the king grew vain;
Fought all his battles o’er again;
And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.
Alexander's Feast
or, The Power of Music;
An Ode in Honor of St. Cecilia's Day
John Dryden
I've linked the place before, but it really can't be done enough: Y? The National Forum On People's Differences is described thusly:
Y?, the first and only site of its kind, gives you a way to ask people from other ethnic or cultural backgrounds the questions you've always been too embarrassed or uncomfortable to ask them. If you have the courage to ask, Y? will evaluate your question, consider it for posting and try to get someone from that background to answer. If needed, we'll get an expert to weigh in.
You'll also have a chance to answer questions related to your own demographic background.
Y? The National Forum On People's Differences has no agenda or cause, other than to get people talking across their differences - a running dialogue Y? believes most of us would like to see occur but that has yet to fully unfold through the conventional media.
So, if you were to find yourself thinking, "Why does it seem that black people, particularly women, are afraid of dogs - even friendly ones?", there are a number of people reading the site willing to volunteer answers. Not only does this prevent embarrasing yourself by asking one of your black friends (assuming you have any, he muttered at the warbloggers under his breath), it prevents the embarrasment of not asking, and coming up with bizarre theories based on nothing. Everybody wins.
The site is listed at Racial Issues and Identities: A Guide to Resources on the Web from the liberalmedia New York Times, if that influences your point of view in any way. The list is a bit out of date -- they include (the wrong address for) netnoir, which I barely remember, and I've been on the web a hell of a lot longer than most of you. As ever, The Wayback Machine is your friend.
The title/opening quote refers to how people seem to be covering very old territory in some of the race/attitude discussions popping up lately, and to be honest I feel like a grad student auditing an undergrad course. I keep thinking, "Doesn't everybody already know this stuff? And aren't you oversimplifying to the point of being misleading?"
For instance, without naming names, if I never have to hear about someone's racist relative (uncle, grandparent, cousin, etc.) again, it'll be too soon.
Or maybe it's PMS. Yeah, that's probably it.
np: My Scarlet Life's cd Buzzbomb
Almost forgot, looking up netnoir on the archive, I also hit Café Los Negroes, which remains the epitome of cool six years later (even though you might have to check different versions to see stuff). Think they were why I didn't really think that much about this site's name. How was I to know the Limited Black English Proficiency types would wig out?
sadly there are many who have been skipping the reading material in this advanced studies course.
We're working on 101 level right now.
Couldn't they at least flip through the Cliff's Notes, or rent the movie? Like I used to do?
If I were Catholic, or if I had followed that plan I had back in 198x to convert to Episcopalianism and become a nun, I would have wanted to take Ceclia as my name. Patron saint of musicians and one of the 4 virgin saints [cough-cough, ahem...cough] she was also a *keyboardist* and is portrayed as such in iconography http://www.vanderbilt.edu/htdocs/Blair/Courses/MUSL242/cecilia.htm. Yes, she boldly and unashamedly played the organ, bless her. And her compositions are reportedly quite bad ass. See the short story by Heinrich von Kleist, "St. Cecilia or the Power of Music" (http://www.aicgs.org/resources/daad/1992103.shtml , if you really want to go off).
St. Cecilia was a right-on sista, in my book.
"For instance, without naming names, if I never have to hear about someone's racist relative (uncle, grandparent, cousin, etc.) again, it'll be too soon."
Ok, so a question. Given the choice, and you must choose one, would you rather hear about the random racist piece of shit relative or the "native american" great grandmother/third-cousin-four-times-removed/random dark woman with two "papooses" in some turn of the century photograph in some heirloom scrapbook, implication being of course that they, too are technically "people of color"?
Don't laugh - they really say shit like this.
Take your time - I still can't answer, myself.
Laura, I went to one of the Chief Illiniwek (ugh) debates at U of I, and a guy looked like a Ken doll started off a pro-Chief speech with, "I'm part Native American, and I don't find the symbol offensive."
Took a lot of restraint not to say, "I'm part white, and I think you're a fuckhead."
Given a choice of hells, I'll go with the racist relative tales. Those usually involve some come-uppance at the end, like bringing a black girl/boyfriend to their house.
The failure to see the objectification is at least mildly amusing.
Did not know that about St. Cecilia. My grandmother was Catholic, but my mom raised us Methodist. Although they seemed more like Unitarians calling themselves Methodists for tax and zoning purposes.
So not going near that nun comment. But you maybe wanna take something for that cough. Think I got some, uh, Midol left. . .
Laura - aha hahahahahahah ahahahahahaha ahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahaha! I am stuck in suburban hell...lonely at first because few people would talk to me but now crossing the street to avoid being talked to 'cause when they do speak to me I got to hear all about their bogus Native American great great great great great grandma/aunt/cousin! Often told this story by white folks wearing cheif wahoo plastered on their shirt! I kid you not.
I would still prefer this to the racist relative tales...if only because the racist relative tales DO turn into stories of their dating/knowing a relative or friend who dated/married a black/latina/asian woman JUST LIKE ME. So they can't be racist, because their cousin Brad is married to Quantifa from the hood. Gaaaaah!