YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BE ANGRY ABOUT THINGS
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BE UPSET ABOUT THINGS
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE
DON’T LET PEOPLE TELL YOU YOUR RESPONSE IS INVALID BECAUSE IT IS EMOTIONAL OR BECAUSE THEY DISAGREE
DON’T LET PEOPLE TELL YOU YOU DON’T HAVE A RIGHT TO A RESPONSE
DON’T LET PEOPLE INVALIDATE YOUR EMOTIONS
THIS HAS BEEN A PSA IM MAD AS HELL
June 2013
“
the day
i met/or was blued by toni morrison
was
at chinua achebe’s 70th birthday celebration.
i was invited by my friend, a student at bard, to attend.
the college
was warm with folks of color.
we gathered in a small hall.
sat.
watched as
writer after writer
brought
offering after offering
to the large life in the chair.
i remembered the title of his book, from the roots album.
remembered the contents of his book, from my high school’s required summer reading.
but i did not remember his feeling, the feeling of africa, until i saw his face.
down in the front row
was
toni. sonia.
other writers.
my young mind was hungry for
but
had no idea how to pronounce with young tongue.
the offerings continued.
sonia
got up.
read
middle passage
in a way
i thought was going to stop my heart.
in that sonia way.
that cadence and voice way.
that steals you while setting you free.
i felt my body weeping, not my eyes.
when it was toni’s turn.
(she was once a professor at bard. as was chinua achebe, a professor at bard. this was a reunion of sorts.)
she asked no photographs be taken.
no photographs were taken.
i noticed her tone became chill when an african american male student asked her a question about the responsibility
of the younger folk to her work/ what we could do to continue her legacy.
it was odd.
because
a few minutes prior
there had been honey all through her mouth.
oh, i realized, reluctantly, they were white. the first blue.
the elder achebe spoke, gratitude made his voice cinnamon and heart matter.
we gave him our souls to kiss. we kissed his.
the celebration grew into night, then ended.
i stayed around to meet and speak. waited my turn, as any
young black woman
who’d met pecola breedlove at fifteen
would do.
she was there, toni, speaking to a friend.
her back turned to me.
i steadied my neck.
stood behind her, gingerly.
her friend
pointed to me.
it had come.
the moment.
i was going to meet pecola’s mama.
the woman who brought me back from the dead.
finally, her white brown locs
turned.
she looked over her shoulder.
the eyes of pecola’s mother
was giving me the look of annoyance.
her eyes, ‘what do you want’
her shoulders, ‘i don’t care’.
i was slung. the second blue.
i managed to get a, ‘i just wanted to say thank you, just thank you for your work,’ out.
she returned to her friend. the third blue.
i was confused. wounded by the blue ice. i don’t even know if she had said anything in return before turning back around. that blue ice ate me.
what was i to think. feel. do.
just a few minutes prior i saw her taking pictures with a group of white female bard students.
didn’t she write the bluest eye for me.
why was pecola’s mother so cold.
i was underwater.
trying to build my feet into boats.
when i lifted my head
i saw sonia.
i slowly swam over
to share with her
how her reading of ‘the middle passage’
had brought the ancestors to me for the first time. that i had never felt anything like that from poetry. that it felt like i was there.
in this tender bridging with sonia,
i was still a car wreck.
still
water in cracking glass.
so,
i told
myself
that mothers had broken my heart before.
reminded myself,
it is a wild knife
but
you can survive it.
as i was gathering my things from my seat
sonia
my group of friends and i,
continued our blended conversation.
sonia
was a brillant sense of red and moon.
she was soft spoken.
wide worded.
her energy was wolf balm.
was grandmother song.
was happy prayer.
we were all enjoying each others eyes so much,
but it soon became time for the
honorary dinner.
so we began to share our
deep gratitude and goodbyes with her.
she stopped and said
‘you, young people aren’t attending the dinner.’
we said
‘no, it is a paid, invite only, affair.’
she said
‘i invite you. you will come sit at my table’
she,
her cloth
a cloud
found someone. took
out her checkbook
and
paid for all of us.
