Saturday, September 27, 2008
For Paul
I can’t say enough about how much I like Paul Newman, both as a performer and as a person who has managed to remain incredibly private in his personal life despite being one of the most famous people in the world. But reading an article about him by Patricia Bosworth in Vanity Fair this evening, my regard for him just sky rocketed. Among all his philanthropic acts, such as putting all, not a percentage but all proceeds from his salad dressing to charity and creating the Hole is the Wall Camp for kids with AIDS and HIV, he also retained the respectability of the Actors Studio in the 80s by keeping the “Material Girl” out of it.
“In the late 80s, Newman who served as president until 1994, also clashed with Ellen Burstyn, then the Studio’s artistic director over admitting Madonna, according to insiders. Burstyn had invited the singer, who was appearing on Broadway in the David Mamet play Speed The Plow, to become a member. Newman objected, saying in effect, that nobody, star or unknown, should get preferential treatment—everyone should audition. Madonna was never admitted.”
I love Madonna’s music and I think she’s a genius at what she does best but she should never try to act again. And God knows she has no business being in the Actor’s Studio just because she’s Madonna. While the world has benefited greatly from Gaultier's pointy bras, stage humping and an exploitation of Gay underground dance moves, I think we would survive without it. We need more Paul Newman. There will never be another like him.
Posted on Cine Verd
Saturday, August 8th 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
High School Crush
So my high school crush just added me as friend on Facebook. I hope he doesn't know that he was my high school crush. It was a pretty stupid crush based totally on my personal romantic projections on him of a rebellious bad boy nature. He was a perpetual smart ass who wore black all the time which I loved. And he's white, Irish to be more exact which makes him really white. I thought that was hot. I wouldn't embark on my first interracial relationship until college so I was still in that jungle fever phase of adolescents where the mere otherness of racial difference is often a turn on. I was heavy into James Dean and Richard Grieco. It wasn't a preference, but a curiosity.
To put it briefly, this crush was never requited. I was very shy at the time and I found out through the vine that he liked someone else. God, it's pathetic just remembering it. I was just so awkward and so scared of my own self.
He was in my homeroom my very first year in Junior high. I will never forget what he said one day when our substitute adviser asked us all what we do after we graduated from High School. He said he would go to sleep. I loved that answer. I think that's where it started. I do not still have a crush on him in case you're wondering. I just have a crush on my idealism.
To put it briefly, this crush was never requited. I was very shy at the time and I found out through the vine that he liked someone else. God, it's pathetic just remembering it. I was just so awkward and so scared of my own self.
He was in my homeroom my very first year in Junior high. I will never forget what he said one day when our substitute adviser asked us all what we do after we graduated from High School. He said he would go to sleep. I loved that answer. I think that's where it started. I do not still have a crush on him in case you're wondering. I just have a crush on my idealism.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Dear Tim
Tim Westergren
Creator of Pandora Radio
Hi Tim,
I attended the Pandora Radio conference yesterday evening with my fiancee. We really enjoyed it. You have a very laid back and informal approach and it was fascinating hearing you talk about the history of Pandora. I listen to it just about every morning at work and sometimes at home on my laptop. It's essential for me because I stopped listening to broadcast radio years ago. I like all kinds of music and commercial radio is just not broad enough for me, plus I hate commercials. If it wasn't for Pandora I would never be turned on to new artists. "Flaming Lips" "The Postal Service" and "The Clientele" are among only a few artists I've come to love because of Pandora. I have about eight stations on my account so far. They vary from jazz, to rap, to electronica to alternative and so on. Pandora is the only station I know of where you can so seamlessly realize the connection between all forms of music which is something I've always believed it. Thanks for a great creation. I look forward to seeing it grow bigger and better and to quote you "Eat satellite and broadcast for breakfast."
: )
Hey, you said you'd reveal the name of your band if we asked you in an email. What is it? Are you solo? I'd love to hear your stuff.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sarah Hill?
A friend of mine at work just pointed this out. Is this similarity a mere coincidence?
Thanks Simosa!
