#SYSTEMIC INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thehmn · 7 months

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I finally got to watch Viften (Empire) and it’s such a fascinating movie. It was written by Anna Neye who also plays Anna Heegaard, a rich free black woman who’s dating the Danish governor of the island.

It’s sold as an absurdist comedy and I think there’s no other way to describe it. There aren’t any real jokes but you often end up laughing at the absurdity of it all.

It’s extremely honest about the horrors Danes put the black population through but thankfully it only shows it in quick flashes of art as seen in the trailer. I once watched a video where they explained why most women aren’t into slasher movies and why black people generally don’t rewatch movies about racism and slavery. It’s because the the horrors shown are very real fears and a fact of life so the only people who can really enjoy watching a woman get horribly murdered as entertaining are men and only white people can watch a black person getting whipped to death with cinematic lighting and have a fun night out. By showing the horrors in art they get to be clear about exactly what is going on without coming off as exploitative.

But it’s also very honest about the ways a society based on slavery fucks with everyone. Most of the servants at the manor are slaves except the cook who bought her own freedom years ago. She tells the housekeeper Petrine that some day she too will be able to buy her freedom and get her own slave. That’s right, the freed black people aspire to get their own slaves because that’s the sort of values a society like this instills in people. And Anna tries to be as nice as possible to her own slaves but doesn’t take her own success for granted and is more afraid of an uprising than her white lover and ends up doing some really horrible things to her slaves to keep them down.

It also touches on how people viewed being black or white back then. That it wasn’t all about skin colour but also status. That’s why all the white people treat Anna as one of them. She’s a rich, educated lady so of course she’s “white”. Even Anna express contempt at being called black because she doesn’t work in the field. The poor freed black people also call Petrine white because she dress and acts like a Dane. Not as in “you are pretending to be white” but as in you are white.

And hats off to the director Frederikke Aspöck. There’s a scene where a woman buys her freedom and they put on a symbolic slave auction where she gets up on the podium and bids on herself. All the white neighbors have come to witness it because it’s seen as this joyous day and they all clap, she’s offered to drink with them and she’s all smiles. The director managed to make the scene wholesome while highlighting the absurdity of it and all you can do is chuckle because what the fuck? The white people think it’s a good thing that she’s free but continue to keep and mistreat their own slaves, and she no doubt dreams of getting her own down the road. It’s very much depicted as institutionalized racism and not just “a few bad eggs”.

And I didn’t know where to put this but there’s a lot of interesting symbolism going on with Anna’s dresses. She always wears dresses that match the colors of the rooms she’s in, establishing her as fully part of the system, but as she begins to realize that the Danish state will never see her as fully equal her colors start to clash with her surroundings.

I watched it on Netflix and it has English subtitles so it should be somewhere for English speakers to watch if you feel so inclined.

#viften #empire #movie #history #Youtube

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fuck-hamas-go-israel · 7 months

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Ethnic cleansing? Genocide? Apartheid?

Throwing around these buzzwords to describe the Israel-Hamas war because you’ve seen them on social media doesn’t make you right, and it doesn’t make you an activist.

It makes you ignorant, intellectually dishonest, and lazy for parroting biased talking points with no concept about what these terms actually mean.

What is apartheid?

Well, it was first used to describe the political system in South Africa and today’s Namibia whereby racism was institutionalised. This manner of governance meant that clear racial segregation would occur, in a manner that benefited the white race and would actively oppress those who had darker skin.

This meant that there were white-only spaces, white people would get prioritised when it came to education and jobs, and relationships/marriages between white peoples and coloured people were illegal.

Is Israel objectively an apartheid state? There are no laws that actively favour one group over the other. There is a sizeable population of Israeli Arabs that can thrive in the same way as the Israeli Jews can. There are laws against discrimination on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Palestinians from Gaza are allowed to work in Israel through a work permit system. There are about 150,000 Palestinians working in Israel, most of which live in Israel and some come from Gaza/the West Bank. They aren’t denied rights institutionally.

Is it harder to get a job or education in Israel if you’re a Palestinian from Gaza? Sure, because of different governments. It’s like how it’s a lot easier for you to find a job in your own country (in terms of paperwork and bureaucracy) than overseas. But you’re not denied the right to apply.

Of course, if you have a history of violence, a criminal record, or your family has ties to terrorists, then it’ll be a lot harder to get an approved work permit. But that’s not apartheid. That’s common sense, and a regulation practiced by all countries that minimally desire to protect their own population from danger.

Ethnic cleansing and genocide

These two concepts can go hand-in-hand. Ethnic cleansing refers to the mass expulsion or killing of a group of people based on their ethnicity. Similarly, genocide is the purposeful killing of a group of people solely with the intention of annihilating them.

Famous examples? The Holocaust, of course, where the Nazi regime believed in the superiority of the Aryan race and decided to declare genocide on the Jews, Romanis, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, people with “Asian features”, and many many other groups. Anyone who they didn’t think was “pure”.

Their aim was to ensure that the Aryan race propagated without having “impure” blood affecting the bloodlines. They even started a eugenics programme called Lebensborn to ensure that more pure Aryan babies were born.

More recent examples? The Rwandan genocide where the Hutus attempted to wipe out the Tutsis on the basis of ethnicity. They mandated that Tutsis mention their ethnicity on state-issued ID cards in order for the Hutus in power to be able to identify them and then kill them.

Or the Yazidi genocide which happened so recently, in which ISIL killed, raped, and sent thousands of Yazidis into conversion camps on the basis of their ethnicity. They also took Yazidi women as sex slaves and raped and tortured them.

Or the Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State in Myanmar, and how there was a mass killing and expulsion of them from the country, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh to take refuge, crating the world’s largest refugee camp.

Or how ISIS killed thousands of people from Christian groups in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Libya because of their faith, leading the US, EU, and UK to label this as religious genocide and condemned their actions.

Has Israel been practicing ethnic cleansing and genocide on Palestinians all these years?

Well, the birth rate of the Palestinian population in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israel has been steadily increasing all these years.

So, no. No ethnic cleansing, no genocide. They are free to have as many children as they desire.

The UN Genocide Convention

The United Nations has 5 actions that constitute genocide.

1. Killing members of a target group

Israel is targeting Hamas officials with the aim of wiping out the terrorist group and ensuring that such a deadly attack on Israeli soil doesn’t happen again. I suppose you could call it genocide against Hamas, but they’re killing Hamas because they’re terrorists, not because they’re Palestinian. Shouldn’t everyone believe in genocide against terrorists?

