Aw man, the Bus is so proud. Yesterday, three of the awesome folks from Powerful Voices came to Bus HQ to surprise our very own Mollie Price with a huge honor – the Powerful Woman of the Year Award, their recognition of Mollie’s amazing work with young people, young women, and everyone else lucky enough to be in her orbit.
We’re proud, naturally, and we want to embarrass Mollie as much as possible (because we’re coo like that). To that end, here are more pictures of Mollie receiving her award, and we encourage you to lavish praise upon her in the comments. Let’s make her blush – she deserves it!
Mollie with the awesome women of Powerful Voices.
Mollie, with proud coworkers providing positive reinforcement.
Can you feel that spring in the air? And yes, it’s okay if you can’t, given the cold snap we’re feeling right about now, but the point remains: your favorite way to get good food, good people and good government is coming your way in a hurry!
The first Bus trips will kick off in the next couple of months, and in the meantime, whet your appetite with pictures from Bus trips past. Where will we go? Stay tuned!
In Tacoma with now-Mayor Marilyn Strickland
In Skagit with State Senator Kevin Ranker.
In Spokane with City Council candidates Jon Snyder and Amber Waldref.
In Snohomish with Liz Loomis.
In Yakima with Vickie Ybarra - the biggest canvass in Yakima history!
Have you ever wondered what an Alt-Rap artist like Aesop Rock would sound like if he rapped over beats that don’t sound like kitchen utensils banging against each other? If so, then you need to be at the Dark Time Sunshine release party at Neumos tomorrow night (4/15). Dark Time
Sunshine comprises of Seattle stalwart Onry Ozzborn (Grayskul) and Portland producer Zavala. The album features Aesop Rock and P.O.S. very much in their elements as well as Portland soul singer Reva Devito.
If you’re like the Bus (and comedian Hari Kondabolu, who we’re about to steal a line from), than if any idea, thing or item is high concept, daddy must have it. One of the items the Bus tends to covet is the New Yorker magazine. Maybe it’s because we’re part of Fake America, or maybe it’s the cartoons, but some of the best ideas/small talk from the Bus come directly from the pages of the New Yorker.
And guess what? Today is no different.
In the latest issue, staff writer Kelefa Sanneh blew our freaking minds. His article “Beyond the pale: Is white the new black?” is nominally a book review of two recent publications dealing with race. In actual effect, the article slices, dices, carves, and reframes the existing debate around one of the top political subjects of the moment: the infamous Tea Party.
We think you maybe have some misguided anger, dude.
Lots of folks have written about, discussed and reacted to the Tea Party, but few have gotten below the surface of what they do (racist comments, aggressive behavior) and delved in to the “why” that lurks below. With the recent poll by the New York Times, we now have the demographic information to make it credible. And Sanneh goes there. Way way there.
His argument, though the lense of the two books he is reviewing, is that the Tea Party is, in a strange twist of history and demographics, in some ways an early formulation of identity politics. Yes: white identity politics. If that term immediately takes your mind to bunkers in the Upper Peninsula, then you’ve more or less proved Sanneh’s point: as of now, there is no culturally understood formulation of white identity in the USA. And now that’s changing.
The most pervasive type of power is the kind that is so prevalent as to be invisible. There’s no need to define it, because it shapes the actual structures of power themselves. The buzzword term for that is privilege. Specifically, white privilege.
What the Tea Party seems to be embodying, Sanneh argues, is the first inklings of a cultural shift in which other, non-white, groups are taking their rightful places at the table, shaking up the power structures. The result is that white identity and its relationship to power is being daylighted for the first time in a functional way. And that new need for definition is bringing out some bad stuff in people.
Whew.
It’s big stuff, and worth a deep read for anyone curious in what’s going on in our country. You should read it. Seriously.
However, it’s also important to note that Sanneh’s analysis is focused on race, leaving out how other power dynamics factor into the discussion. If Tea Partiers are overwhelmingly white, men, and married, how do the additional power dynamics of gender and sexual orientation play in?
That’s another huge topic, and one we’re more than happy to tackle. Watch this space.
Also, check out one of the best explanations available for how to talk about race versus racism. Take it away, Jay Smooth.
At a barbecue held by one of the Bus’s awesome board members (names have been withheld to protect the innocent), a select group of the Bus’s Monthly Members flipped the script on Paula Abdul’s Straight Up to make the case for why one should become Friend with Benefits at the Bus.
HOW MUCH DO OUR BOARD MEMBERS/MONTHLY MEMBERS RULE???
Hella Bus 