go on lil' miss!

(source: union thugs)

I DID NOT VOTE TRUMP

This still means something.

If Black People Said The Stuff White People Say

I get excited whenever my buddy Burl is featured in a project. Great job.


 If Black People Said The Stuff White People Say


Starring:
Burl Moseley
http://imdb.me/burlmoseley
https://twitter.com/BurlMoseley

Chelsea Harris
http://www.imdb.me/ChelseaHarris
http://instagram.com/ChelseaHarris31

Music:
Ridin High
Licensed via Warner Chappell Production Music Inc.

Columbine. It's Been 15 Years.

Today marks the15th year after Columbine. Each time this year, I settle in for some reflection, & often a good dose of reading. 

Feminist-sociologist, Michael Kimmel, has asserted that mass shootings seem to have a common theme. Male. White. 

 As a person in the mental health biz, I do know that it can play a part (and I am not suggesting that it had or had not within the Columbine events) but I also think we cannot ignore, that it's not about just illness, and guns. It's often anger, about race, and gender. 

There is great love for all those who want it, and share it--but anger is the only real emotion that is rewarded among men. Aren't we done yet? Can we put down privilege? Can we put down patriarchy? Can we create and move forward with resources for all?

 (source)

To those who died, to those who still suffer. You are bigger than I will ever be.

Cyd Art

Not happy about Al Jazeera America but as long as Al Jazeera English remains, I'll be alright.

Below is an article from the Huffington Post.

Al Jazeera America Promises To Stand Out In Cable News Market, But Concerns Loom

Michael Calderone Become a fan

michael.calderone@huffingtonpost.com

 

Posted: 07/27/2013 8:49 am EDT  |  Updated: 07/28/2013 9:11 am EDT

NEW YORK –- Kate O’Brian, a 30-year ABC News veteran named president of Al Jazeera America this week, says the soon-to-be-launched network will stand out in today's cable news landscape.

“I think there is a gap in the market and I think that the other competitors to Al Jazeera have stayed doing certain kinds of stories," O’Brian said in an interview in The Huffington Post. "And whether its left-leaning or right-leaning or pundits yapping, the straight-forward, high-quality, good journalism stories are not being told as much as they can.”

Al Jazeera has a history of being disruptive. Its Arabic-language network changed the static news landscape in the Arab world in the 1990’s by offering a satellite alternative to state-run media. The Al Jazeera Media Network, funded by the oil-rich royal family of Qatar, later launched Al Jazeera English, a Doha-based, English-language network that reaches hundreds of millions of homes worldwide. It also offers a livestream broadcast that international news junkies in the U.S. flocked to during the Arab Spring upheaval.

The global news organization has spared no expense in getting a U.S. network off the ground to compete with CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. In January, the company shelled out $500 million for Al Gore’s struggling Current TV in order to gain wider U.S. cable distribution, and in the months that followed, it hired 700 staffers in preparation for an Aug. 20 launch.

But even with seemingly unlimited resources, can Al Jazeera America break away from the cable news crowd?

Its new stars say yes.

Joie Chen, a veteran of CNN and CBS News who was announced this week as host of flagship evening news magazine “America Tonight,” said Wednesday that the show “will bring together the powerful and diverse voices of Al Jazeera America and stand out from other networks with its fearless, unbiased reporting.”

Yet some inside the company remain skeptical that the network will depart from the status quo, especially given that Chen -– like many of the recent high-profile hires –- hails from established US broadcast and cable news networks.

One Al Jazeera staffer spoke of getting the impression that “those launching the channel have little confidence that the mass audience they seek wants anything terribly different from the current mainstream programming offered by CNN” and other networks.

Whether or not Al Jazeera America resembles CNN in format or content remains to be seen, but the network has definitely recruited from the US cable pioneer.

Kim Bondy left CNN to become executive producer for “America Tonight.” Former CNN anchor Ali Velshi will host a business show on the network, while ex-CNN morning host Soledad O’Brien has signed on as a special correspondent. “America Tonight” correspondent Sheila MacVicar, who came most recently from CBS News, was once a CNN correspondent. And the executive team announced this week includes senior vice presidents David Doss and Shannon High-Bassalik, both previously high-ranking CNN executives.

