Rolling 2015 Thread on Race

one of my thoughts when i first read about this was that dolezal's supposed "confusion" about her racial identity kind of hijacked the genuine grief and confusion that those of "mixed race" have to deal with. maybe she comes by a little of that honestly, but not much of it IMO.

I'm sure this whole public ridicule and shaming is intensely painful.

eh to hear her brother tell it, she made a decision to start deceiving people as a 30-something woman and asked other people to keep the ruse up:
http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/16/rachel-dolezals-brother-shes-white-and-pretending-to-be-black-video/

she sought out public life on false pretenses. even if you do feel sympathy people who get shamed on the internet for some stupid moment that became a meme, that is not what this is, at all.

i don't think grief is the right word you're looking for there amatuerist

i don't think anybody forced her to go on the today show

huh? you don't think people of mixed racial parentage often get grief in american society? (or maybe you were thinking of the other use of the word "grief"?) i know some folks who would beg to differ.

ah, "grief" as in "static/hassle"

that makes more sense

I was just imagining sobbing multiracial people and getting concerned

It's hard being multi-racial and beautiful, true

how big do you think her book deal is gonna be? gonna be a bidding war, i'll bet.

huh? you don't think people of mixed racial parentage often get grief in american society? (or maybe you were thinking of the other use of the word "grief"?) i know some folks who would beg to differ.

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, June 17, 2015 9:17 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbqh i think a lot of people don't, or at least don't get more than ppl who are not white but also not seen as multi-racial in some sense. and the idea that being multi-racial has its own set of difficult issues is i think sometimes overstated.

which is different from the whole range of issues surrounding shades of skin tone in a specifically black/white context.

she sought out public life on false pretenses

agree that this seems like the real heart of the problem w Dolezal. If she was just some weird woman who decided to go to extremes to become part of this particular ethnic group I doubt it would be such a big deal.

she was a public figure. on the local level anyway.

I think that's part of the point...? Like, if she was a random woman who kept showing up at the local African Dance class with blond Crystal Gale braids and a daishiki, she'd just be seen as eccentric; it's the going whole-hog and leading the NAACP while also being on the police oversight board and being a professor of Africana while having this entire backstory that seems to be made up of weird half-truths and the veracity of the racial attacks she said were directed towards her... It's the 1-2 combo of "super black" overcorrection with the apparent lying that makes her fascinating/hilarious.

yup

"Like, if she was a random woman who kept showing up at the local African Dance class with blond Crystal Gale braids and a daishiki, she'd just be seen as eccentric"

OMG! We Went To A Party!

Trust me, I'm not being a homophobe when I laugh like hell at politicians such as Larry Craig.

Speaking of Idaho.

+ the suing howard for discriminating against white ppl part

I think Melissa Harris-Perry actually said that suit was about gender discrimination, not racial discrimination? I heard that somewhere, don't remember where (and don't care enough to actually read the lawsuit documents)

one of her claims was this:

The court opinion also noted that Dolezal claimed that the university’s decision to remove some of her artworks from a February 2001 student exhibition was “motivated by a discriminatory purpose to favor African-American students over” her.

i think it was the whole kit and kaboodle... she alleged discriminating on the basis of race, sex, and the fact that she was pregnant/a single mom.

xpost

xpost, yes i think she alleged a number of discriminatory acts, on the basis of race but also other stuff

the "kitchen sink" approach to discrimination litigation

well this proves that whatever else she is, she is definitively American

kit, kaboodles, and kitchen sinks and everything.

yeah the interesting/hilarious thing is she's sort of by her very being relying on some notion of non-arbitrariness in the idea of "race" but then she does things that completely essentialize the idea, and she's living out these two incompatible notions that "i can choose my race" and "race is fundamental to this society" at once.

throw in the whole nine yards and you've got yourself a lawsuit

xpost

xpost, yes i think she alleged a number of discriminatory acts, on the basis of race but also other stuff

the "kitchen sink" approach to discrimination litigation

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, June 17, 2015 12:48 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

tbf this is how litigation works, you throw every conceivable and non-frivolous claim you have and see what sticks

kit, kaboodles, and kitchen sinks and everything.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 June 2015 17:51 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

she brought lots of 'k's

one of her claims was this:

The court opinion also noted that Dolezal claimed that the university’s decision to remove some of her artworks from a February 2001 student exhibition was “motivated by a discriminatory purpose to favor African-American students over” her.

