A is for Ass

L is for Letter (to a stranger)

Y,

I think the world may be coming to an end; I put up a myspace profile. It's called , and not quite complete. I sent a request to add you as a friend. The funniest thing was when I looked at your pictures and noticed your picture of (yourself?) as batman. I also have a picture of myself as batman, but I was probably 6 years old. Awesome.

My apologies for the delay in response. I've had a busy week. Kimberly Crenshaw was at my school last week. I think she's amazing and brilliant. She spoke on the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) & Affirmative Action and on intersectionality & critical race theory. In Michigan, my lovely state, a bunch of lovely people are trying to do away with "preferences" by making affirmative action illegal. They call it "civil rights," which makes me beyond angry. But I have to give them props. They will confuse people into voting yes because they read "civil rights" and think it means the opposite of the proposal's aim. In fact, a court has said that there is significant evidence that this measure got on the ballot by fraud, but the Voting Rights Act provides no remedy for it.

So, my mind has been full of what political parties do with rhetoric, especially the republican party. In a way, they have it easy because everything is black or white, unwavering, clear, resolute etc. Family values means republican and christian and surely not gay and at least middle class and the kids are probably home schooled. Flipflop means indecisive. Liberal is a dirty word. Affirmative Action means preferences and quotas and under-qualified people going to elite schools. They reach their audience quickly and efficiently through the use of a catch phrase or catch word. In regard to Affirmative Action or Iraq or any pressing issue, it's impossible to form a response when the response requires something resembling shades of grey and subtlety. So, I asked Prof. Crenshaw how, when faced with this co-opting of language, do we reclaim the words that mean something entirely different to progressive people? How do we use language in a similar way, to reach our audience quickly and efficiently, without reducing the complexity of the issue to, well, a flip flop (especially in regard to the MCRI)? She had a really powerful response where she said that we should use symbols with which people are already familiar. You can tell the nature of a tree by the fruit it bears. Have you seen what has happened in California when similar measure have passed? It's very sad to me.

On a lighter note, I saw the movie Little Miss Sunshine and almost peed my pants. Seriously.

I also treated myself to a concert: Etta James. She was incredible. Have you seen her live? You mention in your profile that "I Forgot to be your Lover" is a perfect song. I would counter that with "A Lover is Forever" by Etta James. Her rendition of "I'd Rather Go Blind" almost made me cry.

In other mundane things, I took a nap today with my cat. Read the Help America Vote Act. Had whole wheat pasta, salad, and red wine for dinner. Tried to come up with a good name for the progressive student organization pub crawl that I'm putting on with my friend M on Saturday in the Cass Corridor. I came up with Revolutionaries Drinking Progressively.

So, how was your weekend? What are you thinking about? Learn anything new?

Best,
M - who thinks you look especially hot dressed as a super-hero.

posted by CV @ 7:39 PM