little crafts & resisting oppression

And that means no identity purity tests

I don't care how good your intentions are or how important your specific goal is. Requiring someone to tell you that they're queer to access a queer space means that everyone in that space has outed themselves to every other person there by showing up

Protect your community. Stop expecting people to tell you the ways in which they're vulnerable.

(Also no one gets to be the identity police, kill the cop in your head, etc. etc.)

Besides:

Pride is a protest, yes - and that means it would be foolish of us to make it harder for more people to come protest oppression with us!!

terrifying

how little I could do without it.

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

and still, nothing is not shameful. it is not immoral to struggle with self care. and it is also not pointless to keep trying. anything you can do, even if its wiping plaque off with a towel, is enough. it is good to take care of yourself however you can, even if it's just trying to muster the will to. reading this post is good, too.

I don't like minty toothpaste, so I buy bubblegum toothpaste and mouthwash for kids. Also, I have a small mouth so I get kids toothbrushes as well.

#you can't reconcile the feminist idea that men and women are equals with acting like they're different species

#the feminist idea that women are more than their reproductive systems with the one that womanhood is defined by a reproductive system

#the feminist idea that women don't need to adhere to arbitrary standards of femininity with the one that they do or they aren't women

#the feminist idea that women are allowed to have body hair and be tall or muscular with the one that they're to be scrutinized if they are

#the feminist idea that women as equals to men should be allowed to compete with them with the one that both must always be separated

#i can not consider terfism to be feminism in any fucking way

#and don't say 'no true scotsman' that's not it

#i don't consider feminists for the same reason i don't consider the democratic people's republic of korea a democracy #or nazism socialism. having feminist in their name does not mean their ideas are automatically feminist

#i've yet to meet a terf that actually cares about women more than about hating on trans folk

#there is no feminist belief that can come from someone who views women as vaginas with legs that are too frail to do anything men do

The police ruled it a suicide. The family and local community demanded an investigation. The police refused to change their ruling.

Muammar Qaddafi...just kidding!

My hero has always been John Lewis.

"When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time."

-- John Lewis, essay written shortly before his death on July 17, 2020.