Thanks Simosa!
Drill, Drill, Drill By Eve Ensler
Reading this, I was reminded of the sick churning in my own stomach as I watched and listened to the RNC crowd begin chanting "Drill drill drill!" I couldn't really believe that I was witnessing something so akin to a lynch mob broadcast for millions to see and still have yet to hear from any mass media about how fucking horrifying the implications of that truly were. So reading this piece by Ensler gave me some consolation. Because ladies, it's lights out on our rights if Palin and McCain make it into the White House. Are we really about to let this happen? And what does that mean? What does that say about us as a nation?
Drill, Drill, Drill
“I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club
where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice.
Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar
bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they
have their rapist's baby or not.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It
will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?”
-Eve Ensler
From The Huffington Post
Drill, Drill, Drill
“I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club
where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice.
Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar
bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they
have their rapist's baby or not.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It
will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?”
-Eve Ensler
From The Huffington Post
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The View's Eye on Politics
While it is surely obvious to most viewers that she expects to vote for Mr. Obama, Ms. Behar noted that it was not exactly out of self-interest.
“I don’t stand to gain as a comedian if Obama wins,” she said. “He’s not that funny. McCain-Palin, they’re a riot.”
-NY Times
“I don’t stand to gain as a comedian if Obama wins,” she said. “He’s not that funny. McCain-Palin, they’re a riot.”
-NY Times
Monday, September 22, 2008
In an Evolving Harlem, Newcomers Try to Fit In
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/nyregion/07newcomers.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
I found this article in the New York Times on one of my favorite sites, Stuff White People Like
I tend to be torn on this issue myself. I live in Harlem, feeling both like an interloper and one who is being intruded upon as well. I was born in Brooklyn which is my favorite borough, but spent most of my life in the Bronx which I can't stand. Harlem, even though it has always been a little bit too ghetto for me has at least in my mind been consistent as the center of Black History and Culture in New York City. There is no mistaking where you are when you're in Harlem or at least there didn't used to be. Now, with commercial business more local to downtown Manhattan like the Mac Store and American Apparel, Harlem is starting to look more like any other place in Manhattan or at least it's well on it's way there. And while that depresses me, I have to be honest: I do hate feeling harassed and uncomfortable whenever I walk through a gauntlet of people who look like me. I'm always prepared to be alert whenever I emerge from the 125th Street station in the evening because I have had really bad experiences there, being harassed and followed in the past. I really hate that because I really like where I live and I wish it didn't have to take an influx of rich white people to change that. I wish we could do it on our own. At the same time, I don't want to see the community fall apart over this integration, don't want to see the drummers taken out of the parks or the vendors pulled of the streets among many other things that make Harlem what it is to me.
I found this article in the New York Times on one of my favorite sites, Stuff White People Like
I tend to be torn on this issue myself. I live in Harlem, feeling both like an interloper and one who is being intruded upon as well. I was born in Brooklyn which is my favorite borough, but spent most of my life in the Bronx which I can't stand. Harlem, even though it has always been a little bit too ghetto for me has at least in my mind been consistent as the center of Black History and Culture in New York City. There is no mistaking where you are when you're in Harlem or at least there didn't used to be. Now, with commercial business more local to downtown Manhattan like the Mac Store and American Apparel, Harlem is starting to look more like any other place in Manhattan or at least it's well on it's way there. And while that depresses me, I have to be honest: I do hate feeling harassed and uncomfortable whenever I walk through a gauntlet of people who look like me. I'm always prepared to be alert whenever I emerge from the 125th Street station in the evening because I have had really bad experiences there, being harassed and followed in the past. I really hate that because I really like where I live and I wish it didn't have to take an influx of rich white people to change that. I wish we could do it on our own. At the same time, I don't want to see the community fall apart over this integration, don't want to see the drummers taken out of the parks or the vendors pulled of the streets among many other things that make Harlem what it is to me.
