#we need to segregate words by ethnicity. please. to help black people.

[zoobus]

I remember seeing a chart that listed AAVE words and phrases and recommended substitutes for non-Black people. I get the intent, but it had stuff like "replace 'cool' with 'neat'" and the entire list made you sound like a 1950s milkman like that.

Lmao

[andsmile]

I stumbled across a youtube vid where Camila had spoken about feeling secondary to her friends growing up and down in the comments people were stating that her comments didn't make sense since (to them) she is white. I know that Brazil is a bit of an anomaly cus its not a Spanish speaking country but I don't know how someone can look at Camila and think she's white. If anything she strikes me as being mixed.

ahm, this is kind of a hard topic imo, so i’ll put it all under the cut!

camila is a latina who grew up in the united states, where the racial/ethnic aspects sometimes get confusing... and i’m going to do my best talking about this because i am white, way whiter than cami even though my dad is black, and i am not from the US, but as a white latina it’s how i’ve learned how to look at it. PLEASE, educate me if i’m saying something wrong! always willing to learn here.

in brazil, cami would be considered “white” or “parda”, which is the word we have for those who aren’t black but also aren’t really white - but “parda” just refers to the skin color, not the ethnicity. 

here, you could only say she’s mixed if she was the daughter of a black woman and a white man, for example, and her skin tone reflected that; or if she was the daughter of an asian man and a white woman, etc, but she isn’t.

i am the daughter of a white woman and a black man, however, i am super white, so i can’t be considered mixed or parda. the “pardo” here is just a color. and the ethnicity doesn’t really play a game.

example of a white actress in brazil. she’s the grand-daughter of german immigrants:

example of a black actresses in brazil:

example of a mixed actress in brazil, daughter of a black man and a white woman. same as me, but you see she’s essentially the same color as the black actress, so she’s considered mixed and could self-identify as parda. i, on the other hand, cannot.

cami. her parents are not black, but her skin color isn’t as white as the white actress or me, so she would be considered “parda” here in brazil, or just a white “morena” (brunette), depending on how you want it to be:

however, in the US, it doesn’t work that way. 

this happens because the US, historically, had colorism policies and race segregation that we in Latam never did. so, when there was segregation back then, you would only be considered white if you were “purely white”, so if you had “one-drop” of black blood you’d already be considered black. this is why it gets so confusing, imo, because you consider the ethnicity, and not just the skin color.

ok, so, when feminism movements started to blow up in the seventies, US black activists came up with the term women of color. it was supposed to be about the afro-american/black women in the agenda, but other minorities who felt like the white feminist agenda didn’t suit their needs, wanted to be part of the “women of color” agenda, and it ended up englobing everyone who isn’t considered “purely white”. you should read about this in wikipedia and other sources, it’s pretty interesting!

the fact that cami’s ethnicity is latin-american already places her in a "in-between” position. it’s what we call “white passing” in english. she’s white passing, but she isn’t “purely white”. the culture she grew up with doesn’t fit. that means she is, as a latina, considered a minority in the US. her ethnicity places her in this position.

so, is cami as a latina a woman of color? yes, if you go by this term definition. just like asian-american women and black women. OF COURSE she would never struggle with the same issues as a black woman. but she also isn’t considered an “equal” to her white friends in many ways, because of her origin and culture. it’s hard to understand! but it’s valid that she feels like this in a society that consider latinos non-whites, no matter how white-passing they are.

gisele bündchen is a brazilian model who is obviously white, but she hasn’t suffered any kind of prejudice about being a minority because she’s white and german descendant. if she has suffered with anything, was probably with the misconception that all brazilian women are down to fuck, etc - same kind of prejudice i’ve been through, rooted on sexism and misinformation about latinx women. 

but there’s a huge difference between gisele, who has a white skin, german last name, blue eyes, blonde hair, supermodel body, etc, and cami, who has dark hair, latinx features, latinx body, dark eyes, etc.

so cami’s struggles are super valid in the society she lives in.

none of this applies to veronica, though. veronica comes from a mexican family in canon, both her parents are mexican, and she most definitely can be considered a woman of color in the show, regardless of how white-passing cami is. 

you see how much the character is hated, mistreated, and slandered by the fandom. you see how much she’s disregarded by reviewers who pay more attention to betty. of course, she’s still in a better position than the black women in the show, but if veronica lodge was purely white like in the comics, she’d be a bigger contender for archie’s heart in the eyes of the fandom, for sure.

anyway! i hope this helped? and if you guys have something to add please do, i hope i didn’t say anything wrong. 

