• One Woman's Costume Is Another Woman's Nightmare | Change.org
  "The idea of brown women being over-sexed and improper, and thus more willing sexual participants for non-brown men, is an old and pervasive one. It's particularly clear looking at the costumes available for women. Pocahontas wears an up-to-there dress, Flamenco dancers bear a midriff, and a bush woman may get nothing more than a loin cloth. Perpetuating these ideas with hyper-sexual costumes is a common, yet potentially dangerous thing to do."
  (tags: via:robschmidt halloween womenofcolour appropriation sexualstereotypes)
• WTF Files: Harvard's "Conquistabros and Navajos" Frat Party | Native Appropriations
  "Beyond the horrifying minimization of the genocide of Native peoples and continuing legacy of colonialism in the Americas, let's talk about the logic here. So. First of all, Conquistadors and Navajos. I get the cutesy 'omg we're so clever look at us make the theme of 'bros and hos' into something related to Columbus Day!'–which has major issues as it is (remember our discussion of the sexualization of Native women?) but really? Conquistadors=South America, Navajos=American Southwest. Columbus=West Indies. Pilgrims=American Northeast. and how are cowboys even related at all?

  "And I refuse to accept the 'it's just a party, get over it' mentality. Some of the main reasons this is incredibly harmful to Native peoples (including and especially the Native students at Harvard)…"

  (tags: via:cassz cambridgema harvard fratparty indigenous appropriation)
• The Most Racist Campaign in Decades, and What It Demands of Us | COLORLINES
  "This is the state of our politics. This is where things have arrived in post-race America. We’re at a place where congressmembers demean crucial, inventive public policy with racist nicknames, like the one Iowa Rep. Steve King came up with to stop the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program: Socialized, Clintonesque, Hillarycare for Illegals and Their Parents. Or where President Obama’s choice to co-chair his deficit commission, Alan Simpson, compares Social Security to a 'cow with 310 million tits.' That wasn’t an offense that warranted Simpson’s firing; he was given a benefit of the doubt the White House could not extend to Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod."
  (tags: via:robschmidt racism politics politicians voting votersegregation votedammit!)

by Latoya Peterson

Recently, I did an interview with Mike Green, titled “Media, Entrepreneurship, and Birth of a New Nation.”

Mike had asked me about what the ultimate goal was for Racialicious. It’s a tough question to answer, since it’s such an evolving space. Here’s what I said:

[T]here’s not enough minority-controlled media. There just isn’t. There aren’t that many spaces controlled by minorities, controlled by women that have the power to push back and have the power to discuss issues that are critical to us. To look at things through a different lens. There’s tremendous power in that. In being able to have a stage and to use it for what you will.

So I found myself shifting a bit. At first, my goals were to be financially comfortable, eke out a living and have a job I didn’t hate that was flexible. And now it seems like there’s a bigger responsibility in that I’ve been able to acquire this huge platform and grow it. Now I’m asking, “OK, What can we really do with this?”

Can we provide people with the job training they need? Because that’s one of those things people are up against. They don’t have experience. They don’t have training. They don’t have their first published clips. Can we be that for some people? Can we grow this into something larger? Can we grow this into a media company?

So, I think that’s the direction we’re moving. What does this new media marketplace look like? What does entrepreneurship in media look like online? I feel like there’s tremendous potential in this space to do it.

Q: Why is it important for there to be more Black-owned media and, in particular, women-owned?

A: One reason is the corporate control of media in general: media consolidation. Just the fact there are thousands of media outlets but when you start tracing it’s really owned by basically eight people. (laughs) There just a few companies that control about 85 percent of what you watch and see. And there’s just a few families in control. It’s a small number, maybe 40 or so that have access into the ridiculous range of how we consume media.

And since media is how we understand ourselves and society, media helps to project not only things that provide understanding, like the news, but also projects things that stereotype. And so the media is this very powerful tool and it’s really disconcerting that there aren’t that many institutions dedicated to representing minorities in a fair light.

