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newstfionline · 3 months

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Monday, February 19, 2024

Flood watches issued as another round of wet winter storms hits California (AP) The latest in a series of wet winter storms blew ashore in Northern California on Sunday, with forecasters warning of possible flooding, hail, strong winds and even brief tornadoes as the system moves south over the next few days. Gusts topped 30 mph (48 kph) in Oakland and San Jose as a mild cold front late Saturday gave way to a more powerful storm that will gain strength into early Monday, said meteorologist Brayden Murdock with the National Weather Service office in San Francisco. California’s central coast is at risk of “significant flooding,” with up to 5 inches (12 cm) of rain predicted for many areas, according to the weather service. Isolated rain totals of 10 inches (25 cm) are possible in the Santa Lucia and Santa Ynez mountain ranges as the storm heads toward greater Los Angeles.

Prominent Black Church Leaders Call for End of U.S. Aid to Israel (NYT) Leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the country’s oldest and most prominent Black Christian denominations, called this week for the United States to end its financial aid to Israel, saying the monthslong military campaign in Gaza amounted to “mass genocide.” Black churches and other faith groups have pushed for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war for months in advertisements, open letters and social media campaigns. Black faith leaders across denominations have amplified their calls as the number of dead rises. More than 28,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to health officials there, many of them women and children. But the A.M.E. council’s statement goes further than a cease-fire demand, insisting that the United States immediately stop its financial support of Israel. It came as Israeli forces pushed into southern Gaza and prepared for a ground assault on Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are trapped.

Tens of thousands rail against Mexico’s president and ruling party in ‘march for democracy’ (AP) Tens of thousands of demonstrators cloaked in pink marched through cities in Mexico and abroad on Sunday in what they called a “march for democracy” targeting the country’s ruling party in advance of the country’s June 2 elections. The demonstrations called by Mexico’s opposition parties advocated for free and fair elections in the Latin American nation and railed against corruption the same day presidential front-runner Claudia Sheinbaum registered as a candidate for ruling party Morena. Approximately 90,000 people turned out to rail against the leader, according to government figures. Sheinbaum is largely seen as a continuation candidate of Mexico’s highly popular populist leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He’s adored by many voters who say he bucked the country’s elite parties from power in 2018 and represents the working class. But the 70-year-old president has also been accused of making moves that endanger the country’s democracy.

Surging cocaine violence has Uruguay clamoring for DEA help (Reuters) Uruguay’s main port received two cargo scanners sixteen years ago to detect drugs and other suspicious loads. Unfortunately, during delivery one of them fell into the sea. Since then, cocaine shipments to Europe have surged through the port of Montevideo, which handled a record 1.1 million containers last year, fueling a rise in gang violence and undermining Uruguay’s reputation as a beacon of stability in turbulent South America. Uruguay’s current center-right government, which took office the following year, has repeatedly asked the DEA to return but U.S. officials say there are no imminent plans to do so. Three former DEA officials told Reuters that—with Washington focused on fentanyl flooding its borders from Mexico and little of the cocaine that transits through Uruguay heading to the United States—there’s scant appetite for seeking congressional approval to re-open a Montevideo office. “Everything’s fentanyl now,” said former DEA official Larry Reichner, who oversaw Uruguay as the DEA’s assistant regional director for southern South America from 2015-2019. “They couldn’t give a rat’s — about cocaine.”

Britain’s David Cameron visits the Falkland Islands as Argentina renews its sovereignty claim (AP) Foreign Secretary David Cameron will visit the Falkland Islands this week to show they are a “valued part of the British family,” the U.K. government said Sunday. Britain’s top diplomat is making the trip amid renewed calls by Argentina for negotiations over the contested South Atlantic archipelago. The Foreign Office said Cameron will meet Falklands government officials, pay his respects to war dead and visit some of the islands’ 3,500 people and 1 million penguins. He’s the first British Cabinet minister since 2016 to visit the Falklands, over which Britain and Argentina fought a brief war in 1982.

Macron says recognizing a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France (AP) French President Emmanuel Macron says recognizing a Palestinian state is not a “taboo” for France, as international frustration grows with Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories. France and the EU have long supported a two-state solution in the Mideast, but as part of a negotiated settlement. With talks long stalled and Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza deepening, some European countries are voicing support for recognizing a Palestinian state sooner. “Recognizing a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France,” Macron said Friday at a meeting in Paris with Jordan’s King Abdullah. “We owe it to Palestinians, whose aspirations have been trampled on for too long. We owe it to Israelis, who lived through the worst antisemitic massacre of our time. We owe it to a region that is seeking to rise above those who promote chaos and seed revenge.”

Over 400 detained in Russia as country mourns the death of Alexei Navalny (AP) Over 400 people were detained in Russia while paying tribute to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died at a remote Arctic penal colony, a prominent rights group reported. The sudden death of Navalny, 47, was a blow to many Russians. Navalny remained vocal in his unrelenting criticism of the Kremlin even after surviving a nerve agent poisoning and receiving multiple prison terms. The news reverberated across the globe, and hundreds of people in dozens of Russian cities streamed to ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repressions with flowers and candles on Friday and Saturday to pay a tribute to the politician. In over a dozen cities, police detained 401 people by Saturday night.

Iran, wary of wider war, urges its proxies to avoid provoking U.S. (Washington Post) Iran, eager to disrupt U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East but wary of provoking a direct confrontation, is privately urging Hezbollah and other armed groups to exercise restraint against U.S. forces, according to officials in the region. Israel’s brutal war on Hamas in Gaza has stoked conflict between the United States and Iran’s proxy forces on multiple fronts. With no cease-fire in sight, Iran could face the most significant test yet of its ability to exert influence over these allied militias. When U.S. forces launched strikes this month on Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, Tehran publicly warned that its military was ready to respond to any threat. But in private, senior leaders are urging caution, according to Lebanese and Iraqi officials who were briefed on the talks.

Netanyahu Says He Won’t Bow to Pressure to Call Off Rafah Invasion (NYT) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel insisted on Saturday that Israel would not bow to international pressure to call off its plan for a ground invasion of Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza that is now packed with more than a million Palestinians. Many of the people now in Rafah are displaced and living in schools, tents or the homes of friends and relatives, part of a desperate search for any safe refuge from Israel’s military campaign, which has dragged on for more than four months. Their lives are a daily struggle to find enough food and water to survive. “Those who want to prevent us from operating in Rafah are basically telling us: Lose the war,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem on Saturday evening. “It’s true that there’s a lot of opposition abroad, but this is exactly the moment that we need to say that we won’t be doing a half or a third of the job.”

Nigeria’s currency has fallen to a record low (AP) Nigerians are facing one of the West African nation’s worst economic crises in years triggered by surging inflation, the result of monetary policies that have pushed the currency to an all-time low against the dollar. The situation has provoked anger and protests across the country. The latest government statistics released Thursday showed the inflation rate in January rose to 29.9%, its highest since 1996, mainly driven by food and non-alcoholic beverages. Nigeria’s currency, the naira, further plummeted to 1,524 to $1 on Friday, reflecting a 230% loss of value in the last year. “My family is now living one day at a time (and) trusting God,” said trader Idris Ahmed, whose sales at a clothing store in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja have declined from an average of $46 daily to $16.

Coming to an airport near you (NYT) Biometrics are transforming the way we travel. The technology, which identifies travelers using unique physical traits like fingerprints and faces, is becoming more common at airports in the United States. As a result, time-consuming rituals that once required repeated ID checks—such as bag dropping, security screening and boarding—are getting easier and faster. Some experts believe that this will be the year that biometric use, primarily facial recognition, becomes standard at many airports. The technology offers several advantages: enhanced security, quicker processing of passengers and a more convenient airport experience. Executives at various airlines tell me they believe passengers are becoming more comfortable with using biometrics in their daily lives. Many people regularly use facial recognition to unlock their phones, and shoppers can use their palms to pay for groceries at some Whole Foods stores. Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel on privacy and technology at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the government had not yet shown a demonstrated need for facial-recognition technology at airports. And he expressed concern over what he called the “nuclear scenario.” “Facial recognition technology,” he said, could be “the foundation for a really robust and widespread government surveillance and tracking network.”

Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise, study finds (NPR) Tai chi, a traditional, slow-moving form of Chinese martial art, is known to increase flexibility and improve balance. Now, new research suggests it's better than more vigorous aerobic exercises for lowering blood pressure in people with prehypertension. Prehypertension is blood pressure that's higher than normal but doesn't quite reach the level of high blood pressure, or hypertension. The new findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, add to a large body of research pointing to health benefits from tai chi, a wellness practice that combines slow, gentle movements and postures with mindfulness. It's often called meditation in motion.

#headlines #news

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hellomynameisbisexual · 3 years

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Andrew Ford was questioned and fetishized when he came out as bisexual. The gay community insisted he wasn’t being honest with himself; women at clubs started to excitedly fantasize about hooking up with two guys at the same time.

All the while, the soccer standout stayed true to himself. Ford came out his freshman year at Malone University, a small Christian liberal arts college in Canton, Ohio — home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His friends and teammates were accepting, which was an incredible relief. But his journey into the LGBTQ community was a little more rocky.

“I got a lot of pressure from the gay community,” Ford told me recently on the phone. “I felt like I was misunderstood, and didn’t know who I was.”

Ford is one of an increasing number of openly bisexual college-aged athletes whom we’ve profiled recently on Outsports. Despite some surveys showing more Americans identify as bisexual than either gay or lesbian, there is a dearth of bi visibility in pop culture and sports.

As bi sportswriter Jeff Rueter challenged me: “name a bisexual man, and don’t say Frank Ocean.”

These kick-ass kids are going to change that.

Biphobia is real

Let’s start here: Biphobia is real. It manifests itself in gestures as seemingly fleeting as dismissive jokes, and actions as harrowing as outright physical violence. Bisexual people typically suffer significantly higher rates of depression and anxiety, domestic violence, sexual assault, and poverty than lesbians, gay men, or straight cisgender people, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

A black-and-white society, most of us grow up with the notion people are either straight or gay. Those attitudes have historically prevailed in the LGBTQ community, too.

Alex Keuroghlian, the Director of the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center at the Fenway Institute, says bisexual people can be looked at skeptically.

“Within LGBTQIA+ communities, there has historically been a stigma toward bisexual people, and the false notion that they’re really gay and lesbian people who haven’t accepted that about themselves,” he said.

Megan Duthart, a rower at Washington State University who identifies as both bi and queer, has experienced the stigma first-hand. She says she thinks bisexual people are often excluded in the LGBTQ community.

“I’ve struggled a little bit with being identified as an ‘other’ in the community with the term ‘bisexuality,’” she said.

Why are bi people targeted for erasure?

More people are identifying as bisexual. Over three percent of U.S. adults say they’re bi, according to the 2018 General Social Survey. That’s three times the number as 2008.

And yet, bi people are still targeted for erasure. One of the ways it happens is through language. When people see same-sex couples, for example, they may be inclined to label them as “gay” or “lesbian,” without considering that one or both of the people could identity as bi.

While Americans’ attitudes about sexuality are evolving, many still adhere to more binary definitions of sexual orientation. A recent YouGov poll found 41 percent of American adults don’t think sexuality is a spectrum (conversely, 37 percent think it is).

As Ford puts it, bisexuality is stereotypically viewed as “the stepping stone stage.” That ties into one of the more insidious aspects of bi-erasure: the belief that it’s just a phase. It’s a line Ford recalls hearing many times, from both men and women.

“(Gay men) said, ‘I came out as bisexual first. It’s just a phase, you won’t be there long,’” Ford said. “I was also scared how women would think about it. They wanted to change me. Some of them wanted to use it as a thrill they were seeking.”

When professional hockey player Zach Sullivan came out as bi, his father told him it meant he was still making up his mind.

“I remember what my dad said when I told him,” Sullivan said. “‘Well, you aren’t all the way there. You haven’t really decided.’ I was like, ‘no, I know I’m attracted to both genders. I’m not halfway towards coming out as gay.’”

The bi burden

Every LGBTQ person can relate to the fear and anxiety of coming out. But for most of us, once we do it, it’s over.

That’s not the case for bi people.

“We have to keep coming out to our significant others, whether it’s a man or a woman,” Ford said. “If you’re gay and you start dating a gay, you’re not going to be like, ‘I have to tell you something: I’m gay.’ They’re going to be like, ‘no shit.’”

And once bi people do come out, they could get charged with being greedy — the sexual equivalent of having their cake and eating it, too. The insult angers Sullivan.

“The majority of people in the LGBT+ community have struggled with their sexuality, and when they finally become comfortable enough to come out in the open with their sexuality, I don’t think the first thing to say to someone who’s come out as bisexual is they’re greedy,” Sullivan said. “I took over 10 years to get to where I am.”

Duthart finds the concept of bisexuality can be difficult to explain. She largely identifies as queer.

“I’ve had coaches question whether I’m rebelling or going through a phase,” she said. “Then when I explain the whole queer aspect, they’re like, ‘Oh, OK. That seems more justified.’ I don’t want to have to justify those things, but I sort of have to.”

Changing attitudes

Jack Storrs came out as bisexual last year as a college football captain. His teammates at Pomona-Pitzer rallied around him, and wore Pride decals on their helmets.

But even some who were supportive suggested he was on his way to identifying as gay. Storrs said he couldn’t hide his feelings for men anymore, and came out because he wanted to explore.

Maybe he was gay, maybe he wasn’t. The questions didn't bother him. He was a relieved to have the dialogue.

“It was killing me on the inside,” Storrs said. “It got to the point where I was like, ‘screw it.’ This is who I am, and this was meant to be.”

Nowadays, Storrs says he’s more towards the “gay end of the spectrum,” and expects the fluidity to continue.

He’s cool with that, and numbers show his peers are, too. Generation Z is among the most progressive and diverse in U.S. history. A 2018 study from Ipsos Mori shows only 66 percent of young people today identify exclusively as heterosexual.

Young people have a better understanding of how sexuality can evolve, says Keuroghlian.

“There’s been less of a reflex to box people in, and categorize people in ways that could be static,” he said. “A key part of all of this is not projecting behavior or projecting attraction. People tell us — they self-identify that’s who they are. And we have to honor that.”

Visibility challenges misperceptions

But to get back to Rueter’s question: can you name a famous out bisexual person besides Frank Ocean?

It’s challenging, and the lack of bi visibility may be one of the biggest contributors towards bi-erasure. But that is changing. Each person who comes out as bisexual has the ability to change perceptions within their own communities — and many young athletes are.

Bri Tollie, a bisexual college basketball player at Southern Methodist University, wrote in her coming-out story she refuses to conform.

“It is important to be visible because everyone is unique,” she wrote. “Our uniqueness means no one should not have to give up a part of themselves to conform. It is called self-respect.”

Growing up, Storrs tried to shut off his attraction to guys. He told himself it wasn’t a big deal, but the angst became all-encompassing.

Storrs is done hiding any part of himself. He did that for far too long, and is now out for all to see.

“I am bisexual, and my point is, I don’t really give a shit what anybody else thinks,” Storrs said. “This is who I am, and I don’t have to figure it out, but the reason I’m coming out is to figure it out, or at least get to a point where I’m comfortable.”

With their stories, these young bi athletes are making it more comfortable for bi people every single day.

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feralphoenix · 4 years

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SONGS OF RESISTANCE: The View Myla Grants Us Of Hallownest’s Moths

hello again hollow knight fandom, i am back with my picante takes and ready to discuss two things i love: myla hollowknight and the moth tribe! Let Us Be Sad About Them Together.

as with my previous essay i’m going to be putting this fellow up on dreamwidth later for accessibility purposes since my layout text may be too small for high-res pc users. this time i’ll be attaching that in a reblog to avoid this post getting eaten by the dread tungle algorithms.

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR TONIGHT’S PROGRAM: This essay discusses colonialism and genocide both in real life and the fictional depictions in Hollow Knight, as well as racism in the zombie horror genre and in fandom.

ALSO: if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of this particular part of hollow knight worldbuilding/lore is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay

SONGS OF RESISTANCE: THE VIEW MYLA GRANTS US OF HALLOWNEST’S MOTHS

In this house we are all love Myla.

Well, in all fairness, there are probably plenty of Hollow Knight fans who aren’t interested in her character, since which fictional characters one attaches to is always a matter of personal preference. But she’s still well-loved for a minor NPC and inspires a high level of devotion in her fans. There’s nothing that whips folks into a frenzy like a cute character you can’t do anything to help, and unlike some other characters in Hollow Knight Myla’s fate leaves no room for ambiguity. Once you pick up the Crystal Heart you’re left with only two choices: Avoid her, or kill her.

A lot of Hollow Knight’s world is designed to make you care about it so that it will hurt more when Ghost’s violent skillset proves too limited to save something or someone. The consequences of Hallownest’s founding and policies have directly or indirectly caused a great deal of damage to everything, and chief among those consequences with massive damage and a wide splash range is the Infection. Much has been said elsewhere by other people about Hollow Knight’s predominating mood being a struggle against futility, with Ghost arriving at the eleventh hour and every new tragedy designed to make the player more desperate to find something actionable, only finding out by trial and error what’s beyond your personal ability to save.

