Dog Eat Doug by Brian Anderson for November 30, 2014

white supremacy is offensive.

societal tropes of women of color are offensive.

the rate of trans women being attacked and killed is offensive.

the lack of resources for disabled folks is offensive.

mike brown’s death is offensive.

the fact that all of these could be ignored in groups of feminists who’d rather focus on dying their bodily hair neon colors and smear glitter on themselves for liberation is offensive.

non-intersectional, white, middle class, cisgender, able-bodied feminism is offensive.

“

But in thinking about the art of asking, Palmer misses its most basic tenet: In our society, certain kinds of people are allowed to ask for things, and certain kinds of people are not. She writes as though the biggest obstacle to getting the help you need is a reluctance to ask — not, say, ingrained social structures having to do with race and class.

Who is allowed to ask for help? Who is heard when they ask for help? Whom do people want to help? These are basic questions that get little or no attention in The Art of Asking. Instead, we are coached in letting other people help us: “Your acceptance of the gift IS the gift,” she says.

Palmer accidentally hits on truth when she writes, “Effective crowdfunding is not about relying on the kindness of strangers, it’s about relying on the kindness of your crowd.” “Your crowd” is the crucial phrase. Here, she’s of course talking about her fans — as opposed to random strangers. But the uncomfortable, unexamined reality behind her thesis is that you must have a fairly wealthy, leisured and skilled fan base in the first place. Not everyone can ask their crowd for help, because not everyone has a crowd that can help.

”

-

Annalisa Quinn on NPR, deconstructing Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking.

I wrote about this a few years ago from a race and class perspective.

(via notyourexrotic)

peardita:

Clint Barton + text posts

With inspiration from Hawkguy & Lucky the Pizzadog, plus bonus Clintasha. Click to make bigger!

“

It’s very comforting to think we’ll be able to solve America’s nutrition crisis by building more grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods and educating low-income families on how to cook healthy, nutritious meals.

But the unfortunate truth is that more grocery stores and nutrition education (while helpful to some people) doesn’t address the larger problem — which is that eating is expensive.

According to the Population Reference Bureau, the number of low-income families is increasing. The report defines low-income working families as “those earning less than twice the federal poverty line.”

In 2011, the low-income threshold for a family of four with two children was $45,622. If you estimate rent at $1000/month, which is quite low for a family of four, that leaves about $33,000 for health care, transportation costs, clothing, and groceries for four people. That’s $687.50 per person per month for every single expense except rent.

Let’s do some more math.

Gala apples are among the cheapest fruit nationally. The USDA lists them at $1.16 a pound at the time I’m writing this article. There are about three apples to a pound, so if you wanted to buy your two kids an apple for each day of the week, you would spend $5.80 just on an afternoon snack for your kids. And let’s keep in mind that apples are relatively low-calorie, which means they aren’t very filling.

Six bucks doesn’t seem like much to someone with a middle class salary, but when you’re working with a weekly budget of under $700 per week for everything you need, including car repairs, gas money, winter clothing for constantly growing children, toilet paper, laundry detergent, electric bills… $5.80 starts to look pretty hefty for a snack that won’t even satisfy.

“I look at this list and can’t help but wonder how she’s supposed to do it. If $11 of apples equals two snacks, but $3 in Ramen will feed her entire family for dinner, how can she possibly pick apples with her limited food stamp budget?”McClay wonders.“And how will she ever afford to fill half of every mealtime plate with fruits and veggies, the amount recommended by the same government that issued her food stamps?”

It’s a good question.

The US government heavily subsidizes some foods, such as corn and soybeans. The result is that processed foods that are heavy in these ingredients end up being cheaper than fresh produce, which is not as heavily subsidized, if it is at all.

There is a serious disconnect between what we should be eating to stay healthy, and what the economic reality is.

”

-

Why Judging People for Buying Unhealthy Food Is Classist by Wiley Reading

(via navigatethestream)

micdotcom:

The 85 richest people on Earth own as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest 

Follow micdotcom

There was violence and unrest following the news that Darren Wilson would not be indicted. Some argued that this was proof that the people involved were bad people. Jay Smooth responds with a question: “How much do you think people can take?”

