The Race Relations/Diversity/Equality Thread

[starlooker]

Here.

My country is scaring me as of late.

[LilBee91]

Remind to live in more liberal state (or country) when I go off to make my living. My morals are pretty conservative, but my politics are not, and that is just...not okay.

[Gravity Defier]

What is this country becoming, the Handmaid's Tale? Seriously. We're whores and cows...

[powerfulcheese04]

This stuff scares the ever living daylights out of me.

Dear men-who-are-not-my-husband, LEAVE MY REPRODUCTIVE TRACT (HELL, MY WHOLE BODY) ALONE! And even you, husband, merely get to have an opinion, but not a definitive say (not that he's ever wanted to).

[UnnDunn]

The galling thing is the sheer sincerity with which he said it, like he truly believes in the legitimacy of the point he is making.

It just sickens me when people talk that way.

[Eaquae Legit]

What is this country becoming, the Handmaid's Tale? Seriously. We're whores and cows...

I actually thought about that, too. Geez.

[Dr. Mobius]

You gals can do or not do whatever you want with your bodies so long as I can stare surreptitiously at your boobies.

[UnnDunn]

Edit: removed.

[Gravity Defier]

I don't relish the idea of having my reproductive rights stripped from me. I equally don't relish the idea of being a pair of walking tits to men; score one for being small-breasted.

[Young Val]

I don't even know how to process what's going on recently with women's rights. Or lack thereof. Every day there is some new proposed law, or PASSED law, or some politician saying something truly, unapologetically horrific.

And it terrifies me. And makes me so angry my eyes literally cloud over.

I can't contribute to the discussion here beyond that, at the moment, because it honestly makes me feel nauseous.

This sort of thing has been the topic of Rant (not debate. No one I socialize with would ever debate this) at my last three happy hours.

I just. I can't even.

[starlooker]

My particular favorite in Kansas is the law making it legal for your doctor to lie to you about fetal abnormalities or defects in order to prevent you from getting an abortion.

I want to scream.

So...I could risk a miscarriage through an amnio all so my doctor can pretend everything is fine, depriving me of choice or opportunity to prepare or potentially putting my health and life at risk and that's okay?

I feel so unheard, so - I don't know. Insulted, scared, angry.

[Young Val]

My particular favorite in Kansas is the law making it legal for your doctor to lie to you about fetal abnormalities or defects in order to prevent you from getting an abortion.

I want to scream.

So...I could risk a miscarriage through an amnio all so my doctor can pretend everything is fine, depriving me of choice or opportunity to prepare or potentially putting my health and life at risk and that's okay?

I feel so unheard, so - I don't know. Insulted, scared, angry.

WHAT?!

HAVE NOT HEARD ABOUT THAT ONE YET.

WHAT THE ACTUAL f***, PEOPLE.

[Jayelle]

Seriously, gals, you are all welcome to join me in the reproductive (or non) paradise that is Canada.

[Gravity Defier]

It's tempting...I'm looking at the price of BC without insurance and I want to pass out. I feel stupid for not asking them to do a whole year's worth when I had insurance (if they could or would allow it); it would have been $40 cheaper for a year, under my old insurance, than it will be for the cheapest 3 month supply I have found so far.

But if I wait for long enough, I won't be allowed to use it anyway, so I won't have to worry about the flipping outrageous costs.

[starlooker]

Yeah. Wish I were kidding. Am not. OK and AZ recently passed similar laws. I seriously want to move before getting pregnant again, even though I do trust my doctor/s.

[Dr. Mobius]

How the hell is that not malpractice?

[neo-dragon]

Seriously, gals, you are all welcome to join me in the reproductive (or non) paradise that is Canada.

Come on ladies. You know you want to. Leave now before they take away your right to travel.

[Eaquae Legit]

You gals can do or not do whatever you want with your bodies so long as I can stare surreptitiously at your boobies.

Eff that. I want to stare openly at their boobies.

Guys, while I fully understand that you're being tongue-in-cheek, I'm not sure that this is the time. I'm a Canadian living in the UK, and even I feel insulted, violated, and deeply, deeply angry about the issues being posted. Considering that those exact issues are the objectification of women and their reduction to sexual/reproductive functions, I ask (as a person, not a mod), that you take it elsewhere.

[powerfulcheese04]

Thanks, Ali. You said what I wanted to much more tactfully.

[starlooker]

Ditto.

[LilBee91]

Seriously, gals, you are all welcome to join me in the reproductive (or non) paradise that is Canada.

Come on ladies. You know you want to. Leave now before they take away your right to travel.

