Comments

1. Lyonside wrote:

   Re: the HIV = gay disease ad campaign –

   Dear Lord. I agree w/ one commentator on the site that says there should be a series of ads: AIDS is a [gay, straight, bi, black, white, hispanic, asian, male, female, child, adult, preventable] disease. More heterosexuals than homosexuals are contracting HIV. IV drug use is still a fantastic way to spread the virus. HIV-AIDS in some developing nations is killing half of the population – “gay” disease? I don’t think so.

   HOW do the creators of the ad, even w/ the best of intentions, expect the small gay population of the US to “SOLVE” the AIDS crisis, here and globally, all by ourselves? RIGHT, cause gay people have been doing nothing for 20 years.

   There was another analogy made: what if there were ad campaigns: “Diabetes is a black disease” – wouldn’t people, black and non-black, object? Sure there are communities at higher or lesser risk, but in regards to diabetes, it has more to do with weight control, available nutrition and health education, socioeconomics, and yes, possibly some genetic tendencies, but I know too many white and hispanic people w/ diabetes to ever feel comfortable calling it a black disease.

   Posted 08 Oct 2006 at 4:30 pm ¶

2. brad wrote:

   Ice-T is just so lame. A while ago Ice-T questioned if Bryant Gumbel was really black because of the way Gumbel speaks. I remember thinking of the irony of that. Both Gumbel and Ice-T are mixed race African-American. Unlike Ice-T, Gumbel never sold drugs. Like most people, Gumbel’s speech patterns resulted from his environment and education. So, why should Gumbel be any less “black” because of his speech?

   Posted 10 Oct 2006 at 2:45 am ¶

3. S wrote:

   Brad, you “pre-answered” your own question: because Ice-T is LAME!!! His name is lame, his style is lame, his acting is lame. Lame Lame Lame.

   Rio Response: Good points in there, though he should have made those men he interviewed explain themselves in more detail. Blaming black women for a trip across seas for sex and appreciation is a bit of a stretch, especially when the US has home-grown groupies who are willing to serve black men hand-and-foot just because they are black, and it’s “in” now to have a black boyfriend (at least where I live). Whoever these men are, they don’t know how good they have it here, in terms of finding love/sex/appreciation from the opp sex. Blaming us as if they REALLY CARE about our existence, as if they REALLY gave any black women a real chance. These men probably don’t even date black chicks-just using us as easily-accepted excuses for whoring around in other countries. You mean to tell me you couldn’t find a non-black woman to love you in the US? Nonsense!

   Lyonside: Good point! So tired of hearing blame thrown to the gays for AIDS and HIV. Just another excuse for not confronting the drug and heterosexual ho problems we have in the US, including the lazy sexual habits that usually allow the opportunity for the virus to spead in the first place. There should be a Hoes=AIDS campaign!

   Posted 10 Oct 2006 at 10:19 am ¶

4. adventuregirl30 wrote:

   The Scary Similarities

   “The treatment of Ethiopian women under Fascist Italy during the colonization of Ethiopia (1922-1941) was driven by various stereotypes that often times were in contrast to each other, yet worked to help Italian men justify their treatment of these women. On one hand, because Ethiopian women belonged to a so-called “inferior people,” Italians classified them as ugly, savage, and degenerate, whose beauty and culture could not compare with that of supposedly superior Italian women. On the other hand, despite Benito Mussolini’s racist rhetoric which classified Ethiopians as a savage and unattractive people, Ethiopian women were nonetheless renowned for their beauty and prized for their exoticism. Popular belief of the day held that Ethiopian women were uncontrollable, shameless temptresses whose potent sexuality would lure “helpless” Italian men into affairs with them.
   During this period, the most profitable work an Ethiopian woman could find was that of a prostitute; a lucrative practice for any woman who chose it as a profession, as Italian men frequented Ethiopian brothels constantly.
   (The) numerous racist and fetishist stereotypes about Ethiopian women which pervaded Italian society reduced many women to little more than the sexual slaves of their colonizers
   The two views of Ethiopian women additionally worked in conjunction to justify many crimes committed against them by Italian men. Both dehumanizing portrayals of Ethiopian women — as a “savage” and a temptress — made it easy for Italian men to classify her as an insatiably sexual being, which contributed to the belief that these women wanted nothing more than to be “colonized,” both politically and in a very physical sense.
   A deep misunderstanding of African customs engendered the idea that all Africans enjoyed unlimited sexual freedom.
   The Italian colonialism in Ethiopia saw a rise in a much more common form of sexual exploitation: prostitution. Every city, and almost every town, had a brothel, which was always an extremely prosperous establishment. Under colonial rule, prostitution was the only other occupation that an Ethiopian woman could feasibly hold, besides domestic work — and perhaps the most lucrative line of work, as well. Though many women were able to earn a secure living because of the popularity of Ethiopian brothels.
   The women of Ethiopia under Italian fascism did, indeed, have to suffer many forms of hardship. Not only were they required to endure the fetishist stereotypes which portrayed them as uncivilized and yet as mere sexual objects, but they also had to face the results of those portrayals: rape, prostitution, and sexual exploitation that were borne out of that colonialist mentality. However, the Ethiopian woman was not simply a pawn nor a sexual servant of the Italian colonizer, nor did these women simply submissively suffer through the atrocities committed against them. Many found ways to resist their colonizers by using their positions as sexual objects against the same men who sought to keep them submissive.”
   http://homepages.nyu.edu/~bjc235/ethiopianwomen.html

   I have to say I do not object to men of any race traveling and enjoying women of other nationalities. I think it is a beautiful thing, but in this case I ask myself … are African-Americans the new colonizers.
   More facts about brazil…Source country for the trafficking of women and children into South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, Japan, the United States, and the Middle East or the forced slave labor of men. These atrocities are not just committed against Brazilians but Haitians and Dominicans are also trafficked through Brazil at alarming rates.
   Brazil is a beautiful place with beautiful people. I say travel and enjoy, but please, please do not plunder this beautiful place for your own gratification. I here so many scary stereotypes being thrown around on the web by men who have gone, including disgusting comments how “Brazilians will do anything for money” (i.e. 2 girls 1 cup video). This is a third world country. They are not “sexual beasts” for many of the beautiful women you so highly revere have little other opportunities and “dealing” with foreigners can be lucrative providing access to things they would normally not have (a months pay, a nice hotel room. I know someone who does it to pay for school). Appearing to love it is part of the game. Some of the men going over there don’t even no how to behave, complaining about the prices and trying to get these women to do it for as little as possible. Shameful. Peace.

   Posted 01 Feb 2009 at 4:14 am ¶