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Civil RightsThursday, August 06, 2009 About Time. Shameful US Immigrant Detention Policy To Be Reformed by Nanette
Hallelujah. Hutto Prison, (“a 512-bed center run for profit by the Corrections Corporation of America under a $2.8 million-a-month federal contract”) was the most visible over the past few years of this vast network of public and private prisons, partially due to it’s being “a centerpiece of the Bush administration’s tough approach to immigration enforcement” - which included putting entire families, children included, behind bars for immigration violations. It’s good not to forget that our immigration detention system has been a mess for years, with (non violent, non criminal) people spending years in prison because there is no longer a country to deport them to or something. Anyway, according to the article, apparently the possibility is still open for detaining entire families, but at least in prison. It’s a start.
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Friday, April 03, 2009 I’m Developing A Soft Spot For Iowa, Of All Places by Nanette I mean, Iowa. Who’da thought? A (primarily) white state that was pivotal in ensuring the potentially first Black president got a fair hearing in the rest of the US. And now becoming the first Midwest state to strike down anti marriage equality laws. Good for them.
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008 by Nanette
It’s hilarious that Obama was elected only 2 weeks ago… and has yet to take office or implement any policies at all and already the sky is falling, in some corners of the blogosphere. (Me, I’m with Liss) Takes me back to that day during the primaries when many of the big political bloggers (separately and independently, I’m sure) all declared the Obama candidacy dead in the water. It was over, done with, they had spoken. Strangely, Obama paid no attention to them and just continued to implement his campaign’s plan and the rest, as they say, really is history. I’m fairly certain that he also has a long range plan now and while I may not agree with all that he does - he’s no socialist, sadly - I’m curious to see what he will accomplish and how. Also funny… Al Qaeda has called Obama a "house negro" and, apparently, a tool of the Jews. I guess that makes nice a change from him being a Manchurian radical Muslim Black Panther, or whatever it is that some on the wacko right (and left) think he is. Some things to read - California Supreme Court is going to review Prop H8 ban - I don’t think minority populations rights should be put up to the vote anyway, but even when they are, the courts have (eventually) stepped in to override that vote. Let’s hope it happens this time too. Related, via P6 - Trends beyond black vote in play on Prop. 8 - One thing I wasn’t looking forward to, getting back online, was running into the (seemingly inevitable) irresponsible "Blacks hate gays and are responsible for all their ills" type talk that happens after votes like this. Sylvia has taken on the stupid printed, once again, in Salon Magazine in Carved Up: Black Women and Bodily Integrity. I have committed to reading the Epic of Gilgamesh and it’s all Theriomorph’s fault. Come join the conversation there on building community and effective strategies online and off.
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Thursday, January 03, 2008 by Nanette “The world’s eyes are on Kenya as we usher in the New Year, perched on the edge of an abyss, an abyss beyond which we could plunge into darkness and death.” Walking Into The New Year, collaborative article.
More from Kenya Imagine.
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Monday, December 17, 2007 This’n That - Newsy Bits In No Particular Order by Nanette Just things I've come across over the past few days but have not written about, and might never do so. Still, some are interesting or informative or even, sometimes, important. Hopefully, the beginning of a trend. New Jersey abolishes the death penalty: TRENTON — Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law a measure repealing New Jersey’s death penalty on Monday, making the state the first in a generation to abolish capital punishment. Mr. Corzine also issued an order commuting the sentences of the eight men on New Jersey’ death row to life in prison with no possibility of parole, ensuring that they will stay behind bars for the rest of their lives. In an extended and often passionate speech from his office at the state capitol, Mr. Corzine declared an end to what he called “state-endorsed killing,” and said that New Jersey could serve as a model for other states. “Today New Jersey is truly evolving,” he said. “I believe society first must determine if its endorsement of violence begets violence, and if violence undermines our commitment to the sanctity of life. To these questions, I answer yes.” New Jersey has not executed anyone since 1963, when Ralph Hudson was put to death in the electric chair for stabbing of his estranged wife. It's the states that kill the most people who will be the last ones to end this barbaric practice, I'm pretty sure. The stench of racism emanating from the Clinton campaign has not gone unnoticed: Hillary Clinton can kiss my Black vote goodbye
Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose about Obama - ' Who does he think he is?'
