#saw this posted in response to some racist white ass fuck arguing that from the river to the sea shouldnt be used and

[chaiaurchaandni]

let him cook

[avintagekiss24]

Hi! I don't want to start anything on here and am always willing for civil conversations. At this point there's so much I've found out about Seb (besides the video he liked, the tommy lee thing, and the girlfriend thing) that I feel so guilty if I would continue to support him. I love him sm but it just doesn't look good rn. He is associated/follows an organisation (for helping veterans) that has posted a blue lives matter flag picture and who's co-founder has sexual assault allegations against him, and worked with him in 'The last full measure'. His friend Paul Walter Hauser has done blackface in the past, and when called out on it he just listed a few people that also did blackface. There's more, I found a discussion on here that I can link. I seriously don't support "cancel culture" bc I don't think it helps anyone but there are just a lot of 'mistakes' and shady people that can be linked to Seb, I wish it wouldn't be that way. I honestly don't know what to think about it anymore.

Hi! I’m also open to having civil conversations and I don’t believe you’re trying to start anything. I really do think this situation of dragging up a four year old video and taking it completely out of context is harmful not just to Black people, but to fandom/activism in general. This is gonna be long because I’m going to take your points one by one, and I want to preface this by saying that I will not answer any derogatory, sideways asks pertaining to this subject. I will delete every single one and will block your silly ass. I’m not going to argue with people who think I’m blindly supporting Sebastian because I’m just trying to get fucked by him, or people who think I hate myself and am trying to appease some white man.

So, on with the discourse!

The video he liked - this video was taken completely out of context and that is my main issue with this whole situation. It was not a video of a white man saying that he thinks he should be able to say the n word as everyone claimed it was. They were quickly debating on whether or not it's okay to say in rap lyrics. He was told no, that's not okay, that's never okay and they moved on from it. That's it. End of story. That somehow was twisted into a click bait style headline of "Sebastian Stan likes a video of a white man defending his right to say the n word" when that is absolutely not true. My other issue is that people are more upset that Sebastian liked the video than they are about the white man in the video literally saying the n word. So, do you really care about the use of the n word like you're claiming? Cuz if you do, you'd be more upset at the white man that said the word than you would be about the white man simply liking the video. Or, are you just using this as an excuse to grandstand against a white man you don't like?

The Tommy Lee thing - Sebastian Stan playing Tommy Lee does not make Sebastian Stan a bad person. Is Charlize Theron a bad person for playing Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who started murdering men? Is Leonardo DiCaprio a bad person for playing a slave owner? Is Edward Norton a bad person for playing a nazi sympathizing racist? Actors play bad people. That doesn't mean that they themselves are bad people. 1990's Tommy Lee was a bad person, but that should have no bearing on who Sebastian Stan is or his character as a man.

The gf/Paul Walter Hauser thing - Why are we holding Sebastian accountable for what the people around him are doing? Again, why are we more upset that Sebastian is associated with people who have done questionable things than the specific people themselves? I'm not going to speak on the kimono wearing -- I'm not Asian. It's not my place to say whether or not its offensive because it's not my culture, but she posted that picture and attended that party before she started dating Sebastian, quite possibly before she even knew him. Same with Paul. I think that black face thing was long before he knew Sebastian. Now, if Sebastian was defending these actions, going around saying "I think it's okay for white women to wear Kimono's" "I think black face is fine" "I think white people should be able to say the n word" then we'd have a different story, wouldn't we? But that's not what we have, and that's not what he is doing. He is not responsible for the things his friends do or have done in the past just because he's more famous than they are, and he is not required to speak on them. Let's put it this way -- would you be comfortable having to be responsible for something a friend of yours did before you knew them? Would you want to have to be forced to answer for your friend when you yourself had nothing to do with the questionable behavior?

The organization that supports the military/blue lives matter - Sebastian cannot control what message that foundation puts out and it does not mean that he is or is not pro-police himself. There is not enough concrete evidence -- if any evidence for that matter -- that Sebastian is a blue lives matter supporter. Did Sebastian donate before they put up the blue lives matter post? Or after? I don’t know, cuz I don’t follow him that closely, but if he donates before they come out with a particular stance, that means he should be held accountable for that? I know I donated to an organization once and they turned out to support something that i’m 100% against. That means I’m a bad person because I couldn’t see into the future? Another point, how can we be certain that Sebastian saw the blue lives matter post in the first place? I know I’m not online 24 hrs a day, I miss posts all the time and I’m just an average person. I make three or four tumblr posts a day, and I’m gone. I have to play catch up on social media, and even then, I still miss stuff. So I’m sure the same happens to a working actor. As for the co-founder, I don't know who this person is and would rather not get into any allegations against them because I don't want to trigger anyone who comes across this post. If Sebastian knows about these allegations, is a willing participant/supporter of this person then yeah, that's pretty shitty, but we don't know the inner workings of this friendship/acquaintance/work relationship. We don’t know how close they are or if they even still speak.

