Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Death] Absolutely awful: "As many as 50 refugees were found dead in a parked truck in Austria near the Hungarian border on Thursday, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the discovery had shaken European leaders discussing the migrant crisis at a Balkans summit. ...Merkel told a news conference at the summit on the West Balkans in Vienna: 'We are of course all shaken by the appalling news. This reminds us that we must tackle quickly the issue of immigration and in a European spirit—that means in a spirit of solidarity—and to find solutions.' Tens of thousands of people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have put to sea this year in the hope of reaching Europe, often dangerously packed into small vessels that were never designed to cross the Mediterranean."
[CN: Privacy violations] Annalee Newitz has found that the vast majority of female Ashley Madison members were probably faked accounts. "We're left with data that suggests Ashley Madison is a site where tens of millions of men write mail, chat, and spend money for women who aren't there."
[CN: Transphobic violence] Your liberal media: "2015 has seen a disturbing spike in the number of recorded murders of transgender people, and especially transgender women of color, in the U.S. Though the trans community has historically been disproportionately targeted by violence, the murders of seven trans women of color in just the first two months of 2015 alarmed groups like the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, which warned of an 'epidemic of violence' against trans women. ...But beyond [Janet Mock]'s powerful MHP segments, and despite growing national attention, national cable news outlets have largely ignored the alarming spike in murders of trans women of color. Between July 27 and August 21, neither CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC aired a segment drawing attention to the murders."
[CN: Mass shooting] James Holmes, the man who opened fire in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in July 2012, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others, has been sentenced to 12 consecutive life sentences plus 3,318 years in prison.
In good news: "The fight for gender equality is making slow but notable progress in Saudi Arabia, where women will be allowed to vote for the first time in upcoming December elections. ...Voter registration began over the weekend in cities Madinah and Makkah, where a small number of women showed up to register. Jamal Al-Saadi was one such woman, saying that she was 'quite ready' for this time to come. 'The participation of Saudi women in the municipal elections as voters and candidates was a dream for us,' Saadi said. 'The move will enable Saudi women to have a say in the process of the decision-making.' Voting for all women will be opening in upcoming weeks."
[CN: Homophobia] What will it take for this person to be fired? "Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis is trying for one last anti-gay Hail Mary after the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied her request to stay a federal order calling on her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Davis will petition U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan for a stay on the order, according to Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver who is representing Davis in court."
[CN: Flood; displacement; death] I can't imagine a more pitiful, contemptible thing: Former FEMA Chief Michael "Brownie" Brown marks the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with an article headlined: "Stop Blaming Me for Hurricane Katrina."
Whoa: "Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have reportedly created a school of synthetic swimming microfish, smaller than the width of a human hair, which can sense and respond to chemicals in their environment. The technology potentially could be used to neutralize toxins such as bee venom or even deliver drugs to targeted areas of the body. The multipurpose fish-shaped microrobots swim around efficiently in liquids, are chemically powered by hydrogen peroxide and magnetically controlled. These proof-of-concept synthetic microfish will inspire a new generation of 'smart' microrobots, researchers said."
[CN: Racism] Let the redemption begin! "Paula Deen Joins Dancing with the Stars Season 21 Cast." I can't wait to keep not watching that show!
Is a new Adele album imminent? I HOPE SO!!!
And finally! "20+ Crossbreed Dogs That Will Make You Fall in Love with Mutts." Zelda approves!
In the News
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Racism; misogyny] David Letterman is retiring. And now the search begins for the white dude to replace him! Cosmo, however, helpfully suggested "17 Women Who Should Replace David Letterman When He Retires in 2015." Amadi noted, "of course 1 & 2 on the list are racist embarrassments." (Which is obviously not the only problem with some of their suggestions.) To which I replied, "And for many of the women on that list, a late-night hosting gig would be a professional step backwards. Well done, Cosmo!" It's literally like they just threw together a suitably diverse list of women, without any regard whatsoever for their actual talents or careers.
(Like, for example, the suggestion of Melissa McCarthy. Yes, Cosmo, I have seen her blockbuster films, which is why I know that suggesting she host a late-night talkshow is a fucking insult. On the other hand, if you were aware that there are many hilarious fat ladies on the planet, including those whose current career trajectory would trend upwards by the gig, maybe you would have suggested Aidy Bryant.)
[CN: Disablism; racism; death] "The Boy Who Ran: The Life and Death of Avonte Oquendo." I have no words for the catastrophic failing of Avonte's tendency to run having not been communicated to the people charged with his care. Such a profoundly sad and infuriating case.
[CN: Homophobia] Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich "resigned from his post Thursday after an almost two weeks-long public backlash against his controversial appointment. Mozilla, which owns the popular Web browser Firefox, immediately came under fire for promoting Eich, who donated $1,000 to support California's Proposition 8 campaign to ban same-sex marriage in 2008." Eich had promised to keep his personal politics separate from his work, but, somehow, lots of people weren't convinced that someone who actively donated to a campaign of discrimination would be willing and able to do that.
