NYC Slutwalk Attracts Anger over Blatantly Racist Sign

**Trigger Warning**

New York Slutwalk has been stirring up some rage after photos of the event surfaced on facebook. 


It all happened after a member uploaded a photograph of a young white woman with an incredibly offensive sign. The sign was the title of a John Lennon song that includes the n-word.

***

Slut Walk NYC - posted on their facebook group. 

** I took it upon myself to disguise the identities of these marchers. It has been made clear that at least some of them are under 18. Although what they did was thoughtless and racist, they also have a right to personal safety. **

The thread developing below the photo itself has proven to be very racist.

 **The bits I find particularly ridiculous will be bold and enlarged.**

Here is what a woman said in defense of the signage:


"This is the title of a song written and performed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the 1970s.You have to listen to the whole song to understand it. It is not offensive to anyone other than sexists in its entirety and was a very powerful message, then and now. I can understand how the sign out of this context would be disturbing. But I urge everyone to check out the full lyrics and listen to the song and judge for themselves."


Another woman with "TheBeatles"  listed as her middle-name, jumped in to simply paste the entire lyrics to John Lennon's song. She later admitted in the same thread that it was her sign and she continued to stand by it, claiming it not to be racist. 

Another woman holding the same sign at the NYC Slutwalk March on October 1, 2011

Here are more comments from white women, including the woman holding the sign in the first photograph. 
                           





"There was no disrespect, hurt, pain, or offence intended. I don't think there was one racist person there. I, the one holding the sign, though not the one who made it, would never use that word offensively. The word and it's meaning is wrong, but the sign is true. There is no contest about it. I am probably the least racist person out there. I have never even mistakenly judged someone by the color of their skin. Don't judge before you know what is really going on. I did not make the sign, but still feel wrong and sick. I apologize for being photographed with it and would like to ask for it to be taken down. 
I never thought this experience could make me ashamed or hurt, or even make me cry, but it has. Anyone who has seen photos of me with it please ask for them to be taken down. ____ this is not your fault, I just don't wish to be hated for a word."



The thread goes on and becomes more racist as the backers of the sign continue to comment and dig themselves into an even bigger hole. 




Now, along with the racist signage, the NYC Slutwalk facebook group photoalbum also contains a photo of a woman (clearly from a porno) with semen all over her face and lipstick smudged across her mouth. On her forehead is the word "SLUT" and she appears to intoxicated in the photo wit one of her eyes half closed while looking glassy and disconnected. Above her head reads "Max Hardcore" and as many people know, this is the creator of very violent and stomach-churning pornography. Slutwalk NYC may or may not have added this photograph themselves, but it is unlikely that their group album is open to all of the over 2,000 members. If it is open to all members then I will be concerned as to why supporters of the march would post such material. Even more alarming about this photo was its placement next to another photo of a young woman from the march. This woman also had the word "SLUT" scrawled on her forehead. Under this photo, the caption reads "before" and it is oddly placed AFTER the photograph of the semen-drenched woman which bares the caption "after." 
My question is why, if NYC Slutwalk is concerned with women's liberation and creating an inclusive and safe march, would they walk alongside white women carrying a sign with the n-word on it and possibly posting a photo from a violent porn site on their group?  


Disgusting.


For more on the racism at the NYC Slutwalk, please check out these:


Racialicious: Which Women Are What Now? Slutwalk NYC and Failures in Solidarity

Racialicious: Slutwalk, Slurs, and Why Feminism Still Has Race Issues 

The Crunk Feminist Collective: I Saw the Sign but Did We Really Need a Sign?: SlutWalk and Racism
Akiba Solomon from Colorlines.com: More Thoughts on SlutWalk: No Attention is Better Than Bad Attention

The Academy Awards: A Critique

photo found here

It's that time of year again! Well, almost that time of year, where the celebrities in celebrity-land celebrate each other's fame and wealth by handing out golden statues while simultaneously promoting white-supremacist and misogynistic values. The Academy Awards has been and likely will continue to be a patriarchal, racist, sexist and overall ridiculous event.

Before you jump up and down and tell me about how not even a handful of non-white people have won any awards or how a female director won an award last year, so all must be forgiven, let me explain myself.

