#and cry about how this is in fact racist against the english

[cialovesklopp]

𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐌𝐀𝐍 ➺ k.mbappé

𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒚 — realizing that one is actually in love is a process being done with your best friends

𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 — kylian mbappé x amara imani (oc)

𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕 — 6.2k

𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 — actually don't know why this chapter was so difficult to write so i hope it turned out fine. it's kind of a filler chapter but only preparing you for what's about to come also wanna thank my bestie @cl16version for helping me write this chapter, don't think i would have finished without her

mon amour — masterlist

every relationship is built on love and trust. both so different and yet, deep down, are based on the same fundament. 

the history of love and its different types went back decades; maybe even centuries. in definition, english literature has found it to be a simple feeling of deep affection and intimacy. but it was also the same english literary, that had given the word « love » a much important, higher meaning.

shakespeare’s romeo and juliet had opened the world to different types of love, erasing the standard of the typical love scenarios known to the world and making place for the difficult and painful ones. but whether it was the most powerful one, had never been known to humans. 

were feelings of hatred and disdain turned into passionate feelings stronger than the love, built up on years of friendship? the affection that grew after years of true care for each other? the true kind of love could not find its veritable definition. the connection based on the free will of two people somehow defied physics when it was analyzed deeply. 

but trust was not any easier. in fact it turned out to be even harder because how could one person be able to trust another person blindly? when one doesn’t even trust himself, how would one be able to trust another human, with the same flaws as itself?

for amara, love had always been somewhat suspicious to her. the idea of sharing herself to another person, letting that person into the deepest parts of her did not seem very appealing to her. she could never truly let go of her. if you wanted to love her, you had to satisfy yourself with the 90% she allowed you to have. and yet, even with her carefulness and high-alert to it, she had trusted and given 95% of herself. 

she couldn’t trust anymore — how could she? not when the additional five percent she had allowed evan to have, had been used against her. he had humiliated her before breaking her heart. the stepping and trashing of it did not help her very much. but the trust she had given away and it had been misused, she would always cry after it. 

evan and her had lived in completely different worlds and yet a whisper of media and suddenly they found themselves on the same platform. maybe if she never had gone to that beauty event, he wouldn’t have talked to her. and her so-called friends could have never pushed her to seek after him if they hadn’t been captured by the press. the moment she would have tasted the poison of him — the moment she should read the articles of him and her instead of crushing on him — she would’ve spit him out and left his radar at the first chance she would have got. 

she had been naive back then. a child thrown into the celebrity world with no one to guide her, fresh meat for the hungry wolves, just waiting for a weak lamb to stumble upon them. it was clear that he had used her — the young rising star, being thrown into the industry without any knowledge — it was easy to use her. to amara, evan represented the false friend, the crisis of her faith when she had not been sure whether to even accept his invitation. 

amara had seen the red flags and deliberately chosen to ignore them — her first mistake. she knew she should have left him when he had started downgrading her but she stayed — her second mistake. another door had opened when she had met his parents and they had undermined her, racist side marks the entire evening and she had taken them all and yet she had stayed. another mistake. there had been so many signs that she had chosen to ignore — simply, because he had made her feel loved, desired. and the bullet had hit her when her safety bubble had burst. 

it had never been clear to her what had been her motive. why she couldn’t have just gone on her way instead of blushing and attire his attention. evan had never made it worth staying, amara realized as she looked back even though deep down she knew the reason. why she had never left. 

evan had always given her enough to make her stay, ignore the bright red flags and issues he had. she had been young, a fresh adult with no experiences on love. he had realized quickly, he had enough good to make her stay through the bad. to never even question a leave. she endured cheating scandals because he knew how to win her back, he knew how to make the bad outweigh the good for a moment before all began again. 

in the end, she celebrated his love and he tolerated it. 

she regretted a lot of thing but mostly, the loss of her innocent adult years. where memories used to be things that made her smile and not emotions that could be used as weapon. every touch he had left on her had turned out to be a scar, ugly and dark, carving her for life. she had not planned on trusting again.

and then life introduced her to kylian.

he somehow made the idea of love less disgusting. showed her the kind type of love that also existed. that next to painful and unstable it could also be reassuring and calming. still it wasn’t sufficient for an “us”. and kylian was left, picking up the pieces. 

the longer she stayed in her relationship, the smaller the pieces got, her heart breaking so many times, some pieces would never be found again. but kylian had found a solution — he would fill the gaps with love. and somehow it was working and she found herself falling again, the easy part of love.

their relationship was blooming like the first flower fighting her way through after decades of ice growing over its ground. he broke the high walls that had built around her, had formed a security wall. a new bond had been created between them, building and strengthening over their deepness and the easiness of being vulnerable in front of each other. 

that they knew where they were standing with each other, made it even easier for amara. she could be open with kylian, there were no overthinkings with him, no contemplating.  her relationship with kylian allowed her to be her own true self. 

and the changes of it were quickly recognisable, with smiles becoming more and more frequent. gloomy eyes were replaced with bright grins and her eyes were slowly starting to regain their twinkle back, the origin of her success and career. 

with kylian waiting for amara to get her trust and confidence back, the singer started to open up more, go back to her old sunshine-self as she had been known as. the balance in her life was restoring, equalizing her career and private life again. and amara could go back to living in bliss, actually experiencing the innocent feeling of amore, she had not been allowed to feel during her time with evan. 

she was falling hard like a plane flying straight-down to the ground. the overwhelming rush of emotions flooding her heart, becoming more and more each second she passed with the french striker. the realization had struck her at night, as she had worked on her song, hitting her with the speed of lighting: she was undeniably in love with him. 

she was swimming in a sea of emotions, with no shore or land in sight. her eyes viewed kylian in a different light now — he wasn’t the charming footballer anymore, with easygoing and playful character. instead he had upgraded to the man, who had giving her inspiration again. her muse and for amara, this held higher significance than anything else. 

how she had ever lived without him, she didn’t know. how could she have made all these days in Paris without the air in her apartment spreading the scent of love and comfort, the certain safety that looked everywhere whenever he was there. she cherished every second spent in his presence, treasuring each moment as if it were a precious gem.

Amara had given kylian everything. she was willing to repeat her mistake, let him have a part of her she had never given away before. all the times she stood in front of the mirror and since the entry of his life, all of sudden she saw herself different. as if she had never seen herself before. 

and kylian knew she was scared. he was aware she was hoping to be spared of all this, the process of falling in love again, afraid of all those dark feelings returning from her previous failed relationship. but she wasn’t alone in her feelings. deep down, he was scared too, angst sometimes lurking in his mind as he thought about her and their growing relationship. but just as quickly as those feelings came, they were gone again and it all started to make sense to him again — he would take the leap of faith anytime again. 

they would never admit to each other just how much the other meant to them — both afraid to overstep boundaries. 

it was the reason why kylian would never know how much it meant to her when he would hold her, press tiny kisses on her temple when they sat down to watch a movie. how it was able to change the way she saw herself when he complimented her. she was willing to give herself to him if he accepted the part of her, she had never let loose before. 

and amara would never know, she was the reason, he was being himself again. she would never hold the knowledge that the night they had met, had been for him to grow out of his misery after his own failed relationship. how her messages transferred smiles onto his faces that even his teammates started to grow suspicious. 

a certain vulnerability loomed over them, their hearts exposed to the other. and that same vulnerability was covered with soft smiles, silent confessions of love, glimpses into the depths of each others’ souls. love had the power to transform, to shape and create. it was able to bury insecurities, flaws, hatred… love had the power to give new beginnings to old things. 

especially in her case, love had given her something so important, it had given her inspiration, a new muse for her music. kylian fitted her in every way possible. even more because he loved her just because she — in his eyes. in his eyes she wasn’t amara imani, and he had fallen in love with her plain self, with her just being amara. 

she didn’t need to be more to make his world lighten up, her laugh was enough. and she didn’t need to wear makeup to be the most beautiful girl in the room — she could wear a potato bag and still win miss universe in his opinion.

sometimes even the simplest of loves were the most beautiful ones. the one, where one could see how trust and love were built around moments spent with each other, finding your soulmate, best friend in your loved one. world’s could never describe how this was an entire different feeling from just falling in love. and loving every part, every flaw and still seeing beauty was another different thing. 

even to herself, amara couldn’t explain why kylian’s laugh attracted her so much. it could have been his body, after all he was built very well, his face, his status — but no, for amara the most attractive thing on kylian was his smile. 

she started to drown out, not even listening anymore but just memorizing his smile to the finest detail. the way, kylian couldn’t help but to laugh before even recounting what had happened that made him burst into laughter like this. she gazed at him with so much love in her eyes, adoration, fondness. his giggles filled the air, tearing all of amara’s attention to them as he recounted with animated gestures. the last thing she remembered was that something funny at training session had happened today but what exactly it was, she didn’t know. by then she had already completely spaced out, staring at kylian instead and his smile.

the time passed with amara and kylian are still lost in each other’s company. they both enjoyed the moments where they did not have to wear a mask, could be completely themselves. they were only amara and kylian with each. two normal persons, trying to navigate their way through life. but of course, they couldn’t escape it forever, time and responsibilities always caught up. 

glancing at the clock, she gasped when she saw how late it already was. truthfully, for their standards, it wasn’t really late but she knew kylian had an away match tomorrow and couldn’t afford to be tired there. 

“kylian,” she began softly, nudging the french forwards’ shoulder, “it’s late. you need to go.”

“are you trying to get rid of me?” he retorted jokingly, grinning at her. 

she rolled her eyes, amusement clear on her face, “never. but you have an away match and i kind of don’t fancy you being benched.”

he gasped, putting a hand on his heart dramatically. “omg, you actually care for me.” he exclaimed, his grin spreading wider when she lightly slapped him neck this time. “but are you actually going to watch my match this weekend?”

“you’re acting as if i haven’t watched your last two matches.” she replied sarcastically. 

kylian waved dismissively, “yeah but we lost those. and i’m really sure we’re going to win this one. and, i don’t mean to brag, but i kind of am a big deal so it should be really entertaining.”

amara bursted out laughing, placing a hand in front of her mouth to stop her but it was useless. “sure…,” she trailed off, a mocking tone distinguishable in her voice. “it’s not like i have anything better to do this weekend, no of course not. i can already feel how excited i am to watch you run after a ball for one and a half hours.”

“glad to know this is how you feel about me,” kylian replied, his face scrunching up which made amara laugh even more. 

“you should start selling tickets just for people to watch you, not the team but just you.” amara suggested, “it’ll be called the donatello experience, after all you do kind of look like him. but the wish version.” she added, squirming when kylian suddenly started to tickle her. 

her laughter rang through the entire apartment, her begs going down in laughs as kylian tickled her all over. it was perfect. this moment was everything her and even were not and for the first time in a long time. amara was not thinking about her worries, the only thing on her mind was kylian - her kylian. she knew that god was a woman, but her favorite angel was definitely kylian.

“you think it’s an insult, i take it as a compliment,” he stated proudly and amara raised her eyebrows, an incredulous expression on her face at his words. “but you know, you’re kind of right. i should definitely start the mbappé experience. i mean after all, who wouldn’t want to see this beauty,” he let a hand run down his face, posing extravagantly which started another small laugh flash of amara. 

“people would start reclaiming their money if they spent it to watch you fall every twenty minutes. but what’s money when you can watch the imperialistic, majestic, phenomenal kylian mbappé try to score goals, right?”

 “ha ha,” he replied dryly, glaring at the singer in front of him. “aren’t you funny?”

amara smirked, mischievous glint in her eyes, “i know i am. you don’t have to remind me.”

“and people say, i have a big ego,” kylian muttered under his breath, but still loud enough for amara to hear, “they clearly haven’t met you.”

“your ego is bigger than france itself,” amara retorted, “i’m just trying to match your energy.”

“glad we’re on the same page.”

“of course we are. if it wasn’t for me, who would remind you of your frequent moments of mediocrity and knock you off your high horse?” amara explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “i’ll be here, sitting on my couch, cheering you on as i watch you miss a penalty by a mile.”

instead of answering with another sarcastic comment, the french striker stood up and pulled off  the blue psg-hoodie he was wearing. amara’s eyes widened as she spotted his abs, clearly visible through the tight white shirt he was wearing beneath. he threw it into amara’s lap without another word, the smell of his cologne immediately picked up by her nose. 

“you’re giving me your hoodie? what for? i can easily order myself a psg jersey,” she questioned, looking at him confused.

he shrugged dismissively again, “faut que je encourage mon plus grand supporter, tu ne trouve pas? without whose words, i probably wouldn’t have scored my incoming hattrick.” — don’t you think?

she pulled the sweatshirt closer to her chest and put it on, laughing as she saw how big it was on her body. “aww, thank you. you thought of me. to how many girls have you already given this?”

“none,” kylian replied deadpan, nodding in affirmation when amara raised her eyebrows. “you’re the first.”

“i feel honored, thank you so much. maybe, i’ll sell it on ebay.” she said cheerfully and threw a last glance at the time on her phone. “kylian, you really need to go now if you don’t plan on warming the bench tomorrow.”

he held his hands up in surrender. “d’accord, je m’en vais déjà.” — okay, i’m already leaving

kylian lifted himself up from the sofa, reaching for his belongings. amara quickly put on some slippers and accompanied him to the door, in a way it felt like this was a death march. as if amara would never see him again, which was quite the opposite in reality. they had spent the whole day together, yet it felt like it wasn’t enough. to the two of them not even forever could fill their need for one another, and with kylian going away for a match. their need to be close to each other had never been stronger.

they stood at the door, looking at each other, their regards completely enamored. his hand brushed gently against hers, surroundings entirely drowning out. for some reason, this goodbye felt different. the usual warmth was discernible in his eyes, the smell of his cologne filled the air, intensified this time because of his hoodie that was gracing her body, a comfortable atmosphere laid around them. and yet, neither moved. they were caught in their moment. 

it reminded amara of their first meeting, the morning after. when they had been at his apartment and she was in kylian’s position. they would have stayed there too for hours if her phone hadn’t rang. but this time, there were no distractions. it was just the two of them, waiting for the other to make a move and yet neither of the two wanted to disrupt the moment. 

he contemplated in his head, mind running high — was this the moment he had longed for? when she would finally make a step forward instead of her three steps back each time something like this happened? all he wanted to do at the moment was to take her head into his palms and press his lips on hers. but he also knew that it wouldn’t be fair towards her. 

she needed the time to heal and move forward from her insecurities, her doubts about love. and he had sworn to himself several times to give it to her. he could wait for years, it would be okay. she was the only woman in his thoughts at the moment. they didn’t need to rush. for him, it was the most obvious thing that he liked her in every kind of way. they could be in a room full of diamonds and yet she would still shine the brightest. 

he leaned down, close enough to hear amara’s heart beat pound quickly, his lips brushing her skin swiftly as he pressed a soft kiss on her cheek. for a second everything stood still, the earth stopped in its tracks. and it was just them, as the innocent gesture made them both freeze. was it the wrong decision? maybe. was it too soon? maybe. but all kylian could say was he did not regret it.

the kiss did not leave them unbothered. the sensation of his touch, his skin on hers sent shivers down her spine, the spot where he had kissed her burning with heat. and yet she felt a bit of disappointment. a part of her had thought it would have been more, longed for more. 

and kylian somehow sensed it. he could feel her bit of disappointment that was going through her. he placed her hands in his, smiling at her fondly, so much love in his gesture, “i know you’re disappointed. but i did not want our first kiss to be a goodbye kiss. i promised myself, i would make our first kiss unforgettable and wait till you’re ready for us.”

as he spoke, how could she be mad at him? when he was that considerate of her feelings; when he was able to read her like an open book? she looked up at him, eyes reflecting every of her emotions that she currently felt and a smile broke out on her lips. 

