#it is hella racist

[ginnyvos]

Also, and I can't emphasise this enough: as much as you might have trouble taking someone else's point of view, soliciting empathy from others always always starts with showing them empathy first.

This is hard. It's always hard to empathise with someone you feel is attacking you or the people or ideas you love. But think about it. That's exactly what you're asking them to do.

You're attacking their believes, their identity, the people they love that they know hold the same believes and most of all, their peace of mind.

If you can't empathise with them, can't give them the space and to be a good person even though they hold believes you don't agree with and the understanding that they are not trying to harm anyone, how can you ask them to open up, be vulnerable and empathise with you in turn?

I want to share something for those of you who are teaching and want your conservative students to be more open-minded to liberal ideas that you’re presenting.

I grew up in a conservative family and a conservative town, and like most conservative kids, had been told that colleges were hotbeds of liberalism, so I was already defensive politically when I started college. My first semester or two I was really skeptical of everything political that my professors presented me with.

And then I took a women’s studies course (required at my college). And on the first day, the professor said, 

“You don’t have to be a feminist. There are days when I’m not a feminist. But we’re going to discuss feminist ideas in this class, and you might find that you agree with some of them and disagree with others, and that’s fine.”

And that took the pressure off. By telling me that I didn’t HAVE to be a feminist, that I didn’t HAVE to agree, that professor started me on the road to becoming a feminist. I particularly remember her giving us information about what a huge percentage of the housework was still done by women, even in [hetero] couples where both the man and woman worked outside the home. And after that I remember saying, “I’m not a feminist, but I can see where they’re coming from.” 

Within 5 years, I was claiming the term and coming out to my mom as a feminist.

So when I taught college writing, I assigned politically liberal essays to my students, many of whom came from conservative backgrounds. And before they read the first one, I would say,

“The reading for the next class–I want you to know that you don’t have to agree with it. You don’t have to agree with anything that your professors teach you in college. But the point of a college education is to have your mind opened to other points of view. So you’re not required to agree, but you are required to approach the reading with an open mind. You might find that you agree with some things the author says and disagree with others. And that’s cool! We WANT you to use your critical thinking and decide for yourself what you think about things! But to do that, you need to give people the benefit of the doubt and be open-minded to what they have to say.”

And I have to say, it worked really well for me! I remember in particular that after I assigned the essay “Black Men and Public Space”, one of my students wrote in her reading reflection,

“I was taught in school that racism in America ended with Martin Luther King. I am appalled to discover that this is not true.”

Priming your students to be open-minded, while also encouraging them to use critical thinking, can help to break down some of the automatic defenses against new ideas that students are often taught. Approaching your students’ comments during discussion with an open-minded view yourself, validating their experiences while also making gentle counterarguments, can do a lot as well.

[chamerionwrites]

Aimé Césaire saying that colonization works to decivilize the colonizer truly lives in my head rent-free

[will-pilled]

Not even lying the rise of fast fashion and the 'trendification' of alternative subcultures makes me genuinely avoid people who look alternative because now 9/10 times they're not and also are super fucking mean (because these are the exact same people who used to bully us)

[biichama]

Thank fucking GOD they dropped that awful broken English for the Jusenkyo guide in the Ranma remake dub. He sounded like a normal guy with a canned tourist speech, which is much, much better. Here's hoping that Shampoo isn't stuck with Shampoo speech either.

[chilewithcarnage]

it's 2024 y'all (racists) cant keep running with this narrative that asian artists being anti black with their work is the result of ignorance. we're in the most advanced and connected time period in human history. y'all tryna act like mainland asian people ain't never seen or interacted with a black person in their lives therefore if they portray a black character in a racist manner or whitewash them it's 'oh it's just their style' 'oh they don't know any better'. let me ask this, if they don't know any better how come they always manage to apply specifically anti black stereotypes to black characters and give them white features in 'their style' despite the artists themselves not even being white. additionally, surely if they've never seen black people they've never seen white people either right? make this shit make sense.

[c0smic-horrorwerewolf]

Story concept: an conspiracy theorist who is actually right about everything (A) and is best friends with someone who is in the conspiracy(B).

A: “I’m telling you! The government is too incompetent there needs to be a shadow government who is more competent!”

B: “That ridiculous!” *Throws Shadow government ID into a closet* “I think you are just insane”

[n4talia-chaparro]

hey umm, I remember seeing use the r slur, have you stopped using it, if not please do

It's a very hurtful word

Erm Sorta????? Yeah, I did stop using it for a while but kinda wish people understood that I don't use it in a bad way. I'm trying my best NOT to but people will purposely piss me off to the point I will say it without realizing it 😭

(I reclaim it btw)

[acknowledge-reigns]

T*ffany S*ratton is extremely talented, and extremely pretty.. And none of that changes the fact that her post was racist. Period. MFs out here talking about "well at least she didn't use a slur." Gtfoh with that shit.

