Critical Becky Studies
Becky is a generic insult for *some* white women. If you don’t know what a Becky is, you might not understand the feature below. Chad is the equivalent expression for *some* white men. He is not important enough to be studied critically. This is a repost.
It started out with a tweet, about a symposium, Critical Becky Studies: Critical Explorations of Gender, Race, and the Pedagogies of Whiteness. Soon, PG was googling CBS. The paywall protected Wall Street Journal had an article on CBS. The seminal article was at City Journal, Racial Resentment As Pedagogy. The CBS flap originated at 2019 AERA Annual Meeting, sponsored by American Educational Research Association.
@chamblee54 @CityJournal @maxeden99 There was no link to this event in your article. I suspect this is a hoax. Please provide a link to the location on the event guide, for “critical becky studies.” The AERA conference guide is a confusing academic labyrinth. After a while, PG clicked on the correct link, and found a way to search for whiteness pedagogy.
CBS is real. “In the tradition of speculative fiction, parable, and counterstorytelling within critical race theory, this session aims to problematize the characterization of “Becky,” a term specific to white women who engage whiteness, often in gendered ways. This characterization is relevant to education by critically examining who is Becky and how she is characterized, her positionality in education, and how the hope for diversity, inclusion, equity, and racial justice within the P-20 educational pipeline is impacted by Becky. … tied to the gendered and raced mechanisms of whiteness enacted by Becky. ”
The symposium featured the presentation of several papers. If, after reading this feature, you want to learn more about these papers, you can follow the links.
This Ain’t No “Wizard of Oz,” Becky “The chapter is a parable in the spirit of speculative fiction, about the fictional (mis)adventures of Becky in the land of Ny as she faces obstacles that she can only overcome by grappling with her own whiteness.”
Two Woke Beckys? “Although both Sheila and Erika slip into different whiteness performances during their conversation, including passive aggressiveness and tone policing, white innocence, and white saviority, they check each other and delve into how they each have and are employing whiteness, despite their desires to rid themselves of whiteness, albeit through different means. …”
Love in the Time of Beckyism “… a particular white heterofeminine citizen-subject popularly known as “Becky,” … Despite “progressive” commitments such as equality, and social justice; and sentimental responses to historical atrocities and current social events, these (conditional) protestations made by Becky serve as a hedonistic mechanism for image management that hinges on the exploitation and social death of people of color. …” How can a teacher preparation program work to rethink the episteme and ethos that socializes Beckyism?”
Book Club Becky: White Racial Bonding in the Living Room “Many liberal white women gather monthly for book clubs … This paper reveals the more insidious workings of these spaces, as they are places where white women bond in order to maintain their place in white patriarchy, what Christine Sleeter named white racial bonding. The conversations that take place, the women who are included as “educated,” and the spaces where they meet are laced with white supremacy and surveillance.”
Border Becky “… why white women still invest in whiteness. Using the term “Becky” establishes an academic backing that can be applied and analyzed when researching the pathology of whiteness. … whiteness manifests in classrooms riddled with white women seeking to prove how they are not like other racist white people. Becky in the counterstories demonstrates the character-like roles white women play in a white supremacist folklore.”
It was a busy weekend for whiteness pedagogy. Ekemini Uwan shocked a Christian conference with her remarks about whiteness. “So then when we talk about white identity, then we have to talk about what whiteness is. Well, the reality is that whiteness is rooted in plunder, in theft, in slavery, in enslavement of Africans, genocide of Native Americans, … It’s a power structure, that is what whiteness is, and so that the thing for white women to do is you have to divest from whiteness because what happened was that your ancestors actually made a deliberate choice to rid themselves of their ethnic identity and by doing so they actually stripped Africans in America of their ethnic identity. … Because we have to understand something – whiteness is wicked. It is wicked. It’s rooted in violence, it’s rooted in theft, it’s rooted in plunder, it’s rooted in power, in privilege … ”
Today’s images are from The Library of Congress. We do not know if any of these ladies were named Becky. UPDATE @chamblee54 I found the link. My apologies for doubting you. @maxeden99 No worries. I couldn’t have made it up if I tried :)
I Used To Be Charming Part Two
This is part two of the chamblee54 syllabication of I Used to Be Charming. IUTBC is a collection of magazine articles, written by Eve Babitz, aka LA Woman. Considering the later turns in her story, maybe we should call this a MAGA zine. Other episodes are available. one three four five
Venice, California (Vogue August 1979) is about living in a funky house, somewhere near the beach. It is noteworthy for a comment on page 131, where Eve extols the joys of rollerskating with Annie Leibovitz. The photographer is mentioned in another Eve article. “She navigates the city’s highs and lows during weekday mornings spent ‘maniacally’ roller-skating with her lover Annie Leibovitz.”
Details of the Babitz-Leibovitz thing are tough to come by. Lists of Eve’s playmates usually include Ms. Leibovitz, along with other suspects. “The photograph on the striking cover of Eve’s Hollywood was taken by Annie Leibovitz (the two are lifelong friends).”
“I never talk about politics … Although I was so happy [when] my friend Linda [Ronstadt] was going out with Jerry Brown.” … VC mentions women trying to look like Linda Ronstadt. The singer keeps turning up in Eve’s work. Only her hairdresser knows for sure.