[the-scottish-costume-guy]

JK Rowling, transphobia and a hopefully helpful post.

A few days ago I posted on my Facebook (yes I have one sue me) debunking some of the things Rowling has been saying on twitter. Since she made a statement I felt the need to make another one... but this time Im sharing it here. Please note this is long, it is fairly opinionated in places but her statements have felt so insidious I want to share something in depth. If you are cis I implore you to read, but I understand this is long and a lot of people wont want to. No judgement. 

Jk Rowling’s latest statement is a mess of valid concerns and fear mongering. At this point there can be no claim she doesn’t know what shes talking about - she herself has said shes been researching this for years. She throws in token acknowledgements to “real” trans people while framing the rest of her statements as concern for confused teens.So first things first - and something that might not be popular with some of my trans friends. I agree that teenagers should not be able to medically transition. It is a choice that should be made when the brain is fully mature. Hormone blockers are something I trust - and that are reversible. I have seen enough detransitioned people hurting to feel like we do need to be careful - especially with children who are trying to find themselves. I dont know about other people but during my teens I was coming to the crushing realisation that I wasn’t special. I was learning that no matter how well I painted someone else did it better, no matter how badly I hurt someone had it worse - I was learning about the wonderful mediocrity of life, and having anything that made me stand out gave a brief reprieve from learning to be okay with all these things. For me to be fair it was dying my hair outrageous colours and dressing in black leather during 30 degree summer heat - but its still something we cant forget. I KNOW a lot of kids claiming to be trans are - and I dont want to keep that from them, however I dont want to cause harm to the kids that are wrong. Continuing on, I’d like to address her comments about TERFS. Terfs are Self Described Trans-exclusionary-radical-feminists and the term does get thrown around a little too liberally at times. Terf is not and never will be a slur. No more than “White” is. It is about a group of people who have taken it open themselves to segregate another group - and calling that what it is, is not a crime. The reason Terf and transphobe have become synonomic is because the ‘radical feminists’ that subscribe to this have lost focus on nearly all other issues of feminism and sit squarely on “dropping the T” from the lgbt community and “keeping men out of womens bathrooms.” Terfs are overwhelmingly women - this is sadly simply a fact. Terfs are reviled because of how much it feels like a betrayal to the community. A group that fights for rights - except ours. A group that wants equality - except for us. Its different to the conservatives who hate us all equally - with Terfs we are singled out. Terfs are not, as Rowling claims, inclusionary to Trans-men. I’ve been met with a combination of pity, loathing, mockery and revulsion by people within this group. I’ve been told that I shouldn’t let homophobia push me into transitioning - only for all correspondence to abruptly drop when I mention Im marrying another man. I’ve been told my old body was beautiful - only for stunned silence when I agree. I was beautiful - I was curvy, I was a dancer and had a body to match - but I wasn’t Me. When their usual arguments against me fail - I’m met with hate. Im called anti-woman, traitor, homophobic. I even have some such comments saved on my blog. I have yet to meet a Terf who was pro-trans-man. Rowling claims that had she had the ability, as a confused teen, she may have sought to transition. I hate to tell her but she did have the ability and trans people didn’t pop into existence in the twenty-first century. I’m actually looking to do my dissertation topic in my final year on lgbt presentation throughout history - and in my overeager way I’ve already started researching. James Barry has been becoming a common name for years - a transgender surgeon who died in 1865. If Barry was able to at least socially transition from 1790 to 1860, I am fairly sure Rowling could have in 1980 - over a century later. Rowling also claims that groups of friends in schools all suddenly identify as trans at the same time. Speaking from my school experience - the queer kids group together. We seek out others like us, and we take strength from each others bravery to come out - often around the same time. We almost get a rush of resolve when one of our group musters the courage and strength, and some of us use that rush to bite the bullet ourselves. Its one of the beautiful ways the lgbt community is here for one another - and the influx of people identifying as trans is partially a factor of more people knowing the name of their feelings. Survivor bias will ignore the trans people through history without the knowledge or means to transition - and will claim they were never trans at all. Her initial statements about charities worry me in particular. As I said last time - we know sex is real, we just dont really like to be defined by it. She is worried that we’re going to “rebrand medicine” and ignores that medications for years have had warnings in their leaflets about “If you are or become pregnant” regardless of if the person receiving it has a dick or a vagina. We dont advocate for ignoring the differences in how people respond to heart attacks - and I for one would like research to be done on how hormones effect that. I dont actually know if I would respond more like a cis gender woman or a cis gender man if I were to have a heart attack or a stroke. But where possible we do want to change the language around some of these things. I have had a double mastectomy, but some Cis-men have these as well. This is not a gendered term. Why should a period be called anything else? Why call it a “womens problem.” I and Im sure many other trans people, support the research into how different medical and mental issues affect different sexes. I just think that should be extended further - and we know it should, as some medical issues affect people of different ethnicities in different ways and we don’t know how. I am truly sorry that Rowling has experienced abuse and assault of any nature. I am truly sorry that she has felt unsafe. But her feelings do not invalidate others experiences. Of the trans people I know, a saddening number have been assaulted, have been abused and in particular have experienced these things domestically. There is much work to be done on this in the UK. There are nearly no mens shelters for sufferers of violence to my knowledge. I, a trans man who have experienced some of these things in my teen years, would Not want to be around cisgender women even if I could be. A cis woman was responsible for much of the pain I personally suffered - and in fact one of the acts of violence she carried out against me was directly after I came out as trans to her. Trans women, even if they could go to male shelters, should not have to be surrounded by a group that put them in danger - in a place that is detrimental to them physically and mentally and is frankly degrading. The belief that allowing trans women into shelters for those escaping abuse is dangerous is sad. To be so afraid is deserving of pity. To let fear blind you to the suffering of others - to think its better that a trans woman face homelessness or a return to an abusive household because you personally would sleep better at night is the kind of passive evil we should be aware of in this day and age. It comes from choosing to see the word “trans” before “person.” Its from choosing to see a persons genitals before their humanity. Trans people are not dangerous - and cause no greater risk than any other demographic.  Her claims that she can empathise with this fear are empty. A gender recognition certificate is not a ticket into womens bathrooms. Funnily enough you dont actually require a piece of paper to go almost anywhere. I do not have a gender recognition certificate and use male bathrooms, can enter male spaces as I please. All a gender recognition certificate does is change the letter on your birth certificate. It doesn’t even affect other forms of identification - my passport, my student id, my drivers license all already say male. I am not sure why so many people have chosen this as their hill to die on because its the least relevant thing to them on the planet. How often have any of you seen another persons birth certificate? Rowling says she and other ‘gender critical’ (a terf dogwhistle) people are concerned for trans youth. Well… she can take her condescending concern and direct it to matters that are relevant to her. Trans people want to be left alone. Its a simple request, and yet people endlessly seem to trip over the dirt level bar.

