#decolonizing the classroom

[mangoesinthailand]

[themoonunderstoodmydadjokes]

In case y’all ever wonder what kind of teacher I am… it’s the kind that brings books like this into the classroom 😌😌

[a-shade-of-blue]

I've been reading the updates on Gaza, and what I've read has made me extremely worried about Mohammed (@ahmed0khalil) and his family who are in Deir el-Balah right now.

There have been continuous relentless attacks on Deir el-Balah. Israel has been targeting tents in Deir el-Balah. Just a few hours ago, Israeli fighters have just bombed a home in that area, killing at least 5 people, including 2 children.

Mohammed and his family are sheltering in a UN classroom right now. Israel is known to target schools sheltering displaced people. Just yesterday another school where displaced families are sheltering has been attacked. This is the fourth school Israel has bombed in less than a week! But they don't have nearly enough funds to evacuate!

Mohammed is only 19 years old and he has 5 siblings. Things have been difficult for them his brother Fathi who is blind, his other brother Abdullah who is autistic and does not understand what is happening, and little 6-year-old Ahmed. They are all suffering from malnutrition because they don't have enough money to buy food, and that is on top of the frequent attacks they have to face every day!

Mohammed's campaign has been shared by 90-ghost as well as vetted by @/gazavetters and is #77 on their vetted list. I've also been communicating regularly with him. Please help! Your donation can mean life or death for them!

Low Funds! Only €3,418 raised of €50,000 goal!

Tagging for reach, please dm me if you want off the mailing list! We thank you in advance.

@dlxxv-vetted-donations @ahaura@ana-bananya@northgazaupdates@c-u-c-koo-4-40k@riding-with-the-wild-hunt @roadimusprime@aces-and-angels@just-browsing1222@neptunerings@mushroomjar@northgazaupdates2@kyra45-helping-others@decolonize-solidarity @heritageposts@timetravellingkitty @briarhips @akajustmerry @wellwaterhysteria @rhubarbspring@nevert-the-guy@ethanscrocs @gumy-shark @khizuo @brutaliakhoa @decolonize-the-everything @postanagramgenerator

@eternal-fractal @pathogenic @nonbinary-support @mar64ds @bixels @aria-ashryver

@schoolhater @pcktknife @transmutationisms @sawasawako @feluka

@fiqrr @irhabiya @sharingresourcesforpalestine @batmanego

@lonniemachin @aristotels @watermotif @stuckinapril @chanafehs@malcriada @appsa @serialunaliver @buttercuparry

@psychotic-gerard @mavigator @communistkenobi @socalgal @chilewithcarnage

@ghelgheli @determinate-negation @papasmoke @deepspaceboytoy @omegaversereloaded@paper-mario-wiki @mangocheesecakes@sayruq

@xinakwans @givemearmstopraywith @loombreaking @killy @deathlonging

@palms-upturned @blackpearlblast @littlegermanboy @loveaankilaq @sar-soor

@fridgebride @27-moons @tamarrud @familyabolisher @fleshdyk3

@palipunk @gothhabiba @punkitt-is-here

[eretzyisrael]

by Christopher Rufo

Portland, Oregon, has earned its reputation as America’s most radical city. Its public school system was an early proponent of left-wing racialism and has long pushed students toward political activism. As with the death of George Floyd four years ago, the irruption of Hamas terrorism in Israel has provided Portland’s public school revolutionaries with another cause du jour: now they’ve ditched the raised fist of Black Lives Matter and traded it in for the black-and-white keffiyeh of Palestinian militants.

I have obtained a collection of publicly accessible documents produced by the Portland Association of Teachers, an affiliate of the state teachers’ union that encourages its more than 4,500 members to “Teach Palestine!” (The union did not respond to a request for comment.)

The lesson plans are steeped in radicalism, and they begin teaching the principles of “decolonization” to students as young as four and five years old. For prekindergarten kids, the union promotes a workbook from the Palestinian Feminist Collective, which tells the story of a fictional Palestinian boy named Handala. “When I was only ten years old, I had to flee my home in Palestine,” the boy tells readers. “A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people.” Students are encouraged to come up with a slogan that they can chant at a protest and complete a maze so that Handala can “get back home to Palestine”—represented as a map of Israel.

Other pre-K resources include a video that repeats left-wing mantras, including “I feel safe when there are no police,” and a slideshow that glorifies the Palestinian intifada, or violent resistance against Israel. The recommended resource list also includes a “sensory guide for kids” on attending protests. It teaches children what they might see, hear, taste, touch, and smell at protests, and promotes photographs of slogans such as “Abolish Prisons” and “From the River to the Sea.”

In kindergarten through second grade, the ideologies intensify. The teachers’ union recommends a lesson, “Art and Action for Palestine,” that teaches students that Israel, like America, is an oppressor. The objective is to “connect histories of settler colonialism from Palestine to the United States” and to “celebrate Palestinian culture and resistance throughout history and in the present, with a focus on Palestinian children’s resistance.”

The lesson suggests that teachers should gather the kindergarteners into a circle and teach them a history of Palestine: “75 years ago, a lot of decision makers around the world decided to take away Palestinian land to make a country called Israel. Israel would be a country where rules were mostly fair for Jewish people with White skin,” the lesson reads. “There’s a BIG word for when Indigenous land gets taken away to make a country, that’s called settler colonialism.”

