Features Dec 11, 2013 at 4:00 am

THEESatisfaction Provide a New Socially Meaningful Way of Thinking About Race in Our Times

Clockwise from upper left: musician Cat Harris-White, musician Erik Blood, filmmaker Terence Nance, and jewelry artist Asia Catherine Clarke.

Comments

1
Nice piece, Charles. Thanks from this black weirdo.
2
Right on.
3
i think post racialism, at least from the white side (MLK had his own reasons for dreaming of it) is about some of us "white" people being tired of being lumped into the bad guy/oppressor role, as members of the bad guy race. thats a new form of racism that makes us sad (of course, not with as many bad moments as stop and frisk and the other horrible sides of profiling and historical injustice - which is past racism, not necessarily current)
4
RE Queen Anne Trader Joes white female reaction

The shock of white so-called hip young people in Seattle to black people liking art/rock music isn't all that surprising. I remember a bunch of years ago going to an art installation in Belltown and shortly after I entered and started looking at one of the displays on the wall, the white female who ran the place said to me "Can I help you?" Yeah, like I'm going to steal a piece off the wall and sell it crack????

It isn't necesary to experience crap from the cops to know that Seattle, is less hip and more isolated in its perspective on race than it thinks.

5
So they says to me, they says to me, they says, "I got Cheetoh dust all over my fingers. First world problems."

So I says,

"The treadmill at my gym only goes to 14 mph. First world problems."
7
A link to the Black Weirdos blog entries mentioned in the text would have been nice: it's http://theesatisfaction.blogspot.com/sea…
8
Tabernacle.
11
@7 Hey, that's an idea. We're on it.
12
@9 Oh, they are, Samus. 100 percent. Lots of honkies on Cap Hill where I used to live, of course, they're fucking everywhere—but way less likely to be brain-boggled at my choice of listening, or to look at me like a disease—which has been my 2013 on LQA. Oh, my struggle.
13
Nothing worse that a goddamn honkie.
14
*than
15
"you might end up in the place I'm in now, which is something like a ghost. I float around like a ghost."

This is beautiful and the only way to escape anything. This is how I escaped being white. (I know I don't get to give up white privilege - maybe I should say how I escaped being a honky.)

I think it contrasts with weirdo #2.who's identity seems tied to belonging to the group and experiencing the pains of a group which, it seems to me, makes it hard to be yourself.

Float through culture taking what you need, dismissing what you don't. Don't promote junk because it is yours, don't dismiss the art of others because they hurt you (but because it is rubbish). Don't be afraid to be alone.
16
How did you do it!?

Sharpies?

Paint?

Copious amounts of lip stick?

Or did you buy a tanning bed?

I wish I was a chameleon!

Mass psychosis, and I'm not even kidding.
17
Your voting rights should be repealed until you can correctly answer the following questions -

1. Where are you?

2. What is your name?

3. Where were you born?

4. What is your race? Like, in a DNA test.

5. What is your gender? Like, in a fucking DNA test.
19
@16-18: What the fuck are you babbling on about?
20
"...it died on the day George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin..."

Zimmerman wasn't acquitted of killing Martin because he wasn't charged with killing Martin. He was charged with second degree murder. Because the prosecution was unable to convince a jury Martin was killed in self defense as defined by Florida law Zimmerman was acquitted.

I realize that factual accuracy can sometimes dampen an emotional appeal, but when you're inaccurate right out of the gate you lose the part of your audience that cares about truth. The concerns are legitimate and stand on their own without spin. Check your bias.
21
20, martin was also not killed because he was black, according to your official court records.
22
Interesting article. Good read. And yet, I wish it had gone broader.

Is being a 'Black Weirdo' limited to being a musician/musical connoisseur? Limited to being an artist?

How does 'Black Weirdo' link to Afro Punk? To "Blerd" culture? To black cosplayers portraying white or Japanese comic/anime characters, and goths of color?

I like THEESatisfaction, but the pool is much bigger and deeper ...
23
As a white weirdo, I say to the black, Asian, Latino weirdos: Come on out, let's hang and be weird together.

Is it possible too that certain locales have a greater proportion of minority weirdos? Perhaps it correlates to an overall proportion of weirdos. Because Seattle sure does seem to have a plethora of weirdos among all colors.
24
21: Only Zimmerman knows why Martin was killed. His official position is that Martin attacked him. If that's the case, and he felt his life was in danger, then the killing was justified according to law. In order for a second degree murder conviction to stick the prosecution would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt otherwise. (The rule of law would also apply were Zimmerman black and Martin white.) There are a number of examples of whites killing blacks because they were black (and vice versa) so I don't understand why something as muddy as the Z/M case would need to be cited. You know, unless this is an emotion-based appeal not really concerned with facts, accuracy, truth, etc.
25
@19 - I was busy NOT traversing through the spirit world.
26
Weirdos Unite!!!
27
How is a picture of the New Jersey tanning lady trolling?

