When poor people things become fashionable and thus expensive as hell

searchingforknowledge:

shit that grinds my gears. used to turn up your nose cause only backwater people use or eat such and such but now it turns out we were right all along you fuckers flood the market and we cant access it. I wish you boils on tender parts of the anatomy

Remember when chicken wings and oxtail and fish heads were garbage at the butcher’s, and us poor folks could go in and get them and have stewed chicken wings and oxtail with black eye peas and fish head soup with dumplings?

agentotter:

sofriel:

fralusans-ana-marein:

thekal:

agentotter:

exploitationiscontagious:

Petition to start using “patronus” instead of “spirit animal” because not being appropriative is pretty rad.

Okay let’s go through this one more time. Deep breath.

If you think the concept of “spirit animals” comes from Native American religious practices, you are wrong. Also, you’re probably basing your ideas about Native American spiritualism on movies that are incredibly, extremely, offensively wrong. (Spoiler alert: You cannot actually paint with all the colors of the wind.) You’re also failing to understand that Native American and First Nations people are not a homogeneous group, that they do not now and have never existed as a single people with a single set of beliefs. In short, what I’m saying is that just this once, calling this appropriation is actually the thing that is offensive.

If you think the concept of “spirit animals” is specific to any one cultural or religious practice, you are wrong. This idea of animal guides and related ones — like shape-shifting, people possessed by the spirits of animals, particular interpretations of animal dreams, a certain attitude toward the hunting of animals, etc etc — have roots in all sorts of ancient religions, including eastern Shamanic religions, Celtic religions, really religions of of every description… I could go on. Essentially it’s animism, which is common to the whole of human experience, because there isn’t a culture on this planet that doesn’t have a complex, deep-rooted relationship of some kind with animals. But “spirit animals” as most of us understand the concept? Is a made-up thing. Just like Harry Potter’s patronus. Just like His Dark Materials’ daemons. Just like basically any other “inoffensive” alternative on offer.

Essentially, “spirit animal” is a trope. I happen to fucking love that trope. I think it’s fun and interesting. It’s not a real concept, except possibly for Wiccans and New Agers, both of whom appropriated the concept from — guess what! — their completely wrong ideas about Native spiritual practices. I’m willing to bet that everything you’ve ever learned about Native religions came from a white person. I’m willing to bet that it’s wrong.

For all these people who want to be sensitive to Native culture, you can do a lot better than defending their honor from a concept that isn’t theirs in the first place. (You can start by acknowledging that it’s New Age, not Native. AT ALL.) There are so many ways you can learn about Native culture and the problems that tribes face directly from the people themselves. You could start small. Read some Sherman Alexie. Watch Reel Injun or Incident at Oglala on Netflix. Read up on why exactly casting Johnny Depp as Tonto is fucking horrible. Try actually learning something about what they’re going through (basically a never-ending shitstorm of oppression and erasure) and you can help just by being more informed. Become a social justice crusader for actual social justice issues. Still not sure about the spirit animal thing? These Natives would be happy to tell you all about it. And these ones. And this one. (tl;dr: They’re sick of your bullshit.)

This information about “spirit animals” not being a thing makes sense, but I’m not really clear on how referencing a stereotypical, New-Age misinterpretation of Native American religion is that much less offensive/appropriative than improperly referencing an actual Native American religious concept? Doesn’t appropriation usually involve portraying the original culture(s)/religion(s) inaccurately?

that makes sense to me, and I’ve definitely also read things by Native folks here writing against using the term “spirit animal”, although I can’t find any of them just now. perhaps sofriel or moniquill (or others, I’m not sure who else follows me) might have more input.

No. Nooooooooooooooo. No. God, I would like to make a rule where non-Natives are not allowed to make any sort of statements on the appropriativeness or non-appropriativeness of “spirit animals” ever again. 

Fact 1: I am Native. So-called “spirit animals” are part of my spiritual tradition, which is Metis-Anishinaabe. They’re usually called by the Anishinaabe word, which I am not putting on the internet, or “spirit/dream helpers” in English. Natives in fact are not, gasp, homogeneous, and omg some of us have different spiritual traditions than others! (look, I can do the obnoxious patronizing voice too!) And so just because you point to three Native people from cultures that don’t have such a tradition doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist! This tradition is a VERY sacred one, and thanks to colonization it is being forgotten in huge amounts, to the extent that most young Natives don’t even really know much about it—a situation exacerbated by the popular appropriation of “spirit animals.”

