How to buy presents for people 'Of Color'

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^ ...yeah. Not that any of the stuff on the list is actually a bad idea - it's just the concept of having a guide for buying for POCs in the first place. 'Cause they're all one category, donchaknow. And all that regular stuff, all ties and magazine subscriptions and automatic eggbeaters, that's all for white folk.

Also, Henna does not cost $25. Henna costs like $5. If that. Here it costs about £2.50. In Dubai, it cost me about 15p. Putting 'Bollywood' on the front does not change that. And scarves do not cost $600!

So yeah. If you choose what to get your friends based on what colour they are, have at it.

NEW YORK TIMES, HOW FAR HAVE YOU FALLEN?

Jesus Christ I can't believe they actually published this.

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Anthony Dickey is to women with “problem hair” what Batman is to Gotham City.

Brought to you by Nap-A-Way, for stubborn hair.

NEW STEREOTYPES FOR THE 0-10s: Ethnic people love scarves!

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The Mocha Manual to Military Life: A Savvy Guide for Wives, Girlfriends and Female Service Members' by Kimberly Seals-Allers and Pamela M. McBride
$14.99 Buy From Amazon
Do you know an Army wife, or someone who is dating a person in the military? Do they need advice on how to manage a long-distance relationship? This handbook may help. The authors cover a range of topics, from how to cope during deployment to mastering military protocol. (Harper Paperbacks, $14.99)

How is that a black-specific problem?

Maybe it has tips on how to cook fried chicken for your husband when he comes back home, or other such Racially Sensitive suggestions. Much like this entire fucking list.

BTW Sotomayor =/= cruise control for cool amongst hispanics. Seriously.

What....(Pinches the bridge of her nose) What...who...why?

Not saying that someof those gifts aren't good products (The make-up for Asian women was a great step forward), but what the fuck?

ETA: And why would you give someone make-up they'd never heard of? Now, if your friend got it done on one of those free days at the counter, and liked it but couldn't afford it, and you bought it for them, you're an awesome friend. But you never give make-up that the person hasn't tried as a gift. Bad plan, abort!

I really can't beleive they published some of this stuff and got away with this. Srsly...

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Baby Jamz


$6.99 to $24.99 Buy From Baby Jamz
Solange Knowles and her father, Matthew Knowles (yes, Beyoncé’s sister and father) have teamed with Planet Toys to create an interactive hip-hop and rhythm-based toy line.

Because all negroes are born with a love of hip-hop and rap music. After this, you might want to purchase our Kool-Aid baby formula and our fried-chicken baby food.

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There’s no “regifting” a reservation to Radio One’s sixth annual Love Gospel Cruise 2010. On April 12 through -17 send someone special on a Caribbean cruise aboard a Norwegian Cruise Line ship. Some of the best gospel artists in the country will perform on the trip, which promises to be an uplifting adventure after a long year. Accommodations start at $959 a person.

Seriously, I'm really floored they got away with printing stuff like this. It just blows my mind...

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Why give your kids yet another video game when you can open their minds? Nikki Grimes’s children’s book about President Obama comes with an educational guide and colorful illustrations. (Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, $16.99)

Because, hurf durf, them brown folks just can't get enough of that negro we done voted into office, hurf durf.

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This isn’t just a book about saris and salwars. Indian high-fashion is making a global impact with styles that don’t lose sight of tradition. A beautiful, informative coffee table book for the fashion novice and the aficionado alike. (Damiani, $60)

JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE'S INDIAN DOESN'T MEAN THEY WANT TO DRESS LIKE IT!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Not only that, but I also know plenty of "non-colored" people that enjoy wearing Indian scarves and henna and shit! Those things are only going to be enjoyable to people that like to wear them, skin color fits nowhere in that equation! Hell, my girlfriend likes wearing Indian scarves, and she would think that something like that would be a lovely present, and she isn't Indian.

....

But she is hispanic, and that be brown enough, hurf durf.

Honestly if anyone were to give me anything on that list I'd feel so "othered". A Gospel Cruise? *shudder*

Yeah okay.

