to bleach, or not to bleach

recently i was reveling with my roommate on the wonders of lysol.  it’s flourescent yellow so you know there’s effective cleaning chemicals.  the strong kind.  the carcinogenic kind.  the kind that produces the shade of white that doesn’t naturally occur in our environment.

crazy moments on the subway punctuate my years in new york.  once a guy surprised me as he flailed about in a car bare-chested.  another time, a bare chested guy proceeded to crush the canned drink AS he chugged the gushing contents.  liquids pooled around him on the subway bench and splattered on his feet.  and a drunk guy on the Shuttle train in Brooklyn had the privilege of being the third person to ask for my hand in marriage.  and folx, the two previous occasions were far from momentous!  I kindly told him m shoot-from-the-hip fib for overbearing guys: “i’m already promised.”

i sat across from an African woman on the subway yesterday.  the thing i love about new york is that it’s OK to stare at people.  of course, though, you are polite enough to pretend as if you’re not doing it.  the lady looked like she ate 100 carrots a day and drank organic raw and pure carrot juice before bed every night.  she had that orangey off-color tone that people only have when they bleach their skin.  the lips are dark.  neck too.  and of course there’s those indicators that race obsessed parents observe in a newborn’s first days: the color of the fingernail beds and the edges of the ears…

anyway, i was convinced that this lady had taken bleaching beyond any other person that i’ve randomly seen in NYC over the past  6 years!  she had bleached to the point where her face was two shades lighter than her hands.  now.  any person.  of any color.  who had every spent the average of 5 hours per day in the sun.  knows that your face and the backs of your hands and arms are generally darker than the rest of your body.  it’s called sun exposure.  and if you live barefoot or wearing lots of sandals, the tops of your feet are darker too.  but her face, her face was lighter than her hands and arms!

what do you think about bleaching?

McCain is the Republican Contender, and Obama wins Vermont

It’s official according to the BBC: ” McCain wins Republican nomination.”

Here are some pretty pictures of the campaign.

Quotables #2 & #1: COFFEEHOLIC & QUOTABLE

I just decided that second quarter needs a new content area.

Quotables!  Notable sayings and phrases from quarter-lifers!

Quotable #1:

Quotable = something catchy your friends says that is unforgettable and that you will incorporate into your verbal lexicon and recycle for years to come.  your friend isn’t necessarily the original source, but they are the one who introduces you to the word.  i got this word from my friend, Brian, who responded to something I said with, “That’s a quotable, E!  I’ll never forget it.”  quotables are generally humorous, and can often arise when one is talking shit about others.

Quotable #2:

Coffeeholic = well, you have to hear/read the context in which my friend used it.  my friend, Amy, is a 24 year-old bi-coastal activist.  she just sent an email inviting folks to drinks, and she had to qualify it with this: “alcoholic or coffeeholic or nonholic in any way, I’m open…or food or i don’t know, water, whatever, as long as it’s accompanied by conversation and socializing.”

Are you a coffeholic?  Do you want to submit a quotable to second quarter?  Well post a comment and I’ll feature it here…

Obama on Offense

Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has managed his money well throughout the campiagn–unlike Ms. Hill, who had to loan her campaign $5mill and who has spent way more than Obama in over-priced consultants, and who has relied on a small number of donors able to give in large amounts–and so, based on this NY Times article, it looks like he is able to use it to his advantage:

Spending Heavily, Obama Attempts Knockout Blow

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: March 2, 2008

Senator Barack Obama is leveraging his huge financial edge over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the potentially decisive Texas and Ohio contests.  Read more…

a look a what’s going on in the Gaza Strip

This NY Times Article, “Israel Takes Gaza Fight to Next Level in a Day of Strikes,” quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as saying:

“We tell the world: watch and judge what’s happening, and judge who is committing international terrorism…”  –President Mahmoud Abbas

