The Surreal Adventures of The Angry Redheaded Lawyer: “Betty and the Belrays” by William Electric Black and Performed at Theater for the New City

* After an absence due to getting professional creative representation, yours truly is back on the review circuit. The details are a story for another day but let's just say after winning a prize, you can easily discover that the reality of having it is not the same as your expectations or your fantasy of having it.

Nonetheless, The Angry Redheaded Lawyer is back and decided this show was a must see along with a great foray back into the world of critical review. It turns out I was exactly right.

“Betty and the Belrays” is a story of early 1960's Detroit with a young, determined, idealistic woman whose dreams are bigger than her social station and her “place” as a recent high school graduate with pale skin and blond hair. Betty (Paulina Breeze) is precious, down to her stuffed bunny and her love of the local black radio station. She wins a call in contest to see her favorite girl group, The LoveJones and is not the least bit dissuaded from going to claim her tickets at the station (located in “the black part of town”).

Yellow dresses The Lovejoys (L-R) Kennedy Jazz, Alexis Myles, Christen Dekie. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

However, Betty's parents (John Michael Hersey & Gretchen Poole) tell her that since she's graduated high school and college is not an option due to her modest means, she needs to “Get a Job.” This song sounds blissful and happy like the other offerings in the show but the lyrics are very, very sad. Think “Roses” by Outkast or “Till Death Do Us Part” by Madonna for examples of songs that sound pretty but convey far more underneath the surface. Can you say “dream killing”?

Reluctantly, our heroine heads down to the telephone company to see if she can get a job as a telephone operator to make her parents happy. On her way there, she runs into Joy Jones (Alexis Myles), the lead singer of The LoveJones. Betty is confused as to why Joy, her musical idol, is seeking a job at the phone company when she should be on television and living the celebrity life. Joy tells her that because of her race, she's not even going to be considered as a telephone operator while Betty does have that option.

While waiting to be interviewed at the phone company, Betty meets Connie Anderson (Kalia Lay), a lovelorn woman suffering from a broken heart & Zipgun (Alexandra Welch), a tough girl with some rough edges and an unintentional sense of humor who's fed up with Connie's bawling. Instead of working as telephone operators, these women go along with Betty's plan to become a girl group despite not fitting the profile of the typical girl group. While going to get her concert tickets, Betty learns from Sam the Beat (Levern Williams) that the woman to see for making her girl group ambitions a reality is Loretta Jones (Aigner Mizzelle) a former Raylette who happens to be the mother of Joy Jones.

L-R Alex Welch, Kalia Lay, Paulina Breeze. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

Ironing boards in tow, Betty and her group head to the home of Loretta Jones. Loretta is not having it, initially skeptical of these 3 white women then putting them to work ironing. Consider her the Mr. Myagi of this story: Betty, Connie and Zipgun are told they must go to church, do ironing every day for 2 weeks and can't smoke, swear, have weapons or drink alcohol if they're going to get an audition with her. Zipgun in particular is not happy about going to church or being banned from her cigarettes or her switchblade though she already adopts the name Zippy, which Betty introduces her as to the parents (Zipgun likes the sound of it, claiming “it sounds French”).

Miss Loretta Jones meets Betty & The Belrays, who have come for guidance. L-R Kalia Lay, Paulina Breeze, Aigner Mizzelle, Alex Welch. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

When the time comes, the ladies audition and both the members of The LoveJones and Loretta Jones see their talent. Knowing their families won't approve, however, the ladies keep their work as a girl group secret but do have the ironing jobs to keep accusations of idleness at bay. When they win a spot on television, they try to take The LoveJones along but Joy is not happy with this since her group was around first and Betty's group would be the headliner while they would be playing second fiddle. She says they should be invited to be on the show themselves, not tag along with Betty's group. Joy is quite aware of the problems her group faces because of their ethnicity that Betty and her group are not having to deal with. She calls Betty out on the Belrays song “My Boyfriend is a Negro”, saying Betty is merely profiting off social protest and doesn't actually have any skin in the game if her boyfriend is not actually a black man.

Betty & The Belrays on national TV. L-R Alex Welch, Kalia Lay, John Hersey, Paulina Breeze. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

Clearly, Betty takes this sentiment to heart and feels it's time to try and fix things after her childhood neighborhood becomes unsafe and her parents are targeted because of her group's material once she has become famous, even turning down a record deal where she'd have to stop singing about social issues.

Betty returns home from tour and sees herself on cover of Life Magazine. Paulina Breeze and John Hersey. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

She and the other Belrays decide to join The LoveJones in a trip to the South to fight for civil rights for black people. This trip does not end happily for Betty though the end is not nearly as much a downer as you would expect.

Aigner Michelle, Levern Williams. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

The set dress, costuming, songs and actors were awesome. Zipgun was hilarious. This was also one of those shows where performers came into the audience so you felt like you were part of the action; the house was packed beforehand. I actually expected the story to be a bit different, that Betty and the Belrays had to get black women to pretend to be them since a white singing group wouldn't be accepted in Detroit or within the girl group community. Everyone around Betty tells her “how can you be in a girl group when you're white?”

However, you do see the love and mutual respect the group and Loretta Jones have for one another. Even Betty's mother comes around to helping her and the Belrays make their girl group aspirations come true by teaching them dance moves. Betty's perseverance and idealism overcome the doubters, even Joy Jones. The show balances social commentary with great musical numbers and the humor of Zipgun/Zippy (who maintains her personality throughout).

Overall, a wonderful show and my +1 very much approved. He actually kept asking me when I was going to write this review & said "it was great."

L-R Alex Welch, Kalia Lay, Aigner Mizzelle, Paulina Breeze. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

Betty (Paulina Breeze) leads a civil rights demonstration. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

Yelp is Apparently Run by SJWs & Here's Why the Current SJW Idea is Bullshit

So it seems Yelp censors people's true life racial bigotry incidents. I had this review of a true experience that happened at a Mandee location at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn removed for some mysterious reason from Yelp. This was 2 years after the incident in question, by the way:

First off, it's way too tiny. Second, the employees allow ghetto trash to touch & threaten people. Had this piece of ghetto trash show a wonderful example to her child (who she claims was there) by trying to start a fight with me b/c she couldn't be bothered to have her kid or maybe herself not get in the way of someone with a bunch of bags on their shoulders trying to shop there. No employee interference, no security guard, no one interrupts this woman's screaming scene where she proceeds to tap my forehead. Had she done more or wasn't some inconsequential piece of ghetto trash sure to win Mother of the Year, maybe it'd have been worth my time to engage this lowlife but I opted out. Furthermore, they have no clothes for super thin people AND it seems they let this bitch serve as sheriff of this place. I'll be making a call to the corporate headquarters & alerting the franchise owner of this; I also wonder if this piece of ghetto trash would have done this to a black or Latino woman.

Free tip: if you want this area of Brooklyn to not be seen as a ghetto piece of trash that respectable people don't want to go to, maybe you shouldn't be having store management & personnel allowing garbage like this to harass people and attempt to engage in fights. Real class there.

Then I was recently contacted to be informed that another true incident of racism that happened to me at a store I usually shop in that was an update of my previous review was deleted for the same "violating content guidelines" nonsense. I was less concerned about that since the manager had read the review I posted on their Facebook page and has since made things right with me so I've not had to encounter that ghetto bitch again or wait in the long ass line to get service when my time is valuable & matters.

I asked Yelp HQ about the above review being censored & they claimed that I can't call "ghetto trash" what it is. I consider anyone trying to start fights with random strangers to be ghetto trash. Rational, sane people do not act that way. They act like human beings & don't start altercations or fights over petty ante bullshit. It's not limited to race; it's a poverty mentality type thing. I've known plenty of people who aren't black who fit into "ghetto trash" territory. I've also known plenty of black people who would find that behavior disgusting and uncivilized.

