it's all one thing

Why the Dzur Stabbed the Yendi in the Back

2012-01-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of fanfic inspired by the Vlad Taltos stories of Steve Brust. Or maybe by the Paarfi stories. In any case, it's a story that might be told in Dragaera. The nature of Dzurs and Yendis should become clear in the telling, but there's one thing that might be useful to know: A Yendi would stab someone in the back to win, but a Dzur would always choose to fight face to face, so the title suggests something unusual. —WS

Why the Dzur Stabbed the Yendi in the Back

by Will Shetterly

Once, so long ago that no one remembers their names, a Yendi and a Dzur went to war. The Yendi used seventeen strategies, each more clever than the one before, to deprive the Dzur of all her allies and resources. When the Yendi heard the Dzur had nothing left but her sword and her honor, he laughed in anticipation of her surrender or her death.

But he stopped laughing when a guard said a lone warrior was approaching the castle with a sword in her hands. The Yendi climbed the castle walls to see for himself. Before the front gate, the Dzur stood shouting, "Yendi! I've come for our final battle! One of us shall die in honorable combat!"

The captain of the guard said, "Shall I have our archers answer her?"

The Yendi nodded, then smiled and said, "Ah! She obviously has a spell to deflect arrows, and her last allies are hidden in the woods to aid her if I come out to fight. Send half our soldiers by the back gate to scour the forest and thwart her plan."

"My lord, she's a Dzur."

"Yes, but she's no fool. Do as I say. Even if I'm wrong—" And here he laughed at the idea that a Yendi could be outwitted by a Dzur. "—a dozen warriors and a stout gate remain between us and the Dzur."

So the captain did as she was told. Half the Yendi's warriors left the castle to search the countryside while the Dzur pounded the front gate with her pommel and shouted, "Yendi! Open this gate, or I'll batter it until it falls!"

The captain said, "Shall we reply with a shower of boiling oil?"

The Yendi nodded, then smiled and said, "Ah! She obviously has a spell to deflect falling objects, and she wants us to stay within our walls to give distant allies time to gather and lay siege to us. Open the gate."

"My lord, she's a Dzur."

"Yes, but she's no fool. Do as I say. Even if I'm wrong—" And here he raised an eyebrow at the idea that a Yendi could be outwitted by a Dzur. "—a dozen warriors remain between us and the Dzur."

So the captain did as she was told. The castle's front gate rose, and the Dzur walked in. As she climbed the steps toward the Yendi and his soldiers, she shouted, "Yendi! Meet me here, or send your soldiers against me! I'll fight them one by one, and then I'll fight you!"

The captain said, "Shall I have the guards attack her from all sides?"

The Yendi nodded, then said, "Ah! She obviously has a spell to kill all who crowd around her. Send our people one by one against her until she's exhausted and slain."

"My lord, she's a Dzur."

"Yes, but she's no fool. Do as I say. Even if I'm wrong—" And here he frowned at the idea that a Yendi could be outwitted by a Dzur "—I am the best fencer in all of Dragaera."

So the captain did as she was told. Each warrior attacked the Dzur, and each fell with a slashed throat or pierced heart. At last, the captain faced the Dzur. Their combat lasted longer than any previous encounter, but ended no differently.

The Dzur raised her blade toward the Yendi. "Yendi! Now one of us dies."

The Yendi raised his sword in turn. "You know I am the finest fencer in the land."

"What do I care, so long as you face me like a warrior!"

As the Dzur's sword drove forward, the Yendi nodded, then said, "Ah!" and whirled around. The Dzur, unable to stop her thrust, stabbed him in the back.

The Dzur cried in horror and shame, "Yendi! Why did you turn?"

The Yendi gasped, "To see the assassins you obviously sent to slay me while we fought."

The Dzur said, "But there are no assassins!"

The Yendi grimaced, and the Dzur thought he would speak no more. Then the Yendi whispered, "Ah! The assassins were obviously invisible."

And he died smiling.

Less writing online means more writing offline

2012-01-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

That's true for me, anyway. If you define yourself artistically as a blogger or commenter or networker, go you! But I'm not, so I'm radically simplifying my online life. If I've unfollowed or unfriended you online, it means nothing about my offline relationship to you. It just means life is short, and I have stories to write.

my mother gave me my heart

2012-01-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

I got a call a little after 1am this morning saying that my mother had died in her sleep. It was expected, and it wasn't, because death is never completely expected, and because my mother had been told she had six months to two years to live about five years ago.

When I say she gave me my heart, I'm being purely metaphorical. She taught me how to love—none of my flaws as a pupil are her fault. She loved indiscriminately. Children naturally exaggerate the virtues or flaws of their parents, but I was always able to test my belief that Mom was a great mom by seeing how people everywhere adored her. One of the happiest periods of her life was after I had left home, when she and Dad and my sister Liz ran a trading post by an Ojibwe reservation in northern Ontario. When I think of Mom, I think of her looking like this, with this sort of smile of delighted surprise:

But when I think of Mom's spirit, I think of this picture, from long before I was born, when she was a WAVE during World War II:

And shortly after the war, when she and several girlfriends drove through Mexico for weeks:

And when she married:

I wish I had more pictures of her at Dog Land in Florida, because she taught me about courage there. She was usually the photographer, but I've found one pic of her with Ranger, our beloved Kuvasz:

Mom was not brave in the sense most people imagine when they hear the word. Now that I'm an adult, I know why: she loved people, so she worried about them. When my family became involved in the civil rights struggle, Mom answered the phone and opened the mail to more than one death threat. They left her shaking, imagining what could happen to the people she loved.

But though she was terrified, she always did what needed doing.

There's a picture that I wish existed, but since it doesn't, I'll try to describe it:

A boy about four or five years old is playing in one of Florida's springs—maybe Manatee Springs, but I don't remember which. I'm clinging to a huge red plastic baseball bat that I'm using as a floating aid. I'm not supposed to go out where the water is deeper than my shoulders, because Mom never learned to swim and Dad must've told us to go have fun while he worked.

But maybe I was having too much fun, or maybe I just got caught in a current. I'm screaming as I cling to the plastic bat. The current is taking me under a little walking bridge, and I'm terrified of what's beyond it—I have no idea now if I was afraid there might be water moccasins there, or if the area was thick with water lillies and I was afraid of getting tangled up in slimy things. All I know is I was helpless and as frightened as any kid could be.

And Mom ran into the water in her street clothes and pulled me out.

I'm sure it wasn't the first time she saved me. I know it wasn't the last. All my life, I've known that in every way that mattered, my Mom was there for me, always.

Blackout!

2012-01-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

Ganked from The Town Scryer: In support of the blackout:

The instructions for redirecting blogger to the protest blackout page are a bit daunting. Rather than risk mucking up my blog beyond easy repair I am choosing to express my solidarity with those who oppose SOPA.

Please. Call your Congressmen and make your voice known. I have followed politics for a long time and I assure you, every Congressional staffer knows that every person who calls to voice their opinion represents DOZENS, sometimes HUNDREDS who agree but did not call.

Martin Luther King Debates Mitt Romney

2012-01-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

Martin Luther King Debates Mitt Romney - YouTube:

Thomas Jefferson defines a real Christian

2012-01-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

"I, too, have made a wee-little book from the same materials (The Gospels) which I call the Philosophy of Jesus. It is a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen. It is a document in proof that I am a REAL CHRISTIAN, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call ME infidel and THEMSELVES Christians and preachers of the Gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw. They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man, of which the great reformer of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were he to return on earth, would not recognize one feature." —Thomas Jefferson to Charles Thompson

For anyone who says the comments about Jews makes Jefferson a bigot: the god or gods (Elohim is plural, after all) of the first books of the Bible approves of slaughter, rape, and slavery. For anyone who claims Jefferson's keeping of slaves proves he's a hypocrite: when you're right, you're right, no matter how many other times you're wrong.

The doll and its maker are never identical

2012-01-16T22:07:00.000-07:00

In Diane Duane's The Affair of the Black Armbands, she shares something Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in response to a rhyming critic. I love the conclusion:

So please grip this fact with your cerebral tentacle:
The doll and its maker are never identical.

percent of US households with incomes within 50% of median

2012-01-16T14:24:00.002-07:00

Krugman: racial wealth disparity is due to limited class mobility

2012-01-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

How Fares the Dream? by Paul Krugman: "Think of the income distribution as a ladder, with different people on different rungs. Starting around 1980, the rungs began moving ever farther apart, adversely affecting black economic progress in two ways. First, because many blacks were still on the lower rungs, they were left behind as income at the top of the ladder soared while income near the bottom stagnated. Second, as the rungs moved farther apart, the ladder became harder to climb."

identity bigots

2012-01-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

Yves Smith writes in Ron Paul Debate Flushes Out Gender-Baiting Right Wing Opportunists Masquerading as Progressives « naked capitalism:

...identity bigots like Pollitt apparently can’t wrap their minds around the notion that many people see themselves as citizens first and their demography second, and can and do have nuanced views based on how they weigh multiple political considerations: class, concentration of power, rule of law, civil liberties, and gender/race/sexual orientation.

To disprove the contention of identitarians that only white men could say anything good about Ron Paul, Smith links to rejections of identity politics by folks who don't fit the white male category, including Yvette Carnell in Rethinking a Rethinking – Andrew Sullivan and the Ron Paul Unendorsement | breakingbrown.com:

… at the heart of the teeth gnashing are Paul’s racist newsletters and their import. For me, this would be a much tougher nut to crack if structural and/or cultural racism were still the most heinous defect in the American body politic. But in a country where indefinite detention just became the law of the land, it’s not. In a country where unmanned American drones are killing innocent children abroad, it’s not. And in a country where mortgage scammers are protected from prosecution while Americans are being foreclosed on in record numbers, it’s not. Sorry black folks, but race and racism are not the biggest issues of the 21st century and to imagine otherwise is to conflate the issue and put the needs of your community ahead of the needs of America in particular and the global community in general. In that way, it’s a selfish usurpation of the political agenda to placate the few, and it shouldn’t be tolerated by black people of conscience.

Martin Luther King on "right to work"

2012-01-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right-to-work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining… We demand this fraud be stopped.” —Martin Luther King

Mary Gabriel of "Love and Capital" has a blog

2012-01-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

Marx2.0 – A History Lesson has three fairly short installments in "a series on the dangerous consequences of passivity, immobility, in the face of political, social, and economic challenges." The third focuses on what Marx learned from the failure of the 1848 revolutions and answers a question that may always nag at me: if you ally with liberals, will they betray you?

