Being a Black Woman in England

msalexismarie:

Disclaimer: This is not poetic, beautiful, proofread, meant to be in a magazine or book. These thoughts are as raw as the wounds I am left with.

When I made the decision to study abroad in Manchester, England I thought I knew what I was getting into. If you have been following me for some time you’re probably aware that one of the main reasons I chose to study here was in order for me to conduct research for a collection of short stories based on race relations in a foreign country (“Black Girl Abroad”). I wanted to know what it was like to be a Black woman in another country. Would I be facing the same judgments? Obstacles? Presuppositions? Racism?

I can honestly say that I was in no way, shape and or form prepared for what this experience has actually turned out to be. The scenarios I had shaped in my head, the situations I thought I would encounter, were all wrong. In order to give you some context I think it is important for you to understand some things about me. I am a 19 year old Black woman with natural hair and hazel eyes, I’m a first generation American (my parents are from Jamaica and Trinidad), I’d like to say I’m attractive, I drink, I smoke, I’m sexually active and do my fair share of partying, I have a 3.9 gpa and more extra-curricular activities than you can count, I’d like to think of myself as a socially aware and conscious human being and sometimes I’m too damn nice for my own good. Here is a random ass picture of me doing my signature pose Here is a picture of me with some friends at a club in Loughborough and one more of me and one of my best friends Abi in Manchester 

Feel free to draw whatever conclusions you’d like about me, that’s what people have been doing since the second I got here anyway…

Was one of the things you thought of I own her?

How about Her body is mine?

No? How about I will do what I want with her?

Still no? Well, you are among the few, because that’s what I’ve encountered here.

My first week or two here I was shocked and amazed by the amount of attention men gave me, specifically white men. In my 19 years of living I have NEVER (to my knowledge) had a white man be interested in me, approach me, or want to engage with me romantically (even in the fleeting moments of the night). My only experience with a white man had been this guy I crushed on last semester: we made out a couple of times, but he didn’t want anything more, and I’m pretty sure he never really liked me anyway.

I can’t lie, at first I was flattered, until the flattery faded and I realized what was going on. Yes, I was getting attention, but all the wrong kinds. My white American friends were puzzled and questioned me:

“Why are you getting all the white men? I’m tall, blonde, and I’m skinny! Maybe I should grow an afro.”

“English men really seem to like you Alexis… I just don’t get it…”

“Oh my God, what is it about you? Jungle fever?”

Before I could even evaluate what was going on, my white friends had drawn their own conclusions: for white men to be attracted to me, specifically the droves of white men that approached me singing my praises, something had to be wrong. They could not imagine that anyone would choose to speak to me (the short, overweight, Black girl with nappy hair) over the countless skinny, blonde, white women.

Aside from the fact that they could not fathom how someone could find me attractive, they did get one thing right: something was wrong. These people were not interested in me as a person, but the mystery surrounding my Blackness.

Every day I feel like some extra-terrestrial being on display. I have been fetishized, otherized, exoticized, sexually and physically assaulted by European people, primarily white men, who feel that they have ownership of my body. People are amazed and fascinated by me (mainly because of my hair and the fact that I am a Black woman, with hazel eyes: something which particularly puzzles people. I can count on one hand the number of natural woman I’ve seen besides myself since I’ve been here); to them I am different, exotic, something to be examined, touched, poked at, felt, played with, investigated. I cannot begin to tell you how many times people have asked me what I did to get my hair like this. The number of times people have just come up to me and touched me. Without asking. Without my permission. As if to say, “You are not human. You are no woman, you are toy, play thing, animal, dog. You are a museum, a petting zoo. You are mine.”

When I get upset about it, when I react, most people try to convince me I’m making a big deal out of nothing, try to convince me that my emotions are invalid, attempt to console me by telling me I can touch them too, if I’d like.

I have had men and women come up to me and tell me to shake my ass like the Black girls in music videos, ask me to say “What up my nigga” wanting so badly to hear it come from a Black woman’s mouth, I have had strangers grope my ass, forcibly grab my face and kiss my lips, among other more personal unmentionable things.

I have never felt so powerless in my entire life. Every day I spend here is another day I feel myself disappearing. I feel the fight dying. Every day is a reminder that there are some people you cannot fight off. There are moments when my body will not let me. My life is not a poem I can write into beautiful. These stories will not be beautiful.

