Sorry no roundup yesterday. Life intruded upon blogging!

First and foremost: The 5th Erase Racism Carnival is up at Black Looks. As always with carnivals, there are very interesting and informative posts you should read.

I don’t have a lot to say on the Clinton Blogger Lunch controversy. I mean, most people have said what I feel already. I’m not at all shocked about the side issue of that one woman’s breasts, but sometimes I look at the internet and fear for the future of the human race. Anyway, I’m quite sad that I’m not a famous enough blogger to be invited to such a lunch (though I appreciate vegankid mentioning somewhere that I’m an example of some of the good black bloggers in the blogosphere. I am honored) because I am one of those black people that still has an irrational love for Bill Clinton. Yes, I know, he did some shitty stuff as President and is still doing shitty things now, apparently, but… I can’t explain myself. I will say that I have no time for Hilary at all.

Anyway, the posts on this subject have been linked all over. If you somehow missed it or missed the parts of the discussion that don’t have to do with slutty interns with breasts, here are some posts to start with:
Sometimes It’s The Best You Can Do
the internet, racism and women of color
Bill Clinton Lunches With Whites. Also, Firedoglake sucks.
Linear Writing is a Hoax (And Definitely Not a Good Argument)
Of Boobs and Bulges
BTW – Scalzi, I realize Dr. Helen is your friend, but she needs a verbal smackdown. Really. That woman has serious issues.

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Speaking of controversies involving white bloggers… Andrew Heavens is upset:

I have been outed as a white non-African (see the comment near the bottom headlined ‘Strike’). Photographic evidence of my whiteness has been posted.

This is all part of an incredibly tiresome “controversy” about the skin colours and ethnic backgrounds of people speaking at a blogging conference in Grahamstown, South Africa today and tomorrow.

Sokari, the cause of his upset, sets out to upset him more:

Race, ethnicity are always so, oh, INCREDIBILY TIRESOME, so DREARY for white people. I mean it really is just a fucking pain in the backside. After all we live in a world of multicoloured rainbows with like minded people just trying to get along and here comes one African woman who lets pigs fly and takes issue with big white chiefs standing in for their “coloured” sisters/brethren. STOP IT – STOP talking about colour, race, white, black, ethnicity, nationality. Mr English journalist blogger is tired of the CONTROVERSY around skin colour and ethnic background at a conference on blogging in Africa?

It gets better, go read.

Speaking of lunch…. Stereotypes Ruined My Lunch:

So I’m in the kitchen area eating, and I notice people in the workplace all gave me the same silly look as they said hello and passed by. Then, I thought about it: I’m eating my leftover fried chicken with a heightened sense of urgency. It was good, too, so I was punishing that poor dead fried greasy bird. All of the folks that walked by were probably thinking to themselves “I KNEW IT! I knew they all love fried chicken!”

…

You see what stereotypes have done? Made me think WAY too damned much, when all I wanted to do was get full and take a nap. Can’t even enjoy my lunch for fear that I’m going to enhance stereotypes and screw it up for the rest of the black people of the world!

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Remember Senator Allen, the Macaca guy? How he whined and complained that people were calling him racist, but he’s not! He loves the brown peoples! Well, it seems that his craziness is getting more bizarre. Allen’s mother is probably Jewish, and he’s been trying to keep this secret for some time. Why? Because his friends in the KKK might not want to play with him anymore. I mean, really, are we surprised?

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Via Think Progress:

Harvard professor and conservative author Harvey Mansfield recently published a book called “Manliness.” Some gems from Mansfield, collected by Reason.com:

As the weaker sex…women are “not in a position to ask for something directly. They’re either obliged to smile a lot and persuade, or make a scene.”

“To resist rape a woman needs more than martial arts and more than the police; she needs a certain ladylike modesty enabling her to take offense at unwanted encroachment.”

“In my experience it is difficult for a man who is attracted to a woman not to find her cute, rather than intimidating, when she gets angry.”

I think you all know my thoughts on this dipshittery.

Slightly related: The project of dominance

In an article on masculinity, Robert Jensen states that “…we can see that the short-term material gains that men get are not adequate compensation for what we men give up in the long haul — which is to surrender part of our humanity to the project of dominance.” He’s talking about the “dominant concept of masculinity.” It’s a great read. It’s interesting to read the comments on the article at AlterNet. It seems that a lot of the commentors are men who are afraid/unwilling/resistant to the idea that they might lose privileges.

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Finally, Molly Saves the Day has a post where folks can come by and ask her questions about feminism. Amanda on Pandagon decides to do the same. She answers many of the questions in a separate post. The one I find most interesting:

What exactly is choice feminism and why does it tend to be considered a Bad Thing?

“Choice feminism” is a derogatory word that feminists use to describe it when a woman wants her patriarchally approved compliant behavior to be declared perfectly independent of social influence, even when it is obviously not. Choice feminism never defends rebellious choices. The most common form of it is, “Feminism is about having choices and therefore my decision to submit to my husband/get breast implants/totter around on high heels and giggle is beyond analysis.” We’ve all invoked choice feminism out of misplaced guilt about our personal unwillingness to analyze our own choices. The cure for choice feminism is to understand that no woman is an island and nobody is perfect and only by asking hard questions can we even begin to imagine alternatives.

Read the rest.

Also, Open Thread!