Undercaffeinated, constantly.

On Graffiti, Women of Color Writers, & Yarn Bombing

tortillachronicles:

Anonymous asked: what do you have against yarn bombing?

I’m p. sure I’ve briefly discussed this topic before. I’ll check if i tagged the original text and repost, but essentially my disdain with yarn graffiti is that it is a phenomena whose origins are an exercise in privilege. White feminists used yarn bombing as a way to ‘counter male-dominated realms of street art and graffiti’ (see here, here, here, here, here and here.) and forcefully insert themselves into a subculture made up of poor people of color, primarily black and latino youth.  

The lumping of graffiti and street art alone raises red flags as it fails to acknowledge how the emergence of street art has negatively impacted women writers of color. While I don’t want to get into an in-depth discussion between graffiti and street art (because it is a ton to delve into), we must note two important and relevant distinctions which separate these realms—race and class. Graffiti (graffiti as an element of hip hop and not solely the act of writing on surfaces w/o permission) has always been an art attributed to kids of color from a lower socio-ecomomic background and is for the most part looked down upon as vandalism. While ‘street art,’ a relatively new art-form, has long maintained a white middle class majority artists as well patrons and is considered a legitimate art which has gained prominence as well as commercial succe$$. 

Now, white feminists ignore these important distinctions and offer yarn graffiti as an alternative w/o understanding that although sexism is a problem that persists the graffiti world, we cannot ignore the problems of racism and classism that are contributed by these co-optive side-graffiti arts which both street art and yarn graffiti can be included in.   

If there is going to be a change that challenges these issues it should be done from the bottom up. Women of color exist in the graffiti world. It is insulting that these feminists believe they’re solving our problems as women when they have no idea what it is to be a woman writer at the bottom of the graffiti hierarchy, especially when their solution is one that will never be criminalized/looked down upon but instead be seen as cute and edgy but most importantly an art that will be welcomed by mainstream culture. 

in the end, yarn graffiti is simply yarn art made by probably racist women (first yarn art was attributed to a group who went by the name ofknittaplease—that name is questionable AF) who got bored and thought just because they liked a life that was foreign to them they would create a graffiti offshoot to cater a need of belonging while at the same time writing off women of color who have long participated and fought against misogynistic attitudes in graff culture.

It ain’t cool, and I ain’t down with it. Sorry for the long response, but i hope this answers your question.

(via green-street-politics)

The angry black SJWs on here want all of us whites to accept we are guilty of racism and apologize for being white…

reverseracism:

whatwhiteswillneverknow:

dumblrfeminist:

How about they apologize for being black? 

Not that I actually agree with that cause no one should apologize for their race. But some how what I just said was exceedingly racist but for some reason what they are asking isn’t. Why? 

Because white people owned slaves a long time ago. That’s usually what their arguments amount to. 

Lemme break it down. My grandparents were immigrants from Germany back in the 40’s. There is no way they possibly owned a slave, no way anyone in my family history owned a slave. 

Lots of people fall under this category alright? Even if they don’t, no one who is alive now owned a slave and no one who was a slave is around now either. 

The holocaust happened in far closer recent history and you don’t hear the Jews citing that ALL the time for why they feel oppressed and yes Jews are a hated on minority in this country but since most of them are white here, I guess you’d say that doesn’t count. 

You need to realize that no one is saying there isn’t such a thing as racism. No one is arguing there isn’t oppression. No one will tell you on this blog that these things aren’t a problem and don’t exist. 

However, they shout on and on about how you can’t be racist, that only white people can, and the mere fact that they exist makes them racists is extremely ignorant and why we feel the need for rebuttal. 

You spout on and on about how YOU ARE ALLOWED TO SPEAK YOUR MIND and we will allow you too but the moment we do you tell us to SHUT UP and we can have NO PART OF THE CONVERSATION.

Well the first step to fixing a problem is creating an open dialogue in a mature, public forum. If you don’t allow both sides to speak on the issue you will never get equality. So if you disagree that White people can have opinions on this, you ultimately don’t want equality and what you are looking for is either genocide of white people or a world where we are all subservient to you. 

I won’t let either happen, no matter what it comes down to. Stop pretending you want something you actually don’t. Stop acting like children, looking for reasons to be offended, putting words in people’s mouths, and making people feel guilty for things they can’t help. 

