uh oh

I drew this comic for Firas @firasmuhaisenn, a friend who has family trapped in Gaza. Their campaign has been verified by @/90-ghost. Not only do he and his sister Nisreen have to deal with the stress of being medical students, they also constantly worry about their family’s wellbeing.

But you can help Firas’ family.

The main goals of their fundraiser are:

1) Paying their university fees by 1st August. They need about $6000 CAD before then.

2) Evacuating their family!

As of 28th July, they have about:

$4,200 CAD / $82,000 CAD.

Please show support to them. Their campaign has been progressing very slowly, so let’s give them hope! <3

american voters: well we are opposed to that and don't want to vote for someone supporting this

harris: i fully support an ongoing genocide

voters: shockingly enough we aren't happy with this

Christopher Marley’s Exquisite Creatures temporary exhibit at OMSI in Portland, Oregon

If you're not American and you live in the global south where libraries are not well funded, it's morally okay to sign up for American public libraries digital memberships using fake addresses to access their Libby/Overdrive.

they either do not acknowledge casteism or claim that caste is a western construct. my personal favourite however is dismissing anyone bringing up caste discrimination by saying that the indian constitution outlaws untouchability. they may also bring up the fact that the prime minister belongs to an other backwards class (obc) so clearly india has moved on from caste and hindutva isn't only for the upper castes. they possess a shallow understanding of caste

harping on about "islamic colonisation" : no, the mughals did not colonise india. when you point this out, they will immediately assume that you think muslim invaders were innocent beings who did nothing wrong, which is very much not what anyone is claiming here

while we're on the topic of "islamic colonisation" they will also refer to the demolishing of muslim sites of heritage and worship and then building hindu temples over them as "decolonisation" (cough cough ram mandir) the hindu right also goes around pretending that they're indigenous to india. this is false

along a similar vein, they will dismiss islamaphobia by bringing up instances of hindu oppression in countries like pakistan and bangladesh. it is true that hindus are persecuted in these two countries, however they are used to fuel their oppression complex, that their upper caste hindu self is under attack in india of all places (think a white christian in the united states). you should be in solidarity with minorities everywhere. it is neither transactional or conditional (note: they will never bring up sri lanka. persecution of hindus exists only when the oppressors are muslim)

claiming that hindu nationalism and hindutva are not the same because hindutva means "hindu-ness". that is only the literal translation of the term. like it or not, they're the same thing

they support the indian military occupation of kashmir. they will call it an integral part of kashmir, one reason which will be "hinduism is indigenous to kashmir." they will also bring up the last maharaja of kashmir signing the instrument of accession as further proof, as if the consent of the people was taken

they're zionists. do i even need to explain this. hindutva is just zionism for hindus

they refer to buddhism and jainism (sikhism too sometimes) as branches of hinduism rather than separate, distinct religions

they condemn any resistance to the indian govt as a burden or terrorism) (like calling the farmers who are currently protesting a hindrance or terrorists. funny how sikhs are the same as hindus when they support hindu causes but terrorists when they resist oppression...)

they call you a pseudo liberal or a fake leftist. i'm telling you, they don't know jackshit. they can't even tell the difference between a liberal and a leftist and call US unread lmao. bonus points if they call you a liberandu or a sickularist 💀

they call india "bharat" when they talk in english. there are in fact multiple indian languages call india bharat or bharatam, but if they say bharat while talking in english, that is absolutely a hindu nationalist no questions asked

in the us: hindu american foundation, the vhpa, the hss and sewa international are the big orgs laundering hindutva in the mainstream, they will often fund hindu candidates and generally organise to oppose anti caste discrimination legislation or attack academics critical of hindutva under the guise of hinduphobia

there's obviously a balance here, as british colonization continues to have deep scars in south asia, but hindutva is attempting to reframe itself as a decolonization struggle not only over the mughals but also over the british, which allows for this kind of mythmaking that furthers hindu fascism.

