Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles
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Why Microsoft’s So-Called ‘Avoid Ghetto’ App Is Really American
01 week ago
Microsoft has recently been at the center of a whirlwind of controversy over a new app that critics allege is downright racist. On January 3, the company was granted a patent for technology related to its “Pedestrian Route Production” application, a tool that that the company says would navigate the user “safely through neighborhoods with violent crime statistics below a certain threshold.”
While the patent makes no explicit references to race, the project has been unofficially dubbed the “Avoid Ghetto App” by various online news sites. Microsoft, for its part, has been silent throughout the ordeal, and declined to comment on the matter to Colorlines.com. But intentions aside, the fact that the app was so quickly racialized begs the larger question of how and why technology perpetuates systemic racism, and why consumers should care.
“Almost the moment this patent got granted, [this app] got racialized so that ‘violent crime’ became ‘mugging’, which became ‘black and Latino people’, which became ‘ghetto,’ ” says Sarah Chinn, a professor of English at the City University of New York and author of the book “Technology and the Logic of American Racism.” Chinn has been among Microsoft’s most vocal critics.
Microsoft’s app has stirred so much discussion, Chinn says, because the United States is a “very racist country. When you say the words ‘violent crime’, in the public imagination that turns into ‘dangerous urban black man or Latino man.’ “
Others disagree. Industry analyst Rob Enderline told NPR last week that Microsoft’s project is just a matter of technology trying to make life easier for users. “It’s part of an overall effort to make navigation systems more intelligent so they keep you out of danger, whether you’re driving or you’re on foot,” Enderle told NPR.
Yet even if that’s the case, it’s based on the widely held misconception that violent crime is more likely to hit random strangers. In fact, the opposite is true. The vast majority of violent crime happens to people who know each other. For instance, 75 percent of rapes are committed by someone the survivor already knows, according to statistics provided by San Francisco Women Against Rape. The majority of murders are committed by members of ones own racial group. Missouri has the nation’s highest black homicide rate, and when the Violent Prevention Center looked at statistics from 2009, it found that–whenever the relationship could be identified–76 percent of black murder victims were killed by someone they knew.
In Washington, D.C. and New York City, robberies are on the decline.
Huffington Post’s Black Voices points out that the FBI’s 2010 crime report revealed that whites were arrested more often for violent crimes that year than any other race.
But, according to Chinn, the myth that black men in particular are more likely to perpetrate violent crime against white strangers resonates so strongly because it’s become an indelible part of America’s racial identity.
“This is a myth that’s been with us since the days of Reconstruction,” Chinn told Colorlines.com, calling the period an era of “terrorism against black people.” Chinn noted that whites unconsciously knew that they were the perpetrators of violence against black people, particularly sexual violence against black women. Thus the myth of dangerous black men evolved as way to justify racist violence against black communities.
The logic, Chinn says, was “you’re violent so we have to criminalize you, we have to put you in jail, we have to stop-and-frisk you, and we have to move out of your neighborhoods.”
Microsoft’s new technology is just the latest in a series of scientific parallels with the past.
The problem isn’t the technology itself, but what people imagine the technology will do. So while DNA and finger printing may on the surface be seemingly race-neutral technologies that only offer specific information about someone’s body, they’re quickly used to reinforce people’s preconceived ideas about race. “Once they enter the public discourse in the United States it’s all about how can we identify [people of color] and prove that they are not as good as white people, or prove that segregation is justified,” says Chinn.
Chinn does not expect that Microsoft will market the app as it is now, but will fold it into its next generation of mapping technology. ”It’s really about why we should be afraid of certain neighborhoods and certain kinds of people. People take these technologies and they use them to ‘prove’ things that they actually already believe about people of various racialized groups.”
Why is Hollywood So Afraid of Black Women? [Reader Forum]
01 week ago
![Why is Hollywood So Afraid of Black Women? [Reader Forum]](http://colorlines.com/assets_c/2010/11/comment_073010-thumb-640xauto-471-thumb-640xauto-1216-thumb-640xauto-1288-thumb-240xauto-1550.jpg)
It’s Oscar season! Actually, the Oscars aren’t until the end of February, so we’ve got another few weeks of hype and speculation and scathing critical analysis. Fun stuff!
But before we get into all that… Gender Matters columnist Akiba Solomon takes down a new Washington Post report that seeks to dissect (in Akiba’s words) “Blackus Womanamina Americanus,” and yet manages to ignore every structural force that might make a black woman’s life the way it is. The Washington Post concludes that black women haven’t defined themselves. Akiba concludes differently:
Black women have been defining ourselves since before Sojourner Truth made her infamous 1851 “Ain’t I a Woman” speech. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, black women tell, no scream, about our humanity, complexity, legacy, pride, sisterhood, spirituality, money problems, romantic desires, bone-deep sadness, moral conflicts, sexuality and joy. Some of us are dying for a “Sunday Kind of Love.” Some of us think we’re cute and “Cleva.” Some of us aren’t that damn deep. The problem isn’t that black women haven’t defined ourselves for ourselves. It’s that mainstream media DON’T LISTEN.
Reader parkwood1920 cosigns and adds:
And after screaming to anyone who will listen about your basic humanity for three-plus centuries, you get fucking tired. And that’s when the sharks really go in for the kill. That’s exactly what I think about the corporate media’s attack on Black women now—sharks, the lot of them.
