The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medicines and foods more effective, safer, and more affordable; and helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and foods to improve their health. -Food and Drug Administration
With the latest food recall still underway, one could make the argument that members of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) don’t actually eat food, at least not the the same things they are allowing to make it to our plates. Or perhaps the FDA only employs individuals with private gardens and free roaming chickens in their own spacial backyards. If so, the rampant oversight and lack of quality assurance makes more sense. Not saying it is right, but it would be easier to digest it all. Pun intended. Instead, there are few guidelines and regulations, and as a result even fewer plans in place to deal with public panic and illness once bad apples actually make their way into the bunch. Occasionally, regulatory laws are put forth, but companies often find the time and cost to implement them too high and the penalty too low, making it more economical to do the wrong thing. British Petroleum (BP), anyone?
We all know too well the easiest way to get on television is to either have something tragic happen or to be tragic. It is clear in almost every reality show on television from The Real Housewives Series to The Bad Girls Club to Jersey Shore that we as a world are desperate for three things more than most; for people to either fear us, feel sorry for us, or to laugh at us. And perhaps now that we have the technology available to share our every waking emotion, we’ve lost some of the things that were once cherished, like secrecy. Unfortunately, it seems all of tv world is suffering from a serious case of Munchausen’s Syndrome.
Recently, there have been numerous posts about Antoine and Kelly Dodson and how they fought off a rapist. The news story, taking place in Hunstville, Alabama has resulted in numerous viral videos of remixed songs mocking Antoine’s gay patois and featuring his family members stomping about seemingly outraged at the occurrence. Of course there are many political underpinnings. How safe is communal housing? How “typical” is it for poor women to be sexually assaulted? Do poor black people even expect cops to intervene? Should certain kinds of people be allowed on television? I get it. This video points to so many issues but it also points to the problem we face as a world hyper-exposed to reality tv drama, where trauma and bad behavior are commonplace. We have become desensitized to suffering. At the very least, we have developed a more rigid expectation of what “real” pain should look like. Read more »
Soon after President Barack Obama was elected, the lie of post-race America began. It was this idea that because we had a black president in office, we as a nation, had somehow transcended race. But the very idea of a raceless (it isn’t even a real word) society is impossible. However, for many, the uptick in interracial relationships coupled with a bi-racial President in office is overwhelming evidence that society has moved on from the big “R.” Fortunately, we still have reminders.
Meet Dr. Laura Schlessinger. She’s a conservative talk radio show host who has often times run up against more liberal groups. Prior to her nigger-rant, she has previously sparked outrage from gay groups. She has also ranked alongside Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh in conservative radio with nearly 9 million listeners tuning in each week. She has since left her multi-million dollar radio spot amid outrage. Read more »
Recently the First Lady visited Spain. This photo was taken from her vacation. Yes, I have copies. As does Essence Magazine. Anyway, since her jaunt to Spain there has been article after article about whether or not it was a smart political move. That back in the states, there were millions of people still facing unemployment. The message here was save your money, find cheap things to do, and support those in the Gulf. To many, even ardent supporters, Mrs. Obama’s “lavish” trip overseas sent the wrong message. Michel Martin’s piece for NPR resonated widely. In part, because she gave credence to the negative attitudes that surround the Obamas including the lack of support they receive because of their race. Then she brought it back around to Michelle’s ill-timed trip to Spain. In the end, she concluded, that Michelle Obama took a “vacation from empathy” and that millions of poor Americans here were now faced with seeing she and Barack Obama as outsiders. Prior to this trip, they were much more accessible. Hell, they were just like us. Read more »
Just recently, I saw a video about Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and in the video two animated characters are talking about discrimination. The transsexual character questioned the non-transsexual character’s loyalty because she continued to go to the festival even though the festival discriminates against transsexual people. At some point, the non-transsexual character says “I believe that I can support you but also support people who hate you.” Basically, the video was meant to question how complicated moving within an oppressive structure can be and how in our own little ways we do things to both combat and support unjust people/structures. For me, the question of gay marriage has always been this complicated.
But that was early in the game, when I was still “bi-sexual.” Fast forward to today, only a few hours after Proposition 8, the law banning gay marriage, was overturned and you will find me, fully gay, and coupled--struggling to maintain my radical stance against gay marriage, and not Read more »
I was in college and in the closet when The L Word first aired on television. My then girlfriend and I got the hookup from the dorm cable guy and each sunday night we would curl up in her twin bed to watch the episodes. Beyond the uber-feminine, white, west-coasty crunchy vibe, somewhere along the way we found ourselves in the characters. It was validating. Of course, along the way as I learned a bit more about being gay and black, my reaction to the sex scenes weaned and my critique to the feminine aesthetic grew. I knew as did everyone else, The L Word was packaged in a way that was safe for both homos and heteros, there was one strap scene albeit with a cheating straight women but the sex was real in all of its splendor and in all of its boredom.
