#educating yourself and being able to defend your beliefs are what makes you an activist.

[snekdood]

i think this is what happens when leftists avoid conservative beliefs and talking points as much as possible- to the point where they can't even recognize it when it's in their own spaces. you have to familiarize yourself with the enemies arguments to be able to actually have convictions you can defend. if a conservative brought up their fear of hormone blockers and the best argument you have is "well trans people deserve to exist and be happy", then you're not able to defend your beliefs, then your beliefs easily crumble when someone gives a more convincing counter argument to yours, and you could very well be convinced that person is right if you don't know better. learn their beliefs, educate yourself on the material, come back and correct them bc 9 times out of 10 conservatives are always making some shit up, its actually really satisfying to catch them on that and give them the correct information. but if you don't know how to do that you're no better than the average person who doesn't know what dogwhistles are and doesn't get what the big deal is about tolerating capitalism

[newyorkgalblog-blog]

The Top Feminist Groups in NYC You Should Be Getting in With

New York, or any city for that matter, can feel isolating at times. The vast amount of people living there allows residents to be just another passer-by and carry a blanket of anonymity around with them. This is one of the many reasons New Yorkers adore the city: You can be anyone.

Unlike small towns, walking down the street doesn’t require a head nod or a “good morning!” every time someone shares the pavement with you.

And, thank God for that, because not only would that be exhausting in the city, it isn’t part of New Yorkers natures to be unnecessarily friendly. Avoid eye contact and keep your head down, that’s the Golden Rule.

Although, there are times when everyone craves a familiarity from home or other interests that they wish to share their enthusiasm with like-minded people. Along with a few other reasons, it’s probably why places like Chinatown, Koreatown and Little Italy nestled into neighbourhoods. Sometimes, you want to feel understood and be around similar thinking people.

Language, food, ideas and politics can affect how we interact. There have even been studies on how people’s personality changes when they speak a different language.

Right now, it’s hard to communicate with anyone from “the other side” of politics without an argument starting. Which is awful. We should be able to have discussions without wanting to punch someone- but that’s what Brexit and Trump have done.

Living in NYC may seem like a liberal oasis, yet, there are many (millennials) that agree with Trump’s and other republican’s ideas. Or, they’re just men that think “feminism shouldn’t be a thing”. You can hear it on the street. You can hear it at the office; In bars and elsewhere.

Last year was a great year for women. Many of those in the recent midterm elections felt outraged at the election so they ran, and won. However, women are still not getting paid enough. Trans women are at high risk of being beaten, raped and murdered. There are still miles to go.

And, as Gloria Steinem showed throughout the 70 and 80s and now, organizing, talking and fundraising for women’s groups is one of the best ways, besides voting, to making change happen. Not to mention that being around progressive and successful women is amazing. So here are some groups that you can join in the city: for fun, for networking, for a chat, for pushing women’s equality forward and, in some, for an all women’s space to relax and have some rosé.

New York Women’s Agenda

Image Source: New York Women’s Agenda ORG

NYWA was founded by author and philanthropist, Elinor Guggenheimer over 20 years ago. Their website describes the organizations goals as, “advances the interests of women and families through educational programs, advocacy, networking, and excercising the collective power of diverse women’s organizations and professional women in New York City.”

Like NYC, the group is equally diverse in membership. Amongst their list of beliefs, their largest devotion is to the pay gap, domestic abuse and relationship with the government. One of the committees, NYWA’s Government Affairs Committee, the Equal Pay Coalition NYC (EPCNYC), works with over 40 other organizations to close the pay gap and discrimination against women, women of color and low-income families.

Becoming a member is $65 ($25 for students) and allows you to be a part of the NYWA discussion and movement.

W.O.K.E (Women of Kolour Empowered) NYC

Image Source: Fancy La Femme

This group, made on the website Meet Up, currently consists of 772 listed members. It is specifically for black women, formed to discuss issues relating to them and their experiences today. The organizer recalls her mothers and “‘Aunts’ (I put this in quotes because they are not blood related) will gather around the living room and just chat about their kids, church, work, men, and so on. As a kid, I just looked at it as my mom and her friends were just hanging out and just talking. Ask I grow into my own person as a woman, a black woman; I realize that these talks they had were so crucial to their overall being.”

