HELLO, FRANDOS. I haven’t popped by here much over the last couple weeks because — well, there was a lot of important stuff going on with the protests over George Floyd’s death, and I just didn’t want to mist everyone with whatever aerosolized sewage you’d get from me, and further, I was on deadline finishing a book (Dust & Grim, the MG novel). That said, though I hope my stand on all this is clear, I support Black Lives Matter, I support the protests, I support defunding the police. Black Americans live a life entirely separate from white Americans in terms of their interactions with not just the police, but every dominant socio-cultural system. These are egregious faults which must be corrected and that currently stack to protect white privilege. As the saying goes, it is not enough to merely be not racist, but we must be anti-racist. If you’re white, you’re probably racist, and I believe it’s best to operate from that standpoint — no, I’m not suggesting you’re actively racist, seeking to do harm, but rather I’m saying that you have long benefitted from a system of bonuses and bennies exclusively for white people, and the very air around us is culturally suffused with a whole lotta racism, and we breathe it in, and we swim in it, and we unconsciously take some of it in and it is on us to recognize that, see that it is wrong, and do our best to untangle those nasty hidden knots inside us.
Further, given that J.K. Rowling has really chosen this moment to roll around in a mud-puddle of her own dead empathy, while again I’d hope my viewpoint here is known, I find no harm in reminding and restating: trans women are women, trans men are men, non-binary individuals are whatever gender expression they are, as well — and we must commit not just to these simple statements, but to undoing all the systemic prejudices that exist against our transgender and non-binary friends, whether in health care or safety or education or careers or — well, it’s a list that covers all aspects of daily life. As a call to action, here are some links you might click that will help you part with some essential donations:
Links to support black trans organizations.
AND with these things, remember that this is not a fight du jour, but rather, one that is ongoing in both our culture and inside your own damn heart and mind. So keep the vigil, hold the line. Okay?
Okay!
All that being said, usually I was calling these random scattershot blog posts DISJECTA MEMBRA, which is awful dang fancy and ooh-la-la, but honestly, it’s far too high-minded for the kind of word-hurk I’m chunking up, so instead I’m going with gabbling into the void. So, here we are, gabbling into the void once more. A blog post turned to viscera and slopped upon your information plate.
Some of you are still missing your FIYAH subscriptions. We were giving away 15 and only six (!) people have gotten back to me, so check the replies, see if you won. Go here, check the replies, and see if you won. Then contact me!
I saw a fox this morning. And a pileated woodpecker. Though I’m no longer writing in the woods as I once was, it’s nice to still be surrounded by a good bit of nature. Nature is soothing. Not that nature’s job is to soothe me, obviously, but I AM SOOTHED JUST THE SAME. The loud rappa-tap of the woodpecker’s beak. The gentle bounding of a fox. The soft squirrel I use as a loofa. What? Shut up. Squirrel Loofas are totally the big thing. Also the name of my new band.
School is now over for the not-so-tiny human. That’s both amazing, because school for the last couple months was… more like half-school, through no fault of anybody, it’s just circumstances. But it took a lot of work to schedule all that stuff, and effectively, everything became homework. Because school was home and home was school. And it necessitated a lot of work on our parts, too because though we weren’t teachers… we totally had to be teachers. (My wife far more than me, to be clear.) So! Summer is welcome, but with it comes the new challenge of OH GOD WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO NOW. The days are long and the time is weird and we can’t just go on vacation or really even do most of the things we’d do. Sure, our county here in PA has gone from red to yellow (and maybe soon to green), but the virus didn’t go away, and we’re seeing a second surge rise — it could go poorly quickly, and blergh. So, now we have to supply structure for the summer, somehow. In some way. In a way that isn’t forced and is also fun. Maybe we just plug our son into a VR simulator and occasionally spoon-feed him nutrients? That can work, I’m sure. Bonus, he can power our home with his human energy! This is a very original idea and nobody has ever had it before and nothing can go wrong.
