I had the honor of joining radical women of color (many of who are your favorite bloggers, BrownFemiPower, Black Amazon, Little Light, Mamita Mala, Sudy, Nadia, and sooo many more) in putting together an amazing album that chronicles experiences around struggle, love, motherhood, redemption, healing and community. You can cop the CD in January, along with a zine and listening party curriculum, so be prepared! More details to come soon but stay on this— there are only 200 copies currently available.
You read this headline in the New York Times this morning: “Pakistan’s Spies Aided Group Tied to Mumbai Siege.” But as you actually read the article you learn that American intelligence agents make that allegation…
It wasn’t always like this. From 1998 to 2003, female rappers such as Lauryn Hill, Eve, and Missy Elliott were among the genre’s most bankable artists. But nearly all of their successors — including Lil Mama, Kid Sister, Ms Dynamite, and Jean Grae — have struggled to connect with listeners. And it’s harder than ever to launch new talent. ‘‘Hair and makeup is killing female hip-hop,” says a source. ”The grooming cost to break a female rapper versus a male rapper is 10 times as much per appearance. That tends to have an adverse effect on a record company’s willingness to even entertain a female rapper.”
So let me get this straight: there aren’t any women MCs out there because they don’t want to foot the bill for a glam squad? But, somehow, Hollywood tends to make a killing suiting and booting these white girls while their careers, talented or not, skyrocket?
Things like the special Olympics, Variety Club events, The Cure-A-Crip Telethon or some other fluffy piece about someone trying to overcome their disability (has it worked, are ya not disabled anymore?) gets big press. When people with disabilities take to the streets and say that the system is broken, we don;t want to live in your shitty institutions because the sight of us bothers you or that we want our rights along with choiuces that the mainstream public takes advantage of everyday–suddenly, we’re not so cute and inspirational.
The Angry Indian blogs on Native American news outlets:
We were never meant to be a part of the colonial system and I find it embarrassing that those who are chosen to represent us do not have the courage to speak about this in real, coherent and tangible terms. Instead, we talk of what it like for Indians to be a part of the DNC and RNC conventions and who got to speak before large crowds and which “tribe” will adopt a candidate who in the end will do absolutely nothing for our people but keep us in our respective place at the bottom of the U.S. totem pole. And we ask ourselves why we get so little respect.
We join with you in condemning the arrest and harassment of Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and members of her crew on the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. These arrests were a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists and an assault on our constitution.
Goodman was arrested for simply questioning police about the unlawful detention of producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar who were covering street demonstrations in St. Paul. All three were roughly handled.
Canadians are too polite to tell the gooks to go home, that just wouldn’t seem right.
It does, however, seem to be ok to tell them to “integrate” with “our culture” or else “Canada should reject that person as a potential Canadian citizen.”
A recent Toronto Star article titled “Sure we have rights, but what about duties?” by Angelo Persichilli has resulted in a wave of joyous Letters to the Editor [9 Aug] basically insisting that immigrants (Angelo calls us “ethnics”) stop being so not like them and freaking them out.
Normally I am in agreement with most things that Noam Chomsky has theorized but in this case I must respectfully disagree. The idea that the decision to work in the porn industry is simply a result of womens exploitation ignores the degree to which womens agency can make this an active choice. While all paid labour in a capitalist economy is defiantly exploitation, working in the porn industry is not more exploitative because what is being produced is sex, or rather the imitation of reciprocal sex.
Why is sex work necessarily more degrading than working at McDonalds, or a Dunkin Donuts for that matter? Both involve the sale of ones body, and labour power to a certain degree. Both involve not being adequately compensated vis a vis profits versus wage, yet pornography is deemed horribly degrading. I submit that this because women’s sexuality is only culturally acceptable when it is virginal in nature.
According to Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, “regular folks” = “white folks”. Chris Matthews isn’t even trying to be covert anymore. He’s just outright saying that whiteness is “regular”. Unbelievable. The stench of white privilege is emanating from the video. Whiteness is “regular”. Whiteness is “normal“. That’s what he’s saying.
saxifrage00 blogs about white privilege in gaming and gives us some links on white privilege, gaming, and the fantasy realm:
Being White, I have the dubious privilege to be able to ignore race in my roleplay gaming and my fantasy fiction. It’s a dubious privilege because it’s one that is impossible to ever fully decline. That’s not to say “poor white me boo hoo”—rather, the only moral response is to decline the privilege at every opportunity. The pervasiveness of White privilege is such that I can never catch every instance, and when I do I won’t always know what I can do to reject it. The key is staying aware of the taint that filters my culture, looking for the chance to resist, and learning more about the reality that is discarded by those filters.
