February 2011
January 2011
please get a clue: Egyptian women do not wear the burqa
i know ya’ll are quite self-satisfied reblogging that tweet, and i realize both the original tweeter and most of you really mean well. but please, EDUCATE YOURSELVES. the burqa is a particular style of covering that is common in Afghanistan & Pakistan. the word burqa does NOT mean headscarf, or even face veil. it refers to a specific style. it is not worn in Egypt. also, women in Egypt wear everything ranging from - gasp! - NO HEADSCARF AT ALL all the way thru face veils, and everything in between. oh, hey, and NOT ALL EGYPTIAN WOMEN ARE MUSLIM EITHER!
I am from a third-world country.
I’m not in it right now, but I was born and raised in Malaysia.
Which, despite its third-world status, has one of the tallest buildings in the world:
(The bottom floors is a shopping centre full of luxury goods retailers)
A bustling expat/hipster/fancy-pants area ALSO full of luxury goods retailers:
Politicians that came to power on the strength of their blogging:
A bustling indie music (and culture) scene:
And the best food ever.
“But Malaysia doesn’t count!”, you cry. “Give me a real third-world country! With starving people and dust everywhere!”
Oh, like Bangladesh, where my parents are from?
Which also has high-rises:
(huh, while looking for photos I learnt that one of the malls there caught fire in 2009. There you go.)
And tons of mobile phones:
Decent internet (it’s pretty fast compared to Malaysia):
Active sex worker activists celebrating the fact that sex work is now LEGAL in a Muslim country:
And the home town of Nobel laureates for literature and peace:
So if you’re going to commit a massive fail by claiming that “if you’re in a third-world country I doubt you’d have internet access and a Tumblr” us third-worldies will come en masse and poke you in the eye.
Also? The first-world/third-world terms are deprecated. (Did you know it originally meant countries that were neutral during the Cold War?) Try terms like “developing” or “newly industrialised”.
If you’re not following tiaramerchgirl already, GET ON IT, MAKE THAT HAPPEN. I cannot begin to express the depths of awesomeness in this.
Reblog because RIGHTEOUS YES.
STAND WITH THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT →
secure.avaaz.org
Millions of brave Egyptians are right now facing a fateful choice. Thousands have been jailed, injured or killed in the last few days. But if they press on in peaceful protest, they could end decades of tyranny.
The protesters have appealed for international solidarity, but the dictatorship knows the power of unity at a time like this – they’ve desperately tried to cut Egyptians off from the world and each other by completely shutting down the internet and mobile networks.
Satellite and radio networks can still break through the regime blackout — let’s flood those airwaves with a massive cry of solidarity showing Egyptians that we stand with them, and that we’ll hold our governments accountable to stand with them too. The situation is at a tipping point — every hour counts — click below to sign the solidarity message, and forward this email:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/democracy_for_egypt/?vl
People power is sweeping the Middle East. In days, peaceful protesters brought down Tunisia’s 30-year dictatorship. Now the protests are spreading to Egypt, Yemen, Jordan and beyond. This could be the Arab world’s Berlin Wall moment. If tyranny falls in Egypt, a tidal wave of democracy could sweep the entire region.
Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak has tried to crush the rallies. But with incredible bravery and determination, the protesters keep coming.
There are moments when history is written not by the powerful, but by people. This is one of them. The actions of ordinary Egyptians in the coming hours will have a massive effect on their country, the region, and our world. Let’s cheer them on with our own pledge to stand with them in their struggle:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/democracy_for_egypt/?vl
Mubarak’s family has left the country, but last night he ordered the military into the streets. He’s ominously promised 0 tolerance for what he calls ‘chaos’. Either way, history will be made in the next few days. Let’s make this the moment that shows every dictator on our planet that they cannot stand long against the courage of people united.
With hope and admiration for the Egyptian people,
Ricken, Rewan, Ben, Graziela, Alice, Kien and the rest of the Avaaz team
More Information:
Egypt unrest: Alert as mass protests loom
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12303564
Egyptian government shuts down the Internet
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml
North Africa: Will dominoes fall in the region?
http://allafrica.com/stories/201101280659.html
‘Beginning of the end’ for Egypt’s Mubarak as son and wife flee
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/105117/20110126/beginning-of-the-end-for-egypt-s-mubarak-as-son-and-wife-flee.htm
Amnesty International condemns the crackdown on demonstrations
http://amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/egypt-must-stop-crackdown-protesters-2011-01-26
Regular updates are being posted by Egyptian activists here:
http://www.elshaheeed.co.uk
ACCESS campaign for digital freedom in Egypt:
https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/help-egypt
“The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives.”
