Y'all seen this right?

I got it from @HampShauninnX on Twitter.

And I told y'all she wasn’t shit when she argued with me over Thug Kitchen’s supposed right to butcher AAVE and got a attitude when I asked her stupid ass if they was white folks way back in 2012.

You Ain’t Got To Be White To Be Anti-Black!

And often, you can be continental African and regularly expressing your disdain for Black Americans.

I can’t stand her ass, for real.

Source

Want more info? Here ya go: 

This Biology Teacher Disproved Transphobia With Science 

ALSO:

Sex redefined

“The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that.”

More on anti-trans arguments as bad science

As a biologist I am reblogging this so hard.

Biological sex is not and has never been a binary. The complexity of the natural world cannot be contained in neat little societal boxes. Stop using science to justify your bigotry.

Hey @girlsfrommars, I noticed a…”conversation” you were having with @aridara

yay science :)

Of course they mention fucking birds unironically. The fact that birds have Z chromosomes does not disprove that all humans with a Y chromosome are genetically male.

Also, the fact that intersex people exist does not prove that sex is a ‘’spectrum’’. The intersex community has asked time and time again that they are not used as a pawn for this argument, yet y’all won’t listen.

First you invalidate that intersex people exist, then you talk about what the intersex community wants. Lols.

I don’t claim to know much about what trans or intersex people want, but I do know their worlds intersect and/or overlap. And just like most other people, they want to go on and live their lives as best and as happily as they can without judgmental, narrow people telling them their identities don’t exist.

To sum up, how they live their lives is none of your business. If you don’t like it, leave them alone.

Where did I say intersex people’s existence is not valid? Seriously, get a grip. Intersex people are still either male or female… They’re not a third sex or a blend of the two sexes. They might have characteristics of both sexes, that’s true, but ultimately this is the result of having a DSD (disorder of sexual development), not of being both sexes at the same time.

And how does transgenderism overlap with intersexism? Serious question, because studies reveal that intersex individuals are not more likely to idenfity as transgender than the general population is. Most intersex people do not suffer from gender dysphoria either. They do advocate for the criminalisation of unnecessary interventions on intersex people’s bodies (such as surgery on the genitals simply for aesthetic reasons) because minors cannot consent to that – which may actually contradict the trans movement because they claim that kids should be able to transition if they wished to.

Also you claim that I should ‘’leave transgender and intersex people alone’’ but I do not bother them? You tagged me in this also.

Some people are both. If you’re not intersex, why are you talking about what intersex people want or experience, one? Two, even if you are intersex you cannot speak for all intersex people. Three, forced interventions - in any form or fashion - on people’s bodies ignores bodily autonomy, is illegal or should be in every other instance I can think of, and is fucked up. Four, trans kids should be able to transition should they want to, along with intersex people who have been forced into a gender identity they don’t want to express. Five, there is a reason the word is “intersex.” It means “between” or “among.” It does not mean “exists but still defaults to one for reasons that don’t pertain to actual individual wants or needs.” Intersex people may choose one over another for their personal reasons, or may choose not to divulge that they are intersex, if they know. It’s up to them.

And also where you say that the intersex and trans communities do not intersect and/or overlap. I never said they always do intersect/overlap, but some people do identify with both. Saying they can’t be both or “studies show…” is reductive and rather pointless. Studies are a model and can help people understand why people do things, but they often completely break down when applied to practical life. 

I tagged you because it’s ridiculous to talk about how people experience being intersex or trans when you don’t actually ascribe to either of those labels. I’m not intersex or trans but I will advocate for their right to exist as they please until I can’t read anymore.

Stop using intersex people for your agenda. Stop trying to put trans and intersex in the same box. Intersex people are aware of their biological state and don’t try to claim to be something they’re not like trans people do.

You’re also trying to gaslight @girlsfrommars by claiming she is speaking for intersex people and invalidating them when the only one doing that is you.

There are intersex people such as @inferior-mirage and @radfemflareon who have extensive knowledge/info on this on their blogs.

“I tagged you because it’s ridiculous to talk about how people experience being intersex or trans when you don’t actually ascribe to either of those labels. I’m not intersex or trans but I will advocate for their right to exist as they please until I can’t read anymore.”

Actually what’s ridiculous is the amount of gaslighting and bullshit hypocrissy in that paragraph. You’re not intersex and yet here you are speaking for them. Don’t claim you want to fight for intersex rights while simultaneously trying to spread fallacious info for your trans agenda.

You’re full of shit.

@janaegiggles hi. I’m an intersex woman, as well as inferior-mirage. On behalf of the intersex community shut the fuck up about us now and forever. We are nothing like the trans community and we do not overlap but for extremely rare instances. We have completely separate goals and the trans advocates’ goals often quander our fucking rights and safety and uses us as goddamn lab rats for their HRT and surgeries. And shut the fuck up because Mirage and I are not some magical new biological sexes or indicative of an “other” or “spectrum” of sex. I would let @girlsfrommars speak for me any fucking day over you so get off her ass you little shitbandit.

The word “intersex” is not what we even wish to be called, we have been pressing for a change to “disorders of sex development.” The only reason I use the word “intersex” is because dumbasses like you respond to it like a dogwhistle and have no clue what I’m saying when I tell you I have a disorder of sex development.