[imstillsingle]

A Letter To My Parents About #blacklivesmatter

You know what makes me sad, Mom and Dad?

I was trying to talk to you about why the protest and riots going on right now are important. I was explaining why they were occurring and how issues such as systematic racism, microagressions, and stereotyping were not issues that just happened and didn’t affect us. You listened to the why the riots and protests were happening and then tried to see I justify the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmad Arburey, and Breanna Taylor through statements based of stereotyping black people and microaggressions against black people. Although you didn’t directly mean what you said, those words were and are very demeaning and racist. I began explaining to you why those ideas were incorrect and how they lead to deaths of innocent people.You seemed to change what you were saying so I would be satisfied and stop bothering you. Even though you say you believe in equality you still have undertones of racism in your words. You didn’t want to talk about the ongoing issues because it didn’t affect you directly.

Understand that although we may not be the same race or ethnicity, we are all human and deserve equal rights and treatment.

Segregation may be illegal but that does not change the fact that people are still treated differently due to the color of their skin.

As non-white people, you and I don’t have the same privilege as a white person, however, it doesn’t discount that fact that as non-black people we have some more privilege. We are very lucky to not have to face some problems that the black community does but the black community isn’t afforded that same privilege. That means we have to fight for their rights. But to do that we need to understand the issues we have within ourselves.

You and I will never be able to truly understand the issues and problems that the black community face on daily basis but we need to help them solve those problems and issues.

