#Minority Rights

[useless-catalanfacts]

POV: you try speaking your language in your country.

This is the video (I have added English subtitles) posted by a Mallorcan man on Twitter, showing an experience that many of us have had. The man went to a gas station and when he went up to pay, he politely asked in the language of the land (Mallorcan Catalan). The cashier answered telling him to speak Spanish. The Mallorcan man said "I will say it slowly in both, this way you can learn it". He proceeded to say the numbers first in Catalan and then in Spanish. A second gas station worker came to him and started threatening him for speaking Catalan: "I'm going to kick your face", "I'm going to hit you so hard I'll leave you on the floor", "[you must speak Spanish because] this is Spain and that's it".

This is a common experience for Catalan speakers. Even in our own country, we can face violent threats, humiliation, and laughter for speaking the local language instead of Spanish. Even doctors routinely refuse to treat Catalan-speaking patients because they're Catalan speakers, and people have been kicked out of almost every kind of business you can imagine for speaking Catalan. When this happens in Spain outside our country, it's humiliating enough (for example: my grandmother and her friend, who are both daughters of people who moved from Southern Spain, went to visit their parent's hometown some years ago and got kicked out of a café because the other clients heard them and started shouting, they thought they were going to hit them, and the café owner came out to shout at them to get out because they don't want Catalans there) but you can more or less avoid it by not going there, but when it happens in our own country, where else are we supposed to go? If we can't speak our language in our hometown, are we just supposed to disappear?

In Barcelona (Catalonia's capital city), the 4th most reported cause of discrimination and hate crime is speaking Catalan. And that's considering that Catalan speakers rarely report these kind of events (I myself have never reported it before) while other collectives have been working a lot to report their discrimination cases and have specific places that help them do so and give them protection, like the LGBTQI+ community and migrant communities. Even then, statistics for hate crimes show the 4th reason for being hate crimed in Catalonia's capital city is speaking Catalan. And we can all be sure those numbers are nowhere near the truth of the problem.

In the Balearic Islands, discrimination is on the rise, and it's officially supported by the far-right regional government. But even though it has more legal support now, it's not new. (For example: I went to visit my friends from Mallorca years before the far-right was elected and they already got huge letters spray painted at the entrance of the town saying "Catalan pigs we'll hang you all" and they often got shouted at for similar reasons).

It's so tiring. We only want to be normal and have the same rights, to not have to face hate for our language and culture; but when we explain what happens to us and try to get Spanish people to understand that it's not good, most of them only make fun of it because they believe it's right and that it was our fault for "imposing" our public presence in the first place. Why is it so difficult to understand that we should also have the right to exist in public? Why are we always made to feel we are so annoying and disgusting? It is the people getting this angry over someone speaking the language of the place they live in who have a disproportionate amount of hatred and anger, it should be them to apologize.

[sheajordansmith]

People are about to get a hard lesson in just how many programs, departments, events, and opportunities for Black and Brown communities were not just supported but funded and, in some cases, federally protected.

Now? That foundation is being ripped out from under us.

For all the Black folks who ask, “What have the Democrats even done for us?”—the answer is about to hit like a ton of bricks.

A lot of the progress we’ve relied on wasn’t goodwill; it was policy, funding, and legal protections.

And those protections are vanishing.

The natural instinct will be outrage, to call it out, to demand justice.

But here’s the brutal truth: outrage only works when it leads to consequences.

And right now? There are none.

“This is discrimination” doesn’t carry weight the way it once did.

The rules have changed.

We’re not just back at square one—we’re starting from scratch.

This isn’t a fight we’ll win with sweeping victories.

It’ll be inch by inch, policy by policy, battle by battle.

But that’s how we’ve always had to fight.

[stephen-barry]

[artemis-pendragon]

Guys. Look at me. You guys. We have to vote. I know we're all sick of the two party system. But we have to vote. And we have to tell our family and our friends and our coworkers and our distant acquaintances and anyone who will listen to vote. I am so serious. Project 2025 is a fucking shit show. We literally have to vote.

[notlemoncello]

Folks I’m going to be so really with you, everything is not looking to great for anyone who isn’t upperclass and white

I don’t know if I could leave if I wanted to, so here I am, things may be shit and keep getting shittier but I’m not going down without a struggle

There are people in the United States that can’t do that, who don’t have a voice, who can’t speak up

If you can it’s your job to do so

If one groups rights are at risk fight like hell to keep them there because it’s your group next

[itsricepudding]

7.2% of the U.S adult population is LGBTQ.

