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September 29, 2003
George Kelly is the Kwisatz Haderach
He was the Last Black Blogger standing, after all.
Another flashback, because I'm still thinking about the What Does It Mean to Be Etc. Etc. thing, this time to the Great Joe Boxer Flame:
I didn't write about that Joe Boxer/K-Mart ad. Only saw it once, and it didn't make much of an impression.
George mentioned it, although he covered other material in that entry, as is his wont. Jason wrote about it a bit as well, but again it wasn't the sole focus of the entry. Only j. brotherlove dedicated an entry to it, and it was fairly brief.
That was accidental. I swear.
So, Rob Walker at Slate did an article on the the thing, and linked those three blog entries.
And I thought tourist season around here was bad. At least I only get one at a time, usually.
The tone is about the same, though. They must have all been in the same frat.
Update: Since traffic from Jason's seems to be picking up, again I paraphrase Maggie Estep. I don't got a problem with white people. Just stupid white people.
Also, Warren Ellis says to give Maggie Estep money. Sage advice, that.
Off to dig out my copy of No More Mister Nice Girl.
And the discussion continued in a thread oddly titled Yep, the horse is still dead:
George doesn't have comments permalinks; the material below which isn't linked is from the, er, discussion at his place. Probably saving quite a bit of space doing that at this point. And I imagine Jason is either going to trim more of the things (do I want to know what was in the ones you removed?), or delete the lot. A few weeks back, with much less provocation, I was strongly tempted to delete this entire site and take up knitting.
What provocation? The accusations, mostly.
Of Anger.
If black people are angry that the commercial somehow demeans them, those of you who are offended, bothered by it need to stop making everything about race.And of Hatred.
Quit hatin'! Get some therapy or have a drink or something... Let dat shit go! Oops, I used ebonics.OH MY GOD! It's people like (most of) you writing here that make the world so hateful. I LOVE the commercial and would have never thought anything racist was going on there.
Then there's the ritual invocation of Confusion.
Maybe I'm failing to see the issue here [. . .] I am a straight white maleI don't want to sound like Pollyanna here...but WHY do so many people look for hatred where none exists? I just don't understand. I'm a white girl, from the suburbs
And much, much Offering of Unsolicited Advice.
Get a life. This is an underwear ad for heaven sake.
Get a clue it's an ad doing exactly what it was meant to do, and very well I might add.
Man, lighten up!
The comments I've read are making it a race issue and it shouldn't be. The sooner this sort of complaining stops, the sooner we'll be finished with race issues. We live in America and we are "one people, indivisible" as the Pledge ofAllegiance says. Who cares what color our skin happens to be... we should just all relax and enjoy each other's company.
But seriously, dont try and use racism as a card in every thing you see. The white man is not tryng to keep you down. Its far past time for the black community to do some constructive work on its image and role in society. The thug look and speech does very little to enhance the black image as a productive society member. I live in Atlanta and ride public transportation everyday. I am most times the only white man on the bus and notice that at least 50 percent of the black men onboard are trying to imitate (at least in dress and speech) this weeks favorite thug style rapper. You can't even understand what they are saying anymore, and I laugh my a-- off when they're pants fall off.
Hugh asked why I demanded original thoughts around here, and suggested that some ideas reappear because there's a grain of truth to them. Perhaps, but the lack of originality in the above quotes, and there's much much more if you're bored, isn't really moving any conversations forward, and I'm failing to see any truth in any of them.
Luckily, the angry black guys (to use John Hawkins' phrase) who post here are too closed-minded (to use Hugh's) for such chatter. Darn it all to heck.
On the other hand, we usually have discussions. Most of those posts are talking at some figment of the poster's imagination, rather than to either George or Jason. Those last links are to the afterset parties, which probably won't get nearly as many visitors. The ones in the original threads don't seem bright enough to figure their way around.
Perhaps there's something to be learned from all this, other that that Slate readers are by and large ignorant cracka-ass crackas, but I ain't seeing it.
Not sure about the full-quote links in some of those, especially with how the style sheet handles 'em. Guess I could play with that. Or try some inline style for them. Or delete this entire blog and start on making scarves for my relatives as Kwanzaa gifts.
Update: slightly altered links to comments at Jason's site. After demonstrating the patience of several saints, he finally turned the things off.
At this point, George Kelly is the Kwisatz Haderach.
Noticed that I've been thinking about this in terms of how explicitly stated Blackness affects other people's perceptions, rather than what it means for me, personally, to be a Black Blogger. Which is probably revealing in and of itself, but I still have a head cold and am thus incapable of higher-level thought.
