#i am like three ethnicities of white and german is actually the least

[thedawningofthehour]

Wait tell us about your mom getting her own name mansplained to her

asdfghjk SO. I don't want to give too many identifiers about my last name because 1) it's not that long, and 2) there's less than two dozen people in the entire US with my last name and I'm related to all of them. Not that I particularly care if people here know my real identity, but my extended family didn't consent to that. (it's everyone's personal decision to keep their online and real life identities separate-I'd default to doing so, especially as a teenager, but everyone's situation is different) (on the plus side it makes my dad's decision to cut contact and hide from us REALLY funny. I know his address, cell number, and place of work. I fucking looked up his house on zillow. I didn't even have to pay anything, it was so easy to find)

BUT THE BASICS is that my name ends with a T. A hard T. And there's a bunch of vowels in the middle that nobody ever knows what to do with. So pretty much everyone at some point asks us how to pronounce our last name. My mom was at work when a new coworker or client asked her. She told them.

And her boss stepped in and fucking argued with her.

"No, it's pronounced like firstpartofname-ey. It's French."

We are not French.

We are not French-Canadian.

Yes, this was my father's name and therefore not the name my mother was born with...but at this point she'd had the name for twenty fucking years. It was her name.

Bonus story I remembered: I was relaying this story on Reddit and some other dude came in and mansplained why this guy must have mansplained my mom's own name to her. He said that German names were routinely butchered in the US, so he was probably trying to correct her on the proper German pronunciation.

For one, no, that definitely is not what he was trying to do, but I also don't think it was authentic German to begin with. That line of my family came from Norway. I don't think they were using the 'proper German pronunciation' even when they immigrated to the United States, because I think that was a few generations removed from when they actually lived in Germany.

And anyway, even if that's not how the pronounce it in Germany, THAT'S HOW WE PRONOUNCE IT HERE.

[eastern-anarchist]

Why intersectional theory doesn’t fit the description of ethnic discrimination in Eastern Europe (longread - I don't know if you will read this, but I think it's important)

Disclaimer 1: I am a historian, not a sociologist, and this affects my analysis. Disclaimer 2: I know best the history of the Russian Empire and least of all the Ottoman history. As we know, intersectional theory emerges from the concepts of "privilege" and "oppression". There are social categories that have greater access to benefits (education, good income, representation in art and media, etc.), and there are those that are oppressed for certain essentialist reasons, although the reasons are actually socially constructed (non-white skin color, non-straight sexuality, but you know about this without me). It’s important that such a system has been established for centuries, starting from about Early Modern times.

Intersectional theory is aimed at increasing the diversity of discourse and representing as many identities as possible in society. Also, the theory assumes a description of the intersections of various discrimination, where race, class, gender and sexuality aren’t separated from each other, but together form a person's identity. But ironically, this theory is very Americancentric, as it stemmed in large part from racial conflicts in the United States. It’s also partly Western Europeancentric, and includes mainly such colonial relations as between Britain and India, France and Algeria, etc.

But on the example of countries on the territory of the former Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires, it doesn’t work well, and here's why.

Mostly, the intersectional theory assumes the same type of conflicts and relations (racial, class, gender) in society over the centuries, which began to be established precisely in the late 15th - early 16th centuries, and this isn’t at all obvious for Eastern Europe.

Eastern Europe has distinguished itself by its "long" feudalism. Feudalism, on the other hand, means political fragmentation instead of absolutism, a greater concentration on religious affiliation (hello to the beginning of secularization in Western Europe) and the priority of status over class. Yeah, in capitalism it was difficult for a peasant to become a worker, and a worker (even more difficult) to become a small entrepreneur. But feudalism, in principle, doesn’t imply any social mobility - everyone is literally obliged to remain within the framework of their social strata.

Thus, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth remained de facto politically fragmented up to partitions in 1795. The Russian Empire retained the priority of (Orthodox) religion over class until (!) the February Revolution in 1917. For example, in imperial Russia there was such a concept as the Pale of Settlement - a territory where Jews could live and were forbidden to move outside of it. At first glance, this looks like normal segregation, HOWEVER. Christianized Jews could live outside the Pale of Settlement, and especially rich and educated Jews had the right to do so. Yes, here it’s necessary to make disclaimers that there were such a minority and towards the end of the Russian Empire there was state discrimination of "privileged" Jews (for example, under tsar Alexander III). But we must take into account this "ambiguity" of social relations.

In the three empires, very different peoples lived side by side, who didn’t live segregated from each other, and built their identity not on "citizenship", but on the same religion or even on the area of ​​residence. It can be said that Russians were an ethnic group in the Russian Empire, but this statement will tell you nothing about the relationship between Jews and Ukrainians, Poles and Romanians, Georgians and Armenians, etc. Moreover, empires had many mixed families, which significantly influenced attempts to build "nations" in these regions.

Serfdom existed for a long time in the Austro-Hungarian and especially in the Russian Empire. In fact, this is a form of slavery, but it extended to peasants, regardless of their ethnicity. In general, returning to the first point, the stratification here was very strict. In the Russian Empire, at the time the Bolsheviks came to power, 3/4 of the population were peasants and illiterate.

Oh yes, the Bolsheviks. The USSR in general confused everyone. At the beginning of the USSR, all nationalities were formally declared free (the Pale of Settlement and the priority of religion were abolished), but things went badly after the arrival of Stalin, under whose rule massive repressions were carried out against national minorities. At that time, many Germans lived in the USSR, who were a rather privileged community in the Russian Empire (recall that Catherine II was an ethnic German). But under Stalin, the Germans were among the first repressive and deported  groups (largely due to the arrival of the Nazis in Germany and the invasion to the USSR). But by God, for reasoning about whether the USSR was an "empire" and what ethnic conflicts there were, 10 more posts are needed.

Finally, relations with the metropolises. Due to the redistribution of territories, the same territories with ethnic minorities belonged to different empires. The Balkans were part both of the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia also wanted to annex them. As for today, the Czech Republic or Western Ukraine are unlikely to have any conflicts with Austria (but I’m not saying here about the entire Western European world). What can’t be said unequivocally about the Balkans and Turkey, and even more so about Russia and Belarus, Ukraine and Central Asia. In general, guys, it is possible to operate with intersectional theory only in the case of countries which 1) colonies were far from the metropolises; 2) capitalism developed early; 3) racial and ethnic minorities were severely segregated. And it hardly applies to countries that have been feudal for a long time, have gone through a massive revolution, a Soviet / nationalist dictatorship and suddenly become neoliberal.

[militant-holy-knight]

Tom Kratman’s Caliphate Review: Disturbingly Prophetic

Its easy to forget that outright right-winged/conservative literature actually exists though admittedly it’s hard to find those with actual merit nor enjoy the same popularity as other types of works. I’ve came across one example written by retired US Army soldier Tom Kratman whom you may or may have not heard about if you are familiar with the Sad Puppies incident from 2015, where the Hugo Awards were biased against writers with conservative leanings. Kratman is someone who delights in offending left-wing sensibilities by his own admission and it’s reflected in his works that often deal with themes like fighting Muslim terrorists in sci-fi settings. One such of these works is Caliphate, written in 2008 and it struck me how... prescient this book was about the contemporary times and may well still be for the future.

The premise is as follows: Islamic terrorists seize nuclear weapons and use it to nuke three American cities during September 11 (as well as London and Israel). The American outrage against Muslims spirals into the election of a third-party populist candidate who promises vengeance against this attack, which he does by simultaneously nuking all Islamic countries in the world (and North Korea for good measure). This disaster leads to an massive exodus of Muslims into Europe who migrate there and thanks to their massive birthrates, they are able to hijack countries by voting for hardcore Islamist parties (as democracy must abide by the majority). They transform Europe - or at least Western Europe or the countries associated with the EU - into a Islamic empire, the titular Caliphate which functions like a hybrid of the modern day Islamist regime like the Taliban, ISIS and Boko Haram (public executions, lashings, women can’t be seen outside without being covered), and the Ottoman Empire (conscription and brainwashing of dhimmis into military service).

The story follows two parallel narratives: one in the distant future over a century after the terrorist attack where America has transformed into a totalitarian empire know as ISA (Imperial States of America) which is in cold war against the Caliphate in Europe and a second one set in “present days” when things are relatively normal but then we witness the events quickly fall apart. The first one follows John Hamilton, an disillusioned American soldier who is recruited by the CIA to infiltrate the Caliphate and investigate a trio of Canadian scientists who are working in a virus to destroy America. The second one follows Gabrielle, a liberal German woman that sees the collapse of Europe up close and tying them together is that she is the ancestor of one of the main characters. These narratives are told simultaneously and are always accompanied by critical quotes of Islam in their opening.

You’d think a work like this would be simply “AMERICA FUCK YEAH” and “FUCK ISLAM” over and over, but Kratman actually does a surprising amount of nuance. For one, it’s made clear that this America is really a dystopia and not an ideal place to live, reflected by its actions and Hamilton’s thoughts about it - at one point, US soldiers carry out ethnic cleansing against Moros in the Philippines and Hamilton is disturbed even after someone close to him died because of them. And while the book doesn’t hold back in bashing Islam, not all of them are portrayed as intolerant religious fanatics - there are genuinely good characters and even some grey ones with complexity added to them. For that matter, even non-Muslims can be villains too so it isn’t a black and white kind of work.

A surprising amount of world-building was put in place to make this world interesting: it’s established that the USA has occupied Canada and the Philippines, England has turned into an absolute monarchy, China has become some kind of transhuman empire, only a portion of Europe is actually under the Caliphate control with most of Eastern Europe under Russia control (because of course) and it’s heavily implied Israel has carried out a final solution against Palestinians. This can however can be a detriment because all these interesting paths are presented but never truly explored. We never see how the UK is under the absolute monarchy, nor this Russian tsardom and we only hear whispers about how bad China is in the distant future (which is implied to be worse than the Caliphate). The one that truly does get any exposure is the Neo-Boer State which was established in the southern half of the African continent by European refugees fleeing from Muslims in their own country and has a section of the story taking place there.

Besides Hamilton, there are other viewpoints in the story with the ones after his following German brothers Hans and Petra, two Christian siblings that live in the Caliphate and are taken apart by the devishrme-like system. He becomes a janissary soldier, while she becomes a servant in a Muslim household. Their stories are actually far more compelling than Hamilton since their struggles are more personal while Hamilton wouldn’t be out of place in a video game where he starred as it’s generic Space Marine protagonist. Hans remains a Christian despite his outward conversion to Islam and actively rebels against Caliphate culture which leads to him adopting a crusader identity, while Petra’s storyline explores the woes faced by women under a fundamentalist Islamic regime i.e. not unlike what those who endured Taliban or ISIS regime.

And make no mistake: the story never holds back on the graphic content. There is plenty of violence including impalement, crucifixions, sexual attacks and etc, which may be a turn off for many readers, and it doesn’t help they have to drive home how dystopian this setting is. It may come across as over-the-top as it made me wonder how plausible this Caliphate could even function (it’s established that the Caliphate can only function in a slave-based economy or taxing the dhimmis, which they can’t afford to abuse or exile since they’d collapse). The Arab Peninsula was once unified under Muhammad and his four successors who drove out all Christians, Jews and polytheists from their lands, but then fell into tribalism and stayed that way for centuries with only Mecca and Medina (the only relevant sites of Islam) being controlled by outsider Muslims.

I know I make the story sound unrealistic and fantastical, but the main takeway from this book I had was how prophetic the story was in regards to the current and political atmosphere. Keep in mind that what I am about to write was published in April 2008, in a completely different scenario than the one we live:

The insane American president who nukes the Islamic world is very Trumpesque and shares similar slogans (”WE WILL MAKE THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS PAY”). He is basically what leftists believed Trump would actually do if he was elected like put Muslims in internment camps like the Japanese-Americans in WW2.

Great Britain actually breaks out from the European Union, except under much different circumstances: rather than voting themselves out like Brexit, they turn into an absolute monarchy once again and become completely isolationist.

The rise of an brutal, terrorist regime mirrors the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that rose to prominence during the Arab Spring in 2011.

A large-scale migration of Middle-Easterns into the West triggered by some kind of disaster, only it was an genocidal attack in the book rather than the consequences of a regional movement that led to the collapse of MENA states with the Arab Spring.

The “present day” narrative also presents scenarios no different than the current reality of Europe with no-go zones where migrants of Muslim background are involved in criminal activity and target the native population as seen in France, Germany and Sweden.

Islamists infiltrating democratic institutions in order to impose their values as seen with many neighbors in Belgium and the Netherlands where Muslims are the majority to the native population.

Russia expanding their control over Eastern Europe mirroring their foreign policy to consolidate their regional superpower status.

China being up to no good with technology.

And of course a deadly virus engineered to destroy political rivals, though this time by rogue scientists working for Muslim terrorists rather than China.

