Tell Me Something Good

caterpillarsend: The Summit.

Thu, 23 May 2013 23:44:28 -0400

caterpillarsend:

The Summit.

mpdrolet: Jimi Hendrix, NYC, 1968 Elliott Landy

Thu, 23 May 2013 20:01:39 -0400

mpdrolet:

Jimi Hendrix, NYC, 1968

Elliott Landy

Yesterday was the 57th anniversary of the arrest of Rosa Parks....

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:47:30 -0400

Yesterday was the 57th anniversary of the arrest of Rosa Parks. 57 years ago Rosa refused to move from her seat to the back of the bus.

It was only 57 years ago that it was legal to tell someone just because of their skin color they had to give up their seat. Discrimination like this was widely accepted, it took one brave person to stand up and fight it.

Yesterday President Obama visited the bus Rosa Parks was arrested in. It’s a powerful photo.

Don’t forget the recent past.

acousticbrainwaves: This is the most accurate depiction of my...

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:35:47 -0400

acousticbrainwaves:

This is the most accurate depiction of my love life ever.

Yes.

the-psalmist: niggaimdeadass: theuppitynegras: iamthegarebear:...

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:32:57 -0400

the-psalmist:

niggaimdeadass:

theuppitynegras:

iamthegarebear:

ghdos:

thefoxxypoet:

odinsblog:

A Bronx bus company is offering tours billed as a “a ride through a real New York City ‘GHETTO,’” the New York Post reports.

The company, Real Bronx Tours, has taken largely white foreign tourists around the Bronx. The tour guide was caught mocking the Bronx by Post reporter Candice Giove.

Three times a week, Real Bronx Tours takes riders — mainly white Europeans and Australians — on a trip that includes stops at food-pantry lines and a “pickpocket” park.

“Last week, on the first stop of the $45 tour, guide Lynn Battaglia, from Pittsburgh, pointed out a housing project. She then mocked the Grand Concourse, modeled after a Parisian boulevard,” reports Giove.“‘Do you feel like we’re on the Champs-Elysées?’ she teased a couple from Paris.”

The tour also included a drive near a food pantry at a church. Battaglia wondered out loud, “I don’t know what that line’s about, but every Wednesday we see it. We see them go in with empty carts, and we see them come out with carts full.

The tour guide warned of the dangers of going to a park in the Bronx and also gave inaccurate information about the origin of the word “pig” to describe a police officer. While Battaglia claimed the word came from the Bronx, in reality it originated in London.

The Bronx borough president harshly criticized the guide and the tour.

The guide is “the biggest fool on the planet,” said Ruben Diaz, the borough president. “To have foreigners come and gawk at a long line of people who are less fortunate than they are and to make money off of that and to view them as they are some sort of entertainment is pretty disgusting.” [emphasis mine]

This is a total diss to my hometown. Ugh the Bronx is many things, but there is beauty there…and I’m happy I spent a good chunk of my childhood there.

It’s irritating to see these dumb ass tourists come to my city and mock it for their enjoyment and someone is getting paid to be a racist/classist asshole.

They’re taking a tour of the projects like it’s a zoo. Like it’s a fucking exhibit. SMH.

Like, i know yall mad and shit but this aint no worse than what Americans do in other countries. In fact, we are notorious worldwide for this same kinda act happening in other countries. But i see yall wanna get offended when shit hits home right? Granted the tour guide sounds like an idiot, the whole concept isnt anything new and Americans are the biggest perpetrators.

can somebody please explain to me why I’m supposed to not hate the whites again?

is this real???

this has to be fake

Someone please tell me this is fake. Please. Smdh

It reminds of a time during slavery where white men and women would pay cents to see sexual parts of African men and women like they were animals.

"What I hate is ignorance, smallness of imagination, the eye that sees no farther than its own..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:33:17 -0400

“What I hate is ignorance, smallness of imagination, the eye that sees no farther than its own lashes. All things are possible.. Who you are is limited only by who you think you are.”

- Egyptian Book of the Dead (via de-licacy)

memento-morix: Am I the only one not okay with the new show Teen Titans Go?

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:30:52 -0400

memento-morix:

Am I the only one not okay with the new show Teen Titans Go?

yupyaki4life: Beyoncé hugs a young fan during Halo in...

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:17:14 -0400

yupyaki4life:

Beyoncé hugs a young fan during Halo in Antwerp (x)

That child is tryna enter Beyonce’s womb and be baby #2. I approve

swagandpassion: shortformblog: thisistheverge: Yahoo...

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:52:07 -0400

swagandpassion:

shortformblog:

thisistheverge:

Yahoo reportedly eyeing Tumblr for possible $1 billion acquisition

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Yahoo?? To put ads everywhere?

unhistorical: “…the Black Panther Party, without question,...

