#system of oppression

[acrawf12-blog]

Black people can't be racist. Prejudice, yes, but not racist. Racism describes a system of disadvantage based on race. Black people can't be racist since we don't stand to benefit from such a system

Samantha White, Dear White People

[howtophil]

To those in power, you and I are the same. The differences we are driven to focus on and fight over, those serve only to keep the powerful in power and to keep us expending all of our energy fighting each other instead of them.

Coulter Erastus Lane

[all-of-my-rage]

There is the one certainty in the politics of power: those left out of it beg for inclusion. while the insiders claim that they already are. Men do it to women, whites do it to blacks, and everyone does it to queers.

Queers Read This Published Anonymously by Queers Distributed at NYC Pride, 1990

PDF of the original zine

More visually friendly pdf of the text, no colored background, much larger font, but still keeps the formatting relatively intact

Text only version of the zine, which I’m fairly certain should work with screen readers

[kosmocrator]

There was shuffling and rustling around me, then Henry Reed was giving his valedictory address, 'To Be or Not to Be.' Hadn't he heard the whitefolks? We couldn't 'be', so the question was a waste of time. Henry's voice came out clear and strong. I feared to look at him. Hadn't he got he message? There was no 'nobler in the mind' for the Negroes because the world didn't think we had minds, and they let us know it. 'Outrageous fortune'? Now, that was a joke. When the ceremony was over I had to tell Henry Reed some things. That is, if I still cared. Not 'rub,' Henry, 'erase.' 'Ah, there's the erase.' Us.

Marguerite Johnson; I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing by Maya Angelou

[kosmocrator]

It saddens me that people can't go to the movies or go to a place they feel is safe and sacred without being massacred. It saddens me that lives are gone due to one person and a gun and no one can do anything about it.

It's strange that I feel safer, as a person of color, in the ridges of the "projects" where I live than anywhere else. 

It's sad that "terrorism" will most likely never have a White face. 

[namfly-blog]

Empire Strikes Black

By Martin Iqbal. July 5, 2012

There are two kinds of people in this world.

The first seeks knowledge, while the second seeks gratification. The first trembles with anger when injustice is done to others; the second is numb and unconcerned. The first recognizes their duty to speak out, while the second dismisses injustice as being out of their hands or simply ‘the way it is’. The first is loyal and loving to their human & non-human brothers and sisters, while the second is loyal to their nation. The first rejects dogma and thinks independently; the second blindly respects authority and bitterly ridicules free thinkers. The first is humble, always knowing that they could be wrong; the second rigidly adheres to beliefs which ossify with time. The first removes themselves from contributing to the system of oppression in any and all ways;  the second does nothing because they are comfortable.

Which one are you?

link to origanal post... http://illuminatimindcontrol.com/kinds-people-world/

namfly... My love to all... 'see ya in the Future' Feel Free to leave a comment if you wish...

[vagabondaesthetics]

Benevolence in systems of oppression does not mean the system does not exist

This comes up a lot. When discussing a system of oppression it will always come up, sooner or later, that someone in the oppressed group has some form of privilege over the oppressor group because a negative connotation is in some way beneficial to the group or an individual. For example, someone on my dashboard recently linked to a blog that said women had Female Privilege (in the same way that men have Male Privilege) for several reasons and the one that stuck out to me was that women were allowed more fluidity in terms of expressing sexuality. This is true. This is a privilege. However, the reason more fluidity is alloted is because the prevailing thought to this day is that women's relations(hip) with other women doesn't "count", is cute, a phase, for the enjoyment of men, and so on and so forth.

Now, benevolence within systems of oppression are always worthy of discussions because they add multiple layers and context to the lives we lead. They do not now, nor have they ever, mean that just because there are a handful of sorta-positive side effects mean that I have any power over you or that my oppression is diminished. I've always looked like the non-threatening Black guy physically and in manners so I've gotten certain "ins" unbeknownst to myself at several junctions in my life because I was deemed as an exception. Does not make society less racist because of I'm not scene as "not like THOSE Black people.