The aim is to openly, and safely, talk about “relationships, racism, sexism, work-related stress, sexuality, intersectionality, career, mental health, network, current events, pop culture, strengthening current relationships, and forming new ones.” Each meeting involves a pre-set topic. Past ones have included closing prisons and women of color in the #MeToo movement.

Their next meeting is scheduled Sunday, 27th of January at The Harlem Coffee Co. The topic: Unpacking Surviving R. Kelly Docuseries.

NGO Committee On The Status Of Women, NY

Image Source: Twitter

The NGO CSW of New York actively follows the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and UN Women. The group supports the work that all of those organizations do, by holding up to 400 events to educate the public, regardless of gender, about the importance of empowering women worldwide. They also fundraise, hold monthly meetings with guest speakers and give awards to “Women of Distinction” every year.

Their main event, however, is a “consultation day” in NYC that comes before the UN Commission on the Status of Women event. “Activists gather from around the world to discuss issues pertaining to women and girls, to network, share strategies/best practices and to lobby governments to implement resolutions and treaties that they have signed. NGO Representative are brought together to caucus, issue joint statements and provide wording for the Agreed Conclusions of the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.”

Volunteer, intern, donate or become a member for just $25 (ages 25-35).

The Wing

Image Source: CNBC

Isn’t it pretty? It’s more than just an Instagrammable place, though. Their aim, “is the professional, civic, social, and economic advancement of women through community. We believe that the act of coming together in furtherance of The Wing’s mission creates new opportunities, ideas and conversations that will lead to greater mobility and prosperity for womankind.”

In other words, it’s a (gorgeous) professional and social club for working women. It’s a place to network, work out of the office, in a safe, feminist space. As well as having a podcast and magazine, The Wing also have a scholarship and “encourage members to take part in direct action on social issues important to our community.”

If it all sounds too good and pink to be true, that’s because it’s quite pricey. The Wing doesn’t allow food to be brought in, as they have a café. Which makes sense. But, members have to pay around $180 per month- and that’s if they get accepted.

National Organization for Women- NYC

Image Source: Lori Burch for Congress

The NOW “aim to defend reproductive rights, create economic equality, promote women’s political representation, and end discrimination and violence against women.” Their focus issues range from reproductive rights to economic equality to violence against women.

Since founded in 1966, NOW have been heavily pro-active in mentoring and encouraging women to run for positions of power; thus, protecting women’s rights and leading way for new fair laws and legislation. There are events held to network, further your career, learn about current discrimination and lead marches and protests in the city. They’ve launched Take Rape Seriously NOW and have a charity to help support survivors of sexual abuse/assault.

Membership is $20-125 and involves workshops, events, e-newsletters, voting guides and more.

OKREAL

Image Source: okreal

The writer, artist, and new mum wanted to open a spaceonline, and IRL, for young women that, “provide[d] a resource for a modern community of women who are striving to create their own path, and want authentic advice to help them do so.”

The events, held in varying locations, are somewhat mentor sessions for attendees. And, shaped around self-fulfilment. Successful figures, such as Tavi Gevinson or Iskra Lawerence, come to talk and answer questions in a way to give advice and inspire. Yoga, Trust Yourself Sessions, and bra fittings have been all part of the mornings before.

Some of their interviews are online with pictures that make you jealous of not being there. They always have snacks. PLUS, events are free!

  Original source: https://nygal.com/the-top-feminist-groups-in-nyc-you-should-be-getting-in-with/

[samarajournal]

Okay last time...

The thing that really bothers me with LP YouTubers rushing to defend Felix in poorly worded and misinformed responses is that they, along with a majority of their young fan base, do not know how successful activism really works. They do not know how social change is actually enacted, how civil rights has and is currently being fought for. But they are all quick to quote non violence, and everyone should love each other.  Or that we should be nice to our oppressors and have a dialogue with them. 