other things to watch out for:

op got at this related to kashmir but in general, anything referring to hindus as "indigenous people"

people talking about how south india isn't casteist because caste-based violence there is usually between scheduled castes and/or other backward classes (in case op's post didn't make it clear, "other backward class" or obc is an official classification in india...yeah), which doesn't account for the violence of brahminical patriarchy outside of direct violence

the idea that hindi is or should be the one true national language of india

hindutva pinkwashing and homonationalism - i've especially seen this come up with kashmir, where hindu fascists will spout nonsense about how india's revocation of article 370 (which previously gave kashmir semi-autonomous status) was necessary to enforce the decriminalization of homosexuality, or in relation to the transgender persons (protection of rights) bill

“Across cultures, darker people suffer most. Why?”- Andre 3000

Tell me what's wrong with this picture.

Hint: This is Miles Morales- from the video game depiction- canonically an Afro-Puerto Rican. Jefferson is Black American; Rio is Puerto Rican.

So why is the Cuban flag on their wall?

This is what happens when no one (with any saying power) in the board room is representative of the group being depicted! And mind you, this was produced under SONY and MARVEL, for the PS5, a product under two brands that combined churn out hundreds of millions in profit! And… No one on any level corrected them until the beta came out and fans saw it. That's how pervasive this sort of ignorance of other cultures can be. How are you writing a story about a character, and you don't even know how he identifies?

Multiethnic & Multicultural Blackness

Realistically, you’ve probably walked past many a biracial, multicultural, or multiethnic Black person before and assumed they were “just Black”. One example: Rae Dawn Chong- known as Mama du Pointe du Lac- is Afro-Chinese, but that Chinese background did not play into the role she played. A more personal example: my recent loctician was also Afro-Chinese, with very dark skin (she made jokes about how her eyes reveal it, but we can’t make those jokes here). I would have never known.

Point is, we reacted to what we saw, and that’s not an accident. Blackness is treated as a monolith, and an indicator of social level whether you realize it or not. You see a ‘Black’ person, and without wondering any further about their identity, you will treat them as you’ve been socialized to treat ‘Black’ people! But every Black person is not the same!

You don't have to write an entire essay with citations mid-story about how you learned so much about the Afro-Chicana or Afro-Iraqi experience for your main character. We didn't ask. But, slipping natural things here and there into the story of a character’s culture helps cement that yes, this character has this multicultural identity and it matters to them; it is who they are, it has an effect on their life and character in some way. It is how you deepen the character and show respect for the culture you are depicting!

I love using Miles as an example, so here’s a good example. In Across The Spiderverse, he goes to a party to celebrate Jefferson’s new position. In that scene, Rio walks through a mix of all his family members. Even when he speaks with his parents in this scene, they managed to incorporate his Afro-Puerto Rican identity without shouting to the rooftops “HEY! HE’S BLACK AND LATINO! SEE HOW I’M TELLING YOU?”

Race vs Ethnicity

The Black experience stretches as far as the African diaspora- worldwide! It's why it's frustrating when people assume "Black people" means "United States" and the West's perception of "Third World Africa" (especially when it comes to existing in media that people have strongly claimed is just White). Latin and Central America? West Europe? East Europe? Southwest Asia and North Africa? The Mediterranean? East Asia? Australia? You will find Black people!! Just because we aren't the majority doesn't mean we aren't there!

But just because we're Black doesn't mean we're all "African-American". Ethnicity is "the quality or fact of belonging to a population group or subgroup made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent." Race is "a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society."

"But I thought you said Black is an identity!"

It is! Black does not only mean “Black American”. The reason Black Americans identify as just Black (which is why I demand that you show respect by capitalizing it) is due to the loss of our specific heritages from the enslavement meant to scourge us of them, to make us property. To call us by our actual names would be acknowledging our equivalent humanity and culture. In order to enforce slavery without qualm, they had to be violently removed. Black Africans of numerous ethnic groups, now violently forced into this amalgamation, had to come together and forge something new. We had to find a common connection- our Blackness (and that experience as defined by whiteness in this society) was it. It also functions as a reclamation of our identity, of our presence in this world. We are a culture, we are an entire group of people, and we should be acknowledged as such.