Before snack time, the teacher is encouraged to share “keffiyehs, flags, and protest signs” with the children, and have them create their own agitprop material, with slogans such as “FREE PALESTINE, LET GAZA LIVE, [and] PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.” The intention, according to the lesson, is to move students toward “taking collective action in support of Palestinian liberation.”

The recommended curriculum also includes a pamphlet titled “All Out for Palestine.” The pamphlet is explicitly political, with a sub-headline blaring in all capital letters: “STOP THE GENOCIDE! END U.S. AID TO IRSAEL! FREE PALESTINE!” The authors denounce “Zionism’s long genocidal war on Palestinian life” and encourage students to support “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” policies against Israel.

The pamphlet includes chants that teachers can adopt in the classroom. Some imply support for militancy and political violence: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!”; “We salute all our martyrs! mothers, fathers, sons and daughters!”; “Justice is our demand! No peace on stolen land!”

It’s not immediately clear to what extent the “Teach Palestine!” lessons have been adopted in Portland public school classrooms. But the teachers’ union claims that the district has been “actively censoring teachers” for promoting pro-Palestine ideologies; in response, it has assembled a legal guide for how teachers can keep promoting the lessons under the guise of meeting state curriculum standards.

[padawan-historian]

On August 8, 1863, Tennessee ratified the 13th Amendment, abolishing the domestic slave trade of Black + indigenous folks in the state. 159 years later in 2022, Tennessee folks voted to abolish all forms of slavery in the state, including the "Slavery Clause" that allows for incarcerated slavery to persist in both state-sanctioned + private for-profit prisons.To this day, the United States continues to build wealth off the exploited labor of impoverished, (dis)abled, undocumented + racially marginalized people who are incarcerated.

Each community and country that participated in the Transatlantic Slave Trade has its own emancipation day (or year).

And yet, as of 2023, Colorado, Alabama, Oregon, Vermont, Tennessee + Nevada (2024) are the only U.S. states who have made steps to abolish slavery in all its forms. That's not even touching how slavery, both state-sanctioned and illegal bondage, continues to bleed into our everyday places from child labor + forced s*x work to penal plantations and chocolate factories (looking at you at hershey chocolate)

In this second wave of Jim & Jane Crow flooding our world, we must arm ourselves with the tools to disrupt systems, distribute resources + deepen our collective action + good trouble ~

If you wanna explore the full Emancipation post + readings, come join us in the garden community over on Patreon where we upRoot our miseducation through history lessons, community conversations + book talks + decolonizing our everyday practic, our classrooms + our communities.

Reclaim your emancipation + immerse yourself in the ancestral, antiracist liberation! 🖤✊🏾✨️

[maryjane888]

On the stump (h.s.)

Author's note: english is not my first language, so please excuse any mistakes. Also, this first part is shorter but the others will be longer. Hope you enjoy. xx

Part I

"Y/n, please see me in my office after class." Professor Morris gave her a small smile after his request. "Nothing to worry about. Just some opportunities I would like to present you."

Y/n sighed of relief as the auditorium started to fill with sleepy students. She tought Mr. Morris would lecture her about the small pile of multiple choice exams in his desk that weren't all graded yet. Being a TA was reveling to be more time consuming than expected. She would have to reorganize her agenda for the third time this week, which also meant that she would have to skip tonight's plans with her friends. There was no room for mistakes or delays, if Mr. Morris was still planning to write her that recommendation letter.

"Alright, today we're going to talk about the decolonization of India. Don't forget the mandatory readings for this part of the course. I will not be speaking in detail about the process of independence of each asian countrie. If you have any questions, y/n can help you during office hours."

How wonderful, y/n thought, more workload. Must be punishment for all those exams.

...

"Take a seat". She pushed the dark oak chair back and smoothed her navy skirt before sitting down.

"This won't take long." He oppened a drawer on his desk, took some papers out of it and started to go through them.

"I have some connections in Vienna." He stopped and looked at her suggestively, adjusting his glasses. Y/n's palms started to sweat.

"I know New York would be more preferable, but Vienna is the only place now with open seats." Oh God. There was a faint quick thump sound in Mr Morris's office. It was y/n's nervous foot tapping in anticipation. He continued to flick through the pieces of paper until he found the one he wanted. Professor Morris pushed the single page in y/n's direction. Her hopeful eyes made him chuckle.

"That is a list of people responsible for selecting the interns at the UN offices in Vienna. Search their names and study them. I have also scribbled some tips for your upcoming interview." Y/n deviated her gaze from the paper to her professor in confusion.

"My interview?" Mr Morris smiled.

"Yes, your interview. Your application was accepted. You should receive an email soon explaining that you will move on to the next phase." She picked up the paper and pressed it tightly to her chest.

"Thank you, so much." He got up from his chair and buttoned his blazer.

"Now, if you fufill your position successfully as a TA by the end of the semester, I will make sure a recommendation letter gets to those offices." Y/n got up so excited her chair squeaked loudly and almost made her cringe. She was to happy to feel embarassed.

"I will not disappoint you, Professor Morris." She promised.

