Tuesday, December 04, 2018



Black sex educator accuses staff at The Bean coffee shop of being racist after they 'singled her out and asked if if she had ordered anything' while she was sat alone

She is just being defensive about her own poor behavior.  She should have ordered.  A shop is not a rest home.  But in a climate of racial tension created by the Left it was inevitable that she should see the approach to her as racist.  She did not consider that other customers who were not approached might (for instance) previously have made it known to management that they were waiting for a friend to turn up.  Meeting in coffee shops is common

A white male employee at a lower Manhattan coffee shop singled out a black woman to ask if she had ordered anything, the woman asked him why he hadn't asked anyone else, and then the manager told her she 'was making a big deal out of nothing.'

Ericka Hart, a sex educator who has a masters degree in education, shared what happened to her in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

'#sittingincafeswhileblack || They will do anything so you are left wondering if it happened,' Hart wrote at the end of the post detailing how she was treated at The Bean on Astor Place.

Co-owner Ike Escava apologized to Hart for the 'terrible experience she had,' after she claimed she had been sitting in the coffee shop amongst other people who hadn't ordered anything when the employee asked her and her alone to make a purchase.

Escava added, 'Nobody should ever be made to feel singled out for any reason, least of all for the color of their skin.'

Hart used an image of white text on a black background as the photo for a post on Tuesday, which read, 'If it looks like racism, smells like racism, maybe is racism, where they just being racist? racism.

Hart went into detail about what happened to her at The Bean in the East Village that day, describing in detail how she was the only person asked to buy something, how the scenario made her react almost reflexively, and how the entire ordeal made her feel.

'So I am sitting at @thebeannyc on Astor PL in NYC and a presumable white cis man comes up to me and asks if I have bought anything,' she wrote.

'I have been sitting here for about 20 min, so I find this question weird as there is no signage indication that an order needs to be placed within a certain amount of time. I go to the counter (racism is evil genius, making you act accordingly) at his request to order something and then it occurs to me that he has not asked anyone around me this question.

'I ask to speak to the person who asked me to buy something as I wanted to know the basis as this has never happened to me in my 9 years sitting in cafes in NYC.

'As I am speaking to this person, the manager walks up behind me and interrupts our interaction with an introduction. I wonder how he knew what we were talking about...or did he tell his staff to ask me as he has been sitting one seat away from me since I sat down?'

Now that Hart had the manager's attention, she went on to explain to him why she was bothered at being asked to place an order. 'I tell him that being asked if I had bought anything after I had been siting there for 20 minutes made me uncomfortable especially in my positionality and no one else has been asked,' she wrote.

'He tells me "this does not make anyone uncomfortable and it's not (waves hands to help him look for a word other than 'race') about your identity."

'I let him know I would be posting this on social media and he said "I am making a big deal out of nothing"

'I'm now looking at people who haven't purchased anything and have not been asked when they will be. So here I am, making a big deal out of nothing.'

A full day after Hart shared the post on social media, The Bean co-owner Escava finally responded with regard to the purchase policy.

'We do in fact have a policy requiring people to make a purchase in order to use the tables in the shops but the enforcement of the policy needs to be carried out in a better way than it was in this case,' he wrote.

Escava made mention that he had read the comments about the incident, and would take steps to put people on notice of the store's rules about when an order is required.

'I saw some suggestions about having better signage regarding this policy and will get that done, thank you,' he said. 

Escava acknowledged how terribly Hart had been treated, and that her race should not have played any part in how his employees behaved towards her, but stopped short of calling what happened 'racism.'

'I will review all of our training policies and speak to each of our employees over the next few days in order to ensure that we do better with this,' he said.

'I will get to the bottom of exactly how and why we went wrong here and take whatever measures are needed to correct it going forward.'

SOURCE






Radio station stops playing ‘inappropriate’ popular Christmas carol

A radio station has come under fire after they decided lyrics to a much-loved Christmas carol were seriously inappropriate.

Backlash was inevitable when an Ohio radio station deemed a popular Christmas Carol inappropriate and decided not to play it this Christmas.

Most would be familiar with the holiday duet Baby, It’s Cold Outside; it’s been around since the 1940s and it has been covered by the likes of Jessica Simpson, Michael BublĂ© and Idina Menzel, Lady Gaga and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel in the movie, Elf.

But on Tuesday listeners were shocked to discover the station had axed the popular carol, with Star 102 Cleveland’s website explaining why the radio station won’t play the song.

