When I lived on Highland Avenue in Knoxville in a house that's no longer there, I had a garden out the front. I dug up a whole patch of grass and had an abundant patch of flowers. It was bursting. I overstuffed it with gaudy flowers and contrasting colors and hit it hard with the Miracle Grow. I tended it lovingly and planted it up with discounted stuff I got at the garden center where I worked. I watered it with a great long hose and water that I borrowed from the fire station next door.
I often carried a little portable Sony Radio with me to listen to Prarie Home Companion or All Things Considered while I worked. But public radio isn't all talk, and I like chatter while I work. Sometimes my neighbor came over and talked to me while I gardened. He was from some Caribbean island, I can't remember which one now. I can't remember his name either.
He talked a bunch of shit, but I didn't really care. He'd stand and watch me while I worked and talk about black identity politics and a lot of anti-white racism and a smattering of Marxist theory. But hey, it was chatter.
"Your ancestors were pigs," he told me.
"It's pronounced Picts," I said.
He gained new respect for me when I told him I had some Asian blood from my Finnish ancestors. A one-drop theory of sorts. Had we only been able to the DNA testing we have now, I might have been able to tell him I have a little black blood, too, which I do. I'm sure he would have warmed further with that.
One time I mentioned Alice Walker, an author I like. He went livid. Apparently, she's a traitor to the black cause. This all flashed back to me because BBC Radio 4 is featuring The Color Purple as its radio drama this week.
I'm not sure why he was so anti-Alice. But I suspect that it was because of that book she wrote about female genital mutilation. (Possessing the Secret of Joy). He seemed to take that as an affront to the global African experience. He said she knew nothing of the African experience and that I shouldn't read her books. Fair enough, Walker hadn't grown up in Africa (the protagonist had), but you know she's a novelist. Those people make stuff up.
Apparently, in his view, this destroyed her credibility on all counts of relating the black experience, or any apparently.
I told him he was talking shit. "What do you know about being black?" he said.
"What do you know about growing up female in the South?" I said.
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Sexism and racism on political t-shirts
In a previous post, I pointed to a particularly disgusting anti-Palin ad which has appeared on several "progressive" blogs.
A regular reader pointed out some nasty racist slogans - you can see them here at Think Progress. And you'll also find out that the Internet vendor who was selling them has removed them. I'm not excusing them at all, they're vile. They should be taken down through social and commercial pressure. But I have a feeling they're not all that pervasive.
There is an Obama racism museum online with ten examples of racist material and include all the material in the original comment, but interestingly the most violent, vile and offensive item (in my view) is also misogynistic and was created by someone who claimed to be an Obama supporter.
It's my hypothesis that racism is largely deemed unacceptable in "polite society", but sexism is frequently overlooked or tacitly encouraged. So, I thought I'd undertake a little empirical research. I decided to look at the pervasiveness of sexism and racism on one of the more popular customized t-shirt sites - CafePress. This site relies on user generated content printed on CafePress supplied t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, bags...and so on. Here are the shocking results - sexism directed toward political candidates is A-OK and widespread; racism is not.
My assumptions and study design are below the main findings.
Total offense count:
Racism: 1
Faith bias: 9
Gender bias: 43 - maybe 44
Age/disability bias: 3
Honorable mention - perhaps one slogan with sexual preference bias.
The offense counts of the designs which came up as I searched against each politician's name. Interestingly, for both Clinton and Palin all of the offensive designs were directed at them (with one exception). For male candidates, offensive designs were often directed at others.
Barack Obama
Offense count:
Racism: 1
Faith bias: 0
Gender bias: 1 - maybe 2
Age/disability bias: 0
A surprisingly offense-light zone. Only one possible racist association - Barack Obama's head photoshopped onto a gangsta-rappa type with the slogan "Barack's gonna knock you out." I wasn't clear if this was pro or anti Obama, but I felt it played to negative racial stereotypes.
Bro's before ho's (sic) was the slogan with a clear gender bias.
There was also a t-shirt that said "Barack with your cock out". I'm pretty sure it's pro-Obama. It think it means the person is an enthusiastic supporter. I count this as the only maybe on the Gender Bias category.
John McCain
Offense count:
Racism: 0
Faith bias: 6
Gender bias: 5
Age/disability bias: 1
Half of the offensive material was linking Obama to radical Islam - mostly making a play on words between Obama and Osama (typical example)
There were a couple of references too Sarah Palin's sexual attractiveness and Hillary Clinton's lack of same. More under their own entries.