[CN: Misogyny; reproductive coercion] I don't even know where to begin with this garbage: Boomer Esiason says Mets' player David Murphy, who missed Opening Day because he was using his union-negotiated paternity leave to be with his wife Tori and their new baby, "should have insisted his wife 'have a C-section before the season starts. I need to be at Opening Day, I'm sorry.'" Yeah. You are sorry, Esiason. Fuck you.
[CN: Racism; worker exploitation] Uncle Bubba's, the restaurant owned by Paula Deen and her brother, has closed. I don't feel a single shred of sympathy for Deen or her brother, but I do feel sad for the employees who are now out of a job. Even if it was a shitty job.
There's water up in that moon: "Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, 850 million miles away from Earth in the outer solar system, seems an unlikely place for liquid water. But the small body orbiting the giant ringed planet can be added to the growing list of places beyond Earth that have oceans—and prospects for hosting life—according to research published Thursday in the journal Science. Gravity measurements taken by NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft indicate the moon contains an underground ocean in its southern hemisphere. The ocean is believed to be at least as big as Lake Superior—almost 32,000 square miles, according to the research." Neat!
Would you like to see some of former president George W. Bush's paintings of world leaders? Art is subjective, but I think they are terrific! I especially love his self-portrait!
[Note: Video may begin to play automatically at link] And finally: "Hometown Heroes: Dog credited with saving the life of ex-soldier who adopted him." I mean. Blub.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Appropriation; racism.]
"I feel like 'embattled' or 'disgraced' will always follow my name. It's like that black football player who recently came out. He said, 'I just want to be known as a football player. I don't want to be known as a gay football player.' I know exactly what he's saying."—Paula Deen.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA NO.
Also: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA FUCK YOU.
Here's a tip, Paula Deen: If you don't want to be forever known as That Disgraced Lady with a Cooking Show, then you have to stop doing heinous shit like comparing yourself being rightly vilified for engaging in racial discrimination to a gay man who doesn't want his identity to eclipse his career in a sport widely hostile to that identity.
And, not for nothing, Paula Deen, but if his words were so meaningful to you that you felt compelled to quote them during an interview, then maybe it was worth learning his fucking name—Michael Sam—instead of referring to him as "that black football player."
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
[Content Note: War on agency] South Dakota is considering legislation that would "effectively ban abortions past seven weeks' gestation," "make it illegal to perform an abortion if a 'living' fetus is 'dismembered' during an abortion," and impose on abortion doctors "a prison sentence of up to 25 years under one provision, and a maximum life sentence under a second provision." The imprecise language is an intimidation tactic designed to discourage physicians from providing abortions to people who need them.
[CN: War on agency; anti-choice terrorism] Relatedly: Please read this story that the terrific Robin Marty did about Dr. Cheryl Chastine, a physician who provides abortions "at South Wind Women's Clinic, the newly opened reproductive health care center that stood in the place of Dr. George Tiller's former clinic." I want to say all the things about Dr. Chastine's immense bravery and tenacity and decency, and I want to say fuck the people who oblige her to be brave and tenacious just to do her goddamn job.
Scientists are getting closer to generating "more energy from fusion reactions than they put into the nuclear fuel, in a small but crucial step along the road to harnessing fusion power. The ultimate goal—to produce more energy than the whole experiment consumes—remains a long way off, but the feat has nonetheless raised hopes that after decades of setbacks, firm progress is finally being made."
[CN: Guns; racism] The jury is deliberating the fate of white defendant Michael Dunn, who killed black teenager Jordan Davis after a dispute over loud music. Find him guilty find him guilty find him guilty.
What is even going on with Rand Paul? "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has been caught using purloined passages in several of his speeches. Now the aspiring presidential candidate stands accused of filing a lawsuit stolen from its author." Okay.
[CN: Violence] This is so sad: After a peaceful rally in which 10,000 people demonstrated against the policies of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, "a small group of protesters stayed behind after the end of the main march and clashed with the security forces. It was at that time that a number of armed men on motorcycles shot at the crowd, triggering a stampede." Three people are now dead.
Do you want to read a very detailed story about how Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is terrible and has always been terrible? Well, you are in luck!
[CN: Racism] Paula Deen has a new business partner who's investing at least $75 million in her new venture. Terrific. I'm sure this momentary stumble in her multimillion dollar career has taught her important lessons about not treating people like absolute garbage.
RIP Sid Caesar.
FO, L&O:SVU
[Content Note: Racism; violence; rape culture; appropriation.]
