"Disliking hip-hop doesn’t make you a racist any more than liking hip-hop makes you not a racist, and I’m sure there are plenty of Stormfront enthusiasts with Rick Ross in their iTunes. If you don’t like Jay-Z because you just don’t like the way he sounds, or you’re sick of his cloying ubiquity, or you wish he’d talk about something other than where he’s from for five seconds — hey, I’m not mad, I don’t like Bruce Springsteen for the same reasons. But if you don’t like rap music — a genre that contains multitudes — because of a self-satisfied moralism, or because you’re scared of it, or because you wish those people would stop talking about their problems and get out of your television and radio and kids’ bedrooms: well.
And I’m not just talking about the American right, I’m talking about all the well-meaning white folks who’ve told me how they want to like Lil Wayne but lo, the misogyny, the violence, the drugs. But, but, I’ll say: Bob Dylan aced misogyny; the Rolling Stones sang about violence; the Velvet Underground knew their way around some drugs. Yeeeah, but it’s different, they’ll say, elongating that “yeah” with conspiratorial inflection: you know what I mean. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
Rap music doesn’t get unarmed kids shot to death, “it’s different” does. “It’s different” infuses “these assholes always get away” and gives solace to people who hear that sound bite and nod their empty heads in agreement. “It’s different” is the same logic that suggests a teenager’s skin color combined with the music he listened to means he had it coming, and it’s the same logic that lets a bunch of people feign outrage over a teenager’s use of the n-word to describe himself when they’re really just outraged that he beat them to the punch.
“It’s different” makes me shake with anger because it turns music into a dog-whistle to justify the murder of a kid who doesn’t seem all that “different” from me was when I was his age, not that different at all. I liked Skittles and hoodies and weed, too. And yeah, I’m white and never worried about getting shot for any of it, which is only the most loathsome excuse for not identifying with someone that I can possibly think of."
— Jack Hamilton, “America Is Dying Slowly: Talking About Hip-Hop After Trayvon Martin” (via stampbags)

(Source: thediscography)

Tags | racism | music |
What do you think of the amount of hate and animosity some people are directing towards The Hunger Games, for casting a beautiful African-American girl for the part of Rue?

feministfilm:

edit: made rebloggable!

(asked by iwanttobelikearollingstone)

I am so mad at people over this. Rue was described as having “dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that, she’s very like Prim in size and demeanor.” Dark brown.

While many had hoped that the film would cast a woman at least ambiguously of color as Katniss due to being described as “olive-skinned,” our ask box has been loaded with people arguing that dark-skinned people can still be white! (Never mind that J. Law isn’t dark-skinned at all.) People were so unwilling to love and acknowledge a character who was explicitly of color that they would rather insist on a broader definition of whiteness. But I digress.

No, Collins never describes Rue as black, because that is not a meaningful racial category in the book. She is “dark brown,” and people are mad that they cast a relatively light-skinned brown girl in this role. People are so mad that they have to look at a black girl. 

How mad are they? Mad enough to completely ignore the way that the book describes Rue. Mad that they were almost tricked into feeling human empathy for a black person:

Why are they so mad that a girl with “satiny brown skin” was played by, uh, a girl with “satiny brown skin”? (Other than because they’re racist and can’t stand the imposition of having to humanize black people.) I think a lot of it has to do with the way that Katniss parallels Rue and Prim, and people refuse to attach Prim’s innocence and purity to a black girl.

What I can’t understand is why people aren’t mad that Thresh has also been cast as a black man? Why are they totally fine with a brutish but noble man being black, but not a wily, pure, beloved, innocent girl?

