramatic fuss about this? Do I pop into conversations about trifling kids acting like I've been personally attacked? No, and it affects my life way more than white people being called racist.

They won't lose any friends if they are called racist. Nothing will happen to them if they are called racist. So shut up with the tantrums, white people.

John Scalzi says to students, cite his site, put it in a footnote. I say if your school allows you to cite blogs in your papers, your school sucks and you're a horrible person. Back in the day(ok, less than a month ago) I was only allowed to use websites if they were A)a scholarly journal online B)well, I don't remember any other websites I was allowed to use in papers per se, except for I used the BBC for my take home final in African history. Also, while it hasn't happened to Scalzi, I hope that anyone who plagerizes off the internet realizes that they are a dumbfuck. You think your prof can't use google? Any white folks who have done that and then turned around and complained about some affirmative action should find their future asking me whether I want fries with my baked potato. Free up space for people who aren't total morons,ok?

Our churches are not exotic zoos for you to gawk at. Please fuck off. And don't take pictures of our neighborhoods and act like you've did something, please.

At the freeslave, there is some discussion of interracial dating between black men and white women. My take is this. What reason do you have for dating white women? Did you just meet some girl and find that she was totally amazing and the one that totally completed you,etc? Did she just have a nice ass and you wanted to get some? That's ok too- just make sure everyone agrees that you're just there for the panties. Or are you doing it because you think black girls are ugly, or insert stereotype here? The first is fine. Love is love and do what makes you happy. But if it's the second, you're a terrible person. You have to think to yourself- how did you get this stupid idea? How can all black girls be X way? You know all white girls aren't Y way. And if you have to resort to the whole "I'm just not attracted to black women, it's just like not liking redheads" crap- shoot yourself. Maybe you need intensive fucking therapy to see why you want to lump a bunch of women who all look different in one box, you dumb fuck*. So to keep it simple, liking white women because of actual traits individual white women may have, yes! Disliking black women because of crap somebody made up, no!

*This rationale is more common among whites, who when they use it seem equally as dumb.

YES! At least one vile motherfucker gets what he deserves.

Also, Bitch PhD asks if we can disagree without being disagreeable, and I think that's only possible if we're in the same reality. Let me explain. Some feminists think that feminists that don't like porn are somehow making it harder for them to get their porny porny fun on. Now, I disagree. But we're in the same universe. They don't believe that despite the fact that women get beat up more than men, we should focus on men to the exclusion of women in domestic violence cases. Porny goodness or no porn til it's cruelty free is more of a war of ideas. Neither side has the power to enforce what they want either. Whether some lady says "porn hurts women!" or some lady says "porn empowers women!" we are all at the idea stage here. Not to mention, although I was annoyed by some folks who act either like if you don't like porn, you're a dried up prude who hates sex or if you like porn, you support sex slaves from Moldavia, no one's worth as a person is being debated over. Yea, it's mean, but at the end of the day, we can all agree that a woman is a valid source of authority on whether she is exploited or not. We may disagree with which women, but we all think that the testimony of a woman is not worthless.

Now, it can be difficult to deal with people in different realities. Now, I believe that you can learn about racism through the use of innovative devices like books and websites or maybe listening to the experiences of people of color. But others believe that books and websites written by people who have studied race using interviews, polls, and controlled studies are not valid sources of authority, nor are the experiences of people of color. The only source of authority is random white people(and anti racist whites don't count either.) . Now, we have like no common ground here. I can agree it's not very nice to call folks crackers, but that's not even touching the surface. That doesn't even come close to where the issues are in terms of severity. But that sort of person thinks with that the conversation is over, and so nothing gets accomplished.

The only links to the reality of racism are vetoed in their mindspace, so it's pretty frustrating. Not to mention, the idea that your experience doesn't count, interviews that some white dude down at the college did don't count, but Suzie who can telepathically find out the SAT scores of any black person counts as a source. Add to that the idea that you're supposed to never say the words racism unless they are directed against a person of color, and you have folks sitting around muttering cracka ass cracka. Not to mention, there are white folks who are stupid in high places. POC are clustered at the bottom, and we're all socialized to bend over for uh..white penis(white females get a pass too- maybe white dildo?).

