shuck'n'jive notes

"March, Rally to Fight Rape" - WE DID IT!!!!!!!! a big thanks from durham!

2007-04-29T23:26:00.001-04:00

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/569053.html

Sue Stock, Staff Writer DURHAM - In the city where sexual assault charges against three Duke lacrosse players became a national sensation, protesters gathered Saturday to decry sexual violence. The event, called the National Day of Truthtelling, drew people from the Triangle and beyond for a march, rally and afternoon of educational programs.

Organizers were quick to say that the event was not a response to this month's dismissal of charges against the three lacrosse players. But the case provided an undercurrent for the event, which included a stop at the home where an escort service dancer who was later discredited reported being gang-raped during a team party.

"We can take the energy around this case and we can heighten the silence around sexual violence, or we can push to break that silence," said Emily Chavez, a member of Ubuntu, one of the nine groups that pulled the event together. Ubuntu is led by women of color, most of whom have been victims of sexual violence.

The marchers began at E.K. Powe Elementary School on Ninth Street and wound their way through the streets, led by a percussion group. Participants carried bright signs and banners with slogans, including "We still believe survivors" and "End rape culture."

Others carried orange, yellow and green signs bearing African symbols from the Ivory Coast that represent the ideas of perseverance, strength and learning from one's past.

Brunch patrons outside Elmo's Diner on Ninth Street came to the curb to see what the commotion was about. Volunteer Manju Rajendran ran back and forth across the street handing out fliers explaining the march to onlookers and stopped drivers.

"We just heard the noise," Carrboro resident Jeanne Bishop said. "It's wonderful. They made a statement today, sure did."

About halfway through the march, the procession paused in front of 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. -- the house where the lacrosse team held its party and in which Crystal Gail Mangum reported being raped.

Durham resident and Duke doctoral student Alexis Pauline Gumbs read an open letter called "Wishful Thinking" addressed to the university's black women. In it, Gumbs spoke of the pain shared by sexual violence victims, along with some specifics of the Duke case. "No camera waits to amplify your pain," she said. "There is no law anywhere that depends on your silence."

From Buchanan Boulevard, the march proceeded to the Durham County Courthouse for the rally. Serena Sebring, also of Ubuntu, asked audience members to raise their hands if they or someone they love had been a victim of sexual violence. Nearly everyone in the audience did.

"Look around you," she said. "This is the reality. This is who sexual violence affects. This is why we must speak."

From the courthouse, the group marched to the W.D. Hill Recreation Center for more afternoon sessions and performances.

Though the Duke lacrosse case was on the minds of many throughout the day, participants tried to avoid defining the protest by that one case.

Even for groups such as Ubuntu, which was formed in March 2006 in the aftermath of the Duke lacrosse case, the event was about healing, speaking out and feeling safe.

"I live two blocks from where that house is," Gumbs said. "Trauma is triggered from where we live. We thought it was really important to reclaim our community."

but some of us are brave - aishah shahidah simmons supports the national day of truthtelling!

2007-04-15T22:04:00.000-04:00

But Some of Us Are Brave---In Support of the April 28, 2007 National Day of Truthtelling in Durham, North Carolina By Aishah Shahidah Simmons

While there are many folks who are rejoicing that Imus was fired, I fear that we may have won a battle but could have *temporarily* lost this relentless racist/sexist war against Black women in the United States. While most eyes were focused on the outcome of Imus' fate, the accused members of the Duke Lacrosse team were exonerated. Very, very tragically, many of the same Black (overwhelmingly male) voices who were demanding the firing of Imus, haven't said a peep about the recent dropping of charges against the accused members of the Duke Lacrosse team. Additionally, in the ongoing mainstream media discussions about Imus calling the predominantly Black women's basketball team at Rutgers University "nappy headed-ho's," there hasn't been any mainstream media correlation/analysis/commentary/discussion about the fact that:

1. Some of the (White) Duke Lacrosse team members called the two (Black) women "niggers" and "bitches"; 2. One of the (White) Duke Lacrosse members threatened to rape them with a broomstick; 3. Another (White) Duke Lacrosse team member spoke of hiring strippers in an e-mail sent the same night that threatened to kill "the bitches" and cut off their skin while he ejaculated in his "Duke-issued spandex;" and 4. Another (White) Duke Lacrosse team member shouted to the (Black woman) victim as she left the team's big house, "Hey bitch, thank your grandpa for my nice cotton shirt."

