Rose McGowan Again
Brave is the book that Rose Arianna McGowan is promoting. Whenever there is a fresh controversy, there is usually product to sell. This blog has done it’s part, writing about RAM thrice: Rose McGowan Misogygate, A Rose By Any Other Blame, and The Rose And Bret Show. Recently,’ during a promotional event, push came to shove. RAM fought back, against the trans activist who verbally assaulted her from the audience. While RAM, and her opinions, can be highly annoying, it was fun to see someone push back at a troll. RAM said a few things about labelism.
“Don’t label me, sister. ’ Don’t put your labels on me. Don’t you f—ing do that. Do not put your labels on me. I don’t come from your planet. Leave me alone. I do not subscribe to your rules. I do not subscribe to your language. You will not put labels on me or anybody. Step the f— back. What I do for the f—ing world and you should be f—ing grateful. Shut the f— up. Get off my back. What have you done? I know what I’ve done, God dammit.”
Andi Dier is the trans activist who made a scene. There are unconfirmed rumors of bad behavior on their part. @PopCrave “Andi Dier the woman who heckled Rose McGowan at her book signing is now being accused of sexual assault by multiple women.”
Some reports on the B&N episode note trans-problematic comments made on RuPaul’s “What’s the Tee?” podcast. In the last part of the show, RAM makes comments about trans women not having periods as teenagers. Is that transphobic? Certified cis-male PG is the wrong person to ask.
The rest of the show was fun to listen to. RuPaul is a smart cookie, and made sage observations about the illusionary nature of just about everything. RAM made one comment, at 51:11, that is easily refuted. “60% of gun violence deaths are in this country are women.” The FBI issues a report every year. The homicide numbers for 2016: Total 15,070 male 11,821 female 3,208.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. “Mother and child, white migrants, Harlingen, Texas.” The photographer was Russell Lee. The pictures were taken in February, 1939.
Tonight’s Designated Survivor
display of a link on this page does not indicate approval of content ~ Burkhart’s entertainers say bar’s racism runs deeper than owners ~ James Nelson The rumor is true. I just made a very generous offer to Palmer. However his comment to me was, and I quote, “Burkharts is nothing but a toy to me I don’t need it, come back to me when you are serious” Well, I will deal with the landlord when the doors close now. ~ The Plot Against America ~ Former Jungle owner considers buying Burkhart’s ~ English Prescriptivism: Being a good writer & its roots in white supremacy ~ Mom sues Walmart over ‘segregated’ beauty products ~ Sonny Perdue is Tonight’s Designated Survivor ~ Call me Al LIVE Episode 3 with Baked Alaska & Uncle Hotep ~ The Devastating Paradox of Pakistan ~ When non-Black POC hide behind blatant white supremacy to ignore their own complicity ~ hair video ~ optimism ~ animal consent ~ A Protest Divided ~ Sisters indicted in beating death of 3-year-old who ate cupcake ~ HIV-positive man accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting boy ~ Marquavis Goolsby ~ rose mcgowan gets off ~ Philosopher Slavoj Žižek settles the “Is it OK to punch a Nazi?” question once and for all ~ Monique Lied To Y’all . . . Netflix Didn’t Offer Her $500K . . . They Offered Her 3 MILLION But SHE TURNED IT DOWN!! ~ Fight over sagging pants prompts Dallas DART station shooting ~ Rosa Parks Was My Aunt. Here’s What You Don’t Know About Her. ~ Three in five people intentionally misgender trans people: report ~ The real history behind tipping is surprisingly racist. ~ Tony Lingoes ~ Service 101: A Brief History of Tipping ~ Rose McGowan Broke Down in a Transphobic Rage ~ Rose McGowan Breaks Down When Confronted About Trans Rights: ‘I Didn’t Agree to Your Cis F—ing World’ ~ An Intersection Of Race, Masculinity, And Mental Health ~ rose and ru ~ Rose McGowan’s interview with Colbert