If he cracked the site, he should be punished, but let the punishment fit the crime.
Pol Pot died under house arrest for his mass murders. A web site cracker should get, what, a fine, maybe some community service & probation. Let's keep this in perspective, here.
This is one of those discussions that has the potential to go on and on and never resolve anything, so this will be my last post on the issue. I will, however, be very happy to read anything you post in response.
I'm from the south, I have long hair and dress in blue jeans and t-shirts. If I'm walking around the mall late at night after a movie I get trailed around the mall by security guards. I recently moved to baltimore, some people realize I'm from the south and immediately say, 'But you speak so clearly!'
So what's your point? Almost all young people get followed around by cops, and if you go anywhere that has a different dialect then people are going to marvel if you don't speak the way they percieve people where you are from to speak. This is NOT helped by the number of black people who can not, or do not, enunciate words. It also isn't helped by the number of southern people with heavy southern accents, or the number of Bostonians with that northern whatever it is. That isn't exactly racism
Oddly enough, this helps my point. You say most young people get followed around by cops, but this is ageism, not racism. I'm 23, but people have thought that my 45 year-old mother and I are twins. Most people think I'm in my thirties. I'm not getting followed around because of my age.
There are various forms of discrimination, and I'm not invalidating yours by discussing mine.
Racism is 6 black kids yelling, 'White muther fucker! I'm gonna kill yo' ass!' while they kick the shit out of one of my friends while none of us were around. Stop pretending that racism is all one way against black people. It isn't.
Yes, blacks can harbor prejudices based on skin color just like anyone else. I never said otherwise.
My point is that as a society, racism, which I believe is related more to power than to anything else, still exists on a lot of levels. Yes, it's tied into economics, but not always. Ask any rich black people who get repeatedly pulled over by cops because they're driving nice cars that cops assume must be stolen or be driven by a drug dealer if a black person is driving it.
And I promise you that if you put a mix of small children of all different races into a room they won't care what color anyone is.
But as these kids get older, they will be taught to see differences where none existed before. They will be taught lop-sided history in schools & will see mostly negative images of blacks & Latinos on television and in other forms of media (including the 'net). They will be exposed to institutional racism without even knowing it, and some will assume that just because they personally can't see it, racism doesn't exist or is the fault of people holding on to "the victim mentality". They will continue to profess that they don't care about skin color, but they will.
My point through all of this has been that racism is still a reality. Slavery based on race existed in the Americas since before the United States became a country. Jim Crow laws existed for almost a hundred years after the end of the Civil War. Why are people so desperate to believe that the effects of institutionalized racism just disappeared after 30 years?
Ok, first of all, SOME slaves were treated well. MOST slaves were not, but some were.
Slavery, by sheer point of it being slavery, is not being treated well. And that goes for America's historical slavery, for ancient Greek slavery & for the slavery currently being practiced in The Sudan.
Second, the point most of us are trying to make is that if people no longer bring up racial differences then people will forget about and ignore them.
What a nice world most of you live in, but it isn't the real world.
My biggest point is this: you can repeatedly say that racism is disappearing & you can say it's my fault and the fault of others like me because we won't stop talking about it, but I'm sorry, that's not going change the fact that I went to grade school in the 80s and high school in the 90s and was repeatedly called nigger to my face.
What I honestly don't understand is why people are so unwilling to see that racism contiues to exist. Why does it bother you so very much when people tell you that contrary to what you may wish to believe, specific incidences of racism that you can't just attribute to a few "extremists" still happen.
Racism hasn't gone away. It isn't going away because now people won't even talk about it existing anymore. People do bring up racial differences all of the time. It's not just those of us who are saying there's still racism. The Bell Curve was a best-seller, for crying out loud. In the twenties, it was eugenisists & Nazis. In the 90s is Murray and his neo-eugenisist crowd who influence society greatly. If people with the power & money are still willing to believe in the racial superiority of white people, how is racism ever going to go away?
While I believe in social programs (social security comes to mind), I'm not suggesting that the gov't buy us all computers or anything like that. What I am suggesting is that you folks, my/. peers & others connected to this 'net & computer-related subculture, take the time to look beyond your experience & realize that the world-view you hold is not the way in which a lot of people get to live.