Now I also wrote a detailed letter to the corporate headquarters of Mandee on this incident back when it happened 2 years ago. Do you think anyone EVER responded? No, so that tells you volumes about their value on the customer service or dollars from customers. Had this chick laid a hand on me, it would have been on. I don't start fights with ghetto garbage who clearly have nothing in life to lose since they want to get arrested and put in jail or shot for starting conflict where none need exist. Save that for someone raping you or beating your kid or trying to abduct you. Why the fuck do these assholes even live in NYC? Why don't they move to the suburbs where there's lots of space and oxygen? I mean, do they ride the subway at rush hour and start fights there because someone knocked into them due to the movement of the train? I think people like this aren't qualified to be "people" since they're actually sub-human garbage. Most grade school kids know better than to do shit like that & I didn't see any mental health guardians around them so they presumably don't have a medical diagnosis of low IQ or mental development problems.

Do these morons think I'm some victim? That they have some kind of grounding over the freaking attorney?!?!? I'd press charges in a second on these pieces of trash if they took action and they wouldn't want to mess with me because I can and would fuck someone up in a second if I had to, not just physically either. You can tell they are stupid since a smart person would never mess with a quiet, smart, small type with looks. Especially a fucking NATURAL REDHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!! We are known for our tempers & being cunning. Plus, there is the reality that I have a lot of rage from my childhood and my ex-husband. I'm not in jail, never been there and my shitty ex is still walking the streets without injury caused by me along with his bitchy mother. That person should ask themselves "Is it smart to go tempting someone with that history who's lived that stuff to hurt me?"

I figured out exactly why I despise SJWs and why you should to, especially if you grew up in the South or without money like I did. Here's a deconstruction of that movement.

As I stated before, SJWs are demanding special rights not equal rights. I encountered another person trying that in the industry group I mentioned in my prior post on the subject. She stated racial/gender make up in her crew and said in her job ad she was trying to get a certain percentage of a certain race/gender. What I did say was smart thinking was seeking a DP "who is experienced with lighting darker skin." You could promote "diversity hiring" with a qualification like that since it's based on a skill set, not giving a handout to someone who didn't deserve it.

Anyone using "I'm a woman" or "I'm (insert racial minority group or sexual orientation)" is telling the world "I have no real talent or competence to speak of nor am I skilled enough to do this so just hand me the job because of my status as (whatever they are claiming." I feel quite strongly about handouts.

When I commented there, this moron had the nerve to try apply "privilege" to me & said I should "work with more people of color." I knew immediately this was not someone I'd consider worthy of my time and stated that poor people of any race do not have "privilege," she didn't know a thing about my life history, my work history, my friendship circle or my networking circle and that she ought to do her research on who she's talking to before making such comments. I stated that I'd probably been around more minorities far longer than she had (likely true since that's never been a novelty in our household & we hold people to standards based on their behavior, not their skin tone or who they sleep with or their genitalia).

You should NOT be asking for or wanting handouts if you're a capable, intelligent human being. I would never treat my friends as charity cases who need my sympathy, patronage or handouts. That's demeaning and insulting & says you don't find them capable or intelligent or able to do anything on their own by their own merits. Nope, people I know who are members of minority groups or anyone really are smart, capable individuals who don't need my pity or charity. A handup (giving someone a good word where you can or referring them for things they are ideal for) isn't the same as a handout (giving someone a job or opportunity they aren't necessarily qualified for because of their race, gender, or some other factor in the same of "diversity" or "equality"); you get handups by showing your capabilities and skill set and talent to the world. That requires going out and networking with people, creating your business brand and (gasp!) hard work!!!

Nobody is handed anything in life (not of worth, anyway) so get the fuck over it if you think you shouldn't have to work hard either. Even the trust fund kid has to deal with parents trying to control his/her life & career.

My friends would be offended if I were giving them handouts. That stance is "Poor person of color/woman/non-straight person. (S)he can't get anything on their own talent or merits so we have to give them things even if they aren't qualified to have them since they are too sad, helpless, pathetic and inept to do anything on their own." This is what the SJW philosophy is; it's really bigoted & patronizing when you get down to it so if you're siding with these clowns, you're a bigot as well. You are looking down on minorities & trying to disguise that as "helping" them. I look down on people for being stupid or committing personal sins against me, not being minorities.

I even told that moron who made the uninformed statements that she needed to think better of herself than to ask for or demand somebody else to give them charity instead of proving themselves and making contacts like anybody else. I know I think better of myself than to make those demands & sure don't need anybody's charity or pity; some people are probably terrified of my actual mental strength and endurance.

So ask yourself if you think you are helpless, pathetic and incapable of doing anything on your own merits. If you'd say you aren't, then don't ask for handouts or encourage others to ask for or offer them to the "unfortunates." Because, guess what? You are only an "unfortunate" if you think you are.

A Word About Racism & the Greek System

I was just reading this article about the SAE incident. For those not familiar with it, someone on the party bus of this chapter at the University of Oklahoma decided to videotape & post a video of this fraternity singing a racist chant. The school reacted by getting rid of the chapter, expelling people & the national office came down on them as well. Big controversy in some corners of the world.

The author actually cited an incident that happened at my school. I remember it well since I was a sophomore at the time, a member of the Greek system (though we may not have even been a chapter by that point & didn't have a house) and found the whole incident appalling. Coming from Winston Salem, NC & a high school class that was 50/50 black to white along with having many good friends who were never "tokens" but simply my black friends who weren't cutting me down behind my back like plenty of white bitches in my class, I didn't get the whole racism of these guys. I've always felt like other minorities can understand each other in a way people who aren't don't get. It might be a different story & different struggles but there's still knowing what it's like to be ostracized, bullied, harassed & having an "otherness" about you that likely explains why I've had lots of friends who wouldn't be candidates for membership into the Aryan Nation or WASP.

For the record, the major offender in that incident was not SAE like this story portrays. Perhaps there were racists there or immature guys simply joining in out of peer pressure or drunken stupidity but the real offenders were this other fraternity that draped themselves in the Confederate flag on a regular basis & called themselves "Southern gentlemen." I also wasn't personally present to see this since I was in my dorm room & then read about it later when the Black Student Association at my school publicized it.

SAE was not a fraternity that my black male co-worker at the campus museum said he wouldn't set foot in for fear of being harmed while the one I mentioned as the major offender (and the reason I had nothing to do with Oglethorpe for many years) was. These were his words, not mine.

Oh, and lest you think it's a Southern Greek system thing or that sororities always side with the frats it's not & we don't. My own sisters were just as appalled by the whole thing, especially the ones from outside of Georgia who were not used to seeing this blatant racism in their faces. We were equal opportunity & started out running the gamut in terms of our membership; I & at least one other founding member would be livid if that weren't true in our chapter today. I've seen that equal opportunity reflected in other chapters and among other alumnae I've met over the years. I don't think a single one, regardless of where her chapter was, would be siding with the behavior of the frats in this story.

There was another incident my senior year involving KA concerning their Greek Week skit & Antisemitic remarks among other offensive things (again, not present for that one; I was working in my telephone interviewing job at the time--I heard about this from my own sisters). Aside from my own sorority sisters (some of whom were Jewish), a number of girls in another sorority (who also had Jewish members) were quite ticked off about that as I recall.

Now I support free speech but I don't support speech without consequences & you bet if you uttered a racial slur around me, you'd get hell for it considering you're trashing dear friends of mine, business associates and some people who were actually there for me in life while your sorry ass probably wasn't. I'm glad to see this university taking action; my school let KA get away with shit for years. They were far too lenient on them, especially considering we were supposed to be a "liberal arts" school.

I never had issues with the other frats. I didn't go to SAE & feel like I wasn't welcome or an outsider. Guys who were members there were nice to me; I remember one of their members once telling me I was welcome there anytime. In fact, I got that kindness at every frat other than the racist one. Our newer members got along with some members there but I remember we older ones didn't feel welcome or like we had a place there. Guess we figured Southern gentlemen exempt loudmouth feminists from their "gentlemanly" behavior. At least, I felt that way.

Oglethorpe was trying to increase their black student enrollment when I was there. With the presence of that frat & a number of well known and well regarded black schools in Atlanta, I didn't blame black kids for not wanting to enroll in the racist pit that I saw Oglethorpe being at the time. I was also pissed since I didn't enroll there to endorse racism or have it shoved in my face; I came there for the academics & the experience of living in a major city.