It’s possible that some of Kratman wrote was already true of his time which served as basis for the present day narrative. But reality was much different back then: Obama was yet to become President and Bush was still in office (and nobody had an idea how the former would turn out), China was less despotic then than it’s now under Xi Jinping, the Russo-Georgian War was still to take place and migration to the West was relatively low compared to after the 2015′s refugee crisis, the UKIP was considered a fringe party and the UK leaving the European Union was a distant dream. Nobody was talking about no-go zones, but then again the Internet wasn’t as big back then as it’s now. Rather than writing about the modern political atmosphere of his time, Kratman envisioned a possible future which he predicted fairly closely and at the same time, it spoke about issues that are relevant to anyone who isn’t afraid to speak about the problems regarding Islamic ideology or integration of migrants into their host countries.

What depressed me the most about the book is that it’s dystopian reality may be our own future. It’s an common concern for conservatives and right-wingers that Muslims become a majority in the West - a boast that they never cease making - soon which might lead to an eventual clash of civilizations. A quarter of Belgium might be Islamic and this is possible because of enabling from leftist politicians that flirt with radicals for convenience and consider the values they promote like women and LGBT rights to be an acceptable sacrifice to overthrow conservative capitalism. This kind of behavior is actually acknowledged and mocked by Kratman, as Gabrielle is an radical SJW that hates Western conservatives more than Islamists to the point this leads to the breakdown with her relationship with an Egyptian migrant that converts to Christianity and ends up moving to the USA before becoming a authoritarian regime.

The book presents Islam’s conquest of Europe as a complete surrender without a fight - the migrants just breed like rats and vote for Islamist parties to hijack the government through legitimate means and one American ambassador chides Gabrielle and her people for abandoning their own values and allowing this to happen. This probably speaks a lot to the more cynical among us who see our governments bending over to outsiders over their own people and see where it might be headed. Personally I don’t believe a caliphate is where the future is headed, as it provides no real attractive alternative that the West has presented, but it certainly won’t stop some people from trying and there will be certainly a fight.

Are we really going have to look forward for an revived Ottoman Empire in the heartland of Europe where Christian boys are whipped into slave-soldiers, girls are sold to harems like cheap prostitutes and non-Muslims live like second class citizens being forced to pay outrageous, humiliating taxes like the jizya? Hopefully not, but the possibility of terrorists acquiring nukes is an always constant one, and with the Iranian nuclear program will push it’s neighbors to do the same as form of deterrence if they feel threatened. Knowing how fragile Muslims states are and that if those nukes fell into the wrong hands, the events of the book could be precipitated but luckily for us, nuclear armament is expensive and takes a lot of work which not even the wealthiest countries like Saudi Arabia can afford to develop it themselves, let alone the poorest ones like Syria and Iraq so that might not be a reality just now.

Do I recommend this book? The world is very interesting, it’s actually a bit more complex and nuanced as both sides don’t come off as “bright” (albeit the Caliphate is presented as worse). If you want to see a book that talks about issues you find relevant like immigration and terrorism from a conservative perspective, this is a must-read. The main protagonist can be very dull whereas the secondary protagonists are more compelling - it depends on how much you like military heroes written by an American veteran I guess. While the ending to the main story was satisfying on itself (the present day ends on a sad foregone conclusion), it sets up a sequel with many plot threads going unresolved. It’s disappointing to me since this is a standalone book and Kratman hasn’t indicated any plans on writing a follow-up, though if he did it now I am sure he would have done so without a completely different perspective than the one he has in 2008 and he would have certainly got more material to work with. 

P.S. This book has a Skanderbeg reference, so it’s an instant win for me.

[confessionsofa-roleplayer]

As a biracial mun whose non-white ethnicity is a “popular” and very well known ethnicity that’s always a hot topic of debate, whereas with my white ethnicity, not a single person has ever been able to point out the nation my maternal family came from on a map in my entire fucking life, much less knows it exists until I explain it to them, and I’ve *never* seen a character on the media from the bigger mainland——can I just say how fucking disgusting the roleplay community is when it comes to roleplaying both non-white //and// white ethnicities?

If someone has a non-white muse, it’s always walking on eggshells. The muse isn’t allowed to heavily participate in their own culture because “that’s a racist stereotype”–even if millions of said ethnicity /do/ practice specific customs in real life. It’s like their culture is there, it exists, just only if you, the mun, *says it does*, without being allowed to *show it*. Common cultural practices, ideals, festivities–fuck it! Those are all racist stereotypes!

Hell, sometimes non-white muses are barely allowed to even *like* common dishes from their own culture, because nothing’s worse than a Mexican person eating a churro or a Japanese person eating sushi, am I right? No Indian person irl has ever eaten tikka masala and enjoyed it, that’s just a stereotype told to us on the television, right??? They’re only allowed to be non-white as if it were a status, and you better apply strict “woke” American ideals to them, or kiss em goodbye.

And then, /white muses/. **Oh boy**. White cultures might as well not even fucking exist, because the second your white muse isn’t of English, French, or German ancestry–well, who gives a fuck, it’s not like any European nations or cultures exist outside of those three! If you even dare to have a white muse with a different ethnicity, who also isn’t, you know, an American that’s severely removed from their culture to begin with, then others are either going to think they’re “exotic” and fetishize them (if they’re Mediterranean or Latin, like the Greeks, Italians, Spanish, Portuguese—–oh wait the Portuguese don’t exist, what the fuck’s an “Azores”, anyways?), or lump them in with “basic generic white” (for every Slavic and Scandinavian ethnicity).

But, hey, if you have a white muse, at least you /are/ allowed to pile harmful misconception on top of harmful misconception without fear of repercussions, so I guess that’s a plus, isn’t it?

TL;DR

Tumblr acts woke but is actually scared of big scary cultures outside of America. What else is new.

[kindagaysortadeadhandsoffmy-blog]

Activism is my kink. I am gay as fuck and I am black as fuck. So enjoy this or unfollow. Thanks!

My older brother and I agree that my former speech and debate teacher is in fact, a racist. He is a white man, favouring fact over all, naturally in his choice of subject matter. I, a Biracial young women, along with my ‘black’ friend Simone, could easily point out his discomfort when we ever brought up race. His discomfort stemmed from the fact that he rarely agreed with our viewpoints on racism in america. After all, he is a white man, favouring fact over all naturally in his choice of subject matter. People hate to bring up race, so that is what i'm doing. Imperishable systematic and personally mediated racism in America, negatively affects People Of Color in the justice system, in medical history, and in everyday life; whilst giving those of European descent many advantages.

The time-honored dolor People Of Color face is not limited by medical moral. Spiteful behavior towards those unlucky enough to be a different color has spilled into the iatrical history of America. “When the Tuskegee Study Of Untreated Syphilis In The Negro Male was exposed in 1972, the world learned that, for four decades, doctors paid by the U.S Government's Public Health Service had let poor black men go untreated for syphilis, so that the doctors could study what the disease would do to the men’s bodies. The doctors did not tell the men they had syphilis or even explain to them that they were part of a medical research study. They gave the men annual physical examinations and supplied them with what was said to be medicine to cure a condition that the doctors called “Bad Blood”. The medicine however, was only aspirin and vitamins, which could do nothing to alleviate the deadly effects of syphilis.” (Uschan) This may seem like a simple unethical practice, executed by the Government in the hopes to conduct research for the greater good; however the key detail in the Tuskegee Study, is that more than majority of the subjects were African American. The doctors took advantage of their lack of education, as well as lack of rights, to actually allow them to die under their surveillance. “Slaves found themselves as subjects of medical experiments… because the state considered them property and denied them the legal right to refuse to participate.” (Uschan)

In april 1933, they sent out an outrages letter, trying to recruit at least 400 Black men to undergo painful, dangerous, spinal taps. To perform a spinal tap, doctors must remove spinal fluid, doing so by inserting a large needle into the base of the spine. The patients were unaware of the pain, the side effects, or the reasoning behind the procedure. The letter did not inform them of anything, selling the lie of “Bad Blood.” Many times during the operation men would pass out, be left partially or fully paralyzed, and experience unholy pain. The members suffered as they were left untreated for decades as the Syphilis ravaged their bodies.

The racism in the study does not stop at abusing the subjects due to lack or rights and intelligence; going on to becoming a matter of false information and horrible judgement. Scientists believed Syphilis ran its course differently in black and white men, although they had no statistical proof. These ideas were believed despite the fact that the same bacterium is responsible for each condition: Neurosyphilis and Cardiovascular Syphilis. Neurosyphilis attacks the brain, whilst Cardiovascular Syphilis attacks the heart. The theory behind the false accusation was simply gathered from racist beliefs that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites, and thus would not develop brain damage, or suffer from Neurosyphilis.

America is to blame for being the very reason Syphilis was such a common disease in the African American population. “The fact that he is at the bottom of the economic ladder contributed to his abnormally high [Syphilis] rate for among the third of our population which is ill fed, ill clothed, and ill housed, as a race, north and south, his house is the most miserable, his clothing the scantest, and his food ration the most poorly balanced.” (Uschan) These People Of Color were denied most of the basic privileges that their Caucasian counterparts were given at birth. They did not have rights, education, support, or medical options. These disadvantages stem from the prehistory of the U.S, one that has always consisted of racism and wrongdoing. Minorities were, and still are, treated as if they are nothing when it came to basic needs and things as simple as an education. The pure reasoning behind the scientists not telling the men they were apart of such a horrendous study, was simply because they thought they were too uneducated to understand.

The powerful prejudice underneath the very soil America lies upon has been around for thousands and thousands of years. Taking history back to the early days of colonization. “European settlers believed that whatever land they saw was theirs for the taking, disregarding the fact that native americans had been living on those lands for generations. Afraid of the natives, many settlers treated them violently and some native americans responded in kind… The massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, left about 300 unarmed Cokato men, women, and children dead.” (Bussey) This country has a history of attacking, maiming, and stripping land away from people due to their skin color and foreigncy.

However, Racism is not bound by continent. Perhaps one of the most alarming and petrifying examples of widespread violence motivated by racism was the Holocaust. During World War II, Adolf Hitler led Nazi Germany in an attack on the Jewish population. Around six millions Jews were killed, along with around five million people targeted for their religion or ethnicity. The ideas fueling this event have spilled into the culture of America as well. With the marches in charlottesville, and the obvious discomfort of German American citizens, It’s safe to say racism has a universal reach and effects almost every race differently.

What can a targeted group do to change this? Overseas, methods may be different, but in America the group must work superhumanly hard to make even the slightest amount of progress. “When victimized groups seek to empower themselves through legal or public organization, they often face further targeting by those who hate them… A similar attitude was seen in response to slavery and in the slave owners response to uprisings in both cases, one group fights back against another's effort to assert itself.” Racism in the U.S Government and the higher operating systems of America has tainted the sense of justice; if it was ever there at all. Targeted groups are denied basic rights to fair trials almost as often as a child is born. The long, strenuous history of racial discrimination has always been deeply rooted in the legal court system as well. So how does a targeted group fight back? They must protest and find different ways to achieve a small sliver of respect, protection and security. That brings me to my next point.

History repeats itself, no matter how vile the event. A large part of this repetition is due to the inability to change mindsets. Toxic mindsets that result in personally mediated racism often spill into the legal and protective services. From mass incarceration to police brutality, power tends to enable harmful actions against minorities. “...Most African Americans see cops as a not so friendly force in our communities. (and that includes african american cops too.) The gap between white and black perceptions of cops is based on real hard evidence of being treated as second class citizens or worse.”(Balkin) It’s common knowledge that the american Police system in countless cities often targets People of Color. Personally mediated racism takes a violent turn and many cops attack the person being pursued. An example of this behavior is the Death Of Jonny Gammage. Jonny was a black motorist who was brutally beaten to death. “Five cops said Gammage had run three red lights. One ordered Gammage out of the car and said he reached for a weapon. It turned out to be a cellphone. The cops knocked it out of his hand, then proceeded to beat him with a flashlight, a collapsible baton, and a blackjack. Gammage who was unarmed, died handcuffed and ankle bound. Jan 15, 1996.” (Balkin) The injustice behavior of killing unarmed People of Color dates back to the early history of america. Racism runs in the veins of the legal system, as well as the wide variety of police departments. Another example is the shooting of Amadou Diallo. “Diallo’s crime? He came out of his apartment to see why the cops were barging into his building. To the four cops, he was simply a black male, and therefore a probable criminal; so shoot first to kill.” Or perhaps this instance of brutality Abner Louima faced. Louima is a Haitian who was assaulted, brutalized, and forcibly sodomized with a broken-off broom handle by officers of the New York City Police Department after he was arrested outside a Brooklyn nightclub in 1997. “Louima was brutalized for no other reason than he is a black man and an immigrant. The cops even joked about it as they terrorized him. How many other times did this happen but the victim died?”

Racism in the legal system knows no bounds. Often times People of Color are given longer sentences, harsher punishments, and sometimes even death for a crime that does not warrant it. The real issue here is that People of Color could commit a crime that has been committed by someone of fairer skin, and receive more backlash than the latter. “Racism is an essential weapon in the control process. Racist justice (the use of the death penalty and disproportionate sentencing for blacks for various drug violations) is to convince whites of all social status that blacks and other minorities are inclined to do crime.” (Balkin) The system places minorities in prison for petty crimes and violations, giving them felonies and virtually ruining their career. Sometimes the racially motivated injustice is also motivated by financial gain. Many law enforcement officials receive large sums of cash based on their actions. Police departments get a large portion of their revenue from ticketing, pushing police officers to ticket as many people as they can. Officers may target People of Color often, believing the motorists are most likely to be in poverty, and therefore are less likely to have automobile insurance and properly working parts on their vehicles. How does one advance in this system?

