Mumbai is the target again!

Madhat gives us links to photos and blog posts from India on the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

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Blog Action Day 2008 Philippines

Today is Blog Action Day 2008 for the Philippines:

Cyberspace group Bloggers Kapihan over the weekend called on Filipino bloggers all over the world to join the Blog Action Day 2008 on Oct. 15 by taking on the issue of poverty through text, photos, music and podcasts, video and microblogging.

The event website is at http://blogactionday2008.bloggerskapihan.com/ where Bloggers Kapihan posted instructions and resources for interested bloggers.

“On Oct. 15, we urge bloggers to unite and discuss poverty. It may be an essay, a story on how they may once be poor or their fears about falling to the ranks of the unemployed. It may also come in the form of a video or a podcast,” said Bloggers Kapihan…

Kyle Payne is an Ass

Which is obviously a huge understatement.  Ravenmn blogs:

Kyle Payne, a blogger and advocate against sexism and pornography, has been convicted of sexual assult. Renegade Evolution explains and follows up with a list of links to other bloggers who are following the story. Way to go, Ren!

Go. Read. Learn. When you’re done, let me disgust you some more.

Belledame’s post on the matter beings with an interesting post about the weenie character in politics and blogland (that last link stolen from belle’s post-thanks).

Renegade Evolution writes:

So, yes, meet Kyle Payne, a man who is staunchly against pornography, a man who is dedicated to men rethinking their views on sexuality, privilege, rape culture, and masculinity, a man who spent time as a Rape Crisis Advocate. A man who assaulted and photographed a unconscious young woman under his authority as a university resident advisor, for his own sexual gratification and without her consent. A man who had child pornography on his hard drive, a man who’s blog, The Road Less Traveled, is filled with angst and turmoil and emotion, condemnation for the exact sort of behavior he himself has engaged in.

That is the real Kyle Payne. Hypocrite of the worst kind.

And finally, belledame222 blogs:

So, I’m surfing around, procrastinating, you know how it goes, and I find what appears to me at first to be yet another garden variety (as these things go, there aren’t actually THAT many of them I don’t think) male radical feminist blog, one Kyle Payne. Since I’m in the mood to snark, I read and roll my eyes a bit: yeah, your classic: all of 22 years old and teddibly teddibly earnest, doesn’t seem totally rabid or nothin’ but your basic pompous, sanctimonious hetboy dweeb fangirling Andrea Dworkin and other Famous Not The Fun Kind Feminists for whatever reason. Yeah, there are a few of these around, mostly kind of, well, um, creepy and risible in a milquetoast way at best, foamingly horrid at worst. Ime, imnsho, etc.

But this one, thus far, well, I am thinking, trying to be relatively charitable, not really sure why–basically he just seems like this character, albeit with politics I find particularly teeth grinding. Oh, whee, yet more hairshirting and lecturing about the horrible awful pr0nz and such small portions.

Stuff White People Do

Changeseeker blogs:

…last night, thanks to a comment by Professor Zero, I discovered a new blog called Stuff White People Do. The author is smart, right on the target, introspective and clever.

…

…if you haven’t read Macon D. over at Stuff White People Do yet, then let me send you on over there post haste.

Just recognize that you’re probably gonna be there for a while.

Blogging the Convention

Francis L. Holland blogs about the complete lack of invited bloggers whom are people of color, at the upcoming Democratic National Convention:

Has the DNC consulted with the 20% of the Convention delegates who are Black to determine whether they approve of this color-based caste system? Of course not! However, unless the floor blogging caste system is either immediately scrapped or broadened to include a representative number of Blacks and Latinos, then many afrosphere bloggers will continue a determined and concerted nation-wide campaign to bring this new color and ethnicity-based blogger caste system to the attention of all of the Black and Latino delegates to the Democratic National Convention, as well as state Democratic Party elected officials, the media and the public, so that the entire nation can participate in deciding what should be done to rectify the virtually all-white “Jim Crow” floor blogger corps of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

If so, this promises to be a long, hot summer for all concerned.

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights

Sokari posts:

The 15th May – a day for bloggers to unite and focus on human rights everywhere. For more information Bloggers Unite.

Via Devious Diva

BrownFemiPower’s Final (?) Words

BrownFemiPower says:

I wrote what I wrote to say that there either is a feminist movement or there isn’t—and if feminists can’t even be called on to point to the work that other feminists are doing—if simply pointing to a whole sphere of pro-immigration bloggers (because, to be clear, I stated pro-immigration bloggers and men and women bloggers of color NOT brownfemipower) who have been blogging incessantly about this is too much work for feminism—well, then there’s no fucking feminist movement.

