An Investment in Knowledge

"“Don’t you know that slavery was outlawed?” “No,” the guard said, “you’re wrong. Slavery was..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:29:22 -0400

“

“Don’t you know that slavery was outlawed?”
“No,” the guard said, “you’re wrong. Slavery was outlawed with the exception of prisons. Slavery is legal in prisons.”
I looked it up and sure enough, she was right. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution says:

“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.”

Well, that explained a lot of things. That explained why jails and prisons all over the country are filled to the brim with Black and Third World people, why so many Black people can’t find a job on the streets and are forced to survive the best way they know how. Once you’re in prison, there are plenty of jobs, and, if you don’t want to work, they beat you up and throw you in a hole. If every state had to pay workers to do the jobs prisoners are forced to do, the salaries would amount to billions… Prisons are a profitable business. They are a way of legally perpetuating slavery. In every state more and more prisons are being built and even more are on the drawing board. Who are they for? They certainly aren’t planning to put white people in them. Prisons are part of this government’s genocidal war against Black and Third World people.

”

- Assata (via michellehuxtable)

I tell my students this every single semester.

(via notesofanativesister)

FBI’s most wanted for terrorism, everyone.

(via so-treu)

Love Light in Flight: Why Do Men Keep Putting Me in the Girlfriend-Zone?

Sat, 18 May 2013 08:51:19 -0400

Love Light in Flight: Why Do Men Keep Putting Me in the Girlfriend-Zone?:

breelandwalker:

fuckingrapeculture:

literaryreference:

You know how it is, right, ladies? You know a guy for a while. You hang out with him. You do fun things with him—play video games, watch movies, go hiking, go to concerts. You invite him to your parties. You listen to his…

what do you think?

Le boom.

Sat, 18 May 2013 03:32:47 -0400

Le boom.

divascreech: i refuse to respect other people’s views if they oppress me and so should you do not...

Sat, 18 May 2013 01:46:43 -0400

divascreech:

i refuse to respect other people’s views if they oppress me and so should you

do not let people tell you that you should respect oppressive or intolerant views and do not let them make you feel guilty when you don’t

fuck them

"Queerness, to me, is about far more than homosexual attraction. It’s about a willingness to see all..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:35:50 -0400

“Queerness, to me, is about far more than homosexual attraction. It’s about a willingness to see all other taboos broken down. Sure, many of us start on this path when we first feel “same sex” or “same gender” attraction (though what is sex? And what is gender? And does anyone really have the same sex or gender as anyone else?). But queerness doesn’t stop there.
This is a somewhat controversial stance, but to me queer means something completely different than “gay” or “lesbian” or “bisexual.” A queer person is usually someone who has come to a non-binary view of gender, who recognizes the validity of all trans identities, and who, given this understanding of infinite gender possibilities, finds it hard to define their sexuality any longer in a gender-based way. Queer people understand and support non-monogamy even if they do not engage in it themselves. They can grok being asexual or aromantic. (What does sex have to do with love, or love with sex, necessarily?) A queer can view promiscuous (protected) public bathhouse sex with strangers and complete abstinence as equally healthy.
Queers understand that people have different relationships to their bodies. We get what it means to be stone. We know what body dysphoria is about. We understand that not everyone likes to get touched the same way or to get touched at all. We realize that people with disabilities may have different sexual needs, and that people with survivor histories often have sexual triggers. We can negotiate safe and creative ways to be intimate with people with HIV/AIDs and other STIs.
Queers understand the range of power and sensation and the diversity of sexual dynamics. We are tops and bottoms, doms and subs, sadists and masochists and sadomasochists, versatiles and switches. We know what we like and don’t like in bed.
We embrace a wide range of relationship types. We can be partners, lovers, friends with benefits, platonic sweethearts, chosen family. We can have very different dynamics with different people, often all at once. We don’t expect one person to be able to fulfill all our diverse needs, fantasies and ideals indefinitely.
Because our views on relationships, sex, gender, love, bodies, and family are so unconventional, we are of necessity anti-assimilationist. Because under the kyriarchy we suffer, and watch the people we love suffering, we are political. Because we want to survive, we fight. We only want the freedom to be ourselves, love ourselves, love each other, and live together. Because we are routinely denied that, we are pissed.
Queer doesn’t mean “don’t label me,” it means “I am naming myself.” It means “ask me more questions if you’re curious” and in the same breath means “fuck off.””

