A time

khajiduh asked: A friend told me recently that she liked Jews less now that she knew so many, and it made her angry that her Jewish friends could talk about their culture but she couldn't. I just sort of looked at her and said, "well I'm sorry you feel that way." What else can you say to that kind of crap?

WHAT

OMG??!?? I am so sorry.

It always seems strange to me that the people who are most upset about other people talking about their culture, are the people insecure about their own?

I had a friend I had to explain this same issue (about not being dismissive of other people’s cultures if you don’t belong to them) and then she went ” Yeah, I don’t have a culture :’C”.

Like, I wish I could have told her: “Yo, this isn’t a special clubhouse we are willingly excluding you from. We are just asking for respect, why so resentful?? Like you may even have a culture, everyone does, and you’re just not aware of it?”

Also your friend may want to visit: Yo Is this Racist?

meggannn:

rebloggable by request!

nicholasnewsom:

Visualising the Occupation: The Apartheid Between Israeli and Palestinian children in the eyes of the law

from report Palestinian detainees: no security in injustice

(Source: samoudon, via gatheringbones)

thegoddamazon:

“Do I have a stamp on my forehead that says, ”The National Spokesperson for the Plight of Black People”? How the hell should I know the black perspective on The Color Purple? That’s it, if I don’t change classes, I’m gonna hurt this fool. Teachers treat me like I’m some kind of Rosetta stone for African-Americans. What? Black people learn how to read, and we all miraculously come to the same conclusion?”

Story of my fucking life.

(Source: princepocahontas, via beckyh2112)

Listen

stonedmisandrist:

sociosatirical:

Okay, so I’ve left my anti-radscum kick and gone onto kick about how much I thoroughly dislike anti-sj bloggers. Here’s my deal with them. (If anybody knows of someone writing a better article than this, send it my way because this is just a rant putting together my thoughts.)

Prefacing all of this by saying I’m white. Any bullshit showing through on that, please feel free to let me know.

I don’t engage anti-SJ bloggers very much because, frankly, they do some of the most incredible mental.gymnastics I’ve seen out of serious, serious self-righteousness, and I’m not equipped to deal with it yet. Cue all the anti-essjay crying that the SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS are the self righteous ones! We’re just responding!!!!!!!11 but no, I’m sorry, you don’t get to be self-righteous about somebody else’s pain.

Because essentially what these blogs boil down to is power tripping and tone policing. They typically tend to be run by the party in power, complaining about the actions of the groups they oppress. Cismen complain about misandry, white people about reverse racism. They yell that nobody should be ~impolite~ when fighting against racism or even worse. They paint “social justice warriors” as too sensitive, maniacal, illogical, crazy, absolutely anything they can to detract from the statement that the marginalized group is trying to make.

Problem is, they’re missing some of the biggest points when it comes to oppression. Namely, the party in power not only oppresses marginalized groups, but it very often attempts to control how said groups should feel about their own oppression.

Let’s think about that.

Anti-SJ bloggers are part of a system that essentially ignores what an entire group tries to tell them about their own life experiences. They substitute their own reality, how they feel the world works based on their own life experiences, and refuse to listen to anyone who attempts to tell them that not everyone lives that way.

“This is what I’ve experienced in my life.”

“No, it isn’t, you’re wrong.”

White people, for instance, largely do not believe that POC are telling the truth or adequately interpreting their own life experiences. Essentially, they are saying that People of Color are either largely liars or too stupid to know what’s going on in their own lives.

Which, of course, makes them feel entitled to tell POC how they should feel about their life experiences, and how they should react.

Bullshit. I’m a woman, and if any man ever tried to tell me how I should feel about misogyny, I would be pissed because he has no idea what it’s like to go through every day judged by the value of your sexuality to men, to be held against all other women, to be treated as though men own your sexuality. And if a straight person tried to tell me to calm down about the fight for marriage equality, I can guarantee I am going to immediately lose some respect for them.

Again, I’m white. I have no idea what it’s like to grow up as a POC in this society. That’s why I try and shut the fuck up and listen to POC about their life experiences and take their fucking word for it because they are people worthy of that level of respect. And you know that doesn’t even make me an exceptional person. That doesn’t make me special. It’s just me trying to learn how to be less douche-y. So why do people act like it’s absolutely impossible to shut the fuck up about shit we know nothing about?

So when I see anti-SJ blogs going on about how you “shouldn’t fight fire with fire”, it blows my mind. On top of making fun of very valid points brought up by bloggers fighting for equality, they feel the need to control how people feel about something they’ve never experienced themselves. I have no idea what it’s like to be Native American, that is not something I’ve ever experienced, so why the fuck would I find myself to be an expert on how Natives should feel about hipsters wearing head dresses? When my partner gets pissed about someone on her dash wearing a head dress, I’m not going to pat her on the shoulder and say, “dear it’s just a fashion statement, let it go.”

Because essentially racism stems from thoughts of white supremacy, misogyny from male superiority, etc., and if you think your opinion is more valid than the opinion of the person who has actually lived those experiences, you are subscribing to those ideas and contributing very, very directly to systematic oppression.