13.8% of the U.S population is made up of immigrants.

2.9% of U.S population is indigenous.

13.7% of the U.S population is black.

11% of the U.S adult population is disabled.

7% of the U.S population is Asian.

And only 23% of the U.S population has said they trust the government, a number that is visibly dropping.

And when you consider that it only takes 3.5% of any given country's population... I'm just saying. There is a hopeful outlook to be had (⁠ﾉ⁠◕⁠ヮ⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*⁠.⁠✧!!

[gaarythehooman]

To those who voted for Trump: I hope you know what you've signed off on. If you've read the plan, and you know what's ahead, you know it's going to affect everyone. Not just the LGBT+ community. Not just racial minorities. Not just the small groups. EVERYONE. And I hope that you are aware of the effects that will cause to people you care about, people you don't know, and people who care about you. If nothing else, understand this: we will ALL be hurt.

To those it's already affecting: please know you are not alone. You have people and if you don't, you will find people. Hope is hard to keep in dire straits, but I want you to know that if no one else is with you, this community is. Be yourself and be proud of who you are despite the adversaries. the one thing they can never strip us of is our pride in who we are. Keep yourselves safe and keep those you love close. Together, we can overcome this.

[spaspetti]

In light of recent events, I think I need to bring back some quotes I found on Google:

So that’s what we need to do. We need to outlive that old fuck. He’s practically on his deathbed already. We need to stay strong and outlive our enemies and the people who hate us. We have a chance at fixing everything when they’re all gone. We just need to get there. We just need to outlive them.

[eriondserranterrand]

I'm so fucking tired. Assholes in positions of power keep making things shitty. Denying basic human decency to people because of their ethnicity or gender identity or sexual orientation or nationality is so incredibly stupid and obviously wrong. Why are so many people okay with it?

Being at least benign shouldn't be hard. If someone can be mistreated for something out of their control then anyone can be. The only system you can truly be safe in is where everyone is safe. The only way to guarantee your rights is to guarantee everyone's rights. We're in this together.

[poeaxtry]

If you are an artistic person who is also a minority (lgbt, poc, disabled, etc) and are interested in getting your voice and art seen and heard. Please contact me. Im putting togetherr a free ebook filled with the voices of the unheard.

Allies are also welcome to join in.

Please make sure you are accepting of all minorities or just skip the post.

I know a lot of us aren’t super artistic, but still have a story to be told. If you would like to submit a short essay instead of poetry or art that is also part of the theme please feel free to do so.

If you have any questions or are interested in more information please feel free to contact me.

Let’s come together to make something beautiful all while ensuring our voices never fade

[shayotita]

Thank God for Amir Odom. Facts 👏🏼💯

- https://youtu.be/SwuHabmRxSc?si=c-D-20koRuHEEOZP

[tootern2345]

A reminder

Keep on calling, keep on signing the petitions, keep on doing anything & everything YOU can to stop. Or at least, push back KOSA!

[ghostscrown]

Today :

My country's dictator president does shit again using his "technically legal so you can't do anything but obey" tricks (look up French politics this is too long to explain but basically at this point I just feel like this whole thing won't end well)

I learn that a maintenance worker who worked at the high school I went, and who was the funniest and nicest person and literally the only positive thing in this fucked up school, just died hit by a FUCKING Lamborghini

My therapist advised me to rely on the Local Mission and social assistances for poor/disabled people to find a place, because no one wants to rent to an autistic trans guy who can't work full time and live on 1k euros per month, so to put it simple, I'm basically too poor to leave my fucked up parents' house in the regular way

And on a less serious note, WHAT THE HELL is this Minecraft movie-

ISN'T IT A NICE DAY TO HATE CAPITALISM.

[didthekingdieyet]

to all my US followers:

“I’m not sure if you’re aware but the US Supreme Court just struck down affirmative action (saying you can’t “discriminate” on the basis of race) (affirmative action just says that a a policy aimed at increasing workplace and educational opportunities for people who are underrepresented in various areas of our society most often looking at people of color) but allowed a homophobic website designer to not have to create a website for same sex marriage (saying you CAN discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation)”

if you are one of my US based followers, please please look into how you can best support the rights of minoritized individuals near you (i’ve attached a petition that was sent to me)

(to the individual that submitted this in an anon ask i am not trying to steal your thunder tumblr just wasn’t letting me answer it!)

[lauravanarendonkbaugh]

Hey, I know we're all cry-laughing about the proposed purchase of RedWhiteAndBlueland, but that's both a disgrace and a distraction.

