Grrl Power #1113 – Cue Snap
Happy The Day After Christmas! For some of us, that’s when we strike the tree and decorations and for some of us, that time is mid-March. As I recall we usually left that stuff up till… New Year’s Eve Eve? Honestly I didn’t pay much attention once I got my presents.
So, the… uh, face powder… primer? Foundation? I don’t know what it’s called, but it mostly got blown off when Jiggawatt turned into a lightning bolt, but her lipstick didn’t. I guess when she turns into a google electrons she has to concentrate a bit when she puts herself back together. She’s used to wearing some eyeshadow and lipstick, probably a little eyeliner, but not wearing makeup pancaked all over her face. Mostly it’s all automatic. If she’s carrying a gun with her, she doesn’t have to think about reconstructing the various springs or all the gunpowder, or uh, nitrocellulose granules I guess. Muskets aren’t standard issue at Arc-SWAT. I dunno, maybe Harem’s makeup is ferrous for some reason and being lightninged caused it to migrate.
The December Vote Incentive is up!
Please enjoy Cora in a workout outfit. Variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon, as well as a comic to put it all in context. Spoiler, Cora’s ship is like a Roman orgy most of the time.
.
.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Sounds like Jiggawatt has some personal experience with the whole “driving while black” problem. While that sort of racism may happen less often these days it unfortunately hasn’t been entirely eliminated.
my son works second shift. his transport was down. a coworker who has a similar skintone to jiggawatt tried to drop him off, twice. got a ticket both times. one time the cop was following her and watched her drop my son off, then pulled her over after she left the area. it may be down some. but we are a long way from reasonable.
I got pulled over for carpooling to work also. Twice… It’s not unique for age/skin but it does hit anyone who isn’t white a lot more often. I work “sunrise” shift at UPS. It seems the shittiest cops are always on the latest shift.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re right. Like, the department can’t get enough people to work for them, so they can’t get rid of who sucks, so just shove them into a shift where they don’t think they’ll interact with people much.
But then again, police stations are echo chambers, so.
Or she was making a joke. Pretty clearly a joke. Hence the Chuckle Hut response. :)
it could be bitter humor.
Was that a pun or a spelling mistake?
Wait no I just realized ‘bitter humor’ could mean a third thing.
Do not use this as an excuse to make puns!
but we love to pun you.
bitter humor- jokes about bitter truths.
:)
Biter humour – jokes that bite arse :P
no. Biter humor its jokes about or by those awful swarming things that interrupt factory growth. the factory must grow.
What spelling mistake?
Wait, did you think they meant ‘someone who bites’? That’s spelt with one ‘t’
Bitters is an alcoholic beverage, typically 20 to 50% percent volume, but used in such small quantities (popularly consumed in ‘Lemon, Lime & Bitters’) it doesn’t count
I thought he was either making a pun or misspelled better until I realized what he really meant. :)
Wait, what are the other two? o_O
Other two what?
You said it could mean a third thing, just wondering what the first two were
Oh..
Either a pun.
Or misspelling ‘better’
Or bitter as in the emotion of ‘feeling bitter.’ Thats the third thing.
Jiggawatt’s having fun channeling her inner Palpatine.
Unlimited power?
Did the make-up come off because of electricity? I’m confused.
its the law of absurdity. anytime a character is wearing an identity modifying disguise it will drop, or break when the results will be at least funny. later this week, it will turn out that she had missed a camera.
Fun fact: makeup burns. It’s mostly wax and/or mineral oil.
I had a theory that she was having a reaction and her powers followed her immune system and well dealt with the invasive chemicals. (she wasn’t used to it yet)
You need Improved Invisibility to remain stealthed while attacking.
Disguise checks based entirely on objects which have a low damage threshold always fail.
She just fried the entire camera system, at least on that level. I’m sure the security room is being vacated by guys coughing up a lung while smoke bellows out of the door way. I used to tinker with electronics as a kid, while making a cobbled together AM radio is fun, although plugging it into a wall socket WITHOUT a transformer doesn’t make it louder… seemed logical at the time…. What? I was 8 :P it was 1968 back when Radio Shack actually sold hobby parts.
Don’t believe it was the entire level, or she wouldn’t have needed to walk all the way to that door
After reading this comic for the fourth time I realize what just happened in this strip. First she fried the camera. Then she BECAME electricity to kill the two Goon Squad Teds, then reformed into her normal non-electricity body So the makeup came off during THAT. I originally thought she just finger-lightninged them until I looked at panel 7 more closely.
Then I was confused because in the Restaurant rumble, Jiggawatt arrived via the same way but seemed to have yellow lipstick which was still on afterwards.
Then I realized that she was either wearing lipstick at the restaurant fight and here that was different than the makeup component-wise here (DaveB’s ‘ferrous makeup’ comment seems to confirm this) or was not wearing lipstick for this disguise and it’s always been her natural lips (which also could be the case according to DaveB as well in his comment to one of the posters).
Bonus points for the Lichtenberg figure in her makeup.
D’oh I typed that right before I read DaveB’s explanation.
Jiggawatt should be grateful, she was about to lose her job due to Diversity Quotas
“Reverse racism” isn’t real and your implication that it is has been noticed.
there is no such thing as “reverse racism”, making any judgement, for or against anyone solely because of their race is racism. racism benefiting you because of your race (regardless of what race that is, or the race or the person making the call), is still racism
yup.
No “reverse racism” or “that’s not racism because they’re “…
Just plain racism.
Can we NOT get into the study of victimology or the implying of blood libel (But with new, friendlier terms to make it palatable to the modern audience)? Jiggawatt is a young, hip eighteen-to-twentysomething and she was making young, hip jokes (No doubt like her favorite entertainers do), not making a deep monologue about modern race relations to an audience at a TED talk.
Not really a fair comparison. She’s military so the worst that will happen for her is that she’ll be passed up for officer promotions as she’s too white. Wouldn’t have any bearing on enlisted advancement.
No reason to make a big deal out of that. It’s been that way since the 80s at least.
She’d still be female, which means that on average, for the exact same rank and job, she makes more money than her male counterparts.
*citation required
Implication that the female members of Archon get paid more, because Maxi is a raving feminist who hates men (stop taking this shit serious!)
“Because Maxi is a raving feminist who hates men ” I am a feminist, and do not hate men, that is libel.
1) It’s not libel because Guesticules said nothing about you.
2) It’s not libel because Guesticules said something about a fictional character.
3) It’s not libel because even if Maxima was a real person, it’s a simple opinion, and an expression of opinion cannot be the basis of a defamation action. If an expression of opinion is based on disclosed, non-defamatory facts, an action is not supported no matter how unreasonable or derogatory the opinion is. However, if the expression of opinion is based on undisclosed or implied facts, support of an action depends on the understanding of the recipient of the statement, since the meaning of a communication is that which the recipient reasonably understands it to be, even if he/she is mistaken in that understanding. So if the recipient reasonably believes the truth of an undisclosed or implied defamatory fact about the subject of a statement, the speaker is liable.
Woo I got to throw around some law today. :)
You missed point 4) wasn’t being serious
I just wanted an excuse to lay down some legal knowledge. It’s been a while. :)
Any time :)
“Boys throw stones at frogs in fun, but the frogs do not die in fun, but in earnest.”
That is very deep.
Sounds like Hemingway.
It’s probably been repeated a few times over the centuries by various people, but reportedly originated with Bion of Borysthenes, a greek philosopher.
That wasn’t the implication. Maxima does not determine base pay, though she has input for bonus award pay. I actually screwed up and wrote more and not less, and can’t edit the reply.
It’s a simple fact in the U.S. armed forces that Women make LESS than their male counterparts.
A simple fact yes, but also a misleading fact that invites bad faith, pitiable actors to jump to conclusions. That’s why people use statistics anyways.
I’ll elaborate as apology for messing up the earlier post:
The U.S. military base pay is determined by both rank and time-in-rate. This is theoretically neutral. Someone serving for 4 years and an E-4 has the exact same base pay as someone else also in for 4 years and also an E-4. There are tons of other factors like geolocation, dependants, special and hazardous duty pay, but we’re just looking at base pay.
However, in practice, this doesn’t line up to equality between the sexes. Women advance faster, face fewer NJP reductions in rank, and separate from the military earlier. This results in a larger proportion of Men with higher time-in-rate for every given rank. Which means if you look again at the statistically average E-4, the woman will have been E-4 for a shorter period of time and will be making less money.
You can spin this as both Systemic Anti-Women Sexism (They make less than men for the same job!) And Systemic Anti-Men Sexism (They don’t advance as fast despite doing the same work!) Depending on who you are trying to manipulate.
Recently a woman broke the record for fastest E-7 in the US Navy (who have to be commissioned by Congress to be E-7) by more than a year faster than the prior record. Very impressive stuff.
I don’t think the first part was in dispute. The U.S. Joint Chief of Staff has formally declared preferential advancement points for PoC and Women in the officer line. And it’s been that way in practice for longer than 90% of the readers of this comic have likely been alive.
Yes Titan, tell us more of The White Man’s Burden, and how institutional racism is a myth, except when it (supposedly) applies to wipeepo.
