Fashion Board 4-6-04 to 5-7-04

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by baltassoc
Seb: great post


I think there is some basis for this. I see it in my own family. My grandfathers were terrible racists, one overt and the other more quitely, but as adamently (To be fair, the overt racist was not discriminatory - he hated just about everybody, including the eye-talleons. I think the fact I married a Catholic took years off his life. According to his brother, when they were growing up, people used to tell ghost stories of Jesuit priests stealing babies to cook and eat.).

In moments of weakness, my parents sometimes inadvertently reveal the fact that race is still important to them, but they do their best to appear non-racist. My favorite example is my mother describing her co-worker "I don't think of her as black." I think for their era (very early baby boom) this isn't too bad. As I said, they've been careful to hide their impulses, especially from their kids.

I tend to be pretty race neutral myself, but I can admit that when I'm in a sketchy area race probably enters into my risk analysis. I'm not proud of it, but there it is.

My kids live in a highly integrated neighborhood, and I hope that when they are adults, the idea of discrimination on the basis of race is the kind of bizarre anachronism that discriminating against Italians and Irish is today (I'm trying to be optimistic but realistic here) and that their kids will think the concept totally foreign.

We'll see, I suppose.

Baltimore is one fucked up town for bigotry. I have some friends from that town who harbor some really repulsive views. Its strange - they seem to cling to bigotry like its a tradition that should be passed down. Very strange phenomenon for a city so North.

[Shape Shifter]

A contestant in The Bachelor explains her side in an email circulating among Texas GAs:

I have to put a disclaimer on the last episode I am on. The entire time the producers were trying to get me to kiss him. I kept saying no, that if he wanted to, he would and I can tell he doesn't like me. I could TELL he did not like me AT ALL. I am assuming the producers told him to act more like he liked me because then all the sudden, he started gushing on our "one-on-one's" saying all this really really sweet stuff and he had his arm around me, etc. (they were trying to get me to say I thought I would get a rose because every time they asked me, I said "no, I do not think I will get a rose because I can tell he does not like me). SO later that night, the producers said when we all got out of the hot tub "Jess, you need to talk to Jesse right now. And listen, he has already kissed five girls. There are 6 roses. You really need to step it up and be affectionate and try to kiss or something because if not, you will probably go home." So, I thought the most benign thing I could do was just be affectionate and kind of rub his arm and chest and stuff when we were talking. I did that for like 20 seconds. So from the previews, I am apparently the girl that "went too far. . . " and he said "the way she was touching me weirded me out. . . " PLEASE! Like half the girls had already made out with him. The day before they went to a spa and they gave him a massage. And this is the same guy that said "I want to get married because I am sick of waking up to strange faces every morning." (which grossed us all out). So they made me do that for drama, but please. I can understand, "she took off her clothes in front of me and it weirded me out" or "she grabbed my package and that was a little strange. . " but I like rubbed his arm. That is SO dumb. They even have pictures of it on the photo story-line thing. And everyone already knows how they got me to cry at the end. (I turned my back to the camera) and that is on there too. They made me cry by insulting me - saying "who will ever want to marry you?" and "you were very honest about all the other girls being prettier than you. How does it feel to know you were right?" and "what is wrong with you that you get rejected all the time?" So of course I started crying. But they won't show them saying that. They will only show me crying. But just know I was NOT crying over him.

So I had to put a disclaimer on the rest of the show so you won't think I am nuts and explain what really happened. I am hoping no-one will watch it. I most certainly am not watching it.

[purse junkie]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Baltimore is one fucked up town for bigotry. I have some friends from that town who harbor some really repulsive views. Its strange - they seem to cling to bigotry like its a tradition that should be passed down. Very strange phenomenon for a city so North.

No, it's not--they're just honest about it. Boston, for example, is incredibly segregated--but too liberal in theory and therefore too embarrassed about the existence of the problem to really deal with it in practice.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic
Driving around my father's home town, having him point out "that's where I went to school ... that's where the black kids went to school... that's where [X black kid] beat me in [Y sport] but I still won first place because he was black and I decided I needed to get the hell out of here" just seems unreal, like he has to be telling me some story he heard third hand - he couldn't have spent 18 or 20 years of his life living like that! Impossible!

Yep. My father's mother was from Louisiana. He told me he used to get scolded often (at age 4 or 5) when they went to visit her folks for using the "black" water fountain instead of the "whites only" water fountain. He didn't know any better.

[Mister_Ruysbroeck]

Originally posted by Skeks in the city

Or MR's influence.