Instead there were subtle and not-so subtle racist implications that hip-hop is the cause of Imus' racist/sexist comments; and that the Black woman stripper/whore (not daughter, not mother, not college student, not sex worker) lied on/set up the innocent White Duke Lacrosse team members (who hired her and her colleague to perform for them).

So, in this very direct way the corporate owned media message to the American public is that Black people, especially Black women, are the perpetrators of violence against White men (and I would argue Black men too).

Based on the overwhelming deafening silence from mainstream Black (predominantly male) 'leaders' and organizations about the documented racist/sexist comments made by the White Duke Lacrosse team members, it's clear to me that no one will speak for us-- Black women--but ourselves. It doesn't matter if you're a rape survivor, a child sexual abuse survivor, a domestic violence survivor, a stripper, a prostitute, a lesbian, a bisexual woman, a heterosexual woman, a single mother (especially with several children from different fathers), on welfare, a high school drop out, college educated, working in corporate America, working at a minimum wage job with no health insurance, or working in the film/music/television entertainment industry. Yes, I placed what some people would view as very different/distinct categories of Black women in the same category because I firmly believe that if any of the aforementioned Black women are at the wrong place at the wrong time (which could be at any time), we, Black women, will be left to heal our very public wounds alone.

I was the young Black woman who in 1989, at 19 years old six weeks shy of my 20th birthday, said "Yes", while on a study abroad program. I was the Black woman who broke the rules of the university where I attended by agreeing to sneak out, after hours, to meet the man who would become my rapist. I was the Black woman who after breaking the university enforced rules started to have second thoughts but was afraid to articulate them and was afraid to turn around because my friends were covering for me. I was the Black woman who paid for the hotel room where I was raped. I was the Black woman who said to my soon-to-become rapist, "I don't want to do this. Please stop." I didn't "violently" fight back. I didn't scream or yell to the top of my lungs" because I was afraid. I didn't want to make a "scene." I blamed myself for saying, "Yes" for breaking the rules for paying for the hotel room.

I am one of countless women, regardless of race/ethnicity/national origin, age, sexual orientation, class, religion who experientially learned that the (often unchallenged) punishment for women who use poor judgment with men is rape and other forms of sexual violence. And the reward for those same men who perpetrate the sexual violence that we (victim/survivors) experience is the opportunity to perpetrate again and in turn say "WOMEN LIE."

"For all who ARE survivors of sexual violence. For all who choose to BELIEVE survivors of sexual violence. For all who KNOW WE CAN end rape culture." come to Durham , North Carolina on Saturday, April 28, 2007. Join the numerous individuals and organizations from across the United States who will come to Durham , North Carolina on Saturday, April 28, 2007 to participate in "Creating A World Without Sexual Violence - A National Day of Truthtelling."

This mobilizing event is organized by a coalition of organizations including North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Ubuntu, Men Against Rape Culture, SpiritHouse, Raleigh Fight Imperialism Stand Together, Southerners on New Ground, Independent Voices, Black Workers for Justice, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization/OSCL).

For more information on the National Day of Truthtelling, visit: http://truthtelling.communityserver.com/ http://iambecauseweare.wordpress.com/ www.myspace.com/ubuntunc

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is a Black feminist lesbian documentary filmmaker, writer, and activist based in Philadelphia . An incest and rape survivor, she spent eleven years, seven of which were full time to produce/write/direct NO! (The Rape Documentary), a feature length documentary which looks at the universal reality of rape and other forms of sexual violence through the first-person testimonies, activism, scholarship, cultural work, and spirituality of African-Americans. www.NOtheRapeDocumentary.org www.myspace.com/afrolez

We Need You!!

2007-04-05T14:22:00.001-04:00

On April 28, 2007, a coalition of community, statewide, and national organizations are inviting folks to Durham, NC, for a National Day of Truthtelling. The event is named, and focused on, "Creating a World Without Sexual Violence." We will march, sing, and teach each other the skills that we will need to envision this world, and build the community necessary to make it happen. We need you!!! Only with a strong community, committed to connecting across divisions and disempowering silences, can we end the epidemic of sexual violence that plagues our society. Together, WE can make this world a reality!!! PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO ENDORSE THIS EVENT!!!!! http://truthtelling.communityserver.com

Call to ACTION! - forward widely

2007-03-10T23:57:00.000-05:00

For all those who know that “it is better to speak…”

A CALL TO ACTION

Creating a World without Sexual Violence National Day of Truthtelling

April 28th, 2007 Durham, North Carolina

For all who ARE survivors of sexual violence… For all who choose to BELIEVE survivors of sexual violence… For all who KNOW WE CAN end rape culture…

…join us on April 28th, 2007, in Durham, North Carolina, as we come together—across divisions and disempowering silences—to create a world full of the safety, possibility, dignity, justice, and peace that we all deserve. Stand with us as we dare to imagine a world free from sexual violence and ALL forms of oppression.

