Potatoes, Racism, Mad Men and the “Ground Zero Mosque”

It’s amazing how many forms a thing can take. Potatoes can be al gratin, baked, boiled, fried, mashed. The versatility of this starchy wonder is what makes them such a dietary staple. Potatoes are delicious, but their versatility and staying power is a trait that they share with something not so tasty—racism.

I’m in the middle of reading a book of historical fiction about the South in the 60s, filled with “respectable” white people who degrade their black help in ways both conscious and unconscious. And even though people of my generation and younger are aware of the kind of violent, overt, disgusting, senseless racism that prevailed during that time, it’s still chilling to be reminded of, even if it’s something we didn’t live though and will never be able to fully comprehend. And it’s easy and comforting to be self-congratulatory and view racism as a thing of the past. But that’s so far from the truth -- it’s here, it’s widely accepted, its just taking different forms.

Take for example the new view of “separate but equal” that is being debated in New York right now, and even the language used to describe the controversy conveys the bias: “The Ground Zero Mosque.”

First, the flaws in the argument:
1) It’s not a Mosque; it’s an Islamic Cultural center.
2) It’s not on “ground zero” (which is an odd term to begin with) it’s two blocks from where the world trade center used to be on the “hallowed ground” of a closed Burlington Coat Factory store one block from a strip club. (Although the WTC itself was built on a slave grave site, so hallowed ground argument has some weight just not the weight the argument makes)
3) There is absolutely no correlation to this building, or these people to 9/11.
4) There is a similar prayer room at the Pentagon (one of the other 9/11 sights) that no one seems to care to protest.


Those protesting the building aren’t simply wrapping themselves in the flag to justify their racist inclinations, they are helping to set a dangerous precedent: politicians (both democrat and republican) are fanning the bigotry for their own ends (many of them are the same people who voted against health care benefits for 9/11 first responders, btw). And everyone is leaving Muslims out of the conversation.

Whether the controversy has been manufactured as an election year tactic or not, the visceral hate and bigotry was all too easy to whip up. We’d like to think that we are a cosmopolitan and progressive city far from the backwoods lynching mentality of the South in the 60s (many comments on recent stories about the 51Park project have tried to dismiss protesters as being from “out of town”), but when you hear of cab drivers getting stabbed because they are Muslim , and a deluge of hate crimes all over the city it’s hard to maintain that bigotry is either a thing or the past or a practice exclusive to those in “fly over states.”

Viewing this community center’s construction as an affront to 9/11 victims (some of whom were of course Muslim themselves) is the equivalent to labeling all black men as criminals after one steals your purse. And proposing that it be built further away is equivalent to building a separate bathroom for the help.

On Sunday night’s episode of Mad Men, cosmopolitan Roger Sterling used his role in WWII to justify his unwillingness to work with the Japanese. He asked, “Since when is forgiveness a better quality than loyalty?” Of course, his internal conflict, just like this one isn’t one of forgiveness, or loyalty. It’s a matter of perspective. Because a country filled with this kind of hate, violence and bigotry is a huge terrorism threat.

An Open Book

I had written an exhaustive post the other week about my six-plus weeks (and counting) of unemployment. I wanted it to be a kind of an inside look at what being unemployed is like (i.e. it’s a lot of work) but it didn’t make for a very interesting read, and was probably more than anyone would really care to know. So instead I’ve decided to re-visit another post I started and abandoned:

My Top Five Books (in no particular order)*

1) 1) 1984 by George Orwell: To know me is to know my obsession with all things Orwell. I’ve read all of his books, several essays, and a biography or two. He is the kind of writer I want to be, both in style and content. 1984 is of course his most famous work, but it wasn’t one of the first I read by him, and it’s one of the classics that’s a classic for a reason. It’s a book that stays with you forever. I’ve seen the (US-banned!) film version and a stage production, and both were mostly well done, but nothing has ever compared to the way the book draws you in and changes the way you look at the world.

2) 2) Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg: Sure, she’s an Oprah Book Club alumni (but sometimes Oprah has really good taste) and maybe her books aren’t high literature and the target audience may be middle-aged ladies, but Elizabeth Berg knows how to write characters and dialog like few authors. She writes honestly and without pretension, and creates people that you actually care about living in a world that seems familiar even if it’s one you don’t live in. Her main characters are always women and in this book it’s a woman in her 60s alone on the road trying to find herself writing journals and letters to her confused husband she abandoned at home. I read it as a 19-year-old and knew just how she felt. That’s good writing. Plus I met Elizabeth Berg in Chicago once; she’s a wonderfully nice lady.

