Maybe she didn't get in because she's a bigot.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

- via To (All) the White Girls Who Didn’t Get Into The College Of Their Dreams by Kendra James, Racialicious.

"I would have gladly worn a headdress to school. Show me to any closet, and I would've happily come out of it." 

Double-you tee eff?

This person doesn't know the meaning of the words "satire" or "qualified", yet she feels entitled to attend an Ivy League school?

And don't you bring Liz Lemon into this!

Shut it down, Suzy Lee Weiss. Shut it down.

----------

For further reading and analysis:

Suzy Lee Weiss and White People Problems, by Matt Amaral, Teach4Real

Dorman ’16: Dear Suzy Lee Weiss, by Caitlin Dorman, Brown Daily Herald

An Open Letter to Suzy Lee Weiss, by YingYing Shang, The Huffington Post

Also, this so much: Admissions

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The Transformation of Jake Sully into Braveheart Smurf

The good-white-guy/saviour trope reproduces the very racisim [sic] that it supposedly aims to ‘critique’ and in my view at least, it’s clumsy, painfully bad story-telling that attempts to keep an incredibly boring, repetitive trope alive.

- Westerly

I'm also tired of the old white-guy-going native-to-act-as-savior trope which I believe started with the telling of TE Lawrence's story by Hollywood. I don't care about how one of the "oppressors" feels about his and his people's actions. I want to see how the "natives" feel about having their land and way of life encroached upon by outsiders.

- RCHOUDH

Yes, I saw Avatar. No, I was not impressed. Although, I was not disappointed, since it was pretty much what I expected, especially from a director who had the following exchange with Playboy:

PLAYBOY: We seem to need fantasy icons like Lara Croft and Wonder Woman, despite knowing they mess with our heads.
CAMERON: Most of men's problems with women probably have to do with realizing women are real and most of them don't look or act like Vampirella. A big recalibration happens when we're forced to deal with real women, and there's a certain geek population that would much rather deal with fantasy women than real women. Let's face it: Real women are complicated. You can try your whole life and not understand them.

PLAYBOY: How much did you get into calibrating your movie heroine's hotness?
CAMERON: Right from the beginning I said, "She's got to have tits," even though that makes no sense because her race, the Na'vi, aren't placental mammals. I designed her costumes based on a taparrabo, a loincloth thing worn by Mayan Indians. We go to another planet in this movie, so it would be stupid if she ran around in a Brazilian thong or a fur bikini like Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C.

PLAYBOY: Are her breasts on view?
CAMERON: I came up with this free-floating, lion's-mane-like array of feathers, and we strategically lit and angled shots to not draw attention to her breasts, but they're right there. The animation uses a physics-based sim that takes into consideration gravity, air movement and the momentum of her hair, her top. We had a shot in which Neytiri falls into a specific position, and because she is lit by orange firelight, it lights up the nipples. That was good, except we're going for a PG-13 rating, so we wound up having to fix it. We'll have to put it on the special edition DVD; it will be a collector's item. A Neytiri Playboy Centerfold would have been a good idea.

PLAYBOY: So you're okay with arousing PG-13 chubbies?
CAMERON: If such a thing should ­happen—and I'm not saying it will—that would be fine.

Keeping it klassy, Mr. Cameron. Also, I could clearly tell where most of Avatar's estimated $400 million budget went, and it was not to the writing of the script.

For further analysis, read these:

Avatar: Count the "isms", by Ariel, Feministing.

When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like "Avatar"?, by Annalee Newitz, i09 via Racialicious.

These are movies about white guilt. Our main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color - their cultures, their habitats, and their populations. The whites realize this when they begin to assimilate into the "alien" cultures and see things from a new perspective. To purge their overwhelming sense of guilt, they switch sides, become "race traitors," and fight against their old comrades. But then they go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed. This is the essence of the white guilt fantasy, laid bare. It's not just a wish to be absolved of the crimes whites have committed against people of color; it's not just a wish to join the side of moral justice in battle. It's a wish to lead people of color from the inside rather than from the (oppressive, white) outside.

Think of it this way. Avatar is a fantasy about ceasing to be white, giving up the old human meatsack to join the blue people, but never losing white privilege. Jake never really knows what it's like to be a Na'vi because he always has the option to switch back into human mode . . . When whites fantasize about becoming other races, it's only fun if they can blithely ignore the fundamental experience of being an oppressed racial group. Which is that you are oppressed, and nobody will let you be a leader of anything.


[ . . . ]


Whites need to stop remaking the white guilt story, which is a sneaky way of turning every story about people of color into a story about being white. Speaking as a white person, I don't need to hear more about my own racial experience. I'd like to watch some movies about people of color (ahem, aliens), from the perspective of that group, without injecting a random white (erm, human) character to explain everything to me. Science fiction is exciting because it promises to show the world and the universe from perspectives radically unlike what we've seen before. But until white people stop making movies like Avatar, I fear that I'm doomed to see the same old story again and again.

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I would be on Team Jacob,

but he is only marginally less controlling and manipulative than Edward.

I did see New Moon this weekend, and it left me with one major question: why can't Bella drive herself home? Half the guys in the movie were driving her truck, even though it was her truck. Is Bella incapable of driving her own vehicle if a male character has a scene with her?

The rest of my concerns, and other people's concerns, were covered in the following articles and in the comments underneath them:

New Moon: Old Story?, by Wendi Muse, Racialicious.

[ . . . ] If anything, the title itself adds an ironic twist to a tale that spirals into a stereotypical narrative to which we are all well-conditioned by now, both in films and other more readily-available media in our every day lives. Have you ever heard something along the lines of “dating someone who is [insert ethnic/racial group] ok, but you’d better not marry one!” or “Native Americans are so in touch with nature!”? Have you ever seen a film or tv show that relegated the person of color as the trusty sidekick, loyal friend, or temporary romantic plaything, only then to have the white hero enter in medias res and get all the praise and attention? Have you ever seen a piece from an ad campaign or historical policy discussions in which non-white people are portrayed as animalistic, in both their behavior, thought processes, and athletic ability? Have you, as a person of color, or if you are not, any of your POC friends, ever complained of feeling that their societal value was reduced to their physical appearance or a specific body part?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above, you have already seen New Moon.

[ . . . ]

But beyond all the drama, there is a story that we have seen played out countless times in every other movie, tv show, etc. that decides to employ a character of color, only to put them on time out when the fun really begins. Despite being abandoned by her (technically) dead boyfriend, Bella, in true masochistic form, continues to go after him, even though living and breathing Jacob is a better choice for a beau. Not only is he charismatic, attractive, and fun, he can protect Bella too, which seems to be at the crux of her very existence. Playing the damsel in distress is Bella’s forte, so Jacob could fit the bill as a boyfriend who would suit her most important need. Yet his big character flaw, beyond actually being interested in Bella, is the fact that he’s not white.

