#like in america im not really american bc im indian

[kisshim]

i saw this tiktok earlier of this (i think??) desi guy doing stand up comedy and he was saying how the conservative indians were abroad not actually in india

[imaginealpha]

Please think about why you don’t consider BAME British people or immigrants to be ‘really’ British, and why I might have included those food cultures on purpose.

Hey, I didn't mean to imply that they're not British. I am Indian myself, and I always believed that that the food had Indian roots, not European roots. The whole "thin ice" comment was mainly a joke based on my surprise, but I'm sorry if it offended anyone.

[nerves-nebula]

Going from living in the southern US to moving to the northern US for work is insane bc like. White people seem to think the racism is all down in alabama and kentucky and shit and like. Yeah its there. Theres sundown towns and klan shit and my daddy got his ass beat for looking at a white woman too long.

But up north, man....People are just MEANER about it, idk what it is. Its like theyre more snide. They talk behind their hands and shit. They do the more like...quiet, insideous. They still have klan meetings, theyre just quiet about it. They quietly poison you. They ask me if I like henny or if I'm more of a lean girl and act shocked when I say I dont drink. They stare at a homeless white man and say "oh man he was a veteran, thats awful" but flip and say "ahhh that black dude over theres just a druggie its fine, pass him by."

White folks walk up to me and start like, bitching about the arabs and the indians thinking that because im not one of Them that I'll be on their side and say its okay.

Idk. Its very bittering. I wanted to move up here because I hoped i would escape it. But. Well.

But well indeed!!! I admit I’m not the best at being able to tell when racism is happening to me due to neither of my parents really being able to help me in that regard

(white mom who insists racism doesn’t happen anymore + African dad who is always away and is hyper vigilant about racism but doesn’t exactly understand the intricacies of antiblackness in America. They are both racist against black Americans and I never left the house growing up. also i might be autistic so picking up on when i'm being discriminated against is a bit of a battle too.)

But I do know that when I moved out to the east coast (california to be specific) for art boarding school I wasn’t invited back the next year because there were "concerns about my ability to keep up with the hygienic requirements" AKA: I was too dirty.

The dean of students (who later resigned because we all hated him) said I was dirty to my FACE and blamed me for bedbugs when there was literally no logical way they could have been my fault, and we had a ton of foreign students who could've gotten them while traveling, and they were also in dorms I’d never so much as stepped foot in. I was one of very few black students on that campus and I'd never been called fucking DIRTY to my FACE by a group of white people who acted as if that was a totally reasonable thing to say- and been blamed for something i could not possibly have done- by a member of my schools faculty before.

edit: got this on april 10th and saved it as a draft, then forgot to publish it.. sorry king !!

[pinkanonwrites]

(part 2. now featuring me rambling about a Modern Triguns hc i have)

okay so im Native American and i do think, in my hc (not yours. wanna reiterate that i am saying this for Fun Conversation and not to convince you of shit), i really like the idea of Vash and Knives being either surrounded by Indigenous American influence (people who are non-Indigenous can live on our reservations, maybe Rem is Indigenous and is cross-racially fostering them, i dunno) or Vash and Knives are white-passing Indigenous Americans themselves (i say "white-passing" bc i know their creator is Japanese but also Vash and Knives are pale-skinned, blue-eyed, blond boys so im assuming they are white? but some Japanese people could be mixed, that's true. i dont know enough about Trigun to know ethnicity canon/fanon, i just know "ah!!! they might be blond and blue-eyed, but i see Me in them!" so. headcanon. anyway)

and i say that bc a huge part of a pan-Indigenous culture (not that we are a monolith to generalize, theres so many fucking tribes and specific tribal cultures, but you get what i mean) is focused on the enviroment and our interconnectedness to it, ontop of our history of being genocided against up until the last Indian Residential School closed down in 2007 and we had our right to practice our culture given to us in 1978 (so 1978 is actually when American achieved religious-freedom) and now we are facing various Indigenous protective laws being disbanded in the U.S.-- it's easy for any marginalized group, esp ethnicities, to see relatability in the Plants. like, the Americas were founded with the blood of Black and Indigenous people. but also many other cultures have faced similar experiences. so i do think its easy to project any marginalized culture that has suffered onto Plants. its just also cool to be like "yo, my culture is very much based on protecting and understanding the enviroment, and this fictional group is called PLANTS? hell yeah, easy projection" but like. we arent the only culture that does that. so i dont think Indigenous Americans are special any form of projecting ourselves with Plants/Trigun. i just also AM Indigenous American and also AM projecting. so. im biased

