links for 2011-03-24

March 24th, 2011 by Andrea

  • "Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor died today of congestive heart failure at age 79. Over the years one of her most memorable public relationships was the friendship she shared with Michael Jackson. In the last few years of Jackson's career the pair were inseparable. In the midst of numerous tabloid rumors and controversies, Taylor was often the first person sought by the media to make a statement on Jackson's behalf. They bonded over shared experiences as child stars who became Hollywood legends, citing that they both felt that their youth was stolen from them."
  • "I guess not even former President Clinton could stand the reservation wait list at Red Rooster, because Bubba is packing up his stuff and moving out of the area. Clinton, who has had an office on 125th street and Adam Clayton Powell in Harlem for over 10 years, is moving most of the William J Clinton Foundation to Water Street in the Financial District. Yup, Bubba’s leaving the upper-upper west side for down-down town. "As Clinton gets ready to leave, it seems most of the area’s residents, who held a huge party when he arrived, don’t really care."
  • "Crossing boundaries in all directions with their ska-punk-funk-alternative fusion music and topical lyrics, Fishbone’s genre-smashing style is, in the words of rapper Ice-T, 'the OG, the original ‘original band.’" Fishbone literally grew out of southern California’s shifting racial fault lines. The band members first came together as a result of Los Angeles’ desegregation policies that bussed students from South Central and Watts into the mostly white San Fernando Valley schools. The intersection of cultures that turned strangers into friends, and into Fishbone—a band that defied the idea of what black and white music are supposed to be and, in the process, won wild acclaim from its peers, if not the marketplace. “'Everyday Sunshine' interweaves the broader political history that shaped Fishbone with the story of the band itself. It is a testament to the times then and now."
  • "Strauss recalls his first meeting with the heiress in 1999, during which the 18-year-old Hilton did some ecstasy, made out with David 'Bud Bundy' Faustino and dropped a little racial bomb. The author claims that Hilton was horrified to find out that 'the guy from Saving Private Ryan' who she’d made out with was actually Black (that mysterious light-skinned gent would be Vin Diesel, btw) and states that she 'can’t stand Black guys. I would never touch one. It’s gross.' However, her comments do give one pause. While Hilton’s phrasing was offensive and racist, I’m not quick to judge her personal preference. For all the people taking offense to her words (again, I’m not pardoning her way of expressing her disinterest at ALL), how many Black folks out there have little to no attraction to members of other races? *Raises hand*"
  • "Women encounter lateness perhaps most sharply, not only because of gendered stigmas against being out of home at night and perceptions of appropriate feminine behavior, but also for more brutal reasons: Nadeem notes the rape and murder of two women in 2005 and 2007, and other attacks on women returning home after late night shifts at call centers. All this suggests a sad, strange story: workers spend their “days” in places completely abstracted from general time, and emerge afterwards into the deep hours of night. The unrelenting monitoring of employees, of course, stops at the door."

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  • Xi

    The Clutch article continues “You’d never catch me out there saying that White boys are “gross”; that’s unnecessary and untrue. However, I wouldn’t mess with one because I don’t find them attractive. Hilton, however, was attracted to Vin Diesel prior to seeing that he was Black. But I can imagine that if a Creole-looking White gent had booked me, only for me to find out that he wasn’t a brother…I would have ended things as well. ”

    And here’s my problem with both Paris Hilton and the author of the article (in her fictional scenario); they both found the person they were hooking up with attractive before they found out their race. The personal preference, “I’m just not attracted to men/women of xyz race” argument fails, because you WERE just attracted to a person of that race, and ended it only because of his/her race. How is that not prejudiced and racist?

  • Anonymous

    @Clutch

    Not to pull the “This Isn’t Important!” Troll Card™ that every moderator on a race blog just LOVES, but why should we care about what Paris Hilton felt about black men when she was 18? Isn’t she 30, now? Who cares? Call me when she does something worth noting.

    On the other hand, in my opinion, anyone who cares enough in the dating world to have a racial preference towards whom they want to date is not someone worth being with to me. I don’t look kindly on racial fetishes — I don’t think they’re things people should seriously share in public or be proud of. Objectifying people in earnest is not a good thing. Many times, also, I don’t care for people who say they want to marry/partner within their own race. At least with black people, they’re doing it as a reaction against several centures of anti-black propaganda, but almost everyone else does it because they believe in racial taint and racial purity, which is just a bunch of nonsense. There’s nothing wrong with being with someone one has a lot in common with, culturally and socially and personally, but if one’s doing it because everyone else is somehow “unsuitable” or “undoable” on some level or another, then one should really question his or her own perspective on things.