A seven-minute overview of the Democratic nominee process. Genius.
(Thanks to Lena for the link.)
Which Side Are You On?
It IS May Day. If everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, then shouldn’t everyone be a pinko on May Day?
Here are some of my favorite lefty reads:
- Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith. – it’s this book that caused me to start referring to the Empire State Building as “The Al Smith Building.”
- Living My Life – Emma Goldman’s Autobiography. This is where that oft-misquoted “If I can’t dance” line comes from.
- Myra Page’s Daughter of the Hills – a novel about women in coal miner communities (likewise, I’d suggest The Day the Earth Caved In, which is about the coal town of Centralia.)
- U.S.A. – the trilogy by John Dos Passos, and the book Norman Mailer referred to as “the last great American novel.”
- Silences – by Tillie Olsen. One of the best books, still, about the working class.
More as this election season teeters on.
NC Robo-Calls
I was recently in the running in a “Top Ten Female Bloggers” contest sponsored by WVWV.org, which, as it turns out, is the organization that seems to be behind some baffling robo-calls to voters in NC (amongst other places).
Now Women’s Voices is plunging North Carolina into the same confusion. State officials tell Facing South they are still receiving calls from frustrated and confused voters, wondering why “Lamont Williams” is offering to send them a “voter registration packet” after the deadline for mail-in registration for the primaries has passed.
In correspondence with North Carolina election officials, Women’s Voices founder and President Page Gardner merely said that the disruptive timing was an “unfortunate coincidence” — a strange alibi for a group with their level of resources and sophistication.
There are other questions about Women’s Voices’ outreach efforts. Although the group purports to be targeting “unmarried women,” their calls and mailings don’t fit the profile. Kevin Farmer in Durham, who first recorded the call, is a white male. Many of the recipients are African-American; Rev. Nelson Johnson, who is a married, male and African-American, reported that his house was called four times by the mysterious “Lamont Williams.”
Please let anyone you know in North Carolina that these robo-calls are probably illegal & contain misleading information. How much WVWV’s intent is to buck up Clinton’s chances in the primary remain to be seen, but in a state where something like 45% of the voters are African-American, sending voters confusing and wrong information is anti-democratic. If it’s intentional, then I’d call it racist, too.
White feminists, you’re really fucking up here.
(via Daily Kos).
Legal Marriage, Queer Relationship
The NYT did an article about the legal issues when you’re a heterosexual couple and one of you legally changes gender. I’ve been talking about the ramifications of this stuff for so long that I failed to notice for others it might be quite a surprise, and revelatory, but it is.
Interesting comments have come in from Cara at Feministe and a young trans woman who calls herself Critical Thinking Girl. As CTG points out, it is pretty tawdry – the usual before & after photos, etc. – and when she notes:
The tone of this article is clear – Fran is a put-upon woman, with an eccentric husband. The picture they chose is also curious as it has the trans woman in the relationship holding back her wife.
As many of my regular readers already know, one of the things that drives me batshit about the media in general is the way they choose rubes to write about, instead of speaking to activists or advocates who are prepared to deal with media, or who have become allied with LGBTQ people on the issue. For those of you who are interested, here’s a talk I gave at the Law School of Penn State Dickinson last year.
Because honestly, same sex marriage recognition would make life easier for all trans people in relationships – including CTG.
Oh – and to The Times – and everyone else: it’s “transition” not “sex change.”
Epic Fail
There’s an anti-McCain ad playing on TV that’s fine when you watch it. It works much like “The Word” does on Colbert, with McCain saying stuff about how jobs have been created while the text reads that 1.8 million jobs have been lost.
But since I’m often working with my back to the TV, often I just hear it, which defeats the whole plan. What you hear is John McCain talking positively of the Bush years with no commentary or criticism. So for all those people who turn their attention elsewhere during commercial breaks, all they hear is a pro-McCain ad.
How To Be an Ally
Over at Bilerico, “Guest blogger Rev. Ann Fontaine, of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, keeps the blogs Green Lent and what the tide brings in and writes for Episcopal Cafe. She is the author of Streams of Mercy: a meditative commentary on the Bible.”
Here’s her “Code for Allies”:
- We listen to those with whom we work without judging the perspectives, experiences, and feelings of the members of the marginalized group, even when the words feel accusatory towards us. These perspectives, experiences and feelings reveal what we do not know about those with whom we seek to become allies.
- We seek to learn from those with whom we ally in order to educate ourselves and others about the culture and concerns of those with whom we are allied. We examine our fears of “the other. We recognize the interconnectedness of “isms” and other examples of individual and societal prejudice.
- We understand the commonalities and the differences among the various expressions of prejudice and isolation of groups.
- We identify and work to change our prejudicial beliefs and actions as well as to change the beliefs and actions of others, both individual and institutional.
- We build relationships with other discredited, marginalized, oppressed, non-privileged groups.
- We work for the equalizing and responsible use of power and authority.
- We advocate for policies and activities that support those affected by injustice.
- We use appropriate language.
- We confront inappropriate language.
- We ask questions rather than assume we know the answer.
- We take risks.
- We appreciate the efforts by members of our ally group to point out our mistakes.
- We combat the harassment, discrimination, and physical assault that marginalized groups experience in our society by speaking out, by our presence and by working to change the systems that continue oppression and give one group privilege over another.
- We appreciate the risks taken by our allies for their own freedom.
- We recognize that groups need to work on their own and with others – even when that means we may be left out of the discussion and work.
- We support other allies.
- We act as allies with no conditions attached.
Now that’s a plateful, but do go read the whole post.
Gore Galore
Anyone else tired of the drama? We’ve been watching Pennsylvania primary returns, & they exhaust me. But I can’t stop watching, either, just like that night Gore won the Presidency.
Won’t.
Jonathan Chait’s article “Popular Will” takes George F. Will to task, and beautifully so.
Fuck Seal Press?
I came back from visiting Betty upstate to find out that there is a huge mess involving Seal Press (my publishers) which came right on the heels of BFP’s departure last week.
So without pointing out every phrase and person involved, I’ll just say a few things as a white feminist who really only consciously became a feminist after reading Michele Wallace, and who, for nearly 10 years, worked for author Walter Mosley, who has written and talked about the absence of POC in the publishing industry, specifically.
The under representation of WOC in publishing has been a problem for a long time. The under representation of POC has been as well, in general. It’s not just chronic; it’s really fucking awful. Continue reading “Fuck Seal Press?”
Race + LGBT
I heard Jasmyne Cannick speak at the Bodies of Knowledge conference at USC Upstate, and the focus of her talk was race and the LGBT community. She made a couple of important points about the failures of the white LGBT set in dealing with black LGBT people. I use “black” because she did; she mentioned that she dislikes the phrase “people of color” but didn’t explain why exactly.
One of her main issues was that minorities are often used to trump up “diversity” numbers for primarily white LGBT organizations but aren’t then given any real power to choose issues within those organizations. Gay marriage in particular was way down on her list of priorities, after things like universal healthcare, jobs, access to education, immigration, access to power/politicians, and other issues of poverty. Her point was that in LA, it’s the white LGBT who live in West Hollywood, but that black LGBT people tend to live in their neighborhoods of birth: Compton, East LA, etc., exactly because of the issues of dicrimination and access.
As she put it: “Just because someone doesn’t agree with you that gay marriage is the most important issue doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be at the table.” Continue reading “Race + LGBT”