Oh, and there was also something about how white western society has become a "Cartesian" society, where we insist that people are separate from nature, but other societies maintain a connection to nature, and this is a cultural barrier to overcome, and the Cartesian societies are going to collapse because that's what always happens to people who separate themselves from nature. I'm not sure where he was trying to go with that bit.

That talk sounds mottsy and confusing.

I woke up early, fed the dog, watered the lawn, then lay down in bed to do some internetting.

I fell asleep and had a dream where I was sitting with a circle of women all talking about the ways in which we were planning to fix our men.

I woke up nauseated, saw that facebook was still open and immediately wrote on D's wall, "I will never try to fix you."

Fifteen minutes later I saw a post from D's BOSS about fixing someone and realized that that was what inspired the dream. I hope she doesn't make the connection. I r dum.

"You think you have it bad in this city? The Irish had it worse."

Yeah, the Irish were pretty shit on - they were poor, they were Catholic, the human condition always likes to dump on someone they perceive as "other" who is lower on the social totem pole than them (man, I read an awesome article about this re: American immigration trends in grad school, I can't remember where now though) - but that was a pretty temporary thing.

Ugh, I have so many things to say about this, but that's not really the point. This is something that has always upset me.

His slides also included a few pictures of him hanging out with his black friends.

I wonder if he started out with a couple of good ideas but got lost when he tried to expand them into a bigger talk.

If you left messages, I say yes.

I did. Yay, validation! I made a third call and actually accomplished something! And now I'm doing laundry because some day I will be a responsible adult who does laundry at least a day before going somewhere but apparently not today.

Yesterday D said, "Let's skip the [online gaming] tonight, snuggle up in bed, watch a movie, and eat ice cream."

Aww! So cute!

Honestly, I don't think I got anything at all out of this talk.

Wow, yeah, that sounds bizarre and kinda awful! I saw your post on FB and thought the title of the talk sounded pretty neat, but what a way to take the title and go crazy with it!

The Irish and other waves of immigrants were often treated as subhuman. However, people often say this to argue that their people suffered too, so blacks and other minorities shouldn't get special treatment. The problem with this argument is that second generation Irish were fairly indistinguishable from other white Americans, while blacks couldn't escape their otherness.

The Irish and other waves of immigrants were often treated as subhuman. However, people often say this to argue that their people suffered too, so blacks and other minorities shouldn't get special treatment. The problem with this argument is that second generation Irish were fairly indistinguishable from other white Americans, while blacks couldn't escape their otherness.

YES. Exactly. Thanks, Ginger!

As a friend of mine once said during a discussion comparing gay rights to civil rights "When you walk into a room, no one knows you're gay unless you want them to. I am always black."