Bashing Bashir

One cannot go a day without hearing news of some type of international crisis, in fact, it has been a rather saddening signifier of our times but when did it become the International Criminal Court's responsibility to scapegoat the African continent as the only place their jurisdiction seems to find a function. Serving as the permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression, it has only officially opened investigations against Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Darfur. Hmm? Any person who keeps up with the Jones' of international affairs could easily name several other places where their arms of justice could extend but as of July 1 2002, the date it's treaty the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court came into being, only African states have been addressed.
Now, I am not saying that a court with this type of power should not go after dictators who abuse their power and resources to perputrate crimes against humanity, but I am saying that this type of scapegoating and fear-mongering, and, dare I say, 20th century colonialism, simply sets the stage for bringing more chaos into the already unstable Darfur region. Isn't it supposed to be about bringing justice in the name of peace/humanity/civility, not justice in the name of creating an international laughing stock of unstable African and Arab countries as a polical ploys.
So far, it has issued 13 warrants of arrest but has only four suspects in its cells while seven remain free. All the suspects in ICC cells are from Africa. They are Thomas Lubanga, Germain Katanga, Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, Jean Pierre Bemba and ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is being tried under the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
As I mentioned earlier, my beef with this whole situation is not that he's being served with the warrant, it's the timing of the warrant given the Sudan's precarious state and the history of the ICC investigations. This same sentiment can be heard from the many African and Arab states and ministries that have spoken out against the warrant, that have invited the President to their countries (Egpyt, Eritrea, Libya, Saudi Arabia, the Arab League meeting in Qatar), and have also refused to acknowledge the authority of the ICC. Four major global organisations: the Arab League, the African Union, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, and the Non-Aligned Movement are all against the Bashir warrant. In diplomatic terms, the UN Security Council cannot ignore even one of these organisations.
Bashir has been very adamant in not letting the warrant affect him but I think it's a serious matter when an international court issues the arrest warrant of the 1st sitting head of state. And I wonder--if they were to prosecute, strip Bashir of his position, jail him, would their be as much effort to reform from the same international communities that called for his dismissal. Bashir feared that certain foreign aid groups in Sudan were spying and collecting information for the warrant so he removed them--this neither helped him, the country or the people. This is the type of chain reaction that has to be prevented.
It's common knowledge that African states are continously going through evolution seeing as how the whole continent has faced the wrath of European and Arab imperialism and colonialism. This evolution has to be taken into account with situations such as what do with heads of state of war torn countries. I don't believe, given their histories, that it will ever been taken likely when a European based organization tries to exert authoritative force on African countries so maybe serving warrants should be left up to a humanitarian court serving the African and Arab countries of the continent. Just a thought.

The Ebony Experiment: A Family's Year of Buying Black

What would happen if Black families across America made real commitments to support Black businesses and professionals? How many jobs would be created? How many homes would be saved from foreclosure? How many new role models would our children have? How much would we improve the quality of life of the average American Black family? How much can we do on our own, together, united … without a government program? What if we could prove – again – that this community can defy history and improve the future by just believing we can and believing in one another? And what if the world was watching us do it?

The Ebony Experiment Foundation's focus is research and education concerning economic empowerment in underserved communities. The Foundation's research is based on the Andersons' pledge and experiences finding and supporting Black businesses, professionals and products created by Black manufacturers, as the Black community is a historically underserved community. The Foundation will also study the impacts of a year-long national economic development campaign aimed at promoting and stimulating enhanced entrepreneurship and self-help economics in the underserved Black community. The Foundation will collect data from this campaign to create a new body of knowledge about the power of self-help economics for revitalizing underserved communities. The purpose of the research, the national campaign, and the resultant study is to measure the economic impact of self-help economics and increased entrepreneurship in economically deprived communities.

