"Inexcusable" Pocahontas Division cartoon

This Funny Isn't Funny; It's Racist and Sexist

By Simon Moya-SmithHere’s what you see in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph editorial cartoon:

A Native American woman in tears, looking circa 18th century in buckskin and fringe, bound at the wrists, barefoot, while some white business-cretin in a suit jubilantly leads her against her will from a building reading “Norfolk Southern Pocahontas Division,” pulling at her like an animal on a leash to somewhere off the page.

As you’ve possibly already surmised, this editorial is not only racist–it’s sexist.

At a time when thousands of Native American women (who are 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than any other demographic) are going missing or found murdered and buried AND BURNED by evil motherfuckers who whimper and cry when caught, this type of assholery is inexcusable. Inexcusable. In-fucking-excusable!

Now, I did a little digging and found out the illustration, published on Facebook on January 17, was a result of Norfolk Southern, a railroad company, relocating its Pocahontas Division about a two-hour drive away–“a move that will impact management and staff positions in Bluefield,” Greg Jordan of the Telegraph reported.

Planned Parenthood shooter = radical Christian

There's been a lot of talk about "radical Islam" recently. Meanwhile, radical Christians are shooting up America like it's the Wild West.

Here's a portrait of a typical radical Christian:

Accused Planned Parenthood shooter charged with rape in North Charleston in 1992

By Glenn Smith and Melissa BoughtonyDear has a history of arrests in South Carolina out of Colleton and Beaufort counties, records show. A background search completed by The Post and Courier found that Dear was arrested in 2003 on a cruelty to animals charge but was found not guilty in 2004. He was charged under the state’s Peeping Tom law in 2002 but that charge, too, was later dismissed, according to a background search.

In 1997, Dear’s then-wife reported that her husband assaulted her, according to incident reports released Saturday by the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office. She declined at the time to file charges against Dear.

Beaufort County sheriff’s deputies charged Dear with operating an uninsured motor vehicle in 2004 and he was later convicted and ordered to pay a fine, State Law Enforcement Division records show.

Dear, described as a loner by neighbors in Colorado and North Carolina, has been married at least three times and has four children.

His second wife, Mescher, described Dear in divorce papers filed in 1993 as a controlling, abusive, womanizing man who liked to gamble but was tight with his cash when it came to supporting his family. She stated that he threw her around the room by her hair during one argument and beat her head on the floor. She also said in a sworn affidavit that Dear “erupts into fury in a matter of seconds,” and she “lived in fear and dread of his emotional and physical abuse.”

“He claims to be a Christian and is extremely evangelistic, but does not follow the Bible in his actions,” Mescher stated in the affidavit. “He says that as long as he believes he will be saved, he can do whatever he pleases. He is obsessed with the world coming to an end.”Comment:  Multiple wives, arrests, assaults, rage, abuse, cruelty to animals...and he's a Christian. He terrorizes women, children, and animals and kills them if he gets angry enough. If he was a millionaire, he could run as a Republican for president and get 25% or 50% of the vote.

For more on Christian terrorism, see Conservative Christians Aren't Good Samaritans and Let's Deport White Men.

Beaverton satirizes MMIW crisis

I tweeted a few times about model/actress Ashley Callingbull winning the Mrs. Universe title. I guess it's a milestone for a Native to win a "major" beauty pageant, although Mrs. Universe isn't one of the "big four." But long-time readers know what I think of beauty pageants, which is not much.

However, the Beaverton's satirical article on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women (#MMIW) is worth mentioning:

The Beaverton pulls controversial article on Ashley Callingbull

Indigenous community outraged on Twitter about satire on missing, murdered women

By Kim WheelerA satirical news website that used a Cree woman's victory at an international beauty contest to draw attention to national coverage of missing and murdered indigenous women has withdrawn the article and apologized to its readers.

On Sunday, Ashley Callingbull, whose married name is Burnham, from Enoch Cree Nation in Alberta was named Mrs. Universe, the first First Nation woman to win the title.

The Beaverton's article, headlined "Mrs. First Cree Woman To Gain National Coverage If She Disappears," said make-believe judges "cited her good looks, upbeat attitude, and glitzy uncontroversial profession in awarding her the top prize of one day's coverage on most major Canadian news outlets should she suddenly vanish without a trace.

"Burnham is showing all those aboriginal girls out there that as long as you look like a supermodel and get on TV, you too can get the same news coverage as a white girl should you ever be abducted," the article continued.

In its apology, The Beaverton said it wrote the satirical story to "call out the Media for their failure to properly cover missing and murdered Aboriginal women …"

However, many indigenous people didn't find it funny and took to Twitter to voice their outrage:

"The fact that a publication would take the time to publish these words shows that they have no morals, no empathy," said Althea Guibouche, who is part of a team walking across Western Canada for all missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, who organizes an annual gathering in Winnipeg to remember disappeared women, says she wasn't as angry.

"I think in a twisted way it speaks the truth," she said.Comment:  I think people responded to this satire like they would to any satire on a life-and-death issue. For example, rape, murder, or suicide. Some focus on the point--that the media focuses only on celebrities--which is valid. And some focus on the language, which mocks or belittles the threat of violence against women.

For more on violence against women, see Storefront Window Shows Bound Mi'kmaq Women.

Storefront window shows bound Mi'kmaq women

"We didn't think at the time the images would be painful and upsetting."

Images of bound and gagged Indigenous women make up part of Bathurst, New Brunswick, festival

By Miles Howe[I]t was with some consternation that two paintings, both centrally situated in town and both prepared by local artists working with the Bathurst Art Society for the Hospitality Days festival, depicted Indigenous peoples in a manner that many folks have since taken offence to.

The first image depicts two Indigenous women in full length buckskin dresses, with their hands bound behind their backs and their ankles tied. It seems as though they are captives on a boat. Their mouths are gagged with something resembling duct tape. They facial expressions appear to be resigned to whatever fate awaits them. One has simply closed her eyes.

The second image shows a priestly-looking individual standing in front of three Indigenous people. In front of the crowd are two treasure chests filled with nondescript items. To the casual observer, it might pass for a sermonizing scene, for all intents and purposes rather paternalistic to boot.

No explanation–rational or otherwise–accompanied the two images in the storefront window in which they appeared.

For the duration of the festival, the images appeared in the Main street-facing window of the former Sportsmen Pub building, which, perhaps to make matters worse, is the site of the unsolved murders of Diane Aubie and Gary DeGrace.The explanation:Initially, the 'Heritage Days' committee's response to the mounting criticism over the depictions in the paintings was to publicly provide a link to the legend of the 'Phantom Ship'. The legend outlines the story of how “sea marauders” would commonly pillage Indigenous villages on the New Brunswick coastline, ransacking them, stealing furs as well as kidnapping women to later “have their way” with them. The two bound and gagged Indigenous women in the painting, apparently, were two such victims, expecting to be raped and murdered–except that in the case of the 'Phantom Ship' they met up with a crew member of conscience who demanded that they be set free.And the "apology":“We got together and we decided to do the story of the Phantom Ship. On Friday, we learned that our paintings did offend some people, so we did revise it,” says Gates. “We took the two Native people out. And we're really sorry that there was any offence taken...It wasn't our intention to create a misunderstanding or even to negate the Indigenous people. We just didn't think at the time that the images would be painful and upsetting and of course we do respect their culture and stories very much.”A few comments from Facebook:This is terrible. Really, terrible. I can't even comprehend what they were thinking. I just, I can't.

We are not animals.

Even the "apology" has my head spinning. How could someone put these images in a very public place and not expect harm? Not expect rage? Effing incredible."We just didn't think" pretty much sums it up. No need for anything more.

Black professor criticizes white men

Another racial controversy broke out this week. This time it was a black professor tweeting mean things about white people.

Here's the first thing I read about the controversy--a right-winger's take on it:

Boston University Professor Tweets ‘Your White Ancestors Were Land Thieves, And Slave Owners–Nothing More’

By Lauren RichardsonBoston University Professor Saida Grundy, a feminist sociologist of race and ethnicity listed as an incoming assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at B.U., has come under fire for her Tweets that essentially argued that white people were the worst people, and biggest slave owners in history.

I could not have said this any better than Turtleboy:So let me get this straight. Saida Grundy is going to be teaching a whole bunch of white boys at BU in the near future. And she’s going into her job while publicly stating that “white college males” are a “problem population.” Not just SOME white college males, like the Oklahoma frat boys from the racist video. ALL white college males. They are all a “problem population.” I’m sure white dudes will definitely get a fair shake in her class next year. Definitely.
Note that Grundy didn't say all white college males. At most she said white college males in general, which is different.

In fact, the term "problem population" strongly implies it's a generalization about a group. Some people in this population are a problem.

