Discussing Racism

So I read this really great article with some pointers about discussing racism on blogs, which I found very helpful. It was written over at Jezebel, which is a pretty fun, feminist pop culture blog. A lot of the things that it talked about are things that I have encountered and I'm sure you have also. Here's one of the first pointers.

• "1. Remember that it's not about you personally. Discussions of race often revolve around systems that have developed throughout history - not what one individual has chosen to do or experienced. A post on, say, black Barbies and the fact that certain populations have not seen/are not seeing their realities represented in popular culture is not the place to complain or point out that you were sad as a child because there were no red-headed Barbies. Wait for a post on red-headed Barbies." *
  

The rest are also pretty awesome and in a similar vein dealing with openness and compassion as a means to better understand race when we don't consciously experience race.

As for my own side note on redheaded Barbie's, my sisters had Midge and I had a few Ariel, little mermaid imitation Barbie's.