Zoriah, who was an embeded photojournalist in Iraq, blogs:
A few hours after posting my story on the suicide bombing in Anbar Province, I was woken up by a young marine who took me to receive a phone call. A high ranking Public Affairs Officer told me that they were requesting that I remove my blog post immediately. I asked on what grounds, as media rules state that wounded and killed soldiers may be portrayed in images as long as their name tags and identifiable features are not shown. I made very sure my images followed those guidelines, and questioned a large number of soldiers on base to see if they could find anything at all that would identify the dead. I did this primarily out of respect for the families.
I truly labored with the decision to post these images and I still do. But in my heart of hearts I know that people need to see and feel the reality of this horrible situation. How can things change if all that comes out of Iraq are sanitized, white-washed images of war designed for mainstream media outlets who focus on making money, not on the quality and truth in what they report?
Listening to David Harvey’s lectures on Capital Vol 1 not only gave me a feeling that I was re- reading Capital but also provided a refreshing enthusiasm that I had experienced when first reading the tome. Though the first three chapters are considered to be somewhat intimidating, these three chapters are also the most interesting ones. As Harvery points out, Marx follows different literary techniques in different parts of the book, and the first three are marked not only by philosophical flamboyance but also literary flourishes with copious references to Shakespeare , Schiller and Balzac (the latter, like Harvey, I read much after reading Capital).
It is sad news that George Carlin has died. His mordant wit, disdain for bullshit, and penetrating insight into social and political wackaloonery have been an inspiration to many. Of course, he would have mocked the shit out of anyone who melodramatically mourned his passing.
The growth in working class support for Germany’s Die Linkspartei, [The Left Party] as expressed in recent regional election results and national opinion polls has clearly rattled Capital and its gofers in the Bundestag and media. This time in an attempt to halt the party’s rising popularity, reactionary forces have been rifling through the dustbin of history and dug up an old story about Gregor Gysi, one of the Left Party most charismatic leaders, who at one time was a member of East Germany’s Socialist Unity Party. [SED]
Unsurprisingly, as all of these parties have suffered at the ballot box due to the rise of the Left Party, politicians from the Christian Union parties, the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the FDP have called for for the head of Gregor Gysi by demanding that he should submit his resignation from national political leadership.
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.
The story of thousands of schoolchildren without a library and books should be front-page news. Since when did sending inner-city children to bigger schools become a positive educational step in a city concerned with high dropout rates? The story of established neighborhood schools – with acceptable school rankings – closing their doors for lack of enrollment should be a reason for investigative stories by the media. The community should be outraged, right?
Not in San Antonio. Who’s going to tell this story? Here, one Hearst chain newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News is blitzing its ads on the front page as it seeks even more profits. Corporations, according to Jimenez Reyes, are the real power behind the closing of the six schools in a balance-the-budget bottom-line mentality as the developers seek prime inner-city real estate.
Bambu, an emcee and activist from LA blogs about Nas’ new album “Nigger:”
…not mad ’cause eminem said nigga, ’cause he my nigga…
nah, homie. what nas just did right there is allow every little white boy who worships eminem (and nas for that matter) to get a “nigga” pass. believe that! i understand the use of the word within our communities, amongst people of color — and specifically african people in america, but i don’t see how it’s cool to just let the king of white boys get away with the use of such a word! i never thought i’d hear nas go that route. a white boy come say that shit around me, i’m checking him!
would nas let eminem get away with it if he hadn’t blown up and become one of the largest hip hop artists of our time? if eminem was marshal with a demo tape, and he called a black woman a bitch or a “nigga” (which he did) would nas still be cool with it? money makes a muthuhfuckuh switch so quick…
The 45th Carnival Against Sexual Violence is up at abyss2hope:
Welcome to the Apr. 15, 2008 edition of the carnival against sexual violence.
Thank you to everyone who nominated a post or who wrote a post against sexual violence whether it was nominated/selected or not. Nominations that came in after the nomination deadline will be considered for the next edition of the carnival.
If you support the purpose of the carnival, you can help get the word out about it and all of the posts included in the carnival.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the Blog Against Sexual Violence Day which I coordinated for the second year in a row.
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.
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…
“Sudy” blogs about WAM and what radical feminism means to her:
Radical is not negative, folks. There seems to be a misunderstanding that when womyn of color are angry, it’s all negative. From the WOC I am in community with, there is anger. Lots of it. It’s in our blood from a life line of violence, rape, and racism. I think people hear what they want to hear and what they want to hear is the anger, it makes WOC easier to dismiss. But, the creative energy, the laughter and light is ten fold the anger. I’m angry, sure, but I’m much more than the anger and I believe in more positivity than I do in bitterness.