was incredibly uncomfortable. It’s worth watching. ~ @transscribe I tracked down and interviewed the trans woman who confronted Rose McGowan earlier this week about her transmisogyny. Read her side of the story with @them ~ @PopCrave Andi Dier the woman who heckled Rose McGowan at her book signing is now being accused of sexual assault by multiple women. ~ Andi Dier ~ Rose McGowan Misogygate ~ A Rose By Any Other Blame ~ people who died on january 30: Betsy Ross (1936) Mohandas Gandhi (1948) Orville Wright (1948) Professor Longhair (1980) Lightnin’ Hopkins (1982) Coretta Scott King (2006), ~ And when PG challenged the evidence of this magic word usage, he was asked “So I ask you again, what is your investment in over and over casting doubt on progressive, anti-racist activism?” If PARA means having a hissy fit because a man used the magic word on facebook, then yes, doubt should be cast. ~ Have you ever heard that you should speak up? Supposedly, if you see something wrong happening, and don’t say anything, then you are complicit. The problem is, if the thing you are speaking out against is the SJW, then you can expect that person to get angry. People only want you to speak out when they are agree with you. Otherwise, you risk social suicide by speaking out. ~ … “And to top it all off you suggest that (5) someone with black grandchildren can’t be racist. That last argument is particularly bizarre and pernicious. Someone with black *children* can be racist. Slave masters often raped their slaves. Strom Thurmond had black children. And you imply someone with black *grandchildren* can’t be racist?” ~ Mics cost money. They can be damaged by dropping. “Drop the mic” is just a saying. ~ Instead of hate the sin, love the sinner, you can question the belief, love the believer. Let someone else do the hating. ~ whiteness anagrams as he witness ~ Khalil Lawal left a comment at this video, BEING SCARED OF YOUR PAST. “my name is Khalil. brothers and sisters in Islam. please make dua for me. May Allah (swt) grant His mercy upon you and your family. Forgive you for your sins. And Make any good that is difficult, easy for you. Ameen. As salaamu alaikum wa rahmahtullah wa barakatuh” ~ I would say that gullibility of liberals vs conservatives is close to to an equal match. And yes, I got gullibility correct without using spell check. ~ first they came for those with resting bitch face ~ i said take them they have a negative attitude ~ then they came for the lonely and depressed ~ i said take them it is their choice ~ then they came for the ones they call racist ~ i helped as i did not want them to think me racist ~ then they came for me ~ and there was no one left to speak up for me ~ Pictures are from The Library of Congress. The 1927 pictures were taken at “California Beauty Week, Mark Hopkins Hotel, July 28 to Aug. 2, auspices of San Francisco Chronicle.” ~ Social Justice Jihad® approval of today’s content is pending ~ selah
Killed By Police February 4
23 people were Killed By Police in the United States last week. Here are the links: 098 Charles Williams 099 Paul David Johnson 100 Anthony McDaniel 101 Billy Lewis Rucker 102 Gregory Kocian 103 Dwayne Pritchett 104 Khalil Lawal 105 Mark Renee Flores 106 Michael Hansford 107 Ricky Leon Rusche 108 Gilbert Salas 109 Adrian Valdez 110 James M. Burks 111 Albert Morton Jr 112 Daniel O. El 113 William Young 114 115 Alexander W. Simpson 116 117 118 Charlie Shoupe 119 120
10 of the victims were white. (098, 099, 100, 102, 107, 108, 110, 113, 116, 118) 6 of the victims were black. (101, 103, 104, 111, 112, 114) 105 Mark Renee Flores was latino. The race of 6 of the victims is unknown. (106, 109, 115, 117, 119, 120)
7 of the victims fired at an officer. (100, 101, 102, 107, 112, 113, 119) 9 of the victims displayed a weapon. (099, 105, 106, 109, 114, 116, 117, 118, 120) 2 of the victims were suicidal. (117, 118) 6 of the victims were in a car chase. (101, 102, 108, 111, 112, 116) A taser was used on 098 Charles Williams.