A few things are pretty clear about the relationship between skin color and class as it relates to Katniss, Thresh, Rue, and the Everdeens:

  • Thresh and Rue are both brown-skinned, and this is related to the fact that they are very poor, oppressed agricultural workers from district 11
  • People who live in the Seam—including Katniss and her father—are olive-skinned with dark features, and this is very closely related to the fact that they are poor, oppressed and socially invisible miners
  • Katniss’s mother is lily-white, and this is very closely related to the fact that she came from a merchant class
  • Katniss’s feelings of affinity with Rue and Thresh are very closely related to the fact that they were also poor and oppressed workers
  • Peeta comes from a merchant class, and has ashy blonde hair
  • Katniss’s feelings of dissonance with Peeta are very closely related to the fact they he did not grow up hungry or in a poor and oppressed situation and as such she sometimes can’t relate to him

This isn’t about phenotypes, this is about a clear if unarticulated racial hierarchy in The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins’s dystopia is not a colorblind one, and white folks are pissed about it. It matters that Katniss was of color, that Rue was of color. It matters not only because we want girls of color to be allowed to see themselves in the media. It matters because it has everything to do with the Capitol and the class and power structures that Collins invented.

White people who read this kind of fiction want to see a colorblind world. They want to see a world which takes place in North America a few hundred years from now but where not only has the memory of slavery and colonialism been completely erased, but so have the formerly enslaved and the formerly colonized. And they want to see a dystopic future where they are the subjects of oppression. They want to see Winston Smith. They don’t want to see any people of color whatsoever.

And if they do have to look at a black face, they sure as hell don’t want to like it.

One thing that’s less clear (at least in The Hunger Games, I haven’t read the other two books yet) is the racial makeup of the Capitol itself. I imagine it’s not completely white but, you know, pretty white. The question most unanswered is that of Cinna: to my knowledge (at least in book one), Cinna is never described as a person of color. That’s why it’s so great to see Lenny Kravitz cast in this role—they cast a black man in a likeable, important role and they didn’t even have to! But I can’t help but wonder if it contributes to the image of a “colorblind” Panem, one in which race isn’t linked to class and power. (But I’m glad he’s got the part, anyway.)

feministsoccupyhalloween: tyleroakley: “…And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that’s she’s very like Prim in size and demeanor…” - Suzanne Collins while describing the character of Rue Reading this, I honestly feel like Rue just died all over again, and my heart breaks for her. WHAT the FUCK people?!  (And even if the book didn’t describe her as having dark brown skin - why would you CARE that she was black? I mean, other than being a racist fuck?)

feministsoccupyhalloween:

tyleroakley:

“…And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that’s she’s very like Prim in size and demeanor…” - Suzanne Collins while describing the character of Rue

Reading this, I honestly feel like Rue just died all over again, and my heart breaks for her.

WHAT the FUCK people?! 

(And even if the book didn’t describe her as having dark brown skin - why would you CARE that she was black? I mean, other than being a racist fuck?)

Victim-blaming is a tool

crystalsavestheday:

To take the heat off the perpetrator

To not see what’s actually going on

No one wants to look deeply at themselves or the world outside of them. Especially the privileged

They don’t want to admit that there’s so many fucked up things going on (sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia)

And that they may be perpetrators of them as well.

They want to believe that we’ve come so far, when really that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Yes. This.

While we have made overall strides, that pushes a lot of forms of oppression sort of “underground” - it becomes insidious and too easy to gloss over.

Marginalized Whiteness

viviopsis:

trekwho:

feral-femme:

yummydick:

Read More

THIS IS A BOSS ARTICLE written by a white person on being white/queer. They say dope and accurate things like, “Throughout history, queerness has been through a lot of shit. Queerness has also never been collectively enslaved for hundreds of years. There are, though, queer people who have had that reality.” So white ppl you should read this/reply to it. 

Quotes I’d like to emphasize:

  • In the antebellum South, a disabled white woman had the capacity to own an non-disabled black man. Whiteness was the capacity to own, blackness was the capacity to be owned. Those dynamics are still relevant today.
     
  • Being white puts us at the top of the food chain in our own communities. If you recall, to be white is to be the master. This is something that follows us wherever we are. Only among other whites does this get erased. Only among other masters is our masterhood revoked.
  •  The vast majority of hate crimes committed against members of the queer community are against people of color. Despite this, the face of anti-queer violence has been that of normatively attractive white males.

