Happy International Women’s Day! Or, not!

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. The day was first professed by the Socialist Party of America in 1909, the idea arising from women’s rights movements in industrializing nations around the turn of the last century. Its purpose is to celebrate the achievements of women throughout history, as well as engage in the ongoing struggle for gender equality.

March is also Women’s History Month. <-That is a website curated by the U.S. Library of Congress that showcases women’s battles and triumphs with interesting and informative stories, audio, video and still images.

If you are a dude and still reading this post: here, have a cookie. (I baked them myself.) That’s for seeing the word “women’s” and not immediately deciding to GTFO.

However, if you are a dude blogger, social media influencer, or a Big Willie with a platform of any kind? [Read more…]

It’s Day 26 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

URGENT REMINDER: The fundraiser for reopening the National Black Doll Museum ends February 28. If you are able to donate a few dollars please do, and either way, please share the fundraiser link as widely as you can. Many thanks! ☮️ -Iris.

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Closeup color photo of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson from the chest up, with her right hand raised, and smiling. She is wearing eyeglasses, a dark suit jacket over a cheetah print shirt, a string of white peals, and a gold band (the underside of a ring) is visible on her right middle finger.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
(image: Kevin Lamarque/AFP/Getty Images)

We are presently witnessing Black history being made, with President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. Some facts I have learned (from various sources):

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It’s Day 12 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

[CONTENT NOTE: descriptions of racist taunts and anti-LGBTQ+ vandalism; no anti-Black or anti-LGBTQi+ images]

You know, I never have to look far for content to post for Black History Month. Hell, I don’t even have to look at all: it’s in my news feeds, social media and email inbox every single day. And this is just as true when it’s not Black History Month. Sometimes the content is indescribably beautiful, deeply moving and inspiring (like yesterday), even within the context of the unfathomable Black struggle and pain surrounding it.

This is not one of those posts.

via lohud.com (bold emphasis mine, except headings and photo captions):

Racist taunts at Pearl River basketball game shock community, bring calls for action

Probe called for by Nyack superintendent into fan behavior Wednesday night. Legislator calls for disciplinary action against involved Pearl River students.

Thumbnail photo of Nancy Cutler, journalist, Rockland/Westchester Journal News

Nancy Cutler
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

Published 2:40pm ET Feb. 11, 2022 / Updated 5:03pm Feb. 11, 2022

Nyack’s varsity basketball team captain Harrison Jordan and teammate Kameron Kukielczak were on the court Wednesday night when they heard noises from the crowd. Fans in the Pearl River gym were making noises – monkey and ape noises – as a Black player readied to take a free-throw shot from the foul line.

“It happened three different times,” said Jordan, a senior. “You hear it but you don’t believe it.”

Kukielczak, a sophomore, said he anticipated a lively home crowd for Pearl River. But not that.

School superintendents in both Pearl River and Nyack have expressed outrage at the fans’ behavior at a varsity basketball Pirates home game.

Kameron Kukielczak and Harrison Jordan in garnet-colored track suits, at Nyack High School, Feb. 11, 2022Kameron Kukielczak [left] and Harrison Jordan at Nyack High School, Feb. 11, 2022
(image: Peter Carr/The Journal News)

Outrage alone, though, is not enough, school leaders in both districts have said.

No, it’s not. It’s a good place to start, though.

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It’s Day 6 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen. UPDATED.

Today we’re going to listen to Franchesca Ramsey ‘splain to a white dudebro why Black history is so important and deserves our attention and respect. This vid (for MTV) is short (3:21), and targeted perfectly for that a$$hole on your social media who whines about why there’s no white history month. Perhaps you can post it to their timeline before you block them?

via MTV Impact (youtube channel):

If you believe that @$$hole in your timeline is serious about learning and becoming a more-informed person, there are obviously much more in-depth resources that they should be seeking out themselves. And not, under any circumstances, asking a random Black person they do not know to do that work for them. You as a white person, however, can and should direct them to Black voices and Black media content to answer their (genuine?) questions and broaden their understanding of structural racism, white privilege and white supremacy.

IT IS THE LEAST WE CAN DO TO LESSEN THE BURDEN ON BLACK PEOPLE BY DOING MORE OF THIS WORK FOR OTHER WHITES.

This is a big part of why I am posting this series.

Here’s one good resource: the host of this very video, Franchesca Ramsey, has an excellent Twitter feed to follow for those who want to STFU and listen: @chescaleigh. And almost any online resource will direct you or link you to many, many more.

UPDATE:

Franchesca Ramsey’s Decoded series for MTV seems intentionally produced as 101-level, “non-threatening” infotainment targeted to MTV’s audience. Not that she doesn’t tackle very serious subjects in it: I’m speaking in terms of tone rather than content. Naturally, she received death threats and had to ratchet up her personal security at live events for engaging in anti-Black racist discourse even in the context of this light-handed and light-hearted approach. And she also received angry pushback from other activists whose criticism was that Decoded was too light-handed and light-hearted, as if there were no point in engaging MTV’s young audience with this work at a basic level.

Well, Franchesca is no basic bitch, people. She has social media platforms through which she discusses and engages with anti-Black racism at other levels that are anything but basic. That is why I recommended following her on Twitter @chescaleigh.

I have since stumbled across one such video post on Facebook she made in 2020. I urge those looking to take a deeper dive into their own anti-Black racism work to watch it. I apologize: I’m having trouble embedding the video here, so the best I can do is link to her FB post so you can view it there. Please do! Even if you find the information and concepts she discusses familiar to you already, think of it as a booster shot.

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Day 1 of Black History Month 2022 (Lori Teresa Yearwood) is here.
Day 2 of Black History Month 2022 (Mallence Bart-Williams) is here.
Day 3 of Black History Month 2022 (Emmett Till) is here.
Day 4 of Black History Month 2022 (A Tale of Two Citizens) is here.
Day 5 of Black History Month 2022 (Trayvon Martin) is here.

Hey, can we get some of that up in here?

[CONTENT NOTE: sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape and rape culture.)

You know, I have not been able to write about Afghanistan, and this is mainly because I have not been able to think coherently about Afghanistan.* See, I get flooded with All the Feelz, and flashbacks to the war crimes of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice regime, CIA black sites, serious debates at the highest levels of government and across mainstream media platforms about the pros, cons, legality and morality of torture FFS, and every single evil spawned from U.S. conservative war lovers** since the events of 9/11, which were traumatic enough for me thankyouverymuch, and right up to and including the suicide bombing at a Kabul airport gate today.

Nevertheless, I was struck by a sentence in this morning’s New York Times email briefing:

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