Just Black Enough

Sugar and spice and some things nice, with a little bit of feminist African queer flair.

[kontrollsysteme]

serena for wsj by maciek kobielski

[trjoel]

FUCK

[hoemami-deactivated20171229]

yall realize the average lifespan for a trans woman is 30-32 years.. and that is largely because of hate crimes resulting in murder.. ALL feminists need to support trans women and not just because they want to because they need to

[zamzamafterzina]

Our dear sister Iman Habel’s family needs our support. Her little brother Abdul Juma has been charged with multiple felonies for defending himself, and his trans friend from being bullied. Their family is incurring an exorbitant amount of debt due to bail costs and legal fees. After the incident, Abdul was hospitalized (he lost a finger during the event), and requires surgery, so we are anticipating a medical bill to fundraise for as well.

What Happened?

The night before Abdul was supposed to graduate high school, he attended an alumni and graduate bonfire at a beach in San Diego. As the night went on, he heard people exclaiming about five boys trying to bully a trans teenager, and stepped in to help, even though Abdul had only known of this classmate by name, in passing at school. Abdul defended his trans classmate saying he had as much of a right as everyone else to be there. This led him into a defensive altercation on behalf of himself and his trans friend. At the end of it, Abdul - a young Black Muslim man - was taken into custody by the police and accused of multiple felonies. The bullies responsible for initiating the altercation were not taken into custody.

Due to a lack of immediate funds, Abdul stayed in several jails over a period of one week, as his mother and sister searched for bail bondsmen who accept payment in monthly installments (Abdul’s total bail was set to $100,000). He has since come out of jail and had a preliminary hearing. The family has also found a good lawyer eager and willing to take the case.

The flood of financial obligations related to any legal case can be overwhelming and impossible to pay. Anyone who knows Abdul, Iman, and their mother, knows how generous, compassionate, and reliable they are in supporting others in times of distress and difficulty. Let’s work as a community to support this family by alleviating at least the financial burdens they are being faced with.

Please keep Abdul and his family in your prayers. We will update this page with information on Abdul’s case as it progresses.

read more

[dynastylnoire]

Booooooooost

[sullengirlalmighty-deactivated2]

Why stuntwomen are in more danger than men

Performing life-threatening stunts is scary enough – but to swordfight or crash into cars wearing skimpy costumes rather than padding requires a special kind of courage

They perform mind-blowing stunts dressed in clothes as flimsy as paper doilies and are forced to meet Hollywood’s demands for ever-shrinking waistlines without losing the muscles they depend on for work. Meet cinema’s small but dedicated community of stuntwomen: because of the skimpy clothes they have to wear, they put themselves in more danger than their male colleagues.

But it’s all part of their day job. Tammie Baird is Hollywood’s go-to stuntwoman for car hits. She’s appeared in Fast & Furious, Chris Brown’s Next 2 You music video, and NCIS: LA. She’s been smashed into windshields, bounced off bonnets and slammed into the tarmac – more often than not wearing a tight dress and heels. When Baird got her first role, in Mr & Mrs Smith, she went shopping for stunt gear “like a guy”. “I bought the biggest, bulkiest pads, and thought, ‘Yeah, I’m protected, nothing’s gonna get me.’ Then I saw my wardrobe – I was wearing a miniskirt.”

[creepingmonsterism]

“Women face extra risks because ‘unless they’re playing athletic nuns, they’re going to be less covered than men'”

I really wish that movie existed, though

[paxamericana]

[paxamericana]

“To Bernie Sanders with thanks for your commitment to real healthcare access for all Americans and best wishes -

Hillary Rodham Clinton 1993″

[fatandbougie]

lmaoo I’m so embarrassed for her.

[frankocean]

I read in the paper that my brothers are being thrown from rooftops blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs for violating sharia law. I heard the crowds stone these fallen men if they move after they hit the ground. I heard it’s in the name of God. I heard my pastor speak for God too, quoting scripture from his book. Words like abomination popped off my skin like hot grease as he went on to describe a lake of fire that God wanted me in. I heard on the news that the aftermath of a hate crime left piles of bodies on a dance floor this month. I heard the gunman feigned dead among all the people he killed. I heard the news say he was one of us. I was six years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a faggot as he dragged me out a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn’t be served because she was dirty. That was the last afternoon I saw my father and the first time I heard that word, I think, although it wouldn’t shock me if it wasn’t. Many hate us and wish we didn’t exist. Many are annoyed by our wanting to be married like everyone else or use the correct restroom like everyone else. Many don’t see anything wrong with passing down the same old values that send thousands of kids into suicidal depression each year. So we say pride and we express love for who and what we are. Because who else will in earnest? I daydream on the idea that maybe all this barbarism and all these transgressions against ourselves is an equal and opposite reaction to something better happening in this world, some great swelling wave of openness and wakefulness out here. Reality by comparison looks grey, as in neither black nor white but also bleak. We are all God’s children, I heard. I left my siblings out of it and spoke with my maker directly and I think he sounds a lot like myself. If I being myself were more awesome at being detached from my own story in a way I being myself never could be. I wanna know what others hear, I’m scared to know but I wanna know what everyone hears when they talk to God. Do the insane hear the voice distorted? Do the indoctrinated hear another voice entirely?