Eve is better known for adventurism with men. Dan Wakefield has an amusing story. “Eve always woke before me and was often on the phone, sometimes talking to girlfriends with uncensored intimacy, never bothering to whisper. She evidently assumed that if my eyes were closed I was fast asleep. Not always. … I was not a rock star — that was okay. But then she went on to compare my private parts to those of one of her rock stars, Jim Morrison, describing mine as a “nice” change for the smaller. I was not asleep anymore. My most private part (“private” no more!) was now the subject of discussion, and I was coming off second best — it sounded like a distant second best.”
Honky-Tonk Nights (Rolling Stone August 23, 1979) It was a Magic Moment. A beautiful Sunday morning. The washing machine wasn’t spilling over the drain pipe. I decided to look at my book. H-NN is juicy. It’s about Eve’s groupie adventures at an LA club called The Troubadour. We’ll get to the the rest of the story in a minute, but first the magic on page 112. “… made things seem legit even on nights when Gatsby, Steels and Nosh (what someone dubbed Crosby, Stills and Nash during a particularly horrendous time when they were in the middle of recording that first album and everyone was thinking it should be called Music From Big Ego…”)
“… I was a groupie I posed as an album cover designer and photographer, while others disguised themselves as tailors, record company secretaries, or journalists. For women like us, hanging out in the Troubadour bar every night was, you know, business. I mean, I told people—even myself—that I had to do it. But when I dyed my hair the color of a pumpkin, even my sociology professor uncle, who only knows what he sees on The Merv Griffin Show, wondered if I hadn’t become one of those groupies. …” Eve was dying her hair pumpkin orange when Donald J. Trump was writing “C” on lease applications. The girl was MAGA before MAGA was uncool.
“… You had to wear a diaphragm just to walk through,” Susan Smith, one of the waitresses, told me. “The semen potential was so intense it was enough to get you pregnant just standing there.” Meanwhile, Steve Martin was sitting alone at the bar, drinking a glass of white wine. “Oh, poor Steve, he just has no sense of humor.” …
“ … Steve Martin used to say, “You’re like Linda. You’ve got opinions about things.” I used to worry about that since having opinions about things—if you were a woman in those days—didn’t seem to inspire mink coats or foaming lust … but it was true that Linda and I were somewhat alike, because we both read … and we were both always on diets. In our opinion, the best way to lose weight fast was to go on a fruit fast, and we did this once together—telephoning the other when we ate so much as a single orange—until at the end of the week we both lost twelve pounds. At this transcendent moment, I took a bunch of pictures of Linda to document her perfection: she looked like a French convent girl on her way to seduce a lecherous old count.”
The Troubadour is a trooper. It is still open, all these years later. Alas, when you go to their website, you are assaulted by a popup announcement: “The City of West Hollywood requires all patrons, staff, and artists to be fully vaccinated. To attend a show at the Troubadour all attendees 12 and over will need to provide: Photo ID with Proof of Vaccination (card, photo of card, or CA QR code) Final dose being at least 14 days prior to the show. More information available at troubadour.com/COVID-19″ CA QR Code would have been kinky back in the day.
Anna’s Brando Esquire October 1979 I started to write about Marlon Brando. I typed the word Brando, but spelled it Brand0, with a zero at the end. There is something groovy about calling the actor Brand Zero. Like that song I heard years ago on the radio. “You were Marlon Brando, I was Steve McQueen, You were k.y. jelly, I was vaseline.” It was such a disappointment to learn that boring old Leonard Cohen wrote that.
I was reading AB in a zhugh gothic waiting room. This was where Anna Kashki Brando told about her first encounter with steatopygous glory. STEE-ah-toe-pee-gus means having a fat butt. “Living in rooms opposite these slave girls, and seeing them at all hours of the day and night, I had frequent opportunities of studying them. They were average specimens of the steatopygous Abyssinian breed, broad-shouldered, thin-flanked, fine-limbed, and with haunches of prodigious size.”
Brando for Breakfast, by Anna Kashfi Brando and E. P. Stein, is the topic here. “Anna Kashfi was born Joan O’Callaghan in Darjeeling, where her father, William, worked for the Indian State Railways. Like many Anglo-Indians, William and his wife, Phoebe, decided to relocate to the UK following Indian Independence.” Anna wound up in Hollywood, and married the steatopygous method actor. Anna was the mother of Christian Brando, who was his own brand zero.
After leaving the zhugh palace, I went to a nearby Kroger. The couple in the car beside me were having a loud, entertaining argument. Meanwhile, I read this passage in AB: “In her mixture of rectal conjecture and quotes from Pauline Kael cut in half so that they mean the opposite say the opposite of what they meant, Anna seems to speak for all of them—one long wail of howling outrage.”
Out of the Woods American Film May 1987 It was the next to last year of the Reagan regime. Ronnie was an actor, playing the greatest role of his life. Ronnie did not dye his hair, it was prematurely orange. Eve got a deal to interview James Woods, another actor with a conservative bent.
“Yeah, I put batteries in my alarm clock and try to get here on time. … I admire James Cagney ‘plant your feet on the ground, look the other guy in the eye, and tell the truth’ school of acting. I’m not into the ‘four hours before you go to work pretend you’re a radish’ school of acting. … This guy wants us to drain his blood and sleep in a coffin. It’s like Laurence Olivier’s great line to Dustin Hoffman, who stayed up four days to look tired. He said, “Can’t you try acting?”
Part of the Eve legend is the conversion to MAGA politics. In her groupie pieces, she doesn’t talk about politics. While the entertainment industry is reputed to be wildly liberal, the bottom line is still the bottom line. There is a lot of money in show business, and people do what they have to do. Eve may have been the closet John Bircher at the Troubadour.
