#it's about cultural norms that stem from white supremacy

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: november 2023

hiiiii, sorry I'm late! I know we're a week past November now, but I've been busy! and struggling to pull my mental health out of an absolute crevasse! I think I've mostly made it at this point, but unfortunately my month of seasonal affective woe did leave me with a pretty paltry reading list for the month of November :/

not that I have a quota to hit, but I'm getting back into reading with a PASSION now and I'm hoping to get a few more really great novels in before the year ends!

what have I been reading?

Exquisite Corpse (published as Poppy Z. Brite, currently known as William Martin, 1996) - man, you guys know how I love a fucked up little story about some nasty freaks? this is a FUCKED UP story about the NASTIEST freaks. gay serial killer Andrew escapes a life sentence in England by faking his own death and flees to America, where he lands in New Orleans and promptly meets a man named Jay, who is - holy shit, what are the odds? ALSO a gay serial killer! they get along like a house on fire, setting their sights immediately on a beautiful young runaway drug deal name Tran who has his sights set on Jay. but Trans' ex-boyfriend, Luke, a bitter writer turned pirate DJ dying of AIDS, is also up in the mix, complicating things for everyone. the tone is unrelentingly gruesome but beautifully written and frequently funnier than should be possible. certainly not a book for everyone, with about every possible trigger warning on the table, but god. WHAT a ride. I savored every second.

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity (Devon Price, 2022) - any hype you've heard about this book is absolutely worth it. Price is really exemplifying the excellence that comes from in-group writing, the magic that happens when people with firsthand experience living a life outside The Norm infiltrates academia and get the credentials to be recognized as the experts they are. I can't speak to the experience of reading this book as an autistic person, but as someone who's often the token allistic among my friends it clarified things that I had never even thought to wonder about with straightforward, accessible style and firsthand understanding. also, hey, it's so cool to see a book just straight-up advocating for autistic people to get more autistic and worry less about appeasing the allistic people around them. Dr. Price writes great advice, and I strongly recommend checking out this book and more of his work here. reading this also made me absolutely feral to check out Price's first book, Laziness Does Not Exist, so expect notes on that soon!

Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture (Sara Petersen, 2023) - listen, we can be honest here: that title is too long. but the read is worth it, even if I do have some mixed feelings about Petersen's messaging. she's not a momfluencer, but she is a mom who has been and still is very invested in momfluencers, letting that fascination fuel this book's creation. I found Petersen a bit too quick to come to the defense of influencing as a profession, which could grate. yes, women influencers are often the targets of a particular hostility that certainly stems from misogyny. yes, it certainly is true that being a full-time Instagram poster on top of raising living human children requires a lot of time and effort, which I guess does make it a "real job". but there are lots of "real jobs" that I disrespect on principle, and influencers are certainly on the list. Petersen has analysis on the stark hegemony of momfluencers, particularly the insidious white supremacy that controls which mothers are seen as aspirational, and she's certainly not lacking in self-reflection about the role momfluencers have played in her own parenting decisions, but it would have been nice to see more pushback on the concept of influencers existing at all, not just creating space for more diverse moms to take up the title. having said that: the chapter in which Petersen reflects on her own mother's lifelong dissatisfaction and grapples with learning to see her mother as a person, rather than just a perfectly happy crafty homemaker, was one of the most riveting things I've ever read and attacked me right in my own maternal baggage. she's a chatty writer who sometimes pulls back the conversational curtain to say the most haunting shit you've ever read in your life, particularly if you're like me and regard motherhood as a sort of horror movie scenario.

Unfortunately Yours (Tessa Bailey, 2023) - god, more like UNFORTUNATELY THIS BOOK, am I right? Unfortunately Yours was November's romance novel, which I finally got around to reading after it was gifted to me this summer by my housemate who clearly hates me. I already bitched about it at length in this month's hater roundup over on my Patreon, but god. jesus christ. I've had a lot of fun reading romance novels that are pretty charmingly crappy, but Bailey just fucking sucks. this book has it all: incessant references to the size difference between our hulking he-man protag and his itty bitty love interest, WEIRD gender dynamics, the most half-assed alleged "enemies-to-lovers" I've ever seen (they just kind of don't get along, it's nothing), convoluted fake marriage, "witty" "banter" that really reads like Bailey has never heard two clever or funny people talk to each other before and has to guess, and some viscerally upsetting sex scenes including one that takes place IN THE MIDDLE OF A FLASH FLOOD. also, the male protag is a war criminal. nobody ever shuts up about how he's an ex-Navy SEAL, but they never seem to want to talk about what SEALs actually do. might be kind of a boner killer.

what am I reading now?

The Bandit Queens (Parini Shroff, 2023) - I started this novel a couple days ago and I'm absolutely devouring it; I've got about 100 pages left and cannot wait to see how the story resolves. it's tremendous fun but also hits on emotional depths that I didn't expect going into a black comedy about rural Indian women killing their husbands! I'm very excited to finish it up and talk about it in my next recap; I think it's one of my favorite novels of the year for sure.

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (edited by Jordan Peele, 2023) - I meant to read this for October but oops, there were too many holds at the library! regardless, the stories have been nothing but bangers so far.

Small Game (Blair Braverman, 2022) - I haven't started this novel yet, but it's been on my list for a while and after listening to several of Braverman's guest episodes on You're Wrong About in a row, I had to check it out. her episode on the Flight 571 crash in the Andes almost had me in tears; cannot recommend it enough.

#bookblr #reading updates

[queergenders]

Introduction

Divided by tags:

social media + identity

social media + medicalization

pathologization in healthcare

The question I’m researching is: what role do medicalization and social media play in the formation of trans identity? I want to know how medicalization, specifically pathology influences how trans people understand their identity and the role of social media in the internalization of the medical model of being transgender. Further, I want to explore the broader role of social media in the curation of identity and how it strengthens or weakens the development and the mental well-being of trans individuals. Originally my question was about the intersection of psychological research, social movements, and social media in the identity development of transgender people but I realized it was too much to cover for one project. Once I started researching, I noticed a large overlap between medicalization and social media, specifically about transmedicalism. This was a concept I was previously familiar with due to my extensive time on Tumblr as a high schooler but learning about it from a scientific research perspective changed my understanding of how transmedicalism stems from cisheteronormativity. I’m mainly interested in asking this because the psychology of gender identity has been of interest to me since I was a kid who was beginning to explore my gender. I researched mainly sociological and neurological aspects of gender in high school but through this project, I’ve realized the importance of social support, community, advocacy, and adequate healthcare in identity curation even more than previously mentioned factors.

My research relates to queer psychology through a few different components: minority stress, the mental well-being of queer people, using an intersectional framework to analyze connections between race, gender, and sexuality, studying queer spaces online, and attempting to decolonize gender. The bulk of my research is on the current time period, however, historical context can aid in understanding what systemic factors inform identity development such as the history of pathology by the medical community, psychological research, and the medical model of disability. 

Methods:

The main research methods I’ve used and read about are critical discourse analysis and the phenomenology method. Since a major part of my research was analyzing transmedicalism which manifests in online spaces, I looked at how these groups create distinctions between trans people and their interactions with each other and their opponents on social media posts. I also used the phenomenology method since a lot of this research is about understanding lived experiences of trans people through the lens of social media and medical institutions. Using semi-structured interviews was the most common strategy for gathering information on experiences such as access to hormone replacement therapy as a nonbinary person, how social media has helped or prevented trans people from finding community, and how transmedicalism as the dominant narrative has affected self-confidence and development for trans people.

Conclusion

The biggest takeaway from my research was how white supremacy seeps into every construct we have. Once you analyze sex and gender through a historical lens, it’s easier to see how white supremacy was incorporated into culture and self-expression. This helped me understand how transmedicalism works because, at first glance, it seems ridiculous for trans people to have so many rigid interpretations of what each gender should act like. But colonialist cultural norms can affect anyone and don’t exclude marginalized groups even if they are negatively affected by it as well. It’s also why intersectionality is important because only spotlighting white trans people would not give us the perspective of indigenous gender roles and concepts that are drastically different from European binary gender norms. Another big takeaway was the value of online spaces in our society. Online communities and friendships are belittled by older generations especially because it’s not something material or people you can see offline. But as technology changes the types of spaces we create, our relationships and layers of identity evolve. Relationships are defined by the people in them and there’s no reason an online network can’t be as meaningful as your family or school friends. Further, we know from research that sometimes online friends are more true and reliable for queer folks who have been othered offline.

The most common limitation was skewed sample sizes in research studies or lack of information. I tried to look for studies done by queer people because the perspective of a community member is incredibly important when researching something so personal as identity. Additionally, I looked for articles that mentioned race and intersectionality. Racialized sex-gender binaries from settler colonialism regard whiteness as a requirement for successful gender embodiment. As we discussed in class, most studies were done with white, young adult, urban-dwelling participants which don’t encapsulate the experiences of the most vulnerable queer people: working-class trans people of color.

I noticed more careful consideration of the terminology used in articles written by queer people versus those written by cisgender straight researchers. I also noticed that cis researchers were more likely to have binary options for demographic questions on surveys such as male, and female, and very broad categories of ethnicity like “Asian” instead of including different regions of Asia. Many studies also focus primarily on binary trans people which is an issue for me since I’m trying to research the effects of medicalization on nonbinary people particularly because they are not seeking the standard procedures when it comes to hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries. One topic I was interested in originally was researching how autism or neurodivergence affects one’s conception of gender as a construct but I couldn’t find enough research on individual aspects beyond surface-level studies or hypotheses. 

Some follow-up questions I could explore are steps towards creating a depathologized model for transgender healthcare that focuses on increasing the well-being of trans people instead of “fixing” a mistake. I’d also be interested in delving further into earlier interpretations of being transgender that contributed to dysphoria being added to the DSM-5 and how movements have organized campaigns toward removing it.

The online popularity of transmedicalism has faded notably in recent years. I want to learn about the circumstances that helped to change the dominant narrative to a more joyful interpretation of trans identity. I have noticed many former transmedicalists are passionately outspoken about the harms of medicalization so I’m curious what caused the shift.

Analyzing cultural phenomena alongside policy reform is important because politics informs culture and vice versa. By shifting the dominant cultural narrative, we can also begin shifting policy.

Sources:

D’Augelli, A. (1994). Identity development and sexual orientation: Toward a model of lesbian, gay and bisexual development. In E.J. Trickett, R. J. Watts, D. Birman (Eds). Human diversity: Perspectives on people in context (pp. 312-333). San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass.

Olson, D., Liu, J. & Shultz, K. (2012). The influence of Facebook usage on perceptions of social support, personal efficacy, and life satisfaction. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 12 (3), 133-144.