—Armistead Maupin (via kari-shma)
come on up to the house: The House GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape →
so-treu.tumblr.com
Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.
For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions…
Can we please call this what it is? It’s a PRO-rape platform. It is a PRO-RAPE move by these members of the legislature here in the U.S. This is a support for rape culture.
Anything that seeks to restrict the definition of rape or set down limitations or even classify which types of rape are more serious or more real ONLY BENEFITS RAPISTS.
The only people that are going to be served by this kind of law and this kind of rhetoric are rapists.
This is what House Republicans are doing. They are engaging in a campaign that will aid and abed rapists in silencing and even erasing their victims by furthering the idea that unless they were violently assaulted by a complete stranger that it matters less that they said ‘no’ to sexual contact, or did not (or were not able) to give consent and someone violated them anyway.
So basically, House Republicans are campaigning to devalue consent and to make it easier for a rapist to convince people they aren’t rapists.
Rapists could not have better allies in congress if they tried.
if you know anyone in egypt.
If you know anyone in Egypt, please pass this on to them. To bypass government blocking of websites, use numerical IP addresses: Twitter ”128.242.240.52” Fb ”69.63.189.34” Google ”172.14.204.99”. A French ISP offers free dial up internet access ~ +33 1 72 89 01 50 Login password: toto. Please pass this on and share.
IMPORTANT! PLEASE REBLOG!
BBC News - ‘Gay’ Ugandan Brenda Namiggade wins temporary reprieve
A Ugandan woman who says she is a lesbian has been granted an injunction temporarily preventing her deportation.
Brenda Namiggade says she fears for her life if she is returned from the UK to Uganda, where gay sex is illegal.
Her initial asylum application had been refused. The Home Office said a court had ruled she was “not homosexual” and therefore did not have a genuine claim.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. How the fuck do you “prove” your sexuality in court? Why do we rely on the UK’s shitty and racist immigration system to determine if someone is “gay enough” to have faced persecution in a country as viciously homophobic as Uganda? She fled thousands of miles from her home because she was afraid of what would happen to her and has resisted every attempt to deport her, she’s lived in a prison (don’t let the sanitised term “detention centre” fool you, they are prisons for immigrants) while some arsehole got to arbitrate whether or not she was really in danger if she went home. This is so unbelievably fucked up.
And fuck you too for the scare quotes, BBC.
UGHHHH
I just spent £23.03 buying 'healthy' stuff at the supermarket.
Strawberries, assorted veggies, brussel sprouts, grapes, plums, clementines, aubergine, sweet potato, charlie taters, mackerel, kipper, chicken wings, and a couple of desserts.
I could only do it because I’ve started working as a science mercenary again, and because teh boyfran helped me out with some money.
But many families can’t afford to do this. I’m optimistic this will last me more than a fortnight. But a family would chuck it down in less than a week.
And then Jamie Oliver cries because they prefer McDonald’s. Fast food and prepared meals depress me, and I can get away with buying fresh and doing stuff from scratch. But not everybody can, want, or have time to.
Fuck you.
westerners/outsiders are asking the wrong question
asking: what made “them” (the egyptian people) decide to protest now? why did they tolerate things for so long?
implication: “they” deserved what they had because they weren’t saying anything against it until now.
what we should be asking: what do you (the egyptian people) want? do you want anything from us & if so how can we support you?
Give Peace A Chance.: What's Happening in Egypt Explained. (UPDATED) →
promotingpeace.tumblr.com
The basics: Egypt is a large, mostly Arab, mostly Muslim country. At around 80 million people, it has the largest population in the Middle East and the third-largest in Africa. Most of Egypt is in North Africa, although the part of the country that borders Israel, the Sinai peninsula, is in Asia….