Lily Anolik is famous for luring Eve out of her shell. During an appearance, Ms. Anolick talks about how she charms Eve. “she’s my indifferent mistress, and I buy her stuff … These out of print volumes that are enormously expensive about Chinese history. Ann Coulter books, MAGA hats. … just little love tokens, which I always get her … when I’m in Los Angeles …”
Throughout it all, Eve is a white woman. Some sjw-types have taken note. “It’s a breezy rebuff of heteronormative relationships, while also alluding to a seductive life of carefree sex influenced by her own life experiences. But it’s also saturated, as so much of Babitz’s writing is, with a carelessness afforded by whiteness and beauty. Her blithe acknowledgment of her own beauty’s benefits — “I looked like Brigitte Bardot,” she writes in Eve’s Hollywood — ignores the fact that this likeness would not be so advantageous if it did not signify the blonde, fair-skinned aesthetic venerated by the whole of the Western world.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Fraudulently Fundraising
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One Year In This is the one-year anniversary of The Atlanta Objective. It’s been weird
… using ‘Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta’ Facebook page to defraud donors
Sir Maejor Page Indicted for Fraudulently Fundraising Off of George Floyd’s Death …
Black Male Professor Thinks More Black Women Should Marry White Men.
Referee violently attacked at youth basketball game at church in DeKalb, police investigating
2 Michigan governor kidnap plot suspects found not guilty; mistrial declared for other 2
This post is removed because it is more political opinion than historical reference.
Columbia matrix W144919. Foolish man blues / Bessie Smith
The Fractious Evolution of Pediatric Transgender Medicine
White leftist writer harasses random Asian thinking he’s Andy Ngo
Return of the Firing Squad With a scarcity of lethal injection drugs, South Carolina …
Daft Punk Boris Brejcha Hozho Tale Of Us Other Artists – MORPHINE Selection
Depeche Mode Solomun Maceo Plex Boris Brejcha Stephan Bodzin Hozho (Morphine Mix)
Cryptocurrency and Blockchain: Liberation or Hoax? Interview with Crypto Advocate
Optimist: The Glass Is Half Full. Pessimist: The Glass Is Half Empty. Comedian: …
If you spell judgmental with an e after judg, you are a terrible person
there is a lot of similarity between traditional homophobia and performative anti-racism
An Eye for an Eye Will Make the Whole World Blind
judgmental or judgemental ~ subway talk ~ fake gay history ~ ivm ~ gabi conti ~ gronk
jane austen ~ firewater ~ jim goad ~ herschel ~ ukraine
calhoun rock garden ~ coding music ~ foolish man blues ~ quick wank ~ 2015
dns request ~ clickbait ~ nyt twitter ~ L5P ~ statins
statins ~ eric boehlert ~ herschel ~ repost ~ herr
peachtree ~ mlk guns ~ sherman alexie ~ blmga ~ bronze star
Sir Maejor Page ~ jon stewart ~ tolson/hoover ~ fact-checking ~ @libsoftiktok
“He was busy fact-checking Libs of TikTok, an account devoted to unbiased presentation of information, on a video about schools installing litter-boxes for self-identified furries.” ~ @libsoftiktok These are the people teaching your kids… Any teacher who comes out to their students should be fired on the spot. ~ i had a delightful afternoon. i drove to LA fitness, and rode the stationary bike. I had a delightful podcast to listen to. A woman, who said “I am a lesbian” about 100 times in 27 minutes, gives a man a blowjob. She went from gold star to bronze star. The stationary bike is on the edge of a balcony, where I can shamelessly, and fearlessly, stare at the delicious young men below ~ William Worthy, a journalist who covered the SCLC, reported that once, during a visit to King’s parsonage, he went to sit down on an armchair in the living room and, to his surprise, almost sat on a loaded gun. Glenn Smiley, an adviser to King, described King’s home as “an arsenal.” ~ “I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.” Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins] While this appeared in her regular syndicated column (29 Jun 1997), Ivins was actually quoting a comment previously made by Texas state representative Craig Washington on the floor of the Texas Senate. It is frequently misattributed to Ivins herself. source ~ @mariamposts As a Russian-speaking person of color who was born and raised in Ukraine, I believe that I am in a position to speak on the issue of nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine. A long thread ~ I wrote “Mike Pence And Lester Maddox” in 2015. It had this comment: “It is ironic that Lester is this famous, forty four years later. There are many bad things you can say about Mr. Maddox. However, Georgia survived both Lester, and smiling Jimmy, as Governor. It is highly unlikely that anyone will know who this Pence person is in forty four years.” ~ This post is removed because it is more political opinion than historical reference. ~ @MoreTwitty Nurse: “Doctor, there’s a man in your office who thinks he’s invisible!” Doc: “Tell him I can’t see him right now.” ~ policeman said to get out of the tree, A human attribute for Pride, we don’t want you to get away free, that one time you should have lied, the pickup truck struggled down peachtree, fat lesbians club out for a ride, aids condemned man struggles to see, a human attribute for pride, almost fried chicken crossing the road, trying to get to the other side, voting republican and it showed, that one time you should have lied ~ pictures today are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Nine Rules For Driving
What follows is a repost from a few years ago. The thoughts are current. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Esther Bubley took the pictures in April, 1943. “Washington, D.C. Jitterbugs at an Elk’s Club dance, the “cleanest dance in town””
This is written as the Sunday morning worship hour winds down. In church facilities across America, preachers scream about sin. Very few will consider the sin of dangerous driving. And yet, this is the sin that can change, or end, your life in an instant.