Here’s an in-depth explaination of that: https://inferior-mirage.tumblr.com/post/176060501245/living-as-intersex-and-the-spectrum-of-sex

And no one can fucking “identify” or “label” as intersex, as you put it, because these are crippling genetic mutations that affect almost every aspect of our lives. That’s why they’re disorders. You would know from birth if you had one because of the heel prick test done at two days of life and because intersex disorders if left untreated (in the case of CAH with daily corticosteroid supplementation) are life-threatening. Here’s a post with some of that hot shit on it: https://achapstickdyke.tumblr.com/post/176058226444/every-day-of-my-tumblr-life

How we live our lives is none of your business as you put it. So leave us off your fucking tongue and stop pretending you advocate for us at all when you just want to drag us in as a token in your trans advocating. Mirage and I are not “both” but you sure are both privileged and entitled.

im crying

Do you know how many dogs I’ve met that get scared or anxious around men because in their previous home men hit them? A lot, and they are very protective of the women who have adopted them now.

Men who are violent towards women are often violent towards animals as well. They think we’re all chattel. If a man wants you to choose between your dog or cat or him, dump the guy. Those animals will love you for the rest of your life, loyal and true.

Actually, I have something to add.

The other day I saw a story where a woman was asking why her dogs had suddenly started growling at her boyfriend whenever he was in the same room as her son.

And my immediate thought was ‘that boyfriend has hurt the kid somehow.’

Spoilers: that was exactly the case.

Trust ur dogs when they say something is off.

The first time my sister came to visit, via plane, after I got my dog, pupper growled at her and wouldn’t go near her for the first day. Next visit was by car (two day drive)and pupper LOVED my sister. They snuggled and played and none of us could figure out why the change. We thought maybe the scent of my sisters cat had lingered on her clothes, making that first visit a rough one. Whereas when she came by car, the scent had had time to wear off. Well that was partially true…

Fast forward about six months when I went north to visit my family. My sister walked into my parents’ house and pupper ran to greet my sister. Stopped dead in her tracks and started growling and barking. Hackles raised, full protection mode. My sisters husband had just walked in behind her.

My precious puppy wanted NOTHING to do with him. She barked, growled, ran away, and sat between him and my sister. Y'all my dog had spent maybe a weekend a half around my sister but protected her like this was her flesh and blood.

Eventually, my sister filed for divorce on grounds of “Extreme and repeated mental, emotional, and sexual abuse.” Divorce was final in less than a month because her claims were substantiated.

Trust the dog, honey. They KNOW.

I’ve never owned dogs, but I used to work with horses (which are a lot like big dogs).

There was this one horse I worked with named Tonto. He was a doll. He followed me like a puppy, snuck treats out of my pocket, he was the sweetest thing. We were practically inseparable.

A guy I was considering dating came to visit me one day, and Tonto wanted NOTHING to do with him. Normally well behaved, he shoved himself between us and would NOT let this guy near me. He was stomping, acting really aggressive, and tried to bite the guy. This horse was practically dragging me back toward the barn. At that moment, despite being like, 17, I knew something was up, and ultimately things didn’t pan out for guy and me.

A year later I found out he had lied about his age (he said he was 18 but he was actually 27) he was arrested for sexually assaulting an 11 year old girl.

TRUST THE ANIMALS.

Animals know that men ain’t shit

Is Beyonce acting out a goddess myth?

  The internets have been buzzing about whether or not fans and theorists are correct in supporting and/or challenging Queen B’s feminism. 

Is she really doing the work that it takes to push feminist thought forward or did her marketing team insert the term to create a buzz and broaden her commercial appeal?

Before I get into my thoughts, let me first say:

My perspective on feminism is rooted in my personal spiritual practice and my work to promote ideas that support a return to Goddess traditions. Politics aside, I believe that building a true feminist world view begins when women and male allies fully (re)claim the goddess within ourselves and each other. That said; I look at Beyoncé’s work through an archetypical / spiritual paradigm, not a political, social or theoretical one.

No, she may not be on the ground, lobbying for policies that support women, she may not have a track record that supports a fully feminist agenda, and yes… her husband seems to be a bit of a misogynist and his language is a bit problematic, but let’s remember he’s an artist and his medium is the beautiful and violent pallet that is black culture, a place where metaphors about “beating the pussy up,” can lead to fulfillment and enjoyment for both parties …  

What’s more important to me than any of the above are the spiritual undertones and cues found in Beyoncé’s latest release and her overall image. From my perspective Beyoncé is a direct reflection of the goddess Oshun, an African archetype that originated within the spiritual myths of the Yourba of Nigeria, West Africa. These myths traveled to the New World via enslaved field workers in Brazil, Cuba and the Southern United States. In a more European construct Oshun aligns with Venus, Virgo - which is also  Beyonce’s birth sign.

In the metaphysical realm, Oshun, Venus, Virgo, and their counterparts in other cultures, represent the ultimate expression of femininity and feminism.

I AM that I AM

When we take Beyoncé, the person out of the equation, and view her and her work as a spiritual performance of goddess myths through a pop-culture lens she becomes a conduit for the divine; a woman, beautiful, flawless and whole, just like you. When you recite her songs with yourself in mind, they become mantra, confessions and the random thoughts that you may not be able to articulate.

 Is Beyoncé Omo Oshun?  

Let’s explore some of the attributes of Oshun and how they align with Beyoncé.