Marx and the workers learned a terrible lesson from the 1848 elections throughout Europe. Once the prize that had united the revolutionaries was won, and the kings were either dethroned or deflated, the unity of the revolution eroded. The lower classes, who had provided the muscle in the Springtime revolts, were abandoned. They felt betrayed. Marx never forgot that experience and his thinking changed. From 1849 on, he refused to seek political accommodation with the bourgeoisie. Instead, Marx dedicated his life to helping the numerically powerful but politically mute working class learn how to become a governing force. By having elected officials taken from within its ranks, it would not have to rely on untrustworthy and unsympathetic ‘social superiors.’

Also, she quotes one of Marx's many fine observations: “In capitalist society spare time is acquired for one class by converting the whole lifetime of the masses into labor time.”

the biggest mistake writers make?

2012-01-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

The biggest mistake writers make is telling too much. Readers want to be intrigued.

Henry Louis Gates on hate speech laws

2012-01-11T09:01:00.001-07:00

"During the year in which Michigan's speech code was enforced, more than twenty blacks were charged - by whites - with racist speech. As Trossen notes, not a single instance of white racist speech was punished." And: "What you don't hear from the hate speech theorists is that the first casualty of the MacKinnonite anti-obscenity ruling was a gay and lesbian bookshop in Toronto, which was raided by the police because of a lesbian magazine it carried."

From "Critical Race Theory and Freedom of Speech" in The Future of Academic Freedom, edited by Louis Menard, University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Noam Chomsky on capitalism and anti-racism

2012-01-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

from Big business supports anti-racism - Chomsky [Archive] - The Phora:

See, capitalism is not fundamentally racist -- it can exploit racism for its purposes, but racism isn't built into it. Capitalism basically wants people to be interchangable cogs, and differences among them, such as on the basis of race, usually are not functional. I mean, they may be functional for a period, like if you want a super exploited workforce or something, but those situations are kind of anomalous. Over the long term, you can expect capitalism to be anti-racist -- just because its anti-human. And race is in fact a human characterstic -- there's no reason why it should be a negative characteristic, but it is a human characteristic. So therefore identifications based on race interfere with the basic ideal that people should be available just as consumers and producers, interchangable cogs who will purchase all the junk that's produced -- that's their ultimate function, and any other properties they might have are kind of irrelevent, and usually a nuisance.

the easy accommodation of the liberal bourgeoisie, or the smug solipsism of the identitarian middle class

2012-01-06T11:13:00.001-07:00

I saw this quoted in Glenn Greenwald's Democratic Party priorities. The bolding is my variant of Greenwald's; the comment is by DougJ at Balloon Juice:

For a liberal like me, who is primarily interested in the well-being of the American middle-class and in providing opportunity for everyone in the United States, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion etc., I just don’t see why I should be “challenged” by Ron Paul. I understand that if you’re a liberal who is primarily interested in civil liberties and a less bellicose foreign policy, then you might be conflicted about Paul. But to me, he’s just another racist asshole who wants to fuck the American middle-class.

DougJ succinctly expresses the identitarian dilemma: Does diversity in the US outweigh the murder, rape, and impoverishment of Middle Eastern men, women, and children? Is the hope that everyone may someday be able to marry the person they love greater than the right not to be arrested or killed without due process?

Note that the war in Afghanistan is real, while the racism of Ron Paul is theoretical, as his black supporters will tell you.

Mind you, I'm a socialist and Ron Paul's a right-libertarian. In 2008, I voted for a black man who has been proving all his life that class matters more than race. In 2012, I'll cast a vote for someone who dreams of an alternative to Wall Street politics—though I haven't a clue who that may be.

my favorite Martin Luther King quotes

2012-01-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

Like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King is remembered by capitalists as a fighter for racial justice, but by the time of his death, his understanding of power was far greater than that.—WS

on democracy and socialism and capitalism

“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God’s children.”

on working for justice

"Privileged classes do not give up their privileges voluntarily."

on poverty

"In the treatment of poverty nationally, one fact stands out: there are twice as many white poor as Negro poor in the United States. Therefore I will not dwell on the experiences of poverty that derive from racial discrimination, but will discuss the poverty that affects white and Negro alike."

"I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective—the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income."

on capitalism

"And one day we must ask the question, Why are there forty million poor people in America? ... When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, Who owns the oil? You begin to ask the question, Who owns the iron ore? You begin to ask the question, Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water?"

“…capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged small-hearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity.”

"...capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged small-hearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity."

"Today the poor are less often dismissed, I hope, from our consciences by being branded as inferior or incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands, it does not eliminate all poverty. The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available."

"We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

"We must honestly admit that capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged small hearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity. The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspire men to be more I-centered than thou-centered."

"The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism."

"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

on military spending

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

on philanthropy

“Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.”

on the media

"Been a lot of applauding over the last few years. They applauded our total movement; they've applauded me. America and most of its newspapers applauded me in Montgomery. And I stood before thousands of Negroes getting ready to riot when my home was bombed and said, "We can't do it this way." They applauded us in the sit-in movement--we non-violently decided to sit in at lunch counters. The applauded us on the Freedom Rides when we accepted blows without retaliation. They praised us in Albany and Birmingham and Selma, Alabama. Oh, the press was so noble in its applause, and so noble in its praise when I was saying, "Be non-violent toward Bull Connor"; when I was saying, "Be non-violent toward [Selma, Alabama segregationist sheriff] Jim Clark." There's something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you say, "Be non-violent toward Jim Clark," but will curse and damn you when you say, "Be non-violent toward little brown Vietnamese children." There's something wrong with that press!"

on love and equality

"This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us."

my favorite Malcolm X / El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz quotes

2012-01-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

Most people know Malcolm X through the filter of two capitalists who saw him as a racial thinker: The Autobiography was edited after his death by Alex Haley, and the movie based on it was made by Spike Lee. People who think of power in racial terms like to quote Malcolm X, the man he was before he left the Nation of Islam. I'll quote some of that man's thoughts—his observations about Field Negroes and House Negroes still applies in the age of Barack Obama and Herman Cain—but while I admire Malcolm X, I love El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. His thoughts on power kept evolving right up to the moment of he was killed. —WS

on equality

"I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither white, black, brown nor red. When you are dealing with humanity as one family, there's no question of integration or intermarriage. It's just one human being marrying another human being, or one human being living around and with another human being."

"The earth's most expensive and pernicious evil is racism, the inability of God's creatures to live as One."

"I, for one, will join in with anyone—I don’t care what color you are—as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth."

"It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's the only thing that can save this country."

"We must approach the problem as humans first, and whatever else we are second."

on the media

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."

on titles

From an interview:

MALCOLM X: I never accept the term "honorable."

BASS: That's a beautiful title.

MALCOLM X: Well, I'll tell you. Most people I've seen really end up misusing it, and I'd rather just be your Brother Malcolm.

on women

"It's noticeable that in these type of societies where they put the woman in a closet and discourage her from getting a sufficient education and don't give her the incentive by allowing her maximum participation in whatever area of the society where she's qualified, they kill her incentive. And killing her incentive, she kills the incentive in her children. And the man himself has no competition so he doesn't develop to his fullest potential."

on socialism, capitalism, and colonialism

"I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don’t think that it will be based upon the color of the skin."

"It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture…. As the nations of the world free themselves, capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely."

“Most of the countries that were colonial powers were capitalist countries, and the last bulwark of capitalism today is America. It’s impossible for a white person to believe in capitalism and not believe in racism. You can’t have capitalism without racism. And if you find one and you happen to get that person into conversation and they have a philosophy that makes you sure they don’t have this racism in their outlook, usually they’re socialists or their political philosophy is socialism.”

"Since their own economies, the European economy and the American economy, was based upon their continued influence over the African continent, they had to find some means of staying there. So they used the "friendly" approach. They switched from the old, open colonial, imperialistic approach to the benevolent approach. They came up with some benevolent colonialism, philanthropic colonialism, humanitarianism, or dollarism."

"It is incorrect to classify the revolt of the Negro as simply a racial conflict of black against white, or as a purely American problem. Rather we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter."

on racism, regret, and black nationalism

I used to define black nationalism as the idea that the black man should control the economy of his community, the politics of his community, and so forth.

But when I was in Africa in May, in Ghana, I was speaking with the Algerian ambassador who is extremely militant and is a revolutionary in the true sense of the word (and has his credentials as such for having carried on a successful revolution against oppression in his country). When I told him that my political, social, and economic philosophy was black nationalism, he asked me very frankly: Well, where did that leave him? Because he was white. He was an African, but he was Algerian, and to all appearances, he was a white man. And he said if I define my objective as the victory of black nationalism, where does that leave him? Where does that leave revolutionaries in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Mauritania? So he showed me where I was alienating people who were true revolutionaries dedicated to overturning the system of exploitation that exists on this earth by any means necessary.

So I had to do a lot of thinking and reappraising of my definition of black nationalism. Can we sum up the solution to the problems confronting our people as black nationalism? And if you notice, I haven’t been using the expression for several months. But I still would be hard pressed to give a specific definition of the overall philosophy which I think is necessary for the liberation of the black people in this country....

And, two days before his death, he said:

Leaders like Nasser, Ben Bella, and Nkrumah awakened me to the dangers of racism. I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another.

Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant—the one who wanted to help the [Black] Muslims and the whites get together—and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then—like all [Black] Muslims—I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years.

That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days—I'm glad to be free of them.

resolution update, plus change your environment to change your behavior

2012-01-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

I'm struggling with my resolutions, but I came across something today that may help, if I can figure out how to apply it: To change your behavior, change your environment. That's what I took away from What Vietnam Taught Us About Breaking Bad Habits : NPR.

Shakespeare on treating people as they deserve

2012-01-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

"God’s bodkin, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who shall scape whipping? Use them after your own honor and dignity—the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty." —Shakespeare's Hamlet

Slavoj Žižek on identity politics

2012-01-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

from The Believer - Interview with Slavoj Žižek:

But even worse is that what this kind of politically correct struggling for tolerance and so on advocates is basically not only not in conflict with the modern tendencies of global capitalism, but it fits perfectly. What I think is that today’s capitalism thrives on differences. I mean even naïve positivist psychologists propose to describe today’s subjectivity in terms like multiple subject, fixed-identity subject, a subject who constantly reinvents itself, and so on. So my big problem with this is the painting of the enemy as some kind of self-identified stable substantial patriarch to which these multiple identities and constant reinventing should be opposed. I think that this is a false problem; I am not impressed by this problem. I think that this is a certain logic, totally within the framework of today’s capitalism, where again, capitalism, in order to reproduce itself, to function in today’s condition of consumption society, the crazy dynamics of the market, no longer needs or can function with the traditional fixed patriarchal subject. It needs a subject constantly reinventing himself.

