On the #browntwitterbird issue:

DR Goddess reflects on how on twitter, we're a community. When I use twitter, I want a far flung wide reaching conversation not just a one way watching Kayne tweet.

Shani-O unraveals the 'mystery' of black folks using twitter- it's adapted to mobile internet.

Yep, black folks with similar interests cluster. People don't wonder why etsy folks use twitter or why manga obsessives use twitter. I mean as this lady says, there's no just one black twitter. Activists group, rap folks group, people who spend all their time on twitter obsessing about Arcade Fire and Scott Pilgrim group.

We all have our baseline 'blackness'- American blackness, British blackness, Carribean blackness, African blackness- all different. But within that blackness, there's multitudes. Multitudes who want you to know that #itsallfunandgamesuntil

The beauty industry can kill you. I'm not just saying that as a radical feminist or a person who has read The Story of Stuff and is now acutely aware that everything we do and buy will kill a)us b)the planet. No, I'm saying this because the industry pushes us to see our dark skin or our aging skin as wrong. It pushes us to see the first issue to think about when there's some dissatisfaction in our lives as beauty. Instead of am I kind to others? Is the work I doing satisfying? It pushes us to see the issue as our thighs, our hair that reaches towards the sky instead of blowing in the wind, So the first thing we reach for isn't the stillness inside ourselves, but a product. Not only is that bad for our souls, the fact that to make a bigger profit they slack on safety, so that mercury is in these creams, is killing us as well.


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On Whiteness and Sustainable agriculture.

I agree with the commentators that when brown bodies bike, it's seen as a symbol of poverty, and when white bodies bike, it's a movement. When brown bodies have a backyard garden and chickens in the ghetto, it's quaint, or rustic, when white bodies do that, it's a revolution. When brown bodies go to the Indian market and eat fresh, it's unseen, when white bodies do it, it's a trend.

My family has been 'green' for a long time. My granddad had nearly a farm in his backyard, and I'm sure when white folks discover that a whole crew of cousins can fit in the same two prom dresses, it'll be on the front cover of the New York Times.

Today's complaint about the commercial appeal will be a mockery of a dumb letter to the editor. Stupid letter in bold.

Count on it. Every few weeks some white guy will make a dumb, insensitive remark about a black person. Count on this, also: Every few weeks Otis L. Sanford, your editor for opinion and editorials, will jump on these remarks and hint conspiratorially that whites have hardly moved out of the primeval slime of racism.

For the uninitiated, Otis Sanford is black. This may or may not matter. If something happens every few weeks, I can see why folks would still see a continuing problem with it. If I called the letter writer a dude with a very small penis every few weeks, you probably would not think "Man, Shannon has moved beyond her insulting people problem!" No, it would be, what's with her that she is constantly insulting the size of dude's organ?"


Since Sanford seems to have some general background feeling that he knows that most white people are still in the grips of racism, it would be interesting to ask him to name specific white people, other than politicians, that he knows to be racist. Perhaps as an expert on race, he could name, say, three dozen people right off the top of his head, but I think most of us would be hard-pressed to name even two or three of the opposite race who we know to be racists.

What's with this mess? I think the problem here is that we have different definitions of racists. Maybe this guy means dude with pointy hood, but I mean those people who are always calling people thugs and animals, making fun of how black people speak, and those folks who constantly defend racist idiots.


Of all the black people I have ongoing relationships with, I can't name a single one who seems to have any obvious objection to the fact that my skin is white, and I can't think of a single black person I know personally whose skin color is more than a trivial visual property to me. So I am inclined to wonder if these dumb remarks people make arise out of the vestiges of former mental attitudes rather being actual determinants for ongoing relationships.

LOLZ, he has BLACK FRIENDS!!! But seriously dude, why do you expect your 'black friends'- probably the post man and the dude at the desk across from you, to say? "Hey, dude! You're a whitey! LOLZ!"? And those former mental attitudes still hurt. When teabaggers call folks the n word, when folks hang nooses on campuses and make up outrageous lies about how they somehow are smart enough to go to college, yet so dumb they wouldn't think noose=symbol of hanging=bad idea even if I don't know racial history, it hurts people! A lot.

