strugglingtobeheard:

lovewashername:

nor is there discussion about how this is a growing happening in other countries like Canada, where I’m at.

The only stats you find are about white girls and white women. Only research you find has very little to do with black women and girls interaction with the criminal justice system, legislation and penalties. The connections and intersections to be made and spoken of are missing like i don’t even know what.

i hope to do more research on this focusing on Black women because we are the top growing group of people being incarcerated at an increasing rate. and as someone who has experienced this shitty system, it is very personal for me.

Resistance Behind Bars by Victoria Law is on my summer reading list, and I’m reading Assata currently.

bluestalkingstitches:

cosmicyoruba:

sensationnalisme:

battle-studies:

m0roccan:

mayflowrs:

*All skin colors are beautiful

^THANK YOU

A Black woman made that post empowering herself and other Black people who are deemed inferior by Euro-centric beauty ideals. Correcting her post is derailing and inappropriate.

lol, I don’t understand these ppl sometimes.

#cant have anything

OP CORRECT. All skin colors ARE beautiful, but pale skin wasn’t, for five seconds, the topic of conversation. IT’S PRETTY OKAY TO MAKE DARK SKIN THE TOPIC OF POSITIVE CONVERSATION FOR FIVE FUCKING SECONDS WITHOUT BEING TOLD TO ADD WHITE PEOPLE (or any non-white light skin tone, for that matter).

Uggggh light-skinned WOC, why must we do this! I’ll say it again—just like sometimes things aren’t all about white people (srsly, it happens), sometimes conversations about people of color are not about the lighter-skinned folks among us.

If we wanna talk about empowerment & liberation—that shit isn’t gonna get too far in a bubble. How are you gonna get there if you’re ditching your folks? How are we gonna do POC liberation but expect that light folks get to still be at the forefront? Or take offense if we aren’t mentioned for a minute?

When I go HAM for black women, I know it’s largely because I can. Because I am lighter I might get taken more seriously when I speak up. I have an academic background that means I can make my arguments as strong as they need to be and back them up. Same for the amount of cultural capital I’ve got that I can bring into what I do.

Do we really think that if we split ourselves apart from dark skinned POC enough, that we’ll become honorarily white? Hell no. So cut that shit and stick together and let’s do liberation all together.

What I love about working with teenagers is being able to see them grow over time, or even just over the course of a conversation. My kids’ willingness to just blurt things out means I’m hearing their thoughts—and sometimes I really don’t need to (“Miss Camille, I gotta go take a huge doo-doo”, Great, thanks for sharing), but often that means I’m getting insight on how they’re figuring things out.

So my zine class this session is mostly this crew of younger girls of color who are some of the most bad-ass women I have met in my life under any circumstances, like they know I am their biggest cheerleader and intentionally get them riled up about sexism and racism so we can yell and call people on their bullshit and hopefully make something creative out of our yelling. Then there’s two boys who I’ve worked with really closely since last year who have a tendency to yell about everything whether or not they really have a sense of what they’re talking about.

I showed them the video Walking Home about street harassment, because most of the girls are writing about judgment of teenage girls, body image, weight, sexual harassment, etc. They all started arguing, first along the lines of “Guys always do blah blah blah,” “Girls always do blah blah blah” that was too general to be productive and was just getting everyone mad at each other. So I made a rule that we had to talk from experience (their teachers stress being able to use text evidence in essays and responses, so that was how I framed it but where their lives were the text) and we started getting more productive.

The girls all started sharing stories about street harassment, but the boys stayed defensive so I asked them to talk about why the conversation bothered them. At first they were saying they didn’t want to talk about sexual harassment, but then it turned out that they really didn’t want to be associated with dudes who harass women and that they were responding to being lumped in with sleazy dudes. So I asked them what they do to not be jerks like that, and they were really adamant about thinking it’s fucked up how a lot of guys treat girls.

THIS IS THE SUPER RAD PART: One of them shared a story about one of those exercises where everyone steps forward if some question is true (like an ice-breaker exercise), that he remembered from several years ago, where every single girl stepped forward for a question about having been harassed by strangers in public, and he told us all how much that stuck with him and made him realize how seriously all the women around him have to deal with harassment. He then announced, “One of the things that I hate the most is domestic violence,” and started talking about his community intervening in a domestic violence situation. So I brought the conversation back to make sure everyone caught that connection, one that many adults fail to make, that street harassment and domestic violence are related and that there is a whole spectrum of ways women, and especially women of color, have to fight for ownership of their own bodies. I asked them about what they can do as dudes to support the girls and women around them, and they talked about calling out other guys for harassing girls and being willing to fight (physically and non-physically) if need be to get guys to cut out sexist behavior. Those boys might now be teaming up to make a comic about that realization of how the girls around them are treated by men.