ETA: liberation: Identity politics vs class politics - 10: Introduction to Slavoj Žižek

Resolution #4: make your work your play

2012-01-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

The commercial artist's curse is that play becomes work. The challenge is to keep it play. I lost that feeling somewhere along the way, so I'm taking it back now.

Bob Franke said it grandly in "Thanksgiving Eve": "Let your dreams bind your work to your play."

Alas, he doesn't have a video of his version on youtube, but there are covers. Here's Garnet Rogers:

Resolution #3: don't feed ragers

2012-01-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

The internet loves outrage, but it almost never does any good. It just makes people dig their trenches deeper. When it seems to succeed, it may just mean the target will be more circumspect next time—GoDaddy backed off its public support of SOPA, but I doubt its rightwing founder has changed his politics at all.

Resolution #2: a schedule

2012-01-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

first, do what you want to have done that day

Write 500 words or more of something. Remember, those words don't have to be good. You can't revise what you haven't written.

next, do what you need to do that day

Monday: Shadow Unit chores

Tuesday: writing chores

Wednesday: home chores

Thursday: Shadow Unit chores

Friday: writing chores

Saturday: home chores

Sunday: rest

My New Years Resolution: I'll use "Manichean" again

2011-12-31T19:14:00.001-07:00

I used "binarian" for a while, but it never caught on. Today, I noticed a couple of writers I like are fond of "manichean". It just sounds good: man-uh-kee-an. It makes people think you know about history and religion as well as the subject at hand. It's grand.

And, most importantly, it's a resolution I can keep.

The examples:

Glenn Greenwald in Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies: "Worse still is the embrace of George W. Bush’s with-us-or-against-us mentality as the prism through which all political discussions are filtered. It’s literally impossible to discuss any of the candidates’ positions without having the simple-minded — who see all political issues exclusively as a Manichean struggle between the Big Bad Democrats and Good Kind Republicans or vice-versa — misapprehend “I agree with Candidate X’s position on Y” as “I support Candidate X for President” or “I disagree with Candidate X’s position on Y” as “I oppose Candidate X for President.”"

Adolph Reed, Jr. in The Limits of Antiracism: "My position is—and I can’t count the number of times I’ve said this bluntly, yet to no avail, in response to those in blissful thrall of the comforting Manicheanism—that of course racism persists, in all the disparate, often unrelated kinds of social relations and “attitudes” that are characteristically lumped together under that rubric, but from the standpoint of trying to figure out how to combat even what most of us would agree is racial inequality and injustice, that acknowledgement and $2.25 will get me a ride on the subway. It doesn’t lend itself to any particular action except more taxonomic argument about what counts as racism."

Ambrose Bierce on Labor and Land

2011-12-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

From the Devil's Dictionary:

LABOR, n.

One of the processes by which A acquires property for B.

LAND, n.

A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. The theory that land is property subject to private ownership and control is the foundation of modern society, and is eminently worthy of the superstructure. Carried to its logical conclusion, it means that some have the right to prevent others from living; for the right to own implies the right exclusively to occupy; and in fact laws of trespass are enacted wherever property in land is recognized. It follows that if the whole area of terra firma is owned by A, B and C, there will be no place for D, E, F and G to be born, or, born as trespassers, to exist.

abuse is no argument

2011-12-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

I found "abuse is no argument" in Dot-dash-diss: The gentleman hacker's 1903 lulz. Googling the phrase brought up a similar expression I also like: "Abuse is no argument against proper use." (Bonus pretentious points for the Latin: "Abusus non tollit usum.")

Too much of the internet endorses too often the style of the Brooklyn Debating Society: "Fuck you!" "No, fuck you!" It's an old trick that politicians especially love: "When you have a weak case, abuse your opponent."

My googling also brought up ON ARGUMENT - Iftekhar Sayeed:

In the Gulistan, Sheikh Sa’di says: “Galenus saw a fool hanging on with his hands to the collar of a learned man and insulting him, whereon he said: 'If he were learned he would not have come to this pass with an ignorant man.'”

Sa’di concludes:

“Two wise men do not contend and quarrel,
Nor does a scholar fight with a contemptible fellow.”

To close, Monty Python's "The Argument Clinic":

for Libertarians and anarchists: REGULATION VACATION CELEBRATION!

2011-12-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

the world's leaders should have to watch this every Christmas

2011-12-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

John Lennon - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - YouTube:

Learning to love Krismess

2011-12-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

For many years of my life, I've hated Christmas and loved it and never been able to reconcile the conflict. I suspect I began hating it when I was old enough to see a greedy nation's celebration of consumerism built on sweatshops abroad and minimum wage labor at home. Then I hated it because it was presented as incompatible things, a religious holiday about a baby, angels, and a star, and a secular holiday about elves, flying reindeer, and trees with lights.

And yet, I still loved A Miracle on 34th Street and It's A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. I loved "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Good King Wenceslas" and "The Little Drummer Boy" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". I loved people having traditional dinners, whether they were meat and potatoes, pizza, Chinese food, or tamales. I loved the excitement of people who were excited by the winter holidays.

So I've wrestled with a way to rationalize my love of the best of what Americans call Christmas. I tried thinking of it as Krismas, and the sprit of giving that I celebrated was Kris Kringle. I tried thinking of it as Christmas, and the spirit of giving that I celebrated was the Rebel Jesus. I tried thinking of it as Mithras' Day and the Feast of Sol Invictus and even my own holiday, World Week, when the spirit of giving was simply the best part of every one of us.

But now I've accepted that the midwinter holiday is just a mess. It's Kris's Mess or Christ's Mess or a neopagan's messy notion of Yule or an American Jew's messy notion of Chrismukkah. It isn't purely anything, and that's appropriate. Humans are a mess, and so are our holidays, and that's glorious.

I love this song because it catches that spirit:

Bonus! Five Christmas songs a Pagan probably shouldn’t like… but feels drawn to thanks to the power of a capella.

And:

A Carol from Flanders by Frederick Niven

2011-12-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

"A Carol from Flanders" by Frederick Niven

In Flanders on the Christmas morn
The trenched foemen lay,
the German and the Briton born,
And it was Christmas Day.

The red sun rose on fields accurst,
The gray fog fled away;
But neither cared to fire the first,
For it was Christmas Day!

They called from each to each across
The hideous disarray,
For terrible has been their loss:
"Oh, this is Christmas Day!"

Their rifles all they set aside,
One impulse to obey;
'Twas just the men on either side,
Just men — and Christmas Day.

They dug the graves for all their dead
And over them did pray:
And Englishmen and Germans said:
"How strange a Christmas Day!"

Between the trenches then they met,
Shook hands, and e'en did play
At games on which their hearts were set
On happy Christmas Day.

Not all the emperors and kings,
Financiers and they
Who rule us could prevent these things —
For it was Christmas Day.

Oh ye who read this truthful rime
From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day.

May we all have a Christmas Truce

2011-12-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas, Film) - Singing Scene - YouTube:

Based on a true incident:

(Joyeaux Noel link via Louis Proyect)

does fame override taste in art?

2011-12-21T22:32:00.000-07:00

Being told painting is fake changes brain’s response to art - University of Oxford: "When a participant was told that a work was genuine, it raised activity in the part of the brain that deals with rewarding events, such as tasting pleasant food or winning a gamble. Being told a work is not by the master triggered a complex set of responses in areas of the brain involved in planning new strategies. "

links for a post about the web and the mind

2011-12-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

Remembering that correlation is not necessarily causation, I gathered some links, pro and con, inspired by this info from How Social Media Is Ruining Your Mind | Singularity Hub:

Book Review - The Shallows - What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains - By Nicholas Carr - NYTimes.com

College students may be lacking in empathy, study finds | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times

What, Me Care? Young Are Less Empathetic: Scientific American

Botox Reduces the Ability to Empathize, Study Says - NYTimes.com

Human brains wired to empathize, study finds - USATODAY.com

Reading fiction 'improves empathy', study finds | Books | guardian.co.uk

Empathetic Rats Help Each Other Out | Rats Freed Distressed Cage-Mates from Containers | Origin of Empathy & Human Emotions | LiveScience

USATODAY.com - Short attention span linked to TV

How to Rebuild Your Attention Span and Focus

Fuzzy brain? Improve your attention span - CNN

Chuck Palahniuk on the best revenge

2011-12-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

"That's the best revenge of all: happiness. Nothing drives people crazier than seeing someone have a good fucking life." ~ Chuck Palahniuk

gleeporn vs rageporn, and a goodbye to frequent blogeration

2011-12-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

The internet is for porn, and it comes in two forms, gleeporn and rageporn. Gleeporn makes people happy; it's lolcats and babies and bands that make you want to dance for the joy of dancing. Rageporn makes people angry: it's the subjects polite people avoid with strangers, politics and religion. The human brain is stimulated by both, and humans love to have their brains stimulated.

At least, this human sure does.

I don't mean to say that gleeporn is good and rageporn is bad. Gleeporn can make people complacent. Outrage is often necessary to change the world.

But on the net, glee and rage are often only tactics to get you to return to a site, to keep being the monkey clicking that button for its fix. The net may be infinitely superior to television, but ultimately, it's no different: it doesn't care what it's doing to you. It only wants you to keep paying attention to it.

Or, McLuhan still matters: the medium is the message.

I can't eliminate the net from my life now, but I can slip its leash more often, and when I return, I can favor the places that will make me a happier and more effective click-monkey.

In consequence, I'll be cutting back on blogging. If you see me making more than a couple of posts a week, please, gently mock me for my weakness.

a boycott is a choice to remain ignorant, says Sheik Qadhi about Lowes

2011-12-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

This short clip is mostly about Muslims and Jews visiting Dachau and Auschwitz, but Lowe's cowardly decision to withdraw from advertising on American Muslim is mentioned toward the end, and I was struck by Sheik Qadhi's comment.

There have been times when boycotts were the right response, but too often, boycotts play into the hands of the people they're directed against. This has been especially true in the cases of calls for Arizona boycotts, because Arizona's conservatives are very happy to have their opponents stay away. My take: Don't boycott; educate.

