CheapThrills

Teeny tiny snippet from my Age of Conversation chapter - contributors, send me one from yours!

Update: I've started cataloging all of your excerpts here. Check out what your co-authors are writing!

The Age of Conversation 2008 is now on its path to production. Today, 275 bloggers are slated to send their 400-word chapters to Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton, creators and editors of the book. This year's topic, Why Don't People Get It, will be sure to garner some fiery responses. Of course, we won't be reading chapters in their entirety until August 21st (when the book will be released for sale on Lulu.com), but let's post one- or two-line snippets from our chapters... just for a little taste of the awesomeness to come.

Here's a little bit from my chapter:

The blogosphere is no different from a chessboard. Content is praised as the prize piece, but the blogs that carry the most influence are teeming with comments. Because, though content is King, comments are Queen.

Contributors (listed below) - comment here or e-mail me an excerpt from your chapter and I will post them all on my Age of Conversation dedicated page.

How exciting :)

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Beeker Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Overheard in West Virginia

LA Times

"I've got 50-some guns, and I wasn't crazy about Obama's talk about small towns," said Sam Vetter, 64, a farmer and lifelong Democrat who regrets voting for Bush in 2000. "Besides," he added, "Obama just doesn't sound right for an American president."

Financial Times

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

...

“If he is the nominee, the Democrats have no chance of winning West Virginia,” said Missy Endicott, a 40- year-old school administrator. “He doesn’t understand ordinary Americans.”

...

Josh Fry, a 24-year-old ambulance driver from Williamson, insisted he was not racist but said he would feel more comfortable with Mr McCain, the 71-year-old Vietnam war hero, in the White House. “I want someone who is a full-blooded American as president,” he said.

USA Today

"Is he Islamic or is he not?" Pasley says of Obama, who is Christian. "I know he's tried to talk about it but he hasn't looked anybody in Wayne in the eye and told them."

So here's my question: when Hillary Clinton touts her lead among “working, hard-working Americans, white Americans”, is she referring to the kind of people quoted here?  Apparently so – Bill is now pushing to run up the WV margins as much as possible.

So let’s see it, Hillary! Flex your muscles. Send the superdelegates a message – because frankly, the fact that you are so good at energizing this voting block really says something about your campaign. Something scary.

(Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty.)

"Ghetto", "Shuckin' and jivin'", "Pansy": Offensive terms and the logic-defying practice of victimizing the victim

Something’s been nagging at me for a few days now, and it just keeps resurfacing. In the news, on the blogs, and even in my own personal life.

It has to do with words.

In my own life, I don’t use words that implicitly refer to an underrepresented and/or minority group of people – even if these words have been adopted by mainstream culture. I don’t use words that backhandedly belittle and degrade the lifestyle and mannerisms of a cultural group and its members, particularly when this group is seen by the mainstream as existing on a lower social rung. Poor. Minority. LGBT. Female. Handicapped.

I made this choice at the age of 5, when my father showed me pictures of my uncle, a bright and loving boy with Down syndrome who died at the age of 10.

So,
I choose not to use terms like “retard” or “retarded”.
I choose not to use terms like “gay” or “pansy” or “sissy-girl”.
I choose not to use the term “white trash”.
I choose not to use the term “ghetto" - and certainly never, EVER, the “n-word”.

Some of these terms offend me directly, and some I know offend others. That’s why I don’t use them. It’s that simple.

But I’ve heard the case be made that it’s somehow the fault of the offended, not the offender, that these words are inherently hurtful—that the offended person has taken a word personally or racially or has injected an insulting meaning into a phrase where one doesn’t exist.

Take Bill Clinton’s argument that it was really the Obama campaign using the “race card on him” – taking Clinton’s Jesse Jackson remark and using it “racially” instead of just acknowledging the statement as fact. Seems a little funny that Bill Clinton was the one who made the remark (one that implicitly framed Obama as the “Black candidate,” thus marginalizing his campaign and his voters), and then turned around a played the victim, doesn’t it?