It was awesome to see them move from defensiveness to anger to creativity over the course of about 10 minutes. We all got heated, like kids were shouting at each other and getting mad at me too. And I loved it. Cause it isn’t often that class is a space you can bring in your own life as your text, or feel compelled to start yelling about the subject, or can express that much emotion, so I felt like maybe I’m starting to do this all right. Mostly I was excited to see how much they were willing to share with each other, both their experiences and their emotion and energy and ideas. Instead of being competitive with what they’re working on, we’re making plans to collaborate or let their zines converse with one another. They’re making plans already to distribute their zines around the school, or make posters to put up, and most of them haven’t even written much yet. They were already going, “We need a campaign against sexism!”, “Let’s protest harassment!” so we’re going to start with what they’re writing and finding ways to spread those ideas they’re heated about around the school.

So I don’t even have words for how cool they all are. Like, nothing I could say is gonna cut it.

After school I worked with some freshmen to start putting on paper the things they don’t like about the school, like structural things that the administration and teachers could change. Things like certain actions of teachers that make students feel disrespected and untrusted. They yelled and I took notes, and we told the principal that we will be handing her a manifesto sometime soon (can I coin the word “FRESHMANIFESTO”?), and they even threatened a flash mob in her office. Among many brilliant things they brought up, I had never before thought about the relationship between body image of girls of color and school dress codes. Like I’d had conversations with girls of color before where they’ve said that girls who are more curvy (and almost always black and/or latina) are more likely to get in trouble for dress code violations or perceived violations. But today they pointed out how sometimes wearing something like leggings is a celebration of finally feeling okay with your body and your black-girl-curvy-fullness, and it feels fucked up to then get disciplined for breaking the dress code but seeing skinny flat white girls not getting in trouble for wearing the same thing.

In conclusion, they are the shit. And this is me saying that after two 10-hour days in a row.

strugglingtobeheard:

lemuffinmistress:

gobbette:

Can people stop making fun of Girls HBO for being all-white and just state that they’re uncomfortable with a female-dominant show already

Wait what?

Most of the (completely legitimate!, I might add) criticism I’ve heard of Girls being all-white has come from women of color- women of color who want POC to actually be represented AT ALL on this show.

So I’m a little confused.

Do you think that having WOC on the show would take away from the female-dominant nature of the show?

It seems like you’re conflating “white women” with “normal women”. By implying that a female dominant show would no longer be female dominant if it included people of color, you’re saying that your definition of female does not include people of color.

Which is exactly the problem.

uhhh… i know nothing about this show except that only women of color have been making a complaint. but yet again, Black women ain’t women huh? so they are just uncomfortable with the universal stand in for all women, white women, cause they aren’t really women. yea. i see you.

I have a brain teaser for you:

My blog was originally intended to be a sidekick for my zine Readin & Fightin, and the zine was originally intended to focus on books by women of color. Both have kinda spun into larger projects but I am still documenting the books I read as I have for the past 4ish years, and finally updated my reading list for the first time since the last issue of the zine.

Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” (via so-treu)

And this anger is so scary—and seen as so unproductive, it seems—that we’re accused of it even when we aren’t angry, or when we’re being polite or quiet or calm. We are always assumed to be ready to explode into something dangerous. As though we don’t know what to do with ourselves, how to carry out our actions, like we’re just lashing out all over the place.

Know what makes me really mad? White supremacy. Know what’s actually really scary? People who aren’t mad about white supremacy. People who will just let that shit exist, just so long as they don’t have to confront it.

What I’m scared of isn’t the anger of people around me, but of reaching a point of hopelessness where I wouldn’t be angry. That’s far more scary than being passionate about fixing the bits of things around me I can try to fix.

(via poemsofthedead-deactivated20120)

trynottorant:

Adopt a young WOC and focus your energy on her instead of battling these white feminists. Share the knowledge. I wrote this post to get ya’ll thinking. Now start doing something. 

Pick a young WOC on Tumblr and talk to her. Educate her. 

I see so many WOC upset at white feminists. And they should be. 

But stop for a second and think about what we could channel all that energy towards. I see WOC just angry. Anger has it’s limits. I believe that Anger is limiting but that’s another post for another time.