I don't actually agree with the poster on some stuff, related to Hillary Clinton's experience, and so on. Such as the intimation that her entire professional life is due to who she is married to. This may be true of her political life (although, no matter how or why first elected, she has definitely worked hard in her Senate career), but not her professional one. A roundup of a few roundups: Sylvia has a couple: Clever Title (For a News Round-Up) And Kai: Roundup — A Global Racket Demands A Global Justice Movement Also via Kai: Having been made aware of my own privilege, due to this comment at feministe, I will now attempt to describe the youtube video! But the Story of Stuff site also gives much written information. Basically... who pays for the stuff we buy? It's not us - the prices we pay for many items barely cover the rent of the shelf space they are on, let alone all the other costs (salaries, so on). So, who does wind up paying for our (Western, I guess) cheap goods? Er... The Story of Stuff. added - I almost forgot Free Rice! Excellent game where you can waste time and help feed the world all at once! I played it daily for a bit, but then got bored - it got too easy to make it to 50 and stay there (repetition will do that for you). I've been playing it every couple of days again now, though, just so I can donate some rice. I wish someone would do this for bicycles and other things as well. Try it, it's fun!
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Monday, December 03, 2007 Stephen Metcalf Tries To Salvage Slate’s Reputation by Nanette
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Thursday, November 15, 2007 Republicans In (Hurricane Ravaged) Mississippi Say: “The Rich Come First” by Nanette And this comes as a surprise to anyone? I think not. I don’t see how anyone could even pretend anymore. Though they no doubt will try…. “Who cares if the affluent get the lion’s share of help!? Class warfare! The poor have bootstraps, what more do they want? HANDOUTS!?” I've always loved the word "advocate". I know it has a few meanings... or rather, that it does not always apply to good things, but still. "Advocates for the poor". For justice. For a fair shake. It has a nice ring to it. The people affected by Katrina (and other disasters) and ignored by city, state and local governments need all the advocates they can get. At the same time, I hate the word and the need for it.
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Saturday, October 13, 2007 by Nanette I originally wrote this in Febuary of 2005 at one site, reposted it in 2006 at a different site and now have decided to post it here, this year. Maybe I’ll make it a yearly tradition ;). It’s very dated and I no longer have even a measure of belief in Democrats, but it’s not really about them. It’s more about how important it is that we stand up for one another. Of course the recent ENDA discussions are what made me think of this story, but it applies to so very many things. Additionally, it fits in with the “abundance vs scarcity” thoughts that I’ve been meaning to follow up on, so that’s a plus. I am leaving, below, the explanation to the second site for why I was posting it there, as well, cuz of the links and stuff. Soon the intros will be longer than the essay itself ;). In the midst of some of the brouhaha here lately, I told a story of an childhood incident that left a decided impression on me. I don’t tell that story to make anyone feel guilty, or to garner pity or anything… but for the lesson it taught me, that I’ve since tried to live up to. Ductape mentioned that I should make a diary of out it, but I didn’t really want to do that, and wasn’t sure how to anyway… but then I remembered… I already had, last year. I’m going to repost this here, even tho it’s a bit dated, just because it tells a bit of where I’m coming from. I hope others will also tell some of their experiences and lives and maybe we can reach some of this “convergence” that scribe described so beautifully. Anyway, here goes: I think of the era in which I grew up to be the best of times. Others…? Eh, they think of it as the opening of the floodgates of Hell. Yes… I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, in California. Born in 1958, I am at the tail end of the Boomer Generation, so I was surrounded, from birth, by discussions of equality, challenging authority, challenging tradition, changing the world. Although I didn’t at the time realize the magnitude of the tragedies that were the deaths of John and Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, I shared in the sorrow because those around me were sorrowful. But not defeated. No cause depends on just one person, but is built up from the many individuals who decide that now is the time, enough is enough. My older brother was the hippie of the family and would bring all sorts of interesting people home. I spent hours listening to their discussions about war and peace, about justice and equality, overthrowing the establishment, building a new society and peace and love, man. I was too young to join them in their endeavors (and quite often, it seemed to me, some of them were too… chemically enhanced, let’s say, to do much of anything anyway), but I loved sitting in the corner and absorbing their thoughts and dreams. Did I ever thank those young men and women, not that much older than I was, for their idealism, their belief in the ability to create a better world, their willingness to protest and to fight for what they believed in? I know some of you are still around, still fighting the fight, leading the way, still dreaming and believing that change is possible. Thank you. The older I get the more I realize how unique my upbringing was in one