#but like if I'm not ethnically american then I'm ethnically nothing

[talesfromaurea]

I know people are trying to sound smart and cool when they say it, but being like "lol american isn't an ethnicity, americans r so dumb" is incredibly reductive and shows a lot of ignorance on the part of the person saying it

[esyra]

Haven't heard from family in days. I feel like it's time to accept they're gone. I know in my heart Palestine will, one day, be free, but it wasn't supposed to be like this.

We feared another Nakba, and it happened. 700,000 pushed out of their homes in 1948 to 1 million being forced to leave their homes in 2023.

We thought it couldn't get worse or more deadly than the Israeli invasion in 2014, and it happened. We lost 2,251 people in 50 days then. Now we're past 2,300 in one week.

What I heard most from my grandmother the first days it's that "this time is different". And I feel like a rock is crushing my heart in pieces because i've been hoping that speaking out, teaching people about the historical oppresion of Palestine would help but it's not helping. Nothing is changing.

I feel like I'm screaming into a void. There's some sympathy from people online, until I see content documenting Palestinian oppresion being flagged as 'hate speech' or check the comments of any updates on Gaza and it's: "blame it on hamas", "tell them to give up hamas", "the hamas asked for it". They're not even among civilians!!!!!

My heart feels full seeing the manifestations in favor of Palestine, then I see police forces breaking protests apart and remember that the people that can actually save Gaza don't care.

If there's nothing left to do but to watch the extermination of my people, then I'm going to beg for anyone reading this to please don't forget. Please.

Israel is hiding behind Judaism to commit genocide against Gaza. Netanyahu supported the Hamas militant group to prevent the establishment of the Palestine State, and now he's using them to justify his agenda of ethnic cleansing. He abandoned Israelis and left them to die because he cares more about seeing Gazans dead!

Every single person and institution supporting and financing Israel is complicit. I hope the deaths of every Palestinian haunts you for the rest of your lives and that you never find an ounce of forgiveness, for you do not deserve it.

Just as in the Iraq War, the US government is financing and cheering for the slaughter of millions of innocent Arab lives. The media is complicit by engaging in biased propaganda and other nuclear powers, such as the UK and Germany, are complicit too. You are fascists and war criminals and every drop of Palestinian blood is in your hands. I hope every single day, for the rest of your lives, you look in the mirror and see nothing but the blood you've helped spill.

This serves as yet another proof that not a single Western in a position of power, be it in the media or in government, sees Arabs as humans beings.

For decades, the US has comitted terrorism and crimes against humanity in the Middle East and has NEVER been held accountable. Over one million in Iraq; over 150,000 in Afghanistan; and now they'll turn Gaza into a graveyard. Punishing selected soldiers over the years does not erase the fact that the American military and its government validates their crimes during execution and are never punished for it.

Please never forget: Joe Biden is a genocidal terrorist, Rishi Sunak is a genocidal terrorist, the American Democrat Party and UK's Labour Party are led by genocidal terrorists, the European Union is led by genocidal terrorists, fuckass Walt Disney Company is led by genocidal terrorists; every celebrity that called for Palestinian death or stood by silently while ignoring our suffering is a genocidal terrorist.

May Allah protect the people in Palestine and grant the martyrs the highest level of Jannah. Wallah what keeps me here is knowing that the Akhirah is theirs. May Almighty Allah grant us imaan and Taqwa as high as the people of Gaza. Ameen.

[gb-patch]

hello!

just dipping in to say: thanks so, so much for this game. it's rare that i get to see chinese americans in dating sims, and even less often are they as charismatic and fleshed-out as Qiu. being able to interact with someone who acts like a real person, who looks the same as i do and isn't reduced to a cripplingly shy, bookish type, who can be as funny and as terse as the asians i know in real life, has been kind of crazy for me.

the amount of parallels my life has to the game is insane. nothing else i've played has captured what it felt like for me to grow up, suburban and queer and Chinese American, as well as this game's sliver of demo managed. the amount of projection i've done on the story is straight up unhealthy.

even in the limited amount i've played through, there's been so much that i've been surprised by. changing what i call my mom so something custom, being able to set my ethnicity, having it acknowledge Qiu if you put in "Chinese" -- when I saw that the expanded demo let you mention you knew what 秋 meant in the prologue, i punched the air in Real Life with my Real Hands. i know the MC has to be very General American in order to represent the player base fairly, but even these minor details are more than a lot of VNs give.

i just wanted to say that the choices you guys made, regarding the cultures of the MC and LIs, really hit home (with a sledgehammer) in a place that mattered (into the solar plexus.)

I'm really sorry for such a late reply! This was a lovely ask. Thank so much for the kind words and super cute sketch. It's wonderful seeing that Qiu felt like a relatable person. We definitely hoped they would make people happy, seeing that was the case really brightened my day.

We'll keep doing our best with what's coming next and are gonna include more nods to the MC's identity and Qiu's as well 😄

[boldlygoingtohell]

In a weird way, as a Jew, I can kinda take Normal Antisemitism™️.

I mean, I understand where right-wing racists are coming from when it comes to their antisemitism. At the end of the day, theirs just comes from fear, replacement theory, etc… It’s easily identifiable. 2+2=4. Yea its shitty, but I see how they got from A to B and it’s a straight line.

But left-wing antisemitism?? Like, how does that happen? I thought the left was about supporting minority groups, encouraging them to speak and be heard. But all I’m seeing from leftists these days (I myself being super fucking liberal, left, etc…) is just waves and waves of antisemitism. And yes it has to do with Israel, but these people are incapable of criticizing the Israeli government without going “all Jews are responsible!” in the process. It's infuriating.

