#it’s like when someone calls a black person ‘african american’ instead of black. it’s a red flag.

[she-is-ovarit]

Identifying as.

This is Rachel Dolezal, who legally changed her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo. Dolezal is a white woman who identifies as black and insists that she is transracial. Growing up, her religious white parents adopted four black babies, claiming that they "saved them from being aborted", and routinely delivered strict punishments to their kids including Dolezal. Dolezal does not seem to have a good relationship with her parents and, based on interviews, wanted to distance herself from them and distance herself from rural white culture.

"I've never questioned being a girl or woman, for example, but whiteness has always felt foreign to me, for as long as I can remember. I didn't choose to feel this way or be this way, I just am. What other choice is there than to be exactly who we are?"

She apparently "passed as black" for several years before her parents came out and said that she was white and is identifying as a black woman, and she was asked in a TV interview if she was African American and responded with "I don't understand the question". She taught Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University. She crafted a fake story in growing up as black and has argued that she experiences race-based related hate crimes. She darkens her skin and gets perms and started using hair products she observed her adopted black sibling to use. She lied about her father being black and lied that her black adopted brother was her son.

I hope that as details of Dolezal's story are read about, we are able to understand that tanning white skin does not make someone a black person, that blackface is wrong and racist. I hope we recognize that what makes someone black isn't a collection of racial stereotypes, isn't based on feeling a kinship with black people more than with white people, and that being black isn't based on not feeling a connection with white culture. I hope we understand that a black person cannot identify out of racial oppression, and that a white person cannot identify out of white privilege.

Jewel Shuping, age 38 now, was born healthy but dreamed of being blind since age 13. She stated her mother would tell stories about finding her walking down dark hallways at age 3, and mentioned that by age 6 the thought of being blind comforted her. When she was a teenager, Shuping bought a white cane and learned to read braille, becoming fluent in it by age 20.

She claims to have asked a psychologist to pour bleach in her eyes so she could fulfill her lifelong dream of being blind, and that the psychologist "understood her" and agreed to do so after giving her numbing eye drops to help with the pain (which was not ultimately helpful). She deliberately waited to seek medical attention so doctors were unable to save her eyesight. Gradually, over the course of six months, she became blind.

What Shuping has is considered a real mental health condition called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), a rare condition in which people who are born without disabilities believe with conviction that the should be disabled. There is another name for this in political activist circles, termed "transableism".

"I went blind on purpose, but I don't feel it was a choice."

Several other people with BIID are pretending to be paralyzed to use wheelchairs, with many not being driven to the point of causing harm to themselves to become disabled but instead living full lives faking being disabled.

I hope that as details of the stories of people pretending to be disabled are read about, we are able to understand that feeling like oneself should be disabled is an incredibly serious mental health condition and does not really mean that a person is "disabled inside". I hope we recognize that identifying as disabled does not make someone disabled, and that feeling a kinship with disabled people or a comfort in the thought of being disabled does not mean a person truly is or should become disabled. I hope we understand how people with mental health disorders claiming to be disabled can place further strain on resources and accommodations provided to disabled people. I hope we understand that inflicting pain, disfigurement, or physical altercations on healthy people to "help them physically match how they feel" is an inhumane way to treat a mental health condition.

Paul Wolscht, who changed his name to Stefonknee Wolscht, was married to a woman for over 20 years and fathered 7 children before deciding to live life identifying as a six year old little girl. Living as a six year old little girl allows Wolscht to escape depression and suicidal thoughts because Wolscht gets to now play - even when in jail in solitary confinement for nine days for an undisclosed reason.

“If I’m six-years-old, I don’t have to think about adult stuff.”

Wolscht still drives and drinks coffee, but does so feeling and identifying as a six year old.

Emile Ratelband, age 69, petitioned the courts to allow him to change his age to 20 years younger because he "does not feel" 69 years old. Ratelband has argued that he did not feel comfortable with his date of birth, that age 69 did not accurately reflect his mental state, and that at age 69 he experiences limits.

“When I’m 69, I am limited. If I’m 49, then I can buy a new house, drive a different car,” he said. “I can take up more work. When I’m on Tinder and it says I’m 69, I don’t get an answer. When I’m 49, with the face I have, I will be in a luxurious position.”

Ratelband even asserted that doctors have told him he has the body of a man 20 years younger, and he said that he was willing to renounce his right to a pension. He argues that if people are able to legally change their sex on documents, there is no reason why he should not be able to change his age.

I hope that as we read these stories of people identifying as a different age, we are able to understand that feeling like you are 20 years younger or 40 years younger does not really make you that age. I hope that we understand that even though identifying as a different age might help avoid suicidal thoughts, being discriminated against on dating apps, or denied resources, it does not really change biologically what is. I hope we understand that there are also broader societal and legal consequences to being able to legally change one's age. That an adult might identify as a certain age to trick kids into trusting them so they can sexually abuse them, and/or that allowing an adult to legally consider themselves a different age would make it easier for adult predators to gain legal access to kids in environments in which they would normally be socially and legally discouraged from being in.

[possumcollege]

Tumblr just fed me a repost thread where someone responded to a meme that said "The Right gave us the Klan and the Left gave us weekends" with this extremely broken nugget of US history. 👇

🌈 This is horseshit.

1: In the 1860s, under what US historians call the Third Party System Republicans were what we would call "progressive" and Democrats were the "conservative" party.

Lincoln was a Republican, as were many Americans who called for the abolition of slavery. Lincoln stated that he was not personally in favor of total abolition and emancipation but he did believe regulation of slavery was a power of the federal government as opposed to state governments. Democrats of the Reconstruction Era favored strict moral legislation against race mixing, opposed citizenship and voting rights for African Americans, and largely opposed the expansion of Federal powers over the individual states.

It's honest-to-god not that hard to understand that American political parties haven't always been the exact same parties they are today. I can't help it if no one ever taught them this but it isn't an obscure or contested piece of information. Anybody trotting this shit out as a dunk on contemporary Democrats is either wrong or lying.

2: The Klan was never a "Leftist Anarchist alternative to law enforcement"

The concept of organized State law enforcement was barely a thing in the South at that time. Most southern law enforcemement consisted of slave patrols mustered from state militias, tasked with finding and capturing runaways, and preventing large-scale slave rebellions like the French experienced in the Caribbean. Slave patrols were abolished after the Civil War and officers were instead charged with enforcing "Jim Crow" laws under Reconstruction. Many of the Klan's tactics were literally the unofficial, vigilante continuation of practices that were legal for slave patrols. At no point were organized "law enforcement" and the Klan working at cross purposes. They both sought to maintain the social order through violent enforcement of white supremacy, the klan just wasn't an official agent of the state.

Anarchists may seek to operate without centralized state authority, but vigilantes are not inherently "Anarchists" because they're ungoverned. By that reasoning, children fighting on the playground are Anarchists.

White Supremacy is itself antithetical to central Anarchist principles, which call for a society based on voluntary participation, free of social heirarchy, or rule-by-force.

3: Whether they know it or not, when someone says that the Klan formed as any kind of peacekeeping force, they are parroting Pro-Klan propaganda.

There are 3 distinct, widely accepted eras of organizations calling themselves the KKK. The first is the most relevant as it formed during Reconstruction in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War. It began when a number of young Southern men and Confederate veterans took it upon themselves to terrorize and intimidate newly-free African Americans by raiding homes and businesses, destroying property, harassing black communities, and murdering black leaders, organizers, and their allies.

The first iterations of the Klan were heavily influenced by a growing fascination with fraternal orders and secret societies in America during that era. They cribbed heavily from another secret society, the Knights of the Golden Circle, (the Klan's name came from the Greek word for "circle") who hoped to establish a new county around the legality of slavery. This country would've included the states of the CSA, Mexico, Cuba, the islands of the Caribbean, and parts of Central/ South America.

Claims that the Klan existed to oust Scalawags, Carpetbaggers and other Northern opportunists (often said to be Jews and Catholics) who rushed in to fill the vacuum of deposed Southern leadership doesn't emerge until 1868-69 when Nathan Bedford Forrest was formally elected as their first (holy fucking shit 🤦‍♂️) "Grand Wizard."