And the employment practices also reflect that. There’s always a very dismal representation (percentages) of minorities on television, radio and news. It doesn’t matter the format. It’s all the same problem. It keeps going. Continue Reading »

By Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man

Soon after that “Chinese Professor” got everybody talking, question started to emerge over the Asian participants in the commercial. A lot of people pointed out that it didn’t look like they were actually from China, and more likely young Asian Americans who were recruited here, in the United States, to be part of the ad. So who were these Asian faces?

Turns out, most of the extras in this commercial had little or no idea that their appearance in the ad would turn out like this. I was recently able to track down Josh H., who happens to be one of the extras in the now-infamous future Chinese classroom. He says he was recruited when he signed up to be an extra on Transformers 3. Here’s what he wrote to me:

Continue Reading »

• Pictures from the Paris Boycott of Guerlain « The Fashion Bomb Blog /// All Urban Fashion… All the Time – All Urban Fashion // All the Time
  "Lots of people came out; no violence. People brought back their Guerlain products. The store was closed, which made them lose a lot of money for a Saturday, and people are trying to come back next Saturday. It’s a real opportunity for a Black movement….because for many years Black people [in France] have been insulted and were pretty passive about it. This time a lot of people came together of all ages.”
  (tags: activism boycott fashion racism)

by Latoya Peterson

Via Curly Nikki, we find this awesome video by Diamond Stylz about rocking a natural as a transgender woman. Unfortunately, there is no transcript, but Diamond makes some major points about what informs the choices we make.

Key Point:

First, I wanted to get used to the short, you know, because it’s just something psychological. I just wanted to get used to having my hair short. [...]

[After explaining she dons wigs for YouTube videos, but wears her natural hair in real life] I get way less attention from men when my hair is like this. When I have the long, flowy, “ooooh” – wait, let me go get a wig. [Cut to Diamond in long wig.] When I’m giving them this [...], when I’m serving them the Jacqueline Smith look, you know the boys go wild. [Flips back to natural] But when I give ‘em this, I don’t really get that much attention. There’s a certain type of guy that will [pay attention], but not like it used to be, it used to be all across the board. When you’re looking like that, the guys just flock to you. But when you’re looking like this, its a certain type of guy to you. Usually he’s natural too, or he’s some kind of [puts up the black power fist] you know. [...]

So it’s weird. But, the flipside [to the drop in attention], is that as a transgender woman, it helps you blend in more. [...] To society, it makes me regular. I just don’t get the same attention. And I’m fine with that. I can go in the world, and not worry about people being in my face trying to clock me and figure out, you know, “Hmmm…”all that kinda bullshit, I just go about my business. Dudes just look over me. But when I have that hair on, things are totally different.

by Latoya Peterson

Back in August, I had an idea I couldn’t get out of my head.

I’ve been reading articles about sex a long, long time. And yet, far too many discussions of sex, love, and whatever else tend to be dominated by one perspective – young, white women. There are the occasional exceptions, but without fail, when I read something like this…

[I]n an economy where nearly all creative types are struggling, highly confessional essays about sex by young people — in particular women — are one of the few reliable markets for a newcomer like me.

…I can generally guess the race and background of the author. If that’s the easy way to get discovered, it would appear that few women of color ever have sex. Or write about their love lives.

Or maybe there isn’t a market unless you are young, white, and reasonably attractive.

Now, there are some of us out there.  Twanna. Lena. There’s Heather, holding down Scarleteen. But our voices are generally absent from mainstream conversations.

I kept thinking about the idea more and more, and realized there are a lot of people you never hear from, our dating and love lives relegated to the margins of experience, only known to us and a small circle of friends.

So, I sent out an email to the Racialicious crew and some long time contributors, checking their interest in a potential series.

Their responses blew every idea I ever had out of the water. Continue Reading »

By Arturo R. García

Long-time readers may recall that I was turned off to Glee pretty quickly. But this week’s  Rocky Horror Picture Show-centric episode piqued my interest. And, thankfully, nearly completely rewarded it.

You see, this ep reached into some personal history for me. That’s yours truly on the right a few years ago playing Brad Majors for the now-defunct Justice League of Denton in Kansas(!). Both of the troupes I performed with, the JLD and Crazed Imaginations, were safe spaces for me as both a POC and a geek.

