B

i want to experience driving a fancy sports car down a big open road, the top down and the wind blowing in my hair. i don’t want a garage of 20 sports cars that i never touch.

i want a nice, comfortable, tastefully decorated house that’s big enough for me, my family, my pets, my hobbies, and any friends i might want to invite over. i don’t want a megmansion with more space than i could ever possibly use, that i only own because i want my house to be bigger than someone else’s house.

i want to experience eating the best steak dinner that the culinary world can offer. i don’t want to eat gold, which has literally no flavor, just because i can.

i want to travel to different cities around the world, see beautiful places, experience different cultures, and meet interesting people. i don’t want to buy up swathes of land and push natives out so i can build my twelfth house in hawaii or greece or somewhere else i’ll barely ever visit.

i want to dress in nice, well-made clothes that represent my style and make me feel good about myself. i don’t want to carry a thirty thousand dollar handbag or rolex watch just because it costs thirty thousand dollars.

i want to be able to give my friends gifts, i want to be able to invest in causes that i believe in, i want to be able to buy myself things like books, art, electronics, theater tickets, and nice food without having to worry about how much it costs. i don’t want to buy elections or shoot myself into space.

the average person’s concept of luxury is so far removed from the hyperwealthy’s everyday life that the distance cannot even be measured in ways that we can comprehend.

“Boss made a dollar Granddad made a dime But that was a poem From a simpler time.

Boss made a thousand Gave pa a cent But that penny paid the mortgage Or at least it paid the rent

Image ID: the image in the original post is a screenshot of text that says “2. 🥺 if you use this emoji around me I will refuse to interact. It’s cringe and it makes me think you’re acting a child and that is not attractive or appealing at all. DNI”

the image in this reblog is a photo of a sign that originally said “DON’T AWOO $350 PENALTY” which has been edited to say “DON’T 🥺 $350 PENALTY”

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

[Brief clip from a previous video, which has the caption “When I have to send my husband to the store.” A white person is writing a shopping list. As well as listing the items and quantities, they are including what aisle each item can be found on, how much it costs and a painstakingly made little sticker showing exactly what it looks like.]

[The main video starts. A black person with glasses is standing in a bathroom, holding a toothbrush, talking to the camera.]

So that is a video of a woman, like, literally piece-by-piece word-for-wording what her husband’s trip to the grocery store for their household is going to be.

And I saw another creator stitch this video, talking about – I mean, they had a really dope word for it, and I can’t remember it right now, but it’s about performed incompetence and how, actually, what this husband is doing is exaggerating their own incompetence and exaggerating their own incapability, to force the labor that they don’t want to do (this husband) onto their partner, right – that their wife will hopefully be like, “oh my gosh, it’s just easier for me to do it myself so I’m going to do it myself, you’re good.” And now they’re absolved of the need to, like, contribute to the household.

So, actually, that performance of incompetence is an investment that that husband is making for his future self, if you know what I mean? It is like a patriarchal investment. And it’s two-pronged, right? One, you don’t have to do the thing that you don’t want to do, which is go to the grocery store, but two, you’ve set the expectations for your own capabilities so low that whatever you end up doing is incredible.

So now I’m going to do my favorite thing, which is to make it about race. And I’m actually going to say that in a parallel sense – like, that is a patriarchal investment that the husband is making into his future self, but I think that, actually, in the same way, mediocrity is a gift that whiteness gives to its own future.

You know what I’m saying? That whiteness performing mediocrity sets the bar so low that the generations that will eventually inherit the legacies of whiteness can do anything and feel entitled to, like, riches and fortune, right?

And we also accept that performance of incompetence, that performance of mediocrity, and then accept the bare minimum from whatever white person or whatever beneficiary of whiteness comes along and does [pinches fingers together] juuuuuuust more than we would expect from them.

And I think that, because of anti-blackness, it’s the opposite for black people. Right? Like, to escape the violence of whiteness you have to perform such excellence, and inherently the bar is constantly getting higher and higher, until you have all these superhuman black people who are just getting by.

also from the article: it is estimated that 29 mobility devices are destroyed or damaged EVERY DAY. and I’m going to assume those are only the ones that are REPORTED.

