The Automatik

It’s likely an understatement that the new Arizona law (SB 1070) regarding undocumented immigrants* has caused a huge controversy in the last couple of weeks.

There was a clip of Sheriff Joe Arpaio on TV saying that this law (paraphrasing here) doesn’t require police officers to just randomly ask people that look suspicious for their papers, it’s only done so with respect to a crime being committed.

That seemed like a pretty major oversight on the part of everyone who is upset over this, so I went ahead and looked up the actual text.

Here is what I discovered, copied and pasted DIRECTLY from the text of the law, no changes made, no emphasis made, nothing amended.
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I’m not sure how much coverage this is receiving outside of the Toronto, Ontario/Canada news media, so I’d like to call it to everyone’s attention.

The below-linked article is not meant to be representative of the final word on the Tamil protest; it’s just a short summary introduction to the issue.

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Toronto highway reopens after Tamil protest disperses
One of Canada’s major expressways reopened early Monday after thousands of members of Toronto’s Tamil community ended a five-hour occupation of the roadway without incident.

The blockade of the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto ended shortly after midnight. It was part of the Tamil community’s continuing protest campaign to demand the Canadian government do more to help end the bloody 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka.

Read the rest of the article here.

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I followed this protest as it unfolded on the TV news last night and was really dismayed by the reactions of the mostly-white commuters to the situation. They were very irritated at the inconvenience of being stuck on the highway and one man even suggested that the Tamil protesters should find a more “legal” way to protest (a sentiment echoed by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty here).
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I just saw this article on Yahoo! News. Granted, their articles are pretty vapid, but this one is repugnant.

Don’t like Tiger? A few reasons to explain why
By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Sports Columnist Apr 9, 4:21 am EDT

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) – The bookies make him an odds-on favorite like no other, mostly because Tiger Woods is unlike any other. He tees off Thursday on mended knee in pursuit of a fifth Masters title, secure once again with his place in the game and looking as dominant as ever.

His will to win is extraordinary. His fellow players defer to his greatness.

And there’s nothing in golf better than seeing Woods have a putt on Sunday to win.

But there are those who enjoy watching Zach Johnson put on a green jacket, or maybe even harbor secret thoughts of Greg Norman finally burying his demons. Still others want nothing more than to see Phil Mickelson smiling on the 18th green once again.

Not many, maybe, because it can be lonely pulling against arguably the greatest player ever. Family and friends might not understand.

But there are reasons:
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I watched Bill Maher on The Daily Show last night.

You know, I was with him with the whole “religion is crazy” bit, especially when he compared the ridiculousness of Scientology with Christianity, but here’s where things started to derail for me.

Clips of Bill Maher on last night’s episode. (I can’t view these because I’m in Canada so hopefully they’ll show up for you.)

1. Referring to Barack Obama as “our boy.” Now, I know he meant “our candidate” or “our voice” or “the guy we like,” but referring to an African American as “boy” EVEN IF YOU DON’T MEAN IT “that way” is not cool. Not acceptable. Not going to cut it.

2. The reference to “witch doctors” and Sarah Palin. Granted, I understand that Maher hates all religions equally (ahem!), but usage of the term “witch doctor” in such a pejorative context just smacks of, oh, I don’t know. . . at best, imperialism and at worst, racism.

3. Then he quite literally made my stomach turn when he made a comment about how if McCain and Palin get into the White House we might have a guy in there “with a bone through his nose.”
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Thanks to Resist Racism for posting this video.

It is powerful stuff. The whole thing is fantastic, but it gets really good around 5:30 and then gets even better. Stay for the end; it’s a whopper.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON RESIST RACISM.

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While the Internet is a great way to obtain fast access to a massive amount of information, it’s also a way to obtain access to a lot of ignorant, offensive, bigoted, and disgusting drivel. And those are just the comments on message boards.

Everyone has received forwarded emails which warn against the evils of cancer-causing underarm deodorant or sob stories about poor children suffering from diseases who need your help. These are readily and easily debunked by websites like Snopes.

But some of these forwards are more insidious and dangerous than mere urban legends. Those of us who know better than to believe everything we read delete them quickly and try to forget about them.

Yet we still continue to receive them. So rather than just ignoring them, I thought I’d go through one that came across my inbox recently and discuss exactly why it is insidious, dangerous, and wrong. Please note that I am including many words in this piece that are of an offensive, inflammatory nature. I do this not for shock value or because I like these words, but to show you the original email text in order to explain exactly what it is that I am addressing.
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From This Pop Life:

“The Oppression Olympics” refers to the idea that somehow, you can deny someone their suffering in order to posit your own. People who play the Oppression Olympics get so hung up on their own entitlement to being the Chosen Ones of Fucked Up History that they’re defensive that anyone else would try to lay claim to that legacy, even in what is clearly a show of solidarity.

Or as someone on the LiveJournal community Debunking White put it: “the I’m-oppressed-so-you-can’t-be game.”
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In light all of the recent outrage about Barack Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, I would like to weigh in.

Until today, I had not seen the Reverend preaching, although I had heard snippets of what he had supposedly said.

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Geraldine Ferraro’s recent racist remarks are actually nothing new for her. In 1998, she made similar comments about Jesse Jackson:

“If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race.”
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Another currently hot topic in the realm of racism, is the series of comments made by former Vice Presidential candidate and Hillary Clinton campaign Finance Committee member Geraldine Ferraro.

In case you haven’t heard about this, here’s what she said:
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