You run this photo.
And yet the words "white" or "Caucasian" appear nowhere in your article, and the first mention of gender is buried in the second half of the article.
I mean...
Showing posts with label The Race Card. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Race Card. Show all posts
Friday, January 4, 2013
What Racism Looks Like in 2013
You ask what factors predict a person's likelihood of becoming a serial killer.
You run this photo.
And yet the words "white" or "Caucasian" appear nowhere in your article, and the first mention of gender is buried in the second half of the article.
I mean...
You run this photo.
And yet the words "white" or "Caucasian" appear nowhere in your article, and the first mention of gender is buried in the second half of the article.
I mean...
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Slang Rap Democracy
You don't know what cysage is, although you've certainly cysed a bunch of shit. Maybe you're thinking about cysing this post. It might not be a good post, but you like me, so you're going to share it on your wall. Boom. Cysage
Nor do you know what a cuban b is, which is really unfortunate, because you've ABSOLUTELY cuban b'd a boatload of stuff. If I know you, I've probably done some shit to piss you off. If we're still cool, you've cuban b'd my nonsense.
Both those terms come from Southeast DC. I only know about them thank to the FiyaStarter Crew, hosts of the funniest podcast on the Internet. Every Thursday morning, you can wake up and download three hours of unfettered opinion, presented by gentlemen not at all interested in how you think they should sound. They're doing what groups of guys do every day: busting each others balls in language only they can understand
What's crazy is, these DC motherfuckers have absolutely changed the way I think. I was reading something the other day that didn't make any sense, and I said, aloud, "man, what a cyse." I called it a cyse because that's what it was. It wasn't just bullshit, although it was that. It wasn't just a pain in my ass, although it was that too. It was someone writing something that they talked themselves into believing, and all my fellow FS heads are nodding right now, because if that ain't a cyse nothing is.
In other words, a podcast has changed my reality. That was the squarest example I have yet seen of the Digital Age's direct influence on the deepest workings of my poor little brain.
I guess it surprises me every time I think of someone cysing or cuban b'ing some stuff, because some part of me clings to an antiquated view of the relationship between our physical and digital selves. Often those of us who spend so much time on the Internet think of our real lives as separate from our online lives. In my experience, that distinction is artificial. There's not a whole lot of difference between Bryan Shelly, the entity who moves through the physical world, and the various bshelly logins I use in various corners of the digital world. Really, the only difference is that bshelly is a little more prone to yelling.
What I find most interesting is, as what has happened with me and cysage, how my digital life influences my "real" life. For a long time I have realized the effects of, say, the choice the web sites one frequents impacts one's view of current events or even their evaluations of public figures. But this was something different. This was something akin to learning a word that has no counterpoint in my native language, like, oh, schaudenfreude. Prior to learning the German word, I guess I could have imagined the concept, but the word itself distilled the concept to its essence and allowed it to be more fully integrated into my life.
Potential for good here? As KBadd would say, "SURE!" I find it kind of heartening that three regular dudes from DC can bring me into their world enough to change mine. Maybe the loftiest dreams of the Internet as a place where people, rather than massive corporate entities, control the majority of the content are long dead, but my experience with Fiyastarter shows that normal people can reach out across time and space to shape other people's concepts of reality.
Nor do you know what a cuban b is, which is really unfortunate, because you've ABSOLUTELY cuban b'd a boatload of stuff. If I know you, I've probably done some shit to piss you off. If we're still cool, you've cuban b'd my nonsense.
Both those terms come from Southeast DC. I only know about them thank to the FiyaStarter Crew, hosts of the funniest podcast on the Internet. Every Thursday morning, you can wake up and download three hours of unfettered opinion, presented by gentlemen not at all interested in how you think they should sound. They're doing what groups of guys do every day: busting each others balls in language only they can understand
What's crazy is, these DC motherfuckers have absolutely changed the way I think. I was reading something the other day that didn't make any sense, and I said, aloud, "man, what a cyse." I called it a cyse because that's what it was. It wasn't just bullshit, although it was that. It wasn't just a pain in my ass, although it was that too. It was someone writing something that they talked themselves into believing, and all my fellow FS heads are nodding right now, because if that ain't a cyse nothing is.
In other words, a podcast has changed my reality. That was the squarest example I have yet seen of the Digital Age's direct influence on the deepest workings of my poor little brain.
I guess it surprises me every time I think of someone cysing or cuban b'ing some stuff, because some part of me clings to an antiquated view of the relationship between our physical and digital selves. Often those of us who spend so much time on the Internet think of our real lives as separate from our online lives. In my experience, that distinction is artificial. There's not a whole lot of difference between Bryan Shelly, the entity who moves through the physical world, and the various bshelly logins I use in various corners of the digital world. Really, the only difference is that bshelly is a little more prone to yelling.
