Don't be apathetic; be proactive
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 10:53 am-Important stuff-
Check this out: Education Petition: Help Brooke Harris of Michigan get her job back
What's the story: Brook Harris assisted some interested students of hers in attempting to organize a fundraiser for Trayvon Martin. They live in a world where they, too, are threatened by trigger-happy "watchers" who automatically suspect them of doing wrong simply because of the color of their skin. So, they wanted to learn more about what was happening, and try to make a difference. Harris brought their proposal forth, and was suspended, then fired for it.
Their reasons are that teachers presumably shouldn't be 'activists'.
The message being sent here is, "We don't want the children of this world to speak out against oppression, wrongdoing, racism, sexism." And that is WAY out of line. Brook Harris was doing the right thing, and by my book, she sounds like a great teacher, genuinely engaged with her students and caring about them.
Please sign the petition, or at least pass it to someone who might consider doing so. Heck knows I'm doing what I can to do the same.
-Just plain normal stuff-
So, last night I joined in for the tail end of Dustin's Legend of the Five Rings module. It was really awesome! He'd made pregenerated characters for everyone, and the system was really easy to pick up. I had picked the warrior/poet, because I kind of like the wacky iaijustu, haiku-for-every-kill dealie. I got to try my hand at it, which led to a couple of decent haiku along the way and Derek laughing a lot! Derek was playing a druidic priestess who abhorred violence, which was troublesome, since there were blood mages around. Dyrr was playing a badass tattooed monk who was partially on fire most of the time.
It was fun, but afterwards I was terribly sleepy! Despite that, I got very little rest. Cid kept crawling on me for some reason. Eventually she settled for sitting on my chest and staring down at me for a while.
Edit: Man! This "article" about the Hunger Games tiptoes around discussing gender and race issues, but the ending really bugged me:
"Last, Rue (who’s played by a biracial actress in the film and is described in the book as having “satiny brown skin”) may narratively function somewhat like Leatherstocking’s Indian companions, yet she is far from the clichéd “noble savage” type.
Some racist moviegoers, who may be reading white-supremacist fantasies into the survivalist aspect of the story, have complained that Rue looks black (whatever that means). In truth Rue, Katniss and Peeta exist in a new kind of frontier that is a dystopian nightmare but one that has its utopian moment — which may largely account for the film’s popularity — in that race and gender stereotypes have become seemingly irrelevant."
-From the New York Times
I don't really agree with these two about gender precisely, but it's the sort of disagree that partially comes of actually being a woman, as opposed to trying to understand what it's like to be a woman who is frequently disappointed by a lack of interesting female characters in entertainment. So I think they're doing all right at at least talking about it, and being open to the idea that masculinity and femininity are kind of bizarre and arbitrary concepts.
(For example, did you know that during the time of Beowulf or the Canterbury Tales, women were assumed to be the sex-crazy gender who just loved having sex too much to stop?)
Anyway, the important thing to me is the end quote, though. The commentary that there's no divide based on race in the Hunger Games's setting simply because Katniss was capable of befriending Rue is absolutely ridiculous. There's an awful lot of white people in Panem; in fact, the only black people seem to mysteriously be relegated entirely to District 11. I hear in the books, Katniss's skin color is olive, with a sort of additional implication that that's relatively common for District 12. (Olive, for the record, usually refers to Hispanic skin colors-- so that might not be unintentional on part of the author, who didn't strike me as very subtle about the issues she was trying to tackle). There are also notes within the books (so I've heard from reading up on them, the internet at large, and people who have read the books) about the fact that being blond, blue-eyed and white is desirable in Panem. So to claim that race is overcome by the setting, while a nice sentiment, is totally untrue. Race and class matter in Panem; that's part of what's so awful about it.
What really irritates me, though, is the comment about Rue not being a noble savage stereotype. I'm sorry, did she or did she not
a) possess incredible wilderness skills outstripping the hero's
b) inexplicably but helpfully befriend the hero when she was in need
c) heal the hero with wilderness knowledge and magic nature medicine?
Right, she did all three of those things. And the most important thing about noble savages is, the stereotype exists because these characters are not the main character, and they frequently die. Check, and check.
