Category Archives: race

Shame Day: Save the Pearls

So the other day a friend told me about this new teen fiction series called Save the Pearls by Victoria Foyt. I’ve included the premise of the first book, Revealing Eden, as stated on Amazon below.

The picture featured on the cover of the book

Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she’ll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she’s cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%? In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden’s coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she’ll be safe. Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father’s secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land. Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity’s last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her “adopted aunt” Emily Dickinson.


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Fame Day: Abdul Haji, WWII Vets, and These Other Guys

For everything that’s going on in the world, this actually hasn’t been such a bad week. The tragic murder of an anti-racist singer in Greece has, at long last, resulted in the hammer being brought down on upon the Neo-Nazi “Golden Dawn” party responsible for both his death and attacks on leftists, immigrants, and a 12-year-old girl. It’s been a long time coming, but at long last the Greek government is actually heeding calls from the public to respond to this fascist menace; other European countries, ya mind taking a hint?

Speaking of racists, did you know that the rally the Klu Klux Klan was planning on holding at Gettysburg was cancelled as a result of the shut-down of the US government?

Well it was.

If you can’t take joy at the collapse of a racist rally, what can you?

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Black, Yellow, Brown, Or Normal

The title of this post comes from the image below, which I see floating around the internet from time to time. It might’ve been from one of Cracked’s PhotoShop contests, I really have no idea.

ornormal

The reason I’m bringing this to your attention is to underscore the fact that, by and large, “White” really does equal “normal,” at least in North America. You don’t really have to search hard to stumble across that fact, either. Think about how it works when you recount stories to other people-

Imagine you’re talking about this weird dude who sat down next to you on the subway. If he was White, would you bother mentioning that? How about if he was Black, or Asian, or Latino?

The terminology used in this gif aside, you probably never make reference to a White person’s ethnicity.

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Evan and Gordon Talk: Adoption

GORDON: Readers, have a seat. I’ve got something to tell you and I’m not sure how to say it…

You’re adopted.

You were brought in by links on Reddit and Facebook.

EVAN: I mean, maybe. I actually know for a fact that we have a fair number of regular readers who actually tune in almost daily.

GORDON: And yes, we do love them more than you.

EVAN: Also, I’m not sure that being redirected really works within the context of the word’s definition. Continue reading

The Boys Are Taking Time Off

So Gordon had put up a Shame Day post today involving the following image:

You can read more about what is going on in this image at Native Appropriations.

And while I absolutely cannot disagree whatsoever with the point of his post, which was focused on the inherent flaws in taking on naming one’s team [and as a result, one’s mascot] after a Native American stereotype or straight-up racial epithet, I did cover that in April in my post on the Cleveland Indians.

Really, though, if that image above isn’t reason enough as to why we shouldn’t have sports teams named after entire races of people then I don’t know what else to tell you. A picture is worth a thousand words, people.

In addition, here’s a really cool article [on the ESPN website] asking what would happen if ESPN decided to stop referring to the Washington Redskins by their team name.

That being said, I decided to give both him and myself a break this week. Kat took two off due to her wedding and accompanying marital bliss, and out of respect for her and her husband’s union we’ve decided to join her on her break [in spirit, of course]. The entire CWR crew will be back in action next week.

As has been my wont when doing these posts, on the right is a gif. It is of Nick Offerman, a.k.a. Ron ****ing Swanson, popping and locking.

Fame Day: Cornel West

Where exactly do you start when talking about Cornel West?

I mean, the man’s a brilliant academic. Dr. West had an illustrious career at Princeton and has just recently begun teaching at Fuller Theological Seminary (when he’s not teaching at the university of Paris). On top of that, he’s written over 20 books (and by books I mean tomes measured in weight rather than pages), appeared on countless national news panels, and somehow still found time to have a bit part in a couple of The Matrix movies.

Or perhaps I could talk about the man’s political work. West has been one of the few figures to consistently call out the Obama administration on its hypocrisy and atrocities- exemplified best by his outrage on Obama being sworn in on MLK Jr.’s bible.

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