What I find most interesting is, as what has happened with me and cysage, how my digital life influences my "real" life. For a long time I have realized the effects of, say, the choice the web sites one frequents impacts one's view of current events or even their evaluations of public figures. But this was something different. This was something akin to learning a word that has no counterpoint in my native language, like, oh, schaudenfreude. Prior to learning the German word, I guess I could have imagined the concept, but the word itself distilled the concept to its essence and allowed it to be more fully integrated into my life.
Potential for good here? As KBadd would say, "SURE!" I find it kind of heartening that three regular dudes from DC can bring me into their world enough to change mine. Maybe the loftiest dreams of the Internet as a place where people, rather than massive corporate entities, control the majority of the content are long dead, but my experience with Fiyastarter shows that normal people can reach out across time and space to shape other people's concepts of reality.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Character Assassination and the NBA Draft
Did Austin Rivers fuck Chad Ford's wife? That's the only conclusion I come to after following Ford's non-stop campaign to make sure Rivers gets drafted as low as possible.
A little background: Austin Rivers was one of the most highly recruited HS players for the class of 2011, went to Duke, and had a pretty good freshman season. Hit a shot to beat Carolina you probably saw. Scored 15.5 points and showed a nice little 3-point stroke despite seeing constant double teams and being really the only Dukie on this particular team that was anything special.
Yet from the minute the college season started, most draft experts started moving Austin Rivers down their board, for reasons that don't really pass the smell test. People complain that he hogs the ball too much for a point guard, but, uhm, no one with a brain thinks he's a point guard. Those who even acknowledge that fact seem to think he's neither athletic nor tall enough to play shooting guard in the NBA, but as my man Basa at fiyastarter points out, he's taller than Bradley Beal, who all the draft geeks love.
The reason that I'm riding for Austin Rivers comes from the most mystifying criticism of his game, which is that he's a miserable, awful person. I'm not kidding. That seems to be the biggest knock on his game. Just read this sht that Ford wrote on ESPN's blog. The language from the Simmons article has typified Ford's approach to Rivers and is just about as irrational and unprofessional as a major columnist can get. If you're going to say a dude is an arrogant ballhog who will never pass, you at least better provide some evidence. Don't give me last year at Duke, because, again, his teammates were sorry.
Also, since when is it a bad thing for a scorer to be confident, and even a little cocky? Don't some of you want to put Michael Jordan on Mount Rushmore because of his competitive urge, which is really just a polite way of saying the Michael Jordan is a misanthropic asshole? Rivers thinks that he can score on everyone because he HAS scored on everyone to this point in his career. That confidence is going to help him in the league, because it will keep him from getting down after a bad game.
It's true he's going to find the limitations to his approach pretty quickly, but why are we so sure that he won't adjust? What, a 19 year old coach's son isn't going to be able to adjust his game? All these prospects have flaws to their game. With everyone else, they get the benefit of the doubt. People like Ford say they have stuff they need to work on. But for some reason, Austin Rivers isn't going to get any better, because Austin Rivers is too much of an arrogant piece of sht to fix what needs fixing? Nah, man.
In lieu of specific evidence, I've concluded that Rivers rubbed some people the wrong way, which is unfairly clouding evaluations of him. There's no doubt in my mind that Rivers will stick in the league for a long time. At worst, he's instant scoring off the bench a la Jason Terry or Lou Williams, and those guys have demonstrated value in the league. There's a very good chance he develops into a 20 point per game scorer, and that's incredibly valuable, even if he doesn't get them in the most efficient way. And, again, I refuse to believe this bullshit narrative that he will never, ever adjust or grow his game.
Austin Rivers, welcome to the Shelly House. I shall provide you shelter from the unfair criticism that morons heap upon you. There's soda in the fridge.
A little background: Austin Rivers was one of the most highly recruited HS players for the class of 2011, went to Duke, and had a pretty good freshman season. Hit a shot to beat Carolina you probably saw. Scored 15.5 points and showed a nice little 3-point stroke despite seeing constant double teams and being really the only Dukie on this particular team that was anything special.
Yet from the minute the college season started, most draft experts started moving Austin Rivers down their board, for reasons that don't really pass the smell test. People complain that he hogs the ball too much for a point guard, but, uhm, no one with a brain thinks he's a point guard. Those who even acknowledge that fact seem to think he's neither athletic nor tall enough to play shooting guard in the NBA, but as my man Basa at fiyastarter points out, he's taller than Bradley Beal, who all the draft geeks love.
The reason that I'm riding for Austin Rivers comes from the most mystifying criticism of his game, which is that he's a miserable, awful person. I'm not kidding. That seems to be the biggest knock on his game. Just read this sht that Ford wrote on ESPN's blog. The language from the Simmons article has typified Ford's approach to Rivers and is just about as irrational and unprofessional as a major columnist can get. If you're going to say a dude is an arrogant ballhog who will never pass, you at least better provide some evidence. Don't give me last year at Duke, because, again, his teammates were sorry.