“We don’t expect anything from Obama, whom we regard as a great hypocrite. But we hope and expect the American people – trade unions, professors’ associations, student unions, activist groups, to come out in support of us. What we want for the US government is to completely get out of the picture. We don’t want any sort of backing; just cut aid to Mubarak immediately and withdraw backing from him, withdraw from all Middle Eastern bases, and stop supporting the state of Israel. Ultimately, Mubarak will do whatever he has to do to protect himself. He will suddenly adopt the most anti-US rhetoric if he thought that would help him save his skin. At the end of the day he’s committed to his own interests, and if he thinks the US won’t support him, he’ll turn somewhere else. The reality is that any really clean government that comes to power in the region will come into open conflict with the US because it will call for radical redistribution of wealth and ending support for Israel or other dictatorships. So we don’t expect any help from America, just to leave us alone.”
—
Egyptian blogger and activist Hossam el-Hamalawy talks to U.C. Irvine history professor Mark LeVine at Al Jazeera.
(“We Don’t Expect Any Help From America, Just To Leave Us Alone.” | The Awl)
“It’s not my job to make you a better man, and I don’t give a shit if I’ve made you a better man. It’s not a fucking woman’s job to be consumed and invaded and spat out so that some fucking man can evolve.”
—
Jenny (The L Word)
So much this.
(Because it’s on the brain: Damon Salvatore… I’m looking at you. Kthnxbye)
See also: the reason why I hate Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and don’t care if the comic version was awesome (I have interest in ever getting into it), the movie still was shit. For this very reason. Because apparently it’s totally okay to, say, use someone like Knives Chau and then ditch her and cheat on her if, at the end of it, you’ve had a growing experience as a man. A Manvolution, as it were, in which you manvolved into a “Better Man”. So what if you leave a trail of hurt women in your wake or someone else pays the price for you getting your shit together. All that matters is that you learned and made lots of ironic video game references. *nods wisely*
Actually applied to large principles, I think you can pretty much transfer to this to most dynamics between the privileged and the oppressed. It’s not a person of color’s job to be invaded, etc so a white person can evolve or not a trans person’s job so a cis person can evolve and so forth.
Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato found murdered →
guardian.co.uk
One of Uganda’s most prominent gay rights activists has been murdered in his home weeks after winning a court victory over a tabloid that called for homosexuals to be killed.
David Kato, the advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda, was bludgeoned to death in Mukono, Kampala, yesterday afternoon. Witnesses saw a man fleeing the scene in a car, and police are investigating.
Along with other Ugandan gay activists, Kato had reported increased harassment since 3 January, when a high court judge granted a permanent injunction against the Rolling Stone tabloid newspaper, preventing it from identifying homosexuals in its pages.
Late last year, Kato had been pictured on the front page of an issue carrying the headline “Hang Them”. He was one of the three complainants in the court case.
“Since the ruling, David said people had been harassing him, and warning they would ‘deal with him,’” Julian Pepe Onziema, a close friend and fellow gay rights activist, said.
“We were due to meet yesterday [Wednesday] to discuss security arrangements, but he said he did not have money to get to town. A few hours after we spoke, his phone was off.”
Human Rights Watch said it was too early to speculate why Kato had been killed, but added that there were serious concerns about the level of protection of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Kampala.
Another stark example of right-wing terrorism.
I am sick and tired of white enlightened males who like to claim they are feminist when they aren't listening to women.
Pink bikers fight Mexican drug war by helping poor →
reuters.com
A group of middle-class Mexican women on pink motorcycles is handing out food and medicine to the poor in one of the world’s deadliest cities to both protest and allay the widespread deprivation it says is fueling the violence. Braving drug gang turf wars in Ciudad Juarez that have killed some 6,700 people since 2008, including hundreds of women, the club that calls itself “Las Guerreras” (The Female Warriors) rides out on custom-made choppers every Sunday to dangerous neighborhoods that ring the factory city bordering El Paso, Texas. In cramped, metal-roofed homes on unpaved streets, the 10-member group comprising teachers, off-duty police officers and businesswomen volunteer their time to help single mothers, addicts, the elderly and the jobless, many of whom have no access to welfare and feel completely abandoned.
