tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1778489216730794604.post3259325032850587436..comments2024-01-27T16:58:23.292-08:00Comments on Daniel Keys Moran: Gay/Black/Female ... and Performance TuningDaniel Keys Moranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12992599044462413412noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1778489216730794604.post-60839228969142710582007-09-24T09:48:00.000-07:002007-09-24T09:48:00.000-07:00Being a white guy, I'm usually not dealing with th...Being a white guy, I'm usually not dealing with that look-down-the-<BR/>nose attitude, but sometimes, it depends on context.<BR/><BR/>Back when I was young and looking for a skill to take to the communal farm upon which our hippie crowd was gonna go live on, I thought maybe medical skills would be useful. Cheapest way to get into that was a vo-tech nursing school that the state would pay for. <BR/><BR/>I applied and got in. Probably because I was a minority. <BR/><BR/>And as one of two men who made it to the end -- three others flunked out -- I was very often resented greatly by women who did not think it appropriate that men should be nurses. <BR/><BR/>That I had the best grades didn't help. When we got into clinical practice at the hospital, I had one teacher who gave me a "C" in pediatric nursing. I aced every written test. I had two children, and loved working with kids. As far as I could tell, I never made a mis-step in dealing with kids on the pediatric floor. But this instructor was not happy to see a man in her profession, and that was a problem I couldn't fix. <BR/><BR/>It was so ... unfair!<BR/><BR/>Not often the white guy gets to feel the impact of sexism that way. It was most illuminating. It gave me a small measure of what it must feel like to be the Outsider. Only a small one, but it did help me understand how terrible it must feel to deal with that all the time, almost everywhere you go.Steve Perryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1778489216730794604.post-21988037384479997362007-09-20T12:58:00.000-07:002007-09-20T12:58:00.000-07:00I am a straight white male. I have two close frien...I am a straight white male. I have two close friends who are gay black women. Both of them have suggested to me that being female is actually an advantage if one is gay and black, and that being black is more of a disadvantage than being either gay or female. <BR/><BR/>I have also observed that black women students, in addition to being more numerous at the university where I teach, are most often academically more successful than black men. To me this suggests that they have an easier time coping with the environment than do black men, for whatever reason.<BR/><BR/>David BellamyPagan Topologisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01611788563582362688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1778489216730794604.post-29818109722255899122007-09-20T12:19:00.000-07:002007-09-20T12:19:00.000-07:00My wife says that being a second-generation immigr...My wife says that being a second-generation immigrant (parents from India) has been much more of a hurdle in her life than being a woman. Mostly due to a tendency to be ignored in "big picture" discussions, and other stereotyping.<BR/><BR/>Oddly enough, most of the artists I really like have covered Cohen songs. Maybe I only hear the covers from the ones I like, though. <BR/><BR/>I intend to have Jonathan Coulton perform at my funeral if at all possible.Khyronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13238333183758341514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1778489216730794604.post-25042047992855458762007-09-19T23:53:00.000-07:002007-09-19T23:53:00.000-07:00You aren't the only one to have seen a connection ...You aren't the only one to have seen a connection between Kristofferson and Cohen; Kristofferson himself is a big fan. He's said multiple times that the opening stanza from "Bird on a Wire" will be his epitaph.<BR/><BR/><B>Like a bird on a wire</B><BR/><B>Like a drunk in a midnight choir</B><BR/><B>I have tried, in my way</B><BR/><B>To be free.</B><BR/><BR/>As for me, my will states that anybody who wants anything from my estate needs to sing "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" by the graveside. Different strokes.<BR/><BR/>If you haven't picked up Cohen's <I>Ten New Songs</I> yet, you really need to--I think it's his best album since <I>I'm Your Man.</I> It may be his best album ever. I'm in the minority here, but I think that time has made his voice better and not worse. In the beginning he had this thin, reedy, high-pitched, almost effeminate wail. Today it's all smoke and whiskey and gravel. By this time next week he's going to be audible only to dogs.<BR/><BR/>His <I>Book of Longing</I> also has some very good things in it, too.<BR/><BR/><B>Out of the thousands</B><BR/><B>who are known,</B><BR/><B>or who want to be known</B><BR/><B>as poets,</B><BR/><B>maybe one or two</B><BR/><B>are genuine</B><BR/><B>and the rest are fakes,</B><BR/><B>hanging around the sacred precincts</B><BR/><B>trying to look like the real thing.</B><BR/><B>Needless to say</B><BR/><B>I am one of the fakes,</B><BR/><B>and this is my story.</B>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1778489216730794604.post-31271103445174236642007-09-19T20:55:00.000-07:002007-09-19T20:55:00.000-07:00Yes, I can. Someone arguing guns with me a few pos...Yes, I can. Someone arguing guns with me a few posts back assumed I knew who he was, and I didn't (unless that was you too) ... this time I do know.<BR/><BR/>Just for the record, thanks for turning me onto Leonard Cohen. I was always a fan of "Everybody Knows," though I didn't know that was Cohen singing it -- but Suzanne, Famous Blue Raincoat ... shit, Hallelujah? I must have listened to that song 50 times.<BR/><BR/>Reminds me of Kris Kristofferson -- very good singer, but a great songwriter. I'm in your debt on that one.Daniel Keys Moranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12992599044462413412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1778489216730794604.post-82284799550008458752007-09-19T20:11:00.000-07:002007-09-19T20:11:00.000-07:00For myself, the hardest label is autistic, and tha...For myself, the hardest label is autistic, and that's why I fight it so hard. If an HR department hears that, your application gets deep-sixed. The UC-Davis MIND institute for autism research has ads like "Autism is a complex neurological disease that breaks the brain of a child and shatters the lives of every person in the family." Tons of well-meaning people will clamor to "help" you in ways that you really find intolerable.<BR/><BR/>I have one friend who got turned into an amphetamine junkie by the State. As a kid he was misdiagnosed as ADD. In those days you couldn't be autistic unless you were also mentally retarded. So he got misdiagnosed as ADD instead, and put on dexedrine (Adderall). Dexedrine helps some autists a little bit, doesn't help others at all. My friend was in the latter category. So the docs upped the dosage on him year after year ("we just haven't found the right dose") until he was stoned out of his mind for the rest of his childhood. At that point "we haven't found the right dose yet" became "we're sorry, but this is the best we can do."<BR/><BR/>Today he's a recovering amphetamine junkie. Dexedrine's a hell of a drug. The long-term effects are genuinely scary.<BR/><BR/>Posted anonymously because I don't want the public at large to hang the autist label around my neck. I'm pretty sure you can figure out who this is, though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com