Carnival of Education- Radical School Edition

Welcome to the Carnival of Radical Action : Back To School edition.

Why Radical Education Black Amazon?

Because I am officially on the tail end of my youth and I am tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired.

of people trying to "save" me

I am young, black, black, brown, female, fat, poor and if one more person seeks to “guide” “instruct” ”counsel” or dissect me , or the multitudes like me

*F#@*F#@*F(*& THE MACHETE MAKES A REAPPEARANCE I SWEAR TO ALL ABOVE AND BELOW!

*edited cause I am actually gearing this to young people ( which is comical considering how much I cuss just three posts down ALLOW ME MY PLEASANT FICTIONS)

Forget saviors

We need teachers. We need them from the places we have never thought to have gotten them before

We need scarred forearms ,split tongues, bowed heads, nappy roots , and raised fists.

gender queers, drag queens, bois, grrrrrrrrrls ,nerds, jocks, fierce women ,dangerous young men, single mothers, grad students, auto didactics, blind to the seeing world , brave in the face of danger, scared in the night, way too loud in the library, too big for the Gap, too small for your pants ,

but most of all we NEED each other.

And because we need you there are things we need you to know.

So this Carnival is meant to be only the beginning of our education.

Because we are NOT the world’s special case, or pet issue.

We are not to be recruited, convinced, or calmed down. We are not here to be enlightened, uplifted or “bettered”.

We want to live. And it’s not about cool or fun or hip . It’s about

Our lives ,Our rights, Our terms.

Fighting governments, fighting confusion , fighting for our lives

I have this incredibly odd belief.

WE CAN SPEAK FOR OURSELVES.

And one more

WE SHOULD BE AND ARE SPEAKING TO EACH OTHER.

“Contrary to popular opinion, communities of color have not sat about for the last few years wringing our hands wondering how we can get those white folks to pay more attention to us. Our communities are flourishing and full of intellectual diversity.”-Brownfemipower

And we are. Here there and everywhere we are teaching ourselves , each other in ways that can never be duplicated

And it can always be easier

And there can always be MORE

And contrary to popular belief , there is never “enough” attention paid

No one cause, no one word, no one movement big enough to hold us has been made

So it’s not “easy”

But We , and you are more than worth it.

So from one “ young person” ( What am I a dang toaster comes in green red and YOUNG PERSON”)

I give you

Carnival of Radical Education

What exactly are we being taught?

Readings

Nadia of No Snow Here starts us off with Reinstate Debbie Almontaser. Did you know that merely trying to learn Arabic while Muslim is enough to drive people straight insane?

Would there be a need for an Arabic language and culture public school if all public schools offered this curriculum? Or if humanizing treatment of the Middle East and recognition of Arab Americans was worked into the curriculum across the board?

Kameelah of KameelahWrites writes about learning while Black and Female. , with Making Black Girls Ladylike. Yep education, the great equalizer!

something just isn’t right when young Black female students are being punished for participating in discussions and standing up for themselves

Nez of The Unapologetic Mexican talks about Shock Treatments performed on young children. Because KIDS MUST BE “ NORMAL”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE IS A STANDARD FOR HOW WE PRODUCE WIDGETS oh I mean CHILDREN

AMAZING. Just when you think you can't be...well, shocked--to employ a terrible pun at a terrible moment. Autistic, "emotionally troubled," and "mentally retarded" children are being treated this way.

Kai of Zuky brings this video about the other members of his planet . Thousands of species gone in a flash. If that’s not radical I’ll eat my hair grease.

Ninotchka Rosca changes your life with the post This Is Called Human Security? When you’re done go to her blog read ,reread, take notes. I won’t even excerpt, yeah you need to read that woman THAT badly. You will probably need to look up words, and do research . GOOD welcome to the work.

Devious Diva of THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY ( who is guest blogging on Feministe) has been doing one of the most amazing pieces of citizen journalism I have seen with her Roma series , about the Roma people in Greece.

Yolanda Carrington at The Primary Contradiction reminds us the interesting ways we “ forget” how America sanctioned free speech with this wonderful post on the film Salt of the Earth. All speech is treated equally and free and always has been *scrolls up to first link* Alrighty then. Think of this as we celebrate Labor Day go watch the movie.

And Kai comes back one more time with this post on the GIGANTIC gulf between the truth and the actual facts in terms of the China recalls and the gasp inducing hand wringing shock it is connected to a long history of Anti Asian Racism. Yeah I couldn’t even manage a good sarcastic rejoinder to this it’s been that MIND NUMBINGLY obvious , how quick we latch on something to be real special with racism and nationalism.

And finally for this section right now. We are now on the SECOND anniversary of Katrina. This is what is going on. Yeah I linked to their front page. CAUSE YOU NEED TO READ ALL OF IT

So I have basically destroyed your faith in news media or at least given you some curiosity on what else is out there?

EXCELLENT!

So here are news sources you can use and love or hate . But remember News is like fruit and veggies , you need at least five servings a day , there is a whole lot of bad stuff out there and the only way to get used to picking them out is to get in there and feel it out.

But to speed you on your way a bit .

Afrospear.net - Did you know there were Black people on the web. Did you know they actually don’t always agree. Did you also know they are REALLY REALLY smart.

Al Jazeera- In our world right now I would argue one of the MOST necessary news sources. PERIOD.

AngryIndian- One stop shop for lots of good stuff.

BBC- Well you need one large one media conglomerate for comparison and right now they fulfill my “ NOT OWNED BY RUPERT MURDOCH” requirement so there they are

CENSORED- Great site for indigenous reporting and border issues

The Latin Americanist-Because the Americas doesn’t stop in Texas. And frankly Texas Arizona most of California is questionable but shhhh I’m not supposed to say that aloud!

Narco News Bulletin- Ahh the war on drugs! Cost billons, Screws millions see how it works from all perspectives

New American Media – News in the perspective of cultural groups specifically leaning left. Am I always happy with it, NOPE. Am I less likely to look at it and yell obscenities at my screen. YEP

Newseum-Six hundred news papers from fifty five countries is there anything more to say?

The Maramushi Flash-It’s a visual way of using the Google News Aggregator. It’s Eurocentric but also really shiny and a really interesting way of seeing how different colonialist histories influence news reporting.

Sepia Mutiny- South Asian journalism and pop culture commentary, brought with extra funny and a whole heaping helping of real smart.

Writings

There are vibrant , amazing things starting every day, but it’s not as vibrant and amazing as it could be

BECAUSE YOU AREN’T writing yet. OF course I wanted to start with reading cause , forget what you heard ignorance is not only NOT bliss, but DAMN ANNOYING to people who have to deal with you. But hopefully after all that educational goodness ( with more to come below) you want to get your write on

And you know what YOU ARE QUALIFIED EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW

So let me of service to you spend an hour writing instead of on myspace and then you can link it form you myspace! :

Blogger- Where I got my start

Wordpress- is better but I am lazy.

CureThis- Healthcare specific and free!

AllGirlArmy- Young ladies ESPECIALLY young ladies of color. I never hear enough of you . What ever number there is there can be more. This is an excellent project. I would apply but I really feel to damn old.

Wiretap- Youth Journalism! And they will pay you and give you instructions! I need more news that doesn’t make me want to commit violence and you should be paid to give it.

UrbanWordNYC- makes me all kinds of happy . ALL KINDS

Vegan kid hits us up with the link of 55things good for a blogger to know. I think a good amount of it also applies to all writers

Lex Broken Beautiful Press reminds us that writing is an art but can also be art. I WILL be rocking the shit out of a that girl love her self halter dress when I get a sewing machine Believe That!

Hermana Resist is a zine writer/mam/poetess/ amazing woman, who rules at all things.

And your knowing writing can do amazing things

Radical Gym-Flexing Muscle

Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican talks about Defend the Honor getting Ken Burns to act right in his Documentary about World War II

Little Light talks about how literal knowledge CAN SAVE LIVES and how that struggle can change you at Feministe

El Enimigo Comun - Amazing AMAZING journalism out of Oaxaca. Yes the subaltern does speak. BEAUTIFULLY!

Myth of the Motherland-

Wherein I now take a moment to give you some instructions. You go there You listen to the poetry . You then BUY A CD.

Why?

Because I am in deep love with this. And because they are more than worth it. Because when we hear about Africa it should be from the children of her Diaspora. Because there is so much greatness in being willing to learn in a world where come first class flights and a week make you an expert .

And if you want to give a larger amount . AND YOU DO! IT’S TAX DEDUCTABLE. And then you tell em I sent you.

Now go make me happy !

Palestine Education Project- I met Ora Wise at AMC . She ran the most amazing workshop ever!

The testimony of the Palestinian Children the work of the American children. It changes your life. It does and if doesn’t I’m not sure your living.

UBUNTU- I am just in love with there truth their vision and their clarity . Their willingness to pull light from darkness and their peace while facing things that make you cringe is something we all should know of.

So I got you reading and writing is there anything I would want you to specifically

Well since You asked

Social Studies

Jena Six- Welcome to the thing that haunts my dreams. Kids your age , our age really cause I am not old enough t be distant are shown nooses and then told they can be disappeared. That a pair of Nikes is worse than a shot gun. And they ASKED to sit under that tree.

