Anti- Racist Bingo

Often drive by trolls show up who have not had the decency to get their 101 on.  Many of us have long ago moved ahead of  the 101 level and it becomes frustrating to have to routinely repeat the same basic facts.  In the comment section, one will often simply see the word BINGO, rather than a long involved comment. 

The following Bingo card appeared at The Angry Black Woman on September 22nd, 2009.  

Looking over the above Bingo card, it became clear to me  that it accurately described comments often seen on this blog.  People really need to think about the ways in which they display their privilege.  These comments may seem innocent, but they are the basis of the racist world in which we live.

I thought that we could use this thread as a starting place to discuss and or list various comments that regularly appear, which should be considered racist but are invariably understood by the speaker to benign.

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Drop It Like It’s Hot

 

Another Saturday has rolled around bringing the end to a lot of great conversations here.  The trolls has been out in full force and the Spam box is begging for mercy.  Should I miss a comment, please hit the report button.  Let’s not pretend for a moment, that these people are here to engage in any sort of conversation.  Free speech will never include the right to hate speech on this blog.

Below you will find a list of posts that I found interesting.  Please show these bloggers some love and check them out.  When you are through, don’t forget to drop it like it’s hot and leave your link behind in the comment section.

On the execution of John Allen Muhammad

Cast in Bronze

 White people think they know all about you from reading a book

“The flipside of this charming worldview….”

Pro Choice

Black Students Told To Act Like Slaves

Limits

Coming In From The Cold

The Greatest Man Perms Of All Time: An Evolutionary History By Max Reddick

Do I Really Have To Explain Why Push/Precious Normalizes Black Depravity

Hotsy Totsy

Bingo

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Carrie Prejean Masturbating Is A No No

From the moment Carrie Prejean was catapulted into fame for homophobic remarks, I have ardently wished for the end of her fifteen minutes of fame.  No one should become a household name for preaching hate.  Despite the reason for her fame, defending her has become a necessity because many of the attacks launched at her have been based squarely in sexism.  GLBT rights are not advanced by using another ism to attack her.

Recently it was revealed that TMZ is in possession of a sex tape featuring Prejean.  When one hears the words sex tape, a flurry of images instantly rush to mind.  It would be wrong to shame her for filming a sexual act with a man, but I find it even more problematic that she is being shamed for masturbation.  It seems that she sent a tape of herself to a former boyfriend, who decided  to make the tape public.

That this betrayal of trust is now celebrated, is a gross display.  How many of us have former lovers, that could potentially reveal something embarrassing because at the time of the relationship, we trusted them implicitly?  There has been little to no discussion regarding how he violated her trust for a quick buck. Unlike Carrie,his name remains private.  Too many women have been publicly shamed by ex boyfriends, who have surfaced after they have achieved fame. 

Prejean’s sex tape is a recording of her masturbating.  How is this a violation of her supposed Christian beliefs? Men and women across the globe masturbate and  this is only understood as immoral because the person in question is female.  Women are taught never to touch themselves.  Our bodies socially are understood as belonging to men and therefore when we touch ourselves, it is constructed as a filthy vile act.

It is assumed that men will masturbate from the moment they enter puberty.  Women are encouraged to remain chaste and deny any and all sexual impulses they may feel.   We are told repeatedly that our vaginas are dirty and that it is a filthy act to touch them beyond basic personal care.  In this way, female sexuality is highly disciplined. In a culture in which female sexuality is highly controlled, masturbation can be a radical act. Not only is it a reclamation of sexuality, it is a reclamation of ones physical body.

Carrie Prejean is a woman filled with much negativity and hate, however; the slut shaming of her for masturbation is completely unacceptable.  A man would never be reduced for daring to pleasure himself.  There are many reasons why it is acceptable to be critical of Prejean, however masturbation is not one of them.  Don’t tell me that these people screaming hypocrite, have never engaged in masturbation. 

The right makes its case by obfuscation, shaming and playing upon isms.  If we agree with them on this issue, we are supporting sexism and are no different than the people we seek to criticize.  It is not enough to  have principals when it benefits us.  To have the courage of ones convictions, we must stand up and defend our stated beliefs, even when it means supporting someone who is abhorrent.  It is for this reason, that I have stood up for women like Sarah Palin, though I would fight her beliefs to the end of my days.  Principals only mean something, if we can apply them fairly across the board.  Sexism can never fight the virulent hatred that Prejean preaches, however standing behind ones stated beliefs, displays a consistency and conviction that the right wing fundamentalists have yet to engage in.