Fact 2: Yes, people around the world have and had similar traditions of spirit helpers, who are frequently animals. HOWEVER, the concept of spirit animals in popular culture came from anthropologists’ descriptions of Native American religions (see Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life). It doesn’t matter if the ancient Celts had similar practices, because spirit animals are associated in the popular imagination with Natives, not Celts. I and other Natives regularly get asked, “Can you tell me what my spirit animal is??” Irish people, for instance, do not. And “it’s not Native, it’s New Age” my ass. Where the hell do you think the New Agers got it from? They got it from anthropology textbooks and from the hippies who went to the reservations in the 60s seeking Noble Savage enlightenment. 

Fact 3: The fact that spirit animals in popular culture are a bastardized form of Native traditions does not mean they are not appropriative or harmful. Why? Because the popular idea of it comes to supersede the original meaning, infantilizing our traditions. Non-Natives start to think that they understand our traditions, and that they are primitive, rather than actually consulting and trying to understand. This gets bad when those non-Natives are the ones with control over our legal ability to practice our religion. Non-Native appropriation of the sweatlodge incorrectly done and causing death, for example, has resulted in greater restrictions on Native sweatlodges, because the non-Native interpretation was assumed to be representative. 

Fact 4: Appropriation is a part of Native oppression, not a decoy issue, good lord. This attitude of popular ownership of Native traditions causes people to deny Natives the right to practice our religion, which is tied to the colonization and denial of access to our landbase since our practices are often linked to specific places, which is tied to the situation on reservations. It’s tied to the psychological state of our people, because you try growing up with having everyone making an utter mockery of your religion and see how your self-esteem comes out.

And yeah, I will also say, if calling out appropriation is the only thing you’re doing to help Native people, if you are just shouting “Don’t wear headdresses!” and don’t actually get why it’s a problem, then yes, you’re kinda failing as an ally. But appropriation is part of the violence being done to indigenous people. 

You did get one thing right though, we are sick of your bullshit. Very, very sick of it. 

Here, I just got served, everybody reblog this shit. The righteous smackdown has commenced and I apparently had it coming. This is me shutting up and listening, with my thanks to sofriel for correcting the ever-loving shit out of me.

Old Slaves.

goneagape:

Kanye has everyone in a tizzy. Because, Kanye is being lauded as one of the most dangerous Black men in America, one of the greatest minds of our time, as a walking hypocrite, as a victim of capitalism, and a victimizer of the poor, as Kim’s boyfriend, as a gay fish, as a god, and 30 other things. Whatever your opinion, it is strong and adamant. It has reverberated throughout the innanetz. Kanye’s song “new slaves” is the new rallying cry of the oppressed or the bane of hip hop heads’ existence. But in reality, this post isn’t about my opinion of Kanye’s new song, but about yours.

It’s about the various proverbial water cooler conversations we’ve had about Kanye and the ones we have failed to have about others… and the greater implications of that failure. Many have pointed to Kanye’s single “All Falls Down” as an obvious harbinger of his newest effort. There may be disagreement on the quality of his most recent product, but no one can deny that “New Slaves” harkens back to who I have heard referred to as “College Dropout Ye.” That was the Kanye who was conflicted by his newfound success and the long known oppression that confronted it at every turn. In “All Falls Down” Kanye raps, And for that paper/look how low you’ll stoop/even if you in a Benz/you still a nigga in a coupe. But he’s also the Kanye who celebrated being a “Nigga in Paris.” People can’t reconcile the Kanye who once made light of social criticisms by juxtaposing social status and wealth to the Kanye who delights in them.