Critical Resistance- More prisons, more non violent offenders coming out violent,more people stripped of their rights and dignity and why is it again these people always tend be brown, poor or both?

The New York Four- Hey Ladies. Should you be attacked in the Street and not accept the assault. YOU CAN GO TO JAIL. Because Sakia Gunn was not enough!

Mariah Lopez

Genarlow Wilson – Because he didn’t want to leave his little sister

And it goes on and on and on.

Radical Lunch -Nourishment

So why this invitation to a Radical Education it sounds rough!

Because you get to be you

And you get to be you with people like you who care about you

FIERCE- FIERCE! is a community organization for Transgender, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Queer, and Questioning (TLGBTSQQ) youth of color in New York City.

Girlchild Press- Lex of Broken Beautiful is in this anthology and it’s about young women of color from the mouth of young women of color!

The Cultural Connect- A multi layered site for almost everyone.

Grace Lee Bogs Center- She is Amazing . Her biography is Amazing . Detroit is Amazing. I have nothing non starry and googly eyed to say about this woman or her work

Brecht Forum- Learn to work and if Kazembe Balagun is down with it It’s got to be wonderful; and it does Brechtian popular theatre which does my theatre minor heart all kinds of happiness

AMC- This made me so happy. Let Nadia give you details. My heart she sung

Radical Health-

Yes the sex and sexuality section is on it’s own!

Because as young people , and as young people of color, TLGBTSQQ ( using that acronym forever I am) we are at all kinds of risks. We are beyond the “abortion debate” . We who can’t get pregnant ,we who want to kee p our babies but choose their births,are still important . We who are scarred are important and we need OUR lives loves and bodies centered

And it happens

And here it is

Sistersong- Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. Just saying that inspires cha cha’s around my house!

Project Choice- Demand your right to a Healthy Life DEMAND IT!

INCITE!- Just cause because it is what should be here

NO! The Documentary.- Because you are not alone.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons, NO! explores the international reality of rape, other forms of sexual assault and healing through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, activism, and cultural work of African-Americans. This groundbreaking, award-winning documentary also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia.

Scarletteen- Not POC specific but when I was a 16 year old giving out sex advice. I LIVED by this woman . Now I’m 23 I use her book. Her book is all kinds of neccessary . All kinds

RhealityCheck- It’s just good and features brown folk !

Radical Recess- Learning How to play with Others

So I made no Bones about this being POC especially YPOC centered

But it’s no problem with other people reading it

And frankly I want to be honest about what I am sending them into. I do most of my work online with feminism and left politics. If I did not of the WOC blog community and progressive men of color ,I’d have packed it in.

This section is dedicated to those who want to “help”

For this section you need to be playing a song .

“ We Don’t Need Another Hero” By Tina Turner. It’s 80’s cheese but LISTEN TO IT READ THE LYRICS!

We need no saviors or heroes, we’ve been fighting long before you and will be long AFTER you . We don’t have an option of getting tired

So Nadia please tell em why they DON’T GET A COOKIE

BFP starts us off with her fabulous guest post on Kai’s . I excerpted it above. But should you be looking to include us . Read that TWICE. Then read it one mo gain.

Sudy follows up with a letter specific to feminists but can apply to everyone.

Magniloquence has a handy 101 series so that if you decide to continue ,which I hope you do. You do not stop the works so folks can TEACH YOU!

But I want a colorblind society! BINGO! Because there is a script and you follow it all the time.

YES WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THIS. NO YOU CAN’T SUPRESS IT. Yes you are that predicatble !

But I am trying and I will revolutionize left politics/feminism/reinvent the damn wheel!

Alrighty I am old and steeped in the wisdom of my foremothers/fathers/ancestors and your argument is something they heard BEFORE MY MAMA WAS BORN!

Combahee River Collective

Mind you it’s not just white folk who can get special.

Andrea Smith Talks about Rethinking Women OF Color Organizing

Should you continue tow want to be an ally . Please expect to screw up. We all will.

But remember something

These people who are being “mean” to are PEOPLE.

And this happens so often we WRITE BOOKS! Marcella Howell explains ( thanks Sudy)

Nanette brings it out with Benefit of the Doubt . They risk things to try and make you better.

And one from me. Because we have feelings ,and hearts, and they break into pieces

Radical Music( To Our Ears) – Because We Do Dance in Our Revolution

Because we have fun and go out and sling beats and spit rhymes and make new things

We combine and flip and make new things. This video married my great loves Hip Hop and Classical .Makes me happy!

All the Grooviest Online Video in One Place, GroovyGrooves.com

Queen Godis- Mentor Poet of Myth of the Motherland. Creator of the only way I can listen to the “ Throw some D’s on it “ beat with out reach for a sharp object. Plus Queen Freshington . Made of the win on all days that end in Y. Hear her perform Music . Believe in Music again.

Louder Arts- Poets out of NYC

My favorites

Rachel Mckibbens – I lubber her I lubber her a lot. Her joint peace with her Husband on Def Poetry Jam CHILLS!!!!!!!! All up and down spine.

Roger Bonair Agard- HE is awesome and Trinidadian which as A Guyanese I will not hold against at this time because he is awesome

AND

Carlos Andres Gomez- OH COME ON! You knew it was coming! Fresh from a tour of Scotland ( five star reviewed even I love my people I shill shamelessly) He is a mentor poet on Myth of the Motherland. You wish to buy things form him or see him when he is on tour

WritersBlock- Urban poetry and journalism out of Philly

GhettoSOngBIrd- Psychadelics, multi layered Grace Slick type Harmonies , guitar and from Philly. My lighter is already up.

CivilMics- Their We Shall Overcome Mixtape Makes me head noddy happy,Philly!

Nuyorican- One of the originals.

The Rotunda- Beautiful Building on the Upenn Campus that does stuff like the Gathering, and community arts festivals.

Periphadelphia- Where in you get art out side of hipster hell. Plus say hi to my platonic life partner

Radical Homework- Things To Do and Read Offline

LadyJax is All over it with this booklist . Black Girl By Talib should be in your ear when listening!

Like Manga? I know you do I trip over you in book stores. Read one of these As Well

Everything By Marjane Satrapi.

Barefoot Gen- Keiji Nakazawa

The History Of the Universe- Larry Gonick ( not perfect by any means but pretty decent actually mentions the flood of African Gold into Europe funding the Renaissance)

Still I Rise- Roland Owen Laird

Latino USA-Ilan Stevens and Lalo Alcaraz

This is a work in progress.

It will be it’s own website . It grew and shifted and blew up beyond me.

And I want it spread HIGH AND LOW far and wide.

I want to know what I missed

I want to know what you hate

I want to know how I made you so mad you’re gone hound me till I fix this

OR make your own

Because we need to hear form you

I need to hear from you

The Capstone piece is by another poet /writer/multi talented man : Warren Longmire . Who will have his own website where I may link him and jump and clap freely

Inappropriate

In no other time has the world been so small.

In no other time has the common man been in touch with the thoughts of others.

Never has the citizen had so much power.

And thus, never has then been more fear of the collective responsibility this brings.

I don’t know what comes next. I read my multiple RSS feeds at work just like anyone and feel just as helpless. You do your little contributions to moveon.org and move on with the rest of your day. You dream of leading a coup and put Motorcycle Diaries on your netflik’s queue but ultimately you still have to go to work. Got to pay those loans. Got to live that life.

But I do know that no matter what tools we currently have, they mean nothing if we do not believe in ourselves. All the technology in the world will do nothing if the big questions of western society: the supposed infallible of the stock market, the continued legacy of slavery and other histories of oppression, the connectedness of humanity as a species and our responsible to each other and the world, as long as honest talk on this question is inappropriate what real use is there so called radical action?

So in lue of a personal army, I am just trying work on myself. To always be honest in world where it is assumed our leaders lie and we just swallow it. To be vocally outraged when a racist comment and to say so even if I may be making an assumption myself. And more importantly maybe, to be honest when I am called on that assumption, to make my peace other perspective and use my mistake to grow.

Perhaps the greatest courage comes not in the face of a tank rolled down our neighborhood throughway but in the face the common ignorance of friends, workmates and of our own minds.

Perhaps the greatest effort comes, not in changing the world, but changing ourselves.

Never forget Katrina/Blog for Jena 6

Read more!

Inappropriate(Guest Post by Warren Longmire)

Inappropriate.

It is a word I hear all too often walking down the tree line alleys of an average Ivy League veranda, but I can’t really judge I guess.

It comes in those chance snippets of conversation you laugh at with friends when there is a lull in your own equally wack-out conversations while walking in a bubble of interest down a tree-lined alleyway of an average Ivy League veranda.

I heard one just tonight. It was an undergrad towards west Philly with friends and said suddenly, “And then he killed his girlfriend.”

Now these moments are isolated from context, and thus any number of interpretations can be made and thrown away again. Was she leaving a nearby movie theatre? Lit students critiquing a classmate’s short story? A news clipping?

It is on this unsure ground I ponder the many times and many contexts I have heard the word “inappropriate.” I can’t say for sure it is justified or not. Surely there are some things are legitimately inappropriate for conversation between friends. I’m sure most people can think of many. As with conversations about race, government policy and moral stances there are no unbias positions.

