I know it's the offseason and I hate to add to all the OT threads, but I'm sure there are some readers from the tri-city area so I thought I'd share a comic printed by Delta College that's getting a little attention.
The article on the comic from WNEM boasts the title "Student Paper Publishes Controversial Comic."
Midland Resident Here
Bay City Here!
Agree... and yes, we have a lot of bars.
Essexville / Bay City here..
I've taken classes at Delta, and I'm pretty familiar with their school paper, "The Collegiate".
That is a dangerous and silly cartoon to print. Regardless of the crime statistics, I can't see the strip being anything less than insulting. It certainly wasn't about being informative, and its a really poor attempt at being cheeky.
I grew up in Saginaw and have a Jackrabbit Beans tattoo
And I liked the strip. Being from the 'Naw will give you a pretty thick skin. You know what else I like? Those t-shirts that have screen-printed bullet holes and say "Come back to Flint, we missed you the first time."
"You will suffer humiliation when the team from my area defeats the team from your area." -- The Onion
Ugh...
As a Midland native, I am embarassed but not surprised. Midland isn't exactly known for it's "progressive racial and cultural attitudes."
If the crime stat is true i
If the crime stat is true i would say the truth hurts sometimes.
The Team, The Team, The Team.
As a former resident of
As a former resident of Flint, I am always a little stung when it is invoked solely as a benchmark for failure. Obviously, in the minds of many people, that's all Flint really is. But there are folks there trying to make a difference and make the place better for the present and future and I can't help but think that the constant negativity must make their job just a little bit harder. I know it's silly, but it just makes me hurt for Flint.
(I'm not really negging the comis strip, it just reminds me of this: http://www.thisaintflint.ca/)
Absolutely nothing wrong in
Absolutely nothing wrong in taking pride in where you are from. If everyone did the world would be a better place.
The Team, The Team, The Team.
Product of Flint public schools...
and I think I came out alright....I think........
But seriously people from Flint always talked down on "Sagnasty" as if somehow that made Flint a little better place than Saginaw
Progressive is not all that good either..
Bigotry anjd stereotyping can be found in "progressive" ways of thinking as well. Being an Ann Arbor I know first hand that the idea of progressives as being tolerant, fairminded beings is a load of crap.
Cartoons like this can be found in every type of newspaper or magazine.
The team, the team, the team.-Bo Schembechler
That was my experience with
That was my experience with AA, also. For all its talk about being liberal (which I always thought meant open to various opinions and thoughts), AA is very closed minded. You either believe the liberal agenda or you are wrong. Case in point, BAM groups disrupting public forums on Affirmative Action. They would chant and yell, and refused to let anyone speak.
Wow
Good post. After reading the first two sentences I was about to say you were a total nut. But I completely agree, conservatism is not very well received there.
While what you say is somewhat true
I would point out that BAMN (I believe there was an "N" at the end, as it stood for By Any Means Necessary, an indicator of their commitment to open dialogue) was disapproved of and generally poorly regarded in terms of their methods by most of the people with whom I broached the issue. But the fact that they were allowed to act as they did suggests openness (not on their part, but on the city's part), as did the time when the KKK held a rally in town.
You mean the KKK rally where
You mean the KKK rally where people went to jail for assault? I am not sure that was a suggestion of openess. I intentionally didn't mention that example, though, because it is hard to argue for open dialogue with such a hateful group. Although, there is the argument that your belief in the first ammendment is really shown by defending the right of free speech when you disagree with the message.
I don't really know much
I don't really know much about it but I believe the tactics of Anti-Racist Action folks center around the idea of turning the same instruments of fear (threats or real violence) that fascists/racists use, against them. If KKK is going to have a big march and say a bunch of nasty things, the ARA is going to be there and try and intimidate the KKK. Sometimes it leads to real violence against members of hate groups, perpetuated by members of anti-hate groups. I think I read once about a big brawl here in Toronto in the 80s or 90s between the haters and the haters of haters. The haters of haters won.
Obviously this is a slippery slope that probably only leads to escalation. But I kind of like the moxie: "Hey, let's go beat up the racists!"
Word
More often than not, "progressive" just means you look down on and make fun of different people.
Sportscenter.com raves: Sgt. Wolverine, "Michigan's biggest fan"!
IDK
Just my personal opinion but when talking about my political views I like to call myself a "Progressive" for the opposite reason as the one you describe. I'd like to think that I'm willing to accept any ideas or policies that will push our country forward in a positive way, be they on the right or left side of the spectrum.
I'll be a little more careful with the term now seeing as how it's open to a little interpretation.
"Well, I think I made my position clear there."