We don’t need to look far to see how this plays out in Hollywood. Akiba wrote a beautiful rejection of The Help‘s ‘historical whitewash’ way back in August, but unfortunately for all of us, Akiba’s not on the Oscars committee. So The Help is up for a slew of awards, and the resulting media coverage is ripe for examination.
When our superstar pop culture blogger Jorge Rivas isn’t shooting interviews with the director and star of black lesbian coming-of-age film Pariah, he’s keeping us updated on breaking news at Colorlines.com’s new /NOW blog. And with Oscar season in full swing, The Help is generating all kinds of headlines — and not always constructive ones, like when Best Actress nominee Viola Davis started to talk about structural racism in Hollywood, then got derailed by Charlize Theron and George Clooney. Really. As reader cantankerous_crone said:
Yes, Theron was speaking from white privilege–I mean really, saying “I have to stop you there” in order to focus on Davis’ looks? But Clooney, although smoother than Theron in his timing, dominates the entire conversation using his double-barreled white + male privilege. He positions himself as the best qualified person to speak about sexism in the film industry which is ridiculous. Notice how few words the other women present have while he relates his anecdotes, subtly making himself the authority on the issue.
Seriously, isn’t it time to stop let charming white men off the hook for their racism/sexism just because they claim to be on the right side and they’re smooth? A few years ago, at the Oscars, Clooney praised the film industry for a history of being forward thinking about race because Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for Gone With the Wind. Yet he completely failed to mention that McDaniel had to sit at a separate table at that awards ceremony. The man is blind to his own enormous privilege, but his looks and smooth public persona get him a pass.
Instead of shooting fish in a barrel by criticizing only those who have a sliver of the privilege pie (and true, should learn to own up to that fact), let’s look at those who hog practically the whole pie and use a veneer of charm and liberalism to get away with it. The myth of Prince Charming on a horse of white privilege righting all wrongs needs to die.
Jorge also reported this week that the Association of Black Women Historians released a statement condemning The Help for its distortion of history — and also, that The Help was invoked in a more positive light at a domestic workers’ rights rally in Sacramento, as a hook for constituents to understand the issues at stake. Not everyone thinks social justice should be making nice with Hollywood whitewashing. Here’s an excerpt from a comment by Brickbat Revue, kicking off a thought-provoking conversation about the tough choices organizers make within their campaigns:
Why would people use this movie. I just don’t understand. It’s not an independent film. It’s insulting to African-Americans, especially those who are most active in regards to being allies in the fight for social justice. This is disturbing on so many levels. Did they not hear the very valid complaints that African-Americans had of this film. This film as well as the book was a lie. Why use a lie to push your truth forward. This film is an untruth filled with stereotypes that that totally minimize the African-American experiences in the US. I’m insulted that Colorlines would run this story without a very critical eye.
[...] Being a domestic worker in the Jim Crow south wasn’t like this, it wasn’t fun, it wasn’t light. Being black in the south in this 30s, 40s and 50s was about something way deeper than this movie portrayed. People who did it in the 30s mothers may have been born slaves, they themselves may have been born slaves. Women were raped, men were lynched their testicles were cut off. My great aunt was raped every week for years by respectable white men of the community until she fought back and they burned her house down and got away with it in the south. That’s the south that they left out. I had an uncle who was lynched as a boy just north of where this movie took place….I’m just appalled that people in the struggle can with a straight face defend the lie that this movie vomits onto the American public.
And here’s Jessica Mowles, in the same thread:
I’ve been a domestic worker, following my mom, who was for years. Questioning these domestic workers’ motives for supporting this film further erodes their/our agency, which is already so lacking. Yes, the movie was horrible for all the reasons above. But the fact that domestic workers/activists are strategically latching onto such an incomplete representation of domestic work says A LOT about the level of visibility of such work in our culture (virtually zero).
And so, as Hollywood takes agency away from Etta James over her own life’s portrayal, it packs the Oscars with white actors. The result? A good person-of-color narrative is hard to find. As reader Aliza Flores writes:
For Halloween, my sister and her roommates dressed up as The Incredibles. We were exactly 7 (the mom, the dad, the boy, the girl, the baby, the costume designer and the friend). My cousin got to be Frozone, the friend (If you have not seen the movie, Frozone is a cool superhero that can freeze anything… and he’s black – ftw!). Most of the white kids when they saw the whole group went for the baby or the dad, but most of the black kids went for Frozone. Why? Well, let’s just say that there is not enough positive representations of people of color in movies, especially black. This is just a cartoon-ish movie, but it is the case for most of the media. Remember the outburst that the black/Latino Spiderman caused? Yeah, that’s what happens.
And urbanskin:
Racism and Hollywood go hand in hand. Look no further then Marlon Brando rejecting his Oscar for Best Actor in 1973 for his performance in the Godfather, because of Hollywood’s historical RACIST portrayal of Native Peoples.
Show producer Howard Koch threatened Sacheen Littlefeather, who rejected Brando’s award for him, to be arrested if she spoke more then 60 seconds.