I've felt trapped since they started requiring a passport to go to Canada (even though I have one). Leaving is already difficult.

How easy is it to get Canadian citizenship?

[neo-dragon]

To tell the truth, I don't know what it entails, but I'm sure it can't be that hard.

[starlooker]

So, it is two in the morning. We're settling in for the marathon feed and I am turning all this over in my head and am so enraged I am going to try to rant via phone.

To begin with. The comment Ali linked to that started this. The man who thinks non-viable or stillborn babies after twenty weeks should be required to be carried to term because that's what his farm animals do. Excuse me. You are saying if I had discovered Atticus was going to die in the second half of my pregnancy, my feelings are comparable to a sow and my baby to a dead piglet? That any suffering my family and I would go through is sad, but we deserve no more say in the situation than your cow? That my husband could lose us both - I could die when means are available to save me - and you are so certain that is the will of God you want it enshrined into law?

(Boys, this is why the boobie jokes aren't funny. With this as context, the timing was incredibly off.)

And Kansas, you would really be okay with treating me like a farm animal. A pig has no right to have the risks of her pregnancy explained and neither do I.

And contraception. Wow. I had diabetes. My hands were completely disabled for a time. Now I have a newborn. And it is the state or an employer's business and right to condemn me for not wanting another pregnancy right now? Because my family planning is an assault on your religious freedom?

I have to find a way to do something against this madness.

[Rei]

All of these news stories over the past number of years have really been feeding a strong anti-America bias in me. I cannot fathom how a country which makes such suggestions seriously (and sometimes even passes laws) about women and immigrants (legal or illegal) and non-white people is meant to be not only a first-world country but the very model for all other countries who love freedom and justice. What I see instead is a country driven by money grubbing, sexism, and racism, too wrapped up in a belief of its own amazingness to realise that it has fallen well off the deep end.

So yes, apologies to those many Americans who are also appalled by these things but still love the no-doubt-extant good of your country, I still cannot think of living there myself without a gut reaction of horror.

[starlooker]

Yeah. Can't exactly blame you.

Analogy-wise, I imagine this is what it's like to be Catholic/love Cathoicism when stories about sexual abuse and its cover-ups emerge. You know there's a lot more to it than that. But, dear God, it's maddening and enraging and just try to explain how you still love it to anyone else...

[neo-dragon]

I just heard about this: A tragic case of Walking While Black.

There's a lot there so I'll summarize: a 17 year old black kid in Florida was stalked and fatally shot by a member of the neighbourhood watch in a gated community because he looked "suspicious". Actually he was just there visiting his father. The shooter has not been charged, having claimed that it was self defense even though the kid was only packing a bag of skittles and some ice-tea, and was trying to get away.

[Syphon the Sun]

The shooter has not been charged

They're convening a grand jury...

[Young Val]

I've been reading about that everywhere. So awful.

[Noodle]

I can't even believe these two things are happening in my state:

Single Moms are Child Abusers

No Woman Should Be allowed to divorce for any reason. Even abuse.

[LilBee91]

5 Ways Modern Men are Trained to Hate Women. It's Cracked, so not exactly a serious commentary, but kind of interesting and related.

[neo-dragon]

5 Ways Modern Men are Trained to Hate Women. It's Cracked, so not exactly a serious commentary, but kind of interesting and related.

I've never met Josh/Dr. Mobius in person, but based on pictures, doesn't the guy shown under #1 look sort of like him?

[LilBee91]

I can see that. Weird.

[neo-dragon]

So, apparently a number of Hunger Games fans were surprised and upset that Cinna, Rue, and Thrush were cast as black, even though the latter two are actually described as such in the text! Can racists get any stupider?

Link

CNN Link

It seems a number of tweeters went so far as to say that Rue's death lost its emotional impact because she wasn't a little white girl

[Luet]

Yeah, I heard about that and thought it was incredibly stupid. I mean, really.

[elfprince13]

I just heard about this: A tragic case of Walking While Black.

There's a lot there so I'll summarize: a 17 year old black kid in Florida was stalked and fatally shot by a member of the neighbourhood watch in a gated community because he looked "suspicious". Actually he was just there visiting his father. The shooter has not been charged, having claimed that it was self defense even though the kid was only packing a bag of skittles and some ice-tea, and was trying to get away.

I've been hearing mixed reports about this story, including that the 911 call which has been played on the news in Trayvon's defense was deceptively edited to hide part of the incident. Unfortunately I don't really trust news sources on either side of the political spectrum, so I'm wondering if anyone here has been following the case closely and can comment on what exactly went on?