ETA: For more on ways boycotts can backfire, see How a boycott meant to save Arizona is hurting it - White Knighting - Salon.com.

what Jesus would tell Tebow and Tebowers

2011-12-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Inspired by N.Y. teens suspended for Tebowing in school hallway:

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." —Matthew 6:5-6

racism at Racialicious, or Florence + The Machine and Bali

2011-12-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

I suspect antiracists are more obsessed with racial purity than racists are. Racists, at least, will happily eat fried chicken and not worry about whether they're appropriating a black thing.

Which doesn't really have anything to do with this post. For once, I'm grateful to Racialicious because one of their writers' accusation that Florence + The Machine had made a racist video taught me something about Balinese religion that I hadn't known.

In the comments at ‘No Light, No Light’: White Supremacy all dressed up in a pop video is still White Supremacy | Racialicious, SFFSzmutko writes:

What is shown in the video is not blackface, nor is it representative in Voodoo. The faith that is represented here is Balinesian (spelling?) and the ritual, which they actually brought in a shaman dancer of the faith for those scenes. The body paint is part of the ritual, it is a dark green body pain with red flashes on the face, to mirror the frogs of the region. To call it blackface is actually exceptionally offensive to the Balinese faith, and I hope the writer of this article apologizes. That is the equivalent of calling a Catholic Deacon Robe a Klan Robe. It is offensive and transferring the meaning of one onto something completely different and feels as if research was not done in the writing of this article. The immediate assumption of blackface and accusations of thus actually seem to be racially based against Miss Welch (an artist who has taken forefront involvement in many Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald Tribute concerts) caucasion roots.

Also the Dog Days video, the Gospel Choir is used to represent Florence's Gospel roots in terms of her music. Its like why the 60s mod women are there, because the 60s inspire her. Also she does not make herself "whiter" in the video, whe is dressed in Japanese Kabuki Garb complete with Kabuki Makeup. The reason everything blows up at the end is that it is the removal of inspiration until only Florence is left. It is a representation of her roots in music.

Also, maybe it is because I have research the Balinese Faith, but the ritual's meaning is similar to the song the choir is singing. I took the video to be ABOUT running from the unfamiliar and taking shelter in the familiar. I thought that it was ABOUT ignorance.

Other commenters dismiss that, because antiracists have a powerful streak of US imperialism which says other cultures don't matter. If something makes antiracists think of something that had racist connotations in the US, those connotations matter more than, well, the truth.

When antiracists waved away the Balinese origin of the imagery, Ohmansteve wrote:

I find the insinuation that the Balinese body paint used to become the frog in the ritual dance that the shaman in this video is showcasing is blackface, and that it is a representation of Voodoo, instead of the Balinesian faith, to be racist and to reek of poor research. Shame on this site for not doing research, and jumping to the conclusion that body paint in a white person's video must be blackface. Thank you for the bald faced racism here, go research the Balinese religion.

Sunmelive added:

RACISM? WHERE?! Flo is a woman who has just gotten out of a relationship. She still loves this person so she holds on to his memory and all the negative energy that came with their relationship. It is making her self destructive, the asian man painted dark green with bright red lips tries to help her through a Balinese ritual dance called a sanghyang but she refuses because that's all she has at this point. So he uses the doll to weaken her and force her to see reason.

ETA: Sanghyang - Wikipedia

Sanghyang dan kecak 1926 (Silent) - YouTube :

ETA 2: The existence of Balinese voodoo.

wisdom of John (Fire) Lame Deer

2011-12-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

“Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men, we didn’t have any kind of prison.
Because of this, we had no delinquents.
Without a prison, there can be no delinquents.
We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves.
When someone was so poor that he couldn’t afford a horse, a tent or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift.
We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property.
We didn’t know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being was not determined by his wealth.
We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians, therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another.
We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don’t know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.”

— John (Fire) Lame Deer

read charitably; or, what you read in a story vs. what you read into one

2011-12-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

A few truths about reading:

1. Everyone thinks they read well.

2. No one reads as well as they think.

3. Criticism of a writer says more about the critic than the writer.

4. What characters believe may not be what their writers believe—and, for many writers, should not be what their writers believe.

All of which is to say, please, in life and art, read charitably.

my Christmas story: "Oldthings"

2011-12-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

"Jeffy got silver bullets, Jill got a matched pair of big golden crosses, and I got a lousy wooden stake. I sat crosslegged on the floor, looking at this three-foot-long pointed stick, and said, “What’s this? A carve-your-own-cane kit?”

Full story: "Oldthings"

Phil Ochs on liberals

2011-12-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

"In every political community there are varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects. Ten degrees to the left of center in good times. Ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally" —Phil Ochs

From the beginning of "Love me, I'm a liberal":

Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon updated it:

Capitalism turns tribes into racists

2011-12-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Cherokee aren't the only tribe who now use concepts of race instead of culture to define tribal identity. From California Indian Tribes Eject Thousands of Members:

One of Mr. Roan’s daughters, Ruby Cordero, is also considered a cultural pillar of the tribe because she is expert at basket weaving and among the last native speakers of the Chukchansi language. But at 87, she, too, has been disenrolled.

David Ben-Gurion answers the lie that Palestinians were "invented"

2011-12-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul, Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta, Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis, and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." —David Ben-Gurion, one of the most important inventors of contemporary Israel

Emphasis mine.

When was Palestine "invented"? Edward Said answers that in "The Question of Palestine":

Palestine became a predominately Arab and Islamic country by the end of the seventh century. Almost immediately thereafter its boundaries and its characteristics — including its name in Arabic, Filastin — became known to the entire Islamic world, as much for its fertility and beauty as for its religious significance...In 1516, Palestine became a province of the Ottoman Empire, but this made it no less fertile, no less Arab or Islamic...Sixty percent of the population was in agriculture; the balance was divided between townspeople and a relatively small nomadic group. All these people believed themselves to belong in a land called Palestine, despite their feelings that they were also members of a large Arab nation...Despite the steady arrival in Palestine of Jewish colonists after 1882, it is important to realize that not until the few weeks immediately preceding the establishment of Israel in the spring of 1948 was there ever anything other than a huge Arab majority. For example, the Jewish population in 1931 was 174,606 against a total of 1,033,314.

Highly recommended: The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict by Jews for Justice

race, class, and Glee; or, how the rich see diversity

2011-12-11T23:24:00.000-07:00

We've been Netflixing Glee for the last few weeks—we're through Season 2. We'll probably wait for the official release of Season 3 before we watch more, so please, no spoilers. For those who haven't seen it, don't worry about me spoiling it. This post is about race and class, not plot.

Much as I enjoy the show, I'm struck by its bourgie idea of diversity. Here's the racial, ethnic, gender, and class mix of the glee club through Season 2:

female

Rachel Berry: white, Jewish, middle/upper class
Tina Cohen-Chang: Asian-Jewish, class unknown
Quinn Fabray: white, middle/upper class
Mercedes Jones: black, class unknown
Santana Lopez: Hispanic, lesbian, working class
Brittany S. Pierce: white, lesbian, class unknown
(2nd season) Lauren Zizes: white, class unknown

male

Artie Abrams: white paraplegic, class unknown
Blaine Anderson: white, gay, upper class
Mike Chang: Asian, class unknown
Finn Hudson: white, working-class
Kurt Hummel: white, gay, working/middle class
Noah Puckerman: Jewish, class unknown
(1st season) Matt Rutherford: black, class unknown
(2nd season) Sam Evans (2nd season): white, working-middle class (homeless)

That inspired my recent post, wealth in the USA by race, religion, and gender. If the cast of Glee "looked like America", there would be more working class kids, more black and Hispanic kids, and a Muslim or Hindu kid. There would be fewer Jewish and Asian kids, and fewer gay kids.

Now, it's a glee club; it's not supposed to "look like America." The arts traditionally attract a high percentage of GLBT folks, and extra-curricular activities reflect class privilege in America because they usually come with extra expenses. Glee shouldn't look like America.

But if you want to know the disproportionate nature of privilege in the USA, Glee reveals it. It's white, Jewish, and Asian. It's concerned with ending oppression within the class system, so civil rights matter, but it doesn't question the class system itself: note that Glee is set in a high school where no one's politics are more extreme than right-of-center Obamaism.

That said, it's a fun show within its mainstream broadcast limits. I may be tempted to catch up on Season 3 before Netflix gets it.

ETA: Considering where Glee's set, Wikipedia's article on Ohio demographics suggests its percentage of Hispanics may be reasonable, but its percentage of black folks is still off. (Not that Hollywood cares about local demographics, mind you. Where were the Hispanics in Roswell, a show set in a town that's nearly half Hispanic?)

ETA 2: In the comments, serialbabbler adds, "According to the internet, Glee is set specifically in Lima, Ohio sort of.

So this would be the demographics you'd be looking at."

vote!

2011-12-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

US electoral racism drops to 3%

2011-12-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

From What's Race Got to Do With Herman Cain? | The Nation:

In 1958, 53 percent of voters said they would not vote for a well-qualified black candidate for president; in 1984 it was 16 percent; by 2003 it was 6 percent; now it stands at 3 percent.

Except for that bit, I can't recommend the article. The writer confuses institutional classism with institutional racism: Yes, there are still racists in the world and yes, black and brown folks are disproportionately poor because they had no wealth or wealth was taken from them, but today, their main problem isn't racism; it's the same problem that twice as many poor white folks suffer from: economic inequality.

It's a little surprising that the writer didn't figure that out, as he does give an example of bourgie black prejudice against poor folks:

The poorer the woman, the more vulnerable she was to these attacks. Sharon Bialek, the first to go public with accusations of sexual harassment, was dismissed by his campaign primarily because she was broke. Cain’s opponents, his spokesperson claimed, “have now convinced a woman with a long history of severe financial difficulties, including personal bankruptcy, to falsely accuse the Republican frontrunner of events allegedly occurring well over a decade ago for which there is no record, nor even a complaint filed.”

(Thanks, DSD!)

wealth in the USA by race, religion, and gender

2011-12-07T17:54:00.000-07:00

Race

The racial composition of the United States:

White persons not Hispanic: 63.7%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin: 16.3%
Black persons: 12.6%
Asian persons: 4.8%
Persons reporting two or more races: 2.9%
American Indian and Alaska Native persons: 0.9%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.2%

Race and wealth:

Asians: ...by 2009 Asians lost their place at the top of the wealth hierarchy. Their net worth fell from $168,103 in 2005 to $78,066 in 2009, a drop of 54%. Like Hispanics, they are geographically concentrated in places such as California that were hit hard by the housing market meltdown. The arrival of new Asian immigrants since 2004 also contributed significantly to the estimated decline in the overall wealth of this racial group. Absent the immigrants who arrived during this period, the median wealth of Asian households is estimated to have dropped 31% from 2005 to 2009. Asians account for about 5% of the U.S. population.

