Reblogged from jewahl
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where am i?
(Source: jewahl, via autohistoriamestiza)
In undergrad, I made myself a first person source for my life below the US border. I was told I was plagiarizing. PLAGIARIZING WHAT? So they’re like, “Okay no, you’re not plagiarizing but you’re not qualified to be a first source.” I asked why and they didn’t say anything…
Hey everyone, remember the nightmare that was SOPA and PIPA? IT’S NOT OVER!
Reports say that lawmakers will vote on the bill as early as Wednesday, April 25th or Thursday, April 26th. It isn’t looking very good. It is of utmost importance that you contact your local representatives to tell them that you do not agree with this bill and they shouldn’t either. Make your voice heard. Don’t let this happen.Want to learn more about CISPA? Check out the EFF’s Cybersecurity Bill FAQ.
Don’t know who your representatives are? Just use this.
It takes maybe five minutes of your time to do this — make the effort. It will certainly be worth it.
GUYS. WE REALLY SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS. LET’S GET ON THIS SHIT.
ugh
(via so-treu)
Melissa Harris-Perry describes herself as “cis” (via “MSNBC Talks To And About Trans People For An Hour, Doesn’t F*ck It Up” on autostraddle)
(Source: erosum, via mr-charming)
I tried to watch HBO’s much lauded Girls.
I received absolutely nothing for my trouble, except 30 minutes with full on screw face. Kendra and Jenna Worthham have already handled the diversity questions that arise with the pilot, but I have to admit that I really don’t care about diversity on this show. If they didn’t get the message by now, it’s not going to happen. And on the real, is this what we really want? Diversifying that show is the pop culture version of integrating into a burning house.3
My personal rule (being an urbanite) is that if someone can’t diversify their social circle in areas like Brooklyn or DC, they are not people I want to know. So whatever, the show isn’t for me. A lot of them aren’t – I don’t watch Two and a Half Men, nor do I watch Rules of Engagement and that’s just fine. I’m not the core audience, and that was made abundantly clear.1
After I turned off Girls, I tried to make sense of why I was so deeply pissed off. And for me, what stood out the most wasn’t anything to do with the the monochrome cast. Nor was it the wink-wink nudge-nudge entitlement of the privileged class, though that’s fully there as well. (Pro Tip: Being aware of racism, classism, or ignorance is not the same as actually doing something about it.)16
But more than anything, I was annoyed because the usual accolades, denials, misrepresentations that follow after a show like this airs. There’s the usual conversation from gender focused outlets that these shows are for ALL women and we all need to go support or else we won’t ever get another shiny new toy. Then comes the idea that even though this show is totally for ALL women, that we shouldn’t be attacking them for things like a total lack of diversity because it’s not fair to expect one show to be all things to all people. Then we start hearing the usual idiotic arguments about television being a meritocracy where if you create good programming you will automatically be served with a deal, or that it’s so unfair that this one show is getting so much negative attention when whatever new show of the year is one of dozens that fits the same basic theme of exclusion.
I’m sure quite a few of you read the two-fer about Girls on the R today. If you haven’t—and I deeply apologize for not getting this up sooner due to my prepping at my job to take the next few days off—then read Latoya’s post on why defending Girls white fantasy of NYC and life fails at, well, life. (via racialicious)
!!!LAST CALL IN DAY BEFORE TRIAL: CALL IT IN FOR CECE!!!
On April 17th, call, email, and fax Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and demand he drop the charges against CeCe. This time, we are extending the call-in to include Assistant Attorney Marlene Senechal, head of adult prosecution.
!!NEW!! Please CC mpls4cece@gmail.com on all your e-mails. Also please send us an e-mail with the time of your calls & faxes.
LET’S LET FREEMAN AND SENECHAL KNOW THAT WE WONT STAND FOR THE RACIST, TRANSPHOBIC PROSECUTION OF CECE!
While Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is being prosecuted for murder after being violently attacked for her race and gender, Freeman’s office recently declined to prosecute the killer of Darrell Evanovich, a black man who was shot dead by a white man after an alleged robbery. While no person should be thrown to the mercy of the soulless, so-called “justice” system, the fact that CeCe is on trial after being assaulted, while a white man who killed someone after chasing them down is touted as a “good Samaritan,” highlights the racist and transphobic nature of the prosecution of CeCe. Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Marlene Senechal have the power to drop the charges against CeCe. So far, though, he has implicitly sided with CeCe’s white supremacist attackers by failing to acknowledge the racist, transphobic assault that she survived as a mitigating factor in the unintentional death of Dean Schmitz.
When: Tuesday, April 17th, ALL DAY
Where:From home, work, wherever you find yourself!
What: Call Michael Freeman at 612-348-5540, fax at 612-348-2042, and email at citizeninfo@co.hennepin.mn.us
Call Marlene Senechal at 612-348-5561, fax at 612-348-3061, and email at citizeninfo@co.hennepin.mn.us
!!NEW!! Please CC mpls4cece@gmail.com on all your e-mails. Also please send us an e-mail with the time of your calls & faxes.
