#askskylark

Oobleck’s exam on the post-War era had been rough, plain and simple. Tsubaki needed to de-stress and knitting just wasn’t cutting it right now. So, maybe a workout would help her. When she walked into the training room, she spotted someone practicing with a halberd.

                        [BLOG]: faunfiction.tungle.com                               Antifaunism in Education:                              Discipline v. Faunus Rights

My deepest apologies for not having posted lately. The amount of antifaun bullshit I’ve had to deal with from Beacon Academy has been unreal. Long story short, a group of dedicated antifauns have outed me, and I’ve been put on academic probation while they continue to pose a violent threat.

So here’s what happened. Cardin Winchester (click here for a full list of his blogs so you know which ones to block), as you all know, has been Beacon Academy’s strongest antifaun voice online and off--but what is worse, he has been known to target Faunus students both verbally and physically. I knew eventually that he would come after me, and so I had to prepare myself, but I  trusted that if he did, the school would at least be on my side.

That was my biggest mistake.

I should have known from the beginning what kind of treatment I would receive, but since Ozpin had been kind to me, I allowed myself to be caught off-guard. The Faunus rights classic Antifaunism in Education exposed for the first time ten years ago that Faunus students are disciplined more strongly than human students, and the author writes today of how nothing has changed. (sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.) What happened in Beacon was a reflection of that. I was severely punished for acting in self-defense while the perpetrators got away with everything.

As to the incident? Cardin didn’t attack me first, but I had reason to believe he was going to. Last year he made insensitive remarks about violence against the Faunii in class, sometimes even directing them at me because I always defended us--in a previous post I had even dissociated in class because he bragged about the ways in which his grandfather had scalped us. About a week ago, when the incident happened, he tried to talk to me after class. That’s when it started.

“So,” he said. He was slowly walking me into a corner as he spoke. “You seem pretty passionate about this Faunus stuff. Any reason why?”

The way he spoke as though he knew something about me, and the way he stood made him appear highly intimidating. I have been attacked like this on the streets before--I even used to have panic attacks when cornered by anyone for any reason, even when it was a teacher trying to get me to stay in one place while he lectured me. Also, considering that newly outed Faunii are common targets for antifaun violence and that there is a far-right campaign dedicated to outing and attacking hidden Faunii, that made me doubly ready to fight back and I was completely justified in doing it.

I told him I was passionate because I wanted to stick up for what I believed in. He said “hm, that’s kind of cute” and took a step closer. Then he asked me just how badly I believed in what I said--once again, I took this to be a threat, because he seemed to imply that he would test my beliefs with physical violence. To get him to back off, I slashed at him with my claws. Even though I was in hiding, the threat that I felt from him made me break my cover and attack. He tried punching me, but each time only managed to punch one of my shadow clones. I had to slash him again before I managed to run away.

Obviously, Cardin was quick to portray himself as the victim. Here are screenshots of the messages he and some of his friends sent me after the incident.

[TW for ableism, violence and gore under the spoiler - highly distressing images + mentions of war crimes and dead Faunii.]

1. [Cardin]: Lmao I always knew you were one of them. Not surprised you were too much of a /scaredy-cat/ to admit it. Just wait until Ozpin deals with you--don’t bother telling him you were traumatized because none of that triggered bullshit is an excuse for attacking me. I really just wanted to know why you always seemed so hot and bothered in history class but it’s not my problem if you’re too much of an angry bitch to recognize that.

2. [Cardin]: Oh, and it was easy finding your blog. I had a feeling only you could come up with all the SJ stuff that you do here. Maybe if you were nicer to me I would have listened but oh well, what can you do with a radical. :\

3. [Anonymous]: I better see you slit your own throat with those claws

4. [One of Cardin’s friends]: Hey. You. Yes, you. You lay another hand on my bro Cardin and I’m gonna put you in stitches. Who you gonna call, the White Fang? We’ll wipe you out faster than Vale did in the prison camps.

5. [There is an anonymously submitted image of Faunii massacred in an infamous war crime, one that everyone in Remnant knows and regards as an atrocity.] We’re coming for you, kitty.

6. [There is an anonymously submitted image of a dismembered Faunus child above the message.] Don’t mess with us.

I have PTSD. I was unable to even organize those images into this post--I had to ask a teammate to do it for me.

And it gets worse.

PTSD is half the reason I am in this situation right now. If I were a neurotypical Faunus, I would have been believed right away. But instead, my concerns for my physical safety were invalidated and written off as paranoia and irrational anger that came about as a result of my illness--the administrators who talked to me told me so when I protested my sentence. (Those of you against intersectional justice, take note--both antifaunism and ableism played a part in my unjust probation.) Cardin knew this could happen because anyone can read on my blog that I have PTSD. And so he managed to get away with what he did by portraying himself as “reasonable” in contrast with my “irrational” and “PTSD-fueled” actions--he took the same angle with the administrators that he did with me in his first message: he claimed he was just curious and that I had attacked him out of nowhere.

The end result: Cardin, a straight human male and committed antifaun, has not received any punishment. The friend of his who managed to show his face to me only received two weeks of academic probation, while I received six months.

Of course I also demanded an investigation into the anonymous messages. The school replied that they took “no responsibility” for things that happened anonymously online, when those messages were clearly sent by people attending Beacon Academy--if not Cardin himself. I sent them a reply stating my case for an investigation, to which they have not yet replied. Presumably, they have no interest in helping me.

Do you know what academic probation means here in Beacon? When there’s violence involved, your weapon is taken away from you.

I am left without a weapon while the people who threatened me roam free.

I, Blake Belladonna, am outed, punished and unsafe while the school drags its feet investigating the anonymous threat. While Cardin or any of the anonymous students are free to corner and attack me at any time.

Ozpin may have helped me two years ago, but now he and his administration display the same callousness toward my species as could be expected from other schools. 

I have never felt more sickened and betrayed.

1,258 notes Tags: #school #beacon academy #personal #antifaun #antifaunism #faunus rights #ableism #antifaunism in beacon #ableism in beacon

blake spent most of her recent days alone. yeah, maybe she should be sticking together with team rwby for safety in numbers, but how could she be around them when she knew exactly what they thought of it? weiss got all huffy and self-righteous about how violence is never the answer. yang said the same thing as weiss, except she tried to say it more gently. and ruby? oh, bless her poor little heart, she was so innocent and sweet and full of platitudes of goodness and joy--

enough.

she was justified. she would hear no other opinion.

she did not regret the feel of her claws tearing through his face. the swift, elegant hook like the swoop of an eagle’s talons, the seamless sweep of finger-blades through flesh, the fierce precision of the swipe that would just miss the jugular. in fact, there was a part of her that enjoyed it; a very small part, but it existed nonetheless.

cardin’s blog said that the wounds on his face, neck and chest required more stitches than he could count on his hands.

cardin winchester in stitches. she could now die fulfilled.

but for every revenge, there was a counter-revenge--that was the way things went between humans and faunii, and that was the way it would always be. she could smell it coming now: sky lark?

there. THERE. she was justified. he was coming to attack her. he was.

she whirled around to face him, crouching into a fighting stance.

Technically I’ve involved with it too, I just haven’t done much

“Y’know, outside of that one walking mistake in the party..”

❝ “Accidents” don’t end in murder. ❞

Lark pressed himself against the opposite wall and let out an over dramatic cry. “Oh it is true. How could I let myself be so blind to the cruel, cruel beating of my heart?”

“I do?” Lark had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on.