They hand out cash, medicines, food, clothing and even birthday cakes, paid for out of their own pockets. Sometimes they just provide a sympathetic ear. “There are people who have nothing, or almost nothing,” said Lorenia Granados, a co-founder of the group set up two years ago, just after gunmen killed seven young men on a soccer field not far from the place she was volunteering on Sunday.
relevant.
Fuck yeah, Mexicanas!
So much win.
“I think it’s about time we think about what we mean by “racism” if a black mother landing in jail because she sent her kids to a better school that would not have them doesn’t count, if calling it “stealing” when she gives them access to resources these white parents get to take for granted doesn’t qualify. If we don’t understand the racism of the much higher likelihood that a black mother will have to send her child to a sub-par school that will not teach them all they need to know than a white mother, if we don’t understand the racism of punishing her for fighting back against that inherently unequal, oppressive, white supremacist system, we don’t understand the first thing about racism at all.”
—Mother Jailed For Sending Her Children to the “Wrong” School — The Curvature (via notemily)
I'm looking at these job listings for admin that only require high school deplomas and they're offering salaries of $25,000/yr.
That’s like, more than I’ve ever made at a job. Ever.
Why did I even go to college?
because you can’t live comfortably on 25,000 dollars a year? i mean that’s only like 2000 something dollars before taxes a month and while it’s not like that’s a small amount you can say rent is 700 dollars and then you have groceries and possibly loans, car payments or money for mass transit and other misc. bills and if anything crazy ever happens to you/your car/etc.
i mean i’m no expert on wages and stuff but idk.
…*shrug* I can. $2000 a month sounds like fucking luxury to me, to be honest, compared to what I’m used to bringing in. Owning a car in the city is setting yourself up for trouble, and I always split rent with someone which knocks it down to $350 or maybe $400. In the end, $2000 a month, if I bought groceries wisely, would probably save me about $800 that I could put towards credit debt/student loans.
I don’t know. I’d be fucking thankful for a job that gave me $25,000 a year. -E
Fuck yeah 2 grand a month you can live way comfortably. Thats what it shows about society. Our society is so spoiled with things that they think 2grand a month is nothing. As someone who has lived with less than that a month and survived…2grand a month is like a luxury. Thats rent. Groceries. And credit card/student loans. Gas money & maybe 100 or so left over for a special day out!
Shit I use to figure out how to pay rent and survive on like 1100 a month. You can do it. It’s all possible. And thats a luxury cuz a lot of people are surviving on way less.
Oh god, I’ll never do $1100 again. It’s just…it’s the worst. That’s why I’m hoping I can pick up something that will at least pay me $10/hr. I can be comfortable on $10/hr until I get my first review. -E
I hate to be the voice of dissent here, but $25,000 is relative. Yeah, in some places where your rent is cheap and your grocery bill is manageable and you may only be supporting yourself and you’re lucky because you don’t have lots of extra expenses, then maybe that works. I’m so glad that you could pay your rent on $2000 a month with stuff left over.
And good for you if it does. But there are a lot of circumstances in which people can’t get by on $25k a year and it’s not because they’re fucking spoiled, all right? Please don’t go around spouting that shit like anyone who needs more than that is somehow messed up or ungrateful or greedy. Or that if YOU can do it, then obviously everyone can.
I mean, fuck, the minute you start needing several medications a month or have a health condition where you need to eat particular things (that may be more expensive) or find yourself piled under loads of debt (student loan or not) or your car breaks down and you have to pay $500 to get it fixed and you have to use a credit card with a ridiculous interest rate to do it or you also have to pay for expensive utilities or your rent goes up or your cost of living is high because the cost of basic things like food, clothing, and shelter is expensive then you find that $25k doesn’t go that far.
Never mind wanting to have a few things that might make you happy or a little more comfortable, which also cost money. But hey, if you’re not happy just sleeping on a mattress on a floor and want to have a bedframe and maybe even a lamp and a nightstand and a book or two to go on them, you’re fucking spoiled, right? AMIRITE?
We won’t even start on what happens when you have kids and $25k is all you get and you’re a single parent and you have to buy clothing, food, and essential things for them as well as yourself.
It’s all relative, so maybe try to keep in mind that your situation is not EVERYONE ELSE’S SITUATION. Please don’t hand out lectures on who is and isn’t spoiled based on what YOU INDIVIDUALLY have been through.
