21 year old boricua grrrl looking for the Marceline to my Princess Bubblegum. My name is Melanie.

“You wanna say [the n-word] but you don’t want to be followed around a store. You want to say [the n-word] but you don’t want to be discriminated on by police. You want to say [the n-word] but you don’t want to not be able to get a fucking cab in the rain. You wanna act like you gonna be a n——- then be a fucking n——- and live a n——- life, if not, then keep that shit out of your mouth.”
–

@JasFly

This whole video is perfection.

(via lavender-labia)

(Source: autumn-and-eve, via lavenderlabia)

#race  #racism  #racial prejudice  #people of colour  #PoC  #whiteness  #oppression  #privilege  #n-word  #slur  

People who suggest that everyone can and should be vegans annoy me

ayiman:

selchieproductions:

I just saw someone suggest that the world would be an infinitely better place if everyone was vegan - even ‘Peruvian indigenous villages’ because we live in ‘a developed world’. In short the person is being purposely vague but ultimately suggesting making contact with uncontacted tribes in order to force them to become vegans; talk about turning the quest for global veganism into a genocide project. 

 Establishing contact with isolated tribes is a sure way to exterminate at least 50-90% of their population and if you do it in order to force a vegan lifestyle upon people who live in areas where an entirely vegan lifestyle just isn’t viable, you’d be sure to have said indigenous group entirely gone from the face of the planet in less than a year.

But at least those pesky natives wouldn’t be eating meat, am I right?

Not to mention that veganism, despite all it’s positive sides, isn’t as eco-friendly and wonderful as people would like to think; one of the reasons why the Brazilian Enawene Nawe tribe is currently being driven away from their lands is so that people can use their ancestral lands to grow soy for  vegans and the meat industry alike, while simultaneously pumping out loads of pesticides into the rivers in the area, thereby making a pescaterian tribe (the Enawene Nawe don’t eat meat) lose their main source of food as the rivers are more or less killed by the poison dumped in them.

The thing that bugs me, that always bugged me, was this complete denial of the circumstances, conditions and even the moral framework of non-western people.

Nobody thinks about the destruction of healthy ecosystems for farming, rising commodity prices in production zones (like how quinoa is too expensive for Bolivians to buy it, despite growing and relying on it for centuries), or how the adoption of westernized diets has created a public health crisis.

Then there’s the moralizing.  This universalist ideology that declares that in order to live at the apex of ethical humanity, we must all convert to veganism, which will in turn solve all manner of environmental issues and end the brutal factory farm system, praise God.

And sure, industrial-level agriculture is problematic, and the meat industry in particular is brutal.  There is something seriously wrong with how we get our food, and there is nothing wrong with frank, serious discussions about how we feed ourselves.  The way that life, labour and the environment is exploited demands serious critical examination.

But veganism is a lot more than that.  It’s a code, a way of life which derives all of it’s legitimacy and authority by uncritically appealing to Western concepts of humanity and morality.  In seeking to impose a universal, moral veganism, it’s adherents utterly fail to account for views and philosophies which exist outside of the dominant/normative power structure and, in point of fact, denies their legitimacy and worth completely.  That’s pretty fucked up and it accounts for the very real racist undertones in arguments levelled against indigenous people who hunt to support themselves.  Witness the hue and cry of the animal rights community over Newfoundland’s seal hunt, and see how many times you can pick out words like savage.

I can guarantee that I do not hunt for the reasons that these people think I hunt, and I do not approach the taking of a life in the way that these people believe I do.

And frankly, I’d rather wear real wool than something that was made with plastics.  The oil industry isn’t really known for it’s environmental stewardship, and that shit is in my backyard.

(via lavenderlabia)

#vegan  #militant vegan  #veganism  #dietary choices  #food  #privilege  #oppression  #whiteness  #power  #stigma  #moral  #ethics  #animal rights  #vegetarian  #vegetarianism  #poverty  #choice  

“

I hear a lot of people throwing the word ‘triggering’ around who don’t seem to understand what it means. Being ‘triggered’ does not mean ‘feeling kind of freaked out’ or ‘being squicked’ or ‘being reminded of something unpleasant or painful.’ When I say I am triggered I mean I am in a physical state of panic when the adrenaline really gets going, my heart is racing, and my reptile brain genuinely thinks I AM GOING TO DIE.