That suspicious tinkling box in the mail is a family pack of laughing gas canisters. Complete with Rx to use in moderate dose before commenting on webcomics. Also please remember to remove that stick up your bum before commencing this leisure activity.
Nope, ya’ll don’t get to say stupid, racist-apologetic bs, then claim to be “just kidding.”
We’re not going to get caught on the paradox of tolerance. Take that shit elsewhere.
Oh, you gonna be like that? I think the funny was genuine and your failure to deal with that a(n expected) failure of your cultish creed of “being woke”.
Rather than exposing intolerance, I think your sermonising espouses intolerance, even outright racism, no matter how much you like to pretend it is “anti-racism”. If we’re going to tell each other to fuck off, then I’m telling you to kindly sod off to Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner. DaveB can always take a stand and, say, delete postings to make clear which way he leans, but this is his playground, not yours. So it’s not up to you to tell me to “take that shit elsewhere”.
More generally, racism only goes away when race simply ceases to matter. Drawing attention to it in every which way all the time, as you are doing, is not helping. Your distinct lack of funny bone tells us you’re too invested in your cult’s scripture to take a breather. Not allowing others to laugh? That’s pretty dictatorial and absolutist. Thus we conclude: You, Bharda, are part of the problem.
The problem is, you didn’t state at the time that it was a joke
You can’t say “It was just a joke!” after hurtsacks have gotten their undies bunched up under their armpits
That’s the “Bharda Law”
If it’s a joke, you state at the time it’s a joke, or it’s seen as serious, Guest.
Because 99% of the time, saying shit like that is just to see how people react to it. You don’t get to backtrack hours later and go “just kidding” when you were actually testing to see if people were okay with you being a pile of shit.
This is why Elon’s ass is in a fire over agreeing with Russian Ex-President Medvedev over his prediction of a second US Civil war.
So.. yeah.
This has nothing to do with “woke” people, and everything to do with Stupid people who think they can get off easy being assholes by saying “Just kidding!” later.
Humor isn’t universal. That you think that was a funny joke says something about your beliefs. That Bharda doesn’t find the same things funny doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a funny bone.
Ignoring race isn’t the same thing as ignoring racism. Ignoring racism doesn’t make it go away.
Exactly.
Humor is INCREDIBLY subjective.
And bitching that someone doesn’t share your sense of humor usually just proves someone’s a thin-skinned asshole.
But then, Guest’s been kicked off of one or two other Webcomic forums previously I’m aware of for being an ass.
I think you mean “a googol electrons”. The search engine was supposed to be named “googol” after the number, but ended up being “google” because of a spelling error.
So they claim. I hold to the theory that, since the Internet is for porn, the name actually is “Go Ogle.”
And here I’d been thinking it was a reference to Barney Google….
And the Internet was named after Joe Internet. :)
I have a t-Shirt, with that on it. A gift from a good friend, whom, BTW happens to be male.
Cool :)
I have a T-shirt that says ‘I went outside once but the graphics were not that good.’
FYI, googol is the number, Google is the advertising/search/surveilance company.
She changed her lipstick? But Abby wasn’t wearing red lipstick…
Yellow lipstick probably would have drawn too much attention in a high security zone.
Her lips are the same shade as Harem. She has access to quite a few shades.
Oh, so she just removed it when get made-over? Thought maybe Abby applied new lipstick as part of the disguise
Why have internal security, when you have an ass-ton of cameras?
I’d guess that the company choose “Google” because you can’t copyright a name that’s already in the public domain.
American Xmas is different, I found. “Day after Xmas” is Boxing Day over here. Its a public holiday so this year is a 3-day holiday, with public holiday “in lieu” on Mon. Boxing Day is all about sport and Sales!!! so it’s a bit of a dud holiday if you work in retail.
Xmas trees come down on Twelfth Night, 5th Jan which used to be a big holiday of the “Lord of Misrule” sort, hence Shakespeare’s play which is basically a knock-about comedy about fairly cruel practical jokes and innuendo, a sort of 16th Century version of “Jackass” or “National Lampoon”.
After Twelfth Night comes Plough Monday, first full week of the New Year when everyone goes back to work because the days are getting longer and the weather is (slightly) better.
That’s not correct.
1) I think you mean trademark, not copyright. Copyrights protect literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and other intellectual works (computer code, etc). Trademarks protect the use of a company’s name, product names, brand identity, logos, slogans, sometimes specific color shades used in a particular commercial context, etc.
2) Googol is not ‘in the public domain’ (although Googol Technology is). But even if that were the case, Google started in 1998 (and the name itself was trademarked in 1997) and Googol Technology started in 1999.
3) If you are referring to the actual word ‘googol’ being a publicly used word, you are fully allowed to trademark those, although you still have to differentiate it from the publicly used word. Apple. Spirit. American. Apache. Indian. Dodge. Piper. Yahoo. Chrome. You can also use people’s common names as trademarks. Wendy’s. McDonald’s. Oscar Mayer. Nathan’s. You just can’t prevent others from using the name as… yknow… their name. Even if they then use their name for a business, presentation, etc. if it’s not meant to cause brand confusion.
4) Google’s original name was actually ‘Backrub’ in 1996. I am not kidding. You can look it up. It was based on its analysis of the web’s ‘back links.’
5) The name Google was derived from a misspelling of the word ‘googol’ which was Larry Page’s original planned name, suggested by Sean Anderson in a brainstorming session (one of the graduate students who shared Larry Page’s office in 1997). Sean suggested the name ‘googolplex’ and Larry countered with ‘googol’ because he felt googolplex was too long. Sean did a search to make sure the name wasn’t taken already, but he was not a great speller apparently, and instead of typing googol.com, he typed in google.com. None of them might have realized he misspelled it but in any case they Larry Page and Sergey Brin liked the name and registered and trademarked it. And that’s the official story of how Google got its name. This has been my TED Talk.
“Googol is not ‘in the public domain’ (although Googol Technology is).”
I have to correct something I wrote which was extremely stupid of me for not re-reading before I pressed enter.
I did not mean ‘Googol Technology’ is public domain. I mean ‘Googol Technology is already taken as a trademark.
“American Xmas is different, I found. “Day after Xmas” is Boxing Day over here”
Because it’s the day you punch people who gave you gifts you didn’t like. :)
But seriously, liked your post (even if the first sentence was incorrect). I didn’t know most of what you wrote in the last two paragraphs.
Why do prisons have guards when there’s an ass-ton of cameras everywhere?
Cameras can’t shoot at an escaping prisoner or make prisoners go into their cells or to different areas. :)
People become masters at dodging the camera’s eye. This is true outside of forensic settings as well. When my workplace went no smoking back in the 90’s certain areas became very popular with people taking their break.
Unless I missed something, cameras don’t attack or subdue a threat. if you limit the security threat to a handful of men on the floor and oh say let the rest hang out in the actual security room, that allows for what Jigawatt just did, compromise the cameras. All cameras do is alert the security force, and unless they have super speed, allow someone to do damage and run off before they can run down the hall or jump in an elevator to get there.
Well, if you’re already running an illegal gang, there’s no reason you can’t equip the surveillance cameras with remotely actuated miniguns. I certainly would, if I were designing an evil lair. Hell, even if I were designing a morally ambivalent lair!
That’s my point, the cocky bastards are so sure of the base being hidden, they are being sloppy. Even if they take out this base these monkey droppings worth of bad guys are sure to have other people in other bases world-wide. This isn’t over yet! We have the gals and guy’s arch-nemesis right here, a evil version of Arcswat.
It’s cheaper and probably more effective to put a glitch counter on your camera feeds. If your enemies can subvert your cameras without a momentary interference in the camera signal you are probably already outclassed. Remote control guns can be subverted as easily as cameras. Maybe a couple at the entrance or other chokepoint but guns covering the interior of the base would probably be bad for morale.
Yeah, that basically means they don’t trust the guards on the entrances and the interior personnel
If you have enough cameras (which are cheap enough if they had a whole bin of them laying around), then you just need two or three guards keeping an eye on the monitors, instead of dozens of guards being bored stationed around the facility
Jiggs was going to ask for a raise… from the Ted’s? o_O
No, from ArcSWAT. Her whole monologue is her making fun about the fact she’s now white and therefore will no longer discriminated for her race. She’s using Ted’s face plate as mirror, looking how the makeup didn’t hold.
While different wages based on race can be reality in lot of jobs, I’m sure ArcSWAT is not one of them.
Arc-SWAT is good about paying by rank. Race/species and gender aren’t taken into account.
American military all pay is by rank and time in service. You get a pay raise when you get a promotion.
That’s because the military technically does not see race/gender. When you get to a certain rank/rating you get paid the same as any other servicemember of that rank/rating and time in service. I have half a lifetime of dealing with the military as a dependent or enlisted, starting in the ’50s and ending in the ’80s.
Except for the people who are black on the left side and white on the right side. F* those guys… They’re all clearly inferior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7MQrL_ABE0
Before anyone starts raging at Tokumei without seeing the link, he’s talking about a famous Star Trek episode about racism and racial divisions. :)
Although everyone knows that the people who are black on the right side and white on the inside have been oppressors forever, so the revolution must continue forever until every last one of them is rid from Cheron!
Which is what I’d say if everyone on Cheron except for Bele and Lokai were not wiped out already. :)
“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” for any Trekkies out there.
