#Lecturer Commerce | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fatehbaz · 1 year ago

Text

"defending civilization against bugs"

lol the mosquito sculpture

see Pratik Chakrabarti's Medicine and Empire: 1600-1960 (2013) and Bacteriology in British India: Laboratory Medicine and the Tropics (2012)

---

Sir Ronald Ross had just returned from an expedition to Sierra Leone. The British doctor had been leading efforts to tackle the malaria that so often killed English colonists in the country, and in December 1899 he gave a lecture to the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce [...]. [H]e argued that "in the coming century, the success of imperialism will depend largely upon success with the microscope."

Text by: Rohan Deb Roy. "Decolonise science - time to end another imperial era." The Conversation. 5 April 2018.

---

[A]s [...] Diane Nelson explains: The creation of transportation infrastructure such as canals and railroads, the deployment of armies, and the clearing of ground to plant tropical products all had to confront [...] microbial resistance. The French, British, and US raced to find a cure for malaria [...]. One French colonial official complained in 1908: “fever and dysentery are the ‘generals’ that defend hot countries against our incursions and prevent us from replacing the aborigines that we have to make use of.” [...] [T]ropical medicine was assigned the role of a “counterinsurgent field.” [...] [T]he discovery of mosquitoes as malaria and yellow fever carriers reawakened long-cherished plans such as the construction of the Panama Canal (1904-1914) [...]. In 1916, the director of the US Bureau of Entomology and longtime general secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science rejoiced at this success as “an object lesson for the sanitarians of the world” - it demonstrated “that it is possible for the white race to live healthfully in the tropics.” [...] The [...] measures to combat dangerous diseases always had the collateral benefit of social pacification. In 1918, [G.V.], president of the Rockefeller Foundation, candidly declared: “For purposes of placating primitive and suspicious peoples, medicine has some decided advantages over machine guns." The construction of the Panama Canal [...] advanced the military expansion of the United States in the Caribbean. The US occupation of the Canal Zone had already brought racist Jim Crow laws [to Panama] [...]. Besides the [...] expansion of vice squads and prophylaxis stations, during the night women were picked up all over the city [by US authorities] and forcibly tested for [...] diseases [...] [and] they were detained in something between a prison and hospital for up to six months [...] [as] women in Panama were becoming objects of surveillance [...].

Text by: Fahim Amir. "Cloudy Swords." e-flux Journal Issue #115. February 2021.

---

Richard P. Strong [had been] recently appointed director of Harvard’s new Department of Tropical Medicine [...]. In 1914 [the same year of the Canal's completion], just one year after the creation of Harvard’s Department of Tropical Medicine, Strong took on an additional assignment that cemented the ties between his department and American business interests abroad. As newly appointed director of the Laboratories of the Hospitals and of Research Work of United Fruit Company, he set sail in July 1914 to United Fruit plantations in Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama. […] As a shareholder in two British rubber plantations, [...] Strong approached Harvey Firestone, chief executive of the tire and rubber-processing conglomerate that bore his name, in December 1925 with a proposal [...]. Firestone had negotiated tentative agreements in 1925 with the Liberian government for [...] a 99-year concession to optionally lease up to a million acres of Liberian land for rubber plantations. [...]

[I]nfluenced by the recommendations and financial backing of Harvard alumni such as Philippine governor Gen. William Cameron Forbes [the Philippines were under US military occupation] and patrons such as Edward Atkins, who were making their wealth in the banana and sugarcane industries, Harvard hired Strong, then head of the Philippine Bureau of Science’s Biological Laboratory [where he fatally infected unknowing test subject prisoners with bubonic plague], and personal physician to Forbes, to establish the second Department of Tropical Medicine in the United States [...]. Strong and Forbes both left Manila [Philippines] for Boston in 1913. [...] Forbes [US military governor of occupied Philippines] became an overseer to Harvard University and a director of United Fruit Company, the agricultural products marketing conglomerate best known for its extensive holdings of banana plantations throughout Central America. […] In 1912 United Fruit controlled over 300,000 acres of land in the tropics [...] and a ready supply of [...] samples taken from the company’s hospitals and surrounding plantations, Strong boasted that no “tropical school of medicine in the world … had such an asset. [...] It is something of a victory [...]. We could not for a million dollars procure such advantages.” Over the next two decades, he established a research funding model reliant on the medical and biological services the Harvard department could provide US-based multinational firms in enhancing their overseas production and trade in coffee, bananas, rubber, oil, and other tropical commodities [...] as they transformed landscapes across the globe.

Text by: Gregg Mitman. "Forgotten Paths of Empire: Ecology, Disease, and Commerce in the Making of Liberia's Plantation Economy." Environmental History, Volume 22, Number 1. January 2017. [Text within brackets added by me for clarity and context.]

---

[On] February 20, 1915, [...] [t]o signal the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), [...] [t]he fair did not officially commence [...] until President Wilson [...] pressed a golden key linked to an aerial tower [...] whose radio waves sparked the top of the Tower of Jewels, tripped a galvanometer, [...] swinging open the doors of the Palace of Machinery, where a massive diesel engine started to rotate. [...] [W]ith lavish festivities [...] nineteen million people has passed through the PPIE's turnstiles. [...] As one of the many promotional pamphlets declared, "California marks the limit of the geographical progress of civilization. For unnumbered centuries the course of empire has been steadily to the west." [...] One subject that received an enormous amount of time and space was [...] the areas of race betterment and tropical medicine. Indeed, the fair's official poster, the "Thirteenth Labor of Hercules," [the construction of the Panama Canal] symbolized the intertwined significance of these two concerns [...]. [I]n the 1910s public health and eugenics crusaders alike moved with little or no friction between [...] [calls] for classification of human intelligence, for immigration restriction, for the promotion of the sterilization and segregation of the "unfit," [...]. It was during this [...] moment, [...] that California's burgeoning eugenicist movement coalesced [...]. At meetings convened during the PPIE, a heterogenous group of sanitary experts, [...] medical superintendents, psychologists, [...] and anthropologists established a social network that would influence eugenics on the national level in the years to come. [...]

In his address titled "The Physician as Pioneer," the president-elect of the American Academy of Medicine, Dr. Woods Hutchinson, credited the colonization of the Mississippi Valley to the discovery of quinine [...] and then told his audience that for progress to proceed apace in the current "age of the insect," the stringent sanitary regime imposed and perfected by Gorgas in the Canal Zone was the sine qua non. [...]