Meet us in Durham to speak, teach, learn, demonstrate, and tell the truth. Together, WE can make this world a reality!!!

Questions? Contact us at dayoftruthtelling@gmail.com or check us out on My Space at www.myspace.com/ubuntunc

This event is being organized by: the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Ubuntu, Men Against Rape Culture, SpiritHouse, Raleigh Fight Imperialism Stand Together, Southerners on New Ground, Independent Voices, Black Workers for Justice, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization/OSCL.

“What would happen in one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.” - From: "Kathe Kollwitz" by Muriel Rukeseyer

2007-02-12T21:42:00.000-05:00

A Girl Like Me

2007-02-09T14:31:00.000-05:00

Condi Rice Raps

the value of my body

2007-01-23T13:37:00.000-05:00

i completed the fast last week. lots of juices and a bagel twice when i felt too low. no this is not a diet. this is a cleansing, a detoxification, a reclamation of my black woman body.

i also fasted by moving, taking yoga each day...stretching, releasing, valueing my body. i found something called restorative yoga...for the first time in a long time my muscles relaxed. even the muscles in my thighs that still hold tight from the memory of that night in 1999.

thanks for your support. we feel it here.

i will because we must - reclamation fast!!

2007-01-16T02:01:00.000-05:00

Reclaiming our Spirit-Join Black Women in a three day fast!

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY

This is a call to reclaim our spirit. To fight the way we know how. And to following the paths our ancestors set before us.

Join Black Women (including myself) in Durham as we expel and heal from the hatred spewed upon our bodies. Collectively we can cleanse ourselves and our community of this venom.

We are calling for a 3 day fast (Tuesday, January 16th - Thursday January, 18th), along with meditation and prayer as we ignite a collective power of healing.

This is not meant to be a hardship so please fast in a way that feels right to you. Many of us will be eating only raw fruits and vegetables and drinking lots of water and detoxifying teas. Please do what feels right to you. We will break this fast on Friday morning and continue to fast one day a week until...

Please distribute this email widely and post a comment this our blog under this post iambecauseweare.wordpress.com to let us know you are with us.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY

i refuse to return to business as usual

2007-01-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

what does my black, queer, woman body mean to Duke University?

2006-12-07T19:29:00.000-05:00

Trapped in the CLAUSet Part 1 of 3
this has no redeeming value, but i've watched it about 30x. happy winter solstice.

kramer in blackface

2006-11-24T22:36:00.000-05:00

here's michael richards in the 1986 flop _Whoops Apocalypse_ (seriously). after his babbling apology on david letterman...what's he got to say about this??

show's over kramer

2006-11-20T21:33:00.000-05:00

no excuses.

iconic homothugs

2006-11-05T22:47:00.000-05:00

according to baby himself, this kiss between he and lil wayne is about the love between father and son.

sure. i'll buy it.

in all honesty, i'm not interested in speculating how this kiss might index something else (i.e. a long-term, pseduo-closeted relationship). i'm much more interested in this moment as one that complicates any clear understanding of the hip hop community's relationship to queerness on one hand, and homophobia on the other.

it's my

2006-10-26T12:06:00.000-04:00

birthday!! that's all

i stand as witness

2006-10-16T00:01:00.000-04:00

it recalls every moment i'd heard it in the past. that one time in atlanta when it spewed from her lips like hot venom. because she was ashamed black women jumped off the college track to help her. ashamed that habitat for humanity was the only thing keeping her off the streets. ashamed that she stood barefoot in a housecoat.

"nigger monkeys. all of them."

i heard. and i kept hammering. tears pushing the back of my eyes.

fast backward to when a little girl, about 7, repeated what she heard from her parents or grandparents or older siblings. maybe on tv. fast backward to that moment at the park when she wanted the swing i pushed my brother on.