So conservative critics are wrong from the get-go. As they usually are.

Critics defend poor white folks

Some people couldn't let the persecution of the underprivileged white majority go unchallenged:

Fox Host: ‘Last Acceptable Form Of Discrimination’ Is of White Men

By Ahiza GarciaFaulkner said the university was standing by Grundy, saying she was exercising her right to free speech. Faulkner then posed a question to Tantaros.

“If this were in the reverse and she were an incoming white professor saying this about black men, she would be eviscerated. No?” asked Faulkner, who is black.

“So this is the debate,” Tantaros said. “This is, I think, an applicable debate to ‘Is this free speech or is this hate speech?’”

“The last acceptable form of discrimination in this country now is two groups—one, Christians and, two, white men,” Tantaros said. “And that’s why she can get away with this. Why? Where are the organization in defense of white men? Where are the marches? Where are the editorials penned?”Even some liberal writers joined in:

“Deal with your sh*t, white people”: Professor ignites a right-wing firestorm over “white college males as a problem”

Two recent university controversies have sparked discussion on just who can be racist and sexist

By Mary Elizabeth WilliamsOver the weekend, BU spokesman Colin Riley issued a statement that “While we recognize that Dr. Grundy has the right to hold and express personal opinions, BU does not condone racism or bigotry in any form, and we are offended by such statements.” The university has not said whether Grundy faces any disciplinary action. And she has also found plenty of supporters, like student Noor Toraif, who told the Boston Herald, “You need to have institutional and systemic power in order to be racist. People of color like Professor Grundy don’t have that. … I’m 100 percent supportive of her and excited for her to come to campus.” That idea—that you can’t be racist if you’re a certain race—was echoed at Goldsmiths University this week when diversity officer Bahar Mustafa hosted “a BME Woman and non-binary event only” and then responded to criticism of the limited guest list by explaining, “I, an ethnic minority woman, cannot be racist or sexist towards white men, because racism and sexism describe structures of privilege based on race and gender. Therefore, women of color and minority genders cannot be racist or sexist, since we do not stand to benefit from such a system.” Wow, really? They can’t? Ever? How conveniently self-exonerating!

You want to acknowledge that the way you look at the dynamics of race or religion or gender or orientation are profoundly influenced by whether or not you are a member of the group that traditionally wields the most power? I am entirely with you. You want to create safe spaces for typically marginalized groups? Got my support. You want to say that we live in a culture that overwhelmingly favors white people, males and heterosexuals? No argument there. But you want to say they’re the only groups that can be biased? Uh, no. You don’t have to go all hand-wringing about “reverse racism” or the supposed plague of misandry to still be really concerned about a university educator going on record as expressing serious and sweeping hostility toward any population, and passing off personal judgments as facts. And call me a crazy dreamer, but I believe there’s opportunity in this world for ANYBODY to be prejudiced. Anybody can be close-minded. Anybody can be wrong.Rage at the machine

Others defended Grundy by noting the obvious: that she was tweeting provocatively to, well, provoke people. Not to deliver a nuanced lecture in 140 characters, but to vent at America's ongoing racism and sexism.

What Happens to Black Women Who Boldly Speak Truth About Racial Inequality

The controversies surrounding Michelle Obama’s commencement speech at Tuskegee and incoming Boston University professor Saida Grundy’s tweets remind us of the ways in which intellectually provocative black women are forced to navigate the public sphere.

By Peniel E. JosephMichelle Obama’s painful discussion of America’s racial inequality and deep misogyny exists, for many, on the same spectrum as Grundy’s blunt remarks about race, power and privilege. Where the first lady used her commencement speech at one of the nation’s premier HBCUs to deliver a seminar on institutional racism and our nation’s anti-black culture, Grundy’s social media commentary dispensed with complexity to deliver screams, sometimes angry, other times humorous, that reflect equally important truths about contemporary race relations, black women’s activism and the limits of freedom of expression in the 21st century.

The piercing anger behind Grundy’s tweets is rooted in recent events in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., a mixture of protests, demonstrations and violence that have, as she reminds us, made race an unavoidable topic. On social media, Grundy removed the academic hat for the identity that black women, including Michelle Obama, are always accused of donning—that of an angry black woman.

Neither Michelle Obama’s eloquence nor Saida Grundy’s passion can ultimately insulate them from the onslaught of criticism that, at its core, is based more on antipathy toward the messenger than on the meaning of her words. Allegations of reverse racism, hatred for America and a lack of patriotism are routinely wielded against America’s first lady, so it should come as no surprise that conservatives have now targeted Grundy for punishment.

The irony here is that some in America remain violently frightened of intelligent black women who achieve greatly, act boldly and move forward courageously in a world that continues, no matter how great their achievements, to find them unworthy of being allowed to succeed or fail on their own terms.Comment:  For more on white privilege, see Whites Can't Handle Racial Stress and "It Feels Good" to Be White.

Natives to Hollywood: Stop stereotyping

People are still criticizing Adam Sandler for his racist Ridiculous 6 movie:

Adam Sandler, You Don’t Represent Me

By Amalia RubinOne would hope that you, Mr. Sandler, would realize how important it is as a Jew, especially as a Jew in public, to recognize that the struggles and horrors our people have suffered should inspire solidarity with others who faced and continue to face the same. From the unspeakable nightmares of genocide to the daily attacks of racism, what we have suffered has been suffered by innumerable others.

That is why your disgusting treatment of Native Americans in your upcoming Netflix film release The Ridiculous Six is so abhorrent. Like your fellow Jews, the indigenous people of America have suffered a massive genocide. Like your fellow Jews, they were demonized by the media and press. Even American children’s cartoons only a few years ago, like the ones published by Nazi Germany about Jews, showed Native Americans as barbarians who deserved to be killed. Like the Jewish boys kidnapped into the Czar’s armies, Native American children were forced away from their families into boarding schools where they were forcibly stripped of their cultures, faiths, and languages. And much the same as my father was beaten up as a kid for being a k***, native kids are attacked by fans at sports games, wearing fake head dresses, hooping and hollering “war chants,” dumping drinks on them, and calling them r*******. Like our Jewish grandmothers who were raped in the pogroms and shtetls of Europe with no legal recourse, Native American women are two and a half times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than your average American woman.

So for you to make a film where you hire native actors then mock them by promoting racist depictions: showing them as dirty and uncivilized, demeaning the women by giving them names like “no-bra” and “beaver breath,” mocking and profaning their ceremonies and cultures, is unforgivable. For you to still defend a project so offensive that a dozen Native American actors and cultural consultants walked off the set is a sign of either willful ignorance or overt racism. When we have fought to be depicted as something other than the hooked nose ganef and the miserly, conniving Shylock, you make a movie showing stereotyping Native Americans as “savages.” You, as an actor and a Jew, of all people, should understand. I stand with each and every actor that walked off the set that day. And as a Jew, Mr. Sandler, you should have too.Racism hurts

They're pointing why the movie is harmful:

The Reason Adam Sandler’s Racist Depiction of Native American Women Matters

By Jacqueline KeelerThe promotion of these outdated stereotypes is particularly harmful considering a 2010 Department of Justice report that found Native American women have two and a half times the rate of rape and murder of any ethnic group of women in the country. And the report found that in nearly 70 percent of the assaults on Native women the assailants were white men. This is unusual as most women in the United States are assaulted by men of their own race/ethnicity. If it were not for the additional assaults by white men, Native women’s rates of murder and rape would be closer to average of other American women.

On many Native American reservations, gaps in jurisdiction mean no one is prosecuted for these assaults. A recent revision in the Violence Against Women’s Act (2013) expanded tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians for Domestic Violence offenses but the law is still only being implemented.

For many Native American women the question is not if, but when women in their family will be raped. Lisa Brunner, an advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in her community, the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, told The Guardian, “I call it hunting—non-natives come here hunting. They know they can come onto our lands and rape us with impunity because they know that we can’t touch them.” Tragically, her teenaged daughter was also gang raped by four men from off the reservation before the new VAWA law was passed.

On her Facebook page, a former Miss Navajo Nation (and the first African-American/Navajo winner) wrote, “We have to control how we are satirized and make fun of ourselves. We need to stop allowing Hollywood to perpetuate unoriginal, antiquated, racist stereotypes that have long been used by media in general, or since the settlers first made contact with us … As for Netflix defending Adam Sandler and his movie, this shows that they themselves care little about being original or creative when it concerns Indigenous people.”

Native American Actors Work to Overcome a Long-Documented Bias

By Cara BuckleyThe walkout prompted a rhetorical “What do you expect from an Adam Sandler film?,” and a Netflix spokesman said that in the movie, blacks, Mexicans and whites were lampooned as well. But Native American actors and critics said a broader issue was at stake. While mainstream portrayals of native peoples have, Mr. Wente said, become “incrementally better” over the decades, he and others say, they remain far from accurate and reflect a lack of opportunities for Native American performers. What’s more, as Native Americans hunger for representation on screen, critics say the absence of three-dimensional portrayals has very real off-screen consequences.