Yes, poor Jacob, as “beautiful” (Bella’s words) and awesome as he may be, is one of the Quileute, an indigenous group of the northern Pacific coast. While it’s not explicitly stated in the film that this is the reason Bella doesn’t continue the relationship with Jacob, any audience member who knows a little bit about American film already knows quite well that it’s a rare case when a main character of color, especially if surrounded by other main characters who are white, actually succeeds in the end and remains a romantic interest. [ . . . ]

It was particularly heartwarming when Bella's best vampire friend Alice calls Jacob's family "a pack of mutts" and refuses to continue her conversation with Bella until she "puts the dog out." Which Bella does.

Also, the one black guy in the movie has less than 10 minutes of screen time before he was killed. By the Native Americans/werewolves.

~

New Moon, Same Old Sexist Story, by Carmen D. Siering and Katherine Spillar, Ms. Magazine.

Bella doesn’t come across as an empowered young woman in New Moon, especially as she uses one man to get over another. And yet, as Ms. pointed out in our Spring 2009 article “Taking a Bite Out of Twilight,” Meyer has insisted that she sees Bella as a feminist character, writing on her website that in her opinion the foundation of feminism is being able to choose. But what Meyer fails to acknowledge is that all the choices Bella makes are the one’s Meyer would make—choices based perhaps on her background as a member of the highly patriarchal Mormon church.

This is a film full of gender stereotypes—testosterone-driven male aggression, females who pine away over lost loves, boys who fix motorcycles and the girls who watch them. The one role-reversal in New Moon, where Bella saves Edward for a change, is immediately negated when Bella’s low self-esteem takes center stage. Even as Edward declares his love to her, Bella deems herself “unworthy” of it, being simply human while he’s a vampire and all. Perpetuating the idea that this is true love—torturous, painful, and unrequited—is detrimental to all of us, women and men.

~

New Moon and domestic violence, by Ann, Feministing.

[ . . . ] I was not prepared for the way the movie portrays physical relationship violence, particularly in Native communities. For all the talk of Edward's abusiveness throughout feminist blogworld, I've seen much less written about domestic violence as it relates to the film's competing love interest, Jacob Black -- a 16-year-old Quileute boy who can turn into a werewolf.

At one point in the movie, Bella meets Emily, the fiance of one of Jacob's fellow werewolf-men. As she turns to put a plate of giant muffins on the table, we see that she has a massive scar on one half of her face.

After breakfast, once Jacob and Bella are alone in the car, Jacob explains that Emily's soon-to-be husband lost his temper "for a split second," became a werewolf, and mauled her. (Earlier in the film, he has told Bella that this whole turning-into-a-werewolf-when-you-get-angry thing is actually a genetic trait carried by many men in his community.) He explains that he's worried that he's bad for Bella because he doesn't know if he can control his own anger.

It's more than a little problematic for New Moon to portray violence as an endemic trait among Native men. Yes, domestic violence is a very real problem in American Indian communities. According to Sacred Circle, Native women are more likely to experience violence than any other U.S. population. A full 64 percent of American Indian women will be physically assaulted in their lifetime. They are also stalked at more than twice the rate of other women. But to imply that this is a result of Native people's genes rather than related to other issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, or centuries of racism and marginalization, is inexcusable. (See Latoya's post on Jacob Black for more on Twilight's treatment of Native communities.)

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Data that should help me when I complain to my friends.

Your Race Affects Whether People Write You Back, by christian at OkTrends via Racialicious. Emphases mine, proving that it's not just me being a paranoid weirdo. Have some empathy, readers.

. . . [We at OkCupid.com] processed the messaging habits of almost a million people and are about to basically prove that, despite what you might’ve heard from the Obama campaign and organic cereal commercials, racism is alive and well. It would be awesome if the other major online dating players would go out on a limb and release their own race data, too. I can’t imagine they will: multi-million dollar enterprises rarely like to admit that the people paying them those millions act like turds. But being poor gives us a certain freedom. To alienate all our users. So there.

[ . . . ]

• Black women are sweethearts. Or just talkative. But either way, they are by far the most likely to reply to your first message. In many cases, their response rate is one and a half times the average, and overall black women reply about a quarter more often.

• White men get more responses. Whatever it is, white males just get more replies from almost every group. We were careful to preselect our data pool so that physical attractiveness (as measured by our site picture-rating utility) was roughly even across all the race/gender slices. For guys, we did likewise with height.

• White women prefer white men to the exclusion of everyone else—and Asian and Hispanic women prefer them even more exclusively. These three types of women only respond well to white men. More significantly, these groups’ reply rates to non-whites is terrible. Asian women write back non-white males at 21.9%, Hispanic women at 22.9%, and white women at 23.0%. It’s here where things get interesting, for white women in particular. If you look at the match-by-race table before this one, the “should-look-like” one, you see that white women have an above-average compatibility with almost every group. Yet they only reply well to guys who look like them. There’s more data on this towards the end of the post.

• Men don’t write black women back. Or rather, they write them back far less often than they should. Black women reply the most, yet get by far the fewest replies. Essentially every race—including other blacks—singles them out for the cold shoulder.

• White guys are shitty, but fairly even-handed about it. [I didn't write this; the OkCupid person did. Hello, nice white readers! Keep visiting my blog!] The average reply rate of non-white males is 48.1%, while white guys’ is only 40.5%. Basically, they write back about 20% less often. It’s ironic that white guys are worst responders, because as we saw above they get the most replies. That has apparently made them very self-absorbed. It’s interesting that white males do manage to reply to Middle Eastern women. Is there some kind of emergent fetish there? As Middle Easterners are becoming America’s next racial bogeyman, maybe there’s some kind of forbidden fruit thing going on. (Perhaps a reader more up-to-date on his or her Post-Colonial Theory can step in here? Just kidding. Don’t.)

[Edit: 10/11/2009] I have been reading through the comments on the above article and on websites where the OkCupid findings have been reposted. The comments range from agreement to vehement denial of the results. Many of the commenters don't think that excluding people from your dating pool based on race is racist. These commenters also insist that other factors have influenced the results, like income level, weight, education, and the ability to use correct English and grammar? Hmm. Maybe my chunkiness is overwhelming my bachelors degree, my upward mobility, and my penchant for crafting well-written posts.

Commenter PinkRanger, who happens to be white, says it best on The Frisky:

I find it curious that there are subtle notes throughout this post that imply minorities don’t have good grammer, english, or communication skills….....I find that unnerving.

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Acceptable double standards,

or, This post made me giggle and crystallized my disappointment in Justin Timberlake.


The Race™-Approved White Guys [Humor], by AJ Plaid and Fiqah.

