Carmen Van Kerckhove from Racialicious has submitted a panel idea for the SXSW Interactive Festival:

Can Social Media End Racism?
The tangled issues of race and privilege in our society come to a boiling point on the internet. Exploring the complicated place of race in society, this presentation examines the ideas of race in the digital environment with a specific focus on social media.

Kevin Hampton is a sports writer for the Corvallis Gazette Times. His latest blog post is titled, “Out with the blackout?“. In the post, Kevin states that “the people complaining know very well that there is no connection to racism.” Ummm, nope. I think they know very well that there is a connection to racism. (see blackface and something called “historical context“).

See Kevin’s post and my inner monologue after the cut…

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Kai has written a great post on white liberals…it’s a great read for anyone who commented on my Corvallis, Oregon post.

When Kai Chang writes a book (subtle nudge), we should all get in line at the store.

Countless blogospheric discussions on racism amply demonstrate the manner in which many white liberals start acting victimized and angry if anyone attempts to burst their racism-free bubble, oftentimes inexplicably bringing up non-white friends, lovers, adopted children, relatives, ancestors; dismissing, belittling, or obtusely misreading substantive historically-informed analysis of white supremacism as either “divisive rhetoric” or “flaming”; downplaying racism as an interpersonal social stigma and bad PR, rather than an overarching system of power under which we all live and which has socialized us all; and threatening to walk away from discussion if persons of color do not conform to a narrow white-centered comfort zone. Such people aren’t necessarily racists in the hate-crime sense of the word, but they are usually acting out social dynamics created by racism and replicating the racist social relationships they were conditioned since birth to replicate.

…a solid majority of white liberals maintain a fairly hostile posture toward anti-racist discourse and critique, while of course adamantly denying this hostility. Many white liberals consider themselves rather enlightened for their ability to retroactively support the Civil Rights movement and to quote safely dead anti-racist icons, even though their present-day physical, intellectual, and political orbits remain mostly segregated.

The September ‘07 edition of the Erase Racism Carnival is up at Reading Writing Living.

One of the newest additions to my blogroll, Joseph Orosco’s “Engage: Conversations in Philosophy,” is one of this month’s carnival participants.

Check out Ally Work for more information on the Erase Racism Carnival.

For the record, I believe that writing about white privilege and patriarchy is a positive thing to do. I feel very positive when I write about these particular barriers to social justice.

I feel that working towards the elimination of racism and sexism is a positive thing. It’s not an easy thing to do. It often hurts. There are comments that make my heart pound as I attempt to digest scattered remnants of thoughts that have been buried beneath piles of words. Sometimes it keeps me awake at night as I try to negotiate how to respond. It hurts to see comments from friends who say that I only talk about negatives. It is challenging.

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My current plate of consulting activities is currently full of heaping portions of projects. Thus the rationale for my recent spurt of blog posts. If I can get a lot of posts up in a short period of time then I may have more time to be productive. I could always go on another blogging hiatus but I’d rather not…

One of the aspects of blogging that seems to derail my productivity is the never ending buffet of comments from heterosexual white guys (hwg’s). My skin is fairly thick but my inner monologue always buzzes at me to address comments from hwg’s. In case you are wondering, I’m a card carrying member of the hwg club. I think that sometimes my identity is difficult to swallow for a lot of the hwg’s who wander to my site. It does not surprise me…if I had met me about 3 or 4 years ago I would have probably had difficulty digesting the social justice banquet that is set on the table of this blog. Here’s to life-long learning, good friends, and listening.

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Here is the first 30 minutes of Al Gore’s keynote at the NASPA/ACPA 2007 Joint Meeting. [27 mb mp3]

The talk was fairly similar to An Inconvenient Truth. Vice President Gore used an Apple MacBook Pro and Keynote 3.0 to deliver his presentation. It’s probably the best infographic talk that I have ever witnessed. The content and the presentation were stellar.

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I decided to pop out of my self-imposed blogging hiatus to address a recent comment on my site. It seems that a long-time reader of my blog, Shouting Thomas, has taken a bit of umbrage with, well, I guess my entire site — text and graphics included. According to Shouting Thomas, I am a “very silly young man.”

In order to fully comprehend Shouting Thomas’ comment, I feel that it is necessary to re-write his words as translated by my inner monologue.

For your reference and convenience, I am including the original comment sans inner monologue translations…

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Safe2Pee is a web directory of gender neutral bathrooms in the United States. Safe2Pee’s ever-expanding directory currently features 543 gender neutral bathrooms in 158 cities. This site is a great resource!

The goal of the project is to create a resource where people who do not feel comfortable with traditional public restrooms can find safe alternatives. The service aims to be accessible from a variety of mediums (computer, cell phone browser, maybe even a call-in number?), and to support advocacy and research on the subject of inclusive bathrooms.

Initially this service will only be available in the US, however we hope to expand and extend our capabilities rapidly. More features and greater customization will be available very soon!

Safe2Pee is a project of the Bathroom Liberation Front.

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