Take Vogue’s King Kong cover (which, in my opinion, epitomizes racist Black male iconography), and then this comment made on my favorite blog Jezebel:

“Seriously wouldn't the Lebron/King Kong comparison be just as valid because he's huge without going to some sort of racist comparison? Maybe you think it was racist because you want it to be soo badly.”

In fact, I got into another heated debate today over this same topic (in relation to Election ’08). Check out the comment thread, and for a little more perspective on the issue take note of the insightful comments posted by Megan Carpentier of Glamocracy.

Take a woman, walking through a bar minding her own business. A guy grabs her or leers at her, she turns around and tells him to cut it out, and he says, “Don’t be so sensitive / Lighten up babe / Stop being so dramatic.”

Take me, watching the word “ghetto” become more and more mainstream, seeing that a) When people use the word around me, 9 our of 10 of them turn to me sheepishly and say they’re sorry, b) Some think it’s my fault that the term is offensive because I take it “racially”. This argument baffles me. It’s not my issue that this word is factually rooted in a deep, sad history, and that people are now using it to roll their eyes at, poke fun at, or diminish a lifestyle created by poor, urban (mostly Black) people and emulated by pop culture—ie, Carrie Bradshaw saying she likes to wear “ghetto gold for fun” but would never want such a thing for her engagement ring (oh, the horror!). Or that the mainstream is currently using the word like this (because what’s more pop culture than MTV’s Real World?).

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

No matter how you slice it, we do in fact live in the world. Our world encompasses lots of things, including culture and history and social strata and race. We do not live in a vacuum. Society builds from memory, memory builds from experiences, and experiences inform society.

So instead of victimizing the victim, perhaps slur-users should either own up to their bigotry, try to understand the history and context of the terms they throw around so they can at least appreciate the reasons why others would take offense, or, the best option, invest in a thesaurus and (dare I suggest it!) say what they mean! And if the thesaurus is too heavy, why not take a page from Shakespeare or Peter Pan's Lost Boys and get creative? Like, if you really think someone’s trashy, try calling him or her a lewd, crude, rude, bag of pre-chewed food dude or a week-old maggot burger with everything on it and flies on the side.

That’s sure to get your point across.

Obama wrapping it up: My grandparents would have been so proud

Last night was huge. Huge. Not only did Obama trounce Clinton in North Carolina, but also he closed the gap to less than 2 points in Indiana (props to Gary!). Clinton won by less than 20,000 votes, and many are attributing this to stupid Rush Limbaugh and his stupid “Operation Chaos” (can we just call it “Operation Dumbo Drop” from now on?).

Now in no way am I discrediting or marginalizing all the non-Black (ha, such a funny designation) men and women who turned out and voted for Obama—but from a personal perspective, Andrew Sullivan's post this morning, Black Voters Did It, and the accompanying photo (shown right, photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty) brought a tear to my eye.

I think of my late grandmother, who, at 81 years of age, stood in line for 4 hours to view Rosa Park’s body rest in state. And my late grandfather, who served his country in WWII and then came home to D.C., where he married my grandmother, fathered two beautiful girls, and worked for the government as a postman so that he could help send his daughters to college (my grandmother, for her part, got a Master's Degree in French and worked as a teacher).

My African-American grandparents grew up poor in the Jim Crow south, where discrimination against Blacks was written into law. Yet they still fought for and won a piece of the American Dream--because they worked hard, loved their family, and actually believed in the future of their country (I can't fathom how they mustered up this sentiment in the face of such discrimination. But they did. With pride).

(pictured, my grandparents dining at a cafe in 1941).

I soooo much wish they could be alive today to see this presidential race. I wish it deep in my heart, in my dreams even. I wish I could share this moment with them.

Obama and Michelle would make them so proud.

Photo via The Modesto Bee
Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish: Black Voters Did It

Ryan's media diet

David Reich—PR guru, author of the blog my 2 cents, and friend—tagged me to answer a seemingly simple question started by C.B. Wittemore: What’s your media diet? Ok David, you asked for it… my response might be a little disturbing.