Oliver L. Haimson, Avery Dame-Griff, Elias Capello & Zahari Richter (2021) Tumblr was a trans technology: the meaning, importance, history, and future of trans technologies, Feminist Media Studies, 21:3, 345-361 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2019.1678505   

Psychiatry.org - Gender Dysphoria Diagnosis. (n.d.). American Psychiatric Association. Retrieved March 8, 2023, from https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/gender-dysphoria-diagnosis

Doss, B. (n.d.). 2018, December. Exploring the Role of Social Media in the Identity Development of Trans Individuals. BearWorks. Retrieved March 8, 2023, from https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4341&context=theses

Duguay, S. (2023). TikTok’s Queer Potential: Identity, Methods, Movements. Social Media + Society, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231157594 

Hendrie. S (2022) The Trap of Transmedicalization: Holding Communities and Identities Hostage. Colorado University Honors Journals. https://www.colorado.edu/honorsjournal/sites/default/files/attached-files/hj2022-genderethnicstudies-hendriethetrap.pdf 

Jacobsen, K., Devor, A., & Hodge, E. (2022). Who Counts as Trans? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Trans Tumblr Posts. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 46(1), 60–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599211040835 

Konnelly, L. (2021, July 15). (PDF) Both, and: Transmedicalism and resistance in non-binary narratives of gender-affirming care. ResearchGate. Retrieved May 15, 2023, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353107335_Both_and_Transmedicalism_and_resistance_in_non-binary_narratives_of_gender-affirming_care 

Transgender Adolescents' Uses of Social Media for Social Support. (2019, November 2). PubMed. Retrieved May 15, 2023, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31690534/

Markovsky, B., Lovaglia, M., & Simon, R. (n.d.). Transnormativity: A New Concept and Its Validation through Documentary Film About Transgender Men*. Trans Reads. Retrieved May 15, 2023, from https://transreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2022-02-09_6203f0f41135b_Transnormativity_A_New_Concept_and_Its_V.pdf

[blindrapture]

okay I Did Not Know the US news when I posted those rambles earlier. it wouldn't have changed my point but it would have changed the words I chose to use.

there is a context where Empirical Truth both exists and matters, and that context is governance of people. this means governments, this means the political field for competition to become government. governance must not be treated like art. our species has, and I mean this literally and empirically, spent our entire history fighting bloody wars over this. (just you wait until I finally start Talking About Syberberg.) art stems from its still-living ancestor Storytelling, and Storytelling is rooted in conflict, is fundamentally an exploration of conflict, there is not a story on this earth that is not about a conflict. this works for Storytelling, this works for Art. this does not work for governance. the artistic tendency is to create scenarios that spectators must learn from. bringing this into the political field is, literally, manufacturing conflict, manufacturing war, manufacturing uncertainty, manufacturing murder.

governance is harm reduction, because governance is negotiation and compromise in the interest of as many people as is possible within pragmatical frameworks. conflict is the antithesis to that, providing friction. conflict is what harm reduction tries to prevent. it's the.. whole.. point.

none of what I am saying here should be a surprise, except perhaps the notion of articulating it so bluntly.

white evangelist supremacy is an anti-american anti-government, by definition. they fund right-wing political voices because they wish to dismantle the systems of harm reduction america does, in fact, have. and they fund right-wing political voices because Political Spectacle is a profoundly powerful vector in which to disseminate Conflict. they are doing it on purpose (and breeding useful idiots who do it on accident because it is now a norm). this is Information War, this is Culture War. it is not a cold war. it is not new to humanity, it did not come with the internet. the internet has simply done to Information War what automobiles did for military cavalry: upgraded it. this is ugly, and Evangelist. this is ugly Evangelist political violence, summoned stochastically. this is not both sides. the white evangelist supremacists consistently favor the right-wing. and this is about Their Truth versus Everyone Else's. this is not Art. they cannot accept Art as the search for truth, as Their Truth is easily dwarfed in artistic contexts. this is empirical life, this is "real life," this is... this is literally happening now only because 1) bannon is going to prison, and 2) the midterms are upon us. elections are active cycle for disinformation campaigns. vote. please vote, because the Evangelists see this as what it's all about, and they need to be defeated.

okay?

[hashtag-anthems]

Maybe I'll go into more detail on this later but I was in class last week and we were talking about how to incorporate social justice into our pedagogy and curriculum as math teachers (because there's a lot of people who think social justice doesn't belong in the math classroom and should be left to the social studies teachers and those people would be wrong)

So we were looking at the development of racial identity and how it's impacted by education because education is currently built on a lot of structures that stem from white supremacy and we were looking at a framework that lays out a lot of the cultural features of white supremacy and uh...

Let me just say that a lot of "cancel culture" and the anti mentality is really, disturbingly aligned with the cultural facets of white supremacy, and I don't think it's coincidental.

This is the pdf that our field instructor gave us to give us a foundation to build our discussion on: link to pdf.

This isn't to say that everyone who ascribes to these ideologies of cancel culture or antis is a white supremacist. I'm not making any statements on anyone's motivations or intentions here.

I just want to say that it's important to educate yourself on these things, because it's very easy to go into something with good intentions and find those who want to take advantage of that.

#hashtag rambles #do not let tumblr be your education on social justice #i say as i try to educate people on social justice using tumblr #basically i mean you need to go to sources outside of tumblr #reputable sources #and you know examine multiple sources and make informed decisions that way #and yes sometimes that means looking at sources you disagree with #so like this document isn't about any kind of hate groups or blatant hate actions #it's about cultural norms that stem from white supremacy #because these cultural norms are formed by placing increased importance on white ways of doing things #and enforcing these norms is a way of upholding white supremacy #just want to clarify that because my class was a little confused as well

[ztafraternity]

Assess your privilege. Be an ally.

By Suzanna Johnson, Province President, Inclusion Committee Member (Beta Psi alumna)

First and foremost – this post is specifically about how to be an ally to our black sisters. Many of the suggestions and ideas in this article can and should be applied to allyship for ANY marginalized group. But before someone responds to my thoughts and position that as an organization, we need not be afraid to say #BlackLivesMatter, with an “All Lives Matter” response, please know we are specifically discussing allyship to the black community. Yes, it goes without saying that all lives matter, but right now, in this time, our black sisters need the floor and the support (#sorrynotsorry). I recognize that for many, this topic and these conversations are difficult, but because our organization desires to continue to “enrich and ennoble our lives,” these words must be shared. 

*This article is based on my opinions and my research and is not comprehensive of all opinions within the entire black community. If you’re ever unsure about what more you can do, don’t be afraid to ask or have the conversation with communities you’re looking to serve as an ally.*

What is happening right now?

Racial injustice and police brutality, which stem from a history riddled with systemic, structural, institutional and individual racism and white supremacy, plague this country. Why should Zetas care? Well, as a fellow sister once said in her blog, Cultures are not costumes and why Zetas should care, “caring for others is the foundation that our sisterhood is built on.”

Pictured: #SayTheirNames: This graphic displays a portion of the people of color who have died as a direct result of police brutality since 2014. (source)

Yes, historically, like many other predominantly white organizations, our sisterhood and organization did not welcome black women and other women of color when it was founded. But, our sisterhood and organization has changed since 1898. And I’m proud of the steps, however small, because but for those steps, I wouldn’t be a member; I wouldn’t be an advisor; I wouldn’t now be one of the first black National Officers for our organization. 

I hope that Maud, Della, Mary, Ethel, Helen, Frances, Ruby and the Alices would be proud of the progress we’ve made as an organization. I hope that they would look at our membership of over 275,000 women strong and beam with excitement at the diversity we’ve achieved thus far and push us to continue to do better—to make the stand that #BlackLivesMatter. So, while we historically were an organization built by and for a single race, my friends, “times they are a changin’,” and as Zetas we owe it to ourselves and our organization to evolve.  

I realize you may have questions about how to be a good ally. I’ll answer a few key questions in each of the following sections.

What key terms should you know?

So, let’s learn some key words/terms you’ve probably heard but never had broken down for you (at least not like this).

What is individual racism?

This is most easily explained as the default definition when you think of “racism.” It is the individual beliefs or behaviors and racist assumptions, which are often reinforced by structural racism (see below). Examples are often seen in the form of racist jokes or comments that someone believes in the inherent superiority of white people over all people of color (source) —which leads us to….

What is white supremacy?

If you’re like me, graphics are always easier to process, so here’s the best way I can explain it, with some help from the experts. The graphic addresses white supremacy through the lens of social norms. Note that all examples in the graphic fall under the category of white supremacy and are unacceptable practices. 

(image source)

What is systemic/structural/institutional racism? 

These are policies and practices in established institutions resulting in the exclusion of designated groups. (source) 

What does this mean?!?

Well, in layman's terms, it means that as a result of U.S. history and continued ideologies, your black sisters are set up (unless something changes), to be forever marginalized as a group within society.

Don’t believe me?

Here are the facts:

The black unemployment rate is twice that of whites. (source)

Job applicants with “white sounding” names get called back 50% more often than applicants with “black sounding” names, even when they have identical resumes. (source)

Black students are three times more likely than white students to be suspended for the same infraction. (source)

Blacks make up 13% of the population and represent 40% of the prison population. (source)

When black people are convicted, they are 20% more likely to be sentenced to jail time and typically see sentences 20% longer than those for whites who are convicted of the same crimes. (source)

More than 7.4% of the black population is disenfranchised (stripped of the right to vote) as a result of felony convictions versus 1.8% of the non-black population. (source)

Black women are four times more likely to die from childbirth. (source)

For every $100 in white family wealth, black families hold $5.04. (source: New York Times via the U.S. Census Bureau)

For every $100 white families earn in income, black families earn $57.30. (source: New York Times via the U.S. Census Bureau)

Black drivers are 20% more likely to be pulled over than whites. (source)

I’ve included a graphic from @theconciouskid, designed by @courtneyahndesign below, which further demonstrates what systemic racism looks in society. Click here to see the full series.

What can you do?

You’ve got the hard facts. Now, what can you do to help effect change?

Educate yourself

If you’re a collegian…

Read books/articles/watch documentaries. This list from Time is a great place to start. Check out these films: 13th on Netflix (Ava DuVernay), When They See Us on Netflix (Ava DuVernay), and The Hate U Give on Hulu (George Tillman Jr.)

Have conversations. Proactively talk with your family, friends and community leaders about these issues. Hold your friends and family accountable when they perpetuate anti-black ideologies.

Utilize the upcoming resources from ZTA’s Inclusion Committee.

Hold events on campus with National Pan-Hellenic Council groups that bring awareness to these issues. For anyone who is unsure what organizations are under NPHC, here you go.

If you’re an alumna, your life looks a little different than a collegian’s, but what you can do to effect change includes all the above, plus ONE MORE THING…

Talk to your children early. There it is: Educate your children and raise them to be advocates.

This graphic explains how children learn about race and can help guide your discussions.

This article gives great advice about how to talk about race with children.

Recognize your privilege

Understand the definition of white privilege. Again, here I have to defer to some well-created graphics to easily explain this concept. Check out the graphic below for a quick explanation and see the full series here

Like this article says, “Accept the reality of this country’s dynamics.” The sooner we accept it, the sooner we can change it. Let’s not be ostriches with our heads buried in the sand.

Use your privilege to fight with and for those who are marginalized.

STOP appropriation

The Cambridge Dictionary defines appropriation as “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture.” 

STOP picking apart pieces of black culture whenever you want to benefit yourself financially or gain likes on social media.

Examples: Wearing darker/tanner makeup to make yourself look darker, putting your hair in cornrows, wearing a weave or any historically black hairstyles.

Check out this article and this article with some more specific examples and explanations of what has been called “blackfishing” on Twitter.

LISTEN!

Listen to podcasts like “The Nod,” “Code Switch” and “Come Through with Rebecca Carroll.” Check out this list to find even more options.

“Uplift the voices and experiences of people of color so that we are not continuously drowned out and ignored.” (source)

Remember, it is NOT our responsibility to educate you on these topics simply because we are black. 

Donate

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/home

https://www.naacpldf.org/

https://www.themarshallproject.org/donate

https://bailproject.org/

https://www.cuapb.org/what_we_do

https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/

And many others….

