Defending Dunlap's Dare...
[Update: Someone keeps trying to post some pretty mean things about Stephanie. I'm not sure why, and I don't care. If you don't like how Stephanie looks, that's fine. I allow people to say certain negative things on this blog, but if you don't see your comments it means you've crossed the line. Try rephrasing your thoughts.]
Last Wednesday, in my blog entry "Smitherman: White, Racist Gays Let Me Down," I sought to focus attention on Councilmember Christopher Smitherman's statements regarding racism within the white GBLT community, as reported by CityBeat writer Stephanie Dunlap.
Frequent readers of this blog certainly have noticed that I add pictures to the top of nearly every blog entry. Why do I do it? Because they enhance the blog. Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words. Sometimes the picture generates a laugh. Some people have entire blogs with nothing but pictures and captions. So, keeping with my norm, after I finished writing the blog on about Smitherman's comments, I added a picture. For reasons explained below, the picture was of Stephanie. I also added a caption which read: "CityBeat cutie Stephanie Dunlap."
The next day Stephanie offered the following comment:
Nate, an observation: when you like what I write about, I'm a "cutie." When you dislike it, I'm "pumping Nick Spencer." And when the Whistleblower agrees with my story on Drake Hospital, I'm a "cute little reporterette." When it doesn't, I'm giving David Pepper a BJ. The vocabulary of criticism is based on my irrelevant sexuality either way. I dare you to consider sexism as well as racism in your analyses.
On first reading Stephanie's comment daring me to consider sexism as well as racism in my "analyses," I wasn't offend at all. To the contrary, I was glad to see that Stephanie still reads the Cincinnati Black Blog. I planned to offer a short reply accepting Stephanie's dare for future blogs, and explaining that sexism had nothing to do with what I wrote in the blog entry in question. But before I got around to replying, 8 people decided to comment on the issue. This caused me to go back and read Stephanie's comment again. I now offer, for your reading pleasure, my reasons for calling Stephanie Dunlap a "cutie" and my response to the insinuation that I don't consider sexism when blogging.
- Stephanie wrote that when I disliked something she wrote I said she was "pumping Nick Spencer." Then, for comparison, she brought up Jim over at The Whistleblower and said when he disliked something she wrote he said she was giving David Pepper a BJ. (a) I can't believe Stephanie took my comments as sexual or sexist. I didn't say she was humping, screwing, or fucking Nick -- literally or figuratively. I said she was pumping him, as in pumping him up, boosting him, cheering him on, or even praising him. The term "pumping" has no sexual connotation. (For those of you who rode the short bus to school, the city has been pumping Chad Johnson, Rudi Johnson, and Carson Palmer for weeks. One definition of "sexuality" is: "The condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex." The term "pumping" doesn't characterize or distinguish anyone by sex.) Because there was nothing sexual included in my "vocabulary of criticism," it wasn't based on Stephanie's sexuality. (b) I don't know what The Whistleblower meant by their comment, but that has nothing to do with me.
- The blog entry was about Smitherman, the GBLT community, and the Black community. As far as I know, Stephanie isn't a Smitherman, or a member of either the GBLT community or Black communities. There are times when I take a story and focus my attention on the writer. Go back and read "Smitherman: White, Racist Gays Let Me Down," and you'll see that isn't the case here. Again, I focused almost entirely on Smitherman's comments and the relationship between the Black and GBLT communities. I did have a few brief comments about CityBeat but they clearly weren't the main focus of the blog entry. Let me add that I've referred to Greg Flannery's personal characteristics a few times and never got accused of exercising a vocabulary of criticism based on his irrelevant (or non-existent) sexuality.
- You might wonder why I used a picture of Stephanie if the focus of the blog wasn't about her? That's a good question. Here's the answer. (a) I try not to use pictures more than once and I've nearly depleted my stock of Smitherman pics. (b) I spent a few minutes trying to find an appropriate picture that dealt with the subject matter, but I found myself wasting way too much time. For time's sake, I decided to use the picture of Stephanie. (c) Given the choice of looking at another picture of Smiterman versus a picture of Stephanie, I figured my readers would prefer gazing at Stephanie.
- Ah, but why did I refer to Stephanie as a cutie? The good Rev. Bishop Abraham Isaac Jacob Swanson XII, senior pastor of the Bibleway Church of God in Christ had a habit of ending his radio program on WCIN by saying "I love you, I love you, I love you and you can't do nothing about it." Well, I happen to think Stephanie is cute. I think a lot of women are cute. These women can't do anything about me thinking they are cute. And why would they want to? Why wouldn't Stephanie just thank me for the compliment and move on.