Suckers
So I've become hooked recently to HBO's latest series, "True Blood", another creation from Alan Ball of Six Feet Under (my all time favorite) and American Beauty Fame. What I find sort for ridiculous though is how over the top the vampires movements are. I mean like they always make a point of moving at light speed, not from place to place but from like spot to spot. Like one of them will be lying out on the sofa and then sit upright really fast or like the phone will ring and they will reach out and pick it up in a second. That cracks me up. It's like their supernatural speed has been applied to really practical things that any human could achieve in one movement, like flushing the toilet or turning their heads. I'm sure this will improve in future episodes though. I'm only on the third one.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Running Man
I came to watch "The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner" because the main character in one of my favorite young adult books of all time, "The Handsome Man" by Elissa Haden Guest, mentions it as one of her favorite movies. I looked it up on Netflix recently and decided to see it. I already knew what would happen in the end as the character in the book describes in great detail Colin's ultimate defiance against the headmaster of his reformatory school but that was exactly what made me want to see it.
Tom Courtenay plays Colin Smith, the oldest son of four in a working class British family whose father has just passed away slowly and in great pain. Colin, like many fatherless young men in working class families can't seem to settle down quietly and assimilate himself into the drones of society. Along with his pal, he participates in petty theft like stealing money and cars for joy rides but can't stand the thought of getting a job. This not because he can't handle responsibility but because of how he sees what laboring work has done to his father. These crimes land him in a reformatory where the headmaster, seeing his exceptional talent in sports and in particular running, starts to favor him and train him to win the medal in long distance running against a fancy boys private school.
After his father's death Colin's mother collects his life insurance and goes out and spends it on all kinds of fancy new things for the house and her children. Colin won't take any of it and when his mother finally forces him to take a few quid which she stuffs in his shirt pocket while they watch their brand new television set, he goes into his father's old room and silently burns the money. This is one of the most powerful, most defiant scenes in the film.
Later on you see him spending money on one of the only things which really does matter to him when he and his friend take their girlfriends up to the country and to the beach. They experience that very familiar childlike freedom that comes from vacationing not not only from the usual oppressive surroundings of poor working class life but also from the oppressive thoughts of aimlessness and the inevitable death of the imagination to be traded in for low wages and never enough to go around. There's an obvious dark cloud that looms over them when they have to get ready to return to such a bleak reality.
I won't give away what happens in the end but I will say that watching it and observing the split reactions within myself, I can see why society is the way it is. Not that I was clueless before watching this but film gives us such a great opportunity to be exposed to different perspectives and interpretations of working classes, middle classes and royalty alike. "The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner" in it's stark grey palette and Tom Courtenay's very human portrayal achieve this to a compelling degree.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Walk the Walk
"Because racism is so ingrained in the fabric of American Institutions, it is easily self-perpetuating. All that is required to maintain it is business as usual.
I sometimes visualize the ongoing cycle of racism as a moving walkway at the airport. Active racist behavior is equivalent to walking fast on the conveyor belt. The person engaged in active racist behavior has identified with the ideology of White supremacy and is moving with it. Passive racist behavior is equivalent to standing still on the walkway. No overt effort is being made, but the conveyor belt moves the bystanders along on the same destination as the White supremacists. But unless they are walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyor belt—unless they are actively anti-racist—they find themselves carried along with the others."
-Beverly Daniels Tatum
“Defining Racism”
I sometimes visualize the ongoing cycle of racism as a moving walkway at the airport. Active racist behavior is equivalent to walking fast on the conveyor belt. The person engaged in active racist behavior has identified with the ideology of White supremacy and is moving with it. Passive racist behavior is equivalent to standing still on the walkway. No overt effort is being made, but the conveyor belt moves the bystanders along on the same destination as the White supremacists. But unless they are walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyor belt—unless they are actively anti-racist—they find themselves carried along with the others."
-Beverly Daniels Tatum
“Defining Racism”
Alec Attack
When I heard the first few times, I cringed. I listened to it today and honestly, I don't really see anything wrong with it. I don't pity Alec at all for his alleged feelings of suicide over the whole matter. I mean come on! It was just unfortunate it got out. He's got anger issues to be sure. But this sort of thing happens all the time in families. It's a recorded moment, not their entire relationship together.
