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!
My 9 day vacation just started. Feels good.
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.
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.
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.)
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.