and i am, in fact, doubly biased bc my Indigenous American father was a BIG fan of westerns, something Knives loves. my dad loved them bc He Is Very Old (im talking "my dad was 60, close to 70 when i was born" old. my mother is his second wife and they met when she was 40. so i was "wow thats late to have a baby, but not SUPER dangerous") and, though things have gotten slightly better since he was my age but uh.. the reason why he liked old westerns so much was because that WAS the only place where he could see people like him on-screen. even tho they died half the time. and were often racist. highly recommend the documentary "Reel Injun" if you would like a summary on how Indigenous people have been depicted on film, it is very funny for a documentary lmao but anyway, yes, this does also mean my dad was a Twilight fan. he watches those movies all the time (even tho they are ALSO racist against us, but its still really funny to say my dad is a Twi-hard lmao). and my dad wasnt alone in being like that, a LOT of Indigenous people my age (mid-20s) grew up with old western movies and whatnot bc it was the only representation we had for a long time, even moreso for any generation older than us. i can still hear "John Wayne's Teeth Hey-a, Hey-Hey-a" a'la the 90s movie, Smoke Signals, being chanted in my mind lmao

so Knives' lil "bang, bang" and how much he loved old west content made me feel especially seen lmao so i like the idea of him and Vash either being raised in an Indigenous culture by Indigenous people or being Indigenous themselves and being raised by Indigenous people. it brings me joy ♡ especially the latter, bc, tho im not blond and blue-eyed, i am white-passing. people assume i am white until i "out" myself (im also queer, i label myself as Two-Spirited actually, so i am using the verbage "out" knowingly lmao). i grew up hating my pale skin and my monolingual tongue, because that meant i looked like a colonizer and spoke the colonizer's langauge (and i, unfortunately, dont have the kind of brain that absorbs second languages well. at all. damn you auditory processing disorder lmao rip). i wanted to look more like my Indigenous relatives, and less like my white mother who married into our culture. and i see Knives' hatred of Plants' oppressors, and with the modern au and my hc of Indigentity and my personal history of struggling with self-hatred, and i see reflections of myself in him

and like. Knives' desire to kill all humans isnt translatable in a contemporary context, really. i dunno what job i would want my hc of him to have. you could argue he would be on the side of the extremeists in protesting, But Equating A Genocidal Character To A Contemporary Protestor feels.. bad lmao thats an understatement. but like. yeah, i do hc my personal modern au Knives to be a Land Back protestor, and i think Vash would agree actually. but im biased bc i support that movement too lmao i think the fact that Knives is so untranslatable to a modern context in all his variety adds to the tragedy of the Trigun/Trimax/Trigun Stampede/what-have-you narrative. i think modern au Knives might be antagonistic and a nag (or i could empathize with seeing him as modern cult-leader, tho thats irrelevant to this conversation. just bc i can empathize with it, doesnt mean i would ever create content of it or have it as my hc. cults are serious stuff people shouldnt trivialize and i dont have any experience with them, but if people want to vent out their feelings about cults using a modern Knives au?? i can understand that, im using him to project and vent too afterall lmao) to his brother, maybe be estranged, but overall i think the rift between them would be easier to breach than in the canon

i just find modern au Knives to, at least have the capacity to be, more sympathetic than his canon counterparts in all their variancies. he's fun to stretch around and play with lol

anyway, thanks for making a space where i felt welcomed to talk about Trigun modern hcs with you. i cant wait to see what you make. and, again, this was NOT an endorsement for you to follow me at all in this hc, i completely get (1) people have their own hcs of what Knives and Vash's ethnicities may be in a contemporary world and (2) that other people's modern au stories might not even feature disclosing an ethnicity. i just loved your excitement and wanted to spend part 1 engaging with you with your possible hcs, and part 2 sharing mine. i hope i worded all of this in a way that makes sense. thank you again ♡

Ooh, I really love your hcs! I'm always a little hesitant to do any in-depth headcanoning about the intricacies of racial minorities because I'm a very white person myself (a quarter Korean technically, but a blue-eyed blondie nonetheless), so it's really cool to read in-depth and interesting takes from people who obviously have a better scope on the ins and outs than I would!