We all are told to doubt ourselves, to think up a million reasons why our experience isn't valid,etc,etc. I may be 'racist' but I haven't ruined any white people's lives, although I made one sad because I said I didn't trust him to not be racist and I'm always worried that he's just hiding the racism and one day he'd be like 'surprise! nigger!", but even that's more a reaction to white people being racist to me making me a suspicious bastard than random malice.

I hate it when people take their kids to inappropriate movies. Intellectually I understand the high cost of baby sitters, but emotionally I worry that the kids just aren't ready to see all that violence, and cussing.

Also, OMG miracle baby! Activist amazingness Also, brownfemi shows courage. And the legendary Strunk and White.

I was reading My Soul to Keep, and I have to admit, my soul was totally healed. I mean, the child plays with a doll baby, and everyone is the hue of food, and not only that, there are African immortals. I like fantasy and all that, but there's only so much you can take with people of color being at the margins, if at all. Not to mention, the idea that nobody ever did anything kooky or magical or anything in anyplace but Europe or America and only if they were white, kind of grates . I have to admit that I like to read more colorful fantasy and sci fi from people of color themselves, as I like to hear about the culture first hand. Neil Gaiman worked really hard on Anasi Boys, and it's a good book overall, but yea, it's hard to understand culture secondhand.

People under 30 don't want to hear about dogs affected by Katrina. News at 11. It's the Big Fat Carnival! I will admit something shameful, perhaps. I sometimes wonder what sex vegankid is. I always assume that ze is a male, but but that's totally unfounded. Maybe on the internet, I assume people whose genders I do not know are male? I'm sorry to say and I'm working on this, but I always assume if I don't know your gender irl, that you are a female. Of course on the internet, it's not always constant- on feminist or black spaces, everyone is a female until I'm told otherwise. It's odd that I think of places on the net as gendered spaces. I think the irl thing is because women can present in more ways without getting hassled? Oh well.

Jay Sennett informs us of fucked up labor practices (i.e. slavery). Read it.

The Fifth Radical Women of Color Carnival is UP!

On this racial identity quiz, I have 46 on integration, an 38 on immersion, 34 on encounter and 23 on preencounter. I thought I was going to be more towards immersion since I hate me some white folks. Cross' model, while disputed by some, helped me get a good grade in Gay History class. Yay! Also, vaguely feminist cartoon. Steve Gillard gives us all a clue about the New York educational system. This is worth kicking him $5. Also, one of his commentators blogs in an entry we all should read.

George Will has helped me come to a realization. I glanced at a Newsweek open to a typical white whine about how baaad it was that evil evil black militants forced whites to actually try to have some actual equality, and how actually learning about racial reality is boring, which can only be alleviated by whining about how bad white folks have it. And I realized, white guilt doesn't exist. At all. I used to think- maybe only 90% of people who say they have white guilt are lying. But no, I gotta say, I think all of you folks are lying. Guilt sort of implies actually feeling bad about something you did. It involves comprehending your actions, and sometimes, even making amends, not lying about it, but actually doing it. White folks are crazy sick with denial. They never listen to anything a person of color, a scholar about race, or anyone who doesn't say 'you're right. Not enslaving black folks is so hard for you that you shouldn't feel obligated to look at the actual realities of race. Noooo! Feel free to complain about how you are hard done by that others want rights too and actual equality(not the white person version where nothing is done but talking about how you're a bad person) Unless you can ever talk about racial issues without making it about how hard not lynching blacks and having black people in your dorm is for you, how can you be capable of guilt? Guilt implies a sort of superego, that says things like "the truth is more important than what makes me feel good" and "treating people like that is wrong" not an id that screams WHITES ONLY.

I guess I'm kinda pissed because I mean, look at the contrast to black folks. We are always dogging ourselves for stuff that isn't our fault. Most of us seem to believe if only every single black person was superhumanly perfect, everything would be all right. (of course, to make this a full picture, I must admit everybody thinks they are the one holding everything up, and middle class blacks think it's the poor's fault,etc). Of course, that's not possible. Even if I was able to be a superhuman, which I can't be, someone else would display some human frality, and it'd be all our fault,etc. And then you have whites here being like "I can't possibly be racist!" despite their behavior staring us all in the fucking face. White folks who are so lazy, so stupid, that they think that learning about race is boring, but are glad to insult, talk down to, and just plain lie to people of color and themselves. Whites who can hear about a hate crime and then turn around and say there's no racism on their street. They think they are all fine people. Heck, they could not even try for a job, not study in school, deal drugs(if you sell drugs to someone else, you're a drug dealer, white people), steal items from stores, etc,etc and still think they are the best people in the world, and in fact, the only people who count in the whole universe.