Diane Sawyer interview tonight
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=5832850&page=1
Diane Sawyer interview tonight
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=5832850&page=1
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Bored out of my mind
It's just was one of those days. I fell asleep in Bryant Park, with my head on my bag during lunch. I read, slept, ate and then fell asleep again. A single leaf fell from the tree above me onto my reading assignment. I thought about things I needed to buy. I mentally scanned the area around me wondering if there was anything I needed to buy that was within walking distance. Nothing. I'm sick of stuff for the moment. I really need to try straightening out all the stuff I already have. I have a pain in my right thigh that I think is gym related. My evening class was canceled today because my teacher called out sick which is a relief because I just want to lie down myself. I wish I could just go lie in the grass but the meadow is still covered from the Bryant Park Fashion Tents.
I think to myself that I spend too much time staring at screens all day. Computer at work, laptop and television at home. It's wrong. I have just about enough money to carry me to my next check and I should be getting something in the mail that I forgot I ordered a week ago any time now. I hate to say this but one the things I miss most of all at work is at least one co-worker with a sense of humor as perverse as mine, someone for whom nothing is to sacred to have a laugh at. That's very rare. I had that at City College but of course at that time I was missing something else.
OH GOD FRIDAY!!! CAN YOU GET HERE ANY SOONER!!!
I think to myself that I spend too much time staring at screens all day. Computer at work, laptop and television at home. It's wrong. I have just about enough money to carry me to my next check and I should be getting something in the mail that I forgot I ordered a week ago any time now. I hate to say this but one the things I miss most of all at work is at least one co-worker with a sense of humor as perverse as mine, someone for whom nothing is to sacred to have a laugh at. That's very rare. I had that at City College but of course at that time I was missing something else.
OH GOD FRIDAY!!! CAN YOU GET HERE ANY SOONER!!!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
White Privilege
I received this in an email from a friend of mine this morning. It's even more interesting me now looking at it through the context of my Inequality/Privilege class. White privilege, I have learned is as much a social construction as race and gender. Shit get's real interesting when you begin to discover the extent to which we are all systematically screwed.
"For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this
list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin
and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a
personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents,
because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families
with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible,
pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like
Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with
you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot
shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a
great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years
like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no
one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a
person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative
action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller
than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the
same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes
you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on
themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state
Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God"
in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding
fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from
holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s
and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that
reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the
Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires
it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people
immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband
who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to
secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one
questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and
your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with
her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being
disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the
work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to
vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child
labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely
question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no
foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow
being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree
with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate
anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired
confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a
"second look."White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your
political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you
must be corrupt.White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George
W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian
nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if
you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin
Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often
the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism
and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates
America.White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a
reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a
"trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,
or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anythingat all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow
someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent
of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their
homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world
opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change"
thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more
years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem."
Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008),
and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.
For review copies or interview requests, please reply to
publicity@softskull.com
"For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this
list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin
and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a
personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents,
because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families
with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible,
pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like
Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with
you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot
shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a
great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years
like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no
one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a
person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative
action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller
than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the
same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes
you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on
themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state
Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God"
in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding
fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from
holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s
and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that
reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the
Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires
it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people
immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband
who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to
secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one
questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and
your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with
her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being
disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the
work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to
vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child
labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely
question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no
foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow
being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree
with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate
anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired
confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a
"second look."White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your
political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you
must be corrupt.White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George
W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian
nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if
you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin
Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often
the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism
and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates
America.White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a
reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a
"trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,
or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anythingat all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow
someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent
of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their
homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world
opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change"
thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more
years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem."
Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008),
and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.