Al Jazeera America has also hired anchor David Shuster (MSNBC, Fox News), White House correspondent Mike Viqueria (NBC News), weeknight host Antonio Mora (ABC News) and senior vice president Marcy McGinnis (CBS News).

Paul Eedle, Al Jazeera America's deputy news and editorial director, recently told The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald that executives are "building a newsroom culture to embody the Jazeera spirit" and training new hires "to break free of inhibitions they might have had and feel liberated and go for the story."

But Greenwald noted that there has been internal debate over the network's direction. He published an internal email from prominent Al Jazeera host Marwan Bishara blasting executives for distancing the American network from Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English in hopes of appeasing those who view the networks as anti-American. Bishara specifically took aim at the American network's interim chief executive Ehab Al Shihabi, claiming that his desire to ingratiate himself with U.S. leaders had led him “astray.”

DEPARTING FROM AL JAZEERA ENGLISH
In an interview with HuffPost, Al Shihabi downplayed the internal criticism and said that Al Jazeera encouraged discussion about the network's direction.

“Al Jazeera, as a culture, is all the time open for any suggestion, whether that be in an aggressive mode or a soft mode,” Al Shihabi said. “We don’t take it personal.”

Al Shihabi, who joined Al Jazeera five years ago, also pushed back against early news reports that 40 percent of Al Jazeera America's programming would come from the Doha-based Al Jazeera English. He said that was a misconception.

The perception, at least, that the network abandoned its original plans to devote a significant amount of airtime to Al Jazeera English's content has prompted criticism, with the English-language network’s former head Tony Burman recently writing that the American project has the “odour of potential disaster.”
Al Jazeera America is unlikely to run full Al Jazeera English shows in their original form. One plan is to create a new version of innovative Al Jazeera English program “The Stream,” but with an American host: former ABC News correspondent Lisa Fletcher. If the network brings over hard-hitting Al Jazeera English program “Inside Story Americas,” meanwhile, host Shihab Rattansi has already indicated on Twitter that he won’t be joining.

Any editorial differences between Al Jazeera America and Al Jazeera English should become apparent once the new network gets off the ground. Each will have their own White House correspondent, producing stories geared toward U.S. and international viewers, respectively. There are still a number of issues to be worked out regarding whether and when the networks will repurpose each other's content, all the way down to questions of house style -- such as switching any mention of kilograms to pounds.

NOT IGNORING THE WORLD
The day after landing her new job, O'Brian spoke to HuffPost about the new network's focus.
“The American viewing audience is unique to America,” she said. “So everything that we’re going to be producing is for the American viewing audience. It’s not a value judgment that something is better or worse. It’s just what the American audience expects. So every decision we make about formats of shows and anchors of shows and pacing of shows will all be based on what we, as American journalists, have learned and have come to expect.”

Although the network is based in the U.S, she added, “it doesn’t mean we will ignore the world.”

The possibility of tapping into Al Jazeera’s global reach is a key way in which the American network could distinguish itself from Fox News and MSNBC, both of which focus more on partisan talk, and CNN, which has increasingly turned to sensational domestic events like the George Zimmerman trial.

“There is no other news media group anywhere that has the resources and reach that Al Jazeera has,” O’Brian said, noting plans for 12 domestic bureaus to compliment 70-plus bureaus worldwide.

“I will never have to worry that, oh my god, we have to get a team to this place,” she said. “Or, is the story important enough to actually send a team to this place? Because Al Jazeera will have somebody or some team that, if they’re not right there, they’ll be pretty close.”

Al Jazeera America is also investing heavily in investigative journalism. The network is building a 16-person investigative unit that could produce enterprise stories not seen on its competitors.

While impossible to judge a network’s coverage pre-launch, O’Brian suggested U.S. viewers would see a difference. For example, Al Jazeera America wouldn’t cover the “Royal Baby” frenzy in a “minute-by-minute, breathless, day-in-day-out way that we've seen some of the competitors out there doing,” she said. As for the recent round-the-clock Zimmerman coverage, O’Brian said there’s a “sameness” to daily trial coverage and believes there’s “an audience out there that wants something different.”

