Andy Carvin: "The Digital Divide"

My belief is that justice is unobtainable without mass-literacy. In addition ,mass-literacy cannot come to fruition without a radically public system of education.

Learning is technological; from classes requiring blogs and live journals, to the simple fact, that, it is impossible to write a research paper without the internet. Even if you use print sources, where and how are these sources cataloged? Databases.

Like all access to information and in this case, access to technologies that contain information, we find that there is no new trend in the way that these technologies are distributed. Presumably, they would be distributed democratically. One might argue that distribution would never function democratically under an economic system such as capitalism. I am finding that argument particularly insufficient lately.

Andy Carvin is National Public Radio's senior product manager for online communities. He was the founding editor and former coordinator of the Digital Divide Network, an online community of more than 10,000 Internet activists in over 140 countries working to bridge the digital divide.

His work is on the “digital divide,” which he defines as “...the ever-growing gap between those people and communities who have access to information technology and those who do not.” Carvin continues to tell us the the “digital divide” is one of the most pressing civil rights issues of our time. I agree. Primarily because he walks us through the multilayered condition of the divide; most advocated for democratic technology do not. Most call for an increase in access without taking into consideration the many issues that come with unregulated access. Carvin instructs us of the following intersections: The digital divide is about:

*Access
*Content
*Literacy
*Pedagogy

Carvin explains that in order to democratize the world of the internet we must be aware of content, most of our time on-line is spent on foolishness (Facebook, online shopping) Functional adult illiteracy is at an all time high, many adults don’t read -- so what is the ‘use’ of limitless access. In terms of pedagogy, we must realize that we need people who are prepared to use technology properly, and more important, productively. The problem is not necessarily in the functionality of the internet and how people can learn the basics of tech-navigation (many people have that problem) but rather, how can the internet improve our lives and the community.

I agree that the "digital divide" is a civil rights issue that we must begin to unpack and try to fix, but we must be aware of the downfalls of populous politics.

Alexis Gumbs & Cybering Activism

Most times, I use my blog to criticize the institution that has provided me with an eduction to do so -- The University of New Hampshire; I, myself, get overwhelmed with my sociopolitical pessimism at times. We must also be conscious of the great progressive work being done at the university. A perfect example of this is the community of scholars in the Discovery program, who are facilitating great discussion among students and faculty alike.

Black Feminist, and Cyber-Activist, Alexis Gumbs recently came to UNH to talk about technology. She spoke of her diverse experience with technology and activism. Currently pursuing her Ph.d. at Duke University, Gumbs is involved in a tremendous amount of activism, including the “School of Our Lorde,” which is an institution committed to the learning and studying of the works of Audre Lorde, who was a “ Black-lesbian-feminist-sociliast-mother-of-two,” to quote Lorde in her electrifying essay, “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.” Gumbs, like Lorde, identifies as a poet, not a political theorist. Both of them however, are examples of the interdiciplinarity of Feminism, and that “ poetry is not a luxury”

Gumbs made one point that spoke to me in particular, as it intersected with my current research. Although I was familiar with the idea of internalized capitalism, I had never linked it to my critique of pornography. In a nutshell, “internalized capitalism” refers to the subconscious practice of always “developing” something new to further productivity. Gumbs challenged us:  “just because something could be done, doesn’t mean that it should.” We know that the super-plastifided, multi-billion dollar industry of pornography is one of the star-studded results of capitalism, but we must in fact accept, that an out-of-control system of corporatism that defines our bodies through capital will eventually destroy us.

Alexis Gumbs is a phenomenal Feminist and activist. It was a pleasure to have her share her knowledge with our campus; we are in need.

Visit her website.

Cyber-Feminist Spaces

Maria Bakardijeva reports in her article “Virtual Togetherness: An Everyday-Life Perspective” on her view of virtual spaces, as “public spheres,” having the potential to be spaces for intellectual discourse and the democratic sharing of ideas.

