Writing is Fighting

More Examples That We Are Not a "Post-Racial" Society

Early last week, I was struggling to think about what I wanted to write about for Blogher. But funnily enough, whenever I feel that I am totally stumped something comes up and I'm like, 'yeah!'

Because of what I write about, the fact that I never seem to fall short of topics is not necessarily a good thing. Most of my postings seem to focus on not-so-positive issues in the news - issues that I feel that if not acknowledged would, despite many R&E bloggers posting about them - would go unnoticed. Blogher has a huge readership so posting something on that site is almost a guarantee that perhaps someone who isn't regularly checking the R&E sites will learn of a story or an issue that ordinarily they wouldn't have.

I wrote about the penchant some people still have concerning blackface and other negative black images that seem to occur during Halloween over at Blogher this week, but a few hours later after I put up the post, I got a tweet from my friend, Leah, whom the original story was based on. She alerted me this post on Torontoist about the above fucking idiots in the above picture.

Now to be fair, the writer who posted the story about this greatly misinformed group of U of T students who decided to go to a party depicted as the characters from a shitty 90's movie, Cool Runnings, knew that what they did was off-color ( pardon the pun). If the writer hadn't pointed out who they were trying to emulate I wouldn't have known and thought that they were a bunch of douchebags. Well, I think that anyway....but at least there was a bit of context? I'm trying to be fair, here.

Would I call it racist? No. But by looking at some of the comments, I immediately thought about two things. First, here are some of the comments:

It was always my understanding that that wasn't blackface. It'd be blackface if they had done the exaggerated white mouth that is the primary characteristic of blackface. These guys don't seem to have it.

I don't get it - why is it offensive for a white person to wear makeup to portray a black character on Halloween? They're not displaying any sort of intolerance. I've known people that have been iconic black characters like Shaft for Halloween - and let me tell you, a white dude is not a very convincing Shaft without a bit of makeup. Is it not okay to be somebody for Halloween that has a different skin color than yourself?

And

I don't think blackface has much visceral meaning for the post-Al Jolson generation, and I'm in general agreement with Buck that these lame-ass costumes are more post-racist than racist (can a white guy dress as Obama or is that blackface?).......

From the students in the picture:

.....We are extremely offended by your slanderous article, it not only attacks our moral integrity, but calls our character into question on a daily basis. We ASK you to please consider the consequences of your uninformed accusations on those you use as mediums for debates on race relations and we further DEMAND that you take this down. We don’t deserve your scrutiny and we certainly don’t deserve the negative impact it will surely have on our day to day life.

Before that portion of the comment, the students pulled the 'I have friends of every color' card - "none of my multi-ethnic friends were offended." Plus, the guy with white makeup is black, so in theory, it could dissuade any arguments that these guys were trying to be hateful.

Instead they just come off as being ignorant and probably privileged little boys who relish in their white supremacy - the subconscious attitude that they can do whatever they want, never feel that they have to justify their actions and if someone does dare to critique them, well, then the problem is the critic, not them. How dare you, you bunch of uptight politically correct socialists! This is my right!

So my first thought was that I find this way of thinking (along with the commenter's who always say 'get over it, or 'black people are racist too' as straw-man arguments) very tiring and sad. These kids are not the devil, it's just that this story is indicative of the confusion over what a 'post-racial' society really is supposed to be.

My second thought was not condemning the 'black friend' in the picture, but to feel sorry for him. One of the only commenter's ( and the only commenter I personally know who is black) who was extremely critical of the story was The Carps singer, Jamal Tonge, who I happened to interview a few years ago. This is what he said:

Wow. I can't believe some of the ignorance I'm reading on here.

The fact that white people are "unaware" of the offense somehow makes it ok? That is supposed to be a justification for the years of subjugation and embarrassment black people have dealt with? The years of racist stereotypes predicated on this VERY thing??

It is not simply the act of rubbing shoe polish on your face and drinking overprice booze and some douche bar. It's the reminders and memories of a time when black people and all people of color were seen as stupid, thieves, liars and super sexual. Ready to rape and eat a white woman at any time.

Blackface is among one of the most intensely offensive and racist things any person can do in this day and age. And the fact that these tools potentially don't know about it is NO excuse. It doesn't mean we are forgetting about racism? (Why are some people so quick to want to forget their guilt and shame?) What it means is that we are forgetting WHY offensive stereotypes about watermelon, laziness and chicken and thievery come from.

SHAME on you, ANY of you, for propagating this foolishness.