(this absolute dipshit)

These retroactive narratives were further amplified in the 1880s-90s as Lost Cause rhetoric began to gain momentum among those sympathetic to the confederacy, white supremacists, and those seeking to profit off the continued disenfranchisement of African Americans as cheap prison labor.

These tales of masked men protecting downtrodden southern whites from the grasping, predatory Yankee Carpetbaggers were further enshrined as founding myths of the second Klan, in Georgia in 1915. It remains a popular Whitewashing narrative to this day.

I do not give half a proud southern shit what the guys who were scamming their buddies into buying official Klan dishes in the 20s said the Klan was about. Those actually existed btw. I don't have to give Forrest's claims any more weight than I give Spencer's claims on the motivation of neo-nazis.

Spencer got exactly what both of them deserved when he got socked in the head on TV.

[brehaaorgana]

You still do not understand the point. You are not Black. Therefore your analysis of the situation is not warranted or needed. You should instead, reblog Black bloggers, repost (with credit and links) from Black users of other social media and donate to Black people in need. Adding another non Black voice on the topic of antiblack racist violence is never helpful. You are not the exception.

Okay, so first, I think this is inherently going to be a difficult conversation since you're anonymous.

second, I think we're talking past each other here, and genuinely, I'm not really sure why you think it's unhelpful for me to tell non-black people to stop and ask themselves some questions about a call by a non-black person to go watch a black woman be murdered by the police. I didn't make a huge callout post or demand anything or insist anything.

this is i guess point three, but: in all my time in the world thus far, it has been understood that I, as a non-black person, should tell my fellow non-black people when they don't have the right to decide something or say something or demand something regarding antiblackness or black people.

Like...genuinely, did we stop doing "Somebody come get your cousin?" on the social justice internet in the last decade for some reason?

Was I NOT supposed to say anything when fellow non-black people were trying to make choices/claims/whatever that aren't theirs to make, because we're not black? am i not, as a non-black person, supposed to speak up if i see something potentially problematic about non-black people's behavior towards violence against black people, particularly police brutality and murder, and ask them to THINK ABOUT IT?

also this is just....a Real Take. Like.

i've had my literal (mexican-american, cop) uncle blocked on facebook since Freddie Gray was murdered in 2015 because I told him he was being antiblack, which he was.

was i supposed to just phone a black friend to do the emotional labor of telling him he was being antiblack since non-black people can't speak on the topic of antiblack racist violence? That's sort of what you're implying here.

anyways anon i edited my other post, so here you are:

Black Voices on the topic of Viral videos of Police Killings of Black People:

PBS: White people don’t understand the trauma of viral police-killing videos by Dr. Monnica Williams.

Al Jazeera: Videos of police brutality can perpetuate Black trauma — The wanton display of footage of violent Black deaths re-traumatises Black communities and promotes racist tropes.

Sage Perspectives: When Black Death Goes Viral: How Algorithms of Oppression (Re)Produce Racism and Racial Trauma

Jstor Daily: Viral Black Death: Why We Must Watch Citizen Videos of Police Violence

This whole book: Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism

What to Consider before Watching Videos of Police Brutality

the New Republic: What Does Seeing Black Men Die Do for You? (Apparently re-titled as: Videos of Police Killings Are Numbing Us to the Spectacle of Black Death)

NPR's Codeswitch: A Decade Of Watching Black People Die

hope that works.

edit -- also for context my full comments:

brehaaorgana

2h

Genuinely (as someone who has handled graphic original photo print documentation of genocide/war crimes before)*** I don't see a reason to make a spectacle of a video recording of a black woman's murder by cops in order to understand what happened. It's just not necessary to do. Being a direct eyewitness to this kind of thing is not always necessary or even something desired by surviving family/community/friends.

bolding my own. Generals and specifics my own.

Someone replied:

I mostly agree with you, but I do think there's something to be said about how disconnected most of us feel from these issues, I think sometimes it does help to actually see it, if you can handle it, and if it's done respectfully with intent to educate. I have a lot of thoughts on this that won't fit in a reply.

My response:

that's fair, I also have a lot of thoughts that won't fit in a reply. Another (less about ethics) concern I had was jury contamination when this goes to court. But in general I think it's not…great to encourage people to make a spectacle of black people being murdered, especially in the US, & especially given the horrific history of using black murders as a recreational visual consumption activity by non-black ppl in the US. basically I would say there's a lot of questions I believe ppl need to ask of themselves if they do this. "who decides if, how, and when it is respectful for you/me to watch someone's murder? How does seeing it in the wild on the internet ensure an educational understanding? How is watching a black murder today different from when people made souvenir photos of black lynchings in the past? What makes it different? Does watching murder teach me something new? like ultimately I don't need an answer from anyone or even your answer specifically. That's all hypotheticals. but there's a huge amount of labor, ethical & legal guidelines, praxis theory & usually multiple degreed people that goes into things like "presenting [community traumas and state violence] the Atlantic Slave Trade or Holocaust or Trail of Tears in meaningful, educational, and respectful contexts" and ppl encouraging folks watching a horrific murder online aren't…engaging in any of that.

Someone else just replied to me:

@brehaaorgana thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in such a thoughtful, understanding, & appropriately serious manner. You never admonished but you certainly didn't mince your words/hold back from implying that this is anything but superfluous, unnecessary, and garish. Watching is nothing but gawking, when details and precise relaying of the event exists. One doesn't need to watch to understand that the cop is repellent & unqualified to be armed w/ authority. I don't care how much it helps you to "engage"; you've now admitted that you're watching the butchering of a human life for a self-serving purpose, even if that purpose is part of an otherwise commendable effort to remain informed and critical.

idk i feel pretty okay saying i, personally, am wary of personally making a spectacle of black people being murdered by police.

***I've obviously been to holocaust museums, native american museums, black american history museums, and so on, but I am referring specifically here to personally handling albums of photos taken and developed by Japanese soldiers during World War II while working in a museum research context.

[elacular-kink]

Poly-Techhic character sheet

For readers' reference, here's some descriptions and basic info about the main four characters of Poly-Techhic. (This may be edited later on).

Edit: This character sheet's formatting is completely borked. Go to this one instead, it's actually readable.

Susanna Jane Butler

Also called Susan and Susie

Appearance:

4'10" (147 cm)

Very average weight and build

Tan skin

Chinese

Adopted by American Catholics.

Short, straight black hair

Bangs can fall over eyes.

Wears baggy clothes

Almost always has on a baggy hoodie with the hood up.

Neurotypical (I think?)

(The author isn't, so...)

Extremely gay

Sophomore (AKA, 2nd year)

Loves and is studying music

Plays multiple instruments

Piano

Guitar

Sings well

Learned how to sing in kids choir in her church.

Is way less cool than she looks or acts

Is cooler than she thinks she is.

Is great at telling people off

Is terrible at telling people good things.

Has a hiccup fetish.

Has been like this as long as she can remember.

Has extremely big emotions and anxiety about it.

She's not able to get off without it.

Olivia Elizabeth Jones

Appearance

5'9" (175 cm)

Skinny

Isn't skinny on purpose, just naturally doesn't develop much fat.

Annoyed when people conflate thinness with health.

Very dark skin

Black (African American)

Nearly buzzed black hair

4C texture

Uses reading glasses

Keeps them around her neck on a chain for practicality

Everyone else says it makes her look like an old lady.

Wears very practical clothes.

All fabrics must be soft and/or smooth.

Clothes are generally tight. She dislikes having clothes that hang loose.

Doesn't care about how butch or femme it is.

Autistic

Very blunted affect

Sincerely emotes only for huge feelings.

Still feels things when not emoting, just doesn't move her face much about it.

Hates social niceties

Is overly honest with people

Aromantic

Does not feel or have a great understanding of romantic attraction.

Can still identify it in others

Bisexual with a female lean.

Considers Susanna her life partner, but does not consider her a girlfriend.

"See, this is why I explain it with 'it's complicated', Olivia."

Does consider Maya a girlfriend

"It means something different to her, and I can do that."