Are all the the world’s Jews, millions of which live OUTSIDE of Israel, now responsible for Israel’s actions? I'M a stupid American! I’ve never even BEEN to Israel, much less know the intricate details of a geo-political conflict whose complexities go willfully unlearned by armchair activists in favor of yelling in all caps for 140 characters.

But what really gets me, and I mean REALLY get me about the whole situation, is the hypocrisy.

Remember how awful it was when we saw waves of Islamophobic hate crimes after 9/11, American Muslims with no ties to al-Qaeda being targeted for the faith those terrorists claimed to represent?

Or do you remember standing against the wave of anti-Asian hate crimes that was spurned on by COVID falsehoods? The “China virus” as Trump so eloquently put it? You remember being pissed about that, not blaming Asian Americans but standing with them against hate?

And hell, I’ve heard there has been a rash of Islamophobic attacks again because of the Israeli-Gaza conflict. That’s fucking awful, and I will stand against that bull shit because it does not belong here, end of story.

But now there are also antisemitic attacks, hate crimes, being perpetrated around the world. And who are the perpetrators now? The left that stood against everything else. There's no widespread ally-ship for Jews like me. There's no sweeping social media campaign, no catchy hashtag, no ice bucket challenge.

Why am I allowed to be condemned for what a country on the other side of the world is doing, when I have nothing to do with it? Why can I have the finger pointed at me when I don’t want the fighting in the first place? Why must Jews be allowed to be the target of this ire when it's already been decided that other ethnicities/religions don't deserve it either?

Now, I am PROUD to be Jewish; it is my culture, in my heritage, in my literal blood. It is in my genetics, my bones, my spoken language, it is in the holidays I celebrate, the philosophies I live by.

But it is also in the generational trauma of my mother insisting I have a passport as a young child, not because we were traveling, but in case we had to flee. It is in her inherent distrust of the government; a card-carrying Democrat all her life, she would always remind me, "if you don't think the government can't turn on you, you're kidding yourself." It is her constant reminders that as a Jew, our assimilation is conditional, our acceptance is political. I felt these, but never as strongly as she did. Not until now.

I am third generation American, and yet I feel like an outsider in the only country I have ever known. People who I thought understood, who were my friends, who marched with me against the injustices of the world, are now calling after Jews to answer for Israel's actions.

I say I don't want the violence to persist and I'm told that I'm, "one of the good ones". I'm told hurt Israelis don't deserve sympathy because, "all Jews are rich anyway, right? Who cares." I tell them my fears about the rising antisemitism and wearing my star of david necklace out. I'm told, "it doesn't matter, you're white anyway."

For the first time in my life, the racists aren't just some crazy KKK members. They're not just Nazis marching around with beer bellies and ill fitting helmets. It's not just some screeching street preacher who claims I'm going to hell after he caught the glint off my star of david necklace. If needs be, I can kick and punch my way out of those. They're just idiots. Isolated, concentrated incidents. It'd be a good story to tell at a bar the next day though a gap-toothed smile and a sling on my shoulder.

But now, both sides are coming after me and my people. Now, it's not just idiots who have all of their views backwards; it's people I thought I could trust to have my back, to go down swinging with me against those Nazis. Right. Left. It's everywhere. There's no escape.

It's coming from all sides. It's coming from social media platforms, from dinners with friends, from posters on street lamps.

I live in one of the safest, most Jewish neighborhoods in America, and for the first time in my life I am truly scared.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITH for correcting an ethinic student about my hair?

First of all, I say ethnic because i honestly have no idea what their race is. She is a beautiful, dark skined girl with gorgeous curls, but not aftican american skin (Mediterranean maybe?) so saying black felt wrong (if this alone makes me the A-hole tell me in the comments, just trying not to assume things about people.)

Anyway, I (33f) work at a college as a professional aid/assistant. I have naturally aumber/deep red hair. I have Irish, Scottish, and mixed European ancestors. My hair is mixed texture ranging from 2B, 2C, and 3A in different sections (its a hot mess but in a good way okay lol). My hair type comes from my dad's side of the family (he alwayss kept it short) so my mom had no idea how to identify or care for textured hair. I grew up with the standard of wash every day/every other day and brush frequently. Needless to say, my hair was a frizzy mess growing up, and through high school and college I straightened it constantly.

Upon growing into my 30s i realized what my texture really was and educated myself on its care. I now properly care for it (admittedly, at a minimum because I'm lazy). I wash and heavily condition with curly products, minimum rinse, minimum dry, and sleep in a plop. If i feel ambitious i add curl gel or use refresher spry between washes. Thats it, but my waves/curls are beautiful to me and I'm happy.

Enter the student in question (T). After an exam she approached me (i was immediately post wash day so my hair was the most wavy/curly it ever is) and asked to speak to me in private. I thought nothing of it as students often speak to me about their concerns or struggles in classes. T started telling me i am being inappropriate and insensitive for wearing my hair like I do. That it minimizes and appropriates her culture. I was stunned. In told her my hair was naturally like this and she kind of laughed at me, saying it wasn't possible for white people to have hair like mine naturally, and that she knew i had straight hair before (a couple years ago when i was straightening it, i guess?).

I explained my heritage and how i had only recently learned to care for it. I even told her my routine. She called me a liar, and i admit i lectured her after that. I went on about how lots cultures historically had naturally wavy/curly/kinky hair and it was no owned by a single race.

T called me a liar and said i was being insensative to she and her friends. I said sorry but that's just how it goes and i love my hair. She stormed off. The next week after class a group of T's friends came up to me and said i was rude and insensitive to her, and that i needed to be more continuous of their cultural struggles (i won't try to name their race/cultural because they were a diverse group of like 7 ethinic students).

