Props to Roger Young

Reblogged from Clutch Magazine

Roger is a White South African filmmaker. In the wake of observing White backlash against a grocery store explicitly seeking to hire Black workers, Roger is trying to document apartheid's legacy, how people like him are still reaping the benefits of the now defunct system and coloreds and Blacks are still disadvantaged. He printed up 40 of the t-shirts he's wearing in the above photograph, which read "I benefited from apartheid," and placed them under a sign that read, "Free t-shirts--Whites only." Predictably, a whole slew of White South Africans are outraged, or at least offended, by his gesture. 

Ignorant people took to Facebook, as they are wont to do, to say that Black South Africans should be grateful for apartheid, because when Whites came to what is now South Africa, there were no roads or hospitals or an organized system of government. Because a government that systematically denies you basic human rights is a government to be praised! Blacks should be thankful that apartheid allowed them to be civilized. Riiiight. Because civilization only comes in one form and one skin-tone--cookie-cutter or bust! It puzzles these people of Facebook why strangers appearing in a land that has been doing just fine on its own for literally thousands of years, literally tramping on history and culture in the name of helping the original inhabitants might be regarded poorly by the descendants of those original inhabitants. Black South Africans still make, on average, a sixth of their white counterparts' income, but they should be humbled, really, because they weren't making any money before Whites came and introduced a money-based system that destroyed their livelihoods!

And then there were the people who tried to absolve themselves through claiming to have been reluctant participants in the apartheid system, those who basically said, well I couldn't have benefited from apartheid because I didn't actively support it. Those people must have forgotten that there's a funny thing about privilege--you can't wish it on or away. If your entire society was based on rules (written or implicit) that gave people like you certain advantages over people not like you, you benefited from apartheid in South Africa, or from systemic racism under other or no names in the United States and elsewhere. Racists aren't the only people who benefit from racism.

Kudos to Young for taking a proactive stand in the battle against denialism and the dismissal of a progressive agenda as "White guilt". I think John Shapiro's political cartoon says it best:

        

"Prison is the only form of public housing the government has truly invested in."

--Marc Lumont Hill, Columbia University Professor

(via Tudo Bom(b))

Relevant to what I'm reading right now.

Photo

Reblogged from come correct

RACE AND**

The title speaks for itself about why I love this: Naked Black Justice

W.E.B. Du Bois called it "double consciousness." Some current scholars say "epistemic privilege."

What I see is that the struggle for recognition as whole entities is the struggle for recognition as whole entities, no matter what particular version of wholeness you're fighting for. Not that individual and group differences don't matter--that's a statement that would never ever come out of my mouth and y'all know it--but that we should be able to recognize our strivings in the strivings of other people(s). Maybe not equate them, but support them as we support ourselves. For how can you ask to be seen if you refuse to see?

"I don’t think it’s terribly controversial to note that women, from a young age, are required to consider the reality of the opposite gender’s consciousness in a way that men aren’t. This isn’t to say that women don’t often misunderstand, mistreat, and stereotype men, both in literature and in life. But on a basic level, functioning in society requires that women register that men are fully conscious; it is not really possible for a woman to throw up her hands and write men off as eternally unknowable space aliens — and even if she says she has, she cannot really behave as though she has. Every element of her life — from reading books about boys and men to writing papers about the motivations of male characters to being attentive to her own safety to navigating most any institutional or professional or economic sphere — demands an ironclad familiarity with, and belief in, the idea that men really are fully human entities. And no matter how many men come to the same conclusions about women, the structure of society simply does not demand so strenuously that they do so. If you didn’t really deep down believe that women were, in general, exactly as conscious as you, you could probably still get by in life. You could probably still get a book deal. You could probably still get elected to office."

—Jennifer duBois, Writing Across Gender (via florida-uterati)

To apply a bit of intersectionality to this…women of color and the many marginalized communities we belong to—especially communities of color—have been saying this for a minute.

(via strugglingtobeheard)

(via Racialicious)

On internalized oppressiveness [with edits]

"The thing about patriarchy -isms of all varieties is that individual men, gay and straight, persons whom are put in positions of privilege by the existence of that -ism are often really wonderful people who you love deeply, but they have internalized some really poisonous shit. So every once in a while they say or do something that really shakes you because you’re no longer totally certain they see you as a human being, and you feel totally disempowered to explain that to them."

