as i’ve said before, i am not an ally. but i was just talking with a friend and it occurred to me that there are some figurations of ally that don’t ever seem to make sense — and probably aren’t really even uttered. ally work typically comes from a critical race theory perspective, so it’s [...]
My buddy Dwayne wrote last night to urge me to listen to Doug Henwood’s latest radio program. Here’s why Dwayne was kvelling: because the author basically gets at what I’ve called “assimilationist black nationalism” — of the sort featured in Lawrence Otis Graham’s _Our Kind of People_: Hey, if you haven’t already done so, I [...]
Even though the gay community is made up of people of different ethnicities, races, cultures, and class backgrounds, it’s public face is pure over privileged white male. Right after the passing of prop 8 all over the news the white male gay leaders came out in force to verbally protest. honestly. I think, collectively, a [...]
Black homophobia isn’t especially galling because of their history in this country. White homophobia is especially galling because white conservatives have the resources and, my god, the energy to make defeating LGBT rights such a priority. —– Unfortunately this becomes a problem when, as the No on Prop 8 people did, gay marriage is presented [...]
“My community has a problem with homophobia, but we aren’t the only ones. African Americans are but 12 percent of the population. We have neither the numbers nor the power, given our history in this country, to disenfranchise another group. Blaming us for what is an American ill–as prevalent in, say, white Tripoli, Iowa, as [...]
This is a good point, although Savage doesn’t make the conclusion I’m going to: It’s bigoted to expect queers to adhere to a certain normative model of what activism is supposed to look like, what counts as the right kind of activism, etc. I guess you could call it a kind of heteronormative bigotry or, [...]
heh. cried in a good way both times:
At 11:38 AM 11/6/2008, Jeffrey Fisher wrote: i think it’s the way we fetishize voting and elections in this country, isn’t it? that voting is actually doing something, and then nothing else is required? it will be interesting to see if they can hold it together. it would pretty genuinely change american politics if they [...]
we had a discussion about whether people of color and others should vote in solidarity with people of color. Julio Huato and John Thornton (NDN) felt that this was important, that people of color and progressive whites support the struggles and wishes of people of color. my responses: John T wrote: ” The idea of [...]
i’ve been following the case of Andrea Smith being denied tenure over at brownfemipower.com. apparently, an off blog conversation revealed that someone objected to the idea of calling academia the “academic industrial complex.” when i got a position working for someone who does research in a field i won’t name to protect the guilty, a [...]
2007-01-23 00:22:13 Carpenter asked me a question off-blog. Seeing as how a Bitch can, for a change, breath a little, I decided to catch up with various things that have been put off in the search for jobs and gigs. Among the backlog of things to be done was slog through email. I had a [...]
2007-01-19 15:37:14 If you followed the Burqagate wars, this article might help flesh things out. If you are still confused about essentialism and why it can be a problem, the article also illuminates, though I hope it’s not too big on the theory and strange words. The reference will also help ground my discussions of [...]
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