I was not trying to minimize anyones culture, just educate that hair culture can be diverse and doesn't care about skin color. Was that an A-hole move? I mean, i'm paper white and have curly/wavey hair, them saying that its racist to be myseld is actually pretty hurtful to me.

What are these acronyms?

[doberbutts]

Maybe it is because I, too, am part of a diaspora, actually I'm part of MULTIPLE diasporas because I am mixed race, but like.

My black genes are not indigenous here. But also it is not possible to tell you where they are indigenous to because records were not kept this way for slaves and there were multiple ethnicities and countries involved in the slave trade and most of the borders look nothing like what they would have back then, so the answer to where my black family is indigenous to is 🤷‍♂️ the entire continent of Africa possibly 🤷‍♂️

Like I don't even know when my particular family branch was taken, at what point in history. I don't know their names. My family history on that side ends 5 generations behind me, my grandfather's grandfather, who was born a slave. I know his name, when he was born, and when he died. Anything before that is lost to time.

Most black people with known ancestry in slavery are mixed with white. The white masters couldn't keep their hands off the women, we know this for a fact. Some of us look more white than others. Some of us look more black than others.

My nephew was born with blonde hair and blue eyes and white skin. My nephew came out of my sister who is about as dark as me. I'm lighter skinned than many, but darker than Obama and Beyonce.

Would you say that I no longer can call myself black because oppression and slavery has forced my family to be here for presumably centuries? If not me, with my visible black features, what about my nephew, who could pass as white as long as he's not with his mother?

Is he no longer allowed to call himself African American? Is he not allowed to have pride in his culture and history? Is he not allowed to point at a map of Africa and say "my people come from here"?

[odinsblog]

“Yeah, I mean, in 2018 was the first Shakespeare and race festival that I curated at the Globe. And at that time, there was less vitriol, but it was more like, why are we talking about Shakespeare and race? Shakespeare's got nothing to do with race.

So that led me to thinking about writing this book. But it was in 2020, when I launched the anti-racist Shakespeare webinars, that there was a horrible backlash, very racist backlash. And my own ethnic origins were brought into the conversation.

Oh, she's a woman of color. That's why she's talking about race. And actually, I had been at the Globe for 17 years by that point, you know?

And so that backlash is about ownership. It's about people feeling that something is being taken away from them.

And after the Black Lives movement, Black Lives Matter movement went global, and organizations like museums and galleries and theaters started to take it seriously, that's when you started to see a really racist backlash against any kind of progressive movement, whether it's in a theater or a museum. And I certainly had to face that in 2020.

I was a little bit worried about it, probably more so in the UK, because I think in the UK there's a special sense of ownership of Shakespeare in the way that there isn't in the US. So I'm American, but I'm also a Pakistani. And so I think it was really, it's a double whammy for the British.

Whereas in America, I feel like I was less worried because Americans don't mind other Americans talking about Shakespeare. So I was in the UK, concerned about that. But I think it obviously didn't stop me because what I'm trying to do is keep Shakespeare around.

And I'm explicitly not advocating canceling Shakespeare. And I think that's what they all thought I was doing when I was running those webinars.

So Shakespeare sets Othello in 16th century Venice, which was a very multicultural society because Venice was a sort of trading giant in this time period. So it was really financially lucrative for them to have people from all backgrounds working and living in Venice. And so it's about a Black African, known as a Moor in that time period, who was the captain of the Venetian army.

And it starts with another member of the army sort of screaming and shouting outside the door or window of a fellow's now father-in-law saying that, basically shouting a lot of racist epithets about how his daughter, his white daughter, has married a Black man. And she's done so without her father's consent. So it starts with this idea of there's been some sort of violation.

A Black man has married a white woman, and this is a problem.

So it ends up at the court of the Duke who is dealing with other issues because the Turks are now circling around their outpost in Cyprus, and they need Othello to do some work for them and to fight off the Turks. So the Duke says, oh, look, it's okay. It's fine. You know, Othello is a great guy. We've all worked with him. We know him really well.

And that's when the line comes out: He is far more fair than Black.

And what he's saying there is that essentially, look, he doesn't act Black. He acts white. He acts like us. So let's just be okay with this.

And so what you have there is a situation in which somebody who has kind of violated a kind of racial code in Venetian society is given a pass because he's very useful to that society. What happens in the rest of the play is that lago works on him and tries to convince him that his wife is having an affair with his lieutenant.

And unfortunately, Othello believes him, and they plot to murder Desdemona, and they do. He does. And it's a heartbreaking, heart-wrenching play.

And what's difficult about it is that it seems to fulfill stereotypes about Black men and Black masculinity. So it's always been a bit of a problem to stage. So yeah, it's a fantastic play, though.

It's a real sort of exploration of interracial relationships in a white-dominant society.

Yeah, I think it's harder in classrooms. And that's something that I actually been thinking about how to address a colleague of mine, and I've been discussing it. Because a lot of teachers, especially white teachers, aren't necessarily equipped to have a conversation about race that isn't going to make all the students in the room feel objectified or uncomfortable.

And so what I'm trying to, what I also get at the book is about discomfort, being able to lean into the discomfort of having conversations. And Shakespeare, for him, he was an advocate of discomfort. You were not comfortable when you went to see a Shakespearean tragedy.

He didn't want you to be.

And so we should try and be comfortable in the classroom. And there are productions who have tried very hard to lean into the racial tension and angst in the play.

But often it can be unsuccessful, particularly if it's a white director that sees too much optimism in the play. And says, oh, this play really, it's not about race. It's about redemption of characters who've been singled out for some reason.

