In case you missed it…

by Jen Chau and Carmen Van Kerckhove

Every Friday afternoon we sum up the week’s best posts from New Demographic’s various projects. Here we go!

RACE CHANGERS
a community of people working towards an anti-racist future, one week at a time

• Assignment 8 – Understanding the history of lynching: Richards betrayed his intimate knowledge of lynching culture by mentioning a fork in his remarks. References to eating (”coon cooking,” “barbecue,” “main fare”) were extremely common in correspondence and reports on lynchings. Also, celebratory barbecues and picnics were often held during or after the lynchings.

ADDICTED TO RACE
a podcast about America’s obsession with race

• Episode 49: Carmen chats with movie producer Teddy Zee about the current state of representations of Asian-Americans in film and television. Zee is president of Ironpond, an entertainment company that bridges Hollywood and Asia. Previously, he was a top-level studio executive at Columbia and Paramount. He produced Hitch, Saving Face, The Pursuit of Happyness, and recently completed West 32nd.

ANTI-RACIST PARENT
a blog for parents who are committed to raising children with an anti-racist outlook

• Ask ARP : How to instill pride in race and heritage for adopted son? Our son is coming from China and I have not been content with the way some of my peers have incorporated their child’s culture into their everyday lives. I am looking for ways to give my son a positive self image about who he is as a whole but I don’t know how.
• Ask ARP: How to handle racially or culturally insensitive teachers? I am wondering though, how best to prepare myself and my children for discussing immigration as well as other topics taught in schools that may be presented in a racist or insensitive manner.
• Gratuitous Cute Kid Pic: Anti-Racist Parents Pat and Mindy write: “Our beautiful daughter Camryn Xiu Bing. She joined our family 3 years ago today. A wonderful day for us, a very hard day for her.
• Ask ARP: How to handle racist family members? My family background is Cuban and his is Jamaican. To make a long story short, my family does not accept our relationship simply because he is black.

RACIALICIOUS
a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture

• Racism as a face cream? I saw this ad campaign mentioned on Adrants, produced by the ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi. I guess the concept is that racism is like a face cream: the more you “apply” it, the uglier you become.
• How awesome was Heroes last night? I know I can’t be the only Heroes fan on this blog, right?
• Paul Mooney vows to stop using the n-word: comedian Paul Mooney has vowed to stop using the n-word as a result of the Michael Richards incident. He joked about Richards, “He’s my Dr. Phil. He’s cured me.” The question is, would abolishing the word really do any good?
• Gwen Stefani: everyone else is racist, not me! Yeah, gee I wonder why people would view Japanese women as submissive, pliable creatures when Gwen Stefani is parading these four women around as dancing, giggling human props who are contractually obligated to only speak Japanese even though they’re all American.
• Whiteness in a bottle: Alabaster perfume from Banana Republic: Alabaster is just one of three new fragrances they’re offering this season, but is it a coincidence that it’s the only one that gets the full-page treatment? Hmmm…
• Banned racist Merrie Melodies cartoon: 1943’s ‘Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs: For me, Coal Black stands as one of the clearest expressions of the relationship between white supremacy, patriarchy, and militarism. Needless to say, the short is rife with almost every racist meme ever projected onto African Americans.