The Mind Is Limitless

PoC privilege checklist!

Reblogged from covenesque

covenesque:

queerhairyvag:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

peecharrific:

1. I can be discriminated against on a consistent and daily basis and be sure any concerns I voice will be met with derision and conscious, willful ignorance.

2. I can feel comfortable in the knowledge that the majority of the depictions of my culture will be either hyper-sexualized, violent, or both.

3. I will not be able to find “nude” skin-colored products in my shade unless I search very hard AND am willing to pay more for them.

4. I can be sure that, if I am ever assaulted; brutalized; raped; or attacked, the police will most likely believe I am the perpetrator instead of the victim - especially if my attacker is white.

5. If I am a woman of color, I can be sure that I will never go a day in my life without being reminded of how far away from the western ideal of The Innate Beauty of The White Woman - and that I will NEVER measure up.

6. B.) I can be sure my children will never measure up, either.

7. If I am a gentleman of color, I can be sure that I will have to answer questions about my penis size and sexual stamina and face social stigma regarding my sexual performance and preferences.

8. I can be sure that if I am interviewing for a job, no matter my qualifications, it is likely a white interviewee will be offered the position instead of me.

9. I understand, inherently, that I am to tread lightly around powerful white people. I know that “rocking the boat” could cost me my job, my family, my freedom, and even my life.

10. I am well aware many white people who hear my thoughts on racism and discrimination will believe I am overzealous, histrionic, too sensitive, and/or “bat shit crazy.”

11. I can be sure that, in my lifetime, this will not change.

Feel free to add your own! OMG so privileged! No wonder everybody wishes they were a person of color!

12. I have to spend a shitton of money buying clothes that actually fit my proportions because they aren’t made for my shape.

13. I have to spend a shitton of money buying makeup to fit my skin tone since the low cost makeups only come in various shades of vanilla and that one dark tone that matches no one.

14. If I say I am mixed-race, but I don’t look a certain way, I will be derisively told that I cannot possibly be mixed race.

15. When I am in serious pain and go to get medication, I will be given only the weakest, barely stronger than OTC medications or nothing at all because it will be assumed that I am trying to get drugs.

16. When I need mental health care and express an abusive history, I will be immediately assumed to be lying. 

17. I will be more susceptible to certain incorrect diagnoses based on heavy doctor bias.

18. If I have other marginalizations, I will consistently be pressured to choose between the two.

19. I can be harassed, in public, on the street, beg for help, and still not receive any.

20. I am under stress and upset to maintain or end friendships with people who do not respect me as a black person because ‘they do not see race’

21. It’s not exciting to tell white people my worries about me dating them or them adopting POC children because they will personally always insert *their* feelings and opinions about it, completely ignoring the fact that *they* themselves rarely date POCs nor do they know how difficult it is to rear a POC child in an all-white environment.

22. My life experiences are immediately dismissed once white people find a POC who supports their racist views. 

23. making a space to support and celebrate being a black person is usually under attack as ‘racist’ because white people aren’t included in something for once

24. In feminist spaces, there is little discussion on how race and skin tone affects a young POC girl’s sense of identity and confidence. Even less if the child has a disability as well.

25. I should be greatful there’s that one lipstick shade that actually suits my skintone

26. Finding jeans that is suited to a black body is difficult

27. It’s fun being the only black person in every event I go to. Really. Ugh.

28. It’s even more *awesome* being unable to react when white people spout extremely racist and insensitive things. Of course, if I do react, I am an awful person who keeps shouting at people or im overly sensitive

29. Its great to remind people Africa is not a country even though you’ve told them countless times the country in Africa you were born in

30. your culture as an immigrant poc is seen as interchangeable with another bc you “vaguely look alike” and/or “is that country in the same area?”

31. people will continually stop you on the streets demanding to know where you’re from. no no. where you’re REALLY from.

32. you will be ridiculed and seen as ‘stupid’ because you have an accent even though an accent has no bearing on comprehension.

