Prometheus 6

I said the other day

It's like a character in this novel by Michael Moorcock said, the human failing is in making a pattrn from parts and calling it the whole. We pick which truths to attend to, we do not differentiate between faith and fact...and I suddenly realized there's no word in common English for what I mean when I say 'truth.'

Get Rid of Affirmative Action to Shield Minorities from the White Man’s Crazy is a couple of weeks old...on another of those assinine blackface Halloween frat parties...but presents a textbook case of what I'm talking about.

Cause these UTexas law students brought the crazy in buckets filled with “bling”:

A group of first-year law students at the University of Texas at Austin has been chided by the dean for participating in a “Ghetto Fabulous”-themed costume party and posting pictures from it online.

They were law students, of all people. These people will have influences on the legal system of the United States in three years’ time. Critical Race Studies & Legal Positivism for the win!

Nick Transier, a first-year student who attended the party in September and posted pictures on his Web site, said nobody meant to offend anyone of any race.

“We had no intention by any measure to choose a group or class of people and make fun of them,” said Transier, 26, of Houston.

Do people know what the word “intent” means any more? Especially law students who study criminal law? Maybe I should break this down a little bit. You know how there are those situations where a guy’s aiming a gun at a woman, and saying, “If I can’t have you, no one will,” and then the gun goes off? From what that guy says, he may not have intended any harm, but his actions don’t quite match up with that shoddy declaration of making her his BFF. Uhhh, Bueller?

UT Austin didn't ignore it totally...wrists were slapped while making scary faces. John Hopkins suspended the frat I bitched about earlier (having done so two weeks ago I see no reason to be emailing folks, and maybe one person knows what that means; don't sweat it if it ain't you).

But 'intent' is another concept that has suffered mightily under the rules current in the agora. This local link is a thrilling example.

I'm leaving for now but will return later as I know many of you cannot wait to take a shot at me. My pre-comment to the coming name calling that will surely come is:"The truth sometimes hurts but my reason for saying the truth is in the hope it will open some eyes, rather than to be hurtful."

That comment was an aggression; the idea that that last paragraph was even entered, much less expected to be taken into account, is absurd. But this idiot, if he were engaged, would cry about how he said he didn't mean any harm. Fortunately, on a cosmic level this entity was an ally. I need examples periodically.

The University of Michigan's Michigamua (or whatever their new name is) is another example.

Any claims that Michigamua has a history of "racism" are fundamentally misguided. The term "racist" implies that an organization's founding principles are based essentially on a racial hierarchy and the sole purpose is to perpetuate those prejudices.

Such a definition allows all manner of atrocities. Like Blackface Halloween parties.

And here's the weird thing...they may actually not mean to insult anyone. It really wasn't supposed to get out. Truth is, this is a lot like the "You think you're white" discussion in the Black community...a case of private compensation mechanisms, of folks outside the community overhearing things.

The apparently universal appeal of Blackface is strong enough to override the sure knowledge that such depictions are both socially and personally destructive. And it actually prevents white folks from wearing costumes that would actually be pretty damn cool.

Among the mighty impressive costumes was a Pulp Fiction duo: a woman dressed as Mrs. Mia Wallace, complete with a red hypodermic dot on her chest, and a guy dressed as Jules Winfield.

A white guy. Using, along with the suit and curly wig, blackface.

Seattlest? It didn't faze us, honestly. It was obviously a specific element of the costume, and not a neo-minstrel performance, so we just noted it and said to ourselves "we'd never have the balls wear blackface in public."

But a couple of other people on our team thought it was just wrong. Not that they thought this guy was racist, particularly, but blackface was too loaded for them to accept even when a white guy's trying to capture some of Samuel L. Jackson's badassitude. Not OK.

A white guy SHOULD be able to costume himself as one of Samuel L. Jackson's characters. A white guy ought to be able to be Mace Windu instead of a random Jedi. But he can't, not safely. Because race is seen even before geekitude.