Angela Davis on violence

miseengarde:

white girls who want my culture’s bindis and saris and henna 

take my skin colour too

and my dark brown lips

take my self-hatred because i don’t fit into the euro-centric ideals of beauty

take the oppression too

take the history of colonization that has devastated my country

and the drones that currently devastate my country

take all the bad stuff too

not just the pretty, shiny, sparky bits

take the ugly, dehumanizing and shitty parts too

(Source: sheer-powder)

derbrandtaucher asked: Listen, it’s not a question of you “not communicating your argument” clearly. We’ve heard it all before. You were quite clear. When people tell you something is racist, especially if they’re a minority, you should have the grace to listen. It’s okay to be wrong, but only if you learn from it.

butwithawhimper:

Nonononono, The point i meant to get across was that I don’t like when people are wearing something, even if they don’t know anything about it, and get freaked out on because of it. If someone were to get asked nicely to take something off and letting the person know its offensive, then that’s respectable. And I am trying to listen, but I’m getting a lot of mail from people just blindly calling me stupid and freaking out on me. The mail that I get from people being nice but assertive at the same time, I can definitely learn from that. 

and I’m not advocating the use of sacred objects used for fashion, I’m just saying, I can’t stand when people get virtually yelled at because of it.

I can’t stand when I see white people wearing bindi on their foreheads, because I can’t wear one without people calling me “Paki” or telling me to “go back to your country” even though I was born here.  I can’t stand when white people get tattoos in Devnagari script, because my parents weren’t allowed to speak Hindi and so I never learned it and don’t understand it.  I can’t stand when white people wear jewelry or clothes with Hindu deities on them, because they use my goddesses and gods as kitch or punchlines.  

So I’m not crying any tears over when white people perform racist cultural appropriation and then get called on it, or as you persist in characterizing it, getting “yelled at”.  Being “yelled at” is hardly the worst thing that could happen.  The worst thing is having your culture continually, blithely stolen and warped and undermined and commodified, and then having to deal with white people who have the enormous fucking temerity and entitlement to be hurt when they’re actually told that these things are NOT FOR THEM.

PS: You have clearly never tried to tell somebody that they’re engaging in cultural appropriation.  I have.  Many times, and many times with utmost politeness and in the most non-confrontational way possible.  The amount of times that the person in question has gone, “oops!  I didn’t realize!  I’m sorry!” and fixed the issue is ZERO.  This is the experience of almost everybody who’s done it, I’m confident in saying.

Your insistence on trying to make the racist appropriators seem like the *true* victims here is really, really problematic.

“Cultural Appropriation.”

headsoffdogs:

lettherebecramp:

butwithawhimper:

I hate when people talk about “Cultural Appropriation.”
Like freaking out on hipster white chicks for wearing a “native american” headdress.
If you’re going to pull that, then don’t you dare wear clothes that were made in a textile factory, because those originated in England, and if you’re not from there, then you should get bitched at every time you wear a shirt made in a factory. 

Explain to me how that is justifiable again?

Because people of “English culture” haven’t suffered oppression, racism, and violence as a result of their race and culture. :/ People of indigenous cultures have suffered all that and then some (and still do.)

Cultural appropriation isn’t actually an inherently bad thing (it simply means one culture adopting another’s anything), so I think the best way to explain why I dislike a lot of what we’re confronted with right now, especially on the internet, is the way in which it’s done. The whole native american headdress thing is approached, often, with bad taste and an ignorance to what it means to that culture.

Respect is an issue for me. I have a problem with throwing around the term ‘cultural appropriation,’ as of a discussion a couple of days ago, as an insult in and of itself, because as a history major I should be more respectful of what that actually means and what it’s actually given every culture from others. But I do have a problem with people disrespecting the cultures they’re appropriating - cramp reblogged something earlier where a girl had tagged a pic of herself wearing fringe as ‘native american’ and ‘gypsy,’ for example, neither of which terms have anything to do with each other and one of which is a slur for the Romani people. That? That, I take issue with.

If you’re going to get hung up on terminology, cultural appropriation very much IS a bad thing.  It’s the same as cultural assimilation or cultural imperialism.  It’s theft and misuse and disrespect and refusal to accord other, less privileged people’s cultures the same value that you assume for your own.

What you’re talking about — “one culture adopting another’s anything” — is cultural diffusion.  Which very tenuously exists between lateral cultures, and which doesn’t exist at all between those who have been colonized/oppressed/marginalized and the colonizer/oppressor/privileged.

So no, there’s no way that a random white non-indigenous person can use the cultural markers of an indigenous group without it being harmfully appropriative, because the power differentials that exist between the groups are too great.  It doesn’t matter if they say they do it because they “respect” indigenous peoples. Appropriation is a marked LACK of any respect. 