As a Cyber-Activist, and a Feminist who has embraced the technological as a medium to produce and share intellectualism, I am compelled to agree with Bakardijeva. That is not say that these spaces don’t also have the potential to be destructive. I am thinking particularly of the amount of bigotry and hate that goes on in America’s top site for video and music sharing -- youtube. Of-course, as I have often mentioned in my work, there is no need to theorize foolishness and bigotry. Someone who comments on a video of violinist Isaac Perlman, and writes, “stupid jew” is just a waste of intelligence, nevertheless, these “wastes” divide into two polarizing groups: one in which the person is forced to react to their ignorance by means of their profound boredom and self-loathing mentality; and, one in which the person is a radical ideologue, who is an anti-semite, white-supremacist etc.

This leads me into my discussion for this entry -- comment culture in Feminist virtual spaces. What I mean by “comment culture,” is that, within virtual communities, like all communities, cultures develop on how to produce and interpret material. Youtube, for example, is a mixed bag, but often is a space with a poor comment culture, demonstrating efficiently involved commenting grounded in mindless-thinking.

Cyber-Feminist spaces such as Feministing, and Ms.blog have shown remarkable poise: monitoring comments, inviting people to participate in the discourse, and understanding the limitations of “free speech.” These type of marketing choices, I guess, let’s call them that, are necessary to foster a comment culture that can facilitate the production of knowledge, and not hinder thinking by embracing foolishness and empty-minded comments, usually motivated by bigotry.

Some of the Cyber-Feminist spaces I would recommend are:

Feministing
Ms.Blog
Latina Magazine Blog
Bitch Ph.d.

Introduction to a Developing Essay

We continue to critically interrogate the cyber world, as we search for visuals that can potentially provide connectivity between the “cyber” and the “real,” furthering our understanding of how this relationship reinforces and transforms inequality.The cyber-world has actively participated in the blueprinting of Queer life;what seemed to be utopia at first, has turned into the producer of misguided digital narratives that provide the fundamental pedagogy on what and who Queer is. The cyber-world has been perceived to be a judge-free community where many closeted and non-closeted Queers explore sexuality with out the gaze of a normative society. With the growing epidemic of cyber hate, and the extreme degradation of Queerness through technological invention, we conclude, that in fact, this is a myth.

Russell K. Robinson, professor of law at UCLA, informs us in his essay, “Structural Dimensions of Romantic Preference” on “the impact of structural conditions on preference regarding intimacy.” He suggests that our “preferences” regarding intimacy are imaginations and not natural or fixed desires. Robinson examines a number of romantic “market” places(dating sites, hook-up sites);one of his claims is that the representation of gay men of color on these sites is for the most part a commodified and racialized imagination. As we translate these representations into “real” life, we see that Queer men are forced to conform: “.. in predominantly white and gay romantic marketplaces, men of color are forced to conform to certain racialized sex roles, such as the “aggressive Black top, and the submissive Asian bottom”

I wish to further extend Robinson’s claim by suggesting that pornography has served as one of the major cyber producers of these racialized images. In my recent research on black male subjectivity, it is impossible to escape the visual of the “aggressive top” in pornographic narratives. I have even began to notice that more often than not, when two men of color are the visual, the darker one is “on top.” I can hear bell hooks saying that this explicitly illustrates that societies’ antipathy for dark men of color is greater than their antipathy of men of color in general.

I define this process through the following language: The Black Male subject in interracial gay pornography is an archetype;he is constructed through a process of dehumanization -- further producing a digital narrative that is replicated in the everyday performance of gay sexuality.

Sites such as Its Gunna' Hurt and Blacks on Boys are not only popular, but consumption of interracial pornography is ever growing. In terms of analysis, I fundamentally rebuke the idea that any analysis of power can emerge from the “top/bottom” invention. That some how, if the man of color is on “top,” some type of overcoming of racism is occurring. I would argue that in fact, the white man remains in power. Through a process of dehumanization, the weapon that administers pain becomes the subject -- the black penis.

After the dehumanization process has been played out by a white supremacist tradition, we begin to see the destructive trends of capitalism suggest the socioeconomic slavery status of men of color. A majority of these disturbing narratives depict a poor black men. The trend of ghettoizing pornographic plots is everywhere; in many instances the black man walks into the room, fucks the white man, and walks out. He is wearing urban-style clothing, and the suggestion of lower-class status is either explicitly or implicitly suggested. One might ask why in a video about “sex,” these types of issues would even be narrated? To me, they are crucial in the context of white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy, as they suggest neo-colonial and profoundly imperial implications of the social condition of race.