Myla, in that sense, is a typical example of that worldbuilding. She’s a particular kind of stock character in the zombie horror genre, the innocent who falls victim to the plague and cannot be saved, wrenching audience hearts and demonstrating the stakes.

But Hollow Knight plays with the trappings of zombie horror in a very unusual way, one I find thematically fascinating.

For a quick overview, the “zombie” as we know it in popular culture is an appropriation of a voudou (the Black American spiritual practice) concept that deals with the fear of slavery killing one’s spirit. (People more versed in/with roots in voudou culture can give a much more comprehensive overview than this simplistic one.)

The zombie horror genre, especially in Western media, is part of the great white fragility stock plot trifecta (the other two being alien invasions and robot uprisings). Zombie horror in particular expresses white fears that marginalized ethnic groups will rise up violently in revenge for their mistreatment and destroy white society. The fear of “that which is human, which ‘humanity’ is not” (to borrow mecha visual novel Heaven Will Be Mine’s pithy term) and the extreme levels of violence towards human-but-not bodies typical of zombie horror are often an expression of such bigotries. This is, again, a subject that’s been discussed in greater depth and with more nuance elsewhere.

But what Hollow Knight does is take the ugly metaphors and it makes them literal, makes it harder to ignore the toxic subtext of the genre. The Infection is literally a native god’s revenge on the settlers who committed genocide* against her people. How the Pale King’s colonization of the crater negatively affected the preexisting groups of bugs underpins every level of the worldbuilding, as does Hallownest’s cruelty towards its neighbors.

Hollow Knight is a game that is about the tragedy of Western imperialism. It is one of the work’s central themes. There are a lot of conversations that need to be had about the ways these themes manifest and, on a real-world level, about fandom’s predisposition to avoid the subject.

But, for now, let’s get back to Myla. If she fits such a stock zombie horror archetype, and Hollow Knight uses zombie horror tropes to underline the conversation it attempts to have about colonialism, then what has Myla got to teach us about the overall worldbuilding?

There's two topics I’d like to broach here: First we’ll get into how the circumstances of Myla’s infection fit in to the implied role of Crystal Peak in pre-Hallownest society. Then let’s take a long look at the lyrics of Myla’s song and what it implies.

MYLA, THE CRYSTALS, AND THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

If you think about it, Myla is an interesting outlier compared to the other NPCs we encounter on the verge of succumbing to the Infection. Both Bretta and Sly are unhappy: Bretta is a lonely, anxious bundle of abandonment issues yearning for someone to sweep her off her feet; Sly misses his pupils and loved ones who’ve left him in death (we never learn who Esmy is or what they were to Sly, but we sure can tell they’re not around anymore). The temptation to dream away those sadnesses seems to play a part in their vulnerability to the Infection, and also why Ghost’s interruption brings them back to reality.

Not so Myla. She appears to be blissfully unaware of her fellow miners’ fate, and most of her dialogue prior to her infection (besides the song - we’ll get to that later) is about how much fun she’s having at her job and how much she enjoys Ghost’s occasional company.

Yet she still winds up infected when Ghost’s back is turned. Why?

Not to discard the possibility that Myla’s got her own issues too, but in her case there seems to be another likely cause at hand: The crystals. If hit with the Dream Nail before infected, she mentions that she can hear them “singing” and “whispering”.

Under the The Hunter’s Hot Takes section of the Hunter’s Journal entries on various Crystal Peak enemies, we can learn more about the crystals - particularly in the entries for the Husk Miner and Crystallized Husk.

Crystal Peak’s crystals were thought of as particularly precious in Hallownest and harvested en masse for use in luxury items and the like. To do so, the mining operation was set up throughout most of the mountain, though the area around its peak still remains largely untouched. However, there’s more to the crystals than just that. Like Myla, the Hunter notes that the crystals can be heard to sing very very softly if one listens closely enough.

Perhaps of even more interest than that is this particular comment he gives us, from the Crystallized Husk journal entry: “There is some strange power hidden in the crystals that grow up there in the peaks. They gleam and glow in the darkness, a bright point of searing heat in each one.”

I don’t think it’s a particularly revolutionary idea to point out that there’s some connection between the crystals and Radiance’s power; this is something many players have intuited just based on Myla’s dialogue. But, in order to understand what Myla is demonstrating about the game’s world I think it’s important to think about what that connection is.

Speaking of which, the local Whispering Root has two important clues for us: The phrases “light refracted” and “energy contained”.

The very top of Crystal Peak is one of the only places in the crater where the moths’ architecture has escaped Hallownest destroying it, and is the only place in the entire game setting where their religious iconography remains fully intact. There are stone monuments covered in their language (which has been destroyed with the rest of their culture) and the statue of the Radiance - this is easier to see in the Wanderer’s Journal tie-in book, but the huge stone arches upon the Crown represent Radi’s halo and its rays and encircle her when viewed head-on or from a distance instead of the side view we get in the game.

The crystals grown here were used by the moths to store and cultivate Radiance’s light. It’s impossible to know what sort of architecture/infrastructure existed inside the mountain before Hallownest stole it from the moths. But between the massive scope of her statue and all the texts at the Crown, and the fact that the moths were working with their literal actual god’s freely given power here, it can be safely asserted that Crystal Peak was a holy ground to them.

Hallownest didn’t care about the mind-boggling level of spiritual significance Crystal Peak must have had to the natives, though. To the Pale King and his people, the crystals are just a natural resource to be harvested for personal profit.

This is unfortunately a conflict that still plays out in colonized countries today. If you’re American, #NoDAPL probably comes to mind; Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are filled with these sorts of horror stories too. Settler disrespect for indigenous sacred grounds is a huge problem that needs addressing. If you’re looking at the story of Crystal Peak and thinking it’s very on-the-nose... maybe it needs to be.

Anyway, Myla is nowhere near as miserable as Bretta or Sly, but she still notices that something’s up with these crystals. She hears the voice coming from inside, and she’s curious, and she tries very very hard to listen to it... so she DOES end up hearing Radiance’s voice. Radiance’s real voice, not the songs and whispers inside the crystals: The voice of a frightened, angry, grieving god who knows there’s a new vessel running around in Hallownest, and doesn’t want any part of that. A voice that’s pleading for someone, anyone to kill this dangerous creature, and save her from the threat Ghost poses.

Between how freaked out Radi is to know Ghost is poking around, the tendency we see in her boss battles for her to panic and kneejerk blast things at full volume/vibrance when she’s panicking, and the way her dream broadcast seems to be only a one-way communication line while she’s in the Black Egg... naturally this spells disaster for poor Myla.

Similar to the Moss Prophet, this small tragedy is a demonstration of the eleventh-hour state the conflict is in: The Pale King has escalated this situation so far, and Radiance is so traumatized and isolated, that bystanders who might in a kinder timeline have become Radi’s allies instead get caught up in her AOE. Myla’s definitely not as aware of the overall situation as the Moss Prophet, since she’s a Hallownest bug and not an indigenous one the way they are. But she noticed things were not as they seemed, and she was curious. Who knows what new possibilities could have opened up, if Radiance was able to truly communicate with bugs in the outside world?

Small side note before we move on, but I’ve noticed a tendency among some folks who notice the missed connections to come down extra hard on Radiance and chalk Myla’s infection/Moss Prophet’s death down to deliberate cruelty on her part. I’d like to gently push back against this.

Living in a post-colonial world we all absorb some level of prejudice from our surroundings, and it’s important to take a look at our first assumptions about people (or, in this case, fictional characters lol) to examine whether these prejudices we’ve inherited have influenced those assumptions.

So, if your first instinct is to look at this situation and say the problem is that Radiance is being too harsh and too angry where she should have stepped back and softened her emotions for others’ benefit to gently persuade them to her side... Please think about how when people of color and non-Christians express anger or hurt at our treatment, or even so much as calmly assert our boundaries, white/Christian viewers often view us as much more aggressive and threatening than we actually are. The “angry black woman” trope is a good example of this stereotype. You may want to look up the HuffPost article “Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” and its discussion of white fragility to further understand this phenomenon.

It is absolutely essential to remember the complex power dynamics in play in Hollow Knight and that the Pale King deliberately imprisoned Radiance (who had at this point already gone through an extreme amount of trauma) in a way that would compromise her ability to communicate with others. If you can extend compassion to characters like Ghost or the Pale King and empathize with their motives/feelings when their actions cause harm, but you are not willing to do the same with Radiance... it’s important to sit down with yourself and examine why that is.

THE MEANING BEHIND MYLA’S SONG

Okay, let’s switch gears and take a look at the lyrics to the song Myla sings, since it’s got some interesting things to tell us too.

The first verse, which you can hear from Myla the first time you meet her/before you acquire Vengeful Spirit, goes:

Bury my mother, pale and slight Bury my father with his eyes shut tight Bury my sisters, two by two, And then when you’re done, let's bury me too

There’s not much particularly story-related going on here except foreshadowing that Myla may in fact wind up dying. Most of what we get here is that a) this is a song about burying the dead and b) it’s morbid as fuck.

Curious, a new player might think of the mention of burying the dead; there are a lot of corpses just lyin’ around all over the ground - something that might lead one to believe Hallownest didn’t have such a custom. Later players will discover the Resting Grounds, confirming Hallownest did bury its dead... and that the gravekeepers are all dead too.

Let’s look at the second verse, which Myla remembers and will sing after you pick up Vengeful Spirit:

Bury the knight with her broken nail, Bury the lady, lovely and pale Bury the priest in his tattered gown, Then bury the beggar with his shining crown

This right here is where it gets interesting. The first verse describes the singer’s family as dead or dying, but the people we’re burying now sure do have some parallels to Hallownest's ruling body, don’t they?

Among Hallownest’s Great Knights, three of them - Dryya, Isma, and Ze’mer - were women. They are also very dead or might as well be: Dryya was killed by Traitor Lord’s resistance, Isma is a tree spreading acid through the kingdom’s waters to cut off access to the City of Tears, and Ze’mer hung up her nail after her mantis girlfriend’s death and only lingers on as a revenant.

While there aren’t any characters who are described in-text as “priests” in Hallownest, the idea of a tattered gown might bring Lurien the Watcher to mind, or perhaps the Soul Sanctum’s magicians before they went rogue.

The lovely, pale lady in the song can only refer to the White Lady, Hallownest’s queen. And there’s only one man in the game who has a shining crown: The Pale King. The lyrics are particularly derisive towards him in a way they aren’t to any of the other figures listed, too.

So, it seems like whoever came up with this song didn’t think much of Hallownest. With that in mind it’s hard to think that it originated from any sort of faction loyal to the king.

We’re missing a line from the third verse, which Myla sings after you’ve beaten Soul Master and she’s beginning to become infected. But what we do see of it is Huge in terms of lore:

Bury my body and cover my shell, [...] What meaning in darkness? Yet here I remain I’ll wait here forever ‘til light blooms again

So. The “protagonist” of this song’s family has died, and they expect to die as well, but even unto death they're waiting for Hallownest to fall and the light to return.

The moths became Hallownest’s gravekeepers after the Pale King forcibly assimilated them. Under the Pale King’s light, the moths forgot Radiance and most of their original culture, but Seer tells us in her final monologue that a few individuals remembered just enough to pass bits and pieces down through the generations. This secret resistance among the moths was what kept Radiance alive and prevented her from being sealed away entirely.

This song Myla sings comes from that moth resistance.

Code songs amongst oppressed ethnic groups are very much a real thing, especially when groups have to communicate or signal each other within hostile parties’ hearing. Since I’m American (and had a big ol crush on Harriet Tubman as a little kid lmao!) the first thing that came to mind for me when I made this connection was the working songs escaped Black slaves used in the Underground Railroad.

These have another point in common with the moth gravedigger song Myla sings, in that they enter the general cultural consciousness through out-group people who don’t know the true context. If you ever pick up a book of American baby songs, you’ll probably find some Underground Railroad code songs in there - often because generations ago white kids heard these songs from Black slaves or servants, and went on to sing the same songs to their children with zero awareness of what the songs were really for.

So some Hallownest bug somewhere probably heard the moths’ song and liked it and sang it in a context totally divorced from its original one, and it got spread around and passed down to become one of Myla’s old favorites, with her seemingly not realizing the meaning behind the lyrics. The moths’ song of devotion to their lost god survived them as a people.

This is some VERY realistic and layered worldbuilding. There is so much to glean from just one NPC’s dialogue when put together with other clues. Of course all of it is SAD and DEPRESSING, but Hollow Knight is a tragedy with a super unsubtle point to make about the unsustainability of Western imperialism.

What happens to Myla is awful, and upsetting, and unfair. So was what happened to the moths and their sacred ground, and to Radiance too. It’s important to understand the scope of the conflict that led to all this happening, trace it to its roots, and lay it at the feet of the ones responsible for engendering all this tragedy in the first place: Hallownest and the Pale King.

*A NOTE ABOUT MY USE OF THE TERM “GENOCIDE”

This is a tangent, but since there’s some debate about whether it’s appropriate to define the Pale King’s actions towards indigenous bug nations as genocide, allow me to cite the official definition of genocide here.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention for short) defines genocide like this:

Genocide is any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, religious, or racial group, as such:

A) Killing members of the group

B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

C) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

D) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

E) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Among the abovelisted, Hallownest is guilty of A (Deepnest and the moths), B (Deepnest physically/the moths vis a vis brainwashing), C (the mantis tribe and the hive), and E (the moths, which we know from Marmu, and possibly the mosskin also - Isma is mosskin).

Then there is cultural genocide, i.e. acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, religious, or racial group's way of life. Let’s look at the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP) and how it defines cultural genocide:

A) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities

B) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources

C) Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights

D) Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life imposed on them by legislative, administrative or other measures

E) Any form of propaganda directed against them

Hallownest is guilty of every item on this list. A: The moths, attempted with Deepnest. B: The moths, the mantises, the flukes, the mosskin; also attempted with Deepnest. C: The moths, the mantises, the flukes. D: The moths; attempted with the mantises and Deepnest. E: The mantises and Deepnest.

Any sort of discussion of the wide-reaching harm Radiance caused MUST include the context that the Infection is her response to multiple levels of genocide. Discussion that does not include this context loses nuance and simplifies the conflict and power dynamics portrayed in the game in ways that reflect real-life racism and Christian supersessionism.

Now, this is NOT some sort of holier than thou Fandom Purity dunk to say that it’s Bad or Wrong to care about Hallownest’s nobility. Like, one of my favorite characters in this dang game is the White Lady, who spent a long ass time enabling her husband’s actions before she finally walked out on him over the mass infanticide thing. You can, and it is okay to, love TPK and want rehabilitation for him while acknowledging that the dude has done objectively bad things.

I just feel that it’s important to keep things in perspective so that we don’t wind up stirring a bunch of real-world bigotry into our fandom funtimes. A lot of us don’t have the luxury of turning our brains off and simply Not Seeing It, because these same sorts of dynamics are behind a lot of the hardships that threaten our everyday stability.

It’s pretty hard to have conversations about those things in real life if one can’t even recognize them in fiction. So, this might be a good opportunity to start practicing anti-racism so we can better utilize that ideology in real life, where the stakes are much higher.

#hollow knight #hollow knight spoilers #hollow knight meta #myla hollow knight #the radiance #hk myla #hk radiance #essay #long post under cut -

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tealin · 3 years

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Observation Hill

To see the post in its original format, please visit twirlynoodle.com/blog

There is no mistaking Observation Hill when you arrive at McMurdo, if you know anything about it. It is a distinct cone, right at the end of the peninsula – even if you've never seen a picture of it, its name alone tells you it's a prime lookout, and sticking out into McMurdo sound as it does, it has clear views in every direction.

I had seen pictures of it, but I was still surprised how it loomed over the station. Unlike the vastly larger Mt Erebus, it is visible from everywhere; whether you're eating in the Galley or crawling back to bed from the Crary lab in the wee hours, it's always looking over your shoulder.

Though not apparent in the above photo, it is clearly visible in person that there is a large cross mounted nearly at the peak of the hill. Visitors especially from the States might assume it is just another expression of religious devotion – Christ died on a cross on a hill, so hilltop crosses are not unusual in a country which puts great stock in expressions of Christianity – but this is not another one of those things, in fact it isn't even American. This cross was erected in January 1913 by the surviving men of the Terra Nova Expedition, as a memorial to Captain Scott and the other members of his party who died out on the Ross Ice Shelf on their way home from the South Pole.

Before the ship arrived it was decided among us to urge the erection of a cross on Observation Hill to the memory of the Polar Party. On the arrival of the ship the carpenter immediately set to work to make a great cross of jarrah wood [an Australian hardwood]. There was some discussion as to the inscription, it being urged that there should be some quotation from the Bible because "the women think a lot of these things." But I was glad to see the concluding line of Tennyson's "Ulysses" adopted: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

... Observation Hill was clearly the place for it, it knew them all so well. Three of them were Discovery men who lived three years under its shadow: they had seen it time after time as they came back from hard journeys on the Barrier: Observation Hill and Castle Rock were the two which had always welcomed them in. It commanded McMurdo Sound on one side, where they had lived: and the Barrier on the other, where they had died. No more fitting pedestal, a pedestal which in itself is nearly 1000 feet high, could have been found.

(Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World, pp.565-7)

The establishment of the cross took two days: the first, to hack a hole in the volcanic rock in which to mount it, and the second to carry up the pieces and erect them.

It stands nine feet out of the rocks, and many feet into the ground, and I do not believe it will ever move. When it was up, facing out over the Barrier, we gave three cheers and one more. (ibid., p.567)

106 years later, there is a hiking trail up Observation Hill. I had intended to make a pilgrimage since the moment I arrived, but with everything else going on, and the ongoing challenge to get enough sleep, it wasn't until quite late in my visit that I finally made it.

My first attempt was on a relatively fine day, when I thought I could get some good views. The trailhead was clearly marked on the station map, but when I got there I couldn't find a way to reach it without crossing a fuel pipeline, and I had a dim recollection from orientation that this was a big no-no. I wandered about looking for access until I started getting a headache from the fumes, and gave up.

The next opportunity came a few days later, after I'd found out from a veteran that it was OK just to step over the pipeline there. It was a thickly cloudy day, and hazy by Antarctic standards, so I wouldn't get as good a view, but that did mean I could look forward to having the hill to myself. So I stepped over the pipeline and started up.

It looks like a terribly steep climb from the bottom, but once on the slope it's not so bad, and is far less slippery than the gravel slope of Arrival Heights. Partway up I passed a mountain rescue class, but beyond that the trail was entirely mine.

Like the rest of Ross Island, Observation Hill is volcanic in origin – in fact it was once a small volcano of its own. Unlike the subglacial volcano that is now Castle Rock, which grew cylindrically through a hole it melted in the ice, Observation Hill must have been uncovered in its later years at least, because it has the classic cone shape made by molten rock running down the outside. It is a lighter colour than much of the rest of the exposed rock in the area, and in places, it gives a really good impression of being sedimentary rather than igneous.

While the climb was not as physically intense as I had feared, it did still make me very warm, and I had two pauses, not to catch my breath but to cool down. One was to watch the rescue class, the other was when, somewhere near the top, I lost the trail, and examined the terrain for a while to guess which side would be least fall-off-able. I chose the wrong one, it turns out – I didn't fall off, but I did have to pick my way over some bare rock and came out above the cross, which is mounted in a pocket of rubble just off the peak.

It's hard to tell from the photo but it is in fact quite large – I am an average sized female and I stood well under the crossbar. The inscription is still there, but over a century of blizzards have battered it, and some parts are just barely decipherable.

The names – above of the worst of the blowing grit – are still legible. This gave me one of those moments which always seems to come by surprise. I have lived most of my life, and certainly all of my career, in close proximity with fictional characters, who demand to be believed in, either out of escapist necessity or professional duty. Most of the time I am off in my own little world, and the fact that that little world is now a historical moment in Antarctica does not, necessarily, make it more real, in relation to my literal present reality, than any movie I've worked on. I know these guys were real, I have seen film footage of them, and read their handwriting, and, some of them, even met members of their families! But when I'm up to my elbows in the work, it's easy to give it the part of my brain that suspends disbelief on a production. Suddenly something will come along that jolts me back to their reality: in this case, a name carved on a physical object by someone who knew them personally.

At the same time, this physical object impressed upon me again just how much time separates their reality and mine. Originally the cross was painted white, with the incised letters filled in black. Only a little of the white paint remains in the deepest recesses of what are quite shallow letters, now. In 1960, when Silas Wright returned and was photographed up here, the wood had already been scoured clean. His visit was 47 years after the cross was put in place, and 49 years before mine. The same imagination that conflates historical realities with fictional ones can make those years evaporate, but that is still a lot of years, and erosion, unlike imagination, doesn't lie.

Cherry may have believed that the cross would never move, but it has in fact blown down twice, once in the winter of 1974 and again in 1993. Its restoration in 1994 was a significant effort: a new concrete "boot" was made for it at Scott Base and delivered to the site by helicopter, and the cross itself was relayed up the hill by teams of helpers. (You can see photos of the event here, p.44) I cannot say how moving it is to see such an outlay of resources and enthusiasm by people who never met the Polar Party, to perpetuate their memory.

The cross isn't the only thing to see at the top of Observation Hill, of course – there is everything else. It turned out to be the perfect way to end my tour of Terra Nova landmarks, not only because it was the last bit of home territory the Terra Nova men themselves visited, but because I could see nearly everywhere I'd been from up here.

As you can see, it was not the greatest day for landscape photography, what with the matte light and the taller mountains being covered with cloud. But I had not come up here to take pictures. The sombre atmosphere befitted what I had come to do, which was to remember these men and thank The Powers That Be for the blessings that had been showered upon me in the last few weeks.

The cross faces south, towards their last camp, and the Pole. This is, of course, a thoughtful and fitting aspect of the memorial. It also gives the impression of a beacon, a light in a window, a lighthouse on a headland, guiding them home. The men who erected it knew the men were dead. They are still dead. We all know this. But they are still out there somewhere, and it is not impossible to imagine some small irrational part of the human psyche wanting, in some small way, to show them the way back, and call them back by name.

Minna Bluff was covered in cloud, so I couldn't use it as a bellwether, but the wind started to pick up and was colder than before, so I thought I should start heading down again. The correct trail was obvious from this end, and I poked along it for a little way before everything caught up with me and I sat down to have a little cry.

The cross is a historical artefact, and while it is not as plum or as complex as the huts, it still requires conservation. Alarmed by the degree of erosion on the lettering, the Antarctic Heritage Trust has devised a shell to protect it from the worst of the winter winds. That will do something, but it has already lost a lot. When I was up there, I wondered why it hadn't ever been repainted, as the paint would go a long way to protecting it, and when the paint wore off it could just get repainted instead of eating further and further into the wood. The raw timber is more harmonious with the environment, and I like it better aesthetically that way, as do many others I'm sure – the white cross with black letters in Debenham's photo from 1913 is very stark and artificial in such a magnificent landscape. But it would last a lot longer.

On the other hand, generations of Antarcticans now have the cross as a touchstone, not only as their link to the history (not everyone gets to visit Cape Evans) but as a landmark in their own experience of Antarctica. It was personally important to the men who painted it white and put it up, but it is also personally important to hundreds, if not thousands, of people since then, who have never seen it white and don't know that's how it started, and might see the repainting as a travesty. If it were to be conserved, to what extent would that go? Would the letters be re-carved deeper, obliterating what remains of Davies' original work? At what point does conservation end and adulteration begin?

The alternative is to take down the original and keep it somewhere out of the weather – Scott Base perhaps – and replace it with a replica. Jarrah is still available, the letters could be carved afresh, it could be the bare wood everyone has known and loved for the last fifty years at least, and the original could be saved from the effects of weather once and for all. But doesn't this defeat the intent of the original in some way, and make it – dare I say – a Disneyland version? Do we owe more to history to keep it as it is and let the elements wear it down, or to preserve it as long as possible and do whatever might be necessary to extend the experience and historical understanding of a place, if not its authenticity?

These are all questions that curators and conservators have been grappling with for years, so I leave it to them to make the decisions. I am grateful to have seen the original, and to have a moment to myself up there to reflect on these things, and more. I hope, whatever happens with it in the future, Observation Hill is not de-crossed entirely. How else will they find the way home?

#antarctica #mcmurdo station #observation hill #conservation #history #memorial #artefacts #scott expedition #terra nova expedition #scott base

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thejealouscactus · 3 years

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System of a Down Are Why I’m Communist

Originally written for a Street Fight zine about a year or two ago.

Like a lot of people in my generation, I became politically aware during the dark days of the George W. Bush presidency, particularly around the time of the 2004 election. The same year Green Day released the liberal anti-Bush magnum opus American Idiot. By that point I realized that Bush was a fascist buffoon and a repulsive Christian chauvinist. The Weapons of Mass Destruction that were hyped to sell the Iraq War turned out to be totally nonexistent. It was the first time I became aware that the government would blatantly lie to the people. All the people killed and maimed and an inconceivable amount of money spent was founded on a lie. I rooted for John Kerry, since I thought he would stop Bush’s reign of terror, greed and ignorance and there were no other options. But we all know how that turned out. It was demoralizing for me, the “good guy” lost and the country and the world would have to endure another four year term of Bush.

The next year was the year System of a Down released Hypnotize and Mesmerize and it was when they entered my radar. The music videos for the albums were played fairly frequently on MTV and VH1. As a young metal-head and peacenik, B.Y.O.B. was right up my alley. At the time I was a big fan of Black Sabbath and Megadeth because of their lyrics with similar themes. After I heard that I had to dig into their discography. Not necessarily the easiest thing living in the middle of Ohio and with a dad who was iffy on letting me hear albums with a parental advisory sticker. Through borrowing from friends and Sam Goody trips in a nearby city I was able to get most of their CDs. 2005 was also the year of Hurricane Katrina, when Bush’s incompetence cost thousands of lives and ruined the lives of many more. A sign of how the rest of Bush’s second term would be. The music of System of a Down were the perfect soundtrack for it.

The lyric books that came with the CDs taught me more than I would learn in school. Listening to them made me feel smart. Prison Song taught me about the prison industrial complex; how it punishes and controls rather than reforming people, and the governments’ dirty hands in the drug trade that fills the prisons up. “Minor drug offenders fill your prisons, you don't even flinch/ All our taxes paying for your wars against the new non-rich.” They also have lyrics that treat drug users with an empathy that is not often seen in media or in school. Boom! Is another antiwar song of theirs that hit me hard. “Manufacturing consent is the name of the game/The bottom line is money, nobody gives a fuck/ 4000 hungry children leave us per hour from starvation/While billions are spent on bombs, creating death showers!” I had the naive thought in my head that if everyone heard that song there would be no more war. They have other songs dealing with propaganda, environmentalism, big business’ influence on government, and so on. I didn’t learn about the Armenian Genocide in school, I learned about it from System of a Down.

As the years went on my taste in music changed. I stopped considering myself a metal-head and no longer listened to System of a Down. My political beliefs evolved as well. I was a Daily Show watching progressive liberal in my high school years. In 2008 I had high hopes for Obama. His advertising campaign made me think he would be the anti-Bush. He promised to close down Guantanamo Bay and end the Iraq War. I thought he would be the new Franklin Roosevelt as we went into the Great Recession. After several years into his first term I realized he was a phoney. We were still blowing up the Middle East, and didn’t crack down on Wall Street or rebuild the welfare state. He basically solidified Bush’s legacy and didn’t bring the hope and change he promised. The disappointment led me to anarchism and socialism, and I started reading books on the subjects from the college library. I began as many leftists do with Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, and when reading them I noticed how many phrases and concepts in their writings were in System of a Down songs. Deer Dance referenced Zinn’s memoir You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. The seeds of my becoming a socialist were planted with System of a Down.

It’s been 15 years since I first heard Hypnotize, and it feels like a whole lifetime ago with the overwhelming amount of history that has happened in my life and in the world since then. A lot has changed, but so much has unfortunately stayed the same. There’s a different fascist buffoon in the White House. The forever wars in the Middle East have not stopped, they’ve just become easier for most people to ignore. Bush’s image has been largely rehabilitated. He got to floss dance with Ellen DeGeneres and Democrats approval rating has increased over the years since at least he’s not a dang Cheeto like Drumpf. The ghouls in Bush’s circle deserved to be tried at the Hague or at least pelted with shoes whenever they go outside, but they are still free and continue to hold power and influence. Some of them are working for Joe Biden.

Over the last year or so I rediscovered System of a Down, and am surprised at how well it held up musically and lyrically. Deer Dance could have been written in 2020, since the subject of police brutality against protesters is perhaps more relevant and in focus now than ever before. “Pushing little children/ With their fully automatics/ They like to push the weak around”. It was probably inspired by the Battle of Seattle but since then we have seen the police brutalize protesters at Occupy, Ferguson, Standing Rock, and reaching a boiling point in this year. I can’t say if more people listened to them they would also be socialist. Even their drummer John Dolmayan turned out to be a MAGA chud this year. It had a lasting and significant influence on me at least. It at least gave me a head start in my political education.

#system of a down #soad #communism #left wing

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woman-loving · 4 years

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Black Nationalism, Feminism, and the Moynihan report

Selection from Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America’s Second Wave, by Benita Roth, 2010.

Black Women and Changes in the Civil Rights Movement The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s featured Black women activists in prominent roles (Crawford et al. 1990; Giddings 1984; Gray White 1999; hooks 1981; Joseph and Lewis 1981; McNair Barnett 1993; Payne 1989,1990; Robnett 1997; Standley 1990; Terborg-Penn 1978). Although the most public leaders were men, Black women played significant parts in the movement, both on local and national levels, contributions that were noted within the Black community at the time (see Bender 1969; Thomas 1964). Southern Black women's networks were central to the struggle, since Black women had been active in clubs and other political organizations that agitated on behalf of the race, such as the Montgomery Women's Political Council. Among Black college students, 48 percent of participants in sit-ins and Freedom Rides were women (Prestage 1980); Orum's (1970:72) survey of Black college students' participation in Civil Rights protest found that nearly twice as many women as men in the sample participated in protest (2,047 women versus 1,142 men).

Black women probably participated in the movement in disproportionate numbers (Payne 1990), filling roles that formed the backbone of the movement and exercising leadership "behind the scenes." Women were most often "bridge" leaders (Robnett 1997), using local networks to link new activists to national organizing. Their "invisibility" as leaders within the movement (McNair Barnett 1993) has been exacerbated by the tendency to define leadership as belonging only to those with public-speaking roles. For example, Ella Baker chose a place in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that was out of the spotlight so as not to threaten male egos; nonetheless, she was a key participant in that organization (at one point its interim executive director) and also helped "midwife" the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) into existence. Baker insisted that women's work was at the core of the Civil Rights struggle:

“All the churches depended... on women, not men. Men didn't do the things that had to be done and you had a large number of women who were involved in the bus boycott. They were the people who kept the spirit going.” (Payne 1989:890)

And Ella Baker was not alone. Gloria Richardson, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, Diane Nash, and Jo Ann Robinson form an incomplete list of women who were heroes of the movement, if not as widely visible to the public as someone like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Brock 1990; Fair Burks 1990; Giddings 1984; Locke 1990).

Much of Black women's energy in the movement was used for stereotypical "female" tasks, but the Civil Rights movement also gave Black women a chance to work alongside men in "nontraditional ways" (Marable 1978; Omolade 1994). Women went to jail (and were beaten there) as they handled bus boycotts, field projects, voter registration drives, and challenges to state and national Democratic party leadership. Cynthia Washington had her own voting rights project in Bolivar County, Mississippi, which she did not consider to be an "exceptional" thing for a woman to be coordinating (Washington 1979:238). Even later Black feminist critiques of sexism within the Civil Rights movement acknowledged that women have been given the opportunity "to do far more significant work than white women in their movement" (Bender 1969, citing Eleanor Holmes Norton). Omolade (1994:124) even argued that "traditional" female work took on new meaning in the "radical context and communal settings" of the movement, enabling women to become not just "wives, mothers, or maids," but also "lovers, friend, and comrades."3

Two intertwined changes in the Civil Rights movement of the mid-1960s affected Black women's roles within the movement. First, the social base of the movement shifted; it became younger and more northern. The southern community base that had fostered women's participation became less important to the Civil Rights movement as the student vanguard changed that movement. Second, an ideological program of advocating middle-class, traditional gender roles as a means of remaking the revolutionary Black family developed as part of Black Liberation ideology. Black women who had been active in social protest organizations were asked to become merely supportive and secondary to men. [...]

The Black Liberation ideology that accompanied the Civil Rights movement's shift to a northern, younger social base was characterized by what Giddings (1984) has called a philosophy of "masculinism." This ideological development proved crucial to the emergence of Black feminism. By the mid-1960s, integrationist approaches in the Civil Rights movement gave way to Black Power strategies and resurgent Black nationalism, forming the two major ideological components of Black Liberation. Black Liberation as an ideology was more suited to working within urban and northern contexts, and more popular with younger African Americans; sympathy for the "Black Power" slogan was greater among the young and those born in the North, whose southern roots were more attenuated (Aberbach and Walker 1971).

There were initially significant differences between Black Power and Black nationalism, but by the end of the decade, the two were difficult to distinguish from each other. SNCC was instrumental in the development of Black Power ideology; Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton--authors of Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America--were SNCC leaders when they began to formulate their ideas in 1966 and when their book was published in 1967 (Matusow 1971). Black Power political philosophy held that African Americans should strive for self-sufficiency and economic progress. Carmichael and Hamilton, holding up ethnic immigrant groups as models, argued that Black people needed to question the benefits of mere formal equality; to become economically empowered, they needed to turn inward, toward strengthening Black communities. Building on older nationalist ideas of self-sufficiency within the Black community, they expressed frustration at the limits of the Civil Rights agenda.