But look at Black Saturday. Look at Hamas’ rhetoric. They repeatedly call for the annihilation of Israel and genocide of Jews. When will the media start believing what they say, word for word, instead of trying to spin it into “hmm maybe they want to kill all the Jews because they’re freedom fighters!”

War has collateral damage. Of course the innocent civilians don’t deserve to suffer just because of the actions of their government, but there have been warnings given to the Palestinian civilians prior to Israel striking the areas. There are consequences of attacking a country first, and then having that country attack you back.

2. Causing people of the group serious bodily or mental harm

The UN refers to sexual violence as the prime example of non-fatal harm.

Sexual violence has occurred. Hamas have kidnapped and raped women and even paraded the bodies of half-naked women around. But I f Israel had done the same, it’ll be the first thing appearing on everyone’s BBC push notifications (without even being confirmed as true).

3. Imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group

Many people refer to the blockade that Israel imposed around the Gaza Strip as an example of this.

This blockade was imposed by both Israel and Egypt in 2005. Its aim was to prevent smuggling of weapons into Gaza, and isolate the reign of Hamas to the region. This was to ensure the safety of Israel and Egypt.

Did this blockade pose serious challenges to the Gazan civilians? Of course. But that’s a consequence of having a terrorist government. If you have a terrorist group running your country, don’t be surprised if neighbouring countries are extra careful about who or what they allow in or out of the borders.

Many authorities from other Arab nations have also expressed approval of Egypt’s border restrictions, and even encouraged Egypt to flood the terror tunnels that Hamas has dug under the city. As a side note, other Arab nations have not historically been very kind or welcoming to Palestinians. Syria has killed over 4000 Palestinians, and many Arab countries are now refusing any refuge for Palestinians. But no one cares about that because it doesn’t make Israel look bad. All they do now is use the images of dead Palestinians under the hands of Syria and reuse them to propagate fake news.

The blockade has been labelled as a human rights violation because of collective punishment. Many humanitarian organisations believe that the blockade has caused the Palestinian civilians disproportionate harm.

Contrary to popular belief, Israel isn’t disallowing humanitarian aid from coming through the borders. Fuel, food, hygiene products, clothes, and shoes have been coming through the borders regularly for years. The Gaza Strip also has electricity and internet access and water.

Do all these items reach the Palestinian civilians? Well, there has been evidence that Hamas has been intercepting a lot of the supplies sent by humanitarian groups. This is not surprising since the UNRWA tweeted that Hamas has stole fuel from hospitals in Gaza in order to launch more rockets at Israel (but quickly deleted it after realising that it goes against their agenda to paint Hamas in a bad light.) In addition, the returned hostages have mentioned that there are many aid supplies hidden in the terror tunnels by Hamas. Instead of giving them to the civilians, they are hoarding it for themselves.

There has also been video evidence that some people are reselling these aid items in stores at exorbitant prices in order to turn profits. This has been well-documented for the last 10 years.

Is blockading the region to mitigate terrorism a disproportionate response? Well, it’s like asking if heightened security and stricter border control at airports is a disproportionate response after 9/11. Is being cautious and worrying about the security of your country an irrational reaction to the constant threat of terrorism?

4. Preventing births

Gaza’s population growth rate per annum is about 1.99%, which is the 39th highest in the world! Their population is allowed to propagate freely.

Israel isn’t preventing births of Palestinian babies.

5. Forcibly transferring children out of the group

No, Israel hasn’t been taking Palestinian children and forcing them to convert/keeping young Palestinian girls as sex slaves. Like I said, if this was truly happening, all the news outlets would be so quick to publish the story before verifying it.

Can we trust the UN Genocide standards?

The UN is known for corruption and have been exploiting the Palestinian people by selling them the humanitarian supplies instead of distributing them for free, which they should because these supplies literally are donations.

The UN also has differing standards of what they would label as genocide. For example, they refuse to call what China is doing to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide, even though the situation does fit many of their own criteria.

Hence, to all of you out there overusing these terms without knowing what they mean, make up your own mind about things. No one can force you to believe anything and no one can force you to change your mind.

But at the very least, do your due diligence and educate yourself before spouting tired buzzwords. Repeating misinformation doesn’t help anyone and can be very harmful.

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stackslip · 1 year

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when i volunteered with kids there were so many who struggled with reading comprehension and they would go from happy, confident people to completely locking down and curling up onto themselves when asked to read. when i volunteered with another org that was specifically geared towards autistic kids, a lot of these children had basically been kicked out of school and of different social environments bc the very fact of being autistic and having any kind of learning disability was basically met with "well you won't do anything with that. guess it's time to institutionalize the kid bc they're gonna be useless". and the org had developed a specific method to teach these kids how to read/write but it did nothing to counter the actual issue at hand: the very idea that someone can't learn to read/write makes them inherently undesirable and destructive and they must be kept from wider society. not to mention that in my country conservative politicians rage every day at how lower income kids (especially of immigrant origins) have lower literacy rates and how that means they're Not Integrating Into French Culture and it's a sign that they're inherently stupid, and savage, and unable to assimilate.

people will say reading comprehension and literacy are inherently virtuous and the lack of those means you ARE lacking and broken, and then add that these are easy skills that anybody can and should be able to acquire easily. and then they'll claim that saying anything to the contrary is actually the REAL ableism/racism/classism bc social barriers and learning disabilities aren't a thing or aren't that hard to surmount i guess. meanwhile they'll also moan about how people like YA too much instead of reading REAL literature, while never thinking about what they consider real literature and why, and who tends to write these books and how they got published. or the history of schooling in their country and how it ties to the destruction of minority languages or oral tradition. or the ableism baked into education systems. or etc etc etc

anyhow literacy and reading comprehension ARE value neutral, and idc how annoying you find YA, or feel superior to people who only read magazines or to random strangers who say they don't like shakespeare. stop bemoaning how kids these days have weird takes on your old english literature curriculum and this means it's the end of civilization and maybe think a little about how to remove the barriers people who can't or don't possess literacy skills for *any* reason have to face every day, and how destructive these barriers are, especially under capitalism.