There was one instance of a visual pun that was a reference to John McCain's age and possible infirmity John Mc(and a picture of a cane).
Joe Biden
Offense count:
Racism: 0
Faith bias: 3
Gender bias: 0
Age/disability bias: 2
I flipped through pages and pages before I found anything particularly offensive here. There were a couple of instances of designs showing Joe Biden in a wheelchair urging him to stand up (a reference to a gaffe he made inviting a political ally in a wheelchair to stand).
Two references to McCain's fitness - "It's 3pm and John McCain is napping."
Three links to Osama Bin Laden, two of them rather tortured visual puns linking Obama and Osama and Biden and Bin Laden.
Sarah Palin
Offense count:
Racism: 0
Faith bias: 0
Gender bias: 10
Age/disability bias: 0
Almost all of the offensive material here was about Sarah Palin's fuckability, reducing her to a "hot" object of desire - often with a gun (examples here and here). There were several references to wanting to be Sarah Palin's intern.
I didn't count designs that included the slogan "Drill, baby, drill." or any images of a pitbull with lipstick, or "Hero and Hottie" - though I probably should have included instances of the latter. I tended to limit it to the most graphic images or descriptions.
There were two instances of "VP Palin - I'd drill that".
I'm not entirely sure, but I think a lot of this offensive material was ostensibly pro-Palin.
Hillary Clinton
Offense count:
Racism: 0
Faith bias: 0
Gender bias: 28
Age/disability bias: 0
If the gender bias about Sarah Palin was about her attractiveness, most of the references to Hillary Clinton were the opposite. The predominant messages were that she's ugly, undesirable and a bitch. Like Lewinsky '08, vote for the woman who's willing to do the job or Even Bill doesn't want her.
There were many instances of "Life's a bitch, so don't vote for one" or similar. Similarly, I counted several instances of "Just Vote for the Bitch," which I counted and "Bitches get things done," which I didn't. It's a fine line to draw, but that's where I drew it.
There was one pro-Hillary slogan which was sexist toward men (and women) - which I did count - Chicks before Dicks. Probably a counter to Bros before Hos.
Study design
I searched under five names Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin to look for any type of negative "ism" in designs available on the site. Most of the designs were available on a variety of items, but some were only t-shirts or only bumper stickers. I didn't count these differently. For each politician, I looked at 15 pages of possible designs - with 30 designs appearing per page - a total of 450 designs each. I counted similar or practically identical designs as separate instances if they had a different design identification number.
I found negative gender, age, and religious bias - but only possibly one instance of negative race bias. I judged negative bias as distasteful or offensive use of racial, faith, age or disability, or sexist stereotypes used to attack (and in some cases putatively support) a particular candidate. Negative bias is based entirely my judgement - a serious flaw in this little study, but I tried to be as objective as possible.
I also found lots of positive gender and race bias - i.e. it's a good thing to vote for Barack Obama because he's black (a small number of these) or vote for Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin because they are women (lots of these). I didn't count those. I also didn't count instances where the political slogans were an obvious twist on negative sterotypes (e.g. the slogan that said Some Guy/Palin '08).
I also found a number of "vaguely sexist" references - such as Obama Girl or Chicks for Obama or McCain Girl. I didn't count these. Similarly, there were usages of the urban slang "homeboy", but these appeared to be without racial bias and were I felt supported both the Republicans (McCain is my homeboy, Sarah is my home girl) and Obama is my homeboy. These weren't counted.
UPDATE: For a bonus round including political headlines, check out Tennessee Guerilla Women.
Sarah Palin Sexism Watch
16 Sexist Sarah Palin T shirts that will probably piss you off.
A regular reader pointed out some nasty racist slogans - you can see them here at Think Progress. And you'll also find out that the Internet vendor who was selling them has removed them. I'm not excusing them at all, they're vile. They should be taken down through social and commercial pressure. But I have a feeling they're not all that pervasive.
There is an Obama racism museum online with ten examples of racist material and include all the material in the original comment, but interestingly the most violent, vile and offensive item (in my view) is also misogynistic and was created by someone who claimed to be an Obama supporter.
It's my hypothesis that racism is largely deemed unacceptable in "polite society", but sexism is frequently overlooked or tacitly encouraged. So, I thought I'd undertake a little empirical research. I decided to look at the pervasiveness of sexism and racism on one of the more popular customized t-shirt sites - CafePress. This site relies on user generated content printed on CafePress supplied t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, bags...and so on. Here are the shocking results - sexism directed toward political candidates is A-OK and widespread; racism is not.
My assumptions and study design are below the main findings.
