"Make It Like Me"

This is the perfect answer to all the white-fragility whining over the Black Ariel in Disney's live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid."

Miles Vorkosigan (in a comment on Adam-Troy Castro's Facebook page--scroll down almost to the bottom)

Cue "Under the Sea"....

The Jealousy's always greener

When you've always had your way

The casting for Little Mermaid

Has people in disarray

For Disney's had the audacity

To do something we insist

Defies the innate caucasity

Of creatures who don't exist!

Looking like ME!

Looking like ME!

That's how the white folks and the alt-right folks

Say it should be!

All mermaids must be white as snow

As our made-up evidence gonna show!

It's not what her race is

Just that her place is looking like ME!

Her tail is still green and scaly

She still has the same hard choice

But making her Halle Bailey

Is taking away MY voice!

Now every proud Paul and Peter

Don't like her inclusive hue

We gonna boycott the theater

And hold our breath till we're blue!

Cater to ME!

She must look like ME!

Because if you don't, then maybe I won't

Buy your DVD!

It's all your fault I got the notion

To go ethnic-cleansing the ocean!

Don't you be carryin' any non-Aryan diversity!

(Diversity!)

Make her like me

(Monochromy)

We want adhesion to simple reason

Naturally! (Naturally!)

And to really make us bitch

You'll have a drag queen playing the witch!

Don't mock my frail face! Give her a pale face, ASAP!

The Aryan Guard

Is taking it hard

The new KKK

Is crying away

The white-by-default

are planning assault

On Twitter, they're bitter and pale!

The Bijou Beckys

Are pain-in-the neckies

The Cinema Sallies

Holding hate rallies

The film-critic Flynns

Are flipping their fins

And, oh, those Incels WAIL!

So make 'em like ME! (Make 'em like me)

Always like ME (Nothing but me)

If Idris Elba plays William Tell, be wary of me

If your shows pass the Bechdel test

I'll be fomenting civil unrest

Don't call me racist! You're a disgrace, it's all about ME!

Whites are so groovy! Make every movie all about ME!

I'll feel excluded if it's not duded

I'm in a rage unless it's Caucasian

It can't be better-o, unless it's hetero

MAKE IT LIKE ME!

The Case Against Stupidity

What the hell is Shelby Steele nattering on about? Racism "ain't gonna move," so black people should "get on with their lives" and accept second-class citizenship? That's the stupidest, most defeatist thing I've ever heard. Watch and slam your head against the wall.


 

The Zombie Duck

This is just astounding. It's quite long, but it's well worth reading every paragraph.

Tim Wise: If It Walks Like a Duck and Talks Like a Duck

Respectable conservatism is dead. It is rotting in a grave, out of which hole has crept the most nefarious and zombified substitute, reeking of an acrid and putrescent characterological rot, upon which no calm and dispassionate bit of reason may find even a temporary home.

Word.

"The Tyranny of Other People's Sanctimony"

This is just great. As usual, Charlie Pierce is required reading.


It has been hard not to notice that he is the first president in my lifetime who is treated as though he has been given permission by the country to lead it, a permission that can be rescinded at any time, for whatever reason, fair or foul. 

Read the whole thing, of course (and the comments, a couple of which prove Charlie's point). If you don't acknowledge that the race of Barack Obama doesn't play a large part in everything he does--and even more so for his opponents--you're just denying reality.

"A maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason"

"One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings."  ~Franklin Thomas

I cannot believe a person like this would ever be considered for any form of elective office.

White Supremacist With Ties To Neo-Nazi Groups Elected To Pennsylvania County GOP Committee

And what party elected him, pray tell? Need you even ask?

Read the accompanying article from the Southern Poverty Law Center. It's chilling.

In my darker moments, I think this country is headed for a second Civil War...one the South has a very good chance of winning.

"Respect for others guides our manners"

"I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university."  ~Albert Einstein

 I do not understand why anyone would think this is an appropriate joke to spread about the President. 

Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine. 


A little boy said to his mother; 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?' " the e-mail joke reads. "His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!

 What is it about this President that makes people disrespect him so? Hmmm, let me think...

"The stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt"

I've often read this quote from John Stuart Mill without really thinking much about it, other than that it seemed so obviously true.

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.  -- John Stuart Mill

 Now we have empirical proof that this is true: a study published by Psychological Science.

 Abstract


Despite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations, cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice. We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups. In an analysis of two large-scale, nationally representative United Kingdom data sets (N = 15,874), we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology. A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice, a relation partially mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact. All analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status. Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice. Consequently, we recommend a heightened focus on cognitive ability in research on prejudice and a better integration of cognitive ability into prejudice models.

The full study can be found here. This is rather scary stuff, I think; it means that no matter how you try to educate conservatives, there's not much chance they'll change their minds, because they prefer feeling safe, and sticking to the status quo, over actually thinking.

John Dean's book Conservatives Without Conscience also has an excellent take on this whole phenomenon. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the conservative mindset. 

Down the Rabbit Hole

Oh. My. God.

Arizona's Senate-Approved Birther Bill Could Force Presidential Candidates To Provide Documentation Describing What Their Penis Looks Like To Get on Ballot

On the one hand, you can't help but laugh. My state is the laughingstock of the world, and I'm sure most of the citizens wish the Legislature would crawl under the rocks and go away. I mean, they're just living in their own self-generated fantasy world with this "birther" nonsense. On the other hand, these jackasses are full-on racists, no doubt about it; they wouldn't be throwing this hissy-fit if Obama was properly pale.

One final question: If Michelle Bachman (or Sarah Palin) runs for President, would she have to describe her strap-on?

The Bathroom Bully

Never let it be said that racism isn't alive and well in the United States, in this the seventh year of the 21st century.

To be sure, this is stating the obvious. Yet it sometimes takes a personal experience to drive this point home (and I mean a different personal experience than the ones people of color live every day, since I am after all a privileged white woman).

I like to walk; it's my favorite form of exercise. I have several routes I follow, including a heart-buster of a trek straight up a fairly steep road into a new subdivision near my home. I've been taking this route at least twice a week. On this occasion, earlier this week, my well-trained colon announced its sudden urgency, and I had to go looking for an appropriate place to relieve it. This afforded itself in the discovery of a porta-pottie on a cul-de-sac in said subdivision. Upon entry, this sight greeted my startled and horrified eyes.

Two swastikas; WHITE PRIDE scrawled above the second, obviously using a Sharpie; and this charming message written on the inside of the door.

"Fuck all Mexicans, nigers (sic; this is not surprising, as a lot of idiots like this don't seem to know how to spell) Indians you ain't white fucked die Bitches"

Ugh. I wrote this tripe down in my little notebook so I could get it exactly right, but just repeating the words makes me feel soiled. It's terrifying to think there are still people out there who believe this nonsense. Simple logic will tell you the opposite, and any amount of life experience will reinforce the fact that no matter of what race, people are just...human beings.

Yet this vileness still hides in the depths of the human psyche.

The only good thing I can take from this is that these days, most racists (except for KKK diehards) don't proclaim their monstrosities openly. It's rather ironic--or blackly humorous, perhaps--that this uneducated sot wrote his ravings on the inside of a portable toilet. Talk about a captive audience. What's amazing to me is that someone hasn't called the owner up and reported it, and demanded that the offending pottie be removed.

Maybe I will. After I take my own Sharpie, go up there, and add a few relevant words to the debate.