DECOLONIZE OR DIE.
June 20, 2015 10:30 AM   Subscribe

 
Gold star for that person who knows how to find the "caps lock" feature?
posted by datawrangler at 10:38 AM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


I have a comment: what?
posted by doctor tough love at 10:40 AM on June 20, 2015


Knew nothing about this, love everything about it. Thanks for posting!
posted by Homeskillet Freshy Fresh at 10:43 AM on June 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


Well, if I learned nothing else from that...that...clusterfuck wall of text it's that there are, apparently, people known as "WHITMANIAN TWINK POETS".
posted by MikeMc at 10:49 AM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


This may be a dumb question, but how does one go about giving up their white privilege? What does that look like on a day to day basis?
posted by cairnoflore at 10:52 AM on June 20, 2015


I guess I know who Kenneth Goldsmith is now.
posted by blucevalo at 10:54 AM on June 20, 2015


"A WHITE WOMAN'S TRAVEL GUIDE THROUGH THE REDUCED COSMOS OF HER HURTWORLD"

So yeah there was some funny stuff in there, but the whole "let's mock and delegitimize the suffering of group X for reason Y" brand of humor kind of goes over my head.
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 10:57 AM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm pretty sure this falls under The Neo Cubist School ("Cubist" in the "Time Cube" sense).
posted by MikeMc at 11:08 AM on June 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


"American efficiency, on the other hand, is an antidote to "revolutionary" Manilovism and fantastic scheme concocting. American efficiency is that indomitable force which neither knows nor recognises obstacles; which with its business-like perseverance brushes aside all obstacles; which continues at a task once started until it is finished, even if it is a minor task; and without which serious constructive work is inconceivable."

-Stalin.
posted by clavdivs at 11:14 AM on June 20, 2015


This is amazing. I've started several times to try to characterize why, and I'm going to stop trying for a while. I'll just say that it's rather perfectly tuned to get past all my defenses as well as overcoming several varieties of what I thought was hard-won weariness. Also, what's better than afflicting the comfortable? How about afflicting those who are most artfully and cravenly unwilling to admit that they're comfortable?
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:15 AM on June 20, 2015 [5 favorites]


So I had kind of written this off as the kind of hyperbolic poetry politics inside baseball shit that I have no real stomach for, along with a healthy dose of what-could-be-more-ideologically-pure-than-hating-whitey, but then I read some background, and I dunno, maybe this is a proportionate sort of "fuck you" to that autopsy-reading stunt?
posted by brennen at 11:39 AM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


is it capslock day already?
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:41 AM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


What George_Spiggott said. This is wonderful; what it reminds me most forcefully of is Valerie Solanas's S.C.U.M. Manifesto ("Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex"). Obviously THE MONGREL COALITION AGAINST GRINGPO would tell me I was a bored, overprivileged white guy getting his rocks off by thrilling to the barbaric yawps of the eternally repressed, and I have no problem with that whatsoever. I just don't see how anyone can not love this stuff:
THE GLORY HOLE OF DECOLONIZATION

GOLD STAR FOR SHOWING UP AT THE PROTEST TO CORRECT EVERYONE’S GRAMMAR & YELL “I LIKE SENTENCES”

Gringpo, we get that you listed some POCs and “othered” artists/writers and you think this makes everything you say safe, not racist, etc. TMCAG is letting you know that we’re not like the POC who are grateful for acts of inclusion, and therefore refuse to name your white supremacy, colonial aesthetics. We know that it is very possible for POC writers and artists to be complicit or co-opted in white supremacist, colonial aesthetics. Your listing practices are helpful reminders to Othered artists of how we can be weaponized, distorted and preserved for the wrong purposes. We will take note.
And of course:
Website that we highly recommend: gringpo.com
posted by languagehat at 11:55 AM on June 20, 2015 [9 favorites]


Oh yeah, thanks for the post, and sorry about the mindless "I haz an obvious joke, here it is" comments.
posted by languagehat at 11:56 AM on June 20, 2015


Except that Gringpo is serious. The Denunciation of Vanessa Place, from the LA Review of Books.

I will note that Vanessa Place should accept such denunciation, IMO. Whether you agree that this means she should suffer "a trifecta of event cancellations and dismissals in the literary, academic, and art worlds, [including] the Whitney cancel[ling] a performance entitled “Last Words,” which was to be held on June 6, 2015" is up to the individual.
posted by jokeefe at 12:02 PM on June 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


I think it's a dangerous notion to believe that your suffering isn't as real as my suffering. It dehumanizes me just as much as it dehumanizes you. By that logic, whose pain is the most authentic? Could the apparently well-educated author of this piece justifiably be subjected to mockery by, say, an Afghan girl who has never been allowed into a school?
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 12:03 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


> Except that Gringpo is serious.

