#shared.thoughts

[darcydirectory]

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This is a good post from Palestinian American photographer Adam Rouhana about the importance of using photography to humanize people and communities and challenge harmful narratives that portray Palestinians as “masked and violent or as disposable and lifeless.”

[meisun657]

Hi, I hope you're doing well. I'm writing to you with a heavy heart and an urgent request for help. My family is in a very danger situation due to the ongoing war, and I've launched a GoFundMe campaign to save them. Could you please share my campaign post from my profile? Each share could be a lifeline for my family. 🙏 Feel free to share it in any other social media platform if you would like. Our campaign has been verified ⭐️ by operation olive branch, and is entry number 26 on their spreadsheet. Also with ⭐️ Project watermelon,line 249/(212) on their spreadsheet. From the bottom of my heart I want to thank you in advance for all of your support and kindness.

Actions for Palestine [Background]

Actions for DR Congo/Eastern Congo Initiative [Background]

Actions for Sudan [Background]/One Million Sustainable Pads Campaign

Free West Papua

Stop Genocide Now (not the most up-to-date, but cites other orgs to support and sites to educate yourself)

[dancingadopteethoughts]

Short video about Holocaust Survivor Philomena Franz that I recommend people watch.

[sunlake1]

Great video here that gives a brief history of the Blaccent, why it's harmful, and what non-Black people, particularly non-Black people of color, can do to challenge it hosted by Professor Danielle Bainbridge. Just as a note, I am a non-Black person of color myself and am boosting this content for educational purposes. I also recognize that this is a complex topic that a nine-minute video like this can't fully encapsulate. Still, I think this is an important topic to engage with and think critically about how we non-Black people may problematically appropriate languages spoken by other marginalized groups. Here are some key points I found useful:

-The Blaccent started long before the internet in the United States through white people doing blackface and mimicking African American Vernacular English (AAVE) for comedic performances that were widely popular among white audiences. White people's careers were boosted by these dehumanizing and overexaggerated radio and television shows and when Black people were allowed to act in them, they were forced to use the same exaggerations of AAVE by white producers.

-Discussing Blaccent as if it's just teenage internet talk is harmful because it normalizes the mocking of AAVE by non-Black people when there is a double standard of non-Black people's careers being boosted by using Blaccent in social media and cinema while Black people are considered less professional for speaking AAVE and less likely to be hired.

-The best thing to do if you are a non-Black person, particularly a non-Black person of color, who has used AAVE in media in order to boost your own platform is to just say sorry and acknowledge the history of Blaccent and the double standards associated with it. It's also important to acknowledge that non-Black people of color using Blaccent are often criticized more for their usage of Blaccent than white people due to being held to much higher standards. Solidarity is important and apologizing and recognizing these inequalities are first steps toward that.

[darcydirectory]

Great video from TED-Ed about how to apologize in person-to-person interactions! In summary, it's important to...

Try to understand what happened through the victim's perspective rather than immediately trying to rationalize your own decisions.

Accept responsibility for the hurt you caused by being specific about what harm you caused and what you are apologizing for.

Offer to repair the damage by either promising to do better and then actually doing better and/or by finding another way to make it up to the victim.

Obviously, apologies are very complex and are going to vary much context-to-context. Also, this video is very much speaking from a Western perspective, so it doesn't take into account different ways of apologizing around the world. While it's good to keep in mind the limits of the advice this video gives, I still hope you find some useful information from it!

[darcydirectory]

Hello ! Thanks for bearing with me , I am a Palestinian educator from Gaza whose life is dire and gruesome. Nothing has left for my family except the hope you can support and help us. After 9 months of war we became exhausted, hopeless , desperate , and displaced. Houses and livelihood sources have been lost and gone with the wind. Things are driving us insane and made. The least level of life can't be attained. Healthy water and food have become a dream we need to realize. What worsens our life more is the constant bombings and killings. That is why I am asking in this post to help us survive this unbearable circumstances , moving from hell to safety and peace. Your support can help us be safe and alive so friends you can support us either by directly donating whatever you can or by sharing my campaign links so that generous people can know about our tragedy and pain. Remember your small contribution can make a big difference for the lives of many children whose heath gets worse and worse everyday. Let their life change and let them feel happy through your kind contribution.

https://gofund.me/9b764ae7

❤️💚🤍🖤

Verified here.

More Actions:

Actions for Palestine [Background]

Actions for DR Congo/Eastern Congo Initiative [Background]

Actions for Sudan [Background]/One Million Sustainable Pads Campaign

Free West Papua

Stop Genocide Now (not the most up-to-date, but cites other orgs to support and sites to educate yourself)

[dancingadopteethoughts]

Really great quick video about interpretation for all of you interested in how simultaneous interpretation works and the challenges and problems that can come with it!