I'm like, well, the reason is race.

My goal was always to show how it rears its head, even in the moments that are the most unexpected or that seems innocuous.

But what is interesting is that in a lot of his comedies, he's using anti-Black racism as a source of humor. And, you know, that would have made people laugh, some of the comments that you hear in some of his most delightful comedies. And because the racism isn't the undercurrent of the play, that it's easy to miss it.

So you'll just get all of a sudden a comment like Much Ado About Nothing, where the character Benedict is talking with his friend Claudio about a woman that Claudio has a crush on. And he says, oh, she's too brown for a fair praise. And that would have made people laugh.

What he's saying is that she's not attractive enough to praise her, and fair in that time was a very elite form of whiteness. It meant beautiful and virtuous and white with a luster or a shine, and that shine is the virtue of a woman. And no woman of color could ever achieve that, because she's not white enough.

So he's saying that this woman is too brown, even if she's not brown, but he's using brown as a way of denigrating people of color.

But I think Shakespeare is still valuable for us because of the contemporary nature of some of the issues that he raises in his plays.

I mean, there's a great speech in Midsummer Night's Dream where he talks about the destruction of the planet because of the way people are behaving towards each other. And the powerful resonance of that today just is unmissable. So Shakespeare is able to articulate or help you to think about questions that are so urgent in your own moment.

I think other writers need to be brought into dialogue with Shakespeare. If you teach Othello, teach Toni Morrison's Desdemona, right?

It's incredibly lucrative intellectually and emotionally to keep Shakespeare in the curriculum.”

—Farah Karim Cooper: Director of Education at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and author of The Great White Bard, How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race

[olderthannetfic]

Part of what makes identifying racism so difficult is that people from different cultures have different ideas about what constitutes racism.

To take the most simple example, that of a potential racist slur in a person's username, I as a moderator had to do some research. I discovered that this word is:

* an ethnic slur in British English, American English, and Dutch

* an informal neutral term in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia

* a reclaimed slur among at least some Japanese people

Moreover, the FULL word that the person used as their username ($possible slur+style) appears to be a neutral to positive term associated with Japanese motorcycles, to distinguish them from other types of motorbike.

Is the person's username racist? It depends on who you ask.

And this is ONE word.

If it isn't even possible to be certain if one word is racist, how can we be certain if the average "racist" fic is racist?

Believe me, I'm mixed-race myself and I would like nothing more than to end racism. But other than the most egregious examples, how can we be certain that a fic is genuinely racist?

If we censor or remove anything that MIGHT BE racist, that's going to cover an awful lot of fics - including my own. I know that I've written lines comparing the light skin tone of one partner to the darker skin tone of another, because it's something that I find fascinating in real life. There's nothing sexier than two bodies lying together and seeing that contrast in their skin tones.

The fact that the darker person is usually myself and that I'm writing about characters with that canon difference won't stop well-meaning "anti-racists" of accusing me of being racist.

Will I have to start supplying a photo of myself along with my fic to "prove" that I'm "allowed" to write it?

--

Trying to prove identity is always a trap too, of course, because they'll just No True Scotsman you.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

I want to echo all the nice things people have said about your work, and add one more: I appreciate that your blog offers space to mourn the Holocaust. Not the Holocaust as a metaphor, not the Holocaust as a rhetorical invocation, but the Holocaust in and of itself. It provides a sobering kind of relief. When I was a kid learning about the Holocaust, my classes always showed me Life is Beautiful and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (UGH) and one teacher insisted that she wanted me to understand "how the Jews kicked Hitler's ass!" Which... no. On so many levels. So I admire how your work holds the dialectical truths of mass tragedy and brave resistance. Your scholarship matters, your mental health matters, and I can't wait to read your book next year!

This message is so lovely I was too verklempt to even answer it last night. Thank you, so much, for taking the time to write and send this.

And yes I totally get what you mean. It's not some, as you put it, rhetorical invocation populated by faceless martyrs, but the very real murders of millions of real, flawed, living, breathing humans. I think the rhetorical version, with its ideologies and hagiographies, is easier to swallow.

I hate most Holocaust movies. At least, American ones. They just want so badly for there to be a happy ending and...the Holocaust doesn't have one. [Unnamed legendary Jewish director] optioned the rights to [book similar in scope to mine which came out in the last 4 years] and I'm not even upset, because I don't enjoy that director's gentile-focused quasi-uplifting attempts to depict said events. Hitler said he was going to destroy the majority of European Jewry, and he did. In the space of 12 years he destroyed civilizations, cultures, and languages spanning 1000+ years; more, if you hold him responsible for the ethnic cleansing of MENA Jewish communities post-1948. Nothing uplifting there.

That's why I think I like weird, post-modern, magical realist approaches to Holocaust fiction [see: my boyfriend recently convinced me to watch Jojo Rabbit and Inglorious Basterds]. Telling any of these stories doesn't fit into Western narrative conventions. So make it weird; have the characters dance to David Bowie; make it a Western with subtitles; make the audience wonder if magic or just mundane in the specific context of the story. That's, imo, the only way to capture the sheer unreality of these very real events in fiction. I would LOVE a work of magical realist Holocaust fiction that involves the golem of Prague (if it exists omg tell me!) or something similar. Keeping in mind, of course, that I'm neither a film not a literary scholar. Just, as a historian who took one cultural criticism course in undergrad, those feels the most...right.

