Wednesday roundup: race in America edition

Tonight's roundup is brought to you by my photo books. I'm on the laptop because I need to work on the other two photobooks. Thematically, today's roundup is brought to you by race in America because holy $hit.

Previously, I've rolled my eyes at white women and/or white feminists who refer to White Women or White Feminists in the third person, but after this week's bull$hit, I'm pretty much there. But it's not just women; fellow white people: when you make white people jokes, check whether you're not incidentally punching down and rubbing in your privilege. Which is why we can let Justine Sacco move on, but we shouldn't buy into the idea that her joke was harmless. And we shouldn't make her the poster child for Twitter outrage gone wrong.

As you may have noticed, Patricia Arquette grabbed that role away earlier this week. There's been a lot written about her official and backstage comments, and I've lost track of it. What she said was important, and some of her detractors proved her point. Other detractors proved the point she should have 

Speaking of unintentional offenses, this "get off my foot" analogy is perfect. I have something to add to it: don't tell me you're sorry I'm angry that you're on my foot. This literally happened to me on my way home last month: on the last hour of my 30+ hour trip home from Vietnam, I was seated next to a space-invading, annoying, nervous dude who'd missed an earlier flight for "a stupid reason" and was very anxious not to miss his connecting flight. Meanwhile, I'd been traveling for 30+ hours and didn't give a f*. When we landed in DC, but before the aisle had cleared, he stood up and practically stepped on me, so I pointed out to him that stepping on me wasn't going to get him off the plane any faster. He told me he hadn't realized he'd stepped on me and was sorry that I was angry. I wasn't angry; I was angry that he was stepping on me. If he was sorry, he should have been sorry that he'd stepped on me. So that was a literal example but the analogy holds: don't apologize to someone that they're offended or angry; if you're going to apologize, apologize for whatever you did to cause the offense or anger. Giuliana Rancic did that perfectly after her idiotic comments about Zendaya's beautiful hair.

Islamophobia is a problem.

Stupid racist people who don't understand the concept of Latin, the language.
 

Charles Blow on American exceptionalism and love of country.

Back to the topic of space invaders: dudes, you can't be all touchy around women.

 

Pouched rats help detect landmines without setting them off.

 

Mrs. Jeb Bush loves her luxury shopping, but at least she pays for it herself, unlike some former first ladies of certain states. 

Emulsifiers may be f*ing with our gut bacteria.

Men like cats, too.

 

Yeah I guess I could be more patient with babies in public places but parents should still make an effort to make them minimally annoying. And it's not parents vs. nonparents, as noted in the article. Last night, I had dinner with a friend, who happened to be a mom to an infant. She was more annoyed than I was that a woman had blocked off an entire section of booths in a pretty crowded eatery so that she could have nursing privacy. I'm all for people being able to nurse whereever, but not if it means excessively coopting public space. If you're going to nurse, nurse without giving a f* or get a cover-up. Don't take over two or three booths at a restaurant for it.