For review copies or interview requests, please reply to
publicity@softskull.com
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Fave Quote of the Day
"It's easy to pick up a gun and fight for your country when your country treats you like a human being. It's a much greater act of patriotism to do that when your country treats you like a second class citizen"
-Spike Lee on "Miracle at St, Anna"
from "He's Gotta Have It" in this months Elle Magazine
-Spike Lee on "Miracle at St, Anna"
from "He's Gotta Have It" in this months Elle Magazine
Friday, September 12, 2008
A Bad Disney Movie
Whoever thought Matt Damon would be the voice of reason? But thank Jesus! I mean if people won't listen to reason maybe they will listen to a celebrity!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Spook Who Sat by the Door
"Whites were fools and one constantly had to fight in order not to underestimate their power and danger, because a powerful and dangerous fool is not to be underestimated. Add the elements of hypocrisy and fear and one had an extremely volatile combination that could easily blow the country, even the world apart. In the Army, Freeman had learned to respect but not fear the potential danger of the explosives; rather, he learned how to use them."
-Sam Greenelee
I just started reading this book this week. I can count on two hands the number of books I've read about men by men. I don't count "The Outsiders" or Rumblefish" by S.E. Hinton because S.E. Hinton was actually a woman. "Down These Mean Streets" by Piri Thomas I read on assignment in high school and the horrible biography of Donald Goines which I was pretty much forced to read by a friend in high school who worshiped him at the time. "Kaffir Boy", "Black Boy", "Native Son" and "Invisible Man" were also read on assignment. I've known about "The Spook Who Sat by The Door" most of my life. A close friend (also from high school) lent me his copy a few months ago. I'm not that far into it but I really like it so far and I wonder, given it's politically topical nature and obvious underground popularity why it was never picked up our re-released by a bigger publishing house. But I guess the passage above suggests a possible reason.
-Sam Greenelee
I just started reading this book this week. I can count on two hands the number of books I've read about men by men. I don't count "The Outsiders" or Rumblefish" by S.E. Hinton because S.E. Hinton was actually a woman. "Down These Mean Streets" by Piri Thomas I read on assignment in high school and the horrible biography of Donald Goines which I was pretty much forced to read by a friend in high school who worshiped him at the time. "Kaffir Boy", "Black Boy", "Native Son" and "Invisible Man" were also read on assignment. I've known about "The Spook Who Sat by The Door" most of my life. A close friend (also from high school) lent me his copy a few months ago. I'm not that far into it but I really like it so far and I wonder, given it's politically topical nature and obvious underground popularity why it was never picked up our re-released by a bigger publishing house. But I guess the passage above suggests a possible reason.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Pacifier
My dad stopped by my apartment this weekend and we had a little catch up session in which he mentioned to me that during one his recent photo shoots (he's a part time professional photographer) at a little girl's birthday, he had trouble photographing her because she had a pacifier in her mouth. "I can't stand pacifiers!" he said. I laughed and asked what the big deal was. I understand that pacifiers are meant to do just that having seen it shoved into a screaming child's mouth countless times in parks and trains and many other public places.
"You and your brother never had pacifiers." he told me. "You never cried like that." I thought about it and realized he was right. There is not one pacifier to be seen in any of our baby pictures. "You guys never even sucked your thumbs." he said. True also. My brother did go through a very brief phase of sucking both his index finger and the one next that. I remember hanging out in bed with him and trying it myself but I just didn't get it. I swear it seemed to last only about a week. My dad told me that when my mom, who had come here to America from Trinidad to stay with her parents took care of her little cousin, she took the pacifier out of her mouth, hid it and then threw it out of the window! That had me dying! Clearly, my parents agreed that there would be no pacification for their children.
I'm really not sure why my brother and I were both so well behaved. I see kids break out in all manner of insane tantrums all over the city. I've seen parents beat their kids in street and kids beat their own parents as well. All the pacification I ever needed as girl was for my mom to give me one stern look if I was behaving badly and that was it. No questions. But there must have been something more she did to get us that way. I often wonder if I ever have kids whether I would be able to get similar results. I think children must know something at a very early age, that they must respond to something unseen, something unconscious in their parent's behavior. They must sense the true intent behind the action.
