Graffiti Regatta

This is what happens when history and short-form media attempt to make friends.

[mikerugnetta]

WWŽD?

(via mikerugnetta)

[graffitiregatta-blog]

Free your mind and your ass will follow / the kingdom of heaven is within

Looking back at my listening choices the past couple hours, it wasn't such a long jump from Nina Hagen to Funkadelic.

[mamashug]

I’m noticing a trend.

[chinatownlife]

did y’all forget about

and

and

[dynastylnoire]

Oh yes, that grand fantasy where POC (mainly black people) allow that one special “down ass” white person to become a part of the clique.

Poc as pets and props 101 

[youngbadmanbrown-deactivated201]

this is what I was talking about yesterday when I was hollerin bout the fetishization of black bodies in white culture

black bodies exist as pieces

black bodies are sex and servitude and spirituality and swag to be dissected and consumed

the mere general proximity of a black body to a white one conveys to the viewer that the white actor has some sort of ability to transverse cultural lines

[20carats]

smh

[frenchmontanaween-deactivated20]

Let’s not forget fashion’s use of PoC props to contrast how Glamorous the white person is compared to the poor PoC

[graffitiregatta-blog]

co-signing this thought-trail

[graffitiregatta-blog]

Grumpy Cat, the cat who looks grumpy, is on the cover of this week's New York magazine, advertising a profile. The "estimated value" of Grumpy Cat, Ltd., the Grumpy Cat company, is $1 million.

I normally am in a love/hate/abhor relation with Gawker, but broken clocks and all that. Anything that gets people to know how great Kate Beaton's work is--and, by extension, how grody/problematic the commodification of Grumpy Cat is--is worthwhile.

[graffitiregatta-blog]

Do Gamers Need Anita Sarkeesian's Feminism? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios

Sexism in game culture is back in the spotlight. As seen in the comment section of Carolyn Petit's recent review of GTA 5 and, of course, the hate spewed tow...

Idea Channel now has a gaming spinoff--including a host who possesses some of Mike Rugnetta's charm*. I don't necessarily dig the argument's structure here, which really tries to skirt around feminism in order to show the fundamental importance of feminism in gaming, even if the thesis itself is sound. (Spoiler: Yes, Anita Sarkeesian and Feminist Frequency are totally necessary. Duh.) In any case, if you're interested in gender and gaming--or if you want a version of IdeaChannel that is a little less PoMo-Theory--give this a view. *among other things

[graffitiregatta-blog]

If it's been three months since we last chatted on OKCupid, then maybe best not to text me out of nowhere with "been a while, eh?"

Positive K - I Got A Man (by PositiveKVEVO)

[infinitenap]

the anxiety monster (x)

[cuteosphere]

Small victories

[graffitiregatta-blog]

Click here to support Chris needs help with medical bills! by Chris Thomas

It's been a pretty hard few months, keeping up with expensive prescription costs, wheelchair repair, so I keep taking out of my very limited "Chris needs a Bed fund". I hate asking but I was once told "Healthy people ask for help" so any anything you can give would be much appreciated.

My pal Chris needs some help with medical bills--and, ultimately, a new bed. He's truly a great guy--and it would be great if you could do him a solid by helping him out. If you can donate, fantastic! If not--send a signal boost through the blogosphere. You may not be able to chip in, but someone in your orbit might. Thanks!

[warcrimenancydrew]

do you guys remember that one post about how men feel entitled to take up so much space and women have to deal with a lot less?

[historywhore]

This is actually a documented thing. You always see men on the subway or tube or whatever using both armrests while women sit with their arms hunched together into their laps. That’s why I always make a point to take up at least one if not both armrests of the tube so men can be uncomfortable for once.

[warcrimenancydrew]

^ again, for all the people telling me posting this picture is complaining too much.

[aliveforalittlewhile-blog]

In my college classes (and high school too) guys were always stretching, sticking fists and elbows in my face, leaning their heads back over my desk, over my work, spreading their legs out, kicking my bag with their dirty shoes. And let’s not pretend they were in other guys’ space as much as they were in women’s.

[gnightfuckooos]

It’s so true, this happens to me every day on the train. Same with the walking thing, women will weave out of the way whereas men just walk straight and plow down anything in their path. I always end up playing chicken with men on the sidewalk now, because I refuse to move out of their way.

[randomstabbing]

I love playing chicken with dudes who hog the sidewalk. BODY CHECK! Fucking assholes.

“NOT ALL MEN ARE LIKE THIS!” FUCK OFF.

“AS A MAN, I THINK THAT…” FUCK OFF.