#eli talks

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theotterpenguin · 1 month

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I really like the nuanced take about Zutara and why it makes some people uncomfortable and I can see both sides of it. I ship Zutara now but at first I didn’t and it made me really uncomfortable but I think it was just because of certain fan content I was coming across. Some people do portray Zutara in an extremely fetishized & creepy Stockholm syndrome way that makes Katara come off like some helpless damsel stereotype. It made me feel really gross thinking about as a young WOC but rewatching the show and seeing the true dynamic of these characters made me fall in love with them again. So I guess my feeling is that in canon i really love the dynamic but I hate the way *certain fans* twist it and refuse to acknowledge the racism & misogyny in what they’re doing

this is a complicated topic with many layers to it but first - i am sorry if you have ever felt unwelcome in the zutara fandom due to experiences with racism/misogyny.

it would be ignorant to claim that the zutara fandom is somehow uniquely unaffected by systemic racism or sexism, but it would also be disingenuous to claim that these issues only exist in certain parts of the atla fandom. racism, sexism, and general bigotry exist in every fandom due to institutionalized inequality in social structures. and to make it clear, i'm not directing this criticism towards you, anon, you are entitled to your own personal experiences, but i have seen a broader trend of people attempting to use fandom racism to moralize their position in ship wars, which is diminishing from the actual problem - the focus should be on acknowledging the existence of fandom racism/sexism, combatting implicit biases, and creating spaces that can uplift marginalized voices, rather than focusing only on optics in an attempt to gain moral high ground in a silly *fictional* ship war.

however, given all this, the reason that i am still in the zutara fandom is because i appreciate how many people in the fandom are dedicated to unpacking issues of racism and sexism and cultural insensitivity in atla's source material, which i personally haven't seen in many other sides of the fandom (that often sanitize what actually happened in the text to avoid acknowledging these issues in their favorite show). of course this is a broad generalization, but that's generally why i stick with the non-canon shipping side of the fandom because fans that are willing to stray away from canon are often less afraid to engage in critical analysis.

i also do think the zutara fandom has come a long way from the early 2000s when the show first aired. for example, when i first joined the fandom i had mixed feelings on fire lady katara, but i have since read some fanfics that have done an excellent job deconstructing some of the problematic ways that this trope could be interpreted and balancing respect for katara's cultural heritage and autonomy with the political and personal difficulties of being involved with an imperialist/colonialist nation. the fire lady katara trope, capture!fic, and other complicated topics/tropes are almost never inherently racist/sexist, but rather, their execution is what matters. and all this is not to say that issues of systemic racism/sexism do not still exist in this fandom, but it personally has not significantly negatively impacted my experience in the zutara fandom due to the wonderful content that so many other fantastic people produce, though everyone's mileage may differ with what they are comfortable with. anon, i hope that you are able to find a place in the zutara fandom for you! but i also know many people that have stepped back from other fandoms due to experiences with racism/misogyny, so i understand that decision as well.

on a final note, i think it's important to acknowledge that fandom doesn't exist in a vacuum and broader issues of racism and sexism are rooted in the media, the entertainment industry, and mainstream societal norms. while i do sometimes focus on fandom dynamics/discourse in my criticisms, i think it is equally as important to acknowledge how issues of prejudice and inequality are perpetuated through larger social structures, which is why it frustrates me when the atla fandom refuses to acknowledge the flaws of the original show, which has far more influence and social power over the general public than discourse over fandom tropes ever will. personally, i don't understand the phenomenon of holding fan-made material to a higher standard than mainstream media.

#zutara #atla #atla fandom critical #atla critical #zuko #katara #racism #sexism #and i hope it's clear that i am not condoning racism/sexism in fan material - but i do think it's hypocritical to ignore the foundations #of this that is built into the source material #anon ask #my asks #my post

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bitchesgetriches · 2 months

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Check out today's NEW POST! I read 3 whole books for this one and the research took me weeks. It was a lot of work and I require your validation! So read it at the link above. Here's an excerpt:

Credit Scoring Is a Racist, Classist System that Has Us All Trapped

You can’t build a solid house on a cracked foundation. The house of credit scoring was built upon a foundation of institutionalized racism. Its cornerstones are slavery and Jim Crow. And a white person owns it because the mortgage lender denied a Black person’s application.

If you found this helpful, consider joining our Patreon.

#classism #credit #credit history #credit report #credit reporting bureaus #credit score #discrimination #racism #finance #economics #credit card debt

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kaylinalexanderbooks · 3 months

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Hair for the brown ask game?

Thanks for the ask!! (From this world building ask game).

Answering for Alium, the alternate dimension in The Secret Portal.

HAIR - What kinds of discrimination are there? Are they the same as reality?

Oh. OH THIS IS A DOOZY

Ok alright.

The world in terms of culture is all pretty happy to co-exist. There are 10 Sectors but no one really cares where you're from. It's not uncommon for people to be of various cultural descent and you can go anywhere in the world and it won't have a completely monogamous population. So for the most part, racism/xenophobia/any kind of discrimination of culture or origin isn't really a thing.

Same goes for homophobia/transphobia/sexism. Not really a thing. I've kind of in the process of fixing surnames so women don't have to change their names in a M/F relationship and the children can have the names of either parent or both. I did make it a little patriarchal, but I'm working on it.

This isn't to say no one in Alium holds these prejudices. It's just not widespread or institutionalized.

Now ableism - that's the big one. In terms of disabilities that actually exist, there's a lot of technology available for accomodation. Stairs aren't a thing, so people who couldn't use stairs to begin with will be fine. There are gloves/sleeves/etc to help translate gesture-based languages to speech - though they are completely optional to the individual and not enforced. Any real-disability accommodations actually are taught to be entirely up to the individual, who can reject them and not be shamed or mocked for doing so. There's no push - they're just there.

But then come the powers. This is where the root of the discrimination is in TSP.

There are ones specific to a power - such as stereotypes. Telepaths, for example, are stereotyped to be mentally unstable, and most psychological hospitals are populated with telepaths. Telepaths often have to wear dampeners in certain locations. Teleporters can also be warded off. As soon as they're identified, chronokinetics (time manipulants) have their time traveling power suppressed, limited to only smaller changes.

The Class system for power rarity is also sometimes misinterpreted as a hierarchy by those who want to be seen as better for having a more rare power. In general, there are individuals who believe Their Power, or only specific powers, are superior. People with flying and intangibility and other less practical powers can be seen as inferior. Same goes for differing Levels of power - some people don't have the potential for higher abilities.

There are also traditional jobs they are expected to take. Those with superstrength should go into physical work and terrakinetics into construction.

But the most prominent is the Inutilia - the name given to those who never develop powers. If you know your Latin roots, you'd know this means useless. This is a relatively recent mutation where an Alii never develops powers - and in this society this is seen as a disability. This is where the ableism comes in. Society doesn't see a point to them.

The Big Conflict is the prejudice of the Inutilia. After decades of violence toward them, one group had enough and decided to basically attempt to overthrow the oppressive governments of the world and replace it with a new one. Another group was like "hey, how about we try to solve the prejudice without violence!?" And now the two sides are pissed at each other to say the absolute least.