[ . . . ] in an effort to make sure such a pop-culture faux-pas don’t happen again, we’ve composed a list of white guys who are deemed The Race™-sanctioned—any Black female performer can be seen with these white performers and know she’s doing right by Us™. Our criteria:

1. We know they’ve dated, are dating, are married to, have and/or have babies by Black women. (Having Black or Black biracial daughters, adopted or biological, is an added bonus. ‘Cause, as some of us wanna believe, if the white guy can touch/sex up/adopt/father a sistah, they can not possibly be…well, you know the rhetoric.)
2. They can actually have performing-arts skills. (This leaves out Kevin “K-Fed” Federline.)
3. They’re famous in their own right. (This kinda sorta leaves out Gabriel Aubry. Some early men-watchers know him as a model. But many more know him for siring Halle Berry’s baby. If you don’t believe us, say Aubry’s name and “model.” Then say Aubry’s name and “Halle Berry’s baby’s daddy.” Record the results.)
4. We get the 6^th Sense* that they’ve been with sistahs but aren’t talking about it.
5. We sistahs have sensed the sexual tension between these dudes and the sistahs on-screen.
6. They’re not Justin Timberlake.

My favorite special mentions in the category, "You'd Think So . . . But No", include Bill "I'm Not 'Down,' Just Visiting" Maher, and the winner of the "Don't Date Him Gurl" Award, Quentin Tarantino.

For more positive examples, please see this photo spread in Essence.

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Musings from a black woman: I can weigh in on this!

Write What You Know: Limiting or Authentic?, by Neesha Meminger, Racialicious. Emphases mine. It is a long post, but keep reading. You can do it!

The other day, I came across a blog post by Editorial Anonymous, “The CSK is Dead (Long Live the CSK).” The Coretta Scott King Award was established in 1969 and is given to outstanding African-American authors and illustrators of children’s books.

Editorial Anonymous writes,

"If the CSK were in charge, male writers wouldn't be able to comment on what it's like to be a woman. The CSK is saying that you cannot understand what it is to be black in America unless you are black.

"Giving an award for creating art about the experience of race is a wonderful thing. But giving an award for creating art and being a particular race?

"That’s racism in action."

So this set me a-pondering. Is it cool for white people to write from the perspective of people of color? How about, as Editorial Anonymous mentions in the quote above, for men to write from the perspective of women?

[. . .]

[prize-winning white woman author Laurie Halse Anderson] also goes on to write, “Slavery affects all Americans today, regardless of ethnic background, or how long our families have lived here. Slavery is the elephant in our country’s living room. It won’t go away until we acknowledge, understand, and deal with it.”

This is absolutely true. Racism (and slavery) affects every single one of us, no matter what our background. White people should be taking it up as an issue – just as men should be taking up the issue of sexism and misogyny –and talking about it, examining it, exploring, and looking for more equitable and just paradigms. And writing a novel like Chains may be this one white woman’s way of doing that.

So . . . what’s the issue? Is there an issue?

There is the view among some writers that one’s creativity or artistic vision should not be limited or “fenced in,” and restricting writers to write only what they know does exactly that. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard some variation of, “Who wants to read about a liberal white woman from New Jersey/Iowa/Seattle?” [I would!]

However, in an interview on ustrek.org, Sherman Alexie, author of Ten Little Indians and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, as well as the writer/director for Smoke Signals, jokingly suggested a “10-year moratorium for white writers so that Indians can tell their own stories instead of having white people tell them. ‘The fact is, when white authors step away from their typewriters, they’re still white. When I get up from the typewriter, I’m still an Indian.’ He wants those authors to question their privileged positions.”

[. . .]

Next time you go to a bookstore, check the shelves and see how many books there, are in any given genre on any given subject, written by people of color. My guess is that very few genres, if any, will have an accurate representation of global demographics in the titles. And that is because there are so few writers of color getting picked up and supported by publishers in any kind of substantial way (a là Twilight, Harry Potter, The Princess Diaries, etc. And, of course, these examples hold true for film as they were all adaptations of novels).

As a South Asian author writing YA, I know from experience that many editors are hesitant to pick up more than one novel with an Indian-American protagonist written by an Indian-American author – even if the two novels are different genres and about entirely different subjects – because both novels still fall under the Multicultural category. This often creates the “everyone elbowing for the one seat on the bus” phenomenon among the marginalized authors who have to fight for that one lone multicultural spot. But I digress…

Yet, as we all know from visiting our local bookstores, or taking an online stroll through Amazon, there is an abundance of books/films by white writers writing on every subject, in every genre – with more than one writer often covering the same topic for varying perspectives. A publishing house can have several white fantasy authors and historical romance authors, even a few writing about spiritual journeys and all of those books are seen as different books. None of my white author friends have ever had their agents come back to them with, “No, this editor declined because she already has a European title about identity issues.”

I, on the other hand, have heard that exact same phrase, substituting “European” with “Asian.” . . .

I thought about this recently as I was looking at some of my associates who insist upon socializing with and befriending others based on color and gender. I'm not kidding. It is that bad. When you look at them, you feel embarrassed for them. It is hard to believe that they are 30-year-olds living in California, instead of high school seniors going to a segregated Georgia prom.

As I try to explain to people with whom I have enlightening discussions, there is a difference between white men writing about nonwhite and/or nonmale people, and those people writing about themselves. For instance, I know infinitely more about white men than they could ever know about me or any other black woman. I have personally encountered thousands of white men in my short lifetime. That does not include the countless number of white men I have been forced to read about, listen to or watch as part of my "educational" process. In the United States, white men are in your face all the time. Unless you live on a reservation with no mainstream media access, you cannot escape them. I could tell you gross generalizations of what they like, what they don't like, how they grew up, what they think of themselves, the lies they have been told and which they subsequently believe, and who they dream of becoming and why. I could adopt a pseudonym, write Memoirs of Joe Six-Pack, and it would sell millions. (Don't steal my idea! Or, if you do, please blog about it and let me know.)

However, that does not work in the reverse. Some white men have never met any black women, or any nonwhite people at all. Others can count all the colorful friends they have ever had on one hand. They could also count the important black women they have heard of on two hands. An example:

1. Rosa Parks
2. Harriet Tubman
3. Michelle Obama
4. Oprah
5. The overly-mentioned Halle Berry
6. Weezy Jefferson
7. Whoopi Goldberg
8. Tyra Banks
9. um . . .

There aren't even any black women in either of the Night at the Museum movies, as if black women never existed in history, or at least in museums. There are two women (barely) featured in the second one, including Amy Adams, who primarily function as Ben Stiller's younger, better-looking love interest. Or "Amelia Earhart." Whichever.

Based on my above analysis, writing what you know may be limiting, but it can be more authentic. It is revolting that so many books, TV shows and movies that include (white) female characters are written by (white) men. It comes through in the voices of those characters, like when those middle-aged men were writing about those self-involved twentysomethings. It is dishonest, less than believable and disappointing. If more nonwhite and nonmale people were allowed to actively participate in the infrastructure of corporate media, then sure, write whatever you want. But that is not the case, and I do not appreciate having my alleged story told by white men who all share the same one black friend. That is, if my story gets told at all.

