Inspiration Vortex: karnythia: notesonascandal: theraceproblem: One of my biggest pet...
karnythia:
notesonascandal:
theraceproblem:
One of my biggest pet peeves is when some of my fellow immigrants of African descent use their experiences to try and invalidate the systemic and institutionalized racism that Black Americans face in the United States. I will still in African Students Association meetings and hear comments about like “Our parents came here from Africa with no money and we were able to succeed so why can’t Black people in America do the same thing?” or “I don’t think the issue is racism, it’s different culture and values. African parents set really high standards for their kids and if Black parents just did the same, there would be huge progress.“
First, these comments are relying on socially-constructed and false stereotypes and tropes about Black people and Black families. Moreover, this shit is extremely dismissive of the historical and inter-generational oppression of Black people in this country and your one experience cannot invalidate their history or their experiences. By espousing these views, all you are doing is supporting White supremacist notions of Black inferiority by playing into an African/Black immigrant model minority myth. You are using your one life experience to not only pathologize Black Americans and blame them for facing huge obstacles in a pervasively racist country, but you are also completely erasing the fact that African/Black immigrants actually experience severe challenges in the United States.
For example in spite of have some of the highest levels of education,Black immigrants earn less than other immigrants and native-born people with similar training.Black immigrants also have the highest unemployment rate of any foreign-born group (12.5%)andwere the hardest of all immigrant groups by the recent job crisis. Moreoverthe foreign born Black population have a poverty rate of 18.8%, which is higher than the national average and double the rate of White Americans. So life isn’t, in fact, rosey for all African/Black immigrants.
There is not one lived experience for African/Black immigrants and we need to understand that the world is way to nuanced for you to logically make the claim of “I succeeded, why can’t Black people?”. Native-born Black Americans and Black immigrants face unique obstacles and challenges in the United States because of unique, diverse history and social-political context. Understand that and remember that before you spout some bullshit to shit on Black people in the United States.
Strangest part is some of the my African immigrant brothers will analyze the shit out of European and Western colonialism and imperialism in Africa, but don’t even put in an iota of effort or thought into interrogating White supremacy and racism in the U.S.
Also, there is this myth that African immigrants have access to opportunity here because of some invisible hand. Nope, the ongoing Civil Rights Movement is why there’s so much opportunity for POC in America. It irks the shit out of me to see immigrant POC looking down their noses at Black Americans while they profit from avenues of access that we fought to establish and still fight to protect.
bolding mine because damn
shortformblog:
Openly-gay mayoral candidate slain in Mississippi: Many local residents believed Marco McMillian, 35, to be the first viable openly-gay candidate for public office in the history of Mississippi. As of now, the murder, discovered on Tuesday and reported by police on Wednesday, is not being investigated as a hate crime; however, police do already have one suspect in custody. Though they have not been formally charged, the unidentified suspect was found in McMillian’s wrecked car on Tuesday, with the Clarksdale mayoral candidate nowhere to be seen. (photo by Troy Catchings/The Clarksdale Press Register)
oh, my god
did yall think we were playing when we pointed out how violence against LGBTQI folks is usually directed at people of color or…? (via glossylalia)
Get to the Source: iloveromances: sourcedumal: White folks will go out of their way to...
iloveromances:
sourcedumal:
White folks will go out of their way to learn to speak, read and write in elvish, dwarvish, draconic and Klingon, but say that learning how to say ‘Quvenzhane’ Wallis’ is too fucking hard…
True. I can’t tell you how many times white people I work with refuse to learn my name. I go by DD but just once it would be nice if people would remember Darisha (DUH-REE-SHUH). Three syllables. Yet who can’t say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? You see The Sound of Music enough and you learn that but a 3 syllable name is so beyond people’s capabilities.
Quite frankly, I hope she straight up ignores folks until they get her name right and her family sues folks for getting her name wrong. Trademark that shit and if they say it wrong, you owe her bank.
what is it with people trippin over our names lately??
today at work this white dude i already can’t stand was bellyaching over the name Lavonte, not only cuz haha blackness but also ‘cause he didn’t know the gender of the person and it was SUCH an inconvenience for him…to, you know, leave a voicemail. mind you he is russian with a unique name himself so i’m 150% positive he’s pronounced more difficult monikers and i’m 200% positive he felt me staring daggers at him
and you know the worst part? this dolt of a black guy thought it would be ok to SYMPATHIZE with this man! this kool-aid sipping mothereffer said, and i quote “yeah, it’s a ghetto name.” in a room full of white people. who i’m pretty sure nodded at that statement.
i was speechless (and not in a position to respond). like was that necessary for you to be SO complicit in white bullshit to disrespect someone who probably is one of us?
ugh. i was mad about that shit all morning.
malaga-coco:
niggas don’t understand the difference between being tackful and bein a punk ass suck up.
are you going to employ all of these black folks that get fired for speaking up?
no.