And oy your teacher. I feel for her; this is a difficult subject to teach. But...the Jews didn't kick Hitler's ass. That's the opposite of what happened. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is the most famous instance of organized Jewish resistance to the Holocaust, and those fighters only kicked ass until the Nazis (quickly) realized that they needed reinforcements and flamethrowers because oops these Jews came prepared. And even the fighters themselves knew that they weren't going to "win" anything. They were making a symbolic historical gesture/statement and fully expected to die. To the point that survivors almost uniformly express in their memoirs and testimonies that the ones who died fighting were the only real heroes and they rest of them are nbd, and this isn't something that should be talked about (which, is something that I'm trying to respect in my book! Like the fact that Zivia Lubetkin utterly rejected any attempt to describe her as a hero matters, even though that's how I personally view her).

Anyway I've rambled enough. Thank you again for the message!

[pazzesco]

Too loud, too bright, too sexual… Mexico's Lupe Vélez was utterly broken by scandal-hungry 1940s Hollywood – even after her death.

The wild saga of Lupe Vélez, Hollywood's first tabloid casualty

On the evening of December 13, 1944, 36-year-old Mexican film star Lupe Vélez was found by her personal secretary, laid out on her bed in California like a painted doll and wearing blue satin pyjamas, surrounded by fresh flowers and burning candles.

She was dead, having intentionally overdosed on 75 Seconal pills (a barbiturate) with a glass of brandy after dinner. She was also pregnant, no doubt suffered from bipolar, and left behind a life papered in tabloid headlines and scandal.

Yet, what should have been an international tragedy – a wake-up call to the media around the fragility of celebrity and mental health – was soon turned into farce by underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger. He published Hollywood Babylon, a widely-sold compendium of Tinseltown’s juiciest rumours.

“Her ethnicity was played up for her films, and, for the sake of her 'public image' she fell into that characterization, both on and off screen,” writes Vélez biographer Michelle Vogel in her book Lupe Vélez: The Life and Career of Hollywood’s Mexican Spitfire.

Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel and Lupe Velez, in the 1930s

Lupe Velez and Douglas Fairbanks in O Gaucho

Violent love: Lupe Vélez and Gary Cooper in 1929

Vélez exercarbated the intrigue in her interviews, chillingly telling one fanzine, “I think I will kill my Gary, because he does not get angry when Lupe is angry with him.” Eventually Cooper left her, and was ordered by Paramount Studios to take a holiday on account of his nervous exhaustion and 45-pound weight loss considered a result of his relationship. The day he boarded the train to get away, Vélez ran onto the platform, smashed the glass of his window pane and tried to shoot him with her pistol while reportedly shouting, “Gary! You son of a bitch!”

A brief marriage to Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller followed suit in October 1933, and the bruises and love bites they both sported as a result of their “passionate lovemaking” were regularly noted in the press (and commented on by makeup artists on the Tarzan films, whose task it was to cover Weissmuller’s up).

“Another misconception is that she was a loose woman…” said Vogel. (In Hollywood Babylon Kenneth Anger described her “going through a small army of lover – cowboys, stuntmen, and American gigolos.”) “Sure, she loved to party and have a good time, but she was fiercely loyal to her men. She was committed to Gary Cooper and Johnny Weissmuller for almost 10 years of her life. She helped everyone and supported her extended family in Mexico for much of her life,” continued Vogel. Indeed, it was reported that Vélez kept her personal phone number listed so that fans could call her up and chat when they were in distress. She also had a big heart, keeping a large menagerie of rescue animals which included horses, monkeys, canaries, turtles and dogs.

“Although the public thinks that I'm a very wild girl. Actually I'm not. I'm just me, Lupe Vélez, simple and natural Lupe. If I'm happy, I dance and sing and acted like a child. And if something irritates me, I cry and sob. Someone called that 'personality'. The Personality is nothing more than behave with others as you really are. If I tried to look and act like Norma Talmadge, the great dramatic actress, or like Corinne Griffith, the aristocrat of the movies, or like Mary Pickford, the sweet and gentle Mary, I would be nothing more than an imitation. I just want to be myself: Lupe Vélez .”

[teabutmakeitazure]

Zuri's Declassified University Survival Guide

This is a post about survival tips in university (undergraduate), especially if you're an international student living alone in a different country in this circumstance. I will be adding onto this later on if there's something I want to add, so keep an eye out for update reblogs of this I guess.

General Tips:

it's okay to make mistakes. you are here to learn and grow. no one is perfect, especially in the first and second year of their studies. those are mandatory experimental years. you're not expected to get magically mature and perfect when you get to university (or college for you americans). be kind to yourself and analyse your mistakes instead of beating yourself over them.

don't bother too much about your wardrobe. just wear whatever's comfortable. you might think people care but no one does. more than half of the people at campus will be in sweats or pyjamas and if someone IS dressed up, they're probably arts kids or business majors and they're the ones with the least workload (yes i am dissing you guys I've seen your workloads stop lying).

put yourself in uncomfortable social situations. yes i said that. the only reason i somewhat learnt to make small talk and learnt to talk to strangers is because I go to every single social event that I can. it's not necessary to make friends in all of them. just talk to people, exchange contacts, laugh while the event lasts even if you never see them again. this is how you survive in the lonely dorm life. and if you make an actual good friend? amazing! it paid off. even if it didn't you'll probably network and build rapport and have acquaintances from different majors.

if you're an ethnic minority, don't be afraid. I cannot stress this enough. don't be afraid to be there and take up space. you are there because you deserve to be and qualified. sure, it sucks at times because a good amount of people won't interact with you because you're 'different' but the international students will and trust me they're the coolest bunch to be friends with (I have 0 such friends so far). most times you will have to take the initiative to talk and sometimes they won't respond or worse flat out ignore you but don't let that get you down. just don't interact with them again. the world is big. not everyone will like you and accept you. find the ones that will.

