cravingsanityinprint

[cravingsanityinprint]

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To my future girlfriend:

Hi. I’m Grace.

I’m one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet, and I will probably care more about you than you imagine possible. I try to be kind to everyone, but I do get upset when people are racist toward me or say stupid things about gay people.

I struggle with my identity and I want you to know that before we become serious. It’s taken me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I’m bisexual and to be honest I never really came out of the closet.

I’m a devout Christian and I’m afraid what my friends from church would think about me if they found out I like girls. I don’t want people to pray that I’ll stop liking girls. I believe God created me this way and I’m content with that.

I know we’ll have good days and I know we’ll have bad days. I also know that we will emerge from the bad days as better people, and learn more about ourselves and each other and how to prevent more bad days.

I have schizoaffective disorder and depression too. You’re going to see me go through anxiety and paranoia. “Babe, did we forget anything? You turned off the stove, right? I think I forgot my wallet. And my keys.” I hope that won’t make you like me less. I hope that won’t be the reason you break up with me.

In senior year of high school my friend called me clingy and I’ve been self conscious ever since. I’m going to text you all the time, and always be afraid I’m bothering you. I promise to be faithful. I promise to call you all the time and be a crutch in hard times— I promise to help you through difficult times in your life, but I expect the same.

I know our time together will be worthwhile. I don’t know if we’ll get married, or be long term partners, but I know I won’t regret our relationship, even if its ending is inevitable.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6DgawQdSlQ

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Meet Thor, The Bengal Cat With Purrfectly Beautiful Fur

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well i’m pissed. i’ve given in--the school can schedule whatever they want to schedule--i’m a student with no power. if they don’t want me to take AP English then I can’t take AP English even if I’ve already finished the summer assignment. same for history honors. if the list was long enough that the class was full before they could schedule for me to take it, that’s it. there’s no changing their minds--there’s no teachers and no space. i just won’t get to take the classes. the school won’t change their minds, i’m telling you. no matter what my mom says mrs. loeuis will get in the way and say i can’t take the class, or rosenzweig will get her mind changed by loeuis. it’s a done deal and they won’t let me take either class. i don’t want to even hear about it anymore.

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“how are you gonna lose weight?”

“you need to lose weight”

“you should take weight loss pills”

“you need to lose weight”

i will develop a fucking ed if this continues

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“It’s not your stuff!”

Sure, rummaging through the stuff in the basement might be annoying. I just came out with stuff I thought was weird or we needed or I thought should be thrown out. 

And for fuck’s sake, I was looking for something Sicily gave me for Christmas. I feel like crap knowing that she gave me something nice and I lost it.

Plus-- I don’t want to ask him for money, and I don’t want someone else paying for me at the same restaurant that my stomach burned with every bite last time because I didn’t have money and wouldn’t be able to pay. Mark saved my ass that time, and I can’t imagine what the embarrassment would have been like had he not paid for me.

Now I feel like crying.

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Rachel Rostad- To JK Rowling, from Cho Chang

Dear JK Rowling,

When you put me in your books millions of Asian girls across America rejoiced! Finally, a potential Halloween costume that wasn’t a geisha, or Mulan! I mean, what’s not to love about me? I’m everybody’s favorite character! I totally get to fight tons of death eaters and have a great sense of humor and am full of complex emotions.

Oh wait. That’s the version of Harry Potter where I’m not fucking worthless.

First of all, you put me in Ravenclaw. Of course the only Asian at Hogwarts would be put in the nerdy house. Too bad you didn’t have a house that specialized in computers and math and karate, huh?

I know, you thought you were being tolerant. Between me, Dean, and the Indian twins, Hogwarts has like...five brown people? It doesn't matter we’re all minor characters. Nah, you’re not racist! Just like how you’re not homophobic, because Dumbledore’s totally gay! Of course it’s never said in the books, but man. Hasn't society come so far? Now gays don’t just have to be closeted in real life—they can even be closeted fictionally! Ms. Rowling. Let’s talk about my name. Cho. Chang. Cho and Chang are both last names. They are both Korean last names. I am supposed to be Chinese. Me being named “Cho Chang” is like a Frenchman being named “Garcia Sanchez.” So thank you. Thank you for giving me no heritage. Thank you for giving me a name as generic as a ninja costume. As chopstick hair ornaments. Ms. Rowling, I know you’re just the latest participant in a long tradition of turning Asian women into a tragic fetish. Madame Butterfly. Japanese woman falls in love with a white soldier, is abandoned, kills herself. Miss Saigon. Vietnamese woman falls in love with a white soldier, is abandoned, kills herself. Memoirs Of A Geisha. Lucy Liu in leather. Schoolgirl porn. So let me cry over boys more than I speak. Let me fulfill your diversity quota. Just one more brown girl mourning her white hero. No wonder Harry Potter’s got yellow fever. We giggle behind small hands and “no speak Engrish.” What else could a man see in me? What else could I be but what you made me? Subordinate. Submissive. Subplot. Go ahead. Tell me I’m overreacting. Ignore the fact that your books have sold 400 million copies worldwide. I am plastered across movie screens, a bestselling caricature. Last summer, I met a boy who spoke like rain against windows. - He had his father’s blue eyes. He’d press his wrist against mine and say he was too pale. That my skin was so much more beautiful. To him, I was Pacific sunset, almond milk, a porcelain cup. When he left me, I told myself I should have seen it coming. I wasn't sure I was sad but I cried anyway. Girls who look like me are supposed to cry over boys who look like him. I’d seen all the movies and read all the books. We were just following the plot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFPWwx96Kew

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That Talk We Had

Dear Coach,

Remember when I

got out that one practice?

