In terms of mass incarceration, it seems it is more than the belief in stereotypes that blacks are criminal. But really stems from slavery times of the fear of blacks overcoming whites for the horrors they put blacks through. It seems through all I read, people who say “oh that’s just the way it…
(via arewomenhuman)
but that doesn’t mean that this police brutality is ANY LESS fucked up.
it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to this police brutality.
it doesn’t mean you can mock the women who screamed and cried on tape after getting maced IN THEIR EYES.
police brutality is NEVER OKAY. the answer is not “ignore it when it happens to white folks” it’s “pay more attention to the fact that this is a regular occurrence for a lot of poor POC out there”.
thank you.
(Inspired by the commentary on this post)
For the purposes of anti-racism struggles, that’s all you need to go by.
Yes, the term, “colored” is not normally associated with Asian people these days, but it was definitely used to label people of Asian descent in this country in the…
while i am really interested in the history of asians and asian-americans, especially the history of resistance to colonization, i find this post to be problematic.
especially this analysis:
So if White is grudgingly treating you OK, while Black and Brown seem to hate and distrust you, then whom do you ally yourself with? More importantly, who benefits from this apparent alliance?
In the American black-white paradigm of race relations, ‘others’ like Asians get shit on no matter which side we’re on. So the Asian internalization of White racism makes a twisted kind of sense as a survival strategy, particularly if your natural allies (other victims of White racism) are treating you like foreigners and even equating you with the oppressor himself.
My point: Asians’ conflicted, sometimes tense, relations with African Americans and those who have been historically, categorically considered ‘Colored’ is an artifact of White racism. This means that if you exclude Asians from ‘Colored’ solidarity against White racism, you are reproducing a highly successful strategy of White racism.
my response to this is from here: nopper
and here is an excerpt that i think complicates your analysis…
Contrary to the popular image of blacks as racially restrictive, Yancey discovers that black respondents are the most open to all other races. Yet despite being the most receptive to other groups, blacks in general are rejected by all nonblack groups – whites, Latino/as and Asian Americans. While some assume that whites will be closed off to anyone not white, Yancey’s research show that white respondents are more accepting of Latino/as and Asian Americans than they are of blacks. In turn, Latino/a and Asian American respondents are fairly receptive to one another as well as whites. Overall, Yancey’s findings reveal that whites, Latino/as and Asian Americans do not tend to reject one another as possible neighbors or their kids’ spouses, but all three groups show a general resistance to blacks in these social roles.
That all three nonblack groups were found to be more accepting of one another in a way that they were not of blacks suggests that assimilation may be less about desiring whiteness as it is avoiding blackness. Yancey concludes, “The rejection of African Americans, rather than the acceptance of European Americans, is the best explanation of social distance in the United States.”
so while i realize that you were responding to a specific post in which it was questioned whether or not asians are considered people of color. (which may have simply been a question of whether or not asians consider themselves to be people of color) the research shows that it is not, in general, blacks rejecting asians as it is asians engaging in anti-blackness.
“Previous research on majority group domination tends to be built upon either the concept that white supremacy is, or was, the dominant ideology among majority group members, or the concept that dominant group members utilize notions of color blindness to protect their racial position of privilege. Both concepts lead to an understanding of an American racial hierarchy formed by a white/nonwhite dichotomy. In such a system all non-European groups face social rejection and theoretically all non-European groups deserve an equal amount of academic attention – even if they have not been receiving it. Yet given the merging of nonblack racial minorities into the dominant culture, this white/nonwhite dichotomy is losing relevance. A black/nonblack dichotomy produces more understanding about contemporary race relations. It suggests that the informal rejection of African Americans, rather than a tendency by the majority to oppress all minority groups in a roughly equal manner, is the linchpin to the American contemporary racial hierarchy.”
so yeah, i dont think that blacks and asians are ‘natural allies’.
on a personal note, the only racialized people in the states, that i have talked to who strongly reject being called a poc, were asians/asian americans. i used to do a lot of anti racism trainings, so ive had this convo an above average amount of times.
with love.
very important commentary.
(via blackraincloud)
SCOTUS granted a temporary stay to review the appeal of Duane Buck. At issue isn’t his guilt; it’s whether he was sentenced to death in part because of his race. Read our full report here.
Long after whites had fled to white-only suburbs, the black middle class remained in black neighborhoods, quietly doing the job without fanfare. Its members worked quietly and without recognition to set up beautification committees. They organized safety walks. My late LeDroit Park neighbor Barbara Best used to say that when she and the old-timers would hear about all these “new” ideas for cleaning up the neighborhood, they’d just laugh: “Everything they are doing, we already did.”