The slave/master relationship is reinforced though the use of pornographic narrative; colonizing black sexuality is essential for the sustainability of white supremacy and the perpetual destruction of the black male subject.

The most disturbing of all is that this dehumanizing narrative is replicated in the performance of sexuality. We experience Queer dating sites where people are requesting “a black top,” or suggesting that their primary interest is “ethnic men.” Queer men of color are socially forced to conform to these racialized sex roles. While we assume that whiteness is not “ethnic,” and that whiteness only needs to practice sex; Practice sex in the purest of ways – free from implications. Queer men of color are not only forced to practice a political sexuality, but one that is fabricated and fundamentally unauthentic.

ChatRoulette: Years of Torture in Fifty Clicks

Shocking Results

Sam Anderson, a writer for New York, writes in his compelling article, “The Human Shuffle: Is ChatRoulette the future of the Internet or its distant Past,” about his experiences with the famous American site -- ChatRoulette. Anderson reports, “ I entered the fray on a bright Wednesday afternoon, with an open mind and an eager soul, ready to sound my barbaric yawp through the webcams of the world. I left absolutely crushed. It turns out that ChatRoulette, in practice, is brutal.” As a newfound frequenter of the site, I have found myself entering the provocative world of the mystery web-cam with friends, using it as a device of humor. We sometimes sit in my living room, after one-two-many glasses of wine, and explore the realm of cyber-vulgarity with a rather facetious purpose. In order to understand Anderson’s claims, I had to face the infamous ChatRoulette by myself, and establish some type of methodology for my research. Here it is: Fifty clicks, and I did not allow myself to “next” anyone; they would have to “next” me. “Nexting,” if we can call that a verb, is the act of clicking “next” on your screen when you want to be connected to a different webcam; the “nexting” process is random, hence the roulette aspect of this truly unique Cyber realm.

My day was very similar to Anderson’s -- I was in a good mood. I sat down in my room and began my experiment. It is difficult to put into words how bizarre, hateful and dirty this site really is. And, I don’t mean dirty because of nudity, I mean the sexist, misogynist, homophobic, and racist filth I consumed in thirty-two minutes. Some of my web-cam encounters included a person who called me a “fat faggot,” a person who masturbated in front of me for two minutes and ejaculated on his keyboard, a person who engaged me in a chat at first, and after a minute or so asked me if I could, “finger my asshole and let him call me a cum-eating bitch,” a person drawing pictures on a white-board with ketchup, a group of fraternity boys screaming, “we want tits!,” and a person with a motorcycle helmet. With all of that, what seemed to upset me the most was watching people look at me for two seconds and hit “next.” I can not echo Anderson enough, when he says, “If this was the future of the Internet, then the future of the Internet obviously didn’t include me.” It was brutal. It was years of social rejection and ridicule in fifty clicks. My self-conscience body image, Queerness, and basic humanity of being able to seek a connection with another human being was completely brought to shambles, in the cruelest of ways.

Anyone that takes this site seriously is either a masochist, or is at risk. With the recent media coverage of suicide, this site has the potential to be the catalyst of cyber-bullying. The “nexting” process is just a tool for foolish people to remove their agency from the hate they are creating. ChatRoulette is nothing more than a cyber-manifestation of hate. I am also sickened by those who say these images don’t matter, and that it’s just “a joke,” when all of us are a click away from the most violent isms.

Unhopeful Conclusions

When we attempt to theorize on why ChatRoulette exists, and how our experiences are shaped in categories of gender, race, and sexuality, it becomes increasingly difficult to focus on a conclusion. This because, human foolishness, and arbitrary technological inventions used for the dissemination of hate, and objectification, are so prevalent and popular in Cyber culture. In terms of sexuality, I found a very direct linage between homophobia and homoeroticism. Forty-two of my fifty clicks were men, and nearly half of them were penises. I am inclined to ask the following question: If you expose yourself, and expect that the image of your penis will be consumed by female viewers, why would you go on a site that is frequented predominately by men? It also seems interesting to me that out of my fifty clicks, two of them identified themselves as Queer, in casual conversation with Queer communities, it has been brought to my attention that the Queer community frequents the site. When it comes to race, I was surprised by the diversity and internationalism of the users. However, I was quickly reminded of the work of Lisa Nakamura, where she critiques an MCI commercial for claiming that there was no race, gender, or age in the Internet, just minds. Nakamura warms us of the fabrication of diversity by cyber technologies, “ ...the visual images of diversity are displayed and celebrated as spectacles of difference, that the narrative simultaneously attempts to erase by claiming that MCI’s product will reduce the different bodies that we see to “just minds.”


