Jame's Thoughts

knowledgeequalsblackpower: theatlantic: Farm-to-Table in...

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:49:35 -0700

theatlantic:

Farm-to-Table in Communities of Color

It’s true that, for youth of color, heading back to the farm recalls a fraught history of slavery and exploitive migrant labor. She says that immigrant youth often say, “Why would I go back to the farm that my immigrant parents worked so hard to get us off of?” For young people of color, claiming direct access to food by picking up the pitchfork at a local urban farm can feel like a step backwards.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

When it comes to funding, black farmers receive about one-third or less than what other farmers receive, which has resulted, Gail Myers points out, in black farmers losing their land. In fact, this asymmetry led a group of black farmers to sue the USDA for damages, claiming discriminatory treatment. The farmers agreed to a settlement, and in 1999, over 15,000 claimants received restitutions. Soon afterward, Native American, Latino, and female farmers stepped forward with their own civil rights lawsuits against the USDA. Discriminatory lending has cost the federal government billions in settlements.

Structural #racism in #farming

oaksnap: Remember my question about things that use the prefix...

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:40:29 -0700

oaksnap:

Remember my question about things that use the prefix “oak”?? Well here ya go!

#oakopolis

The Lingerie Addict: Fitting Guide Part 2: Exceptions to the "Starting Point" Size

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:24:41 -0700

The Lingerie Addict: Fitting Guide Part 2: Exceptions to the "Starting Point" Size:

thelingerieaddict:

I am someone who has to add inches to my underbust measurement to have a comfortable bra (mesomorph, hi there!), and last year, I became well and truly tired of all the “bra fit experts” who insisted they knew my body better than I did because they were unfamiliar with my body type.

There are no…

Bra fitting tips #winning

fulgurous: Looks Good With Trouble - Solange Solange. :)

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:58:08 -0700

fulgurous:

Looks Good With Trouble - Solange

Solange. :)

George Takei: My Internment Taught Me Civil Liberties Don’t Defend Themselves - COLORLINES

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:34:23 -0700

George Takei: My Internment Taught Me Civil Liberties Don’t Defend Themselves - COLORLINES:

sinidentidades:

It’s a lesson learned many times before, but which requires constant reminder: without fierce vigilance, U.S. civil liberties can slip away so very quickly. Beloved actor, activist and social media rock star George Takei took to the Huffington Post this week with that very same reminder.

Last week Takei traveled to McGehee, Ark. to dedicate a brand new Japanese American Internment Museum located nearby the Rohwer internment camp, where Takei and his family were detained before being transferred to another camp in Tule Lake, Calif. During World War II the U.S. set up internment camps scattered throughout the country to detain—“without charge or trial”—120,000 Japanese Americans who were living on the West Coast. And Takei was one of them. It’s an ugly, shameful part of U.S. history.

Very little remains of the camp where Takei was housed, but his memories of being denied his freedom are still strong. Takei wrote:

I have memories of the nearby drainage ditch where I used to catch pollywogs that sprouted legs and eventually and magically turned into frogs. I remember the barbed wire fence nearby, beyond which lay pools of water with trees reaching out from them. We were in the swamps, you see: fetid, hot, mosquito-laden. We were isolated, far enough away from anywhere anyone would want to live.

He says those memories and political lessons are particularly relevant, given the current political discourse:

As I write this, once again the national dialogue turns to defining our enemies, the impulse to smear whole communities or people with the actions of others still too familiar and raw. Places like the museum and Rohwer camp exist to remind us of the dangers and fallibility of our democracy, which is only as strong as the adherence to our constitutional principles renders it. People like myself and those veterans lived through that failure, and we understand how quickly cherished liberties and freedom may slip away or disappear utterly.

Places like Rohwer matter, more than seventy years later. And so, we remember.

so-treu: karateboogaloo: New documentary: A Band Called...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:05:35 -0700

so-treu:

karateboogaloo:

New documentary: A Band Called Death

*SHRIEKS*

getfitwithnic: Fun Fact about me: I like to buy my Sports Bra 1...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:55:24 -0700

getfitwithnic:

Fun Fact about me: I like to buy my Sports Bra 1 size smaller to Hold them down and keep them in place during workouts. For the Women with larger breast like myself I like to Double Up. I wear a Bra underneath my Sports Bra. 👍#TeamFitness

I hate the 2 bra tip. Busty ladies, get a Shock Absorber bra. Or Panache. Or Freya. Or Elomi.