Long before teachers were lionized in documentaries, or D.C. superintendents were hailed as heroes on Oprah, it was black middle-class teachers and administrators who were doing the unsung work of educating society’s most vulnerable students. It was black middle-class parents who accepted the burden of integrating schools by sending their children across town to white neighborhood schools because they valued diversity. It is almost unheard of for white families to do the same.
During D.C.’s murder-capital days especially, when white faces were scarce, black administrators kept the doors to raggedy school buildings open all over the city. All of this while knowing that whatever privilege they might have earned for their children could collapse at any moment in a hail of gunfire. Where is their gold star?
A Forced Eugenics Survivor Speaks Her Truth
This is why the pro-life movement’s sudden concern for Black fetuses and it’s recent focus on the Black community is laughable, insulting, hypocritical, and downright racist.
(via squeetothegee)
(Source: thetart, via kadalkavithaigal)
Sherry Wolf (via jessrosney)
I feel sick.
(via ashawo-kekele)
(Source: jess-roz, via xeyxey-deactivated20120205)
what makes one of these hairstyles ghetto?
i love this post. ghetto seems to always come out of people’s mouths to refer to something/someone african/african american. when you even THINK of the term ghetto you think black people. Just keep the word out of your mouth period. Just stop using it
*crickets*
I love this. This was the point I was making the other day, with blacks experimenting with different hair colors. Love this post.
not only “ghetto,” but what gets termed “creative,” “daring,” “experimental,” “ground-breaking,” “artistic,” etc. what is recognized as cognizant, informed and self-directed artistic product and what is written off as base instinct, incorrect, and reactionary. what/who has intelligence and what/who doesn’t. what/who is legitimate and what/who is not.
and miss me with the “comply because you’re black and the majority won’t look past that”
cuz i’ve been the button up starchy super prim admin who did more than her white counterpart, and you know what?
they still gave me shit. cuz when they pushed and i pushed back, it was an issue of my “attitude,” not the decision to put more bullshit on me than necessary.
it happens all of the time.
Susan B Anthony avoided real discourse with Ida B Wells and most feminists pretend they don’t know it happened
Angela Davis combined her experiences with feminism and the silent racism of yes Gloria Steinem with her education and her experience of sexism to write Women Race and Class , so many women name check the book and then drool kind of disgustingly and offensively over Steinhem
Mary Daly flat out avoided Audre Lourde and her book is still held up as radical godsend
Women OF color bloggers challenge white passive racism and sexism and less than five years later people send out book proposals like they don’t exist and must be found
This isn’t about the Help.
This isn’t even about the power.
Yes white women have in a SPECIFIC location to erase , validate or coopt women of color lives at will and have it considered work. Every Nice White Lady , Emily Deschanel manic pixie and touched teacher who did whatever she wanted and left sisters holding the bag, to be content with being sassy and alone crying at the wedding in the credits
That this discussion is hard on what about black women , that black women are the voices heard, that testimonies of REAL love of focus and desire come through.
This the Change
I am EXCITED about this.
I am excited that the Help is getting called out everywhere. I am excited that gossip columnists are uncomfortable about it.
I am EXCITED that Viola Davis is so damn good people are asking why the maid is all she can get?
I am excited that Black women feel empowered to say this is not okay.
I read this and hit my Douglas, my Roger, and seeded pepper all over my bedroom.
If you have never had to beg for shit you were owed to keep your ass from going into default ( ended up doing it anyway)
or watch someone beg for her pay.
or watch someone be reminded how they were ” here to serve”
and know every single one of them looks and sounds like your mom.
And it’s all from well meaning fun liberal white women, who really wanna help
you will never have any idea how cloying and infuriating that is .
You will never get the heart break of that.
OF why spunky alternative white women narratives that feature black women will ALWAYS crawl your skin.
Because it is always about the same thing , of black women’s toil support and HELP in service of white glory.
and how every body needs multiple sources to believe that’s true
That we are what folks kind of sort of get right when they get around to it
be that it endangers our safety ( good being glib about this makes me LAUGH HARD)
our ability to be in the spheres we create
or to get out of bed
You have no unearthly clue what it is like to read someone say
” you are not alone”
” we hear you “
” we GOT this”
to see that in public, in private in the bold light of the sun Black Women can talk about themselves and that we can love and support and affirm each other
There is nothing about THAT , that isn’t awesome
