queer. not confused.

Taylor Jones has an interesting analysis of scalar implicature and how people interpret Black Lives Matter:

Among the people I know who have good intentions, the reactions to Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter seem to be about what kind of context you put these utterances into. So my black friends are all claiming:

Black Lives Matter [too!]

…but some of my white friends are interpreting that as:

Black Lives Matter [more than others/white lives/your life!]

[Only] Black Lives Matter!

Already, there’s a fundamental misunderstanding here, which is exacerbated by the response:

All Lives Matter!

Often, I think they’re trying to respond to a perceived “black lives matter more than others” with “all lives matter equally!” But it’s missing the point because they’re having two different conversations. More importantly, given the context – black people being executed by agents of the state, with a complete disregard for due process – and it’s hard to understand why people leap immediately to the interpretation that there’s a “[more]” there.

The way most people use it, there’s a (silent) scalar implicature: Black Lives Matter [As Much As Others]. This does not make for a good chant, and is hard to fit on t-shirts, though. Note, though, that the most natural reading is not to assume “more than others,” without a context that would suggest that implicature. 

Read the whole thing

Another way I saw this phrased linguistically was in a tweet by mitcho: “Read a lot on focus today, but the best things I read are tweets about how #BlackLivesMatter is additive or verum focus, not exhaustive.” 

#WomenForWonderWoman

After the news of Frank Cho walking out on doing Wonder Woman variants broke, comics twitter started the #WomenForWonderWoman hashtag to suggest women they’d like to see do a variant cover for the series. Many other comics, such as Red Sonja and Codename Baboushka, have variants done by a featured female artist every month, so we think there’s plenty of room for DC to shine a spotlight on female comic creators for Wonder Woman’s 75th anniversary. 

One of the exciting discoveries made through the hashtag was Afu Richardson hinting at doing a Wonder Woman variant! Check out her work here.

Hateful as ever, the Westboro Baptist Church planned yesterday to protest the funeral of Christopher Leinonen, who died in the Orlando Pulse shooting. 

But the community was prepared; members of the Orlando Shakespeare Theater created literal angel wings out of linen for people to wear to keep Westboro members out. 

kissingqueens (via hysterical-confession)

Ruby Bridges was the first black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis in 1960.

This movie made me cry, I was so heart broken by how Ruby Bridges was treated! She was only 6, but was so strong. She is a very brave girl and she did not care what the white folks called her.

People are simply disgusting to minimize people by skin color!

Ruby Bridges in 2010 

“As Bridges describes it, “Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.“ Former United States Deputy Marshal Charles Burks later recalled, “She showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn’t whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we’re all very very proud of her.“ 

U.S. Marshals escorted Bridges to and from school

As soon as Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to teach Ruby and that was Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, and for over a year Henry taught her alone, “as if she were teaching a whole class.”

Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her; because of this, the U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower, who were overseeing her safety, allowed Ruby to eat only the food that she brought from home.

Another woman at the school put a black baby doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges Hall has said “scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us.” At her mother’s suggestion, Bridges began to pray on the way to school, which she found provided protection from the comments yelled at her on the daily walks.”

More info on Ruby Bridges on Wikipedia

THIS SHIT WAS ONLY 58 YEARS AGO. PEOPLE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS RACIST TERRORISM AND ACTS LIKE IT ARE STILL ALIVE, AND THEIR KIDS ARE IN THEIR 40′S AND 50′S.