In a very sad, sick way, I can understand what the black dude in 'whiteface' felt. Perhaps deep down inside he kinda knew (or at least I hope he did) along with the other brotha in the picture, that perhaps that wasn't the greatest idea. Perhaps these guys were good friends and he just went along with their idea - after all, I do believe that this was not malicious, just incredibly misinformed. And if these guys attend U of T, most likely they are going to have more white friends than black. Maybe they just wanted to blend in. I'm not excusing the fact that they are douches for participating, but simply that it is not easy to dismiss their part in this as being 'race-traitors.'

Talking to white friends about issues surrounding race is not easy. I don't care how long you have been friends with someone but from my perspective and experience of having a 95% white family, regardless of how long you have known, love and respected someone, if they have not lived your experience, dealt with the intricacies of race and racism in our society, they will never fully understand. Sympathize? Yes but often that comes out as pity, which we do not really need and does no good for anyone. Could those brothers really talk to their friends about the questionable images they were putting out?

Maybe they didn't even think about it. After all, 'Blackface' is considered an old relic by the young. But every Halloween, the actions of people who put on brown makeup and take on negative caricatures of black people ( and Asian and Latino, and South Asians) seems to be here to say. They are too young or too stupid to know about how back in the day, blackface was white people saying that black were stupid buffoons. Actions that could avoid the verbalizing of hate but favoring a more insidious form of cruelty that said, we will never accept you. You will always be the other. But because this happens in this day and age when we really should be more socially evolved a bit more that we evidently are, it troubles me.

So this post-racial society? For some it means that with the election of President Obama, racism no longer exists. See, white Americans did 'us' a favor by voting a black man into office, so we all better shut the fuck up now. They can't be racist with a brother in the White House. You can no longer even say the 'R' word because as far as they are concerned, it no longer exists.

Some people have used Obama's election as a convenient way not only to dismiss instances of racism, but also to strip people from their humanity. See? We did you a favor so now you have to shut up and take it. We don't 'see' color....but we still like to dress up and make fun of you. The boys dressed up like characters in a movie that were viewed as stupid Jamaicans who needed to be saved by a white coach. They might have found it innocent, but I do not think it was. It was buffoonery, separated by a decade, perhaps, but still insulting. Maybe their are too stupid to know, to ignorant to care......I kinda hope so because the alternative is pretty pathetic coming from a younger generation in a heavily multi-ethnic city and a great university.

Witnessing a Racist Act - What would you do?

First, Mastodon's Crack the Skye is streaming in its entirety over on their MySpace page. Me? I'll wait until next Tuesday. I'm still digging 'Divinations' though.........

Anyhoo, wanted to write about this situation for a couple of weeks. Wasn't until I was over at Racialicious today that I actually felt compelled to sit down and write it out.

So......a few weeks ago I met a friend for lunch. We were walking down Bloor street around noonish ( for T.O folks, you can guess how busy it was at that time) and I noticed this guy in a wheelchair stopped on the sidewalk- perched close to the street so he didn't block foot traffic. There were these two young Asian women in front of us, just chatting and minding their own business and as a group of us ( there was a number of people walking closely behind us) walked passed him. All of a sudden, the guy in the wheelchair starts screaming, "fucking Taiwanese. Fucking gooks! I should have killed you all in the war!

He went on an on as we passed. I was stunned into silence, but the first thing I remembered doing was staring at the back of the two women in front of me, waiting for their reaction. They didn't seem to acknowledge the guy and about a few steps further, they stopped and were pointing at some expensive shoes at Holt's. I realized - from overhearing their conversation as me and my friend passed, that there was a good chance that they didn't speak English, and hopefully, didn't understand it, either. Thank goodness.

But what bothered me most about this situation was my response. I did nothing. My friend, also black and pretty open on her views on race relations / racism, just muttered something incomprehensible under her breath and kept steppin.' The people walking behind us, a group of young-ish white dudes who looked like white-collar employees on their lunch break, did and said nothing. Should we have done something?

Now the dude in the wheelchair was very old, looked like he had been through a lot and maybe was missing a few marbles. But what stayed with me after that random, 5-second altercation was, should I have said something to him? Reprimanded him in some way, or was he simply crazy and looking for attention?

There were so many things that came to mind and honestly, things that in hindsight I wasn't proud of. First, if the women were black, would I have reacted in a different way? Pushed him and his wheelchair into lunchtime traffic? Was it because they were Asian that I kept my mouth shut? Second, why didn't anyone else say something, like 'dude. That's not cool. Keep your opinions to yourself, you old bigot.' Why didn't I?