So as ridiculous as it would be for a white person to ask a black person to feel guilty about the color of their skin, the opposite is just as ridiculous and racist as well.  

Anyone wanna take a crack at this?

It’s Christmas Eve and we’re too tired.

Actually… we’ll take a crack at some things…

We’re not looking for genocide of White people. We’re looking for White people to be aware of their own ignorance of present day laws that help keep the current order of things the way it is.

You can have a part of the conversation as long as you know two things:

1) When to actually shut up and listen.

2) When to REALLY listen.

Listening is something that most people of your caliber fails to comprehend. We can speak about a simple point, but then you turn into one of the few things:

• Victim-Blaming
• Using Historical Figures Quotes without consideration of the context
• Saying “Slavery is over, get over it” (That’s like saying “get over rape!”)
• Use present day celebrities/personalities as examples of “oppression is not real”

Your family is from a foreign land. What the fuck you want, a cookie?

Yes, we said what the fuck you want, a cookie - simply because we have foreign land parents too!

Your skin = benefits. You will get benefits. Illegal United Kingdom people will get more benefits than legally colored US Citizens.

So, you want to be part of a solution? Try LISTENING and STOP JUMPING CONCLUSIONS because we’re tried of talking and educating.

The more and more I’m thinking about it and seeing their posts in these tags, the more I believe this is the one that jumped in on that post about the blogger who got attacked with eggs and was called a racial slur, and then made it about herself. But it’s just a guess.

In any case, I like how they say that we must create an open dialogue because as pointed out earlier today, dumblrfeminist doesn’t want an open-dialogue.

Cultural Appropriation

cruel-bloom:

(Clipped conversation FOR THIS RIGHT HERE - bankuei):

I am a HUMAN and not a “white girl”.

This is my favorite type of white tears, absolutely 100%. Because it always, always, always serves as an admission of unacknowledged privilege.

Know why you don’t like being called “white girl”? Because you’re used to being the default. You’ve always just been “a girl.” But for the rest of us, that qualifier has always been there. When you’re a POC, you’re not just “a girl.” You’re “that Indian girl,” or “the black chick,” or “the Asian guy, I think he’s Chinese or something?”

You can go on and on about how “we’re all human, race isn’t an issue!” but that’s not what this is about. Being called “white girl” tells you that the person you’re dealing with isn’t going to give you the free pass you’ve always received for being white, and that scares you.

bolded for emphasis. great reply/commentary. 

(Source: skogsraw, via fuckyourracism)

NO REFUGEE FOR BROWN GIRLS

angryasiangirlsunited:

I was 14 years old and it was my first ballet class. The motion of the clock’s arm nearly took my breath away, I was ever so restless and I was ten minutes late. When I entered the studio, my smile faded. I gazed upon the mirrors and saw myself amidst the gracious swans, the white girls. Silently I chanted “It’s going to be okay, who will shed a care for the color of my skin?” and as the Stockholm sun brought light upon the studio, I smiled once again. United with the power of hope and the humble tunes played the old pianist in a tracksuit, I danced and I continued dancing with no care in the world, til’ the day I could no longer do so. Again, I gazed upon the mirrors, again I saw myself amidst the gracious swans, the white girls and I became burdened with the realization that I was no gracious swan. I was a brown piece of shit in black ballet slippers. My wild child spirit perished, my dancer soul became crippled and I closed my eyes in despair. 

- Yazmine

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

fantasticalradicals:

I just spent the last 4 hours talking to my white boyfriend about racism.

Like LITERALLY 4 hours of just talking to him, no bathroom breaks or anything

I talked to him about the how I internalized racism as a kid, the way people interact with me because of my Asian-ness, about fetishization, and a whole mess of other things JUST to iterate how strong his own white privilege is.

IT TOOK 4 HOURS

and we’ve been together for three years, so this isn’t the first time we’ve talked about race and racism. 

It was EXHAUSTING. I got emotional through some of it because my culture is such a strong part of my identity and the whole thing was VERY personal

and near the end of it, he responded to what I said with something random, then was like “oh, I guess that opinion is white privilege, too”

and I was like YES *SO HAPPY* YES

AGAIN this is 4 HOURS of a conversation building on 3 YEARS of a relationship

It was SO good for us, but what I realize even more now is that this shit is HARD to talk about for people of color.