Sanford likes to drag out his favorite, time-worn, phrase that we -- meaning only whites, of course -- have a long way to go. Sanford might find it productive to spend a little honest effort examining the proofs of his dogma. He might discover that he's not really as expert on racism as he claims to be. If he keeps an open mind, he might even find out that he has almost as far to go as most of the rest of us.

This comes across as whining because some white folks might have to change their ways. If folks spent as much time actually changing their ways as they did about people saying 'hey, maybe you should', we'd live in a racial utopia.

Let's all point and laugh at these losers who think their kids are too weak and fragile to be on the same team as everyone else. Oh noooo! little jonny might be exposed to people of other cultures! The horror! Can't let little jonny have his childhood fun with different people, you know!

Sadly, pearl clutching is fun and fast, and actual work is not glamorous and is slow slow. I think this is the root of the 'why don't you protest against thugs' fallacy. Being in a tutoring program, a mentoring program, isn't flashy, and becoming an activist against folks who want there to be no investment in anything that might be productive or useful is derided. Do a jobs not jails action and see what the same folks complaining about thugs say.

Instead we're supposed to hold out for a black male hero to marry us women[because all problems can be solved if those single moms just got married], and not worry our pretty little heads over unequal school funding, lack of infrastructure, and job discrimination.

Hey, newsweek guy! We haven't given up! But the truth is that we might be working hard, but other folks work against. While it was wrong for dude to punch chica here in the face, the bull people spout pushes us back. The space between us increases every time folks attack us with their hurtful words. Then again, the idea that dads are a magic panacea also increases the space between us and our goals.

Or maybe I should say, the idea that only men, and only biological fathers can be 'dads' widens the space. We can all help protect children from the violence of the world and nurture their growth. We can all be 'dads' for the children- we just need to broaden our perspective.

But looking from another perspective, saying we need dads in the homes means we don't have to do anything. I mean, what can we do? If only she had stayed with that dude! We have no complicity in the conditions- it's all the fault of people who aren't getting married. It's easy for us, isn't it?

Hey, annoying Memphis flyer guy, get a clue! 1st, what's with this 'trannies' mess? Thanks for the offensive language. And what's with the wah, a rapper mentioned white cops beating down black dudes? Dude dude dude. Mentioning this isn't what is preventing racial reconciliation- it's worrying about some rapper mentioning reality over the problem of the police being poorly trained!

But I guess the gulf between us can't be bridged. Even though I'm middle class, our experiences are too different. It's quite a tragedy.

While I'm waiting for the world to change, I'd like to bitch about those damn kids. Those damn kids may or may not congregate around the building where my class is held. They perpetrate crimes against fashion, Memphis style. I can't remember exactly what they are, but they are there. They use bad language. I dropped a water bottle near them and one swore, saying bitch please! Due to the stimulus money, there's a lot more of them than usual, swelling the coveted ranks of the jobs program. They talk to women who are much older than them, even calling my prof a drink of water, she reports. Some boys in semi preppy vests tried to talk to me. I think they used ma'am. When their paychecks are late, they are antsy. Some may be trying to pay rent or funnel money to little brothers or sisters, and some may want the latest shirt to deal with the all consuming rites of adolescence.

I can't help but thinking there would be a big difference in reaction if the crimes against fashion committed were hunting camo, confederate flags or redneck tattoos. I say this, but the sea of class is between us. Something else divides us, but I can't name it. A former honor student; all my effort has gone to dust. I half want the kids to blaze their own paths, but the other half of me says THOSE DAMN KIDS!

OH my god. If these BLANKITY BLANKS don't shut up about why don't you protest against the thugs, I'm going to go out and manage my anger in an inappropriate manner! If those types had their fucking brains on, which they don't, they'd use logic. I'm against shooting people myself, but the truth is that me marching in the street would be pretty ineffective, and that's why we don't march against the thugs.

Antiviolence programs are often done in churches, in schools, and inside homes. People doing anger management groups are often helping curb the violence more than carping about those blacks and their terrible community,etc. They act as if we aren't the same. As if they need to just hole up someplace and tell us all how to live and then everything will be perfect.

