Will we get awards for Best in Show next?

What the hell is this shit?

A tip sheet for managers supervising Filipino workers in the oilfield has enraged members of the community, who say it describes them in terms used by dog breeders.

The Flint Energy Services document, obtained by the Sun, says “the Filipino is basically of Malay stock with a sprinkling of Chinese, American, Spanish and Arab blood.”

The document goes on to say Filipino tradesmen treat safety as “secondary” and “not a priority,” are “used to working long hours” and “like to be praised.” [Full story]

Brown people = livestock, apparently.

And there is, of course, a non-apology:

Flint senior vice-president Wayne Shaw admitted the wording of the document could have been better chosen, but said “our company took that information directly from Filipino tourism websites, and it was done by a Canadian Filipino working on the information package.”

Shaw said the information was put together to ensure the foreign workers operated in a safe environment, and to assist Canadian supervisors in learning about their culture.

“There was never any intention to ruffle any feathers. This was just meant as a backgrounder.”

Because we all know that if you have [insert minority friend]’s approval, racism is A-OK. It’s not the information in the tip sheet, it’s the way it’s presented.

And why a tip sheet meant to promote safety had to go into details about Filipino “bloodlines,” I don’t know. I can see maybe a brief description of Filipino culture to promote understanding, but the rest?

Here’s contact info for the company responsible, should anyone be moved to write:
Flint Energy Services
700, 300-5th Avenue S.W.
Calgary, Alberta
T2P 3C4
Canada
Telephone: (403) 218-7100
Fax: (403) 215-5445
Toll Free: 1-877-215-5499

This pisses me off.

Call for posts

From zooeylive:

There is a long history of Afro-Asian solidarity both within and outside North America. It is impossible to think of the history of the global radical social movements without the Mao-DuBois, King-Gandhi, Black Power-Yellow Power conversations and exchanges. Black and Asian artists have often borrowed from each other, translated each others’ works and have created artistic pieces as forms of homage to each other. We can also think of the radical Women of Color feminisms as important philosophies which transformed and redefined the meanings of cross/inter-racial alliances amongst different groups of African and Asian descent. In the face of the recent happenings, we need to remember these histories, re-evaluate them and if the situation demands, re-write them in ways that are accessible to people beyond the academic history or literature departments.

I am not looking for any particular form of writing–biographies, critical appraisals, personal stories of becming politicized, inspired–anything will do. Please email them to me at inessacommie@gmail.com by April 15, 2007. I will put them up on my blog on April 17. 2007.

Link Roundup: 16 March 2007

All blog edition! Mostly because I’m too tired to hunt down news stories.

The Ultimate Inhumanity — “(Watchdog group If Americans Knew) has long documented the practice of strip-searching male and female adults by Israeli border officials, and they were the first organization to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the policy of strip searches on women. However, in the course of their research, IAK learned that young children, especially girls, were regularly strip-searched by police and border officials.” [This might be one of the worst things I have ever heard of.]

The Politics of Punctuation — “This is where I balk, because the problem of identity has been raised. Is identity about social position, or is it about the soul? How are we to manage the fact that it’s about both?” [I'm still trying to wrap my head around this — it has been way too long since I've read anything academic that wasn't simply historical analysis or statistical data — but it is a really, really interesting essay on how people choose to discuss race and the impact of that.]

Young Americans: Pro-Gay, Anti-Woman — “The abortion conversation revolves around fetal rights, not women’s rights. ‘Where does life begin?’ is accepted as the abortion-related question — not, ‘What are a human beings rights to control his or her own body?’ Further, my generation has seen an incredible commodification of the female body, wherein highly sexualized female figures are used to sell everything from clothes to cars to vacations.” [What gets me is that most of the same people who argue against reproductive rights are the same people who argue that we don't need things like the ERA because women already have rights. We have rights, just not as many as a fetus (or potential fetus, in the case of birth control/emergency contraception).]

Thoughts on American Idol — “I don’t have a problem with Fox letting Antonella Barba remain on (American Idol). Just like Donald Trump’s treatment of Tara Conner (Miss Universe), I applaud their ability and willingness to forgive and move on. My beef is with the way Frenchie Davis was dragged through the mud and dismissed for a relatively similar ‘offense.’”