#listen to swana people they said

[bunveh]

I currently have an exam worth 20% of my grade and for the first time in my whole life, as someone who literally kills herself each exam season (and hurts herself real bad each exam) I genuinely feel nothing. I don’t even care if I get 0% that much atp I’m just so done. I have the work in front of me and I’m like idec enough to study atp after years of it being like this

[kavehater]

Hmmm I want people to yap to me about kaveh and alhaitham but I’m horrified of using the tags on here lest I attract the demon spawns - h//ik//veh fandom in the flesh

[fairuzfan]

academia is often used as the forefront of much of the violence inflicted on palestinians — for example in the library of congress, there is a collection called "the american colony of jerusalem" with racist photography and items that help visually perpetuate the "people without a land, land without a people" part of herzel's ideology, which itself is the forefront of much of zionist ideology. pointing out the systematic harm in academia is often considered "irrelevant" by zionists.... denies the origins of zionism as a political and academic ideology with physical consequences.

much of palestinian history throughout the last century has to do with erasure and silencing — that is how we got to this point. when i say no one listened to palestinians i mean NO ONE listened. they were ignored. all their demands were unreasonable. instead they get blamed for much of the world's unwillingness to listen. even my family members — i have stories of their work in academic resistance since '48. and some of them are well known contributions throughout euro-american and swana society. yet they're still ignored because of their palestinian origin.

"if you were just more reasonable" or "if you took the time to listen with compassion" or "you have to appeal to people's sense of reason" ignores the fact of the matter �� this ideology's founding principals were built on "a people without a land for a land without a people." you cannot and should not ignore that. in order to complete the zionist ideology, you must remove the native population. therefore any subscribers to the idea of zionism are violent, whether they intend it or not.

and if it were true, that academia were irrelevant.... then that doesn't explain the systematic torture and imprisonment of writers and scholars, the exile of my family members who were journalists and activists, the captivity of friends for no other reason than they were deemed a threat by some list or the other.

oftentimes zionists, or zionist sympathizers, ignore our (diaspora's) material ties to the occupation and dismiss us as being "disconnected" from the "situation" in Palestine and "misunderstanding" or "misconstruing" israeli society. what am i misunderstanding exactly? that the origins of this "country" relies on violent displacement and exile? that for the past 75 years, that violence has not stopped once? that no matter what we say about the violence of zionism as an intrinsic aspect, it takes a secondary seat to the imagined realities of zionism?

therefore, anti-zionism is the logical conclusion for valuing palestinian lives. but what are the arguments against anti-zionism? that arab governments expelled jews from SWANA? do you think that's a result of anti-zionism? then you must not understand that palestinians are often treated poorly by the same governments that claim to have done this in the name of "anti-zionism," living in poverty in refugee camps, tortured and arrested, even in some cases exiled by governments. this also neglects to mention zionist collaboration with said governments to exile the jews of their lands.

so then, what?

if anti-zionism is the rejection of the settler colonial state of israel, which you must admit to be truly anti-zionist, then it is an exclamation of palestinian sovereignty and identity. so when you say anti-zionism and antisemitism are linked.... do you realize what you are implying? do you realize that zionism, the root cause of palestinian suffering, is the reason for our expulsion and displacement? so then when you write academic thinkpieces about the "complexity" of zionism, do you realize the harm you're doing? do you realize that this, in fact, is not a new or useful argument? that i've seen iterations of it for years and years? that at the core, the zionist ideology relies on this muddying of the waters for you to not do anything?

to be frank, your constant reminding of the complexity of zionism when people in palestine are suffering from the material effects of it only scream, to me, utter contempt and selfishness. zionism is violence, to me and my family. it is violence for every palestinian in this world. you must admit that to be a sincere advocate for palestinians, otherwise your words ring hollow. the present reality outweighs any possibilities.

[project-sekai-facts]

Here's a fun little Project Sekai fact! Almost all of your faves have appropriated other cultures as costumes and some have even done blackface. If you're supporting this game and refusing to make a meaningful statement about it beyond "b-b-but i said it was bad! 🥺", you are fucking racist.

You're either anti-racist, or you're a pro-seka blog. Choose one. You can't be both.

Basically everything is problematic and actually I have criticised the cultural appropriation and racism present in the game multiple times, at no point have I refused to acknowledge it (and you’re not the first person to send an anon in). You can play the game and be anti-racist actually it’s called being critical of the media you consume and having social awareness, we’ve been over this. Everything is problematic you probably like problematic media too.

Yeah the game did revival my dream and that was fucking racist, the costumes are stereotypical and they didn’t research into any specifc native culture they just wanted to make something that would get them money. it’s not princess mononoke put the trained costumes next to each other, the trained costumes are heavily stylised to look "pretty and fashionable" and forego accuracy. I’m aware of that, I’ve said this before multiple times but you wouldn’t know that because you just randomly came here to send me this message.

Then there's also the kamikou sports fes set. Luka's qipao is very obviously altered for the sake of fanservice which is just so wrong, do not sexualise other cultures for money. Rui's I think is meant to be some sort of military hanfu? But quite stylised, which again for someone outside the original culture to stylise a traditional outfit just is a no-go because you will probably get things wrong. Mizuki's outfit seems to be based on Qi-lolita and there's a whole thing surrounding that about whether you should wear it if you aren't chinese.

and then there's the island panic cards which are both orientalist. yes, not just the boys, the girls too. the outfits aren't based on any specific culture and just mishmash different swana and south asian cultures and stereotypes together to make something that looks "exotic".