Blue also took part in the conference of the American Society for Tropical Medicine, which Gorgas had cofounded five years after the annexation of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Invoking the narrative of medico-military conquest [...], [t]he scientific skill of the United States was also touted at the Pan-American Medical Congress, where its president, Dr. Charles L. Reed, delivered a lengthy address praising the hemispheric security ensured by the 1823 Monroe Doctrine and "the combined genius of American medical scientists [...]" in quelling tropical diseases, above all yellow fever, in the Canal Zone. [...] [A]s Reed's lecture ultimately disclosed, his understanding of Pan-American medical progress was based [...] on the enlightened effects of "Aryan blood" in American lands. [...] [T]he week after the PPIE ended, Pierce was ordered to Laredo, Texas, to investigate several incidents of typhus fever on the border [...]. Pierce was instrumental in fusing tropical medicine and race betterment [...] guided by more than a decade of experience in [...] sanitation in Panama [...]. [I]n August 1915, Stanford's chancellor, David Starr Jordan [...] and Pierce were the guests of honor at a luncheon hosted by the Race Betterment Foundation. [...] [At the PPIE] [t]he Race Betterment booth [...] exhibit [...] won a bronze medal for "illustrating evidences and causes of race degeneration and methods and agencies of race betterment," [and] made eugenics a daily feature of the PPIE. [...] [T]he American Genetics Association's Eugenics Section convened [...] [and] talks were delivered on the intersection of eugenics and sociology, [...] the need for broadened sterilization laws, and the medical inspection of immigrants [...]. Moreover, the PPIE fostered the cross-fertilization of tropical medicine and race betterment at a critical moment of transition in modern medicine in American society.

Text by: Alexandra Minna Stern. Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. Second Edition. 2016.

#literally that post i made earlier today about frustration of seeing the same colonial institutions and leaders showing up in every story #about plantations and forced labor my first draft i explicitly mentioned the harvard school tropical medicine and kew royal botanic garden #abolition #ecology #imperial #colonial #bugs #indigenous #multispecies #civilization vs bugs

233 notes · View notes

onceuponatown · 1 year ago

Photo

The Loomis Radio School, Washington D.C. ca. 1921.

The school was located at 401 Ninth St. N.W. and operated with the call letters 3YA. By 1920 it was offering a six month course enabling the graduate to obtain a first grade commercial radio license and by January of 1922 was offering a four year course with a degree in Radio Engineering bestowed on graduates.

The school was founded by Mary Texanna Loomis, pictured in the last photo.

Born August 18, 1880 near Goliad, Texas. She was the second child born to Alvin Isaac and Caroline (Dryer) Loomis. Though born on homestead in Texas in 1880, by 1883 her parents had returned to Rochester NY and then on to Buffalo where Alvin became president of a large delivery and storage company. Little is known of her early years, but appears she had a fairly middle-class up bringing. She seemed well schooled, with an early interest in music and language (she mastered French, German and Italian) Her early years were spent in Buffalo, NY and she later relocated to Virginia.

During the early years of World War I, she became interested in the new field of wireless telegraphy. There was a family precedent; her cousin, Dr. Mahlon Loomis, had conducted early wireless experiments with moderate success and may in fact have been the first person, in 1865, to send and receive wireless signals.

Mary soon became proficient enough in wireless telegraphy to be granted a license by the United States Department of Commerce. Thoroughly fascinated with the field now called “radio”, she decided to turn her expertise into a career. Also, she wanted to do something that would honor her pioneering ancestor. Her idea was to do this by founding a radio school.

Though radio was indeed, for many years, a profession dominated by men, Mary Loomis around age 40 took no notice and in 1920 founded the Loomis Radio School in Washington, D.C. and it quickly gained an excellent reputation. Ms. Loomis set high standards for the school and it attracted students not only from the United States but Europe and Asia as well. Loomis enjoyed teaching as much as she enjoyed radio itself. In an interview, she said, “Really, I am so infatuated with my work that I delight in spending from 12 to 15 hours a day at it. My whole heart and soul are in this radio school.”

As president and Lecturer of the Loomis Radio School, Mary authored a definitive book on radio, named “Radio Theory and Operating.”

By January 1922 the school was offering a four year course with a degree in Radio Engineering bestowed on graduates. Loomis also intended that her students understand more than just the inner and outer workings of radio. In addition to a radio laboratory (with equipment constructed almost entirely by Mary herself), the school maintained a complete shop capable of teaching carpentry, drafting and basic electricity. She reasoned that many of her graduates might find themselves at sea, or in other challenging situations and she wanted them adequately prepared. “No man,” Ms. Loomis said, at the time, “can graduate from my school until he learns how to make any part of the apparatus. I give him a blueprint of what I want him to do and tell him to go into the shop and keep hammering away until the job is completed.”

The school appears to have been in existence at least through the early 1930's, but it has not been possible to find information after that.

In an interview given to H.O. Bishop of the Dearborn Independent in 1921, Mary was asked: “What sort of young men are taking up the radio profession?” to which she replied:

“The Kind who have grit and want to get there! Virtually all of them are ambitious and enthusiastic over the possibility of visiting every nook and corner of the world. My students are not only enrolled from various sections of the USA and Canada but from many foreign countries, such as Sweden, Ireland, England, Poland, Russia, Austria, Rumania and the Philippines. One of the brightest pupils I ever had was Prince Walimuhomed of Far-away Afghanistan. He was an extremely modest young man, keeping his real identity a secret until after graduating. He said he had no idea of earning his living by working at radio, but just wanted to know all about it. He does.You have no idea how much happiness I get out of the success of each individual graduate. My boys keep in touch with me from all parts of the world. Scarcely a day goes by that I do not get some trinket or postcard from some remote section of the world. I have made the wonderful discovery that the only way for me to get happiness for myself is to make some one else happy. I find that I am making these young men happy by teaching them every phase of the radio business so that they can earn a comfortable living for themselves and their dependents and at the same time, see the great big beautiful world.

As far as we can figure out, Mary Loomis left Washington D.C. around 1935 and moved to San Francisco where she worked as a stenographer. She died in 1960 and is interred at Woodlawn Memorial Park, Colma, CA.

Source

#radio history #radio #women's history #loomis #washington dc

159 notes · View notes

fuwahua · 3 months ago

Text

Boo

Tktober Day 5 - Boo!

Tags: Shenhe/Yunjin, Halloween, trick or treating, flirting <3

“Trick or treat!”

“Boo.”

“A—AAAAAA!”

“Ah? Wait, you forgot your… candy…”

Yunjin muffles a giggle as the gaggle of children run sprinting from their doorstep, leaving a Shenhe with her arm still outstretched, a wrapped candy hung from her fingertips, alone.