Alvin blogs on Hyphen Blog about the controversy surrounding the movie “21” in where a mainly white cast plays the roles of real life Asian Americans who won big in Las Vegas:
While there have not been too many complaints in mainstream media over these developments, one cannot help but wonder what the backlash would have been like if, for example, Hollywood had made the movie ‘Coach Carter’, with a Caucasian actor replacing Sam Jackon’s role, which was based on a real-life story. In terms of marketing or box office numbers, it is also puzzling why they would cast Sturgess (a relative unknown) as the lead student instead of Aaron Yoo (also in the film as a minor role), when the movie already had cast such big-name stars as Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne.
Holy fucking shit! Just finished posting this at my blog:
This was actually in a campus newspaper! I believe it’s an independent newspaper, not affiliated with the University of Colorado journalism department (thank God!) but it is a newspaper none the less for the UC community.
I’ll get straight to the point. Here is an excerpt from the Campus Press‘s recent Op-Ed piece titled “If it’s a war the Asians want…”:
I’m such a fool for not realizing it sooner. I can’t tell you how many times the Asians have treated me like a retarded weasel and I’ve forgiven them. But now I know that Asians are not just “a product of their environment,” and their rudeness is not a “cultural misunderstanding.”
They hate us all.
And I say it’s time we started hating them back. That’s right-no more “tolerance.” No more “cultural sensitivity.” No more “Mr. Pretend-I’m-Not-Racist.”
It’s time for war.
But we won’t attack their bodies or minds. We will attack their souls.
What is wrong with this guy? Is he really asking for it? The article appeared in the opinion section of the paper’s website, is apparently supposed to be satirical… but is it really? If you ask me, the guy is trying to vent some of his own frustrations and hate with the Asian student population at his school. “The Asians.” Here’s a link to the actual column: If it’s war the Asians want….
That’s racist! It’s ugly. He goes on to outline his “plan” for attacking the Asian soul. I think he’s trying to be funny. He’s not. I’m not trying to fan to the flames here, since it’s obvious Karson is the kind of guy who writes this stuff to get attention for his pathetic aspiring journalism career. But damn, this guy is a true flaming idiot. Sadly, I’m sure there’s a future place for him at Fox News.
Wow. Max Karson, a columnist at Colorado University, wrote a “satirical” piece in the campus newspaper declaring a war on Asian students. Pronouncing that Asians “hate us” (because, of course, Asians can’t actually be “us”), Karson advocates a ridiculous three-phased attack on Asian students, chock full of ludicrous anti-Asian stereotypes.
Or at least it would be ridiculous if the fantastical plan didn’t seem so reminiscent of extraordinary rendition and a mass lynching.
…
If this piece is supposed to be satire, than Karson is a terrible writer, unworthy of the energy it took to put ink to paper. But this column is not satire: it is a racism-fueled hate fantasy that should make the Asian American students of CU fearful and angry at just how intolerant their campus really is.
I urge each of you to write a Letter to the Editor of Campus Press, and CC a copy to Max Karson (max.karson@colorado.edu). Include a copy of your letter in the comments of this thread for Instant Activism Karma(tm).
Here’s a template. Edit (or just copy-and-paste it on to Campus Press) as you so desire
There hasn’t been a worst decision to run a column this bad since Asian Week ran Kenneth Eng’s, “Why I hate blacks.”
But should it be surprising that Karson is stirring up trouble? This is the same man who made controversial remarks about the Virginia Tech massacre and has a history of pushing the boundaries with his columns.
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.
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.
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!
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.
The research indicates that TV news today is no longer political. It has become abjectly insensitive towards issues concerning health, education, environment and public interest. It has become flooded with sports, entertainment and crime stories. This has become integral part of news bulletins. It is not surprising that a decrease in the number of political stories has coincided with a rise in the number of sports, entertainment and crime stories. Even a little shift in favour of human interest stories seems to be again trapped in meaningless trivia and selective and obsessive 24-hour coverage of issues like ‘Prince in a hole’ or a ‘naagin’ out to take revenge.
read the complete story at that excellent site Hardnews
Rob Schmidt blogs about the “reality” TV show Kid Nation in where a bunch of kids “go back to the basics” and live in the “Wild” West in Arizona. In one of the shows the kids meet Native Americans in where a whole slew of stereotypes, tepees and all, take place:
Let’s sum up what the kids (and the viewers) have learned about Indians from “Where’s Bonanza, Dude?”
Indians lived here “centuries ago” but are now (almost) gone. You’ll find them only out in the wilderness somewhere if you search long enough. Led by a chief, they live in teepees and do colorful dances. They impart sage advice around flickering fires.
Since the Indians have vanished, the land is empty. It’s okay to to claim this vacant land as your own–to move in and raise towns on it. No Indian people stand in the way of this, your manifest destiny.
So Kid Nation is built on the bones of Indian nations. In that sense, it’s much like the American nation. Greedy, selfish pioneers took what they saw and thought nothing of it. They acted just like children.
The Blog and the Bullet 