Total offense count:
Racism: 1
Faith bias: 9
Gender bias: 43 - maybe 44
Age/disability bias: 3
Honorable mention - perhaps one slogan with sexual preference bias.
The offense counts of the designs which came up as I searched against each politician's name. Interestingly, for both Clinton and Palin all of the offensive designs were directed at them (with one exception). For male candidates, offensive designs were often directed at others.
Barack Obama
Offense count:
Racism: 1
Faith bias: 0
Gender bias: 1 - maybe 2
Age/disability bias: 0
A surprisingly offense-light zone. Only one possible racist association - Barack Obama's head photoshopped onto a gangsta-rappa type with the slogan "Barack's gonna knock you out." I wasn't clear if this was pro or anti Obama, but I felt it played to negative racial stereotypes.
Bro's before ho's (sic) was the slogan with a clear gender bias.
There was also a t-shirt that said "Barack with your cock out". I'm pretty sure it's pro-Obama. It think it means the person is an enthusiastic supporter. I count this as the only maybe on the Gender Bias category.
John McCain
Offense count:
Racism: 0
Faith bias: 6
Gender bias: 5
Age/disability bias: 1
Half of the offensive material was linking Obama to radical Islam - mostly making a play on words between Obama and Osama (typical example)
There were a couple of references too Sarah Palin's sexual attractiveness and Hillary Clinton's lack of same. More under their own entries.
There was one instance of a visual pun that was a reference to John McCain's age and possible infirmity John Mc(and a picture of a cane).
Joe Biden
Offense count:
Racism: 0
Faith bias: 3
Gender bias: 0
Age/disability bias: 2
I flipped through pages and pages before I found anything particularly offensive here. There were a couple of instances of designs showing Joe Biden in a wheelchair urging him to stand up (a reference to a gaffe he made inviting a political ally in a wheelchair to stand).
Two references to McCain's fitness - "It's 3pm and John McCain is napping."
Three links to Osama Bin Laden, two of them rather tortured visual puns linking Obama and Osama and Biden and Bin Laden.
Sarah Palin
Offense count:
Racism: 0
Faith bias: 0
Gender bias: 10
Age/disability bias: 0
Almost all of the offensive material here was about Sarah Palin's fuckability, reducing her to a "hot" object of desire - often with a gun (examples here and here). There were several references to wanting to be Sarah Palin's intern.
I didn't count designs that included the slogan "Drill, baby, drill." or any images of a pitbull with lipstick, or "Hero and Hottie" - though I probably should have included instances of the latter. I tended to limit it to the most graphic images or descriptions.
There were two instances of "VP Palin - I'd drill that".
I'm not entirely sure, but I think a lot of this offensive material was ostensibly pro-Palin.
Hillary Clinton
Offense count:
Racism: 0
Faith bias: 0
Gender bias: 28
Age/disability bias: 0
If the gender bias about Sarah Palin was about her attractiveness, most of the references to Hillary Clinton were the opposite. The predominant messages were that she's ugly, undesirable and a bitch. Like Lewinsky '08, vote for the woman who's willing to do the job or Even Bill doesn't want her.
There were many instances of "Life's a bitch, so don't vote for one" or similar. Similarly, I counted several instances of "Just Vote for the Bitch," which I counted and "Bitches get things done," which I didn't. It's a fine line to draw, but that's where I drew it.
There was one pro-Hillary slogan which was sexist toward men (and women) - which I did count - Chicks before Dicks. Probably a counter to Bros before Hos.
Study design
I searched under five names Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin to look for any type of negative "ism" in designs available on the site. Most of the designs were available on a variety of items, but some were only t-shirts or only bumper stickers. I didn't count these differently. For each politician, I looked at 15 pages of possible designs - with 30 designs appearing per page - a total of 450 designs each. I counted similar or practically identical designs as separate instances if they had a different design identification number.
I found negative gender, age, and religious bias - but only possibly one instance of negative race bias. I judged negative bias as distasteful or offensive use of racial, faith, age or disability, or sexist stereotypes used to attack (and in some cases putatively support) a particular candidate. Negative bias is based entirely my judgement - a serious flaw in this little study, but I tried to be as objective as possible.
I also found lots of positive gender and race bias - i.e. it's a good thing to vote for Barack Obama because he's black (a small number of these) or vote for Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin because they are women (lots of these). I didn't count those. I also didn't count instances where the political slogans were an obvious twist on negative sterotypes (e.g. the slogan that said Some Guy/Palin '08).
