Curse You, Internet!

Working mandatory overtime sure is fun! I love the way it doesn't leave me any time to write or think.

But I must throw out some links real quick because the internet doesn't slow down or wait for no grunt worker like myself. These are all topics I would like to write a little bit about if I had the time, which I don't:

The Unapologetic Mexican: The White Lens (The White Idea)

Some of you may have noticed the reaction to Nezua's recent 2006 Colonizers of the Year Award post over at Jesus' General. It's more or less the same reaction this post at Punkassblog got: "Isn't adopting children out of poverty and into A Better Life a good thing? I don't understand! Why are you so mad at Angelina? You're making too much of this race business!" And so on, and so on. I even got the same go-round from the boyfriend and the best I could come up with at the time was to tell him to go watch this again and THEN tell me Angelina's completely above criticism. There's more going on here than just Kindly Celebrity Heals the World, One Impoverished Child at a Time. If you still don't get that, keep reading the unapologetic one until it sinks in.

Hugo Schwyzer: "Dukes Don't Emigrate:" More OKOP/NOKOP Reflections, and Wincing at the Use of the Term "Upper-Class"

This actually works in conjunction with Nezua's post above (I hope neither author is offended by my saying that): The whole concept of privilege depends upon the complicity of the privileged in never acknowledging that privilege exists. (Ditto "whiteness.") Or:

. . . here’s the thing: if there’s one maxim “our kind of people” all agreed on, it was that talking explicitly and publicly about class was prima facie evidence that you lacked it. Nothing could be more more NOKOP than to describe anything, be it a social gesture or a fashion accessory, as “classy.” Once, while at a family luncheon, I used the term “classy” to describe the play of one of John McEnroe’s opponents (we had just watched a Wimbleedon match on television.) From the reaction of a few of my older relatives, you would think I had dropped the f-bomb. “I think you want to say that his behavior was ‘gentlemanly’, dear” one of my elders advised me. Another suggested that “sporting” would have been an even more appropriate choice. I was about 14, and just starting to get the picture: we don’t talk about class.

I am tempted here to get into a whole thing about my maternal grandfather's funeral a couple years ago that illustrates this also. But no time! No time! We must press on!

The Anti-Essentialist Conundrum: About Shaquanda Cotton

Sylvia's updated this a couple times since I initially read it, so make sure to read the whole thing. My likely-inadequate short version: Shaquanda Cotton, a 14-year-old girl in Paris, Texas, has been sentenced to serve up to seven years for shoving a hall monitor. Shaquanda's mother says it's discrimination. The school and the judge say they're only trying to protect Shaquanda from the bad influence of her mother, to which I say, "Hey, look, I thought my own mother was a bad influence once upon a time, but I sure didn't aspire to have a judge send me to juvie to be protected from her." Anyway, I favor the mother's viewpoint on this one:

“Shaquanda came from a very structured home. She didn’t run around; she didn’t get out in the street; she didn’t do drugs; she didn’t drink alcohol; she didn’t do any of those things because I didn’t let her,” Creola Cotton said. “The only reason that they could give that Shaquanda should be removed from my home is that I filed complaints against the school and the police department. So how does that make me an unfit parent?”

Because you're teaching her to play the race card, Ms. Cotton! Don't you know how upsetting that is?

I can't shake the feeling that what the school would really like to do is to lock up Creola. Your mileage may vary, but check out all the links Sylvia's got before you make up your mind.

Punkassblog: On Trolling and Punkassblog

I am adopting this as my official comments policy right now. The whole thing with trolls is, they want to pretend that it's so hard to tell when they're trolling. It is NOT so hard to tell; it's fairly easy, in fact. Marc lays out why.

And that's it. These colonoscopy reports aren't going to type themselves, you know.