There is a lot of label mongering in public spaces. Liberal, conservative, and racist are three of the most popular. None of these labels deals with driving courtesy. Democrats and Republicans are united in their lack of concern about safe driving. With that in mind, here is the top nine.
1- Find another way to show how bad you are. This is mostly a masculinity thing, but it just might apply to a few ladies. Driving hard and fast is the easy way to prove your toughness. All you do is push the gas pedal. You don’t have to go to the gym, have lots of sex, or go into battle. Just drive fast, and with no concern for your neighbor.
2- Slow down. There is no need to go so fast. When you go somewhere, allow yourself enough time to get there. The faster you drive, the less reaction time you have in an emergency.
3- Stay far enough behind the car ahead of you to stop in an emergency. This will be less stressful for the person in front of you.
4- Pay attention to the road. This is where cell phones, and texting, becomes a problem. You should be focused on the road ahead of you, and not what your phone mate is telling you. Your minutes will be just as good when you get to your destination. Are people really brainless enough to text and drive?
5- The three rules of the workplace apply here…. show up, stay awake, and don’t kill anyone.
6- Keep your car in good condition. The tires and brakes are key items, but also keep the engine running smoothly. Sometimes you need to accelerate.
7- Keep your temper. Driving while angry is a cause of many accidents, especially when combined with alcohol or religion.
8- Use your turn signals.
9- Show concern for the well being of your neighbor. Use common sense.
Thomas Jefferson Said What?
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Desmond Tutu. Some lines sound good, but don’t hold up to a bit of thinking. Desmond Tutu may very well have said it. (or maybe one of his rivals said it, and Mr. Tutu copied it.) The quote has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Burke, Patrick Henry, and probably others. Almost no one has a source, for the quote, from the dead white guys.
A post called MISQUOTING THE FOUNDERS did not mince words. “The only problem … is that Thomas Jefferson never said that, never wrote that, and quite possibly never thought it. … Right now if I Google “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent” the entire first page of results wrongly attribute it to Thomas Jefferson. The quote and its many variants have been attributed in the past to Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke, but no record exists of the quote in any of their writings or contemporary accounts.”
On November 13, 1787, Mr. Jefferson wrote a letter to William Smith. The letter is full of zesty quotes. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.”
A few lines above that, Mr. Jefferson said “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.” Twenty years after he wrote this, Mr. Jefferson was President. He probably did not want to deal with a revolution when he was President.
Getting back to the quote about tyranny, Martin Porter wrote an entertaining essay, A study of a Web quotation. He gives credit, or blame, to Edmund Burke. First, a list of different versions is presented. This is a clue that something is awry. The conclusion: “There is no original. The quote is bogus, and Burke never said it. It is a pseudo-quote, and corresponds to real quotes in the same way that urban legends about … alligators in the sewers correspond to true news stories.”
Mr. Porter wrote a follow up essay, Four Principles of Quotation. These principles are: Principle 1 (for readers) Whenever you see a quotation given with an author but no source assume that it is probably bogus. Principle 2 (for readers) Whenever you see a quotation given with a full source assume that it is probably being misused, unless you find good evidence that the quoter has read it in the source. Principle 3 (for quoters) Whenever you make a quotation, give the exact source. Principle 4 (for quoters) Only quote from works that you have read.
If these principles were to be used, then there would be a lot less hotheaded talking on the intercom. Pictures for this feature are from The Library of Congress. These pictures are Union soldiers, from the War Between the States. When war is discussed, all inspiring quotes are in doubt.
This is a repost. It is written like James Joyce. In the past year, doing due diligence on alleged quotes has become a hobby. Many people don’t care who said it, if they agree with the thoughts expressed. The prevailing thought is that an idea becomes more true with a famous name at the end. If the famous person is deceased, and cannot defend his/her reputation, that is not a problem. People do not like being told that Santa Claus does not exist.
Brain Damage
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Dysglycemia and incident heart failure among blacks: The jackson heart study
Why the Russians are losing their military gambit in Ukraine .
Meet the Censored: Chris Hedges – had six years of shows removed by YouTube
Will Smith Did a Bad, Bad Thing Slapping Chris Rock was also a blow to men, women …
Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems’s Landmark “Kitchen Table Series”
Slap Flap: Does Will Smith Have a ‘Roid Rage’ Problem? After allegedly using steroids …
AOC Issues Major Warning To Democrats Ahead Of 2022 Midterms
A Letter to a Royal Academy About Farting by Benjamin Franklin 1781
How to ‘Zhuzh’ Up Your Vocabulary Kick it up a notch.
Problem With Jon Stewart How super-woke must a comedian get to stay relevant?
Jon Stewart Panel On ‘White Supremacy’ Devolves Into Shouting Match
I Was an Innocent Woman Sentenced to Die. Here’s Why Melissa Lucio Must Be Saved.
Variation in the educational consequences of parental death and divorce:
Why Does the Media Care More About “the Slap” Than Trump’s Missing Call Logs?
Haven’t Understood Anything since 1962 and Other Nekkid Truths (1992)
I Took a Lickin’ and Kept on Tickin’, and Now I Believe in Miracles (1993)
AITA for walking out of a restaurant because my girlfriend ordered spaghetti?
Lili Anolik on Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of LA, i
Corona Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison in Stray Bullet Death
Jon Stewart Clashes With Andrew Sullivan Over Race in America
Two entrepreneurs have built a business dredging up white women’s shame.
