I’m Supposed To Write Something?

1) A thin person with dark skin and black, coily hair wearing a yellow top stands in front of the aromantic flag with closed eyes, a green heart on their chest. Text around them reads: Black aros matter. ("Aros" is in green, the rest is in black)

The aromantic flag has five horizontal stripes, in green, light green, white, gray and black.

2) A thin person with medium-dark skin, no hair, a beard and brown eyes wearing a purple flannel shirt stands in front of the asexual flag smiling, with a dark purple heart on their chest. Text around them reads: Black aces matter. ("Aces" is in purple, the rest is in black)

The asexual flag has four horizontal stripes, in black, gray, white and purple.

3) A thin person with dark skin, long, colorful locs and brown eyes wearing glasses, a yellow hat, a green shirt, and black suspenders, smiling in front of a rainbow infinity symbol. Text around them reads: Black neurodiversity matters. ("Neurodiversity" is in rainbow colors, the rest is in black)

4) A black fist stands in front of a green and turquoise splash of paint, with text around it reading: All black lives matter. ("All" is underlined and hot pink, the rest is in white)

It's common sense here, except for USians, so I'll analyze it a bit more for the dominant demographic here. In a globalized setting, the most dominant culture affects the others and sets the trends. The way our language works, how we think, our levels of politeness and intimacy, and our levels of respect. (flash news, they are going down 😂)

I don't want to imply that there is nothing good in the US. There are plenty of positives in the country. It's just that for the rest of the cultures online it's a constant daily fight to not forget our roots, with the degree US media and brands have permeated our lives. In Greece at least we watch more US American media than Greek media nowadays, and many of our shows are rip-offs of USian ones, with little adaptation to Greek reality and culture.

And to demonstrate the amount of this exposure, a 22-year-old Greek asked me the other day "if something happens we call 911, right?" This might have literally cost them their life, in a dangerous situation! Because all the movies and songs they consumed (not an unusual thing for the Greek youth) were what they knew. And I found a similar comment in this comment thread.

It's about American media drowning out native language media all over the world, and workplaces requiring the English language in your repertoire more and more. It's about proper translations and foreign language dubbing of films disappearing because "everyone speaks/should speak English anyway." All of this is leading to the deterioration of native speaker groups of languages worldwide.

In my country, Dutch language courses can't find enough people who want to study the language, while English language courses are overflowing with people who want to study the language. There is even widespread distaste for the Dutch language for being crude or sounding rough or what have you. That's our native language!!! That is our culture in its purest form!!! That is knowledge we inherit from our parents as they did from theirs!!! That is how we learned fairytales and folk stories and myths!!! That is the language that shapes our communication and our way of thinking!!! To hate your native language is to hate yourself at the deepest level.

And yet it's so normalised. Droves of foreigners living in the Netherlands will never learn a word of Dutch, because "everyone speaks English anyway." We are the world's leaders in non-native understanding of English, but it comes at a cost. A grave cost we will continue to pay.

If you're looking to support your non-American friends in any way that is not performatively shouting "I hate being an American" into the void, first of all, unlearn that hatred of yourself and your culture. You are of no help self-flagellating, and there is a difference between holding your country accountable for its issues, and denying yourself your culture because your country is doing and has done bad things.

(I am not going to get into arguments about whether or not US American culture exists. It does, and if you think differently you are welcome to change your mind.)

Secondly, learn about other countries. Learn a bit of Chinese. Take an interest in the Italian political system. Ask your friends about their countries' folklore. Watch documentaries about art from Nigeria. Absorb information that is not fed to you by American media.

And thirdly, quit expecting your non-American friends to communicate in a way that appeals to you. The French and Dutch will always seem rude to you because our way of communicating is far more direct than the way you communicate. People from other cultures may seem vague to you because their way of communicating is far more indirect, and you're not used to that either. Quit being frustrated when you don't get what we mean exactly. Quit assuming we mean the absolute worst thing you could imagine just because you didn't get what we meant the first time. Ask us to explain if you need us to, and learn to accept that we are different from you.

So today I tripped. Fell flat on my face, it was awful but ultimately harmless. My service dog, however, is trained to go get an adult if I have a seizure, and he assumed this was a seizure (were training him to do more to care for me, but we didn’t learn I had epilepsy until a year after we got him)

I went after him after I had dusten off my jeans and my ego, and I found him trying to get the attention of a very annoyed woman. She was swatting him away and telling him to go away. So I feel like I need to make this heads up

If a service dog without a person approaches you, it means the person is down and in need of help

Remember, kids!

FLY is a story about a boy who gets a second chance. Help his story take flight June 9th 11am EST on Kickstarter. Thank you for being the wind beneath my wings I hope this story lifts the world to a brighter place.

Save my daughter to leave Gaza 🍉🍉

Hello, I am Alaa from Gaza, 27 years old, and a mother of a baby.I was living a happy life with my husband and pregnant with my first child, but on October 7, my life was turned upside downI was displaced from my home on the first day and lived in my family’s home with my husband and I. I was pregnant with my daughter and went through the worst conditions. There was a siege, food shortages, and water pollution. During my pregnancy, many of the houses near us were bombed, and the smell of death affected my daughter and the smell of gunpowder, which put my daughter’s life at risk in light of the tragic conditions of the hospitals.

On December 24, my husband’s and my house was bombed and completely destroyed by Israeli raids. My husband and I became homeless.On January 23, the occupation launched a ground campaign against the place where I live, which forced us to flee within 5 hours. I fled, leaving my husband behind as he did not want to leave his city.It was a difficult displacement journey as I was carrying my daughter in the seventh month and I fled on foot for a distance of about 20 kilometers under enemy fire and shelling.

My child and I faced great difficulty during the displacement as There was no clean food or drink and a lack of vitamins. On February 27, I received the news of my husband's death in an Israeli raid. My daughter became an orphan before she was born. After the bitterness of loss and sadness, specifically on March 19, on a rainy night and under bombardment, the time for delivery came. It was one of the most difficult nights, as there was no doctor, and there was no continuation to go to the hospital. The sounds of explosions filled the place. After we arrived at the hospital, there was no adequate medical care, whether from doctors, cleanliness, or any needs for a pregnant woman. After hours of waiting and providing a doctor, I gave birth under the most difficult conditions, as there were no clothes for my daughter in light of the aggression. I suffered from the lack of a bed to sit on after giving birth. The delivery process was extremely difficult, as if I had escaped death again and God had blessed me with my daughter Fatoum. I was displaced again, she and I, to the unknown, and we live in a tent that does not protect from the cold of winter or the heat of summer. Due to malnutrition and poor living conditions, my daughter is exposed to chronic skin diseases and intestinal infections. Therefore, help me and my daughter to escape death and bear the burdens of life.🍉❤️

Disclaimer: I'm not an official vetter. I personally believe this campaign is legitimate given the evidence and encourage you to share and donate if you feel comfortable.