Oshun is the orisha or deity of love and happiness. She is known for her aide in maternity and although she’s an African deity, in the New World she’s depicted as a fair skin, bronzed color woman with a very feminine shape and a bright smile. Some say her racial ambiguity helped her myth and principals attract a bi-racial congregation dedicated to the goddess … similar to what you’ve seen at a Beyoncé concert.

She represents creativity and abundance through wealth and children. She teaches us to appreciate the wonderful things in life that bring a smile to our faces. She’s a romantic, a flirt and seductress.

Not only does Beyoncé’s physical appearance align with New World depictions of Oshun, her seemingly strong focus on being mother, wife and seductress are directly connected to the deity’s myth.  While the mother, wife, seductress paradigm can be oppressive in some cases, the also supply women with a great sense of power.

Oshun is one of the happiest archetypes in the Orisha pantheon, she’s usually depicted in ceremony laughing loudly, throwing her head back in ecstasy. She represents our ability to find true happiness and bliss on this earthly plane.

Pretty Hurts, the first track on Beyoncé’s latest self-titled release opens with a fictional beauty pageant.

Judge: “Miss 3rd Ward your first question… what is your aspiration in life?

Beyoncé: “(sigh…) my aspiration in life would be … to be happy.”

Oshun loves the finest things in life and sometimes she is never satisfied. But her myths warn us that getting too caught up in chasing the material leads to sadness.

Pretty Hurts

“ … try to fix something but you can’t fix what you can’t see … it’s your soul that needs surgery.” - Beyonce’

Oshun teaches us that you can be a loving mother and still remain focused and committed to your own well-being

Beyoncé is one of the only performers who dances consistently during performances, in heels, while singing.

Even though Beyoncé made more than her husband last year, she’s still dedicated to his kingdom, evident by her constant references to “THE ROC”

Oshun is a fierce defender of women

Whether she’s reminding us that we wake up FLAWLESS or reminding us to tell our haters (male and female) to bow down Beyoncé has always taken a pro-Woman stance. At the end of the day, let’s shift the focus from what she’s not doing, to what she is doing and how her underlying message is one of empowerment… If Oshun were an actual person, some would call her hypersexual, flirtatious; she may even be deeply capitalist. So, if the mythology of our ancestors recognizes that even when we’re “flawed” we’re perfect why can’t we look at Beyoncé for what she is … an outpouring of the divine feminine?

THE CROSSROADS

(copied from my Facebook)

Yesterday I made a series of posts that show the origins of a phenomenon in Southern Black American lore known as The Crossroads. I began with the Kongo cosmogram, showed how it’s “working” can be observed in various ceremonies in Africa and the Diaspora. I was curious about why so many people are claiming that there are European aspects or influences in something that was practiced by Africans, and subsequently, their Diaspora descendants. It’s one thing to look at something and draw comparisons with another culture’s lore. It’s something else to propose a revisionist history that inserts false information and attribution, and for what purpose? To me, this invalidates African and African American history and culture. It’s as if to say without outside influences, black culture wouldn’t be as powerful, wouldn’t be as good. It may simply be to create a sense of inclusion and access to something that is inherently a part of being African for those who aren’t. But as history shows us, exclusion never stopped culture vultures.

“But what about Robert Johnson?” I can almost hear some of you asking, since his story deals with the white devil in the crossroads. As if his story or song has any bearing on what I’m talking about. It does not. If you are aware of the Illuminati crap surrounding popular black artists and entertainers today then you should appreciate that the Robert Johnson legend was built off the same foundation back then. And that’s about as European as the crossroads situation gets. Devil/demon pact-making? That’s not the purpose of the crossroads with regard to African tradition. I’m not here for that. I’m here for what’s historically true, prevalent and relevant to black folks today, so back to the point.

The purpose of the crossroads is to serve as a physical space where we can connect with God and the Ancestors. How did this come to be? In some slave societies, retention of African ways were allowed free expression. In others, most notably the Protestant Bible Belt, expression was severely restricted. Drumming, singing, dancing, sacrificial offerings, nkisi-making and ground marking were all prohibited. But it didn’t stop the African in the Deep South from finding what he needed already in place, and to use it accordingly without the burden or fear of punishment. That is how the Kongo cosmogram became the crossroads. This was purely and distinctly a West African spiritual continuum in which the Christian devil does not and will never exist. That goes for any other European spirit, demon, God/goddess, etc. If you want to say you’re practicing crossroads magic in this way then call it what it is— witchcraft. But don’t call it rootwork or hoodoo which are purely African and African American spiritual practices that have nothing to do with witchcraft. Honoring God and our Ancestors is the CORE of all African spiritual systems and have nothing to do with witchcraft.

It’s curious how one aspect of a people’s culture is supposed to be so heavily influenced by alien cultures, but others aren’t. With Black American culture, the ties to Africa are as clear as a bell. Our hairstyles, while seemingly new each generation, can be traced back to Western Africa for decades, centuries and even thousands of years (I posted an entire photo album that illustrates this just last week). Our dancing style, again, something we seem to create regularly, isn’t new, but rather, inherent motions our bodies seem to favor when certain rythyms are in play (posted a video demonstrating this two weeks ago). Not a drop of European influence to be found. See for yourselves.