Men always have the same defensive bullshit to spout every time they get called out on their shit. AND IT IS BORING. They remind me of those toys where you pull a string an they have like 5 phrases they can say. Over and over and over.

[bingbongdingdongus]

same here with playing chicken, its hilarious sometimes because they get this flash of realization in their eyes that says ‘holy shit, she’s NOT going to move/??? what do????’ because THEY ARE SO USED TO EVERYONE MOVING FOR THEM

[brynamon]

when i was younger my grandpa drew this on a piece of paper,

and he asked me how i, as the red circle, would get around the two people (black circles) if i was walking down the street.

so of course i came back with

moving out of the way for them as i walked.

he asked me if i thought men would do the same and, at the time, i did because i thought it was just common courtesy. but he told me that men would barrel straight through without giving a shit and that i should do the exact same. because i was the one walking and they were the ones in the way. so that’s exactly what i do.

[vickiexz]

i find this really fascinating because this actually what defines so-called masculine and feminine traits and gestures. the whole limp-wrist thing? that’s someone decreasing the amount of space they take up by not extending their arm fully. same with crossing one’s legs, how it’s considered more masculine to swing your shoulders when you walk creating a wider gait instead of your hips, how someone who holds their elbows tightly into their torso instead of letting them fall more loosely at their sides is considered feminine.

taking up space is not just a frequent habit of males in our culture, its actually how society thinks masculinity is supposed to be expressed.

[volpesvolpi]

This is my answer when people say eating disorders are personal problems and have nothing to do with sexism. Women are literally socialized to take up as little space as possible all day every day.

[lapocketrocket-deactivated20180]

As a fat woman, I always find it’s the men who sit like this that are most affronted by my presence - even when I’m trying to minimise my overspill - and thin women, probably because on some level they feel resentful that I’ve bypassed some unwritten female law.

[theendfantastic-deactivated2019]

I’ve seen this before, but reblogging for that^^^

[genericlatino-blog]

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Ku Klax Klan bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

50 Years Later, Birmingham Is Still Subtly Divided [NPR]

Congress Honors Victims Of Infamous Alabama Church Bombing [NPR]

The tweets are from the Twitter account from NPR’s Today in 1963.

Image source: AP

[graffitiregatta-blog]

Paula Deen cries at Texas cooking show

Dammit, USAToday/everyone, did we all forget that this whole issue/allegations was much bigger than the use of a racial slur? As in "the reason we knew about this is because Deen was responding, in court, to other heinous allegations"?

Also, why are we as a culture so bound to redemption narrative / heroic meta-narratives? Seriously: I'm curious.

Edited to clarify: The racial slur issue should still be discussed. A lot. But, there were other structural and cultural racist/racialist issues re: Deen (and mainstream pop culture) that were brought to light with the allegations and largely ignored.

[medievalpoc]

Hume’s claim that no non-Whites had contributed to civilization or the arts was taken as established fact. Jews and Catholics or Protestants, depending on who was doing the writing, were also suspect, but, as Popkin (1973) states, it was particularly “people of color [who] just did not have the right things going on in their heads to qualify as man in the philosophical sense” (p. 250). Although overt here, today this sort of thinking is covertly embedded in much of what has been called elitist aesthetic and art education theory. Why did racism, egocentrism, ethnocentrism, and Eurocentrism develop? Why were European explanations of human diversity evaluative and not neutral? Why could educators such as Clarke and Zerffi write what they did? Popkin (1973) posits that because Europeans had given up Biblical humanism (the conviction that everyone was made in the image of God) and because naturalistic explanations of human nature allowed for normative evaluation and the economics of slavery, colonization, and gold could be justified: "And to nobody’s surprise, the theorizers … managed to find that people with "wrong,"or "inferior"mental properties just happened to have the wrong skin color, or the wrong religious beliefs and practices. In finding this out, the philosophers and natural philosophers were not being aberrational; they were acting as the theoreticians for a major stream of thought [e.g., aesthetic theory] that was transforming the universalistic conception of man into a view of the gradations of mankind, a transformation that could justify what was occurring. (Popkin, 1973, p. 254)" And, it could justify what happened in art education, too. It is not my purpose in this paper to present rationalizations for the past; however, I believe that we need to understand the past in order to embrace the future. The future for art education in a pluralist society requires art educators who are knowledgeable about and sensitive to students’ differing cultural backgrounds, values, and traditions. I believe that we need art educators who demonstrate respect for cultures and backgrounds different from their own and acknowledge that all groups can produce and define cultural artifacts that are “excellent” and that in all cultures “art”exists for rather similar reasons. We need art teachers who provide a classroom atmosphere in which students’ cultures are recognized, shared, and respected. We need art educators who will develop culturally appropriate curricula materials to supplement those whose treatment of different cultural groups is limited or biased. We need art educators who will give students an opportunity to explore what they do not know or understand about the arts of other cultures. We need learning and teaching to operate in both directions and to involve parents and other community members as experts and resource people in classroom activities. As Shapson (1990) states, “Attempts to implement new curriculum and innovative teaching for multicultural education are fragile. The efforts of committed educators and other stakeholders stand vulnerable to political pressures” (p. 213). As I have shown in this paper, we are also vulnerable to powerful and ingrained traditions in art education. We all need to examine our own beliefs and values so that we can effect change in the ways we teach art.

