"Journalist" Sally Quinn racially profiling Obama's State Dinner guest list
Sally Quinn Racial Profiling Obama's Guest List by Sally Quinn
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A Ferrari race with pedal cars, who will be the winner?
Great ride-on toys for kids!The track doesn't fit into my backyard but these three pedal cars are cool too:
"We need to go far...quickly"
Climate change recommendation -- and some magical "corporate greening" -- from the former VP.
The Myth of the Post-Racial Society
Interesting Article by Robert de Neufville over on Big think discussing the Myth of the post racial Society.
"Rather than showing that we have finally gotten beyond race, Obama's election makes it clear that we are still grappling with its role in our society. Indeed, it's precisely because race is still an issue that his election was such an important historic milestone. So we shouldn't take it as license to turn a blind eye to the racial issues in our society.
...........Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman argue that our reluctance to talk about race only allows the prejudices our kids naturally develop to go unchallenged. Likewise, as adults we shouldn't ignore the very real disparities that remain in the way we see and treat different races. We shouldn't use Obama, as Larry Wilmore jokedon The Daily Show, as "that convenient black friend every white person has to prove they're not racist." While we might like to believe that racial distinctions no longer really matter, pretending we don't see them won't make them go away."
I agree until we can raise issues of race without embarrassment and until old fashioned characterisations and stereotypes stop influencing our workplaces then there is no hope of a post racial society.
I think for a lot of people the election of president Obama was seen as a full stop, as an indication that American society had arrived . That the embarrassing race issue could finally be ignored.
This doesn’t mean we’ve not made progress it just means we’ve not arrived at the end of our journey.
If we are going to stop racial prejudice then we have to be able to challenge it constructively. To many people black or white, race, disability or sexuality can be the elephant in the room that no one talks about. We have to as Kyra Gaunt would put it “be willing to be offended” if we are going to make real progress in becoming a post racial or post anything society.
Do you watch Channel 8 drama serials?
I don't know how many of you are even aware of this: There is a TV serial on Channel 8 called Daddy At Home. On Friday (6 November 2009), the episode featured a scene where the main character (played by Li Nanxing) signed on unknowingly to be a cleaner/manager of cleaning operations. At this, his friends/colleagues joked that they should start calling him either "manager" or "Aminah." Cue laughter.
'Aminah' is a Malay name for females, and it is not uncommon in Singapore at all, just like 'Siti', 'Farrah,' or 'Nurhaliza.'
I was alerted to this through Malay friends of mine, and I completely share their disgust and shock that such a clearly racist comment could have been made on national television in the guise of comedy and humour.
This is the letter I wrote to the Straits Times Forum editor, I hope it gets published!
I refer to the 6th November screening of the MediaCorp Channel 8 prime-time drama series, Daddy At Home. I am thoroughly appalled by the instance in which the colleagues of the title character (played by Li Nanxing) joked that they should begin calling him “Aminah” since his character now works as a cleaner.
The nonchalance with which the name of a Malay woman is used interchangeably with the role of a cleaner shocks me for it reeks of a subtle, yet severe, insensitivity on the part of the Mediacorp scriptwriters, actors, and on-site crew. What this instance has encouraged in the popular imagination is the equation of Malays to occupations of low income and menial labour. How is it that such a glaring comment could have passed the stages of re-writes and checks, if any? Would the actors and crew members on location not have realised this during the filmin g as well?
As a teacher, I am doubly outraged that “Singapore’s leading media company” (according to MediaCorp’s corporate website) could let such racist undertones seep through popular, mainstream ‘entertainment’ with a view to profit and gain from what might seem to the company and its scriptwriters as dialogue that reflects the quotidian Singapore experience. If so, then generations of children and young adults who watch these shows regularly have certainly been exposed to potentially racist sentiments that they could easily replicate in the classroom and in their interactions with children of different races.
I remind the Channel 8 directors and writers also, that their viewership extends well beyond the Mandarin-speaking population in Singapore. Surely it was a strategic decision on Channel 8‘s part that including English subtitles for these drama shows allows them to reach a non-Mandarin-speaking viewership. With this in mind, then, how can it come to pass that clearly racist comments are written into the script and uttered before the camera?
Even if this were an ‘oversight’ on the part of the writers, there is no excuse nor any place in Singapore for racism to even be acceptable whether in private or in the public sphere.
I have not been a regular viewer of Channel 8 programmes for several years now, but with this new knowledge of the kind of lax standards that local television possesses, I am undecided as to whether to ignore Channel 8 completely, or to be a more avid viewer and keep an eye out for any future attempts to disrupt the delicate fabric of our multi-racial society. I urge Singaporeans to consider this dilemma as well.