- L.C.
I think it's less that the
I think it's less that the term is open to interpretation -- though it is -- and more that a number of people disagree that typically "progressive" ideas really push the country in a positive direction. I'm not saying this as an attempt to push into a thorny political argument, but rather just to point out that the term progressive is risky because it's more PR than plainly descriptive.
Sportscenter.com raves: Sgt. Wolverine, "Michigan's biggest fan"!
We are getting dangerously
We are getting dangerously close to breaking rule #1, but I would say that the term progressive tends to make me think of the group of people in this country that feel the need to fight against the majority in everything. This is going to make me sound more conservative than I am, but lately it seems like there is always someone arguing against their neighbor putting a Nativity display in their yard, or against athletes thanking Jesus after a game, but those same people argue for the right of a Mosque to be built in a neighborhood and broadcast the call to prayer 5 times a day. I am not stating an opinion on the merits of any of these examples, just that it is becoming fashionable in this country to be against the established 'norm', usually christianity or white males.
-Before you get too upset with me, I am just calmly noting some observations and not really railing against anyone (with the exception of those BAMN tools who really used to piss me off)
As a white, middle class,
As a white, middle class, male, I feel constantly oppressed.
I am not saying oppressed. I
I am not saying oppressed. I am just commenting on the hypocrisy slipping into liberalism. It is becomming ok to speak out against certain groyps but not against others.
Well said...
I don't necessarily agree with everything you said, but you said it clearly, directly, and unoffensively (even to those who may disagree with you), and that was a tricky thing to do.
You tap-danced on what is very often a hot-blooded issue. If I was you, I'd interpret the lack of negs as a compliment, if not for your ideas, then for your ability to express them. Well done, sir!
Ironic
My politics are about as left as anything you can imagine. But while I was an undergrad at UM, I belonged to a (gasp) frat. One day, we decided to have a party, that being the entire purpose of fraternities. We decided the theme for the party would be "The Bermuda Triangle." I was given the task of designing the invitations for the party (i.e., the quarter-page-size flyers our pledges would hand out to attractive women in the dorms). Now, as everyone knows, the thing with the Bermuda Triangle is that ships and planes "disappear" in it. So, on the invitation I drew a picture of a triangle, and then there was a cruise ship entering the triangle and "disappearing: (i.e., not coming out the other side). So anyway, we had several hundred of these invites printed and then distributed them as planned. Two weeks later, I find out that SAPAC has placed a copy of my invite in a "stop sexual assault" display, claiming my "phallic" drawing was somehow contributing to date rape. The whole frat also had to undergo "sensitivity training" as a result of my poor judgment. It was quite preposterous.
I think it just goes to show that undergrads can take things way too seriously sometimes.
"You will suffer humiliation when the team from my area defeats the team from your area." -- The Onion
Once again drawing upon Intro
Once again drawing upon Intro to Psych 172 Professor Drew Weston, according to Freud, sometimes a disappearing cruise ship plunging into a triangle isn't a cruise ship plunging into a triangle.....
Regarding your fraternity being called a frat, what would you call your, oh never mind,,,,,
Eff....EL.....EYE....EN...TEE........
No doubt.
I also need to watch my use of the word "coming."
"You will suffer humiliation when the team from my area defeats the team from your area." -- The Onion
Geographist! It is unfair
Geographist! It is unfair to stereotype people by zipcode, longitude, latitude! With February fast approaching, Diversity Month, I would appreciate it if we celebrated one another uniqueness and .....(to quote the Real Housewives of Atlanta) "FLY ABOVE ALL THE HATERS"
Yo Yo Yo EFF ELL EYE ENN TEE in the HIZZIE............ES DUB........SOUTHSIDE.....
Eff....EL.....EYE....EN...TEE........
never ever....
There is never an appropriate way or time to bring the real housewives of anywhere into this sacred space. No matter the intention, that is unacceptable.
what about...?
edit: whoops, in reply to #23
Hey, at least there's a Sonic in Flint now!!!
I put up a tough front, but deep down I just want to be held.
Saginaw is really that bad
Saginaw is really that bad now. The problem is that it is majority diverse so we are not allowed to say that in public.
The worst example was Mayor Wilmer Jones Hamm McZee. When she was in charge the crime rate went from 20th most dangerous city to first. At the same time she slashed the police force from 120 to 87. She also was involved in the housing money diverson scandal and was convicted of arson.
Since she is diverse she led a church group in protesting the media coverage of what she did, and 'poof' it was erased from the media memory bank.
The best thing that could happen to Saginaw would be a state takeover of the city government.
Howdy
LOL. Sad, but funny.