A lot of White people want PoC to “join in” and “be friends” and get rid of “separatism”
Meaning they want us to minimize our personal and cultural histories in order to become one, gigantic box o’ nothin’ right alongside them. Personally, White people are doing themselves a disservice. They need to stop acting like they don’t have a culture. Oh, I forgot, they abandoned their cultures in favor of a mass hallucinogen called White Supremacist Culture. Tough shit.
(via jhameia)
Source: zorascreation
On the idea that Celts had dreads:
The ancient Celts had a unique hair style which attracted the attention of many Classical authors.
Diodorus of Sicily - says the Celts were tall and muscular, with pale skin and blond hair which they highlight artificially by washing it in lime-water. They then gather it back from the forehead to the top of the head and down to the nape of the neck… and therefore the hair becomes so heavy and coarse that it looks like themane of horses. Could be they considered the Unicorn or Horse God as their Mother.
Irish texts refer to hair so long and stiff that it would have impaled a falling apple. The Irish hero godCuChulainn is described this way, and it is added that his hair was of three colours, darkest near the scalp and lightest at the end. If he is a Hound constellation we can see the dimmer stars, or it could be thereference to the style of bleaching they learned to do.That’s not dreadlocks, folks. That’s a very specific hair style, and while, yes, I have seen people rocking something very similar to this, it is not dreads. Nor are the braids that Celtic women wore with beads and feathers.
“similar” is not the “same” and justifying appropriation because you saw something on a movie isn’t really okay.
Source: youcrashquims
bigotry is hatred, not ignorance
ignorance is a lack of knowledge. racism does not stem from ignorance, it stems from hate. there is a big difference. ignorance is not what killed trayvon or shaima. white supremacists are not in need of schooling to “overcome” their bigotry. give them a little more credit; to do otherwise is extremely dangerous. you do not need to be educated to understand that POC are people. children understand this; they are taught to hate, to see difference, to vilify the Other.
bigotry is a decision, made every damn day by these people. it’s not like POC are not fighting for our humanity. choosing not to listen to us is a CHOICE. even “passive” racists who don’t believe they’re racist are making these choices. choosing to believe what white supremacy tells them. even deliberately seeking out misinformation or filtering their daily experiences to support their worldview. this is not the same thing as ignorance.
i am sick of seeing and hearing ‘ignorant’ misused in this way, sick of people doing bigots a favor by suggesting they’re the way they are because no one ever told them otherwise. no. it’s not a coincidence that the dominant way of teaching about bigotry is to teach that it results from ignorance and/or fear.
someone i follow posted about this recently but i have the memory of a goldfish and cannot remember who it was. it’s something that clearly needs to be repeated though judging by how prevalent this attitude is.
(via dionthesocialist)
Source: youarenotyou
Black Girl Dangerous: White Silence: A Follow-Up
There have been many, many views of my post on white silence, many re-blogs, and much discussion, and I just want to clarify a few things:
I am not calling for “commentary” from my white friends about issues of race. I am not calling for my white friends to tell me that they understand what it is like for folks of color in this country and in this world. I am not calling for my white friends to suddenly start acting like experts on these issues, or, God forbid, to stop listening in order to start talking.
What I am asking is that my white friends show me that they care about these issues by reading, re-posting articles (written by people who DO understand), writing supportive comments (not commentary), and showing their OUTRAGE.
Some examples:
“This is terrible. I am re-posting!”
“Racism sucks!”
“I read this and it made me so angry and sad. Post-racial society my ass!”
And so on.
No one, least of all me, is calling for white people to tell people of color what’s what about experiences they can’t understand. That is a BAD idea. Shutting up when you don’t know what you’re talking about is a GOOD idea.
So, here are two very, very important things you can do:
1. Help to create space where people of color can make their voices heard. You can do this by posting and re-posting articles written by POC, and written about racism and social injustices. You can also do this by making supportive comments about those posts.
2. Educate yourself on the realities of racism, so that you can understand your own privilege. Then you can talk to OTHER WHITE PEOPLE about their privilege, and check them when they are being racist.
This will help a lot. Really, I promise you.