33. you will be told that racist and offensive stereotypes of your culture are called HONORING YOUR CULTURE

34. if you are an immigrant POC, your intelligence and schooling will be called into question despite america having the worst education system in the first world.

35. white people will doubt you existence and belittle you because you don’t act like a stereotype (i.e. YOU’RE NOT A REALLLLLLL [POC] PERSON)

36. I will be treated like a representative of my race (or PoC in general) all the time. Anything I do or do not do will be held against not only me but PoC if it does not measure up to standards.

37. Along with that (above) I will also be forced to be willing to provide free education for everyone regardless of if I have the time/energy to do so. If I refuse to, I will be seen extremely negatively, completely ignoring that I have no obligation to educate people and that the issues I’m asked about have already been written extensively about and a quick google search would give answers pretty quickly.

38. If I succeed in anything I will be subject to a lot of criticism and extensive scrutiny because I “can’t possibly be that good”. I will be suspected of having cheated, or of being successful due to my race and little else.

39. Whatever I do will always receive less attention and credit than a white person.

40. If I protest, I will be told I am imagining it and that if I work harder I will see the results.

41. I can be sure there will only be stereotypes- and very little else- representation of PoC in media.

I don’t understand the usage of Sharia Law or Saudi Arabia or the Middle East as some sort of comparison

Reblogged from aslongasiknowhowtolund

aslongasiknowhowtolund:

First of all, none of you have probably been in the Middle East. Second of all, full Sharia Law is implemented in only a few countries, and most Muslim-dominated countries have a mixture of secular and sharia law. Third of all, Islam is more lenient about abortion than Judaism or Christianity. Fourth of all, there are Muslims that have lived in Saudi Arabia and have lived to tell the tale. I know, SHOCKING!! But seriously, stop using different cultures as some sort of primitive region to compare the enlightened West to.

A Brief History —

Reblogged from arielnietzsche

golden-zephyr:

Gypsy is the name given to Roma since they appeared in Europe in the thirteenth century, refugees from the widespread warfare that had overtaken their native India as part of the expansion of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Europeans took these newcomers from the East for Egyptians (Egyptian, Egipcian, ‘gypcian, ‘gipcian, gipsy, gypsy) , and feared them because they were not Christians, they had no homeland, and their experiences with slavery and brutal oppression on their path westward had caused them to shun non-Romanies. Laws were passed forcing the Gypsies to move onward, at times penalizing them for their presence with death orders. Survivors were often shipped to Europe’s colonies abroad, where Romanies were exposed to indenture or slavery. Education and employment were forbidden to the living. This unreasonable hatred culminated in the murder of more than one million Gypsies/Roma by the Nazis. The misconceptions and oppression have continued: Today the Roma are Europe’s poorest minority, and neo-Nazis are screaming in the streets of Eastern Europe, “Gypsies to the gas chamber!” In some countries, they are allowed to live only in undesirable areas such as refuse dumps, and they are forcibly deported when they try to find better homes. 

Gypsies are NOT

• a lifestyle

• a set of behaviors

• a mythical people

• happy wanderers

We ARE

• an ethnic group of Asian Indian origin

• present on all continents since our diaspora began in the eleventh century

• organizing

• claiming our right to be free of racial stereotypes

HELP US END THE USE OF RACIAL SLURS!

Everyone has the right to say what they want.

We have the right to be offended and outraged.

Our people who even today are facing pogroms,

neo-Nazi death squads, and more hatred

have the right to live and prosper in peace.

A Brief Timeline of Romani History

997-­‐1026: The people now known as the Roma/Romani/Romanies begin to leave northern India,
headed west through Persia. The last migration begins in 1192.

1347: Due to plagues and wars, Romanies begin to move west again, through Armenia and Asia Minor.

1385: The first recorded transaction of Romani slaves is recorded in Romania.

1416-­‐1504: The Roma are expelled from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and France.

1510: Switzerland imposes the death penalty.

1512-­‐1538: The Roma are expelled from Catalonia, Bavaria, Portugal, Sweden, England, Wales, and Denmark.

1538: Portugal deports Romanies to the Colonies.