“I don’t understand,” Shenhe says. “I was told by shifu that this behavior would delight children. I do not understand why they are screaming and running away.”

Oh my. Where to begin with this one?

“Why not shut the door first?”

Shenhe doesn’t seem to notice, lingering with the bowl of candy in her arm.

Yunjin was surprised at first when Shenhe returned home from a family visit with Xianyun with an armful full of orange, black, and purple fabrics. “For Halloween,” she’d explained, and then dove into a parsed down lecture of what her mentor had told her: that it was a tradition originating from Natlan, that it was growing in popularity amongst children overseas, and that the traveler wanted to host a Halloween celebration in Liyue. The city of commerce had no issues with a potentially booming candy and clothing trade opportunity and welcomed the new holiday with open arms.

Yunjin was no exception. The festive mood swept up everyone in it, but none more than the children who had taken to the idea of “new clothes” and “free candy” by storm; she’d ended up with matching witch outfits for Shenhe and her both to wear while distributing their sweets.

If only… the kids would stay long enough to receive them.

“Oh darling,” Yunjin sighs, rising from their sofa to retrieve the bowl and close the door. Shenhe glances at her, face unmoving, but she knows her girlfriend well enough to know the hurt reflecting in those eyes. “They’re just kids. They don’t know any better yet.”

“I know that.”

Even so, it doesn’t soothe the pain of rejection. Yunjin coaxes Shenhe back to the couch, placing the bowl on the table before wrapping her arms around the other. “It’s still early. All of Liyue will be knocking on our door later tonight, right?”

“And if they run?”

“More chocolate for us.”

“Ganyu shijie says that’s called gluttony.”

Shenhe’s mouth twitches as Yunjin titters. Her eyes slant, pleased, and Yunjin brushes back white hair with a hum. “Now that’s a face. Why not smile at the kids instead of scaring them?”

As though embarrassed, Shenhe’s face smooths. “What smile?”

“The smile you just had.”

“I wasn’t smiling.”

Really? Yunjin raises a brow, stretching Shenhe’s cheeks and lips into a makeshift smile. “How about this one?”

“Shiz nawt ah zmeele.”

“I have no idea what you just said.” Yunjin shakes her head, feeling a grin surface on her face instead. She pinches Shenhe’s cheek. “Mmm… I might have an idea on how to get you smiling.”

“Weelly?”

Oh, her sweet, gorgeous girlfriend. “Let’s give it a try.”

It’s a testament to Shenhe’s trust in her that she doesn’t so much as flinch when Yunjin gathers her arms and pulls them to the side, freeing one hand to poke at Shenhe’s stomach. Shenhe doesn’t so much as gasp.

A flutter to the sides. Nothing.

A skirt up the ribs. Nada.

A pinch to the armpits. Nope.

“Wait—are you not ticklish?” No fair! Yunjin digs in with intent now, both hands wriggling, tickling the way she knew would drive her crazy, but there’s no laughter. If anything, the amusement beginning to dawn in Shenhe’s eyes is dangerous, and Yunjin realizes too late the situation she’d placed herself in, squarely on her girlfriend’s lap. “Um—I’m just—eek!”

The poke on her side shouldn’t be a total surprise but Yunjin squeaks, erring back only to flop onto the sofa as Shenhe sits upright to straddle her instead. Heat rushes to her face at the position though it’s a little hard to focus when another series of jabs follows the first. “S-Shehenhe!”

“Like this?”

“W-whahaha do you meahahn?”

“Tickling,” Shenhe says, easy. “Am I doing it right?”

She squirms, caught between shaking her head and having Shenhe stop, or honestly nodding because her naïve, beautiful girlfriend has dreadfully perfect nails for going at her sides. At least Shenhe is slow, careful, and airy giggles bubble out of her when Shenhe’s hands crawl up her ribs in a mimicry of her own movements. “Y-you’rehehe doing okahahay!”

Shenhe frowns. “Just okay?”

Really, what is she meant to say? Yunjin’s smile widens in flustered endearment, hands rising to cover her face, arms shaking when Shenhe pinches the top of her ribs.

“You’re greahahahaat! N-nohoho, Shenhehehe!”

“No?” Shenhe’s frown softens, teasing, and Yunjin swears her heart drums louder than any opera she’d sung before. “Are you sure?”

She yelps as Shenhe digs into her underarms, hands immediately clamping to her sides in a failed attempt to protect them. The sofa creaks as she shifts, mouth wide in hapless giggles and shrieks when Shenhe moves just right, and it’s through squinty eyes that she realizes Shenhe’s hair has pooled around their faces and all she can see is the gentle smile pulling at pale lips. Beautiful.

“Y-YOUHOHA—!”

“Me?”

Yunjin whines, a low sort of noise no one would associate with the elegant singer, fingers trembling as they fail to dislodge Shenhe’s still wandering hands. Novice they may be, she’s sensitive enough that the attack is beginning to tire her out and Yunjin shakes her head in desperation. “Shenehehe, pleaheahahase!”

The plea is instantaneous; Shenhe removes her hands with ease, opting to lift Yunjin upright against her in a smooth motion that makes her giggles bashful. She always admired Shenhe’s strength but having it so cleanly demonstrated to her by her is… always a charming experience.

Even more so accompanied by the graceful curve of those lips.

“Really,” Yunjin chuckles, poking at Shenhe’s cheek. She sags against her, humming, as Shenhe’s smile remains soft. Achingly, wonderfully beautiful. “What a face.”

Shenhe blinks, lips parting. “Is there something wrong with it?”

“No, it’s perfect.” You’re perfect.

The smile that comment earns her truly is. She tilts her face upwards and the ghost of Shenhe’s breath on her is warm—

“Trick or treat!”

“Tch.”

Yunjin bursts into laughter at the pure irritation that crosses Shenhe’s gaze, yearning at once falling into barely restrained rage. Really, how could people call her girlfriend emotionless when she was so obvious? The knocking continues, a mini barrage of fists pounding on their doors with every passing second. Shenhe’s lips tremble and Yunjin bites down the urge to kiss it away as she pats Shenhe’s arm, shifting to the side so she may rise.

“Go on,” she says, gesturing to their still thumping door. “Don’t forget the candy!”

Shenhe pouts. “Can we ignore them?”

The banging almost seems to get louder. Yunjin’s lips twitch. “All the kids of Liyue?”

“None of them are as important as you.”

Oh, that does get her heart fluttering. Yunjin’s gaze softens, adoring, yet she doesn’t relent as she squeezes Shenhe’s hand. Eager as she is to spend the night trading treats and kisses with the other, Shenhe would be happier to report to Xianyun her success at reigning in her urges and appealing to the kids instead. “What will you tell your master?”