My attitudes on race are more nuanced since I know racism isn't just a white thing. It's an everybody thing. I also lived a lot of things in my youth & had parents who taught me better than some of these people's parents must have. No one was a "token" with my parents & if they called you a friend of theirs, you were lucky especially with my mother since she's semi-reclusive. I still wish we were in touch with my father's truck driver friend (who was half black, half Native American) since I wanted him to know about my father's passing & be able to pay his respects. They were really good friends & we actually went to his house, a rarity with my parents' friends. He wasn't one of my father's drinking buddies & my mom actually liked him and his wife.

I'm skeptical of the whole "educating" people idea unless maybe it involves having to deal with direct confrontation or just dealing with people in day to day life & seeing they're really not so different from you. Kind of like that episode of The Boondocks where Uncle Ruckus meets that country music singer who's a total racist & they get along so well in their racism of black people, they do a duet. Granted, Ruckus claims to have the reverse skin condition of Michael Jackson & that's he's really a white guy but it's an example of why The Boondocks is pure genius in its social commentary. See the first three seasons for yourself; I didn't see much of the fourth so I can't speak on that one. Overall, I feel like when people are adults, they are set on certain things & sometimes so much so even death, poverty or divorce won't change them. Death didn't change my ex though it did change me. Losing stability also changed me in some ways though perhaps it also amplified what I already had. You can carve out exceptions for people you befriend or meet but it's very hard to change things like racism or homophobia & you can't do it in a commanding fashion or by forcing change. You have to do it in more subtle ways.

You have to show examples of people who aren't living up to the negative stereotypes. I also think a huge key is showing how we're the same. There are universals to human experience in my view. Death, kids, animals, weather (good or bad), parents, authority figures, the incompetence of our "elected" officials, that kind of thing.

Wow, Seems OU is Finally Doing Some Things Right

Oglethorpe University: it's the school I got my college degree from. You can probably tell I have a mixed relationship there. My history was not so great in some major aspects. As I mentioned in that last post, I went to an alumni event I was invited to on Monday.

My expectations weren't very high & I wasn't sure I'd have a good time. I was concerned, for one thing, about having to deal with the bitchy attorney who pretty much told me I had no chance in Hell of ever getting to live out my dream of being in New York City (at the time, I didn't know there was such a thing as being an entertainment lawyer).

I was also concerned it was going to be a big "give me money" fest. That was a huge thing when I was in undergrad; every time you turned around, you were being begged at for money. Even in my senior year, I remember being accosted to contribute to the Senior Gift (which I did not contribute to due to the total lack of support I got in terms of financial matters & feeling like the institution was sabotaging me). I remember them asking me to give money mere months after I graduated.

You know, maybe we should institute some rule that says schools you graduate from can't ask for money until you've been out for at least 5 years. For law schools & professional programs, let's make it 10 years.

Turned out it was a good thing I went because of a great many things:

1. People were nice to me. In fact, one girl I knew recognized me instantly & gave me a hug. She told me I looked great. So did she. She was a member of Chi Omega, which had a HUGE chapter at my school; in fact, their chapter was the oldest one there. I told her about being mistaken for a member of Chi Omega (this was when I was a freshman & we were doing Greek Week) & she said "That's because you're cute." I had to tell her what Psycho Boy told me about how I was the prettiest of our founding members, though it was not my intention to diss them in that story. I was simply sharing an anecdote. The first thing she does is tell her husband about how I founded a sorority chapter. Chi Omega was definitely known for having hot girls; I had kind of hoped Psycho Boy would just meet one of them & not bother me anymore when he was getting too carried away w/me but sadly, that didn't work even though he'd not been a fan of redheads before me.

That made me feel really good considering it felt like us against the world when I was there. It also gave further validation of my no longer being an ugly girl.

I also no longer get to diss Chi Omega though believe me, there was dissing going on & probably among all 3 sororities. I don't think I really have a personal beef with them; maybe it was more akin to sorority rivalries.

At this time, I learned about a website called "Chi Omega Secrets" where this former member who'd had a very bad experience in her chapter decided to create a website revealing all of Chi Omega's secrets. To my knowledge, that site's long gone but if you saw it, you would believe that Chi Omega is akin to the Wall Street bankers or the Freemasons in their evil doings & that all the members have hearts as black as Satan himself. Heck, you'd probably hate all sororities if you'd seen that one. The book Pledged probably also killed us though none of that happened in my sorority experience. Don't know if that's because of the circumstances in which I came into my sorority or not but it is the truth.

After all, could you imagine someone like me putting up with hazing? You can't haze people who hold lifelong grudges. They'd eventually kill you or not save you if you were in trouble.

I just felt sorry for the members having to live up to this lofty standard to belong & likely not getting to just relax and be themselves. Many of the founders in my own chapter were not friendly with folks in Chi Omega & preferred the girls in the other sorority on my campus (at that time, Sigma Sigma Sigma).

Oh, and if you question people remembering me I had someone who graduated the year I came in who knew who I was. I didn't recall him & he wasn't a friend of mine or anything but he'd worked at the Admissions Office and said he remembered my coming in. If that guy could remember who I was after not seeing me in a good 10 years, that tells you something & gives me credibility to get pissed if you forget who I am.

2. The President of the university came up & spoke to me directly. I didn't know who he was when he approached me since I'd be talking to someone else before that & he just came up. We started talking and then I was like "I don't believe I caught your name," then learned who he was. He said to me "I think I got there after you left." I said "Yeah" and mentioned I'd been there when Larry Large was President (if you think that sounds like a porn actor's name, you're not the only one since my classmates certainly joked about it on a regular basis including some of my sorority sisters; I wonder if there are any real porn actors named Larry Large).

He then went to speak at our event & basically, I got a very good impression of the guy. He struck me as being the opposite of Larry Large since he mentioned the school making in roads in the community and asking for money from people who could well afford to give it & were their "best friends." He also told me about how they did allow productions to film there (since I think I told him about having my entertainment company) & I mentioned how when I was there, I always heard about the school rejecting those offers.

Plus, having met & spoken to Larry Large as an undergrad I don't recall him being the sort of guy who'd just come up and talk to you at random like that. He also gave me more of a pretentious & unfriendly vibe.

From what I heard, it was like "I wish that had happened when I was there." For instance, now they've got a scholarship for kids who are the first in their families to go to college (totally would have helped me if it had been an option). There's no more racist frat. I hope the business community had some sway in that one since I know that as a business owner, I would be wary of helping a college that had the incidents this school did; I know my company would have said "no way" to helping the OU I graduated from in 2003 & I think many wouldn't want their name associated with such things, even in the South. You are talking about Atlanta, after all & that's a major city.

3. Other people felt the same way I did about the presence of that racist frat & other crap I saw. I told some folks about it since they were close in time to my graduation year & I did mention that I'd not been to any alumni events or given a dime to the school b/c I couldn't in good conscience. After all, I explained, my company was at one time minority owned & is woman owned (majority ownerships, you understand).

It seems a lot of other people hadn't been to alumni events either so glad it wasn't just me who'd been a long ago graduate who'd not bothered. A girl who'd graduated a few years after me told me it got worse & apparently one frat whose house my chapter got was also involved in some racially discriminatory stuff (though they'd not done that when I was at Oglethorpe & had always been nice to us; at that time, they were more known for their legendary parties).

4. It was kind of weird going to this one after having gone to so many lawyer & creative industry networking events. This one was definitely better than most lawyer networking events I've gone to. Now we'll just see if anyone writes back or reaches out to me. I gave out business cards (since they're the lawyer's MasterCard; you never leave home without them) & just had to put more in my bag for the start of NY Comic Con tomorrow.

So, even though I got into the LinkedIn alumni group of another school entirely at random (you could say they "adopted" me I guess though no one ever contacted me or asked me things from there) I feel I can claim Oglethorpe again. I still don't know exactly when the racist frat left but I do know it was probably after 2009 if Wikipedia can be trusted.

All in all, it was a pleasant surprise & we'll see how this whole thing plays out.

Tradition for Tradition's Sake: How Stupid!

So you've read about how my husband has a faux union, right? If you haven't, well pretty much any employee who works for NYC except maybe the MTA has a faux union (as I learned recently). He told me that when this union next had a meeting, he'd be showing up.

No sooner than he gets notification of it (which is incredibly short notice in lawyer/film exec land) being next week that he decides not to go.

