mcgoats:

lavender-labia:

thegreenwolf:

Committing a crime does not remove someone’s humanity. I would rather live in a society where rapists and murderers are still treated as human beings, even in a prison, because preserving their right to be human is as important as protecting my right to be…

Wow ok I’m not gonna treat or think of rapists with compassion literally ever thx xoxo

sorry not sorry

Okay so this thread has really started to irk me.

Everyone crying “BUT WHERE WILL ALL THE RAPISTS GO?!?!?!” at those for prison abolition really miss several points here. And one of them is that actually, the vast majority of rapists actually DO NOT end up in prison.

If only 56% or estimated rapes are reported and only 3% of those charged with rape ever see a jail cell, who’s to say that most prisoners are rapists? In fact it seems a minority of prisoners actually are violent offenders. Meanwhile, a rising number of people in prison are actually “drug offenders” (AKA young people of color who sell or use drugs) who’ve been racially profiled. According to wikipedia:

As of 2006, 49.3% of state prisoners, or 656,000 individuals, were incarcerated for non-violent crimes. As of 2008, 90.7% of federal prisoners, or 165,457 individuals, were incarcerated for non-violent offenses.^[22] Drug offenses account for two-thirds of the rise in the federal inmate population since 1985; approximately half a million people are in prison for a drug offense today compared to 40,000 in 1981—an increase of 1,100 percent.^[23]

The reason we demonstrated in front of a women’s prison on Mother’s Day is because incarcerated women, especially women of color, are disproportionately survivors of violence and trauma. Many of them are incarcerated as a result of their abuse; many fight back, many get duped by their abusers, and many consequently have to leave their families behind. Also, with regards to transwomen, many are profiled by police under the suspicion of being sex workers, and have had to fight off hate crimes.  Eve Ensler, who I usually feel iffy about, has made an excellent documentary and play called Any One of Us, and Victoria Law has written a book called Resistance Behind Bars, which articulates women’s struggles in prisons and outside of them. Angela Davis has also written extensively on the subject as a black feminist and former political prisoner. These works show that these prisoners don’t need to be confined; they need serious help.

If the current criminal justice system was any good, the assholes on Wall Street would be done for, and so would roughly 94% of rapists. If it was any good, my own father wouldn’t have been thrown in prison under the racist pretense that he was undocumented, when he actually showed up to court to pay a debt. But instead, prisons uphold white supremacy and slavery, and continue cycles of abuse for marginalized people. So you all need to do yourselves a favor and read up before you start attacking prison abolitionists, instead of individualizing a structural problem by saying things like “But I need prisons!” When you obviously have no idea what happens in them or how most people get there. No sympathy for rapists, but no excuses for a fucked up prison system. 

janedoe225:

most illegal immigrants come from european countries. european students who have expeired student visas and decide to stay and they don’t fear the ins. yet, populations of color who are legal fear being questioned and deported.

is it a coincidence that anti immigrant rhetoric is aimed at populations of color?

angela davis discusses.

(and the answer is obviously no) 

suzy-x:

Frankly I’m bored of trite articles by trite white women and trite shows about trite white women and their trite straight sex lives. But now that they get PAID and CELEBRATED to write trite shit does that mean feminizm is over???

I’m revisiting this because I got a call this morning from folks casting for GIRLS. I had applied to be an extra on this show last summer, and I’ve been called back this week to play the “friend at a housewarming party.”

I suppose this is out of reparations to all POC for their absurd erasure and exclusion of them on their previous season. But you see, they’ve still fucked up; I’m not just a POC, I’m a white-passing one at that. I’m their safest bet, the one who white girls actually feel less guilty around because I’m not always so “in [their] face” about race. I’m not sure how I feel about doing this, besides the fact that I’ll get paid well and that after this part I can join the union. Even though I act part-time, I’m not someone who actually watches TV for these reasons (besides Parks & Rec), and I’ve still never seen this show. I don’t know I don’t know. I’m just curious.

nezua:

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Christina Gonzalez, an activist protesting the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics, was held in contempt of court on Friday, and sentenced to ten days in jail, after she called Judge John H. Wilson a “white racist pig.” In 2006 Judge Wilson penned a children’s book called Hot House Flowers, which was an allegory for illegal immigration that depicted immigrants as dandelions that should be “weeded out.” A man videotaping the exchange was also handcuffed, and had the contents of his camera deleted by court employees.

Tell ‘em. You can erase the footage but not our knowledge.

Get it grrrl. A.J.A.B.

lati-negros:

If Governor Jan Brewer gets her way, Arizona radio stations will soon be prohibited from playing Latino music over the airwaves. On May 3, the Arizona House will vote on a bill that would ban any music that:

1. Promotes the overthrow of the United States government.

2. Promotes resentment toward a race or class of people.

3. Is designed primarily for listeners of a particular ethnic group.

4. Advocates ethnic solidarity instead of treating listeners as individuals.

[language straight from HB2218]

HEY Y’ALL THIS IS A PARODY, THESE GUIDELINES ACTUALLY PERTAIN TO THE ETHNIC STUDIES BAN

FREE CECE: A short zine by HEXX. Contains info on Cece McDonald, a black transwoman currently in prison for defending herself against a hate crime.

