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  <title>Raquita's blog</title>
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  <updated>2007-12-10T15:47:28-06:00</updated>
  <entry>
    <title>An Essay from Tim Wise... </title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogher.com/essay-tim-wise" />
    <id>http://www.blogher.com/essay-tim-wise</id>
    <published>2008-07-01T21:04:15-05:00</published>
    <updated>2008-07-01T21:04:15-05:00</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Raquita</name>
    </author>
    <category term="Feminism &amp; Gender" />
    <category term="Politics &amp; News" />
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Here is Tim Wise's latest essay, &quot;Your Whiteness is Showing: An Open Letter to<br />
Certain White Women who are Threatening to Withhold Support From Barack<br />
Obama in November.&quot; I think you can ascertain the content from the<br />
title. I don't have a live link so I won't post it here.</p>
<p>You can find it though at his  website, which is timwise(dot)org</p>
<p>I'm very curious to know what the respose to this is, as it is not talking to me persay so I cannot respond.. </p>
    ]]></summary>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Here is Tim Wise's latest essay, &quot;Your Whiteness is Showing: An Open Letter to<br />
Certain White Women who are Threatening to Withhold Support From Barack<br />
Obama in November.&quot; I think you can ascertain the content from the<br />
title. I don't have a live link so I won't post it here.</p>
<p>You can find it though at his  website, which is timwise(dot)org</p>
<p>I'm very curious to know what the respose to this is, as it is not talking to me persay so I cannot respond.. </p>
<p> Here is the text:</p>
<p>Your Whiteness is Showing:<br />An Open Letter to Certain White Women who are Threatening to Withhold Support From Barack Obama in November</p>
<p>By Tim Wise</p>
<p>June 6, 2008</p>
<p>This<br />
is an open letter to those white women who, despite their proclamations<br />
of progressivism, and supposedly because of their commitment to<br />
feminism, are threatening to withhold support from Barack Obama in<br />
November. You know who you are.</p>
<p>I know that it's probably a bad<br />
time for this. Your disappointment at the electoral defeat of Senator<br />
Hillary Clinton is fresh, the sting is new, and the anger that animates<br />
many of you--who rightly point out that the media was often sexist in<br />
its treatment of the Senator--is raw, pure and justified.</p>
<p>That<br />
said, and despite the awkward timing, I need to ask you a few<br />
questions, and I hope you will take them in the spirit of solidarity<br />
with which they are genuinely intended. But before the questions, a<br />
statement if you don't mind, or indeed, even if (as I suspect), you<br />
will mind it quite a bit.</p>
<p>First, for those of you threatening to<br />
actually vote for John McCain and to oppose Senator Obama, or to stay<br />
home in November and thereby increase the likelihood of McCain winning<br />
and Obama losing (despite the fact that the latter's policy platform is<br />
virtually identical to Clinton's while the former's clearly is not),<br />
all the while claiming to be standing up for women...</p>
<p>For those<br />
threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and increase the<br />
odds of his winning (despite the fact that he once called his wife the<br />
c-word in public and is a staunch opponent of reproductive freedom and<br />
gender equity initiatives, such as comparable worth legislation), all<br />
the while claiming to be standing up for women...</p>
<p>For those<br />
threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and help ensure<br />
Barack Obama's defeat, as a way to protest what you call Obama's sexism<br />
(examples of which you seem to have difficulty coming up with), all the<br />
while claiming to be standing up for women...</p>
<p>Your whiteness is showing.</p>
<p>When<br />
I say your whiteness is showing this is what I mean: You claim that<br />
your opposition to Obama is an act of gender solidarity, in that women<br />
(and their male allies) need to stand up for women in the face of the<br />
sexist mistreatment of Clinton by the press. On this latter point--the<br />
one about the importance of standing up to the media for its often<br />
venal misogyny--you couldn't be more correct. As the father of two<br />
young girls who will have to contend with the poison of patriarchy all<br />
their lives, or at least until such time as that system of oppression<br />
is eradicated, I will be the first to join the boycott of, or<br />
demonstration on, whatever media outlet you choose to make that point.<br />