‘IF THEY PLAY IT SAFE, THEY'RE DOOMED
Jay Rosen, an NYU journalism professor and media critic, told HuffPost that he has a “small suggestion” for the new American network if it “wants to stand out from the cable news pack.”

“In a prominent spot on their home page, set up three pie charts showing the percentage of time devoted to the top 15 stories on CNN, Fox and Al Jazeera over the last 24 hours,” Rosen said. “Then promote the results.”

After Rosen tweeted the suggestion, Ryaad Minty, head of social media for Al Jazeera, responded: "Great idea! We'll see if its doable for us."

Philip Seib, director of USC's Center on Public Diplomacy and author of "The Al Jazeera Effect," told HuffPost that the network’s Qatari backers are motivated by the realization that “you’re not a real international player in the broadcast world until you’re in the U.S.” Seib pointed out that as the 1996 launch of Al Jazeera put Qatar on the map as a “regional player,” U.S. expansion is a way to expand its reach as a “global player.”

Seib said the American network has an opportunity to “stake out some kind of territory in terms of investigative journalism” and perhaps take a populist approach that holds corporations accountable in a way that U.S. cable networks may not be doing.

“If they play it safe, they’re doomed,” Seib said. “No one’s going to pay attention to them.”

Cracking the Codes: Tim Wise Speaks of Fear, Envy and Bias

Cracking the Codes: Tim Wise, Fear & Envy
In this clip author and anti-racism advocate Tim Wise talks about that media plays in creating whites' fear and envy of people of color and other barriers that keep whites from developing authentic personal relationships with people of color.


Cracking the Codes: Tim Wise, Implicit Bias in the Age of Obama 
In this clip author and anti-racism advocate Tim Wise shares how white folks carry implicit negative bias toward people of color will carve out exceptions for those who seem different from the norm. For more information on Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity

Posted by WorldTrustTV
http://www.crackingthecodes.org

Film Trailer


Cracking the Codes: A film produced by Shakti Butler, Phd.

The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy

The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy - 2012

Video Description:

A secret audio recording of a stop-and-frisk in action sheds unprecedented light on a practice that has put the city's young people of color in the NYPD's crosshairs.

videonation 

Anti-racist speaker, educator, and author, Tim Wise in the Rector's Forum at All Saints Church, Pasadena, on Sunday, April 28, 2013.

Presentation by Tim Wise in the Rector's Forum at All Saints Church, Pasadena, on Sunday, April 28, 2013.

Posted by allsaintspasadena1

White Like Me: A 2013 documentary based on the work of anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise

White Like Me - Documentary by Anti-racist activist, speaker, educator, author, Tim Wise -- 2013

A 2-minute clip from White Like Me featuring Tim Wise. Available Fall 2013.

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. - See more at: http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. - See more at: http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. - See more at: http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. - See more at: http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

http://www.whitelikememovie.org

From the Website:

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. - See more at: http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning assessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we've entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequity and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise's bestselling  books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others.

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. - See more at: http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

Tim Wise Responds to the "Some-of-my-best-friends-are black" Defense

Anti-racist speaker, author, activist Tim Wise Responds to the "Some-of-my-best-friends-are black" Defense - 2013

Video Description
To help us make sense of the Zimmerman verdict and the conversations surrounding it, we looked to Tim Wise for some answers. Here he reacts to the assertions made by defenders of Zimmerman suggesting he couldn't possibly be influenced by race because he has black friends, dated an African American girl and mentored black children.

http://www.mediaed.org/blog/?p=2661
whitelikememovie.org

Yeezus: Good, Not Great, and Quite Misogynist by kris_ex at LA Weekly

Kanye West has plenty of good songs, but the ego has landed once again. To offer up a moldy and cobwebbed phrase, he has made yet another attempt to "push the envelope". He will surely convince his already fans, that he is edgy, and new. He is fully aware that his lyrics are unacceptable, and he has found a way to market it: in other words, it is calculated. 

Life affords us many mistakes, and although none of us are perfect, I'd like to think that as we age, we grow. This adult man, who is now a new father to a baby girl, is spewing lyrics that his young one, will some day hear. Being that our culture is indeed seeped in sexism and racism, you never know, she may actually come to embrace what he has laid down for us.

