@realshitandreggae - Tumblr Blog

Salute to the Mothers of our conscious struggle who sacrificed much, so that we could have a tomorrow and to all the courageous Sisters who just weren’t having any of it… 1. Angela Davis 2. Assata Shakur 3. Kathleen Cleaver 4. Sojourner Truth 5. Harriet Tubman 6. Rosa Parks 7. Fannie Lou Hamer 8. Shirley Chisolm 9. Sis. Minister Ava Muhammad 10. Two Sisters who weren’t having it!

erynnemichelle-blog

Voices in Resistance: El Salvador

Vidalina Morales speaks out against Foreign Australian and Canadian Mining industry in her community in El Salvador (Cuscatlan)….

“Our lives arethose of many rural communities - struggling to make ends meet on tiny plots of farming land. Our region regularly sees the destructive force of earthquakes and the devastation of floods and landslides provoked by hurricanes. As communities we are trying to rebuild from the ravage of years of the massacres and death that came from being the front-line of the cold-war. And now to imagine someone coldly choosing to inflict the environmental harm of a gold-mine on our lives for the sake of profits is just too much.”

http://www.stopesmining.org/j25/index.php/water-not-gold-tour?utm_source=Supporters&utm_campaign=79276cff52-newsletter_57_9_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_19a9b41919-79276cff52-93132925&ct=t(newsletter_57_9_2013)&mc_cid=79276cff52&mc_eid=f7bc414ca4

travelingcolors-deactivated2020

Lot 2, Jardins de la Lironde, Montpellier | France (competition won by Farshid Moussavi. Its construction is slated to begin in 2014)

thepeoplesrecord

Today we honor Vandana Shiva, because as the corporate oligarchy continues to destroy our planet, it is clear that we need more leadership like hers:

Video of Vandana Shiva on Bill Moyers’ show back in July.

Here is a list of additional quotes by Vandana Shiva.

This is Vandana Shiva in February @ ISFIT 2013: Changing Norms.

This is Vandana Shiva @ Rio2012.

This is Vandana Shiva talking about the capitalist patriarchy in March 2013 on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.

All of these available on our Facebook page: (links: Tumblr | Facebook | Twitter)

pomocentric

#What a hottie #For my sister Hayley

ourinvinciblesummer

i’m ambivalent to home ownership. i was born with two restless legs, and one of them always seems to be partially out the door. although others claim that renters are just throwing their money away — i value the freedom (pseudo or otherwise) from chains that dwelling in someone else’s responsibility provides. i’ll happily “invest” in that.

but… i just love this little house! it’s so elegantly simple and yet overwhelmingly charming. compact enough that you’ll deeply consider the addition of every new possession.

the moment i saw it, i thought, “i could build a home like this with someone i love.” leaving it here just in case.

(via www.tinyhouseswoon.com)

#places I call home

anotherafrica-blog

SYMBOLS & MYSTICISM #18

Appropriation or Representation. How do we decide?

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra from the 1963 epic drama of the same name.

knowledgeequalsblackpower

I say it’s more alarming than both those things. White people actually believe that the Egyptians were White and that Cleopatra was White. That’s why the West is obsessed with Egypt (forming multiple Egyptomania crazes). They have adopted it as their own exotic history. For that to happen, they must imagine the Egyptians and Cleopatra as White. They ignore the fact that Egypt is in Africa and that ancient Egyptian civilization shared more in common with other African civilizations than it did with the White civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea. They portray Egyptians as White or, recently, tan. I’ve seen this in multiple so-called “historical” documentaries on the “History Channel.” That shit is simply not accurate. The reason they make them White is because they’ve literally appropriated the history as part of their own history. It was the greatest civilization in ancient history and for that reason, White supremacy insists ancient Egyptians were White.

And they’ve been claiming it for so long now that they have seriously forgotten that the ancient Egyptians were African.

African Egyptologist Cheikh Anta Diop documents how early Egyptology invented the myth that ancient Egyptians were white in The African Origin of Civilization.

Also, Cleopatra was not White. With the way they keep making stories about her, you would think they know a lot about her. But they actually don’t know much about her at all. What they do know mostly comes from Roman sources which were written hundreds of years after her death and the Romans hated her (because she was a woman, she had power, and she was foreign) so they didn’t have any reason to be particularly accurate. She was the ruler of one of the richest empires in the world and yet today she’s remembered as a seductress. It’s preposterous.

So, no. I don’t think its simple appropriation or representation. I think it’s mythologizing and whitewashing. If Egyptian civilization can be turned White, any ruler.. any group.. any achievement.. can also be White washed. That’s scary to me.

