May

15

California Supreme Court Rules Against Ban on Gay Marriage

by Sewere | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Yeah you read that right, equal protection under the law includes LGBT folks too. I haven’t been able to check the details of the verdict yet but it definitely looks promising.

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May

11

Analysis of a Local Public Disturbance

by atlasien | Filed Under Hip Hop, Environment and Conservation, Crime/Hate Crimes, Class Classism and Economic Inequality, Black/African American Issues, Politics, Demography, Race and Racism | 16 Comments 

Note: This is a long piece and rambles over a lot of ground before I get to something resembling a point. I felt the pull of the current while writing it; I just wanted to get it out as soon as possible. I’m going to take a break from guest-posting here for a bit afterwards, since I have a lot of obligations coming up. I’m sure Sewere and Lyonside will soon have some interesting posts to fill the temporary guesting gap.

What makes a viral video?

Here are some qualities I’ve noticed.

1) They show a human or animal engaged in some unique or extreme activity
2) They exhibit noteworthy artistic skill or cleverness
3) They greatly reinforce prior beliefs
4) They greatly challenge prior beliefs
5) Newsworthy: they show something that connects with our sense of the local and the current, the here and now. We can relate the narrative of our lives to what happens in the video.

These videos also generate mountains of racially-based commentaries wherever they’re posted. Actually, it’s often more a spittle-flecked monologue than it is a dialogue.

I’ll talk about two other viral videos before I show the Soulja Girl one.

I remember a video from last year that showed a high school fight. Two young men take off their shirts and square off. It’s a white kid and a smaller, shorter Asian kid. The crowd is yelling their support of the white kid; they’re on his side. It begins. Whoever uploaded it has added a soundtrack: Rick Ross’ “Everday I’m Hustlin” booms over the fight. The Asian kid moves like greased lightning and after a few punches, the white kid is down. He gets up and walks off. The Asian kid drops him again; this time he can barely stagger away, blood and bits of teeth spraying from his mouth. The video ends.

This video was popular among Asian-Americans, for obvious reasons. A narrative built up around it. The white kid was the bully. The Asian kid was the hero. The narrative had dubious authenticity, but it felt right, it fit with the video and it fit with many of our experiences. I’ve certainly had the experience, multiple times at school, of being surrounded by a circle of hostile white kids screaming at me. I watched the video several times. It created a strong surge of mixed emotion. I couldn’t think straight while watching it. I loved it and hated it at the same time for making me romanticize the violence.

Another example is a popular video I saw last year that’s much less violent but seemed to arouse equally strong emotions. A young, pretty, blond white girl sits in front of the camera and talks about her infatuation with Arab men. Nothing is pornographic or poetic; her tone is quite flat and even bland. Arab men are handsome. They’re sexy. They’re romantic. They know how to treat women well. They’re fun to hang out with. She only goes out with Arab men now. Her current boyfriend is Arab. She’s learning Arabic. She’s converting to Islam. That’s it, really.

You can imagine how the typical anti-Arab commenter reacts to this. Her positive stereotyping sends them into a frenzy. What she believes is the exact opposite of what any white, presumably Christian woman is supposed to believe about Arab men. It’s a huge challenge to their own beliefs, and they have to deal with it by turning her into a non-representative freak, someone who’s not deserving of the title of woman, even.

If it was a more common fetish – for example, a white man giving similarly bland reasons for liking Asian women — there is no way the video would have gotten the same attention and reaction.

I first saw the Soulja Girl video at the Creative Loafing blog. It’s a local Atlanta blog. There are other local sources for the video. It’s viral because it’s current, it involves something that almost all Atlantans are familiar with (the MARTA train), it shows an extreme of human behavior and it reinforces some prior beliefs for a lot of people. I have to warn viewers, the video is quite depressing and is going to arouse a lot of negative emotions. I’m going to talk much more about those reactions than about the video itself.

Here are some comments from the initial Creative Loafing post. There’s a good dialogue in that the stupid comments do not go unchallenged.

Reason #3,129 guns should be kept off MARTA

# Jill Chambers Says:
May 7th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
It’s just one more reason why MARTA needs to have their police actually riding on the trains. How sad that someone would so rudely disrespect the elderly woman and that all those other riders did not even try to come to her defense.

