The wonderfully talented American playwright Lynn Nottage has won this year’s Pulitzer Prize in Drama—the play explores the systematic destruction of the local community through the rapes of the women in the present day Congo.

Photo ©2009 Susan Johann

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8 Comments

  1. More PC crap, what is this PBS?

    Yes things in Africa are bad, but what about all the crime here? Or maybe that is too politically sensitive…

  2. What you say Guy is very amusing! Thanks for the humorous uplift. I quess you are being humorous, you can’t possibly serious. By the way, do you wear tri-focals?

  3. “Guy, you are just so smart. You win. You are just so good at calling other people names. You have the strength of the world in the form of political correctness on your side.”

    * Actually you are wrong. The tide of political correctness is on the side of looking on the surface about issues – to look humanitarian while actually not addressing roots causes, only the surface. It is the new sophisticated force of empire – looking good while giving even more cover to do doing bad.

    “Charity however begins at home. And our loyalties are to those near us and are of our kind, that’s what being a good neighbor is about. Having a multi-cultural attitude is a luxury of empire that you can still afford. I can’t afford it. Empires force people together in an unnatural way, contrary to nature. In the end it cannot hold together.”

    * Empire is what is the root cause of the suffering of people such as in the Congo – to get at their stuff to support the empire that you and I live in and pay taxes to. This isn’t about being multi-cultural, it’s about seeing how empire is screwing people all over the globe. Realizing that by becoming less dependent on the empire to provide to us what we need is a real solution to suffering – that is the real connection that can be made that is a million more times effective than any corporate/empire driven humanitarian politically correct cause out there.
    To be for yourself and your race is healthy and reality based. To be for yourself does not mean your are against anyone else.

    * Yeah, so why can’t Congolese people be for themselves? It’s because of Empire. Repeated attempts to sabotage people’s right to self-determination is so bloody blatant for anyone to see. And don’t give me no bull about you are not against anyone else – you are the one who posted on here about some people not having it within themselves to be free! That’s some elitist empire driven ideologic bullshit if I ever heard it!

    “Although I dislike the atrocities committed throughout the world, I would like to see the focus on why white women are so disproportionately raped by black men in america and not vice-versa. It certainly means something to them and others. But why is it not possible to discuss this? Its a form of reverse racism that liberals must stomp out as you are doing. The shame is on you!”
    * Ok. Well no one is stopping you – if that statistic is indeed true. Please include all the vital stats including how many white women vs. black women actually report being raped. Question – and if the stat IS true – does it mean something to THEM(meaning women) as you have implied as to what race their violator is as much as it means to YOU? It would be interesting to see you discuss all the intertwining factors of class, race and gender in the discussion. You can also include how Africans who were brought as slaves(chattel) – were at the mercy of the enslavers and were frequently raped – you know to build up the infrastructure so you could have your little white middle class lifestyle that you love to defend now that the big boys are willing to put you on the chopping block now like everyone else in the world. You can also include how women are always the victims of sexual violence by men all over the world regardless of race. We can get into the discussion of how the way we view others is directly related to power constructs and how if you really want to get into it is the basis on which Empire stands. We can get into how the needs of Empire created the white race as a political/social construct in contradistinction to others which it wished to conquer and put in a subservient position. Remember George – “Freedom is not a part of their mental or historical make-up.”

    What one focuses on it his own business. To call that person myopic is just to stay that person’s focus is not as important as your own. What’s tolerant about that?

    * If you were focussed on your “own” business you would not be spouting lies about other people who just don’t have it in them to be free and thus giving moral justification for the subservient position certain people serve in the empire.

  4. Guy, you are just so smart. You win. You are just so good at calling other people names. You have the strength of the world in the form of political correctness on your side.

    Charity however begins at home. And our loyalties are to those near us and are of our kind, that’s what being a good neighbor is about. Having a multi-cultural attitude is a luxury of empire that you can still afford. I can’t afford it. Empires force people together in an unnatural way, contrary to nature. In the end it cannot hold together.

    To be for yourself and your race is healthy and reality based. To be for yourself does not mean your are against anyone else.

    Guy,

    Although I dislike the atrocities committed throughout the world, I would like to see the focus on why white women are so disproportionately raped by black men in america and not vice-versa. It certainly means something to them and others. But why is it not possible to discuss this?

    Its a form of reverse racism that liberals must stomp out as you are doing. The shame is on you!

    What one focuses on it his own business. To call that person myopic is just to stay that person’s focus is not as important as your own. What’s tolerant about that?

  5. Although the media tends to focus in a very myopic way on the rape of women in the Congo as victims of a simplistic “African Black Tribal” violence which fits right into the racist myopic worldview/narrative of folks like George Wells, the root cause of all this is of course far deeper. Far deeper than a lot of people are willing to go.

    I highly suggest folks check out the investigative journalist Keith Harmon Snow’s website for hard-hitting and deep insight into genocide that has been occurring in areas such as Congo for years. It is important to note that millions have died in the short span since 1994. Sure – we don’t care as much, because they’re “black” and yeah those people are just prone to violence, right George Wells? In reality much of this is due to battles for resource control – funded covertly by the financial players in the Western world. Let’s remember that Africa is very important in terms of resources – it has been a bastion of colonial and neo-colonial control for hundreds of years (and even longer if we include the Islamic imperialists).

    Please check out: http://www.allthingspass.com

  7. Unfortunately where I live the drama all comes pre-packaged from ClearChannel into the local performing arts center. I used to volunteer there but I don’t any more. Reasons are varied for that.

    However I do maintain my interest in the theater and in study. The performance artist Coco Fusco is doing more than any woman out there in USA to confront some hard questions. Fusco deals with women in the military and I talk about this in whatever space I can relate it.

    This Wellesley write up of Fusco’s book called “A Field Guide For Female Interrogators”
    gives a good summary of Fusco’s work and her confrontation of the art community.

    I’m currently re-reading the essay to Virginia Woolf which begins the Field Guide.

    http://www.wcwonline.org/content/view/1941/38

    The performance aspect of Fusco’s work has her in her military personna dressed in fatigues and addressing art conferences in character. This is dynamite stuff. Ask your library to get the Field Guide.

    I first learned about it in The Progressive magazine. Out of Madison Wisconsin, Math Rothchild recently appeared on the Flashpoints program to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication.

  8. I wonder if any white american could get a Pulitzer prize for dramatizing the rape of 38,000 white women by black men which occur every year in america? What are the odds?

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