- Crunk Feminist Collective (via wargasmmm)

"Unfortunately they don’t know what Zionism is. Zionism is a political philosophy which has brought..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:51:19 -0400

“

Unfortunately they don’t know what Zionism is. Zionism is a political philosophy which has brought about the so-called state of Israel. This political philosophy has nothing to do with religion. On the contrary, it seeks to confuse others and let them think that Zionism and Judaism is one in the same. I am a conscious African. I know properly my history. I know that Africa gave Judaism to the world. I know that the first Jews in the world were African. Not only do I know this, but I inform everyone who has doubts about it to read a book by Sigmund Freud entitled “Moses and Monotheism” as a beginning. Consequently, I know that Judaism and Zionism are not the same.

Zionism had its first organization expressions in 1897 in Switzerland, in Europe. Here was a man by the name of Theodor Herzl; he was the founder of Zionism. He said that he was going to find the state that God promised the Jews. Listen to this very carefully. This man Herzl was an atheist. He believed there was no God. He said God did not exist. How is a man that believes that God does not exist, is going to find a state that God promised to his chosen people. I tell you, this man is Satan in disguise.

Zionism is a Satanic movement. It is devil. It is Imperalism, it is racist; it has gone and taken the land of the Palestinian people, and through terrorism has driven them out, and through terrorism, it maintains its power. And the United States of America, with over 6,000,000 homeless, sends to Israel billions and billions and billions of dollars everywhere to bomb Palestinian people while homeless people are here and unemployed are here. Zionism is going to raise this war and make the people of America become clear to what it is, and become anti-Zionist, and stop the aid to Israel, and use the money to take care of the homeless in this country.

”

- Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) on Zionism.

Answer to question: You also mention Zionism and said that some our young people in the Persian Gulf may not understand the role that Zionism is playing in this conflict. Could you explain what you mean by that?

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU7XQJYcT5E

(via disciplesofmalcolm)

natcat5: norsegays: astrolope: People being angry about ~dem...

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:59:28 -0400

natcat5:

norsegays:

astrolope:

People being angry about ~dem gays~ on Target’s Facebook.

I just want to give my two cents on this and tell you a story.

A couple weeks ago, I was hired at Target. I have a job at Target. Not a big deal right?

It is a big deal because i’m a transman.

It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that it’s hard for me, my brothers, and sisters to get a job. There are legal restraints regarding the job and if you don’t pass, it’s hard to be taken seriously at a job interview.

Right on the application, it asks what your preferred name is. It also asks if there is anything that target should know. I put the fact that I am a transman, expecting not to get a call because usually when you put that down, people will throw out the application. I got TWO interviews.

At the interview, they asked me about it. I told them I am on hormones and they told me that they didn’t care. Not in the sense that they don’t emotionally care, but that it didn’t matter. I was male and that’s all that mattered. They also told me that they give sex same couples benefits in states that do not recognize them as a married couple.

At my job orientation, I was not misgendered once. Even my supervisors who weren’t sure of my gender avoided pronoun use, which I found only happens when you’ve had pronoun training. They gave me a name tag with my preferred name and didn’t ask questions. I felt safe and respected, which is huge for a trans* person.

TLDR: Target is amazing not just for the LGB, but also the T. Shop there for the rest of your life.

I’m not sure if Canadian Target has all the same policies, but if they do, I’ll make it a point to stop there more often.

thepeoplesrecord: On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police...