“Our people are still healing from historical trauma,” said Loren Anthony, one of the actors who walked out. “Our youth are still trying to figure out who they are, where they fit in this society. Kids are killing themselves. They’re not proud of who they are.” They also don’t, he added, see themselves on prime time television or the big screen. Netflix noted while about five people walked off the “The Ridiculous Six” set, 100 or so Native American actors and extras stayed.

But in interviews, nearly a dozen Native American actors and film industry experts said that Mr. Sandler’s humor perpetuated decades-old negative stereotypes. Mr. Anthony said such depictions helped feed the despondency many Native Americans feel, with deadly results: Native Americans have the highest suicide rate out of all the country’s ethnicities.

The on-screen problem is twofold, Mr. Anthony and others said: There’s a paucity of roles for Native Americans—according to the Screen Actors Guild in 2008 they accounted for 0.3 percent of all on-screen parts (those figures have yet to be updated), compared to about 2 percent of the general population—and Native American actors are often perceived in a narrow way.Stop the stereotyping

And they're demanding that Hollywood change:

How do we stop misrepresenting First Nations culture? Just ask

Television shows and movies are the biggest culprits

By Don MarksPerhaps these people believe in the old adage, "There's no such thing as bad publicity"—if the controversy draws attention to your product or event, you get free "advertising."

Then there could be those who are simply arrogant enough to think they are above the fray; they believe they can brush off the critics by saying they are "too sensitive."

And then there are those who are naive enough to think they can convince First Nations they meant no harm and/or the image is actually good for them.

So what can we do to prevent this calamity from creeping up time and again? Ask First Nations people what they think about the appropriateness of the action you are planning beforehand.

And take the time to listen to and understand the concerns First Nations are raising. Perhaps there is a way to compromise and work together for the common good.

A turning point for Native Americans in Tinseltown?

By Esther CepedaSo far, Rolling Stone reports, a producer promised the cast that a disclaimer at the end of the movie would reiterate that Sandler's movie is not an accurate portrayal of Native American culture.

Understatement of the year.

The truth is that the 500-nation Native American culture is richly diverse--with different regional customs and beliefs--and will never be accurately portrayed in the media until Native Americans are integral parts of the production and creative teams that tell stories about individuals, not a monolithic Indian people.

There will probably always be ridiculous portrayals of Native American culture in entertainment, but for some, this felt like a precedent.

Maybe this headline-grabbing Native American uprising will end up making filmmakers think twice next time--even for a fleeting moment. Or maybe inspire more Native American actors to bypass Hollywood and start creating and promoting their own authentic content.

This would be, at least, a start.Listen Up Hollywood: It’s Time To Let Native Americans Tell ‘Our Own Stories In Our Own Words’

"I would love as a Native actress to be able to go out and audition for the lead in a superhero film."

Comment:  For more on Adam Sandler, see Ricky Lee Defends Ridiculous 6 and Adam Sandler's History of Racism.

Rodger's half-white male entitlement

Many pundits have called the Santa Barbara shootings an act of white male entitlement and hyper-masculine rage against women. It's a bit more complex than that.

Clearly he was driving by racial as well as sexual animus. Some postings explain how:

Santa Barbara shooter had history of posting racist, misogynist comments on hate site

By Tom BoggioniAccording to the SPLC, Rodger posted comments in January, beginning with “Saw a black guy sitting with 4 white girls,” causing him to admit his frustration over white women socializing with minority men:Today I drove through the area near my college and saw some things that were extremely rage-inducing.

I passed by this restaurant and I saw this black guy chilling with 4 hot white girls. He didn’t even look good.

Then later on in the day I was shopping at Trader Joe’s and saw an Indian guy with 2 above average White Girls!!!

What rage-inducing sights did you guys see today? Don’t you just hate seeing these things when you go out? It just makes you want to quit life.After being called out on the website for the racism in his comments, Rodger responded, “Here we are suffering on PuaHate when these lesser, undeserving men that I saw today are walking around with hot girls. It doesn’t make sense.”

Rodger also wrote that Asian men could never date white women, leading a commenter of Asian descent to post a picture of himself with a white woman.

Rodger dismissed the photos as fake, writing: “Full Asian men are disgustingly ugly and white girls would never go for you. You’re just butthurt that you were born as an asian piece of shit, so you lash out by linking these fake pictures. You even admit that you wish you were half white. You’ll never be half-white and you’ll never fulfill your dream of marrying a white woman. I suggest you jump off a bridge.”Elliot Rodger’s half-white male privilege

The killer’s Asian heritage matters. So does his ugly class entitlement. Misogyny crosses lines of race and culture

By Joan WalshWhy is it so hard to recognize Rodger as of mixed racial descent? It certainly doesn’t negate the role white entitlement and privilege played in his “syndrome.” Rodger is at least partly a victim of the ideology of white supremacy, as well as its violent enforcer. He struggled with his status as half-Asian, writing “I always felt as if white girls thought less of me because I was half-Asian.”

Elsewhere he explains:

On top of this was the feeling that I was different because I am of mixed race. I am half White, half Asian, and this made me different from the normal fully-white kids that I was trying to fit in with. I envied the cool kids, and I wanted to be one of them.

He dyed his hair blond, trying to fit in, but the dye job left him with blond tips and black roots, a sad metaphor for a racial mixture he couldn’t accept.

Merely labeling Rodger white, and his problem one of “white privilege,” also obscures the role of class in heightening his toxic sense of entitlement. He wondered: Why would “an inferior, ugly black boy be able to get a white girl and not me? I am descended from British aristocracy.” He believed his aristocratic background, his gorgeous home, his Armani shirts, Hugo Boss shoes, and shiny BMW—not just his race—entitled him to blond women. He even had a narcissistic mantra he said to himself to boost his confidence: “I am the image of beauty and supremacy.”

Of course he saw a racial hierarchy where he, being half-white, is near the very top of the pyramid, below white men but, as half Asian, still above every other race and racial mix. He degrades “full Asian” men as “disgusting” and mocks them for not being half-white like him. Then he’s aghast when he sees “this Asian guy who was talking to a white girl. The sight of that filled me with rage … How could an ugly Asian attract the attention of a white girl, while a beautiful Eurasian like myself never had any attention from them?” Every attempt to “explain” his isolation and loneliness unravels. There is only one explanation: the evil of beautiful, blond white girls.Comment:  I'd say white male entitlement is a cause, or at least a factor, in any shooting spree. If the shooter is white, he's acting out his entitlement. If he's a minority, he's angry because he thinks he's not getting what whites get. He's lashing out at others for their entitlement.

For more on the subject, see The Rage of Misogynist Nerds and Santa Barbara Shootings Show America's Pathology.

The rage of misogynist nerds

Some discussion of the angry subculture of men's rights advocates (MRA) and failed pickup artists (PUA) to which Elliot Rodger belonged:

The Angry Underground World of Failed Pickup Artists[A]t its core, PuaHate members don't hate the game, "just the BS and hype and fluff that goes with it." As one poster explains, "I would just like to get to the point where I can bang a girl whenever I want ie 5 times a week." Is that so much to ask for?Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Misogyny, Entitlement, and NerdsBut the overall problem is one of a culture where instead of seeing women as, you know, people, protagonists of their own stories just like we are of ours, men are taught that women are things to “earn,” to “win.” That if we try hard enough and persist long enough, we’ll get the girl in the end. Like life is a video game and women, like money and status, are just part of the reward we get for doing well.

So what happens to nerdy guys who keep finding out that the princess they were promised is always in another castle? When they “do everything right,” they get good grades, they get a decent job, and that wife they were promised in the package deal doesn’t arrive? When the persistent passive-aggressive Nice Guy act fails, do they step it up to elaborate Steve-Urkel-esque stalking and stunts? Do they try elaborate Revenge of the Nerds-style ruses? Do they tap into their inner John Galt and try blatant, violent rape?

Do they buy into the “pickup artist” snake oil—started by nerdy guys, for nerdy guys—filled with techniques to manipulate, pressure and in some cases outright assault women to get what they want? Or when that doesn’t work, and they spend hours a day on sites bitching about how it doesn’t work, like Elliot Rodger’s hangout “PUAHate.com,” sometimes, do they buy some handguns, leave a manifesto on the Internet and then drive off to a sorority house to murder as many women as they can?

No, I’m not saying most frustrated nerdy guys are rapists or potential rapists. I’m certainly not saying they’re all potential mass murderers. I’m not saying that most lonely men who put women up on pedestals will turn on them with hostility and rage once they get frustrated enough.

