The Voting Bloc: Obama and Change

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

Miss Kristia, of Doorknockers, blogs:

The most difficult contradiction to face is that even if Obama makes 1.5-2 things better for some people of color in America, we know that he is nothing but a flyer, better-dressed, younger face to the New World Order AKA the same ol' American Empire that has been running shit for the past several hundred years.

Racist Mother Goose and Grimm Cartoon

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

Angry Asian Man blogs:

Kimchi Mamas first blogged about this a couple of weeks ago... What kind of messed up nonsense is this? This Mother Goose and Grimm comic strip is a couple of weeks old, but dude, what the hell? Come on! Really? They really had to go there with the idiotic Korean dog-eating joke?

"ask a white kid"

I logged onto myspace this morning and one of my friend's had posted a bulletin entitled "ask a white kid."



Did anyone happen to catch this?

Friday Hip-Hop 9.05.08

This podcast runs a little over 20 minutes and features an all African Hip-Hop cast from Gabon, Senegal, and Tanzania.

Enjoy.

Movaizhaleine

X Plastaz

Wendy Wen

Daara J

Intro by: Peter Tosh

Bambu's Exact Change Tour

I'll be there, will you?

Friday Hip-Hop 8.29.08

This podcast is around 14.5 minutes.

Enjoy.

Invincible

Umi

Dilated Peoples

The Roots

Intro by: The Last Poets

Dream Lapse

Lost in thought, walking to the places I have to go to during no particular day, I feel like I'm in a racial vacuum...

During this moment, I'm completely unaware of myself as a social being--that is, of my labels as a woman, Latina, etc. I'm not really interacting with others, I'm just passing through blurs of people that I pay no attention to as I cross streets and pass buildings. I'm not even conscious of my walking. I'm practically in a dream.

It's a strange thing, that lapse in time that occurs when I'm getting from one place to another. It's not that I'm not appreciative of the day--I notice the green leaves and blue skies I pass along the way. I'm still adhering to the laws of society, but in auto-pilot mode.

I can never consciously experience these racially-vacuous dream lapses, I can only reflect upon them afterward. I wake up from my dream and I'm left with only a few remnants of the event.

I can't assume you go through this moment, but it feels so natural that I wonder if others do go through it. My question is, is this a way of attempting to escape the burden of racialized identity, or is it rather a brief return to a natural state before and beyond social identity? Both and neither?

In short, I think moments like these matter because they show that I cannot be my social self every single second of the day. Race, gender, sexuality, class. They are not a part of the fiber of my being, they are only roles I assume when I interact with others.

In this way, double consciousness can also be the literal state of the term--being conscious of your consciousness. That is, being aware of your awareness as a socialized being intersected by race, class and gender.

...The moment I hear "hi" from a friend who sees me walking by, I suddenly notice the dripping paint of society all over me. I suddenly become aware of my name, place, and time in society. No longer just a body, but now back to Sara, back to Latina in 2008, back to California-born daughter of Argentine immigrants.