Image Description: Tweets by Maria Town, with a link to a different article from Domestic Employers organization, with the preview image being a photo of Engracia Figueroa - a smiling black woman with dark brown skin and coily black and grey hair. The tweets say the following, “ “Engracia Figueroa, a fierce advocate for people with disabilities, passed away on Sunday due to complications from injuries she sustained when United Airlines destroyed her custom wheelchair last July.” #FlyingWhileDisabled #Disability https://domesticemployers.org/hand-in-hand-grieves-the-loss-of-engracia-figueroa United broke Engracia’s wheelchair and refused to replace it. The loaner chair the airlines provided to Engracia did not support her properly. Her skin broke down, became infected, and she died. 2/3 How many hospitalizations and deaths have resulted from airlines inaction and indifference to this issue? Thank you@HiHemployers for your advocacy and for sharing this tribute. Rest In Peace and Power, Engracia. You deserved so much more. 3/3” End of Image Description

Image Description: Screenshots from the News Week article by Toria Branhart and the Domestic Employers Org article by Blithe Riley, about the passing of Engracia Figueroa. A photo of Engracia Figueroa, a black woman in a custom motorized wheelchair, and an accompanying member of the “Hand in Hand” activist group and home care worker organization, Christine Laing, a black woman wearing a mask. Engracia is shown speaking in the “Care Can’t Wait” rally in Washington D.C. from July 2021, at the podium. A quote. “"Mobility devices are an extension of our bodies. When they are damaged or destroyed, we become re-disabled. Until the airlines learn how to treat our devices with the care and respect they deserve, flying remains inaccessible,” the activist said in an interview after the incident.“ “All of us at Hand in Hand are heartbroken, shocked and enraged by Engracia’s needless death. This loss should never have happened. While we are reeling from the layers of injustice this tragedy makes visible, we are holding Engracia’s tenacity and resolve as our guidepost. Lives are at stake in the work that we do, and our current ableist and racist system continues to fail our communities time and time again. We cannot and will not stand by and let these systems of oppression prevail. We demand that United Airlines end the damage of wheelchairs and assistive devices on its flights and create an accessible process for people with disabilities to travel safely, with dignity. Sign and share our petition here.  Please note: this statement was updated 11/5 after Hand in Hand received more details from Engracia’s lawyer about the extent of her injuries.” End of Image Description

So in full: Engracia Figueroa was a black disabled working class woman, as well as a worker and disability activist. She died 4 months after her custom motorized wheelchair was destroyed by United Airlines directly after she came back from Washington D.C., where she attended an activist rally where she demanded better conditions for Home Care workers and disabled people.

The broken $30,000 custom motorized wheelchair was a fire hazard and basically unusable. The wheelchair was necessary for her survival, well-being, independence, and ability to work.

Forced to use it while broken in the 5 hours waiting at the airport, resulted in her hospitalization. “Hand in Hand”, “Caring Across Generations”, “Care Can’t Wait Coalition”, their petition, their media campaign, and (later on) Senator Tammy Duckworth’s office demanded United Airlines take further responsibility. The campaign further highlighted the pervasive issues with airlines destroying mobility aids and other necessary devices.

However, by the time United Airlines agreed to replace the $30,000 wheelchair, Engracia succumbed to her worsened condition due to using an inadequate loaner chair they had previously provided in the time they refused to take full responsibility.

“Hand in Hand” organization points towards the unjustness of systemic both ableism and racism having a hand in her untimely death, and encourage people to sign their petition against United Airline’s damaging of assistive devices.

In my personal view (especially as a black disabled person myself), the intersections of ableism, racism, and classism must be acknowledged when discussing this situation.

We had so many queer kids that brought cishet friends and some of them didnt come out later, some of them really were cishet and that is fine.

They did no harm to the queer atmosphere and when someone new joined for the first time we gave them a little tour of the club and invited them to a one on one talk with one of the volunteers.

