rupikaur_♥️ so many of you have asked what you can do to support the #farmersprotest : slide through for info or read below
1) post on social media to raise awareness. i know this seems small. but it creates a ripple effect that will save lives. i’ve been advised by many human rights organizations that raising awareness on social media is the most effective tactic when dealing with the indian government. they are highly sensitive to international attention- so let’s give it to them.
2) put pressure on your local politicians and those with influence. put pressure on the media. ask them to speak up and bring attention to india’s human rights abuses. when freedom of press is attacked- democracy dies. every statement from officials around the world puts pressure on the indian government to take accountability for their human rights abuses.
3) if you’re interested in donating- @khalsa_aid is a great international humanitarian organization who is helping providing resources to farmers on the ground.
thank you for your endless support family- i love you all ♥️ your thoughtfulness and desire to change the world is forever inspiring
our people started protesting in punjab as early as july 2020. they marched to delhi on nov 27 and have been sleeping on the streets since. punjab- haryana- up- rajasthan. and beyond. the people are united across religion and geography. singing songs of freedom. our people feeding the masses. our people dying. activists abducted. journalists kidnapped. the government is currently building walls of cement and spikes around protest sites to cage people in. they try to defame our heroes. they sexually assault women in police custody. but truth will prevail. all of you. all of us. the diaspora marched and continues to give its heart out. onward. louder. stronger my friends. it’s working ✊✊✊#farmersprotest p.s. i can hear modi crying while throwing a temper tantrum music to my ears !!! (graphics by my sis @taranamol)
So many of these notes are a bunch of self-righteous “the world will keep sucking if you don’t do something” BS and I just wanna scream -
YOU ARE COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT
We *are* doing something. We’re not just sitting home feeling sorry for ourselves. But bad things keep happening, despite all the things we’re doing. So we don’t expect good things to happen. We’d *like* them to happen. We’re *working* to make them happen.
But we sure as hell don’t *expect* them.
[ID: a tweet with the user name covered by a blue stripe “Trying to explain to my parents (very gently) that basically nobody under 40 right now expects good things to happen ever again” End ID.]
Yeah, sure, seeing new things is helpful as a fantasy writer. But. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that exposure to new things is the same as traveling. You know what else exposes you to new things? The internet. Documentaries. Books. Freaking Youtube. So when you’re bored of cats and cooking tutorials, go on an adventure!
TRUTH. What you need is imagination, and you don’t need to go anywhere to use it.
The best thing about the internet is that it means its not just the fortunate sons that get to learn, and explore and imagine and write. We get to see stories from all over the place, from all sorts of people, who bring All Kinds of New Ideas.
In my opinion, traveling serves one of two purposes–as a world building exercise or fodder for lazy writing.
As world building: Traveling allows you to learn a new place for the first time. Mundane things that pass you by in normal life now come off as new and exciting! Is the fauna a brighter green? The ambient pedestrian noise higher in pitch? louder? Quieter?
It can really help you learn how to build a scene so that the reader feels like they’re experiencing a new place!
That being said, I totally agree with @caitymschmidt about getting the same resources online. I, for one, tend to spend a lotmore time learning description from stock photos than I do traveling the world.
As lazy writing: Real places aren’t your fantasy backdrop. It’s fine to take inspiration from other countries and cultures, but describing real places and saying they take place on alien planets is not only lazy but verging on problematic depending on how it’s executed.
——
In other news, I read the article and Jill Criswell, the author, acknowledges that urging people to travel now is problematic and privileged. I don’t agree with her viewpoint personally (there are TONS of new experiences people can fold into their writing WITHOUT “saving every penny” to travel), but understand that her motivation for incorporating travel into her writing comes from a good place.
From what I read, I didn’t get the sense that she was gatekeeping so much as confusing her desire to use her work to encourage people to travel with legitimate writing advice.
Actually wait.
My good will pretty much ends at the title which, reportedly, she chose herself. I was going to argue that Criswell was just naive, but I changed my mind. So, yeah, this is gatekeeping at worst, clickbait without care of the harm this sort of mentality can cause at best.
[ID: a ‘quote’ tweet by Angie Thomas @angiecthomas “Nah. Things like this make underprivileged kids think that writing isn’t for them.” with an attached 'quoted’ tweet by SchoolLibraryJournal @sljournal “Want To Be a Fantasy Writer? You Need To Travel, a Guest Post by Jill Criswell” with a link to their article. End ID.]
[Image description: quote tweet by Mr. Carry The One @mumbles_j: “Ain’t. That. Something.” Verified quoted tweet is by BBC News (World) @BBCWorld: “Mexico broadcasts school lessons on TV, allowing children to learn without the need for internet access (tv emoji) bbc.in/3aXNT0p” End ID.]