Carmichael and Hamilton were silent about Black women helping the community to gain economic empowerment. Virtually the only mention they make of women's roles was that of

“another set of leaders in the Black community in Lowndes County. This was a group of middle-aged ladies, who knew the community well and were well known. They were to play a very important role in the political organization of the Blacks. They had considerable influence in the Black community--being staunch church members, for example--but they possessed no power at all with the white community.” (Carmichael and Hamilton 1967:102-103)

In contrast to Black Power's silence about Black women, Black nationalism in the mid-1960s was strongly characterized by masculinist discourse and practice.4 According to the nationalists, the truly "revolutionary" Black woman was a supportive one, who kept house while the Black man kept revolution, so as to allow him to reclaim his public manhood (Marable 1983). Despite the work of Black women in the Civil Rights movements, and the very public presence of a small number of women in Black nationalist organizations themselves (e.g., Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, and Elaine Brown), Black nationalist organizations such as Maulana Ron Karenga's US movement and the Black Muslims advocated restricting opportunities for activism by women (Brown 1992). In this traditionalist take on women's roles, the Black nationalist resurgence of the 1960s differed from the older formulations. Whatever tensions existed between Black men and women in activist groups (see Gray White 1999), older Black nationalism did not seem to require as rigid an ideology of traditional sex roles, as was evidenced by Amy Garvey's strong advocacy of women's equality and the key role she played in the 1920s Garveyist movement (Adler 1992; Gray White 1999; White 1984).5

During the 1960s, masculinism was very much present in other parts of the Left and in other parts of the Black community; for example, the traditional gender role ideology of the much-admired Black Muslims added legitimacy to masculinist ideas about delimiting women's roles in the movement (Kashif 1970). However, Black feminists (both then and now) have argued that the masculinist cast of Black nationalism in the 1960s was a reaction to the "Black matriarchy" theory in the 1965 Moynihan report, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (Dubey 1994; Giddings 1984; Gray White 1999; hooks 1981; Murray 1975; see Pittman quoted in Cantwell 1971; Wallace 1996). The resurgent masculinism of Black Liberation was therefore tied to state intervention into the relationships that existed within the Black family; Black feminism in part responded to the aftereffects of this intervention. In reaction to the Moynihan report, Black masculinists attempted to counter the depiction of Black men as the most abject victims of racial discrimination, with Black women putatively better off by virtue of participation in the labor force. The report concluded that the Black family was "matriarchal" and "deviant," because women held an inappropriately large amount of power (this despite the fact that Black women's status as the most economically deprived group in the country was also noted). This "deviant" family structure hindered the progress of Black men, and, by extension, that of the Black community itself (Dubey 1994; see also Marx Ferree and Hess 2000).

Black nationalists condemned the report as racist, but many responded that the patriarchal family had to be reinstituted so as to right the historical wrongs done to the Black male. With this analysis in place, Black nationalist organizations "prescribed clearly restricted roles for black women in the movement" (Dubey 1994:18). The behind-the-scenes roles that women played in the Civil Rights movement were no longer far enough behind the scenes; women were to be supportive and subordinate, producing "male warriors for the revolution" within newly patriarchal families (Dubey 1994:18). Existing Black family structures, which were based on extended kinship networks, and where illegitimacy carried less stigma than in middle-class white society, were to be changed in favor of the nationalist model of a nuclear patriarchal family. This stance on the need to return to "traditional"--even if largely fictional--gender roles in the Black community was also accompanied by calls for Black women to end their use of birth control. At the Black Power conference held in Newark in 1967, organized by Amiri Baraka, an anti-birth control resolution was passed (Ross 1993); the possibility of Black women helping to carry out Black genocide by using birth control would continue to be a hotly contested issue between Black nationalists and emerging Black feminists, as will be discussed later.

In general, then, the Moynihan report was seized upon by many Black male activists as both a manifestation of white racism and proof that Black women out of their traditional place were abetting that racism. As Gray White (1999:200) argued, the report "legitimized the perception of black women as unnaturally strong and emasculating." But the masculinist reaction to Moynihan also found itself challenged by Black feminist organizing, as some Black women activists, facing problems in their ongoing struggles as activists, responded by uncovering the contradictions that confronted them.

Black Feminists Respond: Early Organizations By 1968, Black feminists had responded publicly to the Black Liberationist/nationalist emphasis on traditional gender roles. Their critiques were nuanced ones, directed as much at white society as at the changes in the Black movement. They condemned advocacy of a patriarchal family structure by Black Liberationists even as they attacked the racism they found in Moynihan's depiction of the Black family. Additionally, Black feminists were staunchly anticapitalist, attributing the shortcomings of existing movements to a failure to carry through on the full implications of revolutionary politics. [...]

The Black Woman, Black Liberation, and Middle-Class Style The members of TWWA [Third World Women’s Alliance] and the Mount Vernon Group were not entirely on their own; Toni Cade (Bambara) (1970a:107) wrote that in the late 1960s, it seemed "that every organization you can name has had to struggle at one time or another with seemingly mutinous cadres of women getting salty about having to man the telephones or fix the coffee while the men wrote the position papers and decided on policy." By 1970, the voices of the "mutinous cadres" of women described by Cade (Bambara) were gathered into her watershed edited collection entitled The Black Woman. Conceived as a dialogue with the Black movement--but unable to avoid some dialogue with white women's liberation--the book was organized out of her "impatience" with the lack of real information about the lives and politics of Black women (1970b: 10). The contributors to the collection were primarily writers and activists who spoke as members of older women's groups, Black liberation groups, Civil Rights groups, New Left groups, and no groups at all.

As might be expected, many of the pieces in The Black Woman were characterized by concerns over Black Liberationist/ nationalist reactions to the Moynihan report, and the specific failure of those reactions to maintain revolutionary consistency regarding gender roles. As noted, [Frances] Beal's "Double Jeopardy" appeared in the collection; one of the Mount Vernon Group's position papers appeared, entitled "On the Position of Poor Black Women in this Country" (which, like "Statement on Birth Control," was widely reprinted and distributed throughout the white women's liberation movement). In this piece, [Patricia] Robinson and her group continued criticism of middle-class Black leaders as a self-interested elite leading poor Blacks down the garden path of capitalism, linking class, gender, and racial oppression as belonging to one grand package:

“Capitalism is a male supremacist society.... All domestic and international political and economic decisions are made by men and enforced by males.... Women have become the largest oppressed group in a dominant, male, aggressive, capitalistic culture.... Rebellion by poor black women, the bottom of a class hierarchy... places the question of what kind of society will the poor black woman demand.... Already she demands the right to have birth control, like middle class black and white women.... She allies herself with the have-nots in the wider world and their revolutionary struggles.... Through these steps ... she has begun to question aggressive male domination and the class society which enforces it, capitalism.” (Robinson et al. 1970a:196)

Robinson and the group argued for a united front of middle-class Black and white women who would join poor Black women in continuing to expose male oppression. At the "bottom of a class hierarchy," poor Black women in concert with others would be able to lead this united front toward liberation for all exploited people (1970a: 196).

The anticapitalist critique of American society and the Black Liberation movement was present in other contributors' work in The Black Woman. In her essay, Gwen Patton (1970) also argued that capitalism was at the root of what she called the "Victorian Philosophy of Womanhood." According to Pam Allen, herself an activist in the Civil Rights and white women's liberation movement, Patton sent Bob Allen (Pam Allen's husband) a draft of her piece for the collection in August of 1968; Pam Allen thought it should be published because "it would be the first time we (or perhaps any paper) have printed a black woman's objection to women assuming supportive roles to black men" (Allen 1968b). Arguing that Black male militants should be more savvy about the intent and impact of the Moynihan report, Patton chastised Black male activists for not seeing through the report:

“Black men... responded] positively toward Black Power and could assert their leadership, which included a strengthening of their masculinity Black women will now take the back position [A] victory for the capitalistic system! Black men are now involved with keeping their women in line by oppressing them more, which means that Black men do not have time to think about their own oppression. The camp of potential revolutionaries has been divided.” (1970:146-147)

Patton recommended that Black women challenge Black men directly, so that the Victorian philosophy "of men on top, women on bottom" (1970:147-148) could be destroyed and the road could be cleared for real revolution.

Besides Patton, other contributors to The Black Woman wrestled directly with the Moynihan report, with the Black Liberationist "manhood" preoccupation that was restricting Black women's activism, and with the effects of capitalism on the Black community (Cade [Bambara] 1970a; Carey Bond and Perry 1970; Lincoln 1970; Lindsey 1970). Kay Lindsey's essay in The Black Woman echoed the idea that Black militants had been seduced by capitalist promises, and that the "Black middle class" were "pseudo-escapees into the mainstream" who had assumed "many of the institutional postures of the oppressor, including the so-called intact family" (1970:86). Lindsey argued that white establishment efforts to "encourage the acquisition of property among Blacks via Black Capitalism... would probably serve to further intensify the stranglehold on women as property" (1970:86-87).

And contributors also had concerns about Black Liberation's anti-birth control stance, following the stance first articulated by the Mount Vernon Group. Black Liberationist anti-birth control politics did not stop at rhetoric; in 1969, Black nationalists from the United Movement for Progress closed down a birth control clinic in Pittsburgh, which was subsequently reopened by community women (Lindsey 1970). Cade (Bambara) (1970c: 163-164) wrote of attending a workshop given by a Black Liberation group that degenerated into a diatribe against birth control. She described how "one tall, lean dude... castigated the Sisters to throw away the pill and hop to the mattresses and breed revolutionaries and mess up the man's genocidal program." One of the women present responded with a question about the "dude's" financial responsibility in this: "[W]hen's the last time you fed one of them brats you been breeding all over the city, you jive-ass so-and-so?"

The writings contained in The Black Woman represented a polyphonous response to the traditional gender ideology that Black Liberationists were espousing as revolutionary; in other places, Black feminists were agreeing that Black Liberation's sexism was rooted in their unquestioning adoption of middle-class values alien to the Black community. On the West Coast, in Seattle, Nina Harding, then a thirty-one-year-old Black Studies major at the University of Washington, a mother, and an employee of the Seattle Opportunities Industrialization Center, wrote a position paper entitled "The Interconnections Between the Black Struggle and the Woman Question," which she presented at the annual conference of the Seattle Radical Women in February 1970. In it, Harding also argued that Black Liberation, otherwise critical of capitalism, had accepted traditional ideas about women's roles, and she blamed these retrograde attitudes on unquestioning acceptance of the Muslims; but she was also critical of Black "bourgeois sisters and silent sisters," who hold to "WASP standards, be those standards interpreted by the Muslim or Nationalist advocates" (1970:4). Other Black feminists in other cities echoed the idea that Black Liberation was importing white middle-class values into the heart of the Black community (Holmes Norton 1970). When interviewed by a Los Angeles Times reporter in June of 1970, Margaret Wright, a member of the Los Angeles Black women's liberation group, declared it impossible for Black families to be shaped like white ones because of class domination:

“[T]he black man is saying he wants a family structure like the white man's. He's got to be head of the family and women have to be submissive and all that nonsense. Hell the white woman is already oppressed in that setup.” (1972:608)

On both coasts, then, Black feminists rejected attempts by Black Liberationists to use middle-class gender ideology to bolster Black male "manhood."

#feminism #feminist history #black feminism #black women #women of color #united states #us history #moynihan #moynihan report #separate roads to feminism #benita roth #gender #patriarchy #capitalism #racism

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96thdayofrage · 3 years

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Living through Covid-19 while Black and homeless

Not too many people do what Luther Keith does. Keith walks the streets among the homeless, passing out clothes and serving the unhoused with hot meals. This has been an everyday occurrence for Keith for over two decades.

On a weekly basis, Keith donates his time and feeds hundreds, sometimes thousands.

“That was my mission back in 1999, [that’s] to feed the homeless,” said Keith. “I started doing this on Avalon and Imperial Highway back in 1999 when I was at Locke High [School].”

At the time of his calling to help out those on the streets, Keith was a security officer for Locke High School in an area previously known as Watts, which is now encompassed inside of the boundaries of South Los Angeles.

A longtime gang interventionist, Keith has a strong presence on the streets of South Los Angeles. Working as the head of security for the renowned Drew League, a pro-am summer basketball league that has become home in the offseason for many NBA players, and keeping the peace among warring gang factions, Keith is a doer and not a talker when it comes to helping others.

Feeding and clothing the homeless is not for the faint of heart. Driving through downtown Los Angeles one can encounter many things. First, the many skyscrapers silhouettes that outline the Southern California skies make for a breathtaking view.

There are local hotspots and eateries that pop up on just about every block of the downtown area that make it chic or trendy to wine and dine.

STAPLES Center, the place that the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers call home, is snuggled in the midst of all of this hustle and bustle. Right across the street sits the Microsoft Theater, where live concerts from some of the biggest names in the music and entertainment industries are constantly on display as artists come and pay a visit when they’re in town performing.

Then there is Skid Row which is the direct antithesis to everything that is glamorous and modern in the downtown area of the second-largest city in America.

Though it is located in the downtown area of Los Angeles, a person would have to go through nearly two miles of designated parking lots and clumps of buildings and go past the city’s Los Angeles Fashion District before encountering humanity at its worse.

Skid Row is a proliferation of tents, gangs, hustlers, prostitution, gambling, and drug activity. The streets are blackened by the large amounts of trash and debris that have settled on them. The air space is almost inhalable. Assaults and robberies can happen about as quickly as you snap your fingers.

Navigating through Skid Row and other parts of downtown Los Angeles can be a dangerous place to walk or drive. The Covid-19 pandemic has magnified the danger alert to an even greater level. Keith is not too concerned about it. That’s because as a devout Christian, Keith arms himself with the faith weapons he’s been given on his sleeves.

These are the antidotes to any negativity he may encounter when he’s out and about doing what he’s called to do.

Judge David O. Carter gave the elected officials representing the City Los Angeles and Los Angeles County a sharp rebuke for failing to properly address the homeless crisis. The judge issued a memo ordering those living on Skid Row to be housed by this fall.

“There can be no defense to the indefensible,” Carter wrote in a 110-page ruling in the court case LA Alliance for Human Rights v City of Los Angeles. “For all the declarations of success that we are fed, citizens themselves see the heartbreaking misery of the homeless and the degradation of their City and County. Los Angeles has lost its parks, beaches, schools, sidewalks, and highway systems due to the inaction of City and County officials who have left our homeless citizens with no other place to turn. All of the rhetoric, promises, plans, and budgeting cannot obscure the shameful reality of this crisis—that year after year, there are more homeless Angelenos, and year after year, more homeless Angelenos die on the streets.”

The system of homelessness has become a Black problem with long-rooted institutional checks and balances in place playing a significant role behind the scenes, said Heidi Marston, director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

“I want to be very clear, homelessness is a byproduct of racism,” Marston said. “We continue to see that Black people are overrepresented in our homeless population and that Black African Americans are four times more likely to become homeless than their white counterparts.”

Being homeless and Black in the middle of the Covid-19 is not just a Los Angeles thing. The numbers are just as staggering nationally. Much like the population-to-homeless ratio in Los Angeles, unhoused statistics for Blacks across the country are alarming.

According to the 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, a report backed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 39 percent of the people who are homeless nationwide are Black. The AHAR report, released this past January, also concluded that Blacks with families and children (53 percent) are in far greater numbers to be homeless than any other ethnic group surveyed.

According to a 2020 U.S. Census study, Blacks are just 12 percent of the general population in the country, a sobering reality to the vast homelessness numbers this group represents. There are several contributing factors as to why many Black people can be found on the streets or are unsheltered, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

The main causes, poverty, rental and housing discrimination, lack of access to quality health care and incarceration, are nothing new. When it comes to re-entering back into society after being incarcerated, Black women are more likely than anyone else to be homeless, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. That’s including Black men.

A New Way of Life Reentry Project, founded by Susan Burton, does its best to address the needs of these women once they leave jail or prison.

“A New Way of Life and similar programs offer people released from jails and prisons an opportunity to live in a safe, welcoming, structured, and supportive environment where both staff and other residents understand the challenges that convicted and formerly incarcerated people face, and are able to offer a clear path forward,” said Pamela Marshall, co-director of A New Way of Life Reentry Project.

“Having stable, safe and affordable housing improves an individuals’ abilities to reduce stress; to heal from trauma or addiction; to manage a health or mental health condition; to find and maintain employment; to protect, uplift and support children and other family members; to attend school and/or job training programs; to avoid violence and system contact,” Marshall added.

Based in South Los Angeles, A New Way of Life Reentry Project has 10 homes to accommodate women coming from jail or prison. Marshall said once these individuals put incarceration in the rearview mirror, trying to live and function in normalcy, can be overwhelming.

“Imagine living in a jail or prison cell where your every movement, every minute, every meal and every decision has been made for you and you are suddenly released with $200 or less, without a state ID, social security card, medical or birth documents, into a world where the technology, bus routes, culture, and communities have advanced far into the future leaving you without direction or understanding and you have also lost all contact with family, friends or a place to stay,” Marshall said.

While A New Way of Life Reentry Project has a more structural way of helping those once locked up to stay off the streets, Keith keeps things pushing with his charitable outreach, bringing encouragement and food to fill the bellies and minds of the homeless. And he does it without fear.

“If you ain’t equipped and know how to do this…they got gangs down there,” Keith said. “Folks are scared to go down there.”