I’m a pretty big fan of Don Cheadle. He’s a stand up guy, he’s a great actor, he’s funny, he’s political and stands up for what he believes in and in a very public way. I support him. Don Cheadle is also friends with Chris Evans, RDJ, Mark Ruffalo, and Letitia Wright (just to name a few). Chris Evans has a bipartisan forum that highlights/promotes right wing politicians, RDJ defended Chris Pratt during the whole “he’s the worst Chris in Hollywood” crap, who’s technically done black face, and who once said to a female reporter “nice tits” when she walked into the room, Mark Ruffalo just walked back his support of Palestine, and Letitia Wright retweeted/supported an anti-vaxxer/anti-trans Pastor who equated an ingredient of the covid vaccine to the devil because it contained some parts of the word Lucifer. Does that mean Don is now a bad person because he’s friends with these people? Why isn’t he getting any heat for his friendships with them? Why isn’t he being held accountable for what they’ve done and said? Oh right, because he’s not a white fave. So people don’t care one way or the other, which brings me to my next point. 

I can guarantee you that if Sebastian’s gf or Paul or this co-founder were not associated with Sebastian in any way, nobody would give a shit about her wearing a kimono, about Paul doing black face, or about the co-founder/organization being blue lives matter supporters and in that lies the actual problem. Being critical of people and their actions should be consistent and should happen all the time -- not just when they interact with your white fave. That’s when it becomes performative and looks like you just want to be able to show internet people that you follow/support/stan unproblematic celebrities, when really, you don’t care.

I think the moral of this post is that I think it's unfair to hold a complete stranger to a standard that I cannot hold myself to. I also don't view celebrities the way most teenagers/twenty somethings do, and that’s because when I entered fandom we didn't have social media, so I grew up with a wall between myself and said celebrities. There is no wall now with the presence of social media. "Fans" nowadays have a weird ownership feeling over celebrities because they can read their personal thoughts or view personal pictures and think that they have this personal quasi-friendship with them. I can't get on board with that. I prefer having the wall and I still keep the wall.

If supporting Sebastian makes you uncomfortable, then by all means, stop supporting him. Just make sure you are making this decision for yourself based on credible sources and concrete evidence and that you're not letting this fake woke activist mob make you feel uncomfortable. Internet activism means nothing unless you put your money where your mouth is in your real life and 90% of the social justice internet warriors do not. Real activism is bigger than changing your avi to a black square.

[starlitshores]

This might end up being an unpopular opinion, but I’m actually okay with public figures - specifically white hockey players - showing up late to speak out against racism and in support of Black Lives Matter.

The statements that some players have made today sound more thoughtful and considered than I would have expected from them (the bar was low). That takes more work (and, we can hope, self-reflection) than smashing the share button on a corporate sponsor’s statement or an image that only lasts one day.

And yeah, we can choose to think positively and make the assumption that the younger guys who smashed that share button did so because their thoughts, feelings, and gut responses truly align with the messages that Black Lives Matter and bigotry is wrong and we need to do better.

But for some of these guys? Their statements sound like they had to actually take the time to open their eyes to the world outside of their privileged bubble and to actually listen. They had to take the time and sit with it and then figure out how to write a public response. And when they did, they were honest enough to admit that before this, they didn’t even notice. Not just that they have never experienced racism in any form themselves, duh, but that they were somehow walking through life willingly ignorant to reality.

And we can all sit here and go “You ASSHOLE. How did you NOT KNOW?” because I’m not trying to be funny how did you miss Michael Brown’s death and the Ferguson protests six years ago? How did your heart not break hearing about Tamir Rice over eight years ago? How have you not seen the long long lists of names of Black lives lost to police brutality? How did you not even hear about BLM holding up Pride parades IN YOUR SUMMER CITY to protest the presence and inclusion of cops? HOW?

However, everything we’ve all been sharing for the last week, we’ve been sharing in an echo chamber. We already care. So, fellow white people - and this may be obvious to many and is not intended to be repetive or condescending - we’re probably not really educating each other. But we do need to take the weight off our Black and other minority friends and educate other white people. That’s one of the big things we can and should do. And we need to accept that it’ll be uncomfortable and infuriating because the people who need educating are the ones who haven’t been paying attention, haven’t cared, and/or have actively been on the other side. (You know, the ones we don’t want to talk to at Thanksgiving or school or work. For REASONS.)

I’m biased as fuck about this because I teach racist white kids for a living. And I get one semester to shake those deeply ingrained prejudices loose enough that when I present new information or new opportunities to learn and expand their understanding of the world, something gets through. And whether it’s a 15 year old girl sobbing that she’s been a horrible person her whole life (we had a chat about white guilt and forgiving your child self in order to move forward as an ally) or a grown ass rich man finally not looking away and acknowledging his own privilege, I’ll take it. It’s a step.

