In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Category: Racism

Dear Maureen Dowd,

I’ll support Hillary Clinton shutting up and dropping out of the race as soon as you decide that as another loud-mouthed and unapologetic woman who pisses people off, you should drop off the editorial pages of the Times.

And I will start to love your mouthiness again as soon as you stop referring to Barack Obama as “exotic” with “braided ancestry.”

Let’s keep our eye on the prize, no?

No, you’re the racist one! I myself am colorblind.

This post has a comment section that’s making me want to tear my hair out. So not everyone sees the Vogue cover as racist. That’s fine, and there are certainly a handful of decent arguments in that thread as to why the cover isn’t what I’m seeing.

But if I have to read “The fact that you see racism means that you’re the racist!” or “We should all be colorblind like me” or “Gisele isn’t white, she’s Brazilian!” or “Why do you have to make everything about race?” one more time, I am going to throw something. I know it’s not regular Feministe readers who are bringing this kind of stupid, but it’s still kind of incredible.

Whether or not you think there are racist undertones (or overtones) to the cover, it’s worth checking out this comparison:

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The Angola 3

A horrific human rights abuse — straight out of the USA.

In the scheme of human rights and the U.S. criminal justice system, the case of the “Angola 3” is one of the great injustices of our time. In 1972, three black men, Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace, and Robert King Wilkerson, were prisoners at Angola State Prison in Louisiana when a guard was stabbed to death. The three Black Panthers were blamed for the murder on the flimsiest of proof and placed in solitary confinement. They would stay there for the next three decades, quite possibly the longest span of time any prisoner has spent in solitary confinement in the U.S.

At Angola, a sprawling complex that was once a slave plantation, solitary confinement means living in a 6-by-9 cell, 23 hours a day, seven days a week. It is an extreme punishment that is physically and psychologically dehumanizing. “The SPCA would shut this prison down if they had dogs up here like this,” Herman Wallace says.

Angola has always had a reputation for racism and brutality, and the case of the Angola 3 has its own sordid back story. In the early 1970s, prisoners were, according to the Times-Picayune, “subject to being ‘sold’ to each other to be used as ‘sex slaves’ or prostituted out to other inmates in exchange for prison-brands of currency, such as cigarettes.” The warden in those years — a man who would later be jailed for trying to murder his wife — acknowledged the existence of the sex trade in his memoir. According to the New Orleans-based defense attorney who continues to advocate for the Angola 3, the three Black Panthers had been “trying to stop the sexual slavery and rampant rage occurring there everyday.” But organizing of any kind is frowned upon in a racist prison environment. In a very real way, the Angola 3 can be considered political prisoners.

Read the rest of the entry.

It’s been 35 years, and the three men are still in solitary confinement. That may not sound as horrific as it actually is, but take five minutes to google around and find out what happens to people mentally when they’re in solitary confinement — it’s not good. It is the very definition of cruel and unusual, and it’s disgusting that this continues to happen on our own soil. I don’t like to throw around words like “barbarians,” but here, that seems to be exactly what we are.

I know Vogue isn’t exactly racially conscious, but…

Welcome new readers! Glad you found us. To clarify a bit: I’ve been quoted as saying that I see Lebron James as an animalistic black man; that isn’t even close to what I’m trying to get across in this post. The point is that there is a long history in the United States of imaging black men as brutish, and comparing black people to monkeys and apes. A good deal of racist propaganda has rested on those images, and they’re a deeply ingrained part of our cultural history. That’s why this Vogue cover, which plays on racist imagery, is troubling. And please keep in mind that just because you don’t see racism, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there, or that the people who do see it are the “real” racists. And please check out this update post on the Vogue issue, which I think visually clarifies the imagery a lot better.

Hope you enjoy Feministe. Thanks for dropping by.

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Really?

vogue

Jesus Christ. Is it really 2008?

Comparative image below the fold.

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Sixteen Maneuvers to Avoid Really Dealing with Racism

I found this list in an old e-mail, and thought it might come in handy for recognizing some common tactics of resistance against discussions of racism, against acknowledging that racism exists as a systemic injustice that we’re all complicit in to some degree, against owning up to anything. Apparently this list — which I adapted slightly into quotations with names — was originally developed by some anti-racist education organization, but I don’t know which one. (If you do, tell me!)