Still, considering the circumstances, you have to admit the situation is at least ironic. I mean this is the University of Pennsylvania I’m talking about, the oldest of Ivy League schools and the first liberal arts university in the country. This is a place where the best young minds of the world congregate to study the most advance branches of every field of study. The liberals here are the most liberal. The intellectuals most likely to think themselves evolved beyond religious, culture, or national confines. There are no boundaries, moral or otherwise, that cannot be pushed and the only word that means anything is your own. In such a place that prides itself on being the birthplace of progress, why are so many things called on impulse “inappropriate?” In a world beyond culture, why are so many things culturally taboo?

I will give an example.

There is was a freshman I will call Josh I was fond of walking with me through a division between engineering buildings. He was a sincere smartass with flair for Python coding. I was a second year senor at the time and known by the underclassmen for my teaching. He was a student in the class I taed. Somehow our conversation turned from comp sci to politics, as these conversations tend. More pointedly, we where talking about capitalism.

And Josh said:

“Well, I don’t know, I consider myself a libertarian when it comes to those kinds of things. Most geeks do. Why restrict the market? Let people work for there money.”

I said:

“I feel you, but I fear libertarian’s fight against regulation. I mean, in theory you have to make better things to get better profits, but without guidelines isn’t it in companies’ best interest to crush competition, use as little labor as cheaply as possible and make cheap products.”

Josh said:

“Come on, Warren. They wouldn’t do that because that it not in the interest of their customers.”

I said:

“Welcome to capitalism, dude.”

And then there was a change in Josh. Confident as he was, I saw instantly in his eyes a mark of strain. He paused and looked at me and said:

“Well, it certainly could be much worst in other countries so I guess we can just be glad for that.”

And then I paused, just as surprised at the response, and said:

“Well, that’s true, Josh but despite that, as citizens I think it is our duty to challenge our ideas and push things forward.”

To which he said:

“I really don’t think you should say things like that.”

And then he looked around as if waiting for swat members to crash in through the plate glass of the engineering quad.

“That sounds dangerous.”

Another example:

Lauren Hill recently made a performance at a Christmas celebration by the Vatican. Before starting, she stood in front of the crowd, took the mic in hand, wave off the accompaniment and said the follow:

I did not come here to celebrate the birth of Christ with you but to ask you why you are not in mourning for his death inside this place. …God has been a witness to the corruption of his leadership, of the exploitation and abuses by the clergy.

Now most of the crowd did not speak English (though they could apparently sing Ex-factor word for word). But for those that got word through translators and certainly for the press reporting, the comments where none too welcome. Most articles responded negatively to Hill’s comments, one even saying that she made and “ass of herself.” The Vatican’s response?

It was in poor taste and very bad mannered.

Bad-mannered.

Now, I understand the arguments that she should not have accepted the initiation if she did not agree with the promoters. I personally think that if you want to truly stand for something and not simply preach to the choir, you are going to have to do some things people don’t like. But that is just my opinion.

My question to all this is, with all the negative press, why wasn’t the substance of the comments ever mentioned? Why is it sudden in such poor taste to put yourself in a compromising situation and speak a truth that no one wants to hear? Wasn’t it just this kind of “poor taste” that got Jesus crucified in the first place?

This essay is supposed to be about radicalism. Its definition and the point at which one turns from a passive observer to an active participate in change. And this is a difficult question for me. I am never really sure how much is “active” and at what point one is truly radical. Though looking back on my record of service to my community I am satisfied that I at least tried, one never knows really how much is enough. In particular as a member of the poetry community, there are always those that sacrifice that much more.

Perhaps though, truly living a “radical” life mean more then a token canvaing job for greenpeace. Regardless of a group political affiliation, I see among my generation a people paralyzed by fear. Fear of being alone, and fear of being uncomfortable and above all, and most sadly, fear of being wrong. After a lifetime be being told they are that most perfect and precise snowflake, through into a world full of injustices devoid of easy solutions, too often I find my peers, and at time myself, simple going with the flow of things in those little times when we should have been the inappropate one.

And I am not talking about the meaningless shock of that one guy among men who has the “courage” to say that women are just not that smart sometimes. Nor the “courage” to put down a black teen from the neighborhood that has done nothing and said nothing to you for sake of a laugh between friends. That is the just the opposite. It is a statement made for ego and not for truth. Such statements are just assumptions based on nothing often with the full knowledge that there are many examples suggesting otherwise.

No, when I speak of baring witness to a inappropriate truth, ingrained in that is that is a position separate for ego, separate from emotion, separate even from being an absolute. It is an idea born from your experience. It is limited in the way all experiences can ever be are and yet, it is true, in that way that all lives birth a perspective that must be acknowledges and excepted on it’s on terms. It may be wrong, it may be adjusted over time but it is yours. And I for one believe that the most beautiful of ideas in the American experiment is that that here, all truths can and must be acknowledged. That this is a right, not just of Americans, but all humanity.

And this idea, living by this principle in and of itself is hard. It is so easy to be apathic. While I am saddened by how much many I know, many with strong social consciences, do whatever they can be non-confrontation, I agree that is makes one feel alone sometimes. Sometimes you really do which you could just believe that 2+2=5. Still, despite the seemingly inchangible state of our society, there has and continues to be examples of cultures that encouraged discussion and progress.

In the rabbic texts, rival schools of thought wrote extensively on the wording of the law, each trying to come to a position most in line with the thought of God. Some gained wider acceptance and some stayed niche. Interestingly though, despite wildly diverge viewpoints all schools where respected.

Islamic Imams are said to be interpreters of the word, a guide through time taking the ancient words of the holy Koran and weaving them into a practice in line with the current era. Often this required drastic rethinking of older interpretations. Yet, even when working with the word of God, it was acknowledged that things much be seen in own context.

Our own construction even, despite the word of strict interpreters, was built for change. Say what you want about the motives and compromises of our founding fathers, but it is clear they saw that despite there own high status things are never fixed in an ideal position. Why else the means to add amendments to the governments central textbook? Why else a system built to insure a balance between federal and local powers? Clearly, early civil servants saw our country as something would evolve over time. Clearly, they saw our nation as something that would change.

And how we have changed. How this change has accelerated. You are reading the words of the son of cattle, beamed through media beyond of hold of country, or corporation, beyond time and space. Millions can link to it, disagree with it or comment to it directly. As never before, millions can meet, discuss, fight and learn with each in ways never before available to the human species.

In no other time has the world been so small.

In no other time has the common man been in touch with the thoughts of others.

Never has the citizen had so much power.

And thus, never has then been more fear of the collective responsibility this brings.

I don’t know what comes next. I read my multiple RSS feeds at work just like anyone and feel just as helpless. You do your little contributions to moveon.org and move on with the rest of your day. You dream of leading a coup and put Motorcycle Diaries on your netflik’s queue but ultimately you still have to go to work. Got to pay those loans. Got to live that life.

But I do know that no matter what tools we currently have, they mean nothing if we do not believe in ourselves. All the technology in the world will do nothing if the big questions of western society: the supposed infallible of the stock market, the continued legacy of slavery and other histories of oppression, the connectedness of humanity as a species and our responsible to each other and the world, as long as honest talk on this question is inappropate what real use is there so called radical action?

So in lue of a personal army, I am just trying work on myself. To always be honest in world where it is assumed our leaders lie and we just swallow it. To be vocally outraged when a racist comment and to say so even if I may be making an assumption myself. And more importantly maybe, to be honest when I am called on that assumption, to make my peace other perspective and use my mistake to grow.

Perhaps the greatest courage comes not in the face of a tank rolled down our neighborhood throughway but in the face the common ignorance of friends, workmates and of our own minds.

Perhaps the greatest effort comes, not in changing the world, but changing ourselves.

Read more!

Tell you why I'm mad son!

OOH another post that I have to write as I finish something else. Because this question was one of the " will write for ...." entries

As a little girl, what did you think when you heard about the Rodney King beating?-Anonymous

Post about me ! YES!
Let me put this in perspective for you as I show you how young I still am. I was 7 . I still slept most of my nights in my parents bed. I saw the footage and mostly only remember asking my father.

" Daddy what is that"

" Na worry bout it "

I was 7 and I can't say that I had some fabulous hint of my progressiveness already . Wish I could, I'd be more interesting. But I noticed some things

All of a sudden there were a whole lot more cops around.

For one hot second people were actually paying attention to black people.

And my favorite shows A Fresh Prince and A Different World had episodes soon after

I noticed that although in a lot of the shots it was Korean businesses going down I could never hear the end of REGINALD DENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember the shot of the young black woman standing in a circle of people protecting someone.

I remember the Burning X from the beginning of Malcolm X.

I remember how quickly Rodney King became a joke when he pleaded for peace even though no one seemed to remember that Los Angeles was ON FIRE in places where conspicuously only Brown folk was living, and that a lot of the news was about worrying that it would spread rather than oh shit PEOPLE DYING.

And I can say honestly it helped form the online persona I use in the way I talk to people about certain topics in certain spheres.

I CHOOSE to be angry and in your face.

If you go back I started this blog I said some madness about my weight and astrology and examining my life.