The article not only provides a snapshot of the numbers of fighters (about 20 or more Palestinian fighters, 2 Israeli soldiers), and civilians who have died (at least 19 Palestinians, 1 Israeli); but it also points toward the scale of the refugee situation in Gaza (70% of residents are refugees and their descendants). I’ll have to do more research on what this means for the pre-existing socioeconomic conditions in Gaza; more recently, Israel has kept up a blockade of the Gaza Strip that’s been going on since last summer. Remember the scenes from

This Al-Jazeera English report from Saturday highlights the struggles of public health officials who are trying to help the injured in Gaza (more than 100 Palestinians). They talk about the impact of Israel’s sanctions on medical supplies:

More Video: Gaza Human Chain Protest

And here is a report on a recent human chain protest in Gaza.

March 2, 2008: U.S. Pres. Election

The pundit shows this morning were pretty interesting.

Hillary Clinton’s advisor and Barack Obama’s strategist debated on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. They were getting into a fight over ethics and I think Clinton supporters should hesitate before challenging the Obama camp on ethics. It just doesn’t work for Clinton, I wonder why? And it feels like her campaign is taking the low road and, in contrast, Obama emerges as the leader who has done the most to implement an approach to politics that minimizes the impact of special interests and lobbies.

I also heard Pat Buchanan say we are in a post-free trade era on The McLaughlin Group this morning. Apparently Canada is responding to the Democratic presidential candidates strong statements about NAFTA, suggesting that they are willing to threaten that they will pull out of the treaty. I hope to follow this issue more and I welcome comments and link suggestions. The panelists also debated whether McCain and Obama sounded the same on Iraq policy.

I also liked what I heard from Al Sharpton this morning on my local channel, WABC, in an interview with Diana Williams. He hasn’t yet stated an endorsement for the Democratic presidential committee. I’ll see if I can find more from this interview to share here on second quarter.

movement: women of color in scholarship

Dr. Andrea Smith denied tenure at UMich

The University of Michigan recently denied tenure to Dr. Andrea Smith, a scholar of Native-American, women’s and ethnic studies. Here’s a press release about Dr. Smith’s situation at U. Michigan:

Native Feminism Without Apology!

February 25, 2008, Statement of University of Michigan Students and Faculty in Support of Andrea Smith’s Tenure Case

On February 22nd, 2008, University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA) issued a negative tenure recommendation for Assistant Professor Andrea Lee Smith. Jointly appointed in the Program in American Culture and the Department of Women’s Studies, Dr. Smith’s body of scholarship exemplifies scholarly excellence with widely circulated articles in peer-reviewed journals and numerous books in both university and independent presses including Native Americans and the Christian Right published this year by Duke University Press. Dr. Smith is one of the greatest indigenous feminist intellectuals of our time. A nominee for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Smith has an outstanding academic and community record of service that is internationally and nationally recognized. She is a dedicated professor and mentor and she is an integral member of the University of Michigan (UM) intellectual community. Her reputation and pedagogical practices draw undergraduate and graduate students from all over campus and the nation.

Dr. Smith received the news about her tenure case while participating in the United States’ hearings before the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Ironically, during those very same hearings, the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decisions that restricted affirmative action policies at UM specifically were cited as violations of international law. At the same time, there is an undeniable link between the Department of Women’s Studies and LSA’s current tenure recommendations and the long history of institutional restrictions against faculty of color. In 2008, students of color are coming together to protest the way UM’s administration has fostered an environment wherein faculty of color are few and far between, Ethnic Studies course offerings have little financial and institutional support, and student services for students of color are decreasing each year.

It looks like students at Michigan are organizing a conference, “Women of Color Negotiating the Academic Industrial Complex,” to raise awareness around issues of women of color in academia.

Want to know more? Try this Google search on Dr. Smith’s tenure case…

Get Ready for the Texas Primary: Barack Obama

I can’t seem to get Barack’s stump speech to show, so here is the CurrentTV link to Obama’s Feb. 20th speech in Texas.