“There’s always next year?”

She laughs as Shenhe’s pout melts, loving, and it’s with a final squeeze of her fingers that her beloved rises to answer the door. The chatter of eager children spills in from the doorway, a chorus of pleas for candy and comments on the pretty jiejie, and Yunjin grins into the sofa. True to her words, the knocks continue for the next hour or two as every child makes sure to stop by their house for some sugary sweets. It’s almost a shame that no one’s noticed the best treat of them all.

Shenhe turns to her, smiling, and Yunjin smiles back.

#genshin impact #tickling #yunjin #shenhe #yuri!!!!!!!#my fic #tickletober 2024 #I NEED THEM TO MAKE OUT IN GAME FR #mhy tried to give us the short-tall gf dynamic with that cutscene but everyone hates height gap in this fandom im cry #o to have a homicidal homosexual tall gf #yunjin pressing up shenhe’s mouth in a smile is so so cute to me I would explode if it happened #pls have them interact in another lantern rite please please on my knees please

18 notes · View notes

theconstitutionisgayculture · 6 months ago

Note

i recently made a friend who's just so incredibly smart. she can deliver an in-depth lecture on history, philosophy and media without stumbling over her words even once as well as she can argue about it. but an interesting thing, she's a communist. but unlike the classic "everything should he free!", so believes that communism as it was on paper is supposed to the next step of human consciousness that we will most likely won't achieve in the near future. this i can get behind.

Nah, your "smart" friend is wrong. Communism, either theoretical perfect communism that only exists on paper or actual communism as it's always practiced in real life, is nothing to aspire to. The idea that the "next stage of human evolution" is some kind of higher consciousness where we shun the physical and embrace only the intellectual, or a gestalt consciousness, is faux intellectual garbage. They're ideas that were popularized by acid dropping left wing sci fi writers from the 60s and 70s who can't lift their groceries let alone some weights, and they've been dragged into every decade since because intellectual nerds really like the idea that their intelligence is going to be the future of humanity, and the meathead jocks that bullied them are going to be the less evolved Neanderthals they get to lord over. But the fact is humanity became the dominant species because of both our physical evolution and our intelligence. In fact, the only reason we're so intelligent is because of the way our physical brains are structured. So the argument can be made that greater physicality is our future evolution, not greater or "higher" intelligence. And as long as we inhabit a physical world, labor will always be necessary to survive. And as long as labor is necessary to survive, commerce will exist. And as long as commerce exists, the free market will always be the best, most ethical, most moral, most efficient, way to engage in commerce. Perfect textbook communism cannot work in the physical world. We've seen that time and time again as its tried over and over with the exact same results. Human rights abuses, genocide, slavery, oppression; they all go hand in hand with communism.

27 notes · View notes

genshinemblem564 · 2 years ago

Text

Birthday

How the different nations of Teyvat celebrate your birthday

My birthday is today so it's fresh on my mind, so you get headcanons.

_______________________________________________

Every nation has a festival in your name on this special day, but how does each festival differ.

• Mondstadt

The nation of wind and freedom and also wine, you would think this would lead to mass celebratory drinking, while this is true for some, the more upstanding citizens set aside their glasses, even the drunkard god himself, he does have his own role to play in this festival after all.

The city is decorated with windwheel asters and the shops carry wreaths made from the flower as you expressed amazement when first seeing the specimen.

Across the day dandelion seeds are gathered by visitors and locals alike and when the stars start to shine in the night sky a strong gust of wind summoned by Barbatos himself comes to help them soar, and due to the elemental energy flowing through them, it's as if the sky gained new stars that night.

• Liyue

The nation of stone and commerce, much like the Lantern Rite signifying the new year, lanterns are released into the night sky, these lanterns however are filled with notes containing prayers, thanks, and many simply wishing you a happy birthday.

Many of the city's shopkeepers offer a portion of their earnings to you, jewelers on the other hand offer their finest gems, only the best will do for their creator after all.

In years past a dragon could be seen resting at the peak of Jueyun Karst on this special day, these days however the only notable difference is the occasional absence of one of the funeral parlor's employees, but that's probably just a coincidence.

Unfortunately, Xiao cannot celebrate today, at least not to the extent that the others can. While hilichurls, treasure hoarders, and even the Abyss Order dare not disturb the peace this day, nothing can stop the rogue programming of the ruin guards. However seeing how diligently you work through your vessels even during festivities, he holds a sense of pride knowing you'd be doing the same if you were here.

• Inazuma

The nation of lightning and eternity, during the vision hunt decree, today was celebrated secretly, not because the Shogun had a law against, no, she was actually saddened by how quiet the day was, but it was because every vision bearer she hadn't caught thought she'd use the festival to round them up. Now that the hunt is over however, the streets of Inazuma are busting more than ever.

Inazuma is definitely the most diverse in its celebration, with warriors wishing to honor you by displaying their skills, artists hoping to show you the beauty of their craft, and a grand fireworks show courtesy of Naganohara Fireworks.

The shrine maidens of both Narukami and Watatsumi are very busy this time of year, accepting a multitude of offerings and words of appreciation for the creator.

The Arataki gang hosts a multitude of attractions for the festival, poor Shinobu was left with the paper work and the gang gets a good earful the next day, but she decides, so long as they're not causing problems, the lectures can wait until tomorrow.

• Sumeru

The nation of dendro, knowledge, and wisdom. In the past the Akademyia sages would over see this momentous occasion, now that role goes to lesser lord Kusanali.

The city holds a showcase of each of the Akademyia's darshans, this showcase is filled with incredible flora and fauna, all harmless of course, mechanical marvels, and elemental beauty.

Aaru village may be small but they go all out for you, due to how small it is there is nothing truly of note, but due to the peace mentioned in Liyue's section, even the ever diligent Candace can enjoy a day of leisure and laughter, much to Dehya's delight.

• Abyss

Not much is known about the abyss but one thing is clear, like the rest of Teyvat, they have a strong sense of devotion, so this is the one day of the year they retreat back to their domain and the nations are left in peace, as for what they do on this day, that is yet another mystery.

• Misc.

While treasure hoarders are known for, well hoarding treasure, on this day they leave the innocent in peace and even turn in some of their stolen goods, not directly of course out of fear of being imprisoned, but they leave them near city gates.

The numerous hilichurl tribes hold feasts as they dance around their bonfires, to the untrained eye this seems like normal behavior, however one may notice the particular dance they do is distinctly different.

The bards and poets of the land may not have much to offer in material goods, but they hope you are satisfied with their songs and rhymes.