"stupid nigger."

the only time i've ever punched someone in the mouth. my 6 yr. old fist.

and now fast forward. standing on castro street. under rainbow flags. after shopping and talking and sharing and

"nigger."

and it jolts you. and it matters you're in san francisco, an icon of liberal whiteness. a san francisco of gayness rather than queerness. and it matters i stood witness. and it matters it wasn't "at me." but at my friend who stood next to me. and it matters all i could say was "fuck you." and it matters i was braver at 6. and it matters two minutes later we ate burritos in silence. and it matters until then he'd never heard it said to him. that faggot was the epithet of choice that marked his body. and it matters we were in the bay for a conference on transnational american studies.

but then i guess it doesn't.

kate moss blacks up for aids

2006-09-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

last thursday, in the "red" edition of the uk's daily broadsheet, the independent, supermodel and icon of waifdom, Kate Moss, is featured on the cover "corked up" presumably as an african woman and looking more like a seal in an oil spill.

so yes, apparently this particular moment of black or "africafacing" is about raising money for aids (half the proceeds of the edition are to benefit africans with aids), and despite moss's undoubtable ties to fashion, according to the caption that frames her, this slicked up body is NOT a fashion statement. seems just a bit disingenuous seeing as though...well...she is a fashion model and the whole edition was designed by giorgio armani.

since my burgeouning dissertation is about resurgent modes of blackface and spectacles of neominstrel technopassing, this moment is particularly interesting for me.

first off, what's fashion got to do with all this? what is it about the necessity of the caption? Or in other words, when would tar babied Kate Moss BE a fashion statement? And how does this relate to the now infamous "I AM AFRICAN" campaign featuring such notable celebrities as gwyneth paltrow and conceptualized by Iman (another supermodel)?

of course blackness is always about style, but what is it about fashion (and in particular fashion putting on aids discourses) that becomes a convenient alibi for the corking up of these celebrity bodies?

i'm also interested in how Kate Moss's body reads here. of course her ultrathin body is already spectacularized. but how does that fashionable thinness perversely signify on the supposed thinness of the stereotypically malnourished or aids African body?

i hate you survivor

2006-09-15T20:52:00.000-04:00

ok, that's not exactly true. but i do hate myself for watching the season premiere of race-based survivor season 13. (see my previous entries below).

so why exactly am i so angry??

not only did i intend to purposefully avoid the guaranteed ridiculousness of season 13, but, abandoning all good sense, i convinced myself that my academic interest in popular culture would warrant this viewing as "research."

the show was pretty predictable and followed the presumably familiar script for a competitive reality, however, what was also fairly predictable (or what the producers of the show were banking on) was my racialist response. even after all my fancy schoolin' and theorizing about racial categories, confronted with the african american team losing the first challenge, i turned into my paper bag testin' grandmother (the same woman who uses the word "niggerish.")

"my people, my people," i heard myself say. "why's it alwasy gotta be us?"

am i serious?

as i heard myself cheering the black team and then cringing at their failures, i was sucked into the only way you could watch a competitive show based on race...as well...a racist. ok, perhaps that's a bit strong, but admittedly i was anticipating team's successes and strategies based on overgeneralizations and hackneyed stereotypes. so no, i don't blame the producers of survivor, i blame myself as a supposedly informed viewer who still managed to give them what they wanted - an emotionally charged response framed by my own racialized investments in representation.

damn.

when blogging goes wrong?

2006-09-12T22:30:00.000-04:00

under the guise of a social "experiment," blogger jason fortuny (rf jason) posted a fake ad on seattle craigslist posing as a 27 year old, straight woman. the somewhat lengthy ad stated s/he was looking for "a white or latin only, str8 brutal dom muscular male 30-35 yo who is arrogant, self-centered, nasty, egotistic, sadistic who likes 2 give intense pain and discipline and wants pleasured who is d/d free, safe and sane." the ad also featured a picture of a woman bent over at the waist, spreading her buttcheeks with both hands.

after posting the ad, fortuny then posted each and every reply the posting received, including names, phone numbers, email addresses and pictures. the original posting and list of replies can be viewed here.

i don't know what i think about jason fortuny's (rf jason) craigslist experiment. notably, its overexposure (which, admittedly, i'm contributing to) has already made it old meme, but i'm still interested in fortuny's experiment for a couple of reasons.

the experiment was to work at least partly on a salacious or scandalous register, but i find the s&m dynamics and most of the replies pretty unremarkable. they include the cliched pictures of both limp and erect dicks and promises of complete domination. blah blah blah. pretty predictable.

but as with many postings the original ad included a racial preference, which only surprises me within the context of the "experiment." so what was it about blackness and asianness that this fake sub didn't want or couldn't handle? wouldn't an open racial preference only add to the experiment? why is it then that these particular racialized masculinities could not be accommodated? particularly if we view these masculinities in the context of their historical constructios: black masculinity seen as hypermasculine and asian masculinity seen as effeminate or hypomasculine.