That last point reminds me of the It Gets Better project, started and spearheaded by a white gay man as a reaction to the suicides of a few white gay boys, and the most known participants of which are white.

In addition to that, the message “it gets better” is flawed because it contains inherent passivity. Not “we need to make it better”, not “we are working to make it better”. And while we believe that the majority opinion of America (US-centrism, btw) has been gradually becoming more tolerant to LGBTQ folks, it still has a lot to learn about intersectional identities. We know that Trans* Day of Remembrance is overwhelmingly about murdered trans* women of color.

America is slowly learning one way to deal with all queer people (the whole marriage equality being the top priority thing) but it seems to be still confused by a person who is both queer and not white. Non-binary gender is still dealt with really badly both inside and outside queer spaces.

Somehow it seems like it’s much harder to recognize someone as a real person and respect them socially, legally, and individually if they’re queer, POC, disabled, etc. 

And this is related, but I am in no way educated enough to speak on the subject: trans* and non-binary gender identities outside western monoculture.

: recognize the legal right to marry, and the legal benefits that come with it. That makes sense to the ‘Murrikan idealized right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but it really doesn’t 

All of this. 

This is difficult to verbalize properly, but I feel like this is where I want to talk with people about pushing back at the way that white social justice groups (acknowledging myself as a member of these, although I would like to emphasize that this is not a “social justice blog”) use and talk about intersectionality - because I feel like a lot of the time it’s extremely simplified or reduced and turned into something that serves white marginalized groups in particular ways and is removed from its history as a concept that Kimberly Crenshaw brought into play, specifically regarding black women, in a moment where black women workers needed to talk about legal recourse in a system that only recognized discrimination against white women and black men. Which is not where intersectionality ends, but where it begins — and it seems like that’s kind of glossed over or entirely forgotten.

Also, if we’re talking about hate crimes and the ways in which legislation and attempted legislation around hate-crimes have been extremely problematic and narrowly-focused, I would also suggest reading this piece by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. Here’s something that white-dominated, mainstream LGBT advocacy and rights groups led by people who statistically have much less interaction with the prison system than people of color do not usually highlight or think about when we talk about hate crime legislation:  

“Hate crime laws do not distinguish between oppressed groups and groups with social and institutional power. Compared to white men, Black men are disproportionately arrested for race-based hate crimes. The second-largest category of race-based hate crimes tracked by the FBI is crimes committed against white people. Every year, the FBI reports a number of so-called “anti-heterosexual” hate crimes—incidents where members of the LGBT community have been prosecuted for supposedly targeting straight people with criminal acts.”

Of course hate crimes against queer folx are completely, totally awful. But to talk about and codify law surrounding hate crimes without addressing the rampantly racist prison system and the ways these laws will undoubtedly affect queer and trans* people of color (and have already affected queer and trans* people of color) is also completely, totally awful. And no one is being held accountable. 

And I mean, since trekwho mentioned US-centrism, we can also talk about (not to say that people aren’t already talking about this or that I am the first to bring it up; I’m just throwing it in here) a framework that uses assemblages of oppression to address issues like white liberal/progressive queer American exceptionalism, racism, and colonialism in ways that might be less confined to Western understandings of historical oppression via an intersectionality framework that’s been largely co-opted by white social justice groups. 

TL;DR - The point is, read the linked post. 

No, really, I want to know.

sinidentidades:

Why does it take Rush Limbaugh to call an affluent, white woman a “slut” to realize that he’s an asshole? He’s said plenty of similar, if not worse, things about women of color in the past. Where was the outrage then? Why is everyone up in arms now? 

Look at this list of things that he’s said about women of color, and I dare you to tell me that we live in a post-racial society.

Rush Limbaugh is one of the most horrible people on the planet. 

Dear white people who blame POC and Affirmative Action when they don’t get a scholarship or acceptance letters or jobs,

therhapsodyincidents:

whatwhiteswillneverknow:

lyddawiyya:

whatwhiteswillneverknow:

Shut the fuck up.