You reapeatedly tell me you're not a racist, and I sincerely hope you're not. I have no reason to believe one way or another until you prove otherwise. I am able to say, however, that you are sheltered from the malignancy of racism in a way in which I don't think any amount of my trying to explain will ever make you understand. I don't know if you've ever been followed around a store because the owner thinks you're going to steal, but I have. I don't know if you've ever been told "my, but you speak so well!" by some surprised person who assumes that you shouldn't be able because of the color of your skin, but I have. Racism won't go away just because you choose to ignore it.
I debated with myself over and over, wondering if I was going to respond. It never ceases to amaze me when so many people claim to know the experiences of a culture of people of whom they have no knowledge. YES, blacks are excluded from 'net discourse, despite the fact that the 'net is supposedly race/gender free. As a person of color and as a woman, I can tell you that this has not been my experience at all.
There are so many things to which to respond in this thread. I'd like to thank Jon Katz, first of all, for bringing this discussion to the fore, as it would be my guess that most/.ers don't even think about it.
There have been alot of discussion about how black people, in discussing this & other areas in which things like the information infrastructure leaves us out are just crying "victim." It amazes me when people won't even take the time to think about what is being said here. We (black folks as well as Latinos) are being left out of the information age. Discussing this is not us crying victim. There are reasons for this that go far beyond the idea that we aren't willing to particiapte. We are. Most black kids I know are very interested in computers (and let me tell you, I guarantee I know more black folks than all of you who talk about "my black friend" or "the black guy at work.")
The person above wrote this:
Guess what, I bet one of the big reasons racism will continue is that some minorities feel they must shout from the hilltops about racial inequalities, etc.. If they'd just shut up, people wouldn't care.
The mind truly boggles. So nice of you to point out that racism has been in my head all these years. I'm glad you cleared that up for me.
What has always struck me is how little people are willing to recognize what they themselves dont' face. I could write for days about specific examples of racism in schools, for example, but I won't. I will give a particular incident, however.
I grew up in the predominatly white Upper Penninsula of Michigan. I went to a good public school where my mother had to go to my brother's middle school & correct the teacher in the classroom because the teacher was teaching in his social studies lesson that blacks were treated well during slavery because much like a person nowadays takes care of an expensive car, slaves were an investment so they were treated wonderfully & it wasn't that bad. This kind of thing is being taught in schools today! How are poeple expected to develop a proper perspective on the effects of slavery if the effects of slavery aren't even taught? And how are the repercussions of slavery, repercussions which last to this very day, supposed to ever be truly dealt with, if slavery can't be?
Another example: A young white boy who went to the same middle school got off the bus with two of our black friends one day. He didn't like black kids & he was going to take it out on those two boys. The boy had fashioned a weapon out of a steel ball which he'd attached to a pipe. He hit one of the boys in the head with this ball knocking him out cold. The boy's brother stepped in front of the assailant as he was about to hit his brother again. The assailant hit the second boy, seriously damaging the boy's shoulder. My brother saw this from the bus & begged the bus driver to stop, but the driver wouldn't. When my brother got home, he called my mother at her job, crying hysterically. He thought his friend was dead & he would have been had a neighbor not come out and given the boy CPR. The school's administration did nothing...the assailant didn't get in trouble, the bus driver didn't get suspended & the mother of the boys who'd been assaulted was told that "boys would be boys" and there was nothing they could do. The police would not prosecute the assailant, nor would they report it as a hate crime. Had the roles been reversed & a black boy had attacked white boys, that black boy would have gone to jail, guaranteed.
What does this have to do with computers & black people? Well for starters, can schools where black children's lives are not even valued seriously be counted on to give a damn about whether or not black children become computer literate?
Children in inner-city schools are taught in buildings that are literally dangerous to be in--not because of potential shootings, but because of falling roofs & asbestos & other conditions to which suburban kids would never be subjected. Rural children often face these problems, too. If you go to school in a building that really should be condemned, is learning how to use a computer really going to be your first priority?
Granted, a lot of these problems are socio-economic, but it is just willed ignorance to suggest that skin color is not a factor. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but it is.
