anjanasreedhar

[anjanasreedhar]

This semester I went to the White Privilege Conference in Madison, WI for my honors seminar about examining privilege. I made a poster about the behaviors of particular white female musicians who appropriate other cultures as a means of identity and sexualize/objectify WOC as a means of displaying sexual agency and social power. All under the guise of “empowerment”.

This is my take on the knowledge I found through seminar and readings, (esp. online articles) so in no way do I claim these ideas or concepts as my own.

#ON POINT #CLAPS LOUDLY

[anjanasreedhar]

Tough Guise: Violence, Media & The Crisis in Masculinity

with Ed. M, Ph.D Jackson Katz

#oh of course #jackson katz rocks

[anjanasreedhar]

"We Are Not The Same"

by Azzah Sultan

In this series of photographs I capture five Muslim women in their own space. The media has always portrayed Muslim women as oppressed and that we all dress and look the same. Through building friendships here in New York City this project looks in depth into breaking stereotypes and showing how we as Muslim women aren’t the same. Although we do share the same faith we have our own interests, personalities, cultures, styles and hobbies. 

http://azzahsultan.com/We-Are-Not-The-Same

#whoa #beautiful #not all muslimas are the same #well done #can we do the same for hindus pls

[anjanasreedhar]

Ugh. The language in this article… “Hood disease” - is a great way to make it sound less official or serious than what it is.  

In the inner city, a health problem is making it harder for young people to learn. The Centers for Disease Control said 30 percent of inner city kids suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The CDC said these children often live in virtual war zones. Doctors at Harvard said they actually suffer from a more complex form of PTSD that some call “hood disease.”

Unlike soldiers, children in the inner city never leave the combat zone. They often experience trauma, repeatedly.

“You could take anyone who is experiencing the symptoms of PTSD, and the things we are currently emphasizing in school will fall off their radar. Because frankly it does not matter in our biology if we don’t survive the walk home,” said Jeff Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D. of San Francisco State University.

#hood disease? #really #wtf #take care of inner city kids #CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE DAMMIT

[anjanasreedhar]

"The Obama administration has entered an unexpected, unpredictable debate over the nation’s racial progress, warning in several events last week that much work remains to be done. Nearly six years after the United States elected its first black president, the signposts of the latest discussion have appeared across the cultural landscape — from the professional sports arena, to the diminishing Western frontier, to a little New England town where an elected official is refusing to apologize for referring to the president by a famously derogatory racial epithet. On Saturday, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. provided the administration’s starkest assessment to date. In a commencement address, Holder warned that recent public episodes of racial bigotry should not obscure the greater damage done by more systemic forms of prejudice and discrimination. ‘If we focus solely on these incidents — on outlandish statements that capture national attention and spark outrage on Facebook and Twitter — we are likely to miss the more hidden, and more troubling, reality behind the headlines,’ Holder told the graduating class at Morgan State University in Baltimore.”

#having a black president does not mean racism is over #insidious

[anjanasreedhar]

#laughs uncomfortably #equal wages for equal work

[anjanasreedhar]

Congrats Class of 2014! You have the most student loan debt in history

According to the Wall Street Journal and data compiled by analyst Mark Kantrowitz, the average loan-holding 2014 college graduate will have to pay back $33,000. That’s up from around $31,000 in 2013 and under $10,000 in 1993.

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#student debt #when will the government start to care? #are we still the lazy generation

[anjanasreedhar]

The Douchebro of the Week Award (let’s make that a real thing, mmk?) goes to the fuckers at WePay, an online fundraising site that recently canceled the fundraising campaign of Eden Alexander. Eden is a porn performer who had an allergic reaction to a common prescription drug, so she was crowdraising $4,000 to pay her medical bills. The geniuses at WePay decided she didn’t deserve money because she would use it for porn. (Which, who even gives a fuck if she was? WE KNOW YOU GUYS ALL WATCH PORN, TECH BROS. BE COOL.) So they canceled her campaign and refunded her supporters’ money.