For real It was because of my dad. Look at my first post.I was just out of college scared broke tired Fat ( still am but I like it a whole lot more) , had government sanctioned family separation, and I spend the most of it talking about my weight

I say this because this started as a personal blog . I wrote about stuff that annoyed ME . I never really intended to get to be a " B list blogger" or some really odd name about some animal.

So when I got linked and made connections I did it using a pseudonym purposely designed for all the anger I could not express while job hunting or getting in to my new job.

Not because I was chicken, but because I was that scared and that in need.

Flash forward I am regularly attacked for being stringent, haranguing, mean and illiterate.

Especially among the lefties and feminists, often with the carrot or " more things could happen for me if I was nicer"

" Don't you know how to play the game"

Poor brown me shouldn't I get in line.

Little known facts about the Amazon.

• She graduated high school at sixteen, college at 20, both nationally known "green"institutions
  
• At 15 she managed a perfect SAT Verbal
• She has been a classical performer and actress for many of her days
• She has given keynote speeches at her CENTURY old high school
• Her Great Aunt was in the British Army
• She is well aware of how to curtsy,serve high tea, write a proper mourning letter, and the nuances of how to address multiple heads of state
• I am a National Achievement Semi Finalist and a National Merit Commended Scholar

I have mentioned all of these in blog at some point , and I do it here not to blow up my own ego ( though it is a benefit) but to point out something very common that POC's have to keep repeating and I saw time and time again while putting together CORA.

I AM WELL AWARE OF HOW TO DEAL WITH PROPER SOCIETY ( which is always ALWAYS code for liberal well off white folk). If I am purely evil, to be somewhat classist though it pains the shit out of me, I have been dealing with a higher class of white people longer,in much more intimate circumstances than the folks lecturing me on BEHAVING.

And frankly in most cases I can pull it off. Well I could till I grew out the Afro.

The big lesson I learned from Rodney King and still for me works to this day is for many " good" people they don't care about treating me with respect until there is an element of FEAR

and no while I do not set out to scare people , I also do not set out to make them feel safer.

BECAUSE I DON'T.

Because if something pops off it will be in MY NEIGHBORHOOD. When young girls are being ignored they will look like ME FIRST. When young men are detained they are going without fail for my cousins and students.

My second to last year of college I had an amazing Professor Hannibal Lokumbe who was truly a gift who talked so much about forgiveness and knowledge and how we have be willing to forgive.

Y'all know I'm STILL working on that right. Cause my first question was

" How come we get kicked and abused and then got to be the ones to turn cheeks ?"

I learned this when I was 7. And while people are constantly amazed at my constant rejection of niceties, I don't see anybody feeling a sustained constant amazement at the other bullshit that has happened to me?

And it's also strategy , I am no damn fool, young fool OFTEN , damn fool NOPE. People read me and understand my rawness , they also compare it.

When I was 14 I did an activism seminar one of the tactics was LITERALLY called " Barbarians at the Gate".

Present the option of someone much less reasoned than yourself to force negotiations.

Guess who I like to play?

Both off and online.

Mind you this is not an IDLE threat , but want to see how often after a tangle with me people start acting sensible, or after one bad side strip of my tongue , suddenly are very amicable to people they weren't before?

And you know what.

I DON'T ACTUALLY ENJOY THIS PHENOMENA

I just know it works. And I saw it technicolor when I was 7 years old
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On Myths and MOnsters

This is another one of my will write for an hour and this posts commissioner is Elaine Vinegault

Her Question:

Can you please write about how you think various forms of oppression/marginalization/disenfranchisement/ etc. are linked or are not linked? Thanks :)

Les Sorcieres,Las Brouhas, Vampires , Bloodsuckers, Ghosts, Invisible Men.

When it comes down to it, those are the things that run the machine. These caricatures and invented mythologies are what NEED to be spun around humans when you justify not treating them with any sort of consideration or respect.

Be it gender , race,class, ethnicity the common link about oppressing people is that they can never be what they ARE but instead MUST be what fits the narrative.

You can't justify not paying someone a living wage , without placing a value on their life. You can't justify becoming someones spokesman without affirming that they can not speak for themselves.

It's the basics of advertising, create a need and fill it.

This predefinition of people without any actual regard to their self definition allows you to define
yourself by being it's opposite , or in a quick fix completely invalidate them.

This is the skill of ALL oppression, and it is taught

WELL

Except because it is fundamentally based on creating pleasant historical fictions

and in turn validates our long held practices of creating pleasant personal myths.

SO much so that even those of us with progressive politics see no problem using the exact same methods when dealing with each other .

Because it is so proven to work.

Switch some code words , spook and ape become "urban youth", wetback is " immigrant", etc

and it is a common belief that as long as we don't speak of them with the disdain we once did or we ourselves don't know the horrible history ,or more importantly

don't readily identify with that history.

We are better than those who preceded us and champions for the "righteous".

Create the myths and monsters , malevolent and benevolent and anything you say afterwards will serve you well.

If they fight it , it proves they don't know what your talking about. If they go along it gives you power. Remember the preeminent power god gave Adam was to give the beasts names.

And why not it's worked for 800 years

This is where oppressions marginalization intersect, prevent people from self defining or declare those definitions invalid and they WILL never work as they can.

At Feministe this happened twice.

Ren Ev posted this .

I read through it and promptly ran for the sidelines. I love Ren and read her regularly but do not comment because I frankly can not in many cases participate.

No matter what the battle lines is drawn , the sides at this point are set, and while yes in a cake or death way I am a sex pos, I am not in itthe debate.It just doesn't involve me. The main purpose of this debate as long as it's about one versus another , without an examination of the stories and the histories that go along with it. It's always going to be a repetition of ingrained prejudices , half tinged rhetoric and shame.

Trinity in this comment towards the end after the haymakers were thrown and the rhetoric flew :

Yep. For some people it’s a luxury to be able to be the Hairy Feminist and not lose your job. For some people it’s easy to be.

Conversely it is also a luxury to be able to even remotely live up to the idea of a conventional beauty . OR that one can afford to do all those things to support EITHER aesthetic. Or that not subscribing to the conventional OR the hairy feminist can impair your appeal to other progressives but your very ability to feed your kids?

But those are questions we don't ask of myths and monsters.Those are conversations that happen between people, and as long as we using the same invective and methodology that is used to form us as myths and monsters we will continue to repeat the rhetorics that cause us to have them.

and then Nanette broke it down and flipped it around some.

While I won't go into the specifics of why her post is seminal ( because I said one hour) but the h problems of the mythos that comes from pretending we do not use the same methodologies to oppress others that are used to oppress us is played out both here and on this thread at Pandagon. ( I would like to insert a note a of sheer amazement at the fortitude and excellence of justicewalks in that thread )

Now LLoyd Webber originally linked me to this way early in the chaos and I flipped off something snide and kind of evil and kept it moving.

I expect nothing from these conversations anymore, and at the moment I had looked at it no one I knew or cared for was under any undue stress or attack. But seriously I became drawn in by the use of the term racist and the ensuing rhetoric.

Nanette's post crystallized it for me as did the path of the commentary on both posts.

Racist becomes the worst thing anyone can be for the non POC and non allied posters. Because it is deemed by THEM to be such an effrontery that any and all tactics to DESTROY those who would bring it up are ok.

The myth of the racist rather than the actual experience of those who rather gently and respectfully breeched the subject of it was more important than dialogue . By committing so virulently to absolving Amanda of ANY racist intentions or culpability they hit EVERY single tired meme , of class, race, and emotional condescension they could. Even so much as going

Maybe if Amanda had the same life experiences that JW has had, she’d see it as racist. But on the same token, if JW would bother to honestly look at it from Amanda’s perspective, a racist subtext wouldn’t be found.*

*Of course, that would require acknowledging that not all white people are racists, but I suspect that’s not possible in JW’s case, which pretty much makes her comments pointless in that strawman kinda way.

Essentially if JW wasn't black maybe she wouldn't be giving Amanda such a hard time. And if she would just realize that all white people who purposely ignored her experiences weren't mean she too could ignore centuries of ingrained and consistent racism

What was missed in that ENTIRE conversation that Nanette captured so beautifully is taht for a t least a good portion of the thread the actual message was

" Yes you did something racist with a racist history BUT we still want to work it out with you"

But these were not people they were myths and monsters. So what could can from kill joys mouth or an infanticide advocate, but non intelligence and buzz killing?

The fact that these monsters and myths are only characterized b y their ability to have soul crushing knowledge of a racist trope, that i have taught and been aware of as originating in the 17th century.

That they would not be satisfied by the BIG STEP of taking it to her publisher, but ask that her words be specific and real and presented as they are and taken with the same care she expects us to show her book.

Not something you give to myths and monsters.

And whats more that when Nanette writes about her OWN experience , it is assumed she is talking about Amanda. Myths and montsters aren't the namers they create nothing

And here is where we the problem of myths and monsters not just for the oppressed but for their "creators" happens..

Even in fable myths and monsters must be handled specifically. Myths and monsters are even in their fiction their own creatures , and develop life and loves on their own.

If you create us as such we will develop something amazing , the ability to act both within your fiction AND within the truth.

And the truth

Hurts.