Johnson Claims Vendetta, “Politically Motivated ‘Hit Job’” to Blame for Indictment
Byrne, Glass, Ginsberg on Arthur Russell ‘Another Thought’ EPK
Andrew Sullivan Says He Was ‘Ambushed’ by ‘Unprofessional’ Jon Stewart in Interview
jooj/zhugh ~ dog music ~ richie west ~ my mother the car ~ sacramento
allison young ~ synonym ~ foolish man blues ~ willie slap ~ bix
viv ~ d-list ~ dorothy ashby ~ Daniel Franzese ~ will smith
tarantino/maher ~ liza minnelli ~ disphoria ~ stacey ~ tenderloin
day 1 of 30 ~ Some did not. ~ norman duenas ~ harvesting ~ shelly
clint eastwood ~ norman duenas ~ zhugh ~ any spine ~ tech
t e lawrence ~ regime change ~ jim carrey ~ viv ~ bruce willis
anoa changa ~ compact ~ jamie wallis ~ rogan/rock ~ brandon
zippergate ~ fecundate ~ pennyweight ~ statement of interest ~ trial jurors
repost ~ kayne ~ tajmire flood ~ pulchritude ~ covid
highlighting COVID-19 racial disparities can reduce support for safety precautions among White U.S. residents ~ Most people who lived in Atlanta thirty years ago remember Lewis Grizzard. Some more fondly than others. ~ Daily wisdom texts Daily text messages from a selection of global wisdom phone showing quotes from epicurus and lao tzu Free 30-day trial No credit card required After 30 days, we’ll send you a link to continue with a $5 per month paid subscription ~ Will Smith’s former assault ‘victim’ slams actor’s ‘violent temper’ 10 years after star SLAPPED him on red carpet ~ (According to facebook, SugaBusshh Smith passed away in July, 2020. Rest in peace.) ~ There is an update to this story. One of the people who attacked me in this incident apparently passed away a year later. I do not know their story. This is nothing to be celebrate. We are all God’s children. ~ Part two is now available. This is a story about being attacked on facebook. It turns out the attacker was in a lot of pain. Hurt people hurt people. ~ Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. selah
Cary Grant Took LSD
There is a nifty article about Cary Grant and LSD on the web now. It seems Mr. Grant, the onetime Archibald Leach, had a few issues. Duh. Married five times. Widely rumored to the the bf of Randolph Scott. A talented actor, but a mess in the real world.
In 1956, Mr. Grant was with third wife Betsy Drake, who had a tough summer. “It was an open secret between cast and crew alike that the married Cary Grant was sleeping with Sophia Loren during their filming of The Pride and The Passion. Drake had flown to Italy to be by her husband’s side during the shoot only to find Grant ignoring her. Distraught, she fled on what was to be a quiet voyage on the SS Andrea Doria. On July 25, 1956 her quiescent journey turned into a nightmare. The ship collided with a Swedish ocean liner off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, sinking to the bottom of the Sea and claiming fifty-one lives.2 Betsy survived but was traumatized. The incident, coupled with the estrangement of her husband, haunted her in her sleep.”
Betsy Drake had a friend named Sally Brophy, an actress. Miss Brophy also received help from a psychiatrist, which included taking LSD. Eventually, Cary Grant started to go see this doctor.
Taking a legal trip, in a Hollywood doctor’s office, is not like going to a rave. It was seen as therapy, a way of learning how to deal with your problems. According to Cary Grant, it worked very well. He talked about it to a reporter, and then confirmed that he wanted this to go out to the public.
“The shock of each revelation brings with it an anguish of sadness for what was not known before in the wasted years of ignorance and, at the same time, an ecstasy of joy at being freed from the shackles of such ignorance … I learned many things in the quiet of that room … I learned that everything is or becomes its own opposite … it releases inhibition. You know, we are all unconsciously holding our anus. In one LSD dream I shit all over the rug and shit all over the floor. Another time I imagined myself as a giant penis launching off from earth like a spaceship … I seemed to be in a world of healthy, chubby little babies’ legs and diapers, smeared blood, a sort of general menstrual activity taking place … As a philosopher once said, you cannot judge the day until the night ..”
The only problem was, Mr. Grant had a movie coming out, “Operation Petticoat”. The studio “tripped out” when it heard the star of the show was praising LSD in the press. Mr. Grant had a share in the profits of the film, and was persuaded to call the reporter and recant on the interview.
Not everyone was impressed by the doctors that Mr. Grant used. “Aldous Huxley had encountered the clinic prior to his death, but had sought his LSD experiences from the parallel practice of Dr. Oscar Janiger, the other acid doctor to the stars. Huxley witnessed Chandler and Hartman’s work and was unnerved by their approach. “We met two Beverly Hills psychiatrists the other day,” he wrote, “who specialise in LSD therapy at $100 a shot – and, really, I have seldom met people of lower sensitivity, more vulgar mind! To think of people made vulnerable by LSD being exposed to such people is profoundly disturbing.”
In any event, LSD became criminalized, Doctors Chandler and Hartman got in trouble, and Cary Grant got married two more times. While Grant never renounced LSD, he refused to use any other illegal drug, even marijuana. He was a conservative old fogey.
Maureen Donaldson was the lover of Cary Grant in the seventies, and was a friend of Alice Cooper. She finally persuaded Mr. Grant to go to an Alice Cooper concert with her. He wore sunglasses, gold chains, and dressed like a “seedy agent”. He sat through the entire show, wearing earplugs, hating every minute of it.
