Fox and Friends Trainwreck Kilmeade: “We Marry Other Species & Other Ethnics…”
Fox News’ morning show Fox and Friends co-host, Brian Kilmeade is notorious (as far as I’ve seen, anyway) for actively driving his own career into the ground by showing his complete and utter lack of understanding of humanity. Luckily for him, Fox News likes that about him, which is why he still has a job.
Kilmeade is what I like to think of as a Bill O’Reilly-in-training; he has all of the characteristics to become the next big poster child for close-mindedness and bigotry and some day, the powers that be in the Fox News studios will get rid of the other two mindless drones they keep on Fox and Friends purely to talk Kilmeade up into some tangent where we see him digging that very deep hole in the ground to lay in after the show is over.
Yet another testimony to these thoughts and predictions occurred earlier this month when the show was discussing a recent study that, based on research done in Finland and Sweden, showed people that who stay married are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s. Kilmeade’s reasoning for why this is? Well, “we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other…” Yes, we are marrying other species. It isn’t just a Republibot’s reaction to why same-sex marriage cannot be legalized; we really are marrying other species now!
Kilmeade’s co-host tries to let him know that he has started digging that hole he cannot possibly get out of, but he didn’t quite get the message because he went right on to say “See, the problem is the Swedes have pure genes. Because they marry other Swedes…Finns marry other Finns, so they have a pure society.”
A pure society, huh? Isn’t it the Republicans who are the first to compare anything in government that they don’t agree with as being “Hitlerian?” And who was it that was trying to create that pure society? Oh yeah…
So according to Kilmeade, societies who are comprised of different ethnicities (not ethnics, by the way Brian… But we knew what “ethnics” you were referring to when that came flying out of your mouth) have the punishment of Alzheimer’s coming! It’s just one of those hidden little punishments that you deserve for screwing up our pure society!
Watch out Bill O’Reilly, I think you have some competition!
For The National Review Sotomayor Is The Wise Latina Buddhist
Okay, this latest image sent my WTF meter right off. Seriously, how much longer are white men going to display their ignorance and hatred to promote their undeserved privilege? It started with Sotomayor the piñata because apparently the fact that she is Puerto Rican and not Mexican is irrelevant. Now we have Sotomayor the Buddhist. When it comes to creating WOC as “other” any social construction will do, as our cultures and religions clearly have no individualized identity.
Sotomayor is Catholic and Puerto Rican, how hard is it to recognize these two basic facts? Not only is this image offensive to WOC, it is offensive to all Buddhists because their religion is being reduced once again to the “all knowing Asian” stereotype that whiteness loves to lean on. You will note that even though people around the globe practice Buddhism, this caricature has slanted eyes so that the viewer is sure to recognize that the artist (and I use that term loosely) is reifying that mysticism and or enlightenment are the preserve of those “brainy yellow people.” Buddhists certainly don’t move through the world, holding down jobs and interacting with others; no they are far to busy contemplating the nothingness of being in mountain ranges with hard to pronounce names.
With this latest graphic the assaults on Sotomayor have truly reached the level of idiotic, sexist and racist. In appealing to the irrational fear of white men that they are being supplanted, these artists have succeeded in creating a monolithic “other”. It does not matter what ones achievements, education, or political position is if your body represents that of an “other”. It panics these men of privilege that a Latina woman of humble beginnings could possibly have a different perspective or a line of thought that is more comprehensive due to a different life experience.
The very normalization of whiteness is what allows these kinds of images to exist. These cartoons scream DIFFERENT, DIFFERENT, DIFFERENT…without acknowledging that the issue is not really difference but the value that has been applied to difference. As Sotomayor goes through the confirmation process we will probably see more attacks of this nature. Though whiteness is under no great attack from invading Puerto Rican women seeking to rule, the idea that one could possibly sit on what has been commonly a throne to white men is threatening because it suggests that white men do not have a monopoly on intelligence.
Cross Posted from Womanist Musings
Sotomayor Racism Watch: Piñata Cartoon Edition
It took no time at all for racist and sexist cartoons to hit the internet. This horrendous and disgusting cartoon went up on The Oklahoman on June 2nd, the day after the first cartoon published on the website mocking the overly exaggerated words the GOP had mindlessly flung around as a herd of barbaric frat boys.