But on the first part of the above equation--the part where you insist<br />
voting against Obama is about gender solidarity--you are, for lack of a<br />
better way to put it, completely full of crap. And what's worse is that<br />
at some level I suspect you know it. Voting against Senator Obama is<br />
not about gender solidarity. It is an act of white racial bonding, and<br />
it is grotesque.</p>
<p>If it were gender solidarity you sought, you<br />
would by definition join with your black and brown sisters come<br />
November, and do what you know good and well they are going to do, in<br />
overwhelming numbers, which is vote for Barack Obama. But no. You are<br />
threatening to vote not like other women--you know, the ones who aren't<br />
white like you and most of your friends--but rather, like white men!<br />
Needless to say it is high irony, bordering on the outright farcical,<br />
to believe that electorally bonding with white men, so as to elect<br />
McCain, is a rational strategy for promoting feminism and challenging<br />
patriarchy. You are not thinking and acting as women, but as white<br />
people.</p>
<p>So here's the first question: What the hell is that about?</p>
<p>And<br />
you wonder why women of color have, for so long, thought (by and large)<br />
that white so-called feminists were phony as hell? Sister please...</p>
<p>Your<br />
threats are not about standing up for women. They are only about<br />
standing up for the feelings of white women, and more to the point, the<br />
aspirations of one white woman. So don't kid yourself. If you wanted to<br />
make a statement about the importance of supporting a woman, you<br />
wouldn't need to vote for John McCain, or stay home, thereby producing<br />
the same likely result--a defeat for Obama. You could always have said<br />
you were going to go out and vote for Cynthia McKinney. After all, she<br />
is a woman, running with the Green Party, and she's progressive, and<br />
she's a feminist. But that isn't your threat is it? No. You're not<br />
threatening to vote for the woman, or even the feminist woman. Rather,<br />
you are threatening to vote for the white man, and to reject not only<br />
the black man who you feel stole Clinton's birthright, but even the<br />
black woman in the race. And I wonder why? Could it be...?</p>
<p>See, I told you your whiteness was showing.</p>
<p>And<br />
now for a third question, and this is the biggie, so please take your<br />
time with it: How is it that you have managed to hold your nose all<br />
these years, just like a lot of us on the left, and vote for Democrats<br />
who we knew were horribly inadequate--Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Dukakis,<br />
right on down the uninspiring line--and yet, apparently can't bring<br />
yourself to vote for Barack Obama? A man who, for all of his<br />
shortcomings (and there are several, as with all candidates put up by<br />
either of the two major corporate parties) is surely more progressive<br />
than any of those just mentioned. And how are we to understand that<br />
refusal--this sudden line in the proverbial sand--other than as a<br />
racist slap at a black man? You will vote for white men year after year<br />
after year--and are threatening to vote for another one just to make a<br />
point--but can't bring yourself to vote for a black man, whose<br />
political views come much closer to your own, in all likelihood, than<br />
do the views of any of the white men you've supported before.</p>
<p>How, other than as an act of racism, or perhaps as evidence of political insanity, is one to interpret such a thing?</p>
<p>See,<br />
black folks would have sucked it up, like they've had to do forever,<br />
and voted for Clinton had it come down to that. Indeed, they were on<br />
board the Hillary train early on, convinced that Obama had no chance to<br />
win and hoping for change, any change, from the reactionary agenda that<br />
has been so prevalent for so long in this culture. They would have<br />
supported the white woman--hell, for many black folks, before Obama<br />
showed his mettle they were downright excited to do so--but you won't<br />
support the black man.</p>
<p>And yet you have the audacity to insist<br />
that it is you who are the most loyal constituency of the Democratic<br />
Party, and the one before whom Party leaders should bow down, and whose<br />
feet must be kissed?</p>
<p>Your whiteness is showing.</p>
<p>Look, I<br />
couldn't care less about the Party personally. I left the Democrats<br />
twenty years ago when they told me that my activism in the Central<br />
America solidarity and South African anti-apartheid movements made me a<br />
