QUEERING THE GAME OF LIFE

"Whiteness in the gay community is everywhere, from what we see, what we experience, and more importantly, what we desire. The power of whiteness, of course, derives from appearing to be nothing in particular (Lipsitz, 1998). That is, whiteness is powerful precisely because it is everywhere but nowhere in particular. When we see whiteness, we process it as if it doesn’t exist or that its existence is simply natural. We don’t see it precisely because we see it constantly. It blends into the background and then becomes erased from scrutiny. And this whiteness is imposed from both outside and inside of the gay community."

“They Don’t Want To Cruise Your Type:
Gay Men of Color and the Racial
Politics of Exclusion”  by Chong-suk Han (via uncensoredsupplement)

(Source: criticalqueer)

oppressionisyucky:

wonkistan:

Reader Chris passes along an article about differences in American Sign Language usage between white and African-American signers. Researchers investigating what they call Black ASL found significant variations in signs, signing space, and facial cues. They explain:

Black ASL is not just a slang form of signing. Instead, think of the two signing systems as comparable to American and British English: similar but with differences that follow regular patterns and a lot of variation in individual usage.

They hypothesize that these differences began in segregated learning environments, and continue to evolve in Black social spaces. The whole article is worth a read.

Thanks, Chris, and remember — you can submit Wonk-worthy links through our ask or via email!

i’m pretty uncomfortable with the use of mainstream here, since it is othering.

(via manicpixiedreambakla)

fatcandance:

Megan Carter - Contemporary & Hip Hop Choreography

(via quelola)

"

For some people of color, being poly is a serious cultural risk. We risk being alienated and disowned by our indigenous community, and while there are many polys who incur this risk, people of color have historically relied upon their community for survival. It’s well-documented that every non-white race in America has been forcibly indoctrinated into the prevailing white culture. People of color were forced to leave their own culture and religion behind and so—in order to survive—they assimilated and rallied around the communities they rebuilt.

[…]

Being a polyamorous person of color effectively means leaving this all behind for a community that is currently blind to intra-racial tensions, or struggling to hold on to both. As a product of that generation, but having been raised in suburban neighborhoods, my life has always been a constant struggle to live between two cultures and two communities. Although both my parents are black, I’m enveloped by the dominant white culture. Societal norms, thoughts, opinions and actions are directed and/or influenced by whiteness, while my knowledge and love of history, culture and sociology tugs at my cultural roots and the burning desire to define my own blackness. Coupled with this is the external and internal fight to relate to those of my own race and ethnicity, including those who begrudgingly or unknowingly indoctrinate themselves with the current American capitalist stereotype of blackness. One the one hand, I have black people questioning and criticizing my ignorance of the nuances of the American capitalist stereotype of blackness and subsequent deep immersion into white culture, while on the other I have white friends and loved ones oblivious to these struggles. I can’t count how many times poly people—and non-poly people—have joked with me about being a “pimp” or having a harem, without a single thought of the struggles I may be facing against those negative stereotypes.

Community is more than just an acceptance of individuals; it’s about respecting individuality in its entirety. Yes, we are all humans and we all have our struggles, but erasing history is erasing personhood, and that destroys individuality. The polyamorous community spends a lot of time talking about partying, having lots of sex, and how we are unfairly treated by the mainstream monogamous culture. However, when the spotlight falls on us, it is too easy for us to return to our comfortable societal norms of mainstream culture, and tokenize different marginalized groups so we can claim we are “diverse”. So, in writing this article, I’ve taken up the “token black guy” mantle again…only this time, I brought a mirror.

Poly And Race: Poly and Black, by B. L. Bunche

See also:

• The BDSM Scene’s Whiteness is Classism at Work Supporting Racism and Sexism

(via maymay)

(via hairypitsandtits)

"I will keep resisting, we all will in our own way. We will fight even though we shouldn’t have to, we will teach even though it is not our responsibility and we will be murdered even though there is more than enough to go around.
We are radical just for existing in everything that we are and all that we are not. And again I say, we are life."

