So When You Blow Up I Can Pretend I Was An Integral Part Of The Process

A friend of mine has just released his first book Hi! My Name is Loco and I am a Racist.

I've been following Loco for a while over at his blog, Loco in Yokohama. Through his blog, and our private conversations I've been a privileged witness to the development of the ideas that were to make it into his book.

The book is a memoir of sorts that takes one through the author's experience of black consciousness-raising, nationalism, and militancy in 1970s Brooklyn; military service, interracial romance and corporate bigotry in the 80s and 90s; and the idiosyncracies of Japanese attitudes to race in the 00s. It details the author's struggles with the racism he finds out there in the world and, most powerfully, the author's struggles with the racism he finds in himself.

The raw candour and introspection throughout are the things I like most about the book, and the author. There's a magic to the flow of the narrative that compels you to turn the pages. Each episode in the author's life and their impacts are described vividly, with humour and pathos. There are many gems to choose from but I think the outstanding episodes were those concerning, Aiko - a former lover, taken by cancer - and White Boy Chris. 

At the same time I found the introduction lacking the same kind of power as the main text, and the flow of the narrative breaking down in the transition to snapshots of the author's experiences as a teacher in Japan. However I felt the book ended strongly with an interesting conclusion that works as a nice close to themes opened up in the first chapter. I finished the book both with a smile and a small measure of regret that there wasn't more to read.

Loco. Well done! I know it was a long, hard road, putting together your opus. I hope to see many more.

The book is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble online. Kindle version HERE.

Good Eatin'

Real talk. I've tended to find Western vegan and vegetarian cuisine a little too easy on the palette (i.e bland). But I gotta tell thee, India's been good to me so far on the vegetarian front, and I'm finding it really easy to not require meat flavours in my meals. This isn't to say that I've gone vegetarian, just that things as they are have facilitated a significant reduction in my consumption of flesh.

Class Warfare

The office was out of toilet roll today, so I ended up using newspaper. Had the pleasure of cleaning up with Lloyd Blankfein’s face.

…

Don't give me that look.

言ったはずだ。

Eamon Fingleton discusses "The myth of Japan's 'lost decades'" over at The Atlantic. Interesting piece - think the South Park episode where the Japanese claim they have small penises to deflect attention from their plans of world domination. I was talking about it with a friend and we didn't think it quite passed the smell test. Our conversation is after the jump.

Discussions in Black History Month: Some Cool Links

Via Postbourgie, interesting articles I thought were apropos of my chronic month-long pretensions:

The racial implications of transportation policy.

An obituary for conscious rap.

A LGBT Black history quiz - I did terribly.

Discussions in Black History Month: On Black Conservatives

During the six months or so of my fruitless job hunting in the US, my friends and I used to joke about getting a job as a Black Conservative. It seems to be a growing industry in the age of Obama. I would ride the monster of American history to financial stability. All I'd need do is stand looking at myself in the mirror after an evening of slagging off black people for fun and profit.

Discussions in Black History Month: Those Who Don't Want To Know

While living in the United States I came to think that much of the energies of the national psyche are directed towards pretending the existence of African Americans and related structural inequalities does not signify evidence of some of the greatest crimes in their country's history.

It is, in my opinion, precisely this failure to wrestle the monster of history that leads to things like the Mississippi Sons of Confederate Veterans' efforts to have the state issue specialty license plates honoring an early leader of the Klu Klux Klan - Mississippi is the state with the highest proportion of African American residents.

I'm having a hard time understanding why anyone would want to honour a man who ran a "Negro Mart", and conspired to enslave millions of human beings. Those are his accomplisments. If, as his defenders argue, his last minute expression of regret is supposed to wipe the slate clean, what is there left to celebrate?

Discussions in Black History Month: Cornell West on the Late Late Show

Via

Discussions in Black History Month: The Browning of America

I've started my Black History Month posts much earlier than last year, though I fear that the quality will be much diminished. After catching this NYT article I've been thinking about the growing number of young USians describing themselves as multiracial, and the optimism about the future of US race relations - much the same as that attached to the Obama presidential campaign.

退かぬ 媚びぬ 省みぬ

I found this article rather endearing, as I'm the sort of person who rolls their eyes at the ridiculous melodrama in scenes like the ones below, but still enjoys watching them. It reminded me of my man Loco's little series on what Japanese teens are thinking about.

So Let Me Get This Straight...

You fell off a ladder and broke your leg while looking at a house -you didn't have permission to be in that house, but the owners did you a big favour and decided not to press charges. You waited until the statute of limitations on a trespassing charge ran out, then sued the homeowners for negligence?

Arsehole. 

H/T: Mistermix.

It was only a matter of time... (cont.)

You may remember my post last year about Chatroulette, a site that lets you have video chats with random strangers. It seems the site owners have finally figured out a way to make money out of all the guys who like to... perform... over the webcam. Surprised it took them so long:

The onslaught of disgusting naked men that seemingly destroyed interest in Chatroulette is now earning the site $100,000 a month. After being flagged by other users a certain number of times, the masturbators — there are about 50,000 on the site every day — are automatically redirected to adult pay sites with which Chatroulette has made agreements. The site's founder, Andrey Ternovskiy, claims that you'll run into a penis only once an hour now — still more surprise penises than you typically experience in an hour outside of Chatroulette, but a vast improvement nonetheless.

