im wearing a black and white striped shirt and black trousers and some cunt on the street asked me where my gondola is. never setting foot outside again
not to be too humorless but i really feel like we could all do better when it comes to thinking critically about the images we pass around as memes. like, is it a picture of a kid? is it a picture of a likely unstaged act of violence? is it a picture of someone who doesnt know theyre being photographed? is it a picture that was fine in a particular context but could cause real problems for the subject if widely circulated? we have to owe each other more than this
is it a black person in distress? is it a black speech being regurgitated for the hell of it? are they making fun of prominent black features? to expand, are there ethnic features/customs/languages being poked fun at? is it a caricature of a black trans woman, in pain or just existing in her daily life? also very good questions in this discussion bc i believe meme culture is just the new minstrel, the new “freak show.” op is right, we need to pay more attention and remember how much we owe black people, black trans people and just people of color in general. extend your compassion to them and maybe we can all be a little safer
I want to applaud Ashley Williams, the #BlackLivesMatter protester who confronted Hillary Clinton and demanded an apology for Clinton’s use of “superpredators with no conscience and no empathy, who need to be brought to heel” when she used dog whistles to refer to Black youths as little more than animals, as she advocated for Bill Clinton’s notorious 3-Strikes crime bill (which disproportionately targeted and imprisoned Black people).
Clinton replied, “You know what? No one has ever asked me about this before. You’re the first one to ask me about it.”
Besides noting the obvious problem with Ms. Clinton apparently needing to be publicly prompted before it ever even occurred to her to apologize for saying something so casually racist, if there are people who have spoken to her about this, then I hope they feel sufficiently empowered to step forward and make Mrs. Clinton have to explain her obfuscation.
I find it very hard to believe that no one at all has ever spoken to her and never asked about this before.
And once again, all respect to Ms. Ashley Williams. Disruptive action protests take a lot more than planning and coordination - it also requires guts. I’m a soon to be 32 year old Black man who is an inch shy of 6 feet tall, tipping the scales at 185 pounds, and I seriously doubt that I would have had even half the courage needed to do what Ms. Williams so bravely did.
From Bree Newsome to Sandra Bland and beyond, my people are stepping up and speaking out, and I am so proud.