in more general terms i'm interested in the inevitable legal ramifications of this experiment (legal actions have been threatened by at least one of the repliers and the owner of craigslist has been contacted) - in terms of copyright, use of image, likeness and personal information, and more specifically, the re/circulation of that information. of course the internet is predicated on a model of re/circulation, particularly in the blogosphere, but could this moment be one where blogging has gone wrong?

i have to say i'm not interested in feeling sorry for the poor suckers who replied to this posting, particularly since many of those responses have been about the threat the leaking of this information will do to the stability of vanilla, heteronormative (presumably monogamous) relationships. since queerness is always hypervisible, i feel little sympathy.

but overall, what will this experiment do to issues around "responsible" blogging or ethical use on the internet?

new orleans on our minds

2006-08-30T18:58:00.000-04:00

i've never been to new orleans.

i've never seen the french quarter. i've never danced a second line or tasted etouffee.

i know the midwest and parts of the new south. i know post-industrial and rustbelt cities. i know vacant downtown spaces where rubber and tobacco money once made things happen. i don't know new orleans.

but strangely, or not strangely at all, as i sat and watched spike lee's made-for-hbo documentary "when the levies broke: a requiem in four acts" with my new southern family, i began to mourn this city - to grieve a place i've never seen or touched or felt myself.

i still haven't worked through all my reactions to the film or why i, as a midwestern new southerner, am allowed to participate in the mourning of the "big easy." but i would like to think about how my reaction bespeaks something complicated and deeply profound about the hold new orleans has on the national imagination. and why in this particular moment, i would like to acknowledge how new orleans, its history, and its residents, have shaped each and every one of us, whether we've walked its streets pre/post katrina or not.

seductions of race still surviving

2006-08-24T15:53:00.000-04:00

i've been thinking further about the recent controversy surrounding survivor season 13's race-based tribes. (see my previous post)

now admittedly, i haven't watched the show since that guy who spent his birthday naked won top colonizer, but after doing a little internet research i've found out that season 12 had their tribes divided by gender and age into these categories: "older men," "older women," "younger men," "younger women."

knowing that season 12 did not cause the stir that this upcoming season already has, age and gender goes virtually unremarkable. but when race gets into the mix things get complicated and people (including myself) start blogging and talking.

so again, what is it about race???? whether we conceptualize race as a category, a social fiction, an experiential reality, or some biological based difference, what makes race so undeniably sexy? so seductive? so worth our repeated investments seemingly in and above other categories of identity?

would pitting sexualities against each other get everyone so hot?

survivor (admits it) does race

2006-08-24T01:30:00.000-04:00

after a lot of internet speculation, the folks over at cbs have confirmed on the "early show" that season 13 of their once-popular-now-fledgling competitve reality, survivor, will resusitate their dwindling ratings by creating "tribal affiliations" based on race. no seriously. 20 contestants are split into the following four groups: the "asian american tribe," the "african american tribe," the "hispanic tribe", and the "white tribe." after competiting as race-based groups, the "tribes" will then integrate halfway into the competition and compete as...what...melting pots?

quoting from this chicago tribune article, host jeff probst states, “the idea for this actually came from the criticism that ‘survivor’ was not ethnically diverse enough...i think it fits in perfectly with what ‘survivor’ does - it is a social experiment. and this is adding another layer to that experiment, which is taking the show to a completely different level.”

if i can ignore probst's "social experiment" comment for just a minute (shouldn't that be eugenics experiment, jeff??), i'm much more interested in the seemingly banal statement that this new twist on the old format is "taking the show to a completely different level." what i'm interested in is what motivates producers of a declining show to seek out explicit instances of racial categorization as a way to resusitate its declining ratings. it's not as if survivor hasn't been working on screwed up understandings of racial difference for all of its previous seasons - i.e. the admittedly less diverse casts of seasons 1-12 "going native" until someone "outwits," "outplays," "outlasts," and notably, "outcolonizes" both the land and the psyches of their competitors.

so if survivor has been doing race for all these seasons, what's the seductive possibility of these supposedly bounded categories?

of course, race, like sex, simply sells.

lastly, just how were these discrete categories determined? just how black is black or white is white for the show's producers? are these categories diasporic? were they determined by sight? self-definition? genetics? how is ethnicity mapped by the different tribes? and what tribal box do those who identify as mixed or multi fall into?