But I have known nerdy male stalkers, and, yes, nerdy male rapists. I’ve known situations where I knew something was going on but didn’t say anything—because I didn’t want to stick my neck out, because some vile part of me thought that this kind of thing was “normal,” because, in other words, I was a coward and I had the privilege of ignoring the problem.

I’ve heard and seen the stories that those of you who followed the #YesAllWomen hashtag on Twitter have seen—women getting groped at cons, women getting vicious insults flung at them online, women getting stalked by creeps in college and told they should be “flattered.” I’ve heard Elliot Rodger’s voice before. I was expecting his manifesto to be incomprehensible madness—hoping for it to be—but it wasn’t. It’s a standard frustrated angry geeky guy manifesto, except for the part about mass murder.What (Else) Can Men Do? Grow The Fuck Up.

Boys who like computers are taught that we DESERVE sexual attention from women. We need to get over it.

Santa Barbara shootings show America's pathology

What the Santa Barbara shootings tell us about "white guy killer syndrome" aka "aggrieved white male entitlement syndrome":

The Santa Barbara Mass Shooting, Elliot Rodger, and Aggrieved White Male Entitlement Syndrome

When an entire social structure has been erected to reinforce the lie that white folks are "normal" and "Others" are "deviant," it can be very difficult to break out of denial.

By Chauncey DeVegaAs I often ask, "What shall we do with the white people?"

When an "Arab" or "Muslim" American kills people in mass they are a "terrorist." When a black person shoots someone they are "thugs." When a white man commits a mass shooting he is "mentally ill" or "sick."

Whiteness and white privilege are the luxury to be an individual, one whose behavior reflects nothing about white people as a group.

There will not be a national discussion of a culture of "white pathology" or how white Americans may have a "cultural problem" with their young men and gun violence. The news media will not devote extensive time to the "social problem" of white male violence and mass shootings.

Elliot Rodger, a rich, white, entitled young man, allegedly killed six innocent men and women and wounded 13 others yesterday. Like Adam Lanza, this would appear to be a case of aggrieved white male entitlement syndrome, one which has led to a murderous and tragic outcome.

I have written about what I term "aggrieved white male entitlement syndrome" on several occasions.

In a complementary manner, William Hamby offers up a sharp synthesis of how rage and white male privilege come together to create monsters:Rachel Kalish and Michael Kimmel (2010) proposed a mechanism that might well explain why white males are routinely going crazy and killing people. It's called "aggrieved entitlement." According to the authors, it is "a gendered emotion, a fusion of that humiliating loss of manhood and the moral obligation and entitlement to get it back. And its gender is masculine." This feeling was clearly articulated by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the Columbine Massacre. Harris said, "People constantly make fun of my face, my hair, my shirts..." A group of girls asked him, "Why are you doing this?" He replied, "We've always wanted to do this. This is payback... This is for all the sh*t you put us through. This is what you deserve."

At the risk of getting too existentialist, I'd like to propose a very simple and elegant explanation for not only school shootings but a host of other barbaric acts in recent years: White men are having a crisis of both aggrievement and entitlement. One need only look at the 2012 election season to see less brutal but equally mind-numbing examples of white men going mad because they are losing their power. The "Republican Meltdown" is a perfect example of men who previously had all the control escalating to madness when that control was lost...The thing is, losing power hurts. That's the "aggrieve" part of aggrieved entitlement. It's one thing for a bunch of white men to feel hurt because they are no longer the kings of their own private castles, rulers of all they survey. It's another thing for them to feel like they're entitled to power, and more importantly, entitled to punish others for taking it away. And that--aggrievement plus the feeling of entitlement--is what may well drive people like Adam Lanza to these horrific crimes.Elliot Rodger’s fatal menace: How toxic male entitlement devalues women’s and men’s lives

In moments after unspeakable tragedy we must not rush to conclusions. But here's one thing we already know too well

By Katie McDonoughThere is an angry part of me—a frightened part of me—that wants to tear Rodger’s video manifesto apart in the pettiest terms imaginable. Point to how cliched it all is—the tired self-importance, the god comparisons, his lazy use of “sluts” and “brutes” to describe the women and men he would allegedly target and murder only hours later. I have seen these videos before. Women have heard these threats before, and been forced to consider how seriously they should take an anonymous man who says he knows where they live and tells them, “I am the one who is going to kill you.” If Rodger had posted his angry monologue to YouTube or fired it off in an email and then gone about his day—seething privately and without violence about his wounded sense of entitlement and the sting of having his resentful and warped desires unfulfilled—the country wouldn’t be talking about him. Because until the moment that he is alleged to have killed six women and men, Elliot Rodger was every bit the same as the other men who are defined by their resentment toward women and their sense of bitter victimization in the world. Men who threaten women in person and online in an attempt to control their lives. Men who feel that girls and women owe them adoration, sexual gratification, subservience. Men whose sense of rage and entitlement has rotted their brains and ruined them.

And this anger—this toxic male entitlement—isn’t contained to random comment boards or the YouTube videos of disturbed young men. It’s on full view elsewhere in our culture. Earlier this week, a writer for the New York Post quoted a member of a men’s rights group as the sole source in a report on Jill Abramson’s ouster at the New York Times. Mel Feit of the National Center for Men told columnist Richard Johnson that Abramson was systematically firing men and replacing them with women. He said that our society gives women preferential treatment. On his website, Feit bemoans a culture in which men are subject to the powerful whims of vindictive women who exist on “sexual pedestals.” He argues that men can’t be blamed for rape after a certain point of arousal. These views about women and violence are replicated in our criminal justice system. They filter into our media. This is what makes Rodger’s misogynistic vitriol so terrifying—the fact that in many ways it’s utterly banal.

The news out of Isla Vista is still painfully fresh, and in the coming days we will continue to struggle to understand this pattern of violence. And while we do that—the work of considering what laws, support systems and cultural shifts must be put in place to prevent these tragedies from destroying more lives, families and communities—I can’t help but be reminded of all of the women who have been victimized by a culture and a system that denies their humanity.

I’m reminded of Marissa Alexander, whom the state of Florida is trying to imprison for 60 years because she fired a warning shot to ward off a man who had a history of violently abusing her and had told her that he was going to kill her. I’m reminded of CeCe McDonald, a trans woman of color who was incarcerated for defending herself during a brutal assault. “Her gift for survival was a prison sentence,” trans actress and activist Laverne Cox recently observed. I’m reminded of the 276 Nigerian schoolgirls who were abducted more than a month ago and remain missing because they had the audacity to go to school.

I think of the millions of other women and girls whose names the public does not know, but who have been forced all the same—by institutional forces larger than themselves, by systemic and enduring misogyny and racism, by the sheer bad luck of being at a given place at a given moment—to become statistics or symbols of our culture’s profound disregard for the humanity of women and girls. I am reminded of all of them and I don’t know where to put the pain and anger that comes with that. There is no possible vessel large enough to hold it all.What Elliot Rodger Said About Women Reveals Why We Need to Stamp Out Misogyny

By Elizabeth PlankWhat happened in Santa Barbara is nothing less than a hate crime, and yet mainstream news outlets are distilling the issue to "mental illness" and "premeditated mass murder." Although we should be shocked by Elliot Rodger's actions, we should not be surprised. In fact, most school shootings share chillingly similar characteristics. It's time we stop treating these incidents as anomalies and start recognizing the deep societal issues at play.

1. Men commit most school shootings

All but one of the mass murders in the U.S. over the last 30 years has been committed by men. The fact that gender is often omitted from the story speaks to how we still see the masculine as the irreproachable and invisible standard. As Michael Kimmel notes in his extensive research on school shootings, if the genders were reversed and most school shootings were committed by women, you'd bet gender would be part of the analysis.

We often instead shift the conversation to "mental illness" and describe shooters as madmen, while the characteristics they exhibit are often an extension of toxic masculinity ideals that are institutionally reinforced.

Details are still emerging, but according to the Daily Kos, Elliot Rodger subscribed to many Men's Rights Activists' (MRA) websites and may have adopted their radical ideology about women. The comments that motivated his killing spree were not far from many of the ones that are openly made by men in those communities. Even in the aftermath of the tragedy in Santa Barbara, a pick-up artist group (many of which often classify as MRAs) left a horrendous comment publicizing their services, as if their view of entitlement to women were valid in the first place.And:5. Most gunmen exhibit a large sense of entitlement

Like many other school shooters, Elliot Rodger displayed a colossal sense of entitlement in his unsettling manifesto. He describes his inability to attract women as something he needed to "punish" them for. He describes the fact that women are not interested in him as an "injustice" and a "crime" because he is the "perfect guy." In an attempt to prove that he is the "alpha male," he decides to slaughter them. He believes he is entitled to women's bodies and, when denied access, he retaliates. "It's not fair. You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know why you girls have never been attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it," he says.