"I'm sure you won't." He then checked his wristwatch and complained about a meeting he was having with the faculty. Y/n took it as a cue to leave, but not without thanking him one more time.

...

The few students passing by looked strangely at the girl with the wide smile and a spring in her step. Who looks that enthusiastic on a Thursday morning? Y/n did. And she had good reasons to. All her work seemed to finally bear fruit. Being an UN intern was going to propel her career in politics. She would actually learn how things work in the real world, outside classrooms and without textbooks. She would have the opportunity to travel and meet new experienced people. And right now she also had the perfect excuse to ditch her social plans, having to make sure all her extracurricular workload was sorted out. Being an incompetent TA was not an option, and not getting that internship was a scenario that y/n refused to conceive as a possibility.

As soon as she got to her dorm, y/n started to search the people on that piece of paper. Her gold tickect to the chocolate factory. She memorized their full names, academic backrounds, previous jobs, and their personal interests. She made some social media searches for that. Then, a draft for her interview was outlined based off of Mr Morris's tips. Serious but not boring, interesting but not fake, professional but still warm. An email notification made her stop typping. She clicked on the unread message and admired the positive response. Her eyes travelled through her desk. It was a mess. She was surrounded by heavy authors and heavier subjects. A pile of crinkled photocopies of ICJ cases, an open Krugman book with dozens of fluorescent post-its, a few flashcards with EU's legislative process. If her desk was a mess, it meant she was busy and working. That mess made her happy. Y/n looked back at the email and she thought to herself, I'm almost there, I'm going to change the world.

...

"Shit." The hot brown liquid spreaded through y/n's white oversized shirt. She tossed the paper cup in the bin and tried to keep the fabric from sticking to her skin. Her brallette was now visible through the wet shirt. As she walked to the small bathroom atached to the office, she mentally patted herself on the back for keeping an extra t-shirt in her bag.

The door to the office was closed and no one usually came at this time of day. She was safe to change. Y/n tried to remove the stain in the sink as much as she could. She then placed it on the back of the chair to dry. A thin light brown outline was still visible. She sighed in annoyance. That was her favourite shirt.

As she reached to her bag to grab the shirt, the sound of the door knob brought horror to her features. She quickly grabbed the piece of clothing and tried to hide her nude state behind the fabric. As the door opened, y/n could already imagine the chocked look on Mr Morris' face at her lack of clothing. She had a plausible excuse, of course, but it was still a very strange situation. She should have locked the door. Well, too late.

Her look of fear turned to a confused one as she stared at the man that entered the room. He paused, hand still grabbing the door knob, and stared back, as confused as her. They stayed like that for a couple minutes trying to make sense of the situation. Y/n grew annoyed at his lack of action. The door was still open for everyone to see her precarious state.

"Close the door!" He awakened from his trance and quickly shut the door, turnig his back to her. She took the opportunity to dress the clean t-shirt. As she pulled the fabric down her torso, she noticed him staring at her again. Y/n was becoming more and more irritated. She had been gradding tests for the past three hours, hadn't gotten any breaks, decided to get a coffe from the machine down the hall, spilled the drink on her favourite shirt and was now being checked out by some random man that would not say anything, not even an apology. He was about to confront a very grumpy side of y/n.

"Are you a student of professor Morris? Office hours are only on Mondays and Wednesdays. I do not have time to answer any questions today." She went to sit on the desk and continue her work, not bothering to look at him as she speaked.

"I was a student of his." The man approched the desk. "I came to visit him." Y/n continued to write notes with her red pen, avoiding eye contact. Her frustration still mixed with the embarassement from moments ago.

"Well, as you can see Mr Morris isn't here, and he won't be coming in today. You can schedule your visit using the contacts printed by door. I also recommend you to knock before meeting with the professor." Y/n added the last part, staring back at him. He stood tall with crossed arms and a hard gaze. She could see that he did not like the way he was being treated. Y/n wondered who this man really was. What if he was someone important? Someone close to Mr Morris? She realised maybe she should have approched him more carefully.

"I was not aware that TAs now felt so free to seduce their superiors. I'll make sure I knock next time, promise." Her annoyance became painfully obvious and the room grew even more tense. She got up from her chair and faced him fully. They were closer now. He hovered over her, angry gazes competing. Y/n noticed his deep green eyes and a single chocolate lock fell between them. That was annoying.

"I spilled coffee on my shirt, not that I owe you any explanations." She backed away slightly and straightened her posture. "I will not admit any insulting accusations about how I work. You don't know me." Y/n tried to calm herself down. She was grumpy and he was just provoking her. It was not worth her time, so she distanced herself from him. He did not say anything else. He only observed her as she checked the time on her phone. Its late, she thought, I'll finish this tomorrow.

"What? Time to get undressed in another professor's office?" Y/n shot him a death glare.

"You're an assh-" she was interrupted by the sound of the door knob. She immediately stoped talking as Mr Morris entered the room. The other man smirked at her, enjoying her big scared eyes.

"Y/n? What are you still doing here?" He noticed the piles of exams with red anotations here and there. "It's late. Please go home and rest. You can finish another time." Mr Morris gave her a reassuring smile. Y/n started to pack her things, happy that he hadn't heard her before. Bad language was a no go with the faculty, especially insults. It could damage her image as a TA.