Identify and change the microaggressions, stereotyping, and undertones of racism in the words and actions you do and say. We need to help our black family through actions now as well and not just words but the words we use must show our support.

In our daily lives we say many things to those who surround us. They may not always sound wrong but the connotations and the underlying meaning of those words and statements are inherently racist and demeaning. We need to change that. Even I am not perfect but I am trying to change.

We are all human beings and regardless of our origin,skin color, ethnicity, and race, we deserve to live equally.

You may ask me why do I say Black Lives Matter and not All Lives Matter. I say this because we know all lives matter but we do not know and understand that our black community matters just as much. The importance of their lives has been forgotten and we need to remind ourselves and those around us that black lives do matter.

This is only one small part of changing the world for better. Identify and change the microaggressions, stereotyping, and undertones of racism in the words and actions you do and say.

Mom. Dad. You are not perfect and neither am I but we need to work together as a family and support our black family.

From,

Your Child

Please reblog with resources on how to support the #blacklivesmatter movement

[o4343]

A Story and a Rant from my Sister

So, my little sister sent this over to me, and thought it would be appropriate to post it on Tumblr. She’s a Biology major and an honors student at a University in New England. It’s a bit rambl-y and rant-y and covers a lot of ground, but please read it. You’ll be glad you did.

This is an account of a Saturday morning conversation I was tangentially involved in at the dining hall of my university. I was halfway through my breakfast of bacon and French toast, which I had smothered with syrup and butter, and was listening to a conversation between a female acquaintance and her male colleague. The flow of the conversation had swept the two of them to the topic of bullying, something I have never experienced myself, and thus had no stories to share. I quietly consumed my meal listening intently to their experiences.

The male started, explaining that he had autism and was picked on because of his disability in middle school. His bully would verbally abuse him and isolated him from the rest of his classmates. This bully had a weakness, a peanut allergy, so one day he slipped peanut butter into his sandwich. The girl burst out “You could have killed him!” and he paused briefly. I have an allergy so I contributed a nod in agreement to her statement. He resumed the story concluding that the bully just ended up in the hospital and is still alive today. She further inquired “What was your punishment?” to which he stated “I never told anyone, why would I?” The conversation continued to the categorization of what his actions entailed, attempted murder, and floated to the next topic.

The female branched off from the idea of middle school. For a bit of background she is an American with one of those super mixed heritages and is an ‘asexual’. She described her experience with the afternoon bus at her middle school. The buses would come in, a student was assigned to hold the sign with the bus number, and the vice-principal or some administrator would call the number of the bus that just stopped and gesture to the group to go to the bus to board. She tended to be assigned the duty of sign carrier, so the administrator was the main focal point of her story. The women administrator could be likened to a drill sergeant; she would scream the number and swear at the middle schoolers until they boarded the bus. What the girl remembered clearly was how she would “not even start by yelling the number to grab their attention, instead she would start off angry at the first call.” The boy interrupted “She did that to elementary students!” She responded that it was middle school so they were used to swear words at that point; it was just the unwarranted anger that bothered her.

At this point I was done with the food on my plate and was finishing the water in the plastic made in Mexico cup provided by the dining hall. Luckily, I did not bring it to my lips the moment the male acquaintance asked with a straight face “Was she black?” I placed the cup down astonished at the words that just transpired from his lips. The words caressed my female acquaintance’s ear, she slowly answered, cautiously: “Yes.” His response was “then is it okay if I call her a gorilla, cause she defiantly is one.” I begin to sip my water: I recently read the manga Tanaka-kun is Always Listless, so I innocently recalled the scene where Tanaka and Saya are ranking Ohta based on a scale of one to five gorillas. It then dawned on me that it was a racist comment and I finished the remaining drops of water, waiting for the female to respond. Her response was swift: she stated she had some African American blood in her and found the statement offensive. His response was truly remarkable: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, I just assumed you were all white since your skin is pale.”

In that moment I finally had obtained the anecdote I needed. The social justice warrior movement worried me not because of their goal (I support equality a hundred and ten percent); no, it is the way they move about the issue that concerns me. One of the things they constantly discuss is how judging people based on ethnicity is terrible (no objections); however, they are obsessed with the concept of race and gender. It is always privilege of the majority and the dreaded gender binary. They say equality is not based on race or ethnicity yet they try to devalue the views and opinions of the so called privileged. The fascination with race is what leads to the ability to be versed in racist vocabulary, knowing terms that are either uncommon or (maybe) no longer directly associated with racism. Take the term “gorilla.” By itself, without race being involved, it simply relates to an animal: not offensive at all. Even if used to describe a random person with no race or gender information it could mean a strong person or big person: just an observational metaphor.