The Origins of Racism in the Public School Art Curriculum

F. Graeme Chalmers

Studies in Art Education, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Spring, 1992), pp. 134-143

Published by: National Art Education Association

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1320895

[access limited]

(via medievalpoc)

[medievalpoc]

Wow, you've shown me so many examples of people of color in medieval art, that i'm suprised that even professers of history seem to deny the there were POC in medieval europe! My question though, is this: has there been any research done as to when this white-washing of medieval europe began?

Actually, my next queued post addresses that in detail, particularly in regards to Art Education.

Quick-n-Dirty Version: it began during “The Enlightenment”, during colonization and the beginnings of chattel slavery. The idea of “White People” had just been invented, along with the idea of White supremacy. Basically, all the leading “scientific minds” directly benefited from genocide, kidnapping people an enslaving them, and stealing their land, resources, and skills.

And in order to justify this, it was very important to create this idea not just that “these people are in a subordinate position now”, it had to be retroactive. As in, “these people have never had any accomplishments, their culture is primitive, worthless, ugly, uninteresting, therefore whatever we do to them is okay/for their own good/helping them/better than leaving them to their own depravity” et cetera.

The amount of “science” devoted to proving that people of color were inherently inferior to white people was like…pretty much the ENTIRETY of “science” from the late 1700s to….well. 

For example:

This asshat got his degree from Harvard on the premise that “Hispanics have lower IQs than American Whites” IN 2009.

And coincidentally, Arizona banned “Ethnic Studies”, specifically a Mexican-American Studies Curriculum, upheld by a judge as “constitutional” in March. 2013.

And the consistent disenfranchisement of specifically Mestiz@  and other “not white” Mexican Americans has been documented by sociologist Richard Shingles, who says:

Shingles concludes it is an American problem brought on by the history of the nation’s oldest and largest Mexican American communities, a history that started with conquest and has excluded generations from the benefits of development. “Our past cannot be separated from our future.”

See how that works?

No past, no history, no context, just a huge group of people that are somehow “inherently inferior”, and coincidentally not historically f*cked over for hundreds of years. It’s about blaming the victims of racism for suffering from the results of racism.

That’s why they teach whitewashed history.

[mirelha]

This reminds me of my history and philosophy teachers, in High School. They would tell us that every individual was equal but that there were some cultures that were better than others… >_< This, of course, was based on crap like size, influence, education, and of course totally biased shit like: "Never will Zulu choirs sound as great as something written by Mozart". They had the nerve to say that as teachers, in a school where 75% of the students and teachers were Jewish and the remaining 25% mostly students of colour.  And naturally, they would also back-up their crappy argumentation with comparisons between France and “certain regions” in an attempt to “prove” their point, saying that since they had been accused of racism, they wanted people to know that in their opinion, not all Whites were equal either, “so it’s not racism”.

People like these two and the so-called “educated” mentioned above are dangerous. And should not be allowed to teach.

[medievalpoc]

Stories like this always make me obscurely glad I didn’t go to high school.

[sagansense]

Created by Bradley L’Herrou, via The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science

[graffitiregatta-blog]

Hey Brad, your piece has been reblogged--more than once! Huzzah!

[positivedoodles]

[wtffanfiction]

Fandom: Garfield

“‘It is true. Look and see.’ Jon Arbuckle showed Garfield a letter that came through mail boxes.

'Dear Garfield, you are not invited to royal wedding. Sincerely Royal England Family.' Said the letter with insults.

'INVITE THIS.' Shouted Garfield as he tore up the letter with manly hands.

'This is last straw. I will not stand for insults to humanity.' Garfield cried out to the ceiling with fist clenched with justice.”

[graffitiregatta-blog]

My favorite weird-ass fanfic is the non-erotic sort.