2 posts tagged “culture”
Here I am. Awake again at 5:30am. I've decided to relax and accept my body's natural attempt to cope with this transition period. That's what I'm calling it now. My life's in transition. I'm not sure where I'm headed, but I have to believe that this time in my life is just a bridge to whatever phase or chapter that awaits me around the next turn.
It's not easy trying to focus on the positive though. It's not really in my nature to be a cheerleader for myself. For others, yeah. I can be a freaking PollyAnna without the slightest hesitation. But I think like most people, I'm a hardcore realist when it comes to dealing with what's on my own plate. Did I mention I hate my job? :-P
Since I'm awake, how about some random thoughts about "stuff"?
- Tweets from qoolquest (?uestlove), LouisCK, and Mashable
will be the death of me online. Too. Many. Tweets. Well, not really
since I haven't figured out how to get Twitter sent directly to my cell
phone from people who aren't following me as well. Why must James Kyson Lee ignore our love? J/k Please, don't call the police. I'm only joking.
I’m pretty sure if I’m not using Twitter right anyway. I’m not one to jump on bandwagons (dude, I only signed up for a Myspace acct. last December, and that’s was only to follow the bands, artists, and people I adore in L.A. while I’m in transition). But so far, Twitter has helped me cope with some of my crushing, immobilizing depression, so I figure it can’t be all bad. Yay distractions! - I
put all this effort into planning and writing content for a fledgling
website that I hope to put online at some point back in Dec. and Jan.,
and so far, the work has been for naught. I’ve laid it by the wayside
and now I feel guilty because it’s just one more career-related item on
my to-do list that I know may help me get a decent full-time job, but
I’m still procrastinating.
Why is it you always hear about Type A personalities? What about all of those other types like B, C, D+, sigma? Why does Type A get all the attention? What is my type? ::goes off to Google:: - Personally,
I couldn’t care less about Rihanna and Chris Brown. And I’m really
sick and tired of hearing about them as if their relationship deserves
a hearing in the public court of opinion. No, I’m not a cold heartless
bitca. I just wonder if this outpouring of support for Ms. Rihanna
would be the same if her name was Latwayla and she worked second shift
at the local Safeway ringing up groceries. And now the obligatory
disclaimer: Unless you or someone else’s life is in immediate danger,
a man has no excuse for laying his hands on a woman without her
permission.
Having said that, why are people surprised she went back to Chris? If you truly care about domestic violence and bothered to understand why it's so prevalent throughout our society, you would know that most victims of DV go back to their partners. Why would you assume Rihanna would be any different? Because she's a celebrity? Last I checked, she was a human being first. Oh, but I forgot. Her first duty is to be a role model for the millions of people she's never met. Bullshit! And I call bullshit on Aisha Tyler and any other so-called concerned celeb citizen who assert that the most damaging aspect about the situation is NOT that Ri went back to Chris, but that doing so sends a message to millions that his behavior is acceptable.
Well, you know what, Ms. Tyler? F#ck You!! No, the most damaging aspect about the situation IS that she went back to Chris. Her well-being is 10,000 times more important than being your poster child for a society ill that you clearly don't understand. The psychological effects of DV are far more profound and debilitating than the physical abuse itself, but ignorant-ass people like you only see victims as enablers of their own conditions and their diminished sense of self-preservation is nothing more than a choice. I cannot stand this "Blame the Victim" philosophy that permeates our society. My blood boils every time I hear this fake-ass attempt to reduce complex problems into cookie-cutter, quick fix afflictions that deny any acknowledgment of the pervading message of socially acceptable sexism and violence that teaches men that a woman's sole purpose is to serve mankind, and by that extension, men. Of course she went back. It's unfortunate. But the most unfortunate thing is that people like Ms. Tyler are just as much apart of the problem as Mr. Brown. - Moving on to more pleasant rants, I finally finished watching my Profit
DVDs. Overall, I liked the show, but I didn’t love it. Not because it
wasn’t lovable, mind you. But because it wasn’t nearly as fantastic as
reviews have made it out to be. It seems to suffer from a clear case
of nostalgic revisionism. The praise you hear so often about this show
is that it was soooooo ahead of its time, and there was
nothing like it on TV that was even close to being this different and
edgy, and the audience simply wasn’t ready for a villain protagonist in
the lead role, etc. And maybe that’s true, but I think I was a bit put
off by all the backslapping on the DVD commentary and the
behind-the-scenes retrospective. I thought it was a good, solid show
for the 9 episodes that they made, but, sheesh, it wasn’t all that,
people.