Also, if your response to the original post sounds anything like, “I’m white and whenever I talk about racism, people get mad at me, and it really hurts my feelings, so I just stay out of it, wah wah wah,” please check your privilege. Racism is a tough subject for ALL OF US. The fact that you get to “opt out” to protect your feelings shows how white you are. The rest of us don’t have that option. When we talk about racism, we are told to shut up. We are told that we are over-reacting, or that we are seeing things that aren’t there. We are told to get over it, because slavery ended years ago and we have a black President. We are insulted and demeaned. And we keep talking anyway. Because we don’t have a choice. If you understand that racism is your problem, too, then you understand that you shouldn’t have a choice, either.
Racism is your problem. Act like you know that.
Mia
Read Solace, a featured post by Kim Crosby, here.
(via madgastronomer)
Source: blackgirldangerous
- When POC characters are turned white: this isin't about race, if you think it is then you're the racist one, lets just enjoy the book/film as it is, this is about the character's personality god you're so sensitive, the new skin tone actually fits the character's personality IMO, I never imagined them as POC anyway, not all whitewashing is racist god get over it!!111
- When white characters are turned into POC: omg how could they!?!?!? this is soooo racist and unfair! why cant they present that white character as WHITE, how dare they change the original skin color to suit their own terms! this is reverse racism!! this is about race! I NEVER imaged that white character to be a POC that is so weird, it doesn't fit, this is political correctness gone crazy!!
Source: queerhairyvag
i don’t get why it isn’t obvious
that not all of us are trayvon martin. some of us are actually george zimmerman. and maybe all the white guys in hoodies who are 44 years old and smiling need to recognize that some of us are george zimmerman. and that the US grows george zimmermans like rag weed in a post-global warming world. plentiful, hapahazardly. anywhere.
we are not all trayvon martin, because some of us are george zimmerman. and honestly, it’s not always so dichotomous, some of us are a bit trayvon and a big george—some of us are neither—we’re the neighbors who didn’t call or who did call…but let’s just start with the most obvious one today.
some of us are george zimmerman. some of us, whether through blood or culture are george zimmerman—and some us, many of us, know in our hearts—i could’ve been george zimmerman.
some of us are at the point where we only suspect this. and are doing what we can to go that would never EVER be me, i’m not a racist! i’m not hispanic! i want george zimmerman in prison! see, i am a good person!
and some of us exist in our safe little bubbles with our white hoods and it honestly never crosses our minds ever that we are george zimmerman. that we can write all the essays we want about scary white masculinity and we can be patted on the backs for how smart our essays are, but we still threaten women of color with the police for saying mean things to us and we still look with big innocent eyes at the police and nod greatfully when they say “it was clearly an accident. we’re going to let this drop.”
just like george zimmerman.
will there be any white man who will take his white hood off and say “i’ve been george zimmerman my entire life, and i will not wear this hoodie ever again and i will not organize boycotts against Florida and i will not write essays and i will not stick my nose in anything ever again. i will never say the word solidarity again, I will never get paid for another essay ever, i will in fact, spend the rest of my life cooking food in the back kitchen for real organizers, posting flyers in the middle of the night where nobody can see me and licking stamps for mailouts in my living room all by myself until i pass out”?
if you’re a white man who *can’t even manage* to make yourself as invisible all the colored folks are who pick your food and who clean your buildings and who live on reservations so that you can build huge disney adventure lands that you’re boycotting etc etc etc…then you are George Zimmerman. and you are choosing, again, to stand in solidarity with HIM.
no matter how much your spittle covered liar lips flap or how many times you redesign your white hoodie.
(via chetmanley)
Source: marshmallowmegamama
First of all, as a student of culture and popular culture and the impact that it has on us all, I know this to be true: Seeing yourself represented in the popular culture is really critical in terms of forming your own self image.
I’m old enough to have been around before seeing black people represented in the popular culture in diverse ways. When I was a kid, it was a big deal to see a black person on television. So that’s why it was important in a science fiction thing — in “Star Trek” — it was huge. I read a lot of science fiction books as a kid. As a kid of science fiction, “Star Trek” was important to me and seeing a person of color in a command position was hugely important to me.
actor Levar Burton, Star Trek and Reading Rainbow.