I’m tired of being nice about this shit. SHUT. The FUCK. UP. Your school wants to add more diversity? You’re upset? FUCK YOU! Shut the fuck up! You didn’t get a scholarship, but the winner is a PoC, and you think it’s only because of their ethnicity? FUCK YOU. SHUT THE FUCK UP. You think affirmative action is disadvantageous to white folk? SHUT THE FUCK UP. You’re mad that a job position went to a PoC rather than you, and you’re convinced it only happened because of their race? SHUT THE FUCK UP.

When the only effect racism has on you is a fear of your life being slightly shaken because reparations are being made to those who were stepped on in the past… you are really fucking privileged. When you think it’s unfair that they’re getting reparations, you’re not only privileged, but really fucking stupid, and really fucking selfish.

Affirmative Action affects: People of Color, Women, war veterans, people with disabilities… As in, you know, THEY CAN BE WHITE. A company that applies AA can hire ONE white person with a disability and THEY WILL BE BE ABLE TO CLAIM THAT THEY’RE “DIVERSE” See that, white people? YOUR asses can fill the role, too, so WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU COMPLAINING? You are so fucking desperate to have everything that you automatically blame PoC when they get what you want! It’s automatically our fucking fault and that’s bullshit, and it’s old hat, and you need to take that nonsense to the garbage pile you pulled it from and TAKE A DAMN SEAT.

I know you blame ALL PoC but I’m going to talk about Black people in particular, because we tend to get the brunt of your wrath more than any other PoC group. So let’s talk facts: Black folk don’t even make up 50 percent of the country. How are you going to blame us when you can’t get into a college? How you gonna blame us when your ass gets rejected for a scholarship? You didn’t get it, but I did. It MUST be because I’m black. Bitch, PLEASE. Talkin bout we taking all your scholarships. We make up thirteen fucking percent of this country of this country. If we’re speaking in binaries, that means if thirteen percent of the nation’s scholarships were awarded to Black people, THAT WOULD STILL LEAVE 87% OF ALL THE COUNTRY’S SCHOLARSHIPS FOR YOU WHITE FOLK. EIGHTY SEVEN. But here’s the reality of it: You want to know how many scholarships there are for ALL PoC (which white people can actually apply for and get, too?)? Somewhere around FIVE percent… OR LESS. That means that hypothetically speaking, 95+% of scholarships are free for all, especially for YOUR asses. NINETY FIVE.

NINETY

FIVE

PERCENT.

WOULD.

GO.

TO.

WHITE PEOPLE.

So while you wanna sit here and be mad that I write essays better than you do, you could be snatching up another one. Let me throw a mantra that white folk seem to LOVE throwing at us PoC when we can’t catch a break with ANYTHING: “YOU NEED TO WORK HARDER.” 95 percent of scholarships are free for all. Technically, more than 95% because white people can apply for ethnic scholarships. So if your ass doesn’t have one? It’s YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT, NOT MINE. “Maybe if you WORKED hard enough, YOUR ASS WOULD HAVE ONE. “

I’m TIRED of having my intelligence questioned. I’m TIRED of having to do twice as much work as my white peers, only to have my excellence accredited to something else because there’s just NO WAY a black woman can be SMART. I’m TIRED of white students staring at a group of innocent black kids in disdain and then making some snide ass backhanded “observation” that our school LOWERED their admissions standards. I’m so fucking TIRED of white people looking so damn surprised when they find out where I go to school, like black people just aren’t good enough to get into a top college. White people, guess what? POC are smart too! If you can’t handle it, that’s YOUR problem. If you don’t like it, that’s YOUR problem. If you can’t STAND it, then that’s YOUR fucking problem, and you need to transfer out and find another fucking school where you’ll feel safer because the white population is 99% rather than 92%. It’s YOUR fucking problem. QUIT MAKING IT OURS. Take your racism and FUCK OFF. FUCK OFF. FUCK OFF.