Some of those products, like the Iman book, the make-up, and the hair stuff is legitimately good. But I would feel so weird giving that to one of my friends of colour. It would be like saying, "See! I understand your plight, I understand that you feel marginalized by mainstream society. I've come to make it better with material things!" Talk about Mighty Whitey.

I don't understand why anybody felt the need to compile a list like this. Like people who are of races other than white don't have any other characteristics other than the fact that they're of a different race?

Clearly, all you should buy for them is Watermelon.

Zeiss Manifold wrote:

NEW STEREOTYPES FOR THE 0-10s: Ethnic people love scarves!

IT'S A LITTLE LATE FOR THAT DIPSTICK! SAVE IT FOR THE NEXT DECADE!!1!

But really, I'd be surprised if you told me some half assed tabloid published this. I now the NY Times has been a joke for a long time now, but I thought they were still at least pretending to be a respectable newspaper.

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Why give your kids yet another video game when you can open their minds?

Oh, fuck you! Do you really think gaming is what it was in the eighties? This disrespect of gamer culture is appalling and needs to stop!

...wait, what were we talking about?

Delcat wrote:

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Why give your kids yet another video game when you can open their minds?

Oh, fuck you! Do you really think gaming is what it was in the eighties? This disrespect of gamer culture is appalling and needs to stop!

This was actually pretty much my reaction too, sadly.

grmblfjx wrote:

Quote :

The Mocha Manual to Military Life: A Savvy Guide for Wives, Girlfriends and Female Service Members' by Kimberly Seals-Allers and Pamela M. McBride
$14.99 Buy From Amazon
Do you know an Army wife, or someone who is dating a person in the military? Do they need advice on how to manage a long-distance relationship? This handbook may help. The authors cover a range of topics, from how to cope during deployment to mastering military protocol. (Harper Paperbacks, $14.99)

How is that a black-specific problem?

I believe the phrase 'mocha' in the title would incdicate that it has been written specifically for people of color... although I really hope I'm wrong.

JadeAngel wrote:

grmblfjx wrote:

Quote :

The Mocha Manual to Military Life: A Savvy Guide for Wives, Girlfriends and Female Service Members' by Kimberly Seals-Allers and Pamela M. McBride
$14.99 Buy From Amazon
Do you know an Army wife, or someone who is dating a person in the military? Do they need advice on how to manage a long-distance relationship? This handbook may help. The authors cover a range of topics, from how to cope during deployment to mastering military protocol. (Harper Paperbacks, $14.99)

How is that a black-specific problem?

I believe the phrase 'mocha' in the title would incdicate that it has been written specifically for people of color... although I really hope I'm wrong.

And we ask again: How is this a black-specific problem?

In b4 Aggie tells us that the NYT just worded this article poorly and is ~*misunderstood*~

No, but really. The only people I could see buying these gifts for the darkies in their lives would be supervisors trying way too hard to look more socially aware than they actually are. Most people know their friends well enough to get them something that they specifically would like instead of junk that vaguely pertains to their skin color.

Bamshalam wrote:

No, but really. The only people I could see buying these gifts for the darkies in their lives would be supervisors trying way too hard to look more socially aware than they actually are. Most people know their friends well enough to get them something that they specifically would like instead of junk that vaguely pertains to their skin color.

This makes me wonder if this was some kind of strange joke to catch those sorts of people out then...

Rabid Badger wrote:

JadeAngel wrote:

I believe the phrase 'mocha' in the title would incdicate that it has been written specifically for people of color... although I really hope I'm wrong.

And we ask again: How is this a black-specific problem?

This. I agree that "mocha" is supposed to be a clever indicator that the book is for black people, no wait, only females. This theory finds support in the fact that the cartoonish woman on the cover is coffee-colored. I still don't understand why being the wife or girlfriend of a military man raises skin-specific problems. I mean, it's not like black spouses aren't allowed to use the commissary or something.

Bamshalam wrote:

In b4 Aggie tells us that the NYT just worded this article poorly and is ~*misunderstood*

Because heaven knows that anyone that disagrees with you is clearly just saying things to antagonize you and it couldn't possibly be that they just disagree with your opinion.