I’m of the opinion that Kanye has always been interested in revealing social inequity. On MBDTF he rapped, I treat the cash the way the government treats AIDS, I won’t be satisfied till all my niggas get it, get it? So no, I don’t think New Slaves is some new shit. However, I also acknowledge that Kanye hasn’t done enough to recognize and reconcile his privilege- as a man, as a person who has amassed great wealth, and yes even as the boyfriend/baby daddy of a white woman. And it’s not only that she’s white but yeaaa of COURSE that is a part of the discussion. Because we aren’t just discussing his music, but who and what his music represents. It doesn’t help that her entire existence represents a longstanding commitment to corporate greed and American capitalism. It’s that she is Sarah Baartman without the baggage blackness brings. And yes, it is also because she is not Black. For the same reasons it matters that Michelle’s middle name is Lashawn and she’s from Southside Chicago.

Yes, that shit matters. And stop pretending it doesn’t. Let’s also discuss the fact that Kanye really likes being rich. And would not perform New Slaves in some Faded Glory jeans. So while I don’t deny this subject matter has always been on his mind— I don’t think critics are wrong to call him to task on how his behavior has gone against the premise that he is as conflicted as he says he is. But again, I’ve already said too much about a subject that you have said too much about.

             

 

You’ve said too much about Kanye and referenced All Falls Down too many times to not mention the fact that though the final cut featured Syleena Johnson, the song was a Lauryn Hill sample. And no one is talking about Lauryn Hill, even though, their messages are incredibly similar. That is, except to say:

1. she’s crazy

2. she has a bunch of kids by a man she wasn’t married to

3. her tax problems are funny

4. her single “Neurotic Society” is trash and

5. we don’t want to hear that political shit, we want to hear miseducation shit

But then you say:

1. Kanye’s crazy is genius

2. Kanye is Kim Kardashian’s baby daddy but to talk about who he loves is to miss the whole point of his art 

3. Kanye’s wealth is enviable

4. New Slaves is genius

5. WE’VE MISSED COLLEGE DROPOUT KANYE

These facts are so wild because had you actually listened to the miseducation, Lauryn’s unplugged should have come as no surprise. Had you listened to Neurotic Society or even the Mystery of Iniquity, you’d have noticed that her message is nearly identical to Kanye’s. But she’s a Black woman— and even though All Falls Down and Mystery of Iniquity are DIRECTLY CONNECTED… Lauryn is remarkably absent from this conversation or any meaningful conversation as it relates to her talent and message.

We acknowlege the paradox Kanye has presented time after time, we empathize with his struggles as a Black man, and we demonize Lauryn Hill. Ye is Blue Ivy’s goddaddy— while his connection to Lauryn is a distant memory. Lauryn raps, “Do we expect the system made for the elect/To possibly judge correct?/Properly serve and protect?/Materially corrupt/ Spiritually amuck/ Oblivious to the cause /Prosperously bankrupt” of the same judicial/ prison system that Kanye laments about. She raps, “Only two positions: victimizer or victim / Both end up in destruction trusting this crooked system/ Mafia with diplomas keeping us in a coma / trying to own a piece of the “American Corona” /The Revolving Door / Insanity every floor / Skyscraping, paper chasing / What are we working for?,” about the same dichotomy that has Kanye on the ledge. And that was in 2002.

But like most Black women, we are absent from this discussion. When she says it, in a turtleneck and a fade…. she’s gone mad! And on top of that— her art isn’t art because, she’s facing charges of tax evasion. But we won’t talk about Neurotic Society like we will New Slaves. And Kanye will convince us that we should feel sorry for him because everyone hates him while he sits front row at Paris fashion week. He will convince us he’s a Black man who knows the game—- and that’s America’s worst nightmare, while he cusses out paparazzi in a leather kilt. And we will let him. Meanwhile Lauryn has been sentenced to jail, even after paying off a tax bill. And her six children are left without their mom. And we will poke fun and tell her what she did wrong… That she squandered her fortune on diamond teeth and billion dollar homes in LA… oh wait— that was someone else.

We will demonize her and pity him. Like we always do. Because, the few times Black women are made visible- their very real challenges are always overshadowed by the Black men they raise. I’m not in the business of competing for the title of most oppressed and I don’t doubt that we all have it fucked up— but Black women are the singlest parents, are most likely to be infected with HIV, are the poorest households, are unmarriable, are side chicks, are nothing like Michelle Obama, are too dark, too baldheaded, don’t like to exercise, are too fat, and though the population is smaller, we are 30% more likely to be incarcerated— and with the number of women incarcerated increasing at a rate double the number of men, we will be major competition in the 400m event at the next Oppression Olympics. 