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It’s All About Gender, No It’s All About Race

I cannot believe that I am writing this post yet again.  I have covered this subject repeatedly, but it seems some people need to see it yet again.  Black women are in a unique position, in that we struggle with two identities, which are marginalized from birth.  When one is born Black and female, at any moment of any day, one may be targeted by either racism or sexism.  It is this binary, that is the foundation of much angst between us and our supposed allies.

White women will engage us with arms outstretched, talking about sisterhood and solidarity.  This is all well and good, until race raises its ugly head.  In that moment, Black women are expected to ignore the ways in which race serves to mark our bodies as other.   While their mothers and grandmothers were fighting the battle to get out of the kitchen, we knew that our place was firmly ensconced at the stove, forever the helper and the foundation. 

When White women worried that breast feeding might ruin their figures, it was to our ample bosoms that they turned.  Yes, they can do it all, as long as they have a Black woman to exploit.  Go girl power my ass.  To this day, the voices of WOC are largely silenced within the feminist movement and yet it is supposedly about advancing equal rights for women.  Tunnel vision regarding gender, to the exclusion of anything that specifically address issues of race, class, ability and sexuality, informs much of present feminist discourse, despite the mantra about intersectionality.

All you see is race we are told, or why must everything be about race?  Of course, they can’t see the importance of race because no one ever looked at them and called them a nigger.  No one ever spit on them because of the color of their skin.  No one ever decided that were angry, slutty, irrational, unrapeable or aggressive, all based solely on the color of their skin.  (In case you are wondering, I have experienced all of the aforementioned).  If you don’t know why race matters, perhaps the issue is not me, but your own unacknowledged privilege.

We are blind to gender oppression we are told, because sometimes defending ourselves again racism, means standing in solidarity with Black men.  Black men are not just some abstract gender, they are our fathers, sons, brothers, husbands, cousins, uncles and friends.  Our attachment is one of blood and shared pain.  You have a history of being silent when White men abuse us but the moment we stand up for our men, we are betraying the cause. Yep, no agenda there.  White women may be oppressed by gender, but they have always been able to use Whiteness to their advantage.

Okay, on to Black men.  Uplift the race is the mantra that you try and sell us.  This is the supposed key to equality.  I have about as much faith in you, as I do a snake oil salesman.  There can be no doubt that racism affects us both, though differently.  There can be no doubt that we must fight against racism; if not for ourselves, then for our children.  Even with these truisms, how many men think that the path forward, is by ignoring the ways in which their sexism is specifically harmful to Black women?

You love us when you want a booty call.  You love us when you want a meal cooked or your clothes cleaned, but where is the love when it is time to defend our humanity or laud our accomplishments?  Where is the love, when you strike us in fits of rage?  A Black man may face the terrible forms of racism in the public sphere, but he can always come home and aim that brutality directly at his Black wife.

As much as race serves to bond us together, gender disparity acts as a divide.  Why is uplifting the race always based in supporting patriarchy? Black men seek equality with White men and this means the ability to act with impunity.  Demanding our silence, so that you may present an aggressive masculinity that serves no one, is not the path forward.  Demanding that our needs are secondary, to focus on issues that solely benefit you and couching this as defending the race, is nothing more than an obvious display of sexism. 

We are not bitches and ho’s; we are your mothers, sisters, and daughters.  More than any other betrayal Black women face, yours hurts the most because it is on our breasts that you suckled.  It is your tears that we have kissed away for generations and how are we rewarded?  Affirming every negative stereotype that has been created about us, does not uplift the race; it simply affirms your desire to express patriarchal power. 

Black women stand in the middle of two dynamic forces, which seek to claim us for their own purposes.  Neither side wishes to validate our identities and neither side can claim to love us outside of an agenda.   You don’t know us and in fact never sought to because in doing so, you would have to admit that we are more than a political tool.  Perhaps, it is time for you to look for new shoulders to stand upon.  If anyone is tired in this life, it is the Black woman. Judas at one point claimed to love Christ and your protestations ring even more hollow. 

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Was Malcolm X Gay or Bisexual?

Malcolm is still to this day considered a very complicated figure.  I believe this is in part due to the fact that his life was cut short.  At the time of his death, he had severed his relationship with the Nation of Islam and was clearly moving left in his politics.  Unfortunately, because of his popularity there will always be those that seek to claim him as theirs.  You see, in his death, his words have become more palatable to many, even as they engage in the same acts of racism that he denounced in his life.

