links for 2007-08-21
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TV producers should take blame for airing racist rant - The Daily Telegraph
MTV Real World participant unleashes racist tirade on Asian fast food worker: “I’m like, you know what, keep the money, maybe take some English lessons - I’m leaving cause you don’t know how to speak English.”
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The cultural growth of Anchorage : Cultural contradictions - adn.com
“across Asia and the Pacific Islands, many cultures recognize a third gender with characteristics both male and female. In Samoa, when a son or a daughter prefers the work and clothes of the opposite sex, they are called fa’afafine “like a woman” or, far
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Bisexual Until Graduation: Myth or Reality? - ABC News
“Young bisexual women face urban labels like “hasbien” and “Bug” (bisexual until graduation), not to mention the giddy voyeurism of male fantasies and the ridicule of their lesbian sisters.”
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Keeping That Big ‘Nutcracker’ Party Coed - New York Times
“In 2007 being the only boy — at an audition, in a class, in a recital — is still a routine experience for ballet students in the United States. “
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An Itinerant Refugee in a Hip-Hop World - New York Times
“M.I.A. denies any political advocacy and said that despite her use of jingoistic imagery her songs come from the point of view of the powerless noncombatant. “I wanted it to be about how confusing it is to talk about things as a civilian when you are c
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Rift Over Gay Unions Reflects Battle New to Black Churches - washingtonpost.com
“The split reflects a tug of war that is developing between a few black churches willing to welcome gays and black denominations that consider homosexuality a sin.”
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A Maverick Mogul, Proudly Politically Incorrect - New York Times
“At a time when the most successful documentaries on political or social issues all seem to be anti-corporate, anti-Bush, pro-environmentalist and left-leaning, the Moving Picture Institute has backed pro-business, anti-Communist and even anti-environment
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Re-enactments of slavery folk tale reflect grim realities in Brazil - McClatchy Washington Bureau
“The violence of rural life, the gaping social inequalities and the uneasy relations among white, black and indigenous Brazilians are all brought vividly to life.”
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Is ‘American Girl’ racist or am I just sensitive? - The Luscious Librarian
“This fantasy of African-american girlhood had to spring from the mind of someone whose idea of slavery as an ‘unfortunate’ occurance in history that held little to no consequences for those involved.”
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Death 178 seems to bring out outrage — baltimoresun.com
“Eighty? Ninety? That’s only about one-third of Baltimore’s total for a year. Are we really so comfortable with an annual homicide number in the 250 to 270 range that we think 300 or over would make us really extra dangerous?”
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Entrepreneurs From China Flourish in Africa - New York Times
“Conditions like these often deter Western investors, but for many budding Chinese entrepreneurs, Africa’s emerging economies are inviting precisely because they seem small and accessible. Competition is often weak or nonexistent”
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Sikh passport photos rejected because of headgear - CBC
“A Sikh family in Surrey, B.C., is upset because Passport Canada denied their children’s passport applications, saying the religious head garb the children wore in their photos was unacceptable.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Anonymous wrote:
RE: the Real World incident. I know Racialicious posted a seperate entry focusing on Parisa, a castmate of Iranian ancestry, recently. Parisa seemed to be the only one who was bothered by the inarguably crass and inconsiderate rant of Trisha. Parisa linked the derision of the McDonald’s worker’s Asian accent to the derision of her mother’s Persian accent in America, causing her to sympathize with the McDonald’s employee and further her antagonism with Trisha and her behavior. That struck me as very interesting.
From the episodes I’ve seen so far, Parisa gets only well enough with a few of her housemates but on a deeper level is profoundly isolated in that she seems more intellgient, perceptive and serious than they do. I think that PERHAPS, on an even deeper level, her Persian heritage and her identity as an “ethnic” person in a house full of carbon copy blondes further isolates her, and makes her see her housemates in a very different light than from how they view each other.
Posted 21 Aug 2007 at 12:51 pm ¶