The Other

scarscoveryouinfinelines: The girl wrote this on...

Thu, 23 May 2013 21:26:14 -0400

The girl wrote this on Facebook: ”I went to the beach the other day, for the first time since I was a child, I didn’t wear shorts or anything to cover up, this is a massive deal for me, I hate my body even without the scars, I believe I am fat and disgusting but, I pushed through the major anxiety, shaking and almost crying and made it to the water. Its a big deal, I did it.

This took a whole fucking lot of courage to post..”

And now this dickhead comments this. I can’t, i really can’t Facebook.

See this is what is wrong with humanity. This girl is mentally injured, But she takes a step towards better times. She tries to get back. She even go to the beach, only wearing a minimalistic piece of clothe. She convinces her biggest fear, the fear of people laughing at her. And she’s even more brave. Afterwords she posts this remarkable photo on Facebook. It maybe took her minutes to post this. Sitting there by her computer, with her finger on the mouse. Should she press ”Upload” or not?”

And she did it. She was brave enough to do it.

And then this is what she gets. A hate comment. And there was of course more comments than that. And if that isn’t enough, that comment up there, got 5 likes. 5 LIKES. People agree with that terrible person?

My faith in humanity is almost gone now. I want to show this girl, that i’m with her. I’m a supporter.

#peace

lasiguanaba: When someone does some internalized racist shit in academia and you call it be...

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:51:48 -0400

lasiguanaba:

When someone does some internalized racist shit in academia and you call it be prepared to not even face them. Cuz all the other white supremacy sipping POC and racists will surround them and try to take you down.

"The candidacy and ultimate election of Senator Barack Obama as the 44th (and first African American)..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:17:31 -0400

“The candidacy and ultimate election of Senator Barack Obama as the 44th (and first African American) President of the United States rekindled discussions regarding Black identity in the twenty-first century. From the outset, opinion leaders and pundits wondered aloud
whether Senator Obama, the Ivy League educated, biracial son of a white woman from Kansas and a Nigerian man raised by his white grandparents in Hawaii (except for the three years he spent in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather) was “really black,” given his unique biography and the absence of ancestry connecting him to the transatlantic slave trade. This discussion gave way to questioning whether Obama was “black enough” to move Black voters to support him instead of Hillary Clinton, but “not so black” as to repel the white support necessary to be elected. Ultimately, Obama’s intelligence and universalist message of hope and change won him both the Democratic nomination and the Presidency, in no small measure because we decided that his is a “postracial” identity. But what, exactly does this mean? A Google search of references to Obama as postracial or to America as entering a postracial era offered many hits but little in the way of clear definition. Implicitly, a postracial identity is one in which racial classification is not central to one’s self-concept and, in the particular case of African Americans, that one does not overemphasize the legacy of oppression and discrimination as obstacles to upward mobility in the present. The latter is more about racial ideology: “postracial” blacks identify with black culture but avoid the more nationalist rhetoric that emphasizes the persistence of structural barriers, prejudice and discrimination that keep Blacks in their socially and economically disadvantaged position. Instead, “postracial” blacks, it seems, are “Americans” first and foremost—race is a peripheral or incidental aspect of identity—and, ideologically, “postracial” blacks are best characterized as assimilationist—stressing hard work, persistence, and personal responsibility as the keys to upward mobility. Identification with Black culture and history makes Obama “black enough” (particularly his traditionally Black-American wife) for Black voters. Messages that emphasize traditional American values (e.g., hard work, persistence, personal responsibility, fairness) and either ignore or dramatically downplay Black disadvantage (and particularly the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow) make Obama “not so black” as to evoke feelings of white guilt and/or resentment. This depiction of a shift toward a “postracial” black identity is consistent with the longheld view among whites that being “black first” is inconsistent with American values and is, in fact, what holds Blacks back in society. Being overly concerned with racial identity and the histories that are associated with various racial categories simply breeds resentment and hostility,
hindering both Black progress and relations between whites and Blacks. In this paper, we consider the relative importance of race for the self-identities of Black students at 28 selective US colleges and universities, and the degree to which the strength and character of their racial identities impinge upon their ability to successfully navigate the elite collegiate environment.Arguably, these students represent the “post-Obama” generation of African American leaders in politics, business, and society more broadly. As such, it is important to understand the degree to which we are in the midst of a generational shift in the experience and expression of racial identity within this important subset of the larger Black population. At the same time, we believe it is necessary to challenge the tendency to think about Black identity in either/or terms. That is, either one is race-conscious or raceless (centrality of race to one’s self-concept);
assimilationist or nationalist (ideology or worldview with regard to how Blacks should engage the larger society). Racial identity is both dynamic and multidimensional, and varies in important ways as a consequence of the increasing diversity of the Black population in twentyfirst century America, which is also often ignored in social science research and common
discourse on race.”

