House of Wings

bookishboi:

There are so many things that are rubbing me the wrong way today.

In particular, the post regarding the 8 year old who was humiliated in front of her classmates. It kicked up a lot of raw feeling regarding my own past, my own childhood. The humiliation of an 8 year old, more or less anyone in a setting meant for education and learning is disgusting. When it happened to the 8 year old girl, was it about race? I wouldn’t doubt it. It certainly was for me. Some of the comments were eerily reminiscent of the kind that had been made towards me. Not only did I grow up in a very “white” suburban city, it was a very discriminatory one at that.

The police, the city and school officials, even the teachers had no problems letting me know how much they disliked my family. As far as they were concerned, I should have been living somewhere else because I was very much not welcome in their vicinity. 

School officials took my mother to court multiple times upon the basis of truancy and their belief that she was a bad mother. I remember multiple times, school counselors would sit and question me about the situation at home. My older sister, fed up with the racism and harassment she faced in school, dropped out and spent the time raising the younger ones of us, as well as working overnights at a nursing home.

Some things to consider before you go rambling about bad parenting:

• I have a large family, and growing up it was just my mom taking care of us with no kind of child support to give us even a vague cushion of comfort.
• My mother worked 70 hour weeks, as well as part-time on the weekends, in order to support us.
• I can remember ONE singular time when my mother physically checked my homework/helped me with it because she actually had the time and energy to do so. That was when I was in high school.
• When you’re living in a state of poverty, homework is not very high on the list of priorities because you’re more concerned about other things. Like food. Electricity being shut off. Etc.

You cannot make an assumption on parenting skill or attentiveness from the spare facts in an article online when there are SO many other factors that come into play. 

Dear tumblr-

Do some fucking research before you catch a bad case of the verbal diarrhea that some of you are so fond of spewing.

-BB

someotherchick:

8 year old girl of color gets a humiliating award from her teacher.

lexmix:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

numbspeculum:

maikolin:

poinko:

seriouslyamerica:

ladyatheist:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

This is how children of color are treated in schools, people, especially brown children. How will this child trust teachers actually care about her again? Huh? Tell me that.

The teacher tried to brush this shit off and say it was “just a joke.” Yeah… because humiliating a child in a classroom full of her peers is just fucking hilarious. I’m willing to put money on the fact that she’d never do this shit to a nice little white child.

Motherfucking Arizona.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if she had turned her homework in, she wouldn’t have received this award.

I think that teacher needs a Medal! or some Award! LOL some kids are fucking spoiled! black, white, brown whatever! they need some motivation to snap out of it!

I love how everyone is getting all butt hurt, and making it about race, poor little ethnic girl. End result, had the mother helped the little demon do her homework & she actually did what was required there wouldn’t be an issue. Hell it’s creative punishment if you ask me, it’s no different than being forced to wear the “dunce” hat back in the day.

more for the collection

SERIOUSLY?

an EIGHT year old girl??

are you fucking kidding me with this shit

you know that teacher would’ve been fucking fired if that girl was white

UGH.  There are horror stories that my friend’s mom could tell you—that she’s told me.  *shudder*  

They will start a fucking riot if there kid doesn’t get the grade they deserve, regardless of whether or not the child deserves it.  And often, they’ll get it just because the administration is fed up with hearing them whine and complain and disrupt the working environment.  

Granted, my friend’s mom is white and didn’t mention the race of the complainers, but…  Do you really have to ask? 

(Source: crackerhell)

vanguardstar:

“I call myself a Chicana writer. Not a Mexican-American writer, not a Hispanic writer, not a half-breed writer. To be a Chicana is not merely to name one’s racial/cultural identity, but also to name a politic, a politic that refuses assimilation into the US mainstream. It acknowledges our mestizaje: Indian, Spanish, and africano. After a decade of “hispanicization” (a term super-imposed upon us by Reagan-era bureaucrats), the term “Chicano” assumes even greater radicalism. With the misnomer “Hispanic,” Anglo American proffers to the Spanish surnamed the illusion of blending into the “melting pot” like any other white immigrant group. But the Latino is neither wholly immigrant nor wholly white; and here in this country, “Indian” and “dark” don’t melt. (Puerto Ricans on the East Coast have been called “Spanish” for decades and it’s done little to alter their status on the streets of NYC.”

-Cherríe Moraga, “Art in América con Acento” (1993)

Malenky, is this what you meant?

redlightpolitics:

clownyprincess:

The below is a transcript of a speech given at Melbourne Slutwalk this year on the 28th May. This speech was given by a transgender man who was assigned female at birth and socialised as female before asserting his true identity as a man. He was raped both when society perceived him as female and after his transition. 

The amazing, powerful & wonderful testimony he gave as one of five awesome speeches prior to the march itself was considered by many to be the highlight of the event.  Even a nearby policeman was spotted crying as he listened to this story!

I am proud to know this man and call him my friend. He has given his permission to me to share his speech on tumblr. We encourage you all to reblog and share it further.

He has, however, asked that his name not be attached to this post.

(Trigger warning for discussion of rape and assault)

I just want to make it clear that I am here on behalf of myself only. I do not represent anyone but myself and my words are all my own. Public speaking is not something I’ve done before so please understand if I don’t seem confident in my speech as I never actually feel safe in public.

Firstly I’d like to state that I chose to speak today as a masculine voice because I think it’s important that all voices are heard. 

I speak as a transman, 

as someone who was socialized as female, 

as someone who accesses masculine privilege (amongst many other privileges), 

as a survivor of sexual-assault 

and 

as a survivor of victim-blaming.

I’d also like to state that my views of female socialization are incredibly strong throughout this speech and that I recognize that women are not the only people subject to sexual-assault.

