“When the liberal says “race is a social construct,” he is not being a soft-headed dolt; he is speaking an historical truth. We do not go around testing the “Irish race” for intelligence or the “Southern race” for “hot-headedness.” These reasons are social. It is no more legitimate to ask “Is the black race dumber than then white race?” than it is to ask “Is the Jewish race thriftier than the Arab race?””
Random postings, links, and whatnotisms that interest one Adam Ballah, proprietor of little here or there.
May 15, 2013
June 19, 2012
The old adage holds that history occurs twice—first as tragedy, then as farce—but if anything is to be learned from the tragic tale of Rodney King, it’s that history’s encores are often just as brutal as its débuts.
…The policing of urban communities is full of complexities, but there is a social constant here: the combustible resentment that comes with the feeling that you’re more likely to be brutalized or killed by people whom your taxes pay to protect you than by the people they’re paid to protect you from. The blue line is thinner and more frayed in some places than others.
Jelani Cobb in the New Yorker here.
May 10, 2012
King said in an interview that this photograph was taken as he tried to explain to his daughter Yolanda why she could not go to Funtown, a whites-only amusement park in Atlanta. King claims to have been tongue-tied when speaking to her. “One of the most painful experiences I have ever faced was to see her tears when I told her Funtown was closed to colored children, for I realized the first dark cloud of inferiority had floated into her little mental sky.”
(via cheatsheet)
April 27, 2011
“Katrin sent us another in the long line of fashion shoots that exoticize the cultures and residents of non-Western countries. The article, titled “Indian Summer,” appeared in the British version ofVogue in September 2007, along with the tagline, “Eclectic, colourful, crazy…The modern gipsy’s style is every bit as exotic as her travels.” So the model is being presented as “exotic” herself (she’s a “gipsy,” after all), but her exoticism is proven by her travels to places that are themselves marked as exotic and extremely different from the UK.
It includes several elements common to these types of photo shoots, including a model who is clearly differentiated from the local population not just in terms of fashion, but by skin tone, as well as the use of locals as props surrounding or in the background of the blond model:” - Sociological Images
January 1, 2011
Nina Simone performing “How it feels to be free”
December 30, 2010
"
You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
— Oscar Hammerstein (Rogers and Hammerstein), South Pacific
November 12, 2010
Using data from the 2000 U.S. census, Eric Fischer made infographics of the 40 largest metropolitan areas that map the density of racial groups with vivid colors. Each dot represents 25 people, and each color represents a different racial group. Red dots signify white people, blue dots signify black people, green dots are Asians, etc. From Fischer’s graphics it’s clear that measures to encourage racial integration have, in most cities, not been effective.
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