Kim Crosby - We Are Life (Queer, Gifted & Black)

(via glitterlion)

"

Imitation, it is often said, is the highest form of flattery. But when the imitation is done with neither permission nor acknowledgment, and for a great deal of profit for the white community, and when it is accompanied by assertions that the culture from which it is taken is inferior, then imitation becomes the lowest form of racist theft.

In white America, many aspects of our culture, such as religion, fashion, style, music, dance, and language (especially slang), have either been directly appropriated or modified from cultural forms or ideas that began in communities of color. […] But the decision to appropriate has always been made by the dominant white culture, and credit for the source is seldom given.

Whether it is an invention for which no credit is given to the inventor, or a musical or dance style for which the income goes into the pockets of the dominant culture, there is usually neither attribution nor payment, and even less accountability to the community of color from whence it came.

Joseph Barndt, Understanding and Dismantling Racism: The Twenty-first Century Challenge to White America

If you have this book (and if you’re White and consider yourself anti-racist, you should), one thing you will notice is how Barndt (whom I’m gonna meet again for the Undoing Racism workshop for religious communities) repeatedly gives credit for how he came up with his ideas and also lists resources for people who want to find out more.

Also, I’m taking bets for how many White people are suddenly gonna show up and start saying, “Oh, yes! I agree! Cultural appropriation is terrible!” now that I’ve quoted a White man, despite how POCs have repeatedly explained the exact same thing.

(via eshusplayground)

(via irresistible-revolution)

jaleesabartley:

You must see this! The Black Venus Project 

Authentic, Timeless and Overdue photography by Maxim Vakhovskiy

http://maximushka.tumblr.com/

(via sassy-chubbies)

Seeking LGBTQ people of color for online survey ($75 raffles)

fuckyeahqueerpeopleofcolor:

Do you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer? Are you a person of color/ ethnic minority?

You may be eligible to take in a 15-20 minute online survey and participate in a raffle for one of 5 $75 prizes (5 chances of winning)!

We are a research team at Western Washington University, composed of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people of color and allies. We are working on a project to see what types of coping strategies LGBTQ people of color use when faced with different types of discrimination (racism, homophobia).

For more information, please see our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/IntersectionalCopingStudy) or visit the survey directly (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/intersectionalcoping).

FAT, BROWN AND DOWN IS UP AND RUNNING

fatbrownanddown:

hey y’all 

so after an overwhelming response to the post on my personal blog navigatethestream calling all the fat brown people of the tumblrverse, i have create the blog “fat,brown and down”

this is an anti-oppression space where fat people of color can TALK about the intersectionality of race, gender, ability, class, religion, and sexual orientation with fat identity. a place where we can share submissions of topics someone wants to bring up, articles, quotes, essays, books, videos, methods of healing our bodies, loving ourselves and each other, providing support for each other.  

this is not a fashion blog. this is not a place where you can get style tips or outfits of the day. this is a place, however, to talk about how the clothing industry discriminates against fat bodies, especially fat POC bodies that don’t always conform to eurocentric dimensions. {just an example of the kind of things we can talk about within this space}

this is a for POC by POC space. which means white people are welcome to read and actively listen but please read the page “how to be white in this space” to make sure you know what the deal is. this blog is not about you, and subsequently doesn’t center around your feelings, concerns, ect. 

eventually i will be putting up a page of anti-oppression resources so people can read them and keep them in mind when discussing this within this space. 

so with that being said 

SIGNAL BOOST!!

(Source: )

grrlyman:

Queer Kids in America by M. Sharkey

theuntitledmag:

Join The Untitled Mag (opening July 9th) in creating The Queer POC Youth Project!

• What if there was a considerable effort to focus on queer people of color in a non-tokenizing, appropriative light in media, especially queer POC youth? 
• What if qpoc youths had people that they could look to and converse with on the struggles and successes in their lives? 
• What could the conversation look like if we actually listened to their stories and watch them grow as brilliant, brave, creative, outspoken adults? 
• And what if you could be one of the people we focus on?

The Untitled Mag wants you! We want to celebrate, appreciate and give priority to your identity and personality by showcasing it in a regular series online and in print. We want to hear about your lives, how you deal with deal with the intersections of being young, queer and a person of color, create links with other older queer poc, and we want to show you to the world so others, like you, will know that they aren’t alone! 