Indeed. The episode used an alien species with an absurd, two-tone skin color to illustrate the silliness of judging people based on he color of their skin. The idea was since humans often fixate on the color of each others skin, make the aliens be pitch black and stark white on alternate sides so that humans look at them and go “yeah they look pretty much the same to me” but to those characters it’s like “how can you not see that HE has the white and black on the wrong sides, are you stupid or something? WE are superior ones!”
The show dealt with racism in almost every episode though, via Spock. Even if an episode wasn’t about racism, McCoy was casually racist toward Vulcans, and the show portrays it as a silly and backwards attitude even when done in a harmless fashion like McCoy does it to Spock.
Why does McCoy’s attitude towards Spock be racial? Why can it not simply be either his hatred towards Spock alone, or ribbing between colleagues?
I’m pretty sure it is ribbing, although McCoy has always been pretty cantankerous. And while I think Spock and McCoy do see each other as brothers (which Spock basically suggests in Star Trek V), there was possibly some xenophobia on McCoy’s behalf towards vulcans since McCoy is the overly emotional one and vulcans suppress their emotion entirely. Plus humans did, at that time, still probably have lingering grudges against Vulcans in general (from what I saw on Enterprise, which took place about 100 years before Star Trek TOS, when it was a LOT worse in relations between humans and vulcans.
That would be Speciest, not racist!
You are technically correct. And as we (and space bureaucrats) all know, technically correct is the best kind of correct.
With McCoy it was more about ribbing than racism. In Star Trek V we see that Kirk, Spock, and McCoy see each other as brothers. And in Star Trek 2 Spock did the mind meld to McCoy, one of his two closest friends, according to what Sarek said was typical (he thought he would have with Kirk but Spock realized he wouldnt be able to so did so with McCoy before going into the chamber).
Also, I’m a she, not a he :P
Np I will remember in the future.
Given that Arc-SWAT hires not just people, but superpowers, they’re could probably get away with paying individual power bonuses. Would even be practical, because you don’t want private enterprises to buy off all your supers.
It isn’t about asking the Tedds, it’s just the same joke she was on in the first few panels. The stereotype (which is, sadly, based on a lot more truth than I wish were the case) is that black people are treated worse, get pulled over by cops and ticketed/arrested for minor offenses (or no offense) more often, get passed over for promotions, stock options, raises, etc. Since she disguised herself as a white person, she was joking about how her world was suddenly better, and then once her makeup was ruined it was basically “aw, now I can’t get the benefits of being white anymore.”
With all the shit being dumped on Whitey the last decade or so, why would anyone, willingly, want to be ‘white’?
Imagine benefits don’t outweigh the shit they have been getting
Oh yes, won’t someone *please* think of the poor white people in the society where white people have had all the social, economic, and political power since it came a thing.
You sure you’re getting enough oxygen, son?
People with power having had the same skin color as you doesn’t actually have to benefit you in any way.
Thinking of “white people” as a unified group is not meaningful, and in its racial essentialism the opposite of where we want to get to.
Tell me you don’t understand institutional/social bias, without telling me you don’t understand institutional/social bias…
Do you have arguments, or just buzzwords?
Because in reality, bias is not as simple as “white people support white people as a group”, much less “institutions with white people in power support white people as a group”.
“Prove that this clearly observable phenomena exists.”
Dude, I’m not going to exhaust myself reinventing the wheel in every reply to you. I’m familiar with that tactic.
You’ve been caught out pushing a racist trope, and nobody is going to play your game. Feel free to declare victory by default, but understand that nobody is going to play chess with a pigeon. It’s a waste of time & energy, everyone knows it’s a waste of time & energy, and everyone knows that wasting time & energy is the point, because once we’re all exhausted, you can continue vomiting bigotry unchallenged.
I’ll link some YouTube videos if you ask nicely, but that’s it.
> “Prove that this clearly observable phenomena exists.”
No, “explain how this abstract, broad and vague concept applies specifically and only or on balance in a way that supports your position”.
I hate this “everyone who disagrees with me must be dishonest” trope. If you don’t want to discuss, don’t do it. But don’t call me randomly racist and bigoted when I’ve said no such thing, when I’m specifically arguing against judging and oversimplifying based on race.
You’re calling me a pigeon, but you’re the one throwing over the pieces by refusing to bring arguments and soiling the board by accusing me without reason.
If that’s what I can expect, I have no particular interest in continuing this either, but a retraction of and an apology for your accusations would be appreciated.
“Buzzword, is also a “buzzword” !
Do you find my meaning unclear and want me to expand?
That’s because you don’t realize how actually terrible it can get for non-whites in some places. Not just black people, either; there’s been a resurgence in race-based hatred toward Asians just because of Covid. White people are statistically the least likely to get straight-up death threats because of their race.
You don’t have to be white to be racist. Racism comes from people of all colors and is pointed towards people of all colors. let’s ALL stop being victims here, and call out the racists when and where we see them, as individuals. Racism is an issue that needs a bunch of precision repairs, not a grenade thrown into a room. You’ll be surprised how many allies you have when it’s “here’s a video of officer smith being a racist dick, badge number 441 in Potomac” vs “driving when you are (Race x) sucks. all these cops are racist assholes that make my life hard.”
Amen to that.
Not only have some race sub-cultures been caught up in a cycle of endless hatred and racism towards anyone with authority or a lighter skin tone, ensuring a self perpetuating self fulfilling prophesy of crime and aggressive acts directed at people who, 99.9% of the time, are not racist, but many groups have encouraged this hatred and ignorance to go into overdrive in the past decade.
Which “race sub-cultures” are you referring to? When you say “many groups,” which groups?
Your dogwhistles aren’t as quiet as you think they are.
I really hope I’m not involving myself in a political thing by saying this, since the whole comic was based on what I thought was a pretty funny bit by Jiggawatt (plus Maxima’s face in the third panel was funny as well).
I think ‘racial/ethnic/religious/etc sub-culture’ is an actual term. Plus what he said can be used for both black and white people … or other ethnicities. Doesn’t seem like a dogwhistle. CronoM is basically saying a lot of the time, what people perceive as racism isn’t actually because of race hatred, but if someone is looking for racism, they will find it even if it’s not actually happening (which creates unnecessary animosity on racial divisions).
Which… is sort of what you just did with the ‘dogwhistle’ comment.
The whole point of a dogwhistle is that it can be ignored or disclaimed, that it has two intentional interpretations, one malicious, and another benign to serve as a cover. I question whether you would ever recognize one, given that you’re always so willing to accept the charitable explanation.
But did you really gloss over “racism towards anyone with authority or a lighter skin tone“? That’s not exactly applicable to “both black and white people”. And the vague “many groups”, who have encouraged hatred and violence against racists? This is a classic “It’s not the racists who are the problem, but the people complaining about racism”.
“The whole point of a dogwhistle is that it can be ignored or disclaimed,”
Sounds like an excuse to accuse people unfairly regardless of their intent.
“given that you’re always so willing to accept the charitable explanation.”
I tend to not be out to assume people have the worst intentions. That’s a good thing.
“But did you really gloss over “racism towards anyone with authority or a lighter skin tone“?”
No. Because even in all black or all hispanic cultures there actually IS a historical tendency to separate people based on differentiations of skin tone, even for lighter or darker skin tones. So I’m not sure how this is inherently racist to point out.
“That’s not exactly applicable to “both black and white people”.”
Yes it is applicable to both black and white races. Even in the United States in all minority neighborhoods.
“And the vague “many groups”, who have encouraged hatred and violence against racists?”
1) He seems to be referring to race hustlers – which can be of any group. It can be Richard Spencer as easily as it can be Al Sharpton or Louis Farrakhan. Generalized language is not just for dogwhistling.
2) “Many groups” is not a dogwhistle. It’s saying there are … many groups that do this. Which actually means the opposite of what you’re assuming – ie, he’s not singling out any one ethnic or racial group on this. He’s using generalized language here.
3) People can be racist no matter what their ethnicity, skin color, etc, towards any group, including the same group sometimes.
“This is a classic “It’s not the racists who are the problem, but the people complaining about racism”.”
If you’re looking for racist dogwhistles, you’re going to find it even if it’s not happening. He’s talking about ‘race hustlers.’ If a person hears ‘race hustlers’ and automatically thinks it’s an attack on minorities, that feels like a stereotype against minorities if anything.
What he said feels more like what Morgan Freeman said on 60 Minutes.
Mike Wallace: “How are we going to get rid of racism then?”
Morgan Freeman: “Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace, and you know me as Morgan Freeman”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s
The basic premise that I got from CronoM was not a dogwhistle, just a ‘I don’t like when people go out of their way to accuse others of stealth racism even if they’re not actually being racist.’
For which CronoM was just called effectively a ‘stealth racist.’
It just seems unnecessary to me and just being used to racial division and fighting where there doesn’t have to be any.
What I love is the breezy association of “authority” with “lighter skin tone,” as if our very smart racism-understander just associates these things naturally in his own head.
It brings to mind the whole Jordan Peterson bit about assuming that the existence of hierarchical structures automatically justifies the assumption & imposition of _social_ hierarchies…
@Pander, you’re on the wrong end of this.