As Miss Donaldson recalled the evening “Driving back to Los Angeles, I congratulated Cary for being such a good sport … He’d made an extraordinary effort to please me … [I asked him] ‘You really hated it, didn’t you?’ ‘It’s…’ he said, struggling for words, ‘you know what it’s like? Remember I told you about the time I took LSD in my doctor’s office and shat all over his rug and floor?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Well now I know how that poor doctor felt.”
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Recreational Zhugh
I took someone to a chiropractor, on Dekalb Avenue. The plan was to go inside, and read in the waiting room. I did not know what I was getting into.
The first thing you see is a porch swing. I took a seat, on the swing, and looked up. A skeleton, with a rainbow scarf, was laughing at me across the room. The room was overflowing with ceramic skulls, ferns, candles, affirmations, and crystals. I don’t have anything against recreational wu, in moderation. Unfortunately, the coven ambience was giving me the willies.
I saw an inkpen, in front of a couch. Braving the germs, on the writing utensil, I began to take notes. Then, I looked up. On a chair across the room, I saw a pillow. The image on the pillow was a skull, with rainbow stripes across his brow. These gray streaks went into his left ear, and rainbow-colored sunbeams were coming out the right ear. I saw that this was the one thing I could change. I walked over to the chair, took a picture of the pillow, and turned it over. The other side was plain white. I prefer whiteness to a rainbow skull that shoots out moonbeams.
When I got home, I did a Google image search. The image is Dark Side of Existence. The guilty artist is Norman Duenas. DSOE is available over 67 ways, including a miniskirt. I scrolled down, past the condoms and iphone covers, to see the pillow.
“Dark Side of Existence Throw Pillow Designed and sold by Norman Duenas. $22.19, $18.86 when you buy 2+. Pay in 4 interest-free payments of $5.55 with Afterpay. Accent cushions with original art, for that instant zhuzh factor in any room.”
Until that fateful moment, zhugh (pronounced jooj) had been absent from my life. “A go-to word for Queer Eye’s original fashion guru, Carson Kressley, zhuzh describes the act of making slight improvements or accents to a wardrobe or look (such as by adding a pocket square, or popping a shirt collar).” For today, zhugh is when you prefer whiteness, to the “Dark Side of Existence.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These men were battlefield surgeons, during the War Between the States. They served with the Union Army. The Battle of Atlanta was fought near where Dekalb Avenue is today.
POC
PG saw a tweet that he agreed with. His reasons for agreement were different from the reasons of the tweeter, Black Girl Dangerous. In any event, this is something that PG has wanted to opine about for a while. It will be a good excuse to write text. Something needs to go between the pictures, from The Library of Congress. Permission to quote the tweets has been requested. If this permission is granted, the tweets will be included. This is a repost.
The tweets were about the expression POC. For those who are new here, POC stands for person/people of color. It is a preferred expression for people who are not of european origin, and use a language other than english. People of color is similar to colored people. The latter expression is considered offensive in 2017.
The fine print for @BlackGirlDanger says “Amplifying the voices of queer and trans* people of color. We don’t respond to clueless white tweets.” BGD responded to the comment by @chamblee54. The gravatar image for c54 has a paper bag over his melanin challenged face. Maybe the comment was clueful. In any event, a reply was made.
As for POC, it lumps too many different groups of people, with too many different experiences, together. It doesn’t say very much. Some POC are oppressed. Some POC are privileged. Many people who claim POC status have experienced little of the oppression that many African Americans face.
This is not the first time the BGD has written about this. There was a post recently, 4 Ways to Push Back Against Your Privilege. Part four is about people who think it is cool to say they are POC, when they haven’t really had the experience. The post is copyrighted. You are encouraged to use the link and see for yourself what BGD has to say.
In June of 2012, a firestorm broke out in Atlanta about a drag queen named Sharon Needles. The linked post tells a bit of the story. PG made a comment. He was criticized by a person, who used the expression “those of us who are people of color” in the diatribe.
PG has heard that this person is of Indian origin. The amount of wealth, education, and privilege possessed by them is not known. They are clearly not of African origin, and might be caucasian. It is unlikely that they has experienced the oppression faced by many African Americans. Why does they make angry statements, with the phrase “those of us who are people of color”?
Sin
The post below went up seven years ago. It deals with a publicity stunt from the Catholic church, an updated seven deadly sins. The statute of limitations may have run out on this message. The traditional “seven deadly sins” were anger, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.
The site linked above has a page, the seven deadly sins of Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi. The subcontinental fashion icon lists Wealth without Work, Pleasure without Conscience, Science without Humanity, Knowledge without Character, Politics without Principle, Commerce without Morality, and Worship without Sacrifice.
After 1,500 years the Vatican has brought the seven deadly sins up to date by adding seven new ones for the age of globalization. The list, published yesterday in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, came as the Pope deplored the “decreasing sense of sin” in today’s “secularized world” and the falling numbers of Roman Catholics going to confession. The new deadly sins include polluting, genetic engineering, being obscenely rich, drug dealing, abortion, pedophilia and causing social injustice. HT to Fox News. ( aka the eighth deadly sin.)