Let’s unpack that last notion right now. You see just from my personal experience, from my baby years of activism, if I talk to let’s say ten Trump supporters or KKK members, homophobic, or even biphobic individuals even if I talk calmly, politely providing specific examples with scholarly sources, I’ll be lucky if I get one individual to maybe sorta see my side of things. And even then there is no guarantee that they will actively work to dismantle that specific oppression system in the future. Why? Because ultimately, there is no incentive for the group at top of society (AKA white people, especially white straight cisgender males) to destroy a systems that supports and favors their survival and supremacy. If anything, dismantling this systems puts them at a disadvantage. To quote Jane Elloit:

“I was taught how to be racist at birth. I know how to be racist. I hate it.... I’m a racist. I was infected with racism at birth. I want to get over it. It us going to take me rest of my life to get over it, but I can do it, but I have to choose to do it.”

-Jane Elloit, Oprah Winfrey Show, 1992

The United States of America is a racist country. It was built, maintained, and thrived on racists actions and the oppression of a large portion of the population. And people that this country and the society was built for, white people, are taught and socialized to be racist. Racism, prejudice, and discrimination did not disappear with the Civil Right’s Act of 1965, the Stonewall Riots, or the election of former president Barack Obama. It hasn’t even really lessened, if anything hate crime has been on the rise since the 60s, it has only changed. I probably lost a lot of you in those last three sentences. You might feel angry, uncomfortable. Your probably writing sentences in your head to defend yourself. Good. Because confronting your inherent prejudice is not an easy task. Everyone is raised to develop biases, and we all have to fight every day of our lives to overcome them. You do that through your actions, constantly changing your mindsets, and constantly questioning every preconceived thought about people, society, cultures, ect. You will find fault in almost everything you see, you will begin to see stereotypes used in everything especially in the media, and in a lot of ways you won’t be able to guitlessly enjoy many of the things you use to.

Combating internal prejudices is a long, hard, and life long process. It is emotionally and mentally taxing, and you will be uncomfortable a number of times. Now back to my original point, acknowledging your privilege and prejudices is hard, and not everyone is frankly cut out for it. We as humans have evolved to actively avoid discomfort. So no matter how the message is delivered, people of a privileged class who have not have to think about their position and identity have absolutely no incentive or evolutionary drive to actually listen. 

An even just on a logical basis, if a majority of people are so willing to listen and for their minds to be changed. If Nazis, Neo-Nazis, and KKKs (all of which have been on the rise let me remind you) were so open minded, then why haven’t they. Why wasn’t Trevor Noah able to convince Tomi Lahren that BLM is not a terrorist group? Or why Yassmin Abdel-Mageid wasn’t able to persuade Jacqui Lambie away from her support of DJT’s muslim ban or enlighten her on what sharia law actually is? Or why does the comment section of this MTV Decoded video looks like this? If it’s like being in a class with a teacher you don’t like. You might hate them or the way they teach, but you better learn and pay attention if you want to pass the class. It shouldn’t matter how the message is delivered if the message is true. You should want to be a better, decent human, and me or others yelling at your shouldn’t really dissuade you if that were the case.

And quite simply there is a PLETHORA of resources: literature, scholarly research, speeches, think pieces, books, poems, you name it; some of which I listed in this post and can be easily found with a google search. Activists travel to college campuses all the time. They is literally no reason for anyone to go up to any marginalized person and ask them to educate them. NONE. So by that logic, a majority of people should be enlighten. They should understand the ins and outs of systematic oppression. They should be ‘woke’. But they’re not. I wonder why? No I don’t, because they don’t want to listen. And quite frankly I don’t care.

I don’t care what you think of me. I don’t care if you think if I’m abomination, call me a n*gger, think I’m inferior, ratchet, ghetto. All I care about if you are in a position of power to enact policy to enforce your prejudices, how to remove you from that place of power, and how fast you can run cause you will be catching these hands if you say this to my face.

