I was thinking tonight about white privilege, more specifically, I was thinking about events that transpired some years back at an Art In Action camp I attended. It was intended as sort of a summer camp for radicals and the attendees were pretty diverse in age, class, ethnicity, and race; and for the most part people were getting along and bridging gaps until towards the end of the week when the facilitators pulled out their “anti-racist” trainings and suddenly things got very, very polarized. It bothered me then and it still bothers me because I see the same thing happening all the time in radical circles - discussions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and privilege seem to consistently have the effect of balkanizing the movement and emphasizing divisions between people, not helping them bridge those gaps and work together. To me, that points towards a major weakness in the way we approach these things - the goal of exploring these issues in a diverse setting should be to help us understand them and find was to extend meaningful solidarity to each other to support each others struggles - not to make people feel unwelcome. Read more »

Posted: July 23rd, 2007 under community, gender & feminism, politrix, race & racism.
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for everyone who is nder the delusion that race simply ceased to be an issue in america with the civil rights movement, here’s a little wake-up call: Read more »

Posted: July 17th, 2007 under community, politrix, race & racism.
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Check this video, it’s somebody doing an extreme example of what photoshop and other programs are all about - image modification. This is real shit people, I should know - I use the same sort of techniques to pay the rent designing websites, except of course instead of modifying pictures of women - something I refuse to do on principle - I’m modifying houses, cars, trees, anything and everything else. Read more »

Posted: July 12th, 2007 under gender & feminism, video.
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check this out:

my thoughts on the matter? I’m wary of the “universal license” or the “blanket license” that so many of the pro-downloading industry-type people seem to advocate because, as an independent artist whose music is distributed over the internet, people would be forced to pay the record companies that i hate for the right to download my music and I would never see a penny of that money unless i came to some sort of arrangement with the record companies - something i have no desire to do. Frankly, i don’t want to be selling my music at all, I want to abolish capitalism.  I ask people who enjoy my music to support it financially because I’m fucking poor, I need money to pay my rent, and it costs me money to make the music in the first place.  Not like I’m making much money off it, I get maybe one donation for every thousand or so downloads, but at least no one can accuse me of “selling out” or losing sight of why I started making music in the first place…

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Posted: July 12th, 2007 under economics, hip hop, music, open-source & coprights.
Comments: 3

well it’s been almost 2 months since i graduated and I’m still functionally unemployed, despite the occasional design job.  the good news is that’s left me with plenty of time to write and to work on booking shows for my band, the bad news is….  well let’s just say my finances aren’t what they could be.  bleh, such is life.  I’ll find something soon, I swore after quitting Forests Forever that I’d never do another Canvassing job, but it’s looking like my poli sci degree is really just that worthless.  at least the pay is better then flipping burgers….

In the meantime, I’ve had plenty of time to browse around the internet, here’s my latest find, a series of de-motivational posters that made me laugh out loud.  enjoy!

Posted: July 12th, 2007 under personal.
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