I’m aware enough about racial issues to know that I sometimes don’t get it. Part of it is not having a personal experience of racism. Part of it is not knowing the historical experience of blacks and other minorities.
I’m linking to a few blog entries by Pam Noles. In her blog “And We Shall March,” she writes about her life and interests, science fiction/fantasy, movies, and sometimes about the intersection of race and fiction.
I don’t know about you, but I’d always wondered where the word “wog” came from. It’s sometimes used by British people to refer to foreigners, but apparently comes from a doll (that also happens to be a racial caricature). Until reading this series of posts, I’d had no idea what the Golliwog was or how it connected to minstrelsy.
3. “The greatest decade in the history of mankind is over. And as presuming Ed here has so consistently pointed out, we have failed to paint it black.” ***
4. “I don’t want to have anything to do with anything black for at least a week.”
5. “In this present moment we are either smaller than we were, or else are on our knees.” ***
“Miss Macbeth had a golliwog / she chipped under the chin, / and whispered to it tenderly / and sprinkled deadly nightshade, / and it might be coincidence, but the boy down the lane / as they said, “went white as he could do,” / and then doubled over in pain.”
— Miss Macbeth, Elvis Costello