Here's where I think there's some conspiracy here: it's at 7:45 p.m. at an area of NYC that is in a transit dead zone. You have to take 2 buses from the nearest subway stop in Flushing to get to the location. I've spoken before in this blog about how I feel the location of this meeting is a deliberate attempt to avoid accountability to the membership for the shitty behavior this union engages in (that is, ZERO advocacy).

Are we aware that ALL the librarians are now forced to work until 7 p.m.? Oh, and it takes 1 hour & 12 minutes to get there from my neighborhood where there are 2 library branches.

My husband pointed out this time issue in the private union social media area where some hot shot claimed that 7:45 meant 8 p.m. I want him to point out to this pinhead that it doesn't do shit for the people working at these 2 libraries in my neighborhood. That tells me that they're trying to freeze out the majority of people in this system.

Maybe some of my husband's co-workers are weak willed, spineless & stupid (in fact, I know some of them fit one or more of these categories as one of them was stupid enough to think she could try & censor ME of all people; don't think you won't be getting yours, Little Bitch). But guess what? I'm NOT stupid! My husband isn't stupid either. Nor are a good chunk of his co-workers, some of whom aren't little bitches to the system.

I asked my husband why he's nice to these fuckers who are supposed to be his "representatives." He doesn't work for them! They are not his bosses! They work FOR him & all his co-workers. They need to stop rolling over & be effective advocates. I swear, if I encountered them as a business owner I would laugh my ass off. I told my husband that I will happily pay money to someone in this faux union to get in their faces & not back down.

One justification these people offered for keeping the no strike clause was "tradition," claiming some of the clauses have been in the contract since the '60s.

Well, you know slavery was legal for hundreds of years as well. Should we bring THAT back? How about exempting members of Congress from insider trading laws? The lack of stock market regulation before the stock market crash that caused the Great Depression? What about continuing to deny marriage rights to gay people or having no regulation on our foods? Maybe we should also bring back child labor since that was tradition for centuries before modern times!

Tradition is the shittiest argument for doing anything, if you ask me. Using "tradition" as your argument for doing something or not doing it just means "I'm too much of a lazy & fat fuck to do this differently. I'm also too small minded to bother giving your idea any speck of credence, even though you're probably right."

Just because something is a tradition doesn't mean it's right, fair, useful or efficient. Times change, people change, communities change. Some "traditions" should be extinguished permanently. We don't have afternoon tea anymore, do we? Women aren't property & we don't have segregated bathrooms anymore.

Don't tell me you do something because of tradition. Tell me you do it out of respect or because a policy is sound, efficient, etc. I'm sure if you were alive during segregation you'd have been an anti-integrationist since integration was violating tradition. We can't have that! Oh, God forbid your stupid tradition isn't allowed to be used as an excuse to engage in hate crimes.

Whaa, whaa! Look how sympathetic I am to you & your "tradition." Nope, I'm not a religious follower in case you really wondered. Growing up in a religious family & seeing hypocrisy all the time tends to disillusion you from religion. Working with a would-be lobbyist who is trying to get clergy members to help him who tells you he has to engage in legalized bribery to get them to do anything instead of them being willing to do anything b/c it's "right" or the "Christian" thing to do hardens that cynicism.

If anything, people like Romney or Ryan or Akin are doing more to create atheists & agnostics than any atheist or agnostic leader ever could. I'm sure they're also helping build the ranks of the Satanists, pagans and followers of other religions the Christians hate.

The next time Todd Akin says something stupid, I'm tempted to mail a tube of super glue to his offices & enclosing a note suggesting he use that on his lips since they look so dull on TV. This happened on a episode of Designing Women with Susanne gluing her lips shut to where she couldn't talk. How I wish it would happen to him and all the other nutjobs that have taken over the Republican party.

Speaking of other stupid traditions, it's very fucking stupid to only vote for the white guy because all the other presidents have been white guys. If you're voting for people based on this, why don't you at least vote for the best looking white guy? What attractive ones have been there other than JFK? I mean, a good contingent of the population doesn't vote with their brains or based on a candidate's intelligence (if they did, people like Akin would never be in public office) so why aren't they voting for the pretty boys?!

If I ever got thrust into politics in some way (since I have gotten thrust into many things in my time since I opened my mouth to object to something or point out the shortcomings so why should politics be any different), I would go toe to toe with any of my so called "prettiest" local representatives. I know I could win that contest hands down. I'd also want to win the "loudest, scariest bitch" contest. That would be one I'd wear with pride & let's face it, you're not going to beat a natural redhead at that one.

Oh, and another time "tradition" is used as an argument to do something? Fraternity & sorority hazing. Do we find that acceptable? How many news stories do you see & hear about how horrible it is? How many TV movies have portrayed the evils of Greek life with hazing as a starring role or outspoken co-star?

My chapter didn't do it. Let's face it: if they had I & most of the members would have left and I'd have ended up doing bad things to any tormentor; I tend to be vindictive & hold grudges that last a lifetime. I also go for the jugular so think of messing with me like you would messing with a tiger or other wild animal that kills humans.

So, in sum if you're in favor of doing something because it's "tradition" then you must also favor hazing, slavery, no rights for women, no food safety standards & child labor. After all, a tradition is a tradition is a tradition. If you don't examine your own for rational purpose when someone suggests change, then you are at best an idiot & at worst an animal who should be put down with some well placed bullets.

Casting, Racism & The Phenomenon of "Sticking to Your Own Kind"

I read this article on Slate yesterday & thought it was definitely one to share. After all, it's about a subject anyone in the entertainment industry is familiar with: breakdowns.

Personally, I thought this article was interesting. In fact, the agent I interned with did tell me that anytime a breakdown role didn't specify ethnicity or say "Open to all ethnicities" that meant only white people should submit for it. As someone working in this business, I wonder where it's going to go.

I'd also like to see what those involved with independent film companies have to say on the subject or how they do casting. Do they go by the same standards or do they simply practice diversity casting without making a big issue of it? Does it matter who is doing the casting?

Personally, when I've written something I never have an image in mind of a character's race. I just think of the personality traits & go from there. If the character isn't based on someone I actually know or there isn't some dialogue related to a character's description or situation (say a business executive who's talking about racism on a subject relevant to what the speaker would look like), it's just not something at the forefront of my mind. In fact, I think if I did do that I think it would screw up the writing process & make your character too boring or common.

Also, I REALLY hate tokenism & diversity for diversity's sake. I think "diversity" should be a natural process, not something you force into the process. Injecting diversity should not be like trying to put on a pair of skinny jeans that are two sizes too small for you.

Perhaps I encounter the whole concept of racism differently. After all, natural redheads are the smallest minority of them all. We're the most disregarded & the most overlooked; I can't even create a Mii that actually looks like me. Only perhaps someone of mixed race or a Native American can also make that claim. Forget about hair products as well. If you're a redhead, that industry is saying "screw you" on a regular basis when it comes to hair clips that are supposed to blend in with your hair.

Even in high school I was an anomaly since I actually had friends who were black (and real friends, not tokens) as well as other ethnicities. This came up when a Twitter follower retweeted some news that apparently the author of a book called Some of My Best Friends Are Black didn't actually have any black friends. It brought up a point on how people still tend to "stick with their own kind" in social situations and their day to day lives.

Certainly hasn't been true for my life; for one thing, how many redheads am I going to find to talk to? I also think being a natural redhead is a bit like being a drag queen (at least if you're me); there's only room for ONE in a group & we aren't into begging for attention from others. I don't think any naturally redhaired woman would want to share her sexiness & specialness with some other woman who looked like her. Or that's just me since I admit to being very competitive on certain things & when you have a unique identity, you get used to being the only one after a while.

The only use I see to having a bunch of friends who looked exactly like me would be the whole having an army or clones so we could all switch places sometime. Overall, it would just freak me out though. Plus, I would never want to live in White Land. I just couldn't see doing that, ever. It weirded me out in college to hear about white people who'd never seen a person of color before.

So it just surprises me that I'm apparently an oddity because I actually speak to people outside my own race & have friendships with them.