"And I've seen you have already met Harry." They both exchanged awkward smiles. "Weren't supposed to..." Y/n gave a questioning look at the two men. Harry was now avoyding her eyes. She tried to ignore the whole situation and placed her bag in her shoulder, ready to leave.

"I'll see you next week. Get some sleep, y/n." Professor Morris waved her goodbye. Harry simply stood next to him, hands in his pockets, as he observed her closing the door.

...

Y/n sighed in relief as she closed her laptop. She had asked professor Morris if she could take the online interview in his office. Her small dorm didn't look very professional as a background. He allowed it, telling her to not worry to much. At this point, y/n felt like she could ask him to be her garantor and he would say yes. He was like the godfather she never had.

Y/n had a good feeling about the call. She got the interviewer she most wanted and she felt like they truly connected through their mutual interests. Plus, the tips on that golden piece of paper really came in handy. She would have to thank her professor for the millionth time. Now, all she had left to do was being a good TA, keep her grades high and trust that her capabilites would be good enough to grant her the spot she thought she was worthy of. Y/n thought some relax time was needed and well deserved. She pushed all her work aside, and texted her friends. That night she would be joining them.

[heartcountry]

decolonization beginning and ending as abstract theory is nothing more than a way for so called progressives to comfort themselves for being woke and reading the works of james baldwin and assata shakur and malcom x in their fancy classrooms but when it comes time to actually put it in practice, those same teachings are suddenly "inhumane" and "shameful". all while using any acts of resistance to justify the retaliation of an ongoing ethnic cleansing apartheid regime of an oppressive and occupying force?? its time to be for real and use some critical thinking skills

[andromedasummer]

trying to read/familiarize myself with the kind of ideas and language i'll be using come the beginning of my diploma next year. this is book 1 of 16 ive managed to find on critical pedagogy, teaching in an era of neoloberalism, multiculturalism and decolonization in the classroom and early childhood education in Aotearoa new zealand. wish me luck

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Harry R. Lewis

Published: Jan 8, 2024

Let’s go back to how Harvard’s current crisis began: charges of antisemitism.

Why antisemitism seems to be a problem at Harvard and other universities is one of the still-unanswered questions that precipitated the University’s downward spiral.

But, it surely is not Claudine Gay’s fault. It is not because Harvard admits antisemitic students or hires antisemitic faculty. No one is suggesting there are comparable antisemitism problems in other kinds of institutions — such as hospitals or libraries — so there must be something that uniquely happens in universities.

That something must be the source of our woes.

* * *

Unapologetic antisemitism — whether the incidents are few or numerous — is a college phenomenon because of what we teach, and how our teachings are exploited by malign actors.

The Harvard online course catalog has a search box. Type in “decolonize.” That word — though surely not the only lens through which to view the current relationship between Europe and the rest of the world — is in the titles of seven courses and the descriptions of 18 more.

Try “oppression” and “liberation.” Each is in the descriptions of more than 80 courses. “Social justice” is in over 100. “White supremacy” and “Enlightenment” are neck and neck, both ahead of “scientific revolution” but behind “intersectionality.”

Though word frequency is an imperfect measure and the precise counts are muddied by duplicate numberings and courses at MIT, this experiment supports the suspicion that the Harvard curriculum has become heavily slanted toward recent fashions of the progressive left.

For example, “intersectionality” was almost unattested before the year 2000, while published uses of “decolonize” have more than tripled since then.

Merchants of hate are repurposing these intellectual goods that universities are producing.

When complex social and political histories are oversimplified in our teachings as Manichaean struggles — between oppressed people and their oppressors, the powerless and the powerful, the just and the wicked — a veneer of academic respectability is applied to the ugly old stereotype of Jews as evil but deviously successful people.

While Harvard cannot stop the abuse of our teaching, we, the Harvard faculty, can recognize and work to mitigate these impacts.

The political bias in our faculty is now widely accepted. One solution is to use a kind of affirmative action program for conservative thinkers to change the faculty, but that idea is noxious and misses a crucial point.

Professors should not be carrying their ideologies into the classroom. Our job as teachers of “citizens and citizen-leaders” is not to indoctrinate students, but to prepare them to grapple with all of the ideas they will encounter in the societies they will serve.

Instead, individual faculty might diversify what they teach. Committees and departments could enforce a standard that curricula exhibit intellectual diversity and a variety of agreed-upon topics and techniques.

If done correctly, it would not infringe upon individual academic freedom to allow our faculty colleagues to have a stronger role in shaping each others’ syllabi and curricula. Nor would it be improper for the Board of Overseers — with its elaborate Visiting Committee structure — to weigh in on the evident political biases and ideological vectors in our educational program.

As obvious as this all may sound, it would be a big change from the present.

Over the fifty years I have been on the Harvard faculty, the expectation has evolved that individual Harvard professors are free to teach whatever they wish to whomever they wish. It was once the norm for faculty to rotate through courses of unpredictable size and with stable curricula, but now enrollments are predetermined quite rigorously and even introductory courses may change their reading lists and lecture topics drastically when new professors take charge.