Sophomore (AKA, 2nd year)

Gets the hiccups all the time.

Doesn't generally mind them.

Has been shunned or punished for them in the past.

Thinks this is stupid.

This is part of why Susanna has been her best friend.

Almost nothing cures them.

No apparent medical reason, she's just very hiccupy.

Kind of a troll

People don't expect it from her since she seems so serious.

Primary victims are Susanna and Maya.

Extremely emotionally perceptive

Maya Heffernan

Appearance

5'4" (163 cm)

Feels taller because of her personality.

Also just often wears cleats

Both very muscular and very chubby

Built like a professional weightlifter.

Is capable of lifting weights like a professional weightlifter.

Is basically a physical freak with absurd strength, speed, and endurance.

Exercises constantly.

White

Ridiculously pale (Irish ancestry)

Covered in orange and brown freckles

Massive mane of curly red hair

Sheds red hairs everywhere.

Wears glasses

Including when playing rugby

Has prescription sports goggles

Hates getting things in her eyes=no contacts.

Almost always wears her rugby uniform.

She's number 7, the openside flanker

So she gets to tackle people!

A lot!

Dresses very butch outside of it.

ADHD

Takes adderall occasionally when she needs to focus

Does not like how she feels on it.

Solo-poly

Wants to avoid becoming overly dependent on someone or having them become dependent on her.

Still enjoys having romantic and sexual relationships with many people.

Keeps most relationships at arm's length.

Only forms closer relationships with other people with big poly energy.

Has gaydar, but for polyamorous tendencies.

Pansexual

Not all pansexuals are sluts. But she is.

Fucks lots of women, men, and other types of people.

("But where are the men?" They're offscreen somewhere, shut up.)

Junior (AKA, 3rd year.)

Gives people nicknames

Whether they want them or not.

Will relent if they genuinely hate them.

Eventually...

Susanna=Susie

Olivia=Liv

Kiran=Kiki

Chaos agent

Loves to disrupt people's lives.

Often for the better, sometimes for the worse, almost always for both.

Genuinely thinks this is fun and wants others to have fun too.

Actively trolls people

Frequently goes too far.

Extremely easily bored.

Will cause problems when bored.

If there's nobody to cause problems for, will cause problems for herself.

Really fucking stupid.

Under no illusions about this.

Has always struggled with academia

Has no common sense

Has no impulse control

Is still alive because she's impossible to kill

Kiran Mandal

Appearance

6'1" (185 cm)

Very fat

Deep brown skin

Indian American

One parent is first generation, one parent is second.

Long black hair.

Wants to do interesting things with it, is too nervous to try.

Always wears a dress or a skirt.

Has yet to figure out what her fashion sense is, has been fairly conservative thus far.

Autistic

Terrified of eye contact

Often makes it anyway due to masking.

Always tries to "win" eye contact.

Has a lot of difficulty socializing

Has very little experience doing so, which doesn't help.

Particularly with people her own age.

Extremely socially anxious and shy.

Stims and makes repetitive movements

Used to make a lot of sounds with her mouth, had that mostly trained out of her.

Has never been able to stop flapping when anxious or happy.

Is extremely embarrassed by this.

Sees it as a personal failing.

Trans

MtF

Is on hormones

Has not been on them long.

Not very secure in her womanhood

Is rarely accidentally misgendered.

If someone misgendered her on purpose, the other three would kill them.

Uncertain sexuality

Definitely likes girls.

Definitely really really really really really likes girls.

Freshman (1st year)

Really academically smart

Brilliant at the vast majority of what would be considered "nerd shit".

Particularly likes computer programming.

(Forgive me for my trans woman stereotype.)

Has studied under professional tutors all her life.

Speaks English and Hindi fluently, is proficient in Spanish

Currently being tutored and learning Mandarin.

(please don't expect me to know anything about any of these languages, German is super close to English and I'm still not learning jack shit).

Has very little "street smarts"

Very limited practical knowledge of the world.

Family is stupid rich

Probably some tech sector shit.

Dad may be an insufferable tech bro.

She has access to a shitload of money.

She has no idea what money is actually worth, but is self-aware about that.

Has been insulated from a lot of normal people's experiences because of that

[beardedmrbean]

Hi, trying to make these one short…but in problem lying 🤡

But this thread

https://x.com/sophianarwitz/status/1772283920249167939?s=46

Also this whole “black people be can’t be in fantasy because of racism!” Is more because a lot of black kids were bullied the living fuck of for liking stuff kind fantasy because it was “white people shit” so they lost passion thus they never desire to go into that stuff to bring more rep

Of course a lot of white kids were bullied too

But the thing is you guys can call out your bullies without being called a coon or race traitor

Actually a lot of women here who were in geek culture often pointed out modern feminists were their childhood bullies

And tbh if this panel accurate…

https://youtu.be/JHgpHfrULHc?si=oJQcSWyPac1bCFZG

And that the thing about black stuff like in gaming or in current fantasy

It made be people who have surface levels of understanding of eras

“The Middle Ages were actually diverse!” The Europeans did established trade routes with the rest of world. Buuuut it was also common to stop or ended trades if Islam wanted to try another jihad again and the internal conflict

But about ac stuff and why I’m defending Yasuke as a second playable character

So when ac Japan was announced I decided to look into what time span they will use. So in ac Japan lore was explored here and there in books and other app. But they keep it light

Now a Chinese assassin Shao Jun acolyte Kotetsu went back home to establish his own assassins branch in Japan.

So the Japanese assassins were established in mid 16 century 1549-50 as that when Templars came to Japan

Now this story was told in a manga when it very like the ac red story being develop so they made sure not step on each other shoes

Then a iirc 2021-22 ac book centered around two Japanese assassins siblings during the Meiji period. It was noted the Templar didn’t gain a presence in Japan again until the American navy thus confirm the Tokugawa era was an assassin control one.

So when the leaks drop that Yasuke will be a second playable character. I figured out through research that the game will focus on the final sengoku civil war.

Now when ac3 did the American civil war in the pov of a Native American. It took a few hours in game and hell years in the story to explain why

Now I hope Yasuke can be handle in similar ways to why he want to help unify Japan in these story

But beyond that, feel like a lot of modern creators REFUSE to acknowledge the modern black American only exists in history during colonial and forward times. Hence my chimera republic idea

There a plenty of African kingdoms to use, but are you guys mentally stuck at 15 or something?

Representation matters. Exclusivity is not the same as racism.

She's correct, where it crosses the line into racism is the opening tweet where she's making a big deal out of it. Make your game and then if people bitch about it not containing white men you can point the finger at them.

Same outcome except you don't look like self hating racist, still are one but at least you can play dumb.

Also this whole “black people be can’t be in fantasy because of racism!”.........ect

Ya, that or they were told so many time that it's not something they do that it sapped their will to do it, that crosses over into a lot of things. When I see someone saying that women have to work 10 times as hard as men to get into STEM fields I ask them who told you that, and make sure they give a name instead of "society" because 98% of the time it was another woman that said it, same with the black community except it's white people instead of men.

Oh just a few seconds in and it looks fun, cackling woman is likely to be the kind of person who will try and claim that the oppression olympics isn't real moments after making a statement like her first one.

And that the thing about black stuff like in gaming or in current fantasy It made be people who have surface levels of understanding of eras “The Middle Ages were actually diverse!” The Europeans did established trade routes with the rest of world. Buuuut it was also common to stop or ended trades if Islam wanted to try another jihad again and the internal conflict

Alexander the Great's empire extended into India, not sure how far down into Africa but at least as far as northern Kush

But about ac stuff and why I’m defending Yasuke as a second playable character So when ac Japan was announced I decided to look into what time span they will use. So in ac Japan lore was explored here and there in books and other app. But they keep it light .........

You have absolutely done your homework on all of this, good to have a focus, nice.

Now when ac3 did the American civil war in the pov of a Native American. It took a few hours in game and hell years in the story to explain why Now I hope Yasuke can be handle in similar ways to why he want to help unify Japan in these story

I think historically at this point he's well enough known, legend or reality is going to be the issue, have fun with the story for sure, hopefully people don't take artistic license for fact (they will) and just enjoy the story, maybe take some time and put in some effort to do the reading like you've done.

