Racist=Racist. It does NOT=Bad or Stupid.
So these girls that I work with.
Don’t get me wrong. They’re nice people. People have this idea that to be racist means you’re a bad person; to be racist means you have to be mean. To those of you who think that, I say:
LOL. You are a FOOL.
My co-workers? They’re nice girls. When they engage me in conversation, and I’m in a mood where I don’t mind talking to them, we have really nice ones. We can joke around. We can laugh together. They’re friendly. They’re smart.
They’re still racist as hell. None of the above negates that. And their niceness doesn’t negate their racism.
They’re nice to me, yeah.
They still spew the n word whenever it comes up in a song.
We have good conversations, yeah.
They spend time mocking different aspects of Blackness.
We joke around, yeah.
They still fetishize me.
They like me as a person, yeah.
They still ask invasive questions that they have no business asking.
They still treat me like I have no clue what I’m doing.
They still crack all kinds of jokes about a vernacular that they don’t realize that I speak.
They’re nice. They’re smart. But they’re still racist assholes.
Nice and racist are not mutually exclusive, nor are smart and racist. You can be both. You can be all three. You can even be them all towards the person you’re being racist towards. You can like the person and still be a racist asshole towards them. You can be nice. You can be a good person.
It doesn’t negate your racism or the fact that you’re a racist.
It’s not that difficult of a concept.
(via raging-liberal-hard-on)
Plenty of oppressive bullshit goes down under the guise of nice. Every day, nice, caring, friendly people try to take our bodily autonomy away from us (women, queers, trans people, nonbinaries, fat people, POC…you name it, they just don’t think we know what’s good for us!). These people would hold a door for us if they saw us coming. Our enemies are not only the people holding ‘Fags Die God Laughs’ signs, they are the nice people who just feel like marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense, it’s just how they feel! We once got a very nice comment on this site that we decided we could not publish because its content was ‘But how can I respect women when they dress like – sorry to say it, pardon my language – sluts?’. This is vile, disgusting misogyny and no amount of sugar coating and politeness can make it okay. Similarly, most of the people who run ex-gay therapy clinics are actually very nice and polite! They just want to save you! Nicely! Clearly, niceness means FUCK ALL.
—
The Revolution Will Not Be Polite: The Issue of Nice versus Good (Social Justice League)
Concern trolls (‘we’re so ‘concerned for you’, we’re just doing it for your own good’) always think being polite about their bigotry makes it harder to spot them.
(via razingcomplacency)Racism 101: Are you a Racist?: Definitions Explained Better Than I Ever Could.
This is an exert from the article Why There’s No Such Thing as Reverse Racism. It is a fantastic article and I encourage you to read it in it’s entirety. For now, I want to highlight the explanation/definition of three specific words.
Prejudice is an irrational feeling of dislike for a…
(via hiohmegan)
I saw this on Facebook and instantly, my jaw dropped. Apparently it was on a baby t-shirt. I don’t even know what to say — this is beyond disgusting and horrible.
They are basically saying that they believe that darker babies are not only cheap, but they’re unlovable. WHAT THE HELL. I’m just speechless.
Your skin color does not determine your worth. Everyone matters no matter what their skin color is, I cannot stress that enough, truly. I can’t even imagine what it feels like to be constantly seeing these kinds of messages concerning one’s race. Every single one of y’all is beautiful and worth so much.
This honestly not only makes me incredibly angry, but it makes me sad. I don’t understand how people can think like this. I just don’t.
— Brittany
And yet, people still think the adoption system is a beautiful ray of sunshine. Because not only do individual people think this way, but agencies that set up adoptions and foster care run off the same mentality.
smmfh
(via raging-liberal-hard-on)
MSNBC Talks To And About Trans People For An Hour, Doesn’t F*ck It Up
We’re only about 30 seconds into MSNBC’s 20-minute “Transgender in America” segment when host Melissa Harris-Perry describes herself as “cis,” explaining that “cis” means that “the sex of the body I was born with, the gender I was assigned at birth, and my personal identity all match. She then pointed out that “being ‘cis’ does not make me “normal” or “natural,” it just makes me cis.” After last week’s shitshow with Barbara Walters and Jenna Talackova, the last thing anybody expected from a mainstream (if left-leaning) news organization was to hear the definition of “cisgender” on National television. It gets better from there.
