“I Am NOT Your Model Minority” Campaign pt. 2
By the SPACES APSA Community Retention Program at UCSD
January 2013
Attend the “I Am NOT Your Model Minority” Workshop in Tuesday, January 15th, 2013. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/531357673548751/?fref=ts
(via angryasiangirlsunited)
"You distance yourself from “other” white people. You see only unapologetic bigots, card-carrying white supremacists and white people outside your own circle as “real racists.” You put other white people down, trash their work or behavior, or otherwise dismiss them. You righteously consider yourselves white people who have evolved beyond our racist conditioning. This is another level of denial. There are no “exceptional white people.” You may have attended many anti-racism workshops; you may not be shouting racist epithets or actively discriminating against people of color, but you still experience privilege based on your white skin color. You benefit from this system of oppression and advantage no matter what your intentions are. This distancing serves only to divide you from potential allies and limit your own learning."
From 28 Common Racist Attitudes & Behaviors (PDF Link) By Debra Leigh, Organizer, Community Anti-Racism Education Initiative (via whatwhiteswillneverknow)
YESSSSSSSSSSSSS SO MANY OF Y’ALL ON TUMBLR
(via crackerhell)
(via metapianycist)
“Stay Away From My Elves”: Racism in Epic Fantasy Fandoms-Damned if you Do, Damned if You Don’t.
Wistful POC make a photoset POC fancast for Lord of the Rings. White people :
Like I said before, I think adding poc into things JUST for the purpose of inclusion is just as bad. But I don’t think adding them in to a fantasy story that has been around for decades with a very strong and dedicated following is the right way to do it. This isn’t about racism, this is about fucking with my fandom.
Stay away from my elves.
An author of color writes a book featuring POC protagonists. White People:
I’m all for being happy that a black person wrote a fantasy book with black protagonists, just as themselves, largely (though not entirely) away from any color related power struggles, letting them exist on their own merit and showing the obvious fact that fantasy characters don’t all have to be pale.
It would be nice if the responses weren’t “FUCK YEAR! FINALLY A BOOK FOR US! TAKE THAT YOU HORRIBLE, BORING WHITEYS”.
However I do fail to see how ‘race isn’t a conflict’ as someone (I think) mentioned above, when it’s really just about black supremacy, not white supremacy. BUT HEY DON’T MIND ME. I prefer not to read fantasy with an agenda, even if it’s in my favor.
I’ll reserve my adulation for a black writer who is above being racist entirely. I do not withhold judgment based on skin color.
Making it clear that White villains are only bad if the Protagonists are POC:
You know, I kinda have a problem with this, as well. I’m white, but one thing I’ve made a major point in my life is to never see skin color. If you had told me this book was part of a wonderful fantasy series that would have been fine. If you had told me the protagonists were people of color and the antagonists where white: still fine. But you had to drive home the thought that it’s so superior just for those reasons, and that’s unsettling.
I mean seriously, you SJS Skidmarks whine and bitch about how authors don’t include enough “non-white” characters in their books. Then when an author DOES do so, you whine and bitch because they aren’t the star or the main character. And when an author makes one a pretty important character you complain about THAT.
Seriously, kindly write “racist” on a club and beat yourself to death with it. It’s what you want, anyways, but no one would likely care enough to humor you. You can make the club any color you want, though I think we can all guess what color it’d be. Funny thing is, regardless of that? It’d still be stupid and incredibly ironic.
Ursula K. LeGuin writes a Black main character in The Left Hand of Darkness, a seminal Gender studies text and all-around awesome sci fi book. White people:
I take it that everyone remembers the racist shitstorm over Rue and Thresh? No?
“Naturally Thresh would be a black man,” tweeted someone who called herself @lovelyplease.
“I was pumped about the Hunger Games. Until I learned that a black girl was playing Rue,” wrote @JohnnyKnoxIV.
“Why is Rue a little black girl?” @FrankeeFresh demanded to know. (she appended her tweet with the hashtag admonishment #sticktothebookDUDE.)
“Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little blonde innocent girl you picture,”@sw4q
“Kk call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn’t as sad,” wrote @JashperParas
But wait! Let’s not forget the Fan-made movie that was uploaded and waddled its way around the internet well before the ACTUAL film came out, which has OVER 3 MILLION VIEWS AND FEATURES A BLONDE, WHITE RUE, AS WELL AS DOZENS OF COMMENTS REGARDING HOW MUCH “BETTER” IT IS THAN THE ACTUAL HOLLYWOOD MOVIE
According to the filmmaker:
I know that Rue is described as being dark skinned in the book, but I wanted to show Savanna’s acting. I think she would make a good Prim though.
