i just wanted forty cents for my deliveries last week

[bossymarmalade]

I love how when people like anna post a long, smart post about the repeating patterns of race discussions vis-à-vis Carol Thatcher and RaceFail 09, inevitably somebody will show up with comments not about the thought-provoking exploration of race politics and society, but asking, "what's a golliwog?" Despite anna putting TWO LINKS right next to the word so people could educate themselves before joining the conversation.

At this point it's like ALL discussions of race that aren't Racism 101 should come with disclaimers. I'm taking mine from Wyclef Jean's "Anything Can Happen":

Take this lesson to your next session
I suggest you practice with the freshmen
Sophomore, junior, then come check the senior
By then I would have graduated from the school of ruckus

I totally thought of this song when I read the reiterated bit of Willow's post and hell, it seems like a better and better idea by the moment.

In other news!! The people making the crappy whitewashed Avatar movie have turfed Jesse McCartney and replaced him with Dev Patel. Yay! ... except that Patel will be the Japanese-based bad-guy character (instead of brown-skinned Inuit goofball Sokka, which, um, DEV PATEL!! Shouldn't this be OBVIOUS?!?!) As the sister says, this is not a change that shows the producers understand their racism, it's tokenism so they can point to the lone brown dude and say, "hey, lookit, we're not racist!"

Anyhow, this campaign is clearly not over. Lori has set up an awesome Zazzle store that sells Avatar protest shirts/postcards/buttons, and she has also made all of her excellent graphics available free if you want to do your own printing and whatnot!

Comments

[strippedhalo.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I didn't know what a golliwog was either, but a) I clicked the link, and b) I know how to work Google. It is actually MORE WORK to leave a comment asking than it is to click the link.

I don't know much of anything about the Avatar characters, but that particular bit of news made me say, "Wait, so they've cast one POC... as the BAD GUY?!" Ugh.

[carta.livejournal.com]

it is more finger-bending work, but exponentially less mind-work.

[strippedhalo.livejournal.com]

And the brain is frequently the laziest muscle in the body, it's true.

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

HAH! You got it, bb.

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

THIS. Yeah.

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

Casting Patel as the bad guy is SO CONFUSING and LAME. Not that I expect any kind of understanding that Asians ≠ interchangeable from people who think Koreans wear kimonos, but COME ON!

What kills me is that there were two links *right there*. Like, wtf?!?