she said
‘you are important. you are our future. you must be a part of this, a part of this history, a part of the conversations that will happen in that room.’
we were stunned.
we followed her into the dining room
and
we ate and spoke with our favorite auntie.
the one with the magic.
in that moment.
at that
table.
i became this writer.
this writer.
this writer. who
felt the call.
felt it like new name.
my work must be work.
my work must be work.
this night was no mistake.
i did not go blue
then
silver
because the stars were running instead of walking.
this was
the ancestors showing me.
showing me how
you can
either
break or unbreak
blood.
showing me there is either silence or words.
what if we just created a fandom for a tv show that doesn’t exist and we build it up really big and make a ton of inside jokes until the internet just accepts it as a real show and it starts getting included in polls and gets it’s own imdb page and a group of outsiders go crazy trying to find dl links
“Racism”, like the dictionary definition, was first used by a white supremacist and is defined by its use in that instance. When you quote the dictionary on racism, you quote a white supremacist. Pretty simple
Crazy Crip Girl: i-need-that-seat: As long as people say things like “differently... →
sasha-smithy.tumblr.com
As long as people say things like “differently abled,”
As long as workplaces and employers turn down people for jobs they’re qualified for because the applicant uses a wheelchair,
As long as there are still buildings without ramps, elevators, and other accessible…
“I’ve told the kids in the ghettos that violence won’t solve their problems, but then they ask me, and rightly so; “Why does the government use massive doses of violence to bring about the change it wants in the world?” After this I knew that I could no longer speak against the violence in the ghettos without also speaking against the violence of my government”
—
Martin Luther King Jr. (via loveinfamine)
The Martin Luther King Jr. White people never quote
(via youngblackandvegan)
$14K American Girl Trip Breaks Down Racial Barriers for Bed-Stuy Students - Bed-Stuy - DNAinfo.com New York →
dnainfo.com
Rob Robinson took his students to Midtown’s American Girl store.
im actually crying because this is thing my sister has wanted to do for years
I don’t think people without mental illness realise how much hard work it is and how exhausting every single minute of every day is.
For realzies.
“Rest assured that educational inequity has little or nothing to do with “cultural failure” or the “failure of communities.” We know that educational inequity is based in the maldistribution of sociopolitical resources (goods, services and access to sustainable political power). Those of us who have lived in poverty know that there is a vast difference between “culture” and survival mentality. Those of us who are people of color know that Black, Latina/o, Asian and Indigenous culture are socially constructed misnomers that are no more real—and just as marking—than/as the racial labels that correlate to..but with real consequences. Change the world loves, we must, we shall. But none of us will get there by demonizing an imagined culture of poverty or race(s). Check your privilege, check the system and unbecome the internalized insanity.”
—BlaQueerPoz (via blaqueerpozitivity)
Do you ever think about the fact that the US has created and legitimized a system of institutionalized inequality by funding schools through property taxes? That basically a child’s education is only as good as the value of the property in their neighborhood. Funny how education is so often viewed as an equalizing factor when there is nothing equal about it.
(whispering) like this post if youre ok w me putting your text posts (not big sad personal ones) on tshirts sometimes
“my english is broken.
on purpose.
you
have to try harder to understand
me.
breaking this language
you so love
is my pleasure.
in your arrogance
you presume that i want your skinny language.
that my mouth is building a room for
it
in the back of my throat
it is not.” —i have seven different words for love, you have one, that makes a lot of sense, nayyirah waheed (via mimicryisnotmastery)
on purpose.
you
have to try harder to understand
me.
breaking this language
you so love
is my pleasure.
in your arrogance
you presume that i want your skinny language.
that my mouth is building a room for
it
in the back of my throat
it is not.” —i have seven different words for love, you have one, that makes a lot of sense, nayyirah waheed (via mimicryisnotmastery)
♥ their royal majesty ♥: And yes, leering is considered sexual harassment →
their-royal-highness.tumblr.com
“Looking” means you just see someone attractive and who catches your eye. There is nothing wrong with simply looking, given you have full control over your own eyes and brain and don’t stare.
Or leer.
Leering, on the other hand, is treating a woman’s body as if she’s…