The wealth gap exists within race, too:

Though poverty and wealth are racially disproportionate, there are, as in Martin Luther King's day, still twice as many white people in poverty as black:

People in Poverty
	2009		2010
	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
White	29,830	12.3	31,650	13.0
White, not Hispanic	18,530	9.4	19,599	9.9
Black	9,944	25.8	10,675	27.4
Asian	1,746	12.5	1,729	12.1
Hispanic origin	12,350	25.3	13,243	26.6

Religion

Religious ethnicity:

Wealth and religious ethnicity:

Gender

Female persons: 50.8%

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender:: "As of April 2011, approximately 3.5% of American adults identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, while 0.3% are transgender—approximately 11.7 million Americans."

Women and wealth:

The U.S. Census's report on the wage gap reported "When we account for difference between male and female work patterns as well as other key factors, women earned, on average, 80 percent of what men earned in 2000… Even after accounting for key factors that affect earnings, our model could not explain all of the differences in earnings between men and women."

Same-sex couples and wealth:

While the median income for same-sex couples' households is slightly higher than for straight couples, the figure drops significantly when raising children is factored in. Same-sex couples raising children reported a median income of $46,200, compared to $59,600 for straight couples.

A large part of this gap is due to the fact that even if same-sex couples are fortunate to enjoy domestic partner benefits, such as health insurance, those benefits are taxed. Spousal benefits for straight couples aren't taxed. One lesbian couple interviewed in Arizona described the impact of this extra tax for them. Tina Merrell estimated this penalty at about $10,000 per year to cover her partner and their child on her health insurance.

ETA: At G+, Steven Sudit left this comment: "Google not only covers the family insurance, it pays extra to counteract the tax hit. I've never seen a more LGBT-friendly company."

Stephen Hawking on the enemy of knowledge

2011-12-07T06:49:00.000-07:00

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." —Stephen W. Hawking

Major General Smedley Butler & The Fascist Takeover Of The USA - A Warning From History

2011-12-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

Major General Smedley Butler & The Fascist Takeover Of The USA - A Warning From History - YouTube:

Record inequality between rich and poor: video

2011-12-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

Record inequality between rich and poor - YouTube:

plagiarism parade: St. Martin's and Lenore Hart's The Raven's Bride

2011-12-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

This seemed interesting: Publisher says Poe novelist did not lift material. So I followed the link to the source of the charge: The Debrief.

I try to keep from rushing to judgment, but in the case of Lenore Hart's The Raven's Bride vs. Cothburn O'Neal's The Very Young Mrs. Poe, I'm inclined to go with "Guilty, guilty, guilty". St. Martin's must assume they don't have to pull a book when a dead writer, who is not likely to sue, has been plagiarized.

A CBS account has this:

In an interview in May with the online magazine www.bookslut.com, Hart acknowledged reading O'Neal's book, but only after she had turned in a "corrected draft" of her novel."I was engaged with it in some places and bored in others," she said, adding her "apologies to the late Mr. O'Neal."

I'm guessing she was bored with the parts she didn't use in her own book.

Accents, Class, and White Singers Black Folks Thought Were Black

2011-12-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

People's class assumptions often have more to do with accent than skin color; there were hotels and restaurants in the segregated South that would not serve African-Americans, but they would serve Africans. I remembered that when I stumbled on this, and realized accent and vocal style affects people's assumptions about race, too: 10 White Singers We Once Thought Were Black | Madame Noire.

Martin Luther King on race, class, and war

2011-12-05T16:07:00.002-07:00

“The problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated.” —Martin Luther King

class, race, fandom, and Dr. Who

2011-12-03T17:50:00.001-07:00

Dr.Who is a BBC TV show that's run, off and on, since the 1960s. The Doctor reincarnates whenever a new actor takes over the role—so far, all the Doctors have been white, male, British, and vaguely middle-to-upper class.

Except one.

Christopher Eccleston is known to fans as the Ninth Doctor. I loved him because his incarnation of the Doctor, with a Northern English accent and a black leather jacket, evokes the working class. Some people didn't like him for that reason; a snobbish Guardian writer refers to Eccleston's Doctor as "looking like an EastEnders extra".

The Doctor is traditionally accompanied by a companion or two, the show's Watsons. My favorite, Billie Piper's very working-class Rose Tyler, began with Eccleston and continued when David Tennant became the Doctor's tenth incarnation. You may argue whether the Ninth Doctor's working class status was a matter of sympathy or identity—though he was reborn in a new human form, he was still a Time Lord—but Rose Tyler was, in the words of the actress who played her, "a bit of a chav." (The show made that explicit when Rose, possessed by an alien intelligence, looked in a mirror and exclaimed, "Oh my god! I'm a chav!")

The white Rose Tyler had a black boyfriend, Mickey Smith, who could be considered a companion, but his part wasn't as important as Rose's. The first major black character in Doctor Who was Piper's successor, Freema Agyeman, who played Martha Jones, a middle class medical student.

Just as Rose was an excuse to acknowledge class issues, Martha was an opportunity to explore race. How well the writers did depends on who you ask.

Now, the white male Doctor Who has bugged me for ages. Whoopi Goldberg hinted decades ago that she would love the part, and she should've had it. Or if the producers insisted on someone male and British, Lenny Henry would've been great:

But when people talk about race and Dr. Who, they focus on Martha and especially on this scene, from "Human Nature," in which Martha, who was pretending to be the Doctor's housemaid in 1913, tries to convince an upper-class Brit that she's from the future:

For me, it's a brilliant scene. The comment about "hardly a scivvy and hardly one of your color" tackles race and class simultaneously: to an upper-class Brit in 1913, being a doctor isn't for the working class, and it's especially not for brown-skinned members of that class.

But some of scifi fandom's antiracism theorists hate that scene. K. Tempest Bradford shared and added to a tumblr post denouncing it, then accused its writer, Paul Cornell, of "unintentional" racism at Let’s Talk About Human Nature.

Two important points:

1. Tempest's comment about "unintentional" racism absolves no one of racism. All racism is unintentional: racists do what they do because they believe what they believe, not because they intend to be racist.

2. In this story, the middle-class Martha has accepted a working-class role to avoid calling attention to herself. A more dedicated Dr. Who fan than I could find many examples of companions forced to play servants, but I'll content myself with an example of Martha's predecessor:

What fascinates me about the discussion is that no one commenting at the tumblr said a word about class, nor did Tempest at her blog.

But Paul Cornell, replying in the comments at Tempest's blog, mentioned class immediately:

...the question is, do we have everyone in (upper class, somewhat sheltered) 1914 be portrayed as absolutely non-racist, or do we note the possibility? I hate it when series set in the past ignore the racism of previous eras to extraordinary degrees. (To not have Martha hammered with it *every time* she sets foot in the past was, though, I think, the right decision.) I think it airbrushes the suffering of individuals back then out of history, by implicitly saying things were always all right. However, as you’re in the group portrayed here, I think your voice should have weight, and I don’t want to push it aside through my own privilege. It’d be really good if we could manage to have the (perhaps first ever) caring, dignified chat about race in the series. Mainly because I’m an enormous wuss and if it gets heated I could well disgrace myself with the wailing and the sobbing.

What Cornell missed with his "you're in the group portrayed here" is Tempest is not, because there's not a united black race. 40% of American black folks think African-Americans are no longer one race. Tempest is a middle class fan who created the Angry Black Woman blog, which has a list of concerns—Race, Gender, Sexuality, Politics, Anger—that excludes class. She has said, "I rarely mention class because it’s not an issue I’m particularly familiar with." It's no surprise that in the following conversation with Cornell, she continues to ignore class.

Cornell does not. He says:

I think it’s clear that, in some ways, we simply let you down, and I’m sorry about that. Some of this stuff one just can’t argue with, really. Back then we saw ‘chosen by the Tardis’ as a more poetic way of saying ‘by a roll of the dice’, but yes, it’s our choices that mattered. As a British person, the idea that in 1914 Joan would have known about women of colour being doctors feels very strange to me. That sort of cultural information would have been hard to come by (people of her class would have been surprised by that, I think, up until the 1950s, some much later), and I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to assume her ignorance. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think one of the reasons the text is problematic for you is that you feel kicked by the heroine expressing such things. The way institutional bigotries touch good people (because I think it’s important to be able to acknowledge one’s own racism, so I also think it’s important to show racism as a flaw in otherwise positive characters) is a theme in my work. I’ve read the Butler, which is, as you say, the best sort of SF.

Tempest then replies,

I will have to defer to historians on this one, because I admit I don’t know.

Despite acknowledging her ignorance, Tempest didn't change her mind. To folks who care only about the depiction of race, class and history are irrelevant.

I can suggest answers to her plot complaints, though whether my explanations are implied by the script or are only fan-spackling, I don't know. She says,

People have pointed out that the Doctor did not choose the time and place, the TARDIS dd. Well, TARDIS: wtf? Still not okay. ... In the world of the show that is bad enough. But I find it to be handwavy and bull on the part of the writer/creators/whoever came up with this idea. It looks like they’re trying to absolve the Doctor of responsibility here, and that’s a dick way to do so. Plus, it doesn’t fly for the TARDIS, either, as it’s been well established by this point that it has a consciousness, too.

1. Having the Tardis rather than the Doctor choose a time and place at random seems like a good plan if you're trying to hide from creatures who can travel in time and space.

2. Throughout the show's history, the Tardis has been presented as slightly damaged and not completely dependable. Maybe it goofed up when it chose 1913 Britain.

3. A time-travelling vehicle with an alien consciousness might not know or care to avoid sending Martha to any place with a history of racism. That choice would rule out Martha visiting much of Europe and the Americas after slavery in those places was restricted to one race.

4. The Tardis may have thought the Doctor's pursuers would never think they would hide in a racist time. If so, it was being considerate in sending them to 1913 Britain rather than the Antebellum South or Britain before 1833.

Tempest also complains,

It’s yet another example in a long list of examples where Martha is put into the Mammy role. I might have let it slide except it happens so often it’s a damn theme, and that’s really problematic.

It's actually another example of companions put in servant roles. Did anyone complain when the working class Rose Tyler was put into a maid's role?