This is a trigger warning:

I am going to be talking about sexual-assault that I have experienced. I will not be going into detail about the attacks but I am going to be using the word “rape” as it is very important to me to use it’s strength to keep myself strong.

I have been sexually assaulted both as a female and since finding myself, as a trans man. It has taken me years to stop blaming myself and sometimes I still find myself doing so. I struggle a lot with the fact that as a woman, I felt too unsafe to report my rape to authorities but somehow felt safer to do so as a transgender person. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I felt this way and I’d like to share some of my thoughts.

I never knew what it felt like to be a woman, even before I knew I was a man.

When I was still in the closet about my gender, I was taking all my pointers from society. I knew I had to reach someone’s expectation of femininity and tick someone’s box to be a “real female”. These boxes I thought I had to tick were as simple as past-fashioned stereo-types “girls have long hair”, “girls wear dresses” etc and as relatively complex (for a young teen) as “if my sexual partner is a female and I am a female then I have to identify as a lesbian…unless of course we invite a boy into the picture, which makes me bi”.

What I never realized when I was trying so hard to be female is that I was actually doing what far too many people do and not questioning WHY I had to do these things and who’s ideas or expectations I was attempting to live up to.

Since knowing that I am trans and learning more about my rights, since stepping away from being female, since stepping into the privilege of being read as male, I have been able to see SO clearly just how much I was blaming myself for everything. The guilt I had when I was trying to live as female was overwhelming and it makes me feel SO sick to my stomach to think that there are still people existing and living every day with this unwarranted guilt over their heads.

I’d spent far too many years blaming myself for my own rapes. For my state of intoxication at the time, for what I was wearing, for how I was behaving, for how I was dancing and who I was dancing with. For choosing to spend my last $20 on booze instead of a cab and therefore having to walk home. For not being physically strong enough to keep the rapists off me and for even leaving my home in the first place.

For hundreds of years, women have been socialized to feel responsible for everything. 

To feel responsible for everything negative. 

To feel negative for feeling.

There is so much self-doubt slammed into women by society that even if other people aren’t blaming them, survivors will be blaming themselves.

Within the last six months, I opened up to my mother about an assault I had lived through. Her initial reaction was something like “WHO DID THIS TO YOU? I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL THEM” but within what could not have been more than five minutes, her headspace had shifted to “When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Don’t I support you enough? I’m a terrible mother. How could I let this happen to you?”

We were two hysterical beings filled with rage, sitting in our pjs and bawling our eyes out. I wasn’t crying about my rape. I was crying that my mother was blaming herself.

After holding her and comforting her until she was able to hold herself, I was left feeling guilty. I felt guilty for making my mother cry. I felt guilty for not being able to support her more. I felt guilty for not being able to convince her it wasn’t her fault. Then I felt cold. Why was I comforting someone else because they were upset that *I* was raped? Where was my comfort? Then another rush of guilt came. It was my fault my mother knew I’d been raped. It was my fault she was crying. It was horrible of me to want more comfort. I felt guilty for needing to be held.

I wish so much that years ago, someone had have told me that my rape was not my fault.

I URGE PEOPLE:

If anyone has ever been brave enough to share with you information about being assaulted. LET THEM KNOW IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT. If you are standing near someone who is OUT about being a SURVIVOR, tell them: IT IS NOT, WAS NOT AND WILL NEVER BE THEIR FAULT.

**

Since living as male, in queer and feminist communities as well as the huge world outside of my privileged bubble, I have had hardly anything aimed at me to feel that ANYTHING is my responsibility. I am sick of women’s voices being the only voices speaking up against rape. I am sick of SURVIVORS’ voices being the only voices speaking up against rape.

It is not the responsibility of survivors to educate everyone else on rape.

Same as it is not women’s responsibility to educate people on sexism; it is not the responsibility of People Of Colour to educate naive white people on racism. It is not the responsibility of people with different ability to educate people on Ableism. And it is not the responsibility of trans* people to educate cis people on trans* issues.

If you come from a place of privilege, it is your responsibility to recognize that, educate yourself and educate OTHERS.

I have walked down a dark main road, after midnight both as a woman and as a man. There is a REASON a lone woman will cross the street to AVOID me.

DUDES, MEN, MALES, FELLAS, GUYS: I can not say this enough, it is YOUR responsibility to educate yourself on rape. It is YOUR responsibility to educate your friends on rape. It is your responsibility, just for accessing your privilege, to use it the best way you can.

If you believe in women’s rights. If you believe in feminism. If you believe women and men should be equal. Then I dare you to doubt yourself, I dare you to strip yourself of all your safety, I dare you to wear clothes that society will scrutinize you for. Wear something that will get you attacked. THEN recognize that there is nothing a woman can wear that WON’T get her attacked.

I don’t know what else there is I feel I can say. I’m exhausted. Thank you so much for your time and thanks Clem for giving me the opportunity to speak today.

I’m going to leave this unfinished because this dialogue should only stop when rape stops.

Thanks.

I have nothing to add to this beautiful speech. Only to thank Clownyprincess for sharing it with us.

iamthespacecadet:

cognitivedissonance:

Via: Medical Billing and Coding

There is a lot of good information on here. The one thing I wouldn’t necessarily agree on changing is Doctor’s salaries; one of the reasons they’re higher here is because it’s more expensive to attend the necessary amount of University in the states than it is in a lot of other countries.

Of course this also means that most doctors come from more privileged families and, well, deadly cycle I guess.

Well, yeah, the American education system is severely messed up as well (not only with how and what we teach, but how expensive post-high-school education is). All the messed up systems in our country (and around the world, because globalization!) just perpetuate each other and intensify the problems. :/

(Source: viralms.com)