(via parchemin)

“Cultural Appropriation.”

butwithawhimper:

I hate when people talk about “Cultural Appropriation.”
Like freaking out on hipster white chicks for wearing a “native american” headdress.
If you’re going to pull that, then don’t you dare wear clothes that were made in a textile factory, because those originated in England, and if you’re not from there, then you should get bitched at every time you wear a shirt made in a factory. 

Explain to me how that is justifiable again?

You’re ignorant of history.  The clothing industry has its roots in India, which is where most Europeans in the pre-industrial era traded for textiles.  England got there in 1600 through the British East India Company and over the next 200 years proceeded to plunder and then destroy the Indian textile industry in order to make room in the global market for their own mechanically-produced products, which still couldn’t compare with the Indian products in either quality or price.  So the English set about making rulings that Indian cloths could only be made of low-quality materials, saving the better materials for British use, and mutilating Indian artisans who protested unfair sanctions (see: the 1690-1721 Calico Acts).

Next time you assume it’s lily-white European men who are solely responsible for the good things about the way we live today in the modernized West, do your homework first.  They didn’t pull clothing and mathematics and architecture and philosophy out of thin air, you know.  They mostly stole it.

ayiman:

thenoobyorker:

dingraha:

thenoobyorker:

A Dutch professor on campus made the argument that “Latin America” owes its survival to slavery. He also claimed that colonialism isn’t “a thing” in Holland anymore. In addition, he doesn’t feel burdened or troubled by it’s past. Fuck you too.

hahaha i was just thinking today about how completely fucking backwards and horrible most of europe is in terms of any critical thought or awareness of racism or whiteness.

Seriously, go do graduate school in Europe and try working on these issues. Watch your fantasies about European sophistication and intelligence dissipate almost immediately. 

Couldn’t have said it better.

Every class I’ve ever taken that involved racialized issues, there have been students from Uppsala ready to express pale European astonishment that racism is still considered a defining element of historical AND present-day oppression.  

A Swede I know was utterly taken aback by my negative reaction to the n-word, because she claimed that in the particular context we encountered it, it wasn’t used as a derogatory statement directed at any specific person.  When I told her the n-word is BY DEFINITION derogatory, she said she didn’t believe that “a word in itself - a sequence of letters if you will - should be derogatory just by their mere existence”.

SIGH

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

colinandhisbowtie:

fisticuffsandadventure:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

falltorise:

hatedforeveryone:

You’re a moron if you deny that black privilege exists. 

You’re an ignorant individual who obviously isn’t aware of society and lives in their own bubble. Seriously. Just stop.

lol forever

i can’t

with op

i mean

i just

literally

i did not know there were people that stupid

people who deny that there’s white privilege, fine, see it all the time, but saying that there’s black privilege?

my mind is full of fuck

there is if its done right, like the hidden bonus to SAT and ACT scores and the QUOTAs  that are set at colleges for admissions, etc, if you’re african american. As an Asian I actually get a hidden REDUCTION when I apply to a school and mark “Asain” as my ethnicity so… yeah just throwing that out there

ohhhh except no

shut up shut up shut up you stupid bigoted ASSHOLE.  If you wanna talk about prejudice against Asians in Western academia there are enough actual REAL examples to draw on instead of inventing a strawman to run in the Oppression Olympics.  Inter-chromatic bigotry is lazy, divisive, and only helps prop up white supremacist infrastructures.   You’re in school, educate yourself.

[Image: Animated gif of a light-skinned black man saying, “Black women, you’re beautiful.  Black women are the most gorgeous women on the fucking planet.  It don’t get no better than that!”]

ktempest:

derpneyspears:

baaaaacon:

power to the people.

kinda makes any other women feel like shit 

so this is really stupid

i feel like this was kinda racist

like, fucking racist

I feel like you’re kinda ignorant and a waste of the air God gave us to breathe.

SERIOUS

I wish fools would learn the meaning of “racist” before they go applying it to, say, situations where chromatic people express love for their own goddamn race in the absence of anybody else fucking doing it.

Because yeah, this random guy saying black women are the most gorgeous is really, REALLY hurting you somehow.  He did it JUST TO MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE SHIT.  It couldn’t POSSIBLY be because he wants to express some love for the black women in his life, it couldn’t possibly be because he wants to counteract all of the disgustingly negative messages we get about black woman on a constant basis, it’s because he wants to make YOU feel bad, you special, special snowflake of blessed tender pink non-darkie womanhood.

