Much of the world seems to be celebrating Valentines Day today. Regular readers of this blog will know that I usually celebrate the anniversary of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre aka the Mob war in Chicago. I have also been known to wear all black and express my affection to my Spirit Animal, St. Grumpy Cat.
Today I’ve chosen a different tack.
Continue reading “Happy Birthday Frederick Douglass aka give the people what they want”
As a historian, and as someone who grew up in the South, I can’t help but shake my head at how a generation after the tumult of the 1950s and 1960s, we as a society are still struggling with virtually all of the issues that Dr. King fought against. Don’t get me wrong, we have come a long way, even in my lifetime, but that progress still doesn’t mean that we live in a “post-racial” society.
Regular readers will know that I use the Free section on Craigslist to amuse myself. As today is a sort of vacation day for me, I popped over there just now to see if there was anything funny worth tweeting. I found something absolutely totally and completely NOT worth tweeting. It was so awful, especially in light of all of the horrible racist atrocities happening in Ferguson, MO and elsewhere right now, that it merited its own blog post.
What could possibly be that bad you might ask? I’ll show you. Be prepared.
I’ve been in a couple of situations lately I’ve witnessed the racial equivalent of Mansplaining. That is, Whitesplaining. In short, it’s when a white person explains to a non-white person how they should react to the use of a particular racially loaded term or epithet. It also happens when a white person explains how non-white people should react to said to said terminology in an all white group. In short, “this should offend you/them more or less than that” or, “that shouldn’t offend you/them at all.”
Awesome.
Feminism does not exist because women want special treatment or special rights. It exists because even after nearly a century of suffrage and other societal reforms, women still do not have a truly equal position in our society. Not an opinion, fact. There are still a lot of people out there convinced that women should not have any roles in society outside the kitchen or the bedroom: they shouldn’t vote or run for office; that they shouldn’t be in the military or serve in combat; that they shouldn’t get an education; that they shouldn’t be single mothers; they they shouldn’t be able to practice birth control; that they shouldn’t be in the workplace, much less executives or political leaders; and that they should always be subservient to men.
Go ahead, Google any of these ideas and concepts I just listed and see what you find. See the kinds of people defending these ideas. Be prepared to turn over a few rocks and see what’s underneath.
I don’t recommend doing it on a full stomach.
These are two videos that have come across my media feeds lately. They’re very different from one another, but they’re both absolutely worth watching. And, now that the Game of Thrones season premier is over, you can do just that.
With the opening of the Sochi Olympic games on Friday there are all sorts of things going on right now to remind us that the world is full of both hateful bigots (I’m looking at you, Putin) and wonderful people (Canada, Scotland, that would be you.)
This is what has popped up in the latter category in my various news feeds today. Enjoy.
There’s been a lot of victory going around in the last few days, not the least of which was a few minutes ago when Geoff and I finally conquered the Massachusetts version of the ACA website. In the spirit of the season, it’s time to share some good news.
I think it is safe to say that the march of human rights has made steady though inconsistent progress over the last 100+ years. In the last 48 hours some interesting stories have popped up that have reminded me not only of how far we’ve come but also of how far we have to go.
Slowly.
I have to admit that the Texas Anti-Woman Law and the Zimmerman verdict coming within hours of one another made me really unhappy with humanity for a while. Then there was the announcement that The View was hiring Jenny McCarthy to fill its patented Obnoxious Vapid Contentious Blond Host seat.
That about did me in. How does somebody like her get paid $$$ to sit on TV and spew that dangerous crap when Geoff and I are working constantly, are far smarter and funnier, and we’re barely making ends meet?