― 龜, Wednesday, June 17, 2015 12:45 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Playing a really long game of "If you can't beat them, join them".

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2015/06/17/rachel_dolezal_was_raised_by_strict_fundamentalists_the_revelation_sheds.html

i mean duh, tell us something we don't know

off. i figured there was something like that in her background. i know of some families like that. in one case they adopted several "troubled" teens but would be very quick to boot them out if they made one transgression (including mixing with the opposite sex in evenings).

i mean, oof.

Pity, I liked 'Off'.

there's something really depressing about putative generosity that can be exhausted so easily.

it's that time when we are called upon to have that talk with each other that we never have. apparently.

"Or, at the very least, perhaps we can use Ms. Dolezal’s story, puzzling as it is, as an opportunity to have a candid, lively, long-delayed, public conversation about the knotty meanings of race and racial identity, and how it has confounded our nation’s best aspirations. Perhaps we may yet move beyond the imprisoning boxes we have made."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/opinion/rachel-dolezals-unintended-gift-to-america.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0

which is just gonna make me think about Onion headlines forever:

http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/america-needs-to-have-a-superficial-conversation-a-11408

http://www.theonion.com/article/open-dialogue-two-americans-having-about-race-pret-33316

she gave us all a gift!

b/c god knows americans never talk about race

:)

iirc one segment talks about race while another talks about how much it hates talking about race.

^

http://www.ebony.com/news-views/last-rachel-dolezal-thinkpiece-ever-065#axzz3dMDXfWhS

http://news.yahoo.com/hollywood-moguls-arm-candy-du-jour-goodbye-asians-140116995.html

what

Serial yoga-teacher dating even has become a thing. Venice-based TV writer-producer Steven Pearl admits he started dating yoga teachers about two years ago. "The proliferation of yoga classes in L.A. means more teachers, and many are actresses, dancers — all working their minds and, of course, their bodies. Their look is very appealing: fitted clothes, fresh faces, utterly unpretentious, no makeup. They're more wholesome and approachable. Suddenly, my guy friends are all talking about dating yoga teachers. And most of the best studios are in neighborhoods with tons of entertainment people: West Hollywood, Venice, Brentwood."

Who epitomizes beta better than a yoga teacher?

i'm sure i already don't but what shows does steven pearl put out, i want to never see them

tbh I lost it at "old Chinese quantum physics"

worth quoting in full

Relationship expert Dr. Jeremy Nicholson sees the phenomenon in a more basic, evolutionary way: "Men are always interested in attractive, pleasant, feminine women for mates. What shifts are the groups of women allowed and encouraged to be attractive, pleasant and feminine. At certain points in the Hollywood culture, the women who embodied those characteristics to men were primarily Asian. In the current culture, yoga instructors now are a source of healthy, attractive, feminine women."

Alpha men teaming up with yoga teachers chimes with Eastern philosophy, offers Dr. Pat Allen, an L.A. relationship expert: "In old Chinese quantum physics, men had yang bodies: They build, they create. Women receive. Alpha men have a very tough time committing to alpha women. They'll have an alpha mistress but not an alpha wife. Alpha men do better with beta women: sensitive, empathetic and kind. Who epitomizes beta better than a yoga teacher?”

i'm gonna post this picture of Dr. Jeremy Nicholson i don't care how huge it is

http://attractiondoctor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/DrNicholson2.jpg