"You and your brother never had pacifiers." he told me. "You never cried like that." I thought about it and realized he was right. There is not one pacifier to be seen in any of our baby pictures. "You guys never even sucked your thumbs." he said. True also. My brother did go through a very brief phase of sucking both his index finger and the one next that. I remember hanging out in bed with him and trying it myself but I just didn't get it. I swear it seemed to last only about a week. My dad told me that when my mom, who had come here to America from Trinidad to stay with her parents took care of her little cousin, she took the pacifier out of her mouth, hid it and then threw it out of the window! That had me dying! Clearly, my parents agreed that there would be no pacification for their children.
I'm really not sure why my brother and I were both so well behaved. I see kids break out in all manner of insane tantrums all over the city. I've seen parents beat their kids in street and kids beat their own parents as well. All the pacification I ever needed as girl was for my mom to give me one stern look if I was behaving badly and that was it. No questions. But there must have been something more she did to get us that way. I often wonder if I ever have kids whether I would be able to get similar results. I think children must know something at a very early age, that they must respond to something unseen, something unconscious in their parent's behavior. They must sense the true intent behind the action.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Can I Stop Blogging About Obama?
No.
One of my co-workers who I went to the beach with last week covers me at the front desk whenever I go to lunch. When I came back from lunch today she said “I’m going to show something I know you’re gonna like.” I smiled and waited as she pulled out a thin children’s book about Obama with his face on the cover entitled “Obama: An American Story.” She purchased it at Barnes & Noble this week for her son. I swear, I almost got choked up. I flipped through it and as is the nature of small children’s books there were photographs inside as well as few illustrations depicting his early life as a child and high school student. Man. It’s happening already. His incredible story is being filtered into the consciousness of the next generation of youth. And it hasn’t even gotten to the best part yet!
One of my co-workers who I went to the beach with last week covers me at the front desk whenever I go to lunch. When I came back from lunch today she said “I’m going to show something I know you’re gonna like.” I smiled and waited as she pulled out a thin children’s book about Obama with his face on the cover entitled “Obama: An American Story.” She purchased it at Barnes & Noble this week for her son. I swear, I almost got choked up. I flipped through it and as is the nature of small children’s books there were photographs inside as well as few illustrations depicting his early life as a child and high school student. Man. It’s happening already. His incredible story is being filtered into the consciousness of the next generation of youth. And it hasn’t even gotten to the best part yet!
Watching the RNC between dry heaves
So I watched the RNC last night. Okay that’s not exactly true. I watched most of Guiliani’s two faced speech and then Sarah Palin’s. Thank God I had a small dinner last night because listening to her was making me physically ill. Fortunately I was only paying marginal attention to it because I was also busy typing up a response paper to a reading from my Cultural Diversity class. I think that nausea began with chants of (urgh) “Drill Baby Drill.” WHAT THE FUCK?????? These are the people who will send this country straight back to the dark ages. WE CANNOT LET THAT HAPPEN. OMIGOD. As an African American I have to tell you, I felt like the audience was one step away from the fucking clan!
As sick as I got I did not turn it off. I feel it is very important to be as educated about your enemy’s positions as it is about your own. I can’t afford to only see one side of these issues. But I couldn’t see myself anywhere in that convention! NO WHERE! I realize that people in the Midwest feel that cosmopolitan dwellers are freaky elitist snobs and that we think they are dumb, narrow minded redneck idiots. But let’s face it. In urban dwellings there is a diversity that reflects the entire world more accurately than the Midwest does. The Midwest is a large part of America and have a large part in defining what we have come to understand as traditional Americana but THEY ARE NOT AMERICA! Lord help us if this woman becomes second in command!
This morning on GMA they gathered a group of teenagers to talk about Palin’s pregnant daughter and essentially they all agreed that it was their parents who influenced their decisions about sex more than anything else. I’m sorry but correct me if I’m wrong. Aren’t we supposed the trying the lower the rates of teenage pregnancy in this country. Hasn’t that been one of the major political issues for the last I don’t know how many years and then McCain picks a virtual political nobody whose teenage daughter is pregnant and all of a sudden, no wait! That’s okay because at least she’s getting married to the baby daddy! HUUUUUHHH!!!!! Where the fuck am I? Is this really what’s happening? If this happened in the Obama family THEY WOULD TEAR HIS ASS UP! NO QUESTION! This is some bullshit!