But I only started caring about the episode when word got out that the lead role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter would be played in the show-within-the-show by Mercedes, who was relegated early on in the series to Sassy Black Diva status.Yeah, I know she got to sing Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” in an earlier episode, but, as she points out this week, she’d never gotten to play a lead before.

The music from the movie, of course, is just a backdrop for off-stage melodrama: Mr. Schu is putting on the show to stay close to Emma, who’s dating RHPS fan Dr. Carl; Coach Sue fakes supporting the show for the purposes of chasing a local Emmy; and the prospect of performing in their underwear stirs up anxieties for Finn and Sam. (Actually, the male body-image subplot might make for interesting stuff in future episodes, not to mention a welcome contrast to this kind of mess.)

SPOILERS AHEAD

Continue Reading »

• Daniel Dae Kim, Harry Shum Jr on Being Working Asian Actors | wsj.com
  "Kim — who was awarded the festival’s 'Influential Asian American Artist' award — told that audience that he was currently in the midst of discussing what race the love interest of his 'Hawaii Five-O' character Detective Chin Ho Kelly should be — a conversation that was more difficult that he had initially thought. He noted that while he was excited that race was a topic of discussion, the decision was more difficult than he originally thought, because he realized that the ultimate choice would have cultural ramifications. He then took a quick poll of the audience to see if they thought Kelly should be with another Asian, another non-Asian minority, or a Caucasian woman. (The reply was weighted toward the first two options.)"
  (tags: via:danamo asianamerican actors hollywood)
• Dr. Maya Angelou Give Papers to Schomburg Center | The Grio
  "More than 300 boxes of Maya Angelou's personal papers, including letters from Malcolm X and James Baldwin and several scribbled revisions of the poem she wrote to celebrate President Bill Clinton's inauguration, will be made public at a New York library, the author said.

  "The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture plans to announce the papers' acquisition this week.

  "Angelou, 82, said she sought out the Harlem institution — a research unit of the New York Public Library — as a home for works that include notes for her acclaimed autobiography 'I know Why the Caged Bird Sings' and the 1993 inaugural poem 'On the Pulse of Morning.'"

  (tags: via:cocacy schomburg research mayaangelou)
• NPR CEO Sorry for How She Handled Juan Williams Firing | CNN.com
  "I want to apologize to you for not doing a better job of handling the termination of our relationship with Juan Williams. While we stand firmly behind that decision, I regret that we did not take the time to better prepare our messaging and to provide you with the tools to cope with the fallout from this episode. As I’m telling our Member stations in a separate memo today, I also regret that this happened when the staff and volunteers of many stations were deeply engaged in pledge drives."
  (tags: via:womensmediacntr npr firing juanwilliams anti-muslim)
• Tea Party Gone Wild: Reynolds' Racial Remarks Stun Forum Audience | News-Gazette.com
  Reynolds' comments came in response to a question about increasing the number of black and Latino students at the University of Illinois.

  "'I've been in the city and the dichotomy of the women and the men in the minorities, there is a difference in the fact that most minority women, either the single parent or coming from a poor neighborhood, are motivated more so than the minority men,' he said. 'And it's a pretty good reason. Most of the women who are single parents have to find work to support their family. The minority men find it more lucrative to be able to do drugs or other avenues rather than do education. It's easier.'

  "'We need to provide ways that are more incentive, other than just sports avenues, for the men for the minorities to want to go to college and get an education and better themselves before the women have to support them all.'

  "The audience, which at that time numbered only about 25, seemed stunned."