So this brings me, finally, to my main point. What works. What causes change. Well children, there are a number of strategies that you can partake in to enact social change. One of the most popular forms is non violent protest. Is the best method? That’s debatable and quite honestly I don’t think so in certian instances but I digress. Non violent process can be effective when use correctly and without stop. The main power, which even Gandhi, utilized is a concept known as backfire, which is pretty succinctly described in Justice Ignited by Brian Martin. He describes it as “ an action that recoils against its originators. In a backfire, the outcome is not just worse than anticipated — it is negative, namely worse than having done nothing” . In his book he cites both the Rodney King Beatings and the Dili masscare, the latter of which is described in that same page.

“Although Indonesian troops occupying East Timor had committed many massacres in the 15 years before 1991, they received limited attention due to censorship. The Dili massacre, unlike earlier killings, was witnessed by western journalists and recorded in photos and video, and later broadcast internationally... The Dili massacre, rather than discouraging opposition to Indonesian rule over East Timor, instead triggered a massive expansion in international support for East Timor’s independence.”

Corporations, groups, businesses, and governments all have one thing in common: their image is everything and when backfire happens that image in irrevocably damaged. When this happens they trust, capitol, support, MONEY, ect. The is the goal of protest, it is put people of power in positions where they are damned if the do and damned if they don’t. In this case the best case scenario is to give into the prostestors demand or risk looking and brutal. That is what Ganhdi did with is Salt March, which you can find detailed here. 

 It is what Martin Luther King Jr. did. Although for a time he   try to change the hearts and minds of his oppressors, his main focus was uplifting his people, changing laws and policy, and making those laws were enforced. The Civil Rights Movements was the first instance of national civil unrest that was intentionally televised. The images of young Americans being hosed down, attacked by downs, killed, maimed, lynched seriously challenged America’s image as this morally superior, civilized country. And politicians knew it. And it was one of the majors factors that led to so many laws being changed during that era, and many of those unwillingly.

At the end of the day that is all we want. Minorities do not have time to worry about if our oppressors like us or see us as human. We know that answer. We know it all too well. We have bills to pay. Mouths to feed. And making sure our loved ones come home safe. ALL WE WANT IS EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW AND THE DISMANTLE OF OPPRESSIVE SYSTEMS THROUGH POLICY CHANGE. That’s it. It would be nice if people saw me as a human being not in-spite of our differences but because of them. But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. If at the end of day the person changing/writing the law is doing so begrudgingly and only because he doesn't want to seem racist, he is still doing it. And quite honestly, policy and law change is better done when the marganilazed are in power. History shows after law and policy in enacted the culture changes, for good or for worst.

Another strategy for social change is what ‘Punch a Nazi in the Face’basically does. It doesn’t have to be physical, but what this method entails is embarassing, blocking, and preventing problematic people from popularizing and enacting on their beliefs. I mentioned this before. But it is removing racists from political offices. It is making sure horrible people don’t have a platform to voice their opinions and gain support (looking at you CNN, Trevor Noah, and Bill Maher!). It is not fucking engaging them in debate! Basic human rights is not a topic up for debate. Inviting these prejudice ideologies to discourse is giving them the win. It grants them legitimacy. It tells them that you can disagree if people deserve to live or not. It is me saying ‘Climate change exists and their is a mountain of evidence to prove it’ and you saying ‘Well this person said that it was pretty cold last summer so....’. No! Sit down at the kids table and only come back when you have a substantial argument. 

Basically this method is barring prejudicial people are not unafraid to voice their beliefs. It is dragging them on the internet. It is getting racists fired for racist Facebook posts. It is completely and utterly ignoring them when they scream at the top of their lungs for attention. It making sure that they suffer social consequences for voicing their problematic beliefs, jokes, supporting stereotypes. And yes, it is punching Nazis in the face. For now this strategm in conjunctions with others seems to be working.

