We've come a long way baby...

Martin Luther King Day is just around the corner, and it made me think, even though we have a ways to go until we have a color-blind society, that we've progressed quite a bit since I was a kid. Especially if you think institutionalized racism reflects societal attitudes in general. And yes, I have been called a sheep-shagger before, by an insensitive English person (note my linguistic restraint).

Believe it or not, when I was growing up in Scotland, the Black and White Minstrel Show was considered wholesome family entertainment. Luckily my mum was kind of ahead of her time, and would switch off the TV when it came on. But she still bought marmalade which had little paper golliwogs stuck under the label that you collected to get a brooch. Weirdly enough, this is a purely British artifact of racism.

That WeightWatchers commercial with Cher singing makes me want to either dress up in major drag like a Vegas show girl or do a song and dance routine on an aircraft carrier. But it doesn't make me want to go on a diet, even though the song clearly underlines the fate of the fat.

I was watching Dancing With the Stars, and I can't imagine their budget for self-tanner with George Hamilton and Lisa Rinna in the cast. Plus George Hamilton looks like Nixon, which adds a whole other level of entertainment to the show. And I love that particular breed of tightly trousered, oily coiffured, squirm inducing and deeply disturbing male dancer they have on the show.