Hey, remember when I wrote back in August about how the putrid Law & Order: SVU was planning a Very Special Episode intended to be a hugely inappropriate mash-up of Trayvon Martin's murder, Paula Deen's racism, and NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy...?
Welp, it aired last night, and surprise! It was contemptible garbage.
That fucking show.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Racism.]
"I'm back!"—Paula Deen, celebrity chef and purveyor of racial discrimination, at a cooking trade show in Houston over the weekend, where she was greeted with "a reported 10-minute standing ovation."
Let the redemption narratives begin.
Seethe.
Nope
[Content Note: Racism; violence; rape culture; appropriation.]
In case you are not aware of my feelings about Law & Order: SVU, I hate it. Like, a lot. It is my go-to show when I need to hate-watch something, because I hate it SO MUCH and it gives me ALL THE THINGS about which to scream at the TV.
Also, it is ALWAYS ON, in endless marathons, so I can redirect my rage at it pretty much any minute of any hour of any day.
Anyway.
Check out this shit:
Law & Order: SVU never shies away from keeping up with the cultural zeitgeist."Keeping up with the cultural zeitgeist" is an almost perfect euphemism for "exploiting the most gruesome stories of the harm human beings do to one another that are currently in the news." But I digress.
Wednesday, pictures from the SVU set emerged on BuzzFeed and speculation mounted about whether or not the images might suggest that the show was taking on the controversial George Zimmerman trial so soon. In fact, the SVU writers have taken things one step further and combined two of the year's biggest headlines: The trial of Zimmerman over the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin and the Paula Deen scandal.Ha ha sounds terrific! What could go wrong? This show is definitely known for sensitivity rather than sensationalism, so I'm sure it will be AMAZEBALLS, as the kids say!
"[Jeffrey] Tambor is a defense attorney representing a very high-profile celebrity woman chef who thought she was being pursued by a rapist and turned around it was a teenager. And she shot him," said [Executive Producer Warren Leight] in an interview with EW. "There's a lot of stop and frisk elements to that as well."Neat! I hope they find a way to cram in some totally trenchant commentary about the decimation of the Voting Rights Act. Maybe the Paula Deen proxy could fart on the Statue of Liberty. SYMBOLISM.
They won't be shying away from the big questions either, according to Leight. "Is racial profiling justifiable? Can self-defense involve racial profiling? We're diving right into that," he said. "Can that happen in New York? Absolutely."I'll bet! What a fascinating episode it will be for us all.
Be prepared for the episode to divide audiences. According to Leight, it even exposed divisions within the SVU team. "When the script was published it became a litmus test for everybody here," he said. "It was really interesting to see people read that script and have different interpretations about who did what and whether or not they deserved prison for it. It was fascinating."
"Something something the government and privacy."—Munch. JACKPOT.
More Paula Deen
[Content Note: Racism; sexism.]
A federal judge ruled yesterday that the plaintiff in the racial discrimination lawsuit against Paula Deen could not have been adversely affected by racism directed at people of color because she is white:
Lisa Jackson sued Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers, last year saying she suffered from sexual harassment and racially offensive talk and employment practices that were unfair to black workers during her five years as a manager of Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House. Deen is co-owner of the restaurant, which is primarily run by her brother.Wow. Two thoughts:
But claims of race discrimination by Jackson, who is white, were gutted in the 20-page opinion by U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. The judge agreed with lawyers for Deen and Hiers that Jackson has no standing to sue her former employers for what she claims was poor treatment of black workers, regardless of her claims that she was offended and placed under additional stress.
Jackson, at best, "is an accidental victim of the alleged racial discrimination," Moore said in his ruling. "There are no allegations that defendant Hiers's racially offensive comments were either directed toward plaintiff or made with the intent to harass her."
The ruling lets stand Jackson's claims that Hiers sexually harassed her when she worked at the restaurant from 2005 to 2010. However, the judge said he was reserving the chance to rule on requests from Deen's lawyers to dismiss other claims in the lawsuit.
The judge added that to allow Jackson to seek legal recourse for discrimination directed toward other workers "would serve to conscript federal courts as human resource departments that are responsible for imposing and monitoring a federally created standard for harmony in the workplace."
1. This ruling contends that it's impossible for a white employer to create a hostile work environment for a white person via racism, which essentially implies that no white person could care enough about a person/people of color to feel unsafe and upset by a racist environment. Jackson has biracial nieces. Certainly some of Deen's white employees are partnered with and/or parents to POC. Certainly some of Deen's white employees care enough about their non-white coworkers that they don't want to listen to them being demeaned by their employer.
One of the worst places I ever worked was for a guy who was loudly misogynist, homophobic, and racist. It wasn't like I was just upset by the misogyny and immune to the homophobia and racism. All of it made me feel unsafe and angry, even though I was affected differently by the racism than I was by the misogyny. My male coworkers of color were affected differently by the racism than the misogyny, but it wasn't like they weren't also upset that I was being treated like shit because of my womanhood.