Here is a partial transcript of his 5min discussion, embedded below:

Riots are things that human beings do because human beings have limits.

We don’t all have the same limits. For some of us, our human limit is when our favorite team loses a game. For some of us, it’s when our favorite team wins a game.

The people of Ferguson had a different limit than that. For the people of Ferguson, a lifetime of neglect and defacto segregation and incompetence and mistreatment by every level of government was not their limit.

When that malign neglect set the stage for one of their children to be shot down and left in the street like a piece of trash… that was not their limit.

For the people of Ferguson, spending one hundred days almost entirely peacefully protesting for some measure of justice for that child  and having their desire for justice treated like a joke by every local authority… was not their limit.

And then after those 100 days, when the so-called prosecutor waited till the dead of night to twist that knife one last time. When he came out and confirmed once and for all that Michael Brown’s life didn’t matter…

Only then did the people of Ferguson reach their limit.

So when you look at what happened Monday night, the question you should be asking is how did these human beings last that long before they reached their human limit? How do black people in America retain such a deep well of humanity that they can be pushed so far again and again without reaching their human limit?

Riots? Violence? Unrest?

That is what happens when you treat human beings that way.

Watch to the whole thing:

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

fishingboatproceeds:

fuckyeahlavernecox:

Laverne Cox weighs in on Ferguson on The View

Laverne Cox uses her platform with such care and precision. I think we’re very fortunate that she has become a prominent figure in American public life. 

Also sometimes I see her in interviews and think, “I once sang karaoke with her,” and feel the strangeness and wonder of life. (She is, predictably, as beautiful a karaoke singer as I am a terrible one.)

whitegirlsaintshit:

neckboi:

phoeni-xx:

no:

honestly everyone that tries to justify the murder of that 12 year old boy in any way doesn’t deserve to live another second.. That’s so horrifying like there isn’t even some shitty rumor that he stole something and racists still find a way to sleep at night and justify this shit. 12 years old…

Meanwhile white mass shooters holding automatic weapons are apprehended and given a trial. Black children don’t get to play with BB guns though.

white boy school shooters get fandoms but we gotta prove why innocent black people dont deserve to die

a fucking christmas movie about a lil white boy getting a BB gun for christmas and shooting his goddamn eye out evokes a chorus of “awwwwwwwws” amongst white america, but a little 12 year old boy just got killed for playing with a bb gun

miaadamswhat:

justice4mikebrown:

(Oct. 23 2014)

#staywoke

meowitsraygun:

Without riots:

Women wouldn’t be able to vote

Child labor and fair labor laws would not exist

Slavery would still populate much of the world LEGALLY

Gay rights would not exist

Be on the right side of history.

(feel free to add more)

thagoodthings:

taggediconic:

heyitspj:

first tumblr staff removes pictures to protect KKK members
now they removed ferguson from the trending tags
interesting

staff

any last words before black people move to another website leaving tumblr content-less??? the public is dying to know

staff

nokiabae:

Tumblr

Youtube

CNN

Vine

Yahoo

blackourstory:

DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BLACK TULSA? IF NOT… WHY NOT?

This horrific incident has been well documented, everywhere: from YouTube videos of survivor interviews to PBS Lesson Plans for school teachers. Please do your Google diligence:

• From May 30 to June 1, 1921, white citizens of Tulsa bombed burned and shot up the “Little Africa” section of Tulsa FOR 18 HOURS STRAIGHT
• Why would they do that? That same old lame excuse, a Black man supposedly did something to a white woman. But the real reason was ECONOMIC JEALOUSY. Whites may have called it Little Africa derisively, but there is a reason that Black Tulsa is known as Black Wall Street
• In addition to the 300 Blacks killed, and over 1,000 residential homes burned to the ground, also destroyed were:
• The Mt. Zion Baptist Church and five other churches; the Gurley Hotel, Red Wing Hotel, and Midway Hotel; the Tulsa Star and Oklahoma Sun newspaper offices; Dunbar Elementary School; Osborne Monroe’s Roller-Skating Rink; the East End Feed Store; the Y.M.C.A. Cleaners; the Dreamland Theater; a drug store, barbershop, banquet hall, several grocery stores, dentists, lawyers, doctors, and realtors offices; a U.S. Post Office Substation, as well the all-black Frissell Memorial Hospital. All told, marauding gangs of savage whites destroyed 40-square-blocks of Black economic and entrepreneurial prosperity!