…*cring* sorry? I wasn’t saying $25k is appropriate for everyone, I was saying for me it’s a livable wage and much more than I’m used to making. -E
That’s fine, and I was kind of responding to the general discussion here and one of the above OP’s who talked about people being spoiled. I don’t like that being thrown out there to make people feel ashamed if they need more money. Because as someone else has said in another reblog (tranzient, IIRC), they live in an area where rent is like $1900/month and I live in NYC home of The Rent Is 2 Damn High.
I’m glad it works out for you. I’m not being snarky about that. Dude, if you can make it and do well on $25k, much power to you. And good luck on the job hunt. I’m in the same boat, trying to find whatever I can. Unemployment - not so great actually.
Just so everyone knows... bread does not make you fat. Eating excess and lack of exercise makes you fat.
Thank you!
look for healthier kinds of breads too :)
THANK YOU!
Actually, weight is a really complicated issue and Calories In/Calories Out does not even begin to explain the natural variations in human size and shape.
Anyone who preaches CI/CO is woefully misinformed.
THIS THIS THIS.
If calories in/calories out was accurate, you wouldn’t be able to have shows like The Biggest Loser to begin with, because competition wouldn’t matter. Everyone who did the same amount of work and ate the same amount of calories would lose the same amount of weight.
But, they don’t. Sometimes people work their asses off and they lose nothing but a pound or they sort of coast and end up getting surprised that they lost 10 lbs or something.
Which means that somewhere, somehow THERE ARE OTHER FACTORS AT WORK HERE. Thus, weight isn’t that simple.
Thus, all you can really do is take care of yourself the best you can, practice good self-care, eat and exercise as well as you can given what you’ve got to work with and give a big New York City Bird to anyone who tells you that the secret to your body’s complex and as of yet not fully understood chemistry and mechanisms is NOT EATING FUCKING BREAD.
I'm looking at these job listings for admin that only require high school deplomas and they're offering salaries of $25,000/yr.
That’s like, more than I’ve ever made at a job. Ever.
Why did I even go to college?
because you can’t live comfortably on 25,000 dollars a year? i mean that’s only like 2000 something dollars before taxes a month and while it’s not like that’s a small amount you can say rent is 700 dollars and then you have groceries and possibly loans, car payments or money for mass transit and other misc. bills and if anything crazy ever happens to you/your car/etc.
i mean i’m no expert on wages and stuff but idk.
…*shrug* I can. $2000 a month sounds like fucking luxury to me, to be honest, compared to what I’m used to bringing in. Owning a car in the city is setting yourself up for trouble, and I always split rent with someone which knocks it down to $350 or maybe $400. In the end, $2000 a month, if I bought groceries wisely, would probably save me about $800 that I could put towards credit debt/student loans.
I don’t know. I’d be fucking thankful for a job that gave me $25,000 a year. -E
Fuck yeah 2 grand a month you can live way comfortably. Thats what it shows about society. Our society is so spoiled with things that they think 2grand a month is nothing. As someone who has lived with less than that a month and survived…2grand a month is like a luxury. Thats rent. Groceries. And credit card/student loans. Gas money & maybe 100 or so left over for a special day out!
Shit I use to figure out how to pay rent and survive on like 1100 a month. You can do it. It’s all possible. And thats a luxury cuz a lot of people are surviving on way less.
Oh god, I’ll never do $1100 again. It’s just…it’s the worst. That’s why I’m hoping I can pick up something that will at least pay me $10/hr. I can be comfortable on $10/hr until I get my first review. -E
I hate to be the voice of dissent here, but $25,000 is relative. Yeah, in some places where your rent is cheap and your grocery bill is manageable and you may only be supporting yourself and you’re lucky because you don’t have lots of extra expenses, then maybe that works. I’m so glad that you could pay your rent on $2000 a month with stuff left over.
And good for you if it does. But there are a lot of circumstances in which people can’t get by on $25k a year and it’s not because they’re fucking spoiled, all right? Please don’t go around spouting that shit like anyone who needs more than that is somehow messed up or ungrateful or greedy. Or that if YOU can do it, then obviously everyone can.