respect, for that period of time. In our home we were raised to believe that “our kind” was humankind. Not just through meeting people of different cultures at school, or at events, or in books, but by having them a part of our lives. The known and loved faces of my childhood were Black, White, Mexican, Japanese, Italian, Irish, African, Indonesian, Gay, Straight and in between. Gatherings and parties at our house were like the UN, before the UN was cool. My mom - divorced single mother, business owner, with three children -didn’t join peace marches or organizations of any sort, that I can remember. What she did is live every day as an example, whether she knew it or not. I learned much just observing her kindness and courtesy to all individuals, regardless of their “station in life”; the respect she commanded just by respecting others, and recognizing the dignity and humanity in everyone, regardless of who they were. It was up to them to live up to that respect. Or not. She still treated them the same. It’s my belief that you can talk about tolerance to your children all you want, but it’s who you invite into your home and life that seals the lesson. For me, life was good. But as we know childhoods eventually end. Bigotry, hatred, racism are no respecter of age or reason. It’s pretty devastating when you are 10, and at a school friend’s apartment for a birthday/pool party, to have the apartment manager come racing out, screeching that you… and only you… must get out of the pool RIGHT NOW, we can’t have a Negro child in there or we will have to drain the entire thing! This was my first remembered encounter with the dreaded (but to be pitied) Ignorant Person my mother warned me about. And, I noticed, they were just as ugly as she said they would be. (Many things were tolerated in her household, but being an Ignorant Person wasn’t one of them). I still remember everyone gathering around me, back in the apartment, as I sat shivering on the couch, not from cold. They apologized for the manager, but explained that of course I would understand if everyone carried on swimming without me, here there are books and a TV and we’ll be back soon. I nodded an agreement that I didn’t exactly feel, and watched them all walk away, out the door and back to the party. I think it was at that moment that I decided that if ever it came down to a choice of standing with someone against an injustice, or walking away, I would choose to stand, to the best of my ability. Sometimes I’ve failed over the years, made the wrong decisions, taken the easy way out. More times, though, I have been fortunate enough to have the courage make that stand, even when it would have been easier or more comfortable to walk away. This, to me, is part of the essence of liberalism. I love being a liberal. Sometimes I even love being a Democrat. We’re not in the least bit perfect, thank the gods. We debate things to death, go to bed thinking we’ve done a good job, wake up with a new outlook on the matter and debate it all over again. We have that blessedly cursed ability to see many sides of an issue; forget just shades of gray… someone usually throws some fuchsia and lime green in just to make sure we have everything covered. We tried so very hard in 2004 to walk lock-step, which is basically antithetical to our nature. But boy, did we try. The wildly beautiful discordance of our multitude of voices attempting to sing the same song (often to distinctly different music), will not soon be forgotten. Nor should it. We accomplished much, if not what we most wanted. We are still more than they ever will be. There is great beauty in our variety. To me, conservatives are dull monochromatic creatures (vultures, maybe?), while liberals, progressives, Democrats… we range from fierce hawks, to brilliantly hued and flamboyant tropical creatures, to the softest, most helpless tiny warblers. I wouldn’t have it any other way. We stand up for all, are made up of all. Right after the election, in the midst of anger and grief and recriminations, when we are still being beaten about the head daily with words flung by pundits, prognosticators and charlatans masquerading as the godly—“It was gay marriage. It was Hollywood, it was atheists, it was a documentary, it was him, it was her, it was you, it was whatever I want you to believe it was no matter what…blame them, they lost the election for you.” - we’ve done what we do best. We’ve talked, we’ve debated, argued, planned, searched our policies, our souls and Google; should we retool, refit, reform, get religion, make a new presentation, wrap a package up differently, embrace the middle, move left, move right, yell, whisper, march, organize, or simply pull the covers over our heads and wait it out. What we didn’t do… except for a very few… is say, “Let’s walk away, we can still have our party without them.” I love our principles. I love standing with people who realize that “equal rights for me, but not for you” is an unacceptable contradiction. Who believe that justice should be more than just a word carved on a courthouse wall. Who believe helping those with the least among is us not only a good thing, but also the right thing to do. That, regardless of your political persuasion, you should have a vote, and that your vote should count. That our actions should a true reflection of our ideals, not just phony posturing. That torture is not a moral value. I love most of all that while we necessarily squabble and debate, pull in opposite directions in an effort to reach the same destination, argue passionately and forgive wholeheartedly, and probably always will, that the debate is over how best to achieve our goals and stand up for ourselves and others. Not whether to stand up at all.