Flash forward to 2012, Johnny Depp has been casted to play Tonto and Indian character. WTF! Depp go the nod over a REAL Native, Adam Beach, Flags of our Fathers, who also auditioned for the role.
The racism continues.
And finally, while George Lucas deserves major props for defying Hollywood and producing Red Tails with a black cast and director… well, reader Daniel Dušek Wilkes‘ review is hard to refute:
I think the cast of Red Tails deserve recognition for their valiant efforts in the face of the worst-written script of the year.
Each week, we round up the best comments in our community. Join the conversation here on Colorlines.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
Congress Postpones SOPA and PIPA Until ‘Wider Agreement’
02 weeks ago
Two days after massive internet protests, lawmakers on Friday indefinitely postponed anti-piracy legislation SOPA and PIPA.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he has delayed a vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA) scheduled for Tuesday.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith then said his panel would not consider the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) until a compromise was reached.
Nevada Senator Harry Reid’s statement, in it’s entirety:
“In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act.
“There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved. Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie industry alone supporting over 2.2 million jobs. We must take action to stop these illegal practices. We live in a country where people rightfully expect to be fairly compensated for a day’s work, whether that person is a miner in the high desert of Nevada, an independent band in New York City, or a union worker on the back lots of a California movie studio.
“I admire the work that Chairman Leahy has put into this bill. I encourage him to continue engaging with all stakeholders to forge a balance between protecting Americans’ intellectual property, and maintaining openness and innovation on the internet. We made good progress through the discussions we’ve held in recent days, and I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming weeks.”
More analysis coming soon.
What Is SOPA? Here Are 5 Things You Need to Know
02 weeks ago
Update 10:08am EST: Looking to take action to help stop SOPA? It’s easy. Go here to learn more, contact your Senator, sign a petition, or censure your own website in protest of the bill.
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The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has got the entire Internet up in arms today. Media justice advocates say the bill is anathema to basic functioning of the Internet; for a system that’s based on relative freedom and connectivity, SOPA would work as the online world’s stingy gatekeeper, giving government the power to shutdown websites altogether.
Today, hundreds of websites are joining in a day of action to SOPA’s threat to freedom of expression on the Internet. Several civil rights and racial justice organizations are joining in what’s been called an “Internet strike,” by closing their websites from 8 am to 8 pm eastern time. Colorlines.com’s Jamilah King, who covers media policy, explains why:
The Internet’s been an important space for communities of color to tell their own stories and advocate for issues they don’t often see in film or on television. SOPA puts that independence in jeopardy. It’ll add yet another barrier to how and what we can communicate.
So, here are the basics on what you need to know.
Who’s behind SOPA? Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas politician who’s been known mostly for his anti-immigrant stances in recent years. Smith’s got big industry backers, namely: The Recording Industry Association of American, the Motion Picture Association of America (now led by former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd), and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
What’s the justification for SOPA? Supporters of the bill claim that it’ll help copyright holders (think big record labels) protect their content. Rep. Smith has criticized the bill’s opponents and explained that SOPA would only target foreign websites that put American businesses at risk.
But opponents argue that the definition of “foreign infringing sites” is too vague. As it’s written now, they argue, the bill will fundamentally alter the relative freedom with which the Internet currently operates. What’s certain is that it’ll add a level of supervision to the Internet that’s never existed before.
Who’s opposed to SOPA? Basically, every website that you visit regularly. Most notably, Wikipedia, Craigslist, and Reddit, along with thousands of other websites, have chosen to go dark in opposition to the bill and to help educate users about its potential impact. But the list doesn’t stop there: Google, Yahoo, YouTube, and Twitter have also publicly opposed the bill. The White House has also announced that should the bill reach President Obama’s desk, he will veto it.
How would SOPA work?
It allows the U.S. attorney general to seek a court order against the targeted offshore website that would, in turn, be served on Internet providers in an effort to make the target virtually disappear. It’s kind of an Internet death penalty.
More specifically, section 102 of SOPA says that, after being served with a removal order:
A service provider shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) that is subject to the order…Such actions shall be taken as expeditiously as possible, but in any case within five days after being served with a copy of the order, or within such time as the court may order.
How would it impact me? If you create or consume content on the Internet, under SOPA the government would have the power to pull the plug on your website. If you’re a casual consumer, your favorite websites could be penalized and shut down if they seem to be illegally supporting copyrighted material.
This is especially important for human rights groups and advocates in communities of color, who could faced increased censorship if the bill is passed. The language of the bill makes it easy for the US Attorney General to go after websites it simply sees as a threat.
Awkward Black Girl’s Issa Rae Explains Season Finale Delay, 30-minute Episode on the Way
03 weeks ago
The long awaited 30-minute season finale episode of ‘Awkward Black Girl’ was suppose to premiere last night but it’s had some setbacks. It’s been promised a few times in the past 12-hours but this time director Issa Rae says it’s for real.
Here’s a statement she sent to Colorlines.com at 10:45am EST:
Yes, we are VERY short-staffed at Awkward Black Girl and have been working on the season finale every single day from December 8th until now. I’m happy to say our special, 30-minute season finale will premiere in 30 minutes. Thanks to all viewers for your patience and excitement!