Although it is simple enough to side-step the fact that if that album is not to our liking, there is a much larger issue that cannot be written off. 

Below is an article from LA Weekly.

Yeezus: Good, Not Great, and Quite Misogynist

By kris ex Tue., Jun. 18 2013 at 4:00 AM

Once in a while Kanye West goes ahead and does something that's truly impressive. You can't always tell this because, for West, there's no difference between an act of genius and being a genius. For him, genius doesn't stem from action; genius is an extension of his very state of being.

His unwavering sense of "complete awesomeness at all times" is bolstered by a weird feedback loop of celebrities, fans and critics who hate to love him and love to hate him. Each, however, pumps up his self-importance to the point where his sixth album, Yeezus -- a very good, but not great work and one of the few records in recent history that can actually live up to the claim of being eagerly anticipated -- is already being proclaimed as a masterpiece, despite its lack of focus and center.

Musically, Yeezus is an enjoyably-adventurous deconstruction of industrial rock, electronic dance, ragga and new wave that more than once eschews drums and often pulls in reggae vocals for ominous effects. (For added measure, there's a snippet of a chorale on "On Sight" and an outro, provided via sample, by Hungarian Rock band Omega on "New Slaves.")

The album is short, clocking in at 40 minutes, and only one of its ten songs is listed as primarily produced by West. Whereas his past albums have concentrated on radio-friendly melodies, lush production, arena rap and navel-gazing, Yeezus is stark and minimal and seems determined to be the music that comes on in sketchy warehouse parties at about 3 am when your second wave of drugs is wearing off and you'll try whatever anyone has, because YOLO.

Much like 2008's 808s & Heartbreak, the rapping on Yeezus seems to be an afterthought. (Rick Rubin, who executive-produced the album in the 23rd hour, revealed that vocals for five songs were laid in two hours before West caught a flight to Milan.) This is actually a good thing, because as a rapper West is often silly, sloppy and belabored -- the type of guy that may or may not be serious when angrily demanding croissants, and doesn't realize that the 300 were Spartans (not Romans) or that C-Murder came from the Calliope (not Magnolia) projects. (He also doesn't know who starred in In Too Deep [Omar Epps, not Mekhi Phifer]). None of this stops him from rapping with gusto, because even when he gets bested by guest rappers on his own songs, as on Late Registration's "Gone," he claims his superficial raps as super-official.

Yet the glaring deficiency in West's raps on Yeezus is not his skillset as much as it is his utter lack of empathy for women as human beings. So, yeah, the guy with the trophy girlfriend who just gave birth to his daughter manages to throw a few lines that could be read as unintentional jabs at Kim Kardashian. On "On Sight," he raps "I know she like chocolate men/ She got more niggas off than Cochran" which seems a little too close to home on too many levels.

"I'm In It" manages to spin race and sexism for maximum offensiveness not once, but twice: "Eating Asian pussy/ All I need was sweet and sour sauce" and "Black girl sippin' white wine/ Put my fist in her like a Civil Rights sign." On "Hold My Liquor," he mixes wealth and power with sex and misogyny proclaiming "One more fuck and I can own ya," after dismissing that he "smashed your Corolla" while parking his Range Rover--which is like, whoa dude. No one man should have all that anger.

 The two punk-channeling songs he premiered on last month's SNL performance -- "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves" -- are the album's most pointed numbers; they're also the kind of songs crafted to be played very loudly in order to make white people incredibly uncomfortable.

On the surface that's all bravo because, you know, fuck your post-racism fallacy. But with Kanye, his rants -- about celebrity, about art, about race and class -- are always about personal injustices done to him masquerading as some sort of quest for social reform. He begins "New Slaves" making allusions to picking cotton and Jim Crow, and if you imagine listening to "New Slaves" outside of the context of contemporary Kanye-ism, it sounds like the Last Poets. And the release of the video -- not through traditional outlets but projected onto buildings in places like the University of Tucson, Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, and the heart of Fifth Avenue -- was incredibly revolutionary. But it was also visual screed against consumerism by the guy who produces fetish item sneakers and has worshipped at the storefront of more obscure high-end brands than any rapper ever.