# Cricket Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 6:46 am
This is a perfect reason that people with concealed carry permits SHOULD be allowed on MARTA. If I had seen this, and it had escalated to actual physical violence, I would have no problem giving that ghetto wh*re two in the hat.

# Ken Edelstein Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Cricket, you make the point of gun control advocates everywhere.

# DaleC Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Cricket it DID escalate to physical violence when the guy finally stood up and stopped the aggressor. No weapons needed.
That poor old woman. I can’t believe it took that long for SOMEBODY to stand up to her being assaulted.
Notice how rapidly Soulja Girl’s attitude changed when she was confronted by someone who showed force in an appropriate manner.
Bullies fold when someone calls them on their crap. It’s a shame it took someone that long to stand up to her.
As an aside, don’t you just LOVE the beautiful world of Hard Core Hip Hop culture.

# Roxie Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Dude, Dale, did you just call “superman” Hard Core HipHop?
Please, appropriately hang your head in shame.
The woman in the video was not a life threatening individual. Although, she is severely testing sanity and patience, being horrendously disrespectful, aggressive, and antagonizing..It was NOT dealt with appropriately by the young man, as you can see, it only escalated the situation. There are better ways to deal with something like this that do not involve HITTING.
Of course, armchair quarterbacking is so easy. It took so long for ppl to respond b/c they couldn’t believe what was happening and certainly didn’t expect it to last as long as it did.

Hilarious.
# nast Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Seeing as how this incident was defused by a simple act of wig pulling, perhaps Gov. Perdue should sign a bill that protects individual rights to pull others’ wigs in restaurants, parks, churches and other public places.
“A wig-pulling society is a polite society.”

In the next update to the story, the spittle-flecked monologue begins.

MARTA statement regarding videotaped lunacy

# troy c Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Is she an Obama superdelegate?

# LMM66 Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Not one of those losers tried to help an elderly woman. Everyone there was dumb*** you-know-what. As people have mentioned here already, THIS is how stereotypes are formed. And whether folks like it or not, THIS is the norm for “them”.

# Weary One Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
M.A.R.T.A.
Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta

# Roxie Says:
May 11th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Wow. I didn’t know so many racists liked CL.

MARTA actually stands for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (although everyone knows the other five words). It’s a contentious intersection of race, politics and economics.

Compared to better-known train systems, such as New York City, the trains are very limited in the ground they cover. The crime rate is low and the trains and stations are extraordinarily clean. Everyday users of the MARTA trains are predominantly working-class/middle-class African-Americans. All other Atlantans take the trains periodically, usually to go the airport or to attend special events held downtown.

Central Atlanta is a diverse mix, with the largest bloc being native (Atlanta-born) African-American. White people who live inside Atlanta are comparatively progressive in their politics, especially because of the huge GLBT community. They’re not a choir of enlightened angels, by any means, but one thing is sure: if they were scared of seeing and talking to black people every day, they wouldn’t be living where they do.

The suburbs to the east are where many richer, non-Atlanta-born African-Americans have settled. And to the far north, the suburbs trace the arc of white flight. The iron claws of the northern suburbs have had a pretty bad effect on the development of public transportation in Atlanta. Their politics, plus the road-construction lobby’s dirty money, ensures that Atlanta’s traffic congestion and air quality get worse and worse every year. MARTA’s system is funded only by the two counties of metropolitan Atlanta, although people from the surrounding counties frequently use it for park-and-ride. The counties of the northern suburbs refuse to link their own systems to it, for fear of getting too many undesirable people in their neighborhoods. A well known fact: “MARTA is unique in that it is the largest United States transit agency not to receive state operational funding.”

The comments to the video illustrate an intense fear and loathing of public transportation. This fear and loathing feeds from racism, then back into racism, in a vicious feedback loop. “If only I could never leave my car,” they pray. But parking is limited at their sporting events and their centers of bureaucracy. Every once in a while, they have to bravely step onto a MARTA train. And they’re not even allowed to carry their guns on board! They resent that.

Anyone who is passionate about Atlanta and knowledgeable about Atlanta and lives inside it, no matter what their race, knows about this dynamic. We’re all hostages to it.

Getting back to a more personal level, what do viewers feel about the woman?

I didn’t think that drugs were involved. It definitely wasn’t crack. People on crack aren’t that fluid and expressive and coordinated in their movements. I think a lot of people on the train had the same visceral reaction I did… the fear and awe of the mad. If you don’t look at them, maybe they won’t notice you.