The point that really struck me is the idea that, as long as those around you are not offended or do not have their feelings hurt it is then socially acceptable to call people racist remarks and stereotype. The idea racism/sexism is systemic should not be used as a means to bad mouth the system and whine about how some people don’t have to deal with racism/sexism. The whining is just a means to avoid fixing the systemic problem, which they want you to think is impossible to solve, because they themselves are a part of the system. They want to pay lip service to equality while constantly emphasizing divides between people, ensuring no collective unity occurs.

It is about personal gain; by leading a movement that is morally sound, while stalling actions to help others unite, they create issues from nonissues. Remember the gender neutral bathrooms? No one cared if transgendered people used the bathroom they associate with; the most you talk to a stranger about in the bathroom is if the soap runs out, if there is no toilet paper, or other short little conversations: no one knows what your gender is or even your sexual preference.

The concept that everyone is a special little snowflake, with a specific label just for them, avoids the big picture: WE ARE ALL Homo sapiens sapiens. There is one biological category we fall in, one. No matter how special you are, you are one of 7.4 billion others just like you, with just slightly modified genes. Problems like racism and sexism are not inherent in human nature, it does nothing to help the major goals of any organism, survive and reproduce, and in fact I would argue it is a hindrance to that process. Sexism and racism restrict an individual’s pool of mates while increasing interspecies competition, expending energy fighting that could be used for mating. We have laws to support people in cases of racism and sexism: use them! If there are problems in the system fight tooth and nail for more laws to protect fundamental rights. Point out the wrongs and help everyone get involved! Do not focus on segregating certain issues to certain communities.  To combat Global Climate Change we will need to as a global community push ALL nations into stopping pollution and CO2 emissions, no exceptions, and we have not nearly worked on space programs enough to even consider it a possible means of escape. We made our bed, but it is us as a collective population of 7.4 billion to decide if we will simply lie in it and twiddle our thumbs before our mass extinction.

[radthursdays]

#RadThursdays Roundup 12/28/2017

All of today's images are from Who's Left: Prison Abolition, a comic drawn by Flynn Nicholls.

Four panels depict a Black woman wearing bright, colorful earrings and glasses. She says, "I’m Mariame Kaba, Director of Project NIA and prison abolitionist." The off-screen interviewer asks, "Is prison abolition a hard thing to explain to people?" She responds, "I get the same questions. 'What about bad people? What about rapists?' I don’t answer those questions anymore."

Issues

We Actually Don’t Need Status Quo Warriors: “What exactly do we stand to lose by allowing space for valid critique? What we lose, of course, is one facet of white supremacy that many of us hold all too dear—the right to never ever have to think critically about anything that might be reinforcing our right to never ever have to think critically about anything.”

Our relationship with work is destroying our humanity: "We are on the verge of total work’s realization. Each day I speak with people for whom work has come to control their lives, making their world into a task, their thoughts an unspoken burden. […] Following this taskification of the world, she sees time as a scarce resource to be used prudently, is always concerned with what is to be done, and is often anxious both about whether this is the right thing to do now and about there always being more to do. Crucially, the attitude of the total worker is not grasped best in cases of overwork, but rather in the everyday way in which he is single-mindedly focused on tasks to be completed, with productivity, effectiveness and efficiency to be enhanced."

How a Gay Friendly and “Very Pro-Choice” Trump Created the Most Anti-Choice, Anti-LGBT Administration in Generations: "Aside from appointments, many advocates have raised concerns with specific actions HHS has taken over the past year – actions signaling that vulnerable populations, including undocumented immigrants, victims of trafficking, and LGBTQ individuals – may be subject to further discrimination. Indeed, 'vulnerable' is one of the Centers for Disease Control’s newly banned words. When the HHS published its draft strategic plan for FY2018-2022 this past fall, it removed all mentions of LGBTQ individuals and ethnic minorities that had appeared in the Obama-era version. The Trump draft plan also rewrote the federal government’s definition of life, emphasizing that life begins 'at conception.'"