I am unsure if ChatRoulette is the future of the Internet, but I am sure that it will remain relative to Cyber discourse for years to come.

The technological dependency we are suffering from is causing us to strive for an identity that is perpetually public. The satisfaction, even if destructive and ridiculous, that we get from the immediacy of human contact has become solidified in a culture that is inpatient and relies on technological inventions to respond -- respond to human emotion, desire, and yearning for companionship.

Unpacking the Rutgers Tragedy: One Step at a Time

The Tyler Clementi story has brought to light once again the sick world we live in, and the media coverage has reenforced the marketability of gay death. It’s sickening to watch newscasters and main stream conservatives like “Dr.” Phil go on Larry King and say, “ it doesn’t matter that he was gay, someone is dead.” Yes, someone is dead, but it’s not a coincidence -- it’s homophobia.

This passive language dismisses how many of us feel -- vulnerable and frightened.

When will we start a comprehensive discussion? When will we realize that issues of gender and race, at all levels, are crucial components in American politics. Today, in my political column for The New Hampshire, my colleagues suggested that I would “cast the Tea Party as racist, sexist, and homophobic” because it had a good “ring to it.” News-flash: If you are holding a “Lynch Obama” sign, you are a fucking racist and a white supremacist. There is no excuse. And suggesting that I make everything about race? -- well, I do. Because it is about race. I don’t know why I am so surprised that privileged whites don’t want to talk about race. They don’t have a race. They just are.

This same type of hegemonic rhetoric is being used for the Rutgers suicide. “It's about human life, it could have happen to anyone. Stop making everything about being gay”

Well, I am.

It is crucial that Tyler Clementi was having an intimate encounter with a man. Whether he was gay or not we don’t know. But why are we surprised? Isn’t suicide the climax to the tragic Queer narrative? Not to mention that the people responsible for filming Tyler’s encounter are not the only ones at fault. How about the rest of bigots that have driven every Queer person to a breaking point? How many times we have heard the word “faggot?” And even if it was not directed at us, we know we are the faggots? What causes a 13 year-old to shoot himself in the head?

We do.

Our refusal to talk, our refusal to act, and our refusal to acknowledge the privileges we hold. It’s easy for Dan Savage to come out with his “It Gets Better” campaign while many of us watch the disposability of Queer death in horror. Yes, Dan, for you it does get better: your money, your whiteness, your status, and your obsession with assimilation will help you achieve the “better.” Never-mind, your biphobia, transphobia, classism and racism. It does get better, Dan -- for you.

Many of my dear friends and social justice warriors like Joelle Ruby Ryan have started a conversation to unify, and come away from these Gay Inc. mentalities. Join the conversation, and understand that it won’t get better if you don’t get involved.

Justice is not inevitable.

We all must realize that the solution is in education. They have been asking us all week if there are enough resources for us to turn to in crisis. Yes, there are. Trust me, every Queer knows where the counseling center is; it's part of the tragic narrative. My question: Where is the mandatory Multicultural Theory course for every freshman? Where are the pro-active administrations that will commit at an institutional level to teach diversity? Not just for us, we know it, we live it.

It is time for radical change in education. Sustainability will only be possible with a commitment to diversity, not a commitment to “tolerance” and “acceptance.” Many of us have to tolerate ignorance, and we are tired .

We are tired as a community. If all of us would come together as allies, we would see change, but so many of us are saturated with apathy and cynicism.

Ask yourself: who will be next? Try to find an answer, you won’t -- because it might just be one of us.

Avatar: A Sci-Fi-Imperial Thriller

I find it hard to believe that so many of us still refuse to accept that mass media, and movies in particular are the main pedagogical agents of culture. The “magic” of Hollywood continues to approach representation in a motivated way. Racial, gender, and SES stereotypes are constantly reenforced as a result of “effective marketing.” Some Hollywood choices manifest into “funny black people” or the “gay fashionista.” The type of representation that provides either whites or heterosexuals with “humor,” the type of dehumanization that encourages the tokenism and entertainment quality of queerness or blackness.

