Did it revert to 1906 when I wasn't looking?

[elspethdixon]

There's a lot of thought provoking meta out there right now vis-a-vis race and fandom.

Then there's statements like this:
The Emmett Till murder shows that race relations were different between Chicago and deep south Mississippi. The fact that Till didn't know to keep his head down and not admire the white women in town shows exactly how different his social awareness was from the local population. [bold emphasis mine]*

No. Just no.

Also, didn't we establish that "Evil black men want to rape white women" as a justification for murdering people was a lie a very long time ago? (Seriously, we discussed it in a graduate history seminar I was enrolled in. People have done studies of white-on-black lynching cases, and found that most of the victims were innocent of the crimes they were accused of, and men accused of raping white women were almost invariably innocent).

* from comment here. I'd recommend not engaging, though I was unable to resist the temptation to do so.

Also, for context wikipedia bio of Emmett Till. He was 14 when he was killed.

Comments

[ellyr-in-ink.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I thought were were supposed to move the clock forward an hour over the weekend. Instead, someone accidentally moved it back....... A thousand years.

Many people should make sure they're talking with an appropriate filter attached between the word-making grey lump in their head and the word-spewing black hole on their face. There are very many attractive models of filters, easily interchangeable. One for polite society, one for not-so-polite society, one for the guys down at the pub, one for the parents, one for the in-laws, on for politicians, etc., etc...

But the saddest, saddest moments happen when someone forgets to put one in at all. Then, "HELLO, Everything you never wanted to know about what I randomly think." If their grey lump is still functioning okay and just missing a filter, they'll usually be nice enough to present their thoughts in paragraph form (mostly). It's when the grey lump's a little, well, in less than optimal condition, you get, "I R tAlKIN liKe, uH, MEEZ. CuZ IM RIGHT, biTchEs. l8r."

[oulangi.livejournal.com]

You cannot engage anymore, as she's frozen all the threads and announced this was all a writing exercise/social experiment. Apparently we all just helped her do her research, because Gerri is an aspiring ScF/F writer. I ...I have no words.

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

Oh for the love of little white bunnies...

I could rant forever about all the stupid and shitty things she says, but others have done it better, so I'll stick to the part that applies to me.

I am fat. I suffer for this physically; I suffer a great deal emotionally, because my family have proven time and time again that they see me losing weight as a priority over me being happy. I won't pretend that being fat is easy.

BUT. I would never, ever be so fucking arrogant as to mention discrimination against obesity alongside racism, or sexism, or antisemitism, or discrimination against the disabled. Not only because the discrimination isn't at all on the same level, but because when you get right down to it, I could choose not to be fat. Nobody gets to choose not to be a PoC, or not to be a woman, or not to have a Jewish heritage, or not to have a disability.

So, saying that a fat white woman suffers the same as a black woman is crap. In case anyone but gerriwritinglog needs to have that pointed out. And she wouldn't let me point it out to her, anyway, because nobody should DARE tell her she doesn't understand even when she's demonstrating her lack of understanding all over the Net.

[lalouve.livejournal.com]

I saw the thing on Emmett Till and decided not to comment because I couldn't think of anything to say to someone who thinks that's a useful example of cultural diversity?