Musings Of An Afrofuturist Educator

My name is Robert (I prefer Bobby or Rob). He, him his pronouns. I hold a Bachelor's in Anthropology and Africana Studies. This is my personal blog.

[waterbugsanonymous]

hi, this is your gentle reminder and PSA: there are ELECTIONS happening in November 4th. PLEASE GO VOTE. Trump is the most unpopular he has ever been, but does that mean your average independent, or republican will vote for a dem this time around-likely no- they probably will just skip the process entirely if they don’t have a candidate they feel strongly about. this is why i’m asking YOU SPECIFICALLY to make sure to go vote. and i don’t wanna hear any doomerism shit about how voting is a waste of time bc of whatever, guys voting is the last of anything we have it is clear most of these people who represent us do not actually care, HOWEVER trump currently has the house, senate and courts and making it even slightly harder to do anything or having a large enough group to speak out against what he’s doing will help hundreds of thousands of people in the US. now more than ever is it important to make sure that they know that we do not stand for this

[mikkeneko]

If you're looking for something to do between now and November 4th to feel like you're making some progress, might I suggest checking out Vote Forward's letter campaigns?

Vote Forward

Vote Forward volunteers send heartfelt handwritten letters to unregistered and low-propensity voters encouraging them to participate in our

They've currently got two campaigns active, one for the PA Supreme Court and one for the CA special redistricting election. For the latter one, I can tell you that this is a weird proposition historically and many Californians don't really know what to make of it; it might be one where messages sent to voters could really help make up voters' minds.

You can sign up for as few as five letters to send out. Campaigns run through October 28th!

[anistarrose]

OP didn't specify which elections are happening this November 4th of 2025, so to be as clear as possible:

The elections this November aren't for the U.S. House, or the Senate, or any other branch of the federal government.

The elections this November are actually more important than the elections for the federal government.

They are a mix of state and local elections.

To break it down further: we have statewide elections in the following states:

New Jersey: Governor, State House.

Virginia: Governor, Attorney General, State House.

Pennsylvania: a retention election for the State Supreme Court. Three incumbent Democratic justices are up for retention votes, where a "yes" vote means they stay on the court, and "no" means they must be replaced (potentially with a Republican). Republicans are attempting to take back control of the court by unseating two or more Democratic justices, which could compromise the fairness of elections in this state in 2026 and 2028. There are also retention votes for several lower courts.

California: Prop. 50 aims to counter Republican gerrymandering in Texas by gerrymandering an equal number of U.S. House seats in CA, contingent on the TX map staying standing in court. If passed, the new CA map would last from 2026 to 2030 (inclusive).

Colorado: Funding free meals for kids in schools, including mechanisms to help counteract the federal SNAP cuts! (Essentially, a recent change to the ballot measure made it so any leftover money from the meal program could go to SNAP.) This is via Proposition LL and Proposition MM.

Maine: Two propositions. The first is a dangerous voter disenfranchisement proposal, which would decimate access to absentee voting and require photo ID to be shown at polls. Proponents of the measure tried to sue to stop the summary on the ballot from actually saying what it would do to absentee voting (they lost their case, luckily), so you know it's bad.

The second Maine proposition asks whether to implement extreme risk protection orders (red flag laws). For context, Maine currently has a weaker "yellow flag law."

Washington State: Proposition to allow the state to fund its upcoming, public long-term care insurance program, WA Cares, with stock market investments reminiscent of how the state can already handle pensions. This would arguably/ideally keep premiums lower; I won't claim to be an expert on this one but it's definitely worth reading more about.

Texas: Too many propositions to list. (Literally, there's 17). Luckily, Ballotpedia has already listed them for us.

There are also too many municipal (a.k.a. town-wide, city-wide, or county-wide) elections to list! These elections affect your community the most directly!

Most people know NYC is voting for mayor (don't let Cuomo make a comeback!), but don't let him distract you from city council elections, either. Wikipedia has a long list of the largest cities with municipal elections in 2025 (Atlanta, Minneapolis, and New Orleans are some examples), but if you live in a smaller town, be sure to google "[your town name] elections" to see if you have anything this November.