Stay informed

#RocktheVote and choose to support and elect officials who have a track record of ensuring the most marginalized among us are heard and advocated for.

Follow social media pages like: @theconsciouskid and @rachel.cargle

Follow the relevant hashtags: #BlackLivesMatter #AhmaudArbery #JusticeForFloyd

Still have questions?

Here are some more great resources for you.

Join our Panhellenic friends at Delta Gamma Fraternity for a talk about the impact of microaggressions on June 10 at 8 p.m. EDT. Register here.

Read about white anti-racism in this Q&A style article.

This is a list of 75 things white people can do for racial justice. 

Learn more about being a strong ally with these racial equity tools.

Spend some time on the NAACP website. Click around and learn more about racial inequality, how to be a good ally and more. 

#reads

[pxrxllel]

A Kiwi girl of colour after the Christchurch terror attacks

I was born in Taipei, Taiwan in the spring of 1997. Fuelled by the desire for a safer, less fast-paced, higher quality upbringing for me, my parents made the decision to sacrifice everything familiar to them to move to a country they had seen only in books and magazines. That’s why just over a year later, I boarded an 11-hour flight across the Pacific and settled into what would become my new home for the next 21 years and counting. 

My sister was born in Waikato Hospital in 1999. The following year, I uttered my first word (late bloomer, I know). I enrolled in a rural primary school shortly before my fifth birthday. My shyness prevented me from making friends until one day a girl who had black hair, tan skin, and hooded eyelids like me approached me on the classroom stairs where I was sitting by myself. She whispered something to me in Mandarin. That’s how I made my first friend. 

It took about another year to get comfortable with making white friends, who made up 99% of the student population. Relating to kids who didn’t eat the same food as me or speak the same language at home or who had pet cows and sheep that I didn’t have was difficult. 

Eventually I learned to round out the edges of my culture that scraped against the identity I wanted to embrace for myself. Eating my dried seaweed in two quick gulps at lunch so that no one would see me and ask questions. Being secretly glad to be in the second best maths group rather than the top (although my mother tried her hardest at home to bring up my test scores – extra tutoring is nothing new to Asian students). Dreading my father’s Mandopop on road trips and asking him to buy records sung in English. Although Mandarin was technically my mother tongue, by the age of seven my competency had fallen far behind. Dulling my own sense of otherness was a protective measure to ‘assimilate properly’ into the culture I was now supposed to call home. Perhaps it worked; I was never bullied or picked on for my race or lack of religion despite being in a rural and largely white Christian community.

My first-generation immigrant mother did everything she could to preserve remnants of home and to fight against the greater forces of peer pressure and her children’s difficulty navigating their own fit into society during their formative years. This involved Chinese school every Sunday morning while my white friends were at church service, chopsticks at every meal, and banning English-speaking at home. She even sent me to school once in Year 3 with a pack of notecards, one for each of my classmates with their names transliterated into Chinese characters. They thought it was ‘cool and exotic’, I thought it was embarrassing. My internalised oppression couldn’t shake the feeling that they were laughing at me behind my back, that my efforts to blend in and not be seen as an ‘other’ had been completely voided by one reminder of my ‘Asian-ness’. 

I moved onto high school in an urbanised area. Knowing no one in Year 9 meant I could start over brand new. The diversity was refreshing. Seeing girls around me who spoke different languages and had different experiences helped me to let out the breath I’d been holding in for 8 years at school. 

I quickly found my tribe. My friends were overwhelmingly people of colour  – we counted African, Indian, Filipino, Chinese in our company. I could never relate fully to the Chinese international students; even if we spoke the same language, I was out of the loop when they swooned over TV series and musicians on the charts. I could never relate fully to my fair-skinned Kiwi friends either, with their race days and baches and Christmas pudding. Suddenly I understood why my mother had formed such close friendships that were almost exclusively Chinese – they just got it. They could bond over where to get the freshest and cheapest bok choy, or which companies and services were most accommodating towards people who looked like us or whose accents speaking English were punctuated with uhs and filler laughter and not the quite the right word at times. My friends and I bonded over how our immigrant parents treated us, while appreciating and celebrating each other’s different foods, customs, and religions. We were the in-between kids, never fully fitting in to one culture or another, learning to carve out a category of our own we could belong to. 

I credit my high school friends with easing my internal identity crisis. For the first time I could just be, and we focused not on how we could fit into prescribed cultural identities but how we could strengthen our own sense of self beyond our phenotypes. We threw ourselves into a variety of extracurriculars. I watched K-Pop music videos in Club Asia, performed a traditional dance at assembly with Club Africa, raced to name all 50 states in Club America. We fundraised for Daffodil Day every year. I passed auditions for choir and glee club, discussed global issues in equality club, became certified in peer mediation, played sport, and buddied up with international students new to the country. I wanted my achievements, my hobbies, my values, and my actions to be the characteristics to define me, to get to the point where, like my Caucasian friends, it was not my race but my character that weighed on me or factored into how I perceived myself or how I thought other people perceived me. I wanted to experience the freedom that Eurocentrism afforded my peers, and for a while, being insulated in my diverse bubble  – that was my reality. I thought to myself, This must be what it’s like to be a true New Zealander.

Unfortunately, this ideal state existed in a microcosm. No matter how hard I tried, I would never be immune to ‘othering’ from the wider Caucasian community. My reputation as an involved and active contributor in multiple arenas did not precede me beyond school gates, where I would always remain an Asian, perhaps someone who is good at maths and bad behind the wheel, in the eyes of others and those I had never met.

The terrorist attacks in Christchurch just days ago have thrust issues not previously discussed at length in New Zealand into the spotlight. White supremacy, from normalisation of stereotypes, racist jokes, and blanket Eurocentric approaches to racial profiling and refugee discrimination to outright overt racism, has suddenly broken through to the public conversation. Pākehā everywhere are shocked that such acts could occur in what they have always believed to be a peaceful society. 

But they have not been listening. 

That shock stems from their bubbles of Eurocentric privilege, where they have never experienced or seen the ways in which our people of colour communities have been shown that they are not accepted. Although the majority of New Zealand does not tolerate overt racism, subliminal or passing messages still proliferate on message boards and Facebook comments in the name of ‘jest’ or ‘patriotism’. It’s what enabled a classmate at school to openly present her Year 11 English speech on the ‘Asian invasion’. It has caused strife for the Māori people who had their land stolen from them, the vestiges of this horror echoing through the public discourse centuries later and becoming normalised. It’s swastika graffiti and it’s the glass bottles hurled from a car window at Indian girls walking outside the shops, it’s how a woman told me to my face that a ‘nice little Chinese girl’ like me should be outside tending to the gardens (no shade to gardeners, they are severely underappreciated) and how even after the attacks, there are still people telling grieving Muslims they should go back to where they came from or that the death toll should have been higher. It’s these microaggressions and the bigger displays of hate that make people of colour kill little parts of themselves inside piece by piece, become overly apologetic for the parts of themselves they do not choose, become embarrassed by the very differences we ought to be celebrating, uplifting, and rejoicing in. 

As a young woman of colour, I cry alongside my African, Asian, Pasifika, and Māori brothers and sisters, who understand the pain that oppression by white nationalism has brought. It has been our lived experience for years. In battling this, I encourage my peers who may look or sound or pray differently to wear their identity proudly and to be brave enough to pursue their passions and dismantle the prejudices lodged against them.

As a young woman growing up with a Western mentality, I implore my fellow host communities everywhere to be more actively supportive and appreciative of newcomers and immigrants, to take the time to learn and celebrate the new and fresh contributions they make. Equally importantly, our society must be proactive in the fight against white nationalism and supremacy, which begins with admitting fault and damage caused by harmful populist rhetoric, avoiding defensiveness, and listening to and acknowledging and amplifying the experiences of those whose lives have been shaped from oppression at their hands.

As a young woman citizen of New Zealand, I beg for less division, more unity, for equality, for us to let go of old traditions and norms that do not serve to better our society and to uphold the values that we wish to see. I wish for condemnation of hatred, intolerance, and violence, and for proliferation of understanding, respect, and love. As we move towards an increasingly diverse and globalised world, my dream is that one day my school experience of celebrating differences and living in the freedom that my Caucasian friends feel in a Eurocentric society will not just be within a microcosm, but a shared reality for all.

In the meantime, time will stretch on. The flowers in front of mosques will wilt. Public attention will shift to another major issue. The pain from the attack will fade to a permanent scar on our historical landscape. But what won’t die out are the people of colour continuing to attend Jummah, sell laksa, vend dumplings, speak their languages, sing, dance, observe Diwali, Eid, Matariki, Lunar New Year. My mother will continue to foster self-confidence in immigrant Chinese children by volunteering her time weekly to teach Mandarin. We will work hard to dispel myths about us and contribute to create a colourful New Zealand we all love. And we will never, ever let terror divide us. 

The terrorist may have drawn his gun expecting to provoke division, tear us apart, and breed fear.

Little did he know that pulling the trigger would instead cause New Zealand to bleed nothing but sympathy, solidarity, compassion, and aroha.

Kia kaha, Christchurch.

#christchurch #christchurch mosque shooting #christchurch mosque attack #new zealand terror attack #white privilege #white supremacy

[quellgame]

Prolegomena 0 - Motivations and Presumptions

Everything about this project is deeply personal. It requires a brief synopsis of my own abuse and abusive tendencies. Much of the analysis in this project will stem from my own experiences; it is not only impossible but dishonest to distance this analysis from my history. I will be marking potentially triggering passages with content warnings (CW). Although I encourage you to read these sections, please do not harm yourself for the sake of this project. That’s my job.

// CW: pedophilia, white supremacy, emotional abuse //

I was raised into white supremacy in a deeply prejudiced part of rural Kansas. Overt white supremacy is the norm in my home county. My only respites were online and through video games, where I found faces and experiences unlike mine. I have been playing video games and browsing the internet - unattended - for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, the Internet is simultaneously wonderful and terrible. I was groomed into pedophilia from the age of nine and sexually abused at some point in my history. Because of this - and my parent’s otherwise conspicuous absence - I have developed extreme emotional whiplash. I have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and PTSD. I also believe I have BPD. Even though I have spent my entire life longing to overcome my abuse, I did not understand the depth of my emotional abuse and carried some tendencies into my friendships and romantic life. Everything we do is necessarily framed by our family histories. Because mine is so unusual, I find the need to make the context clear. I wish only to be understood, and to understand myself. Consider it a form of critical DBT.

// CW //

As a victim and perpetrator of abuse, it is my deepest prerogative to investigate how and why abuse happens, and what we can do to prevent it. As a product of my own upbringing and as a way to better understand the current political movement in my home country I have spent a large part of my life studying prejudice and how to overcome it. Part of this is reading the gamut: fascism to socialism to anarchism: thoughts from abusers and the abused.

I am of the persuasion that when reading writers whose texts have been associated with a particular social movement we must take their ideas to be of that movement. Of such, even though Nietzsche was never himself a Nazi, we must read him as one because his works have been interpreted in such a way (i.e., pretty straightforwardly) that they have deep associations with fascism. The same is true of Heidegger, open member of the Nazi party. Although this is a large point of contention amongst scholars, a thorough examination of the topic is beyond the scope of this project.

Nietzsche’s acerbic influence can be seen especially on culturally significant websites such as 4chan and Twitter, where nihilism has become a lifestyle and reactionary shows of strength are the norm. If we are to overcome this legacy of abuse, we must understand the point of view of both the abuser and the abused.

