The Liberal Cacoon

Can I become the radical I want to be if I firmly live in the grey? Nerd. Lesbian. Female Badass. Feminist. Radical. Anti-racism enthusiast. #whitefolkwork. Spoken Word. Educator.

[alwaysbewoke]

African American Studies Prof. Barnor Hesse

[katal0gue]

The way that we learn about Helen Keller in school is an absolute outrage. We read “The Miracle Worker”- the miracle worker referring to her teacher; she’s not even the title character in her own story. The narrative about disabled people that we are comfortable with follows this format- “overcoming” disability. Disabled people as children. Helen Keller as an adult, though? She was a radical socialist, a fierce disability advocate, and a suffragette. There’s no reason she should not be considered a feminist icon, btw, and the fact that she isn’t is pure ableism- while other white feminists of that time were blatant racists, she was speaking out against Woodrow Wilson because of his vehement racism. She supported woman’s suffrage and birth control. She was an anti-war speaker. She was an initial donor to the NAACP. She spoke out about the causes of blindness- often disease caused by poverty and poor working conditions. She was so brave and outspoken that the FBI had a file on her because of all the trouble she caused.

Yet when we talk about her, it’s either the boring, inspiration porn story of her as a child and her heroic teacher, or as the punchline of ableist, misogynistic jokes. It’s not just offensive, it’s downright disgusting.

[roachpatrol]

the reason the story stops once helen keller learns to talk is no one wanted to listen to what she had to say

how’s that for a fucking punchline

[istamaza-deactivated20200505]

When I was 18, I got into my first real fight. A guy called me a “dirty prairie n*gger”. I swung and clocked him out. His friends jumped me. I beat them too. When I went to university, My dorm laid out rules. Then, they asked for suggestions, Rules that the residents wanted. One boy spoke, “I think the stagecoach law should apply here, Its an old law saying that if you are on a stagecoach, You can shoot those dirty Indians.” I walked through the crowd. I got in his face. Asked him why he would say that. I never got an answer. I never saw him again that year. When I turned fourteen years old i realized how much my people were hated. I visited Denver with my school, On a Honor Roll trip. Kids with 3.3 GPAs and higher. My friend and I went into a store, Smiling and laughing, Joking together. The man behind the counter took a look at us. He pointed at us, Then the door. “We dont need your kind here. Go home. Go back to where you came from.” I have heard that sentiment Echoed through the years. One of my tribes biggest sources of revenue, Is Game and Fish. People come from across the globe, To shoot our deer, And catch our fish. They show up, And immediately insult us. They say, “If you go down there, Better hang your dream catchers, And take them whiskey, The only good indians are drunk or dead.” Do not tell me, These slights are imagined. That they are trivial. That you are sure they are good people. Thats not what I’ve seen. Thats not what I know. People complain about our Pow Wows, Our celebrations of being Native. They ask why. The faces of four white men are carved in the side of sacred mountains. We deal with that every day. They can deal with a few weekends of Pow Wows. I am not sorry that I am angry. I am not sorry if this makes you uncomfortable. I am sorry you cannot see why I am angry. I am sorry my people are weary of well wishers. My land is gone. My people are battered and nearly broken. But we are getting stronger. More of us are speaking out. My voice is but one of many. I can only hope that we are heard.

An Angry Lakhota (via istamaza)

[misandry-mermaid]

Billionaire Gets 4 MONTHS For Sexually Assaulting 12-Year-Old Because He's 'Productive'

Affluenza strikes again, as another man of wealth is given a slap on the wrist for the most horrid of crimes imaginable - the justice system is broken.

SC Johnson, the “family” company’s billionaire heir, Samuel Curtis Johnson III, who confessed to repeatedly sexually assaulting his teenage stepdaughter has received an outrageous prison sentence of only four months because the judge, Circuit Justice Eugene Gasiorkiewicz, feels that Johnson’s importance to the community is valued much higher than the dignity of his abused step-daughter.

You read that right. Affluenza, as it has been dubbed, has struck again. This billionaire has officially plead guilty to mere misdemeanor charges of fourth-degree sexual assault and disorderly conduct instead of receiving the maximum which is felony sexual assault on a minor child. These charges originally stem from 2011. Think Progress reported Johnson’s stepdaughter “initially told police Johnson was ‘a sex addict‘ and touched her inappropriately 15 to 20 times starting when she was 12 years old. She told her mother about the abuse in order to protect her younger sister, and Johnson confessed when the mother confronted him.” Because Johnson’s victim was unwilling to testify in the case, the prosecutors had to make a plea deal with Johnson and his legal team.

Johnson’s attorney, Michael F. Hart argued to Judge Gasiorkiewicz that the maximum prison term for his client was not fair and that is should be reserved for “maximum defendants,” people unlike his client (aka not billionaires with a prestigious name), who has no prior record and who leads a “productive life.” Again, the billionaire status and famous name apply to that “productive life.” He’s an heir, so remember folks, he’s inheriting this empire and inheriting this money. Very productive.

Add insult to injury, the judge made his decision based on other cases in which he has rarely gives first time offenders the maximum sentence. So instead the judge gave Johnson, a billionaire, a fine of $6,000. The judge ruled that he must serve at least 60 days of the sentence before he will be eligible for release.

[micdotcom]

Watch: It’s your right to share your salary, not doing so could be holding you back.

