Transgender Day of Remembrance

For the names we know… and the ones we do not know.

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The longer I live in post-racial America

…..the more it seems like the 50s. To wit:

Creative Steps Day Camp paid The Valley Swim Club more than $1900 for one day of swimming a week, but after the first day, the money was quickly refunded and the campers were told not to return.
At first there was no explanation, but some of the campers recalled overhearing comments about the color of their skin while at the club.
Then the swim club president John Duesler issued this statement: “There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club.”

yep yep yep feeling real post-racial … all “we are the world” like

h/t Renee, Jack and Jill Politics, Pam’s House Blend and lot of others…..

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I was having a crappy day then I got happy and now suddenly… crappy again

Because I read this.

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The training can involved “chasing down illegal border crossers” and “facing down terrorists.” One role player wore “traditional Arab dress.”

“If we’re looking at 9/11 and what a Middle Eastern terrorist would be like,” he said, “then maybe your role-player would look like that. I don’t know, would you call that politically incorrect?”

I don’t have words for a country where we prepare youngsters to be agents of a police state. Where they are taught to target someone because of their dress. Really – this is what a terrorist looks like?

Gah.

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No offense to anyone out there*

*Miss California

I do not want to talk about beauty pageants. I want to say I’m surprised they still happen but I’m not… I don’t care about them, I don’t pay attention to them and I think they are a stupid waste of time; I think they are demeaning and sexist and again… usually don’t pay attention.

But.

Because I listen to the radio and hang around on teh internets, I know there was a pageant and a contestant who did not win, and feels she lost “her” crown because of being honest about her feelings about same sex marriage.

Whatever.

Another 11 year old boy killed himself this week. Another one.

He was bullied at school.

It seems he also was accused of being gay. (Whether or not either of these boys identified as gay is not the point, the point is that the focus, or at least a focus of the bullying is a gay identity or suspicion of being gay is worthy of harassment.)

No one did anything to stop the bullying.

After all, they were just being honest about how they felt, weren’t they?

Weren’t they?

***

What I hear people talking about is whether or not a person can say how they feel about an issue.

What I don’t hear people talking about (in MSM) is the distinction between about the way people “personally feel” about an issue and how public policy gets shaped around the way people “personally feel” and as a result, other people’s real life circumstances are affected. It’s not just that people have a “feeling” about someone’s “preference” or “lifestyle” (and if I never hear those words again in this context, it’s okay by me). It’s that people don’t think, or don’t care that negative feelings get translated into policies and laws that dictate whether or not a person has health insurance, gets tax benefits, is able to inherit from or leave an inheritance to someone they love, raise children, visit a hospitalized spouse, be a member of a faith community, etc etc etc.

Or be safe from bullies – young and old.

Or feel as if life is worth living.

No offense to anybody out there.

ETA other voices:

It is not enough to simply say ‘be kind,’ put up a “No Bullies Welcome Here” poster or encourage the golden rule, like Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover’s school did. We have to acknowledge and take action to address the fact that students are targeted because they defy gender norms. We have to stop acting as if it is generic meanness that causes so much pain, and confront the fact that all too often, it is very specifically anti-gay hostility that is the root of the problem.

http://elleabd.blogspot.com/2009/04/again.html

http://suburblezmom.blogspot.com/2009/04/another-boy-kills-himself.html

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/04/21/another-11-year-old-boy-commits-suicide-after-homophobic-bullying/

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Awe. Some.

h/t belledame222

Derailing for Dummies

You know how it is. You’re enjoying yourself, kicking back and relaxing at the pub or maybe at the library; or maybe you’re in class or just casually surfing the internet, indulging in a little conversation. The topic of the conversation is about a pertinent contemporary issue, probably something to do with a group of people who fall outside your realm of experience and identity. They’re also probably fairly heavily discriminated against – or so they claim.

The thing is, you’re having a good time, sharing your knowledge about these people and their issues. This knowledge is incontrovertible – it’s been backed up in media representation, books, research and lots and lots of historical events, also your own unassailable sense of being right.

Yet all of a sudden something happens to put a dampener on your sharing of your enviable intellect and incomparable capacity to fully perceive and understand All Things. It’s someone who belongs to the group of people you’re discussing and they’re Not Very Happy with you. Apparently, they claim, you’ve got it all wrong and they’re offended about that. They might be a person of colour, or a queer person. Maybe they’re a woman, or a person with disability. They could even be a trans person or a sex worker. The point is they’re trying to tell you they know better than you about their issues and you know that’s just plain wrong. How could you be wrong?

Don’t worry though! There IS something you can do to nip this potentially awkward and embarrassing situation in the bud. By simply derailing the conversation, dismissing their opinion as false and ridiculing their experience you can be sure that they continue to be marginalised and unheard and you can continue to look like the expert you know you really are, deep down inside!

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“We went ahead and pieced together… a new girl.”

Sex, Lies and Photoshop.

This is a video suggesting magazines disclose when images of models are altered. I don’t hold out any hopes for that happening any time soon in the U.S.

But I have noticed something. I used to devour magazines – fashion magazines, beauty magazines, home and garden…. I loved having a big stack of shiny mags to while away an afternoon. I got away from partially because my time became more limited – I needed to spend my reading time on “serious” stuff… but also because magazines… basically are in the business of telling you how much you suck. You are not thin enough, pretty enough, your clothes aren’t fashionable enough, you’re not a good parent, etc. etc. etc.

So, I stopped with the magazines. (Full disclosure – I do buy magazines when I travel, and I do devote 1/2 hour (at least) every week to a trashy magazine. I’m not a saint, folks.) What I have noticed since I stopped reading magazines (especially fashion and beauty mags) is that I appreciate much much more the way real people look.

Real people. People who are no longer 20 years old. People who have some meat on their bones. People with bits that sag. People who don’t go to the hair salon (me). People who didn’t get braces when they were teenagers. People with big noses. People with scars. People grey hair, or no hair, or lots and lots of uncombed hair in fantastic colors. People with hairy ears. People with blue black skin.

People… real people… are beautiful, y’all.

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Oh God

no

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Wow, PETA – trivializing racialized terrorism much?

PETA uses KKK imagery at dog show protest

photo - Mary Altaffer / AP

h/t Macon D

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Post Racial America Alert: In Which My Head Explodes

Seriously…. someone kill me now.

“I’m going to take it back with me to America for a better life.” Hilarity ensues.

h/t Angry Black-White Girl

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Comments are Whack

Oh, yes, I am still alive. Very very busy (new semester, travel, etc.) and so much stuff going on that needs more time that I can give right now to ponder and write about in more than a slapdash fashion.

But posting YouTube videos is certainly slapdasher-y enough for me to deal with. So I present you with my latest video crush). I spent about the 30 seconds worrying about cultural appropriation but quickly got caught up in this rap about correct spelling! And correct grammar! And distinguishing between your and you’re! And by the time they started talking about racist, sexist and homophobic commenters I was certifiably in love. So I present to you “Yo Comments are Whack.” You may thank me later.

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