#philosophy #quell #nihilism #nietzsche

[dailynewswebsite]

Can America survive the re-election of Donald Trump?

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a marketing campaign rally at Carson Metropolis Airport on Oct. 18, 2020, in Carson Metropolis, Nev. (AP Photograph/Alex Brandon)

The 2020 presidential election could also be probably the most vital and far-reaching occasions of the 21st century. The stakes virtually defy comprehension — suggestive much less of a contest over who will change into the president of the USA, however whether or not folks will vote to both retain the beliefs and guarantees of an already wounded democracy or to sanction an extra slide of American society into the abyss of authoritarianism.

Noam Chomsky has argued that Donald Trump represents not merely a risk to democracy, however to the planet itself. Chomsky situates the potential re-election of Trump inside an period that he phrases “probably the most harmful second in human historical past owing to the local weather disaster, the specter of nuclear conflict and rising authoritarianism.”

The editorial board of the New York Occasions argues that Trump’s “re-election poses the best risk to American democracy since World Warfare II.”

Many different pundits and commentators consider Trump won’t solely refuse to deal with these threats to humanity, however will exacerbate them. But the main target shouldn’t be on Trump alone, as a result of that dangers personalizing politics in such a means as to lose sight of the situations that made Trump’s political profession potential within the first place.

U.S. on a downward slide for the reason that 1980s

The worry of rising fascism in the USA is just not with out basis. Because the 1980s, American society has taken on the looks of a failed state. All of the indicators are in full view and have been made extra seen within the midst of the COVID-19 disaster: widening inequality, widespread alienation, the collapse of civic tradition, the dismantling of the social contract, long-standing systemic racism and ballooning civic illiteracy, amongst different forces.

As democratic values had been changed by market values, public belongings had been strip-mined with the intention to serve personal pursuits whereas enriching the monetary elite and additional decimating the hopes, goals and safety of the center and dealing courses.

The bonds of belief and solidarity have been changed by the bonds of worry, suspicion and a rising tradition of bigotry. All of those have deepened among the many American public a rising sense of hysteria, social atomization and powerlessness.

With the rise of the corporate-controlled social media that functioned as a disimagination machine that accelerated a tradition of distraction, language has succumbed to the esthetics of vulgarity. Drained of civic values and missing a commanding imaginative and prescient, the establishments of liberal democracy atrophied, additional undermining civic literacy, historic reminiscence and the capability to discern the reality from falsehoods.

The underlying forces that created the situations for Trump to win the presidency turned extra seen after 2016. Within the midst of each an financial and a well being disaster, he has sowed social divisions and resurrected the discourse of racial cleaning and white supremacy.

Defender of white supremacy

Not solely has he refused to criticize racist teams just like the Proud Boys, Trump has elevated himself to the defender of a white supremacist notion of white America. He has defended sustaining Accomplice monuments together with their insidious values, and has criticized NASCAR for eradicating the Accomplice flag from its racing occasions. He has used his rallies to stir up racism and bigotry whereas placing the lives of his followers at risk by refusing to abide by restrictions designed to cease the unfold of COVID-19.

Girls cheer as members of the white supremacist group often known as the Proud Boys and different right-wing demonstrators rally in Portland, Ore., in September. (AP Photograph/Allison Dinner)

Trump has additionally enacted a variety of regressive insurance policies, with the assistance of a syncophantic Republican Senate. He has accelerated and expanded the situations resulting in excessive inequality in wealth and energy, revelled in his position as a pathological liar, enriched himself in violation of the emoluments clauses within the U.S. structure, falsely claimed an epidemic of voter fraud, lied in regards to the seriousness of the pandemic and failed miserably in addressing the COVID-19 disaster that has claimed the lives of greater than 220,000 People.

Trump has additionally weakened American establishments. As Stephen Eric Bronner of Rutgers College observes, the president has “trampled conventional political and constitutional norms, and — maybe most necessary — reorganized as soon as unbiased state establishments to serve his wants.” Drawing on a fascist playbook, Trump believes he’s above the regulation and that his immunity from it’s central to his wielding of energy.

And but, regardless of this lengthy checklist of political, cultural and financial horrors, greater than 40 per cent of the American inhabitants nonetheless help Trump.

What if Trump wins once more?

What classes are to be discovered about the USA if Trump is re-elected?

One key lesson is that democracy is fragile and with out the correct establishments, values and social connections that make it potential, it can provide strategy to up to date modes of authoritarianism. A Trump victory on Nov. three would show it.

Trump’s re-election would signify a deliberate U.S. flip in direction of authoritarianism stemming from a lack of imaginative and prescient and a perception that there’s no various to America’s brutal type of capitalism. In accordance with this logic, all issues are a matter of particular person accountability and there’s no strategy to change the present socio-economic-political order.

For probably the most half, Trump has restricted his media interviews to Fox Information, comparable to this townhall that was held final Might on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Fox Information has allowed the president to go unchallenged as he spreads falsehoods. (AP Photograph/Evan Vucci)

The present depth and wide-ranging affect of such views among the many American folks is partially because of a conservative, hermetically sealed disinformation media ecosystem. As democratic establishments wither alongside the general public areas that nourish critically engaged residents, restricted political horizons change into normalized together with a diminished sense of hope.

Beneath Trump, the degradation of language reinforces the late Italian thinker Umberto Eco’s comment that training performs a job in fascism. Eco famous one of many central options of what he known as “Ur-Fascism” was its undermining of civic literacy via fascist schoolbooks that “made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, with the intention to restrict the devices for complicated and significant reasoning.”

Trump is the end result of the previous

Trump represents a particular and harmful type of American-bred authoritarianism. However condemning him for this isn’t sufficient if we’re to know the forces at work in Trump’s potential re-election and the slide of the USA into the pit of fascism.

Trump is the end result of a previous that must be remembered, analyzed and engaged for the teachings it could possibly train us in regards to the current.

His assaults on democracy, his alignment with corrupt and ruthless dictators and his willingness to sacrifice social wants and human lives to the merciless script of uncooked energy and a ruthless market-driven society ought to power us, as international residents, to ask questions we’ve got by no means requested earlier than about capitalism, energy, politics, the calls for of citizenship, the aim of training and civic braveness itself.

There will likely be no actual motion for actual change in America with out addressing a revolution in consciousness, one which makes training central to politics.

People can survive Trump — and even a second time period of Trump — in the event that they resurrect a language of critique and chance, one that attracts from historical past and gives the financial, cultural and political situations to carry the U.S. out of the present-day socio-political morass.

People want a imaginative and prescient they will struggle for, not only a worry they will overcome.

Henry Giroux doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that will profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/can-america-survive-the-re-election-of-donald-trump/ via https://growthnews.in

#Growth News

[realtalk-princeton]

So, I have this friend, who's Asian. And she's dating an Asian guy. But her Asian girlfriends keep on telling her that he's not good enough for her and that she "should" be dating a white guy. So I guess from their perspective, Asian guys aren't good enough for Asian girls? What do I even tell my friend in this case? Is this a common sentiment? I'm so confused as to why dating your own race, especially if your Asian, is somehow looked down upon. Do you guys know why they think like this?

Response from Faun:

Holy shit this kind of rhetoric honest-to-God gets me so pressed. Just to be clear, absolutely in no way are Asian guys somehow “not good enough” for Asian girls. It’s not a crazily common sentiment, but unfortunately it seems like the perception among Asian communities that white guys (or guys of other races) are in some way “better” or “more attractive” compared to Asian guys is more pervasive than you’d hope. From my experience, this type of thinking generally stems from a sort of internalized racism ingrained from being raised in a society in which whiteness is coded as mainstream, standard, or the “norm.” Growing up as a member of a minority group, being surrounded predominantly by whiteness in art and culture (and power), I think it’s often the case that you learn to associate whiteness with being inherently more beautiful, more desirable, and the “thing” to strive for, and in doing so subconsciously reinforce a self-loathing sense of white superiority. Especially coupled with the way that Asian men have been frequently depicted in media as being emasculated, passive, and lacking sexual appeal, it’s easy to see how these stereotypes and negative portrayals of your own race can feed into a conviction that “Asian-ness,” or Asian masculinity to be specific, doesn’t measure up to its white counterpart. As a result, I feel like a lot of Asian women, in trying to reconcile themselves with their subconscious belief in white superiority, attempt to align themselves as adjacent to whiteness, i.e. by going after and dating white men. There’s almost a sense of validation involved, that somehow being desirable to white guys gives you the stamp of approval by white society itself (of course, we can go into all the potential problematic aspects of WMAF relationships another time, because that is a whole can of worms that I don’t want to open right now). Basically, what I’m trying to say is that yes, unfortunately, this line of thinking is not as atypical as you’d wish it would be, and it comes from a combination of internalized racism and the prevalence of white supremacy in our society. In terms of what you can tell your friend, I would just reassure her that as long as she is happy in her relationship, there’s absolutely no reason for her to heed the thoughts of her other friends, who can go fuck themselves. If you’re up to do the good work, I would encourage you to talk to said friends about confronting their internalized racism and how their thinking is both problematic and frankly self-degradative, but honestly that’s not your job and I wouldn’t want you to take on any undue emotional burden, which really shouldn’t be your responsibility (unless you want to—then by all means, fight the good fight). Please feel free to write back with any more questions you have on the topic or any updates on the situation; I’ll always be here to talk about these kinds of things. Wishing you the best of luck.

[blackwoolncrown]

A Crucial Message for White People

This is something the world needs you to understand before it truly is too late: you can be a white person, but there is no such thing as ‘white culture’.

Now understand that this is something that cannot be thought of shallowly. There’s nothing so dangerous as a little thinking. A poor thinker in this case might wonder ‘but if there’s no white culture then why does there get to be a Black culture?’ and that’s an issue of nuance and context that I’m saving for another day. I want to focus on why white culture doesn’t exist.

First of all, pretty much the entirety of human society relies on myths.

There is the physical world with which we tangibly interact, and then there is a massive and complex universe of ideas and concepts humans have  thought up. We use many of these ideas to create new physical objects for the physical world, but more importantly we use these ideas to create ideologies and concepts that unify a group.

A tribe of 50-100 or so humans could get along because they knew each other individual in their tribe personally, but how do you get thousands, if not millions of humans to cooperate even on a basic level?

Tell me, where in nature are the lines that mark where one country starts and another ends? Where is America? Where is Poland? Where is Italy? Where are any of these nations? There are physical landmasses underlying each one, and in some areas fences, mountains, rivers or walls, even paint lines put down, but none of those things is the actual country or the boundary of one. All we have are ideas we have all agreed on to be true. And these ideas help us cooperate. The idea of a Nation creates a stand-in for a tribe, and gives humans something to be loyal to.

Of course, a Nation is just an idea, and it can be contested. ‘America’ exists, but the land and Native people of ‘America’ were here before the idea of ‘America’ was thought up, murdered for, and penned on a declaration. Even now, they understand this, and the concept of America never objectively changed their past or became an objective truth for them.

So, back to being white. It’s identifiable, sure. It’s more accurate to say you’re light, but let’s not split hairs. But where are you from? Are you American? Irish? Polish? Italian? A mixture? Your family lineage stems from your ancestors, and you call your ancestors Scottish, Swedish or German because that’s where they were born- though in many cases it wasn’t necessarily called that nor was the country shaped the same way at the time. Every European country is different, has a different history, culture, set of norms, stories and myths. Every European country is a separate tribe with its own defining features and beliefs. You cannot fight for ‘European culture’ because there is no one monolithic European culture. That phrase is a dog whistle that means ‘white heritage’ which also is a thing that doesn’t exist.