Showing Sotomayor as a piñata while elephants line up to hit her as President Obama facilitates (of course, wearing a sombraro because sombraros and piñatas are the only ways to present Latino culture) is not funny. No matter which way you look at it, depicting racism, sexism, and violence against women is never funny, under any circumstances whatsoever.
As Renee over at Womanist Musings put it:
If the racism where not enough the incitement of violence is certainly the coup de grace. In a country in which women suffer violence at the hands of men on a daily basis to have them line up to take their “best shot” at her is not innocent political commentary.
If you are horrified about not just an established, professional woman being portrayed in such a manner, but any woman, do not hesitate to contact The Oklahoman. If they are perfectly fine with publishing discriminatory filth, they need to hear from us.
You can email them at yourviews@oklahoman.com or write to them at the following address:
Your Views
The Oklahoman
P.O. Box 25125
Oklahoma City, OK 73125
But you are not able to simply tell them your views, you need to follow some guidelines:
1. Letters of 250 words or less.
2. A full name and complete postal address, including zip code, must accompany your letter. (This is needed for verification. Your address won’t be published.)
3. “Name withheld” letters are not accepted. Nor are letters signed only with initials or a first initial and last name.
4. E-mailed letters cannot be sent as attachments.
5. Authors are limited to one letter every 28-42 days, depending on volume.
6. When referring to a news story or previous letter published in Your Views, cite the headline or letter writer’s name and the date of publication.
h/t Womanist Musings
The GOP’s Campaign Against Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor was originally nominated to federal court by George Herbert Bush; a fact that Obama mentioned in his speech to nominate Sotomayor for the US Supreme Court and a fact that the entire GOP and its supporters have conveniently ignored for the sake of having something else to bitch and complain about.
The Guardian’s Scott Lemieux has put together an article on Sotomayor’s qualifications for the job she has been nominated for and has discovered that Sotomayor’s qualifications mirror those of current Justice Samuel Alito; a man who the GOP has fawned over and that John McCain wholeheartedly supports and name-dropped all over the place during the last presidential election. But given the fact that Sotomayor is obviously qualified and possesses the same qualifications of a man supported at large by the GOP, they aren’t going to let her confirmation go without a fight… And the only reason why several smear campaigns have already started against her is because she is not a white, privileged male.
Did you know that all Latina women are named Maria? Well according to Mike Huckabee, the nomination of Maria Sotomayor “will likely leave us with something akin to the “Extreme Court” that could mark a major shift” because she is so “far left.”
The appointment of Maria Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama’s campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric. Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the “Extreme Court” that could mark a major shift. The notion that appellate court decisions are to be interpreted by the “feelings” of the judge is a direct affront of the basic premise of our judicial system that is supposed to apply the law without personal emotion. If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice.—
I’m sure Maria Sotomayor will be displeased to learn that Mike Huckabee is not a fan of her, but I wonder how he feels about Sonia Sotomayor… And um, Lady Justice!? I don’t think so. Does the GOP refer to Justice Alito as Mr. Justice Alito? No, I don’t think they do.
Newt Gingrich, who apparently took Meghan McCain’s advice to start Twittering, joined his fellow fraternity brothers Republican colleagues Sen. James Inhofe and Rep. Lamar Smith in calling Sotomayor racist for claiming that judicial diversity is important when determining “race and sex discrimination cases.”
So apparently Gingrich believes that an out of context remark made during a speech on race and sex discrimination cases that appeared in print in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal in 2002 is proof that Sotomayor is a racist… Because no one knows what it’s like to be a woman of color more than a white male, right?
Karl Rove jumped on board calling Sotomayor an “intellectual lightweight,” obviously encouraged by Jeffrey Rosen’s New Republic article which allowed unnamed sources to attack Sotomayor as “not that smart” and lacking “penetrating” questions on the bench.
Because nothing shows someone’s lack of intellect than graduating summa cum laude from Princeton University as well as attending Yale Law School and holding the job of editor of the Yale Law Journal.