But beyond that, feel like a lot of modern creators REFUSE to acknowledge the modern black American only exists in history during colonial and forward times. Hence my chimera republic idea There a plenty of African kingdoms to use, but are you guys mentally stuck at 15 or something?

Money. Also could you imagine the outcry if some company got Bantu knots confused with Dreadlocks.

You may have missed all the dreadlock discourse, that was just pathetic and whiny and good lord are there not better things to throw a hissy fit about.

Not really much in the way of records of SubSaharan Africa before the 7th century when some folks came a conquering, they wasn't white or Christian either, and setting up kingdoms and what not. At least for kingdoms that weren't bordering seas or oceans, those got to be older.

are you guys mentally stuck at 15 or something?

Yes, many of them are.

[anarchistmemecollective]

at this point with all the shit that happened with cops I don’t understand at all why people think police reform instead of abolition is the solution. I mean, I know it’s been years of lying that they are needed and everything. But they just brutally murdered a black man out of multiple racially targeted police brutality. The one that happened very recently is horrifying. Which happened after another black person got killed for protecting a forest over something so dystopian sounding to be called “cop city”. Where, more often than not, the police officer gets what amounts to a slap on the wrist for killing people. And then they mock the Black Lives Matter movement with “Blue Lives Matter”.

And they stood there doing nothing during a shooting in a horrific shooting in an elementary school. The Club Q shooter wasn’t stopped by a cop. He was stopped when a trans woman stomped on his feet with her high heels and an ally army vet pinned him down. Another shooting that happened recently also had a civilian stop the shooter. We shouldn’t be forced to be on our own during situations like these, but the police do not do anything if not not enough that they could that has likely been the factor leading to people taking it onto themselves to stop shooters.

All this happened even with their police numbers on display and cameras, including on their own body, watching them. And they are in so much charge that if you defend yourself from them if they threaten you, you can get arrested.

I don’t know if this counts as turning into a rant. I just have a lot of words and, frankly yeah, I don’t trust them at all. Especially as someone of minority groups that would be more likely to be targeted because of it. They should ultimately, especially in the past couple years even though it was still evident for years before, have been proven to people that they cause too much harm and that they aren’t in the actual service of protecting people (pretty sure I heard that there was a ruling they didn’t actually have the obligation to help people).

I don’t have the current means, unless there is a current source, to see how many people think the police are helpful. I hope more people are realizing reform doesn’t do anything and what is needed is abolition. Especially as more and more laws of pure injustice pass against trans people, overall queer people, anyone who can give birth, poc (you also have Floridian governor wanting to revoke African American history classes), etc. The police originated as slave catchers. Being a police officer was never a just thing to be.

[mymarsmoonandstars]

About Killmonger...

and his usage of the word sacrifice, and how he compares to Namor

.

.

.

It's so interesting to me that just like Shuri, Killmonger is wearing white in the ancestral plane. They're mourning clothes for him, too, aren't they? If they are, in a film about moving through the grief and resentment that comes with loss, his white clothes represent that Killmonger is stuck—stuck in anguish, stuck in rage. This may explain why he told Shuri that Ramonda sacrificed her life for Riri, because in his mind, his own father N'Jobu sacrificed his life for the African diaspora.

(By the way, I am using the word sacrifice here because this is the language Killmonger uses, and I merely want to study why. I myself do not believe N'Jobu's or Ramonda's deaths were. When black folks are murdered, I don't view their deaths as sacrifices. They didn't want to die. Both N'Jobu and Ramonda were human beings desperate to save someone (or someones, in N'Jobu's case). The word sacrifice to describe the deaths of black people should be applied with the utmost care, because there is a history of people using that word against us, as it places culpability on the murdered black person instead of the one who actually did the killing. It also reduces black folks to always being the strong and resilient type when we can be victims, too.)

In the first film, Killmonger's father's death motivates him to finish what N'Jobu started and spread vibranium weapons outside of Wakanda to wage a vengeful war—this is his way of "taking care of business" which he encourages Shuri to follow. In calling Ramonda's death a sacrifice, he does not take away blame from Namor, but rather does so to inspire Shuri to act. He urges Shuri to make sure her mother did not die in vain and to instead use her to justify even more bloodshed, just as he had done with his own father. Him wearing white shows he hasn't progressed from this sentiment, and even after all that's happened, he is still very much in pain. It's like he wants Shuri to wage the war that he never got to.

I think Killmonger views the loss of his father as a sacrifice to cope with it, and to him, his father's and Ramonda's deaths are one and the same. In reality, N'Jobu was killed by his own brother then abandoned. Ramonda was drowned as punishment. Neither wished to die. Neither should have died. But to view their deaths as sacrifices? It takes away the brutal truth and gives their deaths purpose. Sacrifice as euphemism. Sacrifice translated into action. He spurs Shuri to vengeance this way, but it doesn't come across as manipulative. For Killmonger, Ramonda and N'Jobu both died protecting a Black American(s), and being that he's never healed from his trauma, he coaches Shuri in the only way he knows how.

But how is never as important as why, isn't it? I've been trying to come up with an answer as to why Killmonger mimics Namor's line. I think to understand it, you have to draw some parallels between him and Namor. The core of what makes them anatagonists is that they both wanted to wage war against colonizers in the name of protecting their people. But they have much more in common beyond that:

White supremacy displaced both Killmonger and Namor. N'Jobu had to hide them away in Oakland just as Namor's mother Fen had to take refuge in the water.

You know how N'Jobu always told his son about how beautiful the Wakandan sunsets are? And how Fen told her son stories about a land and people who never had to change? N'Jobu and Fen filled their children's heads with stories of their homelands dressed up as fairytales. Consequently, Killmonger and Namor grew up thinking of home as an idyllic place that they should have belonged to, but a place always out of reach.

Killmonger and Namor witnessed their father and mother grieving the loss of where they came from. They inherited this grief, this longing.

They have a complicated way of seeing life—they fiercely want to protect their people, but are so blinded by this that they harm those who should be their allies (Killmonger killing black people and other people of color as an American soldier, Namor's assault on Wakanda, both becoming the very thing they hate).

Adding onto the last point, death is sadly common for them. As a boy, Killmonger says, "everybody dies, it's just life around here" which is very similar to Namor's "when you age as I do, you realize we all lose everyone we love." Their hearts are hardened against death, and this is truly a sad thing, and allows them to commit tragedies devoid of sympathy.

So it's kind of perfect that Killmonger echoes Namor's "how is never as important as why." The two characters uphold the same motif of the Black Panther films—to not only look at their methods, which are not the best and at times even downright wrong, but to understand the reasoning behind them.

Remember, despite everything, T'Challa still takes Killmonger to see the Wakandan sunset. The image of these two sitting together and watching the sun go down in Wakanda embodies this theme of empathy, and mirrors Shuri and Namor watching the sun rise over Talokan.

[kenni-woodard]

I just spent way too much time watching a Kenyan-American woman on Instagram talking about how...I'm trying to take my time with this because I'm struggling to articulate it since it goes against the very fabric of my identity -

cw politics, discussion of slavery, identity, oppression, palestine

She thinks that the oppression we face here is manufactured and the oppression people experience in Kenya is real. Specifically, she showed a couple of comparison videos. There was a video of a Kenyan person resisting some armed person - wasn't clear if that was the police or military personnel. Then she cut to a video of a person ripping up their diploma on the graduation stage to protest Palestine. Then she showed Kenyan people marching down a street the way many protestors do all over the world before cutting to a video of people laying in a street while a Black woman spoke into a bullhorn telling the police how she is worried they will kill her boy.

She thinks that descendants of slaves should be calling themselves plain old "American" instead of "African American". She also mentioned that there were more Black slave owners than White ones, and that Black slaves didn't build this country - apparently they only "tilled the fields" which "isn't a major contribution to society" - I'm admittedly conflating some of what she said with what some of the commenters said, and paraphrasing.

She took a bunch of photos with White cops to "disprove" that cops are racist in the United States.

