Truly, there is nothing is wrong with you.

I had fallen a bit behind with Hoshino Tomoyuki's blog, but Shiho told me about his recent (Feb. 8th) post today. I'm really glad I read it. (Thanks, Shiho!)

If you click here, you can get a sense of the press coverage in response to something the celebrity Kôda Kumi said. The following clip will also give you a sense of how the story has been covered.



Hoshino writes about how the bashing triggered by what Kôda said is unbearable. While he acknowledges her words definitely warrant criticism, he is alarmed by the extent to which the bashing has continued even after she quickly reflected and apologized. Why go after her so much? Hoshino suggests that by NOT giving it a rest and, instead, going relentlessly after a person like this, the media is, in effect, bullying or lynching her. (It reminded me in some ways of what Carla Williams wrote about Body Baggage and the Janet Jackson Super Bowl thing.) This kind of bullying is very consistent with where US and Japanese societies have been at for quite some time. And things aren't slowing down.

My Thursday class, which I love so much, touched on a similar theme today. We were talking about what happened to Larry King and Sanesha Stewart (see the two posts below this one), as well as the ways in which folks who resist or speak out about social injustice are often slandered as crazy, drunk, etc., etc. We go after someone's character (or "identity" as Hoshino writes), and that relieves us of the responsibility of thinking about what's wrong with society, with us. The prison functions in the same way. It's them ... and not us. This sort of thinking makes possible the killing of Larry King. It makes possible the insane sentences handed down to youth of color.

I'm just increasingly grateful to Hoshino and my Thursday class. Hoshino really lays out the stakes when he writes about how violently we are compelled and coerced to kill off parts (if not all) of ourselves to avoid being the other who is attacked, abused, and killed.

The long winter and treacherous conditions haven't made things easier for any of us around here. I'm posting this unrelated picture, because thinking about being somewhere like this with my Thursday class makes me happy. Maybe it will make you happy too.