BETTER YOUR BRAIN

An attendee at the Republican National Convention was allegedly thrown out of the convention center in Tampa on Tuesday after throwing nuts at a black CNN camerawoman and saying, "this is how we feed the animals."

shortformblog:

joshsternberg:

WTF?

The incident would be ugly anywhere, but it is especially troubling for a party whose nominee attracted 0 percent of the black vote in a recent NBC poll.

In case you didn’t hear about this, this is perhaps the lowest point of the entire 2012 campaign.

theuppitynegras:

We can see who the feminist movement really helps.

(via modernemancipation)

STFU, Conservatives: Republicans think I'm a slave?

raybancharles:

Everyone needs to pay special attention to this. The Georgia Association of College Republicans is sponsoring the premiere of a movie entitled “Runaway Slave”. The event page says, “The movie attempts to examine the reason why the black community aligns itself so closely with…

YO UGA/GT/Emory folks: this is bullshit. take a stand, make a scene.

(via stfuconservatives)

Misandric heterophobic race traitor.: Ten Lies You are Told Every Single Day

racismschool:

1. If you don’t physically hold someone down, you can’t be an oppressor.
2. Racism is physically hating and acting on that hate based on a person’s race.
3. White Privilege means you are rich and/or have an easy life.
4. Pointing out racism is a racist act.
5. Not knowing better is a…

(via stfuconfederates-deactivated201)

codelens:

Dr. Frances Cress-Welsing, author of The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Color and founder of the Cress-Welsing Institute of Psychiatry and Social Research

(via ethiopienne)

paradiscacorbasi:

Ok.

Fine.

We hear you.

That’s nice. 

You said it.

Now put your money where your mouth is.

Prove it or stop saying it.

Fight racism and privilege and white supremacy wherever you encounter them, or just stop saying it.

Because you have no business talking the talk if you are not gonna walk the walk.

So next time anyone says “not all white people are like that”? I wanna hear what they do to fight racism and white supremacy along with it or I don’t wanna hear it at all.

(via stfuconfederates-deactivated201)

the dopest ethiopienne: “What’s Genocide?” by Carlos Andres Romez

swarajist:

their high school principal
told me I couldn’t teach
poetry with profanity
so I asked my students,
“Raise your hand if you’ve heard of the Holocaust.”
in unison, their arms rose up like poisonous gas
then straightened out like an SS infantry
“Okay. Please put your hands…

Moniquilliloquies.: About Cop Watch

theoccasionalitalic:

sprezzaturalife:

betteryourbrain:

 You don’t want the title of “oppressive dicks”? Cool. No one does. You seem confused on how whiteness and racism work. We, as white people, have opportunities to fight the oppressive effects whiteness has on POC everyday, and very few of us take them ever and an even smaller number of us take them often. When you make a concentrated effort to stop perpetuating the patterns of oppression that are built into society, maybe it won’t apply to you on the days when you succeed. That’s how whiteness works- if you aren’t fighting its effects, you’re part of the problem. When you’re fighting it, you still might be part of the problem. It’s a learning experience. Racism DOESN’T work both ways- that’s the point. You are not subjected to systematic oppression and you probably never will be. You haven’t been generalized negatively for your entire life for factors you can’t control, POC have. Step back.

Hey, Amanda - I know it’s been a while, but just wanted to say I do see your point. I was talking to some friends just last week about how their dads were pulled over countless times simply for how they looked to police, and I realized (with a sort of bittersweet gratitude) that I never had to grow up with that.

But my point (I might’ve gotten carried away) was that I’m not gonna be ashamed or feel guilty for being white any more than anyone of ANY race should feel guilty about being a part of theirs. White people are not the collective enemy - it’s this group of bigoted dicks (of which most -if not all - are, to be fair, white). And, as such, it shouldn’t fall to any one group of people to have full responsibility to rescue those being oppressed by this skewed justice system. The idea that white people need to come in and “save” the PoC’s of the world is incredibly troubling to me; HUMANITY needs to stand up for this people. Together.

I know I’m a heterosexual, white American male, and I realize that (by no fault of my own) I’ve grown up, more or less, exempt from any sort of negative profiling. And I’m doing something about it - or at the very least, I’m willing to do much more. But this kind of responsibility shouldn’t fall on me because of any of the ‘groups’ I happen to fall in above. It falls on me because I’m human. Equal rights means equal rights - people need to stop bitching about things like this and do something together.

Honestly, I’m still just baffled that this is even an issue in the 21st century.