- Fear of A Dangerous Liaison - Some of you will think I'm joking when I say, I think this topic generated so much attention because of racism and white supremacy. I'm not joking at all. The thought of me, a Black man -- considered by many of you to be an aggressive, hostile Black man -- calling a white woman -- a fairly young, small-framed, white woman at that -- a "cutie" drives you nuts!!! You think to yourself, what's next?! Is he going to be dating white women!? And
pumpinghumping them!!! Back in the day, had I called a white woman a "cutie", some white guy would've called to his boys in the lynch mob: "Git the rope boyz ... this nigger's done gone crazy ... he ben eyeballing one of our women ... hang em!"
Here's the bottom line. I am not a sexist. I paid Stephanie a compliment by referring to her as a "cutie". I never in any way suggested she pumped Nick Spencer in a sexual way. The term "pumping" doesn't characterize anyone by sex. Everyone can relax, I'm not trying to have sex with a white woman. For those nuts who think I'm trying to "out" Stephanie, think again. There are real examples of sexism in the city and in the Black community that deserve attention, this isn't one of them. The issue of racism in the GBLT community needs a lot of discussion before tension builds up and explodes. People shouldn't try to change the subject when that touchy subject gets raised on this blog or elsewhere.
15 comments:
Nate,
the use of the word "pumping" or some other words may have a sexual connotation depending on the culture or social circles of the person using the word. In Stephanie's cicle of friends, maybe pumping means doing something sexual, whereas in your circle it would mean something entirely different. It's all about interpretation.
I've noticed that every once in a while you go off the deep end, Nate.
Sure, this is your blog and you can do what you what, but if your goal is to have it become a respected member of the media (which it has nearly become) you are going to have to stop posting things that don't fit.
It was interesting seeing what Dunlop looks like but, it should have stopped there.
ricland
Stephanie is cute, but there is a difference between "CityBeat cutie Stephanie Dunlap" and something like "CityBeat writer and cutie Stephanie Dunlap" or even just "Cutie Stephanie Dunlap". Stephanie was mentioned because she reported on a story, not for being incredibly cute. Mentioning her inherent cuteness instead of commenting on her abilities as a writer is diminishing.
It'd be like if she wrote about Nate's blog and said something along the lines of, "black boy Nate Livingston thinks I'm a 'cutie'", without mentioning blogging.
I don't think Nate's black maleness is relevant. Sexists can be of any gender or race. I've seen women discriminate against women as they project their own feelings of inadequacy onto their female subordinates.
The problem is not with her being cute or Nate stating the obvious. The problem comes when its perceived that Nate somehow connects the cuteness of the writer to the quality of their writing.
I've had to train and evaluate superiors as well as subordinates of both genders on various systems and techniques. I don't put notes like "good shot, great ass" in an evaluation though. Being professional means at least trying to keep things seperate.
Stephanie is damn cute. PLain and simple. If she wasn't concerned about her looks and how it affects her access, then she should let herself go.
Geezuz ...
The girl in the photo was an average looking white girl, no more, no less.
Why is everyone going on like she's a Playboy center-fold?
If Stephanie wrote, Cincinnati Black Blog's cutie Nate Livingston wrote blah blah blah. Would anyone scream sexism?
They'd say she's blind, not sexist.
"If she wasn't concerned about her looks and how it affects her access, then she should let herself go."
I don't think Steph spends a lot of time getting done up. She's very fitness oriented, which keeps her in shape, but otherwise her look is very natural.
That said, I hardly think she was hired at City Beat becuase she's pretty. If she were a bad writer, you might be able to make the case, but she happens to be a very good writer.
She's over rated in both departments. We compare her to Korte too much.
She may have been hired because the Editor perceived her as "pretty" and here's my logic.
Last year while living in Cincy I was sending letters to the Editor which John Fox usually printed. After awhile I began to seriously cover the City Council meetings. These were much longer pieces that generally took about a week to assemble.
I contacted Fox and he agreed the pieces would be good for the paper and offered me a per piece rate I accepted.
Then I made the mistake of sending my photo in with the first article. I never heard from Fox again.
He refuse to answer my emails and phone calls, and even when I came to the office, he refused to see me.
I was more disgusted than angry. I'm black and 49 years old. The man took one look at my photo and rejected me because of my age.
