I will agree that Louisiana's elite class is parasitical. But I see that as a class issue, not a race issue, and I don't think it significantly different anywhere else -- it may be more evident in areas with a long history of corrupt politicking, but that's hardly unique to LA, either.
I'm not saying we never should have talked about race. I'm not even saying we should never talk about racism in the 21st century. I'm saying most to the talk I hear does nothing more than perpetuate a useless paradigm.
I don't think I'm expressing myself clearly, and it's frustrating me. Will's meme post is in the same direction, though.
But if we had never had the concept of race, we would never have had the problems you claim we would still have if we didn't talk about race.
Without a concept of race, there is no racism.
The concept of race -- unlike cancer -- is an artificial construct.
Talking about that concept perpetuates it.
I think I see Lucy's point, but I don't see how talking about racism in the way I see it done does anything besides perpetuate it. If we want the artificial construct that is race to go away, why do we keep dwelling on it, and dwelling on other people dwelling on it?
Actually, my great-great-grandfather fought for the Union -- in the 1st Alabama Cavalry. Helped with the Underground Railroad, too. Well, one of the great-greats, did, at any rate; I don't actually know anything about the other 7.
It's always been complex.
I've never denied that racism still exists in this country -- ALL of this country, not just the South. I'm not convinced it's any more prevalent in the South now than it is anywhere else, but that's a conversation for another time.
I'm not denying that the actions of the Gretna police were unconscionable.
What I have not yet seen, anywhere, from anyone, is a clear example of racism in the Katrina relief efforts. One example of poor whites getting better treatment than poor blacks, or rich whites getting better treatment than rich blacks.
From what I've read, the tourists from the Hyatt were evacuated first because the Hyatt sent those buses. They took care of their customers, then went back for more.
What I'm sick of is the pervasive "It the South, therefore it's all about race" attitude I keep encountering. It's just not so.
Unless you've got evidence that the Gretna sherriff let in poor white folks or even let in rich white folks but not rich black folks, there is no basis for a claim that this is about race.
I was thinking The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul, having read Rudy Rucker's blog shortly before seeing the link to this thread. But that suffers from the surplus article problem.
(note to powers that be: something about one or more ads on this page was breaking display for me until I adblocked *.blogads. It was specific to this post; I could read the next one problem free. I assume it's not affecting everyone, though, so I don't know what the magic ingredient is.)
When one of my former employers announced the name of a company were were buying software from, several of my co-workers broke up laughing -- apparently, the name (which I have, alas, forgotten) is a very rude word in Arabic, or certain dialects thereof.
I once read a self-published fantasy novel in which the military ranks were anagrams or near-anagrams of ours -- joram from major, for instance. (I don't habitually read self-published books; this was written by a friend's grandson, and showed potential, IMO; it was a fun read, no huge problems, a bit trite, but not unreadably so, to me. Similar to Deed of Paksennarrion.)
Yonmei: I have a similar problem when I'm reading in IE at work, but I've found that resizing the text (even selecting the same size it already is) make the whole page display. I'm guessing it's a quirky stylesheet/browser interaction, because this site and this browser is the only place I see it, and the stop point on the first load is the bottom of the ad column on the left.
I've seen the question of "Is it culturally appropriate for women of other backgrounds to wear salwar kameez?" come up in various places online a few times over the years, and the answer, from various sources, has always been "Sure, go for it."
But do they have pockets?
I detest carrying a bag.
Further experimentation has shown that I have no difficulty doing this with my right hand and foot, but a great deal of difficulty doing it with the left hand/foot, though I can, with effort.
As additional data, I can pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time, or vice versa.
I am right-handed, but I think it's mostly habitual; I do some things ambidextrously.
Haven't tried with a circ, but I flew with DPNs a while back. Knitting needles should be on the approved list; taking a printout documenting such might be useful. For a circ, I suspect having a project on the needle will help; it's less likely you'll try to strangle someone with it.
Found somewhere, and copied on to my PDA:
It's painful when a special piece of data leaves the magnetic plane: an irreplaceable database without even partial hardcopy records; the first pornographic file you downloaded off the internet; a Star Trek simulator that invoked nostalgia for your teenaged years.
System crashes are part of life - there's no Saving without Deleting. Old data passes on, leaving free sectors for new data to frolic on. It doesn't make it less painful, though - all wisdom seems hollow in the face of a loss this profound.
Some people go through a denial stage, followed by frantic attempts at undeleting and recovery. When that doesn't work, many have deep felt feelings of regret, moaning bitterly about backups that should have happened and hardcopies that could have been made.
No, the new data will not be the same. But day by day your computer will accumulate more and more data - the sound of a whirring hard drive will once again be heard. Data flows in, data flows out, it's the way of the world. There's no one to blame. And if there were, the help line would be eternally busy.
-- Jim Munroe
Alas, I recorded the author, but not the source. It was a magazine, maybe AdBusters?
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|---|---|
| 2005 | 10 |
| 2004 | 6 |
| 2003 | 2 |
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