- Still Black and Proud: Race Consciousness in a “Postracial” Era by Camille Charles, Kimberly Torres, Rachelle Brunn and Rory Kramer

related to research i’m doing and also just life in general lol.

(via strugglingtobeheard)

Smaller Books

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:43:36 -0400

karnythia:

deducecanoe:

librarean:

sunshinegames:

Today I helped a family new to the United States get library cards. After giving them the rundown on what a library membership means, I showed the kids the children’s area. The mother told them they could each check out two books. The smallest child, a girl of seven, picked out two small board books.

“Are you sure you don’t want a picture book?” I asked her, showing her a few new ones on display.

“Too much money,” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“These cost less, right? They smaller.”

It hit me what she was saying: she was trying to save her parents money by choosing the smallest books.

“Do you know what?” I said. “All of this is free, no money. You can choose whichever books you want.”

She turned her head to look at the shelves of books and gasped at the bounty. She wandered away without another word and I watched her pick up book after book, shuffling through each one, making little piles, studying each one intently.

I’ve never been more proud I chose this career.

Adorable.

Libraries ARE important. And the only people who think they aren’t are the people who have enough resources to get the things a library holds with money. The rest of us need the library and the librarian and people who don’t think the building, its contents, and the person are important are classist.

Oh god this story…libraries are so important. Also? I want to know what kind of heartless fuck thinks books aren’t important to kids.

Study: Spaniards didn't get to South America first Scientific analysis of old chicken bones found in Chile shows Polynesians reached the continent no later than 1407.

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:08:59 -0400

Study: Spaniards didn't get to South America first Scientific analysis of old chicken bones found in Chile shows Polynesians reached the continent no later than 1407.:

witchsistah:

searchingforknowledge:

After decades of contention, New Zealand researchers have provided the first direct evidence that Polynesians sailed across thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean to reach South America long before the arrival of the Spanish around AD 1500.

Their proof? Chicken bones.

Using genetic analysis and radiocarbon dating of chicken bones found in Chile, the researchers showed that the fowl originated in Polynesia, not Europe as was previously believed, the researchers said Monday.

…

Scientists have not been willing to fully accept the idea” of prehistoric contact between Polynesia and South America, Jones said, “but it is hard to understand why.”

The most convincing previous evidence of cultural contact was the presence of sweet potatoes — a native American plant — at archeological sites throughout Polynesia.

Most notably, sweet potatoes dating from about AD 1000 have been found on the Cook Islands. Equally important, Jones noted, the name of the potato used throughout Polynesia is the same name given it by South Americans.

Heyerdahl’s trip and the discovery of the sweet potatoes showed South Americans could have taken the sweet potato to the islands but did not demonstrate that the islanders could have come to South America.

…

The new findings show that definitively, said the senior author of the new report, archeologist Elizabeth A. Matisoo-Smith of the University of Auckland.

The chicken bones were recovered from a site called El Arenal-1 in south-central Chile, about a mile and a half inland on the southern side of the Arauco Peninsula. Thermoluminescent dating of ceramics from the site indicates it was occupied from AD 700 to 1390.

Analysis of the bones was conducted by graduate student Alice A. Story in Matisoo-Smith’s lab.

Matisoo-Smith said she didn’t expect much from the study because finding evidence of Polynesian contact would be like “finding a needle in a haystack.”

But radiocarbon dating showed the bones were about 622 years old. Even with potential errors, they dated from AD 1321 to 1407 — before Spaniards first trod the New World.

Genetic analysis of the chickens showed that they were identical to genetic sequences of chicken from that same time period in American Samoa and Tonga, both more than 5,000 miles from Chile.

The sequences were very similar to those of chickens from Hawaii, also about 5,000 miles distant, and Easter Island, about 2,500 miles away.

“I was pretty excited when the dates came back as clearly pre-European,” Matisoo-Smith said. “There were no questions. The Europeans didn’t pick them up in Polynesia and bring them back” to South America, she said.