Second group is the focus. As the series goes on, I deconstruct the bias in its leadership and actual more productive ways to counter the prejudice and promote equity. A lot of power corrupts themes. Hehe good luck to me lol.

So that's the basic overview of it? That was a lot. Working on this is super hard but super interesting. Figuring out all the social implications, bias, etc is a LOT. A lot of research too.

Hope that was a sufficient answer lol.

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @fairy-tales-of-yesterday

#the secret portal #tsp #teaspoon #world building #behind the scenes #prejudice #writing ask game #alium #writing blog #writers on tumblr #writing community #writers of tumblr #writing on tumblr #writeblr #writeblr community #ask answered

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militantinremission · 21 days

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Vivek Ramaswami: The Perils of 'Race Neutrality'

Vivek Ramaswami's interview w/ Ann Coulter killed many birds w/ One Stone. Her blatant Racism & his acceptance of it spoke Volumes. Vivek has been pushing an Anti- Black Narrative for several years; I have personally said that he WILL become a victim of the Institutionalized Racism that he marginalized & dismissed. Ann Coulter is NO DUMMY! She tested his 'Race Neutral' stance from the start of the Interview. When she told him Point Blank that she agrees w/ him on many issues, but won't vote for him because he's 'Indian', Vivek didn't blink. He later commented that he 'respected her Courage to speak honestly'(???). THIS is what separates Black Americans from 'Brownfolk', & why ANY Black & Brown Coalition is just a pipe dream.

I have said a few times that Black Immigrants & Brownfolk don't have the same experience as Black Americans. We have an American Experience of Institutionalized Systemic Racism that has endured for Centuries. From the American Constitution, to Local Law, legislation has been put in place w/ the intent of marginalizing Black America as a Collective. For example: Property Taxes are lower & Insurance Rates are higher in Black Communities, compared to similar situations (same Property Lot size, same Vehicle) in Non Black Communities. This is by legislative design. 'People Of Color' don't share that experience. Like Irish, Italian, & Eastern European Immigrants, these Folks experienced a Period of 'Social Hazing' by the Mainstream, but are eventually included into American Society. They know Discrimination & Prejudicial Bias, but few experience the level of Systemic Racism that Black America faces daily.

Vivek Ramaswami's Case is worth noting. He's a 2nd generation American- a child of Brahmin Parents; both w/ Post Graduate Degrees (like Nimrata 'Nikki' Haley & Kamala Harris). He was born & raised in Ohio, attended Private School, & was able to amass Hundreds of Millions of Dollars at QVT Financial (managing their Biotech Division). By all accounts, Vivek is living The American Dream. His brief Public School Experience in Cincinnati has obviously affected his view of Black Americans. He has gone out of his way to slander the Black American Experience; marginalizing Our History & Our Struggle, but his Family arrived in the 1980s. He positioned himself in Conservative Politics & rose to prominence spewing Anti- Black rhetoric. Conservative News Media Outlets gave him a wave to ride, but he Wiped Out in the Iowa Primary.

Despite visiting all 99 Counties, Ramaswami received a meager Return on his Investment. Iowans liked his talking points, but weren't comfortable w/ his Religion (Hinduism) or his 'Brown Skin'. The conversations that his Wife had w/ Iowan Voters were cringe worthy! Many looked her in the eye & stated their mistrust of his 'dark complexion' & questionable Christian Values; this despite Vivek touting his Jesuit Education non-stop on the Campaign Trail. Black Americans (other than Sen. Tim Scott) would've been insulted, but Vivek & his Wife apparently took it on the chin. He dropped out of the Race after Iowa, & predictably kissed the ring of Donald Trump. Throughout his Presidential Bid, Vivek Ramaswami sounded like he was auditioning for the Office of Vice President more than President.

Donald Trump recently had an Event at Mar A Lago that Media is calling a 'Vice Presidential Sweepstakes'. Ramaswami was among those being considered. It appears that his interview w/ Ann Coulter was an effort to beef up his Social Capital among MAGA Republicans, but Coulter deflated his Trial Balloon before he could reach a proper threshold. I personally find it comical. Vivek got so wrapped up in his perceived White Privilege, that he didn't realize what he REALLY had was Anti- Black Privilege. He thought that his wealth put him in the Ballpark, but didn't realize that most Americans don't know much about Hedge Funds or Biotech. Vivek literally flew beneath the radar, but his glaringly Non- White features overshadowed his rhetoric.

Like most 'People Of Color', Vivek Ramaswami failed to understand that AmeriKKKa sees him & his demographic as nothing more than a 'Buffer Group'. Their arrogance & smugness towards Us, blinds them to the fact that they are tools of Benign Neglect Policies; set up solely for the purpose of marginalizing Black American efforts to exercise a Right of Expression... Middle Class & Poor Whitefolk are becoming aware of just how much money this demographic earns; i'm anticipating a pushback at some point. AmeriKKKa IS NOT a Democracy, it's a White Supremacist Capitalist Republic. In This Land, The Wealthy Rule & Wealthy Whitefolk (i e. WASPS) are at the top of the Totem Pole... To date, the average Asian American Family earns more than the average White American Family. Black America knows FULL WELL what happens when Whitefolk begin to think that a Non- White Population may B outperforming them. For their own sake, Latinx & Black Immigrants should pay close attention.

When We factor in the Sabre Rattling between The U.S. & China over Commerce & Taiwan, plus rising tension between The U.S. & Hindustan/ Bharat over alleged Election Tampering, there may B some blow back on Asian Americans; especially during a Time of Economical Uncertainty- think Japanese Americans during WW2... Chattel Slavery has provided Black Americans w/ a unique perspective that Immigrants don't have. Whitefolk regarded Us as Sub Human (3/5ths of Humanity), so they weren't discrete about their actions around Us. This gives Us an intimate understanding of HOW AmeriKKKa moves. We warned these 'People of Color' about the folly of Race Neutrality, as We warned Poor Whitefolk about the folly of choosing White Privilege over Progressive Politics 135Yrs ago (i.e. The Populist Movement). NO ONE took heed to Our Prophecy- that American Capitalism WILL come for them, once We're neutralized. As always, it's Profit over People.

-The pendulum swings both ways.

#Karma #RulesOfEngagement #NotMyPeopleNotMyProblem #ADOS #FBA #The13Percent #B1

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specialmouse · 5 months

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I absolutely agree on white LGBT people not appropriating black activism for their own causes. I think another cause for that line of reasoning is that, simply put, white LGBT people essentially choose to be oppressed. White gay men have the option to remain closeted and retain that privilege, white trans women also have that option. They only become oppressed when they make that choice to come out, and to transition. So it's unreasonable to compare it to the oppression black people face, as that oppression is based off of a factor that the black person has absolutely no agency in- i.e. their ethnicity.