Through technological advances, and the Hollywood strive towards the ultimate spectacle, movies in the Sci-Fi world want to remove us from our social condition, and have us arrive in the “distant world,” where our social condition is no longer relevant. Ironically enough, this distant world is very close to home.

In Lisa Nakamura’s Digitizing Race, she reports this observation: "However, as the popular Matrix sequels and other millennial science fiction films demonstrate, the massification of the Internet has not damaged the market for traditionally racialized representations of people of color as primitive and sexual if black, and machinic and inherently technological if Asian.  White people are still depicted as the users that matter in these narratives that are so influential among popular audiences, especially young audiences"  (208).

No where can this claim play out more accurately then in the poorly executed, white messiah glorifier, imperial celebrating, nature romantizizer 2010 Sci-Fi thriller -- Avatar. This dirty little film might have cool special effects, but the representation remains very problematic.

To start: The undertones of colonization are disturbing. It is no accident that the plot is the “civilized” person’s interest in the “barbarians’” resources. This organic capital that they posses is the new diamonds the British where so interested in in Africa. Although the Na’ve people were at times portrayed in a good light, they were still portrayed as being noble in terms of nature, not humanity, they are there for the gaze of neo-thoreauians objectifying them as exotic artifacts.

Jake is one of the most problematic characters in this Sci-Fi-Imperial thriller. After he decides to be a covert agent and trick the Na’vi into letting him into their society, he decides that he likes them and does not want anything to do with the corporate fascists that had first encouraged him. David Brooks starts of his stellar Op-ed on Avatar by saying that “every age produces its own sort of fables, and our age seems to have produced The White Messiah fable.” He then continues in his fabulous David Brooks way to highlight how after Jake redeems himself, his messiah status is celebrated: “The white guy notices that the peace-loving natives are much cooler than the greedy corporate tools and the bloodthirsty U.S. military types he came over with. He goes to live with the natives, and, in short order, he’s the most awesome member of their tribe. He has sex with their hottest babe. He learns to jump through the jungle and ride horses. It turns out that he’s even got more guts and athletic prowess than they do. He flies the big red bird that no one in generations has been able to master”

Another popular critique to attack this horrid film was Federick Meade. He brilliantly encapsulates the destructive nature of these films, and calls for a radical defining of a movement to oppose this type of film making. “If such a phenomenon fails to emerge, those transmissions designed to maintain and reinforce existing inequitable social arrangements and attending precepts will continue to flourish. Such is the net effect of the movie industries’ latest instrument--Avatar.”

Free Speech v/s Fair Speech

I could not be more pleased that the pornography debate is happening at the University of New Hampshire. Although, I must clarify: I am pleased that Radical Feminists are making the debate happen, as the pseudo “pro-”pornography advocates just want to screen that we are anti-sex and proclaim freedom of speech as the solidifier of a profoundly violent, anti-woman, anti-queer, and anti-environmental industry. The “pro-pornography” scholarship, if that even exists, remains fundamentally uncritical.

A discussion of whether we should explore policy to regulate porn-access in the library is one current debate. The catalyst that led to the emergence of this conversation was the arrest of a fifty-seven year old man from Exeter, NH, who was caught viewing child pornography in the Dimond library this summer. My class became interested in people's reactions to this event and how they felt about regulating or completely denying access to pornography in the library.

As good-old-fashioned-Feminists, we hit the streets. (my class that is) We went around and asked the following questions: Did you hear about the summer incident in the library? What do you think about implementing policy to avoid this?

My group found answers within a diverse community -- an elected official, a philosophy professor, a leader of a multicultural movement on campus, and a business student. I was disappointed that all but one provides us with the same constitutional flattery, patriarchally commodified, essentialist and absolutist argument regarding free speech, “....if we start to mess with free speech, it is a slippery slope”

On the contrary, not messing with “free” speech has created an avalanche of oppression. Freedom of speech is not absolute, just like private property isn’t, there is law allowing for eminent domain, and just like liberty is not guaranteed if you provoke the law. Here is a kicker, how about fair speech. The man, yes, man editing “the money shot” on his Adobe is entitled to free speech and uses woman as the objects of his hypocritical application of freedom, not to mention that the children in the pornography that this man was consuming don’t have freedom of speech.