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pilgrimdrewbert-blog · 3 years

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Never Enough: The Dream Destiny Pursuit of the Charismatic Movement

The dimly lit auditorium pulses with emotional choruses from Bethel as individuals line up to receive a word from the Lord. A visiting speaker just poured out his heart, pleading with folks to “pursue God’s dream”. The church’s prophet lays his hands on them one at a time, declaring their unique destiny in vague but exciting terms...

“I feel the Lord saying, ‘Your season of waiting is over. Your breakthrough is right around the corner. Press into the dreams I have placed within your heart. The world needs what I have entrusted to you’.”

This scenario plays out frequently in many Charismatic churches across North America, Europe, and throughout large portions of Africa and South America. The “Dream Destiny” concept is not limited to Charismatics but is popular throughout so much of mainstream Evangelicalism.

The Dream Destiny idea goes something like this...

Jesus died for you to have so much more than you’re currently experiencing. He wants you and even needs you to tap into your full potential, because when you do, you’ll be able to accomplish God’s epic plan for your life. There’s a dormant destiny within you that needs to be awakened. God is trying everything He can to release your inner champion. When you finally break out of your cocoon, you’ll do great exploits for Jesus and the world will never be the same.

If you sat under Charismatic teachings for any length of time, you doubtless felt pressure to become a spiritual elite. If your experience was anything like mine, you were told to “press in” and strive for that “next level” experience. Just beyond your reach was a second tier of Christian living…You know, “Radical Christianity”?

According to the leaders and influencers, God wants you to spearhead a movement and inspire a generation. “Don’t settle for an ordinary life. Normal Christianity is radically supernatural.”

But you never pressed in hard enough. You never groaned deep enough. Your prayers just weren’t anointed enough. Every conference that promised to change your life failed to do so. No matter what, it was never enough.

The Burden God Never Gave

If you’re reading this and you haven’t felt this pressure from spiritual leaders, then praise God. But at this very moment, millions of precious souls are struggling underneath a burden that God never intended them to bear.

Does the Bible teach that God has a special dream for your life which He’s waiting for you to discover? If so, what’s holding you back and why does it only seem to work out for the dynamic leader on stage?

Most American Evangelicals have heard the saying, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Coffee cups and journal covers are inscribed with Jeremiah 29:11,

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Does God frown upon those with an ordinary existence? Is He upset with His children if they are content and failing to dream of greater things?

Let’s be honest. Most of us have normal lives with mundane, repetitive jobs. Our schedules aren’t full of speaking engagements and mission trips to the far flung regions of the earth. Our lives are limited. We have bills to pay and mouths to feed. Reality has a way of leaving us stuck where we are, and mainstream Charismatic leaders would have you despise your hidden, seemingly insignificant life.

Imagine today’s self appointed apostles and prophets telling first century slaves to “dream a God sized dream” and to discover their unique purpose. Slavery was extremely common in the Roman Empire. The slaves had no upward mobility and very few life choices. They pretty much had three options as a Christian slave.

They could...

1) Rebel against their master and run away, risking likely death. 2) Grudgingly serve their master and hate their life. 3) Look at their service as serving the Lord and do it willingly and to the best of their abilities with a gracious attitude.

For a first century slave, living a godly life wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t complicated either. Peter writes some wonderful encouragement in his first epistle,

“Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” - 1 Peter 2:18-25

Just like a Christian who was free, an enslaved Christian repented and believed in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and then, being accepted in the sight of God because of Christ’s merit, their redeemed life was to be lived to God’s glory and praise. But it was a simple life with a living hope. Christ transformed their heart and gave them His Holy Spirit. They would never lead a movement or speak to nations, but they would impact their master’s household. Even if their master never believed the Gospel, God assured the enslaved Christian that his or her service was not in vain.

“Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” - Colossians 3:22-24

Depending on who their master was, life as a slave could be very difficult. But their marching orders from God were simple...Honor your master with your work as one who fears God. Trust in Christ who will reward you when this brief life of hardship is over.

For many Christians today, the same reality exists. Believers in China live at the bottom of the social food chain and suffer regular persecution and limitations on their freedom. Poverty stricken saints in India, Nigeria, Romania, etc don’t have the liberty to quit their day jobs and move into full time ministry. This doesn’t stop “anointed leaders” with high budget ministries from urging the poor to have faith for a breakthrough into their destiny. Not surprisingly, the breakthrough usually requires them to part with more of their hard earned money.

These prophets of dreams and destiny preach that God wants to promote everyone to greatness, but there’s only so much room on the platform. In the end, the spotlight is reserved for the elites. Like a carrot on a stick, they dangle before you the Christian life of your dreams, but it’s always just out of reach. Will one more conference do the trick? One more book touting the secrets to unlock a fulfilling and significant life? One more e-course on how to “reign in life” and “live a life of purpose”? No, it’s never enough.

Here’s the liberating truth: you don’t need to find your dream destiny because it doesn’t exist. If you are a Christian, you have been promised eternal life, and one day you will enter into the joy of your Master. There He will wipe away every tear and put an end to pain. But for as long as He calls us to walk here below, we are promised that a godly life will be accompanied by persecution and difficulty.

God isn’t waiting on you to discover some secret ingredient to a life of significance. Rather, He’s spelled it out for you plainly in the written Word.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” - 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Ephesians 2:10 says,

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Our good works have already been prepared for us and God’s Word is sufficient to equip us for the task. No extra revelation is needed.

For the slave, the good works prepared beforehand consist in serving their master with respect and living to please God rather than men.

The husband’s good works involve loving his wife so much that he lays down his life for her, following in the steps of his Savior. The wife does her good works by honoring her husband and following him as he follows Christ. Children are to obey their parents and parents are to patiently raise their children in the truth.

Then all the “one another’s” of Scripture come into play. Disciples of Christ are to...

- Love one another (John 13:34)

- Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10)

- Honor one another (Romans 12:10)

- Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)

- Build up one another (Romans 14:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Click here for a list of the “one another’s”

As Christians, we are to be ready at all times to give an answer for the hope that’s within us. We live with certain hope and love our enemies with grace and forgiveness. When given the opportunity, we proclaim Christ crucified for guilty sinners. As we boast in our Savior and articulate Who He is and what He’s done, the Holy Spirit does the heavy lifting, taking dead souls out of darkness and giving them new life in the kingdom of the Beloved Son.

The stuff we need to be doing is written down for us in black and white. All that is needful for the Christian to know has been revealed in Holy Scripture. It is sufficient to teach us what to believe and how to live. Christ has fulfilled the law on our behalf and set us free from its curse. We are now free to live for His glory and for the good of others. We have nothing to earn and nothing to lose. It’s a simple life. And it’s simply for God’s glory.

Is it not a comfort to know that something’s not wrong with you if your life is not as epic as the "prophets of destiny” once foretold? God isn’t frowning upon your ordinary life with its simple joys and real hardships. If reality has you stuck, it’s okay. God orchestrated the circumstances that led to your limitations and He calls you to trust Him right where you are. You aren’t going to miss your dream destiny. Your destiny is with Christ in a new heaven and new earth and it will be better than your wildest dreams.

But take a deep breath about your life. Christ said repeatedly not to worry about it.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?“ - Matthew 6:25

But you may be thinking, “Don’t I need to seek the Lord’s will for my life?” Yes, you do.

“Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

If you are a humble student of God’s Word, living daily with repentance and faith in Christ and pursuing holiness, then you can’t miss God’s will. He’s sovereign. He providentially arranges the details of your life and yet leaves you with decisions. Seek wisdom and make God honoring choices. Repent when you don’t and relax, knowing that you aren’t missing your purpose. Your purpose is to glorify the living God and enjoy Him forever.

Let’s take an example. Phillip is 22 years old. He just graduated from college and wants to be a missionary to Bangladesh. Does he need to fast and pray for 20 days to confirm the will of the Lord? How would he know if 20 days of fasting is long enough? What if the confirmation of his calling was coming on the 24th day of fasting?

I’m not against fasting. It ought to be a time of honest prayer and searching God’s Word. But you don’t need a whisper from Heaven to make a wise decision, nor should you expect to hear one. People have spiritual experiences all the time that they mistake to be a sign from God. There is an endless supply of subjective experiences that could be used to justify a decision, but you need objective truth on which to stand. You’ll find such rock solid objectivity in the Bible. Take it up and read. Ask questions of those more mature in the faith. Pray for wisdom.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” - James 1:5

Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to move to Bangladesh is Phillip’s. God paves the way or shuts the door in His providence. He need not seek for a sign. Rather, he should seek clarity and wisdom from Scripture to make the best choice. Is he biblically qualified for the task? Can he faithfully handle God’s Word and proclaim Law and Gospel? Is he in a sound church that desires to send him and equip him? All these questions and more would help him to make a wise and biblical choice for God’s glory. He doesn’t have to worry about missing God’s wonderful plan. If the Lord wants Phillip to stay put, He’s able to arrange it.

But you say, “When God shuts a door, He opens a window.” No, sometimes He leaves you stuck in the same situation indefinitely. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We get to serve Christ in every station. If at the end of your life, no one knows your name but a small circle of people, it won’t matter. What will matter is whether or not you walked in a manner worthy of the Gospel. You don’t need an angelic visitation to equip you for that. His Word informs you and His Spirit empowers you. Be free of the pressure to be significant. If you belong to Christ, you are significant to Him though all the world despise you.

He really does love you and He really does have a wonderful plan for your life, but His definition of wonderful might look more like the New Testament and less like your dreams. His will for you = your sanctification. It may look nothing like you dreamed, but He promises you, that in the end, it will be GOOD. His wonderful plan may involve tragedies and dark nights of the soul. Your last night on earth may be spent in a prison cell, but you will awake in the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Your first glimpse of Immanuel’s Land will more than confirm that YES, His plan was good...so very good.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” - Romans 8:28-30

Friends, there are not two classes of Christians. There aren’t those who discover and fulfill their unique purpose and those who don’t. There are only Christians who repent from sin, believe upon Christ, and live holy lives while awaiting their Master’s return.

So what’s the problem with all of this emphasis on purpose, destiny, and so on? Well, who is the focus in this predicament? YOU! That’s right! You…but as I hope you’ve learned, Christianity isn’t about you. Christianity is about Christ.

You aren’t called to jump through hoops to reach a higher spiritual plane. You aren’t called to try harder. Christ calls His people to poverty of spirit. Despair of your own performance and failures and sins.

Your first step toward the one true God is deep, profound awareness of your need. Your first step through the narrow gate is a contrite heart. God doesn’t dwell with the prophetic and apostolic elites but with the contrite and lowly. The LORD of Hosts revives the poor in spirit. He exposes sin and then exalts the Savior! His Spirit reveals your miserable condition and then lifts up the Lamb of God Who has fulfilled ALL righteousness and suffered your condemnation! Look and Live!

Dwell much on Jesus, brothers and sisters, because for every flaw we find in us, we rejoice to find no flaw in Christ. For every failure we see in us, we rejoice to see perfect obedience in Christ. He is our righteousness and He has become our SALVATION!

Tell the “Next Level” Christians to cease striving and to remember the old saying of the beloved, Scottish Presbyterian,

“For every look at self, take ten looks at CHRIST!” - Robert Murray McCheyne

Then hear the Apostle Paul,

“For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond servants for Jesus sake. For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 4:6

Beloved, Christ is enough. You don’t have to know what He has in store for your pilgrimage here on earth. Expect trouble. Expect pain. Expect all that this fallen world can throw at you, but expect goodness and mercy to follow you all the days of your life. His loving hand will order your steps and His Word will light your path. Keep walking. You have an infallible Guide.

Are you carrying the burden that God never gave? If so, put it down. There’s no secret to significance outside of Jesus Christ. If you are trusting in Him and growing in grace, then you ARE living a life of purpose...the purpose for which you were made...to know the living God. And because of the blood of the lamb, you will dwell in the house of the Lord...forever.

Be at peace.

Further Resources

This is a lot to process, so if you’d like a deeper dive into this topic, please check out the following resources.

“The Dream Destiny Burden: When False Dreams Become Real Nightmares” - by Steve Kozar

“The Radically Normal Life of the Christian” - by Tim Challies

“God Did Not Create You for a Purpose” - by Chris Rosebrough

“Modern Spirituality and Your Mind” - by Voddie Baucham

“What Does Sola Scriptura Mean?” - by John MacArthur

“Scripture Vs. Human Experience” - by Phil Johnson

“Hearing from Heaven: How to Know the Voice of God” - by Justin Peters

“Scripture’s Sufficiency for Sanctification” - by Mike Riccardi

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kemetic-dreams · 5 years

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African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans. Their origins are in musical forms that arose out of the historical condition of slavery that characterized the lives of African Americans prior to the American Civil War.

Following the Civil War, African Americans, through employment as musicians playing European music in military bands, developed a new style of music called ragtime which gradually evolved into jazz. In developing this latter musical form, African Americans contributed knowledge of the sophisticated polyrhythmic structure of the dance and folk music of peoples across western and sub-Saharan Africa. These musical forms had a wide-ranging influence on the development of music within the United States and around the world during the 20th century.

The modern genres of blues and ragtime were developed during the late 19th century by fusing West African vocalizations - which employed the natural harmonic series, and blue notes.

The earliest jazz and blues recordings were made in the 1920s. African-American musicians developed related styles such as Rhythm and Blues in the 1940s. In the 1960s, soul performers had a major influence on white US and UK singers. In the mid-1960s, Black musicians developed funk and they were many of the leading figures in late 1960s and 1970s genre of jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970s and 1980s, Black artists developed hip-hop, and in the 1980s introduced the disco-infused dance style known as house music. In the 2000s, hip-hop attained significant mainstream popularity. Modern day music is heavily influenced by previous and present African-American music genres

As well as bringing harmonic and rhythmic features from western and sub-Saharan Africa to meet European musical instrumentation, it was the historical condition of chattel slavery forced upon African Americans within American society that contributed the conditions which would define their music.

Many of the characteristic musical forms that define African-American music have historical precedents. These earlier forms include: field hollers, beat boxing, work song, spoken word, rapping, scatting, call and response, vocality (or special vocal effect: guttural effects, interpolated vocality, falsetto, melisma, vocal rhythmization), improvisation, blue notes, polyrhythms (syncopation, concrescence, tension, improvisation, percussion, swung note), texture (antiphony, homophony, polyphony, heterophony) and harmony (vernacular progressions; complex, multi-part harmony, as in spirituals, Doo Wop, and barbershop music

In the late 18th century folk spirituals originated among Southern slaves, following their conversion to Christianity. Conversion, however, did not result in slaves adopting the traditions associated with the practice of Christianity. Instead they reinterpreted them in a way that had meaning to them as Africans in America. They often sang the spirituals in groups as they worked the plantation fields.

Folk spirituals, unlike much white gospel, were often spirited: slaves added dancing (later known as "the shout") and other forms of bodily movements to the singing. They also changed the melodies and rhythms of psalms and hymns, such as speeding up the tempo, adding repeated refrains and choruses, and replaced texts with new ones that often combined English and African words and phrases. Originally being passed down orally, folk spirituals have been central in the lives of African Americans for more than three centuries, serving religious, cultural, social, political, and historical functions.

Folk spirituals were spontaneously created and performed in a repetitive, improvised style. The most common song structures are the call-and-response ("Blow, Gabriel") and repetitive choruses ("He Rose from the Dead). The call-and-response is an alternating exchange between the soloist and the other singers. The soloist usually improvises a line to which the other singers respond, repeating the same phrase. Song interpretation incorporates the interjections of moans, cries, hollers etc... and changing vocal timbres. Singing is also accompanied by hand clapping and foot-stomping.

#african music #kemetic dreams #james brown #funk #rnb #hip hop #rag time #jazz #rock n roll #rap #soul #micheal jackson

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 3 years

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My sexual re-education in the Unification Church

All that heaven allows

I learned the identity of my husband-to-be at the end of a forty-day Divine Principle workshop. Situated in upstate New York, the Unification theological seminary had the hushed libraries, dorms and chapel of a medieval monastery. As my footsteps echoed through the stark, stone hallways, I imagined hooded friars whispering beside me. On the final evening, a Korean minister announced from a pulpit the name and nationality of each student’s “eternal spouse.” Mine was Gabriel from Ecuador.

One week after the workshop, all eligible members were sent to Korea, where we would be blessed in marriage along with 30,000 other couples. Gabriel and I met for the first time in the waiting room at JFK airport. I wore a navy skirt suit, my hair in a french pleat. Gabriel wore a gray jacket, white shirt and gray tie, his wiry hair slicked back into a solid black helmet. I’m five-four; he was a significant inch shorter than me. In our photographs from that day, we stand inches away from each other, staring at opposite ends of space, our bodies pointing keenly apart, our lips stretched vaguely upward in imitations of smiles.

One of the sisters with whom I shared a room said Gabriel looked like a miniature Sylvester Stallone. Another said he was the best-looking brother of the bunch. Occasionally I see someone and immediately feel that I want to know them better. Gabriel’s face did not have that quality. I felt bemused as I regarded this person — my soul mate — who was a total stranger. If he had approached me in the street, I would have walked away.   