In fact, that’s what happened. I read it first at local videojournalist A.Man.I’s blog: Soulja Girl Turns Herself In. The fuller story was reported here and on local radio stations.

MARTA’s ‘Soulja Girl’ Getting the Help She Needs

She’s only 25 years old, but the dark bags under Nafiza Z.’s eyes tell the story of a young life blighted by psychosis, delusions, hallucinations and mania that are the hallmarks of her mental disorder.

Yesterday afternoon, Nafiza, was in the DeKalb County jail receiving the psychiatric treatment she desperately needed. But on April 7th, Nafiza was spiraling out of control on a MARTA train traveling through Atlanta’s east side.

The scenes captured on another passenger’s cell phone of Nafiza aka “Soulja Girl” terrorizing an elderly passenger - caused a sensation on the Internet and embarrassed MARTA officials who quickly issued a warrant for her arrest.

People with bipolar disorder aren’t usually that violent or aggressive even in their manic phase. They are usually more of a danger to themselves than they are to others.

Nafiza’s boyfriend Dee, with whom she has a baby son, said it more eloquently when he called into the Ryan Cameron Show on Friday, “If she wasn’t bipolar she would be the good a person on earth,” said Dee.


“That girl got a good heart. The city don’t help her, man! They just kick her back out on the streets. The city don’t help [black mentally ill] folks like that. Once you get in that [manic] stage you can’t help yourself. It mess with your mind, man. Once your mind gone it’s a wrap!”

I don’t know exactly what it’s like to be in the grip of clinical mania, adrenaline coursing through your body, other strange chemicals surging through your brain. But I know what it feels like to be a witness to something like that. Perhaps the awe and fear of the bystander is partly because of our empathy with mania… as if we’re seeing the dial turned up to 10 on an experience we’ve felt at level 3 or 4.

It reminds me of a bizarre experience I had when I was in college in Miami. I was at a donut shop late at night, studying with some friends. An older white man walked in and set down at the booth next to us. He started talking very loudly to the air in a sharp, agonized tone. It was a monologue about being a Vietnam vet and how he was betrayed and how it was all the fault of the gooks. That sentiment, those words, over and over again.

My friends were shrinking into their seats. They were all foreign students and terrified of getting into trouble and getting deported, especially the one from Iraq. I had the opposite reaction. My skin was on fire, there was a buzzing noise in my ears, my body started shivering and trembling as if someone had plugged me into an electric current, and everytime he said the word “gook” the current spiked. After a couple minutes of this, I couldn’t take it anymore. I got up and faced him and started yelling back.

There was chaos after that point. Another older white man came over, said he was also a Vietnam vet and then took my side of the loud, disjointed argument. The staff of the donut shop got involved. There were numerous threats of ass-kicking. The police came. They tried to talk him down but eventually arrested him after he got into his car, because he was obviously in no condition to drive.

My friends, who hadn’t moved during the whole time, told me I was crazy. Yes, my actions were pretty irrational, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice. I’d waded up to my knees in something that the mentally ill man was drowning in. I suppose I won, but my victory was pretty hollow.

This was the first narrative that I connected to the video I watched today. But after that man went out into the parking lot, I have no idea how his story began or ended.

After I read a bit more of Nafiza Z.’s story, I feel almost guilty for writing this analysis. I still empathize with the bystanders and the poor elderly lady, but I also empathize with her terrible struggle. I hope these words will go to show how the hatred expressed toward her has more to do with a complicated web of politics, race and resentment than it does with her actual actions. Finally, I hope she can transcend the person shown in that video and become the person she wants to be.

16 Comments 

May

8

Enough with the calls for Hilary Clinton to drop out!

by Sewere | Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Politics, Gender and Sexism | 22 Comments 

I spent a good portion of my life under military dictatorships, right around the time I came of voting age, free and fair elections were stolen to be replaced by the Abacha dictatorship. It was the worst thing that could happen to someone just developing a sense of political empowerment and civic participation. That same gut wrenching feeling hit me on November 8, 2000 and settled in for 8 years.

I’ve said all of the above to say this, this is the first year that I and many others ( given the high voter registration) have felt a sense of ownership, a feeling that our voices will be heard and reflected in the political process. That is why those of us following the democratic primaries are eager to see the process play out. Which is why it is angering and disappointing to see people calling for Hilary Clinton to drop out. Such calls (almost all by men) smack of sexism, subverts the democratic process by tainting the nominee’s win and runs a serious risk of alienating voters.