Following Bashir and the ICC Warrant

March 4, 4007: Warrant sparks anger in Khartoum
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7924324.stm

March 4, 2007: Arrest Warrant for Omar al-Bashir: "Just talk and talk"
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/03/04/arrest-warrant-for-omar-al-bashir-you-dance-and-loudly-talk-just-talk-and-talk/

March 5, 2007: ICC warrant raises questions on leaders targeted
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090305/ap_on_re_af/af_international_court_africa_fallout

March 5, 2007: Don't Bother Brother Bashir
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/937/eg4.htm

March 5, 2007: African states face warrant dilemma
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/03/2009369412283166.html

March 5, 5007: Think Twice on Bashir
http://www.newsweek.com/id/187870

March 5, 2007: Bashir slams ICC's ignorance of Iraq, Gaza at a rally in Khartoum:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/05/content_10950942.htm

March 5, 2007: ICC judges were divided over genocide charges against Sudan president
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article30385

March 5, 2007: Court issues Bashir arrest warrant:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/03/20093412473776936.html

hesi 1.0

its 1 and 2 past 3.
the children and One plus three
reap, when parted sea
promises of Creation's Tree

but if walk with guided light
watch plight through guilded night
through circles of Humanity's strife
these children of faraway sight

and then it comes
and then it comes
we told you so
and then it comes

--Scottie Saturn

Jesse Goldberg: Trapped Butch to Stone Butch

When asked, "How do you know your not a transsexual?" by her friend Grant, Jess replies, "I don't feel like a man trapped in a woman's body. I just feel trapped." It may be that Jess feels trapped, but because we receive her answer through the filter of a gender binary, it is difficult for us to comprehend the true meaning of her response. According to the concept of definite gender that requires attributing gender to a specific body, if Jess is in a female body, then she is female. However, in a system that only recognizes male and female biological gender, Jess, who does not identify herself as either gender, will be forced to either accept the dichotomous gender structure or be punished for violating it.


Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg, narrates the story of Jess's "decision" to deviate from the dichotomous gender system. From the start of the novel, Feinberg reveals that flaws of the gender system for the purpose of proving that the system in itself assumes gender to be wholly visible. It is not possible for Jess to develop a healthy gender identity in a society that does not recognize her ambiguity. Speaking on her childhood Jess says, "No one ever offered a name for what was wrong with me. I only came to recognize its melody through this constant refrain: "Is that a boy or a girl?" Before she even understood the concept of gender, Jess was beginning to understand that whatever the rules were, she was not abiding by them. Furthermore, she did not have the answer to that constant refrain. She could not even anser that question for herself. The significance of including Jess' childhood is to show that her later feelings of being trapped are not self-imposed, but an accumulation of questions, regulations, and punishments that were suppose to force her into accepting her role as a female in a dichotmous gender system.


Despite society's strong influence on Jess, she does not allow society to assign her a generic sexuality and gender that is not a true representation of herself. Jess even rejects the term transsexual which means having the physical characteristics of one sex and the psychological characteristics of the other. Those who do not understand Jess' gender identity crisis offer the possibility that Jess could be a transsexual. Biologically, she is a woman, and while she does live the lifestyle of a butch (tends to denote masculinity displayed by a female beyond that of what would be considered a tomboy) with a sexual orientation for women. With so many possibilities available that could solidify Jess' gender identity, why does she feel trapped? Because Jess developed accostumed to being trapped, attributing a label to her ambiguity would only reinforce her entrapment. She would be expected to abide by the rules of her label although she doesn't believe in them, because even though the gender system is extremely unstable, the rules that uphold it are intended to be followed rigidly. Just as she cannot simply pick a gender identity from a hat of options, Jess knows that she will be equally punished for not choosing. This is evident from the criticisms fo other gender variants like Milli, who leaves Jess because she exhibits behavior uncharacteristic of a butch, and of bigots like Roz, who harasses Jess because she looks like a man. Through Jess, Feinberg is attempting to prove that transsexual may be the termt hat describes a person's identification with the opposite gender, whih appears to be Jess' identity in that she looks and behaves like a conventional man, but it does not define Jess' lack of definitive identification. For Jess to claim the orientation of transsexual would mean fortifying her feelings of being trapped.