The way John McNamara and David Greenwalt go on about the show, you would think that every single series that did something outside the television norm from 1998 - 2008 owes its ingenuity to Profit. Wow, buy your own hype much? It was a good show. Kind of cheesy in its delivery, but that’s intentional and I can respect that. It’s melodrama that knows it’s a melodrama. I would’ve preferred it if they had Profit either address the audience directly or delivered a voiceover throughout, not both. It seemed a little too intrusive to have both elements, IMO. I didn’t care for that in the first 2 seasons of Sex & the City either.
But don’t get me wrong, I liked it. If I were grading the show, I’d give it a B+. Lisa Blount and Lisa Darr were freaking amazing and adorable, respectively. And Naked Nathan is always appreciated, of course. I guess I’m just tired of so many writers, producers, and showrunners in the industry constantly patting themselves on the back in interviews and DVD commentaries about how everything in the medium of television is wrong except for whatever it is they’ve created and the 2 or 3 pieces produced by their mentors and idols. Apparently, everyone in Los Angeles is doing it wrong except you. The ego knows no hypocrisy, especially if you wrap it in a thin veil of self-deprecating humor. The final word: False humility is for hipsters. Hipsters suck. Therefore, false humility sucks. QED
- A
little over a week ago, our new Attorney General Eric Holder gave a
speech about race relations in America. I haven't been able to applaud
or rebuke his statement for a few reasons. One, I've been busy, and
two, what he said wasn't nearly as significant as I think others wanted
it to be. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about his
speech felt off. He tried to say something important, but he didn't
quite hit the nail on the head or his execution was faulty or
something. It was just off. Tim Wise
does a somewhat decent job of pinpointing what it is about his
statement that really felt like a wasted opportunity to address a
social ill constructively and accurately. ::sigh:: I'm still not
saying this right. Just go and read Wise's response. He doesn't articulate exactly what it is that bothered me about Holder's speech, but he does a better job of it than I.
However, I'm happy to say that at least my issues with Holder's statement didn't mirror the third grade flailing of celebrated comic book and sci-fi author Peter David. (I'm not providing a direct link to his site.) Apparently, AG Holder's speech really, really hurt David's feelings and he thinks that black people are really mean for trying to encourage people to talk about racism instead of simply sweep it under the rug like so many nice, sweet and gracious white people who only have our best interests at heart. Honest.
Frankly, I have no words that don't result in some horrible, yet accurate generalizations about how this constant attempt to derail discussions about racism, and thereby, actually promote social progress and cultural growth feels like a 500-year-old playbook that gets passed down from one generation to the next in Western (read Euro-American) Culture. This is why so many POC feel as if they have to pick their battles when dealing with racism. Because if they didn't, no one would live past the age of 35 due to constant stress on their hearts, minds, and health when addressing bullshit detractors and denial day-in and day-out. - If you're interested in one extreme case of
"well meaning whites" attempting to derail a frank discussion of racism
in science fiction, take a gander at Coffee & Ink's unfortuate predicament.
The best thing to come out of that post is the fantastic support of
Mely's rights and the denouncement of Cramer and Shetterly's fuckery.
The second best thing to come out of that post is the fantastic list of
book recommendations by authors of color that I've pinched from each
page of replies. Yep! It's all about me and my needs. :-D
Feel free to ignore this. I'm posting these recs from the comments that caught my eye here for my future reference (I've also included a note re: the cultural perspective they represent). But if you see something that interests you, by all means, enjoy.
- Futureland by Walter Mosley African-American
- The Hanging of Angelique: Canada, Slavery and the Burning of Montreal by Afua Cooper African-Canadian
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (I already planned to read this, but those quotes cited in the comments just nudged it higher on my list.) Dominican-American
- Journey From The Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran by Roya Hakakian Persian
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (I had plans to read this one also, but the rec was for the audiobook read by Lynne Thigpen, whom I adored. May she rest in peace.) African-American
- Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film by Adilifu Nama African-American
- The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead African-American author, Multi-ethnic perspective
- Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff (This is the last movie I remember ever balling my eyes out uncontrollably. I fear the book will probably do the same, but it's a story that definitely needs to be told.) Maori and Samoan
This is what I call getting your ass handed to you. There's nothing quite like reading a bigot being laid out by a white man. It almost has a beautiful symmetry to it.
Just in case they take the article down sometime in the future, I'll just copy it here for posterity.
_____________________________________
How Much Is Race Determined by Genetics?