This kind of attitude toward females can be seen in bullying patterns too. Although we tend to believe that girls bully girls and boys bully boys, cross-gender bullying is much more frequent than we think. When it occurs, it is often "unpopular boys" who are not deemed to be the Alpha Male by their peers who bully "popular girls." These boys seem to use bullying to prove their manhood.

We live in a society where being white and male affords one with countless privileges and, for some, a toxic sense of entitlement. As Michael Kimmel explains, "righteous retaliation is a deeply held, almost sacred, tenant of masculinity: if you are aggrieved, you are entitled to retribution. American men don't just get mad, we get even."White guy killer syndrome: Elliot Rodger’s deadly, privileged rage

Can I go ahead and scream yet? It's time for America to admit what it's long resisted: White male privilege kills

By Brittney CooperFrom my standpoint as an armchair therapist—having read transcripts of Rodger’s videos—his anger is about his failure to be able to access all the markers of white male heterosexual middle-class privilege. He goes on and on about his status as a virgin, his inability to find a date since middle school, his anger and resentment about being rejected by blond, sorority women. In fact, he claims he will “slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up, blond slut I see.” As Jessica Valenti so thoroughly demonstrates: “misogyny kills.” I am struck by the extent to which Rodger believed he was entitled to have what he deemed the prettiest girls, he was entitled to women’s bodies, and when society denied him these “entitlements” he thought it should become the public’s problem. He thought that his happiness was worth the slaughter of multiple people.

This sense of heterosexual white male entitlement to a world that grants all one’s wishes, and this destructive murderous anger that attends the ostensible denial of these wishes, is at the emotional core of white supremacy. Elliot Rodger was a late bloomer, which while socially inconvenient and embarrassing, is neither uncommon nor a problem. But because we don’t have a fundamentally honest societal conversation happening about white male privilege, rooted as it is in sexism and racism, we can’t even observe one of the most basic truths here: What Rodger perceived as a denial was at the very worst a delay. Our society is fundamentally premised on making sure that straight, middle-class (upper class in Rodger’s case) white men have access to power, money and women.

And while we have no problem from President Obama, down to Paul Ryan, down to the preacher in the pulpit talking about pathological black masculinity, we seem wholly uninterested in talking about pathological white masculinity, which continues to assert itself in the most dangerous and deadly of ways.

In this regard, the rage at the core of Rodger’s horrific acts is not unlike the kind of middle-class, heterosexual, white male rage that drives much of social policy in this country. In the era of Barack Obama, we have endured a mass temper tantrum from white men that includes a mind-boggling war on women, with an unprecedented rollback of the gains of the women’s rights movement, and an attempt to decimate whole communities of color, which are disproportionately poor, through school privatization, mass incarceration (which began long before the Obama era) and the gutting of the social safety net.

I’m not calling these guys mass murderers. Of that I want to be clear. But I am saying that we cannot understand Elliot Rodger’s clear mental health issues and view of himself as the supremely forsaken victim here outside a context of racism, white supremacy and patriarchy. I’m also saying that white male privilege might be considered a mental health issue, because it allows these dudes to move through the world believing that their happiness, pleasure and well-being matters more than the death and suffering of others.Masculine insecurity and entitlement are a big, tangled-up mess

By Amanda MarcotteThis horrible UCSB shooting has, I think, been something of a wake-up call to the country. Elliot Rodger was clearly out of his head in some ways, but his copious amount of writing and video-blogging made it nigh-impossible—excepting the usual denialist suspects, of course—to ignore the bizarre but strong link between entitlement and insecurity. I think most of us, even those of us inclined to deny the realities of racism and sexism, understand quite well that being targeted routinely with messages that your gender or race makes you inferior can negatively impact self-esteem. (Indeed, that concern was a critical turning point in the decision Brown v the Board of Education.) Less well-understood is the negative impact that being told you’re entitled to certain privileges because of your race or gender can also breed insecurity. It’s an insecurity that manifests differently, but it is nonetheless an insecurity.

Obviously, this isn’t true across the board. We’ve all had plenty of experiences with white dudes of the Donald Trump sort, who are so puffed up artificially that they have no idea what blithering idiots they actually are. We’ve all met men who actually believe that the obligatory tittering at their lame jokes that women provide means they are actually funny. It’s sad, but kind of comical.

But being constantly told that, by virtue of being a white dude, you are supposed to be smarter, more sexually powerful, funnier, etc. than everyone else can have a totally different effect, and I think the Rodger situation makes that really clear. A lot of white guys look around and realize that they really aren’t all that smart/sexually masterful/whatever, and they are hit with a profound insecurity. They aren’t what white guys are “supposed” to be!

Of course, where this kind of insecurity is very different than more run-of-the-mill insecurity, where the insecure person just wallows in shame, many men suffering from anxious masculinity react by indulging grotesque power fantasies, hoping by acting like giant assholes—or, worse, actually committing violence—they can become the big men they are secretly afraid they are not. Rodger was direct about this: Murder would make him an “alpha”, with is MRA/PUA terminology for the fantasy of the powerful man. But this sort of thinking crops up in lesser forms all the time.Comment:  Euro-American history = toxic culture of white male entitlement = genocide of Indians and enslavement of Africans = Elliot Rodger shootings.

For more on the subject, see Newtown Shootings Show America's Pathology and Aurora Shooting Shows America's Pathology.

Native women honored on Valentine's Day

What's the flip side of marginalizing and trivializing Natives and women, as so much of our culture does? This:

Missing, murdered aboriginal women honoured in marches

Gladys Radek of Orillia among loved ones marking Valentine's with calls for justice for aboriginal women

By Angela SterritThe shock of losing her niece jolted Gladys Radek into action. She had been attending annual memorial marches for murdered and missing aboriginal women since 1994, to support friends and relatives who have lost loved ones. But in 2005, the fight for justice became personal.

"Here I am eight years later and there is still no sign of Tamara and there is still no sign of a lot of the other girls ... some have gone missing for decades. They are treated as they are disposable."

On Friday, Radek, of the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en First Nations, is hosting the first annual Memorial March for Murdered and Missing Aboriginal Women in Orillia, one of 20 confirmed cities participating in this year's event.

The now national march started in 1991, after a woman was murdered on Powell Street, in Vancouver. Her name is not spoken today, to honour the wishes of her family.

The Women’s Memorial website says, “This woman’s murder in particular was the catalyst that moved women into action. Out of this sense of hopelessness and anger came an annual march on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community, and caring for all women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Coast Salish Territories.”Celebrate Valentine's Day: Stop Violence Against Indigenous Women

By Taté WalkerFor too many Indigenous women, love comes at a horrific price.

Bruises. Broken body parts. Broken souls. Rape. Fear. Missing. Murdered. All these words and more describe the violence many Native American and First Nations women experience every day, usually at the hands of someone they know. Nearly 40 percent are intimate partners, many of whom are non-Natives.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Highly touted (and debated) laws and policies, such as the Violence Against Women Act, currently do little to combat the staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, although many promise change is coming.

U.S. statistics show Native Americans experience violent crimes–including stalking, rape, and sexual assault–at rates more than double those of women of other races. One in three Native women report having been raped during her lifetime. The murder rate for Native women is 10 times the national average. Many experts agree these numbers are woefully underreported for several reasons, including distrust of a justice system that so often fails Native American people.

The situation isn’t any better for Canada’s Aboriginal women, who are three-to-five times more likely to experience violence than non-Aboriginal women ages 15 or older. According to Statistics Canada, in about half of all homicides the Aboriginal identity of the victim is reported by police as unknown. For instance, between 2005 and 2009, police reported 726 homicides where the victim was a woman aged 15 or older. Of these, the victim was identified as Aboriginal in 54 homicides, as non-Aboriginal in 292 homicides, and as Aboriginal identity unknown in 380 homicides.The missing women you don’t hear about: How the media fails Indigenous communities

When indigenous women disappear, their cases often get little coverage—and their identities can be erased

By Lauren Chief ElkThe media routinely fail to inform the public accurately about the cases of missing indigenous women. As my partner Laura M. Madison states, “Indigenous women go missing twice: Once in real life and a second time in the news.” Missing white women, she explains, are humanized with extensive articles, photos and interviews with grieving families. If missing indigenous women get media coverage at all, they are usually presented as runaways, drug addicts or sex workers, or portrayed in other ways society sees as negative. As with Hanna Harris, many indigenous women are treated by law enforcement and media as undeserving of attention or care because they’re supposedly “party girls,” whether they were actually engaged in drinking and drugs or not.