Sailing into the wind from the islands to South America “requires significant sailing technology and navigational skills,” she said. “But if you look at the winds, leaving from Easter Island, you would actually land [in South America] around the area where El Arenal-1 is located. You could then make the return voyage further north.”

Jones of Cal Poly is particularly pleased because the find supports his theory that Polynesians also landed in the Northern Hemisphere. He and linguist Kathryn A. Klar of UC Berkeley have argued that the Chumash Indians of Southern California learned to build their sewn-plank canoes from the Polynesians, in part because the names of the ships are very similar in the two unrelated languages.

Composite bone fishhooks used by the Indians also closely resembled those used in Polynesia.

If we know they landed in Chile, he said, “then why is it so difficult to imagine they couldn’t have made it to Southern California from Hawaii?”

White people late to everything.

sandandglass: Obama’s one-liners during his speech at the White...

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:34:55 -0400

sandandglass:

Obama’s one-liners during his speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

"elementary doesn't feel like sherlock holmes."

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:07:26 -0400

cezura:

I’ve been hearing this claim a lot lately, in various forms, and it’s a little bit unsettling. “Elementary is great, if you just forget that his name is Sherlock.” “He just seems like a clever guy whose name happens to be Sherlock.” “I’m just not feeling Sherlock Holmes from this character.”

There seems to be one “logical” justification that people tend to use, that there is too much changed from the canon to be called Sherlock Holmes (which I will probably address in a later post.)

Instead of the “logical” focus, I thought about the gut reaction portion of it for a bit I think and I figured out why people don’t ~*~feel~*~ Sherlock Holmes in Elementary. And that is that we as audience members of his crime solving adventures, the way he employs his deductions are different from the “Sherlocky” method that is usually employed. The thing is, I don’t think that the “deviation” in deduction style is either substantive or significant.

When Sherlockians think Shelock-style deductions, we usually think wild, rapid-fire conclusions that seem to come out of nowhere that are later explained by joining strenuous networks of circumstances that happen upon something true. What we’ve found over the course of Elementary is that our Sherlock deploys his deductions a bit differently.

Of course, he does have his spurts of “traditionally Sherlockian deductions.” He deduces that Joan is a former surgeon, that a patient died on her table, each of his deductions explained later. He finds Moran seemingly miraculously, and calculates the vehicle where thieves have gone with only set of tire tracks. Among other moments, he sounds and feels more like Holmes is traditionally portrayed.

Why? Because when he initially announces deductions, they stimulate the surprise and admiration in his audience because his conclusions seem impossible to come to. It’s only later when he explains how he comes to these conclusions that we feel quite silly after understanding the clever yet simple logical jumps that Sherlock is able to make. There is wonder from the audience (and Watson, famously, in the canon and other adaptions) in the ways of Sherlock’s enigma and independence of thought. He is mysterious and unreachable in his ability.

The original Sherlock Holmes explains it adeptly in A Study in Scarlet:

“I’m not going to tell you much more of the case, Doctor. You know a conjuror gets no credit when once he has explained his trick, and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.”

But our Sherlock in Elementary is different. The story was never about him. It was never about how he has a superior intellect or can blow everyone away with his deductions. The story was always about leading his spectators through his thinking process. It was always about working with Joan and Bell and Gregson as equally intelligent people to solve the crimes. It was always about relaying his thinking process out loud, so that everyone reaches the finish line of understanding at the same time instead of leaving his colleagues and his audience in the dust.

The story was always about our dear Watson learning by his side, about her working her way through the cases and receiving feedback from Sherlock as she improves as an investigator. We can see the very poignant message of the story in Snow Angels:

SHERLOCK: They came out of EROC with $33 million in small bills. They loaded their haul onto an ambulance American-made in the late nineties. They haven’t been gone more than an hour.

JOAN: The driver had a lazy eye, the other two men had basketball caps, and one has canine lupus. See how it feels?

If that isn’t a hit in the face I don’t know what is. The tradition of Sherlock Holmes expects us to be impressed with Sherlock’s deductions that come seemingly out of nowhere. We are supposed to applaud his talent and expect an explanation later. Not so in Elementary. From the get-go - the very first episode - Watson establishes that this behavior is patronizing, immature, and unacceptable. The showy shimmer of Sherlock’s deductions is soured once we realize that it actually makes more sense to be upset about Sherlock leaving us behind in the dust, rather than struck with wonder. It’s this arrogant, showy behavior that feels like Sherlock Holmes, but also manages to make everyone around Holmes feel inferior.

