As usual, a list of some of the things I’ve been reading lately. Please feel free to post comments about that stuff, or about anything else you’d like to discuss. Also, if you have a blog post (by yourself or someone else) you’d like to point out, or any other interesting links, please do so.
Slavery In New York City Someone In The Guardian’s Corrections Department Is Getting Grumpy For some reason that really cracks me up. For many more entertaining corrections, check out Regret The Error’s amazing Crunks ’05: The Year In Media Errors and Corrections. Hat tip: Sivacracy. From The Willamette Week Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked Carnival of Bent Attractions On Once Having Been A Cute Girl Ethical Dilemmas for Newbie Prosecutors Happy Feminist’s Summary of Oral Arguments in the Ayotte Case “Insufficiently Traumatized” Case Could Encourage Prosecutors To Bring Weak Cases To Court “But if a declination paints a target on the complainant’s back, every prosecutor in a sexual assault unit will be under pressure from the complainant and her friends to go ahead with a weak case, just to protect the witness.” Racism in the Porn Industry Abortion and Mental Distress: Not Clear-Cut
Prometheus 6 links to a fascinating New York Times article about the history of slavery in New York City. New York was a slave state until 1827 ; there may have been more slaves in New York City than in any other city in the country. New Yorkers were reminded of this history recently when a mass slave grave was unearthed.
“In a Comment piece headed, We must not forget how war was won, page 22, May 7, we wrote of “the genocidal destruction of the Jewish and gypsy (sic) populations”. Gypsy takes a capital G. The stylebook says so: Gypsies u[pper]c[ase], recognised as an ethnic group under the Race Relations Act, as are Irish Travellers. The point has been made in corrections on the following occasions: December 7 1999; March 3 2000; May 4 2000; March 3 2001; July 25 2001; August 1 2001; September 1 2001; December 14 2001; February 19 2003; September 29 2004; March 3 2005.”
WWeek reports: “Perhaps Gov. Ted Kulongoski has heard the critics who knock his appointments to boards and commissions for skewing heavily white, male and insider. Kulongoski this week appointed a longtime insider, former state Sen. Neil Bryant (R-Bend), to the OHSU board, but don’t judge too hastily. Bryant comes to the position with a handicap, according to the form he filled out: In the ‘disability’ section, he listed ‘white/male.'”
Henry Jenkins (author of one of my favorite books, Cultural Poachers) debunks claims that video games cause violence, are played only by boys, etc. Hat tip: Shrub.com.
“The Carnival of Bent Attractions will be published monthly and is made up of submitted blog posts on articles of interest to the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, trans and queer communities.” (Hat tip: Happy Feminist.)
Well-written, sensitive post at Happy Feminist discussing the pros and cons of being conventionally attractive.
Happy Feminist tells an interesting story from her first job as a prosecutor, when her boss ordered her to act unethically.
Gee, seems like y’all could just skip “Alas” and go read Happy Feminist, from the way I’m linking to her! In this post, she provides an interesting discussion of the Oral arguments in the Ayotte case (which is an abortion case before the Supreme Court this term).
Mark Kleinman makes a point I hadn’t considered about the “Insufficiently Traumatized” false rape allegation case. “The case was brought, not by the District Attorney who declined to prosecute the three men, but by the City Attorney’s office. The DA reportedly decided, not that the report was false, but that a conviction was unobtainable. That’s what a good prosecutor does, even if he thinks a crime might have been committed.
Although it wasn’t Flea’s main point, I thought the discussion of racism and porn in this post was particularly interesting. Be sure to read the footnote, too.
Shakespeare’s Sister has a typically excellent post discussing a recent study which attempted to find evidence that abortion causes long-term mental distress.
When capitalized, "Sie" is the formal way to address adults of either gender in polite German. I majored in the…
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One of my favorite sci fi authors, Steve Barnes, has a lot to say about racism in the movie industry in general. His blog is over here. He’s an avid movie reviewer.
On his excellent radical blog Feral Scholar, Stan Goff recently pointed me to a fantastic essay on presentations of black women’s sexuality in recent popular American culture through. It was quite the education. Sexualized race, racialized sex
I love the corrections department getting testy.
The article about slave owners dovetails nicely with the bit about racism in porn and elsewhere. The stereotypes never change, do they? Meanwhile, people want to believe that slave owners felt guilt and that slavery wasn’t so widespread.
Thanks for publicising the Carnival of Bent Attractions : )
Dear Amp: Thank you for the chance to self-promote.
If anyone is interested in seeing how a “race realist” paleoconservative “blogs against racism,” my contribution to “Blog Against Racism Day” was here (and no, I am talking about white-on-black racism, and I am not doiong any of that “affirmative action is really racist” stuff. You’ll probab ly be alternately pleasantly surprised and appalled, though).
I also have a whole lot of postings about the Iraq War, from an anti-war conservative point of view. Rather than list them all here, I have a new posting up that links to all of the major ones.
I particularly appreciate this opportunity today. We need to pay attention, because even Republicans are saying George W. Bush may have broken the law. And what about Congress, where are they? We’re way passed a consensual affair with an intern now.
Taylor Marsh
I wondered why my numbers had spiked this weekend– now I know! Thanks!
It is unbelievable that folks in NY are just coming around to hearing about slavery. Ed McManus did a major book on it back in ….1966, not exactly yesterday. I myself did a paper on slavery in the Hudson Valley, back in the early 1980s (National Women’s Studies Association Journal, in case anyone want to look it up). I looked at slavery-related notices in the Poughkeepsie, NY Journal, and all the horrors of slavery were there: families split up and sold separately, Mothers running away with children, Husbands and wives running away together. The only difference from the south is that the slaves often spoke Dutch. But the cruelty was the same, despite historians who for years, when they acknowledged slavery in the north at all, insisted that it was “more humane.” Soujourner Truth was originally from the Hudson Valley, btw, and her first language was Dutch. And yes, her enlightened northern owner sold her kids away. But good old kickass Soujourner took him to court.
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I went to a symposium at Howard University that revealed some of the results of the research done on the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan. Fascinating stuff. People had to work with broken vertebrae, muscle that had been torn from bone. Man, slavery in NY was no effin picnic. I hope the MTA strike breaks so I can make it to that ‘Slavery in New York’ exibit next week.
I was really impressed with the Slavery in New York exhibit at the New-York Historical Society. They did a great job of revealing New York’s influential hand in slavery without inciting a defensive public backlash. I’ve spoken to many who have also visited the exhibit and most thought it was informative and well done but some complained that it was too ‘sugarcoated’ or ‘vague.’ While I can see their point, I think there is a valid reasoning behind this. The issue of slavery has always been an extremely sensitive area and the first reaction many people have is to recoil from discussing or acknowledging it because some feel there is always a ‘blame game’ attached. So, in order to even think about having a successful running exhibition requires the utmost tact and care. The first step is exposing the public to the existence of slavery of New York in a way that is enlightening and unintimidating. Then, hopefully more people will begin to feel comfortable about discussing the issue and developing an open diaglogue. Check out http://www.slaveryinny.org.
I had an odd experience yesterday, probably from lack of sleep and wrote this:
The Second Sunrise of the Day
I’m wondering how people read it. It was inspired by ShakesSis’ question about favorite toys, which you’ll learn at the end of the story. I hope the Dad men will like it :)
And, in general, I’ll just pimp my blog, Bitch | Lab
And, I’d love if those of you so inclined would help me promote the 1st Carnival of Sex Positive Feminism.
Also, Daily Dose of Queer is hosting the Carnival of Bent Attractions. She’s looking for submissions and hosts, too.