The attacks against Sonia Sotomayor are in bad taste and fueled by nothing less than racism and sexism… Pot calling the kettle black, anyone?
Always A Tramp: Lil Kim On Dancing With The Stars
“You’re trying to be a lady but you’re more comfortable being a tramp,” were the words of Bruno Tonioli. The audience and her partner laughed along while the shock and embarrassment registered on the face of Lil Kim.
DWTS has a patriarchal foundation to begin with because it never challenges gender roles or sexuality. Though clearly Lance Bass is gay, the idea of him competing with a man was never given serious consideration outside of the gay and lesbian community as ultimately DWTS is about reminding others that performing the roles encoded to their bodies is of paramount performance.
Since the show has been on the air there have been plenty of dances that were highly sexual and yet it is the black woman that is called a tramp when she does a dance that is not in the least bit sexualized. What is this but the articulation of the jezebel construction? Tonoli felt safe making the commentary that he did because black female bodies are deemed always sexually available.
When white female dancers perform what is considered a sexy dance, the judges comment about how hot the dance was and rarely to never is it personalized in the manner that it was with Lil Kim. When Tonioli looked at her he did not see a woman, he saw a black woman and all of the negative behaviours that have been inscribed to our bodies for the purposes of exploitation. The eternal jezebel construct exists so that our bodies can be violated at will and this is why black female bodies are often deemed “unrapeable”.
It is quite easy to declare Lil Kim unladylike because that is a term restricted for white females. This is projected as complementary, however it serves to control the behaviour of white women. The conflation of “purity and goodness” and our continual capitulation to a gender performance based on submissiveness, is a direct result of viewing the world through a coercive male lens. This approach further divides white women and WOC, in that we learn to view each other as binary opposites even though we both share in gender based oppression.
The lesson learned from this is that sexism hurts all women, even when we are attacked differently. DWTS has become quite popular and projects itself as entertainment based model of the ways in which men and women are meant to interact with each other. The problem is that this version specifically supports a patriarchal view of the world and this necessarily means the disciplining of women. Just because it is wrapped in foot tapping music and a glittery costume does not mean that it is not riddled with rot.
h/t EUR This N That
Cross Posted from Womanist Musings
Womanism/Feminism…Feminism/Womanism
When we look at labels to describe activism by women we commonly use the term womanist, or feminist. Words mean something despite how casually we toss them around. They are how we order and understand our world. In an effort to be inclusive when we write about activism many will often write feminists/womanists. This acknowledges that some WOC have to some degree separated themselves and have taken on the label of womanists because of the history of racism within the feminist movement.
The problem with using these labels is that they often appear in a certain order. Most will write feminists/womanists rather than womanists/feminists. This may seem like a small insignificant point but what it does is that it once again sets up a hierarchy about what counts as real activism when it comes to women. If feminism is routinely placed first it sets up womanism as a ridiculous offshoot. When we consider that womanists largely identify as such because of racism in feminism, routinely placing it behind feminism only reaffirms the idea that white women still see WOC as secondary bodies.
Even though writing feminists/womanists is an attempt at inclusion, the order of the words appear means something because it speaks to who has power and privilege. Often unconsciously we reaffirm power dynamics in our society. Privileging certain bodies has become a naturalized phenomenon and it takes a conscious effort to decolonize your mind. These small slights do not go unnoticed even if they are unremarked upon.
Many WOC are rightfully distrustful of white women. There is a long history of betrayal and silencing. I have watched time after time as we are assaulted and our issues ignored. We are told that we focus to much on race in an attempt to destabilize our organizing. Womanism speaks about our lives, our needs and our existence in a way that feminism never has. It validates our experiences and places us in the center of the conversation. To place feminism before womanism continually only reifies the need for womanism.
The rift between WOC and white women needs to be healed. Each new slight just adds to the bitterness and contempt and is the equivalent of pouring salt into an open wound thereby further dividing us from each other. When there is such a large history of betrayal we cannot afford to continue to fuel the negativity as it only detracts us from our common enemy: patriarchy.