I also found a number of "vaguely sexist" references - such as Obama Girl or Chicks for Obama or McCain Girl. I didn't count these. Similarly, there were usages of the urban slang "homeboy", but these appeared to be without racial bias and were I felt supported both the Republicans (McCain is my homeboy, Sarah is my home girl) and Obama is my homeboy. These weren't counted.
UPDATE: For a bonus round including political headlines, check out Tennessee Guerilla Women.
Sarah Palin Sexism Watch
16 Sexist Sarah Palin T shirts that will probably piss you off.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
The limits of rudeness
Advisory: This post contains strong language of an adult nature
I can't believe I'm posting about Celebrity Big Brother. The "normal" version of Big Brother is bad enough - but pack the tv fishbowl with a bunch of second rate celebs and it's even less interesting.
But here I am commenting on it. Here's why.
Many, many people are upset over "racism" on Big Brother. There have been 27,000 complaints (and counting) to Channel 4, which produces and airs the show. Apparently, a Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty has born the brunt of many negative comments from her fellow celebrity incarcerees. Shilpa Shetty is probably an annoying diva, but I bet she's more talented than the other D-list shut-ins and makes a ton more money, too. I'm sure that's at the root of the problem, rather than racism per se.
When asked whether she thought she'd been the victim of racial abuse, Shilpa Shetty didn't think so. She didn't think she'd been treated well by Jade Goody (another participant) but she didn't think the remarks were racially motivated.
Now I don't know if any of them are racist or not. But I have noticed that appalling behaviour - rude, crass comments, sexism, classism, snobbery (reverse or straightforward) go unremarked on - unless, of course, it smacks of racism.
Jade Goody's boyfriend called Ms Shetty a name which was bleeped. Many people complained that he'd called her a "Paki" (a derogative term for someone of Pakistani origin - Ms Shetty is in fact Indian). But actually, he'd called her "cunt". Well, that's ok then, apparently. Misogyny is all good viewing - (until you use the c-word), but woe betide anyone who uses a racial epithet.
I don't think it's OK to call Ms Shetty a Paki or a cunt. I don't think that this is the kind of behaviour we want from anyone. Why can't we just stand up for decency? Why do people even watch these nasty-mouthed people act in ways we wouldn't (or shouldn't) tolerate on the playground. Have we become so immune to rudeness that we only think it's worthy of comment when it's racist? Personally, I think we should be drawing the line a lot higher.
(Oh - and for anyone who comes to this post looking for Paki cunt - go fuck yourself. And yes, I do appreciate my own self-generated irony)
I can't believe I'm posting about Celebrity Big Brother. The "normal" version of Big Brother is bad enough - but pack the tv fishbowl with a bunch of second rate celebs and it's even less interesting.
But here I am commenting on it. Here's why.
Many, many people are upset over "racism" on Big Brother. There have been 27,000 complaints (and counting) to Channel 4, which produces and airs the show. Apparently, a Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty has born the brunt of many negative comments from her fellow celebrity incarcerees. Shilpa Shetty is probably an annoying diva, but I bet she's more talented than the other D-list shut-ins and makes a ton more money, too. I'm sure that's at the root of the problem, rather than racism per se.
When asked whether she thought she'd been the victim of racial abuse, Shilpa Shetty didn't think so. She didn't think she'd been treated well by Jade Goody (another participant) but she didn't think the remarks were racially motivated.
I think there are a lot of insecurities from her end, but I don't think it's racial.
Now I don't know if any of them are racist or not. But I have noticed that appalling behaviour - rude, crass comments, sexism, classism, snobbery (reverse or straightforward) go unremarked on - unless, of course, it smacks of racism.
Jade Goody's boyfriend called Ms Shetty a name which was bleeped. Many people complained that he'd called her a "Paki" (a derogative term for someone of Pakistani origin - Ms Shetty is in fact Indian). But actually, he'd called her "cunt". Well, that's ok then, apparently. Misogyny is all good viewing - (until you use the c-word), but woe betide anyone who uses a racial epithet.
I don't think it's OK to call Ms Shetty a Paki or a cunt. I don't think that this is the kind of behaviour we want from anyone. Why can't we just stand up for decency? Why do people even watch these nasty-mouthed people act in ways we wouldn't (or shouldn't) tolerate on the playground. Have we become so immune to rudeness that we only think it's worthy of comment when it's racist? Personally, I think we should be drawing the line a lot higher.
(Oh - and for anyone who comes to this post looking for Paki cunt - go fuck yourself. And yes, I do appreciate my own self-generated irony)
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