Just a casual reminder that COVID-19 is still serious shit. We’ve friends who have had it for weeks, even months, with lingering symptoms. One friend of the family had it, recovered, then developed bizarre personality-changing neurological symptoms that have only worsened — finally they figured out it was autoimmune encephalitis, likely a result of the virus. Neurological symptoms can persist and… we don’t know if everyone comes out the other side unscathed. Death isn’t the only thing this does. Take it seriously. Wear a fucking mask, embrace social distancing, stay frosty.
I’m still on my bread bullshit. I’ve had some spectacular failures. I had one loaf of sourdough taste so vinegary, you’d think you were drinking pickle juice. I had one sandwich loaf come out like a brick, a goddamn brick. (It tasted good, at least.) One was too tough, and from it I made bread pudding that was great. Been trying to make sandwich bread and finally, finally did so, with spectacular result:
There are good cartoons and you should watch them. First, Avatar: The Last Airbender is on Netflix again. HBO Max has the Ghibli films. Craig of the Creek is killing it this year. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is back… this week I think? There’s gonna be a We Bare Bears movie at the end of this month. All fun, funny storytelling at the top of its game. Good with kids or without, I’d wager.
AAAAANYWAY, here are some photos. Bye.
terribleminds says:
(Also, note that the above links to charities are not meant to be comprehensive or exhaustive, and you are free and encouraged to drop links to other charities here.)
June 11, 2020 — 11:27 AM
Terry Hickman says:
Aye, and aye, and aye! And I love those BEES with their saddlebags of pollen! And I love that bread can be used even if it’s not “perfect” – no need to waste it!
June 11, 2020 — 11:39 AM
Amarand says:
As always, eloquently put! Thank you for making the statement that Black Lives Matter, which is something I assumed you believed, because you’re an awesome person in general. On a completely separate topic, sourdough sounds scary to make, but I’ve mastered pizza and rolls with traditional baking methods over the years, so I wonder if I should take the plunge? Appreciate the eye-popping macro photos near the end. Again, thanks!
June 11, 2020 — 11:41 AM
Kevin Wallace says:
Chuck, you can moderate this out if you want. I mostly just want you to read it.
I bristled *hard* at your exchange of the word “racist” with “privileged”. Being word nerds, I think the progressive left is losing ears when they push words to mean things they didn’t. Sure, the English language is alive and changes, but that’s not supposed to be a political process.
I know, crazy, “uncertain” times and all that… I love you, Chuck, know that too – you’ve changed how I write, and I’m grateful for that. I’m with Black Lives Matter, Truck Fump, and I’ve given money and a little bit of time to the cause. This sort of torturing of words when you’re preaching to the choir, though, is not reaching new ears, but it is turning off old ones.
I’m sure you don’t care about losing my ear, because you’re doing fine, and hey–you do you, if you believe in it – the world needs change, and people with platforms should be that change. I’m just telling you that those words miffed me pretty hard, and I’m quickly hitting the point where I’m going into ostrich mode on this stuff just because everybody’s yelling and nobody’s listening anymore. I just have to save myself the stress.
June 11, 2020 — 12:12 PM
terribleminds says:
Kevin:
I honestly don’t even know how to parse your comment, or what it’s trying to say, or what you object to.
— c.
June 11, 2020 — 12:57 PM
Jeffw says:
That’s cuz this is a cheerocracy. Cheers!
June 14, 2020 — 5:49 PM
siren74Siren says:
These photos are incredible!!! What camera do you have?
June 11, 2020 — 1:44 PM
Kevin Wallace says:
Chuck:
That’s fair. My soul was in a very tired state, and I sent you a zero-draft. Apologies for that.
I agree with everything you said – but this part got my mental hackles up: “If you’re white, you’re probably racist…”
That says more about me than you, I’m sure. I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong to do it, but it feels to me that that one word got a field promotion to mean something it doesn’t quite mean, in order to stir passions and make a point. I’m still parsing this too, so if you were trying to get me to think about my own feelings too, then well done, sir.
