As a black woman, it hurts me to hear when some people sling around “nigger” like it’s nothing. In reality, it is a filthy word, one that carries centuries’ worth of weight when used against the black community. When our ancestors were brought to America to be sold into slavery, this word was practically all they were referred to. It was originally a word to describe the inhabitants of Niger, but over time, it became associated with beatings, lynchings, and angry slavemasters. Black people were forced to work for no pay, and were met with violence when they didn’t comply. They had to live in small little shacks while the slavemasters lived in much bigger houses. Even in the 1940s, only a few decades ago, black people were being killed because they were thought of as subhuman “niggers”.
Eventually, a couple of black people decided they liked the N-word, and gradually, the African-American community adopted the word as their own in an effort to soften the impact of suffering through daily discrimination and oppression. This is why you often hear black people refer to each other by “nigga”. However, this does not give white people a right to say this word, because, due to the current power imbalance, in which white people use their privilege to keep putting the other races down, the word still holds a truckload of emotional baggage when you use it.
I often hear white people ask if they can at least sing the word when it’s in a song. Usually, I just ignore them. Trust me, it gets tiring to hear the same questions about racism over and over. However, I feel nice today, and, as much as it hurts to say it, I have reluctantly come up with a compromise I hope you white people will like.
You may sing along to songs with the N-word in it, but only when you’re absolutely alone, such as in the car or in the shower. I can’t control what you do inside your own house or your car. But whenever you’re in a public place, especially when POC may be around, I would find it very respectful of you to please skip over the word. It’s just one word, and you’re doing us all a favor by not using the word around us. It hurts us to hear it.
I love when white privileged men try to defend their gross racism and sexism by calling me racist and sexist against them for calling them out.
I’m a black lady. Obviously, I’m not in a position of power to oppress you, so why do you think that me hating you is equal to vice versa? And also, you have no reason to hate me except that you’re prejudiced arses. I have every reason to hate you white men. You creeps never talk to me except when you want to get in my pants, look at my boobs nonstop, and make KFC jokes at work because I’m the only black woman there.
Just last week a man followed me for a block or so begging me to go to his house and “make him cum”. When I told him to go away, he offered to pay me. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m a sex worker.
I feel the whole world is systematically against me because I’m a she/her femme POC. It isn’t fair, and white cis men scum don’t realize that. I have said it before, but I must say it again: the only way that reparations and true equality can happen is if they all die. They’re all prejudiced rapists, no matter how innocent they seem, and must be eradicated.
If you’re black and you think those watermelon-eating, fat-lipped, jazz-singing stereotypes about you are actually pretty funny and laugh at how silly they are, you’re indirectly encouraging racism and you should be ashamed of yourself.
If you’re Chinese and you think those old buck-toothed, slanty-eyed, thick-accented caricatures of you are actually pretty funny and laugh at how silly they are, you’re indirectly encouraging racism and you should be ashamed of yourself.
If you’re Arab and think those money-hogging, big-nosed, terroristic stereotypes about you are no big deal and laugh at how silly they are, you’re indirectly encouraging racism and you should be ashamed of yourself.
If you’re Native American and don’t mind being portrayed as red-skinned, feather-wearing teepee dwellers and laugh at how silly it all is, you are indirectly encouraging racism and you should be ashamed of yourself.
If you’re Indian and think that being portrayed as a convenience store owner with dozens of children who always says “Thank you, come again!” in that horrible stilted English, YOU ARE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGING RACISM AND YOU SHOULD BE FUCKING ASHAMED OF YOURSELF.
Friends of color, why do you HATE YOURSELVES to the point that you crack up over literally oppressive portrayals of your own race? That makes you JUST AS BAD, IF NOT WORSE than the evil people who reduce you to a “joke” at your expense in the first place!
WHY ARE YOU ALLOWING PEOPLE TO MAKE FUN OF YOU?
YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO BE OKAY WITH RACIST JOKES AND CARICATURES, ESPECIALLY IF THEY’RE DIRECTED TOWARD YOUR OWN RACE.
YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO BE OKAY WITH RACIST JOKES AND CARICATURES, ESPECIALLY IF THEY’RE DIRECTED TOWARD YOUR OWN RACE.
YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO BE OKAY WITH RACIST JOKES AND CARICATURES, ESPECIALLYIF THEY’RE DIRECTED TOWARD YOUR OWN RACE.