As I consider myself an anti-racist activist, I assumed that I believed that everyone, regardless of their ethnocultural background should be treated and regarded as equals, so my inaction bothered me. On the other hand, during conversations with certain friends and black acquaintances, there seemed to be this 'I'll defend my own people - you defend yours' mentality that meant that if they saw someone else being treated in an offensive discriminatory manner, they wouldn't help them. Some had previously been in situations where they were racially harassed and / or discriminated against by someone of another ethnocultural group and had a 'fuck all y'all' mentality. Some held some pretty racially offensive views about others and simply thought that each man should be out for themselves.

Now I would like to believe that if this old guy suddenly jumped out of his wheelchair and clocked one of the women over the head, myself and others would have rushed to their rescue, but I don't think so. Years ago, an Aboriginal man punched me as I got off the subway during rush hour, and no one came to my aid. I called the cops, and they basically did nothing. I wasn't physically injured, but that incident has stayed with me for years - I remember the people who were on the platform just looking away like they hadn't seen anything, and I was so angry,hurt - but the worst part was that for a second, I honestly thought that maybe they - and even a small part of me - felt that is was okay. I seemed to represent a whole lotta negative things to that man, and because of that inaction, it made me feel like maybe the bystanders felt like I deserved it.

I never really wanted anyone else to really go through that but guess what? I kinda did. So I ask you, my faithful, loyal readers, what would you have done?

What I did for Black History Month

Not much, really. Had too many other things on my mind.

Last night I attended this event held by Sway magazine entitled (quite bluntly) Is Canada More Racist than the U.S?

Back in the day I would try to attend all the festivities I could during BHM. I loved film screenings and panel discussions, as it seems like the only time black folk in Toronto want to congregate - outside of Caribana or a Calypso club - is during the chilly month of February. O.K I admit I'm being a bit cynical here.

My cynicm spilled over a bit into last night's event which was held at a very nice club downtown. Surprisingly, the event was free and I even scored a free drink ticket, which was cool. I was a bit disappointed that the discussion was not a panel and that there were no chairs for the hundreds of people who were stuffed into a sweaty room to watch the presenters (10) each give a five minute monologue, giving their opinion on the topic.

Some of the speakers were not that great. Rambling away as though they wanted to avoid the topic at hand. As I made the fatal mistake of wearing heels and then standing on a concrete floor for an uncomfortably long amount of time, I was planning to bolt after the first speaker, whom seemed more intent on marketing her career than talking about racism in Canada.

However, besides the large amount of people yammering away and pointedly ignoring the pretty impressive group of speakers, more interested in passing out business cards than the actual event, the speakers got better and surprisingly, they enunciated basically every snarky thing I had not-so secretly thought about racism in Canada, in a more tactful manner.

In today's Toronto Star they highlighted the three out of the four speakers that resonated with me the most: Dwayne Morgan, who is a well-known spoken word artist, was amazing:

I think that it is much easier to navigate through life when you know exactly where you fit in, but as a Canadian person of color, I am made to feel like a foster child, desperately wanting to feel like a part of the family.

I was also impressed with Zananda Akande, a former principal and Ontario Cabinet minister:

When racism is pointed out, much time is spent in denial, charging the incident or circumstance to other causes, or claiming oversensitivity or misinterpretation.

If the charge is institutional or systemic racism, research is demanded to prove its existence...

After the research is completed and analyzed, an implementation plan is discussed and hopefully designed.

All this happens haltingly and hesitantly before any concrete measures are taken, if taken, leaving the claimants to suffer not only the racism, but also the resentment of their colleagues, or worse. It also allows for much time and energy to be expended before the issue is addressed

Probably because the reporter did not stick around long enough to listen to what Michael 'Pinball' Clemons had to say, the Star didn't mention him. Clemons is the former coach for the Toronto Argonautts, an American who announced during his very short speech that he is applying for Canadian citizenship. I had heard that he was a gifted speaker and he didn't disappoint.

Clemons responded to one of the assertions that Morgan made that 'I'd rather have someone tell me that I'm a nigger to my face than the subversive ways in which Canadians do.' I'm paraphrasing here, but he was talking about the backhanded, passive/aggressive racism that we are so used to. Clemons talked about when he was a kid growing up in Florida, some of the very overt racism he endured and how the painful memories had remained into his adult years. He looked like he was going to burst into tears when he said that he preferred the 'Canadian way' over the American. 'For me, I don't want to know what they think. I don't need to know."

"What about the racists in this room?" Now the room was packed with Negroes (and a sprinkling of white reporters and spouses) so we all looked at each other in confusion. "You. You," he exclaimed, wagging his finger at the stunned audience. He explained that there was many of us who hated each other because we were black, which led to our inactivity in working together as a community. He then jumped off the stage and disappeared into the crowd.