The comic panel shows a frightened businessperson reacting to ambiguous, scary-looking shapes (the “other”). In the next pane, part of a (drawn) newspaper is shown with headline reading: “Dog murdered, net worth $1.5 Million, cleared on all charges.” The text reads: "These are posed as questions about safety but are mostly based in fear of the other. Safety for whom? And from what? It doesn’t make sense to answer because there are bad people who have not been incarcerated."

Inequality

Bussed Out: How America moves its homeless: Each year, US cities give thousands of homeless people one-way bus tickets out of town. An 18-month nationwide investigation by the Guardian reveals, for the first time, what really happens at journey’s end.

It's Basically Just Immoral To Be Rich: "The central point, however, is this: it is not justifiable to retain vast wealth. This is because that wealth has the potential to help people who are suffering, and by not helping them you are letting them suffer. It does not make a difference whether you earned the vast wealth. The point is that you have it."

The slippery slope of the oligarchy media mode: "What might be called the 'benevolent billionaire model' for supporting journalism begs the obvious point that not all billionaires are benevolent."

The top pane of this panel shows abstract silhouettes of cameras and police officers, and the bottom pane shows prison bars rendered in bright red. The text reads:

Kaba: "I’d rather talk about having justice without police or surveillance."

Interviewer: "Why abolition? Why not reform?"

Kaba: "The prison system is harmful! There is rampant violence, rape, and deaths in custody."

Witchcraft

How to Destroy the World: “It has been said that 'magic is the knowledge of true names,' but this is not naming. Magic is the knowledge of naming, the theory and practice of critiquing this world and increasing our power. True names are to see the truth of naming: we recognize gentrification as hostile to us who are poor, we identify the police as a gang that enforces and protects this already hostile world, we recognize highways as segregation devices. We develop our own languages for our struggles and our experiences. Magic as the practice of critiquing this world does not mean to be an academic, but to actually push against this world in spaces against naming.”

Witch Kids of Instagram: “Disempowered by society and overwhelmed with physical changes, teenage girls fall in love with the idea of forming covens. . . . the more disempowered people are, the more they long for magic, which explains why magic becomes the province of women in a sexist society.”

The First Witch of Damansara: Fictional short story by Zen Cho. "Vivian’s late grandmother was a witch—which is just a way of saying she was a woman of unusual insight. Vivian, in contrast, had a mind like a hi-tech blender. She was sharp and purposeful, but she did not understand magic."

The top half of this panel shows huge crane-claws descending from the sky and uprooting important institutions (a house, a hospital, an office building / apartment complex). The bottom half shows a group of people working together to form a human archway. The text reads: "So we have to create the conditions that decrease the demand for police and surveillance. You need jobs, healthcare, housing, people need to be able to live their lives. You need to create structures to address harm and hold people accountable. People think abolitionists minimize harm but we take it very seriously. Safety is a collective action."

Technology

Are robots imitating us or are we imitating robots?: “Robots and computers are acting more and more like people. They’re driving around in cars, hooking us up with new lovers and talking to us out of the blue. But is the opposite also true— are people acting more and more like robots? The computers may think so: addicted to our phones, caught in virtual filter bubbles and dependent on just a handful of tech companies, people are acting more and more predictably. The breakthrough of artificial intelligence and immersive media doesn’t just pose the question what technology does to us, but also what we do with this technology.”

‘Tsunami of data’ could consume one fifth of global electricity by 2025: Billions of internet-connected devices could produce 3.5% of global emissions within 10 years and 14% by 2040, according to new research, reports Climate Home News.

The Sad Saps of Neoliberal Reddit Trying to Make Globalism Cool Again: “The Neoliberal subreddit itself has existed for years, one of the thousands of barren, long-abandoned forums on the internet. Its boosters have rarely needed a staging ground or a place for solidarity, and that probably would still be the case if Hillary Clinton were president. Unfortunately for the neoliberal base, Hillary Clinton is not president. In 2016 the “globalists cucks” were handed an earthshaking defeat, and the building blocks of neoliberal philosophy are under attack from both the Breitbart and Bernie wings of the political landscape. And those supposedly fringe alternatives have energized a huge swath of young people who’ve been left cold by the traditional conception of western economics. It’s hard to stand toe-to-toe with the newfound fashionability of socialism, but r/neoliberal is doing its damndest to make globalism cool again.”