Being a mom and an anarchist and trying to figure out the whole “parenting” song and dance from that perspective makes me think 8-year-olds have about got it figured out. I hate school. I hate tests. I hate bedtime.
No like here’s the thing: children are an oppressed class. I mean that 100% sincerely. Children m are an oppressed class. They quite literally do not have the right to be free human beings.
Reposting from my twitter here, but: you wouldn’t prevent an adult from speaking to their friend or eating when they were hungry. In your personal life that’s abusive behavior, in the work sphere a suppression of workers’ rights. Other places these rights are violated include: prison.
InEducation and Peace, Maria Montessori describes the culture of war and identifies it as originating, on a personal level, in the struggle between the adult and the child that begins as soon as the child is born. This is the very first conflict. The adult subjects the child to their own wants and needs and completely disregards the needs, development and personhood of the child. This struggle continues throughout childhood, between both parents and children and other adults and children:
“Both the adult and the child are unaware of their own characteristic natures. They fight one another in a secret struggle that has gone on for countless generations and is becoming more violent today in our complicated and nerve-racking culture. The adult defeats the child; and once the child reaches adulthood the characteristic signs of the peace that is only an aftermath of war—destruction on one hand and painful adjustment on the other—remain with him for the rest of his life.”
This conflict positions children and adults relative to each other as two distinct classes, one with power and one without. Of course, there are other conflicts at play here—race is a huge one, gender another. And that’s not to say children can’t have power over parents, etc. But one of the most fundamental class conflicts is between adults and children.
Children exist in a state of war from day one. Their environment is completely unsuitable to them; they’re treated as if that’s their fault. They’ve literally been alive for less than a decade. Any action they take is done as a result of class conflict.
Today’s Google doodle celebrates the falling of the Berlin wall. The East Germans may have had it bad however it doesn’t even make a blip on the radar compared to the oppression the Palestinians endure. The Berlin wall was 106km long and 3.6m high, the West Bank barrier is currently 438km and 8m high and on completion will be 700km long.
I always see so many social-justice type things that are like, reassuring people in the oppressor group that no, we’re not trying to take anything away from you! Your life will be pretty much the same but better if we achieve our goals!
Which, in a sense I guess that’s true, because a fairer world is better for us all – but honestly, yes, we are trying to take things away from you, and achieving our goals will mean your life is different. Because people in oppressor groups have not been pulling your/our own weight this entire time.
Men, abled people, cis people, white people, straight people, rich people, non-intersex people, etc., all benefit from oppression. As in, there are things we/you have that we/you literally only recieve as a direct result of oppression, and in a world without that oppression, we/you will not receive those benefits!
Privileged people will have to give up being centred more, trusted more and deemed more competent than anyone else; having emotional work performed for us/you quietly and without recipricocity; having our/your interests prioritized over everyone else’s; being treated as the default from which everyone else is a variation; and a million more unfair advantages.
Ending oppression will require people in oppressor groups to actively give up all kinds of benefits that stem directly from oppression. There will often be things that oppressors didn’t even notice was a benefit of oppression that will now have to be relinquished. It’s difficult work, and it absolutely will affect your life. But it’s necessary and important work.
If you’re only interested in ending oppression with the caveat that it not affect your life whatsoever and you’ll never be inconvenienced by people gaining back rights they should always have had – you’re not interested in ending oppression, and you should make an effort to cultivate that interest.
I’m so proud and excited to present "Good Business" - an adaptation of a short comic of mine by the esteemed Ray Sullivan! (photo paste-up below by @cmkosemenillustrated)
Slurs are not oppressive because they are offensive, they are oppressive because slurs by nature of being slurs draw upon certain power dynamics to remind their target of his/her/their vulnerability in a certain relation to power and as an extension of that, to threaten violence and exploitation of that vulnerability.
THANK YOU
I feel like a lot of privileged people see slurs as just, like, bad words. (I know this is how I saw them before they got applied to me). They’re words which are impolite or exceedingly rude to use, which are bad because some people don’t like it when you use them. And it just so happens that in the case of slurs, people don’t like them because of their historical context which makes them a ‘special’ kind of bad.
Except that’s not it at all.