For these critics of the handling of Martha Jones, the question doesn't seem to be whether the stories accurately present prevailing attitudes toward race and class. The question is whether it's racist for a middle-class black woman to visit a time where black women are assumed to be working class. That Martha is heroic isn't doubted; she's a much-loved character in Who fandom. I think her fans who wanted her written differently are missing something the writers know: part of her heroism comes from confronting racism. She could have been written like Star Trek's Uhura and only visited post-racial and non-racial places. That would have been a valid choice of the writers.

But it would have meant keeping her out of the last five hundred years of history where English was spoken.

Or it would have meant ignoring racism in those times.

Good writers know a truth about storytelling that fans don't: A writer's job isn't to give fans what they want. It's to give them what they need. If fans are upset because a beloved character faces hard realities, their upset may only be a sign that the writers are doing their job well.

ETA: Backword Dave in the comments on The new Doctor Who | A Fistful of Euros: "Both Rose and the Doctor seem to be “working class.” So far they’ve stood up for enslaved corporate hacks against unnamed bankers, overthrown a despotic billionaire who considered his staff “disposable,” supported an honest (and Labour seeming) MP against a corrupt system, visited a Victorian funeral parlour (where the most likeable characters were a maid and Charles Dickens). In the second episode, the sympathetic character was some kind of maintenance worker, and in episode 1, Rose worked in a department store. Where is the middle classness?"

Recommended: Martha Jones: Racial issues - Wikipedia.

Thanks to Andrea in the comments, a fan tribute to Eccleston's Doctor:

ETA 2: Changed a line above to clarify: "to an upper-class Brit in 1913, being a doctor isn't for the working class, and it's especially not for brown-skinned members of that class." The woman probably can imagine a dark-skinned doctor, though she probably has never met one, but she can't imagine a dark-skinned "scivvy" becoming a doctor.

fictional Benjamin Franklin on treason

2011-12-02T10:50:00.002-07:00

"Treason is a charge invented by winners as an excuse for hanging the losers." —Benjamin Franklin in the musical, 1776, by by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone.

quote: Oliver Wendell Holmes on courtesy

2011-12-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

“Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.” -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

where even debt is a privilege

2011-12-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

I think all education should be free, but I still eyeroll once at people in debt to extremely expensive schools. Their debt is a form of capitalist privilege—poor kids from places with underfunded schools won't get loans to attend the universities of the ruling class.

But after I eyeroll, I'm completely sympathetic. No one should be blamed for believing the American Dream. I tossed and turned in my sleep for forty-some years and didn't truly wake until I fell into the American Nightmare of deep debt. That woke me the hard way.

Which may be the only way most dreamers wake.

Inspired by NYU Students: Debt and Debtor - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice.

class is not identity

2011-12-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

Richard Seymour makes a valiant effort to define a sensible form of identity politics in LENIN'S TOMB: Cultural materialism and identity politics, but he doesn't succeed for me.

In the comments, Evildoer claims, "Socialism is also identity politics. When Marx described the process as moving from a class "in itself" to a class "for itself", isn't that exactly "the politicization of identity"?"

I replied:

Socialism is not identity politics. Identity politics describe the world in terms of being: people are male or female, black or white, Californian or Welsh, Coke drinkers or Pepsi drinkers. Socialism describes the world in terms of doing: the capitalist class controls the world's wealth; the working class works to survive. That many people do not recognize their role under capitalism has nothing to do with identity. It only has to do with ignorance that is promoted by the ruling class.

Identity politics see the world in fixed terms: race and gender cannot be changed, and their concept of class is feudal, so birth is very important to what you are. But socialists see the world in mutable terms, tribal rather than racial.

Mind you, this view of capitalism is not unique to socialism. Many capitalists recognize that under capitalism, what matters is your relationship to capital. Which is why socialists and capitalists see Obama as being true to his class, but identitarians see him as a traitor to his race.

The Legend of Red Ghost

2011-11-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

The Legend of Red Ghost - True West Historical Society: "One of the enduring, outrageous legends in Arizona is that a demonic, rogue camel with a skeleton on its back, killed and terrorized the country side for a decade in the 1880s. The "Red Ghost" was allegedly finally killed in a rancher's garden in eastern Arizona."

more about folic acid and B12

2011-11-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Not just important for the elderly. It affects vegan and near-vegan vegetarians, too. Vitamin B12 Deficiency Can Cause Symptoms That Mimic Aging - NYTimes.com: "Large doses of folic acid can mask a B12 deficiency and cause permanent neurological damage if normal levels of B12 are not maintained."

stealth opulence: how the upper class recognize each other

2011-11-29T11:16:00.001-07:00

There's a false assumption in The rise of quiet luxury: Understated chic that is very, very expensive. - Slate Magazine: " In a last-ditch attempt to escape the guillotine, the top 1 percent are resorting to ever more devious tactics. First and foremost, they have adopted a bizarrely nondescript way of dressing: It’s spare simplicity with foncy labels; it’s a white gold Rolex that resembles a plain old tin Timex; it’s L.L.Bean-style basics with haute-couture prices. Simply put: The 1 percent are occupying Hermès (the luxury retailer most synonymous with understated extravagance)."

Stealth opulence is old in the US. The upper class have long been trained to instantly see the difference between Brooks Brothers and Sears. I read a YA novel (title forgotten, alas) in which a poor kid was taught how to pass among the rich: don't spend your money on a lot of slightly expensive clothes: use it to buy instead one very expensive thing, a watch or a belt or shoes that say, "I'm one of you; the rest of my clothes are just slumming."

Anti-racism: brown bag lunches are racist?

2011-11-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

I missed an anti-racist brouhaha in the Unitarian-Universalist blogosphere in 2007: Melissa Mummert reported:

My seminary, Starr King School for the Ministry, had a program called "Educating to Counter Oppressions." The faculty and students took the work to destroy racism and all of the "isms" that plague us quite seriously. At an all-school meeting one afternoon, a faculty member announced, "Because of the racist connotations of the phrase brown bag lunch, we will now be using the term BYOL, 'bring your own lunch'."

Brown bags have a place in the history of US racism. From Discrimination based on skin color: "The "brown paper bag test" was a ritual once practiced by certain African-American and Creole fraternities and sororities who discriminated against people who were "too dark." That is, these groups would not let anyone into the sorority or fraternity whose skin tone was darker than that of a paper lunch bag, in order to maintain a perception of standards. Spike Lee's film School Daze satirized this practice at historically black colleges and universities."

But if "brown bag lunch" has any connotation, it's classist: brown paper bags are the cheapest lunch bags. Claiming "brown bag lunch" is racist is like arguing cotton T-shirts celebrate slavery.

The Left Coast Unitarian defended the announcement:

For me the actual matter of dispute is fairly simple. If a person of color, especially an elder, suggests that a particular term is not the most inviting way to title or describe a gathering, I will take them at their word absent a good deal of evidence.

I suspect the LCU didn't think that through: I've never met an anti-racist who accepts the opinion of Rev. Thandeka or Adolph Reed Jr. or any person of color who disagrees with anti-racism theory—that's doubly true in the case of conservative critics like Winkfield F. Twyman, Jr.

Tom Schade replies to LCU in a post I highly recommend:

In order to raise these questions, which could conceivably require more research and reflection, one has to be able to hold as a possible answer: this fact about brown bags is interesting, but essentially unimportant. But in an intellectual environment where the value of information is determined by who provides it, such criticism is not welcome. The only question really allowed, is "Please, I don't understand and it troubles me, explain some more, so I can be reunited with you."

CK commented:

I think that if I were a guest speaker at a school in, say, the Netherlands, and I wanted them to rename their local dike because I was offended by the term, they'd have every right to say that they wouldn't, that they were sorry I had been hurt by homophobia, but that "dike" isn't a hurtful term in that context, and never had been.

the Socinian wrote:

...perhaps most significant, is the supposition that “anti-oppression” is a valid religious principle to which all sincere UUs should commit both private devotional practice and public prophetic advocacy. I deny the premise on its face. Justice, equity, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, karma, dharma, atonement, salvation – these are all legitimate religious concepts worthy of devotion that can stand on their own merits. Negative principles, however, are by nature antitheses that cannot exist without a thesis against which they are defined. Valid religious principles therefore cannot be negative, but must be affirmative.

Oppression is objectionable and worth resisting, yes; though not because “anti-oppression” is a valid principle, but rather because justice, equity, and compassion are valid principles, and oppression corrupts them. Oppression is overcome not by promoting “anti-oppression”, but by promoting forgiveness and reconciliation. “Anti-oppression”, just like the nemesis against which it necessarily defines itself, falsely divides the world into the worthy “us” and the unworthy “them”. But in reality, it’s all a broken world, we’re all them, and the most valuable lessons of any religion help us come to terms first with the element of that reality that abides within ourselves before we can even attempt to cure it in those other evildoers over there.

In the comments on that post, the Socinian added:

I don't like the way AR/AO has been promoted recently as a core collective value within the UUA, or as a necessary part of our collective identity. I don't like the way it divides the world into the self-righteous "us" and the contemptible "them". I don't like the way it replaces a soteriology of grace with a soteriology of victimhood and conflict. I don't like the way it sanctifies victims for things they had no choice over and demonizes even unwitting "oppressors" for harm they may never have intended (or even have participated in), or the way it eagerly and gullibly finds oppression and victimization even in the most unlikely and dubious of instances. (Like a "brown bag lunch", for instance.) I don't like the fact that too often its response to oppression, whether real or imaginary, fails to include any meaningful physical, emotional or spiritual ministry or healing to the actual victim -- other than perhaps nurturing and encouraging the victim's sense of anger and injustice. I don't like the overemphasis of faultfinding, and underemphasis of our historic Universalist gospel of love and forgiveness even (or especially) when it has not been earned. And I especially don't like it when the extraordinary attention and resources that are devoted to AR/AO in some corners of UU-dom seem to crowd out nearly any other avenue or approach to faith formation.

There are many effective ways to combat racism and oppression, and it is a worthy undertaking, but standing like the Pharisee in the Temple court and piously proclaiming the purity of one's observance of the AR/AO mitzvot is not a particularly good way to do it.

Philocrites offers a useful term for this sort of thing in Brown bag landmines, culling the affiliates, and more.: "terminal earnestness"

There's A Collection of all the Brown Bag Posts (and a side note) at Elizabeth’s Little Blog.