Two years earlier, in 1990, I had walked away from my family, my apartment in London, my friends, and the man I loved to enter the Unification Church, a.k.a. “the Moonies,” a Christian sect which originated in Korea and is led by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who claimed that Jesus Christ had appeared to him when he was sixteen. I had just produced a TV documentary called Soul-Searching, which was funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain. One of the men I interviewed was a Unification Church member named Jurgen.

After the documentary was finished, I crossed Jurgen’s path several times in one week. This seemed fateful. On my way home from the Cafe de Paris one night, I saw him standing on Charing Cross Road, a tall, potbellied, balding German with sensual lips and cold sores, drenched with rain at three a.m. I wondered: what would possess anyone to stand outside at all hours, in any weather, to ask people to talk about the “purpose of life”? 

We talked. Jurgen told me about the “Divine Principle,” which I later learned was Unification theology. He explained that true love could exist only in a monogamous marriage, blessed by God, and that my relationship with my lover was wrong. He promised that if I dedicated my life to God, my brother, who had recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia, would be healed.

Tired of my unfaithful lover and frustrated by my inability to help my brother, I was attracted to the extreme nature of the group. They asked me to leave my life behind, claimed they had a living messiah. I agreed to try it out for three months, knowing that once I was in, it would not be so easy to walk away.

I felt pious when I covered my body in frumpy pantsuits, shaved off my hair (against the church’s wishes), spent my days raising money for the church, praying and vowing never again to think about sex. During four years of living in church centers in London, Edinburgh and New York, I enjoyed cultivating my lack of desire, pushing out thoughts of sex the instant they surfaced, focusing on one aim: I will save my brother. I will do anything necessary to help those who are suffering.

▲ The author with Gabriel during the marriage ceremony.

Inside the church centers, men and women referred to each other as brothers and sisters, to emphasize the absence of sexuality in our relationships. We slept in different areas, sat on opposite sides of the room during meetings — the brothers always above, to the right, or in front, to signify their superior status. This subtle detail sank into the minds of the women, helping them realize they were in the “object position” and should follow the men’s lead. This viewpoint was reinforced regularly: Women were shorter because they should look up to men. Women had big hips because they were made to sit down. Women couldn’t run. In sex, women should be underneath.

I heard about the blessing of marriage but imagined I would never attain the “level of perfection” necessary to participate. One elder brother defined perfection as the state whereby everyone you meet feels loved by you. I knew that my ability to love fell short.    

During the fifteen-hour flight to Seoul, I had the window seat; Gabriel took the aisle. I had no idea what to say to him. He told me that he was raised as one of nine brothers and sisters in an Ecuadorian mountain village which still had no garbage collection and barely had running water. His elder sister had nursed him at the same time as her own son. Our backgrounds couldn’t have been more different. I grew up with my mother and brother in the English countryside, in an eccentric, artsy broken family.

“Repeat after me,” he whispered. “Te quiero.”

“Te quiero.” I knew what it meant but attached no importance to the words. “I love you.”

I remembered Jurgen’s speech to me on the night I joined the church. “Never flirt with brothers,” he had said, fixing me with a glare. This meant no touching, no staring, no flattery, no immodest body language, no fantasizing. Now I glanced at Gabriel’s steady tar-black eyes. Had I failed to learn a new set of rules now that I was preparing for marriage? Was flirting now required? Or was I supposed to maintain chastity while he taunted me with romance?

“When I saw your picture, I thought you were too old for me,” Gabriel said. I was twenty-eight. Although he was a year older, Gabriel considered himself hot, eligible and worthy of a much younger wife. “But I liked your lips,” he continued, emboldened. “I dreamt that you were a prostitute. I saw you wearing a short dress and red lipstick and you were almost falling over. I thought, that is a sick woman.” He paused, allowing this image to linger. “Tell me about your boyfriends.”

“We’re not supposed to talk about that.”

“I had sex with a prostitute,” he said, “but I believe that makes me more pure because I didn’t have a relationship with the person. I had a girlfriend also, in Ecuador, but she went out with someone else,” he continued.

I imagined Gabriel’s girlfriend, a petite, pretty Ecuadorian girl in her late teens, with thick, glossy black hair that reached down to her thighs. I imagined them dancing together at a family party, and felt sorry for him. I wished she hadn’t broken his heart.

Confused by my distraction, Gabriel leaned over. “I am a crazy lover,” he said.

I wondered if he had learned this statement from a Spanish-English phrase book under “Dating.”

For single members of the Unification Church, the topic of sex was taboo, except to admit sins or recognize the sins of others. Abstinence until marriage was required. Since most of us were no longer virgins, we had already failed and were required to start anew. Considering the misery I’d experienced because of my lover’s infidelity, abstinence appealed to my desire for peace.

Lack of sleep, intense scheduling and daily exposure to the church’s theology kept me involved. My contact with outside family and friends was almost nonexistent, and I knew nothing of news or popular culture save what was selectively analyzed by my Central Figure, or advisor, according to the church’s theology. Within three months, the thought of moving away from the church center terrified me. I shared a room with six women, woke at five a.m. for a prayer meeting, spent the day raising money or encouraging others to study the Divine Principle, then returned to sleep around ten p.m., shortly after the evening meeting. When members’ attention slackened, extra requirements were enforced, such as fasting for days or praying for hours.

For years, I never looked at a man with desire, never touched myself. To resist the occasional attractions I felt to brothers, or fantasies I had about my ex-lover, I took daily cold showers, throwing 120 buckets of icy water over my body with the intention of subjugating my subconscious mind. This took considerable time, and was done in a symmetrical pattern of ten buckets over one shoulder, ten over the other. The frigid water slapping my skin felt like a whip across my back, so cold that it burned.

   For four days, Gabriel and I stayed at the North American camp in Seoul’s Olympic Stadium. The complex was huge, housing church members from almost 200 different countries in different buildings. Our building was a flat gray rectangle. One hundred women slept next to each other in sleeping bags on the floor of one large concrete room, our possessions crammed into small plastic bags. Although our group lived in North America, most of the women were Japanese. There were less than twenty sisters originally from Europe and America. Church leaders claimed this was because Western women were self-centered, unable to subjugate to masculine will.

In the sisters’ camp, the variety of couples was the main topic of conversation. Within the church, there was an unspoken hierarchy: Asian spouses were considered most favorable, then Caucasian, then black and Hispanic. A blonde American sister who shared my room bemoaned that she was given a Dominican husband rather than a Korean. She and I wondered whether our extreme sinfulness had placed us with our non-Asian spouses. We decided it was, instead, our dedication and ability to endure difficulties. 

Gabriel waited outside our building at 6:30 every evening, his hair freshly gelled back, his shirt tucked into belted black pants. Side by side, we would walk to the meal room. I listened to Gabriel’s plans to help his hometown, and spoke little. Occasionally, I noticed him staring at my breasts and felt liberated that I could allow this without shame, since he was my betrothed.

▲ The 1992 mass marriage – publicity and profit for Sun Myung Moon.

In our week-long stay in Korea, Gabriel and I participated in three ceremonies. In the Holy Wine Ceremony, we wore white, prayed and drank a thimbleful of grape juice from a white plastic tumbler. This symbolized new blood, heralding our entry into the True Lineage. The Blessing Ceremony joined us in matrimony, as 60,000 individuals arranged geometrically in black-suited and white-gowned rows yelled “Yeh!” Our pledge, recited in Korean, expressed our resolve to sacrifice our physical and personal desires for the sake of the greater good. I had seen photographs of these ceremonies and thought they seemed like grand, empty gestures. Being a part of the event, even knowing its spiritual significance, I felt detached, like a fragment in an abstract work of art.

Finally, in the Indemnity Ceremony, each couple bestowed a symbolic beating to their partner. After listening to a speech detailing how we were to forget our past history with, and resentment toward, the opposite sex, we lined up two by two with several hundred members of the North American camp, in one of the concrete meeting rooms. We dressed casually in jeans and T-shirts. A few members arrived wearing short shorts and leather pants.

“The more you love your partner, the harder you will hit,” our Central Figure said. “Just imagine your spouse is a big baby.”

A three-hundred-pound brother beside us turned to his petite Japanese wife. “A VERY big baby!” he laughed.

▲ The Indemnity Stick Ceremony – a few members were hospitalized with injuries (several in Japan).

When we reached the front, a Korean brother handed Gabriel a wooden baseball bat, watched while he whacked me three times on the backside, then handed the bat to me. We bent over to receive our blows, and were advised to hit our partner only on the buttocks and upper thighs. After this, my only physical contact with a man for over two years, I lay on my stomach on my sleeping bag, concentrating on the tingling sensation where wood had met flesh.

   Upon returning from Korea, we were moved to different centers to continue fundraising and witnessing until we completed three years of separation from our spouse or reached the age of thirty. For the next two years, until our Three Day Ceremony, Gabriel and I were forbidden to have any physical contact. I lived in the Brooklyn church center. Gabriel lived sometimes in the Bronx center, sometimes with his family members, who had moved to Manhattan to raise money for their family back home. He studied accounting. We saw each other occasionally at religious events. I found myself daydreaming about him sometimes; I believed that fantasizing was not quite as sinful since we were married. In my imagination, our eventual union would be explosive.

Toward the end of our separation period, I moved to a church-owned hotel to work at their video post-production facility. At around the same time, Gabriel moved to work and live in the same hotel. For the first time in four years, I slept alone. In my twelve-feet square box of a room, its window facing dozens of similar rooms, I began to question if unity of purpose existed within this organization. Before, my every moment had been monitored; now, I could be gone for days before anyone would notice.

Once, I accompanied Gabriel on a visit to his family in Ecuador, failing to anticipate the difficulty of maintaining chastity away from the church. 

“If you don’t let me kiss you, I will break this blessing,” Gabriel challenged me on a street corner in Quito. Pressing me against a faux Spanish wall in eighty-degree twilight, he pushed his tongue in my mouth, grabbed my breasts in his fists.

Shortly after the kissing incident, Gabriel lay on top of me, fully clothed. The sensation of his erection pressing between my legs was so long-forgotten and exciting that I came within moments, a short, tingling burst through my stomach. I told no one. The premature kissing and closeness would have necessitated a Repentance Ceremony, and a longer separation. When I made a partial confession to my Central Figure, he let me off with a prayer.

The love of my life, whom I left to join the church, was a seductively androgynous filmmaker. With his camera, he could enhance the beauty of a homeless person or a perfect white daisy. He could laugh hysterically at some stupid joke I made, or threaten to rip out my guts if he suspected (needlessly) that I fancied someone else.

Gabriel was a steady, methodical man who rarely laughed. He drove me frantic with the slow way he set up a computer or checked his accounts. I admired his ambition and felt secure that he would never be unfaithful — his parents were nearing their sixtieth anniversary. In my mind, I built him into an icon of virtue. Secretly, I worried that I might never love freely again.

I plunged into our marriage, dutiful, determined to succeed, convinced that I was soiled goods and fortunate to be with someone so stable and faithful. Still, I was unsure of how to approach intimacy.

It was essential that I banish all memories of past experience. I could not be overenthusiastic, because our first days together would be ceremonial. So, with my mind twisting with doubt, desire and fear, we began our married life.

Two years after our wedding, I gathered our checklist of items for the Three Day Ceremony, the consummation of our marriage: 1) Two Holy Handkerchiefs. These were to wash our bodies prior to intimacy, then to collect the fluids produced by our final union in the ceremony; they were to be kept “eternally.” 2) Holy Salt. This was sprinkled over everything used for the ceremony, to sanctify the proceedings. 3) Two Holy Gowns. These ankle-length white satin gowns were to be worn before and after each act of love during the Three Day Ceremony. 4) Two Basins. These were to fill with Holy Water in which to soak the Holy Handkerchiefs before use. 5) A picture of True Parents. Since the fall of Adam and Eve occurred out of the sight of God, this picture of Rev. and Mrs. Moon stood in for God’s eyes. 6) Two cushions to designate the places of True Parents. 7) A Shim Jung (True Heart) candle.

The first night of the ceremony, I arrived at our room in the church-owned hotel at nine. It was on the nineteenth floor, with windows facing the Empire State Building on the east and the Chrysler Building to the south. Gabriel returned from college at ten, pulled out a book on accounting and a folder, and sat at the desk to write.

“What time should we start?” I asked.

He didn’t look up. “I have to finish my homework. I’ll tell you when I’m ready.”

Still wearing my black skirt and white shirt, I lay on the tightly made bed and closed my eyes. No thoughts came, just the distant roar of traffic on Thirty-Fourth Street, the smell of sterile linen. When he finally said my name, I was startled.

“I’ve finished,” he said. “Shall we do it now?”

I pulled the pamphlet of instructions out of my bag. We showered separately, never having seen each other naked. After he emerged, I took my turn in the steamy bathroom, then put on my new underwear. Our undergarments had to be new for each day of the ceremony; black satin felt luxurious after the baggy cotton underpants I’d been slouching around in for years. I dressed in my ivory wedding gown, and over that my white holy robe. The sash of my robe was decorated with pink beads, Gabriel’s trim was green.  

“What’s next?” He sat impatiently on the side of the bed. “I have to get up early for class.”

“We’re supposed to pray.” I placed the red-and-green embroidered cushions in front of the prayer table I had set up. A picture of Rev. and Mrs. Moon glared out humorlessly, next to the white, vanilla-scented holy candle.

We bowed to the ground in front of the picture, and prayed for four minutes.

“All right, let’s do it now.” Gabriel threw off his holy robe and lay on the bed in his underpants. His body looked small and dark on the king-size bed. I removed my clothing, then his underpants.

In the first part of the ceremony, the woman had to be on top, symbolizing the restoration of Eve’s act of love with Lucifer. After two minutes of foreplay, I guided him inside me. Instantly, I felt the emotional disconnect. It was the first time I had felt a man inside me for four years, and it felt good, but there was no holy passion, no divine ecstasy. I moved on top of him, concentrated on bringing him to an orgasm, then removed myself and lay next to him.

Our ritualistic act of love was over in ten minutes. We wiped the fluids onto our Holy Handkerchiefs.

The official handbook said, “Go to sleep in peace. Sleep in pajamas and nightgown. Do not have a physical relationship outside of the content of the ceremony.” We lay on our backs next to each other, not touching, nor speaking. 

The next evening we repeated the same ritual, this time symbolizing the restoration of Eve’s fall with Adam. We hardly spoke; there was nothing to say. When Gabriel withdrew, still erect, I was confused. According to the pamphlet, penetration should happen only once on each day. Seeing Gabriel’s distress, I decided it would be acceptable to bring him to an orgasm with my mouth. His satisfaction relieved me, but I felt no emotional closeness.

The next day, our final ritualistic act of love was completed in less than ten minutes. We wiped the resulting fluids onto our Holy Handkerchiefs, which I had embroidered with a red X for him, and a red Y for me. Observing the clear, slippery fluid on the handkerchief, I held it to my nose, thought of a baby’s head on a sunny, salty beach. Not allowing our skin to touch, we lay beside each other on cold, white hotel sheets.

“So we can’t do it again for twenty-four hours?” Gabriel asked, matter-of-factly.

“I guess not.” I lay there dry, untouched. I was flooded with desire that had no possibility of fulfillment. Would Gabriel and I ever laugh together? Would we ravish each other in an elevator, or in a parking lot? Would we even hold hands and kiss on the street? I wanted to feel wholehearted attraction to, and passion for, my partner. This man knew nothing about me, nor did he care to find out. 

After the twenty-four-hour waiting period, Gabriel and I took every possible opportunity to get close to each other. Our conversations were nonexistent, yet we attempted to sate our physical loneliness in each other. We met during our lunch break, had sex propped on a bathroom sink, in bed, on the floor, sometimes several times a day. For him, sex seemed mainly a release of tension; for me, it was a welcome distraction from the tedium of work.

Six weeks after we first slept together, I felt the trembling super-reality and nausea that told me I was pregnant. Nine months later, I gave birth to a daughter. She emerged red-skinned, black-haired, screaming. I held her to me like an extension of my body for the next nine months. Soon I was pregnant again, this time with a son: soft-eyed, unblinking, trying to crawl as soon as he drew breath.

Two miscarriages later, sex with Gabriel — at first a hopeful distraction — became a fearful thing. Contraception was forbidden, but I couldn’t bring more children into the lonely relationship we had built. For six years, we moved from one apartment to another in the hotel. When we moved away from the built-in religious community and into a Manhattan apartment, the reality of our separateness became stark. When our daughter was six and our son four, Gabriel stated the truth: “You don’t love me.”

He left. I resigned myself to the life of a celibate, single mother. I stopped attending church. I freelanced for various TV shows in New York, gradually allowing myself more freedom to be irreverent, laugh, have my own opinions. I visited my brother, who some years ago was well enough to teach computer programming; today he sits in a darkened room, wearing sunglasses, drawing detailed diagrams which only he understands. For two years after the breakup of my marriage, I feared intimate relationships, still believing sex outside marriage to be sinful.

But I couldn’t help but notice the flirtations people dabbled in daily at work. I began to feel a desire to rebel against my failed attempt at purity. At a bar after work, I had one drink, kissed a coworker and realized I still had desire. From then on, I decided anything was acceptable, as long as it felt right at the time. Fuck you, God, I wanted to say. I promised my life to you, and you didn’t keep your part of the bargain. You didn’t give me love, you didn’t change the world, you didn’t even save my brother.