How this university can remain blind to these issues is beyond me. We need to understand that you can not act or say what ever you want. In addition, let’s not play “political theorist” and say that we don’t find a profound tension and oppressive nature to pornography; it is there. And then to say that people consuming pornography in a public library could be exercising scholarship or research -- bullshit

If this university is truly devoted to sustainability, as they market themselves, they would know that banning this toxic detriment from our public spaces is essential to sustain our community, what you do in your bedroom with your computer is your problem, but keep this filth out of our public spaces. I view a lot of pornography for my research, and I certainly don’t do it in the library. There is no argument here. And when you can’t defend your weak arguments, cite the “founders” and romanticize the discourse with some bizarre claim to freedom.

Give me a break.

Technology and Health: How the Media Romanticizes Illness

Eve Shapiro is a sociologist and social critic, her book Gender Circuits: Bodies and Identities in a Technological Age is a critical analysis that tries to answer why technology has affected our perception of reality and has redefined our bodies and identity. Although her argument is up for debate, I find her persuasion very compelling. I also find it impossible to not see the tech dependency we have developed, if we think about our daily lives, we can conclude that outside of sleep, we are constantly engaged with technology, particularly computers and cell phones. Through this technology we further engage with one of our favorite pleasures -- mass media.

In chapter one, Shapiro theorizes on medical technology in a section she calls,“ Biomedical Technology as Mediator between Physical and Mental Health” (p 30) Shapiro reports that we depend on medical technology to legitimize the status of our illness; she views this relationship as unfavorable. We may be inclined to dismiss her claim quickly. As products of a very flawed modernity, our connection to medical science has made us “better” people. I would have to argue that medical science has encouraged us to give up much of our agency when it comes to personal health. That is not say that we have not all benefited from medical science, but for our purposes in this blog, I want us to focus on the fundamental relationship between self and technology in the medical world, and I also wish to add the subject of mass media to Shapiro’s argument.

I am in agreement with Shapiro when she asks, do we acknowledge that we’re sick “.....because we feel sick or because technology tells us?”( p 31)

We have grown attached and dependent to medical verification, we have also institutionalized their validity, Shapiro discusses this when she explains that bureaucratic entities such as schools and employers demand doctor’s notes instead of trusting our own reporting of our illness, of-course this is putting a lot of faith in people, and we all know how irresponsible that can sometimes be. That being said, someone having to write a note to assure us of our illness is the easiest way to loose agency of our body and rely on outside sources to verify our internal conditions.

Now that we have identified the fundamental disconnection between bodily agency, mental perception and medical science, let’s add capitalism and mass media.

After people are properly detached from their agency, we can now rely on pharmaceutical corporations, medical lobbyists, and mass media campaigns to supply us with the solutions to our many illnesses. Capitalism begins to formulate a medical myth that is as American as the house on the hill: everyone has ADHD, everyone needs iron, everyone needs to loose weight, everyone is depressed, everyone has chronic-anxiety. And, guess what? We have a pill for everyone of those things, available to you for a ludicrous price.

We slowly become slaves to the promise of health.

But how can consumerism sell us this myth? This now brings me to the marketing apparatus that is all to common in selling us bullshit -- romantics. The Celebrex commercial of people running in fields, the memoirs of overcoming depression, the Oprah shows about how great it is to be thin, the multi-million dollar publications on how to help your child concentrate. I am in no way denying that depression and other illness are real and they affect many, but I refuse to acknowledge that we are all participants in the field.

Of-course, when capitalism romanticizes its product we need to expect the tokenism of minority groups, after all, white supremacy is an essential component of successful capitalism. Mass media then becomes an efficient way to market the product. This further problematizes an already loaded issue, as it promotes capital gains through the romanticizing of people’s realities, here -- illness. An appropriate example of this is a music-video clip put out by Human Music & Sound Design, they are a company that creates original commercials on pressing issues such as AIDS to build awareness. The one-minute clip shows a black woman with AIDS being filmed for ninety days in her bed, they show the women loosing weight and become more and more ill in fast-motion. It is very disturbing. At the end we find out that what we think was the 90th day, when she was the most ill, is actually the first. They then tell us that AIDS is treatable and that WE can help be getting involved and donating.