Until systems of oppression are truly shelved for the prominence of humanity it matters not what the ism schism that the privileged hold onto. They will always be joy killed when the myths and monsters screw up the narratives.

But so will we if we accept it until we are able to look at EACH other out side of these narratives we will never do the work of untangling ourselves from this bloody cosmology.

or

"Ain't nothing good gon' come to ya , til you do right by me"- Queen Latifah

Une Sorciere Negre
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and i go boom

I speed typed and communicated all dang day so

heres what i know

My template goe s boom every time I tried to add teh afrosphere blog roll

I want it on my left side all alone all by it self

looking fabulous

Can someone help

Taurine+Caffeine+BA= Brash quick cant spell worth a plug nickel but focused ba

till she crashes
when shes a cranky toddler

I send thank yous and next post goes up tomorrow

Oreo pudding saves lives

Warren Longmire

is the man

and BFP Sylvia you want cheddar or nacho cheese on these chips ?

*grabs Reeses from Nanette*
Read more!

Random Thoughts

FIRST AND FOREMOST

Kortney Ryan Ziegler The blogger formally known as Nubian ( she's still a damn legend) has an amazing event coming up and I lost the link but I found this one. So sorry it's going out late

YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO GO!

Never ever make the girl with ADD have to use Myspace to contact people for her CORA/resource guide. She will be distracted by the SHINY!
She will also be sad if someone she wants to add does not have a myspace ? Pouts

Sudy :goddess. Her clear sightedness , openness of spirit,sheer brilliance.LE Sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lex as well. Learn it love it mark it in marble. Commit it to memory

I know shes on a well deserved break but I still miss BFP.

You must not know bout her Joan Kelly is a muhfugging rockstar.

Kinky Boots rules because having Chiwetel Ejiofor ( please let that be correct I copied it form wikipedia) on screen. GREAT. Having him sing " Whatever Lola Wants"

GRIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would support his lounge album . I WOULD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Neil Gaiman rules at many things most of them handily.

Carlos Gomez is doing the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. Anyone in Scotland go see him and if you pass by the ancestral land of the McKenzies, please for my family history

Steal something send it to me , all bout getting my inheritance yall!

and then throw some rocks


Cora has renewed my faith in humanity for now. Also my firm belief that radicals . GOOD DAY IN THE MORNING GREAT NIGHT IN THE AFTERNOON why they so sexy ?!!? I'm compiling this thing and no one who has a picture up or I have seen in person is not breathtakingly sensual,attractive , arousing , or awesome or some combination of the all of the above. *FANS SELF* ( I'm a dirty old lady at 23, YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS)

My tattoo she is a coming I saw the machete it's been based on . HE went old school . I love him. I find myself desiring to make a bicep worthy of its glory

I spend so much time either writing here or writing cover letters my mind wanders. The juxtaposition of one screen having and " all radicals want to have them for my pleasure sexy people all of em" versus " My extensive experience in group mediation"

" COME GET YOUR FUCKING BOY" versus" "I have demonstrated force of character and fierceness in my"

Makes me giggle

at least sitting on my ball tones my abs supposedly while I do it.

It also means i haven't seen sunlight or people. I'm off to the library for sustenance.

PEACE!
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Cause sometimes go for the source

The hot pockets commercials

FOR REAL

FOR FUCKING REAL

THE aged yellow man hitting on the white girl?

Maybe it's racism maybe I'm to sensitive

Maybe

know what

Beau Sia

TAKE IT AWAY



Read more!

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So RavenM starts off the commissioned pieces of BA with this question :

What is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud? What made you laugh out loud has a child, as a teen, as an adult? Has it changed a lot over time? Have you laughed out loud today?

LOL

LOVE IT!

My sense of humor hasn't changed much.

I was born a bit of an imp,

I get it from my mama

So I laugh at the sillyness of things.

One of my most recent great laughs was in the temp agency office ,

One gentleman ( bless his heart) kept falling asleep

And snoring

LOUDLY

so of course you start catching folks eyes

and then you start smirking

and then when he apneas himself awake you giggle

and when the secretary wakes him up because people leave their offices to see where the construction is.

You grab the key for the bathroom and laugh in there.

I also happy laugh a lot. I clap my hands and bounce up and down and giggle broadly which me doing is adorable and made of cuteness.

that I do for young love, old love, young gay couples of color, kids babies , and babies who try and rip my lips off .

and my little cousin dancing to white and nerdy.

also nervous laugh if you se me laughing and i dont need at least one deep refill breath I'm faking it

Facial expressions


OH LORDY!

Sudy kills me dead .

Her story about the last NWS conference the one before this one causes me pain.

Good pain as her face is worth a million words.

My wife's " and I will be killing everyone I see face" is PRICELESS .

My friend ROTW "yeeeeeeeeees"

kills me dead.

The brown folk laugh , the laugh that results in people running, fanning you off, clapping, falling out, using the mother tongue, bouncing on the balls of their feet , thats universal . I see it I'm dying.

There is my maniacal laugh

Which tends to happen right before tears . If I am laughing like that it means I've wanted to hit something in the past ten minutes and instead I'm trying to avoid crying

There is the aha I rule laugh accompanied with the Presto flourish.

When I teach something and children get it


I had it today talking about why we study history and the relationship of Haiti's slave uprising revolution to it's current poverty and why Jefferson is not the great man.

and how loitering laws are and were connected to the fear of rebellion from groups of black people specifically young black men

Thats a throw your head back I love teaching the world is awesome laugh

And I can't help it I giggle around boys too

And The Message which they say is canceled

on www.thisjustin.com

LIL NO FLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**falls out**

IF you to would like a post


Read more!

Accounatbility

That's the word of the day.

Taken form Lex.


At this point to be a member of MY community or to be considered a voice I respect, you have to be accountable.

And by accountable I mean actively engagingly accountable. NOt considering not parsing and debating

NOt retreating to insults and smugness.

But actual accountability

Irony is earned by demonstrating some actual concern and knowledge of what you're being ironic about

Hence the reason the hipster bullshit flies in NO community they ironically mock and Nowhere outside their own enclaves

Sorry but repetitive attempts at engaging are met with condescension and instant attacks of jealousy and selective rewrites of history

Your community defines your work as of honor or having earned the benefit of the doubt.

If they wish not to examine the endemic privilege and ignorance that comes with their so called successes and triumph as many people express not jealousy but pain.

They are telling you they are not accountable.

If it takes threats of non support and only certain buzzwords to have them be even remotely open and considerate

They are telling you they are not accountable

If they are not accountable they are not responsible.

IF they are not responsible,
they are not respectable

and if they are not respectable

They are not members of your community.

Vote with your feet.

Until they are reflective of what you hold dear.

and willing to be accountable with out qualification

Expend just as much energy on their concerns as they do yours
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HEEE SO FUNNNNNY- except NOT

So this cartoon has been making the rounds ( I personally got it form the good folks at Blackfolk on livejournal)


And I hate it.

Someone else can get all the deep philosphical points.

But I find it special that when a young girl is confronted ( with her lil brother in tow) with teh very scary figure of a man with a gun who has seen her face

The comic would insinuate her not screaming or snitching as a moral failure

because why should the lil black girl have self preservation instincts

when she can make white folks feel better.

Yet we are a culture that aggrandizes the Sopranos, Donnie Brasco,

But ignores The Wire


OK



Whatever.
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Me Ashanti Celia and Sun Sun

I am a lil bit attached to Kactus' Ashanti.

For a child I have never met, I do adore her. She looks like me when I was young ( to me) . The glasses, the reading, the torture by the demons we pass off as students ( KIDDING , mostly,kind of)

Especially cause of the whole. Celia Cruz thing.

And the hair .

Wild child hair , not that "good" mixed hair, not that classically problematic nappy hair , that beautiful somewhere in between .

The good mixed hair which advertises that the white in you or the NOT BLACK won the fight for your genetics.

That " classically" problematic hair that only exists to people who want it straight that every brown girl has ever had .

No THE Hair that wonderful stuff fin between that has wings and curls and a halo, that pulls back and beads and crashes from your head , that realness that grown form our heads, that stuff, that we sometimes never discover

THAT hair.

THIS hair.

It has spread around the internet and everyone is " appropriately" outraged. The "I'm ( insert random physical white person modifier) and see THEY ARE AGAINST ME I'M BEING AN INDIVIDUAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" has been kept to a blessed minimum

And it's all snarkily appropriate.

Isn't she so silly
Isn't she so stupid
Isn't she so wrong

Isn't she so amusing in her wrongness

WE ARE SO ENLIGHTENED

HAHAHAHAH

Except here's what no one will say and no one will admit as we mock ( rightfully ) this special special twit.

She's not wrong

* Stops the record*

You see in the rush to have everyone jump for joy over how well and wittily they can skewer her.

No one seems to recall that she's right.

A non straightened hairstyle in a corporate field is still RARE.

A non straightened hairstyle on a non OBVIOUSLY mixed women in fashion, media or otherwise.

HI JILL,WASSUP ERYKAH, HELLO INDIA ARIE.................. Hello Hello We'll get back to you on that

The first non permed Miss Universe contestant from JAMAICA was THIS year.

But that's not my concern on every POC centric site I frequent

Someone had THE STORY

of how someone had beautiful hair

and fixed it.