(via ChoosingPancakes)

You might ask, why the edits? Don't I recognize patriarchy as a valid thing to be fought against? (Of course. That's a fight I will join any day, with certain parameters.) Do I have a problem with feminist statements? (Not as a rule, though there are often problems with feminist statements.) Do I have to make everything about race? Can't some things just be about gender? (1. Broadening the statement doesn't necessarily make it about race. There is classism, ableism, cissism, heteronormativism, and basically an -ism for every extant social category, though X-centrism may not have a recognized name as of yet. 2. Can water be just about hydrogen? Can the Earth be just about the land? Can education be just about schooling? Can a person be just about one of their bajillion social categories? No. Just no.) Well then why?

Because so many parts of me felt validated by this statement. Yes, gender was a part of my response, but so was race, so was class, so was cultural capital, so was sexual activeness, so were various little facts of my daily existence that become addressed in problematic ways in various social interactions. I applaud its creator for addressing the invisibility-rendering-ness of patriarchy so poignantly, but I felt like the levels of resonance I felt with the statement meant that it deserved expansion.

Does my expansion come at the cost of poignancy, though? Does broadening statements like these to target multiple arenas of oppression take away some of their force?  

Gorgeous socially concsious Black men. Yes.

I support freedom. I support justice. I support the recognition of broken systems.

Reblogged from come correct

"We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness-embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television. This would seem to lead to a simple conclusion: that we all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas."

- Howard Zinn

(via Street Etiquette)

#WhiteGuysWhoCouldGetIt

This dude who so perfectly explains white privilege and why Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls ISN'T FUCKING RACIST. It's just the first time white people see themselves being stereotyped and misappropriated in something this popular. 

I wanted to tweet this, but it's too long,

and editing it in any way would be doing VIOLENCE.

"I'm so SICK of being made invisible by people. Can't be black and queer. Can't be black and female. Can't be black and non-religious. Like, what the fuck? I need some of y'all to have a fucking seat." 

--A commenter on this post

Reblogged from  Quirky Black Girls  

I would like to find the person who wrote this and hug them. Repeatedly. (But only with their consent, of course.) 

POWERFUL image I stumbled across:

An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Everyone has the right to own his/her own body.

Damn, sometimes I sound like a feminist. 

Silenced.

As in, a substantial percentage of the African-American male population is being silenced throughout our country. Variations in state laws make it so that different proportions of the population are having their voices--and their supposedly inalienable rights--stripped from them, but only two states in the entire nation have refrained from engaging in this terrible practice, and to be frank, there aren't really many Black people in those states anyway. Really though, this is disgusting. How can an ex-felon ever fully be rehabilitated into a quote-unquote normal life if he or she can't fully participate in society, if he or she has no say in what goes on in his or her own daily life? When this extends to large parts of entire communities, we are creating color-by-number portraits whilst missing a few crayons. We'll never get the whole picture, and the voids we're leaving behind are just dangerous. I can think of no stronger way to suggest that these people simply don't matter to the American state. 

Reblogged from Sociological Images

 

The best campaign to lower occurrences of rape I've seen yet:

And in happy news, the FBI successfully woke the fuck up and changed the definition of rape. It is now gender-neutral and involves even the slightest penetration of any of the body's three main orifices without consent.  In fact, I see nothing blatantly wrong with it, though I'm sure it could be broader.

"penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."

Shoutout to my friend E.H.

for this wonderful Facebook status:

"We are brilliant and beautiful. We have been traumatized for so long that we have begun to traumatize each other. We are still our solution."

Ruminate on that.

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” --Benjamin Franklin

"How to talk to White People about Racism"

This is reblogged from The Good Men Project, and I would like to rename it "How to Talk to Ignorant People about Life," because it is a widely known fact that not all White people actually need talking to about race, and there are people of every social category imaginable that need talking to about SOMETHING.

"1. Do not debate. Declare.
I’ve come to realize that debating is just another derailing tactic.  If you come across a white American who wants to argue, cloud the issue, split hairs, etc., then you’ve reached the end of the conversation – period.  Social justice is not a cult; it’s not your job to “convert” people.  They have to choose to either be a decent human being or to support the racist colonialist system that is America. (<---- THIS. RIGHT. HERE.)