If you’d like to get involved with the Queer POC Youth Project, please reblog this post (so others can find out more) and send us an e-mail on: who you are, what you’re up to, your experience with the intersection of being queer and a poc, and why you’d like to participate in the project. E-mail us at untitledteenmag@gmail.com and we will run this call out until July 31st!

The Management
Chelsea • Pam • Shivana • Chris • Cara • Kaki • Cassie • Helen
30.05.2012

The Untitled Mag strives to empower a community of diverse youth by providing a space to celebrate their existence within a world that otherwise denies universal pride in their rich, personal identities. We acknowledge, celebrate, cherish and give priority to those marginalized by their sexual identity, race, gender identity, class status, ability status (physical and mental), body size, and health.

(via manicpixiedreambakla)

A couple of us met with Sharon Needles today to talk about her use of racist images and epithets

grrlyman:

and, gurl, it did not go well. She said that she has stopped saying the n word(and bragged that her friend has a timer on his phone to count how long it’s been since she last said it[gag]), although she said it a handful of times during the meeting. She said, at least three times, “I apologize if I hurt your feelings,” but refused to apologize publicly or issue a statement.

During the conversation I was so nice that I wanted to fucking slap myself. I told her that a white person dressing up like a nazi and shouting racist slurs in a room full of white people isn’t shocking or transgressive(y’all, that’s just what nazis do). I told her that I believe she can actually be transgressive and challenge oppression from her position. For a second I believed that she wasn’t a monster, just a foolish person with tons of unchecked racism and privilege. She informed us that we’d have to agree to disagree about whether or not her actions are problematic, and that she wouldn’t apologize publicly because she’s “a clown.”

We’re done begging for scraps of community. We’re calling for a national protest of Sharon Needles and the clubs who host her. We’ve created a tumblr for the purposes of organizing these protests.

Hey, white tumblr queers! Remember that time you reblogged our announcement about the protest in Atlanta and said, “Aw, shucks! Too far!” Well, she’s likely coming to your town so you need to get your shit together and join us.

Follow Hell No, Sharon Needles for updates!

Also, here’s an article about today’s conversation.

Racism at Lincoln Hall and One Queer Roof

quelola:

fuckyeahfatdykes:

I want to be clear about the story we are telling.  We were not allowed into Lincoln Hall because we used the word “racist” to the bouncer and that made two white men uncomfortable, intimidated, angry, spiteful and refused to accept the term deemed for a racist.  In order for me to break down the details and speak truth to what happened on Saturday I must break it down to its core.

Me, my girlfriend and her best friend (all young queer Latin@s, two undocumented) all went to Lincoln Hall for One Queer Roof.  We attend FKA, Chances, and Queerer Park regularly, and have never had an experience that made us feel unsafe at Big Chicks, The Hideout, or Beauty Bar.

At the door of Lincoln Hall was a white straight man, who asked us for ID.  My gf and our friend gave him their valid government IDs from the Mexican Consulate.  When he saw the IDs of my gf and her friend he leaned forward into my friends wallet and ask for any other types of identification, when my friend said he only had his matricula and school id the bouncer than continued to question the two of them… heavily.  He asks for birth dates, spelling of names, and continued to have a harder tone after every one of their answers.  Finally after my gf shined their ids in the light so that he can see the official seal of a consulate ID he reluctantly gave the cards back and nodded us off.  As we walked away from him to each other we said “Thats so fucking racist.”

At that point the bouncer became enraged, called us back, made the man stamping give us our money back, he called his manager to come down.  He kept us cornered in the hallway and we were not allowed to enter the venue or leave. When the manager came, who was another white man the two of them literally had us against the wall.  I need to repeat this part, because it is crucial.  The three of us were cornered by these two white men, and they began interrogating us all over again.  Two women trying to get into the event asked for permission to stay and observe what was going on, and we were grateful to have witnesses.  The bouncer told his manager that we used the word racist.  The manager asked me if that was, if we called him racist.  I said yes, he’s profiling of ID’s and belief of what IDs to trust and distrust were RACIST. 