The whole experience just makes me angrier at all the white people who act like people of color (that they have no semblance of a relationship with) owe them a thorough and UNEMOTIONAL explanation of their white privilege.

I love my boyfriend dearly, he is my soul mate and best friend, but I got angry with him and spoke sharply to him when he derailed into a detached opinion.

If I can get so angry at someone I love more than anybody else for derailing my story, and forming random opinions that have little to do with what I’m getting at, then WHY THE HELL should I be nice to white people who do privileged shit? Why should any PoC?

Why the hell do they think they can just have all my personal stories of racism?

Why the hell do they think I can talk about this like a math equation?

Why the hell do they think I can just put it in one concise paragraph?

And the times that I see on my dash where people of color DO try to explain, all these racist people do with it is laugh, derail, and do their privilege dance to stomp it away. Then use it in their next post as an example of “people pulling race cards” and “people making everything about race.”

So FUCK tone-policers and FUCK racist people begging strangers for an explanation on their privilege.

Ugh SO much more to say about this, but I’ll end here for now.

And all the best wishes to you and your boyfriend.

I sincerely think I could never do that… date a White guy. I’m attracted to White guys; I’m attracted to guys of every shade….YUM! but I just feel like finding a White man who isn’t covertly racist (or sexist or homophobic) is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Finding White people who aren’t racist period is already hard enough… Adding romance to the equation just seems too arduous for me. What do you understand about racism? What do you know about White privilege? And all this before I even know if you can make me laugh and if you like to watch movies and cartoons.

(Source: herebedragonsandpoc, via fuckyeahcracker)

Annoying Things White People Do in Racial Arguments.

crackerhell:

They NEED to be validated at every twist and turn. They need you to let them know how open and accepting and good and not-racist they are. If every comment out of your mouth is not validating their existence as a Good Not-Racist Ally, they will derail until the cows come home and build a tent in your living room.

If we argued the way white people wanted, a racial essay would look much like this:

“I really hate white people, but only sometimes and only the really bad intentionally racist ones, which not all white people are. When I go into a store, the white security guards follow me around because I am black, but let’s not forget that not every white guard does this and that many white guards are amazing people who are great and completely not-racist at their jobs. Once, I joined a conversation with some white feminists, and when I brought up the issue of racism in feminism, they told me I was being a bad feminist for not supporting them. Those feminists were especially bad, there are many good feminists who support black feminists, so let’s take a few moments to sing a hymn to their praises. My brother got arrested and beaten for jaywalking, and the cops who did it got away with it, but remember that white cops are vital to our survival and they take care of us when we can’t or are too afraid to. I saw a white hipster wearing a Native headdress and an offensive logo on their shirt, and even though it was wrong, they probably didn’t mean it or know, and not all hipsters are insensitive like this. I was discussing my native language, which is Japanese, and someone kept asking me to say things in “Chinese”. I felt terrible because this happens a lot and is extremely dismissive of who I am. However, Japan and China are really far from America, and both languages aren’t very popular in this country, so I understand that the white person was probably confused and didn’t mean to continuously insult me, and of course, many white people know the difference and try to learn about my culture. Racism is perpetrated by white people, but a lot of white people hate that and try to fight with us even when they get it wrong. At least they’re trying.”


Perhaps seeing it written this plainly will help some people realize why this is problematic.

[Reblog because there’s a word-for-word repost floating around with no credit]

Why Whites Hate Affirmative Action

gradientlair:

Lack of knowledge on the actual policies. Very few people actually understand the original executive orders, subsequent judicial decisions and legislation beyond sound bites via “news” that is insistent upon painting this as “taking stuff” from Whites for Black people (as if it is “just” about Black people). Honesty, how many White people have reviewed the actual history of why this is needed? It’s almost as rare to find as anyone who calls themselves “patriotic” who has actually read the Constitution or a Christian who has read the Bible. Media soundbites shaped by bigotry (in a White supremacist capitalist patriarchal society) absorbed by many Whites whose life ideologies have been shaped by bigotry is not going to produce the nuance and thought necessary to understand affirmative action. (Even so, these two simple, non in-depth cartoons explain this almost as well as the complex legalese: 1 and 2.)