The first panel shows a building labeled the "Prison Industrial Complex" that's controlled by a lever turned to "ON" – a person grips it, about to turn it to "OFF". The second panel shows a red prison building in the center of a black and white web. The text reads: “A lot of people think abolitionists want to close prisons tomorrow when we didn’t get there yesterday. Ruthie Gilmore says, ‘Abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions.’ The prison system sits at the intersection of multiple forms of oppression and facets of society and when you map it out, we’re all in that web."

Activism

Water Is Life: “This Is Not A Symbolic Action” — Indigenous Protesters Occupy Oil Platforms in Radicalized Fight Against Pollution in the Amazon: "'The Western culture looks at the forest and sees money, resources to sell,' Aurelio Dahua, the Quechua chief, told me in Andoas. 'The government and company officials are very professional and have studied in the cities. They think they are going to teach us poor nativos how to live. But what kind of knowledge lets you destroy the lungs of the world? Why don’t they find another way to develop this country? Why not help us protect the forest? They know nothing. They are building their own graveyard.'"

Direct Action Item

As 2017 wraps up, think back on how you've spent your time, energy, money, and other resources this year. Does it reflect your values? What are your values? Take some time this week to share your core values with friends, along with direct action items relating to your values for next year.

If there’s something you’d like to see in next week’s #RT, please send us a message.

In solidarity!

What is direct action? Direct action means doing things yourself instead of petitioning authorities or relying on external institutions. It means taking matters into your own hands and not waiting to be empowered, because you are already powerful. A “direct action item” is a way to put your beliefs into practice every week.

[unmutedudc-blog]

Black Rage

Black Rage

“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious, is to be in a rage almost all the time. So the first part of the problem is how to control the rage so that it won’t destroy you. Part of the rage is this: it isn’t only what is happening to you, but it’s what’s happening around you all of the time, in the face of the most extraordinary and criminal indifference, the indifference and ignorance of most white people in this country.”  -  James Baldwin