Let’s talk t each other and have real conversations. If there’s a young WOC you see posting stuff who has a head on her shoulders reach out to her. Hell reach out to any of them. Get in their ask boxes and talk to them. 

Let’s fight the internalized oppression. Let’s grow together. 

I’m updating my women of color reading list as we speak, and trying to put together more resources like that to spread around. I definitely don’t like to spend much of my energy trying to be listened to by white people who refuse to be allies, because I would so much rather put my energy into creating what we need. This also goes into why I get so energized working with youth of color.

EDIT: I’m rethinking this. I like the idea of focusing on other women of color; I’m all about turning anger in productive directions. But what I’m rethinking is the way this post assumes you can’t do both, as other people are pointing out, or that anger is a problem. I feel that women of color have endless reasons to be angry daily, and we aren’t doing ourselves a favor by denying it in ourselves or each other. Especially from working with teenagers, who are very often angry, I feel really strongly about helping each other put our anger in places that are good for us, places that we can create from it or just keep ourselves and each other okay. When I reposted this, I was focused on the things I like about nurturing other women of color, and I do still like that idea of community building; but I was paying less attention to the part that borders on disregarding our anger.

(via eclecticspectrum)

karnythia:

blackamazon:

karnythia:

blackamazon:

karnythia:

blackamazon:

it’s not like tumblr recently exploded in a firestorm because it took half of black female tumblr, most of POC/white folk with sense tumblr, and a few random folks with decency

doing their best impression of the Uru-khai 

to get people to back off from victim shaming and using a young black woman’s VIOLENT ASSAULT and subsequent responses to OTEHR ASSAULT 

as a flag for civility

because in defending her self WITHOUT RESOURCES she became a ” bad victim”?

and sure as hell , the attackers weren’t just as prone to post up half nekkid titty as they were to ASSUME there was a way that black women HAD to respond because they had ingrained sociological assumptions about what resources ( even just interpersonal , academic, and cultural ) to respond.

And it’s not like those assumptions factor into why that baby and that baby and this child and ME IN MY OWN SKIN and the woman from the rez , the undocumented

ARE SELECTED AS VICTIMS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

No relation what so ever

I have so much side eye for any discourse around rape culture that doesn’t address race, child victims, or who is most likely to have support in the aftermath. I might need to really interrogate my degree plan &  what classes I need to take so no one doubts my credentials to say shit I already know.

Rape is about power right? SO why come they always forget to look at the powerless?

I got an answer that no one’s going to like, namely that they okay with us being victims as long as we’re a buffer for them against the violence. It’s freedom they’re after, but not particularly ours.

So you have freakish mind reading powers or you stole onto my computer to see the damn near five  pay brain dump i have on the ” buffer: effect

I keep looking at who gets support & when, and who gets attacked for fighting back & who does that attacking & I just…they need to figure out a way to save themselves that doesn’t hinge on us. We’re not here for that & we’re not going to be here for that no matter what they want to claim is a sign of solidarity.

Well y’all are just here writing the story of my life.

daniellemertina:

stfuconservatives:

sooolondon: Apologies if my lists of corporations advertising on Rush Limbaugh are incorrect…

honestandunapologetic:

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

daniellemertina:

stfuconservatives:

He is literally losing sponsors faster than I can blog.

-Joe

While this is really great (that people are finally deciding to take action against this guy) it is insulting that widespread disgust has only occured now. He has said plenty of insulting things about black people and specifically black women.

The link I inserted has 46 examples of his racism.

But I guess insinuating that a self-respecting white woman should make porn was just crossing the final line. lol

^REAL TALK! 

^^^IMPORTANT!!!^^^  I need to see stfuconservatives reblog that commentary!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah you’re right, there is most definitely a depressing “it’s not a big deal till it happens to a pretty white girl” aspect to all this outrage. Rush has been a fucking slimeball for 30-some years and I’m a little surprised that this was the cut too deep. 

That considered, do you think it’s appropriate or inappropriate to ride this wave if it might ultimately lead to his failure or at the very least an embarassment?

-Joe

Concerning that last paragraph, it is plenty appropriate to bring up the legitimate fact that problems only exist if they happen to white people.

This fact may not seem like a problem to white people. But it IS a problem to me and many other POC who know that our issues and concerns will never matter unless they spread to the white populous (see OWS, POC communities have BEEN broke).

I mean white folks will ride the wave. I can see that. But I want them to know the hypocrisy inherent in everybody’s decision to get up in arms now and not all of the millions times before when he said just as insulting things. Just to different demographics that aren’t held up as highly as educated, middle-class white women.