My favorite points:

Mistranslations can be very serious when it comes to interpretations because oftentimes conference interpreters are interpreting important diplomatic meetings and speeches that will have a big impact on global politics and relations (the video gives an example of an interpretation mistake during the US-SU Cold War)

Student interpreters practice by shadowing people and repeating their every word and then overtime, start paraphrasing and eventually using another language and this all creates new neural pathways in the brain!

Interpreters sometimes have to use acronyms, generic terms, etc. rather than translate more directly

Interpreters also have to be comfortable with interpreting in stressful and intimidating situations and because interpretation is so intensive, interpreters tend to take turns around every half hour

I also liked these two videos from Wired that showcase a few interpreters:

Interpreter Breaks Down How Real-Time Translation Works | WIRED

2 Interpreters Test Their Interpreting Skills

[meisun657]

I began from there to think about how we seem to need to use words of degradation in order to dehumanize our enemies, in order to be able to pick up sticks and stones and go to battle against them. We have somehow to believe that they are less human than we are in order to get the courage to kill them. I began to think then, really, ‘What does make somebody wicked? What is evil, and how do we use it socially and culturally? How do we use the concept as a legitimization of our inclination toward greed and self-involvement and self-rationalization?’

-Gregory Maguire (Author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West)

I highly recommend reading the article the quote comes from because it talks about how the US media often uses dehumanization to justify violence and how reactions to the Gulf War in 1991 influenced the themes in Maguire's writing. I haven't read the books, but I have listened to the musical.

[darcydirectory]

Check out this awesome music video!

Hello, everyone! It's been a while. As always, I hope you are well and taking care of yourself and others. For social justice and mental health resources, here is a starting point: https://sunsblmresources.weebly.com/.

Today, I wanted to share with you this incredible music video by one of my favorite artists Raye Zaragoza. I first found her music on YouTube a few years ago through her Dakota Pipeline (https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/plains-treaties/dapl) protest song "In the River" (https://youtu.be/I4eosRdP5gQ). In February 2020, Raye posted a call to her followers on social media to take part in her music video "Change Your Name." Excited, I submitted a video, but due to COVID, the project wasn't published until today, two and a half years later.

Raye herself is of Indigenous, Mexican, Japanese, and Taiwanese heritage and identifies as a multicultural brown woman. This song was inspired by her mother's immigration journey from Japan to the United States and Raye hopes you watch the full video and become encouraged to share your own stories. The music video shows people who changed their names due to immigration, assimilation, etc. holding signs with their legal names as well as their original names.

On a personal note, I was adopted from Zhuzhou, Hunan, China when I was fourteen months old and while I never knew if my birth family had named me, I was given the name 国红跃 (Surname: Guo/Given name: Hongyue) by the orphanage. Guo translates to "country." Hongyue translates to Red Jump in English. However, when I was adopted, my name was changed to Darcy as it is easier for English speakers to pronounce and recognizes the Irish heritage of my father's side.

I both love and have complicated feelings about these two names. I remember my mother telling me when I was young how people would make fun of her last name being Yee and I would feel grateful I never had to experience that kind of discrimination. At the same time, it sometimes feels like my Chinese heritage is invisible when people only see my legal name which is of Irish origin. Yet, 国红跃 is a name that was given to me by an orphanage, not by my birth family, so the name is also a reminder of how little I know about my early history and of what I lost as a baby. It's all very complicated and I think that is what this music video exemplifies. Names possess messy histories. I am happy to have had the opportunity to participate in this music video and share my story. I hope you enjoy Raye's song!

If you are interested in names, there's a very good NPR article about a number of different Asians discussing the histories of their names through words and photographs: https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/05/29/1101015430/asian-photographers-share-the-stories-behind-their-names.

____________________________________________________________

Video directed by @jalena.kl & @romanzaragoza

Cinematographer @thedrewjames

Assistant Director @sydneymei 

#ChangeYourName #ShareYourStory #AANHPIMonth 

[darcydirectory]

Update 3/21/21

Hi, everyone! I hope you are all safe and healthy this week and for those who celebrate, your Saint Patrick’s Day was good. This definitely has been a tough week for me as a Chinese American person. This Sunday, instead of stories, I wanted to share with you a few places where you can educate yourself and organizations to support. 