Oh, and free advice: if you actually have any friends who are black, you would NEVER in a trillion years refer to or call a black person the n-word (as in, the actual word & not "the n-word"). My mother told us from a very early age not to use it after we'd heard it at our Christian private school of all places (yes, that place was a real bastion of Christian love wasn't it?). I had a college roommate who was a racist & a black person (yes, you can be racist without being white or even an American citizen/illegal/permanent resident) but I never called her the n-word. It never really occurred to me to do it actually, since I'd pegged her as a garden variety bitch & her race had nothing to do with her crappy behavior.

I did hear later on that she had some racist suite mates. The only thing I said at the time was that I generally don't condone racism but in her case, I'd make an exception. She also hated cats & told me about a class she'd taken where she got to dissect them. Need I say any more? She never said she liked dogs instead so I think that tells you something about the type of person she was.

Nor do you have any black friends or other friends of color if I don't see you interacting with them on Facebook or talking to them more than once or twice a year. If you have family members who are black, you sure as hell would not be using the n-word since I know you wouldn't want someone doing that to your family members (at least if you don't hate their guts).

Anyone who uses that word & tells you either of those things is a big, fat liar. Case closed, end of story.

So I wonder if maybe more people in the business had the experience I did that this whole diversity push wouldn't be necessary. If they'd not been exposed to the stereotypes of folks but just knew people of color as regular, everyday folk doing different things. Thoughts?

"Racist" Halloween Costumes & Who's "Too Old" to Trick or Treat

Well, I got invited to a Halloween party tomorrow night that is free. This after I went to a Studio 54 themed event on Friday night in Queens wearing a short dress and having nothing but pantyhose between my legs & the cold wind outside. Takes a level of chutzpa to do that, let me tell you!

Anyhow, after a little thinking with limited resources, my reserve of costumes & considering the cold weather tomorrow night (banning anything sexy or skimpy), I decided to go with the scariest costume of all that is also somewhat accurate & intellectual: a Christian fundamentalist. Not a mainstream Christian, mind you but one of those whackjobs that religious folk I know would shake their head at & say "God help us all!"

I have to go get materials to make a sign tomorrow & I need to see if I've got a Bible lying around but otherwise, you have my husband to thank for this one. I tried on this old dress I have recently to make sure it still fit me & he told me it looked too frumpy on me. It's a long sleeved one with a longer skirt that looks like something you'd wear at a church. As fundies are hardcore about clothing length & not showing stuff, I figured this outfit was perfect. I'd also never get to wear it under normal circumstances. Sadly, I thought of dressing as that woman who complained about Married with Children in the '80s but since I'm a redhead, that doesn't work.

You haven't heard about the best touch though: I'm also going to wear devil horns since I believe these sorts of fundamentalists are just as bad as any "sinner" they dare to condemn. It's a reaction to religious hypocrites.

If you're a religious person who objects to this outfit? First off, maybe you should be taking these fundies to task as a religious person. They are reflecting badly on you, after all. Second, I've earned the right to attack this contingency considering I lived in a religious household, went to a religious school as a child & had to deal with this crap due to my years of living in the South. By the way, my husband has earned this right as well. Third, if you're not a fake Christian, you shouldn't get offended because I'm not attacking you. If you're offended, maybe you should take a good hard look at yourself and see if maybe you're upset because I've hit too close to home & you don't like admitting that you are a hypocrite.

On that note, there are many costumes that are offensive that I would never do. For one thing, I wouldn't go around in black face or dressing as a poor person. Some foreclosure law firm in Buffalo apparently did this for last year's Halloween party.

I think this theme is completely tacky, lacks in class and is horrible PR for the law firm. If you asked me to participate in such a theme, I'd refuse since I do know people who are in dire economic straits. I also think these fuckers are just making themselves into targets for angry people who were victims of the housing crisis, especially the big name partners at this firm. Stuff like this is just stupid to do. I wouldn't feel the least bit of sympathy if these morons ended up on the business end of a shotgun held by some disillusioned individual they personally ousted from their home of however many years.

Believe me, no rational person would feel sympathy for this trash either (and yes if you would suggest insulting people who are in a victim position with respect to your business, especially as an attorney who presumably should know better & is held to higher standards of ethics then you are trash).

That being said, however, I don't think it's necessary to outlaw such themes or ban certain costumes like this group proposes to do.

For one thing, let's have a sense of humor, okay? Some people most definitely fit that stereotype & trust me, the self-aware ones aren't offended. You know, dressing as a hooker says something about me as a woman. Should I get all pissy & demand that no one ever dresses that way again?

Before you get all high & mighty on racial stereotypes & "white privilege," let me give you some perspective on "white privilege": that shit exists for RICH, white people (oftentimes, males)!!!!!! Talk to me about how much white privilege I've had when you have people assume you don't need financial aid because of YOUR race, ignoring your family's financial condition or how much need you actually have. That has happened to me.

How much white privilege have the injured Occupy protestors been recipients of? I saw white girls getting maced & white men being dragged off in handcuffs as well as roughed up by the police. Take your head out of your ass & see the world around you as it really is.

Stop being a martyr & making assumptions you don't know shit about. Live incognito as a white person for a few months if you want to make these grand proclamations about how easy white people have it, especially if they don't come from money. Until then, shut up! You don't hear me making proclamations about your personal experiences or how easy your life is. I certainly could but since I know a fair amount of people outside my race & don't view them as my "token" friend from XYZ group, I know a basic truism: someone else always has it worse than you do.

Second, I strongly think if you get easily offended by something as simple as a costume you're never going to make it in the real world. You also really ought to save that venom for things like tokenism & inequality for women in the workplace. Go try to solve real problems instead of trying to take away one day in the year people get to blow off steam & be something they wouldn't get to be otherwise (unless, of course, they are actors). You're as bad as the people who force out Christmas from the public realm.

Third, social stigma is a powerful thing. Let's use that instead of direct regulation or forcing retailers to stop selling particular costumes. I remember where groups dealing with illegal immigrants got all offended by illegal alien costumes & tried to get retailers to remove them from the shelves. Maybe these people should spend more time encouraging folk to have loyalties to THIS damn country or getting employers to pay them minimum wage like everyone else so we wouldn't have the pay problems we're having. How about that, huh?

On trick or treating: this story asks "how old is too old?" I say you're never too old. If you feel compelled to go beg for candy, do so. Some adults look like kids because they are short & tiny. Some actors look like high school kids (I've been told I look like a kid though I would hope I don't look younger than college aged).

Plus, you're as young as you feel. Don't let some snotty adult who was 100 when they were 10 tell you what to do! Those jerks probably never take their kids trick or treating in costume or know how to have any fun whatsoever. We call them "killjoys." I think if there were fewer of them, the world would be a much better place.

I heard about nighttime curfews on Halloween night in various places & that also bothers me on a fundamental level, considering my whole history. Read last year's Halloween rant for details on that.

Whose Injustice Was Worse & Why That's a Stupid Argument

Earlier this week, I witnessed a very ugly incident that shouldn't have happened. How come?

A) It happened in Manhattan of NYC
B) It was at a restaurant where gay pride flags were proudly displayed
C) The person who was racist was a drag queen
D) The drag queen was a member of a minority group

The manager claims this host will be out. Regardless of apologies and so forth from this restaurant, we vow not to return if this person continues to be the host. There's teasing & there's downright racism. Nor would I plan future film company events there; after all, we are not a group that cares about skin color, sexual orientation or practices that don't affect our business or our lives. We want people to feel WELCOME around us.

As we left, one drunk black woman (who may have been the one who did a God awful version of the song "Sweet Thing") dared to try holding up a yardstick to her own minority group's experiences in racism.

Here is an example of a stupid pissing contest: trying to claim that your ethnic group faced more discrimination than another oppressed group.

For one thing, unless YOU PERSONALLY experienced A) slavery, B) segregation, C) any other harm that occurred to your ethic group but not you personally, do not talk to me about it like it's your personal harm. I will tell you you're looking damn good to be over 200 years old if you bitch to me about slavery. Unless you were ever made to sit on the back of the bus, shut up.

Guess what? When you bitch about things you didn't actually live, you belittle the people who actually did experience that stuff. You wouldn't have opportunities today if your ancestors didn't stand up to that stuff & go through extremely shitty events to do it. Internalizing things you didn't live is, in my book, trying to compare yourself to those people & saying you're just as much a victim as them.

You aren't!! If I was your ancestor & had gone through the things you were internalizing, I would come back and give you a massive supernatural beat down.