security risk, and that I wouldn't be able to get clearance to be in<br />
some parade with Governor Dukakis. Yeah, seriously. But for you to act<br />
as though you are the indispensible voters, the most important, the<br />
ones whose views should be pandered to, whose every whim should be the<br />
basis for Party policy, is not only absurd, it is also racist in that<br />
it, a) ignores and treats as irrelevant the much more loyal<br />
constituency of black folks, without whom no Democrat would have won<br />
anything in the past twenty years (and indeed the racial gap favoring<br />
the Democrats among blacks is about six times larger than the gender<br />
gap favoring them among white women, relative to white men); and b)<br />
demonstrates the mentality of entitlement and superiority that has been<br />
long ingrained in us as white folks--so that we believe we have the<br />
right to dictate the terms of political engagement, and to determine<br />
the outcome, and to get our way, simply because for so long we have<br />
done just that.</p>
<p>But that day is done, whether you like it or<br />
not, and you are now left with two, and only two choices, so consider<br />
them carefully: the first is to stand now in solidarity with your black<br />
brothers and sisters and welcome the new day, and help to push it in a<br />
truly progressive and feminist and antiracist direction, while the<br />
second is to team up with white men to try and block the new day from<br />
dawning. Feel free to choose the latter. But if you do, please don't<br />
insult your own intelligence, or ours, by insisting that you've done so<br />
as a radical political act.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
    ]]></content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>The Love Before The One</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogher.com/love-one" />
    <id>http://www.blogher.com/love-one</id>
    <published>2008-05-08T15:19:25-05:00</published>
    <updated>2008-05-08T15:19:25-05:00</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Raquita</name>
    </author>
    <category term="Life" />
    <category term="Sex &amp; Relationships" />
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>To those who question my sanity, my husband has read and approved this post.<br />I was talking with a friend about ex’s and then another friend about trips and ex’s and yet somebody else about love and lovers, and thusly this post was born. </p>
<p>I count myself very lucky I have loved and been in love three times. This post is about love number two. </p>
    ]]></summary>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>To those who question my sanity, my husband has read and approved this post.<br />I was talking with a friend about ex’s and then another friend about trips and ex’s and yet somebody else about love and lovers, and thusly this post was born. </p>
<p>I count myself very lucky I have loved and been in love three times. This post is about love number two. </p>
<p>I met him on a Thursday. He was the only guy at the poetry reading wearing a suit. I thought that was odd. Turns out he worked for a law firm, he always came straight from work. When I remember when we met, I remember his smile. It was bright and eager. He was the brother of a friend who I thought the world of. She was not the type to do hook ups, he was not easily deterred. I made her a cheesecake for her birthday, his was the day after. That became his angle, ‘What did he have to do to get his own birthday cheesecake?’ I was young and freshly wounded. I had never really been pursued before. I was <a href="http://blaquepen.com/wobl/the-love-before-the-one/#more-638" class="more-link">[Read more →]</a></p>
    ]]></content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>BONEHEAD move of the week </title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogher.com/bonehead-move-week" />
    <id>http://www.blogher.com/bonehead-move-week</id>
    <published>2008-04-10T08:01:58-05:00</published>
    <updated>2008-04-10T08:01:58-05:00</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Raquita</name>
    </author>
    <category term="Mommy &amp; Family" />
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2361773823_51f5b447f5_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="240" height="160" align="right" />So yeah I was sitting on my porch with Baby Bri yesterday and watch this couple park their GIANT 1960’s pickup infront of my house and they procede to get out of the car when the girl passes an sleeping infant to the guy FROM OFF THE SEAT. Not out of a car seat mind you, but off the bucket seat of this powder blue boat that resembled a truck.</p>
