Archive for the 'Race' Category
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
well i never!
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Mixed race kids have all the fun
More on Japan. This time in the form of a half-japanese, half-iranian (yes I said Iranian) baseball sensation, Yu Darvish.
From Espn’s feature of him,
The full family name is Darvishsefad. Yu’s grandfather was a travel agent in Iran who encouraged Yu’s father to explore the world, partially by finishing his high school education in the United States. Farsad did and went on to college in Florida, where he played soccer — or at least he did until 1979, when Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, kidnapped 52 embassy workers, changed the course of American politics, launched Ted Koppel’s career into orbit and instantly made things rather unpleasant for young Iranians studying in America.
Is it just me or have either of you noticed that mixed race kids are better looking and more athletic than the average single raced kid.
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
al-nakba?
14 May 2008 is Israel’s 60th. It’s difficult to imagine an anniversary that’s as divisive. And where else do politics, religion, and ethnicity conflict so violently? Have you been to Israel or the West Bank/Gaza Strip? I’d like to go sometime.
The story of Israel and Palestine is one our generation has grown up with. This is from before Kosovo, before Rwanda, before war was declared on terror. Is it really that unimportant? If there is a god, we’ll all be damned for watching two peoples massacre themselves. I’ll say it again: humans are foolish beyond our own comprehension.
On a related note, what do you think of the use of the term in the title? Al-Nakba — The Catastrophe. I hear that’s how Palestinians, and their supporters, refer to the creation of Israel. Should its use be discouraged? Or is it useful?
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
everybody come down.
like this article in the guardian.
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
pathans and xenophobia
Nicely picked up on the implicit xenophobia in eyseeeachoor’s post. The boy clearly had lots of characteristics - he was a boy, worker, pathan, but eyeseeachoor kept emphasisng the pathan element.
It’s interesting how Pathan’s are generally discriminated against even though they have fair skin, an attribute usually worshipped subcontinental culture. Its a useful reminder that race is only one of several means you can use to exclude others from your social set.
In other words you can employ racism even though you aren’t ‘racist’ per se. In fact you could make an argument that using race cynically is worse than being a racist simpleton.
Btw, as an aside the post was written in 2005 so he probably wasn’t looking for a Britney book. I do have feeling though that Adnan Ghalib will be the source of much fun!