“will you wait forever?”

“if you want me too, i will.”

“you’re too good for me, ky,” amara muttered, still playing with the footballer’s hands. 

he shook his head, her smile mirroring on his face, “not too good. just perfect.” he leaned his back towards the wall, watching their reflection in the mirror. “he didn’t deserve you. he never did.”

as they slowly, with lots of reluctance let go of each other’s hands, another atmosphere built up. they didn’t have to say anything, they knew what they thought. next to the warmth and love filling the air, there was also a sense of safety. they felt safe with each other. she wasn’t just amara anymore, the person he fell in love with and wanted to show her his love. she had changed into amara, the person he felt safe with that he loved. 

the first time they had been in this situation, the roles were reversed and he had to hold on to the hope of it all, that they would meet again. that she wouldn’t push him back, and she hadn’t. so even though she had never been his, he had lived for her. given things up for her because his sense of amore had been so innocent, so hopeful that their faiths would intertwine. 

“so… i can count on you cheering me on from your couch?”

she nodded firmly, “no place i would rather be at that time,” she replied in the same cheerful tone, her soft smile still decorating her face. “by the way, it wouldn’t have been a goodbye kiss,” she added as kylian stepped through the door, her words making the french forward stop and turn around.

“well, this isn’t a goodbye, cherié,” he responded, “just a, see you soon.”

both were grinning widely when amara closed the door behind her. a cocktail of emotions rushed through her, her mind replaying the past few minutes in her head over and over. her hand reached for her cheek, the touch of his lips on her cheek still recent. even as she sat down on the couch, her mind still thought back to the moment they had shared at the door, their step forward. 

even kylian couldn’t wipe the smile of his face as he made his way home. he ignored the questionable look from his chauffeur, his mind still thinking back to the moment that had just happened. the soft and gentle kiss he had left on her cheek held much more significance. it was a symbol for their step forward. 

𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄:

AMARA: i kind of miss you guys scratch that, i actually miss you so much

LIYAH: this bitch drunk again?

r u drunk again?  you’re only emotional when you’re drunk

AMARA: can’t a girl miss her besties

GRACE: nah, she’s definitely drunk we literally talk to each other over the phone every day in case you forgot, i’m your pr-manager

AMARA: choke i’m not drunk i just miss seeing you, it’s been weeks

GRACE: aww, we miss seeing your beautiful face too

GRACE: but she’s kind of right, it’s actually been kind of long since we all saw each other

AMARA: paris is lonely without y’all next girls night out is on me

LIYAH: we’re sorry not everybody can go into hiding immediately

AMARA: acting as if i did this on purpose anyway i’m bored by the way, did you see the article about e*an and his girlfriend at the MTV awards?

LIYAH. i thought we agreed not to talk about this asshole anymore BUT LIKE SAME  AND THE WAY THEY’RE SAYING, YOUR THE ONE LEFT BEHIND

GRACE: we can always sue them if you want this was more than just talking about henderson and his new trophy girlfriend they woke up and chose violence

AMARA: it’s the part where they say ‘i pale in comparison to her’ like, i’m sorry my job is not to just sit still and look pretty

LIYAH: that nepo baby has probably never worked even lifted a finger to work for something

GRACE: don’t worry i’ll take care of it and e*an will definitely eat his words “not truly working between us” THAT BITCH

AMARA: his text messages say different but who cares?

GRACE: do me the favour though and don’t go on social media rn, it’s shitty there

LIYAH: gracey’s kind of right, it does look bad at the moment AMARA: dw wasn’t planning to anyway, i’m over it already so liyah, how was fashion week?

LIYAH: great lots of free alcohol and great clothes

AMARA: where was it again?

LIYAH: in the south of france monaco = lots of casinos and alcohol

GRACE: speaking of monaco…

LIYAH: yesssss

AMARA: liyahhhhhhhh

LIYAH: amaraaaaaaaa

AMARA: WHAT’S THIS GRACE JUST SEND ME PRIVATELY? YOU HAVE A NEW MAN? YOU BAGGED CHARLES LECLERC!!!!

GRACE: AND SHE PROBABLY WOULDN’T HAVE TOLD US IF WE DIDN'T ASK AFTER FASHION WEEK

LIYAH: guys….

AMARA:

THIS YOU?

LIYAH: i didn’t know it spread this quick but let me add, his ferrari collection>>>>> and he feeds me pasta everyday

GRACE:

SPILL BITCH

AMARA: yess, we wanna know the deeds how did this shit happen

LIYAH: well, i was supposed to go on blind date but asshole never showed up charles ordered me a bottle of wine and joined me later than, apparently he saw me being sad

GRACE: omgggg

one night stand??

LIYAH: nahhh we went on a few days before he popped the question and he’s literally amazing skilled everywhere

AMARA: damn, girl not even james made you swoon like that

GRACE: she deep in

LIYAH: james could have never let’s not disrespect charles like that james would have never let me drive his pista

AMARA:

PISTA? A FERRARI PISTA

LIYAH: he has a customized one

AMARA:

JEALOUSSSS (don’t you dare quote my song now)

GRACE: but like, how’s it going?

LIYAH: he’s so charming and cute and perfect.  i feel like every adjective i try to use does not fit, it’s too good.  and his smile — his smile is adorable.  especially with his dimples. impossible not to fall for him.”

AMARA:

WE NEED TO MEET HIM ASAP

GRACE: he got our girl down bad

AMARA: she’s actually in love

LIYAH: but like jokes aside, i really like him like him and me are

there are no situationships, no toxic exes it’s perfection — well, more like he’s perfection and brings out the best in me

AMARA: she’s in love let’s hope he doesn’t screw it up like james did.

GRACE: if he does, ferrari red won’t be the only one he’s seeing

AMARA: but we can’t wait to meet him in person

LIYAH: how about we stop talking about my man and focus on the reason, amara’s hyped again

GRACE: YES CAUSE WHY IS THIS BITCH CALLING ME AT TWO O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING

LIYAH: AND DON’T EVEN TRY TO DENY IT WE’VE KNOWN YOU FOR YEARS

GRACE: SPILL THE BEANS

AMARA: don’t know what you’re talking about there’s no one

LIYAH: at least try to sound convincing

we’re your best friends your soul sisters

GRACE: by definition it’s our job to pry into your life

LIYAH: TELL US, WHO GOT YOU DOWN

AMARA: fine so there’s this guy, kylian and we met here

LIYAH: SHE ACTUALLY HAS A MAN

GRACE:

AMARA: not gonna lie my heart is going crazy for him like he is kind of perfect

GRACE: OMGGG WHAT HAS THIS BITCH BEEN KEEPING FROM US

LIYAH: SPILL what’s he like?

AMARA: he’s incredibly talented firstly and his smile could literally light up a room

LIYAH: IT’S GETTING GOOD

AMARA: idk how to describe but like we just click, we don’t have to say anything but immediately understand each other and he’s actually making me laugh and keeps up with my sarcasm

GRACE:

LIYAH: SHE IS DOWN BAD

GRACE: does he know you feel bout him that way?

AMARA: he knows like, we both know that we have feelings but i told him, i’m not ready and he understands that said, he was willing to wait for me

GRACE: KEEP HIM

LIYAH: HE’S PERFECT

GRACE: what does he even look like?

AMARA:

LIYAH: WHO IS THAT? WAIT I THINK I KNOW HIM

GRACE: DAMN AMARA WHAT THE HELL BITCH HOW COULD YOU KEEP HIM FROM US

LIYAH: HE’S THAT PLAYER FROM PSG RIGHT? THE FRENCH STRIKER SCORED THREE GOALS IN THE WC FINAL??

GRACE: A FOOTBALL PLAYER? AMARA??? INCOMING FACETIME CALL:

giggling, amara accepted the call quickly, her smile widening as she stared at her two best friends. her laugh intensified, looking at liyah’s serious face.

“usually, i am the first to veto football players but if he’s anything like what you told us,” liyah trailed off excitingly, “if you don’t go for him, i will personally smack the shit out of you.” liyah threatened jokingly, “that man literally has you smiling like the cheshire cat and—”

“is that his hoodie?” grace cut her off, pointing at the navy blue sweatshirt on amara’s body. their eyes immediately spotted the small number seven, engraved at the top corner of the shirt.

she looked away shyly, nodding and instantly laughing at the shocked faces of her friends. “he gave it to me, sort of support. said that, if i can’t come to his matches, then at least i’ll be supporting him through my phone.”she explained, smiling brightly.

“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?” grace questioned her incredulously, while liyah was still looking for words to describe the behavior of their friend. “HE IS DOWN FOR YOU.”

“girls, it’s not that easy. i like him, i truly do but things are not the same for me as they were for you and charles.” amara muttered, her smile shining less. “i can’t just go for him.”

their expressions were soft, a certain fondness for their best friend recognizable as they looked at her. liyah spoke first, “if this is because of evan, i can promise you, it’s not going to be like that the next time. this time, we’re here and not those fake, backstabbing snakes. and the moment we see a red flag in kylian, we’ll make sure he never ever plays football again.”

she sighed heavily, hands running frustratingly over her face. “i am a mess at the moment. i can’t even step outside because of this stupid scandal. and he’s kylian, france’s golden boy. he doesn’t deserve to be dragged down because of me.” she confessed, a heavy weight falling off her shoulders. 

“amara, the last thing you need to do is think of yourself as a burden.” grace told her in a scolding tone, “kylian is old enough to choose whom he wants to associate himself with. and if chose you, that’s because he likes you. you literally said that he was willing to wait till you were ready to move forward.”

“men like them only come once in a lifetime,” liyah added to support grace’s statement. “and sometimes you just have to trust. don’t take this as me pushing you to get into a relationship but we want you to figure it out. you’re the only one who knows when you’re ready or not and neither your reputation nor your career are going to change that. it’s just you.”

“is it even a good idea for two celebrities to date? i don’t need a repeat of what happened with evan. this thing escalates again and i’m done,” she explained worriedly. “i am trying to rise from the ashes. i can do it once but if this fails, i can’t do it twice. and the risk of it is too high for me.”

amara jumped when suddenly a pillow was thrown towards the camera, rolling her eyes lightly at liyah’s antics. she was known for her way of always overdramatizing everything. 

this time was no different. 

“mar, honestly i don’t really know if kylian is the right guy. the only thing I know though is that he cares. and maybe he’s not the right person. but at least you’ll have tried.” grace assured her, smiling softly at her while liyah held her thumbs up. “sometimes you have to kiss several frogs to find your prince.”

“you’ve got no idea how thankful i am for this,” she replied thankfully, accepting grace’s advice. “truly do not know where i would be without you two.”

standing up from the sofa, she rummaged through her notebooks till she found the one she had opened recently and wrote her newest song down. she brought it back to her place, sitting down again and listening to her two best friends talk as she edited her lyrics. she must have spaced out very quickly since suddenly, a high pitched scream was heard through her phone. 

“OMG, SHE’S WRITING!” liyah exclaimed, making amara look up in shock. she was met with a gleeful expression on liyah’s face, looking at the camera and a similar looking one on grace. “NEW MUSIC IS COMING!”

grace shook her head at liyah even though they were used to it by now. “is that the project you told me about? the one from two o’clock in the morning?”

amara gave a nod and smiled at the excitement in her friends’ faces. “songwriting is on again, i guess.”

“you said, you were taking a pause.”

“no, i was just in a slump because of my mediocre second album,” amara objected quickly, “but now i’m high on motivation again and i’m keen on beating those critics and haters, who called me forgettable.”

“is the song already finished?” grace asked her curiously. “do you want me to arrange something for recording or?”

amara closed the small notebook, placing it on the table in front of her. “no, i want to write several ones before i even think of going to the studio. like i said, this time i need to exceed. not just reach my expectation but exceed them. and i’m going to do that.”

“damn, where’s the inspiration coming from?” liyah exclaimed. 

amara smirked, mischievous glint apparent in her eyes. “he gave it to me.”

𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄:

AMARA: kylian? u awake?

KYLIAN: always

AMARA: i actually wrote a song today

KYLIAN: it’s mine right?

AMARA: score a goal for me and we’ll see

KYLIAN: this is torture

AMARA: writing a song is not for everyone takes time and patience not that you’d know

KYLIAN: can i at least know what it’s about?

AMARA: about a certain football player who thinks he’s the best in world and needs to be humbled with a disstrack

KYLIAN:

a disstrack? when have i ever offended you

AMARA: i rate constantly stealing my food as a crime by the way, shouldn’t you be asleep right now you have a match tomorrow

KYLIAN: one we’ll easily win

AMARA: boy, you’re not man city get off your high horse

KYLIAN: your ego is just as bad as mine i never even asked you what’s your favorite team?

AMARA: olympique marseille a shame, they’re always losing in classicos

KYLIAN: fr now

AMARA: liverpool fc ynwa always cheers me up and now go to sleep before i block you i expect a hat-trick tomorrow

KYLIAN: i’ll even score four if that makes you happier

AMARA: don’t tempt me mbappé

KYLIAN: don’t block me pls

AMARA: then go to bed

KYLIAN: fine maman

AMARA:

#kylian mbappe #kylian mbappe x reader #kylian mbappe fluff #kylian mbappe fanfic #kylian mbappe imagine #kylian mbappe x black! reader #kylian mbappe x oc #kylian mbappe x black! oc #kylian mbappe series #kylian mbappé x oc #kylian mbappé x reader #kylian mbappé fluff #kylian mbappé series #kylian mbappé fanfic #ligue 1 #psg #kylian x oc #kylian x black! oc #singer! oc #kylian fanfic #kylian mbappé #kylian x black! reader #kylian x singer! oc #mon amour series #mon amour #amara imani

[moonystoes]

if you stomp and step on people intentionally, then you are right, I do not like you. One day she is going to seriously hurt someone. Doesn’t matter if people just get up and shake it off. Again, if we on social media hadn’t blown this out of the shop, it would not have been a problem with MT posting that picture. Honestly, I don’t see either MT or LJ doing anything wrong in this situation. We are the problem. And another thing, you need to be able to call out people on their bad behaviour without the racist card being thrown every time. Why is it always ok for people to lash out at McCabe for how she plays, but as soon as LJ is involved in anything people are being racists? Yes, some people are assholes and can’t criticise players objectively, but when someone comes out with an objective meaning of a situation, you get the “you are just picking on her because of race” bla bla bla

Wow what a bunch bullshit you just said. I feel like I need to discuss every point you said because none of them are valid.

1) "One day she's going to seriously hurt someone":

But...did she? How do you know she'll seriously hurt someone if she never did. You're just assuming that based on nothing. She hadn't harmed anyone, so this is irrelevant 💀💀. So let's go harass her and claim her as a aggressive player that injures them when... that never happened? Okay!