Ive had many of these conversations with teens at the ages of 12-19 and everyone calmed down when we told them there is no criteria to being there that this is a safe space and after a short explanation and some questions where many of them just blurted out their stories.

The non queer identifying people came for years either because they just met some friends from different places along the country and it was their usual hangout or because they really needed a safe space with no judgment in their lives.

Cishet people also need safe spaces where there are no gendered expectations of them and they can play with makeup and dresses and just be calm and learn about safe sexuality and consent.

Why in the world would you kick people who need safe spaces and benefit from them out???

Queer people seeing cishet people in queer spaces not acting weird and for once seeing the atmosphere is queer and the cis person has to adapt does marvels to one’s sense of how real it feels, how you could bring this safe space outside and this culture to other friends.

Introduce some of the stuff you learned to your friends and family maybe to some willing coworker idk.

When I was in college, I had a cishet friend who was Christian and quietly felt homosexuality was a sin. I never heard her say so out loud….

…..which is why it STUNNED me when last year, she admitted she felt that way in college. But, she said, spending time with me in what we called the LGBTQIA+ group, to support me through a time when I was on and off suicidal, she discovered that queer people were, well….people. Who just wanted to be allowed to live. That might sound like “wow, the bar was belowground and she was doing the limbo with Satan,” but you must understand: this was 2006 in a very tiny town. Our senator had just compared homosexuality to both bestiality and pedophilia and there was a concerted push going on to write “one man, one woman” into the Constitution. Allison’s position (“I feel a certain kind of way but I’m not going to say it aloud”) was actually KINDER than most of the people around me.

And just spending time in our spaces, being around queer people, she realized “hey, what I have been told my whole life is a lie. These people are just people. Telling terrible jokes, having cookouts, fighting for basic human dignity, arguing over whether or not face painting is an appropriate college activity. There is no difference between them and me.”

Without a welcome into queer spaces, Allison might still be part of a homophobic church. Instead she helped organize her town’s first Pride parade in 2019.

“The queer kids, whether they’re gay or straight, need to stick together.” — Tim Miller, gay performance artist

A show about an interracial disabled couple (that’s written well) is just as progressive as a show about two gay characters

A show with multiple well written POC characters, especially in leading roles, is progressive and should be part of the discussion

Representation has never only meant queer rep.

And I hate that so many of POC and disabled people see that shows and books that represent them, not get included or acknowledge in the discussion about representation.

Just because something doesn’t represent you, doesn’t mean it’s not representing someone else.

Yes queer rep is good, of course it is (I’m neither cis nor het) but I can not begin to understand how so many of you will just,,,ignore shows that represent POC and/or disabled people in a well written and positive way because it’s not what you are. Or tell us that when we mention them as good examples of rep that it’s not really representation.

Important update as we hit paper 70. 

- “juicy” is not a very scholarly word.

- It’s true and you should say it.

- lol. You had me in the first half, I’m not gunna lie.

- I think “dicelexea” is the most interesting spelling I’ve seen for “dyslexia” maybe ever.

- “shot off into oblivion” is not a very scholarly phrase

- NO

- why are you shouting at me

- I like it. But it’s a run-on sentence.

- Why would you hurt me like this. MLA format, please!

- How would you feel about becoming an English major?

- this is dangerously close to “throughout history”…but I will allow it.

- The song was actually written by Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman, who both had close family/friends who were diagnosed with fatal illnesses. McGraw heard it demo […]

- I’ll try not to take that personally.

- It’s true and you should say it. But perhaps say it in the active voice next time.

- yes cap

- no cap

- I know I tell y'all not to strive for perfection, but you have obtained it nonetheless with this, the most beautiful Works Cited I have ever had the privilege to behold.

- If you chose to use Shakespeare as a way of ingratiating yourself to me/my love of the bard…your devious plan is working.

- your proper use of semicolons is a beacon of hope in these trying times

- Othello is a play, not a novel.

- I also like to use periods for emphasis. In an academic paper, however, try to use punctuation for its intended stylistic purpose.

- NICE

- please excuse me while I cry