Lastly, there is a special election in Tennessee's 7th Congressional district that's happening after election day, on December 2nd. This district is Republican leaning, but a large enough Democratic over-performance could flip it — and constitute one of the only chances to whittle down the Republican House majority before 2026.

No reblog-guilting here, I'm not gonna judge anyone for not wanting to reblog a long politics post, but I'm sure it would help a lot of people make their plans if enough folks shared this list of what elections are happening this November (and this December).

[goawfma]

i feel like we don’t talk about things like this enough

[faintofhearght]

these are literally all SO COOL!!

[smartbra1ned]

Celebrating these wins for increasing the diversity of representation in government! 🎉

Sarah McBride became the US’s first openly trans state senator and the country’s highest ranking openly trans legislator, as well as Delaware’s first out LGBTQ+ person elected to the state’s legislature.

Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres, both in New York, became the firstly openly gay Black men elected to Congress.

Cori Bush became the first Black woman elected to Congress in Missouri’s history. She is a community organizer and activist who became involved with politics after Ferguson.

Iman Jodeh, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, became Colorado’s first Muslim lawmaker.

Shevrin Jones became the first out LGBTQ+ person to be elected to Florida’s state senate.

Michele Rayner-Goolsby became the first openly queer Black woman elected to the Florida House of Representatives.

Jabari Brisport became New York’s first openly queer state senator of color.

Kim Jackson became Georgia’s first openly LGBTQ+ state senator, and Torrey Harris became the first out LGBTQ+ member of Tennessee’s state legislature.

Taylor Small became the first openly trans member of the Vermont State Legislature.

Stephanie Byers became the first openly trans lawmaker ever elected in Kansas and the first trans person of Native American heritage ever elected to any state legislature. She’s a member of the Chikasaw Nation.

Here’s to progress being made at any level, and here’s to hoping that those elected tonight are only the first of many. ❤️

[chubbycattumbling]

LOOK AT THEM!!!!!

[dankmemeuniversity]

[unsexybeast]

LMFAO

[venomvixin]

[unsexybeast]

I always wanted to get some grills.

[helloncrocs-deactivated20241222]

JOHN!?

[liquidfem]

[boostergold78]

I didn’t know Mr. T pityed fool’s that weren’t woke, but that’s awesome. #respect

[lordxeras]

“I think about my father being called ‘boy’, my uncle being called ‘boy’, my brother, coming back from Vietnam and being called ‘boy’. So I questioned myself: “What does a black man have to do before he’s given the respect as a man?” So when I was 18 years old, when I was old enough to fight and die for my country, old enough to drink, old enough to vote, I said I was old enough to be called a man. I self-ordained myself Mr. T so the first word out of everybody’s mouth is “Mr.” That’s a sign of respect that my father didn’t get, that my brother didn’t get, that my mother didn’t get.“

-Mr. T on the subject of his name

[kenyanxgyal-deactivated20191123]

I had no idea he put this much thought into this wow

[oxfordcommaforever]

I wonder why we dont hear about this…

[yinx1]

[mixedican-deactivated20190330]

Mr. T’s raw power vaporizing the guy in the last gif

[digitaldiscipline]

In this house, we respect Mr. Terrance Hayes.

[weaver-z]

Oh my god they did NOT put the Challenger disaster in an American Girl doll advertisement…

[odiomnibusvobis]

Why are people always shocked to find out that American Girl deals with depressing and dark topics? One of the girls, Addy, was born into slavery and gets out of it w her mother. Their entire brand is making young girls aware of other people’s struggles and tragedies.

[sugluvgalaxy]

Because they thought American Girl dolls were just dolls and have never even seen one of the books to know they exist.

[weaver-z]

For the record I’ve actually read the books (including Addy’s) but the reason I find this one really fucked up is that it’s literally ABOUT to happen in this photo. Like… dude. The TV is ON. They showed traumatic things in the books, sure, but not in the ADVERTISEMENTS. You know how Samantha visits a sweatshop in one of her books and sees the horrible conditions in there? Imagine if they had an advertisement where they showed that. Putting something in a book and putting something in a cutesy ad is different and you’ve GOTTA see that, right?