A woman was awarded the Best Director title last year, the same year that a black woman won for Best Supporting Actress and a black man won for his screenplay for the film "Precious"

Now, this is great, yes? They are "leveling" out the playing field, right?

No, they're not. They simply decided, as far as I have observed, that on one particular show they would ease everyone's criticisms by awarding two women, one of them a black woman and a black man with their well-deserved awards. This way, the Academy can feel better when they continue to over-award white Americans and literally ignore everyone else’s talent and accomplishments.

It is interesting, also, that the year Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won, the Academy decided to make a dedication to Sydney Poitier, the first African American to win an Oscar. Coincidence? But they did not do this on a show where only white performers won, which is almost every show. Of course, this year is no different. There is still the patronizing “Foreign Film” category that lumps all non-Hollywood films into one group that is meant to distinguish films from Western-made films. The category is given a complete lack of care. For example, when the leading awards come out, everyone is excited…but no one even blinks when foreign films are mentioned.

My point is that the gross lack of female and non-white representation in this Award show is astonishing.

Let’s look at the reality, shall we?

Every single year the Academy, who is apparently some divine and awe-invoking group of white, upperclass cinephiles that make it their life work to award other upper class white people with fancy awards that cost ridiculous sums of money. The academy is praised and respected amongst Hollywood elites while crowds of non-celebrities huddle around their television sets and ooh and awe at the hungry starlets in their designer dresses. The whole event illustrates to the world that it is indeed stratified, horribly so by class, race and sex. The women are told to lose as much weight possible to fit into their small, custom-made designer dresses while the men stand idolly by looking stoic in their full-body suits. Clearly, a lady must dress accordingly while she watches her male counterparts steal most of the nominations, particularly for directing and writing.

The whole event is as traditionally gendered and classed as you can possibly imagine. Yet, the public gravitates towards this yearly spectacle as if it is the coming of Christ. They weep when their favourite elite celebrities weep during their acceptance speech. They cheer when their chosen white male director wins, or their favourite white female actress takes home a hunk of gold phallus. Magazines rush to publish photos of female attendees. The so-called fashion critics rush to call them fat, make fun of their choice of dress or mock them for their choice of date or lack thereof. A woman is to be escorted to the event, as she is unable to get there by herself. She is also unable to come up with her own dress -if she does then she’s ridiculed for weeks in the media. We are told prior to the show, on the so-called “red-carpet”, who designed what dress and why it matters so much. Shameless marketing ploys are big money on the red-carpet.  

Why does it matter? Why does any of this matter?

Why are we so horribly consumed with celebrities and their obscene lifestyles? Why do we praise and cheer the white supremacist hollywood cliques that perpetuate gender myths, gender roles, beauty standards, racism, sexism and classism? Why do we gather around and cry with our beloved hollywood stars? It is so horribly pathetic.

The whole show is one big pat on the back. The stars tell other stars how amazing their performances were, all the while ignoring important cinema by seperating non-hollywood film into “foreign film”, because clearly, the films aren’t acceptable enough compete directly with the Hollywood films. This is problematic in itself, not to mention the lack of recognition the category holds. The celebrities don’t care and neither does the academy. One would rather clap for the Black Swan or True Grit then give two shits about a film made in Sudan or Japan for example.

The exclusion does not stop there.

In the 81 years that the Academy Awards has existed, according to filmsite.org, only  18 African-American nominations have been given for Best Actor between 12 different actors. The only African-American actors that have been nominated more than once are Poitier, Freeman, Washington and Smith.  Overall, there has been only 20 different African-American actors and actresses nimnated for a top award. Only 13 awards have actually been WON by African-American actors and actresses in both leading and supporting roles and a mere 5 African-American performers have won an Oscar in a leading category. Only 4 have won best actor.

For 81 years, this is bloody pathetic.

To add to this, we often see non-white filmmakers and non-white films being ignored completely by the Academy.

For example, according to the same site:

There have been only a few Best Actor Oscar wins by ethnic/other minority (or non-English) performers:

Italian actor Roberto Benigni won the Best Actor Oscar for Life is Beautiful (1998) - he was the first male actor to win an Oscar for a foreign-language film (his Best Actor Oscar win was only the second time a nominee won an acting Oscar for a foreign language film role - the earlier winner was Sophia Loren)

Ben Kingsley, with half-Indian (birth name Krishna Bhanji) and half-English descent, won the Best Actor Oscar for Gandhi (1982) - he became the firstSouth Asian performer to achieve such a feat

Puerto Rican-born Jose Ferrer won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

Anyone else noticing a pattern? Why is this being ignored by these so-called well intentioned Oscar-addicts?