When someone uses a slur that can be directed at you it’s terrifying. There’s a moment of “oh god, am I safe?”. To be part of an oppressed group is to know that there are people out there who can and will hurt you. And when someone uses a slur you are suddenly confronted with the very real possibility that they are one of those people. And you have to ask yourself “am I safe?”.
Slurs aren’t bad just because they cause offense, they’re bad because they create terror. If you wouldn’t casually whip out a knife and brandish it at someone, don’t use slurs either. Because being on the receiving end is a very similar experience.
“Karen” is mocking someone’s power not making reference to their vulnerability on another “axis.”
Same goes for cracker. It was made by black slaves to mock white slaveowners.
Reminder that if you think people can’t become intersex/perisex through medical transition you believe to the TERF/GC conception of sex as an immutable thing and/or that you are defined by your natal characteristics and not by your present material characteristics (again a GC/TERF thing) you basically align yourself with their beliefs.
It’s important to note that believing Intersex is immuable, knowing that intersex is relative to male and female also imply male and female are immutable things.
Sex & intersex aren’t static, unchangables but rather things that can be modified with our consent or not. Refering to medically transitioned trans ppl who were born perisex as perisex is materially false and sex-statism (GC/TERF belief) and imply for a trans woman that she is still a male and for a trans man that he still a female.
Medically transitioned trans ppl no loger have their perisex privilege since they no longer have sexual characteristics that corresponds to typical binary definitions of male or female.
Interview with Simone De Beauvoir where she discusses street harassment as a form of oppression:
“It’s rare for a man to understand a woman’s experience, what she goes through since he hasn’t experienced it. Even little things: for example the streets belong to everyone. But in fact, for a young woman, it doesn’t matter if she’s pretty or ugly, walking down the street can be an ordeal after 8 or 9 at night or even during the day. Men will follow her, bother her, to such an extent that she’ll prefer to go home. If you tell a man that, he’ll smile, act surprised, say "I don’t do that,” or “I’m not a boor, not all men are boors.” He doesn’t realize what a weight it is for a woman to always feel like she’s in danger, not violent danger, although it can go that far. When a woman rebuffs a man who is following her, she may get slapped or punched.“
Words and Offense by Kinsey Hope Ah slurs. Amazing little linguistic fragments of nastiness, they are one of the most misunderstood elements of oppression in existence.
Slurs are systemic and offense is personal. This we can all agree on (unless we are quite ignorant about how these things work).
So now I drop the bomb on you. I do not give a single flying or landbound fuck, when it comes to fighting slurs, about offense.
[…] You see, offense isn’t the actual problem. It never has been. It isn’t the thing that makes slurs so ungodly harmful. Furthermore and this is important, offense is not limited to the marginalized and oppressed. Oh. Yes. That’s a bit of a problem isn’t it? Because you see, privileged people can be offended just as easily by marginalized and oppressed people as we can be by them. The effects of the offense may be different (power always adds extra harm to stuff) but there’s no doubt that we offend the privileged every day of every week of every month in any given year. Our anger offends the privileged and hurts them. Our self expression and living our lives offends the privileged and challenges their worldview painfully. […] Offense is a very eclectic concept and it is open to anyone, even the oppressor. Even worse, offense is built entirely around direct effect. If a tree falls in the woods it does in fact make a sound, but if no one is there to hear it, no one will cringe at the crash. Likewise if a slur is said in a completely privileged group, without any supporters of oppressed people around (or people who just don’t think words are an issue) who exactly is it offending? No one. No one is there who would be affected. I’ve heard of too many people who just avoid using the phrases and slurs around people they know it will offend and then go and use it around people they know it won’t.
So one of the biggest problems with just concentrating on offense is because offense can be used just as easily against us as it can for us when it comes to getting rid of slurs being spouted by the privileged.
The frighteningly direct way that words influence behavior and in turn directly and effectively boost the effects of oppression on a huge scale is a much bigger concern then whether someone is personally offended. It means that no matter where someone says that slur, even if no one is around that could be offended, it still hurts us overall.
So no, it’s not about offense. Not entirely. Words really do have astounding power.
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can mobilize an entire society in violent hate against me. And we should never forget that fact.
On a related note, one of my favorite podcasts lately has been CounterSpin, which critically looks at the past week’s news and how mainstream media covered it. It “exposes and highlights biased and inaccurate news; censored stories; sexism, racism and homophobia in the news; the power of corporate influence; gaffes and goofs by leading TV pundits; TV news’ narrow political spectrum; attacks on free speech; and more.”