And as we work on our data collecting and reading reports, we have noticed that some indigenous women are even going missing a third time—when their racial or tribal identities are ignored or misrepresented. Many news articles and missing people’s organization cite indigenous women as white or Latino. Even in death indigenous women are being erased.

We know from existing as indigenous people and doing this work that this triple disappearance is everywhere across this continent. As Andrea Smith has detailed, “violence against Indigenous women in a symptom of colonization.” The rate of violence, the lack of response, the structure that helps it continue: This is settler colonialism, the occupation of the land by imperial powers and people that stand on top of indigenous nations. Both Canada and the United States are settler states.

There’s a myth that we’re now just a multicultural society and that the structures of slavery and genocide no longer affect us—that indigenous people either died off completely or disappeared into whiteness. But we survived. We are still here. We are still speaking our languages, we are still practicing our traditional ways, and we are still dancing in powwow circles. And the structure of the United States as a settler state is still trying to get rid of the “Indian problem.” A friend once told me, “If we were killed off or killed each other off, that would make the government very happy. That would be doing them a big favor.” And actions of the state make this plain. We see it in their disregard of indigenous life, evidenced by the federal authorities’ refusal to take seriously the disappearance and murder of Hanna Harris and so many others.

All over the continent, indigenous women are resisting. Today is the day of the annual 23rd annual women’s memorial marches that started in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver, British Columbia. The marches began as grass-roots initiatives to search and demand justice for those who were missing and murdered. They now happen in at least nine major cities across Canada. As the mission statement on the women’s memorial march page states, “This event is organized and led by women in the DTES because women, especially Indigenous women, face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis … We gather each year to mourn and remember our sisters by listening to their family members by taking over the streets, and through spiritual ceremonies.”Comment:  For more on violence against women, see Christie's Bullying Shows American Mindset and V-Day Conflicts with Indigenous Women's March.

Below:  "Gladys Radek holds a photo of her niece, Tamara Chipman, who disappeared in 2005 along Highway 16, the so-called Highway of Tears, east of Prince Rupert in northern B.C." (Gladys Radek)

Christie's bullying shows American mindset

Why the Infatuation with Bullies Like Chris Christie?

Christie reveals a dark side of our society--a public enchanted by his tough guy antics and the press who encourages his sadism.

By Arun GuptaThe harsh reality of Christie is not his vile political persona, but the public enchanted by his bullying and the press who encourages his sadism by casting him as “a tough-talking, problem-solving pragmatist.” Christie may have muscled Democratic politicians into supporting his re-election bid last fall, but he won strong backing from Democratic voters, allowing him to pursue policies attacking the poor and public education, and coddling the wealthy and corporations.

Christie taps into something dark in the American political soul–a desire not just for order or efficiency, but pleasure in humiliating the weak. Is it surprising women are a frequent target of his abuse, who are pathologized in our society as weak?

Finally, a cowboy conservative! After the spectacular failures of George W. Bush, John McCain, Rick Perry, et al., we thought we'd never find another one!

Conservatives agree that Christie is a real American--like John Wayne and Ronald Reagan:

Karl Rove: Bridge scandal proves Christie is ‘what we want’ in a president

"We want a macho man who will stick it to women, minorities, the poor, and everyone else who hates America!"

Fox’s Brit Hume shocks female panelist: ‘Feminized atmosphere’ made Christie a ‘bully’

By David EdwardsFox News analyst Brit Hume on Sunday said that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) had only gotten a reputation for being a bully because men could not be “masculine and muscular” in the “feminized atmosphere” created by the media.

During a panel discussion on the Fox News show Media Buzz, host Howard Kurtz asked if Christie’s “bully image” was hurting him after his administration was accused for closing part of the busiest bridge in the world to hurt his political opponents.

“I have to say that in this sort of feminized atmosphere in which we exist today, guys who are masculine and muscular like that in their private conduct and are kind of old-fashioned tough guys run some risks,” Hume opined.

“Feminized!” Fox News contributor Lauren Ashburn gasped.

“Atmosphere,” Hume nodded. “By which I mean that men today have learned the lesson the hard way that if you act like kind of an old-fashioned guy’s guy, you’re in constant danger of slipping out and saying something that’s going to get you in trouble and make you look like a sexist or make you look like you seem thuggish or whatever. That’s the atmosphere in which we operate.”

“This guy is very much an old-fashioned masculine, muscular guy,” he added. “And there are political risks associated with that. Maybe it shouldn’t be, but that’s how it is.”

A brief discussion of this on Facebook:"Feminized atmosphere?" Is that supposed to be a bad thing?Yes! It's not manly enough for real Americans, who are men! A "guy's guy" is not, and never WAS, a bully.I've talked before about our macho culture of rugged individualism and self-reliance. Also known as the unfettered urge to subjugate women, blacks, and Indians, among others. Using repressive laws, bullying, or guns as necessary.

For instance:

The rage of angry white men
Patriarchal culture encourages violence
America's culture based on violence
Women and Indians as peacemakers
How America became cowboy country

I could find hundreds of articles to illustrate this point. Here's a typical one:

Death threats for researcher who demonstrated college athletes read below a third-grade level

A woman researcher dares to challenge our "might makes right" warrior culture with facts? Kill her! Thus proving the point.

Let's see...this incident includes hate against women, love of machismo, and hate against intellectualism. See also the related debates on Internet harassment, Sandra Fluke, Steubenville, military rapes, the Republican war on women, etc. Women make men weak, this "thinking" goes, so we must find ways to control them.

In short, all these things are related. Christie's bullying = rape culture = shooting sprees = genocide against Indians. They all stem from the white male Christian need to dominate and control others.

V-Day conflicts with indigenous women's march

Why I Will Not Be Rising with One Billion Rising This Year or Any Year

By BritniI have never risen with Eve Ensler’s One Billion Rising campaign. The campaign takes place on February 14th, referred to by the campaign as V-Day. The One Billion Rising campaign grew from Eve Ensler’s popular play, The Vagina Monologues.As Britni notes, the date is a problem because "February 14th is reserved in Canada, as the day for the Annual March for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women."

In a posting last year, Lauren Chief Elk explained why V-Day is a problem for Native women:

An Open Letter to Eve EnslerThis all started because on Twitter, I addressed some issues that I had with V-Day, your organization, and the way it treated Indigenous women in Canada. I said that you are racist and dismissive of Indigenous people. You wrote to me that you were upset that I would suggest this, and not even 24 hours later you were on the Joy Behar Show referring to your chemotherapy treatment as a “Shamanistic exercise.”

Your organization took a photo of Ashley Callingbull, and used it to promote V-Day Canada and One Billion Rising, without her consent. You then wrote the word “vanishing” on the photo, and implied that Indigenous women are disappearing, and inherently suggested that we are in some type of dire need of your saving. You then said that Indigenous women were V-Day Canada’s “spotlight.” V-Day completely ignored the fact that February 14th is an iconic day for Indigenous women in Canada, and marches, vigils, and rallies had already been happening for decades to honor the missing and murdered Indigenous women. You repeatedly in our conversation insisted that you had absolutely no idea that these events were already taking place. So then, what were you spotlighting? When Kelleigh brought up that it was problematic for you to be completely unaware that this date is important to the women you’re spotlighting, your managing director Cecile Lipworth became extremely defensive and responded with “Well, every date on the Calendar has importance.” This is not an acceptable response.

When women in Canada brought up these exact issues, V-Day responded to them by deleting the comment threads that were on Facebook. For a person and organization who works to end violence against women, this is certainly the opposite of that. Although I’m specifically addressing V-Day, this is not an isolated incident. This is something that Indigenous women constantly face. This erasure of identity and white, colonial, feminism is in fact, a form of violence against us. The exploitation and cultural appropriation creates and excuses the violence done to us.

When I told you that your white, colonial, feminism is hurting us, you started crying. Eve, you are not the victim here. This is also part of the pattern which is a problem: Indigenous women are constantly trying to explain all of these issues, and are constantly met with “Why are you attacking me?!” This is not being a good ally.

You asked me what would it mean to be a good ally. It would have meant stepping back, giving up the V-Day platform, and attending the marches and vigils. It would have meant putting aside the One Billion Rising privilege and participating in what the Indigenous women felt was important.