Curricular committees theoretically vet these courses, but not annually, and not for the kinds of political biases that have skewed undergraduate education. The result is to favor the hip, current, and “relevant,” over foundational learning — what instructors personally believe to the exclusion of what students should learn to participate knowledgeably in the world outside our gates.

* * *

The leftward shift of Harvard’s faculty deserves scrutiny. Judicious changes to the hiring and promotion process can thwart intellectual inbreeding — just as the current tenure system, now tired and manipulable, was once an innovative revamp of a system that resulted in ethnic and gender homogeneity. Now is the time to change a system that will take decades to alter the composition of the faculty.

But there is no need to wait for that reform.

The goal is not to give students a choice between courses reflecting different ideologies. Harvard should instead expect instructors to leave their politics at the classroom door and touch both sides of controversial questions, leaving students uncertain where their sympathies lie. Professors should have no more right to exclude from their teaching ideas with which they disagree than students should expect to be shielded from ideas they find disagreeable.

All that is required is for faculty to exhibit some humility about the limits of their own wisdom and embrace the formula for educational improvement voiced by Le Baron R. Briggs, a Harvard dean, more than a century ago: “increased stress on offering what should be taught rather than what the teachers wish to teach.”

Harry R. Lewis ’68 is a Gordon McKay Research Professor of Computer Science. He served as Dean of Harvard College from 1995 to 2003.

[kenyatta]

(via (41) bell hooks on interlocking systems of domination - YouTube)

BELL HOOKS: I began to use the phrase in my work “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” because I wanted to have some language that would actually remind us continually of the interlocking systems of domination that define our reality and not to just have one thing be like, you know, gender is the important issue, race is the important issue, but for me the use of that particular jargonistic phrase was a way, a sort of short cut way of saying all of these things actually are functioning simultaneously at all times in our lives and that if I really want to understand what's happening to me, right now at this moment in my life, as a black female of a certain age group, I won't be able to understand it if I'm only looking through the lens of race. I won't be able to understand it if I'm only looking through the lens of gender. I won't be able to understand it if I'm only looking at how white people see me.

To me an important break through, I felt, in my work and that of others was the call to use the term white supremacy, over racism because racism in and of itself did not really allow for a discourse of colonization and decolonization, the recognition of the internalized racism within people of color and it was always in a sense keeping things at the level at which whiteness and white people remained at the center of the discussion. In my classroom I might say to students that you know that when we use the term white supremacy it doesn't just evoke white people, it evokes a political world that we can all frame ourselves in relationship to.

And I think that I was able to do that because I grew up, again, in racial apartheid, where there was a color caste system. So that obviously I knew that through my own experiential reality, you know, that it wasn't just what white people do to black people that was wounding and damaging to our lives, I knew that when we went over to my grandmother's house, who looked white, who lived in a white neighborhood, and she called my sister, Blackie, because she was dark and her hair was nappy and my sister would sit in a corner and cry or not want to go over there. I knew that there is some system here that is hurting this little girl, that is not directly, the direct hit from the white person. And white supremacy was that term that allowed one to acknowledge our collusion with the forces of racism and imperialism.

And so for me those words were very much about the constant reminder, one of institutional construct, that we're not talking about personal construct in the sense of, how do you feel about me as a woman, or how do you feel about me as a black person? But they really seem to me to evoke a larger apparatus and I don't know why those terms have become so mocked by people because in fact, far from simplifying the issues, I think they actually when you merge them together really complicate the questions of freedom and justice globally, because it means then that we have to look at what black people are doing to each other in Rwanda, we can't just say racism, what have you. We have to problemitize nationalism beyond race, in all kinds of ways that I think there's a tremendous reluctance, particularly in the United States to do, to have a more complex accounting of identity.

[aromantisk-fagforening]

You’re really cool! /gen

What languages are you learning?

Which ones do you want to become fluent in, in the future?

Where do you learn them?

What’s your favorite language?

Would you advise someone to learn Norwegian?

Do you have a language you’d never want to learn?

What’s the hardest thing for you when learning a new language?

How’s your day going?

ok first thank you for this epic ask. my answer is long so it's under the cut.

I'm currently primarily learning Russian. I am sorta learning Swahili, but I haven't come any far yet.

I'm also continuing to learn french, but I'm already pretty good at french so it's pretty much just reading stuff in french.

I'm sorta learning northern Sami or Sami languages (multiple), but I haven't gotten far.

I'm not sure which languages I want to be fluent in. I guess french, I'm definitely not on a C1 level yet but I know a lot so it's probably the easiest. But I just want to take things as they come a bit. Sami languages (probably northern Sami has most materials) are a candidate, because decolonization and stuff, plus it's a new language family to me which interests me a lot. Though I'll likely try one I know people who speak.

but for learning in general I am considering/currently learning:

- Arabic (maybe Egyptian)

- Swahili

- French

- Russian

- Chinese (probably mandarin)

- Urdu

- Sámi language (unsure which)

- Norwegian sign language

- international sign language

- Usamerican sign language (ASL)

- Thai

And of course I'm probably gonna update this list. (metaphorically speaking, not physically this list in this post)

Where I learn:

So for french I learned primarily in a classroom setting, but honestly that has left me with very weak like audio processing for french.