I told you I'd not felt well,

I said my head wasn't screwed 

on straight, 

I felt empty, nothing was right;

nothing had been right for a really,

really long time, and I hadn't felt like myself. 

and I couldn't remember when

the last time anything,

anything,

felt right was.

"Try and screw on your head straight.

The most important practices are the ones

which don't feel right; you have to push

through them or else

it's a waste--of potential, of time,

of energy.

Get back in there and keep training."

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Reaping what is sown and seeing what isn't

The grass is always greener on the otherside--

it's not.

.

It's the perception of it--

only the perspective counts.

It's how the light deflects of the grass blades

and how it detracts--

attention from the truth,

glosses over all the holes, inconsistencies 

all the bull hidden beneath the green.

How shiny and luscious everything seems

when it's really a facade.

.

Anticipation builds, ends when

you walk over and it's all the same damn thing

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Do you think Mickey Mouse was based off of blackface?

Short answer: Yes

Long media studies answer: Yes, and it’s not really a matter of opinion so much as fact, lol. 

As many cultural historians have pointed out, the classic American animated cartoons emerged from the same milieu that produced blackface performances (like the Amos and Andy show) and minstrel music. Many of the great early animated characters — Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse, Bosko — had more than a touch of blackface and the minstrel show to them.

Source

To some degree, most introductory cartoons from the 1920s/30s drew from vaudeville -Blackface and minstrel aesthetic included- when it came to both character design and content. And by most, I mean Disney, Warner Brothers (Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes), MGM, and R.K.O. 

The influence lasted well into the 1950’s for most, too. Although Disney was still hitting us with that Jungle Book/King Louie/I wanna be like you racism well into the 1960’s, but I digress. 

((If you’re looking for a 1920s cartoon character/mascot that was most definitely hella omgwtf based on Vaudvillian blackface acts, check out the original design for Warner Brothers’ character Bosko. Not the cute retcon’d Tiny Toons version; the original— 

The image doesn’t do Bosko and Honey justice though. You can watch The Talk Ink Kid for animated confirmation. There’s even a really racist Asian-stereotype moment! Wowzers.))

Longer media studies answer with bonus content: 

So that’s in terms of design. 

 In terms of content, the studios of that time did some hella racist stuff—shoutout bugs bunny—and Disney/Mickey Mouse was no exception. 

Our dear mouse-pal has straight up appeared in blackface— 

Source: Mickey’s Mellerdrammer

Depicted extremely shitty caricatures of Africans— 

Source: Trader Mickey (note the cab calloway sounding music around that 4:40 mark~). 

And the Disney comic books are much of the same—

"Voodoo Hoodoo" - 1949

"Voodoo Hoodoo" - 1949

"Lost In the Andes" - 1949(Images from Comic Book Resources) 

"Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Annual: A Black Outlook" -1932

"Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Annual: A Black Outlook" -1932(Original images from Moments In Time).

So it was the whole shebang, really. 

Of course, over time the studios have delivered some major character design overhauls and mostly stepped away from those origins.

More reading on the subject: 

Google Reads excerpt {Bosko / Mickey / History}

Write up on Bosko

TV Tropes Blackface -> Western Animation 

The Nine Most Racist Disney Characters - Cracked.com

Disney Shorts Encyclopedia: Mickey’s Mellerdrammer

Banned Cartoons.com

Black-face.com

- jt

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THIS IS IMPORTANT!

Some brave soul in Philadelphia drew this brilliant political cartoon critiquing police brutality, and now he, and the paper that published his cartoon, are being harassed by the local Fraternity of Police.

Reblog to show that you support the press’s right to the freedom of speech.

Reblog to show that you are against police violence and brutality.

Reblog to show that you support peace for all, no matter their race, religion, sexual preferences, or politics.

Reblog to show that you support change.

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Sometimes called the “Queen” or “First Lady” of physics, Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) was a Chinese-American nuclear physicist who famously solved the “Tau-Theta Puzzle” that had confounded scientists for years.  At a time when women — particularly women of color — were not readily accepted in the academy, Wu made significant progress for women in science, and was accepted as a researcher at Princeton University before the institution even admitted women.

While Wu’s co-collaborators on the “Tau-Theta Puzzle” were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1957, Wu was not, leading some scientists and historians to believe she was excluded on the basis of gender discrimination. Still, she won a number of other prestigious awards, and was elected the first woman president of the American Physics Society.

An outspoken critic of the gender bias in science and brilliant physicist, Wu is one of the 73 individuals who were added to Oxford’s American National Biography in October.

Image: Chien-shiung Wu by Smithsonian Institution from United States. Public Domain via Flickr.

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do over

I wish I'd had the courage 

I'm curious though

What would you think

if I'd told,

if I'd spilled,

all of my secrets?

The little entity that they are,

the little I know about you,

the little I know about how you talk

the little I know about how you are

the little I know about what you are

I take it you'd be surprised.

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every time

what happened to our little

talks

when we'd speak 

'till the ungodly hours of the morning

wake up to frantic screams

of the one you fell asleep 

with

with her heart in hand

she'd screamed

asking where you were

where you'd gone

why

why you'd left

in those words you'd said

across the message frame

in the videos you'd shared

in the truths you'd confessed

in the dares you'd challenged

in the friends you'd each deceived

in avoidance of those silly, boring confessions

i'd wished

i'd said what i'd intended to all along

that i want you to stay

that i don't want to screw up things with you

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This photo is so powerful and describes what it feels like to have a depression/personality disorder/bipolar i mean it literally feels like a monster in your body that needs to get out, one way or another but you have no control over it. All you want it for it to go. For you to be happy.