The National Center for Transgender Equality, in its press release, said of the MSNBC program that:
“For the first time in recent memory, a major television network will dedicate an hour-long panel to discussing transgender social and political issues. NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling will be a featured guest on the show joining other recognized experts on trans issues. The panel will focus broadly on advancing transgender equality and other political issues.”
“When we see transgender people like Chaz Bono or others in the media, we’re often encouraged to see the spectacular, not the person,” Harris-Perry explained before introducing three guests: author and activist Kate Bornstein, the aforementioned Mara Keisling and Mel Wymore (a Democratic candidate for the New York City Council). She later brings out Allison Kilkenny of Citizen Radio who also chimes in on issues within the LGBT community that don’t really apply to the “T.” The importance of non-discrimination policies were addressed at length, including the Prison Rape Elimination Act, as well as the importance of inclusiveness within the LGBTQ community. They went into how issues like same-sex marriage and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell have very different impacts on different segments of the LGTBQ umbrella and how crucial it is that the LGBs understand that.
After going over some of the harrowing statistics about discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, school and the criminal justice system, the story of African-American transgender Crishuan “CeCe” McDonald is introduced. CeCe was, as Kate Bornstein describes it, “beaten savagely by a group of folks and she fought back and ended up, in self-defense, killing one of her attackers. She was charged with second-degree murder, and put in the slammer, and that’s that.” Harris-Perry compares CeCe’s situation to that of Trayvon Martinand Kate mentions the online petition that you should all sign to get her out of jail.
“Transgender people are just normal people in most ways,” Keisling declared. “but nature loves diversity.”
The ensuing 15 minutes, which were devoted to discussing the Obama administration’s refusal to sign the executive order against discrimination by employers with federal contracts based on gender identity and sexual orientation, which Jillian T.Weiss writes about on the Bilerco Project today.
All-in-all, a pretty solid program and an excellent antidote to the Barbara Walters situation. (Although I was a little surprised by the section where Kate and Melissa seemed to imply that most trans people don’t use/like binary-identified pronouns — what did y’all think of that part?) In response to the Jenna Talackova 20/20 interview, many hoped that the sort of horrifying way in which that was covered would at least open up a door to discussing trans issues in a more serious and less sensationalistic way. This piece would suggest that the door is opening, and that people are walking through it. And that’s pretty fucking awesome.
I’m impressed
this is so great.
I cried.
i keep seeing this everywhere, and yet, I am not terribly internet connected at the moment and just this morning, i saw a whole string of critiques from prominent black trans scholar, DRKRZ. I don’t know how to put all of his tweets here, but here is the most pointed critique—and there’s tweets above and below this one that you should check out as well.
It just seems like this is a continuing forever pattern. all it takes is a google search, all it takes is following prominent non-white social media makers, all it takes is interrogating key phrases like “mommy,” all it takes is wondering where the color is at the table—but even just very simple things like these things seem to be beyond the imagination of so many people.
i mean, why *is* it not noticed the that there was only one person of color at the table and she identifies as cis? how would this conversation have been different if there was one WHITE person at the table?
**edited out just-woke-up attitude**
Yes, everything MMM said. Hell, the instant I saw the headline, I was like, “This is just gonna be all white trans* folk, isn’t it?” And yep.
It’s good to see this kind of thing on mainstream television, and I really hope that this is the start of a wider usage/understanding of “cis”, but… this isn’t good enough. If it doesn’t center trans women of color, it’s not fucking good enough, and we need to make that known.
(via cctcd)
[TW slurs] A Friendly Reminder: Don’t Call Out -ists With -isms.
Yes, the GOP political candidates are racist, sexist, classist, ableist, heterosexist, and cissexist bigots. Absolutely. But let’s not call them out by saying they’re “idiots”, “batshit crazy”, “delusional”, “lame”, “stupid”, “retarded”, etc.
Let’s not call out racist women by calling them “dumb bitches.”
Let’s not call out cissexist feminists by calling them “morons.”
Let’s not call out heterosexist poc by calling them “welfare queens.”
Let’s not call out sexist men by calling them “fags.”
Let’s not call out ableist people by calling them “selfish sluts.”
Let’s not call out classist people by calling them “crazy rich people.”
It’s called intersectionality. And trying to combat -ists with -isms will never be okay. Few people are privileged on every single axis, oppressions can’t be compared, and your oppression doesn’t make you incapable of being oppressive on another axis. Someone said something -ist? By all means take them down. But no one needs to engage in -isms to do it. You’re hurting other people when you do that. And their oppression, perpetuated by you, is no less painful than the fucked up thing you’re angry about. Full stop.