The FCC Is Trying to Close the Digital Divide–Sort Of
03 weeks ago
The Federal Communications Commission doesn’t always communicate very well. This much became obvious earlier this week when Chair Julius Genachowski announced important changes to the country’s Lifeline program, a service that’s historically offered low-cost phone service to poor and working class households.
The underlying principle of the Lifeline program is that phone service is a necessity, and that the government should ensure that everyone has access to it. Genachowski said on Monday that the same principle should apply to broadband Internet, since about 40 percent of the country remains without it, mostly because it’s too expensive. That doesn’t change the fact that important parts of broadband Internet are still not classified as essential communication services–which makes it hard for the FCC to fully regulate it. Still, the FCC is launching a new pilot programs to offer low-cost service, help teach people about the Internet and connect them to it. That’s big.
Funny thing is, though, this new pilot program isn’t the first time the FCC has tried to offer low-cost alternatives to help bridge the digital divide. A handful of programs already exist and have had varying amounts of success. And it’s very likely that you’ve never heard of them.
The reality is that the digital divide still exists. Only about 60 percent of users in America have access to home-based broadband connections, and many low-income, black and Latino households lack access. While many black and Latino users have used smartphones to help bridge the digital divide, the wireless market is rife with dangerous deregulation. And in any case, home-based broadband connections allow users to more fully participate in democracy, particularly as more jobs, classes and government services move online.
“Part of the problem is that anything that’s related to technology is cushioned in this narrative of business,” says Amalia Deloney, policy director at the Center for Media Justice. “Ninety percent of the stories–if there are any stories–show up in the business or commerce section of the paper. It creates this other challenge: that people don’t see this as a humanitarian issue, they don’t see it as a social justice issue. It reinforces the belief that tech isn’t for the average person.”
We’ve tried to change that at Colorlines.com. So, in that spirit, here are a few of the FCC’s efforts to deal with the digital divide–the good and the bad of each:
Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP)
This was a part of President Obama’s 2009 Stimulus bill and, thus, the administration’s first big statement on how seriously it planned to take the problem of the digital divide. The program set aside $4.7 billion to offer grants to people with good ideas to expand home broadband. Those efforts have been needed in many rural and low-income communities dense with people of color, which are still struggling to find affordable ways to connect.
The program was expected to create jobs in technology and help boost the economy. Yet three years later, the economy remains sluggish and the digital divide remains strong.
Connect to Compete
Launched in May of 2011, this was FCC Chair Genachowski’s public-private partnership to offer discounted broadband rates and computers to low-income users. Through the program, cable providers offer service for as low as $9.95 a month for two years. Corporate partners included companies like Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, Comcast and Time Warner.
In order to qualify for the program, applicants are required to have a child enrolled in the national school lunch program and have an overdue bill from a participating cable provider. Some advocates have argued that the program’s entry guidelines are too restrictive, and that not enough people even know that it exists.
New Lifeline pilot programs
Genachowski’s announcement on Monday signaled that change is coming to the country’s Lifeline program, but it’ll be slow. The agency will modernize Lifeline to include broadband Internet, but Genachowski also recommended putting a cap on the number of people who can qualify for the program in order to prevent ”fraud.” That assertion rubbed many civil rights groups the wrong way, particularly given the FCC’s own estimates of how many eligible participants are currently left out of the Lifeline program.
The Commission notes that the program has about 10 million participants, and only reaches about 32 percent of eligible households. That’s not a good sign for the nearly 100 million people in the U.S. who currently don’t have broadband Internet at home. In a press release from earlier this week, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said the following:
The Lifeline program is the only program that can address this problem by systematically addressing the cost of modern telecommunications for low-income people. Limiting a program that only reaches one-third of its eligible participants before the FCC can fully assess the changes it announced today to eliminate fraud would seem counterproductive.
The FCC’s new pilot programs are expected to be launched later this year.
How ‘Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls’ Blew Up the Internet
01 month ago
It’s been a whirlwind 48 hours for Franchesca Ramsey. The 28-year-old New York-based graphic designer and comedian posted her hit video parody “Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls” on Jan. 4, and in less than a day it got over 1.5 million views, thousands of Facebook shares and even generated a spat with celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. By Thursday, it beat out Justin Bieber for the coveted slot of the most watched video on YouTube.
Ramsey has become the star and creator of one of 2012′s first viral sensations. Of the dozens of videos that took up the “Shit People Say” meme, Ramsey’s was the first one to a offer a popular and critical examination of race. But why are these videos so popular? And as cultural critiques, can videos like Ramsey’s open meaningful conversations about race and racial justice?
The goal, Ramsey wrote earlier this week, had been simple: to make people laugh while, hopefully, opening some eyes. The video features Ramsey in an outlandish blonde wig, tossing around stereotypically offensive statements like “not to sound racist, but…” and “that’s so ghetto!” It is one of a string of parodies to hit the Internet since late 2011, starting with “Shit Girls Say.” In them, the protagonists–usually men–dress up as women and poke fun at mundane comments they assert to be most often said by women. Some, which rely solely on exaggerated insults, have been complete duds, like “Shit Black Girls Say” and “Shit Latina Girls Say.” But others, like Ramsey’s, have touched an online nerve and become enormously popular.
“People love to see themselves in media,” Ramsey told Colorlines.com. “The fact that you can watch the first one and say, ‘Oh my gosh! I say that!’ made it funny and made it something that you wanted to share.”
