Urban v's the Commentariat

[andysays]

LOL

LOL at Lol, even

 

[DotCommunist]

Does this mean I'm ok to wear an arafat scarf then?

 

[J Ed]

What happened to sihhi?

 

[DaveCinzano]

What happened to sihhi?

Seemed fine, then moved into the same building as Divisive Cotton - since then, well...

 

[equationgirl]

{{{{ sihhi }}}}

 

[emanymton]

What happened to sihhi?

I've been wondering that as well. It really isn't the same without his research skills.

 

[Bakunin]

It's almost beyond parody, as though a never-ending stream of Toytown Trot 'voices of a generation' were spawned from a frenzied backstreet quickie between pretend politics and pathological self-promotion.

 

[redsquirrel]

This is most definitely not made up:

I enjoy wearing the Hiajab - Laurie Penny





Of course, it's doubly ironic that it's that she can't be seen not being seen but is making sure we see her not being seen.

Fucking hell, did she really not read that back and think she sounds like an utter twat.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Comedy gold.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Fucking hell, did she really not read that back and think she sounds like an utter twat.

Does she ever?

 

[ViolentPanda]

Comedy gold.

My psyche is obviously getting a bit twisted, as whenever I read something by Laura, my mind insists on using the "Spitting Image" John Major voice for narrative purposes.

 

[Dillinger4]

I don't know what to say about that article. I am at a loss for words.

 

[caleb]

Doug Henwood posted this on Facebook (he didn't write it, it was written by Yasmin Nair):

I am done with the douchebags who've taken too many queer theory/race theory classes taught by incompetent professors whose only method of grading is to affirmatively count the number of times the words "homonormative" and "white supremacy" appear on your papers. I'm done with the Tim-Wise-cock-sucking (not in a good way) jerks who blather on about white privilege while never pondering the fact that talking about white privilege has made a very well-paid career for a white man, and several POCs, who appropriate the work of people who actually produce work and analyses.

You ignore the fact that millions of white people come from families that have been cut out of access to basics like education for generations, and that many of them have no clue how to navigate labyrinthine university systems, or how to use networks of power to which you have gained access. Instead, you demean and ostracise them because, OMG, they used the wrong ethnic term or misgendered your queer friend insisting on seeing racism and malice where there might be none. You scream "racist" and even evoke the dreaded call of "rapist" without bothering to check your facts because all that matters to you is that you get to be the ones who beat up on that white dude.

You ignore structural problems around class and access because you wouldn't know them if they hit you on the head and because all you've ever been taught in those template-driven classes is how to apply check marks to people. You live in a world where white=racist, and the rest of your work is built upon little more than a constant call to echo white guilt, and nothing else matters.

You choose to ignore the fact that several of your South Asian/Latino friends come from massive amounts of privilege, and that privilege extends far beyond the money they might have, and that their privilege shields them in ways that you would never recognise or simply choose not to recognise. You insist on seeing every Latino as the progeny of sad, poor migrants, even as their social and cultural privilege is made clear, and you insist on calling every Black man "brother" and "man" and insist that he must manifest signs of knowing his "hood" because heaven help the Black man who will not dance to your tune of authenticity. You boast of how many POCs/queers you've fucked, and actually think that fucking is part of some revolutionary act.

You are, more often than not, white, but several of you are also self-identified, self-aggrandising POC douchebags who have crafted entire careers and lives based on doing nothing more than being the assholes who spend their entire lives pointing out how everyone who is white is a racist/anti-queer/homonormative/insert fashionable term here.

Don't bother disagreeing with me here, really. Those who know me and what just happened offline and what I have been talking about know what this is about. I am filled with rage and anger, the breadth of which you cannot understand. I am sick and tired of seeing my friends being maligned by assholes who don't do a lick of work in the revolutions they have claimed as their own.

I am fucking done with the "anti-racist" industry that has sprung up on the graveyard of the shoddy intellectual claptrap that still persists in calling itself radical - queer theory, the white studies bullshit, the anti-PIC critiques that only beat the drum of racism without bothering to think of how neoliberalism has cleverly made it impossible for us to think about the structural violence that simply uses identity to its own ends and to jail millions whom we ignore.

I am done, done, done. You want identity, motherfuckers? I will fucking use my own to expose your racist anti-racist bullshit. I'm so sick of this bullshit. Prepare to be taken down. Hard.

 

[el-ahrairah]

THIS WILL CONTINUE!.

 

[seventh bullet]

Nice rant.

 

[The Pale King]

Its as bad as Julie burchill with her fucking "i love your people so much, apart from your food and humour" bullshit quote]




You've put your finger on what makes me so uncomfortable here (I mean beyond the godawful writing, relentless, chirpy solipsism and the details that just don't ring true ((Italian cigarettes you say? Which brand?))).

