#multicult

Omega Radio for February 26, 2023; #345.

Enablers: "Year Of The Dog"

Sun Voyager: "God Is Dead"

Haunted Horses: "Cold Medicine"

Kal Marks: "Everybody Hertz"

Ladder Devils: "Get OK"

Multicult: "Countdown"

Porcelain: "Resume Restart"

Rong: "Gray Pull"

Wipes: "Always"

Borzoi: "Passing"

Deaf Club: "Ride With Cops, Shot With Robbers"

Penance Stare: "Seven Vials"

Cocaine Piss: "Lalala Fuck Me"

Chat Pile: "Pamela"

Pink Frost: "Until The Summer Comes"

USA Nails: "Horror Show"

VV Torso: "Body / Corset"

Servo: "III"

Oozing Wound: "Minus Tree"

Pollute: "Stoned Rider"

Child Bite: "Erect For Dystopia"

Cloud Rat: "Inner Controller (Lucid Running Home)"

Felon Class: "Cruel Moment / Birthday"

Off!: "Kill To Be Heard"

Guerilla Toss “Plants”

Tropical Fuck Storm “The Happiest Guy Around”

P.E. “Pink Shiver”

Blue Ray “Choir Of Angels”

Deradoorian "Saturnine Night"

Freaking "For"

Diat "Young And Successful"

Sinead O'Brien "Limbo"

Deeper "This Heat"

Parlor Walls "Violets"

Public Practice "Disposable"

Necking "Rover"

Surf Curse "Disco"

Lithics "Specs"

Vision 3D "Faut Le Faire", "Froid (J'ai)"

Dry Cleaning "New Job"

Stuck "Bells"

Shopping "For Your Pleasure"

Sediment Club, The "Hydraulic Saint"

CB Radio Gorgeous "Babylon"

Otoboke Beaver "S'il Vous Plait"

M.A.Z.E. "I Just Pay Taxes"

cumgirl8 "Hourglass"

Hissing Tiles "Rist"

Multicult "Torsion"

Free $$$ "Birthrights"

Mt. Zena "Complacent!"

Special Interest "Young, Gifted, Black, In Leather"

Bikini Body "So Posh"

Ganser "Lucky"

Lungbutter "Henry Darger"

Duckis "Knife"

Primitive Teeth "Plastic"

Trampoline Team "Come Here Alone"

Lie' "Digging In The Dessert"

Cold Meat "Bad Mood"

Scrap Brain "Crybaby"

Control Top "Unapologetic"

It’s Omega WUSB’s halfway point of our summer broadcasting season. On Saturday, we pulled out all the stops to deliver one of our best post-punk / d.i.y. broadcasts to date from ten to midnight. We covered all bases from around the world with bands from the states, France, Germany, the UK, Japan, and more in all speeds, colors, and spirits. Nothing is spared here and everything goes.

New sounds from P.E., Deeradorian, Deeper, Parlor Walls, Public Practice, Stuck, Shopping, Mt. Zena, Bikini Body, Ganser, Duckis, Lie’, and Cold Meat.

Next deluxe Omega airs August 1, 2020 (10PM, New York City). Next bonus Omega airs August 3, 2020 (midnight, New York City) as we fill-in for Purple Starlight for our quarterly gold-era hip-hop / rap showcase.

Okay. So clearly I have been holding onto this for a while, and I don’t like gossip, so there was another reason.

And I think I know what it is. 

As far as I can tell, Kim Shum DID say Bellamy had white privilege. And I totally understand why Bob would unfollow her. It makes sense. 

But I’ve got FEELINGS about that sort of racism, where people erase mixed race people’s identities for their own purposes.

See so here’s the thing. Bob is half filipino and half irish. And he looks it. I am half puerto rican and half white, and I look it too. And I’ve spent my WHOLE LIFE having other people tell me what i was, even when I tell them who I am, they decide they know what I am, and erase my identity and my voice to do so. People of all races have done this. White, Black, Latinx. Constantly. Sometimes I’ve been called white. Sometimes I’ve been called latina. I have even been called black, because hey, all POC are the same, right? (and I may be poc, and I did have a black great grandpa, but I know emphatically I do not live the black experience.)

It is undoubtably racist. 