[justblackenough]

Singer/songwriter/rapper Frank Ocean recently took to Tumblr to write this powerful essay about the Pulse nightclub shooting, homophobia in general, and religi…

[positivelysierra]

Don’t let your insecurities take away from you having an amazing summer. Wear that bathing suit to the pool with friends unapologetically. Order your favorite ice cream on the boardwalk without hesitating. Go back and buy that pair of shorts you saw that you didn’t think would look good on you. You aren’t alone in having your insecurities, but don’t let them conquer you.

[hautedeath]

[thedopecollation]

again. for emphasis

[tastefullyoffensive]

(via ov3rkoalafied)

[kevincarnell-deactivated2018122]

[faithinhumanityr]

My wife surprised her coworkers when she came out as trans. Then they surprised her.

By Amanda Jette on upworthy.com —

Society, pay attention. This is important.

My wife, Zoe, is transgender. She came out to us — the kids and me — last summer and then slowly spread her beautiful feminine wings with extended family, friends, and neighbors.

A little coming out here, a little coming out there — you know how it is.

It’s been a slow, often challenging process of telling people something so personal and scary, but pretty much everyone has been amazing.

However, she dreaded coming out at the office.

She works at a large technology company, managing a team of software developers in a predominantly male office environment. She’s known many of her co-workers and employees for 15 or so years. They have called her “he” and “him” and “Mr.” for a very long time. How would they handle the change?

While we have laws in place in Ontario, Canada, to protect the rights of transgender employees, it does not shield them from awkwardness, quiet judgment, or loss of workplace friendships. Your workplace may not become outright hostile, but it can sometimes become a difficult place to go to every day because people only tolerate you rather than fully accept you.

But this transition needed to happen, and so Zoe carefully crafted a coming out email and sent it to everyone she works with.

The support was immediately apparent; she received about 75 incredibly kind responses from coworkers, both local and international.

She then took one week off, followed by a week where she worked solely from home. It was only last Monday when she finally went back to the office.

Despite knowing how nice her colleagues are and having read so many positive responses to her email, she was understandably still nervous.

Hell, I was nervous. I made her promise to text me 80 billion times with updates and was more than prepared to go down there with my advocacy pants on if I needed to (I might be a tad overprotective).

And that’s when her office pals decided to show the rest of us how to do it right.

She got in and found that a couple of them had decorated her cubicle to surprise her:

And made sure her new name was prominently displayed in a few locations:

They got her a beautiful lily with a “Welcome, Zoe!” card:

And this tearjerker quote was waiting for her on her desk:

To top it all off, a 10 a.m. “meeting” she was scheduled to attend was actually a coming out party to welcome her back to work as her true self — complete with coffee and cupcakes and handshakes and hugs.

NO, I’M NOT CRYING. YOU’RE CRYING.

I did go to my wife’s office that day. But instead of having my advocacy pants on, I had my hugging arms ready and some mascara in my purse in case I cried it off while thanking everyone.

I wish we lived in a world where it was no big deal to come out.

Sadly, that is not the case for many LGBTQ people. We live in a world of bathroom bills and “religious freedom” laws that directly target the members of our community. We live in a world where my family gets threats for daring to speak out for trans rights. We live in a world where we can’t travel to certain locations for fear of discrimination — or worse.

So when I see good stuff happening — especially when it takes place right on our doorstep — I’m going to share it far and wide. Let’s normalize this stuff. Let’s make celebrating diversity our everyday thing rather than hating or fearing it.

Chill out, haters. Take a load off with us.

It’s a lot of energy to judge people, you know. It’s way more fun to celebrate and support them for who they are.

Besides, we have cupcakes.

[blueandbluer]

Thank you. I needed this story today.

[linared]

What a lovely story.

[tsg2k15]

First happy tears of the day. Read it, let it soothe a little of the ugliness of today’s news.

