Food for thought, and action

[starlady]

What an epic tale of near-disaster, close shaves, and epic logistical failure on the grad school application front I could unfold for you, dear readers. But the story's not finished yet, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.


In the meantime, via inkstone on Twitter, holzman discusses the white privilege inherent in some permutations of the reaction to the Peter Watts imbroglio. I have not been following the matter at all other than noting that it happened, so let me be unequivocal, although a day late and a dollar short: What happened to Peter Watts happens to people routinely, but should not happen to anyone, no matter their race or citizenship. Nor should borders be places in which people attempting to cross them involuntarily and automatically surrender their rights, both civil, legal, and human (which they, or at least the U.S. borders, essentially are now).

On a tangentially related note, I received this holiday card from Delta Airlines today. I note that while other cities are represented by architectural landmarks, Johannesburg is accompanied by an image of a giraffe and Tokyo has an image, from the rear, of a Japanese woman in kimono amongst bamboo trees. Mm, stereotype much? Last year's card from Northwest was much better, but that was pre-merger.

ETA: Via synecdochic, LiveJournal's next code push will a) make the gender field in the profile mandatory; and b) make the gender choice binary (i.e. either male or female). The post at Denise's journal has the relevant links to changelog and to the LJ feedback form.

Oh, LiveJournal. More and more I think that I'm just not comfortable giving them my business, let alone posting my content there (you'll notice I have never posted any fanworks to my LJ account; only links to them at other sites). I think 2010 will probably be my last year as a paid account holder.

ETA 2: I encourage people to consider DreamWidth as an alternative. There are invite codes available for the taking at dw_codesharing; no need to give anyone your email address.

Comments

[langwidere]

I am never shocked or surprised by an abuse of power by law enforcement personnel. I was sort of brought up to expect nothing but negative conduct from any style or permutation of police officer (in an Irish-American family, hilariously enough), or indeed from anyone in a position of power, from teachers to politicians to crossing guards. Having said that, though, I’m not completely sure Dr. Watts’s situation symbolizes the insidious evil of white supremacy — not that there aren’t unpleasant connotations to the outrage surrounding his predicament. I think that Americans rely far too much on famous people complaining loudly about injustices they’ve suffered (or, injustices they imagine they’ve suffered) to inspire us to pretend to fight the wickedness of the Western world. Which is stupid and doesn’t work, of course, because if anyone actually cared in the first place systematic injustice wouldn’t be allowed to happen to anyone, ever, anyway. We would, as a culture, preemptively move to build the potential for human rights violations out of any given social structure. Like, why are border guards afforded the the ability to violently arrest people? They’re the functional equivalent of the workers who scan bags at the airport. I think that when something bad happens, they should call in armed reinforcements, not punch and pepper-spray 'suspects.' But, you know, that’s just me.

Also Dr. Watts appears to be a smart-alecky interlectuil, a shortcoming which would probably annoy bored, tiny-brained ossifers nearly as much as the condition of being a suspicious-looking brown person.

Also I thought that the beer-summit at the White House post-Gates Scandal was horrifyingly meaningless, inappropriate, and symbolic. And fuck racial harmony if it means that even one potential racist stays in uniform.

Also, and unrelated, but LJ has gotten even more icky than it used to be, which is really saying something. I think I’m over it now, too.

Also, thank you for posting the codes-comm link.

[starlady]

Hah, maybe the distrust of police is an unsung part of the Irish-American cultural legacy, as I received a great deal of it too, in my own (somewhat) Irish-American upbringing.

Which, yeah. I am a smart-alecky interlectuil type, and hell yes I keep my mouth shut and my head down when I go through airport, border, whatever security and/or interact with law enforcement figures, in whatever country, and what I can't help but wonder is why Peter Watts thought it was a good idea to argue, because it isn't. Period. But that shouldn't necessarily be so, certainly.

Which is stupid and doesn’t work, of course, because if anyone actually cared in the first place systematic injustice wouldn’t be allowed to happen to anyone, ever, anyway.

I think you're right, and I think the key word there is "systematic." In my experience as a society we do middling at protesting isolated, flagrant examples of injustice, but dealing with the underlying problems and structures is where we fall down. Repeatedly. Or, we're better at injustice "over there" than in our own country. I do think the capacity to be only selectively bothered, though, is unquestionably an expression of privilege.

I'm 99% certain that I'm going to let my paid account lapse next month. And I think I'm going to start trying to chivy more of the discussions to my DW account. I'm sure there will be a learning curve involved.