The random post-work kiss initiated a frenzy of meeting men on the internet, through speed-dating and in any other way possible. Frustrated by the lack of intimacy, I decided to turn it into a project: I would date fifty men and write about the results. Date number three became a painful infatuation. After three months, I decided if number three wasn’t interested, I’d get intimate with someone who was. Number twenty-five was the one, although I knew it would go no further.

The next day I abandoned my dating project, and also fell in love with a man I met on the subway. Henceforth, I happily acceded to anything he wanted, however irregular. His rough, uninhibited lovemaking unearthed the desire I buried so long ago. Day to day, I’m unsure whether he will declare me the love of his life, or say he never wants to see me again. But even the pain of the relationship is freeing — it strips away the falseness and piety I strove to affect for so long.

Last month, my ex-boyfriend whom I left to join the Unification Church, the man I hadn’t dated for fifteen years, theorized over the phone: “You’ve created a new cult centered on your lover. When will you ever learn?”

But he was wrong. This is the anti-cult. There are no rules. This is life: it grows, changes; it surprises you; it lets you down, then builds you up. As I write this, my boyfriend is breaking it off with his fiancée. I know we may not last. But is any ending really final, and does it matter? I love him; he loves me. Now, the only eternity I hope for is that which exists in the moment.

Yolande Elise Brener lived in New York with her two children. She now lives in London.

http://www.yolandebrener.com

Holy Candy: Why I Joined A Cult And Married A Stranger

Down Is The Only Way Out: An Interview With Ben Lorentzen

#Yolande Elise Brener #Sun Myung Moon #mass marriage

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massielandnetwork · 3 years

Text

Important Economic Trends During Anarchy

2021 – Let the Games Begin

14. A Christian Secession – Poetic Justice equals Reality Checks

News broke this week that the General Counsel of Coca-Cola resigned abruptly last week over his aggressive championing of the Critical Race Theory. I guess the fizz went out of Coke and they decided they did not want to “Go Woke and Go Broke”. Poetic Justice?

China’s Wuhan Virus vaccine reportedly has an effective rate of 40% or less and fewer than one-third of Chinese have had even one shot of that two-shot vaccine. India is suffering an enormous increase in Wuhan Virus infections which multiple “variants” creating havoc. Some analysts are combining those facts and forecasting that China may be in for a Pandemic crisis since those two countries share a common border. Another case of Poetic Justice?

The U. S. Chamber of Commerce is dominated by large U. S. Corporations. Haters of Trump, in the November 2020 election the U. S. Chamber of Commerce backed many Congressional Democrats and Biden. Biden’s $6 Trillion proposed bills mostly wasteful spending unless you are part of the Democratic Party entourage. To pay for these monstrosities, Biden and gang want to raise taxes on …drum roll please …big businesses (and others). Poetic Justice – yessir.

Also, in the tax crosshairs are anyone that owns any asset such as a home, stock, farm, or business. Not only do the Demented Marxists (DM) want to raise capital gains taxes, but the DMs also want to reduce the estate tax exclusion down to $1M per person. That combination will significantly diminish investment activity and reduce future job growth by punishing anyone who works hard, builds a business, and invests their money. Another reality check full of pain.

If Biden and his merry band of DMs succeed in passing these proposals, it will take decades for the U. S. economy to recover AFTER this stupidity is reversed. If it is ever reversed. Marxism or Socialism has NEVER succeeded. Only an idiot would claim China is an economic success because reality is that China is a debt fueled, economic house of cards.

Do not believe the Democratic propaganda machine about Biden’s ratings. The unreported facts are:

1. Biden’s speech before Congress was viewed by so few folks it makes the NBA’s viewership look superb.

2. Senator Tm Scott’s speech was phenomenal and obviously on target because the DM’s went ballistic to the point that Biden was forced to state the next day that Americans are not racist. Meanwhile his administration continues to push the Critical Race Theory (CRT) which says all whites are bad because they are racists.

3. Idaho became the first state to ban CRT from being taught in its schools. At least four more states have followed suit. Where is Virginia’s government on CRT? – Oh, stupid me, we are controlled by DMs.

4. Five white farmers in Wisconsin have filed suit claiming discrimination over Biden’s proposal to forgive the USDA debt of black farmers.

Here are some critical economic events.

1. Due to the stimulus already in the economy, economic growth has surged to a level almost equivalent to where the USA economy was in January of 2020. That is the good news.

2. The bad news is that economic growth is being retarded by those stimulus programs that made unemployment provide folks a higher income than if they were working. So, workers are staying home and enjoying the government/taxpayer money. Pay people NOT to work and they do not work. Somehow the DM’s have a hard time grasping that equation.

3. Because of the shortage of workers, employers are raising wages and offering bonuses. Great for the employees. Also, a source of inflationary pressure.

4. Supply chains are distorted because of perceived shortages which encourages buyers to buy extra to their actual needs which in turn exacerbates the shortage because producers cannot keep up with the surging demand. Think toilet paper a year ago. Computer chips are a recent example. Auto manufacturers are having to shut down plant because why cannot get the computer chips they need.

5. I hope you belly laughed like I did when Biden talked about the government getting into the production of computer chips. The government is doing such a great job with the Postal Service and applying the same techniques to our medical care, solar power that I hope we dodge the bullet of the government fouling up the computer chip industry.

Compared to Trump who actually solved problems rather than just talking about them being problems, the contrast with the politicians in Richmond or DC is stark. DM politicians just want to get paid for talking about a problem, scoring rhetorical points, and have a fund raiser about the problem, but they never solve the problem. The focus is all about money, how much is theirs.

Keep watching the activity about the fraudulent election last November.

a. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the Michigan Secretary of State exceeded her authority when she approved a variety of changes to the state’s election laws. Was the “certified” election in Michigan a fraud? YES.

b. The Arizona legislature authorized recount of 2.1 Million votes in Maricopa County, Arizona is rolling despite the DMs attempt to prevent it.

c. It is fun watching the DMs oppose audits in Wisconsin and Georgia. Odd behavior if there is nothing to hide.

d. Lawsuits have been filed and counter filed by Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell, and Dominion (the voting machine company). Stay tuned, much more to come.

114 days into the DMs’ coup (it is the longest 114 days EVER), here are some quick observations of recent events that will impact our economic future:

1. Financial analysts are beginning to evaluate when The Fed starts reducing their Quantitative Easing (QE). Last week two camps began to evolve – one expecting the reduction in QE to start in June and the other estimating in October of this year. The significance is that a reduction in QE will mean higher interest rates. Higher interest rates mean a slower real estate market and ultimately lower real estate prices.

2. Watch the 10-year Treasury which fluctuated back to 1.70%. Without QE, interest rates would be higher. Various sources estimate that by the end of 2021 the 10-year Treasury will be 2.5% to 3.0% and mortgage rates will increase to 4.0% to 4.5%.

3. The down stock market on Tuesday, May 4, was the result of Janet Yellen commenting that the robust USA economy might cause The Fed to allow interest rates to rise sooner than official Fed statements. The stock market recovered when she “clarified” her statement. BUBBLE ALERT !!!

4. When bubbles burst, shortage becomes surplus overnight.

Unsustainable things continue until that unpredictable moment when they stop. In a financial crisis “Cash is King”. Get prepared.

A great piece of land remains The Best investment long term unless the DMs get us to full-fledged Marxism. Capitalism builds wealth, Marxism/Socialism consumes it in self destruction. Pray for a return to honest elections in the USA. God is in control. Men make plans, but God ALWAYS wins.

“For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish.”

(1 Peter 2:15) New Revised Standard Version, Oxford University Press)

Stay healthy,

Ned

May 5, 2021

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corkcitylibraries · 3 years

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Frederick Douglass Series | Part 3

Frederick Douglass escaped slavery as a young adult in 1838 and became an influential leader in the struggle for abolition and women’s suffrage. His dedication to and passion for the protection of human rights brought about transformations in the US constitution.

This year marks the 175th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’ visit to Ireland.

Douglass Week, which runs from 8-14 February 2021, coinciding with Frederick Douglass’ assumed birthday, commemorates this revolutionary man’s visit to Cork.

Cork City Libraries will publish a four part series, during Douglass Week. This series will chronicle Frederick Douglass’ childhood, his experience as a slave and escape from slavery, his time in Ireland and, in particular, Cork, his two wives, his meeting with Daniel O’Connell and his achievements as an abolitionist, orator and suffragist.

Frederick Douglass and Daniel O’Connell

by Deirdre Swain

Frederick Douglass considered himself to be “a refugee abroad, an outlaw at home” and believed that he did not belong to any nation. He felt a great affinity with Daniel O’Connell and Ireland, and he found many similarities between the Irish and the slaves in the Southern states of the USA. Daniel O’Connell’s battle for a repeal of the union between Great Britain and Ireland had a lot in common with the American slaves’ struggle for abolition. “Black America” was a colonised nation within a nation, and Ireland had been colonised by the British.

Since his days as a slave, Frederick Douglass had admired Daniel O’Connell. He was self-educated, and O’Connell’s speeches in favour of Catholic Emancipation had been amongst his first significant reading materials. They had inspired him to express his thoughts on slavery and challenge people’s pro-slavery views. He held O’Connell’s eloquence in high esteem. He found it hard to imagine that someone could have such great oratory skills that they could captivate twenty or thirty thousand people. It was only when he heard him speak that he saw that O’Connell did have this ability. Douglass described the Irish leader’s voice as “musical” and said he could stir a multitude of people at will, that he could move people to tears and rouse in them indignation and wrath. He stated that he possessed a tenderness, love, fiery denunciation and wit which was unsurpassed.

During his visit to Ireland, Douglass saw “the Liberator” for the first time on 29 September 1845, when O’Connell was making his way to Conciliation Hall, Dublin, to give a speech. There was a crowd of children following him, shouting “There goes Dan!”, and Douglass found it very touching to see how O’Connell looked at them with love, as if they were his own children. Eager to hear his idol, he followed him into Conciliation Hall. Douglass was enthralled by O’Connell’s rhetoric. What made the experience even more memorable was the fact that O’Connell, at that stage unaware of the presence of the escaped slave, spent a large amount of time talking about slavery and passionately denouncing it. He had been criticised in the American journal, the Brownson Review for speaking against slavery. He declared that he was not ashamed of this, and that his sympathy with the oppressed was not confined to his own country. He wanted to fight against tyranny and lack of liberty wherever it might be. He would not meet or shake hands with any slave-holders, and he did not want to step foot inside the United States while Americans still believed in slavery. He would not accept money for his cause of repeal of the union from slave-holders in the United States, because he saw this as “blood-stained” money. He said he would “never purchase the freedom of Ireland with the price of slaves”.

Douglass had a letter of introduction from James Haughton to this event in Conciliation Hall. He was pushed onto the stage by James Buffum, and he stood beside O’Connell, where the Liberator introduced him as “the black O’Connell of the United States”. Douglass made a short speech, telling of his admiration for O’Connell and how his condemnation of slavery was helping abolitionists in America.

Not long after Douglass met his great hero, O’Connell’s health deteriorated, and he died in 1847. Douglass asserted that possibly no public man was more beloved by anyone than O’Connell was by the people of his country. He affirmed that the cause of the American slave and the cause of Ireland had met with a great loss. He also stated that Irish nationalists like John Mitchell who came after O’Connell wished for “a slave plantation, well-stocked with slaves”; they loved liberty for themselves and their country but had no sympathy for the cause of liberty in other countries. Douglass always spoke well of O’ Connell. He had been inspired by him and referred to him as a “broad-hearted philanthropist”.

References

Books: Douglass, F. (1882). The life and times of Frederick Douglass: From 1817-1882. London: Christian Age Office.

Fenton, L. (2015). Frederick Douglass in Ireland: ‘The Black O’Connell’. Leicester: Ulverscroft.

Journal articles: Jenkins, L. (1999). ‘Beyond the pale: Frederick Douglass in Cork’, The Irish Review, 24, pp. 80-95.

#corkcitylibraries #frederickdouglass

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bestworstcase · 4 years

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what are some of your eldritch horror inspirations?

oh hm lets see

in no particular order:

my first introduction to the genre was actually a kim possible fanfic series? i remember reading it as a teen and being like woah

the discworld series to an extent? pratchett’s riffs on the genre are excellent, in particular those from later novels in the series eg the summoning dark. (thud! was actually my first discworld novel for some baffling reason and i spent the whole book like “i have no idea what’s going on but i love this” skjdffklshsdk). this has also definitely had an impact on my lean into the more humanist or optimistic end of the scale

gideon the ninth is not eldritch horror per se but hot damn if it doesn’t have some glorious imagery.

annihilation (the book much moreso than the film, though the film has some nice visuals too). i keep meaning to read the other books in the trilogy but haven’t got around to it yet. the crawler hoo boy 👀👀👀

a pretty large assortment of books and short stories and plays actually. probably too many to list really; not all of them are eldritch horror themselves but anything with the right atmosphere or aesthetic or lore tends to work its way into my brain as an inspiration for my own particular blend of eldritch horror and dark fantasy; as a random selection off the top of my head, poe’s entire oeuvre, the road, the bacchae, euripedes in general actually, pretty much anything that was inspired by the year without a summer lmao, the dragonoak trilogy and sam farren’s work in general... magical realism anything, marisol comes to mind in particular just for its extra closeness to theatre of the absurd...

this one is a bit silly and honestly mostly just because it’s the Queen Hyperfixation and i will find a way to connect it to every single one of my other interests somehow, but alice’s adventures in wonderland, through the looking glass, and the hunting of the snark have all had a pretty marked influence on my development as a writer and have absolutely contributed to how i approach eldritch horror tropes in my own writing; and also nonsense literature is basically absurdist eldritch horror for children.

(especially the hunting of the snark, tbh. like go read it now if you haven’t before; it’s a treat and it’s gay and boojums are 100% just your classic eldritch abomination presented through a light-heartedly witty, child-friendly lens.)

relatedly: i love the american mcgee alice games. they riff on some aiw-related tropes that irritate me but idc that much because the atmosphere and aesthetic is just. so good and the gameplay is fun

relatedly again: a blade so black and the subsequent books in the trilogy (one of which isn’t due out until next year i’m suffering) do some really great stuff with nightmares as creatures that are empowered by humanity’s fears and, esp in the second book, the weird mystery of wonderland itself. and is just a neat urban fantasy take on alice in wonderland in general.

pathygen’s work and especially strings has been a big source of inspiration for me in the last, like, eight or nine months since we met. read it.

adhd distractibility has me stalling out in the middle of season 3 of the magnus archives but. yknow. it’s my jam 👌

like, theatre of the absurd and theatre of cruelty? in particular i recall a production of waiting for godot which i saw in college that leaned very hard into a horror-esque reading of the play and that was kind of a game-changer for my own creative outlook; in general these forms of theatre and the experiences they seek to evoke and the narratives they center share a lot of emotional overlap with the experience of good eldritch horror and, like aiw, have had a significant influence on my writing generally.

darkest dungeon is really fun and has a great aesthetic and strikes exactly the right balance between bleak and hopeful. the crimson court dlc especially was a total game-changer for how i think about vampires because holy shit

it’s not eldritch horror per se but subnautica is like. its ability to provoke dread is second only to the trial of blindness in hellblade (which is also def an inspiration, though again not eldritch horror per se. the enemy designs are really good tho) and the creature designs and lore are super cool and it does an excellent job of of getting across that... feeling of being insignificant in a vast uncaring cosmos (or in this case: ocean planet infected with virulent water-borne bacteria) and that’s enough to make it like, eldritch horror-adjacent in my mind.

tyranny is? another odd one in that it isn’t eldritch horror by any stretch of the imagination but idk. there’s something about the lore surrounding the archons and the spires + oldwalls that speaks to me and i love that so much of it is simply left unexplained. not in a way that feels half-assed or like the lore wasn’t well thought out, but rather in a way that truly gets across the feeling of an ancient civilization whose culture and magic/technology have decayed and been suppressed to the point of being completely lost by the time of the game; that’s a hard balance to strike and it’s totally my jam.

my gf got me into pathologic and i am veeeery slowly playing my way through the original game rn and holy shit. holy shit. the atmosphere and the slowly unfolding lore and increasingly bizarre plague itself and the despair and the grind it’s all so good.

i still need to actually play bloodborne, it’s been on my list forever, but every image and video i’ve ever seen is. hoo boy. hoooooo boy.

and honestly??? growing up as a very non-spiritual person in an evangelical family i think definitely predisposed me toward this genre because, idk. god as presented by evangelical christians is an eldritch abomination and i don’t have the spiritual inclination to convince me otherwise. so that’s something i draw from a bit as well lol

also as a final note i think it’s v important when talking about eldritch/cosmic/lovecraftian horror and inspirations thereof to say that hp lovecraft (and many of the contemporaries of his who participated in the expanded/shared universe we now call the cthulhu mythos) was virulently racist and xenophobic and this absolutely had an impact on his creative work. they codified this genre and that means that racism and xenophobia is kind of baked in to a lot of the basic tropes and they must be very rigorously, very critically evaluated when we use them to create new fiction.

