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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
Seriously, is this how far we've slid with Salon's political commentary? Talking about booty? Really?
How about we collectively pull our heads out of our asses, and start focusing on the issues again? We like Michelle Obama because she's got a great brain. Now we have to look at this picture of this great future leader and first lady and scan down to check out her ass. Can we stop reducing our politicians to MTV Road Rules during ratings week? Michelle Obama is going to be a great first lady, and will keep the dignity of the office. Why can't you?
Somehow this fact made Joan at ease in publishing this trash..
You write: 1. For your information, I have posted two letters that discuss the Hottentot Venus (Sarah Baartman). In those letters I suggest that the issue of the beauty (and "booty")of black women is highly charged and Ms Kaplan's POV can and should be placed within a cultural/social/historical context.
2. I do not know Ms Kaplan so do not know what she can or can not do "on her best day." Perhaps you know her and can speak to this better than I.
Assez writes: And I've told you that, in my opinion, this article is garbage compared to better written pieces on the same topic without the addition of Michelle Obama and any exegesis on her behind and what it means to the author. Considering you did not ask me to clarify the points in my original letter, but instead chose to "lecture" me on your freshly googled information on the "Hottentot Venus" schema, I could say you know no more about my proclivities for "mischief-making" than you do about black intellectual thought. I neither know or want to know Ms. Kaplan. It's bad enough that I've read her type of material from many other black writers since Obama's election. It's time to expect more from our black writers, and I'm not sorry to say it.
You write: 1. You really have no way of knowing when I "began" to engage in "thought-provoking analysis on the sexualization of the black body," do you? So, I think this remark is just a bit gratuitous, don't you?
Assez writes: No, because you're the letter-writer who has deemed him or herself the final arbiter determining what this article really "meant" and have taken it upon yourself to lecture everyone with a dissenting opinion on its intellectual merits. Anyone with any kind of background (racial or academic) in black history and philosophy would not so apt to constantly discuss the Hottentot Venus pertaining to this particular piece by Ms. Kaplan. You almost sound like someone who is discovering a topic for the first time and feels a need to "educate" everyone he or she meets because you assume everyone is as ignorant of the "history" behind this piece as you originally were. Nevermind that anyone who is actually "black" and somewhat educated would never need to "google" Hottentot Venus to understand Kaplan's point and one doesn't need an over-earnest letter-writer to explain one's own history to one in any case.
You write: 2. Please explain why the catalyst for engaging in "thought-provoking analysis" must itself be of high intellectual quality? Intelligent, creative people can find food for thought in things that ordinary people would not deem worthy of a second look. If you can not see that the theme underlying this article is a very serious one than you clearly just want to spout off. The serious theme underlying this article is the way black bodies have been sexualized, exploited and abused throughout history. I do not know if Ms Kaplan intended to do a "deep" article but whatever the case, one certainly can't miss the connection. And her article can, of course, serve as a springboard to a deeper engagement with this subject.
Assez: Whatever my intent, I don't need to be lectured by someone who had to google "Hottentot Venus" to comprehend the over-sexualization of black men and women in America nor do I need someone whose first inclination is to "lecture" rather than encourage a friendly discourse to explain to me how important Ms. Kaplan's voice is, because she, as a black woman, understands these things so much more than you assumed I could. (Tell the truth...you didn't even suspect I could be black as well, did you?)
The point remains, Cecilbeanie, Kaplan is, in this piece, as guilty of sexualizing Michelle Obama, as those European sideshow artists were of exploiting and sexualizing Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman. Perhaps, if you were so overly excited by your low quality (your words, not mine) intellectual discovery of sex/racial based objectivism, you would see that reducing any woman to the sum of her parts is sexist and ridiculous, but I suppose, like everything else, if a black woman is exploiting her sisters in the name of pro-black solidarity, it's a "springboard to a deeper engagement of this issue."
I have a newsflash for you, Joan Walsh and Ms. Kaplan, black women, in particular, black professional woman have resisted being reduced to the sum of their parts, including their "ghetto booties" for some time now. (Apparently, black journalists haven't gotten that memo yet.) That conversation has already been going on under the radar of the larger white society. So sorry, but don't expect the rest of us, black females, who have embraced ourselves as human beings, not interchangeable body parts, to participate quietly in these stupid discussions that threaten to reduce us all BACK to "Jezebels" (Google it.) for the sake of your edification.
this is sad reading a Black woman surrender to the seduction of popular culture( salon) just to appeased white folks she is not a good negro and follower of Obama...
How sad...
Michelle is beautiful and this article does nothing to diminish that fact! And more importantly, BARACK just loves her booty and all!
Somehow I missed it and he truly writes a great letter. I, too, agree with him in every particular.
To paraphrase Peggy Lee... Is this all it takes
Where have all the writers gone... I never thought...
It soundd like a kid saying... I've always wanted...
Well as they say be careful of what you pray for ... you just might get it.
They talked the talk.. let's see if they can walk the walk.
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