WOC are always going to have issues that are unique to us, and yet we share many issues in common with white women. The anger and bitterness often causes us to ignore their valid commentary and make sweeping assumptions. There will never be one monolithic woman that can represent us and the “sisterhood” will never cure all the hurt, but we need to think about how we speak to each other if we are going to move forward.
Our future lies in unity and not in separation. It is important that we leave room for forgiveness and it is essential that white women acknowledge the ways in which they have wronged us. This is a problem that we need to tackle together with patience and love. Both WOC and white women essentially want to see women succeed, we just don’t always agree with what constitutes “woman”.
Cross Posted from Womanist Musings
PETA Dresses Up As KKK
Does this outfit remind you of anything? PETA will stop at nothing to push its agenda no matter who it marginalizes, no matter who it hurts.
“Crowds gawked at a table set up outside Madison Square Garden on Monday afternoon, where People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was protesting the start of the Westminster Kennel Club show. PETA contends that the American Kennel Club promotes pure-breeding of dogs that is harmful to their health.
“Welcome AKC Members,” read a banner hanging from the table — with AKC crossed out and KKK written above it. Two PETA protesters dressed as Ku Klux Klan members, while other volunteers handed out brochures that read: “The KKK and the AKC: BFF?”
“Obviously it’s an uncomfortable comparison,” PETA spokesman Michael McGraw said.
But the AKC is trying to create a “master race,” he added. “It’s a very apt comparison.”
The amount of insensitivity it takes to dress up like the KKK and attempt to draw a link between the breeding of animals to the terror that blacks have lived with for generations can only be described as the audacity of whiteness. It mattered not to these ignorant over privileged fools, that seeing people dressed like this in a public place could be terribly triggering to POC.
This is not going to be the kind of post were I try to make a larger connection to social injustices faced by people of colour. The mock KKK uniform that they are wearing stands for itself. Human Beings are also animals and continually performing wilder and wilder stunts in which the most vulnerable members of society are targeted could hardly be called ethical.
The KKK is a terrorist organization. It has murdered, stalked, raped, abused and committed so many violations against humanity that I could not possibly list them. This is what PETA wants to be associated with. In some ways they are not far off the mark because they are an organization that is built on nothing other than hatred. Their actions reveal a hatred of POC, women, and transgendered people.
PETA has been called out time and time again on their behaviour but they are so blinded by their various privileges that they cannot or will not see the damage that their actions cause.
I can barely think rationally because I am so fucking incensed. Seriously FUCK YOU PETA. Never will I contribute a single dollar to your cause. I believe in preventing cruelty against animals but not at the cost of dehumanizing the weakest members of society.
Each one of these little campaigns that PETA runs does more harm to their cause than good. When people think of animal rights they think of PETA and immediately get turned off. Who wants to associate themselves with a movement that continually creates the vulnerable as “other.” What this campaign tells me, is that to PETA I am less than a dog.
I simply have no words. Time and time again we are told that we have moved into a post racial society. We are supposedly equal and if only blacks could let go of the past and forgive all, things would be better. How the fuck can I even consider forgetting what was done to my ancestors, when day after day I have to be reminded that at any moment whiteness can decide that I am not worthy of any respect?
Cross Posted From Womanist Musings
Confronting Hyper Sexuality In The Black Community
As the mother of a young child who is approaching his tween years, thoughtful consideration of our social dialogue as it relates to sex and sexuality has been of great personal concern. Along with assuring that my child receives accurate information to make the correct decisions for him, ensuring that he understands that even the options that are available to him are strictly a result of his race and gender are an essential part of an evolving conversation on sex and sexuality.
When educating black children about sex, it is not enough to speak about the mechanics of the act. Though it is an absolute necessity to stress safe sex in a time where AIDS has reached a truly epidemic stature within our communities, the why we choose to engage in sex can and should be an equally important conversation.
Children come to an understanding of our world by interacting and confronting the agents of socialization. They will receive clear and direct instructions on performing gender, race and sexuality. These intersections are internalized and accepted as normative, despite the fact that they are often damaging on multiple levels.