What I took away from these statements, as lukewarm as some of them were, and as close-to-but-not-on-the-mark as others were, was a little ray of hope.

Based on NHL history - even though he’s answered questions about YCP and queer players and even used the word “paradigm” correctly in his response - I did not expect a player like Jonathan Toews to make any statement let alone one that I saw several white hockey fans in the comments respond to positively. And I definitely didn’t EVER think he’d also make a reference to the experience of North American First Nations in what I personally saw - ymmv - as a little dig at his team’s racist as fuck logo. (Please please please advocate for a change in the logo and branding, Jonny...)

Perhaps there are others who haven’t yet spoken up because they don’t feel ready. Either they’re not informed enough, or they don’t know how to say it, or they’re coming out of some murky dark hole of racist shit, or their white bubble just popped and the world is scarier than they realised. And there are for sure others who haven’t said anything because they’re quite happy in their white bubble and/or because they’re on the cops’ side and don’t want to bother with the PR. (Note: Eichel is an American captain, and Parise is from Minneapolis so their freedom and expectation to speak is, I’d argue, different.)

What I do know is that I’m okay with a late statement from someone who is doing the work and means it, and will happily hold them accountable for living up to it in future.

EDIT: I removed a section about Tyler Seguin. I’ve seen so much negativity about Tyler lately, especially regarding his stint in the Bahamas and that beer pong thing. And I think I allowed that and his past immature comments/behaviour to make me a bit more apologetic than I wanted to be regarding one of my favourite players. My literal gateway into hockey. I still want to acknowledge those past behaviours and my own worry when I saw that he posted because my bar for him IS higher than for other players based on what I’ve seen him do in his community and I was worried he might not meet it. He exceeded it. And since his original statement, he has STEPPED UP. He did a great interview with The Athletic, and the boy is now out there at a BLM protest in Dallas. That’s my baby and I’m proud. The end.

[mellowfilmmaker]

Yall I’m Finished Needs to Be Done

You know, I’ve always been one of the first people to stick up the for SU fanbase, but this whole SU critics vs Anti SU criticals (or more commonly referred as SU Stans) war really has made me want to distance myself a little. I’m not blaming the SU critics though. They have all the right to criticize the show all they want. Criticism is good for art and you can learn a lot about storytelling by digging deeper into what works and what doesn’t. However Anti SU Criticals are trying to put a stop to that. Anti Critics are some of the most worthless people on this site. They keep repeating the same Dumbass arguments, argue against even the most irrefutable points, and many of them are just terrible people. I find Anti Critical people in general to be toxic and annoying, but the Anti SU crits have taken it to a new level. That’s why I’m going to highlight the one that is definitely the worst one, Yall I’m Finished. 

He is definitely the worst one for reasons I’ll get to. Maybe it might be better to block or ignore him, but I feel like this would be more fun. I hope to uncover his bullshit fast than the speed of light. Now the point of this post isn’t to encourage harassment of this individual, it’s more to calmly illustrate why being an Anti SU Critical is not worth it. Also this might make for a good laugh. Let’s get into why Y’all I’m Finished needs to just be done. 

First, yes I went through this guy’s entire blog to get the biggest understanding of his blog. I kept seeing his posts in the SU critical tag and he kept saying the most ignorant things ever.

He is most definitely a dedicated Anti SU Critical despite what he says. 

Dude, I went through your entire blog and almost every post was an SU Critical Critical post. Also your own blog description states “Uncovering Su Critic bullshit at the speed of light”. You are a worse liar than Trump. The last line is definitely the biggest lie because here’s the thing, you are a hypocrite. In fact, I will uncover the depths of his hypocrisy. 

So let’s get into some of the horrible things he has said. Well he defended Concrete to start with. 

Yes, not only did he defend Concrete, but he also states that POC are privileged in this society. Now I’m a white male who came from a upper middle class family and even I know that no, they are not privileged. I don’t know how far up your own white ass to even think that. Yes they get Affirmative Action, but that’s meant to counteract all the disadvantages they get in our society. There’s so much racist bullshit in our society that even I’m exhausted from it, and I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be a POC who has deal with this stuff all the time. I understand why the Angry Black Person stereotype exists, because white people keep giving black people shit to be angry about! 

Though that isn't the only time he said stuff that proves that he probably has spoken to an actual black person. 

Yes, it does matter. It’s a word that’s been used to dehumanize black people for centuries. I just don’t get white people’s fascination for wanting to use the N-Word. If it’s just a word then there should be no problem with not using it. 

Though that’s nothing, wait to you get to this post. 

For those who don’t know Terfs are “Feminists” who are transphobic. So he compared people who are criticizing a show to actual bigots. You know, Mad Max Fury Road is one of my favorite movies, but both times I saw it in theaters the people I saw it with didn’t like it. You know what I did. Nothing. I wasn’t mean to them, I wasn’t comparing them to Apartheid, I just accepted that they had a different opinion than me. Why can’t all of you Anti Crits be half as mature as that!? 

