Although I have layered oppressions that have affected my ability to access my slice of the American Pie™, no issue has affected me more readily than my lack of white privilege. From being assumed to have “cheated” my way into programs for gifted children AND college (via affirmative action), to having my natural hair viewed as unprofessional amongst professional peers, to having people make negative assumptions about my competency level, interests, and job knowledge, to being viewed as naturally dangerous or threatening, my lack of white privilege has created numerous obstacles as I’ve struggled to successfully compete in a white dominated workforce. I am hoping that, through this campaign, I will begin to make some headway towards closing the gap that white privilege has created in my life.
Crowdfunding to buy white privilege, from here.
Steve: How did you two meet, to begin with?
Graeme: We met because I ripped Jeff off. That’s maybe not completely true — Jeff and I both knew Brian Hibbs, who owns San Francisco’s Comix Experience store and we’ve both worked for him at various times in our lives — but when I created the Fanboy Rampage!!! blog those many years ago, I subconsciously ripped the name off from the monthly column Jeff wrote for the Comix Experience newsletter.
It was so subconscious that, when Jeff got in touch to politely ask if I’d done it, my first response was “Of course I didn’t, what are you talking about?” It was my first experience with riding on Jeff’s coattails, but not my last.
Jeff: Mine is the Fanboy Rampage of Earth Two: technically, it came first, but it’s mostly a footnote to Graeme’s. I’m just glad I get to team up with him more frequently than once a year and I don’t have to have the rest of the JSA in tow.
Go check out Graeme and Jeff getting interviewed by Steve Morris over at The Beat for more brain-breaking revelations about your Whatful Duo! (via waitwhatpod)
It’s still weird being interviewed. But I kind of like it.
None of your elected backbench MPs have been told what Bill is to be debated on Monday. It’s Wednesday evening. Tomorrow, MPs are on a ‘one line whip’ ie they can return to their constituencies this evening.
Imagine how outrageous it would be, if tomorrow, the government were to announce emergency legislation to an empty chamber. Imagine if that emergency legislation was to be introduced on Monday or Tuesday, with the intention of it slipping through the Commons and the Lords in a single day. Imagine if that Bill was the deeply controversial Data Retention Bill.
It’s a Bill that will override the views of judges who have seen how the mass collection of your data breaches the human rights of you and your family.
As a former DC editor, I’m well aware of the equity process. In the course of my job at the company, I was involved with sending the equity paperwork to creators, letting them know the guidelines, and occasionally submitting related paperwork to the proper department within DC to ensure the creators were taken care of. There were some characters from comics I worked on where creators requested equity and were turned down based on the above criteria, and Brennert is one of many such creators. There are lots of creators who have been granted equity when their characters do meet those qualifications.
Based on my experience, my reading of the situation is this: Brennert’s creation of Barbara Kean Gordon is not only “close” to her sometimes-daughter in the DCU, Barbara Gordon; it fits all of DC’s stated criteria for being officially derivative. She looks the same, has the same name – she’s even at a library after hours, implying that she, like Barbara Not-Kean Gordon, is a librarian.
In a moment of frustration with this Potato Salad project AND with Kickstarter, I decided to see how far we could take things. CLEARLY they must say “no” to something, right?
And so was born “Air”, a Kickstarter project created by me.
Air is exactly what it seems. I’m going to sell you… AIR.
2oz jars of fucking NOTHING.
The rewards are funny, all tongue in cheek. For example, I’ll go to Harry Potter land at Universal and get you some Air. Or I’ll go to the Florida swamp and get you some swamp air. (You can click this link and see the draft page for yourself…CLICK HERE!)
SO, I wrote up the rewards and the story and created the project, clicked submit, and waited to see what the response would be.
I thought “there’s no WAY it’ll be approved"… at least then I could have SOME hope for the future of Kickstarter. At least someone there would have some common sense. "They won’t allow me to just sell air. There’s no way.”
YEAH.
They APPROVED it.
They APPROVED me SELLING AIR.
I do wonder at what point the potato salad Kickstarter will go from “Hey, I totally contributed to this fun meme!” to “Hey, did I really give a stranger $10 for nothing?” Maybe I don’t have enough money to spare to really get the joke.