2) "if we on social media hadn't blown this out of the shop, it would not have been a problem with MT posting that picture.":

We? Who's we? Cuz that seems like its you and the racists that are bashing LJ for something she didn't do because of a picture withOUT context. 'We' are standing AGAINST the people that are blown this situation. That are actively claiming LJ is some fucking terrorist or something for wanting a fucking BALL. And yes, without YOU racists existing that picture would've been okay. But racists exist, and dumb idiots like MT postes pictures of her OWN black teammate that is experiencing racism for breathing and liking comments of something that never happened is a problem.

3) "I don't see either MT or LJ doing anything wrong in this situation.":

Well start seeing then tf💀💀. I don't even know why MT thought it was a good idea. Turner is in the wrong, be serious.

4) "We are the problem.":

Nope. That's you, not me. Bot us that's standing against racism in sports... don't label me as your kind.

5) "why is it always okay to lash out at McCabe for how she plays":

...is the lashing out in the room with us?? 👀 Because last time I checked, Katie's foals are funny, quirky, crazy, hilarious, and silly. Edits of her fouls are on tiktok and people say shes iconic and funny. The only people that I have seen that spoke against Katie's aggression are Chelsea fans. And that's because they see the HYPOCRISY coming from white supremacists and racists that hate on LJ for being aggressive but support Katie.

6) "But as soon as LJ is involved in anything people are being racists?":

Exactly yes 😘😝, yayy finally you got it 👍.

The reason why this situation is based on racism is because the issue they claim literally never happened. What MT posted never happened, but LJ is getting harassed when she NEVER did it. What happened against Nigeria, did you see me defend it? No, in fact I was shocked and disgusted by it. But this situation? Absolutely RACISM 😝😝!! Because when Le Tissier literally pushed Mayra Ramírez and elbowed faces like she's some fucking rugby player, no one was speaking about it. Everyone is crying about a 'headlocking' that never happened, when poor Mayra was injured and treated like shit in the WSL as well as her not even knowing English.

Lastly, fuck off and never come here again. And if you do, remove the anon so I can block you.

#moonytoes anon #chelsea wfc #chelsea women #woso #woso community #women's football #engwnt #england lionesses

[antifainternational]

*tinfoil hat time* You know those outlandish conspiracy theories like qanon ? I suspect that they're deliberately spread around on purpose by actual pedophiles to deflect attention away from actual pedophilia and abuse committed by powerful people via the "cry wolf" effect. Qanon originated on 4chan. Nuff said.

Have you ever noticed that the far-right extremists who shout the loudest about how they're against child sexual abuse tend to also be/be closely associated with child predators? The most glaring example being Stephen "Tommy Robinson" Yaxley Lennon. "Tommy" has been on a crusade against "Muslim grooming gangs" every since he started the English Defence League. The EDL, of course, turned out to be one of the largest grooming gangs the UK has ever seen, if we're to judge it by the number of EDL members convicted of sex crimes against children (18 of them! + two other close friends/associates of Tommy). Tommy is on-record publicly defending EDL co-founder Richard Price after Price was convicted on child pornography charges. This isn't just a UK phenomenon, either. Take the Proud Boys, for example, who include members charged with child pornography & child rape in their "fraternal drinking club." One accused of child rape - Sean Michael McHugh, told the officers he was assaulting during the January 6 insurrection that they were "protecting pedophiles," ironically enough. We've kept a list of far-right extremists, bigots, and racists who also have an unsavoury and often criminal history involving the sexual exploitation of children, in fact. Pretty sure psychologists call this type of thing "projection."

[eroticcannibal]

Even in the US, how pale you are is not always an indicator of whiteness. My bf is Sicilian (like. Mom came here when she was pregnant, technically an anchor baby Sicilian, not great-grandfather came over in 1912 Sicilian) and he's pale af BUT. He's got dark hair, dark eyes, and "ethnic" looking features. And usually he's fine. He's "white enough" to only get harassed by cops when they mistake him for Middle Eastern (it's the beaky nose that does it, I think. Literally no one in the US knows what various ethnicities actually look like - they just know what Doesn't Look White and make wild guesses from there), but also? In a room full of Bubba types? In the Deep South, where we live? He does not count as white. It's subtle (unless he disagrees with someone) and he's certainly higher up on the totem pole than a Black guy or somebody with an Hispanic-sounding last name, but STILL. Having a non-English/Northern European surname + Mediterranean features is enough to get him singled out.

I'm like 99% certain this wouldn't be a problem if we didn't live where we live. People who cry about "Irish oppression" and "Italian oppression" like that's been a significant thing in living memory are 10 times out of 10 racist pigs trying to distract from their own bigotry. But like. That does not change the fact that even in the US, surname, accent, etc play a significant part in whether or not you're perceived as white. It is not all down to skin color.

Finally some fucking nuance!

"They don't look white" and making guesses from there is how I see a lot of the """racism against white ppl""" work. Like theres enough going on to set off the not white alarms and thats enough for racist white ppl.

And all those things u mentioned would easily be enough for him to not count as white over here too. Man would be lumped in with the 2 indians in the village down where I live.

[megandzane]

I question the morals of all those defending and trying to make excuses for their “English Rose” Catherine. I know Meghan said she’s a lovely person (for pretty much just doing the bare minimum after making her cry), but she is complicit in making Meg’s life a living hell. Kate’s been around these people for a long time and I know she knows her husbands, father-in-law, and all the other in-laws views and I have a very strong feeling that she shares those same views. I would’ve loved to have had a sister-in-law power duo, but a racist is a racist

Exactly. They are rich white folks who never hang out with anyone outside their circle, so I wouldn’t be surprised. But I doubt that they think it’s racism because they’ve never been forced to check their biases.

As for those jumping to defend Kate, it’s very telling that y’all had no issues quickly believing that a black made a white woman cry, but now that it’s come out that Kate was in the wrong , you suddenly question Meghan’s credibility.

Meghan does seem like the the type who is very against pitting women against women and comes across as a fairly non-confrontational person. And she knows she knows she can’t say anything that could be seen as remotely negative about her in-laws. She knows how she must conduct herself. But her saying Kate would probably want the truth to come out, because she’s a good person made me 😬

It’s been a few years, Kate and her team have defended ridiculous stories about Kate and chose to let this “Meghan made our white princess cry” narrative continue. They even threatened legal action over the tatler article that backfired, but they didn’t say a word correcting the crying story or any of the negative comments about Meghan.

The damage has already been done, the truth coming out won’t make a difference at this point.

And Meghan saying that story was a “ real turning point “ makes me think Meghan was well aware of what was happening and the racial implications.

It’s sweet that Meghan said she protected the true story from coming out, but I think it really needs to be said even if that true story came out from the start , it wouldn’t be the same villfying reaction to Kate. Woc tears don’t elicit the same response. They probably would’ve just called Meghan a drama queen.

White supremacy has always been driven by the narrative of white women in distress . Kate might not have know the full racial implications of letting that particular rumor run, but she was silent as Meghan was attacked for this . she saw Meghan being slaughtered for something she did.

We don’t know everything that goes on behind closed doors , but we do have eyes. I saw the way Kate and Sophie publicly snubbed Meghan on commonwealth day.

I do feel for Kate after hearing how controlled Meghan was, but it’s also clear that she has been protected in a way that other royal ladies aren’t because she’s so non threatening. And it’s not just a matter of her being the heirs wife.

I’m also not sure how sending flowers and a note is supposed to make up for the fact that Kate was silent for years as Meghan was blamed for something SHE did . I also take issue with Kate saying silent while Meghan was being torn apart for “ breaking protocol “ , only to copy her and get praise . The Caucasity of it all

#km #we got mail #long post #race and royals #misogynoir

[rametarin]

‘Super Straight’ is a terrible thing.

It fails conceptually to convey the argument it’s trying to make, and as a result, it serves as having the same sociological vulnerability in the discourse that, “reverse-racism” had back in the day.

The entire concept of reverse racism came about because for a brief window there, the radicals had groomed the shallow liberals into more and more extreme in what counted as racism, whom the term applied to.

So eventually, someone complained and argued they were being focus fired and their motives questioned, not because of the outcomes or their intentions in doing it, but because they were being accused and attacked for being white. And that was, “reverse racism.” The discourse of the era really hammered down on racism, but always using language, much like how domestic violence would always gender the abuser as he and the victim as she, that incriminated the white people of racism and bigotry and prejudice, never using examples of a black, or Asian, or indigenous American, as the perpetrator of racism.

This deliberate shaping of the discourse from people above was obvious. But, they also pretended, while deliberately using examples and terms of white bigotry and prejudice against other groups, that racism was just racism. That universally, racism was a problem, and the phenomenon was just bigotry and prejudice based on race.

You needed asterisks and clarification and to actually ASK whether that applied to people that weren’t white, and people either were afraid to ask, or if they asked, they were ignored, or if they demanded an answer and determination, were brushed off. Because it became obvious SOME so-called “progressives” believed racism was exclusively the phenomenon of white oppression against non-whites.

And if you pressed further and harder for clarification instead of “just putting the pieces together yourself” and taking your conclusions for granted, without questioning or making trouble, sometimes you’d get the liberal definition and sometimes a radical feminist would give you the real definition. Depending on if they felt they were in a place of impunity where there’s nothing you could do about it whether you knew or not, or they trusted you and believed you were on their wavelength.

If someone naturally concluded, by reading the room and seeing the examples in action, just coming to the conclusion themselves that racism was only considered racism when levied BY whites DOWN on black people, Asians, indigenous people, etc., then they’d say, “You’re just picking on me/antagonizing me for this because I’m white!! That’s racism!”

It’s at this point the radicals, if they were feeling bold and empowered- and many times, they were. Because they select and choose their social battles wisely, would pipe up:

“It’s not racism. You don’t get to say it’s racism. There’s nothing racist about trying to change a racist society by advocating this.” When, yeah, if you antagonize and harass and overindulge in haranguing the shit out of people in little Struggle Sessions, embellishing the offense caused by the background of a person, not based on the crime committed, you are being a racist shithead. It is racism to consider the background of the person that did the crime as to whether the crime was especially heinous, or not.

“FINE,” said the person being accused, “Then it’s reverse-racist!”

And it was. They’d been called out. The early Intersectional Feminists that belied something was exclusively and only ever racism when it was either white individuals or white society levied down on black, Asian or Indigenous People of Color, knew that something was happening. People were becoming aware that this discrimination was coming for white people, in specific and exclusion of anyone else. And while they were absorbing the sentiment in the void of actually indoctrinating them in plain english, they were rejecting it and created a word for their rejection.

Rejecting the idea racism was only racism when and if it was specifically BY a white person, TOWARDS anybody else.

Then came Liberal Progressive Damage Control.

The Liberal and Radical Progressive both said, in unison:

“There’s no such thing as reverse racism.”

The Liberal then clarified: “Racism is simply the phenomenon of racial discrimination and prejudice and bigotry, levied BY anybody on the basis of race, TOWARDS anybody on the basis of race! It applies to everybody equally!”

And they had to. Because these people’s reputations and ability to infiltrate and influence live or die based on how well other people are willing to tolerate them preaching their social doctrines. If their messages are rejected, they can’t control them.

The Radical Progressive/Feminist, however, maintained: “Racism is purely the phenomenon of white people or white society oppressing or discriminating detrimentally towards someone for being black, or Asian, or indigenous non-white. A non-white person cannot be racist, and a white person cannot experience racism.”

But the radical that said and believed that in the 80s and 90s, slunk away to the halls of academia. And they kept quiet, while liberal progressives breadcrumbed the people closer to university, where they’d have to pay to be steered further along in their, “social development.”

But the radical definition was always going to be the end-game for them. Liberal anti-racism was, in their eyes, just a step towards advancing society towards their radicalism. Not about actually ending racial discrimination and equality on a civic level, irrespective of race.

So. ‘Reverse Racism’ became a faux talking point, where liberal progressives would take this term, act as if it was a misconception purely born of overcompensating and insecure white people, and then speak as if the truth was, “it’s not reverse racism.. It’s just racism! Reverse racism doesn’t exist.”

Wholly ignoring the fact that people had experienced this nameless phenomenon of supposedly anti-racist people being intolerant or accusative towards those that had never committed any actual racism or bigotry, but were being singled out, focus fired and made public example of by their peers. They were experiencing SOME form of racial intolerance that treated them as if they were either perpetraotrs of racism by action, or by their background. Which is no different from expecting that a black person, just by being black, has either committed crimes like theft and assault, or will, because they’re black.

It was just generally accepted that if white people could be guilty of racism, then so could anyone else. Liberal progressivism, much the same way as they dissent when hate crime legislation is used to punish people for attacking white people on the basis of their race, “because those laws are meant to protect at risk minorities from white oppression,” didn’t like it. But, they had to maintain the illusion of impartiality and benignity. And so, they smiled and nodded and approved of the idea that racism was able to be applied universally to and by anyone. Even if, internally, they disagreed.

And so, they spun the discourse that had introduced “reverse-racism” purely as something insecure white people made up to squeal bloody murder about if they were getting called out heavy handedly or they felt unfairly for perpetrating racism. Speaking as if it only existed as a blubbering cope against the mean ole people that, “just liked equality and fairness and justice.”

Do you see how the evolution of this term and its perception shifted throughout the course of this story? How it came about, how it was created and why, how it was received and responded to, and ultimately what it became?

They took a word and concept used to define the outrage of the heavy handedness and made it into a point of mockery and profiled those most likely to use it as people like Rush Limbaugh.

After that, they used it as a tool of assumed intent and mockery if a situation ever arose in which a white person was talking about a situation in which they felt like the other person was being short or dismissive of them, and their assumed intentions, because of their race.

“Ohh? Am I being ‘reverse racist’ at you? Awwwww. Waaaaaaah. There’s no such thing as reverse racism. Cry harder.”

etc.

No one even had to accuse someone of it. But if you tried to explain the very real and very probable phenomenon where a person was treating you like shit or assuming the worst of your intentions on the basis of you being a white person doing it, and you attested the other person was discriminating against you racially for it, they whipped that out as if just by anticipating you were about to say it, you fit the profile of someone that was guilty of it and just trying to feel oppressed and outraged.

I see this exact outcome happening with the term, ‘Super Straight.’ Only, rather than the subject being racism and race discourse, it’s transgenderism and social constructionism.

And to be honest, it feels like this was surgically implanted into 4channer boards and perpetuated to make it LOOK like a “neckbeard altright dudebro” meme. The fact many are perpetuating it doesn’t help, but it feels... ingenuine.

It almost feels like those fake egg accounts on twitter and other social media that supposedly sent Sarkesian and Zoe Quinn that hate. And those 4chan posts that they oopsied over posting, revealing it was them giving themselves anon-hate and trying to get the mob to attack them just for victim clout points.

Super Straight as a concept and a joke feels like weaponized, “It’s Okay To Be White,” but put into 4channer mouth specifically to then use against them.

First, Super Straight cedes the idea that being straight includes any context in which a cishet man wants to suck a penis. It goes, “Okay, we will accept being straight includes sucking the penis of transwomen and seeing them as women sexually, so obviously to be SUPER STRAIGHT means to not do that!” Inherently doing that, you admit defeat and bow to social constructionism that says to be a man or woman is purely gender, and sexuality hinges upon gender, not sex. To be Super Straight creates a new definition that says straight isn’t exclusive to cishetero, but Super Straight is.

If you wanted to mock their expectation that all gender not just shift its definitions to make room to validate and legitimize the trans, but redefine sexuality and gender itself to make both cis and trans equally validly male and female with absolutely no credence or relevance paid to biology or chromosomes whatsoever, then this is not the way to do it. It’s not clever, it’s not succinct, it doesn’t force them into a logical or linguistic dead-end.

The argument put forwards by those giggling about, “super straight,” is that a cishetero person, in this case, a man, won’t be attracted to a transwoman, and creating a word to make that a valid thing is no different than using words to validate other things. Such as, “Grey ace demiguy.” Trying to use the same system of assumed validation for sex and gender against itself, without the tangential institutional control in place in academia, just doesn’t work. For it to work you have to assume whatever absolutism coming out from on high from the academic class can be respected equally without coming from that academic class, whom insist they define standards and norms, now.

Instead, they should be arguing for something like, “Cis-orientation.” If a homosexual is a term for a valid sexuality where a person is not attracted to the opposite sex, be they male or female, and that’s not considered, “heterophobia,” and arbitrarily acceptable just.. because... then obviously there’s SOMETHING that makes sexual attraction to the same sex valid, but sexual attraction to only someone of the opposite sex regardless of their gender somehow invalid and a phobia.

Yet, these people will defend homosexuality as valid, while arguing to not want to see transgendered people as viable candidates for romance or sex are transphobes.

They miraculously will not insist a lesbian just has, “phallophobia” or “cisphobia” if she won’t even at least ATTEMPT to, “get used” to it. They will acknowledge to be gay is simply to be unchangable oriented how they are, and they should not try and make them straight.

But bizarrely they WILL expect a lesbian to suck girldick, as, “that’s a female. You’re a lesbian, you like girls, so you should consider sucking female penis.”

Lysenkoism but for socio-sexual theory. That you can use words and self-identification to ignore or bypass someone’s sexuality. And it’s, “totally not -phobia or oppression, because it’s not being used to hurt a minority and you can’t oppress the majority.”

If there was any genuine interest in the rights and fairness and equality for the respect of people based on their gender orientation and sexuality, they would not be so queer-centrist in execution.

Instead, they would recognize that they cannot just redefne the universal words of man, woman, gay and straight, to suit an agenda that treats there as being no distinction between a trans or cis person. We simply cannot have that, unless of course the intention is to invalidate the biology of all parties involved, and remove the material, physical components for consideration.

That would mean devolving all gender and sex and orientation merely to arbitrary classes, which are imagined, not real. That would mean there being no difference between thinking you can forcibly convert someone’s sexuality from gay to straight, or straight to gay, as those things no longer would be considered to be concrete based on indivisible aspects of your biology and self, merely attitude and beliefs.

Not only would it do that, but it’d insist that chromosomes and reproductive role are arbitrary and absolutely detatched from a person’s identity, no different than assuming their blood type or astrological sign was attached to their gender.

This is quite literal denial of science and physical reality in the name of ideology. This isn’t trans rights, it’s masquerading as such. And keeping very tight lipped about anything outside the purview and real meaning behind how they’re selling their model of trans rights.

For Super Straight to be a recognizable talking point, it basically just creates a sacrificial lamb. Something that any social constructionist can attack in effigy and then say, “Well I’ve already debunked the popular idea that ‘super straightness’ exists, so stop clinging to the idea a cishetero person that DOESN’T date trans people is anything other than a bigot.”

Something they can “totally PWN with LOGIC and REASON”, broadcast how they’ve “defeated” the argument that a straight man would not suck a penis, no matter how much glitter and perfume on it, and invalidate any suggestion to the contrary by saying it has already been thoroughly debunked so they’re just going to yell “KUNG POW PENIS LOL” until their opposition gets bored and leaves.

I can’t help but feel like the whole concept was deliberately constructed allegedly by their ideological opponents in order to perform smugness and superiority over them.

[madeupfact]

"the fundamental nature of a protest that has welcomed fascists. is. fascist. There was no condemnation of the fascist groups joining the protests" sounds nice until you read anything by leftists in the actual movement and find that the people pushing for US intervention are a tiny minority or realize that in a movement with hundreds of thousands of people it's impossible to vet each individual person in a protest while being teargassed and shot.

who are these “leftists” in the actual movement that “wrote” things? If you are referring to the anarchist graffiti in HK such as this or trending hashtags of #antiELAB or #PoliceBrutality, you are clearly mistaken. 

Not even beginning to address the content of these graffiti and social media posts, why would they all be in English when English is Hong Kong’s third language with only 46% of the population speaking it? Hmm… it couldn’t be because they are meant for Westerners to see, and not the police! If you’re not convinced by that, you should know that in the context of a movement such as this one (proudly funded by the NED, supported by regime change NGOs, its website explicitly calling for intervention, the existence of a law passed by the US Congress to support protesters, Harvard bribing people to participate, protesters being trained by Western imperialists long before the protests, etc. all in exchange for bringing down PRC in the US-China trade war¹), regardless of the political tendency of the graffiti artist (in this case, anarchist), their graffiti and social media posts are engineered toward a specific audience, one that can take action and… indeed, intervene.

Second, do you not see the reactionary aspect of referring to China as “Chinazi?” Combined with the fact that this graffiti is for a Western audience, it’s a pretty bold-faced cry of support for white supremacy and its associated goals. Though of course, that’s much in line with the consistently racist, classist HK protesters who regularly assault mainland Chinese and working-class elderly people, and display white nationalist symbols² –and don’t care that they are–as well as imperialist flags³. The celebration of Japanese imperialist invasion of China is pretty telling, too. 

But the proportion of protesters that are racists and pro-intervention is actually a tiny non-influential minority, you say? The facts of the larger geopolitical backdrop against which these protests take place say otherwise. If the protesters were majority leftists like you say, why would the leader of the protests, Joshua Wong, be meeting with US political leaders and supporting the passage of the aforementioned US congressional act? Why would there be hundreds of thinkpieces from Western media defending the HK protesters usage of Pepe or American/British flags? If it really were a tiny minority of people in the protests holding up American/British flags, you would think that HK protest leaders would try their best to limit media circulation of this or at least condemn the pro-intervention protesters and disavow the US publically. But instead we have the leaders of the protest openly calling for US intervention. 

So no, it’s really not a problem of individuals entering the protests and there not being a framework to vet them. It’s the nature of the movement, from the protesters themselves to the consequences of their actions. Why would there be any need to vet people entering the protests when all of them, no matter their ideology, right wing or left wing, are in service of imperialism?

Also, it’s pretty funny that you mention being teargassed and shot, when the violence of the HK protesters exceeds that of the police by far (example). Even the editor of the South China Morning Post–who is by no means pro-Beijing–feels that the extreme violence of the HK protesters has endangered HK as a whole. Meanwhile, the police have shot exactly one person in all these months while being attacked from all sides by violent protesters (video footage), and possibly another such shooting in similar circumstances this week, though I haven’t been able to find sources for it happening. The infamous girl with a bandage on her eye? She refuses to cooperate with an investigation or release her medical records–it’s very likely that she was hit by a slingshot steel ball such as this that was aimed at the police but missed its target; they’ve hit civilians before. I don’t know how to make you understand the level of violence that’s being perpetuated by the HK protesters and the extreme restraint being exercised by the police, but open the links I provided for starters. If this was any Western country, let’s say the US, France, or Australia, all of these rioters would be dead for the violence they’re utilizing against police. 

It’s the working class of Hong Kong that has to clean up all this mess, at the end of the day. The system of HK has a very weak social safety net due to One Country Two Systems (and no, it isn’t PRC’s fault that this basic law acts in such ways. It is in the interest of HK businesspeople and colonial bourgeoisie to have a free market and that’s who will fight to maintain it, even by seceding from PRC because the limits placed upon HK capitalism obstruct accumulation of further capital).

So I find it even more interesting that you say this:

While at the same time the protesters you love so much claim that PRC is authoritarian and that’s why they don’t want the extradition law. Which one is it–is it PRC making the police do bad things to the poor leftist protesters or is it the Brits who love HK capitalism (and who support the protests)? And I don’t understand on what grounds you claim it is a holdover other than the beginning of the Wikipedia article on HK police.

The destruction of HK is unjustifiable at this point, no matter your views on the protests, because the level of violence has made it impossible for anyone to function normally. Beating up random civilians and destroying public property is no political goal, it’s gratuitous violence for the sake of it.

Footnotes

¹ This is addressed in the link “proudly funded by the NED”

² The article linked about white nationalist symbols is from SCMP which defends the usage of Pepe by saying that the protesters don’t know that Pepe is an alt-right symbol, but then they go on to say that protesters have discussed the use of Pepe online and don’t care about it being an alt-right symbol. This goes to show the level of explicit hypocrisy in propaganda in support of protesters

³ This is also an article from SCMP which defends the protesters, but this time from being called pro-US or pro-UK for displaying US and UK flags. But of course, they reveal the protesters’ true intentions inadvertently by saying that they see the US and UK as symbols of freedom and liberty.

#anonymous #ask #hk #prc #long post #*

[a-little-slice-of-fandom]

Hi! I wanted to thank you for making me know Derry Girls! I always thought of Irish culture as such an interesting culture, and I'm so glad to learn about it (so now I have another TV series to bingewatch ahahaha). However, if it doesn't come as an offense, what else would you recommend to see about Ireland? I'm sorry if I made some mistakes, I'm not a native English speaker! Thank you again!

Hi anon! Firstly, please don’t apologise for your English because it’s really good!

Secondly, like I mentioned before, the problem with Irish based media is that there isn’t a lot of it (in comparison to American or English media) and what there is can often be changed in a way that’s much more palatable to these audiences. Generally, people in the UK don’t really want to watch a film about how horribly the Irish suffered, and Americans don’t like acknowledging the fact they weren’t the nicest to Irish people a lot of the time. Titanic is a good example. They make the experiences of those Irish people in steerage look so much fun in comparison to the experience in the stuffy first class...although that film does redeem itself when they show the third class, Irish (and Italian!) passengers purposefully locked below decks to drown. It’s sort of a middle ground between reality and rose-tinted glasses. If you haven’t given titanic a watch then go for it...but I wouldn’t say it’s overwhelmingly Irish. Good film though.

ALSO yes, the titanic was built in Belfast but I just would like to point out that it was absolutely fine when it left Belfast. Built by the Irish, sunk by the English. All I’m saying 🤷🏻‍♀️

I know this isn’t a TV show or a film, but I would highly recommend that anyone who is in any way interested in Irish history to read Under The Hawthorn Tree by Marita Conlon McKenna, which is about three young children trying to survive the Irish famine during the 1840s. While it is mainly taught to those just starting high school (or middle school in America) and the language is very easy to read...it is such a hard hitting book. I cried when I first read it when I was like nine and I still cry when I reread it. But it’s the reality of what happened during the famine. There’s no sugarcoating of the events that took place. However, you don’t need any prior knowledge of what’s going on to understand the book. It explains everything in a very natural way, and I think it’s the most accessible of Irish historical works.

There’s also two sequels to Under The Hawthorn Tree, called Wildflower Girl and Fields of Home. The second one follows one of the characters from Hawthorn Tree going to America and there experiences there, and it’s an amazing follow up to Hawthorn Tree. While I do think that the portrayal of America is slightly sugarcoated in Wildflower Girl (theres not much xenophobia...which there should have been) but the portrayal of journey to get to America? It’s harrowing. This is probably one of the best presentations of the famine ships (or coffin ships, as they were called) that you can get and you will understand the horrors of those ships. Fields of Home is just alright. I don’t think it’s as good as the first two because it doesn’t feel as focused on one singular thing and in all honesty, I didn’t enjoy reading this as a child and I’m still sort of on the fence with it now. But Hawthorn Tree and Wildflower Girl are two must reads!

As for films, I’d recommend Michael Collins from 1996. Its a film that takes a look at how Michael Collins helped to create the Irish Free State and the Irish civil war (not the troubles, that comes later). It also shows brutality of the Black and Tans (a section of the police force*) that went on in Ireland during this time period, as the police in Ireland tried to crackdown on the IRA. It’s a really good film, although sometimes it does sacrifice historical accuracy for Hollywood conventions. However...it might be a bit confusing if you don’t have prior knowledge of Ireland. Give it a try, but if you do end up a bit confused then I get it.

* Btw that name refers to the colour of their uniform. It’s not a racist term.

The Secret of Kells is an amazing animated film that you should totally watch. It’s all about the Book of Kells, a really important book in Irish history. It’s set in 9th century Ireland against the background of Viking invasions. I won’t say anymore about this one, please just go and watch it. Also the music is so amazing in that film, and it makes great use of traditional Irish instruments like the pipes and the bodhran. I’ve heard the animation company who made it referred to as the Irish Studio Ghibli and I definitely agree with that. They have a really distinctive style and it’s just,,,beautiful. This one is probably the most...celebratory. It really loves Ireland and it shows. There’s also Song of the Sea by the same company, which is another amazing celebration of Irish culture, this time concentrating on Celtic mythology. Also I think the main character might be mute? I can’t remember but I think she is. It’s another fantastic animation and I’d definitely recommend it.

Now I have to recommend the film Brooklyn because one of the actresses in it is actually from my town in Northern Ireland! Brooklyn was based off a book by the same name and both versions of the story have gotten really good reviews. It is a romance story (which usually isn’t my cup of tea) that follows a young Irish girl called Eilis (pronounced Ay-lish, for anyone wondering!) who has immigrated to America and the experiences she has there. Plus, it’s set in 1951, which isn’t usually a period of Irish history you see discussed. Normal People is something I see a lot of people recommending as well. It’s a book (written by Sally Rooney who is like 24 which is amazing!) but it’s also recently been adapted into a TV show which is getting good reviews. Again, it’s a romance story and I know a lot of people outside of Ireland can’t understand why people like it so much (it is a straight, cis white romance)...but it’s a generally good representation Irish romance and modern Ireland as a whole, including some class divide stuff. The books of these are quite an easy reads as well. So yeah, while I wouldn’t say Brooklyn or Normal People will teach you much about Irish history or Irish mythology...it does show a lot of the family life stuff. Normal People includes things like Trinity College and Gaelic football in the background, which are like quintessential Irish things. If you have the time, I’d give them a watch or a read.

Lastly, I’ve heard good things about the Netflix shows Rebellion (which concentrates on the Easter Rising of 1916) and The Irishman...but I haven’t watched either of these shows so I cannot vouch for how good or how accurate they are.

I hope this list helps!

#anon #ask #anonymous ask #anonymous #anon ask #ask answered

[thehorrcr]

There are concentration camps in America again.

Through the fuzz of my television, I hear

Those static waves

Dragging me down into the belly of 

California.

Soil is watered with blood, how do you 

Think the midwestern pastures

Got so green?

I see my father through the haze of my screen -

See him, in the pictures that he 

Took in Honduras. 

During those 2 years where the nights were

Crooked, and I’d sneak down into

The kitchen and I’d

Hear my mother crying. 

As if she were trying to cure the ocean of it’s

Salt, the salt that did nothing

But sting.

The ocean that separated our

Little blue house on 

Blue Ridge, from the shadowed silhouette

Of my father’s country. 

There are concentration camps in American again. 

My family is having lunch, and my sister

Says that her best friend might get

Deported.

There is a silence that rings, and in it 

I can count the number of times

I have heard the words,

“Criminal” and “immigrant” in the 

Same breath -

But I have not known anything more criminal, 

Than the glare of red on the flag

In my 3rd grade classroom as my 

Teacher smiled and said, that

“America is a melting pot -”

The flag, was still glaring at me, it looked

Too much like crimson on a 

White tie. 

My dad gets up from the table, because 

Reality is no longer a neighbor that 

Lives down the street.

But, an infestation in our home.

There are concentration camps in American again.

My cousins are not legal. 

My tia isn’t either, and she can hardly speak 

English but she has raised a business 

Out of nothing. 

I remember how she used to braid my hair, used

To teach me Spanish songs

That she’d sing through lilted breaths.

The smell of arroz con leche, boiling

On the stove -

I hear my dad speak in whispers to her, these

Days. 

Somewhere, in my head, I hear

The water boil over.

There are concentration camps in America again.

My white friends tell me that it isn’t that bad.

There are kids being ripped from their parents and they 

Look like my sister,

People are losing their lives to a machine that 

Does nothing but devour. 

I tell my friend that I can’t breathe without it aching, 

And she tells me that 

It’s not that bad. 

She pours me a cup of coffee, and I think about 

My abuelo’s farm in the mountains 

Of Honduras. 

Where they grow nothing but coffee beans, and 

Cacao, and I wonder 

If they can see the golden gates of America 

Glowing from their -

And if it stings their retinas, if they can hear

The frantic beating of wings against

The ribs of this country’s golden

Mouth. 

2019 in America, is nothing more than 

Biting down and 

Coming away with the metallic taste of blood, 

And knowing that this is 

How it feels to be 

Screaming in a burning room.

There are concentration camps in America again.

And, I know that this country is a corpse

Held together by the bare bones

Of the lies that it tries to sell.

I know that when my aunt tells me that

She likes my father, because he isn’t

Like “other Mexicans”, 

It is anything but a compliment. 

I do not tell her, that we are not Mexican. 

That my culture is so much more than the off-handed

Racist comment at every 

Thanksgiving. 

The ones, that are no longer whispered, but 

Said in such a joking way that

I wonder where the punch-line ends, and 

The bullet holes begin. 

There are concentration camps in America again.

I see the white house on my television screen.

On the front lawn, I can see history walking

Onto the gallows and she 

Is screaming because nobody cares.

They have hanged her before, and turned her blood

To wine -

I see her neck snap, and I know

That I’ve read about this 

Before. 

My dad is on the phone with my tio, and he’s

Speaking spanish and saying

That he’ll watch my primos if anything

Were to happen.

And I know, 

This has all been said before. 

Hasn’t it? 

There are concentration camps in America again.

And no, I don’t know how to fix this

Fact.

All I know is that there is no time for blindness.

Rebellion is staying present. 

Rebellion is a stone thrown through the glass panes

Of America’s burning suburban home and 

Setting fire to the picket fence that has 

Spikes over the top of it -

Rebellion is the love we have for one another, and

The breath we use to say,

“Enough is enough. You are my brother, you are my sister, 

You are my mother, and my father, and 

Blood is thicker than the water they will try to drown 

Us in.”

America has concentration camps again.

And, the question I keep asking is 

What good is a country that says it is built on the backs

Of immigrants, if it only has sympathy if 

It can profit.

Where there is humanity, politicians see nothing but 

Blood running down their crystalline drains.

What’s a little more blood, anyways?

When the Mississippi has run red before, 

When Thomas Jefferson signed the declaration with an 

Ink-well that was provided by

The cut in the arm of a slave.

Yes, America was built on the backs of immigrants.

And, maybe that phrase is right -

But, I know that the pillars that hold the white house

Are heavy, and have broken 

Plenty of backs and have 

Crushed bone, before.

And it will do it again, and again, and again.

And it is in times like these, that as Americans we must ask

Ourselves what is worth fighting for?

Humanity, or a country that runs on blood money.

What is worth fighting for?

Because apathy is deadly, and America has put on 

It’s killing attire once more and it 

Looks like a red tie, and a fresh pressed suit 

And, diet coke over dinner.

As the news plays on the television, and all anyone 

Hears is static.

#poetry #slam poetry #poems #poets on tumblr #spilled ink #poltergeist

[authentic-and-confused]

Just a little TED talk

Last school year in the spring my English teacher presented our class with a challenge:  Create a TED talk about something you’re passionate about. It seems easy, right? Well. For me, it wasn't. I knew immediately that I wanted to talk about the issues  LGBT  youth face, but I didn't know how. I’ve gotten so much hate for my orientation and identity that, even with the things I’m publically out and proud with, I live in constant fear of ridicule and hate. Let me tell you, this is no way to live. Eventually, though, I figured it out. Religion. I just knew my TED talk project had to involve religion.

At the time my mother was using religion against me in many ways and shaming me for my choices. I was facing a lot of subtle hates at school and I just knew I wasn't the only one. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that, at least with the kids my age, it was mostly because they simply didn't know! So just like that, I had my topic - my purpose. Educate the other youth of my school and motivate them to do better, and stand up against hate of all kinds.  

Don't get me wrong, I was still scared out of my mind. I’d been called out in that very class a few times for my  LGBT involvement, but somehow this desire, this need to make the world a better place for other  LGBT  youth took over, even if it was in the smallest way. The words to my script just... flowed out of me. I knew what I needed to say and how to say it. At first, I wasn't even planning on using my own experiences, but without them, the talk felt empty - like I was speaking from a detached point of view.

Soon enough, the day came to submit our talks via video, but for me that just... Didn't feel right. For some reason, I felt like my teacher needed to hear it in person. So I asked if instead, I could come present to her directly before school. She said yes, so two days later I did. I showed up to school early on the day of a funeral for the man who had appointed himself my grandpa the moment he found out the way one of my others treated me.

I literally gave my talk in funeral clothes.

by the end, my teacher was crying. The tears weren't just in her eyes the way some teachers get during certain presentations, but actually falling down her cheeks.

I hadn't realized how powerful my message could be yet, and had actually recently started to doubt it due to the reactions of a few strangers when I practiced giving it to my friends on a train. She said I should still make a video, post it to youtube or something. I considered it, really I did. but doubtful thoughts started to creep into my mind. Was it really a message people needed to hear? Was I the right one to give it?

I hit a really rough patch of my life, and I went to a really dark place. Most days I’m still there. Floating scared and lonely in the dark. I’d found out the world could be even darker than I’d ever thought possible and lost all hope of finding a light. The only reason I didn't end it all was that there were two people I knew it would crush. My best friend in the entire world who told me daily I wasn't allowed to leave them like that, and my significant other.

I have a story. I’ve considered writing about it, but it's dark and lonely. Full of pain no one ever had the courage to see. I finally came forward about it. Literally begged for help.  No one who could help listened.  No one listened could help.

”Where’s your proof?”

That’s the question they always ask.

That’s the question that always sends me back to the dark place.

So, I never felt the motivation to go forward with it. Get my talk out there into the world. I lost track of the light beside the glowing individual that, once in a while, was able to grab my hand and drag me to it like a horse to water. They still have to do that to be honest.

They’re there though. They haven't left. Haven't asked for proof. Took my words as enough.

They helped me find other people too, little lights in my life who I know are just as bright in the world, who I love dearly even if they don't break my darkness apart in the same way.

I don't really know why I’m going on like this. Like I said with the talk, sometimes the words just come and before I know it I’ve regurgitated pages of them. Often having to delete paragraphs and paragraphs, most of which I feel are just as important to my point. I did that here too. You probably can't tell.

Point is, yesterday I saw something that led me to a little trail of light. Gave me a little trickle of hope...

Graffiti in a bathroom stall.

It’s unclear what came first, or second or third or fourth even, but it is clear what the little conversation was. I took a picture of it, weird I know, but it really struck me. Someone at one point wrote something about “fags.” I’m not sure what, it's partially scribbled over. But around that? Several messages in different handwritings defending the  LGBT community. One of them stating, “Wow, Imagine still being homophobic in 2019,” another “You lookin like a clown.” Seeing these silly words marked into the stall I nearly cried. It gave me a light to hang to, weirdly enough, even if it only lasted until I once again reached home and thus my biggest tormentor.

Then, tonight, when I was looking at pictures on my phone, looking for a light to save me from the dark place for just a small while, I saw the picture. I scrolled through youtube and saw “In a heartbeat” recommended to watch again.

I was struck once again and felt a need to get my words out there too. To let someone, anyone, know that they aren't alone.

Give someone that trickle of light.

So, without further ado... the script to my TED talk: Man, I wish homophobia was a real thing…. Like, obviously the thing the word is used to represent is there - the blatant hate and discrimination towards the LGBT community - but phobia implies a fear. For example, the fear of heights  (acrophobia)  the fear of spiders (arachnophobia) or the fear of snakes (ophidiophobia). Can you imagine if people went around saying things like “blackphobia” and “womanphobia” instead of racist and sexist? Absolute chaos would ensue. People would have a meltdown. This is because, in this modern-day, people know that these things aren’t fear, they are an intolerance. So, by using the word “homophobia” it gives people the ability to rationalize their hate in the name of being afraid. as religions do.

This is what we, as the up and coming generation, need to change. We can help get rid of this hate and discrimination by referring to it as such. By calling it as it is - intolerance.

One extreme example of an organization that uses fear as a guise for their discrimination is the Westboro Baptist Church. They’re so hateful they’ve become somewhat of a joke to many in the LGBT community. *miles* Their website is literally “godhatesfags.com” and when any person dares to say this may be hateful, the church replies by simply saying “Gospel preaching is not hate.” Can you see where I’m going with this?

No, not every religion is as blatantly hateful as this one, their hate is often more subtle - at least to people it’s not directed towards. Living in Utah as an out pansexual teen I’ve been on the receiving end of this hate, even from some of my closest friends. And this isn’t their fault! They’ve been raised in such a way they don’t even realize they’re doing it. Most people are blissfully unaware of the ways LGBT youth are discriminated against every single day, so let me explain.

One of my best friends, who I will keep anonymous, said one of the most hateful things I’ve ever taken to heart just this last fall. We were skipping a church class and sitting outside when we somehow stumbled onto the topic of marriage. I mentioned that it didn’t seem fair that LGBT people couldn’t get married in the temple. Her response was “Well, I think it shouldn’t be allowed. Gay people are fine, but forcing us to allow them to marry in the temple takes away our freedom of religion.”

And, I guess that’s what everyone is so afraid of. Their rights and freedoms being taken away in exchange for ours. But as a wise person once said, “More rights for me doesn’t mean less rights for you! It’s not pie!”

I ask you to think real quickly - excuse my language - how many times has someone told you to “Burn in hell” or told you that if you don’t change your ways it’s unavoidable. I’ll give you a second to count. _______________. Now, you probably only used one hand right? 

I ran out of hands to count on within a week of coming out - and I only counted people, not the number of times. To this day I get told this phrase or some variation at least once a week.

Now, let me talk about school and bullying. I have a very specific story with this, but rest fully assured it’s not even close to being the only one, or the worst one. Just a couple weeks ago I was walking through the hall and got stopped by some kid I don’t even know, just so he could call me a “faggie.” I don’t know if you know the history of the word “fag,” but basically when the whole thing with witches trials was going on, people also burned LGBT people. However, they didn’t think them “worthy” to be burned on the stake, so they threw them in with the leftover broken sticks known as “fags.” So, as you can imagine, being called that is quite hurtful. I went right to one of my friends and explained what happened, and they misheard and thought I said the kid called me “fattie.” They immediately freaked and explained that I wasn’t fat, that the kid was stupid, etc. etc. When I explained that he had, in fact, insulted me for being gay and not for being fat her attitude completely changed. She basically shrugged me off and told me not to be dramatic.

That’s what everyone does, isn’t it? If it’s something we know a person shouldn’t be bullied for - like hair color, how fat or skinny they are, their acne - the bully is reprimanded. As they should be. But when a student goes to complain about bullying or exclusion over being gay or trans, adults often respond with “Well, have you tried…. Not being gay?” I was literally called an abomination in front of a teacher…. And they did nothing!

Now, if my stories alone don’t convince you that this is a real problem let me show you the facts of suicide. According to Utah Health Officials, quote “Among Utah youth aged 10-17 who died by suicide during 2011-2015 with circumstantial data...Of the 40 cases that included information on the decedent's sexual orientation, 15% were identified as sexual minorities.” Close quote. That isn’t even counting how many were closeted, or Trans.  Then besides that, this research on suicide and the causes is hard to conduct, because, simply put, the dead can’t speak for themselves.  “if the rate isn't zero we have work to do”

A study at the University of Georgia about a year ago showed that 70% of LGBT Mormons met the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Yeah. From a church that supposedly promotes love. “we are inflicting trauma on out queer youth by asking and requiring them to go to church”

Now, to fix this problem, nothing huge or drastic even has to happen, at least for the first few steps. And I’m definitely not saying to stop believing in your church. religion is wonderful. I'm just asking you to follow a little less blindly. Like I said, we are the up and coming generation! We have the power to change the world in the palm of our hands! We often just don’t realize it because the people in power in this world tend to take all the control they can, and we just let them! So, let’s take it back. Let’s take that power and use it. Start by simply paying attention to what you say. Don’t rationalize something hateful that you say, either out loud or in your head, by using religion as your excuse. And, if you hear someone else saying something hateful, step in. Do you know how many lives could actually be saved if all of us just made an effort to watch our words?

#lgbt #lgbt rights #lgbt youth #hope #hope speaks #love #love is love #hate #fear #hate vs fear #my words #words #the power of words #ted talk #ted talks #education #information #my story #power #project #light #light the world #season of giving #season of hope #season of love #religion #word vomit #give love not hate #never give up #life

[switchinspirals]

Texas Turnaround Part 2 Safe!

Continuation of request for @texanstrong

Trevor took his time his time washing Jake’s body down in the shower. The new sensation of smooth hard larger muscles lathered in soap and dripping with water was erotic in it’s own right. He did think to himself for a second how familiar it was standing in this shower. His strange lucid waking dream of being in this very shower with that other guy. Except this time he was in the actual body of Jake not his own. After finishing his shower and wrapping a towel around his waist, he went to investigate the apartment. It was an older apartment on the south eastern side of Dallas based on what the GPS said on his phone. It was a mess, it looked like there was a party here recentlty. Although looking through the clutter it seemed as if laundry day only happened once every month if it that. Trevor also got the strange sensation that Jake didn’t spend to much time here, and the one called BAE probably didn’t either. He turned on the TV and Telemundo switched on, he didn’t realize it was just background noise for the moment as he turned on Jake’s phone and begin to look.

Jake didn’t have a facebook, or atleast not the mobile app, but he and instagram, grindr, scruff, jack’d, and tinder. All the profiles read the same.

