#exploitative colonialism

[lazzerot]

I relate to your enjoyment of seeing code-switching represented on a TV show so I decided I do want to reblog this since I like the overall message of your post. Originally I did just wanna let it slide, but I can't reblog this in good conscience without commenting on one of your tags:

I don't think The Expanse as a whole is that much about settler-colonialism as it is about exploitative colonialism and in turn about imperialism in general. Granted, I haven't finished reading Babylon's Ashes yet as I'm writing this post, so maybe the Laconia plot is very settler-colonialist and I'm talking out of my ass here. If that's the case I apologize. But if it's not I just want to say this: In the Expanse canon Ganymede, Io or Ceres weren't settled by any living organism known to humans before humans gained the technology necessary to expand from earth out into the SOL system and colonized it. It's just plain "old" colonialism, which is impossible to have back on earth since every imperial expanding superpower in history colonized parts of earth that were already settled by other people. I get that from an US-American perspective "settler colonialism" is a big buzz word, but not every piece of literature is meant to be read as a metaphor for the US. In a way The Expanse's main message is one of anti-imperialism.

One of the things that i really really love about the expanse is the attention it pays to the language the characters speak. Obviously for practicality reasons the belters have to speak mostly english but the little bits of belter creole we get here and there are so distinct and feel so lived in, and i love that the show just. Refuses to translate them. You just kind of pick up the dialect over time.

I also really love the care that was put into the characters accents. Like i dont know if ive ever watched a show where a character audibly code switches like Naomi Nagata does. When we meet her she's speaking pretty standard English but when she's back with other belters her accent comes on pretty strong. Which is so cool! I feel like the only time we see characters with more than one accent is when one of them is fake because theyre like. In disguise or pretending to be someone else. Its really cool to see a character who just talks differently in different situations and it makes the whole world feel so grounded and real even tho obviously theyre like. In space.

[kropotkindersurprise]

Michael Parenti on the extraction of wealth from the so-called Third World by Western Capitalism. [video]

[alwaysbewoke]

[nando161mando]

Everything is messed up..

[blackstarlineage]

Sara Baartman (1789–1815), also known as Saartjie Baartman, was a Khoisan woman from South Africa who became a symbol of exploitation and racial discrimination. Born in the Eastern Cape, she was a member of the Khoikhoi people. Baartman was taken to Europe under false pretences in 1810, lured by promises of wealth and a better life. Instead, she became the subject of public exhibition due to her physical features, particularly her large hips and buttocks, which European audiences regarded with a mix of fascination and derision.

In England and later France, she was displayed as part of "freak shows" and referred to as the "Hottentot Venus," a derogatory term that reflected the racist and colonial attitudes of the time. Her body was objectified and subjected to pseudoscientific scrutiny, particularly by French naturalists, who used her as a case study to perpetuate racist theories of human inferiority.

Sara Baartman died in Paris on December 29, 1815, at the age of 26, likely from pneumonia, smallpox, or syphilis. After her death, her body was dissected, and her remains, including her skeleton and preserved genitals, were displayed in French museums for over a century.

In 2002, following years of advocacy and recognition of the inhumanity she suffered, her remains were repatriated to South Africa and given a proper burial in the Eastern Cape, marking a symbolic act of restitution and respect for her legacy. Today, Sara Baartman is remembered as a tragic victim of colonial exploitation and a symbol of the struggle against racism and dehumanization.🇿🇦

[mahoganygold213]

[one-world-many-stories]

blog introduction + about me

In recent years, the dehumanization of refugees and immigrants has become impossible to ignore.

In the United States, families fleeing unimaginable horrors such as war or immense oppression have been met not with safety, but with completely cruelty. In a country that prides itself on being the "land of the free", nonetheless. Rather than being taken to shelter and safety, children are torn from their parents at the border, locked in cages, and referred to as “unaccompanied alien minors,” as if their humanity was secondary to their immigration status. Political leaders have continuously fed into the hatred, calling immigrants “animals” and describing them as a “national security threat.” In recent months, President elect Donald Trump described Haitian refugees as "They're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs." These words, repeated again and again, have justified policies that treated these families as less than human, as though their suffering didn’t matter.

In Europe, it is no different. Refugees escaping war and persecution find themselves trapped in refugee camps like Moria, where the conditions were so poor that one humanitarian aid worker called it “a place of sheer hopelessness.” Politicians didn’t hold back their disdain. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, called refugees “Muslim invaders,” while others described their boats as carrying “human meat.” When we hear words like that, it’s no surprise that so many people turned a blind eye to what was happening. Refugees were left to drown in the Mediterranean or sit for years in squalid camps, waiting for help that never comes.

What makes all of this even more devastating is how refugees and immigrants are so often reduced to numbers, and thus dehumanized even further. The stories of who they are—what they’ve endured, what they’ve lost—are rarely told. Instead, we hear statistics: thousands detained, hundreds drowned, millions displaced. But behind each number is a human being. A mother clutching her child as they cross a river in the dead of night. A teenager leaving behind everything they know for a chance to live without fear. A father who would do anything to provide a better life for his family. Their stories matter, but we rarely hear them. After all, it's easier to ignore suffering when it doesn’t have a face.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

It is this reason that has inspired me to create a Tumblr blog that addresses this problem. Through seeing and learning about these people that we've so often reduced into numbers, we can fully understand their troubles. And by welcoming them with empathy and kindness rather than cruelty and oppression, we can treat them as the humans that they are.

My goal for blog posts is to do a mix of informative readings, as well as present the stories of real life refugees and immigrants through interviews. As I begin to post, I encourage others to submit their own stories and photos.