Lastly, garnering solidarity under the guise of -isms isn’t cool either.
You “Stand With Planned Parenthood”? How about you support them instead?
Anonymous asked: florence was in a racist vieo what
All I’m going to say on this is No Light, No Light had blackface in it (which hopefully everyone can agree is racist) and had the old (and racist) dichotomy of a white “pure” church imagery against a person in blackface using “voodoo” (or Voudun as the misunderstood religion is also known as) imagery.
TW: Molestation
Anon: Not sure if this is really sex related…but when I was younger my brother used to undress my sister. I didn’t realize until the memory resurfaced when my sister told me this. I remember because I was in the same room. Now I have a lot of shame in my sexuality and I’m distrusting of men that are the same race as my brother. Do you think this is a result of the events of my life? Or am I just influenced by society to be sexist and racist?
FYSE: I think it can be a little bit of both. A lot of people who have been around abuse by a certain gender or race distrust others of that gender or race. Those of us raised as female are kind of raised to distrust men because of the constant abuse that we tend to suffer at their hand. It is a fight for a lot of young people to go against that training and be able to trust men. I think part of this is just a defense mechanism and it is a good idea to always be watchful around people you don’t know, but we need to quit teaching “women” not to trust “men” and start teaching “men” to be trustworthy. That’s part of why rape culture is so devastating, it not only hurts those seen as women but it hurts those seen as men by making us see them as people we can’t trust. As far as race goes, I know quite a few people who are racist because of a bad experience they or someone they know had. What you have to realize is not every person of that race is an abuser. You can’t really generalize like that. In our culture we are taught to distrust anyone who isn’t white and that kind of makes it easier for people who did have bad experiences to justify it. Doesn’t make it right though. We should never judge a person based on qualities that they can’t help, only judge them based on qualities they can. I know it can take a while to unlearn the judgments we’ve been taught but we certainly can.
U G H - I am going to swear a lot right now.
Why does so much transmisogyny and privilege-denying bull shit exist within the trans* guy community? This bull shit is ESPECIALLY exhibited by well-off white dudes who are supposed spokespeople for ‘our’ community.
(I.e. Buck Angel, Ryan Cassata, Lucas Silveira, etc.)
Yes, I am calling people out here. Why? I am sick of seeing this oppressive shit all over my dash. Racism. Sexism. Misogyny. Body-shaming. Ableism. (proof here) Really? And what’s more? Some people actually accept and tolerate this shit because these people are ‘famous’. What true fans you are!
Guys, why is it SO hard to admit you have privilege? If you cannot admit that and acknowledge folks who are less privileged, I do NOT want you speaking for me. And I surely do not want you representing what it means to be trans*. All these folks do is reinforce negative, heteronormative stereotypes about trans* guys - a diverse minority of people who deserve fair representation and equal acknowledgment and respect.
Lastly, why do I have to keep bringing this stuff up, guys? Are we not oppressed enough? Now we are creating minorities within minorities here? Why are we actually fighting about what is or is not acceptable oppressive behaviour? Stating your opinion is one thing, but if you are using oppression in ANY way to get a point across or ‘fight for equality’, it is not only hypocritical, but WRONG.
Please note: When people say you are privileged, it is not a personal attack against you. It is not something to be ashamed of. It is something to be acknowledged. Whether you choose to do so is up to you, but it does not change the fact that you all are, in fact, privileged. Deny all you want. Call us whatever you want. Have your fans attack us over these issues. It only further proves our points.
Sincerely,
an admitted privileged white trans* guy named Riley
This is awesome, especially the links to their douchefuckery. While these people may have never intended to become role models, they are and celebrities don’t come with a magical aura that prevents them from doing wrong and makes them perfect. Their fans need to realize that we don’t come up with this shit because we’re bored.
Love,
Taylor
(Source: wanderlustprince)
African-American Boys Receive Less Attention, Lower Grades And Harsher Punishment In School
“A recent study by the Yale University Child Study Center shows that Black children — especially boys — no matter their family income, receive less attention, harsher punishment and lower marks in school than their White counterparts from kindergarten all the way through college. A subsequent article published in “The Washington Post” reported that Black children in the Washington, D.C. area are suspended or expelled two to five times more often than White children. It’s a national trend that needs to be addressed.”
I’ve seen first hand this kind of prejudice in the education system, which is one of the reasons why I’m so passionate about education. No child should be treated like they are inferior to another. Not only does this affect their education, but also their entire lives into adulthood.