Black American praise and worship style is thoroughly African and uniquely ours, although I do have a book written in the 19th century that illustrates how one white plantation family was so enthralled by “slave church” they’d invite their white neighbors and friends, and soon began imitating what they observed the slaves doing— shouting, rocking, running, speaking “jibberish”, falling to the ground writhing— because they could feel that power and energy and wanted to try and capture it themselves. As you probably guessed… It didn’t work. But it didn’t stop them from going through the motions. Nor will white people stop claiming and whitewashing our spiritual and cultural practices to turn a buck. Or become Gandalf, Voldemort an'em, or whatever it is white folks pick up our traditions for. At this point I don’t care. As long as we black people know the difference between fact and fiction, what’s authentic and what’s ours. Why it’s ours. How it’s ours.

Wishing you love, peace and powerful juju.

There’s a push to crowdfund an Ida B. Wells monument in Chicago. They’re around halfway there. Let’s give them a boost.

What is Afro-Futurism?: An Interview with artist/educator D. Denenge Akpem

D. Denenge Akpem is a performance artist, designer and educator. In addition to Black Arts Movement, she is teaching a new course entitled “Afro-Futurism: Pathways to Black Liberation” at Columbia College Chicago. (Photo: D. Denenge Akpem “Super Space Riff: An Ode to Mae Jemison and Octavia Butler in VIII Stanzas” Still from performance/installation) YLW: I think it’s really interesting that you’re teaching Afro-Futurism. The first time I was introduced to the concept I was in college. It wasn’t called Afro-Futurism, but you had people linking liberation and art with with outer space/inner space and analyzing pop culture references in WuTang or Erykah Badu songs with Egyptology and Ayn Rand novels and Star Wars after class and in workshops. It was very intense. To know that someone is teaching it formally as an art form or way of thinking is amazing to me. What is Afro-Futurism? DA: There are many different definitions out there, and we consider as many definitions as possible in this class. The full title of the course is “Afro-Futurism: Pathways to Black Liberation.” Afro-Futurism as a topic has to do primarily with blacks in the Diaspora but also the whole of African consciousness. Afro-Futurism considers what “Blackness” and “liberation” could look like in the future, real or imagined. It is rooted in history and African cosmologies, using pieces of the past, both technological and analog, to build the future. The basic premise of this course is that the creative ability to manifest action and transformation has been essential to the survival of Blacks in the Diaspora. There are many different ways people approach the topic.  YLW: Like what? DA: Some are very technological about the approach. Others are a lot more holistic. Mark Rockeymoore, for example, talks about the afro itself as a metaphor for Afro-Futurism, as if its very form is futuristic, reaching for new dimensions and uncontained. Alondra Nelson is one of the key theorists on the subject, and we’ve been looking at DJ Spooky and his Rebirth of a Nation remix, Sun Ra’s music and philosophy, Octavia Butler’s science fiction. We’ve been focused on the last century and beyond. 

The approach I take is to ask: how is the envisioning of the future an act of artistic revolutionary action? We’re looking at artists who consider blackness as it might exist in the future, but also looking at artists themselves–beyond the art works–and how the actual creation of the work, the methodology is an act of or path to liberation for the artist, by the artist on behalf of the artist, communities, black people, the universe. 

YLW: Can you give examples of artists who reference Afro-Futurism?

DA: We are looking at a wide range of writers and artists in music, film, visual and performing arts as well as theorists. Everyone from Labelle to Fatimah Tuggar…Pamela Z…Kodwo Eshun, so many writers and practitioners. I try to make note of the distinctions in terms of whether artists are working in ways or creating works that might be considered “Afro-Futurist” and whether the artists themselves would classify their work or themes as “Afro-Futurist.” We had a similar conversation in our discussion of what is an alien, what is a human. We considered internal and external perceptions of the self and the other.

Lil Wayne talks about being an E.T. You have Outkast, ATLiens, the godfathers Afrika Bambaataa and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Sun Ra is the foundation. Parliament/Funkadelic and looking at George Clinton and the Detroit techno sound… Hattie Gossett’s The Immigrant Suite: Hey, Xenophobe: Who You Callin’ a Foreigner? beautifully addresses concepts of foreigner, immigrant, and contemporary xenophobia. The artistic creation of the cyborg and creating identity through these forms is an act of resistance to limitation. Afro-Futurists are saying we’re going to believe in the power of a positive future for blackness. So blackness is not limited by stereotypes of blackness. I saw a lot of parallels with the intentions of your book Post Black.

