Links - Mixed Long and Short Form
The Jezebel post title says it all: “Waterboarding Apologist says Sarah Silverman is ‘Not a Jew.’ ”
Alternet posts a provocative tale from a solider who argues that racism is a major issue in the Iraq occupation:
When I first joined the army, I was told that racism no longer existed in the military. A legacy of inequality and discrimination was suddenly washed away by something called the Equal Opportunity Program. We would sit through mandatory classes, and every unit had an EO representative to ensure that no elements of racism could resurface. The army seemed firmly dedicated to smashing any hint of racism.
Then September 11 happened, and I began to hear new words like “towel-head,” and “camel jockey,” and the most disturbing, “sand nigger.” These words did not initially come from my fellow lower-enlisted soldiers, but from my superiors: my platoon sergeant, my first sergeant, my battalion commander. All the way up the chain of command, these viciously racist terms were suddenly acceptable.
When I got to Iraq in 2003, I learned a new word, “haji.” Haji was the enemy. Haji was every Iraqi. He was not a person, a father, a teacher, or a worker. It’s important to understand where this word came from. To Muslims, the most important thing is to take a pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj. Someone who has taken this pilgrimage is a haji. It’s something that, in traditional Islam, is the highest calling in the religion. We took the best thing from Islam and made it into the worst thing.
The IMF is trying to help stave off the financial crisis by encouraging nations around the globe to work together.
Jennifer Tang writes about “Woody Allen’s Asian Problem” on PopMatters. (via Hyphen)
Adam Sewer (also known as dnA, formerly of the Too Sense blog) published an interesting piece on trying to politically mobilize the hip-hop generation. He also explores the link between the historical struggles for black equality and the current accusations of socialism from the right.
Jezebel found more on Sarah Palin, this time dissing Alaska’s Native American population:
Alaska’s population is 15.6% Native American, but apparently Sarah Palin doesn’t have their best interests at heart. While the Governor enjoys fishing, shooting caribou and hunting wolves from helicopters, she has sought to overturn subsistence fishing and hunting for Native peoples in Alaska — the right to hunt and fish according to ancient customary and traditional practices.
Fatemeh sends in a report of a Muslim man subject to an astonishing level of workplace bullying:
■ Pulling his trousers down and exposing him to passing motorists while working on the M6.
■ Force-feeding Mr Mehmood bacon, which it is against his religious beliefs to eat.
■ Dropping him off in Lozells at the time of the Asian/Afro-Carribean race riots in 2005 and then driving off, telling him the residents would come and get him.
■ Tied Mr Mehmood to railings with duct tape, stripping him and dousing his clothing in dirty water.
NPR reviews If I Could Write This in Fire, by Michelle Cliff:
While on a tour of the University of Virginia, Jamaican-American novelist and short-story writer Michelle Cliff is informed by a doctoral student that Thomas Jefferson never owned slaves. “‘Villagers,’ as they’re affectionately known,” says the student, “built [this] university, Monticello, every rotunda, column and finial the great man dreamed of. They liked him so much they just pitched in, after their own chores are done.”
It’s one of many unsettling moments in If I Could Write This in Fire, a collection of essays that is Cliff’s first nonfiction book. Everywhere Cliff goes, she sees people treating history as if it were a story they could rewrite at will: women at cocktail parties uttering, “Pinochet was not so bad”; guests at a dinner party disbelieving that the blacks in Birth of a Nation were white actors in blackface.
Cynthia C sends in news that Wal-Mart Canada is launching the its first apparel line, targeted toward “the petite asian figure.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Matt wrote:
It’s outrageous that anyone would call Silverman “not a Jew.” But I can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with that bit for the Great Schlep. At least, not when the audience isn’t limited to Jews.
I like Silverman. Sometimes, I think she fails at what she’s trying to do, but mostly I think a lot of the criticism of her is unfair. But here it seems to me that this is done under duress. The media portrayal of Jews in the campaign has been all about stereotypes and the outrageous view that ‘Jewish power’ has some truth behind it.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 9:48 am ¶
Cynthia wrote:
Personally, I’m not too sure if advertising the line as something for “Asian figures” was such a great idea. It only makes people feel more “other.” Petite is fine, but why bother bringing ethnicity into it? Do lines for curvier women outright say that it’s for Hispanic or black figures?
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 10:43 am ¶
miss a. wrote:
I just read the story written by the U.S. soldier who went to Iraq. It brought tears to my eyes. Truly one of the most heartfelt pieces I’ve read in a long time.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 11:20 am ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Native people have been talking about Palin’s (and McCain’s) dissing of them for months. See http://www.bluecorncomics.com/prez08.htm for more on the subject.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 11:38 am ¶
Paz wrote:
I’ve heard similar stories about the soldiers in Iraq. I’m glad that veterans are speaking out. It seems like the U.S. troops are holy figures, and to say anything negative about them is unthinkable since they’re “fighting for us.”
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 12:43 pm ¶
Ike wrote:
Re: The Wal-Mart line
Again, no one cares about fat, short people. How many times do I have to hear that I’m supposed to be thin because I’m short? No one expects this of tall or average height people. (We’re talking America, the land of the fat.)
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 5:03 pm ¶
Becky wrote:
Do lines for curvier women outright say that it’s for Hispanic or black figures?
Some of them do, actually. I agree that in both cases it’s othering and unecessary though. Why not just make a line for petite women? And when they say “tailoring suited specifically to Asian body
types” I assume they mean thin and small… how will that make larger or fatter Asian women feel?
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 9:24 pm ¶
Medusa wrote:
Re: Cynthia and Becky
I completely agree with both of you. It’s also incredibly stupid marketing because they’re eliminating potential customers by outright saying this line isn’t meant for them….I mean, I think at this point we all know that not only Asians have petite figures and not only Africans have “curvy” (I don’t even know what that word means anymore) figures.
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 2:12 am ¶
Cynthia wrote:
Becky and Medusa:
The woman I spoke with at Wal-Mart kept on saying that the clothes were cut for “Asian figures,” which she says is smaller at the hip/butt area. She then sent me a size chart, and the measurements were no different, proportionately from other petite lines. Their medium is 35-28-37, which isn’t all that different from a typical size 6 or 8. When she said “slimmer at the hip/butt” I thought she meant that the line would be somewhere between junior sizing and standard petite.
I feel badly for larger Asian women who probably have more size issues than white women.
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 7:39 am ¶
Roger Green wrote:
Off topic, but this post about McPalin supporters in Ohio is scary: http://www.jasonbrzoska.com/2008/10/palinites-gone-wild.html
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 9:29 am ¶
beka wrote:
Asian women - one-size-fits all. How do clothing shops ever turn a profit, from India to Japan through to Malaysia and the Philippines? *sigh*
Posted 18 Oct 2008 at 1:31 pm ¶