One reaction is to wonder, what language was used for the list? Phrases like “obscenely rich” and “causing social injustice” can mean different things, and one wonders about the nuance behind the original expression. Now, Just about all of these “sins” can merit comments. Maybe the Catholic church is thinking of moving its headquarters to hell.
polluting We can talk about something where all have sinned, or who should throw the first stone. If you ride in a car, wear synthetic fibers, through away anything, use a less than perfect sewer system (or a functioning one on a rainy day with overflows), then you have polluted.
genetic engineering Here again, there are semantics galore. Much of the food we eat is tweaked by genetic breeding. This is something Euros get twitchy about, that doesn’t concern most Americans.
being obscenely rich This is one to wonder what the original Italian said. Compared to much of the world, a 900sf house is a palace. However, compared to many of the neighbors, it is lower middle class. Perhaps the emphasis should be on greed, selfishness, and how you gain this wealth. The tenth commandment says something about coveting. It is the forgotten commandment.
drug dealing Is there a distinction between legal and illegal drugs here? If you go by the damage that substances cause, then this rule will speak to bartenders and the clerk who sells cigarettes. Not to mention the media outlets who advertise cigarettes and beer, the legislators who condone these substances while prosecuting potheads, and a whole host of others. The legally based war on drugs is a disaster in this country. Do we really need to drag the Catholic church into it?
abortion. If Mary had gotten an abortion, would Christians worship a vacuum cleaner? Seriously, the Catholic Corporation has flogged this donkey, to great profit, for years. If you don’t want abortions, promote contraception and adoption. Catholics should find another gimmick.
pedophilia When you up pedophile in the dictionary, you see a picture of a Catholic priest.
causing social injustice Can we have a better translation of this?
Are Hispanic/Latino People White?
While writing about homicide statistics and police killings, PG noted a quirk in the US government statistics. Hispanic/Latino people were listed as an ethnicity, rather than a race. The individual categories of White/Black/etc. included Hispanic/Latino people, where appropriate. This applies to US Census Bureau population statistics, as well as FBI crime statistics.
One quickly learns that there is no hard and fast rule about what racial category Hispanic/Latino people fall into. It appears to be a self determined choice. Many Hispanic/Latino people see themselves as Hispanic/Latino, and not White or Black, no matter what the Census Bureau says. There are indications that more Hispanic/Latino people chose White on the Census form in 2010, than in 2000. The numbers for 2020 are not yet available.
This is not an option for most African Americans, or for many European Americans. PG is Caucasian, with a Scottish last name. His racial identity has never been in doubt. This classification as White is not a source of pride or shame. It simply is who PG is. Most non-Hispanic Caucasians in the United States have a similar experience.
The Census questions are presented with the Hispanic question first, and the race question second. “NOTE: Please answer BOTH Question 5 about Hispanic origin and Question 6 about race. For this census, Hispanic origins are not races.”
You have to dig a bit to get the Hispanic/Latino race breakdown. You learn that Hispanic/Latino people see themselves, at least with the census bureau, as:
White – 53%
Black – 02.5%
Native American – 01.4%
Asian – 0.4%
Some other race – 36.7%
Two or more races – 06%
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Social Justice Dogpile
Hard Knocks #1021 was a recent episode of the RISK podcast. At 46:00, we hear “Black Girl Magic” by Wanda Bowser. There are four characters, three white, one black. One of the three women is black, and the man is white. It begins with Brittany getting Wanda and Nathan to hook up, with Brittany watching. Soon Wanda and Nathan spend lots of time together. Good times are had.
One night, Wanda gets a phone call from Brittany. Nathan got in a heated argument with Laurel, and called her N$$$$$ Lover. Brittany, for some reason, felt the need to tell Wanda about this. Wanda avoids Nathan, until one night when he shows up. After an uncomfortable conversation, “I accepted his fuck boy apology and continue hooking up with him.” This goes on for a while, until Nathan finds a white lady that he likes better. Nathan drops out of school, and Wanda goes on with her life. There are more details to the story. If you like, you can use the link to hear the entire story.
Luther McKinnon Luther Mckinnon “I just listened to Wanda Bowser’s story, and I have questions. What was the context of Nathan saying NL to that girl? And why did Wanda’s gossip happy so-called friend have to tell Wanda, and everybody else?” I foolishly made a comment on facebook. If you want to see the complete comment thread, use the link above.
Wanda Wilson Bowser “Brittany was a pot stirrer. It was something I didn’t realize about her until I was older and could look back at those “friendships” reflectively. I know now that she had deep insecurities as a person and to feel better about herself, she wanted other people to hurt. She damn sure wasn’t telling me to protect my feelings, but she wanted my reaction. We ended up having a big falling out months later about something else and now, 17 years after the fact, we’ve gotten over our shared history and are still politely acquainted as Facebook friends.”
There were a few more comments back and forth. I never did learn the context of Nathan saying NL. Did Laurel lead him on? Was Brittany involved somehow, other than spreading toxic gossip? Did country boy Nathan understand just how bad the magic word was? These issues were never addressed. I was going to let the matter slide, until a fresh round of comments came in.
Raymond Christian Yea this listening to the other side crap has become an over used trop as if any one gives a damn what a bigots motivation is Luther Mckinnon So you are going to label Nathan a bigot because of one comment? Raymond Christian yes, yes I am !!!! Raymond Christian I hope no one bothers to say “but you don’t know whats in his heart” You can only judge peoples actions and words not some cosmic idea about whats in their brain and cant be seen! Luther Mckinnon So, we have a person. A country boy, who wound up hooking up with a black girl. Some how or another, he used the magic word in a conversation. When he uses the magic word, he is no longer a human being worthy of respect. He is a bigot. Did Laurel put words in his mouth? What did she say to get him to say the magic word? Maybe Laurel, and definitely Brittany, are the bigots in this story? If we use the standards of contemporary social justice, dating POC is not a defense against charges of racism. Have Laurel or Brittany ever used the magic word?