If you notice a recurring thing is that all of these are in some way wxs related, and wonder why that is, it’s because they’re the theatre unit. They wear costumes, these are just cultures being appropriated as stage outfits, because the devs don’t care they just want a quick bit of money.

all of these are horribly common in idol games and gacha games, not just project sekai, and it's important to recognise the problems rather than just blindly consuming it. If it makes money, devs will continue to include ca, recognise that.

and yeah puchiseka episode 6 happened at no point have i ever denied that. it should have never happened but it did and at the very least the fandom was able to rally together and get sega to take it down. even after they did that sega and clpl should still be held accountable for even letting it be released. while they didn't make the episode, that was entirely handled by an external company (who should also be held accountable for their actions - we're never getting a second season for a reason), sega still released it knowing full well the contents. it wasn't ganguro like people said it was extremely clearly based on a very racist and crude interpretation of african tribes, and for part of a joke no less. It was disgusting. And it’s not ganguro like how people defend it; ganguro is part of the gyaru subculture and the outfits in that episode were not that. there is no defence for what happened. at the very least, it was impressive that the fandom called out the episode and actually got staff to listen and learn. that doesn't happen in other games, and we managed to do it again with rmd. the fanbase is calling the game out and actually educating staff. It’s just critical consumption - fans of the media were able to recognise that the episode was racist and correctly called out management with enough of a voice to make staff correct their mistakes. They apologised, it’s not my apology to accept, and I still hold them accountable for the fact it even happened.

This probably all makes me sound like a white saviour, and I don’t want to speak over the people affected by this, but that’s what you wanted, isn’t it? You probably have me blocked already and never followed me in the first place, but if you really wanted to call out racism, then maybe you should’ve sent this to blogs that do turn a blind eye to the flaws in this game, not one that calls them out. Why just me? Was it because of the username, because you’re not the first person to make that quip. I know you won’t see this anon, but a word of advice. Most media is problematic one way or another, you can enjoy something but still be aware of and acknowledge its problems. Project sekai is not made with the intent of encouraging or funding harmful behaviour, yet it still includes some harmful content. Call it out, educate staff and tell them not to do it again, they listened once they can do it again.

[athenawasamerf]

Is it Islamophobic to question why Muslim women in Western countries advocate so hard to wear burqas and niqabs? Or to generally critique gender and religion and using Islam as an (unfairly) intense example? Especially from non-Muslim women?

Religion is important to people and sure women should wear what they want, but I’m not sure if others deserve such harsh criticism in asking why or saying that it’s not a good thing but a fetishized modest ownership tradition. It’s not fair to the women who want to practice their faith wearing it, but a good part of liberal western society acts like calling out traditional conservative behaviors from a majority probably ‘non-white’ religion is bad.

Obviously women pulling off their veils or hijabs should be their choice, and that simple acts like that shouldn’t be simplified as ‘liberation’ (a very western narrative), but is it also wrong to see it that way? Religious women are deeply entrenched in conservative narrative which I can understand; it just makes me sad.

I wish you well, sorry to bother you and if you prefer not to answer that is valid!

I don’t really believe in the concept of Islamophobia to start with. Being wary or critical of any religion isn’t a bigoted stance, and all religions need to be criticised for human rights and women’s rights issues. That doesn’t mean that Muslims aren’t oppressed in regions where they’re the minority, but I believe that has a lot more to do with racism than religious persecution.

Is Islamophobia a useful term to discuss Arab/brown-specific experiences in the west? Maybe, but I find it a lot more harmful than helpful most of the time. It seems to be mainly used to stifle discussions and criticism, and foster a narrative of persecution to create an ‘us vs them’ mentality which is subsequently used to control Muslims and prevent them from seeking community with the ‘other’, and to scare them into remaining within their existing community and faith. It’s a lot like the Jehovah’s Witnesses tactic of sending their young out with intentionally annoying guides to ‘recruit’ people, knowing they’ll be met with hostility that only reinforces their safety and belief within the religious community.

That said, critical analysis of why women hold on to, and even advocate for, religious or cultural practices that contribute to their subjugation - even when they live in countries where they can theoretically be free of these expectations - is not only not Islamophobic/racist, but necessary. I could go into that topic in depth on a separate post if anyone is interested in hearing my thoughts.

Critiquing religion, as I mentioned, is a cornerstone of feminist analysis and can not be ignored to preserve people’s feelings. However, most people who are the racial or religious majority in their communities will hold conscious and unconscious biases towards racial and religious minorities, and don’t usually bother to learn about the religion or culture they’re critiquing. These critiques tend to be based on stereotypes and fear mongering, and usually stem from a place of xenophobia rather than any true concern for women. The best way to remedy this is to take the time and effort to learn about the religion and culture in detail, and listen to women, feminist or not, from said culture or religion to properly understand their experiences and issues before you start making criticisms. Try to run your thoughts by someone from that culture or religion who shares your political ideology (in this case, Muslim or ex-Muslim radfems, especially from SWANA) to sound out any misguided ideas or unconscious biases. It’s a lot of work, so if you’re not up for it, maybe it’s best to stick to criticism of your own culture and/or religion.