You’re looking for some sort of hard and fast legal standard to assess a given behavior by, and you’re not going to find one. The world does not exist within the neat confines of legalism. It’s chaotic, heuristic, messy, and human social interactions, particularly above the the level of individual analysis, are definitionally irrational, sentimental, and generally refuse to be neatly categorized, and in any case are _never_ static.
I suspect you’re going to resent me for pointing this out, but there is no such thing as a “post-racial” society, for as long as the category “race” is part of the conversation. This is relevant, because as long as these categories exist, there will necessarily be relationships between them. And as long as this is the case…one of those relationships will necessarily be about power.
And as long as there is a power relationship, there will be those who have a vested interest in maintaining the imbalance in that relationship. And those people will use any & all tools at their disposal to maintain that status quo.
And the best way to prevent a thing from being changed, is to convince as many people as possible that it simply doesn’t exist, or at a minimum, doesn’t have any real significance. Which, yes, brings us back to dogwhistles…but also to your eagerness to insist that all this is just so much needless & counterproductive conflict.
Now, obviously I am not suggesting you’re deliberately, knowingly, willfully, and with malice of forethought trying to enable racists by silencing their critics. But Morgan Freeman is wrong, and the material reality of “color blindness” is to further entrench the status quo, by refusing to challenge what is wrong, regardless of whether or not it is legal.
Honestly, this sort of thing is a _massive_ blind spot for liberals. A titanic blind spot.
Basically, they willfully to see groups of people as groups, but only as hordes of individuals. This is because, the instant they recognize groups of people, they have to recognize that some of those groups are economic classes, and that power relationships exist between them, and that means acknowledging the arguments of – shudder! – Leftists. But the problem here, for liberals, is that in order to insulate themselves from the class-consciousness of the Lefties, and the resultant decentralization of wealth & power, they blind themselves to the group-identity politics of the fascists, and subsequently to their rhetoric & tactics.
“@Pander, you’re on the wrong end of this.”
It’s possible. I just don’t think CronoM was being racist though.
“You’re looking for some sort of hard and fast legal standard to assess a given behavior by, and you’re not going to find one.”
Admittedly I go at things by assuming people’s innocence before presuming them guilty. It’s part and parcel of being an attorney.
“The world does not exist within the neat confines of legalism.”
Not disagreeing with that at all. I just don’t assume the worst in people.
“It’s chaotic, heuristic, messy, and human social interactions, particularly above the the level of individual analysis, are definitionally irrational, sentimental, and generally refuse to be neatly categorized,”
I agree. Which is why I don’t choose to assume the worst until I have better confirmation to make assumptions.
“and in any case are _never_ static.”
Only a sith deals in absolutes.
Just kidding, you’re cool. And I agree with this as well. But if I have to use an initial assumption of guilt or innocence, I tend to go with innocence first. Sorry, but it’s my legal background. :)
“I suspect you’re going to resent me for pointing this out,”
Bharda, I don’t resent you. Never have. Trust me on this.
Only time I ever get annoyed is when people launch personal attacks at me, which you have not done to me.
“but there is no such thing as a “post-racial” society, for as long as the category “race” is part of the conversation.”
I would like to think it’s possible at the very least, or my family get-togethers would be exceedingly awkward with some of my in-laws.
“This is relevant, because as long as these categories exist, there will necessarily be relationships between them. And as long as this is the case…one of those relationships will necessarily be about power.”
I’m not sure why a power dynamic would have to rely on racial divisions though. Seems like it’s actually more likely to rely on class divisions, since even in a single race society, class divisions still occur.
“And as long as there is a power relationship, there will be those who have a vested interest in maintaining the imbalance in that relationship. And those people will use any & all tools at their disposal to maintain that status quo.
And the best way to prevent a thing from being changed, is to convince as many people as possible that it simply doesn’t exist, or at a minimum, doesn’t have any real significance.”
I don’t actually disagree with you about how power imbalances can cause division. I just tend to not think it HAS to be based on something arbitrary like race, when more often it’s based on a class system. Race can sometimes overlap with the class system in multicultural societies, but the class system or other divisions tends to be what really separates people in societies, real and fictional. Tutis and Hutus. English and Irish. Purempecha and Aztec and Mayan. Romulans and Vulcans. Slightly blue-gray bolians and vivid blue bolians.
“but also to your eagerness to insist that all this is just so much needless & counterproductive conflict.”
It’s more that I don’t like seeing flame wars over a joke. I like this board because the arguments tend to be civil, usually. Well… a majority of the time, anyway. Nothing’s perfect.
“Now, obviously I am not suggesting you’re deliberately, knowingly, willfully, and with malice of forethought trying to enable racists by silencing their critics.”
I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt. Because I’m not trying to enable racists or silence critics. I just don’t think there are people being racist in this particular situation. You’re giving me the benefit of the doubt in not assuming I am being malicious (and thank you!). I’m doing the same for CronoM in not assuming ‘dogwhistles’ in his(?) post.
“But Morgan Freeman is wrong,”
Well I mean… until we have a situation where all people are truly acting in a colorblind fashion I’m not sure we can prove he’s right or wrong. I do think it would be nice if people focused on our similarities instead of focusing on our differences, though. I do know that my extended family has a lot of inter-racial, inter-ethnic, inter-religious, and some same-sex marriages, and there doesnt seem to be a lot of strife and division. It tends to be arguments about other stuff based on less arbitrary differences, when there are arguments.
“the material reality of “color blindness” is to further entrench the status quo, by refusing to challenge what is wrong,”
I dunno. I think you you can both think of people of whatever racial/ethnic/etc differences and still challenge when you see something that’s wrong. It’s just a little harder since you need to focus on finding proof first rather than assuming the worst in people from the get-go. Again, probably my upbringing and my legal background has influenced my beliefs on this.
“Honestly, this sort of thing is a _massive_ blind spot for liberals.”
It might be. I just prefer not assuming guilt, because if I decide something incorrectly, I’d rather not defame an innocent person. Blackstone’s Formulation and all that.
“Basically, they willfully to see groups of people as groups, but only as hordes of individuals”
No I think liberals tend to see groups of people as individuals. It’s individualism vs group identity. It’s why I have a hesitancy to assume all white people are one way, or all black people are another way, or all asian people are another way, or all muslims/jews/christians/hindu/etc are another way, and so on and so on… I tend to base my opinions of people on their actions and statements, and when basing it on statements, I like those statements to be as clear as possible before making assumptions, hence why I don’t assume dogwhistles very often.
“they have to recognize that some of those groups are economic classes, and that power relationships exist between them, ”
I don’t think anyone was saying anything about this. Did I miss something though?
“they blind themselves to the group-identity politics of the fascists, and subsequently to their rhetoric & tactics.”
I just don’t want to lump someone into a group as a fascist as the default setting. It seems wrong and unfair and doesn’t mesh well with my whole presumption of innocence mindset.
I’m from another country than U.S … There is my two cents.
But racism is also an expression of “pride of power” , your forced underlings , minions are by definition less powerful than you: “we seek the friendship of the tiger and not that of the hare”
Take an exemple in the 192… Japaneses had a much better treatment in Europe than their neighbors…
In U.S even if you had not so much ethnic difference between a French and an Italian – latin based , mostly Catholics – anyone will not deal in the same maner with an acknowledge french and an acknowledged Italian – du to the respective power of this two countries -.
And if even now if a French is not dealt as a Latino it’s because in term of soft power , GDP and militarily wise they have teeth…
For a bigot respect is given to is kind and everyone who is seen as powerful.
For exemple of contempt , many of US so called “patriots” had the delusion than European tech is not as advanced as american one ….
Oh wow.
“They get what’s coming to them,” but without even the usual dogwhistle.
Right, because nothing says “there’s no such thing as institutional racism,” like demanding every incident be specifically documented, filmed, and aired on the broadcast media in order to acknowledge & accept that any case may exist.
Dude, you’re expecting every instance of a brother or sister getting run down by the pigs for driving while black to be treated as an exception, instead of as evidence indicating a very obvious fucking pattern. That attitude itself is exemplary of the exact sort of privilege that wipeepo get to enjoy. They don’t have to be aware of, or acknowledge, the fact the the laws & institutions of the United States protect some people without binding them, while binding others, without protecting them.
And no, it doesn’t matter what the paper says, as long as the material reality in the street remains what it is.
Individual cases are individual cases. You can’t derive patterns from them.
And if you think that understanding statistics is a privilege of white people, you might want to rethink that.
The reality is that some people of any group are assholes, and morally dividing groups more than absolutely necessary is a bad thing.
There’s no such thing as individual cases. People don’t just spring fully formed from the womb. They are a product of their environment.
And statistics is all about deriving patterns from collections of “individual cases”.
Their point maybe more that someone’s attitude towards someone may be individual towards that person, regardless of racial (because they are not human) or national identificationing
No, there’s no doubt that there are individual racist cops. I’m counting “racist” under “asshole” here.
But the existence of individual racists is a thing that happens everywhere, and one shouldn’t overgeneralize on it, and especially not morally attack any criticism on that overgeneralization. As was said upthread:
> Racism comes from people of all colors and is pointed towards people of all colors. let’s ALL call out the racists when and where we see them, as individuals.