And she thinks that people calling her names or saying things that they probably wouldn't say unprovoked means they lack intelligence and are unable to come up with a logical rebuttal to her remarks.

Now, given my traumatic history, I have a tendency to assume that people are right when they are speaking to me in a condescending or combative tone. Whenever someone denies my experience, I immediately jump to "you're right, how could I dare think that I am a valid person? I am just so stupid to think that it's OK to feel the way I do. I must just be spoiled and ignorant and unworthy of the air I breathe." I'm not being sarcastic. I literally feel that way and have those thoughts go through my head.

Thankfully, after a decade of therapy, I am able to give that response time to happen, and then come out of that response with some self-validation and reassessment.

I didn't want to automatically reject her claims because one of the things she also mentioned was that people are intolerant of opinions that differ from theirs. And she "gets a kick out of triggering Leftists." She also mentioned something about letting logic prevail over emotions, as though emotions have no place in logic. Which I personally disagree with.

Humans have emotions. So you cannot remove them from the equation. I would argue that emotions are what drive opinions. There's an emotion she is experiencing when she sees people shouting about being oppressed in ways that are different from what people in her country of origin are experiencing. I won't proclaim to know what that emotion is. But I think a person with no emotions operating purely off of logic (which, what does that even mean for real? I feel like logic requires a foundational purpose or motivation, and if humans didn't have feelings what would their motive even be for anything?) would probably not even care about what either group of people were experiencing because it doesn't affect them.

I admittedly know nothing about what's going on in Kenya. I do know there is a pattern here of police killing unarmed Black people, and a not-too-distant history of police actively participating in harming Black people and not getting any sort of punishment for it. Does that mean that all White police officers are racist? No. I don't know every White police officer. But what I do know is that I am afraid for my life every time I leave the house. What if I am speeding and don't notice it? If I get pulled over, will I make it home? I didn't make this fear up out of nowhere. It's from history and recent events. My dad is, in my opinion, undiagnosed autistic. He also has PTSD from being in Desert Storm. There was a time a few years ago when he got pulled over and for some reason his instinct was to immediately get out of the car. Knowing that he does stuff like that scares the shit out of me.

Racism isn't just "oh, this cop knows I'm black so no matter the context, they will shoot me". It's more like a deeply ingrained set of assumptions that influence a person's decision making under pressure. It's profiling that probably comes from experiencing or witnessing gang violence, gun violence, drug violence in primarily Black communities. But Black people end up in these communities because of poverty that is undoubtedly connected to a history of practices and policies that placed and kept them there.

What we're not going to do is pretend like Black people have been allowed to have wealth. White people - with government assistance, if not as the government itself - have taken land from Black land owners time and time again. White people have destroyed entire wealthy Black towns. Our ancestors can't leave us that which has been destroyed. Black people were red-lined out of home ownership in certain areas.

There's such a long history of things being done to the Black community to strip it of its ability to be anything other than impoverished for longer than a generation. Things do seem to be getting better, sure. But things will also take time to catch up. And it's so frustrating to hear people say "but that was so long ago." Segregation was legal up until 1964. Places are still being desegregated today. My mother was born in 1962. Lol that wasn't that long ago. It's not like the second something becomes illegal, everyone adopts the new practice and Black children and White children are holding hands and skipping along the sidewalk. No. The first to integrate were faced with so much hatred that they had to be escorted to school. The racist kids they went to school with grew up and some of them taught that same hatred to their own children. And that keeps going. Racism doesn't just magically go away. It might slowly dissolve, but it sure as hell isn't gone.

I could go on and on but my point is that oppression has roots that go so much deeper than what she implied with her video. And it doesn't always look the exact same. Sure, a person ripping up their diploma may seem asinine on the surface, but that's not what the oppression looks like. That's simply an expression of frustration very far removed from what the actual oppression looks like, which is decimated cities, displaced families, and people dying every day. People starving and not getting their basic needs met because their oppressors are denying them access to aid.

And of course, calling someone names is never OK. Being mean to another person is never OK. But it makes sense to me. I understand. Because she is being violent and mean to them by denying their experience with a smile on her face like it's funny or like it's a game. As though people aren't out here fighting for their lives all day every day. "Why don't you change your mindset and work," is what she asked. I work every day and I still don't see the world the way she does. I don't understand why it's assumed that a person who is aware of the many faces of oppression is also a person who doesn't want to work or contribute to society. I can lament the struggles of my ancestors (and feel the impact of those struggles) while still working and "contributing to society" (y'all know how I feel about my job lmfao). You can't be out here in these streets calling people LAZY and not expecting to be called out your own name a few times 🤷🏾‍♀️.

Regarding the whole "African-American" thing - me personally, I don't really give a damn if y'all call me Black or African-American. Neither name is a chosen one. We have been told that we are African-American, Coloured, Black, etc. If we are going based on technicality, sure, Elon Musk can call himself an "African-American". Does it look silly as fuck? ABSOLUTELY. I cannot say that I know the history of South Africa because as an ignorant American I barely know my own history (tbh they don't teach it). But I do believe that White people ended up down there because of colonization. While there may be aspects of their heritage that have evolved to be more inclusive / indicative of their geographical location, they are still there because their people decided to colonize that location.

Black people in the United States have a culture that has formed as a result of traditions passed down from our ancestors. Africa is in our hair. In our genes. In the way we talk. Our music. We are African. Unfortunately due to the actions of the colonizers, our tribal identities have been completely erased. And we did not come here by choice. Of course I'm not referring to folks who have in fact come here by choice. But my people, descendants of slaves. That's who I'm talking about.

I don't understand why she wants to spend her energy defending and claiming a man whose ancestors were colonizers and denying the experience and identity of people who were taken from their home, dehumanized, and had their cultural identities systematically erased. But go off sis, I guess?

This is why people just call you a name and keep it moving. Because we know that you're not going to hear what we have to say. I have written so much. And none of it is new. It has all been said and laid out before. And even still, you have either read it and decided not to find it valid for some reason, or you have chosen not to read it. And still make silly videos invalidating the experiences of others.

I just had to write all this out because my therapist has been talking a lot about how trauma is basically the product of not experiencing and processing emotions to completion. So I needed to complete this experience.

It's dawning on me that I probably feel traumatized by so much so easily because I have so many thoughts and feelings as an autistic person who thinks way too much about everything and uses way too many words and feels all the things that probably aren't even supposed to be felt but I am hyper-sensitive 🤦🏾‍♀️. So it takes me longer to process things because there's just so much information and my processor was built in 1989 and hasn't been upgraded since 😭. And everything in the world is so fast-paced. So there's no time to process. But I'm trying to make slowing down a habit 👍🏾.

[ausetkmt]

Supporters of two Black ranchers who’ve faced racist retaliation from their neighbors in Colorado are calling on the state to pass the CAREN Act, a law that would make racist 911 calls a crime.

On Feb. 17, Courtney and Nicole Mallery of Colorado Springs stood in front of the state Capitol in Denver to demand lawmakers pass the new law.

For months, the Mallerys have faced sabotage on their 640-acre ranch as their White neighbors continually called the police on them for frivolous reasons. They’ve faced death threats and killing of their livestock.

When they tried to confront their neighbors, they were instead investigated by the local sheriff, who initially refused to hear their claims of racist abuse. Instead, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office arrested the Mallerys on Feb. 6 after listening to their White neighbors.

“The act of falsely accusing someone of something because of their color is disgusting to me,” Courtney Mallery told the crowd, according to 9 News. “What me and my wife have been going through, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

Living while Black

The couple have since gained the support of the local NAACP and the ACLU as the organizations represent them in their case and their efforts to pass the CAREN Act.

Melanin-deprived Americans were once legally entitled to wield the weapons of White privilege against innocent Black people during the Jim Crow days and earlier. It was a time when a Black person could be imprisoned or lynched simply for smiling at a White woman or for drinking from a water fountain.

No longer having the full backing of the criminal legal system, racists in the 21st Century continue to find creative ways to criminalize Black existence.

