#black lives are important

[ughdoir]

I’m so tired of black and brown bodies being slain for the world to see. our brothers and sisters should still be here today and I’m outraged that they aren’t. to be killed over boiling water to be met with that brutality is sickening. to follow every order and still be shot is premeditated. the lack of humanity to refer to her as a “crazy bitch” speaks volumes. acab!

[their-name-is-fake]

May the Governor of Missouri never know peace. May his every waking moment be that of pain and suffering, may he be ridiculed by society

Ina lillahi waina illahi raji3oon

May Marcellus Khaliifah Williams find peace in the afterlife and may Eric Greiten and the attorney general and the Supreme Court get exactly what they deserve

[fluffytimearts]

Happy black history month ya'll!!!

[queerism1969]

[90s-kid-sad-adult]

guilt is an inactive emotion

[longliveblackness]

On this day, 5 November 1843 an enslaved woman called Carlota Lucumi led a slave uprising in Matanzas, Cuba. Brandishing machetes, Lucumi and her co-conspirators summoned other enslaved people with a kettle drum, then killed the cane plantation enslavers before heading to neighbouring plantations and farms to free other enslaved people.

While Lucumi herself was soon executed, the rebellion lasted until the following year, when Spanish colonial authorities succeeded in violently repressing it.

The abolition of slavery in Cuba was eventually achieved in 1886.

•••

Un día como hoy, 5 de noviembre de 1843 una mujer esclavizada llamada Carlota Lucumí lideró una rebelión de esclavos en Matanzas, Cuba.

Llevando machetes, Lucumí y sus co-conspiradores hicieron un llamado a otros esclavos utilizando un timbal y luego mataron a los escalvizadores de la plantación de caña. Luego se dirigieron a plantaciones y granjas vecinas para liberar a otras personas esclavizadas.

Aunque Lucumí pronto fue ejecutada, la rebelión duró hasta el año siguiente, cuando las autoridades de las colonias Españolas lograron reprimirla de manera violenta.

Eventualmente, se logró la eliminación de la esclavitud en Cuba en 1886.

[in-omnia-paratusss]

hey you know what makes me afraid for the future? the fact that most people who become police officers from now on definitely saw all the bullshit that we tried to call out and put a stop to and they’ll still become a police officer. They’ll see the discrimination and the brutality and they’ll go ‘i’m fine with that’ and they’ll become a cop. There’s no way you go into this blind. We’re all on the internet and that’s made it impossible not to hear the rally cries. I want to believe many police officers who just wanted to serve the public and protect people. The job may be shit but I’d like to believe the people are good. Still, I can’t imagine anyone from this generation going into it for any of the right reasons. They heard us scream for justice and scream for our lives and they will be happy to ignore us.

[lilithism1848]

[mos-twin-mattress]

It's so crazy... 2020 feels like a complete fever dream... I thought and hoped and prayed that we would keep the BLM momentum going like it was that year... But we didn't .... People started to forget and speak on it less.

I posted and still post as much as I can ab Black lives on my Facebook... Ab other social justice issues. Sometimes it felt like I was just screaming into a void... I still feel betrayed at times, by the white girlies who just a few years ago were in the streets saying "if they start shooting stand behind me"

My life doesn't feel important to most ppl. They talk a big game ab caring and wanting things to change, but at the end of the day most ppl don't want the status quo to change. They just want to do enough to look like a good person.

If this post makes you angry, makes you feel some typa way then I URGE you to look inwards and figure out WHY it strikes such an uncomfortablity in you. Figure out what you could be doing more...

I know it's difficult to hear these words, I know looking inwards is hard and uncomfortable, I've been there, I STILL have a cop in my head that I need to kill. We ALL do!

[alwaysinbetweeninsaneandinsecure]

This family is currently unhoused as they attempt to flee Ohio for their safety as LGBTQ+ people. Please help keep this person and their children safe.

Please give if you can and share!

[nando161mando]

Today marks 4th anniversary of George Floyd's murder. Time has passed, but we have not forgotten.

May the fire within us keep burning

[queerism1969]

[90s-kid-sad-adult]

I am looking at people who suffer, people who look like me

[longliveblackness]

What Happened When A White Man "Became" Black In The 1950s America?

John Griffin had previously served in the U.S. military, where shrapnel caused him to go temporarily blind. However, in 1959, Griffin would do something even more trying: He would live for six weeks as a black man in the South.

