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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I'm a little perplexed at the idea of a "progressive" organ allowing a person, who is arguably as racist as Louis Farrakhan or Ernst Zundel, a platform upon which to spout "regressive" dogma.
There are two points here that bear examination: First, and as usual, there is no verifiable scientific data to corroborate Ms. Dickerson's assertions. Her perspectives, clearly falling into the realm of a belief system as opposed to serious human study, define her articles as opinions, and not objective reports. That brings me to the second point which is: If we have standards that allow us to define the suitability of readers' polemics to the public discourse, why don't we have standards that would allow us to define the suitability of writers' contributions to the public discourse. If I, or any other reader, were to send a letter to the editor with the same kind of claptrap bled from the poison pen of Ms. Dickerson, the note would be edited beyond recognition, or ignored altogether. We would be regarded as anti-social radicals or self-serving fools. But she, consistently, is allowed to vent "mental adventures" cloaked in a veneer of hypothesized fact.
I submit that if Salon is going to selectively ignore it's progressive responsibility to present material that is of social value then it should, in all fairness, hire a polemicist from an alternate social perspective to provide counterpoint to Ms. Dickerson's opinions. Ann Coulter would be a nice choice. You could have the two of them going at each other hammer-and-tongs, as an object lesson in what happens when you allow ego and supposition to override the common good and enlightenment. Or were you just happy to see a large number of letters being written in response to her perplexing diatribes?
ejb
I have read all the letters, and can't honestly believe that no one else has brought this up. There's A LOT of airbrushing going on in those pictures. In some of them, which are less airbrushed, you can see a little of the contours caused by cellulite. In others, these have been entirely digitally polished away.
Also, you'll notice that very rarely is she posed so that you can see her stomach face-on. In the other poses, it's very easy to slim a body a little to add an extra little concavity to the stomach, to make the body look thinner--particularly if it's in shadow. In the few poses where you can see her stomach face-on, there are contours there which have clearly been added.
A while ago, someone sent me a link to a graphic designer's portfolio which showed the before-and-after resulrs of airbrushing/touch-ups. The differences were really astounding--I'll never look at magazine photos the same way again. (I have tried in vain to find the link, but can't.) Many of the models were African-American--I think one of them may have been Buffie, but I had no idea who she was at the time. I do remember the style of the shots was similar to the ones on fhe site. If it was her, there is A LOT more fat on her than these images would suggest.
Who knows what this woman really looks like, and how fat--or healthy--she is?
...between the two most knuckle-headed writers ever to have spotted up the pages of Salon.
Please please please, when it comes time for this 'zine to raise funds, do consider a cage match featuring Debra 'Race Ragin' Dickerson and Camille 'Bee-yatch Baitin' Paglia. Considering the volumes of mail from fed up readers that these two generate, I bet if you did a pay-per-view on cable with simulcast streaming online (for a modest fee, of course - you could call it 'Premium Match Streaming' or PMS for short) you could fatten up those coffers for years to come.
And now a word about Buffie the Body. Did Debra actually LOOK at the photos on Buffie's page? Of course they mostly feature her most amazing tushie, but there is one that features Buffie's very fit looking and toned abdomen. Buffie is not fat.
I'd happily tote around a can the size of all outdoors if I could ever get my abs that flat and nice. But they never will be that way. Genetics, you know. Kinda like the reason why Buffie's butt is so big. She could probably eat a diet of carrots and tofu for the rest of her days and she'd still have an ample behind.
Seriously, it's time to kick the Dick to the curb and go find another spokesperson for all us Negroes out here, someone who won't spike our already high ('cause you know it's a problem for us folks) blood pressure.
First, and as usual, there is no verifiable scientific data to corroborate Ms. Dickerson's assertions. Her perspectives, clearly falling into the realm of a belief system as opposed to serious human study, define her articles as opinions, and not objective reports.
There is no verifiable scientific data correlating obesity and poor health? Is this like the lack of evidence linking smoking and lung cancer? It's truly amazing the levels of denial people can attain to avoid responsibility.
- this sentence should disturb you:
"According to the Voice, Buffie "eats nothing but junk food and sugary drinks, and she doesn't work out.""
Given that people with these bad habits and supposedly healthy BMIs can have high levels of visceral fat and all of the associated health problems, what kind of an example is this, cultural standards or no? So what if genetics are implicated in diabetes and high cholesteral and other diseases? The facts are, if today's trends continue, something like 1/3 of all babies being born today will develop Type 2 diabetes. This is an epidemic. People are getting this disease at increasingly young ages, meaning that they are likely to develop the serious health problems associated with it at younger ages. We are looking at a population of chronically ill people that's getting larger every day - and the increasing odds that for the first time, a new generation may not live as long as their parents.
Poor nutrition and lack of exercise are a problem, whether a person is "obese" or not. Someone mentioned Oprah as an example of a zaftig Black woman held up as a role model. Well, Oprah's weight might fluctuate, but as I understand it, she works out like a fiend. Exercise gets rid of this visceral fat very quickly (way before thighs and butt). Odds are she's pretty healthy.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