NO DUDES! GET OUT AND PUSH OR ADMIT YOU DON'T REALLY CARE! Stop bagging on us! It's like you're using this as a stick to beat us with in annalouise's words.[although I'm a cheap bastard and say I can realize my capacity to heal myself for free]

Critisms of the adoption system are made through sarcasm. Also, a post about patterns of exploitation in the adoption system is made straight.

Creating a glossary of terms on race.

'Islam is a Feminist religion.'

You know what? How come there aren't more calls for pussy eating? it's steak and blowjob day, it's let's give our dudes a blowjob randomly day. Way to exclude lesbians or us weirdos who can't get off by giving blowjobs.

BTW white folks: You buy you a pronto pup, you put your kid on the whirly whirl. You're at an 'urban fair!' Really!

Why journalism sucks nowadays. and rules for feminism coverage.

The same could be said for coverage of blacks doing anything at all. "Blacks breathe today! Let's hear from a conservative black person saying that blacks suck at breathing and just aren't trying hard enough to breathe and some random white person saying that rates of asthma in the black community are their own damn fault'

Maybe I'm not an expert, but I don't think women don't know that to be on tech panels they need to submit things or that it's fun to blog about technical issues. Stuff like perform like a porn star ads seek to keep women in their place- you're just a disembodied ass, like this computer here.

Through Mother Jones, I found this great post- I especially liked the bit about how homophobes think that gay people just want to talk to their ugly kids or their ugly selves. It shows how self centered racism and homophobia is. Instead of truly connecting with others and seeing them for who they are it's all me,me,me. That reminds me of the racist note writer mentioned in this column- the town is only for whites, baseball- a global past time popular in places from the Caribbean to Japan- is only for whites. That not only prevents them from enjoying little league in their own communities, but also prevents them from enjoying the major leagues and the great talent we get from overseas.

Also, police officers shake down people of color in Texas.

The alternative school system in Desoto has been under suspicion of racial tracking.

In the print version of the appeal, the new information was a seperate story, but on the web, they merely added the information about the choking of a 15 year old to the old story. Personally, I'm not seeing how we can justify choking a 15 year old. Also, what's with the Memphis students pollute 'our' schools shit in the comments? Why don't you guys stop adding to the decay of society? Much more on why that is later.

Legal recourse for children physically and verbally abused by police. There is a stupid comment that I want to address. Let's take the premise[not necessarily true] that these children's parents were bad parents. Does that give the police the right to abuse children because they think their parents are bad parents? And how would the police know who is a good parent and who is a bad parent? If a child's parent is a secret sexual abuser[i.e. a bad parent] should we hit the kid in the face?

I don't think alternative school automatically means bad parent, BTW, but even if it did, why not help them with parenting rather than having the police hit their kids?

Stupid racists try to reveal the real name of anti racist writer.

The myth of the world orphan crisis.

Folks who talk about folks being 'thugs' and 'animals' are nowhere to be found now that the faces of violence are revealed.

The idea that 'street crime' is the only crime obscures what we can do to fight crime. Domestic violence is crime. Your clean cut white kid getting drunk and menacing the roads is crime. Some guy stealing a billion dollars? That's crime too.

You know why nothing gets any better? Comments like this. The assumption is that normal people can do nothing but quarantine the 'thugs'[which I disagree with the whole idea of a 'thug' as it perpetuates the idea that there are 'criminals' and 'the rest of us' and if only we killed all the 'criminals' everything would be fine]

Note that this report says that both males were in their 50s. and the shooting was over a parking dispute. We could prevent shootings like this by educating ourselves on anger management, deescalation skills, not carrying guns around in our cars. The emphasis on thugs obscures these simple things we can do to prevent violence. Because violence doesn't come from outside of the community, it comes from all of us. When you don't invest in the fabric of your community, saying oh, those folks are too dark, those folks are too poor, you get crime.

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BTW: elle b has an important post on rape, virginity, and the connection between that and sexual choice making. We need to change the attitude that once you've lost it, either by saying yes or by coercion, your bodily integrity doesn't matter.

Black FF character- could be awesome or fail.

An amazing post on the martyrdom of Martin Luther King.

I always feel sort of bad because I don't have the passion or dedication to be an activist. So I'm not any help... I guess folks who don't do anything really drag down a movement.

Oh but bfp is doing something awesome!