If the individual is not a Person Of Color, advancing in America is as easy as, well, pie. This phenomena is known as white privilege. “In the context of the United States, this system clearly operates to the advantages of whites, and to the disadvantages of people of color. Another related definition of racism, commonly used by antiracist educators and consultants is “prejudice plus power.” This is a common way of describing the situation, as racism cannot be completely explained as an act of prejudice by itself. It allows us to see that this spiteful behavior, much like other forms of oppression, is not only a personal ideology based on racial prejudice, but a system consisting of cultural messages and institutional practices, as well as the beliefs and actions of individuals. (Tatum) Almost every person who is against the ideology of “White Privilege” or the idea that People of Color can not be racist, often bring up instances in which a Person of Color said or did something based on prejudice. Examples include a Hispanic-American calling someone of European descent a “Cracker”. Although this is hateful prejudice behavior, by definition it is not racism, therefore that argument has no real purpose or value, other than the need to shift blame and excuse their behavior.

In his book “Portraits of white racism” David Wellman… Defines racism as “a system of advantages based on race.” In illustrating this definition, he provides example after example of how whites defend their racial advantage- access to better schools, housing, jobs- even when they do not embrace overly prejudicial thinking.” (Tatum) Most Americans do not want to think of the possibility that they benefit simply off of the color of their skin. They take offence and feel the need to state, “I’ve worked for everything i have!” This ideology is not to discredit the achievements of the privileged, but to point out that it has been drastically easier for them compared to their People of Color counterparts. They do benefit from the system, whether it is in the legal process, medical rights and regulations, or even everyday activities and interactions with other Americans. This makes them uncomfortable so they avoid the conversation and ideology of white privilege altogether, making it harder to communicate and change.

In everyday activities or things to better their life as a whole, People of Color are often discriminated against, big surprise. “Differential treatment discrimination occurs when equally qualified individuals are treated differently due to their race or ethnicity. In mortgage lending differential treatment might mean that minority applicants are more likely than whites to be discouraged from applying for a loan, to have their loan rejected, or to receive unfavorable loan terms.” (Balkin) Something as monumental as buying a house, shouldn't be harder to accomplish simply because of the color of your skin. This isn’t anything new. People of Color have been denied basic human rights since the dawn of time. This stems from their superiority complex as many believe that the continuing clash over race is rooted ultimately in the persistent reluctance of white americans to accept black americans as equal. (Sniderman) Racism is as obvious as the color of the sky, yet many pretend, or even believe, things are equal and fair.  White people like to pretend that is not the case, and like to sweep it under the rug. Talking about race makes them uncomfortable. That brings me to my next point.

Talking about race makes many white americans very uncomfortable because they do not like to think of the fact that their race could be capable of such things. More importantly they do not like to think of the fact that they still benefit from the horrid instances. Sometimes politics play a part in opinions on racism.“Viewed from the political left, racism remains all too common, and if it's not as overt or blatant as it once was, that is because whites are now more conscious that they should conceal their dislike of blacks. Viewed from the right the alarm over racism is greatly exaggerated and if prejudice has not entirely disappeared, it has lost its power to control whites reactions to blacks.” It’s clear that the right is wrong, like they always are, and that racism is still a very serious issue. To think it’s lost it has lost its power is bigoted. That is why we need organizations to represent the black community and point it out. A popular organization fighting for the Affirmation of black people is Black Lives Matter. This organization fights for equal rights and to stop the shootings of unarmed black men. They have organized marches and they have also blown up on social media platforms, such as Twitter, raising awareness of the racial Injustices black people face. They also are strong advocates for People of Color in general, including Latinos, Hispanics, and Asians. “We are not saying black lives are more important than other lives, or that other lives are not criminalize and oppressed in various ways... When you drop black from the equation of who lives matter and then fail to acknowledge it came from somewhere, you further a legacy of erasing black lives and black contributions... We are asking you... To stand with us in affirming black lives... Please do not change the confirmation by talking about how your life matters to. It does but we need less watered down unity and more active solidarities with us  black people, unwaveringly in defense of our Humanity. Our Collective features depend on it.” (Edwards) Most white americans are quick to defense when they hear the saying “Black lives matter” because they assume we are saying “we matter more than you do.” It is funny because the latter sounds like what white americans have been saying since the beginning of history. Many americans say “Why not change it to ‘Black lives matter too’”, watering down our stance. It is funny how even if we changed the name, they still would not support it. The problem is that the members of Black Lives Matter are affirming black anything, in a racist, white privileged country. The protests and meetings they organize, simply to fight for the same rights, are often ridiculed or targeted by police. Black americans never really have a voice in the U.S. and the organizations they form to gain one are targeted all the same.

A final issue is when certain causes are favoured and supported over others. Most likely due to the cause, or in this case due to the races involved. Black Lives Matter has been organizing marches, fighting for gun control, and urging the government to prevent their children from being killed, since the dawn of time. The March For Our Lives movement is marching for gun reform, due to the wide range of school shootings. These shootings have resulted in the death of teenagers, just like police brutality and racism in america have resulted in numerous deaths as well. The only difference is that the school shootings had predominantly white victims. Therefore america, Times Magazine, and almost everyone in the world is supporting their cause. The people marching with the March For Our Lives group were given pizza and Lyft rides and all this undying praise and recognition.

When black americans march against the same thing, endless gun violence against the youth, they are met with free rides to jail, rubber bullets, tear gas, riot shields, and swat members. They do not receive support or positive recognition. Selena Gomez once said “A hashtag won’t save your life” when addressing the Black Lives Matter movement, yet she stood firmly behind the March For Our Lives hashtag, plastering all over her social media. The obvious difference here is affirming black lives, fighting for black youth, in america.

In conclusion, most people hate to bring up race, so that is what i'm doing. I will continue to do so until something changes. Imperishable systematic and personally mediated racism in America, negatively affects People Of Color in the justice system, in medical history, and in everyday life; whilst giving those of european descent many advantages. Point blank, Black americans are treated like shit, Latino americans are treated like shit, Asian americans are treated like shit, literally anyone who is not a white american must suffer in america. Who the hell were all those declarations and constitutions for? Yes, that is rhetorical.

Works Cited

Balkin F., Karen, ed. Civil Rights. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press. 2004.

Bussey, Jennifer, ed. Hate Crimes. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2007.

Behnke, Alison Marie. Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality. Minneapolis: Twenty First Century Books, 2017.

Edwards, Sue Bradford, Harris, Duchess. Black Lives Matter. Minneapolis: Abdo publishing, 2016.

Friedmans, Lauri, ed. Racism. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2007.

Sniderman, M. Paul, Carmines, G. Edward. Reaching Beyond Race. Massachusetts, London: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Tatum, Beverly Daniel, PH.D. “Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?” New York: Basic Books, 1997.

Uschav, V. Michael. The Tuskegee Experiments (Forty Years Of Medical Racism). Farmington Hills: Lucent Books, 2006.

[ruminativerabbi]

COVID-Diary, Week Twelve

And now, this! We, who have all been discussing how our nation can come back from the one-two punch of a horrific pandemic that has already taken more lives than the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined (and which is quickly approaching the number of American deaths in the First World War) and a level of unemployment and economic upheaval unlike anything we have had to deal with since the Great Depression—now we are also obliged to deal with unrest in our nation’s streets that threatens to overwhelm not only our best efforts to respond thoughtfully and efficiently to the COVID-crisis through social distancing and the various other methods we have adopted to cope with the spread of the virus, but even the basic level of security we have come to expect in the nation’s streets and public gathering spots. And there is no particular reason to expect things to calm down any time soon. Nonetheless, to focus solely on the unrest and to ignore the underlying reasons that have brought so many protesters into the street would be a serious error of judgment. Nor am I being especially innovative here: any doctor will tell you that the only real way to cure a patient is to eradicate the disease, not merely to palliate its symptoms!

Even so, the urge to focus on the symptoms rather than on the disease is strong in many Americans. And, admittedly, it would be easy to wave away the nation-wide reaction to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis as an exaggerated response to a problem already solved by framing it as a story about four citizens deemed responsible for the death of a fifth who were then summarily fired from their jobs, arrested, and indicted. Indeed, when framed as a story about some bad men who collectively did a bad thing and got caught on camera doing it, it does sound like an almost ordinary event in the life of the nation. After all, aren’t people arrested daily and charged with various sorts of crimes? But a different picture entirely emerges if we shade in some relevant details and then retell the tale so that it becomes the story, not of some random criminal who got caught doing a bad thing, but of a fully-armed white police officer who, acting in the presence of—and apparently with tacit consent of—three fellow officers, exerted so much force subduing a black man that the man actually died as a result even despite the latter’s unambiguous and repeated statements that he was in serious physical distress. Telling the story that way reframes it as part of a larger pattern of police behavior towards members of the black community and makes it as much about the administration of justice itself as about racism or prejudice. And that is why it would be such a huge error of judgment just to wave the incident away as a bad thing that happened to some poor guy and for which four bad apples in a bag of otherwise good apples will surely pay the big price. It certainly doesn’t appear to seem that way to black people! Nor should it to anyone.

Sometimes you really do have to step back to see the big picture. And, indeed, by rejecting the “narrow prism” approach, the nation has made the incident’s aftermath into as much a part of the story as the incident itself. Derek Chauvin, the police officer now indicted of second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, has been fired. The three other officers present when George Floyd died have also been fired and charged with abetting his murder. Like all arrested individuals, they have the right to be defended ably in court. And they have the right to be presumed innocent until found guilty. All that is as it should be. But to feel the matter behind us because of those four arrests is to miss the point almost entirely because the unrest that has now spread to more than 140 American cities is not really—or at least not solely—about George Floyd, who more the match in this story than the fuse: the explosive materials already existed and the fuse was in place. But someone had to ignite that fuse…and that is the role that George Floyd posthumously played.

As I write this, there has been more than a week of unrest. There have been wholly peaceful protests. But there has also been violence, and not only in Minneapolis but also in almost every major American city including Washington and New York. There has been looting as well. But denouncing looters as thugs and thieves is one thing and using our natural inclination to condemn that kind of criminal behavior as an excuse not to ask why the incident triggered such a dramatic outpouring of passion on the part of so many Americans, black and white, in the first place would be a grave error of judgment.

For most white Americans, racism feels like a thing of the past, a feature of the Reconstruction era in the 19th century that lingered on in American life until the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s—and particularly the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968—finally solved the problem permanently. I doubt many black Americans would find that sentence even remotely cogent. And it is that sense that racism remains a guiding force in American life—and, at that, a pernicious influence that consistently subjects black citizens to a level of demeaning, degrading treatment at the hands of the authorities that white citizens mostly prefer to know nothing of—that sense that racism is anything but a thing of the past is the fuel that has fed the fires that have raged across the land since the Floyd murder just a week ago.

There is no excuse for looting or putting people’s lives at risk by fomenting riotous behavior, nor should or could there be. But white Americans would do better to ask themselves where this rage born of a sense of powerlessness in the face of prejudice is coming from. To justify looking away from the problem that is motivating so many thousands of people to take to the streets and demand justice by choosing instead to focus on the criminal behavior that has led to the destruction of property is seriously to miss the point. Yet that has been the approach of the current administration—to focus solely on the excesses, to threaten to unleash the full force of American military might to restore order, and to attempt to bully demonstrators into staying home lest they find themselves in harm’s way when the shooting begins—and it is not a productive one by any means. Nor is it morally justifiable.

Looking at all this through my own personal eyeglasses, it’s impossible for me not to imagine what the fate of millions upon millions could have been in Europe had the citizenry taken to the streets when the Nazis first made it clear that they intended to deny Jewish citizens any possibility of being treated fairly or justly by the police or the justice system. In the German federal election of 1932, the Nazis won a little over 37% of the popular vote. That means that a little under 63% of voters voted against them, representing tens of millions of citizens. All were opposed to Nazism! And all of them, at least at first, had the capacity to speak out loudly and forcefully. What would have happened if millions had taken to the streets in 1933 to protest and to insist that justice prevail, that prejudice directed against innocents be eradicated, that the government behave responsibly and fairly towards all of the nation’s citizens? Could they have altered the course of history by demanding justice for all?

Like all “what-if” questions, this one too has no answer. But one plausible scenario features the Nazi leadership, including the Führer himself, responding to endless, massive unrest in the streets by accepting that they were weakening, not strengthening, the ties that bound the nation together by behaving disgracefully towards innocents based on their faith, their race, or their ethnicity. Hitler was a viscious racist and anti-Semite. So were his henchmen in the Nazi leadership. But they all obviously felt that by promulgating anti-Jewish laws they would increase, not decrease, the level of support they were going to need to accomplish their other goals. But what if millions in the streets told them otherwise? We’ll never know, of course, how they might have responded because those theoretical millions did not take to the streets to protest injustice, to insist on equity and fairness for all, or to repudiate racism and anti-Semitism as cancerous growths that had the power eventually to destroy the host body, in this case the German nation itself. Whether average German citizen of those years is or isn’t fairly described as a willing partner in genocide is a matter for historians to debate. But that the Nazis’ first efforts to deny justice to all were not met with the kind of opposition that even they could not have ignored—that too is part of the story of Germany’s descent into a hell of their own making.