  (tags: via:robschmidt illinois teapartiers election racism)
• Cholera in Haiti: This Isn't Bad Luck, This Is Poverty | Boing Boing
  "Right now, people are dying in Haiti not because we don't know how to save them, but because of a lack of access, both to clean water and to Oral Rehydration Therapy. In other words, they are dying not because of a disease, but because of poverty."
  (tags: health healthcare poverty disease Haiti)

By Arturo R. García

Soledad O’Brien and Almighty Debt come closest to the program’s stated goal toward the end, when she asks Pastor DeForest “Buster” Soaries if he “pulled strings” to help one of his parishoners, Fred Philp, get into college, leading to this exchange:

Soaries: I picked up the phone to make sure that nothing got lost in the sauce and that Fred didn’t fall between the cracks.
O’Brien: What’s that mean, “lost in the sauce”?
Soaries: well, Fred was not your classic college applicant, and he was not heavily sought after in colleges. He had academic challenges, financial challenges, and I didn’t want to trust his high school counselors to be his primary advocates. And so when I heard that Fred was having some difficulty with the college of his choice, I thought it probably would help if I let the president know that Fred is with me.

Unfortunately, aside from that sequence and a couple of other statements later in the show, the issue is ignored. The irony of her church-oriented report is, the devil isn’t in the details – it’s in the lack thereof.

Continue Reading »

Hosted by Arturo R. García

For a fleeting moment, Undercovers was on to something good. In introducing an Evil French Spy Couple, finally we had the chance to see the Blooms test themselves against real adversaries.

Naturally, by the end of “Not Without My Daughter,” they were dispatched. What with the show seemingly stable, ratings-wise, and more episodes on the way, one can only hope that they come back – and bring much-needed tension with them. But the Roundtable certainly won’t forget about them, nor one particular exchange between Steven and Hoyt …

Continue Reading »

by Guest Contributor Hemant Mehta, originally published at Friendly Athiest

Howard University recently hosted a panel of atheists to discuss the topic of “Science and Faith in the Black Community” — certainly a topic that needs far more attention that it has received in the past.

The event was sponsored by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and the panelists included Richard Dawkins, Anthony Pinn, Sikivu Hutchinson, and Todd Stiefel. Mark Hatcher, the president of the Secular Students at Howard University, was the moderator:

Professor Anthony Pinn, Religious Studies at Rice University: “This is an ideal time and this event is an important opportunity to stress the importance for African Americans to critically engage the world and, through reasonable means, assess the issues impinging upon quality of life for African Americans across the country.”

Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson, noted author and activist: ”The Black Church’s policing of the bodies and destinies of black women and the lives of black gays and lesbians represents a bankrupt ‘morality’ which is just as pernicious as that of the Religious Right…if being black and being Christian are synonymous, then being black, female and religious (whatever the denomination) is practically compulsory. Insofar as atheism and humanism provide an implicit rejection of both black patriarchy and ‘authentic’ blackness, those who would dare to come out of the closet as atheists are potential race traitors.”

I only had a chance to watch the beginning, but I can’t wait to sit down and see the entire thing.

In the meantime, any thoughts on what they discuss in the video? Any parts we should watch in particular? (Please leave a timestamp if that’s the case!)

(Thanks to Claudia and Mab for the link!)

• Producer of K-Town Reality Show Writes About His Experiences | 8Asians.com
  "In 2009, I produced a reality show for BET. It was called FIRST IN and the show followed the daily lives of the Compton Fire Department, which has the distinction of being the busiest department and is headed by the youngest battalion chief in the country. BET ordered a 10 episode first season, which did well in North America and also premiered in the U.K. The production experience on FIRST IN was intense and extremely satisfying. I’d gotten the reality bug and started thinking about the next project: K-TOWN. If Aaron Sorkin’s thesis of THE SOCIAL NETWORK was that Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook as a way to reinvent himself, then that was what K-TOWN was to become for me."
  (tags: via:rafushimpo realitytv asianamerican)
• The Color of Legal Pot: California's Prop 19 Ignites Intraracial Tension | AOL News
  "But in California, as everywhere else, the racial lines are blurry, and old stereotypes might prove a poor predictor of how the various populations in the nation's largest, most diverse state will vote when it comes to Proposition 19. As November draws near, there are increasing signs that race will play an important role in the upcoming vote on whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use by adults, though not in the ways one might expect."
  (tags: via:bkackinformant druglegalization california voting intraracial)
• Clark-Atlanta University Takes Zero-Tolerance Stance Against Domestic Violence | Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  'The Call to True Beauty' is the historically black college's zero-tolerance attitude attitude toward the issue.

