(Source: iadriiworld)

vasundharaa:

This is a resource post for all the Good White Person™s out there. You know, the ones who say things like “It’s not my fault I’m white! Don’t generalize white people!”, or “I’m appreciating your culture! You should be proud!”, or “Why do you hate all white people, look I’m a special snowflake who’s not racist give me an award for meeting the minimum requirements for being a decent human being”.

Well, if you are actually interested in understanding racism and how it ties into cultural appropriation, please read instead of endlessly badgering PoCs on tumblr with your cliched, unoriginal arguments and repeating the same questions over and over.

On White Privilege
aka don’t blame me just because I’m white:

• It’s Not My Fault I Was Born White: Basics of White Privilege x
• Racial Divide x
• Endless Examples of White Privilege x
• You Cannot Know What It’s Like To Be A Racial Minority x
• Intersectional Feminism x
• White Privilege Does Not Mean White People Have Perfect Lives x
• White Privilege and White Supremacy: A Presentation x
• You Will Never Experience Racism x
• Understanding White Privilege x
• White Privilege and Double Standards x
• Systematic White Ignorance x
• The Invisibility of White Privilege x
• The Luxury of White Privilege x
• White Privilege: The Harry Potter Analogy x
• Privilege Denial Bingo x
• Privilege and Cost x
• Check Your Privilege 101 x
• Whiteness x
• Whiteness is Not A Culture x
• White Privilege and Racism x
• Deeply Embarrassed White People Talk About Race x
• When White Anti Racists Talk About ~Their Struggle~ x
• White Privilege As A System x

On Reverse Racism
aka you are being racist against white people:

• Are White People Racially Oppressed x
• White People, the new Racial Minority x
• People Don’t Value Pale Skin!! x
• There Is No Such Thing As Reverse Racism x
• Racism vs. Not Racism x
• But White People Are Discriminated Against In Foreign Countries x
• The Myth of Reverse Racism: Why Cracker is Not N**** x
• Satire: A Step Wise Guide on Being Reverse Racist x
• Racism Against White People vs. Racism Against POCs x

On Cultural Appropriation
aka I’m just appreciating your culture:

• The Basics x
• Identifying Appropriation x
• But When We Wear It … x
• Why Can’t I Wear It (Hipster Headdresses) x
• Not Yours x
• If You Take The Bindi x
• White People Do It Better x
• Multiculturalism and Appropriation x
• Cultural Appropriation and Portrayals In Print Media x
• Diminishing the Cultural Significance of the Bindi x
• The Cultural Appropriation Bingo x
• Why We’re Fed Up of Your Responses x
• Identities Are Not Costumes x
• Hinduism And Appropriation x
• Religion and Privilege x
• Bindis Are Cool x
• Exotic India x
• What’s Wrong With Cultural Appropriation x
• Racism, Bindis and Ganesh Tattoos x
• BUT YOU’RE SPEAKING ENGLISH! x
• Cultural Appropriation Trolls x
• Guide to Being An Appropriating Douchefuck x
• New Age ~Culture Mixing~ x
• In case you’re tired of the prose, here’s poetry x
• Why You Shouldn’t Wear A Bindi x
• Appropriating and Sharing x
• Our Culture is A Punchline Until It’s a Trend x
• Homage Or Insult x
• Tattoos and Appropriation x
• Bollywood is Not Synonymous With Indian x
• College Party Costumes and Stereotypes x
• Dotheads x
• Bindis and Racist Humour x
• Hindu Iconography x 
• Misuse of Hindu Iconography x
• Your Appreciation Doesn’t Help Us x

Assorted Vials of White Tears and Miscellaneous Antidotes
aka I can’t change that I’m white/not all whites are racist/we are all humans:

• Unoriginal Arguments Refuted x
• Quick Checklist: You Might Be Racist If x
• Your Opinion Isn’t Necessary x
• I’m Not Responsible For My Ancestors x
• The Kumbayah Myth x
• Proud to Be White x
• Good White Person x
• We Don’t Hate White People x
• Brutality of Colonialism And Why You Can’t Tell Us To Forget the Past x
• People Who Claim Not To See Race Are More Likely to Be Racist x
• All Races are Beautiful Said the White Girl x 
• Race Blindness Is A Luxury x
• Well, You’re Racist For Calling Me Racist x
• I’ve Read About Its Significance, I Know What It Means
• Angry Because Someone Called You Racist x
• We’re Not All Like That x
• People Only Care About This Trivial Shit On The Internet x
• I Can’t Apologize for Being Born White, It’s Not My Fault x
• Why Can’t You Tell Me What I’m Doing Wrong x
• It’s Easy to Be Color Blind When You’re White x
• A Diagrammatic Guide To White Tears x
• Conversations I’m Sick Of Having With White People x
• Why Do You Hate White People x
• I’m Trying To Be Cultured x
• Sisyphean Conundrum x
• What is Your Problem x
• We Are All Human, We All Bleed Red x
• It’s Just A Bindi x
• How Not To Respond To Accusations of Racism x
• I’m Italian And 0.009% Native American x
• What White People Think Racism Means: A Venn Diagram x
• White Guilt x
• White Pride!!!111!!! x
• I Like *Insert Foreign Country* I Want To Live There x
• You Have So Much Hate, Fighting Fire With Fire Won’t Help x
• BooHoo, Don’t Call Me Racist x
• Not Everything Ended With Your Ancestors x
• The Racist Reaction x
• I Don’t See Why That Is Racist x
• Crummy Apologies x

Okay. I agree. I’ve been socially conditioned not to notice racism and recognize my privilege. What can I do?