I agree that Knives's genocidal nature isn't really easy to translate to a modern era. He's a tough guy to nail down! In my head at least, he's more of a nihilistic environmentalist while Vash is an optimistic one. I see him working in a very white-coat, laboratory, scientific field when it comes to conservation, he just strikes me as a scientist type. Him and Vash don't always see eye to eye on everything, and oftentimes he thinks he has to protect Vash because his brother is far too forgiving to the world, no matter how cruel it's been to him. But Vash doesn't want to be coddled either, he's not naive. He's making a conscious effort every day to choose to see the good in the world around them, and for one reason or another Nai just can't wrap his head around that.

He still loves his westerns though, I'm definitely keeping that. Nai was glued to Vash's stream when he was playing through Red Dead Redemption 2, no matter how much he says he doesn't care for video games.

I really liked reading your headcanons too, so thanks for reaching out! If you ever end up wanting to write anything longform that takes place in your modern AU, be sure to link it to me!

[catboybatman]

The miagani: a guide by me

The miagani is a fictional native american tribe from which batman is part off. This tribe was introduced in Batman: the Cult by Jim Starlin.

Location & history

The miagani are located in Gotham, in a cave now known as the batcave.

(Batman: The Cult turned out to be pretty racist, not surprised but if you want to read it its a heads up) (i literally cannot shorten this comic into something comprehensable so i'll only do some important stuff)

In this comic its confirmed that the Miagani are a NA tribe, altough called "indians"

Shaman Blackfire is an important character with too much to write down but in short: he was a self appointed shaman, wanted to lead the tribe to a "righteous path", got buried heavely wounded by the tribe, got found in 1906 by the dutch who opened his grave, killed the dutch and is now leading a christian (?) cult. (Yea i know, i recommend reading his wiki)

In this comic the miagani are slaughtered by another tribe but are later revived by Grant Morrison in the return of Bruce Wayne

During (the later stages of) the colonization of America part of the cave was used as a sewer, children being forced to work in it. These children died in the cave and it was blamed on the Miagani. This was (sorta) resolved by Jonah Hex in All-Star western #3,5&6.

The miagani have been in Gotham from 17000-16000 BC.

It is said that the tribe doesnt exist anymore since the creation of modern Gotham and that Catherine van Derm was the last confirmed member, but that is bullshit since Thomas Wayne is seen still practicing certain traditions (more on that later).

Religion

For as far as i know the religion consist of 1 god, Barbatos (batman: the lost), altough i suspect there are way more, just unnamed. During Batman: the lost it turns out that Barbatos wasnt that great of a guy, and created the tribe to do what he wanted, using Bruce as a vessel in Batman: the return of Bruce Wayne (im doing my best tying comics together ok pls)

We also know how they pray due to this page:

(Batman: the return of Bruce Wayne by Grant Morrison)

The black circle makes me believe that Barbatos is seen as a god of the moon/night, altough this is just speculation. This is also why i think there are more gods/dieties since most religions either have 1 who created all or multiple for different subjects.

What also makes me believe there are more gods/dieties is that in Batman: the Cult, the miagani are called "indians" confirming they are NA and most (idk too much about NA tribes, of you are please correct me) NA tribes are polytheist

Clothing

There are these: from Batman: the return of Bruce Wayne:

They style the hair to match bats and they have pockets based on batmans belt. Ngl these outfits slap

And these from all star western:

Here they use giant bat skulls as masks. I also presume that the grass are supposed to represend feathers like in RL NA tribes. There is also tribal patterns on the skull

Here are some fight (?) Clothes:

Batman: the return of Bruce Wayne & Batman: The lost

The giant bat is seen often, here is it alive:

Yeah, me too Jonah

Jewelry

In the upper right corner you have the pearl necklace, it is tradition to hand it down to your loved ones, mostly family members. (Thomas gave this to Martha)

The black blotch is most likely a crow. Im assuming this is done to show hate to one of their fellow fictional tribes, the bird tribe (batman: the lost)

In the first pic you can see that the jaw of the giant bat is used as a necklace and accesiores on the skirt. There also seems to be a tribal pattern on the skirt. And then there is the green necklace, cant really place what this except a green stone so yeah.

In the last pic there is the teeth necklace most like the teeth of the giant bat.

