Son of a bitch: actually insulting his mother

Cocksucker: insulting gays

Asshole/dick: almost there but these are just body parts, albeit dirty ones

Pussy: insulting women

We’re tackling the REAL issues here!

Keep trying. It’s better than living with regrets.

If you think that this kid

or this kid

Is less black than these two

YOU are who I have a problem with. Let’s start with why. Why is the black kid with the scene hair less black than the ones with “swag”? Give me one good reason. The answer is, you can’t! At least, not without sounding like a racist. Here are the reasons I have previously heard

“Those kids act too white!” The FUCK does that mean? What is acting white? Is it wearing snake bites? Liking rock music? Breaking the mold? That’s all I hear when I see this excuse. You can’t act a certain race. That’s stereotyping and racist. You wouldn’t like it if someone said a white kid who listen to rap and dressed like the last two kids was acting black would you? I thought so

“They aren’t embracing their culture!” I don’t think you know what culture is. The bottom two aren’t embracing their culture either. They’re embracing a subculture, you dimwits. Like hipsters and geeks and shit. The heavy use of swears and bad grammar? That isn’t black culture, that’s a “gangsta”/hoodlum subculture. Same with the style of dress and music. That isn’t “black people music”, it’s called rap or hip hop. THe only culture you likely belong to, unless your family was somehow able to keep up traditions from slave times or you have immigrated from somewhere, is American. And either way, someone not ‘embracing’ their culture is not somehow kicked out of that race. If that was the case, everyone would have to take a course in their respective race’s culture before being considered that race.

Let me tell you something about black alternative/emo/goth/scene kids. A lot choose to represent themselves this way because of small disagreements they hold with the typical “black” culture. From being told that they can’t like school because they are acting white, to being told they are talking too proper. This alienation is a big problem. 

THERE’S NO FUCKING BLACK CULTURE

NONE. THERE IS NO CULTURAL ASPECTS THAT ALL BLACK PEOPLE SHARE, AND THERE NEVER WILL BE

If you actually read what I said, I said that those are subcultures, because that’s what they are. Just because the subculture is constantly associated with black people doesn’t make it part of black culture. Is swearing, improper grammar, heavy rap, and snap-backs part of the hoodlum/gansta subcuture? you bet your ass it is, Are all black people a part of or associated with that subculture? Hell no, and it’s racist as hell to consider that shit black culture.

I’m not “othering” myself by saying there are different subcultures, dumbass. I’m stating a fact. People usually are parts of a ton of different subcultures, but there is usually one that over shines the rest for people. I myself am part of different subcutures. We got the alternative crowd, I’m geeky, and I also could be considered a hippie (I’m straightedge, a vegetarian, and do things to bring awareness to environmental problems). My big one that shines is probably grundge, with geek being right behind it.

But where the HELL did I say that every black person who listens to rap and hip hop are ‘ganstas’? No fucking where. I said that that particular genre is associated with that subculture. Hell, my mom lisens to Tupac, and when she plays her CDs in the car, is says gangsta rap for the genre. Not even joking.

I don’t give a quarter of a fuck about what someone listens to or talks like. Why would I? I start to give fucks in quarters and halves and even whole, when people consider someones ethnicity to not count based on there interests. If you can’t understand that, that’s you. But considering most of my family belongs to that hoodlum/gangsta subculture, I don’t consider everyone who does certain things as awful. My mom had her labor induced so that my youngest sister could be born on Tupac’s birthday, and she also works at a call center with the most professional demeanor I’ve ever seen. My younger sister’s best friend is hood a hell, but shares favorite bands with me. I get that there is overlapping, I was bringing attention to the overall contempt for black kids who don’t have as much of a damn overlap.

To say there’s not a culture we share  buys into the vehicle of white supremacy that COMMODIFIES black culture in an attempt to distance ourselves from ownership of our own identities which is what YOU’RE struggling with.

Before whites began to dictate to us what “black” was black people WERE alternative culture; we weren’t popular culture; we were the outcasts; the original guitar players and strange dressers.

We share ancestory, but not traditions, beliefs, dances, and foods. Not globally. You don’t have anything in common with a Nigerian orphan past skin color. You guys aren’t sharing any Gods or traditional dances. You two don’t have similar holidays. Hell ,you most likely don’t share the same language! All black people are not grouped together. They will never be unless global segregation was to occur, and that would be really bad.

