Racism is indeed a huge problem in this country. The only problem w/that problem is that racism is what primarily (and I understate) fuels a 'free market' economy. At least here in the US, it's all I 'know'. Saying it's a huge problem is such an understatement that it makes me nauseous.

And discrimination against, alienation, physical marginalization and exploitation of people of color (and particularly African-Americans cause uh, they came here as captive slaves in the first place) is not prejudice. It certainly involves prejudice (while generally it's not a good thing, it's there cause at times it saves lives) but when it leads to scapegoating (another very very handy tool for capitalism, esp. the predatory spiraling type, like right here).

Any identifiable group that disproportionately occupy the lowest economic tier is subject to racism under this system.

Speaking of the subject of racism not being acknowledged nearly enough (another understatement that makes me nervous) -- loose lips sink ships. But those loose lips, besides acknowledging that it's a problem, need to be willing to face hard truths about human nature and the functional definition of racism. W/out such loose lips, Dog-help every last one of us.

Intolerance and ignorance are not even the primary reasons for racism -- fear is. Most don't want to identify with or even have sympathy for those who are such a high percentage of the lowest economic (not to mention social) scale -- not to mention the real physical threat that come from children who grow up societally at least, as expendable. People of color don't escape the racism (they are the most susceptible to physical attack. It's just that in their case, it's directed at themselves and those closest to them. Protecting ourselves from harm is human nature, even if it's misguided. A very important part of the solution (or closer anyway) is to recognize what truly threatens us.

Look around. It's time to start using our reason instead of our emotions. Emotions are for feeling -- absolutely neccessary -- but not for thinking clearly about probably the only thing that could save 'the greatest coutry on earth'.

While I agree that some slam poetry is repetitive and inarticulate, I could hardly call even the worst poems uninspired. As a girl of color from inner city Oakland who now attends a predominantly white middle-class liberal arts college in the east coast, it can be pretty validating to hear slam poets rhyme about poverty, racism, sexism, culture, the ghetto. Slam poetry is an organic, straight-from-the-heart art form in which people from the street are trying to reach out to each other, and hopefully people like Heather Havrilesky, who may not be from the ghetto, but who are educated and symphathic enough to actually give a damn about our voice.

I still love Heather, though.

we don't even notice that our lives are just really long to-do lists with half the stuff crossed of

Heather Havrilesky is one of the most pithy insightful writers on salon.

Heather's column is bang on as usual. But it's part of the problem: she's forcing me to waste my life watching TV just so I can catch ALL her references. No one else could have made me sit through an entire episode of America's Top Model.

"We're so thoroughly alienated from real emotions and high-stakes situations and so saturated by artifice that our numbed senses are drawn to the faux suspense of fictional and staged reality scenarios like male ducks to a fake wooden mate"

And since when has there ever been the tiniest bit of real emotion in anything you've ever written, Heather?

Generation Irony demands real emotion! I'm laughing so hard I'm giving myself diarhhea.

Judging from her writing, if Heather ever saw a real emotion coming toward her on the street, she'd come up with some bitterly ironic attitudinal comment to make it go away.

But Heather's royal "We" doesn't include everyone she thinks it does. For example, plenty of people in the middle class are facing difficult struggles for their lives and they're filled with real emotion.

Trying being diagnosed with cancer, for example. That happens even in the middle class. There are real emotions, and the stakes can be quite high.

But forget truth, forget high stakes, forget real emotion -- this is Salon! It's about politics and irony, and real emotions need not apply.

The sort of ennui Heather expresses is an essential part of the aesthetical lifestyle, as we all know from reading Kierkegaard when we were in college. As such it's not necessarily a bad thing: it's a kind of philosophical boredom that motivates change. When Kierkegaard wrote about it, he was fully immersed in opera, poetry, and the fine arts, i.e. European High Culture. I mention that because improving the quality of your experiences will not solve your philosophical problem, Heather. The problem is not in the shows you watch but rather that you like to watch. When you define yourself by what you like to watch eventually you are going to get bored because, for complicated psychological reasons, you end up watching the same thing over and over again. The permutations of irony will all be played out until eventually there will be nothing new to see.

I don't suffer from Heather's ennui because for me television is an ethical and spirtual part of my life. I don't watch it because I like it, I watch it because it makes me a better person and also because the programs on it allow me to transcend myself. Watching television is like a fall upwards into a higher realm where people are cleaner and life always has a pleasing narrative arc. "I'm gonna make it after all!"

Watching television is an extremely useful kind of literacy in our society. For example, if it wasn't for watching crime-dramas on television how else would everybody know that you have a right to remain silent? The most televisually literate people are able to actually be on television and make lots and lots of money. "That's hot," to quote perhaps the most televisually literate person in our civilization, Paris Hilton.

Television keeps me informed about products and services I might not otherwise know are useful to me. Television keeps me abreast of trends in fashion, music, and comedy. Without television I would not be the well-informed consumer that I am. If I was not the well-informed consumer that I am, America would collapse because let's face it: if I don't shop... the consequences are too horrifying to even ponder. Companies go bankrupt, pensions are lost, and poverty and starvation ensue. My purchases provide the capital the primes the pump of global commerce.

In other words, we are all helping to win the war on terrorism by watching television and shopping for the things we see on television. That's called freedom. Is there any higher calling than being free? It's a burden but also an honor: with rights come responsiblities. Remember that next time you are about to change the channel to avoid watching a commercial on television.