tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12712024.post3554633398054014928..comments2023-09-17T04:58:18.489-07:00Comments on ****FLUFFY**DOLLAR$$$****: "Myspace and the Mainstreaming of the New Racism" or "The Real O.C. is full of Nazis"femme feralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04487456561207417558noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12712024.post-91998847247669472292007-03-13T14:40:00.000-07:002007-03-13T14:40:00.000-07:00wow. great comment. to everybody reading this, you...wow. great comment. <BR/><BR/>to everybody reading this, you should totes go check out paolo's blog. I've added the link in our sidebar.femme feralhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04487456561207417558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12712024.post-45819051628258633832007-03-12T16:28:00.000-07:002007-03-12T16:28:00.000-07:00You're totally right -- In some ways, the problem ...You're totally right -- In some ways, the problem is more pervasive than just a handful of wanna-be Nazis using social networking technology as a recruitment tool. I'd say that only people with a specific kind of personality would agree to proactively organize with fellow racists, anyway.<BR/><BR/>However, what's more dangerous is the idea that the casual acceptance of racism -- on the web, and in the entertainment industry -- would allow <I>cells</I> of racism to develop, in the exact same ways that dedicated terrorist cells operate -- that is, bubbling just under the surface of everyday bourgeois "normalcy", and the outward appearance of liberal tolerance. <BR/><BR/>Even without the influence of a white-pride version of al-Qaeda to strategically coordinate its "hate machine", the inherent structural biases and hegemonies of contemporary America would allow pockets and enclaves of "permissible racism" to thrive beyond locker rooms, and frat rows, and gated subdivisions, and board meetings. That alone is enough to unsettle anybody who finds themselves marginalized by the capitalist hetero-patrirarchy (to use bell hooks' preferred term).<BR/><BR/>So yes, this *is* a "post-Katrina thing" or a "post-9/11 thing", in as much as it's a response to a series of cultural moments, which have forced the priveleged classes to lay bare their various prejudices. However, what often goes unspoken in these kinds of discussions -- the reason why they "seem too simple" to Femme Feral and others -- is an examination of how these StraightWhiteAffluentMale attitudes are rooted in insecurities about just how fragile their hegemony really is. <BR/><BR/>At the heart of these multi-layered "affinities of distrust" -- say, one minority group versus another -- are the vagaries of how power is deployed in the globalized world. But we can't start discussing that in public, as long as discourse remains oriented towards (re)fabricating a fake-ass sense of national unity, as much of the discussions about 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina continue to be. (Of course, i'm not even American, so what do *I* know, right?)PJChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16454742039526288132noreply@blogger.com