However, if your European identity that’s what makes you what you are, then you  need to realize that Nationality is a flimsy concept of lineage, too. Anyone born in that country today just like your ancestors were then is going to be that Nationality as well, which is why there are Asian Brazilians and Black Germans. “But they aren’t REAL Germans!” you say. 

And why not? Because Germans aren’t Black? They are when they’re born there, just like your ancestors. The only reason Germans historically weren’t commonly Black is because the majority of Black people were elsewhere at the time.

But things change, populations shift. And so, you see, you cannot conflate the condition of being physically white with a Nationality. Ethnicity and Nationality are two different things. ‘White’ has no objective cultural location, only a coincidental overlap with a history of different ethnicities that have evolved to a more diverse level to day. Which makes identifying just what a Nationality means somewhat more vague.

And this is where racists start getting uncomfortable. Change. The idea that they see their heritage dying. But that’s an issue of what identity they choose.

The only thing dying is the conflation of whiteness with ethnicity.

White is not an ethnicity. White is a social construct- and to say that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist but it is rather a specific physical attribute and social context with no tangible core values other than a lack of melanin. It is a functional myth made identifiable and sustainable by the presence of a physical attribute.

Your viking ancestors weren’t amazing because they were white. (Also there were black vikings)

Your Irish ancestors weren’t brave because they were white.

Your Italian ancestors weren’t creative because they were white.

To be white affords one no objective physical advantage across the board other than the ability to absorb vitamin D from the sun more quickly, which comes hand in hand with increased risk of sunburn and skin cancer. 

Currently, white people tend to operate under a myth that whiteness is a ‘thing’ and that whiteness can grant superiority to a person. And that whiteness is a tangible cultural identity- it is not. This is the crucial misunderstanding. DO NOT CONFLATE YOUR LINEAGE WITH WHITENESS. DO NOT MISTAKE WHITENESS FOR AN ETHNICITY.

It is white people’s continued agreement to this myth that perpetuates white privilege and its partner: bigotry.

You may have seen people saying lately ‘whiteness is not a culture’. I slightly disagree because it has certainly developed as an idea into a culture if ignorance, shallow thought, unsustainability, disconnectedness and hate (the way that something like say, gaming has a culture), but I digress. What they mean is that whiteness is not an ethnic culture the way any other ethnicity is. There is no place whiteness was born- whiteness was a gradual genetic mutation to allow humans to live in less sunny climates. There is no unifying white existence- a white person from Sweden today, a white American from 30 years ago, and a white person in Russia 200 years ago have pretty much 0 unifying experiences other than human ones: seeking shelter, enjoyment and food, for instance.

To attach yourself to a non-existent concept divorced from tangible reality grows more and more unsustainable the more that concept is separated from the identifiable physical world. We will probably never have a schism over what a rock is; we can have vehement debates about what ‘beauty’ is, and we go to war over ideas. 

When white people see their ‘history’ disappearing, it is not because anyone made it disappear. It is because the continued intellectual pursuits of humanity and the tides of time have dissolved what they thought was a concrete identity of superiority and victory into a vague concept desperately trying to smooth over a history of pointless bloodshed and hate. What is ‘disappearing’ only disappears as the truth appears. The unsustainability of the white fantasy- not just that Whiteness is a defensible culture but that ‘Whiteness’ is a concrete identity in the first place- is its own downfall. 

And it will fall.

You will still be here. Your family and future family will still be here. But you will be, just like everyone else, simply people. Your past may be one of pride, of lineage, of Russian, French or simply ‘Southern’ identity, but whiteness is simply a descriptor for the people of your family, and not what they stood for.

You can’t fight forever for something that never existed. It won’t last.

So if you identify as a ‘supreme white’, if you hold that idea even vaguely or do not confront it, then yes, it would look as if society is trying to remove you.

However, if you identify as a person before anything else, if you see that you have a skin color and a family heritage like everyone else, if you realize that your history is no more or less glorious than anyone else’s, you realize that if anything is threatening you, it is the aggressive, divisive rhetoric of White Supremacy.

Back to myths? White culture is a myth. The entire ‘historical’ narratives of independence, manifest destiny, valor and might is a selective cherry-picking of the past to string together a rallying myth of pride and supremacy. It is a myth that, by necessity, leaves out the white fear and isolation that caused such defensive, desperate actions. It is a myth that, by necessity, leaves out the beauty and complexity of the cultures it dominated so that it could make them look inferior and deserving of violence.

Whiteness and white supremacy is a myth. It’s an idea that a group of people agree on so they can all identify with it and thus have a common thread with which to identify with other humans.

The thing about myths? Humans create them to influence and control. One human can only lead so many other humans. But a human with a good story can lead millions.

Stop believing the bedtime story. Wake up.

#mine

[enterthezoid]

GET OUT! The Black Comedy

Sunday. Matinee. Jordan Peele’s Get Out receives %100 on Rotten Tomatoes. Call up the crew. My home girls slide thru. The downtown theater is sold out, Cherry creek has plenty of seats. No surprise there. Get Popcorn. Get Cozy. Get Scared. Get Out!

A whole can of black and white worms was opened up in Jordan Peele’s soon to be cult classic film Get Out. A psychological thriller that leaves one hinged horrifically balanced in what is suppose to be a suspension of reality but rather is an actual heightened extension of it. Don't worry I won't be spoiling much for you in this post, merely giving you my emotional reaction to such a ride...

We are thrown onto a cathartic balance beam bereft by a post traumatic state of reliving horrors from life on the silver screen. We make our way through the witty and blunt humor and cringe when we come to those perilous bridges constructed by race and ignorance that are all too familiar; but this is suppose to be funny right, ha ha haaaa. 

A black man in his early twenties, sporting a head wrap and army jacket sits in front of me and my peanut gallery of queens with his blonded white girl. I nudge my girlfriend and we both begin to crack up at what might be their last date.

Discomfort shifts back and forth in the seats as we merge into the muddy waters of Anywhere, America, a suburb that might host a mall with a theater like the one we are sitting in, as couples of all shades grasp and laugh, and are silent, we are methodically lowered into a 'sunken place' where all is happening to us and we can do nothing but watch.

The elegance or Jordan Peele’s writing allows us to pirouette through racism that wears the mask of success and our psychological ties to an oppressor. Our protagonist, Daniel Kaluuya, plays Chris Washington, A young African American photographer who reminds me of many friends who bridge race and class divides with the success of their skill; bringing them deeper into a culture that is far set from their own, and the certain types of women and men that lurk there. 

As Chris finds out when he goes on a weekend trip to see the parents of his fresh 5 month relationship with Rose Armitage, played by Allison Williams, who also starred in the show Girls. Balancing us yet again on this crux of black men and white women. 

This film get's out the unique fears one might feel growing up in this country as an African-American and thrown into a supposed integrated world that is far from it. The pitfalls and jabs that one feels when all alone and facing the unfiltered wave of ignorant ass supremacy.

I think now on the many laughs me and my friends have about what we feel to be far fetched fears but come to life in this film! For example the true notion that as a black man I still get uncomfortable around too many white folks, no matter the nation, age or class, especially when alcohol is involved, cuz’ we all know that when the liquor starts flowing they mouthes open and just say the darnedest things to you,

“Oh I love your hair can I touch?”

"Oh Bro what sports you play?”

“Mmmm I heard about black men, is it true what they say?”

"How is it being black?"

“Wow look at this one, your smile, your teeth are so white?”

“Wow you speak so well and would never have thought!”

or my favorite:

"Hey man is just a joke, it's funny right?"

And I'm sure some will say most of those sound like complements and genuine politeness of a person trying to empathize with another. No. It is prattle and mockingly insulting. It stems from a place that attempts to gloss over the cacophony of horrid screams from the bloody mud of this land 'tis of thee. It reeks of appropriation, and genocide. It's an unaccepting ignorance that still wants to devour its dark, mysterious, prey. 

You see, the old shrills of uncles and grandfathers speaking of dragging and lynchings from a brother who went a little too far into the white world always left my superstitious eye on the exit signs of any downtown bar, frat house, or suburban house party, that is flooded with white people. All should be taught such cautions as well, for accurate history in this country is hard to...get out.

The film gives great one liners, and double entendre that will bury themselves deep into our context as Americans in dealing with the racial divide, one in particular had me weak throughout the film for its undoubted usage to try and mask one's prejudice tendencies:

"I would have voted for Obama for a third term if I could."  says the neurosurgeon father when first meeting his daughter’s black boyfriend. I've heard many well off, liberal, white men in power, use this as a way to diffuse a remarkably racist comment that preceded it or would come shortly after.

There is also a moment our protagonist must use 'cotton' in a way to try and overcome his captors. As well as a chokehold that is slowly counted out "1 mississippi, 2 mississppi..." Small relics, symbols, and adages that are doors into our poignant history. Perhaps my favorite of these is when another black man, played by Lakeith Stanfield, who also played in ATLANTA, is taken hostage by this strange town and explains what he feels about the black man's condition,

"In this county the black man has had a overall good time, and is born with great advantages, but hey I don't know much, I haven't wanted to leave the 'house' for quite some time." Oh how this rings of old Malcolm X speeches and uncle tom's cabin remakes, leaving a stark but humorous reminder of the house nigga who loves his master, and in fact wishes to be his master...

These little gems and many more bedazzle you in a film that uses the juxtaposition of imagery and satire to unravel the unspoken myths of American culture.

Perhaps what can't be glossed over is the true evil in the film appeared to some as a utter reflection of themselves. As I noticed in the young white girlfriend sitting in front of me who kept having to ask her black boyfriend what was so funny? Or embarrassingly apologizing since she had done some of those exact things. 

While with something like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or any other serial killer film the evil is an anomaly here it is the norm. This leaves the comments section of Get Out peppered by feelings of racism against Caucasians. Yet this is like every Hollywood film that portrays stereotypes of all other cultures in a menacing light. Not to mention as one home girl put it:

"So what about the micro aggression in suicide squad? The croc was clearly black watched bet ate Friday chicken wore velour suits with gold chain and listened to rap? I saw no white people complaining...Or when they make themselves the hero or savior of every film, last samurai, avatar, this Great Wall film that just came out; all under the guise the story won't be told/ watched if there isn't a white person in a lead role 🙄"

Oh how the kettle calls the pot! Well look, Here's an opinion of you outside of your own. good luck getting out of it!

A deep metaphor that runs through the core of this film is held in its appropriate title. Our protagonist must get out of a deep hole buried with in his subconscious, which is housed in the suburban outskirts, in a white picket fence mansion, in the heart of the white American dream. Can we escape our master's house, can we escape our master's women, can we escape our master's desires, can we escape our master? Must we escape from ourselves?

My palms were wet with sweat, gripping the theater chair arm rest as the film crescendos, and that feeling comes across you buried deep in your nerves from centuries of being hunted: Go! Go! Run! Get Out! As we have a hope that just maybe we will have a hero who runs off the psychological plantation into freedom! Away from the monstrous killer that was imbedded deep with in your own fears. Jordan Peele carried us to that deep seeded fear of the black man and white woman, that fear that underlies the belly of it all, of rape and murder and true horror.