I'm reminded of the part in The Autobiography of Malcolm X where a young Malcolm Little, a straight-A student, told his teacher that he wanted to be a lawyer. The teacher told him that being a lawyer was impossible for a black kid & he should really consider becoming a carpenter instead.
If you think teachers discouraging black students, black males especially, is a thing of the past, think again. It's always been in vogue for this country's intelligensia to discuss the ways in which they consider the black mind to be inferior. From The Bell Curve (which I've read) to the writings of Dinesh D'Souza, people are always willing to tell us why we're stupid & why racism is all in our heads. It isn't, and until people stop getting angry at us for bringing it up, and until people stop calling us whiners & actually listen to what we have to say, it will always continue.
I and the rest of my family are computer literate. A large reason for that is the fact that learning has always, contrary to the stereotype, been held in high value by my family. It has also been held in high value by every black family I've ever known. Those of us who can afford computers have them. A lot of people are left out of that category for whatever reason. I'm sorry, but it doesn't matter how inexpensive a computer is, if the question is one of putting food on the table or buying a box, food should win out, and for a lot of families, this is the reality.
Also, for a lot of black families, the added reality is that black students are tracked into high school curriculums wherein they are expected to go on & learn a trade. They aren't even considered for tracks that could lead to Computer Science programs in colleges. I've seen it happen, again especially to black males.
Everyone is basically equal, there is still some racism, but it is going down with every new generation. Let's not keep it going like this.
Believe me, I'd love to see it go away, but that's just not the case. Thirty years ago it was legal to use racist tests at polling places to keep black people from voting. Brown vs. the Board of Eduction was a decision that was handed down the year my mother was born. Slavery existed in this country for hundreds of years & specific effects, de facto & de jure, continued thereafter. Are we supposed to seriously expect that all of these effects have gone away?
I'm sorry for the long-winded post. I suppose my point is that ignoring racism or calling those of us who have experienced specific, repeated instances of it will not make it go away. Take some time to open your mind. The next time someone discusses racism, either on an individual level or as a societal institution, take the time to really consider what those people are saying & don't dismiss it out of hand. You may learn something.
Just so you know, "Allah" is the Arabic word for God. It's not a name. In Arabic-speaking countries, Muslims, Jews & Christians all refer to God as "Allah," just as in English-speaking countries we talk about God and have many perspectives on just what that word means. It is of note, however, that Allah cannot be made plural, so when talking about pantheism, Arabic uses another word.
Since you asked for other Christian/. readers to speak up, I will. I'm a Christian, and I think that it's okay if a mother lets her 15 years old teenagers go see South Park. Parents are allowed to make the decision of whether or not their children can see a film. I don't think kids should see every film. I got pissed when every time I went to see The Matrix, for example (six times), I saw five year olds in the theatre. that's just lazy & irresponsible. 15 year olds seeing South Park is not a national tragedy, however.
And about prayer in school. It's still legal, by the way, it's just not legal for the schools to be leading it, and that's fine with me. Students can meet before school, during lunch & after school to pray if they wish. When I was in high school, students did just that, actually. My problem with prayer in school is this: whose prayers? In high school, I knew non-denominational Protestants (me), Catholics, denominational Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Muslims, Baha'is, Taoists, neo-Pagans, agnostics & athiests, to name a few. How are we supposed to have prayers that meet all the needs of these people? I don't want to say the rosary or the Muslim Shahada, because I don't want to pray to Mary & I personally don't believe Muhammad was God's last prophet. If students aren't allowed to pray on their own time, then there's a problem, but I'm not upset that the principal isn't allowed to lead prayer over the intercom.
Wonderful article as usual. It's really sad to see so much buck-passing going on in the wake of Columbine.
Everyone turns into a pundit after something like Columbine happens. We all had our $0.02 to contribute. Mine consisted of talking about parental responsibility. It's sad, however, when parents aren't allowed to take responsibility. The kids Katz mentioned in his article all seemed to have responsible parents. They knew what the kids were seeing and approved. And yet they weren't allowed to parent. That's just stupid.