When it coms to hijab/niqab/burqa/other modesty garments, you need to tread carefully with real women (as opposed to impersonal ideological critique). Modesty culture is deeply ingrained and many religious people are brainwashed into fear and abject horror at the mere notion of critical thought about their beliefs. Try not to get into heated arguments with religious women unless you’re trained in de-programming and cult tactics. On the other hand, if you’re talking to a liberal who supports dehumanising and oppressive religious/cultural practices on the basis of cultural relativism, you need to stress the dignity of women above any culture or religion. That said, gently questioning the beliefs behind something is never a bad move if you can keep the discussion civil; best case scenario you plant a seed of doubt that can lead to more critical examination, worst case scenario nothing happens and you move on with your days.

As for calling something as simple as shedding modesty items being called ‘liberation’, while I don’t think it’s offensive or a western concept (in fact, considering liberation a western concept is very… paternalistic? I can’t find the right word but it definitely rubs me the wrong way), it is a reductive way of looking at this. The shedding of modesty garments should be a protected human right regardless of faith or location, such that gaining the ability to do so is a tiny drop in the ocean of rights that need to be gained in order to achieve liberation. If we deem the simple right to dress as we please to be liberation, we lose sight of the much bigger battles ahead, and we give conservatives and religious extremists an opening to claim that liberal and feminist movements only strive to achieve sexual freedom and degeneracy for the benefit of men. We already see this happening in SWANA, where MRAs and religious extremists have taken up slogans like ‘they don’t want your freedom, but the freedom to get to you’ (aka the freedom to have sex with you).

Thank you for the thoughtful ask <3

[apollos-olives]

I won’t link it, but I saw a post of Zionists saying “it’s so much easier to talk to ‘actual Palestinians’ about the conflict than these pro Palestine crazies”

1st of all, they said that about @/bloglikeanegyptian

2nd of all, I understand that the core and the face of the movement is Palestinian people and after that, it’s the other Arabs affected by Israel’s terrorism, and then it’s us foreigners who listen to what you have to say, but I feel like Zionists only say shit like that because they hate the ferocity of the movement and how angry foreigners are about the destruction of Palestine like never before and how the movement hasn’t “fizzled out” yet. None of the Zionists would actually talk to actual Palestinians, but they’ve created this weird narrative in their heads that what foreigners in the movement are preaching is completely different from what Palestinians are saying, that the Palestinians are docile and completely okay with what’s happening and that Palestinians believe in “both sides” and singing kumbaya to Netanyahu, etc, and that foreigners have “hijacked” the pro Palestine movement. But from what I’ve seen, it’s the Palestinian journalists spreading the news, it’s the Palestinian in the diaspora organising protests and rallies, it’s the Palestinians selling keffiyehs to people to showcase support, it’s the Palestinians who informed non SWANA of “from the river to the sea”, etc. If anything, it’s the Zionists attempting to hijack the pro Palestine movement to try and distort its message and cause, trying to make any and everything supporting Palestine “antisemitic”. Idk man, I’m so sick of these people. And if I’m sick of them, I can’t even imagine how Palestinians have been feeling for the past 70+ years.

zionists like making shit up. their whole Thing is making up bullshit. of course they make up lies about the palestinian cause and act as though real palestinians aren't the leading organizers of the intifada. they want to discredit the palestinians who are sacrificing everything for the cause, and then criticize the people who stand with them. it's a sick and tired tactic and i can't even tell you how many anons i receive from people saying that the zionists are using the exact same tactics that other colonizers and oppressors have used against other oppressed people around the world. we see these arguments from zionists all the time, and we see it from white supremacists everywhere. we've been seeing it for almost 80 years now and we're tired. we are just so. so tired.

[anarchotahdigism]

On your post re the whole prédstrogen/ white blogger hypocrisy re banning issue, when you said white queers didn’t care re tumblr blocking bipoc blogs speaking abt palestine apart from anti Zionist Jewish people, did you mean the only white queers who cared were the anti Zionist Jewish people or white queers only cared about anti Zionist Jewish people? Have issues reading tone so was wondering