I mean, fuck, the minute you start needing several medications a month or have a health condition where you need to eat particular things (that may be more expensive) or find yourself piled under loads of debt (student loan or not) or your car breaks down and you have to pay $500 to get it fixed and you have to use a credit card with a ridiculous interest rate to do it or you also have to pay for expensive utilities or your rent goes up or your cost of living is high because the cost of basic things like food, clothing, and shelter is expensive then you find that $25k doesn’t go that far.
Never mind wanting to have a few things that might make you happy or a little more comfortable, which also cost money. But hey, if you’re not happy just sleeping on a mattress on a floor and want to have a bedframe and maybe even a lamp and a nightstand and a book or two to go on them, you’re fucking spoiled, right? AMIRITE?
We won’t even start on what happens when you have kids and $25k is all you get and you’re a single parent and you have to buy clothing, food, and essential things for them as well as yourself.
It’s all relative, so maybe try to keep in mind that your situation is not EVERYONE ELSE’S SITUATION. Please don’t hand out lectures on who is and isn’t spoiled based on what YOU INDIVIDUALLY have been through.
Pro-gay argument targetted at the right-wing I have issue with: "gay couples don't get abortions"
How ignorant are you? Access to abortion services is just as necessary as any other uterus-owner’s need. What if they’re raped? What if they had a one-night stand and birth control failed? What if they had a planned pregnancy they needed to terminate for health reasons?
I do not want any part of an argument to further gay rights that makes out that gay people are morally superior because they “don’t get abortions”. There is nothing morally dubious about safe access to abortion services, and I’d appreciated it my fellow queers could not subtly help the pro-life lobby by demonising a procedure that saves women’s lives.
Agree with all this, with one exception.
It’s not just women’s lives. People who have uteruses and get pregnant are not automatically women. Many are trans men or non-binary folks and so on. Also, many women do not and can never physically become pregnant.
It’s not just about saying that cis women who only sleep with cis women may not need access to this kind of health care - it’s also about recognizing that the issue of access to safe abortion services is a HUMAN rights issue not just a women’s rights issue.
Reproductive justice is not just for cis women.
Why wouldn't you want to be a Hufflepuff?
WE GET TO LIVE NEAR THE FUCKING KITCHEN. Late night snack? Don’t mind if I do. Enjoy your dungeon, Slytherin. Enjoy that walk up the stairs, Gryffindor. I’ll be in my common room, eating food like a boss.
Hufflepuff 4eva, y’all. Seriously, though, I totally would get sorted into Hufflepuff.
“Many people act as if this expectation — that writers expend energy and incur emotional cost, not only to do thorough research but to seek to understand the culture of the Philippines and to examine their own privileges and motivations in the process — is unreasonable; that it asks for too much. That the fact that an effort is being made should be enough; that we should laud people simply for trying. I disagree. In this I may likely be told that I’m not being encouraging at all. That’s fine. To reiterate an earlier point: if a writer cannot surmount fear by toiling through all the demands of this task, I will not excuse or try to take away from that fear. If a writer cannot make (and succeed in) the effort to see the sources of our anger, I do not see why that writer should be protected from that anger. And if, at this point, a writer cannot understand why one would want to write about the Philippines, given the weight of its burden, given that a non-Filipino’s writing will inevitably bear in it some measure of insufficiency or incompleteness, I do not find any need to give that writer reasons. If it is a worthy undertaking you must determine your own worth.”
—
“No country for strangers” by ephemere (via badparsiqueer)
I recommend not only reading this post by ephemere, but going through the entire dreamwidth journal and reading everything there. There are so, so many wise words there and they deserve close readings and repeated ones as well.
let's pretend we don't exist: When the Apocalypse Comes, Only the Brown Places Will Be Left →
iced-chai.tumblr.com
This post is a sort of reply to the following post, which I came across on tumblr:
title: “shangri-la”
i always look at the world for how beautiful it is, which can be found everywhere and anywhere as long as you look for it. but one day, man will destroy all that is left of that; and when i’ve had enough and want to make the whole world disappear, i will walk into tibet and lose myself in the himalayas.
And this (referring to the title of this post) is what most white Americans are afraid of, isn’t it? All those white people marrying blacks, making biracial babies that will inevitably get scholarships over their little blue-eyed Sarah-Jane or Christopher-Michael; all those non-English-speaking people coming over to our country and not adopting English as their first and only tongue; all those poor brown people taking our jobs. In a few decades, we’re all going to be the shade of a very milky cappuccino and speaking some ugly foreign language like Chinese or, heaven forbid, “Mexican.”