So of course his finger-pointing at the prison industrial complex and racist attitudes is marred by Kanyecentrism: his response to such harsh realities is to use his resources to move his family to foreign lands (because he's fucking rich and fuck the rest of us) and, more tellingly, to cuckold a powerbroker by taking his wife and ejaculating "on her Hampton blouse and in her Hampton mouth," because, for Kanye women are objects and the best way to retaliate against his oppressor is to violate said oppressor's most prized object. On the one hand, his move is all about powerlessness exerting power in the face of power; on the other it's all about his personal sense of satisfaction. Power to the people? Not so much.

In his attempts to be politically astute, Kanye West falls woefully short, but music and culture would probably be worse off without him. The same night that he premiered "New Slaves," Birdman and Rick Ross dropped a song named "Pop That Pussy" while Plies released a ditty called "Fucking or What" -- both being the type of lowbrow, ignorant music that makes you ashamed to say you like rap in mixed company. When compared to regressive bullshit like that, Yeezus is truly impressive.

the life underneath

Silk Road Republic via Art & Architecture

Found My Way & Turning Point by Seychelles Footwear

New styles from Seychelles Footwear.

Found My Way (Mint)

Wintermint is my favorite color. I'm very picky about mint, however, I take chances as it is a rarity that I find a piece of wardrobe that gets it just right. 

I purchased this shoe and it has yet to arrive. The material is leather and I'm hoping that the hue will not come off as clay.

The shoe also comes Black, Lavender, Tan, and Copper. I would have sought the Lavender but I am not pleased with it.

Turning Point (Green)

The above shoe color is advertised as Green. This appears to be more of a Teal: this is what I'm hoping for.

The shoe also comes in Clay, Nude, Plum, Yellow, and Black.

It's important to mention that it remains appalling that wardrobe companies are still labeling light tan colors as nude. Nude comes in many colors, and to suggest otherwise is oppressive.A side note that may have brought this breezy post, to a halt, but we need to address these things as they arise.

To view more from Seychelles, click here.

SPF

Too..many...thoughts..at once.

It's never clear as to what an artist means to say when they present a piece of art: that's the point. Isn't it? We are meant to think, ponder, enjoy and perhaps feel frustrated.

Black face is offensive but I'm wondering if the artist is pushing a question rather than an idea. Is black face as offensive when painted onto a sexualized female image? If not, why is that so? Is the woman on her stomach the same woman who is sitting upright? It seems so. Does that make it any less offensive? Is it no longer black face if the black resembles paint that runs down the neck?

But does that mean the first image where we are unable to see paint running down her neck is meant to be the offensive image? Or are we meant to question the way we perceive the concept of racism. Is the first image no longer a black face image if we have decided the second image is not black face? Can we then ignore that we do not see paint dragging down the neck of the upright image?

SPF rydye

International Women's Day 2013 in Pictures

The Atlantic gives us a wonderful way to celebrate International Women's Day (which was yesterday).

An Indian woman walks past a billboard of Australian model Miranda Kerr in Mumbai, on on March 8, 2013. (Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images) #

A bodyguard from the National Protection Unit (NPU) wears her flak jacket before a training 
session at a firing range near Bogota, Colombia, on March 1, 2013.  
(Reuters/Jose Miguel Gomez) 
 









Prison inmates dance in opposition to violence 
against women as they participate in a One Billion Rising event at the San Francisco County Jail 
#5 on Valentine's Day in San Bruno, California, on February 14, 2013. The event, with 
participants from 250 countries performing a choreographed dance routine on a day associated 
with romantic love, aimed to raise awareness about violence against women in which one in 
three women across the globe will be raped or beaten in their lifetime. (Reuters/Stephen Lam)

Female Marine recruits Princesse Aldrete (left) and Genisis Ordonez (right) stand in formation following hand-to-hand combat training during boot camp at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina, on February 27, 2013. Female enlisted Marines have gone through recruit training at the base since 1949. About 11 percent of female recruits who arrive at the boot camp fail to complete the training, which can be physically and mentally demanding. On January 24, 2013 Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta rescinded an order, which had been in place since 1994, that restricted women from being attached to ground combat units. About six percent of enlisted Marines are female. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #

A sex worker talks to a man outside a hotel in the Geylang red light district in Singapore, on February 8, 2013. In the Geylang district, licensed prostitutes from China, Thailand and other Asian countries work in brothels that are technically illegal but obvious in their purpose with red lights and flashing signs. An unlicensed and illegal sex trade is rampant in doorways and on street corners elsewhere in Geylang. (Reuters/Edgar Su) #

 A woman shouts slogans as she protests violence against women, at the close of the National Meeting of Rural Women in Brasilia, Brazil, on February 21, 2013. (Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino) #

Bahraini women watch the funeral of Habib Ibrahim, 88, a man whose family and opposition rights activists allege died from tear gas fired by police during earlier clashes in Malkiya village, Bahrain, Sunday, Jan 13, 2013. Graffiti on the wall reads," Down Hamad," referring to the king of Bahrain, along with images of people who died during the unrest. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali) #

  Zahraa, an Iraqi woman who fled the conflict in her country, attends an event organized by Medecins Sans Frontieres, at a hospital in Amman, Jordan, on March 7, 2013. Dozens of women who were injured during the conflicts in Iraq, Yemen and Syria currently attend daily treatment sessions while undergoing surgeries at the hospital run by the Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres. (Reuters/Ali Jarekji) #

 Pakistani women cook for their family using a fire inside their makeshift home, in a slum in Islamabad, Pakistan, on March 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) #

Riot police officers arrest a women's rights group Femen activist in front of the European Union Council building during a protest against the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Brussels, on December 21, 2012. (Reuters/Francois Lenoir) #

 Indian laborers work to lay a cable for an electricity company in Ahmadabad, India, on March 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki) #

 Police officers participate in a parade during the celebration of the 183rd anniversary of the Uruguayan Police Force in downtown Montevideo, on December 18, 2012. (Reuters/Andres Stapff) #

 Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai (center) waves with nurses as she is discharged from The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, on January 4, 2013. The Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls' education was discharged from the specialist British hospital after doctors said she was well enough to spend some time recovering with her family. Fifteen-year-old Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban in October last year and brought to Britain for treatment, is due to be re-admitted for reconstructive surgery to her skull, doctors said. (Reuters/Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham) #

Mirjam Jaeger of Switzerland competes in the women's Ski Halfpipe event at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in Oslo, Norway, on March 5, 2013. (AP Photo /Stian Lysberg Solum, NTB scanpix) #

Masaai women line up at dawn to vote in a general election in Kumpa, Kenya, on March 4, 2013. Five years after more than 1,000 people were killed in election-related violence, Kenyans went to the polls on Monday to begin casting votes in a nationwide election seen as the country's most important - and complicated - in its 50-year history. (AP Photo/Riccardo Gangale) #

 An image depicting a female North Korean soldier leading an artillery attack is projected on a large screen behind singers and the Unhasu Orchestra during a concert to mark International Women's Day in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Friday, March 8, 2013. The text at the top of the screen reads, "We are the General's female coastal artillery troops." (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin) #

 A woman drives a car simulator at a driving school in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 5, 2013. Struggling to achieve some of their dreams in a conservative society, an increasing number of Yemeni women are taking their driving test to learn to drive in a safe environment. (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah) #

 Women,part of the Sawt al-Haq (Voice of Rights), stand with their weapons as they undergo military training in Aleppo, Syria, on February 17, 2013. A group of women are undergoing military training to form the Nazek Obeid group, based on the frontline of Aleppo's Sheikh Saeed neighborhood. (Reuters/Muzaffar Salman) #

 Kurdish members of the Popular Protection Units stand guard at a check point near the northeastern city of Qamishli, Syria, on March 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) #

Kurdish members of the Popular Protection Units stand guard at a check point near the northeastern city of Qamishli, Syria, on March 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) #  

Demonstrators perform a street play about rape during a protest near India's parliament in New Delhi, on February 21, 2013. Hundreds of demonstrators on Thursday held a protest near the parliament demanding Indian lawmakers to implement harsher punishments and quicker trials for rape cases following the gang rape of a student that shook the nation on December 16. (Reuters/Adnan Abidi) #

 Maryland guards Chloe Pavlech, right, and Sequoia Austin celebrate after Austin scored in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Wake Forest in College Park, Maryland, on March 3, 2013. Maryland won 88-61. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) #