Clickhere for 200+ free social justice and mental health resources. Follow @bfpnola for more!
And please remember, Black is good is a radical concept, but radical concepts are what create change. Keep fighting.
[Image ID: Ten squares with text credited to Marie Beecham @MarieBeech. Some of it is in standard typed font, and some of it is hand written. For the purposes of this transcript, written text is indicated by asterisks at the beginning and end.
Image 1: Should we say Black? *African-American? people of color…* (The words “Black” and “people of color” are crossed out, and the whole thing looks like a paper where someone is trying to figure out whether they should replace the word “Black” with something else.)
Image 2: You can say Black. Black, Black, Blackity, Black, Black! You’re German, they’re French, I’m Black. No hesitation or remorse necessary.
Discomfort with saying Black–like reluctance to acknowledge race, privilege, and oppression–reveals internalized anti-Blackness. Regardless of intention, side-stepping Black communicates that it’s taboo.
(Then there’s a list of three terms, next to a symbol indicating whether they’re ok to use or not. “Black” is OK, “Black people” is OK, but “Blacks” is not OK.)
Image 3:“It seems rude to say Black.”
Black is an insult if Black is a bad thing. Do you think being Black is bad?
Image 4: Anti-Blackness is pervasive. Often times, it takes the covert form of disassociating or “removing” someone’s Blackness.
Here are common examples:
“I don’t think of you as Black”
“You’re white on the inside”
“How Black are you? What percentage?”
“You don’t act Black”
“You don’t talk like you’re Black”
“You’re not like other Black people”
And you think that’s a compliment? What does that say about what you think of my race?
Image 5: We love being Black. We hate being oppressed. See the difference?
Image 6: Black is good. (This is repeated ten times in various colors; the word “Black” is the color black in all of them.)
Image 7: Black is good is a radical concept. Today’s most common racial stereotypes about Black people date all the way back to slavery. The narrative that Black people are dangerous, immoral, and unintelligent was a tactic used for oppression then, and it’s still common today. *Yikes!*
To east the cognitive dissonance that comes with being an oppressor, white people uphold the idea that Black people are lesser in character. That way, oppressing Black people [Slavery, segregation, and today, mass incarceration and systemic racism] is more defensible. This “difference of character” belief wrongfully justifies racial disparities while lessening culpability for discrimination.
It takes deliberate unlearning of intergenerational unconscious prejudice to buy into the radical, countercultural concept that Black is good.
Image 8: Context and usage–Do not reduce Black people to our race. I love having Black as part of my identity. I don’t like when Black is made to be my entire identity. For example:
“She’s Black, so she must want to talk about my Black friends, [insert racial stereotype], etc…” *Psst…I’d rather not*
“So I have this coworker–he’s Black–and anyway…” *Is that all he is? Does he have a name?*
Doing this leads to wrongful assumptions, harmful racial stereotyping, othering, and erasure of individuality. Black people are not a monolith.
Image 9: Black or African American? Some people may identify with their African roots and prefer “African American.” Most Black people prefer “Black” over “African America,” because we can’t trace our lineage, or we don’t identify as African. “African American” isn’t more proper than “Black.” They are different, and Black is its own (legitimate) culture.
Keep in mind, language is and always will be dynamic. Terminology that was standard in the past is no longer acceptable. Continually learn and adapt out of respect for people’s identities. A person’s identity is theirs, so use whatever language they want you to use. Ask them in an appropriate setting if you’re unsure. *”Please let me know if I mistakenly…” NOT “So what are you?”*
Image 10: Black is not a dirty word. (This is repeated ten times in various colors; the word “Black” is the color black in all of them.) /End ID]
[ID: Tweet by ☭ nonessential government oils ☭ @BabadookSpinoza from January 20, 2019 at 3:37 PM that reads: People aren’t racist because they lack education or intelligence. They’re racist because being racist makes them feel good. The solution is not education but to make racism so socially unacceptable and harshly punished that being racist makes your life fucking miserable. End ID]
[ID: a tweet by frnkiero: Party (goth) Dad (verified) @Franklero that reads, “although i may not be a lesbian in the classical sense, do feel your plight & also appreciate your descriptive nature. in return may i offer you the term ‘depresbian’ & encourage you to wear ‘this black hoodie’ as the quintessential ‘depresbian uniform’ i’ll be getting one too”. the text has been overlaid with the colors of the lesbian flag. /END ID]
[Tweet by Fran, @galacticidiots, saying, ‘Who needs therapy when AO3 is full of those 10-20K one shots where nothing happens except huge feelings and deep conversations that somehow make you feel the entire spectrum of human emotion.