A good example of this neglect is the denialism surrounding the bisexuality of one of the greatest modern black liberation heroes: Malcolm X. The lack of recognition is perhaps not surprising, given that some of his family and many black activists have made strenuous efforts to deny his same-sex relationships and suppress recognition of the full spectrum of his sexuality.

Why the cover-up? So what if Malcolm X was bisexual? Does this diminish his reputation and achievements? Of course not. Whether he was gay, straight or bisexual should not matter. His stature remains, regardless of his sexual orientation. Yet many of the people who revere him seem reluctant to accept that their hero, and mine, was bisexual.

It is not problematic that he may have been gay or bisexual; the issue is that he did not publicly declare this identity in his lifetime. Malcolm is not reduced by being gay or bisexual and sexuality in this case is irrelevant. His sexuality has little to do with who he was as a person and what he fought for. He was unapologetically militantly Black, in a time when self love was frowned upon.  He encouraged us to love each other as he loved us and it is this, that  ultimately stands as Malcolm’s legacy.

Had he not been murdered in 1965, Malcolm might have eventually, like Huey Newton of the Black Panthers and the black power leader Angela Davis, embraced the lesbian and gay liberation movement as part of the struggle for human emancipation. Instead, to serve their homophobic political agenda, for over half a century the Nation of Islam and many black nationalists have suppressed knowledge of Malcolm's same-sex relations. It is now time for Black History Month to speak the truth. Malcolm X was bisexual. Get over it.

Right, Black people are the only ones with an agenda here.  We are supposed to accept the motives of a largely White run community that has done nothing but demonize us at every turn.  Let’s not forget the open and unapologetic appropriation of Black history.  We have openly said that this is offensive, only to be called homophobes.  Gay is not now, or every will be the new Black and using Jim Crow imagery to illustrate homophobia is insulting.  A White run movement, has no business believing it has the right to use Black history for its own benefit, when it is filled with so much pain for us. If these messages were used by same gender loving people of color, it would send a completely different message because this is our shared history.  When it is used by White members of the GLBT community, like The Advocate or the HRC crowd, it smacks of racism and appropriation.  The same as you meme means don’t treat me like a nigger.

Here is where it gets sticky. We already know that assumed heterosexuality is a dangerous thing, however; assumed homosexuality or bisexuality supposedly isn’t?  Please give me a break. Over the years, if there has been the slightest suggestion that a Black star is not straight, there have been continual calls to out them. Queen Latifah anyone?  Some GLBT websites  don’t even question her sexuality anymore and have completely claimed her.   Queerty has long been known to dally in her personal business as though they are warming her royal bed sheets. In an interview with The New York Times the Queen stated, “I don't have a problem discussing the topic of somebody being gay, But I do have a problem discussing my personal life."

Unfortunately, we live in a world where a GLBT identity must be declared because of homophobic and transphobic assumptions.  This does not mean that anyone has the right to make assumptions about someone else’s sexuality to score political points.  If Malcolm was gay, fine.  I could care less because I never slept with the man.  If Queen Latifah is a lesbian, that is also fine with me, I am not sleeping with woman.  What they did sexually will never ever be my business to speculate on because it does not effect me personally. 

There is a difference between saying Malcolm may have been gay and declaring to all the world that he was. Get over it you say?  Just accept your word as truth; when you have shown so little regard for our history, or us as a people?  I think not.  It’s funny how marginalized groups always seek to express power coercively, even with the knowledge through personal experience how terrible this can be.  What is this but an expression of privilege, to believe you have the right to declare what the identity of another is? Especially one who is long departed from this planet.

If Malcolm had wanted people to know particular details about his sexuality, he would have stated so.  He had the opportunity on many occasions, including when he partnered with Alex Haley to write The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Many Black men of that time period lived openly as gay men.   Malcolm was born at the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance.  This is particularly noteworthy because this explosion of African American culture, was lead by Black GLBT members like Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. No aspect of African American culture remained untouched. In addition, it would foster a cultural shift that continued for decades to create a space for our same gender loving family members, culminating in leadership roles, in what would become  the civil rights movement.  But then, certain White GLBT  members would know that, if there were not so busy appropriating the parts of our history that it found  helpful in pushing a political agenda.

Even with the rampant lesbophobia today, I daresay that Queen Latifah can make the same decision for herself assuming that she is lesbian.  She certainly would not be the only out Black lesbian in Hollywood or the entertainment industry. Wanda Sykes, Karen Williams, Michelle N’degeocello, Tracy Chapman, Alice Walker, and Stacey-Ann Chin would be her compatriots.  The Queen is quoted in People magazine as saying, “Nobody gets that. I don't feel like I need to share my personal life, and I don't care if people think I'm gay or not. Assume whatever you want," she added. "You do it anyway."