eggs and milk are your best friend. a glass of milk everyday and 2 eggs. make that a staple. eggs are also very versatile for recipes. more on that in the recipes section. also yoghurt. a smol cup of yoghurt everyday too and nuts whenever you can buy them.

always have a few pack of instant noodles at home. sometimes you have deadlines or you forgot to cook or need a quick dinner because there's so much to do and you didn't get groceries. always keep them in stock. they're a quick fix for food. I'm not promoting them for frequent dinner but it's better than starving. just eat the noodles man. there's already so much shit to keep track of just eat the damn noodles.

incorporate veggies into everything food. they're good for you. if you're like me and don't like veggies, experiment with different recipes and find the one you like best. one good way is fried rice or rice with mushrooms, veggies, and meat in the rice cooker (I don't own a rice cooker when I'm writing this). just eat your veggies and thank me later. if you don't wanna cut them up, get a pack of frozen veggies. it's better than nothing. baby steps.

meal plan. if I don't plan my entire week's food on sunday night, I do it the night before for the next day. eat out as less as you can. homemade is better even if you're a horrible cook. practice makes perfect and you'll be grateful for learning a few basic cooking skills along with your degree later on. cooking your own food also gives you the liberty to add more veggies or save money.

treat yourself to stuff sometimes. yes you deserve it even if you don't meet your goals. you're trying. be kind to yourself. get that boba.

study everything done the week by that week's weekend. do the day's content that same day and don't lag behind. utilise reading week and read. don't slack off please I'm begging you. I'll even get on my knees if I have to.

you're gonna miss home and it sucks. yes you will be having your fourth mental breakdown of the week on a wednesday night and you will be alone or hiding under the blanket as your roommate is asleep. you're gonna have to tough it out soldier. I see you and I feel you. it gets easier with time and when you're doing better, you'll feel relieved for toughing through. it's so lonely sometimes and it sucks but it's worth the pain. don't lose hope.

seniors are your friends. they will give you forbidden knowledge for free. from hidden places with good food or convenience things or just life advice exclusive to your institute, they have it all. they're also generally very friendly so don't be afraid to interact with them.

annoy the living hell out of your professor during office hours if need be and utilise the student help room for help. your tutors will be happy to help you so don't be shy to ask for help. they will appreciate you coming to them, trust me. as for your professor, they're lonely people. go to office hours if you need to, chat, ask them what you need. they'll appreciate your presence and happily help you.

the security guards and cleaning staff will be witnesses to your worst states (freshly out of bed or haven't showered in 2 days) but they don't care. they're just happy to be of service and have you around. be kind to them. greet them whenever you pass by.

sometimes coffee is bad.

if your classes start at noon or later, get an hour of exercise in the morning at around 8 or 9 am. the serotonin that will hit you will be unreal. trust me.

make local friends. they're cool people and friendly and very helpful and accommodating. I may be biased but it's true.

being a student helper, student tutor, or a research assistant looks good on your resume and helps you win more scholarships.

put headphones on when in public if you don't want to end up talking to someone you might bump into. it works.

your body also has rights. treat it with care. don't abuse it. nourish it. you should take care of your body like you would a loved one. feed it good things, clean it everyday, and so on. when you feel good by taking care of yourself, you still do better and feel more confident. wash your hair with a set schedule and use good products.

make your wardrobe easier. hang your usual shirts and maybe wear the one in front each day, the previous day's being hung in the back or in the laundry basket. it saves time.

there's no shame in not having stuff. I still don't own a proper laundry basket it all goes into an IKEA bag. you live in a dorm, not a house. sometimes not having every single kind of furniture or accessory isn't bad. don't compare your setup to others. if it's convenient, clean, and homey, it's good. you don't need those expensive lights or those expensive posters to make it seem cool. what you have and what you may collect among the way is enough.

notes on paper are better than laptop or ipad

take breaks. be kind to yourself. it is you for yourself. treat yourself with love.

manage your time by designating time blocks to a certain task. it might not always work but it will help create some discipline in the routine.

having a set everyday routine helps. you don't have to think what to do, thus saving you brain power.

use a semester planner for deadlines and important information. it's useful. I highly recommend. I also have a template if anyone wants.

write down your thoughts, what's bothering you, your feelings, everything on a piece of paper or journal at the end of the day. it'll help process your emotions and you won't have to let the thoughts and emotions fester inside you, slowly simmering and coming to a boil. remember, you are your best friend.

Recipes to help you stay afloat (they're all quick and easy dw):

right off the bat I want to say boiled jasmine rice with sunny side up eggs. you drizzle a pinch of salt onto the yolk, break it over the rice, mix it with the rice and eat it and it's just *chef's kiss*. definitely a comfort food and a very easy quick dinner.

a lot of these I found while scrolling through instagram and some are from when I was trying to lose weight. hope they're helpful!

oyakodon

one pot rice cooker rice with veggies

veggie and meat single serve in one pot

chicken wrap (primarily for weight loss I think)

chicken gyros (this guy makes amazing food)

minced meat weight loss meal prep

chickpeas (chana masala. this shit is bussin i swear)

something tomato + onion + egg

one pot veggie rice (recommended)

chicken shawarma (not dorm friendly cooking but looks delicious)

egg sandwich in one pan

potato marraka (THIS IS SO GOOD)

one pot rice cooker with meat and veggies

daal

chicken and rice

pizza style chicken wrap

five different chicken marinades for meal prep

one pot biryani

takeout style egg fried rice

rice cooker carbonara

one pot yoghurt curry chicken rice

weight loss chicken shawarma

healthier mac and cheese

chicken fajita

chicken tikka masala crunch tacos

one pan braised eggs

air fryer garlic bread pizza

another veggie and rice in rice cooker

fried rice recipe

hainanese inspired chicken rice in rice cooker

tomato orzo(?)

creamy tomato pasta

tomato and egg rice

mushroom sauce (can be eaten with rice)

creamy tomato tortellini

grilled cheese sandwich

[aleprouswitch]

The head of the Political Science department during my undergrad years was Palestinian. I remember him mentioning that there was a time when he was young that Jews and Palestinians lived side by side and there were little to no conflicts. Israel becoming a nation-state changed everything. He told one of my classes that friends of his still had keys to their old houses that they had been ousted out of decades ago.