Also, since when is it a bad thing for a scorer to be confident, and even a little cocky? Don't some of you want to put Michael Jordan on Mount Rushmore because of his competitive urge, which is really just a polite way of saying the Michael Jordan is a misanthropic asshole? Rivers thinks that he can score on everyone because he HAS scored on everyone to this point in his career. That confidence is going to help him in the league, because it will keep him from getting down after a bad game.
It's true he's going to find the limitations to his approach pretty quickly, but why are we so sure that he won't adjust? What, a 19 year old coach's son isn't going to be able to adjust his game? All these prospects have flaws to their game. With everyone else, they get the benefit of the doubt. People like Ford say they have stuff they need to work on. But for some reason, Austin Rivers isn't going to get any better, because Austin Rivers is too much of an arrogant piece of sht to fix what needs fixing? Nah, man.
In lieu of specific evidence, I've concluded that Rivers rubbed some people the wrong way, which is unfairly clouding evaluations of him. There's no doubt in my mind that Rivers will stick in the league for a long time. At worst, he's instant scoring off the bench a la Jason Terry or Lou Williams, and those guys have demonstrated value in the league. There's a very good chance he develops into a 20 point per game scorer, and that's incredibly valuable, even if he doesn't get them in the most efficient way. And, again, I refuse to believe this bullshit narrative that he will never, ever adjust or grow his game.
Austin Rivers, welcome to the Shelly House. I shall provide you shelter from the unfair criticism that morons heap upon you. There's soda in the fridge.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Why You're Wrong about the NBA All-Star Game
There are three types of people who talk about how awful the NBA All-Star Game is.
One, there are the outright racists, although secretly, they must adore a good deal of the All-Star Weekend proceedings. If you think I just took a veiled shot at Chris Brown and Nikki Minaj, you are incorrect, because it is veiled no longer.
Two, there are hardcore NBA fans. For some reason, a large number of the people who love the league the most feel the need to sh!t on an exhibition. The biggest problem with this class of hater is that it provides the intellectual arguments that the third, far larger class of haters employ for evil purposes
By far the most damaging class of All-Star haters are the guys who don't watch sports but feel the need to express forceful opinions on them, or as they are more commonly known, Colin Cowherd.
Three classes of haters, all with different agendas but united in their complete and utter wrongness.
Because the NBA All-Star game is fantastic. You know what was awesome? Almost everything that happened at this year's all-star weekend.
We had a rookie/sophomore game that featured Blake Griffin, Jeremy Lin, a pissed-off John Wall, Kyrie Irving, and the ever-present threat of Big Cuz undoing all of the progress he's made and doing something monumentally stupid.
We had an All-Star game where Kevin Durant tried to make a claim to being the best player in the league, Lebron James beating him down with a fourth-quarter for the ages, and Kobe proving he's still the league alpha dog by talking smack to the game's best player while Lebron imploded.
And the best part? We had one of the worst slam-dunk contests ever. Complaining about bad TV is the surest sign that life has passed you by. In the social media age, there is NOTHING better than bad live TV. Nothing produces more comedy, if you're subscribed to the right Twitter feeds. Plus, even a bad slam-dunk contest featured a scrub that will never get minutes in a real game executing a double alley oop. That should give even the most casual of Colin Cowherds an appreciation of the sheer amount of athleticism in the league.
One, there are the outright racists, although secretly, they must adore a good deal of the All-Star Weekend proceedings. If you think I just took a veiled shot at Chris Brown and Nikki Minaj, you are incorrect, because it is veiled no longer.
Two, there are hardcore NBA fans. For some reason, a large number of the people who love the league the most feel the need to sh!t on an exhibition. The biggest problem with this class of hater is that it provides the intellectual arguments that the third, far larger class of haters employ for evil purposes
By far the most damaging class of All-Star haters are the guys who don't watch sports but feel the need to express forceful opinions on them, or as they are more commonly known, Colin Cowherd.
Three classes of haters, all with different agendas but united in their complete and utter wrongness.
Because the NBA All-Star game is fantastic. You know what was awesome? Almost everything that happened at this year's all-star weekend.
We had a rookie/sophomore game that featured Blake Griffin, Jeremy Lin, a pissed-off John Wall, Kyrie Irving, and the ever-present threat of Big Cuz undoing all of the progress he's made and doing something monumentally stupid.
We had an All-Star game where Kevin Durant tried to make a claim to being the best player in the league, Lebron James beating him down with a fourth-quarter for the ages, and Kobe proving he's still the league alpha dog by talking smack to the game's best player while Lebron imploded.