You only need one bra. The right size offers enough support even for running and jumping. Even if you are well above DD. (I am a 34H)

I am the thirstiest fangirl: Indians. We're good for more than just the token song and dance number, you know.

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:14:58 -0700

I am the thirstiest fangirl: Indians. We're good for more than just the token song and dance number, you know.:

thirstrani:

Over the past year or so, the problem I’ve had with the representation of Indians in Hollywood and television has really begun to drive me insane. Why is it that the only role an Indian actor or actress can portray is that of an immigrant (with a strong accent), a taxi driver (if the show or movie is set in New York City), a wannabe Bollywood star, or a doctor?

Newsflash, humanity: Indians have been in the United States and United Kingdom for at least two generations. We’re not all a fresh crop of immigrants looking to escape the slums of India (as everyone would have it after Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire which, for the record, I love) and be successful in the west. Seriously, why can’t the Indian characters in shows and movies have “normal,” or more mainstream roles? I understand, however, that characters of different races and ethnicities do often get typecasted or stereotyped into the same kinds of roles, but the portrayal of Indians is just getting ridiculous.

The number of Indian characters in shows and movies that actually break the mold of the stereotype is so scant, I can probably count them on one hand. By stereotype, I mean more than just having the accent. These characters always seem to have a problem with wanting to go against their parents wishes for an arranged marriage, almost always have a name that gets just mutilated by the other characters in the show (even if it’s a moronically simple name), and always have to bring some kind of silly song and dance number into the show. (For the record, I adore song and dance numbers. In INDIAN films.) The only characters I can think of that break this mold include:

Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn, House M.D.)

Darwish Sabir Ismael Gani, a.k.a. Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari, Parks and Recreation)

Jai Wilcox (Sendhil Ramamurthy, Covert Affairs)

Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife)

Yusuf (Dileep Rao, Inception)

Aasif Mandvi for his part in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

There are some characters that are somewhat in between:

Divya Katdare, played by Reshma Shetty, Royal Pains

Pinder Singh, played by Kumail Nanjiani (he’s Pakistani, but his character is Indian), Franklin & Bash

Kelly Kapoor, played by Mindy Kaling (she’s Sri Lankan, but again, the character is Indian), The Office

What’s left are just horribly stereotyped characters that are there simply to serve the purpose of “token Indian guy.” What’s even more pathetic is that if a character is not meant to embody the Indian stereotype at all, their identity as an Indian is stripped completely. But Sahana, what are you talking about? Lawrence Kutner? Tom Haverford? If I didn’t see their faces, I wouldn’t know that they’re Indian, but you claim that they’re characters that have successfully broken the mold! What gives?
Hey. You’re right. But you know what? So am I. Kutner and Tom have had their stories teased out throughout their episodes in House and Parks & Rec, respectively. They show that yes, the character is Indian, but this is why they have such a name. I think it worked rather well for these two characters. Both Kal Penn and Aziz Ansari have had lines in their shows directly addressing the fact that they’re brown guys with names like Kutner and Tom. I honestly love these two characters. Kutner, with his childlike attitude and medical experiments and Tom, with his endlessly amusing behavior and demeanor, are characters that really anyone can relate to—and that’s my point exactly.

People fall in love with a show or rather, the characters in the show when they feel that they can relate to them, or they find something genuine in the characters’ persona. Far too often, Indian characters are painfully one-dimensional. They’re fobs. They worry about arranged marriages. They smell like “curry.” They like to sing and dance. They talk funny. How is anyone supposed to relate to that? How are Indians even supposed to relate to that? One of my favorite television characters is Barney Stinson, portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother. Barney is a womanizing, manipulative, crazy, nosy, daddyissuesridden, hysterically amusing yet hot mess of a character. Upon first glance, one would think “Why the hell does she like this character…he sounds like a giant douchebag.” Well yeah he is. But his character development and nuances, coupled with NPH’s perfect performance makes him endearing and somehow, lovable. Indian characters don’t seem to get that benefit of the doubt.