Could that descent have been averted by people in the streets demanding a different course forward? None can say. But that is the specific question that the events of the last week across our nation prompted me to ask myself as I watched the nation’s streets becoming filled to overflowing with people insisting that all citizens get a fair shake, that the police relate to citizens of all races precisely in the same way and with neither prejudice nor racist preconceptions guiding them, and that the legacy of the Reconstruction era—still very much alive and with us more than a century and a half after Appomattox—be finally laid to rest as a pernicious part of our history that deserves to be studied carefully even as it is forcefully and formally repudiated at every level of civil life.

[onceuponamirror]

(1/2) hi there!! I’ve followed you for a long time and im a writer and I’ve been toying with the idea of making one of the main characters (and her family) of an original story of mine Jewish. The story is very family oriented, and though her Jewish identity wouldnt be the center focus (the story is more about womanhood and queerness) it’s definitely important and will constantly come up. Since I know you’re jewish yourself, I was wondering if there’s anything about your Jewish identity you’d li

(2/2) like to be represented or touched on more!! Or if you had any recommendations for resources regarding Jewish identity for women and queer folks. I’ve researched quite a bit about Judaism in the past, so at this point I’m trying to find things to read about Jewish identity and maybe concepts people have a hard time reconciling with their faith, rather than just general information about Judaism. thank you for reading this at all!!

————

hi there! happy to help, but know i can only speak for my specific relationship to the culture. contextually: i was raised not with the religious elements as much as i was with the ethnic and cultural components, which in my experience is much more common for american jews. 

i think that as i’ve become more connected to my history and my culture, i’ve realized the really latent disparity that comes with diaspora. 

as in—in many ways, there’s a lot about american white culture that i don’t relate to or especially feel welcome within, but at the same time, many jews are also beneficiaries of white privilege. it would be wrong to say that i’ve experienced any negative profiling, especially as i personally am fair, green-eyed, and blonde. 

(certainly the discussion of white or white adjacent privilege in jews is not universal; i have a friend who is black and jewish and she’s talked to me about the struggle of having both feet in identities that sometimes feel far away from one another. but again—i can’t speak to her own personal relationship with that, nor do i want to try, as it’s not my identity)

but for askenazi american jews in particular, especially recently, there’s a real struggle in where exactly we fit in. the antisemitism is hypocritical and often unconscious on the liberal side, and vicious and veiled on the right wing side. 

for example—recently, in chicago dyke march, three jewish women were kicked out of the parade for having a rainbow flag with the star of david on it. this is a jewish symbol before it’s israeli, but they were kicked out because it made people think it was about zionism.

(zionism, for clarification, is the support of israel as a country—a very complicated subject, which i honestly don’t recommend you bringing up in your character if you’re not jewish)

there’s a trend in american liberalism that for jews to be welcome in safe spaces, they must not be “like other jews,” like the bad ones in israel. a progressive american jew must constantly defend themselves against the actions of a country which they possibly have never been to or have no personal relationship towards. here’s an excerpt from an article discussing this:

“By that hierarchy, you might imagine that the Jewish people — enduring yet another wave of anti-Semitism here and abroad — should be registered as victims. Not quite.

Why? Largely because of Israel, the Jewish state, which today’s progressives see only as a vehicle for oppression of the Palestinians […] no matter that progressives hold no other country to the same standard. China may brutalize Buddhists in Tibet and Muslims in Xinjiang, while denying basic rights to the rest of its 1.3 billion citizens, but “woke” activists pushing intersectionality keep mum on all that.”

[x] 

(i should note that i personally don’t support the actions and apartheid structure put in place by israel, but the fact that i feel compelled to make that delineation is kind of my point)

other related readings on the subject: 1, 2

and then of course, especially lately, there’s been an overt-but-coded rise of antisemitism on the right. if you ever hear the words “global power” or “global banks” or anything that alludes to some handful of people or families that control all the money in the world and are suppressing working class white people, it’s antisemitic conspiracy that jews somehow are puppeteering the world in domination.

what i fear, as a jewish woman, is not an individual attack on my safety, or profiling, etc—instead it’s about being a person whose entire cultural history is defined by being the scapegoat, or historically the boogeyman for everyone’s economic problems. 

throughout all recorded history, the jewish identity is tied to persecution and blame. in fact, one of the reasons why most american jews are eastern european (areas now russian, polish, ukranian, etc) is because although we migrated there and lived there for a long time, we were never considered citizens and thus fled to america as soon as we were able on a mass scale. 

similarly, the reason why so many german jews didn’t leave at the start of the holocaust was because they felt as though they were germans; they just didn’t think their neighbors and government would turn on them until it was too late.

so the lesson lingering there for a lot of young american jews is that no matter how comfortable and integrated you may be with the culture of your country, people en masse will still always turn on you and blame you, especially when there’s economic or political elements to it. 

it’s a cultural wariness, basically, and that’s what i mean about the disparity of diaspora. we often say never again, but there’s a imprint of don’t get too cozy. 

you are, but you aren’t. 

it’s not all so wrought, though.

there’s also a lot of warmth and humor and self-deprecation in the jewish identity—the kind of thing necessary to handle the burden of so much historical atonement and loss—and there is, at least in the jewish community in which i grew up, a lot of acceptance and love.

orthodox judaism can be as rigid and sexist and racist as any other orthodox religion, but reform judaism (which is progressive and much more the norm) is super accepting, especially of queerness, at least in my temple. 

again, i can’t speak so much to the faith of it, because i ended that relationship with the religion after my bat mitzvah. i can speak more to the themes of the holidays and cultural navigations if you want, though. 

a portrayal of jewish characters i loved that might help you: schmidt on new girl, norah from nick & norah’s infinite playlist, jonathan safran foer in everything is illuminated (basically autobiographical/writing himself), shoshana dreyfus in inglorious basterds---actually, the ENTIRE family in the show transparent is an amazing and unflinchingly accurate portrayal of a modern jewish family. 

tl;dr, all that being said though, honestly, if you’re not jewish, i don’t know if it’s really your place to speak to the specific current relationship towards diaspora. 

i think you can allude to it, certainly, especially if your character isn’t sure where to align themselves in terms of their relationship towards social justice, but it’s a very complicated identity that i personally am still figuring out how to navigate, and i can’t really speak to what narrative you want to explore more specifically than what you asked above.

honestly, a lot of jewish humor is making fun of the sometimes accurately stereotypical things we do, and i’m not sure you, if you’re not jewish, should be doing that. but i think self-deprecation, sarcasm, warmth, respect for contextual history, and adaptability are good cultural traits that would be alright for you to play with! 

if you want to send me specific examples, i’d be happy to tell give you a more specific opinion on things. and i think it’s great that you want to tell a story with representation!!!!

let me know if this was what you meant, hopefully this was helpful~

[en-staraochota]

Resistance in (un)freedom

After nearly a month and a half in Poland, one thing has really caught my mind’s eye: the completely different way of thinking on the common past. There is a big awareness of Polish culture, and not merely the ghost of Communism. In the streets of Warszawa the aftermath of the Second World War still lingers on every day.

On a superficial level this isn’t hard to understand: whole streets still haven’t been rebuilt (in certain blocks it is completely normally to see bullet hole-covered appartment buildings), and the Stalinist-Gothic of the Palace of Science and Culture dominates the skyline of the city. But more recent history has also left an indelible mark that further sharpens people’s political awareness. It was only 30 years ago that the country lived under a military dictatorship, after the December Coup of 1981 (a hideous situation, regardless of how ‘benign’ that coup was supposed to be). The revolution of Solidarność is only a generation old. Almost everyone who holds an influential or powerful position in Polish society today, is in one way or another linked to the trade union movement in the 1980s (Adam Michnik for example, editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza; Jarosław Kaczyński, chairman of the rightwing-conservative PiS; ...).

The Polish people have a long tradition of resistance that goes back to the Polish partitions at the end of the 18th century. With figures like Tadeusz Kościuszko, Jacek Kuroń, Adam Michnik and Lech Wałęsa, the country possesses an impressive pantheon of national heroes fighting for freedom. Characteristic of this Polish tradition is the relatively big importance of writers and artists in the struggle for freedom and independence. Between 1795 and 1918, especially after the failed uprisings of 1861-63, virtually all institutions supporting Polish culture and the Polish language were closed. Teaching Polish in middle and higher education became illegal in large parts of the former Commonwealth (an important exception is Austrian-administered Polish Galicia, but I am leaving that aside for this post). The twin pressures of Germanification and Russification were designed to assimilate the peoples of the Polish partitions to the dominant cultural/ethnic group of respectiviely the Prussian (later German) and Russian empires, wiping out any trace of their former Polish (or Ukrainian, Jewish, ...) heritage. Under heavy pressure of the censors of the three Empires it became impossible to discuss the Polish Question within the borders of the former Commonwealth, which resulted in Polish literature assuming a disproportionately important role in preserving the nation. Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Stanisław Wyspiański, Bolesław Prus, are just some of the names everyone in Poland knows because of their contributions to Polish literature - and therefore implicitly also to the struggle against foreign occupation and cultural homogenization.

This tradition was continued in the course of the 20th century, as the from 1918 newly-independent Second Republic had to cope with both Nazi- and Soviet-Occupation, and after that a Soviet-imposed Communist regime. Not only authors like Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska, Ryszard Kapuściński and Witold Gombrowicz, but also theatre artists such as Tadeusz Kantor, Jerzy Grotowski and Krystian Lupa, or film directors like Andrzej Wajda, can be seen as belonging to that tradition.

The developing distance and increasing isolation of art from society which we witnessed in the West, is something hardly to be found in Poland. When Tadeusz Kantor for example - in the best avant-garde tradition - pleas for an Artistic Fiction and the Autonomy of Theatre, he doesn’t mean that theatre is entirely isolated from the world in which it is produced. No artist can work in a vacuum. Instead, his concepts carry inside them a dialectic, where the autonomy of the arts, in transcending topicality, actually brings the arts closer to life by carrying out ideas and participating in intellectual debate. Autonomous art creates a space, which can also be political. In the art of Kantor for example a central concept is that of the memory, especially the presentation of memories that aren’t supposed to be there (such as the Polish-Jewish community), from a world that no longer exists: the Second Republic before the large ethnic cleansings of 1939-1948. Just like in Wajda’s Popiół i diament or Człowiek z żelaza, the choice of topic was in itself a big political statement of resistance, by presenting people, memories and narratives that were supposed not to exist.

Today Poland is a free country in the heart of the European Union, and in that capacity it is finally restored to its rightful place as a meeting place between East and West. At the same time the Polish intellectual tradition is under great pressure. While the Russian tanks might have gone, and even though the German Federal Republic is now one of Poland’s stauncest allies (not the least through NATO), Poland now (ironically?) seems to experience a whole host of internal problems. The might and authority of the Roman Catholic Church is unparalleled to anything known in contemporary Western societies. Homosexuality is treated not just as a sin, but as a physical illness. Abortion is de facto outlawed, and women’s rights are in some circles seen as mere theory (and a theory they reject, at that). Begging pensioners has been a normal part of Poland’s public space ever since the collapse of Communism, wages are deliberately kept low and working conditions are abysmal by any standard. The past few years Poland has been host to the largest far-right/neo-nazi demonstrations in Europe - a sad irony for a country that after 1945 has been almost exclusively white, Roman Catholic and Polish (an anomaly in Poland’s multicultural and multi-ethnic history). The current central government seems increasingly nostalgic for the power enjoyed by the one-party state between 1948-1989, and increasingly takes measures to muzzle dissent, turning the public broadcaster TVP into a propaganda station, while at the same time purging the arts - one of the few bastions of the Left in Poland - from most of its critical thinkers. The most remarkable to all these developments is that they aren’t forced by any foreign power: this repression is by Poles, for Poles.

The position of Poland, like Norman Davies wrote, at the heart of Europe, makes the problems of the country urgent for the continent as well. Poland has her own tradition and her own problems, but it is impossible to see those in isolation from developments elsewhere on the continent. The intellectual tradtion of the Polish is unique to the country, but she provides invaluable lessons to a West that is increasingly turning to authoritarianism itself. People like Kuroń or Kantor can’t be seen apart from their Polish context, but they aren’t exclusively Polish: it were the unique circumstances in which they lived that made them develop a more acute and more finely tuned sense of the moral pressures exerted on us in the modern age. Norman Davies compared Poland to the canary in the coalmine, writing that if things go bad in Poland, it is highly likely things are going (to go) haywire on the rest of the continent as well - influencing the world as well. Most circumstances and developments that now seem to be converging on Poland, are present (in different forms) in the rest of the continent and the world as well. To me it doesn’t seem unwise to keep an idea on the canary in the coalmine.

[asianadjacent]

Being yellow in a strange white land

I use the word “yellow" to describe myself, not in an effort to be offensive but only because it is what I think people see when they see me. Being a yellow person in a land of mostly whites, the question of “where are you from?” will inevitably pop-up often.

These four seemingly innocuous words have always evoked a sense of resignation in me. When faced with this harmless query, I usually have two versions I can choose between - a long or short one.