And the best part? We had one of the worst slam-dunk contests ever. Complaining about bad TV is the surest sign that life has passed you by. In the social media age, there is NOTHING better than bad live TV. Nothing produces more comedy, if you're subscribed to the right Twitter feeds. Plus, even a bad slam-dunk contest featured a scrub that will never get minutes in a real game executing a double alley oop. That should give even the most casual of Colin Cowherds an appreciation of the sheer amount of athleticism in the league.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Block of Wood
I have severe writer's block, at least with TWEDP. Part of it is everything else that is going on in my life, which includes writing for other outlets. Part of it is a desire not to make this blog entirely about yoga and transcendental weirdness, because...well, I guess because I have knee-jerk reaction against allowing myself to be pigeon holed too easily.
I've also become convinced I need to stop with all the first-person pronouns. There's no real reason to stop using I. Bloggers before me fought and won that war. However, the voices of Bob Hollenbach and Bruce Stoneback, aka the grammar police of Pennridge High School in the early 1990s, will not be stilled.
All of which to say is, I'm sorry I don't have anything more interesting to write to you today. I waited all day for inspiration to strike. The only idea I had the piqued my interest was a possible rambling essay on the difference between act and actor, which might be a way for us to learn how to discuss race again. So, when some silly white boy says some fcked up sht, we can sit them down and say, "Tommy, you have an act/actor thing going on today. I know you're not a racist, but that thing you just said was some racist bullsht." That way, we could call out dumb stuff people say without them getting all self-righteous, because, remember, we're not allowed to call anyone a racist anymore.
But I didn't like that idea that much.
Hopefully I'll have a good idea tomorrow. Now, to watch the Sixers hopefully not screw this up.
I've also become convinced I need to stop with all the first-person pronouns. There's no real reason to stop using I. Bloggers before me fought and won that war. However, the voices of Bob Hollenbach and Bruce Stoneback, aka the grammar police of Pennridge High School in the early 1990s, will not be stilled.
All of which to say is, I'm sorry I don't have anything more interesting to write to you today. I waited all day for inspiration to strike. The only idea I had the piqued my interest was a possible rambling essay on the difference between act and actor, which might be a way for us to learn how to discuss race again. So, when some silly white boy says some fcked up sht, we can sit them down and say, "Tommy, you have an act/actor thing going on today. I know you're not a racist, but that thing you just said was some racist bullsht." That way, we could call out dumb stuff people say without them getting all self-righteous, because, remember, we're not allowed to call anyone a racist anymore.
But I didn't like that idea that much.
Hopefully I'll have a good idea tomorrow. Now, to watch the Sixers hopefully not screw this up.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Pho: The King of Soups
Been a lot of nonsense on the Internet this week. Yoga scandals. Lana Del Rey. Hobos.
Yet nothing has been more nonsensical than Grantland's Souperbowl, which invalidated its existence the moment it chose French Onion Soup over Pho.
No.
No.
Fellow white people, I am ashamed of you. We're not going to discuss this. Pho is the King of Soups.
In protest of this travesty, for lunch today I went to Lime and Basil, which does a damn fine job delivering Vietnam's finest output in the middle of Chapel Hill. I ordered vegetarian Pho with chicken broth, which I'm pretty sure you Pho purists will say is a complete sellout because, dag, don't be vegetarian with something so awesome.
Whatever. It was bliss. I nailed the chili sauce to broth ratio. The tofu and noodles were perfect. I woofed down every solid in that broth, then sat there drinking the broth even though my eyes were in tears from the heat.
Because that's how good Pho is.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Three Questionable Points: Obama and Race
1) There's a lot going on with the Right Wing's hatred of Obama besides race. He has a funnyscary name. He reps Hawaii and Harvard. He is only the second president I can remember to not try to cultivate that aw shucks, good ol' boy bs. He is The Other in so many ways that terrify a lot of people who never, ever thought they'd see a black President.
On top of that, he's pursued policies that go against the fundamental commitment of the Right Wing to limited government. Liberal Check Yo Self Moment #1: Some people believe differently from us. Obama has done some things they find deeply wrong and terrifying.
2) That said, cmon, son.
On top of that, he's pursued policies that go against the fundamental commitment of the Right Wing to limited government. Liberal Check Yo Self Moment #1: Some people believe differently from us. Obama has done some things they find deeply wrong and terrifying.
2) That said, cmon, son.
Have fun! Google image search for "race card." You'll kill yourself with joy!!
BONUS POINT) HAHAHAHA KICKERS ARE TERRIBLE.
3) Liberal Check Yo Self Moment #2: Barack Obama campaigned as a moderate. He has governed as a moderate. Yet we liberals loved him as an agent of meaningful change in 2008. In 2012, we are just getting over our anger that Obama...governed exactly as he said he would.
I wonder why we could have POSSIBLY thought the first black president was more liberal than he is.
Seriously. People are terrible and you should know!
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