Exercise some cognition skills, for fucksake.  He’s talking to black women.  If you’re not a black woman, take a fucking backseat and don’t butt in on other people’s conversations.  If you’re white and offended, I suggest soothe your precious fee-fees by picking up any fashion magazine ever published, where you can go back to being the epitome and sole holder of female beauty.

seranatis:

pantsreminder:

bossymarmalade:

pantsreminder:

bossymarmalade:

pantsreminder:

Hemashri

So I’m making up Hindu myths or something. She charms men, has sex with them, then eats their souls. fun stuff.

(Hemashri means one with a golden body apparently)

Are you Hindu?

If you’re not (and judging from this bizarre Jasmine flower-of-the-desert outfit and lack of knowledge of EXISTING Hindu myth figures, I’m guessing you’re not even Indian), why do you think it’s your right to “make up Hindu myths”?

I don’t know, creative freedom maybe? 

Just because I don’t know much about Hinduism and clearly didn’t do any research doing a stupid doodle doesn’t mean I can’t give it a half assed story related to what I happened to be inspired by. 

Maybe if I had seemed a little more serious about this I’d understand why you felt the need to ask this, but in all honesty, do I have to explain creative impulses to you? I’d do research if I was more serious about it because there’s nothing worse than being the artist that doesn’t know about what they’re drawing, but I’m not really even planning on doing anything with this character.

I don’t know if you’re an artist but if you are you know how you can just see an image in your head, and you have to draw it. Usually while I’m drawing I make up stories, and that’s not exactly a time when I want to be doing research. I just create, regardless of inaccuracies.

Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me as to why you think I shouldn’t do this or what I did wrong or something. I always accept critiques on my art, which includes problems with accuracy, or if it offends you I can draw something more accurate. I’m not here to make enemies, I don’t want you to feel like you can’t tell me that I’m wrong. (for the record though, I’d definitely prefer you take it to my ask box)

Maybe if you didn’t want actual Hindus to be grossed out by your half-assed assumptions and perpetrating of stereotypes, you should keep this kind of shit in your digital sketchbook and not post it with a laconic comment about how you invented a Hindu creature who sexes up men and eats their souls.

“Artistic license” and “creative freedom” are valid concepts.  They mean that as an artist you can use images in whatever way you choose to communicate a message.  What they DON’T mean is that nobody should criticize you if blithely use the iconography of a group you don’t belong to, because we should all understand your artistic methods and that your creative impulses are more important than the way this representation of Hinduism hurts actual Hindus.

“Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me”

AHAHAHAHAHHA 

I don’t do Racism 101, sorry.  Maybe instead of being defensive and demanding an education, you could DO SOME DAMN RESEARCH.

Well, I guess this’ll be the last time I post any of my doodles anywhere on the internet because they’ll offend someone

I bet you didn’t think twice about offending me, but that’s okay because I’m a white majority and I don’t get any kind of racism. I hope you read what your followers are adding, it makes me feel so important, especially all of the insulting shit about me being an ignorant ”whitey”

And since you’re so unwilling to teach me, I don’t even fucking want to learn. Why would I do research on people who are now rudely putting me down? You tell me to not be so ignorant, then you don’t even tell me what I should do to fix it? Honestly, just because you’re a minority means you can walk all over people, even when they offered to compromise? It’s not like I was planning on offending people, I realize that’s how you deal with some people but why are you taking out your anger on me? You don’t know me at all as a person, and if you couldn’t tell from my last response I just want to understand.

I know you won’t believe me but I’m literally crying right now because you did this in probably the rudest way possible. Thanks for ruining my week.

If you want me to take it down I fucking will, but it looks like now that you’ve drawn everyone’s attention on the “ignorant whitey” everyone has seen it anyway.

Fuck that person Pants~
Its awesome, and regardless of what they said they don’t know shit, they’re your typical moronic religious twat. Similar to those christians who say god hates gay people and blahh~
So fuck em :3
Your awesome ¬_¬

*wipes tears of laughter*

Oh my god you guys

I don’t like racism

SO THEREFORE I AM LIKE A FUNDIE WHO HATES GAYS

I hope someday seranatis learns how logic works in the real world.  Till them, I’m enjoying some blueberries and a good laugh while these people scramble over themselves to play the fool.

ipskaya:

uminotenshi:

mynameisjuthika:

obentomusubi:

thatsocialjusticebitch:

kaminapan:

hinduthug:

anedumacation:

karnythia:

bossymarmalade:

pantsreminder:

bossymarmalade:

pantsreminder:

Hemashri

So I’m making up Hindu myths or something. She charms men, has sex with them, then eats their souls. fun stuff.

