links for 2011-05-13

May 13th, 2011 by Andrea

  • "I am angry that we live in a world where women have to be validated as being funny if the guys like them. I am angry that we have come to a point where women in Hollywood are sending emails out like it is a political campaign to encourage people to see this film because things have become this desperate."
  • "Once, Donny Hathaway soulfully crooned 'The Ghetto.' Now, saying 'That’s so ghetto' has become as commonplace as 'That’s so gay,' and both are disparaging remarks. In this case, describing objects as 'ghetto' implies inferiority, and calling behavior 'ghetto' can infer that everyone living in particular neighborhoods behaves the same. Karen Grigsby Bates wrote on The Root that calling someone ghetto 'is intentionally classist.'"
  • Yeah, this definitely needs a discussion. Thoughts, Racializens?–AJP "One hundred and fifty years has done nothing to dent the pride of white Southerners, which is understandable. But if the GOP continues to court the mad, bad, beautiful Southland, then it will continue to embrace the awkward politics of race and memory. The Republican contenders may all eventually be called to account for the pact their party has made with Dixie. The Civil War anniversary has raised questions about Southern identity that must be resolved. The GOP, in turn, will have to decide whether it stands for reconciliation and change, or the righteous, useless anger of those stubborn Southerners who can never forget."
  • Hmmmmmm…thoughts?–AJP "Like any weapon that is mishandled, PC can be dangerous. Truth is PC has become a double edged sword benefiting no one. Those who were supposed to benefit from the PC movement: feminists, people of color, the GLBT community, people with disabilities, etc. were once happy to claim the PC movement and demand that prejudicial language not be used. But, once people began stifling their speech, discrimination continued. It just went to the very PC, but very silent, underground world of innuendo, institutionalized segregation, racism, and homophobia. Stealth discrimination is rampant in our country, and the PC movement is the cloak of invisibility that hides it."
  • "Unlike some critics of the talk radio right, calling a bit racist isn't a charge I make lightly. In fact, I've gone out of my way on prior occasions to defend the right against charges of racism when I find them to be unfair. I am also aware that this kind of assertion only causes Limbaugh's troops to rally around him. But so be it: the truth is that it's a racist bit, and I dissent from the proposition that no matter how badly Limbaugh (or in this case, his staff) behaves we ought to ignore the nation's most popular and influential radio program. "What is it going to take for the folks in conservative journalism to realize that this guy's continued prominence is poison for the right and the country? I don't get it."
  • "The question gets even more complicated when we consider the ways that race and class play into these memes. One Shit My Students Say entry specifically identifies the teacher as working in an “urban” school setting, which most people readily read as black, brown and poor. In another tweet, the teacher gives a few clues which would lead readers to believe that she is herself white, while her students are African-American. When I quote my students, I repeat their exact language, which sometimes includes grammar common to African-American Vernacular English. But that means I need to be extra thoughtful when I relay stories of muffin-flinging aggression or a goofed-up word- because the stories teachers share don’t exist in a vacuum. We’re sharing them in the context of a culture which often assumes ignorance and/or criminality is embedded in youth, in blackness, in poverty."

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  • http://molecularshyness.wordpress.com jen*

     ok. on the celebration of the Confederacy.  Living between the county where the Articles were signed and the country where The Redneck Store (real name of real store) makes this hit home.  Thankfully, I’m not friends with people who trumpet this kind of foolishness, but as I read the article I had to stop for this pure WTF moment: 

    “Likewise, the Stars and Bars now represents something much more than racial hierarchy. To most people who hoist it in their front yards, it stands for honour and tradition and the Old World chivalry of Gone With the Wind. They revel in its outrageous defence of vanishing values, its uncompromising statement against the decadence of modern life and the voluminous size of federal government. The Civil War is as potent to many white Southerners as the Blitz is to a Brit. Regardless of the historical reality, it is their finest hour. To take that away from them seems rather cruel.”

    WHAT????  The Civil War the South’s finest hour?  Who SAYS that? 

    I disagree with this vehemently.  General white Southerners do not believe this.  Or rather, if they believe it, they will never admit it in mixed company, so I will never know.  But the sentiment would never be publicly raised unless at a Klan rally, or perhaps a meeting of the SCV.

    The author’s attempt to position the flag as a non-racist symbol, having evolved past its original hurtful history is pure bunkum from someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to live around here.  

    The Stars and Bars are a clear message around here.  Everyone understands that message.  And if brown people go somewhere where the flag is prominent and then get mistreated, you will hear the white people comment, “Well, they knew they shouldn’t have gone there in the first place.”  Most of the time that doesn’t happen, though.  Cuz brown people already know.  (this got my blood pressure up, I’ll just go rest now.)

  • http://nympholepsy.tumblr.com nympholepsy

    I totally agree with this. I’m Southern and it makes me cringe when people claim the Confederate flag isn’t a racist symbol and that it just stands for honour and integrity and blah blah blah, because even if your *intention* is just to be proud of your heritage, you can’t divorce the flag from its history. It is racist, or at the very least privileged, to be able to just *ignore* the legacy of racism in the South that the Confederate flag represents. Reminds me of when people call it the “war of northern aggression” unironically. Or claim that the Civil War actually had nothing to do with slavery. Just… come on, y’all. Get real. It’s a terrible, uncomfortable part of our past and we do a disservice to our fellow Southerners if we try to erase it.

  • Anonymous

    jen*, that part was exactly what I was going to comment on, too!  WTF.  I mean, seriously? 

    When will we stop pretending that that there isn’t anything racist about wanting to go back to “the good old days”, you know, when rich white men and rich white women sat around drinking mint juleps or whatever BECAUSE THERE WERE BLACK PEOPLE DOING ALL THE WORK THAT ALLOWED THEM TO DO SO.  Not racist my ASS.