The manager then continue to say the following statement that I can quote him to because it left me in disbelief.  He said, “You just forfeited your entry into our establishment by saying that, that is a loaded word.  You just forfeited your entry into the whole event tonight.  You need to watch out what you say and not just throw those words around.”

Through our rage we yelled our question at him, to make sure we heard him correct.  We said, “Wait we can’t come in because we called you racist?!”

The manager said, “Yes.”

At this point I screamed, “Why because we called you out on your shit!?”

And we walked out, stormed out, yelled at all the other queers in line who wanted to know what happened, and as we tried to tell them, we were met with apathetic gazes and insincere apologies.  “Man, that sucks.”  And thats when it dawned on us that the line was all white queers waiting to get in who really just want to dance and drink anyway and definitely not wanting to be reminded that their privilege is at the expense of someone elses.

And as we tried to rally support, solidarity and love from our supposed “community” online, we mainly just heard disbelief in our experience, attention to unimportant details, and anger at even speaking up about it.  And mainly from white queer ppl.  It was strange how some comments even came off as being uncomfortable, intimidated, angry and spiteful and refused to accept the term deemed for a racist.  Sound familiar?

What we appreciate is FKA’s official statement of solidarity, “We at FKA are sorry about the events that took place outside of One Queer Roof this past Saturday. FKA stands in solidarity with ALL of our queer friends and allies, and will no longer be involved in future events at Lincoln Hall.”

We also appreciate the private messages of apology and inquiry from event organizers. What we would appreciate more are more official statements of acknowledgement and public shame of Lincoln Hall’s racist employees.  Also if FKA, Chances, and Queerer Park can organized their home locations to also give official statements of acknowledgement of queer POC experiences, a public shaming of Lincoln Hall and declaring themselves as safe spaces for queer POC’s. (We found a safe space at Big Chicks later that night). 

We acknowledge that this is hard work to do, however the education of white queer folks are not queer POC responsibilities.  This is when white allies step in and do the grunt work of holding themselves and their folks accountable.  If white queer ppl can’t work at making events accessible and safe for POC and undocuqueers then they DO NOT NEED TO BE ORGANIZING FOR THE COMMUNITY. 

I believe without a doubt this is not the first nor the last time Lincoln Hall will enable racist practices that uphold white supremacy, nor do i believe they are the only ones in Lincoln Park doing so.  They just happened to fuck with the wrong Fat Boricua/Mexicana dykes.  The same way they wanted to make an example out of us, we need to make an example out of them. 

If queers in Chicago wanna talk more about this in a safe dialogue you can find us at Dyke March on the 23rd.  

- Fuck Yeah Fat Dykes

Bolded emphasis my own. Incidents like this get very little attention in the moment that they happen, in media afterwards, on tumblr now. White queers, this is a call out. Be about your shit.

"As Black women, we do not have the privilege or the space to call ourselves “slut” without validating the already historically entrenched ideology and recurring messages about what and who the Black woman is. We don’t have the privilege to play on destructive representations burned in our collective minds, on our bodies and souls for generations. Although we understand the valid impetus behind the use of the word “slut” as language to frame and brand an anti-rape movement, we are gravely concerned. For us the trivialization of rape and the absence of justice are viciously intertwined with narratives of sexual surveillance, legal access and availability to our personhood. It is tied to institutionalized ideology about our bodies as sexualized objects of property, as spectacles of sexuality and deviant sexual desire. It is tied to notions about our clothed or unclothed bodies as unable to be raped whether on the auction block, in the fields or on living room television screens. The perception and wholesale acceptance of speculations about what the Black woman wants, what she needs and what she deserves has truly, long crossed the boundaries of her mode of dress."

An Open Letter from Black Women to SlutWalk Organizers  (via blck-grrl)

(Source: sluteverbabe, via strugglingtobeheard)

"Black pride was born from oppression, persecution, genocide, slaughter, and persistent pain. It was not born out of narcissism, nor for the purpose of declaring superiority. Black Pride is a celebration of life, as though to say “We’re here. We’re alive. We’re resisting.” It is a way of honoring the past and challenging the future."

BookishBoi (via bookishboi)

(via fatbrownowl-deactivated20130302)