There’s no step-by-step manual on how to make a video go viral, but “Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls” shares a simple set of characteristics with other successful independently produced Internet comedies (think Awkward Black Girl): it looks good, and it uses humor to say something smart and discomforting about race.
“Usually the only way people talk about race in their lives is when they’re feeling defensive about it,” says W. Kamau Bell, an Oakland, Calif.-based comedian and a board member of the Applied Research Center, which publishes Colorlines.com. Bell noted that comedy is a great way to get around that defensiveness.
Ramsey’s parody also turned the existing meme on its head.
“There’s a flip [in the narrative], which is part of why I think it’s so effective and powerful,” says Doyle Canning, a strategist at SmartMeme, a progressive group that helps craft political messaging. “The framing of the story is from the perspective of the black girl. That’s rarely the case in popular culture.
“I think there’s an opportunity for racial justice activists to intervene in those stories, and contribute a kind of meaningful critique that’s riding the momentum of an existing meme in the popular culture.”
People of color rarely see representations of themselves in mainstream media. A survey conducted by the Directors Guild of America found that of more than 2,600 television episodes in the 2010-2011 TV season, 77 percent were directed by white men. People of color are underrepresented in nearly every aspect of the filmmaking industry as well. Last May, researchers at Indiana University released a study, “The Role of Actors’ Race in White Audiences’ Selective Exposure to Movies,” that found white audiences don’t usually like films that aren’t about white people.
Others who study the media think that while the Internet has become an important tool for artists of color to create racially diverse content, it’s only a small drop in the bucket.
“The Internet’s become very popular, but people are still spending a lot of time watching television,” said Lisa Nakamura, professor at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and author of the book “Digitizing Race.”
“You can’t really see representations of your own race in a very specific way unless you look at something like [Ramsey's video],” Nakamura continued, noting that the representations of people of color that do exist are often deeply flawed. “For African American people, there’s Tyler Perry in film and every so often Spike Lee will make a film. Rarely is there an Asian American film or a Latino film.”
Even when characters of color do appear on mainstream television or in film, Nakamura says that their racial identities are often exaggerated. ”They’re always a little too packaged; you can tell it’s a cynical attempt to make money within a kind of broad and non-specific message.”
While Ramsey’s video has gotten its share of criticism for poking fun at white girls, Bell notes that it’s doing precisely what it was intended to do. “People have to remember that comedy isn’t the solution. Comedy is something that highlights the problem. The rest of us who are out in the world are supposed to try to solve the problem.”
Meanwhile, Ramsey has been inundated with hundreds of emails and messages since her video’s release, and thinks that the little changes do matter. A day after her video went viral, she posted a letter on her blog from a white woman who was moved by the video and asked herself, “Have I ever said anything like that?”
“That’s exactly what I wanted,” Ramsey said of the woman’s response. “There’s tons of people who don’t get it and are never gonna get it. But even if just one person thinks twice when they say something–and not just to a black person, but to anyone–then I think I did my job.”
Melissa Harris-Perry Finally Gets Her Own Program on MSNBC
01 month ago
Melissa Harris-Perry, who’s a professor of political science at Tulane University and a frequent MSNBC contributor, is getting her own show on MSNBC. The new program, set to air Saturdays and Sundays 10a-noon ET, will debut on February 4th.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity,” said Harris-Perry in a press release. “All I’ve ever wanted to be is a teacher. I’m particularly excited to join the growing weekend lineup where we have a chance to take a longer and broader view of the week’s political news.”
Harris-Perry has previously served as an occasional host of “The Rachel Maddow Show”, and in November Colorlines.com’s publisher Rinku Sen was her guest. You can watch the clip below.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
‘Yo, Is This Racist?’ Andrew Ti’s Tumblr Has Your (Hilarious) Answer
01 month ago
“I am by no means any kind of authority on anything.”
For an authority figure, Andrew Ti has an unorthodox personal statement. And he stands by it, too, regularly reminding his readers that the only authority he has is what his audience projects onto him. The frequent hatemail he receives often makes this very point about his lack of credentials; he publishes it and agrees with it, just to piss off the author even further.
Ti is the sole human behind the Tumblr site “Yo, Is This Racist?”: part advice column, part humor site, part schadenfreude shooting gallery. The concept is simple: he answers questions from the Internet-at-large about whether things are racist (and if you have to ask, the answer is probably yes), while swearing a lot. “If there were a tagline for the site,” says Ti, a photographer who claims no relevant academic credentials, “it would be ‘Fuck You, You Racist Sack of Shit.’”
Topics to date include racially charged pro-life billboards, ‘Indian pudding,’ and organizing your bookshelf by color, to name a few. And despite Ti only listing one sort-of qualification on the site (“If it’s absolutely necessary for you to know, I’m not white”), YoIsThisRacist.com has blown up. Ti set up shop on November 1, and after 24 hours and a few well-placed blog shoutouts, he found himself with over 2,000 Tumblr followers. He’s answered over 500 questions in the eight weeks since then, with another 4,000 unanswered questions in his inbox.