But to put what he said into perspective with what some of the other speakers had argued, such as writer Rinaldo Walcott, who asked why no one had bothered to question why there were no historical monuments or buildings named after great African-Canadian leaders and luminaries, such as writer / politician Rosemary Brown, George Elliot Clarke and former Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, it made sense. No one had organized it, felt that it was important to show the shawtys comin' up that yes, black folk in Canada actually did something productive to change the social and economic structure in Canada.

I dunno. As mentioned before I've been to too many of these events, feeling inspired and hopeful only to conveniently forget about the 'messages of inspiration' when real life comes crashing in. I really enjoyed hanging out with my friend Del and chatting with couple of people I hadn't seen in years, but honestly? I don't really think there are going to be any Kumbaya moments anytime soon.

A Follow-Up To My Last Post

I just wanted to let the fine readers of Writing is Fighting - all three of you - of an excellent post up at the Black Snob. Danielle has written a continuation of sorts on the 'black girls' issue, and I hope you will head on over and check it.

If you don't, here's a bit of an explanation about the post. Danielle writes about her experience discovering a healthy self-awareness about the representations of black female beauty- okay, umm, that's not a great explanation, so go on over and read it. I just wish I had something so heartwarming to write, but I don't. Danielle is lucky.

I think that one of the issues about creating a blog that serves as a personal journal and a warehouse of your writing work is that you have to watch what you say. If you scroll back a few years, you will see that on this site there have been plenty of times where I have delved into more of the personal than the professional - and caught some offline shit for it. Because of recent circumstances, it is better that this blog remains more of a "omigod I love this band" type of thing than "omigod my life sucks" type of blog. So I'll leave it to people who can do a better job of it than I can.

I will say this, though: Being a militant Black chick into metal is way more complicated than you think. I've lost a lot of readership due to the change in content over the past year, but I have to stay true to myself. I do think, that issues that Danielle raises on her site are extremely interesting and I wholeheartedly agree with and want to participate in her project, which she discusses via the above link. But due to personal circumstances, I don't think that it's a great idea.

But please.....head on over, read her amazing post, and participate!

It's Hard To Find Pretty Black Girls In America.

It's a quiet Sunday afternoon. I went to the gym this morning and in my fervor to get fit, I think I pulled a stomach muscle (gotta get the abs tight for the summer!) so instead of doing some much-needed work, I've been watching the Death Wish marathon on AMC and periodically checking emails.

So a couple of minutes ago, I checked my Google Reader and came across a couple of posts from one of my faves, Black Snob and was appalled at this:

After writing two posts about the advertising/modeling industry suddenly scratching their heads and having their worlds turned upside down by clients wanting a more "ethnic" look in the kid campaigns due to First Daughter Fever, and reading unadulterated BULLSHIT like, "(T)he First Daughters are tough subjects to match" and “It’s a very specific age and a very specific ethnicity, so there aren’t that many girls that would necessarily fit the bill,” I can no longer stand idle and say do nothing.

 So apparently advertisers and marketers are trying to make a buck by trying to find child models who resemble Malia and Sasha for upcoming campaigns - and are having a difficult time trying to find brown children who are.....biracial? Or 3/4's Black? or, as the above statement suggests, attractive, wealthy and Black?

Give me a f#$cking break.

First, all this marketing crap, such as T-shirts, mugs, the "Drunken Negro" cookies (created in sheer ignorance by a baker as a throwback to the good ol' minstrel days, I guess) , posters, flags, hairstyles, watching what Michelle Obama is wearing..caring about what Michelle Obama is wearing.......is wearing me thin.  

I understand that the world has rapidly changed in terms of our dependence on technology and the overabundance of consumerism, since the days when Chelsea Clinton or even the drunken Bush twins entered the Oval Office. The first Black folks to enter the White House by the front door instead of the back have proven to be a very lucrative marketing tool for many Madison Avenue advertising firms to manipulate for their own gain. But what is really sad is how out of touch many people were prior to Obama entering the media's eye that yes, there are black people in America who actually have Ivy League educations, can afford designer clothes without being signed to a Hip-Hop label or slinging crack, and their children actually speak the Queen's English!  But I've mentioned that before so I won't bother ranting about that nonsense again.

What unnerved me about Danielle's post was what initially came to my mind.

Thank God I don't have children.

It's not that I don't like kids or don't want kids - I am mildly afraid of kids, though, as I think that they can see right through me and realize I'd be a horrible, selfish parent - but what scares me most is if I were to have girls,how would they be received in this world?