Another obvious occurrence with these awards is giving out nominations for roles that include rich white historical figures. Think “The Kings Speech”, a story about a Monarch and his speech impediment. It is rich with wealthy white actors who are, without surprise, up for a bunch of awards this year. I am not debating that the film is not worthy of awards, I am merely stating that there is a disctinct pattern.

Women are also horribly misrepresented at these Awards. Rarely do we see a woman of colour take an award or even a nomination, instead, youthful, traditionally beautiful white women take home all the goods. Not only are many women ignored at these awards, but all of the women are poked, prodded at and judged because of how they present themselves at these award shows. They are pushed to lose even more weight and maintain a level of “class” at the show while the men dress alike and chat with their fellow performers. The women are always the main attraction for gossip hungry celebrity programs and media outlets. It’s really a shame. Only one woman of colour has taken home a lead actress award and that was Halle Berry. The rest of the best actress awards are dolled out to white women. No surprise.

It appears the majority of Oscar lovers are unwilling to challenge the realities of this award show. They are unwilling to challenge the cultural product that is the Academy Awards. It is a cultural product – it is part of the mass media, yet it often goes uncritiqued and unexamined. We tend to view the celebrities as separate from ourselves. We give them god-like status in society and weep when they do. It is all rather unfortunate that we can’t see through this façade and realize the sheer bigotry and subjectivity that goes into the “decision making” of the Academy.

Finally, a question - Is this show even about film? Is it really about creativity, or is it about a bunch of rich people getting together, congratulating each other and making some money? It’s hard not to be cynical when the whole thing is so bloody laughable. If anything were to encompass issues of sexism, racism, classism, ageism and the like, this event has it all. 

So, grab your popcorn kids because Febuary 27^th is the Academy Awards and there’s a whole lot of bullshit waiting to be watched and a whole lot of misgonazis waiting to dissect the women at the award shows and make everyone who isn’t white nearly invisible. 

Social Experiment on Racism and Thoughts on White Privilege

Image found here

Anthropology of "Race" is the name of my latest class. I know for a fact that this course will be one of the most important ones I ever take; not just because it's a degree requirement, but because it speaks the very truth that my fellow white students and I need to hear.

The class began with a brief introduction. My professor, who confirmed that she was a white, middle class woman and that, although spent much time living in African and Chinese communities, will never know what racism feels like. She is kind, honest, and genuine; her lectures serve to start discussions so the material really sinks in. After this brief introduction to the course, she showed us a film called The Angry Eye that really opened my eyes. It started out like a poorly edited, 1990's educational film but it turned into something very different. Teacher, Jane Elliott, a dedicated educator, anti-racism advocate decides to film a series of experiments with willing student volunteers. These experiments are dated, of course - Jane Elliott did not create them, but she did use them in a way that proved the existence of racism and white privilege in a way that really hit home. The experiment was created with the intention to separate groups of people - think of Hitler; he separated people into various categories as a way to justify hatred and discrimination.

Jane Elliott is not shy to admit that she used one of the same categories that Hitler used, but a major difference is that Elliott wants to abolish racism and prejudice while Hitler wanted to create more. The categorization that she used in this particular film is based on blue-eyed people and brown-eyed people. The blue-eyed volunteers are placed into a room with their blue-eyed peers, while Jane Elliott sits in a room with the brown-eyed students. Amongst the brown-eyed students are many non-white students. Elliott, who is not afraid to get angry, tells the brown-eyed students to treat the blue-eyed students as if they were not humans, to taunt them and call them "boy" or "chick, baby, hunny" instead of their names. She places eight or so chairs in the middle of the room while the brown-eyed group sits in chairs surrounding them - similar to a jury setting.                                                             

The blue-eyed students are ushered in, with green collars made of paper around their necks to signify that they are indeed "blueys", as Elliott stated. This was yet another way to illustrate a lack of power for the blue-eyed, white students. Jane hassles one of the white women about not bringing supplies to class and tries to get her to list out various words in order and recall them. She continues to badger her and asks the same questions over and over. The young woman starts to get angry and talks back. The teacher ignores this and so eventually the woman gets so upset that she began to cry. The non-white students look at the white woman as if they had known it all too well. There is not the same shock in their eyes as their white classmates, who look very defensive.