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Thursday, October 11, 2007 Wow. This Jena 6 Judge Really Has It In For Mychal Bell by Nanette AND his family. Seems like, anyway: ‘Jena 6’ teen Mychal Bell back in jail
I’d like to find out how routine this is… first, that he doesn’t get any of the ‘time served’ thing, and then also, how often families are stuck with the juvenile (or adult) court costs.
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Tuesday, October 09, 2007 by Nanette Well, wait… do we really need for ALL Of Us to be included? Y’all are going to have to help me out here. I have a shocking memory and so am no doubt missing some vital area where appeasing bigots… worked. I mean worked to the benefit of those doing the appeasing, not the bigots. Let’s see… there was that whole Constitution thing. There, too, one needed to take what could be passed, and not rock the boat too much by talking about all those humans being held in captivity as if they were actually, you know – human. Southerners (among others) would have been upset and not ratified the Constitution and where would people have been then? It was much better to take half a loaf - or maybe 3/5ths of one - and work later towards rights for all. That worked out well, no? Okay, so maybe some Black folks were a tad upset, but someone always has to complain about something, no? Jeez, why can’t people learn to be pragmatic about little things like civil and human rights? It only took another hundred years or so for them to be, in theory, released from the chains that had bound them for hundreds of years already. And only another hundred years after that ‘til civil rights laws were passed and (somewhat) enforced throughout the land. Who says appeasing the bigots and being pragmatic didn’t work? Whiners, the lot of them. Like women! Just look at them, not realizing how expedient it was that others got the right to vote before them, otherwise, bills just would not have passed. Duh! Didn’t they get rights eventually? Didn’t that work? I mean, so what that they too were considered pretty much property, with no voice, no say in the household let along say in the running of the country. They only had to wait a couple hundred years after the signing of the Constitution before becoming full citizens with rights. I mean… my god, how much faster do you want things to work? Incrementalism is the key! Without that half a loaf, things would never have moved so swiftly. No way did anyone just decide that they’d gotten theirs, and that was just fine, and leave it at that. Nope, those with full (or at least fuller) rights were out there everyday agitating for their lesser privileged brethren and sistren to be fully included. They stood firm and resolute, declaring that no one be forgotten or left behind (for more than a few hundred years). I’m sure of that… aren’t you? So, I would say absolutely yes, they are right! … appeasing the bigots, taking half the loaf instead of the full one, separating out those who – if we massage history, consciences and morality – are just not quite “our sort” and putting them aside for later… has worked like a charm in this fair land. It’s just like some guy with the initials MLK once said, “Justice is divisible”. Oh wait… okay I just might have that quote a little wrong, but what did he know anyway? [added] I should say that I am not GLB or T, but I do feel for those who have been waiting for this bill for decades, and who see it slipping out of their grasp just as it appears it might actually pass. That is heartbreaking. (I do not feel, however, or support, “understand” or accept, in any way, those who are using the language of hatred and bigotry to express their disappointment, no matter how long they have been waiting for what.) But… well, just when has appeasing bigots worked?
