January 2012
“Let’s get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans...”
– Sherman Alexie is a poet, short story writer, novelist, and filmmaker. His book “The Lone Ranger and Tonto’s Fist Fight in Heaven,” was on the banned curriculum of the Mexican American Studies Program.
http://progressive.org/sherman-alexie
(via chicanainchoos)
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Picture Son: How to Love Yourself and Your Gay...
knowthesaurus:
Something I wrote for the most recent issue of Non Song. Intersections between being Vietnamese-American, second generation, and gay. Enjoy!
Picture Son: How to Love Yourself and Your Gay Vietnamese Children
By Trung Nguyen
I kept watch at the mailbox every day for the first two weeks of May during my Senior year of high school, memorizing the exact window of time the mail...
Ever get the feeling when you want to send someone you really respect and admire some fanmail and end up feeling so damn dorky about it?
in response to, "how can white people fight...
velocicrafter:
Why do White people always ask POCs stuff like this? I just spent 30 minutes Googling “white allies” to find resources. Why the hell did I have to do that? Why does it never occur to White people to do that? Why is the onus always on POCs to make it easy for White people to learn to be less racist? Why do we always have to do the heavy lifting? Why is the footwork always left to...
Letter from a freed man.
therelapsednerd:
Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865 To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before...
On White Woman's Tears & Black Woman's Anger
karnythia:
susurrations:
karnythia:
I know people will claim that labels like White Woman’s Tears are misogynistic or whatever, but there is a phenomenon that is unique to middle class white women in discussions of race, wherein the moment the conversation gets hard they make it all about them, their feelings, and their tears. And it is so Scarlett O’Hara of them to expect Mammy to drop...
Watchselchieproductions:
Trailer for the film Lost Words
The story of American Indians who must overcome the traumas inflicted by US policies as they fight to save their endangered languages. Lost Words tells the story of Amber, Conrad, Yellow Otter, and S. Neyooxet Greymorning among other American Indians who are engaged in saving endangered languages. Through them we learn of how language is used...
Today in "I didn't know they were Black!!": Ludwig...
theafrosistuh:
SOURCE
The true identity of Ludwig van Beethoven, long considered Europe’s greatest classical music composer. Said directly, Beethoven was a black man. Specifically, his mother was a Moor, that group of Muslim Northern Africans who conquered parts of Europe—making Spain their capital—for some 800 years.
In order to make such a substantial statement, presentation of verifiable...
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CfP: South Asian Diasporic Masculinities: Men and...
Guest Editor: Chandrima Chakraborty, Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University
Scholarly engagement with masculinity and political violence in South Asia is primarily the work of political scientists, anthropologists, and historians, who do not adequately address the vulnerable situation of South Asian men in riot situations, or investigate the unresolved implications of...
There ███ █████ is ███ ████ ██████ no ███ war...
'cking'eh...
liquornspice:
james-bliss:
I’ve read so much of hugo schwyzer’s writing and I still don’t believe he exists for real. he clearly wrote his own wikipedia page. he has a website with an ultra-high resolution photo of himself. he teaches at a community college—which makes him the only ‘professional/academic feminist’ I know of who teaches somewhere where you don’t have to produce any original...
Randy Fujimoto uses Minecraft to teach students... →
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White woman, what are you doing?
sanaa-tamir:
queernonymoose:
locamuslimah:
This lady I teach belly dancing to came to class the first day and explained to me that she’s a professional belly dancer. Of course I asked why she was here taking classes then and she told me that it was because she wanted to learn a new style of belly dancing - previously she only did tribal belly dancing. She said she wanted to learn other...
therotund:
SOPA EMERGENCY LIST.
meghanalefae:
aprilstar-dance:
SOPA Emergency IP list: So if these ass-fucks in DC decide to ruin the internet, here’s how to access your favorite sites in the event of a DNS takedown tumblr.com 174.121.194.34 wikipedia.org 208.80.152.201 # News bbc.co.uk 212.58.241.131 aljazeera.com 198.78.201.252 #...
