#racial issue

[alienxboiii]

WHITE PEOPLE CAN HAVE DREADLOCKS BECAUSE DREADLOCKS ARE FOR EVERYONE

-A Black guy who just wants to dispel some myths and try to bring people together 🙂

Ok so quick disclaimer (and I hate that I feel like I need to say this): I am speaking as a black guy who has had locs and these are my thoughts 🙂

Alright, so I've been meaning to make a post about how locs (aka dreadlocks, dreads) are for everyone and *not* just folks of my skin complexion. I know it's a pretty controversial topic and especially with today's racial and social climate, but I feel it's important.

I'll try to make this not too drawn-out, but here are the main points:

Locs aren't exclusively black culture; they've existed all over the world for a long time.

Locs have a part in multiple spiritual beliefs, not just Rastafarianism.

Regardless of skin color or hair texture, anyone who wishes to get locs naturally (freeform or semi-freeform) can do so.

Here's the main thing: locs are universal. I know a lot of black people hate the "well, Vikings had dreads" argument but it's true and helps show how widespread this hairstyle (like many styles) are. Now, there seems to be some debate as to where locs originated, with some sources claiming India is the birthplace but what really matters is that locs have been present all over the world, long throughout history.

So, as for locs as a religious thing, most people only know of Rastafarians having locs for religious purposes but don't realize they're not the only ones. Personally, I've also been aware of some Hindus wearing locs, for a while, but more recently also discovered that some Buddhists also wear them.

In Rastafari/Rastafarianism, locs are apart of the Nazarite vow that Rastas take, which includes not cutting the hair. Sources also say that locs represent the mane of the Lion of Judah and also strength.

In Tibetan Buddhism, some non-monastic followers, known as "Ngakpas" and "Ngakmas" wear locs. For them, it represents a detachment from ego and materialism.

In Hinduism, holy men and women - known as Sadhus and Sadhvis - have locs (which are referred to as "jaTaas") as do other followers. The pic of white Hindus comes from this video, where they talk about their Jataas.

In other spiritual practices some people have, locs may simply symbolize a connection to nature and/or the universe or they can be thought to contain and/or transmit energy.

An important thing I wanna quickly hit is the ignorance and double standards surrounding locs. Oftentimes I'll see people argue that white people cannot obtain locs naturally and that what they have is just [nasty] matted hair. Two issues with that...

To get locs naturally, all you gotta do is stop combing/brushing your hair and stop conditioning (but please, still wash it). Over time, the hair will naturally lock up; it will take longer for straighter textures

Matted locs aren't inherently badThere are some black people who intentionally let their locs get matted; sometimes called "Congo locs", depending on the specific style. So - and let me know if this is a reach - I'd say, by using the description of "nasty matted hair" for white folks' locs, you're indirectly invalidating and disrespecting black people who purposely wear their hair in a similar fashion

Now, there are different methods for getting locs, for curly and straight textures but in for freeform/semi-freeform, it's more-or-less the same. If we're being honest, there's really no big difference in "quality locs", aside from obvious texture differences and specific maintenance methods for the individuals

On locs, in the workplace, I think a big issue is the ignorance surrounding the history of locs and just a general skewed view of what is and isn't "professional". If people saw that locs aren't just a black thing and got rid of the negative connotation they seem to have, ideally, that would make them more accepting for black people who have locs and are looking for work. Just a general respect of cultural differences (if a potential employee has locs for a specific cultural reason) would help, too.

Hopefully, over time, society will get to a place where, much like tattoos and piercings, locs are more accepted in professional settings.

To finish this off, I personally feel like locs can and should be able to bring people (of all races and ethnicities) together. I've seen it happen on small scales, on social media, but there's clearly a lot of work to be done before it can really be effective on a global scale. It should be also be said that education on the subject is still a good thing, too!

***bonus** here are some Incan mummies, uncovered in Peru. I honestly didn't know this, for the longest time, but apparently locs were one of the many hairstyles the Aztecs had.

Also, some fun dreadhead animals 😊 (info on these)

Well, I hope anyone who actually read this found it to be helpful and informational and I hope you have a great day! 😊💚💙✌🏾

[libbylael]

*sips tea*...