Calling out individual racists is an endless game of whack-a-mole. It doesn’t actually solve the problem, doesn’t address the social forces that create them in the first place.
And sometimes, I think that is exactly the point of people recommending it.
Torabi:- so rather than point out the actual individual racists and deal with them individually, you suggest to simply label every member of the group racist and condemn them all with the same brush?
Yeah, can see how that would work :eye_roll:
To target the forces(they’re not just social) that create racists, you need to identify these forces first. And it’s hard to do that as long as you have a wrong idea of what racism looks like.
If one targets the wrong social concepts, this creates collateral damage without solving the actual problem.
And even worse, if one’s attempt racially divides, by sorting racists and victims of racism into racial groups, or by delegitimizing positions in the discussion based on the speaker’s race, it ends up advancing racism.
Instead, if you keep properly calling out individual racists, while at the same time advancing a vision that doesn’t differentiate by race, you create a social force that works against racism.
There’s no winning, is there? Call out an individual racist, and it’s unfairly picking on people. Criticize systemic racism, and the claim is that there is no such thing, it’s just individual racists.
I am neither suggesting labeling members of groups independent of their behavior, nor wasting time on individual racists that won’t change their minds or behavior. I am suggesting that we should seek to measure racism, identify the forces that cultivate it, and correct for it. We should seek to remove racists from positions of power, and ensure that policy does not create or entrench racial disparity.
> There’s no winning, is there? Call out an individual racist, and it’s unfairly picking on people.
I don’t know what instances you’re thinking of. Perhaps they’re cases of baseless or overblown accusations, which absolutely is a thing. But if an individual misbehaves, it should be criticized.
> nor wasting time on individual racists that won’t change their minds or behavior.
Maybe not, but when done right it has two other benefits, 1. fixing the specific issues created by the individual, 2. messaging about racism, what not to do and why it is bad.
> am suggesting that we should seek to measure racism, identify the forces that cultivate it, and correct for it.
No problem with that. It seems like our disagreement is more on [i]how[/i] to do all these things.
> There’s no such thing as individual cases. People don’t just spring fully formed from the womb. They are a product of their environment.
So? People are different, and individual cases don’t generalize.
> And statistics is all about deriving patterns from collections of “individual cases”.
To properly do statistics, you need more than individual cases. You at the very least need representative samples.
“They are a product of their environment”, not all are.
Bloviating nonsense.
Nobody is “morally dividing” ethnic groups. We are acknowledging that patterns of de facto (as opposed to de jure) racist discrimination exist in American society at the structural level.
“Nobody is “morally dividing” ethnic groups.”
Yes, they absolutely are. The explicit moral shame heaped on white people is public and daily.
“Try to be less white.” :-/ Among so many examples.
YOU are a part of the problem. Once the accusation of racism is made, there is NO defense, as every form of defense is simply confirmation of the original charge, plus more racism. You know who hears “dog whistles”? The DOGS. (And no, that is not remotely a racial slur. In the analogy, that would be “the racists”, who can be any race.)
As long as people divide by race, make claims about stuff by race, there will be racism. If you want racism to go away, **AT SOME POINT**, you have to stop worrying about race. NOTHING ELSE will ***EVER*** work.
There is a place for explicit pushback, but that is a a very large sledgehammer-like tool. Once the largest, most explicit and entrenched problems have been dealt with, the sledgehammer will do more harm than good. We passed that point *at least* 4 decades ago.
The biggest problems left are much, much, MUCH more complicated than “white people are racist”, and continuing to heap scorn on them in explicitly racial fashion does FAR more harm than good, if there’s even any good being done AT ALL.
The nightmare scenario is for white people to once again start thinking of themselves as a racial block (like black people largely do in the US). That would set back race relations by many decades.
I think I’ve mentioned before that some people seem to be allergic to recognizing patterns. Or, at least, patterns that are inconvenient for them, that might require them to change. They’ll readily accept patterns that lay the blame on others, no evidence required.
Not even necessarily “inconvenient,” so much as merely uncomfortable.
*facepalm*
I’m a cis-hetero white dude, but I’m also a cyclist, so I know what it’s like to be a criminal in the eyes of the police. When I was killed (temporary condition I got over in about 4 minutes after the truck hit me) riding my bicycle, the cop actually said there was no evidence hitting a 225 pound person at 60 MPH would cause visible damage to a pickup truck, so they weren’t looking for the damaged vehicle.
That’s at least three reasons to hate you, sure. Here there’s separate words for normal person on a bike and racer idiot on a racing bike. And yeah, despite plenty of traffic separation, dedicated bike lanes and such, the racer guys are (and seen as) loud, obnoxious, and dangerous. Some places moreso than others, but if they zip around in groups, well, it has killed a pedestrian or two. (The other two ways I’ll leave as an exercise.)
Though I’m pretty sure the cop was just being lazy. SUV pickups are thick and heavy and probably dented and splattered already. Possibly the drivers also.
Um… I’m asian/native hawaiian (and a darker skin color than you’d expect because of that) but I haven’t ever gotten heaps of racism from white people. Plus some of my family members are married to white and black people (brother’s married to a white woman, cousin’s samoan and married to a dominican woman and I have several nieces and nephews who are black). I think most of the hatred was more towards China’s government’s involvement in the creation/spread of COVID than to chinese people in particular btw. Including from other asians.
And also, everyone, it was pretty clear Jiggawatt was making a joke, not deep social commentary. No need for people to start arguing about racism from this. It was a funny joke. Not Chuckle Hut-worthy though so she should keep her supeheroing day job. :)
A joke that wouldn’t make any sense without the backdrop of racism past and present. Jokes frequently are social commentary. All media is a product of the social context of the creator, and an opportunity to explore it.
It doesnt apply to Jiggawatt though. She’s rich, she’s gorgeous with a perfect body (like most supers), she’s famous and beloved by a lot of the public, she’s heroic, and she’s ultra-privileged by birth.
She likely already does have stock options since she has a financial investment advisor (Aurelius Shrapnel, who is also black btw).
If she’s ever been pulled over, she probably has gotten just a warning largely because she’s drop-dead sexy (which is in itself it’s own form of privilege that attractive women tend to have during a traffic stop) – assuming she even bothers driving a car in the first place, given she can get everywhere a lot faster with her powers.
She is likely more powerful than 99 percent of normal humans, black, white, or otherwise due to her superpowers. Even against other supers, she’s likely able to take a lot of them out quickly, like she did in her FIRST appearance, in which she took out 3 other supers within a second of appearing at the fight,
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-228-1-56×1020-electrons-walk-into-a-bar/
Then showed that she was better at lightning-ing than Glowbug or whatever her name was (although she did almost kill everyone with gamma ray photons because she doesnt understand science as well as Dabbler does).
In short, everything that Jiggwatt said while she was joking does not actually apply to her. It was a joke, like when Eddie Murphy did whiteface on SNL in his ‘White Like Me’ skit. Because while I’m not white, I’m pretty sure that when I get off the bus, the white people don’t all start partying. and my sister-in-law doesnt get free stuff in the store when it’s just white people in there. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_LeJfn_qW0
Jokes can have layers, this was a very layered joke.
Eh maybe. But it was still meant as a joke, not the reason for deep social commentary or a flame war.
I’m not reading so much into it to assume that Jiggawatt has experienced a history of racism against her simply becaue she is black.
She didn’t start life with all of those things, and may or may not have experienced racism before gaining them. But that’s not relevant to whether or not she can comment on society. DaveB isn’t a super, black, or a woman, and yet writes a story about characters with one or all of those traits. That doesn’t prevent him from commenting on society or other people’s experiences either.
What’s so threatening about “deep social commentary” that people feel the need to discourage other people from discussing it?
Nothing threatening about deep social commentary at all. I just don’t think daveB, or Jiggawatt, was making deep social commentary during this op, just a joke. I dont think its meant to be a deep discussion – just a haha. And I think people are reading way too much into a funny bit instead of just enjoying the joke.
Also like you said, I tend to not assume the worst possible intention in people. It’s one of the many reasons that I am so delightful (you know you enjoy our back and forths Torabi) when arguing, since I dont take Devils Advocate arguments personally and dont assume people are meaning a divisive commentary or dogwhistle when they are probably just making a joke or innocent comment. :D
Ever heard the phrase “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you?” No matter how many harsh words white people may have had to endure over the last decade, it doesn’t compare to the sticks and stones other races have had to endure.
People in minority positions have to suffer the words also, and more words, worse words than I can imagine. Intersectionality should not be discounted. Sure, poor people suffer, just like black people suffer. Except that poor black people are both poor and black. When I was poor, I could hide the fact I was poor. All I had to do was speak “proper English” and people tended to assume my clothes were a choice not simply that my parents couldn’t afford to keep up with the clothes for a growing boy. Most black people can’t hide that they’re black.
Women suffer verbal abuse, poor women suffer more verbal abuse because they’re both poor and women. Poor black women get it worse still. Handicapped people suffer verbal abuse also. Mixed race people suffer verbal abuse also. Poor black/asian autistic trans lesbian handicapped women may get it the worst.
But I don’t really know, because I’m a privileged white guy. It shouldn’t be a competition. What poor white guys suffer is worse than what anybody should have to deal with, and everybody else who gets it worse is getting that much more worse than what anybody should have to deal with.
