GTA: San Andracist

I know, with every fiber of my being that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a game which capitalizes on racist stereotypes and images.

And yet, people ask me to justify my belief all the time. And I have a hard time putting into words this profound understanding of blaxploitation that I have.

And they always think they've somehow won an argument against me. "Ha! He admits that the other games had bad stereotypes of italian americans, I've somehow won this argument against him!" they proclaim. I barely have energy to argue any further. If somebody says, "how is this game racist? how does it use racist iconography?" I just have to shake my head. How does it not, I wonder.
How is it that people seem to think that the last 100 years worth of subtle prejudice against Italian Americans is anywhere near the institution of american racism based on the construct of whiteness and blackness? I get flustered, and don't feel like going through visual sociology and cultural studies and african american image in the media 101 for these people -- fucking educated, self-proclaimed liberal people, just because they're priviliged enough to be blissfully unaware of the dynamic of racism (this privilige IS in fact an indirect form of racism). I don't feel like bringing in a bibliography chronicalling the evolution of the black image from the big black bucks in Birth of a Nation to the big black bucks in G-Unit to the big black bucks in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

I hate to waste time arguing with somebody why the very appropriation and glorification of the South Central mythos as a style, or genre within which suburban white kids across the country can fanticize themselves into is a result of racist white privilige.

Usually the best I can do is to point out that in videogames, black people only appear as sports figures, rappers, or gangsta ass niggas.
Which doesn't seem to phase people, because those are the exact same roles they play in MAGAZINES, TV, MOVIES, MUSIC. HELLO, THE FUCKING MEDIA IS FUCKING A FUCKER, PEOPLE. KRS-ONE said, "now we got white kids calling themselves nigga" and that was before they could become VIRTUAL niggaz in the nigganet.

What the fuck?

Why do I have to have this discussion every goddamned day?

Don't think, feeeeeeellll....

Or better yet, ACT.

For 20 years, the right has been mobilizing, and taking relatively unradical steps towards creating a huge juggernaut of a movement that can steal elections, stack the media, and trick poor people into thinking trickledown economics, supply side economics, voodoo economics, reaganomics, whatever is good for them. And that Gay Marriage is a bigger threat to the country than global warming and rising anti-american sentiment due to disasterous US foriegn policy. Sheesh.

Anyways. Read a book.

Then check out: http://ithacaactionnetwork.blogspot.com -- you don't need to be in ithaca to read this, or to act, in fact, if you want to start an action network in your area, please do. Let us know.

If you're pissed off, then get your fists up!

Read this. Get angry. Write a letter to the editor.

Look. I know that people believe this last election was fair, and many on the "left" feel like, we got beaten fair and square, let's change our tactics. Yeah, we need to change tactics, yeah, we underestimated the right. But make no mistake, there was nothing fair about this election. The margin was close enough that sheisty shit could make a difference, but there was some serious sheisty shit.

Don't believe it? Don't be naive you need to peep it:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/111904W.shtml

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1118-22.htm

http://www.guerrillafunk.com/thoughts/doc5452.html

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won_.php

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00072.htm

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=386

http://www.washingtondispatch.com/spectrum/archives/000715.html

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/2004/11/04/news/news02.txt

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/05/voting.problems.ap/index.html

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/news/epaper/2004/11/05/a29a_BROWVOTE_1105.html

http://www.ansiblegroup.org/furtherleft/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=51

http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/sales/cmlib/cm02_300.html

(that last one is just a weird ass ad for mcdonalds and has nothing to do with the election. fucking mcdonalds)

RIP ODB

"Wu-Tang is for the Children."

What's the point?

Not meant to sound so fatalistic... yet...

Why do I care if the title sounds one way to you, dear reader, if I mean it in another way? Does this mean that the entire point of posting my thoughts is for your benefit, and not somehow, my own?

So, what exactly is the point of a blog. It is highly self-censored at this moment, and that makes it feel like a hoax, a sham, a farce, a US election -- basically bullshit.

I will have to deal with this. And even writing THIS post has me self-conscious. What the heck, man? Where do people find it in themselves just to say whatever? Is it authentic?

And is there any hope for the future of the world not calling these damn things blogs?

Dear Chuck:

I sent a letter to the government the other day. They opened it, read it, and said I was a traitor...

A moment of lucidity amidst unmitigated rage

I have not yet been able to find the words, outside of one: How?

How did this happen?
How did we let republican owned companies develop paperless voting machines?
How did the American People get so duped into actually thinking GW would be good for them?
And How do I deal with being in a minority of conscientious people amongst a majority of ignorance, hate, and stupidity?

And How do we make it through this?

How do I ever feel that I'm doing enough to fight this? How do I reconcile the fact that I'm at work today, instead of fighting with pigs on the streets of DC? So far, I've realized this. Bloody revolution, a take over, political overthrow, those are glorious, tangible changes -- imaginable and practical. Yet impermanent. See how well the overthrow of Saddam's regime is going, even though, ostensibly, the people ought to feel more free -- if you don't count the whole being occupied by an invading menacing army and having chaos spiral out of control making a once functioning country into a home of lawlessness, hate, desperation, and general insanity. The truer revolution, the one with lasting power, is the more difficult to pull off one. One which is intangible in so many ways, and slow to materialize. The revolution of the mind.

And you can enforce your ideals and laws at gunpoint if you have to, but you cannot force a change of mind. One has to come to that on one's own. You can nurture an environment where this is possible, but you can't make it so. So, as I sit here, finishing graphics for a video about foster parenting, I realize this: being on the streets, doing direct action, this is worth a lot, our numbers cannot be ignored if we continue to turn up the heat. It is loud, and sooner or later, will be so loud that people will hear, even over the din of the propaganda machine. But continuing to work at opening people's minds, this is what will ensure that people are receptive to the noise we make on the streets.

"if you pissed off, then get yo fists up!" -- me, 2004

BONUS: MLK sez:

"Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead withan audacious faith in the future. When our days become dreary withlow-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker thana thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force inthis universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a powerthat is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdaysinto bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe islong, but it bends toward justice."

first...

I want to say that I appreciate Michael Moore's work, but I have a lot of issues with the guy. That said, please see his website for Nov 4th, 2004.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Of course!

I almost forgot. If y'all want to hear the blazingest hot political hip hop, you need to go to www.rev1.net and peep the WMD album. Holy crap!! It's sooooo good. Soooooooooooooooo good. Seriously.

I don't just say that about anybody, you know.

But on the real, people have said it's the best political album since "Let's Get Free" by dead prez, which I think is a fairly bold claim, but hey, in this case, I didn't say it myself.

Plus Chuck D has given a loose approval of the work, that's pretty rad, right?

I heard Mr. Lif was bumping it RIGHT NOW, but I don't know if that's true. I just know he has one, cuz I handed it to him.

WHAT.

www.rev1.net

www.rev1.net/wmd.html

Yeaaahhhhh boyeeeeee