I think what I was trying to say is that there’s so much accusation and shock talk going around that my brain is just starting to shut down when it reads something like that, even though I agreed with literally everything else you said.
Wanderers was a work that I’ll always aspire to. Thanks for speaking up and Chucking like you mean it.
–Kevin
*sticks head back in sand*
June 11, 2020 — 2:42 PM
WizarDru says:
Kevin, honestly, it sounds more like you’re working from a very limited use of the ‘racist’ to me, rather than Chuck expanding it’s use. It’s uncomfortable to be told you’re racist, when you think ‘…but I’m not a (capital R) RACIST.’ When I was a teen in the 80s, I held some views that I now know to be patently racist. I got better, I got smarter and I actually met POCs. I wasn’t actively racist, as Chuck indicates above: I didn’t go out of my way to harm or deprive people different than me…but I benefited from a system that was racist, saw no reason to change that system and was quite comfortable maintaining a system that DID actively harm people and continues to do so. It is not disingenuous or mean-spirited to ask people to think about that, own it and try to be better, which is what I think Chuck is trying to encourage.
June 11, 2020 — 5:23 PM
Dave Moores says:
See Chuck, I sense that the connotations that go with the term “Racist” are changing. It used to denote wild-eyed overt unashamed distain and hatred. As in “Gee that guy is such a goddamned racist.” That has changed, as language does, but I don’t find myself totally happy when people point the finger of racism at me because I’m white. I wish we had another word.
The Human Race is tribal. Not a good thing to be sure, but it’s true. Am I most comfortable in the company of people who look, talk and think like me?
Yup. And so are people of colour. Does that make them, racist too? Or me? Under the developing usage, yes it darn well does and I wish we could find, or make up, another word.
June 11, 2020 — 3:40 PM
JCG says:
Originally (well, back in the 1980s) racism meant (roughly) a culture that deprived members of a certain race (or ethnic group) of the ability to participate in the society in any leadership role. I remember reading a flurry of arguments about whether a Black or Asian person could be racist. By that definition, the argument went, it could not; to be racist meant in part to be part of the group that enjoyed full participation in the society (including equal opportunity to get political power, education, voting rights). This was the American Heritage definition (roughly; I can’t find my copy right now). Webster’s says, “a belief that race is the primary determining factor in ability…”, or what might better be called _race prejudice_.
My point, I guess, is that this is not a new argument.
June 27, 2020 — 8:33 PM
Bill Rose says:
Great photos. The Bumble Bee looks like my flying mount in World of Warcraft.
June 11, 2020 — 4:56 PM
Clovis Fearing says:
Ah, The Cŵn Annwn; the Wild Hunt. Gabriel Hounds, gabble ratchets.
I’m going to name my new band The Gabble Ratchets.
June 11, 2020 — 5:38 PM
J.F. Margos says:
Another awesome post.
I did understand how you used “racist” to all whites and I don’t have a problem with it, because it caused me to THINK two things, which I’ve been thinking lately anyway: 1) I’m seriously lucky just by being born with white skin, and I need to do more to help others who seriously are not lucky through no fault of anything other than the color of their skin (and how nuts is that when you meditate on it – pretty effing NUTS); and 2) I was ashamed that even though I grew up with many friends of color because of where my family lived, I have still never done ENOUGH to use my inherent privilege to effect change. I have taken my civil rights for granted – even though I knew everyone does not really get the benefit of their own civil rights. Therein lies my fault – my “racism”.
These recent sickening events have caused a deep reflection and commitment within myself to get off my privileged backside and put my public actions where my private actions and my mouth have always been. There is a huge disparity between thinking the right things and doing the right thing in my private interactions with people, and taking public, civic actions to effect real and lasting change. It’s the laziness to which privilege can seduce us. We think because we say the right things and we have black friends who we love and treat with proper respect, that’s enough. It isn’t. As long as our friends of color continue to have to live under this threat to their lives, we are not doing enough – period.
