Previous thread is over here.
I forgot to update this yesterday since I was at work.
As usual: no crackers allowed.
Here, you can:
vent
chat
gush
inquire
etc.
about, well, anything, ig.
Bonus discussion question:
What are your favorite books about BIPOC and EM people?
Could be about individuals, a few individuals, or a social history (or, well, everything having to do with EM_BIPOC peoples).
Mine is kind of a "basic opinion" but it's:
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
Read it right when it came out.
And I knew it was going to be a "classic" (or, at least, on many peoples' "to-read" lists).
Of course, I'm an obscurist, sort-of. I recommend more obscure works, but this one really stood out to me back when it first came out. I had a professor that also recommended the book and had us all read it in class. I believe they were Apache.
On the topic of "obscure" works, I would recommend Henry Winston's Strategy for a Black Agenda, which is my favorite work on such topics as Pan-Africanism and violence vs. non-violence (and whether and how to use both or when).
Anyway, take care!
I think I need to rage and vent in an extreme and I'm fighting everything I've been taught about being a calm and polite black person.
I'm activity trying to find a healthy outlet, but I'm also annoyed with the racism that shames people of color for having complex emotions. I think I'm going to try to shout and vent in my car, but I've got fear that someone will overhear and call the cops or whatever.
That sounds fucking terrifying, especially that last part.
But I getcha. I'm not Black, but during school, at least, I felt trapped and judged, you know?
My therapist was also racist to me (at least one of 'em that I had before I moved on to the next).
Thanks, I think you can totally relate to having your emotions policed by racists. It's rough though then it's a therapist. You're paying them to be on your side and they couldn't even manage that.
It sucks to struggle, but I hope we can find some peace with it soon.
Thank you, and yeah, it can be hard when the ones you need on your side... aren't.
Well, I got a good therapist now (and one who is Autistic like me) so that helps. Honestly, that definitely helped me out a bunch. I think that was half the battle, even.
Go for a drive on the freeway and yell about whatever. I do that!
Most people don't notice as you zoom by and, even if they do, you're in the freeway and you zip by. It's a good place to vent. Just don't go too fast and keep your eyes on the road.
My brother does that sort-of thing and I hate it.
He's a liberal and is "proud" of that fact, but yeah...
I don't watch any of those shows, they are all equally off putting for me for different reasons, but I will say I do like that type of ironic race humor.
But! only when either done by poc, either personally or in media, or with very trusted few White people that I personally know are legit. If it's just some dude I don't know and who has never thrown down with me in struggle or some arbitrary asshole who put a camera infront of himself to say this, then nah.
And even with White people, as my comrades of color and I would say, sometimes you just gotta check them and not laugh or call them out—even if you thought it was funny, just to keep them humble. We'd, amongst ourselves, talk about who is one of the good ones but we'd never admit it to them so it wouldn't go to their heads.
I get that.
Not sure about the last part. I mean, I get it, don't want to send a message, but it feels a bit... dishonest? Like, if you want to laugh, laugh?
I could be wrong because I believe open communication is usually the best policy and that includes interracial communication as well.
The problem is that we live in an white supremacist state and so the bourgeois hide the problems of white culture and white people from the rest of us.
So that's also a factor to consider.
Ah, for sure, that is a good point. I don't think we're in disagreement.
I just meant that while sometimes one finds things funny (I know I have a stupidly dark sense of humor), that doesn't mean it's not problematic either to make the joke or to laugh at it.
And, in this context, if a White person makes a pretty funny joke but it's problematic or racist to the extent that the White person shouldn't have said it for different reasons then it's probably best to not laugh and instead call them out on why they shouldn't say certain things, albeit funny and one would laugh if a poc would say it. It doesn't mean one has to berate them or get angry, but uncritically enabling the behavior might create issues.
There's probably a bunch, but I do not like the format of "What if [racial group] was [slur for disability/sexuality/something else]", and I don't like how that format is just sort of casually accepted on this website
I don't really like that brand of comedy. It's no better than some white supremacist making more "mask off" racial jokes and then saying they aren't really racist because they have one black friend.
One of my coworkers (also POC) watches a bunch of conservative white comedians that say racist shit all the time and he finds it funny.
Tagging people from the previous thread. Enjoy!
@anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net
@theposterformerlyknownasgood@hexbear.net
It’s weird how hard people will use the one-drop rule. My nephew is mixed with his father being a brown mestizo and mother being a very pale English woman. Their kid is by all means a white boy and yet they insist he’s actually a little tan when the kid can’t even be out in the sun too long because he starts to get burnt.
The more I think about it, the more it seems America, as a concept, is the basis of modern-day racism and white supremacy, since its culture created that same one-drop rule all around...
Today I got my first haircut in 15 years. I still have long hair. It's hella rad.
On the topic of “obscure” works, I would recommend Henry Winston’s Strategy for a Black Agenda, which is my favorite work on such topics as Pan-Africanism and violence vs. non-violence (and whether and how to use both or when).
YES YES YES YES. Big rec here, also "We Will Shoot Back", by Akinyele Omowale Umoja.
It's on my org's current reading list, Strategy is. I think I got in too late for their reading circle on We Will Shoot Back, I've been making headway through that between my coursework this semester
I love that book and its sequel and, since I'm apart of the CPUSA, I have a healthy respect for Henry Winston already, who helped start NAARPR and NAIMSAL.
(NAIMSAL especially helped spear-head the anti-apartheid movement in the U.S., pressing for sanctions on South Africa, which eventually did happen, over its apartheid system.)
Web dubois' black reconstruction and harry Haywood's black Bolshevik are two ancient tombs full of unimaginable knowledge that the movement has yet to truly contend with
Haywood's book was a pain to hunt down when I first heard of it, can confirm it is a good book, need to read more Dubois.
When I first looked for it I couldn't find it there and had to dl off archive.org's library which took a good min, but I want to say this was well over a year ago.
Archive.org for books isn't a bad bet though.
There's always this, for example (Ismail's archive):
https://archive.org/details/@ismail_badiou
Right. I forget what I was trying to check out now, it wasn't related to theory, a translation of some ancient bronze age poetry book, but the only way to get the book was to check it out and the whole process was so glitchy.
Black Bolshevik no, idr where I found it on archive.org, I've long forgotten what the bronze age poetry book was even called, so don't ask on that one, lol.
Also, remember: you don't have to do the bonus question if you don't want to.
Cheers!
To be honest, Henry Winston's work has a few antiquated or unpopular opinions, such as in regard to "Maoist China."
But that's kinda what I like about it. Either way, you'll come away from it with a new perspective.
