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Nov. 21st, 2005 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gmonkey42Meme from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
holly_toadstool and KLM: Which countries I've visited (blue) and which countries I'd like to visit (white).
visited 5 countries-
like to visit 32 countries
Create your own world map
Also fromholly_toadstool
On the "Racism" thing (I hope it's obvious to everyone I'm joking): This makes me think of the problem I have with the KKK Death Eaters. It's not just that they look stupid (though it did make them easy to draw in my GOF comic); it's that the movie oversimplifies what could be an interesting and complex discussion. I hate it when the villain has no motivation apart from "they're evil." That's not how it works in real life. Similarly, EVERYONE would say racism is bad (except overtly white supremacist wackos). What we need to address is people who'd say racism is bad but think racial profiling is OK, affirmative action has no merits, that black people are more likely than white people to be criminals, that kind of thing. Why even bother putting "Racism" on that survey? We're trained to have a kneejerk "racism is bad" reaction. The result of that is that we white people go around thinking we're good people because we say "Racism is bad" and that we're therefore excused from actually confronting our white privilege.
It's like on the episode of South Park where Chef wants to change the town flag (which depicts a mob of white people lynching a black person). In the end, we get the standard pesudo-progressive message that eradicating racism means pretending that race doesn't exist (therefore there's nothing wrong with the flag because we should be blind to the fact that it's white people killing a black person and should instead see it as just people killing another person). Especially infuriating is that this message from the white creators of the show is delivered to the audience by a black character, lending it false credibility. Race exists just like religion exists: it has nothing to do with biology but it's an extremely powerful social construct. Being "color blind" will only ensure that we never address the problem.
holly_toadstool and KLM: Which countries I've visited (blue) and which countries I'd like to visit (white).My personal world map
visited 5 countries- like to visit 32 countriesCreate your own world map
Also from
holly_toadstool| What is your stand on..... | |
| Abortion?: | should be free on demand, on any condition, no questions asked, as often as you want |
| Death Penalty?: | No. Two wrongs don't make a right. |
| Prostitution?: | Prosecute the Johns, help the prostitutes get better jobs. Even if a few women like it, the vast majority would prefer different jobs if they could get them. |
| Alcohol?: | Fine in moderation. |
| Marijuana?: | See "Alcohol." |
| Other drugs?: | Hard drugs? No. Antidepressants? Overprescribed but often necessary. |
| Gay marriage?: | It's ridiculous that there's such a controversy over this. It should have been legalized years ago. |
| Illegal immigrants?: | Help them. |
| Smoking?: | No. Tax the hell out of cigarettes. |
| Drunk driving?: | Hell no. |
| Cloning?: | Humans? No need: cloning technology will make it possible to grow organs. |
| Racism?: | Um. Good? |
| Premarital sex?: | Nobody's damn business except the people doing it. |
| Religion?: | Opiate of the people. |
| The war in Iraq?: | Wrong, wrong, wrong. Withdraw as much as possible while still cleaning up the mess we made. |
| Bush?: | Most dangerous man in the world. I'm not kidding. |
| Downloading music?: | Stealing from the artists. |
| The legal drinking age?: | Ineffectual. |
| Porn?: | Usually degrading but banning it would be censorship. Boycott. Unless we're talking about written gay wizard porn, in which case the more the merrier. |
| Suicide?: | See "Racism." |
| Take this survey | Find more surveys You've been totally Bzoink*d | |
On the "Racism" thing (I hope it's obvious to everyone I'm joking): This makes me think of the problem I have with the KKK Death Eaters. It's not just that they look stupid (though it did make them easy to draw in my GOF comic); it's that the movie oversimplifies what could be an interesting and complex discussion. I hate it when the villain has no motivation apart from "they're evil." That's not how it works in real life. Similarly, EVERYONE would say racism is bad (except overtly white supremacist wackos). What we need to address is people who'd say racism is bad but think racial profiling is OK, affirmative action has no merits, that black people are more likely than white people to be criminals, that kind of thing. Why even bother putting "Racism" on that survey? We're trained to have a kneejerk "racism is bad" reaction. The result of that is that we white people go around thinking we're good people because we say "Racism is bad" and that we're therefore excused from actually confronting our white privilege.
It's like on the episode of South Park where Chef wants to change the town flag (which depicts a mob of white people lynching a black person). In the end, we get the standard pesudo-progressive message that eradicating racism means pretending that race doesn't exist (therefore there's nothing wrong with the flag because we should be blind to the fact that it's white people killing a black person and should instead see it as just people killing another person). Especially infuriating is that this message from the white creators of the show is delivered to the audience by a black character, lending it false credibility. Race exists just like religion exists: it has nothing to do with biology but it's an extremely powerful social construct. Being "color blind" will only ensure that we never address the problem.