Don't get me wrong - I see pretty black girls every day. But I also know pretty black women who have severe issues with self-esteem, depression, drug and alcohol abuse and other issues. They grew up thinking that they were not pretty or as worthy as their white counterparts. They grew up in a time when black folks were not regularly seen in mainstream media and as bullshit tends to run downhill, they had parents who did not validate not only their aesthetics, but their worth - that their beauty was equal to the white, Asian, Latina, etc. girls that they went to school with. They were told - sometimes directly that their natural hair is ugly, their round behinds, thick hips and full lips are unacceptable, and that when they voiced their opinion, that they would be feared, ostracized or even worse, simply ignored like they weren't even there. And again, as bullshit runs downhill and most importantly because so many people have been ingrained with the negativity that exists in society about black beauty, these pretty black women I know will most likely pass the same negative issues and messages on to their daughters. which is why I am glad I do not have girls of my own.

So I take great offense to the subject matter in Danielle's / Black Snob's posts. Not because it is ridiculously false, but because I see the hidden connotations behind advertising fims / modeling agency's ' struggles' to find black models who look like Malia and Sasha.

Outtakes from new Toronto Star article

First, I have an article in the Toronto Star. Check it out.

As the word count is pretty rigid, there was so much interesting stuff that I couldn't put in about what, if any social, economical and political changes Black Canadians might experience if Barak Obama becomes president. I asked a couple of questions that were not in the article and there was more elaborate responses, so I thought I would post some 'soundbites' here. I will not use the names of the respondents just in case......

Will a black candidate help elievate racism in North America? ( I asked this because 'some' feel that it would be a sign that racism will be no longer be an 'issue' - yeah, right)

Racism will be even worse if he was president. All those ugly whites. Racism will rise to a level that we haven’t seen before because a lot of whites hate black people. You have Rush Lambaugh, sean hannity, you have ABC, fox launching attacks. That’s where the mainstream media comes in, launching attacks. They will give room to (racists) any black person who get appointed – whether it be the supreme court or any level of government, will be targeted because they are black. You can also expect those whites who feel entitled because of white skin privledge that ‘hey, I’m not getting what I once had and I need to do something to those people who I feel have taken my spot where I should have been'. And then you will see it on the street. I don’t think we will be singing ‘we shall overcome.’

But wasn’t Obama thinking about this (how his candicacy would affect race / racism) before? Doesn’t / should he be thinking about the future?

You always have to weigh the pros and the cons. But you always have to look at what is good to you. We have never had a black man who has had a credible challenge before. It seems that he has a good shot in terms of delegates and fund raising. He is doing everything right. You have to ask yourself – what is the nature of citizenship? You are entitled to….How does it translate? A lot more Canadian blacks could run for political office. We might be seeing a huge change among the younger generation, as he has reached out to youth like nobody else has. He’s younger and looks young. And he will not be the youngest person but he is inspiring to the younger generation.

Do you think Black Canadians would volunteer to go down to the States and work on Obama's campgain - if they (legally) could?

I don’t think that a lot of Canadian black would go down to help with Obama’s campaign. I think it’s cute I think it’s funny and I think it’s silly. I think that Obama represents all of us. He is an immigrant – but he is not an immigrant, he has roots in Africa, he has other cultures in him he is American but on the other hand, he isn’t. I think that he represents all blacks but he also represents non-blacks, too.

Is it fair to think that an Obama presidency will be a positive imfluence among black youth? What about Canadians? (Okay I rephrased it a bit better during the interview)

“It will give (black youth) the self-respect and boost the image of the black community in the eyes of the country and in the world. At least I hope it will let people see that we can be more than gang-bangers and ‘ho’s!” Admitting that she is concerned more with American politics and Canadian politics because “I think what happens over there has a bigger impact on the world than what happens here,” she does not think that it will help in unifying the cultural differences that presently lie within the Black Canadian community. “There is not common experience. Black Canadians do not really have that one defining moment in their history. Whatever we experience here is just the byproduct of the African – American experience. Our clothing, the way we talk, the videos we watch – all these are based on the black American culture. Heck, you can’t even name a single leader in the community!”

It's been a busy week.....

First, article is up on Afrotoronto. I wish I could have elaborated in the article a bit more, even though it is pretty long to begin with……

Seems like this has been a busy week, with Jena 6, O.J Simpson and the arrest of the Virginia rape victim (her name is already out in cyberspace, I just feel a bit uneasy about posting it here) who was wanted for writing a number of useless checks (cheques in Canada) in a few different counties. I wrote a small bit on the Jena 6 protest on Blogher yesterday, wore black in solidarity, wrote something on the Virginia rape case last week, but nothing on O.J.