If that’s what it means for Sherlock to “feel like Sherlock Holmes” then I don’t want it.

I want our Sherlock, who is still incredibly intelligent and can make great logical leaps without pause, who has a vast knowledge of useful topics for crime-solving, who thinks and acts in such a peculiar way that is characteristic of the Sherlock Holmes from so long ago. There’s no question that Elementary’s Sherlock is Sherlock Holmes. The difference is that he is able to prove himself able to grow and develop as a person, willing to accommodate others. Sherlock Holmes from canon was afraid of being an ordinary man. Sherlock Holmes from Elementary has no qualms with helping make extraordinary of “ordinary” people. And that doesn’t subtract from the integrity of Sherlock Holmes at all.

diasporicroots: Sidney Poitier speaks about Civil...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:25:58 -0400

diasporicroots:

Sidney Poitier speaks about Civil Rights

Sidney Poitier, is a major movie star of the 1960s, Poitier grew up in the Bahamas, then came to the U.S. to start his acting career.

In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field^. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three well-received films—To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner—making him the top box office star of that year. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.

In 2002, 38 years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated “To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.”Since 1997 he has been the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.

He’s one of my dad’s favorite actors, so I watched his movies when I was a little girl and always thought he was the greatest thing. Still love Sidney, actually.

"TRIGGER WARNING As a survivor of campus sexual assault, and as someone who became a feminist..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:51:55 -0400

“

**TRIGGER WARNING**

As a survivor of campus sexual assault, and as someone who became a feminist and an activist after my own experience of institutional apathy towards my attacks, I feel conflicted. I am so glad that this serious issue is getting more attention, but I am increasingly frustrated and almost scared by the lack of diversity that I see in the survivors receiving national media attention. As I look at photos and watch the media appearances of these resilient, brave survivors I can’t help to feel invisible. I browse a network of campus rape survivors who are working to combat institutional apathy towards rape victims and struggle to find other women of color who are like me.

Why does the representation of survivors in the media matter? Validation of black women of survivors would go against the jezebel stereotype that, in fact, black women are not all sexually insatiable creatures and can be raped. It would challenge attitudes that black women are more to blame for being survivors of sexual and domestic violence and that being raped is just as serious as if they were any other color. An important message that media attention on rape survivors means that “you matter.” Do not other survivors — whether they are men, of color, poor, LGBTQ, gender non-conforming matter, too?

What has contributed to young white women being the face of rape survivors in media? I do not know. It may be a reflection of our culture to be more sympathetic to white female survivors as talking about rape and rape culture in mainstream media becomes more prevalent (a sort of extension of “missing white woman syndrome”). It could be general distrust or fear of the mainstream media to properly tell our stories. Or maybe no one wants to listen. When I first was trying to get attention to my story, I remember reporters, producers, and magazines alike asking me to rehash the painful details of my story only to pick to feature other survivors: all of them pretty, female, and white.

”

- Wagatwe Wajuki, “College Rape: Does The Media Only Focus Only On White Survivors?”, PolicyMic 4/29/13 (via racialicious)

girlslovesuperheroes: This is my 7-yr old, on her first visit...

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:17:46 -0400

girlslovesuperheroes:

This is my 7-yr old, on her first visit to a local comic shop, where she stunned the owner by asking for “big kid” comics when he insisted on showing her “My Little Pony” and “Kung Fu Panda” books- she ultimately ended up with some Marvel and DC randomly selected issues; she goes by the nickname/moniker “EKI”. As my only child (for now- mom is producing Eki’s new sidekick shortly!) my father/son dreams of raising a superhero-loving child have been fully accomplished already. She is first in line with me to see any Batman, Avengers character, Marvel, or DC movie that exists. (Also, unicorns and Greek mythology, but you take what you get.) Now she’s even beginning to get into zombies! On our summer movie slate: Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, WWZ, Kick-Ass 2 and Cpt. America 2 (Who we often catch her kissing her poster of). This is one tough little girl who likes to tell me she can do karate (never trained a day!) and is more than capable of defending herself from anyone- “Especially boys!” - and wants to run a marathon (a zombie run marathon) this summer. Also currently reading a graphich novel version of “The Odyssey”. I repeat. My 7-year old daughter is reading a translation of “The Odyssey”. God, I love being her dad.

About 90% of this description sounds like my 9 year old daughter. FUCK YES for awesome little girls!

facelessinblack: nuwbiadesignsdynasty25: Before they came out...