Black children in particular must deal with the social idea that their bodies are hyper sexual. This can be seen in the overtly sexualized images of black women in rap videos, or the black male as rapist construction. In both of the aforementioned examples, sexuality is perverted in that it is presented as overly aggressive, and existing outside of normalized engagement.
The virgin/whore dichotomy is continually reified through the lens of race wherein white women exist with the construction of purity and the black female is reduced to the ever wanton Jezebel. This construction has its foundation in slavery. It was meant to justify the repeated rape of black women by their white male slave owners.
Though we have long since moved beyond slavery as a condition of living in the broader culture, its shadow continues to interject itself into our discourse about sex and sexuality. Young black girls quickly internalize the idea that their bodies exist for consumption based in the falsehood that they are continually desirous of sex. This construction removes the agency from the decision to have sex and implies that sex must occur because that is the foundation of the black female identity. It further reifies a hierarchy of beings wherein the black female is routinely located at the bottom. Bell Hooks theorizes that the black woman has no institutional other, and when we examine the discourse of sex and gender what immediately becomes clear is that the politics of colonization and oppression continually manifest in ways in which foster a negative sexual identity in black females.
Reducing black women to simply sexual beings without agency or autonomy over their physical beings translates into high rates of teen pregnancy and a low cultural self esteem. If your identity is based on sexual performance rather than achievement in education, it perpetuates the idea that success can only be achieved by conforming to the role of eternal Jezebel. This creates an unhealthy sexuality in that sex is no longer something one engages in to share pleasure or manifest a loving relationship, but to assert a form of self worth.
While a healthy sexuality is important to achieve a well rounded sense of self, the overvaluation of it is detrimental. Reducing women to what they do with their vaginas rather than with their brains serves patriarchal interests. For black women who have a history of slavery the perpetuation of the Jezebel complex amounts to the continued colonization of black female bodies.
This form of sexuality is also heterosexist nature in that it constructs women as existing solely for the purposes of male sexual pleasure, while ignoring the existence of same sex loving women. Lesbian love is delegitimized because it does not actively serve patriarchy; and therefore its erasure is not only a slight on black women, but on all women that identify as lesbian. Queer culture is very much a part of the black community, but when sexuality is controlled by outside forces instead of individually, certain identities become invisible if it is deemed that their existence does not help to maintain the race/class/gender hierarchy.
The model held for the black male is quite similar to the black female. It once again finds it origins in slavery; wherein the black male was constructed as the sexually aggressive savage to promote distrust between black men and white women. In this way white men are assured their place at the top of the race and gender hierarchy, while constructing themselves as the saviour of white women and the socially evolved masters of black men.
The hyper masculine sexuality that is presented as a model to black men can be seen in rap videos, and throughout mainstream media. The black male sexuality that is offered is one that is desirous of continues conquest; wherein the pleasure of the act itself is over looked. Black men are perceived not to engage in sex because it is an act of intimacy between two beings; rather it is construed as an act that reifies their masculinity. In a world where in the black male is continually reduced to an exotic “other” combating such images can be difficult. If masculinity is derived through sexual conquest, then this reinforces a problematized identity.
Just as same sex loving is detached from black female sexuality, a queer identity is similarly not associated with black male sexuality. Black masculinity is forever measuring itself against that of the white male. Due to the historic imbalance caused by racism any form of sexuality that is deemed “socially deviant” is actively denied. This has given rise to living a life on the “down low”. Though black males are certainly not the only ones to lead closeted lives, the tendency to deny sexual orientation is higher because of the association of black masculinity and sexual conquest. This is not healthy and is ultimately damaging to the individual on many levels.
We have a tendency to speak about sex as though it is divorced from other social elements, yet it is one of the most complex forms of human interactions. When we ignore the complexities of race, class and gender in our discussions it has a tendency to minimize the ways in which different groups of people not only understand but experience sexuality. What must be paramount when we seek to educate our youth is that they be made to recognize that though they are the products of social construction, as individuals they exist with ability to transcend norms and create a sexuality that is not only more positive, but a reflection of their right to possess a sexuality in which the onus is on individual agency.