“It grew out of an office conversation,” says Ti, a native Midwesterner now living in Los Angeles. “I was talking to my friend at work about Yosemite Sam, since that’s what you do in an office, and we were talking about his litany of swears, his fake cartoon swears, and the phrase ‘cotton-picking’ came up within that. And my reaction was ‘Yo, that is racist!’ And it literally went from that, to blog, to people picking up the blog and running with it.”
Of the submitted questions, Ti estimates that only a third genuinely want to know if something is racist; the majority are from people wanting an ‘impartial arbiter’ for a debate with a friend. Or the questions come from trolls hoping to trick him into admitting a deep-seated bias against whites, usually with a few racial slurs thrown in. Do they use the race-appropriate slurs? “No. Never. 99 percent of the people assume I’m black,” says Ti, whose full name appears at the top of every page of the site. “The idea that the word ‘yo’ is the sole purview of black America… that boggles my mind, personally.”
Of the site’s readers, however, it’s safe to say that nearly 100 percent enjoy seeing Ti exercise his unlisted point of authority: his spectacularly profane pyrotechnics.
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Question: Yo, I’m an upper-class white kid with upper-class white friends. Is it racist that we all call each other nigga?
Answer: Yo, for real, I wish every hardship and sorrow upon you and your racist friends.
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Question: Asking for a Callista Flockhart when you want a flat white coffee?
Answer: Yo, for real, do you actually do this at your local Starbucks, just so you can then clarify your shitty, sexist joke to the dude pulling the levers on the espresso machine? You know everyone hates you, right?
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Question: Yo is it racist if I don’t want to include my really good Indian (dot not feather) friend from my wedding party because all the other bridesmaids are white and I don’t want her to steal attention in my wedding pictures?
Answer: Holy shit, I’m genuinely having trouble trying to count up the ways in which you are absolutely the worst person.
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Question: you make me feel shitty for being white. based on most of your answers that’s racist right?
Answer: Yo man, if there isn’t enough shit in the world to make you feel good about being White, I can’t help you.
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Not all of YITR’s published questions are as baldly horrifying; many are genuinely thought-provoking, or enjoyably silly, like this one about white people’s poop. But for anyone who’s lost good brain cells to the comments section on a local news article, reading Ti’s one-sided swearcraft against a volunteer army of anonymous racists is some sweet vicarious payback.
“One thing I’ve learned,” says Ti, “is that there is a significant portion of white people on the Internet who are looking for nothing more than some justification to say the n-word, no matter what it takes. It is all they are looking for, all day. Anything they can take. ‘Can I say it in this? What about rap music?’
“It’s just… what is the appeal? Let it go!”
Some people just want to make sure they’re not eating anything racist, and for them, Ti maintains a list of foods that sound racist but aren’t. Not everything makes the cut, though. “Brazil nuts, they’re colloquially known in the South as, um, ‘n-word toes’ — that’s pretty openly racist,” he says. “But there’s a lot of colonial things as well; speaking specifically, someone asked about ‘monkey bread,’ and while I didn’t do enough research to figure it out definitively, the stuff I found was pretty pretty horrifying.”
Ti’s advertised absence of qualifications works as a subtle satire of racially alleviative figures like Herman Cain. Is he concerned that the joke will be lost on the people who most need to get it?
“It’s a worry that people are using me as a token, or as a person of color who can speak for all people of color, which I do not purport to do,” he says. “If people see me as a crutch they can use, I hope I don’t give them that crutch. I never try to confirm that people’s racist or pseudo-racist views are, in fact, OK. I err on the side of ‘this is super-racist, fuck you.’ I feel like that’s a safer place for me to be.”
In other words, Ti isn’t interested in using sweet talk to enlighten anyone. He sees it as ineffective, and worse yet, not funny — and ultimately, any higher mission he has will have to be accomplished under the unforgiving rules of Internet comedy. As he says of his tone, “I’m taking the rhetoric to the Internet’s level. And for people who are on the fence, who are potential allies, I’m bringing them in on the joke — of making fun of people.”
And, naturally, the same no-permission-necessary approach that makes the site so endearing has garnered some misses. He expresses genuine regret for an easy punchline about thin black male comedians dressing as fat black women, saying he wishes he’d taken the time to find a funny way to unpack what he calls the practice’s “wildly problematic” history. He’s gotten pushback for his decision to use the colloquial interpersonal definition of racism, rather than the social activist definition of prejudice-plus-power. Even when discussing one of his favorite responses, to an anonymous woman who asks why “there are no sororities FOR white girls” (to which he gives an atypically long answer with both bullet points and ad-hominem disses), Ti sounds a bit cautious. “I don’t feel that I’m doing damage by calling this girl racist and dumb, even though it’s super mean and probably unnecessary. But it was funny! Is it a net positive? I hope so, but I understand if someone says it isn’t.”
The reason for Ti’s light tread is likely his readers, and not the racist ones. As he says he’s discovered since launching, Tumblr has a magical combination of accountability, shareability, long-form format, and youth; as a result, a large number of enthusiastic young social justice geeks have found a home among (and within) the cat gifs. They’re big fans of YITR — and like Ti, they don’t wait for permission to say when someone’s privilege is showing. “I’ve certainly been called out for inadvertently saying sexist things, or things that are not quite on point,” he says. “And I’ll see, from reblogs of my posts, conversations going back and forth with people in these communities. It’s great!”