I distinctly remember when the verdict was handed down, twelve or so years ago. I was working at a hospital and was on my way to work, standing in front of my TV, hoping to catch the reaction before I had to shut it off. To this day, I have not really formed a firm opinion on Simpson’s guilt or innocence, but at the time, I was saddened that he had gotten off. The camera panned to Ron Goldman’s family and I remember the utter shock on his sister’s teary face, her dishevelled red hair. Regardless of whether he was innocent or guilty, I felt sorry for them and the way in how Ron Goldman was killed. Wrong place at the wrong time? Doubtful, but he certainly didn’t deserve to go out like that

So I get to work and enter the locker room to pull on my white lab coat, and the ‘ladies,’ as I called them, were hanging out, getting ready to start the afternoon shift. The ladies consisted of about a dozen or so women all in their mid-forties to mid-fifties who worked in the same department as I did, nutrition and food services  They always took their lunches and breaks together. Considering the fact that their group was so multi ethnic (black, Filipino, Asian, Portuguese, Italian and South Asian) they seemed to always get along – at least face-to-face, that is…what they said behind each other’s back was another story.. I worked in the office; they worked on the line, preparing the food trays for the patients. I greeted them and sat down, listening to them talk about the case. I mentioned that I had just heard that O.J was found not guilty, and the black women hooted like they won the lottery. I’ll never forget what one woman, Edna, said;

“Served that white bitch right.”

Sheeit, I thought. That was harsh. I didn’t say anything – partly because I was afraid of them – but in my mind I was offended. So what is she was white? She didn’t deserve to almost have her head sliced off. Jesus! I understood the resentment that would lead Edna to say that, but c’mon now.

I had surmised before that incident that race played a factor in the case, especially when it was revealed what Mark Furman said / did. But at that very moment, it dawned on me how much race played a factor in public perception. Following the trial, commenter’s openly blamed the black jurors for incompetence, saying that they simply decided that they were not going to convict a brother. Yeah…right.

I don’t particularly like it when someone doubts my blackness, so I will tread lightly in generalizations here: I think a lot of people don’t think of O.J as as really black. I'm talking, Huey Newton, pumped fist, Dashiki-wearing black. He is not a man known for his politics, for being a brother who is down with the struggle. Perhaps he learned very early on in his football career that he had to play the game in order to capture that 'crossover,' appeal. Whatever he did worked for him. For awhile, that is. Over the years - and probably even before the infamous murder trial - black folks recognized that, and perhaps some became resentful that we were blamed for the supposed actions of a man who was considered no more black than Elvis Presley.

I don't really agree with Jimi on a whole lot, but I couldn't help but agree with his opinion of O.J. The man is an idiot, a pathetic man who is probably too stupid to kill two people without being drenched in blood. I also believe that while he plays a large part in what happened in Las Vegas, I think he's being set up. I don't think he'll be going to prison for life - in the next couple of months the amount of charges against him will be drastically reduced. People want to see him rot for the L.A murders and they will not give up until his black ass is back in jail. I don't know what they are more incensed over...the fact that they believe that he got away with two murders or that he is believed to have killed a pretty blonde white woman. Watching the former DA's from the murder trial salivate over this latest O.J dustup is pathetic.

I was just saying to my homegirl today that it seems like perhaps the Jena 6 protest is a sign of a new civil rights movement. The key is that we have to speak out against other injustices, perhaps taking a page from What About our Daughters, and the grassroots intitatves that other black bloggers are doing. We cannot pick and choose though, in supporting the blacks who we deem are more important because of their economic status or thier gender, or who they choose to sleep / have consentual relationships with. I think that women of colour get the short end of the stick, I think that gays and lesbians and poor folks do to. That's why I wish I could have made it to Jena on Thursday, because even though the kids should be punished if they beat up that white kid ( and I stress if), the white kids involved in the hanging of the nooses, beating up the black youth and pulling a gun on the two black kids should have faced just as harsh a punishment at the six youth languishing away in a prison cell.

"He Just got Caught"....Michael Vick

I've been pondering whether it is worth the time to comment on Michael Vick. So many other people have been weighing in on the idiot so I figured, what's the use?

However, I was perusing the Blogging While Brown site this morning and a small caption caught my eye: "More Jena 6, Less Michael Vick." Yeah, right! Why isn't the media (or for that matter the public) paying any attention to the Jena 6 situation?. While I think that what Vick did - any his behaviour in denying any involvement - is totally disgusting, the Jena 6 case is more reprehensible than that.

Maybe another reason why I shed away from writing about Vick both on this blog and over at Blogher is because, unlike what seems like most of the population, I feel that the media is making a huge deal over this. It happened at a time of the year that unless there is a huge natural disaster, there is usually not much going on in the news. People are getting tired of the daily reports over how many soldiers have been killed and unfortunately, the Vick case became front news. There are other reasons too, but I'll get to that in a minute.

