yoghrrt

other days you might be

and that's ok

Just remember

-Fred Hampton was a black activist from Chicago – an extraordinary speaker, youth organizer for the NAACP. 

-He joined the Black Panthers and shone so brightly that he was made chair of the Chicago chapter when he was only 20.

-He founded the Rainbow Coalition, which brought together Black and Latino activists and radical anti-poverty Catholics.  He forged an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them make peace and work for social change.

-In 1967, when he was just 19, Hampton was identified by the FBI as a “radical threat.” The FBI tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation to get the groups he’d drawn together to distrust each other, and getting an FBI plant next to him as a bodyguard.  

-(This is part of an illegal FBI program called COINTELPRO, which aimed to paint black civil rights activists (among others) as violent and threatening.  If you’ve only seen pictures of the Black Panthers as armed and dangerous revolutionaries, and never heard of their children’s breakfast program, their community health clinics, or their “copwatch” patrols, this is why.   It’s because COINTELPRO was a highly successful work of political propaganda.)  

-On December 3, 1969, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, and then several Panthers gathered at his apartment for a late dinner.  One of them was the FBI plant bodyguard, who drugged Hampton.  

-At 4:45 AM on December 4, a squad of Chicago Police officers and FBI agents with a warrant to search for weapons stormed the apartment. Investigations later showed they fired between 90 and 99 times.  The Panther on security detail, Mark Clark, was holding a shotgun.  He was shot, and the gun went off into the ceiling.  This was the only shot fired by the Panthers. 

-Fred Hampton, in another room, didn’t awaken.  He was shot in his bed.  Twice, in the head, at point-blank range.  He was 21.  

And I did

He suspected (correctly) that I was dehydrated & was judging by the color of my tongue

But I fully heard “open your mouth” & thought “wow this stranger is going to spit in my mouth”

A banner from The Richmond Pride, preceding the second national march on Washington for lesbian and gay rights, circa 1987. I've heard the latter part of this slogan recently, and it's been rattling in my head today.

I'm finding out as an adult that they (though it's not documented who) diagnosed me with a life-long, chronic condition without telling me when I was a teenager. I found out recently when I got curious about my medical charts, and otherwise, I would not have known what's wrong with me. I've been left with more questions than answers, and I feel like a private investigator investigating my own damn health and life.

If any of that were true, Nex Benedict would be alive.

Yes, we are what we identify as, as a basic tenet of trans theory. But to act like the patriarchy agrees is just wrong-headed and bonkers. The patriarchy views us as deluded women.

okay well i am a brown disabled trans masc person and i'm telling you i DO experience oppression on the basic of being what ppl perceive as me "being a man."

what is it when Black men are treated like violent, scary criminals? it's racism, yes, but it's also a specific form of racism that applies especially to Black MEN.

what is it when Indigenous men are expected to be "noble s*vages" in a way that is distinct from the way Indigenous women and nonbinary ppl are categorized?

what is it when disabled men are explicitly harmed for being weak or "not real men?" what is it called? is it JUST ableism? if so, why does gender continuously play a part in the harm?

what is it when trans men are assaulted or killed for not being "man enough?" what do we get to call transphobia that we, specifically, face for being masculine?

what about my fellow Black and brown trans dudes who hesitated to transition for fear of being fucking killed by cops? or are they just imagining it too?

why is it that when WE acknowledge our pain and oppression, we're suddenly just men and apparently aren't smart enough to know our own experiences? why do you get to tell me these things aren't real?

The SS Warrimoo, a passenger steamship traveling from Vancouver to Australia, was silently knifing its way across the mid-Pacific waters. The navigator had just finished calculating a star fix and handed the results to Captain John DS. Phillips.

The Warrimoo's coordinates were LAT 0º 31' N, LONG 179 30' W. The date was December 31, 1899. "Know what this means?" First Mate Payton announced, "We're only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line."

Captain Phillips was prankish enough to seize the opportunity to do the nautical feat of a lifetime. He summoned his navigators to the bridge to double-check the ship's position. He altered his course slightly to focus directly on his target. He then altered the engine's speed.

The calm weather and clear night worked to his advantage. At midnight, the SS Warrimoo rested on the Equator, exactly where it had crossed the International Date Line. The ramifications of this odd arrangement were numerous.