[random-bookquotes]

The way I saw it, confronting Dr. Gale about the incident seemed like a bad idea because he had final authority over my grade. What would I say to him? How would I expect him to react? Likewise, I felt that reporting the incident to a medical school administrator would prove futile, and possibly even damaging to my future at Duke. His words hadn’t been blatantly racist, and I envisioned that his middle-aged white colleagues would have had trouble understanding why I had interpreted them that way. These influential people were likely to perceive me as a hypersensitive, borderline-militant black male looking to make everything into a racial issue. Given my innate aversion to controversy, that wasn’t the reputation I wanted.

Damon Tweedy, Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine

[rather-annoying-blog]

“Black people are morally conservative even if they are politically progressive: they go to church, they read the 10 Commandments. If Republicans weren’t so racist, they could encourage Black people who are morally conservative to be on their side. I am always arguing Black people in church about homophobia, about the place of women. I know there are some deeply rooted conservative values that need to be taken advantage of if Republicans weren’t so bigoted and so racist.”

[fokmamemmei]

Dear mother,

I’m so sorry the cultural heritage you gave me was ruined. I’m so sorry the name you gave me wasn’t meant to be pronounced in this language. I’m sorry I don’t fully represent your Asian beauty. I don’t have your gorgeous jet black hair, your lovely lids or your petite figure. But dad gave me his delicate curly hair, his big bones and his love. I’m so sorry I stopped speaking your maternal language. It got lost in all my years at school. You gave me so much and I’m only half of that. It doesn’t do it justice. I’m sorry your family thought your marriage wouldn’t last or that you were crazy for falling for a white man. Forgive me mother. I have yours and dad’s blood running through my veins. I’m the mixture of different cultures and lifestyles. I’m the result of something incredibly beautiful but oh how people like to ruin it. Mom, they are erasing parts of my identity so I can fit it. I’m also guilty for doing so. But now is the time to stand for myself. For you, for dad and for everyone like me. I will stand tall & proud. I hope I’ll make you and dad proud of who I am now and who I will become. I am biracial and I will honour that, mom. I promise I will.

 Sincerely, your daughter

[irunpar2016-blog]

The 13th Amandement: How it Leaves an Impact until Now

The media, as we’re all very aware of, has always played a huge role in our society. It helps us separate what’s good and what’s bad. Or at least, what’s seen as good and what’s seen as bad. But what if, the media isn’t as honest and neutral as we thought it should be? What if only people with power can steer it in order to set certain views to certain individuals? Community?

That’s exactly what the US government has been doing.

Through a passionate Netflix Original documentary that exposed the injustice for African-Americans, Ava DuVernay, has made 13th an eye-opening documentary for a lot of people out there. It showed us how bias the media was. It criticises the way most Americans has closed their eyes to the modern-day slavery that unfolds before them. A new form of slavery, that has started decades ago even though they promised to give African-Americans the rights that they deserved.

               Back when the discrimination towards the African-Americans was apparent, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation proclamation. With that, he declared that:

“All persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

However, what he said didn’t end slavery right then and there. With that recognition, he then issued a constitutional amendment to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.

               The 13th Amendment was passed to the Congress by the end of Civil War. Unfortunately, the House hadn’t passed it yet and President Lincoln did everything he could to guarantee that the amendment could be added to the Republican Party platform for the next presidential election. He was successful in his efforts because the House passed the bill in January 1865.[1] Finally, it was ratified at December 6, 1865 by the US constitution.The amendment declared that,

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. “[2]

The making of this amendment formally ends slavery of African-Americans in the United States, along with the 14th and 15th amendment. The trio was viewed as a final constitutional solution to the matter of slavery. It stated that any form of involuntary servitude is not acceptable, except for criminals who were serving their time. But was it really the end of slavery?

               Once in his speech, Barack Obama said that the United States of America consisted of only 5% of the world’s population. And yet, 25% of the world’s prisoners are imprisoned in the US. One out of four human beings is behind those bars. Ironic, for a country that upholds freedom with so much pride.

               It started after the 13th Amendment was made. There were formerly two million people who were considered as a “property” of the Caucasian. These people were the power they needed to build the economy of the South. So when they are finally free, the economy had begun to be unstable. It hugely impact the people of power.

               The amendment clearly stated that everyone was free except for criminals. This is where The US’ prison boom, as they call it, started. African-Americans started to be imprisoned for unreasonable reasons like vagancy or loitering. They then was forced into labor to rebuild the South’s unstable economy, which was also an after-effect of the Civil War. This mass imprisonment led to a disturbing, yet untrue, image of African-Americans. Posters and images of them assaulting white women were everywhere. They were branded as a community that has gotten out of control.

