Julie Pippert: Using My Words

As much as this could be a typical In Depth Julie-style topic...it's not. It's about Friends in NaBloPoMo. I don't know how to invite any. So...I'm sorry. A few of you wonderful (and I use few literally) folk have extended invitations to me, but sadly...I don't know how to send friend invitations to so many of you participating that I'd like to add as friends. Invite me? Tell me how? Many thanks! Also, I created a group called INTJs Blogging . Anyone is welcome to join, any INTJs, INTJ fans, or INTJ wannabes. ;) (Hopefully that link works!) Tomorrow (Friday) is the official launch of the Blog Pledges...the list of bloggers for you to check out. So check in! Copyright 2007 Julie Pippert Also blogging at: Using My Words Julie Pippert REVIEWS : Get a real opinion about BOOKS, MUSIC and MORE Julie Pippert RECOMMENDS : A real opinion about HELPFUL and TIME-SAVING products

Although it seems hard to believe, the earth is still spinning and regular life is still ongoing even though there is a hurricane out there. There are a lot of things in life I didn't get around to this week, and hopefully that's just a "yet" but I acknowledge some things will have to be dropped. Here are a few that won't: 1. A big heartfelt thanks to Chani for awarding me the Blogger Reflection award. This award should make you reflect on five bloggers who have been an encouragement, a source of love, impacted you in some way, and have been a Godly example to you. Five Bloggers who when you reflect on them you get a sense of pride and joy... of knowing them and being blessed by them. Even with the blatant abuse of the word "impact" and the nebulous wording of "Godly example" I find this a lovely award. Even lovelier is what Chani wrote Julie and I have very different cultural perspectives. She is also far brighter than me. Just the same, I am...

Prejudice : ageism, animosity, antipathy, apartheid, aversion, bigotry, chauvinism, contemptuousness, discrimination, disgust, dislike, enmity, illiberality*, injustice, jaundiced eye, mind-set, misjudgment, narrow-mindedness, one-sidedness, partiality, preconceived notion, racism, repugnance, revulsion, sexism, umbrage, unfairness, xenophobia * I'd say call Webster's here, but errr...this is from the dictionary . What's your gut reaction to the above words? My gut roils, and not pleasantly. Each word carries a fairly bad---perhaps even nasty---connotation. Those words are the rationale we use to harm others. I'm not picturing a billy club to a head per se (although there is historical precedent). I'm picturing less obvious harm as well, such as dimming someone's soul. The thesaurus asks us to consider: a person's bias is based on facts, but prejudice occurs without a person knowing or examining the facts. The facts. We've studied facts in school, cla...

The discussion about race and culture on the Internet has grown and expanded. I can't express how awesome and amazing I think this is. A big thank you to everyone who is participating! Here's the exciting news: BlogRhet is hosting the first ever theme-week (an online, no fees, no name-tags, no pressure conference-slash-consciousness -raising-event); AKA: Let's Talk About Race, Baby. I promise no "speed-dating" style ice breakers, either. ;) I also promise some awesome things. Motherhood Uncensored 's Kristen, Rice Daddies , Kimchi Mamas , and more will all be cooperatively participating in BlogRhet's week long initiative to explore race, culture and the Internet...next week! Kristen will host a radio-podcast on the topic, including interviews with Stefania Pomponi Butler and others; she'll also be guest posting on the topic at BlogRhet. Joy of GingaJoy and Tere of A Mom, A Blog and the Life In-Between will text interview some of the fabulous Kimchi ...

A lot of people have said in comments and emails that what they have to say on this topic, " Is the Internet the Rainbow Connection? " exceeds a comment and want to write their own posts. Therefore...by popular request, the Hump Day Hmm topic for this week will be race, society and the Internet---any angle you would like to take. If you've already written a post recently or at any time in the past, e-mail it to me at j pippert at gmail dot com. When you write a post, do the same. If you feel stymied, but have commented, take your comment and post it. :) A favor of other bloggers who are or already have discussed this topic...would you could you mention this Hump Day Hmmm or my email? I know the discussion is broad and wide. I'd love to collect in one spot links to all the posts so people can easily find them for reading. Muchas gracias! copyright 2007 Julie Pippert

If you think I am going to talk about race in this post, you are right. I am. I'm not going to try to rock any worlds and make anyone a different person. I'm just going to say a few things that have been on my mind since Tere broached this topic on BlogRhet . The subsequent discussion felt like a lot of different things to different people, and I'm going to say that's because we are all different races and cultures. So I am going to say that race matters, but not in the way people usually think it does. I'll tell you how and why it matters to me, and then I'll tell you how and why I think it matters, anyway, on the Internet. First, let's get this out of the way. You've seen my photo and my kids. You look at me and think, "Caucasian. That girl is one long loaf of white bread." And you'd be right. Mostly. But not completely. When I was going through the diagnosis for my Dread Disease , the specialist did the usual extremely in-depth H&P ...