In keeping with his goal to “try not to make the world a worse place,” Ti’s compromising his position as an unqualified expert and putting together a list of reading material, culled from reader suggestions. He describes it as “a resource for when people are done reading my dumb jokes about race and want to actually learn something.”
Ti’s not looking to move from jokes to academia, nor is he interested in interrupting his soliloquy of disses, “unless someone, and this is for all the readers out there, has a really great zinger that I missed.” The reading list, then, shouts out the social justice community while leaving the jokes their own space. Popular suggestions so far include Peggy McIntosh’s “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Beverly Daniel Tatum’s “Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?,” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ blog at the Atlantic.
“One of the things that’s actually taking so long,” says Ti, “is that I want to at least, you know, try to read some of these things, to educate myself and to make sure I’m not suggesting anything horrible. And it’s not a bad education for me to have.”
“What I would like to have, the resource that seems most needed based on the questions in general and the hatemail from indignant white people,” says Ti, “is just an examination of white privilege, and of all privilege in America. That’s what I try to bring to the table, without being too serious about it: an examination of privilege. Because at the end of the day, I’m making jokes and making fun of people, and if that sting of embarrassment can make one in a hundred people think, ‘why is that? Why do I feel this way?’ That’s what I can bring.
“Uh, besides being hilarious, which I totally am.”
If You Were A White Forbes Columnist Commenting On Black Kids… [Reader Forum]
01 month ago
Way back in December 2011, Forbes Magazine technology columnist Gene Marks penned a piece with the title “If I Were a Poor Black Kid,” and which went downhill from there. The Cliff’s Notes version (get it?) is that black kids could end education disparity overnight if they’d just go to better schools. No, really.
We ran two pieces, one by our Gender Matters columnist Akiba Solomon and one by our favorite comic (and ARC board member) W. Kamau Bell. Akiba and Kamau were able to stop rolling their eyes long enough to write two provocative, incisive responses to Mr. Marks’ blindered optimism. And the Colorlines community turned out in force to contextualize, debate, and giggle.
In all honesty, I debated whether to pick on Gene Marks these weeks later by highlighting him in Reader Forum. But let’s be real — the fight against privileged condescension didn’t end when the New Year’s ball dropped. And besides, you commenters were on point!
Let’s start with the reactions to Kamau’s “Five Signs You’re Acting Like A White Guy, Or, How Not To Be Gene Marks.” Here’s reader Shannon LC Cate:
This looks so familiar, as a teacher of white guys (among others). The girls (of whatever race) will come to class uber-prepared, then hem and haw and pre-apologize that maybe “this isn’t the right answer” then the guy with the backwards baseball cap who stumbled in ten minutes late and never even bought the books let alone opened them, starts opining without even raising his hand.
Julie Murphy:
Ha! My favorite – in a women’s studies literature class we were discussing female creativity, and the prof asked if we felt a difference in creativity during our periods. First person to answer – was a white guy! And yes, it was a trick question because he always answered questions first and at length…
36stmexican adds:
More signs you are acting like a white guy:
1] you move to Arizona or another state that once was Mexico.Then you decide there are too many Mexicans there.So instead of packing your stuff and moving back to SnowFalls, you pass a law forcing us to show papers to prove we belong.
2] You move to a large southwestern city close to Mexico.You get mad because so many people speak Spanish.So you yell out loud at Walmart “Speak English.This is America” Because… you didn’t look at a map to see where you were before you came here? White male privilege means never having to check where you are before you open your mouth.
ace24 dissents:
hmmm… I thought tolerance was all about not treating people differently based on race.. I guess I was wrong.
Let’s end racism with racism.
Karari Kue contextualizes:
I understand your sentiment. Believe me, I appreciate that there are folx out there who genuinely believe that racism is wrong and shouldn’t exist.
The problem is, the definition of racism that we are taught in school ISN’T what racism really is. In order for racism to work, their has to be institutional power ensure it happens. Without POWER it really isn’t racism.
I know it’s hard for most folx to understand, especially when we have been brainwashed in grade school to believe that racism effects everyone and anyone. The problem is NONE of our discussions on race include the important notion of white privilege.
THAT’S what this piece is tackling, not his racial identity. It’s about his privilege of being white. THAT’S what give him the courage to speak out about something he has no personal experience about. THAT’S what makes him THINK that he can and should always say something.
jeremy springer agrees and dissents:
Racism is the systematic discrimination and disenfranchisement of one group of people by an establishment which holds power. If you are disenfranchised, you don’t have immunity for discriminating, but you have no real power to hold back someone of a different race as a result of your discriminatory feelings.
With that being said, I AM a white guy, and don’t pretend to know what it’s like to experience racism, but I was still offended by the discriminatory nature of this article. If you take the worst attributes of any guy who has ever been white and attribute them to white guys, even those of us who don’t share those attributes, you’re going to piss off a lot of white guys who might even agree with your core point.
For which W. Kamau Bell, um, ‘apologizes’:
I am truly sorry, white guy. Please forgive me for offending you. I will try to do a better job of pleasing you and all other white guys in the future. You are correct to note that it is not smart of me to piss any white guys off. Thank you for the correction. I hope this didn’t ruin your Kwanzaa.
