0 What We're Reading Today (7-23-14)

Women Penalized for Promoting Women, Study Finds - Wall Street Journal
Rachel Feintzeig

How Questlove Is Bringing Music Back to Television - The Daily Beast
Kevin Fallon

A pause in global warming? Studies try to better explain what's happened - CS Monitor
Pete Spotts

We Can Code It! Why computer literacy is key to winning the 21st century - Mother Jones
Tasneem Raja

How America Finances the Destruction in Gaza -- and the Clean-Up - Mother Jones
David Corn

Jordan's Quiet Emergency - The Atlantic
Alice Su

I Hate Ayn Rand but here's Why My Fellow Conservatives Love Her - The Week
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Why Black People Must Stand with Palestine - Ebony
Kristian Davis Bailey

The Terrifying Madness of Waking Up in Gaza - Slate
Atef Abu Saif

Black Female Survival and the Myth of the White Gay Cultural Savior, or, Dear Anthony -- Stop It! - Huffington Post
Darnell L. Moore and Hashim Khalil Pipkin

"The more dead, the better:" Israel's Crumbling Media War - Salon
Deepa Kumar

Obama Goes There on "Acting White" - Washington Post
Jonathan Capehart

How LGBT Students Are Changing Christian Colleges - The Atlantic
Philip Francis and Mark Longhurst

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantazine - KickStarter
Fariha, Haley, Sara

Suburban sprawl and bad transit can crush opportunity for the poor - Vox
Danielle Kurtzleben

0 Dear Black Gays: Don't Get Comfortable

            To Ms. Sierra Mannie, who’s ***flawless piece implicating gay white men in misogynoir:  I stand with your rhetoric, your diction, and your argument. You have, in the canon of Black women, carved out a space demanding your visibility and affirmation in the face of erasure. In the space you have carved out, some queer Black men have had questions. I have had questions and I hope to offer my interaction to your work. The conversation you created is needed and urgent and my desire is to stand with you in the ways that I can.

            I have previously written on the violences against women that only queer men canproduce. The assumed access to women’s bodies, the slut shaming, and the patriarchal dichotomy of “top” and “bottoms.” Queer, and specifically Gay, men have our own set of privileges that allow us systemic, cultural and interpersonal powers. For the women we interact with, our relationships are different and nuanced but we are still accountable as men to offer solidarity. As I’ve said before, and will reiterate here: homophobia is misogyny in a feathered boa. Women’s resistance and survival are central to ours. With this understanding, we cannot speak about identity in isolations; even intersections can fall short. The erasure of cultural appropriation can manifest itself in racist and sexist tropes, yet as queer Black men we have seen similar violences.

            From Scissor Sisters’ “Let’s Have a Kiki,” to the “original” appropriator Madonna’s “Vogue,” culturally gay experiences that code as Black/Latino have been stripped and reproduced through mainstream queer productions. These safer spaced colloquialisms are losing their resistance and power through Top 40 hits and pretty white girls. We have seen many aspects of Black Queer Male culture stolen from us. The violence is different. Many gay Black men are still trying to reconcile their sexual performances outside of white sexuality standards. And with that we have some of the access that white gay men have, especially if we perform as masculine.

            There is a difference, however, when Black men perform Black femininity. When not using garish mammie drag personas, many gay Black men have found a comfort and strength in modeling the Black femininity of which they have access. To cite Ms. Mannie’s argument, we have tasted the sour of racism and can find strength in the sweetness of Black womanhood. That is not to say we are not implicated in appropriations. When performing Black femininity at the request of white or non-Black spaces, we are continuing the violence. Without reconciling the privilege of masculinity, we are continuing the violence. Letting our white gay counterparts parade Black femininity only reproduces the problems of the original article. Giving them a pass, sets yourself in the line of fire of racist statements and interactions. 

            In the ways queer men of all races should be invested in women’s equity, Black men (queer and otherwise), need to be invested in Black women’s. Not simply because they are our sisters, and friends, and aunties, and mommas but because our survivals are inextricably linked. I personally owe a wealth of my well-being and self-awareness the words, conversation, and gifts from Black women and we as Black men need to be ready to stand with them and complicate our violence against them. While Ms. Mannie may have not been speaking to Black Gays directly, we have our own implications in appropriation and need to do some work.

0 What We're Reading Today (6-2-13)

Happy June, everybody!  In the next few days, be on the lookout for a little update from Snakes on McCain that will summarize what we have planned moving forward.  Thanks for all the love, everyone and welcome to summer!

Breadwinning Wives and Nervous Husbands - New York Times
Richard H. Thaler

Black Chicago in the 1970s, Through the Lens of John H. White - Chicago Magazine
Whet Moser

I'm Biracial, and That Cheerios Ad Is a Big Fucking Deal. Trust Me. - Jezebel
Meagan Hatcher-Mays

Istanbul Erupts In Violence After Protests Against Razing Of Gezi Park - The Daily Beast
Mike Giglio

Zimmerman Lawyers Admit Misstep - The Daily Beast

What If George Zimmerman Were Black? - The Daily Beast
Allison Samuels

The Inside Story Of The Harvard Dissertation That Became Too Racist For Heritage - Think Progress
Zack Beauchamp

Beyoncé's Chime for Change: Concert to Advocate for Girls' Rights - The Daily Beast
Tom Sykes