Never in a million years would I have ever guessed that a response to something of this nature would be to just shrug it off and not identify it as the serious issue it is. Excuse me…feeling sick again.
As sick as I got I did not turn it off. I feel it is very important to be as educated about your enemy’s positions as it is about your own. I can’t afford to only see one side of these issues. But I couldn’t see myself anywhere in that convention! NO WHERE! I realize that people in the Midwest feel that cosmopolitan dwellers are freaky elitist snobs and that we think they are dumb, narrow minded redneck idiots. But let’s face it. In urban dwellings there is a diversity that reflects the entire world more accurately than the Midwest does. The Midwest is a large part of America and have a large part in defining what we have come to understand as traditional Americana but THEY ARE NOT AMERICA! Lord help us if this woman becomes second in command!
This morning on GMA they gathered a group of teenagers to talk about Palin’s pregnant daughter and essentially they all agreed that it was their parents who influenced their decisions about sex more than anything else. I’m sorry but correct me if I’m wrong. Aren’t we supposed the trying the lower the rates of teenage pregnancy in this country. Hasn’t that been one of the major political issues for the last I don’t know how many years and then McCain picks a virtual political nobody whose teenage daughter is pregnant and all of a sudden, no wait! That’s okay because at least she’s getting married to the baby daddy! HUUUUUHHH!!!!! Where the fuck am I? Is this really what’s happening? If this happened in the Obama family THEY WOULD TEAR HIS ASS UP! NO QUESTION! This is some bullshit!
Never in a million years would I have ever guessed that a response to something of this nature would be to just shrug it off and not identify it as the serious issue it is. Excuse me…feeling sick again.
Top Banana HAHAHAHA!!
Even I would admit to being uncomfortable competing for America’s next top model with a post operation trans gender contestant but that is no excuse to sink to the gutter level of evil behavior. I laugh when these girls laugh. I laugh when these girls cry. But when Sharaun pulled out the sixth grade antics during Isis’ (the post op she male) photo shoot I just fell silent and I could feel my blood boiling. Whenever people feel the need to stoop that low, it’s obvious that they are in fact not confident in their own abilities but threatened by others. And this dumb bitch was the first to get cut. Bye hater!
And by the way, any smart person knows that modeling IS DRAG! SO don’t sleep on Isis! He’s gonna bring it something fieeerccccccce!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Can you say spell check?
I am really sorry about posting my blogs before they are properly spell checked. I seem to do this only after I have published it and then re-edited it four more times and publish it again. Please check my site for the final draft (ha ha) but I promise not do this again...much.
Flickring Away
I have about three or four packages waiting in my living room to be opened. Most of them I ordered, although I always forget what I ordered by the time it gets to me. One of them, from my BFF in Philly (Thanks V!) arrived just today. I thought I would have sat right down and start opening them like a kid on Christmas Day but I got side tracked on line when I checked out posts on my flickr page. I happened upon boyghost's stuff and it's been almost half an hour now since I came in, undressed and dumped all my stuff on the ground. I love photography. It's one of my great loves next to writing, reading and movies.
Flickr is one the best sites for photo viewing and sharing by people who really like pictures in my opinion anyway. I can get lost for hours looking at other people's work. I am in awe of how pictures tell a story and how, like poetry, you can come away with a completely different interpretation then the author, or photographer in this case, intended. Pictures, in many cases are more immediate than words, more visceral. Anyone can love a picture, personalize it, have an intimate moment with it, no dictionary needed.
I guess one of my dreams is to save up for a really fly Nikon D40 but that would be a pretty frivolous purchase for me right now even if I could afford it. Besides, I'm a great believer in that photography is not about the camera. It's about the person behind it.
