Liveblogging from FC2008

Yay! Okay, so I already cyberstalked Jill Tubman of Jack and Jill Politics. I’ve Tweeted Liza at Culture Kitchen. I can’t wait to figure out who else from my Bloglines list is here…

I’m now at the plenary about The Race Debates. We’re watching a video clip of all the talking heads who said, now that we have an African-American president, America is no longer racist, and we’re post-racial now. Terry Keleher is the Moderator.

We’re starting debate 1: Health Care Disparities. Interactive Section discussing opening comments. Totally confused. Amusing, but confusing. Anti-race speaker, Julianne Ong Hing, of Colorlines, correctly points out economic disparities in our capitalist society are a critical factor. Good answer…audience chuckles about “identity politics” smear…ultimately, “we have a choice in how we live.” Dominic’s (Dom Apollon, Ph.D., Applied Research Center) answer talks about healthcare disparities and misdiagnoses of treatments, and does address the economics, but talks more about lack of access/structural racism.

Discussion:

• Julianne (concealing race) used race to put Dom on the defensive, with a moving personal anecdote
• She used well-known stereotypes, and coded them, making it subtle
• She pitted race against class, an effective argument
• Dom (revealing race) was effective in revealing how the gov’t betrays POC, especially First Nations
• He tried to avoid directly speaking to issue of race/calling out racism
• While what he said was logical, there wasn’t the passion
• He attempted to show patterns of racism; how do we do this, without getting reduced to academic jargon?

Tehcniques for Concealing Racism

1. Denying & Exceptionalizing
2. Coding & Scapegoating
3. Deflecting & Confusing

Techniques for Revealing Racism

1. Name It
2. Frame It
3. Explain It

Debate 2: Race Silence v. Race Explicit (this sounds sexy…hope my batter makes it!)

Can we address race using class or universal frames? Kalpana and Shannah will debate

Kalpana: we need to build the broadest coalition possible, let’s appeal to self-interest. Used Montana as example. Invoked Obama and “change.” Don’t move against public opinion.

Shannah: won’t go away by pretending it’s not there. Universal healthcare for kids gets chopped away by selecting out groups little by little. We cut out people by appealing to the majority. When we lead with grace, we expand the base. We need to speak on it to se who our allies are. It’s about playing offense.

This was spicy! In my group are (just from my visuals and member comments) two white women who were activists since the 60s, a 20ish Asian American woman, and this 30ish Black women

Kilpana’s rebuttal: “we’re on the same side.” “We didn’t do our jobs, if we lose our campaigns.” “poor people are sicker than  rich people”

Shannah: let’s think long-term, not short term. Refuse to let go of the racism. White people won’t think about racism unless they’re made to.

Discussion

• Kalpana was very charismatic and dangerous
• Collette Kieth mentions, in Native American issues, how racism can shut down a conversation
• Malkia Cyril brings up Prop 8 and the No on 8 campaigns, how relationships change
• We need to consider what is lost when we give up conversations on race; just because we don’t talk about it, doesn’t mean it’s not at play

Wow, I think I’m on a high with this! Could be the bubble black tea, though. Can’t front.

^Airport Joy.^

why does the large family sit next to me at the airport? It never fails. I see lots of seats 10 feet away, but noooooo! Sit next to the lone Black girl. Now when someone starts acting up, I have to move. Unfair.

Migraine Journal

Okay, I woke up with the migraine. Thought it was hangover, but hydrated myself, did the caffeine thing, and ate several times today. Nausea set in around lunchtime, ate light (Japanese) but no cessation. Started meds at 1:15, took more @5, will take another now.

Don’t know what the triggers may be (tequila?) other than stress. But that isht ain’t going away for a couple of months. It’s called work/grad school apps/living with mean parent/church hypocrisy.

THIS is what a POTUS looks like.

WERD UP.

Why I am Angry With Steve

I am not here to add too much speculation to the McNair tragedy. In fact, I have nothing but the deepest sympathy for his widow and four young men who are now bewildered, hurt, and angry. I am angry for them, but my anger is bigger than that.

I am angry because, but for the grace of God, I could have had a similar catastrophe in my life. My dad cheated on my mom for years. She didn’t know it (maybe) and his family kept it from her (and me, eventually) after a child resulted from the affair. I have a sister who grew up parallel to me, whom I did not meet until the inevitable lawsuit for past child support.

For what? Convenient sex? Different sex? “Companionship”?! WTH?! I am so tired of the tropes of “man only thinks with his penis” or “powerful men have powerful hungers.” I call bull! We all have hungers, some more powerful than others, but WE. MAKE. EFFING. CHOICES. Every day I drive and don’t ram a slower driver’s car, I made a choice! I want. BELIEVE ME, I want to, so badly, every DAY. To cuss the living daylights out of bad drivers, cops who pull folks over, BUT I DON’T. Because I understand consequences.

And I’m tired of married people acting invincible and entitled and just so damn selfishly that they can’t foresee something like the horror the McNairs and the woman’s family are going through now. Stop being jerks! Ugh!

Pain

I can’t even be coherent about how betrayed I feel. I now hate some people I used to love. Literally. I worked for them, sacrificed for them, and got treated like shit for them.

Then they shat on me.

I was warned. I knew some betrayal, in smaller senses, had occured previously. I’m not that naive.

But THIS.

Wow. When your own people eff you up and eff with your money. Wow. Yep, it’s that raw. I have screamed. I haven’t cried, but that is coming. I truly hate them, now. And I try not to hate too many people. I don’t want to burn in Hell, after all.

Ungrateful wretches. Plankton is more useful than they are/were.

Eff you, too. That’s all I’m left with. Literally. They are dead to me. They will be erased from my life.

I hate when I have to go into bitch mode. Oh, well. Buckle up, buttercups.

SA Peer Counseling Training, Day 2. Headache.

I’m in sexual assault peer counseling training, w/idiots who didn’t ask ?s of speakers, waited til they left, then asked staff. DUH! Now they’re whining about not wanting to be SA peer counselors. You don’t HAVE to! Do shelter, outreach, DV, whatever! How do you NOT know what you’re getting into? Huh? Did you NOT fill in application?! Argh! Don’t make me regret this Saturday afternoon.

Better Late Than Never

I’ve been decrying Fred Armisen as Barack Obama since he first decided to go blackface to do it. Never mind that he sucked. Or that Maya Rudolph came back to do Michelle and didn’t put on darker makeup. The blackface just added that certain “ew, SNL has just about tanked” feel to the season. So, I stopped watching. No big, since my viewing has been spotty since Phil Hartman (RIP) left. It just doesn’t rise to its former heights, and it probably never will.

The comments in the EW article, will, of course, make you want to slap someone, but hey! Diversity of thought matters, too, right?

At least others are finally speaking out!! h/t to SeeLight.

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the children’s Black History Moment @ church today was about James Earl Jones. Jack Johnson. I have to process.

The Atom with a lisp? I am so loving it. Aquaman as a bluff, buff pirate? Lurve it! Feels homoerotic. Does CN know?

sorry, Jay Smooth: Jackson Rathbone is an ignorant racist.