YLW: How is Futurism different from Afro-Futurism? DA: Futurism when it developed in the early 1900s was about disavowing anything of the past. I feel that it’s a bit of a contradiction in terms to talk about “Afro-Futurism: Pathways to Black Liberation” if you’re into Futurism and are defining “blackness” by the past. But that’s what makes it an excellent topic for Black World Studies–that’s the departmental division that this course falls under–because Afro-Futurism is absolutely rooted in the past, in race, in the use of Futurist thought and process to transcend and manipulate the facts of race in a “trickster” way, the art of dissembling and coding, and that has been part of the African Diaspora since the first abduction. It references the past in futuristic ways.  YLW: Can you give me an example? DA: For example, key theorists and artists have discussed the concept that black people are aliens in the African Diaspora, literally. Abducted from their land, plucked up, tortured. How do you deal with that? So it’s an investigation of the alien, of hybridity. We look at the Three-Fifths Compromise, and we consider what has defined and does define “human” and what has defined human as far as black people are concerned.  The film District 9 came out last year. It’s science fiction but it’s a direct reflection of South African apartheid and draws from that history for the film’s narrative, the visuals, and the concepts that are being addressed even as it provides little concrete information in the actual film or the website for the viewing public on the actual history that it references such as District 6. Perhaps the filmmaker’s goal is to get people to research it further after having seen the film but the absence of some crucial links in the actual film itself might pose a problem that might take it from being progressive to another case of appropriation. I’m still thinking a lot about that film. The question is: how do you make work that speaks to a new future? I’ve been researching Rev. A.W Nix who was a preacher who recorded gospel sermons in the 1900s. The titles themselves were interesting. “Death Might Be Your Christmas Gift.” He’s trying to push the believer to wake up. There is this "wake up people, snap out of it” conversation.  YLW: This “wake up” concept is one that we see in a lot of science fiction movies. The Matrix or Avatar come to mind, but so does Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, too.  DA: Rev. Nix has one sermon where he references Jesus or believers meeting Jesus on a spaceship. There’s this history. It’s a fine line to straddle and people have been ostracized. Ray Charles straddled it and was ostracized until society caught up with him. Sister Rosetta Tharpe went through similar experiences with the Blues and around gender. You always run the risk of being called a cult–or occult–if you talk about aliens or other ways of understanding. The view that I take on it is that the black experience especially in the Diaspora contains within it many spiritual and scientific belief systems. It references indigenous African cosmologies that have a lot to do with other worlds and ways of knowing.  YLW: It seems as if a lot of Afro-Futurism’s logic is based around the science or mythology of ancient Egypt. DA: Sure. Sun Ra, Earth Wind and Fire, many artists were looking to Egypt. Sun Ra believed he was from Saturn, not from Earth, and that he had been picked by these other worldly beings to speak to the black folks and to minister. He was reluctant about it. He didn’t want to be the messenger even as he loved to teach and had studied to become a teacher in addition to his work as a musician in college.  Gil Scott Heron’s song “Whitey on the Moon” asks why, if we can go to the moon, we can’t take care of the problems and poor living conditions we have down here on Earth. “A rat done bit my sister Nell but whitey’s on the moon.” So I consider the subject not only from a sci-fi point of view but also look at cultural, political and social references. But there’s also this concept of using technology as a basis for creative process. Wendy Walters writes about how even Motown used the auto industry as a model for their music production system.  In the end, it all provides a way to look beyond the here and now. I really credit the Humanities, History and Social Sciences Department at Columbia College for working with me on this and for seeing the connections and supporting this area of study.

YLW: How have people responded? DA: The response has been very positive from current students in the course, from faculty with whom I get into wonderful debates about the course topics, to students who have just heard about the genre itself and are curious. “What’s Afro-Futurism?” My question is: what is the history and who are the new media makers? It’s my job to guide the critical thinking process. It’s like what Amiri Baraka said, we don’t need any more of the status quo.  We’ve got five senses but that’s just the beginning. It’s a practice that can change your life. But then again, I grew up reading Dr. Seuss. His work is not about the afro, but this books stretch the imagination into new worlds, new possibilities, very anti-xenophobia. How can the practice of creating liberate? I believe it was Maya Angelou who said if you can envision a new world, you can create it. I’m sure that’s been said in other ways before, but my hope is that Afro-Futurism will help people envision a future with the goal of creative transformation for self and planet.  YLW: One issue that continues to pop up in my discussions is this notion of what exactly is blackness and does it exist. Because the notion of blackness as its usually discussed comes from a very American black liberation theory view point. DA: I’m really interested in the idea of race, in notions of beauty and expression in culture. Obviously, the subtitle of the course is “Pathways to Black Liberation” so I am addressing Afro-Futurist works and practitioners specifically under that lens but it is not only about Black liberation. It’s about liberation for all no matter what race, and liberation as it relates first and foremost to the work of the artist. No matter what the artist’s intention may be, the act of being an artist, of answering that call–I take it very, very seriously. So my question is how to assist in the development of artists who are not afraid to answer that call, who are looking beyond the “norm” and who are able to enter that creative realm and come out changed but intact on the other side.  The creators have to begin to conceptualize things ahead of the society. What is race? What is post race? I feel like there’s a use for race. I feel very positively about race. I don’t hear that view a lot and this is the first time I’ve ever actually said that or felt that. As someone who was born and raised in Nigeria, my mother’s family were Dutch immigrants to Chile and then California. She moved to Nigeria at age 25 as a nurse. My dad is a Tiv pastor whose work is rooted in service. I grew up internationally with this different perspective on race. It’s not that there weren’t issues but they were different in some crucial ways from the conceptions of race in this country.  Race in the U.S is immediately negative, but I feel positively about it. I don’t see my duality as a struggle; it is other people that seem to have the struggle with it. But the same can be said for being black. One may love being black but when one is confronted with racism, someone else’s problem become yours in the sense that it’s in your sphere now and you must address it even if it’s to ignore it. But the study of race is a big topic and one that I am still chewing on, still discovering… I feel that part of my study of Afro-Futurism is a way of taking back my power to define myself in a futuristic trajectory. But how is this translating into the general populace? The last story I read about race or bi-race was so negative and offensive but it was fairly recent. I think also that in terms of race we are talking about perspectives by different generations in this country. I’m interested to see how the Afro-Futurist discourse relates to all of that.