[weaver-z]

In 2054 they’re going to release an American girl from 2001 and she’s going to be in an ad with the WTC in the background with a calendar that says “SEPTEMBER 11 <3” stamped on it in glitter letters

[seashells-and-bookshelves]

I get what you’re saying, I do. But my brain is over here exploding because January 1986 I had just turned one. What I loved about American Girl when I was a little girl was that the stories took place forever ago and gave me a personal peek into what life was like A LONG TIME AGO. But, like, this American Girl’s story takes place IN MY LIFE TIME 

I’m just… I’m not quite sure what to do with this information. 

[obviouslybooks]

Meet Molly was published in 1986, set in 1944. The children in the target demographic wouldn’t have a solid grasp of what was going on, but their parents are old enough to remember or at least alive when it happened.

I’m sure there were grandparents alive during the events featured in Meet Samantha or Kit or Julie in the years they were published.

When looking at these books, you have to take into account who the target audience is. Seeing the Challenger launch may be jarring to adults now. Any of these previous series may have had the same effect on our parents or grandparents when we were reading these as little kids.

I was not alive when the Challenger was launched. But I do have a frame of reference for witnessing a national tragedy on tv. I was old enough to remember watching the WTC buildings go down.

The children this new book is written for are not old enough to have this frame of reference. While this is about the Challenger, it also works though trauma viewed on a live and national scale, which I think is healthy to discuss, especially now that kids are growing up in a time when they are seeing tragedies and disasters on a global scale in real time.

While it may seem harsh to us as adults to think of children reading fictionalized accounts of things we were directly influenced by, it’s important to remember that… that’s the point. We may remember, but they don’t. They weren’t there. No matter how deep the cultural memory is, they weren’t there.

1986 is “a long time ago” to the readers. It’s a long time ago to me. But the things they/we can learn about healing as a country and a culture when faced with trauma on such a widespread scale could be invaluable.

That being said, I also understand that adult readers won’t be able to read the books the same way they read the others. And while it is sad to lose that, it’s so important to remember that these books are still doing what they’ve always done.

[write-it-motherfuckers]

A friend of mine posted this and tagged my old instagram account, asking me to share it. I figured sharing it here where I actually have a following, would be far better.

Please remember that just because the government is giving into pressure and greed, that doesn’t mean that any of this is getting any better, in a lot of ways it’s getting worse. And even if you yourself aren’t being as heavily affected anymore, there are people and communities that are.

Stay safe Darling ones, and help others remain safe too.

[noparlpf]

Navajo Reservation Relief Project organized by Terrill Benally

Yá’át’ééh (greetings in Navajo) my name is Terrell Benally. I am a first year Indige… Terrill Benally needs your support for Navajo Reservat

Donation

Navajo Nation Donate

Navajo Water Project

Help DigDeep bring clean, running water to hundreds of American families. 1 in 3 Navajo homes don't have a tap or toilet. We can fix that.

Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund organized by Ethel Branch

The Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation are extreme food deserts with only 13 … Ethel Branch needs your support for Navajo & Hopi Families CO

PPE FOR NATIVE AMERICAN RESERVATIONS! organized by Prados Beauty

Hey There World Changers! We need your help! Help us #helptherez Native American H… Prados Beauty needs your support for PPE FOR NATIVE AMER

Official Navajo Nation COVID-19 Relief Fund organized by Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation COVID-19 Fund has been established to help the Navajo Nat… Navajo Nation needs your support for Official Navajo Nation CO

[black-culture]

[tamascotchi-deactivated20190101]

oh my god i'm cleaning out my desk and i found my first phone

it was a fucking house phone that i was so stoked to have because it was mine that i kept in my own room and i cannot believe technology has progressed at the speed of FUCKING light to the point where this is a hilarious artifact to have had in like 6th grade and now theres kindergarteners with iphones

[princess-peridot]

How did you know if you dialed the right number

[tamascotchi-deactivated20190101]

each button made a different tone so the numbers you dialed a lot became a subconscious melody in your head and if you hit the wrong button by accident it would sound like a wrong note in a song you know by heart

[teaboot]

i can’t beleive that is a legitimate question in my lifetime

[notevensneaky]

Other acceptable answer: the wrong person answers on the other end.

[powerfulwizard]

People that get invested in fiction and examine fictional lore need to learn how to tell the difference between which lore is actually important to the series and which lore is an excuse for something.