This is far from a comprehensive review on how to enact social change. But at least it points anyone of interested in the right directions. And I hope that it convinces others that talking, peace, love, and happinees are techiniques for a perfect world, rarely works, and are naive. I hope people stop wasting their time on trying to convince people that are never going to listen or change. I hope you uplift and empower those or are marginalized and vulnerable, instead to trying to convince the powerful that we deserve rights. We know we deserve rights, and we are going to get them when-either you agree or not.

[lunarheiress]

Okay Ya'll We Gotta Talk...

Long post, I apologize but I'm actually really upset right now. Now, I, I mean, I thought this would be pretty obvious, and I mean, it... it is to me anyway.... Lately, we've all probably encountered the "you're perfect or you die" kind of mentality that's traveling around this website, and to be all that honest I'm not surprised. This website has a funny way about it, making people think they are above others in some way. Whether that's true or not doesn't really matter. Something important I want to emphasize before I begin is that I am not encouraging people to be passive and to let things go, because if someone is being toxic and cruel, it is important to at least try to show them that it is cruel, but, the way in which that is done is completely up to you. Sometimes someone does need to be called out. Sometimes arguing and debate may be involved. Sometimes realizing how many people see something wrong in a particular ideology can bring people to change, to help them recognize the dangers in beliefs they might hold. Sometimes. But I can guarantee you this. Threats, insults, harassment? I mean, first off, you're just giving the person grounds to say you were the aggressor. You're fortifying their mindset, that they are being attacked for standing up for what's right/what they believe. I'm not saying you can't be outraged. I'm not saying your emotions need to be suppressed. But god damn. Telling someone you hope they get raped? Now, that particular threat is the reason I made this post in the first place. I was disgusted when I encountered it. You see, it wasn't directed towards a feminist, or an LGBT+ rights activist, or a BLM activist. Oh no. It was actually sent from someone like this, to another person. This woman was not a nice person. They seemed to have an issue with transgender people, and held to strong beliefs against them. Now, in my eyes, that was unacceptable, but I assumed they'd already received enough messages with information to last a life time. However, I did go to their blog, just to read, to see what they thought, who knows, I might be able to offer something to them, lord knows I'm not the most qualified, but maybe I could try. And, to my horror, they had posted an image, of some of the messages they had been getting. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe I was naive to think that people could still be civil. And, I only saw what they posted, who knows what else they got. But the death threats, the insults, the hostility.... it made me feel sick. Especially the rape comment. I don't even want to type it, it was revolting. Long story short, the anonymous messenger seemed to think being raped by a transgender person would be a good thing for this her??? How on earth would that fix anything? Why do people think it's a good idea to harass someone? You've all seen it happen, you know how it affects people. Honestly, when you're so hostile, it's not going to make someone have an epiphany. Maybe the rare person will. But most people will close in on themselves, get defensive. They'll feel as if their ideas were validated, that they are being attacked by these bad and hostile people who hold the wrong view. You're all becoming no better than those people you make fun of, you know the ones, who leave threats and insults on posts they don't like. I'm going to be very frank with you, I'm glad I didn't get onto this website until I was a bit more mature. When I was young, I held misguided beliefs encouraged by my parents, and now I've learned that these things are wrong, and I've grown from it. I'd hate to think what would have happened if I was on here before I'd come to the realization that my worldview was limited. This witch hunting mentality has to stop. You do not have the right to decide what someone else thinks, or what they should think. You do not have the right to persecute them for diverse thoughts. If someone is dangerous, warn against them to others, try to change the world around you to prevent the danger. This goes for everything. Activism, fandom, anything. If someone is doing something illegal, report them. Lastly, people grow. People change. Let them change. Give them room to see that maybe they are in the wrong. Give yourself that space too. Be open to a change of mind, a change of perspective. Be prepared to explain, to educate. If you need to fight back, then fight. But do not harass, do not threaten. Defend yourself. Defend your ideas, without trying to belittle those who don't share them. I have faith in this community, that we'll be able to come back from this. That we will be able to grow. But that faith is dwindling. I'm begging you all, please don't become monsters. Don't let this world turn you into something you're not. (I know this is long and serious and depressing and I'm sorry but I'm tired)