I mean, how can a man be pulled out of his car and murdered like George Floyd was? God bless the girl who filmed that because without that video I would not have been shocked into action! She must suffer tremendously for what she witnessed, and yet she had the forbearance to stick with it – and the COURAGE! I have to remember that and her, and then keep getting up off my privileged backside and keep working to stop this shit!
We had a black man here in my county in Texas who was murdered by four taser blasts on his way home from a friend’s house simply because he **left his high beams on** (not kidding – that was his only wrongdoing) – and so the police pulled him out of his car and began trying to arrest him, and he’s on the ground begging for mercy and they taser him to death with him telling them he has a congenital heart condition!(???) He DID have a congenital heart condition. This man couldn’t even run, much less fight someone. Now he’s dead. How in the HELL does that happen? How in the HELL does that get swept under the rug for 2 months (yep – it did) and my effing TAX DOLLARS are paying for that crap, and those guys haven’t been FIRED YET, much less put in jail where they belong!
On my worst day, angry as hell at the Universe, I could NEVER do something like those things to another human being. How do you squat there continuing to push your knee into a man’s neck while he begs for air, or stand there continuing to taser a man who is lying in the street begging you to stop and telling you he has a heart condition??!! In each case, these persons were many against one, on top of everything else that is wrong with these pictures.
Think on this: If I drove home with my high beams on and the sheriffs pulled me over, a middle-aged white woman, they would have done nothing except ask me if I was okay, listen to me talk to make sure I wasn’t drunk, check my license and insurance, give me “warning” citation and send me on my way home.
This man wound up out of his vehicle on the street dead.
Stop here for a minute and count to 10 while you think on that.
Signing another petition isn’t good enough for shit like this. I have to do more, and so do we all. Lip service ain’t enough… So, “racist” – yeah, I get you, Chuck.
Thanks for causing us all to think!!
June 11, 2020 — 5:39 PM
Angela Alvarez Velez says:
When people say they are not racist, they mostly mean they do not discriminate. Here’s the thing: the system is racist. If you, personally, think “I would totally hire/date/befriend/elect a black/brown/trans/etc. person, so I am not the problem”, then you are missing the point. You don’t discriminate, good for you. That’s step ONE. But there are hidden biases that need revealing, worldviews that need askewing, assumptions that need challenging, and that is a little harder because we cannot know what we don’t know. Which is why we need to listen. I live in Colombia, which means I experience privilege and racism in a different flavor, but it’s still a rotten one.
June 11, 2020 — 7:04 PM
michaelharling says:
Off Topic, but: Longtime lurker and aficionado of your blog. I am now halfway through Wanderers … Jesus Christ!… excellent book…thanks for the nightmares…
June 12, 2020 — 2:51 AM
betsyhadley says:
So not to disrespect the totally more important thoughts on systemic racism and how we can and should (and will, oh please GOD), but was there supposed to be a picture of a sandwich mishap? Cause I sure could use the smile now…
June 12, 2020 — 7:07 PM
Michael Hughes says:
Hey Chuck! I am a fan of yours (we’ve actually corresponded a couple of times on Twitter and here in the comments), and I just noticed that for some reason I am blocked by you on Twitter? I like your Tweets a lot, so I was bummed to see it. I know you deal with a lot of harassment (especially right now), but I’m not sure if somehow ended up on some block list? I can’t imagine why you would have individually blocked me, so… Anyway, I hope you’re well, and I’d appreciate it if you could unblock me as well: @mehughes124.
Cheers!
June 12, 2020 — 9:39 PM
Carson Allen says:
Good words Chuck. Just a few months ago I would have considered this blog post to be pandering. Of course,I would have been wrong.
I just started reading the books “How To Be An Antiracist” and “White Fragility”. I would never read books like this if it were not for the killing of George Floyd.
I am a fellow gen-xer , and only a year younger than you. After skimming these two books and growing up in our particular generation, I can see where you’re coming from. Without a doubt I am pretty sure the schools I attended and the community I lived in were racist. Oh they say times have changed, but I guess I am now woke.
June 13, 2020 — 12:01 AM