Oh, dear.

Western Neo-Pagans continue with their version of RaceFailI'm afraid this is a good example of why I don't spend very much time reading anti-racist stuff online. You see ( Read more... )

I hope to post in more detail some of the behind-the-scenes info from the new, extended The Writer's Tale, but in the meantime, you may be interested to learn the reason that Martha and Mickey didn't end up in Torchwood: Children of Earth, after this was set up in Journey's End: neither actor was available. Frantic last-minute rewrites ensued!

Racism: The Impact on Health

Study Finds High Rates of Illness Among Washington DC Black Women

In the UK, Gypsies and Travellers experience racism, discrimination and inequality, so I was happy there were no further jokes about them in the latest season of Top Gear.

Finding a Scapegoat When Epidemics Strike: from Jews and the Black Death to ( Read more... )

Had a little moment of hope and pride, reading this morning about practical responses to the Sydney race riot of 2005: Anglo women volunteered as English teachers, Muslim women volunteered as surf lifesavers.

Then Tony Abbot went and &*%*&%ed it up for me by characterising migrants as criminals. Thanks for that, mate. ("Migrants" here is code for ( Read more... )

Google removes links to racist page on Encyclopedia DramaticaLooked at the page so you don't have to. :) It's either as bad as you imagine, or it's worse. ED defends the page as "satire", and there are indeed a handful of satirical remarks about Australia's treatment of its Indigenous peoples; but most of it is dribble which most Australians would ( Read more... )

we dont need another anti-racism 101: very thought-provoking blog entry at guerrilla mama medicine. I thought of the white folks I've encountered online who use anti-racist rhetoric to bolster their self-esteem, by attacking others or seeking approval (not to mention the appropriation of progressive language generally to make fannish outrage look ( Read more... )

The mainstream press here have picked up on the online kerfuffle over KFC's cricket ad, which they've now withdrawn from TV. It must have boggled American minds: what critics see is a white guy, nervous to be surrounded by black people, placating them with fried chicken ( Read more... )

Since I'm here, have some history from Down Under.

Australia honours Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels - thousands of Papua New Guinean civilians who helped Australian troops during WWII. (Better late than never, I suppose.)

Brown to apologise to care home children sent to Australia and Canada: to ensure a supply of "white stock", poor children were sent from ( Read more... )

I was flailing about trying to say something intelligent about the weekend murder of Indian student Nitan Garg when I came across an op-ed in the SMH by Gerard Henderson. It put what's bothering me into words better than I was managing:"The immediate response of Victoria Police to any suggestion that attacks on Indians are racially motivated is to ( Read more... )

Recently I came across a great point in a book about Ancient Egypt. The author was warning against simplistically equating gods and myths from different cultures: he said that comparing gods is only meaningful if you can say how they're different as well as how they're the same. 1You could apply this to, for example, the careless conflation of ( Read more... )