I'm not saying that the people of color who enable them to do so aren't disgusting wastes of flesh. However, I think we can all feel how sad and debasing it is for someone to sell out the children of America (both black and white, Latino and Asian) by pandering to white people's self delusion that everything in America is fine, the only problem is those pesky niggers(and spics and gooks). White folks don't have a clue. It's like they are the kids eating paste at the back of the room while everyone else is trying to learn something, and who insist on disrupting class with their antics- every. fucking. day.

I've only written 500 words and none of them are any good, but I'm glad that the Colorlines fiction issue has gotten me writing again. My new goal will be to get a fiction story published before I hit 30. Not realistic, as I am 22 today.

Happy birthday to me! Also to AIDS which is older than me. Hhehee, I remember what this is from.

Rachael S breaks the stats about black men down. Geh, lifestyle lolita? WTF? I may like the style, but come the fuck on, people. But modern life is empty for many people, so they have to try to find meaning in something. Of course, maybe I should break down and buy a petticoat for fuck's sake. Atlanta was more fun because at least I could go to the occasional meet, even if I didn't have any clothes. A hilarious icon about this. Also, the drama that started more drama. and I found a link to a fashion guide to lolita and a lolita drama LJ

An interesting sci fi interview. Ha ha e.e. cummings POC in sci fi /fantasy book list. It's good to see that Joplin's Ghost made the Essence best seller list.

Naked white lady! (NSFW) Also, could America be taking away some of the 3rd world's scant nurses? Rude Shannon wonders why they can't hire American nurses. Although on the other hand, nurses in other countries aren't paid as much(especially in Africa). Seems like it's time for me to find a medical training charity or some shit(yes, I suck) In other news, there's no shame in Brownfemi's game.

While preparing for my interview, I found this vaguely amusing post. Ok,ok, I laughed out loud at the line "liberation is in conjugation". Seriously, I speak English the white way, and that's totally not suddenly making folk be like "Oh, I guess it is worth spending money on education and healthcare now" for fuck's sake. Note that my English is not 'correct'. Correct English is sort of a moving target as some rules are dropped and others are added. It may be technically incorrect to use 'them'for a single person, but only pendants care about that. It's certainly not seen as a marker of being a bad person if you break the rule in a 'white' way. It's when black folks have their own 'errors' that it's a big deal, and that's not cool.

I blog to calm my nerves. Wargles! I have my first and hopefully last interview of the summer tomorrow. I hate interviews because I'm always so awkward. In other news, youth villages has an adoption program. Also, what is it militant Thursday and I didn't get the message? Also, ignorant editorial is torn apart. If I see some folks making an actual effort to act like they have some sense, then I'll grant them 'fatigue'. An exploration of cultural appropiation in sci fi, some good, some cringy(I'm sorry you dudes are being messed over in Europe, but heck, you could go anywhere else and it's like Irish? What Irish? You're white!) Sex and Race on the same topic.

From blackfolk:

When someone brings up anecdotal evidence stating that they or their white friend got passed over for a job or promotion because the company HAD to have a Black person (or better, a Black woman) in the position because of Affirmative Action, wouldn't it be appropriate to call them on it? Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but a person's employment application and information is confidential, correct? Thus, the ONLY way that said white person would know that they got "passed over" by a less qualified minority would be if they either broke into HR or someone in HR divulged confidential information. Both of these things are illegal.

The other alternative to such a statement is that the person presenting such anecdotal evidence is an honest person and hasn't received confidential information. This is the much sadder version, because this means that such a person assumes that all Blacks and women are automatically less qualified than himself, and that the only way that we can get jobs or into schools is via a handout.

Any thoughts? Experiences with this? I've got a few, but I'll tell those later.

Here's a new study that will be completely ignored by white people as they complain about how once a black guy looked at them funny, or that nobody admires their mad Japanese skills.