               It got worse when in 1915, D. W. Griffith made a movie called The Birth of a Nation. The movie got praised because of its outstanding storytelling, it was even marked as one of the greatest movie of all time. At least, for white people it was. There were images of African-American men in the movie, and they were always portrayed as someone evil who sexually assaulted women and other dehumanizing characteristics one can think of. This was simply done because the elite, political or not, needed African-Americans to keep working for them, rather than be a free community on its own.

               With the acknowledgment that media had, and still has, a huge power to present a certain image in line with the elite’s interest, it was used over and over again for decades. Even until now we could still see the injustice African-Americans get from the people who sworn to ensure their safety, as a citizen. A man was shot for having a seizure, a 12-years-old was also shot for having a toy gun, a man was shot in front of his kid 3 times, and another even got 14 shots fatally. These people were unarmed and was shot with unreasonable number of shots. One could be a warning, two could kill, but more than that just seemed senseless. There were reportedly 142 unarmed black people who were killed by police violence since 2014. And most of these officers got away with their “mistake”.

And the fear they felt, was real. It’s a crisis not many acknowledged. But we should.

              Other than the community’s struggle against police violence, statistics also showed that African-Americans received the largest amount of aid in the US[1]. Meaning that, economically, they’re also struggling, even still behind other community of color. Caucasians have even lower percentage than Hispanics and Asians, meaning that most of them are economically capable.

               Ironically, Caucasians population in the US are the highest. 61% of the United States population are white, and yet, they still manage to have a more advanced economic condition than African-Americans, the 12% of the US population[2]. Proving, that there is such thing as White Privilege.

               How they got bad representations in the media, based on a set of choices of privileged white men made decades ago, left a huge impact on their lives until now. People got killed based on these stereotypes, some are shackled behind bars, their economic state is still behind, and to be blunt, these stereotypes even reach Indonesia. Just because there aren’t many black people here people think that it’s okay to be racist. Our very euro-centric beauty standard has made most Indonesians view of black people as people who are “ugly”, because of the color of their skin. I’ve even heard someone said things like “How could they even wash their hair with hair like that?”, which was very offensive because clearly they don’t understand anything about their culture. They’re seen as bad people, and they shouldn’t be.

               These early judgments people made, are hurting them. Those set of choices the elites made has left a huge wound within the community. It didn’t, doesn’t, only affect how Americans see them, but also how the world sees them. And let’s face it; even in politics, they usually get underestimated. The “sacrifice” these privileged men had made, left a trail of chain reactions for decades. Are you going to let that happen? Or are you going to stand up against the injustice that they’re facing?

[1] “Welfare Graphs and Charts” http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-graphs-charts/ diakses pada 28 November 2016

[2] “Population Distribution by Race/Ethnicity” http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/distribution-by-raceethnicity/?activeTab=map&currentTimeframe=0&selectedDistributions=asian diakses pada 28 November 2016

[3] “The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865)” https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=40 diakses pada 28 November 2016

[4] “13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution” http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html diakses pada 28 November 2016

Written by: Sheila Lalita

[waltzwithwillywonka]

We are so incredibly fucking tired of hearing this #blacklivesmatter bullshit. Grow the fuck up. You are based on your merit and I (like most) don't owe you shit.

#blacklivesmatter wouldn’t be around anymore if we just fixed it the first time, would it? You wouldn’t have to hear #blacklivesmatter anymore if those cops just stopped killing black people. Let me tell you something. I AM FUCKING EXHAUSTED OF HEARING #BLACKLIVESMATTER and no not because of the reason you might think of. It’s because I know if #blacklivesmatter still exists, it means that there are STILL people dying because of the color of their fucking skin. It’s 20 fucking 15 and we have made no fucking progress whatsoever. So yeah just like you, my friend, I am TIRED of hearing #blacklivesmatter. Run away from this if you want but when you’re ready face reality, hopefully #blacklivesmatter won’t be here anymore. 

[thedissentingopinion]

I don’t particularly care for Dolezal but it seems to me that very few people have a legitimate, coherent argument either for or against her identity as a “transracial” (though that is most certainly the wrong word to use).

So for the sake of my intellectual sanity (and please be civil about this), please reblog with your opinion and also, more importantly, your argument as to why you do or do not support her apparent identity.