I was merely displaying an actual method of becoming not-white to @15, which, has done his or her (it, to be honest) best to redefine what a honky really is.

Anti-white slurs are ok, tanned New Jersey lady is not.
28
#24, only someone like you would accept "I started a fight, got my ass kicked, then shot a child" as reasonable.
30
@28: Someone "like me"? (That sounds like a "you people" statement?) And you're wrong. The jury also saw it that way. I don't defend Zimmerman--who had about 100 ways out that didn't involve the use of a gun--but when the event is portrayed inaccurately, or sensational arguments from emotion are employed--17 years old, 5'11", 170 pounds = "child"?--you're no better than Fox News.
31
Great article. I'd like to see a similar piece in the Portland Mercury. I came from Portland to Seattle this year, and having grown up in Oregon, Seattle seemed like a very diverse city to me, which just goes to show something about Portland!
32
By the way, the thing it goes to show about Portland is that Portland is very white!!
33
Who on God's green earth thought we may be post-racial? That shit is out of touch. even the word is racial, and fails to understand Love. The only other shore that matters.

love
34
#30.

The "I am incapable of defending myself" defense strikes again!

A hispanic man attacked me, unprovoked, from the back, with his best judo arsenal, fewer than 30 minutes after the Martin verdict was read.

Had I not been too drunk to realize that my skin was broken until the next day, we may have had a melee at the Jubilee.

And who knows, I may have had to take his gun from him and fill him with bullets. :[
35
How can "we" be unique and beautiful snowflakes, again?
36
For someone so stuck on the rule of law you sure seem willing to let age legality slide.
37
Wiggly!
38
Ok, I read this again.

What you're saying is that you think I assumed that you are black.

And that I'm wrong.

No?

Or are you truly wiggling?

You don't know what that means.

I was calling you a pussy.
39
I will rephrase, pussy.

"Pussies like you think it is ok to start a fight, lose it, then kill someone. You will use the rule of law to defend said actions, then ignore the rule of law and effectively label physical strength a detriment to one's legal standing."

Can you infer any inconsistencies in that english into the gutter language you were built for?

I'd reduce your court to tears, then walk.

Pussy.
40
Someone isn't very post-racial.
41
Once upon a time someone was espousing the correlation between abortion and crime rates.

I said, "Someone read Freakonomics."

We got into it, and I said "Brown hair, blue eyes."

What does he say?

He tells me I'm wrong.

I tell him I said that so as not to hand him that card.

You know, the pale minority card.
42
Grey.
44
It doesn't matter who you love as long as you love . "can't we all just get along?" a wierdo is someone who refuses to be sheep and let the masses "think" for them. Everyone is someone's freak. paper covers rock!
45
Remember, Zimmerman killed Martin for no other reason than Martin was raining blows down upon him.

Also, unless you're posting with your real name, you have zero credibility.
48
@45 I pity your world view, which requires you to elevate a violent mental case like Zimmerman to the top of a pedestal and defend him for the rest of your life no matter how many times he gets arrested and let off for violent crimes. For example, in WA they don't let the victim decide if the prosecutor's office will pursue a DV case, so Zimmerman would have a pending charge right now, as we speak.
49
Great article! Perfect analysis.

So sad, as always, to see the racists come out in the comments.

*screams slews of profanity to self*
50
Thee Satisfaction aren't very good. The Stranger was itching to promote them before they even had a track recorded. The Stranger insists on crowning them hip-hop royalty at ever turn. Tell me I'm wrong. The music is meh at best. I've met them a few times and they seem like delightful women. But you're only hurting hip-hop and the artists by creating undue over-hype that an unseasoned act can't live up to yet. And then people like me start hating.
51
Nice piece, Charles. To me "black weirdo" sounds like what Richard Iton calls "the Black Fantastic" and that I think in broad terms under Afrofuturism. You even deploy some space metaphors to think the Weird, as does Terence Nance — the black Universe, what Sun Ra called the Outer Darkness. I too see "postracial" as a concept as erasing the persistent power dynamics of "race". Race is a technology, it is a construct, but just because it's a fiction doesn't mean that it's not a "fantasy in the real sense", as Ra called it. It's a fantasy that structures dominant (racist/sexist) reality. The Black Weird, Black Fantastic, Afrofuturism, these are all counter-realities, "fantasies in a false sense" that put chinks in the fantasy of the real.... as for "postracial", it's like some imaginary end goal, and it's problematic even then, as it encodes "race" in its meaning, even if "post". It simply won't do. Right now it serves as an ideology to mask over the return (with a vengeance) of structural racism (and sexism, classism, and other forms of discrimination) on multiple levels. Cheers as always. ~ tV
52
You white people crack me up.
53
I don't know anyone, of any background, who thinks we live in a postracial society - is this a real thing?