1544: England deports Romanies to Norway.

1589: Denmark imposes the death penalty to all Roma.

1637: Sweden imposes the death penalty to all Roma.

1721: Emperor Karl VI orders the extermination of all Roma in the Austro-­‐Hungarian Empire.

1728: Last living Romanies hunted down in Holland.

1547-­‐1749: The Roma are expelled from Norway, Bohemia, Poland, Lithuania, Scotland, Denmark(again), Norway (again), Belarus, and Sweden (again).

1758: Empress Maria Theresa begins a program to assimilate all Roma by force.

1783: Most legislation against the Roma is repealed.

1812: Nomadic Romanies in Finland are confined to workhouses.

1822: Turnpike Act is introduced. All Roma camping along the roadside are fined.

1830: Germany begins a program of removing Romani children from their homes to be fostered with non-Roma families.

1848: Transylvania frees the Roma from 500 years of slavery, followed by Moldavia in 1855 and Wallachia in 1856.

1849: Denmark allows Romanies back into the country.

1868: Richard Liebich coins the phrase “lives unworthy of life.” This is later used by the Nazis to destroy the Roma alongside the Jews in the Holocaust.

1872 – 1899: Roma are expelled from Belgium, Denmark (again), and Germany.

1884: A Romni, Dr. Kavalasky, is appointed Professor of Mathematics at Stockholm University. She is the first female professor in Scandinavia.

1890: Germany organizes a conference on “The Gypsy Scum.” The “Central Office for Fighting the Gypsy Nuisance” gets its start there.

1906: France hands out identity cards to all Roma.

1920s: In the Weimar Republic, Roma were forbidden to use parks or public baths and required to register with police. In 1922, Germany begins a program to fingerprint and photograph all Romani. Professor Hans F. Gunther blames the Roma for introducing foreign blood into Europe.

1933-­‐34: Hitler comes to power in Germany. Romani musicians are barred from the State Cultural Chamber, forced sterilizations begin of all Romanies, Sinto boxer Johann Trollman is stripped of his title as lightweight champion, and “Beggars Week” means thousands of  Roma are arrested. Romani people who can’t prove German citizenship are expelled.

1935-­‐38: In Germany, all Romanies become subjected to the Nuremburg Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German honor. Roma in Germany lose the right to vote, the internment camp in Marzahn is opened, Hitler issues the General Decree for Fighting the Gypsy Menace, and the Racial Hygiene and Population Biological Unit of the Health Office opens. By 1938, all Roma in Germany are declared anti-­‐social, arrested, and sent into forced labor to build the concentration camps.

In Russia, Stalin bans the Romani language and culture.

1940: The first mass genocidal action of the Holocaust takes place in Buchenwald, where 250 Romani children are used as guinea pigs to test the Zyklon‐B gas crystals.

1941-­‐44: In Germany, in July, Himmler orders the Einsatzkommandos to “kill all Jews, Gypsies, and mental patients.” In 1944, the 1,400 Roma at Auschwitz still deemed fit for work are sent to Buchenwald.

The remaining 2,900 Roma attempt to defend themselves using rocks and sticks, but they are defeated and taken to the gas chambers.

1945: World War II ends, though it is still illegal to be Roma in much of post-­‐war Europe.

1962: The courts in the German Federal Republic declare that the Roma were persecuted in the Holocaust for racial reasons. Romani survivors do not share in the millions of dollars of reparations given to other survivors of the Holocaust.

1966: The Gypsy Council is set up in Great Britain.

1969: Bulgaria establishes segregated schools for Romani children. Countries across the former Soviet client states follow their lead.

1970: National Gypsy Education Council is established in England.

1971: First Romani Congress held in London, England, adopting “Gelem, Gelem” as the national anthem, as well as a national flag, based on the flag of India. Other considerations include a Romani alphabet, the protection of the language and culture, and human rights issues.

1972: Czech Republic begins to sterilize Romani women. The government claims the process ended in 2007, but reports of sterilization are still being investigated and the government has refused to pay reparations to the affected women.

