links for 2008-09-16
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"Fox News is …grilling Republicans for lying?"
This election gets weirder and weirder. – LDP
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"Although there is tight regulation of traditional media in Malaysia, with newspapers requiring an annual licence from the government to publish, there have been no such restrictions online. So far.
But Mr Petra's arrest is being seen by some as evidence that the online free-for-all is about to end. Within hours of his detention, an ethnic Chinese journalist was reportedly arrested. A wider crackdown is feared. "
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"Thus begins the trope that people of color are not present in the photo of the 7 astronauts because they are automatically assumed to not be qualified. It is apparently the only vinyl in the room because it is the broken record that is played over and over again."
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"Muslim Massacre is a video game that has been released lately, where gamers have to use all sorts of weapons to kill as many Muslims and Muslim figures as they can, including ALLAH Almighty. Egyptian bloggers react."
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"I think there are three systems for psychiatric treatment of children. There's one for parents with money that's described in the article. There's another one for parents without money, where parents don't have the resources to get the right diagnoses, treatments or medications. And then the one for foster care kids, in which they're both underdiagnosed and undertreated AND overdiagnosed and overmedicated. It's the worst of both worlds."
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"Understand: my heritage includes those who are still not free, who are still being exploited, still sweating from dawn to dusk, invisible to many and under the yoke of the conqueror who makes the laws still, makes the rules still, sucks up the labor and sweat and monies of weakened and long-exploited populations to build her empire higher.
And I now live in the empire.
But don’t you think for un momento that I do not, también, live in the fields, in the slaughterhouse, in the factories, in the desert. This is my heritage, and there is no looking away. La lucha continua. Until there is justice for all."
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"I was really impressed by the Chungs, who expressed a desire to get on with their lives and not dwell on the lawsuit. They even said they would take Pearson back as a client. And although they could have forced him to pay their legal fees, they declined to do so as a fund had been established that covered the majority of the costs.
Now the Court of Appeals has agreed to hear his case."
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"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."
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
DEAF FEMINIST PUNK!! wrote:
the white privilege essay was SPOT ON!!!
a white friend told me that he thinks the article is wrong, because he insists that poor white people aren’t privileged. I told him he doesnt fuckin get it…
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 12:28 pm ¶
WestEndGirl wrote:
Re: the NASA post, I think I must have swallowed a density and/or invisible privilege pill, because for the life of me – and I will always listen to someone when they present a different perspective on the world that might be challenging etc particularly in the area of race – I just don’t get Eric Stoller’s point.
Is NASA traditionally considered to be institutionally racist? If they’re not, and if they do have a good record on diversity, then what point is Eric making with his question?
Is he saying that diversity means that every NASA flight should have an exact representation of POC, women etc? And if he’s not, what is he saying about this picture/mission that I’m missing?
What does his original question (attack? there are multiple question marks, it’s not just a simple comment as he asserts) mean…?
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 12:45 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@WEG -
Here’s what I took from Stoller’s point. It wasn’t so much the question, but the fact that asking the question was considered a hostile act.
Most people immediately jumped to “We need the best person for the job, *NOT* diversity” instead of “well, NASA seems to match up pretty well with the general population, so this mission doesn’t reflect the grand scheme of things.” or even “yeah, we need to make sure that all kinds of kids get quality education, so we can have a different looking crew 20 years from now.”
It’s the quiet assumptions that go along with a lack of diversity.
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 12:55 pm ¶
Mary wrote:
At this point, the $54 million pants guy just deserves a beatdown. I’m sorry I don’t have anything more to recommend than violence, but… man, what a jerk.
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 1:04 pm ¶
WestEndGirl wrote:
@Latoya
Huge thanks for your response. Definitely going to muse on it, although I’m still not sure I “get” it, although totally agreeing with your point about potential other responses.
But I suppose it’s just that I can’t seem to get his original question in a way that is *not* slightly hostile or aggressive and that affects my interpretation of the responses. Especially against a context where NASA is largely good re diversity.
If NASA was terrible on diversity, then I would totally understand talking about people’s “quiet assumptions” I would be incensed if they assumed that only white males could have those abilities, I remember being so excited when women astronauts started going on the shuttles and even more excited when the Iranian woman astronaut went recently!!
