when you are a dog person that means you are crazy
As I was walking to the subway today, I noticed a couple of puppies (Boston Terriers, if you care) tied by their leashes to a parking meter. And since they were ADORABLE and ALONE and one of them was WAGGING ITS ADORABLE LITTLE TAIL AT ME, I maybe, um, stopped to pet them for like half an hour? I realize that this is somewhat inappropriate, petting other people's dogs like a creeper, but you know what? PUPPIES.
Moving on, this is a Question that is On My Mind Today, or rather, Several Interrelated Questions: Are white people allowed to use the word "Brown" to describe Asian or otherwise non-white people, i.e. People of Color (POCtm)? Is it like a privileged word that only members of said group are allowed to use, like "Nigga" or "Nigger" or "Niggaz"? Actually, I don't think anyone pronounces "Nigger" with an "er" anymore except Racists and my great grandmother, who casually dropped the word "nigger-hair" into a conversation one time. Which brings up another notion I'm interested in: the politics of hair. Black people in America, especially but not restricted to women, tend not to wear their hair natural or "nappy" or whatever. They get it straightened or relaxed instead, or they braid it or...a lot of things. It's very versatile hair. You can only make real dreadlocks out of sufficiently coarse, curly hair. Which I am obviously jealous of. I am also intensely jealous of afros, because seriously? Those are Awesome. But I'm getting of track. (And by the way, Audience Members Who Think Maybe My Great-Grandmother Is A Racist, it is a well-known fact that anyone who belongs to the speaker's immediate family is automatically Not A Racist. So there, AMWTMMGGIAR. Shame on you.) Going back to my main point, does Brown signify only Asians, or the larger group of People of Color in general? Should Brown be capitalized? Cause, I mean, my stepfather is brown, Johnny Depp is brown, but neither of them are Brown, you know? And yet Michael Jackson is. Well, was. Before he died, after the creepy plastic surgery that made him look like a glowing alien of doom, he was still, technically, in an ethnic sense, Brown. Right? Unless it only applies to Asians and South Asians or even just South Asians, I don't know the linguistic intricacies of this word, I am just an ignorant Midwestern white kid who heard it when she came to New York. Um. So. Can anyone answer these questions of mine? Also, if it is alright with the above-mentioned groups, I vote that we substitute Brown for the much longer and more awkward-to-say "People of Color" as the new inclusive PC word for non-white people. Cause it is much shorter and easier to say and everyone would know what you meant, whereas if you tried to say "P.O.C." in casual conversation, people would go "Huh?" and you would have to explain and then they would think you were pretentious and had some kind of politically correct stick up your ass or something, and guys, I just want to be able to talk about race and stuff without getting on people's nerves you know?
An additional thought that is on my mind: I think that fashion (as in clothes..............but this could apply to other fashions as well I guess?) is used as a device for people who don't really have a clear aesthetic sensibility, at least sometimes. That troubles me, cause a lot of fashion is bad and also the idea of saying "Don't do [this thing] and don't [wear this] because it is Totally Not In right now" is just sort of absurd. To appreciate beauty more often and more fully, shouldn't you have a more flexible sense of what beauty actually is? There are other problems with fashion like the whole anorexic models and airbrushing things that skew people's body images, but that is not what I'm concerned with on this day. This day is a day for pondering the absurdities of advice in Vogue magazine, which I have now, lying open on the couch. Cate Blanchett is really really pretty.
Moving on, this is a Question that is On My Mind Today, or rather, Several Interrelated Questions: Are white people allowed to use the word "Brown" to describe Asian or otherwise non-white people, i.e. People of Color (POCtm)? Is it like a privileged word that only members of said group are allowed to use, like "Nigga" or "Nigger" or "Niggaz"? Actually, I don't think anyone pronounces "Nigger" with an "er" anymore except Racists and my great grandmother, who casually dropped the word "nigger-hair" into a conversation one time. Which brings up another notion I'm interested in: the politics of hair. Black people in America, especially but not restricted to women, tend not to wear their hair natural or "nappy" or whatever. They get it straightened or relaxed instead, or they braid it or...a lot of things. It's very versatile hair. You can only make real dreadlocks out of sufficiently coarse, curly hair. Which I am obviously jealous of. I am also intensely jealous of afros, because seriously? Those are Awesome. But I'm getting of track. (And by the way, Audience Members Who Think Maybe My Great-Grandmother Is A Racist, it is a well-known fact that anyone who belongs to the speaker's immediate family is automatically Not A Racist. So there, AMWTMMGGIAR. Shame on you.) Going back to my main point, does Brown signify only Asians, or the larger group of People of Color in general? Should Brown be capitalized? Cause, I mean, my stepfather is brown, Johnny Depp is brown, but neither of them are Brown, you know? And yet Michael Jackson is. Well, was. Before he died, after the creepy plastic surgery that made him look like a glowing alien of doom, he was still, technically, in an ethnic sense, Brown. Right? Unless it only applies to Asians and South Asians or even just South Asians, I don't know the linguistic intricacies of this word, I am just an ignorant Midwestern white kid who heard it when she came to New York. Um. So. Can anyone answer these questions of mine? Also, if it is alright with the above-mentioned groups, I vote that we substitute Brown for the much longer and more awkward-to-say "People of Color" as the new inclusive PC word for non-white people. Cause it is much shorter and easier to say and everyone would know what you meant, whereas if you tried to say "P.O.C." in casual conversation, people would go "Huh?" and you would have to explain and then they would think you were pretentious and had some kind of politically correct stick up your ass or something, and guys, I just want to be able to talk about race and stuff without getting on people's nerves you know?
An additional thought that is on my mind: I think that fashion (as in clothes..............but this could apply to other fashions as well I guess?) is used as a device for people who don't really have a clear aesthetic sensibility, at least sometimes. That troubles me, cause a lot of fashion is bad and also the idea of saying "Don't do [this thing] and don't [wear this] because it is Totally Not In right now" is just sort of absurd. To appreciate beauty more often and more fully, shouldn't you have a more flexible sense of what beauty actually is? There are other problems with fashion like the whole anorexic models and airbrushing things that skew people's body images, but that is not what I'm concerned with on this day. This day is a day for pondering the absurdities of advice in Vogue magazine, which I have now, lying open on the couch. Cate Blanchett is really really pretty.