H/T

Harbinger

Remember the wailing and gnashing of teeth I expect to accompany re-districting?

The state of Ohio will lose two congressional seats thanks to the latest U.S. Census figures, and liberal stalwart Dennis Kucinich is worried his seat is on the chopping block.

In an e-mail to supporters Wednesday, the seven-term Democratic congressman and two-time presidential candidate says the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature is likely to eliminate his heavily Democratic Cleveland-area district.

This could just be Kucinich making a play for donations, but I wouldn't be surprised if his seat were eliminated.

H/T John Cole.

Oh, My Goodness...

Young City Extraordinaire takes me back.

Fujimama's Boys' Brunches. Abso-fucking-lutely! Good food, beautiful people, great conversation. How I miss those weekend brunches after a night out in good old Tokes. Plum liqueur - made with honey and brown sugar- on the rocks. Pork and rice with chopped okra and kimchi. Yukke at the Korean restaurant in Shin Okubo. Braised taro at the Chinese restaurant in Shiba. Unice, with the great food but awful service. Baobab, great food, greater cocktails, and the one and only Ikuta; keep playing that funk, man.

It was a good time. Will such a thing be mine to experience again, I wonder.

Is our Democrats Learnin'?

I will not trust to hope, but it was nice to see this from Sen. John Kerry.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Via

Wikileaks

Can't really say I have too much beef with them. Secretary Clinton's claims that this latest release of data has put lives at risk are an exaggeration, methinks. And only serves to make me tune out the politicians falling over themselves to condemn Julian Assange in the strongest terms possible.

I got a kick out of news that many leaders in the Arab world, wanted the U.S. to take action against Iran's nuclear programme. Mark Klieman's comment elicited a good laugh:

... the Saudis (and our other Arab quasi-friends) are willing to fight Iran to the last American.

 A hit! A palpable hit! Perhaps it's because I've been in such a foul mood lately that I find this whole brouhaha rather amusing.

Simple Answers to Simple Stupid Questions Cont.

After quoting this post from Juan Cole:

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who will seek the Energy and Commerce Committee chairmanship maintains that we do not have to worry about climate change because God promised in the Bible not to destroy the world again after Noah’s flood.

About half the newly elected Congressmen are climate deniers (and if past experience is any guide, about a third of them are criminals).

 John Cole asks:

Do other nations look at us and just laugh?

Basically yes, until we realise what the fumduckery of your lawmakers may mean for the rest of us.

From Sociological Images

an interesting video and post on gender non-conformity in one family. I couldn't help thinking how fortunate the young boy in the video was for having a relatively safe space to express himself, and the debate over Morehouse College's decision to restrict that kind of space.

A Rethink

The first Bioshock game was OK but I got a little bored with the gameplay so I swore off the sequel. After seeing this review of a (quelle surprise) well-done African American character I might just give Bioshock 2 a look:

As I read it, Grace becomes a symbol for the desire not to see African Americans succeed and create their own lives, families, and spread as do others. Despite her barrenness, despite her lover being taken from her forcibly, she is given hope, however. It is not hard to see why she would warm to Dr. Lamb, a white woman who believes in the greater good, regardless of race or class. Even though Lamb ends up the antagonist, she is still seen as human despite her hatred towards you. She is not a ‘great evil.’ She and Grace are humans, with concerns, lives, and stories of their own. They also become symbols of their plight, and ideology in the case of Lamb, through their lives.

Via 

Insidious

I've been away for a while on a holiday (of sorts) to Atlanta - more on that in later posts- so I've been trying my best to avoid the daily reads and the ensuing desire to give forth on them, but alas...

A few days after my arrival I noticed, quite by accident, an op-ed in the New York Times by John Edgar Wideman. The article details Wideman's experiences on the train between his home in New York City and his workplace in Providence:

Over the last four years, excluding summers, I have conducted a casual sociological experiment in which I am both participant and observer. It’s a survey I began not because I had some specific point to prove by gathering data to support it, but because I couldn’t avoid becoming aware of an obvious, disquieting truth.

Almost invariably, after I have hustled aboard early and occupied one half of a vacant double seat in the usually crowded quiet car, the empty place next to me will remain empty for the entire trip.

I’m a man of color, one of the few on the train and often the only one in the quiet car, and I’ve concluded that color explains a lot about my experience. Unless the car is nearly full, color will determine, even if it doesn’t exactly clarify, why 9 times out of 10 people will shun a free seat if it means sitting beside me.

The account was so similar to experiences I've had, and those of some of my acquaintances of colour, as to be banal. In hindsight, perhaps it would be nice if some readers became more mindful of their behaviour. Anyway, it wasn't saying anything I didn't already know so I didn't really pay the article any mind. I was therefore, rather taken aback by John McWorther's response.

It really is a thing of beauty.