Richard Goldstein & James Baldwin | The Last Interview
lol i litereally stopped reading right before one of his most important quotes. including it with a lot of added context because i always see that quote on its own without the rest of the conversation which is really fascinating.
Why the Kendrick Lamar vs Drake beef is so important to Black Americans specifically. Here's just a few of the many reasons.
We already deal with white people's racism and tunnel vision ideas about us, Drake's existence doesn't help as he purposely glorifies those stereotypes Kendrick's been trying to overturn. It's a battle of authenticity (Kendrick) vs fake (Drake). This is just the tip of the iceberg of the lore between them and their connections to Black America.
too many of yall be saying bigot shit in the last few months and it's been very much nasty.
“The experiences of transmen of color further show the hierarchical relationality between embodiments of maleness. Transmen of color can experience a loss of freedom as men. Jack, a Latino, and Trey, a black man, both realized they physically passed as men when women started clutching their purses tightly when they walked by. Trey notes, "On one hand, I was like, 'Oh, I am passing!' and then I was like, 'Oh, but you think I am dangerous.'" Keith, a black man, says, "It is interesting now to see it from both sides. I know why the black man is angry! I do. He doesn't start off that way.... It is just so weird to get that vibe from people. I just manifest... their fears, everything they fear. I am every black man who has been accused of something." He encountered frequent racist treatment, such as being pulled over by white police officers for driving in the "wrong" (that is, wealthy and white) neighborhoods and being followed in stores—all common experiences for black men in the United States (Bolton and Feagin 2004). Trey faced a similar experience in Texas. Walking a friend's dog in a predominantly white, affluent neighborhood at night, he was stopped by neighborhood patrols and police officers three times in a span of twenty minutes. Shocked at this treatment, he asked his older brother how he dealt with it. His brother was surprised that Trey didn't realize "how it was" and told him that soon he would become accustomed to such treatment. Socialized as black girls, Trey and Keith did not have the same embodied strategies as cisgender black men for navigating this treatment. While schools and families socialize black boys into accepting and adjusting to stereotypes of black, masculine criminality (Ferguson 2000; Oliver 2003), black girls' socialization often focuses on regulating their sexuality and maintaining their self-respect (Kaplan 1997; Orenstein 1994). Becoming a black man means finding interactional strategies that address the expectations of black male criminality.”
— Just One Of The Guys? Transgender Men and the Persistence of Gender Inequality by Kristen Schilt, pages 59
Kwanzaa was first celebrated in 1966 after having been created by professor of Africana studies, activist, and author Maulana Karenga to help give identity, purpose, and direction to African Americans.
Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa (between December 26 and January 1) correspond to the Nguzo Saba (the Seven Principles):
Happy Kwanzaa to those who celebrate it. While it does not receive the same visibility or acknowledgement as other end-of-year holidays, it is important to include those who observe these seven days!
[ID: Graphic split in half. The left half is a photo of a kinara, a seven-space Kwanzaa candleholder. The right side is a brown gradient with white text describing the principles of Kwanzaa. The TEP logo and “Happy Kwanzaa” in white are at the bottom right.]
the level of caucasian stupidity on this site is fucking ridiculous. do ya’ll ever considering shutting the fuck up? poc will never want or need you inputting your “opinion” on our race issues you cannot and will not ever understand. seriously. shut the fuck up.
and specifically white colonizer europeans trying to tell black americans that racism isn’t real in their “much superior country that’s mainly white.”
and here’s some articles on the issue for those who genuinely want to know more (note: these are specifically regarding Black people):
everyone can and should reblog this. if you see it, reblog it. especially if you’re european. if you are white do not add your own thoughts or opinions. on race issues like these you should be spreading awareness, not sharing your opinions.
no one really cares when black people esp black women go missing. like, i don’t think people realize just how big of an issue missing and kidnapped black girls are in the black community and police just don’t care. take that statistic and multiply it times at LEAST five.
like people have stopped taking statistics for missing black women in the us. the number is largely incorrect and false. and they are just missing but in many cases they’re killed by people in the community. it’s just i hear the story of a man murdering black women in chicago and look toward a lot of other areas and stories, even in my own home town that is extremely well known for the deaths, and kidnappings of black women.
it’s scary and no one cares. we only have ourselves to protect us because the community is sometimes the one burying the murders/kidnappings. this post also includes trans black women.