11/7/09 BREEDERS CUP: IM ROOTING for SQUARE EDDIE, but CALIFORNIA FLAG WINS THIS ONE, SANTA ANITA
11/7/09 BREEDERS CUP: IM ROOTING for SQUARE EDDIE, but CALIFORNIA FLAG WINS THIS ONE, SANTA ANITA
via Pixelpipe
"Touch of the mao bi, eh?" #Malaysia
Both Marina and Daniel are struggling against the full weight of the Federal Constitution, which spells out the state of affairs for Sarawakians: “If the father and mother is a native of Sarawak as defined under Article 161A(6)(b) of the Federal Constitution, the child is considered a bumiputra.”
In other words, both parents must be natives to qualify.
I sympathise with Marina and Daniel and their families. I do. But part of me wants to say, "Boohoo, you can't get into uni because you're not *bumi* enough? How about the rest of us who aren't "bumi" *at all*?"
Which is probably what the racist powers would want. Don't you know that in South Africa's shameful days of apartheid, they had White, Black and Coloured? The implication - nay, the stated policy - was that, the less "coloured" you were, the better. The Whites needed the help of the Coloureds to keep the Blacks down. And the Coloureds were happy to have a lower status than the Whites because they had the Blacks to look down on. Divide to conquer, in other words. Same old, same old.
So now we're making a hue and cry about two kids who can't go to uni because they're not "bumiputra" because one of their parents happens to be Chinese Malaysian. And as we all know, the Chinese are corrupt fat cats living off the relationships of convenience struck with the corrupt government officials holding tightly to the reins of power, right?
Then how come these parents don't just send their kids to Sunway or Monash or Taylor's? (After all, our local public unis aren't really that hot anymore.) They're "poor". They can't afford to send their kids to private school. Their only hope was government scholarships.
But the government doesn't want to help because the kids aren't bumiputra enough.
"But, but, but, it's the Constitution that declares them not bumiputra enough!"
Yes, Mr Statetheobviousbutts. The Constitution declares them "not bumiputra". It is the *government* that says "we're not going to help you because you're not bumiputra".
"But we need the bumiputra status because most bumiputras are poor!"
Of course most bumiputras are poor. There's not enough money to go around - after the recipients of "overpayment" have pocketed their blood money.
Now, here's another crazy idea. If the government offered aid based on economic need instead of racial status, wouldn't all these "poor bumiputras" be aided? (Further reading: http://www.thenutgraph.com/ketuanan-melayu-rebutted )
Who would miss out? Non-bumiputra fat cats. ("Yay! Cheers!") Bumiputra fat cats. (Ominous silence.)
Ah, is the picture coming into clearer focus now? Fat cats (bumi and non) are bleeding the country - including the poor bumiputras. But the poor bumiputras are keeping the bumiputra fat cats in power because the bumiputra fat cats are telling the poor bumiputras that the non-bumiputras are always scheming to steal the bumi from under the noses of all these puteras.
It was Farish Noor, I think, who said that if the Malays insisted on Ketuanan Melayu, they would achieve it. But they would be Lords of Rubble, because there would be nothing left to lord over. (Lords of Rubble sounds like a cool name for a band, though.)
That doesn't mean that non-Malays are the sole creators of wealth, but *all* of us could definitely do more than just *some* of us.
It's time to move past racial politics. It's time to grow up. Will we?
...
The mao bi is the ink brush used in Chinese calligraphy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_brush]
A "touch of the tarbrush" was a derogatory epithet used against Europeans with ancestry "tainted" by "colour". [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/touch_of_the_tarbrush]
My Marine Corps Marathon 10K time was 57:45. #mcm10k
My official 10K (6.2 miles) time for Sunday's race was 57:45. I finished number 1580 out of 5110 finishers, and I was the 922nd male out of 1999. I am really pleased with the time and the pace (approx 9:19 min miles), especially since I only trained for the race for eight weeks. When I started the training, the maximum I could run at a time was around three miles.
My goal is to run a full marathon before next Thanksgiving (November 2010). Thanksgiving 2010 is significant to me, because it will be the 10-year anniversary of a very serious accident I had, in which I broke shattered both of my legs and my back. After reconstructing both of my ankles, some of my doctors were doubtful that I would ever be able to run and play sports again. It has taken a lot of physical therapy, a follow-up surgery, and a lot of running through pain to get to this point where I can run pain-free.
My younger sister ran the full marathon on Sunday, and finished just under 4:20. That was an awesome time for her first marathon!