Incidentally, though the brown bag test has become a historical footnote, colorism is not dead: From Columns: The paper bag test:

The most recent case making news in the black press involves two employees of an Applebee's restaurant in Jonesboro, Ga., near Atlanta. There, Dwight Burch, a dark-skinned waiter, who has left the restaurant, filed a lawsuit against Applebee's and his light-skinned African-American manager.

In the suit, Burch alleged that during his three-month stint, the manager repeatedly referred to him as a "black monkey" and a "tar baby." The manager also told Burch to bleach his skin, and Burch was fired after he refused to do so, the suit states.

Related: Nalo Hopkinson and "Killa Wog"

get great stuff and support editor extraordinaire Terri Windling!

2011-11-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

Emma has details: Dark Roast - It's MAGICK MONDAY!

the visual devolution of Red Sonja

2011-11-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

Via The Pictorial Arts: Flavorful, Frank Thorne's drawing of three versions of Red Sonja. I always liked the Barry Smith costume, even though the panties are silly, but Krenkel's is best.

The 1% is Political Poetry: excellent explanation of class

2011-11-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

thelivelytradition: The 1% is Political Poetry: "Class is not about income. Class is not about whether you have an income, a profession, a job or a benefit. Class is not about culture. Class is not about wealth. A "Class" is a historically formed group of people who have a particular relationship to economic order."

USA: at war for 209 years (and counting)

2011-11-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Also illustrates the fact that "wars" which were conducted by the Department of War are now "operations" conducted by the Department of Defense.

ETA: This makes me wonder if the Department of ~~War~~ Defense's next name will be the Department of Freedom.

Boots Riley on black bloc tactics

2011-11-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

Boots Riley on black bloc tactics « Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist: "If we are in the middle of one of the biggest, most overtly class conscious acts of the last 65 years- one that has the unity of action of 50,000 ppl-one that caused millions in damage through an action that teaches class analysis and builds an apparatus for future action-why would u think breaking a window at whole foods is taking it to another level? Its not. The message it gives to most is one of futile frustration."

He makes another point that I like a lot: "...when a group of masked white kids break windows in a city that’s many ppl of color, it feels like the white kids are claiming ownership, not saying that this city is all of ours. It makes it harder to build a viable mass movement. I’m saying this knowing the truth, many masked blac bloc folks are NOT white. But, if everyone perceives u as white cuz u have a mask on-then it has the same effect."

He reminds me that the only defenders of Black Bloc tactics I've encountered are white guys like Nick Mamatas. Me, I figure any tactic that makes revolutionaries look like thugs is a stupid tactic.

Do follow the link for more good arguments against Blackblockheads. His point about vanguarding is as strong as any of the rest.

Re Wikileaks and Julian Assange: Is Israel Shamir a Holocaust-denier?

2011-11-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

In the smear campaign against Julian Assange, the phrase "Holocaust-denier" keeps coming up because of one writer who worked briefly with Wikileaks, Israel Shamir. Here is his answer from Mother of All Smears:

As for the accusation of “Holocaust denial”, my family lost too many of its sons and daughters for me to deny the facts of Jewish tragedy, but I do deny its religious salvific significance implied in the very term ‘Holocaust’; I do deny its metaphysical uniqueness, I do deny the morbid cult of Holocaust and I think every God-fearing man, a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim should reject it as Abraham rejected and smashed idols. I deny that it is good to remember or immortalise such traumatic events, and I wrote many articles against modern obsession with massacres, be it Jewish holocaust of 1940s, Armenian massacre of 1915, Ukrainian “holodomor”, Polish Katyn, Khmer Rouge etc. Poles, Armenians, Ukrainians understood me, so did Jews – otherwise I would be charged with the crime of factual denial which is known to the Israeli law.

every ideology ever and "correlation does not imply causation"

2011-11-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

Another notion that someone could write at great length about: identitarians fail to grasp that correlation does not imply causation.

every ideology ever and confirmation bias

2011-11-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

I could write a long post about confirmation bias and antiracism theory or feminism or any identitarian issue. But any elaboration would be gratuitous; all you need to know is that confirmation bias is the tendency to trust what you believe and doubt what you don't.

To be fair to identitarians, suffering from confirmation bias is just part of being human.

I was reminded of this by CultureLab: Bias rules the way we judge the world.

Sojourner Truth on Hell

2011-11-24T10:32:00.001-07:00

"The newspapers of my childhood used to have pictures of hell. I bought one once in New York, and there was one whole side covered with such a picture. On one side there was a narrow stair leading to heaven and the rest of the picture was a terrible abyss, with smoke rising up out of it, and numberless human beings swimming around in the flames. Then there was the old Evil One, with a long snout and a tail, stirring the others up with a pitchfork and I gazed upon that picture, I said, "My God, that is hell, sure 'nuff." There are probably persons here who can remember these things. As I got older I found out that there wasn't no such thing as hell, and that the narrow stairs only showed the narrowness of the mind that conceived the picture. I have found out and know that God's brightness and goodness and glory is hot enough to scorch all the sinners in the world." —Sojourner Truth

What should we call the US version of Thanksgiving?

2011-11-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

"I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land." —Jon Stewart

This is the day Americans celebrate the Wampanoags saving their ass. Given what our leaders did afterward, Ethnic Cleansing Day, Racism Day, and Imperialism Day all cover US policy toward the continent's First Peoples. Or, given Jesus's comments about people who make a show of their goodness, Hypocrisy Day works just fine.

If you want to imagine what was lost, I'll repeat an old recommendation: read 1491.

The saddest thing about Thanksgiving Day is it's a celebration of what rich people stole. The best that poor folks of any hue can hope for is a free meal from a civic group—not exactly a fair trade.

Which reminds me of what David Stemple would tell his kids when they complained about fairness: "In a fair world, you would be starving in a hut in Africa."

Though there is plenty of food in the world for everyone, today, in the US, millions of people are malnourished and hungry, and in the world, every 3.6 seconds, someone will die from hunger.

Well, that's enough reality for 24 hours. Our Thanksgiving will consist of eating too much great food with good folks. I wish everyone's would.

Happy Thanksgiving!

ETA: I should've just posted this:

ETA 2: It's not Shopping Day, but it might be Shopping Eve.

Do the poor suffer from financial PTSD?

2011-11-23T19:40:00.000-07:00

Poor Concentration: How Poverty Changes the Way You Think - The Curious Capitalist: "The results: shoppers with above-average incomes did just as well on the tests whether they were faced with the $150 or $1,500 repairs, but those with below-average incomes did significantly worse when the repairs were going to cost $1,500 (as opposed to just $150). Even imaginary financial strain diminished the low-income group's ability to think straight."

back on Twitter

2011-11-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

I'm back on Twitter as WillShetterly. Mostly it's autolinks to posts here and some retweets of the few Twits I follow, but occasionally I'll tweet a link that I don't post here or get in a short conversation with someone.

the problem with academics — and people who grew up rich

2011-11-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

When I was fourteen, my Dad, who had entered the University of Florida as a freshman at the age of forty thanks to the GI Bill, told me, "Take everything you hear from academics with a big grain of salt. These are people who have been institutionalized all their lives."

I always remember that when I hear academics trying to explain a world they rarely visit.

This post was inspired by Susannah Breslin's comment in Men's strip club confessions:

My main problem with feminism and sex work is that the majority of feminists talking about sex work are in the academy. They took women’s studies classes and 99 percent of what they learned about sex work is, like, on the Internet or from one porn star they met once. If you have something to say about it, you should go into that world and study it and get to know those people and spend time there. Instead, feminism is just manufacturing abstractions about what sex work is, and they’re too chicken to go in and really explore the industry. So for the most part, feminism can’t tell me anything about sex work because they’re too busy posturing as feminists to find out what that world is really like.

A few years after Dad's comment, after I'd spent some time among people who grew up rich, I realized they've also been institutionalized all their lives, though they haven't a clue, because the upper class are in an institution with branches anywhere it might occur to them to go. There's a reason why the biggest difference in luxury hotels around the world is the accent of the cleaning staff.

Though I think I'm fairly cynical about the ignorance of the rich, they still surprise me. When Emma and I went to New Orleans for a friend's birthday party last year, we took a riverboat ride with a New Yorker who could not believe Americans still lived in shacks along a river. When I was younger, I would've cringed as I saw the tour guide's sidewise glance at her, and then I would've taken her aside to talk about the kinds of people I've known most of my life. But I just made the mental note and let it pass. The woman in question is very sweet. It's not her fault that her economic comfort makes her simultaneously a woman of the world and one of the most provincial people I've ever known.

Emma Bull's essay on the Weird West

2011-11-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Home on the Strange by Emma Bull | Fantasy Magazine

on blackface and actors playing other races

2011-11-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

Inspired by talk about whether Florence + The Machine's "No Light, No Light" is racist:

This is a classic image of blackface, a white person wearing makeup to mock black people:

Note the exaggerated lips and the unnaturally dark skin—blackface was done with black shoe polish or a very dark skin dye to make a white person look like a black version of a whiteface clown.

Some people think any attempt to portray someone of another race is racist. They say this white model portraying a black woman is racist:

And Beyonce Knowles betrayed all black and Asian Women by modeling as a white woman:

Beyonce was also accused of doing blackface when she darkened her skin:

If you accept the logic that portraying someone of another race is always racist, John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me is a racist book; when segregation was legal in the US, he darkened his skin and hair to have a first-hand experience of being black:

Whites who play Othello get accused of doing blackface:

But people rarely accuse Orson Welles of blackface because he plays the character with respect:

While Lawrence Olivier's makeup and eye-rolling crosses into parody:

The question of respect for the character is crucial. Harry Connick was caught up having to judge a bad parody of the Jacksons in Australia:

These people aren't parodying the individual Jacksons; they've made themselves up to look like golliwoggs, and the humor comes from the idea of, as Connick puts it, portraying black folks as buffoons.

That's the simple rule for deciding whether someone is indulging in blackface: If they're mocking a race by pretending to be of that race, they're being racist. If they're not, they should be prepared for identitarians to misunderstand. But ultimately, we're all human. If you want to look like your race or sex or age or class is different, that's your right as part of the human race.

Which applies to non-human races, too. Here's a cultural artifact from the 1960s:

See also: racism at Racialicious, or Florence + The Machine and Bali

the capitalist outhouse

2011-11-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

via Eric Orchard: Toronto Christmas Train show

recommended site of the day: HOW THE LEFT GOT TRAPPED INSIDE THEIR OWN HEADS

2011-11-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: DREAM ON: HOW THE LEFT GOT TRAPPED INSIDE THEIR OWN HEADS - AND HOW FAIRIES CAN OPEN THE DOOR TO THE FUTURE.