Nah, she's an anal-phobe.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by purse junkie
No, it's not--they're just honest about it. Boston, for example, is incredibly segregated--but too liberal in theory and therefore too embarrassed about the existence of the problem to really deal with it in practice.

I don't buy the argument that its somehow better to be an "honest" racist than a closeted racist. I fail to see any difference. But I guess it does help you know who to avoid if you're black.

Sounds to me like a poorly thought out rationalization concocted by some waterhead PR man from a racist area to attract tourists... "We're not racist, we're charmingly honest."

[Anne Elk]

Two gay lovers — a man in a black dress and a boy in only a pair of shorts — protested their families' lack of understanding for their relationship by climbing a Central Park tree on Thursday, stripping, performing lewd acts in front of onlookers and refusing to come down for hours.

The lovers, ages 32 and 17, scaled the 55-foot larch tree next to the Chess and Checkers House around 4 p.m., said Detective John Sweeney, a police department spokesman.

The couple had told the boy's parents about their relationship and been rebuked, police said.

Sexual orientation aside, any parent would be troubled by the fact that there 17 year old child was involved with someone who was 32. Another disturbing fact is that this story reminded me of this guy. SPREE: website for a guy who dresses like Peter Pan. For all you spinsters out there, he is still searching for his Tinkerbell.

Link to tree article here

[barely_legal]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
Yep. My father's mother was from Louisiana. He told me he used to get scolded often (at age 4 or 5) when they went to visit her folks for using the "black" water fountain instead of the "whites only" water fountain. He didn't know any better.

Oh goody! Another thread about how the South is racist and the North is integrated and racism only existed in living memory below the Mason Dixon line (except for Baltimore, which is surprisingly racist for being in a Union state!).

Give me a break. There is no magic line between the North and South that divides racist areas from non-racist areas. Are there still large pockets of racism in the South? Absolutely. Are there just as large pockets in the Northeast, midwest, southwest, etc.? From my limited experience, absolutely.

I hate you people for making me agree with a Purse Junkie post.

[Alex_de_Large]

Originally posted by Anne Elk


Sexual orientation aside, any parent would be troubled by the fact that there 17 year old child was involved with someone who was 32. Another disturbing fact is that this story reminded me of this guy. SPREE: website for a guy who dresses like Peter Pan. For all you spinsters out there, he is still searching for his Tinkerbell.

Link to tree article here

Isn't the one on the left Courtney Love?!?

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by purse junkie
No, it's not--they're just honest about it. Boston, for example, is incredibly segregated--but too liberal in theory and therefore too embarrassed about the existence of the problem to really deal with it in practice.

Seems to me Boston deals with it in the same way most other places did--with race riots to protest busing, and continued ignoring of the issue in other ways (e.g., low income housing in suburbs).

And, Hank, you might want to go to Southie some time to check out the high regard in which italians are held there.

[notcasesensitive]

Originally posted by purse junkie
http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/...ry=4268#photos

(sorry, I can't ever figure out how to post the actual photo)

Either that, or she's had her face Botoxed into utter paralysis.

That said, Tina Fey looks hot (though I do prefer her wearing the sexy librarian glasses). What are all you detractors thinking?

What is Mean Girls? Some SNL movie? Never heard of it.

[purse junkie]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I don't buy the argument that its somehow better to be an "honest" racist than a closeted racist. I fail to see any difference. But I guess it does help you know who to avoid if you're black.

Sounds to me like a poorly thought out rationalization concocted by some waterhead PR man from a racist area to attract tourists... "We're not racist, we're charmingly honest."

It isn't better. They're both disgusting.

[Alex_de_Large]

Originally posted by purse junkie
It isn't better. They're both disgusting.

That is exactly what SD is saying.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by barely_legal
Oh goody! Another thread about how the South is racist and the North is integrated and racism only existed in living memory below the Mason Dixon line (except for Baltimore, which is surprisingly racist for being in a Union state!).

Give me a break. There is no magic line between the North and South that divides racist areas from non-racist areas. Are there still large pockets of racism in the South? Absolutely. Are there just as large pockets in the Northeast, midwest, southwest, etc.? From my limited experience, absolutely.

I hate you people for making me agree with a Purse Junkie post.

This is one helluva leap from my post. I was giving an example of how segregation is really only one generation away, when it feels like it's 3 or 4. Geography wasn't relevant to my example.

Did someone buy you a Jump To Conclusions mat?

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by purse junkie
It isn't better. They're both disgusting.

I think racism is bad.