As a pet owner and pet lover, again I must state that I believe that dogfighting, cockfighting, bullfighting, deer hunting or the unnecessary killing of any animals / mammals / reptiles that are on the verge of extinction (or otherwise) is gross and should be outlawed. Vick is a greedy sociopath but on the other hand, he just got caught and while I don't believe in all that "don't snitch" bullshit which lets the murderers of predominately black folks go free, Vick had 'friends' whom as soon found out, were willing to turn on him on a dime. There are alot of other people in the world who are doing some shady shit, even worse crimes against their fellow man. In saying that, are humans more valuable than animals? No, but because when someone is injured or killed it resonates more within western civilization more than when an animal is, in which only the owners of the pet are directly affected (or PETA). Unless we have conquered society's ills to the point where there is no more physical violence against humans, we should not be hanging Vick from a noose in the town square.

Because this case got so much press, I surmise that our society either cares more about animals than we do people - more specifically, women who are physically abused or sexually victimized by professional sports athletes...and black people. I wrote about the Jena 6 debacle over at Blogher and found all my research material off the 'Net. To this day I don't think I have ever seen a report on any televised news program or newspaper. Why is that? I did hear about Dunbar Village on CNN (I know, shock and surprise) and luckily, there has been an outrage in the blogosphere....but not nearly enough in mainstream media outlets. I hate to pull the 'if it was a middle-class white woman' line, but seriously? Hell yeah, network television would be friggin' off-the-hook covering the case if a middle-class white chick and her son were assaulted and raped and none of their neighbours bothered to call the cops. Same with the three students killed execution style in Newark and Lavena Johnson, the American soldier who was murdered, probably by members of her own unit, even though it was ruled a suicide despite the obvious marks on the body.

While it is relatively easy to do so, we can't blame the white man...well, at least for all of this mess! where is the NAACP on the Dunbar Village rape case, where were they when the students were murdered and why aren't they demanding an enquiry into the Lavena Johnson case?

Jesse Jackson? Al Sharpton? Hello, is anybody there?

I could see why the NAACP is supporting Vick, arguing that he shouldn't be banned from professional sports as a reaction to the bloodthirstiness of the media. Someone did need to address the fact that this guy is being raked over the coals when other who have done other heinous acts have not (how long is the white media going to play the 'scary savage black man' card? Or more importantly, the 'this nigger should be grateful he's making millions of dollars a year' card?) But there are more serious issues that need to be addressed, but me thinks that perhaps, in relation to the Dunbar Village rape case and Lavena Johnson, that black women are as insignificant within the black community as within the larger society.

Does Vick deserve jail time? I don't know. Obviously it is not up to me to decide, but I do agree with his suspension and the probability that he will never play football again. I just hope...and I know that there are others out there who think all this public venom is a tad overblown.

Sorry Y'all and Working While Black pt. 2

Sheeit, it seems like I haven't been here for awhile. Funny how real life takes it toll on the things that really mean alot to you. I spend more time working to keep a roof over my head and less time writing. Hopefully things won't be so stressful for much longer.

So many little things that have happened, no energy to stop and post them all. Every Saturday I buy the Toronto Star and this week I read an article that really pissed me off. It kinda goes back to my last post on Working while Black. This educated brother, a student at U of T, applies for a job with the Government of Ontario in the Cabinet's Office - a kickass position as a media analyst. He goes in for an interview and receives no response. He emails the assistant in the Cabinet's office and doesn't get an answer back until he receives an email that the sender meant to forward to a colleague but instead clicked 'reply.' (I've done that myself a few times but thank goodness there was nothing to be embarrassed about). On top of the original email he sent to the assistant, she had wrote, " This is the ghetto dude I spoke to before."

Yeah, so I was pissed. Not surprised that this shit goes on, but mad because this guy was judged solely on his appearance and where he resided (he lives an a low-income neighbourhood in Scarborough ON, a large enclave east of downtown GTA). The Star did an excellent job in reporting this story, laying out all angles to show that the guy was very well educated, handsome, and qualified for the position. But therein lies a bit of the problem.

Did they have to lay it out like that? Do we really need to post this guys resume to prove that the sender ( an Asian woman who should have known better - I hope they fire her ass) was not only racist but incredibly stupid to write that to another colleague? It sends a message to the reader that perhaps in other circumstances the sender might have been justified in calling him a 'ghetto dude.' I always find it funny when Canadians use the term 'ghetto,' since we don't really have them here - unless you want to call certain portions of urban areas in Winnipeg were there are a lot of poor First Nations people, but hey, I can't even use that as a good example. We just don't have the rampant, overt problems here. Even our 'bad neighbourhoods look pretty damn good in comparison to other cites worldwide.