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Somebody was in Emergency, Somebody just got out of Jail

I considered reserving judgment about this situation until more evidence was in. However, as I read through the comments on Defamer and Racialicious and Jezebel and other blogs, I thought of the West Wing episode that inspired the name of this post.

Rihanna had to be hospitalized due to her injuries, including a black eye as well as "a swollen split lip and two red and purple contusions on either side of her forehead." Chris Brown is free after posting bail, with no reported injuries. Unless Rihanna fell out of Chris's car during a high speed chase, rolled down a hill and waved her fingers at a hungry animal, I don't know what other evidence is necessary to determine that something very wrong happened early Sunday morning.

I never downloaded or purchased any Chris Brown songs, so I don't have any to delete or destroy.

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I don't even watch Avatar,

but this sounds like standard Hollywood procedure:


Airbending Racism in The Last Airbender, at A Chatterbox.

Recently, an announcement came out regarding the casting for the “The Last Airbender” movie, directed by M. Night Shyamalan and based on the cartoon series “Avatar: The Last Airbender“. You can find the post with the announcement and pictures of the proposed actors here.

Now, even if you don’t know much about the show or were unaware that it was heavily influenced by a variety of Asian cultures, you could at least pick up on the fact that while the drawn pictures of the sister and brother pair, Katara and Sokka, show them as being brown skinned, the actors picked for them are very, very white.

and

M. Night, say it isn't so, by nojojojo at The Angry Black Woman.

. . . one of the things that hooked me about this show was that it was set in an all-Asian world. And it wasn’t fucked up. OK, let me clarify. You know how usually, when there’s an Asian character in an American TV show, he (or more frequently she) ends up as the martial arts master, the (white) hero’s submissive love interest, the dragon lady vamp, or the magical elderly person dishing out nonsensical proverbs and occasionally a can of whoopass? The thing is, all of these stereotypes are present in Avatar to some degree. But because the whole world is Asian, they’re lost in a sea of non-stereotypical, non-exoticized, perfectly normal human beings. How amazing is that? Not only that, but Avatar actually depicts different Asian ethnicities. Though this is a fantasy world, there are clear allusions to the Inuit, Koreans, Mongols, Tibetans, several flavors of southeast Asian, various Indians, and more. The Chinese- and Japanese-analogues of the story actually come in several varieties (Earth Kingdom and Fire Kingdom, Kyoshi warriors, etc.) . . .

. . . I’m sick of this. I know it happens all the goddamn time, but I’m sick of it. This persistent belief on Hollywood’s part that brown people “don’t sell” has to change. I would’ve expected better from M. Night, who is Asian himself, but as we all know, being a PoC doesn’t make one immune to white supremacist thinking, or stupidity . . .

I like "Leavin'" more the next person, but I couldn't get through an entire episode of Summerland. If Jesse McCartney wasn't compelling enough to keep my interest in a WB series (and I watched Young Americans . . . and Pepper Dennis), I don't think he has the talent to convince me that he is both Asian and a skilled martial artist. But since he fits the teen idol mold, Jesse (and others like him, winky wink) gets the part, regardless of his actual qualifications.

.

Seriously, CW?

The CW's New Shows Are Lacking In Color, Jezebel via Racialicious.

'Privileged': The kids are all white, and kind of shallow, too, USA Today.

Bring it on...It's already been broughton!, Stephanie's Soap Box.

The first two links are self-explanatory. In the third one, Stephanie laments that she didn't see the murder of "Q" (the troublemaker with a heart of gold) coming on One Tree Hill. Coincidentally, Q is one of the only nonwhite people on One Tree Hill. I haven't watched an entire episode since Season Two, but I think Skills is still there. So now there is one left.

What can I say that I haven't said before? Oh yes. As I think back to the old 90210, glaringly white though it may have been, in retrospect, the original series looks inspired compared to this latest rip-off of The OC.

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"I’m not mixed, but WTF!"

Freakonomics: "The Plight of Mixed Race Children", by Latoya Peterson, Racialicious:


"Mixed race people, step right up to be essentialized into neat little patterns of behavior!

In a recent paper I [Steven D. Levitt] co-authored with Roland Fryer, Lisa Kahn, and Jorg Spenkuch, we look at data to try to answer that question. Here is what we find:

1) Mixed-race kids grow up in households that are similar along many dimensions to those in which black children grow up: similar incomes, the father is much less likely to be around than in white households, etc.

2) In terms of academic performance, mixed-race kids fall in between blacks and whites.

3) Mixed-race kids do have one advantage over white and black kids: the mixed-race kids are much more attractive on average.

The really interesting result, though, is the next one.

4) There are some bad adolescent behaviors that whites do more than blacks (like drinking and smoking), and there are other bad adolescent behaviors that blacks do more than whites (watching TV, fighting, getting sexually transmitted diseases). Mixed-race kids manage to be as bad as whites on the white behaviors and as bad as blacks on the black behaviors. Mixed-race kids act out in almost every way measured in the data set.

. . . "I was wondering what economic theories they used to get to this point, but surprise - there ain’t none!

We try to use economic theory to explain this set of facts. I can’t say we are entirely successful. If we had to pick an explanation that best fits the facts, it would be the old sociology model of mixed-race individuals as the “marginal man”: not part of either racial group and therefore torn by inner conflict.

~

Apparently, in Steven D. Levitt's mind, mixed children who are neither white nor black, like Tia Carrere, don't exist. Also, I don't drink or smoke, like white people allegedly do. Nor do I fight or get sexually transmitted diseases, like black people allegedly do. However, I do likes my TV. So following Mr. Levitt's calculations, I am one-third black. Maybe I am also one-thirteenth Chickasaw like Stephen Colbert.

.

Thrusting racism upon babies who just got here.

This story greeted me on the Yahoo! front page this morning:

Medical rarity, Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch. (Click on the last picture with the two tiny hands.)

Mixed-race couple Florence and Stephan Gerth show off their twin boys Ryan and Leo in a Berlin hospital. The twins, who have radically differing skin tones, were born by Caesarean section.

Here are some additional headlines about this allegedly rare occurrence:

Twins With Different Skin Color Born In Germany. Not bad so far.

Black and white twins born to German mixed-race couple. Hmm.

Black and white twins: Brothers from the same mother. Yeah, they're from the same mother. They're twins.

Rare twin boys born - one black, one white. Rare? Really?

One-in-a-Million Twins: One White, One Black. I don't think it's one in a million if it keeps happening. Did these reporters skip the genetics sections in their high school biology classes? Both parents pass on their genes to their offspring.

Two in a Million: Twins Born - One Black, One White. Two in a million?! That's actually less rare that one in a million. And the closing line of the article:

"Both kids have definitely the same father," the doctor added.

Nice subtle suggestion of adultery when referring to an interracial family. That's Fox News. Keeping it classy with a K.

Medical marvel in Germany. Marvel? I'm not even certain that this baby is a medical marvel in 2008.

