much older

[olamina]

Going through a stack of my old magazines, I came across this gem of a political cartoon from the October 1971 issue of Playboy.

Comments

[bikerbar]

I've always found those old playboys fascinating .. the combination of liberal politics with erotic objectification. This cartoon comes out of that whole dialogue promoted by the Panthers, the awareness of issues raised by MLK and of course his tragic assassination which continues to reverberate today. As a culture we were reaching for something good then, yet it was also a crazy time, John and Yoko mishmashed all the issues together with their "Woman is the nigger of the world

[olamina]

"Ultimately I think we need to become colorblind, to see the person, not the color, which is only a surface issue, in a sense."

Ultimately I think that the colors (and facial features and hair textures and clothes and all) needs to stop signifying whatever twisted things they signify. As I'm sure you well know from your training in the arts there is nothing intrinsically good or bad with any color in the palette, we human beings and our symbol systems have made them so.

[bikerbar]

very well put. And sure its not so much about being colorblind as it is about celebrating difference. Like you said, reclaim the colors of the palette.

You might like the paintings of Bob Thompson where the people are all types of colors and everyone feels fine

[olamina]

i don't even need a celebration frankly. i think it is about not placing more weight on one difference than another. i mean there is no feeling of unity amongst people with brown hair necessarily and frankly i don't feel any need to give a freckled person or a person with a limp a high five. I am very much in a "End Racism So People Can Be Left Alone" camp rather than the multicultural potluck/drum circle scene.

[bing_crosby]

I am very much in a "End Racism So People Can Be Left Alone" camp rather than the multicultural potluck/drum circle scene.

awesome way of putting it. & great cartoon too. I love Playboy -- not that I have ever really read it, but whenever I see old clips I get why people said they only read it for the articles!

[benicek]

There's been a bit of a backlash against the concept of 'multiculturalism' in Britain recently. There's a feeling that it has simply served to define people narrowly and racially, and promote sectarianism, rather than recognise complex social realities.

Ultimately I think we need to become colorblind

[congogirl]

Don't say this to white people, we think this is our way out. I think for most, it's a very dangerous premise for curriculums addressing racism, because it is a means to avoid talking about any of the issues or signifiers.

ultimately we need to SEE

[olamina]

well bikerbar is a white person. i would NEVER say that to white people or anyone for that matter because it is tantamount to saying "there IS something wrong with my skin color, but howsabout we not mention it m'kay?" i reject the intrinsic idea, and i also question where and why the "difference" engines are located.

Re: ultimately we need to SEE

[congogirl]

it is tantamount to saying "there IS something wrong with my skin color

Of course you're right.

I encounter the "colorblind" argument often in the context of interracial and transnational adoption discussions (which I haven't participated in recently, but I'm assuming it hasn't changed much), in which a lot of parents don't see any problems or don't want to do the work involved with being aware of the types of problems their kid might encounter (or they might cause for their kid) that they don't have experience with. I think it's a cop out.

A friend of mine told me something recently that shouldn't have astounded me, but did - when people in Kinshasa find out he's American, they ignore him in restaurants and treat him like crap. He said their reasoning is that he must be the descendant of a slave and they think they're better because they were never enslaved. If he said he were South African, he'd be put on a pedestal. I wouldn't even know how to start unraveling that one.

Re: ultimately we need to SEE

[bikerbar]

As I have both feet in my mouth, I cant dig myself a deeper hole can I? We'll see... In my experience with my black friends I have felt that there is often a wariness, and understandably. People are often burned when extending themselves

Re: Ultimately I think we need to become colorblind

[benicek]

Colour blindness is a great ideal and I certainly spent part of my childhood in state of colour blindness. However, to pretend colour blindness in adulthood is a useless and probably destructive exercise.