The Adventurer's Guild does their utmost in every city to see that each celebration goes of without a hitch, it may not be much, but it's all they can do without treating it like any other day.

#sagau #genshin impact #birthday #self aware genshin

309 notes · View notes

tani-b-art · 8 days ago

Text

THEE IDA B. WELLS, the resistance of a Black American: Boycotting, migration, the international shaming of America and the importance of now using the lineage, ethno-term of Foundational Black American.

Wells’ two anti-lynching lecture tours in 1893 & 1894 in Britain had huge economic impact that doesn’t get discussed enough.

Not only did she encourage and practice boycotting, she also strongly urged the activism of migrating and traveled across the world to put the United States of America on blast!

“International shaming influences behavior—it’s one of the best tools to combat human rights violations. It imposes social costs. It embarrasses the target’s reputation and legitimacy and mobilizes domestic opposition in the target state and puts pressures on policy makers.” International shaming is social sanctioning. The objective of international shaming is to galvanize action in the form of tangible repercussions.

Ida went to London not once but twice and each time, she indicted America! Her activism absolutely put the country in bad standing with the UK. America’s reputation, status, security, esteem and recognition became devalued because of her! The ties between both countries went into yellow alert so to speak because of her campaign. Honestly would label Ida B. Wells as the original geopolitical moderator or geopolitical enforcer because she put both the target and shamer on notice.

I don’t think we grasp the vast significance of The Great Migration. The migration of six million+ Black Americans in a span of six decades held a lot of economic weight in consequences and power. The exercising of that citizenship practice was financial activism in and of itself. The Great Migration was this massive exodus of Black Americans from the US south to the north (and west and east) that transformed the literal landscape of American life. "By their actions, they would reshape the social and political geography of every city they migrated to. When the migration began, 90% of all Black Americans were living in the South. By the time it was over, in the 1970s, 47% of all Black Americans were living in the North and West." Our ancestors did this multiple times, in two waves (1910-1930, 1940-1970). Their migration away from the south had grave after effects on the white business sector of the south too. Their migration had dual implications -- one, it was for themselves, their families and their progeny in that it was for our people to gain their rightful place into the American dream they built within the country and the physical upward mobility was a movement of empowerment (financially, psychologically, bodily, spiritually) by rescuing themselves from the racial violence that was heavily accepted in the south and two, their actions would cause a ripple effect in that the white commerce of the cities all over would suffer financially as a result of them migrating out the south. I find it so courageous and selfless that many families also moved as support for their fellow community members, their next door neighbors (the solidarity of community was the reason why Ida even began reporting on lynchings because her friend and his business partners were lynched out of jealousy by a white mob). They stood in solidarity with one another by collectively departing their own homes and own cities, towns and states and left behind businesses as well. That takes so much fortitude and strength and faith and sacrifice to just up and leave what is all some of them had known. To just pickup and leave behind family homes passed down from generation to generation and leave behind a place that was home to them. They decided that all their capital in their spending, buying, entrepreneurship, intellectual capital, labor capital and population capital could be appreciated up north or elsewhere and they did just that and left behind wastelands for the racist white community to figure out themselves. The Great Migration was a permanent act of resistance. One that should be praised. One that should be repaired and compensated for as well because many were also forced to migrate from their homes from the white terror inflicted upon them, destroying their communities in the wake—there are countless white families today that have been passing down unearned and un-inherited homes, businesses and land that their ancestors violently confiscated from Black American families with the help of the government, police, politicians, military. Which is why they migrated. Why we practice migrating. The migration within our country - crossing city lines, zip codes, regions, parishes, counties and state lines shows the resilient nature of us.

Wells' usage of her voice to advocate boycotting and her intellectual, journalistic power to travel across the pond to shame America with their international economic partners was an extremely geopolitical success. She did something in a manner to leverage our community against the entire globe. She couldn't reach to the lacking human sensibilities, decency and morals of white America, so she re-strategized.

And her strategy was absolutely boss-mode! The offense and defense she played with our country and other countries is such a valuable blueprint to study. She played checkers, chess and it was all so tactical!!!

This brings me to how we as Black Americans are foundational to this country. I grasped this about a year or two ago but tucked it away not fully realizing the magnitude of it.

What Wells did while in Britain shows what having a governmental power in your corner means. Governmental power with the control to economically damage another entity that is inflicting harm on a disenfranchised group. Wells went to London with the precise intentions to give America an ultimatum. You don't want to stop lynching my people and I am exposing the violent, deadly act you condone to your biggest trading partners. She did it by appealing to what seemed to be the overbalance of human decency that the British had over America. Her urging to boycott as a response to lynching and also going out of the country to expose the domestic terrorism resulted in financial consequence and also helped to form The English Anti-Lynching Committee. What’s remarkable is that Britain has never been Black Americans’ native land yet Wells had that much righteous indignation for the ways Black Americans were mistreated that that alone was enough influence to galvanize them to action. A revolutionary!

In 2021, when Biden signed the Anti-Asian Hate Bill is when it instantly hit me that it's really all about money. The uptick of violence that Asian Americans began to experience was so quickly remedied by that administration that it was alarming to me. Here is where I understood that it is all about the monetary relationship ethnic groups have with our country. The swift response to creating and signing a bill into law showed to me that Asian countries gave an ultimatum to the US. "America, you either do something about this increase in violence to our people or our money goes." My city's mayor at the time in 2019 or early 2020 was quick to respond to the then unknown COVID virus with a statement along the lines of "Please continue to patron Asian businesses". It wasn't a first thought or major concern with health safety at all with what none of us knew of the virus, it was all about revenue and patronage. In real-time, I was discussing this in a group chat when Biden announced he was “cracking down on Asian hate”. The group chat member I was conversing with brought up the mass lynching of Italian immigrants in New Orleans of 1891. Their home country of Italy went as far as cutting off trade and diplomatic ties for about a year until President Harrison gave in to acknowledge it and appoint a special investigation. There's a "mother land" to phone home to when your new homeland participates in subjugating you and doesn't speak up about the atrocities you are experiencing. And America has a fear of losing trade partners that funnels and generates so much money into our financials that we did act out to find a solution to end the violence against these immigrant groups. THIS is something Black Americans do not have in our corner. A deck of cards we don't have in our possession as other groups have and have been able to use. There is no continent or country to back us up as a group when the oppression continues as other groups are able to do. There is no other country that we can appeal to to condemn America's acts of injustice upon us. Centuries ago, Wells had this international support from London but that isn't the case in contemporary times.

