i was just really “caucasian” about a book i ordered from amazon that came damaged….the book was on buddhism…i can’t shake this feeling that i am part of the problem right now. 

Since I got off of Facebook I’ve been walking around with all these hilarious brilliant ideas, not that o have a place again to shout, I have nothing. Maybe something will come. 

Pretty excited

I was spending(wasting) my time reading angry people on the internet, who are upset about some thin, white girl fashion blogger wearing a Bindi and a Neon colored Indian Headdress…. I manage my time spectacularly.

It made me think about what cultural appropriation or “authenticity” even means anymore, in the age of the internet. An age filled with black teenagers obsessed with dressing and talking like anime characters, Filipino’s being consistent players in the element of DJing, Todos Somos Morrissey, Akon speaking Hindi in one of this songs, Big Boi stating Kate Bush is the person he would most like to work with, Lupe Fiasco sampling Modest Mouse, every MC on my twitter feed being in love with Larry David, Tyler the creator sporting a nazi symbol(ala Poly Styrene), the Farsi speaking dude in “Kennedy” Fried Chicken telling me to “Have a Goodnight Mami,” and the last episode of 60 minutes including a montage of the hosts edited with Eminem’s “My Name Is” under it(dude, those dudes are OLD!). I mean really, aren’t white kids “acting black” at this point just “acting white” or at least Filipino? or Ed Bradley?

The problem is not the symbols or the ornaments, or the images, these are subjective, dependent on time and place, anyone can wear anything, anyone can profit off or copyright any image. The nuts and bolts of who is profiting and why, is the real issue. You may be an uncreative dickhead for wearing a neon Indian Headdress, but you aren’t racist. I’m not saying these images aren’t powerful, they are, that’s why we care so much, but you cannot intellectually argue people out of how they want to express themselves, you cannot intellectually argue people out of what they respond to, of what makes them happy or angry.

I have a fancy phone for two reasons: GPS and Instagram. GPS, because honestly without it, I will die lost in the woods, cold and alone. Even though when I was younger I traversed most of the 50 states and a couple foreign lands without it, I have become completely dependent on my phone telling me where to go in a period of less than 2 years.
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Hey Everyone, I had the honor of speaking with artists Mary Tremonte and Rosemarie Romero and their experience with Riot Grrrl. As usual, I got schooled on a variety learning about Rebecca Walker’s take on being a Feminist and enjoying “unconscious” media and Jose Munoz’s work.

Enjoy!

Listen Here.

The neighborhood I grew up in has changed a great deal, just over the last ten years. It’s gone through a common cycle found in cities, European immigrants, primarily Eastern European, followed by people of color, white flight and new immigrants from India and Asia, followed by younger “upwardly” mobile “students.” My family is part of the group that didn’t quite achieve white flight. My neighborhood is not really gentrifying as much as functioning as campus housing to the over five colleges in the area. After spending my time actively being the first wave of Gentrification in neighborhoods across the country, I guess this is my payback.
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In the new issue of BUST, there is an interview with Kathleen Hanna by Kim Gordon. Being the die-hard Riot Grrrl I will always be, I immediately read it when it arrived at my home. Hanna really has the amazing ability to always address whatever the underlying pivotal issues of the time are. There are a few things she said that I feel have been sorely missing from the discussion in some Feminist camps. Quotes that really “spoke to me” are:
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So there is this idea you may have encountered, about white women being less abrasive, less demanding, easier to deal with, and/or generally more pleasant than black women, which floats around American culture. I remember the first time I encountered this idea, years ago through a Richard Pryor routine. At the time, I remember thinking, “That doesn’t make sense, …Oh that must have been a long time ago, before all the shrill, demanding, Femi-Nazis really established themselves.” In the world I live in white women are not easier, white women at not easy. In my little bubble of a world white women care about, get upset about, cry about things of no consequence. They are overly emotional and overly picky. My white lady world is the world of Julianne Moore’s character in the movie Safe by Todd Haynes. In which a woman becomes so paranoid and obsessed about pollutants in her environment she must leave her family and live alone in a germ free, sterile environment. One that only certain people can afford to inhabit.
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