We don’t know much about Nathan. He was a tobacco chewing country boy, who had a fling with a black girl. He said the magic word. Suddenly, he is a bigot periah. Nothing else about him matters. He is heard saying a word one time, and he is less of a human being.
Wanda says that the magic word reminds her “no matter the content of my character, I am considered less than a person.” This is what happens when you label a person a racist. That person is the other. You are no longer worthy of your humanity. This label can be applied for the flimsiest of reasons. Often, the person applying the label is just as bigoted.
RISK prides itself on being uncensored. This is one issue that challenges this boast. If a story involves racial conflict, the default is to believe the POC. If a white person falls out of line, then they are deemed a racist. There are no other circumstances considered. They are to be treated as less than human. This orthodoxy must not be challenged. If you challenge this taboo, then you too are considered less than human. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Here is part two.
Another Story About Race was the story of a facebook conversation. It got ugly after the story was published. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Kevin Allison Luther, the hundreds of thousands who died in the Civil War knew the full weight and meaning of that word. The millions who fought through the Civil Rights movement in the mid-century knew the full weight and meaning of that word. I’m not sure precisely which year Wanda’s story is set, but Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, the Central Park Five… these were stories in the news in all of our lifetimes. Does “country boy” mean “imbecile”? My father is from Meridian, Mississippi. His parents, my grandparents, were people of very modest means and did not go to the best schools. Other Allisons, cousins of my grandfather, were from the Bayou country in Louisiana. Everyone in my family has always known the full weight and meaning of that word. Because we’re Americans. Rich, poor, educated, uneducated, city person, country person… we all know that word and we know it deep down in our souls.
To pretend that calling someone out for engaging in racism is as dehumanizing as racism itself is a fantasy. It ignores all of history and the societal power dynamics we’re still swimming in. And to pretend that RISK! engages in censorship because we don’t present the “other side of the story” is also some sort of mind game. If this guy “Nathan” wanted to come on the show and could speak about these same events with the level of self-awareness and emotional intelligence we look for in the stories we present on the show, he’d be more than welcome to. We see you. We hear you. And what you’re selling, we ain’t buying.
Luther Mckinnon “To pretend that calling someone out for engaging in racism is as dehumanizing as racism itself is a fantasy.” “to pretend that RISK! engages in censorship because we don’t present the “other side of the story” I have said neither of those things. I am concerned about the dehumanizing effect of all labels, both politically correct and incorrect.
Not everyone is as excited about the magic word as you are. POC use it all the time. We still don’t know what Laurel said to Nathan, to goad him into saying something he would regret. Maybe an 18 year old, put under enough pressure, gave in and said the magic word. We have not heard that part of the story, and apparently never will. I am not selling anything. I am trying to explain why I feel the way I do. You are entitled to your opinion.
SugaBusshh Smith Hey RISK!; we all know what Luther is about now. The man is an unapologetic racist. Do you really wish to give the man even more of a platform? I’m not about eliminating free speech, but I don’t believe hate speech like what Luther propagates needs any more of a platform then the presidency.I do wish someone would choose to hit the off button on this guy because his agenda is more than obvious. He is not a casual listener of the show wishing to take part in meaningful discussion. He wishes to spill vile and venom and spread his racist ideology on your group. It’s your choice of course to let him continue this nonsense, but for the mental well being of the rest of us; i truly hope you don’t. (SugaBusshh Smith passed away in July, 2020. Rest in peace.)
It is odd to be called “unapologetic racist” after this thread. At no time did I say anything derogatory about people of color. I said two things: I asked for details about the Nathan-Laurel conversation. I said that labeling people, as racist, was dehumanizing. People feel self righteous about abusing their neighbor over racial values. If someone does not like your racial values, they feel virtuous in attacking you. If you criticize the white savior, you are opening yourself up to abuse.
Have you ever heard that racism is institutional? That you cannot be racist if you don’t have power? This discussion is not about economic opportunity, access to education or housing, or police brutality. This thread is about an 18 year old kid, who said a bad word. When I ask, 17 years later, if maybe he was goaded into saying this bad word, I am labeled a racist. Maybe if I quit asking for details about this incident, I will quit being called a racist. I somehow doubt it.
Have you ever heard someone say “If you don’t like being called a racist, quit being one.”? Don’t believe it. This incident took place 17 years ago. We know nothing of the way Nathan has lived his life. And yet, because he said one word, 17 years ago, he is considered a bigot. Nobody gives a damn what he thinks. Nathan is less than human, because he said one word, during a heated argument.
The psychology of anti racism is twisted. It is similar to the way homophobia works. It is well known that many homophobes are secretly gay, and not happy about it. To take attention away from their own unresolved issues, the lash out at others who they perceive to be faggots. It is an ugly situation, and yet many homophobes feel virtuous in their hatred.
Many people who call others racist are worried about their own racial values. They are afraid that they might be racist. To assure themselves that they are not racist, they lash out at others that they perceive as being racist. The standards of what is considered racist get lower everyday.
On a more personal level, this has been a tough conversation. It is one thing when someone you have never met, who you don’t care about, calls you a racist online. Kevin Allison is someone who produces a remarkable show, RISK. I have enjoyed many episodes online, and had the privilege of attending a live show last fall. I have, until now, had a great deal of respect for Kevin. It is very discouraging to see him participate in an internet dogpile. I will probably continue to listen to RISK, but I will always know about this incident. This is a double repost. Part two is now available.
Chamblee54 
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