So no, I do not want to talk about Kanye— I want to talk about not talking about Lauryn. And to say that, should he be committed to uncovering the truths of this demented capitalist society, he should keep Lauryn in mind in the process, because speaking AND living your truth could have you in jail on tax evasion charges. You have to choose one or the other. At this point, impregnating Kim Kardashian is perhaps the only thing keeping his career and life safe despite his statments to the contrary. And while people found Lauryn’s statement that “as a child of former slaves [she] ended up in an economic paradigm that was imposed upon her” to be batshit crazy and a bullshit excuse…. they lay comfortably in the midst of a student loan bubble with 5 to 6 figures worth of non-dischargeable debt…. from the educations that we were assured would erase away the legacy of slavery and institutional racism. So when you are facing jail time after defaulting on Sallie Mae, I hope that you remember how insane Lauryn Hill sounded to you today.

But again, Lauryn Hill is talking that political shit. That crazy schizophrenic shit. Women who rap can’t have bars. Women who deserve love can’t have six children out of wedlock. And no one is willing to consider for just a second, that this tax debt— from a woman who has lived comparably modestly, and sold 50 million units, could be a reflection of her refusal to mimic the trajectory of virtually every other woman rapper who has found a modicum of success in the last 15 years. But we don’t want to talk about post miseducation Lauryn because she’s so odd. So crazy. So lost. We don’t want to talk about Forgive them Father when she said, “they say all the right things to gain their position / then use your kindness as their ammunition/ to shoot you down in the name of ambition they do,” or when she said, 

Get yours in this capitalistic system

So many caught or got bought you can’t list them

How you gonna idolize the missing?

To survive is to stay alive in the face of opposition

Even when they comin’ gunnin’

I stand position

L’s known the mission since conception

Let’s free the people from deception

If you looking for the answers

Then you gotta ask the questions

And when I let go, my voice echoes through the ghetto

Sick of men trying to pull strings like Geppetto

Why black people always be the ones to settle?

March through these streets like Soweto

 

I don’t know if it is her presentation that offends you, your preconceived notions of what her womanhood should look like, the beats, the rasp in her voice, or her approach- but lets not ever get it twisted, Lauryn Hill has been better than her male counterparts, has been unabashedly honest, and has been a critical thinker. She just stopped adding the motherfucker.

And how everyone has managed to talk Kanye, to talk All Falls Down, New Slaves and Black Skinhead…. without playing Black Rage, baffles me. How Lauryn Hill, one of the greatest talents of this generation, has become the subject of slander and dismissal, baffles me. How you can love God, and think Lauryn Hill is crazy, when most of her songs are co-written by the New Testament… baffles me. Kanye’s maleness, and his commitment to living a life that will always maintain more than a little bit of contradictory behavior, are privileges he hasn’t quite mastered resolving… and if he has, I wouldn’t be so quick to let the world know it. 

It is possible to find a recent photograph of Lauryn Hill without her looking tired, sullen, or erratic. And, given that Beyonce herself has elected to control all professional photos of her on her tour, you surely can recognize how important images are as it relates to how they are perceived. But no matter the number of grumpy, angry photos of Kanye, we respect his art, we respect his talent, we think critically about his music and we anxiously await its release on Juneteenth… celebrating the day we realize we are years late to our own liberation. Looking forward to it!

jhameia:

sara-huynh:

there was a really large jar of mayo in my fridge

>.<

brand new, unopened

and it expires in August

i hate wasting food so what the hell can i make with mayo? that isn’t tuna salad

white followers, halp?

i’m thinking deviled eggs…

lots and lots of deviled eggs

there also appears to be a whole site dedicated to stuff with mayo in it: http://recipeswithmayonnaise.com/

ahahahah!

I suggest potato salad and chocolate mayonnaise cake. The cake sounds gross, I know, but mayonnaise just takes the place of eggs and oil and if you like your cakes to not be super-sugary but deep and rich, chocolate mayonnaise is the cake for you!!