64 years after the first bombing of an American city was committed against the Black residents of Tulsa… the second bombing of an American city took place in Philadelphia when the city bombed the black members of the MOVE organization. (see the blackourstory archive for details). 

Isn’t it a shame that 76 after the bombing of Tulsa, when Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, most historically illiterate Americans - including American “journalists” - responded as if it were the first time such a horror had been visited on Oklahoma. If only we knew.

While there are many lessons to be drawn from this, a few questions that stick out to me are these:

• If the answer to Black second-class treatment from whites in America is supposedly to become the ultimate American capitalists…the ‘model minorities’… how do you explain Tulsa 1921?
• For those Black folk who think that the sole answer to Black people’s problems is simply more Blacks becoming business owners and more Blacks spending money with other Blacks… how did that work out for our people in Tulsa in ‘21?
• Considering not only Tulsa, but Rosewood, Florida, and many other thriving all-Black towns that you may know of that all met the same fate at the hands of murderous, envious, lazy crackers… WHEN ARE WE GOING TO ACKNOWLEDGE AND TAKE SERIOUSLY THE IDEA THAT BLACK WEALTH (ESPECIALLY ALL-BLACK WEALTH) WILL NEED TO BE PROTECTED WITH PHYSICAL FORCE?

There is a reason that Marcus Garvey AND Elijah Muhammad had armies of trained Black men as a huge part of their organizations. Many of us Black folk took those great men as jokes, yet NO BLACK LEADERS SINCE THOSE TWO have reached the same heights of economic and ideological success and unity of Black people. 

Not only do we need to LEARN THIS HISTORY, we need to start taking these events men and movements MORE SERIOUSLY, and doing some CRITICAL HISTORICAL ANALYSIS if we are ever to stop being on the bottom rung of every metric in American life. Not just some casual or accidental reading of history; some CRITICAL. HISTORICAL. ANALYSIS.

TULSA 1921 was real. PHILLY 1985 was real. Will it happen again?

bauske:

dewogong:

I’ve been trying to find this gifset because this is relevant now more than ever.

holy crap Adventure Time

christhepusher:

socialjusticekoolaid:

Today in Solidarity (11/21/14): Ferguson protesters stage a mock lynching outside of the same courthouse Dred Scott was proclaimed less of a human being for his blackness. More than a century later, we’re still having to convince folks that “Black Lives Matter.” #staywoke #farfromover,

Definitely far from over. We have so much work to do. Lets Push Forward…

quasi-normalcy:

black-culture:

Stop demonizing riots.-@zellieimani

The main contradiction of liberal democracy is that it has largely been shaped through a history of various forms of illegal civil disobedience against entrenched power structures. Such civil disobedience is (retrospectively) seen as justified, and the people committing it are (retrospectively) seen as heroes…but each successive generation is asked to believe that any further civil disobedience would be unreasonable.

[doghousediaries]

t-ii:

Civil rights attorney/MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Bloom points out that Darren Wilson’s cross-examination was a joke

thedatingfeminist:

sushinfood:

schakira:

they dont call us the n-word anymore. they call us animals and thugs. fuck this shit.
that racist mindset never dissapeared, it just evolved to fit the law.

don’t forget how much darren wilson insisted mike brown was hulk hogan, it, demon, giant, 6 foot 4 while darren described himself as a frightened five year old

despite darren wilson being 6’4 himself.

“

Real love’s a patient thing. It takes time to be kind. It doesn’t get jealous, it doesn’t brag; it’s not stuck up about itself. It’s not rude or self-serving. It’s hard to piss love off; it doesn’t hold grudges. Love isn’t happy with evil; it’s truth that gives it joy. It always protects the loved, always trusts them, never gives up hope in them, always works to be there for them. Real love never fails.

