Tag Archives: Meta
Room With a View of the Back of Someone Else’s House

Room With a View of the Back of Someone Else’s House

by on July 26, 2010 in But I'm a Writer, The Adventures of Tasha Fierce


On my little vacation from blogging daily while I was over at Feministe, I spent a lot of time and some money redecorating and refurnishing my room. I got curtains for my closet (I removed the doors when we moved in some 5 years ago) so I can finally be able to look over there and not see a bunch of clothes and storage boxes, I got a reading chair (IKEA POANG) and an awesome new bookcase (IKEA EXPEDIT). I got my writing desk set up and moved the file cabinet I had at work to my house, on which my printer now sits. I got a new grayscale sheet set and a dark gray duvet cover. I changed my satin hair pillowcase to silver to match. I got a mat to put at the door to avoid tracking in crap. Basically I worked on making my room a haven, someplace I love being.

I’ve been hustling, getting the word out about the anthology, reading books about being a successful freelancer and author, and preparing for the Femme 2010 Conference, where I’m doing a workshop on mental health and facilitating the Femmes of Color caucus. I’m also working at my quasi-day job almost full time and trying to maintain my bank account. I came into some cash so I was able to buy supplies like Swiffer pads and fabric softener. I can actually take my cat to the vet! I’m learning to only spend money on things I need and will help me live a better life instead of on clothes I don’t need or makeup or just stupid bullshit. I do have a weakness for pens, books, and notebooks though. But I’m getting into the groove of keeping my costs down so I can spend more time writing. Too bad I don’t actually have the time! Hopefully when things calm down I’ll be able to go into the office only a few days a week and I can actually work on starting part time freelancing life. At least that’s what I tell myself.

I want to start writing about more than just politics. I have a lot of interests that I don’t give air time because I feel like people only want to hear social justice issues out of me. Which I am interested in doing, but some days I want to write about my fear of fading away or some other non-political topic that pops into my head. So you might see more posts like that. I hope you don’t run away, but that’s how it’s gonna be.

On August 1st I start my gig blogging for Bitch about fat acceptance and body politics. It’ll be called “Size Matters”. In between now and then I hope to blog more here and at Fry Butter. I also have some writing projects I need to work on. Oh, an interview with me will be up at Zora & Alice tomorrow if you want to check that out. It’s about the anthology.

In short, I’m back home and glad to be here. I know this entry was supremely boring and my condolences for the time you lost reading it. Ha.

Comments { 15 }

From Feministe: The Master’s Publishing House

by on July 17, 2010 in Color Lines, Feminist Struggle, Media Matters

[UPDATE: I have decided not to submit to Seal Press. I'm leaving this up, but feel free to not answer the question since it's already been answered.]

In working on the anthology I’m editing/contributing to, Occupied Bodies: Women of Color Speak on Self-Image, an issue has come up over whether or not I should include a particular independent publisher who has had serious problems with issues involving POC on my list of publishers to solicit for publication. I had heard about certain issues with this publisher before, but I decided to go ahead and submit to them, because I was interested in how they’d respond since they’d expressed negativity towards the marketability of WOC anthologies before.

Recently, I expressed my intention to include this particular publisher on the list to a potential writer, who was wary of the idea. I wondered why, although I did already know about the negativity expressed, I figured there must be something else because she was very put off. So I did some research and found that there had been a particularly offensive incident involving a popular white feminist blogger’s book that was published by them and racist imagery that had been used in the book (without the author’s instruction). In addition, this blog [Feministe] was involved. I wasn’t really surprised, because I’m never surprised anymore when white feminists and white feminist groups who claim to be allies “go rogue” and do something that harms women of color. In any case, I decided that I wouldn’t submit to them if it was going to scare off writers.

Since I made that statement, I’ve been mulling it around in my head, and talking to other WOC bloggers, and now I’m really not sure what to do. I don’t want to reopen old wounds, but am I limiting the ability of this work — which I consider important, because women of color’s voices need to be heard on this topic — to get to publication by limiting who I send it to? Does it matter in the end who publishes it as long as our voices get out there? Should I take the moral high ground and risk losing our chance to disseminate the work into the mainstream? When do you forgive and forget?

I feel like, in these spaces that are dominated by white feminists, we as women of color are expected to overlook a LOT. We’re given apologies that are half-assed and we’re supposed to accept them. We get slighted on a regular basis and we’re supposed to give that a pass because it wasn’t intentional. A large feminist blog with say, 12 white contributors adds one of color and we’re supposed to hail “representation”. When do we stop overlooking things? And when do we continue overlooking because it’s necessary for OUR success?

It’s important to me to get this anthology to print, but I don’t want to support racism that happens again and again. Should I take that high ground when it hurts me more than it hurts them? In taking that high ground, am I really doing them a disservice at all or am I making it easier on them? I’m full of questions and short on answers.

What do you think?