At the end of our conversation you offered me the opportunity to join V-Day. Offered me money. Offered me to become a spokesperson for Native American women. These are things I am not interested in. I do not want to be part of the white savior industrial complex, and I never want to duplicate saviorism and colonialism within my own organization, Save Wiyabi Project, and I’m surely not interested in selling my soul and integrity for a bit of cash and perceived prestige.Nonwhite feminists have discussed at length how white feminists have ignored them. This subject is outside my blog's scope, but the postings below give you a glimpse of the ongoing debate:

A Year in Review: The Top 10 Most Racist/Privileged Things White Feminists Did in 2013

Ani DiFranco's white obliviousness

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler: Hollywood’s imperfect feminists

Mastodon's stereotypical Thankgiving t-shirt

An Open Letter to Mastodon regarding your Thanksgiving t-shirts [[Updated With Response]]

By EricaDear Troy, Brent, Bill and Brann,

A year ago, I finally had the chance to see Mastodon play with Ghost and Opeth in Saskatoon. I was front row center, pressed against the gates for the first two sets. It was easily one of the best lineups I’ve seen, and an amazing night–made even cooler when Bill tossed me his pick.

Which is why my heart sank when I saw the new Mastodon “Thanksgiving” shirts.

Metal and hard rock music are still viewed as the domain of straight white men–I’ll assume you don’t need proof of this beyond the sausagefest crowd at an average metal show. But there’s plenty of us who don’t fit that category and still want to feel at home in your music. This shirt does the opposite of that for me as an Indigenous woman.

I want to believe that the shirt was designed with the intent of trying to disrupt the lie of American Thanksgiving; a holiday based on the story of Pilgrims and Indians coming together and sharing a nice meal, when in reality what occurred was genocide. And of course, a critical element of “conquering” Indigenous people used in the United States and Canada is the rape and enslavement of Native women.

I want to believe that you knew all of that when you approved this shirt.

But there are better ways to make political statements than printing t-shirts with disturbing imagery that reinforces racist myths rather than challenging them. Indigenous women are not (and never have been) subservient, silent, compliant, helpless on our knees, always ready and willing in buckskin bikinis–but that is how we are viewed, and this image contributes to an already bursting repository of that crap.

If the band’s/the t-shirt artist’s intention was to challenge historical injustices, the reaction that is already coming from the Native American community should be an indicator that it was misguided.

There is nothing subversive or edgy about a scantily clad Native American woman on her knees serving a white man who is pointing a gun in her face.


Mastodon responds to critics

Mastodon Say Their Thanksgiving T-Shirt Is Not Racist

By Scott LapatineAtlanta sludge-metal outfit Mastodon have some new merch for sale, including a Thanksgiving t-shirt that some are claiming is racist.

The tee highlights the atrocities of American colonialism by depicting a pilgrim holding a musket to the head of a scantily clad Native American woman. As Pitchfork points out, Mastodon have responded to criticism with this Facebook post:Regarding our thanks giving shirt, whether you choose to believe or not, the American Indians were massacred by the white settlers who became the Americans we are today.

this shirt represents this atrocity and celebrating in the face of this atrocity is chilling.

we may have a sick sense of humor, but we are far from being “Racist” as some of you who might not get it are calling us.Mastodon Defend ‘Thanksgiving’ T-Shirt From Racism Allegations

Critics respond to Mastodon

From the comments on the second posting:StephanieSays
Scantily clad Native woman on her knees with a gun pointed to her face? Yeah, not racist at all. Looks like the bullshit costumes ignorant white women wear on Halloween or to music festivals… and I want to give the band the benefit of the doubt and say that was part of the satire, but then they posted their response to the criticism completely not understanding why people were offended to begin with, trying to turn any backlash to the shirt as white people being upset that the band was ruining their idea of Thanksgiving.

And even if it WAS part of the satire, it’s really just another image furthering the fetishization of Native women. It’s not challenging stereotypes at all. Native American women are sexually assaulted and raped at higher rates than any other group in the US, and mostly by white men.

Regardless of their intent, they are garnering a ton of publicity and are currently sold out of the shirt. Using a genocide as a marketing tool is gross.

Today I learned that this band sells their own autographs on Ebay, which is fucking hilarious. Good on ya, dudes.

Toby Vanlandingham
Regardless of the intent, since a huge number of real native Americans are outraged over the imagery on the shirt, and the fact that it can also be worn proudly by non-native men who rape native women as a “badge” if you will, the shirt is an epic fail. Thank you Mastodon for trying to bring light to the horrible treatment that us native American’s have received since first contact, but if this is the way you are going to go about bringing us into the light, I think I can speak for the majority and say we will just go it alone. Again thanks, and if you would like to try again with some real native input, there are many knowledgeable natives who would be happy to help prevent another tragedy like this shirt.Fans prove racist message

Stop Helping! Band Angers Natives With Shirt; Insists It's Pro-NativeKudos to Mastodon for forging new territory in the proliferation of racist and sexist imagery.

We've seen offensive t-shirts that make light of Native suffering and depictions of sexualized Indian maidens. But the hugely popular metal band has combined the two in a Thanksgiving themed item that it has defended as an image that will raise consciousness to the Native side of the Thanksgiving myth.And:Mastodon addressed the controversy on its own Facebook page--well, sort of. The band's statement defends the shirt as a challenge to the Thanksgiving story--which didn't seem to have upset too many people--while ignoring the concerns raised by Natives about the choice of imagery.And:Following Mastodon's response, Erica updated her original post with some choice comments from Mastodon fans:

“All I know is that I’m thankful for smallpox blankets lol”

"Fuck em, they all just drunks anyways"

“No the Indians gave us the land… And now they want it back… Indian givers… Who cares it’s a shirt u don’t like the shirt, use it for a diaper u cry ass cry babies”

"I’m sorry some of my ancestors were smarter, more industrious and slightly more ruthless than the peoples they found when they got here."

"Grow up and quit be bitches. If the Indians wanted to land, they should of fought harder. Fuck em"

"Rock and roll mother fuckers, man the fuck up! Dude has a gun pointing it a hot Indian with big tits!"Comment:  Erica and the Natives win this debate by a knockout. With their comments, Mastodon fans demonstrate that they didn't come close to understanding the band's message.

Not only did they like the sexy "Pocahottie," but they seem to have absorbed the notion of Indians as inferiors. Perhaps because the Native woman was scantily clad and kneeling with a gun to her head, which makes her look inferior...duh.

One obvious way to convey the alleged message would be to have a well-dressed man, perhaps a Wampanoag sachem, offering a turkey to the Pilgrim. But without an Indian woman as a sex object, that presumably wouldn't have sold as well.

We don't know if Mastodon thought about this issue, but they--as well as their fans--failed to understand the protesters' point. It's not about the shirt's anti-Thanksgiving message, it's about its anti-woman message. One has to be as dumb as a mastodon not to get that.

In short, this shirt is a colossal fail.

For more fashion fails, see "Dreamcatcher and Skull" Clothing Line, Vanity Fair's "Favorite" Indian Costume, and Natives Criticize "Inukt" Fashion Line.

Pocahotties show depth of microaggressions

A Native professor responds to the issues raised in Tanning Salon Promotes Indian "Color":

Dousing the Pocahottie Stereotype

By Dwanna L. RobertsonRecently, a tanning salon advertisement touted that Indians not only brought corn to the first Thanksgiving, they brought “sexy color.” After complaints (one of which was mine), the ad was taken down from Club Sun’s Facebook page and an apology of sorts was given. And herein lies the problem. Ads like these and society’s inadequate understanding of their inappropriateness show the depth of microaggressions, normalized racism, and internalized oppression that American Indians struggle with on a daily basis.

Larry Andrews, the VP of Sales for Club Sun, gives a glaring example of microaggression mentality. Andrews complained to the local TV station about people becoming offended and accused people of just looking for things to “stir the pot.” Andrews argues that people should look for more positive things so that the holiday season will be better. In other words, people are just overly sensitive and looking for things to be negative about.

Andrews dismisses our feelings or experiences by claiming the company’s actions were innocent. When Natives speak out or speak up against innuendos and slights or mascots, we're often told we're being too sensitive or it was just a joke. In other words, we're always trying to make some big deal out of nothing. Microaggressions are often unintentional, but they still have real consequences.

David Arnett, the marketing director for Club Sun, explained to a local TV station that he’s “Native American” and “proud of my heritage and skin tone.” The ad was meant to be “simply a play” on Arnett’s own sexy color. But the picture was not of Arnett or even a man. Instead, it was the typical “Pocahottie”—a stereotype of a sexualized Indian maiden. Normalized racism comes in the form of stereotypes about hyper-sexualized Native women. Arnett might not know that this image originated with Columbus’s Second Voyage and how dangerous it continues to be for Native women.Comment:  For more on Indian women as sex objects, see University Bans Offensive Halloween Costumes and Native Regrets "Naughty Native" Costume.

"Navajo girl" in Saturday Night Live

The season premiere of Saturday Night Live (airdate: 9/28/13) featured this skit:Used car ads tend to be all kinds of weird, but surely the idea had to come from somewhere, right? It turns out Saturday Night Live got their hands on a copy of the very first used car commercial, and since it stars Tina Fey and newcomer Mike O'Brien, it is, of course, absolutely hilarious.