All repressed people have to deal with some elevated level of violence in their lives. The poor white people I’ve known have had to deal with elevated violence due to living around other poor white people, all of whom have higher than average levels of frustration and sometimes get violent as a result. They’re also more likely to be targeted with state sanctioned violence in the form of police actions.
However, almost every other group of repressed people that I am aware of have that worse. Before factoring in intersectionality, I’m not sure, but I think autism spectrum people might have it the best on that particular note, possibly followed by the handicapped. Note that both autism spectrum and handicapped people have additional issues that shouldn’t be discounted when judging how bad any particular group has it. But just in terms of what violence we have to endure, as an affluent white autistic handicapped male in this country, I haven’t really been subject to that much additional violence compared to other affluent white males around me. I know other affluent white autistic males who’ve had it worse and other affluent white handicapped males who’ve had it worse. But the worst that any of those people I know get it is a walk in the park compared to what poor white people get.
But intersectionality makes it all worse, just like it makes everything worse.
Words absolutely can hurt you. I know multiple women from abusive homes, where the boys were beaten but the girls “only got words”. Psychologically speaking, the injuries were similar, requiring years of therapy to work through. It’s difficult to compare how much therapy was required, because the women generally went but men generally didn’t. The men who went to some therapy tended to not go for the full course. Saying that the women averaged going to therapy four times longer misses the point that the men generally were about as bad off as they were at the start. I know a couple of men who went to therapy for the full course, and it took about as long for us as it did for the women.
Also, teaching a kid to say that phrase to their bullies is a bad idea. What the bully hears is, “You had enough success that I felt the need to go to a moronic adult for help. Also, my parents are too stupid to be able to help me against you.”
That said, the words that white people have had to endure are nothing compared to the words that people of other races have had to endure. And, as I mentioned above, intersectionality compounds all the problems.
“Mixed race people suffer verbal abuse also.” Thew desacribes me, I am White and American Indian. ((I am of some, Hadenosausee-Iroquois. Ancestry!)
Dude, if you think the benefits don’t outweigh the shit you’ve been getting you need to have the experience of getting your race card punched, even once, even for just a couple of months, to see what the hell is going on.
One summer when I had an outdoor job (farming equipment delivery) I got a very very dark suntan. Didn’t think much about it; lots of guys had dark suntans. But then I wound up in rural Oklahoma where a couple of local law enforcement had a massive head problem about a Native American minority, and it turns out that with a very dark suntan I looked to them like somebody who shouldn’t be allowed around civilized people.
I was going home at the end of the day, in my own car, and I got pulled over. I was trying to figure out what was wrong, and pulled over expecting to be notified about a burned out signal light or something. No, the trooper’s first words to me were “where did you steal that car?….” And it just got worse from there.
Seriously. You don’t even realize you’re playing the race card until yours gets punched.
It’s all about pogroms.
For those not in the know, pogroms were anti-semitic riots in Russia and East Europe, where the peasants’ resentment of Jews for… well, existing, would reach a boiling point and they would attack the Jewish villages/neighborhoods in vicious orgies of violence. Very nasty, very hateful… and very much instigated by the authorities. The Czars’ governments devoted a lot of time and resources to those pogroms, because as long as the Russian people were blaming the Jews for every single thing wrong in their lives, they weren’t looking at the REAL villains. When they finally did… the Russian aristocracy got butchered, and I approve of that.
Same thing in the United States. White supremacist groups such as the KKK were founded in order to pit impoverished whites against impoverished blacks. It should be noted that the two most hated and maligned civil rights leaders were Fred Hampton (original founder of the Black Panthers, who had zero qualms about working with white racists to help feed hungry people of all colors) and Martin Luther King (who was assassinated when he started pushing a multi-ethnic pro-worker agenda. Literally, the FBI killed him because he was working with unions and calling for more rights and benefits for workers).
So of COURSE you’re complaining about “reverse-racism” and how white people are being discriminated against. That way your own resentments against non-whites will build and grow. And any resulting resentments by non-whites against whites is even better, in the eyes of the oligarchs who want to keep you divided and hating each other. As long as you’re seething with outrage because white people don’t have a monopoly on the choicest jobs, you’re not saying to your counterparts, “…hey, wait a minute. Why don’t we create a system where ALL of us have a sufficient allocation of resources, even if the people currently hoarding the majority of resources lose that monopoly?”
Wow, really?
And just when I was starting to imagine there might be a decent human being behind that handle, you just gotta go two-fisted White Man’s Burden.
Okay, bubby. Go ahead and lay it out for us, exactly what terrible “shit” has been “dumped on whitey.” Be explicit, specific, and cite real, material examples of things that can be independently verified someplace beside OAN or Stormfront.
When I read that last sentence, at first I thought you were talking about the blue imp aliens in Green Lantern because I had comics on the brain :)
Knew this would get a reaction, but the fact so many took it so seriously still came as a shock
Oh, is this the part where you say “Just kidding!”? People take it seriously because some people say things like that seriously.
You have certainly not established yourself as the sort of person for whom that could be taken as a joke.
Says the person who has attacked me personally numerously, even though they know nothing about me and rather than dispute things said, they attack me
You’re being judged based on your conduct.
This being an anonymous Internet comment forum, your conduct consists entirely of your postings.
If you don’t like it, change your fucking conduct.
Personally take very few things seriously, and, unlike certain others (they both know who they are) do not intentionally ‘attack’ others, not even in retaliation
Again, if you have a problem with something said, target that (if you can) rather than me
What separates a person from their actions? What criteria is more valid for passing judgement on a person? You are what you do. Your actions harm others, whether you intentionally attack them or not.
Schrödinger‘S Douchebag:
One who makes douchebag statements, particularly sexist, racist or otherwise bigoted ones, then decides whether they were “just joking” or dead serious based on whether other people in the group approve or not.
Or, it’s bait to draw out the usual trolls (and it worked)
Did you ever hear of the book, “Black Like Me”?
Nope
Have read a book called “It’s not easy being green.” (and no, it’s not Kermit’s (auto)biography)
I am assuming its either about veganism or eco-friendly green lifestyles.
Early on you said it was military correct? To make it easy to transfer those already in? The military 100% goes off rank and time in grade (similar to rank, some ranks are the same grade but have different responsibilities). So the raise thing would just be a joke, she would automatically get paid more when she gets promoted or has more time in service. (Or the yearly small CoL pay increase that’s usually part of the military budget)
“she would automatically get paid more when she gets promoted or has more time in service.”
And women and non-whites explicitly and publicly have preferences to get them higher ranks faster in the US military.
This results in women and non-whites making noticeably more for the amount of time in service than white males.
Because absent that explicit finger on the scales, white males outpace pretty much everyone else. Either they’re simply better than every other category of human being, as some would like to believe, or there’s still implicit, systemic bias that’s difficult to trace or eliminate. Blunt corrective measures are inelegant, and certainly less than ideal, but better than just throwing up our hands and accepting that the system will never be fair, and that some very qualified people will be passed over because of those implicit biases.
Be glad that Jiggawatt or Sydney don’t have to deal with those entitled types…!
(And if they did,they’d be surprised that those “entitled types” are Archon superior officers-about a higher rank than Maxima!?!?)
First panel had me extremely confused. I’m 99% sure this is actually the first time we’ve ever heard Jiggawatt’s realy name in the comic.
Same, and that name sounds like what Raven uses as a swear word in Teeny Titans
‘Azarin’ is the Persian word for chamomile flower. i don’t know if that actually refers to Jiggawatt’s hair being naturally/originally WHITE, as seen in her Who’s Who tag or just ‘sounded like a cool name’
No Raven uses Azriat as the first word in her spell chant “Azriat, Metreon, Synthos!” She’s not swearing, she’s using magic. But since she uses the same verbal component every time she uses magic in the series I have to assume there’s a different physical component to get the different effects.
Pretty sure Raven says Azeroth, as in the place she grew up and their patron saint.
Azerath, Metreon, ZYnthos! is what spellcasters in the Baldur’s Gate series say when casting (which I’ve been replaying the enhanced edition currently, so I know).
Granted, I don’t know if Raven says anything after Azeroth from memory.
Azerath Metreon Zinthos is what Raven says.
Hypnobubbles wins the Teen Titan Trivia prize for the correct answer.
Thought it was Azeroth, will have to pay attention next time spanking her butt in DCUO (fortunately, both villains and heroes get to do that :P )
About the third.
@Alan – I detect, like me, you’re endowed with the gift of detail. Would you have any interest in contributing to a GrrlPower wiki that I’ve started? A comment from a few strips ago got me thinking that it’d be great to have one, given how many callbacks and pop-culture references Dave builds into everything (along with his rich worldbuilding).
https://grrlpowercomic.fandom.com/wiki/Grrlpowercomic_Wiki
To be honest with you, I’ve re-read the comic about 5 times in the past month. My recall may not be as good as you think. 8)
Eh, why memorize each detail when you can just look them up? :)
I’m working on finishing up the transfer of Cast Page information to the wiki, and then I think I will spend some time going one-by-one through the strips to create a nice skeleton. Once that’s in place, I’m hoping folks will come in and help put some meat onto the bones. This page is a decent example: https://grrlpowercomic.fandom.com/wiki/00118_-_Got_it_in_One
I didn’t memorize each detail, I just remembered them.