Miracle twins, one dark-skinned, one light, born to interracial couple. It would be a miracle if they could heal the sick, or turn water into wine. But fraternal twins with different skin colors is not a miracle.

Twins defy all odds. What odds? As far as I can tell, this was not a high risk pregnancy, and the babies did not pop out significantly early.

Woman gives birth to 'black and white twins'!. Exclamation point!

This whole thing simply confirms what kind of ignorant people run our news media. People who still cannot grasp the concept that skin color literally does not define who you are.

It reminded me of Andrew Kennedy, the comedian, who was born to a Colombian mother and a British father. And a black grandmother. Yet he came out white like his father, just like many other Latino people. But sometimes when Mr. Kennedy speaks Spanish to Latinos of a browner persuasion, he gets stared at in horror, as if he were a dog that started talking. In his act, he also mentions that he and his siblings all look different, with their various sizes and colors. So when they get together, they look like a bunch of strangers gathered at a bus stop. I couldn't find that specific clip, but this one is fun, too:

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Same story, different day.

Update on the Dirty Girls Social Club Movie, and Lessons in Latinidad Real for Hollywood - Part One, by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, via Racialicious.

If you can't watch the video, Alisa talks about the difficulty of getting her bestselling book, The Dirty Girls Social Club, made into a movie. To sum up the situation, the white, non-Hispanic males who run every major movie studio don't think the six educated women in the novel are real Latinas. Because they're not "street". Plus, there isn't an A-list actress attached to the film yet. Why? Because the A-list Latina actresses have been advised by their management teams--more white males--not to play Latina roles. Nice.

None of this surprises me at all. However, every time I hear a story like this, whether in person or in print or online, the women telling the stories are usually shocked and hurt. These women have worked hard, played by the rules, paid their dues, achieved above and beyond their peers in their field, proved their talent, worth and potential. And still they get shot down. Every time. Just like they did at the end of my book. So weird that Alisa mentioned WWII movie Schindler's List, too. Hmm. Maybe I have The Shine. Either that or I can see the blatant, continual racism and sexism that persists in Hollywood.

I can't turn my head without seeing a story about how the success of Sex and the City: The Movie has proved that women can open big-budget films. Quoi? I didn't hear the same clamoring over Indiana Jones and the Senior Citizen proving that old white guys can still open action films. I actually had to hear Tattoo on Big Boy in the Morning whining about how terrible Sex and the City was--even though he went to see a completely different movie this weekend--because women who were over the age of 40 and/or overweight went to see the movie in groups and then talked about it. Also, Tattoo didn't like that the movie starred four "old" women. Thankfully Liz and Big Boy totally called him out on his insanity, considering Tattoo very recently had LAP-BAND surgery to combat the 280+ pounds of fat on his own body.

Back to Dirty Girls. I love this book so much that it has been my signature gift to all of my closest friends, who have also loved it. It clearly has an audience in multiple countries. Yet, the movie can't get made because the characters aren't "real Latinas", "we don't get the whole Latino thing", and "nobody would want to see the fat girl get the guy", even though about 15% of the US population is Hispanic, and (allegedly) approximately 62 percent of female Americans are considered overweight.

So what kind of woman is acceptable for mass consumption? Last Comic Standing's Esther Ku. I knew I wasn't the only one who didn't like her.

"Chopsticks"! "Ching chong"! Even though she's Korean. Ha! "I don't want to marry an Asian guy; I like regular people." The hilarity!

Ugh.

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It's not just me.

Here are even more comments to go along with yesterday's post, Another discussion that needs to start happening.

I agree with Shelby :

Demographics: I’m a 21 yr old black woman from a middle class (99%white) background.

I can identify SO much with the other black women here who haven’t gotten ANY love from anyBODY. And it does chip away at my self-esteem. Big time. No one approached me, ever, in high school and I figured that was just because white guys didn’t date black girls in my town. But the REAL blow didn’t come til college when virtually no guy, of any race, has ever approached me. I would love to be in a relationship with a caring person of any race, but it just doesn’t happen. The only time black guys try to holla is if they think I’m mixed. Once they find out both my parents are black they’re done. And the only other guys that even try to talk to me are drunk white boys who want me to shake my @ss for them.

Needless to say it’s all really disheartening. And I could be in a relationship right now if I lowered my standards and allowed myself to be exoticized. But who really wants that?

It’s hard being aware. [I hear that. Things were easier when I thought I was just an unpopular dork.] I can’t forget the fact that, as a black woman, I have virtually no value to the general population. And I see this fact confirmed just about every day :/

The following comment from Korolev sounds kinda familiar, emphases mine:

People like who they like, and that can be across ethnic lines. Nobody should feel ashamed for being attracted to someone they like.

Human beings are rather simple when it comes to matters such as sex or relationships. Somehow I strongly doubt that anyone starts a relationship thinking “ah-hah, this is my primary method of subliminally rejecting my culture and betraying my people! Surely this relationship is the perfect vehicle in which to express my self-loathing and complete my goal of destroying my background!” I doubt anyone thinks that when getting into a relationship. Usually…. it’s, um, a lot more simple and visual than that.

Now, a lot has been made of “racial fetishes”, and they exist, sure. But pretty much everyone has a “fetish” of some sort. If men tend to date skinnier woman, do they have “thin” fetish? And when woman constantly tell me “I’ll only date taller men”, isn’t that a type of fetish itself? And if someone exclusively dates within their own ethnic group, isn’t that a form of “fetish”?

At the end of the day, if someone really believes that all races are 100% equal, that all of humanity is truly united by our shared genetic template, then they wouldn’t care. Those who argue that inter-racial relationships “destroy self-esteem” are secretly racists - as in, they believe differences exist between races.

Again, if you truly believe that race is unimportant, you wouldn’t care who was dating who. All of humanity is the same. When you look at an Asian woman dating a black man or a black man dating a Native-American woman or a white man dating an Arabic woman or an Indian man dating an Asian woman, you shouldn’t think of their ethnicity, merely their common humanity.

I know that some people get angry when they seem members of their own ethnicity having so much success with inter-racial relationships. This form of envy is particularly acute in the Asian community. But at the end of the day, if you really, 100% believe that all of humanity is equal, you wouldn’t care who dated who.

Those who care about such things often see race - as in they think in terms of “our women” or “their men” or “our group”. That’s a form of racism - let me be clear - anyone who believes that race has any biological significance is a racist. That’s what the dictionary says. Therefore, it is racist to say things like “our women” or “our men”.

I know that some people get “hurt” when the perceive “their own” woman abandoning them. However, those thoughts are completely racist and unacceptable. No one should ever feel ashamed about who they like, no one should ever feel a “duty” to marry within ethnic lines, and no one has the right to tell someone “your love is just a fetish”.

To oppose interracial relationships is to oppose the unity of humanity. The human species is united, gloriously and completely through our common genetic template, a wonderful unity that is sadly realized by too few in this world.

We are a united species, in truth through DNA.

