And A Happy Freakin' Easter To You Too, Fella

[filkertom]

The ever-essential Glenn Greenwald notes the remarkable Easter screed of one of Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds' faves, "Instapunk". Just go read it. Before you eat.

See, I've got this weird tic. I find it really, really hard to believe the sincerity of someone who claims to want to engage in racial dialogue that consists of his demanding the right to use the most vicious and insulting terms to describe members of the race with which he claims to want to engage in a dialogue.

An interesting side note, to me at least: My Spectacular Comics Purchase from MillenniCon this year (previous years have brought me Girl Genius, Barry Ween: Boy Genius, and Lenore) was one of the Marvel Essential b&w reprint tomes, in this case Essential Iron Fist. I had all of these issues back when they came out in 1975-77-ish, and I loved the book, and was utterly delighted to find that it still holds up pretty darn well, the "art" of Arvell Jones and Vince Colletta on a couple of issues notwithstanding. And there is no way not to notice two particular things about it, one of which blew right by me as a kid.

First, the one which didn't blow by me, the romance between Iron Fist/Danny Rand and Misty Knight, which is a godawful stereotypical name for an otherwise fantastic character but you can get past it quickly, and as far as I know it was the first interracial romance in comics. I remember thinking it was so cool that they did that.

The second is that, on different pages in the same issue (Power Man #48, wherein they all meet Danny's future partner Luke Cage), both Misty (a black woman) and Colleen Wing (an Asian-American) refer to Power Man as a "buck". Only two times I remember seeing it, and it obviously didn't sink in at the time. But it sure jumps out at me now.

Any unexpected racism you've found that you care to share? If you do, feel free to change names and whatnot.

Comments

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

I never find any unexpected racism, possibly because I grew up in an area where racism was not only rampant, it was pretty much expected. I remember being disgusted by a casual conversation between two members of my class in high school, discussing the 1968 presidential election:

L: Well, I really don't know much about Wallace's policies other than . . .
Q: Kill the n!&&#s?
L: Yep. Kill the n!&&#rs.

They were absolutely serious about this! And this was apparently not an atypical opinion in my town. And this was in CENTRAL ILLINOIS!

So, I'm never surprised when I encounter any kind of racism. Just saddened. And disgusted.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a Sundown town.
I live in Memphis.

Racism is never unexpected.
On the other hand, neither is playing the race card.
"Mr Ford, can you tell us about stealing the identities of thousands of corpses that pass through your family funeral home, and using their votes to ensure you win elections?" "Ah, they're just after me, because I'm a black man."
(Which is why I will never vote for Harold Ford Jr.)


CB Potts has a brilliant entry here.
http://cbpotts.livejournal.com/240931.html
"When we asked what was wrong, as parents tend to do in this situation, she burst into tears. "Tiffany and Shantal told me that the news said if Obama becomes president, he's going to kill all the white people."

I managed to bite back my first response, and listened as Harmony further explained that white children between the ages of 12-17 would be killed too, but under 12, they'd be sold into slavery for the black people."

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Why do those black people always act like we OWE them something? Oh, right.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Hold it.

My first ancestor to arrive in America got here (from Iteland) in the early 1870s, well after the end of the Civil War and the adoption of the 13th and 14th Amendments. He settled in Kansas City.

So why exactly am I on the hook for the actions of people who lived and died over a century before I came on the scene, actions that happened before my family arrived on these shores and in areas we didn't settle in?

That's like me saying the the nation of Germany, and all Germans and German-descended folk owe me something because my father was in Coventry the night the Luftwaffe leveled the city.

I don't believe in collective guilt, or taking the blame for events a century removed from my birth.

[skemono.livejournal.com]

I don't believe in collective guilt, or taking the blame for events a century removed from my birth.

But it's not a century removed from your birth. The results of those actions are still taking place today. You don't get to say that, after centuries of slavery and legalized oppression, we ought do nothing to make things right because all the people involved in the oppression are dead now.

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

I remember how Luke Cage was built. And if I were a woman and confronted with him, I'd pay a LOT more than a buck.

Seriously, you have to remember that comics then were mostly written by white guys without much experience with black culture - even if they were well-meaning, which I like to think they all were. And the way black culture changes what is appropriate makes it hard for white guys to keep up. (I saw this mentioned on the old Apollo Comedy Hour as the basis of a skit, where not even black people could keep up with their own culture, which changed on the half-hour.)

Once, Jack Kirby - hardly a racist - had his black character The Falcon say "Don't jibe me, man!"

Intention counts for a lot, and while it is amusing when we honkies stumble over a misintended phrase, it's hardly an intentional insult.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

What a lovely Christian thought for Glenn to propagate on Easter....

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I presume you mean Reynolds. ;) Kinda confusing, that....

Totally off-topic...

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Love your Drazi icon!

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thank GOD I'm no longer a Christian. I watched the brownshirt division of the Jeezis Fan Club swallow my campus in the 80s, and I now have nothing but searing contempt for religion. Oh, it's a dandy little tool for seizing power and keeping the sheep stupefied, I'll grant you.

question for you

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Which college was this?

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I remember this Boondocks episode where instead of being killed MLK fell into a coma for 30-odd years. At the end he gives a sermon/speech about modern black culture where he uses that word frequently and I dare say it made some valid points. It's one of the ugliest words in the English language so why is it used so often by the same culture it's degrading? I'd love to see an end to racism and hatred of The Other. But it's not going to end until people quit acting like the stereotype. If you don't want white people using an ugly word, stop using that ugly word yourselves and stop using other ugly words to describe us! If you don't want your religion being betrayed as an extremist violent cult then dump the members who are extremist violent cultists!

