For strong womyn everywhere: "Internet Plus Equality"

[Veho]

So you mean all those times I got filthy and sunburned when hiking through a tropical jungle it was in fact that the local tribes were mad at me for wearing blackface and not my raiding their lands?

That's just adding insult to injury.

 

[Veho]

"Pointing out that I'm a lying hypocrite is sexism ;O; "

 

[Foxi4]

I have something other than video game-related pseudo-sexism today and I want to draw attention to the so-called "trans-n-words" that I brought up on the earlier page. Now, I thought it was humorous that someone would post something like that, I wasn't expecting anyone to "live the lie" in earnest. Well, how surprised I was when I was reading my news feed recently. By this time the issue hit major news outlets, so you're probably familiar with the Rachel Dolezal case. If you're not, I'll familiarize you with it.

Until recently she was the president of an N.A.A.C.P chapter in Spokane, Washington. What's N.A.A.C.P, you might ask? Why, it's the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A noble cause, no doubt - one worth supporting. Rachel Dolezal was a natural candidate for the position - she's as ethnic as it gets. According to the initial interview her family tree is a mixture of white, black and native american for good measure - it could only be more perfect if she also had asian ancestors, that would fill in the blanks in the palette of her family. She marked her ethnicity on an application for "chairwoman of Spokane's Office of Police Ombudsman Commission" as "black", and it's a role she volunteers to perform for the betterment of the neighbourhood. On top of all this great body of work, she is a part-time Africana Studies professor at Eastern Washington University - she finds the time in her life to speak to the young minds of our generation. She's a charity worker in touch with the police as well as the education sector, clearly the plight of the black community is not alien to her, truly she was the right pick for the job.

Except she ain't black. She never was black, and the only black part that was ever in her was her ex-husband. She's as white as can be in America, her herritage is German, Swedish and Czech with "trace amounts of Native American". She has subsequently lied about her family by labeling a completely unrelated black man as her father while calling her actual father "a step-father" and labeling her parent's adopted black son as "her son", she does so both on Facebook and in interviews. How does she deal with those allegations? Well... She "identifies as black". That's right, it doesn't matter what the facts are, what matters now is that you identify as someone and that makes it true.

"That question is not as easy as it seems... There's a lot of complexities … and I don't know that everyone would understand that... We're all from the African continent." was Dolezal's response when asked about her ethnicity. This long con has been going on for years throughout which she subsequently identified herself as "biracial", then "transracial" and finally "black". Except she's not, she's just in love with the idea of being black. "I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon, and the black curly hair", she reminisces as she describes her childhood. "I was socially conditioned to not own that, and to be limited to whatever biological identity was thrust upon me and narrated to me", she complains.

Of course, it would be too convenient for her to just be "transracial", right? Then we would be able to relate to her somehow, and we can't have that. See, Rachel is only black when it's convenient. What do I mean? Why, Dolezal sued her Alma Mater, a predominantly, "historically black" Howard University and the chairman of its art department. What for? Discriminating against her in order to favor African-American students. So, if she's not being treated fairly, she's not black anymore. Of course needless to say, the lawsuit was unsuccessful. Lies, deceit and personal gain all around - "I'm white when it's convenient, I'm black when it behooves me".

Of course Dolezal gets a lot of threats due to her grueling career of philanthropy, including nooses hung outside her house and letters. She reports all of them to he local police, naturally - there are at least eight recorded "hate crimes" directed against her. Funnily, according to the police, the latest batch of her "hate mail" had to be put into the mailbox by someone who has the key to it as the package had no barcodes or stamps on it which meant that it couldn't be sent by anyone. Sounds like the perfect Professional Victim case to me. She wants to be bad so bad, she wants to feel the plight so hard, but alas, she cannot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/rachel-dolezal-nbc-today-show.html?_r=0
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...parents-convincing-community-black-years.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/15/us/washington-rachel-dolezal-naacp/
http://abcnews.go.com/US/rachel-dol...eged-discrimination-favored/story?id=31787446

Wall of text, I know, but now that you've read it all, I have to say that I'm torn on this one. On one side, I'm totally on Martin Luther King's side - we should not judge people by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. Those really are words to live by, and words that make this issue both easy and problematic. What does it matter that she's not black? She too can fight for social justice for people of colour - anyone can. In fact, everyone should support equality among all races... And then comes the paradox - isn't she doing the opposite? She, quite literally, disguises herself as black, lies on official documents, lies to everyone she knows and represents... because she really wants to be black, like the colour of her skin matters so much to her. What is the content of her character? She's a liar who deceived everyone for social status and personal gain, should we not ostracize that?

Rachel Dolezal has since resigned from her role at the N.A.A.C.P and she is being investigated by the City of Spokane's authorities in regards to a possible breach of ethics in the process of hiring her as a chairwoman. A city's spokeperson had this to say: "We are committed to independent citizen oversight and take very seriously the concerns raised regarding the chair of the independent citizen police ombudsman commission (...) We are gathering facts to determine if any city policies related to volunteer boards and commissions have been violated. That information will be reviewed by the City Council, which has oversight of city boards and commissions. (...) The community wanted diversity and limited background checks (...) The low level background checks were intentional". Well, in that case, I guess the community got exactly what it wanted.

Opinions?