Dr. Crezoit Yapo of the Association of Women Researchers in the Ivory Coast (AFEMC-CI) works in her laboratory at the Institut Pasteur in Abidjan, on March 5, 2013. The association was formed to raise the profile of women working in scientific research in the Ivory Coast. It helps women raise funding for their projects and seeks to promote scientific research, a field dominated by men, as a viable career option among young women by helping them obtain scholarships. (Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon) #

 Mongolian singer Gennie, 26, a cast member in the documentary "Mongolian Bling", poses for a photo at an undisclosed location. Rap and the hip-hop culture it extols are helping young Mongolians express the stresses of dealing with an increasingly urban society and all its woes. "Mongolian Bling", a 90-minute documentary by Australian Benj Binks, showcases how hip-hop has become a popular vehicle of expression for the nation's stress. A wife and a mother, Gennie sings about politics, women's issues and the environment, and is called the "queen of Mongolian hip-hop". (Reuters/Benj Binks/Mongolian Bling) #

A woman attends a training session of the Boxgirls Berlin, on March 6, 2013. The Boxgirls Berlin are part of the Boxgirls International organization that supports women and girls using boxing programs as a catalyst for social change in their cities with the slogan 'Strong Girls, Save Communities' and supporting the women and girls empowerment. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) #

 A widow poses for a picture inside her room at the Meera Sahavagini ashram in the pilgrimage town of Vrindavan in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on March 6, 2013. Hundreds of widows who have been abandoned by their families live in the shelter, or ashram, run by the NGO Sulabh International. In India, when a man dies, traditionally his widow is expected to renounce all earthly pleasures, such as wearing colorful clothes or looking attractive, and she can face severe social discrimination. Sulabh International works to provide abandoned widows with education, healthcare and vocational skills. (Reuters/Adnan Abidi) #

Anti-racist educator Tim Wise speaks at the University of San Francisco on Feb. 26, 2013

Tim Wise,is an anti-racist author, speaker and educator. Below is his latest talk. Wise is a dynamic speaker that shoots from a quick tongue, clever wit, and humble head.


Tim Wise speaks at the University of San Francisco on Feb. 26, 2013

An excerpt from the talk: Tim Wise responds to the rumor that he attacked the Catholic Church when speaking at Providence College.

"During the Q and A there was this really nice young woman who got up and asked a question and she started off. You know you’re in a college setting when someone starts a question like this. Well I think you’re being anthropologically reductionist. Cuz that’s that kind of ridiculous word casserole that we learn to use in college that we will never use again after were out of college, but we learn how to speak that way in college and then we deploy that at will to just demonstrate how intelligent we are, until get into the real world someone says alright, that makes you sound like a jackass, just stop.

But she said, I think you’re being anthropologic reductionist, and this is why. Because when you look out at this audience you see all these colors and I don’t even see that, I just see these wonderful human beings made in the image of God. And then she was relating it back to the Catholic mission of the school .Okay, so here’s the thing. This is an expression of color blindness and color muteness. It’s this idea that just even noticing someone’s racial identity -- just noticing that makes you in effect a racist, or in big word terms, anthropologic reductionist-- but fundamentally the same concept right? You’re the problem, you notice it, I don’t, I’m more enlightened than you.

My response to her is the same one I would give to anyone who said that kind of thing -- only well, it had a special answer because we were at a Catholic college where this image of God thing is especially relevant because, it’s like, hanging on every crucifix in the joint. And so I noted to her that if you want to say that we’re all made in the image of god that’s really sweet, meanwhile you have an image of God all over this campus that is lily white and anthropology bears no resemblance to the actual Jesus, so maybe we can start with that: which to say apparently means that you’re attacking the Catholic Church."

From his website:

Wise is the author of six books, including the highly acclaimed memoir, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son; an academic volume on affirmative action, entitled, Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White; an essay collection, entitled, Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male; two books on race and racism in the Obama era, entitled respectively, Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama, and Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity; and his latest, Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority, which examines rising white anxiety in an increasingly multicultural nation. His next book, The Culture of Cruelty: How America’s Elite Demonize the Poor, Valorize the Rich and Jeopardize the Future will be released in Fall, 2013.