Decent people with empathy are going to be upset by discrimination, even if the magical fucking intent of that discrimination isn't to upset them.
2. This ruling also effectively disallows privileged people to bring discrimination cases on the basis of general harm, which puts the exclusive onus for challenging privilege on marginalized people, who are already, by the very nature of this type of discrimination, more professionally vulnerable.
There have been several occasions in my life recently where women of color had been harmed by white people in which, after seeking their consent, I stood up on their behalf to challenge the harm done to them. It was easier for me to do, because I wasn't the one directly hurt, and the people who did the harm were more likely to listen to me, because of my privilege.
It shouldn't be that way, but as long as there are people with privilege, those of us interested in dismantling those systems of privilege have to leverage our privilege on behalf of marginalized people. This ruling is aggressively hostile to allowing that to happen.
"It's just time that everybody knows that Paula Deen don't treat me the way they think she treat me."
[Content Note: Racism; worker exploitation.]
Dora Charles worked for Paula Deen for 22 years. By all accounts, she was integral to Deen's success.
She helped open the Lady & Sons, the restaurant [in Georgia] that made Ms. Deen's career. She developed recipes, trained other cooks and made sure everything down to the collard greens tasted right.Deen called Charles, a black woman, her "soul sister," and once promised Charles that they'd both get rich together. Instead, Deen paid Charles "less than $10 an hour, even after Ms. Deen became a Food Network star," and only after Charles, along with three other employees, filed a discrimination suit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was her salary raised to $71,000, which Jamie Deen, Paula's son, incredibly claims was not connected to the EEOC suit.
"If it's a Southern dish," Ms. Deen once said, "you better not put it out unless it passes this woman's tongue."
Charles loved Deen. That much is clear. Once upon a time, at least, they had a friendship Charles valued. Deen betrayed that friendship, in addition to treating her employee like shit.
And there were tough moments. She said Ms. Deen used racial slurs. Once she wanted Mrs. Charles to ring a dinner bell in front of the restaurant, hollering for people to come and get it.Deen found another black female employee to do it instead, and sells pictures of her on a postcard in her shops.
"I said, 'I'm not ringing no bell,'" Mrs. Charles said. "That's a symbol to me of what we used to do back in the day."
Dora Charles' story is heartbreaking, precisely because she was a partner to someone who did not treat her like one. An erstwhile friend who used and exploited her. Because she could.
It's pretty amazing that the national conversation around Paula Deen, which started with an employment discrimination suit, has centered around whether she's racist for using a slur, while this is how she treated a black friend and employee.
The Times article says: "The relationship between Mrs. Charles and Ms. Deen is a complex one, laced with history and deep affection, whose roots can be traced back to the antebellum South. Depending on whether Mrs. Charles or Ms. Deen tells the story, it illustrates lives of racial inequity or benevolence." As if the sort of "benevolence" shown by Deen is not itself indicative of racial inequity.
Benevolence that fulfills some kind of savior complex for a privileged person isn't kindness. Kindness is a thing that happens between equals. And someone who views another person as her equal doesn't exploit them.
Funny, isn't it, how working for less than $10 for decades to help a friend amass a fortune isn't considered the act of "benevolence."
[H/T to @JanvierNoir.]
More Paula Deen
[Content Note: Racism.]
Paula Deen evidently paid a HUGE retainer to the PR firm of Yikes & Whoops, so they continue to come up with excellent ideas for her:
On Tuesday, Deen filed a notice with the federal court hearing a race discrimination lawsuit against her, suggesting that the court should dismiss this lawsuit in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Prop 8 case. Last week, the Court explained that "for a federal court to have authority under the Constitution to settle a dispute, the party before it must seek a remedy for a personal and tangible harm."Setting the suit itself aside, I want to note that the idea oppression only "personally injures" the oppressed is bullshit. And I don't mean that in some garbage "reverse racism" false equivalence sense. I mean it in the sense that the personal cost of privilege is an indoctrinated lack of empathy that robs privileged people of a piece of their/our humanity. (Among other things.)
Deen is employing the precedent to claim that the white plaintiff who is suing her, Lisa Jackson, cannot bring a race discrimination suit alleging animus against African Americans because she is not personally injured by racism directed at people of another race. Deen's former restaurant employee has bi-racial nieces, however.
As a matter of law, Deen's filing is far from surprising, but it is somewhat ironic that Deen is employing a ruing that effectively struck down a discriminatory proposition and allowed [same-sex couples] to marry in California, to dismiss allegations of discrimination.