 

[vayanui8]

Wall of text, I know, but now that you've read it all, I have to say that I'm torn on this one. On one side, I'm totally on Martin Luther King's side - we should not judge people by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. Those really are words to live by, and words that make this issue both easy and problematic. What does it matter that she's not black? She too can fight for social justice for people of colour - anyone can. In fact, everyone should support equality among all races... And then comes the paradox - isn't she doing the opposite? She, quite literally, disguises herself as black, lies on official documents, lies to everyone she knows and represents... because she really wants to be black, like the colour of her skin matters so much to her. What is the content of her character? She's a liar who deceived everyone for social status and personal gain, should we not ostracize that?

Id say the fact that shes willing to lie about something like the color of her skin speaks volumes about her character. People like her are complete hypocrites.

 

[Foxi4]

Id say the fact that shes willing to lie about something like the color of her skin speaks volumes about her character. People like her are complete hypocrites.

I don't think a person who pretends to be black for personal gain should give me lectures about how the world around me is racist, you're absolutely right. She's the one obsessed with skin colour, not me.

 

[Veho]

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

You guys, she was a trans-black feminist who knew how to conduct things! You don't have to be blood related to any black people or have any black ancestors to be genetically black! You don't have to be born black to be naturally black!

 

[FAST6191]

Perhaps not strictly what we do here but I am going it anyway

http://cbldf.org/2015/06/college-student-wants-four-graphic-novels-eradicated-from-the-system/

A 20-year-old college student in Yucaipa, California is protesting the inclusion of four landmark graphic novels in an English class that she took during the recently-finished Spring 2015 semester at Crafton Hills College. According to the Redlands Daily Facts newspaper, Tara Shultz and her parents object to Persepolis, Fun Home, Y: The Last ManVol. 1, and The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House as “pornography” and “garbage.”

At least get a warning on the books. At most I would like the books eradicated from the system. I don’t want them taught anymore. I don’t want anyone else to have to read this garbage.

For the record the authors of said works include those given Eisner Awards for several years on the trot, a MacArthur grant, various other awards that would probably make most people's lives to nominated for and Neil Gaiman, otherwise known as the dude that Terry Pratchett suggested (and did) a collaboration with.

 

[Foxi4]

It's not the first time an Eisner award winner gets ragged on, the same happened to the controversial Spider Woman cover author earlier this year.

 

[Foxi4]

So the saga of Rachel Dolezal never ends, it seems. This time she's claiming to be bisexual, she's suing her brother for sexual harrasment when she was a child and accusing her husband of forcing her to participate in a sex tape.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Caitlyn-Jenner-s-story-cry-resonated-her.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...al-for-alleged-sexual-abuse-of-a-black-child/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...acts-camera-against-claimed-court-papers.html

Hyperactive imagination, attention-seeking or the most unlucky woman in the world? You decide.

 

[Nathan Drake]

At this point, she's probably just making shit up to try to get sympathy points to cover up the fact that she's, well, her.

 

[Vipera]

I'm looking for a cheap room in rent online. The cheapest are all"women only".

I wonder if I could sue them...

 

[Foxi4]

Seeing that we're still in an E3xcellent mood, here's a gem from last year:

http://kotaku.com/the-games-at-e3-2014-sure-had-a-lot-of-dudes-like-alwa-1589946384

 

[Veho]

 

[VinsCool]

Seeing that we're still in an E3xcellent mood, here's a gem from last year:

snip

http://kotaku.com/the-games-at-e3-2014-sure-had-a-lot-of-dudes-like-alwa-1589946384

 

[FAST6191]

I know it is also not quite what we do but I got an email from google as somewhere along the line I found myself responsible for an android developer account.

https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html#sensitive-events
" Sensitive Events: We don't allow content which may be deemed as capitalizing on or lacking reasonable sensitivity towards a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event. "

Not unreasonable on the face of it but somewhat vague and bets on the usual subjects here will find a way to make life fun.

 

[bkifft]

https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html#sensitive-events
" Sensitive Events: We don't allow content which may be deemed as capitalizing on or lacking reasonable sensitivity towards a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event. "

Hmmm. Will still using the Confederate flag in games qualify as "lacking reasonable sensitivity towards a [...] tragic event."?

 

[FAST6191]

It is something of a fantasy anyway. See 4 on http://www.cracked.com/article_19223_6-civil-war-myths-everyone-believes-that-are-total-b.s..html

Edit. Hmm as part of a search I saw Apple removed stuff because of it. I shall have to read more into things.

 

[bkifft]

@FAST6191 sorry, I should have included that piece of information.

For others who might not have heard about it: Apple went #fullmcintosh and removed all games that somehow featured the flag that is nowadays called the Confederate flag (better? ) from the app store, Amazon unlisted some boardgames depicting it.

Steam participated, too: the put "Ultimate General: Gettysburg" in the featured list. (Article: http://www.gamezone.com/news/steam-...rg-on-home-page-completely-owns-apple-3420437)

My two cents: Let's hope they aren't going after the swastika next, I like me shooting some of dem Nazimagigers.

 

[FAST6191]

So I was going through the park today and the remains of a carnival was there. I had to go and get my camera for this one.

Those with a heart condition should not use this ride?

The notion of a carny is not as prevalent in the UK as it is in the US but few would look to them as paragons of progressive thought. Some might say it is a catch all in case you were too short, too tall or too fat but I think we all know what they mean.