But because there is no other country to run to, to call on, to find sanctuary in, that isn't an option for us. We don't get to call on any country to penalize America when our country causes harm on us (by its white citizens or by the white racist controlled judicial system, health system, educational system, all the systems). There isn't a nation to tap on the shoulder to punish America when it does us harm. We don't have an Italy that can threaten America to do right by us or suffer the transactional consequences. There isn't a country to turn to to declare to America that they'll cease trade, that they'll cease the mining of their resources with if you don't do right by our fellow diaspora family. We can't do that because our country is America. Our homeland is America and for many that were here before colonization and long before it was “discovered”, it is our motherland. And this is why we are foundational to America. Rooted to America in totality. None of our ancestors immigrated here. Many were already here and many were brought here before the founding of this country (making them the only non-immigrant group here). Before the establishment of America. Long before 1492, 1526, 1619, 1776 and 1863. Our ancestors were the founders of America. We are Black American all the time—we don’t have anywhere to run to as a safe haven or sanctuary country and that is why we always remind America and make America live up to its creed.

Which is why we have to be so on code here in America, our homeland. So on code, that we've created a protective culture. Creating it was/is our way to insulate ourselves from the outside harms of those who were/are not of our lineage. Our protective culture was a response to the racist terror, discrimination and harm from the dominant white society. In our protection we created our own schools (HBCUs—(Mary Lumpkin, Mary McLeod Bethune) to educate ourselves. In Investing through founding and chartering Black owned banks (True Reformers Bank-Rev. William Washington Browne, U.S. Capital Savings Bank of Washington, Saint Luke Penny Bank-Maggie L. Walker, Unity National Bank). Why our great(great)-grands and grandparents and parents formed things like The Negro Motorist Green-Book, guiding Black Americans of the safe havens and sanctuary spots of Black-owned proprieties all over America. Our same great(great)-grand mothers and grandmothers were the baby-catchers of our matriarchs and built the community of doulas and midwives to ensure the safe births of newborns and mothers (Annie Mae Taylor-Jasper, Gladys Milton, Maria Milton). The Chitlin' Circuit was their entertainment network they created to give entertainers the freedom to tour and be safe while doing so. The inhabitation of the Great Dismal Swamp that was a refuge for our people who escaped slavery (Maroons). Established sanctuary cities filled with places that Black Americans occupied so that others could become a part of once they escaped for their freedom and founded freedmen’s municipalities—self-reliant, fully autonomous, self-sufficient, all-Black towns, cities and communities (Mound Bayou, MS,; Greenwood Tulsa, OK; Central Park, NY; Rosewood, FL; Sunnyside, TX; Brownlee, NE). We created the insular system of self health care. Healing and spiritual practices as well were/are protective measures. Through root work with faith healers, known as a traiteur or traiteuse down South, a Creole healer or a traditional healer (Ella Louise, Mary Stepp Burnette Hayden, Hermon Lee, Lucreaty Clark) and seers that imparted their therapeutic wisdom and acumen for both spiritual & physical breakthroughs on behalf of those who came to them for guidance, manifestation, deliverance. Making house calls too. What’s known as Black folk medicine was literally the beginnings of modern day medicine and these insular systems were the pioneers of the industry of hospital.

Self-care was also protective. They were so tapped in with their spiritual essence and clicked in and in tune with nature and plants that they knew what foods to grow in their own gardens and what minerals to combine to make concoctions to remedy ailments, injury and cure illnesses. Their healing intellect and expertise stopped plagues and diseases and many were rewarded for their life-saving by gaining their freedom as well as creating huge financial stability from their service (Biddy Mason, Dr. Jim Jordan). Our ancestors were the first unofficial doctors and biochemist before these industries were even a thing (Emma Dupree, Caroline Dye, George Washington Caver). “…the ineffectiveness of white medical traditions contributed to the reliance of the enslaved on folk medicine.”

From decades ago with The Harlem Renaissance to modern times with the Black American LGBTQ+community coming together to create their extended families within Ballroom culture. Formed not only to entertain and give space to creators in peace but to also protect and shelter one another.

We always innately had that protective spirit to survive and thrive and even help others. We had to come up with all systems and operations in order to protect ourselves from the anti-Blackness of living within our own country.

[to point out--Biden and his administration has yet to sign or pass the Anti-Black Hate Crime Bill, a bill dating back to 2015 that some federal lawmakers started making a topic in response to the Charleston massacre of nine innocent Black church members, the same bill that was readdressed to this admin after the Jacksonville massacre in 2023. As of today, we still lead in hate crime victims and are still massively targeted because of race but still no hate crime bill passed. He has less than a week left to fulfill anything Black American specific.; the midwifery network was so immaculate and efficient, it became trusted and sought out from white expecting mothers as well.]

The un-actualized, one-sided Pan African movement could've worked or is supposed to work in that way. There should be economic cells and enclaves as well as residential ones, educational ones and links setup all across the continent of Africa or in South America and the Caribbeans that act as bridges to link those of the diaspora to be able to traverse back and forth freely with provisions. Abroad those links should be in place but I have yet to see that they are. America has created a very exploitative, imperialistic relationship over many of these countries (continents) that makes this almost impossible to do but it is also worth mentioning that some of these majority Black countries and their leaders are also creating ominous relations with other countries that is very reflective of colonization years ago. Pan Africanism should be so established that when Black Americans suffer any injustice as a collective on such a large scale, the trading with Africa should temporarily cease until justice is served and until the constant injustice against Black Americans continue, then international transactions are put on pause. As was done here in America on behalf of South Africa to end apartheid—many Black Americans leaders, activists and athletes such as Rosa Park, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, Stevie Wonder and Arthur Ashe protested and were arrested for pressuring our own Congress to pass an act on behalf of South Africa. “By 1988, more than 155 academic institutions had fully or partially divested from South Africa, including the University of California, which withheld some $3 billion from the country. In addition, by 1989, 26 U.S. states, 22 counties and more than 90 cities had taken economic action against companies doing business in South Africa. U.S. groups also raised funds to help pay legal expenses for South African political prisoners and their families and organized boycotts of South African sporting events and cultural performances to show their solidarity with the South African people. Many U.S. churches also voiced their protest and found ways to apply economic pressure. The combined force of this decentralized group of American anti-apartheid activists finally pressured the U.S. Congress to pass the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, which imposed economic sanctions against South Africa until the government agreed to release Mandela and all political prisoners and entered into “good-faith negotiations” with the black majority. President Ronald Reagan vetoed the measure, but Congress overturned that veto and followed by voting for even more restrictive sanctions.” We forced our own country to take a stand for the systems of injustice in other countries.