Well, of course; so was Solanas. The denunciation of Place is extreme, but so is Place's work; a white person who uses racist imagery and texts should expect significant pushback. Considering what people of color risk every time they go out on the street, I think a white artist should be able to deal with some denunciation.

> Could the apparently well-educated author of this piece justifiably be subjected to mockery by, say, an Afghan girl who has never been allowed into a school?

Oh, get serious.
posted by languagehat at 12:12 PM on June 20, 2015 [6 favorites]


sorry about the mindless "I haz an obvious joke, here it is" comments

What he said, and conversely while I can't speak for the poster, I rather think both he and the thread could have withstood the shitty ad hominem comment that was deleted. Rude and uncalled-for, it actually suited the thread better than the mindless lulzy TL;DR "capslock" comments and the like that are always allowed to stand merely because they don't exactly offend; they lack even that much virtue.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:14 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


Let's not go there (on preview, directed at Vic Morrow etc.). Oh and I never thought that you didn't take it seriously, languagehat-- just some of the people here obviously don't. I find the Mongrel Dream Library brilliant, and an education in itself.
posted by jokeefe at 12:16 PM on June 20, 2015


maybe this is a proportionate sort of "fuck you" to that autopsy-reading stunt?

It's a proportionate fuck you to all sorts of things, including decades of literary criticism and canon-building. It's important. It's living and electric and demands recognition.
posted by jokeefe at 12:18 PM on June 20, 2015 [4 favorites]




CHE GUEVARA HATES YOU: THE MAN BEHIND YOUR STUPID T-SHIRT

This ought to exist.
posted by Rangi at 12:33 PM on June 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


how about ANDRE THE GIANT HATES YOU: THE MAN BEHIND YOUR STUPID T-SHIRT

and I stand behind my capslock snark

and I'm surprised I had to go to the second page of Google results to answer one question: What does GRINGPO mean?
“Gringpo” is a portmanteau of “gringo” and “poetics”
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:08 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


MY SOUL IS SO DARK I SHIT BATS: EMO(JI) ACTIVISM FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM
posted by languagehat at 1:08 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


Thanks for the link, jokeefe. It does make more sense of all this. There's an interview with Place here.

I'd never heard of Place before— apparently she's been tweeting the text of Gone With the Wind as conceptual art, explicitly hoping to provoke a copyright suit, to draw attention to the fact that 250,000 copies a year are still sold of this "racist text" (her description).

I'm not sure I see the point, but since white women shouldn't be able to protest racism that way, a white man organized a successful position against her. And then someone organized an anonymous massive Internet campaign against her, which we're apparently now celebrating.

To be less snarky: this is a campaign against a fellow activist, herself a woman and a lesbian. I don't find that sort of thing very funny.
posted by zompist at 1:12 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


Well, of course; so was Solanas. The denunciation of Place is extreme, but so is Place's work; a white person who uses racist imagery and texts should expect significant pushback. Considering what people of color risk every time they go out on the street, I think a white artist should be able to deal with some denunciation.

Yeah, I get that there's a lot going on here I just haven't been paying attention to, which is probably something that people inclined to dismiss it out of hand should think about.

I just don't see how anyone can not love this stuff

Well. I mean. It's super aggro and abrasive as hell. It's riddled with jargon and meta-academic factional politics. It goes on for a long time. It's attacking things that can stand to be attacked but I'm pretty sure it'd hate my guts too, if for other reasons, and that is always a tricky thing to process. It's pretty funny but it's also ugly and I'm not always sure it isn't just trading on cheap racist shock value shit a couple degrees off the cheap racist shock value shit it's lambasting. It believes mightily in its own importance, or it apes believing mightily in its own importance, or whatever. I can't even tell any more and I'm tired of pretending I'm sophisticated enough to know how many levels of irony transforms I'm supposed to apply to any given artifact on the internet. It's like reading Hipster Runoff or something. Which can be fascinating, and yet.

All to say: I don't like it, let alone love it. But it's also not for me, and I'm glad I read it. I don't think I need to feel bad about not liking it, but I think probably I should feel bad if I can't register a lot of what it's saying regardless.
posted by brennen at 1:21 PM on June 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


"she's been tweeting the text of Gone With the Wind as conceptual art, explicitly hoping to provoke a copyright suit, to draw attention to the fact that 250,000 copies a year are still sold of this "racist text"

250k a year? Wha?
I remember this sketch though I'm sure the title and names were changed to prevent a copyright spat.
posted by clavdivs at 1:48 PM on June 20, 2015


I think I understand what the Mongrel Coalition is doing, but I don't really understand why they're doing it in such an abstruse, gnomic way. Perhaps in the interest of engaging with the opponents of their personhood and humanity on their own terms? Maybe it seems abstruse to me because I don't actually know what they're trying to do. It seems vital and interesting to me, but also very 'inside baseball,' to use a metaphor that only partially fits even on a formal level.
posted by clockzero at 1:56 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh, get serious.

