Running racism in America thread

Reform? Shit, I don’t even think I’ve seen one of them express sympathy for the victims.

 

Good point I hadn’t even thought of that.

 

I get why the NCAA is doing it, but it's worth noting that the state's eight public universities -- ALL of them -- as well as a couple of private ones have distanced themselves from the state flag. They all stopped flying it on their campuses five or six years ago. Today they put out a joint statement calling for a change. Unfortunately, it's not in their hands, and the NCAA's heavy-handed approach is not going over well in the state. There's an internal push to change the flag that's got some traction, but I get the sense from early reaction that there are a lot of folks just as happy to dig in and say "Fuck you, don't tell us what to do."

 

Ole Miss

 

Gonna put on my cultural ed hat and suggest a book or two for anyone interested in learning more about ethnicity, identity, and how culturally enmeshed and yet how divided we are.

Africanisms in American Culture (edited by Joseph Holloway, 1990/2005 Indiana University Press, ISBN-13: 978-0253217493) is now in its second edition. Holloway's editing choices for this anthology are inspired and expose the need for self-reporting in cultural scholarship. Many Americans take for granted that our culture is informed primarily by European sources. Prepare to have your heart and mind turned wide open. This is one of my favorite books from my undergraduate days. I reread it every once in a while because it's so good.

Motherwit From The Laughing Barrel: Readings in the Interpretation of Afro-American Folklore (edited by Alan Dundes, Reprint ed. 1990 University Press of Mississippi, ISBN-13: 978-0878054787) Dundes was the OG of anthropologists who didn't mind giving sticktaps to the folklorists across the hall. This collection includes seminal works by Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Alan Lomax (blerg! yuck! ptui! Oscar, how do you really feel about Alan Lomax?)

Also worth finding: Alice Walker's essays about Zora Neale Hurston

Mama Day (Gloria Naylor, Reprint ed. 1989 Vintage Press, ISBN-13: 978-0679721819.) Yes, this is a novel. She makes ruthless fun of tin-eared allies and cultural conservation folks. I would be happy to possess a tenth of her talent.

I wish I could find one of my old urban folkways books. It had some good essays about Atlanta folklife (distrust of the media, contamination fears, the child murders.) There were also some good essays about Yupper life and street festivals in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. If I find it or remember the title, I'll post it.

 

Found a replacement for the Confederate monuments...

 

Oh, please let me put one of these up in Linn Park at the site of the recently removed statue. Absolute guarantee the evangelicals would shit a brick, followed by calling it "Demonic", especially with that black magic star on there.

I'm not kidding. They've done it here.

 

Well said. Asian Americans can be proud of their fight for equality and justice, too, though. It's worth remembering June 19 is also the anniversary of the attack on Vincent Chin, an event about which I'm still mad I had to go to college overseas to learn.

 

I’m starting to get the same hinky feeling about Tulsa that I had going into Charlottesville.

 

Yup.

 

Damn Vincent Chin; thankfully I learned about that while in US. Horrible.