YES 100%! it's a very hard thing to stomach for us i think, because many of us (especially those that were raised religious) are told that it's a choice. it's not a choice to be gay, but it's a choice to be gay in public. it's not easy to remain closeted and it does end up driving a lot of people to suicide, it's not to say "oh you have it easy, just don't be __!" as bigots do. i'm not saying that at all. i'm a closeted trans man and it hurts a lot to be perceived as a woman. i also have the choice whether or not i want to say that i'm asian; it doesn't feel good to do that, but i can do it. what's being said here is that black people generally don't have that option at all unless they can pass as white; they are visibly black in every area of life, in public and private. we also have to factor in generational trauma. lgbt people do not have genetic and pervasive cultural generational trauma from being lgbt. black people (i'm going to stick to saying black people because its their collective struggle and history that white americans try to align ourselves with) do, almost as a rule. when you are a black person, and you're having a child, you know before that child is born that it's going to face an immense amount of bigotry, that the mother of that child is going to face an immense amount of bigotry just trying to deliver it and has an increased risk of dying from negligence steeped in medical racism, all because of the color of her skin. you didn't face transphobia as a baby. you were not, more than likely, a gay toddler. your bio parents were, statistically, not lgbt or queer. you are, more than likely, not related to those that were affected by the aids crisis, or someone who was beaten for being trans (not saying you can't be, i know people who are. i'm just saying more than likely, and one doesn't necessitate the other). that doesn't mean those events aren't traumatic to you, knowing that people like you were brutalized and abandoned like that. but look at it this way: every black person in america whose family has been here for more 60 years is related to someone who went through legal segregation, police brutality, medical racism, interpersonal racism, hiring+housing discrimination, environmental racism, etc. etc. forever... and that person is related to someone who went through jim crow, who is related to someone who lived in constant fear of being lynched and seeing it happen constantly, of someone who couldn't vote, couldn't own land... slavery wasn't even 200 years ago. it wasn't even two. hundred. years. ago. i don't think white people understand how fucking recent that is. like you might think i'm going off on a tangent rn about how pervasive antiblackness is in this country but i'm trying to hammer home that, if you are a white lgbt, it just does not COMPARE. yes, there are black people out there who are living more comfortable lives than you, and maybe you are very poor and have gone through a lot because you are gay/trans... but systemically, institutionally, historically, your suffering is not only more of a recent phenomena, but also far more contingent on your socioeconomic status than your sexuality. this is not to sayyyy that you aren't suffering, that trans and gay people aren't suffering because they're trans and gay, but if you try for a second to say that it's anywhere close to the collective suffering of black people... you're fooling yourself

#i want to add something to this but i need to be very careful about the way i word it and i'm tired

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socialjusticeinamerica · 1 year

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Trump supporters are Nazis. They wave swastikas, praise Hitler, spout Nazi rhetoric, and attack Jews and other “minorities.”

You can not take the high road with people who are killing you and passing legislation to outlaw your existence. Don’t criticize resisters who want to smash Nazis. They are protecting you from being annihilated. These aren’t ordinary times and things will not get better by ignoring Nazis and being polite to them. Republikkkan MAGAt Nazi thugs see politeness as weakness. Being polite and not being united gave us Trump. With Trump came an openly fascist, and openly bigoted Republikkkan party that is radicalizing their base with calls for civil/race war.

State legislatures are openly outlawing us, our way of life, and our very existence. Their armed militias are violently harassing us in the streets with impunity. Republikkkan leaning cops execute us. We are gassed and beaten when we protest. This isn’t an intellectual debate. We are quite far down the road to fascism.

The Republikkkans are acting with a desperate urgency. They believe this is their last best chance to seize control of the government and “eradicate” us. The term eradicate is one they are now using in their speeches, in the social media posts, in their literature, in their propaganda, and at their rallies. Trump now tells those at his current rallies that he will be their “retribution” against us.

If you still think taking the high road will work you are removed from what is taking place in the streets, uninformed, or extremely naive. While you sit in your comfortable and secure home typing on your keyboards our allies are living in fear and suffering abuse from MAGAt foot soldiers as well as dealing with hostile legislation aimed at them.

If you want to live in a country that is straight, mainly white, and evangelical there’s a strong possibility that could become reality soon. Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc, atheists/agnostic, non-whites, poor, elderly, handicapped, immigrant or children of immigrants (even white ones), educated, Democrats, liberal, progressive, urban, lgbt, and many more you are on the chopping block.

If the Republikkkans win there will be deportations, bans, executions, imprisonment, loss of citizenship and rights, mass unemployment of undesirables, and millions driven into the streets and deprived of human dignity. There will be mass purges with no recourse for the victimized.

Business will run amok with no regulations or accountability of any kind. Unions will not exist and workers will have no rights. Necessities will become unattainable. Armed white supremacists will roam the streets doling out Krystallnacht terror. The United States will deny science and healthcare. The US will slip to third world status with the rich living in luxury inside gated compounds with armed security while the poor whites struggle in trailers and everyone else outlawed.

It’s not doom and gloom scare tactics. This is all beginning to happen in Red states. Women are losing control over their bodies. The LGBT are being denied basic rights while being outlawed as people. Black and brown people are being denied basic rights due to systemic institutionalized racism while being executed in the streets. The elderly are being left to die as their social safety nets are removed. Workers, even white Republicans, are being denied labor unions that protect them and give them basic human dignity. Non-evangelicals are persecuted for their beliefs. Red state citizens are armed by their state legislatures and sent out on killing sprees. Child labor laws have been rescinded. Child marriage is being legalized. Health and safety regulations are being rolled back. The list goes on and on.

When will we stop being desensitized and take this rise of fascism seriously. How many have to die and suffer before we organize, say enough, and push back.

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mogai-sunflowers · 1 year

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MOGAI BHM- Belated Day 15!

happy BHM! yesterday, i gave a more general overview of the Black Power movement- and today, i’m going to be talking more about key groups and individuals from that movement and that general time period, especially Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party!

Malcolm X-

[Image ID: A black-and-white photograph of Malcolm X, a thin, Black man. He has short, almost buzzed hair, and in the photo, he is smiling very widely, wearing black glasses and a black necktie with a white collared undershirt and a boxy grey suit jacket, and he has a mic extending from his face. End ID.]

The sentiments and progression of the Black Power movement were hugely influenced and inspired by Malcolm X. Although he was murdered before he got the chance to see the Black Power movement begin to grow and flourish, he is an integral part of its history.