  "The school hopes to create a network of research, advocacy and prevention across the country, and especially among other HBCUs."

  (tags: via:cocacy atlanta hbcu domesticviolence)
• UCLA's Ongoing Suspension of Admissions to Islamic Studies Worries Students | latimes.com
  "…[s]tudents are concerned that the ongoing suspension could be an indirect way of eliminating the program by starving it of new students and resources. The suspension comes as other U.S. universities are launching similar programs amid growing interest in the study of Islam.

  "'This is just the wrong time to take UCLA out of the dynamic process of teaching about Islam,' said Khaled Abou El Fadl, a UCLA law professor and chairman of the Islamic studies program. 'I'm baffled because UCLA has such a large Muslim community and has had an Islamic studies program for 60 years and has such a good reputation internationally.'"

  (tags: via:shanio islamicstudies college ucla education)
• Playboy's Naked Yoga Video Angers Hindus | news.com.au
  A video from Playboy featuring Sara Jean Underwood, a former Playmate of the Year, performing yoga poses, has angered Hindu elders, in what they see as the latest in a string of attempts to commercialise an ancient and spiritual practice.

  “Hindus are upset over what is the misuse of the age-old and revered system of yoga by Playboy for mercantile greed, and we are urging the organisation to withdraw all its yoga-related products,” said Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism.

  The criticism is the latest salvo to be fired in what some dubbed the yoga wars, a series of disputes over the alleged hijacking of yoga for profit.

  The yoga industry is estimated to be worth $6 billion a year in the US alone, where recently-invented variations include yoga for pets and hot nude yoga.

  (tags: via:paeznyc yoga appropriation sex hindu)
• Asian-American Group Tops Billboard Charts | Korea Times
  "Los Angeles-based hip-hop group Far East Movement (FM) has topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with their song 'Like a G6,' the group announced on their Twitter site Thursday.
  'The group, comprised of four Asian-Americans including two who are ethnically Korean, is the first Asian group to make the Top 10 in the Billboard charts and moved to the No. 1 spot ahead of their 'Free Wired' album to be released on Oct. 25."
  (tags: via:carleandria music billboardcharts koreanamerican)
• EXCLUSIVE Black Women Could Swing November’s Vote | WMC Blog
  "With the midterm election fast approaching, African American women are emerging as crucial to success for Democrats according to voting analysts and the Democratic National Committee. In 20 House races, mostly in southern states, African American women could be the deciding factor.

  Analyst Page Gardner, founder of Women’s Voices, Women Vote, follows women’s voter enthusiasm. Her review reveals a recent increase in interest among unmarried and minority women. And small blocs of voters can be decisive. As Gardner recalls, in the last midterm election, there were 15 House races that were decided by only about 2000 votes. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released an October 14 report by David Bositis, a longtime political analyst, which confirms African American voters could tip many of the most competitive races. Hence, voter turnout among African American women is the key for Democrats success."

  (tags: black vote africanamerican politics)
• The Stampede: Razorfish Reveals Latin America's Untapped Digital Consumer | Fast Company
  "Businesses wondering how to crack the huge lower middle class consumer segments in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico will get some answers this week when Razorfish releases its latest report, "The Stampede." IT details the purchasing power and preferences of "Classe C" consumers, with a focus on their digital aspirations.

  The report's lead author, Joe Crump, speaking with Fast Company from Brazil, shared key findings, and explained what exactly businesses should be doing to reach consumers with a household income of $700-$2,000 per month in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.

  While the Classe C segment is traditionally thought to be primarily television consumers, Crump's research shows that in fact they are just as digitally savvy as the upper classes, if not more. "They want phones that are smart for their lives. They like phones that look high-end, but that have features that suit their lives," says Crump. "YouTube, for example, is key for Brazilians."

  (tags: technology class)

by Latoya Peterson

When I first described the idea to Arturo, it took me close to ten minutes to relate my frustration with our limitations, the problems with our ever growing inbox, the desire to expand our content mix, and the ultimate goal of creating a space which showcased the work and creations of artists and creators of color.