Though if he thinks SU Critics are as bad as bigots, I wonder how he will react to an actual bigot. 

Oh my god. 

For those who don’t know Gemkorp was a Nazi fan artist of SU. This included a gif art of Connie getting shot in a ditch. So this guy complains about SU Crits all the time, but when it comes to an actual Nazi your response is “They weren’t hurting anyone”. So someone posting about height inconsistencies is ruining the show, but fan art of Connie getting brutally murdered is a ok. Of course, he got rightfully called out on this bullshit, to which he apologized and has a epiphany about what he’s doing. He turned his life around and is now open minded towards other people... I’m lying of course, he doubled down on defending Nazis when got called out. 

Oh my god. They want everyone who isn’t white dead you idiot!!!

They’re not all bad!? Nazis are bad by definition. Maybe in 1940s Germany you might have had German soldiers that didn’t hold Nazi beliefs, but being a Nazi in modern day America is inexcusable. Maybe they can be redeemed, but I personally want to protect innocent POC first. 

They are protecting people! They are trying to stop white supremacists from organizing and hurting people. Would he have the same reaction if they were taking down sites from ISIS!? White Supremacist kill more people in America than ISIS do. 

His “let’s be nice to Nazis” mentality did gain him a fan. 

Yes, that’s Gemkorps new account giving Y’all I’m finished their seal of approval. Gemkorp is definitely a Nazi with multiple Nazi positive posts which includes them wanting to beat up gay people. Remember when Y’all I’m Finished compared SU Crits to Terfs? 

Now let’s move on to his hypocrisy. We started uncovering it a little with his whole “SU Crits are the devil, but Nazis are harmless” mentality, but let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s start with this post:

Yes, anyone who has half a brain can spot the obvious hypocrisy in this post. Like it’s just comical at this point. 

Remember how he said that Nazis don’t deserve to die just because they have different beliefs? Yeah. Imagine if he said that SU crits deserved to die just because they criticized the show. 

Yes, really he really made this post after his whole spiel about how you should be nice to Nazis. Also if you don’t like hearing SU Crits whine anymore than stay out of the fucking tag! I know I’m not the only one who’s said it, but avoiding SU Critical posts are so easy to do! Avoiding Anti Crit posts when you follow SU Critical on the other hand is kind of impossible. Also I just noticed that this guy likes to start of ignorant post with “No Offense”. That doesn’t absolve you from criticism!

Now we have uncovered some pretty hard hypocrisy. You know what would be the ultimate hypocritical thing he could do. He could make an SU Critical post. Of course he wouldn’t do that after everything he said about SU Critical. No one can be that dense...

Ignoring that what he’s saying is extremely stupid, yes he really did this. He just did this today. I’m laughing my ass off at this. Really man? Really? So according to Yall im finished, SU crits deserve to get hit by a train, yet he just criticized the show. He deserves to get hit by train according to himself. I have never had that  much self loathing and I have depression! 

Now to all of you who told me that you hated SU Critical because they were rude, look at this guy! Now do you see how silly you sounded! 

[writetohell]

A Night Out

And it was here, lying on her tummy on the oak branch, flattening herself inward like a moth at rest, that Elena really thought to herself and succumbed to the question that had settled at the back of her mind some three or so days ago: how much longer could I go without sleeping?

The answer (as she had Googled sometime after the 34th hour) would be around 11 days if she were competing with the world record.

At first it seemed neat, like a medal of endurance, when the bursts of creative energy that winded her at 3 AM came to fruition. And then the headaches set in, the blurring figures, the strange ticking jitters that convulsed in her fingers and eyelids like the steady countdown of a time bomb. But if we’re being honest, Elena couldn’t give two shits about her own symptoms. This was personal.

Her sleep had been stolen from her. 

She wasn’t the first, and god knows it was to be expected, judging by the fresh flyers posted around campus at the start of each semester.

GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK – THE KANASHI KNOWS WHEN YOU PULL ALL-NIGHTERS.

EVEN A CAT NAP CAN KEEP THE KANASHI AWAY! STAY AWAKE RESPONSIBLY.

There were even mandatory seminars as a part of all incoming students’ orientation, warning them about the Kanashi and what to do if a Kanashi ever haunted you. 

“They crave leftovers and Doritos,” the speaker, a muscly blond specimen sporting a visor whilst indoors, had instructed. “Really, any kind of midnight munchies you might think of, but Doritos are said to be a favorite.”

All Elena had in her pantry was a stale, half-eaten bag of the limited edition cheeseburger flavor. Now it sat on the dirt below her, her feeble attempt at bait looking like a lazy scrap of litter.

But she hadn’t had time to go to the store. Elena hadn’t had time to do practically anything since the school year started much less hunt down a sleep demon.

Elena looked down at her phone. 4:24 AM. The chiming from the clock tower had long since been silenced. She rubbed at her face, trying to shake off the ultraviolet splotches creeping into her peripherals.