Anti-intellectualism. Piggybacking on the first point, the current culture of anti-intellectualism doesn’t encourage most White people (and Americans at large) to actually investigate things they are “for” or “against.” It’s much simpler to decide to be “for” anything shaped by a legacy of White supremacy and White privilege and against anything that appears to be contrary to the former. Whites are used to being a “baseline,” the “norm,” or not considered a group at all, but those whom other groups are compared to.  Sociopolitically, many Whites are having a “day of reckoning” moment by even being classified as a “group,” or a “race” as Tom Scocca pointed out so well in a recent article about Romney’s overwhelming support from Whites. These factors contribute to the resistance to affirmative action.

Ahistorical views on race. If a White person takes the “why isn’t there a White history month” and “why isn’t there a White Entertainment Television station” stances on Whites and the media, it can be safely assumed that they are either uneducated or being willfully ignorant about the role of race in America and why certain spaces exist for Black people amidst the media, public discourse and culture itself. By pretending that the tide of history has no racial element, they can then infer that if everyone “is equal” (as if being equal means being treated equally) Black people are “unfairly” getting “goodies” through affirmative action. This also ignores the fact that even with said theoretical ”goodies,” unemployment, health care, finances, real estate, and more is markedly worse for Black people (and other people of colour) versus White. The latter is written off as Black “character failures” in the ever so common victim blaming ideologies such as American “exceptionalism” and even “patriotism” at times. This is where LIES about “poverty culture” come about as a way to praise greed, wealth and Whiteness and demonize suffering, poverty and Blackness.

The concept of what “greatness” is. The inherent racism involved in assuming that someone White is always “more” qualified, as if being White is a skill itself, is common in everything from college admissions to employment applications. The idea is that some “stupid” minority “stole” a slot from the perfect White knight on a horse who deserved things because he “worked” for them prevails. Further, the idea that perhaps a series of advantages afforded by White privilege is “hard work” would be even more humorous if it wasn’t despicable. Said privileges often place Whites ahead in spaces by sheer virtue of the luxury of Whiteness, not any actual work.  The myth of meritocracy is a plague on the American psyche. (Christopher Hayes wrote about this oh too well in his book Twilight Of The Elites - America After Meritocracy. Also, I recently read a fascinating study about the REALITY of financial aid versus the myth that “stupid” minorities “take all of the college monies,” and other assorted lies.)

A zero/sum view of racism. Ultimately, many Whites feel that any joy, success or progress in Black life means misery, failure and regression in White life. Period. This tunnel vision view is rooted in racism and fear. Research has revealed that many cisgender heterosexual White men feel like the “real” victims in America. Even if they are victims, would that not be at the hands of men just like them, except of a higher social class? Not to them. Racist social narratives involve the worship of “job creators” (the same ones who fire these men) as heroes because after all, they share Whiteness even if they don’t share class, status or cash. Other research has revealed that while some Whites view past times (during and pre-Civil Rights era) as a time more racist against Blacks, they view today as “more racist” against Whites. Of course this is false and has more to do with the idea of some Black people not suffering and Barack Obama’s existence more than any in-depth study of how race is a primary factor to consider when examining socioeconomic status. The enlightened exceptionalism involved in some who even choose to praise Oprah or Beyonce or LeBron James is what allows them to pretend that life for the average and for most Black people has dramatically changed, when for many, it has not. Claims of “reverse racism,” which doesn’t exist, are more common now than ever.

People who benefit from affirmative action also want it destroyed. While more than anyone else, White women have benefited from affirmative action, many of them stand with White men against affirmative action while simultaneously benefiting from it. Most people now know the name Abigail Fisher and know it well. Further, many older Black people (primarily men from what I’ve seen) want it dismantled despite the fact they benefited from it in the past. They clearly knew that in their time especially, being qualified was not enough. Assumed inferiority blocked their way.

Related Posts: CEO? Have A Seat. Kthanxbai., Black Woman? Want A Job? Register On Monster.com As A White Woman, False Equivalence, Kerry Washington Talks Affirmative Action On Real Time

(via hamburgerjack)