YLW: How did you get into Afro-Futurism in art? DA: Well, first, I was raised on the books of Dr. Seuss. And I specifically mention the books rather than film or animation–which I don’t watch, by the way–because they shaped the foundation of my philosophy about life and art. Andrea Harrison was my professor at Smith College. She was writing plays about Einstein, producing innovative plays, climbing mountains, literally. She was my role model. She shaped my views on being a black woman and how one operates as an artist. You have to locate your thoughts and ideas within your physical body and be responsible for them. A collector I know in Chicago once said something that stays with me, that he tends to go toward the art that disturbs him or that he can’t get out of his mind, that he wrestles with. In a sense, he’s saying he’s going towards the fear. That affected me profoundly, and I always find a way to share that with my students. And that’s one of the things I’m thinking about with this course. We know it’s new territory. There’s a lot of experimentation which is a big part of Afro-Futurism.  YLW: What do you say to those who argue that Afro-Futurism is just some far-out ideas by a group of oddball artists and thinkers? DA: We need to respect the oddballs and those who are operating outside of what we call the norm. Baraka said that in his “Revolutionary Theatre” manifesto. Not that everyone has to be this freak or think George Clinton is God. It’s just about learning a methodology to go beyond the norm. I used to teach ritual performance, and the fact is that the path of the artist is one in which you’re signing up to go through a transformation. You want to teach people how to go through that process and get to the other side. Folks can get lost in that process. That’s how you lose someone like a Jimi Hendrix. They’re going through that alchemic process on behalf themselves but also on behalf of us. Being an artist is a continual going through that cauldron and coming through the other side. You have to learn that process. If you don’t, you can get trapped, and you may not make it literally. I’m interested in the health of my students. I want them to thrive and tap into their greatest potential. We’re on a voyage. 

YLW: You mentioned that you taught ritual performance art. Does shamanism have links to Afro-Futurism? DA: We read text from Malidoma Patrice Somé who is Dagara from Burkina Faso. He’s a shaman initiated in the ways of Dagara and also has multiple degrees from Western universities. His book Of Water and the Spiritdetails his initiation experience initiation. Later, he wanted to do an experiment, so he brought a videotape of Star Trek to the Dagara elders. They understood the story immediately but saw Star Trek as an example of the day to day lives of people somewhere else in the world. They saw Spock as kontomblé, one of the mystical beings part of Dagara cosmological landscape, except that he was too tall. Light speed and teleportation were completely familiar to them but they wondered why are these people wasting so much energy? We can do these things much more discretely. His point is that the West sees Africa as being so backwards but the “archaic” ways that are part of the elders’ present are what the West sees as futuristic.  YLW: Afro-Futurism is a foray to explore identity as well. DA: I want to define myself. I like categories but only as far as I can shape-shift between them. It always comes back to analog. At the end of the day you still have to connect that wire to that wire. You can get as hi-tech as you want, but it’s about the basic things. In 2002 all of my personal relationships were web based. All of my family was scattered across the planet. I was thinking about these rituals we have and how can you connect through a ritual that cares for the community, like cleansing etc. when the community is not there. This was pre-facebook. If you leave human babies alone they die or do not develop.  Biologically, we still need touch, stimulation, breathing. We haven’t evolved biologically. We’re not cyborgs yet. I worked on an interactive media piece called “Virtual Exorcism” which asked the question: in the absence of community, is there a way to sustain those rituals online? Granted you can’t do a Sunday dinner online, but perhaps the web will catch up in terms of the taste and smell options that are being developed, we’ll get close. Though even if you could have Sunday dinner online and even eat it like how food appears on the Jetsons, would it be “Sunday dinner” in the truest sense of the meaning of that ritual? Could it be? There are still some things that define us on a very intrinsic and cellular level. Will we evolve to the point where we’re not human and what exactly does it mean to be human? Will we ever be post human?  I want to live in Marina City–which looks just like something out of the Jetsons–and have a flying car. I thought we would have been there by now. Marina City is the perfect Jetsons-esque setting for flying cars. I want to travel outer space and not just be in a suit, go to Mars, go to the moon. That’s one of my goals. This is 2010; we’re supposed to be much further along. The information age is great, but I want the trappings of futurism. I am interested in artists who are working in fashion with new technologies to produce garments that are futuristic in their interaction with the wearer.  YLW: We’re all raised with the Jetsons and Star Wars. I’m sure there’s something futuristic that we’ve seen in films only that we all want to do. Then again, that’s the basis for innovation. What about green living and futurism? DA: My view of Afro-Futurism also includes this idea of holistic living and how we are responsible. You can’t eat fast food if you’re trying to go through the process of being initiated in Dagara. You have to be rooted in the earth, and that kind of holistic approach is part of many indigenous cultures. I believe that futurism should be rooted in an awareness of our planet and a sense of care for it, a sense of recreating ourselves as a community on the planet. There has to be something responsible and honorable and not just about commodity. There’s nothing wrong with getting paid, but if you’re talking about blackness and liberation that’s when you have to get into something a little broader than the quest for the benjamins.  For more information, visit http://www.denenge.net./

POSTED BY YTASHA L. WOMACK AT 10:51 AM  

LABELS: AFRO-FUTURISM, AVATAR, BLACK LIBERATION, D. DENENGE AKPEM, OCTAVIA BUTLER, PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC, POST BLACK: HOW A NEW GENERATION IS REDEFINING AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY, YTASHA L. WOMACK

the Combahee River Collective (via unusualmodesofresistance)

I hate my state

@deepsouthradfems here’s a woman you can organize for in your irl radfem communities

Emma Azalia Hackley (1867–1922) was an African-American singer and political activist. She promoted racial pride through her support and promotion of music education for African Americans.