Born in 1925, Malcolm X grew accustomed to horrid racist violence from early on. His father, Earl Little, was an active member of the Universal N*gro Improvement Association (UNIA), which meant that the KKK frequently targeted his family, causing them to have to move twice to flee violence- but it got worse everytime they moved. His father was later murdered, though his death was never investigated and just reported by the all white police as a streetcar-related accident.

Tragically, Malcolm’s mother was so impacted by all of this that her mental health suffered and she was institutionalized, forcing Malcolm and his siblings to be separated by the foster system. Malcolm had a somewhat troubled early life, and he ended up incarcerated for nearly a decade- and during that time, he converted to the Nation of Islam, a small group of Black Muslims who were dedicated to spreading Islam within the Black community.

It is with the Nation of Islam that Malcolm X rose to great fame. He changed his name to Malcolm X after prison, and became an active part of the Nation of Islam, which aligned itself with the Black nationalism from the likes of Marcus Garvey, who had inspired Malcolm since he was young. He worked with the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, and he, along with becoming the minister of several Temples, founded several of his own Temples.

In 1960, Malcolm established the magazine ‘Muhammad Speaks’ to further spread Islam. Through the likes of this magazine, Malcolm X established the sentiments for which he is famous. He is known for saying that “there is no such thing as a nonviolent revolution” and that Black people should “cast off the shackles of racism by any means necessary”. During the Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X’s fame built the foundations for the Black Power movement.

Malcolm X believed that nonviolence was not the answer and in fact was part of the problem. His was part of a more radical mindset that acknowledged that Black people shouldn’t have to respond to the violence they experience with nonviolence in order to be respected. He believed that nonviolence just enforced respectability politics- if Black people experience senseless violence and persecution, why should they have to be the ones to show restraint? Malcolm’s beliefs were radical for the time, and were a huge part in growing the membership of the Nation of Islam to huge numbers. Malcolm’s call for the liberation, not the assimilation, of Black people, echoed throughout the Black Power movement.

Malcolm’s beliefs and influence made him have many, many devout followers- and many, many devout critics, including Martin Luther King Jr. himself. The two didn’t see eye to eye at all, and fought about the best methods of Black liberation. Malcolm’s fame took him all over the country, giving speeches and sermons at HBCUs and other venues.

In 1964, Malcolm X split with the Nation of Islam after experiencing a fallout with Elijah Muhammad. He embarked on a journey across North Africa and returned with a different belief system, believing more in nonviolence than before. This was brief though, as he was violently assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam on February 21, 1965. Malcolm’s fame and influence during his lifetime ushered in the Black Power movement that followed his tragic death. His influence helped largely to shift from usage of ‘n*gro’ and ‘colored’, to ‘Black’ and ‘Afro-American’ to refer to Black Americans.

Kwame Ture-

[Image ID: A black-and-white photograph of Kwame Ture, a thin Black man, standing at a podium with several microphones. He is wearing a black suit jacket over a white collared undershirt with a fancy, patterned black necktie, and is pumping both fists in the air in a celebratory gesture and looking upwards. End ID.]

Formerly named Stokely Carmichael, Kwame Ture was the man who today is pretty unanimously credited with being the “father” of the Black power movement. A graduate of Howard University, a famous HBCU, Kwame, who in 1968 named himself after two of his close friends and political allies, Sekou Toure and Kwame Nkrumah, was a firm believer in Black nationalism, and especially Pan-Africanism- a movement to create a singular Black American identity of pride, to acknowledge pride of being of African descent.

Kwame was heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s. During this time, he participated in the pivotal Freedom Rides, and he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and participated in their sit in movement. This marked the beginning of his time with the SNCC, of which he was eventually elected chairman in 1965, which symbolized an official SNCC shift in ideology from nonviolence to more radical Black nationalism.

While with the SNCC, Kwame Ture campaigned as part of their voting rights campaign, which resulted in the creation of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, which pushed for voter registration and Black candidates in Lowndes County, Alabama, a county with 80% Black citizenship but 0% Black voter registration. Though initially unsuccessful, this organization was very influential and led to the growth of similar organizations throughout the country- and it also was the precursor to the Black Panther party. The black panther symbol has long been a symbol of Black power, and it was first adopted as a symbol by the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, and was later, with permission, adopted by the Black Panther Party itself.

In March of 1966, after years of growing tension between the SNCC and the SCLC, between the principles of nonviolence and the principles of Black nationalism, Kwame Ture led a march known as the March Against Fear where he officially cried and claimed “Black power”. After this point in time, he began professing Black power publicly and defining and shaping the phrase. In 1968, Kwame was named the honorary prime minister of the Black Panther Party.

After his work with the SNCC, Kwame Ture spent the rest of his life campaigning for racial justice abroad, notably travelling and campaigning to form the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party.

The Black Panther Party-

[Image ID: A black-and-white photograph of Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, two Black men. They are both wearing button-up leather jackets over white collared shirts, black pants, and black berets, and are standing with their rifles in front of a banner that says “BLACK PANTHER PARTY...”. The rest of what it says is not discernible in the image. End ID.]

Perhaps the most famous group to come out of the Black Power movement was the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, or the BPP. It was founded on the premise that, if the state wasn’t going to protect and serve its Black citizens, then Black people would have to do it themselves- the concept of self defense and self determination in the most literal sense.

Outraged by the assassination of Malcolm X, two men, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, met in Oakland in 1966 to form what became the Black Panther Party. Its original purpose was to provide armed self defense to Black neighborhoods against potential acts of white supremacist violence and police brutality. One of its principal ideas was the belief in the arming of all Black Americans so they could be prepared to defend themselves against attacks- so armed self defense became common tactics employed by the many chapters of the BPP that popped up in large cities across America.

The Black Panther Party also operated free breakfast programs for Black children who couldn’t afford expensive school meals, and they offered protection to Black children attending integrated schools. They provided free clothing, food, and transportation to Black people living in poverty, and they called for the freeing of all Black people from all jails, and helped to popularize demands for reparations to be made to Black individuals and communities. Under leadership of local chapters, the BPP opened and ran health clinics for Black Americans.

One radical founding belief of the Black Panther Party was the idea that all oppression, globally, stems from the economic exploitation that exists under capitalism, and that therefore, the abolition of capitalism was the solution to all oppressions. This belief was evident in all of their survival programs and their focus on organizing impoverished Black people to advocate for themselves. Most of their organizing and activism centered around poor Black communities- providing them healthcare, food, clothing, and transportation. They also contributed to the ongoing cause of Freedom Schools and voting registration for Black Americans.