Honestly I thought about editing that part but that post is just out there now There are some yt ppl who care about Palestine and boost Palestinian and SWANA voices about it, and boost BIPOC voices--- generally, these people are anarchists but while that's what I expect of anarchists, anarchists aren't nearly as numerous as other kinds of anticapitalists (unfortunately). The main demographic I see of white antizionists, however, are Jewish people. Most of the yt "left" and "radical" accounts I've seen in the past few months since Al-Aqsa Flood have both-sidesed genocide because they cannot and will not break away from whiteness and admit the truth of the white supremacist theofascist occupation of Palestine is done by and for white people. The white people most likely to see that for the evil it is are those who reject supremacy culture and/or were raised Jewish and were taught the actual, true, lived history of Palestine and Jewish Palestinians. Outside that small group of people, white queers who should be silent and genuinely listening and learning and doing are instead doing just like most white people and defending genocide in some manner, while decrying the queer genocide that occasionally affects white people but primarily affects us BIPOC. I've seen hundreds of BIPOC accounts taken out for stances against genocide and it has been almost exclusively BIPOC accounts noticing our losses. I wasn't active on Tumblr before last summer but I've heard of how this happened during BLM uprisings and I'm not in the least shocked. It's very obvious that the majority of white queers only take notice of the oppression BIPOC queers face daily when those whites happen to get the occassional taste of it. And as you touched on, white queers will pick up causes popular with other white people-- so when white antizionists started posting steadfast support for Palestine, then I saw more white accounts support Palestine. These are the same people who refused to mask once mandates ended, and thus killed third spaces for us disabled people--and indeed, have literally killed us disabled people with their ableism. And their beloved shitposters feed this ableism constantly by refusing to speak of COVID, refusing to abandon eugenicist language like ableist & saneist terms, and as said, they remain silent on other genocides. There are good white people out there but finding them is fucking hard and keeping them almost as hard because of the pressures to conform to whiteness favoring implicit & explicit biases making it difficult to call in white friends but those who do the work and open themselves to criticism are truly cherished. And I hope that they know that. I certainly tell my white friends that I appreciate and love them.

[shooshopath]

find it extremely fascinating that critical role a) borrowed heavily from SWANA culture for their current campaign b) stayed silent when one of their (at the time) employees used their twt following to harass poc for pointing this out, and c) raised money with their non profit for Ukraine, yet haven’t said a word about Palestine.

its one thing if an influencer/company stays completely silent on all human rights issues (like. tbc I don’t agree with that but at least it’s consistent). But if you’ve used your platform to vocally support BLM, lgbt rights, Ukraine, etc but THIS is what you’re choosing to stay silent on, then yes, you are making your stance clear.

also tbc they are far from the only ones doing this- I’ve been side eyeing drawfee and ao3 for the past few months as well

but don’t forget to never criticize cr or the cr fandom, about anything, ever love each other

edit: bullying works/s . But seriously, all of you will complain and whine about the Mean Poc (though you're always very careful not to say poc) In Fandom Bullying Content Creators Into Making Statements, but at the end of the day these donations and charity streams would not have happened if people had not spoken up about it. A large amount of money is going to go to a good cause- is going to improve people's lives- because the same people you constantly refuse to listen to because they make you uncomfortable, made enough noise that they had to be acknowledged

[acerathia]

"the un will--" no, listen to me, the un wont do anything. they act like they will, but they will essentially profit more if isr*el is successful. many think that the un is some organization who will help everyone no matter what, but have you ever wondered why many swana dont trust them?

it's simple, really, the un won't ever act unless it benefits them, they will always be on the side that promises them the most profit. and i know it sounds like a conspiracy theory to many of you, but it's real life for many of us. they're only 'acting' right now due to the enormous pressure of society, which i'm very thankful for, but if nobody had even said anything, they would've turned a blind eye, the same way they always do.

you dont believe me? well, let's look at libya as an example. the time of the ghaddafi the people suffered under his dictatorship for almost 50 years, yet the un didnt bat an eye at the suffering and isolation of the civilians, why? because the state gave them oil, simple as that, they profited from working with a dictator, so they simply turned away as long as they got what they wanted. only when the resistance finally gained the upper hand did they 'intervene', claiming to have helped them all along...

so no, i dont believe the un will truly act, unless the pressure gets too big to avoid it. and it won't be because of international law, or the geneva convention, because these only exist for the west, when they're at odds with each other, not to protect others, especially not when there is no benefit to do so. do not for a second believe the un to be a good entity, they're not, they only know power and profit...

it's really important to never stop spreading information, to go to protests and demonstration, put pressure on them to actually act, rather than talk and talk about it. use them, but dont rely on them

[palestinenatural]

went to a talk circle about palestine today out of curiosity -the pro-palestine movement in my country is in diapers and I wanted to check out the few groups organizing it- and. jskdk lol lmao. it was announced as a space to talk about palestinian politics and create posters for the protests this week but maybe ten people showed up. and they all wanted to sort out their personal feelings about the news and congratulate each other on how well-informed about the occupation they are and they kept relating it to local "liberal" movements that have nothing to do with SWANA politics. and they wanted to upload this to social media. they couldn't get past recounting the horrifying suffering in gaza,,,,their idea of "coming up with solutions" was to print some catchy slogans on a t shirt and do "geopolitical analysis" which truly did not go deeper than "it sucks that the usamericans keep intervening in other countries it's very sad and unfair."

we were the only three palestinians in attendance so we were like oh we have to guide this discussion it's so embarrassing that this is the best allyship our country can offer bdjfjf so we went hey isn't it outrageous how nearly word for word western powers are reusing lies they made up about Iraq in the 90s and ppl aren't realizing? what can we do to help them discern and remember these things? and they answered that actually ppl aren't falling for it bc social media is so descentralized these days. so we were like ok if you say so! hey in our experience the general public in this country does not even know where palestine is and they only hear about us when the violence of the occupation gets worse, so their only image of us is as terrorists. and some guy was like um no actually I don't see palestinians as terrorists so that can't be true. and we were like our literal lived experience has been that people's 1st question is "your surname is weird where is it from?" and their 2nd question is "oh you must have family in isis right?" you HAVE to believe us (the palestinians) when we say that this country is not ready to hear about support for the resistence -they don't know where any of these places are, they don't know anything about our society or language or art or music or literature or scientific production or history! cultural relations between both countries are non-existent so it would be an excellent first step to promote knowledge of these things. It's difficult to feel empathy for a people you only see as violent, or as perpetual victims, but these kinds of restrictive narratives do make it easier to accept the dehumanization of the population. the occupation has been so successful bc they know how (and have a lot of help and funding) to market themselves to the world, how to share their culture and achievements beyond the violence. that's why it took us until 2023 to begin organizing an allied movement! no one knows anything!

