My sister lives in Istanbul and she says everything is fine right now. She was even went to Taksim yesterday to check out the protest. If you are worried about the protests, just avoid that area and you'll be fine.

But the current government isn't trying to take away women's civil rights and freedom...

Actually, throughout modern Turkish history the police force has been in bed with the secularists. I'm not sure of this police officer's religious, views but its hardly a religious issue.

The AK Party has NOT tried to impose any religious restrictions on Turks.

I've always thought it was weird to go to the movies with other people. You sit silently a dark room watching a big screen, I don't understand how that is supposed to be a social activity! I actually hate it when friends suggest going to see a movie together, since we aren't actually socializing most of the time.

Pretoria is hardly a "town," its one of South Africa's capital cities and has over 500,000+ residents. And I don't think its wrong to expect basic things like that to be spelled correctly. This isn't some homemade blog.

Militant originally meant you were willing to go to war or engage in an armed struggle for something. So yeah, its mostly terribly misused (and takes away from gravitas of the word). The only thing Americans really seem to be militant about is capitalism.

Yeah, there is just a more "media" outlets today; like social media, the gossip sites, and the entertainment blogs. A lot of people are people are famous just on the blogosphere, which didn't exist 15+ years ago. The 24 hour nature of news and and the constant daily needed for new material on websites just created a…

Ever since I saw Janet on a Nutrisytem (or whatever it was) commercial she became irrelevant to me

How are these young people using "racism" and what are their political purposes?

Its racist because comments like these about the color of a mixed race's skin or the texture of their hair disparages Blackness. That somehow Blackness is made more beautiful/attractive/desirable by being infused with whiteness. Look at the history and sexualization of the "mulatto/a" to see how Euro-American…

It can definitely come across as patronizing and racist. I would avoid unless its particularity necessary or relevant. Just because you're complementing them doesn't make it ok to call out their colour.

I don't understand why you feel the need to go up to an interracial couple and say that to them....?

It's all ok because everyone is gonna go on and on about how "cute" the little girl in the commercial is

It's interesting that in their attempt to create a de-racialized show, the creators actually created a very racialized show. What they didn't realize was that someone's skin color can be secondary to how they are racialized. Other cues like how they talk, how the behave, how they dress, their personalities, and how…

Doug though, is a much lighter color than everyone else, so most clearly white. The color of everyone else actually accentuates his whiteness.

Its interesting that you say that because someone's actual color can be secondary to how we racialize them. We pick up on many subtle cues about a person to racialize them in our minds. Patty could have been blue or green or whatever, but other racialized cues (i.e. how she talked, her relationships with the other…

Use a straw to drink any soda/pop

My niece "failed" the 8th grade this year but she's still going to be in the 9th grade next year because apparently the school system "doesn't hold kids back anymore." She failed one grade before and was held back, but she is still not anywhere near the level of her classmates.

The whole "white flight" thing from central cities from the 1950's until today is often veiled as being about sending their kids to "better" schools.