4 of the cases were in Georgia. “A man died while in custody after he was tasered by a local sheriff’s office on Saturday, officials confirm. Now, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case. According to the GBI, officials were moving Charles “Charlie” Williams, 30, from one facility to the Barrow County Detention Center around 2:30 that afternoon. Williams was already under arrest through the Auburn Police Department for charges of battery and cruelty to children, related to a physical confrontation in Auburn, Georgia. According to the GBI, Williams “became combative before making it into the jail. He fought with deputies for several moments and did damage to the patrol car he was transported in.” The GBI investigation indicates a Williams managed to move his handcuffs from behind his back to his front. Personnel tried to talk him out of the vehicle, but he continued to struggle. Sometime during that altercation, a Barrow County deputy used a taser on him, though it reportedly did not subdue him. The GBI has not released how many times he was hit with the taser. During the altercation, he stopped fighting back when he “experienced medical duress and stopped breathing,” the GBI writes.” (098)
“Investigators said a little after 1 a.m., a gunman first opened fire on New Peachtree Road, in a drive-by shooting. Chamblee police found a man who was shot in the hand. Ten minutes later, investigators said a 911 caller alerted them the man was now shooting at passing cars from the parking lot of a QuikTrip on Chamblee-Tucker Road. Police said as they arrived, the shooter ran to Quantum Lane and kept shooting. Officers said they were afraid for their safety and the public’s safety, so an officer fired one shot, which later killed the man.” (099)
“A Clayton police officer initiated a traffic stop for speeding just after 3 a.m. Thursday on Georgia Highway 441 South. The Honda Accord was traveling 68 miles per hour in a 45 miles per hour zone. When the officer initiated the stop, the Accord accelerated and a chase ensued. The Accord turned onto Rickman Road and then crashed on a private drive at 547 Warwoman Road. When officers arrived at the scene, the officer gave verbal commands for the subject to remain in the vehicle. The subject then exited the vehicle through the rear window and made his way onto the roof of the vehicle. The subject, armed with a knife, jumped off the hood of the vehicle toward the officer, advancing and swinging the knife. The officer fired multiple shots at the subject, striking the subject.” video (116)
“The GBI said a suspect robbed an auto parts store and then tried to carjack someone across the street. The suspect encountered police and there was a shootout. “We do have at least one witness who actually saw him shoot at Atlanta police officers. The officers returned fire and from that particular point it just turned into a running gun battle,” GBI spokesperson Nelly Miles said. Authorities said the suspect was shot and killed. No officers were injured.” (119)
“Baltimore police media relations Chief T.J. Smith said the incident started as a traffic stop on Westgate Avenue and that the driver fled. The Foxtrot helicopter tracked the vehicle as it took off. On video, the suspect, Billy Lewis Rucker, 33, can be heard yelling, “Y’all can’t stop me.” The vehicle was found abandoned near Roslyn Avenue and Gwynns Falls Parkway, and officers spotted Rucker and a female passenger on Gwynns Falls, police said. Police said Rucker ran, pulled out a gun and pointed it at officers. During a foot chase, Rucker dropped a magazine from a gun, police said. Police said the footage shows a muzzle flash from the gun before the officer fired his service weapon, striking Rucker, who died at a hospital.” video (101)
“Police responded to a 911 call around 4:30 p.m. reporting that an emotionally disturbed man had locked himself inside his bedroom on Reservoir Avenue. When they arrived, police stood outside the bedroom door of Dwayne Pritchett, 48, and tried to get him to come out. Cops said Pritchett suddenly opened the door and they spotted drugs and a gun on the floor. When they attempted to put him in handcuffs, police said Pritchett tried to pull a gun from one of the holster of an officer. Officers gained control of him and pulled him from the bedroom, but Pritchett then lost consciousness and became unresponsive, according to police. EMS tried to revive him on the scene and he was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police said Pritchett had a warrant out for his arrest. A cause of death has not yet been determined.” “The officers entered the room and began to handcuff Pritchett — who sources say had a lengthy rap sheet. Pritchett was reportedly sweating profusely when he tried to pull the cop’s gun from its holster. Pritchett passed out suddenly after officers removed him from his bedroom, police said. EMS administered Narcan — a medication used to block the effects of opioids — and tried to save Pritchett’s life by administering CPR. He was taken to New York-Presbyterian The Allen Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Pritchett has a history of drug abuse and has been in rehab before, a police source added.” (103)
