Althouse: "We will be looking for anti-racist trainings offered here in the Bay Area."

April 28, 2008

"We will be looking for anti-racist trainings offered here in the Bay Area."

Oops. What a hilarious screw up! Not that we needed our comic relief of the day on a racial theme.

(Via Instapundit and Protein Wisdom.)

26 comments:

Methadras said...: Oh dear. I chuckled.; 4/28/08, 8:51 PM
Pastafarian said...: Ann --

You know, you're exactly the kind of person that would point out that hilarious screwup simply because Amanda Marcotte has tits, and is hot.

Oh, wait a minute -- I just searched for Amanda Marcotte on Google Images; well, she has tits, anyway. I mean, I assume that she does, as she appears to be biologically female.

You're just keeping this be-breasted person down with your heteronormative hegemony.; 4/28/08, 9:00 PM
Revenant said...: Considering who her target audience was, those were some amusingly tone-deaf choices for artwork.; 4/28/08, 9:02 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: Everything is offensive. All writings, artwork, etc. will be pre-condemned before being issued.; 4/28/08, 9:33 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Jeez Ann:

Amanda has more books than you too? First it was our last worst president, then your own loopy feminist stalker- who will write a book next ? Titus?

Get going girl!; 4/28/08, 9:42 PM
George M. Spencer said...: Looks like the cover of Vogue to me.

Look at the size of those sneakers!!!; 4/28/08, 9:56 PM
somefeller said...: I suspect many of the people attacking Marcotte from her side about the book images are doing so for personal reasons and petty jealousies, rather than from some bona fide concern over issues of race. But the whole thing is looking like the worst aspects of PC identity politics on steroids, including the Stalinist-sounding "we will be looking for anti-racist trainings" line. It's because of stuff like this I tell people I'm left-libertarian in my politics, if they want to really delve into my political views.; 4/28/08, 9:57 PM
lurker2209 said...: Anyone who thinks 'trainings' ought to be used as a noun in a sentence like that has no business publishing books.; 4/28/08, 9:58 PM
Fen said...: Amanda: I’m sorry. Plain and simple. I didn’t pick the offensive imagery in my book, but I should have caught it sooner than now. I didn’t and there’s no excuse

Amanda, how is the imagery any different from that at Feministing? I thought the logo of the mudflap girl giving the finger was supposed to be "empowering".; 4/28/08, 10:11 PM
former law student said...: White privilege is preparing a delicious meal of crisp fried chicken and cooling watermelon for when your new black friend comes over for July 4th. Or making cheeseburgers with kosher ground beef because you heard some of your guests were Jewish.

And in the HR world, the plural of training is trainings. Let that be a lessons to you; 4/28/08, 10:25 PM
Mortimer Brezny said...: What is so offensive about these images? Should I burn my Flash Gordon collection...?; 4/28/08, 10:49 PM
P_J said...: Grim and humorless, as advertised.

But on the upside, she was hoist with her own petard.

(Heh. He said "petard.")

Is that a sexist code-word, too?; 4/28/08, 10:53 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: What's sad is that the only logical way to AVOID things like this is in-depth lessons teaching the stereotypes. How can you avoid them if you aren't aware of them?; 4/28/08, 11:15 PM
Anonymous said...: I was wondering if you'd heard about this, given Marcotte's and her friends' repeated attacks on you and your reputation. I agree with Revenant about the tone deafness of both the author and the publisher. The outrage a few months ago over the cover should have clued them in, but it didn't. I really can't imagine why it didn't, though. As Tim Worstall pointed out the other day,; 4/28/08, 11:52 PM
vbspurs said...: One word:

VELTA!!

It's been a while since I referenced Velta, who you can think of as the Brazilian Wonder Woman.

She's a stunning blond Nordestina Amazon, who looks to be about 8 foot 3, and flings herself around vines like Tarzan.

She SPECIALISES in seducing black males in these comic books, called "quadrinhos", and the little black kids (and often grown up males of both colours) of that era adored it -- her series sold out every time.

Brazil is very culturally Lefty, much moreso than the US, consequently, it always heartened me that no one saw anything wrong in the Velta comics. At least not enough to have it self-censored.

I love Brazil!

And oh yeah, Marcotte is a tool.

Cheers,
Victoria; 4/28/08, 11:58 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Fen, yeah, I thought of that too.