This is why it is vitally important that the process follows its proper course. That despite the vile course the campaign has taken, the disappointment in seeing supporters use foul play in support of their favored candidates and the media harp on sensationalism rather than the issues, it is of the utmost importance that democracy be upheld whatever the cost. That Obama AND Clinton see the primaries through to the very last one. Call me naive but I believe the democratic process is what is most dear, not the candidate.

(Ok, ok I’m getting off the soapbox and heading back to writing the 3 papers and 2 presentations due in the next couple of days)

22 Comments 

May

6

Open Thread…About the Presidential Election

by Rachel | Filed Under Politics | 9 Comments 

While I finish up grading my 1000 papers (I’m exaggerating a little), I figured I’d open up the discussion about the election. We have two big primaries today in Indiana and North Carolina. What are your thoughts? Any pressing issues you want to bring up. Anybody in Indiana or North Carolina, feel free to let us know what’s going on in you’re voting district.

9 Comments 

May

5

Woman Who Challenged Anti-Interracial Marriage Laws Has Died

by Rachel | Filed Under Family Issues, Interracial Relationships, Race and Racism | Leave a Comment 

A quote from the AP:

Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide, has died, her daughter said Monday.

Peggy Fortune said Loving, 68, died Friday at her home in rural Milford. She did not disclose the cause of death.

Loving and her white husband, Richard, changed history in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws banning racially mixed marriages in at least 17 states.

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Apr

30

Dealing with Racism in a Foreign Country

by atlasien | Filed Under International Racism, Black/African American Issues, Race and Racism | 23 Comments 

At one point in my life, I needed to take my Spanish to fluency level in order to accomplish an important goal. I spent a year working to save money in order to go to a private immersion school in a Latin American country. I picked the capital of Costa Rica, San José. I wanted to stay in a relatively big city, and I was worried the smaller towns famous for language schools in Mexico and Guatemala would have so many other Americans that the immersion wouldn’t be as effective.

The school lasted 9 weeks, 8 hours a day. I was placed with a Costa Rican family. My señora was an older woman living with her adult son. They had a beautiful house in the suburbs. My boarding price included a breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was often a fried pork chop accompanied by rice and beans and a vegetable, with a side of fresh tropical fruit, a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice and a steaming thermos of world-famous Costa Rican coffee. The first time she presented me with this spread, it was pretty intimidating. But I ate every delicious bite, thanked the señora and staggered off to school.

Some of my American fellow students drove me crazy. There was a teenager who kept complaining about the breakfasts. She made her señora fix her a special breakfast: Captain Crunch cereal. Then she complained because her señora wasn’t fixing it right. The cereal was too soggy. So she made the señora wait to put the cereal into the milk until the exact proper moment.

I didn’t want to be an ugly American. I tried to understand the customs of daily life, and did some research before I went. I also knew from living in Miami that people would call me “chinita” or “Chinese girl” without regard for my real ethnicity, but that “chinita” didn’t carry the same negative baggage as it would in the U.S. In my own country there’s a thin but persistent layer of enmity towards Asians, based on a long history of immigration scares, economic competition, and wars. That history wasn’t the same in Costa Rica, obviously. Asians were simply stereotyped as “exotic” and “foreign”. It was actually a breath of fresh air. I had to deal with being “foreign”, and I had to deal with explaining that yes, I really was an American even though I didn’t look like one. Nothing especially difficult or painful.

I didn’t think about other racial stereotypes, but I had a rude awakening.

In class, we were doing a unit based on cartoons and jokes. We were shown cartoons and asked to comment on them. It was going well. Then I turned the page of the photocopied course packet for the next cartoon. There was a black boy with exaggerated black features, crying, sitting by the side of the road next to huge watermelon slice. An older man (white/criollo) asks him, “why are you crying, negrito”? The boy says something like, “there’s too much watermelon and not enough negrito”.

It was horribly offensive. I went to the teacher right away. It was hard for me to articulate myself in Spanish, so I switched to English, which the teacher spoke very well. I told her, “this is a terrible cartoon, it’s very offensive to black people. It really needs to be taken out of the course packet.”