The commenters:
Everytime I watch this, I always think it was so much better than the movie. This vid is just epic. It captures the whole feeling of the book. It’s realistic, and for that reason it’s completely awesome.
The color we believe ancient Egyptians were in a society that tells us only white people can be innovative vs. the actual color of ancient Egyptians
(Source: pedazitosfightsback, via marfmellow)
- how poc are treated: constantly stereotyped and limited in media, mocked for their facial features, get shot or have a friend/family member shot because they are poc, are never seen as "american" or whatever nationality because they are not white, unable to find work or enroll in schools or get decent pay because they are poc, are objectified and fetishized, basically have to deal with a society that limits their choices because they are not white
- what we are told: you see racism in everything it's all in the past get over it
White people who try to add meanings to aspects of POC culture that isn’t even true or doesn’t even have a meaning.
Like wow, sometimes we do shit for fun.
No meaning to it.
WE DO THINGS FOR FUN! *gasp* I KNOW? SHOCKING RIGHT?
I saw a white person earlier who commented on a picture of holi about how the powder of the colours you throw at people have different speshul meaaaningz.
NO. SHUT UP. We just throw that stuff at each other because why the fuck not? I’m going to get colour all over my clothes and all over my friends clothes.
Stop trying to find deeper meanings to parts of our cultures.
Because POC must always have this elaborate, deep explanation for the smallest shit we do that whitey just can’t understand.
Oh and you STILL can’t appropriate the stuff that doesn’t have “meaning” to it.
It’s ours. Keep your grubby hands off of it you fucking thieves.
(via whatabootsecondbreakfast)
VA KKK claims enrollment will triple in Obama’s second term
Residents in Richmond, Virginia have reported seeing more recruitment flyers from the Ku Klux Klan, in part of what one Klan member told WTVR-TV is a push for a membership surge fueled by opposition to President Barack Obama.
“Since Obama’s first term our numbers have doubled,” said the hooded man, who identified himself as a “Grand Dragon,” a leader of the state network. “And now that we’re headed to a second term it’s going to triple, this is going to be the biggest resurgence of the Klan since 1915.”
Think Progress reported that hate group membership is on the rise around the country, with racial animus against Obama cited as a reason.
However, the Klansmen told the station they see their group as the “white separatist” equivalent to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples.
“Everyone thinks that we’re a hate group,” he said. “We’re not a hate group, we don’t hate anyone, and we want to see good things come to our race.”
King Salim Khalfani, president of the Virginia branch of the NAACP, scoffed at the comparison, citing the Klan’s history of violence against African Americans, and expressing doubt at the group’s attempt to paint itself as non-violent.
“Be honest,” Khalfani said. “I respect people who are honest, but it’s harder to recruit when you say it like it is.”
Watch WTVR’s report on the increase in Klan recruiting, aired on Tuesday, below.
All my friends live in Richmond.
I myself live an hour from Richmond.
My friends always want me to visit them. Hell to the fuck naw if this is what’s going on in that already too white for my ass city.
And muthafuckas wanna know why I’m trying to get back to NYC.
There ya go.
I knew at least 2 people affiliated with the Klan by name when I was coming up, so that whole, “It’s not a big deal; they’re irrelevant” shit? Nah. It’s relevant and a very real threat.
My state is embarrassing. And I’m in Richmond several times a year. I will cut a racist motherfucker off at the knees.
28 Common Racist Attitudes & Behaviors
I thought this was very well-written and informative.
I’m always saying “I’m sorry for what white people have done to you/continue to do to you” but I don’t always follow that with a solution to the problem at hand.
Time to change that.
Omg, I want to print this out and throw them everywhere, especially at school, so many people do these things and don’t understand that racism is at lot more subversive than someone just spewing racial slurs
(via moniquill)
“I have a crush on a black person that means I can’t be racist.”
HAHAHAAH oh my god white people
“rasicism”
& If ya go to her blog you will see nothing but white girls with dreadlocks, lol…..
No, not racist at all. Ewwww… WTF??
*yaaaasba: Your “crush” dose Not make you any less of a bigot racist fuck, if you feel you need to send POC messages like this. Just shut the fuck up, you make us all look bad! You’re an ignorant racist bitch!
(Source: pedazitosfightsback, via pissykitty)
What needs to stop is this whitewashing apologism
there are a lot of these messages in the divergent fandom. i’m going to be nice about it.
Please everyone, stop getting into fights about the races of the characters. Who cares if Tobias is a mixed race? who cares if Christina is black? seriously guys.
even if a character ends up being a different race than described in the book, they were chosen for that part because they were good actors. Not because they looked the part.