    ]]></summary>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2361773823_51f5b447f5_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="240" height="160" align="right" />So yeah I was sitting on my porch with Baby Bri yesterday and watch this couple park their GIANT 1960’s pickup infront of my house and they procede to get out of the car when the girl passes an sleeping infant to the guy FROM OFF THE SEAT. Not out of a car seat mind you, but off the bucket seat of this powder blue boat that resembled a truck.<br />And since I've had kids I see people all the time with out car seats for their kids, it drives me crazy. But you never knowwhat peoples will say or the situation but this time I just couldn't swallow it. I’ve not lost my marbles yet - so rather than get confrontational I ‘m like - “Yo, do ya’ll need a car seat for that kid?!?!”<br />The guy is like, “Well, sorta - yeah.” So I go in the house and grab the car seat we had been using for Bri - which she is clearly too big for (her feet hang off the end - and not by a little bit either, like from her ankle down) and take it and give it to the couple and tell them to strap that kid up. Turns out the girl is preggers and due again any day now, so the kid who is smaller than my six month old is at least ten months old. </p>
<p>yeah shes a big baby. </p>
<p>SO if I had had two seats I would have given the other to her as well. </p>
<p>But wouldn’t you know it - in all of my benevelience I forgot that we don’t have a convertible seat for Bri. So no one can take the cute Chub-Rocka with us til we find our way to get one. </p>
<p>Which means I need to cancel the Dr’s apointment I made for today… </p>
<p>Genius Raquita, simply genius…</p>
<p>How often do you see people with out car seats and what is your response typically?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
    ]]></content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>Bar Babies?</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogher.com/bar-babies" />
    <id>http://www.blogher.com/bar-babies</id>
    <published>2008-04-08T09:14:36-05:00</published>
    <updated>2008-04-08T09:14:36-05:00</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Raquita</name>
    </author>
    <category term="Feminism &amp; Gender" />
    <category term="Mommy &amp; Family" />
    <category term="Pop Culture" />
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p id="u_al">I just read the <a id="kca3" href="http://tinyurl.com/4qbagt" target="_blank" title="bars and babies">most interesting article</a> about moms and babies and bars. which is funny because in <a href="http://blaquepen.com/wobl/weekend-roundup/" target="_blank">my last post</a> I was talking about how my mom had her birthday party at the Ritz in the lobby which - has a bar in it. A full, honest to goodness bar mind you, with kick butt mojitos, and a sushi bar in another area. So when I read this article I had to laugh. </p>
    ]]></summary>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p id="u_al">I just read the <a id="kca3" href="http://tinyurl.com/4qbagt" target="_blank" title="bars and babies">most interesting article</a> about moms and babies and bars. which is funny because in <a href="http://blaquepen.com/wobl/weekend-roundup/" target="_blank">my last post</a> I was talking about how my mom had her birthday party at the Ritz in the lobby which - has a bar in it. A full, honest to goodness bar mind you, with kick butt mojitos, and a sushi bar in another area. So when I read this article I had to laugh. </p>
<p id="ohs_">It never occured to me to not take my girls with me to wish their grandmother a happy birthday. Cammy was excited to get dressed up in her party dress (she looked way better than me mind you) and I don’t think any less of my parenting because they went and stayed up rediculously late and had a really good time. We didn’t ply them with tequilla shots, and I didn’t drink either. But Cam did help with passing out cake slices and danced with her Granny and followed uncle Erskin around till well after her normal bed time. SHe learned she couldn’t drink grown up drinks, but learned the joy of a shirley temple. It was a non smoking hotel so we had no issues in our party really. </p>
<p>Its not just the article that caught me off guard, but more the comments and the people who seemed ready to crucify people for taking their kids any where but Chuckee Cheese. </p>
<p id="p-c7">I don’t take my kids when I want to hang with my girls and really have a drink. I don’t want my kids to watch me get saucy. I don’t take my girls unless I know we are going to be among a group of people who are child friendly, I am usually not concerned about the venue, and I have no intention of drinking. But I have taken my kids to pubs like Llywellens, and the local Ice and something grill and pub or other. And I will again, I’m sure. </p>
