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Semi-NSFW pics. “Kimberly Klinger, racist, who has been keeping some sort of cat-call spreadsheet in the interest of launching a two-part attack on the neighborhood heterosexual immigrants who harass her with come-ons once or twice a week.”
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“If you have been sent here, the likelihood is that someone asked you to draw a black woman at one point and you completely screwed it up…Together, you and I will go through some of the most popular hairstyles for black women.”
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“In large part, (producers) are looking for specific types and often times, Asian Americans don’t fit into the casting prerequisites…They are looking for people who are outspoken and outrageous”
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“the essay alludes to the belief that people who harbour racist thoughts do so because something bad has happened to them, justifying their beliefs and in some cases, subsequent behaviour towards others.”
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“The Truth of Nanking…appears to offer a revisionist take on Japan’s atrocities in Nanjing in 1937, claiming that widely-held accounts of the massacre are actually falsehoods perpetuated by Chinese government conspiracy. It’s absolutely outrageous.”
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“the former UC Riverside student…apparently threatened to detonate explosives during commencement in order to scare officials into canceling graduation so he wouldn’t have to tell his parents that he had dropped out
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“it sounds as though Washington did use the F-word last fall on set but did not use it around T.R. Knight, and then Knight found out about it and used the incident as an excuse to go after Washington and launch his own career.”
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“White men don’t do this to me with the same frequency, so when I pass a group of them on the street, I don’t clench my jaw, tense up, and walk faster. But when I pass Latino men, I assume the worst. Black men, too, sometimes…”
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“Respondents generally requested less than $10,000 to become Black. However, they said they’d have to be paid $1 million to give up television for the rest of their lives.”
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“It is not very often that American officials apologize to Mexican authorities. But it happened this week when the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the U.S. government didn’t “intentionally” erect a 5-foot-tall barrier … in Mexico.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
gatamala wrote:
I’ve had to deal w/ street harassment on several occasions inside and outside the District. Everything from “why won’t you smile” to a slow-down with “you wanna ride” to a stream of “suggestions”. I even had some clown put his arm around my sister and me. My response have run the gamut from ignoring it to obscene gestures. It is definitely a problem for ALL women.
I live in Klinger’s nhood. I saw an attractive, nicely-dressed AfAm woman walking down 16th one day. All I could think was, “she is going to get hollered at all damn day!” How sad is that?
I want to be involved in these organizations, however, the tone of the [usually] white organizers is such a turnoff. It makes me wonder if college frat parties bothered them as much.
Posted 27 Jun 2007 at 10:34 am ¶
JA Brown Girl wrote:
I stopped reading after the first link called the woman who was psychologically assaulted (”catcalled” if you want to minimize it) a “racist bitch.” Is this what passes for intelligent discourse in the community that would have women join in the fight against racism?
Ever wonder why so many women are willing to ignore the call to arms from anti-racist groups?
I don’t.
Posted 27 Jun 2007 at 12:42 pm ¶
Stef wrote:
Yeah, the white frat-boy variety of catcalls sucks too. I hate all catcalls from all men. Leave me the hell alone and let me walk, shop, read, eat, etc. in peace.
Posted 27 Jun 2007 at 12:58 pm ¶
Oranguteena wrote:
I enjoyed Klinger’s column and hated TAN’s response (since it was dismissive and misogynist, and doubted the veracity of her claim that she’d been “groped” – nice). I don’t share her experience of these things coming mostly from men of color; I’ve gotten all kinds of nonsense from a pretty broad spectrum of “men.” I like to think that in her shoes I would have more success separating my emotional response to street idiocy from the racial/ethnic identities of the perpetrators, but it’s impossible to know exactly how I would react. I will say that it is VERY distressing and humiliating to have people around you letting you know exactly how they’re reducing you to a set of sexual parts ripe for exploitation. Knowing that there are plenty of fellows out there like TAN who are more than happy to make light of this humiliation is only slightly less distressing.
Posted 27 Jun 2007 at 2:08 pm ¶
gatamala wrote:
I saw this posted on Feministing:
Another thing to consider is how power intersects with race, class and sex. The working class men and the men of color likely deal with inferiority issues of class and race independent of sex — feeling like the rich, white man is keeping them down on race and/or class bases, and so it makes more sense to see a working class man try to make a woman squirm, because he may not be able to stick it to the man, but he still is a man, because he can still hurt a woman. Misplaced rage takes many forms.