and these fucking people. said to my face that we can't share palestinian culture bc us influence is just too great :( :( even though I had provided firsthand evidence to the contrary. and they went right back to discussing how palestinian resistance movements relate to our local history. shut up shut up shut up!!!!!!!!! why are you here praising indigenous liberation movements if you won't listen to the indigenous participants!!!!!!!!!! and you can bet they didn't let me speak for long enough to suggest some starting points for learning about our culture and history beyond the occupation. since they want to see us as poor little cardboard victims they can whip out whenever they need to shore up support for controversial local politics so bad

[colourfulplague]

Hi there !! I really like to hear from fellow PoC about character rewrites. However, I'm not Asian, and was hoping you could tell more about the original Gigi Grant's orientalism because I would really like to educate myself!

Uh... well I'm not actually a PoC, I'm very much white... I just did a shit ton of research to redesign the character. I did research into orientalism and the harm its caused, the way that it led to genies being created and the lore of jinns being lost, I also did research into what regions had stories of the jinn and settled on Palestine for the main bases of her redesign (even with all this research I am VERY much open to any criticism on her design, as I want her to not be harmful, and one way of doing that is listening to those who are a part of said culture).

Now into why Gigi is orientalist. Gigi is based off of the romanticized and fetishized version of SWANA regions and people. Think of how Aladdin portrays the SWANA people and regions, a weird melting pot of their cultures with a heeping handful of western romanticism and orientalism thrown in. There used to be a really good Twitter thread on it, but sadly the user who made it was suspended, so I no longer have access to it, but there is a book that goes into detail about orientalism ( https://archive.org/details/orientalism0000said ) that should be read. To boil it down in more simple terms, Gigi isn't accurate to any SWANA culture, and is based off the harmful stereotypes of said cultures that end up erasing their actual culture.

[andyinmiddleearth]

One of my friends in my small red town high school was literally the second one. She was so “supportive” until I talked about medically transitioning, and she basically said what person #2 said, and that broke me. Later I found out she was a Trump supporter and had never told me😭

Same goes for a girl I had a crush on that pretended to be okay with my transness but was secretly a pro-life antisemitic Trump supporter and I didn’t find out until years later when one of my actual friends told me. Also broke me. You pretending to be an ally ain’t very girlboss of you.

I also had a white cishet man that was like “just because we disagree on politics doesn’t mean we can’t be friends 🤪🥺” like no, sir, I can’t be friends because you disagree with my very existence and vote for people that are oppressing me and committing genocide against my community.

Similarly, I had a dick in high school trying to “politely” cisplain to me why it’s okay for trans people to be banned from the military because we are “mentally ill and the military could be dangerous for us 🥹” like yeah no shit, welcome to the military industrial complex that YOU signed up for too, but I can’t. Also being trans isn’t a mental illness. It’s people like that that vex me the most.

Also, shoutout to the girl who broke my heart by completely ghosting me and never talking to me again after she found out I gave her an anonymous rose for Valentine’s Day. She lived in an even smaller red rural city so uh. Kaylee if you’re out there, I was in love with you and you didn’t even properly reject me, just. Stopped hanging out with me and that hurt. So much. I deserved an explanation at the very least. I would have understood if you didn’t wanna date me.

You know who were some of the best allies at that same place though? The girl that tried her hardest to use my pronouns, even though she once called me “biologically a girl” when talking about FAFSA.

It was my super progressive dual credit English teacher, who was a DOCTOR btw, who would sometimes call me “Miss *chosen name*” and then apologize for her mistake.

One of my closest friends, who to this day sometimes accidentally calls me ma’am, and corrects herself, and also said I listen to “lesbian music” one time (tbh she wasn’t 100% wrong).

My economics teacher who would mess up my pronouns over and over again, but kept trying anyways, showed up to my top 10% honors dinner and took pictures with me in a suit and tie, and defended my transness when my parents were being transphobic towards me.

My school nurse and principal, who offered for me to use the women’s nurse bathrooms because that was the only option available for me. And my principal also defended me and was quite “aggressive” according to my mom cause she refused to let my parents be transphobic towards me.

My Latina Spanish teachers, who did their best even though our language as Latines (I’m Mexican btw) is extremely gendered and were always so sweet to me. I don’t like being called “mija,” but it’s the affection that was there that matters.

It was my classmate who called me a queen when I offered her muffins but then was like “oops my bad, sorry king,” who restored my faith in Gen Z.

The white lady that took my senior picture, who offered me the fem outfit and when I told her I wanted to wear a suit she went “I can respect that, that’s valid” and gave me what I wanted to wear.