First of all, I don’t read print newspapers. Like, ever. Unless I’m visiting my father, who has been saving important Philadelphia Inquirer papers since the early 90’s (for context, he’s a Professor of Mass. Comm.).

But I do read books. Lots of them. I try to read at least a book a month – usually a memoir. I always keep a book in my bag just in case I get stuck somewhere… you know, to fend off any imminent boredom.

During my 10-minute commute to work, I generally like to read, listen to music, or watch video content on my iPod. Sometimes I spend the whole time creating a killer On-The-Go playlist for the ride home.

Once I’m in front of my computer, I first open my work e-mail and read through everything. Always. Then I open the windows that will remain minimized in the background of my screen for the whole day: GMail, CNN, the New York Times Caucus blog, Huffington Post (ooo, it updates itself! What fun!), Ben Smith's Politico blog, AdAge, Jezebel. Then I read through my MediaPost Digital Marketing daily and scan the industry news. And then I go back to my “always on” sites and scan them for any interesting articles or threads.

Then I check all my bookmarked blogs for new content (about 30 in total – and actually, I probably check them every 3 hours). If a headline catches my eye, I’ll follow the link to the blog post itself and read the whole thing, along with the comments. Sometimes I will post a comment of my own.

If any interesting post or thread comes up on Jezebel during the day, I will usually comment. The cool thing about Jezebel is that all comment threads are conversations, not just one-liners or “FIRSTT!?!?!” type of comments. It’s great – like an ongoing convo with a bunch of friends going on all throughout the day.

At the end of the day, I put in my earbuds (headphones) and walk to the bus. If I can help it, I try not to bring my laptop home. Too much laptop is a bad thing.

But when I get home, I turn on the television. Usually to CNN. I’m kind of obsessed with CNN’s “Best Political Team on Television” – I think they’re smart, but I also like to try to figure out all the team’s behind-the-scene politics. I’m sure there’s a ton. I also like to watch MSNBC – Olbermann is the man, and it’s always fun to catch Pat Buchanan say something terribly, oh what’s the word, racist?

I’m not gonna lie, I also watch MTV and VH1 shows. If there’s an America’s Next Top Model marathon playing on a Sunday, I’ll be glued to the tube for hours. I also love CW programming – Gossip Girl rocks my world (umm, last night’s show?! What the hell?!?!?).

When it comes to movies, my first choice would be to view a film on the big screen. I try to see most of the films nominated for Oscars while they’re still being played at that the cinemas. Watching movies on DVD is second choice, and then on-demand would be the third – unless it’s a craptacular old movie like Mystic Pizza. Then I’m all about the Free Movies on Demand (thanks Comcast!).

What else? I don’t use the Internet on my mobile phone. That might make me lame or behind the curve, but I don’t care. I don’t want the Internet following me around wherever I go like a stalker. Sometimes I use the wireless on my iPod Touch… but only when I NEED to Google something and it can’t wait – to settle little disputes with friends, for example.

I watch TV while I run at the gym. If nothing good is on TV, I have trouble staying on the treadmill for more than 10 minutes. But if there’s some crazy E! True Hollywood story playing, I can go for miles.

I don’t shop online. I find it tedious and tiresome. Totally defeats the purpose of shopping, in my opinion.

I blog whenever I feel that I need to. Usually 4 times a week. But I’ve always got a long list of blog topic ideas and an actual post or two I’m working on. At all times.

When it comes down to it, I think I’m a blog gal. I read blogs more than I read mainstream media, I interact with blogs more than I interact with other types of social media platforms (Facebook has gotten SOOOO BORING), I share opinions on blogs more than I share “editor’s pick” type of recommendations. Does that make me crazy? Or just terribly bleeding edge? You decide.

Since this is a meme, let’s hear from Greg Verdino, who’s been living in the social media landscape for ages now, and Arun Rajagopal, who blogs the marketing dish from Oman.