A Year in Review – Things That Need to Go…and some things that can stay
Its the end of the year and that means its time for end of the year lists, reflections, and resolutions. Here at TNTG we resolve to actually blog, instead of taking 7 month long vacations…
Looking back at last years list, I realized that, to my surprise, people don’t actually listen to me because there are way too many things that need to go from last years list that still exist. Oh you know, things like: slacktivism, discussions in American politics that operate under the assumption of the neutral man’s burden, and those large hipster black framed glasses without prescription lenses (its insulting to glasses-wearers, really).
I should preface this years list by saying that it is obviously not meant to be comprehensive and that the list is not numbered in any particular order. The points are also of varying importance and I dont mean to suggest that hipster glasses are equally as annoying as hundreds of years of the white man being treated as the standard person of our society, in case that wasnt clear. With that said…
Things That Need to Go in 2011
1. When something is valuable, white men get to take it. Or, as Stephen Colbert puts it The Great White Wail
2. The coverage and reactions to Wikileaks, which essentially amount to “if you cant kill the message, kill the messenger” Whether it was Columbia threatening students that they will not get a government job if they talk about wikileaks on facebook or the media’s (lack of) coverage, everyone seemed to be up the governments ass this year
3. Prison economies helping to drive Arizona’s Immigration Law
4. The Bed Intruder Meme…It was uncomfortable and grotesque and in the influx of all these youtube videos parodying/using the original footage, i think people forgot what this story was originally about…an attempted rape. I appreciate the way Dodson took control of the meme (and made enough money off the BET performance [!!] to buy his family a new home) but the fact that someone saw the originial story and thought to themselves that this would make a great song/youtube video still deeply disturbs me. And Antoine Dodson halloween costumes definately need to go.
5. Islamophobia/People trying to start a national conversation about whether or not a mosque should be built!! America = land of religious tolerance tolerance of ignorance
6. On a similar note: Xenophobia/People trying to change the 14th amendment!! (you know, the one that says if you were born in the U.S., then youre a citizen)
7. Oil Spills… from the largest natural man made enviornmental disaster in the U.S. to the contining dammages oil companies are causing all around the world, 2010 was not a good year for the enviornnment
8. bedbugs
9. people pretending the recession is over
10. Liking your own comment/status on facebook
11. Making everything Sarah Palin does/says/tweets national news (yeah, i’m calling you out CNN)
12. “Sometimes I Forget you’re black“
13. Needing to remind people what the rules for the N-word are…
14. The serious lack of investigative journalism (with the exception of the awesomeness that is Al Jazeera, and the usually on point analysis of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert)
15. People changing history books as they see fit, and the crazy way in which a couple of conservatives on a Texas education board will effect history books throughout the country…
16. A year of catastrophe’s in Haiti, from the earthquake to the way aid for the earthquake was distributed to the cholera outbreak and contested election results
17. Congress failing at doing things and needing to be reminded by comedians of what they should actually be doing
18. Jeggings
19. Tea party craziness
20. George Bush explaining in his memoirs that his one regret of his presidency was that Kanye West didnt like him, calling the moment when Kanye said Bush didnt care about black people one of “the most disgusting moments of my presidency”
Things that can stay
1. Willow Smith’s Whip My Hair, Sesame Street’s I Love My Hair, and the inevitable remix
2. Wikileaks stirring shit up
3. Making words out of pop culture. For example, I actually lovee that Justin Beiber fans call themselves beliebers
4. Health care passed…it wasn’t really what we wanted, and there’s already a lot of pushback but it was a victory, right…? Dont Ask Dont Tell was repealed, yay for having rights we should’ve already had…
6. The proliferation of awesome Young Adult literature
7. Nicki Minaj‘s verse in Monster
8. The signs people made at the rally to restore sanity/fear and I guess the call for the need for actual conversations about politics instead of yelling and calling people hitler can stay too
10. a possible cure for AIDS?!
Again, these lists are not comprehensive. I really could keep going but 20 and 10 are good list-y places to stop. Feel free to add your own and contest mine in the comments.
So as the new year commences, I toast to friends and allies, to those who fight with me and laugh with me at the absurdities of our world.
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