I have the story of how I stopped straightening my hair for two years only to reperm it for college and willfully spitefully mistreat it for two MORE years I hated it so much.

And while everyone convulses in indignation take a moment to remember

This woman had the ears of multiple lawyers and law firms who used her to PURPOSELY tell them what was and was not acceptable.

When will the sisters at Natural Hair have that same kind of pull?

This woman was given a platform that as har har as it seems funny and quickbyted for some is RARELY ever given to people of color.

And she used it to tell people that black people who didn't perm ( and by people you mean women mostly)

were inappropriate, dreadful and shocking.

For being themselves.

Maybe I am bitter because the first thing told to me every time I look for jobs is to take off the African American theater group

and have I tried making my hair manageable and neat ?

Maybe something that lies flatter?

How many folks considered that she essentially made it that much harder to get a job while being congratulatory about their own good liberalness.

That in an atmosphere where being brown is STILL a problem, someone with that forum confirming a bias that

IS taking jobs from people, hindering careers

and careers of people who at very minimum put in 8 years of under and post graduation .

Succinctly she gets a lazer pointer a catered spread and a fee to take food out of peoples mouths and plant seeds of pretty blatant bigotry.

It it still snarky funny now?

Or that when I think of what you tell a child about this .

What could I tell Ashanti

That if you let your hair grow out of your hair the way almost anyone else will..

Should you save 100's on a painful scar inducing process.

Should you want to not live and dye by water, or not have to be TERRIFIED OF not taking thirty minutes before bed to wrap and set.

Of wanting to some days run your fingers through it ( or someone elses ) to sweat and dance

without going into a financial whole.

Someone will think it is okay to make you do MORE than any white person.

Not because of what you do but because of who you are.

And people will say to you how do you deal rather than why is it allowed? ( quoted from the inimmitable Sudy)

AS more and more opportunities for you to take care of yourself are stripped from you, as people pretend that it is just some nebulous society and " forces" that do this to you.

Even after the education the tests the striving

That's what will be on some folks minds

THE HAIR.

( and we'll leave the skin the boobs the sass and the ass out of it for now)

and even your allies will think this is "funny"

And through all of this I'm gonna ask you to be proud.

I'm gonna ask you to be a bird that flies that defies all odds

and when that's all you have I'll ask you to fly

Sun Sun Babae
Parajo Lindo de la madrugal


Please remember I am hosting CORA

and I am fundraising!

Read more!

One Post Only

So I have caught the attention of "important people" again.

I was writing this post before I realized that it would be my 300 over a span of one and a half years. In my style , in my way, full of carriage returns ( I was told when you are finished thinking hit enter, I think "sixteen thoughts at a time" so enter is my friend), literal descriptions of my facial expressions , and perfectly placed punctuative profanity.Then I realized it was my 300 post . On milestones it is important to both commemorate what has gotten you to them and try something new.

Thankfully I had some battle scars for this one , in addition to a heads up from Kai about my sudden fame. So I went in expecting what I usually expect. And this time was no different, no less confusing, amusing and ultimately stupefying, Thankfully it hurt a lot less.

In a post where I was directly linked and then latter directly attacked. Not a single quote from me is included. Kai fares slightly better in so much as he is quoted ,poorly , in order to make him look as bad as possible, but he is quoted.

Let the fun and games begin

The term whiteosphere is galling to so many with the traditional , white entitled response of
"but if I said it it would be a problem" Or what if I said blackosphere?!?!?!?

Now the person who types this can't even spell Kai's name right and uses that one paragraph to state that the way of thinking established "over there" is wrong and THAT IS why we shall be separate.

First off the pure disrespect and lack of engagement in that exchange alone is amazing. One because Kai is CHINESE , so why does the default "reverse racism charge" ( while not said specifically but implied) go to blackness? Also there is and I believe it is displayed on Kai's blog and should be on mine an accepted name among a large group of black diasporic bloggers ( of which I am a proud member ) : called the Afrospear . Collectively named , but then I shouldn't expect much from people who would APPLAUD the mocking of a group , the Black Panthers, who regardless of their flaws where an amazing aid to the people they seek to bring into their big tent. While it does not speak for everyone, nor does it portend to here is an example of the very phenomena In addition to a smug condescension by telling what should and should not be our mindset, there is exemplified an amount of intellectual laziness and ACCEPTANCE of it by others that seems only acceptable when speaking on issues regarding the opinion of POC or the poor.

There is no attempt to mask the fact that the concerns of those they deem unimportant do not matter and deserve no courtesy. Personally the conduct of one poster towards me specifically was flabbergasting in both their open desire to be uninformed and their rush to defend the " right person".

First I am called divisive, mocking , to Miss Laura even thought the person in the section they claim to have read I was mocking is thereisnospoon. This person is proudly dismissive of anyone who would consider me a thinker or person to be engaged intellectually. Howeve they do spend a healthy amount of time asking the OP to justify MY writing, because as an irrational harpy it would be impossible to ask me.

That my readers is also pretty much it. Kai and I never come up again by name or by actual quote as far as I read . Nezua gets a deserved mention as an excellent writer.

What is important to these people is the preservation of their ability to be spoonfed. Instead of ever once asking the question of how ,why or what about there structure is so very unappealing to people of color to PEOPLE OF COLOR, exchanged are various reasonings, and diversions on why this isn't an issue, why the person is simply being attacking for considering this issue, why the should be attacked, the fallacies of the democratic party and why DKOS is the best place ever.

Only ONE of these people to date has actively engaged me or Kai.

I use myself as an example only because this pattern of dodging and disrespect under the veil of "keeping the net roots on track" is so systematic and prevalent, it has reached the point that POC and allies ( yes white people see it too) play versions of BINGO with it's tactics.

Jenifer Fernandez Ancona's post ( and it's comments) as well as the response to Chris Bowers' post are prime examples.

As are Miss Lauras and thereisnospoon's. Rather than acknowledge there is a problem blame is shifted , POC are disqualified and no action is taken. Miss Laura's was especially vexing because what it amounted to was " here are all these reasons there was no one there and it was for whatever societal reason THEIR FAULT" . It showed no effort to know or care to ascertain the actual dynamics and demographics of Bloggers of Color WHO DO BLOG, and did so solely to let Dkos off the hook.

Her characterizations depend not on anything from the communities of color but on saving the public face of Kos. Which is entirely fine and frankly it's not that important to me.

What was important to me was that people I respect and people who have blogged and done so with clarity and intelligence where ignored and falsely represented to do so.

As in with my LAST kerfluffle over the FFF book. It is endemic that Liberal and Progressive white people believe that any mention of us , no matter how disjointed , disconnected , and a historical "counts". The use of POC to shield from the charge of not having POC is alright. Effort will be rewarded.The fact that these are often suspiciously concentrated on the blight of our lives instead of our promise is NOT accidental. The fact that it is actually recognized by Conservatives is not a signal that addressing it will cede them high ground . It is an evidence that the situation is that blatant.

The fact that POC not only build fortify and prefer their institutions is not an example of willful separateness but common sense and self preservation. To request literally ENDLESS amount of patience from POC while not being able to stay on topic of their ACTUAL critiques is presumptuous at best.

So for one post only let me say this, the solutions to this problem are infinitely simple just not easy. The progressive movement is currently being asked if it will do the actual work towards crafting the influence it so openly dreams of , and sadly that prognosis is not good.

Please remember I am hosting CORA

and I am fundraising!

Thank you to all who have donated and personalized thank yous will go out shortly as will the beginning of posts
Read more!

Will write for ......................................

So it's hard out here for a college graduate like real hard

Like look it my bank account is in the double digits.

Like can I not be competing for jobs with those of twice my age and degrees.

AND I'M BROKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rationing out trips to go job hunt broke

and then Mom's agency got shuttered

So I am fundraising this week/month whatever. But mostly this week

However call it my ole Caribbean work ethic / massively installed insurmountable former nunnery bound guilt.

I also will in addition t regular donations do this

I will write for donations.

Heres the deal:

Donate an amount over $25 ( the amount I make for a one hour tour) and with your donation submit a topic.

If I accept your donation I write for an hour on your topic.

Certain rules of course apply .

I reserve the copyright to everything I write and distribution.

I reserve the right to reject or refund your donation if your topic is unacceptable, or I just don't wanna write for you.

The post can not be cross posted only excerpted ( one paragraph ) and linked

I won't promise what I'll write

You have the right to do so anonymously or be named.

BUT

Your question WILL be printed.

If I take your money that does not prevent me from mocking you.

So as I sit with idealist.org and hot jobs and careerbuilder and Monster on me but.

IF you can or have always wanted to ask me something!

Now's your chance!

Help a young intellectual till school tours start or the temp agencies call!
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CARNIVAL OF RADICAL ACTION

CARNIVAL OF RADICAL ACTION

will be held

at

HAVING READ THE FINE PRINT AUGUST 25(deadline for submissions) THE BACK TO SCHOOL EDITION :

Radical Knowledge

Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it. - Marian Wright Edelman

All schools, all colleges, have two great functions: to confer, and to conceal, valuable knowledge. The theological knowledge which they conceal cannot justly be regarded as less valuable than that which they reveal. That is, when a man is buying a basket of strawberries it can profit him to know that the bottom half of it is rotten.- Mark Twain

It's the end if summer and as we prepare to start a year of " education" Let us preface it by focusing on knowledge .

