Laughing Meme » race

“Alive in Joburg” is a glimpse into how brilliant “District 9″ could have been

Kellan — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:32:48 +0000

Textured, balanced, thought provoking, visually distinctive. D9 in contrast was shallow, focused on easy laughs, and gross out gags, and deeply problematic portrayals of apartheid and race. (via cal)

http://www.spyfilms.com/#neill_blomkamp/alive_in_joburg

Exordium Draconis: Elder Races, and Younger: a theoretical framework for D&D

Kellan — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:02:59 +0000

A good example of Aidan’s forensic ecology as literary analysis technique, a sub-genre of secret history literary analysis, of which my brother is the best practitioner I’ve met. (for this particular example helps if you played D&D once upon a time)

http://sedesdraconis.livejournal.com/160386.html

Lost

Kellan — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 01:42:00 +0000

On recommendations we grabbed the first few episodes of Lost. No one told me it was scifi (even if it is closeted scifi). Now we’re left with all these burning questions, and a contract not to peek ahead into the future to answer them.

But we’ve got one burning question for all you farther along, do they ever explain how a Desi scion of London came to be fighting in the Republican Guard?

Or is that just failing to properly suspend disbelief?

“While commies have enhanced suspension-of-disbelief capability…”

Kellan — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 00:59:00 +0000

Turn of phrase that made me smile. As opposed to us anarchist who always see with blinding clarity.

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/09/08/Callous-Inept-Racist

Corporate Media’s Race Bias

Kellan — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 03:46:35 +0000

White people find things. Black people loot things.

And from the archives The Invisible Whiteness of Beer Riots

Interactive map of racial segregation in Boston

Kellan — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 01:05:31 +0000

http://www.umich.edu/~lawrace/citymaps.htm/boston.htm

A Whitewashed Earthsea

Kellan — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 17:24:21 +0000

Le Guin on the mini-series, and race in SF

http://slate.msn.com/id/2111107/

Douglas Hofstadter – Person Paper on Purity in Language

Kellan — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 19:27:09 +0000

On the silly modern clamoring for race neutral pronouns.

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/purity.html

Qumar

Kellan — Tue, 11 May 2004 05:16:00 +0000

My copy of “West Wing: Season 3″ arrived, and I’ve just started watching it. (putting me at something like a 2-3 year lag behind when it was broadcast) One of the season’s recurring themes is “Qumar”. Qumar’s horrific laws regarding women, its corrupt aristocracy, and its terrorist training camps. Qumar is everything that upsets Americans about the Islamic world.

And it doesn’t exist.

Slipped into the discussion with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Helsinki and other ridiculous sounding yet real places Qumar is a rhetorical device designed to reinforce every negative stereotype Americans (and the West) have been trained to believe about Islam.

Of course the stereotype about Americans is we don’t know geography. Unfortunately this stereotype is true. I wonder how many people at home watching knew Qumar doesn’t exist, and in fact that no one, not the Taliban, not Saudi Arabia not Iraq quite measures up to this platonic ideal.

I think Sorkin knew he could get away with some emotional TV without having to present the same balanced, researched, and nuanced material they usually show because “its over there”, and we’re hicks. Its hateful, and its cynical.

update: wikipedia on Qumar