For however much one faction of white Americans wants to protect their own white spaces by keeping “those kind of people” out (all the while protesting that they’re “not, you know, racist or anything… I mean, it’s just that there’s been so much crime in the area after those people moved in!”), there is another faction for whom brown spaces will forever be connected to nature, undamaged, pure, mystical and spiritual.
[And I would like to point out right here, in big bold letters, that the person who wrote the quoted phrase at the beginning of this entry is an American, yes, but they are non-white. They do, however, have “Western” or “First World” or “Global North” privilege. You cannot pack ignorance into boxes, for ignorance is a liquid and will leak all over the floor. I’m only adding this caveat in case someone finds the blog I copy-pasted from and feels the need to point out this fact as if it nullifies everything I’ve written here.]
I’m going to address the issue of Tibet specifically, as it is the perfect example of the Brown Space That Is Stuck in a By-Gone Age of Meditating And/Or Flying Monks Who Live Forever and Other Peaceful Spiritual Things. Assuming the view that when the rest of the world is in flames, the answer to human survival will lie in the Himalayas is just ridiculous. (Makers of the film 2012: I’m looking at you.) It assumes that Tibet, in its current state, is peaceful and happy and doing perfectly fine by itself—which, of course, is rather far from the truth. Believing this kind of tripe completely erases the last fifty years of Tibet’s history. Doesn’t it seem a bit odd to you that while Tibetans are fleeing by foot into Nepal and India (a month-long journey in the dead of winter), risking limbs and life to seek freedom of religion, a good education, the chance to learn and use Tibetan in their public lives, among other things, the (usually) White Person is flying to Tibet and proclaiming it a magical place that not only can cure cancer but is Happiness and Peace made geographical?
The saddest part of the original quote is that this individual has gone to Tibet and still walked away with this view. I guess some ignorance is hard to break, especially when it’s being subtly and blatantly enforced by the oppressors. The Chinese government is notorious for paying students to show up at big functions (from the arrival of Chinese delegates in foreign countries to protests against the Chinese government) if but to give some fodder to the media that shows that people love China and it’s just a rag-tag group of “splittists” who feel a different way, as well as coercing Tibetans into lying to the media, donning traditional dress and performing festivals that they were previously boycotting (knowing that it would piss China off that they were refusing to be puppets for China’s lie that We Keep the Tibetans Very Happy and Liberated, Yes), among many other things.
We are still ignorant. We refuse to let go of this belief that the Brown Space is either a space to be feared or a space to be put on a pedestal and worshipped—but only while we’re taking the food off of their altars for our own private consumption. (Traveling outside the US/Canada/England/another predominantly white European country? You’re either going to gain enlightenment or get dysentery. Or you’re going to gain enlightenment because you got dysentery.) No matter what view you take, the result is the same: invasion, of both bodies and mind. We fear, so we invade to “liberate”; we lust after, so we appropriate. It’s been centuries and we have yet to change our outlook—we’ve just substituted swords for guns for Bibles for guns and Bibles for cameras and Bibles and guns for when we’re entering countries of Adults and toys for when we’re entering countries of Children.
So when the apocalypse comes and you go walking into the Himalayas, I think you’ll find that not a single mountaintop has snow (thanks to global warming), and not a single person will be there to guide you. I hope when you finally spot Lhasa and gravitate to the sparkling object in the distance, when you arrive there, you’ll find the golden arches of a McDonald’s.
Reblogged for the pure awesomeness of commentary.
HOW APPROPRIATION APOLOGISM WORKS
- Person A: Hey, what the hell, man? You just punched me in the face and stole my pants!
- Person B: WHOA WHOA WHOA, ARE YOU TELLING ME I'M NOT ALLOWED TO WEAR THESE PANTS?
- Person A: They're my fucking pants! Why the fuck did you take them in the first place?
- Person B: HOW DARE YOU TELL ME WHAT I'M ALLOWED TO WEAR, WHY DO YOU HATE SELF EXPRESSION?
- Person A: The fuck? No, asshole, I hate it when people punch me in the face and steal my goddamn pants!
