White People in the News - Political Prisoner Edition
August 25, 2008 by clander
Photo by Jeff Deck
Men banned from national parks after vandalism.
From The Boston Globe, August 22, 2008.
Summary:
Two white people from the Somerville, MA created an organization called “TEAL: Typo Eradication Advancement League,” and vowed to travel across the country fixing typos. This is especially interesting since every other time two late 20s white males have traveled across the country it has been to visit all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums.
All was well until the two men defaced a hand painted sign in Grand Canyon National Park. They were caught, arrested, fined, and banned from National Parks for one year.
While white people have little trouble paying fines of $3,000, the ban from public parks for one full year is considered especially harsh considering white people’s need for camping and other outdoor activities.
Questions for discussion:
- When there is a typo on a vintage sign, what is more important: Grammar or character?
- Once all typos have been corrected, what will be the next cause for white people to solve? (side note: do not say Africa, white people are already fast at work making t-shirts)
Related Links
Thank you to Maureen Bensily who sent this in first, and thank you to every else who sent it in slighty after her.
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Looking at these two jerks,,,I am glad I am the wrong kind of white!
Although it’s not a grammatical error, I have to admit that I wish I could replace all the letter “V’s” with the letter “U” on the library in Pittsburgh. I know what you are going to say, it’s historical and literally written in stone, but I’m sure we could fashion something out of paper mache and chicken wire.
I wish i had no problem paying a $3000 dollar fine.
There’s a typo. It should read “slightly,” not slighty.
OMFG! It’s the white, male version of my sister and me! (The primary difference here is that, as exotic brown girls, we don’t get caught…)
[1. When there is a typo on a vintage sign, what is more important: Grammar or character?]
We’re the kind of nerdy, white-on-the-inside kids who will actually do the research to find out if it was grammatically acceptable in their day. If not, spray away!
[2. Once all typos have been corrected, what will be the next cause for white people to solve? (side note: do not say Africa, white people are already fast at work making t-shirts) ]
I’d always assumed that since the white folks had already dealt with shirts for Africa and the Indigenous American movement, they’d finally get around to fixing all the stuff they’d done to Pacific Islanders. Hula dancers got screwed over by colonialism too!
Don’t fear.
The white people in Australia and New Zealand are all over the t-shirts to save the Pacific Islanders thing.
OMFG! It’s the white, male version of my sister and me! (The primary difference here is that, as exotic brown girls, we don’t get caught…)
[1. When there is a typo on a vintage sign, what is more important: Grammar or character?]
We’re the kind of nerdy, white-on-the-inside kids who will actually do the research to find out if it was grammatically acceptable in their day. If not, spray away!
[2. Once all typos have been corrected, what will be the next cause for white people to solve? (side note: do not say Africa, white people are already fast at work making t-shirts) ]
I’d always assumed that since the white folks had already dealt with shirts for Africa and the Indigenous American movement, they’d finally get around to fixing all the stuff they’d done to Pacific Islanders. Hula dancers got screwed over by colonization too!
Bravissimo!
I, too, engage in signage revisionism - as the Catholic Church says, error has no rights.
However, my focus to to convert all archaic weights & measures into metric - SI metric, of course…
We all do what we can; fight the power!
I loved these guys when I first read about them, and I love them now. If we could take just one small step toward actual basic literacy–like, oh, say, getting the apostrophes in the right places on great big public signs–there might be hope.
Of course, I’m not an American, so I might as well say it: For you lot, there’s no hope, white or otherwise.
Best of luck!
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