End ID.]
I prefer both, of course. But there are many things that I’d never even considered COULD be related before reading about them on AO3, never mind connecting them to my own experiences.
I still go read hurt/comfort to figure out which trauma I’m currently ready to process. I read about stupid Batkids getting lost in their own undercover identities while trying to figure myself out. I read about abuse while trying to parse my self-hatred. I read about good parents and siblings while isolating myself. I read about trauma recovery … while I continue to recover from trauma.
[Image Description: Screenshot of a tweet by damita jo (@KiaSpeaks) reading “For the first time in 30years, Muslims, Jews, Christains, Sikhs, Baha’is, Hindus, Buddhists & Indigenous nations will observe holidays simultaneously, with Ramadan, Passover, Easter, Vaisakhi, Mahavir Jayanti, Theravada New year, and the Gathering of Nations all occurring in April.” End Image Description.]
[ID: A digital artwork in blue tones depicting two people kissing in the dark. They are both brown, have dark hair, and they are all covered in scars. One of them has a long moustache wrapped around their ear and most of their head hair shaved off. They wear a green heart shaped earring, a bracelet, a ring, a white shirt with green and purple embroidered collar, and a purple sash wrapped around their waist. They have 3 fingers on their right hand. Second one has long curly hair tied into a bun and a short bushy beard. They wear green earrings, a bracelet, a ring, a laced purple dress with short sleeves and a green skirt. The characters are holding hands as they giving into the kiss. The background is dark blue. End ID]
[ID: Devil May Cry 3 fanart. A digital artwork in blue and red tones. A portrait depicting sad Dante looking to the ground and crying in the rain. The background is dark blue. End ID]
[ID: OneShot fanart. A digital artwork in brown, beige and purple tones. It depicts Niko in their hat, a yellow shirt with oversized sleeves, a purple vest, a pair of puffy brown pants and boots. They are marching through a wheat field almost as tall as them. They keep their arms outstretched as they hold some wheat in their hand. They are grinning. End ID]
[ID: a digital artwork in warm tones depicting a small dwarf with tan pink skin. They have dark messy hair with two white and blue flowers in it. They wear a quite worn green cape, blue shirt, brown pants and black shoes. They are standing on grass, looking shyly to the side, nervously scratching their fingers. The background in beige tones is some sort of giant columnade spreading far away. End ID]
A cute little dwarf cause they are my fave fantasy race and i realised i barely draw them
[ID: A digital painting in purple tones depicting 2 Guild Wars 2 charr ocs. One of them white, other one black. Both have stripes on their fur. They are both topless and wear only pants. They are stargazing on a violet flower hill, sitting together beneath a big tree stump surrounded by flowers. The white charr leans his back against the tree. The black charr is lying with his head resting on white charr’s lap. Their tails are entangled and they are holding hands. Next to them there is a burning lantern slightly illuminating it’s surroundings. The background is faraway hills and mountains and stars on the dark sky. End ID]
2 charrs comm for @MjolnirStormcla and @Roth_the_Red
[ID: Hollow Knight fanart. A digital artwork in purple tones. It depicts Ghost and Hollow, both small and wearing pink bows at the back of their necks. They are standing in the middle of a path in Howling Cliffs and reading a map they’re holding together. The background is the sandy path going far off behind them. End ID]
[ID: Hollow Knight fanart. A digital artwork in dark brown tones. It depicts countless of shades flying around together in one giant circle, creating a mass so big it fades lighter far away in the background. Some of them are holding paws End ID]
[ID: Hollow Knight fanart: A warm digital artwork with brown, beige, orange and green colors. It depicts Ghost in a green bow tied behind it’s neck and with it’s nail in it’s paw. they’re walking through a cavern tunnel. The tunnel is filled with orange splotches.There is a few green vines in the corners of the first plan. The drawing is enchased with a simple dark beige frame with scribbles of flowers. ID]
[ID: Guild Wars 2 fanart. A warm artwork in yellow, orange and brown tones depicting Rytlock Brimstone. He’s topless and he’s wearing his revenant blindfold on. He’s slightly lifting it up with a claw and staring right at the viewer, smiling in somewhat a challenging way. The background is light orange. End ID]
[ID: Hollow Knight Silksong fanart. A warm digital artwork in pink, violet, red, and white color scheme. It depicts Hornet and Lace sitting in a flower field. They are embracing each other. They hold each other’s paws, and Lace gives Hornet a little peck on her cheek. End ID]