- Person B: STOP OPPRESSING ME.
How to: avoid this ugly grey square when inserting images/gifs:
Text Posts:
1. Top right above text-entry. Click ‘upload photo’.
2. Gifs have to be under 500kbs to work.
Other posts:
1. Do the steps above in a text post.
2. Drag the uploaded gif from the text post tab to your link/image/answer tab.
Ta-da!
Ah. Never even noticed that button there. I fail at Tumblr. I DO NOT LIKE THE CONE OF SHAME.
I blame Tumblr. The Upload Photo link is tiny and in light gray against a white background. My eyeballs/brain kind of have issues with low contrast stuff like that so it’s easy for me to miss text that is very light on a white background. Which seems not to matter to so many webdesigners who think it is just SO FUCKING COOL to have silver text on a white background. I’m sure it’s a hip and ironic way to show how disaffected they are with things being accessible and easily read and what not.
you know if you click +upload photo you can put the gifs right intoa text post without making them ugly grey squares
I didn’t see that option when I reblogged the last post, just the little square for “insert image”. Maybe you could explain further?
Sometimes the only response to anti-choice batshittery is sarcasm + inappropriate gifs.
You mean like this?
Or more like this?
Or maybe this:
Because sometimes people just need a cat to come sit on their hands while they’re typing in a very quiet, cat like way of letting them know that it would be best for all involved if they shut the fuck up.
And if you oppose a person’s right to choose what to do with their own body (including and especially whether to use it to host another life form, whether it has brain wrinkles or fingernails or not), then you are a douchecanoe and you should shut up and I have no interest in a conversation with you.
A CAT IS SITTING ON A KEYBOARD. YOU ARGUMENT IS POINTLESS. GOODBYE.
Black Mother Jailed for Sending Kids to White School District →
sheresists.tumblr.com
Black Mother Jailed For Sending Kids to White School District
An Ohio mother of two was sentenced to 10 days in jail and placed on three years probation after sending her kids to a school district in which they did not live. Kelly Williams-Bolar was sentenced by Judge…
Please read the full article. It’s truly disturbing.
“Skinny, socially privileged white people get to draw this neat little circle. Everyone inside the circle is normal. Everyone outside the circle should be beaten, broken and reset so they can be brought into the circle. Failing that, they should be institutionalized or worse, pitied.”
—
Dr. House (via fuckyeahhousemd)
I’m really sad that this philosophy didn’t stick around with the writers of the show when they were dealing with their portrayals of the women on the show and Dr. Kutner and Dr. Foreman - but the statement is still stunningly true and part of the reason that I occasionally really love House.
But as a statement about how the world works, it’s absolutely wonderful and very observant. Of course, it doesn’t address what happens when you live with one foot in the circle and one foot out.
“That’s exactly what the Suicide Girls phenomenon is all about: superficial and cliché rebelliousness masking a tired rehashing of the pornographic exploitation of women. The idea that the women involved are empowering themselves is revolting; the company is owned and operated by a man, the women are paid nearly zilch for the honor of degrading themselves for an audience of perverts who listen to Reverend Horton Heat, and the company locks its “models” into contracts that forbid them to “model” for any other sites and rob them of any rights to their own images. Where’s the empowerment? …I do know that dressing up everyday sexual exploitation and patriarchal gender roles in flaming cherry tattoos isn’t punk. It’s fucking nonsense. What Suicide Girls are doing is meeting a market demand created by dudes who want porn that matches their “alternative” hairdos and love for the Misfits, not representing an alternative kind of sexuality in which women are seen as sexually autonomous human beings, which is where the real sexual revolution is at.”
—Nine Deuce @ http://rageagainstthemanchine.com/ via http://hello-amber.blogspot.com/2010/02/riot-grrrl.html (via inherhipstheresrevolutions)
Health, Weight and Body Image Survey →
kwiksurveys.com
Conducting more research and looking for some new perspectives. Please reblog and spread the word!
I’d be more impressed if you made gender a write-in category or at least had something besides Male and Female as options. Body, health, and weight images are not just limited to binary gendered folks, and indeed, the intersection of body image, weight, and gender identity is something that deserves to at least get represented in the survey by having a way for non-binary folks to participate.