Posted by Aaron at September 29, 2003 12:59 PM
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Comments
I'm still kind of sad that out of all the things I've written, my discussion of Joe Boxer was the most popular...by far. I haven't come close in a month to the hits I got the day slate came to town.
It's not anywhere near my best writing nor the most interesting topic I've discussed but people seemed so polarized by the damn commercial.
I'm not sure what good that says about how we interact on the internet.
Posted by: Jason at September 29, 2003 01:13 PM
Jason, yep, that's why I thought it was worth revisiting as long as we're talking, vaguely, about the whole WDIMTBABB thing. The reactions were. . . I dunno, revealing seems like the wrong word. But definitely (Angel) food for thought.
That, and I still think it's funny that you, George and j. ended up coming here to get away from the tourists.
Has any white blogger ever gotten a sudden influx of black folk posting and jumping their shit like that? Or is this another of those things that make our experience unique?
Posted by: Aaron at September 29, 2003 01:27 PM
I've had a similar experience with MALE bloggers jumping my shit. But, um, maybe it's the same or a similar dynamic? I dunno.
Posted by: drublood at September 29, 2003 01:35 PM
Obviously I've missed a lot of specifics, though I could probably get close in terms of general annoyances.
You know, I haven't linked your reminiscences because I kind of thought you didn't want to go there again. Plus I promised myself not to go more than two brances deep in the discussion tree, so I'd still have time and space to write about other stuff.
But the stuff you're reporting, like now, is definitely relevant.
Posted by: P6 at September 29, 2003 01:36 PM
Dru, I'm an idiot. Forgot about gender entirely when I wrote that. Thanks, darlin', that's definitely a similar dynamic. Unless male bloggers get women jumping their shit the same way, which somehow I doubt. . .
P6, think I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too by claiming not to want to talk about this, and at the same time pointing out where it's been discussed here before. Or I'm trying to provide a historical context.
Or I still have a head cold.
Posted by: Aaron at September 29, 2003 01:44 PM
Please oh please don't make me bring back that (deleted) post. It burns, momma.
Posted by: j. brotherlove at September 29, 2003 01:47 PM
Oops... Google has it cached.
*drats*
Refresh and it's all over.
Posted by: j. brotherlove at September 29, 2003 01:49 PM
j, sorry, sorry. Knew this wasn't exactly a pleasant topic to return to for anybody.
And just a few days after you restarted, too. Yep, that's my considerate sense of timing, all right. . .
And forgot about Google. Does the Internet Archive have it too?
Posted by: Aaron at September 29, 2003 01:55 PM
I hear you. And context is useful.
One day I'll write about the Relaynet International Mail Exchange, an old BBS network where I cut my teeth on that type of discussion.
Posted by: P6 at September 29, 2003 02:45 PM
reading those clueless "lighten up!" etc. comments just make me want to put my head on my desk.
going to sing a little song now to cheer myself up: [imagine the voice of peeves]
"he's going to jail, to jail, to jail,
he's going to jail today,
he's going to jail, to jail, to jail,
they're taking karl rove awaaay..."
i think that when i die i'm going to become another one of those singing hogwarts ghosts...
Posted by: r@d@r at September 29, 2003 03:48 PM
On a different but related topic- I caught a fragment [literally on the Eng Dept cutting room floor] of an article in today's Trib about queer bloggers. I'm afraid the piece was cut in half, so I can't really report on it. Anyone have access to the Trin en toto?
Posted by: Neogrammarian at September 29, 2003 04:38 PM
Neo, this is the only recent thing I could find:
Professor's university `blog' attracts controversy.
Should homosexuals be hired as teachers? One outspoken Internet pundit says no. But his opinion has fueled a controversy over academic freedom of expression because it is posted on a site maintained by the writer's employer, a state university.
Hiring gay teachers "puts the fox into the chickencoop," Eric Rasmusen wrote on his Web log, or "blog," on Aug. 26. "Male homosexuals, at least, like boys and are generally promiscuous," he continued. "They should not be given the opportunity to satisfy their desires."
Which probably ain't the one you saw, but it does give me something else to be pissed off about. And isn't that what really matter?
Fucknugget. I am using that word entirely too much today. I blame Garrity.
Posted by: Aaron at September 29, 2003 06:15 PM
I can think of only one instance of women swarming all over a male blogger in order to attack him in his comments.
This, I think, says something.
Posted by: VASpider at September 30, 2003 09:15 AM
VASpider, true, but couldn't it say something nice instead? Or nothing at all?
P6, looking forward to seeing that write-up.
r@d@r, clearly I'm thinking too much, because I'd'a sworn the last book said Peeves wasn't. . . no, spoilers. I shut up now.
Posted by: Aaron at September 30, 2003 11:32 AM