And everyone who posting messages like this, you’re not being very nice either. calling everyone who is fancasting stupid and stuff.
Please people, stop this nonsense and just bring the fandom back to the way it was. The movie news is tearing us apart.
They are fancasts for a reason.
Lots of people care.
Because it’s important. They care a great deal. Lots of people, though obviously not you, have had to grow up in a world where they hardly ever get see any significant or positive representations of people who look like they do.
How can you, who has never ever ever ever been deprived of representation like that, brush it off like it’s trivial? How can you even pretend to know how important it is, ought to be, can be, to someone, just because it doesn’t matter to you?
And now you want to deny other people what you have always had, what you apparently assume is just your natural right to have unquestioned.
I have a hard time believing the bullshit about it only being based on talent, when they don’t appear to have considered anyone who wasn’t white in the first place. Did you notice how nobody rushed to defend Idris Elba for the part of James Bond because of talent? But that it’s the first thing people throw out in the reverse situation. And no one bothers to back it up either, it’s just like, Weeellll, I’m sure they got chosen because of talent!
Why are you so sure? Because otherwise you’d have to contemplate the uncomfortable reality that Hollywood just might prejudiced? And that this has harmful effects on some of your fellow human beings?
And then you wouldn’t be able to enjoy your movie without completely ignoring the parts of it that are actively hurting other people. Poor you.
And I mean, are you really saying you don’t think there are any PoC actors within the ranks of “Most Talented?” And how is it, that even white actors who give bad performances keep getting work as long as they have a certain look? And why does every casting call leaked in situations like this turn out to have specifically asked for white people?
Let’s face it, they are casting for appearance, and they are casting for the wrong appearance. You apparently don’t even think that’s a bad thing, so I don’t know why you are bothering to make up excuses for them.
And re:fancasts, do you know what really isn’t nice? Erasing the PoC identities of characters and doing and saying things that imply PoC aren’t attractive or suitable enough to even represent themselves. That, is really fucking not nice.
signed,
“a” biracial
Seriously wtf was up with that “a”? Like it’s a noun or something. That’s really fucking rude.
this boggles the mind
I hope this post weeds out the unbelievers.
I’m not in the camp where ~artistic vision~ and ~creative license~ are the end-all, be-all shield to a writer/artist’s craft and how their work relates to an audience because that’s bullshit. I’m not about protecting artists and writers’ ~delicate creative sensibilities and feelings because if their work sucks, their work sucks, and needs to be improved/critiqued/beta’d/just fucking looked over. This all sounds vague, but allow me to get specific.
I’m talking about when fanwriters and fanartists write and draw every white cis character and their dog, but completely forget about everyone else—people like me, for instance. And when they get called out for that, the delicate artistes flutter their hands in front of their faces and cry out, “I don’t want to fuck up the attempt!” or “I write/draw what I feeeeeel!” or “I have no control over what inspires meee!” Or better still, “That takes a lot of effort and research!”
Haha, oh look more bullshit.
Are you telling me, that you can somehow find it in yourself to empathize/sympathize/identify with elves and mages and fictional aliens and dragons and artificial intelligence constructs, enough to write/draw from their POV, but somehow trying to connect with a character whose melanin content differs from yours is like scaling the Great Wall?
Are you telling me, that you’re willing to spend hours reading your fandom’s wikisite articles, research esoteric topics that are only tangentially related to the plot of your fic in order to lend the story a sense of “realism” and “authenticity,” brainstorm elaborate, extensive worldbuilding headcanons and speculations about a fictional universe, but can’t be bothered to Google “how to write characters of color without fucking it up”?
Are you telling me, that your imagination is just so creative and expansive or that the fandom-universe you’re playing in is so inspiring and new and unique that all you can come up with are stories about white people doing white things with their white friends and white significant others and having white adventures, thus further adding to the abyss of white narratives that countless ~creative artists before you have contributed to, thus making more of the same and being not special at all?
If you’re not telling me any of those above things, then what exactly are you telling me? Because I’d love to know, white fan(girls), I really would. Please explain to me how your utter lack of creativity prevents you from writing/drawing characters of color. Please explain to me how your utter lack of empathy prevents you from writing/drawing characters of color. Please explain to me how your ~artistic license and ~creative vision excuse you from improving your craft and broadening your horizons to include characters whose life experiences differ from yours—which, don’t you know, is one of the whole fucking points of writing fanfiction and drawing fanart anyway.
Nothing? You got nothing for me?
Welcome to white myopia—population: every white fan(girl) ever.
