Yahoo’s tumblr plan.
(Source: 1jx)
“Some people underestimate how erotic it is to be understood.”
— Mary Rakow (via placoderm)
(Source: kitty-en-classe, via nemesissy)
Social Justice Problems
| on tumblr: | guys we need to have a serious discussion about the erasure of nonbinary trans* people |
| in real life: | ok, I guess I have to explain to my entire class how "feminist" is not an insult |
![gowns:
[screencap from hanne blank “the invention of the heterosexual” || salon.com]
I was in a sociology of deviance class this semester that had zero liberation theory coupled with it so when social constructionism came up it just fueled my libertarian (hetcismale, duh) classmates’ illusions of autonomy and personal accountability.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly9rnaJfX61qarn5zo1_500.png)
[screencap from hanne blank “the invention of the heterosexual” || salon.com]
I was in a sociology of deviance class this semester that had zero liberation theory coupled with it so when social constructionism came up it just fueled my libertarian (hetcismale, duh) classmates’ illusions of autonomy and personal accountability.
(via gowns)
Steve was just telling me about this song:
this was orig supposed to be a duet w a male but instead they had her sing the 1st and 2nd verse in 2 diff octaves
PRINT SALE
Hey guys! It’s been a crazy year and things are starting to look up. I have some prints that I’m trying to sell. I’ve included the prints that I have in this post. Email me (kyle.robert.laidig@gmail.com) if you are interested. The prints are a little smaller than 13 x 19 with a small white border. I’m asking 20 dollars a print but we can negotiate ;). Anyway thanks for all of your support and keep being real y’all!
Let’s Talk About First World Problems…
Is your latte too hot? Mine was this morning. I was at the bustling Oasis shopping center in Kampala, Uganda, and I took one sip and then spilt it all over me. You know who else has these problems? The local Ugandans that frequent this shop, and make up the majority of it’s clientele.
As Africa stabilizes across the continent, Westerners forget that average daily problems in Europe or North America are not that far off from that of the African middle class. Our smart phones sometimes freeze up. That’s annoying. The DJ is playing shit, so we leave the club.
Which is not to say that there aren’t problems. It’s not to pretend that all of Kampala or Nairobi or Kigali is a paradise of African wealth where the biggest problem is a warm beer. There is real, stark, damaging poverty here. But there is similar poverty in Clichy Sous Bois in Paris. There is similar poverty in Brooklyn. In Chicago. The outskirts of Amsterdam.
The idea that an African can’t have similar issues to those living in London is a mistake. It is a mistake rooted in the idea that Europe is somehow superior or has vast amounts of wealth. In reality, the East African GDP has been steadily on the rise for years, whereas the economic outlook in both North America and Europe have been steadily declining. Angola just gave a loan to their former colonialists, Portugal. Our cities now have thumping clubs, eclectic cuisine and most of these places are owned and invested in by locals.
Stop feeling bad for Africa. It doesn’t need your pity.
If you want to do something to help those who survive on very little, try investing in it. Instead of buying Tom’s shoes which give away free shoes (and therefore remove jobs from hardworking Africans making shoes) invest in Sole Rebels. A woman-owned Ethiopian based shoe company that pays their workers a livable wage.
Tonight I am going with Ugandan friends and some expats to watch the Poland vs. England match, live on DSTV at my local pub. I will eat grilled tilapia and drink some beer. This is not an extraordinary life here. This is the new Kampala average. This continent is far from perfect. Uganda is far from perfect. But it is getting there, and if you think for one minute Africans do not experience massages, cupcake shops, foam on our coffee, car trouble, banking woes and hangovers after too much fun, you are dead wrong.
It’s not all flies on babies. Welcome to the real Africa.
So important, and why I’m ashamed of having a penchant for that saying in the past. This shit reinforces a damaging and reductive false concept of difference.
Also, another “anti-TOMS” African maker of shoes and bags of exceptional design is Oliberte. Check ‘em out!
Ted makes some crucial connections between the circumstances of Mark Carson’s murder and the circumstances of CeCe McDonald’s unjust arrest. Pass this around - it’s important.
(Here are some thoughts I have been having since the death of Mark Carson)
Last Friday Mark Carson, a 32-year-old African American gay man was shot on the corner of west 8th street and 6th ave. Within a short time, police captured 33-year-old Elliot Morales, and he confessed to the murder. Earlier in the evening Elliot had been bragging about his gun, and was making homophobic comments to strangers.
One of the last things Elliot said to Mark before he shot him was, “Is that your boy?” referring to the man with Mark. “Yes,” Mark answered.
24 hours after the shooting there was a vigil for Mark. People mourned the young man’s passing and spoke about issues of safety, visibility and the need to watch out for each other.
Those who spoke also brought up the need to question hate crime legislation in an effort to work towards real ideas of justice, they brought up the closing of St. Vincent’s and wondered if there had been a hospital closer maybe Mark’s life could have been saved, and they made connections between Mark’s death, and the exceptional and everyday violence experienced by many in this city due to poverty, HIV/AIDS, and policies such as stop and frisk.
Learning more about Mark and Elliot I thought about another case where asserting one’s right to be ended in violence.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 5th 2011 CeCe McDonald and her friends were walking to grocery story when they crossed paths with a group outside of a bar who began berating CeCe and her friends with homophobic, transphobic and racist slurs. Words escalated into physical violence and soon CeCe was bleeding and Dean Schmidt, one of the men who witnesses say was verbally and physically assaulting CeCe and her friends, was dead due to a fatal stab wound.
CeCe was the only arrested that night. She was charged with second-degree murder in Dean’s death. In a plea bargain she accepted a lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter. As her supporters say, “in short, CeCe was prosecuted for surviving a violent, racist, transphobic attack.” She is serving 41 months in a men’s prison. The state will not recognize her as a woman.
While there cases are very different, like Mark, CeCe stood up for herself in the face of oppression. While it did not result in the loss of her life, her life chances have been severely reduced. As we hope for justice for Elliot, we need to pray for Dean’s soul. As we mourn Mark’s death we need to be also fighting for CeCe’s life.
—-
In the wake of CeCe’s case over the last two years, and over the last few days after Mark died I have been inspired to see how communities can come together. Vigils have been organized, tough conversations have been had, and people have opened up and been vulnerable with each other, in return others have come to support. I have heard people compare these last few days to early AIDS activism, or the marches after Harvey Milk died.
While I am not sure about that, I do wonder, can we care for each other everyday this way, not just when the violence we know is happening all the time hits the news?
Can we learn to make the love we have for ourselves and each other a practice of everyday freedom?
Can this love be our resistance in the face of death, misguided hate crime legislation, and prison?
Can we create a community of networked and systemic care that rivals the networked systemic violence practiced against us?
Can we love each other en masse on the regular?