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:14:17 -0400

thepeoplesrecord:

On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police dropped explosives containing C-4 on the roof of a house where members of the black liberation & social justice organization MOVE lived. Right before, police attacked the house with 10,000 rounds of ammunition in 90 minutes, knowing that children were inside. The house burned for 45 minutes before hoses were turned on.

Eleven people, including founder John Africa, five adults & five children were killed. The incident also destroyed 65 homes in the area, leaving 250 homeless. Witnesses reported police officers shooting at those trying to escape from the fire that ensued.

MOVE continues to advocate for prisoners’ rights & for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal & nine MOVE members who were found guilty of the murder of a police officer in 1978.

"It occurred to me the other day to wonder at the discrepancy in wages that I pay to those..."

Sun, 12 May 2013 01:46:37 -0400

“

It occurred to me the other day to wonder at the discrepancy in wages that I pay to those high-school students who baby sit and those who do lawn cutting and gardening for me. Most of the “lawn and garden” people, who happen to be boys ask for a dollar an hour. Most of the baby sitters, who usually happen to be girls, ask seventy-five cents an hour.

Now I ask myself, is caring for my children less important, less valuable, less a responsibility? Or is lawn cutting and gardening considered harder and more taxing physical work? (Two active children under five can be pretty hard, taxing, physical work, too.) Or is it that boys just ask for and receive high wages from the beginning? And is it that child care is, anyway, considered to be “women’s work” and not deserving of pay? Click!

Marge Mitchell
Baltimore, Maryland
September 1974 issue

”

- These vintage letters to pioneering feminist magazine Ms. bespeak both how far we’ve come in some ways and how little has changed in others. (via explore-blog)

"A three-day-old human embryo is a collection of 150 cells called a blastocyst. There are, for the..."

Sat, 11 May 2013 14:09:30 -0400

““A three-day-old human embryo is a collection of 150 cells called a blastocyst. There are, for the sake of comparison, more than 100,000 cells in the brain of a fly. If our concern is about suffering in this universe, it is rather obvious that we should be more concerned about killing flies than about killing three-day-old human embryos… Many people will argue that the difference between a fly and a three-day-old human embryo is that a three-day-old human embryo is a potential human being. Every cell in your body, given the right manipulations, every cell with a nucleus is now a potential human being. Every time you scratch your nose, you’ve committed a holocaust of potential human beings… Let’s say we grant it that every three-day-old human embryo has a soul worthy of our moral concern. First of all, embryos at this stage can split into identical twins. Is this a case of one soul splitting into two souls? Embryos at this stage can fuse into a chimera. What has happened to the extra human soul in such a case? This is intellectually indefensible, but it’s morally indefensible given that these notions really are prolonging scarcely endurable misery of tens of millions of human beings, and because of the respect we accord religious faith, we can’t have this dialogue in the way that we should. I submit to you that if you think the interests of a three-day-old blastocyst trump the interests of a little girl with spinal cord injuries or a person with full-body burns, your moral intuitions have been obscured by religious metaphysics.””

- Sam Harris, on stem cell research. (via we-are-star-stuff)

May is National Masturbation Month

Fri, 10 May 2013 01:46:39 -0400

urbieknowsbeats:

ikenbot: “Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts.” — Richard Feynman What do...

Wed, 08 May 2013 07:04:56 -0400

ikenbot:

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts.”

— Richard Feynman

What do you think about this quotation?

"Although most boys figure out how to bring themselves to orgasm by age thirteen, half of girls don’t..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 05:18:51 -0400

“Although most boys figure out how to bring themselves to orgasm by age thirteen, half of girls don’t have their first orgasms until their late teens, twenties, or beyond. Teenage girls widely agree that they get the message loud and clear that masturbation is something boys do, but girls don’t, can’t, or shouldn’t. The cultural focus on intercourse tells young women to expect they’ll begin to experience sexual pleasure once they have sex with a man (whether or not they’re even interested in sex with men). Nearly all teen boys, on the other hand, experience sexual pleasure long before they get their hands—or other body parts—into a partner’s pants. Despite the massive advances in women’s equality, young women’s sexuality is stuck in a surprising paradox. Young women are sold provocative clothes but aren’t taught where to find their own clitoris. Many girls give their boyfriends oral sex, but are too uncomfortable with their own bodies to allow the guys to return the favor. It’s still a radical act to say that women need and deserve access to information about their own sexual pleasure—not just about the risks and negative consequences of sex.”