black women just do not have it easy anywhere this is why, whenever i get amber alerts and shit like that and it’s black people it’s always disheartening. this is why i also hated the discussions of missing white women syndrome bcs black women were the ones who started it and literally days later black women were barred from the conversation.
y’all treat queer like a racial slur an it’s very uncomfortable to engage in the conversation surrounding it esp with white lgbt folks. bc y’all are so desperately wanting me + other black ppl to equate it on the same level as the n-word and it’s not and will never be and I feel like some of you refuse to accept that
the whole “but how would you like it if we called you the n*gga community?” is not a new response to this recent shit surrounding queer & is always coming out a nonblack person’s mouth . I think it’s 100% ok if you don’t want to be referred to as queer but the lack of education on how queer & racial slurs differ drastically is annoying & feels like y’all are using black ppl for Discourse Points
happy lesbian visibility day
I mad agree with this.
This reminds me, if y'all haven’t heard of therapyforblackgirls.com please visit if you need a therapist. You can search by mental health need, location/distance, insurance, etc. I believe there are some that provide a sliding scale payment method for those without insurance.
If you’re not quite ready to make the jump, there is a podcast you can listen to as well as articles and links to help answer some of your questions about mental health and/or therapy.
The purpose, as I understand it, is to provide a place where black women can go to find culturally sensitive therapy. Some specialize in family/couples as well.
Take a look.
For any black Women following me!
Taking care of your mental health is another important factor in your overall health. Fighting for good mental health is a fight worth doing, and is just as difficult, if not moreso, than physical fighting.
-FemaleWarrior, She/They
Especially with everything going on right now. We constantly hear how strong we are and it’s like no we can be tired, emotional, stressed too and we need to take care of our mental health. Here are some free therapy sessions that I’ve seen going around. Please share
Also Black minds matter UK!
I love this
boosting the signal
There IS a difference between white passing, light skinned, and racially/ethnically ambiguous guys.
White passing is when someone is a person of color but are practically indistinguishable from a white person. Some white passing ppl are even blonde haired and blue eyed, but are still technically not white.
Light skinned is typically used when someone is clearly not white, usually because of their features, hair, etc. But still have lighter skin than usual.
And Racially/Ethnically ambiguous is when someone is once against still clearly a person of color but their race or ethnicity is still very unclear from their appearance, they can be light skinned but can also be dark skinned too.
Y'all (usually white ppl) really should learn these terms and what they mean before you just toss them around or ascribe them to yourselves (eg. A white person isn't light skinned, just white)
I also kinda resent how popularized the term "white passing" had gotten in recent years.
So often it's used by someone who is white but took a 23&me test to find out they're like 5% non white or something and do nothing of connecting or contributing but just call themselves white passing PoC to talk over actual PoC.
"White passing" as it's used now is a case of AAVE dilution via social media & non-Black misinterpretation, as well as a general lack of contextual knowledge among younger people spreading it.
The term was initially a very specific, deliberate, active verb: when a Black person who is both ethnically ambiguous AND light-skinned enough to be indistinguishable from a white person to white people (this is important— many Black people "pass" outside the Black community but are clocked by other Black people, esp ones used to seeing the difference between white & "lightskin" features; some white communities regionally or culturally are more oblivious than others with regards to white lightskin or mixed race Black people look like to begin with, ie whitepassing in MA is not necessarily the same as whitepassing in GA or CA or HI), chooses to "pass" and live their public + sometimes private life as a white person, whether for survival, social, or financial benefit. It carries baggage of assimilation, cultural & historical erasure, and isolation— because attempting to leave behind one's race means leaving behind one's family & loved ones as well.
This goes all the way back to "tragic mulatto" tropes, and is a dramatic hallmark of older Black fiction & early Black cinema. Sometimes it's played for tragedy, where a person can't grieve Black relatives who've died without shattering the ruse, sometimes it's a dramatic plot twist à la "Devil In a Blue Dress," sometimes it adds tension to a narrative: will a whitepassing bastard son inherit, will this person be able to go to college, can this character hide their brownskinned siblings or parents by pretending to be a slavemaster themselves?
It's also understandably got a very messy legal history, and THAT goes all the way back to at LEAST Spanish colonial presence in the Americas + the very beginning of the "New World" Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and what limitations were placed upon Blackness & Black people in the first place. Even early anti-miscegenation law would allow marriage annulments & property seizures just on the implication that a spouse was hiding Black ancestry, judges would "inspect" accused women's nipples & genitalia in court for signs of "Blackness" vs "whiteness" to determine if their husbands were allowed to rob them & turn them out on the street...