“Capt. Sekou Kinebrew told reporters that a bicycle officer reported at about 7:30 a.m. Monday that he saw a car driving erratically near Broad and Bigler. Kinebrew said the driver (Khalil Lawal) “was apparently attempting to run people over.” One person was hit by the vehicle but the injuries weren’t believed to be life-threatening. Another driver had blocked the path of the suspect’s car, and the off-duty officer approached him and struggled with him. During the struggle, the officer shot the man once in the head, critically injuring him. The man later died, police said.” “Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross … said that he had “concerns” about the incident. “I do have some concerns about the shooting, in particular whether all the shots were necessary,” … Ross also addressed initial reports that Lawal was targeting multiple pedestrians with his car. “Right now we have not been able to confirm this at all,” Ross said. “The only thing we know is of this one incident at this point in time that we are still investigating.” Police also don’t believe the incident was a case of domestic terrorism.” (104)
“… the incident began unfolding late Wednesday morning when Nicollet County sheriff’s deputies spotted a vehicle in Lafayette that had been reported stolen in New Ulm. A pursuit ensued involving six law enforcement agencies. Eventually the male driver was identified and the pursuit terminated for safety reasons. A half-hour later, the vehicle was spotted in St. James. Officers followed the vehicle until the driver got stuck in a snowbank. He then fled into a business in the 600 block of Second Avenue South, where he hid alone in an office. Officers from the St. James Police Department, Watonwan County sheriff’s office and Minnesota State Patrol entered the business. Officers deployed multiple stun gun rounds before one officer discharged a firearm, striking Gilbert Salas.” (108)
“A caller reported a male at the residence was bleeding from self-inflicted injuries and was feeling “suicidal,” Dutton said. “When deputies got to the residence [the caller] told them he had a gun, a pistol,” Dutton said. Dutton confirmed that fact in an interview with the Independent Record Friday morning. Deputies attempted to engage the suspect in verbal negotiations to set down the gun for about an hour, Dutton said. “Unfortunately, he forced the hand of a deputy, and the deputy in protecting himself and other deputies had to shoot,” Dutton said.” (117)
“Massey’s video shows fire personnel following slowly behind Charlie Shoupe as he walked around, holding a knife, for about 3 minutes. Massey said he was standing outside the apartment building when he saw a white man, later identified as Shoupe, “come outside screaming ‘shoot me.’” He began recording the scene. Shoupe appeared to be using a knife to harm himself and he was threatening fire department officials who were responding to the mother’s 911 call, Massey said. When a CMPD officer arrived, Shoupe and the fire personnel appear to walk toward the direction of the patrol car. Police say Flynn gave verbal commands for Shoupe to drop his knife and that Flynn “retreated multiple times to try to put distance between him and Mr. Shoupe.” “Mr. Shoupe refused to comply and instead continued to charge at Officer Flynn, closing the distance between the two of them. Officer Flynn then fired his service weapon, striking Mr. Shoupe,” CMPD said in a news statement.” (118)
“The sheriff’s office got a 911 call at 9:20 a.m. Friday about a man who had fired a shot inside a home on FM 2405, north of Winters, while family members were inside. He was “believed to be in mental distress,” said Squyres. When deputies and officers from the Winters Police Department arrived, they saw a man inside the home with a rifle. After failing to establish communication, they called the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office which brought its tactical team and a negotiator. Department of Public Safety officers and Texas Rangers also came to assist. Still unable to establish communication, officers saw the man pacing back and forth, holding the rifle. At one point, he pointed the rifle at officers through a window. About 1:15 p.m., the man walked out onto the patio, shouldered his rifle and aimed it at deputies. “Deputies were forced to fire a single round, striking the individual,” Squyres said. A neighbor who did not want to be identified told KTXS “he was just a sick man. He was sick. He didn’t know they were cops. He thought it was someone trying to break into his house.” (120)
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. The photographer was Dorothea Lange.
