Je ne peux pas continuer. Je vais continuer

my foremothers bc i’m not working in a field or pregnant:

The words branded themselves across my soul.

As an adult I think he may have been joking. He payed no especial attention to any indignities fish suffered in our household but I could never forget. I saw fish in a different light after that.

Fish kept in tiny bowls, breathing their own poisons, dying by inches. Fish kept in cold tanks, casually disposed of. Fish touted as being short lived when they could outlive the better loved family dog if only they could breathe. Fish casually won and discarded in cheap plastic bags, thrown away a week later.

Thank you for putting this into words because I haven’t been able to figure out how to say “no, cultural appropriation is not fake, but also idk what happened in the last few years but it seems like woke white people completely took over the conversation”

When I used to plan luxury events, I worked a ton of Indian weddings, Pakistani weddings, and in general a bunch of Muslim/Islamic/Hindu weddings of varying levels of faith. That meant wearing hair coverings, sometimes all day, sometimes just for the ceremonies (if you’re under the Mandap or at the Mehndi or Heena ceremony, you wear a hair covering. If it’s during or after the Baraat, you wear a hair covering, but again, sometimes you just wear it all day depending on the family. A lot of families provide hair coverings of their color choice to anyone who is working the wedding, or any wedding guests who wouldn’t own one). You know who was giving me dirty looks on the days I wore my covering? Woke white people.

Two of my all time favorite brides were both Indian brides that I was lucky enough to work with for all three days of their weddings. We bonded a lot and, idk sometimes it’s just ‘I’m working for you’ and sometimes it’s ‘we are going to be best friends by the time your wedding is over’. These brides were the latter. The first bride chose a Bindi for me on her third day because she said it matched my eyes. The second bride had her hair stylist undo my bun and braid some of her jasmine into my hair, and then also chose a Bindi for me. I was so touched that she wanted me to wear these things that were specifically chosen for her wedding even though I wasn’t family. Her whole family was so sweet/excited about it, and again, guess who was giving me weird looks all day? Guess who approached me to talk about cultural appropriation as if I hadn’t been in this industry for years? Two woke white people. Like, I’m not putting on a bindi and fake ‘sexy saree’ as a Halloween costume. I was given a really sweet gift by two women on one of the most special days of their lives.

Something me and my girlfriend say all the time: American ‘leftists’ are running in circles so tight they’re biting their own tails off and ending up right back where they started.

Get so into trans ideology that we end up right back with hardcore traditionalist gender norms.

Get so into the concept of cultural appropriation that we end up right back to people giving dirty looks for any culture-sharing

Get so into the concept of womens sexual and body liberation that we end up back to women being purchasable sex objects, and makeup and non-functional clothing being a good and empowering thing

Get so into the concept of "Karens" that it no longer means "a boomer white woman throwing a very generation-specific tantrum and abusing her privilege", and is now just another word for "bitch" and a way to tell any woman with any opinion you don't agree with to shut up.