The Racist Redskins - The Daily Beast
Michael Tomasky

Black women heavier and happier with their bodies than white women, poll finds - Washington Post
Lonnae O'Neal Parker

Can Technology Pave the Road for Peace in the Middle East - The Atlantic
David Rohde

How Meals Win Wars - The Atlantic
D.B. Grady

Who Even Needs the Nation-State in the 21st Century - The Atlantic
Eric Schnurer

How Did Work-Life Balance in the US Get So Awful? - The Atlantic
Derek Thompson

How the Protests Will Impact Turkey at Home and Abroad - The Atlantic
Victor Kotsev

Why the Hell Are There So Many High School Valedictorians? - Jezebel
Doug Barry

Americans Are Just Not Happy - Gawker
Max Rivlin-Nadler

0 What We're Reading Today (4-12-13)

One Real Madrid Fan's Magical Adventure - Kottke

Whose Life Counts? Death, Frustration & Black Exceptionalism in Chicago... - Prison Culture

Republican County Commissioner Who Used Racist Expression 'Nigger-Rigging' During Official Meeting Says He Isn't a Racist Because He Has a Black Friend - Gawker
Neetan Zimmerman

A Few Words on 'Accidental' Racism and Forgetting - Black Girl Dangerous
Mia McKenzie

Declarations of Whiteness: The Non-Performativity of Anti-Racism - Borderlands
Sara Ahmed

Homosexuality is African Too - The Anti-Intellect Blog

School Vote Stirs Debate on Girls as Leaders - New York Times
Katharine Q. Seelye

Who Was the Real Jackie Robinson? - Color Lines
Jamilah King

Israel: Where Soccer Fans Boo Their Own Player - The Nation
Dave Zirin

Save Wounded Knee - The New York Times
Joseph Brings Plenty

An Obituary from Below - Jacobin Magazine
Richard Seymour

Healthy, Affordable Fast Food: Feminism's Holy Grail - The Atlantic
Emily Matchar

Jackie Robinson courtmartialed for refusing to move to back of Army bus in 1944. This is the #42 I liked. https://twitter.com/ProfBlackistone/status/322731046112202752

0 What We're Reading Today (4-5-13)

King Cotton's Long Shadow - New York Times
Walter Johnson

The inalienable right of return - Tufts Daily
Hani Azzam, Jennine Sawwan, Munir Atalla, and Leila Nashashibi

A New Wave of Racist Right-Wing Violence? - The Progressive
Chip Berlet

Prison Labor and Taxpayer Dollars - The Society Pages
Dr. Lisa Wade

How to delete yourself from the internet - video - Guardian
Jemima Kiss

The Outskirts of Hope: How Ohio's Debtors' Prisons are Ruining Lives and Costing Communities - ACLU
Mike Brickner

What We Want is the Head of the Friar - New Yorker
Sarah Stillman

'Coercion and Conformity and Despair': A Feminist Critique of Hooking Up - The Atlantic
Hope Reese

He Wears the Mask - New York Times
Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Conservative Black Hope - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

Is Your Team's Owner a Major League Asshole? - Mother Jones
Tim Murphy, Ian Gordon, Tasneem Raja, and Sarah Zhang

What would a Korean war cost? Gauging the economic turmoil - CS Monitor
Ron Scherer

Muslim women decry topless gender protests - Al Jazeera

What the DOJ can't do on school discipline reform - Color Lines
Julianne Hing

0 What We're Reading Today (3-25-13)

Walking While Black in New York - New York Times
Editorial

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - The Atlantic
Anu Partanen

No, Jesus Wasn't a White Dude, Partner - Salon
Chauncey Devega

'Be More Like the Jews' - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

Right to Remain Silent - This American Life

What's Wrong with the Term 'Person of Color' - Black Girl Dangerous
Janani

The Trouble with Justin Timberlake's Appropriation of Black Music - ColorLines
Jamilah King

What's Wrong with Fat-Shaming? - Everyday Feminism
Lesley Kinzel

Rethinking Israel-Palestine: Beyond Bantustans, Beyond Reservations - The Nation
Noura Erakat

The Erased Women of the Wall: Settler Feminism and the Moroccan Quarter - The Feminist Wire
Jimmy Johnson

The Ghetto Is Public Policy - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Trader Joe's Lesson: How to Pay a Living Wage and Still Make Money in Retail - The Atlantic
Sophie Quinton

What Rush Limbaugh Got Right About Beyonce - The Atlantic
Noah Berlatsky

0 What We're Reading Today (3-11-13)

The Liberals Against Affirmative Action - New York Times
David Leonhardt

Why Does America Pretend it Doesn't Hate Women - Feminspire
Anisha Ahuja

The Crimson's Anti-Palestinian Bias - Harvard Political Review
Lena Awwad, Giacomo Bagarella, Asmaa Rimawi, Hannah Schafer

On Questioning the Jewish State - New York Times
Joseph Levine

Venezuela After Chavez - Jacobin
Jeffrey R. Weber

The End of the Two-State Solution: Why the window is closing on Middle-East peace - The New Republic
Ben Birnbaum

Kate Upton and Ryan Gosling Explain the Sequester - Gawker
Max Read

The Threat of an Imperial President - The Nation
Tom Hayden

Did NYPD Entrap Ahmed Ferhani - The Nation
John Knefel