The list is long: Walking while Black, jogging while Black, banking while Black, babysitting while Black, barbecuing while Black, and even watering flowers while Black have all become hashtags after innocent Americans faced the threat of police violence for daring to live their lives in the presence of racist Whites.

Studies show the need for the CAREN Act

In 2001, sampling 215 Black folks, a study by Black psychologist Shawn Utsey, PhD, found that race-related stress negatively impacts the physical, psychological and social wellbeing of African Americans.

“Race-related stress was a significantly more powerful risk factor than stressful life events for psychological distress,” the study found.

Racism and the fear of racism also impacts the activities Black Americans choose to engage in.

Conducting a nationwide survey, Black sociologist Rashawn Ray, faculty associate of the Maryland Population Research Center, found that Black men in mostly White neighborhoods are less likely to exercise outdoors because of fears that they will be criminalized.

The CAREN Act stands for Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies. It’s named after the “Karen,” stereotype, which references middle-aged White women who use the police to endanger Black people and other persons of color.

San Francisco, New York and New Jersey have already passed similar versions of the CAREN Act, and the Mallerys, backed by the Rocky Mountain NAACP, are urging Colorado to follow suit.

“We need to pass the CAREN Act in the state of Colorado. I am personally going to be leading the charge with that legislation,” said Portia Prescott, president of the Rocky Mountain NAACP. 

[lovelymindescape]

Haikyuu male matchup plz

Gender: cis female

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: heterosexual ally

Zodiac: Capricorn

Appearance: 5’2 African American hourglass body (although I’m more top heavy if you know what i mean) black curly wavy hair blackish brown eyes chubby cheeks wears glasses sometimes (im far sighted so it’s usually when driving in class or at the theater)

Mbti: infj

Enneagram: 2w1

Personality: kind smart funny motherly responsible empathetic anxious emotional moody perfectionist helpful people pleaser caring compassionate nerdy curious protective polite respectful indecisive fearful nervous introvert shy awkward clumsy low self esteem low confidence (more pertaining to my talents or personality then my looks) sassy sarcastic (I’m mainly these things with people i feel comfortable with like friends or family) soft spoken cute (my friends think im cute because i can be pretty innocent plus I’m small physically)

Likes: animals books reading writing fantasy magic sci fi anime music video games friends alone time learning personality quizzes sweets and bread helping being a part of something bigger than myself

Dislikes: spiders loud sounds people who harm others people who don’t take others into consideration (like make insensitive jokes or don’t consider the comfort of others or are mean just cause they can) people i care about not caring for themselves (im a hypocrite on this i take care of everyone else but not me) not being listened to weird holes and patterns math and tests (I’m being tested for a math disability and i have test anxiety)

Love language:

Giving: acts of service gift giving and physical affection (if they’re ok with it)

Receiving: words of affirmation and physical affection (although i can be shy about it)

Extra: i pace a lot i sing when im alone i talk to myself im a picky eater (mainly with textures) i have a cat i have minor ehlers danalos (a hyper mobility disorder) but it doesn’t hurt me like it does my sisters i get abdominal migraines which is basically like a migraine but instead of headaches it’s nausea

Thank you

hey luv , here's your matchup, hope you like it

I Ship you with

Sugawara

you two first meet in the halls of Karasuno , you were running late and hurried to class

he stepped out of the classroom to get chalk

you bumped into eachother and at first you two thought it was just this one incident

but you started seeing eachother in the breaks , at first little waves which turned into handshakes and talks which turned into hugs and being friends

now suga is someone who takes care of a lot of people , so it's nice for him that you started caring for him (because let's be honest he puts himself at the very last place of caring )

and so it goes a long time , caring for eachother , you come over to his Home or he comes to yours

but one time , when you were meeting up, something seemed of about him , it was like he was holding back

it didn't take long for you to notice , so when you started talking to him about it he opened up to you quickly

turns out someone told him, he was to bothering for the members and said they found it annoying how he was always spinning around them like a helicopter Mom

so you reassured him that he is a great Person and that its a good trait to be caring

after your little speech to motivate him , he blurted something Out which you didn't understand at first but then he repeated it " your special to me and i think i like you as more than just a good friend"

at first you didn't believe the words that came out of him but soon told him that you thought the Same was about him

you both decided that you take it slow, and not call it anything yet , so you were basically friends with kisses

then one time when he took you out for a date he asked you to be his girlfriend offically and you said yes

so from now on you were the highschool-sweethearts in karasuno

you met up even more than before and watched movies and always cuddled up to eachother

always checking up on eachother over texts with things like have you eaten today and drank enough water and make sure to take care of yourself

you two call almost every night to fall asleep in eachothers presences

you come to his games and support him

your the reason he keeps goin so you Always motivate and reassured him and ist's also the other was around

all in all it's a very comforting , reassuring and motivating relationship

So that was it for your matchup , i hope you liked it and i would appreciate Feedback , so i know If i can do any better

Luv ya 🌷

[thepiguy1]

If Gabriel had lighter skin in that image, you'd have no problem calling him white. But the fact you feel that you have to defend your claim when someone suggests a character you like is black and you have to do mental gymnastics and argue semantics seems to say that white is your default. He doesn't even have to be specifically African American to be black - "blackness" and "whiteness" are entirely social constructs: what you see is what you get, and what i see with Gabriel is a skin tone that looks most similar to that of black people IRL. The first step to getting rid of a learned bias is to recognize you have a bias. I would actually be happy if, right now, you owned up, admitted you fucked up, and tried to be more careful in the future instead of doubling down.

One thing I will admit is that I suck at putting my thoughts into words. I'm really sorry if the things I've said have had racist undertones, or have come across as anything other than reasoned discussion. I promise this is all in good faith, and if it seems otherwise then that's on me.

The reason why I "doubled down" wasn't because I was trying to defend him as white, it was because a. I thought you misunderstood what I was trying to say (again, my fault) and b. because it irritates me when people bring up race (or any other quote-unquote "sensitive topic" e.g. sexism/homophobia/transphobia/etc.) as a catchall excuse for a problem in fandom.

The main point that I am trying to get across is that Gabe doesn't really have a race (other than "angel", maybe) and it seems unnecessary to try and give him one. He may have black skin, but he doesn't have any of the culture or history that black people do. You also mentioned that he has a similar skin tone to black people IRL? which doesn't seem true.

This is Gabe's skin colour, which is definitely a "dark grey" kind of black as opposed to the dark brown colour that you see in real life. I don't think that Gabe's dark grey colour is a natural skin colour for humans.

I also wouldn't want to call him white, in any circumstance really. His armour's white. He has "white boy" vibes. But he isn't white. He's an angle, and fictional too. Projecting race onto characters that don't have one can be nice as a headcanon, but when you shame the rest of the fandom for not remembering an attribute of a character that is never explicitly stated (or, if you accept angels as a valid race, explicitly stated otherwise) then I think that makes you a bad person.

I think that covers everything. My mind tends to jump around to much to make a properly cohesive argument so if I've missed something lmk please. Again, I say this as more of a "don't shame people for something that isn't even mentioned in canon" and not "GRRR HE'S WHITE HE SHOULDN'T BE BLACK yap yap yap". Hope this clears my stance up.

[airic-fenn]

Only If You Think I Am.

Sometimes I remember the temp employee at my old high school job who offered to buy me lunch since I forgot my wallet, and then asked immediately after we sat down if I was mixed. I mean, he was right, but it was a very uncomfortable first question to be asked by a complete stranger.

But it was also one of the many instances that gets me thinking about how weird it is to be mixed race and also racially ambiguous.

Whether or not I’m perceived as a person of color depends entirely upon who is doing the perceiving, and even when and where in the world they’re doing it. Am I in the southern US, or Colorado? Am I in Europe? Is it summertime and I’ve developed a tan, or is it the dead of winter?

Some people dont bat an eye, other people look at me curiously, knowing I am something but they’re just not quite sure what.

One curious man jumped to the proud assumption I must be Turkish, instead of letting me finish explaining that my mom was only born there because her dad was stationed there once.

In France at New Years, my penpal’s friend made a joke about slavery, then laughed and assumed that if I was offended, its because I’m White.