DNA? Oh, the hilarity. The jokes continue with eric daniels again. Emphases mine, sic and run-on sentences his:

. . . My problem with Black Feminists and Black Women in general [Yes, all of us] streotype black men in every way since the 80’s just like Black Men telling me in the 1980’s (and today)saying that “sistas want too much” in a relationship and white women are easier to deal with, and with “many” Black Women say that there are no ‘eligble Black Men left’ with the same excuses, so what is an eligible man if you saw “Something New” in Kris Turner’s flawed world an IBM (Ideal Black Man)was a brotha with

1. an advanced degree
2. makes high 5 figures and up
3. lives in 6-7 figure home/apt
4. goes to expensive restraunts
5. dresses right and has good, clean white teeth and metrosexual
6. Is close to making partner at the law firm

So if these are the standards that educated Black Women and increasing numbers of the middle and working class have for black men these days, then I say with all due respect date White, Asian, Hispanic and men of other races and I hope you find that common connection and future happiness at least I know where Black Women stand in the modern dating/marriage game.

Well, good for him.

Elton's response to Korolev made more sense:

. . . Why can’t we all just be colorblind? And forget the past few hundred years of colonialism, oppression, and injustice? Asian-American men are not ignorant of history. We discuss terms like “White knight” and “White worship” because they are relevant to the history of our patterns of immigration to America and the rest of the Western world, and how we were treated by the dominant white powers. Let me ask you this: Do you know why so many Asian men (historically and even now) run laundries, restaurants, grocery stores, and gas stations? Did you notice that during WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War that the US occupied three major Asian countries? Do you know the profound impact on Asian and American culture the past 60 years of occupation has had? The American phenomenon of Asian babies being adopted predominantly by white families and the outmarriage of Asian women to black and white American men, beginning with soldiers, are but two of the myriad effects of cultural imperialism. But hey, at least we have Tiger Woods and Chinese buffets.

G. Leigh wrote:

@lunanoire

” Also, there is less of a problem for beautiful black women who also appear mixed.”

I’d really like to nip this kind of thinking in the bud.

I am one of those women. I appear mixed, but both of my parents are Black. I am beautiful, I am educated, talented, fun, single, no children, financially independent, normally neurotic, living in Manhattan and an artist. I get looks from Black men, and I have had two marriage offers from Black men who, I realized, really just wanted a trophy, a doll to look at and play with. When they realized I was a 3-dimensional woman with a brain and feelings and opinions this made them very uncomfortable. I said “no” to both proposals. (However, I don’t think that particular issue is limited to Black women–I think that a man wanting to marry a woman for the wrong reasons is just common to womankind).

Since then I have dated a Black man from Trinidad (who didn’t want to get married), a WASP, a Cuban and the latest one a nice Jewish boy from Long Island. No Black man has asked me out in five years. I’ve been holla-ed or inappropriately approached (”hey baby” or worse, etc.) but that is it. When I ignore that type of approach, the standard response is “I bet if I was white you’d like me.” I’ve heard that so many times it doesn’t phase me anymore.

When I used to go to parties, clubs or events with primarily Black people, many women would clutch their men when I walked in the room. I’ve stopped attending those kind of events.

I have had Black men let me know that they were dating a White or Asian woman–and the emphasis was always on the woman’s race, and it was held up to me as some kind of personal victory for them. A kind of “See? You light and everything but I got someone better than you–I got the authentic, non-white woman.” It’s hard to explain, but anyone who has had this experience will know exactly what I am talking about. I think it’s really sick and pathological.

Things are not easier for a fair-skinned, “beautiful” , maybe mixed-Black woman. My pysche is that of a Black person, specifically my daddy who was raised in the segregated south. I find it hard to believe that a man outside my race is interested in me for other than my looks. (Another issue of being raised primarily by my dad. I was taught to pay more attention to my brains than my looks, so when my outside is paid more attention than my inside it still freaks me out). Whenever a man who is non-Black shows an interest in me I pretty much don’t know how to respond, and the man thinks I am not interested in him and backs off.

I pretty much ruined things with the nice Jewish boy, and am working on getting that back. I couldn’t stand the stares; I thought it was because we were a interracial couple. Finally I confessed to one of my friends why I stopped dating him and she looked at me like I was crazy. She said, “People stared at you two because you’re both really good-looking. You ass.” (it was said with love). I really didn’t get it. And I had pushed away someone who really liked me, and was funny, sweet and kind.

So, again, what is supposed to be easier for us yallas in relationships? Let me tell you, absolutely nothing. That is a big, fat myth.

I would like to get married and have a family. I would welcome a decent man of any race. If I do not deal with my “stuff”, I am going to miss out on happiness.

Who has time for revenge dating when just dating period can be so hard?

Then eric daniels wrote something about The Sopranos, and if we were bringing up TV shows, I wanted to interject with my feeling about Best Week Ever, because I love that show.

Anyhoodle, later lemure wrote (emphases mine):

This discussion (and that photo) is extremely fascinating to me, despite the regurgitation of some painful stereotypes and memories.

I spent alot of angry years on and off lamenting about why I spent so many nights watching White girlfriends, who I really thought I, and many of my girlfriends of color, were more attractive than both inside and out, get asked out and fawned over on endless dates. It was particularly hard in college, because I left my diverse NYC for an Ivy, AND it was my first allowed entry in the dating world.

I knew it wasn’t because I wasn’t good looking. Plenty of White, Black, and everything in between told me I was hot, hell a whole frat was infatuated. But, all these men just saw me as a sex object, not a potential relationship. I was very young, naive, and clueless. While I kept the wolves at bay, the entire experience left me very jaded and feeling quite tainted. I’m not biracial (not in the most immediate sense), at the time my appeal was based on form, face, probably an adorable Grenadian/Brooklyn accent and to both alot of Black (cuz they were raised with White people) and White men on being “something new”, especially since this NY kid wasn’t fearful of any new color.

I have two South Asian girlfriends, one is Pakistani, one is Indian and their experiences were the same as mine. I moved back to NY after college, with the bitterness of four years, that slowly subsided with age and wisdom. I learned to stay away from the type of guys I met in college and after a few long term relationships and many very, very short term. I decided not to date White men anymore. I dated plenty, too many issues of various kinds. My head knows that it isn’t fair, but my feelings are different. My South Asian girlfriends moved to NY, and you know what? They pretty much gave up on White men too, similar reasons. The Pakistani girl is trying to find her perfect Pakistani Muslim knight (she’s beautiful, but the ones she meets find her “too dark” and too career driven). My Bengali friend is American and finds it hard to meet a soul mate that matches her, but she’s shown interested in some cute East Asian doctors that work with her. I’m very tough and picky, but I didn’t find the perfect Grenadian man, but I’m in love with another Caribbean, Puerto Rico but close enough.