All the ignorant, anti-POC, anti-non white, racist, white supremacist fuckfaces need to get the fuck OUT of my face, get OUT of my space, and leave me and the rest of us PoC the fuck alone. If you don’t want to acknowledge our intelligence or mull over what we bring to the fucking table, then you get the fuck out of your chair and let it be filled by someone who WILL. Whatever, I don’t care what you do just GET THE FUCK OUT. Shut up about how we “stole” your scholarships or how we’re fucking “privileged” just because SOME people want to try and even out the playing field of which YOU stand on the higher side. YOU, that special brand of white person who refuses to think that maybe you’re overestimating yourself and giving yourself too much damn credit, need to cry a fucking river… AWAY from me.

Because frankly, if I wanted to deal with salty crackers, I’d go to the store and buy a god damn box of Ritz.

Oh my God can I marry you?!?

Best post ever. Especially cuz of all the “fucks.”

Yes!!! Can I send out the wedding announcements? Can we have an epic ton of tasty desserts? Because I’m down for this. lol.

I’ll secure a venue. Something with a view maybe?

And I’ll take care of the flowers.

(Source: thinkspeakstress)

Dear white people who blame POC and Affirmative Action when they don’t get a scholarship or acceptance letters or jobs,

therhapsodyincidents:

whatwhiteswillneverknow:

lyddawiyya:

whatwhiteswillneverknow:

Shut the fuck up.

I’m tired of being nice about this shit. SHUT. The FUCK. UP. Your school wants to add more diversity? You’re upset? FUCK YOU! Shut the fuck up! You didn’t get a scholarship, but the winner is a PoC, and you think it’s only because of their ethnicity? FUCK YOU. SHUT THE FUCK UP. You think affirmative action is disadvantageous to white folk? SHUT THE FUCK UP. You’re mad that a job position went to a PoC rather than you, and you’re convinced it only happened because of their race? SHUT THE FUCK UP.

When the only effect racism has on you is a fear of your life being slightly shaken because reparations are being made to those who were stepped on in the past… you are really fucking privileged. When you think it’s unfair that they’re getting reparations, you’re not only privileged, but really fucking stupid, and really fucking selfish.

Affirmative Action affects: People of Color, Women, war veterans, people with disabilities… As in, you know, THEY CAN BE WHITE. A company that applies AA can hire ONE white person with a disability and THEY WILL BE BE ABLE TO CLAIM THAT THEY’RE “DIVERSE” See that, white people? YOUR asses can fill the role, too, so WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU COMPLAINING? You are so fucking desperate to have everything that you automatically blame PoC when they get what you want! It’s automatically our fucking fault and that’s bullshit, and it’s old hat, and you need to take that nonsense to the garbage pile you pulled it from and TAKE A DAMN SEAT.

I know you blame ALL PoC but I’m going to talk about Black people in particular, because we tend to get the brunt of your wrath more than any other PoC group. So let’s talk facts: Black folk don’t even make up 50 percent of the country. How are you going to blame us when you can’t get into a college? How you gonna blame us when your ass gets rejected for a scholarship? You didn’t get it, but I did. It MUST be because I’m black. Bitch, PLEASE. Talkin bout we taking all your scholarships. We make up thirteen fucking percent of this country of this country. If we’re speaking in binaries, that means if thirteen percent of the nation’s scholarships were awarded to Black people, THAT WOULD STILL LEAVE 87% OF ALL THE COUNTRY’S SCHOLARSHIPS FOR YOU WHITE FOLK. EIGHTY SEVEN. But here’s the reality of it: You want to know how many scholarships there are for ALL PoC (which white people can actually apply for and get, too?)? Somewhere around FIVE percent… OR LESS. That means that hypothetically speaking, 95+% of scholarships are free for all, especially for YOUR asses. NINETY FIVE.

NINETY

FIVE

PERCENT.

WOULD.

GO.

TO.

WHITE PEOPLE.