I don’t think that anyone should be ashamed or guilty of their race, but I’d like to point out that this debate is going in a direction POC/people in racial conversations greatly complain about: it’s becoming about white people. White people going “oh, I’m not racist! Why are you saying that!” attitude (not a dig at Kennan, just in general) takes the focus off of actual POC feelings and concerns and turns into a big ole’ comfort-the-white-person debacle which really has absolutely no place in racial discussions. I feel this is analogous to when feminist discussions turn into “what about men’s feelings? how have men been oppressed? men are feminists too!” While those things can be valid and true, overshadowing a conversation that is supposed to be about women by putting  men’s opinions first doesn’t help anyone. at all. 

As for white people not being the collective enemy—we kind of are. Not in an every white person is evil and racist and bad sense. Yes, blatant bigots are a very visible part of the problem but so is the silent majority of white people who don’t speak out and through their silence, condone the actions of those bigots. To draw another feminist parallel about rape jokes:

But, here’s the thing. It’s very likely that in some of these interactions with these guys, at some point or another someone told a rape joke. You, decent guy that you are, understood that they didn’t mean it, and it was just a joke. And so you laughed. And, decent guy who would never condone rape, who would step in and stop rape if he saw it, who understands that rape is awful and wrong and bad, when you laughed? That rapist who was in the group with, that rapist thought that you were on his side. That rapist knew that you were a rapist like him. And he felt validated, and he felt he was among his comrades.

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2011/02/penny-arcade-open-thread.html#comment-141696567

Whether we like it or not as the powerful majority race-wise in America, it is our responsibility to be aware of this shit. NOT IN ANY WAY in a white-savior complex way. We aren’t the holy people chosen to rescue all minorities. But the fact is as white people, when we complain or get enraged or whatever it actually is responded to. Suddenly congressmen are introducing bills to ease our pain, etc. Minorities don’t have the luxury of being catered to, and as the majority we can at least extend the help we can: drawing attention to fucked up racism that has imbued every aspect of American culture. 

Keenan, I see what you’re trying to do but I’m with pretty much what Caitlin said- it isn’t anyone’s job to “save” the POC. That’s a big fat dose of white savior complex that won’t help anything. It is, however, our responsibility to help how we can which is often to draw attention to issues that the media doesn’t cover or doesn’t want to cover because the white guy who looks a little too much like their bosses is the bad guy. 

As white people it isn’t up to us to shape or guide the conversation about race; we should be very much at the back of it because we are rewarded for our whiteness.I’m not baffled that racism is still thriving in 2012- we set up society for it to thrive because we continue to reap the benefits of racism. So, the responsibility should be on you because of the groups you fall into: by upholding whiteness and placing your feelings over the concerns of POC, you perpetuate the problem. You (and I don’t mean just you by any means) have to pretty much relearn how to talk about and think about race because society has always told us our opinions matter and should be listened to and acted on-that simply isn’t the case here.

I spent a while today sitting on my car talking with Rhett and we hit a topic that has been churning in the back of my mind for a while now. While I understand that checking your privilege is crucial to perspective and understanding the limitations you have within the debate when it comes to racism, feminism, classism, etc., how feasible is it to carry the concept over to the non-internet/older/etc. portion of the debate? Problematically, it’s one of those things that serves a limited, privileged audience (the same audience it seeks to educate) and could become very frustrating given the expansion of the conversation about privilege that we’re seeing lately. 

"You girls objectify men all the time!"

ethiopienne:

sapphrikah:

Not only is it indefatigably annoying when people try to counter argue about the -isms by saying that it happens to the majority as well, but it makes no sense.

Sexism does not target cismen.
Racism does not happen to white people.

I really cannot stand when people say that womyn objectify men too. Even in the instances that we do, understand that this is not sexism. Sexism is a machine, an entire force that perpetually oppresses womyn and people society perceive to be womyn day-in and day-out. Sexism is not simply one instance of someone staring at a pair of boobs. That is merely a cog in the entire system of oppression. No matter how many times someone claims to only want a man for his body, and how dehumanizing that instance it, it is not an -ism, it is not part of a large-scale oppression that invades and warps the minds of society to view men a certain way, to limit men a certain way. It is much, much different when there is a whole institution of ways in which we are kept under the oppressive thumb.

Racism = prejudice + power. No matter how many things you apparently hear black people say about white people, we are not “racist” towards white people. We can not be. We are marginalized and oppressed to this day, therefore not in power to being racist. No matter how many bad things I say against white people, they will still have an extremely large upper hand. They will still have a bounty of white privileges. And I will still be severely oppressed.

Do not. Come to me. With that shit.

Did you say “indefatigably” though? Word? *surrenders heart*

Hello, my name is Amanda;

I am middle class and white and an object of domineering American institutionalism.