The Official Racism Thread Social

Why the Color of Nina Simone's Skin Is as Important as the Sound of Her Voice

Nina was an activist. Her political beliefs were so intertwined with her music and her identity that to separate the three would make little sense. Subtly, she wove ideas about black womanhood throughout many of her most personal works. But she was explicit in her views about broader issues, most significantly the ongoing Civil Rights movement. She wrote “Mississippi Goddam" after the 1963 assassination of Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four young black girls that same year. In 1968, she released “Why? (The King of Love is Dead).” Written by bassist Gene Taylor after he received news of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the song was first performed three days after his death. The original live version, nearly 13 minutes long, included Nina singing along with an ongoing monologue about the loss of Dr. King.

It seems like we have said this so many times now, but apparently it bears repeating: Simone performed with a reflection of her inner struggles and beliefs. Those truly paying attention to her life story would know this.

 

“All Lives Matter”: More Stupid White Noise | Black Agenda Report

It’s at this point that many whites I’ve interacted with on the race issue in the last two years like to play what they think is their ace in the hole. “If Blacks want to say that ‘Black Lives Matter,’ then why don’t they stop killing each other so much?” Then comes the rant about Black-on-Black crime and how many more young Blacks get fatally shot by other young Blacks than they do by white policemen.

The response here, for me at least, isn’t to deny the statistics on that. The numbers don’t lie (Spike Lee gives some of them at the beginning of his latest movie “ChIraq”). But it’s still all a bunch of racism-denying self-delusion to use Black on Black crime that way. The intra-Back violence takes places within a White-Imposed context of racially concentrated poverty, joblessness and hyper-segregation that White America simply refuses (with too few oddball exceptions like this writer) to acknowledge. Does anyone seriously think that gun- and drug-mad and militarism-backing white Americans wouldn’t be gunning each other down on an epic scale if they were the minority group piled up on top of itself in jobless, opportunity-free ghettoes, reservations, and prisons of hopelessness and despair, branded by the color of their skins and the ubiquitous lifelong stigma of criminal records? Trust me when I say that the resulting white-on-white gang-banging slaughter that would occur on a regular basis in the great Caucasian ghettoes and reservations would make current Black-on-Black (and Native American-on- Native American and Latino-on-Latino) violence look mild by comparison (and I’m not just talking about Italian wise-guys). For what it’s worth, Europeans whites have been known to shoot and carve each other up on a pretty grand scale in history, I might add. If you don’t believe me just Google up “Thirty Years War,” “Seven Years War,” “Napoleonic Wars,” “World War One” and “World War Two.”

 

When white-passing mixed ppl (and just mixed ppl in general) mention their race/ethnicity and white people are like "lol you're barely even X race" but then a white person can go on about being 1/8 Irish, 1/4 German, 1/23878375 Cherokee or whatever and nobody bats an eye

 

when you tell people you're mixed and they say "me too! my great great great grandmother was [eastern european] and there's some [also eastern european] on my dad's side" like........ okay so you're vanilla bean and french vanilla thanks gretchen this was a good talk

 

I like to think of my self a mixed sometimes. I'm Indonesian but my mom and dad are from two totally different cultures there.

 

I mean, that's fair. My maternal grandparents are from two different provinces in the Philippines.

 

My life is an endless series of me telling people I'm not Filipino.

 

I'm part of the problem haha. Gotta end the thought process of brown Asian = Filipino.

 

Doesn't help that half of my friends and almost all of my high school friends who I'm still tight with are Filipino.

I'm like no Tita, I don't line dance.

 

guess what r/SandersforPresident pushed to 3000 upvotes today?

i don't know what i think is more likely: the the users of that subreddit just upvoted based on the title and didn't bother to check the contents; or they did check the contents, and saw no issue with it.

 

In a post-#MississippiBerning Sanders campaign, who knows honestly?

 

Deeply sighing at some random comedienne claiming she's "punching up" for body shaming Zendaya.

 

@carina I think you're the only one around here who can appreciate this story.

My friend who is Filipino, during speed dating had this weird interaction that went:

"I HATE THAT YOU LOOK LIKE BRUNO MARS!"

"I'm sorry.. what... why?

"I FUCK'N LOVE BRUNO MARS!"

And that's it....

Dude looks nothing like Bruno Mars.

 

OH M Y GOD it's really not funny but god is that SO funny
Also Bruno Mars is my mom's favorite son that she's never had, so I can relate, random person who thinks all Filipinos look the same.

 

Oh it's terribly funny!!!



Anyway, last AP Racism thread was mostly a downer well.. of course given the subject it's hard to not be. I don't like racist humor but I do love racial humor as in humorous observations on life and life experiences from the perspective of POC like many comedians of color do. Thought I'd try and inject a little more humor in here.

 

I wasn't on AP technically, just a lurker, but def! Some racist experiences/commentary can be hilarious.

Speaking of, yesterday at work, I was ringing out this woman and her husband, and she leaned over and was like, "So....where are the people who look like you and me?" (I work in a very white, yuppy part of town.) When I told her that she just missed them, she was like, "Oh thank God, that gives me hope for this place."

 

I'm really sorry because I don't want to impede on the thread, but holy shit if this isn't the best thing you've ever said

 

"There is something powerful in someone who looks like you actually seeing you." Revisiting some bookmarked articles.

 

this is what happens when a black man attends a Trump rally

i'm someone very loathe to embellish articles I share with statements like "holy shit," as it's usually reductive or click-baity, but... holy shit.

 

Reminds me of this, which is impacting a local school's prom also.

I kind of like that this is dispelling the myth that racism only lives quietly behind closed doors, and only brews in the South. The racism above the Mason-Dixon is different, but still very real.

 

When your white SO "hasn't really thought about the election and needs to do more research before voting" meaning
1. he didn't vote in the primaries (I'M GONNA KILL HIM!!!!)
2. he's probably just gonna vote for whoever his parents vote for

I'm going to scream.

 

omg that's like a dealbreaker for me. like i can't understand why people wouldn't be invested in their political systems, it just seems so... shortsighted, i guess, to me. i mean, i understand if they feel overwhelmed by it or incapable of making an informed decision, but that's why you have to reach out, educate yourself, and think about these things! maybe it's easier if they're coming from a place of privilege, too, where they take stuff like racial tensions and the current state of LGBT anti-discrimination laws for granted? idk but it just boggles my mind. like i curate my FB feed so i pretty much primarily see political news because i feel like if i dont keep 100% on top of what's going on i'm being irresponsible and uninformed.