So as you can imagine, this is a very loaded term, particularly if you speak to anyone over the ages of ~35-40 about it.
Via social media & spread outside the Black community, the term's usage has shifted to mean just the people whose appearance would allow them to "pass for white" as a verb— people who are "lightskinned + ethnically ambiguous in a way approaching whiteness." It's also used to accuse "white passing" people of color of not actually being their race, or of racefaking & Blackfishing like those aforementioned 23andMe 1.5%ers, when that has never been how the term was used, nor how multiracial or lightskinned people of color have been legally or socially classified for centuries up until around the 2010s. There's always been intracommunity friction within multiple ethnic groups around the subject, like when someone "acts too white," "acts too Americanized," or is seen as barely x, y, or z, but within majority American culture— specifically in the US, specifically in the eyes of white America— "white passing" has never meant "accepted as white," and has always been a term ultimately centered on people of color's inherent exclusion from whiteness, even if you manage to "lie your way into the club," because all it takes is a hint of the truth of who you are to take it all away from you in a second.
And you lose all that understanding when you take Black terminology & Black scholarship & Black language for granted, because ALL THREE of these terms come from Black people— lightskinnededness & ethnic ambiguity are terms from us, too, that highlight specific hierarchies & social perceptions of Black people as compared to and amongst ourselves. Colorism is a Black term. White passing is a Black term. These are all rooted within & watered from experiences of Black community...
Some of these things can apply to other communities & situations, but saying shit like "xyz actual white person is lightskinmed" is a nonsense sentence. Saying Jurnee Smollett or Tessa Thompson are ethnically ambiguous just because they're light is an outright lie. Zendaya & Doja are not white passing in either sense of the word. Even saying Carol Channing or Wentworth Miller or Mariah Carey are white passing is a stretch imo because those are some VERY light-bright high yellow individuals, but none have ever deliberately feigned whiteness— though I'm coming from a "learned this term in the '90s" point of view. Don't catch yourself out here acting foolish over stuff you don't even realize you don't know enough to talk about just because you wanna run your mouth on TikTok & Twitter over complete strangers' skintones, hair textures, noses, or family histories like some wannabe phrenologist, eugenicist, anthropologist of old.
ive got a few observations abt antiblackness in progressive spaces that i want to get off my chest, so pls forgive me for being serious for a moment
there’s a troubling amount of nonblack ppl in progressive spaces who will do their level best to put on a show that they care about black issues, only to prove through both action and inaction that they probably don’t spend much time thinking abt those issues on their own time
what inspired this post was actually my mixed frustration and amusement at meme culture. there are so many memes circulating, especially on this website, that were either originated BY black people or created by people explicitly mocking black the way black people talk, that have an amazing shelf life here. nonblack people will find their way to the latest Funny Black Phrase, overuse it, irritate each other for using it too much, and then sometimes turn around and make fun of black people for just talking the way we talk. there’s a wealth of research and information on aave, on its complex history, on its uniqueness as a dialect, but it’s time and again been reduced to “gen z slang,” when nonblack people 9 times out of 10 don’t use it right. to be clear, i’m not criticizing you for giggling at pictures of the little among us bean folk with acrylics and painted lips, and i don’t expect you to be able to escape the ubiquitous “all my homies hate x” and “damn shawty ok” pics, but it IS concerning when i see people on here complaining about how overused they are or making jokes about how funny the gays are when it like. didn’t come from you lol. the same people with BLM and ACAB in their bios will bully black people for their features, and make jokes about how they talk, and covertly ignore them or talk around the issue when called out for it. (if you’re thinking of a corny popular leftist on this website who’s done just that, your gut feeling is probably right--the shoe fits for multiple people.)
it is how time and again black people, often to each other, will point out antiblackness in popular media, only to be met with an avalanche of excuses. time and again people on here talk about how media is a good way to learn moral lessons, while proving through action that what they’d love is to just absorb media in search of the next hot ship instead of stopping to consider how that media distills harmful ideas. you can’t talk out of both sides of your mouth. does media impact real life or does it not? when do you draw the line?