My two cis Black gay male friends, who would say stuff to me like “no ma’aaaaam” but later eventually caught on and then they were like “no sirrrrr…”

My biology Muslim teacher whose name I don’t remember (he wasn’t teaching for too long because he kept getting made fun of for his SWANA accent unfortunately, and that got to him) who would try his best to call me by my name even though he would use the wrong pronouns.

And my physics teacher, who let two of my classmates and I start my school’s first LGBTQIA+ club when no other teacher would (not even the only openly gay teacher) and put up with our weekly meetings and never outed anyone. He would say funky things like “do any of you girls think you might be homosexuals?” (I wasn’t out as trans then) He would also talk about how he thought it was cool that a type of fungi has thousands of sexes and would just. Vibe with us the way a sweet millennial ally uncle would. I think later he ran over a deer and a cop cause I think he was on drugs since he didn’t look too hot the last day I saw him in class, but anyways shoutout to him. I did not learn a single thing about physics in his class but I did learn how to catch crickets to feed a lizard.

People aren’t perfect, but I would much rather educate person #1 than person #2. And I say this as a queer transmasc nonbinary person that has been out for years.

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

[ataleofcrowns]

I don't know how many times I've said this at this point, but here we go again:

Please use the many, many, MANY resources and references I've compiled of clothing and naming options before designing your Crown, or in this case commissioning them from someone else.

The Crown is not only a person of color, their culture and ethnicity is also explicitly Kurdish or, at the very least, SWANA/Middle Eastern. Because that's literally what the setting of the story is. Please have the bare minimum of respect to adhere to this.

To the fandom as well: if you see something that falls out of line with this, even if it is pretty art, please at least don't engage with it. I can't police an entire fandom. All I can do is ask, and hope that people listen.

[megahertzmaroon]

Bro let me tell you about this shit i saw on YT,this black lady and said that if we complain abt a sumeru chara not being dark skin enough were the racist,this was about candice,cyno and dahya. This lady fr wants white ppl brownie points. She said its cuz nobody has the right to say if some1 black enough or not but theire clearly white,plz tell me im not going crazzy

…she clearly wasn’t listening to ANY of the points SWANA MENA and south asian fans were bringing up. i swear this whole shitstorm started when people think “blackwashing” is a thing. You aren’t going crazy because that is WACK.

Also those character designs HAVE to be lightened. they don’t fit with the color palettes at all.

[borderline-purrsonality]

As a nonblack person myself, I can confirm that when I was younger, more ignorant, and desperate to prove my hyperfixations weren’t racist, I would scroll down hundreds of black people saying this piece of media is irredeemable, and cherry pick the few black people who went “oh this is okay actually.” I would think “see???? This black person said it’s not racist!!!!”

Of course, growing up I now definitely realize how awful that was of me to do, but yet I see so many more people fall into the same trap I did in many different ways.

“See???? It’s not ableist because of this one disabled person who said it wasn’t!!”

“See???? It’s not antisemitic because of this one Jewish person who said it wasn’t!!”

“See???? It’s not transphobic because of this one trans person who said it wasn’t!!”

“See???? It’s not racist because of this one person of color who said it wasn’t!!”

Cherry-picking is an incredibly huge issue so many privileged people do. How about instead of listening to that one person validating you, you listen to everyone affected by said media???

EDIT: I saw this post again and felt like clarifying that in addition to being white, I am also SWANA. I am mixed and do not consider myself 100% white anymore as I’ve discovered the term SWANA. In the US, we’re considered white despite still facing racism.

I still stand by what I said 100%, and still feel like I can pull from past ignorant experiences. I am nonblack and used to try to cherrypick in order to only lift up people who agreed with me instead of everyone. It was a bad trait of mine when I was younger and it was important for me to unlearn it.

Always remember: If a minority ever expresses discomfort at something which could be taken as bigoted, uplift their voices, but also take a step back. Don’t speak over them.

[rotomgender-moved]

Runs in Our Family, Part two

Warnings: Ask To Tag, Injuries

Word Count: 2.3K

Part Two

The first thing N noticed was the sheer noise that we're coming from this group of children. Second, was the child on child violence going on-

Where are their parents? It made them confused and concerned for a moment, did they not have a chaperone? Who would trust children with pokemon on their own?

It was when he saw someone cowering in the corner that he realized, yes, they did have a chaperone. They've just dethroned the poor guy.

"Pl-ease calm yourselves!" The man squawked, "We can't have anyone getting hurt! Especially Wally, the poor boy is sickly enough!" As soon as the man's gaze met N's, he got up and quickly struttsd over with the grace of a swana. "Oh thank Arceus- can you please help out? Entertain them for a bit so I can set up lunch? The triplets and Mallow asked me to distract them, but they're treating me as a joke-"

"I'll help. My name is N."

"Thank you, oh thank you so much! My name is Wallace, I was a gym leader back in Hoenn." Wallace greeted with a relieved sigh. "Just give me a moment, I'm sure you can handle it for a few minutes. I just need to grab a change of clothes so these ones dont get dirtied, they're a bitch to handwash." He chuckled a little, patting N's shoulder and slipping by.

"... language." N muttered quietly. 

He felt eyes bearing into him as the room suddenly fell silent, Ruby spoke up.

