Darker Skin by Injection!

One of the inexplicable contradictions in race is this: in every known historical era, in every region of the world, lighter skin has been considered preferable to darker skin, and been privileged thereby. Except this one strange anomoly of the past century: the desirability of a tan among white folks. Now comes word from an article in Wired Magazine that a "suntan drug" has been approved for trials by the FDA--ostensibly for medical use (for a few rare conditions)--not for cosmetic use. (Kind of like QT in a syringe, to be applied internally instead of topically, and with less orangish results).

The article (at http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/tan.html?npu=1&mbid=yhp --complete with before-and-after photos) says the hype or the risk, depending on how you look at it, is that the drug has the potential to be an abused "lifestyle drug" like Botox or Viagra. In fact, the human-made hormone, called afamelanotide, is already available (illegal in the U.S.) on-line as Melanotan II.

Now here's the REALLY weird part: The drug reportedly appears to have aphrodisiac and erectile function effects as well. Darker skin, more active libido--talk about reinforcing racial sterotypes!

And for a bit more weirdness: the article reports that in "early animal trials, injections of the drug caused a yellow dog's fur to become black and visibly darkened a frog's skin in minutes." Yeah, sounds safe to me. I mean, why not just wallow in a bath of ink the color you wanta be?!

Black GOP Chairman

Let me get this straight: a party that has exactly zero African American member of Congress: that's zero out of about, I don't know, 220 U.S. senators and Congressmembers, has elected a black man (Michael Steele, former Lt. Governor of MD) as chair of their party?!!! I guess you could say that's a way of trying to change that, but I fear the more accurate interpretation is that he's some weird response to the election of Obama (kind of like the nomination of wacko blacko Alan Keyes (not even a true resident of IL) to oppose Obama for the Senate in 2004. I wonder if Steele will stick it out with the GOP longer than J.C. Watts did--he was the last black member of the U.S. COngress, and quit after just a few terms despite getting a lot more public exposure than most inexperience Congressfolk.

The other racial subtext to the story is the withdrawal, just before the vote, with no explanation offered, of another candidate: former Tennessee GOP Chairman Chip Saltsman. Saltsman drew a lot of heat after mailing a CD in December to RNC members: the CD included a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro" by conservative comedian Paul Shanklin and sung to the music of "Puff, the Magic Dragon." What--someone found that objectionable? From a party with zero black members of Congress? Duh!!!

Blago's Circus

The spectacle of the rejection of Roland Burris's credentials for senator is full of racial overtones, not just undertones. African American U.S. reps Bobby Rush, Elijah Cummings, and some other black leaders are demanding that Burris be seated, claiming that to do otherwise is racist. What a mess. Of course, Burris knew when he agreed to accept the appointment by soon-to-be-indicted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich that such an appointment would be a sham. But the reason the senate is so susceptible to the "racism" claim is that of 100 senators elected to represent this "fair" land, exactly one of them--Barack Obama--was black. This in a nation about 12% black. Were blacks to have proportional representation, one would expect for there to be 12 black senators. Instead, if Obama were replaced by a nonblack, there would be zero. Like I said, what a mess. I guess our land is too "fair" (i.e., light skinned), and at the same time not nearly fair enough (when it comes to equality without regard to skin color/race).