One very notable thing about the Black Panther Party is its Ten-Point Program, which it issued as an outline for the goals of Black liberation, both in general and specifically their goals. This program was, and is, revolutionary because it shows how the foundations of class solidarity lay within the foundations of Black liberation. The ten-point program outlined that education and shelter should be available to all, that reparations should be made, that Black men should be exempt from the draft, that Black people should be given fair trials and treatment within the justice system, that police brutality must be ended, and that Black people deserve equal employment opportunities and the chance to learn about their own history in their schools.

The BPP was the subject of much harassment and suppression by the US government. Huey Newton himself was shot and imprisoned, and the FBI jailed many members and considered them the “number one enemy to national security”. They felt so threatened by Black Power and the BPP that they suppressed them viciously. This resulted in campaigns like the ‘Free Huey’ Campaign.

To this day, the Black Panther Party remains a paradigm for Black pride, Black power, Black nationalism, and Black self determination.

Black Women in the Black Power Movement-

[Image ID: A black-and-white photograph of Angela Davis, a thin Black woman with an afro. In the photo, she is wearing a black long sleeved shirt with a pin on it, and she is standing in front of a microphone into which she is passionately speaking, her mouth open wide. End ID.]

Black women are often ignored and erased from history at large, and that is sadly also true for the history of the Black Power movement. During the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, many forms of mainstream feminism became very popular and gained fame and successes- but many of them excluded and worked against the interests of Black women. Growing Black Power, Black pride, and Black nationalist sentiments combined with rage against anti-Black white feminism, leading many, many Black women to get involved with and help sustain Black Power as a movement.

Despite issues of misogynoir within the Black Panther Party, large amounts of Black women joined their ranks. Many, like Ericka Huggins and Kathleen Cleaver, took on leadership roles, founded and led their own chapters of the BPP. During the Black Power movement, Black women formed both formal and informal networks of other Black women to connect with each other, across the country and across the world. They opened their own beauty shops, barbershops, businesses, and organizations.

During the Black Power movement, masses of Black women joined organizations like the BPP and the National Welfare Rights Organization, and they also created their own organizations. One such organization was the Black Women’s United Front, which was formed by more than 500 women, most of them Black, when they gathered in Detroit on January 25, 1975 to discuss the needs of Black women within a framework of global Black nationalism and liberation. They were dedicated to “abolition of every possibility of oppression & exploitation.” The BWUF developed out of the activism of Black women from the CAP, a national coalition of Black Power and civil rights organizations. Women from these organizations created their own writing columns in newspapers and magazines, handbooks, and guides for Black female liberation.

In 1968, the SNCC held a caucus called the Black Women’s Liberation Committee, where they discussed the misogyny that Black women faced from within the civil rights movement, including from Black men. This caucus developed into the Black Women’s Alliance, and then eventually the Third World Women’s Alliance, which worked to challenge the discrimination Black women faced from many Black men on the grounds of their womanhood.

A key Black woman figure from the Black Power movement is Angela Davis, a member of the BPP and the Communist Party, who was very radical and was jailed for alleged involvement in a murder of a white prison guard, which inspired the famous ‘Free Angela Davis (and all political prisoners)” campaign. She came out as a lesbian in 1977 and to this day is a professor and activist for intersectional justice.

Black women reframed Black Power as a movement of justice and liberation not just racially, but gender and sex wise as well.

Summary-

Malcolm X was a radical Black revolutionary. His work with the Nation of Islam popularized Black nationalist thought and led to the growth of the Black Power movement. He advocated for liberation “by any means necessary”.

Kwame Ture laid the foundations for Black Power as a movement when, as chairman of the SNCC, he chanted Black Power at a march and began organizing for Black Power

The Black Panther Party was a radical, Black revolutionary group aimed at abolishing capitalism. They provided survival programs for Black communities, armed defense in Black neighborhoods, and influenced Black pride and self-determination across the world

Women were a huge part of the Black Power movement. Through founding groups like the Third World Women’s Alliance and the Black Women’s United Front, and through leadership with the BPP and other groups, they revolutionized Black liberation and feminism by providing an intersectional lens.

tagging @metalheadsforblacklivesmatter @intersexfairy @cistematicchaos

Sources-

https://www.biography.com/activists/malcolm-x

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Malcolm-X

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/carmichael-stokely-kwame-ture-1941-1998/

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/lowndes-county-freedom-organization/

https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/individuals/stokely-carmichael

https://www.aaihs.org/the-women-at-the-heart-of-black-power/

https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power/women

https://www.aaihs.org/abolition-of-every-possibility-of-oppression-the-black-womens-united-front/

https://ncnw.org/ncnw/our-history

https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/931#:~:text=The%20Third%20World%20Women's%20Alliance%20(TWWA)%20operated%20from%201968%2D,within%20the%20movement%20against%20racism.

https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-212;jsessionid=29F8C7B1926662FCF6D0310A0EACD262

https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/black-panther-party-challenging-police-and-promoting-social-change

#mogai bhm #mogai #mogai community #bhm #black history month #blm #black lives matter

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impunkster-syndrome · 3 months

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thank you so much for talking about sparklecare's ableism. ive always had issues w the comic (the aus as well) for the terrible portrayal of physical disabilities and you made me feel really seen. - another physically disabled, chronically ill person

Sorry anon, taking this whole ask as a chance to explain why. I do appreciate it, though.

I see almost all media as somewhat political because it often comes from the politics of the author. It comes through in choices that might not even seem to matter to most- like Alice killing Dr. Bumby in Alice: Madness Returns. It was intended to be McGee's own moment of catharsis and to make sure he wouldn't come back in the story. He, as someone who has experienced abuse, got catharsis from killing a fictional abuser but he is also fully aware that most abusers never face consequences for their actions. The game is about trauma, abuse, and how abuse is perpetuated by many people who have power in different ways. That game altered me so severely with one line that it had sown the seeds for turning me punk: "Who benefits from your madness?"

I've been slowly trying to work through Lolita because I come through it from the angle that Dolores Haze's story is silenced by Humbert Humbert's. Vladimir Nobokov claims that it means nothing, but has also likened it to the idea of a caged animal creating art of the cage that surrounds it. He knows Humbert Humbert is a predator and has always stated that. He saw a problem with the world and wanted to talk about it.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld is social commentary all the way down and the man took pot shots at JKR for her bad queer representation with Dumbledore and the house elves heads on the wall. JKR's writing of Harry Potter is inseparable from her politics because there is no systemic change. She mocks the character who sees slavery as bad and wants to provide systemic change. The blood racism house is never changed or removed after it literally leading to wizard fascism more than once.