Back into the woods and dark trees, where we hope our protagonist will not sink to that level that he is always portrayed, of beast, of burden, of object like they think he is, that he will not be caught, that he can find himself and get out alive with no regrets. And as the scene perches us all gripping each other, still, silent. Our protagonist becomes a hero under flashing lights.

To wash all of this down Jordan Peele naturally uses humor as the film’s saving grace. Unlike some race films like Birth of a Nation (the first one and the Nat Turner epic) Get Out doesn't leave one emotionally hateful and unstable, instead the ability to laugh at the portrayal of certain prejudices that we all have about each other allows us to experience the trauma with our serotonin popping; and with the aide of satire we can communicate why something is funny, and why something might be true.

It leaves us closer together rather than dividing us as I'm sure many will say. Embraced in a terror that lurks even here in the hazy February theater of a mall in Anywhere, America. 

This film get’s out the scariest nightmare, the one buried deep, the one you think is real. It get's out the stupidity of labels and walls that we put up because we are still ignorant of another's customs and stories and feelings. Well here we are, pressed tight together, from sea to shining sea, and from the repressed pits of a place, where we felt helpless, where we couldn't do anything, but sit there and watch TV, while our mothers and brothers, fathers and sisters, bled out in the streets and then were hung up like a deer's head in the den of your great grandfathers plantation mansion.

Here is a beautiful reflection of true horror, a real monster, dripped in gore, and fear, and honesty, as the deer’s head pierces your cornea and out oozes the greatest monster ever... a mirror. Can you get out of this image I present to you? Can you get out of your head? Can you get out of me?! But hey, it's only a joke, this is funny right?

Written by: Négré Micheaux 

for F!!!RE Magazine issue #1

#GetOut #jordan peele #film #critique #fire #zoidz #article #blackhistorymonth #getoutthemovie #horror #blavity #huffblackvoices #negre micheaux #f!!!Re #magazine

[lapuntaalta-blog]

Culture Is not a Costume

Halloween is one of the most notable holidays in America that is cemented in the action of getting dressed. From decorating homes, to assembling our own costumes, this day is about indulging in the fantasy making that fashion offers. While many dress up and in the name of fun, there are still real repercussions for what people make a costume out of. In the case of a school in Idaho, several faculty and staff members committed the crime of turning Latinx culture into a hodgepodge of gags. The Huffington Post recently reported about this school in Idaho where these staff members were suspended after they all dressed up as both Mexicans and Donald Trump’s promised U.S. border wall. The photos of this group’s costume quickly went viral and the Middleton school district announced on Saturday the suspension of all the members involved. This context is necessary for understanding the argument that this paper will make about how the issue of cultural appropriation was present in these people’s costumes. Using the framework of fashion as a sign system, and as system with its own grammar, I hope to argue that cultural appropriation in fashion is something that deserves attention because of the ways in which this action of dressing up can maintain hegemonic ideas of racism.

Paying close attention to the details in the staffer’s costumes shows how the actual construction and design of the costumes relies on a racist rhetoric. As Alanna Vagianos writes, “half the group is dressed as the border wall, which reads ‘Make America Great Again,’ while the other half are holding maracas while dressed in ponchos and sombreros’” (HuffingtonPost). This text is spread out across cardboard painted to look like a wall and it is held up by three women who are each wearing outfits related to the colors of the American flag. The issues with this representation is evident if one considers that “Language and dress are…constituted organically by a functional network of norms and forms” (Barthes 8). Barthes point is that the culture that produces the symbol, in this case fashion, attaches both a set of ideas about that thing and ideas about who wears that thing. While, “Make America Great Again,” may not explicitly seem racist, we must consider the ideologies that this costume relies on to garner meaning. To clarify, this is a racist ideology because the idea that Latnix bodies, or non-citizens, should be policed and excluded stems from a white supremacy framework. The part of the costume that is the wall is also a symbol referencing the building of borders that the Trump administration has argued for. The symbol of the wall is racist in the ways that the Trump administration has used moral panics to label Mexican immigrants as threats to both the identity of the country and to the safety of its people. As Barthes would argue, this costume gains its meaning from the discourses its referencing. Otherwise, it would just be cardboard with words on it. But this way of thinking sits outside of the scope I have chosen to analyze the costume with. By considering how fashion gains its meanings from ideas and expectations produced by society, there is a clear way of connecting part of this costume to racist ideas about exclusion in the United States.

These staff members are guilty of poor judgement in dressing up as Mexicans because of how they relied on stereotypes to inform their costumes. In her book Fashion, Desire and Anxiety one of Rebecca Arnold’s frameworks for looking at fashion is how it impacts how we understand and discuss the body. This is a relevant concept to consider because if fashion helps us define the body than fashion also plays a part in shaping how we think about race and culture. Because these are things connected to our body. The image of some of these staffers holding maracas, wearing sombreros, fake mustaches and ponchos relates back to my earlier point about how costumes rely on symbols to gain meaning. This group chose these elements to represent Mexican people because of how these signs convey this identity and culture. Again, it should be noted that these are stereotypes rooted in racist representation. I argue that this incident is offensive because of how the costumes that represent Mexican culture are again derived from historically racist stereotypes. The Latinx identity is presented as something comical and commercial, assembled through cheap and easily accessible garments. Arnold would argue then that the impact of this costume is that the legitimacy of the Mexican identity, and its body, is lost then. Thus, this costume can be seen as perpetuating racist ideologies because it relies on stereotypes, taking away the legitimacy of the Mexican identity.

Another reason that the Idaho faculty and staff’s costumes are offensive is because of how fashion, like speech, can be misread. Because The Huffington Post did not a statement from any of the staffers suspended, the motives of these costumes are unclear. But in thinking about how, “as with speech [fashion] cannot say what we really mean because we don’t have the right ‘words.’” (Lurie 34) it is fair to say that there was no attempt to communicate that this was parody or not meant to be racist. In no ways am I stating that the decision from the Middleton School District to suspend the teachers should be contested, rather I am arguing that people must be aware of the ways that clothes do not often communicate what we want them to. In the same ways that connotation, grammar and style impact the clarity and meaning of a sentence, so does the arrangement of a garment. In the case of this costume, there is no clear way of identifying if the parody happening is directed towards the Trump administration, Mexican people or maybe even both. Again, both groups relied on racist discourses in order to convey what they meant. But there is no evident part of this costume that also conveys malice. It becomes difficult to argue what was the impact of these costumes. Referring back to Lurie’s and the other scholar’s works, I believe that they would argue that this is not a matter about whether the impact is right or wrong. Rather this instance shows how costumes and dressing up is a method of communication connected to power and representation. Costumes, like other forms of fashion, also have depth in their meaning.

The incident in the Middleton School District of staff members being suspended for wearing offensive costumes is a clear example of how understanding that fashion can have a non-verbal impact is important. While there is validity in calling upon freedom of speech, this essay was focused on exposing why the costumes were offensive and this dressing up was a mistake by the staffers. In a statement released by the school district and reported by The Huffington Post, Middleton stated, “As hard as these events are for ALL involved, we must learn from this and be better as an entire staff for our students, parents, and the community we represent.” The consequence that these staffers received is again only appropriate when considering what discourses and ideas informed the costumes. From the details in the costumes like the writing on the wall, to the cheap artifacts meant to represent Mexican people, this essay hoped to argue that costumes have meaning and an impact on society.

Works Cited

Arnold, Rebecca (2001). Fashion, Desire and Anxiety. Print.

Barthes, Roland (1967). The Language of Fashion. Print.

Lurie, Alison (1981). The Language of Clothes. Print.

Vagianos, Alanna (2018). “Idaho Elementary Teachers Who Dressed Up As Mexicans And The Border Wall Suspended,” The Huffington Post. Web.

-Will S.

#culture

[rachelswirsky]

Q&A on Being a Jewish & Disabled Author

A patron of mine asked me some questions recently about Jewish identity, and writing while Jewish and disabled.

I thought y'all might find the answers interesting. Hopefully, I'm correct!

Are secular Jews overrepresented in the media?

I am personally a secular Jew. I suppose my first question in wondering whether we're over-represented is -- what percentage of self-identified Jews in America are secular? (It also matters what the percentage of secular Jews in media work is, but that seems harder to find.)

I found this here: http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/

"The changing nature of Jewish identity stands out sharply when the survey’s results are analyzed by generation. Fully 93% of Jews in the aging Greatest Generation identify as Jewish on the basis of religion (called “Jews by religion” in this report); just 7% describe themselves as having no religion (“Jews of no religion”). By contrast, among Jews in the youngest generation of U.S. adults – the Millennials – 68% identify as Jews by religion, while 32% describe themselves as having no religion and identify as Jewish on the basis of ancestry, ethnicity or culture. "

It goes on to say:

"Secularism has a long tradition in Jewish life in America, and most U.S. Jews seem to recognize this: 62% say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while just 15% say it is mainly a matter of religion. Even among Jews by religion, more than half (55%) say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, and two-thirds say it is not necessary to believe in God to be Jewish. "

I'm surprised that the percentage of people who think you have to believe in God to be Jewish is that high, actually. There's a pretty lengthy historical tradition of Jews who participate in their communities without being personally religious. The article does say that Jews who identify as secular now are less likely to be tied into Jewish cultural organizations than other Jews, so I wonder whether there's an increasing idea that being a secular Jew is the same as being an uninvolved Jew. (I should note that people who convert to being Jews are also definitely Jews whether or not they have the ancestry. Judaism is a dessert topping and a floor wax.)

That said, I'm uninvolved in a lot of ways. My grandfather made a decision as a young man to sever himself from his Jewish past. I think this was his reaction to World War II. He never denied being Jewish, or changed his name, or anything like that - but he had no interest in his past as a Jew, or in any of the associated cultural traditions. Our family still exists in the shadow of that decision.

I could try to figure out more about the demographics involved -- what percentage of great sci-fi writers, editor, etc, from Christian backgrounds are also secular? Is this a function of Jewishness, or a broader secular cultural trend among people in those industries?

But I feel like the more interesting questions are tangential. What could we gain from having more religiously Jewish creators?

Probably something. My friend Barry writes a series of graphic novels about Hassidic Jews. He himself is a secular Jew, but many Hassidic people have contacted him, grateful for representation of their community that is humanizing and generous. There are clearly religiously Jewish people who are not seeing themselves reflected, or are only seeing themselves reflected in ways that are inaccurate or unkind.

There can be pressure on secular Jews to put their Jewish heritage in the background, especially when antisemitism and white supremacy are on a resurgence. I've paid the price for being a Jewish female creator, and it's a nasty one. So, there's another point where I think there's tension over secular Jewish representation in the media--in order to work in the industry, to some extent, we must blend in with Christian normativity.

I had a woman say to me, in all seriousness, in a critique group once, that she was annoyed I had included Jewish rituals in one of my stories. "If I want to read about that kind of thing," she said, "I'll just read fantasy."

I'm not sure this resolves anything (in fact, I'm sure it doesn't), but those are some of my thoughts.

What about your background and current ideas/beliefs/practices has contributed to your interest in Jewish sci fi?

Right now, I'm more interested in the theological questions of Judaism than I normally am because I have a good friend who is tipping over the border from secular to religious Jew, and his journey is very interesting to me. The way he talks and writes about his burgeoning belief (as opposed to the feeling of irresolution he'd had before) is fascinating; it helps that he's a very good writer who is fascinating on many topics.