Remember to remain polite but assertive. Some key points to mention in your calls, emails, and faxes are:
- Identify yourself as a supporter, friend, family member, or community member calling about Ms. Chrishaun McDonald’s case.
- Tell the County Attorney’s Office why you’re concerned: Ms. McDonald was the target of a hate crime, but she was singled out for aggressive prosecution after the attack.
- County Attorney Freeman has declined to press charges in cases like this at least three times already this year. Remind him that he has the power to drop the charges against Ms. McDonald.
- Tell Freeman and Senechal not to side with Ms. McDonald’s white supremacist attackers: drop the charges against Ms. McDonald.
Tell Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Assistant Attorney Marlene Senechal to take a stand against hate, racism, and transphobia. Tell Freeman and Senechal to DROP THE CHARGES against Chrishaun McDonald!
(via racialicious)
Students in Lynda Barry’s “What It Is” class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison wrote stories from photographs for most of the month of March. They not only wrote stories about the photographs, but they drew them too, using this as another way of seeing what was there, a way to stay in the image long enough for a story to begin to take shape in the back of the mind.
No particular artistic ability is needed to be use drawing in this way. The only thing that is needed is the courage to draw even when we are unsure. Being unsure about drawing is one thing— and not a bad thing at all. Sometimes the best work happens when we’re not sure about what we are doing.
But being too scared to draw is another thing entirely. It seals off a world that belongs to you and has belonged to you from the beginning, from the moment you first opened your hands. It still belongs to you, even now. Even after so many years, even after you have given up on it completely, it is still there, still yours.
Here is what Emily Dickinson has to say about it in poem number 777
![Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry, poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, Christian poetry](http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/D/DickinsonEmi/images/Dickinson_sm.jpg)
The Loneliness One dare not sound —
And would as soon surmise
As in its Grave go plumbing
To ascertain the size —
The Loneliness whose worst alarm
Is lest itself should see —
And perish from before itself
For just a scrutiny —
The Horror not to be surveyed —
But skirted in the Dark —
With Consciousness suspended —
And Being under Lock —
I fear me this — is Loneliness —
The Maker of the soul
Its Caverns and its Corridors
Illuminate — or seal —1863
“The complex spectrum of things that go on between and among women has to be understood as also erotic. One thing I was trying to do in Twenty-One Love Poems was constantly to relate the lovers to a larger world. You’re never just in bed together in a private space; you can’t be, there is a…
![afrodiaspores:
Marsha P. Johnson (1944-1992) at a Gay Liberation Front meeting, ca. 1970. Johnson was “a revolutionary trans activist, Stonewall instigator, Andy Warhol model, drag queen, prostitute, and Saint, as well as a downtown NYC fixture from the 1960’s through her too-soon demise in 1992. Johnson persevered through a life embodied by her middle initial P, which stood for ‘Pay It No Mind.’” She is now the subject of a documentary that takes this phrase as its title.
Marsha P. Johnson, who was a transgender[ ] activist present at the Stonewall riots, was also a founding member of an organization that could only have been started in the 1970s - S.T.A.R. - Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries…Marsha was about as sweet as they come, a fixture on the mean streets who was always ready with a smile…I wanted to share this forgotten gem of a poem [composed by Jimmy Centola, formerly of the Hot Peaches theater troupe] that tells the history of Stonewall and of what happened to the gay movement by the late 70s in Marsha’s voice.
Can you spare any change for a dying queen dar-ling?I mean I am dying.I know you don’t believe me.But I know what I’m talking about.Yes I do.Us queens know what we’re talking about because we’re for liberation, yes we are.Look at the Stonewall.When I first came to New Yorkall pressed and cleanin a white shirt and tiewhat my mother bought meI heard about the Stonewallso I thought I’d go over andcheck it outand LORD!Men are dancing with menand one more gorgeous than anotherand way in the back were my sisters, honeyturning it out in gold lame and wigs for days…](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0n2g2oKiZ1qjeot1o1_1280.jpg)
Marsha P. Johnson (1944-1992) at a Gay Liberation Front meeting, ca. 1970. Johnson was “a revolutionary trans activist, Stonewall instigator, Andy Warhol model, drag queen, prostitute, and Saint, as well as a downtown NYC fixture from the 1960’s through her too-soon demise in 1992. Johnson persevered through a life embodied by her middle initial P, which stood for ‘Pay It No Mind.’” She is now the subject of a documentary that takes this phrase as its title.
“I was a radical, a revolutionist. I am still a revolutionist. I was proud to make the road and help change laws and what-not. I was very proud of doing that and proud of what I’m still doing, no matter what it takes.” Sylvia Rivera to Leslie Feinberg
(Sylvia Rivera & Marsha P…