Anyone interested in the Pre-Raphaelites should play the clip with Oliver Reed.

socialist bible verses: Deuteronomy 6:10-12

2011-11-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 6:10-12 (New International Version)

Brother Will says: If giving people things they didn't make is good enough for God, it should be good enough for the rest of us, too.

Fritz Willis has good advice for all artists

2011-11-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

“Everybody’s a critic. Some criticism is based on personal taste, some on knowledge, some on ignorance. Some is constructive, some destructive. Welcome it all, accept what you wish, reject what you wish. After all, it’s your painting. Never be disheartened by adverse criticism. The worst thing you can say about an artist’s work is, ‘His paintings wouldn’t offend anyone.’” —Fritz Willis

class in the USA: police at public and private universities

2011-11-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

From here:

This is what Columbia University police look like when arresting students:

This is what the police at Davis, a public university, looked like yesterday:

quote: Potter Stewart on censorship

2011-11-19T18:02:00.002-07:00

"Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime." —Potter Stewart

racist? awesome? both? Florence + The Machine - No Light, No Light

2011-11-19T12:34:00.000-07:00

Florence + The Machine - No Light, No Light - YouTube

ETA: See on blackface and actors playing other races

ETA 2: racism at Racialicious, or Florence + The Machine and Bali

Racially, the ‘Near Poor’ look like the poor

2011-11-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

‘Near Poor’ - Not Quite in Poverty, but Still Struggling - NYTimes.com: "Demographically, they look more like “The Brady Bunch” than “The Wire.” Half live in households headed by a married couple; 49 percent live in the suburbs. Nearly half are non-Hispanic white, 18 percent are black and 26 percent are Latino."

Racially, that's very close to what official poverty looks like in the US, though the percentage that's black is a bit higher and the percentage that's Latino is a bit lower.

Barack Obama, OWS is your Egypt: shame on you!

2011-11-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

"I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters. The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights. And the United States will stand up for them everywhere." —Barack Obama

There are so many pictures and videos that I could post to go with this. The following is simply the most convenient:

Emma Bull's advice of the day

2011-11-18T15:16:00.002-07:00

"Just because they hate you, you don't have to hate them." —Emma Bull

scifi antiracist silliness: Nalo Hopkinson and "Killa Wog"

2011-11-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

This tweet appeared today:

nalohopkinson Nalo Hopkinson Watching Green Lantern. Michael Clarke Duncan's character is named...Killa Wog? WTF?#ohnotheydidnt #racefail

It's being retweeted by folks who see racism everywhere they look. But they're demonstrating a great deal of cultural imperialism. To wit:

1. Kilowog is a character created by Steve Engelhart, a US writer. In the US, few people know that "wog" is an insult; it's not part of this country's racist vocabulary. As Wikipedia notes, "In the United States, "Wog" is simply short for Pollywog, the navy term for sailors who have yet to cross the equator in the line-crossing ceremony, and has no racial associations."

2. While the inspiration for Kilowog's name doesn't seem to be on the web, DC Comics' offices are in New York, so the name may've been inspired by the town of Killawog, NY. Which, by the way, was not named because they "killed a wog" there, but don't let me stop anyone from accusing a town of having a racist name.

3. The character was previously voiced by Henry Rollins, who is white.

I like Nalo. She's a fine writer. But in this case, the racefail is all in her philosophy.

ETA: I just bolded and italicized "has no racial associations" for the sake of folks like Ithiliana who seem to have trouble reading. In The Heart of the Maze - The OED entry on "wog" n1 and n2, she uses the Oxford English Dictionary to establish that "wog" is racist in UK countries, which I hadn't noticed anyone disputing.

I think the problem is that devout anti-racists believe English-speakers are the same everywhere. Perhaps they don't grasp that there are many dialects—when a Brit wants to "light up a fag", do they accuse her of wanting to burn homosexuals alive, or do they understand that she wants to smoke a cigarette?

I also wonder if Ithiliana thinks "niggardly" is racist, and whether she accepts the OED's verdict there. Ah, well. Everyone's entitled to a foolish belief or two.

ETA 2: I just realized that Ithiliana's reference to "white male" illustrates something at the heart of racism and sexism in disagreements: the ad hominem argument. It's characteristic of identitarians: they don't have to answer points made by a heretic or an outlaw or a barbarian simply because they're not "one of us."

ETA 3: Ithiliana's brought up another bit of handwaving. Sure, golliwogg is problematic, but it ain't the same word as polliwog. The crucial question: are there any examples of US racists using "wog" as an insult where average Americans would be expected to recognize it as a racist insult? Among the many things anti-racists don't understand: context matters.

ETA 4: Constance Ash, aka al_zorra, has chipped in with the observation that some members of the US ruling class who had a fetish for all things British used "wog." It's true, but hardly relevant; I sometimes use the Ojibwe word "mia" for "good enough," but that hardly means "mia" is now a US term. And, yes, those Americans who read a lot of British literature know that "wog" is a racial insult in countries ruled by Britain after the US Revolution. Readers know a lot of things that are irrelevant when talking about common use. The real question stays very simple: is "Kilowog" a racist name for a scifi character created by Americans and voiced by a black American actor?

ETA 5: This just occurred to me: Kilowog's name is a false cognate, a concept that ideological antiracists may not recognize.

ETA 6: I'm beginning to wonder how reading works for antiracists. In the comments, gryphonsegg wrote, "How and why did he go from "This character's name has phonetic similarities to a slur which the original creator might not have been aware of at the time" to "This slur isn't really a slur or at least isn't used as a slur anymore even if it was ever a slur to begin with, which it wasn't because REASONS"? I mean, what is even the point of that? I understand why some people get defensive about the possibility of a beloved canon perpetuating racism, even if I recognize that the defensive reactions are usually wrong. But this looks like he's decided to get defensive about the possibility of anybody or anything ever having been racist."

Where have I said it's not a slur anywhere or never was? It's a slur in the UK and its former colonies. Hmm. Maybe this is related to their trouble understanding that things are different in different places.

Gene Burnett - Jump You F*#kers (A Song For Wall Street)

2011-11-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

Gene Burnett - Jump You F*#kers (A Song For Wall Street) - YouTube

There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap?

2011-11-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

Speaking as a guy who has had female bosses since his first "real" job in the 1970s, this seems true:

Carrie Lukas: There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap

I confess, I haven't looked for rebuttals, so don't hesitate to offer any.

PS. The writer's a conservative and I'm not, so separate her rhetoric from her statistics.

ETA: Pamela Dean provides a couple of interesting links: No Gender Gap in Wages? So Carrie Lukas Argues. Part 1. and No Gender Gap in Wages? So Carrie Lukas Argues. Part 2.

class expectations and literary criticism

2011-11-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

Just read Jonathan Lethem: The literary world is like high school. It inspired this comment:

Class assumptions are at the heart of the relationship between critic and artist: upper class artists are supposed to be above responding to their critics; working class artists are supposed to be incapable of it.

ETA: That's the old-school model, anyway. Maybe there's an improved version now.

ETA 2: Still teasing at this notion. Added this comment at the site: "Uh, that's "incapable" in the intellectual sense--working class artists aren't supposed to be analytical; their powers of creation are supposed to be pure, unsullied by academia. They're the "mumbling, dungaree-and-scuffed-workboot guys.""

do not piss off book-lovers!

2011-11-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

You'll find a list of some good folks upset that the attack on Occupy Wall Street included destroying its library: Making Light: Who destroys libraries?

I look at the picture of the damaged Bible and wonder about OWS' copy of the Bill of Rights. But then, you don't always need a body to establish a killing.

whose fantasy? "A Jig In The Jungle" - Dorothy Dandridge

2011-11-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

Two points:

1. I don't know if the writers were white or black. I just know the performances are great.

2. If the writers were black, would this be a case of African-Americans "appropriating" African imagery?

A Jig In The Jungle - Dorothy Dandridge - YouTube

Herb Jeffries, the Bronze Buckaroo

2011-11-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

Note for antiracists: This ain't appropriation; it's just early black Hollywood. During the heyday of the US cowboy, it's estimated that as many as 25% were black—and perhaps as many were Mexican, 'cause the vaqueros created cowboy culture.

Appropriation or awesome? The Dandridge Sisters & The Cats & The Fiddle - "Harlem Yodel"

2011-11-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

The Dandridge Sisters & The Cats & The Fiddle - Harlem Yodel

a black Snow White? plus Black Orpheus

2011-11-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

Some antiracists are saying Snow White and the Huntsman looks too white. Now, I would think that identitarians would think making that story anything other than European in setting and cast would be "appropriation". I personally love cultural mashups, but I gotta say that complaining that a European tale is told too Euro is just too silly for me.

However, this reminded there's a black Snow White which you can find on online: Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs. I don't think that's quite what the antiracists want. Wikipedia has a good piece about it: Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs.

Three notes about the cartoon:

1. I don't think its handling of Snow White is racist, but its handling of Prince Charming is—at that time, white folks were more comfortable with sexually attractive black women than black men.

2. People who complain about the dialect may be revealing their class prejudice.

3. The music's great. Makes me want to find more songs sung by Dorothy Dandridge's sister and mom.

The issue of non-Euro casting in Euro tales makes me want to see Black Orpheus again; I have no idea how well it holds up, but I'm guessing it's still great.

class and fantasy: Snow White

2011-11-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

Just came across this, from Snow White, which might be fun to research: "There is another Brothers Grimm tale called Snow White and Rose Red which also includes a character called Snow White. However, this Snow White is a completely separate character from the one found in this tale. The original German names are also different: Schneewittchen and Schneeweißchen. There is actually no difference in the meaning (both mean "snow white"), but the first name is more influenced by the dialects of Low Saxon while the second one is the standard German version, demonstrating a class difference between the two Snow Whites."

Disney plunders the Public Domain again: Once Upon A Time

2011-11-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Emma has a short review of the first episode of Once Upon a Time. She focuses on the creative side, so I'll add two general observations:

1. Once again, Disney is plundering the public domain. Which would be perfectly fine if Disney wasn't actively restricting the public domain to keep their copyright on Mickey Mouse.

2. While I think it's extremely likely that Fables inspired Once Upon a Time, the idea of updating fairy tale characters is ancient. Objecting to the updating of fairy tales misses the point: old songs and tales are constantly updated to keep them relevant. (Frex, the differences between British and American versions of ballads are fascinating. Well, if you're the sort of person who's fascinated by things like the removal of supernatural elements from ballads.)