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007 by Nanette I’ve been posting bits about the situation in Burma on the Community/Member blog, but I really knew little about the overall situation, although I have, of course, heard of Aung San Suu Kyi and her house arrest and such. It wasn’t until I read this piece in the Guardian UK, though, that I realized that the monks and others who are protesting are in very much more dire danger than I first supposed. I naively, I guess, thought that the military would be leery of killing the monks, or mass killings of civilians, when they know the world is watching. It seems not.
I wasn’t aware of whatever happened in 1988, so I looked it up, finding this at Burma Watch (the number of people reported killed differ, but official counts and on the ground counts often do):
The Burma Watch link also gives much more background on the struggles of the country since gaining independence from the British colonialist rule. Here is more from The Guardian, though, on the current situation and some of the ins and outs of Burma/Myanmar’s relations with leading nations:
What a curse it seems to be, for all but the elite of most countries, to have natural resources… especially oil and natural gas. Well, and diamonds, gold, other gems, and anything else.
[added] The Buddhist Channel... who knew? Lots of up to date information there on the current crisis - they are gathering information from many different sources - but it looks like it would also be very interesting reading in quieter times as well. [added 9/27] Marisacat has pulled together more updates. Things are pretty bad… I don’t know whether to be happy to sad that I don’t have cable… or a TV at all, really. Assuming they are covering this story, that is, in between Britney updates. [added 9/28 6:30 pm] How long can Burma keep the monks locked up? (my question). And what will happen once they are released? The New York Times seems to think that the protest has been contained and that the military junta of Burma/Myanmar (I really do not know which name to use) is in the process of winning this - and they may be, I have no idea - but are they planning on never releasing the monks?
Some are losing hope… not surprisingly: (Guardian UK)
Others are not so sure that, with the world watching, things may not be different this time: (Guardian UK)
via Chris Clarke, Avaaz.org has a letter campaign targeted to the Chinese government (which has the most influence on the military junta in Burma). The are trying to reach 250,000 signatures and they don’t have much farther to go. bfp has a collection of stories and articles, some from those on the ground. Lenin, at Lenin’s Tomb, takes a look at some of the motivations behind Western government and media’s reporting and support of the Burma rebellion (while they ignore “protests in Thailand against the US-supported putsch [which] have been repressed even more violently”). daily kos article by koNko on unconfirmed stories of a military coup.
Irony. Or something. I’ll probably update and edit this post from time to time.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007 Come Back! We Hate YOU, But We Love Your Money! by Nanette Intended consequences of anti-immigrant legislation enacted by various towns… but some are not liking it so much. A case of hater’s remorse, maybe? Towns Rethink Laws Against Illegal Immigrants (NYTimes)
Can’t forget to add in the genius factor….
I can’t imagine why they voted him out of office. Then again, I can’t imagine why they voted him in.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007 Abundance, Scarcity and The Milky Way by Nanette The words are evocative in themselves. Scarcity. Small, spare, quickly ended, hoarding sound and movement - the final syllables almost blending together in their rush to get out and get it over with. Abundance. Full and round, rising and falling, this one needs your participation, to the extent that you are able, to the very end - where you must give it that last push and actively disengage in order to let it go. And then there is Theriomorph. Which is also fun to both say and visualize, but she does much more than play with words. She has taken the two concepts above and expanded on them as models for living and/or operating, in a thought provoking four part series posted at Chris Clarke’s, where she was guest blogging the past few days. It’s actually a five part series, in my mind, because until I read the post that began it all, the series itself was a little confusing for me. I could understand very well what she was saying, but, for some reason - most likely unfamiliarity with the writer herself - until I knew why she was saying it, it was difficult for me to know how to respond. Anyway, first off here is her series - none of the posts are very long, so it’s quick reading, but they are full, so much thinking: The post that kicked off the request for the series: The series. I love talking about this stuff and attempting to figure out how these concepts, and ones like them, can work on a practical, wide-spread basis on the left. I’m not really going to talk about that, though, or directly about Theriomorph’s series at all -I don’t think, anyway. Strangely enough, this series, combined with two posts of Chris’... one just a photo and a comment on it, and the other about caring for elderly relatives, as well as (yet another) asinine post by a major feminist blogger all got me thinking about abundance and scarcity, of course, and feminism, being considered part of a class, actually having class… and my mom. You see, one reason Theriomorph’s series both fascinated and puzzled me is my mom has lived her life under the abundance model.