I don’t condone the namecalling in the name of bitterness, but I understand it. How one is perceived in desirability has a HUGE effect on one’s self esteem. Being a sex object can make you feel both powerful and powerless, lack of attention can make you feel non existent. Hell years ago I said to myself Asian men and Black women should try dating each other. Its worked pretty well in the islands (incl my tree) for awhile. Yeah love is love, but it would be nicer if everyone was getting it.

That's all for now! Feel free to leave comments. Also, I noticed no one has commented on my chimpanzee post, and I thought that post was funny! Chimpanzee vote. Ha ha? Because they're fictional? And even if they were real, they're not human? It's funny, gosh darn it!

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Another discussion that needs to start happening.

Although this one is not as pressing.

Interracial Dating: Interracial Dating with a Vengeance, by Nadra Kareem at Racialicious.

I liked the comments better that the post, specifically in response to the author's assertion that

. . . there are plenty of Asian women available for Asian men to date and plenty of black men available for black women to date (though black women reportedly have the lowest marriage rate of any other group of women), but the perception is that they are being left behind, and perception influences action.

Where are these "plenty of black men"? I don't see "plenty of black men" anywhere I go.


lunanoire wrote:

. . . It’s easy for others to dismiss the pain of those who feel unwanted b/c of their race/gender if you have not gone through it yourself. There is a world of difference between discussing “when” in reference instead of “if.”

If you’re in an environment where few people are interested in someone of your race/gender, it’s a blow to the psyche. Everybody needs love.

If you think this issue has been blown out of proportion, you are likely to not be on the bottom of the race/gender totem pole, and you can view dating/marriage/etc. as something that is a likely possiblity in your future, depending on the state for queer couples.

In the Af-Am commnity, there are “plenty” of single men, but the number disparity still exists b/c of jail/prision/early death. Many men who do have a job and/or education know that they are highly desired by women from many ethnicities, so they don’t have to commit to any woman if they don’t want to. If he does, he can pick a better-looking woman than he would otherwise if the gender disparity did not exist.

Someone in a much earlier thread metioned that many black girls in mixed environments have friends but few dates. For some, this pattern continues into adulthood.

B wrote:

I’m a black woman married to a white man. I don’t think that I was at all influenced by those negative perceptions of black men. Rather, I wasn’t around as many black men, and it was as simple as that. (My husband and I met in a college class together that was in my major and his minor field. While the university was fairly diverse, my major was pretty lily-white, with only a few other black folk.) In general, we find that people are more surprised at our pairing than one of a white woman and black man, but that we haven’t met nearly as much resentment and anger as the latter pairing. Usually, people just don’t believe we’re together, or try to figure out who we possibly could have ended up together. (I tend to think the “where did you meet” line of inquiry is a little suspect when people ask it after they know our occupations and hear us speak; we’re both humanities grad students with distinctly Northeastern accents. I notice that people aren’t as compelled to ask, say, same-race couples where one is an engineer with a southern accent and the other is a ballet dancer with an old-money New England accent where *they* met.) Incidentally, I did date a Chinese-American man in college who had a Chinese-American friend who was also dating a black woman. One night when the 4 of us were hanging out (this might have been when we were still friends/before we dated?), one of the guys joked that it was an ideal situation for all the Asian men and black women that get left out of interracial dating, so it does seem to be an issue that occurs to people, even if it doesn’t seriously factor into who they end up with.

B-T-dubs, I don't currently know that many Asian men (or many men in general, since almost all my friends are women), so that "ideal" situation is a hypothetical one for me.

Ron wrote:

. . . I find it ironic that black men complain about black women who date out considering the ratio is almost 10:1.

B then wrote in response to another comment:

Rachel,
I think that your point is heartening–that this stuff isn’t as big a deal for younger people. I also agree with you–I think people in my parent’s generation got way more flack than interracial couples do now.

That said, I’d push you to think how common those interracial relationships are once you’re out of college, and once folks start getting married and/or taking other steps establishing life-long commitments. I personally dated a few non-black guys that were down with me at school, but weren’t going to take me home to meet their mothers. In both the case of me (black woman) and my husband (white guy), a bunch of our friends of varying races *dated* interracially at one time or another, but none of them have domestic partners or fiances or spouses or live-ins that are of a different race.

Ali wrote:

Well I’m not in a interracial relationship and technically I don’t even really date (this is not necessarily by choice) but this subject is near and dear to my heart so I’d like to offer my two cents. Man, this is an emotional topic, so hopefully I don’t get too rambly. lunanoire, I co-sign your post inside and out! Especially, “If you’re in an environment where few people are interested in someone of your race/gender, it’s a blow to the psyche. Everybody needs love.” SO TRUE. I’m still dealing with a lot of self perception crap that resulted from growing up in a nearly all white suburb. To this day both of my brothers date white women (pretty much exclusively), at first it used to piss me off but when I really thought about it I realized they don’t deserve to be with any woman they couldn’t fully appreciate be she black or otherwise. I strongly disagree that there are plenty of black men around for black women to date. Now, if this is some how true and I am mistaken would someone please kindly point me in the direction of the black man buffet? Even as a preteen I could tell that the black women in my area had to try SO much harder to impress black men. Beautiful black women were passed over (and in some cases flat our ignored) for Latinas and white girls regularly . . .

london wrote:

interracial relationships are the norm over here in london…
my generation - i am 42 and a first gen black briton - have grown up with mixed race kids and known their parents…
it could be that most kids here in london now are mixed.. they are mainly all shades of brown..
i don’t even notice..
couples are couples and kids are kids.. it’s not a perceptible issue…

This comment made me giggle. Despite london's claim, I don't think that the UK's child population is made up of mostly mixed individuals. Even if the children were indeed "mainly all shades of brown", there are many people that are simply born brown because both of their parents are brown. I refer you to the main character of Bend It Like Beckham.

And then there's the crazy. eric daniels wrote:

I don’t want to be mean to all the people involved in IR relationships particularly on this topic but WHO GIVES A DAMN !!!! . . .

. . . B and Rachel, I don’t buy the "lack of eligible Black Men in 2008 no more than I did in the 80’s when professional and stable working- class Black Men run that nonsense by me. In the 80’s I used to say there were no Black Rocker Boho types who would like Black Flag, Duran Duran, and Luther or Al Green so I dated White and Hispanic women for revenge for Black Women supposedly rejecting me. Then some astute Brothas told me you would get the same share of women of any race if you opened your eyes.

And in a way they were right, I have dated Professional, Working Class women of all races since 1987 and I am a working - class Black Male and I can hang in any social circle. I am tired of of hearing the same social pathologies reserved for black men by Black Women, White Men and the Media, This is what the Civil Rights movement was about, securing every opprounity for African- Americans to be able to enjoy the fruits of Ameican Life, economical, politcal and socially and that also means romance.

It just happens in the last 30 years, Black Women have taken the promise of those brave men and women who marched, were lynched, and violently killed for that right so nearly 50years we can talk about Black Women and Asian Men dating or marriage. But those kids will not be black males (they will be biracial) but they will live the father’s lifestyle and have his values which in many cases they will be culturally white, hispanic and asian that’s the way it is st8 no chaser.