Let’s take Divya Katdare (Royal Pains) as an example. Divya is an intelligent, beautiful, witty young lady serving as Dr. Hank Lawson’s physician’s assistant. She can do well for herself, she’s good at her job, and she has a lot of respect. And then she gets to deal with the fact that her parents are railroading her into an arranged marriage with a guy that, though she’s known her whole life, just doesn’t do it for her. Drama drama drama, suspense suspense, Divya kind of develops feelings for another dude (a handsome white dude), wedding gets called off, big surprise. It’s so predictable. It’s so obvious. It’s so…boring. Why would anyone relate to that? Even as an Indian-American young woman who, let’s face it, will be dealing with the issues with having an arranged marriage (not anytime soon, phew), I just couldn’t bring myself to care. It was just a way to get non-Indian (white viewers, since Reshma is the only cast member with an increased level of melanin) to feel sorry for the characters. There was nothing unique about it.
Divya: Sup I’m getting an arranged marriage
Other characters: WHAAAAAAAAAAT!?!?!?!? HOW COULD YOU EVER LET SOMEONE ELSE MAKE THAT DECISION FOR YOU BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
Yeah I’ve heard it all before. Thanks for harping on that over and over again. It’s like impossible for an Indian character to just have a normal relationship without having the burden of arranged marriage hanging over their head.

Our culture is different from that of America’s, yes. Obviously. But we’ve been here long enough for our traditions to mix. Indian-Americans ARE allowed to have normal lives outside of arranged marriages, curry and bright colors. It actually happens in real life. Shocker, eh Hollywood?

Whether positive or negative, it is still stereotyping.

betype: 1960s: A love story (by typographyshop) Love the...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:09:00 -0700

betype:

1960s: A love story (by typographyshop)

Love the fonts. And the lyrics. 60s love songs set to type.

queennubian: tw: rape 100%

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:23:51 -0700

queennubian:

tw: rape

100%

"For readers interested in learning more about how not to be labeled as registered sex offenders, a..."

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:05:44 -0700

“For readers interested in learning more about how not to be labeled as registered sex offenders, a good first step is not to rape unconscious women, no matter how good your grades are. Regardless of the strength of your GPA (weighted or unweighted), if you commit rape, there is a possibility you may someday be convicted of a sex crime. This is because of your decision to commit a sex crime instead of going for a walk, or reading a book by Cormac McCarthy. Your ability to perform calculus or play football is generally not taken into consideration in a court of law. Should you prefer to be known as ‘Good student and excellent football player Trent Mays’ rather than ‘Convicted sex offender Trent Mays,’ try stressing the studying and tackling and giving the sex crimes a miss altogether…

Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richardson are not the “stars” of the Steubenville rape trial. They aren’t the only characters in a drama playing out in eastern Ohio. And yet a CNN viewer learning about the Steubenville rape verdict is presented with dynamic, sympathetic, complicated male figures, and a nonentity of an anonymous victim, the ‘lasting effects’ of whose graphic, public sexual assault are ignored. Small wonder, then, that anyone would find themselves on the side of these men—these poor young men, who were very good at taking tests and playing sports when they were not raping their classmates.”

- Mallory Ortberg of Gawker, critiquing CNN’s disgusting response to the Stuebenville rape trial verdicts.

Her commentary is spot on.

(via cognitivedissonance)

blackfashion: Check out the new compilation album...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:44:56 -0800

blackfashion:

Check out the new compilation album featuring Alabama Shakes, Bad Brains, Childish Gambino, Gary Clark Jr,Saul Williams, Van Hunt, OXYMORRONS, The Skins, The White Mandingos, & Cerebral Ballzy presented by AFROPUNK here.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/SMACKGuide/app_354691784589640.

PS. you can now watch the AFROPUNK documentary that started it all just by liking AFROPUNK on facebook here.
“Not your typical Black History Month documentary”

"‎”Boys are told from a young age that whatever they do will be excused under the “boys will be boys”..."