Live Or Memorex
It started when PG got an email from a longtime friend. He has recently produced a book of photographs, something in my eye. On the last page is a statement: “All photographs in this photo journal are taken exactly as the Camera and I see them. Life is much more interesting without alteration.” The wheels of thought started to spin. If you saw a mushroom cloud rising over Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, that might have been it. This is a repost.
PG sent a reply, “I disagree with the concept that life is more interesting when it is not altered. The world is big enough to handle both points of view.” The next morning there was a reply. “your alteration is completely different and stands alone on its own excellent merit and as its own artform. I mean reversing pix, airbrushing etc. I would not even use the word altered on your artwork. Maybe surgically enhanced! but you know what I mean. Your stuff by altered becomes something that is creating something completely new and original.”
As the reader(s) of this blog know, PG likes to play with pictures. It is a good hobby. No talent or education is required. The software is a free download. Have fun, and don’t spill your beverage.
When the blogging thing started, PG had a dial up connection. When you upload 4kb a second, you like to keep the file size down. One way is to reduce the image to the size the blog has room for. The typical picture today starts at 2048×1536(pixels), with 666 kb of memory. If you reduce this to 720×540, the file size drops to 198kb.
The image size needs to be adjusted to go anywhere. Negatives have been replaced with code. If you are going to put out a dead tree book, you need to find a size for the image. The same goes for a blog.
You don’t have to use the entire image. Most raw images have parts that are not interesting. PG likes to use the golden rectangle (1612:1000) as a default when he crops images. This is usually more pleasing to the eye than the 4:3 ratio used by most cameras.
Most images can use some work in addition to cropping. Level adjustment and color balancing can add to almost every picture made. What the camera sees is often different from what the eye sees. The mechanical tool can use some help.
The camera has always been an adjustable tool. The settings, whether manual or automatic, play a role in how the device records the image. The way the image is rendered for viewing can change it’s content. Ansel Adams is as famous for his darkroom skills as he is for his photography.
Does anyone remember those memorex commercials? (The person who cleaned up the broken glass does.) The voice over says ” is it live, or is it memorex?.” When the commercial played on tv, it was a reel to reel tape, from an unknown manufacturer. The tape used was usually the one the producer got for the lowest price. The spell check suggestion for memorex is memorize.
The memorex ad is a bit quaint today. Cassettes have been replaced by compact discs, which were replaced by the MP3. A recording studio has all sorts of gizmos to corrupt correct the original. The recording studio has long been a creative instrument, rather than a facility for catching sound waves. The same is true of the camera.
There is nothing wrong with trying to get the reproduced image as close to natural as possible. The world is indeed an interesting place. It is just that the technology which is available to anyone with an internet connection, can change what the camera sees to more like what the human being saw. It can also create beautiful images that found their starting point in the original.
The pictures for this post are by chamblee54, and were taken March 18, 2011. The first four were taken on a walk through Chamblee GA. The second one illustrates where manipulation tools can give the illusion of reality. It is almost impossible to photograph a rectangular object and have all the lines come out evenly. This picture was cropped with the no smoking sign in the middle. GIMP has a tool which allows you to pull out the sides. This enables you to have the borders appear to be portrayed as flat lines with ninety degree angles.
These pictures are presented today in the order in which they are shot. This is another option the presenter has. That evening, PG went to a discussion group. The best comments were by a dog. After that, the group went to a bar. The facility next door had a drag show, with the performers waiting on the sidewalk before they went in. This adds a new dimension to the concept of real versus altered.