Not really. There was the gradution:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1000-graduation/
I’m sure Sydney used it at least once, and I think there was some other time too, long ago.
It was used during graduation before this.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1000-graduation/
(Panel 3)
Also it was probably used even before that but I dont remember for sure.
No, from her boss. She was going to ask because she “was white”, and she’s not any more.
Maxi don’t work that way, she believes in a meritocracy, and Jiggs has a good chance of getting that raise after this, or at least a bonus in her next paycheck
Traditionally, the tree is supposed to stay until 6 January (you know, the feast of the Three Kings), or in other words, for the entirety of the (actual) twelve days of Christmas.
You know the story – Mary, the young wife of Joe the carpenter gives birth to a baby boy they name Josh on Christmas Eve (ignore the fact that for the shepherds to be out in the fields, it must have been July or thereabouts), the star goes up, three randos (priests of Zarathustra) see it, decide to check it out because big bright light, then twelve days later, they show up in Bethlehem with some pocket lint and foist it on the first kid they find.
Two years and twelve days, technically. Jesus was a toddler by the time they arrived. They never actually saw the Manger as the family had gotten a proper house in Bethlehem by then.
People don’t like to talk about the Bible passage that confirms the two-year timeskip because it also involves toddler genocide. Whee, Bible trivia!
I always have to smother a laugh every time I hear that Christmas song, Little Drummer Boy. I mean, seriously, did the guy who wrote it not realize the king would have been Herod?
The king in the song isn’t talking about Herod, it’s talking about the child.
Closer to late March, early April. If they’re “keeping watch over their flocks by night” it means they were probably acting as nursemaids for the ewes giving birth. Shall we start a discussion about Christianity/Mithraism and symbolism??? :)
Late March to early April more likely. “The shepherds were abiding in their fields keeping watch over their flocks by night.” They were most likely serving as midwives and nursemaids to the ewes giving birth. Now, shall we start a discussion of Christianity vs. Mithraism and symbolism? :)
> Mary, the young wife of Joe the carpenter gives birth to a baby boy they name Josh on Christmas Eve
Yeah, it always bugged me how God doesn’t care about consent. Unless there’s a Biblical passage I’m not aware of in which he asked Mary if she would have his kid? Also, does God bone or was it an invitro + implantation dealio?
Joe was a really good guy. He never made a fuss about his wife getting pregnant by someone else and he raised Jesus like his own.
‘Yeah, it always bugged me how God doesn’t care about consent. Unless there’s a Biblical passage I’m not aware of in which he asked Mary if she would have his kid? Also, does God bone or was it an invitro + implantation dealio?’
ok, if you are serious about the question. its implied when Mary says (in translation) ‘may your word be fulfilled’ (Luke 1:38 NIV.) The angel came and announced it before Mary was pregnant. so presumably if she hadn’t had faith for it (and it would take a lot of faith!) she could have said no. but then we would not have had a story, so make of it what you will. once she became pregnant- then John the Baptist ‘announced’ it when he was brought into Mary’s presence. I forget what Jesus’ actual name was- Jesus is the phonetic pronunciation of I think the Greek letters of his name. as far as the exact mechanism of the conception… we have about as much explanation as we do for why Jiggawatt lost her whiteface.
Nice Lichtenberg Figures in the makeup powder.
I’m guessing the reason the concealer got wrecked but the lipstick is fine is she’s okay with lipstick but was rejecting the concealer so it didnt get protected by her power’s ‘aura’ or whatever its called.
If these are proper evil overlord types, this entire facility could be a trap designed to catch Arc-Swat when they come to rescue their guy.
Doesn’t seem likely, though.
You know you are a badass when you use your defeated foe’s faceplate as a mirror to adjust your makeup.
Maybe it’s been discussed in the past but electrical powers and firearms could be an interesting combination. One could argue that the cartridge would be a faraday cage for the gunpowder but if enough current passed through the cartridge it might heat up enough to cook off. Caseless ammo would present its own set of problems.
Anyone with strong enough electrical powers should carry a railgun by default.
Imagining a railgun that can fire an entire train. Let’s make it a steampunk railgun. Yeah.
Or it could just be pocket change…
https://media.tenor.com/C4_CkeF1l90AAAAd/railgun-anime.gif
I’m waiting to see her use her positron-lightning on a Ted. BIG bada buttermint-boom. :D
On the other hand, that’d leave us having to hope that she’s immune to the gamma that it would give off. A single bolt of lightning’s worth of anti-matter creates a nightmarish amount of radiation.
MythBusters did an episode about replacing a glass tube fuse with a .22LR and having it fire when a strong current was applied to the circuit. Above a certain amperage it went off within a few hundredths to tenths of a second very reliably. Adam even made comments about making a gun like that to fire without a firing pin.
They actually have made guns that detonate the primer with a jolt of electricity. The Remington EtronX, for instance.
Never really caught on, though, for the civilian market.
“Tight five for the chuckle hut”?
Chuckle Hut looks like a comedy club in Florida.
Tight Five refers to a five-minute stand-up comedy routine, typically used for auditions.
She actually just set off the alarm. Ted’s now alerted two of his dupes died to someone using lightning and can set off the alarm independently.
It’d work the same trying to sneak into a facility guarded by Naruto clones and popping a couple of them. He’d get their memories and could call the alarm.
Did she kill them or just stun them?
Looking at the comic again, OK, one of them at least is very, very dead. So yeah.
Nah they’ll be just fine. They can walk it off.
I like the fact that the super with the power most able to mimic a less lethal Taser just goes straight to electrical obliteration.
Jiggawatt can control how much and what type of electricity she puts out at will, and convert herself into pure electrical energy to travel through any conductive medium. In the first super fight she arrived via the clouds in the sky! That’s as close to anyone in the Arcswat to traveling the speed of light!
A goon squad copy goes all butter-minty when it gets k.o.ed.
Any KO? I thought it was just lethal force that did it. Admittedly, with lethal force possibly being a bit less than normal people.
Not K.O’ed if I recall. When killed or if the main goon squad undoes then”m. And his items become butter mints after an hour of his not holding them, unless the dupe is killed first or something like that (I think thats what DaveB said, right?).
That also might explain how they found out anything about Goon Squad in the first place. The one that Harem knocked out with a billiard ball-filled bra.
She’s channeling her Chris Rock impersonation, just to be a brat while she’s walking down the hall and no one is questioning her. Ever since SNL did an entire skit about blacks getting white face to trick banks into giving them money and saying they don’t have to worry about paying them back. Which is BS. I’m white and trust me, they go after me as much as anyone…
Same goes with housing, cars, medical bills, you name it. A white, middle-aged man is always thought to be either rich or just lazy. Even if it is medially proven you’re not able to work etc… they refuse to believe it. I could go into an entire rant about how I was treated in 1997 on after a serious back injury, just because I was “trying to get free money”. That’s a quote from a social security representative. Who was also white.
Speaking as a fellow disabled white person, your comment here comes across as exceptionally ignorant. Yes, our white asses are treated poorly by society because we’re disabled, and that’s awful. Now think about how much more poorly someone who is disabled and *not* white gets treated under the same circumstances.
this is just depressing. I am old enough to have been involved with BVR type stuff before they went to a ‘help everybody to a minimum level’ ethos. so, so far I haven’t even tried for disability payments. I’m not looking forward to this coming up as I get older.
What does BVR mean?
Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation. that’s what they called it in the state I grew up in when I was towards the end of my public schooling. they work with people who need help to be able to hold down a job. when I was the right age they went by impact- so they would throw a lot of resources at the marginal people (like me) so we could fly on our own without a lot of active state support. they’ve changed to an average level so they do a lot more ‘supported’ employment. so unlike a lot of people I know that no one younger than me can come the way I did as several doors that were open for me are now brick walls that no door ever existed in.
It’s not ignorant, it’s a fact. It happened to me. I’m not speaking for anyone else or anything else. Just me and my family. They told my wife she had to leave me and sue for child support just to get help. We had to leave the Gary, Indiana area to get help. Don’t blast someone without the facts. Or assume you know they type of person you’re attacking.
I don’t think Alexis is attempting to discredit your personal experience. The implied ignorance is your apparent assumption that other people don’t have it even worse than you do. There are few, if any, problems that whites have that other races do not. Other races have the same problems, but worse, or even more problems. That there is some attempt to help them should be a sign that they have it worse, not that they have it better.
It’s like a healthy person being jealous of the medical attention being received by a sick person. Would you rather be healthy, and not need medical assistance, or sick, receiving assistance?
Let me get this straight… SNL did a sketch, and you think it’s notable that the sketch was a bunch of hyperbolic BS? REALLY? Get a load of this guy, he can’t tell SNL from reality.
Even so you’re missing the point that banks often refuse to do business with black people. Even if a black person can get a bank account, walking in and trying to withdraw money often results in the cops being called. It even happens when the black person in question is a celebrity. ‘Black Panther’ Director Ryan Coogler tried to withdraw $12,000 from his checking account. He asked the teller to do the money count discretely. She instead told the bank manager that he was trying to rob the bank and they called 911 on him. This likely would not have happened to a white person trying to discretely withdraw a bunch of money from their account.