First, this Carrd (https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/) has a bunch of articles I recommend taking a look at. They also have links to organizations to support. PBS has also re-opened access to their “Asian Americans” special, which is linked in this Carrd.

Additionally, I updated the resources/organizations list I created with links specifically for AAPI organizations, so please take a look there and do what you can to support these groups who are doing good work for the world. https://sunsblmresources.weebly.com/

Anyways, please educate yourself, take action, and care for your wellbeing!

[dancingadopteethoughts]

I haven’t read this book, but I really like this note by the author about adoptee experiences being complex and diverse and the importance of giving space to the adoptee to make sense of their thoughts and experiences toward their adoption rather than assuming for them.

[darcydirectory]

Really good article about how it's so important to see Lee's story as one about the value of community instead of just one about hard work.

[darcydirectory]

Hi, everyone! As you have probably seen in the news and on social media, India is going through a tremendous rise in COVID cases that is decimating the country. I encourage you to take a look at these resources I have linked below that were shared with me by a friend from New Delhi. Please donate where you can. We should all do what we can to support our global community.

-https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ca5YH5YUtp7Qe63sVNX1SlepQcvzc4RCwLhMBvTJyE/mobilebasic# (list of organiations that accept international donations)

-https://hemkuntfoundation.com/donate-now/ (Hemkunt Foundation)

-https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1eiobgyrl8iz-R1Dz7c4R5pzzzkuZLBj99vaC7T_UeVo/mobilebasic (list of individuals looking for donations)

[sunlake1]

Super important article by Minnesota Disability Support Alternatives board president Jules Edwards that I highly recommend reading that discusses how Applied Behavior Analysis has ableist beginnings and is not compatible with Native cultures. The article discusses how Applied Behavior Analysis treats autistic people as if they need to be fixed without recognizing that autistic people are already people who deserve, like anyone else, to be respected. The article also discusses how true equity isn't giving everybody equal opportunity to participate in capitalist society, but making sure everybody is able to access services that meet "[their] needs, based on [their] values and ideals, to help [them] achieve [their] goals."

[sunlake1]

Hi, everyone! I just watched a great video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLFhoGAlX7w on Asian American and Black American solidarity and I highly recommend giving it a listen even if you aren't Asian or Black American. It has a lot of food for thought. I also understand that not everyone has time to watch a 40min video, so here are my highlights: 

-The Model Minority Myth is the harmful "hierarchy" white people have placed on Asians to pit them against Black Americans and has led to competition between all marginalized races in the United States. The Model Minority Myth forces Black people to be at the bottom of the "ladder" and White people to be at the top and all other races to compete with one another for "second" and "third" place instead of collaborating and listening to one another. 

-Asians have more privilege than many other marginalized races due to immigration reform in 1965 allowing highly educated Asians to immigrate and get a headstart in the American economy in comparison to other minorities, especially Black Americans who are descended from slaves with no economic privilege to pass down. 

 -Another way Asians have privilege is due to the efforts of Black Americans through the Civil Rights Movement allowing for more equality and justice for all races. This is a reminder that when you fight for Black lives, you are fighting for all lives. 

-Asian Americans have their own prejudices within their own communities, especially with East Asians often having far more privileges than Southeast Asians. This inequality is often overlooked due to all Asians being lumped together.

-The racism toward mostly elderly Asian Americans that has risen due to the former president's racist remarks has created tension between Black and Asian Americans with both sides feeling like the other isn't listening to them, leading to a cycle of isolating themselves from one another. Asians in particular have to do better about being inclusive of Black Americans in their own communities and remembering that the actions of a few do not generalize to all. 

-"Yellow Peril" was a term used by Asian American activists in the 1960s as a way to try to tell white people that they should feel threatened by Asian Americans. The way it's being used now in "Yellow Peril Supports Black Power" shows the lack of knowledge even young Asian Americans have about the past of Asian American activism. 

-Ways forward: educate yourself, involve yourself in communities outside of your comfort zone, have tough conversations with all communities/institutions/organizations you are part of, acknowledge your privileges, be actively anti-racist, be willing to listen 

 Speakers: Lisa Ling (https://www.instagram.com/lisalingstagram/), Dr. Peniel Joseph (https://twitter.com/PenielJoseph)​, Laureen Chew (https://www.pbs.org/show/asian-americans/), Kendra Okereke (https://www.instagram.com/ken10hollywood/), Philip Wang (https://www.instagram.com/wongfuphil/)

[sunlake1]

Great opinion piece about how the violence that happened last Wednesday at the Capitol is connected to a long history of white supremacy in the United States and how it's important to acknowledge the truth before trying to heal anything.