And some good ones for the holiday that is coming up....

For those who are interested, I have a couple of new pieces that are going to be available for purchase soon.  I'll just share the rough drafts here for all of my loyal readers (hi dad!).  Obviously these are just the first sketches.  See my Etsy page for the finished products.  Wanna help me decide which one I should start?  I'ma put up a poll.

AND

Trying a new thing here.  You can register and make a profile and all that.  The photo stuff isn't working yet but I don't really have time to mess with it before the holiday... so we'll see what happens with it later.

Give it a try so I can troubleshoot and mess around with it!

[UPDATE:  Funny things happen when you follow directions.  ^_^  The photos and all do work.  You just have to click on the little link that says "click here to get started".  Who woulda thunkit!]

I really like this article.  I think it makes the point quite well.  And I actually hadn't thought of it this way.... Is Obama "black" or "mixed-race"?  Well....... he's both.

From BBCNews:

My first reaction to questions about the "correctness" or "accuracy" of Obama's racial classification is to undermine the premise of the question itself. The search for the "correctness" of racial identity presumes that a definitive answer can be found. 

It presumes that race is a real entity, something fixed, or natural. It seems to deny what scholars have laboured for decades to demonstrate - that the criteria used to classify people in racial categories, the categories used in a given society, and the uses to which those categories are put - vary by place and time. They are, as academics are fond of saying, "socially constructed".

Yet the predilections of the scholar fail to satisfy those who claim to know what race Obama "is", for these are really statements about what the speaker thinks he ought to be.

...

We (I have an African American father and an Irish American mother) were raised on the front lines of racial change, where the new rules about interracial intimacy often clashed with the old - both in public and in our own families.

The affection we were so comfortable showing our white mothers at home drew stares, and worse, from both whites and blacks in public.

It was in our families where we first felt love and protection as well as the first sting of racial prejudice.

And many of us forged a black identity, one that was not at odds with being mixed-race, but arose out of our experiences as mixed people: from an awareness that the racial dilemma we were born into has its deepest roots in anti-black prejudice.

For us, being black and mixed-race are not mutually exclusive. We have learned to live with the contradictions.

Perhaps it's time for everyone else to learn to live with them too.

When I was growing up, my parents used to tell me all the time to remember that I was mixed and what that would mean for me in the future.  People would have things to say.  Some people would be confused.  Some people would be really mean.

I was convinced that they were wrong, honestly.  I used to think, "They are overreacting."  even when I was young.  I remember believing that I would never run into any problems.  I don't really know why I thought that way... I just did.  I thought they were being paranoid or something.

Personally, I have run into issues from both blacks and whites.  I've been called "nigger" and I've been called a "race traitor".  It depends on who you talk to. ^_^  But I will say....

I have been told that I am black by black people.  And I have been told that I am mixed by black people and white people and mixed people. 

But I have never been told that I am white by white people (in all seriousness... I have been told I'm "white" as a joke).   So perhaps there is truth in what the author of the article says.  Black?  Mixed?   .... Most likely, like Obama, I am also both.

From Pandagon:

How many ways of wrong is this? CEO of Cinemark, Alan Stock, who gave $9999 to Yes on 8, be allowed to earn one dime on the back of Harvey Milk’s legacy by running Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” in his theaters (it opens wide on Nov. 26)?

If 1,000 of us commit to see MILK at a competitor’s theater instead of Cinemark, at an average cost of $10 per ticket, that’s $10,000 of lost revenue.

Boycotts work. A boycott of a Sacramento theatre company resulted not only in the resignation of a Yes on 8 contributor, but a public apology and donation to Human Rights Campaign! We can do this again.

You can find an alterative theater using the links on the left, and join our facebook group below to spread the word! Help us reach 1000 members so we can send a message to Mr. Stock: YOU WILL NOT PROFIT FROM HATE.

The movie houses to avoid are “Century”, “CinéArts”, and “Tinseltown” theater chains.

You can join the “No “Milk” for Cinemark!” Facebook group here.