Yes. Like that. I should give a little background. Continue Reading Abundance, Scarcity and The Milky Way
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Thursday, August 30, 2007 Myths, Monsters and Contradictions by Nanette An assortment of things I’ve read over the past few months have come together - somewhat - in my mind to form related, if still rather disconnected and contradictory, thoughts. I hope that by the time I’ve finished laying out the parts I’ll have figured out how to fit all the pieces together. Or you will have, at any rate. This is likely to be a bit long. Brace yourselves.  Via Alas, a Blog comes this fascinating children's book review at American Indians in Children's Literature. We are allowed a peek at what is normally a closely held and secret sacred Cherokee story - which, even now I am sure we are only getting a small flavor of. From what I can tell, this review of Gail Haley's Two Bad Boys is written by Gayle Ross. Here are a few highlights:
I'm sure Ms. Haley is a wonderful storyteller. She appears to have won a few awards and lots of acclaim ... I have nothing bad or good to say about her, having never heard of her before this, so any stray thoughts I have as a result of reading this review are not really about her or her work - or Ms. Ross, for that matter. For some reason, though, this telling brings to mind a favorite saying of mine: a line from ebogjonson in reference to something completely unrelated to this - or is it? - about "dangerously wild and crafty memes that have been laughing at intent and virtue for over 140 years [...] that tend to slip out of a user's grasp almost immediately, so deliberately handling them constitutes a form of willful recklessness." -------- I hadn't heard of La Vendida before reading about her at brownfemipower's a few months ago. As she says, the story around La Vendida is a bit complicated, and "to discuss La Vendida, you have to start with La Malinche". So she does:
Lots, lots more there, where she delves deeply into the significance of La Malinche and La Vendida to present day Mexico and those of Mexican descent, nationalism, feminism, machismo and much more. A wonderful article, well worth reading - but it's actually a conversation in the comments of this post that calls out to me to be included in whatever picture I am attempting to paint here. My question to brownfemipower (bfp): Continue Reading Myths, Monsters and Contradictions
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Friday, August 24, 2007 by Nanette From The Free Dictionary:
I’m afraid this is going to be more ‘stream of consciousness’ typing, taking the thoughts as they come - which is what I am actually more comfortable with - rather than something that has a specific beginning, middle and ending. Or point. I did have something else planned, having to do with the question “Why is this a feminist issue?” but, you know… I think I’ll just leave that one for another place and time. Heh. I, as always, speak only for myself and my experiences and not as a spokesperson for any particular group of people. So, this is an off the top of my head topic, mostly because I’ve been seeing that phrase (the benefit of the doubt) used lately and it does sometimes seem to me that different people have different ideas of what that means - depending on which side they are looking at it from, I suppose. I know, shocker. It often comes up (in one way or another) during discussions of race on and off the blogs, especially when it’s an issue of someone - usually, but not always, a person of color - saying to a person - usually, but not always, White - “hey… you know, that’s a racist saying, picture, way of thinking”. Needless to say, this is not always greeted with cries of joy, thankfulness and relief. More often with defensiveness, pushback, argument, hard feelings, hurt feelings, discussion and then - if we’re lucky - some sort of resolution. And in there somewhere, sometimes, wails about being given the benefit of the doubt. And that’s when I wonder… what is it people think the benefit of the doubt actually is? Whatever their interpretation is of it, it’s far different from mine, I guess. I have a favorite blogger, a White guy, that I came across through a link from another site - most of the time, with those, I go, look at whatever it was that was linked, and then forget to go back again, but with this one I was so impressed with the quality of writing, as well as the sense of humor and heart of the writer that I put it on my daily reading rotation. Almost as much fun as his writing is seeing the pictures that he finds to go along with the posts - some of them are just brilliant. Old timey, retro stuff a lot of them - really fun and neat. He