"What struck me most, sitting there in that theatre, was how Django Unchained was a white man’s slavery revenge fantasy, and one in which white people figure heavily and where black people are, largely, incidental. Django is allowed to regain his dignity because he is freed by a white man. He reunites with his wife, again, with the help of a white man. Django Unchained isn’t about a black man reclaiming his freedom. It’s about a white man working through his own racial demons and white guilt."
Buzzfeed, http://www.buzzfeed.com/roxanegay/surviving-django-8opx#responses (via okaydotcom)
oh look it’s real shit
(via theuppitynegras)
(Source: booofyourdreamsgirl, via captainsway)
When PoC say they don’t mind your racist shit:
I used to be the one who said, “I don’t mind.”
”I’m Asian and I don’t mind”
“I’m a woman and I don’t mind”
“I’m queer and I don’t mind”
- So why don’t the rest of you just lighten the fuck up.
In fact, I’m Asian and I think it’s funny.
It’s just a joke.
You say it because there is a place inside of you that hurts and it shouldn’t.
You think it’s weak. You think, who the fuck cares?
Maybe you say it because you’ve heard it so many times that you’ve become desensitized to hurt, and you accept it as normal.
Or maybe you say it because you’ve made yourself blind to injustices so you never hurt at all.
I laughed. I laughed at the jokes and the stereotypes. I laughed because I made myself laugh, and the sound of it covered up my discomfort, and my shame.
When you laugh enough, laughing becomes second nature.
Not caring becomes second nature. And then, you eye everyone who does care with disdain. They have no sense of humor. They’re too sensitive. You’re better than them. They make the rest of us look bad.
They’re being a bad minority.
or
They’re so annoying. They’re the reason why people hate feminists.
What I actually meant when I said “I don’t mind” is:
Please accept me
Please think I’m special
Please make me one of you
And what they heard when I said “I don’t mind” is that it’s okay.
It’s okay to laugh at someone for being Asian - my mother, father, my grandparents; my cousins, my aunts, my uncles.
It’s okay to laugh at women - my mother, my sisters, my friends
It’s okay to laugh at queers - my friends, my lovers
Because they’re friends with a PoC, you see, so they can’t actually be racist, especially if their friend is okay with it.
I said it was okay. So it must be.
Everyone else is just oversensitive. Everyone else is just uptight.
What they heard when I said “I don’t mind” is that if you mind, you don’t matter. Your experiences don’t matter. Because they have this friend who said it was okay.
What I meant when I said “I don’t mind”:
I want to laugh with you; I don’t want to be laughed at.
And what I didn’t know was that just because I didn’t mind, it didn’t make me special. When you laughed at those people, that included me, too.
And what they don’t tell you when you say “I don’t mind,” is that from that moment on, you will be championed as a representative of an entire race/gender/orientation/identity. And your words of “I don’t mind,” or “I think it’s funny” will be used as an example, to put down countless others of other races/genders/orientations.
To say “I don’t mind” is not what makes you strong. It takes far more strength to care, and address the issues. It takes courage to look unpopular, to look “humorless” or to be a “bad minority.”
We should mind. It does matter. If more people minded, instead of feeling like they didn’t have to, then maybe people would start seeing that there is a very real problem.
File Under: Things white people will never feel/understand as they never have to face being ‘othered’ (and no, being a white person in a mostly POC/queer space does not count; you’re still white and still hold the “power”).
(via heirofmedusa)
Listen hear white folks (and yes, I mean ALL of you),
There’s no sense in getting offended when we (Black people/oppressed people of color) don’t listen to your opinions. You’ve not experienced more than an ounce of what we’ve gone through under the hands of your oppressive bull shit (I’m talking currently, not slavery so I don’t want to hear any of that “can we be blamed for what our ancestors did” shit). Yes, you’re allowed to have opinions, EVERYONE is allowed opinions, however, we’re also allowed to not give a shit about your opinions, which most of us don’t. No, it is not reverse racism- no it’s not mud-slinging- no it’s not hate mongering- it is merely not giving any fucks about what you have to say UNTIL you ACTUALLY give a fuck about what we’ve been telling you for YEARS.
There is no malice in this message but you may sense a since of anger. If you have a problem with my angry tone then you can simply shut the fuck up cause I don’t care— you will not be heard because CLEARLY you did not listen to me.
That is all, for now.
Yup. That sounds about right.
“EVERYONE is allowed opinions, however, we’re also allowed to not give a shit about your opinions”
*applause*
Okay, so….
Recap.
White people: “STAY AWAY FROM MY ELVES!!!”
White people: “I’ll reserve my adulation for a black writer who is above being racist entirely.”
White people:
White people: