....Uuhh I Don't Know..

Why 300,000 Brazilians took to the streets; but where are the black protesters?

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:02:39 -0400

Why 300,000 Brazilians took to the streets; but where are the black protesters?:

Note from Black Women of Brazil: In the past week, protests, huge crowds and police violence coming out of various cities around Brazil have grabbed headlines around the world and have drawn comparisons to the Arab Spring in the Middle East, the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the US, and the 2005 uprisings in France. Although it has been reported that the increase in public transportation fare was the spark that lit the flame, in reality, it was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back as Brazilians have long voiced discontent with a variety of issues, from a failing education system to health care to government spending/corruption, to a system that continues to pour billions of reais into preparations for the 2014 World Cup while social demands continue to go ignored. Estimates of participation in the uprisings throughout various cities place the number of protesters at around 300,000 in the largest outburst of public manifestations since calls for the ouster of former President Fernando Collor in the early 1990s and the protests against the military dictatorship in the 1960s/1970s.

While this uprising may have caught Brazilian officials and the world by surprise, there are still a number of myths and questions to be addressed about this movement. For example, there appear to be two immediate similarities with the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement in the US that have raised questions about the origins and participants of the movement. For one, although the Occupy Wall Street movement was said to address corporate greed and represent the aspirations of society’s excluded who suffered the most after the economic downturn in 2008, it was discovered that 64% of the movement’s activists were white and 36% earned more $100,000 or more per year. This while African-Americans and Latinos disproportionately represented the unemployed (40%) and faced the brunt of the economic downturn. With black and Latinos facing such dire conditions, the question was asked as to why more of them didn’t participate in this movement.

Similarly, in São Paulo in particular, critics have pointed out the invisibility of the working class, poor and Afro-Brazilians in this uprising; in other words, those who are the most excluded. In fact, according to Marco Antônio Villa, “a great part of the protesters, especially the leadership, are from the middle class.” Megale and Rangel add that a good part of the protesters don’t even ride the bus. One would think withwidespread murders of the Afro-Brazilian population, racism, racial inequality, and a host of other issues, there would be a larger showing of darker faces in this uprising. As this movement continues to unfold, take a look at some of the best photos of the uprising thus far below, an open letter from the movement’s organizers on the reasons Brazilians have taken to the streets as well as voices from within the Movimento Negro (black movement).

Photo

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:40:34 -0400

i don’t know, but i hate those fucking guy fawkes masks. i really do.

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:26:43 -0400

i don’t know, but i hate those fucking guy fawkes masks. i really do.

YOUR HOT!

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:57:46 -0400

thank you anon!

"As trans* women of color, we all hear about the murders and the mutilations and the abuse and I just..."

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:23:40 -0400

“As trans* women of color, we all hear about the murders and the mutilations and the abuse and I just I knew that I was coming into this age range where that would be happening. So I kind of felt like a rush to put this memoir out so that these news reports couldn’t project their views onto me. Like, I have a book, you can’t lie about this any more.”

- Lovemme Corazon is everything (via cornelstressed)

Photo

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:22:39 -0400

ethiopienne: i am regularly baffled by the expectation that women of color, especially black...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:51:58 -0400

ethiopienne:

i am regularly baffled by the expectation that women of color, especially black women, owe people explanations for everything. tumblr is an easy microcosm to point to, but it’s pervasive damn near everywhere.

wanna be treated like a human? you better have a nice academic jargon-filled justification for that because last we heard, women of color were just breathing cadavers!

don’t like it when someone calls you the n-word? your discomfort isn’t enough! you better give them a crash course on american racism, history, and language in one easily digestible soundbite!

racism in the media? HAVE YOU SEEN EVERY MOVIE EVER CREATED? IF NOT YOU CAN’T SPEAK! YOU BETTER HAVE RECEIPTS! WHERE ARE YOUR FOOTNOTES? LEMME SEE THE CITATIONS! BUST THEM OUT NOW!

of course this is DOUBLY insulting because the people demanding answers are usually those with disproportionate access to knowledge, education, and other resources that would enable them to easily find the answers to their questions if they would actually look instead of demanding that women of color sweat answers into their palms.

miatranslations: spread it, share it, bang it > but BUY IT

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:46:23 -0400

miatranslations:

spread it, share it, bang it > but BUY IT

prosetitute: pamalamela: ccsaad: No, I’m not going to the...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:03:10 -0400

prosetitute:

pamalamela:

ccsaad:

No, I’m not going to the world cup.