"This is the guy with the white dragon Nate was talking about! All the cool pokemon that he can talk to!" The boy grinned, throwing his hands up.

"Uhm… Hello-?"

"He looks like a twig." A voice spoke up, one with that accent he couldn't place who paralyzed him. The little brats.

"Yeah… He- He looked like a mess-"

"Okay! Okay that's enough!" As Rosa and Nate approached, tugging Hugh behind them like a ragdoll, N snapped his head to them.

"Why did you tell them about the white dragon?" N hissed, giving the twins and their friend a glare. "You aren't meant to just-"

"Shut up, N, anyways!" Rosa continued. "He's sensitive, so don't touch him or be too loud. Or pull his hair, I got bit for that once."

"He bit you?" A gasp came from a blond girl playing with her tall, blue frog pokemon. 

"No, Ex, his Unphezant did. Wh- Why would he bite me?"

"Isn't he that guy that Bede nearly killed in the woods?" Ex said, and a gasp came from one of those kids, as though he had been personally offended. From how he looked, N assumed Bede was one of the kids on the boat in a fight.

"It was not me! It was Gloria and you all know it!" He spat. 

"It wasn't me, it was Victor!" Gloria hissed back. 

"It was me- stop fighting you aggressive dunces." Victor smacked the back of Gloria's head. "Sorry about that again, Mint-Boy."

N starred in awe at how fast all these kids started antagonizing each other. It was almost impressive how tense the energy in the room is. He looked down to Hugh.

"Is this how it always is?" 

"Yeeeaaaah, just about."

"Oh my…" N took in a sharp intake of breath as Wallace returned, immediately sighing in defeat. Wallce had this elegant energy tacked on him that was absolutely torn due to the rowdiness of all the kids. 

"Did they give you too much trouble?"

"No, they were distracted tearing each other apart."

"I see, well. How about you show off your pokemon, or battle one of them? I'm sure they'd appreciate the form of stimulation that isn't… Whatever Silver, Gold and Crystal do." He motioned his hand to a group of three. That foulmouthed redhead getting put in a headlock by a brunette boy. Who seemed to be playfully insulting him while a young girl kept score on a piece of paper.

"Yeah… I'll do that." N nodded, stepping towards the group while Wallace went to break up the rough housing between the three mineral-named children. He immediately was met by a small, frail green haired boy, who had a nervous smile and a cheerful wave.

"Hello, sir! I was told you could speak with pokemon. I wanted to ask if you could hear what my pokemon can say?"

"Oh, uh." N wasn't sure what to do, ever since he had left Team Plasma he had never been around so many people. He thought back on Zoroark's words. That talking to people would do him some good. "Yes, I can do that for you and… Whoever else wants me to." He promised, sitting down.

"I'm Wally, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Call me N."

He met many faces so quickly! Barry, the energetic boy with a Staraptor who seemed to have nearly the exact same spunk. Wally and his elegantly worded Gallade, who worked tirelessly to defend the boy. The endlessly smiling Hop and his gruff, aloof Dubwool, as well as learning that the four accented children are from a place called Galar. Ex and Wy, two twins with teams that seemed to completely mirror one another. The hot headed Silver and his Magnasium, who N believes that Zororak would get along wonderfully with. 

Seeing all these trainers and pokemon with such diverse personalities couldn't help but make him smile. Especially the grins that they got being able to know exactly what they're pokemon thought of them. Silver's reaction made him the most joyful, seeing the boy try to hide that toothy little grin and begin to ride on his grass types back, whispering to her and thanking her. It made N's heart swell, so much so that he had to return the favor and do as he promised Ruby.

He released nearly all of his team except one; Zoroark, Vanilluxe, Archen, Unphezant and Klinklang. Leaving the white dragon out of this. Some seemed unimpressed, having seen all of these pokemon before. But quick as a bolt of multicolored lightning, some of them rushed over to examine them.

"What is it?" chimed Crystal, running her fingers through Archens feathers.

"Oh you're really tough-looking!" Barry grinned, Klinklang allowing the blond to feel its many gears. 

"This is that Zoroak you were talking about, right?" Sapphire questioned, examining the illusionist's paws. 

Question after question was thrown his way, as N chuckled and tried to keep up. 

"This is Klinklang, he's an electric-steel type pokemon. This is Archen, a flying-rock type. Be careful, it's shy! Zoroark is a dark type, Vanilluxe is an Ice type, and Unphezant. A flying-normal type." N explained, smiling a little as Zoroark nodded in approval. He began to ramble on about the pokemon, answering any questions and quieting down to listen to any of the kids' connections, stories and such. It seemed to calm down… Almost all of them. Except for one, who he had found left the room at some point… Wallace was gone as well. Maybe he had gone off with one of them for one reason or another? It caused confusion and worry to boil deep down inside his belly as he quickly realized which of the kids was missing.

Where had Sapphire slipped off all the sudden?

/// Sapphire ///

"Wallace, come on!" Sapphire called over her shoulder, dashing through the forest. In front of her ran her Blaziken, slapping away vines and thick brush so that the others behind it wouldn't trip and fall. Above them, the call of a Skarmory alerted them that Steven Stone was keeping up well and various other cries of pokemon meant that the entire group was keeping up.