(Hemashri means one with a golden body apparently)

Are you Hindu?

If you’re not (and judging from this bizarre Jasmine flower-of-the-desert outfit and lack of knowledge of EXISTING Hindu myth figures, I’m guessing you’re not even Indian), why do you think it’s your right to “make up Hindu myths”?

I don’t know, creative freedom maybe? 

Just because I don’t know much about Hinduism and clearly didn’t do any research doing a stupid doodle doesn’t mean I can’t give it a half assed story related to what I happened to be inspired by. 

Maybe if I had seemed a little more serious about this I’d understand why you felt the need to ask this, but in all honesty, do I have to explain creative impulses to you? I’d do research if I was more serious about it because there’s nothing worse than being the artist that doesn’t know about what they’re drawing, but I’m not really even planning on doing anything with this character.

I don’t know if you’re an artist but if you are you know how you can just see an image in your head, and you have to draw it. Usually while I’m drawing I make up stories, and that’s not exactly a time when I want to be doing research. I just create, regardless of inaccuracies.

Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me as to why you think I shouldn’t do this or what I did wrong or something. I always accept critiques on my art, which includes problems with accuracy, or if it offends you I can draw something more accurate. I’m not here to make enemies, I don’t want you to feel like you can’t tell me that I’m wrong. (for the record though, I’d definitely prefer you take it to my ask box)

Maybe if you didn’t want actual Hindus to be grossed out by your half-assed assumptions and perpetrating of stereotypes, you should keep this kind of shit in your digital sketchbook and not post it with a laconic comment about how you invented a Hindu creature who sexes up men and eats their souls.

“Artistic license” and “creative freedom” are valid concepts.  They mean that as an artist you can use images in whatever way you choose to communicate a message.  What they DON’T mean is that nobody should criticize you if blithely use the iconography of a group you don’t belong to, because we should all understand your artistic methods and that your creative impulses are more important than the way this representation of Hinduism hurts actual Hindus.

“Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me”

AHAHAHAHAHHA 

I don’t do Racism 101, sorry.  Maybe instead of being defensive and demanding an education, you could DO SOME DAMN RESEARCH.

Bolded the important bit. This, friends & neighbors is what we call an excellent response to ignorant bullshit. The state owes you a free(ish) education. No one else does.

Dear artist:

You don’t get to have creative impulses about some things, especially since you’re not willing to do the research it takes to respectfully deal with a culture that is not your own.

“So I’m making up Hindu myths or something. She charms men, has sex with them, then eats their souls. fun stuff.”

….

I’m restraining the urge to cuss you out, but only because I don’t really feel like wasting the energy on someone as utterly worthless as you. 

no love ever,

hi-c.

^^^

Evelyn

So, I’m making Christian myths or something. She charms men, gives them apples, and then poops on their heads. fun stuff.

(this is how silly you sound)

oh my god, OP, leave.

awesome commentary.

Yes, OP. You need to explain your “creative impulses” when you attempt to exotify an entire religion. gr0ss

LOL I love how the op is bawwing about how we all ruined her week even though this shit hurts me like every fucking day of my life. here’s a hint: how about you look up your goddam shit before you talk about ‘making hindu myths’. a week’s worth of pain is not even comparable to the countless amounts of racism south asians get every day. also your drawing is horrible.

Oh. My. Goodness.

This. And all of these wonderful comments.

And I just have to say right now.

I used to fucking do this.

Granted I was a 10-15 year old who had no idea of what cultural appropriation is. Still, as a white kid who grew up in a primarily white Christian well-to-do community, I used to think that this kind of stuff was okay. I thought I was being ‘creative’ by taking things from so called ‘exotic’ places, to make a part of my art or writings. And I actually thought that I was being  ’respectful’ to a certain culture simply because I was ‘interested’ in it and got to ‘glorify’ it by making it a part of whatever I wanted. I even thought I was doing ‘research’ simply by looking up ‘Baby Names in X language’.

You know what?

I was one fucking ignorant kid.

I’ve grown up. I’ve learned and changed. I’m still changing and still learning.

I hope that you learn, and change, and grow too, OP. I really hope you do.

Y’all have too much free time. (Heck, I have too much free time for even bothering to read that thread.)

I have three points.

1. I hate it when people tell others to “do their own research” or “I’m not required to educate you.” If you’re going to get into a debate with someone or criticize them, you are obliged to explain why. This is all a part of the intellectual idea of backing up your claims.

2. Making up drawings and weird stories about other cultures while disregarding what that culture is actually like is just stupid, and in some cases, harmful. But actually doing research on another culture and taking elements of that culture into your work? Back in my day, we didn’t call that cultural appropriation; we called it cultural exchange, and it was considered a good thing.

3. You get more flies with honey than with vinegar. Publicly flaming this person might make you feel self-righteous, but it sure as hell won’t change their mind.

You’re making assumptions that a) I NEED to “back up my claims” when I’m talking about my own fucking culture and lived experiences; b) *you* get to decide what constitutes a harmful action against my culture, and claim that appropriation along unequal power structures is innocuous “cultural exchange”; c) changing this person’s mind was even my fucking goal to begin with.

Your use of the flies-honey colloquialism is actually fitting here, because all those years I wasted my honey on motherfuckers with their insistent racist ideas and got nothing but covered in fucking filthy, biting, pestilent flies for my effort.  This lady ain’t going back to being a nice little model minority; I’ll stick with vinegar, thanks.

jasthespaz:

hinduthug:

anedumacation:

karnythia:

bossymarmalade:

pantsreminder:

bossymarmalade:

pantsreminder:

Hemashri

So I’m making up Hindu myths or something. She charms men, has sex with them, then eats their souls. fun stuff.

(Hemashri means one with a golden body apparently)

Are you Hindu?

If you’re not (and judging from this bizarre Jasmine flower-of-the-desert outfit and lack of knowledge of EXISTING Hindu myth figures, I’m guessing you’re not even Indian), why do you think it’s your right to “make up Hindu myths”?

I don’t know, creative freedom maybe? 

Just because I don’t know much about Hinduism and clearly didn’t do any research doing a stupid doodle doesn’t mean I can’t give it a half assed story related to what I happened to be inspired by. 

Maybe if I had seemed a little more serious about this I’d understand why you felt the need to ask this, but in all honesty, do I have to explain creative impulses to you? I’d do research if I was more serious about it because there’s nothing worse than being the artist that doesn’t know about what they’re drawing, but I’m not really even planning on doing anything with this character.

I don’t know if you’re an artist but if you are you know how you can just see an image in your head, and you have to draw it. Usually while I’m drawing I make up stories, and that’s not exactly a time when I want to be doing research. I just create, regardless of inaccuracies.

Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me as to why you think I shouldn’t do this or what I did wrong or something. I always accept critiques on my art, which includes problems with accuracy, or if it offends you I can draw something more accurate. I’m not here to make enemies, I don’t want you to feel like you can’t tell me that I’m wrong. (for the record though, I’d definitely prefer you take it to my ask box)

Maybe if you didn’t want actual Hindus to be grossed out by your half-assed assumptions and perpetrating of stereotypes, you should keep this kind of shit in your digital sketchbook and not post it with a laconic comment about how you invented a Hindu creature who sexes up men and eats their souls.

“Artistic license” and “creative freedom” are valid concepts.  They mean that as an artist you can use images in whatever way you choose to communicate a message.  What they DON’T mean is that nobody should criticize you if blithely use the iconography of a group you don’t belong to, because we should all understand your artistic methods and that your creative impulses are more important than the way this representation of Hinduism hurts actual Hindus.

“Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me”

AHAHAHAHAHHA 

I don’t do Racism 101, sorry.  Maybe instead of being defensive and demanding an education, you could DO SOME DAMN RESEARCH.

Bolded the important bit. This, friends & neighbors is what we call an excellent response to ignorant bullshit. The state owes you a free(ish) education. No one else does.

Dear artist:

You don’t get to have creative impulses about some things, especially since you’re not willing to do the research it takes to respectfully deal with a culture that is not your own.

“So I’m making up Hindu myths or something. She charms men, has sex with them, then eats their souls. fun stuff.”

….

I’m restraining the urge to cuss you out, but only because I don’t really feel like wasting the energy on someone as utterly worthless as you. 

no love ever,

hi-c.

^^^

Okay, speaking as a Hindu, I can honestly say that this didn’t offend me at all. Mind you, I’m not the most patriotic or most religious of the bunch, but really, I believe that this is blown a bit out of proportion. Seriously, she’s just jotting down an artistic idea- not making a wildly racist accusation or making it seem that all Hindus believe in this behavior. Sometimes we need to learn to read comments with a grain of salt online. If you’re going to be extremely offended by every mis-communicated or misconstrued message online,there’s no point to being on the internet. 