I'm personally not a big fan of bootlegging. I think it's wrong to not pay the artists for their work. But I'm not a fan of censorship, either, & I think it's great when people use their resources to overcome censorship. The kid with the downloaded copy of the South Park film was great! Thanks to the Net, I got to see the season finale of Buffy before it aired. I've also got in my grubby little hands a video tape of "Earshot," the episode WB has yet to air, which, as it turns out, was one of the best episodes they made last season &, oddly enough, had a message very appropiate to the post-Columbine atmosphere. It was supposed to air the week after Columbine, but WB got scared. Ironically, it could have been shown as an anti-school violence episode with the message of "everybody hurts so don't kill people 'cause you're hurting, too." Instead, they chickened out.
I'm hoping that the neo-Puritanism through which this country is going is reaching the end of its swing and the pendulum starts to head back the other way. If not, we're going to continue to have kids not being able to see South Park, but we are going to continue to see kids being abused by their peers in schools, ignored by the pundits (I'm still pissed that the kids in Columbine got front-page coverage and people writing songs about them and the like, but black boys like my cousin who get shot down in the street continue to be constantly ignored as if their lives weren't of equal value to those of suburban white kids) & ignored by their schools' administrations. Things aren't going to change as long as people continue to avoid taking responsibility.
Geeks getting abused in school is old-news, now, I suppose. I was one of them, so I know. It just a shame that the things that make us geeks (i.e. infatuation with silly things like South Park) are being taken away from geek kids, but the real problems continue to be ignored. Kudos to Katz for getting those kids into the movies. Unfortunately, getting into movies seems to continue to be the least of geek kids' problems.
I must agree. Living in Madison has spoiled me because I can get the Onion's print version every Wednesday.
The print version has always had more articles than the web version. I believe several major booksellers including Barne$ and Noble carry The Onion nation-wide these days. Though it's published in Madison, WI, it's been available in Chicago & New York for awhile. My point is to suggest that those of you who aren't so fortunate as to live in Mad City go find yourselves a print copy or even subscribe. It's well worth it. Also, try to pick up Our Dumb Century and the book on tape. The Onion staff did all of the voices on the tape, and it's set up like news broadcasts.
I'm getting ready to move away from Madison (unfortunatley), and I'm telling you, I'm shelling out the money to get a subscription. It's the nation's best humor publication. & I'm not only saying that because I was in an issue (I was the Den's Customer of the Week (C.O.W.) The Onion's staff puts your head on a picture of a cow. It made my week that week).
Sometimes people have the perfect ergonomic setup and still have problems, so be careful of saying you don't buy it because you don't have the problem yourself.
Also, there are motion-related problems that aren't CTS. I got checked out at after my hands started hurting at the beginning of a semester instead of the end (added paper writing always seemed to cause pain, but when my hands started hurting before any papers got written, I knew there was a problem). I didn't have CTS (which is a good thing) because my pinky fingers hurt (if your pinkies hurt, you don't have CTS).
Anyway, to make a long story short, I got an ergonomic keyboard, some wrist braces, some ibuprofen and I don't type when my hands start hurting. I believe I have tendonitis in my hands, so I just started taking care of them. They still hurt sometimes, though, which I guess is my long- winded point.
I find that plotting in Stephenson's novels is probably his strongest asset as a writer, and he didn't fail with Cryptonomicon. If anything, this was his most impressively plotted novel to date.
The plots all came together really well for me, especially at the end. I also like the way in which there was quite a bit of follow-through from the past to the present through little details throughout. For example, one of Randy's aunts in the present is a Qwghlm linguist, keeping up with the thread of Qwghlm culture showing up throughout.
I didn't really see this as two stories. It was more like many, many stories that come together to make one story, which is quite trendy here in the nineties (everyone first seemed to notice this technique in Pulp Fiction though it was used before then and will be used for many years to come). It's an overused, but excellent technique, and Stephenson pulled it off to great effect.
The Diamond Age is still my favorite Stephenson book, but Cryptonomicon is a very close second. I'm looking forward to the next books.