The woman remains in class as Elliott moves on with the experiment. A young blonde woman sits and stares as Elliott asks her to read text from a sign. The signs on the walls regurgitate old racial absurdities such as "Only Brown Eyes Need Apply", "I'm not prejudiced, I don't see color" and various others. Elliott begins to interrupt the woman, telling her to speak more clearly. Bitterly, Elliott tells the woman that she is failing the task and just as the other white woman; she tries to snap back at the teacher. Elliott continued anyway. Finally, the woman starts to cry and walks out of the room. Shortly after, the woman returns to the room and sits near the door. Elliott looks at the woman and says, "You exercised a freedom that many people can't." She advises her that she has to apologize to every person in the class or she will have to leave. The woman appears desperate, but stands up and states, "I'm sorry, but the racism in our society..."Elliot interrupts her, reminding her that her apology was not genuine at all. The woman leaves the class.

The white students look shocked. The non-white students start to say things that sound unbelievable. A black woman from the crowd says something along the lines of, "She just walked out of here, we don't have the power to do that, it's not like she was having things thrown at her, or having people call her names."  Another black woman says something like, "Now they see what I go through every day."

Immediately, my realization kicks in, all I can think is, "Teachers throw things at their students? Since when?!"

After the film, my brain could not comprehend the material right away. But then it hit me. I realized that I would have not handled the situation well either, I realized that I had a whole lot of white privilege that I hadn't even known about. By this I mean, if I had been one of the white women, and if this was when I was younger, I likely would have acted that way, too. I would have gotten all defensive, snobby and angry. In high school, I was oblivious to privilege and power in society; I was oblivious to a lot of things.

In my opinion, that experiment taught students the truth. The truth being that society is racist in so many ways. It's not just the school system - it's the prison systems, the government and other major institutions.  It illustrates what it may feel like to be treated like a non-human. Obviously an experiment where the people are in no real danger is not anywhere near similar to what non-white people have gone through because of racism. Nevertheless, I believe that if white people just took their heads out of their asses, they could make some changes.

This experiment is a perfect example with problems with power in our society. The white-students displayed such ease in "talking back" to the teacher. They knew they were physically safe, yet they stormed out of the class. They knew they were not in any real danger. That in itself reveals just how much privilege white people have, not to mention middle class, heterosexual white people.

Another view that I took away from this film was surrounding the idea that class and race play a central role in privilege and oppression in our society. For example, if you put a black male and a white male together in a room, who would you say has more privileges in our society?  You're right; the white male has more privilege. This can also pertain to women; we would state that a white, middle class feminist has far more privileges than a non-white woman, or even a white woman who is of the working class. There are far more examples, for instance: sexual orientation and gender identity. A lesbian woman has far less privileges than a homosexual male, for example. However, if you are intersex, transgender or two-spirited you will have much less privileges than a white heterosexual male or a white class-privileged homosexual male.

This is the multi-layered and multi-faceted system of oppression, which in my opinion, needs to be brought down.

Finally, I hope you all can check out Jane Elliott's experiments and other works. It was really an eye-opener to actually see this scenario play out in a real life situation, on purpose. If you would like to watch the video, I can provide some links to possible clips. I'm not 100% sure if they will work, or if they are in full, but it's worth a shot!

Here is a clip from the film

Links - January 12, 2011

Links - January 12, 2011

• To My Potential Allies "White Feminist and the Purity Obsession"

• The Bitch Who Roared "Male-identified women and collusion with white male supremacy"

• Sociological Images "Baby Preacher: An Example of Religious Socialization" 
  

• The Guardian "Earth must prepare for close encounter with aliens, say scientists"

• Sociological Images "Adultification and Sexualization of Girls in French Vogue"

• Guardian "WikiLeaks: Secret whaling deal plotted by US and Japan"

• Guardian "Republicans Kill Global Warming Committee" 

• About-Face "Kanye West and his sexy, dead bitches in “Monster” video"