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:36:53 -0400

unhistorical:

“…the Black Panther Party, without question, represents the greatest threat to internal security of the country.”

— J. Edgar Hoover, 1969

October 15, 1966: The Black Panther Party is founded in Oakland.

The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense; the purpose of the party, as outlined in its “Ten Point Program”, was to attain “land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace” for local communities. Initially a small-scale effort, the Black Panthers spread to other major urban centers within a few years, and some of their “survival programs”, like Free Breakfast for Children, were smashing successes. It was not as a whole a black nationalist group (at least not after 1968), despite its close affiliation with Stokely Carmichael; instead, the Black Panthers advocated for a more inclusive “revolutionary internationalist movement” and some chapters allied themselves with the White Panther Party, the the Puerto Rican Young Lords, the Mexican-American Brown Berets, and the Young Patriots Organization. One of the leaders of its Berkeley chapter was Richard Aoki, a Japanese-American. Influenced by Mao Zedong’s teachings, Huey Newton called upon his organization to, above all, “serve the people”.

Still, the Black Panthers drew criticism for the sometimes openly violent tactics of some of their members (stances on certain issues were obviously not uniform throughout the Party, but militancy was a theme common to every chapter). Huey Newton himself was arrested for the murder of an Oakland police officer, and he was also accused of (and later admitted to) killing a prostitute and assaulting his tailor. In one particularly notorious incident, a nineteen-year-old member and suspected police informant named Alex Rackley was tortured with scalding water and then murdered, supposedly on Bobby Seale’s direct orders. It was because of incidents like this, plus reports of drug dealing and extortion, that the Black Panther Party went into decline and was eventually dissolved in 1982.

Other links: on COINTELPRO, the FBI’s project dedicated to dealing with certain domestic political organizations, including “Black Nationalist Hate Groups”.

ohdwaynewayne: Y’all act like pussy works on a “now or never” basis. The minute you start putting...

Wed, 15 May 2013 02:00:53 -0400

ohdwaynewayne:

Y’all act like pussy works on a “now or never” basis.

The minute you start putting ultimatums on your pussy, niggas start asking a fundamental question:

“Is it really that serious?”

thepeoplesrecord: FBI billboards not about Assata Shakur; it’s...

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:39:53 -0400

thepeoplesrecord:

FBI billboards not about Assata Shakur; it’s about repressing the black community
May 5, 2013

Following the ludicrous announcement that the Obama administration has placed Assata Shakur on its “most wanted terrorist list”, the FBI has erected billboards in Newark, New Jersey announcing its recently increased $2 million dollar reward. However, any critically thinking person knows that these billboards are not about capturing Assata Shakur but sending a message to the rest of us. Interestingly, perhaps just a coincidence or not, Newark, New Jersey is the place where a theater co-owned by Shaquille O’Neil, recently reneged on an agreement to show a popular independent film about the life of another former member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Is Assata Shakur in New Jersey? No, she is not and the FBI and the Obama administration know exactly where she is, in Cuba where she has lived since being granted political asylum by its government in 1979 after escaping from prison.

This is not about Assata Shakur, it is about sending a message to the Black community and those that live within it who stand up to police violence, oppression and murder of residents, one of the very reasons for the formation of the Black Panthers. It is about the political repression of those who advocate on the behalf of the many political prisons being held by the United States government often in torturous conditions. It is about sending a message to anyone who would take up arms in defense of life, liberty and true freedom in a country that is home to the largest prison population in the world which the federal government and various corporations use as slave labor. It is about sending a message to those that would dare stand up and point out that the US government is the most violent entity on the planet and one that commits acts of terrorism against non-white people and nations on behalf of maintaining the American imperialist status-quo.

Why else would the U.S. government seek to name Assata Shakur as a domestic terrorist after all these decades? We are talking about a woman who was shot twice while attempting to give herself up to police who were co-operating with Federal authorities to target and assassinate or otherwise eliminate members of the Black Liberation movement just as they had done and admitted in a civil lawsuit to doing to Martin Luther King Jr.

The FBI and its corporate media wing fail to report the details of the sham case built against Assata Shakur after failing to win convictions on other trump up charges. The corporate media is failing to point out that a police officer, a state witness against Assata Shakur for the murder of another police officer, has recanted his testimony and admitted to lying on the stand. Medical personnel stated that because of nerves severed by a bullet, Assata Shakur would have been physically prevented from firing a weapon and it was also stated that her wounds indicate her hands were raised when she was shot consistent with her claim that she was giving herself up.

Just as Assata Shakur has pointed out that COINTELPRO utilized and received full cooperation from the corporate media to demonize and alienate freedom fighters from the people who supported them, corporate media today is still fulfilling that role. The concept of a free and independent press in America has always been a fraud and it remains so today.

Source

Read more about Assata Shakur & find a link to her autobiography here.