Knowledge is the forefront of all great actions, the lack of it, the acquisition of it, the concealment of it.

Radical action is almost always precipitated by a radical shift in the paradigm. How did you find out the strawberries were rotten? How did you find out you didn't have to accept it. When did you figure out you could change the world?So for this carnival :

Know to do

Know better Do better

What do we need to know for radical action?

Resources

New Actions

New purposes

New places

New projects

What is radical knowledge?

Who has shaped your radical knowledge?

What knowledge makes/made you radical?

Primacy will be placed on NON mainstream voices.

To build a foundation we will start bottom and to the left.

Make back to school something ENTIRELY different this year.
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Nanette loves me Nanette loves me alot

This post is now closed comments may be directed ONLY AFTER READING Here

Cause she linked to this in her comment at Kai's

but oh no oh no

Her love for me is deeper

This one TOOO

I'm telling you white folks really do a times exist SOLELY for my amusement.

Thank you both thereisnospoon and Miss Laura for showing the one thing I learned was prevalent among gaseous windbags , at by Ivory Legal ( peep Taylor Mali) university.

There is a large and gapping chasm between proper research and the research done by most educated people.

Also that when in doubt please make sure to throw out the tired stereotypes of poor downtrodden colored folks like good liberals should.

I AM TOOO POOR AND UNEDUCATED TO BLOG

and too poor to go to KOS.

THEY SAID SO . THAT'S WHY IT WAS SO WHITE THAT'S WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Except

Dear moronic idiots,

Every single blogger so far who has commented on the lily whiteness of the conference.....

College educated.

In fact Ebogjohnson is/was a PROFESSIONAL WRITER

FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE

Nez I believe is an NYU graduate

KAI DEVELOPS SOFTWARE

And me

Yes we is uneducated dirty colored folks

YESSUM!

In fact one of the things that crosses my mind and comes up in my discussions with BOC ( Bloggers of Color ) is that while we are often monetarily broke

We are some educated folks. Of a random sampling of my blogroll solely using 10 WOMEN of color

I am the only one whose not been academically published.

I am the only one not on her way or in possession of a Masters.

But yessim we all so uneducated

But even if we weren't

SO THE FUCK WHAT?

Is your movement the righteous way the way for all americans so caste ingrained that we have to be to get heard?

And this would make you different from the Repubs HOW?


But inthespoon is right in a way. We are often monetarily strapped. So we do prioritize something he and Miss Laura believe to be out the realm of our poor colored selves.

And no unless you pay for it for us we would not prioritize a conference that blocks pro-palestinians has ONE recorded WOC on a panel ( as I have been told) and pats it self on the back for having Hilary Clinton .

I could go to SisterSong or AMC.

But Miss Laura at dailyKos.

Killed it .

Killed it dead.

Made me laugh so hard I had to call people

killed it dead.

If she hit anymore of the white liberal horsepuck meter on her way down the bullshit tree I think I would have PULLED something from laughing.

I link it again cause you have to read it anc i can't quote it all here cause that would hurt my feelings but

IS SHE SERIOUS?!

Number one I find it interesting that throughout this whole discussion of this debacle cause it is officially a debacle, this blogosphere which hopes to continually assert it's viability as non traditional media,

has only talked to traditional media, to the point that Jane Hamsher in all her glorious toolbagishness has shut down the convo rather than be caught you know actually organizing around progressive media.

Because Kos is Hispanic and that's ENOUGH!

Number two

Every response ha snot been about the power of this medium , or the effects they hav had

BUT

the sheer petulant childishness of being HELD ACCOUNTABLE for being at least remotely resembling the high minded promises they make

But here here

Sweet Lil' BabyJeebus

Goodman closes on a completely nonjudgmental note:

Next year, Yearly Kos will undergo a name change. The assembly of progressive bloggers will call themselves Netroots Nation. But when will the members of these netroots look more like the nation?

I don't know, Ellen. When will we be able to say the same about the editorial board of the Boston Globe? Or, for that matter, when will we be able to say it about any group into which education, leisure time, and disposable income are requirements for entry?

That was literally the political version of

I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I

Here's what they'd say Miss Laura. EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAY NOW.

Because that's the thing rather than addressing the problem of bringing in POC and other progressive causes ( if they did this to POC I'm wiling to bet my cute brown ass the did worse to abilism, poverty etc I want to be wrong but good chance I'm not)

You bitch at them for not being more receptive to you.

Your not concentrating on grassrooting , your concentrating on infiltration.

You want to be them

AND THEY CAN SMELL IT

The fact that it took THEIR attention for you to truly mention diversity at ALL, that rather than address the myriad of AWESOME AWESOME critiques FROM YOUR FELLOW bloggers
you snipe at people who won't think of you tomorrow

Maybe they'd believe

But this isn't all white people existing solely for the amusement for the young amazon.

It's about another insidious and devastating strain of thought in this exchange.

Heather Corinna ( whose book you really should be buying in BULK ) covers it beautifully.

There is a belief that if you HAVEN'T found a way to pimp it , flip it or make money off it.

YOU DESERVE TO STRUGGLE.

The fact that our focus isn't maintaining certain power structures, media dominance, or ATTENTION , or money beyond you know basic fucking survival that we aren't being

"smart"

or
"adult"

about it.

We aren't networking properly

so we can't be serious.

We aren't trying hard enough so why pay us attention?

If we were worth it like the big media or smart like those making money and books and films and media that APPEAL rather than educate maybe just maybe they wouldn't spend half of their we are doing better speeches pleasing with big media to please give them attention ?
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Why is it OUR problem?

This was originally intended to be a comment on Racialicious about Addicted to Race Podcast 77

Then I read Vox ex Machina.

Who swung me by Magniloquence

Then I read Ebogjohnson ( who basically hit such a trifecta of awesome I can't even respond just a Ron Simmons like DAMN)

Then Kai who rocks at the awesomeness I worry about him hurting himself at times

Finish it up with a dose of the Nezua

And lets have a flashback to the vacationing Sudy



And commence the spiraling of my thoughts like my twists.

The thing that I found myself concentrating on about the podcast , as well is the cluster fuck of privilege that was Jane Hamsher's , and atrios , something that has been igging me for a while about the way that sort of question is posed is

Why is this MY problem?

Feminism wants to represent "women"and many many women of color feel it fails.

Left "it" bloggers want to represent the progressive space many many bloggers of color ,allies, opponents, people with eyes, and most folks who can read at a third grade level give them a HUGE failing mark.

So why is the question always phrased as if the problem is with those who feel unrepresented?

Why is it that me being a sentient human being having some consciousness of my own desires always presented like I must be working through some demons, or have some jealousy?

Why is ebog asked to keep an open mind because he can be enlightened?

Why are grown ass folks asked to subliminate themselves to the greater cause? And why are those folks always brown?

It would be one thing if these movements materials, events weren't tripping over themselves to be representative

But they are.

And they are failing horribly so why is it constantly though of as OUR problem.

HOW come we don't hear:

Why has feminism been so unappealing to women of color?

Why has liberal politics failed so miserably at at adequately addressing race to ANYONE"S satisfaction?

Why do so professed liberals seem to only actually ask these questions around press time?

Why is their common response to be as smug as possible then disappear ?

Why is it okay to browbeat people of color publicly and reconcile privately?

My last big let's get into fight was May , and most should know what that was about and frankly I ain't about to reiterate it , as I am finally at the point where I don't cry and grind my teeth.

It caused me to give up writing as I hoped to drive my hit count DOWN.

( Speaking of which Black Amazon is BROKE as in won't you help her Paypal as in next week is straight fundrasing week and point her to temp agencies in NYC )


Yep me who is broke and hoping to be a freelance writer would have rather tanked my hit count than deal with the pure shit that came from "progressives"

How interesting that these pleas and rejoinders for community and rebuilding are always made not on the sites of those who complain but on larger sites WITHOUT REFERENCE TO THE ORIGINALS or the commentary of anybody not connected to LARGE newsmedia or blogs?

OR that as soon as people sprinkle in a lil more color this move to be more diverse kind of blows over til the next brouhaha or photo op?

OR that that it is always phrased as POC are trying to drum interest even when white folks concerned posts sometimes aren't a good ten percent of our ACTUAL POSTS?

Meanwhile the discussions of the sudden interest in us by "white liberals " tend to coincide with 1) media opportunities : Nez's interpretation of the blog furor cause they weren't treated like press should earn him the nickname Nostranezua

2) hit count issues

3) need for blogging funds by the LARGER blogs? while the smaller ones do a version of lateral paypal movement that while heartening is in no way indicative of teh supposed attention mongering they get accused of?

Considering the confusion if not straight up disgust SO MANY DIFFERENT FOLKS feel.

To the point many of us once confronted with the white liberal juggernaut can never EVER feel comfortable again, or LITERALLY HAVE TO GO LIE DOWN

While those who chastise us get national media coverage and/or six figure salaries.

So how is our not being involved OUR problem ?