And love is itself. It doesn’t have to be like any other kind. It doesn’t have to fit into a specific box. It is the box. And it’s not the box’s shape that matters; it’s the unique thing inside.

Know it when you see it. There’s not enough of it around.

”

- (cleaning out the sticky-note app this morning, I found this. Looks like a rephrase of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. As for the rest of it, did I write it? God knows. I hope I did.)

kingjaffejoffer:

misandry-mermaid:

the-goddamazon:

prettyboyshyflizzy:

strugglingtobeheard:

musiqchild007:

2damnfeisty:

shmurdamagicalgirl:

postracialcomments:

Yall….

Sit here and think people why would protesters burn down their own things? Why would hey trash places in their community?

Especially a damn church they belong to…

Makes no damn sense.

My heart is beating so fast knowing the klan is back to literally burning black churches down bc Black people have the nerve to want justice in Ferguson.

This ain’t black people can’t be

This is classic Klan tactics.

They attack our places of business and community. Churches and businesses.

Next they’ll be lobbing molotovs into people’s yards and throwing bricks through their windows.

My grandmother and grandfather used to tell me stories about the shit they’d do. Nothing has changed.

Agent Provocateurs.

People who think protesters who want justice for Mike Brown are the same people doing this really need to do a quick refresher on COINTELPRO. The government later admitted in declassified documents that they infiltrated peaceful protests with agents who’s job it was to cause trouble, make the movement look bad and cause confusion and doubt within the ranks of Black folk. 

This is not a conspiracy theory, it is 100% proven fact. 

Please don’t think it can’t or won’t happen again. 

The American government is not above paying a couple of guys some money to burn down a church or beauty supply store to quell support for Ferguson protesters. 

There’s nothing new under the sun. History repeats itself. 

thedatingfeminist:

The police accountability petition needs a LOT more love, people!

The Brown family supports body cams on cops to help foster police accountability.

If you’re in the US, you should sign these petitions as well:

investigate Michael Brown’s death - naacp.org

bring Darren Wilson up on federal charges - whitehouse.gov

bring Darren Wilson up on federal charges - change.org (this one can also be signed from outside the US)

bring Darren Wilson up on federal charges - colorofchange.org

nodamncatnodamncradle:

odinsblog:

Racial bias in America: from higher suspension rates in preschool, to disproportionate rates of capital punishment, to everything in between, structures of authority routinely allow anti-Black racial bias to color the “facts”, and warp the narrative. And frequently (whether unintentional or otherwise) the police and the media often work together to further criminalize innocent Black victims

1. Criminalizing Blackness in America

2. 14-year-old Tremaine McMillian attacked and choked by police, literally while holding a puppy…because McMillian made them “feel threatened” and gave them “dehumanizing stares”

3. Author and CNN contributor keithboykin: how the AP slandered Renisha McBride even in death

4.  The Associated Press: when can skin color alone determine who is and who isn’t a looter? (hint: don’t be Black)

5. Lauren Davidson: Disturbing Study Proves That Cops View Black Children Differently 

This implicit racial bias does not magically stop at innocuous events like the VMAs, or in »Hollywood. So far, it doesn’t ever turn off. There are two Americas and racial bias is as ubiquitous as the air we breathe

for the folks wondering how the bastard could have possibly thought 12 year old Tamir Rice was in his 20s when he gunned him down while playing outside a community center

“If women weren’t seen as people they’d be sent off to die in a war. They’d be raped in prison and ignored. They’d be counted off as an insurgent rather than a casualty. They’d be denied shelter. You don’t need a movement supposedly only pushing for women’s personhood. We already are people.”

-

feministsaresexist

*ignores that during war, there are higher rates of rape for female civilians AND soldiers than rates of death for ANYONE (but it’s “just rape” so who cares right?)*

*ignores that women (mostly women of color) are routinely sexually abused and even murdered by correctional officers in prison and never see justice*

*ignores that the right wing war on poverty, including the reduction of welfare benefits, disproportionately effects women, mainly single mothers and women of color*

*ignores that anti-abortion “personhood laws” proposed by Republicans involve treating pregnant people (mostly women) with less bodily autonomy than we provide to dead bodies*

(via misandry-mermaid)