Think like a person of action, act like a person of thought.--H.Bergson
Be careful with assumptions. The "n-word" was always pejorative, negro was not. And let me give you a scenario or two illustrating why this is not an effective analogy:
When we were kids, my brother and I would stop to pick cat tails for our mom by the side of the road when we'd go walking. Every single time we did this, someone would hang out of their car and call us niggers just 'cause we were two black kids on the side of the road. Every time. A deep sense of anger and dignity was all that kept me from crying whenever that happened. The day you cry because some calls you a hacker, then maybe you can compare it to the "n-word." Until that day, the comparison is nil. The same goes for my friends who've had "faggot" sprayed on their lockers when they were high school just because they're gay. It hurts in a way being called a hacker never, ever will.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice to compare a script kiddie to three mass murderers & a mail bomber. Let's see...
Folks listed above...approximately 11,900,167 deaths / script kiddie 0 deaths
Not exactly the same league.
If he cracked the site, he should be punished, but let the punishment fit the crime.
Pol Pot died under house arrest for his mass murders. A web site cracker should get, what, a fine, maybe some community service & probation. Let's keep this in perspective, here.
& women ;)
I'm from the south, I have long hair and dress in blue jeans and t-shirts. If I'm walking around the mall late at night after a movie I get trailed around the mall by security guards. I recently moved to baltimore, some people realize I'm from the south and immediately say, 'But you speak so clearly!'
So what's your point? Almost all young people get followed around by cops, and if you go anywhere that has a different dialect then people are going to marvel if you don't speak the way they percieve people where you are from to speak.
This is NOT helped by the number of black people who can not, or do not, enunciate words. It also isn't helped by the number of southern people with heavy southern accents, or the number of Bostonians with that northern whatever it is.
That isn't exactly racism
Oddly enough, this helps my point. You say most young people get followed around by cops, but this is ageism, not racism. I'm 23, but people have thought that my 45 year-old mother and I are twins. Most people think I'm in my thirties. I'm not getting followed around because of my age.
There are various forms of discrimination, and I'm not invalidating yours by discussing mine.
Racism is 6 black kids yelling, 'White muther fucker! I'm gonna kill yo' ass!' while they kick the shit out of one of my friends while none of us were around. Stop pretending that racism is all one way against black people. It isn't.
Yes, blacks can harbor prejudices based on skin color just like anyone else. I never said otherwise.
My point is that as a society, racism, which I believe is related more to power than to anything else, still exists on a lot of levels. Yes, it's tied into economics, but not always. Ask any rich black people who get repeatedly pulled over by cops because they're driving nice cars that cops assume must be stolen or be driven by a drug dealer if a black person is driving it.
And I promise you that if you put a mix of small children of all different races into a room they won't care what color anyone is.
But as these kids get older, they will be taught to see differences where none existed before. They will be taught lop-sided history in schools & will see mostly negative images of blacks & Latinos on television and in other forms of media (including the 'net). They will be exposed to institutional racism without even knowing it, and some will assume that just because they personally can't see it, racism doesn't exist or is the fault of people holding on to "the victim mentality". They will continue to profess that they don't care about skin color, but they will.
My point through all of this has been that racism is still a reality. Slavery based on race existed in the Americas since before the United States became a country. Jim Crow laws existed for almost a hundred years after the end of the Civil War. Why are people so desperate to believe that the effects of institutionalized racism just disappeared after 30 years?
Ok, first of all, SOME slaves were treated well. MOST slaves were not, but some were.
Slavery, by sheer point of it being slavery, is not being treated well. And that goes for America's historical slavery, for ancient Greek slavery & for the slavery currently being practiced in The Sudan.
Second, the point most of us are trying to make is that if people no longer bring up racial differences then people will forget about and ignore them.
What a nice world most of you live in, but it isn't the real world.
My biggest point is this: you can repeatedly say that racism is disappearing & you can say it's my fault and the fault of others like me because we won't stop talking about it, but I'm sorry, that's not going change the fact that I went to grade school in the 80s and high school in the 90s and was repeatedly called nigger to my face.
What I honestly don't understand is why people are so unwilling to see that racism contiues to exist. Why does it bother you so very much when people tell you that contrary to what you may wish to believe, specific incidences of racism that you can't just attribute to a few "extremists" still happen.
Racism hasn't gone away. It isn't going away because now people won't even talk about it existing anymore. People do bring up racial differences all of the time. It's not just those of us who are saying there's still racism. The Bell Curve was a best-seller, for crying out loud. In the twenties, it was eugenisists & Nazis. In the 90s is Murray and his neo-eugenisist crowd who influence society greatly. If people with the power & money are still willing to believe in the racial superiority of white people, how is racism ever going to go away?