How ‘Slut Shaming’ Has Been Written Into School Dress Codes Across The Country

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:38:31 -0400

How ‘Slut Shaming’ Has Been Written Into School Dress Codes Across The Country:

Last month, a New Jersey middle school banned girls from wearing strapless dresses to prom. Administrators claimed that the dresses were “distracting” — though they refused to specify exactly how or why. Parents reacted strongly to the rule; some supported the dress code while others deemed it “slut-shaming.” On Friday, the school compromised by allowing girls to wear single-strap or see-through-strap dresses.

This is no isolated incident in the United States. Across the country, young girls are being told what not to wear because it might be a “distraction” for boys, or because adults decide it makes them look “inappropriate.” At its core, every incident has a common thread: Putting the onus on young women to prevent from being ogled or objectified, instead of teaching those responsible to learn to respect a woman’s body. Here are five other recent examples:

1. A middle school in California banned tight pants. At the beginning of last month, a middle school in Northern California began telling girls to avoid wearing pants that are “too tight” because it “distracts the boys.” At a mandatory assembly for just the female students, the middle school girls were told that they’re no longer allowed to wear leggings or yoga pants. “We didn’t think it was fair how we have all these restrictions on our clothing while boys didn’t have to sit through [the assembly] at all,” one student told local press. Some parents also complained, leading the school’s assistant principal to record a voicemail explaining the new policy. “The guiding principle in all dress codes is that the manner in which students dress does not become a distraction in the learning environment,” the message said.

2. A high school principal in Minnesota emailed parents to ask them to cover up their daughters. A principal in Minnetonka, MN recently wrote an email telling parents to stop letting their daughters wear leggings or yoga pants to school. He says the tight-fitting pants are fine with longer shirts but, when worn with a shorter top, a girl’s “backside” can be “too closely defined.” The big risk of having a defined backside, he thinks, is that it can “be highly distracting for other students.”

3. Two girls in Ohio were turned away from their prom for being “improperly dressed.” Laneisha Williams and Nyasia Mitchell were barred from prom this spring for wearing dresses that administrators considered “too revealing.” The girls say that they didn’t believe they were violating a dress code that said dresses couldn’t be too short or show too much cleavage. But one administrator told local news that the high school girls were only allowed to wear dresses that had “no curvature of their breasts showing.”

4. A kindergarten student in Georgia was forced to change her “short” skirt because it was a “distraction to other students.” It’s hard to imagine that a kindergartener’s outfit could be “a distraction to other students,” but a mother in Georgia told locals news there that her daughter had been outfitted in someone else’s pants — without parental permission — after the principal deemed the skirt the young girl was wearing too short.” The girl had apparently wore the skirt, and accompanying leggings, just one week before without incident.

5. Forty high school girls were sent home from a winter dance in California after “degrading” clothing inspections “bordering on sexual harassment.” A school board member’s daughter was among the 40 girls turned away from Capistrano Valley High’s February dance for wearing dresses that either exposed their midriffs or were cut too low. Before the dance, girls were apparently required to flap their arms up and down and turn around for male administrators’ inspection. The school issues image guidelines for appropriate dress on its website — though the images were nearly all of women, and the only male image depicted proper attire. One girl alleges that the principal told her, “Not all dresses look good on certain body shapes.” A grandmother of one of the girls who was turned away from the dance also said that a teacher remarked about her granddaughter, “What mother would allow her daughter to wear a dress like that?” Apparently the school did receive some praise, though, from the parents of two male students.

When most Americans think about “rape culture,” they may think about the Steubenville boys’ defense arguing that an unconscious girl consented to her sexual assault because she “didn’t say no,” the school administrators who choose to protect their star athletes over those boys’ rape victims, or the bullying that led multiple victims of sexual assault to take their own lives. While those incidences of victim-blaming are certainly symptoms of a deeply-rooted rape culture in this country, they’re not the only examples of this dynamic at play. Rape culture is also evident in the attitudes that lead school administrators to treat young girls’ bodies as inherently “distracting” to the boys who simply can’t control themselves. That approach to gender roles simply encourages our youth to assume that sexual crimes must have something to do with women’s “suggestive” clothes or behavior, rather than teaching them that every individual is responsible for respecting others’ bodily autonomy.

brianmichaelbendis: Donald Glover talking about the comments he...

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:42:14 -0400

brianmichaelbendis:

Donald Glover talking about the comments he received during his campaign to be the next Spider-Man.

“Untitled” by Nick Knight [x]

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:38:06 -0400

“Untitled” by Nick Knight [x]

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do."

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:34:13 -0400

“As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do.”

- Andrew Carnegie (via erosboros)

afrosinspace: starsails: afrosinspace: slay-z: cleophatrajone...

