Time for another roundup of links about racism from around the web. Here’s what we’ve been reading on the web:
Blogging Against Racism
- Last week was “International Blog Against Racism Week,” wherein people that blog about things other than racism dedicate a blog post or two to racism. We didn’t mention here because, well you know, that’s what we do here every day. Shakespeare’s Sister has a good post up for this event, noting that they blog about racism frequently.
- Angry Black Woman does an excellent job taking on the issue of intersectionality and the fact that it’s so rarely addressed.
- And, Tempest Bedford provides an illustrative example from the world of Science Fiction (SF) genre writing, about the epic failure of not taking multiple perspectives into account.
- If you haven’t followed the SF controversy, do a search for “Race Fail 2009” to see what it’s about, or check this summary from Prometheus 6.
Police Violence
- Latino Grandfather, Pregnant Woman Tasered at Baptism – It’s hard to know what to say about this except that this is another shocking example of the kind of police violence targeting people of color that we’ve been talking about on this blog for some time now.
- Bob Herbert, New York Times columnist, has a couple of recent columns in which he highlights the problem of police conduct toward POC, writing in one that “Anger Has Its Place.”
Media
- Lou Dobbs’ gets called out by Media Matters (via HuffPo) for his racist promotion of the “birther” agenda.
- Perhaps not too surprisingly, the Daily Kos reveals that the “birther” movement (those who contend President Obama was not born in the U.S.) and white supremacists make up overlapping networks.
- Glenn Beck’s rhetoric gets increasingly racist and apocalyptic.
- While some wonder what it will take to have a smart conversation about race, others on the left speculate that the “ugly racism of the right will be their undoing.” Let’s hope so.
- Critics contend that the media failed on the “teachable moment” of the Gates’ arrest.
Global Issues
- Claire Wright has an thought-provoking law review article, “Reconciling Cultural Diversity and Free Trade in the Digital Age.”
- Horace Campbell offers an analysis of “Obama and US Policy Towards Africa.”
Anti-Racism
- Looking for ways to get involved in anti-racism? If you’re in the NYC area, there’s a workshop “Racism as Resource” facilitated by CUNY Professor and , that you should consider attending.
- Lilliana Segura ponders whether hate crime laws, a major focus of anti-racist organizing, do any good.
- Finally, in this long blog interview with Crusader, I offer some suggestions about what I think can be done to fight racism.
re: the discussion on the SF sites –
It was really refreshing to see how the community of writers (and consumers) engaged the discussion and effectively argued against the cultural frame of whiteness. I don’t read much SF but I’ve seen similar discussions of the lack of non-sexist, non-racist represenation of women and people of color in the comic book industry, as subjects and as writers; on those boards, I’ve found similarly engaged writers and consumers from the community. Those discussions are really refreshing to see and, often, more rewarding to read than discussions that take place on general boards about race, representation, identity or the intersectionality of identities.
That kind of engagement shows how important it is for whole communities to take up the cause of anti-racism – not just the lone voices in the wilderness, wondering if anyone ‘gets it.’
Thumbs up for those writers/readers. (And if you track the links far enough, you end up with a nice list of women/POC Sci Fi writers to read, too.)
Agreed. Thanks for the links. Glenn Beck and his minions–sadly yes, he has them–must be stopped.
Jessie, that is a very good interview with Crusader on racist sites on the Internet and related issues. Congrats!
Excellent point, ding! Thanks for dropping by here.
.
JDF, yes – agree about Glenn Beck.
.
Joe, thanks are all due to Crusader for the forum.