For Russian I've been using Duolingo which is pretty good, though as people talk about I don't understand the grammar so if I want to use it formally I'm probably gonna diversify. (not sure what I'll do yet)

For Swahili I'm using language transfer. But I struggle to motivate myself to do language transfer lessons. They're primarily audio based and I'm genuinely addicted to music so I'm not always in the mood.

I've also used Polygloss, which is an image description game type thing where you get feedback on your language skills from other users. I would probably recommend this one if it sounds at all interesting to you. This has many languages btw, even toki Pona.

I've used drops but that app fuckings sucks ass. It's difficult to remember stuff in complete isolation. It's like the opposite of reading wikipedia in the target language.

For Thai I've used "Thai drill", which seems pretty good, I haven't gotten far with thai though because I've focused on other languages.

I've used lingodeer the short time I learned japanese, I've heard it's supposed to be really good for that.

I also like using texts, for Russian I've used a lot of wikipedia, trying to just read articles in Russian and see what I understand. For french I've used magazines and lemonde. For Sami I've used just the regular news.

I've tried chatting apps for language learning but I haven't really stuck to them too much so idk if that's for me. I think people like those though.

I've tried YouTube for Norwegian sign language and I find myself less likely to use youtube for language learning, but it definitely helps with getting access to resources when there's little.

Also miscellaneous websites. For Norwegian sign language, Russian and French I've used websites and it's helped at least a bit.

Translation services are essential! Like yeah don't just put everything through translation, but if you need a specific word or want to check your grammar it can be very helpful. I use it a lot in french.

On whether to learn Norwegian that depends what you value.

Some options are: novelty (different language family? unfamiliar writing system?), easiness (similar? are there apps? are there complex conjugations?), practical use (can you watch tv in the language? do you know anyone who speaks it?), different culture (will it give you access to a world radically different to your own?), decolonization (is it a colonized language?)

But personally I'm inclined to say yeah please learn my language. I can recommend resources and help teach you if you chose it, so the easiness is high (plus it's on Duolingo). the practical use, though lowered by the fact that most Norwegians speak english, is decent because it's easy to access free books online in Norwegian, plus news (that may be different like with Palestine - the free national news report does not have to be approved by isnotreal). And in general Norway values freedom of speech. The easiness is raised by you speaking English, and Norwegian also doesn't gender anything depending on subject's gender (unlike french), only grammatical gender, and you can choose between 2 & 3 genders. For novelty it's probably not that interesting though. For decolonization it's a colonizer language, Norway colonized a part of Sápmi and forced them to speak like us, no one colonized Norway. wait actually there might be more than Sápmi? idk I found this about Denmark-Norway, it might be wrong to pin it on just the Danes even though they had the upper hand historically, idk (there was centralized royal rule based in Copenhagen in Denmark). But yeah that last part idk if it really matters, it's not immoral to learn a "evil" language (of any kind), it's more that I consider it extra moral to learn a colonized language. (I wouldn't necessarily consider Norwegian evil but you get what I'm getting at).

For languages I wouldn't learn, honestly there's not many. I'm skeptical towards learning more languages like french because it's hyper gendered & usually non-binary excluding, but I think Spanish for example is one of them and it's so widely spoken it's kinda worth it.

The most difficult thing for me when learning a language, I guess staying consistent. I only have like one perfect month on Duolingo, and for other languages like Norwegian sign language I've not been consistent at all, not even reaching a rate of one lesson a month.

My day is going pretty well, especially after answering this ask :)

[chronic-cane]

Yesterday I went to a workshop/optional lesson on decolonizing pedagogy. It definitely helped solidify my understanding of what decolonization is (which is what the first part was mainly for).

At one point there was a small group discussion about how a student needed extra time in a quiet area for accomodations, and in the hypothetical scenario the other students saw that as cheating.

I have never been through this, but I guess it's something that can happen.

The answers from professors were incredibly useful because stuff like "keep the student from sharing around others" and "see if that anger is coming from need" is not something I would've considered as the person only seeing ableism.

At the end, I sat there and said (mic in hand btw) "As someone who has received such accommodation, it's literally harder to cheat with those accommodations than in your classroom! They make you leave your backpack at the door and only allow you to take a pencil in! I had to wait 10 minutes once for them to call and verify with my professor that it was open note! You can't cheat, it's basically impossible!" To which made a good amount of the room laugh.

"Well, that's another possible response to the students"

[a-shade-of-blue]

Freshwater Pearl Phone Strap & Custom Bracelet Giveaway: Help Families in Gaza!

I am organizing this raffle in order to raise funds for 3 Gaza GoFundMe campaigns. They all have really low funds and donations are coming in slowly for all of them! I have been in frequent contact with all three of them and would be grateful if you can help them out! Due to my geographical restrictions, I can only mail the bracelets to addresses in the UK. 

Fill in this form after donating to enter: https://forms.gle/TThCs5fbyn451AAD6

Campaign Details & Donation Links!

Mahmoud Salim's campaign

Donation Link:  Support a family lacking healthcare and safety

Mahmoud's Tumblr Account:  @mahmoudfamily1

Verification: #117 on this vetted list, also see here

Mahmoud has 17 family members trapped in Nuseirat, including 10 children. Mahmoud almost lost all his family when the house they were sheltering in was bombed with them inside, killing 13 people. Their makeshift tent has been hit by bullets and sharpnel.