I was wondering when somebody would make a bid for a Model Minority head-pat!

If you don’t see a problem with it, bully for you.  Don’t prance in telling other Hindus not to be “extremely offended” — which, by the way, I’m not.  I’m tired and annoyed and angry, which are entirely different things, and all of which I’ve reconciled with being on the internet, thanks.

Also, re: your “she’s not making a wildly racist accusation” milquetoasting — do yourself a favour and look up “microaggressions” sometime.

pantsreminder:

bossymarmalade:

pantsreminder:

bossymarmalade:

pantsreminder:

Hemashri

So I’m making up Hindu myths or something. She charms men, has sex with them, then eats their souls. fun stuff.

(Hemashri means one with a golden body apparently)

Are you Hindu?

If you’re not (and judging from this bizarre Jasmine flower-of-the-desert outfit and lack of knowledge of EXISTING Hindu myth figures, I’m guessing you’re not even Indian), why do you think it’s your right to “make up Hindu myths”?

I don’t know, creative freedom maybe? 

Just because I don’t know much about Hinduism and clearly didn’t do any research doing a stupid doodle doesn’t mean I can’t give it a half assed story related to what I happened to be inspired by. 

Maybe if I had seemed a little more serious about this I’d understand why you felt the need to ask this, but in all honesty, do I have to explain creative impulses to you? I’d do research if I was more serious about it because there’s nothing worse than being the artist that doesn’t know about what they’re drawing, but I’m not really even planning on doing anything with this character.

I don’t know if you’re an artist but if you are you know how you can just see an image in your head, and you have to draw it. Usually while I’m drawing I make up stories, and that’s not exactly a time when I want to be doing research. I just create, regardless of inaccuracies.

Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me as to why you think I shouldn’t do this or what I did wrong or something. I always accept critiques on my art, which includes problems with accuracy, or if it offends you I can draw something more accurate. I’m not here to make enemies, I don’t want you to feel like you can’t tell me that I’m wrong. (for the record though, I’d definitely prefer you take it to my ask box)

Maybe if you didn’t want actual Hindus to be grossed out by your half-assed assumptions and perpetrating of stereotypes, you should keep this kind of shit in your digital sketchbook and not post it with a laconic comment about how you invented a Hindu creature who sexes up men and eats their souls.

“Artistic license” and “creative freedom” are valid concepts.  They mean that as an artist you can use images in whatever way you choose to communicate a message.  What they DON’T mean is that nobody should criticize you if blithely use the iconography of a group you don’t belong to, because we should all understand your artistic methods and that your creative impulses are more important than the way this representation of Hinduism hurts actual Hindus.

“Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me”

AHAHAHAHAHHA 

I don’t do Racism 101, sorry.  Maybe instead of being defensive and demanding an education, you could DO SOME DAMN RESEARCH.

Well, I guess this’ll be the last time I post any of my doodles anywhere on the internet because they’ll offend someone

I bet you didn’t think twice about offending me, but that’s okay because I’m a white majority and I don’t get any kind of racism. I hope you read what your followers are adding, it makes me feel so important, especially all of the insulting shit about me being an ignorant ”whitey”

And since you’re so unwilling to teach me, I don’t even fucking want to learn. Why would I do research on people who are now rudely putting me down? You tell me to not be so ignorant, then you don’t even tell me what I should do to fix it? Honestly, just because you’re a minority means you can walk all over people, even when they offered to compromise? It’s not like I was planning on offending people, I realize that’s how you deal with some people but why are you taking out your anger on me? You don’t know me at all as a person, and if you couldn’t tell from my last response I just want to understand.

I know you won’t believe me but I’m literally crying right now because you did this in probably the rudest way possible. Thanks for ruining my week.

If you want me to take it down I fucking will, but it looks like now that you’ve drawn everyone’s attention on the “ignorant whitey” everyone has seen it anyway.

Hey, you know what ruins my week, every week?  RACISM. 

Let’s break down this bingo card:

“I bet you didn’t think twice about offending me”

Did you think twice about offending Hindu people?

“I hope you read what your followers are adding, it makes me feel so important”

Am I here to make you feel important?  Are any of the people who reblogged me?  Why should *you* be made to feel important when you make me and Hindu culture unimportant?

“And since you’re so unwilling to teach me, I don’t even fucking want to learn”

That’s a great attitude.  Please consult: tone argument.

“Why would I do research on people who are now rudely putting me down?”

BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT A RESPONSIBLE PERSON WOULD DO FOR FUCKSAKE

“Honestly, just because you’re a minority means you can walk all over people, even when they offered to compromise?”