Born Emma Azalia Smith in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, she learned to play the piano at age three and took voice and violin lessons as a child. Due to her very light skin color and light hair, many people suggested that she try to pass for white in order to further her musical career. She refused to deny her heritage and remained intensely proud of her roots throughout her life. She moved with her parents to Detroit, Michigan where she graduated from high school in 1886. After high school, she worked as an elementary school teacher before meeting and marrying Edwin Henry Hackley, an attorney and newspaper publisher from Denver, Colorado.

During her time in Denver so founded the Colored Women’s League and co-founded the Imperial Order of Libyans with her husband. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Denver School of Music in 1900. Emma Hackley promoted racial pride through music.

In 1905, Hackley separated from her husband and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she was the music director for the Episcopal Church of the Crucifixion.

Later in life, she trained artists such as Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, and R. Nathaniel Dett. In 1911, she formed the Vocal Normal Institute in Chicago, Illinois.

She died in Detroit, Michigan in 1922.

A special collection, the E. Azalia Hackley Collection of African Americans in the Performing Arts, was founded in her name at the Detroit Public Library in 1943. (Wikipedia)

Portrait of E. Azalia Hackley. Printed on front: “McMichael, 210 & 212 Woodward Ave., Detroit.” Handwritten on back: “1893.”

Because the biological reality oppresses :^)

Y'all gotta watch what you say to kids and in front of kids. I was working with some young black kids today and one of the girls asked me why I had my hair natural. I told her I’m just taking a break from weaves and braids and all that and she said oh girl no we too dark to have our nappy hair out like that. She was 9. She said she doesn’t leave her house without it flat ironed because people will think she’s broke and ugly. This is also the same girl that last summer told me that we needed to go inside out of the sun because boys don’t like girls with dark skin. Little kids don’t come up with this stuff themselves, they hear their parents or other people talk about things and internalize the self hate or will tell these hurtful untrue things to their darker peers.

Backstage @ Guo Pei Couture FW17

Posted by x

The transgender community and liberal feminists CAUSED my dysphoria.

I’ve always been gender non-conforming. My home was a very blasé one—no one really bothered me about it. My mom would occasionally encourage me to wear make-up and dresses, but I resisted, and she dropped it. Never once did I question whether or not I was a girl.

I went to college, and apparently, gender was not related to biology—it was a “feeling.” And I ran with the liberal crowd, and knew many transgender people, and they all said the same.

I became confused. My trans woman friend was super feminine, so in touch with her “womanhood,” but I could not relate to her experience at all. If being a woman is a “feeling,” then surely this feeling would have to be universal—but I didn’t feel it. But I couldn’t deny that this feeling existed—after all, that would be to deny someone’s “true lived experience,” right? So I couldn’t be a woman. But I didn’t feel like a man, either.

I considered that I might be agender. Yes, that would explain why I’d never felt comfortable with the idea of what a woman was—it was because I wasn’t one at all! And my demeanor, my eccentricities, my lack of femininity but also not extreme masculinity all must have meant that I was neither a man nor a woman.

And I became extremely estranged from my body. I avoided the mirror across from the shower when I stepped out because the body I saw was so foreign. Did that body really reflect anything about who I was? I started to bind my chest. I wanted to be an amorphous blob, essentially. I wanted to be so androgynous that nobody could tell what my sex was when they looked at me, so they would have no preconceived notions about who I was—to be perceived by others as female made me shudder. Female pronouns felt like shards of glass.

It was only when I discovered that I was lesbian that everything started to fit into place. No, I wasn’t agender—I was butch. And I started to love my body, and connect with my body, in a way that I never had. Growing up I’d always been estranged from it to some extent, likely because it was giving me signals that I was homosexual and I was subconsciously telling it to shut up. And then, in believing I couldn’t be a woman because I did not experience some intangible, unnameable (read: feminine) feeling, I had been cut off from my womanhood altogether.

But I LOVE being a woman. I didn’t hate being seen as a woman—I hated when MEN saw me as (their idea of) a woman, with the way they would sexualize and disrespect me because of it. I didn’t hate female pronouns—I hated when MEN used them, with a tone that dripped with misogyny. Gender dysphoria does not come from within—it comes from without. It comes from your sense of self clashing with what society presumes of you based on your genitalia. Your genitalia is not the problem—society is.

When thinking of myself, and looking at myself, as a woman amongst women, I feel totally comfortable. This body that I used to try to hide, I now want to flaunt—not sexually, not in a feminine way, I’m just proud of it and want it to look good—for women. Women aren’t the ones sexually objectifying me or reducing me to a two-dimensional bitch and/or slut. “She” and “her” are music to my ears.

Being a woman is not a “feeling.” Definitionally, I agree that a woman is “an adult human female,” but that doesn’t convey or capture the essence—the essence of this shared womanhood, this shared experience, this shared understanding, that we all have because of how this society has treated us from the moment we were born. If that is ever obscured, it’s because of patriarchy and liberal feminism cutting us off from it. It’s a community, it’s a sisterhood, and I am beyond livid that liberal feminism tried to take that away from me.