• If they talk a lot about their “opinions”, end the conversation.
• If they ask you if you really do experience racism, ask them why they’re asking you that.
• End the conversation if they start with lines like,
  • “I can’t imagine”
  • “I refuse to believe”
  • “I just don’t see”

And no, you do not have to be nice about it.
2. Racial discussion is not an “exchange” of ideas.
This isn’t about what we can learn from each other – this is about you learning from me, and you’re already behind by four centuries.
3. Do not end racial discussions on a positive note.
If white people end racial discussions on an optimistic, the-future-is-bright note, they’re happy, they feel absolved, and they tell themselves that things “will eventually work themselves out”. That’s why they have to leave these discussions bothered, troubled, and deeply perturbed.
We don’t get a slow, gentle, candy-coated introduction to the pains of American racism.  Never have.  White folks shouldn’t get to either.
4. Maintain realistic expectations.
What leads to frustration is most of us operate under the misguided notion that intelligence is all someone needs to learn something.  Learning, in fact, requires additional components to intelligence, like consistent practice, research, recall, overall self-discipline, and a need for the absolute truth of things. White privilege conditions much of this out of most white Americans by the time they hit puberty.
5. Stop being afraid.
You don’t need white Americans to like you – if they cross the line, make them uncomfortable. We have already overcome and survived a lot in this country and contrary to popular belief, we did so with an overwhelming lack of support from white America. So do not doubt your worth or tone down your voice or temper your strength.
If you’re being dehumanized socially, assert yourself and walk way.  If you’re being dehumanized occupationally or academically…lawsuit.  Tolerance is a bullshit term, and we need to stop tolerating from hereon out, online and in real life – period.
6. Stop referring them to Tim Wise.
Since referring white people to Tim Wise as their introduction to social justice hasn’t had the necessary effect, stop doing it. Instead refer them to David S. Reynolds’s “John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights” (2006)."

One thing about Irene really leaves a bad taste in my mouth

I know a lot of places are still under a bit of water, and a lot of people are still without electricity, but I think the Northeast tried to prepare for this as best we could. Buildings were sandbagged and boarded up, people raided grocery/convenience stores for all the emergency supplies imaginable, my local Home Depot sold out of backup generators even though they were going at $900 a pop, and mayors/governors everywhere told people to GET THE FUCK OUT. I mean, they evacuated the parts of New York City that were most likely to be seriously damaged--that has NEVER happened before.

But they missed a spot. No evacuation was planned for the prisoners on Riker's Island. Every other barrier island was evacuated, as well as some low-lying inland communities, but the 12,000+ prisoners--most of whom are low-level offenders, not hardened criminals--who are trapped in cells on an island composed primarily of landfill were not granted the right to a fair chance of surviving the storm (had it been as bad as predicted). Though committing an offense temporarily takes away one's right to liberty, it doesn't mean we can disregard these people's right to LIFE. Even the UN says that prisoners cannot be ignored in times of emergency like this. It disgusts me to see these people entirely neglected--our prison system is supposed to be a place to rehabilitate people, not to abandon them in cages while we protect ourselves. Prisoners are wards of the state, and the state has an obligation to protect them as it protects all its citizens. Their families should sue for like, the endangerment of their welfare or something. And this just goes to show how our prison system just doesn't give a damn about prisoners anymore. Fucking animal shelters looked for people to take the cats and dogs in to protect them from the storm, but these human beings weren't offered that same decency. You can't mandatory evacuate people selectively, that a) defeats the purpose and b) constitutes abuse--there's no other way to cut it. It makes me sick. 

"Now, I love science. I love research. I love when smart people use lots of grant money to discover awesome things. But, I don’t like it when smart people begin with an inherently offensive hypothesis and then conduct a study under the pretense of wanting to prove it right." -- Lauren Wick, Thought Catalog

Winning.

Status update from Nivea for Men USA last night:
Thank you for caring enough to give us your feedback about the recent "Re-civilized" NIVEA FOR MEN ad. This ad was inappropriate and offensive. It was never our intention to offend anyone, and for this we are deeply sorry. This ad will never be used again. Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of our company.