If Queen Latifah chooses to remain private regarding who she is sleeping with, I fail to see how this is anyone’s business.   She has not declared her sexuality and it is not anyone's place to make declarations on her behalf.

When you tell us what our identity is, it takes away our agency.  We have fought to long as a people to have our voices and experiences legitimized.  To this day, our lived experiences of racism are continually discounted to privilege Whiteness.  Speculate all you want on who is sleeping with who because we cannot stop you, but when you think that you have the right to make  unsubstantiated assertions about anyone’s identity, as though you have slept in their bed, then you have gone too far.

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Jim Gaffigan Cake Comedy

Filtthygrandeur sent me this link via twitter and I laughed till I had to go pee.  Of course I had to share it with you.  Enjoy.

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The Cleveland Show: Why MacFarlane Needs To Stop Writing About Marginalized Bodies

This is supposed to be funny?  A Black man doing a rap at the behest of a White kid.  Of course no rap segue would be complete, without a Black woman shaking her ass. This is not the kind of comedy that says I am laughing with you. No, MacFarlane is laughing at us.  He is not putting these images out there to challenge stereotypes, he does so to get a cheap laugh. 

People have repeatedly defended MacFarlane by claiming he is attempting to show how ridiculous these stereotypes are, but if there is no larger conversation to explain why this is damaging,  it never gets placed into a context that encourages deconstruction.  MacFarlane cannot even hide behind the label of satire, to justify the racism and sexism that he regularly engages in on The Cleveland Show.  This is exactly why White people writing Black characters, is always going to be problematic. 

We are raised in a racist society and therefore; anything that MacFarlane writes, will always necessarily be infused by his White privilege.  When you write outside of your own experience, without openly acknowledging your  personal biases, media like The Cleveland Show is the result.  The Cleveland show is even further complicated  because it is a cartoon.  We still function with the idea that cartoons are not damaging because they began as children's entertainment. 

It would be a terrible thing, if The Cleveland show only focused on racism, however; it seems that MacFarlane aim, is to reduce as many people as he can, within the span of thirty minutes.

Every time this character is in an episode, she is eating.  What is this but a manifestation of Fat hatred?  Of course she feel asleep with the tub of ice cream and has litter surrounding her.  Of course she has no life and lives to eat. 

That is all that she has now that she is so big, that she cannot fit through the doorway of her own home.  There are certainly obese people that are housebound, but this character not only reifies every single negative belief about fatness; she has no recognizable human personality.  She exists to consume food.  It is dehumanizing to construct a character like this.  People are encouraged to laugh at her physical body. Since she exists solely as a consumptive entity, we need not be concerned that she might actually have real feelings. 

Even her mobility device is a source of humour for MacFarlane.  Had he the slightest understanding of the prejudice and ableism that is aimed at those that are dependent on scooters, he would see that this so-called humour, supports othering and able bodied privilege.  People don’t ride scooters because they are lazy, but because they allow for a freedom of movement that would  otherwise be restricted. There is often a disability hidden behind the use of a mobility scooter, regardless of the weight of the person involved. Why is someone attempting to negotiate an ableist world and having a productive life, so threatening that it must be ridiculed at every turn?

It would be easy to turn off the television and not watch shows like The Cleveland Show.   Unfortunately, not watching does not mean that the dissemination of such open hatred and ignorance will not touch you.  These shows have a tendency to support undeserved privilege and those that do watch, cannot help but manifest such behaviour in their interactions with others.  You can turn off the television, but the moment you interact with the outside world, there will always be those, that feel that they have the right to be oppressive.  The media is an agent of socialization, in that it both informs and supports hegemonic discourses.    What we choose to devalue in fantasy, often reflects that which we have socially devalued.  Good comedy need not demean in order to be funny, but this is something that MacFarlane has yet to learn.

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Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence Put On The Dress For Sheneneh

It seems that Black men cannot stay out of the dress long enough to respect Black women.  Martin Lawrence and Jamie Fox are getting together to star in a movie.  Apparently they play the role of “modern independent women, trying to make it one bank robbery at a time.”  Other than being birthed by a woman, what the hell do these two know about life as a woman?  Of course, this is all comedy, so we should just look the other way.