inconvenient truths one year post katrina

2006-08-18T21:36:00.000-04:00

every week my partner and i go on a date and this week, we opted for the obvious...dinner and a movie. my pick? something ridiculous and campy. my partner's pick? an inconvenient truth

i'll admit, i grew up caring nothing about recycling. and an entire childhood riding along with my three siblings in my parents' gas-guzzling, fuel-oh-so-inefficient, 8-seater, econoline van did not make me savvy about the ozone layer. and it wasn't just me. it became clear while growing up in a conservative christian household and attending a nondeminational private christian school that anyone interested in mythical global warming, reducing greenhouse gases and/or the thickening atmospheric layer was having a crisis of faith. for those people apparently did not believe that everything under (or because of) the sun was in god's plan for the earth.

i've been thinking a lot lately about the upcoming year anniversary of katrina's landfall in new orleans. beyond my politicized and humanitarian interests in the natural and unnatural disaster(s) of katrina, my interest in the hurricane focuses on its particular connection to southernness. as the broken levies moved images of the stranded poor and black of New Orleans from the invisible “dark matter” of this once tourist haven to the forefront of the national imagination, newscasters and their audiences could only process the unreal of their daily reality by displacing the long-standing poverty of the city from inside the nation to a more legible “third world” (a response that was not invoked in the aftermath of 9/11 since we could be certain that ground zero was/is still part of manhattan). as the unfolding horror and patriotic duty necessitated we leave the television tuned only to a 24 hour news station, the displacement was clear. “this does not look like the United States. it looks more like a third world country.” and when forced to admit this was the united states – albeit the southern half – patriotism dictated rage. “but these are Americans. we see them waving the flag from the roofs of their flooded houses.”

the incongruity of the televisual images of poverty uncovered by the harsh winds of katrina and the imagined idea(l) of what america “looks like,” reveals the contemporary othering done on the ideological and geographical place of the south.

but after seeing gore's film, i was forced to see my own role in literally creating the conditions of katrina. during the most poignant piece of the film, gore made the connection between the meteoric rise in CO2 over the past twenty years and its direct effect on the rise in catastrophic storms - including last year's record breaking hurricane season. so now i am immediately implicated in katrina - before the levies, before fema's failings, before bush's empty promises. and that above anything else makes me want to be more aware of my personal impact on the environment.

terrorism, popcorn, and the american way

2006-08-11T10:48:00.000-04:00

i couldn't help but wonder as i turned to the news yesterday: does the successful foiling of yesterday's airplane terrorist plot give anyone the deeply patriotic urge to see oliver stone's world trade center?

did i just hear my mother gasp?

probably, but it's not that hard to make that connection. watching clip after clip of willing travelers discarding everything from lotion to contact solution while the crawler on the bottom of the screen repeatedly flashed the phrase "mass murder," television viewers had to be thrown back into that morning five years ago to make the current moment legible. and what helps americans process a traumatic moment (particularly in the greater service of the nation) better than oliver stone in a director's chair?

those who were worried about the success of the film should worry no longer. this san francisco chronicle article only bolsters my point.

and i quote...

"Dragon had been waffling on seeing "World Trade Center" over the last few days. He wasn't sure he was ready. But the minute he heard of the terror plot Thursday morning, his decision was made. "I felt like it was my duty as an American to see it," said Dragon. "I felt like I had to see it, and I am glad I did."

now i'm not saying that we just threw away hundreds of bottles of lotion and lube to promote an epic film...but it would be marketing genius wouldn't it??

michael jackson and queer cultural desire

2006-08-08T16:41:00.000-04:00

if you know me personally you know how much i love michael jackson. i gave this paper at the Media Stardom Conference at Plymouth State University last october. the online magazine, _American Sexuality_, published by San Francisco State has decided to publish it! check it out and let me know what you think.

sweet tea: black queerness and the south

2006-08-04T11:11:00.000-04:00

so part of my academic work is thinking about the relationship between black queerness and the south and lately i've been thinking a lot about the current debate in the black gay community on the in/appropriateness of muscle, homothug, gym culture, shorthanded in personal ads as simply, "no fems! no fats!". check out kevin bynes's blog on this.