Weapons

I tried my best with a collage since you can only have few pics

They primerally use spears but the cave is also full of boobytraps, for axample the middle pic and far right pic. The far right shows darts activated to a whistle.

They also use swords and shields i guess? Its only shown here.

Language

In All-Star Western they have their own language, i cant recognise it and i cant add more pics but in the "Clothes" paragraph you can see some in the pics.

[pocmuzings]

hi g! i am an admin of an rp and i really strive to make it as inclusive as possible so muns of all fcs feel welcome. i'm curious to know, when you are looking for an rp what do you look for in terms of admins making it inclusive? this isn't meant to be pointed at all, i am just genuinely looking to improve!

i feel like i answer this a fair bit , and honestly my answers don’t change too much ? there’s a plethora of things u can do , and by no means  are these definitive . these are things ive noticed make me feel more included , or Safe to join a rp . speaking as a woc , and somebody in the Cursed tz . .

if ur an admin ..  u should absolutely be playing a diverse character . please for the love of god . u should be the example of what the rp is about and what u wanna see . if ur char is just a cis whitey . . that just doesnt cut it for me ! thats not what i wanna see in 2021 !

when asked for most wanted fcs . . really name some ‘ unpopular ‘ fcs . aka faceclaims of colour . faceclaims that are gender diverse , body diverse , religiously diverse , different able bodied , etc , etc , etc !!! put these fcs in the forefront ! push for them ! strive to see them !

if somebody joins ur rp as a ‘ non popular fc ‘ aka . . a fc that isnt a whitey , or like . .zendaya . pls put in extra effort to plot and rp with them ! pls pls pls. because i guaranteed for the most part , especially in an established rp , they will be ignored otherwise ! if ur rp is super inclusive ooc , then this most likely wont happen , but also . . most rps arent super inclusive ooc lets be 100 here . 

either write skeletons for chars that are DIFFERENT and ‘ challenging ‘ to some , or ENCOURAGE these characters to be written . write more smooth talking business men who are indian ! write characters who are hard of hearing ! write characters who wear hijabis ! who are ethnic but have great relationships with their parents ! write characters who are in wheelchairs , or are sexy and confident in their plus sized bodies . write characters who are black women who are soft , but still strong . write gentle black men . write a  trans man , write a nonbinary god , etc , etc . defeat the stereotypes ! turn them on their head ! there are guides ! there is so much out there ! we can create the world we wanna live in , so why fill it with boring white cis , hetero normative ppl ???

know what ur gonna do with ur characters , plot wise . if ur rp has a plot , thats fantastic ! but . . u probably have to carry that momentum . ppl join ur rp bc they probably LIKE the plot and wanna explore the plot . so how r they characters gonna be involved ? whats their part in it all ? how will it help them develop ? what plot drops / tasks / events can u host that will make ppl do more with their chars and be more active ? 

don’t have an ooc chat . just don’t . please . they’re so cliquey , they literally always are . those who like ooc chats are usually the ppl who r cliquey , im being honest fjknfjn . there is no point in having an ooc chat , really either . ppl can add each other on discord at any time , for free , if they want .

have clear boundaries . what can and CANNOT be rped . what fcs can and CANNOT be used . have a very very clear line . no lazy ‘ no taboo plots ‘ or ‘ no big plots without talking to admins ‘ ‘ no triggering topics ‘ ‘ no deceased fcs ‘ . no . u need to get in the nitty gritty . u need to ensure ur harbouring and keeping a safe space for those entering ur rp

be friendly , as an admin . be firm . but also , be very very open and candid and honest . if something goes wrong ? its so fine , and honestly v human , to post abt it ! if there’s drama ? its rlly good to address it and talk abt it amongst ur rpers . listen to ur rpers , if theres a problem . create open communication . maintain it . show that u care and want to help , when u can help , whilst also maintaining ur own sanity !

advertise ur rp for different timezones ! if ur entire ooc list is just rpers in the united states . . look .  nothing wrong with it , but firstly , make sure everyone in the rp doesnt think america is the whole world ( the rpc  / america rlly thinks its the whole fucking world sometimes ) . this means , dont make fun of ppl for spelling things differently ( honestly im  just australian and this guy once made fun of me for spelling it as ‘ offence ‘ not ‘ offense ‘ . like . . ok im not american . the whole world isnt america kjfnjf ) . this doesn’t mean u need to be online at bizarre hours or ruining ur sleeping pattern , but try and get an admin thats in a diff timezone to help cover things ! or just make sure ur rlly advertising ur rp at allll times of a day . including when us ppl are usually asleep ! try and encourage other muns in other timezones to apply ! and when they do apply , pls try ur best to include them and make sure theyre not left out of everything !

theres probably a lot more but this is what first comes to mind for me , personally . this are usually my ‘ green signs ‘ ( go go go ! ) for a rp ! when i see this stuff on a main , or by an admin . . i feel very Warm n fuzzy . 