We should all feel a little remorse for Mel Gibson. This is not in defense of his behavior nor am I excusing or condoning anything he did on the tape. I’m only suggesting we read between the lines and review just how the private lives of others become fodder for the masses. We have to ask ourselves where the line between personal and private should be drawn, if there is one even left.
The young generation raised on Facebook and MySpace and other social networks will have the benefit of connecting with communities across the globe, but they will also have the misfortune of their private lives being accessed by employers, scorned ex-lovers, and anyone else seeking access to your private information. I use many online sites in addition to visiting gossip sites and while it can be entertaining, I am often puzzled by how often information on individual’s medical conditions are available. Aren’t these things we should know nothing about?
My sympathy to Mel Gibson is in relation to his positioning as a public figure and whether or not he has a problem, the very availability of the tapes is still questionable. So is the release of court documents and 911 calls. In the age of information, there is almost an entitlement to the secrets of others. The more salacious or damning the information, the more removed we are from the idea of privacy. And while I know it isn’t technically illegal for any of this information to be out in the open, we should still think how we would feel if it happened to us and what it means for us to have this kind of access.
The illegal immigrant is not a border problem but a business one. And while it is fair to say the question of illegal immigration brings up all our trauma around race and xenophobia, it is also fair to say it brings out our capitalist as well. Thus, the “problem” of illegal immigration is not merely a race one, but a business one. Of course, it is simple to look at a basic jobs argument–that illegal immigrants are taking all the jobs from America. Of course, even when they aren’t actually on our soil, foreigners are “stealing” them through outsourcing. While it may seem racist to blame illegal immigrants for the lack of job availability in America, the very presence of any kind of worker, illegal or not who is willing to do work that is beneath most general employer standards, stifles creativity, growth, and change. Of course, it may be profitable, but only in the short-run. The presence of the illegal immigrant should be expected, when businesses aren’t regulated, when employment standards aren’t uniform, and when employers aren’t held accountable.
Thus while the United Farm Workers of America may prove a point when few individuals apply to the take the low-paying, back-breaking jobs offered by immigrant farmers, they like everyone else, continue to miss the point. The “problem” of the illegal immigrant is actually more about the continued availability of certain types of work in a nation as advanced as America. The “problem” of illegal immigrants is very deeply connected to the lack of regulation and the lack of accountability on the part of businesses, both here and abroad. Take for instance the BP oil spill which happened on our soil. We are outraged by the response and even more outraged that a business could have such sophisticated technology to reach an oil source, but little in the way of cleaning up in the event there was an actual spill. But it was only possible because there was no regulation and a very small punishment ($75 million fine) in the case of error. There was little motivation to actually work towards greater solutions, whether it be clean-up or learning to use a different fuel source. Innovation employs.
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Back in the day, Paul Mooney had a skit called “1-800-Blame a Nigger.” It was an emergency phone service that rented out black people to take the blame for white crimes. The idea being that white people blamed so much shit on black folks, someone should create a service to make it easier to assign ones faults to another. Of course while Paul Mooney was joking about the tendency for white people to blame things on blacks, it is definitely something that continues to happen. Back in the day it was Susan Smith and today it is Jeremy London, who recently blamed a black man for kidnapping him and forcing him to do drugs. Hell, white people can even blame black folks for relapsing.
There is this almost monolithic idea that black people are on a journey, a fight of sorts, to move from Point A to Point B. That is, as a people we are trying to get from here to there. However, there isn’t really a known destination–it is quite simply just anywhere but where we are at the moment.
In 2000, “The Chris Rock Show” did a segment about black behaviors, chronicling our triumphs and our failures. After displaying black advances such as the airing of Roots, Jesse Jackson’s run for President, Venus and Serena Williams, Tiger Woods (“one quarter” of him anyway), and Colin Powell, he quickly followed with our loses (i.e. “steps back”). Our trip-ups included ghetto names, Marion Barry, Mike Tyson, The Source Awards, and Lil’ Kim. By the time Chris Rock was done, even black folks on their best behavior couldn’t save the race from falling completely off path. Journey over.
But what was most surprising about his skit was the idea that black people could benefit from the fuck-ups of others. A sort of advance-by-proxy where some other group/occurrence either disproves our status as criminal, lazy, victim-loving (see NAACP) folks or actually buys us some pity. But if Rock’s hypothesis holds, no matter what we do to move forward, whether on our own merit or as a gift from others, we will always find a way to fuck it up.
