uppitybrownlady wrote a really good little piece entitled Being “colour blind” is NOT a solution that I think people should read.

Quote:

Colour blindness is not a solution, it’s an endpoint. It’s a destination we must arrive at.

Colour blindness would mean to ignore the current perceptions of races, and racism stemming from those perceptions. It will not undo all of the years of learning that we have all undertaken. We will not unlearn that Europe was simply going abroad and settling in the “New World”, and all of knowledge was created by Europeans (well, the important ones, anyway). We will not unlearn that if the race of a murder victim is not specified (or divulged through name) in a news story, it must be a white person. We will not unlearn that Natives are supposedly ‘all’ alcoholics, drug users, and criminals, not because of colonialism and racism, but because that is just how Aboriginals are. We will not unlearn that young black men are only ever out to rob, stab, shoot, or sell drugs to you, and any time there is a young black man doing anything but robbing, stabbing, shooting, or selling drugs, he must be exceptional. We will not unlearn that businesses, media, politics, and other major institutions are inhabited by a majority white because they did it on their own. 

I'm excited about Obama being president, though I think some of the comments coming out today (well, and previously as well) are...annoying. But that's for another day, when I have time to think of a response and not just fly off the handle.

I was debating posting this, but have decided to because it's a really interesting article. I'm having difficulty finding a quote to post, so I guess you'll have to read it.

Black Kids in White Houses: On Race, Silence, and the Changing American Family

Interesting because in someways I can identify with not being connected to my roots - I'm the third generation on my Mom's side born in Canada, and my knowledge about my cultural heritage is fairly limited - I ask my grandmother all I can, but she was born here, yet is my closest connection to that side of my heritage.

I think I'm in love. It's called "Yellow Rage". Some of you may have seen this on tenninch's journal. NSFW (language).

Hey all.

Not much new here - I'm still loving work, which is awesome. My supervisor is having me learn a lot of stuff, and do a lot of techniques, which is really good. I'm also digging the weekly pay thing, though it's sort of depressing that I make about the same amount in a week that I made in a month waiting tables (admittedly, the restaurant was small, and I only worked one day a week. Still). Once a month we have 'cake day' which is basically an excuse to get together and socialize for about an hour in the afternoon. And eat cake (obviously). I've met a few more people in the department that are around my age, which is sort of cool. They were going out last night for Halloween, but I couldn't go, because I so much crap to do for school, I couldn't justify losing (at least) half a day on Saturday recovering, because, even if I didn't drink that much, I'd still be up stupid late. I know that sounds lame, but I just know that if I did go out I'd have fun, but I'd be a stressball the rest of the weekend, which is less cool.

School is going ok. I'm doing well in all my classes, except one, which is going to be my nemisis this term. It mostly difficult because it's not a subject I'm too interested in (it's about bioprocesses, which I know is important for the production of some metabolites/enzymes, and more importantly alcohol, the subject, or at least the way it's being taught is dead boring). I am finding it hard though, to keep on top of things - with work and school, I can balance it more or less ok, but I tend to be sacrificing sleep to get stuff done sometimes, which can make things tough.

I'm still trying (and failing) to step back from the US election - just a lot of stupid shit has been said that pisses me off, but there's too much for me to actually make a coherent post.

I'm thinking of linking to, and writing some of my own thoughts/experiences on obw's Ways to Offend list (like...linking to the post on the blog, and then expanding here on my experiences on the, uh, way to offend). Well, once I have time to, anyway.

Oh. And dragons.

See my lips, they stick, but not together.
Rather, they flail open with flames to burn down this culture that once kept them shut. ~ Adriel Luis

First off - A good friend of mine recently started a blog called Uppity Brown Woman, and with the feed uppitybrownlady. In her words "It's mostly [her] thoughts on feminism/anti-racism/whatever". I've enjoyed her posts in the past on racism, privelege and feminism, and I'm sure I will enjoy reading her there as well. If you have any interest in those subjects, I suggest checking it out.

In other news - I've been meaning to write a bit more about racism in my journal, likely in part because of what I was feeling after writing this post, the article Becoming Visable: On being a Woman of Colour in Fandom, and tennich saying (in the comments), among other things: I'm irrationally afraid to be wrong about my own experience as a woman of colour, so I rarely say a word, if at all. I pretend that some other, more knowledgeable WOC will come speak for me so that I don't fall flat on my face, and truth be told, I'm also afraid of another WOC correcting me - it's just so damn confusing when it happens in real life that I can't seem to deal with it online.

Because I know I often do the same thing. Part of it is the subconcious model minority thing, and the other that I don't feel knowlegable about racism to talk about my experiences. Which...is sort of stupid because they are my experiences, but I think that I don't understand how they fit maybe? Anyway, I'm hoping to read more essays etc about racism at some point soon (ideally I'll be able to choose a course about it in the upcoming school year, but we'll see), just so I know about it in a larger context, I guess.

( Disjointed thoughts )

So we'll see where this goes - there are lots of things I want to write about, I'm just not sure if/when they'll come about.