It is no good.

But here’s the thing that I think fandom gets all tripped up over. 

We all. EVERY ONE OF US. exists in a racist society. We ALL have these racist ideas. And the less we are aware of our racist ideas, the more they can come out, because we don’t even know they are ideas, let alone racist. We just think that’s the way the world is. We think it’s truth. 

And there’s this THING about mixed race people, and also non-mixed people of less commonly seen minorities.

Our racist society doesn’t know they exist.

We know what black looks like. We know what white looks like. We know what asian looks like. We know what latino looks like.

And by and large, those appearances are clear cut and easy to see.

What gets us gummed up is when people don’t fit into those basic characteristics. Which happens all the time because race itself is a social construct. And you can white, black and native american all at once. I know this, because I am all those races. Which is why I call myself multi-cultural and  mixed race, not biracial.

Black people with light skin and green eyes. White people with olive skin. Asians with curls and freckles. Latinos with blonde hair. Never mind, say, native americans, or arabic people or jews or maoris or east indians, who are actually technically, as race defines people, caucasians. Crazy right? 

Our racist society puts people into the easy boxes, and if they don’t fit or refuse to stay in those boxes, we mock or erase them for not fitting the racist stereotypes of our culture.

So what am I saying here? 

I’m saying that Kim Shum said a racist, ignorant thing. But I don’t know if she’s learned since then. I don’t know if she’s aware of what she said and what she did. I don’t know. I don’t know her. 

I’m also saying that some of the exact same people who would hate Kim Shum for saying Bellamy had white privilege, have also told me that I was too white to speak for mixed race people, that latinos were white, that i was not allowed to speak over dark skinned people about being mixed race. So the exact  EXACT same people who say Kim Shum is a racist for erasing Bellamy and Bob’s asian heritage have ACTIVELY gone about erasing MY latina heritage and using that erasure to try and silence me. I’m not saying that some people do this. I’m saying SPECIFIC people in this fandom who rail against the writers being racist, are racist in EXACTLY the same way towards me, a mixed race POC.  And they say that I am racist because I talk about my race as if it has value. And say I am not POC enough to count. Because I am mixed. Like Bob. Who they love. And they will attack anyone who erases his race. While erasing mine. And if you think that’s just a personal thing because they don’t like me? Well, they did it to the actors, too. Refusing to EVER identify Ian/Kane as a half Latino man from Peru. Just as one glaring example of the fandom whitewashing mixed race actors/characters to fuel their agendas.

So I don’t talk to those people anymore. Just like I get why Bob would unfollow Kim. And I also keep an eye on what Kim says. She’s not my friend. And I don’t know her story.

But I do know that racism is insidious in our culture, and when we think we are immune from racism, because we ourselves are a minority, or we are liberal, or whatever, and we start speaking about other races as if we are experts, while not understanding what it means to be them? We run the risk of our own racism coming out and affecting other people in negative ways. Sometimes the racism is internalized. That’s some of the worst. Sometimes the racism is pointed towards “those people” over there. Sometimes we use racism to “prove our point” with some agenda or other. Pretty sure that Kim Shum was being a feminist and probably meant to be an ally to the LGBT community. just like the fandom was attacking racism in The 100, while erasing mixed race families and diminishing our existence. Kim and the fandom thought they were being righteous and defending groups who were oppressed. And they did so by throwing mixed race people under the bus. Because we aren’t “real.” Bellamy was not REALLY POC and neither was I. Therefore, they both decided we had white privilege that neither of us really experience, and we are fair game for erasure in their search for justice for their chosen minority. So like that’s fun. 

It’s especially fun that people will use mixed race people to support their agenda, until mixed race people disagree with them, then they will use their agenda to erase the mixed race people. See that’s the thing. We’re fun for racists to use us however they want. To support a liberal agenda. To support our race. To be sexy and exotic for their fantasies. To give a nice “flava” to our show without having to commit to a “real” minority. But when we speak up for ourselves? Well. Nope. We don’t count anymore. 

Now there’s a LOT to talk about in what the mixed race experience really is. And it’s different for everyone, and we COULD talk about colorism, there’s a lot to say about that. And we could talk about the awkward confluence of feminism and race. There’s a lot and it’s a good, important discussion.