And all of my experiences like these leave me wondering, where do I put myself?

A friend once admitted to me that in middle school when we were covering slavery in class, he had watched me closely to see my reactions to it, because at the time I was just about the most diverse that school got.

The funny part is back then I was barely aware of being mixed race, other than that my Opa is Black. I was just me, and that was just how my family was.

I didn’t really have Black friends growing up (re: very un-diverse schools and neighborhood). Though, my mom would tell stories about how as a kid, she’d get teased and called an “oreo cookie” and blatant questions from her cousins like “what are you?” She’d mention how she would code switch with them, and try to act extra Black with them because otherwise she wasnt Black enough.

But she didn’t talk about race, or how any of it might apply to me. She stuck with the facts: I was mixed. And that was it.

And so I grew up with little understanding of what that meant until I reached high school. I was sheltered, oblivious, surrounded almost entirely by Whiteness and barely aware that people might, sometimes, treat me differently.

That temp worker back at that job of mine was the first time I had considered that people might.

But because I am caught in this limbo, I will never know for sure. Unless they say it out loud, I am left to wonder whether someone is just being angry and rude, or if they’re pulling a racism.

Generally, I give the benefit of the doubt. And why shouldn’t I, when I often barely know for sure how to perceive myself? I’m just me.

Race feels like a concept thrust upon me. Am I

☑️ White/Caucasian?

Or

☑️ Black/African American?

If I’m given the option, I’ll fill in “Other.” But I’m rarely given the option to fill in both.

The problem with being asked to respond with one or the other is that singularly neither feels right. I’d be lying.

I know a lot of mixed folks identify with being Black. I’m not sure I can no, I’m not sure I’m allowed to, even if I probably, maybe could. Because I get caught up in my own questions and fears of “am I Black enough?”

“What even makes someone Black?”

“Sure, the color of your skin, but its also a culture, its experiences.”

“But isnt it reductive to reduce a person’s identity down to whether they’ve been marginalized?”

“Even if I identified as Black, wouldnt that be perpetuating old racist concepts like the one drop rule?” (And if I think long and hard enough about that, I inevitably fall down the rabbit hole and start thinking about how if I couldn’t or wouldn’t consider myself indigenous despite my great-grandmother, why is it acceptable to identify as Black? Even though, technically, I understand the messed up history of why of both).

I’m never able to answer these questions.

But at the same time, identifying as White would feel like I’m rejecting an entire side of myself. Like I’m trying to hide my Opa.

So, I make myself stop thinking about it for a while, and settle back down on just being “mixed.” Its an answer no one can deny, or tell me that I’m wrong.

And as a result, I find myself approaching prying questions or opportunities reserved for BIPOC folks with varying levels of confidence.

“Do you identify as Black, Indigenous, or other Person of Color?”

Yes. Sometimes. Maybe?

Only if you think I am.

[daisychainsandbowties]

To follow-up on the other characters with this WN Dragon/Temeraire AU (because we've been talking so much about Ava & Bea & Lilith):

What are your thoughts on Camila's dragon's name? Because now I am reminded of how the Spanish football team is called La Furia Roja, and what if Cam calls her excitable dragon Furia, because that would be such a funny dissonance.

Yasmine, I think, is definitely the kind of person to give her dragon a traditional name by English standards. (I am imagining she's English.) So something with Latin roots.

Also, also, when Dora gets introduced, maybe she can have the American dragon. (I am going to push this American dragon agenda because pretty.)

Regarding the African dragons, I can't remember them allowing to be beholden/bonded with humans in such a way that they would do things for humans? They've always been their own masters, and even rule tribes/kingdoms sometimes, so I can't imagine an African dragon joining the OCS. I think there was one in Temeraire joining Laurence's company, but iirc that was under special circumstances? Or was that an Australian dragon? I can't remember now.

And circling back to the idea of one of the OCS having a Fleur-de-Nuit: what if it's not the OCS who has one but Adriel? (I feel bad villainising this dragon again, but imagine the demon army having this advantage!)

I am fully on board with Camila calling her Flecha-del-Fuego literally just rage - she would think it extremely clever: 

Cam’: ask me what i’m getting up to today, lilith?’ 

Lilith, in a long-suffering tone: ‘pray tell, what are you getting up to today.’

Cam: ‘i was thinking of going into a flying rage.’

Lilith: ‘i despise you. i resent you. i hate you.’

Cam: ‘nononono wait.’ - she climbs onto Furia - ‘if i were french i’d be en-raged.’

Lilith: ‘if only you were in the belly of a dragon.’

Cam: oh, you love me.

Lilith: *blushes and busies herself with Makaria's harness*

YES absolutely for the sheer Camila of it all it has to be Furia. & Cam dragon’s dragon is such a poseur but also very prettily coloured - black with red highlights on legs & belly & the ends of his wings - and the perfect companion for Cam because they both enjoy doing crazy loop-de-loops at high altitudes and once almost cause an international incident playing ‘dragon soccer’ (someone’s tail knocks over a cottage. probably Makaria’s). 

Yas would absolutely choose a traditional name - I have her down as from Egypt (which is nominally part of the Ottoman Empire at the time, though really only nominally, & it’s unclear based on the lore if that would be an actual place, but that area is I think under the jurisdiction of the Ottomans) but she has been in England since she was three. her dragon i’m thinking is a girl? I think she might choose an Egyptian-sounding name for her dragon, because you know that Yas is very passionate about her homeland. I like the idea of something unexpectedly short like Senu or Shay. 

i think someone should for sure have an American dragon, though unfortunately there would be many commonalities between British dragon-breeds and American ones, thanks to the fact that colonisation definitely did occur. (the same reason that there is little distinction between Irish and British native-breeds). there is not much detail about dragons native to the American continent (a bit more in Golden Age where we see that there was some mingling of draconic bloodlines, so perhaps something along those lines?) i cannot remotely think of a name for that dragon now, but it will depend on what kind of dragon it is, really. 

no, i can’t imagine an African dragon joining the OCS, though they might be willing to let the ocs assist with possessed dragons & demons from time-to-time (with a preference to simply manage it themselves, as they always have, but the ability to save possessed dragons instead of having to kill them would likely appeal). i can’t remember if it was an African dragon who joined Tem’s crew. there was Kulingile but that was the offspring of two of the Turkish ferals. 

also, yes absolutely. the Fleurs are heavyweights and fire-breathers, so it would suit Adriel perfectly. i think in this case the dragon would be possessed, but lengthily, so that there is likely nothing remaining of the original dragon’s personality. 

[syleenarenee]

CH. 5 YOUR TURN FIELDWORK

Phenotype: This picture shows phenotype because it shows the different races. It shows the different colors of everyone and the different features of everyone. ​​Every race and person has a different genetic sequence. An example of phenotype is height, hair color, eye color, and more. Phenotype is basically how you’re viewed your physical form and structure. Phenotypes aren’t just physical traits. It can also include behavior. In females typically white people get surgery to change themselves to look more like African American women. It’s crazy because many African American people don’t want big bottoms and want to lose weight because they think they’re too big, but that is what society makes it feel like.

Miscegenation: is a demeaning historical term for interracial marriage. (page 162) The picture shows a black and white couple married. Miscegenation comes from the Latin word. White men were punished for marrying or dating black women because of how many white women there were. I don’t understand why this would be a problem because you can’t control what a person loves or like. If that’s their preference then that’s what people like even if it is a different race or gender. People believe that miscegenation is an answer to world peace. I think Miscegenation is amazing because you can learn much from a different race. Different backgrounds and different environments.

Racialization; is the process of categorizing, differentiating, and attributing a particular racial character to a person or group of people. (page 178) An example who would once have been forbidden from academic spaces and still feel out of place must navigate these repressive structures in their educational journeys. In Covid-19, people stopped eating from Chinese stores because supposedly covid-19 came from “Chinese people”. Or when people don’t eat Jamaican food because they don’t want them cooking their food. Putting people in groups is not okay because it's like stereotyping people. I wouldn't want to be placed in a group because of the color I am. Or separating me from something because of my skin color.