1977: A UN sub-committee makes a resolution on the protection of Roma.

1979: The Romani Union is recognized by the UN’s Economic and Social Council.

1981: Yugoslavia grants the Roma national status.

1987: The United States Holocaust Memorial Council appoints its first Romani member, seven years after the Council was created.

1989: Germany deports foreign Romanies.

1990: Fourth World Romani Congress adopts an alphabet for the Romani language.

1991: The Roma gain equal rights in Macedonia.

1960-­‐1999: The Roma face persecution and death from attack by both civilians and governments across Europe. In 1997, Neo-­‐Nazi street gangs beat and kill Roma with impunity in Serbia. Periodic altercations continue, especially in Eastern Europe, where Romani children are relegated to back rows and special education, often beaten and ostracized by students and some teachers.

1998-­‐99 In the Kosovo Conflict, Romani communities are targeted by all sides.

2008-­‐9: Parts of a Romani settlement near Naples are burned by a mob. Italian authorities destroy another settlement, moving Roma to temporary quarters that lack water and electricity. The Prime Minister gives local authorities powers to carry out evictions and to fingerprint people, including children.

A widespread outcry ensues, but the European Commission does not ask Prime Minister Berlusconi to end the fingerprint provisions. Romanies from other EU countries are deported without individual appeal.

2009-­‐11 Neo-­‐Nazis intimidate and harass Romani communities in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Repeated violence, discrimination in employment and housing, and continued harassment from authorities continues across Eastern Europe, forcing many Roma to flee to Western Europe.

2010-­‐11 French police shoot and kill a young Rom at a checkpoint in the Loire Valley, resulting in riots. In response, French President Sarkozy orders the dismantling of some 300 Romani settlements, declaring the illegal camps sources of crime, and deporting Roma, most to Eastern Europe. Caught up in the police roundups are some Roma who are French citizens. Deportations do not allow for asylum or appeals. EU Commissioner Vivian Reding declares the expulsions violate EU provisions on freedom of movement, but eventually Sarkozy’s deportations are allowed to continue.

2011 In Kosovo, thousands of Romani refugees whose homes were destroyed in the War remain in refugee camps without appropriate hygiene facilities, located near or on top of rubbish heaps, which leach harmful substances into the water and soil, while other refugee groups have been given housing. One remaining camp populated by Roma in Mitrovica sits atop a heavy metal mine, leading to lead poisoning in the population.

This is a compact list, created to help readers understand the history of the Romani in Europe and the United States.

For further reading, we suggest:

The Gypsies by Angus Fraser, Blackwell Publishing, 1992.

We are the Romani People by Ian Hancock, The Interface Collection, University of Hertfordshire Press, 2002.

Shared Sorrows: A Gypsy Family Remembers the Holocaust by Toby Sonnema, University of Hertfordshire Press, 2002.

The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution, by Ian Hancock. Karoma, 1987.

The Roads of the Roma: a PEN anthology of Gypsy Writers, edited by Ian Hancock, Siobhan Dowd and Rajko Djuric, University of Hertfordshire Press, 1998.

I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF THESE PATHETIC DUDES POSTING PICTURES OF THEMSELVES HOLDING PAPER NOTES AND LECTURING US WOMEN ON OUR LIFE CHOICES AND SENSE OF SELF!!

Reblogged from stfuconfederates

stfuconfederates:

dreams-from-my-father:

Your opinion/approval was never needed!!

Your opinion/approval is never needed!!

Your opinion/approval will never be needed!!

So what about you take your patriarchal heads out of your dumb fucking asses and shut the fuck up!! What we do with our bodies, sexuality, appearance and lives is none of your fucking business, SO BACK THE FUCK OFF AND STOP THAT SHIT!! 

It’s so fucked because guys will see women discussing legitimate problems with men or society expecting them to wear make-up, etc and, instead of backing out and understanding that the issue is men attempting to police what women do, they use that as another excuse to police what women do.

WE ARE MISSING THE POINT GUYS.

Edit: a correction. That first image of the black man is meant to be satire.