<p id="e4hz">I beleive if my kids are well behaved and enjoying themselves they can go anywhere I want them to. I don’t allow my girls to throw tantrums - at all - in public places. Cam knows that is a sure fire way to get taken home ever so quickly you might for get you ever left.SO I am always confident about taking my kids where ever I want them to be. </p>
<p id="zk9h">&#160;</p>
<p id="b4g9">do you guys take your kids to places typically not concidered kid friendly? </p>
    ]]></content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>Santa Claus is a Black man… um, well…</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogher.com/santa-claus-black-man-um-well" />
    <id>http://www.blogher.com/santa-claus-black-man-um-well</id>
    <published>2007-12-10T14:40:02-06:00</published>
    <updated>2007-12-10T15:47:28-06:00</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Raquita</name>
    </author>
    <category term="Race, Ethnicity &amp; Culture" />
    <category term="BlogHer Holiday Guide" />
    <category term="Holiday Traditions" />
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Okay so - yeah I hate TV, and I hate that I let my kid watch TV.Why you ask?</p>
<p>Cause TV has to be the reason she refuses to believe that Santa Claus is a black man. No number of songs , or pictures of her last year with a black Santa was able to convince her this weekend, after she gleefully told me that my nifty Black Santa ornaments were of “Your favorite Santa mommy, my favorite Santa is white.” </p>
<p>I think that the wack beard on that Santa in the picture last year didn’t help my cause either.</p>
    ]]></summary>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Okay so - yeah I hate TV, and I hate that I let my kid watch TV.Why you ask?</p>
<p>Cause TV has to be the reason she refuses to believe that Santa Claus is a black man. No number of songs , or pictures of her last year with a black Santa was able to convince her this weekend, after she gleefully told me that my nifty Black Santa ornaments were of “Your favorite Santa mommy, my favorite Santa is white.” </p>
<p>I think that the wack beard on that Santa in the picture last year didn’t help my cause either.</p>
<p>And the cool Santas on TV are all white - like the M&amp;M commercial Santa - he’s got great beard (”They DO exist!!”) So its TV’s fault, cause everything that ever happened Santa related in her whole life has always been apparently about MY santa. not HER santa.</p>
<p>So why is it an issue that she thinks Santa is a white man, and why does  that bother me, grate on my nerve when she says it like nails on a chalk board? I don’t know. Its not like I know a whole bunch of Black men who are willing to live in the North Pole, shoot, I can’t find too many black men willing to live through a Minnesota winter let alone live in the ARTIC. Maybe its because I believe in the power of images, and part of me wants to make sure that despite what society shows her - that she will know and believe that She is worthy of EVERYTHING, not despite of but because of all the things media and society in general try to belittle in people who don’t fit the mold. I don’t want my kid to be one of those little girls who picks out the white doll when asked to choose the more attractive doll. I think that is my biggest fear - that she will grow up to hate who she is. Which is drawing way more out of the whole Santa thing than is really necessary, I know this internets.</p>
<p>Then I think well technically, she’s right Santa Claus is German or Dutch folklore isn’t he? And what harm is there really in letting her believe the myth as is? Isn’t part of being and raising a non racist child, being able to let your child believe in what ever they believe in- myth wise of course. </p>
<p>My sister is like “Dude - who cares - you’re not THAT black power anyway. You not runnin around with medallions and stuff.”  I lost my medallion in 1993, it was taken from my car. But that is besides the point.</p>
<p>Honestly I had decided to go with the whole Santa is a CIA operative who doesn’t actually give gifts he just reports on the goodness of kids all year to parents so they can shop for your Christmas presents. The whole gift thing is just a cover in case you see him, the cookies we leave him are still a bribe.</p>
<p>Feed back on this one is certainly welcome. Please internets, give me some feedback here or on my blog <a href="http://blaquepen.com/wobl" title="http://blaquepen.com/wobl">http://blaquepen.com/wobl</a>.</p>
    ]]></content>
  </entry>
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