The teacher smiled and chuckled. She explained several things. In the U.S., we had lots of problems with race relations. Even riots! But things just weren’t the same in Costa Rica. In her country, black and white people got along. In fact, she had an in-law who was part black. No black Costa Rican would see anything wrong with that cartoon. How would I know it was offensive, when I myself wasn’t black? What’s wrong with enjoying watermelon?

She was implying, very politely, that I shouldn’t be an ugly American. I was imposing my own ideas about race relations in a realm where I was ignorant.

I’d lost some clarity, but I stayed on track. If I couldn’t win the argument on moral grounds, I’d switch to practical.

“I’m sorry I can’t explain why it’s so offensive. But if you have a black student from the United States, and they see the cartoon, I promise you they’ll be very offended. In fact, they’d probably ask for their money back and say bad things about the school when they got back home.”

That did the trick. The teacher promised to remove the cartoon from the next course packet.

I felt bad about going this route and, in essence, threatening their livelihood. The teachers were women with multiple degrees in the humanities, who worked harder, for much less pay, than their U.S. equivalents. Costa Rica has a high standard of living for the region, but America is a much more powerful country and casts a large shadow.

My guilt didn’t last long. I found out that everything the teacher told me about black Costa Ricans was wrong. When I went to the black Caribbean coast (which every criollo Costa Rican warned me against doing) and actually met black Costa Ricans, I realized that Costa Rican society was extremely segregated. There was strong institutionalized racism against black people. The tourist dollars were diverted from their beaches; their language (English patois) was disparaged and dying out.

The most graphic illustration I had of this flavor of racism was in another part of Costa Rica, when I was watching television next to a friend of my señora.

They were showing a Richard Pryor movie on TV. She quickly changed the channel and said, in a normal conversational tone, “I don’t like black people. I don’t know why, I just don’t. My mother was the same way!”

I maintained a stunned silence. I didn’t say anything, because the woman was much older than me, and I felt physically incapable of confronting her. I just sat there, confused, frustrated, depressed, inadequate and culpable.

So my attempts at dealing with anti-black racism in Costa Rica were definitely a mixed bag: one partial success, one abject failure.

It’s very difficult determining where to intervene or how to stand when it comes to unfamiliar forms of racism. People defending American racism (or denying that it exists) often point to other countries and say, triumphantly, “well, they’re just as racist!” When done from an unquestioning perspective, condemning the practices of other countries has little effect other than asserting American moral superiority.

I still believe it has to be tried.

I learned a lot about racism in my own country from traveling and living in Latin America. In parallel, the most insightful accounts of racism in Korea and Japan have been the ones I’ve read from African-Americans. Different forms of racism are often not as separate and distinct as they first seem, and comparing them shows the weak spots where they can be challenged.

23 Comments 

Apr

29

An Example of How I Find it Hard to Separate Race and Gender

by atlasien | Filed Under Pop Culture, Sexuality and Heterosexism, Race and Racism, Uncategorized | 25 Comments 

Regular readers know I’m a Japanese-American woman. I’m an outspoken, stubborn but mostly peaceful person. I overlook a lot of offensive statements on the internet, but every now and then, they sneak up on me and whack me on the head.

While browsing The Onion’s AVclub blog, I ran across one of those “I Went to Japan and it’s Weird There and They Sell Weird Stuff in Vending Machines” posts. It’s neither more nor less stupid and offensive than the average. For an in-depth discussion of the kind of piece I mean, see this post, “Of ‘Wacky’ Japan and the Myth of the Other”.

I did expect better from the AVclub, which often has quite sophisticated pop culture analyses. I especially enjoy the “Box of Paperbacks” feature. The AVclub is an incredibly popular and widely read site, and it’s not known to be especially “extreme” or fratboyish.

And I knew I shouldn’t have done this. I’m kicking myself now. But I read some of the comments on that Japan travel piece. What a cesspit. The kind of mentality on display is the reason I avoided any kind of Japanese clubs through college. And yes, I know I hurt myself by doing that. But I saved myself a lot of hurt as well.

I’m reproducing the comment thread here to show what I mean. I’m starting with the p0rn description from the original article, which inspired nothing more than a “meh” from me. Below that are the truly disgusting comments. Do NOT read any further if you’re not prepared for the worst. I have not censored them other than adding some characters to try and throw off search engine results so I don’t bring a bunch of drooling losers to Rachel’s blog.