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Constant threats of the next Four Little Girls
readnfight:
Yesterday, as part of MLK Day events at Yale, there was a free Sweet Honey in the Rock concert. It was amazing. Everything about it was fantastic. I just finished reading a biography of Afeni Shakur (a really rad Black Panther, b/k/a Tupac’s mom) by Jasmine Guy, and the end of the book is the two of them at a Sweet Honey concert together and how magical it was.
One thing that was...
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Dr. King, Nichelle Nichols, and Dr. Mae Jemison
racialicious:
Curator’s note: this post didn’t make it into today’s lineup at the main blog—I wrote this way late last night/early this morning—but I wanted to share it because it does speak to the power of seeing one’s image in pop culture. It’s also one of my favorite stories about Dr. King. ~~Andrea (AJ) Plaid
In honor of Dr. King’s birthday and the US government choosing Dr. Jemison to...
“Nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense...”
– Assata Shakur (via thegoddamazon)
ALWAYS REBLOG.
(via ndnsurgency)
*not even Martin Luther King Jr.* if you really think the progress of the Civil Rights Movement was achieved solely by the moral strength of their argument, you were miseducated. you really were.
(via so-treu)
“Cassandra Cain my boo, a woman of color with disabilities, outsold Green Arrow,...”
– http://arsmarginal.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/just-in-time-for-mlk-day/
While I don’t agree with the idea of the cancellation of Mr. Terrific as a bad thing (bad book, bad writer), this here I felt was important to point out.
(via fyeahlilbitoeverything)
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Not-so-humble self-promotion.
transsexualferox:
Just a note, the help Renee survive while going back to school fundraising drive is still going. Donations will go towards school materials and life necessities (gas to get back and forth to school, car insurance, prescriptions).
If you can and want to donate, a million thanks in advance. Reblogs also very, very appreciated.
Tucson schools bans books by Chicano and Native... →
kahs2012:
TUCSON — Outrage was the response to the news that Tucson schools has banned books, including “Rethinking Columbus,” with an essay by award-winning Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko, who lives in Tucson, and works by Buffy Sainte Marie, Winona LaDuke, Leonard Peltier and Rigoberta Menchu. The decision to ban books follows the 4 to 1 vote on Tuesday by the Tucson Unified School...
Watchqueernonymoose:
plethoraofkorra:
ALL OF THE LEAKED CLIPS COMPILED INTO ONE VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S. I had to cut out 10 seconds from the opening sequence to make the video 5 minutes, but we’ve all seen it 1000 times anyway.
FOLLOW ME TO SHOW YOUR APPRECIATION :D
You can’t download the video…it’ll get taken off uploading sites anyway.
Apparently I died.
GAY SOKKA DIES.
Truth-out.org Interview with Professor Melissa V....
Mark Karlin: You state that your book is about how "black women attempt to stand upright in a room made by the crooked stereotypes" about them. What role models do individual black women use to accomplish this feat?
Melissa V. Harris-Perry: I am not a huge fan of the role model theory. Part of what I find extraordinary about black history in America has been the ability to imagine freedom, equality, and full humanity even when there was no living model. The capacity for moral and political imagination always outweighs the influence of role models in my mind.
That said, American history is replete with black women who have carved out authentic space for themselves in deeply unequal circumstances. I am particularly inspired the scholar, journalist, wife, mother, activist, writer and deeply human Ida B. Wells.
MK: You focus on three stereotypes: the promiscuous temptress, the kindly mammy, the angry Amazon woman. Why did you pick these specific stereotypes?
MVHP: Amazon huh? I am not sure I think the angry black woman is Amazon like, because unlike Amazons she does not have power and authority, just a biting tongue and sarcastic wit. My decision to focus on Jezebel, mammy and the angry black woman was based on the research. These are the primary stereotypes that dominate literary and cultural references. These are also the stereotypes that women in my focus groups told me had the greatest impact on their lives.
MK: How do black women develop in reaction to these stereotypes? How do some balance their lives and others overcompensate and others fail?