For a little bit about me: my name is Dania and I am a student at the University of Indianapolis, studying International Relations. While I was blessed with being born an American citizen, I am Iraqi and my parents are refugees who fled the country following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I have seen first hand how countries and livelihoods are destroyed, so people face no choice but to flee, even if their home is beautiful and beloved to them. I hope to one day use my degree for a career in International Development and transform third-world countries into beautiful, livable places. Because, in the words of the British-Somali poet Warsan Shire, "Nobody leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark."

[zitzitoun]

one day i'll write a book out of pure spite for the discussions regarding the MENA region and religion. we are suffering from more than religious-related topics, we are being divided repeatedly both literally and figuratively. do you know how many countries got broken up into pieces of land and how much the west keeps monetizing wars and problems to keep us stagnant? we won't progress, and it's not just a "religion" thing. it is the structural system implemented back there.

this got sparked because of israel trying to break up syria by promising the druz protection, thanks for feeding into fear, as if not all muslim sunnis and the rest were oppressed under bashar el asad who wasn't even muslim.

[lyss-butterscotch]

The Solstice Priests talk about karma

[audhdnight]

Thinking about parallels between Israel and the US and how our cops are trained by their military programs. How the police violence is learned from their disgusting military policies. How we gave them so much money and they are now known as one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the whole world. With one of the most technologically sophisticated defense systems in the world.

Also thinking about the parallels between US veterans and Israeli holocaust survivors.

Israel talks some big shit about how they HAVE to exist because look how Jews were treated and they need a place all their own, just look at these poor holocaust survivors they need us!!! Except when you actually look, you find that most of the holocaust survivors in Israel are living in poverty, homeless, unable to afford food so they’re picking up literal scraps off the ground after markets end for the day. Israel wants you to think they’re doing this for the holocaust victims, but they’re not actually helping those survivors at all.

Like how in the US we have tons of programming about needing new soldiers, about thanking service members for our freedom, about celebrating holidays that uplift veterans and wars and political leaders. But the actual veteran population is largely neglected. They’re homeless, living in poverty, living with crippling medical debt because of injuries received in the field, or any number of other things. Programs set up to supposedly help them (like Wounded Warrior) are total scams that don’t help anyone.

Our governments use these people as scapegoats and toss them to the side like trash once no one is looking. It’s easy to say “how can you hate the military? look at what our veterans won for us!” while pushing a veteran out onto the street and using that money to pay more cops. It’s easy to say “we need a place for holocaust victims to feel safe!” while refusing to pay for the healthcare these people desperately need and instead funneling money into paying people to come live in Israel so you can grow your population and continue colonizing.

Colonialist governments will never adequately care for the people they supposedly represent. It is an ideal built entirely on greed, and a government built on greed will never fork over the money to actually make positive change in the world. All they care about is power and money and land, more and more and more. They don’t give a shit about us.

[rhythmandstealth]

finally read last bot standing. my fave part was when rodimus torched a cop to death even though they both believed they were the last two cybertronians alive

[alwaysbewoke]

[nando161mando]

1 in 5 seniors is working. Fuck this system and the politicians who prop up its dying corpse.

[ssaalexblake]

The timeless child plot is not saying that the doctor is not a time lord. The Doctor is a time lord. Arguably it's saying they're The time lord more than they're saying they're Not one (and they're not really saying That either because Another thing this arc is saying is that refugees are exploited and this kid is a refugee unable to go home (even if they theoretically Could have gotten home, Tecteun decided to play finders keepers instead of the universal equivalent of taking a lost kid in a supermarket to the customer service desk)).

And I'm not sure if this is a terrible or uncomfortably apt metaphor to use considering the internal politics and/or history of the US of A but, I know for a Fact that at least one of your founding fathers was not born there yet is very much considered American because of said contributions to the nation's founding, so.

'there were already people On Gallifrey and the doctor wasn't one of them' yeah well there were already people living on the land that is now known as America. We know what happened there. My, you could almost say this whole plot is in fact a sci-fi critique of this colonialism type of thing. You know, saying it's awful. Time Lord society is BAD.

Now of course, the Child was kidnapped and exploited and played no willing part in what Gallifrey did, they were an innocent used for some very real horrors by adults around them, but as time went on the Race called the time lords established themselves, the Doctor is one of them. The first one, yes, but one of them all the same. What happened to establish the species is awful, but again, it's a critique, not a happy story.

(and btw even if this wasn't a Thing and the kid just was taken in and raised happily from a child and nothing bad happened they could still ID as a person of said society if they wished like i Swear)

[rhaenin-time]

The world isn't ready for my "As a Native 'aMeRiCaN', I find Rhaenyra Targaryen comparable to and actually less frustrating than Leslie Knope," take.

Which is good, because I'm not QUITE ready to make it.

[iamthekarmapolice]

finished The Poppy War by RF Kuang. It was definitely really gripping but I think I really need to start reading synopses of things more closely before i read/watch/play new things. i thought it was going to be a high fantasy story about a plucky young woman who uses her magic powers to prove herself. and for the first half of the book it was that. and then it got really dark really fast. i guess i shouldn't have been too surprised considering that i read Babel by the same author. but yeah, i have deeply mixed feelings about examining real-world atrocities through the genre of fantasy. i think it works when this happens in horror. the atrocity is so terrible that when it's examined through the abstraction that horror provides, there's emotional truth even if it's not literal. but when those atrocities are abstracted into fantasy conventions? i feel like from a certain point of view it cheapens what really happened. not saying that i 100% feel that since the book definitely handles its parallel to the Nanjing Massacre with gravity, and even the tonal shift makes sense. that's exactly how war is in real life. but then we start talking about gods and fire powers and trances again and it makes those parallels fall apart