Examine Your Whiteness Part Three
During the debate about ex-employee revenge, and Palmer Marsh, PG took a bit of heat for his position. He was told repeatedly to “Examine your whiteness.” This phase was rather confusing. To attempt to get more information about EYW, PG typed the phrase into the google search window. This is what he found. Out of consideration to the reader’s attention span, none of these results will be *examined* in depth. If the reader wants to use the links, they can get more information.
Examining Whiteness: An Anti-Racism Curriculum “These materials, prepared by the Rev. Doctor William Gardiner, are made available to Unitarian Universalists (UUs), particularly white people interested in transforming their whiteness through understanding the complex history of white supremacy of over four hundred years in the United States, and the impact it has on us as individuals and the society as a whole.” This is a study course, for groups and individuals. Two of the documents are DIFFERENT WAYS OF BEING WHITE and DEVELOPING A POSITIVE WHITE IDENTITY. Some of the materials seem a bit contradictory, but may prove valuable with enough study.
Why Talk About Whiteness? “Her statement illustrates why educators, activists and allies doing racial justice work are increasingly focused on the importance of examining whiteness: It’s impossible to see the privilege and dominance associated with white racial identity without acknowledging that whiteness is a racial identity.” There is a great deal of semantic prestidigitation in these materials, and in the overall discussion of racial values.
Examine Your Whiteness, and Examine Your Whiteness Part Two, are the two posts that PG wrote about Palmer Marsh. This is results three, and four, of the google search request. Hopefully, this will generate some traffic.
The Meaning of Whiteness ” One of the requested topics was “whiteness,” a topic both obvious—how can a book about race not examine whiteness?—and curious, for I was quite sure that there would be no similar entries for “blackness” or “Asian-ness”. Whiteness, you see, is a unique concept and explaining it poses unique challenges. … who gets to define whiteness? In contemporary progressive circles, it is generally assumed that a group should be able to define itself, but whiteness has historically been defined by non-whites. … There are several different components of whiteness. These include: 1) racial identity, 2) racial bias, and 3) racial privilege.”
What Is Whiteness? is from the New York Times. PG foolishly used one of his four free articles for this month to see this. The article was written in 2015, and used two current stories to illustrate a whiteness binary. While some might see what follows as nonsense, you should be aware that it was written by “Nell Irvin Painter, a professor emerita of history at Princeton University and the author of “The History of White People.”
“The terrorist attack in Charleston, S.C., an atrocity like so many other shameful episodes in American history, has overshadowed the drama of Rachel A. Dolezal’s yearslong passing for black. And for good reason: Hateful mass murder is, of course, more consequential than one woman’s fiction. … An essential problem here is the inadequacy of white identity. Everyone loves to talk about blackness, a fascinating thing. But bring up whiteness and fewer people want to talk about it. Whiteness is on a toggle switch between “bland nothingness” and “racist hatred.” On one side is Dylann Storm Roof … On the other side is Ms. Dolezal … . But why, we wonder, did she pretend to be black? … Eliminating the binary definition of whiteness — the toggle between nothingness and awfulness — is essential for a new racial vision that ethical people can share across the color line.”
America’s newspaper of record is saying is that the choices for whiteness are Dylann Roof and Rachel Dolezal. Maybe they are talking about hair. We get to choose between the soupbowl haircut of Dylann Roof, or the horror movie frizzle of Rachel Dolezal.
5 Ways To Check Your White Privilege Imagine you walk into a room of 10 random strangers and shout the words “white privilege.” There is no need for suspense. The five ways are: “1. During discussions on race, be mindful not to silence people of color. 2. Do not assume you worked harder than a person of color to get where you are today. 3. Don’t expect a person of color to educate you on race whenever you feel like it. 4. Consume film, television, music, and other media in a mindful way. 5. Don’t assume people of color are “pulling the race card.””
How Much Sweat is Too Much Sweat? The article above had a header ad to pay the bills. “When sweating gets excessive and happens for no clear reason, it could be a sign of a real medical condition known as hyperhidrosis.”