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:17:18 -0400

afrosinspace:

starsails:

afrosinspace:

slay-z:

cleophatrajones:

teetothaizzy:

hueywasright:

kingerock288:

monieinthamiddle:

2damnfeisty:

Tell them why you mad gurl!

Melinda Brown Duncan EXPLODES To News Reporter.

MELINDA! BROWN! DUNCAN! BAYBEH!

She told it like it is though, that’s some real shit.

Tell ‘em! Truuuuuuu.

MELINDA BROWN DUNCAN FOR THE WIN!!!!

This is officially my favorite post and my favorite person

AS SOMEONE FROM DETROIT SHE RIGHT THO.

All the racist fucks leaving comments. God the internet is a cesspool for stupidity.

All the comments are from Black PoC from what I’ve seen [looking at all the notes].

YEEEES

benotdeceived: lifesentences: xoselexo: This is just too...

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:13:32 -0400

benotdeceived:

lifesentences:

xoselexo:

This is just too cute!!

Saw this video and it brings a smile.

**Also for those who don’t know, the boy is visually impaired & that’s why he moves his head like that. :)

SING!!

Awww! ^_^

"I am learning to stop referring to evil as darkness…. Being of dark people, what am I saying about..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:04:00 -0400

“I am learning to stop referring to evil as darkness…. Being of dark people, what am I saying about myself if anything evil as dark.”

- Just a Thought of Mine

"25 Things To Do Before You Turn 25 1. Make peace with your parents. Whether you finally recognize..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:01:15 -0400

“

25 Things To Do Before You Turn 25

1. Make peace with your parents. Whether you finally recognize that they actually have your best interests in mind or you forgive them for being flawed human beings, you can’t happily enter adulthood with that familial brand of resentment.

2. Kiss someone you think is out of your league; kiss models and med students and entrepreneurs with part-time lives in Dubai and don’t worry about if they’re going to call you afterward.

3. Minimize your passivity.

4. Work a service job to gain some understanding of how tipping works, how to keep your cool around assholes, how a few kind words can change someone’s day.

5. Recognize freedom as a 5:30 a.m. trip to the diner with a bunch of strangers you’ve just met.

6. Try not to beat yourself up over having obtained a ‘useless’ Bachelor’s Degree. Debt is hell, and things didn’t pan out quite like you expected, but you did get to go to college, and having a degree isn’t the worst thing in the world to have. We will figure this mess out, I think, probably; the point is you’re not worth less just because there hasn’t been an immediate pay off for going to school. Be patient, work with what you have, and remember that a lot of us are in this together.

7. If you’re employed in any capacity, open a savings account. You never know when you might be unemployed or in desperate need of getting away for a few days. Even $10 a week is $520 more a year than you would’ve had otherwise.

8. Make a habit of going outside, enjoying the light, relearning your friends, forgetting the internet.

9. Go on a 4-day, brunch-fueled bender.

10. Start a relationship with your crush by telling them that you want them. Directly. Like, look them in the face and say it to them. Say, I want you. I want to be with you.

11. Learn to say ‘no’ — to yourself. Don’t keep wearing high heels if you hate them; don’t keep smoking if you’re disgusted by the way you smell the morning after; stop wasting entire days on your couch if you’re going to complain about missing the sun.

12. Take time to revisit the places that made you who you are: the apartment you grew up in, your middle school, your hometown. These places may or may not be here forever; you definitely won’t be.

13. Find a hobby that makes being alone feel lovely and empowering and like something to look forward to.

14. Think you know yourself until you meet someone better than you.

15. Forget who you are, what your priorities are, and how a person should be.

16. Identify your fears and instead of letting them dictate your every move, find and talk to people who have overcome them. Don’t settle for experiencing .000002% of what the world has to offer because you’re afraid of getting on a plane.

17. Make a habit of cleaning up and letting go. Just because it fit at one point doesn’t mean you need to keep it forever — whether ‘it’ is your favorite pair of pants or your ex.

18. Stop hating yourself.

19. Go out and watch that movie, read that book, listen to that band you already lied about watching, reading, listening to.

20. Take advantage of health insurance while you have it.

21. Make a habit of telling people how you feel, whether it means writing a gushing fan-girl email to someone whose work you love or telling your boss why you deserve a raise.

22. Date someone who says, “I love you” first.

23. Leave the country under the premise of “finding yourself.” This will be unsuccessful. Places do not change people. Instead, do a lot of solo drinking, read a lot of books, have sex in dirty hostels, and come home when you start to miss it.

24. Suck it up and buy a Macbook Pro.

25. Quit that job that’s making you miserable, end the relationship that makes you act like a lunatic, lose the friend whose sole purpose in life is making you feel like you’re perpetually on the verge of vomiting. You’re young, you’re resilient, there are other jobs and relationships and friends if you’re patient and open.

”

- Unknown (via jumpingonair)