Restructure's Comments

Womanist Musings : Today Womanist Musings Turns Two

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:10:47 +0000

Happy blogiversary! But can you re-enable showing the full posts in your (RSS/atom) feeds?

Womanist Musings : Wednesday Whatâs Up

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:13:08 +0000

Halifax apologizes for razing Africville Don't read the comments, unless you want to make yourself sad and angry.

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame: Childhood Crushes

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:31:06 +0000

I'm sorry, Renee. :(

Womanist Musings : British Survey Suggests That Women Are To Blame For Rape

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:31:18 +0000

Kung-fu don't work with gun, foo! You cannot guarantee that if anyone goes after you, they'd be dead.

Womanist Musings : Vegans, Vegetarians Itâs Time To Talk

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:02:36 +0000

White people didn't invent vegetarianism. Most/many Brahmin Hindus and Buddhists are vegetarian for religious reasons, and there are probably more vegetarians of colour worldwide than white vegetarians. Vegetarians of colour existed centuries before PeTA, and centuries before the alleged birth of Christ.

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame: Dark Chocolate

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:08:30 +0000

I love dark chocolate too, but Renee's post on fair trade chocolate just about eliminated my consumption of non-fair-trade chocolate. I had thought that fair trade products were only about economic self-sufficiency (and anti-colonialism), which is worthy in itself, but I didn't know that non-fair-trade chocolate contributed to child slavery. The connection Renee made between her son Destruction and the enslaved black Ghanian boy he saw in the photo really hit it home for me. Now every time I see non-fair-trade chocolate, I think of an oppressed child who is around the same age as Renee's son in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and black like him. (I don't know anything about Destruction other than what she blogs about, but he seems awesome.)

Womanist Musings : Letâs Celebrate MLK Day With Fried Chicken

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:30:48 +0000

MLK's favorite food was pecan pie, from what I gather. However, Denver Public School would rather serve sweet potato pie than pecan pie, because it fits better with the stereotypes.

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame:True Dat Edition

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:33:49 +0000

I didn't mean green tea tastes bad. It tastes great (unless it's matcha). Coffee and black tea are bitter. Another pretentious thing I do now is that when I eat fish and chips, I don't put ketchup on the fries. I just use vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame:True Dat Edition

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:53:07 +0000

I use maple syrup only on French toast or pancakes, but it has to be real maple syrup made in Canada. However, I do like maple syrup flavoured cereal or oatmeal, and I used to like maple sugar cookies before I generally banned myself from cookies. I used to be pretty gross with ketchup, though only with salty/savoury foods, not sweet dishes. Now I'm one of those pretentious people who drink green tea and optimize for health over taste.

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame:True Dat Edition

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:24:45 +0000

Also, if there is something that you do that anti the stereotypes associated with your country of origin please share. Imagine, the idea of individuals running around the planet.

I don't care about hockey (unless it's the Olympics). I don't care about Timmy's or coffee; I drink tea. Most stereotypes non-Canadians have about Canadians are false, obviously: I'm not white, I don't live in an igloo, I'm not a lumberjack, I don't live in a cabin. I live in Toronto, which is anti Canadian to many Canadians outside of Toronto, because they think urban cities and non-white people are not really Canadian, or some crap like that.

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame:True Dat Edition

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:39:38 +0000

LOL! I had to vote you up for that.

Womanist Musings : Where are you fromâ¦really?

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:32:01 +0000

Basically, this is the story they teach us: Underground Railroad (lol, propaganda) (That clip still annoys me, with the loud, irrational black people versus calm, rational white people. And white saviours.)

Womanist Musings : Where are you fromâ¦really?

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:25:53 +0000

Nope. For all those Februaries from Grade 1 to my last year of high school, they never taught me that Canada had slavery. (However, maybe they taught it in some obscure elective history course, who knows?) I'm sure most Canadian teachers didn't know that Canada had slavery. I only learned about it a few years ago by chance, probably having to do with a press release about Afua Cooper's Hanging Of Angelique or something.

Womanist Musings : Wednesday Whatâs Up?

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:39:56 +0000

Just so you know, Nezua's The White Professional Anti-Racist now has a transcript! I also added the transcript to my post about it with altered text formatting (I didn't like so much bolding) and minor grammar edits.

Womanist Musings : Guess Who is Blacker than Barack Obama: Rod Blagojevich

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:12:12 +0000

There are some good points at Shakesville: snobographer wrote:

"My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived."
Dad made damn sure you didn't live in the black community, didn't he.

pbrim wrote:

And as snobographer pointed out, it was near the black community, but not in it. Born in 1956, he attended segregated schools for all or most of his schooling. But I'm sure he actually saw some black people from time to time! Totes the same, y'all!!!!

Womanist Musings : Drop It Like Itâs Hot

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:55:05 +0000

Re: Can you really return a child?: What this discussion needs to be about...

