Open Letter to McCain-Palin to end their dangerous and divisive tactics that are encouraging hate and violence--please join me in signing on to this.

I added to mine:
( Read more... )

Burning Man 2008: The American Dream

I would add that it also sounds like a space that's not terribly accessible to disabled artists or poor white artists.

Another excellent piece talks about roles for women of color in Hollywood. Wow, we have black women judges? Who knew? ...Duh!

http://www.salon.com/news/primary_sources/2008/07/15/obama/

Note: I've been a busy bee doing some writing projects and haven't had time to post here much. Hope to be back to posting later in the week, maybe.

Haven't we made any progress in Hollywood? Why do they think it's necessary to take a true story about Asian Americans and make the leads in the movie white? If you would have preferred that they cast authentically to reflect the true life people's race and ethnicity, let them know. The movie in question is "21."

Full story on Margaret Cho's blog.

Outraged? Here's the info:



Contact Information Sony Pictures
Address: 10202 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
Phone: 310-244-4000
Fax: 310-244-2626

Key People
• Co-Chairman and CEO: Michael M. Lynton
• Co-Chairman; Chairman, Motion Picture Group: Amy Pascal
• EVP and CFO: David Hendler

This movie: Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca, producers, Robert Luketic, director

While we vote with our ticket dollars, let's tell them WHY.

Scratch the Republican party and see the racism just ooze out of its pores:

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4909

Here's the link for Condi Rice's interview with the Washington Post.

I am always amazed by minority members who stick with the Republican Party. As soon as you stand up for your own they are going to disown you.

For more of their racist quotes, go here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1992969/posts

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/19/commentary.ashong/index.html

Excerpt:

It was not his repudiation of small thinking that struck me. It was the fact that here we had an American politician speaking with both candor and compassion about the proverbial elephant in our national living room.

------------

It's funny, but I found myself thinking of the same "elephant in the room" image while listening to the speech.

Years ago I was a member of a political group whose focus was on body image/fat acceptance activism. I proposed that we host a public discussion group on a series of other, related, body image issues that hold women back. I got no resistance when I suggested that we include women with disabilities, but the room fell silent when I suggested that one of the discussions, entitled "Beyond Blue Eyes," deal with issues of the white beauty standard and how it affects women of color. The objection? "We might offend somebody." I argued passionately that the real offense would be leaving the issue out and sweeping it under the rug. We had the discussion and it went really well. It turned out that women of color were dying to finally have a place to talk about this issue.

Liberal white people may not have the active prejudice of other white people, but our fear of being thought racist can sometimes hold us back from speaking out or doing the right thing in an emotionally risky situation. Silence seems safe--but it is destroying our society. All of these isms--racism, classism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, looksism, and others--flourish in silence, unchallenged.

It's time to speak up.

http://www.salon.com/news/primary_sources/2008/03/18/obama_speech/index.html

Brilliant!

ETA:

This is just inexcusable. This is the kind of medical care that is available to those who are poor and especially those who aren't white. Or I should say, the kind of medical care that is not available--just an illusion, really.

This article about Barack Obama's speech referring to "quiet riots" among the poor black community really tells it like it is, and I just want to make the point that white people in poverty feel the same hopelessness. It isn't compounded by racism but it is no less real. We really need to look at poverty in America--really look at it and allow ourselves to imagine growing up in that reality, a reality where a college education seems like an impossible dream and dead end jobs and substandard housing appears to be our destiny.

Obama's 'quiet riots' are for real by Roland S. Martin.

The danger of satire is that it will go sailing over some people's heads.The site Black People Love Us is one satire that it seems only about half the people who read it will get. So bring your satire detector on its highest setting and read about some clueless white folks and their long suffering black friends. You decide who is responsible for the site content.

I was reminded by this site of all the well meaning thin people who've told me things like, "You'd be so beautiful if you lost weight," and "I don't even think of you as fat, really!"

Be sure to read the letters section, a revelation in and of itself.

A new survey indicates Americans are more willing than ever to recognize that fat can be beautiful. Yet unconscious bias still remains, in much the same way as people who are committed to racial equality can still possess unconscious racist bias. What I come away with is that we're making progress but we shouldn't rest on our laurels; there is still plenty of work to do.

What do I mean about unconscious racist bias? Consider for a moment how your unconscious mind operates. It can be likened to a sponge, sopping up everything in your environment. We are all exposed to negative stereotypes based on race, sex, religion, size, and a variety of other attributes. It all goes into the unconscious mind and it is not weighted as good or bad information. When we need to make a quick judgment about a situation, our conscious mind doesn't have time to weigh pros and cons or reject this flawed data that our unconscious mind absorbed. Of course if we're committed to equality, and we have time to think, we choose not to act on such misinformation, telling ourselves, "No, that's not true."

An on line test has been devised to force us to reveal this hidden bias by making very quick judgments and reacting within a split second to questions or situations that are presented. Even members of the target group will often reveal this cultural bias we've all been exposed to. According to the book Blink, however, if we view positive images of black people immediately before taking this test our results will show less of this bias and may even skew in favor of black people. This shows that there is hope for ridding ourselves of this bias if we can change the cultural messages we receive, especially on a long term basis. This is the principle I use in working with body image.

You can find a series of bias-revealing tests here. I also suggest checking out this project of The Southern Poverty Law Center, a bastion in the struggle to overcome racial bias and discrimination in America.

According to William Bennett, if "you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Notice he didn't say, "unwanted" or "underprivileged" or "poor" babies, just "black." The context of this remark was a discussion of the theory expressed in a recent book that the crime rate has gone down since abortion was legalized as the babies who were unwanted and might have grown up in poverty or foster care, being more likely to engage in criminal activities as a result, were aborted instead. If they lived they would presumably be adult criminals now--or at least a substantial portion of them would. No one is claiming they were all destined for a life of crime. Yet apparently Bennett feels comfortable saying that all black babies are.