So while you wanna sit here and be mad that I write essays better than you do, you could be snatching up another one. Let me throw a mantra that white folk seem to LOVE throwing at us PoC when we can’t catch a break with ANYTHING: “YOU NEED TO WORK HARDER.” 95 percent of scholarships are free for all. Technically, more than 95% because white people can apply for ethnic scholarships. So if your ass doesn’t have one? It’s YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT, NOT MINE. “Maybe if you WORKED hard enough, YOUR ASS WOULD HAVE ONE. “

I’m TIRED of having my intelligence questioned. I’m TIRED of having to do twice as much work as my white peers, only to have my excellence accredited to something else because there’s just NO WAY a black woman can be SMART. I’m TIRED of white students staring at a group of innocent black kids in disdain and then making some snide ass backhanded “observation” that our school LOWERED their admissions standards. I’m so fucking TIRED of white people looking so damn surprised when they find out where I go to school, like black people just aren’t good enough to get into a top college. White people, guess what? POC are smart too! If you can’t handle it, that’s YOUR problem. If you don’t like it, that’s YOUR problem. If you can’t STAND it, then that’s YOUR fucking problem, and you need to transfer out and find another fucking school where you’ll feel safer because the white population is 99% rather than 92%. It’s YOUR fucking problem. QUIT MAKING IT OURS. Take your racism and FUCK OFF. FUCK OFF. FUCK OFF.

All the ignorant, anti-POC, anti-non white, racist, white supremacist fuckfaces need to get the fuck OUT of my face, get OUT of my space, and leave me and the rest of us PoC the fuck alone. If you don’t want to acknowledge our intelligence or mull over what we bring to the fucking table, then you get the fuck out of your chair and let it be filled by someone who WILL. Whatever, I don’t care what you do just GET THE FUCK OUT. Shut up about how we “stole” your scholarships or how we’re fucking “privileged” just because SOME people want to try and even out the playing field of which YOU stand on the higher side. YOU, that special brand of white person who refuses to think that maybe you’re overestimating yourself and giving yourself too much damn credit, need to cry a fucking river… AWAY from me.

Because frankly, if I wanted to deal with salty crackers, I’d go to the store and buy a god damn box of Ritz.

Oh my God can I marry you?!?

Best post ever. Especially cuz of all the “fucks.”

Yes!!! Can I send out the wedding announcements? Can we have an epic ton of tasty desserts? Because I’m down for this. lol.

I’ll secure a venue. Something with a view maybe?

And I’ll take care of the flowers.

(Source: thinkspeakstress)

feministfilm:

White supremacy: when even Billy Crystal gets away with blackface.*
*not that anyone should get away with blackface, but if you need any proof that the white supremacist system is structured to support whiteness and defend racism at LITERALLY ANY MAN’S BEHALF, NO MATTER HOW IRRELEVANT OR UNFUNNY OR UNTALENTED HE IS, this is it.

white supremacy would try to legitimize some dude’s toe jam as important and relevant and worth our time if it meant perpetuating the oppression of people of color.

Yesterday when posts were going around teh tumblrs about Billy Crystal and blackface I thought they were a reference to an old sketch or something from I don’t know what. It wasn’t until today I realized that Billy Crystal performed blackface at the 2012 Academy Awards. 

daniellemertina:

stfuconfederates:

Oh for fuck’s sake, if people don’t stop using the word ‘Caucasian’ when referring to white people I’m going to rename my blog Caucasiandoesnotfuckingmeanwhite.

‘Caucasian’ is a (racist) term incorrectly applied to white people when white people found actual Caucasian skulls (in, you know, Caucasia) which were perfectly shaped and assumed that they belonged to white people when, in fact, they didn’t.

jfc I’m getting tired of explaining this to people.

Thank you.

To me that is the c-word and it is never used by me. According to Wikipedia, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (a German anthropologist) came up with the term and wrote:

I have taken the name of this variety from Mount Caucasus, both because its neighborhood, and especially its southern slope, produces the most beautiful race of men, I mean the Georgian; and because all physiological reasons converge to this, that in that region, if anywhere, it seems we ought with the greatest probability to place the autochthones (birth place) of mankind.

No. Ya’ll are not the most beautiful race. Wrong answer. But that’s what Caucasian means.

(I did not know this is where/how the term originated)

(Source: dumbthingswhitepplsay)

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