Benetton

The Blame Game

On November 4, 2008, it was announced that Barack Obama had been elected the new president of the United States. Despite being a rather tepid supporter when compared to his large, rabid following, I still cried tears of joy at the announcement. I cried, not because I see him as a Messiah in the midst of our country's dark days, but because he is, symbolically at least, a light. I do not know whether he will be able to take the giant strides we all hope he will in getting this country back on the right track economically, socially, and globally...but I hope he does. I do not know if the country's morale will survive if his term is not "successful," but I hope we never have to find out.

At the end though, I cried, because now I can look at my little nephew and say, truly, "You can be whatever you want to be." I cried because it seems that maybe, hopefully, we can end this age of scapegoating and entitlement. Regardless of the past, regardless of circumstance, there comes a time when every person, of every race has to pull him or herself up by his or her own bootstraps. And there comes a time when we must lift our neighbors up too.

It's amazing, because you find a sense of entitlement amongst the wealthy and the poor, amongst all of the races. The wealthy feel entitled, well, because they are wealthy. The poor feel entitled, because they are oppressed. You know what? Now I feel free to say, "Get to work!" It's time to stop worrying about what we're "entitled" to. It's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. The time for pointing fingers is not now...because finger pointing will not allow us to succeed and move forward, individually or collectively.

So much news to note!

Links of Note:

• Turkish singer defiant in court - A transsexual Turkish singer is on trial for publicly making comments criticizing Turkey's military. What makes this story fantastic is that Turkey is a society in which a flashy transsexual can become a star but is also a society in which can be legally tried for questioning the government.
• Google In Quotes - A new (temporary?) tool from Google that lets you compare quotes from the presidential candidates in which whatever word you search for appears. I received no quotes on "pizza."
• Shipping containers could be 'dream' homes for thousands - Another example of how creative engineering has the potential to improve people's quality of life.
• Campbell Brown Rips McCain Camp's "Sexist" Treatment Of Palin - I've bemoaned the sexist attacks on Sarah Palin lobbed by many liberals...but Campbell Brown rightly points out the fact that the Republican party likewise treats her not as a worthy politician, but as a "delicate flower."
• Evangelist: 'Puberty' is age of sexual consent - Considering that I know girls as young as 8 who have reached puberty, I have to say that Tony Alamo is batshit crazy. We live in a world in which physical maturity does not at all equate mental maturity, and our laws regarding sexuality and consent should reflect as much, in my opinion.
• The White Dude Knows Best approach to women's health - I'm just going to lift a quote straight from the article: "Compulsory or coercive sterilizations for low-income women, disabled women, and women of color were extremely common up until the 1970s, and slightly less common but nevertheless occurring with regularity the the decades since. The paternalistic attitude that "certain women" cannot be trusted to make their own reproductive decisions is still an underlying theme of a lot of backwards legal and policy decisions."
  See also: State Boys Rebellion
• A Wish List for Young Parents - Again I'm going to directly quote this article: "A lot of criticism capitalizes on this trend, saying in effect 'Hey, unwed mothers! If you had more money, childhood poverty would be less of a problem!'"

When you see in color and culture and Christianity

After reading the following article:Why many Americans prefer their Sundays segregated, I thought it appropriate to post this e-mail that I received from my father this morning:

The Average White Church:

1. Service and Sunday School are over by 10:30 a.m.
2. All cars in the parking lot are either new or three years old.
3. The Pastor delegates his preaching and does not preach every Sunday or every service.
4. When the Pastor retires, they don't have a problem retiring.
5. No one leaves the choir during the entire service.
6. There is only one choir.
7. Choir rehearsal is only once a month, not every week.
8. There is children's church every Sunday, not once every six months.
9. There are 52-inch flat screen TV's posted in the sanctuary, which is where announcements are posted and not read audibly.
10. No afternoon and night service.
11. You can't tell the pastor's car because everyone drives a nice car.
12. Women wear less jewelry because they know less means more.
13. Communion takes 30 minutes, not two hours.
14. Communion is packaged together and not served in four gold trays.
15. Babies are not passed around in church; they sit only with their parents.
16. MEN DRESS IN POLO AND DOCKERS.
17. Scriptures and bible verses are posted on the FLAT SCREENS IN THE SANCTUARY.
18. Caucasians know the difference between winter white and summer white.
19. Mothers feed their kids FRUIT, GRAINS, AND ANIMAL CRACKERS before service.
20. 80% of the congregation wears real furs in the winter and don't walk in service late to show them off.
21. IT TAKES TWO DEACONS TO COUNT $10,000+ in offering.
22. There's only one offering.
23. 95% of the congregation is married.