The long version is a quick summary of my life story and it usually goes like this, “I was born in Malaysia, lived there until I was 9 or 10 and then my family moved to Michigan for a few years. After that, we moved to China for five years where I went to high school. I went to university in Singapore and lived / worked there for six years. Now, I live in London and I’ve been here for two years now!”

The problem with the long version is that somewhere between Michigan and China is when you usually feel an unspoken internal eye roll from the asker, wishing they hadn’t asked in the first place.

The short version is where I state that “I’m from Malaysia”. The issue with this response is that there will always be a follow-up comment or question from the asker. Real life examples below:

“You don’t sound very Malaysian…”

“Why is your English so good?”

“So you’re Malay then?”

“Where does that accent come from?”

These responses will lead to the long version anyway, which occasionally ends with the asker thinking I’m a pompous dickhead who tells his life story with the sole purpose to seem better than them. While I don’t doubt that I can often come across slightly conceited, the internal dread when asked this question is something relatable to anyone that has moved around a lot, arrogant or not.

More importantly, this question surfaces the many tensions I have internally about race, culture and identity. This issue is something I have only recently started to think about.

The issue of race has largely gone unnoticed from my life until recently. Maybe it’s because I’m living in a place where the default is white for the first time in my adult life or that I’m becoming more #woke”, lately I’ve started to question my own race, culture and identity and how that plays a part in my life.

To a certain extent, I do think that media portrayals of us yellow folk aren’t helping our cause. The lack of yellow roles in mainstream Western media aside, the rare characters we do see or remember usually fits the mould of the sidekick with a dash of the ching chong accent. 

The sidekick would always be good with stuff because all yellow people are amazing at mathematics, problem solving and kung fu. (It’s true, we can all do kung fu.)

This is why shows like Master of None or Fresh Off the Boat are amazing - where the leads are ethnic and afforded the chance to show us as complex individuals rather than a pale caricature of what that ethnicity is ‘supposed’ to like. 

I have definitely been guilty of doing impressions of iconic yellow characters like Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (DR. JONES! DR. JONES!) or Leslie Chow from The Hangover. 

I’ve pandered to yellow stereotypes by doing the ching chong voice and stretched my eyelids to make them slitty and slanty, all in the name of trying to be funny and thinking that I’m already above the issue of race, that I’ve broken through the racial ceiling.

Lately I’ve looked back and wondered if my international background has made me ignorant about racial issues aka “I don’t see in colour”. Questions now plague my mind in my occasional internal monologue discussions. 

Do my impressions and jokes contribute to solidifying the very tropes that plague people of my skin colour? I mean it gets laughs and it’s just comedy right? Should I actually be insulted that it gets a few chuckles here or there? If it’s just comedy, why do I feel slightly wrong sometimes? On the flip side, by being out there with these impressions and jokes, am I actually breaking out of the quiet Asian stereotype? 

I now wrestle with whether I should be doing these impressions and if I should instead condemn the people who do.

This all leads to me examining whether my canary creamed skin tone has actually impacted my personality. I’ve recently wondered if I am opinionated (to say the least) as a bid to break out of the neat little yellow box I’ve been placed in or have I just always been right all the time. 

For the record, I don’t think my outspoken nature is a facade. I’ve always been naturally loud, brash, and (some might say arrogantly) unafraid to voice my thoughts. However, I do think that this part of me has been dialled up throughout the years - especially in the company of white folks in a bid to break out.

Lately, I’ve also pondered if how I am or what I do even makes a difference in how people might perceive me. There are definitely moments where I feel that no matter how outspoken or brash I get, my defining characteristic to most people is my oriental colour and good looks. This is why I find shorts like Asian Bachelorette by Wong Fu Productions so darkly funny - all because it touches on issues that hit so close to home.

(IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED IT, GO WATCH IT NOW.)

Maybe there will be a day where people will judge others based on the strength of their character and actions instead of a snap judgement based on the pigmentation of their skin.

Maybe one day people will look at me and not think that I am…

Great with numbers and responsible with finances (I’m not.)

Not a viable sexual partner and have a tiny penis (First part true (#dryspell), response to the second part is that it works, most of the time.)

Passive, compliant and weak (Iols.)

A terrible driver (I haven’t even got a license.)

Gross and eat weird things like dog (I’ve never had dog but I have lived in China so who knows what’s really in food there.)

Super ching chong with a ching chong accent (It’s actually oddly English.)

An expert in martial arts (I’ve actually got a black belt in Taekwondo but they give those out really easily so I am definitely not a martial arts expert.)

Able to play the piano (This one is actually true.)

Only attracted to other yellow people (I don’t discriminate when it comes to dating. Not in a position to be choosy at the moment.)

Despite feeling that my yellowness is the defining trait the world views me with, I’ve been fortunate to have a diverse group of people around me for as far back as I remember. Just recently, I was in a pub with three English people, a Mexican, a mixed-race Aussie, two Eurasians (Malaysian/German and Korean/Norwegian respectively) and a Frenchman. We were only missing a black one and a brown one to complete the colour set. (FYI that was a joke.)

I’m lucky because I’m surrounded by people who judge other human beings with filters and lenses that aren’t coloured primarily by race. That’s not to say we don’t assess people based on their race, it’s that we are aware of the various cliches and racial biases across the colour spectrum. This allows us to remove our perceptions from any inherent and obvious racial biases to be more objective. (I’m speaking with broad strokes here because there are clearly some that are better at this than others.)

The best way to find out whether someone really fits the stereotype is to ask them and just have a honest talk. I’m happy to talk to anyone and anytime about where I come from, my roots, culture and experiences. 

I’m hoping that I will have enough of these conversations with enough people to contribute towards a day where people will judge others based on the strength of their character and actions instead of a snap judgement based on the pigmentation of their skin.

However until that day comes, I am indeed yellow - but I am also so much more.

[neras-kirneh-blog]

Israel and Zionism, pt. 2

@angrybell Okay, I’m continuing the discussion here. 

It’s a label that applies to a region. It does not denote a nationality. It does not denote an ethnicity. It does not denote a race. Its simply a label applied to a region of land by some people.

Doesn’t excuse the Nakba. 

I. The term “Palestine” has never applied to any independent state, kingdom, or other national entity in the region.

Doesn’t excuse the Nakba. Palestine would have become a state after the end of the British Mandate if not for the Zionists - just like Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon all became states right after the British and the French left. 

As far as what it was called by the various factions which have controlled the territory in question, that’s pretty well established. The place called Palestine is Israel.

No, it was always called Palestine prior to the Nakba. 

II. There Is No Historic Boundaries For An Entity Known as “Palestine”.

Yes, there are: Mandatory Palestine; borders were the Mediterranean to the west and the Jordan River to the east, and the Galilee in the north and Eilat in the south. Those are the borders. 

Funny how none of these maps match what the PLO/Fatah, Hamas, or any of the other groups seeking to destroy Israel and establish a “Palestine” claim.

Because none of them are relevant today. The only map that has been relevant since 1948 is that of Mandatory Palestine, because that is the area that has been hit by Zionist settler-colonialism and ethnic cleansing of its indigenous population for nearly 70 years. 

In fact, 75% of the area painted green in the map was actually public land, unowned by any individual.

That does not change the fact that prior to 1948, Palestinians still lived on that land. That area had a majority-Palestinian population back then; but now the area has been ethnically cleansed of most of them by Israel. Because they are not Jewish. It is not possible to have a “Jewish state” in a place where most people are not Jewish, after all. All of the prominent Zionists, including Theodor Herzl, understood this very well. 

III. The Only Historic Palestinians In What Is Now Israel Have Been Jews and Not Arabs.

Wrong: they have been Jews and Muslims and Christians - but they were nearly all Arabs; specifically, Palestinians. (There was, however, also a minority of Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Hasidic Jews prior to the onset of Zionism, of course.) 

“Arab” denotes the language you speak, “Jew” denotes the religion you practice. That these two identities are somehow mutually exclusive is a ridiculous Zionist fabrication, nothing more. I have already explained that Jews who historically lived in Arab countries and spoke Arabic were objectively Arabs themselves. 

The people who claim to be “Palestinians” claim that they have an ancient claim to the land. In some cases, they claim to trace their ancestry back to the Canaanites. The reality is much different. 

For example, Saeb Erekat has claimed that he is descended of Canaanites. However, his family is from the Howeitat region (an area shared by Jordan and Saudi Arabia). His family on emigrated, at the earliest, in the 7th Century CE when the Arabs overran the Byzantine controlled region.

Wow! The 7th century, you say? So they have at least 1,200-1,300 years on most of the Israelis, in other words... 

Also, it doesn’t excuse the Nakba. 

However, who was there before? That would be the Jews and other non Muslim, non Arab communities that survived in the region. 

All of whom were also Palestinians. Their descendants today are mostly Palestinians. 

Arabs in the region, prior to the 1960s, typically identified themselves as Syrians. It was only when the PLO and other terrorist groups began creating the idea of an Arab “Palestinian” as part of their effort to destroy Israel.

The difference is that Arabs living in what we know today as Syria had not been ethnically cleansed by the Zionists, but Arabs living in what we know today as Israel had. 

Starting in 1948, there has been a determined effort erase the existence of Jews in the land in favor of a myth of an Arab-only land of “Palestine”.

That has never been the goal of the Palestinian resistance. They have made it very clear, abundantly clear, that their struggle is only against the State of Israel and its political ideology of Zionism - not against Jewish people, and certainly not against the Jewish religion. Period. 

Starting in 1948, the Jordanians especially began destroying ancient Jewish synagogues. Graveyards, most significantly the Jewish graveyard at the Mount of Olives, were destroyed and Jewish headstones were used for building projects. Much of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives was cleared to build a new hotel by the Jordanians. Jews were forcibly expelled by the Arab Legion from their homes and businesses in Jerusalem.

Glass houses, angrybell: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_towns_and_villages_depopulated_during_the_1948_Palestinian_exodus

It was not only the Jews who suffered under Arab rule in the post-1948 era. Determined to completely Islamicize Judea and Samaria, Jordan placed restrictions on land ownership and enforced school curriculum that would indoctrinate minorities into the Islamic faith.

And now, Israel is repressing the religious freedoms of Muslim and Christian Palestinians, both in the West Bank and inside the Green Line. They even banned the Muslim call to prayer from three Jerusalem mosques recently! 

Between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese there are no differences.

Yes, there are. 

There is no other answer I can possibly give to a statement that rhetorical and devoid of anything backing it up. But, hey! Kudos to you for writing “Palestinians” without quotation marks for once! :) 

An Arab “Palestinian” people furthermore lack any of the attributes usually ascribed to a national group. They have no distinct culture from other Arab groups other than their resistance to Israel.

Linguistically, they were and are Syrian in their dialect of Arabic.

There are no spiritual ties to the land, other than those which were fabricated once Jews in the region began to prosper. There is no distinct, common ancestry with the region.

Wrong, wrong and wrong again. They do have distinct customs, a distinct accent of Arabic, a distinct history, etc. Susan Abulhawa talked about this in her debate with Alan Dershowitz seven years back. 

Conversely, the Jews do meet the criteria as “Palestinian” if they chose to use that title.

No, they do not. Most of them had no presence on that land prior to the 1940s. No familial history, no provable ancestral history, nothing. They came there through immigration, period. 

They have a spiritual connection to the land as evidenced by the Torah and independently confirmed by contemporary third party sources.

Muslims and Christians also have a spiritual connection to the land. Not that it matters, because God is not a real estate agent. (You still haven’t responded to me pointing out the fact that Theodor Herzl, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, David Ben-Gurion etc. all were atheists, by the way.) 

They occupied and continued to occupy the land in the face of ethnic cleansing, repression, and conquest.

No, now you are describing the Palestinians, not the Israelis.

The Jews had and have a distinct culture and language, different from the general Arab culture.

Okay, now this is just straight-up fucking bullshit. A distinct culture and language? Not even in Israel do all Jews have the exact same culture and language!

Jews originate from many countries, including but not limited to: Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Iran and Ethiopia; and they historically spoke many different languages, including but not limited to: Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Tat, Bukhori, Russian, Polish, German, French, Spanish, Farsi and Amharic. 

Not only that, but they wildly vary in terms of race, physical appearance, clothing style, culture, cuisine, values, etc. Jews are not a cohesive ethnic or national group, like Zionism likes to pretend they are. 

You called me a racist.

Because that’s what you are. 

Now, you make the claim that Arabs are simply a conglomeration of people who were previously conquered by the Arabs.

Not exclusively, perhaps; but yeah, pretty much. 

Now, I am not going to deny that intermarriage or conversions happened. 

Good! Then you are one step closer to realizing how things actually are. 

However, your statement is false because the Arabs made sure that those other groups, like the Jews, were governed by a separate set of law that rendered them inferior in the eyes of the Muslim state.

And?! That doesn’t change anything about what they were! Why do you keep on fucking insisting that Jews should define themselves based on how antisemites view them?! 

Zionists have a lot more in common with antisemites than you’d like to admit... 

As I noted above, it ignores that most clans which make up the “Palestinians” do not originate from the region. Many originate from Arabia. Simply because they intermarried does not mean that everyone becomes an Arab.

