Ian Dury - Lord Upminster
19 minutes ago
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Shit name but...
Tracklist:
Telespazio – ‘Telemetric’ (Arto Mwambe Remix) – Tiny Sticks
Spectacle – Prism – Permanent Vacation
Mango Boy – If It Ain’t Broke – Mango Boy Records
Neal Howard – The Gathering (Joey Negro edit) – NRK
Miranda – Jacques Renault Edit – On The Prowl
Lee Curtiss – Freak On – (Get Physical)
Layo & Bushwacka – The Raw Road (Nic fanciulli remix) – Olmeto
Basic Soul Unit – In The Trunk – Room With A View
DJ Sprinkles – Grand central Pt.1 (Deep In The Bowel Of House) MCDE Bassline Dub – Mule Musiq
Hrdvsion – Captivated Heart – Wagon Repair
Murk – Bugged out – Solid Pleasure
The Orb – Little fluffy Clouds (Cumulonimbus mix) – Big Life
The White Anti-Racist Is an Oxymoron: An Open Letter to 'White Anti-Racists'
I received an annoying e-mail about white people and their struggle to do anti-racist work. I keep reading and hearing white people talk about their struggle to do anti-racist organizing, and frankly it gets on my nerves. So I am writing this open letter to white people who engage in any activist work that involves or affects non-whites. Given that the US social structure is founded on white supremacy, and that there is a global order in which white supremacy and European domination are at large, I would challenge any white person to figure out what movement or action they can get involved in that will not involve or affect non-white people.
That said, I want to begin with what has become a realization for me through the help of different politically conscious friends. There is NO SUCH THING AS A WHITE ANTI-RACIST. The term itself, "white anti- racist" is an oxymoron. In the following, I will explain why. Then, I will begin to detail how this impacts non-white people in organizing work specifically, along with how it affects non-white people generally.
First, one must realize that whiteness is a structure of domination. As such, there is nothing redeemable or reformable about whiteness. Intellectuals, scholars and activists, especially those who are non- white, have drawn our attention to this for years. For example, people such as Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and many, many others who are perhaps less famous, have articulated the relationship between whiteness and domination.
Further, people such as Douglass and DuBois began to outline how whiteness is a social and political construct that emphasizes the domination, authority, and perceived humanity of those who are racialized as white. They, along with many other non-white writers and orators, have pointed to the fact that it was the bodies who were able to be racialized as "white" that were able to be viewed as rational, authoritative, and deserving. Further, and believe me, this is no small thing, white people are viewed as human. What this means is that when white people suffer, as some who are poor/female/queer, they nevertheless are able to have some measure of sympathy for their plight simply because they are white and their marginalization is considered an emergency, crisis or an issue to be concerned about.
Furthermore, even when white people have been oppressed by various dimensions of classism, homophobia and heterosexism, they have been able to opt for what DuBois, in his monograph "Black Reconstruction" brilliantly called "the psychological wage of whiteness." That is, whites that are marginalized could find comfort, even if psychological, in the fact that they were not non-white. They could revel in the fact that they could be taken as white in opposition to non-white groups. The desire for this wage of whiteness was also what drove many white people, albeit marginalized, to engage in organized violence against non-whites.
Of course, legal cases such as the Dred Scott Decision along with many different naturalization cases involving Asian individuals, has helped to encode a state-sanctioned definition of whiteness. But there are other ways in which white people can be racialized as white by the state. They are not stopped while driving as much as non-white people. Their homes and businesses are not raided and searched as much by police officers, INS or License and Inspections (L&I). White people's bodies are not tracked and locked up in prisons, detention centers, juvenile systems, detention halls in classrooms, "special education" classes, etc. White people's bodies are not generally the site of fear, repulsion, violent desire, or hatred.
Now some might point out to me that white people are followed, tracked and harassed by individuals and state agents such as the police. This is true. Some white women get sexually harassed and experience state-sanctioned discrimination. Queer whites are the subject of homophobia, whether by individuals or by the state through laws and the police. Some queer whites are harassed by cops. Activist whites are stopped by police. White people who play rap music and wear gear are stopped by cops. Poor whites can be criminalized, especially by the state around welfare issues. What I want to point out is that, while I do not condone police violence and harassment, there is a way in which white people will not be viewed as inherently criminal or suspect unless they are perceived as doing something that breaks particular norms.
Conversely, other racial groups, particularly Blacks and Native Americans, are considered inherently criminal no matter what they do, what their sexual identity is or what they wear. Further, it has always struck me as interesting that there are white people who will attempt to wear what signifies "Blackness," whether it is dreadlocks (which, in my opinion, should be cut off from every white person's head), "gear," or Black masks at rallies. There is a sick way in which white people want to emulate that which is considered "badass" about a certain existential position of Blackness at the same time they do not want the burden of living as a non-white person. Further, it really strikes me as fucked up the way in which white people will go to rallies and taunt the police with Black masks in order to bring on police pressure. What does it mean when Blackness is strategically used by whites to bring on police violence? Now I know that somewhere there is a dreadlocked, smelly white anarchist who is reading this message and who is angry with me for not understanding the logic of the Black masks and its roots in anarchism. But I would challenge these people to consider how they are reproducing a violence towards Blackness in their attempts to taunt and challenge the police in their efforts.
Now back to my point that white anti-racism is an oxymoron. Whiteness is a social and political construct rooted in white supremacy. White supremacy is a structure and system of beliefs rooted in European and US imperialism in which certain racialized bodies (non-white) are selected for premature negation whether through cultural, physical, psychological genocide, containment or other forms of social death. White supremacy is at the heart of the US social system and civil society. In short, white supremacy is not just a series of practices or privilege, but a larger social structure and system of domination that overly-values and rewards those who are racialized as white. The rest of us are constructed as undeserving to be considered human, although there is significant variation within non-white populations of how our bodies are encoded, treated and (de)valued...
Don't forget Boss Goodman's benefit tonight if you are in London
BIG hugs and kisses from Angie and I
(The Dingwalls Down Under Duo)
XXX
HA!
jackofkent Have just been told by a journo that a certain tweet is now the most RT'd tweet ever. Is this correct? How wd one know? Twitter anger over bomb tweeter
Henryk Gorecki RIP
Polish composer Henryk Gorecki has died at the age of 76, the country's national orchestra has announced.
He was best known for his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, which was composed in 1976 and sold more than a million copies following a 1992 re-release.
The symphony, re-issued to commemorate those who died in the Holocaust, featured vocals from US soprano Dawn Upshaw.
It was often played on radio station Classic FM when it launched in 1992.
Monumental style
Gorecki had been suffering from a prolonged illness, a spokeswoman for Polish Radio's National Symphony Orchestra said.
He was born close to the industrial city of Katowice in southern Poland where he studied music and became a professor at the city's music academy.
The composer's earlier works in the 1950s and 1960s explored folk music traditions, but by the 1970s had formed into the monumental style he became famous for.
He was often at odds with the authorities in communist Poland, withdrawing from public life in the 1980s to concentrate on composing music.
Gorecki's Symphony No 3 became the best-selling record by a contemporary composer, with its slow and stark style dealing with the themes of war and separation.
The composer had completed his fourth symphony, but its premiere was shelved due to his illness.
He was awarded the Order of the White Eagle last month, Poland's highest honour.
Friday, 12 November 2010
RT
exilestreet Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high! #IAmSpartacus
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