Sorry, no.

Subtitled: So glad I haven’t yet been xangaed.

So it appears that everybody’s favorite NBA player used to xanga.  He can be forgiven for this since he was fifteen at the time.  His xanga name reportedly was  “Ch*nkBalla88.”

Asian Americans, you’re all on notice now:  You have no right to complain, bitch or whine about the word “ch*nk” since Jeremy Lin apparently used it himself. In fact, you can’t play the race card at all!  So just put away the deck.  It’s open season on racism.  I mean, good fun.

Yeah, we’ve heard it before (item 3C). 

White female privilege

We come from the position that it absolutely exists, and then we work from there.  Read this post over at Racialicious:  Go after the Privilege, not the Tits:  Afterthoughts on Alexandra Wallace and White Female Privilege.   Then go read the post on Feministe.

Make sure to read the comments.  Usually I try not to read the comments because everything starts hurting and itching simultaneously and mostly I want to stick my head in the oven.  But there are a couple of folks over at each site who make reading the comments worthwhile.

One more time:  White female privilege exists.

White female privilege example:  When a discussion about white female privilege does not talk about intersectionality or the kyriarchy but instead is regressed to the position that white female privilege does not exist. 

Wardrobe issues

I recently went shopping for new clothes suitable for the office as I have started a new job. Specifically I felt I needed things that showed less cleavage. On my first day on the job, I noticed that I was not the only one with such considerations.

I mentioned this to a (female) colleague who informed me that the other amply-chested colleague had been warned about her décolleté. This bothered me because, over the last couple of weeks, I have not seen any immodesty or attention-seeking in this person.

So for any male colleagues, particularly management, who may be reading this blog, the following should be noted:

• nature endowed me with big tits
• I endeavour to restrain them
• you should think about doing the same with your eyes and not blame it on me if you can’t

‘Burka rage’

Can’t say that I’m surprised, because this is what happens when you institutionalize racism:
A 60-year-old lawyer ripped a Muslim woman’s Islamic veil off in a row in a clothing shop

“‘Redskins’ may have psychological impact beyond Native Americans”

Article here.

The study, published by Chu Kim-Prieto, a psychologist with the College of New Jersey, suggests stereotyping of American Indians is a psychological process that actually encourages a broader attitude that affects all minority communities, not just the ones being actively stereotyped.

Jenn Fang from reappropriate is quoted.

¡Viva la opresión!

Recently I have been struck by the profoundly embedded nature of certain –isms.

Most people would agree that, in the professional world – the glass ceiling, wage differentials and the occasional sexual harassment lawsuit not withstanding – sexism is a phenomenon that rarely rears its ugly head. ;-)

Seriously, most women would probably agree that their male colleagues don’t apparently treat them any differently because they are women. Their professional opinion and expertise are respected. Their voice is heard and considered. They are not (obviously) leered at. Most men would spontaneously agree that they see no difference in ability and potential contribution between their male and female colleagues.

Similarly, most people would agree that differently abled people are not sufficiently catered for by society. When our privilege is pointed out to us, we feel ashamed and we agree that more should be done. We even vow to try and be more inclusive ourselves, to think about the difficulties that the blind person, the deaf person or the wheelchair-user confront daily.

Yet, those are conscious thoughts. Reasoned reflections. They are not knee-jerk reactions conditioned into us. The reality is very different.

Internet racism

Internet racism is nothing new.   At one time, many internet users subscribed to the notion that faceless interaction would lead to a decline in racism.  It was said that on the internet everybody is equal.  Since we can’t see each other’s faces, the only way we can judge others is by the content of their character.

It was just another version of colorblindness.  And you can see from Dr. Tynes’ research the colorblind ideology is linked to racism.

My first experience with colorblind racism was on a gardening forum, of all places.  And what I tended to notice was that white people didn’t assume other folks at the keyboard were a multi-hued group, all of whom were equal.  They tended instead to assume everybody on the other end was white.  And they posted accordingly.

‘Termination Effective Immediately’

Remember the police officer who was suspended for sending an e-mail that included the term “banana-eating jungle monkey” to describe an African American man?  In fact, he used the term “jungle monkey” four times in his correspondence.

Well, he’s been fired.    It took six months because they wanted to conduct a “thorough investigation.”

Just like ‘flesh-colored’

Are there any black people at HP? Its facial-recognition software is supposed to track people using a webcam.  But as the linked video demonstrates, it is massive fail.

I’m a little surprised given that HP in Palo Alto has a number of people of Asian Indian descent, and they sometimes have dark skin.

Random unrelated HP anecdote follows:

Georgetown students say racist article is satire

Nope, that’s not what the article is titled.  The article is actually titled “Georgetown students say campus satire is racist.”  At least the title isn’t “Georgetown students say campus satire is ‘racist.'”  But what if racism were widely acknowledged?  It would be the racist writers who would be forced to defend their position.

You can see the original “humor” piece here.  It invokes cross-burning, “human-shaped pinatas” hanging from trees, blackface, the racist imagination about how black people speak and firehoses turned on black students.

Yeah, it’s a laugh riot.