Mind you, she’s facing the SAME charges as George Zimmerman, after being bashed by white supremacists. Pass it on!

BWAHAHA WE FOUND YOU SUCKA

countrygramma:

excerpt from the letter his office released today regarding the details of what’s happened: 

“I replied to the NYPD officer’s demand with a simple question: ‘Why? Am I under arrest?’ The question was based on the fact that (1) the officer had already grabbed me and spun me around, impeding my entry into my office; and (2) the NYPD officers stationed outside the building, to my knowledge, have never previously requested identification from any individual. The decision to check identification and to grant access to the elevators is made by the building personnel in the lobby, not the NYPD…

NYPD does it again! Fucking boneheads. The Manhattan DA is also on my shitlist.

leonineantiheroine:

Sorting my preliminary thoughts out.

I don’t even know if the categories are even fair or relevant as they might all bleed in to each other. 

Also while I use POC, I’m mainly interested in Blackness and how white-identified is used against other Black people. And I’m not talking about people who do shit for money and to build a career. 

Circumstances where the term white-identifying is used:

1. POC 1 believes that POC 2 is talking bullshit, not seeing the point of view of another POC—could be POC 1 or maybe POC 3 and 4 :) / POC 2 could see this as a difference of opinion and feels attacked because it’s merely a difference of opinion. In case 1, POC 2 is a conscious POC.
2. POC 2 defends white people in the face of racism
3. POC 2 denies racism is happening
4. POC 2 denigrates members of the same race on the basis of white supremacist ideas.

I think when a POC calls another POC white-identified during Tumblr discussions of racism, that this charge is not very useful and is simplistic (even though there might be a grain of truth in it). And again yes there are POC whom are arseholes against other POC on the basis of race…

Times I’ve been called “white-identifying”: 1) when I willfully ignored/smoke-screened blatant racism at an event for the sake of assuaging the guilt of white organizers, and 2) when describing my politics as feminist or anarchist. The former was totally called for, I deserved that. The latter? Nah. I can see how the praxis has been dominated by white folks, but these movements have rich histories that involve POC and also supplement anti-racist theory in their analyses of gender and capitalism.

I think the most disorienting, confusing part has been, when called “white-identifying,” it made me question my actual identity as a POC, it made me think I couldn’t call myself one anymore. But it really shouldn’t do such a thing; not when I’ve lived my entire life as a POC, granted a non-black, light-skinned one. I acknowledge my experience is very different and comes with some privilege. But it’s probably more apt to say something like “___ has internalized racism,” “white-sympathizing” or “perpetuating of white supremacy” when we’re talking about POC who defend white supremacist actions/ideas. Whether or not they care is one thing, and it should always be understood as a casualty of growing up in a white supremacist society. But revoking someone’s identity or lived experience because their politics are fucked is another. I worry about the latter.

Pictured: our zine table at the benefit party for CeCe McDonald, a black transwoman currently in prison after defending herself from racist transphobic attackers. If you missed our party, you can still help by donating money here to help pay her legal fees. If you’re interested in the Free CeCe zines, send me a message!

rgr-pop:

I just don’t know, you guys. I’m concerned. I understand what you are trying to do! I really do! (I mean, other than MAKE THIS CAUSE MORE GLAMOROUS BY MAKING IT ABOUT WHITE LADIES’ LEGS, anyway.)

We all agree that victim blaming sucks. We also agree on the subtext of that miniskirt discourse: “whatever we wear” isn’t necessarily about our right to flaunt leg as much as it is about the way our bodies are treated regardless of how we dress them. Most of us get raped in our jeans or our pajamas or our uniforms. Just like how Trayvon’s hoodie is used as an empty excuse, that he was “asking” to be treated with suspicion. Even though really it was his body that marked him in that way. Okay, I get it.

But how are we being so willfully ignorant of the problems with that “whatever we wear” discourse? How are we ignoring the fact that “my miniskirt is not an invitation to rape” is a white discourse? That so many people rightfully take issue with that kind of rhetoric because it’s one that preserves a purity of white womanhood? That when black women are raped, there is no “victim-blaming” because there is presumed to be no victim?

I mean, you could have tried to pretend for a split second that you care in the least bit about people of color who are raped. Like, you couldn’t find a picture of a black woman in a miniskirt ANYWHERE ON THE INTERNET? Really?

How many hoodies have you put on your white body? How many times have those hoodies marked you as a “suspicious” target for violence?

What is the purpose of trying to unify these oppressions into one? Why don’t you realize that by creating this false geometry you are essentially arguing that they were mutually exclusive—if parallel—phenomena to begin with? How many white women have been raped only for an innocent black man in a hoodie to be killed for it?

Do you people think before you say anything ever?

Why is the first statement embodied and the second one is bodiless? Why did you want to show white legs but no black bodies?

Can’t there be one thing that we don’t make about us? Are we not interested in discussing the way people are oppressed unless we can fit it into a conversation about how we, personally, are oppressed? Unless we can fit it under the umbrella of activist acts we already perform? Can you seriously just let this be about black boys for ONE MOTHERFUCKING SECOND?

THANKS GRRRL I FEEL YOU. Skin is not something you can put on in the morning before you go to school/work. Meaning the comparison is N/A

agreed.