While it may be true that Feinberg is showing the distinction between what Jess feels herself to be and transsexuality, the novel is also explicitly showing the connection between Jess' feelings of being trapped and the phenomenon of being "stone." In nature a plant is turned into a stone when it it infiltrated with water and mineral particles. In the same way, being stone butch in the novel refers to weathering the elements, (assault, discrimination, injustice) to the point of petrification, creating a new identity within the same body. To be stone, rather than to be transsexual, appears to be a more accurate depiction fo the way in which Jess has developed. Over the duration fo her life Jess has been ostracized by her famliy for "walking a difficult path in life," attacked and raped by men, mainly police officers who serve as enforcers of the gender system, for threatening their status as "authentic men," and emotionally and psychologically scarred by her relationships with femmes for not being a consistent butch.


During a conversation, Angie discovers the depth of Jess' "stone-ness." "Who hurt you, baby? The cops? Who else? Aw, baby, you're already old too." This part of Angie's talk with Jess shows that Jess has become stone much earlier than other stone butches. "Do you open up to your girlfriend? Have you ever had a girlfriend?" At this point Jess has never had a girlfriend and she implicitly says that if she did she would not be able to open up to her. Despite Jess' status as "a good-looking young butch" her being stone has affected the way in which she behaves in intimate relationships with people. She has been hurt so much in her life that even the love of another person is threatening to her. Angie sees that Jess has built a wall inside herself, one that intended to protect her from all potential danger. Because of the betrayal of her family and the cruelty of strangers, Jess finds it hard to trust anyone. Lastly, Angie asks, "How many times you been busted, baby?" For Jess, and other stone butches, stone is measured by the number of attacks they have lived through, each one adding a brick to the wall.


By the end of the novel, we see that stone is a lifestyle for Jess just as much as it is a condition that she had no choice in developing. Stone butches are frigid, give no response to touch, arousal, or sex and are emotionally withdrawn. This behavior is exhibited by butches because sexuality is not learned in a healthy way, instead it is through a series of events that are not consential. By having to regulate her desires and curiosities for the demands of the gender system, Jess as a result finds herself at the end of the novel identifying more with being stone, a lifestyle that was socially constructed.



Interview with Joan Roughgarden, author of Evolutions Rainbow. This brilliant and accessible work of biological criticism has the potential to revolutionize the way readers conceive of gender and sexuality in the natural world. Roughgarden, a professor of biology at Stanford University and a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, argues that the diversity of gender and sexuality one finds in many species suggests that evolutionary biologists of a strictly Darwinian bent are often misguided, since, according to Roughgarden, they erroneously assume a universally applicable gender binary in all species.

Beam Me Up

i'm beamin up to scottie
scottie saturn of the 7 seas
ozzie need to retire
cuz the prince of darkness be me.

i was that daemon in your ghetto with the snow white smile
spook by the door, i been evil for awhile.
and mama always told me i was crazy
and i'm thinking just maybe

but deamons say i'm hot
but i say naw bitch i'm blazin
like what the fuck you expect
i'm a muthafuckin naga

into fire you may send us,
there we stand when it subsides
the way it speaks to us
you can feel it from inside

blue-shifting to infinite
infinite and beyond
its time for saturn's return
can you feel the chemical bonds?

cuz our connections to nature
got them straight geekin
they rebel against the goddess
and she sends her dark legions

children of the night
they shiva-vishnu-like
dancing celestial libations
to bring that black hole sun light

and there we'll stand
at the beginning of the end
serpents of wisdom
must we do this again

--Scottie Saturn

Bamboozled and Blackface Minstrelsy

Annemarie Bean says that "minstrelsy can be said to have given American culture two legacies: one of creativity and one of resilient stereotypes" (Black Minstrelsy and Double Inversion 177). I believe Bean is speaking of the paradoxical representations of blacks that exist in the American imagination: one of gifted and innovative performer and one of cautious critic, always questioning the reason for the laughter or applause or critical acclaim from white audiences. This sense of having a double consciousness as a black performer has its foundation in minstrelsy as we see the first images of blacks being created by white bodies signifying what blackness is through speech, dress, mannerisms, and a literal blackening of the body. Through the legacy of minstrelsy audiences have been conditioned to see and read the humorous aspects in black impersonations so much so that these behaviors and creations shape the performances of black artists. So how does one create an "authentic" black representation when these strong stereotypes still exist in present reality? Is it possible?