The Average Black Church:

1. Service starts at 11 a.m., but 50% of the members arrive at 12:45 p.m.
2. All the cars in the parking lot have been freshly washed.
3. The pastor doesn't come out until 45 minutes after service has started.
4. Only 30% of the choir is on time.
5. The choir discusses ten minutes over which song to sing.
6. The choir sings the song, but the musician doesn't know how to play it.
7. The parents whip the kids during worship.
8. The audience has to help the announcement clerk pronounce the words on the church bulletin.
9. Two of the church deacons have gold teeth or NO teeth!!!!!
10. The members socialize and speak during the tithes and offering.
11. When church is over, no one discusses the pastor's message: they just compliment each other's outfits and hair.
12. Members pay $20, but stand there waiting for $18 in change back.
13. The single women give each other signals when a handsome guest minister is invited.
14. You find notes after church that say:
    

    'That's not her hair,'
    'Who is that baby daddy?'
    'He need to sit down,'
    'What you fix for dinner?'
    'I know she ain't got that on,'
    'Let me borrow $1 for offering'

15. It takes eight deacons two hours to count $400.
16. There is a slot on the tithe envelope marked 'Building Fund.'
17. That afternoon service is either: Choir Day, Usher Day, or Men and Women's Day (don't forget Youth Day, Education Day, Pastor's Aide Day, Hospitality Day, New Member Day, Church Anniversary Day, Pastor's Anniversary Day, and Revival).
18. The Pastor's car has either a rag top or rims.
19. The women have on expensive heels, but have house shoes in their bags.
20. You see more than five people pass someone gum or a peppermint.
21. Someone will feed a baby Cheetos, sugar cookies, crackers, or vanilla wafers in the sanctuary.
22. Men will have on suits in the color of bright yellow, lime green, hot pink, sky blue, and candy apple red with shoes to match.
23. People will have a $80 Bible, but will have to look in the table of contents to find the text of the pastor's message.

Red and Blue and White All Over

3PM Bill Clinton: "That Stuff's Still There?"

White dude to black coworker: The cool thing about Obama is that he is able to transcend race. He's the ultimate embodiment of American multiculturalism and pluralism. He's white and black, and his race doesn't matter, he's got character, which was Martin Luther King's dream, that people would be judged according to the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
White dude #2: Yeah, well, I just can't wait until Obama gets into office and he invites MTV over to the White House to film an episode of Cribs and he's got a stripper pole in the basement right by his poster of Scarface.

130th Street
Tacoma, Washington

Overheard by: Stan Green

via Overheard in the Office, Apr 22, 2008

Worthless Wars of Words

Tiger OK with 'lynch' remark, but Sharpton ready for battle

Because Al Sharpton has launched himself into the position of being the most vocal member in the efforts of advancing the African-American race, I would like to say that he has helped his people in countless ways. But that would be a lie. I am not saying that he has done no good. I'm sure he has. But as usual, I think he has gone too far in fighting what really amounts to a ridiculous and unimportant battle.

Last week, Kelly Tilghman, an announcer for the Golf Channel, caused a very mild scandal when she made a joke about young golfers lynching Tiger Woods. The comment was in response to a joke her co-announcer made in regards to how the other players would try to compete against the phenom. It was an ill-conceived comment, made in the heat of the moment. I for one have made lynch-mob jokes, thinking in my mind more of the witch-hunt aspect of the idea, than the intense racial undertones. However, I am not on television and I do agree that her lapse in judgement was worthy of a slap on the wrist. Tiger Woods himself was content to just shrug it off.

But Rev. Al Sharpton once again felt it necessary to mount his horse, raise his battle flag, and demand that she be fired. CNN compared it to the Don Imus fiasco. But here's the thing: Don Imus has a tradition of making malicious and controversial jokes for the sake of being malicious and controversial. Imus crossed a line when he made an attack that was both sexist and racist against a group of very young women. He too probably didn't fully think of the consequences and the depth of meaning of his words, but Imus, as aforementioned, made his name, his fortune, from towing the line of what is and isn't appropriate. Tilgham just likes to talk about golf. She made a small mistake and her friend, Tiger Woods, forgave her.

Perhaps this is a bigger deal than I'm making it out to be because of golf's history of deeply rooted racism...But I still have a better idea for Al Sharpton. Instead of going after public figures who make public snafus, why not work on getting equal education for blacks in public schools? Instead of wasting so much time trying to get media attention, why not try to get the attention of the youth stuck in a cycle of violence? Instead of worrying about what white people are doing wrong, why not try to help blacks do what is right?

Suggested reading: White Guilt by Shelby Steele

Favorite Link(s) of the Day

From Jezebel:

• Where Are All the Black Models?
• Can Rapists Get You Off? Our Questions About How Serial Rapist Jeffrey Marsalis Got Away With It, Answered

From Vanity Fair:

• A Death in the Family
  Having volunteered for Iraq, Mark Daily was killed in January by an I.E.D. Dismayed to learn that his pro-war articles helped persuade Daily to enlist, the author measures his words against a family's grief and a young man's sacrifice.

From CNN:

• 60 grams of fat for breakfast!
• Are record labels dead?