Rantings & Ravings

Black girl. Student. Boston. Blogging about stupid things I sometimes feel the need to rant about...

[gravityclarity]

Cultural appropriation is a toxic concept. – Medium "Cultural organicity is not a thing that truly exists. No culture exists without borrowing things from the other." This is what I've been saying.

[gravityclarity]

My dad is Nigerian. He randomly showed me this video of this guy named Ben Murray-Bruce talking about Nigerian people. I don’t know which video it was and I’m not going to go looking through them because I have more important things I need to do. But anyway, Murray-Bruce just kept going on and on about how smart and rich Nigerian people are. I’m wondering where exactly he got some of his statistics, because he claimed that Nigerian-Americans are the highest earning immigrant group, but in fact (I’m pretty sure) it’s actually Indian-Americans who are the highest-earning immigrant group.

Regardless, I do not really care, nor do I need to compare myself to any other groups of people in order to feel good about myself. And I don’t attribute my success to the fact that I have Nigerian ancestry. I’m not successful or intelligent because I’m part Nigerian. I’m innately intelligent and I’m successful because I work hard. My race or ethnic background has nothing to do with it.

It’s no surprise to me that many people look to the Western world as the standard for pretty much everything, considering the fact that they colonized so many countries and tried to make indigenous people all over the world believe that they were civilizing them. But anyone with sense should know that white people are not better than anyone else, nor are any other groups of people better than anyone else. It’s not a fucking contest. People are just people. I don’t see myself as inferior to anyone, so I don’t need videos like this. That’s just my version of common sense.

[gravityclarity]

I haven't posted here in a while. I saw this on Facebook for some reason and it instantly annoyed me. I like this comment someone left in response: The world is not black and white, and often victim and oppressor are not so easy to determine. In situations in which we understand little, it is best to have no stance at all. We should not take on every cause that appears in front of us least we mire ourselves in conflicts that we do not understand and make a bad situation worse. When fighting injustice, we should look close to home first, and fight the injustices we experience and are directly related to us. If we somehow can not find any in which we are involved, and we are still compelled to fight injustice in the world, then it is best to go there and experience the situation. Be open to multiple perspectives, and hold off on ones judgment until there is compelling evidence to push for a position. One thing that concerns me greatly is bandwagon justice warrioring, in which we involve ourselves in EVERY conflict despite an extremely shallow understanding of it. We can not fight every battle and expect to make an impact on any of them. It is far better to focus on what is most pressing, and what we know most about, before concerning ourselves with what is distant and n misunderstood.

[gravityclarity]

This reminds me of SJWs on tumblr. Their behavior really undermines the cause they're trying to fight for. I hate seeing people acting like that. They think they can just yell and scream and act like buffoons as long as they're in the right. People won't listen to you if you attack them. Then ignorant racist people see this foolishness and assume that's how all black people behave. It's a disgrace. I don't think they really care about anything other than showboating. I like the comment left by Ashley Allen. She perfectly summed up my own reaction to this video.

[gravityclarity]

I saw this video Aisha Tyler posted about Planned Parenthood and how she supports them. A lot of stupid people left comments so I had to chime in. One guy posted this dumb meme saying that PP doesn't help plan parenthood. But in fact they do. I argued that providing a woman with the ability to prevent pregnancy when she is not ready IS planning parenthood. It's allowing her to choose when she is ready to become a parent. Not only that, but keeping a woman healthy and informed is only going to make her a better parent--if she chooses to become one. He answered that by asking how "the sale" of fetal tissue is good or something like that. I said that it contributes to scientific research that could have myriad benefits for mothers and babies. And seeing as abortion is apparently only 3% of what PP actually does, I doubt that they're making much of a profit by donating fetal tissue to science. Even if they did, it would only mean a tiny bit more money to provide health and prevention services to people who otherwise would not have had them. I don't see how that's at all a bad thing. He doesn't seem to understand the point. I wish more people would understand that "pro-choice" does not mean "pro-kill-babies." It just means a woman should get to decide whether or not she's going to go through the substantial physiological and emotional changes that come with pregnancy. I think men can have an opinion and fathers do have a say. But the bottom line is that they can't tell a woman what she can do with her body. That's just the end of it as far as I'm concerned. There's no argument compelling enough to make me believe otherwise.

[gravityclarity]

How Privileged Are You?

Check(list) your privilege.

One of my (white) friends posted this on Facebook and I took it just out of curiosity. I got 66 out of 100--more than her. That was interesting. I feel pretty damn privileged just based on my socioeconomic status. I am.