…

I never said that it’s important to recognize that I had the idea first. I don’t give a shit who came up with the idea first—even if it WAS me. I don’t give a shit who thought of what first. I don’t fucking want credit for anything outside of existing. (For those who care, what I really said: There’s a lot of women of color (and men of color!) who have talked about immigration. There’s a lot of women of color and men of color who have examined how sexualized violence has been the foremost result of the “strengthening” of borders. There’s been a lot of us who have insisted for a long time now that immigration is a feminist issue, goddamn it, get your head out of your ass.

I even wrote a whole speech about it (link not available–BUT for those who DID see the speech, do you happen to recall that long list of LINKED work at the beginning of the speech?).

…

This was NEVER ABOUT FUCKING BROWNFEMIPOWER except in the sense that I BELONG to immigrant communities and I BELONG to pro-immigration blogger community and I BELONG to the women of color community and I THOUGHT I belonged to a feminist community.

This was about women of color constantly being written out of feminism, being written out of our own communities BY feminism—then being beaten up by feminists with JUST DO IT, JUST DO IT, JUST FUCKING DO IT YOU LAZY SPICS.

…

I know I’m brownfemipower and I want to end violence against women. And I wanted to do that with all the women who keep insisting to me that we are all in this together and we have common problems that we have to work against and we’re all sisters, and there is such thing as a commonality of experience between us all—as I said in my original post—I thought feminism was important because it brought women together (I had thought at one time that feminism was about justice for women. I had thought it was about centering the needs of women, and creating action in the name of, by and for women. I had thought that feminism has its problems but it’s worth fighting for, worth sacrificing and sweating and crying and breaking down for.)

…

I realize now that “feminism” and I stand in direct opposition to each other—that the feminists who aren’t actively working against me and my community are, like Seymour Hersch, few and far between.

This has caused a radical shifting in my thinking. A shifting that I have no desire to work through online—but that I need to think through before I can act. I am not giving up. I am just thinking. And resting. And reading my beloved books and soaking my tired dogs.

Cuz giiirls, my dogs are TIRED.

As I said in my last post—I will find you, and you will find me.

The Exorcism of Donny R.

The AngryBlackBitch castes out the demons from Rumsefeld’s sick mind as it has been annonced he will be coming out with a memoir in 2010:

ABB, whilst flinging drops of vodka cran at Rumsfeld: I cast you out, unclean foulness!

Rummy: Freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.

…

ABB: The logic of Spock commands you! The power of logic and reason commands you! The logic of Spock commands you!

Rummy: [moans] There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. [spews pea soup across the room] That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know. [spins head in circle a couple of times]

Women of Color Blogging, Feminism, and Brownfemipower

Holly, at Feministe, blogs about the recent news surrounding the shutdown of Brownfemipower’s blog and white feminists appropriating ideas from women of color:

What I care about is that when white feminists undertake to write about the issues of women of color — such as immigration, which is clearly a massively race-infused issue — they should do so in solidarity with women of color. In ways that give political voice to women of color, to immigrants, to those whose voice is generally not heard as loudly.

When any of us have a soapbox, an opportunity to get up and talk, we must continue to stand by those who aren’t called on. If you want to consider yourself an anti-racist or a white ally to people of color — if you want anyone else to consider you those things — then it behooves you to swim against the current. If everyone did, perhaps the tides would turn, even if it was just in our corner of the blogosphere. And sometimes all you have to do is simply call out the hard work of another woman who went before you, who has paved the path that you’re walking down with research and ideas and words and strong feelings. All you have to do is cover your bases, pay your respects, and make sure you can’t be read as trying to take sole credit.

[Hat Tip: Alas, a blog]

Brownfemipower and Appropriation

[Sorry in advance to Ampersand. All posts that are posted at The Blog and the Bullet are automatically cross-posted on Alas, a blog. Therefore his post will be posted twice on his blog. Which is why I normally don’t link Alas, a blog on here, but this stuff is important.]

Ampersand blogs about the controversy surrounding Amanda Marcotte and Brownfemipower shutting down her site:

I like and respect both BFP and Amanda Marcotte. This shit just sucks.

…

…we live in a racist context. And in that context, when white progressives take up issues that POC activists have been leading on for years, we should credit, cite and acknowlege the work of POC. Otherwise, we’re contributing to a racist pattern that’s been going on for decades, in all forms of writing and art.

Hero from Egypt

Roobing blogs:

If your hero is Justin Timberlake or Santa Claus, Madonna or the Tooth Fairy… or any such legend or fluff merchant you’re wrong. Your hero is actually Hossam el-Hamalawy, currently reporting the uprising in Egypt, led by the textile workers of Mahalla.