If you can't see the video, the couple looks like farmers from the Dust Bowl era. They're selling Model Ts. The following dialogue ensues:RICK: Daisy! Tell 'em again how crazy these prices are!

DAISY: I smashed a mirror 'cuz I saw a woman in there that's crazy!

RICK: All right. Don't make me put you back up in the attic please.

DAISY: Don't put me up there!

RICK: Dammit, Daisy! I wish I had a more legitimate treatment option other than the attic, but that's just where medicine is at.

DAISY: I think I killed that Navajo girl.

RICK: What?! Why is this the first I'm hearing about this?

DAISY: No one will know she's in our root cellar.Comment:  Huh? Killed that Navajo girl?!

Sure, it's a throwaway line in a throwaway skit. Nobody will think twice about it. And Daisy the speaker is crazy, so we can't take anything she says seriously.

But really, why use "Navajo girl" as a punchline? How is that funny? Why would a writer even think of that as a possible punchline?

In its infinitesimal way, this line contributes to the idea that Native people are inconsequential. That they're nothing but the butt of stereotypical humor. That we can laugh at their (imaginary) deaths because they're just, well, Indians.

Who's a famous murdered white girl? JonBenét Ramsey? Okay, suppose the line was "I think I killed that beauty-pageant girl in Boulder, Colorado"? Would that be equally funny? Or would it seem tasteless and cruel?

Navajo girls get killed all the time, so it's really not a joking matter. But SNL seems oblivious to this bit of prejudice. That's not surprising given all the times it's spoofed Indians in the past. Like many other TV shows, it's tone-deaf when it comes to Native people, culture, and history.

Native women sold for sex

The issue of sex trafficking has been in the Native news recently. Here's a good summary of what's going on:

The Horrifying Reality Of What's Happening to Canada's First Nation Tribes

By Nicole PolizziVery rarely do we in North America see glaring evidence of the multi-billion dollar industry that is the international sex trade. It appears in splashes on our news screens in the form of zumba-studio sex rings and documentaries from abroad. But the truth is that it is carried on in our own backyards daily to people whose lives are so often historically invisible.

According to American researcher Christine Stark, for over a decade North American women—Native Canadians of the First Nation clans—have been being bought and sold on board U.S. ships for as little as a bottle of scotch. The First Nations women come from Thunder Bay, Ontario, and have been sold on ships in the harbor at Duluth, Minnesota. The spot is infamous among First Nation women for sex trafficking. Young girls, women and even babies are sold in exchange for alcohol, money, drugs or even a place to sleep.

Native American and indigenous Canadian women are particularly vulnerable to the sex trade because of the ongoing poverty in many Native American communities. According to U.S. census reports, and community surveys, American Indian and Alaskan poverty rates are the highest of all other race groups. At 27%, these indigenous groups have a poverty rate over 10% points higher than the national average (around 14%). This staggering poverty level leads to multifarious community and personal issues including substance abuse and homelessness, causing many women to engage in survival sex in exchange for a place to live or money to feed addiction.

While American researchers and Canadian NGOs like the Ontario Native Women's Association (ONWA) are working to find out more about this trade and protect native women and children, this issue should be brought up in the context of the incredible poverty rate among Native Americans. In cities all over the country, Native populations experience poverty rates ranging from 16% (the lowest in Anchorage, Ak.) to over 50% (the highest in Rapid City, S.D.).

These are not just statistics. These numbers make Native American women, teens and children an especially vulnerable population, an issue long neglected, that deserves national attention.Comment:  As someone pointed out, "First Nations clans" is wrong or misleading and "First Nations Tribes" is redundant. The writer's heart is in the right place, but she doesn't seem to know exactly whom she's talking about.

For more on violence against Native women, see Moccasin Tops for Missing Women and Young Native Fashion's "Squaw" Line.

Moccasin tops for missing women

Northern women sewing for North American moccasin project

600 moccasin tops being sewn in memory of missing, murdered indigenous womenWomen from across the North are stitching up a storm to prepare for a massive art project.

They are part of a group that's making more than 600 pairs of moccasin tops in memory of Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women.

The beaded works will be displayed as part of a travelling art installation project called Walking with Our Sisters. Each pair of moccasins symbolizes the unfinished life of a missing or murdered woman.Comment:  For more on violence against Native women, see Young Native Fashion's "Squaw" Line and Sliver of a Full Moon.

Young Native Fashion's "Squaw" line

Someone named Stephen Eagle E Ellis posted this photo on Facebook:

Stevie Eagle E--CEO Shlepp Entertainment Ltd

Young Native™ Fashion 2013 by Angela DeMontigny featuring Ayi Jihu.

Spiritual Quintessential Unique Aboriginal Woman--SQUAW!"Squaw" clothing line...so you can be a fashionable Pocahottie without the leathers and feathers.

Prove to your man that you're a sexy squaw who'll do what he wants in the boardroom and in the bedroom!

Native activists began criticizing them for using the word "squaw," so Young Native Fashion posted an response. It explains why taking back Native slurs is like taking back Native land:If Indian land was taken by the white man, ruined, destroyed and made into a dump against your will and you had the chance to reclaim that land fix it and make it better would you not do it?

Or would you just walk around it and leave it? Forever curse it and consign it to the past and even more so attack those who would try to fix it?

This makes no real sense as this is YOUR WORD, your land. Those of you who speak of weakness because of trying to reclaim what is yours are in fact missing the point completely. You are spoiling for a fight at all opportunities but you are not engaging the wider world 'idle no more' or not in your fight because of thinking like this. To win your battles you need to engage the wider world. Not just the 'Native' world. Because you are part of the same world and in reality no one owns the land. We are all squatters on God's land.

You may not agree with the use of the word squaw and that is your personal right. But You do not own it or it's use and your personal attacks on someone trying to do something positive, and forward thinking sound bitter and twisted.

This is a Native word that meant a wonderful thing that was made into a negative thing which we are attempting to return to its original meaning, our way.

It's that simple.Critics don't agree

The critics weren't mollified:This is appalling! I don't even know how to begin telling this person how wrong/ignorant/selfish/etc. they are!! Please feel free to express yourselves!

I know how to begin...by writing this guy and letting him know how we feel!

Their reply here may seem noble, but they are hypocrites. Giving a well-worded response doesn't absolve them of pushing their exploited products.

I just got one thing to say about the above reply...blahblahblah to try to justify your action you attack someone else is acting like a teenager. It is always someone else's fault.Comment:  Angela DeMontigny is a Native fashion designer based in Ontario. Ayi Jihu (center) is some sort of "Chinese star" who inspired DeMontigny.

Since Young Native Fashion's explanation refers to "YOUR WORD," I assume it was written by Ellis, not DeMontigny. I'm guessing Ellis is non-Native and adopted the "Eagle E" nickname for this project. Because eagles are Native, you know.

A few thoughts on this reclamation project:

1) Words such as "squaw" and "redskins" don't need to be reclaimed and rehabilitated. The words have evolved into slurs and will remain slurs for the foreseeable future because racists need racial epithets. If we were to erase them from existence, other slurs would arise to take their place.

2) Young Native Fashion's motives are highly suspect since trying to profit from "squaw." If you're so concerned about rehabilitating "squaw," how about starting a nonprofit to do it? If your choice was rehabilitating "squaw" but not making money or making money but not rehabilitating "squaw," which would you choose? Do we even have to ask?

The same analysis that applied to Redskin Magazine also applies here. Ellis isn't doing something noble here. He's using the stereotype, not challenging it, to enrich himself.

Selling sex

Incidentally, any resemblance of the black man (presumably "Stevie Eagle E") and his models to a pimp and his prostitutes is purely coincidental.

Just kidding. With the model's skin and poses, the company is obviously selling sex rather than clothes. Because the clothes we can see are unremarkable shirts and skirts except for the logos. So it's not farfetched to imagine the pimp-and-prostitute scenario.

Coincidentally, someone posted a Brocket 99 video the same day. "Brocket 99 is the name of an underground comedy audio tape that parodies aboriginal people in Canada and the name of two documentary films about the tape," according to Wikipedia. The video was titled "Every Squaw I Screw" and the thumbnail showed a hottie in a headdress. Activists quickly got it removed.

The song and its lyrics reinforce the point about what's wrong with "squaw." If it was ever a neutral word, it isn't now. In most people's minds, it basically means "Native slut." It encourages people to think of Native women as sex subjects.

We should get people to stop using the word, not try to rehabilitate it. Even if rehabilitation worked, would mean years of promoting the objectification of women like the models above. It would do nothing to change underlying attitudes toward Native women, which are what really need changing.

For more on "squaw," see Bakery to Rename Squaw Bread and Company Pulls "Sassy Squaw" Costume.