Progress: $1,362 CAD raised of $80,000 goal

Mohammed & Ahmed Khalil's campaign

Donation Link:  Help Ahmed Khalil's family evacuate to safety

Mohammed's Tumblr Account:  @ahmed0khalil

Verification: #77 on this vetted list, also see here

Mohammed is 19 years old and from a family of 8. He has 5 siblings: Fathi (23), Aya (21), Anas (15), Abdullah (11) and Ahmed (6). His father has diabetes, Fathi is blind, and Abdullah is autistic and does not understand what is happening. They are displaced in a classroom in Deir el-Balah.

Progress: €3,687 raised of €50,000 goal

Ahmed Khader's campaign

Donation Link:  Help my family to reach save out of Gaza

Ahmed's Tumblr Account:  @ahmedpalestine

Verification: see here

Ahmed has 12 family members including 6 children, in Maghazi right now. He has recently lost his cousin, also named Ahmed, who was a father of 3 children, including a 2-month-old baby girl. He was killed by a missile while fetching water for his family.

Progress: €5,465 raised of €55,000 goal

Instructions: 

Donate a minimum of €5/$5 to enter the raffle! Each €5/$5 counts as an entry, so if you donate €10, you will be entered twice. 

You will get a free extra entry if you donate to all 3 campaigns (e.g. if you donate €5/$5 to all 3 campaigns, you will be entered 4 times instead of 3). 

You will also get a free extra entry for every €/$30 you donate!

Additionally, for every €/$100 you donate...

I will make you a bracelet regardless of if you win the raffle, and you can choose the colour and the beads I use! 

If you donate to all 3 campaigns you can choose to add a freshwater pearl to your bracelet!

e.g. if you donated to all 3 campaigns and the total is €/$200, I will make you two bracelets, and you can choose to add a pearl to each of the bracelet!

The deadline for entering this raffle is 10 December, 2024. 

Thank you for donating and supporting families in Gaza!

Tagging for reach, please message me if you want off the mailing list! We thank you in advance.@dlxxv-vetted-donations@ahaura@ana-bananya@northgazaupdates@c-u-c-koo-4-40k@riding-with-the-wild-hunt@roadimusprime@aces-and-angels@just-browsing1222@neptunerings@mushroomjar@northgazaupdates2@kyra45-helping-others@decolonize-solidarity@heritageposts@commissions4aid-international

@brutaliakhoa @decolonize-the-everything @postanagramgenerator@heydreamchild

@bixels @aria-ashryver@schoolhater@pcktknife@transmutationisms@sawasawako@feluka@magnus-rhymes-with-swagness@werewolf-transgenderism

@watermotif @stuckinapril @chanafehs@malcriada @appsa @serialunaliver @buttercuparry

@gothhabiba @punkitt-is-here@stil-lindigo@prisonhannibal@genderdog

@ankle-beez @lonniemachin @dykesbat @charlott2n @watermotif

@mavigator @lacecap @yugiohz @vakarians-babe @socalgal

@chilewithcarnage @ghelgheli @sivavakkiyar @anneemay @plomegranate @fluoresensitive @determinate-negation @girlinafairytale@cigaretteaunt @murderbot @heydreamchild

[clonerightsagenda]

So - I promised my full take on Within the Wires, and here it is.

First of all, Night Vale Presents continues to be very good at shorter, self-contained stories. WTNV lost me because it just got too long and formless for my tastes - which is fine if that's your jam! but it's not mine - but Alice isn't Dead was a good length for me, and these ten episode standalone seasons really allow them to tell a tight story without wearing out their welcome.

I love the use of the audio medium. WtW started back near the start of the audio drama renaissance when everyone was justifying the medium, and they do a great job - relaxation cassettes, voicemails, audio guides, memos, etc. Nothing else bowled me over quite as much as episode 9 of season 1 in the way it broke down the barriers between speaker and listener, but I really enjoyed the choices made.

I guess I have to accept that the Society is just a weird dystopia concept created to let these stories happen, because it doesn't really make sense. Sure, authoritarian societies don't always make sense or tell the truth about their motives, but family as the primary driver of discord between humans? It seems like the Reckoning started as WWI and then kept rolling, and most of the soldiers in WWI were not fighting each other because of personal animosity. The Society got rid of parents but kept corporations and politicians - that's rich. It would be reasonable to say the Society saw an opening in that taking over the socialization of new generations allows it to indoctrinate everyone, but I read the tie-in novel and the original designers seemed to genuinely believe family was the root of these issues. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. (Also the novel having a Black woman be the proponent of this theory was a bit odd to me.)

A few other things that pinged me the wrong way - WtW highlights a relationship between women in each season, which is great and probably (alas) why it is not more popular.... except season 3 which highlights a trans man. Wondering what the intended implication is there.

