Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 7:39 AM
Mon Nov 9
19 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Jenna Sauers
Email
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/04/09
(sorry for the shouting) #antichrist
11/05/09
Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare - rare because women should be able to access resources to prevent unwanted pregnancy and shouldn't be at such high risk to be raped, not because pregnant women are forced to not have abortions. #antichrist
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/04/09
As an African American man, I can only offer my two cents but, uh, duh. In other news, water is wet. #antichrist
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
I did my senior capstone for my BS last year in "Reducing stigmatization of mental illness among the African American population of Portland" (longest title ever), which really opened my eyes to the extent of the discrimination and lack of cultural competence amongst mental health professionals. There is a clinic in Portland through OHSU that offers culturally competent care specifically for African Americans and Africans as well as SE Asians. I enjoyed working with the providers at the clinic. #antichrist
11/04/09
But yes. A part of the mental health issues of pretty much every single brilliant African American I knew in college and law school is derived from the fall out of racism. You do deal. But it can sting. And depending on one's resilience, it can be utterly debilitating. It's fascinating work and I'd love to learn more about what you do. #antichrist
11/05/09
My professor for the capstone is an African American man who has mental health issues that went undiagnosed for decades in large part because of his race. Either he didn't fit "the mold" of someone with those disorders, or it wasn't suggested that he seek treatment because within his community there was a feeling of distrust of medical/mental health professionals (understandably!). I took every class from this professor I could as an undergrad and am now applying to do the MSW program at the same school to learn more from him. I am trying to find my place of where I will be able to best serve people of color within the mental health/human services field. It was heartbreaking and infuriating to learn and see how people of color in my community were being treated when they tried to seek help. #antichrist
11/04/09
11/04/09
This sounds like the logic that concludes something can't be offensive if it was intended as a joke. I mean, I'd support a poster with an entire ass hanging out. But the "logic" makes me giggle. #antichrist
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
By which I mean, that poster makes me want to bone. A lot. #antichrist
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
This is all anecdotal, of course.
And strange, of course. #antichrist
11/04/09
11/04/09
Related: I am considering experimenting with a sweet ranch dressing that could be used as a sauce on desserts. #antichrist
11/04/09
11/04/09
He's totally innocent.
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/04/09
Sorry. Frustrated teacher rant. #antichrist
11/04/09
I do believe some of them have a passive-voice relationship with their studies. There is no sense that they have an active role in their education. They just sit there with their mouths open, accepting whatever comes along, and each paper/test/graded unit is another kind of event that just happens. Failing happens. Grades happen. Improvement, if it happens, just happens. Having once been like that myself, it's incredibly frustrating not to be able to get them to see, as I once did, that if you just DO THE WORK, suddenly the world is a much better place. #antichrist
11/04/09
11/04/09
He really is astounded by the concept that learning history like a narrative rather than as a rote recitation of dates and names can be fun. It's like he invented fire, he's adorable about it. #antichrist
11/05/09
This is what comes from receiving a set of papers that are, on average, worse than the last one. Yay. #antichrist
10/30/09
10/30/09
Well they might try to call it art, but I don't see how they'd get away with calling it fashion. These women are naked. They're not even wearing accessories. Where's the fashion, again?
Whatever. Fuck you, thoughtless, lazy, played-out, uncreative photographers and whatever other "artistic geniuses" insist on keeping this trend going. Just because you pissed people off doesn't mean you're a Misunderstood Artiste.
#enoughalready
10/30/09
I have one question though: are the two women in the picture the same model? It looks like it to me. If so, I take this photoshoot as a commentary on the light/dark inside of every woman. Sort of like a yin and yang type of shoot. Can someone find out if this is the same model because that is how I interpret this photo. I'm open to being proven wrong, however. #blackface
10/30/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
10/30/09
I'm over this "trend". #blackface
10/30/09
10/30/09
So yeah, it absolutely bothers me. #blackface
10/30/09
10/30/09
Is that supposed to be a joke? Instead of taking the powerbrokers to task for racism, you think that the answer to widespread discrimination in an industry is to tell the people being discriminated against, "oh well, all the people handing out jobs are jerks, so you're probably better off"? This is ridiculous. #blackface
11/02/09
11/02/09
Of course The choice to hire someone doesn't always depend on the color of their skin just like not hiring someone isn't always because the color of their skin either. But models are paid to look a certain way, so passing over a black model for a white one that you then paint black isn't exactly the same as the time that I wasn't sure if my lack of experience or my lackluster interview did me in. There is an obvious problem here, and that's independent of the fact that blackface should never be viewed as an artistic option (without some kind of important subtext or actual thought behind the photograph). The fact that you don't see it doesn't make it speculation. #blackface
11/02/09
I seriously am not trying to be a horse's ass but I just can't seem to grasp what exactly is so upsetting.
PS...perhaps the use of blue skin was silly, my apologies for such a child-like example. #blackface
11/02/09
1. Blackface. This has a very long, very ugly history. Dressing white people up as black people for entertainment purposes "others" black people, is grossly offensive, and taps into the worst part of our history and culture. (This is why it would not be the same if a black model was painted white, the context is different.)
2a. Lack of representation of black models in mainstream media (Consumer perspective). Very few black women are represented in the media, so if one of the few occasions is actually a white woman painted black (perhaps because the painter was enamored of her European features), it skews the already small sample from which other black women (and especially girls) draw role models, aspirational ideals, and positive reinforcement. (The famous doll experiment deals with some of the fallout from this white=pretty message that gets reinforced every day in a billion ways.)
2b. Lack of representation of black models in mainstream media (Model perspective). Models of color are routinely excluded from photo shoots (sometimes specifically, with notes like "No ethnic models" at casting, and more often de facto). When a photographer is looking for contrasting skin tones for artistic purposes (and it almost hurts to give that much benefit of the doubt to this twit) and chooses to go to the trouble to paint a white woman's entire body rather than hire a model who comes ready-made with that skin tone, it not only takes away an opportunity for that model (in an already hypercompetitve world where her opportunities are artificially restricted because of her race), but it also feeds the problems mentioned above. And if his reason actually is "I want black skin but white features", that is an excellent example of furthering the idea that white=pretty. Which is a destructive problem in the first place, but potentially even moreso for women whose jobs center around their looks. If regular women are getting boob jobs by the score because the media tells us it's hawt, how much worse must be the pressure for black models to get nose jobs or Asian models to get that horrifying eyelid surgery or what-have-you when their entire job is reliant on photographers finding their faces worth filming? (Also this is not the same as asking a white model to tan, for the simple reason that a white model can tan. A black model cannot show up white one day.)
These are my top 3, at least.
10/30/09
Not all instances of blackface require the performer to look like a golliwog. Blackface is essentially a White person made up to appear as a Black person for entertainment purposes. This fits the bill. The bottom line is that a White model is getting paid to look like a Black model. In the ANTM shoot they actually wanted them to embody the spirit of a biracial person, as though that is something that one can just take on and off like a costume. Arguing over whether it can officially be defined as Blackface only serves to derail an important conversation. #blackface
10/30/09
10/30/09
When I look at this image, I don't see the malicious intent that made blackface performances so disgusting. I just see a painted person. #blackface
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
We get it. You don't mind offending large groups of people.
Love/hate,
World. #blackface