While I believe in social programs (social security comes to mind), I'm not suggesting that the gov't buy us all computers or anything like that. What I am suggesting is that you folks, my /. peers & others connected to this 'net & computer-related subculture, take the time to look beyond your experience & realize that the world-view you hold is not the way in which a lot of people get to live.
You reapeatedly tell me you're not a racist, and I sincerely hope you're not. I have no reason to believe one way or another until you prove otherwise. I am able to say, however, that you are sheltered from the malignancy of racism in a way in which I don't think any amount of my trying to explain will ever make you understand. I don't know if you've ever been followed around a store because the owner thinks you're going to steal, but I have. I don't know if you've ever been told "my, but you speak so well!" by some surprised person who assumes that you shouldn't be able because of the color of your skin, but I have. Racism won't go away just because you choose to ignore it.
I debated with myself over and over, wondering if I was going to respond. It never ceases to amaze me when so many people claim to know the experiences of a culture of people of whom they have no knowledge. YES, blacks are excluded from 'net discourse, despite the fact that the 'net is supposedly race/gender free. As a person of color and as a woman, I can tell you that this has not been my experience at all.
There are so many things to which to respond in this thread. I'd like to thank Jon Katz, first of all, for bringing this discussion to the fore, as it would be my guess that most /.ers don't even think about it.
There have been alot of discussion about how black people, in discussing this & other areas in which things like the information infrastructure leaves us out are just crying "victim." It amazes me when people won't even take the time to think about what is being said here. We (black folks as well as Latinos) are being left out of the information age. Discussing this is not us crying victim. There are reasons for this that go far beyond the idea that we aren't willing to particiapte. We are. Most black kids I know are very interested in computers (and let me tell you, I guarantee I know more black folks than all of you who talk about "my black friend" or "the black guy at work.")
The person above wrote this:
Guess what, I bet one of the big reasons racism will continue is that some minorities feel they must shout from the hilltops about racial inequalities, etc.. If they'd just shut up, people wouldn't care.
The mind truly boggles. So nice of you to point out that racism has been in my head all these years. I'm glad you cleared that up for me.
What has always struck me is how little people are willing to recognize what they themselves dont' face. I could write for days about specific examples of racism in schools, for example, but I won't. I will give a particular incident, however.
I grew up in the predominatly white Upper Penninsula of Michigan. I went to a good public school where my mother had to go to my brother's middle school & correct the teacher in the classroom because the teacher was teaching in his social studies lesson that blacks were treated well during slavery because much like a person nowadays takes care of an expensive car, slaves were an investment so they were treated wonderfully & it wasn't that bad. This kind of thing is being taught in schools today! How are poeple expected to develop a proper perspective on the effects of slavery if the effects of slavery aren't even taught? And how are the repercussions of slavery, repercussions which last to this very day, supposed to ever be truly dealt with, if slavery can't be?
Another example: A young white boy who went to the same middle school got off the bus with two of our black friends one day. He didn't like black kids & he was going to take it out on those two boys. The boy had fashioned a weapon out of a steel ball which he'd attached to a pipe. He hit one of the boys in the head with this ball knocking him out cold. The boy's brother stepped in front of the assailant as he was about to hit his brother again. The assailant hit the second boy, seriously damaging the boy's shoulder. My brother saw this from the bus & begged the bus driver to stop, but the driver wouldn't. When my brother got home, he called my mother at her job, crying hysterically. He thought his friend was dead & he would have been had a neighbor not come out and given the boy CPR. The school's administration did nothing...the assailant didn't get in trouble, the bus driver didn't get suspended & the mother of the boys who'd been assaulted was told that "boys would be boys" and there was nothing they could do. The police would not prosecute the assailant, nor would they report it as a hate crime. Had the roles been reversed & a black boy had attacked white boys, that black boy would have gone to jail, guaranteed.
What does this have to do with computers & black people? Well for starters, can schools where black children's lives are not even valued seriously be counted on to give a damn about whether or not black children become computer literate?