I am a person who has some axes of privilege, and some axes of marginalization, and I see as both a person who is privileged and as a person who is marginalized how privilege makes people, made/makes me, less decent, less kind, less compassionate. I have experienced the ways in which examining and being aware of one's privilege makes one more decent, more kind, more compassionate. More fully human.
The harm of institutional prejudice done to those oppressed by that prejudice is greater by several orders of magnitude than the harm done to those privileged by that prejudice. There is no parity on the opposing sides of oppression. But there is harm on both sides, irrespective of whether we are willing to see (or care about) that harm.
We all have a personal interest in dismantling bias. Is what I'm saying.
Which would be evident if we didn't mask the reality that it is not being a marginalized person, but being a privileged person, that has the capacity to make us less than. Less than what we could be.
(All of which is to say nothing of the "personal interest," that isn't meant to count, of just giving a shit about meaningful equality because it is ethical.)
More Paula Deen
[Content Note: Racism.]
The fallout continues for Paula Deen, after the disclosure of her practiced racism as part of a discrimination suit filed by employees. She has now lost two more major deals, from Caesars Entertainment Corporation and Walmart. And Walmart is pretty much an expert on racism, so.
Anyway.
In an attempt to manage the crisis, which was apparently organized by the PR firm of Yikes & Whoops, Deen went on The Today Show to do the interview with Matt Lauer she canceled last week due to exhaustion. And she had some pretty amazing things to say, like how she definitely wouldn't have fired herself for using racial slurs and engaging in employment discrimination, and how "every one of God's creatures was created equal. I believe that everyone should be treated equal, that's the way I was raised and that's the way I live my life," sure, okay, and also this:
The Today host then questioned Deen on whether she can understand why some African-Americans could find her racially insensitive language offensive.
"I don't know, I have asked myself that so many times," Deen answered. "It's very distressing for me to go into my kitchens and hear what these young people are calling each other...it's very distressing for me."
"I think for this problem to be worked on, that these young people are gonna have to take control and start showing respect for each other."
*record scratch*
HA HA PAULA DEEN SAYS HER YOUNG BLACK EMPLOYEES LACK CONTROL AND RESPECT. THEY DO. THE LADY WHO IS ALLEGED TO HAVE WANTED TO THROW A PLANTATION WEDDING AND TO HAVE PAID HER BLACK EMPLOYEES WITH BEER AND WHO ADMITS USING RACIAL SLURS SAYS HER YOUNG BLACK EMPLOYEES LACK CONTROL AND RESPECT.
Listen, Paula Deen, you need to stop talking at this point. And it's not because I give a fuck how deep a hole you dig yourself into; it's because racism harms people, and going on a national chat show to defend yourself by blaming your young black employees for racism is itself racism. And it is harmful. And it is deeply fucking wrong. I can't say it any more plainly than that.
BOOTSTRAPS! And More Paula Deen.
[Content Note: Racism; racist apologia.]
Because the "Paula Deen's an old white Southern lady" apologia is (still) driving me to utter distraction, and I'm so angry about it that I fear my head might fall off, I need to ask (again): When is the expiration date on this excuse? And do the people who are using this excuse imagine that white people today, everywhere in the US, are not being raised as racists? Because whoops.
Also: Isn't it just fucking PERFECT that the same privileged white people (and some Exceptional Black People) who endlessly scold poor black USians that they need to take more Personal Responsibility are the first assholes to argue that Paula Deen doesn't need to take any?
If you are a poor black USian whose opportunities have been limited by poverty and racism—and, depending on your individual circumstances, any number of other intersecting oppressions—and you struggle to thrive, or even survive, in a country which stacks all the cards against you, you are (so goes the narrative) a lazy, complacent taker who just isn't working hard enough.
If you are a rich white USian who is privileged enough to access most of the world and interact with just about anyone in it, but instead choose to be a small-minded racist bigot, you are (so goes the narrative) just a helpless product of your environment.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY! Except for not wielding your white privilege like a weapon of harm.
BOOTSTRAPS! Except for this one time! And the next time a white person fucks up!
CULTURE DOESN'T EXIST! Except for how an old white Southern lady can't help but be racist. That's just CULTURE, people!
EVERYTHING HAPPENS IN A VOID! Except for this white person's rank racism! That is part of her intractable socialization.
Once again, we find that the Ownership Society wants to own everything but personal accountability. That's for those people.
The Apologetics Begin
[Content Note: Racism.]
As Deeks mentioned In The News, the Food Network has fired Paula Deen—er, won't be renewing her contract, ahem—and may be losing her contracts with QVC and other retailers, too. Naturally, the apologetics for her rank racism have already begun. In Time, John McWhorter, a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and author of What Language Is (and What It Isn't and What It Could Be), argues that the Food Network should give back her job, on the basis that she's a "white Southerner of a certain age" who "has been a normal person of her time and place."