[alwaysbewoke]

to be clear the first one is the original. i just riffed on it because it’s a powerful message.

[days-of-reading]

The bad reading [of Gender Trouble] goes something like this: I can get up in the morning, look in my closet, and decide which gender I want to be today. I can take out a piece of clothing and change my gender: stylize it, and then that evening I can change it again and be something radically other, so that what you get is something like the commodification of gender, and the understanding of taking on a gender as a kind of consumerism … When my whole point was that the very formation of subjects, the very formation of persons, presupposes gender in a certain way—that gender is not to be chosen and that “performativity” is not radical choice and it’s not voluntarism … Performativity has to do with repetition, very often with the repetition of oppressive and painful gender norms to force them to resignify. This is not freedom, but a question of how to work the trap that one is inevitably in.

Judith Butler  (via queernuck)

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

I’m going to tell you a secret: You don’t have to believe every thought that pops into your head.

B. Dave Walters (via swingmeyourbones)

[justice4mikebrown]

Can you post any information you have on Jamar Clark's murder by police?

Neighbors/witnesses say Jamar Clark was shot in the head while he was face down and handcuffed just before 1 am on November 15, 2015 by Minneapolis Police. 

The police account is (once again) different from witness accounts. Police Chief Janeé Harteau says Jamar was not handcuffed when he was shot. 

Police were called to respond to an assault involving Jamar and his girlfriend. When the police arrived on the scene Jamar was confronting paramedics as they took his girlfriend away in an ambulance. After attempting to calm him down, police say that a physical altercation ensued and “an officer discharged his weapon, striking [Jamar]”. 

The two officers involved are on paid administrative leave.

The articles I’ve linked say that Jamar was transported to the hospital and that his condition hasn’t been confirmed yet but some witnesses believe that he was already dead when he was loaded into the ambulance.

You can follow the #JamarClark #Justice4Jamar and #JamesAndPlymouth hashtags on Twitter for updates. @colocha_rachel is currently live tweeting a march for Jamar.

[divine-noire]

How many times until Black girls will be seen as victims instead of “no angels”?

[micdotcom]

Adidas will give money and designs to any high school  willing to drop its Native American mascot 

Approximately 2,000 of the more than 27,000 U.S. high schools use mascot symbolism that is widely seen as offensive to native tribes. During the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Adidas announced it will provide financial and design assistance to any high school teams willing to change their imagery. Now if only the NFL’s Redskins will agree, instead of defending themselves.

[dyke-digest]

Lesbians are everywhere and from everywhere - for that reason no simple “we” includes us all - we are constantly making new anthologies which illuminate the lives of dykes who had been invisible even among lesbians. But as universal a statement as I can make about us is: lesbians are women who have discovered we can make choices.

- Elana Dykewomon, “Preface” from Lesbian Culture: An Anthology, ed. Julia Penelope and Susan Wolfe, 1993. (via dyke-digest)

[micdotcom]

Missouri football players and faculty stand by racial justice protesters

University of Missouri football players and faculty members have joined hunger striking student Jonathan Butler and many others in their calls for president Tim Wolfe’s removal. The athletes are refusing to practice or play, while the faculty members are staging a walkout Monday. The groups are protesting over the mishandling of recent racist incidents on campus. Wolfe released a statement Sunday promising change — but ignored the two most important things.

[queerfourcombo-blog]

• "They have a complicated relationship with police. More than half (54.4 percent) of young black people surveyed say that either they or someone they know have been harassed by police or been the victim of police violence. That number goes down to 32.8 percent of whites and 24.8 percent of Latinos. Meanwhile, 66.1 percent of blacks (74.4 percent of Latinos and 80.3 percent of whites) think the police in their neighborhood are there to protect them. But just 44.2 percent of blacks surveyed actually trust the police. “We know that young blacks are more likely to be harassed by the police. We know that they are more likely to mistrust their encounters with the police,” Cathy Cohen, leader of the Black Youth Project, said in a statement. “But we also know from actually collecting data that a majority of them believe that police in their neighborhood are actually there to protect them, so I think it provides us with more complexity.” • Unemployment is rampant. While just 8.5 percent of whites ages 20 to 24 are unemployed, 10.3 percent of Latinos and 16.6 percent of black youth are out of work. • Work is a hostile environment for many black women. More than one in three young black women experience discrimination at work, versus 13.9 percent of white women and 21.2 percent of Latinas. • Poverty has a firm hold. Fully 32 percent of black youth ages 18 to 24 were living below the poverty line in 2013, compared to 21 percent of Latinos and 17 percent of whites."

[homojabi]

Looking at girls sexually does not replicate the male gaze. Fantasizing about having sex with girls does not replicate the male gaze. Pursuing girls sexually does not replicate the male gaze. LBPQ women do not replicate the male gaze under any circumstances and never will.

[micdotcom]

At a fundraiser Monday evening, President Barack Obama ripped into the Republican candidates seeking to replace him. To roars of audience laughter, Obama called out the hopefuls with the above slam that brought down the house. Meanwhile, the GOP candidates have a lot more to worry about.

[micdotcom]

Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) failed to pass on Tuesday. The bill would have extended discrimination protection laws to fifteen classes of people including gender identity and sexual orientation. How did conservatives win? Claims about predators in public restrooms and locker rooms. Claims that aren’t backed up by data.