[nagi-reo]

i do this event where i draw strangers’ ocs. and generally i enjoy doing it but yesterday i had a conversation that made me want to swear off this event forever

someone mentioned that their oc was half german/danish and had short black hair and brown eyes, and i thought to myself, ‘cool. i’ll make her half black (afro-german)’ bc there wasnt any indicator of race in the description. just the nationality. but then i stopped and asked the author if they imagined her as black, and they said. “She’s German and Danish, so she’s white.”

Which is suspect because it just assumes anyone who is German or Danish is automatically white (obviously not true; there are plenty of Asian/Black and other racial types in both countries) but Im not one to assume worst intentions, so I went ahead and drew their OC as white and sent them the picture and a message. carefully worded. Non confrontational. Letting them know that someone could be German and also Black, and saying ‘She’s German, so she’s white’ alienates every non-white German (which AGAIN. there are many).

and then the author basically said ‘I don’t understand. How can someone be Danish and German yet also be black?” and im so mad that i have to be subjected to racist nonsense like this!!! i mean. what the fuck??? (and i had explained if someone is American they could also be Black or Asian or whatever. Being Black and being American are not mutually exclusive!! and so is being whatever race and being German!!!) 

Nationalities literally tell you what nation state you are a part of. That’s IT.

And in doing these OC requests, I see a lot of people making the assumption that a nationality can be a subsitute for race, and no!!! Even in a place that’s largely monoethnic (like Japan) there can STILL be people not of the majority ethnicity. If someone told me their character was Japanese and had darker skin (by which they mean tanned), and I end up drawing someone like Naomi Osaka, and they say no... that’s not Japanese. Then. What the fuck. Are you discounting her Japanese-ness just because she’s half Black? 

Granted, I do often go along with those assumptions. Someone will say that their OC is Korean, and I’ll likely draw an East Asian person. Someone will say their character is Indian, and I’ll likely draw a South Asian person. But I wouldn’t be “wrong” to draw another race. And this goes doubly for racially diverse countries (like America. like Germany. Like the UK). If you don’t provide a racial description, I should be able to draw the OC as whatever race (as long as it matches the given physical description) and you should be open to that interpretation.

this is really long, but what i basically want to say is white is not my default. i will not automatically assume a person is white based on their nationality, especially if there’s substantial racial diversity within that nation. and if you are upset with my approach, you need to look into yourself and examine your racism

anyways itll probably be a loooong time before i do this event again

[sugarchains]

AIGHT SO

we’ve now been in school for 6 days and so i gotta at least do a write up before i work on bulletin board stuff BEFORE i go to a concert

IM GONNA GO SEE CHILDISH GAMBINO TODAY AND IM SO EXCITED BUT IDK WHAT COLORS TO WEAR???

-FOR THE FIRST TIME im only teaching one grade. just one. oh my god. i have 5 classes, 7 if you count the reading intervention classes but, STILL JUST ONE GRADE

-last year, me and other teachers made a case for separating the spanish classes. so just. breaking it up so i twasnt just one unit of kids who traveled together all the time? we made the same cases for the other classes, but it was a thing specifically with the spanish kids bc of the language barrier. so when the tested out and got placed into ict or gened classes, there was always some tension. ALSO, we just happened to have a predominance of spanish speakers, butwe had french and arabic students who just had to go to the ict classes and deal with it, so it wasn’t fair to them. 

but this year, everyones blended and it was funnier because now i teach 8th grade, but ive seen these 8th graders now for the past two years so they tried to say they dont speak english and i was like -side eyes- i recognize your voice and i could hear you cursing in english from down the hallway so??? 

theyre all lovely students

-ALSO so because im just 8th grade now, the kids that i taught in 6 and 7th grade are now 8th graders. this is the first time theyve had all my attention and the little fucking nerds were so hype i love them