Let me say plainly that I believe McWhorter is entitled to his opinion. He is a black man, and I am not in the business of telling black people how they should respond to racism directed at them.
But I do have a problem with this argument:
So yes, she just might pop out with the N-word in private in a heated moment. And yes, a certain part of her will see something vaguely nostalgic in the sight of black men as waiters. In this, she represents a transitional stage between the then and the now. Deen was already a twenty-something when the old racist order broke down; her world view had pretty much jelled. How could she have a perfectly egalitarian take on race growing up when and where she did?And the reason I have a problem with this argument is because I don't see where we are meant to draw the line on where "white people can't help being racists because they were raised as racists" ends as a viable excuse.
I am 39 years old, raised in the very north of a northern state, and I was socialized as a racist.
Yes, I had the benefit of some things that Paula Deen did not. There were certainly more positive images of people of color in popular media when I was growing up, starting with my earliest television experiences on PBS, e.g. Sesame Street. Racial epithets were not used in my home. I may have grown up in a more integrated community than Paula Deen did: I had friends and classmates and neighbors who were not white. (Although none of my peers were black until I reached high school.)
But I heard the same racial epithets used in friends' homes. I heard the sneering about neighboring Gary, which has the highest percentage (85%) of black residents in a US city with a population of 100,000+. I consumed a metric fuckton of media that upheld my white privilege and communicated to me that black people are less than. A thing I hear, now, is that the part of town in which I live is getting "darker." And that's obviously supposed to be a bad thing.
The "old racist order" just got replaced with a "new racist order," in which I became fluent just like everyone else, of any race, in my generation.
In 20 years, when some white dipshit in my cohort uses a racial slur, will people still be defending it on the basis that zie is merely a product of hir environment? Probably—if we continue to allow that white people don't have some individual responsibility in not letting their "world view" calcify as hardened prejudice because stepping outside the boundaries of their privileged socialization is too much work.
Maybe it's time to expect more. Maybe it's time to set higher expectations, and challenge white people to live up to them. I don't think we need to achieve "perfect egalitarianism" in order to not use the n-word and romanticize plantations.
Otherwise, we'll always live in a world in which being socialized as a racist gives you a pass on expressing racism. Whoops.
I Write Letters
by Shaker Moderator aforalpha
[Content Note: Fat bias.]
Dear Professor Harris-Perry,
It is no secret around here that I think you're great. A significant proportion of my conversations with my mother start with one of us asking, "Did you watch MHP?"
It's amazing to be able to turn on the TV every weekend and see a brilliant, progressive, all-around awesome professor lead discussions about vitally important topics that are too often ignored. I don't quite know how to put into words what it means to me that the brilliant, progressive, all-around awesome professor looks like me. I think...I think you know. I think you know because you've had Dominique Dawes as a guest. And Kerry Washington. And Gabrielle Douglas. And Misty Copeland. (Oh my god, Misty Copeland! When I was a kid I got a dancewear catalog with a picture of her on the cover and I saved until I left for college.) You've had amazing conversations about black film and theater and visibility in media.
And I think you know what it means not just to have people who look like you in arts, sports, and entertainment. I think you know what it means to have representation in public discourse. One of the things I most love about your show is that you let people tell their stories.
Yesterday, you had four black men talking about the challenges facing black men. You've had someone whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, young people with student loan debt, people who use SNAP, people who have college degrees and live in poverty. As much as possible, you try to let people talk rather than being a show where people talk about others. I think that is truly your show's greatest strength. I can go anywhere and find white people talking about black issues, wealthy people talking about poverty, adults talking about school closures far less intelligently than Asean Johnson does.
So, Professor, what the hell? Why is it that you were able to find four black men to talk about the issues directly affecting black men, yet when it came time to talk about the AMA's decision to classify "obesity" as a disease, you had a panel of four thin people? There are fat doctors, professors, dieticians, activists, and other individuals who have relevant professional expertise and personal experience. Why don't they get a platform?
And why don't your fat viewers get to experience the same feelings of validation and recognition at having their stories told by people who look like them that I as a thin black woman do when I watch your show? Why isn't nerdland a place where the demeaning representations of fat people in much of media are counteracted by simply letting fat people speak for themselves?
Every group of people you have on your show is far more complex than the narratives about them are. Today when you asked the black men on your panel what popped into their heads when you said "fathers" you got both absent AND awesome. It's dangerous to let the only story we hear about a group be one told by outsiders. We would never hear about the awesome black fathers. We would never hear about the junior whose high school is facing closure but who desperately wants to go to college.
Similarly we never hear about the fat Olympians and marathoners and dance champions, the fat nutritionists, the fat people who are fat and healthy, the fat people who are fat and happy. We never hear that there are multiple reasons for being fat, or see meaningful explorations of the intersection of fat and disability, or fat and poverty. We never hear that there's not actually consensus in the field of obesity science.
