Yeah, yeah, yeah, more politics crap. I know.

Listen up, though, young folks. This particular speech by presidential candidate Barack Obama may very well go down as one the great speeches in our nation’s history. Or it might be forgotten by next week, you never really know. But if you’ve got forty minutes to spare, check this video out. Even if you’re not an Obama fan, it might be good to be able to talk knowingly about this speech some day.

Filed by Bil at 12:24 pm under The Media, Politics, Racism
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Tim Wise, anti-racism activist and author of one of my favorite and oft-recommended books, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son , has written some essays recently on Obama voters and the myth of reverse racism. I’m keeping up with them because he is my MySpace friend (the only person listed as both a friend and a person I’d like to meet), proving that MySpace CAN be used for good as well as evil.

I won’t quote his most recent article extensively here, because I want you to read it. But here’s a little taste:

In other words, if voting for a white person because of their race is racism, then so too must be voting for a black person because of theirs. So see, those black Obama boosters are every bit as racist as we are, maybe more so, because they’re breaking his way by about eighty-five percent, while whites are splitting between Obama and Clinton by about fifty-fifty. So if anything, the e-mailer said, it was blacks who were more racist and whites whose voting behavior portended open-mindedness.

Such an argument–which is really the political equivalent of “Why can’t we have white history month, I mean, we have black history month?”–suggests how far we have to go in this nation simply to have a productive dialogue about race, let alone to really conquer racism.

Check out the full article here: http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/Obama2.html and give yourself a pat on the back for keeping up with political critique. Even if you (I) do it on MySpace.

Filed by Chelsea at 9:48 am under General, Social Issues, Politics, Racism
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To begin, welcome to Chelsea (!) and her marvelous musings on Craigslist Missed Connections. I don’t spend much time reading them, but I too always assume they’re for me.

A recent encounter at the lake front running path reaffirmed my suspicion that some of those listings are for me, and that they were perhaps just a little more than a missed connection.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 1:29 pm under Pop Culture, Racism, Homophobia, Love
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“So, why’d you leave?”
“Oh, I was mistaken for a drag queen and I got finger-diddled in a koi pond.”
“Do you consider yourself a team player?”
“Well, I do now.”
– MadTV, Trina goes for a job interview at IHOP

Tomorrow is my last day as a server, three years in the works. It’s the end of an era, really. Needing money badly after leaving my Masters program, I was hired by Mimi’s Cafe on July 13th, 2004 without any previous serving experience. I’ve mentioned before that the service industry is a bona fide sub-culture, and the amount of freedom it affords has been overwhelmingly beneficial to me as a person. At the time I began serving I had just come out of the closet and had only just begun exploring ideas beyond those of my conservative, religious upbringing; really, it has been in this industry that I’ve learned how to think for myself and formulate my own original viewpoints. However, I should point out that there are two sides to every coin. While I can’t say the industry has been completely horrible to me (I’ve managed to sock away close to $22,000 in the past 18 months), there are a number of rather poisonous elements to this line of work.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Trevor at 1:36 am under General, Social Issues, Pop Culture, Racism
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I’ve seen many videos on Islamic extremism that have upset me deeply, partially because I refuse to sink to the level of those that brand every Muslim our enemy, but also because I find any manner of religious extremism troubling — especially that which results in bloodshed. I am absolutely at a loss to discover the source of this hatred that has taken our world hostage, and I fail to understand how deposing Arab leaders of sovereign nations is expected to endear us to the Islamic community. On that note, the video below is without question the most moving I have seen on this subject since the start of this wretched war — the infamous exchange with psychologist Wafa Sultan . That a Syrian woman is willing to show her face on Al-Jazeera speaking such blasphemy and heresy requires courage for which our society has no word; I have never agreed with anyone on this matter as wholeheartedly as I do her, and the fact that it is coming from within the Arab community further galvanizes the plainness of her truth. I believe she is doing more good than most for this current crisis in which we have found ourselves, and I encourage you to keep tabs on her work.

One amazing thing, though: notice that no one interrupts her, despite her quite heretical statements, even despite the fact that she is a woman in Western dress. Had this exchange taken place on American television, how much of her message do you think she would have gotten across?

Filed by Trevor at 12:24 am under Religion, Social Issues, Racism
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Consider, if you will, the origin of the following quote:

Adkinson’s sister, Mindy Bryan, attended a segregated prom in 2001.

“There was not anybody that I can remember that was black,” she said. “The white people have theirs, and the black people have theirs. It’s nothing racial at all.”

An article from the Onion, perhaps? Maybe even a witty non sequitur from Bill Maher or Margaret Cho? Not so much. Had this been excerpted from a piece of satirical journalism I would have laughed my ass off, but the fact that the speaker was deadly serious absolutely scares the crap out of me. Just call me naive for thinking that segregation was the thing for the history books; leave it to South Georgia to keep our good old-fashioned traditional American values alive. Boy, just wait for when the women’s liberation movement hits Turner County. That’ll sure be something, won’t it? Anyone want to help me put together care packages of Ortho Tri-Cyclen and the collected works of Betty Friedan just to speed up the process?

Ever wanted to know who on earth still thinks Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11? These people. Consider the source and shudder.

Filed by Trevor at 12:03 am under Social Issues, Racism
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