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:43:26 -0400

facelessinblack:

nuwbiadesignsdynasty25:

Before they came out the caves, we were already the masters of science, mathematics, writing and culture. #wisdom #timbuktu #mali #ghana #africa #blackexcellence #knowthyself

it would be helpful if there were some links to news reports and perhaps pdfs or translations or something but here:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1924486-2,00.html and much more here: http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=223083

Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat gets prestigious Caribbean literature award - Arts & Leisure - Jamaica Gleaner - Sunday | April 28, 2013

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:09:15 -0400

Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat gets prestigious Caribbean literature award - Arts & Leisure - Jamaica Gleaner - Sunday | April 28, 2013:

The Third Congress of Caribbean Writers came to a climax on the fourth and final day of its activities with the announcement of this year’s winner of the ‘Association of Caribbean Writers Grand Prize for Literature’ to Haitian-born novelist Edwidge…

"I’m not about to go slap some dark makeup on her, I think it’s important to have a Latina in the..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:34:43 -0400

“I’m not about to go slap some dark makeup on her, I think it’s important to have a Latina in the role for a very simple reason — I think they know what it feels like to be an outsider.”

- When author Arthur Laurents revived West Side Story he was determined not to whitewash the roles, including the lead role of Maria. He also went back and translated parts of the book into the Spanish that his Puerto Rican characters would have naturally spoken. (via racebending)

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:26:10 -0400

niggaimdeadass: gatsbysfuneral: sulitati: La Cosecha / The...

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:52:06 -0400

niggaimdeadass:

gatsbysfuneral:

sulitati:

La Cosecha / The Harvest (2011)

“Every year there are more than 400,000 American children who are torn away from their friends, schools and homes to pick the food we all eat. Zulema, Perla and Victor labor as migrant farm workers, sacrificing their own childhoods to help their families survive. The Harvest / La Cosecha profiles these three as they journey from the scorching heat of Texas’ onion fields to the winter snows of the Michigan apple orchards and back south to the humidity of Florida’s tomato fields to follow the harvest and provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of these children who struggle to dream while working 12 – 14 hours a day, 7 days a week to feed America.”

just goes to show you that not consuming animals does not mean you are supporting a system that is cruelty free

^^^^^^^

THANK YOU

SHIT

kingerock288: beauty4all: When Aaliyah and I worked together...

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:01:49 -0400

kingerock288:

beauty4all:

When Aaliyah and I worked together on Romeo Must Die it was her first movie. She was charming, talented and acting came very naturally to her. We worked together for about four months and she had a great energy. She enjoyed the martial art sequences and due to her previous dancing ability was able to learn movements very quickly. Cory Yuen and I both agreed that with some training she could be a very good action star. We would talk to each other about different story ideas and hoped that we would be able to work again in the future. At that time it was our mutual desire to work together again. On the set she was nice to everyone, no matter who they were, and the whole crew loved her.

I was in China when I heard about her death. Sad? Shocked? Surprised? Words can not express the emotions. She had posessed an emormous amount of potential. I sat and prayed with two friends for over two hours in the hopes that she would find herself in a better place than she had left.

Of course, I was depressed for a little while afterwards, because even though it was over two years since we worked together, I can remember it as if it was just yesterday.

:( they had great chemistry

youramazonsister: I know it’s actually the peak of this entire...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:01:53 -0400

youramazonsister:

I know it’s actually the peak of this entire Superman and Wonder woman gig; but Wonder woman and Batman will always be my OTP.

Mine too.

witchsistah: hickshannary: small-and-misunderstood: Saw this...

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:01:12 -0400

witchsistah:

hickshannary:

small-and-misunderstood:

Saw this somewhere else and felt the need to post it cause no one else ever really tells you this stuff

My mom never really noticed. She noticed when she was breast feeding my little brother and blood started coming out instead of milk.

Define the breast pain because some of us get that as part of our menstrual cycles (pre-,during and/or post-).

nitanahkohe: i want to ban white ppl from making movies about massacres they perpetrated

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:02:07 -0400

nitanahkohe:

i want to ban white ppl from making movies about massacres they perpetrated

callingoutbigotry: misandry-mermaid: The Addams family motto...

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:01:19 -0400

callingoutbigotry:

misandry-mermaid:

The Addams family motto is kind of a perfect misandrist slogan.

brb, getting this as a tattoo