Hossam reports:

The Textile Workers’ League activists Kamal el-Fayoumi and Kareem el-Beheiri, as well as a number of the Mahalla detainees, are currently undergoing interrogation at the Tanta Prosecutor’s Office. I have a report from an activist, which I couldn’t confirm yet, that Kareem was subject to severe beatings in police custody. The activist I spoke with said he heard this from one of the recently released detainees. We should know soon whether Kareem and the others were abused in custody or not when the lawyers who are attending the interrogation come out…

…

For continuous updates on the detainees, please follow Tadamon, April 6th Strike, Abna2Masr and the HMLC blogs, especially as reports are coming out that those ordered by the prosecutor to be released in Alexandria and Mansoura, remain in police custody… Shehab Ismail also called me from NYC yesterday to say his sister Sarah who had been detained earlier in Cairo was still in police custody despite a release order…

Vagina??

The Apostate blogs about a new feature on Feministing:

I’m so glad Jessica is out there.

Their new feature — Friday Feminist Fuck You — is great. There is something very powerful about young smart happy women saying Fuck You to the anti-feminist powers that be.

Here’s the first video — it’s very cute and spot-on. I’m not surprised it’s given birth to a Facebook fan-group.

A Little History on Planned Parenthood

La Chola blogs on a controversy involving a few bloggers on the racist history of Planned Parenthood and its work today:

It’s dangerous to not know the history of an organization–even more dangerous to not know its present. Yes, PP has done some absolutely amazing and brilliant things. PP has also done some detestable and horrific things–and it is WRONG to let the detestable and horrific things pass because of the good things. It’s even worse to call a woman of color who has had a bad experience with her reproductive life “stupid” because there is no critical analysis of how a historically “population control” centered institute is currently conducting its business. As I said in my comment, the only reason PP is where it is today is because women of color stood up to all the people who attempted to silence them with calls of “stupid” and “worthless” and demanded to be heard.

The Blogosphere and the Super Bowl

Some reaction from progressive and anti-racist bloggers:

Angry Asian Man:

Look at us. We’re mad, we’re talking about the damn ad, and now they’ve got another story about their company in the New York Times. Hell, they didn’t even have to hire an ad agency. With the announcement that they’re pulling these ads, there will now be legions of folks who flock online to watch the commercial and see what the fuss is about. All this, and now you’ve got a lot of people suddenly aware of a no-name company nobody would’ve given a crap about in the first place. Nobody’s sorry about anything here.

XicanoPwr (Hat Tip: Inteligenta Indigena):

Of course, the stereotypes and jabs aren’t always so blatant, though they can be just as unsettling. True, there are people who do think a Ghandi-like Indian accent or a Chinese “ching chong” are hilarious, but, the sad truth is, they are missing the point. When a stereotypes are repeated, those stereotype do become the norm and a frame of reference for a person’s entire cultural group and ultimately it becomes more difficult to avoid the stereotypes and clichés from our current racially biased system.

Understanding racial cues is very important, because depending how we interpret these cues will shape our opinions towards members of racial and ethnic groups. When commercials like these air, they tend to make explicit references – either by visual or auditory cues – to race, which then trigger racial thinking by activating past information held within our long-term memory about that racial and ethnic minority group. In other words, racial attitudes are primarily based on personal experiences, salient facts or events.

Bae Gang Shik:

While there has generally been some backlash against SalesGenie for their slew of offensive commercials, nobody dares mark this as racism within popular culture. In fact, it seems that in most analyses the ads are only seen as “cultural insensitive” or “inappropriate.”

I’m sick of nobody calling these sort of media portrayals as they are, Racism!

KoreanPower999:

Also, there is something disturbing in the fact that they thought it was ok to stereotype Asians in this commercial because I would doubt that they would do that for African Americans and Jewish people. They know if they did this to other groups, there would definitely be a backlash. It just tells you that it’s ok to be racist against Asian Americans in this nation and we saw it on display in the biggest television event of the year. I just shutter to think how many millions of people watched that and just laughed and thought nothing of it. We got a long way to go in this nation on the issue of race.

iArabs.com

Rebellious Arab Girl blogs:

This is an Arab news network (http:///www.iarabs.com) that takes articles from various Arab sites on the net. I guess I found it because I saw people linking to my articles from there. I joined and I love it.. Great place to read just Arab articles. I like it also because it is simple and clean and not cluttered like Digg and other sites!

Blowing Things Out of Proportion

Woman of Color PhD blogs about how white society accuses people of color bloggers and their white allies of blowing small incidents out of proportion and that in reality they are the ones causing racism, not that America is racist:

What is telling about this accusation is not only how easy it is to do a basic search and discover the number of incidents we are talking about but also the ways that once again standing up for the basic civil and human rights of people of color is being seen as inciting hatred and violence.  D.A. Walters said the only thing that saved Jena from violence was God despite evidence that the only people behaving in a violent way were Klan from neighboring areas. Adriene Curry argued that black history month was the real culprit of segregation and racism in this country and only encouraged people to avoid one another and hate each other.  Now, people discussing the Palmdale wrist incident are being likened to antebellum white supremacist propagandanists?