I think so but the black artist has to have a layered consciousness to avoid falling into the trap of encouraging the re-surfacing of these stereotypes in the national imagination unless it is for subversive reasons or for the purpose of understanding present politics of performativity and representation. I think the latter is what we see in Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" as he modernizes the minstrel show to call attention to how these stereotypes are functioning today through what Bean calls "well-established types of humor or nostalgia" (Black Minstrelsy and Double Inversion 177). Time may have been displaces but the collective memory of these images is still present and operating as the New Millennium Minstrel Show becomes a hit in the ratings and a mainstay on televisions across America in both black and white households. I think this mentality of Delacroix's character when he is thinking of the project is one shared by many today--that blackface minstrelsy is archaic and could not resurface with as much popularity as it did at its inception. But like Delacroix we underestimate the staying power of these stereotypes. Bean sites James Weldon Johnson as saying, "Minstrelsy was, on a whole, a caricature of Negro life, and it fixed a stage tradition which has not yet been entirely broken" (Black Minstrelsy and Double Inversion 177). And what Spike posits in "Bamboozled" is that the mask is no longer needed because these stereotypes and images are operating without the deliberate creation of a minstrel. Mainstream Hip Hop is his main focus but they also operate in other facets of mainstream culture: television, cinema, and advertising.

Ultimately, I think to combat the frivolous re-surfacing of these images and stereotypes there has to be an awareness and realization that these representations are dangerous for when a race of people are infantilized, over-sexualized, criminalized in the national imaginations it limits their humanity which leads to social, political, economic, and cultural violence.

Works Cited

Elam, Harry J.; Krasner, David. African American Performance and Theater History. Oxford Press: New York 2001. 177.

Damn, Damn, Damn...

Artist Statement, of sorts

And from Her stellar womb they shall manifest:

Violent hearted Elementals breaking the Dawn of Peace.

Descendants of warlocks, witches with ill glitches--

The ones who do Revolts, Rebirths and Resurrections.

Charmed ones with ancient Grammar.

--Scottie Saturn

I'm starting to see this blog as a type of creative project of sorts so I thought it necessary to provide a little statement, of sorts:

Vilem Flusser writes that we find ourselves in a period of expulsion, to survive we must take the chaos around us and interpret it as data—a conversion synonymous with creation. This act of conversion is the primary subject of my art making practice. The illusion of “home” and the fabrication of desire inform my work both conceptually and formally.

Since moving to southern California, I have been particularly drawn to the alienating quality of the suburban landscape. I am interested in the fantasy of escape and how westward expansion has created sites of excess made to entice. Man’s desire to control and confine nature versus the desire to ‘return to nature’ creates formidable tension. Through a lens of female subjectivity I examine this desire for the landscape to be something it isn’t. Through my art I construct narratives and imagined realities.

I explored this desire to create imagined narratives and realities during the process of directing play by Suzan-Lori Parks entitled The Death of the Last Black Man. Innovative and occasionally controversial, Parks is one of the most highly acclaimed African-American woman playwrights in contemporary theater. Her use of “rep & rev” (repetition and revision) to re-examine and reconfigure eurocentric historical episodes is lauded for providing an afrocentric history and identity—elements that are largely missing from the eurocentric historical record. Parks uses language reminiscent of African-American dialects and vernacular to give multiple meanings to the spoken word and expose the hidden message behind the dialogue of her characters. Often depicting and exaggerating black stereotypes, Parks draws attention to their invalidity and the ignorance upon which they are based. Parks's plays are noted for their originality, non-linear progression of time, poetic dialogue, political and social agendas, and depiction of the search for identity.

She speaks of the Hole of History, both an imaginary empty space on stage which is then filled with the action of the place, and also a very literal place created from the fragmented, distorted, and plagarized history of African Americans and the diapora.

I find that in my work I like to explore this hole, this chthonic realm where the bones of history are buried. And as Suzan says in the introduction of her anthology of plays The American Play and Other Works:

"One of my tasks as a playwright is to locate the ancestral burial ground—dig for bones, find bones, hear the bones sing, write it down."


Here is a clip from an HBO series called Blacklist