No, they do originate from the region, and yes, people who the Arabs conquered and intermarried with did become Arabs. Again: being an Arab only means that you are someone who speaks Arabic, and the language you speak does not determine your ethnic background or ancestral origin. Do you get me now? 

You can be Muslim, Christian or Jewish and still be an Arab, and not every Arab originates exclusively from the Arabian Peninsula. 

Your attempt to make a false equivalence using American Indians as an example fails. Native Americans have a their own language which they use for their purposes, but they also speak the lingua fraca which in this case means English. This does not mean that they lose their ethnic identity.

Right - and the fact that Palestinians speak Arabic doesn’t mean that they lose their ethnic identity! 

And white people have made a concerted effort to kill Native American languages, so many of them now do speak English as their first language. 

Just like the fact that the Jews spoke Arabic, among other languages, does not mean that they lost their Jewishness either in their own eyes or in the eyes of the Muslim overlords.

Someone who speaks Arabic is an Arab. 

Consider this, and I know you wont because it contradicts your secular religious beliefs, Gaza could be a prosperous region today.

What are “secular religious beliefs”? 

And no, Gaza could never be a prosperous region. Israel wants it to be an impoverished ghetto, and so it is. 

Hamas decided it would prioritize the destruction of Israel over the building of a prosperous state. Why? Because if people are prosperous, they don’t like to die in war. They have too much to live for.

Hamas decided that it would fight for the rights of the Palestinian people. Most Palestinians in Gaza are not from Gaza; they are refugees from the southern parts of Israel. Israel is one giant refugee camp, as well as the world’s biggest open-air prison. How could such a place ever hope to be “prosperous”?

There is no other logical conclusion for Hamas’ decision to initiate hostilities against Israel.

Really? Literally no other logical conclusion?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_exodus

It must be nice to live in a world where everything is the Jews’ fault.

Where did I say that? Quote, please.

Also: stop equating Israel with Jews and Zionism with Judaism. Most religious Jews in the early days of Zionism hated Zionism. As did most other Jews. To this day there are still Jews who despise Zionism. Most Jews still do not live in Israel.

I do think that everything when it comes to Palestine is Israel’s fault. I do not think that everything in the world is ”the Jews’“ fault.

You seem to ignore that your argument that everything is the Jews/Israelis fault (depending on the time period) is predicated on one thing: the existence of Jews in their ancestral home.

The ancestral home of Russian Jews is Russia, the ancestral home of Polish Jews is Poland, the ancestral home of Moroccan Jews is Morocco, and the ancestral home of Yemeni Jews is Yemen. Prior to Zionism, all of those Jews would have resented anyone saying that Palestine was their “ancestral home”.

Anyway, here’s etrogim to explain why that is not the problem:

http://etrogim.tumblr.com/post/153839028927/why-do-you-think-jews-arent-indigenous-to-israel

When did the Jews begin to arm themselves? After the Arabs started massacring Jewish settlements.

Zionists massacred far more Palestinian Arab villages and towns in 1948.

Why were the Arabs killing the Jews? Because they bought land to farm.

No, because they knew they intended to colonize their land. Reminder: the violence didn’t start until after the Balfour declaration.

As happened in Hebron.

Ah, yes... Let’s talk about Hebron!

This is the account of Rabbi and eminent Jewish scholar Baruk Kaplan present at the yeshiva during the 1929 Hebron massacre. Rabbi Kaplan eventually became the principal of Beis Yaakov, one of the finest Jewish girl's religious schools in New York and is regarded within the Jewish community as an academic authority beyond reproach or accusations of misrepresentation. The following is a translation of his recorded interview made in Yiddish in 1980: 

I would like to describe the error that is spread in Jewish communities. A horrible error that accuses the Arabs in Hebron of being killers who attacked the Jews simply because the Arabs were bad people. In order to correct the record this error must be corrected. The Arabs were very friendly people and the Jews in Hebron lived very well with them and had very friendly relations with them. To take just one example I used to have the habit of walking a mile or two out of town all by myself to visit a tree which is believed to be the tree where our patriarch Abraham met the three angels as described in Genesis. I especially enjoyed visiting the tree in the summer time. Along the way I would talk to the Arabs using mostly my hands because I spoke no Arabic. Interestingly enough no one in the yeshiva every told me it was dangerous to go by myself among the Arabs. We just lived with them and got along very fine. 

I have also seen a letter by the Grand Rabbi of the Ghera Hasidim at that time Rabbi Abram Martray elder who has memory of Poland regarding his trip to the Holy Land during the days when people were talking about emigrating to Palestine. He wanted to find out what kind of people the Palestinians were in order to be able to advise people whether to move there or not. He wrote in his letter that the Arabs were a very fine and friendly people. Therefore it is necessary to set the record straight about the accusation that the Palestinians were terrible people who liked attacking Jews. This was never the situation at all. Today’s wicked Zionists are just like their predecessors who are responsible for causing terrible suffering in Palestine with their wars against the Arabs. May G-d have mercy. 

At the time in 1929 the Zionists had a slogan arguing that the western wall was a Jewish national symbol. Of course the Arabs disagreed with this idea considering that they had enjoyed control over the location for over one thousand one hundred years. However the Zionist mobs were yelling 'the wall is ours'. It's hard to understand why they felt that way considering to have no connection to the Jewish holy places whatsoever. An argument errupted in the Jewish newspapers about establishing a permanent prayer area for Jews at the wall. 

This provoked the Arabs and the Rabbi of Jerusalem at the time  Chaim Josef Sonnenfeld begged them to stop and be appreciative to the Arabs for allowing Jews to pray at the wall for so many centuries undisturbed however the Zionists wanted a permanent set up under their control. This began the conflict at the time between the Zionists and the Arabs. 

After we were studying at the yeshiva in Hebron and saw a bunch of boys in short pants carrying weapons on bicycles and motorcycles running around the streets of Hebron. We were very worried about this. What were they up to? In brief our Rabbi the supervisor of our religious academy Moshe Hetreps called them for a meeting but they refused. He was forced to go over to them and ask them what they were up to. He accused them of wanting to provoke the Arabs. They responded that they were coming to protect us. We cried out ‘woe are us, G-d have mercy.’  They didn’t want to leave town until it was too late. These arrogant cowards only ran away when the local Arab leaders called for a mass  meeting of the people from the surrounding Arab villages but it was too late. The Arabs got organised and the Mufti called upon his people to be ready Friday night when the yeshiva would be attending prayers. 

At this point the Yeshiva was alone against the Zionists but the Arabs didn’t know to distinguish between us and the Zionists. Sadly they attacked and killed some of our people including the great scholar Joshua Rosenhaus. The next morning we heard the excitement in town and even worse we heard the crying and shouting. I and a friend lived in an apartment that was a part of a three storey building  leased by a Jew from an Arab. We could hear all the noise from our apartment on the third floor.  We were terrified to let the Arabs in because we knew how angry they had become but a while later things calmed down. In total some sixty five people were killed. 

On the other side of town however the Jews were spared. Why am I telling you about this story?  It’s because I want to expose how the wicked Zionists both today and in those days were the cause of our suffering. They cooperated with the Nazis, Our religion teaches us that a person who causes someone to sin is worse than the sinner who kills. 

A state (of affairs) that killed the Judaism of the Yemenite and Moroccan Jews of many other Sephardic Jews. This is the work of these thugs and gangsters.  Everyone must know that the anger of the Arabs against us is only caused by the Zionists. The Arabs were a friendly people to us and I am a witness to it. We lived very well with them in Hebron and I will attest to this as well. It is the accursed Zionists who caused them to hate us. The Zionists dared to use their power to expel the Arabs and even today in the Lebanon they kill and butcher Arabs. They wipe out whole villages with their aeroplanes,  Everyone should know who the murderers are. The Zionists are the biggest murderers in the world who refuse to let the Jews live in peace either spiritually or physically.

So, yeah...seems pretty clear-cut to me whose fault that particular tragedy was... 

Apparently, you’ve never been through US naturalization. You are required to swear an oath of allegiance. If Lieberman wants to make “Palestinian” Arabs sign it, it would be no different because they are not citizens like Arab Israelis are.

People who are not white and Christian don’t have to swear an oath of allegiance that say the US is a white Christian country and that they don’t have as much value as white Christians. 

Also, “naturalization”? The Palestinians have lived there for generations! Centuries! Millennia! Lieberman has lived there since 1978! He wasn’t even born there!

You use it because its an easy way to slander Jews.

Nope, I use it because that’s what it is, and stop equating the State of Israel with “Jews”. 

Now you claim I use the fact that the “Palestinians” are an invented nationality/ethnic group to justify ethnic cleansing. I never made that claim. Arabs were displaced as a result of military operations, both those conducted by the Arabs and Israel. However, ethnic cleansing did not occur.

Yeah, it did. It did occur. Demonstrably so. That’s what Plan Dalet was: a plan to cleanse the land of all its Jews in order to create an artificial Jewish majority. 

No citation is needed for my statement about the use of Jewish status to confer immunity from charges of antisemitism. These quisilings, or commonly referred to as “asajews” have been the bane of our communal existence for centuries. It was they that would provide the testimony needed by the Christians and Muslims to convict the Jewish people of blood libels by stating that we use Christian blood in our ceremonies. (And because I have to with you, I categorically state that we have never used blood sacrifice in our religion).

It seems to me like you are the one here who’s anti-Jewish. You are literally saying that any Jew who does not support the racist settler state of Israel is not a real Jew. Few statements could be as antisemitic as that one. 

Anti-Zionist Jews are not any less nor any more Jewish than Zionist ones, and that is a fact. 

I’ve provided you with a link to one of those anti-Zionist Jewish Tumblr users. You can go check out any of the others at any point. Why don’t you at least try to talk to them? (Maybe don’t tell them that you think they should be executed by firing squad, though.)

And no, you do not fucking have to tell me that you have used blood sacrifice in your religion. I’m an anti-Zionist, not an anti-Semite. I hate oppression and racism, I do not hate Jews. 

You can actually just go to any of your quisling friends and look at how they treat their advocacy for the terrorist entities of Gaza and the PA and how they treat their Jewish heritage.

I already have. Now you. 

You also suffer from a fundamental misunderstanding of Zionism. It is about Jews taking control of their own safety and stopping being victims.

https://neras-kirneh.tumblr.com/post/162091864390/anarchamarxistdrowfeminism-ruthyless

Now we want to make sure that no one does it to us again.

Well, you don’t get to brutalize an entire other people in order to do that, sorry.

We have learned that the world categorically would rather see a dead Jew than a successful, proud one.

Yes, and that is bullshit - but it doesn’t justify the Nakba. 

At the core of Judaism has always been a belief that we are meant to live in the land chosen for us by G-d. That land is Eretz Israel.

I have heard many Jews claim otherwise. Jews lived in other parts of the world for thousands of years before the Zionist movement started. Only a small percentage of the world’s Jews ever permanently lived in Palestine, and even today, Israeli Jews are a minority among the world’s Jews. 

Seems to me like if that was at the core of Judaism, these things would not be the case. 

On our holiest day, we say “L’Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim”. It translates to: Next year in Jerusalem. At our most important holiday, Passover, we say the same phrase. We have said those phrases for more than 2000 years.

And yet the Zionist colonization of Palestine has only gone on for about 120 years. 

Yes, Spiritual Zionism has existed ever since the Jews got banished by God. It is a spiritual journey - not a physical one - in which adherents strive to regain the grace and favour of God and be recalled to Zion - not to travel there and conquer it. This concept is known as divine redemption and political Zionism is repugnant to it. 

It is heresey by way of defying God's banishement and seeking to regain a land by force which is strictly prohibited by the faith of the Torah. Zionism is indeed a European cult and was condemned by Jews worldwide and most especially by the Palestinian Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews of the “Old Yishuv”, who despised Zionists. In response, they were murdered and silenced by the Zionists. 

Zionism is not a local liberation movement lead by Palestinian Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews. It was a regime forced on them (and on their Muslim and Christian countrymen) violently when they opposed it peacefully almost to a man.

Also, God is - once again - not a real estate agent. You don’t get to use (or in this case, misuse) your religious faith in order to justify ethnic cleansing, apartheid, war crimes and genocide. 

To be a part of the Jewish community, as opposed to someone who has been cursed with the wrong lineage, means a belief that the Jewish people will have a home of their own in Eretz Israel.

Seems to me like most Jews are happy to have “a home of their own” in the US, France, Canada, the UK, Argentina, Russia, Germany, Belgium, Australia and the rest of the world...

So its read that while he is urging a stern line be taken, its not because he wants to destroy all the Arabs. Its because compromising at that the time of the state (1923), it would hurt the Jews. He was hopeful that an agreement could worked out, but believed it would only come in the future.

What conditions did he think were necessary for that to happen? The Arabs would have to abandon their dream of expelling all the Jews from the region.

Jabotinsky was a fascist who was praised by Mussolini. He was also a racist, so I can see why you would like him. 

Look at that, your supposed bogey man actually had a plan that would have achieved what Israel eventually chose to do: have a state where Jews and Arabs had equal rights. Which is what Israel has done, contrary to your unfounded claims.

No, it is not. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are not treated equally under Israeli law. 