• Listen x
• A Step Wise Guide x

I don’t care about this bullshit; you’re making a big deal out of nothing, go home and delete your blog:

• The Clueless White Person Bus x

(via rosadefuego)

Underage in Hunts Point

You can recognize them by the garish makeup, applied over baby smooth skin, the work of someone just learning. The colored cell phone, often bedazzled, clutched in their hand or wedged at the top of their bra. Their cocky insouciance, an aggressive unconcern, artist at getting somewhere fast without seeming to be going anywhere. 

Some may be as young as thirteen, but most are sixteen or seventeen. They are almost everywhere in Hunts Point, and johns come looking for them, blowing a kiss or whistling at them from their cars.

The pimps are older, and have the same jittery unconcern, always on the move, always on their phone, but never copping to caring. Their uniform is low slung jeans, silver studded belts, and half cocked baseball caps. They lean against bodega walls, keeping tabs on their girls. They often get all the money, providing the girls with weed and new clothes. They eye the neighborhood girls, anyone nine and up, looking for new recruits, talking amongst themselves.

“Damn, that Rodriguez girl (name made up) is looking sweet. She’s getting herself some nice fucking tits. Can’t wait to pop that.”

“Naw man, she’s into church.”

“Wait til she gets the smell for green. She will give up church.”

They do it for the money, because they see others do it, because sex work is part of the daily life of Hunts Point. We may not want to see sex workers and addicts, but the kids growing up in Hunts Point see them every day. And they see them as who they are, complex individuals with burdens and dreams, not simple stereotypes that are easy to dismiss.  Natalie, 17, says, “This is not my style, but times is hard and rough. It’s quick and the money’s good.”  Roxy, when she wanted to pay tuition for school, turned to walking the streets. “I am in school. I got tuition, food, housing, all that to pay for. This is just a way to get by. I got turned down for student loans. Sure, it’s not easy. I’ve been kidnapped once and raped twice.” Over the summer she got into a car with a john. Another man was hiding in the backseat. They drove her to Yonkers, tied her up and raped her. Last I heard she was in Rikers, doing six months. 

The girls will tell you they do it for the money. Others because it’s fun. The older women, the ones who have been working the streets for well over fifteen years, will tell you its anything but fun. They are the harshest critics of the young girls. Cynically one might say it’s about competition. That’s unfair. Almost all of these women started young, almost all of them are addicts, almost all of them hate their life.

Nikki, 36 and an addict, says to a teenage girl. “It seems fun running wild. Ten years from now you’ll be doing the same shit. This ain’t the way. Anyone that asks you to be out here is not your friend.” Princess (put on the street at 11 now 35): “When I am out here no underage girl will be out here. I will call the cops first. They will go down. Ain’t no kids be out here. If you ain’t a legal age you ain’t doing it. It ain’t your pussy yet, it ain’t yours. It aint happening… Adult men having sex with children. That’s a no no. NO!”

Family is nebulous, shattered, and complex. There is the street family and then blood family. “My real momma? She ain’t in my life. Brenda here is my momma now,” said one girl pointing to an older sex worker. “I have taken her in, taught her things. How to survive.” I did a photo series for the Hunts Point Alliance for Children, pictures of the kids in that program with their moms. I could have never done the same with fathers. Men have kids, but it’s rare they stay in their lives.

Spend anytime in Hunts Point and you will see them. I was so shocked, disgusted, and disturbed the first time I saw a fifteen year old get into a John’s car. I wanted to yell, to tell everyone I knew, figuring help would come marching in. I emailed organizations, told journalists. The response ranged from “welcome to the real world Wall Street boy” to “I know, I know, I know, we are overwhelmed,” but mostly it was silence.  It’s much easier to talk about Batman 9, or the new Korean Food truck, then an intractable problem.

Up until now I have not photographed the underage sex workers. I don’t feel it’s fair to the women. Many are willing. Most have hopes of being models.  Still I have no other way of getting peoples’ attention to the problem. So going forward, I will ask them to cover a portion of their face. I want people to see. I want people to realize that while they are stressing over their kids 9^th grade science project, there are kids the same age playing prostitute and pimp a few miles away. Kids who will get jailed, fall into drugs, stigmatized, brutalized, marginalized, and will slip further away.

When the writer Cassie Rodenberg, wrote about her experience working with me in Hunts Point, the New York Times correspondent David Gonzalez unleashed a barrage of Tweets, accusing her of propagating negative stereotypes about the Bronx.

Well yes David, its much better to engage in neighborhood boosterisam, to paint everything with rainbow colored brushes. You do not have to go looking for addiction and sex workers in the Bronx. They are there, being largely ignored because the problem is ugly and dirty. Maybe society should go looking for them.  You can ignore them, many of the kids who grow up in the shadow of it certainly cannot. 

(Source: arnade)

(via theunusual)

budadafuture:

LUNCH IS SERVED #SABROSURA (Taken with Instagram)

this is exactly what i want to eat right now… #moro #bistec #ensalada #mmmmmm