[deezhandztho]

Yay zoe!

[buzzfeedlgbt]

💗 Barbie and Ken Kendra 💗

Styled shoot by H&H Weddings, Color Pop Events Photos by Katie Osgood

[justblackenough]

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee <3 <3 <3

[daschadaily-blog]

Uzo Aduba, Dascha Polanco and Tituss Burgess Dish About Diversity: Slowly, but surely, television is becoming more diverse, portraying a whole spectrum of different genders, races, and sexualities. But how far have we come and how far do we still have to go?

[thecuriousviolet-deactivated201]

Fun fact

Native Americans weren’t allowed US citizenship until 1924.

Let that sink in. We lived here first…for thousands of years. And less than a hundred years ago we were finally given citizenship.

[istamaza-deactivated20200505]

We also fought in WWI despite not being US citizens.

[the-yaadihla-girls]

In Arizona, natives weren’t granted the right to vote until 1948. Think how that type of neglect ties into resource colonization as infrastructure was developed within years prior. 

[giizhigaate-deactivated20160220]

In addition: the indigenous peoples of Canada were not recognized as Human Beings until the year 1960. Now let that shit sink in.

[fatbodypolitics]

In the US it wasn’t until 1968 that the Indian Civil Rights Act was passed and allowed for the right to freedom of speech / assembly / press, a jury trial, the right to an attorney etc. It’s so fucking frustrating.

[xpeachsweettea]

and it wasn’t until 1978 that we were legally allowed to practice our own religions. in a nation founded on religious freedoms, it was illegal to practice our own religions. in our own country. how fucked up is that?

[halfhardtorock]

Aaaand Native Americans weren’t entitled to their own languages (had no legal rights to teach them in their schools, use them in business) until the Native American Language Act of 1990.

[jeankd]

I teach this to my students, because NONE of it is in a single textbook. This is and act of indoctrination

[smallrevolutionary]

Boosting because I didn’t know any of this.

[revolutionarykoolaid]

One of the most frustrating aspects of the mainstream conversation surrounding the tragedy at Pulse Orlando this past weekend is the erasure of Latinx/Afro-Latinx bodies from the story being painted. This is not simply an issue of terrorism or gun violence or homophobia. More than that, it’s about how folks at the intersections, at the margins of the margins, are often re-traumatized/victimized by the state and the dominant after experiencing violence or threat thereof. Nowhere is this clearer than in the the case of undocumented victims in the Pulse massacre. Take some time to read the following article in full, and if you haven’t yet, consider donating to the victims of this tragedy. (Equality Florida, the sponsor of the main GoFundMe has vowed assistance, regardless of status. However, in the coming days, I am going to try and find some more direct pathways with some local comrades. Stay posted.)

(Full Article)

[brownblackandqueer]

That was my first thought when the numbers started going down. It’s terrifying to be undocumented. No police. No hospitals. Not even fire departments.

[remytheraptor-blog]

“Cute” and “Quirky” TERF things

misgendering trans folk and mocking them when they call them out on it

“AHAH YOU DoN’T Believe in Biological Sex!!!” <- Because they’re trans?? What.

call lesbians lesbophobic if they say they’re fine with dating trans women

in the same vein they call lesbians bisexual because that’s fine for them to do?

mock trans men and say they’re just trying to escape their opression

calling trans people gendershits (Quirky! Fun!)

“TERF IS A SLUR” they say as the demean trans folk around every corner

 just beautiful transphobia in general

Also mock any cis/gay women who want to stand up for trans people because that’s totally supportive of women?

Anymore to add? 

[flakyseasalt-deactivated2020102]

-getting trans women fired from jobs - Not believing their actions have actual repercussions -finding a few shitty individuals and making them representative of trans women in general -thinking anyone that doesn’t hate trans women is a liberal gender lover -upholding and being responsible for a system that keeps trans women from healthcare and pushes them into sex work -finding minors and literally mocking and harassing them in public

[trans-girl-nausicaa]

-perpetuating archaic stereotypes about trans women -believing in “autogynephilia” theory -circulating fake or misrepresented news stories put out by misogynist conservatives & fascists and accepting said stories as fact -generally believing any kind of propaganda or lie as long as it’s transmisogynist enough to support their agenda -historically allying with US conservatives to block anti-discrimination legislation and pass anti-trans laws -seeing obviously fake troll accounts on tumblr (intended to collectively defame trans women) and completely taking them at face value -applying western cultural values to the whole world as if they are the “correct” cultural values -applying the colonialist ideology of “biological sex” to indigenous peoples