It could be that the reason white women feel targeted from men of color is because the men of color would love to take power from white men, but they feel impotent to do so, and so they obtain a sense of racial equality by pushing a woman down. It could also be that men of color target other women of color because they fear targeting white women, who they see as protected by white men and out of their reach. In either case, I don’t think we can discount the impact of race, not as a cultural reason why men catcall, but because race is part of the overall power dynamic among the race, class and sex spectra.
I also think considering overall power helps to explain why rich, white men do less catcalling — why would they waste their power on some street girl? Power there needs a more personal target, a more “worthy” one — one whose harassment would be artful, plausibly deniable, and career-ending (as opposed to merely degrading). Street harassment is neither as necessary for ego-bolstering nor as edifying as using intra-office sexual harassment to target a brilliant but “uppity” woman. It’s not a real power trip otherwise.
in a nutshell
Posted 27 Jun 2007 at 3:09 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
Hey yall -
Check out the comments to the City Paper’s street harassment story to read INCITE! DC’s letter to the editor. I think it’s around #4o.
Posted 27 Jun 2007 at 3:14 pm ¶
FrancesM wrote:
The Assimilated Negro’s post was as sexist as Kimberely Klingers was racist. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
I left my own comment on his blog but if Katie or someone could provide a link to the Incite thing that would be cool!
~F
Posted 27 Jun 2007 at 3:52 pm ¶
WomunOfColour wrote:
Thanks, FrancesM, and others who commented on the Assimilated Negro’s sexism.
I liked an Anonymous’ comment: “Using “racist bitch” is like, if she were to turn around and call one of the guys who catcalled/psychologically assaulted her a “sexist spic” or a “chauvenist n*****.”"
Posted 27 Jun 2007 at 7:31 pm ¶
Anu wrote:
I didn’t like TAN’s post either. I’m Black and I go to an all white college in downtown St. Louis, and walking along the main street and past the gas station multiple times a day is TORTURE. I get harrassed at least 2-3 times a day by guys at the gas station, guys in their cars, and men passing me walking down the street. Even though most people are probably harmless its still always very unsettling, especially when I’m not paying attention and they manage to get close enough to whisper something vulgar in my ear. Having grown up in the suburbs I’ve never really had any experiences like it before and was in for a shock.
I wear t-shirts and sweats most days but it doesn’t help one bit. It got to the point where I feel my wardrobe is restricted: I don’t wear shorts except going to work out (and then I always wear sweatpants over that), or short skirts, and If I do I’ll try to cover up with something no matter how hot it is. I don’t think that men understand how it feels to have strangers yelling stuff about your body across the street or commenting on your breasts on the Metro. I guess intrusive is a good word.
Another thing, I noticed that my all of my non-Black (White, Indian, Asian) friends hardly ever get harrassed. I guess I understand, but I don’t get why exactly.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 2:13 am ¶
Donna Darko wrote:
You can’t discount culture either. Personally, since I was a child, I noticed Latino men will stare at you without any inhibition. Just openly stare. One of the worst examples was when I was 16 at Bela Karolyi’s gymnastic camp and the Latino coaches openly stared at girls. I’m talking a school for 4-18 year old girls. The last day, we had a chance to throw pies in our coaches faces and I slammed my pie super hard at the Latino coach who constantly stared at me. He coughed and chocked a little and had no idea why I did that. I figured it was because he stared at many other girls too.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 10:26 am ¶
Donna Darko wrote:
Ah the memories are flooding back now. OK the whole time I had a real problem with the Latino coaches staring so I consulted with my 12 year old friend if she had a problem with them too. She said they constantly stared at her. Staring is not strong enough a word. It was leering.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 10:43 am ¶
Donna Darko wrote:
More memories! You can’t discount culture because there were coaches of different nationalities and races. It wasn’t class either because the guy was an aristocratic type from a Latin American team of wealthy coaches. Karolyi liked training people from around the world.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 11:04 am ¶
Kepler wrote:
Thank goodness I read the comments here. After a perusing TAN’s site, I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn’t believe how many people basically felt that because women want validation for the work they put in their appearance, catcalling is alright (it’s answering a need!). Um, if that’s true, then why is KK upset over catcalling while she’s dressed in sweats? Besides, there’s a difference between complimenting a person and harassing them. Telling me I look nice is one thing; asking me how much is another.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 4:51 pm ¶