But Black Americans can’t be the only group of the diaspora doing this activism. The sanctuary country can't only be the US for those who immigrate here. It can't be a one-sided, one-way movement because it doesn't help the collective. The Pan-Af movement to Black people who aren't Black American is foreign and quite frankly, is a movement they want to have nothing to do with. Another thing that is very noticeable is that when those who do immigrate here to the US, they have created their own enclaves with very distinct boundaries. Boundaries that make it very difficult and just outright impossible for Black Americans to become a part of. No matter that "we're all Black", many melanated immigrants do practice segregating and separating themselves from us. There are so many concentrated areas across the country where those of the diaspora that have come here have created and make it a point to not let us in. Black Americans are very welcoming (too welcoming to a fault) but that isn't reciprocated from other Black people within the diaspora. I honestly don't even know if any type of movement like this can really work. Sad to say, I think there are too many people of the diaspora that still have an attitude of "stay away from those Black Americans" so their idea of partnership with us is already non-existent and is hard to be successful — but the posturing of everyone else as deity and the quick willingness to partner with them is the complete opposite. Once again, delineation is very important -- why we are beginning to see Black Americans adopt the ethno-term of Foundational Black American culturally and are pushing for Freedman to become a distinct race/ethnic category for us. We are all Black yes, but we are still very different. There really isn’t a global Blackness in terms of how we have viewed it (not with the way Black Americans are so despised by other Black people in other countries). We don’t even view Black the same across the world. So, we aren’t all Black when it comes down to it. Especially not when you have some individuals with political power or influence attending hearings and town halls on reparations for Black Americans and they are opposed to it — and come to find out that they opposed it because they themselves are not Black American but of Black Caribbean and Black Latin (Afro Latino) descent but still melanated yet still undermining us. Not when we’ve had the first non-white President and Vice President oppose reparations for us. It makes all the sense now. Again, the hope I once had in the Pan African movement and global Blackness has dissolved and waned totally.

Even with a fractured legal framework that is directly against us, that's been forever, we are always staying right here, fighting our own country to apply its principles and standard of justice & freedom to us. We are always fighting to make our country stand in its democracy of our human rights. Reminding America to live up to the integrity it claims. The fight to always remain here in our motherland to replace the system of injustice with a real justice system for generations to come.

We have always resisted the mistreatment and have always stood up against the people and the system they put in place. Fighting in all American wars to battle for freedom (American Revolutionary War, 1812, Black Seminole, Civil War, WWs etc. — Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen), escaping slavery through self-emancipation and at times becoming spies once a war broke when those wars often times were incited because of the debate of slavery (Harriet Tubman, Ona Judge, Josephine Baker, Harriet Robinson-Scott, Mary Ellen Pleasant, Mary Elizabeth Bowser, Ellen & William Craft, Solomon Northup) rose in rebellion to the slavery with revolts (New York of 1712, Stono Rebellion 1739, Louisiana of 1811, Southampton Insurrection 1839), formed clandestine operations and networks on the course to liberating ourselves (Underground Railroad-coded messages stitched in quilts to guide those escaping for freedom [whether myth or not], Pattin' Juba), resisted presidential propositions to be expelled from the country, enacting movements (Civil Rights, Selma, Freedom Riders), becoming activists and staunch anti-slavery abolitionists (Sojourner Truth, Frances E. W. Parker, David Walker, Sarah Parker Redmond, Henry Highland Garnet, Peter and Sarah Mayrant Fossett) in the efforts to free their people long before 1863’s Emancipation and gained their own freedom and emancipated others (Jane Minor, Doctor Caesar), starting and participating in boycotts & protests (Baton Rouge bus, Montgomery bus), went on strikes that threatened to shutdown cities (Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike 1881, Memphis Sanitation Strike 1968), self-defended as hoodoo (Julia “Aunt Julia” Brown, John the Conqueror) & voodoo (Marie Laveau) practitioners and conjurers — for good things on behalf of others and themselves & for righteous vengeance (Nat Turner), became martyrs by sacrificing their own lives and their progeny to no longer be under the chains of slavery (Anna Williams, Margaret Garner, Gabriel Posser) and suing former slave owners once their freedom was acquired (Henrietta Wood, Dred Scott, Belinda Sutton, Elizabeth Freeman) as well as implementing mass reparations plans for reparative, financial justice for slavery (Callie House, Rep. John Conyers, Dr. Claud Anderson). Y’all, we resist so much against the system of racism that they had to enact laws (Fugitive Slave Act) and even invent un-scholared, fictitious psychological disorder terms to counter our resistance and deviance to being enslaved (drapetomania).

Self-sufficiency is also an act of resistance in our food and cuisine too. Transforming the leftover, undesirable foods given into Soul Food that sustained us. Fed the entire plantation from each other to the slave masters and mistresses themselves (shrimp and grits, gumbo, fried chicken, red beans & rice, collards, chitlins, pig feet, hush puppies, Black eyed peas, barbecue, mac and cheese, cornbread). Not only did Soul Food sustain us by providing the nutrients we needed but the cuisine’s certain staples also stand to cure us and is symbolic for wealth and prosperity and to ward off evil spirits. Nutritional watermelon that’s associated to us gave us financial security at the ending of the Civil War and post-Emancipation. Our people would sometimes negotiate informal contracts with their owners to cultivate and sell their own crops on designated plots of land on the plantations they worked on. As watermelons were easy to grow, they became a popular choice. The newly freed Black Americans continued to eat and grow watermelons and sold them to generate income for themselves. A lot of our folks made a grip of money from selling watermelons! A cash-crop that gained them wealth. Watermelon is a symbol of freedom (liberation) and self-reliance for us! Hush puppies were used to distract bloodhounds off their trail when they were escaping. The culinary prowess in turning survival into art is resistance just as well. The Black Panther Party’s free breakfast program was an act of survival and resistance by feeding the young so they wouldn’t go hungry throughout the day to be able to effectively learn while in school—nourishing the minds and bodies to be the next generation.

There’s also resistance in the innovation and creation of our languages (Kouri-Vini, Tutnese “Tut”, Black American Vernacular English) to use as secret, coded barriers to go unrecognized against our oppressors and most importantly, to teach and learn spelling and reading when it was forbidden to us—and of it was discovered that we could, punishment followed, hence, the secrecy of these languages. In our naming practices too. Our parents uniquely created our names. “Black naming practices, so often impugned by mainstream society, are themselves an act of resistance. Our last names belong to the white people who once owned us. That is why the insistence of many Black Americans, particularly those most marginalized, to give our children names that we create, that are neither European nor from Africa, a place we have never been, is an act of self-determination.”