Then Treacle wrote in response:

To eric daniels:

"B and Rachel, I don’t buy the “lack of eligible Black Men in 2008 no more than I did in the 80’s when professional and stable working- class Black Men run that nonsense by me."

You’re wrong. This is why we have things like census data.

According to the 2000 US Census, there are only 7 single black men for every 10 single black women and that does not count the 1 out of 15 black men who are incarcerated.

Therefore, there is a shortage of eligible black men.

Then eric daniels wrote:

Treacle, There are 18 million Black Men Living in the U.S.A. 450,000 are in jail the other 500,000 are on probation or legal supervision. Most Black Men are not in jail, on the DL or mentally screwed up. Many Black Men are plumbers, construction workers, barbers, salespeople, small buisnesman or working 2-3 jobs like many other Americans. I would venture to say that the number of Americans holding advanced degrees is about 15-25 % percent of Americans.

Stop watching "Something New" and "Waiting to Inhale" or any Black Feminist track, most black men don’t call black women “bitches and hos” nor are they down at the gay bar picking up a ‘gay thug’ or a ‘drag queen’ nor are we gangbanging and killing each other for property we don’t own, and many of those stats you site generally only count Black Men who either have…

Advanced Degrees
Make a certain amount of money
Own a home, or have assets . . .

Waiting to Inhale? Does this movie involve Angela Bassett burning her trifling husband's clothes, too?

Cheers!

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A discussion that needs to start happening now.

Jerusalem Cries for Peace, by Jehanzeb Dar at Racialicious and Broken Mystic.

. . . The Palestinian people have suffered a great deal and their story is still neglected by the mainstream media, which is what frustrates Muslims around the world, myself included. A common mistake that many anti-Islamic and even well-intentioned conservatives make is that they think anti-Zionism equates anti-Jewish (yes, I’m one of those people who refuse to say anti-Semitism, since Arabs are Semites too, not just Jews). This is absolutely false. Another mistake is that they think Islam teaches Muslims to hate and kill Jews. Again, this is false. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has nothing to do with Judaism and Islam; this conflict needs to be understood in light of historical context. More than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were brutally and systematically evicted from their homes by the terrorist organizations known as Irgun, Stern Gang, and the Haganah, “the precursor of the Israel Defense Forces.” Examples of where these groups evicted Arabs can be found in the villages of Deir Yassin and Duwayma. According to Dan Freeman-Maloy of ZMag, the Zionist forces controlled 78% of mandatory Palestine by 1949. They declared the State of Israel after razing “some 400 Palestinian villages to the ground.” As mentioned earlier, to this day, the creation of Israel is infamously known around the Muslim world as a great historic injustice and/or the Nakba (Catastrophe). In the years that followed, the Israeli military occupation (or the Israel Defense Force) patrolled the Palestinian settlements for “security” purposes. This is not to insult or stereotype the Israreli Defense Force, but just to point out that so many horrific crimes against innocent Palestinians have been committed by countless Israeli soldiers, who are not branded “terrorists” or charged with war crimes. In 1982, the prime minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, ordered the massacre of Palestinians in Lebanese refugee camps. He formed an alliance with a Lebanese Christian militia-men, who were permitted to enter two Palestinian refugee camps (Sabra and Shatila) in an area controlled by the Israeli military. They massacred thousands of Palestinian civilians — something that the Palestinians and the Muslim world will never forget . . .

. . . We are told that the Palestinians “hate freedom and democracy”. This is probably one of the biggest insults to human intelligence. By promoting this mentality, we are ignoring what is called cultural responses. When people are oppressed by a foreign invader, they develop a stronger connection with their culture and religious background. When the British occupied India, for example, they stripped the Indians of their language, culture, and religion. Many Indians who studied in England would come back to the India and didn’t even know how to speak their own language. They were culturally confused. The rebellion against the British was sparked by the violent and brutal treatment of Indians, but the Indians also used their culture and religion(s) to energize and motivate them even more. “Why should we be like them?” they thought, “they’re taking away our culture and religion.” So they established a stronger and more patriotic connection with their ethnic identity and used that to fuel their energy to rebel. Cultural response . . .

. . . Do I know what it’s like to have a Loved one murdered? Do I know what it’s like to see my home demolished? Do I know what it’s like to be evicted and deported to another country? I have not been in these situations, yet I am deeply saddened and disturbed whenever I hear about what happens. Both the Israelis and Palestinians are suffering heavily, and whenever I speak about Palestinian causalities, I am accused of being a “terrorist sympathizer.” I would like Israelis (and those who support Israel) to know that Muslims do not hate Jews and that there is nothing within Islam that teaches us to hate or kill them. Whenever Palestinians are killed by the Israeli military forces, those soldiers are never called “terrorists.” When Israel bombed Lebanon in 2006, we were told by the mainstream media that it was an act of “self-defense.” And yet, when a Palestinian defends him/herself, it is an act of “terrorism.” I had a neighbor who was once an American soldier stationed in Israel. He saw with his own eyes, Israeli soldiers taking two Palestinian teenagers on top of a hill and then beating their faces in with rocks. He wanted to stop it, but his fellow soldiers held him back and told him to “let it be.” The next day, as my neighbor told me, there was nothing on the news about what happened to those two Palestinian teenagers. What were their names? Who were their families? Who cares? . . .

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Things I liked this week

Jokes that objectify women, by Matsu at media girl.

Let She Who Is Without Period Stains Throw The First Tampon, by Margaret Cho at The Huffington Post, via Feministing.

The Slut on Gossip Girl, by Jessica Wakeman at The Huffington Post, via Feministe.

Know Your Limit . . . For Rape?, by Cara at The Curvature, via Feministing.

Montana, nation's least-black state, confronts issues on MLK Day, by Rob Chaney at Billings Gazette, via Racialicious.

How would Chris Matthews sound if he talked to men like he talks to women?, by Hart Seely at Slate, via Feministing.

Also, I am now cross-posting my relevant musings at BlogHer.com, so tell your friends in China!

Happy reading!

Update 1/28/2008 - I forgot this one:

That fragile male ego, by media girl at media girl. including privilege, a poem for men who don't understand what we mean when we say they have it, by D. A. Clarke.

. . . privilege is being
smiled at all day by nice helpful women, it is
the way you pass judgment on their appearance with magisterial authority,
the way you face a judge of your own sex in court and
are over-represented in Congress and are not strip searched for a traffic ticket
or used as a dart board by your friendly mechanic, privilege
is seeing your bearded face reflected through the history texts
not only of your high school days but all your life, not being
relegated to a paragraph
every other chapter, the way you occupy
entire volumes of poetry and more than your share of the couch unchallenged,
it is your mouthing smug, atrocious insults at women
who blink and change the subject -- politely -- privilege
is how seldom the rapist's name appears in the papers
and the way you smirk over your PLAYBOY . . .

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