I liked the fact that the newspaper contacted the sender, Aileen Siu and her boss before they reported on the story, as their sorry-ass, lame excuses were typical and pathetic, but it also served to solidify the relevance of the story. Sure, this has probably happened in other companies, but the Government of Ontario, who lauds it's diversity hiring and Employment Equity practises? Interesting. I think The Star meant to give the government the middle finger with this story.

It does feed into my mild paranoia about job hunting, though. What are people saying about you when you apply for a job? For people who claim that racism is over, that anyone can get the job of their dreams if they just try hard enough, this is a great example to show that some things are out of your control. If someone wants to label you there is nothing you can do about it, unless they are so stupid to do what Siu did. One other thing: I'm not saying that because she is Asian she should not be a racist, as obviously there are people from various ethnicities and cultures who are, but she could have been a tad more culturally sensitive - perhaps referred to her own experiences with being stereotyped before writing that to a colleague. Hell, maybe I'm being a bit naive, but automatically I would expect a bit more sensitivity from a person of colour. According to yesterday's Star, a lot of people wrote in about the story, which is good - people aren't as apathetic as I sometimes think they are.

Working While Black

I'm not cut out for this 9-5 bullshit, man. I just ain't.

A weird thing happened last night. About 12:30 am, I heard what I thought were gunshots outside my apartment building. One blast, then two. When the third (gunshot) went off, I looked out the window and lo and behold, a group of teenagers were lighting firecrackers and were throwing them at my building. Bastids!

These four idiots proceeded to light firecrackers and let them go off into the street. I debated whether to call the po-po but before I dragged my ass out of bed to get my cell, two cop cars pulled up in the driveway. The kids just sat there, like 'what?' I thought that if I were one of those kids I would have hightailed it out of there, but these kids remained seated on the grass like they didn't do anything wrong. There's a park that's a three-minute walk from my building - why didn't they let off the firecrackers there instead of on a busy street?

Anyhoo, back to my story. A friend of mine that I used to work with a couple of years ago called me about 10:00pm to invite me to a party. She has just bought her first house (yay N!). As we were catching up, she was telling me about the workplace where I used to work - I was laid off, she still works there. Apparently, things aren't going so well for her.

What she told me bothered me so much, I thought about her all day today and was pissed. The office where we both worked is an incredibly toxic environment. For an office that is located in downtown Toronto, I had always thought that having less than 10 people of colour out of about 200+ staff was a little strange. My friend feels that certain people at her job are out to get her because she is black.

Before you think that this is just an excuse, that perhaps she is being paranoid or trying to justify her own bad behaviour, think again. This woman doesn't play that game. She is cool, laid back and way more objective in nature than I am. I didn't pull my usual black millitant bullshit on her, I just listened to her vent, gave her some accounts of what I had experienced at the job, told her to keep her head up and her mouth shut, and most importantly, start looking for another job. In hindsight, what  I should have told her was to write down any instances of harrasment in case she wanted to file a complaint in the future.

What bothered me the most out of her conversation was when she said, "I don't come off as being a bad worker or having an attiude. I've been working there for three years. I'm educated, I have experience, why don't they see that?" After my blunt response of, "because you're black," I explained that for some folks, they couldn't care less about your education, because they can't get past your skin colour. I reminded her that a lot of the people who were employed there didn't even live in the city, taking the GO train in from the suburbs. If people don't associate with folks who are from a different cultural background than them, how are they ever going to converse with you without relying on stereotypes? I felt bad for her, but told her the same ish happens at my workplace. Then I thought, is that what people of colour have to endure through out their working life? Will we always have to endure one or two - or more co-workers who refuse to speak to us or try to get us fired? It just seems so exhausting. I'm tired of brushing those people off, of trying to ignore them. I want the same respect as they would give anyone else. Sure, if you don't like me, that's cool but base it on my personality, not something that I cannot and wouldn't want to change. She told me that there was a rumour that I had been fired because I had an 'attiude.' I said, "See, N, take that as an example. It doesn't matter what the truth is, that's how they will label you." But yeah, If not taking shit from people and not willing to kiss someone's ass to make them like me means that I had an attitude, then so be it.

So if my friend finds another job and quits her present one, what are the guarantees that the same things won't happen again? With every job comes a gamble. You don't know what the climate is in a new workplace - you are totally going in blind. All you can do is hope for the best....just remember to document any situations where you think some shady shit is going down.