A World Without Police!? by Ryan Higa Inspired by all the police brutality videos going viral these days causing even more hatred towards police.
So, this is an example of something that is not politically correct. A quick summary so you don’t have to give this video any more views: Police brutality is a serious issue, but people nowadays are going out and deliberately antagonizing police. Police are human, too! They deal with assholes every day, so they’re bound to be asshole-ish sometimes. #NotAllPolice are racist – just like we want to avoid stereotypes that Black people are thieves, Asians are bad drivers, and Muslims are terrorists, we shouldn’t judge a group of people based on a few bad ones! The very minorities who are mad at being discriminated against are discriminating against the police! The world couldn’t survive without police anyways, we’d descend into a Netflix-less hell (don’t ask)!
Yeah. This was basically a #NotAllMen about the police. Somehow he decided to compare police with oppressed minorities. The police are not an oppressed minority – the police are the oppressors, or at the very least, the enactors of oppression. They’re part of a corrupt system.
Moreover, who else deals with assholes every day? Retail workers. Restaurant workers. Janitors. Housekeepers. Minimum wage workers. They don’t have the luxury of acting like assholes. It’s really frustrating to see this video have nearly two million views. Literally no one was asking him to comment on police brutality, but I guess he wanted to cash in on it (just like the supposedly antagonistic people filming police he was criticizing).
This is important. PLEASE WATCH & SHARE THIS. This is an interview we conducted with Baltimore Black Panther and community leader Reverend Annie Chambers about the murder of her grandchildren by the police, and the long history of violence against Black people in Baltimore.
This interview was conducted back in 2012. I blame myself for the video cutting out after 47 minutes. The camera died and I didn’t have replacement batteries. Someone in the Baltimore area should reach out and follow up with Reverend Chambers if possible.
What we’re seeing in Baltimore today is the culmination of yearsdecades centuries of continuous violence and oppression against Black people at the hands of police and White supremacy.
The internet is real. The internet exists in the world and it affects the rest of the world.
I’m a person all of the time. I don’t stop being a person when I log on, and neither do you. It matters how we treat each other, and it matters what kind of culture we build through online interactions.
Further, no one can opt out of being affected by the internet. The interactions that take place online impact the whole culture, not just those who are directly participating online. For instance, whether or not someone ever uses a smart phone or takes a selfie, if they spend any time in cities, they’re going to encounter others doing so — and if they go to events, they’re likely going to encounter backdrops made for that express purpose. There’s no way to opt out of being affected by the existence of selfies and selfie culture.
There’s also no way to opt out of the way the internet can be used to attack people. For instance, for over a decade, ratemyprofessors.com had a hotness rating, and female professors couldn’t opt out of being affected by the way that encouraged sexual harassment. Similarly, Monica Lewinsky and others who have faced internet-aided attacks could not have made them go away by logging out.
Online interaction is even being used as a form of warfare. Most notoriously, Russian intelligence agencies successfully used Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to interfere with the United States presidential election in 2016. Even if I logged off today and never touched a computer again, I could not opt out of being affected by the fact that Donald Trump became President of the United States in early 2017.
At the same time, marginalized people are also using the internet to build forms of power and solidarity that we didn’t have before. Before I found disability selfie culture online, the only images of people like me I’d ever seen were all illustrating tragic stories about our parents. Connecting with other disabled people online made it possible for me to realize that I could be fully human without being cured — and that I could be taken seriously without becoming normal.
Similarly, not everyone uses Twitter or hashtags, but everyone lives in a culture in which #BlackLivesMatter, #YesAllWomen, and #MeToo are uningnorable. Privileged people have lost some of their power to silence and isolate people — and marginalized people have gained a lot of power to find and support each other.
The internet is real, and the things we do online matter. We can make better choices when we remember that what we’re doing is real.
no more lightskinned catgirl furry allegories for racism society has progressed past the need for lightskinned catgirl furry allegories for racism
i said furries as a joke but this goes for your robots and aliens too. like if you’re white and you want to have a story abt racism but actually writing abt real systemic oppression makes you so uncomfortable you need to create a fictional proxy race where the characters can stand in for poc but appear white, maybe you’re bad at writing and should hand the reins over to someone who knows what they’re doing (aka writers of color)