3) 3)The Bell Jar by Silvia Plath: This one goes out to my angsty 14-year-old self. I’m sure I’d feel differently about it now, but at the time it just all seemed so…deep. I remember sitting on the porch and in my bedroom reading Silvia Plath and all J.D. Salinger that spring and feeling so misunderstood.

4) 4) Without a Net edited by Michelle Tea: The only non-fiction book on my list. While some parts are more well-written than others, the message in this collection of essays by women who grew up Working Class articulates parts of my own experience growing up as well as issues such as racism, sexual identity and feminism, and the co-opting of downtrodden cultures in a straightforward and honest way that few books I’ve read have.

5) 5) Caucasia by Danzy Senna: Reading this book was the best thing to come out of my short lived time in a Book Club, and one of the most interesting multi-layered discussions about a book I’ve ever had with a group of people. On the surface it’s a book about race (in fact Borders seems to think it’s only for Black People http://fullofwit.blogspot.com/2008/12/is-borders-racist.html), but aside from racial identity, it was a beautiful and artfully woven story of a girl’s relationship with her father, politics, growing up.

Honorable Mentions:

· Down and Out in London and Paris by George Orwell : His best book about class and that’s saying a lot), I read it while I was living in London and it gave me a new perspective on the city’s history, plus this is actually the first Orwell book I ever read and your first is always special.

· A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: I was reading this book when I was in the process of moving to New York and several random people approached me while I was reading it to tell me how much they loved it. It was a memorable story and an interesting history lesson about the city I was moving to.

· Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: An epic story that covers the gamut from sexual and national identity, and a lot of history of my home state.

· Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss: Along with the Lorax, the best Seuss books, plus this one makes a perfect graduation speech.

· Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach: The best travel book I’ve read, it was particularly meaningful because I was reading it as I was moving abroad.

*Anyone who loves books or music or movies always has a hard time picking their favorites, and so there are tons of books I love that I didn’t think to include.

It’s OK, I didn’t mean it

So here’s an interesting discussion on “Ironic Racism.” And it’s a bit of a can of worms, because making a subject taboo to joke about gives it a special kind of power..yet there’s often a bit of truth in feelings behind even the tongue in cheekiest of jokes.

I’m a feminist, but I make “get in the kitchen” “math is hard” jokes. And I don’t believe that I can make them solely because I’m a woman. And while it’s true some of the “black people are like this” jokes that Chris Rock makes are jokes that maybe wouldn’t be AS funny coming from a white dude, what makes them funny is that they are not so much mocking the race in a hateful way as they are making a commentary on the absurdity of racism itself.

There’s a reason The Man Show was mostly not funny—they were supposed to be mocking sexism, but the ironic veil was too thin-it’s doubtful that any their audience was really only pretending to agree.

Satire is a tricky thing to pull off, and you do have to wonder if “pretending” to be the type of person who effects stereotypical accents and uses racial slurs is really a mask for saying what you really feel. Nobody thinks Stephen Colbert is actually an overzealous right wing nut job (except for maybe whoever booked him to speak at the 2006 white house correspondents dinner), partly because he’s so absurd that he has to be kidding and partly because he’s actually funny.


Which is part of the problem with comedians using so-called ironic rasism/sexism/homophoiba. Not only does the use of such biting words like nigger, chink, whore, etc instantly take the joke from funny to uncomfortable, they also take the relatability away. You aren’t laughing with people, you are asserting your superiority over them and laughing at them. And that just makes you an asshole.

The main problem with this brand of “ironic hipster racism” is the problem with doing anything ironically; it’s a cover for something you don’t want to admit you actually like/feel.

Take, for example, one of my personal pet peeves: “white trash” themed parties. The people throwing them are mocking a stereotype “ironically” but the place the joke comes from isn’t one of understanding or self deprecation, it’s an “I’m better than this, these aren’t real people.” But because they are liberal they would feel guilty saying such things so blatantly.


The bottom line is jokes about race can be funny, as can jokes about women, gays, class, and yes even rape. If told in the right way by someone who is actually funny. Take Wanda Sykes jokes about rape, a subject that most would be loath to find anything funny about.

Is Borders Racist?

Yes it’s a big corporation, but I've always liked Borders, it started as a small bookshop in Ann Arbor, MI, they carry Paperchase products that I loved in London…and I get free gift cards to their stores from my credit card. But today when I went to spend said gift card at the Borders in Columbus Circle something happened that made me wonder…is Borders racist?

I was buying my Little Sister the book Caucasia by Danzy Senna, a book that yes, is about race issues (amongst other things), a book I read years ago and bought in the general fiction section of a book store. But alas when I went to the fiction section to find this bestselling, award winning book…it was nowhere to be found. So I asked an employee, who looked it up and told me it was in the “African American literature” section…now this wasn’t the African American Studies section, which is totally valid and for non-fiction books…this is a section of novels….for black people.