I realize that one of your panelists runs a weightloss blog and has experienced significant weightloss. Still, the egregious "headless fatties" phenomenon isn't the only way to devalue the intellect of fat people--excluding the voices of any currently fat people, even from conversations about them is a damn good way to signal that fat people don't have anything worthwhile to contribute. There is no reason you cannot find four fat people to talk about issues affecting them. I would like to see you have a panel where you invite fat acceptance activists and Health At Every Size experts to talk about the wide reaching effects of fat hatred. As far as I'm concerned, calling in thin people to talk about "obesity" is a fundamental break from the standards you have endeavored to set for other marginalized populations.
Oh and Professor? And I have no words strong enough to express the depth of my disappointment at hearing you take a dig at Paula Deen's cooking and her decision to keep her personal health information private. I have a disability that I do not disclose in all situations, because stigma and discrimination exist. Once again: Paula Deen's food never used racial epithets. Her pancreas never told homophobic jokes. Please leave them out of this.
You are in a unique position to bring visibility to lots of marginalized people and issues. You can do better than this. 'Cause this? This left me saying, "Wow…seriously?"
Sincerely,
aforalpha
P.S. Kate217 has a letter for you, too.
P.P.S. Related Reading: Aphra Writes Letters; the entirety of the Fatsronauts 101 Series.
I Write Letters
[Content note for linked segment: Fat hatred, classism, disablism, racism]
Dear Daily Show staff involved with this segment on Paula Deen:
Fatness? Not the problem with Paula Deen.
Working class food? Also not Paula Deen's problem.
Butter? Hahahahahahaha NOPE.
Diabetes? Is certainly a problem for Paula Deen, but is definitely not the problem with Paula Deen.
Racism? AH YES! That is, in fact, the problem with Paula Deen.
Perhaps in future you'll bear that in mind. Deen's racist remarks are a serious issue, not an excuse to exercise your own biases. If you're fighting one prejudice by entrenching others, then you are doing it wrong.
No Love,
Me
P.S. Special to John Oliver: If you find you can easily crack jokes on a topic "all night," then you might double-check to make sure that isn't because they are cheap shots fueled by prejudice.
You can contact the Daily Show here. You can also Tweet @TheDailyShow. John Oliver, who is filling in during Jon Stewart's hiatus, can be Tweeted @iamjohnoliver.
H/t Liss w/special thanks to SKM and M.
On Paula Deen
[Content Note: Racism; anti-Semitism; homophobia; violence.]
Reports surfaced a few days ago that TV cooking icon Paula Deen is facing a discrimination suit centered around "racially discriminatory attitudes" at Uncle Bubba's Oyster House, a restaurant owned in part by Deen and her brother Earl "Bubba" Hiers. The transcript of a videotaped deposition Deen gave last month as part of the suit has now been made available online, and it is terrible.
I have not read the entire thing, but, of the bits I've read, two parts in particular struck me:
Lawyer: Have you ever used the N-word yourself?Two things that lots of white people do: 1. Use mistreatment (real or perceived) by a person of color as a justification to whip out racist epithets. 2. Use racial epithets in the privacy of their own homes, or in any other space they perceive will be "safe" to let fly the racial slurs.
Deen: Yes, of course.
Lawyer: Okay. In what context?
Deen: Well, it was probably when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head.
Lawyer: Okay. And what did you say?
Deen: Well, I don't remember, but the gun was dancing all around my temple … I didn't — I didn't feel real favorable towards him.
Lawyer: Okay. Well, did you use the N-word to him as he pointed a gun in your head at your face?
Deen: Absolutely not.
Lawyer: Well, then, when did you use it?
Deen: Probably in telling my husband.
I shouldn't need to say this, but there is a problem if racist epithets come to your mind when you're angry. And that problem is that you have granted yourself permission to use those epithets. The idea that we only use epithets if we say them aloud, directed at someone to whom they apply, is bullshit. If you're using them to redirect your anger at another human being's individual behavior into an expression of hatred for their race, you're still using epithets.
In your head, under your breath, in the intimate space between you and your spouse—it doesn't matter. This shit is in your lexicon because you've allowed yourself to believe that these words, and the monolithizing thoughts of hatred they represent, are justified in certain circumstances.
If you don't allow yourself that permission, the word that comes to mind when anyone cuts you off in traffic, say, is "asshole." Or "jerk." Or "reckless nightmare whose license should be put in a cannon and shot into the sun!" Or whatever. Not a slur.
And, depending on our individual backgrounds, and how deeply we were immersed in bigoted language by virtue of our immediate environments, killing the reflexive call of bigoted language, even when we don't want it there, might require some effort. Socializing ourselves out of the shit with which we were indoctrinated is work. It doesn't happen by magic or mere will.