And the fact that these anti-SJ bloggers create entire blogs for this just takes it to a whole new level. One anti-SJ blogger told me they don’t “devote their whole life to this”, only maybe twenty minutes a day, but that’s still twenty minutes more a day than anyone should. If you spend any time running an anti-SJ blog, you need to look at yourself and your motivations. If you are actively trying to control how someone responds to their own oppression, you are contributing to the system that oppresses them. You are not special. You are not unique. You are not some brilliant special snowflake who has all the answers and owe it to the world to prove these social justice warriors wrong. You are just doing the same shit that oppressors have been doing for generations: trying to control whole groups of people and take away their own agency. Because that’s what racism, sexism, cissexism, homophobia, etc., is all about. Control. Keeping people their place. Telling them how they should feel about their place below you. Period. End of story.

Read up, assholes.

If it was confusing for anyone at one point.
This is the post.
Basically 

(Source: lesbiansofficial, via darkpuck)

remember-us-remember-perfection:

g0ggles:

I think this is the most concise summary of privilege I’ve seen yet

or any other privlege

It’s hard to be called out on shit you did wrong! Most people become hideously defensive and would rather dismiss it. But acknowledging it is the first step.

(via darkpuck)

willynillylily:

youngbadmanbrown:

this is forreal how I feel most white people think

tw: racism (anti-ziganism, extreme dehumanization)

this is not a caricature

when i visited Romania this summer, i had to take a class/have a discussion with white Romanians about the Roma people.  

these people, when asked how they felt about the Roma who were forced out of homes they owned and into a nearby ghetto so that a catholic church could be built after the homes were bulldozed, they said the Roma deserved it.  that they’re leeches who don’t do any work, that their homes weren’t theirs, that they’re disgusting and deserve to be rounded off.    

and the kicker:  when they visited the ghettos, they said they felt sorry that the dogs lived in such poor conditions.  they. felt. sorry. for. the. dogs. 

these are what college educated, mid-wing-to-liberal thinking, middle class white Romanians think of the Roma.  

i stormed out of the room, told them i wasn’t going to waste my time with their intellectual debate about the humanity of Roma people, and cried my eyes out in a nearby Church.  

BRITTA’S YOU DONE GOOFED FACE.
my face when I’m sad to say this is true. In nearly every encounter of people with privilege able to relate to the pain of animals moreso than the tangible suffering of human beings?
Always strikes me as strange and sad moreso than funny.

And this is terrible because I am that person. I felt it when I went to the Philippines for a family reunion and could more easily compartmentalize children starving to death in the streets than how they killed chickens a certain way.

(Source: , via killybillylily-deactivated20121)

hardhatpartycat:

nomoretexasgovernorsforpresident:

“Gangnam Style”‘s many celebrity admirers, from T-Pain to Josh Groban to Katy Perry and Nelly Furtado (who recently performed an English-language cover of “Gangnam Style” in concert, complete with invisible-horse dance), have certainly keyed in on the “novel” and “unexpected” aspects of the work, but in doing so, have intensified the subtext of exoticism and inscrutability that frequently accompanies the viral spread of Asian-related content.

That’s made some Korean Americans concerned about viewers who don’t get the gag and don’t appreciate the music, and simply tune in to see crazy Asians doing crazy Asian stuff. “I have some mixed feelings about the  video,” says Jae-Ha Kim. “It does present PSY as a figure to laugh at, and the casual viewer wouldn’t necessarily get that he was a real musician as well as an entertainer.”

Unaware of PSY’s background as an accomplished songwriter who speaks English fluently and attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in the U.S., some blogs and commenters have even unflatteringly compared PSY to the likes of William Hung, the “American Idol” contestant whose painfully bad rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” made him an ironic icon.

koreamjournal:

‘Gangnam Style’ Viral Popularity in the U.S. has Koreans Puzzled, Gratified
Wall Street Journal

Once upon a time, if you’d asked a Korean which of their uncountable legions of musical luminaries was most likely to crack the blast-hardened firewall of the American market, they’d have offered up curvaceous crooners like Lee Hyori or BoA, floppy-haired dreamboats like Rain or Kim Hyun Joong, or mega-girl groups and boy bands like Girls Generation and Super Junior.

smh

this is why sometimes i get nervous. racism ruins everything

(via brucethegirl)

huffingtonpost:

“That picture was taken during the Sikh day parade. He was one of the first people I photographed. He’s a computer IT specialist. He travels a lot. Sikhs at the time were being randomly selected for security. I wish people would just say “you have that thing on your hand and we aren’t sure what it is” instead telling someone they are randomly selected. One time he wore the shirt through security and the guard chuckled. It’s a way of loading off steam at the reality that people have to face.

When the tragedy first happened, my heart sunk. A time frame is a time frame. The pictures have been out there. I wasn’t thinking that people need to see this. When I was speaking to the Sikh Coalition, I was thinking this is the perfect time for people to see them because they wouldn’t just see the suffering but see the positive things. I had this vision of how I wanted these pictures to look. I’m not creating a false environment; I want to portray the positive images not in crisis and in mourning. Those types of pictures are important. But I want people to understand the vibrancy of this community.”

Photographing Sikhs With Fiona Aboud

(via fuckyeahethnicmen)