Long story short, Eden moved her campaign to a different site and exceeded her goal. But WePay, man. Y’all are douches. Read more about it here: http://valleywag.gawker.com/wepay-blames-the-rules-for-withholding-medical-funds-1578017696

#wow no #tech bros #eden alexander

[anjanasreedhar]

On this day in history In the spring of 1963, activists in Birmingham, Alabama launched one of the most influential campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement: Project C, better known as The Birmingham Campaign.

http://to.pbs.org/1dQ0Auu

#never forget #civil rights movement #project c

[anjanasreedhar]

27 photos reveal the harsh realities of life inside North Korea

Photographer Eric Lafforgue was on a mission to visually document daily life in the communist country. After being banned in 2012, Lafforgue is now exposing the forbidden images he captured during his most recent visit to North Korea. From malnourishment to child labor to extreme lifestyles, the photos paint a haunting picture of the quality of life North Koreans suffer through.

Read more

#north korea #eric lafforgue #policymic

[anjanasreedhar]

Whatever your position, you should understand where pro-choicers are coming from. http://ift.tt/1iWS2UA

#tralala perf #abortion #equality #pro choice

[anjanasreedhar]

When you are hurting, there will always be people who find a way to make it about themselves. If you break your wrist, they’ll complain about a sprained ankle. If you are sad, they’re sadder. If you’re asking for help, they’ll demand more attention. Here is a fact: I was in a hospital and sobbing into my palms when a woman approached me and asked why I was making so much noise and I managed to stutter that my best friend shot himself in the head and now he was 100% certified dead and she made this little grunt and had the nerve to tell me, “Well now you made me sad.” When you get angry, there are going to be people who ask you to shut up and sit down, and they’re not going to do it nicely. Theirs are the faces that turn bright red before you have a chance to finish your sentence. They won’t ask you to explain yourself. They’ll be mad that you’re mad and that will be their whole reason alone. Here is a fact: I was in an alleyway a few weeks ago, stroking my friend’s back as she vomited fourteen tequila shots. “I hate men,” she wheezed as her sides heaved, “I hate all of them.” I braided her hair so it wouldn’t get caught in the mess. I didn’t correct her and reply that she does in fact love her father and her little brother too, that there are strangers she has yet to meet that will be better for her than any of her shitty ex-boyfriends, that half of our group of friends identifies as male - I could hear each of her bruises in those words and I didn’t ask her to soften the blow when she was trying to buff them out of her skin. She doesn’t hate all men. She never did. She had the misfortune to be overheard by a drunk guy in an ill-fitting suit, a boy trying to look like a man and leering down my dress as he stormed towards us. “Fuck you, lady,” he said, “Fuck you. Not all men are evil, you know.” “Thanks,” I told him dryly, pulling on her hand, trying to get her inside again, “See you.” He followed us. Wouldn’t stop shouting. How dare she get mad. How dare she was hurting. “It’s hard for me too!” he yowled after us. “With fuckers like you, how’s a guy supposed to live?” Here’s a fact: my father is Cuban and my genes repeat his. Once one of my teachers looked at my heritage and said, “Your skin doesn’t look dirty enough to be a Mexican.” When my cheeks grew pink and my tongue dried up, someone else in the classroom stood up. “You can’t say that,” he said, “That’s fucking racist. We could report you for that.” Our teacher turned vicious. “You wanna fail this class? Go ahead. Report me. I was joking. It’s my word against yours. I hate kids like you. You think you’ve got all the power - you don’t. I do.” Later that kid and I became close friends and we skipped class to do anything else and the two of us were lying on our backs staring up at the sky and as we talked about that moment, he sighed, “I hate white people.” His girlfriend is white and so is his mom. I reached out until my fingers were resting in the warmth of his palm. He spoke up each time our teacher said something shitty. He failed the class. I stayed silent. I got the A but I wish that I didn’t. Here is a fact: I think gender is a social construct and people that want to tell others what defines it just haven’t done their homework. I personally happen to have the luck of the draw and am the same gender as my sex, which basically just means society leaves me alone about this one particular thing. Until I met Alex, who said he hated cis people. My throat closed up. I’m not good at confrontation. I avoided him because I didn’t want to bother him. One day I was going on a walk and I found him behind our school, bleeding out of the side of his mouth. The only thing I really know is how to patch people up. He winced when the antibacterial cream went across his new wounds. “I hate cis people,” he said weakly. I looked at him and pushed his hair back from his head. “I understand why you do.” Here is a fact: anger is a secondary emotion. Anger is how people stop themselves from hurting. Anger is how people stop themselves by empathizing. It is easy for the drunken man to be mad at my friend. If he says “Hey, fuck you, lady,” he doesn’t have to worry about what’s so wrong about men. It’s easy for my teacher to fail the kids who speak up. If we’re just smart-ass students, it’s not his fault we fuck up. It’s easy for me to hate Alex for labeling me as dangerous when I’ve never hurt someone a day in my life. But I’m safe in my skin and his life is at risk just by going to the bathroom. I understand why he says things like that. I finally do. There’s a difference between the spread of hatred and the frustration of people who are hurting. The thing is, when you are broken, there will always be someone who says “I’m worse, stop talking.” There will always be people who are mad you’re trying to steal the attention. There will always be people who get mad at the same time as you do - they hate being challenged. It changes the rules. I say I hate all Mondays but my sister was born on one and she’s the greatest joy I have ever known. I say I hate brown but it’s really just the word and how it turns your mouth down - the colour is my hair and my eyes and my favorite sweater. I say I hate pineapple but I still try it again every Easter, just to see if it stings less this year. It’s okay to be sad when you hear someone generalize a group you’re in. But instead of assuming they’re evil and filled with hatred, maybe ask them why they think that way - who knows, you might just end up with a new and kind friend.

