This is the season of lists. And, thanks to Kottke, of lists of lists. There are so many lists on offer that it’s hard to make a list that gets above the fray, stands out from the crowd. So maybe it is understandable, in that narrowest of ways, that the New York Times saw fit to publish of list of Christmas gifts by, and for, people of colour:
Somali fashion, do-it-yourself henna kits, children’s books that draw inspiration from the lives of Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor: it’s not hard to find gifts created for and by people of color this holiday season…
Not to mention a book called ‘The Mocha Manual to Military Life: A Savvy Guide for Wives, Girlfriends and Female Service Members’, hair de-kinking products, and a makeup guide for “Asian Faces”. Mediate calls it “borderline racist”; I suspect it is more an unfortunate combination of runaway competition in the the world of list-making combined with excessive Obama-era self-consciousness about race.