From Japan, a Brief Pop-Cultural Survey by Kyle Ryan
Speaking of Japanese p0rn, wow, is it disturbing. Although my orgy DVD liveblog and Nina Hartley interview may indicate otherwise, I’m no aficionado of the p0rnographic arts. So maybe I’m a little sensitive about the borderline sexual assaults I saw broadcast over the Meguro’s two p0rn channels. The premise of one had some dirtbag on the street coaxing ostensible amateurs to follow him to a hotel room and, you know, f*ck a stranger on camera. I had no illusion that these women were professional ringers, but it was still disconcerting.

Japanese p0rn
by Baio Wulf
All Japanese p0rn appears to be sexual assault (you know, so I’m told). The girl always appears to be in pain. It’s certainly not a consequence of those super-hung Japanese fellows, so I’m not sure what the cultural origins of those frowny f*ck-faces are. Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me?
5:07 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by AJR
I was under the impression that all Japanese p0rn was tentacle-related.
5:23 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by Baio Wulf
No, only the animated stuff is tentacle-related. Someone told me that’s because they’re not allowed to show penile insertion, so they circumvent the “no penetration” rule by having monsters penetrate women with tentacles… which is of course way, way sicker than just allowing penile penetration to be shown. Go figure.
5:31 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by AJR
Oh. Gross. But, still…kinda hot. Mostly gross, though.
5:37 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by New Skin
Why don’t you have sex with a Japanese woman.
Then you’ll get it.
Although, there does seem to be an unfortunatly large amount of rape themed p0rn in Japan.
Consequently, I’m sure if you didn’t understand English and watched your standard American p0rn, based solely on the noises the people were making you would probably think the participants were having a good time–or trying to make you believe they’re having a good time–either
5:51 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by The Magical Ghost of The Timonator
Are you implying to understand the tentacular-penetration phenomenon I must first engage in intercourse with a Japanese lady?
Dude, sometimes intercultural studies is a dirty job… but, well, you know the rest.
6:06 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by New Skin
Well I was refering to the non-animated p0rn, but if it’ll help with the tentacle thing too, then bonus.
6:13 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by AJR
Science says we must, Timonator’s Ghost. For science, I will obligingly nail a Japanese sch00lgirl.
6:15 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by String him up
Ewww…pedophile.
6:39 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by MMe
“Tentacular”? Timonator, you slay me…
8:38 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by Seacrest… OUT!
Bein’ coaxed to f*ck a stranger on camera? That’s called “reality” or “g0nzo” p0rn, and America is sick with the stuff.
11:00 AM Tues April 29, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn
by squilla boxer
Yes, Japan did bring us the R@pe Man series of movies although they aren’t even actual “p0rn”. Also, 90% of the actual J-p0rn I’ve seen is “censored”, because although they’re implying rape, we can’t be expected to endure the sight of un-pixilated genitalia. B*ttholes are alright, though. Weird.
12:41 PM Tues April 29, 2008

I was wondering if the author of the piece would say something.

He did. He responded to some insults about the depth of his writing style. He sarcastically called himself a racist. He’s the real victim here, after all.

This, more than anything, was the last straw. I left this comment:

White People are soooo Waaaacky
by atlasien
Interesting how the author of this article is so insulted and vociferously defends himself from commenters bored of the “Japan is waaacky” meme, but doesn’t say anything about all the commenters making jokes about raping Japanese children.
1:20 PM Tues April 29, 2008

I don’t expect my comment to have much effect. In fact, I’ve already been accused of being a “white, liberal en@ma sack”.

Maybe it will make a few people at the AVClub think. Think about incidents like the one this year where a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa was raped by a U.S. Marine. I don’t want to point my finger and say “this is funny, but that is not funny.” Given the right conditions, I’ll laugh at anything. But when Japanese girls are referred to as subhuman rape toys, and the site editors allow that to be normalized as a baseline level of humorous discourse… it’s funny like a heart attack; it’s funny like cancer.

25 Comments 

Apr

25

Sean Bell Verdict: Officers Acquitted of All Charges

by Rachel | Filed Under Crime/Hate Crimes, Black/African American Issues | 15 Comments 

A quote from NPR:

A New York judge has found three police officers not guilty in the death of an unarmed black man who was hit by a barrage of bullets and died hours before his wedding.

