Following

Our confusion about whether the Tsarnaevs are “white,” and the right wing’s determination to say they aren’t, just underscores the eternally silly project of racial categorization anyway. Race is a social construct, mainly used to establish invidious hierarchies and scapegoats. Despite the persistence of racism and white advantage, these lines are beginning to blur in our increasingly mixed, multiracial society – but right-wingers are going to police these lines as long as they can.

The main point of Sirota’s piece – which I wouldn’t have written in quite the same way – was that since white Americans tend to escape scapegoating and profiling when members of their tribe do something bad, a white Boston bomber wouldn’t trigger a destructive new wave of racial profiling, anti-Muslim agitation or generalized xenophobia. Somehow it’s hard for the right, and even for many in the media, to see white abortion-clinic bombers, or even Timothy McVeigh, as every bit as guilty of terrorism as the Tsarnaevs, if not more so.

Joan Walsh, Are the Tsarnaevs Brothers White?

I was watching a discussion among Tumblr users highlighting this over last week and then then this article came up. Here’s the thing — it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks they are in this case — we’re talking about how American media has framed the issue and what Americans are calling them and how that plays into American society.

So for people who say the the Tsarnaevs aren’t white, I feel like saying, “Yes, but…” in response to them. Just like when people say they are white, I find myself going “Yes, but…” It all depends on the context of the discussion at hand and in this case, it’s American media and what Americans are calling them. 

Both those personas are the “real Beyoncé,” the same way that you’re still you when you’re sending an e-mail to your boss that’s full of jargon and with proper capitalization and when you’re texting to your best friend in lowercase acronyms. Talk in one setting in a tone that’s best suited for another, and you might play yourself; it would be ridiculous if she were pop-star Beyoncé in the pool hall. (But it would be kind of dope to see Bey strut into a pool hall in six-inch heels, a sequined minidress, and a wind machine like, “I am Beyoncé and I am here to pool.”)

The point is, code-switching is apparent in all the myriad ways we interact with one another and try to feel each other out.

NPR’s new blog, Code Switch’s first post.

The discussion on Beyonce (and some great skits by Key and Peele) to me illustrate how code switching can fuck with people’s heads and their assumptions that they know everything about everyone.

To me the whole “Bow down Bitches,” was Beyonce just showing another facet of herself to her audience. Really, the facet I suspected always existed, but she didn’t choose to show for whatever reason she wanted.

And we all do code switching. I’ve joked about having to rein myself in and try and not swear so much around people, or just feeling some folks out before I start showing more of myself to them. There are people I don’t feel safe talking to about race or sexualities with. Hell, I finally told one friend about the fanfic I wrote (“SERIOUSLY. I WROTE SOMETHING BETTER THAN 50 SHADES OF GREY.”) and I think that’s a matter of messing with the code.

The arrogant thing is that the critics of Beyonce assume they know everything about her and her experiences and when she decides to unveil something new, they freak the fuck out. No one knows everything about a single person. To assume you know something about a person (be it racial, sexual orientation, or whatever) because they choose to be polite and friendly to you is erroneous. 

Just like the assumption that nothing a person does in their interactions. It’s facets of truth that spill out. 

Long story short — I feel like this blog is going to be interesting.  Not necessarily along the lines of condemning praising people, but more for the observations on how a lot of people navigate relationships along the cultural, racial and ethnic lines.

My scripts had multiple women with names. Talking to each other. About something other than men. That, they explained nervously, was not okay. I asked why. Well, it would be more accurate to say I politely demanded a thorough, logical explanation that made sense for a change (I’d found the “audience won’t watch women!” argument pretty questionable, with its ever-shifting reasons and parameters).

Jennifer Kesler 

Why film schools teach screenwriters not to pass the Bechdel test

The article’s from 2008, but it still rings true today.

If it seems like I’m down on any attempt to create art outside the boundaries of defined corporate culture, that is the furthest thing from the truth. What I am against is what I’ve been against since the days when SST’s Greg Ginn shouted “corporate rock sucks” while shorting every band on his label out of the money he owed them: becoming independent of the corporate system while profiting off of the same exploitation that built it in the first place. A bad boss is a bad boss whether he’s a power-suited MBA or a guitar-wielding artiste, and doing your employees dirt is wrong whether or not the person doing it has exquisite taste in movies. The conditions of exploitation haven’t changed; the channels of profit are still pointed upward; and the way to do right is the same as it’s ever been. Most importantly, it has a very specific and successful champion.

Leonard Pierce “See We Gotta Be Exploited by Somebody”

He nails it on the head why the whole unpaid “LET’S PUT ON A SHOW!” mentality makes me uncomfortable at times.

In a perfect world, volunteering for stuff like this would be fabulous. But I’ve seen that good will and generosity taken advantage of so many times and seen people driven out of jobs that they love because they couldn’t pay the bills. It also creates less diversity, because the people who can afford to do this for free are of a similar socioeconomic status, which creates a homogeneous appearance.

Meeting Amanda Palmer and the glory of the byline in a nationally recognized website might be a great thrill, but great thrills don’t pay the rent.