Children in inner-city schools are taught in buildings that are literally dangerous to be in--not because of potential shootings, but because of falling roofs & asbestos & other conditions to which suburban kids would never be subjected. Rural children often face these problems, too. If you go to school in a building that really should be condemned, is learning how to use a computer really going to be your first priority?
Granted, a lot of these problems are socio-economic, but it is just willed ignorance to suggest that skin color is not a factor. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but it is.
I'm reminded of the part in The Autobiography of Malcolm X where a young Malcolm Little, a straight-A student, told his teacher that he wanted to be a lawyer. The teacher told him that being a lawyer was impossible for a black kid & he should really consider becoming a carpenter instead.
If you think teachers discouraging black students, black males especially, is a thing of the past, think again. It's always been in vogue for this country's intelligensia to discuss the ways in which they consider the black mind to be inferior. From The Bell Curve (which I've read) to the writings of Dinesh D'Souza, people are always willing to tell us why we're stupid & why racism is all in our heads. It isn't, and until people stop getting angry at us for bringing it up, and until people stop calling us whiners & actually listen to what we have to say, it will always continue.
I and the rest of my family are computer literate. A large reason for that is the fact that learning has always, contrary to the stereotype, been held in high value by my family. It has also been held in high value by every black family I've ever known. Those of us who can afford computers have them. A lot of people are left out of that category for whatever reason. I'm sorry, but it doesn't matter how inexpensive a computer is, if the question is one of putting food on the table or buying a box, food should win out, and for a lot of families, this is the reality.
Also, for a lot of black families, the added reality is that black students are tracked into high school curriculums wherein they are expected to go on & learn a trade. They aren't even considered for tracks that could lead to Computer Science programs in colleges. I've seen it happen, again especially to black males.
Everyone is basically equal, there is still some racism, but it is going down with every new generation. Let's not keep it going like this.
Believe me, I'd love to see it go away, but that's just not the case. Thirty years ago it was legal to use racist tests at polling places to keep black people from voting. Brown vs. the Board of Eduction was a decision that was handed down the year my mother was born. Slavery existed in this country for hundreds of years & specific effects, de facto & de jure, continued thereafter. Are we supposed to seriously expect that all of these effects have gone away?
I'm sorry for the long-winded post. I suppose my point is that ignoring racism or calling those of us who have experienced specific, repeated instances of it will not make it go away. Take some time to open your mind. The next time someone discusses racism, either on an individual level or as a societal institution, take the time to really consider what those people are saying & don't dismiss it out of hand. You may learn something.
Just so you know, "Allah" is the Arabic word for God. It's not a name. In Arabic-speaking countries, Muslims, Jews & Christians all refer to God as "Allah," just as in English-speaking countries we talk about God and have many perspectives on just what that word means. It is of note, however, that Allah cannot be made plural, so when talking about pantheism, Arabic uses another word.
And about prayer in school. It's still legal, by the way, it's just not legal for the schools to be leading it, and that's fine with me. Students can meet before school, during lunch & after school to pray if they wish. When I was in high school, students did just that, actually. My problem with prayer in school is this: whose prayers? In high school, I knew non-denominational Protestants (me), Catholics, denominational Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Muslims, Baha'is, Taoists, neo-Pagans, agnostics & athiests, to name a few. How are we supposed to have prayers that meet all the needs of these people? I don't want to say the rosary or the Muslim Shahada, because I don't want to pray to Mary & I personally don't believe Muhammad was God's last prophet. If students aren't allowed to pray on their own time, then there's a problem, but I'm not upset that the principal isn't allowed to lead prayer over the intercom.
Wonderful article as usual. It's really sad to see so much buck-passing going on in the wake of Columbine.
Everyone turns into a pundit after something like Columbine happens. We all had our $0.02 to contribute. Mine consisted of talking about parental responsibility. It's sad, however, when parents aren't allowed to take responsibility. The kids Katz mentioned in his article all seemed to have responsible parents. They knew what the kids were seeing and approved. And yet they weren't allowed to parent. That's just stupid.