Black culture wasn’t considered alternative, black people were alientated! It was called segregation, and it sucked.

It lumps thousands of cultures, races, heritage and history under one fucking label.

do you know how diverse black culture is? It can differ dramatically country to country, state to state, and even city to city. Hell in London alone, there are vast groups of people with African origin. Who identify with so many different cultures. To name two, Somali British and British Caribbean differ so much in their cultural practice. It’s just plain offensive to group them under the same label.

Don’t get me started on Latin American.. walk from Mexico to Argentina and tell me they don’t deserve individual recognition..

Aboriginal Australians?

Hell I’ll even get started on white culture..

Yeah it’s diluted in the states because your history is only hundreds of years old.

But fucking hell as a Celtic British person with vast heritage which expands into such a beautiful culture of tribalism and brotherhood. Stunning music, and historical Significance, I am deeply offended myself when I am grouped under this guise that there is no such thing as white culture..

I went to download festival in June. We met so many different people from different backgrounds. I was at one point. A Cornishman, Sat around a fire with a Scot, a Nord, And an Icelandic fellow. And the Icelandic fella sung us a traditional lullaby from his heritage. And it was moving.

So fuck off with your master labels and macro approach to ethnicity.

Pick up a book, go meet people, travel. Because sitting at home making judgements about other people’s cultures, is no less racist. Just because you call yourself a “POC”.

Equity is having 50% of people doing a job being women(and the other 50% being men, obviously)

The shitstain, @sl33ping-pill Blocked me after i destroyed her bullshit with SOURCED FACTS.

Whats wrong? Cant handle having your bullshit movement ideologies being dismantled?

Grow the fuck up.

There’s a certain attitude that scares the shit out of me – let’s call it destructive sensitivity.  It’s the philosophy that, if an idea is uncomfortable, it needs to go away.  If an image upsets you, or reminds you of a bad experience you had, then not only should you not have to look at it, no one should be allowed to look at it.  And if you can’t eradicate it completely, it should at least be buried so deep that a casual viewer would never stumble upon it.  This kind of censorship is nothing new, but I feel like it’s becoming more and more common.  So, why do I think it’s a problem?

FICTION

An important question we need to ask ourselves first is, what is the purpose of media, and particularly of fiction?  Why do we read, why do we look at artwork, why do we watch movies?  To only see happy things?  As escapism?  That’s certainly a valid interpretation, but it’s not the only one.

For the artist or creator, fiction can be a way to communicate the inner self to the outer world, through the use of symbols.  It’s a means of expression.  What they express might be deep, might be simple, might be beautiful or disgusting, might be for a niche audience or the whole world, but in the end, it is the artist taking pieces of their own experience and creating something new.  

For the viewer, fiction is a way to understand things that are outside their experience, and a way to expand their experience safely.  Fiction allows us to go places and do things that we can’t or wouldn’t in our own lives, without risk, without physical harm, and without causing harm to others.  Fiction can teach us what we fear, what we love, what we’re missing.  It can show us how others live, how others see us, how we see ourselves, and we’re free to engage with it as shallowly or as deeply as we want.

But fiction is not equal to reality. Watching Friday the 13th doesn’t make you a murderer, and it doesn’t kill you.  Reading Lolita doesn’t make you a pedophile.  Writing a story where a character is raped is not the same as committing rape, and reading that story is not the same as being raped.  Thought is not crime.

CENSORSHIP

Censorship is a way to force your interpretation of material on others, to reduce or destroy another’s experience by prejudging it as harmful to them.  But part of becoming a well-rounded human being is accepting that not everyone has the same sensibilities, and not every experience needs to be positive.  

What you find offensive, some might find enjoyable.  What you find traumatic, some might see as an exercise in empathy, or a means of catharsis.  Sad songs can be beautiful.  Horror stories can be fun.  When you decide to silence the things you don’t like, you’re cutting off others from that same experience. You’re making decisions for others, and you’re essentially saying that your feelings (and the feelings of people who agree with you) are more valid than anyone else’s.  I find this darkly ironic, because the audience that holds these particular sensitivities also tends to be the first to champion acceptance and non-traditional viewpoints, while organizing witch hunts for those they feel disrespect them.