I remember telling my mom about all of this, but of course, she was heavily influenced by Conservative talking points and Christian Zionism. She asserted to me that Israel was in the right because the Bible supposedly proclaimed it. Nothing I said would get her to consider another point of view. It was like trying to have a debate with a literal brick wall. In her head, people being displaced and killed was part of God's plan.

American fundamentalism has convinced scores of people that you can't possibly care about the welfare of Jewish people unless you support the existence of Israel as a nation. This is obviously not true. Calling out the state of Israel for its abuse of Palestinians does not make anyone inherently anti-Semitic. I mean, I'm disgusted by what Turkey as a nation does to ethnic minorities like Armenians and Kurds, but that doesn't mean I hate Turkish people.

There's so much lacking in nuance in mainstream narratives about this conflict, and it's absolutely on purpose. I see this crap posted by our own president day in and day out. One also has to take into consideration all of the anti-Arab rhetoric that's existed since 9/11 and how this feeds into the broader narrative. We're a nation that likes to blame people for their own abuse because they somehow asked for it or deserved it.

[maxknightley]

Hey I'm very stupid (like genuinely) and I kind of get confused when people describe Biden as all kind of horrible things and then mention Donald Trump offhandedly. Are you saying they are both the same old white men or am I misunderstanding. I've heard people say Trump is better than Biden but I don't understand why people say that especially since he would probably just be doing the same thing as Biden is doing if he won the election. I don't need an explanation of things both have done I'd just like to understand the tone since I just can't understand what you mean via text. Sorry if my question is frustrating.

to be clear I do not actually think Trump would be better than Biden. the best-case scenario of a Trump presidency is that a combination of 1. his incompetence, 2. his ego, and 3. the center-left again being galvanized into some form of action will inhibit his ability to ruin the world further.

the real problem is that both Biden and Trump will almost assuredly continue to support slaughter and religious/ethnic hatred throughout the world in service of imperial interests. this is nothing new, mind you, but I do think their presidencies represent a particularly intense and naked type of brutality, one in which the few lines that the American empire would even consider not crossing are completely ignored. whichever one of them wins, I expect this shit country to continue turning a blind eye to the nation-state of Israel's genocidal ambitions, to aid Ukraine only as long as it's convenient (and to continue pressuring them to submit to the whims of international capital), to continue pointlessly sabre-rattling against the PRC and Iran, etc. etc. etc.

moreover Biden's administration has been remarkably apathetic about the ongoing conservative push to censure any public form of transness or sexuality. the few beneficial things that arguably can be attributed to the Biden administration largely couldn't have happened without organized labor anyway, certainly don't outweigh the massacre of thousands overseas; moreover, the sheer extent to which they fucked up the coronavirus response in favor of saving an economy which is still completely fucked anyway cannot be overstated.

tl;dr they're both shitheads and I expect that this country will continue to get worse until, god willing, it balkanizes entirely and ceases to exist as a superpower. you can still feel free to vote - and in the case of local elections, where your vote can have considerably more impact, I would actually encourage this - but the presidential election in particular is going to be a shitshow from start to finish

[gothhabiba]

from the comments on a youtube video:

caseyvidrine3189 4 years ago Im cajun to the bone. NO worstershire sauce, no adding hot sauce and you dont mix seafood and sausage ever! Oh and no wine and I prefer to not use celery.

IslenoGutierrez 4 years ago Casey Vidrine You are way off. I'm born and raised in south Louisiana and I put a tablespoon of Worcestershire and my cousin adds a few shakes of hot sauce to his and we mix seafood with sausage every time we make a gumbo. It all depends on your area and your family. Like my grandmother said, there's as many ways to make gumbo as there are people that cook it. And she was right. Being Cajun has nothing to do with making gumbo. Gumbo existed in Louisiana before the arrival of the Acadians. (ancestors of the Cajuns). I'm a white Creole and according to the history of your surname, so are you... the name Vidrine is not Acadian, it's French creole (Louisiana-born whites of French descent) that came straight from France before the arrival of the Acadians (ancestors of the Cajuns), it was originally spelled Védrines. Take a look at your family history (you're welcome) https://www.scribd.com/doc/294701222/La-Famille-de-Vedrines-The-Vidrine-Family @XxxclusiveReviews 3 years ago Gumbo is a African dish made by southern blacks… These folks think dream of making it the correct way.. any kind of oil.. please.. hot sauce 🤔

@mandykelley4883 1 year ago @XxxclusiveReviews  I don't need to "steal" your culture. I'm Native American with Cajun roots and my son is half Nigerian. Trust me I'm cultured enough. What you are trying to do is called appropriation. What we eat and know today as gumbo was made right here in America by ethnically diverse communities. What was made in West Africa was a fish stew with okra in it. And west Africans we're not the only ones throwing native resources into boiling water to eat. Please try to educate yourself on on your own cultural foods and history before accusing people of stealing your culture.

the girls are fightingggg....