It was blindness that inspired John Howard Griffin, a white author and journalist from Dallas, Texas, to write about color in the United States. In 1956, Griffin, blind at the time, sat in on a panel discussion in Mansfield, Texas about desegregation. Unable to tell the speakers' races from their voices, Griffin began to see color anew.

Under the supervision of a New Orleans-based dermatologist, Griffin would spend a week under a sun lamp, up to 15 hours a day, soaking up UV rays. He would also take Oxsoralen, a prescription drug meant to treat vitiligo, which would aid in expediting the darkening of his skin.

With darker skin, and a shaved head and arms, Griffin set out to the American South - starting in New Orleans and ending in Atlanta. Griffin had a few rules for this journey: Namely, that he would stay at black-only hotels, eat at cafes run by African-Americans, and travel with African-Americans. If anyone asked him what he was doing, he would be honest.

Just as his skin color changed, so too did the treatment he received from others. Describing what he called a "hate stare" he received in a bus station lobby, Griffin wrote:

"I walked up to the ticket counter. When the lady ticket-seller saw me, her otherwise attractive face turned sour, violently so. This look was so unexpected and so unprovoked I was taken aback.

'What do you want?' she snapped.

Taking care to pitch my voice to politeness, I asked about the next bus to Hattiesburg. She answered rudely and glared at me with such loathing I knew I was receiving what the Negroes call the hate stare'. It was my first experience with it. It is far more than the look of disapproval one occasionally gets. This was so exaggeratedly hateful I would have been amused if I had not been so surprised."

John Griffin wrote a book called Black Like Me about his experience. The book was published in 1961 and was later translated into 14 languages and a film. The harrowing stories within its pages, coupled with Griffin's own transformation, generated strong public responses.

•••

¿Qué sucedió cuando un hombre blanco "se volvió" negro en los Estados Unidos en la década de 1950?

John Griffin había servido previamente en el ejército de los Estados Unidos, fue aquí donde la metralla le causó ceguera temporal. Sin embargo, en 1959, Griffin haría algo aún más difícil: por seis semanas, viviría como un hombre negro en el sur.

Fue la ceguera lo que inspiró a John Howard Griffin, un autor y periodista blanco de Dallas, Texas, a escribir sobre el color en los Estados Unidos. En 1956, Griffin, quien se encontraba ciego en ese entonces, se sentó en un debate sobre desegregación, el cual fue llevado a cabo en Mansfield, Texas. Al no poder determinar la raza de los oradores basándose en su voz, Griffin comenzó a ver el color como algo nuevo.

Bajo la supervisión de un dermatólogo de Nueva Orleans, Griffin pasaría una semana debajo de una lámpara solar, hasta quince horas por día, absorbiendo rayos ultravioleta. También tomaría Oxsoralen, un medicamento recetado que es para tratar vitiligo, lo cual ayudaría a acelerar el oscurecimiento de su piel.

Con piel oscura y con la cabeza y brazos rasurados, Griffin se dirigió al sur de Estados Unidos, comenzando en Nueva Orleans y terminando en Atlanta. Griffin tenía un par de reglas para este viaje: se quedaría en hoteles para personas negras, comería en cafeterías operadas por afroamericanos y únicamente viajaría con afroamericanos. Si alguien llegase a preguntarle qué era lo que estaba haciendo, sería honesto.

Así como cambió su color de piel, también cambió el trato que recibía de los demás. Describiendo lo que el llama “una mirada de odio”, la cual que recibió en la recepción de una parada de autobús, Griffin escribió:

“Me dirigí hacia la taquilla. Cuando la mujer que estaba vendiendo los boletos me vio, su rostro, que de otro modo sería atractivo, de una manera abrupta se volvió amargo. Esta respuesta fue tan inesperada y sin provocación alguna. Me sorprendió.”

“¿Qué es lo que quieres?” me preguntó de manera grosera.

“Asegurándome de mantener la voz en un tono cortés, le pregunté cuando saldría el próximo bus a Hattiesburg. Me contestó de manera grosera y me estaba viendo con tanto odio, simplemente sabía que estaba recibiendo lo que los negros llaman “la mirada de odio”. Esta fue mi primera experiencia con ella y es más que la mirada de desaprobación que le dan a uno de vez en cuando. Esto estuvo exageradamente cargado de odio y me hubiese divertido si no hubiese estado tan sorprendido.”

Griffin escribió un libro sobre su experiencia, llamado ‘Negro como yo’. El libro fue publicado en 1961 y luego se tradujo a un total de catorce idiomas y se hizo una película. La historias desgarradoras y la transformación de Griffin, causaron una fuerte respuesta pública.