And even that wouldn't have been so bad had he done the thing with a little class. But he didn't. Instead he just refused to have any contact with me.
Worst still, week after week I had to read his "fair and balanced" editorials knowing that if judge by the way he treated me, the guy was anything but fair and balanced.
ricland
While reading this post and coming across the word "pumping", I thought you were being sexist. If you had said, "pumping him for information", then that would have been acceptable as a non-sexist statement.
Not once in the entire time that I have lived in Cincinnati have I ever heard the word pumping the way you have used it. I am not sure that I have ever seen it written anywhere except here.
After reading the rest of your long-winded statement, I am reminded of the pitfalls of giving a moron a computer and free space to speak his mind. Trust me I know. I have one of those spaces too.
I met Stephanie once and she is extremely nice. She is an extremely talented. And yes, she is extremely cute. She took offense, fine. She can deal with it. But your schizo response is straight out of ignorantville. Holy christ.
I think I just found my story for next weeks issue of the Dealer.
Ricland
As always, thanks for reading the Cincinnati Black Blog and taking time to comment. I notice you said the comments about Stephanie should stop, but you've posted two comments on the same subject since then. What's the deal?!
Anonymous Tue Jan 03, 02:52:00 PM EST
"Stephanie is cute, but there is a difference between "CityBeat cutie Stephanie Dunlap" and something like "CityBeat writer and cutie Stephanie Dunlap" or even just "Cutie Stephanie Dunlap". Stephanie was mentioned because she reported on a story, not for being incredibly cute. Mentioning her inherent cuteness instead of commenting on her abilities as a writer is diminishing."
I've already explained that the blog entry wasn't about Stephanie, it was about Smitherman and racism within the GBLT community. The term "cutie" wasn't mentioned in the body of the blog entry, it was included in a picture caption. It doesn't seem like you actually read the blog entry before commenting on it.
"The problem is not with her being cute or Nate stating the obvious. The problem comes when its perceived that Nate somehow connects the cuteness of the writer to the quality of their writing."
Again, the blog entry wasn't a cri6tque of Stephanie's writing quality, it was about Smiteherman.
What is wrong with you people!
BlaineChowder
Wow! A comedy writer using the name BlaineChowder is going to make fun of me on his little website. Great! Just spell my name right, ok.
"While reading this post and coming across the word "pumping", I thought you were being sexist. If you had said, "pumping him for information", then that would have been acceptable as a non-sexist statement.
Not once in the entire time that I have lived in Cincinnati have I ever heard the word pumping the way you have used it. I am not sure that I have ever seen it written anywhere except here."
You must not be a frequent reader of this blog then because doing a simple google check I found the word pumping used two times on this blog.
1. July 15, 2005. In Fred Nelson: Klansman In A Black Robe I wrote: " While white people were publicly pumping Reece up, she was too blind to see that they'd oppose even her watered down affirmative action policy. The stupidity of Reece and greed of whites is amazing!"
2. Nov. 14, 2005. In Another Enquirer Reports Bias Exposed, I wrote: "Howard [Wilkinson] was a crucial part of the Enquirer's team of renegade political reporters (they apparently have no editors) -- along with Greg KKKorte and Jane Prendergast -- who spent the better part of the election slanting the news coverage to demonize Mark Mallory (and really Black people in general, but especially Black activist) while pumping up Pepper."
Strangely enough, I couldn't find where I said Stephanie was pumping Nick Spencer. I'm sure Stephanie didn't make this up. And since she leveled the accusation perhaps she'd be nice enough to provide the source of the quote. Then we could all see in what context it was used.
My concern is that when the time comes to attack CityBeat, Dunlap, and other reporters this won't be done with the aggressiveness it needs.
For example, Cathy Whats-her-name should have been viciously attacked for the crap she was putting out there last year. Don't know if she's still doing it, but that Ghetto-Speak style she was writing in was the most unredeemable garbage I've ever seen. It was horrible, but Fox let her get away with it week after week.
And Cathy is a fine writer and excellent reporter when she doesn't act the fool (note how I'm shifting the topic off Dunlap).
You can't have it both ways, Nate. Either you're going to make this blog part of the media or it's just going to remain another of the 100 million blogs out there.
ricland
she's a hack writer, and i think she keeps her weight down with bulimia. just another arrogant, apologetic, dad hating white kid. i wonder who she boffed to get her job at citybeat to begin with.
Post a Comment