Fight your own damn battles! Talk to me about events that happened to you like dealings with the law or the government. Talk to me about employer discrimination. There's still plenty of racism going on in America & I'm sure you've got a real experience to talk about. Don't talk to me about slavery or segregation when you're the same age as me unless you actually lived that stuff. It sure as hell wasn't an institution in the 1980s & 1990s!

Arguing for slavery reparations just weakens any attempt to fix racism in this country. Do you support reparations to Native Americans since the government stole their land & they continue to go through problems? What about reparations to Holocaust survivors? How about reparations to Italian Americans who were held in concentration camps during World War II (yes, that did happen since my husband learned that from his grandfather who himself was Italian & fought in that war)? Japanese Americans who were also in concentration camps during World War II? A lot of that stuff happened MUCH later. If you don't support those reparations as well, then you're a hypocrite.

I find the "oh, poor me I'm such a victim of discrimination" arguments to be stupid. For one thing, there's always someone who's got it worse than you be it in racist encounters or life as a whole. Second, how about getting off your ass & fighting it instead of whining? No one wants to hear it. Finally, why all the hate on that? How about respecting others & treating them as you'd want to be treated? When you go back to the very beginning, we're all related in some way.

And you know something else? Natural redheads are a far greater minority than anybody else. There's 1% of us. You want to talk about stereotypes? I can name you a dozen. Do you want to claim people look at you like you're from another planet? I get that in far more places than you. I'm usually the only redhead when I go somewhere; often the only natural one. I also get just as much outcast treatment as anybody else; that's probably why I've not had very many white friends.

Oh, and does everyone think you're related to every other person in your race? I'm sure there are parts of this country where that doesn't happen. Not true for natural redheads. I'd have to go to Ireland or Scotland & even then, I'm not sure if people would still think you're related to all the natural redheads. I'll tell you if I ever get to go; I feel like it would be interesting to be in the majority for a change.

We even had a school system ban our hair color in the past year! So we've been discriminated against as well. Not to mention South Park lampooned us.

Finally, no one's going to accuse you of incest if you date someone in your race. If I dated a red haired guy, people would think I was sleeping with my brother. I'm sure if you went to get a marriage license, the clerk would probably try to stop you since people would think "2 natural redheads. They must be related!" We had a neighbor who was a redhead & everyone thought he was our little brother when we all played outside. It was a reason I never dated red haired guys; I didn't want to go through that hassle + I don't think most red haired guys are even remotely attractive. You can call me a traitor on that one but we all know it's true. If you're a red haired guy who's attractive, you're a very rare breed.

So, yeah redheads don't like being lumped in with the white people. Especially the blonds. Oh, God the blonds!! That's another entry, though.

See why I have plans to create a scholarship only for natural redheads? I don't care what color your skin is; you just have to be a natural redhead. I read something about a very young black girl who was a natural redhead (I think she was 3 at the time I read it). Ask her about the natural redhead experience when she's 18; I'm sure she could tell you worse things.

"Diversity" Efforts

This is a topic I've been ranting about for quite some time. I think I've touched on it a few times here but until now, haven't really concentrated a specific rant on it.

Well, after seeing this job ad yesterday, I think it's time I did so:

Manager Diversity and Inclusion (Downtown)
Date: 2011-01-14, 2:30PM EST
Reply to: rmann@manhattanstaffing.com [Errors when replying to ads?]

Prominent law firm is searching for one to design diversity training programs, assist in the development of practices to recruit, retain and promote women and minority attorneys, coordinate programs and social events relating to firm's diversity initiatve, as well as getting involved in various other related projects. Candidate must have a college degree, and at least two years related experience. JD's with staff-side experience are encouraged to apply . Very good benefits.

* Compensation: to 175K D.O.E.
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* Please, no phone calls about this job!
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

PostingID: 2160505812

For those outside the legal field, here's a fact you may or may not be aware of. Perhaps if you know me well or even if you know my background, this shows some obvious reasons I don't like the BigLaw crowd in general & those types have to work harder to prove themselves with me.

Here goes: tons of partners at bigger firms are racist, sexist scum bags who'd love to see the country go back to the 1800s when there was slavery, women were property & you'd be ostracized if you got pregnant before marriage, even if you were the victim of a rape.

Now you may argue "But there are women partners & minorities working in law firms! Surely, racism & sexism are dead, relics of the past."

I'd say "Have you ever heard of tokenism? It's very much alive & well."

I'm not saying this based on presumption or guessing games: I'm saying based on statements from friends, things I've read in blogs written by lawyers on life in law firms and knowledge of a culture that every attorney knows about but few are making little real effort to change.

What do I mean by "real" effort? I mean not keeping a minority person around for the sake of tokenism or making that person into your figurehead to look good to the public or in-house lawyers. I mean not penalizing women who decide to have children or get married by undermining them and claiming they are inferior because they choose to be involved parents instead of hiring a housekeeper to be a surrogate mother.

Real effort is treating someone of a minority group the same as you would anybody else. Looking past the color or gender to find a real person who may not be all that different from you.

I was also watching that episode of A Different World last night where Dwayne & Ron are involved in the racial incident & have to go to the holding pen with the white security officer. If you haven't seen it, you should. I applaud the writers of that show for presenting a balanced view of racism and not just proclaiming that all white people are racists & all black people are their victims. I firmly believe anyone can be a racist & everyone who does it has an equal role in it.

For an example in my life of real effort, I look to my high school. Race wasn't nearly the issue there as it was in college or the legal field. Even my law school made a big thing of "diversity" and "inclusion." How did people do it, though? By segregating people into groups!

Who sees the jacked up irony there? As a perpetual outsider, I make friends with people who show me friendship. I could care less about race; in fact, many of my close friends, my real friends, weren't white. They were never my "tokens." If anything, I might have been someone else's token. That's still true today, in fact. Doesn't bother me since I'll take real friends over fake ones & as a redhead, I'm going to stand out regardless.

One day when I was in college, this girl from NYC who was involved in the school's starting a historically black sorority talked about how she hated being known as "the black girl" to white people. I thought to myself "Honey, that kind of thing doesn't work with me. I've had so many black female friends in my life that none of them get to be 'the black girl.'" I even made the comment that when I first met folk, I don't think of them as "Oh, you're [insert race here]." I notice stuff like someone being in my class or saying something I thought was stupid or wearing something I though would look great on me; I remember commenting on that distinction, actually. Believe me, you are NOT going to be "the [insert race] person" with me b/c that gets too confusing.

Over the years, I've had a lot of race discussions with people. No one's ever called me a racist or claimed I was one before or afterward; we've just been people describing our perspectives. A big one for me is the race debate along with the class divide; many people I spoke to even agreed that if you're a minority who comes from money, it's unfair for you to get opportunities ahead of poor white kids since your presence in a school like my college doesn't contribute to diversity while mine as a poor kid would. That kind of thing happens all the time, though & I experienced it firsthand.

In my college, race issues were a HUGE deal. Never mind that we were right near some very good black colleges where black folks could go to school without racist assholes from backwoods GA bothering them. I don't blame black students for not wanting to go to my college; I had no idea they made race such a big issue until I started school there. Their racism is a huge reason I'll never donate money to them.

To combat this whole situation, my undergrad attempted "diversity" and "inclusion" efforts. We never had these things in my high school. It was just hang out with who you want to. I hung out with who I liked & stayed myself. Yeah, there were cliques but no one had to be told how to treat minorities with basic human respect. If you made a racial slur in my high school, half the white kids would have taken a swing at you right along with the black kids (including me). I've told people off on shit like that since that's a personal attack on my friends, which is the same as an attack on me. Just don't make racist remarks around me if you want to live.

So, I have serious problems with trying to inject "diversity" and "inclusion" along with the type of hiring selection for such a position in a law firm. First, the problem with "diversity" efforts:

A) Not addressing real problems like racism of law firm partners & not viewing people primarily as "that black girl" or "that Mexican guy." They have names, they have personalities. Use that. I think doing anything less when you're supposed to be working with these people is racist.

Using description is one thing but I recall a guy who worked with me at the museum who I heard addressed as "Black [insert name]" by white folk. I can't imagine he knew about it b/c he never called himself that. I just knew him as my co-worker from Michigan who said I was the real life Daria.