“I do realise that when the song was written in 1944, it was a different time, but now while reading it, it seems very manipulative and wrong,” presenter Glenn Anderson said in an statement.

“The world we live in is extra sensitive now, and people get easily offended, but in a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place,” he said.

Apparently the song has been subject to scrutiny for years, even prior to the #MeToo movement which Mr Anderson cited in his explanation.

The lyrics read like a conversation between a man and a woman with the woman saying she must leave, while the man insists she stays.

Some of the woman’s lines include “Say, what’s in this drink?”, and “I ought to say no, no, no”, while the man’s lines are persistent.

Comedian and writer Jen Kirkman explained how the song may not be about a man persuading a woman to stay and have sex with him, but rather how a woman’s reputation will suffer if she wants to stay, and does.

“If you want to be outraged, be outraged about what the song is actually about - the double standard in regards to sex that women face and how nothing much has changed,” she tweeted.

It was implied listeners wanted the song to be taken off the air, however a Facebook poll showed 94 per cent of people think the song is “a classic”, with 6 per cent deeming the song as “inappropriate”.

More than 5,000 people have voted since the station launched the poll on their Facebook page on 29 November.

“I can only speak for my own experience, but personally I adore this song and have never been offended by it or freaked out by it,” one posted in the comments, saying they were a survivor and part of the Me Too movement.

“I do not believe it’s about rape - it’s a playful banter from a time when a woman would have been concerned people would think badly of her for staying, even if she wanted to. I’m glad my husband and I will be enjoying it on our holiday playlist.”

SOURCE






Pope Francis says 'fashionable' homosexuality 'is something that worries me' and claims there is no place for gay priests in the Catholic church

Pope Francis has said that 'fashionable' homosexuality 'is something that worries me' and claims there is no place for gay priests in the Catholic church.

Quoted in a soon-to-be published book, Francis remarked that some societies are considering homosexuality a 'fashionable' lifestyle.

Francis was quoted as describing homosexuality within the walls of seminaries, convents and other religious places where clergy live as 'a very serious question.'

Italian daily Corriere della Sera's website Saturday ran excerpts of the book in the form of an interview that Francis gave on religious vocations.

In the interview with Spanish-born missionary priest, Fernando Prado, he was quoted: 'In our societies, it even seems homosexuality is fashionable. And this mentality, in some way, also influences the life of the church.'

The book, based on four hours of conversations the two had in August at the Vatican, will be published in 10 languages next week.

Francis reiterated past Vatican pronouncements about the attention that must be given to selecting men for admission to seminaries, saying 'we must very much take care of human and sentimental maturity' when training future priests.

Separately, quoted Francis in the book as commenting on a clergyman who had told him that having gay people in Catholic religious housing 'isn't so grave' because it's 'only an expression of affection', according to Italian news agency ANSA.

That reasoning 'is in error,' Francis said. 'In consecrated life and priestly life, there is no place for this kind of affection.'

He said candidates with 'neuroses or strong unbalances' should not be accepted 'to the priesthood nor to (other forms of) consecrated life.'

But Francis, as he has in the past, stressed that gay Catholics contribute to the life of the church.

He said the church must always remember that 'they are persons who will live in the service of the church, of the Christian community, of the people of God. Let's never forget this perspective.'

Francis in his papacy has sought to stress that while obeying church teachings, the faithful must also be compassionate and open to others with different views.

Catholic teaching considers homosexual activity sinful, and that everyone, except married heterosexual couples, should abstain from sex.

SOURCE





In a brothel, racial preferences come out

When a sex worker began applying for a new job at a brothel, she discovered one problem within the sex industry that won’t go away.

It was an average Saturday night around the dinner table when, over a glass of wine, one of my friends said that she was checking out some new places to work.

She wasn’t looking on your average job website, though.

She’s a sex worker, so she had been scrolling through the web pages of different brothels in Sydney, comparing their locations, premises and rates to choose which ones sounded the most promising.

Those of us at the table crowded around her, peering over her shoulder as she searched on her phone. There was nothing out-of-the-ordinary at first – at least, nothing out of the ordinary for our industry – until she happened upon one particular brothel.

On the “prices” page of one particular site, the cost of the booking wasn’t only dictated by the amount of time a client might be interested in spending with a girl. It also differed depending on what kind of girl he would choose: “Western” girls commanded a higher rate.

It was written right there, clear as day. For some bookings, a client could expect to pay almost $100 more to see a “western” – or white – girl than he would to see an Asian girl who worked at the same parlour.

While private workers are free to set their own rates and charges, brothel-based workers are paid a percentage of the price that the business sets.