Mom couldn’t know about it. She’d spent all of Elena’s high school career trying to beat this sort of thing out of her, having endured the same type of self-torture for the sake of her own parents.

“Your grandmother wouldn’t let me settle for less than perfection,” Elena’s mother had told her over their last dinner together before she left for college. “I didn’t want you to feel that type of pressure. You’re absolutely perfect the way you are, even if you don’t get all As.”

“I like getting all As,” Elena said, not looking up from her plate. “I like being successful.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Mom said. “Just don’t kill yourself for it. 

The conversation felt backwards to Elena, and made the pancit in her mouth taste sour. She expected more congratulations, more accolades … Not all this fussing 

Mom was not an I-told-you-so kind of person, but she’d certainly shake her head at the sight of Elena now, steadying a line of copper wire between her fingers as she waited in cautious quiet, low in the oak tree.

Leaves crunched.

Elena started, almost toppling her phone over.

The pink-robed figure sidled closer from behind the gnarled trunk of another oak. It looked like a woman witch a hunched back so severe the peak of her spine seemed as if it were drawn by a magnet drifting overhead. Her pale hair was dark at the roots and shrouded her face. She rubbed at her arms as she drew closer, her nails long and painted in complementing shades of crimson. Elena doubted her prey right up until the woman launched her hands into the awaiting Doritos bag like she was diving fist first into a black hole of never ending snackage.

When Elena imagined this moment, she saw herself dropping to the ground with professional assassin-like prowess, sticking the landing like Iron Man, crouching close to the earth with a smarmy smile, ready to engage in epic combat with the Kanashi.

But, of course, she plummeted downward like a dead finch, made an embarrassing squealing noise all the short way down, and landed on her back.

Elena and the Kanashi shared a half second of eye contact.

The Kanashi’s eyes were what gave her away: they were bulbous, took up half of her loose-skinned face, and swam with huge black pools of pupils. It was a scary sight, but Elena might have thought it scarier if the Kanashi had eyelids big enough to blink with.

The Kanashi made a noise like a balloon deflating and whirled into a run, Doritos bag in hand. 

“Not today, bitch,” Elena said under her breath, trying so hard to sound like Bruce Willis, but of course only sounding like an emaciated pixie.

Elena scrambled onto her feet and sprinted as fast as her fatigued body could go. She barreled forward through the forest, almost tripping several times, chasing the Kanashi like they were in a Looney Toons special. But despite her short knobby legs, the Kanashi had the head start. Elena needed to get the jump on her or else risk losing altogether, and missing another night of sleep.

In a moment of dire decisions, as they began to roll downhill toward the park limits and closer to the road where the Kanashi would surely be able to lose Elena in the sparse traffic, Elena gave all her gravity toward her downward trajectory, leaping toward the Kanashi. 

The crest of her flight held for an inhuman amount of time wherein Elena transcended planes and  sprung into thoughts of her childhood, when school first became difficult. She struggled with her multiplication tables in the third grade, and had to see her teacher after school for extra tutoring. When she heard it, she cannot remember, but remembers this one whisper so clearly like a racist little Jiminy Cricket that sat on her shoulder and shoved his nose into her ear.

“I thought Asians were supposed to be good at math.”

Later her white friends would tell her it was a compliment, that it was good racism™? And when she would argue with them, the words would get caught in her throat as they never seemed to grasp what exactly was wrong. Elena pushed herself a little more with each academic year since that first remark as if to say, you want me to box me up? You want me to be smart? Fine. I’ll make all of you look like dumbasses.

Maybe it was the wind in her face as she fell forward. Maybe it was just another symptom of her sleep deprivation. But in that frame right before she landed on the Kanashi, Elena blinked away the tears welling up in her eyes.

Elena fell into the Kanashi like a dead emu.

The landing hurt both of them, but Elena’s exhausted ass pinned the Kanashi to the ground and gave her enough time to wrap the copper around the Kanashi’s wrist.

“Untie me, you lousy shit!” The Kanashi pounded her untethered knuckles into the grass while Elena took a seat on the grass next to the demon. The Kanashi tried to stand up several times, and each time was weighed down by the copper wire around her right wrist so severely that she dropped headfirst into her own ankles.

“Give me my sleep. Now.” Elena felt almost drunk with exhaustion, rolling through these moments in dreary step-by-step flickers.

“Go to hell,” the Kanashi screeched.

As per seminar instructions, Elena then began singing.

“Good morning, starshine! The earth says, hello!”

The Kanashi grappled at her own ears. “Fuck you! No!”

“You twinkle above us! We twinkle below!”

“FINE! Take it! Just fucking take it!”

The Kanashi held out her palm for Elena to see. A compacted ball of sand teetered in the center, glittering in the full moonlight.

Elena plucked it out of the Kanashi’s hand, and cut the wire on her wrist with the pliers she’d stowed away in her back pocket.