Arturo thought for a minute, then summed up the entire project in one sentence:

“So, if Racialicious is the adversary, Culturelicious is the advocate.” Continue Reading »

By Guest Contributor Alona Sistrunk, cross-posted from HairPolitik

When I was in eighth grade, my English teacher asked each student to place five items in a box that best represented him or her. In my box, I placed a pair of scissors, a brown crayon and three other items I’ve long since forgotten. When it was time to present my “Alona box” to the class, I pulled out the scissors and cut off a piece of my weave! Holding the borrowed hair next to my heart, I professed my undying love for weave. That day, I knew that other people’s hair would always have a special place in my heart!

As I made my way back to my seat, amidst much applause from ALL of the black girls in the room, I felt conflicted. With the same zeal it took to love and publicly praise other people’s hair, privately I hated and damaged my own. Even at the tender age of thirteen I knew that didn’t make sense. The fact that I hated my kinky hair is remarkable since I’d hardly ever seen it! It was always chemically straightened or hidden underneath a barrage of ever-changing weaves. Since all I knew about my hair was that it was “bad”, not having to “deal with it” was quite alright with me.

As I grew older, my love affair with extensions grew even more complicated. How could I continue to despise the thought of “freeing” my naturally kinky hair while at the same time wholeheartedly embracing weaves (read: straight and loosely curled hair) with an almost obsessive devotion. How could I become the strong black woman that I wanted to be, that I claimed to be, if I hated who I was made to be? By the time I reached college, shouts of betrayal from the few black women who were “brave” enough to “unleash” their natural hair made me question my authenticity even more. They asked, “Why do you hate yourself, Sistah? Why are you trying to be White-something you’re not? Why don’t you embrace who you are and let your natural self show?”

Continue Reading »

• Rutgers Rally Aims to Shift Blame for Student's Suicide | mycentraljersey.com
  “Ravi and Wei have become a foil for anti-Asian racism calling for their 'return to their countries,' and ascribing homophobia to their cultures – as if homophobia were not deeply ingrained in the culture of the U.S.,' according to a statement prepared by Robert T. O'Brien, an instructor in the Department of Anthropology."
  (tags: via:carleandria newjersey LGBTQ suicide anti-asian racism protests)
• Bishop Gene Robinson: How Religion Is Killing Our Most Vulnerable Youth | Huffington Post
  "It is not enough for good people — religious or otherwise — to simply be feeling more positive toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Tolerance and a live-and-let-live attitude beats discrimination and abuse by a mile. But it's not enough. Tolerant people, especially tolerant religious people, need to get over their squeamishness about being vocal advocates and unapologetic supporters of LGBT people. It really is a matter of life and death, as we've seen.

  I learned this in my dealing with racism. It's not enough to be tolerant of other races. I benefit from a racist society just by being white. I don't ever have to use the "n" word, treat any person of color with discourtesy, or even think ill of anyone. But as long as I am not working to dismantle the systemic racism that benefits me, a white man, at the expense of people of color, I am a racist. And my faith calls me to become an anti-racist — pro-active, vocal, and committed."

  (tags: via:elton religion lgbt activism race solidarity)
• Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science | The Atlantic
  "In 2001, rumors were circulating in Greek hospitals that surgery residents, eager to rack up scalpel time, were falsely diagnosing hapless Albanian immigrants with appendicitis. At the University of Ioannina medical school’s teaching hospital, a newly minted doctor named Athina Tatsioni was discussing the rumors with colleagues when a professor who had overheard asked her if she’d like to try to prove whether they were true—he seemed to be almost daring her. She accepted the challenge and, with the professor’s and other colleagues’ help, eventually produced a formal study showing that, for whatever reason, the appendices removed from patients with Albanian names in six Greek hospitals were more than three times as likely to be perfectly healthy as those removed from patients with Greek names."
  (tags: via:brooke research medicine science ethnicity bias)
• What Place Does Blackface Have in Popular Culture? | BlackBook
  The question remains, can today’s black performers succeed in disconnecting blackface from its larger historical context? Is nixing minstrel show’s iconic white gloves and freakish red or white drawn-on grins enough to preclude blackface as an act of racism?
  (tags: via:gil875i blackface history race racism)
• Black Preachers Who 'Whoop' — Minstrels or Ministers? | CNN.com
  File this under, "Those Negroes are *so* unusual! And they eat funny food, too!" ::eyeroll:: –AP

  "[Y]et the black church has long been ambivalent about whooping. Some scholars say contemporary black churches are abandoning whooping because they think it's crass. But more white preachers are discovering it through YouTube and by sharing the pulpit with black preachers.

