Happy Monday. Here’s all the news we’re reading today:
• Women in Brazil are campaigning against street harassment at Carnival with the slogan, “Lose shame, but don’t lose respect.” [Next City]
• Can you believe Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law five years ago? As the LA Times notes, its potential has been greatly stymied by politics. [LA Times]
• Emily Nussbaum examines who Tina Fey’s new sitcom The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a surprisingly sunny show about a rape survivor. [New Yorker]
• What does “middle class” mean? This interesting chart shows how median incomes vary city-by-city. [NPR]
• A Starbucks barista wrote this poem about enduring racism on the job from a latte-demanding customer. [Aya de Leon]
• We need to make cities better for the aging population, we need to make our streets more walkable. [Guardian]
• Today is the birthday of Emmy Noether, a brilliant mathematician whose work has unappreciated in her lifetime. [Vox]
• And finally… is there going to be an X-Files revival? Rumors say yes! [The Mary Sue]
What did I miss? Add what you’re reading to the comments.
2 Comments Have Been Posted
Wow....
Anonymous person replied on
The Starbucks one is just horrible! It's so heartbreaking that she was treated that way. So sad that in the 21st century racism is still alive and well. But what was the point in her mentioning the white woman's hair color? She's still a mean, racist white woman no matter the hair color.
I think it is interesting
Anonymous.. replied on
I think it is interesting that half of this comment is dedicated to criticizing the way this women talked about the racism she experienced, specifically that she described the woman's hair color. Is there something inherently wrong with describing the woman's hair color? Does it have to be read as offensive? What is it specifically that you see as problematic about mentioning the hair color?
And I think it is sad that half of this comment is dedicated to criticizing the way this woman talked about the racism she experienced, because that tactic - you said it wrong - is a form of racism, and a silencing tactic. When you spend equal or more time critiquing the way someone delivered an important message, especially when it is a pretty benign "problem," you are shifting focus away from the important message - racism still exists! - and putting focus on the perceived flaws and foibles of the person delivering the message. This tactic stems from what I think of as the "perfect victim fallacy," this idea that the people we listen to from oppressed classes must be perfect: moral, without secrets, attractive, unblemished in any way whatsoever, intelligent, articulate, they must be models, they must be superhuman, there must be nothing about them that makes us think, "but..." AND they must deliver their message in a perfect way, without malice, misstep, accent, slang, or hint of anything threatening. Then and only then will we acknowledge the truth or justice in their perfectly chosen words.
The perfect victim fallacy works to silence people who don't fall into this basically impossible category, while it serves to distract from the important conversation, the one about racism and the daily violence it inflicts in our world. It is also it's own form of racism, because among other things it communicates that there is an acceptable type of person of color, and that acceptable type of person of color is the one who is most pleasing to the dominant white culture. Which is just another way of attempting to rob people of color of agency, dignity and humanity. Otherwise known as racism.
This is a really very versatile tool of oppression, the "you said it wrong" tool. It can be and certainly has been used against women, trans people, gender queer people, the gays, indigenous people, Muslims, Jews, intimate partners, you name it, this tactic can fit.
So ask yourself why the fact that the poet described the white woman as blonde bothers you so much that it distracted you from the violence that spewed from the blonde white woman's mouth, and focused you instead on the perceived imperfections of the human being, victimized by her racism.
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