I am not out there looking for NOW ( which reads me and while I have no problem could somebody say hello that shit is kind of disturbing to be silent all the time) , I am not part of the campaign to be more inclusive to white folk make squares of my salary. I doubt Ebog is part of the "How do I make Jane Hamsher pay me more attention like her black face ads and half cocked apologies" club.

They are looking for US.

And what any person whose done any customer service will tell you , if you want loyal customers you give them better service.

Which they aren't .

So either they don't really want us

OR

They want s but on their terms.

Either way

How is this OUR problem?
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How to sow race panic seeds

I committed my self to not raging at the whitefolk .

I said I was gonna concentrate on POC and aiding them and being me positive.

I am positive at this point.

Positive

That on some level the ignorance and straight up no veil whatsoever racist panic of white people.

Exists on some very basic level

FOR

MY

AMUSEMENT!

THEIR MULTIPLYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

First let me take a step by step mocking of the Associated Press article as the backbends that it goes through to make this a race panic.

Whites a minority in one in ten counties.

GASP SHOCK DISMAY.

Except that means that in 90 % of the counties EVERYWHERE ACROSS AMERICA.

White is still a numerical majority.

and then in THE FIRST PARAGRAPH

It's not even a full ten percent.

so with a >90 % majority, the press would like to remind you that we should be scared.

So I would like to take you step by step into writing an irresponsible , piece of hokum also known as a race panic article
Step 1 in writing a race panic article:

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER IS THAT NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT ALWAYS FRAME IN TERMS OF WHITENESS. IF IT IS ABOUT POPULATION CHANGE . DO NOT WRITE ABOUT GROWING POPULATIONS ONLY THE SHRINKING OF THE WHITE RACE

It should no matter what the actual story ( and their could be doubt there is one) be structured to make normal natural occurrences as panic inducing and frightening to white people as possible. ALWAYS PRIORITIZE WHITENESS

STEP 2
Please remember to hide all important info that is pertinent early on by making it COMPLETELY UNREADABLE without a calculator ( or a childhood raised by an frustrated maths teacher)

As of 2006, non-Hispanic whites made up less than half the population in 303 of the nation’s 3,141 counties, according to figures the Census Bureau is releasing Thursday. Non-Hispanic whites were a minority in 262 counties in 2000, up from 183 in 1990

First off 303/3140= 9.64 . In chemistry rounding that up is a fools bargain . Especially since no indication of HOW MUCH LESS THAN HALF IT MEANS. ALSO in 6 years white folks only lost the majority in

DRUMROLL

41 counties

so the actual percent change in counties
.0130

Yes my friends AP wrote a race scare article about a percentage move of LESS than 2 percent in 6 years or


( 303-183) /3,141= .0382

FOUR PERCENT IN SIXTEEN YEARS!
Step 2a
Important info that doesn't match your attempts at creating race panic and actually illustrates a MUCH more pertinent and scary problem that you can't blame on the Mexicans please convolute as much as possible

The share of non-Hispanic whites in Orleans Parish grew from 27 percent in 2005 to 34 percent in 2006, while the share of blacks dropped from about 68 percent to 59 percent.

Non Hispanic Whites= White people

So in 2005

68% Black+27% White=95%

WHICH MEANS 5 PERCENT FOR EVERYONE ELSE ( Native,APIA , LATINO)

In 2006

59 percent Black+34% White= 93 percent

7 percent FOR EVERYONE ELSE

Total change for everyone not black or white

TWO PERCENT TWO MOTHERFUKING PERCENT

Black people lose 9 percent
White people gain 7 percent or 78 percent of all the population percent lost by Black people.


Now that should be a big ole alarm bell about how a predominantly black city( WHICH IS STILL UNDERWATER AND POORLY FUNDED AND SWEET ON MY ROSS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA) is inching it's way white . But shh can't blame it on the Mexicans so make the math unrecognizeable and proceed swiftly to

Step 3
When talking about Latinos , it is imperative that you always ALWAYS link them to " illegal immigration"

even if you INTERVIEW A WOMAN WHO HAS LIVED HERE FOR 30 years. Make sure to make it sound that the general terror and unwelcomeness she's feeling is connected more to
the influx of the brown people than the rigidity jingoism and moralizing of the people persecuting them

Make sure to give her less time than the obviously racist raving nitwit babbling about those who won't assimilate. Make no note that he talks about America like it was the fucking Borg.
Step 4
Do not use a graph that would show change or multiple strains of useful comparable information at once. instead color as much of it as possible so that it seem much more colored than it is ( in BOTH WAYS) . Completely ignore how white it looks even with these adjustments and skewing.




( I would like to take this moment to also remind you that if you are the only person who notices that the ones where the brown folk are CONCENTRATED IN WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY OCCUPIED LAND JACKED FROM MEXICO and the real question is how did so many white folk get in there so quickly aka. less than 150 years. And lets not even get into about how the entire map should not be white c'mere lemme whisper in your ear

WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT USING EARTH LOGIC WE"RE CREATING RACE PANIC)

( Also should you wonder why ALASKA isn't predominantly all NATIVE at least and why HAWAII has any areas where non white is non majority just come to the bar and join me in the drinking)

For the second article please remember its The New York Times so add in more numbers make the headline more tortured and quote someone in a think tank, sprinkle some sat words that indicate completely unsubstantiated "facts" such as:

The shift reflects the growing dispersal of immigrants and the suburbanization of blacks and Hispanics pursuing jobs generated by whites moving to the fringes of metropolitan areas.

provide no back up quote someone from the Brookings Institute.

Feel very good in white liberalness.

For article three finish this off with a sudden careful and hedging tone about the monetary practices of Mexicans. Make sure only to use this careful journalistic tone when it can be used to demonstrate Mexican immigrants in a greedy or unflattering light contrary to just

ABOUT ALL EVIDENCE IN THE ARTICLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AND EVERY QUOTE.

Also make sure this is the only one where you note the language and margin of error of the findings. Never say these things about Census because the findings of a Latino organization are eminently questionable, but the gubment is trustworthy above all things.

There's you anti Mexican, Katrina minimizing, white panic race articles.

Cue Blackamazon reading in disbelief then giggling, then glancing hopefully at her wall in hopes her machete will materialize and feeling very sad it doesn't.


Speaking of Katrina : I know him . He makes good music

I LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURVE his voice

That's what Lousiiana STILL looks like but SHH RACE PANIC ARTICLES.

He's in my Blogroll

I give you

Brent Shuttleworth.




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Cassandra

Cassandra have some sense of the position you find yourself in now- Hecuba Trojan Women

When Apollo cursed Cassandra for rejecting him he spit into her mouth.

His spit would be worth more than any word that she ever uttered, anything she ever did.

No one would believe anything.

And well we know how Troy went down.

This is inadvertently part 2 or probably 8 about sex and WOC

Because what else I remembered when reading this was

The Duke woman : a veteran.

And it's not a woman's issue .

Well at least the wife doesn't think it is.

Why is it that national attention cases involving Women of Color never mention the fact that as women of color we are more likely to be raped.

PERIOD .

FULL STOP.

All women are subjected to this IT"S BLAMING THE VICTIM IT'S CLASSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not .

It's the military.

And she's enlisted.

She enlisted when she was 19 years old.

She wanted to do better so she signed up to essentially get shot at , because when no one pays attention to your poverty or lack of opportunities, or educates you fully on what it means to be in the service.

Or your willing to do it anyway.

This is what thousands of poor women and women of color are willing to do to be better.

And say whatever you want about officer training I have yet YET to see the military itself go after an OFFICER for retaliation .

But enlists the poor ones, the bulk of whom are colored are fair game.

It never matters that before they served their country, once they are there

Promiscuous

Consensual

SHE WAS DRUNK ( if she can't say YES YES YES PLEASE YES IT'S NOT CONSENSUAL)
And it's okay cause we're always that underneath.

And when we get shafted on services, or frightened and fearful

we''re always first to go.

And let us be trying to strive for better

It will be used against you in a court of law.

BEcause his spit is worth more than any word you'll ever utter.
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Mr Me TOO!

I'm broke

I'm hot

I'm exhausted .

And I'm fucking tired.

I'm weepy and snappy and job hunting and fighting with my mom to the point of making myself sick

I am running the Carnival of Radical Action this month . Please note that it's the 25 not the 16th I messed that up. The theme is radical knowledge.

At some point I will put a detailed description up.

Till then I'm joining Fab, Yolanda, Sylvia and em and in the words of the immortal Missy Elliot.

If it ain't about getting me a check . Leave a message

Love me. My mouth the start of all this drama

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I can't even talk

So Blacklooks critiques Resident Evil Five

and these fools loose their minds.

OF course race card comes out

and black hooker


and non intelligent

AND YOU DON'T know what the real problem is.

I can't even read this shit.

No more

and to squash her out they have FIFTY COUNT EM FIFTY response and growing.

Cause these wack boys are more concerned with the reputation of the game than the respect of a human.

And got the nerve to talk about civility.

But shhhi it's safe for women of color to have opinions.

Dude I need laughter at this point in my life because literally they dedicated PAGES to three sentences where the strongest indictment is problematic.

And no no comments cause

Well No

I point and laugh at the ridiculous cause I can.

and frankly Halo 3 is a better game
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