polerin

One of the more interesting and telling comments I've read about race and fiction writing was, "Why do white people never write about race from their own perspective."

I think I figured out part of MY reason. Other than being a shitty writer who hasn't finished a single story that is.

I don't feel hopeful for real change on race issues any time soon.

Accepting that, perhaps I can go on to talk about things that happened to me as a kid, and how they affect my view of the world, what being white in a predominantly white culture really means. So much of that is subconscious though... it's the construction of the white experience as "normal" and everything else as "weird". Even though I do my best to question and understand what I and the people around me do, it's still just... my life.

How do you explore the air you breath?

The term "race baiter" as a way to describe someone who is calling out something offensive bugs me. Its use implies that someone who speaks up is using the color of their skin or their ethnicity as bait to lure in the poor unsuspecting white person so they can pounce. As if there is some prize for speaking up. You know, catch your 100th white person and you level up your angry stats! I hear if you get to level 20 you get the gauntlets of Whitey squashing!

No. 90% of the time you are ignored, or called oversensitive, yelled at, or mobbed. I've experienced it when talking about GLBT issues, and most significantly trans issues. I've been a secondary target in multiple places when talking about racism, and it's only worse when your actually in the under-privileged group in question.

Am I queer baiting if I call out someone for using homophobic language, objecting to the use of the word fag or gay in a pejorative manner?
How about class baiting?
No?

Then why race baiting?


The idea that people are spending there entire lives just looking for the next bit of racism they can pounce on, is absurd. I don't live my life looking for homophobia or transphobia. I don't have too. It makes itself VERY evident. Racism is the same way. If you don't call it out, you sit and suffer in silence behind a mask. If you just can't take it any more you are labeled a trouble maker with a big mouth. What a prize. Yay.

PETA dresses up as the KKK in downtown New York.



I can no longer support anything that PETA does. I would ask all of you who are involved in animal rights on my F-List to call them out and ask the organizations you support (hopefully not PETA) to do the same. They have a history of disregard for anyone or anything not animal rights related, and they drive people like me away from wanting to help at all.

So apparently this comment is way way too big to get posted at the city's blog. I swear I didn't intend to get into this. Re-posting this here in case it doesn't make it through moderation at the source.
( SUPER LONG COMMENT BEHIND. )


So, Yeah. Epic commentage.

9 Muslim passengers kicked off of flight after remark.

The remark? "Wow, the jets are right next to my window."

Because of this innocent remark, nine people were removed from the plane and handed over to the FBI who cleared them after questioning. When the group went back to AirTran to re-book, they were refused, and did not get a refund until after this story hit the national media. What kills me is mindsets like this:

Christopher White, a federal Transportation Security Administration spokesman, said the situation was handled appropriately.

White said the pilot, after being informed of the remarks, requested that two federal air marshals on board remove the individuals. TSA then alerted authorities, including the FBI, which conducted an investigation. Once authorities determined there was no threat, it was up to the airline whether to allow the family to reboard.

"If the pilot is uncomfortable with someone flying on their plane, that's their decision," White said.

The pilot's discomfort is what determines if you are on the plane? Really? When you have two Air Marshals in the actual passenger area of the plane who are better trained to make threat judgments? The pilot wasn't even there to hear the comments, and who knows what kind of mangled third or fourth hand version of what the comments they heard. The story does not specify if the pilot went and spoke with the family before requesting that the Air Marshals act, but knowing people I sorta doubt they bothered or did so in good faith without muscle waiting behind.

This kind of scheme is a perfect example of what is wrong with the security setup. It enforces fear and suspicion rather than reasoned examinations of threat. The group in question was wearing "traditional Muslim clothing" - whatever that might be. While my memory is notoriously flawed, the images I saw of the September 11th hijackers showed them in western clothing. I suspect the same was true of the initial bomb attack on the towers. They'd be stupid not too, wearing hijab or any form of ethnic dress is only going to attract attention, which is exactly what they do not want during the opening phases of any attack.

This does not mean that there is not the posibility of an attack being carried out by a person or persons in some form of Middle Eastern or Saharan African dress, which is what people usually associate with "Muslim" clothing. But it does make it unlikely that a group of 9 would do so. Most terrorist activities requiring that number of people would need to be fairly coordinated, and it is far less likely that a group of that capacity would make a stupid mistake like not dressing in western clothing and acting as unobtrusively as possible. This thought process was not what happened however. Instead, we enabled the racist and xenophobic fears about our current cultural bogyman.

It kills me, because the last time I made a remark about sitting by the wings, they gave me a tour of the cockpit and a sucker.