  The most persistent debate over whooping revolves around its legitimacy. Is it fair to call it an art form? What's so hard about a preacher screaming and sweating in the pulpit?

  Those are the critics who say whoopers are minstrels, not ministers.

  "The hairs on the back of my neck stand up when people say that," says the Rev. Martha Simmons, a whooping preacher and scholar. "It is a genuine art form."

  (tags: via:Erin religion Christianity black africanamerican)
• To Modernize, Can Malaysia Move Beyond Race? | Lim Kit Siang
  "The mere idea of changing the affirmative-action system has reopened old wounds in Malaysian society and reactivated the long-running debate on how best to fuse Malays, Chinese and Indians into one nation. The direction Malaysia takes, moreover, has repercussions beyond its shores. The issues raised by Najib’s proposals are relevant to any upwardly mobile developing economy, especially a multicultural one: how to increase wealth and do so equitably."
  (tags: via:jha race wealth policy government)
• elf: Some comments about "Citizenship" | dreamwidth.org
  This is a take down of the Elizabeth Moon essay that sparked a problem at Wiscon, a feminist focused con that is still struggling with inclusion issues. Moon was invited as the guest of honor, but this is a take down of her screed against Muslims/immigrants. – LDP

  "Saying that a group has "the traits of good people" is a direct linguistic claim that they are not, inherently, good people. Saying that Muslims have "the virtues of civilized people" says that they aren't actually civilized; they just share those "virtues," whatever they happen to be. And limiting the claim to "many Muslims" goes further into the previous statement… allows her to imply, without claiming, that the majority of Muslims are not civilized, lack virtues, and are not admirable."

  (tags: via:jha immigration assimilation bigotry islamophobia citizenship religion)
• That's the Street Name… – Yet Another WisCon Post or Why This Black Woman Isn't Your Friend| LiveJournal
  "[W]andering around on my own as one of the new black faces in the crowd I discovered that lots of people felt entitled to walk up to me and demand my time. Someone actually asked me to teach them about race within two seconds of reading my badge. [...] Then there were the people who just stared into the POC safe space room like it was a particularly interesting zoo exhibit complete with pointing. And the infamous panel on Rape in Sci-Fi, and some other less than stellar interactions with random folks who clearly had thoughts about me, but lacked the stones to express them directly. Yeah, thinking back to that weekend I can't remember what possessed me to want to go back to WisCon this year. [...] I don't go to WisCon to be an example of my race, a teaching tool, a teacher, or even to prove that I'm not secretly someone else , I go to WisCon to have the closest thing to a good time that I can at a con."
  (tags: via:jha wiscon fandom race gender class feminism)
• The Ao Dai and I: A Personal Essay on Cultural Identity and Steampunk | Tor.com
  "When I wear an ao dai as a steampunk, I think about it as being more than a costume or a cosplay. My outfits become a representation of myself: Vietnamese and American and steampunk.

  Time is treated by steampunks with a Doctor Whovian “wibbly-wobbly” sensibility: the future lies in the past and exists in the present. Steampunk clothes represent how our imagined histories are based on real history, and whatever steampunk fantasy we construct for ourselves can have a basis in who we are and where we fit in the world. When you see me, you can see a story, part fantasy, part reality. This is the story I give to you. When steampunks dress up, they engage in this performance of identity; when you see us, you see the stories we tell each other.

  Because sometimes the most interesting way to present your steampunk self is with nothing but the clothes on your back."

  (tags: race identity clothing steampunk)