Okay, I'm gonna open my packages now. : )
Flickr is one the best sites for photo viewing and sharing by people who really like pictures in my opinion anyway. I can get lost for hours looking at other people's work. I am in awe of how pictures tell a story and how, like poetry, you can come away with a completely different interpretation then the author, or photographer in this case, intended. Pictures, in many cases are more immediate than words, more visceral. Anyone can love a picture, personalize it, have an intimate moment with it, no dictionary needed.
I guess one of my dreams is to save up for a really fly Nikon D40 but that would be a pretty frivolous purchase for me right now even if I could afford it. Besides, I'm a great believer in that photography is not about the camera. It's about the person behind it.
Okay, I'm gonna open my packages now. : )
Inauguration Ride
So a few days back I was talking to my best friend from high school who now lives in Philly with her husband and daughter and we were talking about the DNC and Obama's amazing speech and all the reactions of the people in the audience as well as our own reactions. She told me that if Obama won, that Francis and I should come to Philly so that we could drive to DC and witness the inauguration. This possibility had never even occurred to me but I was thrilled at the idea. Imagine that! I mean really! I get excited just thinking about it. I don't think I'd be able to hold back the tears of joy and pride and every indistinguishable emotion in between. And the photo ops! Forget about it! I told her I was totally down.
Later on this week I spoke to another one of my good friends who I attended Bard College with. In fact Ben is one of the only friends at Bard I have kept in touch with over the years. I'm really glad he called me because I had been thinking about him and how shameful it was that we hadn't seen each other all summer. I was very interested in what he had to say about the DNC. He is way more politically active and politically versed than I and has followed the Democratic party and their presidential campaigns since he was very young. He's also one of my closest Caucasian friends. I am am African American in case I haven't mentioned that yet. Ben is a huge fan of Jesse Jackson and regularly recites parts of his presidential speech from the 80's by heart. He told me long ago before the party nominations were won that he didn't think white people wanted to see a black man as their president in that usually decidedly factual way that most people do when they think they know what the they know based on what they've heard and seen. Now he is more gung ho about Obama than I ever thought he would be! Not just Obama but his whole family and his campaign team! His enthusiasm about Obama and his electability is a complete 360 degree turn from where is was last year! He is 110% on board!
Then it began to occur to me that a whole bunch of people I know might want to go to this inauguration when (that's right I said when) Obama wins. Tony, Shaherah, Ben, Francis, Peggy... Why not make it a trip, rent a bus or something? This would be a monumental occasion far beyond anything I or anyone I know could even begin to describe! But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm not the best at planning these things (hint hint Shaherah!) and I'm sure there will be millions of people with the same idea when Barack wins, but I know one thing. I will be there. Nothing will stop me.
Later on this week I spoke to another one of my good friends who I attended Bard College with. In fact Ben is one of the only friends at Bard I have kept in touch with over the years. I'm really glad he called me because I had been thinking about him and how shameful it was that we hadn't seen each other all summer. I was very interested in what he had to say about the DNC. He is way more politically active and politically versed than I and has followed the Democratic party and their presidential campaigns since he was very young. He's also one of my closest Caucasian friends. I am am African American in case I haven't mentioned that yet. Ben is a huge fan of Jesse Jackson and regularly recites parts of his presidential speech from the 80's by heart. He told me long ago before the party nominations were won that he didn't think white people wanted to see a black man as their president in that usually decidedly factual way that most people do when they think they know what the they know based on what they've heard and seen. Now he is more gung ho about Obama than I ever thought he would be! Not just Obama but his whole family and his campaign team! His enthusiasm about Obama and his electability is a complete 360 degree turn from where is was last year! He is 110% on board!
Then it began to occur to me that a whole bunch of people I know might want to go to this inauguration when (that's right I said when) Obama wins. Tony, Shaherah, Ben, Francis, Peggy... Why not make it a trip, rent a bus or something? This would be a monumental occasion far beyond anything I or anyone I know could even begin to describe! But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm not the best at planning these things (hint hint Shaherah!) and I'm sure there will be millions of people with the same idea when Barack wins, but I know one thing. I will be there. Nothing will stop me.
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