[germiyahu]

And if you really want me to examine why people in the global south also have such an animosity to Jewish sovereignty in their historic homeland, and seem to give Palestinian Resistance a carte blanche... well I'm definitely not as qualified but fine! I have some theories!

A lot of the Global South are Westerners, kind of. This is especially true for Latin America, and they hate to see it, but a huge proportion of those societies is descended from European settlers, their cultures are heavily influenced by Western cultures. A lot of these countries, especially Latin America (and South Africa too interesting) have also had their own substantial Jewish populations. So if it looks like kind of like a Western society, and it treats its own Jews like a Western society... need I go on?

A lot of the Global South, actually most of it, including the countries that fall in category one, was occupied violently by the West. This created another avenue to transfer Western values onto subjugated populations. And no, don't shake your head at me. You can't claim the GS's homophobia was forced on it by the West and then act like the same wouldn't apply to antisemitism? A lot of the Global South never had significant Jewish populations, that much is true. The concept of antisemitism might feel frivolous and remote to them; why is that our problem? See my own anon. All the same, they were colonized by Jew Haters. At the same time they'd lack exposure to say, Holocaust education, and also have exposure to say, the idea that Jews are overrepresented in global finance.

Even in areas where Western influence was never high historically, even when there are not significant Jewish populations, we live in a modern globalized world where Western culture is a commodity and that commodity makes people money. And people in the Global South consume it. Their conception of the average Jew is probably either an Israeli soldier in some news story about Palestinians being harassed, or a white(ish) American who seems the epitome of privilege to them. They use social media, they see what Americans and Europeans say about Jews. It's very easy to conform to whatever opinions are the loudest and most prevalent.

So a lot of Global South Denizens probably are used to persecuting Jews, expelling or killing Jews, and also dealing with colonial masters who were constantly telling them how Jews cannot be trusted. And for a lot of them, if Jews were present, they were there helping the occupying power, as many Jews were imperial citizens and were present in colonies in various occupations. The Imperial Powers would not have passed up the opportunity to pass the buck to Jews where it was convenient. I see a lot of Algerians excuse their cleansing of Jews as "The Jews were made the middle man by the French colonizers, and they reveled in turning their backs on their Algerian brothers." This excuses violent ethnic cleansing in their minds. Why? Because Western propaganda primed the gun they were already loading.

In essence: I'm not surprised that the Global South is "crying out" for Palestine. All they know about Jews they learned from the West, or they have their own history of violently oppressing Jews. Should any of us be surprised? If you picked anyone in their camp and pitted them against a Jewish state, anywhere in the world, they would still see Jews as a foreign arm of Western Imperial Power, sent by the Man to keep them down. Or the Jews would themselves be the Man I guess. Except then the Jewish claim to indigeneity would not only be more tenuous, it would be ludicrous and false on the face of it.

It's the same reason a lot of people of color in the West identify with Palestinians and the Palestinian struggle. I don't say they do so in error. But I wholeheartedly believe they and a lot of people in the GS are projecting their own societal trauma onto Israel. Obviously Israel is very much doing bad things, so this isn't coming from nothing. But if the vitriolic reactions to Israel and the blind support for literal fascists seem extreme, maybe that's why. They don't care to see the difference between an Israel and a Great Britain or a France. And I'm not saying they have to, but when Jews themselves are also a historically oppressed and nearly wiped out persecuted people, it can come across as fairly gauche to say there's no difference between Israel and Germany, to say that Jews just flat out don't belong in their historic homeland.

There you go, there's my unqualified opinion. Are you happy now?

[homochadensistm]

those twitter screenshots of that white american woman saying the concept of having a homeland being weird made my blood boil. i'm not white, but i am american and have puerto rican heritage. my whole life, i've undergone so much racist abuse from other groups, and the sad thing is is that i can't exactly even "go back" to puerto rico because there's so much shit going on down there and white visitors who are taking over the island, as well as taking up all the housing there. they harass native puerto ricans there all the time, too. sounds familiar? being a white american is a different breed of privilege istfg. she tried so hard to sound like an ethnic mutt, but despite having all those different countries in her blood, at the end of the day.. she is still white. and if she ever finds herself needing to go to europe to start a new life, she can absolutely do so without any problems at all. at the very worst, she might get clowned on for being an american, but white europeans would embrace her anyway. it's not the same with jewish americans, and it wasn't the same for me either when i lived in europe for several years. it's a completely different scenario. some idiot online also argued that jews don't need a country or a continent to yourselves, that there's nothing wrong with living spread out globally. like if that's so, why are they also in the same breath complaining that palestine should only belong to muslim arabs and no one else? how come certain groups can have everything and some should just contend themselves to be diasporic? whether i live here in america, in europe, or even in puerto rico, i'll always have someone somewhere calling me a spic and spit at my face. meanwhile, that white american girl can live peacefully ANYWHERE. sorry for this rageful ask, i'm just.. damn, this whole thing is making me just lose hope for humanity. i'm done.

Answering, as promised <3

I understand where you're coming from but I disagree with the conclusions: Americans wouldn't have it easy in Europe if they suddenly chose to move there. The cultural gap is VAST and no amount (or lack) of melanin can bridge that. Europe is a big place and every country is different culturally and linguistically, Americans would be just as lost and looked down upon in whichever euro country they choose as anyone else. Plus, in many places in Europe Americans are kind of a joke and the stereotyping is strong.

The privilege of those people who don't understand nationalism or why it's necessary is that of peace. People who haven't had their lives endangered merely because of their ethnic background will never understand why nationalism is important to those who are endangered by theirs daily. If you were fortunate enough to be born in the US/Canada/some parts of western Europe you're nationalistically-stupid by design. Peace made you this way, not an elitist book about the horrors of nationalism from a university.