i am irritated with marginalized people who, time and again, complain about the “attention” that black lives matter got in comparison to their issues, and i am especially irritated with marginalized people who make these posts and have the gall to directly demand that black people get involved. chances are we would have gotten involved anyways. it is well documented that black people have lent their time, care, and solidarity to people pushing for radical change. whether you meant to do it or not, you are implying that your movement has not gotten the attention it deserved directly because black people aren’t doing enough, and that is deeply unkind. people are still protesting. the “work” is not done, and hyper visibility will never mean progress.
i’m terrified of getting covid because, as a black woman, i’ve had to contend with doctors dismissing my pain for my entire life & i feel in my bones that i would not receive adequate care. there was a period in 2020 where i was afraid to go outside because i live in a city with a very small black population and i didn’t want to be black in the wrong place at the wrong time. i grew up in the deep south with a family that struggled with the scars of intergenerational disadvantages. my dad got polio young and it left him permanently disabled. when desegregation began, he was bullied for being both black and physically disabled. hearing stories about his worst experiences, spun as fables about why i should always think twice about trusting white people, was a huge part of my childhood. trauma is my inheritance. at the same time, so is my culture. my hair, my music, my clothes, the way i talk--that is important to me. black american culture specifically is a culture that rose out of adversity. it is the culture of a people who had their history cruelly and deliberately misplaced. evidently, people like it--at least, the parts of it they can cherry pick for consumption!
i often think to myself that a lot of people want racism, and specifically antiblackness, to manifest in overt ways. they want to see people being refused service. they want to hear slurs and insults. sure, antiblackness is often direct. my anon is off and it’s not coming back on because people have sent me extremely violent messages behind the veil of anonymity for saying things they don’t agree with. but please don’t forget that antiblackness is apathy too. antiblackness is entitlement. antiblackness is people harshly berating black voters for expressing disenchantment with a democratic party that routinely leaves them in the dust. antiblackness is also performatively thanking black voters for “saving you.” black people who voted in this most recent election especially did not do it for you. we did it for ourselves and our families.
i take umbrage with the idea of allies and allyship because it implies there is an even amount of reciprocity in relationships between those in the margins and those in the center. i think better words are “enablers” and “co conspirators,” because those are titles that you have to earn. it is not enough to just say that you care--if you have BLM in your header, i expect you to show it, too. black people do not owe you politeness, we do not owe you our activism, and we especially do not owe you a neatly worded essay on why you should care about us.
it rly pisses me off how there is almost never a distinction put between white western christianity vs christianity among nonwhite peoples (namely colonized people) like between the disrespect white christians have for nonwhite christians and the dismissal of their unique practices and cultural religious differentiations and the way white nonchristians demonize nonwhite christians as if they have the same ability to Oppress them (esp wrt groups like fucken wiccans or whatever who arent even oppressed at fucking all lmfao).. its just. Annoying
white person who was raised as a christian n decided to become a neopagan after following witch blogs on tumblr n probably has the g-slur in their own url: *walks up to some mexican catholics who practice christianity bc their ancestors were threatened with death if they refused to adopt it* i just hope you know how vile and evil your religion is and how much it has hurt people like me :/
The way white people that are “woke” and atheist LOVE to over talk me when I discuss the special culture ways Black people praise and when I talk about being in the spirit, talking in tounge, the importance of dancing and the such they love to say “Oh you’re so oppressed, poor thing” or “Oh that just because of drug/hysteria/ ect., it’s not real or important ” and it so FUCKING ANNOYING AND DEGRADING!!! Like all the pain and hurt and pressure that was put upon my ancestors and self along with the things taken from us so that we are left with scraps we gathered and made culture and a form of praise out of and that DESERVES respect.
people like that also like to ignore/downplay how important the black church was in black communities, especially during slavery and the great migration
churches were the place where you knew you could get food, shelter, clothing and help. hell, especially down south, “revivals” and praise and worship were literally ways to relay messages along the underground railroad
it was a huge part of black communities across america, and people are carrying on that tradition now
Yeah this is also a major history of Black Church being safe spaces for Black people to learn how to read, write, learned our rights as citizens. Like what we know today as Sunday Schools was actual establishing schools for the Freeman and reconstruction era. Most Black teachers started at Sunday school teachers in Black churches
A little presentation on why white people cant say nigga
I’d just like to add that it is not just white people who can’t use the word, it is anyone who is not black. There is a lot of anti-blackness among non-black PoC, don’t let them get away with it.
^