This motif of bleeding-heart liberal romantics is very common. I am interest in the internal politics of these “awareness commercials.”

The poor black women continues to be the token-poster child of what is wrong with the world, and we can make a trendy video on how to “fix” the problem, without first asking the question: why, in the year 2010, this woman is where she is. If the exploitation of this women wasn’t bad enough, we continue to have the audacity to considers our-selves the chosen ones to help.

White-Messiah Complex

Our political discourse is filled with it, and we refuse to acknowledge it. Should we help those in need? Yes. But we should not, as we do, commercialize people’s pain and illness, and sell a hollow product of “help.” Our ten dollars a month are not going to help, if we don’t first realize that this destructive consumer-based system allows us to think we are helping when we are in fact destroying. Our owners need to stop representing illness through black women and queers.

Most importantly, we must reclaim agency and sterilize the status of illness from capitalism.

Mark Bauerlein: "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future"

Mark Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University and the author of "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" In this book, Bauerlein argues that we are in fact the dumbest generation. We don't read, we can't spell, we are easily distracted. And then, he outrageously claims that we are "young" and get ridiculed for original thought. Firstly, I wish to apologize to Bauerlein for critiquing his work, as I am nothing more than an ignorant incompetent. And, yes, I just took advantage of spell-check to spell "critiquing."

Although lucrative, we must first navigate away from Bauerlein's narcissism and overly essentialist attitude, and arrive to one of the fundamental flaws in his argument -- classism. I can only echo the words of bell hooks when she tells us that topics of justice cannot be discussed unless we deal with a literate community. Within the racially divisive arena of American public policy, people of color have systematically been disenfranchised from the world of academia, creating an elite class of academics. This class is subject to the same intersectionality of most oppressive systems, it is predominately racist, sexist, and sympathetic to learners of high-profile political affiliation and elite socioeconomic status.

While I can partially agree that our generation can be more focused, I refuse to admit that we are somehow dumb. Here is an example: The internet bomb in the early 90's allowed computers and the internet to enter the classroom setting. Information is now available to students who had been materially lacking. This especially had an affect on me as a Latino. My mother, like many first generation immigrants did not speak the language and was not at all familiar with American Culture. The internet allowed me to explore my curiosity, and help my family move forward. With no help from anyone, I was able, as a high school student, to apply to college. It is weak scholarship for Bauerlein not to realize the profound affect that technology has had on poor people, who use it, even at the public library for ten cents an hour, to access information that our immigrant parents can't give us, like the logistically knowledge of applying to college.

Another flaw in Bauerlein argument is that he assumes that all people need to assimilate to his archaic perception of academia. I have never read Hamlet, and I don't care to. More and more students and teachers find that articles and journals can be more effective in teaching because of the length. Not to mention that classroom practices are changing. I am sure he would think this blog entry is invalid because I have checked me email twice. Students today are involved in many things and sitting in a room for six hours and reading is not one them.

Bauerlein also makes a huge claim when he says we all don't read. I read a lot and, I value academics. He claims that we are ridiculed for original thought, I don't know if anyone in the class feels this way, but my thinking has been celebrated and embraced by friends and academics. We cannot allow this type of negativism in our academic discourse. We are already dealing with capitalist demands for people not to go to school, and now, we choose to claim that everyone is dumb anyway.

Bauerlein might be angry that I am able to criticize him after reading the summary of his book on bostom.com, but here we see the beuaty of summary, as now I am spared from reading his apocalyptic revaluation of our dumb future. We are finally moving as a community, here at UNH, to expand and diversify our education, to educate the people who value education. I don't believe that education is given, especially to people of color and queers. We must claim it, and not allow for anyone to take our knowledge, no matter how "unfocused and ignorant." I am claiming my education and telling this individual to buzz off. Allowing this conservative, simply angry rhetoric to affect our perception of ourselves as thinkers would make us stupid. I hope he doesn't call his students dumb, because if he does, he might find out he has a lot to learn from us. After all, we gave him the material to write his book, which has sold a lot of copies. And, which I am sure students use for firewood and don't read. Students also pay his salary at Emory University. I guess we really are useless.