Microaggressions; is Common, everyday verbal or behavioral indignities and slights that communicate hostile, derogatory, and negative messages about someone's race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. (page 182) Microaggression shows in this picture because of her hair texture. So people will say things because of how she looks. The quote someone said to her was probably very hurtful but sometimes people might not think they're affecting someone with what they say. Microaggressions are used a lot today. But instead of assuming they could ask her race. 

Intersectionality; is an analytic framework for assessing how factors such as race, gender, and class interact to shape individual life chances and societal patterns of stratification. (page 187)  Examples of intersectionality include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, and physical appearance. 

Hypodescent is Sometimes called the "one drop of blood rule"; the assignment of children of racially "mixed" unions to the subordinate group. (page 169) This picture shows one drop of blood. It basically means if you have one drop of blood of any different race. In the picture, the girl is 100% Chinese and 100% caucasian if you see the in-between it means she’s mixed. Another example is how Obama his mom was white but his dad was black so when people found out they said he wasn’t fully black and he was mixed.

[nsfwhiphop]

Incoming Text for @solangeknowles : PART 2 - Can I tell you something about the stupidity of the African-American population?

Hey Solange! It’s me, Angelo.

I want to share this very sad discovery with you; it's about the stupidity of the African-American population.

As of the most recent estimates in 2023, the African American population in the United States is approximately 47 million people, accounting for about 14% of the total U.S. population. This figure includes those who identify as African American alone or in combination with another race.

There are 47 million African Americans in the USA, and not one of them could understand the meaning of the word "UNITY."

Your people are not united; they don't understand the meaning of the word "UNITY." They are all divided and individualistic. Everyone cares only about their own problems and refuses to take a bullet for the team.

Take a/the bullet (for someone)

Literally: To jump in front of and absorb the impact of a bullet from a gun being fired at someone else. It's one of the basic duties of bodyguards to take the bullet for their clients if someone tries to kill them.

By extension: To accept or put oneself in the way of some misfortune, difficulty, blame, or danger to protect someone else. I don't know why you always feel like you have to take the bullet for your bosses when they screw up. They never reward your loyalty in any way. I used to take a lot of bullets when I worked as a PR representative for the senator.

Why am I saying this? It's to help you understand that all these African Americans claim to be smart and educated, but none of them have understood the importance of leaving the United States to build wealth for their black families.

Let me help you understand what this means:

If every African-American household, meaning every black family in America, has one or two educated family members leave the United States to go and build wealth in Asia, there would be so much wealth in each one of these black families. Do you understand?

Instead of leaving American territory, they stay, refusing to leave. They know that it's a white supremacist nation that refuses to let them become multi-billionaires, but they keep staying and accepting their economic injustice. They all know that Black people are not allowed to pass the threshold of 3 billion dollars. Have you ever seen a black person in America passing the threshold of 3 billion dollars? No, they don't exist. Despite knowing about this blatant injustice, they keep staying in this white supremacist territory, refusing to leave. When they stay, guess what happens? The injustice will continue for many centuries.

This is what I call stupidity. There are so many educated men and women in the African-American community who can create immense wealth in Asian countries, but they refuse to leave American territory. This is what I call a "Refusal to take one bullet for the team." By refusing to leave American territory, they become prisoners of a white supremacist nation that will always keep the African-American population in a state of complete poverty and destitution.

The term "Uncle Tom" is making a lot of sense now, am I right?

Okay, I rest my case. "Back to our regularly scheduled programming."

In conclusion:

The 47 million African Americans are poor because they are stupid and haven't understood that they are condemning their future generations to poverty by refusing to leave American territory to settle in Asia and create wealth for their future generations.

From now on, every educated Black person must teach the value of building businesses in Asia to create wealth for their descendants. It should be taught in every classroom in America. If you don't teach this to your black children, they will never know how to free themselves economically. They will remain poor for many centuries.

Every black family must now have one or two members who are well educated and accept to take a bullet for the family and leave American territory to seek a better economic future for their families in Asian markets, building businesses that will benefit the black community in America.

Every black family must have one or two members who become like soldiers who go overseas to create wealth for their black family back home in America.

If you don't take these measures to fight back against the injustice of white supremacists, you will never find a way out of poverty. This is the one and only solution to put an end to the extreme poverty of the African-American community.

The black leadership in America has failed to understand this simple geographic solution to solve the economic problems of African Americans. You need to send family members as soldiers who create wealth for their families back home in America.

I hope my message was clear and understandable.

The end of this conversation.

Your friend and guardian angel,

Angelo.

P.S.:

Synopsis of the letter:

This letter discusses the perceived disunity and economic stagnation within the African American community in the United States, which comprises approximately 47 million people. The author argues that the community's inability to unite and collectively pursue economic opportunities has resulted in persistent poverty and limited financial progress.

The author suggests that educated African Americans should leave the U.S. to seek wealth-building opportunities in Asia. By doing so, they could create substantial wealth for their families and help uplift the entire community. The letter emphasizes that staying in the U.S., where systemic racism and economic barriers persist, perpetuates economic injustice.

The author concludes that African American families should educate their children about global economic opportunities and encourage members to explore international markets. This strategy is presented as the only viable solution to end the community's economic struggles and break free from poverty.

[multicultural-america-blog]

Blog #2; Get Out

The movie I chose for blog #2 was “Get Out” written and directed by Jordan Peele. This movie is about a bi-racial couple, Rose and Chris, visiting Rose's white family for the first time and the family seems accepting and liberal.

After Chris encounters many sinister events, it turns out the family was using the daughter to lure black people to the house to steal their bodies, and put white people's brains into the black bodies, to acquire the physical advantages they believed African Americans possessed. They did this by the mother, who was a psychiatrist, “helping” the black person with hypnotism. In this case, she was helping him quit smoking, therefore she did hypnotism where he ended up in the “sunken place”. The sunken place is how they sedate him so he can’t fight back, since it puts him in a coma-like state. From there, the father, who was a surgeon, can do the procedure to switch the highest bidding white person’s brain into Chris’s body, where he would live in the sunken place forever. 

Chris tricked the family by putting cotton in his ears so the hypnotism wouldn’t work, therefore able to fight each family member for his survival. Once he takes out every family member, he fights Rose last, and as she’s dying on the pavement, a cop car pulls up with their lights on. Rose starts reaching for the cop car saying “help”, and Chris puts his hands on his head and backs away from Rose. Chris’s friend steps out of the car instead, who is there to save Chris. The movie ends with Chris and his friend driving away from the house in the cop car. 

This movie dives into the manipulation and objectification of black people, specifically their talents and natural physical abilities. Although the movie shows a very dramatized idea of how white people feel the need to control black people, the movie shows how black people are used for their talents rather than appreciated for their talents. In the movie, although they were okay with having a black body, the white people taking over the bodies still show white supremacy by valuing the white brain over the black person's existence. This shows that the physical abilities of black bodies are seen as a commodity to racists, rather than a human. 

The part of this movie that spoke volumes was as the cop car was pulling up, Chris, the victim, put his hands on his head while stepping away, and Rose, the criminal, acted innocent while saying help. I connected this back to the white privilege checklist because this shows blatant white privilege. In class, we explored Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege Checklist” and in our Media project, we explored what someone would add to the list. I believe “When I am in trouble, need help, harmed, or am involved in a crime, I can trust to call the police for help without fear of being harmed, or wrongfully accused” would be a good start to add to this checklist. 

I also connected the obsession with the abilities of African American bodies in the film to a discussion I had with my aunt for the Media project. She explained how she would like to see more black people acknowledged for their academic and personal achievements, rather than just their talents in entertainment, such as athletes, rappers, actors, etc. This relates to the movie because the black bodies were valued for what they could do for the white brains in control of the body. This connects to the spotlight around black artists and athletes for what they can offer, rather than who they are or what they can accomplish from who they are. 

Overall, this film was a unique depiction of how internalized racism can create evil ideas and the dangers of objectifying African Americans for what they can do for white people. This is one of my favorite movies, and I enjoy the brilliance that went behind creating this film.

Rose and Jack

Roses Parents

Chris being hypnotized.

"The Sunken Place"

Surgery Room