Full interview here
(via racebending)
(via madgastronomer)
Source: racebending
people still don’t get it. we don’t hate White people. we hate Whiteness. Whiteness is what killed Trayvon Martin. Whiteness is what killed Emmett Till.
Whiteness is the idea that White is right and everything else is wrong.
Whiteness is why most of the time if POC are on TV they are acting out a stereotype. Whiteness is why Lana Del Rey can adopt a Hispanic name while actual Hispanic people are being deported. Whiteness is why Madonna can give the finger at a concert but Maya will be scorned for it. Whiteness is why people think that Native American culture can be reduced to a costume with cheap ass factory-made feathers. Whiteness is why the more successful a music artist get, the lighter their skin is in promo pictures. Whiteness is why Chris Brown is condemned more than Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, or Charlie Sheen. Whiteness is why people hate Tyler the Creator for his crappy as fuck lyrics but still bump Eminem. Whiteness is skin-lightening cream. Whiteness is a Slutwalk sign that reads ‘Woman is the N***** of the World.’
Whiteness is feminism jumping to defend Sandra Fluke but remaining silent when Rush Limbaugh tells a Black female to take the extra bone out of her nose. Whiteness is White people telling a person of color that not all White people are bad and saying so would hurt their feelings when they are expressing their pain over one of their babies being killed.
We don’t hate White people. We hate Whiteness.
all dis
(via missworded)
Source: theoceanandthesky
TRIGGER WARNING FOR RACIST AND MISOGYNISTIC SLURS
It really worries me that 84% of this audience agrees with that statement, because the kind of people that say “political correctness gone mad” are usually using that phrase as a kind of cover action to attack minorities or people that they disagree with. I’m of an age that I can see what a difference political correctness has made. When I was four years old, my grandfather drove me around Birmingham, where the Tories had just fought an election campaign saying, “if you want a n****r for a neighbour, vote Labour,” and he drove me around saying, “this is where all the n-rs and the c-ns and the jungle bunnies live.” And I remember being at school in the early 80s and my teacher, when he read the register, instead of saying the name of the one asian boy in the class, he would say, “is the black spot in,” right? And all these things have gradually been eroded by political correctness, which seems to me to be about an institutionalised politeness at its worst. And if there is some fallout from this, which means that someone in an office might get in trouble one day for saying something that someone was a bit unsure about because they couldn’t decide whether it was sexist or homophobic or racist, it’s a small price to pay for the massive benefits and improvements in the quality of life for millions of people that political correctness has made. It’s a complete lie that allows the right, which basically controls media now, and international politics, to make people on the left who are concerned about the way people are represented look like killjoys. And I’m sick, I’m really sick— 84% of you in this room that have agreed with this phrase, you’re like those people who turn around and go, “you know who the most oppressed minorities in Britain are? White, middle-class men.” You’re a bunch of idiots.
Stewart Lee - “Heresy”, BBC Radio 4, 16th May 2007 (via ijclark)
stewart lee is my absolute hero
(via premierboner)
yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!
(via lebanesepoppyseed)
Source: ijclark
Not All Like That
Imagine a minefield… a strip of land seeded with traps that will maim or kill you if you put one foot in the wrong place. What’s the wrong place? You’ll know when you step there. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. The pattern that gets you safely through one part might get you killed in another part.
It isn’t that every square inch of soil in the minefield means certain death, of course. But what would the ratio of safe ground to mined ground have to be before you could actually relax, before you could feel safe… before you could be safe, in practical terms?
Imagine that you and your entire family are woken up at dawn every day and made to cross the minefield in order to just live your lives. You’re not allowed to take the same route as each other. You have to watch each other as you make your way through an invisible deadly maze, never knowing if today will be the day but always knowing that it could be.
And one day, while you’re in the middle of that maze, watching your children or your siblings pick their way carefully around you, you say, “I HATE EVERY LAST INCH OF THIS FUCKING MINEFIELD.”
And then you hear a voice from up above you, from someone who doesn’t have to walk the minefield… someone who’s allowed to use a footbridge to bypass it every day while you’re inching your way through it, someone who gets a head start on everything compared to you and yours because they don’t have to go through the minefield…
And the voice says, “That isn’t fair. Sure, some of the minefield will kill you if you step on it, but it isn’t all like that.”
(via jhameia)
Source: alexandraerin