I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm fucking pissed off as hell right now. I have just discovered that a certain womanist has been on my blog and posting links on hers to a previous post I did about adoption. A few months back, I got into it with this womanist when she made some rather vulgar comments in a post about white adoptive parents (namely Angelina Jolie). To be honest, I didn't stick around for long enough for a second response from her (the first response she gave when I confronted her just came off as arrogant and uninformed) nor have I visited her blog since. For all I know she may have talked her way out of looking like an ass, but I really wouldn't know. It troubles me that she decided to post this specific link. It troubles me because my post if misconstrued and twisted could be seen to support the arrogant assumptions she made about white adoptive parents.

(I'm assuming she's talking about you?) Note: I'm not trying to cause trouble, but these are other people's lived experiences we are discussing, and we non-adopted POC probably do not understand the nuances of the writings of transracially adopted POC. Being non-adopted is a privilege, and we need to try to focus on criticisms to compensate for confirmation bias in the assumptions we carry.

Womanist Musings : KFC- Black Folk Love The Chicken

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 16:33:13 +0000

Just to clarify, the commercial looks really racist to me, but I learned about the chicken and watermelon stereotypes only as an adult, through U.S-based Internet discussions. (Also, even without the stereotype, it plays into the idea that people from a different culture are simplistic and easy to please. Not that they were even threatening him in the first place, as they were just happy and dancing. Perhaps black people eating chicken is less threatening to him psychologically than black people dancing? How does it remove the awkwardness that only he perceives?)

Womanist Musings : KFC- Black Folk Love The Chicken

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 15:55:56 +0000

KFC pulls ad over racism complaints: U.S. complaints quash Australian commercial

Womanist Musings : KFC- Black Folk Love The Chicken

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 01:00:58 +0000

Hmm, I personally thought the fried chicken and watermelon stereotypes were specific to African Americans in the United States (and not blacks in Canada, although Canadians may be aware of the stereotypes through U.S. media). I thought those stereotypes would not stick in Canada, because KFC, although popular, is not as popular as in the U.S. (Canadians tend to eat healthier and deep-fried foods are not as popular as in the U.S.), and we probably don't eat as much watermelon as Americans because watermelon is not a local produce (cold weather). Basically, fried chicken and watermelons are like Southern food. In Toronto at least, aren't the stereotypes more like Jamaican patties and goat curry?

Womanist Musings : For Some, Every Muslim is a Guilty Muslim

Fri, 8 Jan 2010 14:32:39 +0000

Imagine for a second that the racial make up of the 9-11 hijackers, the Fort Hood shooter, the Christmas Day fire bomber was that of a white male. Now further qualify that as a white male from the ages of 25-40, Christian, and a shaved head. That fits me pretty well and if that was the case, you bet I would expect to get special attention every time I attempted to get on a plane.

But there have been many terrorists in the past that fit that description, and white male Christians ages of 25-40 were never profiled, because:

it's easier to see the dominant group in society as being too big, sprawling and differentiated to lump under one term. It's easy for us to see that lumping the acts of organized white supremacist groups in with the evil fantasies of loners, throwing neo-Nazis and anti-abortion extremists together under one "right-wing terrorist" banner is reductive and useless. There are so many different kinds of white men! How can you possibly throw them under one profile? What good would that do? Whereas it's easier to make the same kind of reductive mistake with Muslim extremists, American and international, of differing sects, races, nationalities and grievances, many of whom despise each other.

Restructure's Comments

Womanist Musings : Today Womanist Musings Turns Two

Womanist Musings : Wednesday Whatâs Up

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame: Childhood Crushes

Womanist Musings : British Survey Suggests That Women Are To Blame For Rape

Womanist Musings : Vegans, Vegetarians Itâs Time To Talk

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame: Dark Chocolate

Womanist Musings : Letâs Celebrate MLK Day With Fried Chicken

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame:True Dat Edition

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame:True Dat Edition

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame:True Dat Edition

Womanist Musings : Sunday Shame:True Dat Edition

Womanist Musings : Where are you fromâ¦really?

Womanist Musings : Where are you fromâ¦really?

Womanist Musings : Wednesday Whatâs Up?

Womanist Musings : Guess Who is Blacker than Barack Obama: Rod Blagojevich

Womanist Musings : Drop It Like Itâs Hot

Womanist Musings : KFC- Black Folk Love The Chicken

Womanist Musings : KFC- Black Folk Love The Chicken

Womanist Musings : KFC- Black Folk Love The Chicken

Womanist Musings : For Some, Every Muslim is a Guilty Muslim

Womanist Musings : Wednesday Whatâs Up

Womanist Musings : Vegans, Vegetarians Itâs Time To Talk

Womanist Musings : Letâs Celebrate MLK Day With Fried Chicken

Womanist Musings : Where are you fromâ¦really?

Womanist Musings : Where are you fromâ¦really?

Womanist Musings : Wednesday Whatâs Up?

Womanist Musings : Drop It Like Itâs Hot