doesn’t write much on race (that’s not what I visit his site for), but when he does it’s with a level of understanding - including knowing that there are some things he can’t understand - of righteous rage (especially about Katrina) and a talent for getting to the heart of the matter. I knew that this was someone who “gets it” and I felt comfortable there. So, imagine my… well, surprise, surely, but mostly shock and um… gut kicked feeling when one day I click on the site and there is this really dreadful, racist picture there, illustrating a post. Oh man - I knew what it was about, from the post… it was being used to illustrate some sort of racist thing right wingers were doing or saying regarding Black people and he was ripping them a new one. Still… I had a dilemma. I was a fairly new commenter and, I’m pretty sure, either the only or one of the few commenters who was Black or of color and I felt I could do one of a few things. 1.) I could just say “oh well, I know what he’s doing and that he’s not racist himself” and just let it pass and keep commenting there as if nothing had bothered me. 2.) I could just scratch the site off my rotation and move on to somewhere else. 3.) I could mention that, while I understood the intent, that the picture was worse (to me) than whatever it was he was writing about or against, and that it made me extremely uncomfortable. #3 is the one that is most fraught, for me, as a person of color. So many things can (and often do) happen when one chooses that option. And, the thing is, you never know which reaction you’ll be hit with, even if you are dealing with the nicest, most aware, most “I get it” (usually) White person that you know, especially if it’s someone you like and who you believe likes you. Anywhere from an outright denial of the racism to “well, reasonable people can see that sometimes things, when used like this, aren’t racist” (which, of course, puts you right away in the “unreasonable” category), to - as someone recently pointed out - if they are selling something, other (usually) White commenters coming to the defense of the original writer, declaring that of course it’s not racist, whatever it is you are selling I am going to buy 10 and give them to all my friends and family, to eventual grudging acceptance that, okay maybe it’s racist, but you’re a jerk for pointing out, to oh okay, sorry, i didn’t think of that, thanks for pointing it out. Me, I dithered a lot, all the time with this huge pain in my stomach because if I got the “wrong” reaction, I would have just been so disappointed, I love the site so maybe it’s better to say nothing, but if I don’t say anything how can I then continue to enjoy the site, knowing that I don’t trust this person enough to speak, and if I don’t trust this person enough to speak and don’t trust him and his reactions enough to believe that he’ll do the right thing, or if I don’t trust this person enough to believe he’s not going to turn into someone else and start spewing accusations and vitriol at me for speaking up… well then, what the heck am I doing here? Do I trust this person or not? Okay, yes, I do. So, I went into the comments of the post and said something to the effect that, while I usually love all your pictures, I do not love this one. It’s racist. And his reaction was to change the picture immediately and then to comment on why he had used it, and what he was trying to accomplish, but that he definitely could make the same point with a different picture. Or something like that, this was a while ago. In making the decision to not just shake my head and move on, or to stay silent and probably seethe or to roll my eyes and think “oh well, par for the course” but deciding instead to bring this to his attention, come what may, and to believe (or at least hope) there would be no blowback from it… I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. When people’s commenters (friends, co-workers, so on) choose forms of options 1 and 2 and opt not to mention that something is, even if unintentionally, racist (or wrong in some other fashion), it may be quieter and less painful for the original poster and less uncomfortable for those that like and support them, but that person is not necessarily being given the benefit of the doubt, in my opinion. They’ve already lost it.
Added 10/12/07 - Rachelena, of Life in Lenaville, in response to a few things going on in her orbit, has written what I consider to be a perfect companion piece to this. Well worth reading and absorbing. |
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I’m not all that interested in politics now that the election is over - the endless speculation over possible appointees and such is just mind-numbing - but, still…