HR8281 the "SAVE Act" would immediately disenfranchise 85% of married women and create substantial voting blocks for a lot of other people.

This act would require people to present proof of citizenship to be eligible to vote, as in they must present a passport, certified birth certificate, or naturalization certificate to register or update registration. Birth certificate must match *current name exactly* to be accepted. An adoption decree is also acceptable IF it shows the applicant was born in the US; international adoptions are not addressed.

Problems with this include:

- Only 4 states have populations in which even 2/3 have passports. Most states have half or less of population with a passport, and it drops as low as 20%. Passport possession is strongly correlated with income level.

- (The act suggests other IDs with "proof of birthplace" could be accepted, but your driver's license and other government IDs don't include that.)

- Citizenship documents have to be presented *in person*, so no more online registration, online address changes, etc. Senior or disabled voters, or voters voting from military service or overseas? Well, figure that out.

- Most married women have changed their name to some degree, either taking the spouse's name or hyphenating. This means their current name does not exactly match their birth certificate — and the bill does not allow for a change of name form or a marriage certificate to be admitted with the birth certificate.

- The bill does require states to establish an additional process for people with name changes. That's going to cost money for the states, and thus both time and money for the would-be voter.

- Certified birth certificates can be hard to access, often requiring travel to county of birth and fees.

So in the end, the demographic least affected and most eligible to continue voting unimpeded would be rich men. Weird coincidental effect, but at least we'll finally outlaw non-citizens voting! Oh, wait, that's already illegal. (And a statistical non-issue, given a survey of high immigrant population voting districts and the resulting 0.0001% of suspected, not confirmed, non-citizen votes. Partisan allegations otherwise make headlines but fail in court for lack of evidence.)

This bill has already passed in the House, and it's listed as a top priority for the Senate. Call your legislators.

[useless-catalanfacts]

2nd February 2024. Photos from Vilaweb.

Demonstration in front of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (the highest court of the Spanish judiciary system in Catalonia) in Barcelona in support of Dani Gallardo, a young Spanish anarchist who is sentenced to prison because the took part in a peaceful demonstration held in Madrid (Spain's capital city) in favour of Catalan people's right to self-determination and against the Spanish police's violence against Catalan people.

We have explained Dani's case before, you can read it in this post:

Dani has been sentenced guilty to send a message. Until his case, more than 4,200 Catalan people had been sentenced guilty for their involvement in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum or the protests that followed it. The Spanish judiciary system has proven that they won't stop at punishing Catalan people, they also sent the police to beat up the protestors who demonstrated for Catalonia in Madrid (Spain) and they're also jailing a Spanish man for his solidarity.

Dani was sentenced guilty of public disorder and attempt against authority with made-up claims that had been fabricated hours before he even got arrested. The Spanish police already planned to arrest people and blame them for this even before the event happened. Dani spent 13 months in pre-trial jail, then he was released for some time, and now has received the order to go to prison for 2 years and 11 months more.

Cases like this is why there is a demand for an amnesty. After the last elections to the Spanish government, the PSOE party needed the support of other parties to get enough votes to form government. One of the must-have demands of the Catalan political parties was an amnesty law (amnesty laws are not uncommon in Spain) that would cancel the punishments of people who have been found guilty of political crimes related to the independence movement since 2017, because none of these thousands of people committed real harmful crimes. This law is currently being negotiated, but the Spanish parties are trying to write it in a way that will leave as many people out of the amnesty as possible. At the same time, the Spanish judiciary system continues accusing new people of terrorism for attending peaceful political demonstrations.

For example, two democratically-elected pro-independence politicians (Puigdemont and Wagensberg) are being accused of terrorism for supposedly calling for people to protest in the Barcelona airport, a protest that was completely peaceful and which was called by a civil society organization and not by these politicians. But they're influential, so Spain looks for any way to punish them. How are the Spanish judiciaries claiming that Puigdemont and Wagensberg should be sentenced guilty of terrorism for an action where there was no terrorism? The Spanish judges' imagination has no limits when it comes to sentencing Catalans and Basques. They are saying that it's terrorism because some of the protestors had weapons. What weapons? Fire extinguishers, bottles, and the metal carts that people use to carry their luggage:

Because there were fire extinguishers and luggage carts in the airport and people brought their own water, a completely peaceful protest that happened there is terrorism. The worst part is that it doesn't outrage or surprise us anymore, because we're so used to this nonsense.