Friday Bonus Music Break

Five for the weekend. I haven’t done this in a while. First up Philadelphians Chill Moody (rapper) and Cody Kahmar with the music video for “My Eyes”:

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Mexican dolls

How many times can you replicate an experiment before its underlying questions and possible conclusions turn banal? You’d think the conclusions of the 70 year old Kenneth and Mamie Clark doll experiment would have seeped into Latin America’s public consciousness by now. Apparently not, since the Mexican anti-racist campaign doing their version of the doll experiment quickly went viral recently, as if they saw it for the first time. Of course Mexican kids are no different from the ones in Clarks’ original setting. Why would they be? Some Mexicans hold views about black people that belong in the United States circa 1930. And if the makers of the video below — in an attempted parody trying to acquit Mexico as a country from the campaign’s accusations — think the kids prefer the white doll over the black doll not because the black doll represents a black person but because it is black (with its what they consider typical Mexican associations of superstition, black cats, black death, or “a psychology of colors”), they miss Clarks’ point completely: it is a segregated society that breeds distrust and internalized racism. Which makes Mexico a very ordinary society. The punch line: “I’m not black, I’m a mechanic.” [Read more...]

Vamos a ir a Sudafrica

Whether you’re in the Netherlands, Australia or Mexico, it seems Africa looks the same (but you already knew that). In yet another “original” 2010 World Cup promo, we find actors and newscasters from Mexico’s Televisa network “on the way to South Africa.” And no, they’re not lost—they’re in Africa, where you find only animals roaming through the bush and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is in constant rotation. The big laughs come at 0:39 when Enrique Burak, apparently well-known for commenting on sports outside of his expertise, is eaten by a crocodile. The dialogue that follows translates as such:

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The Help is Cheap

South Africa’s cheap private hospitals (if you have Dollars, Euros and Pounds, of course and if you’re not a black and poor local) have made it a sough after destination for plastic surgery tourism. Serious. Now Cape Town is one of 10 best places to retire for Americans, according to Globalpost.

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WEEKEND LINKS / MIXTAPES, EMIGRATION, RACE, BINGO, JACKSON FIVE, GENDER VIOLENCE, DANCEHALL, AFRICOM, CHRIS HANI, JULIUS MALEMA, AND BRICK CITY

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A busy week on the personal front (more on that another time) so that means a lot of stuff gets the speed blog treatment.

* First up, a link to the “Parts of Africa” hip hop mix: Fourteen tracks including music by Abass Abass, Da Brains and Daara J. [Link]

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