- Dorian Solot, I Love Female Orgasm: An Extraordinary Orgasm Guide. (via punkrockmermaid)

#where are all the raunchy teen comedies about girls discovering how to masturbate and ditching sex with boys altogether

This is our mission.

(via thelimetree)

About 54 percent of graduate students report feeling so depressed they have “a hard time functioning,” as opposed to ten percent of the general population.

Tue, 07 May 2013 01:46:30 -0400

About 54 percent of graduate students report feeling so depressed they have “a hard time functioning,” as opposed to ten percent of the general population.:

occultroses:

rhizombie:

thenoobyorker:

Something to consider for the future.

lol my life right now

yeps :(

"Rap music is so diverse in its themes, its style, its content but when it becomes a vehicle to be..."

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:51:17 -0400

“Rap music is so diverse in its themes, its style, its content but when it becomes a vehicle to be talked about in mainstream news, the rap that gets in national news is always the rap music that perpetuates misogyny that is most obscene in its lyrics and then this comes to stand for what rap is. Really its for me the perfect paradigm of colonialism, that is to say, we think of rap music as a little third-world country, that young white consumers are able to go to and take out of it whatever they want. We would have to acknowledge that what young white consumers, primarily male, oftentimes suburban, most got energized by in rap music was misogyny, obscenity, pugilistic eroticism and therefore that form of rap began to make the largest sums of money.”

- bell hooks

I blogged about this phenomenon earlier.

(via digital-femme)

sandandglass: Obama’s one-liners during his speech at the White...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:55:45 -0400

sandandglass:

Obama’s one-liners during his speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

"What is a “black box” warning and why was it applied to Depo Provera? The “black box” warning is the..."

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:51:13 -0400

“

What is a “black box” warning and why was it applied to Depo Provera?
The “black box” warning is the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) most stringent caution short of an outright ban. A “black box” warning is designed to inform healthcare providers and consumers about serious and imminent problems associated with use of a drug.

FDA applied the “black box” warning to Depo Provera because its use may lead to bone mineral density loss. Bone mineral density loss is an important concern, but not comparable to the types of side effects typically presented in a “black box” warning – adverse reactions that could cause imminent harm, injury, or death. FDA’s history of putting politics before science in its handling of reproductive health products raise questions about the reasons FDA chose to apply the “black box” warning to Depo Provera.

”

- Reproductive Health Technologies Project (via heroicallywelladjusted)

This US soldier ‘found alive’ in Vietnam 44 years after being left behind

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:05:08 -0400

This US soldier ‘found alive’ in Vietnam 44 years after being left behind

"The ‘difference’ between men and women is created in and by culture but is regarded as natural and..."

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:51:08 -0400

“The ‘difference’ between men and women is created in and by culture but is regarded as natural and biological. The huge difficulty that so many women and men have in seeing femininity and masculinity as socially constructed rather than natural, attests to the strenght and force of culture. The French feminist theorist Colette Guillaumin explains the difficulty with this cultural idea that women are ‘different’ (Guillaumin, 1996). If women are ‘different’ then there must be something they are different from. That something turns out to be ‘men’ who are not themselves ‘different’ from anything, they just are. It is only women who are understood to be different, ‘Men do not differ from anything… We are different - it is a fundamental characteristic… We succeed in the grammatical and logical feat of being different all by ourselves. Our nature is difference’ (Guillaumin, 1996, p. 95).”

- Sheila Jeffreys, Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West (via sociophilia)

Photo

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:18:53 -0400