#white people

blanca-angelica-loveless:

quoms:

earlgraytay:

itd-be-gay-if-you-didnt:

quoms:

The thing about Those White People Baby Names is the way they so poetically express the tension between individuality and rigid conformity. These parents all want to name their child something unique, because they value the concept of uniqueness, yet simultaneously they abhor it in practice… ergo, 30 different spelling variations on the most normative possible names. This homogeneity-masquerading-as-diversity is inseparable from capitalist consumer culture and in fact is directly analogous to the experience of walking into a grocery store and being asked to “choose” between 50 varieties of toothpaste with the same exact ingredients, 12 brands of laundry detergent, etc.

Somebody’s third eye is WIDE the fuck open??!!!!!!!

okay so there’s actually a reasonbehind this that isn’t just “white people are terrible and really really boring!” it’s to do with Mormon culture. specifically: the fireworks you get when sexist expectations and terrible petty drama collide. 

most of Those White People Baby Names are originally Mormonbaby names. they’re chosen (or invented) by women in Utah; they tend to filter out to the rest of the world through things like “mommy blogs” and “baby name books” and “parent forums.” 

you know how every culture has a “hey, welcome to the world, lil baby!” ritual? the mormon version of that is called a baby blessing. the baby’s father, and a handful of other men in the family, go up in front of the congregation during a Sunday service and say a special prayer. it begins by reciting the baby’s fullname and then saying “I give you a name and a blessing.”  It’s not something you can avoid doing- if you try, people will think that you’re trying to hide something. baby blessings are mandatory, and everyone in the congregation willwatch and judge you.

becauseof this, your baby’s name gets a good bit more of a spotlight in Mormon culture than it does in secular culture, and that’s sayingsomething. 

 Mormon women start picking out names for their hypothetical future kids in fourth or fifth grade and snipe at each other for picking “weird” or “bad” ones. it’s something that’s supposed to be in the back of your head longbefore you have a kid. and because people willjudge you if you pick a name that’s “too boring” or “too weird”, it is already an intricate dance of finding something that’s “interesting” enough to pass muster but not so “interesting” your kid won’t survive kindergarten.

and that dance becomes even more intricate when Baby Name Drama gets involved. 

see, because you’re supposed to put so much time into your baby’s name, a lot of women get… overinvested, let us say. the perfect name they picked for their baby is THEIR baby’s name and NO ONE ELSE’S. if you so much as dare to BREATHE that you’re naming your baby/pet/favourite laptop the same thing, you have STOLEN their BABY’S NAME.  

so here’s the thing… say you really wanted to name your daughter Amy. You love the name, it’s classic, it’s cute, it’s perfectfor your little girl-to-be… and then your sister-in-law gets pregnant and LOUDLY ANNOUNCES thatshe’snaming her baby Amy! and you know for a factthat she’s the type of person to throw a massive petty shitfit over you STEALING her BABY’S NAME. your family will take sides. herfamily will take sides. 

if you want to avoid the drama, and you’re dead-set on naming your daughter-to-be Amy… well, then you name your daughter Aimee, or Aimi, or Aimy. It’s not the same name, it’s pronounced the same but it’s not the exact same name, so you can shut up, sis-in-law. 

from what I understand a lot of the Crazy Name Spellings came from this root- “it’s not Kaylee, it’s Kayleigh, I swearI didn’t steal your idea”- and then once it became a trend, people named their kids that to be ~trendy~ just like they did with every other stupid trend. 

but the root cause of Terrible Trendy Misspelt Baby Names has very little to do with white people being boring and conformist, and certainlynothing to do with capitalism.  it’s a good old fashioned case of a) sexist expectations warping women’s behaviour into really really stupid shapes and b) Petty Small Community Drama.  

This is a terrific addition to this post that I don’t think actually contradicts my main idea all that much

Its explains Reneesme I’ll tell you that.

White culture is having a costco membership and buying snack-sized cheese

my sister was talking to her friend who doesn’t like kanye west (which is fine - you’re allowed to not like people) but when she pointed out that some celebrities who have murdered or molested people aren’t painted as badly by news outlets and the like, verbatim he said “yeah but in a way being rude is worse than murder” and i just…

Practicing my “wealthy” people smile

IG: ImBryMar

changingperidoically:

my blood pressure rises every time someone babies frank castle and then shits on elektra

“If all of us, in whatever global struggle is our primary, we are justifying our selfish prioritization with the fact of life’s curtness, we will forever perpetuate the imprisoned momentum of change. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks very poignantly on this matter.

Now, before I continue, it can be a controversial endeavor for someone of my skincolor to quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for it often implies a carelessness towards the depth of his intentions and experience. I don’t think any person of the dominant culture has ever truly and sincerely grasped this depth.