Alicia Menendez : Fierce Latina

So yes, she is my cousin, nevertheless she is fabulous! Alicia and I have always had a good relationship despite our little time together, from Thanksgiving dinners, to family reunions in the blistering July sun, to long chats with Gin about growing up in Hudson county -- a great thing by the way. Her latest "BHAG = Big Hairy Audacious Goal" to quote my cousin Erik, is auditioning for the "Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star: Your Own Show" here, she competes with hundreds for the chance at her own show. Alicia graduated Harvard with a degree in Gender & Sexuality, (Yes!) has worked on numerous campaigns, and currently is involved with field and policy work in the Latino/a community, she is also a solid democrat and feminist,nuff said! Here is what you do: Go to the link I posted under comments ( copy and paste, sorry blogger is not linking for some reason), watch her video and vote!

Beach & Bukowski : Feminism in Unexpected Places

Today I went to a beautiful beach -- Rye, in NH. Four about three hours I baked with my friend Kelly -- literally, baked. I also caught up with some reading. I am reading an anthology of the works of Charles Bukowski, primarily excerpts from Ham and Rye and Septuagenarian Stew, here, Bukowski, in his dirty realist way, talks about his childhood during the depression, his confrontations with poverty, his inner desire to understand death, and the violent emotions towards his father, many of them justifued. When it comes to issues of feminism, Bukowski is probably not the academy's first choice, especially his late work where he talks about, " fucking women, eating their cunts etc." Ironically enough, the deeper you look, the more you will find important material for feminist scholarship, and you will also find striking similarities to today's way of life -- our stigmas, our homophobia, our obsession with capital, and most of all, our blind trust in Americanisms. Bukowski narrates as if he was the child he once was, that child we have all been. In one of his stories, Son of Satan, he talks about a boy, Simpson, that had spread rumors about "fucking a girl" under his house (Henry Chinski). A group of boys (all elven and twelve) take Simpson in what I hope was an allegory, and put him up for "trail," they find him guilty of lying, as apparently he did not "fuck the girl." At the end, they almost kill Simpson by hanging him from the back of Henry's porch. Henry's father finds out, after pleading with Simpson's parents about not reporting the sinister act, he beats him. Henry hides under the bed and ends with, " I could hear my father breathing, and I moved to exactly the center of the bed and waited for the next thing" (Septuagenarian Stew, 1990)

Let us unpack this. 

This state of nature, irrational display of masculinity, demand for sexual encounter verification, homophobic taunt, and allegorical crucification of manhood and pride is an explicit example of the building blocks of sexism, and even more important, Bukowski leaves us with a warning, that although ambiguous, is a self-reflection of what violence and the objectification of women can lead to -- societal failure. The two boys that assist Henry in the "hanging" of Simpson are symbolic; they represent the social demands of men to seek "truth" and to defend the pride of masculinity, that is to say, have an honest count of how many women they have fucked, how many times they have solidified their heterosexuality, and how many times have they celebrated their Rousseauian victory of having a women as a trophy of the "nature" olympics. Bukowski is a good read. Very good.  He is dark and certainly real. As a feminist, it is difficult to navigate the essentialist, male-universal language of certain authors, Bukowski being one of them, but we can find that they too have profound messages of self-reflection and substance. There are many other stories from this anthology that I want to share with you. Looking at some of this brilliant work through a "bent" lens is helping me, and it will help you, to challenge and see feminism in everything. 

Elton John & Rush Limbaugh

Sell out.

That is really the only way to describe Elton John's performance at Rush Limbaugh's fourth, yes, fourth wedding. The pill popping neo-nazi married a beautiful woman by the name of Kate Rogers, as a feminist I wish her luck, and I would advise her to keep the phone near by. This whole " gay and bigot get along theme" should be a thing of the past after Elton performed with Emimem at the 2001 MTV awards, I get it, you won't kill us. Thrilling. I am also very sure that Elton John isn't doing too badly money wise that he could not say no to Limbaugh's 1 million dollar payment. To have one of the icons of American Queer Culture ( I am not saying he is a good one) serenade this anti everything not white, straight, and conservative creature and his equally offensive guest list : Sean Hannity, Karl Rove, Fred Thompson and drum roll please -- Clarence Thomas is obscene and a total sell out. Shame Elton, shame.