“do you think it’s appropriate or inappropriate to ride this wave if it might ultimately lead to his failure or at the very least an embarassment?”

Ride the wave for whom? And who controls it? It’s rare (if ever) that I’ve seen white feminists “ride the wave” if it’s specifically for the good of women of color. But women of color are expected to get behind white feminists on whatever campaign, when it doesn’t result in us being any more respected by either those white feminists or society in general. Once Rush Limbaugh is off the air, will NOW campaign to have him replaced with a show that features women of color issues? Will they now go after all the media that vilifies women of color constantly, specifically around reproductive justice? Will they be making big moves on doing prenatal care in communities of color?

Or is this just another one of those cases where we need to get behind them and wait our turn? I can’t think of a single woman of color who’s itching for another round of SlutWalk.

leonineantiheroine:

excentricyoruba:

leonineantiheroine:

femmenoire:

leonineantiheroine:

liquornspice:

poemsofthedead:

pssincerelyadventure:

See here…..

My mostly white women and gender studies class, after reading the Combahee River Collective, wanted to know if they could be Black Feminists because they cared about all those issues and wanted to end oppression and liberate women etc..

I said no. I stand by no. Mainly because, I believe it was Patricia Hill Collins, had a valid point. Black Feminism is grounded in the experience of being black. It’s why the movement varies from other feminism movements in that black feminists wish to work alongside our black brothers BECAUSE it is all the same fight.

Then people had a problem with the fact that black feminism exists at all because why racialize the movement, it tears people apart…

No, the first couple of waves tore people apart by not addressing our issues as women of color and being so limited in class aspects as well.

Also why I don’t ID as a womanist even though I am very fond of Alice Walker and completely believe in her vision (not that I don’t have other critiques of her also) of what womanism means/is. I just feel like it is something that is specific to Black experience. As much as I agree with it, honor it, love it, I don’t feel comfortable using it to describe my experience as a non-Black but First Nations & Muslim person.

(And before anyone asks, no, I do NOT ID as a feminist either. Ever. For reasons.)

Idk, I feel like, as a box of tools/theories one can use…I don’t see why anyone couldn’t id as Black Feminist? I think you can center Black Feminist analysis without being Black.

I feel a little differently about the term Womanism, but idk why.

I have not at all read enough Black Feminist writings to really say tho. I’m anxious to see what folks who’ve read/studied Black Feminisms think?

Only Black women can ID as Black feminists because Black feminism was created by and for Black women as a necessary movement/action/way of thinking because feminism often shit on Black women; same with womanism.  

Identification is different from supporting or utilising the tools built by Black feminists or by anyone who is oppressed within a social movement. And to utilise the tools, one who doesn’t belong to that group—has to be careful that one isn’t using those tools for one’s own purposes which may further marginalise the oppressed group.

The ID is different from quoting or centering Black women when it comes to gender/race issues. Identification is overrated shit a lot of time. 

This is actually historically dependent. 

In the U.S. Black feminist actually just meant “non white” throughout the 1970s. It’s not until the 1980s when those early woc start articulating their definitions of feminism (as positioned next to White women) that became more specific to their races. 

Also, in England in the 1970s-1980s Black feminism meant West Indian, African and Asian women.

So, I actually could understand or relate to non-Black women of color identifying as Black feminists. 

But there was a push from some Asian folks in the UK for example to stop identifying as Black from the ’90s. I think you’re right as in early woc whatever, but I don’t really follow feminist history in that way. I think that form of feminist historiography is driven by whiteness. Like what about Sojourner Truth? I mean I know engagement with Truth for example is retroactively defined. I just think there is a theory and practice of oh non-Black WOC have defined themselves as Black, but that anti-Blackness is really intense from everyone who is non-Black so like I get my hackles up when non-Black people want to define themselves as Black even in relation to feminism.  

eta: but of course if anyone who is a non-Black WOC and who has contributed to Black feminism as historically defined and not shat on Black women then that is Black feminism…but what about now? 

This is really interesting because only recently I started trying to be part of Black feminist groups in London. And in the meetings, in the workshops on Black feminism, there were always be Asian women who identified as Black feminists. I found this fascinating because I’d never heard of such previously.

cool. obviously I’m a little bit mean: ‘BLACK FEMINISMS FOR BLACK WOMEN!’, lol. Oh yeah and I’m not down with it over where I am; I don’t even believe in interracial coalition work at the moment—although I can support what other WOC/POC groups do.

How do you all see Black feminism? xx