#there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the way this post is structured sorry #it's all stream of conscious Things That Inspire Me #also this is not exhaustive i know there's stuff i'm forgetting but i have drawn a blank #Anonymous

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purplesurveys · 4 years

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1013

surveys by -thoughtlessdork

Have you ever had the chicken pox? No. I’m constantly in a place of waiting for it to pass by, because everyone tells me all people are bound to have it at one point in their lives (idk how true that is, though). I am also told it gets a lot suckier as one gets older, so...not too thrilled about it at all.

how often do you do laundry? I don’t handle that chore myself, but it’s done 1–2 times a week in our house.

Have you ever been evicted? Nopes.

would you grow your own garden? I don’t see that happening. I’m a magnet for killing plants.

do you know anyone who snores? I do.

Trigger warning kinda, by the end.

what is your favorite font? Proxima Nova. It’s the default font that my org used for all documents and works-in-progress, and it ended up becoming my actual real-life favorite. I’ve always picked out that font even outside of org matters.

do you know what a wombat is? Sure.

would you make a good movie critic? Not at all. I don’t know enough about different filmmaking elements to make a reliable critic. I’ve criticized things like acting, plots, and dialogues in the past, of course; but there’s still so many things that go into films that aren’t overtly projected like lighting, symbolism, hidden meanings, etc. I don’t have a very good nose for those.

what goal are you aiming for this year? In the last 8 weeks of the year? Hmm...avoiding corona would be at the top of that list, lmao.

are you currently reading any books at the moment? No. I’ve stopped opening the book I used to constantly mention on here.

when i say foxy lady what comes to mind? Beyoncé’s character in the Austin Powers movie she was in lol; her name was Foxxy.

would you have liked to have lived during the Victorian times? Wasn’t this era like a golden age of sorts for the UK? I’d love to visit for that purpose; but given the still-horrible hygiene and living conditions for most people of the time, I wouldn’t choose to live there.

would you own a Siamese cat? No.

have you ever had an ultimate adrenaline rush? I don’t think so. I’ve had bursts of energy in the past, but I wouldn’t call any of them an ultimate adrenaline rush.

do you like deviled eggs? I’ve never had them; it’s not a common dish here. But they always look so good in the American shows I watch??? I really hope they taste as good as they look.

what tends to upset you? Hearing anything about animal abuse.

what's the farthest you've walked? I can’t give you a distance, but my parents opted for us to walk the whole time we were in Bali (except if we had a tour day which included transportation). Walking in an unfamiliar - and very humid - country and not knowing where anything is (this was before food and travel apps got as detailed as they are today) and ending up walking long stretches because you can’t locate any good local spots is a very easy way to run out of patience, apparently.

what is your favorite horror movie? Carrie was pretty fun.

what does your favorite shirt look like? It’s a twist on the Chicago flag, made black and red and with a raised fist in the middle. At the back it says “CM Punk: Best in the World.” Been my favorite and most overused shirt for the past 9 years. My friends tease me about it sometimes, but I don’t care lol, the shirt is very significant to me.

is your life like a daily routine? It is, but I prefer that it is. I like when things are in my control and, for the most part, predictable. I enjoy spontaneity in short bursts.

were you ever told as a child if you eat carrots you'll have pretty eyes? So many times.

what career are you most interested in? Communications and media, so it’s great that I’m headed there so far.

have you ever seen a rooster? Sure.

what time do you usually wake up? I wake up wake up by 7:30 or 8 AM, but I usually also wake up for a bit any time between 4–6 AM. Sometimes I choose to stay up from then, and sometimes I’d want to go back to sleep.

what do you think about religion? It’s good when people use it for good, or if it has helped save a person’s life. In my own personal experience, though, it’s beenhard to find Christians who aren’t hypocritical. So even though I see religion’s potential, I don’t have a lot of trust in believers themselves.

what made you feel most accomplished in your life so far? Graduating college.

have you ever seen a lunar eclipse? I saw the super blue blood moon two years ago, which according to a quick Google search is a lunar eclipse! So yeah, I’ve seen one.

what are you allergic to? No allergies.

do you ever feel like people hold things you do or say against you? Only my mom does this.

what can't you afford but wish you could? Front-row Wrestlemania tickets. My childhood (and now adulthood) dream is to go to Mania 50 which is only 14 years from now, but at least I still have more than enough time to save up for it.

what is one word that sums up this year so far? Revelatory. ever felt like you were putting your life in danger? [trigger warning] Yes, it’s called suicidal tendencies. what do you like with your eggs? If scrambled, with cheese. If omelette...stuff that crap up with everything lol. Tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, cheese, ham, bacon, and onions are all good in my book. what remedy do you partake when experiencing the common cold? The good ol’ wait-for-it-to-go-away life hack. would you ever spend a weekend in the mountains in a log cabin? That sounds amazing. I sure would. have you ever been called a psycho? No. have you ever taken martial arts? would you? No but I was always a little envious of my cousin who was taken to taekwondo class every weekend when we were kids. Sure, I’d take classes if I had the chance. who is someone you look up to? Nacho, but he’s gone now. is there something you're anxious about? I have work jitters for tomorrow, but they’re manageable for now. Otherwise I’m feeling pretty good. what is the longest you've gone without sleep? A little above 24. what is the longest you've been on the phone? This makes me cringe now, but it was like 8 hours long or something like that. It was still the ~honeymoon phase of that relationship and we were still clingy. We never did it again after that. do you care about calories? No. do you know someone with a really annoying laugh? Nah, can’t think of anyone. what band do you mostly always listen to no matter what mood? Paramore. have you ever been to Indianapolis? Nope.

what type of bread do you like to eat? I eat white bread all the time, but my favorite kind is brioche. do you have any great great grandparents still living? Two greats is a bit too much don’t you think? Lmao. Anyway, my last great-grandparent died in 2010. I never knew my dad’s grandparents, and my great-grandfather on my mom’s side had died all the way back in the 70s. what is one country that you really want to visit someday? India. who usually cooks or what do you usually crave the most? Those are two different questions haha. My parents take turn cooking; and as for my craving, I find myself seeking sushi most of the time. ever been associated in a program that was a complete waste of time? Yep, like that one time I had to attend this 5-hour mandatory program/seminar before my driver’s license could be issued to me; it taught me nothing I didn’t already know about driving, and it used driving tutorials that I’m pretty sure were recorded in the 90s. This seminar took place in 2016. do weird numbers call your phone? Not regularly. Occasionally an unknown number will come in, but I reject all those. where are you right now? Sitting up on my bed. do you tend to care about other people's feelings more than your own? Yes. I really shouldn’t. what type of lifestyle do you want to obtain? if you haven't obtained it [trigger warning] I haven’t even figured out yet if I love life enough to want to stay in it. A type of lifestyle isn’t much of a priority for now. what was something that use to frighten you as a child? Getting lost at the mall. have you ever been on a train? Just once. who's been in your life the longest? did you expect this person to still be around? Apart from family, Angela. Yes, she’s here for the long haul. how do you feel about anatomy? Fascinating. I’d take a class on it. Insert interesting fact here: Read this on Reddit a few days ago, so I’ll just copy-paste the whole thing: “When Jadwiga, the King of Poland (medieval Poland referred to every ruler as King regardless of gender), was considering a marriage proposal from the Grand Duke of Lithuania, a chief concern among her court was that said Duke was rumored to have massive genitals to the point that they would kill his wife on their wedding night. Two of her councilors volunteered to travel to Lithuania to try and discover the truth of these rumors, which naturally meant they would watch the Duke as he bathed. They returned and happily reported that not only weren’t the Duke’s genitals fatally large, they were in fact a tad smaller than average, so nothing to worry about. Thus Poland and Lithuania were united, and the rest is history.” Got a chuckle out of that one when I read it that I just had to scroll through the entire thread again just to be able to share it here lmao.

#survey #surveys

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iobjectfa20 · 3 years

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OAXACALIFORNIA: For the Pride of Your Hometown, The Way of the Elders, And In Memory of the Forgotten

“And That Is How They Hid The Sun” by Oaxacan art collective, Tlacolulokos (Dario Canul & Cosijoesa Cernas). This mural is part of a larger exhibit, OAXACALIFORNIA, which can be found online in the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA).

How & Why I Chose This Piece

The greater exhibit, OAXACALIFORNIA, showcases the complexities of language, migration, and culture specific to the experiences of Oaxacan (Oaxaca being the capital of Mexico) and Indigenous community members residing in Los Angeles, California. It aims to explore how these facets of identity have been integrated with that of non-Indigenous people (who function as agents of settler colonialism, regardless of intention), while simultaneously honoring the traditions of ancestors past. What immediately drew me to this specific piece was the juxtaposition of it’s red, gold, and blue colors. While the exhibit in its entirety uses the red and gold patterned background, it at once subverts this feeling of comfort with the choice to incorporate such a contrasting color such as blue in this specific mural. The blue also emphasized certain unrecognizable features of the mural and consequently piqued my interest.

Taking a step back to examine the actual people and objects situated in the work, I could already deduce that this was meant to provide commentary on a few key aspects of society; religion (due to the robed figure on the far left donning a black robe and a cross-patterned shirt), the relationship between policing systems and religion (as shown by the batons positioned to create a cross at the foot of the robed figure), and culture (demonstrated by the different styles of clothing each person is wearing). Additionally, the context of the exhibit is to reinforce the importance and presence of Indigenous life despite the consistent whitewashing of history. I could therefore conclude that this in one way or another was attempting to push against dominant colonial narratives and also attempting to remind spectators that this history is not stuck in the past. Colonization is frequently framed as an unnameable atrocity of the past, but it is not often enough recognized as a trauma that has manifested to fit our world today. This piece insists on being recognized as a contemporary struggle while also affirming the Indigenous peoples ability to thrive regardless of all that they face.

Despite knowing all this there was so much that was not familiar to me, such as the pants of the portrait’s middle character, their tattoos (or that of the person creating them), and the cultural artifact to the far right side. I was also really interested to see how language would be incorporated into a medium that was largely visual, and while we do see a phrase in Spanish, I was not yet sure about it’s meaning in the exhibit as a whole. I knew there was much more occurring than I could grasp based on my limited knowledge of Oaxacan and Indigenous communities, and it was my job to unravel that understanding from this mural. This is why I chose this piece. Not only does it echo a familiarity of colonial narratives that many of us grew up being educated on, but it de-centers this whitewashed history and instead encourages us to engage directly with the cultures of these communities. It forces us to dedicate time and effort to truly understand how this work is a piece of global resistance.

Reframing as Object of Resistance Global Novels are about expanding our world view, about circumventing structures that exist to repress all expressions of identity. In studying this genre, we have been able to access various works that asked us to consider the magnitude of storytelling. It is not enough to just acknowledge the existence of these stories, but we have been tasked with challenging the people who have been positioned to tell them. Art exhibits accomplish much (if not all or more) of the same things, and both mediums allow us to reflect on our own experiences and create interpretations that would not exist otherwise. OAXACALIFORNIA falls right in the middle of this mission as it is celebrating life, tradition, language, and reaffirming Indigenous communities' place in history and in the world today. It simultaneously collapses whitewashed narratives that have somehow tokenized Indigenous people in a way that suspends them in the past --- they are not honored as they exist in our communities now. Because this piece is framed within a colonial context, it is automatically assuming the position of a reimagined history. Both Canul and Cernas have expressed that the exhibit contains significant ties to Oaxacan, LA, and Indigenous cultures. Thus, this piece also functions by tying together generations of migration and stories. At face value this mural literally depicts several people, but there is a deeper underlying meaning that directly opposes the regurgitation of popular colonial accounts. Firstly, the Catholic priest on the far left is dressed in a black robe with patterned print underneath. The print contains imagery of the cross, and lying at this figure’s feet are two police batons that take on the shape of a cross. The battle helmet that they are wearing has the words “Born to Kill” engraved into the side, and they are wearing combat boots that are barely visible beneath the robe. This figure is also pictured holding a police baton in one hand (mimicking a crucifix) and an open religious text that is decorated with the imagery of death on the other. One should also note that the hand wrapping around the baton is skeletal, almost ghostly, and seems to mirror the picture of death on the open book. Combining all these characteristics together it is as if they are attempting to bless the person who is sitting down, but with promises of salvation through violence, policing, and deception (characterized by the fact that their face is being mostly shielded from the audience) much like the European conquistadors during the continent's pre-colonial era. This also calls forth the issue of police brutality that Black communities and communities of color face at the hands of the police officers, once again making this piece more contemporary than meets the eye. They are positioned in a way that makes them taller than the other two individuals, but they feel more blended in with the background as they are wearing duller colors. Next, we have a person who appears to be sitting down and getting drawn or tattooed on. Their chest, right arm, and ankles are covered in tattoos, and the ankle tattoos almost seem to mimic the print of their pants. They are wearing a bright blue cap backwards, dressed in sweats, and Nike sneakers. This person’s expression is one of bravado and they’re holding onto a machete, which is symbolic of resistance to the systemic, ideological, and physical violence experienced at the hands of colonizers. While that seems to be all that is going on, the emphasis of the bright blue colors led me to do research on the significance of the clothing. The sweatpants have actually been sown together with traditional wear for the highly respected “Danza de la Pluma/Dance of the Feather”. The dance is full of lively music, vibrant clothing, and the presence of ancestors (acted through the people dancing) that are meant to be honored. It existed long before colonization occurred and was specifically honoring the Aztec gods (i.e. of rain, sun and corn to name a few). After colonization it then began to also commemorate the survival of Indigenous peoples despite the violent intervention of Europe. The blending of traditional wear with the sweatpants and overall mainstream outfit (i.e. the only other blue accessory, the cap) are emblematic of the multiplicity of identity. Regardless of how much has changed sociopolitically, a person’s identity is their own to dictate and these identities do not exist in vacuums. Lastly, the person that seems to be tattooing is the more discreetly proactive character. The tattoos that have been drawn on the middle person’s chest are that of ships adorned with crosses on their masts, of lightning storms, and of the word “Raza/Race” on their abdomen. Because this last person is placed in a position of creating these images, this speaks more directly to the core of this project; the reimagining and rewriting of history by those who have been harmed. The waves lashing out at the base of the ships seem more fiery, like flames, and all of these combined illustrations create a tempestuous recounting of European colonization. These colonizers are the bringers of chaos in this story. It’s also important to note that this third person’s hand is dissolving into the body of the person sitting. Both people become one in this shared past and this tattooing process is consensual, reassuring the audience that both are partaking in the sharing of their truth. There is empowerment and autonomy here. While their expression is that of bravado (as mentioned earlier), the teardrop is representative that there is no bravery without expressions of pain and sadness. Whether this sadness is due to the remembrance of this agonizing past or the literal process of tattooing, it has become memorialized as part of their experience all the same. While religion was weaponized, it is also a testament of union and community. It is undoubtedly true that Christianity and Catholicism were vehicles of violence for the European settlers, but now that both have become ingrained as an integral part of certain Oaxacan communities (re: the tattoo of a rosary on the third person’s left hand), it has been reworked as a mode of unification and of finding each other. All of these truths can exist at once but it was imperative to Tlacolulokos to create a piece that was frank in it’s portrayal. This piece also transcends borders, such as those of California (LA) and Mexico (Oaxaca), and highlights the issues of Indigenous displacement. The theorist that immediately came to mind was Dr. Aihwa Ong, author of Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Dr. Ong uses the imagery of a passport to disturb the conventions of “state imposed” versus “personal” identity. Not only does the passport symbolize a state imposed sense of identity (much like the creation of borders), but Ong outlines how a diasporan subject inherently resists these sanctions. Tlacolulokos have curated for us through their art the understanding that Indigenous people have been labeled as “other” and “inferior”, despite being displaced from their original land and right to sovereignty. There is an understanding that these marginalized groups now have learned to mold themselves around societally imposed expectations. Similarly, Ong explains that the concept of “citizenship” is always changing due to physical movement and displacement, and due to cultural exchange. This is exactly the rhetoric that this mural is attempting to emulate. In its entirety, this mural depicts the movement of people across borders (metaphorical and literal), and about the fact that these communities continue to exist regardless of how they are erased from institutional spaces. Despite the fact that the US government continues to ostracize and disrespect Indigenous people, these communities are continuing to find each other through the tracing of familial lines and self-identification. This exhibit addresses themes of being silenced by solidifying its place in history through documentation in a visual form. It is a memorialization of previously existing in a mythic state; of existing between reality and fantasy. However, this piece and the exhibit as a whole reassures audiences that these communities are very real and still deserving of appropriate recognition and care. On a final note, these pieces were commissioned by the Los Angeles City Central Library to counter the original murals that were situated on the museums walls. The original paintings (commissioned in 1933) depicted the European and Indigenous people in painfully biased ways --- the Indigenous as weak, submissive, and enslaved, while the Europeans were construed as symbols of power, wealth, and civility. The act of placing the new murals by Tlacolulokos directly underneath the older work is the museum’s way of addressing the pain that had been perpetuated by their previous commission. While I can’t speak to whether or not this is enough to rectify the harm done by the museum (as I myself am not Indigenous), Tlacolulokos has definitely embraced this as an amends.

--- Zenaida R.

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