The Kanashi propped herself up in a sitting position, pulling her rosy robe in tight before retying the belt. “Now do us both a favor and just get some shitting sleep, you dumb as shit shithead.” 

“Did you ever go to college?” Elena tested.

The Kanashi huffed and folded her arms, looking defiantly back at Elena with those yawning black eyes. “You don’t get out much, do you shithead?” 

Elena gestured at the Kanashi with her other hand. “What would you call this?”

The Kanashi had had enough small talk. She got up and turned on a heel without another word, misting back into the darkness of the low-lying trees from where they had met.

Elena tightened her grip around her little ball of sleep, feeling it roll along her knuckles all the way back to her car. With the doors locked and the seat reclined, she let it hover over her lips, grains of sand sprinkling on her chin, contemplating what consuming one’s own sleep must taste like, before her phone buzzed into life. 

She dug it out of her pocket and squinted at the screen to read it.

“AMERICAN LIT RESEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHY.”

It was a preliminary alarm. The assignment was due in five hours.

Elena sighed. She kissed the ball of sleep between her fingers and stuffed it in her glove compartment before driving back to campus.

[rokthespot]

A msg from our friend Abby Hertz of LustNYC

------------

I have to say something. The past two days it's been hard to watch white friends and family either a.) defend the Nazis under freedom of speech more than they disavow bigotry b.) not care or c.) clutch their pearls in disbelief that our country is still like this.

It is 1 million percent white ppl's privilege to a) march in the streets with semi-automatic weapons and not immediately be shot by cops b.) not care and c.) not have realized before now the insidious bigotry that is rampant all over our country.

I grew up in a small town in Indiana with an active KKK. I am a Jew, and my family is Jewish. I wasn't allowed in several people's homes bc I was a Jew. I was kicked out of my peer group at the local civic theater for being a Jew and yelled at, spit on, and attacked for "lying" to them about who I was/ ie not disclosing I was a Jew.

I was repeatedly forcibly checked for my horns and tail on the playground. I was called dirty, disgusting, a murderer, and kids made threats to me for being a Jew.

Our lunch table was me, my best friend that was Hispanic, the one Asian girl from China that didn't yet speak English, and the one black girl that thought we were a bunch of gross tomboys (she was a girly-girl). Nonetheless, we all sat together bc we were "other."

Kids in my neighborhood would play with me, though. I'm not sure why it was different at school than in my neighborhood. For some reason, outside of school I had the privilege that comes with my white skin. The neighborhood kids didn't apparently care I was a Jew. Not so for the one black girl. The mean ass kids never let her forget she was different and she never played with any of the kids that I saw. When I invited her, she would go back into her house without even talking to me. Looking back now, I am guessing she was not going to play with us bc it would have inevitably entailed some racist shit happening, and she knew that...so it wasn't worth it for her.

Kids are mean, right? But who did they get their ideas from? Their parents, behind closed doors, are telling them that white people, that Christians are better, that you can't trust a Jew, that Jews are dirty, that anyone of color is inferior, that they don't want the Blacks, Jews, or Hispanic kids to come over and to please only invite their other nice white friends. The kids had to get it from somewhere. Children are not born racist. Their parents make them racist.

If you haven't seen racism or bigotry before, it's because you've never had it effect you personally, or someone you care about.

I've lived in Black neighborhoods most of my adult life. Let me tell you a story from this past winter, for those of you that live in white neighborhoods.

The neighbors were all out shoveling snow after a big snowstorm and a cop car drove by with his lights on, abruptly parked, and they got out.

Within a half of a second every one of my neighbors had dropped their shovel and put their hands above their heads in the "hands up don't shoot" that all black parents must teach their black children in order to be safe. Every person, every kid, automatically did this. I didn't. I had never been in a position where I needed to learn that or do that for survival. I grabbed my cell phone and put it on video just in case. The cops walked up and down the block inspecting and then got back in their car and left. The whole 5 minutes this took place no one dared move their arms. I stood by holding my breath with my finger close to the "record" button on my phone.

Yes, white people, it is our privilege that that is not our reality.

When my roommate moved here from London, a place where cops do not carry guns, I had to explain to him that, as a black man, he could not ever reach in his pocked for his wallet/I.D. when/if a cop confronted him. I had to teach him "hands up, don't shoot." White ppl. Think if you've ever had to teach your children this. No? Recognize that is your immense privilege that cops are there to protect you, that your kids admired cops and did not fear them.

It makes me so angry that it takes a literal Nazi rally to wake white people up to racism and bigotry.

Our country is built upon an incredibly intricate and deep system of racial oppression. If you don't realize this, you are privileged to not have to realize this.

As a white-skinned "ethnic" person, that has a white face y'all will recognize and feel safer around to say your bigoted thoughts to, I've been in the position, as many Jews traditionally have, to speak up to you, turn my white face towards your white face and explain as calmly as I can what oppression looks like on a daily basis.