I think my interest in Jewish science fiction stems from my interest in Jewishness itself, which is probably related to my self-identification as Jewish. I'm not sure why I have a strong identification with Judaism -- I didn't have to. As the granddaughter of a secular Jew who tried to cut all connections, I could have just put it aside; my brothers have. Our father is from WASPy blood with deep roots in American history--we're descended from one of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence--and I could have chosen to identify with that to the exclusion of my Jewish ancestry.

What are you writing about now?

I'm writing a lot about disability. As a disabled person, there's a lot of rich material to mine--and I still have a lot of unreconciled thoughts about disability, and things I'm figuring out. I think a lot of good writing is produced when the author is still on the edge of revelations, instead of settled.

Many of my previous writing obsessions have been much more externally focused. Of course there's a hideous amount of dehumanization and violence directed toward disabled people, but for some of us, there's also an intense personal struggle of identity and self-knowledge that requires a deep investigation of the psyche. That's where I am right now--fiction about selfhood and perception.

#judaism #SFF #disability #writing advice #interviews

[ara-la]

‘Patriot’ Militias: Rooted in White Supremacy

Matthew N. Lyons, in his new book from PM Press, “Insurgent Supremacists: The U.S. Far Right’s Challenge to State and Empire,” cites and briefly quotes from my 1995 analysis of the so-called Patriot Militia movement. Since it seems to still have at least that much currency and immediacy, at a moment of new reactionary mass upsurge and organized white racial nationalist influence on broader sectors of white society and the state, I thought it was worth republishing with a couple of minor edits for clarity. I think it has stood the test of time (23 years!!) as an analysis that is still important to grasp.

PART's Perspective: MILITIAS ROOTED IN WHITE SUPREMACY

by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror (ARA-LA/PART)

from Turning The Tide, Volume 8 #2, Summer 1995

    The Oklahoma City bombing, a bloody atrocity on the anniversary of the deadly events in Waco, thrust the militia movement onto the front pages and to the top of the hour on TV news. But the spate of belated coverage and sensationalism, already abating as we go to press, has done little to enlighten people about the true nature of the phenomenon.

    The militia movement is a genuine mass upsurge, around its stated issues of opposition to gun control, to environmental protections and to abortion; and of mistrust bordering on hatred of the federal government. As a mass movement with a reactionary character, there are many different explicit ideologies and personalities contending with each other for influence and dominance within the movement, and the militias have even exerted some appeal on leftists and libertarians. Therefore, it's vital to be aware of the connections between white supremacy and the militias.

    First of all, conscious white supremacists and neo-Nazis, open and hidden, have been instrumental both in getting the militia movement going in many states and in pushing other elements within that movement towards an embrace of their racist politics and strategy. The Trochmanns, founders of the Militia of Montana, had been associated with the Aryan Nations. Jeff Baker, a U.S. Taxpayer Party leader promoting anti-abortion militias, has espoused anti-Semitic doctrines. "Bo" Gritz, who boasts of providing Green Beret counter-insurgency military training to the "Patriots," and called the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building "a Rembrandt," has longstanding ties to the racist, anti-Semitic Christian Identity sect.

Ex-Green Beret “Bo” Gritz. I believe “SF” is a reference to Soldier of Fortune, a magazine for would-be mercenaries.

    The bombing itself bore a striking resemblance to one in the book "The Turner Diaries" by neo-Nazi William Pierce, a fictional call to arms for racists after "the Cohen Act" outlaws guns. But it's more than a matter of particular, individual militia leaders or the violent actions of a few adherents.

    Much of the national impetus to build the militias as a "direct action" formation in defense of Second Amendment gun rights grew out of a meeting held in Estes Park, Colorado, in October 1992, following the stand-off in Idaho between Federal agents and white separatist Randy Weaver and his family.

    The gathering was convened by Christian Identity pastor Pete Peters (whose followers also helped birth the white supremacist paramilitary underground, the Order, almost a decade earlier), and by Larry Pratt, (head of the Gun Owners of America, a fringe outfit that found the NRA too moderate). Pratt is not coincidentally a former right-wing Virginia state legislator, and previously had led national efforts of the English Only movement as part of an anti-immigrant campaign. Pratt is an officer of the Committee on Inter-American Security (CIS), an outfit whose board included paleo-conservative Pat Buchanan, Adolfo Calera of the Nicaraguan Contras, and the World Anti-Communist League’s John Singlaub (ex-General in the US Army and former arms supplier to the Contras). The CIS helped write Reagan and Bush's policy on Latin America. Pratt is also the author of Armed People Victorious, a book praising the death squads of Guatemala and the Philippines; these may have been his model in promoting the militias.

    The infrastructure and communications network Peters and Pratt promoted took off in the succeeding months, perhaps beyond their wildest hopes, as the Clinton presidency, the events in Waco, and the passage of the Brady Bill and of a federal ban on assault weapons made opposition to gun control a hot-button organizing issue with a built-in mass base. The numbers attracted to the militias, and into action around these themes, exceeded the anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-immigrant movements in which neo-Nazis had been trolling for recruits and seeking to advance their strategy of 'leaderless resistance' and racist terror. Adding to this, some militias in fact focused on the abortion question. Others, particularly in the northwest, took up the anti-environmentalist themes of the corporate-sponsored "Wise Use" movement, further adding to the base of support.

    Furthermore, by targeting the federal government itself, the militia mentality was wide open to key elements of the white supremacist campaign, including notions of the illegitimacy of the so-called "Zionist Occupational Government," and the need for countervailing white state citizenship and sovereignty.

       The concept of state citizenship, in contradistinction to so-called "l4th Amendment citizenship," has been widely if not always formally embraced by the militias. This is typified in the professions by Samuel Sherwood of Idaho's United States Militia Association of support for the so-called “Organic Constitution," the original constitution plus the first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights. A moment's thought exposes the white supremacist, sexist and elitist basis of this position, which has been formalized by the Christian Identity "Jubilee" grouping, and by the militia-affiliated "Refounding Amendment," a proposed "eleventh amendment" to the Constitution which would reformulate the U.S. as a confederacy. While focusing on getting rid of the income tax and the IRS, the militias would also contentedly eliminate the abolition of slavery, women's right to vote, and equal citizenship rights for all, along with popular election of senators and the application of the guarantees of freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly onto the sovereign state governments they would like to control.

    (Application to the states of the guarantees in the Bill of Rights was only accomplished by the militia-opposed 14th amendment; the Bill of Rights itself only enjoined the federal Congress and government from violating those rights). The anti-democratic nature of this thrust makes the reactionary nature of the militia response to "government tyranny" apparent.

    But we should not let our analysis stop there. To fully understand the militia movement and its propensity for violence, we need to truly understand our history and our society. The media's reluctance to deal honestly with the militia phenomenon stems from its role in obscuring actual power relationships. The militias, just as they claim, are deeply rooted in U.S. history and society.

    In facing this real past and present, we start to struggle honestly for a better future. Liberals like to pretend that the democratic state apparatus enjoys a monopoly on the use of armed power, subject to representative civilian controls, and traditional Marxist analysis has it that the state apparatus is expressed in and relies on "special bodies of armed men." But the re-birth of the militias makes it clear that the U.S., as a settler-colonial society, has in fact depended on the armed organization of masses of the settler populace to establish and maintain itself, not merely on the armed state apparatus.

    This theme is visibly evident in the Declaration of Independence, which lamented the British Crown's unwillingness to properly protect the settlers from the "merciless savages"; in the Constitution, which is concerned with ensuring "domestic tranquility" against unruly, unpropertied elements; and in the Bill of Rights, which does link generalized gun ownership to the need for a militia.

    The militias of today are the descendants of the armed settlers who banded together to take land from the indigenous people. They are descendants of the slave posses that enforced the slave codes before there was any law enforcement apparatus. The white supremacist Arizona Rangers who plotted to bomb federal buildings in the '80s are descendants of the 19th century Arizona, Texas and California Rangers, which developed from rancher-supported lynch mobs terrorizing the conquered Mexican population in the late 1840's into the rudimentary apparatus of law enforcement by the Euro-American state in those territories conquered from Mexico and Native Americans.

    The militias in Idaho and Montana of today are descendants of the original "vigilance organizations," the vigilantes based in the Masonic order that established "law and order" in the territories between the 1860s and 1880s by clandestine violence. The militias are the descendants of the hooded "Bald Knobber" vigilantes of the 1880's in Missouri, who took up arms to defend private property and enforce cultural norms.

    Growing out of this history, it is not necessary for every militia member to be an individual racist or supremacist for us to recognize the white supremacist foundation and thrust of the militia movement.

    The "patriot" militias of today are descended from another mass reactionary movement, the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s, which also was not exclusively white supremacist, but enforced Protestant "Americanism," patriarchal 'family values,' anti-immigrant hysteria, and Prohibition.

    It is the reactionary nature of mass armed settler colonialism which gives the lie to the militia's opposition to “government tyranny." By denominating themselves as militias, they acknowledge honestly that they are in fact a part of or adjunct to the state, a key force in the ability of the settlers to sustain and expand their colonizing project. And thereby they render themselves incapable of transcending that project in any truly liberatory way. Because the 'colonization' of the secessionist south and of the freed slaves [by Northern financiers and industrialists] was the outgrowth and unavoidable consequence of that colonial project. The militias cannot turn back the clock to some pre-Civil War state of grace.

    Nor do the militias represent a real alternative to the entrenched power of the national security state apparatus that has grown up parallel with the global imperial ambitions of the U.S., because the global empire is also only the logical outgrowth of the continental empire the militias defend. This explains the willingness of many Republican politicians to embrace the militias, and the unwillingness of the state to seriously oppose them.

    This fatal flaw, this reactionary essence of the militia movement, is repeatedly evident. The militia-influenced "county sovereignty" movement in Nevada, for example, proclaims that the constituent counties of the state of Nevada have a precedent claim over the federal government to the public lands that form the bulk of that state's land mass. But what the two sides are fighting over, of course, is the land that was taken in an act of war from Mexico and the Mexican people and from the indigenous peoples of the region.

    Similarly, in the northwest, the militias denounce "globalism" and the threat of a U.N. takeover, while taking up arms against the Forest Service to prevent the enforcement of any environmental regulations--thereby dovetailing neatly with the actual globalist strategy of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to end all environmental and labor codes that restrict untrammeled exploitation.

    This unity of interest is why the big extractive industries bankroll the "wise use" movement, and why the privatization of public lands that the militias seek is perfectly consistent with the global strategy of privatization of public- and state-owned resources and enterprises being pursued by the multinationals. It's why the militias claim to oppose NAFTA, but would never support the Zapatistas in Chiapas and Mexico, who are the leading force in opposing and overturning the neo-liberalism which created NAFTA. As Larry Pratt would probably proudly acknowledge, the militias are the brethren of the land-owner death squads that have killed and expropriated indigenous campesinos in Guatemala and Mexico.

    Similarly, while claiming to oppose the "jack-booted thugs" of the FBI and the ATF, the militias have never spoken out against the frame-up and illegal extradition and imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. PART opposed the government killings at Waco and at the Weaver homestead in Ruby Ridge (while also condemning Weaver and Koresh); but our opposition is consistent with our condemnation of the bombing of the MOVE organization in Philadelphia, consistent with our denunciation of the FBI-led COINTELPRO war on the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. It's consistent with our exposure of the role of the FBI in promoting the Ku Klux Klan as a means to block the civil rights movement, and of the participation of the FBI and the ATF in promoting and arming the "United Racist Front" of Klansmen and Nazis in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1979, who shot and killed five anti-KKK organizers.

