VERBAL_WISH42

I want you guys to know this shit not only makes my life better and easier, and consequently makes me like you more, but WAY MORE IMPORTANTLY could literally save someone's life.

Yes, eye strain sucks. Yes migraines are painful. Yes seizures are miserable. But every single epileptic seizure, to a very small but very much not zero degree, can just kill you. Seizures are horrible and dangerous - with aspiration and head trauma to take into account as well. Even if it's "not that much flashing" or it's "not that long" or "it's only a seizure" or whatever kind of excuse you may want to make - PLEASE think about photosensitive users when you interact with media

Anything with

Rapid change between different colors

Rapid change between light and dark frames

Anything that causes the value of the screen to change very majorly very quickly

Anything very color intensive/stressful for the eyes

Needs to be tagged with things like "flashing lights" "strobing" "eye strain" etc - NOT tags such as "photosensitive" or "epilepsy" bc we use those tags for our community

I want you guys to know this shit not only makes my life better and easier, and consequently makes me like you more, but WAY MORE IMPORTANTLY could literally save someone's life.

Yes, eye strain sucks. Yes migraines are painful. Yes seizures are miserable. But every single epileptic seizure, to a very small but very much not zero degree, can just kill you. Seizures are horrible and dangerous - with aspiration and head trauma to take into account as well. Even if it's "not that much flashing" or it's "not that long" or "it's only a seizure" or whatever kind of excuse you may want to make - PLEASE think about photosensitive users when you interact with media

Anything with

Rapid change between different colors

Rapid change between light and dark frames

Anything that causes the value of the screen to change very majorly very quickly

Anything very color intensive/stressful for the eyes

Needs to be tagged with things like "flashing lights" "strobing" "eye strain" etc - NOT tags such as "photosensitive" or "epilepsy" bc we use those tags for our community

I mean sometimes they do yeah. I know a white guy with monolid eyes and zero known Asian ancestors and he absolutely experiences anti-Asian racism on a fairly regular basis because people think he’s mixed Asian/white. I know a woman who was told throughout her life that she was Native as an adoptee with no known history or background who experienced incredibly violent amounts of anti-Native racism until she discovered as an adult through DNA test that she is 100% white. I know white people who tan incredibly dark in the summer comparatively that are constantly accused of being mixed race and experiencing racism due to that, usually anti-Mexican racism perpetrated against white people with Greek or Italian ancestors.

If you think cis butches don’t experience both transphobia and misogyny and homophobia for daring to be women who break gender roles while still holding onto their womanhood you’ve sorely misunderstood just how bad butches have it in this world sorry. If you don’t think cis queens experience transphobia and homophobia and misogyny for daring to be men who break gender roles while being loud and proud about it and still holding onto their manhood then you’ve sorely mistaken just how bad they have it in this world as well.

Not to mention all of the cis men who wear dresses and skirts and makeup and nail polish and heels simply because they like them who experience all of these things. All of the cis straight women who simply just exist but something about them doesn’t pass society’s “woman enough” test, leading to them being caught in bathroom bills and sporting rules and being attacked by people who mistake them for being transgender or gay.

Just like how straight people experience homophobia to such a degree that they literally beat their children out of any potential deviance from rigidly upheld gender roles and let politicians make jokes on national TV about how they’d drown their pre-teen kids if they came out as LGBT. Do you really think a straight kid still figuring themselves out hears that and doesn’t internalize that homophobia? Doesn’t rigidly hold themselves to some impossible standard so that no one could ever possibly think they’re gay? You don’t think straight teenage boys who maybe don’t pass some bully’s straightness test are getting the shit kicked out of them for “being gay” when, surprise, they aren’t? You don’t think all those kids being attacked by their priests and coaches and teachers are being told “this wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t gay” when they’re literally not gay? Do you know how many straight kids had close calls at my school that famously expels all gay kids, because someone made up a believable enough rumor? Do you know how many of them still got their shit kicked in even though administration ultimately decided to let them stay?

All bigotry is violent and all bigotry catches people it doesn’t “intend” to and hurts them as well. It doesn’t matter what someone’s label is, or if they even have one. It matters if the person enacting the violence is doing it because their victim didn’t pass whatever “acceptable enough” test they didn’t know they were being subjected to.

‘but [insert organism here] does nothing for the environment!’

to just

for a second. then follow these instructions:

(1) open up a web browser.

(2) type in ‘does [insert organism here] do anything for the environment?’

(3) learn something.

I can think of so many beloved mutuals who had to leave this site for their mental health because they just couldn't take it anymore.

OP and the folks in the comments -- I have to say I am honored that people still remember and hold #BlackoutDay dear to their hearts a whole ten years later. It makes me happy that those days are remembered fondly. When a dear friend of mine told me this post was going around, I figured I should pop back on and say a bit of my piece.

You're right. This site deserves every bit of criticism it gets for how it centers and upholds whiteness.

For years, I tried to be strong and tried to be polite as I got bombarded from every side -- slurs and threats of doxxing from racists, misdirected anger from Black bloggers who felt hurt they never went viral, snide remarks from people on Black Twitter who felt ownership over #BlackoutDay because apparently Black Twitter was the only subculture with any impact online, doxxing from misogynistic YouTubers like Tommy Sotomayer, whining fandoms, staff and Tumblr as a brand featuring us and then leaving us to the wolves whenever we got harrassed, and tbh, a co-creator of mine who almost always needed reminding to treat the younger women around him (including me) with respect. Between all that and people calling me selfish for wanting to be cited and credited correctly, I gave up.

I was only 20 when #BlackoutDay started, and when it all became too much, I decided to put myself first and give up on organizing it all together. I left Tumblr and don't usually talk about #BlackoutDay anymore because for the incredible impact I made across the internet, I only earned suffering. To this day, the mention of it really breaks my heart because I saw so much potential for us that I literally changed my career to pursue that dream, and racism, fatphobia, and anti-Blackness shattered it to bits.

I'm doing okay these days, using the skills I crafted here as a young person to organize IRL, but have all but stopped mentioning my involvement in #BlackoutDay simply because remembering how that was the start of people treating me like garbage on Tumblr, a site I was giving my heart to and working on changing for free, still gives me chills in the worst way. The staff at the time knew how I was being hurt and did nothing, my mutuals were breaking their fingers trying to defend me, and it was too much.

I hope you all who still actively use Tumblr know that despite everything, you still have the power to change the culture of this site. Given all the things we are currently witnessing (Free Palestine, the Congo, Sudan, until we are all free), you can make little changes and stand for what is honest and true, and you don't need special days to do it.

tumblr:

Dont fetishize asians.

Dont make coronavirus jokes about asians. (Yes, it’s still happening, and it’s still a problem.)

Keep the same energy for racism against all asians as we do with other races. That includes more than just east asians. Asia is more than China, Japan and Korea.

Gypsy does not mean wanderer.

It literally means ‘people from egypt’ or similar, as europeans believed Romani people were from Egypt. It has become known similar to nomad due to how our ancestors have been forced to be nomadic due to racism and ostracization, but it is a SLUR.

Romani people are STILL being forcibly sterilized.

Romani people are STILL being forced into ghettos.

Romani people are still facing violence and danger in countless European countries- and recently, I’ve seen the beginnings of the extremes in the United States.

Have a little fucking respect and DON’T USE A SLUR THAT’S BEEN USED FOR CENTURIES AGAINST US.

And for the love of whatever’s up there, ESPECIALLY do not use it to describe your witchcraft. It is playing on the ‘magic gypsy’ trope, and is EXTREMELY insulting.