It's this kind of patronising, exaggerated deference. It's not enough to say I don't think the government should tell Muslim women what to wear, it has to be 'what Muslim women wear is really great, I love it!'. Just like Burchill's obsequious praise of Judaism as you say. I think this sort of thing is actually quite a close cousin of racism, as you are still treating 'the other' as, well, the other. With special qualities of their own that you emphasise positively rather than negatively, but which still set them apart from you and always will. You are still treating people like symbols, like representatives of a community or as bearers of a tradition. And of course this attitude of exaggerated respect can curdle into scorn or disdain quite quickly if the 'bearers' of these 'traditions' don't live up to them in the right way in the eyes of the opinionator. Not easy to put into words but I find it gross

Ehm I fucked up the formatting somehow but my comment is in the quote box under frogwoman's quote.

 

[butchersapron]

Doug Henwood posted this on Facebook (he didn't write it, it was written by Yasmin Nair):

Great rant. Look at the follow up discussion. Jesus.

 

[frogwoman]

i'd find it a bit weird

Ehm I fucked up the formatting somehow but my comment is in the quote box under frogwoman's quote.



You've put your finger on what makes me so uncomfortable here (I mean beyond the godawful writing, relentless, chirpy solipsism and the details that just don't ring true ((Italian cigarettes you say? Which brand?))).

It's this kind of patronising, exaggerated deference. It's not enough to say I don't think the government should tell Muslim women what to wear, it has to be 'what Muslim women wear is really great, I love it!'. Just like Burchill's obsequious praise of Judaism as you say. I think this sort of thing is actually quite a close cousin of racism, as you are still treating 'the other' as, well, the other. With special qualities of their own that you emphasise positively rather than negatively, but which still set them apart from you and always will. You are still treating people like symbols, like representatives of a community or as bearers of a tradition. And of course this attitude of exaggerated respect can curdle into scorn or disdain quite quickly if the 'bearers' of these 'traditions' don't live up to them in the right way in the eyes of the opinionator. Not easy to put into words but I find it gross

it is gross and it is racism.

and it does and can turn into scorn or disdain, as i think i pointed out on the julie burchill thread some time ago and i think LP etc also do with working class people in general. JB doesn't like jewish people she likes the idealised vision that she's created in her head of some noble savage orientalist shit which leads her to complain about meeting real jewish people (complaining that they're not pro israel enough, complaining about the food, the humour and "over focus on the family). Looks like LP is heading the same way with islam (and she already does with working class people, as do too many others)

you're not treating them as people the same as you you're treating them as like exotic creatures. and heaven forbid they not fit the stereotype or have some original thoughts of their own and don't want to be treated as exotic savages that are not really the same as you.

 

[J Ed]

Great rant. Look at the follow up discussion. Jesus.

Not as bad as I was expecting actually

 

[frogwoman]

"i met a black man"

 

[The Pale King]

i'd find it a bit weird


it is gross and it is racism.

and it does and can turn into scorn or disdain, as i think i pointed out on the julie burchill thread some time ago and i think LP etc also do with working class people in general. JB doesn't like jewish people she likes the idealised vision that she's created in her head of some noble savage orientalist shit which leads her to complain about meeting real jewish people (complaining that they're not pro israel enough, complaining about the food, the humour and "over focus on the family). Looks like LP is heading the same way with islam (and she already does with working class people, as do too many others)

you're not treating them as people the same as you you're treating them as like exotic creatures. and heaven forbid they not fit the stereotype or have some original thoughts of their own and don't want to be treated as exotic savages that are not really the same as you.

You've put it far better than I did.

 

[The Pale King]

"i met a black man"

In Plymouth

 

[butchersapron]

Not as bad as I was expecting actually

I've only just noticed that there's more comments than the ones on the link - the ones from some goon called Daniel Spaulding esp. The first ones are better.

 

[frogwoman]

You've put it far better than I did.

cheers

i've had it a couple of times, people saying how much they like "my people" and then talking about the sort of things that we are supposed to do/think (and then being disappointed when i'm not like that) its like "err yeah, thanks"
makes me feel weird and uncomfortable every time. i imagine muslim people must feel the same way

why can't these people treat everyone the same instead of some weird identity bollocks, it just goes to show how they live in a different world to everyone else. i mean i have worked alongside black and muslim people and never felt the need to draw attention to their colour or religion all the time

 

[frogwoman]

it reminds me of that episode of peep show when david mitchell's new boss is black

 

[seventh bullet]

It's an intimidating world I don't quite understand, American liberal 'left' academe.

 

[J Ed]

Look, Suze, being black isn't about the colour of your skin, it's about vibe, about hanging out, kicking back, smoking a number, fighting prejudice and negative stereotypes wherever you find them

 

[J Ed]

It's an intimidating world I don't quite understand, American liberal 'left' academe.

My very limited experience of American academics who have come to work in the UK is that they are often less receptive to privilege theory, white guilt etc than left-wing British academics.

 

[seventh bullet]

My very limited experience of American academics who have come to work in the UK is that they are often less receptive to privilege theory, white guilt etc than left-wing British academics.

I have little to no experience of any, in real life.

 

[frogwoman]