How is this OK? They don’t put the Joy Luck Club in “Chinese American literature” as far as I could tell fiction books for adults were divided into general fiction, western, romance, (maybe thriller or mystery or something like that), and African American. This is like calling the Rap and R&B CD section “African American Music.” Just seems kind of offensive in my humble opinion. This is the first time I’ve noticed this, maybe other bookstores do it too, maybe it doesn’t bother other people…just seemed a little Jim Crow-y to me…

Mission Accomplished!

I know America will come down from this high, I know in the next eight years (that’s right I’m going to just assume) there will be times when I disagree with and get annoyed with our president. But right now, and certainly last night, I am so happy and so proud of my country for the first time is such a long time.

My night last night was surreal, I traveled to different parts of Manhattan and the crowds and feelings in the streets and wide spread good will was like nothing I’ve ever experienced.

Aside from the tears and dancing (there was A LOT of dancing) and shouts, here are a few things I am thinking about today:

• It is an amazing feeling that we got together and elected a black president, but I’m really wary of all this “there’s no racism in America anymore” thing. Yes there is, there’s a lot of it both blatant and institutionalized, and the implication that with a black president, we’ve “made up for it” and no one should be concerned anymore is very dangerous.

Which brings me to…

• I am so so scared about someone shooting this man; even last night as he was giving his acceptance speech, I kept thinking, “watch out!” I think they should get him a bulletproof bubble for public appearances.

• Did you all hear the pocket of McCain peeps booing when he mentioned Sarah Palin? I think he would have lost without her, but you know everyone on his side is just kicking themselves about the stupid lady-pandering choice.


• California voted to discriminate against gay people. I really don’t get it, I don’t see why anyone would care, how people in love could be a threat to anyone. And in CA of all places, it’s just sad.

• Also a good day for newspapers finally!


• It must really suck to be a McCain supporter, especially in New York City, I guess they mostly stayed indoors. Still, I think there's one thing we can all agree on, thank God, this f-ing election is FINALLY over!

• I wish the new President started the day after he was elected and not in a couple of months...speaking of which, remember that fuckwit that's still in office? He called Obama last night, and called Michelle Obama a "good bride" WTF!?!

You got a lot of work ahead of you Mr. Obama, but you’ve given a lot of people a lot of hope, not an easy thing.

The Time for Change is Now

I read this joke earlier this week (I don’t remember who wrote it), but it seems appropriate in light of the super close results of Super Tuesday:

It gave a lot of black people hope when a black man beat a white women in Iowa, but you might get in trouble if you carry that over into your life. You can’t just go around pushing white women over and saying “Our Time for Change is Now!”

But what about gently nudging them and whispering it in their ear?




And is it socially acceptable to push John McCain over?

What’s a Canadian to do?

So, this post on Gawker points to an article that claims racist white people in the south use the code word “Canadian” to refer to black people when they want to say something racist but don’t want to overly offend (the logic I guess being that no one would be offended by dissing Canadians).

The article was based mostly on a memo from a Texas attorney, but seems to being used here as a way of saying, (to quote Gawker) “Dumbass American rednecks have finally caught on that racism and the use of ugly racist terms to call black people might no longer be palatable to the American ear.” But really, categorizing the whole of the south based on one memo and a few anecdotal examples might be a bit illogical. And making sweeping comments categorizing all white southerners as racists-mullet having “white trash” might in itself be just as racist.

Yes there are a lot of racist jerks in the south, and yes their brand of overt racism is disgusting. But what about the subtle covert racism of liberal white northerners? Isn’t that just as disgusting? For example, isn’t the abundant and widely accepted use of the term white trash offensive to people of all races?

New Yorkers should take a break from patting themselves on the back for their progressiveness to listen to the things they accept hearing. I could provide a few anecdotal examples of both subtle and overt racism that I’ve witnessed in my few years in the alleged capital of progressive thinking, but I wouldn’t want to categorize millions of people based on a few examples.

Papa Smurf

Blame it on the pre-Christmas news slump, but this is the most interesting bit o’ news I’ve heard in weeks. There is a guy who’s BLUE!


Everyone’s all like, “Now that he knows the stuff he’s drinking makes him blue, why doesn’t he stop?!” But they're just racist. Besides, he’s already blue, who knows if he could become un-blue. Plus he wants to live forever.

Which leaves me with the burning question, what if this stuff does make him live forever, then the price will skyrocket and there will be a whole new race of rich people. Man, the future’s scary. They should have just left this blue guy live his life.