Is that REALLY what you mean?

”
–

FUBAR, at Trigger Warning

The whole post behind that link is definitely worth a read. 

(via lavender-labia)

(Source: kiriamaya, via lavenderlabia)

#trigger warnings  #words mean things  #trigger  #social justice  #calling out oppression  #oppression  

→ Not Quite Certain: "You're judging all white men for the actions of a few! That's not fair!"

thefremen:

dionthesocialistt:

I’m sorry, but the moment you try and discredit entire equality movements just because you don’t feel like you’ve done anything wrong, you’ve effectively tried to make that movement about you. Think about that for a second; you think that oppressed…

(Source: dionthesocialist, via cherryvision-deactivated2012011)

#racism  #sexism  #feminism  #oppression  #privilege  

“The most important way in which King was exploited in his death was through the distortion of his values and beliefs… His social philosophy was presented to the nation as centering almost exclusively on non violence as an end in itself. Politicians and commentators invoke his strictures against violence and hatred in an attempt to use him to keep the ghettos quiet. Virtually nothing was said about the three major enemies of Kings wrath, to which he had devoted his recent efforts and speeches — racism, poverty and war. Thus the living exploit the dead, and white power exploits black leaders and their philosophies.”
–

Robert Blauner “On Racial Oppression” - 1972

(via ethiopienne)

This is what comes to mind every time a white person shouts me down with a “It’s not about the colour of skin but the content of one’s character”. Yeah, lets just completely bypass everything.

(via curlyingenue)

(Source: newwavefeminism, via blck-grrl)

#civil rights  #expolitation  #martin luther king jr  #oppression  #race  #racism  #racism  

“

[W]hile right-wing commentators have often accused African-Americans and other minorities of exploiting their “victimhood,” the Right has learned over many decades the political power that comes from framing issues as “hey, we’re the victims here.” And, often the Right’s exaggerated “victimhood” has been accompanied by violence toward the supposed “victimizers.”

For instance, in the South of the 1950s and 1960s, white segregationists portrayed themselves as the victims of “outside agitators” and a “liberal Northern press” intent on destroying the South’s “traditional way of life,” i.e. white supremacy. Thus, many white racists saw the murder of civil rights workers as a legitimate act of self-defense, the protection of “states’ rights.”

This chip-on-the-shoulder “victimhood” has remained an element of American right-wing politics ever since. Whenever truly discriminated-against groups, such as blacks and women, have demanded their rights, the Right has cast the reforms as attacks on American traditions.

In recent years when gays have sought basic civil rights, their struggle has been spun as an aggressive “gay agenda” assaulting Christian values. That was the ugly climate in 1978 when a conservative San Francisco city official, Dan White, assassinated Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected public official, and his political ally, Mayor George Moscone.

More recently as gays have sought the right to marry, they are accused of trying to destroy the institution of marriage. A “Defense of Marriage Act” is deemed necessary to protect heterosexual couples. You see, even though the gays are the ones actually facing discrimination, they are portrayed as the “victimizers” and heterosexual couples are the “victims.”

In many other cases, the Right has found “victimhood” a powerful political motivator. For instance, the Right rallied white male college students around their “persecution” from “political correctness,” which often involved a college administration punishing boorish conduct like shouting racial slurs at blacks and yelling sexual insults at women and gays.

”
–

Dangerous Right-Wing ‘Victimhood’ (via ryking)

You can also see this in transphobic and transmisogynistic, conservative radical feminists and others as they begin to embrace exterminationist rhetoric and claim they are the ones being discriminated against.

(via lucypaw)

Absolutely. I’m pretty sure it pops up on every axis of privilege sooner or later. I’ve run into it with regards to ableism. It’s just so haaaaard for people to tolerate my autistic differences and it’s really unfair of me to expect them to make such an effort. Why am I so harsh? They didn’t claim that I was oppressing them, but they did say it was unfair of me to expect them to just get used to my oddness, and that is well on the way to that point.

So I really do think this is a generally mentality that pops up alongside privilege of whichever form we can think of.

(via jemimaaslana)

(via cherryvision-deactivated2012011)

#heterosexism  #oppression  #racism  #sexism  #transmisogyny  #privilege  #right wing