What the fuck compromise do you think is possible when you and white people like you have had the monopoly on how my culture is portrayed in the West?  Why do you think I have to *bargain* with you over my own fucking culture?

“I know you won’t believe me but I’m literally crying right now”

Oh, I believe you.  Please consult: White Women’s Tears.

“everyone has seen it anyway”

I don’t understand.  You were cool with people seeing it all this time, offering you kudos.  Now that you’re getting flak for your condescending, defensive response — and make no mistake, it was your *response* that got people commenting, not the original art itself or my original reblog — you want to flounce and act as though you’re being persecuted?  Go ahead.

Look, maybe this is the first time anybody’s called you on doing racist shit in your art.  I get it, everybody freaks out when they get called on shit the first time.  But instead of whining and carrying on and declaring that your hurt feelings are more important than the racism you perpetrated, you could choose to use this as a learning experience.  Y’know, instead of declaring that now you’re going to completely refuse to treat non-white people as people because somebody was Mean To You on the Internet.

(via pantsreminder-deactivated201201)

pantsreminder:

bossymarmalade:

pantsreminder:

Hemashri

So I’m making up Hindu myths or something. She charms men, has sex with them, then eats their souls. fun stuff.

(Hemashri means one with a golden body apparently)

Are you Hindu?

If you’re not (and judging from this bizarre Jasmine flower-of-the-desert outfit and lack of knowledge of EXISTING Hindu myth figures, I’m guessing you’re not even Indian), why do you think it’s your right to “make up Hindu myths”?

I don’t know, creative freedom maybe? 

Just because I don’t know much about Hinduism and clearly didn’t do any research doing a stupid doodle doesn’t mean I can’t give it a half assed story related to what I happened to be inspired by. 

Maybe if I had seemed a little more serious about this I’d understand why you felt the need to ask this, but in all honesty, do I have to explain creative impulses to you? I’d do research if I was more serious about it because there’s nothing worse than being the artist that doesn’t know about what they’re drawing, but I’m not really even planning on doing anything with this character.

I don’t know if you’re an artist but if you are you know how you can just see an image in your head, and you have to draw it. Usually while I’m drawing I make up stories, and that’s not exactly a time when I want to be doing research. I just create, regardless of inaccuracies.

Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me as to why you think I shouldn’t do this or what I did wrong or something. I always accept critiques on my art, which includes problems with accuracy, or if it offends you I can draw something more accurate. I’m not here to make enemies, I don’t want you to feel like you can’t tell me that I’m wrong. (for the record though, I’d definitely prefer you take it to my ask box)

Maybe if you didn’t want actual Hindus to be grossed out by your half-assed assumptions and perpetrating of stereotypes, you should keep this kind of shit in your digital sketchbook and not post it with a laconic comment about how you invented a Hindu creature who sexes up men and eats their souls.

“Artistic license” and “creative freedom” are valid concepts.  They mean that as an artist you can use images in whatever way you choose to communicate a message.  What they DON’T mean is that nobody should criticize you if blithely use the iconography of a group you don’t belong to, because we should all understand your artistic methods and that your creative impulses are more important than the way this representation of Hinduism hurts actual Hindus.

“Maybe instead of getting angry you could try and educate me”

AHAHAHAHAHHA 

I don’t do Racism 101, sorry.  Maybe instead of being defensive and demanding an education, you could DO SOME DAMN RESEARCH.

(via pantsreminder-deactivated201201)

Oh god already seeing a few things about Nicki Minaj on my dash

mynameisjuthika:

lebanesepoppyseed:

is tonight going to be “White Women Tears About Hip Hop”/”Everyone blame the black girl for patriarchy and ALL THE SEXISM THINGS” night tonight?

srsly

SERIOUSLY

desi women cannot pull this crap. who the hell are we to say anything about how nicki minaj? Why are we blaming woc for their own oppression? 

I want to point out that Nicki Minaj is part desi (her family name is Maraj, parents are mixed).  So any desi women talking shit about Nicki solely, specifically as a black woman without noting that she’s also one of *us*?  You are perpetrating some seriously toxic shit.  I mean, you are either way, but there’s a whole ‘nother level going on here if you choose to gloss over her Indian blood.

(In fact, there’s a whole LOT of levels considering that Nicki is West Indian and we Wessindians get a different sort of “model minority” pass in North America that causes a lot of us to let our internalized racism out to play the fool, but that’s a topic that would take much more time to lay out than I have.)

(via juthikaforpresident-deactivated)