Check this out: Education Petition: Help Brooke Harris of Michigan get her job back
What's the story: Brook Harris assisted some interested students of hers in attempting to organize a fundraiser for Trayvon Martin. They live in a world where they, too, are threatened by trigger-happy "watchers" who automatically suspect them of doing wrong simply because of the color of their skin. So, they wanted to learn more about what was happening, and try to make a difference. Harris brought their proposal forth, and was suspended, then fired for it.
Their reasons are that teachers presumably shouldn't be 'activists'.
The message being sent here is, "We don't want the children of this world to speak out against oppression, wrongdoing, racism, sexism." And that is WAY out of line. Brook Harris was doing the right thing, and by my book, she sounds like a great teacher, genuinely engaged with her students and caring about them.
Please sign the petition, or at least pass it to someone who might consider doing so. Heck knows I'm doing what I can to do the same.
-Just plain normal stuff-
So, last night I joined in for the tail end of Dustin's Legend of the Five Rings module. It was really awesome! He'd made pregenerated characters for everyone, and the system was really easy to pick up. I had picked the warrior/poet, because I kind of like the wacky iaijustu, haiku-for-every-kill dealie. I got to try my hand at it, which led to a couple of decent haiku along the way and Derek laughing a lot! Derek was playing a druidic priestess who abhorred violence, which was troublesome, since there were blood mages around. Dyrr was playing a badass tattooed monk who was partially on fire most of the time.
It was fun, but afterwards I was terribly sleepy! Despite that, I got very little rest. Cid kept crawling on me for some reason. Eventually she settled for sitting on my chest and staring down at me for a while.
Edit: Man! This "article" about the Hunger Games tiptoes around discussing gender and race issues, but the ending really bugged me:
"Last, Rue (who’s played by a biracial actress in the film and is described in the book as having “satiny brown skin”) may narratively function somewhat like Leatherstocking’s Indian companions, yet she is far from the clichéd “noble savage” type.
Some racist moviegoers, who may be reading white-supremacist fantasies into the survivalist aspect of the story, have complained that Rue looks black (whatever that means). In truth Rue, Katniss and Peeta exist in a new kind of frontier that is a dystopian nightmare but one that has its utopian moment — which may largely account for the film’s popularity — in that race and gender stereotypes have become seemingly irrelevant."
-From the New York Times
I don't really agree with these two about gender precisely, but it's the sort of disagree that partially comes of actually being a woman, as opposed to trying to understand what it's like to be a woman who is frequently disappointed by a lack of interesting female characters in entertainment. So I think they're doing all right at at least talking about it, and being open to the idea that masculinity and femininity are kind of bizarre and arbitrary concepts.
(For example, did you know that during the time of Beowulf or the Canterbury Tales, women were assumed to be the sex-crazy gender who just loved having sex too much to stop?)
Anyway, the important thing to me is the end quote, though. The commentary that there's no divide based on race in the Hunger Games's setting simply because Katniss was capable of befriending Rue is absolutely ridiculous. There's an awful lot of white people in Panem; in fact, the only black people seem to mysteriously be relegated entirely to District 11. I hear in the books, Katniss's skin color is olive, with a sort of additional implication that that's relatively common for District 12. (Olive, for the record, usually refers to Hispanic skin colors-- so that might not be unintentional on part of the author, who didn't strike me as very subtle about the issues she was trying to tackle). There are also notes within the books (so I've heard from reading up on them, the internet at large, and people who have read the books) about the fact that being blond, blue-eyed and white is desirable in Panem. So to claim that race is overcome by the setting, while a nice sentiment, is totally untrue. Race and class matter in Panem; that's part of what's so awful about it.
What really irritates me, though, is the comment about Rue not being a noble savage stereotype. I'm sorry, did she or did she not
a) possess incredible wilderness skills outstripping the hero's
b) inexplicably but helpfully befriend the hero when she was in need
c) heal the hero with wilderness knowledge and magic nature medicine?
Right, she did all three of those things. And the most important thing about noble savages is, the stereotype exists because these characters are not the main character, and they frequently die. Check, and check.
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