I'm personally not a big fan of bootlegging. I think it's wrong to not pay the artists for their work. But I'm not a fan of censorship, either, & I think it's great when people use their resources to overcome censorship. The kid with the downloaded copy of the South Park film was great! Thanks to the Net, I got to see the season finale of Buffy before it aired. I've also got in my grubby little hands a video tape of "Earshot," the episode WB has yet to air, which, as it turns out, was one of the best episodes they made last season &, oddly enough, had a message very appropiate to the post-Columbine atmosphere. It was supposed to air the week after Columbine, but WB got scared. Ironically, it could have been shown as an anti-school violence episode with the message of "everybody hurts so don't kill people 'cause you're hurting, too." Instead, they chickened out.
I'm hoping that the neo-Puritanism through which this country is going is reaching the end of its swing and the pendulum starts to head back the other way. If not, we're going to continue to have kids not being able to see South Park, but we are going to continue to see kids being abused by their peers in schools, ignored by the pundits (I'm still pissed that the kids in Columbine got front-page coverage and people writing songs about them and the like, but black boys like my cousin who get shot down in the street continue to be constantly ignored as if their lives weren't of equal value to those of suburban white kids) & ignored by their schools' administrations. Things aren't going to change as long as people continue to avoid taking responsibility.
Geeks getting abused in school is old-news, now, I suppose. I was one of them, so I know. It just a shame that the things that make us geeks (i.e. infatuation with silly things like South Park) are being taken away from geek kids, but the real problems continue to be ignored. Kudos to Katz for getting those kids into the movies. Unfortunately, getting into movies seems to continue to be the least of geek kids' problems.
Sorry for the long post.
The print version has always had more articles than the web version. I believe several major booksellers including Barne$ and Noble carry The Onion nation-wide these days. Though it's published in Madison, WI, it's been available in Chicago & New York for awhile. My point is to suggest that those of you who aren't so fortunate as to live in Mad City go find yourselves a print copy or even subscribe. It's well worth it. Also, try to pick up Our Dumb Century and the book on tape. The Onion staff did all of the voices on the tape, and it's set up like news broadcasts.
I'm getting ready to move away from Madison (unfortunatley), and I'm telling you, I'm shelling out the money to get a subscription. It's the nation's best humor publication. & I'm not only saying that because I was in an issue (I was the Den's Customer of the Week (C.O.W.) The Onion's staff puts your head on a picture of a cow. It made my week that week).
Also, there are motion-related problems that aren't CTS. I got checked out at after my hands started hurting at the beginning of a semester instead of the end (added paper writing always seemed to cause pain, but when my hands started hurting before any papers got written, I knew there was a problem). I didn't have CTS (which is a good thing) because my pinky fingers hurt (if your pinkies hurt, you don't have CTS).
Anyway, to make a long story short, I got an ergonomic keyboard, some wrist braces, some ibuprofen and I don't type when my hands start hurting. I believe I have tendonitis in my hands, so I just started taking care of them. They still hurt sometimes, though, which I guess is my long-
winded point.
The plots all came together really well for me, especially at the end. I also like the way in which there was quite a bit of follow-through from the past to the present through little details throughout. For example, one of Randy's aunts in the present is a Qwghlm linguist, keeping up with the thread of Qwghlm culture showing up throughout.
I didn't really see this as two stories. It was more like many, many stories that come together to make one story, which is quite trendy here in the nineties (everyone first seemed to notice this technique in Pulp Fiction though it was used before then and will be used for many years to come). It's an overused, but excellent technique, and Stephenson pulled it off to great effect.
The Diamond Age is still my favorite Stephenson book, but Cryptonomicon is a very close second. I'm looking forward to the next books.
Think like a person of action, act like a person of thought.--H.Bergson
Be careful with assumptions. The "n-word" was always pejorative, negro was not. And let me give you a scenario or two illustrating why this is not an effective analogy:
When we were kids, my brother and I would stop to pick cat tails for our mom by the side of the road when we'd go walking. Every single time we did this, someone would hang out of their car and call us niggers just 'cause we were two black kids on the side of the road. Every time. A deep sense of anger and dignity was all that kept me from crying whenever that happened. The day you cry because some calls you a hacker, then maybe you can compare it to the "n-word." Until that day, the comparison is nil. The same goes for my friends who've had "faggot" sprayed on their lockers when they were high school just because they're gay. It hurts in a way being called a hacker never, ever will.