Again: all Black people are NOT the same!!! This is like… anti-racism 101, but so many people continue to fall for it, even those ‘well-meaning’. You cannot ask one Black person to represent the ENTIRETY of the world's Black experience. Many other factors will come into play, and this includes their culture.

Keep in mind how being multicultural and/or biracial and Black will put many people at a crossroads that is complex and difficult to traverse. There will always be parts of incomplete acceptance, an extra layer of code-switching based on where you are and who you're with. A Black Kenyan is not a Black American, who is not a Black Greek, who is not a Black Colombian, who is not a Black Filipino. They're different cultures, that will treat each other differently. Society- from strangers to your own family- may try to pull multiethnic Black people one direction or another- are you ‘Black’ enough, are you ‘technically Black’, are you ‘technically’ something else, are you that ethnicity enough?

(I will discuss Black biracial people with whiteness in the next lesson, because I felt like the interracial and biracial White & Black topic needed its own talk, but this is relevant there as well.)

Where- In the world- Is-

Coming back from the opening of this lesson: keep in mind that you need to know specifically WHERE your character is from! For example, just saying they're "Afro-Latino" reveals very little- there's an entire chunk of the planet that falls under the "Latin America" category (as defined by U.S. standards).

A follower of mine- they identify as Caribbean Latine- sent me this in discussion about the topic:

"I wish people actually thought about where their Afro-Latino characters are from. It’s always very vague and it’s so reductive because an Argentinian Afro-Latino is very different from a Puerto Rican Afro-Latino. This is very subjective but I think this issue is pretty blatant in The Owl House. They flash the Dominican flag a couple of times, but when it comes to actually making her Afro-Latino…I don’t think they did a very good job. They barely made her Black in the first place. I don’t want to dog on the voice actors too much because there are a million factors that might have affected this but. When they make a point to have the characters speak Spanish, it’s really noticeable when the accent/dialect doesn’t align with their ethnicity. Dominicans have a really identifiable dialect in Spanish. When the Afro-Latino characters speak in Spanish, it’s the most neutral accent I’ve ever heard. This is such a me-issue, but this is to say that people should actually research where their characters are from instead of vaguely painting them as Afro-Latino. We are all SOOO different. Our dialects vary so much that sometimes an Afro-Mexican and an Afro-Puerto Rican won’t understand each other even though we speak the same language.”

WHO are we talking about? How does that factor into their identity, and the way the world- both in story, and how readers from around the world- will perceive them? Will an Afro-Dominican know that they're supposed to relate to your character if they're vaguely Latino?

Note:

While I was doing my research, I noticed that searching for “Afro-_” doesn’t always offer much, as it does the ubiquitous antiblack experience and roles in politics and resistance. And while I think that’s super cool and mandatory, I think another way to approach this would be to focus on the culture as a whole, and then go from there. So for example, if I wanted my character to be Afro-Mexican- maybe even from a specific location in Mexico, or their family is from that area- it would be easier to look up the cultures and activities of that area itself, and then inform with my knowledge of how Blackness is treated there.

As I am not a member of these groups, I thought it would be better for me to find resources that better explain, than to try to speak for them myself. Hell, just from doing this research, I learned that I have far more to educate myself on. There are so many good resources out there! People speak on these topics that y’all want to know about, and there are so many books and videos- find them and educate yourselves! This is a long section filled with links, so I'm going to put them under a readmore.

I also could not possibly sit here and name every single ethnic combo because that would be endless. So what I'm going to do is give some broad strokes of a few major groupings, that will hopefully start you on the path of how to conduct your own research!

Last week I asked for help to pay for electricity. The other week I asked for help with my sister who had to be rushed to the ER.

I doxxed myself and posted medical info to this blog, so many strangers know my address, my legal name, everything just for me to be able to seek mutual aid- Wallah I do not want to be this person, but if anyone could please, pick up a print from my inprnt, or subscribe to my patreon, I already have 300+ drawings up there and I upload thrice to four times a month, or if you could send direct tips it would make a world's difference. I will try to open commissions next week but as the world is being plunged into wherever it is we are headed, it's getting harder and harder to get clients.