I know you don't "feel" racist or think you're racist, or a bigot, because you're a loving person that just wants peace.

You are able to focus on love and peace and ignore oppression because you don't have to deal with it personally and you are not faced with racism and bigotry on a daily basis.

It's impossible to put yourself in a POC's shoes.

I know you are ITCHING to say "not me" right now and prove to me that you are not racist by stating things like "I have a black friend, I have a black brother-in-law, I judge people by the content of their character" etc etc. Don't. No one wants to look at themselves in the mirror and see a racist. Even the white supremacist guy that became a poster child this week for bigotry came out and said "that's not me" and said he wanted to keep people separate but equal, and wanted his right to think white culture was superior, but that didn't make him racist. People go to great lengths doing mental gymnastics to convince themselves "I'm not a racist, but..."

Instead, LISTEN. Stop talking. Stop saying "but...." LISTEN. Don't force POC to have a conversation or educate you. It is not their responsibility to educate you. If someone spends their time, energy, and intense emotional labor on you, listen, don't interrupt, and thank them. Recognize that POC in this country have a right to be angry. You'd be fucking angry, too, if you experienced half the shit they have to deal with.

We need to start talking about race in this country.

Ignoring it, attempting to be politically correct, just buried the racism for white folks so they/we didn't have to deal with it or face it.

It's time for our country to look at itself in the mirror good and hard. It's time for white ppl to start addressing white ppl on their own bigotry.

I for sure don't have the answer as to how we move forward, but Trump cracked open the surface of racist America by giving white people permission to be bigoted again and stop being "politically correct."

This needed to happen. It needed to come to the surface for white people to address it.

I can't tell you how many times people have not known I'm Jewish and said horribly anti-Semitic things around me, only to make excuses for themselves when I tell them I'm a Jew. They 9/10 say "well, not you, you're an exception" and sometimes "oh and this other Jew I know isn't like that...you are exceptions to the rule." So. The only two Jews you actually know on a personal level aren't like that. Don't you think if you knew more Jews on a personal level, you'd find out that they're all just people, like you and your white family and friends, with their individuality?

Stop making excuses for yourself. If you want to say "not all white people" right now and argue that white people are all individuals, then remember that when you're saying "Jews are greedy cheating liars" or "blacks are inherently xyz" or "Mexicans are..." etc. Do you not think it's racist to not allow them the same privilege of individuality that you fight so hard to retain yourself when you say "not all white people"?

I also hear the unaddressed pain coming from "generic" white folk that they might not recognize from not having a culture. I think that whites losing their ethnic identities has actually hurt our society more than helped it.

Do a "heritage" project and see where your ancestors came from. Learn their stories of coming to this country, of why they had to leave their countries. Learn what cultures you come from and learn what foods, dress, dances, stories, and music comes from those cultures. No one here is a generic American. That's what is so beautiful about our country. We all come from somewhere.

Please also recognize that even if your family, like mine, came here to escape oppression, or even genocide, we came here by choice. African Americans were brought here in chains, kidnapped from their homes, and turned into property. That is entirely different, even from Jews escaping genocide. We have not come far enough in our history as a country for the after-effects of slavery to have disappeared. Not even slightly.

It is scary to write all this out and press "post." I have no idea what my friends on here will remotely think of this. But I know that engaging in conversations about race needs to happen for our country to move forward. We can't hide behind fake and forced politeness anymore. My white friends say they don't talk about race because they're too afraid. You're not doing anyone any favors by completely disengaging, imho.

Again, listen. Don't force people to engage with you. Stop saying "but." Be humble. Be as understanding as you can about other people's experiences. Don't invalidate someone else's experience because it was not your own.

Burying your head in the sand right now and retreating into your safe white communities makes you complicit in perpetuating racism.

[bevforshort]

A girl who just got into politics this past year.