-they changed my schedule like on friday, but BEFORE i had the self contained special education class for reading intervention. and i was initially panicked because im NOT sped certified yet but i at least know strategies bc i pick them up. but they wrote for me! willingly! we read a book and then they responded to a prompt and i just. iM SAD NOW BC THEY TOOK MY KIDS

-THYE ALSO TOOK AWAY MY 6TH GRADE READING CLASS THEY WERE GONNA WRITE MONSTER STORIES AND WE WERE GONNA READ THEM TOGETHER FOR HALLOWEEN IM SAD

-also! so some ppl may know this bc i think i said it bf, my school closed down so we could merge with another one. we also got kids from another middle school that was shut down. so now we’re a blend of 3 different schools. ive made it a point to not say “my kids” or things along that in front of the students themselves, bc you know community building and such. however the kids who were here are feeling themselves bc we were doing baselines and like introductions across the classes.

the kids from the other schools dont know their math/history/science. like in my room, so i could meet the kids, i made them do name, hobby, a history topic you wanna learn and one you know. the kids i taught were like I KNOW ABOUT COLUMBUS’ BITCH ASS, and how he didnt really land in america! we know the mexican american war!, (and i was preening internally bc i was like oh god, yeah we really went over it)

the new kids have almost no background knoweldge on any us history. they were asking to do the colonies and native americans and my kids were like UM thats 7th grade??? its time for WAR

-the delight i felt in class when one kid said “i wanna learn about indians” and i took the most dramatic breath, and my kids were like oh god

oh god please

its native americans, we went the whole year being hit for it please dont 

-oH YEAH SO IM REALLY DOING A TRIP TO SPAIN WITH THIS MFS IDK HOW THATS HAPPENING SO LIGHT A CNADLE AND PRAY FOR ME AND DONATE

-im like for real head of social studies in the humanities department now. the problem with that is that. ppl keep asking me how to make history fun for the kids and idk how to tell them to just be creative. 

like i see the curriculum. i know they have to learn about the civil war and reconstruction. however, i also know that the discussion about slavery and states rights has to happen. i know my kids got the slavery discussion already. we did it with the mexican american war, we started talking about how thats one of the first times america showed its behind to say thye willing to fight to continue to own ppl. 

but i know the new kids dont have that background and such, so we’re going to start with music and the legacy of slavery in america. 

i know we have to talk about active resistance and passive resistance to slavery. so we’ll use x men because how else would you show both sides???

so i gotta have a meeting with the social studies department to just be like you gotta show movies and music in class. if youtube doesnt work? pirate it. im just saying its for education so there are parts of the law that are lenient for it

anyway if you see me complaining about the face that people dont know how to be creative historically??? this is why

me: hey for religions, make your kids create a fb profile page for the religion 

coworker: holy shit how did you come up with that

me: its the technology age please incorporate it

[moonlitlex]

visibilityofcolor commented on visibilityofcolor's post “LOL. Love how everyone is holding natalie/padme to some queen standard...”

Are white padme fans and just white women in general incapable of understanding the concept of cultural appropriation and the racism padme’d character perpetrates and how that takes roles away from actual women of color ? Like do y'all lack empathy about how white washing and ca affects poc ?Like I’m also looking at the padme fans in the notes too…Same @rationalromantic ??

ngl one of the most offensive things thats happened to me on this website is someone assuming im a white lady bc i genuinely was confused and didnt know that padme’s clothes are culturally appropriative like. yall. sometimes people don’t know things and thats not a bad thing. it doesn’t mean they’re racist or natalie/padme fans who think she can do no wrong. it doesnt mean that they don’t know anything about racism and cultural appropriation. it means that i’d never seen anything about this before and don’t know anything about mongolian culture and thats why i was confused. not to mention, you said asian elements, and specifically SA (south asia) which confused me because im from there and hadnt really seen her in anything that made me feel like she was appropriating my culture.

i’m indian. i lived a whopping ten years of my life in india and i go back to visit every year bc the majority of my family also lives in india. i’ve been called slurs and been made to feel like shit for wearing bindis when white girls can do it and be hailed as fashionistas. i’ve had elements of my culture that hold a significant cultural and religious meaning to me personally been appropriated (re: yoga, bindis, wedding makeup, mehendi, indian clothes). i’ve seen instances of indian characters being turned white or black by hollywood. indian characters who for some reason always have a ridiculous accent which is always over the top. i’ve had people compliment me by saying “omg if you lost your tan you’d look italian” (still dont know what the fuck that conversation was). i’ve had people tell me im mad for wanting to keep my indian citizenship and that i should try to become american (for context im studying in america and sometimes the topic of would you like to stay here forever comes up). and you call me white and racist because i asked a question? that’s really disgusting of you. i honestly don’t know what the hell you were thinking but you should look at your ideology and contemplate why the hell you think that someone who doesnt know something is automatically a racist white lady.