“Jake,  Age:22  Hieght:5'11 Latino,  Speaks English and Spanish, Body Type: Jock, Bodybuilder, Toned.  Negative, In an Open Relationship”

It matched his apperance perfectly. And the picture was a seductive image of selfie of Jake showing off his perfect body. The discription about himself was different for each app, yet very similiar. The grindr one had the most detail though. “Vers top, but bottom for the right guy, I am picky but for cash I can get into any dude, prefer if you host, if I host don’t be a bitch about my place. I have a bf he sometimes down for 3somes but prefer not to get him involved, don’t be a dick or a racist.” It was a strange sensation for Trevor to read someone else’s profile yet know it now currently belonged to him. Trevor was no stranger to hook ups, but he was more picky about who he had sex with, and had never in his life had or considered getting paid for sexual favors or sex it self. Yet now being in Jake’s body and life, there was an excitement about getting paid for it, even if the dude wasn’t attractive. Trevor knew he was good looking and a catch, but Jake was the superior to his former body in every way. And Jake didn’t give one fuck about what people thought of him, and for the first time Trevor realized how hot it was to have a guy so infatuated with him even if he wasn’t that attractive. Trevor thought back to the night before, the blonde kid in the shower, he was cute but his body was only slightly toned and less impressive than his old body back in Houston. Yet during that strange experience he enjoyed the way the boy felt up his body. Now knowing he was feeling up Jake’s body made that whole experience even hotter. He saw how many guys had messaged him on grindr alone, all sorts of boys and men. Older muscular men, big hairy men, twinks of types, jocks, it was like almost any type of guy one would want. He did notice a lack of white dudes reaching out to Jake though. Most of the messages were positive, sensual and seemed to lead to a hook up. It was rare to find a negative conversation or one not leading to sex but they were still in there. He learned from those Jake was a high-school drop out, and slutted out a few years earlier and pissed of a lot of guys who still held it against him for sleeping with their boyfriends or husbands. Trevor didn’t know how to feel about that, in some ways it bothered him how Jake seemed to not care about those people’s relationships, yet at the same time him sleeping with them sounded hot, and exciting. As for being a high-school drop out well it seemed sad but maybe if he was trapped in this body long enough he could change that.

Trevor decided to stop reading all the messages and then swiped to his calendar, Jake it seemed was a landscaper, had his own truck somewhere around this apartment complex. He seemed to do most of his jobs in the surrounding suburbs of the DFW metroplex. That’s when his alarm went off, the alert was for “GYM TIME” Trevor wasn’t sure where Jake worked out at but he figured this apartment had to have some sort of gym. He looked through his wallet, there was no gym membership card, and not credit card, just Jake’s drivers license confirming his grindr profile was accurate, and fifty dollars of cash. Trevor found blue tank top with the words “RAVE” on ot it, and some black very short gym shorts, he quickly put them on and walked to the bathroom again. He admired himself in the mirror, Jake or rather he now looked sexy as fuck. Part of Trevor wished he could get back in his body if only to make out feel and have sex with Jake, it was a pleasurable torture being so hot and desiring the very some flesh you inhabited and Trevor was loving every second of it.  He walked out of the messy apartment and into very warm and sunny Dallas day.

He did find a small gym for the older apartment complex, it barely had any machines or weights, Trevor using Jake’s voice mumbled to himself “This probably isn’t where he works out” but he didn’t feel like getting lost looking for a gym. So he started to do his normal routine with what he had available there, which wasn’t much. Trevor first started to work out using some free weights, doing basic bicep curls, in front of the mirrors. As expected it was a sexy and very exciting to watch the muscle stud work out. Trevor found himself making seductive faces and holding on the the flex of the bicep curl longer to show off the muscle. And in return the sexy stud Jake flirted back to him through his reflection and showed off his muscles. It was hot and making him horny. But it was also getting hard to focus, it seemed as if the more he saw himself in the mirror the more he wanted to rip off his clothes and jerk off again. Trevor wasn’t sure if Jake had a higher sex drive than he was used to, or that his ultimate fantasy of being someone else was just to much for him to handle, or if both of those facts were keeping his new uncut cock hard in those sexy gym shorts. He decided to turn around and work out facing the windows.

The view was much more grounding for Trevor, he clearly lived in the poorer part of Dallas, it wasn’t very nice, it reminded him the neighborhoods and area’s in Houston that were old, falling apart, and rather depressing. A far cry from the suburbs of Houston he was used to. Yet despite that he still felt a rush of anxiousness and excitement. It was a new life, and one where he didn’t have to give a fuck. In part because Jake never did, and also because there was no longer and consequences to his sexuality. He could truly just enjoy being young and sexy. Even in less than two hours he had inhabited this body, he knew Jake’s life was far from perfect, the grindr profile showed a dude who had great sex, but also experienced some rather disturbing racism. And his view showed what privilage he had in his old life, but there was something about not worrying about his sexuality anymore and being able to expeirence anything that made the more negative changes worth it. And after turning his head around to see that sexy face smiling at him, he knew it was worth it. Trevor took a picture of himself and posted it to instagram. It went viral to the several of thousands of followers Jake had on his instagram. Commets filled with compliments and lustful desire.  A direct message came in from someone named Alex.

“Loved the pic, I am bored and have $50 I wanna spend, come over let me lick you up and fuck me raw and it’s yours cutie.” Trevor felt another surge of excitement. He quickly looked up Alex’s instagram pictures, they were for the most part rather dull and ameraturish. His face was nothing to brag about and his body was that of a very smooth, very skinny twink. There was some toned definition on it but he was even more skinnier than the kid Jake was fucking in  the shower before. Yet the lure of fifty dollars, his chronic horniness and a strange new desire to fuck this twig of a twink pulled Trevor’s ambitions and desires and make him use Jake’s hands to text him back. “Hey! Ya would love to fuck forgot where u live send address?” Trevor waited. A reply and an address, a quick search on google maps revieled he lived in a near by suburb. Now came the hard part finding Jake’s truck. Wondering around the parking lot like an idiot Trevor kept clicking the lock button on his keys to see if he could hear a beep. After about ten minutes of searching he found it. The truck was a modest 2011 White Ford F150 with a landmower, and landscaping equipment in back, most of which was rather old and needed to be replaced. The inside of the truck was hot, smelly and needed to be cleaned but that wasn’t important he had to get to Alex’s place. The drive was uneventful and Trevor made it to Alex’s nice place in the suburbs. Clearly he still lived with his parents. When he knocked on the door, the young only been eighteen for four months twink greeted him with a overly friendly hug. They both walked into the nice clean house and sat on the couch. Small talk was made, and Alex’s hands were already trying to explore. There was the occasional gesture of him rasing up Trevor’s tank top to feel a single one of Jake’s abs. A single “You know what it’s like honey” followed by Alex’s kind yet obviosily clever excuse to put a palm on Jake’s firm pecs. “So where are your parents? They aren’t going to walk in on us?” Trevor said in Jake’s sexy Spanish accented voice. Alex was amsused and laughed “You weren’t so bothered the first two times that shit happened, but no they are out of town no need to worry, you don’t have to lie and say your some poor exchange student I seduced or anything.” Trevor gave a surprise looked using Jake’s face of course. But Alex was tired of talking and went in for the kiss. It was a passionate yet sloppy kiss. Alex’s hands went crazy all over Jake’s or rather Trevor’s new body. Trevor had had guy into his body before but this was different. Alex was significantly smaller and skinnier, and because there was money involved he felt Jake or well Trevor up as if he owned him. It was a strange sensation for Trevor but he enjoyed it. The kissing went down his neck, Alec playfull licking, touching, kissing, Trevors dark muscualr pecs. The foreplay was hot as hell for Trevor as much as it was for Alex. Then it happened Alex dipped his hands into Trevor’s briefs ignoring the gym shorts and grabbed Jake’s big thick uncut cock. The sensation was once again new, it was like the first time Trevor felt someone touch his cock, except it was better. He could feel Alex rubbing the foreskin up and down. In a panic Trevor down his shorts to free his growing cock. Alex stopped for a second, watching Jake’s foreskin stretch. He seemed a little bit repulsed by the foreskin.

“Something the matter?” Trevor said as he looked to Alex, “No honey, just foreskin always looks weird to me, feels like I am not looking at a cock is all, no worry once you get hard it looks better.” The feeling made Trevor feel embarrassed and a little annoyed. He decided to ignore it but it felt strange to be objectified to the point that his foreskin which to this point was something he wished he had in his old body, was now a turn off for this kid. Well time to try being aggressive. Trevor used his new found strength and wrestled Alex to his back. “Well you wanted a dominant jock, you got one suck on this cock” And with that he jammed Jake’s now his cock into Alex’s mouth. And again the sensation was brand new, like the first time yet it felt different, the foreskin making this experience even more pleasurable. Despite Alex being a bit of an asshole, his blow job skills were really impressing Trevor and he seemed to know how to take it rather deep with out gagging. There was several times Trevor almost came, both from the hand job and now the blow job.

He pulled out of Alex’s mouth and then put on a condom and began to fuck Alex, it started of slow and almost vanilla.  Trevor was having such an amazing time with another new sensation of the foreskin in an ass that he didn’t notice Alex’s boredom till Alex moaned “What’s wrong with you, make me your bitch Jake, fuck me like you always do” Trevor decided why not, and began to really thrust faster and harder. He typically never tried to fuck too rough, but he decided to do it now and it felt amazing. Trevor got fully into character and started to moan loudly, calling Alex his bitch, and fucking harder, he said a few phrases in Spanish too, since Alex requested that in between his moans. And then he came inside Alex into the condom.

“That was way too fucking fast…” Alex said “Sorry I just…” Alex laughed, “Don’t sweat it cutie, I loved how rough you were today I could tell you didn’t hold back.” He then started to feel me up, “Grab my dick and jerk me off” I complied and did as he said “Fuck for once you’re doing it right” Alex moaned. “It’s like you learned how it feels to jerk off with out foreskin and aren’t holding back.” It was true Trevor was using his normal tactics to get Alex off. After about five minutes of jerking and sucking Alex’s cock while he felt up Trevor’s new muscular body Alex came. And He handed him the fifty dollars. Trevor was unsure what to do but  Alex gave him the non-verbal cue with his hands to get dressed, and so Trevor did. “Well that was fun, I gotta get clean up have a safe drive back to wherever you live,” And with that Trevor was once again back in the sunny warm humid day walking to his truck.

#bodyswap #gay

[blessuswithblogs]

Katsura Hashino is a Big Fat Creep and Other Observations

(for the record all uses of the word “queer” in this post are meant in the academic sense as shorthand for a wide umbrella group of gender and sexual minorities and not as a slur i hope that is evident from my past history and status as Big Gay Bitch Who Loves Girls but let it never be said i don’t cover my ass)

A few weeks ago, Catherine: Full Body Edition or whatever gross subtitle it got was released. Catherine has had a very checkered history as one of those games that is just kind of slimy, though it has endured with a cult following and a surprisingly successful competitive community by way of the game's multiplayer mode where you compete to see who can climb The Dream Sex Tower the best. Honestly, I don't know that much about Catherine because it is difficult to think of a game that repulses me more on a visceral level, but I want to do my due diligence and not talk out my ass. One of Catherine's initial claims to fame was that it was by Atlus Japan, specifically the same people who made the much beloved Persona games. This is evident in the game's art, music, overall style of delivery, and being basically hate speech.

The original Catherine was a greasy, misogynistic mess with some really vile politics about trans people in particular. Deadnaming your own fictional character in the credits is some next level petty malice. Full Body returns with, stupendously, a double down on this ideology that is actually kind of comical in how convoluted it gets in trying to decry the Degenerate Queer Lifestyle. The game adds a scene with Rin, who is apparently a gay crossdresser from space(???????), getting slapped away and running away crying from their love interest after he learns The Terrible Truth. In another game, with a different writing team, this could have been a teachable moment about the destructive consequences of taking too narrow a view of human sexuality and gender expression, but as it stands it's just another tiresome example of Trans Panic with a sheepish admonishment from the other characters that gosh maybe slapping their hand away was a mean thing to do.

So we're already firing on all cylinders here, but the best is yet to come. The bulk of the outcry comes from the addition of a weird "true ending" cutscene where Catherine, who is also from space, goes back in time to make everybody's life better. Or something. This is already pretty stupid on the face of it because its Fucking Time Travel Out of Nowhere, but the scene then depicts a pre-transition Erica, the game's trans character who got deadnamed in the credits the last time. There has been a lot of exceptionally tedious discussion about exactly when this scene takes place in the game's chronology and what it means for Erica, and some brain geniuses have tied their thinkmeats into pretzel shapes to prove definitively that all this means is that she delayed her transition in this Better Timeline, that might not actually be better, because Catherine is weird and selfish, maybe. And. Fine. Sure. Okay. Let's accept that for now. Given the game's previous track record, and continuing insistence on using Erica's pretransition name in the credits even in the rerelease, it is meanspirited at best to show her before her transition at all (many real life trans people would be utterly mortified for such a thing to happen to them) and overall just in poor taste and pretty lousy writing at that because it's so unclear what any of this actually means. Since the game has not yet received an official english localization, the context of this scene is to begin with muddled by amateur translators on the internet all with slightly conflicting interpretations of the scene. It's a fucking mess, by and large.

So I would disagree that this is a fake controversy manufactured by those damnable essjaydubyas. Even with the most charitable interpretation possible, it's still just really sketchy and gross. Erica's english voice actress, who seems to be very fond of the character, has been vocal about her dissatisfaction with the new scenes on twitter and has recently come out to say that the localization team is going to try and take some steps to make things less blatantly hateful. Between this and Jennifer Hale's recent tweet about it being time to grab our pitchforks in response to Activision-Blizzard's mass layoffs, I'm starting to think that voice actresses are pretty cool. I mean honestly I always thought that but we're getting off topic. One of the top competitive Catherine players, who was by all accounts really hyped for the release of Full Body, just straight up said on twitter that he was quitting the game because he couldn't support something like that in good conscience. I don't know if he's remained consistent on this position since, but it was a bold statement, to say the least.

Now, whenever an incident like this happens, the inevitable string of More-Progressive-Than-Thou white boys who watched an anime once and thought the bouncing titties were a little much appears to start pontificating about the cause of such untoward elements in media. And it's basically all just a bunch of Orientalist bullshit. Every time. For whatever reason, people still really love to be racist towards Japanese people because it's still sort of socially acceptable when couched in the language of "oh japan!!! ecks dee" and so the neverending procession of softboi neckbeards declared with confidence that Atlus's continual inclusion of Actual Hate Speech towards LGBTQ+ people was the result of the inscrutable Japanese Mind and its Mysterious, Antiquated Culture. Many mentions of the philosophy of Wa, wherein the nail that stands out gets pounded down, and lots of very lovely psuedointellectual claptrap. Evidently, people just seem to think that queer people don't live in Japan, or that they don't fight just as hard as we do for equal rights and protections under the law. They do live there, and they do fight as hard as we do. Obviously. You fucking imbeciles.