As a white woman I walk on a ground of oppression in a patriarchal society, with a dress of white privilege. It is an odd place to traverse day in and day out. There is an openness to duplicity that one must have to handle it with sanity. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not my leader, his words are not directly intended to empower me, but maybe they were meant to awaken a courageous spirit in all of us. Very few, but some of the Freedom Riders were white, afterall. So he did reach a tiny percentage of us. With every one of his words that circulates today, I am invited to perceive the responsibility of societal change, as it is possible from where and how I am placed, and act upon it. Not to save the black community as many of my white colleagues like to pursue it as, but to save the white community. We have lost our way a long time ago and now pose our leadership in this country as one of "inclusiveness”. It is unreal, disingenuous, and in need of honesty to move forward.

And so, with respect and appreciation for his heart and intellect, I quote a short but important statement by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place, but I am not concerned with that right now.” He died shortly after.

As men, as women, of whatever cultural descent, whatever class, whatever profession, we are modern activists of our own primary struggles that inevitably bleed into another person’s primary struggle. We are so caught in our false entitlement to live a “good life”, that we forget that every single one of us has that same human endeavor and that life can only be truly “good”, if our happiness is inclusive of other people’s happiness.

We are not alone until we isolate ourselves. We are not helpless until we refuse help. We are not weak until we believe that we are unempowered. As Safi A. Thomas, my mentor, would always tell me, social media has given us the opportunity to reach thousands of people all at once, now would be the time to recognize the unfathomable advantage this gives us and begin to write, speak and spread words of value to those who will listen. We must stop our tendency to forego our social responsibilities for the sake of “venting”, “self-validation”. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, even Instagram are not opportunities for callous self-expression, they are opportunities for constructive social interactions. Why not use it?

We are valuable, once we take actions of value. Longevity is meant for all of us, but right now, NONE of us are experiencing it, neither the dead nor the alive. To ignore social ills is to ignore who we are.“

Raphaela Riemer

Soloist 

H+|The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory 

White culture is racism, alcohol, and bland food.

So I grew up in a small, almost entirely white town next to Montreal. Montreal has a lot of gang activity, particularly from the Bloods and the Crips. A bunch of wealthy, white boys in my town decided one day that they needed to start a gang like the big ones in Montreal. But instead of participating in legitimate crime, they just drove around in a mini van shouting, “What’s cookin’ good lookin’?” at girls under the age of 15 and making gang signs.

Are white people even real?

Note: This is based on the information I learned in high school based on my textbooks (which were written by white people), my teachers (who were white), and comments made by my classmate (who were mostly white).

1. First there were cavemen. They were white.
2. Europe was awesome! They had so much art and stuff! But for some reason they traded with Asian people?? But the only thing that Asian people had to offer was silk.
3. Knights! Knights are awesome!! All the knights are white people!!
4. The Black Plague killed white people. :(
5. We decided to go to North America, woohoo! Europeans were the first people there. They rightfully owned the land. But for some reason these savages thought they owned the land. We killed them all because they were on our land. For some reason a few of them still survived but we made them go away to reserves because we don’t want to deal with them.
6. We decided to bring over black people from Africa. Before slavery, all black people were savages who didn’t know how to speak civilized languages like English. Every day of their lives was like “The Gods Must Be Crazy”. (You think I’m joking, but we actually watched that movie to “give us an idea” of what “uncivilized Africa” would have been like.)
7. White people rule the world. People of colour did not exist before white people. White people rescued them because they were savage animals and then we made them better.
8. 9/11. Arab people exist??? This is news to us, but they are all evil terrorists so we must make them not exist.

notestomyfuturegirlfriend:

How goes it? Hope you’re well. And if you’re not it’s okay because you will be well & happy when we go out to brunch. What up brunch! Booze & pancakes! Yeah, white people love brunch. You may be aware of this.

Love,

Me

dickinson & white people

Favorite variations:

• “So where are you from?” // “Chicago.” // “No but like, … WHERE?” // “Chicago. You want a street name?” // “No but… where are your parents from?” // “Chicago.” // “No but… where are they ORIGINALLY from?” // “Ohhh, I get it! Well…” // (white person leans in attentively) // “My mom grew up in the suburbs."  (End scene.)
• "So you’re Puerto Rican, huh? No? You’re not Spanish? I mean like, aren’t you Dominican? So then you’re Indian. No? Not even like… from India? Or like Hawaiian? So you’re like Arabic, huh?”

I just need someone to subsidize some maps of the world for me so I can throw them at people. This is why geography classes need to come back into style.