readin & fightin

Everyday it's like this & I never stop puttin in work Readin & Fightin zine Follow @readnfight Common tags: race • hip-hop • zines • White Supremacy • education • racism • police brutality • books • colonialism • education vs school • food • indigenous people • school • mental health • cultural appropriation • violence • gender • sexual assault • New Haven • prisons • Critical Pedagogy • intersectionality • immigration • women of color literature • people of color • my students are awesome • borders • classism • women of color • queer people of color • women of color feminism • ableism Tweets by @Copwatch203 Camille's bookshelf: summer-2012 More of Camille's books »

[ethiopienne]

#feels

[readnfight-blog]

I think I'm getting back on tumblr after almost a year and a half for this. Bc this is exactly what I need in my life right now & this might be a place to process it. <3

[readnfight-blog]

Blest on Justice for Jewu (by NewHavenJustice)

Longtime community organizer Blest Peters speaks at Jewu Richardson's pre-trial court date. Jewu Richardson is a student, father, worker and community organizer who was shot inches from his heart by police while in the middle of a lawsuit against the NHPD. After filing his lawsuit for police brutality, wrongful incarceration, planting evidence, falsifying reports, and more, Jewu was repeatedly surveilled outside of his home, harassed, stopped and frisked until the night of Jan 16 2010. He was illegally chased, shot, beaten and jailed with insufficient medical attention. Please visit www.justiceforjewu.com or facebook.com/justiceforjewu to learn more. windy audio from :36 to :56: " We have to look at the relationship that's been established between the officers. We have to look at the time that he served unjustly. And we have to take a look at the man that came out of the prison system who's walking around our community today. This is a man, Mr. Richardson. He's a good man. He's a mentor."

[readnfight-blog]

Thanks a lot, Drake

I'm pretty confident that the moment this was cool was the moment hip-hop died:

But why did it have to end this way??

[pedetax]

[cant-party-deactivated20131202]

ug this rubs me so wrong.

if this was just the text, id be into it. 

but as it is… 

you do not need to look like this to be queer

you do not need to look like this to be queer

you do not need to look like this to be queer

there is no queer look

so can we please stop acting like having piercings or fancy hairdos or studs on yr jackets or ripped up clothing or tattoos have anything at all to do with queerness?

[tendertranstrender-deactivated2]

commentary^^^

[serendipityvoltavicissitude-dea]

But seriously though. The commentary. Yes. 

[lucky-4oh3]

This bothers me. I’ve always had a hard time fitting into queer scenes for not being viewed as ‘queer enough’, and it’s always been a source of anxiety/self-deprecation. I’m really not into the idea of working my way past queer gate-keepers. How many queer people do I need to have sex with before I’m allowed to pass?

[petrushkab]

Yeah I feel this big time. Cara expresses it better than I ever could, but yeah, fuck this. Huge source of anxiety for me, especially in mtl.

[bad-dominicana-deactivated20260]

not to mention theyre all white or lightskint.

ok, only you belong. cool. great. the antithesis of radical. 

[mentalhealthfemme]

all that I bolded were my initial thoughts on seeing the photo and honestly if it weren’t for the commentary, I wouldn’t reblog this photo for those very reasons.

[afrafemme-blog]

they all wack too.

[readnfight-blog]

Wait wait y'all, someone decided to take the text off the original post, which was commentary on all of the above mentioned issues. Which is an example of why it's fucked to take someone else's work and intentionally remove it from its context.

Originally the drawing was posted with this text:

to join, you must be this queer:

    must be dfab

    must be non-binary

    must be white

    must have at least two of the following: stretched ears, facial piercings, tattoo of a cat

    must do everything yourself

    must say “yr”

    must shave part of your hair and/or dye part of your hair (diy optional but preferred)

    must spell it “punx”

    must have spikes on all yr clothes

    must be as intimidating as possible

    must be as cliquey as possible and only associate w/ other elite queer punx like yrself

    must i.d. as hard femme

    must collect patches on all yr clothes

    must own a sizeable collection of dildos

    must be interested in d/s or other kinks of some kind

    must wear vintage combat boots

    must be uninclusive to people who are not queer punx like you

Which is some good & important commentary! And people shouldn't be cowards and try to remove some commentary like that.

[readnfight-blog]

Flesh colored. This shit comes in 50 shades of beige.

[bunniesandkittiesanddaffodils-d]

i am 100% for young women destroying the lives of the men who harass/assault them 

[readnfight-blog]

Need to get on this. I have some destroying to do that's several years overdue, and it's collecting interest.