In their quest to clearly illustrate their moral and intellectual superiority to the backward, collectivist Asiatic Peoples, these highly reasonable and enlightened manboys forsook a very important logical principle: Occam's Razor. Sure, you could blame jApAnEsE cUlTuRe for Atlus's impropieties and just conveniently ignore all of the fantastic queer media it has produced in recent years like My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, Horou Muskou, Nier Automata, etc. Or you could go for the simpler and more logically consistent option: Katsura Hashino is a big fat creep. Who is Hashino, you ask? He is the director of every Persona game since 3, as well as Catherine, and all of these games' gross shit and self-contradictory themes of self-acceptance and rebellion against an unust society (unless you're gay, ew) can probably be traced to him and his gaggle of accomplices. In addition to the fact that Atlus games not by Hashino's team tend to just. not have these problems to nearly as large a degree or even at all, Hashino himself has gone on record saying some really kind of hilariously backwards shit. Most infamously, when asked why in Persona 3 literally all of your social links with girls ended up with Hot Makeout Sessions regardless of like. Previously Committed to Relationships. Hashino simply said he couldn't imagine friendships between boys and girls. So that's where his brain is at. Since subsequent games in the series graciously allowed the player the option to not be a Huge Cheating Bastard, one can assume either his moral development has progressed past early puberty or somebody on the team convinced him this wasn't actually a normal thing to think. Given the man's output, I would say it's probably the latter.

It is because of this man's decisions and behavior that so many people are simply unwilling to give Full Body the benefit of the doubt. The game's director is, quite simply, a well known louse, and not in the endearing, Roger Smith way. Once again, it requires far fewer leaps in logic to assume that Hashino is just being a bigoted creep again than to go through some fuckin galaxy brain Kingdom Hearts-esque dot-connecting to justify it as just a LITTLE BIT bigoted not REALLY SUPER bigoted, or simply blaming the whole ordeal on some strange ineffable property of the Japanese Character. He's a gremlin! An overgrown manchild with a warped view of human interaction and society put in charge of games about exploring those concepts for.... reasons. My bet is that his dad knew somebody and then Persona 3 was successful enough for the rest of Atlus to just go "alright fine let him do it while we do mainline games". Unfortunately, Persona became so popular that the mainline games sort of switched places and became side-projects, at least in the eyes of the Western consumer base (which let's be real is the only perspective that any of these Serious Online Commentators even pretend to care about).

So I would once again caution everyone against just assuming that Japan is some sort of quaint anachronistic country of weird gameshows and backwards social mores. This is both a gross oversimplification of an entire culture and the struggles of their own subgroups and minorities and simply a grand display of lacking self-awareness. Like have you fucking seen the guys in the White House? The preposterous media that gets routinely greenlit on prime time TV, theaters, and digitally? Don't make me laugh. The West has no claim to any sort of progressive superiority to anybody else. The white cishet bubble of comfortable middle class affluence might distort what you see of the rest of the world, but believe me: we got problems too. Big ones. Even the presupposed bastions of Demsoc Virtue like Sweden have an awful track record of discrimination and eugenics. But Dazzlyn that's different, you cry! All of these groups and forces don't represent the entirety of Western culture! Yes. Exactly. Oppression is not culturally bound like cuisine or art. It is a nasty, universal thing that worms its way into everything, and it will use any excuse it can find to murder and exploit. It's against Christian values! It represents a genetic defect that must be purged! It's ostentatious and immature! The list goes on. And every time you giggle and go "oh those silly japanese" you're just being another expression of the same vile ideas.

I'm going to relate some of my own personal experiences, because as a noted Big Gay Bitch Who Loves Girls, I feel like maybe I have some authority on the matter? Just a little? Enough that if I make a well reasoned argument it can't be dismissed out of hand? Let's hope. So, what's the gayest game I've ever played? Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn. Look yeah I know I'm talking about it again but come back this is important. Final Fantasy is a series that has had a lot of LGBTQ+ undertones pretty much since forever, and while they have largely been in keeping with the times in terms of tact and representation (the Crossdressing Cloud debacle is a deeply bizarre, uncomfortable sequence in a lot of ways but there's also some genuine Good Gay Shit in 7 like Cloud's surprisingly cute and genuine date with Barret. I think. It's... it's been a while.), by God, it was at least there, and 13 had honest to god Lesbians, Harold in Fang and Vanille. I don't want to say it has pedigree, but the series has dabbled. XIV continues on the tradition with a vibrant world that's actually got a lot of characters and NPCs that are just incidentally there and kind of gay. The adventurer couple that befriended the Tonberries in Wanderer's Palace, a vendor that appeared in the Rising cosplaying as Minfilia at her wife's behest, a miqote lady bathing in the oasis that lets on she wouldn't mind having cute girls stare at her instead of grabby boys, every horny Elezen in Ishgard, Samson and Guydelot (shoutouts to Lulumi Lumi), and probably more that I've missed. More than that, though, is that because FFXIV is an MMO, it is by necessity a social space, and in my experience it has been one that has gone out of its way to be inclusive to everybody, from the GMs handling reports of abusive behavior right up to the top decision makers who made same sex player marriages a thing just immediately on its implementation and letting boys wear the gold saucer bunny costume too (albeit after quite a bit of pleading). The game's got a huge queer community of which I am kind of part of sort of. It's one of the reasons I keep coming back to it. Hell, they've recently partnered with a pride group in Australia to have an FFXIV float in a parade. I usually turn my nose up at such things as meaningless corporate grandstanding, but it does seem to be more meaningful than two boy pastas getting married or rainbow colored oreos because like. Cheesy as it sounds, it's more than just a brand to a lot of people, it's a place, sometimes the only place, they can go to feel safe and accepted in a community. Having official, vocal support from the dev team means genuinely a lot, I think.

Now, there is one quality about this game of which I am speaking that might strike you as noteworthy: it is Japanese. It's made by Japanese people, in Japan, under a Japanese company. A middle aged Japanese man goes up on stage in Gunbreaker cosplay to speak in Japanese about the upcoming expansion, while a meme obsessed gremlin translates for him. It's not perfect, there are problems, etcetera, why do I even need to qualify that in 2019, when everything sucks, god. But it's better than most things. I hope that it serves as an example to people that even in the supposedly regressive countries of the world, queer communities are still living, fighting, and sometimes even being heard, and that the only thing you're enriching by dismissing them wholesale as socially backwards is your own internet penis. And nobody fucking cares about that you simpleton. I expect 5.0 to be gayer than ever before because they're taming up with Yoko Taro to do a Nier themed raid and by the 12 Warrior of Light Dazzyn Reed is going to kiss 2B or an equivalent model right on the robot lips.

#catherine #persona #ffxiv #lgbtq #final fantasy #nier #japan

[misacarly2010engl-blog]

Blackface

(This is for my English 2010 class as we had to write about a controversy. I believe firmly that blackface is wrong. Just putting that out there.)

Carly Misa

Jacob L. Robertson

ENGL 2010

3 March 2019

Blackface

Blackface is a common practice used within makeup by using darker foundation products on the skin to appear as African American. It has been an issue for many decades, going all the way back to when segregation was still a norm in society. Numerous people of color find this act of portraying black people offensive, causing a backlash towards not only makeup artists but to anyone attempting blackface. Both arguments are talking over each other, giving off their opinions but not actually listening to what the other is saying. Due to miscommunication, nothing is being resolved. This introduces the concept that blackface is an ideograph, and because of this, it is causing a separation of cultures and creating a pause in progression for equality because of the different ideologies being used.

An ideograph is best explained as a symbol that represents a concept or idea. Blackface is known as an ideograph for racism. Everyone tends to have a different opinion when it comes to ideographs. This is called an ideology. Ideologies are used to describe a person’s attitude towards an ideograph, and why they agree or disagree. Ideologies bring people comfort because they are brought into real life and to real situations. A man by the name of Richard A. Koenigsberg goes on to explain Hitler’s theory and how he used his own ideology to testify amongst the Germans how Jews were “parasites”. In his final paragraph, he explains why ideologies came to existence.

Ideologies may be viewed as societally defined ideational structures that exist in order to permit latent dimensions of the psyche to become manifest in the external world. Ideologies perform psychic functions, allowing fundamental desires, fantasies, anxieties, and conflicts to be projected into reality. Once an ideology gains currency, then people act "in the name of" the ideology. Thought and action seem to be generated by a belief system existing outside the self. (Koenigsberg)

Richard continues to elaborate by saying that ideologies fulfill the needs of humans and the desires that they might seek. In this case, blackface is the topic of discussion and many people have opposing stances.

There are countless situations in which blackface has surfaced into the public. Some of these situations have unfortunately been taken to the extreme. In Phoenix, Arizona, there was an author who attended a restaurant for a holiday party. When he arrived, he decided to walk around the restaurant to look at all the photos that were hung on the walls. Rashaad, the author, had come across a photo of someone with what looked like dirt all over their face. Before taking in the history of the photo, Rashaad immediately complained to the restaurant’s manager to have the photo taken down. The manager then defended the photo by saying it was purely a coal miner after a hard day’s work. The miner’s face was covered in soot, but that still came off as offensive to Rashaad because he felt as if his voice was being silenced. He felt that his protest against racism was less important than a picture. Rashaad had even asked his friends what they had seen when he pointed to the photo, in which they responded it was a coal miner. They soon stepped further back to take in the bigger picture only to see the same blackface that Rashaad was witnessing. Rashaad goes onto explain that it wasn’t necessarily the photo that was offensive or the intent, but that the history of blackface was being hidden and so was his voice. His ideology comes from the historical background of racism found in blackface, and how even the simplest of acts can perform the most damage.

Rashaad isn’t the only person who has taken offense to something that was not intended for being racist. On Twitter, there was an outrage about non-people of color using charcoal face masks because it resembled what blackface used to look like in the 1950s during minstrel shows. Minstrel shows were used to make black people feel inferior by painting themselves completely black except for around the mouth to show the distinct differences between white and black people. Twitter users were fuming over the fact that they use this charcoal mask as a way to exfoliate and cleanse the skin while appearing to be doing blackface. One user by the name of Nicole Paula Oliver gives her opinion openly about these face masks. “Racism is so insidious that you can promote blackface for years under the guise of “pore mask” and it goes unchecked” (Oliver). The article then proceeds to display other users agreeing with Nicole, saying things like white women love doing blackface in charcoal masks and that blackface is now okay because it’s disguised as a charcoal mask.

Katherine Timpf, the writer of the article, disagrees entirely with what Nicole Oliver has to say. She discusses the natural benefits of charcoal and how it absorbs pollutants and toxins, cleansing the face of harmful bacteria. It can also unclog pores. All of these elements can only be found in charcoal. Katherine goes on further to discuss that women, or men, shouldn’t have to feel like a bad person for using a beauty product. She brings up the fact that blackface was used  with the intent to make black people feel inferior and that is not the same intent as the charcoal mask. Katherine finishes her article by stating that these fake cries of racism only put real racism into the shadows.

It may be easy to write off opinions like Oliver’s as just plain stupid, and in many ways, they are. The thing is, though, they’re worse than that — they can also be harmful. After all, crying racism where none exists makes people a lot less likely to listen to real accusations of racism. Given the fact that real racism does still very much exist in our society, that is a tragedy. Anyone who really cared about social justice issues would remember this and focus their energy on those real examples rather than doing things that make their entire cause look like a laughingstock. (Timpf)

Here is where the problem sets in. Rashaad and the restaurant couldn’t come to the same terms of taking down the photo because both saw the photo in a different light, or rather a different ideology. Rashaad had a historical background to play off of. His ancestors had to deal with segregation and slavery whereas someone who is white, like the manager of the restaurant, would not have that same type of understanding because their ancestors had a completely opposite history. This goes for Nicole and Katherine as well. Nicole sees obvious offense from the ads for the charcoal mask whereas Katherine only sees it as faking racism. Both of these ladies have very strong opinions but with opposing ideologies. How a person sees something can dictate what a problem is, or if it even is a problem to begin with. These ideologies continue to clash against each other, claiming that one is more right than the other. Blackface is a worldwide known ideograph with many ideologies which are incapable of a resolution, only because opposing sides are refusing to acknowledge other viewpoints. And for the most part, they aren’t willing to listen.

Communication is one of the most important things that keeps a society together. With the lack of it, society can become distraught and confused. When one person is communicating their reasoning to another and they aren’t understanding, the result can be frustrating to say the least. Communication is a tool used between humans that can not only create and develop lasting relationships, but to convey information or emotion. Someone can become defensive just by misunderstanding a situation because of not only embarrassment but not fully grasping a concept. This plays a huge part in why miscommunicating information is harmful to any community. David Grossman continues by saying that humans fear being ridiculed for not properly interpreting certain material. “The reason is pretty basic—people tend to avoid situations in which they will be seen as not knowing, not understanding or not having expertise. No one wants to look like they don’t know what to do. And just about everyone has a fear—whether based in reality or not—of being embarrassed or mocked” (Grossman). It is in human nature for us to become alarmed at the thought of being degraded because something slipped past the mind.

Blackface wouldn’t be such a big issue if there was a bridge for both sides to cross that would lead them each to an understanding. There is one side who explicitly refuses to acknowledge the circumstances in which people of color have faced in the past. It has left them scarred in more ways than one. And then there is the side where even the smallest of things can come off as racist if taken a different way, causing people of color to grow outraged at simply nothing. Where is the line drawn? These two sides are both so eager to get their point across as right by justifying their polar ideologies. There is zero communication and without communication there can be no solution.

Because there is no resolution set for blackface, this is causing a major pause in the progression for equality. People of color are arguing against the other side by stating the wrongs they have done in order to justify equal rights. In simplest terms, people of color are distancing themselves from other races by pointing fingers of those doing blackface, despite what the intentions were. They claim these people as racists and refuse to call them anything else. By doing this, their community is pushing back any source of progression by victimizing themselves against anything deemed as racist. Who makes the calls on what is and isn’t racist?

Now, there are real racists out there in this world. No one is saying there isn’t. There are countless attacks against black people, and some of those are using blackface on purpose. Of course they are also doing much worse things in the world as well. But, on the other hand, there are the others who are ignorant and are doing blackface for fun with the intent of showcasing black beauty. In these specific cases, they  neglect the history of black people, and push away the truth of the past while further defending themselves. Do you begin to see how these ideologies are going to continue to fight each other? With every tweet thrown at one user to the other, or endless comments on social media about who is right or wrong, it is only pausing the needed steps to continue in our journey towards equality.

We, as humans, claim to be wanted and welcomed into society for who we are. People are wanting to be proud of their race, their bodies, their accomplishments, their habits, and so forth. The biggest movement that has passed over social media like a wildfire is accepting and embracing the differences between humanity. It has become more than just a trend to love yourself for who you are and for what you have been given. But it’s in times like this with controversies such as blackface that both parties are pushing the very idea of acceptance away. Black people are proud of their culture, which they have every right to be. In doing so, they isolate their community to only themselves, yet still yearn for the welcoming of others. As for the people not seeing the harm in blackface, they only continue to defend their very actions as they justify the racism of history with an oblivious mindset. Again, this is how communication can be the golden ticket for a controversy such as this.