Fictional media is fundamentally how people parse the world around them and get to understand it, which is why critique and analysis are so important. This is not to say "Problematic media should never be interacted with and anyone who likes x is inherently bad" but instead "Know when your favorite media is being bigoted and how."

I'm no stranger to being so abused and unheard that your outlet is fiction as a cry for people to listen to you. I was going to make a twine game about my own child abuse and sleep deprivation hallucinations that I dealt with before I even was a teenager. I wrote about a dog wanting to kill itself. I wrote about being so devoted to someone you would let them kill you. I had things to say that were unheard because of how abuse victims and children are never listened to. In shorter terms- Fictional media is extremely powerful and there's a big ass reason why Atlas Shrugged is not only political theory but also fiction.

Sparklecare is important because it clearly is not merely vent media. It has things to say. Kittycorn can say it is vent media all kit wants, but it went from being called a social commentary to being called a vent piece and criticism of healthcare systems because of me pointing out the issues within it and treating the comic as it wants to be treated. Kittycorn has things to say and uses claims that it is only vent media to protect kits actual views from critique.

Being a creative exposes how you see the world in a very personal way, even if it is not directly a social commentary at all. What you create, how you create it, and what the audience is are all ways that you can get a glimpse at who the creator is and what they believe. The audience for Sparklecare is people who have not been institutionalized or hospitalized so they can understand kits experiences. It is done in episodes online and often uses drawn gore and strong visuals to try to get its point across without giving people a moment to digest what happened and reflect on it. Dissecting media is super important to creatives because it means people understand the messages we want to say.

Using an example from music- the song Dirty Harry by Gorillaz is anti-war. But people don't really seem to care all that much. If you pay attention, it criticizes how soldiers are pawns to the powerful and ultimately expendable to the people at the head of the conflict while the soldiers suffer as a result. It talks about the fear after 9/11. From books- Animal Farm is not anti-socialism. Orwell was a socialist who fought fascists.

Creatives need critics and analysis in order to help understand ourselves and how others view the content we make. It's a part of a healthy creative ecosystem. The response to Sparklecare's ableism being pointed out being absolute shutdown from the fanbase and meltdowns from the creator is indicative of an unhealthy fanbase that functions with little thinking about the media and what it is saying.

From the text, I can tell that Kittycorn has little experience with physical disability based on the ableism seen in the comic and the writing of physical disabilities barely having any impact on the characters, as well as the fact that she is using a general hospital in place of her experiences in a psychiatric hospital as if they are the same. I could tell no one involved is active with disability advocacy or justice because of writing all nurses as good when in reality nurses hold power over their patients and that can harm us through neglect and abuse, not just doctors. Nurses are a part in systemic ableism. In order for the comic to not continue ableist rhetoric, Kittycorn needs to confront things from a systemic issue point of view and not "Greedy capitalist bad" view which is reductionist.

Kittycorn wants to inspire others with her story- a noble aim, sure, if a little idealistic. But how it (Sparklecare) is going about doing so is harmful to the people kit wants to advocate for.

#sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #the blackbox askbox

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qweerhet · 1 year

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frequently, it's Exhausting being at an intersection where i have experienced both "sanist and racist Reddit Atheism lateral violence" and "anti-atheistic and racist Liberated Religion lateral violence" because of the simple fact that both camps are deathly committed to arguing that the other camp does not, in fact, exist in any meaningful way and only exists as singular rude people in individual leftist spaces.

like i truly do not enjoy how this makes me sound like an Enlightened Centrist, but quite frankly i have been in a variety of left-leaning spaces over the course of my life, and there are left-leaning spaces which are run by members of one particular religion (or even, occasionally, have power systems that privilege two, possibly three religions working in conjunction) who use systemic power within that space and use it to oppress atheists and agnostics within that space. and there are also left-leaning spaces which are run by atheists that use systemic power within that space to oppress minority religions, primarily along the axes of sanism and racism, and therefore all non-consensus-reality experiences regardless of religious status.

and like, in both cases, i've experienced institutions being utilized to enforce that oppression--the institution of the church + equivalents in the case of the religious oppression, obvs, and in the case of weaponized atheism, the mental institution and the carceral system (which are so interrelated it feels rather redundant to refer to them separately in this context tbh).

and i think it's extremely unwise to build your entire comprehension of religion + privilege + systems of power from your leftist bubbles, tbh, because that's how you get shit like "christianity is the only religion that has any problems" on the Liberated Religious side, and "anyone who has an experience outside of consensus reality is an agent of oppression" on the other side. like, hyperfocusing on your experience within left-leaning bubbles is to exclude yourself from a more holistic understanding of how religious institutions + systems of power operate worldwide, and how those systems of power are reproduced on smaller scales and within interpersonal relationships.

like, that's all awfully broad, i acknowledge, but it's difficult to get into specifics without missing the forest for the trees once again. when you're tweeting like "and where are these evil anti-atheist members of minority religions who oppress you? are they in the room with us now? you're just mad about being called antisemitic" you're Missing The Forest For The Trees in that, like, "religion" doesn't mean one specific thing and "atheism" doesn't mean one specific thing (they're both extremely general terms for extremely broad concepts that have varying relationships with the concepts of culture + consensus reality + history depending on the context they're being used in!) and maybe atheist jews are also mad at you for erasing the negative experiences atheist jews have in religious jewish spaces when you say that. and sure maybe your social context is primarily made up of dealing with antisemitic shit from white supremacist atheist leftists who utilize power structures to paint targets on the jewish members of your social bubble when religion comes up at all, but also, like, there is absolutely a social context where pretty much every discussion of religion is centered around an institutionally powerful theocracy attacking atheists and leftists utilizing that power structure to oppress atheist leftists within their social bubble.

like--again, i fucking hate how much this makes me sound like an Enlightened Centrist, and on a personal note, i do feel like there is a moral pressure to pick a side, but i really don't think there's "sides" to pick at the end of the day. i think atheist social bubbles, particularly in america, are incredibly vulnerable to hegemonic ideals of sanism and racism, and i think lefty religious social bubbles are incredibly vulnerable to hegemonic ideals of "subtle" conservatism engrained in religious institutions and racism, and i think all of these things are really fucking easy for groups to begin enforcing violently when the groups in question are both violently oppressed and under constant attack from the institutions in power in their particular areas of the world. like, it's so easy to fall back on hegemonic failsafes to protect one's own, and i think the core of this perceived divide is that these groups have high rates of people defensively and publicly participating in oppressive hegemonies to attempt to garner some form of protection from the constant oppression they face, and forming high-control social groupings based around this phenomenon.

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