[powerfulwizard]

If Dwarven women are capable of growing beards, but have cultural reasons not to, that is an excuse that they made not to give them beards.

If a female character can only wear skimpy clothing for some given reason, that is an excuse to sexualize her.

If an organization can only be populated men, that is often an excuse to not have to create female characters.

Its all made up. It isn’t a foundation of the universe that they can’t control. They wrote it to be like that.

[bundibird]

“I know the women are treated poorly, but its set in an era when women weren’t respected” its an entirely fictional world, not a historical documentary. They didnt have to have it set up so women are treated poorly in that culture. That’s a decision they made.

[fangirltothefullest]

[blackgirlsreverything]

If Rihanna was dark skinned y’all wouldn’t laugh and think her personality was cute.

I know a lot of black girls who act like her but are seen as aggressive and mean.

[tiktoksthataregood-ish]

[supercomplicatedperson]

[galaxianbitch]

i think about this tiktok literally every day

[gunggaygirl]

i haven’t seen this talked about on tumblr a lot but i’ve seen it all over twitter so please spread this:

there is a new sex trafficking method of sending women these texts (and these aren’t other people’s screenshots, these are texts that were sent to ME):

if you receive this kind of text, block the number immediately and do NOT click on the link. it leads to websites that give you the ability to “track your package,” when in reality, it is YOUR location being tracked.

i myself almost fell for this and i luckily called my apartment’s leasing office to check if i had any packages i never picked up and they said no.

spread this please because i’ve seen a LOT of others say they’ve received these kinds of texts, so there’s likely to be more who are unaware it’s a scam.

[agent--nova-deactivated20220809]

BOOST

[feralraccoonman]

HOLD UP.

THATS WHAT THOSE ARE.

IVE BEEN GETTING THESE AND DELETING THEM FOR WEEKS.

I

I AM NOW SCARED WTF-

[xanana]

Help the Pataxó people fight for the right for their land

I’ve made a few posts about this but they may have been a bit confusing, so after a few days of tourmoil of emotions and stress, I’ve decided to take some time to talk a little more in-depth about what’s been going on with the Pataxó people in Brazil and how we can help them prevent an immense injustice that’s just about to unfold

First off, an introduction!

The Pataxó inhabit the areas of the Brazilian states of Bahia and Minas Gerais, and nowadays have a population of about 13.000 people. The Pataxó were one of the first peoples in Brazil to come in contact with the Portuguese settlers, along with the Tupinaky’ia, Poti’wara, Tupinambá, Tabajara and others, and have been resisting colonization and genocide for over 500 years.

in the picture above, you can see a picture of the Awe ritual at the Coroa Vermelha reservation, 2006 taken from the website https://img.socioambiental.org/v/publico/pataxo/foto+20_+AWE+SARAH+MIRANDA.JPG.html

After centuries of colonization, the Pataxó, like many of the other first contact nations previously mentioned, have suffered many losses to their culture, including land sovereignty, language fluency, the right to practice their religion, the right to name their babies with traditional names, and many others. 

But like the aforementioned nations, the Pataxó have been doing an amazing job going back their traditional lands, getting to teach their children their traditional language, the Patxohã (pah- tsho-han) language, strengthening their ties to their spirituality, culture and land.

this a video of the IX Pataxó games, featuring competitions of traditional sports and practices

The most difficult part about fighting for their land when you’re a first contact nation in Brazil though, is that, as you can see torwards the end of the video, our traditional land is the coast, the beaches and the forests that sorround them (Mata Atlântica). And the thing with the Brazilian coast, is that it is heavilly disputed by multimilionaire hotel companies and construction companies, gringos and rich Brazilians wanting to build summer houses and buy private beaches, basically EVERYONE has their eyes on this land. Because having a hotel in the brazilian tropical coast, or building summer houses by the beach to rent is pretty much guaranteed to bring in a LOT of money. It’s all about money.

this is a traditional build (kijeme) destroyed last year in results of a conflict with white land owners. many other builds were destroyed in the occasion. The criminals destroyed them in the middle of the night and no one even saw them. Picture posted on the village leadership Thyara Pataxó’s twitter account

