The sad truth of the matter is that while White kids are being sheltered and taught to believe that they are special, kids of colour are actively being torn down and encouraged by the world to see themselves as “other”. White people may look at them as babies, and think that they are cute, but shortly after getting out of diapers, they begin to see Black boys as future rapists, thieves and gang bangers. They are systematically written off as a matter of course. The childhood that White children have, is denied to children of colour, in order to teach them their role in the pecking order. Discrimination does not wait until adulthood.

queen:

blackqueerdo:

“If SlutWalk has proven anything, it is that liberal white women are perfectly comfortable parading their privilege, absorbing every speck of airtime celebrating their audacity, and ignoring women of color. Despite decades of work from women of color on the margins to assert an equitable space, SlutWalk has grown into an international movement that has effectively silenced the voices of women of color and re-centered the conversation to consist of a topic by, of, and for white women only. More than 30 years ago, Gloria Anzaldúa wrote, “I write to record what others erase when I speak.” Unfortunately, SlutWalk’s leadership obliterated Anzaldúa’s voice, and the marvelous work she produced theorizing what it means to be a queer woman of color. They might do us all a favor now and stop erasing the rest of us for once.”

Important commentary.

(via black-candy)

This case has attracted worldwide attention, but it is, in essence, no different from other capital cases. Across the country, the legal process for the death penalty has shown itself to be discriminatory, unjust and incapable of being fixed. Just last week, the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for Duane Buck, an African-American, hours before he was to die in Texas because a psychologist testified during his sentencing that Mr. Buck’s race increased the chances of future dangerousness. Case after case adds to the many reasons why the death penalty must be abolished.

You don’t want to start setting up another rule book, like: “This is how you’re a feminist. And this is the way you dress. And this is the way you act. And this is the way you protest.” It’s like, some people protest carrying signs. Some people protest by making activist radical music. Sometimes people try to just make it through a day and not kill themselves, and that’s their activism for right then, because that’s all they have.

handingoutstars:

dancingonembers:

thatfishalex:

somewhatofsomethingother:

dancingonembers:

catamite:

microaggressions:

Youtube: ‘Hir’ Poem - Brave New Voices

Am I the only person who kind of hates this?

It’s not actually very trans positive at all. Frankly seeing it posted everywhere as if it was something so radical is kind of a mini-microaggression in itself. Well-meaning cis people seem to love it, but… well, as a trans man I actually think it’s kind of fucked up.

1. It goes back and forth between assigned name/pronoun and chosen name/pronoun, which is gross and triggering and not how most trans people like to be talked about
2. It seems to describe a fairly binary-identified trans man, yet talks about this person as being “between” the “two genders” (messed up in itself) and assigns the pronoun “hir,” mostly, it seems, for the sake of a clever pun
3. It appears to be written and performed by cis people, speaking for and about a trans person
4. Cis women’s excessive concern for transmasculine people is an irritating trope in itself, since the corollary is often a complete lack of concern for transfeminine people
5. It relies heavily on the “split personality” trope both in content and staging, which has some pretty transphobic baggage (for instance, I know trans people who have been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder)
6. It is overly preoccupied, like most portrayals of trans people by cis people, with what is under the clothes, the mechanics of gender presentation, binding, etc.

So yeah. Maybe not so awesome as everyone seems to think, and I am tired of seeing it taken uncritically as an example of awesome trans positivity. Maybe if you want to have some trans themed spoken word, you could post  “Cocky” by Julia Serano, which is much more interesting and politically incisive, and is actually BY a trans person.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for this commentary. oh my word yes. ableism and, kind of, sensationalizing objectification? is what I get from this.

“Transmasculine” is an incredibly binarist term when applied to CAFAB nonbinaries. And I would hardly call a less-than-3-minute poem about a trans man that isn’t even performed by a trans man “excessive.” That’s a completely specious argument, and it sets up a really damaging false scarcity (wherein trans* people are told that only a certain number of us get to be taken seriously).

But the rest of this analysis is right on, so thank you.

Transcript here

I would say that a under 3 minute poem that gets so widely spread by “trans-positive” cis women is representative of a more general culture amongst cis women, that of excess concern for CAFAB trans* folk —especially those with masculine gender expression— at that expense of trans women and feminine CAMAB non-binaries.

reblogging for more commentary, analysis, transcripts.

Interesting commentary from all. 

(via feministilicious)

Because although you may hear white people claim that people of color make mountains out of molehills and exaggerate racism and look for racism under every rock, the reality is that people of color deny more racism in a year than white people will acknowledge in a lifetime. It’s a coping mechanism.

Once when I was at a hate crime seminar, the presenter asked people in the audience to share if they had ever been the victim of a hate crime or discrimination. I was fuming. It made me think of horrible, dreadful, terrible, scary, awful, vicious things that had happened, both to me and to people I know and love. The thought of sharing this pain with a group of strangers was simply outrageous. Also, it wasn’t as if personal testimony was needed to make a point. All you have to do is open your eyes. Nobody spoke, which probably led some people in the room would infer that racism wasn’t really that big a deal after all.

A few years ago, someone from the Feminist Majority Foundation called the Muslim Women’s League to ask if she could “borrow a burka” for a photo shoot the organization was doing to draw attention to the plight of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban. When we told her that we didn’t have one, and that none of our Afghan friends did either, she expressed surprise, as if she’d assumed that all Muslim women keep burkas in their closets in case a militant Islamist comes to dinner. She didn’t seem to understand that her assumption was the equivalent of assuming that every Latino has a Mexican sombrero in their closet.

We don’t mean to make light of the suffering of our sisters in Afghanistan, but the burka was—and is—not their major focus of concern. Their priorities are more basic, like feeding their children, becoming literate and living free from violence. Nevertheless, recent articles in the Western media suggest the burka means everything to Muslim women, because they routinely express bewilderment at the fact that all Afghan women didn’t cast off their burkas when the Taliban was defeated. The Western press’ obsession with the dress of Muslim women is not surprising, however, since the press tends to view Muslims, in general, simplistically. Headlines in the mainstream media have reduced Muslim female identity to an article of clothing—“the veil.” One is hard-pressed to find an article, book or film about women in Islam that doesn’t have “veil” in the title: “Behind the Veil,” “Beyond the Veil,” “At the Drop of a Veil” and more. The use of the term borders on the absurd: Perhaps next will come “What Color is Your Veil?” or “Rebel Without a Veil” or “Whose Veil is it, Anyway?

I have to say, as someone who is not Christian, it’s hard for me to believe Christians are a persecuted people in America. God-willing, maybe one of you one day will even rise up and get to be president of this country - or maybe forty-four in a row. But, that’s my point, is they’ve taken this idea of no establishment as persecution, because they feel entitled, not to equal status, but to greater status.