By telling the oppressed that their anger is unjustified, you allow the oppression to continue. I know it’s hard to stay calm. I know it’s scary. But you’re coming from the safe place and they aren’t. Just please … Try to be more understanding. /// r.i.d (via inkskinned)

EVERYBODY READ THIS. RIGHT NOW.

(via miriamforster)

Don’t forget the fear. Anger is easier than fear.

(via delilahsdawson)

#important #long post #fear #hatred

[anjanasreedhar]

Since 2009, the Smithsonian Archives has posted photographs showing women scientists and engineers at work. Here are some images from their archives.

Anna Chao Pai, working on developmental genetics and cross-breeding special strains of mice.

Anna “Vesse” Dahl, a…

#women in science #smithsonian #equality

[anjanasreedhar]

#too good #korean movie #empowering #equality

[anjanasreedhar]

And God said “Love Your Enemy,” and I obeyed him and loved myself.

خليل جبران ‎ Khalil Gibran (via tonyespera)

#khalil gibran #poetry #good quote

[anjanasreedhar]

What’s Missing from the Amy Chua Conversation

If you’re like me, you’re sick of hearing about Amy Chua and the uproar over her latest book, The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America. Since catching wind of the premise of the book, which deploys outdated understandings of cultural determinism to argue that cultural characteristics are responsible for the success of certain groups in America, the blogosphere has (rightfully) erupted in outrage, publishing a multitude of pieces lambasting Chua’s thesis and its racial and ethnocentric implications.

I get it—Chua’s argument is flawed, poorly researched, and fails to grasp how structural inequality and institutional racism impact upward mobility (and lack thereof) in the United States. But something is missing from the conversation: a discussion of Chua’s role in supporting American structures of racism that depend on a distinction between model minorities and problem minorities. What’s more, criticisms have failed to link Chua’s rhetoric to the larger history of Asian Americans being used to perpetuate (and at times themselves participating in) anti-Black and anti-Latino racism. 

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#generasian #amy chua

[anjanasreedhar]

Arexis Fongman: A Case Study on Casual Racism

Update as of Jan 25, circa 2am: Alexis Fishman has issued an apology via Twitter stating that she ‘never intended offense’ and that her page was a ‘poor attempt at parody’. Though she is missing the point a bit as to why her profile was problematic in the first place and sticks to her story that it was parody, her regret does seem genuine. In any case, it seems she is feeling the full consequence of her actions now. Hopefully the lesson is learned not just by her, but by her fans and others like her. 

First and foremost, thanks to Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Yang and composer/lyricist Timothy Huang for bringing this to attention.

Alexis Fishman, at first sight, seems like a perfectly average woman. She graduated in 2004 from a performing arts school in Western Australia and went on to pursue a career in the arts, now ‘based permanently in New York’, as per her official website. Her performer’s page is professional, her website is tastefully metropolitan, and the posts on her personal Facebook give no indication of strange or deviant social behavior. She is, in essence, the typical young woman trying to make a name for herself in the performing arts industry. Why, then, has she created a Facebook profile dedicated solely to the enthusiastic spread of what amounts to racist garbage? Internet, meet Arexis Fongman.

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#casual racism #generasian