When we begin to discuss sexuality with black children, it is important to make connections to the ways in which racism has affected our understanding of what it is to be black, while at the same time exist as a sexual being. Reclaiming sexuality from the race infused dialog would foster a more positive understanding of what it is to be sexual thus encouraging youth to see this as a decision that is not synonymous with claiming their gender identity, but in sharing an experience of intimacy with another.
This is What McCain/Palin Supporters Look (and Act) Like
While Obama makes his supporters feel uplifted and hopeful to the point where they will encourage people to vote, start conversations through party lines, speak with their friends and family about the upcoming election, McCain supporters are a little different; they embarrass themselves–Repeatedly. They take the smears, hate, and most of all, the ignorance and arrogance that McCain puts out there and run wild with it.
This video shows that there are still some people whose minds are still so clouded with racism and with ignorance and belligerence that I am truly blown away by the amount of hate that is being fueled by this campaign. To put it bluntly, this video and the people (especially the blond woman who doesn’t believe in letting her fellow McCain/Palin supporters speak because the word ‘tact’ was never taught to her) who are spouting McCain and Palin’s regurgitated bullshit makes me sick.
This is perhaps the most crucial election that many of us will have the responsibility to vote in in our lifetime and the reason for that is because of a Republican regime who shoveled very, very deep into the Earth, put our country in the hole and proceeded to bury us alive. It is because one candidate wants to give us the same, exact Republican regime that many of us have been the victim of for the next four years. Another candidate has a shovel and is willing to dig us back up again and make sure that we don’t have to tell our children that we can’t afford to send them to school or decide what bills are important that month and what bills can wait until the next month or be a person, like myself, who are plagued by illness but don’t have health insurance because we can’t afford it and we can’t go to the hospital because we can’t bear to think of the amount of debt that would bring upon us and so we live in pain.
This video is proof that instead of reading or even watching the news (C-SPAN is great because it shows you what is actually going on and isn’t being funneled through a reporter with obvious bias) or reading the websites of the candidates to read about the issues and how each candidate feels about them, McCain supporters are merely parroting buzzwords and smear campaigns and taking them as truth without a second thought and making pure asses of themselves (especially the blond woman.)
This video also proves that people can be very, very proud of their ignorance.
Edited to add: If you wish to Digg this story, please digg this one. This video needs as much attention as possible.
Have We Covered the “Angry Woman” Stance Enough Yet?
Fox News, and more specifically, Bill O’Reilly, have yet again brought up the “angry woman” stance when referring to Michelle Obama. In my opinion, the only reason O’Reilly is so obsessed with this is because Michelle Obama is a strong, aware and educated woman which according to Fox News and O’Reilly is a big no-no. In the following video O’Reilly uses the term “warm and fuzzy” when asking two women he had on his show, Vogue magazine contributing editor Rebecca Johnson and Human Events columnist Michelle Oddis about Michelle’s demeanor. “Is she warm and fuzzy?” Umm no, she is not warm and fuzzy and when it comes to politics, the last thing we need is for a first lady to be “warm and fuzzy.”
Rebecca Johnson spent about a half a day with Michelle Obama for an interview and what she said that I respect about Michelle Obama is that she did not try to win the reporter over; Michelle Obama is not fake and for some reason, O’Reilly doesn’t like that about women.
It is already known that Fox News and O’Reilly himself are very racist and that seems to be the basis for the smear reports he has dedicated his career to spreading in the last few months. The only reason why Michelle Obama and her “anger” comes up continuously is because she happens to be an educated, black woman.
The simple fact of the matter is that when a woman is strong, aware, educated and knows who she is, the media jumps all over her, makes sexist remarks about her and tries to tell people that there is something wrong when a woman is an intellectual. Fox News is known for being sexist and for spreading smear reports about the Obamas and the only reason that they do that is because they are scared and cannot cope with how the world works now. A woman’s role is not merely making dinner for her family and her husband’s colleagues, a woman’s role is not merely smiling and nodding whenever a male says something to her.
Michelle Obama is a strong and educated woman and that scares the pants off of the right-wing and for that, I pity them.
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Out Campaign
The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.