Everything in the original Zionist plan was built around doing things by purchasing private property. They would encourage Arabs to leave, but they would not force them to do so. If someone refused to sell, they would just bypass them and leave them to their own life, unmolested.

If by “bypass them and leave them to their own life unmolested” you mean “brutally ethnically cleanse them according to Plan Dalet”, then yes, you’d be correct. 

Anyway...looking forward to your next piece of apologia for ethnic cleansing and settler-colonialism... 

[jtoybox]

Racial Hegemony in the Modern United States

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I am Lenape.  I have absolutely no genetic justification for saying that, so why do I get to make that claim?  Because, back in 2005, I was “brought in under the blanket” by a Lenape Grandmother.  During those times, I attended several pow-wows to which I brought food to contribute, had many a conversation with Doris Turtlefeather, and I hung out with a guy named Two-Foxes, who had a lot in common with me, and his wife, Shoshana.   My young daughter even joined in with the drum circle once or twice.  And, honestly, everyone there couldn’t wait to see that kid.  She was passed around more than the brownies I’d bring for their children. 

When people ask me, though, I generally tell them that I’m German-Scots-Irish, which is actually oversimplifying the matter.  I have never taken a DNA test to confirm that, so why do I get to make that claim?  Because I’ve traced my lineage far back enough to ensure that it’s true.  I even once found my great-great-great-great-grandmother’s gravestone online.  But why do I really get to make these claims?  Because, being Caucasian in the United States entitles me to engage in symbolic ethnicity.  I get to openly show allegiance to my ancestral roots.  Not every alleged race here has that choice.  

Case in point, when my aunt told my grandmother that she was engaged to marry “a colored guy”, which was the politically correct term at the time,my grandmother had a fit.  My aunt married him anyway.  Both me and my grandmother were at the wedding, and the reception afterward was a very good time.   While her husband would go out of the way for any of us, all we had to do was ask, he never really felt like he was part of the family.  And, as far as I know, the man never looked into his own ethnic roots.  At least it never came up in the myriad conversations he and I had over the years.   Being white in this country has its advantages, whether I ever asked for them or not. 

In a previous blog, I discussed the matter of economic class, and how even the Hollywood elite are beginning to feel the sting of the wealth gap (Brill, 2019).   If you were to ask me if I feel sorry for them, my answer would be no, for one simple reason: white privilege.  Let me give you an idea of what that looks like in the criminal justice system.

Tanasia Kenney (2018) tells us, “A North Carolina woman cast a vote for President Donald Trump on behalf of her mother, who had recently died. The grieving woman claimed she had no idea she couldn’t vote on behalf of a dead person. No charges were ever filed in that case.”  It gets better, because Kenney (2018) further states that, “Over in Iowa, a woman named Terri Lynn Rote tried to vote for Trump twice… Rote was let off with probation and a $750 fine.”  And what happened when a Black woman committed practically the same crime in the same election?   “Texas woman Crystal Mason... was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday for unknowingly committing voter fraud by voting in the 2016 election (Kenney, 2018).”  

As far as the college admission scam goes, “all of the parents in the college cheating scandal have been offered plea deals, but prosecutors will only accept pleas with prison time attached (TMZ, 2019).” Apparently not much, though.  “Felicity's plea would enable her to serve as little as 4 months in prison (TMZ, 2019).” Now, it may hit Loughlin and Giannuli harder since they turned down the initial plea bargain, but if they “now want to plea bargain their cases, instead of a minimum range of 2 to 2 and a half years in prison... prosecutors would recommend to the judge a minimum range of 4 years and 9 months up to 5 years and 11 months (TMZ, 2019).”  To put this into perspective, “The money laundering charge alone carries a maximum of 20 years in prison (TMZ, 2019).”

It is incredibly likely that by the time Loughlin and Giannuli have their sentences handed to them, they will both serve less jail time than Crystal Mason will.  Felicity Huffman definitely will.  All three of them committed fraud, and only one of them did it unknowingly, and she is the one that will suffer the most.  I stand by my statement that even in the higher tiers they are beginning to experience the desperation to maintain the status quo that the majority of us have gone through for years.  I stand by my assessment that this demonstrates how wide the wealth gap has grown. But at the end of the day, only the rich Caucasians will benefit from a legal system that has been established in their favor since time immemorial.

References

Brill, J. (2019, April 6). A Symbolic Interactionist Take on the College

Admissions Scandal [web log post]. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://jtoybox.tumblr.com/post/183999003317/a-symbolic-interactionist-take-on-the-college

Kenney, T. (2018, March 31). Here’s What Happened When 3 White

People Committed Voter Fraud Vs. A Black Texas Woman. Atlanta Blackstar. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://atlantablackstar.com/2018/03/31/heres-happened-3-white-people-committed-voter-fraud-vs-black-texas-woman/

TMZ. (2019, April 9). Lori Loughlin Just Indicted for

Additional Charge of Money Laundering. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://www.tmz.com/2019/04/09/lori-loughlin-plea-bargain-prison-sentence-college-bribery-money/

[pushspacetocontinue]

Russell DC/Arkham Verse Profile

It was about time I got this one done as well.

Name: Russell Tolbert 

Nickname: Professor Giggles, Stutters, Doormat

Age: 27 

Birthday: 9th October 1991 (Star sign: Libra) 

Gender: Cis Male (he/him/his pronouns) 

Sexual Orientation: Homosexual.

Species: Metahuman  

Abilities: He is able to partially turn himself into a Cheetah (ears, tail, claws, teeth, change in facial structure, his feet, and he gets a light covering of spotted fur) and completely into a Giant Leopard Moth. He’s a nit miffed that he can’t change into a full cheetah. 

He hides these powers. He knows that Metahumans tend to get a bad rep, even when they’re not out to cause any trouble. Changing into a part-Cheetah also has the risk of stretching or tearing his clothes. 

He also seems to have more speed and agility than the average human. 

Ethnicity: White

Current Residence: Gotham, New Jersey (apparently, Gotham is in New Jersey, correct me if I am wrong.)

Former Residence: Boston, Massachusetts 

Nationality: French-American (French Father, American Mother).

Mother: Cassandra Anderson (now deceased). She was a nasty old crone to him and the rest of his brothers while he was growing up. She was especially so to him when she found out that he was essentially a ‘monster’ in her eyes. When he was an adult, she made plans with a scientist who was looking for someone ‘like him’ and essentially sold him off after he was tricked into believing he was simply taking on a job that would take him far from home (and therefore away from her). 

Father: Currently unknown. Was only told that he has the surname ‘Tolbert’ and changed it to that as a ‘fuck you’ to his mother.

Siblings: He has seven older brothers in total. Lewis (deceased), Martin (still living at their now-dead mother’s house but planning to move), Truman (living in California), Simon (lives as a hermit in an apartment of his own), Bradley (actually living a fairly normal life with his wife, three daughters and his son), David (trying to get his life back on track) and Travis (currently in prison, but has promised to get his shit together once he gets out.) - He’s partially back in contact with them. 

Height: 5'8" 

Weight: 126lbs 

Body Type: Thin but athletic. 

Hair: Dirty-blonde. 

Eyes: Blue

Languages: English, French, and American Sign Language (ASL). Knows some German because of his old neighbour Freyde as well. 

Distinguishing features: 

A water colour tattoo of a Luna moth on his back. A sleeve tattoo of a nebula on his left arm. Scar tissue on his right arm, shoulder and part of his chest because of a car accident. Deep scratch marks (from fingernails) on his left shoulder. A couple of cigarette burns behind his right ear (hidden by his hair). A small birthmark on his abdomen that he shares with his father. 

He stammers and has a awkward chuckle that comes out whenever he’s particularly uncomfortable about something. He also has insomnia. However, he has a concern over taking pills for it and so hasn’t tried to yet. 

Far-sighted so he wears glasses to read, play games, and other close-up tasks, 

Hobbies and Interests: Parkour and running, reading, space, videogames, mythology, steampunk, vaporwave, and drumming. 

Occupation: Currently working as a security guard for Arkham Asylum. 

Personality: Quiet and rather shy. He’s a bit of a doormat and finds it hard to speak up about a lot of things. But he’s also very kind and helpful whenever he can be, and has a lot of empathy and compassion for other people. 

However, this sadly can lead him into getting mixed up with the wrong kind of people. He also has some basic fighting ability and will fight dirty if he has to, as much as he would rather not. He’s incredibly loyal to any friends he makes as well, willing to put himself between them and any danger that might come their way, even at a risk to his own life. He also has a slight temper, particularly when frustrated or when he’s allowed negative feelings to build up inside for too long. He does his best to keep that reined in. 

Basic Backstory: He didn’t have the best childhood due to his mother being the awful woman that she was. She would act manipulative, lock her sons outside as a punishment, become violent, physically, verbally, and emotionally lashing out at them and other horrible things. She also knew about Russell’s abilities and taunted him about them, digging into the fact that he could only ‘turn into the insect he really was’. She also told him that she could squash him at any time, human or bug.

He left home at seventeen and lived paycheck by paycheck, never really staying in one place for two long. At twenty-four, he saw a job application for Arkham. He applied, packed his bags, and went there. 

At the moment, three years later, that’s what he’s still doing. He’s surprised to live this long since first joining up. He’s hoping he can make it to thirty at least. He’s starting to doubt that thought.

He’s also debating blowing the whistle, despite the severe risks that could come with it.

[neighsinthenight]

ABOUT ME

Tagged by the fam @saferion <3

(guess what, I finally finished my summary for criminal law, bless)

Name: Leoni

Nickname: Well, surprise surprise: Leo :’) Actually nobody I consider a friend uses the whole thing. I like Leo a lot better.

Birth month: November 16, I’m a real winter child - spending most of summer curled up in my vampire cave with the blinds down.

Height: 1,68m (yes, far too smol for my murder warmblood, move along)

Ethnicity: German white bread, sorry nothing interesting here

Fruit: Apples? My mom instilled the “an apple a day” thing rather thouroughly

Season: Autumn. Definitely. I live for windy days that are not yet that cold that you need 50 layers to survive but summer heat is definetely Not My Jam. Winter can kiss my ass too, since Mr Overbred Hanoverian gets the worst winter coat ever and early sunsets cut me off from riding.

Books: Gotta second Saf here, I can’t remember the last time I read a book that wasn’t a university textbook. Fanfic, however, is a daily occurence.

Flowers: Don’t get the hype. Sorry, not your average girl, I don’t really care about flowers one way or the other.

Scents: Fresh hay (after, you know, picking all the strays out of your bra, looking at all the freshly stacked bales - yeeeees), the smell of grass and air after a rainshower, ozone - storms in general, freshly baked bread

Animals: Horses (obviously), dogs - especially unique mixed breeds, uuh, rabbits? yes, rabbits are cute (expect for when those suicidal bunnies run under Finn’s hooves while galloping down a meadow, fun fact: my horse once stepped on a sparrow in the arena and I had to bury the poor thing - them draft horse hooves are KILLERS)

Beverage: COFFEE (I study law, okay? This is a required drug for me to function properly). I’m also your stereotype German that drinks beer and apple wine.

Hours of sleep: HAHAHHAHA. Don’t even ask. Not enough.

Fictional character: Bruh, so many. I’ll limit myself to the very faves:: Levi Ackerman (Shingeki No Kyojin), Jon Snow (Game of Thrones, can’t wait to drool over my bastard with a direwolf when the next season hits), Spock (Star Trek AOS), Dean Winchester (Supernatural)

Number of blankets: At least one. Even when it’s 35 degrees and I am melting, I need my blanket, no discussion. In winter it’s up to three and I always need one pillow for my head and one more to sort of sideways smash my face into. Don’t ask, good luck to any future partner who has to sleep in the same bed with me. I do build real nests on the couch, too.

Dream trip: Uh, for the distant future after Finn, maybe another trip to Australia. Such a wonderful country and all the people are so nice. Like seriously, why can’t people around here be like that? I’d also love to load the horse into a trailer (problem one since I don’t have one and Finn also isn’t good with traveling due to his Shivering) and drive to a nicer area with lots of awesome horse trails here in Germany for a few days. Hell, I’m not hard to please, I just want to see some ocean so I’d be overjoyed to just go to the German coast.

Blog created: Huh, no idea, I’ll have to check. December 2014. That feels way longer than it actually has been.

Follower count: 1, 376, luv you all!

Tagging: @clickerpunk, @transperceneige, @classicaldreaming and @afradeverano 

[if you don’t want to do this, no worries, but I’d love to read your versions :) ]

[robertmcangusgroup]

The Daily Tulip

The Daily Tulip – International News From Around The World

Monday 5th March 2017

Good Morning Gentle Reader… Just a few clouds greeted us this morning as Bella and I emerged from the comfort of home this morning and the weather person says dry and sunny for the next week.. Spring is finally arriving to the Costa del Sol Spain.. of course that means tourists, more traffic and a big increase to the economy of Spain as the hotels start to fill up.. I read yesterday, that due to the preserved problems travelling to the USA that numbers are down quite dramatically and Europeans are heading to Spain for the holidays, the same applied to people from the USA and Canada as Spain is viewed as a “Safe” country which I can confirm living here for some 12 years.. so who knows, maybe I will see you on your holidays…

HE’S HEARD THINGS…. Obama Calls Trump Tower Wiretapping Claim ‘Simply False’.. Without citing evidence, President Trump tweeted that he’d “found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower,” just before the election, but “nothing (was) found” by this example of “McCarthyism.” An Obama spokesman called the accusation “simply false,” and said his administration never interfered with federal investigations or “ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen.” The claim echoes a Breitbart article’s unverified citation of surveillance court requests for such monitoring, and promises to up the ante in the struggle to investigate administration officials’ Kremlin contacts. And to compound the problem Republican Senator Ben Sasse said Mr Trump's comments were "serious" and he should explain the alleged wire-tapping and how he came to know about it. The Republican president has supplied no details to back his claim. An Obama spokesman said he had never ordered surveillance of any US citizen.