this has been a psa thanks

[strangetrip]

i saw this post on insta that was like you can be “black” without be “african american” and there was a lot going on in the comments mostly about how ppl of african decent are all black and african (i.e., black british ppl, african ppl can be black, black mexicans or w/e) and this is a very curious concept to me bc

1) it’s all very complex.

2) we’re all african like it doesn’t matter if you’re the whitest person out there we’re all out of africa you can fight me on this but you can’t fight science so let’s just get that out of the way.

SO now it’s about a) how you present b) your culture c) your experience (not in that order but w/e) (and this 100% comes in to play with american identity)

3) i always thought of black as an american thing in the sense that like....there are afro-british ppl who are the same as black americans but its different like if you tell me someone is black i know they’re an american and i know they’re history and as a person living in america with a connection to this history i understand the experience (like.....i couldn’t tell the first thing about being afro-british like idk at all and i don’t believe they know whats it’s like to be a black or african person in america)

3A) IMO black american and african american are very different. black americans have been here since slavery, they have the potential to be and/or present mixed, and they have a Shared Experience. african americans are like first generation or people who have come to america from africa in their lifetime and while they can be impacted by the same things that experience is very different (more on this later)

3Aa) there is a lot going on here too tho bc there are black americans who identify with their african roots and comfortably say they’re african american but i honest to god can not relate to that therefore i can’t talk about it

3B) also black americans have a very specific look imo and thats the shared history coming in to play like if you show me someone who has been here and someone who is first generation you can tell the difference and you’re lying if you say otherwise (you can see this all over, too. ppl of afro decent in the carib look different from americans and africans. indo ppl in the carib/south africa/etc look different from each other and from desi ppl. you can still see they’re related but they’re different).

and anyway there were also pretty respectful white ppl who were genuinely curious but there were also arguments about how ppl self identify what were hella condescending and flat out rude which were Wild to me like you don’t have a say in how a mixed person identifies or how dominicans or w/e identify if you are 1 race or not dominican or w/e

4) i agree that (in america) black =/= african (but it does mean that you have some distant history in africa) i consider myself black but not african american. i know that my experience isn’t that of an african american bc i am mixed and i present as such (i mean...in some cases [black] ppl refuse to acknowledge that i’m also indo Until which is so annoying and disrespectful bc i’m pretty obviously Other but also like you can’t pick and choose when it’s convenient but thats a different post) also bc growing up it was basically ‘if you aren’t white, you’re black’ which is changed a Whole Lot as we become a more global society but yeah i mean i’m black and i’m indo-trini they’re both very important to me. i grew up with my black family but as a girl who looked exactly like her non-black mother (i mean...my mother identifies as black and it’s as complex as it is problematic bc she very obviously is not of african decent and she isn’t brown skinned and it’s just truly not her Experience but again thats Another Story) so i really identify as a hybrid of the two (this also gets tricky bc there are ppl i know who are from the caribbean who i know are of indian decent but get classified as black/african american here bc they dont look like the stereotypical indian and somewhere a long the lines got a western surname. it also gets tricky bc most people in the caribbean connect with their island first and their race second and again this comes in to play as we become more global and cosmopolitan and its a Different Post)

4A) both black americans who have been here since slavery and newly arrived africans are identified as african americans and i have even less in common with the newly arrived african experience than i do with the been here experience and i don’t believe that i have a right to intrude on their feelings and safe spaces bc i experiences privileges they don’t (i mean in south carolina i’m still followed around the store by racist white ladies and and in massachusetts there are white ppl who won’t acknowledge my presence by pointedly doing something else and i’m a brown skinned girl w an american surname like come on but in the bigger picture these are isolated incidents [and actually if im being honest there have been more times that black ppl have accused me of being racist like these are not isolated it happens more often than you’d think; and the only truly verbally racist thing that’s happened to me happened bc they saw that i was indian and it was the Wildest thing to me but my point is there are LAYERS ppl, LAYERS and experience is such a huge player in this] and i’m very aware that my cousins who are 100% american have a completely different view and understanding of the world that i cannot relate to empathetically) (actually even newly arrived africans who did not grow up in america experience a very different america those who have been here or those who have grown up with those who have been here) (and actually i know african ppl who refuse to let their children befriend black american kids and look down on them which is DISGUSTING but this is Not the Post for That)