Comments { 9 }

Too Many MCs, Not Enough Meta

by on July 11, 2010 in But I'm a Writer, The Adventures of Tasha Fierce

Okay, I’ve abandoned the “post every day” thing I had going because my life became completely crazy. I was still writing, just not blog posts. This weekend I finally got to exhale so I did a post for IFMiB and wrote a post for RVS as well — until I remembered I’m guest blogging for Feministe for two weeks starting Monday! So I’m saving it to post there because I really want to maximize my time there and post every day. I’m going to try to regularly update RVS as well, but I might cheat and just link you to my post for the day on Feministe. But let’s see if I can juggle 3 blogs for 2 weeks.

I found out my time slot for the “My Kind of Crazy” radical mental health workshop I’m doing at Femme2010 in Oakland — August 20 @ 1:15 – 2:30 p.m. So if you’re in town, come to the conference. Although it does cost money to get in. Hopefully the room won’t be completely empty. And hey, the keynote speaker is Kate Bornstein! You know you want to see that.

I have a Tumblr now! I just felt like I needed a place to post stupid shit, so there you go.

Also, there’s a donate button on the Occupied Bodies page if you feel like helping fund its winding path to publication.

Thanks for reading, y’all.

Comments { 0 }

Saturday Special: White People Talk Like This

by on June 19, 2010 in Color Lines, Talkin' Greasy, Why Racism Isn't Over

I try to keep this blog as meta-free as possible, and by that I mean I try to avoid a lot of talk about me and my personal feelings or just random dealings regarding the blog. Whether or not I’m successful is another story. But I felt the need to address a particular issue that comes up regularly in the comments I don’t approve due to overwhelming ignorance on the commenter’s part. Namely, that I generalize white people, and that’s racist. Here’s a particularly choice comment I received on my last post, “Why I’m An Angry Black Woman“:

Apparently racist white woman
upyours@yahoo.com
24.159.230.213
Submitted on 2010/06/18 at 1:28am

You are completely blind to your own racism. By lumping ALL whites in one category of stupid racist crackers you commit the same offense of which all whites are supposedly guilty. But that’s ok, because ONLY whites are capable of racism. And anytime a white person criticizes a person of color it’s not because they may have a legitimate complaint it’s because they’re racist. Because blacks never do anything worthy of criticism. Fuck you.

First off, there’s the issue of improper application of the term “racism”. Then there’s the fact that referring to white people in general is not “lumping all whites in one category of stupid racist crackers”. Guess what, if what I’m saying about white people doesn’t apply to you, a white person, then it’s not about you. But if you’re getting all upset about it, chances are it probably is about you and you need to go sit in the corner and think about what I said. Furthermore, all white people benefit from the institutionalized racism that pervades our society, so the question is are you going to sit there and whine that I’m generalizing white people or are you going to take a second, breathe, and start unpacking that privilege before going off on the ignorant black girl lumping all white people into the category of stupid racist crackers? And as far as that epithet, I didn’t call anyone a stupid racist cracker, but thanks for doing it for me.

Mixed up in that comment is another common complaint I get, which is that white people can’t criticize a person of color without being called racist. This is, of course, horseshit. If you get called racist by a person of color when criticizing other people of color, it’s likely that — guess what? — you’re being racist. As a white person, you need to listen to PoC when they’re telling you something is racist, including something you said. But if you were really interested in dealing with your own internalized racism I wouldn’t have to point this out to you. Basically you’re just angry because you can’t say whatever ignorant thing pops into your head regarding PoC.

There’s a difference between a white person generalizing about people of color and a person of color talking about white people in general especially when we’re talking about power, privilege and the exercise of such. If you can’t distinguish between the two, I’m not going to hold your hand and walk you through it. I’m also not going to apologize for not qualifying my statements with “well not all white people do this”. So if you have a comment to make that involves calling me racist for referring to white people in general you can just go write a zine about it, because it’s going straight into the spam queue, point blank.

Hope that helps!

Comments { 22 }

You Meta Me Crazy

by on June 13, 2010 in The Adventures of Tasha Fierce

Couple of quick notes:

  • I redid the header (again). I just couldn’t have that shoe there anymore. It’s simple, but nice. I like the font. I’m trying to emphasize I’m not some kook with a weird blog name. Sometimes I wonder why I kept this name, but the momentum started and I couldn’t take it back. Anyway, new banner. Yay.
  • I’ve updated my About page and added two more: Contact and Upcoming Events. Since I’m actually doing something this summer, I thought I’d let you know.
  • Blogging should be back to every day starting Monday. My shit is organized, I’ve got a desk and a WHITEBOARD, I’m on my way to success. I’m also reading a bunch of books on selling your writing. Right now I’m retooling a piece on the California women backed by Sarah Palin and how conservative feminism is basically a joke. I’m hoping to sell it to the local weekly. That’s one good thing about writing blog posts well, you can use them as springboards for articles.
  • I’ve been neglecting my other blogging home, I Fry Mine in Butter. So this week look forward to “Disaster 102: The Movie Marathon That Destroyed the World (Part 1)” in which I analyze all the disaster movies I watched over my vacation. There’s a lot.

See you back here bright and early Monday morning.

Comments { 0 }
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