Currently myself dealing with housing insecurity- we only have a year or two to fix our traditional filipino house as it is falling apart due to the philippine storms and termites- *please* help me and my disabled family of three. I feel I am rambling now bc there's so much on my mind, on my plate, I've asked friends and my partner for help, my sister and my cousins and my friends are all I have. My mom's side of the family cannot help as they are all extremely poor themselves, and my paternal side of the family have emotionally abused me and have members that committed routine csa on me. I do not take any of the help I receive here for granted, and I'm sorry. Reblogs are off as I am asking for help from followers as I feel very ashamed / embarrassed/ humiliated to still be stuck in this dark place . Sorry and thank you again

Inprnt is having a sale rn, everything is like at 40% off!

And my tipping jars:

With the tips I received, I have managed to buy a few cans of food and some cereal and a sack of rice before the height of the storm. But please forgive me for boosting this again, as I have been faced with another dillema. There is a possibility of me needing to evacuate my area- inShallah it will not come to this, please pray for me. But areas very close to me are completely underwater:

Rn, in the philippines, there has been an ongoing storm. Sewers are nonexistent in the philippines, as most cities use septic tanks. It flooded in our house yesterday, and it destroyed the two boxes of sugarfree cornflakes I bought for my sister, who is newly diagnosed diabetic and still looking for her safe foods as someone who is autistic with a low frustration threshold. And it also destroyed a sack of rice we were holding onto. Last night and this morning as we are stranded in our house, we ate rotten rice. The wood in our house walls is rotting, and it's warping was accelerated by the heavy rains, causing it to crack, causing more rainwater to flood into our house. Rn, me and my sister are huddled in one of the safer areas of our house as I try to finish work. Going through food and housing insecurity during a "super typhoon" is terrifying.

These fundraisers are low on funds, so please donate whatever little you can; even a small amount can make a large difference. If you cannot donate, please share this post.

Ahmed Ziad (@ahmed-ziad): Ahmed is an engineer in Gaza who opened a business selling household goods. However, he lost his home and livelihood in the war. Him and his family have been displaced multiple times, and are surviving unlivable conditions as his parents' condition grows worse by the day. With your help, he hopes to afford food for his family and evacuate them to a safe place.

GOFUNDME BELOW:

As of writing this post, 6,765/30,000 Pounds have been raised.

verified by 90-ghost here.

Yasmin Salah (@yasminalbalawiigaza): Yasmin is a 21 year old who graduated four months before the war. She and her family were displaced after Nuseirat was bombed. Her family's fundraiser has also been shared on another account (@elbalawi), which belongs to her family member Mahmoud, and tumblr has deleted an account of theirs. Mahmoud's niece Eileen is 8 and suffering from a liver illness caused by malnutrition. With your help, Yasmin, Mahmoud, and the rest of their family hopes to evacuate to Egypt and start afresh.

GOFUNDME BELOW:

As of writing this post, 27,132/50,000 Euros have been raised.

verified by 90-ghost here.

Salam Bakroun (@save-salam-family): Salam, her husband Mohammad, and her children Nour and Saeed lived in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City. Mohammad worked in a well-known radio station, while Salam had a job in a famous company. However, they lost their home and livelihood after the war. Their family has been displaced almost seven times. Nour has severe psychological trauma, and Saeed, who was born days before the war, has no access to milk. With your help, Salam, Mohammad, and their children hope to evacuate to Egypt.

GOFUNDME BELOW:

As of writing this post, 18,394/40,000 Euros have been raised.

verified by 90-ghost here.

Muhammad Imad Abdel Latif Sharab (@684599): Mohammed is a doctor who is currently displaced by the war with his parents, four sisters, their families, and three brothers. His grandfather was martyred on 14th December, 2023 by Israeli attacks. With your help, he hopes to evacuate with his family to Egypt.

GOFUNDME BELOW:

As of writing this post, 966/100,000 Euros have been raised.