i really started thinking about this last night at my most recent visit to cc's in raleigh (a gay club that turns hip hop/house on thursday nights. it's the only night that actually packs the club on a regular basis but cc's owners still insist on making more whitewashed techno the regular fare the rest of the week). while standing at the bar getting a beer a guy came up to me asking about my hair. he then proceeded to tell me that with hair like mine (a locked fauxhawk) i was in the wrong city and should relocate to his hometown of houston, tx (where apparently the "girls would eat me up"). now this was a very "masculine" guy, if black masculinity in this case is associated with what hip hop deems masculine: platinum grill and jewelry, wavecap, big white t, etc. after throwing up the "x" in an attempt to convince me just how great texas is (?!), he confides that he just moved to the triangle area and was pretty distressed at how "feminine" he found the guys around here. "they're too feminine here," he lamented. "the guys at home are like me. ya know...gay thugs. it's all that sweet tea y'all be drinkin'." i immediately thought about the general ban on "fems" lately and began to really take notice of cc's. so in this particular space, in this particular south, the "no fems, no fats" logic seemed not to apply. in fact, "fems" and "fats" dominated (overwhelmingly) the space, apparently in ways that made this particular "gay thug" as he called himself (or homothug) uncomfortable.

so i'm most interested in this guy's immediate need to pinpoint the difference in the black gay community here in north carolina. so he blames it on the abundance of sweet tea...obviously said as a joke, but interesting that he associates an almost celebratory flaunting of queer femininity at cc's and the triangle more generally, with the iconicity of southernness. and although he himself hails from texas, he made a clear distinction between texas as south and nc as south.

so how does this particular sweet tea south disrupt the possible generalizations about the lack of desire for "fats" and "fems"? how does this moment help us to think through how to define the south(s): as a psychic space, as a place associated with slavery, a temporal space, a geographic space, or a cultural one defined by foodways, let's say? what is the south's relationship to femininity? black femininity? queer femininity? and what about fatness/thickness and the south? (particularly in light of houston baker's claim that the south is defined by and through it's very "thickness" (in heat/humidity, in tangled racial histories, in violence, and possibly in bodies??)

stereotype super(s)heroes

2006-08-03T15:48:00.000-04:00

in an effort to remix representations of race and ethnicity, a friend and i have decided to make a comic book giving actual power to those long enduring stereotyped figures. we're re-reclaiming everybody from mammy to uncle tom and giving them powers much like our more "traditional" white, male superheroes (superman and such). first to be re-reclaimed, "mammy". she's the character whose name you dare not speak since if you do all of her permutations (and their generations of concealed rage) will leap to life - that box of pancakes mix, that syrup bottle - and no longer are these recurring images bits of longstanding racist iconography, but the muscle-clad, revolutionistas of Ubermammy's impenetrable army. Ubermammy herself can never be summoned. she does no ones bidding, suckles no one's child at her breast and instead of the sexless woman from epic tales like _Gone with the Wind_, Ubermammy seeks to "milk" the powerful potential of queer love. needing little to no explanation is "watermelon boy"...whose super power includes shooting watermelon seeds out of his mouth like a semiautomatic. we're still working on uncle tom's super power. perhaps his power will become manifest in his actual cabin...a seeming oasis for neoliberal white folks who think they're on the p(o)c side of things and when they get to the cabin to rest their weary bones and get assurance from their only poc friend, tom, they quickly realize that they've entered a neverending workshop on sexism, racism, classism and homophobia. they can only leave the cabin when uncle tom (ceo of the organization) deems them ready. they'll also have to do a boot camp weekend with ubermammy's army. i'm thinking this whole comic book project will coincicde nicely with my side project of "negro spiritual" magnetic poetry. i've realized you can make anything a negro spiritual if you add "moses" to the end of it...wonder if the fisk jubilee singers will want to get in on this. they've got the corner market on sprituals.

shai's interactive porn/clothing catalog

2006-07-29T22:41:00.000-04:00

on one of my many late night internet surfing...i discovered the clothing company shai's new gimmick........sex sells...but this time it's taken a lot more literally. shai offers its customers three interactive catalog creatively entitled "men+men," "women+women," and "women+men"...each video is a short skin flick while a weepy woman sings "there's no reason to be shy/shai"...you can then stop the flick by pausing on strategically placed green dots to find out shopping info for the clothing worn (or taken off) in the film. i would embed the clips, but y'all...my mommy reads my blog. so click here: shai catalog i'm interested in this cliched bit of marketing for a couple reasons: the beginning of each short film features the model/actors staring vacuously like mannekins (sp?) who then come to life and begin ripping off each others clothes...a little creepy...sorta cyborgish, but very vanilla cyborg if that makes sense. the most interesting couple is (surpisingly enough) for me the "woman+man" since they seem to not only remix the song the other couples fuck to...but the other couples literal sex acts...it's almost a paralleling of the gay (i'm trying to avoid queer...'cause it ain't) sex scenes (the blowjob, the digital penetration, the rear entry, the handjob to orgasm) is all featured in the other scenes (which admittedly i watched first...) lastly, i'm interested in the choice of titles...not lesbians, gay boys and straight couple...but the use of the actual gender categories is an interesting avoidance of sexual categories or identities, while still able to visualize the act(s) that these bodies engage in. check it out...lemme know what you think.