Black men have a history of donning the dress, to specifically demean Black women.  Being the same race does not excuse the inherent sexism in this action.  Foxx intends to breathe life into the Wanda character made famous on In Living Color.

Can there be any doubt, that a movie involving this character will be nothing more than another genderized minstrel show?

For his part, Martin Lawrence intends to breathe life into the hideous character of Sheneneh .

When damaging stereotypes of Black women are repeated, we need look no further than Black men, to see them supported and accepted.  Head swinging, proper ignorant, and masculinised, is exactly how we have been constructed.   When racism rears its ugly head, Black men are the first to demand our solidarity. We need to uplift the race.  We need to challenge White hegemony, but they are not above reducing us to comedic routine, if it means they are able to express the same patriarchal power as White men.  Movies like this prove that Black women have no institutional other.  Even as we are reduced by racism, sexism rears its ugly head to ensure that whatever is left of our dignity is destroyed. 

What kind of partnership can possibly exist, when Black men make sure to inform us that even within the marginalized community, we are decidedly inferior.  This is not comedy, it is designed specifically to be reductive and only in a world in which women are devalued, could this be considered even remotely amusing. By saying that there is truth in the stereotypes aimed at Black women, Black men are enforcing the same on themselves.  This is cutting of your nose to spite your face.  Sexism and Racism are very much related and each is damaging.  That Black men may not face sexism, does not mean that they do not know what it is to be demeaned.  The fact that they are willingly participating in this reduction, speaks of the ways in which they have internalized oppression as a path to power.

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Texas prisons and those “crazy” H1N1 vaccines

I have a new post up at Global Comment

The escalating death rate, coupled with the shortage of the vaccine, has fuelled a public panic surrounding the H1N1 virus. The limited supply of vaccines has caused the U.S. government to focus on insuring those who are considered high-risk are the first to be vaccinated. The impoverished must depend upon free clinics or look for a venue that offers a sliding-scale payment.

According to MSNBC, the state with the largest population of either under-insured or uninsured is Texas. Texas has a rate 41% higher than the national average of incarcerated adults per 100,000. Considering that Texas has the highest rate of under/uninsured and also has the highest rate of incarceration, class and social positioning clearly plays a huge part in who society feels should receive priority treatment.

The government has a responsibility to ensure that prisoners are receiving adequate medical care. Prisons are a breeding ground for influenza, because of overcrowding and close quarters. Employees of prisons interact in the larger community, thus presenting the opportunity to pass on communicable diseases. Furthermore, the prison population experiences a constant shift in bodies, as new people enter and leave each day. Those prisoners who are paroled or who have finished serving their term also present the threat of transmission. This must be factored into the debate when we consider how overall medical care in prison facilities effects the general population.

Lt Governor David Dewhurst of Texas released the following statement:

No Texan should, or will, be second in line to receive the H1N1 vaccine behind prisoners in our correctional system. I have been assured by The Texas Dept. of State Health Services that prisoners are not a priority group to receive the vaccine, with the exception of some who meet strict, medically at-risk criteria as defined by the Centers for Disease Control.

Using medical risk as a determinate of vaccination means that someone currently on death row could potentially receive the vaccine before someone who is not in jail. This has created a public controversy. Online commentary at Texas newspapers have been filled with negative commentary. One such example can be found at the Beaumont Enterprise where one reader had this to say:

“If you’re pregnant and can’t find a place that gives flu shots go down to the Stiles Unit and tell them you just shot someone. You get to go to the head of the line.”

Another stated:

“This is crazy!! There are children that need the inoculations before these prisoners!! LET THEM SUFFER! I do not feel sorry for these guys pregnant or not. Our government is so screwy. This shouldn’t happen!!”

Similar responses can also be found in Amarillo, Texas. Criminality is conceptualized as bad enough to invalidate someone’s right to receive medical care. When someone is incarcerated, they become a living embodiment of their crime and thus their lives are systematically devalued. When we consider that the justice system has a history of being racist and classist, the demonization of prisoners mirrors an unflattering reflection of how deeply we have internalized our problematic social hierarchy.

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Lou Dobbs Leaves CNN

Please click the above image to hear Lou Dobbs goodbye speech.  Personally, my thought is don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.  His rabid anti- undocumneted worker screed needs to be recognized for what it is, RACISM.  This kind of vitriol does not belong on any responsible news station.  Here is hoping that soon Glenn Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh will follow him into the sunset.  What passes for opinion in the case of the aforementioned men, more often than not is blatant racism, and sexism.  One down a few more to go.

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