Who wants to bet that kind of thing doesn't happen in these firms?

B) Tokenism. Most of the time, no one bothers listening to these women & minorities who come in through these programs. They don't get support, respect or the opportunity to make suggestions that are taken seriously. No wonder women & minorities leave in droves; wouldn't you?

C) Separation. Separating people tells them they're not as good so they need special help. That doesn't truly include anyone who gets it. That just says "Here's a handout b/c you're not good enough to do it on your own." Spare me your handout!

Now for hiring these directors:

A) First off, having experience at these shallow efforts at other places doesn't mean you know beans about the problem. You likely have that superficial understanding of "inclusion" like the people at my undergrad did & no clue how to treat anyone equally.

I strongly believe that if you're not part of that group or someone who personally experienced this kind of thing, you can't figure out a way to fix things. You're just on the outside looking in.

B) The programs themselves are flawed & the academics who have "prior experience" are not going to have new ideas. They'll just continue the tokenism & nothing will change.

C) Academic understanding of any problem isn't the same as real life experience. I can tell you a lot more about experiences I've lived than someone who's never had that happen.

In conclusion, you don't make a place more open to women and minorities by creating shallow "diversity" efforts & attempts at "inclusion." You make your environment more pleasant for everybody. You approach people as people, looking at everything about them. Law firms are known for looking only at grades and Ivy League schools, which do result in disparate impact on minorities & women.

If they really gave a damn about diversity, they'd look at the total person. Their total reputation & potential without any regard to color, name, etc. The people I work with don't base me or anyone else's competence on color, directly or indirectly. No one goes on a white person bitch fest around me.

Until my undergrad really hammers down on the racist fringe (kicking the racist frat out would be a start) & the law firms quash the bigots, no diversity effort is going to change things. No one I work with has to use a "diversity" effort or make a big deal about people's racial background (or orientation, for that matter); different people just feel comfortable dealing with them.

THAT'S what these morons should be doing if they want real change. Otherwise, it's just a dog & pony show this cynic could care less about.

What the Hell is Up With People Violating Federal Law or Playing God When They're Just Customer Service Reps???

I just saw this blog post in a community I watch that reminded me of What Would You Do come to life. For those who don't know of it, there's an ABC Primetime TV show segment of 20/20 in America called What Would You Do? & it's a hidden camera situation show that creates scenarios to see how real people react to particular situations.

This particular post reminded me of episodes they've done where the waiter refused service to drag queens or gay couples with children. Guess what my take on that kind of thing is: do your damn job & leave your beliefs out of it! If you work in a service industry, your job is to serve.

It is NOT your job to preach at people, attempt to convert them to your viewpoint or do anything else aside from providing equally competent (ideally good) service that everyone else who walks through the door gets. If you want to preach at people or be a bigot, do it at YOUR church or on your OWN time.

Don't do it on your employer's time! Lawyers are required under ethics rules to simply turn down a case if they have philosophical differences on racial or gender matters. This is what I'd do if some waiter or other service person asked me to defend them in a situation like this; I have no sympathy for minimum wage service people who want to play missionary.

I worked in retail for 7 years, including in the lingerie/sleepwear department of JcPenney. If any man had asked me about lingerie at our store in a larger size, I would never have pried into his reasons or purposes for such questions; I'd simply answer them & do the job I got paid to do. One of my co-workers told me about such a situation happening to her: there was no tirade or discussion about the morality of cross dressing.

And stuff like this? Or this?

Let me break it down for you, retards: this is 2010!!! NOT 1950. We have a little thing called "civil rights." The U.S. Supreme Court decided in the early '60s that restaurants far away from major interstates can not even have segregated seating since that indeed affects interstate commerce, something the federal government has every right to control if certain states want to allow open bigotry.

If this didn't happen, you'd still have segregated bathrooms in the Deep South if Prom Night in Mississippi is any indication of current racial attitudes down there.

Apparently that's a foreign concept to Mr. Navarro, employee of Con Edison. If I were the Con Edison management, I would fire this man in an instant. Not only is he breaking NY state law, he apparently missed his calling to work with the Westboro Baptist Cult folk. You want to protest against gay people? Maybe you should join them. Spare me any talk of "Oh, this person has a family & they need a job": there's thousands of unemployed people in NYC right now who I'm sure could do this job much better and for half the salary being paid to this low life. I'm quite certain those Westboro cult folk would take care of him & his family very nicely considering they're about as beloved in America as Adolf Hitler.

I also know of a club in Manhattan that is apparently racist (the Continental) & based on what I've read about their practices, I'd never go there either. In fact, you'd better hope I don't see discrimination happening b/c I will get in your face. If you're some little underling, your boss will know about it & you'll probably get fired for exposing the company to potential big money, high publicity lawsuits. If you're the owner, I will probably call you an idiot to your face.

And if you're an actor who's doing this sort of thing??? You'll definitely not move up in your career if I see such a display since I'll tell everyone I know about it. So will anyone else in the business since no film company, no producer, no big shot needs the legal liability coming with hiring a bigot (discriminating against gay people DOES, in fact, make you a bigot). Not to mention pissing off any other minority in the business who may have worked with the big shots for years & established themselves far more than your little discriminating butt ever will.

If you're the victim, I will walk up & pull the lawyer card on the bitchy server, customer service rep, whomever. My spouse & I will also leave without paying + bigot, you'll be lucky if you simply get no tip & don't have to call the cops for your own protection. To give you an idea of my capacity for asserting myself, I read this story a few days ago & realized I'd do the exact same thing if I were in that situation.

In fact, my husband would love to see this Mr. Navarro fired considering that we as the customers of a business have every right not to bankroll homophobia, racial discrimination or anything else we find offensive. Having a bigot on your payroll, in my book, is indeed bankrolling discrimination. It's a reason I'll never give money to my undergrad: I'm not bankrolling a racist fraternity that they continue to allow on that campus.

Now I know there are racists, religious zealots, whatever who have jobs. Keep your beliefs to yourself (not let it enter your working life) & it won't be an issue. Once you do, however, it becomes your employer's and your customers' issue. If you can't evolve or at least keep your bigotry in check, I suggest moving to your own island or starting your own cult with like minded people in a distant land. For God's sake, don't live in a major city filled with people who are different from you.

And personally, I'd love to bomb those cesspools of bigots in an attempt to clean out the gene pool but that's a different story.

Sociopaths or Just Like You & Me??

I was watching that new A&E show Aftermath yesterday. The episode was about none other than Bernie Goetz. If you don't know who he is, this Wikipedia link will get you up to speed.

Now, after watching this show I heard about this today.

Apparently, this driver shot up his workplace after being asked to resign for stealing beer. Here's the twist, though. According to people close to this guy, he shot people who were being racist against him & apparently "had complained of racial harassment and said he found a picture of a noose and a racial epithet written on a bathroom wall". But as we all know, there's one side to a story, the other side & the truth is somewhere in between.

My thoughts: I'm 100% in favor of not letting anyone push you around regardless of their race, gender, age, etc. I don't support racism & I don't support targeting people who did nothing to you or your loved ones (spouses, children, siblings, parents, etc.).

When someone bullies another person, uses racial harassment or tries to do something wrong, then I 100% agree w/the comment Bernie Goetz made yesterday on that program about those people injuring themselves. He said that he didn't feel anything for the people he shot since they'd been trying to hurt him & he simply fought back.

Now while I think it's downright stupid to assume that race, gender, whatever is a factor in who's going to harm you (no one is "safe"), I do agree w/that basic point. It's karma coming to bite you in the ass.

I think that people who say shooting bullies & people trying to hurt or harm you in some way is never justified are the people who have never been bullied, robbed or threatened. It's especially patronizing to make remarks like that when you're talking about someone who's been bullied over long periods of time. That's eventually going to make a victim snap; look at what happened to John Wayne Bobbit after he went around abusing his wife. God knows if I didn't have goals or a decent future ahead of me, I'd certainly consider doing the same things. I'd certainly fight back if someone messed with me.

Perhaps some of them are bullies themselves; I really wouldn't shed tears for someone who got what was coming to him/her but might feel bad for any kids these people had since they wouldn't really be able to reform the person or tell them not to bully others. Not to mention the quality of parenting they'd be forced to deal with.