Ok, I used a rather specious comparison. I'll just reiterate that although a lot of this was pretty funny, the parts that targeted women just didn't sit right with me. I honestly fail to see which cause that is advancing.
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 2:00 PM on June 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


> All to say: I don't like it, let alone love it. But it's also not for me, and I'm glad I read it.

Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to imply "If you don't love it you're clearly a member of the booboisie who doesn't even deserve to have a library card"—it was just an expression of enthusiasm. Obviously this kind of thing is catnip to the cats who like it, but I can easily understand why lots wouldn't.

> I'll just reiterate that although a lot of this was pretty funny, the parts that targeted women just didn't sit right with me.

That too is totally understandable.
posted by languagehat at 3:18 PM on June 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


Race issues are one thing. Intellectual deconstructionism (I THINK that's a description) is another.
Together it's less like peanut butter and chocolate and more like peanut butter and tuna fish. And who doesn't love watching someone's reaction when they notice that's the combo in their sandwich?

Still, I am going to use "emo(ji)" in my future media commentary. And always refer to that Australian pseudo-rapper as Igloo Azalea. And I WOULD read the book "MARTIN, MY MENTOR: HOW DR. KING DIED SO WHITE PEOPLE COULD QUOTE HIM".
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:43 PM on June 20, 2015


It sort of looks like we are part of a harassment campaign (via LARB):
In the following days, the Mongrel Coalition Against Gringpo (Gringpo is a combination word formed of “gringo” and “conpo,” the latter being short for conceptual poetry, the movement with which Place is identified) called for those they identified as “friends” of Place’s, in particular people of color, to “denounce” her. Those who either overtly refused to do so or remained silent quickly became targets of the Coalition themselves. “THEY WON’T DENOUNCE HER,” tweeted MCAG (all tweets were in all caps, as above). “THEY CARE MORE ABOUT CONCEPTUALISM THAN BLACK PEOPLE.” Frequent tweets sent from the account reminded followers who these individuals were by tagging them, and reiterated their ethical failures.
And it sort of looks like this harassment campaign targets "in particular people of color."

I get the manifesto itself has like an outsider-art ferocity, a la Solanas. (Solanas shot a guy!)

But here it's advertising a social media campaign 1) to ruin a particular woman, and 2) to do it by publicly patrolling who other artists (especially people of color) are allowed to associate with.
posted by grobstein at 6:13 PM on June 20, 2015 [6 favorites]


Fuck a Kenny Goldsmith. Fuck a Vanessa Place. Long Live the MCAG!
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:00 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


So, no Vachel Lindsay poetry slam.
posted by clavdivs at 8:00 PM on June 20, 2015


I think I understand what the Mongrel Coalition is doing, but I don't really understand why they're doing it in such an abstruse, gnomic way... It seems vital and interesting to me, but also very 'inside baseball,' to use a metaphor that only partially fits even on a formal level.

I mean, poets are allowed to be abstruse, I think. The "white conceptualism" callout was inside baseball to me too but it begins to make sense in the context of the Goldsmith and Place things.
posted by atoxyl at 2:45 AM on June 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


As a black man who generally feels alienated both by the incredible whiteness of contemporary avant-garde art (i.e. the conceptual poetry movement), along with what I consider to be the sort-of-on-point but overly didactic rhetoric and divisive rhetoric of groups like the Mongrel Coalition, I implore folks here to read Trisha Low's personal account of wrestling with these questions. She is a conceptual poet of color, has been partly mentored by Kenny Goldsmith and Vanessa Place (though she makes her opposition to their racist work clear), and also targeted by MC for not publicly denouncing the two.
posted by black_lizard at 5:49 AM on June 21, 2015 [14 favorites]


according to trisha low, place writes, “It is also a cruelty to insist that only people of color be responsible for the articulation or the embodiment of race, to bear the burden of my history as well as the history of this oppression.”

my reaction is, wow, what a cruelty to insist that the people who invent and benefit the most from racism and anti-blackness bear the strain of decentering ourselves. i don't think people who don't grok this should have their voices given credence and attention and a career on topics of race. it sounds like gringpo are doing good work.
posted by thug unicorn at 5:44 PM on June 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


Reading this was-- I was sort of laughing at first like there was an inside joke that I wasn't in on but that would become apparent eventually, and then it slowly dawned on me that there was some recent and painful story here, and so I found out about Kenneth Goldsmith and Michael Brown's Body finally.

And so I found P.E. Garcia's essay The Body of Kenneth Goldsmith and well I think you should read it too if you didn't yet.

Um, thanks for posting, just thanks.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 7:37 PM on June 21, 2015 [5 favorites]


> And so I found P.E. Garcia's essay The Body of Kenneth Goldsmith and well I think you should read it too if you didn't yet.

I read it just now, and I thank you for finding it and posting it.
posted by languagehat at 7:53 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


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