But it seems as if many of these people *can* immediately recall the POC, women, international astronauts etc and that is why they are jumping on him, not that they are hostile to the idea of diversity per se….
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 1:26 pm ¶
roschelle wrote:
This election has brought out the absolute worst in this country. To some McCain and Palin can do no wrong even though the evidence says otherwise. This country, founded over 200 years ago only afforded black Americans the right to vote when Obama was 4 years old (1965) That is paramount in understanding what this campaign is faced with.
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 3:22 pm ¶
Will wrote:
Hah, on white privilege.
I just thought about this because it happened such a long time ago. I was a straight arrow kid, never smoked anything other than a cigarette or two, I just knew the consequences could have been devastating for me. When I was in college I used to work as a Security Guard and was working New Years eve at a Phish concert in the Fleet Center. There were cops in the Center and people (almost all white kids) were smoking pot like it was going to dissappear soon. They were doing it even outside the theatre itself, in the corridors. Time and time again a kid would walk in front of a cop smoking pot and the cop would either ignore it or tell the kid to put it out. Clouds of it were everywhere. When I drove home at 3:00am, I was desperately praying that this was not going to be one of those nights where I got ‘randomly’ stopped. My clothes stank of it and I could almost guarantee any cop who stopped me would throw me in jail despite my security uniform. I parked my car at home with the windows open and my car still had a faint ordor the next morning.
Now, I doubt that same courtesy would have been extended black kids. I’ve been in majority black concerts where cops went out of their way to hassle black teenagers, asking them what was in their pockets etc.
I have absolutely no moral objection to doing things like pot, its just not for me. If people do it, hey more power to them. Almost all of my white friends have tried it at one point or the other. However, back in my youth, even when I was tempted, I knew that the chances of my being caught were much higher than that of my white friends and the consequences would be much more severe.
What is white privilege?
The ability to smoke a joint right in front of a cop and not find yourself in the back seat of a cop car heading to jail.
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 5:35 pm ¶
Eric Stoller wrote:
@Carmen/Latoya – thanks for the link….as always, I love this site
@WestEndGirl – let’s say my question was hostile or aggressive (I feel that it wasn’t). Does that justify the racist responses that followed either one of my comments on that post?
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 10:58 pm ¶
Restructure! wrote:
Tim Wise’s article on white privilege got on the front page of del.icio.us, which is pretty cool. Maybe recognition of white privilege is become a little bit more mainstream?
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 11:52 pm ¶
Restructure! wrote:
I loved that NASA link. These are the kinds of “conversations” I have had with white people online whenever I mentioned anything about race. I identify with that so much, with the imaginary words coming out of my mouth and everything. It’s such obviously irrational defensiveness, but to them, I’m the one who is emotional and needs to take a chill pill.
Posted 17 Sep 2008 at 12:07 am ¶
WestEndGirl wrote:
@Eric Stoller, I’m afraid that you are being a little disingenuous here as other commenters to your blog itself wrote.
There are some racist responses to your post, but not all of them by any means. Racism is not justifiable, those people are idiots and dangerous idiots at that. I am not defending racist responses to your question.
Nonetheless, some of the posters, just like my question here, are asking you what was the purpose of your original question referring to that one picture of a NASA space mission.
We often talk about the difference between intent v. impact, and the fact is that your question had the impact of implying that there was some nefarious background to the NASA space mission pictured being all white as relates to racism.
That is how it read to me and others, and people questioning and calling you out on that – knowing NASA’s achievements in diversity – are not being racist. They are wondering why you are highlighting this. They are wondering what your intent was.
You know, I’ll even go further, your question was pointless *considering the facts*. You could have just linked to features on astronauts of colour as someone on your blog points out, which would have had a huge positive impact.
But the way you asked didn’t add anything, because it was one picture. And the only way that it can be offensive or worthy of comment is if you are implying that it *implies* something further about NASA and how they choose their astronauts.
And, in my opinion if someone says: “diversity and the best for the job don’t always go hand in hand”, that is a perfectly fine, because diversity and best for the job don’t *always* or *necessarily* go hand in hand, depending on what the job entails (read: height, strength, physical capabilities or otherwise). In large part it does, but not always. For me, absolute equality of opportunity from the financial to the social is key, but not the equality of outcome.
Posted 18 Sep 2008 at 2:06 pm ¶