HOBBITSES!!!!!!!

[lavendertook]

See an artist's rendition of a Flores Hobbit here:

http://www.corante.com/loom/archives/2005/10/11/hobbits_again.php

Now compare.

Well? (-;

Same expression, no?

They found MESPT's frodooftheshire, they did! (-;

Even the hobbitses are coming out today! :-D

Comments

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Hobbity goodness!

Though its a pre-AAAHHHHH! look on them.

I know you didn't. But we do live in a racist society--that's what I meant by talking about the weight we put on skin color, and then the weight we put on what we mean by race, whatever color we are, whether we want it or not. White privilege is yours whether you want it or not, mine too--it's the nonthinking way we get to see skin colors closer to our own as the standard--takes work to counter it.

Yay MESPT!

[http://users.livejournal.com/lucid_dreamer_/]

No contest to "we live in a racist society" and dealing with white privilege. Living in an area with few people of color, the primary racism has been against the hispanic community. It's a racism that I've grown up with where I've lived, and being socialized with those thought patterns... it is one that I'm working to combat. Working with a group of wonderful hispanic women who barily spoke a lick of English really helped me combat the views that I was raised with. They were vibrant women, who loved to laugh and I loved them to pieces. Sylvia and Rocio comprise my fondest memories of being at A&W. The perceptions I was raised with in my area are that Mexicans are no good, lazy workers, theives, dirty, stupid... none of which is true. The immigrants from Mexico, whether they're legal or illegal are in no way lazy. They work harder than most "hard working" natural born American citizens. Stereotyping a culture as "theives", which often happens to the black community (as hurrican Katrina showed us) is a way for caucasion people to feel more morally superior. It's bull shit. White people are just as likely to steal your shit as anyone else. Stealing isn't bound by race, culture, class, etc. Dirty? This perception probably comes from the fact that they do the jobs that no one else is willing to do. Being dirty comes with the job, not a fact of their nature. There were two young men who came to A&W every week, in a truck covered in mud and pig manure. They reeked. But it had nothing to do with who they were, or where they were from, their family back ground-- it had to do with the fact that they were doing a lousy job no one else wanted! Stupid-- a language barrier doesn't make you stupid, neither does an inopportunity to have access to education. If language made you stupid, then a lot of Americans are really freakin' dumb when they travel abroad because they don't speak native tongues. As to education, that has to do more with poverty and a lack of opportunity. In America, hispanic women are on the lowest end of the pay roll scale, receiving 53 cents to every dollar a white man earns (from the Institute for Women). Shit, and we wonder why we don't see more hispanic women in the upper levels of education? Anyways.
The two wonderful women I worked with at A&W helped me identify and start to work on getting rid of those *awful* and *unfair* perceptions that I've been fed since childhood.

Now, being in a more multicultural environment, I can work on racisms that I don't even conciously realize I have (such as, apparently, skin color). I never grew up around people of color, and I was never really exposed to the racism against them like I was the racism against hispanics. I suppose that can be advantageous, as I've been fed less racism as I've grown up. But I do have to combat the normative view that I've grown up with... white is normal. Well, no, humanity is the real norm. It doesn't really matter what color a person is, what sex, or even how wild and paranoid we look (to return to the picture;-) ) our commanility is that we're all human.

Everyone has "isms" that they need to work on, because they're such an ingrained part of our society. Our parents hand down the "isms" that they've grown up...some of which have been combated, some of which haven't. Society has a long way to go before it can be truly equal and love people for who they are. Not an appearance, not a culture, not a sex, not a sexuality, not a gender idenity, not a class... but for the basic humanity that connects us all.

End return lecture ahahaha ;) I love you.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Well, no, humanity is the real norm. It doesn't really matter what color a person is, what sex, or even how wild and paranoid we look (to return to the picture;-) ) our commanility is that we're all human.

Which humanity though--Homo sapiens or Homo floriensis? :-P Universalizing can be a problem too, because not everyone shares the same definitions, nor do we always want to, whoever "we" is, kimosabe. And its really easy when you're in the dominant group to think you're including everyone when you're really just imposing your standards on someone else because your point of view is taken for granted as the norm. It's fucking frustrating, at best, to put up with that over and over when you're not in the dominant group. Yay for post-modernist critiques of humanism!(-;

End return lecture ahahaha ;) I love you.

I am manifesting positive emotions concerning you as well, my birthday experiencing friend. :-D

[http://users.livejournal.com/lucid_dreamer_/]

Fine, fine, I throw in the towel oh great orator. :-P

Hooray for positive emotions and experiencing birthdays!