Someone makes a comment or corny “joke” that is kinda racist and kinda classist, but mostly harmless.1 Someone else — sometimes in the group targeted, sometimes not — says “Hey THAT’S RACIST!” Someone else, usually not in the target group (read: “someone not black / Latino / Asian American / Native American, because those are [...]
[25 Feb 2013]
I’m a rapper, and I just have to be honest, once you get to a certain point — I’m a fan of hardcore rap. Sometimes I like stupid gangsta rap, and I know at a certain age it doesn’t match. I want the raw rap. At a certain age your life changes, at that point [...]
[5 Mar 2012]
The Hispanic population grew in almost every corner of the United States over the past decade, roughly equally in predominantly black and predominantly white neighborhoods. The typical African-American resides in a neighborhood that is 14 percent Hispanic, only slightly higher than the figure for the population as a whole. … Instead, the dominant trend in [...]
[31 Jan 2012]
I focus as a director on the moment in front of me. I focus on this scene and making it the best it can be. I’m working with a community of artists—a cinematographer, art director, the editor, lighting crew and the actors. So in that moment, nothing else matters except let’s make this scene the [...]
[20 Jan 2012]
A fantastic essay by Corey Doctorow over at Boing Boing all about the rise of DRM and the future of general purpose computing. The entire essay is grand, but I think this paragraph sums it up best. We don’t know how to build a general-purpose computer that is capable of running any program except for [...]
[16 Jan 2012]
Another social network launches and another kerfluffle about gender and privacy is born. This time it’s Google+, it’s must-be-public* gender drop down, and the choice to identify as “Male,” “Female,” or “Other.” Randall Munroe sums it up nicely. For a discussion about why “Other” is problematic as a category, see Sarah Dopp’s piece from November, [...]
[22 Jul 2011]
I am tired of people having this debate about the relative impact of pejorative words on their target minority group. If injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, then the relative power of an antigay gay slur is irrelevant, it is simply a threat to human dignity, and that should appall us all. That’s [...]
[15 Apr 2011]
But this isn’t about sex positivity. Look at the terms of the bet. How can any three men ever determine what “all women” like? At the moment that this becomes about generalizing female sexual practices under one banner, it no longer becomes about women, but about men’s idea and projection of who they would like [...]
[7 Dec 2010]
Also see Forever I Love Atlanta: A play list Note: I would have included the Eagles’ version as well had they not tracked down and disabled the audio on like every YouTube clip of it ever. Except this one apparently. Give it time.
[3 Dec 2010]
WARNING: The videos below contain a lot of profanity. It seems the Baracka Flocka Flames controversy has heated up since the October 26 publication of Prez N the Hood: A Hip-Hop Parody Stirs Up Issues in the New York Times (video below; article requires log-in). America’s foremost old cranky black man, Stanley Crouch, had nothing [...]
[31 Oct 2010]