I have to wonder how many people in society would do just what Bernie Goetz did if they were in that situation. Or how many would shoot up supervisors and co-workers at a job if they were being tossed out like garbage or getting harassed or somehow being oppressed or abused in the workplace? I'm not talking about the CT story now but of cases where these things did happen. If you think it doesn't, then I'd like to know if you're offering apartments for rent in that perfect bubble you live in.

Bernie Goetz also has a pet squirrel so he kind of reminds me of my husband, who'd like a pet squirrel but has a large cat who would be displeased & probably eat it. I tell you, I'd vote for that guy over some fat cat like Bloomberg in a second. If he's not from a rich family or catering to some scummy PAC or lobbyist, even better. Believer of common sense? Then what can I do to help?

One nagging question that still kills me: Do you ever notice that every single news story on these shootings is about someone who's considered a "loner"? Someone who's not getting along with the majority of society & generally marches to his/her own drummer. Why are there never stories about murderers who have lots of friends & are considered part of the Shiny Happy People Club??? Well, except for Ted Bundy.

It also makes me wonder whether everyone thinks I and/or my husband will go on a shooting rampage since we're not exactly in the Shiny Happy People Club & we have friends who'd fit the descriptions of some of these people. Even WE fit a lot of these descriptions: quiet, keeping to yourself, not letting others push you around, being thought of as strange/weird. Part of that helps me to be heard when I've got something to say.

Apparently one sign of being a sociopath is having more affection for animals than people. Well, if that's true I & many others that I know fit that category. At least animals are consistent; they don't pretend to like you or play mind games. Looking at the collective & not individual people, I definitely relate better to cats than people as a whole. Why wouldn't I? My track record with cats on the whole is far better than my track record with people.

I wouldn't say I'd never go on a shooting spree or have no sociopathic tendencies at all (after all, I'm not a licensed psychologist) but I think far more of us are capable of it than society wants you to think. This is why smart people don't go around starting problems & being bullies to others. You do that stuff at your own peril. I might not get you but that doesn't mean someone (or even something) else won't. Life can mess you up in ways that people only wish they could.

One last thought: is it just me or is "oppositional defiance disorder" just fancy speak for being a brat? I heard of this particular diagnosis on an episode of Forensic Files last night concerning a teenager & maybe I'm clueless on how exactly one would get this diagnosis but that's what this sounds like to me. Couldn't every teenager on Earth claim to have this to get away with everything??? I'll save that rant for later.

Celebrity Bravos

I saw a couple news stories on celebrities doing things that I think are totally awesome.

While I'm not the biggest Jessica Alba fan (my husband sure isn't), if she wasn't just seeking a PR opportunity then you have to give her some credit for that. That goes for anyone doing something that wasn't just for PR. I'm big on people doing something genuine; I certainly don't do something nice just for PR. I'll do something nice b/c I wanted to or actually care about the situation.

Since you never hear about celebrities doing anything for "the little people," I thought these people should be commended for it. So should Morgan Freeman, in fact. If you haven't seen "Prom Night in Mississippi," you should ASAP. It's a documentary about this small town in Mississippi that hasn't caught up to the 21st Century & STILL had segregated proms.

I still can't wrap my head around that one since I've had friends of other races since I was old enough to interact w/anyone (earliest I remember this is about 3). Most of my true friends in high school, especially in my own grade, were black so I'd never go for the idea of a segregated anything. Morgan Freeman also has some views on race that I completely agree with, such as not having the concept of Black History month & the like today if black people want to be equal in society. How about celebrating the accomplishments of black people ALL the time? How about not saying racism is dead, because it isn't & admitting that ANYONE can be a racist? Or actually BEING colorblind?

Okay, rant over. Just wanted to say that these sorts of things are the kind of stuff I'd do if I was famous & probably will even w/just professional fame.

Racism & the "Censored 11"

Even though I'm working at a TV production company, I actually don't watch many current shows. The most recent thing I've seen is "United States of Tara," a program on Showtime that I must say is quite innovative not just b/c of the main character but b/c of the civilized treatment it gives to homosexuality as seen in Tara's son, Marshall. I can't wait to see where it goes. A few others I'm looking forward to are "Breaking Bad" and the next season of "The Boondocks."

There are a lot of earlier shows that I like but one of the things I've watched since I was little was cartoons. Particularly Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc. from the pre-1948 era. My husband's also a cartoon watcher; we've actually gotten EVERY SINGLE Golden Collection DVD & will probably get the next Bugs Bunny & Daffy Duck sets in April.

If you've got a smart remark about my watching cartoons, kiss my ass!!!

If you watch "Family Guy," "The Simpsons," or "South Park" you definitely have NO credibility here. The Looney Tunes shorts were originally for grown ups, NOT kids.

Since these cartoons were made back in the '30s & '40s when racism was a-okay, there are a number of shorts where characters were in blackface or that featured black characters who were caricatures/stereotypes. This should give you a context about the Censored 11.

What is the "censored 11?" Read this.

Allegedly, Warner Bros lives in fear that there will be some massive backlash if they ever released these censored 11 cartoons. People believe that society has gotten WAY to PC for these shorts & others to ever see the light of day.

This is something I have a SEVERE problem with. I think the shorts should be released if:

* They are in a package labeled for "adults" or "adult collectors"; basically making clear that stupid parents don't get to whine & moan if their kids see them
* They are COMPLETE & UNEDITED

Now despite the best efforts of the Man, you can find these shorts online for downloading if you know where to look. I have personally seen the "Censored 11" cartoons; they are VERY offensive & completely non-PC.

BUT....if you wanted to teach someone about the conditions black people faced in that time, it's a very stark and hard-hitting way to do it. I think it's far more effective than saying "We were segregated." It's just like a classroom experiment where the blue eyed kids are treated as 2nd class citizens by the brown eyed kids.

Despite the offensiveness of these cartoons, there's two very good reasons why they should be released:

1. Historical: Censoring these shorts & trying to bury them is like denying racism existed. How do you expect to avoid the mistakes of the past by pretending they didn't happen? Not to mention the effectiveness of these shorts as a classroom teaching tool. Those & the Spike Lee movie "Bamboozled" could be the foundation of a wonderful course on how black people are portrayed & the pervading racism of those times and today. I think things are better but racism still exists. Many of us weren't alive to see those shorts or portrayals & denying they happened doesn't allow society to progress.

2. Giving a Pass: To me, censoring this stuff is like giving a pass to the old white guys who created it (maybe women had a role but considering the lack of women bosses at the time & utter sexism of the day, I assume men are to blame). Hiding it is the same as saying "It's okay that you created it. We aren't going to call you out for it." You know what, though? Regardless of the times, you should have to face the fact that you had a hand in promoting racism. I'd hope some of these people would own this fact & regret it today. How would you feel about creating that stuff if you had black friends or family members to answer to? I'm sure the media would LOVE to shirk its role in keeping black people down but if you're committed to equal rights for all, should you join in? I don't think so. I wouldn't let someone get away w/racism in my presence so why would I encourage someone to deny their actions by censoring something despicable that they did?

My mom, who was alive to see this stuff, also says that it's not the cartoons that's the problem. It's the parents & their attitudes about race. I'm fortunate that I never lived in White Land & had parents with close friends who weren't white. People being different was never considered a bad thing at my house since there was never that initial shock; there wasn't an "us vs. them" since we never really knew a world w/out people of color. My own mother is the one who told us never to use the "n-word" & taught us not to be bigots, unlike some of the kids attending the private school we were at. To give you an idea, the man who was principal at the time openly said he wouldn't let black children attend. Oh, and this was a religious school. I was 100% happier in public school.

I was shocked when I went to college in Atlanta & how much of an issue race IS down there. I couldn't conceivably deal w/a racist (and I mean someone who is an ACTUAL racist, NOT a person who is branded that by someone for not letting the person of color break rules or walk all over him/her). I HATE that stuff & won't give blanket $ to my undergrad b/c of their attitude about it. If I wanted to support racists, I'd give my money to the Ku Klux Klan. Don't hold your breath for that contribution.

For all this talk, my main point is that I'm anti-censorship & personal mores should have nothing to do with what the public can see. This goes regardless of how heated the topic is.