apocalyptic technowhiteness

2006-07-25T20:48:00.000-04:00

so i know a few people have blogged on these images already (see the link to frank's blog) and sony has been facing a lot of criticism for it, but i still couldn't stay silent on this one...now i'm not sure if these are successive images and/or if there's some sort of narrative coherence to them at all. but let's deal with the "first" image anyway. so i'm assuming we're supposed to fear the oncoming of this monstrous/devilish whiteness, but we are definitely supposed to anticipate her "coming" (thanks to vin for pointing out that pun)...at least in this image, technowhiteness is transporting or making portable a black face, a face that in the first image at least is an androgynous one...let's move backward from this emerging technowhiteness and consider it within a context of the economies of the plantation...white mistress, black laborer...plus the obvious s/m dynamic here, which then must be situated alongside the possibility of bdsm racial play.................then there's the second image (or perhaps the first...i'm not sure how these images appear in their original context)...so portable whiteness is topped by black, what...stability?? do we assume that the blackness is portable as well? not sure. portable whiteness is still transporting a black face in the same way as the first image (the gazes remain the same as well)...but this face is rendered not as androgynous due to the clothing. so portable whiteness here is "overcome" (to again put orgasm in play) and overcome or outcome by this black female body...so let's throw in ideas of hypersexualized black womanhood...one that outplays even technowhite femaleness...........interestingly enough these ads were initially defended by sony who stated that they intended to depict nothing but "colors in contrast," but after the global outcry the ads were pulled earlier this month. sony claims that they received only one complaint about the ads from someone actually inside the netherlands (where the ad campaign was originally intended) which leads me to believe that sony did not foresee these images crossing national borders. obviously this raises some really interesting issues about the borders of the nation in an era of transnational capital and new media....it also raises stuff about cultural translation, readership and authorial (or advert) intentionality....so whadya think??

requeering oprah

2006-07-25T17:36:00.000-04:00

here's a transcript of oprah detailing how she became friends with gayle on xm radio....i couldn't even make this stuff up!! "When I was 22 years old and working as a TV anchor in Baltimore, there was a young production assistant in the newsroom, Gayle King. One night there was a snowstorm and she couldn't get home. I said 'Hey, you can spend the night at my house.' She said, 'I don't have any panties.' I said, "Well, I do. I have clean panties, and once I give 'em to you, you don't have to give 'em back.'" i'd make some crass jokes here...but it'd be way too easy.

big gay oprah

2006-07-25T01:45:00.000-04:00

ok, so oprah denies she and her lover gayle are gay...but i absolutely love how freakin' queer she sounds in O magazine... and I quote: "I understand why people think we're gay. There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it: 'How can you be this close without it being sexual?'" And here's what Gayle had to say - "The truth is, if we were gay, we would tell you, because there's nothing wrong with being gay." (thanks gayle...i wasn't sure 'til now) But Oprah does admit that her friendship with Gayle is unique, saying that they often talk on the phone four times a day when they're not in the same city. She added: "Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own. (here comes my favorite part) Whatever this friendship is, it's been a very fun ride." ha!!! i'm sure it has you dirty girl, i'm sure it has. now give me my new car...i'd like a free ride too.

barbara wawa's black hair wahwah

2006-07-25T00:46:00.000-04:00

you should just watch it yourself. http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2754929

geico and affect

2006-07-24T23:59:00.000-04:00

has anyone seen the new geico commercials? i'm not so sure why i'm surprised at all...why wouldn't the literal body of little richard (and all the queer and black connotations that body produces) function as the affective translator for this particular (vanilla and monotone) whiteness? and seeing as though i work on television studies, what does the televisual have to do with this? i'm also interested in the juxtaposition of these two bodies...they have to both function on simultaneous aural and visual registers, but in a strange twinning that makes each dependent on the other. presumably, viewers need little richard to make the noncelebrity body translate in a televisual mode, and we need that noncelebrity body to ground little richard's affective excesses...to make him palatable to that same audience.

cyber/purposes

2006-07-24T23:45:00.001-04:00

i've decided to create this blog primarily to give myself some (cyber)space to think, create, challenge and question what crosses my more physical and cognitive spaces. feel free to use this space to do the same.