Randy, I'm surprised I hadn't noticed this dispute before, since I have my issues with various feminist bloggers, but the truth is, I just don't read them. I normally follow the MSM news, and this hasn't hit the mainstream. I only noticed it when Instapundit linked to something. If I was hanging around feminist blogs, looking for things to write about, this blog would be a lot different. In fact, this blog has never had much to do with attacking other bloggers (even though I'm a big target of attacks).; 4/29/08, 4:46 AM
Anonymous said...: That's true, but your self-defense efforts are always defined as unprovoked attacks in various quarters.; 4/29/08, 8:21 AM
Zach said...: I'm in an odd position here. I actually do believe that the superstitious native is an unfortunate example of unconscious racism -- but that actual examples of unconscious racism or sexism are much thinner on the ground than, say, Marcotte might argue.

The King James / King Kong picture is a good example. On the one hand, I can see the iconography of a huge black beast dragging a screaming blonde woman. I'm not blind. But then again, everybody *likes* Kong. Everybody wants to be Kong. The obvious and straightforward reading of that movie is that King Kong represents our primitive, animal side that can be brought to the city and held in chains, but will eventually burst free in glorious liberation.

(An aside: In my opinion, one reason that remakes of King Kong are so dreadful is that they focus so much on *not* making him an immense, roaring beast. Take the recent Peter Jackson remake: (which ironically did feature the ignorant savage in quite a prominent role) everybody likes Kong, feels sorry when he's held in captivity, goes on a #$%# skating date in #$%#@ Central Park with him when he escapes. Naomi Watts has a stronger relationship with him than her ostensible love interest. How are you supposed to identify with a raging id when the personification of that raging id is more whipped than you are?)

Getting back to the idea of unconscious racism, I present to you the blonde man in a romantic comedy. This man is always the bad guy, the fall guy -- if his faults are not obvious, they are revealed by the third act. He never ends up with the girl, although he usually starts with her, and his losing the girl is always portrayed positively.

It's obvious why this is such a go-to image in romantic comedies: the girl is always supposed to be unattainable to start with, with a seemingly perfect boyfriend who must eventually be triumphed over. It's a plot device, not a racial caricature. But try saying that about any other accused racial or sexual caricature, and see how far you get.; 4/29/08, 9:13 AM
MadisonMan said...: Victoria, I've fixed the link for you:

VELTA!

My apologies for the sexist image that accompanies this page. I will be looking for anti-sexist training here in the Madison area.; 4/29/08, 9:26 AM
Fen said...: The obvious and straightforward reading of that movie is that King Kong represents our primitive, animal side that can be brought to the city and held in chains, but will eventually burst free in glorious liberation.

Hmmm. Make take on Kong leaned more towards Samson and Delila.; 4/29/08, 9:31 AM
Sarah said...: I've been laughing my ass off over this one. If I never hear the word "privilege" again it'll be too soon.; 4/29/08, 10:09 AM
Balfegor said...: What is so offensive about these images? Should I burn my Flash Gordon collection...?

I'm sure you can buy bowdlerized versions to replace them today. That's what they did to Tintin (which, to be fair, has come through just fine).; 4/29/08, 11:39 AM
blake said...: I can't believe that Pastafazool's 9:00 comment was allowed to stand. Marcotte is not hot. One can say this confidently without ever having seen her. It's not possible to interject politics into sex and still be hot.

I actually do believe that the superstitious native is an unfortunate example of unconscious racism

Nah. "Natives", i.e., "uncivilized peoples" are superstitious. Doesn't matter what color they are. They're a staple of all those old Universal horror pictures as well as the occasional Africa-based picture.

Has anyone ever looked closely at the natives of Skull Island in King Kong? It's...interesting.; 4/29/08, 1:43 PM
Kirk Parker said...: FLS,

"And in the HR world, the plural of training is trainings."

You say that like you think it's a defense of "trainings".; 4/29/08, 5:24 PM
vbspurs said...: Zach: Magnifico. Good enough analysis to cite. Something Ron might've written, in fact, and that's high praise indeed.

MadMan: Ahh, the alure of Velveeta. Good in bed too!

Cheers,
Victoria; 4/29/08, 9:26 PM
Drew W said...: Memo to self, April 30, 2008: Go find some LSD and some Velta comics. Not necessarily in that order.

You’d think Amanda Marcotte would’ve taken a greater interest in the graphic design of her new book after her publisher used the Swedish Bikini Team for the cover art of Full Frontal Feminism.; 4/30/08, 9:03 AM