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May 28, 2012 • 1,650 notes • brandipettijohn

brandipettijohn:

For whatever reason the music in the 14th Street station (A/C/E) is always really beautiful. This morning she was playing. So I had to photograph her.

For whatever reason the music in the 14th Street station (A/C/E) is always really beautiful. This morning she was playing. So I had to photograph her.

(via so-treu)

May 28, 2012 • 83 notes • bigbeautifulblackgirls

bigbeautifulblackgirls:

Classic Raw Beauty

gorgeous

(via fuckbodyhate)

May 27, 2012 • 1,227 notes • knowhomo

lexywagner:

knowhomo:

I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did. ~Benjamin Harrison

LGBTQ* Memorial Day/Vintage Soldiers Appreciation Post

Memorial Day is a federal holiday celebrated on the last Monday in May. It originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the war. The South had a remembrance day (also in May) but the day was not celebrated jointly until the beginning of the 20th century. Formally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day has become a day to remember all those who have served and fallen during a time of war.

Happy Memorial Day everyone.

May 27, 2012 • 57 notes • chachens

(via imgoinghomebutmyownway)

May 27, 2012 • 1,260 notes • persephonemagazine.com

Listen,

It does not matter what you say. As a woman, as a woman of color, as a woman of size, as a woman with large breasts or no breasts and a lifetime of experience with bucketloads of passion. It does not fucking matter.*

Because unless there is a white guy backing you up, you are an angry bitch. Uppity, spirited, “that girl,” the femanazi, the super-libber, the PC chick, the conspiracy theorist…

I just wish my own experiences were enough. That the experiences of fellow women were enough. But we must always come with backers. We must always have a few men nodding along behind us in the crowd. And at the very least if we’re going to be so bold as to bring up racism or sexism in polite company then we better be willing to quote reputable studies that have been widely recognized by the psychological and sociological communities.

If we lack this armor we are just drama. Dramatic or… wait for it… psycho bitches who think everybody is out to rape them or thinks they must be, “Like, soooo attractive to be hit on so much and totally, probably, like, thinks like a victim.”

This is so dangerous because I believe it teaches us not to trust our own judgments. Sadly, in this world, that can be life or death. When that guy hits on you for the third time at the club we should just get over it. He wasn’t being that creepy. “Oh no, girl, don’t talk to the bouncer about him, that’s just drama. Just have a good time.” I complained anyway but nothing was done.

And hey, when he tries to attack you while leaving the club—which happened to me and a friend in June of this year—the police may ask you why you didn’t complain “more than once” to security. I shit you not.

Because it is never good enough. It’s always a teachable moment from man to woman. So listen up, child, because that’s exactly what you are. At least until a white man comes to back up your claims. But I don’t have to tell you that. You already know. The trick is for this argument not to be dismissed outright by some dude in a Quicksilver t-shirt because the fact is, he has final say on the veracity of our claims.

via PersephoneMagazine (via soydulcedeleche)

(via blck-grrl)

May 27, 2012 • 969 notes • carnivorousdreams

The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (via humanformat)

(via anedumacation)

May 27, 2012 • 1,422 notes • gorgeousmuslimah

Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.

James A. Baldwin (via gorgeousmuslimah)

(via blck-grrl)

May 27, 2012 • 57 notes • fotojournalismus

fotojournalismus:

Sheep walk along a road next to the separation wall between Israel and Palestine in Bethlehem, Palestine on March 19, 2007.

[Credit : Alexandra Boulat]

May 26, 2012 • 315 notes • dumbthingswhitepplsay

You wanna know how you can help others without coming off like a white savior?

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

Make sure they want your help by, you know, asking

Remember that they probably need your help because of systems of oppression that you still currently benefit from and you giving back is more like you paying your due, instead of you doing something novel and awesome

Remember that it’s possible to be a racist shitstain and do good actions. People do it all the time.

Research exactly how any money you give is being truly spent. Intentions alone don’t help anyone. Non-profits are required to give that information away, anyway.

Realize that if you are paid to help people…you’re being paid. There is an incentive. Just because you help people at the same time does not mean you did not accept an incentive for doing so, and people are not required to truly believe in your help, even if YOU do.

Don’t hold it over people’s heads

Don’t hold it over people’s heads

Don’t hold it over people’s heads

Don’t hold it over people’s heads

Don’t use it as ammunition against others

Don’t use it as ammunition against others

Don’t use it as ammunition against others

Don’t use it as ammunition against others

Helping is great. But what you really need to do is also assist in changing the system by realizing that the way you help can be just as important as the type of help you provide.

^^^^^ Thisssssssss. Thank you for the great reminders.

May 26, 2012 • 16 notes • latinegrasexologist

A Campaign Pitch Rekindles the Question: Just What Is Liberation Theology?

latinegrasexologist:

But as a category, liberation theology, which often draws heavily on Marxist analysis, is not ethnocentric. It has been taken up by oppressed groups including third world peoples, Latinos, Asians and other American ethnic minorities. Its most famous text, “A Theology of Liberation,” published in 1971 by the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, is associated primarily with Latin American Christianity.

Since his and Dr. Cone’s books, lesbian, gay and other queer theologians have developed a liberation theology of sexuality. Black women propound what they call womanist theology, and Latina women have taken up “mujerista” theology, for the Spanish word for “womanist.”

The founding mother of mujerista theology, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, a Cuban-American who taught at Drew University, died May 13. She is remembered for the radical step of doing theological field work, talking to Latina women for theological insights that scholars might not glean from books. In works like “En La Lucha” (“In the Struggle”), she used interviews with Latina women, and their descriptions of prayer and religious rituals and festivals, to elaborate the Latina relationship to Christianity, and to the Bible.

“Hispanic women’s experience and our struggle for survival, not the Bible, are the source of our theology and the starting point for how we should interpret, appropriate, and use the Bible,” Ms. Isasi-Diaz wrote in “Mujerista Theology,” published in 1996.