I was raised in a deeply racist culture that privileged my whiteness and offered me fewer positive images of people of color than stereotypical or straight-up negative ones. When I first took an implicit bias test centered around racial prejudice, it revealed there was shit lurking in me that needed to change. I made a conscious decision to resocialize myself, and I stepped outside the well-tread grooves of my socialization and resolved to remap my path so that I would encounter way more positive images of people of color than I would ensconced in my unexamined white privilege.
And that path of resistance never ends, because the white privilege-upholding culture in which I live never stops exhorting and enabling me to be fucking racist.
My implicit bias score has changed, but, more importantly, I have. I'm not sharing that to try to say I'm fixed (I'm not) or to pat myself on the back; to the contrary, it's fucking embarrassing I had to do that. I'm sharing it because it is important to address that practicing racism, actively or passively, is a decision that white people make. And so is not practicing racism.
But Deen will almost certainly be defended on the basis that it's somehow acceptable, or different, to engage in racism when you're angry or aggrieved. Because you don't really mean it. Because you can't help it. As if racism is not a choice.
Of course, that is not the only time Deen practiced or indulged racism:
Fat News!
[Content Note: This post contains discussion of news items that include fat hatred and/or body policing.]
There's so much Fat News today, I can hardly stand it! (No, really. I can't stand it. Barf. Barf cake all over everything.)
First! Shaker Elky forwarded this item about a New York-based gym chain, New York Sports Club, taking out an ad in the New York Times, ostensibly addressed to Paula Deen, reading: "Paula, you made a fortune off of fat. Call us if you want to be around to enjoy it."
You know, one of the main criticisms of Paula Deen has been that she did not disclose her diabetes diagnosis immediately upon receiving it, and I will just reiterate, once again, that it might be worth considering whether Deen didn't disclose having diabetes because fat people who disclose "fat diseases" are viciously mocked.
And it doesn't matter if you're a "fat pusher," as Deen is erroneously accused of being, if you're a diet- and surgery-proponent, if you're a Health at Every Size advocate, and/or if you're a person who fervently believes that being fat is nobody's business but one's own: No matter what position you take on fatness, if you are yourself fat, your position will be exploited in some way to make hay about the fact that you're gonna die because of your fatty-fattitude.
Paula Deen had to know as well as anyone, and better than most, this would be coming whenever she did disclose her diabetes.
So the next time you hear someone snort derisively about how she only made public her illness after making a business deal that ethically required its disclosure, point them in the direction of that ugly-ass ad and say, "If I had to navigate that sort of shit, I'd wait until I was getting paid to do it, too."
Second!
Nope!
[Content Note: This post discusses fat hatred and diabetes.]
So celebrity chef Paula Deen has confirmed that she has diabetes II. And now that enough people are criticizing the "just desserts" jokes, and pointing out that singularly "eating your way to diabetes" is a myth, the nature of the criticism has changed to call her out for only "admitting" she has diabetes now that she's signed an endorsement deal with a pharmaceutical company, presumably to pitch some diabetes drug.
I'm not going to belabor the point here: This line of argument is some straight-up horseshit.
First of all, being a public figure does not obligate one to disclose their health issues. Secondly, and more importantly, no one gives a hot shit whether Sally Field disclosed her osteoporosis before she started hawking Boniva, and no one demanded to see Jamie Lee Curtis' colonoscopies when she became the pitchwoman for Activia.
And that's because we aren't desperate to find a way to blame them for their own literal ills since they're not OMG FAT. And supposedly making other people OMG FAT.
If you weren't concerned about how long Bob Dole was impotent before he became the spokesboner for Viagra (and you weren't), then shut the fuck up about Paula Deen.
My Manifatso
It's like a manifesto, but filled with fat.
[Content Note: This post contains discussion of fat hatred and disablism.]
I've spent the past two hours (give or take) tweeting my fingers off about fat hatred and the fact that, no, Paula Deen allegedly having diabetes is not, in fact, "justice" for her particular culinary oeuvre, which centers food associated with fatness.
(Yes, it's true that rich foods make some people fat and/or unhealthy; it is also true, however, that rich foods do not make other people fat and/or unhealthy; it is further true that foods not associated with fatness make some people fat and/or unhealthy. You may detect a patten here! A pattern that suggests people are not Bunsen burners!)
Anyway! Because I'm a motherfucking progressive optimist and shit, I wanted to end on an upbeat note, so now I'm busily tweeting my manifatso. And here it is:
I want to be in the world, and I will participate, and I will take up the space that I need without apology. Also: I may occasionally eat butter. But mostly: I will be publicly, shamelessly, unshakably fat and happy. Happy-Go-Lucky, in fact! I am a fat woman, and I will matter—to me and to you.
[For those who can't follow along on Twitter, my series of tweets is below.]
