wlotus: (Princess)
There are people who seem to have forgotten a couple of common sense ideas. I shall now be a good citizen of the human race and remind you all of those ideas.

1. Not all women are pencil-thin.

2. Not all round women are pregnant.

3. Unless you see, with your own eyes, a baby emerging from that woman's body at that very moment, do not ask a woman who has not mentioned being pregnant when she is due! (See #2.)

Thank you, my fellow humans, for your attention to these matters.
wlotus: (Peaceful)
[livejournal.com profile] sophiaserpentia made an excellent post on why it is unhelpful to put someone down for being offended on the internet.

As a feminist and a leftist i get this a lot: the implication that if i find something offensive which they did not -- or especially if it is something they found funny or amusing -- that i am overly sensitive and, if i am so easily offended, maybe i shouldn't be using the internet.

Look, please don't say this to people. It's not helpful.


Read the rest...
wlotus: (Burning Rage)
I thought today was Good Friday. Instead I seem to have awakened in Stuck on Stupid Day. It has been a long time since I have been aware of so much stupidity in one day.


I Know She Didn't Just Say What I Thought I Heard Her Say:
Part 1


T and I watched the news this morning as we prepared for our day. That was when we heard of Texas Rep. Betty Brown's suggestion that people of Asian descent adopt names that are easier for Americans to handle. She gave her suggestion when an associate member of the Organization of Chinese Americans testified how people of Asian descent sometimes have trouble voting because of differences between their legal names and the English name shown on their driver's licenses.

That is her solution as a white American? I contend she and her ilk would do better to stop being so lazy and learn how to wrap their tongues around people's given names, no matter their ethnicity, rather than using their tongues to make such asinine statements from their position of privilege.


I Know He Didn't Just Say What I Thought I Heard Him Say

A coworker, W, was asked by the manager to help T perform some heavy tasks she could not perform on her own. Said coworker bellyached, ignored T as much as possible, and only did half of what was asked. T brought it up to the manager later, who asked W what was going on. W said he was pissed off that when T came in this morning, he did not hear her say, "Good morning" to him.

He was not ashamed to admit to his boss that he had his tighty-whiteys in a bunch over not hearing T say, "Good morning"?!? He was not embarrassed at allowing his petty childishness keep him from doing his job?!? Back to grade school with him, pronto. That is a job site, not kindergarten.

This sort of behavior towards T is common in that department, where T is the only female. The next person to tell me women are more difficult to work with than men because they are bigger gossips, fiercer backstabbers, and over-emotional harpies will get a visit from my version of [livejournal.com profile] ptownnyc's Stabby.


I Know She Didn't Just Say What I Thought I Heard Her Say:
Part 2


T sat down on the train with her MP3 player and relaxed on the ride home. At one point an elderly white woman got on the train, looked at T and the two Asian men sitting next to T, and demanded, "Which one of you is going to get up?" One Asian man tore his earbuds out of his ears and looked at the woman in shock. The other jumped right out of his seat to let the woman sit down. T was sure she had not just hear that question and didn't react until a black man across the aisle angrily asked his partners, "Did you hear what she SAID?!?" When he repeated the woman's question T realized her ears had not been deceiving her, after all. This led to a long, loud discussion amongst T and the black men about racists and how shameful it is that they all have not died out. The white woman in question buried herself in her newspaper. When the train reached its destination, the other white passengers' body language suggested they were very embarrassed to have witnessed that woman's behavior.

Her wrinkled ass should have had to stand the entire ride. I believe in respecting my elders, but respect is a two-way street.

What year is it, again?!?
wlotus: (Eyes Wide Open)
Americans are not numb to tragedy, or the recent mass killings in the news would not be news. Rather, violence seems inevitable for many overwhelmed, angry people. But that is not a new thing; the hopeless rage and resulting violence (often against one another) of historically oppressed groups in the US has gone on for generations. It is only now that white Americans are beginning to feel the same things and act out in the same ways against each other or experience it in the midst of their neighborhoods that the mainstream media is asking, "Oh, my goodness: what has gone wrong?!?"
wlotus: (Eyes Wide Open)
I have tried, for several days, to find a word that best describes how I feel about this year's presidential election cycle...rather, to find the words that most politely describe my feelings and will not burn bridges between me and people whose friendships I wish to retain. After a lot of private venting and after reading the public blog of a Christian who chooses not to participate in the voting process due to the power imbalance it perpetuates--this person cannot, in good conscience, participate in a process which demands someone must lose and be forced to endure a legislature they find untenable--I have come up with two words.


Betrayed.
Invisible.


When the election odyssey started, my research started. I listened to the mainstream media. I listened to first-hand accounts of people's experiences. I listened to the candidates. I listened to people's opinions. I began to see a very different story was happening on the ground than what was being reported in the media. There was a lot of fraud and race-baiting happening from the camp of the now president-elect. There was a lot of mockery from his supporters. There was resistance to the truth. I do not know why the mainstream media failed to report on these things that people saw and experienced with their own eyes. But I know I spread the word, sometimes passionately. I posted about these things here and usually did not allow dissenting discussion, as that only served to perpetuate the half-truths the media was telling and obscure the fact that things were not as many people believed them to be.

For my efforts I was called an uninformed liar. I was called bitterly paranoid and close-minded. I was told to grow up. I was told to filter my political posts rather than keeping them public--my blog was a way for me to share many aspects of my life, not just politics--and when I refused, I lost readers, some of whom called themselves friends. It was so important to them that they not be exposed to the truths I told that they were willing to entirely walk away from the venue by which I shared my life with them, rather than merely skipping the political posts the way I skipped political posts I did not agree with. It hurt, but I continued to put the truth out there, sure it would help people make the right decision. And in the end, the country voted into office the very person who had lied and cheated to get the Democratic nomination. My words and the words of many like me did not matter to those people, except as something to complain and joke about. To say I feel "betrayed" by their decision (some of whom started out in the same camp) is a polite understatement, but in the interest of not burning bridges, it is the best I can do.

Now I feel, for the most part, invisible. (That is, when I am not being targeted as an object of angry derision.) I grew up in an environment where I was shown and told my views did not matter and would not be considered, even if the outcome of others' decisions directly affected me. This feels like more of the same. The media ignored me. Some folks who called themselves my friends ignored me. They are going on with their celebrations without any concern for the warnings folks like me gave them. It is as though we and our warnings do not exist. The outcome of the 2000 and 2004 elections affected me in exactly the same way, with one exception: the bulk of my friends and associates felt as I did. Back then I had them to mourn with me. Now I mourn alone or amongst near-strangers.

So now I wonder why should I bother participating in the election process. It has been a long time since I have felt my vote matters. This will be the third consecutive administration which is opposed to my concerns. Adding insult to injury is the fact this administration will come from the party I used to believe represented me and my ideals. I am reading the posts of a Christian who chooses not to participate in the voting process, and I will read the various reference materials this person has compiled of like-minded thinkers. Part of me does not want to take that road; as an African-American and a woman, I am aware many people suffered a lot of pain and indignity and even gave their lives just for me to have that right to vote, today. As someone who has gained more respect for the role third parties play in our political system, I am aware supporting them often forces the two major parties to address concerns they would otherwise ignore, and failing to support them insures the political landscape will remain bipolar. But at least on the national scale, it is obvious my views and my vote do not make a bit of difference in the outcome of things. So why should I bother?

I do not yet have the answer to that question, but I will return to it in the years to come.

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