So there are enormous and lengthy legal conflicts between the Pataxó people and the big business owners and private land owners (because of course the Brazilian government doesn’t give a shit) over the land. And of course, like all indigenous people, the land is SACRED and fundamental for the Pataxó’s lives. But sometimes the Pataxó are able to kick out invaders and rebuild villages* on their regained land. 

in this video, Pataxó youtuber Tukumã Pataxó shows us traditional body paint done by artist Janarô Nuhay 

SO HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED A FEW DAYS AGO

An aviation club owner (we still dont know his name) claimed that the entirety of the Pataxó village Novos Guerreiros, which is a part of the Red Crown reservation to be his, somehow arguing that he owned the land before the Pataxó reoccupied the area. This process is called Land Repossession.

The village were notified out of the blue that there had been an judicial ruling against them and that they will be FORCED TO LEGALLY AGREE LEAVE THEIR LAND IN FIVE DAYS. So of course everyone is absolutely angered and has started a big campain to fight against this judicial ruling.

Today (27/08/2020) was the deadline the federal police gave them to peacefully leave the land. But of course they resisted and said they weren’t going anywhere. After an entire day of arguments between the caciques (chiefs) and village leaderships and the police, the Pataxó were given a week to leave their land, under the threat to face police brutality. But obviously they still aren’t going anywhere.

Pictures of federal police on Pataxó land earlier today

OVER 2.500 FAMILIES LIVE IN THAT AREA. CHILDREN, ELDERS, PREGNANT WOMEN, PEOPLE WHO WERE BACK TO THRIVING ON THEIR TRADITIONAL LAND. THEY’RE ALL GOING TO BE HOMELESS AND HAVING TO BEG FOR FOOD BECAUSE THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO HUNT FOR FOOD OR HAVE ACCESS TO THE FOOD THEY CULTIVATE. LAND LOSS IS AN IMMENSE LOSS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE.

“Pataxó people againt land repossesion! Land Sovereignty NOW“ picture taken today, posted on Thyara Pataxó’s twitter account

AND WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP??

There are a few things that the caciques and village leaderships have asked us (who are not Pataxó) to do:

First, spread the news so that everyone knows what’s going on, cause the traditional Brazilian media doesn’t care to notify this

Second, SIGN THIS PETITION: https://t.co/0fqeoifqIs?amp=1

Third, send this e-mail to the judge who ruled the order against the Pataxó land sovereignty (all info is in the google document): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sygR9_utO214UneqYCxHcjyCBTbW4fXuf5SWk2YmXI0/edit

Fourth, and this is optional, you can donate to their gofundme (originally created to help fight covid-19 related issues). Keep in mind that dollars and euro are worth A LOT in Brazil, so donating 2 dollars is SOMETHING lol: https://gogetfunding.com/pataxoyouth/ . 

You can keep up with the news through the twitter account https://twitter.com/PataxoYouth/

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP AND TIME! PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THIS!

*village is a rough translation of the portuguese “aldeia”, which is pretty much our equivalent to what you call in North America a “tribe”. But the direct translation of tribe (tribo) is considered offensive to us. Anyway, just clarifying.

[burningbee]

I figure out I had ADHD last year, but I didn’t seek an official diagnosis and medication until this year. I’m 30 years old, my school days are long behind me. I slipped through the cracks because I have predominately inattentive type and I was a quiet little girl. Having ADHD does not mean you have to be hyperactive and loud, it means you have a processing problem in your brain that doesn’t allow you to regulate your focus or emotions. 

Mental health even now is still taboo to talk about. People are more open now than ever about it however and that gives me hope. 

This is a profoundly personal comic and it only reflects my own experience with ADHD. It is on a spectrum with a wide range of personalities. But if my story connects with someone else and helps them, that would mean the world to me.

[unsexybeast]

I had this moment with my mood stabilizers. When I first started taking them I noticed that I could.....ACTUALLY CALM DOWN when something upset me. And NOT DISASSOCIATE all the time. I didn’t realize that these things “weren’t normal” until they weren’t for me anymore. That was in my 6th (and final) year of college. I was so sad for my past self and all the assignments/classes I failed or STRUGGLED through due to the stress.