In an episode of the A-team the team is hired by a small town fire station with a female chief. She took just about everything as an insult against her gender. Even compliments had a "for a woman" implied to it in her ears. At one point George Peppard (who granted was not the most tolerant man) said, "You wave that flag hard enough, you're going to break the pole."

Before we go after someone/something as being racist, we should be sure it was racist. Sometimes a black man gets fired because he did a bad job by anyone's standards. Sometimes a white man gets promoted because he really did deserve it. What Instapunk was not only racist but hypocritical because every group does that. Every group goes easy when one of their own does something bad and makes excuses for their actions. Would Instapunk go after people like Christian terrorist Paul Hill with the same venom as a Muslim terrorist? Would he consider people who go easy on KKK to be the same 5th columnists as those who go easy on Mike Tyson? I really doubt it. Instapunk doesn't want to admit that wearing long t-shirts and buckling your pants around the knees looks stupid no matter what race you are and people do it because they've deluded themselves into thinking it's cool. It's just that to him, black people make an easy target and that's why it's racist.

I don't fault him for saying "to have meaningful dialog you have to admit these black people are &$*%&^". I fault him for not following that with "And I will admit these white people are $&*@$&" and a list at least 5 times longer. Personally, I'd combine both lists and say "these people are @$$holes who drag things down and pull themselves up by exploiting racism" and leave the loaded words alone. Being an @$$hole is not race specific.

Every false accusation harms every future true accusation.

When I was 17 I saw a 12-13 year old black kid drive up to a gas station in a shiny trans am and pulled out a wad of bills. I thought he was a drug dealer.

I also remember a MadTV skit where a black-owned tanning salon was next door to a rib joint. That one scared the crap out of me.

[skemono.livejournal.com]

I find it really, really hard to believe the sincerity of someone who claims to want to engage in racial dialogue that consists of his demanding the right to use the most vicious and insulting terms to describe members of the race with which he claims to want to engage in a dialogue.

You should check out this post at Orcinus on that subject.

How about this

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Joseph Ratzenberger, in his Good Friday message, said the following:

Last month, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had revised the so-called “Good Friday Prayer for the Jews” which forms part of the Tridentine Mass, often referred to as the Latin Mass. The new version, translated from the Latin, reads: “Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men.”

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

OK, I've read the Instapunk post, and calmed down.

Turns out, I agree with his rant against "those people" with their yucky baggy-pants fashion and their yucky cars blaring yucky music with amps that go to 11, and their yucky disrespectful attitudes. Could be, I'm getting old, but there it is.

The problem is, where I live, almost all of "those people" who live that way are caucasians. Am I supposed to call them by the N-word, or something else?

Same goes for our local yucky violent athletes, our yucky hate-mouthed preachers, and our yucky corrupt politicians. They're all white.

What do I do?

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

Well, the term "white trash" is rather dated currently, so it no linger carries the same weight of sting that the N-word still manages to haul around, but it may be the best available mechanism.

And yeah, it (both "white-trash-ness" and "the N-word ism") is mindsets, is paradigms, memes, and belief-sets handed down from parents or parent-substitutes to children:

"You're no good! You're worthless! Shut up! You're bothering me!"

And the insidious meme:

"Don't get above your raising."


I may be showing my age, too, but I've hated this mindset and its inevitable resulting behaviors since I was 6 years old and first ran afoul of its destructive effects.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

I use the same term for people of that general description no matter what their relative melanin level may be. Annoying idiots.

Just think though, what will their kids have to do to be as annoying to them?

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

The street term is "wigga". Really.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I'm an old Deadhead, and I've seen the same rant directed at us with different complaints. What both screeds miss is that under the obvious "look" and stereotypes you find people. Good, bad, funny, ugly, smart and stupid. I remember the shocked looks I'd get after dead shows when I'd get carded for a drink after a show and I'd pull out my military ID.

In my job previous to this one, I worked with a driver heavily into hip-hop culture. He wore the baggy pants, the Tupac t-shirt, and had the loudest stereo he could shove into his car. He was also hard working, polite, and on the fast-track for a management position.

Don't judge the person by the easily visible cultural trappings.

[idiotgrrl.livejournal.com]

OH, my. So Instapunk doesn't like the fashion statements of today's youth, and therefore ... naah.

Not that I don't think some of the fashion statements are ridiculous, mind you.

Instpunk should have a long term gym membership. He'd see that the big bulked shaven-headed tattoed menaces are some of the nicest guys you'd ever met. Or is it because I'm a little old lady and therefore they were nice to me?

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

Bah, you humans.
Sometimes you are all alike, to me.

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

**(yes, that really is a touch of light humor.)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

TOm, I don't get your problem with the buck comment. Maybe I am misreading it, or know it as a different meaning (I read it as meaning "a well-endowed lover"). Is it a term that is specific to black men?

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

A couple of the people in my old gaming group would occasionally say something that would make my blood boil or shake my head. I probablly should have said something, and I have no excuse for not doing so save that I wasn't used to having a lot of friends at the time and didn't want to be alone again.

I have to admit that I have something of my own unique perspective on this particular matter. From the time I was in elementary school until I graduated high school I was pretty much pushed around by, what felt like, 99% of the students of whatever school I was in at the time. Going through all that made me realize that treating anyone in that manner isn't acceptable behaviour. I've been called a fag (even though I'm straight), wuss, wimp, and every horrid name under the sun. I've had people try to kill me for the crime of being different on two seperate occasions. I've had people lambast me for being "too Christian" and "not being Christian enough" and I've seen some of the terriblly mean Chick tracts and never understood why people use them. I've had people tell me that I'm racist just because my family's from Tennesee.

I understand what it feels like to have people hate you for no reason other than that you exist. It's not a good feeling and if we could just treat one another with love and compassion the world would be a much nicer place to live.