A CUPPA COFFEE, TOM HANKS STYLE… The White House press corps had an espresso this morning, courtesy of Tom Hanks. The actor, 60, reportedly had an espresso machine especially delivered to the White House press corps yesterday. While this is the third time the actor made such a gesture, this time around the gift came with a note. It read: "To the White House Press Corps, Keep up the good fight for Truth, Justice and the American Way. Especially for the Truth part." The note included an illustration of American soldiers, entitled "Fresh, Spirited American Troops" by cartoonist Bill Mauldin. The caption said: "Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory, are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners."

ERDOGAN ANGER AS GERMANY-TURKEY WAR OF WORDS ESCALATES… A row between Ankara and Berlin over a series of cancelled Turkish political rallies in Germany is continuing to escalate. On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Berlin of "aiding and harbouring" terror. He said a German-Turkish journalist detained by Turkey was a "German agent" and a member of the outlawed Kurdish militant group, the PKK. A source in Germany's foreign ministry told Reuters the claims were "absurd". Earlier German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she respected local authorities' decisions to cancel rallies that Turkey's justice and economy ministers had been scheduled to address. Turkey is trying to woo ethnic Turkish voters ahead of a key referendum.

COULD THIS BE TRUMP’S RUSSIAGATE?... Trouble never comes alone. In Washington, that Russian proverb resonated with the revelation that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had — contrary to his Senate confirmation testimony — met twice with Moscow’s ambassador. So he’s recused himself from investigating administration links to Russian election meddling, and now echoes of Hillary Clinton’s email woes have surfaced in Vice President Mike Pence’s use of his private AOL account, which was hacked, to conduct official business as Indiana’s governor. As Democrats agitate for an independent investigation, the spotlight turns to Dana Boente, the acting deputy attorney general — and prior Obama appointee.

WHO KNEW THERE WAS AN “US” IN VESUVIUS?.... US Volcanoes Aren’t Adequately Monitored..There are at least 169 volcanoes across the U.S., with 55 believed to be threatening their surrounding populations. Only a few are closely monitored, while most are not, and volcanologists say that’s a major problem. Because eruptions are relatively rare, those who live near them tend to become complacent, assuming scientists are watching for warning signs. Now three senators are introducing legislation to improve observation and data about America’s volcanoes, and hopefully save lives when the next one blows — spewing fire and brimstone on those with misplaced faith.

SIR IAN'S AWARD PRESENTATION ADVICE…. Sir Ian McKellen may not have had much to do with the now infamous blunder at last weekend's Academy Awards which saw La La Land announced as best picture winner instead of Moonlight, but he has some helpful advice. The legendary actor, best known for his roll as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, took to Facebook yesterday to share his thoughts about the moment fellow actors Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty read out the wrong envelope. "Dear Faye and Warren," he said. "Next time, do what I always do when presenting."… And the precious advice?.... "Backstage, before you go on, slyly and gently prise open the envelope and sneak a preview of its contents. "If anyone asks what you are up to, explain you may need to check the pronunciation of the winner's name or indeed who the winner actually is!"

GLITTER AND GLAMOUR AT SYDNEY'S GAY AND LESBIAN MARDI GRAS…. Thousands of revellers hit the streets for one of the world's largest gay and lesbian festivals - the Sydney Mardi Gras parade. Organisers said about 250,000 people came out to watch the parade down Sydney's Oxford Street. The annual parade began as a protest in the 1970s, but now has almost 200 floats and thousands of marching participants.

Well Gentle Reader I hope you enjoyed our look at the news from around the world this, Monday morning…

Our Tulips today are of the Balloons over the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival 2016..Up - Up and away!

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Monday 6th March 2017 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in ….. Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus

[giggletoday]

About me (thx Kel) (take two bc Tumblr mobile sucks)

Alright, @madworlddiary has tagged me in so many of these things in past months, and I have either conveniently ignored them (joking) or straight-up forgotten about them. Until this one! Finally actually doing a tagged post, yaaaaaaay.

Name: Monica Nicknames: Mon, Monkey (by my mom), gigglemonster, giggletits (haven’t been called that in aaaages), Monongobongobooty (and many variations of it), and “Babe” Zodiac Sign: Pisces Height: 5'1" (Baymax voice: I am not tall.) Orientation: People are attractive if they’re not assholes…demi-pan? Ethnicity: Classic white European American mutt: Polish, Slovak, German, a tiny bit of Irish, and probably lots more white-people genes. Favorite Fruit: All of them. Okay, not exactly, but fruit is great. Chances are I like it if it’s a fruit. Favorite Season: Fall. I agree with Kelly on the crispness in the air and the leaves. It’s also the only season that’s actually close to the perfect temperature for me, and as a result is the one I complain about being hot or cold the least. Favorite Book: Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice (I couldn’t mention only one, though JE is at the top) Favorite Flower: Day Lillies and Snap Dragons Favorite Scent: Certain cologne(s), freshly brewed coffee, raspberries that have been sitting in the sun, bonfire smoke Favorite Color: Blues are my favorite colorful color (I think it’s because they’re inherently a calming color), but my favorite functional color is grey (yes I spell it the U.K. way, fight me): it goes with black AND brown, and is the only truly universal color I can think of, even more so than black. Favorite Animal: cats. People know I have an affinity for stupid cat videos and pictures. *nods at my “fucking cats man” tag* Coffee, Tea, or Hot Cocoa: Porque no los…tres? I probably enjoy them in the order they are listed: coffee, tea, hot cocoa. I will say though I can only drink sweetened coffee, whereas most teas I can drink straight, so Average Sleep Hours: lately, I’ve actually been getting a LOT of sleep…average of 9.5 hours? (#depression and my partner going to sleep early bc of work) Favorite Fictional Character: There are far too many characters I have loved for me to choose. Number of blankets you sleep with: Lately, two: one extra fluffy one and a comforter. Usually one, none in summer (maybe a sheet then) Dream trip: Cross-country road trip where Georgia gets her ass over here (yeah, I’m talking to you, @theglycoprotein) and we drive a camper van all the way to Kelly in Cali and then back, all three of us (with Dogmeat in tow, obviously). Blog Created: um…uhh…summer of 2012? (Update: May 2012, Jesus...) An old friend had made me one because she could, so I wasn’t active for a long time. I didn’t use it until that November-ish, I think (Update: September is when I’d decided to try to “document my college experience” lol...and then I proceeded to reblog only a handful of things for the next several months). Not that I’m ever active on my poetry blog (hoping to change that again soon). Goddamnit, what was my very first username? It had Mon in it somewhere I think…fuck, now I need to know… (Update: I can’t find me old main blog’s name... but my poetry blog used to be heartsoulmusicwords and I am SO glad I’ve changed it since lololol) Number of Followers: Plenty enough for me. I haven’t cared about a follower count for years, and I don’t intend to start now. 

@kitkatkat18 @hawk-windrider …I legit can’t think of anyone else I want to subject to a tagged thing… *shrugs*

[yasbxxgie]

Confronting Racism in Berlin, One Offensive T-Shirt at a Time

Isaiah Lopaz is a black American living in Berlin. On a regular basis Germans ask him where he comes from. No, no, where he really comes from. He’s a college-educated artist and writer — who is frequently mistaken for a drug dealer.

The influx of more than a million migrants into Germany the past two years has forced the country to wrestle with issues of race, ethnicity and identity. Mr. Lopaz says that he feels that Berlin is home, but also that the issues the migrants face have been a part of his world since he moved to Germany nearly a decade ago.

Mr. Lopaz, 36, found a creative way to address instances of racism: He took the offending comments and put them on T-shirts. He then directed a series of portraits taken by his best friend, Richard Hancock, around Berlin. I talked to Mr. Lopaz multiple times about the stories behind some of his T-shirts. His comments have been edited.

Mr. Lopaz, who speaks conversational German, used to have dreadlocks, and nearly every time he went out, he was approached for drugs. He would be at a bar or an art opening, and friends of acquaintances would ask him if he had drugs. In the summer of 2007, soon after he moved to Berlin, two people followed him around a grocery store before approaching him.

At some point I just cut my hair. I cut it for lots of reasons, but I also knew that if I cut my hair I bet this is going to go away. The truth is that it didn’t go away completely, but the frequency of people coming up to me and asking me for drugs, it lessened.

A lot of people that were really close to me felt really sad. They were like, “Oh, but your hair was so beautiful.”

Yes, I was dealing with people asking me for drugs, but there were lots of other more invasive forms of racism. To cut my hair and have one less thing, it actually was a big blessing for me.

At least once a day I will make eye contact with a white man or white woman, and they will grab their belongings as they notice me. There is this idea that black people are not to be trusted, that black people are criminals, thieves, deviant. We don’t have these ideas about white people. We as black people don’t have objectivity. We are judged based on stereotypes.

Mr. Lopaz’s maternal and paternal grandparents were part of a wave of black Americans who left the South for other parts of the United States in the first half of the 20th century. His parents grew up on the same street in South Central Los Angeles, and he was born and raised there.

It was very strange for me to be asked over and over, “Where are you really from?” They want me to say that I am from Africa. There are several reasons that I cannot really give them this story. One reason is that I am not from Africa. But also, there is a lot of pain that comes with this. It is painful because we were never meant to know where we were from.

I also come from a very multicultural family: Three of my grandparents were half Native American. Some of my ancestors built America, and my other ancestors were there before colonization.

Of course I have ancestors from Africa, but I think this question denies the impact and the culture that we as black Americans have created.

In 2011, Mr. Lopaz met two German women at a bar in Berlin. One of them, the director of a preschool, began quizzing him about where he was from and arguing that the United States had not been a country long enough to have its own culture. Then she told him, “And you have no culture because you come from slaves.”

That is the worst thing that anyone has ever said to me in terms of race.

As a black person, I don’t represent for most Germans somebody who can be a part of their society. There is a resistance to welcoming black foreigners but also to making black citizens feel comfortable.

I can pass the citizenship test, I can become a citizen, I can receive a passport, I can speak German fluently, but I don’t see myself ever being accepted as a German.

I do feel like I have met my best friends here. This is my city. I have a name here. I have a place here. But I don’t see myself staying here long term because I want a little bit more. In other cities, I can be another face in a crowd.

Mr. Lopaz, who is gay, has had a number of part-time jobs working in the gay night life scene in Berlin. He has also exhibited his work in galleries owned or run by gay Germans.

I think that what keeps other gay people from recognizing my sexuality is the fact that I am black. I find that very strange; it’s something that only happens in Germany.

It happens when I go to a gay club, and they say, “You know this is for gay people, right?” Or I’m chatting with a guy at a bar — at some point, he says, “Oh, you’re gay?”

There are several gay events where they will not play hip-hop music featuring black men. As one promoter said, “The men are too sexist and too aggressive.” How can they make such a blanket statement about hip-hop? I think it’s very strange and racist to say that because some people are sexist and homophobic, all of the artists are. It’s really problematic.

There isn’t space for my blackness. I often have to deal with microaggressions. I often have to deal with racism. I end up not going to these queer, gay spaces anymore.

Mr. Lopaz worked as a D.J. at a gay bar in Berlin for two years and often heard racist remarks from customers. One night a man was angry that Mr. Lopaz didn’t have music by the singer Grace Jones and told him, “You should have it because you’re black.” The argument escalated, and Mr. Lopaz complained to his supervisor. But the supervisor was not sympathetic — instead, he told him that racism against blacks didn’t really exist.

I shut off my computer, which is how I was D.J.-ing, and I left the bar. I grabbed my things, slammed the keys on the counter. I knew that if someone had said something homophobic to me, they wouldn’t have put up with it. I was tired after having worked there for two years having nobody do anything about it.

I was fired from the job for being unprofessional. I cannot always be this “good black person.” That’s just not realistic. And I don’t want to be that. I don’t encourage my friends to be this. I wouldn’t teach my children to be this way. You deserve to be treated well, and you deserve to have rights.

A white German who also worked at the bar later argued with Mr. Lopaz over the incident. Mr. Lopaz’s colleague told him that he, too, had faced hardship when called a “Nazi.”

He said, “Black people are always talking about racism. Jews are always talking about anti-Semitism. There are lots of other people who are having problems, too.”

And then he said: “The N-word isn’t the only bad word. The N-word is the same as a Nazi.”

I am sorry that people are calling you that, but it’s not the same. It’s not a word that has been used to oppress white Germans.

Photographs:

Isaiah Lopaz, an American living in Berlin, has found a creative way to address instances of racism he has encountered there: Put the offending comments on T-shirts.