[the-dreamtiger-deactivated20140]

Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I’ve seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges. I’ve felt them doing it. Words conjure. I try not to be careless about what I utter, write, sing. I’m careful about what I give voice to.

Toni Cade Bambara (via the-dreamtiger)

Exactly why I love her.

[readnfight-blog]

Example of privilege of nonviolence

Being told by a white dude that he doesn't want to hang out at your friend's house anymore because of a time a fight almost broke out in defense of a woman who'd been hit by her boyfriend.

Knowing that for that white dude, that fight and his own safety were important and the reason for the fight was not, even after the fact.

Wishing that there were more dudes willing to fight abusive boyfriends, even when they've been friends with those abusive boyfriends, that there were more dudes willing to step up in support of Black women.

Saying this out loud, that you wish someone had been willing to start a fight for you in the same situation, that you're proud of the guy that came in swinging, and not being understood.

[readnfight-blog]

best sisters forever

Just remembered that time my little sister and I rounded up all the things in my old room at our parents' house that were related to my abusive high school boyfriend, took them outside and set them on fire in our mom's nice fire pit while eating fancy cheese and crackers.

[outsideistheworld]

[talesofthestarshipregeneration]

Hank Willis Thomas art piece.

[readnfight-blog]

Reblogging because I couldn't find it when I wanted to show someone recently.

[readnfight-blog]

Someone found my blog by googling "effeminate black tumblr." I feel like this is a massive victory for me. The overhyped threat of effeminization of Black men has been a running joke in my life lately--bf & I have been having storytime reading aloud from The Isis Papers and giggling about phallic symbols as threats to Black nationalist masculinity--so I feel like this is perfect.

[mijajaja-blog]

Social studies lesson? Let’s talk about gangs, communities, and the institutions we interact with like the military, govt, schools, and mo— all using the freshest books

[b-binaohan-deactivated20140530]

there is something grotesque about all the random people saying that marriage ‘equality’ should be on the same level as ensuring the basic survival of trans kids (see this for context)

i wonder how many of them clicked through to see that the tweet was written by a trans woman of color?

literally get the fuck out of my face

if you cannot understand why making sure that trans kids (and adults)

have roofs over their heads, have food in their bellies, and clothes on their backs

needs to be prioritized over and above marriage ‘equality’

[readnfight-blog]

Reasons once again to not trust that mentality of, we’ll do the easier, less controversial stuff first and get to you later. Cause everyone who gets pushed lower and lower on the list is always the most marginalized in whatever community.

It makes me even question the emphasis on “rights,” and that’s pretty sad. Rights can be granted and taken away. And these rights are important, but they’re relative luxuries compared to basic survival needs.

Like yeah I understand that you want visitation rights if your partner is in the hospital, but at least in the u.s. access to & safety in a hospital is a fucking LUXURY. Knowing you won’t be deported or assaulted or sterilized. Having access to a real hospital because you aren’t homeless or in prison or uninsured.

The first rights anyone needs to be fighting for are the rights of survival for the most marginalized in your community. Again, it’s pathetic that that’s even a question.

This white gay bourgeoisie agenda needs to step waaay back.

[readnfight-blog]

Battle of Algiers is my favorite feel-good movie. Stayed up to watch it last night cause that was what we needed after a day of white doofness.

[babylonfalling]

High school students confront a meeting of the Detroit Board of Education to demand Black Studies programs.

Photo by Alan Gotkin for Fifth Estate (1969)

[readnfight-blog]

Despite many (white) teachers' and school boards' assumptions that students, especially POC, just don't care about learning or their education. Naw, we just don't care about whitewashed education.

Many of my students who really struggle with literacy and study skills, and whose classroom teachers complain about them being apathetic, suddenly bloom into historians and philosophers and literary critics when they're allowed Black and Latino studies. Even just a glimpse sets them off being engaged for the first time.

Look through history and you'll see youth of color fighting to learn. It's going on as we speak, and I see it with my students while their teachers complain about them.

Problem is the curriculum, not the students.

[chairman-fred]

“I dont care how much theory you got, if it don’t have any practice applied to it, then that theory happens to be irrelevant. Right? Any theory you get, practice it. And when you practice it you make some mistakes. When you make a mistake, you correct that theory, and then it will be corrected theory that will be able to be applied and used in any situation. Thats what we’ve got to be able to do.”

Fred Hampton, Olivet Church, 1969

[readnfight-blog]

On Valentine's Day I'd seen a photo of a heart shaped pizza, but that was too sappy for my style so I made bf a butt shaped one, with bacon, onions, and broccoli. Toppings were strategically placed for roundness.