By Luke Visconti
Question:
I am a college biology professor who specializes in University
Affirmative Action Programs. It is clear that human races are
genetically different and have genetically adapted to where they
evolved; these are scientific facts and are not debatable. For
examples, because of body form and fat distribution, Eskamoes are
better adapted for cold. The Thai, who evolved in hot & humid
tropical forests, are superior thermal-coolers. Whites better absorb
sunlight and make Vitamin D, whereas dark-skinned people are superior
at blocking harmful UV radiation in the tropics. Tropical races have
superior genetics for fighting malaria—for example, there are at least
7 different gene-based anti-malaria defenses among different
populations in Papua New Guinea. I could list nearly 100 gene-based
adaptations of specific human populations.
The point is that the races are not equal. For the most part, each is superior in their native environment. For example, white missionaries died like flies in Papua New Guinea due to inferior genes for fighting tropical diseases, whereas NA Indians died from lack of genes to fight European diseases.
Africans are generally better athletes than whites, but different African populations are better at different sports. Eastern Africans, who evolved in hot dry grasslands where long-distance walking was essential, are superior marathon runners. West Africans are the world's best sprinters and jumpers.
Unfortunately, 100 years of IQ studies suggest that Jews, Europeans and Northeast Asians have superior IQ. The Basque people also apparently have a high IQ. In contrast, hundreds of IQ tests have suggested that Africans are at least one Standard Deviation lower than Europeans in IQ.
During 200,000 years of evolution, virtually no African peoples moved beyond the Stone Age, devised a written language, learned to work stone or metal to any extent, or invented the wheel. Today, despite 200 years of contact with the Europeans, there is not a single "working" sub-Sahara country. Also everywhere Africans have settled, be it Brazil, Haiti or Sweden, they remain at the bottom of society and technical accomplishment. African societies tend to be brutal and backwards, and with a low standard of living.
Having superior cold or hot tolerance or superior sun block or malaria-fighting ability or better athleticism was very important 1,000 years ago. But in today's complicated technical civilizations, the most important factor for success is intelligence.
I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just trying to understand why the hundreds of black students who have come through my AA programs have generally not measured up to the average intelligence levels of white, Jewish and Asian students. What if, because of genes, the Eskimo will never be heat-tolerant, the Thai will never be cold-adapted, whites and Chinese will generally never be great long-distance runners or basketball players? And what if because of genes, blacks generally do not have equal intelligence to whites and Asians? A million years of Head Start and AA will not change that. Please send me your thoughts.
Answer:
Science has made tremendous advances in understanding genetics,
especially over the past five years. The mapping of the human genome
has proven that the outward, physical manifestations of race are
determined by a very small number of genes (less than 6 percent).
Genetic studies have also proved that there are no significant
differences between human beings and that there is only one species of
human. The concept of race has been judged to be biologically
meaningless and the American Anthropological Association also rejects
the concept of race.
External differences in human beings can be traced to geographic isolation after human beings migrated from Africa. This has been documented by the National Geographic Genographic Project. We are all of African decent.
What's left to your e-mail is the social construct of race. Your eugenic observations on IQ make a scientifically invalid leap from culture to genetics to intelligence. On top of this, your reliance on a standardized test to determine intelligence is also bankrupt. We have written about standardized tests in the magazine and will have further articles in 2007. Tests don't judge intelligence, and many factors impact test scores, notably economic level. That poverty can be traced to race in our country is the result of bigotry and racism, not genetics.
As far as your comments about Africa, you can connect almost all of the current problems in Africa to colonialism. The disgusting behavior of "civilized" European nations has not been proactively redressed to this day. It is a system maintained to extract raw materials without having to pay a fair price for them.
It's sad to say that we human beings share a tendency to oppress. It is a common feeling to think that holding one group back elevates another group—but it doesn't work that way in an economic model, noted by no less than George Washington, who observed that an acre of land was less expensive in Virginia than an acre of land in Pennsylvania—despite the quality of the Virginia land being superior. His conclusion, borne out by economists, was that slavery depressed value and freedom elevated it. In my opinion, science has caught up to economics. Now it's a matter of we humans coming to grips with our own self-destructive behavior.
In closing, I have to note that I find it impossible to believe that a biology professor at a large public university would be so profoundly ignorant of the current state of genetic research and opinion. Your e-mail reflects a desire to be a bigot.
I'm sorry for your students. That you are involved with affirmative-action programs turns my stomach. You should consider yourself fortunate that you do not work for either of the two schools I am a board member of.
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