So, this brothel didn’t only charge clients more to see white workers, it also paid white workers more than non-white workers for the same amount of work. While the ethnic pay gap has been discussed and debated at length, seeing such a blatant example of it left me feeling horrified.

In no world would it be appropriate to charge a customer more to have their coffee made by a white barista, to get their taxes done by a white accountant, or to see a white doctor. So why was it okay here?

To pay one worker more than another because of their race, or to charge more for a service because of the provider’s race, is racism – plain and simple.

The adult industry is frequently considered to be ahead of the curve when it comes to progressive politics. After all, if we can make it past the hang-ups that most people have about sex and nudity, surely we must be a pretty enlightened group – right?

Sex worker and sociologist Zenith Breitling has been in the industry for six years now. She describes herself as Australian-Asian and says that “refreshingly honest” is something she hears a lot about herself, adding, “I’m happier in a pair of Merrells than I am in a pair of Louboutins”.

Zenith has met people through work who have made well-intentioned, genuine mistakes in assuming things about her: Clients who’ve taken her to dinner and assumed she would love chilli, for example. But she’s also had more sinister experiences.

“A brothel wrote a biography of me on their website using phrases that exoticised my race, like ‘here to please you’ and ‘oriental dream’. Both are phrases intended to evoke the stereotype of the submissive Asian woman,” she told me over email.

“There’s also definitely a cohort of clients who fetishise Asian women for how we look. I’ve got no drama with fellas who appreciate a certain look – hey, I like ginger dadbods!

“But when they prey on Asian women specifically, expecting us all to behave the same...that’s when it’s no longer a preference and fetishisation becomes a problem.”

As a white woman in the adult industry, I can’t say I’ve ever been judged negatively because of my race. But I’ve seen it happen to others; friends, co-workers, and clients.

I’ve met plenty of clients who refuse to see workers of specific races and just as many workers who refuse clients based on race, too.

While in some circumstances this might make sense – a client visiting from China may feel more comfortable seeing a worker who speaks fluent Mandarin or Cantonese – it’s rarely ease of communication that informs these judgements.

There are also brothel and agency managers who are quick to discriminate against workers who aren’t white; something that Zenith has also experienced (“thanks, but we don’t need another worker – we already have an Asian girl working tonight,” is something she has heard before.)

Every single person in the adult industry – whether they’re a worker, a manager, or a business owner – faces some form of judgement and stigma because of their work.

Sometimes it’s the assumption that we’re working unsafely or illegally, or that we’re harming ourselves or others in our work. Other times, it’s just the age-old belief that sex is dirty or wrong and that anyone who has it, especially for money, is also dirty or wrong.

It has always surprised me that people who face so much stigma and judgement because of their work can be so quick to stigmatise and judge other people. While the adult industry might be enlightened when it comes to sex and nudity, we clearly have a lot of work to do in letting go of harmful stereotypes and prejudices about our colleagues and friends.

If we demand acceptance from others, should we not also give it in turn? How can we be so hypocritical as to ask someone not to judge our occupation, when we turn around and judge the worker or client sitting right next to us?

“It’s an image-obsessed industry that uses the guise of ‘preference’ as an easy gateway to encourage racist practises, mostly rewarding whiteness or proximity to whiteness,” Zenith told me.

“No layperson needs it explained that racism is a visually-coded form of discrimination.”

When I asked Zenith what I – and other workers – could do to help combat racism in the industry, her advice was simple.

Encourage diversity and listen to migrant workers, but also, be conscious of the kind of behaviour we ignore in our workplaces because speaking up feels too hard, or intimidating. “Encouraging, or being complicit to, racist practises within the sex industry gives people yet another green light to treat people outside of the industry the same way,” she said. “But when we embrace diversity, everyone gets work.”

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here

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1 comment:

C. S. P. Schofield said...

Regarding "Baby it's cold outside' and other inanities;

We have hundreds of years' worth of beautiful religious music celebrating the birth of Christ, written by some of the greatest composers who ever lived. Given that the Social Justice Wankers are going to complain no matter WHAT Christmas music we play, why shouldn't we play the really good stuff, and invite those who are offended to go piss up a rope and stand under it while it dries?

Hell, I'm an agnostic. I have doubts about the established Churches. But anything that can consign "Last Christmas" and "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" to the ash heap of musical history would please me mightily.

'Last Christmas I gave you my heart,
the very next day, you gave it away.
This year, to save me from tears,
I poisoned your f*cking coffee.'

*spit*