The Whiteness Project “The Whiteness Project is an interactive investigation into how Americans who identify as “white” experience their race. … The latest installment, Intersection of I, is a collection of 23 interviews filmed in Dallas, Texas in July 2015 and released in April 2016.” This feature does not give any specific instructions for the examination of whiteness. OTOH, it is entertaining and enlightening. Twenty three young people, all white, give video talks about their experience with race. One is a running back, who people are surprised to hear is white. One is a high school student, who says some of the black kids at his school are disruptive. If you have the time, these videos are worth your time to watch. If nothing else, many of the young adults are cute.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The North Carolina pictures were taken in October, 1936, by Arthur Rothstein. The South Carolina pictures were taken in July, 1937, by Dorothea Lange.
Non-Racist Or Anti-Racist
There is a tasteful bit of white guilt porn on the innertubes. The video is from the Guardian, a British enterprise. Are you racist? ‘No’ isn’t a good enough answer. The transcript has 365 words, one for each day of the year. The word for today is and. The most recent tally shows 4,714,039 views on facebook, which does not pay royalties.
The talk is an exercise in semantics. Either you are non-racist, or anti-racist. The possibilities that you are a known-racist is not considered, as is the concept that attitudes about race are nobody else’s business. The speaker, Marlon James, instructs the listener that you MUST be anti-racist. Nothing else will do. This means that you must take some type of action against racism. What exactly you are supposed to do is not specified, but you need to do something.
Mr. James lists five points that the mythical non-racist uses to justify their non-ness. “I’m not a bigot. I don’t sing that ’n’ word when my favorite rap jam comes on. I didn’t vote for that guy. I’m not burning any crosses. I’m not a skinhead.” From these five nots, a certain lifestyle emerges. “What you end up with is an entire moral stance, an entire code for living your life and dealing with all the injustice in the world by not doing a damn thing. That’s the great thing about “non-”: you can put it off by simply rolling over in your bed and going to sleep. So why are you sitting at home and watching things unfold on TV instead of doing something about it? Because you’re a non-racist, not an anti-racist.” Or maybe you are an uncle-racist, and auntie-racist won’t let you do anything.
At no point is a course of anti-racist action suggested. Should you go block traffic on the interstate? Should you vilify a member of your community who expresses incorrect opinions on facebook? Should you go to the state capitol, and talk to your representative about laws you are not familiar with? Exactly what are you supposed to do? Will this action do more harm than good? Is this action any of your business? Do you know what you are talking about? Maybe the effect of your action is not important, as long as you are doing something.
The monolog takes a strange turn now. “Now, do this for me: take the “c” out of racist and replace it with a “p”. “I’m not a rapist. I’m not friends with any rapist. I didn’t buy that rapist’s last album.” All these things that you’re not doing. Meanwhile, people are still getting raped, and black boys are being killed. It’s not enough that you don’t do these things.”
Ok, so now we need to take meaningless action against rape, and black boy murder. Again, what are you supposed to do? There is also the matter of privilege. Is it really the white person’s business that black boys are shooting other black boys? And what are we supposed to do about this? Maybe you can say rude things about police. Whatever you do, say #blacklivesmatter instead of #alllivesmatter.
The video comes to a merciful end with the words “We need to stop being “non-” and start being “anti-”. Or take action against glamorous issues that have no effect on most people, but make you feel good to talk about. The Academy Award nominations have been announced, and not enough POC have been nominated. We can take action on twitter, as this tweet illustrates. #oscarssowhite that pointed hoods will be included in the swag bags this year.
The pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These details are from picture #06666, documenting “First Internation[al] Pageant of Pulchritude & Seventh Annual Bathing Girl Review at Galveston, Texas.” It was taken in 1926. This is a repost.





























































































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