I also noted the issues with Native Americans in an earlier post. Season seven sort of addressed that? On one hand you have the mention of Aboriginal Australians reclaiming part of their land and Aotearoa using the original place names, almost like the Society is being framed as this decolonized paradise, but the season progresses to a critique of how clinically teaching children ripped from their families about their 'culture' in classrooms isn't the same as letting people pass down their heritage, just as a family bakery isn't the same bakery if you're just handing new people the recipes. Still, it's interesting that the past treatment of Indigenous people in the Americas has not come up at all, given the aforementioned similarities to residential schools. It looks like the co-writer is from New Zealand which explains why Māori stuff has come up multiple times, but Jeffrey Cranor is American. (Though, I've noted, has a history of overlooking Native issues.)

Some seasons were stronger than others. Season 6 was definitely my least favorite - didn't feel like it tied in much with any of the others. Overall though, the writing was strong, episode 9 of each season usually punched you in the gut, and I really liked how complex a lot of the characters were. Truly a podcast committed to morally grey women.

Verdict: Compelling characters, emotionally impactful storylines, very clever and interesting use of the audio medium, worldbuilding does not really hold up to close scrutiny but that's ok.

[padawan-historian]

There are so many adoption agencies and family-saturated programs connected to the settler-colonial (i.e. laissez-facism) structures that seek to "straighten out" our (eco)systems in order to erase our histories, erode our community spaces, and exploit our cultures and our labor.

I ain't gonna say the big R-word (cause apparently is the equivalent of radioactive kryptonite to certain folks of a . . . lighter complexion) but #ParentsRights are fundamentally antiblack, anti-indigenous, and antiqueer in nature. Not only do they miseducate our young and grown folks across colorlines and cultures, but Parents Rights programs fundamentally displace and disposses the personhood and human rights of our young scholars who are growing up behind the veil of bigotry (both the intimate and the institutional)

By claiming children and classrooms should not be politicized, these mama bears and ugly feminists reinforce both the colonization and [R-word] color-codes of our identities, histories, lived experiences, memories, and magic.

There is a sharp difference between being concerned and being a colonizer, especially one with a [white] savior complex ~

This season's series is open to all + free for:

*Incarcerated folks & returning citizens

*Transracial & transnational adoptees

*Patrons of the Antiracist Liberation (www.patreon.com/antiracistliberation)

As we continue our decolonized, community work, we want to nurture an accessible garden space for our community members all while supporting the labor and scholarship of those cultivating our community programs, workshops, and resources. For those of you interested in engaging in this season's series where we dive into the underground railroad of Black history (+ its ever-present rebel afterlives) grab your activist journals, your antiracist notebooks, and get ready to upRoot your miseducation this season ✨️🖤📚

[chey-rewrite]

Thankstaking

Right now at work, we’re at the tail-end of developing and finalizing our organization’s mission, vision, and values — and this has led to this week’s topic of the definition of decolonization. We hear the word all the time now. Decolonize your mind, decolonize your diet, decolonize the workplace, decolonize your syllabus, your classroom. But what they’re really talking about is unlearning racism, sexism — but it’s not actually decolonial because it doesn’t include Indigenous land trusts, sovereignty, or autonomy over the land. The practice of true decolonization must hold Indigenous sovereignty and stewardship at its very center.

The classifications of race, the binaries of gender, human superiority, consumerism and entitlement are all direct products of colonialism and they’ve been key pegs in achieving both colonialism and capitalism. This means that they would require a dismantling of in the decolonial process. Europeans looked at Africans and put them into a category of race that they deemed to be less-than in order to justify their enslavement, put the tribes of Indigenous peoples into a category of race that deemed them to be savages and then they taught this concept of race and the superiority of whiteness to the Indigenous peoples back on Turtle Island. But we can’t solve colonialism’s product of racism by simply redistributing power. While diversity in the workplace via putting women, people of color, and queers into positions of leadership creates an environment of inclusion, it doesn’t address the root issue of race being a European-invented tool of oppression. While individuals can work to re-calibrate their diet away from fast foods and towards the native and seasonal foods of the land they’re on, it doesn’t it doesn’t populate reservations or other food deserts with access to the same food options, as the land has been stripped of its natural resources and replaced with strip malls, prisons, and privatized natural land.

Decolonization is nothing without a direct, clear specification of what it’s meant for Indigenous peoples and their homelands to be colonized.

Take the federally recognized holiday at the end of November, for example. Few people (that I’ve encountered, at least) have made and embodied the decision of not recognizing it as a holiday at all due to the history behind it. More people have learned and come to terms with that history and adjusted their perspective on the holiday, acknowledging the atrocities that are directly correlated to it, but still celebrating it in a somewhat traditional manner. I’m not here to shit on that. I think that it’s really difficult to separate the atrocity of the history of Thanksgiving from the feel-good, warm and happy modern times that many folks spend with their families on that day. It’s difficult to figure out how, if at all, we can still gather on this day while also holding true recognition of the history that we’ve been lied to about.

I don’t have a clear answer for this one. For me, the day of Thankstaking and the weeks leading up to it consist of grief and mourning. On the day of, I wake up at three in the morning to go to the sunrise ceremony on Alcatraz Island where I am around other my fellow Indigenous loved ones and I get to take in the medicine of culture and collective mourning and healing. In the evening, my mom, sisters and I make fry bread Indian tacos, eat on my mom’s couch and watch a movie or two — again, collectively healing 500 year old ancestral trauma, even if it is only one single bite of fry bread at a time.