Which of these moves are you adept at? We all know some of them.

Confused? Feeling like you don’t understand how to execute or evade some of these maneuvers? Feel free to ask for help in the comments.

The Bootstrap Myth
“Racism is a thing of the past… this is a free country, and anyone who works hard can make it in America.”

The Backtrack
“Hey, wait a second, that’s not what I meant… I mean… you took my words out of context, don’t make it try to sound like I’m racist!”

The Remove the Right To Be Angry
“You’re too sensitive… if you weren’t so aggressive, vocal, hostile, angry, or upset, people would listen to you and you wouldn’t get in trouble!”

The Utopian Eye-Gouger
“I’m colorblind, personally… why can’t we all just ignore race, it’s not like it’s even real… it’s not like I tangibly benefit from being white every day or anything! Can’t we all just get along?”

Turning the Tables
“You’re being just as racist against white people, you realize. You’re being racist against me right now, you reverse-racist hypocrites!”

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Don’t Forget the Angry White Men

klan
It’s so much easier when the Angry White Men just wear their nightclothes all the time.

Otherwise known as self-important, racist, sexist assholes.

The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.

His last name and religion don’t matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.

It’s guys like this who give white men everywhere a bad name. But he’s not sexist or racist, he swears! He just hates when black people act all uppity and when Mexicans don’t speak English, and he knows that his wife is kinda dumb and needs to be under his control:

He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.

He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.

Just like him, I’m sure, who has gotten everything in life solely through hard work and playing by the rules. Super convenient that all the rules tilt the game in his favor.

But this isn’t about all those other folks. It’s about how much he hates Hillary Clinton:

He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the “poor me” attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.
…
He hopes that she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.

But no, it has nothing to do with the fact that she’s a woman. It’s just that her physical appearance and her voice disgust him.

Excuse me if I lack patience for “progressive” arguments that these are the guys we should be pandering to.

Attacking Native Women’s Rights — And Why “Pro-Life” Democrats Aren’t All They’re Cracked Up To Be

“Pro-life” lawmakers have targeted Native women in their latest anti-choice bill — led this time by prostitute-hiring family warrior David Vitter.

The controversy swirls around a federal law—known as the Hyde amendment—that prohibits abortion coverage under Medicaid, Medicare and Indian Health Service programs. While the Hyde law must be renewed by Congress each year, the Vitter amendment—which the Senate approved on Feb. 26—would apply Hyde’s restrictions permanently to IHS beneficiaries. For that reason, tribal health advocates charge that the Vitter language treads on the sovereignty of Indian communities and places unique constraints on native women.

“It’s a very racist amendment,” said Charon Asetoyer, executive director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center, “[because] it puts another layer of restrictions on the only race of people whose health care is governed primarily by the federal government. All women are subject to the Hyde amendment, so why would they put another set of conditions on us?”

I’m pretty sure she already knows the answer to that: Because Native women are easy targets.

Do read the whole article — it does a great job of detailing why this is important, and explains how Native women are sexually victimized at extremely high rates.

But it’s not only Republicans who are going after Native womens’ rights. Several Democratic senators voted to pass the bill, including Sens. Ken Salazar (Col.), Evan Bayh (Ind.), Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Robert Casey (Pa.), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.).

If any of those senators represent you, consider writing a letter to let them know that attacking Native womens’ access to health care is not a Democratic value.

Come on… why do you have to make such a big deal out of racist, sexist behavior?

This is what happened when Tamara Nopper got on a plane recently:

Shortly after sitting down, an older white man sat in the seat next to mine. He then proceeded to spread his legs wide open as if, to quote a wise person I know, “he thought he had balls the size of pumpkins.” In response to the uninvited pressing, I requested room for my legs. The man then proceeded to imperiously point his finger to the floor to emphasize that his feet were within the boundary of his seats. He never addressed the fact that his legs were spread beyond them so as to invade my space and press up against my body. Instead, he said to me, “You’re a big girl.” Talking on my cell phone, I interrupted my conversation to calmly tell the man “Don’t fucking talk to me that way.”

With his right hand, the man reached across himself to grab my left arm. With my arm in his grip, he looked me in the eyes through his glasses and replied, “I’m going to slap you in your mouth.” I freed myself from him and then stood up.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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