And Kermit dissents in the opposite direction:
Some issues:
1) Bell always backpedals a bit, probably as not to alienate the more “understanding” members of his white audience. Like this: Now of course, you don’t have to be white or a guy to act like a “white guy.” Appeasement. There’s a reason it’s called “acting like a white guy”, right? Let’s not let them off the hook by saying “Oh BUT, everyone does it!” No, everyone does NOT do it, and that’s exactly the point. White men tend to be entitled, oblivious, paternalistic jerks, and it is precisely BECAUSE they are white and male. We didn’t all draw straws and they just so happened to pick the ones that said “Jerk” on them.
2) The first point doesn’t apply to Marks, because he did give “solutions”. They were just shortsighted, stupid, and blatantly obvious. Black kids should do well in school? Well, golly, Gene, why didn’t they think of that! He’s implicitly calling them all poor black kids stupid for not coming up with his revelatory solutions to their problems. And the real problem is that Marks isn’t looking at systemic reasons for low achievement.I know Bell’s a comedian, but if you’re gonna venture into the sticky realm of social commentary, especially on matters as charged as race and privilege, you can’t squint or cower from what needs to be said. Take off the kid gloves, homey.
On Akiba’s “If I Were A White, Male, Middle-Aged Forbes Columnist,” here’s reader Andrew Ridley:
Gene Marks is prescribing advice based on a fictional world he has invented where black kids simply exist, completely free from all outside forces and influences. Marks makes no reference to nor shows appreciation for the true context in which they live.
brigidkeely:
As a Chicagoan, one place his ignorance REALLY lept out was his blithe recommendation to look into a magnet or charter school. Magnet/charter/classical/SES etc. schools in Chicago get literally a thousand-plus applicants every year, to fill a very small number of seats. One magnet that’s been closed because of neighborhood school overcrowding has 70 open seats each year, and 1500 applications. So even if a kid does take it upon themself (or has parent/guardians who do it) and apply, the chances of actually getting in are VERY slim because those seats are mostly taken up by children of affluent families who’ve had access to tutoring and extracurriculars and all the things money can buy.
An except of a long, thoughtful comment by soulwork, which y’all should read in full:
Capitalism is based on the exploitation of labor; this means that capitalists must work to either keep people working at a low wage or unemployed. This is just a fact of capitalism, and racism is a convenient justification for closing the doors on Black people, and assuring that Black students have less than a fair shot. The American Dream has always been a nightmare for someone. For capitalism to run at 100% efficiency, that is, full employment, the bosses would have to forego their astronomical profits. And if they were going to do that they would not have taken their companies overseas to exploit a near starving labor force; one to whom they could pay a much lower wage, and so drive down the wages and job opportunities for the entire global work force. Racism is not an accident, nor is classism. They are justifications for the abuse of minorities, working, and poor people.
urbanskin:
I’m a Lakota male who got the high GPA’s, went to community college, transferred to a University, got a BA and STILL had a hard time finding employment opportunities. While I have currently found work for the past 8 years in education, and a job I love working with our Indian youth, I still make considerably less then the median salary of an “American” worker. Yes, education can help, but it is no silver bullet.
Sophia Giddens:
If I were a poor black kid, I sure as hell would not be able to afford a copy of Forbes Magazine at $4.99 an issue. Nor would I be from any community that would easily afford me access to “resources that are available. Like technology.” So to whom exactly is Marks preaching? Maybe he’d like to remove all limitless opportunities afforded his own children–private schools, tutors, after school programs, the dignity and self-assurance of an upper middle class lifestyle, 3 guaranteed healthy meals a day, a safe neighborhood, the security of knowing you aren’t and won’t ever be a police target–and try this sink-or-swim by your bootstraps test on them.
Perhaps too risky a test? Yes, I think the poor black kids are well aware of that.
rdsathene:
Gene Marks is the reason I can’t read Paulo Freire enough! Mark’s next essay: “If I wasn’t a white privileged paternalistic bigot.”
parkwood1920:
If I was a white and entitled Forbes columnist, I would whitesplain to poor Black kids about struggle and pain that I know absolutely nothing about. I would then ignore all substantive critiques from people of color and antipoverty activists, and continue to insist on my right to talk down to poor Black children who catch more hell on their best day than I could ever imagine. I would then assert that I stand by the original whitesplaining nonsense column that I published earlier.
Wait a minute—that’s already happening! Never mind.
Matt Balano:
How about, “if I were an upper-middle class white guy, I would hard to understand my privilege, do my best to dismantle systemic racism, and commit myself to being an ally, which means sitting at the table w/people of all backgrounds, actively listening, and promoting self-determination for all. I will use my privilege to be both subversive and overt in my lifelong efforts to create a more equitable world. I will not be paternalistic, patronizing, or pretend that I am an expert on situations with which I have no experience whatsoever. Explicitly, I vow to…” Damn, this dude got me all fired up…
last word goes to Javier Chajon:
[...] What white folk like Gene Marks doesn’t recognize is that whether intended or not, his comments fit a long-running narrative constructed by neoconservatives that that implies that socioeconomic inequality is ultimately based on a lack of effort, smarts, determination or enterprise on the part of black and brown folk — and fails miserably in understanding how systemic racism works or in identifying institutional barriers faced by young children of color.