[lowcallyfruity]

Sets ur entire inbox on 🔥

I think this was for the unpopular opinion thing. And if it wasn’t then. Uh. DIES

But anyways. Unpopular opinion (somewhat) I think POC edits aren’t that bad. They mean so much to me and make me really happy. I don’t think people should get all that mad at them. Idk. And a lot of times people that make POC/black edits are still respectful and make them blasian so like. Yeah

Idk. I just think POC/Black edits are really cool 👍

[spearxwind]

re: the train image, I never took any notice that they are racist caricatures but the second I read your tags I'm astounded that I could have missed it ough. thank you for the knowledge!

Yee np!! It's always good to be mindful especially when it comes to old cartoons, though they're pretty common nowadays. Eventually you start spotting them more easily

Something that stands out immediately is whenever someone "evil" or "wrong" has a big nose or big teeth, chances are its a racist caricature. Theres a lot of nuance ofc but thats the most common

[diverging-tides]

Ruby

Part 22

@aeonchangeling I believe you should recognize this scenario >:3

Anyway, this is the second-to-last part of Ruby! Hunter brought his new friend home to fix up his disaster of a dye job that he hasn’t been able to fix for two whole months, only to unintentionally give the poor lad a near heart attack XD

Oh, and if y’all are wondering where Flapjack has been: there’s your answer. Little bird has taken a real shine to Macaque since Hunter hasn’t needed him as much. He still loves that boy to death, it’s just that Hunters changing as a person and Flapjack knows he’s gotta find himself on his own

Hope to see you all for the final part of Ruby soon!

[summocrap]

Two scientist at Ueno researching why both Hephaestus and Arachne, two people with a suspicious amount of melanin, were kicked out of Olympus, circa 1987

[lonely-dog-song]

but what if they broke the cycle of violence and got brunch together

[sunsetcorvid]

the amazing digital courtroom

[website-com]

ive seen i think every one of the 'depressed white men who do horrible stuff to the people around them but feel bad about it and you watch it' prestige television cannon and i can say quite certainly that don draper was the worst of them. for the crime of never changing even a little bit, he didnt even bother to get worse. he failed to go on any journey of any kind and was ultimately annoying as shit

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Eric is heartbroken and doesn't know how he can go on living. He sleepwalks through his life and can't care about anything. But he is also growing stronger through that pain:

Out of that fiery furnace of agony Eric Marshall was to go forth a man who had put boyhood behind him for ever and looked out on life with eyes that saw into it and beyond.

Now there's several ways to take this, but the interesting one for me is that Kilmeny put girlhood aside and became a woman when Eric kissed her and Eric put boyhood aside and became a man when Kilmeny refused him. It's a clear vision of the distinction between men and women: girls become women when they discover sex and boys become men when they go through hardship.

There is a funeral and so school is closed. Instead of going to the funeral -- which is presumably why the school is closed? So people can attend the funeral and mourn together? -- Eric goes back to the orchard. He doesn't expect to see Kilmeny there, but still he can't keep away. Even when specifically ordered out of fairyland and told not to come back, he can't help trying to sneak back in the back way, just one last time.

He crosses Neil Gordon, who does not acknowledge him, and at long last we get the best line in the book, the one I have been so looking forward to: Eric had entered into a new fellowship whereof the passport was pain. Exquisite. Chef's kiss. 10/10, no notes. It's such a bad metaphor it has looped back into near brilliance.

Oh hey, it is September now! Official confirmation from the narrative. Eric and Kilmeny have known each other for three months, for the curious.

The orchard was very silent and dreamy in the thick, deep tinted sunshine of the September afternoon, a sunshine which seemed to possess the power of extracting the very essence of all the odours which summer has stored up in wood and field. There were few flowers now; most of the lilies, which had queened it so bravely along the central path a few days before, were withered. The grass had become ragged and sere and unkempt.

I do genuinely really like this bit. The orchard is withering away as its people are filled with sorrow. I really wish there had been more personification of the orchard like this. Definitely the best descriptions in the entire book are of the orchard itself. In those, we see the Maud who will make a career of description and tying her characters to their settings and breathing life into the physical environment.

Eric wanders through the orchard and falls into reverie, re-living all the good times he and Kilmeny had here. So deep in thought is he that he does not notice that Kilmeny has arrived, to do the same thing. She does not expect Eric to be there, since it's the middle of the day during the school year. Kilmeny, like the orchard, like Eric, is suffering physically from the pain and heartbreak. She is pale and diminished and a shadow of herself. We get a description that would not be out of place in a Victor Hugo novel:

Years seemed to have passed over the girl in those few days. She had drunk of pain and broken bread with sorrow. Her face was pale and strained, with bluish, transparent shadows under her large wistful eyes, out of which the dream and laughter of girlhood had gone, but into which had come the potent charm of grief and patience.

So Kilmeny spots Eric in the orchard and, before she can even come to terms with her feelings at seeing him again, disaster strikes!

Behind Eric Neil Gordon was standing tense, crouched, murderous. Even at that distance Kilmeny saw the look on his face, saw what he held in his hand, and realized in one agonized flash of comprehension what it meant.

Oh no! Neil is about to kill Eric! By the time Kilmeny closes the distance between them it will be too late and the axe will have struck! What can she do?

Kilmeny shan't marry the Prince!