Of course he backed away from his statement: "Responding later to criticism, Bennett said his comments had been mischaracterized and that his point was that the idea of supporting abortion to reduce crime was 'morally reprehensible.' " Yet with these attitudes so ingrained that they slipped out in public remarks, imagine the impact he had as education secretary under President Reagan.

Senate minority leader Harry Reid was "appalled by Mr. Bennett's remarks" and called on him "to issue an immediate apology not only to African Americans but to the nation."

Yesterday Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the gay marriage bill in California citing the court case that's winding its way through the system to decide the constitutionality of the voter proposition defining marriage as between a man and a woman. "If the ban of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional this bill is not necessary," he said. "If the ban is constitutional this bill is ineffective." He must have worked hard to come up with a way to veto it that would appease his conservative voters and simultaneously try to avoid upsetting his liberal supporters too much. In the end it is just the wishy washy middle of the road position that satisfies neither side.

Previously I wrote about a woman named Latoyia Figueroa who had been missing and hadn't received much attention from the media in spite of the fact that she was pregnant.

Unfortunately she was found as police observed the killer trying to move her body. It would seem that the bloggers who shamed the media into paying more attention to this working class black mother had also encouraged the police to put more manpower into the case than they might otherwise have, and they were keeping this suspect under observation.

For a full account, here's the link to Allspinzone, the blog that initially turned the spotlight on this case.

Apparently, homicide is a leading cause of pregnancy-associated injury deaths. Perhaps pregnant women need to think about taking extra safety precautions even with their significant others. I remember an increase in beatings during both of my pregnancies. Perhaps it's just my luck that my ex-husband didn't own a firearm.

Rest in peace, LaToyia (and child).

It seemed like a no brainer to me. A young, pregnant mother is missing and ought to get some serious coverage and some kind of reward fund, right?

Oh, but she's black.

Well, I guess she doesn't matter to some people then, judging from the lack of interest by the media until a blogger shamed them into giving her some coverage, and judging from my comments box as well as the racist comments on All Spin Zone, the blog who brought her national attention. Do you know her name yet? Why isn't it a household word? Because we only care about people who look, talk, and act just like us? (Classism and looksism play their role too.)

As you watch the news, take note of what stories get covered and what color the faces are in the various news segments, positive and negative. Apparently only good things happen in white suburbs and only bad things happen in inner city neighborhoods.

I had a friend who worked in the newspapers locally who was aware of how much bad news was not reported for fear it would drive away tourists or drive down property values. Once part of our beach boardwalk was cordoned off after some type of chemical cloud drifted over the area and people reacted with respiratory symptoms. Experts were brought in to do testing, etc., but no mention was made on the nightly news and no one outside the area knew it happened other than friends and relatives of residents. This is just one small example. Anyone with a scanner can tell you about the many crimes that don't make it into your local paper.

We are all too willing to just believe what the media feeds us, but we forget that American media, supposedly so free, is held hostage to profit and local or national interests rather than informing the American public of the real news. It is also increasingly tied to profit, and knows that sensationalism and flash sells better than serious, thoughtful, in depth coverage. We share in the blame for that, rewarding media for such coverage by watching.

If, as I do, you would like to see more coverage of minority issues and reports of positive achievements of the minorities in your community, speak up! If you would also like your local media to remember that not all of the people who watch the news are middle class, speak up! Until they know their target audience of white middle class people are unhappy, they are unlikely to act. The price of that privilege is responsibility to look out for others in your community. And yes, growing up in a family of college educated people who can help you go to college is a privilege. As the first person in my family to get a 4 year degree, I can tell you that it would have been so much easier if my family were in a position to help me do so and had done it before me.

While you are writing to your local or national media, ask them why they cover celebrities and other sensationalized stories obsessively at the cost of deeper investigations into the pressing issues of our time? Let them know that while you tune into the news, that is not what you are looking for, lest they assume ratings means that we want OJ/Michael Jackson/Tom and Katie-type news.

We have this notion that only black people or other minorities are affected by racism. I believe that racism robs us all and makes us poorer in spirit. If we marginalize whole segments of our society and discourage them from believing in themselves and following their dreams, we lose the George Washington Carvers and Martin Luther Kings of their generation, we create a breeding ground for drugs and crimes born of despair and desperation or the desire to just get by somehow. We rob ourselves of the positive relationships we could have had with these members of our society and the bonds of friendship that could have transcended the relatively trivial difference in skin color.

I am thankful that my early experience with my uncle Clyde Thomas, who is black, brought me into contact with the black community in my home town and enabled me to see the value and strength, love and humor that existed there. I was able to have several good friendships in my life with members of that community that enriched my perspective and my spirit. My Uncle Clyde took the time to be a father figure to me, in the absence of my own father who lived in the same town but did not participate in my life.

It is the misfortune of America that so many of us are unable to see men like Uncle Clyde as the good and valuable men they are.

http://allspinzone.com/blog/
http://www.allspinzone.com/blog/index.php?itemid=965

(collecting money for a reward fund for LaToyia Figueroa)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/07/27/Philadelphia.missing/index.html

Trying to help spread the word about a missing woman who's not white and blond. Sorry to be cynical, but we are always remarking on those cases who get national attention being mostly white women or girls.

There are efforts to collect money for a reward:

http://allspinzone.com/blog/

This blogger has worked very hard and is beginning to get more national attention on this case. Yay bloggers! He started by trying to shame Nancy Grace into giving this story the kind of attention those middle class white women get...