[thesevandals]

The gender/race comparison is sloppy but it gets to the heart of something. We are what we feel inside. I find it more than a little disturbing that adopting another race, particularly being black is a mark of mental illness, but a transgender person is “brave” a convert is “generous” etc. Gender,...

[gravityclarity]

I just think people are going a bit overboard about Rachel Dolezal: posting her pictures and getting information on her personal life. That I don't like. I don't like the way the media does this. I feel it's invasive. Like I don't need to know all of this woman's information. But as far as I can tell based on what I've seen in the news, I think she genuinely cares about civil rights issues. In some ways, I am not bothered by her wanting to identify as black. The main issue I think people have with that is that she has tried to claim that she's experienced racism/prejudice as a black woman. It seems she fabricated racist threats against her. And she received a full scholarship to Howard University. But is it possible that she still could've gotten the scholarship without claiming to be black? Perhaps she did. There are details such as this that are missing. No one knows any of that, so I'm not so quick to be bothered. She could certainly have done everything she's doing without having to pretend to be black. On the other hand, I don't feel that people should necessarily be forced to identify as any particular thing. There are plenty of black people who do not "look black," and therefore don't experience the same racism I would for instance, as I am unmistakably, visibly black. At the end of the day, I think she may actually have done a lot of good working with the NAACP. And she even looked black/biracial to me! Not that this is even a requirement to be someone who cares about the black community... Some people will claim that she has a psychological problem or something of that nature. But we don't know anything other than what we see in the media. So I won't be so quick to pass any real judgements there. I'm curious, but I don't really believe that she is necessarily self-hating just because she is drawn to "blackness," whatever that even is. I feel that people should leave her alone.

[gravityclarity]

Why have people started saying "coon" to describe people like Raven Symoné? I think you can disagree with her or dislike her without all that. I don't know, I feel like using slurs like that is always nasty. I don't like it. It is a derogatory term to describe black people, but now black people are using it to describe other black people who they think are "whitewashed" or whatever. I still think it's such an offensive thing to say, no matter how you mean it. Can people maybe stop being assholes?

[gravityclarity]

Huh. I think a lot of people could benefit from reading this.

[getfawked120-deactivated2023053]

some of y’all honestly just look for shit to be mad about, isn’t that exhausting

[realsurrealfeel]

[gravityclarity]

You don't need to make things up to show that black people have contributed to society. I'm seeing that more and more. To deny that other groups of people--and I don't mean just white people--have made meaningful contributions to society is asinine. The only reason I can see anyone doing that is because they are supremacists. It's interesting how unaware some people are that they end up perpetrating the exact same behaviors that their "oppressors" do...

[whatwhiteswillneverknow]

What are the four levels of racism?

Level 1 - Internalized Racism - racism that you can’t see within yourself. This also means you can hate yourself. For example, you realizing that White people gets attention and you secretly wish you were White for whatever reason.

Level 2 - Interpersonal Racism - It’s internalized racism, but speaking out loud (or worse, acting out). This is also the most common type that people talk about. When celebrities get called out, for example.

Level 3 - Institutionalized Racism - This occurs within institutions and systems of power. For example… Blacks are thought of as criminals, hence when you mixed it with power, they tend to get harsh sentences.

Level 4 - Structural Racism - This occurs among Institutions and society. Examples: The on-going Drug War, real estate redlining and blockbusting, generification. 

When people think “racism”, they only think of either level 1 or 2. When I talk about it, it’s mostly level 4 and 3. When I attack a person’s statement, it’s level 2 because I have NO idea if they are level 1 until I see the BODY of their work. 

So yeah… there are levels to this game. 

[gravityclarity]

This is a clarifying post that I wish more people would recognize. It seems like a lot of people on tumblr like to ignore level 2.

[gravityclarity]

Rantings & Ravings turned 1 two days ago!

[gravityclarity]

I think it's pretty sexist to tell a man he can't experience sexism because he's a man. That is just tautological nonsense. Unlike people on Tumblr and the Internet, I like to think for myself.

[destinyhadachild-deactivated201]

Who is this person, I swear I need to befriend excellence like this.

[pharaohoftheghetto]

Best man at my wedding fr

[kinkynproud1]

This is by far the best video on tumblr in the history of tumblr. He’s amazing.

[gravityclarity]

Lol. He was too funny. But I'm pretty sure the violin actually originated somewhere in Asia. The fact of the matter is that literally every culture has some variation of essentially the same instruments. It's not like only one group of people can make anything. I wonder where people come up with this stuff. Too funny.