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 13:24:38 -0800

“‎”Boys are told from a young age that whatever they do will be excused under the “boys will be boys” mantra, and that “boys will be boys” mentality leads to what I call the “BOILING FROG” problem of women’s sexual boundaries. I call it that because if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump right out, but if you put a frog into a pot of room-temperature water and slowly heat it to a boil, the frog will acclimate as it heats and never jump out, eventually boiling to death. Similarly, when we learn as young girls to tolerate “low-level” boundary violations like the ones we often are forced to suffer in silence at school, at home and on the street – bra-snapping, boob-grabbing, ass pinching, catcalling, dick flashing “all in good fun” relentless violations that adults and authorities routinely ignore – it makes it harder for us to notice when even greater boundaries are being violated, eventually leading to the reality that many women who are raped just freeze and fall silent, because that’s what they’ve been taught to do over and over since day one. You tell me what’s more infantilizing: repeatedly letting boys (and grown men) off the hook for their behavior because “boys will be boys” and we can’t ever expect any differently, or creating a consent standard in which all partners take active responsibility for their partner’s safety, and which acknowledges the truly diseased sexual culture we’re soaking in every day.””

- The (nonexistent) terrible, horrible, no good, very bad consequences of enthusiastic consent - Jaclyn Friedman (via queerintersectional)

#1151

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 13:17:18 -0800

This one is good!

thisiswhiteprivilege:

White privilege is not having people be surprised when they meet you in person because you “sound different” (aka “white”) on the telephone.

Post-racial America is still a pipe dream

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:00:18 -0800

So last week I watched CNN’s Black in America.

There was one comment in particular that stood out to me, from the biracial woman in the poetry group, well her sister. Anyway, as they discussed how they identify. The poet did not identify as black, while her sister did. Her sister explained things, to paraphrase, “well my sister tends to like ‘white’ stuff, and I am more interested in ‘black’ stuff so I relate better to black people. Therefore I consider myself black.”

I don’t have a preference how people identify, I think most of the self-identification is also determined by how your are perceived. If you look a certain way, you’ll be perceived as a certain type or member of a certain group.

The problem is when we attribute personality characteristics, education, socialization, class and all kinds of other stuff based on which group you choose to identify with or who you “look” like you belong to.

Her comments really brought me back to the key question that Black in America is trying to identify. What is black? Is it defined by how you look, what you like, who you like, how you celebrate or something else.

The thing is, there is no one “white” experience. Or one “black” experience. [or anyone else]

When we sit there trying to define who is white enough, or black enough, or whatever enough, we are not addressing the important things: do these differences actually matter?.

We do not need to pretend the differences between groups do not exist. But as long as we refuse to treat members of each group as individuals with different opinions, experiences, and attributes, seeing a Post-Racial America is as likely as me seeing the Loch Ness Monster.

P.S. this race card project is great

I love the Bay Area

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 23:25:59 -0700

Today I went to Berkeley Bowl. There were organic black mission figs for $1.99/ 8 oz. A decent price.

A woman comes up and says:

You should go to Monterey Market. It is a zoo there right now, there are figs for $2.49 a pound. Everyone is lining up to pick out their figs.

More fun lights at West Elm. (Taken with Instagram)

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 13:12:11 -0700

More fun lights at West Elm. (Taken with Instagram)

billmund: As promised, here is the Process GIF for my latest...

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:34:31 -0700

billmund:

As promised, here is the Process GIF for my latest Justice League #1 piece. I haven’t always used photo reference so heavily in my work but it was definitely a big part of the process for this one.

fickle-indigochild: Pierre David’s Human Pantone A redesigned...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:33:52 -0700

fickle-indigochild:

Pierre David’s Human Pantone

A redesigned version of the famous color chart that reflects the wide variety of skin types.

As a shade thrower of anything labeled “nude” I must say I love this.

I think there are more skin tones, but this is getting pretty close.

Hillary Clinton on what designers she wears:

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:31:52 -0700

Interviewer: Okay. Which designers do you prefer?
Hillary Clinton: What designers of clothes?
Interviewer: Yes.
Hillary Clinton: Would you ever ask a man that question?
Interviewer: Probably not. Probably not.