While yes the SNL sketch was BS, it’s not because systemic racism is BS. It’s because it’s SNL, and SNL is BS.
Yes it’s hard to get on disability regardless of your race, but that doesn’t mean it’s equally hard for people of all races. When you hear the phrases “welfare queen” or “illegal immigrant leaching off of the welfare system what races comes to mind? Yeah, I thought so. The skepticism is levied more toward minority races than toward whites.
Think about it, welfare queens (which don’t exist) are thought to be black. Illegal immigrants would need a stolen identity to avail themselves of government assistance so that doesn’t happen either. Yet the myths persist.
As an American Indian from a tribe that doesn’t do casino dividend checks. in order for me to get on disability. We have casinos, but the money is poured into public works like education, road maintenance, clean water, etc. I had to sue over SSA’s denial of my disability. They acknowledged my disability (autism) but claimed my casino dividend checks means I get too much money to qualify for disability.
They did that just based on my race because there’s no casino dividend money, and I don’t even live on the reservation. I’m an enrolled member of the tribe but I’m not welcome on the reservation because my family are seen as “apples” (red on the outside, you fill in the rest). I personally am not an apple because I was raised by my grandparents who were on the reservation, but it matters more that my mother is an apple. Hell she’s so proud of it she would dye her hair red. But that’s neither here nor there.
So since I don’t live on the reservation, not only do I not get a casino dividend check but I don’t even see any benefits from casino dividends in any way shape or form. Yet there was SSA, literally denying me a disability check because of assumptions about me based on my race and my race alone.
I think everyone might be getting too worked up over this, unnecessarily.
Jiggawatt was making a joke. Since she was…. exceedingly obviously making a joke. She’s clearly paid exceedingly well, is likely to already have immense privilege herself in every sense of the word (power-wise, socially-wise, legal-wise, financially-wise, etc), and is likely one of the most famous people on the planet as part of the first superhero team in history. Doubtful she’d EVER be getting a traffic ticket if pulled over, and probably already does have stock options if Aurelius Shrapnel (who is also black) has anything to say about it and if he has any financial sense as a financial advisor.
“As an American Indian from a tribe that doesn’t do casino dividend checks.”
Out of curiosity, which tribe?
Eh, I can confirm from personal experience that clerks like their [DENIED] stamps a lot, and will make reasons up on the spot to have an excuse to use them. The bureaucrazy is just awful to everyone who doesn’t have influence to make it go away. Meaning everyone except the upper crust with their personal connections.
Just got a bill and a past-due notice from the local council because they want money from me for a bit of a ratfuck of their own making (long story), which I appealed, and which put me in the right, except it didn’t change the outcome one bit. The applicable law actually allows them to forego reason and do whatever they like, leaving ordinary citizens no recourse. This despite a long list of well-supported complaints against them for errors in execution, failure to follow the law, and so on, and so forth, that they’re also ignoring. And so on. There’s no race or minority cards to play here, just a boatload of hateful stupidity.
My family thinks I’m wasting my time demanding the council keep to their own rules before berating me. They see the abuse as unfortunate but inevitable: This is the steady state in government.
If you’re well off it’s far easier to deal with it. But that doesn’t mean the well-off don’t have to deal with it at all. This also doesn’t mean there’s never any racism in the mix. Just that goverment clerks don’t need racism for the result to turn out hateful and/or unreasonable. Everyone is at risk, and whether and how you get shit sorted depends on things rather different than skin colour.
There’s no shame in getting someone to help you with navigating bureaucratic bullshit. (In fact the local council pays for someone to do just that for me, including dealing with them and get next year’s assignment sorted. He’s his own boss and contract to a third party that contracts to the council. Very handy for taking care of lots of drudgery chasing after bureaucratic contacts, and taking the sting out of stressful bureaucratic dealings. Might see if your social whatnots offer something similar.)
As to welfare queens, some of that does exist in various forms. For inner city US, look up “the terrible, awful truth about supplemental security income”. A blogpost by TLP that he took down from his own site rather quickly. Apparently you’re not allowed to point it out.
““welfare queen” or “illegal immigrant leaching off of the welfare system what races comes to mind?”
Welfare queen: none. Examples of every race abound (exact maybe asian? Those seem to be in shorter supply). Though I do strongly tend to think that it’s a reference to women. Sexism, I’m sure.
(“Think about it, welfare queens (which don’t exist) are thought to be black.” Stop projecting your own racism on other people. And yes, they definitely exist, both black and white, unless my own personal eyes and life experience are lying to me, so I should just trust some rando on the internet?)
“illegal immigrant” – in the US, factually, illegal immigrants are *overwhelmingly* one particular ethnicity, for fairly obvious geographic reasons. Not sure what else to do with extremely well-documented and publicly acknowledged fact. Not sure why it’s relevant, either, as most people against illegal immigration are against illegal immigration from anywhere or any race, especially those that come here just to get on welfare (which I’m sure you also think doesn’t exist, despite hard numbers and publicly-documented facts).
“I’m an enrolled member of the tribe but I’m not welcome on the reservation because my family are seen as “apples” (red on the outside, you fill in the rest).”
So, you’re saying your own tribe is racist against people they perceive as white? Right up there with black people and “oreos”
Also, getting denied for disability, even for cases MUCH MUCH more serious than autism (got a kid with autism, so don’t even start), is a thing that people of every racial group have to deal with.
“She’s channeling her Chris Rock impersonation”
I think there was also a funny skit by Eddie Murphy YEARS ago on SNL where he went in whiteface and the joke was there was a whole secret different way white people acted once there were no minorities around.
Found it. It’s sort of hilarious. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_LeJfn_qW0
I saw that one, in fact, SNL did not exist when I was a child.
Obviously one of the ‘management’ joined because she sells security cameras.
Fun thing about those disposal candy minions… You get to play the role of a super villain and enjoy it for just a moment without any pesky side effects like someone actually dying or getting called out when mocking the corpse.
If you had super powers there would be a moment where you would like a full dark side moment and do a little monologue or taunt… These minions provide the perfect excuse.
I’m not too surprised that these idiots are complacent about security when they have a uniform that was made to be exploited by a ‘capture and replace’ scheme.
I mean really,having a mask *and* cape just screams they’re just one step away from a bunch monologues.
Aw c’mon. Capes are cool.
(waiting for someone to invoke Edna Mode)
alternate opinion on capes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEqwjDDU7js
(bonus: references boat cloaks!)
That video was way too informative and fun to watch.
I’m sort of surprised the Goon Squad clones’ helmet have not turned into butter mints.
Or are they turning into butter mints WHILE she’s holding one?
you can see them trailing off. Jigs is very fast. one could say she’s very energetic.
You’re taking advantage of my lack of ninja hit squads until I vet Sal’s Discount Shinobis, arent you?
well, I’m trying to keep you going. I have to build a couple more layers, then I’ll start ‘renting’ you the ninjas you send after me. (I need to make rent somehow!)
Positive stereotypes are still stereotypes…
So?
Don’t go “I can’t even! zomg teh feels!” on us now. Don’t be passive-aggressive, that’s not nice. Tell us what you really mean.
I like Jiggawatt’s current hairstyle and color a LOT more than the one she had during the Fel ship fight or even the Restaurant Rumble. It just looks nicer in general, although I know that DaveB probably changed her hair color initially from white to yellow to avoid comparisons with Storm from the X-Men.
maybe her hair follicles have a great deal of iron in them, and they’ve just ended up getting electroplated?
He actually did mention that in his notes pretty soon after he changed her hair color. He literally decided to make her blonde to differentiate her a little more from Storm.
I just checked and yes, he definitely did say that. Good recall. :)
I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t get that last joke about asking for a raise until I thought about it for a few minutes, not realizing that she was referencing the fact that her ‘whiteface’ got disintegrated off of her….
….I don’t think I – a white Canadian man in his mid-40’s – am as ‘woke’ as I would like….
Is it me or did she really enjoy slaughtering the guards a tad to much, look at the evil grin.
perhaps she just really enjoys the scent of melting buttermint
She always has the wide grin while channelling lightning. Perhaps it just feels good.
Jigs didn’t go with the “Alas, poor Minion” line in the last panel? Shame!
she did not know him well, so the line wouldn’t work.
She just couldn’t think of any jokes about hooker pi(e)
y’know, the whore ratio
Wasn’t it Yorick?
Oh right, he said that to the group of hookers
Would she have known Ted’s name? Or even his Minion name?
That, is a misquote actually, Hammy never said he knew him well, just that he knew him
“Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio.”
My ancestors, were considered, less than human and were then expendable! Enshrined in the “Manifest Destiny!”
Many of us, were murdered with impunity. The US gave some tribes, smallpox infested blankets, biological warfare. A common saying was. “the only good Indian, is a dead Indian”.
so funny LOL
I thought the information in this chapter to be quite interesting to read. I’m hoping someone can tell me what this story’s title is.
I thought the information in this chapter to be quite interesting to read. I’m hoping someone can tell me what this story’s title is.
If you keep trying, I am sure you will succeed, I see that what you are doing is very good and you should be confident in it. Don’t let anything influence your thinking.