Before I start this rant of mine, I want to make it known that I did not vote for Hillary or Trump. I did vote for Obama the second time around though. I am from Alabama and Tennessee state line. I'm as far north of Alabama as you can get and as far south Tennessee as you can get. Yes there are some redneck, racist jerks that live around here. Not all though. With that being said, both my parents are democrats, along with my grandparents. My brothers, sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins, well let's just say they want that. I voted for Gary, you know the guy who wanted to legalize that devils grass? Voting third party was just my way of having a clear conscious incase shit hit the fan. Just this past year I really started paying attention to this shit show they call politics. Mostly due to the insurance. You see, I just turned 26 in February and luckily I got married June 18, 2016 and my husbands work provided insurance. Some of my friends though, not so lucky. Some didn't have insurance and they tried getting on the affordable care act. For some it worked and for most it didn't. You see, there is a bracket of people my age that just royally fucked. We fall in that category where you just can't afford to pay $400 a month for insurance AND rent AND buy food AND make a car payment and so on and so on. We also can't afford to be fined for not having it either. For lots of people it works and that's awesome! For some it doesn't but I'm not here to rant about that either. That's just minor shit and I hope some of these idiots in Washington come together and figure this shit out quick. By idiots, I don't mean just the trump administration, I mean EVERYONE in Washington. Democratic or Republican, just get your shit together and helps us. What I'm here to talk about and hopefully encourage, if anyone ever reads this, is for people to stop name calling, arguing, protesting, lighting shit on fire, and all the other million damn things that go on when people don't like what they hear. I am a comment reader. Half the time I don't even read the article. I read the headline and go straight to the comments. The comments usually tell me all I need to know. Of course if CNN post something it's ALWAYS going to be negative. No matter what. Trump and CNN are in this war and they both have themselves to blame for it. Fox News, well they are mostly pro Trump but they do also report SOME of the bad. The comments are mostly pro Trump but there are times where there is a good mixture of both. ABC, always posting bad stuff about him. Most the comments are bad but sometimes you find good ones. Earlier, I actually so CNN post a good short video about Trump. There was no bashing involved, I was impressed but the thing that disappointed me , was that out of all the comments I read, there was only 1 good one I saw. All the guy said was something about people just chill out and give him a chance and some other shit. Well let's just say he did not get any good responses back. The point I want to make here is that people need to stop and take a breather. Instead of bashing people constantly and arguing with them as soon as you don't like their opinion, why not ask them why they have that opinion. Learn why they think that way. Don't DEMAND they have sources to back it up. DEBATE with a person. Try and see from their point of view. Do research on your own. Don't assume all people are bad because they voted for a certain person. Don't assume all people are liberals because they didn't vote for a certain person. Who gives a fuck! At the end of the day we are only human. I make a point to ask people what their opinions are on Trump and Hillary. I also make a point to find out what brought them to have that opinion because there is a lot of shit I don't know but if I can find out more information about something, it makes me feel better to just know. People need to strive for information and do it without having to go through CNN and Fox News. Most of it is so biased you can't form your own opinion because they shove theirs down your throat. Guess what? I haven't formed an opinion on Trump. I can't tell what the hell he's going to do. That's why I didn't vote for him. He's unpredictable and he tweets entirely too much. At the same though, he's not a politician. The Dems and the Republicans both hate him because he's not apart of their establishment. That's one thing I do like about him. I've come to the conclusion that it's the cool thing to hate Trump. It's cool if you hate him and make jokes. Which I will agree some are hilarious. It was so easy to love Obama because he was a cool ass dude. All my friends hated him but I really like the guy. Trumps got a lot to compete with. Hillary, yeah I don't have much to say. Never like her since I can remember. That's all I'll say. Abortion, no I don't think it's right but at the same time the government can not tell you what you can and can not do with your own body. No one should be able to do that but you. The bathroom thing, just got to the fucking bathroom. We all just want to shit and piss in peace. Am I right? The whole high school transgender bathroom thing.. ehh I don't know about that one. That's a tough one. I can see from both sides. Need more opinions of others and suggestions for me to form my own opinion. (See how I asked for others input. It's so easy.) By the way, I had no idea that there was so many genders! I literally had to google what a certain gender was the other day and came across a dictionary on google of genders. My mind was fucking blown! Dead serious. Interesting stuff! Not saying that in a bad way either! LGBTQ, not sure if that's the right thing but if you wanna be gay, be gay! Wanna get married? Get married! Go to a state that lets you do that! I fucking love it! Doesn't bother me one bit. Some states though, they are just stuck in the past. You got old fucks in office that are stuck in their ways and you gotta wait it out until they are gone. It sucks for you guys but just be optimistic! Racism, yes I know that there is a lot of that going on still but I honestly do not see around here as much as someone would think. I see tons of interracial couples and people don't blink an eye. Not saying that everyone looks past it around here because there are still some racist assholes in this world. I will say this though, before the Black Lives Matter movement began I personally never treated any black person differently from a white person. Now if a white dude came up and was being weird and sketchy as fuck, yeah I'm going to be a little cautious, same with a black person. Other than that, you were just another human to me. I didn't really see color. It was just people. We were all just people. I didn't feel like I had to be cautious or make sure I didn't get to close or whatever racist people do. BUT ever since the black lives matter movement started I feel like I have to make a point to be extra nice to any black person I see. Not that I wasn't nice before, I'd smile and hold the door open for anyone but it's almost like I put too much effort into it now because I don't want people to think I'm a racist? That may sounds really stupid but it irritates me that something so big like that has got me feeling like I have to be that way so people won't think I'm a racist. I never was and never have been. I guess I'm trying to make up for the racist assholes. Not sure how to explain that one. I would start on the illegals and shit like that but I'm done with my rant. I might start again one day soon but for now I'll end on that note. Just be kind and action try and see opinions from other peoples point of view. Research yourself and fork you own opinions. And debate with people instead of just name calling and playing the your wrong and I'm right game. No is wrong or right and if we keep that up, America will never be the same.