So, why is this important to me?  Why does it scare me?  Well, as an artist, the complaint of one sensitive viewer can erase my work in an instant.  When complaints are made, content is removed first and questions are asked later.  Artists are guilty by default, and viewers are treated as victims.  No content host wants to be the one to stand up for freedom of expression at the risk of being seen as supporting offensive material.  Most alarming of all, this is all seen as totally acceptable, or even justified.  When an artist’s work is taken down, I see comments like, “Well, that’s the risk you take when you post stuff like that.  Can’t be helped.”  Even the people who disagree with censorship just shrug their shoulders.

SENSITIVITY

To those who are sensitive, I’m not trying to say, “just get over it”.  Emotional hurt is real, traumatic experiences are real.  I would never belittle someone else’s pain.  But you have to realize as well that your experience is not the be-all, end-all of the world.  Not all content is made with you in mind.  It is inevitable, if we want to exist in a world with other people in it, that we’ll be exposed to things we don’t enjoy.  The answer is not to destroy or degrade those things, but to try to understand them – and if that fails, at the very least, we can allow them to exist on equal terms.  It is that frightening desire to homogenize the world, to eliminate that which we fail to understand or which causes us emotional distress, that can lead as to real prejudice, to real violence and real crime.  Please understand that allowing content you dislike to exist is not the same as advocating it.  

THE ANSWER

What I would love to see is a perspective shift.  I want to see a world where responsibility is on the viewer, not the creator or the content host.  If you have a problem with something, it’s up to you to not see it, not for the artist to hide it for you, or add unavoidable warnings that prejudge a work.  I want a world where, rather than censorship by default, censorship is a conscious choice for those who want it.  No work is hidden until a user hides it themselves.  Artists are not punished for merely posting content that some find offensive, only for not tagging it correctly.  Freedom of expression and variety of content is seen as more important than protecting viewers from fiction, from discomfort, from viewpoints that don’t mesh with their own.

Accept others.  Take responsibility for yourself (and only yourself).  Understand that not all content is meant for you.  Understand that fiction is not crime, and fiction does not equate to real-world harm.  That’s all I’m asking.

Black people: “please don’t be black. People will try to use that to hate and generalize us.”

Muslim people: “please don’t be muslim. People will try to use that to hate and generalize us.”

Those were all examples of sexism and double standards in the United States. It eas meant to focus on America. We didnt want to be mean, but there, women have more rights, and one of the biggest double standards there is that men do not get help or attention for the exact same problems as women.

This can be said in many places. And it leads to the assumption that we already handle problems men go through.

Working in homeless shelters with people who who just got to the United States and serving people who just got there, we got a lot of different perspectives. We learned that Iran’s religious rules on clothing and education applied to both genders, and we just dont care about the men. We learned that it wasnt just women who could be killed for stepping out of religious roles. We learned that in some African countries, men and boys are not given an education so that they can learn how to be child soldiers. The women and girls in these same places could leave to get an education. We learned that in China, the act of rape does not apply to female rapists. It is like that in a lot of countries. We learned from research that domeatic violence rates against women are very high in India, but only becauwe of a very loose definition of the word (ex. Asking your wife to get a job), meaning men were being punished and sent to jail for bascally nothing. We learned rape rates were high because of the high rate of clearly false rape accusations that dont get proper investigations or trials, meaning men can get their reputation ruined forever and possibly go to jail because the parents dont like him. Boko Haram killed school boys in horrible ways for a long time, but media attention didnt go anywhere near the situation until girls started getting kidnapped. And despite it being in the same locations and despite the killing of boys continuing in the same area, it was still “bringbackourgirls”, showing how much we really care about issues men and boys face.

The problem is mindsets like yours. There are legitimate problems in the world, but we almost always tend to only see them as probems when they happen to women. Feminism, a group that claims to support equality for everyone, tends to ignore the same crimes when they happen to men. Feminism has even supported some of these inequalities and hasnt made an effort to reverse them.

So yes, until people actually put in the effort to at least try to learn of inequalities that men face, we consider sexism and double standards to be gender neutral.