Justice Arthur Cooperman cleared two officers of manslaughter and other charges and a third of reckless endangerment in the death of Sean Bell, 23. Along with two friends, Bell was shot after a bachelor party at a Queens strip club on Nov. 25, 2006. Bullets struck Bell 50 times.

I’m not surprised. I followed the case closely, and it seemed that the prosecution wasn’t trying hard at all, which isn’t surprising since the prosecution has to rely on the New York Police Department to help them with their cases.

The next round in this case will be civil trials, where the victims, or in Bell’s case his family, will be suing the city and/or officers for monetary damages.

15 Comments 

Apr

23

Bill Clinton Wants His “Race Card” Back

by Rachel | Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Politics, Race and Racism | 6 Comments 

I don’t really know what people mean when they say “playing the race card.” To me, 9 times out of 10 it’s really means “stop talking about race because I’m uncomfortable” or it means “don’t accuse me of racism.” But you have to laugh at some of our white American politicians like Bill “My Office is in Harlem” Clinton.

Clinton is at it again complaining that the Obama camp “played the race card” on him. It all started with an interview with a Philadelphia radio station where Clinton made the race card comment. The next day when asked about the comment Clinton denied it. Check out the video and the text summary on this New York Time blog (Clinton has his finger up in the air, which is usually a sign that he’s lying or angry.). Here is the text of the exchange where Clinton tells his lie:

Mr. Memoli: “Sir, what did you mean yesterday when you said that the Obama campaign was playing the race card on you?”

Mr. Clinton: “When did I say that, and to whom did I say that?”

Mr. Memoli: “On WHYY radio yesterday.”

Mr. Clinton: “No, no, no. That’s not what I said. You always follow me around and play these little games, and I’m not going to play your games today. This is a day about election day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today. Have a nice day.”

Mr. Memoli: “Respectfully sir, though, you did say …”

Mr. Clinton: “Have a nice day. I said what I said, you can go and look at the interview. And if you’ll be real honest, you’ll also report what the question was and what the answer was.”

Then in a subsequent interview he followed up with this gem of a comment:

In the same interview, he offered a full-throated defense of his record with African-Americans, adding: “You gotta really go some to play the race card with me. My office is in Harlem, and Harlem voted for Hillary by the way.”

Nice variation of the some of my best friends are black line isn’t it? I guess we should also note that there were several irregularities in the voting in NYC, so some have questioned Clinton’s “lock” on Harlem. In spite of past black support for Clinton, Clinton has never been the pro-black politician people make him out to be. His policies were not particularly helpful to African Americans, and he was more than willing to play on white fears of blacks when he went out of his way to attack a rapper in one of his campaigns.

I get a chuckle out of people like Clinton and Ferraro making racist comments, and then attempting to use the condemn the condemners strategy to make themselves look like victims. I think I need to file this under “whiny white people.” What I’d say to Clinton is–if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen.

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Apr

22

The Babies..Keeping Everybody Up To Date

by Rachel | Filed Under Pregnancy and Childbirth, Family Issues | 10 Comments 

Some folks have written or commented asking how things are going with the pregnancy and the babies, so I figured I’d give a blog post updating everyone simultaneously. Right now I’m in week 30. The due date is at the end of June, but it is typical with twins that they come early, sometime around week 36 or 37 (on average).

The good news is that everybody is healthy. My morning sickness finally subsided in the 4th month, and in month 5 I started gaining back the weight that I lost, and now I’ve gained 20-25 lbs. Other than the typical things like morning sickness, heartburn, back pain, insomnia, and breathlessness, I’m doing well. My diabetes test was negative, my blood pressure is low, and everything else is fine. My mobility is getting a little more limited every day, but that is to be expected, especially since I’ve been equivalent to full term size since 25 weeks. I can’t even imagine how big I’ll be in the last few weeks.

The babies are also doing well. At 30 weeks, their estimated weights 3.5 and 3.1 lbs, which means they are the same size as the typical singleton baby. At this rate, they may end up being 6-7 lbs when they are born, which is big for twins. I’m also happy that they turned head down, which diminishes the likelihood that I’ll have a c-section delivery.

At this point, it’s wait and see. We gotten almost everything the babies need, so we aren’t too worried about that. My semester will end in a week, and from there on out I’ll be relaxing and finishing off the nesting..

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