Black people’s money isn’t organized enough to employ us when we displease white folks by speaking up.
we don’t have the connections in place to not need them anymore.
when we have a safety net then you can shame these folks on the platform for not speaking up.
gotdamn
100% truth (Source: malanga-coco)
Shows I want in DVD…
rhythmicpoetess:
Eureka
Living Single
Half & Half
Girlfriends
Scandal asap
Charmed (all seasons after Shannon)
That’s So Raven
i just want to educate myself and watch every episode of Living Single
The first site (out of Netflix, Hulu, etc) to finally put our shows on them will have the game completely on lock
And I’m glad people remember Half & Half fondly, I liked that show a lot (via sourcedumal)
erratichearts:
cuzif-ingcan:
fightxtoxdream:
pyramidrevowlution:
otherbully1:
insanityisfree:
thedarkchocolatedandy:
howtobeterrell:
Awards
SOMEONE GET HER A CROWN!
I like this.
I love this video… putting white people in all kinds of check.
Statements like this is the reason why there is a separation in the African American community. There’s niggas and then there’s black ppl. Statements like this makes that separation more apparent EVERY SINGLE FUCKIN DAY. Some black people, excuse me, NIGGAS, kill me. All because they don’t want white ppl saying that word. I don’t want them saying it either because there’s so much negative history in its capacity to forget, but shit at the end of the day what is it? A word! And ppl (white and black) will continue to say it even after this tumblr shit and fb shit and texting shit fades away but if you know you are and in fact not a NIGGA, don’t trip. A nigga in this lifetime is an ignorant African American. I didn’t want to point out that line that’s been drawn but its time to acknowledge that it’s right there. RIGHT FUCKING THERE IN FRONT OF US! Be a black person or be a nigga. Your choice!
Pretty much.
Who is this?
BOTTOM. LINE.
WTF???? at that paragraph though
you sound real white-identifying and koolaid sippin right now shut up shut up shut up (Source: wakaflockazayn)
fuckyeahdarkgirls:
Ladies, its ok to be darker than a paper bag. Its ok to stand out. Dark skin is beautiful.. when i see dark skin, I see strength and history. I want the self hate to stop…YOU SHOULD BE PROUD OF YOUR DARK SKIN!!.. OR FOREFATHERS FOUGHT FOR IT!! If they can be proud of it then why can’t you? Being black is a very amazing thing, we come in all shades . light should be no different than dark.. being dark is a wonderful thing.. I know you heard the saying ” The darker the berry the sweeter the juice “. You don’t know how precious you are. God made you in HIS eyes of what perfection is.. and you’ll see what he sees if you look in the mirror. Stop looking at others..and look at yourself.. fall in love with your dark skin http://modelgeek.tumblr.com/
I like this but I’m weirded out at the notion that colorism and shadeism would all go away if we just tried a little harder to love our skin! like it’s darker folks fault that we’re not seen as beautiful or hate ourselves
And not the fault of, yanno, european standards of beauty, institutionalized racism and colorism and shit
UniverSoul Circus feels
why did no one tell me how much fun the UniverSoul Circus is?!?!
i had my doubts cuz the venue was mad small and ngl the animals looked a little scrawny :-(
but then you guys
you guys
yew guise
the show opened with a black ballerina
and you all know my black ballerina feels are deep and wide
i dunno what my favorite part was out of:
the soul train line. with “before i let you go” and the gotdamn funkadelics playing. at a circus.
the dude jockeys doing tricks with running horses were pretty cool until the two black lady jockeys came out and outdid them and i may or may not have yelled “IT’S A LADY!!! YOU BETTA DO IT, GIRL!!!!”
chinese and african (from capetown i think) contortionists that just made my face go akvhabhuafuiefuehfuielbnv
ORRRRRRR (LAWD JESUS THEY WERE SO GOOD)
the dancers from trinidad and tobago coming out with the costumes and the dancing and the fire and the masks and stilts to caribbean and reggae music
orrrrr when three brown girls did impressive tricks (and slight twerking!!) on some elephants
in those moments i knew that i couldn’t wait to take my kids to this fantastical, whimsical world where brown faces could be clowns and ringleaders and fire dancers and fly through the air with the greatest of ease and the diasporic cultures of the world could be celebrated
and to top it off the ending/finale music was beyonce
so basically the whole time i didn’t know what my feelings were doing tbh
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