Well there is a pattern, a pattern that has been well documented by the SPLC (as I have said before) and was also documented on CNN tonight.  One month into the school year, we have the following examples at our disposal…

She also has an update on the  Palmdale-Knight High School “cake incident.”

Jena 6 and Black bloggers

AngryIndian posts:

Jackson, Sharpton and other big-name civil rights figures, far from leading this movement, have had to scramble to catch up. So, too, has the national media, which has only recently noticed a story that has been agitating many black Americans for months.

As formidable as it is amorphous, this new African-American blogosphere, which scarcely even existed a year ago, now comprises hundreds of interlinked blogs and tens of the thousands of followers who within a matter of a few weeks collected 220,000 petition signatures-and more than $130,000 in donations for legal fees-in support of six black Jena teenagers who are being prosecuted on felony battery charges for beating a white student.

Dog Breeding and…Black Slavery?

Zuzu, at Feministe, blogs about a post on Feministing in where blogger Jessica posted a video of her puppy and was attacked for it because the puppy was from a breeder, with commenter’s equating puppy breeding as a feminist issue as well being on par with slavery and the selling of Black slaves:

That’s just so willfully blindly privileged, and tin-eared, and utterly cruel, and racist all at the same time. But I suppose, given PETA’s history of racist and anti-Semitic ads, where images of black slaves and Jewish inmates at extermination camps were set alongside images of cattle going down a chute or chickens in battery cages, that this is not so uncommon an attitude among the animal-rights set.

Dog Breeding and…Black Slavery?

Zuzu, at Feministe, blogs about a post on Feministing in where blogger Jessica posted a video of her puppy and was attacked for it because the puppy was from a breeder, with commenter’s equating puppy breeding as a feminist issue as well being on par with slavery and the selling of Black slaves:

That’s just so willfully blindly privileged, and tin-eared, and utterly cruel, and racist all at the same time. But I suppose, given PETA’s history of racist and anti-Semitic ads, where images of black slaves and Jewish inmates at extermination camps were set alongside images of cattle going down a chute or chickens in battery cages, that this is not so uncommon an attitude among the animal-rights set.

YearlKos; AKA, the White Citizens YearlyKouncil

African American Political Pundit blogs about the YearlKos:

Come on folks, stop beating around the bush. Stop sugar coating it. Let’s stop playing Games. Let’s stop intellectualizing white blogger racism. Let’s call it the way it is, The Democratic Presidential candidates just went before the Yearlykos a 21st century White Citizens YearlyKouncil. An exclusive club of middle aged whites guys, who sit around playing the “liberal card” with all but a few black and Latinos who attended the YearlyKos event.

Serious Women Bloggers

Lynn Allen, who blogs at Evergreen Politics, writes about feminism and YearlKos:

So, I’d been wondering what the heck was going on in the world when women’s issues – equal pay, choice, the lack of public support for parenting – don’t get discussed in the public arena; when pharmacists could get away with refusing to dispense pills for women, when women candidates lose in a blue wave year.

I talked to several national women bloggers at YearlyKos about why they don’t write about women’s issues.  Across the board they said, “We won’t be taken seriously.”

What is it with this?

Daily Kos and the CIA

The Unapologetic Mexican blogs:

WHOA. This article sort of throws a new light on Mister “poor immigrant” DailyKos Moulitsas and his Humble Salvadoran Family story. Maybe others who are familiar with DailyKos know about this, but it sure is news to me. And important news, given the size of his blog and the purported agendas.

Black and White on Daily Kos

The Field Negro writes about race and racism in the Daily Kos:

With the exception of My Left Wing, I rarely read any of the big progressive blogs such as Huffington Post, or Daily Kos. But today I found myself reading over at Kos (or as some of my fellow black blogers would spell it, KKKOS), and I read an interesting post from a blogger by the name of “Dr Steve B” titled “White Kossacks Should Read Some Black Blogs” (These people call themselves “Kossacks” for crying out loud). I have blogged about the schism between the white and black blogs in the blogosphere before, and my interest in the subject caused me to read the entire post as well as the comments that followed.

One Million Blogs for Peace

Michael Lujan writes:

I just joined an online movement called One Millions Blogs for Peace. I’m pasting the concept description below, and you can click the link for more details and more importantly if you’d like to join up.

The Concept: Between 20 March 2007 and 20 March 2008 (the fifth year of the war), we will attempt to sign up One Million Blogs for Peace. By signing up, a blogger is stating his or her agreement with The Pledge below. They will then be able to participate in various challenges launched by One Million Blogs for Peace. They will also be listed on this website with a link to their blog.

Knowing Your History

Professor Black Woman posts:

Miss Profe recently suggested we post books that help us all develop a more historical sense of oppression across cultures and stand in solidarity with one another?

…

If you have your own blog, why not ask the question there as well, and then we can pool our responses. 😀