MVHP: I don't think some women succeed and other fail. I think all of us succeed in moments and fail in other moments. Or succeed in some aspects of our lives and fail in others. I reject any totalizing judgments of people who are struggling against such profoundly embedded negative stereotypes. My research tells me that some individuals have a variety of psychological and cultural resources that make them more resilient than others. But, because I am interested in political consequences of these stereotypes I spend less time writing about individual strategies than thinking through collective consequences of our difficult process of finding authentic political expression within contemporary American discourse.
MK: The role of black women and citizenship - and the challenge of negotiating stereotypes in politics - is central to your book. You mention how right-wing columnist and radio host Cal Thomas is typical of whites who use stereotypes to "kill the message" by putting the messenger in a cage. Thus, a black women who is angry on behalf of a cause is reduced to just being a stereotypical "Amazon." The cause gets lost in the stereotype. How do black female politicians overcome this?
MVHP: Again, I don't think I ever suggest Cal Thomas is typical of whites or typical of any given group, just that he is an example of this process of relegating black women's anger to a stereotypical reaction rather than an authentic complaint. Ignoring the content of black women's anger is certainly not just a problem of someone like Cal Thomas, it happens within black communities all the time. When black women express their anger at inequality or poor treatment they are often seen as irrational, spiteful and ridiculous. But this is as likely to happen on black urban radio as it is on Fox News. Still, anger is certainly a dual edged blade for black women in politics. Politicians need to be passionate advocates for their causes, but that passion can often be misread and therefore dismissed as irrational when it comes from black women. We can see many different ways that black women elected officials have dealt with this. Some have embraced their "anger" as a defining aspect of their political personas. Others have tamped down and present almost preternatural calm exteriors in all circumstances.
MK: Michelle Obama is, of course, discussed in your book (Chapter 8). She has seemed to strategically avoid even the hint of being strident in her voice or actions. Yet, the stereotypes continue due to her having such things as muscle-toned arms or even her encouraging of sustainable organic gardening. Isn't there a cul-de-sac for some black women, particularly in politics? They just can't escape stereotypes, no matter how they act?
MVHP: I think this is true for all black women, whether they are in public life or not. These stereotypes don't exist because they are accurate representations of black women. They exist because they serve the goal of maintaining racial and gender inequality. You can't overcome a stereotype by acting opposite of it. The point is not to convince other people that you are worthy of being a fully participating citizen, the point is to convince yourself of that truth and to act and organize accordingly.
MK: On a personal note, congratulations on your new MSNBC show. We can assume, like Paul Krugman, you won't be giving up your high-profile and highly respected academic career? Is that correct?
MVHP: Correct. I will never leave the academy. Professionally, I am a professor first. I love living in New Orleans and teaching at Tulane. Part of why I am so pleased to have the opportunity for a weekend show is because I don't have to give up teaching.
Interview Found At: http://www.truth-out.org/interview-author-melissa-v-harris-perry/1326131822
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**Missing Teen in The Newark Area** PLEASE REPOST
dopegirlfresh:
beautybyuche:
Attention Newark & surrounding areas- My sister( Arabia Jewell Shabazz ) her niece Amber Torres has been missing since yesterday. If anybody know’s of her whereabouts or has info please call Newark Police Dept
SHE WAS LAST WEARING A BLACK HOODY & BLACK JEANS/PANTS FROM HER HOUSE. SHE IS ABOUT 115LBS & 5’2 TALL. SHE DOESNT HAVE HER GLASSES. iTS REALLY...
Anonymously message me (1) thing you want to know...
velocicrafter:
kahs2012:
yes please.
okay
go for it
So I saw George Lucas' interview on the Daily...
deliciouskaek:
thegoddamazon:
I have mixed feelings about the upcoming Red Tails film, but after hearing Lucas’ reasoning, I really, really gotta give him props for doing it.
He states that he couldn’t get a distributor to sign on with this film because there are no major white protagonists in the film (the fact that one of the most influential men in film history said this really sparked my...
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