And White people will pretend like it doesn’t matter. But if it didn’t matter, then why do they keep trying to make them White?

elorablue

Stacey Brabdford Photography

queerability

realshitandreggae

Yes I am radical because I respect and value people as they are, and completely deny any one or anything that goes against that.

Autism Speaks is the most well-known autism charity. They have the most media coverage and are endorsed by many celebrities, but this certainly does not make them a good organization.

Autism Speaks does not have a single autistic member on their board.

Autism Speaks only spends 4% of their budget on “family services”.

Much of Autism Speaks’ money goes toward research, and much of that research centers on finding a way to eliminate autism, and thus, autistics (which will likely be done through a prenatal test, in the same way that the Down’s Syndrome test is conducted).

Autism Speaks produces advertisments, small films, etc. about what a burden autistic people are to society.

Autism Speaks was responsible for “Autism Every Day”, which featured a member of their board talking about contemplating murder-suicide of her daughter in front of her daughter. This has now be removed from Autism Speaks’ Youtube channel.

Autism Speaks is responsible for the atrocity known as “I am Autism”, a short film produced by the same person who directed the 3rd Harry Potter movie (yes, really) and features an ominous voice saying things like “I am autism…I know where you live…I work faster than pediatric AIDS, cancer, and diabetes combined…I will make sure your marriage fails.”

In short, Autism Speaks is part of the problem; they create a stigma that makes it far more difficult for actual autistic people like myself to be heard, to have our opinions matter, and to fall anywhere outside of the “autistic angel” and “screaming, violent, rocking in the corner autistic” stereotypes. In addition, for them, as well as many other organizations (and the media), autism is considered to be a child’s disorder/disability, and you will often hear people say “where are all the adult autistics?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that in the past 5 years or so. The answer to that is simple! We’re right here in front of you. We may have been misdiagnosed as children with learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities and the like when the diagnoses of autism, PDD-NOS and Asperger’s weren’t as precise (or even existent) as they are now. We may not have been diagnosed at all and simply treated as though our difficulties are our own doing. We vary in where we fall on the spectrum, though functioning labels are gross and you shouldn’t use them.

For further reading, here are a few resources about Autism Speaks:

Say No to Autism Speaks

I’m Autistic, But Autism Speaks Doesn’t Speak for Me.

An Autistic Speaks about Autism Speaks.

A Chart Regarding Autism Speaks’ Allocation of Funds

ASAN’s flyer regarding Autism Speaks (this is easily printable and is good for distributing information quickly).

Here are a few other terrible things that Autism Speaks has done recently.

This woman’s job offer was rescinded after she asked Autism Speaks for accommodations in caring for her autistic son. They refused, and she made necessary accommodations for childcare, but they withdrew her offer anyways.

Autism Speaks shared the news of Google removing hate speech regarding autistics from Google’s autofill feature, completely erasing any mention of autistic people’s flashblogs having anything to do with the change. It was only after a member of the autism community (and not a parent, but an autistic person themselves) spoke with a reporter about the flashblog and a statement was released to the media that Google decided to make this change.

Autism Speaks highlighted AAC use, while erasing those those who actually use AAC devices to communicate. The focus was on the caretakers, not on the autistic people themselves. (The attached link has a link to a rebuttal by a nonspeaking autistic person, Amy Sequenzia).

There are a number of corporate partners — big businesses (for the most part) who align themselves with Autism Speaks. This can take many different forms, but in general, you should consider that a purchase to any of these companies may benefit Autism Speaks. The list is as follows (thank you, austryzor):

ATA Martial Arts

Bachman Pretzels

Bob’s Red Mill

Build A Bear

Capital One

Casey’s General Stores

Continental Accessory

Dollar General

Dover International Speedway

eTrak

Fashion Bug

FedEx

Fox Sports

GAP

Joe’s Crab Shack

Kid Natural Hero

Landscape Structures

Lindt and Sprungli

Mattress Warehouse

Med Claims Liaison

Modell’s Sporting Goods

Panera Bread

Pump it Up

Queens Flowers

Scentsy

Shoprite Supermarkets

Sprouts Farmers Markets

Stadium NEST Fragrances

Stella & Dot

The Home Depot

TJMaxx

Total Wine and More

Toys R Us

White Castle

Zales

Some people have contacted me with requests for what organizations actually do help autistic people. There are a few, in fact, that actually focus on autistic people, and not just autistic children. The final two are actually general disability organizations, and not specific to autism.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is pretty much the best choice.

The Autism National Committee

Autism Network International

Autism Women’s Network

TASH

ADAPT

Edited 3/6/13 to add — someone on my Wordpress blog posted a link to this GIGANTIC resource, bigger than mine here (obviously).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Autism_Speaks/Controversy_links

Very informative.

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The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion, but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.

Samuel P. Huntington (via seinedoll)