The desire and demand to educate themselves and others outweighed the punishable laws of not being permitted to read. And educators taught others to read and write clandestinely (Mary S. Peake, John Berry Meachum, Frances Ellen Watkins, Susie King Taylor). Defiance!

In our beauty also is resistance and rebellion. From headscarves to Afros! Because of the Tignon Law of 1803 that intended to somehow hide the beauty of our matriarchs by forcing them to cover their hair, they creatively made the very head wraps, headscarves and handkerchiefs elaborate and stylish!

Resistance in corrective actions to counter the stereotypes & exclusions by showcasing our beauty, talent and dignity through creating our own art. We created publications (JET magazine, Ebony, Essence, Fire!!, The New Negro, Negro Digest, Chicago Defender) illustrated radical cartoons within them (Jackie Ormes, Leslie Rogers, Jay Jackson) and wrote pieces, essays in them (Alain Locke, Wallace Thurman, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Gwendolyn Brooks), and record labels (Motown), founded their own media to platform their people (Don Cornelius, Bob Johnson, Cathy Hughes), fashion & fashion brands (Zelda Wynn Valdes, Maxine Powell, Dapper Dan, Ruth Carter, Daymond John), motion pictures and film industry (Oscar Micheaux, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Tyler Perry, Spike Lee, Julie Dash, Kasi Lemmons, Robert Townsend), authored books to preserve our culture (Toni Morrison, Octavia Spencer, Zora Neale Hurston, Ernest Gaines) and sculpted, painted, textiled, printmaking, photographed and quilted to redefine and reimagine ourselves (Faith Ringgold, the women of Gee’s Bend in Nettie Young, Harriet Powers, Ernie Barnes, Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, Kara Walker, Gordon Parks).

Resistance in our musical anthems as protest to challenge injustice and instill pride, often at the extreme detriment of their very lives by being targeted (Billie Holiday “Strange Fruit”, Nina Simone “Mississippi Goddam”, Edwin Starr “War”, Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On”, Sounds of Blackness “Optimistic”, Michael Jackson “They Don’t Care About Us”, James Brown “Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud”, Public Enemy “Fight The Power”, Sister Souljah “The Hate That Hate Produced”). Singers and musicians stood against the institution of not only American racism, segregation and helped to fund movements but abroad against the Nazi regime and performed at integrated venues and were arrested because of it (Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzie Gillespie, Mahalia Jackson, Marian Anderson). Defiance.

Resistance in sports in showing solidarity to expose the injustice and mistreatment of Black Americans by their acts of defiance and boycotting (Tommie Smith, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Venus Williams, Serena Williams).

Black actors, actresses, writers, poets and playwrights were falsely placed on the Red Scare list and activists and leaders were listed in illegal FBI projects as “threats” and many were assassinated simply because they demanded America to treat us as human beings and wouldn’t keep quiet about it (Lena Horne, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton, Fannie Lou Hamer, Darren Seales, Deandre Joshua). Resistance.

They pioneered their ways into the entertainment industry that was set from the beginnings to denigrate us and defied the Hollywood machine becoming first in many ways by showcasing their immense gift of acting and beauty (Hattie McDaniel, Della Reese, Teresa Graves, Dorothy Dandridge, Vanessa Williams, Diahann Carroll, Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg).

Resistance in not allowing our musical genres to continue to be hijacked by always creating records and albums to showcase the limitless gift (Linda Martell, Whitney Houston, Mickey Guyton, Darius Rucker, Prince, Tina Turner, Little Richard, Beyoncé, Rapsody).

From Margaret’s martyrdom, to Callie’s mutual assistance/self-help organization, to Nat’s slave revolt, to Ida’s efficacy of international shaming. We have always resisted the conditions through uprisings, rebellions, revolts, fighting, boycotts, strikes, protests, migration, creating our own networks and international shaming. From laundresses, to athletes, to journalists, to abolitionists, to artists, to filmmakers, to authors, to doulas. Resisting has always been our method of disrupting the system of our oppression and our resistance worked as a form of getting back our agency!

All ways we've always sought and gained freedom by refusing to accept the subjugation through our resistance. We've even stood up against the injustice on behalf of others militarily (Colonel John Charles Robinson), self-enlisting despite the discriminatory practices to keep us out (The 6888th Battalion) to help others in other countries in their fight for their own liberation and even resisting by rejecting potential forced enlistment when wars were not warranted at the huge risk of their own livelihood, reputations and careers (Muhammad Ali, Eartha Kitt).

Historically, morally and culturally, the spirit of resistance is always what we possess.

...there aren’t too many incidents or events of this happening for us. Where the same has been done for Black Americans. At this point in time, we need to just face reality and know this. Only WE will fight for us.

For every ancestor of ours that gained their liberation all on their own and freed others…resistance!

For every ancestor of ours that said, “No” to presidential propositions of sending them to to foreign land after emancipation…resistance!

For every ancestor of ours that relocated to new territory through their action of migration in solidarity for one another against the terror inflicted upon them…resistance!

For every ancestor of ours like the revolutionary Ida B. Wells that didn’t back down to being threatened with death and harm for going to a whole ‘nother country to internationally shame America…defiance & resistance!

Us presently being here here today as their descendants alone is resistance!

I'm absolutely beginning to understand why the term Foundational Black American is being used by more of us. Because our direct lineage ties are here. We are the only non-immigrant group in America. This is our land. Our motherland. What is America today only is because of our ancestors--their unpaid, endless hours of brutal labor, intellectual capital, physical power and ingenuity literally built this country up. They created American culture with their innovative minds, made America the powerhouse it is, made America the standard. We are the architects of culture - here and all over the globe. The architects of politics because every inception of policies and laws were because of us. Our ancestors built this country! Their being has watered the tree of America. America doesn’t exist without the presence of Foundational Black Americans. “We gave birth to ourselves. We forged a new culture of our own.” Our ancestors—They are the founding of America, therefore, they are the foundation of it. Making us Foundational Black Americans as their descendants. That is our ethnic group. And there is so, so, so much pride in our lineage and bloodline! I am proud!

In the lyrical words of Beyoncé, “My family lived and died in America. Good ol' USA. Whole lotta red in that white and blue. History can't be erased.”

The lineage has always existed. Our HERITAGE has always been here. Our ROOTS and CULTURE are right here, in the United States of America! We KNOW WHO WE ARE!

Foundational Black American.

#ida b wells #Black Americans #Black america #America #American history #pan africanism #the great migration #united states #united states of america #Black migration #resistance #defiance #foundational black american #ancestors #long post #long read

9 notes · View notes