and like honestly its all a social construct like both of my grandfathers (biological [who was for all intents and purposes a white guy but had a native and black grandparent so] and step [black]), my dad (who is black), my cousin (who is indo trini and nigerian), and i all have different names for black on our birth certificates basically what ever white people thought was politically correct at the time so like it Doesn’t Matter but it does because how you present and identify impacts your entire life (and actually i do wish my birth certificate said mixed and i’m very curious to know what ppl born post 2000 are called when their parents are two different races)

but anyway i was just in awe by the amount of Bull Shit that was in the comment section like if you don’t know and you haven’t had that experience just shut up please thank you and goodnight like if you have something constructive to say than OK lets discuss it but like....how can you just say “listen you’re black, you’re black, and you’re black too stop hating black people” but in the same vein i PROMISE YOU THIS HAPPENS BC IT’S HAPPENED TO ME treat them like a 2nd class black citizen and police them and even call them racist when their experience doesn’t line up w/ yours like come on

it’s hard i get it but come on

[moonlitlex]

im not from america questions

so this is a thing now! inspired by this post (aka im literally just answering all the questions on that post)

answer the questions then tag more people who aren’t from america

1. favourite place in your country?

shimla, himachal pradesh

2. do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad?

travel abroad! i want to go everywhere

3. does your country have access to sea?

yes! its like a peninsula thing going on

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

MUTTON ROGANJOSH i think its also shared by pakistan but we used to be the same country so 

5. favourite song in your native language?

gun guna rahe hai bhavre

6. most hated song in your native language?

that friggin one with katrina kaif in that one movie i think sheila was a name in the thing SHIELA KI JAWANI what a bad song

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

kamal (like kamal not kamaal), raabta, rimjhim

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

pakistani (im from north india), nepali (don’t look nepali), american (i live in america rn), bangladeshi, thai (lived in thailand), mexican (don’t look mexican), a lot of people assume im latinx even though i look super indian, fuckin greek? also spain

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best?

nepal!! they have everest there its so cool i wanna visit

10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language?

so many good ones! personal faves are chuttiya and kutti

11. favourite native writer/poet?

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

12. what do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem?

they’re all terrible and yall should all learn hindi

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

loads! p much everything but poc can relate a lot more than white people in general

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

only occaisionally

15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?

washing powder nirma (nirma)

uski kameez meri kameez se saphed kese

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?

hate - indians are smelly/hairy its so fake and honestly makes me super self conscious for no fucking reason i hate . it

agree - there are cows everywhere. so fuckin true honestly its so ? where do they come from? why are they on the road? WHY ARE TEHY SLEEPING ON THE ROAD? i dont know

17. are you interested in your country’s history?

YES the whiteys destroyed it and a few other people i think including nehru and gandhi and maybe some of the mughals? so its like. kinda hard to find good sources and shit

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

i kinda speak very textbook hindi? bc i havent lived in india for a long time so i dont really know that much about slang and stuff

19. do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem?

yes! i love btoh and they make me cry

20. which sport is The Sport in your country?

CRICKET and i love it

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be?

me with a lifetime supply of mutton roganjosh

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

we have a long and beautiful history and great architecture and used to be like 20% of the worlds trade or something and were super successful but then a lot people in india are super backward and i absolutely hate that and we have kinda high crime rates and that makes me v upset

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?

daru (if you translate it it means alcohol but its like a specific alcohol as well also we do this a lot in hindi lmao)

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country?

pakistan we’re constantly salty about them

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country?

never id rather die

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

yes and its always shit and stereotypical

27. favourite national celebrity?

AMITABH BACCHAN who would i be otherwise

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites?

yes we have a ton of everything and i dont have a favourite bc most of them are polluted af

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?

not really? okay no my entire family is kinda salty about noida for some reason?  but i don’t think thats a city-wide thing

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

nah we’re all indian af

i tag: @thelescorp @punkpipabeth @actioninspire