Walking down the 14th Street corridor, you’d never think that this area of town was partially destroyed in a riot, you have high-end cycling centers to high-end athletic shops right next door, places like; soulcycle, lululemon, and high-end coffee shops like Wyndown and high rises. This neighbourhood oozes with money, charm, with all the trends of modern luxury. What we know from history was that the riots of 1968 started on April 4th less than two hours after the national news wires reported the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Author and Professor of Ethics Studies Kwame Holmes states in his report “Beyond the Flames” that it started when an unidentified black youth threw a brick into People’s Drug store which was located on the corner of 14th and U. Men and women, gay and straight, black and white alike all taking part in one of the oldest professions in history, prostitution. With racial disparity running high, police officers inability to clean up the neighbourhood, targeting ethnic minorities, leaning on historical concepts of discrimination. There’s a huge power struggle in this neighbourhood. There’s a rage from injustice. Cops trying to segregate the sex workers and customers. Black heteromasculinity clashes with the underground gay community. Society can never progress without white people acknowledging their unbelievable actions and their dangerous and evil behaviors, that persist even today. Their power reaches places that nowadays are almost impossible to break through, but that was their goal and their focus when a lot of society was trying to move towards love, they're hate could not be apparent, they had to lurk and murder. The history of the U.S. is riddled with such violence and depravity, it comes as no surprise that today police murder on camera and walk away free. It hasn’t even been a century since Billie Holiday sang about “Strange Fruit,” and lynchings carried on for decades after it’s release. In August of this year, an 8 year old biracial child was pushed off of a picnic table after a couple of white teens tied a rope around his neck, after assaulting him with stones and sticks, and talks of “white supremacy.” Fortunately, Quincy survived, even though the Police Chief from Claremont, NH, has stated that the white teens involved in his attempted murder  “need to be protected.” He also stating that: “we don’t want things to follow kids throughout their life,” as the 8 year old child is suffering from night terrors from this trauma. Racism continues because history was not expressed by those who suffered, their true pain and suffering never acknowledged or rectified. The white man took charge of the telling of pain, trauma, and suffering through the rape, murder, enslavement, abduction, and torture of People of Color. For a short time between the 70s-90s, it nearly faded into obscurity only to adapt as an evil lurking in the shadows, and not in plain sight as it once did. Through systematic political, economic, and societal powerhouses, the white people did not change their despicable views.  They merely adapted their control on PoC in ways that were difficult to bring down; laws, education, healthcare, law enforcement, gentrification, society as a whole. During the 60s in the neighborhood of Shaw in DC, “rebellions” were carried out as they attempted to dismantle the cruel and unusual punishment and treatment of black people. The wordings of “riots” brands the people who are rioting as in the wrong, angry, irrational, and acts of “random violence.” Words carry immense weight, and the use of “riot” branded a portion of a population’s attempts to make their voices heard as violent lunatics, angry for nothing. The word “riot” helped enforce a notion that “black people are congenitally unfit for citizenship” (Holmes, 306). “The political and juridical institutions designed to respond to citizen concerns in the United states are incapable of registering, let alone responding to, black people’s pain” (Holmes, 307). The “rebellions” were called “riots” as a successful attempt to discredit and vilify protesters who were angry at the transgenerational racism them and their families have been subjected to their entire lives. People of color were crammed into buildings in their community where the majority of buildings were owned by white people. The white people took away privacy & sanity, by offering inadequate housing, which was continued segregation between “white suburbs and black ghettos.” (Holmes, 311) White people were incentivized to ownership of land and buildings, while black people were forced to live in tight quarters forever paying rent and having no guarantee of safety or laws that protected them (Holmes, 311). A Greek “slumlord” owned 75% of the Shaw neighborhood’s property. He and his associates took advantage of black people and the government’s federal loans designed for the rehabilitation of the inner city. Had the government monitored and cared about these people, they would have quickly seen things were not how they ought to be, but as we know this country does as it pleases, and those loans may have been a smoke screen to countless illegal activities. Gentrification comes to mind when reading about “The Plan” (Holmes, 319). Definitely doesn’t seem unlikely that the district had aimed for a mass exodus of black people by 2000. The small living spaces also made it difficult for families to have peace and privacy, by “warping marital sexual relations … into deviance that reproduces the culture of poverty among black children” (Holmes, 313). “Black entrepreneurs, be they gay or straight, took advantage of general disinterest in the maintenance of black heteronormativity and fulfilled the needs of the sexual marketplace that was allowed to flourish with shaw- even as their establishments contributed to the decline of shaw’s reputation and animated black anger about white exploitations” (Holmes, 318). Police brutality took hold in numerous ways, first the white officers did not feel their job was to protect all life, only that of fellow whites, and second they saw black men as competition, and black and white women as theirs to assault and abuse. The threat from black men over ownership of white women’s bodies was too great, and they resorted to violence to subdue it. Assaults took place primarily because of “competing male heterosexualities” (Holmes, 310) and the conflicting feelings of “policemen’s proprietary relationship to the women on 14th St NW” (Holmes, 309). Women have long since been a bargaining tool, a body meant to be owned and sold, used and abused. The LGBTQ community hasn’t been treated much better, cast aside and painting LGBTQ people as suffering with a “sickness of the mind” (Holmes, 312). Police use excessive force, power, evil to tangle a person so far into the depths of hell, that they cannot escape, that is if they aren’t shot and killed first. The story of Kalief Browder, a 16 year old boy, is gut-wrenching and infuriating. An innocent young black boy who was incarcerated for a 3 year period, much of it spent in solitary confinement on Rikers Island, having never been given a trial or been convicted of a crime, all based on false testimony and allegations. He recounted much of his experiences to Journalist Jennifer Gonnerman. Two years after his release, Kalief hung himself at the age of 22, having learned how to kill himself from his time on Rikers Island. Black rage remains a muted, unresolved reality and a timely analysis of people in crisis. Understanding the origin and continuing reality of Black rage is vital for developing sustainable alternatives to the stubborn second-class status of Black people in this country. Hatred of Blacks has been so deeply bound up with being an American that it has been one of the first things white people learn and one of the last things white people forget. Such feelings have been elevated to a position of national character. This is exactly why “Black Lives Matter” needs to be shouted from the rooftops, black and brown children and people, need to know they matter! For 400+ years the HISTORY of murders, abductions, disappearances, rapes, brutality, injustice across all aspects of their lives points to the exact opposite.

“14th Street Washington, DC, dark, dim underground where the hustlers meet and the whores prey on whitey’s sexual hang-up and walk away with his wallet and on occasion his life.”

    - Isaac Ruffin