When you demand that everyone accept your definition of woman, which you’ve reduced to a “feeling” that no one can name, you’ve erased EVERYTHING about “woman” that has ANY meaning. You erase our history, our community bonds, the medical reality and implications of our anatomy, our sexualities. You trivialize sex-based oppression and female-exclusive sisterly and romantic bonds. You desperately want to be part of this, but you just can’t have it, and in trying to take it, you’re destroying everything you want to access.

Worst of all, you’re cutting women off from their womanhood. Every girl who isn’t enthralled to wear a dress, and who comes in contact with liberal feminism, starts questioning whether or not she really is a woman. And girls start identifying as non-binary or genderqueer, and taking on “they/them” pronouns, which effectively shuts them off from the community they’ve had a right to from birth—and all because you think your femininity makes you a woman.

There’s nothing wrong with who trans people are—stop confusing your personality, that others label as “feminine” or “masculine,” with which sex you think that corresponds to. It’s all a great big lie. Men and women can be “feminine” and “masculine” or anywhere in between, and none of that corresponds to genitalia. Being a woman is a shared life experience that comes from being born with a vagina. That’s really all that can be said of every single woman—we have vaginas and have been treated a certain way because of them. But pointing that out does not reduce womanhood to genitalia—sex is just the prerequisite for this life experience.

Your definition of “woman” excludes and cuts me off from my womanhood. My definition keeps my womanhood intact, but excludes trans women. At the end of the day, we’re always invalidating SOMEONE’S identity. Which one of us do you think should be invalidated?

Your experience is valid and i think its pretty common amongst gnc cis women (and men) but also it doesnt mean actual trans people dont exist. YOUR “dysphoria” came from the outside, transexuals’ dysphoria comes from within. If everyone understood this simple concept we’d all live a more peaceful existence.

If it comes from within with no relation to societal expectations then it’s a psychiatric or neurological disorder which doesn’t make them bad or unworthy people but it doesn’t mean we all have to validate their delusions. You don’t validate schizophrenic and depressed ppl “oh the voices you hear are totally real bb you’re so valid” “yasssss bb you really are a worthless piece of shit your feelings are so valid” “yes you are definitely the opposite sex. Matter of fact sex doesn’t even exist anymore. Does that make you feel better?” Fuck validation culture.

Its not a delusion, most trans people are hyper aware of the fact theyre not the sex they feel they should be, thats why they transition, when possible. Also, societal expectations can play a part too, its not easy. 

The fact that you think you “should” be another sex is in itself a delusion. I used to think I should have been born white but that was just internalized racism. For the vast majority of trans ppl (who nowadays happen to be nonbinary afabs) it’s pain old internalized self hate and the rest are either gays escaping homophobia or autogynephiles. I grant that there may be an idiopathic dysphoric disorder that accounts for the outliers but that would only mean that there is a random neurological disorder that causes this particular delusion if you think that trans ppl are “acutely aware” that they’re the wrong sex you have not been paying attention to modern transactivism. I do agree, as my explanation should make clear, that social ills are the main cause of transgenderism but I have this wacky idea that we should fix society instead of “fixing” people who aren’t broken in the first place.

Dysphoria is what characterizes transness. That’s it. Modern trans activism isn’t some homogeneous movement that you can discount as a whole. It’s like saying you disagree with “modern feminism”.

Dysphoria doesn’t have anything to do with gender roles or femininity/masculinity, it has to do with your body. Trans people want a different body, not a different place in society. Calling dysphoria a “delusion” suggests to me you don’t really know what dysphoria is, nor do you understand how the definitions of normality and mental illness change according to social currents.

Women who wanted to work in the 20th century used to be called delusional and neurotic. Telling trans people they’re delusional for having dysphoria follows the same line of reasoning.

Also, fun fact:

there are some societies in Africa and India that validate schizophrenia. They consider the hallucinations to be spirits and friends. You know what this means for people with schizophrenia in those societies? They have much lower rates of suicide, are much happier, and even experience more positive hallucinations. So yeah, sometimes validation is the best thing you can do for someone.

The same thing happened for the gay community. Depression, suicide, etc rates drop when they’re normalized. Used to be considered a mental illness. It’s almost like social norms are arbitrarily constructed and can be changed to better accommodate people over time.

Oh my God, how stupid are these people?!

Women wanting to work and be full people in society is nothing like men wanting to pretend they’re really female and take all our shit!

The point was that people will always consider things they don’t understand to be crazy and ridiculous. Trans women are not just men who want to take your shit because the few benefits of being a woman in this society do not outweigh the costs of being both a woman and transgender.

Trans women are disproportionately targeted by violence, sexual assault, and murder. People don’t risk all of that just to, what, get access to women’s only spaces for funsies? Tell me what trans women are stealing from you that is worth the threat of physical violence and death.

Oh fuck off! These men are stealing our history and LG history (claiming they created feminism/gay rights), stealing our heroines by transing them (Mulan & Joan of Arc & any woman that had to pretend to be a man to have a career), invading our privacy, raping lesbians, telling women were stupid ugly fishy cunts and they’re the real women, stealing our positions in government (“Lily” Madigan) and more.

They’ve stolen the words misogyny and sexism that refer to WOMEN’S struggles, and made them about men.

They even want to steal our history of sexual violence and oppression! Claiming to be the most abused and the most raped when when most are white men and that’s a fucking LIE! I will not have some little shit on the internet tell men straight men are the most victimized when I don’t know a woman in my life who HASN’T been raped!

But I guess you’re happy with the lies you’re telling yourself.