Please, please share it guys! This is the truth. We Brazilians are really tired of this shit.

this video is spreading like wildfire on my facebook newsfeed, with good reason. watch this.

“so yeah, maybe the guy selling ice cream on the beach is going to do better… that week… but will the event really change his life?”

Please spread this. This is so important.

filthypolak: Indiana Jones and the Theft of Archaeological Artifacts of Great Cultural Significance...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:15:01 -0400

filthypolak:

Indiana Jones and the Theft of Archaeological Artifacts of Great Cultural Significance from the Peoples (of Color) to Which they Rightly Belong

Photo

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:18:57 -0400

"call your grandmother. mother. a bitch. hoe. slut. dumb cunt. in that order. to her..."

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:16:29 -0400

“call
your
grandmother.
mother.
a
bitch.
hoe.
slut.
dumb cunt. in that order.
to
her face.
watch her spirit leave her body.
watch her fall into herself.
take pride in your aim. your precision.
stay.
grab a plate.
eat what remains of her.
that is what you do
to
women
who are not yours everyday.”

- i am speaking to men and women, nayyirah waheed (via nayyirahwaheed)

Photo

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:55:15 -0400

vaganja: Shoutout to all the queer and trans* parents raising their kids to be lovely and fabulous....

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:26:33 -0400

vaganja:

Shoutout to all the queer and trans* parents raising their kids to be lovely and fabulous. Kudos to you for being a parent and existing in a world that tries to erase you. You are seen. You are valid. You are the fucking shit.

Now that I think about it...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:54:12 -0400

eshusplayground:

There does seem to be a certain narrative in the US that positions white people as the source of all LGBTQ visibility and progress when, in fact, it’s been LGBTQ people of color creating and agitating and organizing. Yet, from the way most people talk about LGBTQ progress in this country, it may as well have been Ellen Degeneres and Anderson Cooper heading up the Stonewall riots.

And don’t get me started on gay culture or the LGBTQ community, both of which have their roots in people of color. Before Lady Gaga, there were Gladys Bentley, Bessie Jackson, Little Richard, Grace Jones, Sylvester, even Prince, just to name a handful. But you wouldn’t know that from the way LGBTQ identity more or less gets framed as primarily comprised of affluent white people.

Not to mention, the what we recognize as the LGBTQ community pretty much owes its existence to queer and trans* people of color. However, it’d be hard to notice that from the way it gets talked about, wherein the Dan Savages of the world started it all, and everyone else was allowed in.

(So when queer and trans* people of color talk about having no fucks to give for the mainstream gay rights movement, they are talking about how folks like the HRC stood on the backs of the people and communities who built the movement then proceeded to throw them under the bus while elevating cishet people who just for not completely dehumanizing and abusing us.)

platanos-fritos: Reportaje sobre población Afromexicana / Somos...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 21:44:03 -0400

platanos-fritos:

Reportaje sobre población Afromexicana / Somos Negros Parte 1

We are Black (pt.1) , a news report on the subject of Mexico’s black population

brashblacknonbeliever: With Father’s day fast approaching, I would like to send a shout out to the...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:21:36 -0400

brashblacknonbeliever:

With Father’s day fast approaching, I would like to send a shout out to the people typically ignored on days like this:

To the people with abusive fathers

To the people absentee fathers

To the people who don’t know their fathers

To the people who cut their fathers out of their lives

To the people with conflicting feelings about father’s day because their own father was a piece of shit but other men they know and love are awesome dads

To the people who learned how not to be a shitty dad by not doing what their father did

To the people whose fathers are deceased

To the people whose fathers are locked up or deployed and/or can’t come home

To the people trying to mend broken relationships with their fathers

You are not alone. If you don’t want to celebrate father’s day or you don’t want to talk to your father, that’s perfectly fine. Do whatever it takes to make sure you are healthy and happy.

Photo

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:12:41 -0400

i’ve been wanting to read junot diaz’s the brief wondrous life of oscar wao, and i put on hold at my...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:18:37 -0400

i’ve been wanting to read junot diaz’s the brief wondrous life of oscar wao, and i put on hold at my local library. but it’s been like a couple of weeks already and it’s still not ready for pick up.

This is urgent

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:40:31 -0400

the-cat-inside:

Does anyone in the NC area have a place where an Iranian trans* person can stay I need a safe space NOW PLEASE SIGNAL BOOST PLEASE