    We oppose the use by the U.S. government of well-honed psychological warfare techniques against Tim McVeigh and the Nichols brothers, just as we opposed the sensory deprivation techniques used against Puerto Rican P.O.W.'s and North American women political prisoners. But we would never support Tim McVeigh as a political prisoner or "prisoner of war," because McVeigh is fighting a racist and reactionary war against the people, not the state. Left analysts and activists like Alexander Cockburn who are attracted to one or another point put forward by militia-led groups about "freedom," such as the Fully Informed Jury Association put forward by Red Beckman, need to be aware of the poison pill of racism and anti-Semitism covered by that sugar coating.

    Are the militias white supremacist? Ask the next militia members you meet whether they support John Brown's militia, which attacked the federal arms depository in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in an insurrectionary effort to arm the slaves and end slavery. Do they support the so-called "negro militias" (actually New Afrikan ex-slaves and their white allies) that sought to reconstitute the post-Civil War south on a democratic basis and to uproot the ex-Confederate underground that resisted every radical democratic reform? Do they support Malcolm X's call for all "Negroes" to form rifle clubs? 

   Do they support the armed NAACP led by Robert Williams or the armed Deacons of Defense who took on the task of fighting off Klan attacks on the Black freedom struggle? Do they support the worker militias that beat back strike-breaking attacks by goons and Klansmen in the '20s and '30s, and laid the basis for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the “premature anti-fascists" who took up arms against Franco, Mussolini and Hitler? It is this standard of principled and democratic internationalist and anti-racist armed action by which we must judge the militia movement; and by that standard, we must oppose it as a racist and reactionary phenomenon.

[eatsleepkpop-blog1]

Reading Response #4

What is an incel?

“Incel is partially explained by what it stands for: involuntarily celibate” (Ohlheiser, 2018). A generic definition of an incel can be defined as what we know as a “involuntarily celibate”. But, in what we know as “online culture”, and incel can also be described as, “a specific, insular, self-radicalized community with roots in the anti-feminist, misogynist “manosphere” and 4chan culture” (Olheiser, 2018). The roots of incels’ beliefs stems from the idea that women are shallow, claiming that they would only want to date good-looking men. Many of these men also tend to be white, heterosexual men who have anti-feminist/misogynist views against women. A misogynist point of view can be described as a belief which pines against women strongly. Women will not have sexual interactions with these people, because they are deemed ugly and unattractive by society. In an article by Julia Tolentino, she states that, “Men, like women, blame women if they feel undesirable. And, as women gain the economic and cultural power that allows them to be choosy about their partners, men have generated ideas about self-improvement that are sometimes inextricable from violent rage...several distinct cultural changes have created a situation in which many men who hate women do not have the access to women’s bodies that they would have had in an earlier era” (Tolentino, 2018). 

These men who have misogynist views are often the men women will not have sex with. With feminism rising, women start to realize their self worth and are worth more than what society pins them as. Because women won’t sleep with these men, they have adapted to a sense of “white supremacy”. “They are, by their own judgment, mostly unattractive and socially inept. (They frequently call themselves “subhuman.”)” There are many message boards where incels can interact with other incels, one message stating, “Society has become a place for worship of females and it’s so fucking wrong, they’re not Gods they are just a fucking cum-dumpster,’” (Tolentino, 2018). 

How does it relate to our readings thus far?

These misogynists are the reason we have been reading about all of these violent scenarios against women. Referring back to Gender Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, one reading that I can relate this to is when men in a fraternity create pledges to secure their places in that said fraternity. They don’t care about these women they have sex with, it is all for show. They want to feel powerful and like they have won something, “…within which the social construction of brotherhood involves value for traditional masculinity and a normative structure that promotes loyalty, secrecy, and group protection… Pledges are also evaluated on their social ability with women, and sexual access to women is an advertised benefit of group membership in the recruitment process” (O’Toole, Schiffman, Kiter Edwards p. 219). By committing these crimes, these “brothers” have protection in the fraternity, and this is how they bond. This connects to these white men having sex with women who consider them unattractive. They are almost in a way, angry that women won’t have sex with them and result to violent nature like sexual assault and rape. These men don’t see women as women, more as a “thing” or in better words, a toy in which they can play with and toss to the side when they are done.

Works Cited

Ohlheiser, Abby. “Inside the Online World of ‘Incels,’ the Dark Corner of the Internet Linked to the Toronto Suspect.” The Washington Post, 25 Apr. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/04/25/inside-the-online-world-of-incels-the-dark-corner-of-the-internet-linked-to-the-toronto-suspect/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9153ac4f9e88.

O'Toole, Laura L, et al. Gender Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. 2nd ed., New York University Press, 2007.

Tolentino, Jia. “The Rage of the Incels.” The New Yorker, 15 May 2018, www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-rage-of-the-incels.

[oldfilmsnewfans-blog]

An Intangible Good: Butler's "The Little Colonel" 

     As Sennwald writes in his review of The Little Colonel, in 1935, "the Shirley Temple situation [was] rapidly getting out of hand" (The New York Times). Just twenty years post-slavery, during the Reconstruction era, this ray of sunshine took Hollywood by storm, specifically in this film directed by David Butler. As Belton writes in his chapter on the "Studio System" in American Cinema/American Culture, anthropologist Hortense Powdermaker once coined Hollywood as "a dream factory" (64) - in other words, a paradox that cinema possesses characteristics of both a booming industry as well as a profound art form. Belton points out intangible goods as direct products of this dream factory - the fact that unlike other industry that produces definite commodities, cinema can be hit or miss. What determines the success of a particular film often stems from the cultural norms of the time, or pertinent ideologies. In The Little Colonel, Temple's performance as the progressive young girl, Lloyd, embodies the themes of reconciling family life, as well as integration of people of all colors. Not only does the dream factory reflect current social conditions but also equally results in paradigm attitudinal shifts in viewers, as Sennwald delineates in The New York Times, "... bring[s] out the best in everyone who sees it." Collectively, the mise-en-scène, combined with progressive characters of The Little Colonel, exemplify how the dream factory's intangible goods fuel cinema's power as a medium to influence society and create new norms.

     In his third chapter on "Style," Belton describes "mise-en-scène" as the relationship between every element within a shot to the actors, decor, lighting, camera position, etc. (47); The Little Colonel's cinematic style effectively portrays the theme of lingering segregation as well as the evident division between the North and the South, through which the director presents the audience with the choice to perpetuate racism or embrace progressive thought, as does Lloyd (Temple) in her naiveté. Firstly, the brief opening montage that portrays Kentucky in the 1970s with dim lighting paints an image of the upper echelon of the South - the few angles of the plantation, then transition to its interior with an immediate focus on the harp player and the beautiful sounds of the instrument. The set dressing (e.g., impressive chandeliers, ornate furniture and tapestries, and long windows), along with the fancy and enviable character wardrobes, demonstrate the apparent luxuries of the aristocratic South. Butler juxtaposes these White characters along with their elaborate costuming and comfortability within their social sphere with Walker, the servant, as he comes close to knocking over a vase. The Colonel reprimands Walker for his careless behavior. However, Butler makes a point to emphasize one of the male characters dressed in a suit in one of the initial two-shots thanking Walker for a drink - showing gratitude to a person of alleged inferior social status. In a split second, nonetheless, this minor character is then quick to madden at Walker's near-accident, almost angering merely for the sake of calling out a man of color for a potential wrongdoing. In this way, the combination of mise-en-scène serves the opening sequence in establishing a tone for the film - the grey area between breaking free of the remnants of slavery but holding on to both White and Southern supremacy. Secondly, Butler makes excellent play of colors throughout the film, especially by contrasting Colonel Lloyd's (Grandfather's) stark white suit with the mud thrust upon him by his granddaughter in the scene with the children playing in the woods; this evokes the question in the viewer as to whether "Black-ness" tarnishes White purity in the 1930s or if the two can coexist in peace. Finally, Butler implements the motif of the flower, specifically pink, throughout the film, to symbolize new life blossoming, as well as maintain a light tone or sense of hope for the reconciliation of Lloyd's family at the film's culmination. In a way, young Lloyd channels this message of the pink flower, evident in her attendance of the all-Black baptism; she stands out as the precious pearl in the crowd, yet feels completely at-home with her friends of color. Butler's skillful threading of mise-en-scène throughout the movie serves the overall idea that a single film can stimulate thought in a viewer, or simply encourage questioning of the current social climate.

     The Little Colonel's characters vary on the scale of socially-acclimated to, initially, stuck within a disdain for both union of the nation and integration of races, revealing the dangers of remaining caught within old school values that no longer serve current (1930s) increasingly liberal ideologies. Young Lloyd serves as hope for the future, for more untainted, open-minded, and confident young women who embrace all walks of life. For Lloyd, Mom Beck (Becky) means the world to the young girl who seems not to pay much regard to skin color but rather content of character. Lloyd's strong moral compass leads her to separate the ethically improprietous (i.e., the two men who attempt to rob her father of his land deed) from the morally sound (i.e., the entire Black cast). Elizabeth, Lloyd's mother, also boasts a tight-knit relationship with her maid, the Mammy archetype, with whom Elizabeth seeks solace while her husband, Jack, leaves home and then falls ill. Both Elizabeth and Young Lloyd appreciate the story's Help and treat the maids with respect. Elder Colonel Lloyd, on the other hand, must first undergo a character transformation in order to finally embrace Jack, the Yankee, as well as begin to accept his granddaughter's penchant for spending time with the Help's children, Lily and Henry Clay. Nonetheless, he does come around by the film's resolution and drops hints at moving towards the right direction as an American, not an isolated Confederate. The fact that his granddaughter stimulates this inherent change in his stern, immovable belief system, reveals Young Lloyd's influence in her youth, underscoring the power of the young to impact the future. In support of this, Belton, in Early Film Sound, cites technological advancements that heighten a "greater realism" (233); Belton refers to the advent of sound allowing certain elements of a film to now be produced. For example, Temple's tap dancing numbers with Robinson, now with synchronized sound, further emphasize the theme of desegregation. In her work on Race and Sexuality, Orr Vered includes a D. W. Griffith quote to the essence that there can be nothing more captivating than a White girl dancing with a Negro (53). Due to technology of the time, such scenes could be filmed, adding to the verisimilitude of not only the film but also its message that two races (literally) holding hands represents (Butler's vision of) the future. Additionally, referring back to the concept of Hollywood as the dream factory, movie-making holds as a business; therefore, these controversial and provocative dance numbers within The Little Colonel's integrated musical style gain attention, advance the film, and, ultimately, expose larger audiences, both domestically and internationally, to the spectacular and fresh "now."

     To conclude, Sennwald's opinion about the Shirley Temple situation growing out of control (The New York Times) lies on a positive note. The power of one charming child star stands evident in the success of The Little Colonel and Temple's fame, still to-this-day. During a new time in Hollywood with the rise of the studios, such pieces as Butler's involved risk-taking, as with any intangible good. In this film, the comic relief, easy-to-follow plot, enthusiastic characters, and, of course, detailed mise-en-scène all equate to a solid piece of cinema. Though not each viewer's favorite, there can be no denial that the piece impacted and continues to affect its audiences in regard to opinions on post-Civil War conditions. During the 1930s Depression era, many Americans desired escapism. This film maintains its comedic tone while educating all cinema-goers on history, and, at the same time, perpetuating Hollywood as an economic stronghold, attracting consumers to the theater. (Fall 2016 FTVS 313 Student)