My point wasn’t that money and social class membership can protect African-Americans from racism. It was more that not all of the reasons why people have a different reaction to (relatively or absolutely) wealthy women using aspects of black culture are about race: some of them are about social class, which can be…

Good job posting this right after the Poldark post:

Do you think that if there some subtle time slip so that GWB was currently president and one of his daughters had done it, that people would have reacted positively?

What is the extra, weightier thing that it has to come mean? (genuine curiosity about your lived experience, since it is inaccessible to me).

Unfortunately, as with so many discussions about race in the USA, this analysis, while compelling and clear, is totally missing the class aspect to all this.

Amen. But then there’s another avenue we can follow with this stuff. It isn’t even a spectrum!

How about the “No, Dad, I don’t want you to practice braiding my hair, you always mess it up” sequence ? :) Typically followed by “But I’m never going to get any better unless I practice” which then brings out “It’s OK, I don’t want a braid today” flow ...

It can be a bit more subtle that.

I was making a narrow point about how we convict people, and the comparison with Jill Scott’s comments on the Cosby story.

And I didn’t say that anyone said they were the same. I noted that our legal system convicts on testimony, not witness statements, and that one could afford Jill Scott the right to do the same.

Nope. Testimony is done under oath. Witness statements (or in this case, talking to the media) are made (generally) without an oath and without the possibility of cross-examination. Witness statements are evidence, but they are frequently not admissable in court.

Sometimes it is the message/medium that liberates, not the messenger.

I don’t think that history will be especially unkind to Beyonce. I meant that I don’t think it will kind to almost any pop music or its superstars. You can already see this by just rewinding back 3 or 4 decades.

“Why do these groups of people find such empowerment in her music? And can something like mainstream pop culture ever lead to progressive social change?”

From a legal perspective, testimony under oath is entirely different from information gathered by the police in the form of witness statements. That’s why we put people on the witness stand and make them swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, under penalty of (at least) perjury.

criminal record/going to jail or prison is not a life sentence

Worth noting that the woman who died WAS vaccinated against measles. I don’t know what this means about the efficacy of the vaccine, but I think it underscores the importance of group immunity: even if you are vaccinated, should you be exposed to measles while already compromised by another illness ... you could die.…

With the greatest respect, breaking through to the level of ballet that she is at is something that hardly anyone does, with any skin tone. You could probably count the number of people who will assume the principal position at a major ballet company during your lifetime on your fingers and toes. Every single one of…

Religious fundamentalists are few in number and even weaker in political influence across Europe and Australia - agreed. But they do exist, even if they are not allied with the conservative right. Keep in mind that even in the US, this particular alliance doesn’t go back very far in time.

makes the country look like a backwards middle-eastern christian theocracy.