Heaven also knows that one simply cannot keep such antagonistic feelings contained to the one relevant thread; no, it must pervade every thread that has even the smallest tangentially linked subject matter (no matter how spurious). That's sort of required by internet law: no two people can disagree and just leave it at that. Dragging grudges from one thread to another is definitely the most mature way to handle disagreements and makes one's e-peen lengthen by an astonishing 3/4"!

I've got to say that I truly admire you, Bamshalam. When others would simply walk away from a pointless argument, you persevere. You are willing to fight the good fight and continue waging a war that other people have long since lost interest in in order to further continued drama. Your determination to see an outcome to the bitter end even after the battle has been abandoned is nothing short of inspiring. I salute you, Bamshalam: you are a better and wiser internet warrior than I. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

tl;dr version: get over it already.

While I agree that the list is awful, in all its HAVE A BLACK FRIEND GET THEM SOMETHING BLACK PEOPLE LIKE glory, but I dunno about the bashing of the individual products. Every product on that page is made by members the same group it's supposedly marketed towards. So while dealing with military life is certainly not a black woman-specific problem, the title may just indicate where it's coming from -- the perspective of a pair of black women. It's also apparently part of a series, and the series is "The Mocha Guide to..." various things.

The New York Times? Really. I know that newspapers make mistakes, but this is like diving into an empty swimming pool AFTER noticing the water is gone.

I am astonished. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I expect everyone who realizes the inherent racism in that article to write angry letters to the NY Times.

"And yea, on the eve of Christmas, the NY Times mail room verily exploded with papery indignation."

Aggie wrote:

Bamshalam wrote:

In b4 Aggie tells us that the NYT just worded this article poorly and is ~*misunderstood*

Because heaven knows that anyone that disagrees with you is clearly just saying things to antagonize you and it couldn't possibly be that they just disagree with your opinion.

Heaven also knows that one simply cannot keep such antagonistic feelings contained to the one relevant thread; no, it must pervade every thread that has even the smallest tangentially linked subject matter (no matter how spurious). That's sort of required by internet law: no two people can disagree and just leave it at that. Dragging grudges from one thread to another is definitely the most mature way to handle disagreements and makes one's e-peen lengthen by an astonishing 3/4"!

I've got to say that I truly admire you, Bamshalam. When others would simply walk away from a pointless argument, you persevere. You are willing to fight the good fight and continue waging a war that other people have long since lost interest in in order to further continued drama. Your determination to see an outcome to the bitter end even after the battle has been abandoned is nothing short of inspiring. I salute you, Bamshalam: you are a better and wiser internet warrior than I. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

tl;dr version: get over it already.

u mad

Aggie wrote:

Bamshalam wrote:

In b4 Aggie tells us that the NYT just worded this article poorly and is ~*misunderstood*

Because heaven knows that anyone that disagrees with you is clearly just saying things to antagonize you and it couldn't possibly be that they just disagree with your opinion.

Heaven also knows that one simply cannot keep such antagonistic feelings contained to the one relevant thread; no, it must pervade every thread that has even the smallest tangentially linked subject matter (no matter how spurious). That's sort of required by internet law: no two people can disagree and just leave it at that. Dragging grudges from one thread to another is definitely the most mature way to handle disagreements and makes one's e-peen lengthen by an astonishing 3/4"!

I've got to say that I truly admire you, Bamshalam. When others would simply walk away from a pointless argument, you persevere. You are willing to fight the good fight and continue waging a war that other people have long since lost interest in in order to further continued drama. Your determination to see an outcome to the bitter end even after the battle has been abandoned is nothing short of inspiring. I salute you, Bamshalam: you are a better and wiser internet warrior than I. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

tl;dr version: get over it already.

Lol honey

calm down

Denimjo Aggie, isn't this about the time you flounce off the internet for a couple years and come back under another name?

Wow, NYtimes, wow. On other news, I actually own that Iman book. I use it when I really want to dress up...