Sapphire was in the lead as Wallace, Steven, Red, Iris and Cheren kept up. There was a disturbance, they knew that was true. It was something that they could just tell deep inside them, something Sapphire knew all too well. A tight ball in her guts that her pokemon seemed to feel as well.

"Over here!" Cheren called out over his shoulder, the cry of his serperior confirming his claim. "I saw the flash of a pokemon being returned! Tuxedo, short hair from the silhouette I saw!"

"Got it, Skarmory that way!" Steven called from above, leading the group away. 

"I'll check over there in case they run!" Sapphire yelled to the group, hearing a grunt of approval from Blue as she ran off with Sceptile. Her running steps crunched the leaves as the leaves thickened above. Blotting out the sky and leaving the light being emitted from glowing flowers, vines and mushrooms. 

The deeper she ran, the more the air thickened with the smell of heavy, damp leaf mold and sickly sweet tree sap. The deeper she ran… The more she realized how lost she got herself in the heat of the moment. 

Sapphire was lost in an unrecognizable part of the forest, lit merely by glowing plants and fungus and silence broken by the movement of distant pokemon and whistling wind. As she walked, she felt the ground disappear from her feet. Before she knew it, she was tumbling down into a small ditch. Sapphire yelped as she fell, feeling a pain in her arm as she hit the ground.

"Ow- ow." She groaned, slowly getting up as Sceptile slid down to follow its owner. When she got up, her Sceptile put a claw on her shoulder, grunting and looking around in preparation to attack at any moment. That moment came soon then she thought, two pairs of eyes suddenly lighting up the darkness, the movement of something stalking and something else dragging itself. 

She backed into the Sceptile out of fear, looking up at the narrow-eyed pokemons threatening glare. As the pokemon revealed themselves, Sceptile growled. A large, fiery maned pokemon with a dark brown pelt beside a tall, haunting pokemon made of wood and leaves. A lion and a tree, slowly stalking towards her. As she shut her eyes and slowly pointed, ready to command an attack, a voice spoke from behind the two pokemon. 

"Are you lost, little one?" A smooth and low voice with a kalosant accent, worry panging their voice. As she cracked open her eyes, she was met by a tall and regal man with long, red hair. His face was aged, but only ever so slightly. Maybe in his thirties or forties. "Are you okay?"

"I'm… I ran off trying to find someone that did some bad stuff." Sapphire explained. "Got seperated from my friends."

"Oh my," The man began, approaching a bit and opening a pocket. "You're hurt, let me help you. Show me your arm." The brunette looked, noticing her arm had a bleeding cut. She hadn't even noticed the cut itself when she initially fell, too struck with shock and fear to notice anything but momentary pain. She held out her arm, which the man carefully took in dark-gloved hands. As though he would shatter her in a moment. 

"Thank you." She quietly nodded as he began to clean the wound with some disinfectant pads he had in his pocket. Soon following it uo with two or three bandaids. 

"No need, petit ami. Is your Sceptile alright? I'm sorry if Treevanant and Pyroar caused you any trouble."

"No! No- they just scared us. Sceptile's okay."

"That's good to hear, a relief." He nodded. "My name is Lysander, I was invited here from Kalos. I missed the main boat so I came on a different one." Lysander explained, taking his hands away. 

"Sapphire, Grass Type gym leader in Hoenn." She introduced herself, sticking her injury-free hand out. Which he took and gave a gentle shake."

"Pleasure to male your acquaintance." Lysander nodded. "Allow me to take you to the home of some friends and I, you can rest up for the night and be on your way. It's quite late."

"Is it?" She asked.

"Yes, nearing the faery's hour." He explained, patting Pyroar's back. "Come and sit on him, I'll guide you back. I promise he doesn't bite." Lysander offered, slowly backing away.

Sapphire thought for a moment, this wasn't the first time in her journeys she's accepted such offers, as well as Sceptile being right beside her, she decided her best interest would be to accept. 

"Alright! Thank you again."

"No need." He smiled warmly, directing his pokemon to bend at the knees and allow her to climb on. As they began on the path, he clicked the button of a PokeBall to the Treevanant, returning it. "I'd hate to see someone with an injury rot away into something hideous."

Sapphire nodded, stroking Pyroar's mane with a hum. The pokemon was quite warm and each swish of its tail caused embers to float in the air for a moment. Leaving small wisps of light only to die out, the silence broke as Lysander joined in the humming with a tune. His warm smile has turned softer, more relaxed. 

"What are you humming?" Sapphire tilted her head.

"Oh? An old song from Kalos." He shrugged, only making her curiosity rise.

"Can you sing it? I wanna hear it." She grinned as he knitted his brows in thought. 

"If you wish," He chuckled a little as he cleared his throat. "Forgive if I'm rusty."

"Comme les ténèbres obscurcissent la lumière,

L'or du soleil étouffé par la nuit d'argent

Oh, petit, ne te laisse pas faire confiance

Les sauvages qui font des bonbons avec de la rouille

Ils arpentent les chemins, les forêts de fae,

Et avec la lune ils font ce qu'ils peuvent

La nuit hantée par les fantômes et les Gengar

Ils portent des malédictions de près et de loin

Toutes les personnes de Kanto à Galar

Sachez que les pierres pointues et les roses

Cachez-vous parmi les étoiles."