I'm sure it was moving, but it wasn't the presumption of shock value that kept me away. As a black woman, my refusal to attend was the desire to not be subject to acute displays of racism, to not have to share a space with those who would commit such offensive acts, and to not support an organization that permit such…

Spot on. I went, and while I enjoyed looking — my day was legitimately ruined by RIDICULOUS things said and done by other patrons while I was there.

Of course, the onus is on attendees to be respectful. That was my first response to the stories I was hearing. As I delved deeper into the accounts of those who were there, it seemed clearer that the way the exhibit was conducted seems to suggest that the organizers assured it was a safer space for the assholes than…

Back when the exhibit first started I agreed with you, but now I'm not so sure. Like, I think the way some people behaved was disgusting, but I also think Kara may be right that people are stupid and it is expected that they will react this way. It is not news that white people are indifferent to black suffering, but…

But what frustrates me about this particular piece is that she, in exposing how horrible people can be, became herself complicit in subjecting every black attendee to racism or misogynoir. I passed up multiple invitations to attend the exhibit with friends because I had no intention of being placed in that position…

I'm a huge fan of Kara Walker, and was stoked to be able to see this in person. Part of what I appreciate about her work is that it IS uncomfortable. The silhouettes are incredibly disorienting. What I loved about Subtlety is that seeing the disintegration of the molasses babies, and their remains being tracked all…

Seriously, they all look amazing. MC Lyte and Queen Latifah are 44

YAAASSSSSSSS! I was all about Brandy when I was a teenager. I was 17 years old when this song came out. I was crushing HARD on one of my friends, but I had no idea if he liked me or not. I used to listen to this song (this version) to big myself up to ask him to prom. We ended up dating for five years. Brandy's first…

I still remember watching the news when I was in college (studying journalism, no less) in the mid-90s, and one night seeing two back-to-back stories about teenage boys who had been arrested for unrelated crimes. They blurred the white boy's face. They didn't blur the black boy's face. Apparently privacy for minors is…

What I find surprising is that the reporting on the under-protected, often untrained health care workers seems to be neutral at best. They know their lives are at risk! They're trying to help anyway! How is that not the important story or the picture to show? Some health care workers in these countries left when they…

That's not a-typical for ebola patients because of the stigma associated with it. In fact, it's part of the what's making the current outbreak pandemic.

This was a fascinating study on the ethnocentric thinking behind something one would think would be utterly color-blind. Germs arising from filth care not a thing about skin color, but how WE see and react to them is an inescapable issue. That said, I find it interesting that we here in the modern, progressive west…

The difference in the way white bodies and black bodies are treated in the media is not limited to Ebola. It is common for dead and dying black people's bodies to be shown without regard to privacy or dignity or sensitivities of the viewing audience, but it is rare for white people to be shown in the same way. If…

Phenomenal writer. The first five paragraphs made me put down what I was doing and pay attention.

It's hard for people with good health care to understand just how poorly the poor, the non-English speakers, non-whites get treated. Stuff a suburban white person takes for granted often just doesn't exist for a lot of people, even with the ACA.

So now I know that the idiots protesting the building of a nearby safehouse for undocumented migrant children "because they will bring like and ebola" (I wish I was exaggerating about this: http://tbo.com/pasco-county/p…) has historical precedence. Pretty sad.

A co-worker and i were just talking about this. about how this somehow be tied into race. needless to say, just as predicted its being painted as a "brown people problem." Race: the most destructive and decisive imaginary belief.