I've seen lots of criticisms of the idea of a "postracial society", but no actual quotes of real people who think we've gotten to that state.

I do know a lot of people who think that the concept of 'race' is purely cultural, and has no biological basis - but that's VERY different from thinking that we're in a postracial society yet. That's not going to happen in my lifetime.
54
....old white man here.

During the late 1960's and early 1970's, my black friends derided me for my faded holey Levi's, fringe jacket, and purple converse hi-top, but considered themselves on the cutting-edge of youth.

Years later, I realized most black folks felt on the outside looking in, and still valued the symbols young white culture were rejecting as worthless.

What I hear you saying is that it is imperative for young black folk to choose values for themselves--not have them dictated with questionable utility.

Is it possible you are suggesting something that is still a significant obstacle for black folks ?

55
I wonder how many people in Seattle have checked this out or even know about this exhibit???
Every little bit of awareness sheds light on the situation and helps bit by bit.

http://www.pacificsciencecenter.org/Exhi…

Always working to better understand one another, fostering a better place to live.
56
@23 K: I'm another white weirdo agreeing right with you!
58
@54 - "Is it possible you are suggesting something that is still a significant obstacle for black folks ?"

?? Have you not noticed the continuing pervasive targeting of young black men, in particular, by police in all parts of the country over the last 50 years? Do you not know that black people of all ages and genders are still followed in many stores under the assumption that they are thieves, are not treated as normal people if they visit most "white" churches, and are subjected to other irrational humiliations? Have you not read the studies that show that if you are job hunting and have a name which is perceived as "African American" your resume is frequently bypassed?

Have you missed all of the other ways in which black people are most definitely not treated equally with white people in modern America? Racism has gotten a lot less toxic in my lifetime, but we are a long, long way from living in a society where race does not matter.

As an old white man, I'm astonished that another old white man here in the U.S.A. could ask such a question. You've led a remarkably inobservant life.
60
" You've led a remarkably inobservant life."

....where did I say black folks are treated equal--you completely missed the slant of the article and my point that while white society has had the luxury of rejecting empty symbols, many blacks are still on the outside looking in so consider fellow blacks not aspiring to the status "black weirdos"; I think Charles is in denial about his own people's tolerance.
62
I have to agree that anyone who thought we were a postracial society was delusional. A postracial society wouldn't make claims that a black president is actually from Kenya. Plus, with the ever increasing list of things you can't say because they're "politically incorrect," you can see how sensitive people are to race. Even the way people are so insistent on calling the race card any time ANYTHING happens. As if race is the only reason why someone would be fired, attacked (verbally or otherwise), or killed. We dredge up someone's past so much that when it's revealed someone used the "n-word" more than 20 years ago when referring to a mugging and talking with her husband, she's dropped from every business deal she had for fear that her history might reflect poorly on the companies with whom she worked. And those actions were deemed justified by the consumers who called for that to happen.

There is nothing postracial in our society. And don't pretend that Zimmerman is the one who proved that. He has attacked multiple people since Martin, all of them white, so you can't claim he "only did it because he's racist."
63
Really great piece! But why oh why did you have to used the phrase "very unique". Uniqueness is binary, it either is unique or isn't. By definition there are not degrees of uniqueness. Anyways just a small point, really great article. Also Charles have you seen dango unchained? I'd be really interested on your opinion on it, was always disappointed you never did a review.
64
@48: Zimmerman has been adjudicated a mental defective by a court? I wasn't aware. That's my only standard. If he hasn't been adjudicated so, or convicted of certain crimes, then he retains his fundamental human right of self defense and I will defend that. You don't get to decide his (or my) rights.

In Washington, no victim gets to decide about the prosecution of a criminal case. The state is the victim. In Washington, if the assaulted person or other witnesses won't cooperate and the prosecutor has no other evidence, they won't proceed.
65
"4. What is your race? Like, in a DNA test."

DNA shows there's only one human race, and that is : homo sapiens, you moron. Color of eyes and skin are not "race" : everywhere in the world but in the US, they're "ethnic origin". Move on from the 1940's racist theories, why don't you ?

I bet you're the kind who calls a black-and-white cat a "biracial cat".

Is "lake_superior" noicons' new name ? Pretty likely.
66
Eloquently written. I am greatly looking forward to taking your Writing the City class at Hugo.
67
Eloquently put. I am looking forward to studying your styles and perspective in your Writing the City class at Hugo.

Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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