#whiteness as a weapon

[harpersplay]

Some key parts of the video (any errors are from my quick transcription):

Cait Corrain did an interview, an exclusive interview, with The Daily Beast and wanted to reiterate that she is not in fact racist at all and she goes into this in-depth explanation of how she is not racist.

I'm going to preface this with a couple of things. As someone who struggles with mental health […] I don't want this video to come off to say that whatever mental health issues Cait has are not real.

The thing that I think I struggled with while reading this—because I did read it trying to be taken in as much good faith as possible—is Cait saying that it was just a mere coincidence (transcriber note: in the article, Cait actually uses the phrases "sheer, awful coincidence” and "unfortunate coincidence") that she picked out books by authors of color. I don't know how that's a mere coincidence based off of how GoodReads already functions.

People are going to look at this and say where she was struggling with her mental health. I respect that. But what I struggle with sometimes as someone who does have mental health issues and is a Black woman. Like, I don't get to weaponize my mental health for being a complete ass to another group of people. I don't have the luxury of doing that and I feel like that's where white women have that advantage.

Just because you know that someone is struggling doesn't mean that you can't do them harm. Just because you yourself are part of a marginalized community does not mean that you cannnot do another marginalized community wrong. We need to get that out of our our heads completely.

The article goes further and states that at one point she woke up the next day and realized that she had created GoodReads accounts but refused to delete them because she didn't want to face the fact that she needed help. So you knew that this was happening because, granted yes, I understand you were having periods of blackouts. But you knew that you had done this. You knew that you were actively harming people. You didn't delete the accounts.

I've been in this position. Sometimes when you do wrong there's not an excuse or an explanation that you can give that's going to justify the behavior. This is one of those situations where it's, "I did wrong. I accept responsibility. And I need to do some self-healing. I need to work on myself." Not continuously try to reframe things, trying to do press control, trying to do damage control, trying to control social media so that you're not seen as the villain in this narrative. You are the villain in this narrative and it happens to all of us. Not at the scale that you are at but all of us have been the villain to someone's story at some point. You have created so much harm to these authors. It doesn't matter what story you put out at this point the damage is done. These authors have had to delete their GoodReads accounts. These authors have been permanently damaged for your action.

I want to emphasize once again I do not deny that Cait has mental health issues. I do not deny that. I can't in good faith do that because I have been in that situation. But there's also a certain sense of lack of accountability in this situation […] Take responsibility and move on and stop trying to flip this in a way that you are getting sympathy for the situation the way that it happened and now you want people to to feel sorry for you because you have mental health struggles and you want people to not perceive you as being racist. You don't want people to perceive you as being bigoted but what you did was a very bigoted and racist thing.

I can't take this as justification. I can't even take this as an explanation. I genuinely can't. I feel like, you know, you can say: "I've had mental health issues. The behavior that I did was wrong and I need time to reflect and get my life together." And that is it. But putting out this whole narrative where it ultimately feels like, you know, "oh I want to tell my side of the story." There is no explaining this away.

PLEASE watch the entire video. It is so good and I honestly would have transcribed the entire thing if I had the time. Weaponised white feminity/fragility is a real issue and we need to talk about it. It is not only antithetical to intersectional feminism. It also keeps white women trapped as these infantile people who will break if they have to take accountability for their actions. The patriarchy wants this idea to thrive because it makes room for the good, brave white men to protect their innocent women from the big scary reality of the world. A gilded cage is still a cage, y'all.

(I came across some contradictory information regarding if Cait Corrain uses she and they pronouns or she or they pronouns. Since this article—that appeared in a publication Cait chose to give an exclusive interview to—consistently uses "she," I have as well. The article has been up about 2 weeks as of this post and I think Cait would have called for a correction by now if unhappy being referred to that way.)

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!

[satellites-halo]

Sick of posts that say stuff like "all mobility aid users should weaponize their mobility aids"

hey man, I can't do that! I need to bring my mobility aids into places that would deny me entrance for things like spikes and barbed wire! not every cripplepunk is a white skinny cane user, and having something deemed as a 'weapon' on some of us can be genuinely life threatening, even if it's a mobility aid! I don't want to have my rollator taken away from me and have to be searched bc I put some spikes on a seat cover or something!!! let cripplepunks express their punkness however is safe and comfortable for them, don't expect us all to be able to do the same things you can, because we all cant

[queenielacy]

Every Olympic cycle I’m reminded how little “the West” knows about “Non-Western” countries because to think Algeria, of all countries, would send a trans athlete to represent them in the Olympics is so dumb.

[sirenetica]

Tango (of the Tek variety)

[thekansta]

tianwen | jiuge | huaisha

[grooviestsadpapaya]

WATER WITE💯💥💯💥💥💯‼️‼️

[woman-respecter]

i feel like in progressive circles white women are treated as the ultimate evil while white men are coddled, even tho white men are more privileged, vote more conservatively, and are probably more violently racist

[zoe-oneesama]

Hi Zoe, I was just wondering since you brought up the tattoo post, would you ever want your own art on you? It sounds pretty cool to me to have your own artwork or design on you like that, but I don't have any tattoos so I dunno, heh

HECK no, I hate the stuff I did only a few months ago. I like that about me since it's proof of my growth, but every time I see a new artist or style that I want to incorporate into my style, I inevitably go through a long ass ugly phase and I cringe hard looking back.

There are so many talented tattoo artists who can draw circles around me and I believe the tattoo itself benefits from the artist being the tattooer (unless you're asking them to tattoo an exact copy, like a manga panel or silhouette, then it really doesn't matter much to me).

At most, I would come in with rough sketches of the concept I'd want just to help me illustrate what I'm picturing in my head, but there's a massive difference between what I do in my sketchbook and for a flat screen digitally and what will work for the human body and what translates into needles and ink.

[disease]

Crossbow, Cranequin and Ten Crossbow Bolts | 1556

[gyossefka]

Adam Lee

[heartnosekid]

🗡️ the dark moon greatsword 🌑

for @skellish!

🌑-🗡️-🌑 / 🗡️-❄️-🗡️ / 🌑-🗡️-🌑

[grubbin22]

b&w au where everything is the same but emmet has a rocket launcher

[kropotkindersurprise]

July 12, 2024 - Israel targets residential areas in the town of Kfar Kila in Lebanon with white phosphorus, another war crime in a long list of war crimes committed by the genocidal Israeli state. [video]

[smoothoperatorasks]

Smooth Operator Memes

refs below cut

[oneiroy]