Being able to communicate issues such as blackface can help create a better awareness for the sake of society. Communication is more than just stating what someone believes in and waiting for a response, no, it is more complex. The ability to communicate respectfully, and take in information from opposing viewpoints, can “take a lifetime to master”. The number one rule when it comes to communication is listening. It is so important for voices to be heard, but there isn’t a point if no one is listening to it. Many would say it is a large step to transition from defensive to open-minded, however, doing so creates a portal to newer conversations. These conversations can lead to a resolution which can then lead into taking action on how to better address any form of controversy.

Not only would it lead to a resolution, but would also allow cultures and races to better educate the unawareness that they face everyday. Education is significant rather than fussing over someone on Twitter where not only the miscommunication begins, but where the lack of empathy takes place. People of color are now given an opportunity to face these issues in a different light and make their arguments seem more understandable. It doesn’t take much to correct someone the right way. It becomes more effective for the person to fix their mistake and also empathize with them because they now can comprehend their ideologies. Blackface, unfortunately, isn’t the only issue we face in America today that faces the same consequences. But it is one that has been influencing society quite a bit, and it needs to be taken care of immediately before something worse comes of it.

Blackface has been a matter in question for more than a couple of decades. It has been the face of racism and segregation since the early 1950s. This still occurs in real times, but for the majority of the incidences, the intent has been switched around. People of color refuse to acknowledge any reasoning behind this act due to their ideologies that have been impacted by their history. Non-people of color are caught facing anger towards their participation in blackface, and they only choose to guard their wrongness despite being corrected by the black community. If both parties could communicate on a better level and come to understand the terms of each side, then this could be a step towards better equality for society. Otherwise, it will only lead to the destruction of justness and create an unwanted halt for progression.

Works Cited

Koenigsberg, Richard A. “Why Do Ideologies Exist: The Psychological Function of Culture.” Why Do Ideologies Exist: The Psychological Function of Culture, www.libraryofsocialscience.com/essays/koenigsberg-why-do/.

Goldberg, Jonah. “When Feelings Don't Care about Facts.” National Review, National Review, 30 Jan. 2019, www.nationalreview.com/corner/when-feelings-dont-care-about-facts/.

Timpf, Katherine. “Charcoal Face Masks Deemed an Example of 'Racism' and 'Blackface'.” National Review, National Review, 13 Mar. 2019, www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/charcoal-face-masks-deemed-an-example-of-racism-and-blackface/.

Mahar, William John. “Behind the Burnt Cork Mask.”, University of Illinois Press

Accessed March 12, 2019

Grossman, David. “4 Main Problems That Come With Poor Communication.” Internal Communications Agency, 2016, www.yourthoughtpartner.com/blog/4-main-problems-that-come-with-poor-communication.

“10 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills.” 10 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills | Right Management, www.right.com/wps/wcm/connect/right-us-en/home/thoughtwire/categories/career-work/10-Ways-to-Improve-Your-Communication-Skills.

[rametarin]

It’s not a fun position to be in.

I’d like to clarify, again. I’m not an ethnonationalist, ethnoseparatist, white supremacist, or any of those things. I actually quite dislike them. That’s WHY it makes me mad to see overpolicing of white people or whiteness as inherently oppressive and bad, and anybody else as inherently oppressed and good.

They enshrine and put it into words and ideology that white people and other people exist and should exist on two different levels of society, and their preferred solution is to disestablish one as not existing because races and race-culture doesn’t exist, while empowering everybody else, and pretending that’s not hypocrisy. And since they later updated what they define as racism, technically, it no longer is.

You have to understand. When I was coming up in the late 80s/early 90s, the discourse on race was simple: For anyone to consider themselves by their race first, was to be a racist. The highest tier racists were Nazis, the next step beneath them were KKKlansmen, and then loosely affiliated neo-nazis beneath them, then ‘vaguely white supremacist and hostile towards non-English speakers, brown people and Asians’ people that weren’t loud, screaming hate mongerers came next. But, for a person to think of themselves separate or of themselves or their families as a member of an extant community defined by their race and background, was to be a racist. And that was socially taboo/faux pas.

At least, for white people. Of which in the US, they are/were the majority (even today) and the conversation was deliberately just broadbrush to assume it applied to white people by default.

It did not, however, apply to “oppressed minorities,” conveniently. So, if you were black, or your community/heritage didn’t speak English and wasn’t a “white country” (Latin American, basically) you could be as insular and think about the welfare and integrity of your own little microcosm and diasporic ethnostate that you wanted. One need only look at media and entertainment in the 90s geared towards keeping that spirit of separatism in the American black community to see that double standard. But it was justified and defended by, “We need this, we are under threat of racists, klansmen and hostile Southern confederate-sympathetic gentlemen every day of our lives.

And as vaguely progressive people in the 80s and 90s, yeah, we conceded that roaming bands of horrible southern monster-men were probably a thing black, Hispanic, Indigenous North American and Asian people worried about a lot and had to deal with constantly. Since the news made damned sure to publish every single instance of a hate crime against a minority, and later public school would hold special sessions to talk about such a horrible thing.

Always white-on-somebody-else, always seguing into conversations about how prevalent white supremacists and white supremacism, the actual confederate flag and [your choice of specific and purpose made white supremacist club/militia symbol here] used to be, and in many ways, still was.

At the time, common public discourse was not, “the United States is memetically a white supremacist oppressive shithole based on the very culture and roots, it’s just there are a lot of suppressive, hateful, bigoted people, most of them are in the majority demographic, and most of them are male.” The US was not considered, “white supremacist/racist” by default.

And on paper, taking the moral high ground on racism meant implicitly that you hated racial discrimination, in theory, in all forms. That included favoring people for their real or perceived racial background as well as disfavoring. So preferential treatment to hiring practices were as taboo as preferential treatment for hate crimes.

In practice, many of the same Woke Folks that today said one thing but applied it only to reprimend white people, do so today while saying, proudly, “you can’t discriminate or be racist against white people.” But at the time, they feigned, “just hating racists” to ignore any such racism, bigotry or intolerance from any other group towards whites. They might, however, recognize it if, say, black people did a hate crime towards Asians, but they did so begrudgingly. They HATED having to proactively come out and police that as racism and declare it as such, because they wanted the discourse to evolve into, “it’s ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY racism when it’s white-on-others, because ONLY whites can be racist.” But that wouldn’t be for another 25+ years.

Even that stupid, safe, classic, “haha stupid insecure white man; there’s no such thing as Reverse Racism!” line? That’s a save.

Privilege Theory existed back then, you know. it was published in the late 80s, and the radicals had been using it unofficially for decades before then. But it was a radical school and in deep, and only peeked its head out to try and make cultural headway the way radicals try to make anything radical the mainstream. It just so happened that academia at the time and society at large was not willing to accept that permutation to the racism discourse or dialog. “All white people are racist and racism is an intrinsic quality of white people, nobody else can be” was tested, like a spank on the ass.

And it almost blew the illusion. So, they ran damage control and hid for a while, putting out feelers only for those so deep down the rabbithole or so gullible they’d accept that. And they gaslight anybody that experienced dealing with a radical asshole that said shit like that by saying, “oh that’s just Patty. She’s a meaningless extremist and has no power.” Or, “Haha are you really going to take that anecdote as signs progressive people are all like that bro? omg come on. XD.” Or, “You must have misunderstood her. I know how progressivism and anti-racism can seem when you’ve been raised your whole life by society and the media to think white people are by default superior, so any taste of equality feels like you’re being singled out and discriminated against. :^)”

But the fact is, “haha there’s no such thing as ‘reverse racism’“ had two endings. If you mentioned you experienced someone saying, ‘only whites could be racist and nobody else can be,’ you’d hear either:

1.) “lol no. They were just confused. Racism is the discrimination of anybody on the basis of race! So calm down, the established definition applies to all. :^)”

2.) “there’s no such thing as reverse racism, because racism is the phenomenon of the white supremacist power structure lording and oppressing People of Color. You cannot be racist to white people if you are black, Indigenous or Hispanic, because you have no privilege and no centuries worth of oppression. Cry more.”

Way back in the day we’d SEE these glaring contradictions. And in truth? Most of us hated racism, so we stomached the glaring, disjointed bullshit. But, we ALSO grabbed up that anti-racism stick and BEAT the privilege theorist types subversivelyu hijacking the culture over the head with that anti-racism, too. You wanna claim you hate something because it’s, “racist,” AKA, involves race in the cricteria of something at all? FINE. You’re also going to hate affirmative action and when people come down on the side of not-white people specifically because they’re not-white. You will ELIMINATE race from consideration in any aspect of secular modern civic society and private enterprise and protect everybody equally on the basis of being a person. And any instance that is not the case we’ll come down on you with all the heavy handed spite we see and experience of you fuckers coming down on us, showing us off on soap boxes and sacrificing us on the altars of public socialization to shame and belittle us for the bigotry of generations passed.

You want to hit me with that stigma and smear me as some sort of white supremacist because I object to a thing, dismissing my objection and chalking it up to white supremacism? Then by god I’m going to point out the hypocrisy in the supposed “progressive far left” and their tolerance of anti-semites like Farrakhan, their tolerance towards the polygamy, misogyny and religious fundamentalist patriarchy in Islam, and how non-white communities act and think the same way to protect their own respective ‘brands,’ and the only people you seem to go after for these crimes are the white ones.

Which was fair. After all, we all just, “hate racism :^)”, right? So if you’re going to be an aggrandizing asshole and make a big to-do about castigating a lowbrow joke as a “teachable moment” that involves making every progressive woman hypersensitive and reject men based on how taboo something is to say, then that lack of forgiveness and hypersensitivity and the results of that intolerance will also apply to YOU, god damnit.

But the supposed “progressive” people would not stop. Anti-”racism” was their new toy, aka, their stick to choose their targets and seem absolutely morally right for doing it, and they were going to play that social tool down to the hilt. They did not like being beaten at their own game by being flagged and forced to acknowledge glaring instances of hate crimes in the news when groups of roaming black men found and randomly beat up gentile whites and Jews. They did not like being forced to acknowledge those. So they’d object and scowl at the people bringing them up, like, “Why are we discussing the hate crimes of black men specifically?! You have a problem with black men!?”

Because remember, they were playing the defacto ‘whites are considered default Americans’ to the hilt when it suited them, and using it against people in the discourse suited them. You could talk about generic hate crimes that appear on the newspaper, because those were just regular hate crimes. Their mentality was, if you brought up hate crimes of Asians or black people, then clearly you were just a white man motivated by spite and insecurity to even be tabulating those in the first place, and that meant your opinion and point should be disregarded. You horrible anti-black/Asian racist.

So, please bear in mind, my case is not that white people are in any way better than anybody else. I don’t think that. But by god, in an era when the supposedly progressive, far-leftist, “woke” people are running around saying Europe and North America and Australia are by default white supremacist “cultures” that need “dismantling and replacement,” and simultaneously declaring, “white people do not exist,” and “there are no ‘white countries,’ just cultures and nations without race’ while ABSOLUTELY enshrining that EVERY country in Africa, even ones that are majority Semitic or Arab, are in fact, “black countries.” Or Asian countries being Asian. Or North America as still belonging to the native inhabitants and unjustly stolen land.

I absolutely abhor the doubletalk, I absolutely abhor the mentality that ONLY white people doing things is a problem. I hate that something ISN’T a problem when another group does it, but it’s JUST an issue when white people do it.

I want consistency. If people are going to enshrine and respect the existence, difference and integrity of a black culture in the USA, that is, a culture that exists purely because the people in it have black African features and characteristics and aren’t too “light skinned” to be part of it, and in an era supposedly trying to “get over” race and racial identity, tolerate that from everybody BUT white people, tolerate the idea of a, “chocolate New Orleans” but openly say New Hampshire or Maine being so majority white is an actual problem, then yeah, I’m going to expect one of two things:

1.) The woke/progressives actively discourage black Americans from considering themselves a separate or distinct culture from mainstream America. They stop secluding and culturally isolating themselves in their own hearts and minds and just be fellow countrymen.

OR

2.) They acknowledge, enshrine and respect the fact whites do have their own specifically white cultures of which other races cannot be part of, they’re a distinct people that have their own communities and need their own communities to remain white.

They will do neither and would prefer if white people just disappear. The same sort of disappearance that they see as so disgusting and horrible if it were to happen to literally any other group of people on planet Earth.

When a Chinese immigrant arrives to the US, takes a wife (we’ll just assume white in this instance) and miscegenates, people later chalk this up to, “being colonized in a white supremacist pressure cooker culture.” And mourn how his kids and grandkids, “wash away his culture and background with every generation.” Instead of growing the Chiense-American community. They talk about him like he was enslaved and colonized and his culture eliminated from the American fabric by some schmoozing, destructive white plague cutting it down.

They talk about white Americans like we’re just originless, rootless vermin, and no such distinctness or integrity is to be respected. If we treated other groups in the US the way we treat white people that talk about their background, distinct cultures and etc., we’d be denying them any identity but mainstream American identity. If we treated black Americans that way, we’d be calling them black supremacists every time they wanted to have any sort of civic or educational or societal or community meeting to talk about blackness and the struggles of being black.

It’s just.... absolutely disgusting and frustrating, dealing with the hypocrites, the double standards, and the people maliciously using social justice values to sell policies and top-down application of cultural values the way used car salesmen try and sell people lemons. I dislike them.

I dislike that if a white person talked about their background or group the way a black person in the US does, they’d be called out for their insularity and eurocentrism in a heartbeat, shut down, deplatformed, become an effigy of conversation about, “the growing tide of white supremacism in America.” When all they’d do is take someone like DL Hugely or Cedric the Entertainer or Bernie Mac, and make it, ‘white ethnic’.

Imagine having your racism and in-groupcentrism excused because, “THAT’S PART OF YOUR CULTURE,” and immune to criticism or critical thought. But then, that’s exactly the mentality foisted on us by dialectic materialists and Marxists.

My preferred solution to all of this isn’t to respect white community or white sovereignty or white identitarianism. My preferred solution is the complete dissolution of race as a culture or background in the New World whatsoever. The Old World, you have indigenous cultures and communities across Europe, Africa and Asia that should NOT be expected to “mix” themselves up and out to where the indigenous featues and characteristics are marginalized or ‘bred out.’ That’s where they MAKE those people. But the New World is 100% different. Space should be 100% different.

But I’m also not going to accept, “well only half of us should kill ourselves.off :^)” either. While other communities across the Western World insist on having their communities and insular, demographically concentrated, demographic-culturally-conscious people respected and accommodated, I’m going to expect parity. And not an equality that uses privilege theory ow considers population size being disproportionate as, “they need it more than you.” No. You want to respect peoples, “cultures,” and consider black a culture in the US, then by GOD you will also respect and acknowledge those of European extraction as their own culture in the US. It’s all or nothing, you don’t get to single out one group as not existing or irrelevant and say, “race doesn’t exist” one minute, and then go on about how blackess, cultural and genetic, are “very real things that affect people very much and very really.”

These people would throw public money and social services at immigrant communities, hoping they demographically grow, maintain integrity and spread their numbers- preferably to red states, where they can start turning them purple, or blue. But they’d balk and consider it racist colonization if a white community moved to Niger or Chad and did the same for their own community interests. They’d call that racial supremacism and soft apartheid.

And I absolutely hate all of this.